The urge (to vacate) was particularly intense tonight.

Tokyo, Jiyugaoka, 2008.

I don't know what it was about the day, the weather, the people, or me- but today was a particularly sour day in Ottawa. I am feeling stagnant and used up in this town. When I drive down the same street, grind through the same hourlies every week, and interact with the same people, I hate this place

I need to see different kinds of trees, a face I have never seen before - fuck, I would settle for a god-damn ethnic restaurant.

I live for that feeling when I am traveling- I am not thinking about the next step in my life, how I am going to pay for my next meal; or anything forward.

Those precious moments when I am traveling and I feel like I am home, are the only moments in my life, that I can speak of with any confidence, where I am content with my existence in the now.

"They, in fact, continued their hockey game."

Wow, are you serious?

Metro Station. Tokyo, Japan. Taken 2008.

"It's very hard to have a dream in Japan." Machiko Fujiwara

Frustrated

Collage of destroyed homes, N.O.L.A. Photos taken Dec. 2006

I'm all ears.

What can you tell me about Hegel's Master-Slave Dialectic? I can't afford the book.

"What was he doing?"

Men's Health published Eat This, Not That this week. In it they list the 20 worst foods available in the U.S. for 2009. Take a look at Chili's Smokehouse Bacon Triple-The-Cheese Big Mouth Burger with Jalapeno Ranch Dressing. Wow, there is grease dripping from the title (not to mention 4,900 mg of sodium).

In other news, I decided not to go to Australia... then changed my mind (still not sure). Me and Ryan roughed out a life plan last night up to age 25, lets just say there is a lot of wiggle room. My future will include what you see up top (not my photo).

I included a playlist of mine at the bottom of the screen. I was reluctant to do this since I am not going for the MySpace or Facebook feel with this blog. Buuut... I am a little maven who wants to tell everybody what he is listening to.

58 godamn hours a week

I got Benoit Denizet-Lewis' book America Anonymous: Eight Addicts in Search of Life in the mail today. When will I get to read it? Probably not until the summer, fucking shit.

I am very happy for Cassie.
I said goodbye to Ashley. I have probably only seen her 3 or 4 times in the last year, but in these last two dinners I feel like I made a greater connection than ever.










4 Months after the storm near the French Quarter.

"...gathering clouds..."

As a preface to the inauguration, OU hosted Deric Gilliard to present his lecture "THEY Paved the Way for Barack Obama to Become President." In his lecture he quoted Sir Edmund Burke, "The only thing necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men [sic] to do nothing."

In the picture, I remember feeling free. Away from people, but having that strong sense of belonging to something larger than myself. I felt the same way today. Thanks...

lets not try to figure out everything at once

Just bought this album on iTunes after seeing it on NPR's top 10 albums of the year. Also on the list were The Avett Brothers, one of my all time bands. (Saw them at Liberty with Joel, shit yeah)

I was looking through my pictures and bumped into this little gem. I saw this sunset two summers ago from the deck of my cabin in Naples, Maine. It had just rained and the intense August heat immediately turned the grounds into a steam bath.
I hope I never forget those fucking people in the Carter Notch.

Boring day. Working a shift at Pinet isn't going to liven things up either. OH Ottawa.

If they had AA for buying books on Amazon,

I would need it.

Non-Rain

I made it to a screening of this on campus today. In the film three men embark on an interfaith journey across the globe asking religious leaders and lay people alike some pretty epic questions.
Most interestingly "The meaning of life is..."

• "Too tough."
• "Absurd question!"
• "Cheers!"
• "We are a massive huge puzzle."
• "Follow your bliss."
• "Do whatever you want."
• "Understand your piece."

...and my personal favorite "The meaning of life, is to live."

OHhhhhhh say can you see...

Check this out.

can we start this over?

The break is finished and I actually did about the amount of reading I was wanting to. I got through my Australian travel book, Before Night Falls - Reinaldo Arenas, Conscious of a Conservative (Yak), Innocents Lost, just to name a few. Aaaand, it's a new semester of real classes that I am genuinely excited for. I've got Ethnic Relations, Indigenous People, World Religions, maybe I will learn something. I took the photo for my banner at the harbor in Yokohama. This couple had just gotten off a harbor tour and stopped to talk. The name of my blog is "Im not rich but lord I'm free" from a George Strait song. Sounds hokey, but I think it resonates my world view pretty clearly. I have a good feeling about the blog this time around.