the first time i went to india, i spent 7 months backpacking all over. i got food poisoning 3 times and e-coli 2 times. I lost 20kgs (45lbs) over that time period.

i used to drive a ranger and a F150 for work in the early 2000s. since then i have been living in europe and they’re a rare bird here. but recently i saw a new ranger, and holy crap that thing looked bigger than the 2000 F150! i liked the old ranger for its conveniant size, when not having to haul huge amounts of…

50? i thought he was younger! it’s that manic energy of his... :D

it was a language school at san pedro on lago de atitlan. it really was worth it too, i spent two months in mexico and had leaarned hardly anything. :)

i am glad i learned spanish first. despite starting at 35 y/o, it was easier to learn because i was in spanish speaking countries while doing it. I settled down in guatemala for about 10 weeks and took a tutor for 4hrs/day and 5 days a week. it cost 60$ per week at the time (2006). i had failed to learn any other…

i learned spanish while backpacking through latin america for 15 months. having english and spanish was good backup for most conversation needs. now i live in france, i have replaced spanish with french and that works but not quite as well. you basically find that if you need a third language french is that almost…

as someone that has backpacked in 40+ (54 total traveled) countries over 4 years total, and now an ex-pat, a lot of things you need to learn the hard way. like putting a small bell on my day pack so it does not get lifted the moment after i put it down and my attention is elsewhere. or the portable deadbolt for for…

back in the early 70s, when my dad was doing his PHD for marine zoology, he took my family to american samoa for a season. back then it was sort of a south pacific rural backwater. i was little, barely a toddler, but my sisters were all teenagers. my sisters went to a local restaurant, according to family legend, and…

i was wondering how people would handle NFT’s and video/digital rights, i mean what rights does the holder of the NFT have to copyright laws?

i visited MT’s hospital for the dying destitute in calcutta in 1997. it was a hospital with about 40 beds on the male side and 20 beds on the female side. probably half full when i was there. all were dying, but they were not dying in the gutter. that was the reality of what the poorest of the poor in calcutta was…

no, not really, syzygy is a jungian archetype, like the anima or the shadow, for example. jung was very popular during the late 60s/ early 70s, so a lot of nerdy intellectuals would have known the reference. probably not a great corporate name, but definitely nerdy. :)

that refrigerator looks very disappointed in me. :/

i live in the land of stinky cheese! one time i bought munster, without realizing what it was exactly. but i wondered why it was double wrapped. i soon found out! it was good, but my french SO does not like stinky cheese, so i had to eat it while she was not around. i am not a fan of goat cheese, it tastes like barn.…

this was my mother, way before i was born. this is her election poster for the election to city council in an extremely conservative city back in 1960-1, so long ago that she ran using her husband’s name. she won and served 1 term. so conservative that it was another 40-50 years before a woman was elected to the…

real mozzarella is AOC (appellation d’origine contrôlée or whatever the equivalent is in italian) meaning that i think that in the US you could reasonably call many things mozzarella cheese and it still not be the “real” thing. as long as it is white and soft and derives somewhat from a dairy product. truthfully i…

you forgot to add this tesla modification... :)

having been on chinese roads with chinese drivers this proably had to be done for preventing drivers from some crazy stuff to turn around.

as far as i know the city of heroes:homecoming server has an agreement with the publisher/current holder of rights, so they have a pretty good setup.

i had to send this to a friend that has one of these... :D

oh man do i miss that coffee! sitting in the streets of saigon, letting the coffee strain through the on-cup filter. with the condensed milk, it’s like candy! even better on hot days and poured over ice. i even bought one of those filters to bring home and it was never the same. even after 20 years, i still think…