I transcribed this (I think that's the right word) from a CD that I'd downloaded. This guy went hitching across the states and took a tape recorder with him. He'd ask people about their personal philosophies and tape their responses. This is what this one sociologist had to say:

"I think one of the most difficult and unappreciated problems that people have now is the amount and variety of distractions available to them. I don't think that most people realize that a lot of what they're doing involves distracting themselves in one way or another from things that are bothering them. They can be distracted away from thinking about them or distracted away from feeling them, but I think that a lot of topics or ideas in this society hinge on this. For example, there's so much entertainment and I don't think that most times people are entertained as much as they are distracted, by television and movies. And then I think the idea of distraction includes almost all of the different kinds of drugs that we use, whether it be cigarettes, alcohol, sugar or anything stronger. I think often times we're trying to alter the state that we're in and often times that's an attempt to alter away from some unpleasant feeling or unpleasant thought that we're having. I think that as the country has become more and more prosperous, there are more and more kinds of distractions available to us and I really don't think that people appreciate that so much of their life is spent or involved in doing that. I think that if people were to understand that and reflect a little bit on the fact that there must be something going on from which they're trying to distract themselves, it would give people a different way of thinking about how to understand their living their lives and the way that they're living them."

stunned

wow, I had erroneously assumed that I wasn't getting anything back on my taxes. I just now sat down and did it all up, and I'll be getting a refund of $670. i seriously can't believe it. awesome. stellar. that's gonna by me two more months of travel time. although overall it doens't quite make up for the year that I OWED $900, but whatever.

I've made a startling discovery. The skies aren't as blue on the island as they are in Golden. I believe this is due to the humidity and elevation, but it's definitely noticeable. The sky here is just a lot paler, whiter, and it kidna throws me off. We just had four gorgeous days in a row, but they just didn't seem quite as awe-inspiring as they would in a higher, dryer location.

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by itslef but the wrod as a wlohe

Ok, so part of my job working in produce is obviously to pull the rotten stuff of the shelf and toss it out. But people, even as ignorant as they are about how to pick quality vegetbales and produce, are very picky. Especially with peppers. We pull lots of peppers off the shelf, because no one will be them, even though they're still fine to eat. Since we have no compost, we either throw them in the garbage, or save them for the pig farmer who comes by each night for scraps. I enjoy helping this guy out, cuz he's definitely a nice guy. But if something is still fit for human consumption, I'm all over it. I constantly bring home food, but last night was special. I scored $45 worth of peppers. I froze them all, so I've succsefully removed the (most of the time) most expensive item of produce from my shopping list for a little while. And this is all in addition to the fruit that I eat all day long. I prefer mangoes, medjool dates, oranges and pineapple.

Well it looks like I'm running low on job alternatives for the summer. Parks Canada is looking not so likely, and various other leads turned up nothing, so it sounds like CMH (Heli-Hiking backcountry lodges) are my best bet.

I've been devouring every piece of info I can on India. I'm scarfing down the various Lonely Planets, and in addition to the dozen relevant documentary (travel, culture, Tibet, Hinduism/Buddhism), there's like 30 more coming in to the library for me. I've pretty much stopped reading anything except India-related literature. Even I, the library fiend, couldn't have imagined the depths of resources they have access to. You can even get movies like Seven Years in Tibet. I'm definitely planning on leaving sometime in September and I want to stay as long as possible, likely between 3-6 months. I'm thinking of heading right off to go trekking way up north in the high mountains before the snows come, then coming back towards Dharamsala to do my volunteering. Or else, I'll start in Delhi, stay at some yoga ashrams (retreats) in the foothills of the Himalaya, then make my way North. I'm still trying to find accurate info on the climate in order to figure out a rough itinerary. Emphasis on rough. I'm really gonna let the hitchhiker side of me come out and just follow my instincts, but at the same time, I wouldn't mind having the names of the cheap hotels. I'm also trying to determine what I'm going to need to by. I may very well take a tent and sleeping bag, both of which I'd have to purchase, as well as a waterproof, but breathable outer shell jacket, and a big pack. I'm also really leaning towards getting an iPod. That way, I won't go crazy on the long bumpy bus rides. I'm gonna go super thrift, so basically I'll be staying at just about the cheapest places in town, taking the public buses, and the 3rd class trains. And for the treaks, I really don't think I'm gonna hire someone to carry my bags, but we'll see about that. An overnight trip in the Rockies probably doesn't qualify me to make that judgement. The whole thing is getting me really stoked. I could go on and on about how crazy I think it'll all be, but time will tell.

Yesterday, I went exploring with my mom. Haha. yeah. anyways, we were driving along and I scoped this spot, so she waited in teh car while I trekked for an hour into a narrow (10m wide) cleft in a cliff, that led about 100m into the mountain, steeply up to a waterfall that was about 40m high. Not much water coming down, but super cool, and the view was awesome. I totally got in touch with that side of me that I haven't gotten to bust out in many months. Could be a while before I get the pics up though.

BC Karate Provincials in Coquitlam are this weekend.....

I've been going full throttle lately soaking up information on India. It really felt good to finally pick a direction in which to focus my energy. The library has been an amazing resource. I'm about halfway through the dozen videos, and I've been dogearing pages o'plenty in various Lonely Planets (North India, Indian Himalaya, Trekking in the Indian Himalaya). I'm having a lot of fun with it, despite the intimdiating aspects. The movie I watched last night was a DVD called The Yogis of Tibet and it was awesome. Lots of extremely exclusive interviews and footage of yogis who have spent the majority of their lives in mountain caves, meditating on who knows what. It gave a very good summary of Tibet's history, people, culture, and present situation, and I owuld highly reccommend it to everyone.

I ordered some books in the mail off a used book database and also from the folks at CrimeThinc. The used ones were a short autobiography by the founder my Shotokan Karate, Gichin Funakoshi and Zen in the Martial Arts by Joe Hyams. Today I picked up a copy of 1984 by George Orwell and The Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment by Thaddeus Golas for $2. Not all used bookstores are equal as I've learned, but I found a really cool one today that exactly fits my preconceived notion of a good used bookstore.

I just sent in our (my mom and I) seed order for the year. In all, we'll be growing kale, swiss chard, rutabaga, corn, cauliflower, acorn and butternut squash, cucumber, peppers, green onions, broccoli, carrots, beets, peas, green beans, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, green and yellow zuchini, lettuce, spinach, basil, thyme, oregano, sage, rosemary, parsley, cilantro, chives, raspberries, rhubarb, apples, peaches, plums, and even walnuts, although there won't be too many of those last four. But how wicked is that? I'm stoked. The only other thing I would've liked is Asparagus and of course, more fruit.

I just watched the coolest movie from the library. It's called Chants Encounters. It's only 30 min. It's about different chanting traditions from around the world. VERY cool. go get it.

Pretty fascinating revelations are afoot in the world of Christiandom. This week, for the first time ever, the Gospel of Judas was released. Some say it's heretical of course, but regardless, it definitely stirs the pot a bit. Here's an article that sums it up fairly well, although it's a little biased. The implications of this are of interest to anyone, regardless of their background.
The Gospel of Judas

None of my karate pics ever turn out. But let's try something...
Computer, zoom into section C-5.....
















wicked











Me and Trina an Stanton Warriors. And yes I noticed the freak behind me

Well I admit I wasn't really in a partying mood this week. After I gave blood, I felt really strange that night, not so much physically as mentally. Carried into the next day. But I knew Tipper and Stanton Warriors presented a good chance to shake the sillies out, and stir things up. Ashley forgot to get us ticket and it was sold out, so she bailed and it was just me, Steve, and Nicole, but I scored a ticket and entered just as Tipper started. I knew Trina was gonna show up, so it was cool to surprise her. Super easy to find her. It was good to see her, but one we were inside, i had a really hard time finding anyone. Super hot and packed. Not smoky though at all, praise Allah. Somehow, I got right in the zone and had a really good time. Maybe since it wasn't dnb, I was able to pace myself better. It was hard finding room to dance, but the quality of beats made up for the lack of space. Tipper playe a lot of his new stuff that I'd heard, which sounded pretty lick on a big system, but also a lot of wicked shit I hadn't ehard yet. Stanton Warriors is two guys, but only one showed up. Same thing happened at Shambhala. Prety similar set, btu I really enjoyed it. I haven't been up to date on breaks that much this year, so it also sounds pretty new and fascinating to me. I really wish i knewwhat some of those tracks were. soooo good. There were a few technical errors I noticed from the Stanton Warrior though. Didn't get out till 3:30. Got to sleep in though, which isn't the norm when I stay in Van.

So I've really been trying to figure out what I want this year to look like. There's areas of interest that I want to pursue, but of course, not enough time or money for all of them. Hitchhiking, hiking/trekking (either on the island, or in the Kootenays), festivals (Bonnaroo, Coachella, Shambhala, motion Notion, Burning Man, etc), karate (camps and competitions), and international travel (India). India is my goal for the year, but I still don't know how things will play out. My mom told me today that she'll contribute about $600 towards my trip, which adds to my present saving of $1000. If I keep working at QF through the summer, India would be a piece of cake (although I don't know how many months that would buy me). I would like to do something from each category. Like go to Shambhala, hitch down the coast to California, do some backcountry trips into Strathcona on the island, and still ahve enough money to fly out. But I won't be able to take much time off this summer with this job, so I'm waiting to see if anything else turns up. Still waiting to apply to CMH and Parks Canada, and I'm also thinking of applying to the new MEC that's opening in Victoria. I have to buy a tent, jacket, and pack also. So I'm gonna have to just be on my toes and tackle each issue/opportunity as it arises. Ideally, I would fly into India in September. My main objectives so far are to live and volunteer on an organic farm, stay at a retreat (called ashrams) to practice yoga, do some trekking into the Himalaya if it works out, get some volunteer experience teaching and workin with the Tibetan refugees, see some of the sites or Northern India, and also learn about Buuddhism and practice Karate whenever I get the chance. I would like to stay indefinitely, but with the hot season and monsoon season, it's kinda complicated. I would really like to avoid the tourist crowds, for obvious reasons, and also to avoid the higher prices that the tourist season brings. There's some remote areas in the far northwest that I'm really becoming interested in. I believe the one pass to get to that area is the second highest driveable (sometimes) pass in the world. I want to learn Hindi, but I don't know how realistic that is, since English speakers aren't too rare and there's so many other languages. Anyways, i jsut thought I'd introduce the factors that are influencing my thoguhts these days. Things will figure themselves out, so I think the main thing is to just try to maintain the proper perspective in all my decisions.