CaptainOrange

#hobbitonmovieset #newzealandvacation #tolkien #thehobbit #thelordoftherings #jrrtolkien

If you don’t mind spoilers (the photo stream is a day or two ahead of the blog posts), don’t forget that you can find better quality versions of all these photos elsewhere . Except for my awesome drawings, that is. They are one of a kind ;) 

Stats Completion Distance: 67 km Steps: 92,000 Walkers at Departure: Mike, David, Bri, Liz, Anthony, Shannon Support Team: Leora, Eric, Gary, Vin, Jodi, Dillon, James, Appa Walkers at Finish Line: Mike, Liz Departure was textbook this year. Everyone arrived at Bri and David’s and we were outside within a minute of our exit time. I have to give a huge shout out to their espresso machine (and whoever oversaw it’s machinations). There was a large and beautiful latte waiting for me as I stepped through the door. Not leaving from my house was a bit of a sacrifice, but the coffee made it an easy pill to swallow. As it so often is, 4:30-6 am is strikingly beautiful at this time of year. Spirits were high and we all enjoyed the joyous, silent, glow of the morning sun as it nudged aside night’s clouds to the east.* *Note to Wendy: I would say the clouds were most definitely NOT scudding. Much more of a lazy drift. Fate, it seemed, was waiting around every corner wit...

Yeah. I'm going to Honduras. So? So what. Sure I said on Nov 27th that I'd let you know soon. I'm sure I told quite a few people in person, but yeah... I left a few of you hanging a bit. No apologies. You could have asked. Specifically, Brad and I are going to Roatan (wikipedia), the largest of the Bay Islands. I'll be leaving on Feb 25th and returning a couple of weeks later. View Larger Map Honduras, a more global perspective We will be staying at the  Cocoview Resort . There are a number of things that I know I will be doing there. I will probably go horseback riding (which I've never done). I will go snorkeling and open water scuba diving (so far I've only been in a swimming pool) and I hope to make a visit to the mainland to quest through the Maya ruins of Copan . There are a number of things that I will NOT be doing. This list is, I hope, not exhaustive: get  murdered get HIV suffer DCS(decompression sickness) become infected with malaria, ...

I've spent the morning sitting in front of my homemade sun lamp and getting creative and inspired. I usually look inward for this kind of activity, but today I thought I would check in with the rest of the world. I tried googling "things I haven't tried." It didn't get me too far. It did yield one site that I think I'll follow via RSS for awhile AND this eery and inspiring video. The music really makes it. Later on, I came upon a host of Bucket List (wikipedia) sites that tried to tell me the 10-150 things I could or should do before I die, or if I had 24 hrs to live, etc... I learned a few things as I looked through these lists. Foremost among them was: make your own damned list! the number of people who just copy and pasted was ridiculous. Don't mistake me. I think that a lot of people share common interests and sometimes we need to be inspired by others, but when "eat jellied eels from a stall in london" yields 4090 results in google, th...

In a lot of ways my life is a mantra about trying new things, but I don't often think about it and I certainly don't put pressure on myself to perform new things on a particular schedule. This was a hard week. I found that I had put a lot of pressure on myself. Not only to try 'new' things, but pressure that the newness in some way be special. I found myself pre-judging everything as too mundane, (even though I apparently said something about that in my last post) or too close to something that I had done before. I believe Wendy thought I was an idiot much of the time as I struggled with finding something suitable. It's a good thing that she was around, though. Twice I was in the final throes of desperation. It was approaching 8 or 9 pm and I hadn't chosen a new thing to do, yet. Wendy's stellar memory would recall several things I had done that day. "But, I wasn't trying  to do those things," I would whine. Yes, I can be a whiner -- and sadl...

We've already discussed how February is a terrible month . We need not get into the details again. I do want to add that, as you might expect, it's not entirely February's fault. I guess it's been a case of shooting the messenger. Things start building up all through the winter. I distract myself and deny, but by February, I can't maintain the illusion that I'm happy and it all goes down-hill from there. So the shortest month gets the short stick, or short shrift, or something amounting to "up yours." I know--I can be cruel that way. I'm really my own enemy. And, I've been improving how I handle things during the winter, but I'm still not able to manage it with any real grace. I can't shake the feeling like I'm faking it. Volleyball was one of the activities that I typically engage in to get some exercise (which helps a lot). Unfortunately, I felt compelled to withdraw from the team that I have been on for the last 3-4 years. Anoth...