As I am a master of wishful-thinking and novice at follow-through, I am going to write this here for the whole world to see in hopes that this will be motivation enough for me to be true to my word. For effect, and because I can I will repeat myself.

I will get back into photography.
I will get back into photography.

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Ah, at long last the AppalachianTrail trip has come and gone. I am now away on a buisness trip to the fabulous CMA Music Fest for GAC. I’ll be filling everyone in on these trips and more as time allows!

–d

A while back, on one of my periodic trips back to Nashville to visit my parents, I noticed a book sitting on the kitchen table that was so nondescript that it actually stood out from the clutter that shared the space. The cover was unbleached and unmarked, save the minimum amount of information required to properly identify the book. At the top was a very official looking identification number, and printed in the middle of the book were the words “US ARMY SURVIVAL MANUAL”

“I knew you were in to that sort of thing.” my father said as I picked up the “Reprint of the Department of the Army Field Manual” that lay in front of me and began flipping through the pages filled with diagrams of ropes, instructions on cleaning deer, arctic survival methods and countless other pointers for a life of necessity. A bit overkill, I thought but it was definitely a nice gesture.

Later, I decided to sit down and read a bit from the USASM (I have decided to take precedent from the Army and refer to the Manual as an acronym). One of the first things that struck me, on page 3 of the manual was “To overcome the first danger—the desire for comfort—you need to change the way you think of comfort.” I thought, “That is one of the best first rules for survival I have heard in a while” and continued on.

Now, with a 70–mile hike on the Appalachian Trail creeping eerily close I can’t help but think back to this statement and wonder how much money I have spent preparing for this trip. I am not going to go into the exact details, but sufficed to say there is a lot of “preparation” that needs to be made for such an arduous journey. As I am packing gear into my (smallest in the group) backpack, I can’t help but think “do I really need this to survive?” My initial response is no, but after a bit of reflection, I have come to a conclusion inspired by the old Boy Scout motto I knew so well as a child: “Be Prepared.” While I don’t need a sleeping pad or a percolator to “survive” in the most basic sense, I know more or less what is ahead of me, and purposefully packing light just to “rough it,” while a noble and romantic thought, will inevitably lead to suffering down the road. I suppose it all boils down to me being a creature of the new millennium, but I personally don’t see the harm in being a little prepared.

—d

I did. I climbed this mountain. They call it Mount LeConte. It was cold up at the top. I slid down some ice on the way back down. I had a lot of fun. You should climb this mountain too!

—d

Something is very wrong with me. For the past few days, I have had trouble sleeping, my eyes have hurt, my throat sore and inflamed, a chronic sneeze and nagging headaches. My first suspicion was that I had come down with some kind of bug, but as I noticed small flowers starting to shoot up out of the ground and small buds forming on the trees around me the situation be came eerily clear; I have been suffering from my seasonal allergies… almost two months to the day from the first day of spring. This is very unsettling, especially when this unusually long warm spell ends and all of this spring life that is appearing freezes and dies. On the other hand, if the weather continues to be warm the way it has, we could have plagues of insects to deal with. This is indeed troubling to me.

Apparently, this strange weather is not localized anywhere, but more of a global phenomena. Some scientists point to the El Niño effect, but others are citing global warming, one of the more polarizing buzz words there is. Whether this is an isolated, normal weather pattern or the terrible Global Warming monster’s first wide-reaching and highly-noticible stompings will only be known (and accepted) with time. One thing is certain, I won’t be buying a Snowboard like I was planning to this season.

Article Links:
On point : Freaky Wonderland
The Weather Outside is Frightful - washingtonpost.com

—d

It isn’t too often that I consider all that I have to be thankful for. Taking cue from today’s holiday and also a good friend’s new tradition, I’m going to make a list. Feel free to add as you see fit.
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Happy 24th birthday to me!

Often, with my pet projects, the actual work I perform is done in spurts. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to one such spurt. As promised, I have migrated this so-called “web log” to its own little patch of harddrive on my domain. It now lives in WordPress house (a fixer-upper definately), but hopefully we’ll be sitting in a custom built, state-of-the-web dream home. I urge you to continue keeping your pants on.

—d

Due to my snobbiness with regard to web design, and my utter nerdery I am going to move this “web log” to my domain and will be posting links to said domain for each new blog entry- keep your pants on.

—d

Hello.

I thought I might try my hand at one feature of MySpace (and the internet for that matter)I have yet to tackle- blogging. Ugh. Just the term sends shudders up and down my spine amongst a wishwash of ill-fated attempts at self improvement peppered through my life, but hey its my time damnit, I can waste it however I choose! It seems that I have an affinity towards good intentions, but once the varnish wears off and the new car smell is gone I tend to toss said intentions aside like a shedded skin. I suppose this is the case for most people, but I am not other people, I am me. I guess only time will tell whether or not I look back on this moment as the beginning of a new era of my life or simply just another autumn evening.

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