Chronicles of the Wayward Moot

WELCOME TO THE MOOT, oh world-wanderers and word-whisperers. After two years of Peace Corps. After 2,200 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail. What. Comes. Next?

Email me:
mountainjedi@gmail(dot)com

LINKS
Antarctica and Then Some
Big Dead Place
*Boingboing
C.A.D.
Couchsurfing
Craigslist Western Slope
Dirt Diva!
Drudge Report
Earth Spirit Medicine
*Geocaching.com
*LEHMANIMAGES
Married To The Sea
*MATADOR TRAVEL
Miles' Blog
National Geographic
New Zealand Herald
SCYTHIAN
Te Araroa, The Long Pathway
*TED
The Carbon-Free Home
*- I.M.B.R.U.B? -

What I'm reading (List begun February 2006):
Lonely Planet Guide - Ecuador and the Galapagos, A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson, Ender´s Shadow - Orson Scott Card, Boilerplate Rhino - David Quammen, The Motorcycle Diaries - Che Guevara, The Gold Bug and Other Tales - Edgar Allen Poe, The Story of B - Daniel Quinn, Valverde's Gold - Mark Honigsbaum, My Ishmael - Daniel Quinn, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test - Tom Wolfe, Holidays on Ice - David Sedaris, My Ishmael - Daniel Quinn, Guns, Germs, and Steel - Jared Diamond, Hayduke Lives! - Edward Abbey, Player Piano - Kurt Vonnegut, Beyond Civilization - Daniel Quinn, The Culture of Make Believe - Derrick Jensen, A Pirate Looks at Fifty - Jimmy Buffett, Desert Solitaire - Edward Abbey, Beyond Civilization and When They Give You Lined Paper Write Sideways - Daniel Quinn, Life of Pi - Yann Martel, The Tracker - Tom Brown Jr., The Songlines - Bruce Chatwin, Tales of a Female Nomad - Rita Golden Gelman, Rabbitproof Fence - Doris Pilkington, Confessions of an Economic Hitman - John Perkins, BLINK * - Malcolm Gladwell, A Blistered Kind of Love - Duffy and Angela Ballard, Dance of the Four Winds (Secrets of the Inca Medicine Wheel) - Alberto Villoldo, The Practice of the Wild - Gary Snyder, The "On" Position - Katie Moran, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer, Walking Down a Dream - Natasha Carver, Grandfather - Tom Brown Jr., The Multiplex Man - James P. Hogan, Rivers and Mountains Without End - Gary Snyder, COLLAPSE - Jared Diamond, Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television - Jerry Mander, ENDGAME Volume I The Problem of Civilization and Volume II Resistance - Derrick Jensen, Freakonomics - Steven Levy and Stephen Dubner, Bridge of Birds (A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was) - Barry Hughart, The End of Nature - Bill McKibben, The Essential Muir - John Muir, Providence_ The Story of a Fifty Year Vision Quest - Daniel Quinn, Deep Survival - Lawrence Gonzales, Tales of Power - Carlos Castaneda, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Zen Living - Gary McClain and Eve Adamson, A Sand County Almanac - Aldo Leopold, The Last American Man - Elizabeth Gilbert, Timequake - Kurt Vonnegut Doing Work You Love - Cheryl Gilman, Living the Wisdom of the Tao: The Complete Tao Te Ching and Affirmations - Dr. Wayne Dyer, Catching the Big Fish - David Lynch, The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom, The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge - Carlos Castaneda, Looking Out for #1 - Robert J. Ringer, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Jean-Dominique Bauby, Case Files of the Tracker - Tom Brown Jr., The Demon-Haunted World (Science as a Candle in the Dark) - Carl Sagan, Rich Dad Poor Dad - Robert Kiyosaki, A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking, Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris, The Universe in a Nutshell - Stephen Hawking, Tarnsman of Gor - John Norman, A Language Older Than Words - Derrick Jensen, Conserving the Environment - Opposing Viewpoint Series by Greenhaven Press, The Fool's Progress - Edward Abbey, Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Richard Bach, The Six Ways of Atheism (New Logical Disproofs of The Existence of God) - Geoffrey Berg, 1984 - George Orwell, The Botany of Desire - Michael Pollan, The Wise Heart (A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology) - Jack Kornfield, Awakening Spirits (A Native American Path to Inner Peace, Healing, and Spiritual Growth) - Tom Brown, Jr., The Old Farmer's Almanac 2010 - "Robert Thomas," Zen Sex - Philip Toshio Sudo, The Reluctant Buddhist - William Woollard, The Universe in A Single Atom - The Dalai Lhama, The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins, Psychedelic Shamanism - Jim DeKorne, Why Your Life Sucks and What You Can Do About It - Alan Cohen, In The Absence of the Sacred (The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations) - Jerry Mander, The Omnivore's Dilemma - Michael Pollen, The Call of the Wild - Jack London, The Doors of Perception - Aldous Huxley, The Monkey Wrench Gang - Edward Abbey, Fast Track Photographer - Dane Sanders, The Bhagavad Gita - Translated by Eknath Easwaran, Who Moved My Cheese? - Spencer Johnson MD, The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien, The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins, Awakening Spirits - Tom Brown Jr., Eaarth - Bill McKibben, Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl, In Defense of Food - Michael Pollan, The Immense Journey - Loren Eiseley, The Science of Happiness - Stefan Klein PhD, Saving Fish From Drowning - Amy Tan, The Ultramind Solution - Mark Hyman MD

Instruments I'm Playing:
The Harmonica ... this will be it for a while. Perhaps forever.

Disclaimer:
The contents and views expressed on this site are mine personally and do not in any way reflect the position of the U.S. government, the Peace Corps, or any other institutions named or referenced here.

25 Dec 2007

I wish you a Merry...

Good evening to all, and to all a good night.
Naw, not yet. I have to wish you a Merry Politically-Installed Pagan Sun-God Replacement Day!

"You mean Christmas, right?"
Ummmmm.

The smell of REAL PINE Christmas trees. Jingle bells. Silent night (tell me where one can actually get that with all the jingle bells ringing!) Gathering with friends and family. Crispy cold air and apple cider or hot chocolate. I dig it. I dig it all, and miss it for sure. I just don't buy into the reasons given for throwing the shindig in the first place. I'm finding myself in a situation where I want to say a lot but need to spend some more time searching for the words to say it. No desire to offend anyone.

I spent last night at my counterpart's house. After making a nice fresh salad and bringing the shoestring potatoes and balsamic vinegar and olive oil to garnish it, I met up with her family and the other volunteer in Zaruma and proceeded to partake in a stuffing spread of turkey, lasagna, "Christmas rice" (made somehow with Coca Cola to make it sweet and to color it brown, since it was regular old plain white rice afterall, the Ecuadorian National Dish), another salad made with potatoes, apples, and about three pints of mayonnaise (The condiment of choice that is somehow the OTHER Ecuadorian National Dish) ... all followed up by some homemade chocolate chip cookies. In a brilliantly appreciated guesture of good-will, one of the guests had her daughter hand me a tiny package wrapped in colorful paper as she said "Feliz Navidad." Awww, how cute! They got me a gift! At home this morning I opened it to find two pairs of white ankle socks. One pair says SPORT, the other pair says SPEED. I was going to wear the SPEED socks on a 6.5 hour hike I took today, except that neither of the pairs fits my absurdly large gringo feet. So it goes, it was the thought that counts.

Now looking forward to the coming New Year's fun, which will include a visit from the Chuffmate, YAY!

All the best to you, wherever and whoever you happen to be.

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