The Horizon

I have seen the Distant Shore.

I have felt the foreign air press against my face as the breeze tousled my hair; the smell of exotic food, spices and other aromas playing in my nostrils.
I have heard the song of another language and have felt the earth and sea alike swell beneath my feet as the new and old together present for me new vistas and experiences.
There is no culture I have not witnessed, no cuisine I have not sampled.
I have climbed mountains in the storm and walked in valleys to wide too see across, save for the peaks of the surrounding mountains.
The deep blue ocean and the ankle-deep stream and the desert also, I have wandered.

Still, I am unsatisfied.

I lived the settled life. The farm, the house, the apartment. They proved temporary.
I held the steady job. The factory, the forestry, the office. They proved temporary.
I had the favourite pub, where everybody knew my name. They gossiped, the owner died and the place is now a strip mall.
I have some very old friends. Half have moved elsewhere, the rest are still here. I have the addresses of all of them.
I have some new friends. It is refreshing to meet new people and hear their stories.

I am ready to go.

The only constants to my happiness have been God, friends and the horizon.
I can reach god and friends from anywhere. God through prayer, friends through letters, phone calls and emails.
I hear the stories of new friends and want to go where they're from, see the places they describe and meet the people they talk about.
I dream of far away places and can smell the aromas of distant lands.
The place I long for most is home. A paradise island in the middle of the ocean named Guahan(Guam). A place surrounded by horizon.
The horizon calls. It's been calling me.
It's calling me home.
I am going home

SOLVED!! Moving Rocks of Death Valley's Racetrack Playa

For many centuries, people and scientists have wondered at the moving rocks of Death Valley. They would mark and study the rocks and confirm that they were moving, but none had ever seen them move and recorded the experience. Those that have seen the movement of the rocks where likely so underwhelmed that they failed to record the process or tell others about it. This would explain why the most prominent theories are simply 'the wind pushed 'em around when it's muddy' and 'ice form a glacier must've pushed them around.'

The mystery was finally solved about two years ago by Brian Dunning, cofounder of buylink.com. He and some friends were apparently in Death Valley in winter; a time when no self respecting scientist would be there. They saw the winds blowing a shallow lake around and saw the stones being pushed by the water. The water came from snow in the nearby Cottonwood Mountains and Last Chance Range. On the water Ice floes formed and shoved the rocks around.

Some people have put forth this theory before. But critics claim that the lack of a ring around the rocks, indicating the presence of ice (duh), and the buildup of mud in front of the stones proves this theory untrue. I live in an area that gets icy at least once a year and have seen plenty of rocks with no sign of the ice ring. So, I personally think the video is pretty solid proof.

Well, I've decided.

Instead of a 5th wheel, I'll get a sail boat. They're not only cheaper, but have access to more than three times the Earth's surface (90% vs. 30%). based upon a good deal of research, I have found that the ideal type of sailboat is a catamaran. They're generally more expensive, by about double, but with the extra stability, 40%-60% more room, apparently easier single handling and greater speed on the reach, they're preferable to monohull sailboats. I would like to get a Fountain Pajot or Sunreef, but they're a little out of my price range.

The only things that are certain are that I must have sail and solar. I must be self sufficient on my boat.

Yaaay! My catalog just arrived!

My Levenger catalogue just came. :D Bibliophile porn 8^D

Some other sites for the bibliophile (most bibliophiles probably already know about most of these sites, and many more):

Hollander's Decorative Paper and Book Supplies.

Talas, for the Pro; or those who think like a pro.

Moleskine. Nuff said.

Gigabooks. More of a how-to site.

Another How-to site.

For the budding artist.

Overpriced, but worth it.

Software for the Bibliophile's home library.

Another one for the Pro Writer and budding artist.

Forget Dayrunner and Franklin, make your own. ;D

How about some tea with that? Sorry, still under construction.

I am now feeling inspired because of this, and I will be writing quite a bit on my story at Userfriendly. This is partly due to the fact that I have decided to start a fresh story for NaNoWriMo; a Scifi tale that takes place in the somewhat distant future, about seven thousand years from now. Tuesday will have more than one post, hopefully three or four episodes of the story. I will be working on my homework for most of the day, so they won't be ready to post till sometime in the afternoon.

It is about 0930 now, and I must eat. Then I will go to my Rusty Hacker blog to fill everyone in on my school progress.

Home.

Jeff's Pirate Cove Webcam, C. 1430 Guam Time, Thursday, October 31, 2007

Guam AKA: Guâhan. It is 1340 Thursday afternoon there,

Wind	from the NNE (030 degrees) at 9 MPH (8 KT)
Visibility	10 mile(s)
Sky conditions	partly cloudy
Temperature	88.0 F (31.1 C)
Heat index	94.6 F (34.8 C)
Dew Point	72.0 F (22.2 C)
Relative Humidity	59%
Pressure (altimeter)	29.78 in. Hg (1008 hPa)
Pressure tendency	0.09 inches (2.9 hPa) lower than three hours ago

As you can see from above, it can't get any better. Sunny, without being harsh. A nice breeze swishing through the tropical forests (boonies, we used to call them), not too humid and the forecast calls for more of the same.

My eyes are welling up with tears, remembering my days there. Life wasn't all that great, but it was still good. In spite of the bullies and persecution I went through, I still miss it. The way the air smelled just before the rain fell. The way you had to keep one eye on the trees when walking through the boonies, to watch out for falling fruit and coconuts. I even miss the bullies and the school they harassed me in. It was there that I had my greatest adventures in life, with the exception of a trip to NY in 1992, and my baptism in 1988. It was there that I became a hacker, a traveler, a minister, a protector, a scholar and a man. It was there that I first fell in love.

Don't get me wrong, I love Washington and consider it my home too. I am just feeling homesick for Guam right now. Partly because of how lousy my life has been the last five years. My extended family is migrating back there, my dad is dead, I'm treated like a nobody here, but in Guam the name Taitano evokes respect. and a stateside educated Taitano would be unstoppable.

I am a Vagabond at heart, though; and I will need to travel frequently. But what better place to be a Stationary Vagabond than the hub of the Pacific! Travel is imminent. And, what better excuse to go there than to visit my tea suppliers and visa versa?

I'll have to wait till I graduate to move over there, though. I'll probably visit next summer though.

Uncle Sam's a Pickpocket.

Blasted Post Office, they apparently don't nickel and dime you anymore, they go straight for the jugular. regular snail mail is 50ct, right? Well, try to overnight a single sheet FAFSA and it jumps straight to $20! Whatta rip!

Oh well. At least I'm making progress. It's my fault I'm having trouble this time; I forgot to file before I went to AK. When I got back, I got distracted by trying to start my website and thought I would pay for the first quarter with the $ I made fishing. I ran out of both money and time and now have to jump through a few hoops in order to get registered for class. Hmmph. Been there, done that. Will likely do it again. :-(

So anyway, I am working on a story about the free software movement. It's an allegorical fantasy that starts with Linus joining the FSF He and his friend, a Digital named Pea Sea start on a quest to free her from a pair of shackles called License Restrictions that Bind her to the will of the Dark Lord of the world of Corporate named Stockholder Profit and that of his minions who include the powerful Unix the Ancient, who is controlled by the sinister King Att, and Microsoft the Devious who is bent on world domination through the Digitals using the LRs. After freeing Pea, using a Key he calls Freax, then Linux at the persuasion of his friends, Linus, Pea and the fellow Wizard Squires who helped Linus make the key decide to join the FSF.

The Rusty Hacker

Welcome to my Blog! This is the first post. I'm not sure what to say; never done anything like this before.

There was a time when I knew more about computers than I did about myself. Then I left High School. I was strongly encouraged to get a "responsible job". This quest, along with the onset of certain nervous disorders (as if ADD wasn't enough), kept me from keeping up with my passions. I tried a correspondence course from NRI on PC repair, but often found myself too tired, buisy or distracted to keep up with my studies. Now I find myself asking for help just to add a link to a forum post. {=``{ *sniff*

Hmmm... Now that I've found some thing to write about, I might as well keep going.

Lately, though, I've started to catch up. I'm relearning the ways of the Digital Force; it's proving easier than I thought it would be, but I still have a ways to go. My computer has been my biggest source of knowledge and other hackers, my tutors. I've left my "lab" unlocked at times to see if any crackers enter. It can be both entertaining and educational to see what the little morons will do, if given the chance. }:-} I take the fact that none have been able to cause more than a hang on my computer as proof that I'm coming along. In fact, the most damage that's been done to my PC has been done by myself. The worst that any cracker has ever been able to do is to alter my registry to load some very bad bookmarks and to force my computer to put some disgusting site as home in my browser. That was five years ago. ;-D

Now I've finally given up on "careers" (as if that kind of job security has ever existed), went gillnetting in Alaska, am trying to start school in Mechtronics, and am building a website. My webhost has been giving me a headache, but, the site should be ready to publish later this week. Next month, I'm starting in on teaching myself HTML, Linux Kernel, C++, French, Spanish, AmSLan and Italian. Right now, I am getting my resources together and preparing to participate in NaNoWriMo.

Well, that's it for now. Bye.