21 October, 2003

This is still the same writing session, but it's after midnight now...

So after the party Sawyer, Nanka and I went up to Humboldt again. We left Nanka off on the highway to hitch the rest of the way from Redwood to Arcata and set off to Petrolia.

So we took care of some house business, I got my therm-a-rest back, we mixed some dextrose into the 200-gallon basin of wine. Then Sawyer tells me we need to go run a 7-mile race together - the 20th annual Petrolia Rye and Tide. I say "no" - I am wearing flip-flops, silk boxers and a button down shirt with no good alternatives to change into. But, I go down to spectate. Once there, I am convinced to borrow a pair of Tevas and participate. The race is interesting - two runners share a bike, which they ride ahead and then ditch for the other runner to pick up once they catch up to it. Another interesting bit is that the "rye" in the title is because you drink a shot of whiskey before starting. Good 52 minute workout.

Then we went back and piddled around at Sawyer's place again, putting more dextrose in the wine, talking to friends that would drop by and so on. Then we went to hook up with a bunch of other people for some late night hot-tubbin'. 7 of us ended up squeezing, totally nekked, into one of those hippie-style wood-fired cedar hot tubs down by the river under a starry sky. Not a bad way to avoid cramping up.

Before the whole Santa Cruz trip, we also tooled around in the woods. We also tooled around in the woods looking for Sawyer's altimeter. We had to go covert to avoid capture by a security guard.

I am leaving the country for Hong Kong on 1 November. I got my tickets confirmed this past morning at a stationary store with a fax machine in Garberville, CA. Holy Crap!

20 October, 2003

Note the new date format. It's the one everyone else in the world uses. You should spell out the month. At least 3 letters. It's ambiguous otherwise.

But enough of that Soapbox stuff.

Of some interest to me is that I'm aggressively exploring Friendster now. Please be my friend - I am simply Dav Clark there. Invite me.

You may have noticed that the frequency of posting has gone down. Of course, this is inverse to the amount of stuff going on in my life. Hopefully I will reach a balance where I can process a good portion of what I experience while still experiencing a lot. Almost immediately after posting the previous update, for example, I remembered many salient events that I completely forgot about. Maybe I'll get around to writing them down one day.

Anyway, the parade of amazing individuals continues. Spent some time at the house where Sawyer will be spending a lot of time while attending college near Santa Cruz (in Aptos if you care). There I met James - an amazing dude building a solar and bio-diesel powered VW Vanagon to travel to Costa Rica in. He has a satellite modem (retail value approx 8000 USD) so that he can continue supporting his business venture as the technical half of an investment concern while starting a Permaculture community in Costa Rica, or maybe somewhere better if Costa Rica doesn't tickle his fancy once he's been there a bit.

Other than that, I met Eorsh - one of the happiest people I've ever met. He's owned a record store in Philly, run underground parties in poorly patrolled public spaces and now does cabinetry. He's done some great custom stuff for James' van.

Then there's Beth, who's done some awesome mural stuff. Currently doing a mural for the Flower Shop where Josh will probably employ Sawyer to create a "scene" for the local hipsters. He also owns the house where we partied. Officiation of this party was provided in part by Jason, who is writing a book about the relevance of psychadelic culture in the spiritual life of generation-X and the resurgence of goddess-oriented spirituality. I couldn't but help look at these people while we were dancing and fooling with the turntables that the world was our playground.

The world is a playground. It's a shame so many people seem to want to spend their energy taking other kids' lunch money.

Buy Nike!