We came to climb a mountain, not a ladder!

Daniel and I were sitting on our surfboards bobbing up and down like a couple of giant fishing corks, waiting for the next set waves to roll in and talking about what we were going to do the next day. We couldn't kayak to the ocean because it was only 2 days before Christmas, so I suggested we ride our bikes from Jax pier to St.Augustine and back. Both our eyes lit up, and we each new that this would be the next adventure! Just like that, we started at dawn the next morning with rain and a 15-25mph NNE wind, yes indeed, pristine conditions for a good adventure! The ride down A1A was characterized by beautiful beach scenery and the singing of King Henry the 8th -you know- "I'm Henry the eighth I am, Henry the eighth I am I am...." In just a little over 1.5hrs we were at the castle!!! We took a picture, drove down St.George street to some nameless coffee shop to get a hot brew, and in a just a few minutes, were back on our way to the pier.

The trip back was HELL!!! but in a good way. The wind was blasting in our faces and slowing us down to around 10mph. The good news was that the rain was horizontal, so whenever I got thirsty, I just opened up the old gantlet and took in a few swigs. No one ever said Le Tour de Pier would be easy! Slowly, Daniel aka Lance! started getting considerably ahead of me. It started looking pretty grim, all I had going through my head were some terrible 80's songs and some excerpts I'd memorized from a book I read by Reinhold Messner. It all slowly turned into a blur and I don't remember much between Guana and South Jax Beach. I just kept on peddling as hard as my body would allow!!! It was like I was in a trance, and all I could think about was the next rotation of my peddles. "peddle! Peddle! peddle! lean on one leg, peddle! Peddle! peddle!" over and over in my mind

The bleak of December and Castillo de San Marco behind, Pure Elation in the foreground

When I reached the pier, it was nothing but love! Daniel and I congratulated each other and sat down to try and take in what we just did!!! 65 miles in a little over 4.5 hrs!!! So immaterial was the feat, yet immeasurably significant! I think Reinhold Messner captured that moment in time best, when he said:

"As far as mankind is concerned, it is completely immaterial whether Dhaulagiri South Face gets climbed or not; it's equally unimportant if man stands on the summit of Everest or not. The only thing that counts is the EXPERIENCE, the sensation the climb engenders, and that only for the person who climbed it."

The Big Walls p.131

cheers

A Wedding and Philosophy

This weekend I went to a friends wedding in Atlanta. At the wedding I had an interesting conversation with a middle aged man. He asked me the typical questions "Where do you go to school?" "What are you studying?" etc. Anyways when I told him I was a philosophy major, he looked at me like I was evil. We started talking about philosophy and who my favorite philosophers were. Naturally, I said it was like picking a favorite child and just could not be done, so I mentioned that I was reading a book by Nietzsche and another by Schopenhauer at present. As the conversation went on, he turned out to be a bit of an ignoramus as regards philosophy, which is ok, because I don't expect everyone to know everything about everything. What was not ok was that through his completely unfounded assertions against Nietzsche and philosophy, he became completely unreceptive to anything but what little he already knew. The only thing the naive gentleman knew about Nietzsche was that he said "God is dead" and because of it he didn't care about Nietzsche or anything else he had to say. Oh mon enfant! This very meek individual then started telling me that philosophy was shallow and proceeded in trying to convert me to Christianity. He absolutely hated Nietzsche, but he didn't even know anything about him, his philosophical ideas, and ultimately why he hated him. !Que ridiculo! When I mentioned to him that Nietzsche loved Jesus his face brightened up. If you disown someone or something like this guy did, just because of one thing that he or she believes, or that the subject entails, then you are just trying to protect your image and please others. And that my dear friends, is weak and pathetic!!!

Dammit, forget all that I just said, what I'm trying to point out here is that if we shut out people, or whole subjects i.e. philosophy, because of one opposing view, then we would all hate each other and everything...and that's BULLSHIT!!! The fact is that none of us hate everyone, and his arbitrary intolerance for Nietzsche and philosophy in general, is completely unfounded. It's almost like saying "oh, you are wearing a pink shirt today, and I don't like pink, so I'll pretend like you don't exist from here on out." How random?! Even more: How limiting to oneself?! With that kind of "logic"(or lack there of), he might as well start disowning his wife, smokin hot daughter I got to meet, parents and everyone else, and ignore them all out right. This is because NO ONE agrees completely with their fellow man's views! NO ONE! no matter who they are! So to make others irrelevant (Nietzsche and Philosophy), just because you don't agree with everything they say, is flawed. The way I see it, I don't care who you are, or what you've said, if you say something that helps me understand something better and I find wisdom in it, then I accept it, and apply it. nuff said

In summation of this story, I told this man exactly what I just told you, and the conversation went on much better from there. He even stopped trying to convert me!

ok, now I'll take the poker out of my ass and start taking some deep breaths:)

love you guys,
Mark

Winter Break Goals

1. Kayak to the ocean from my house
2. Go snowboarding
3. Camp out at the island for a few nights
4. Climb the big oak tree outside my window
5. Get an internship at American University for the summer
6. Stop sleeping all the time or not sleeping at all
7. Watch Endless Summer I and II
8. Ride my bike to St.Augustine
9. Solve the puzzle that is women

TBC

California

Two weeks ago I went to visit my Aunt Priscilla and Uncle Don for a weekend in California. I also got to meet my new 4 month old cousin Judah! He was a pretty cool little whipper snapper let me tell ya. Never even cried once the whole time I was there. I was so stoked leaving Jacksonville on that early Friday morning because I knew that 8-9ft waves were to greet me that afternoon. I had my thick 4/3 wetsuit, gloves, booties, and the Essential kook cap all packed in preparation for some really sweet waves! Unfortunately however, I encountered a few "weather" delays on the way west and as a consequence, I arrived 7hrs later than was planned. I was pretty nackkered from sitting around in the Houston airport all day not using up any of the energy I'd built up from thinking about going surfing. UHH! By the time I got to the San Francisco airport, it was 10:00pm, so it was impossible to surf. But that's just how travel goes, nothing to get emotional about. Anyways, the next morning I woke up to 3-5ft choppy waves and an air temp of 32 degrees. In my head all I could here was that old surfer's saying coined by Bruce Brown "ya shoulda been here yesta-dye." So instead, we all drove 40 minutes North to the resident volcano of the area, Mt.Diablo(3849ft),which means Devil mountain in Spanish, and did some light hiking. Mt.Diablo is also the center mountain in the background of my blog's logo picture, with me skateboarding down a different mountain. Look Familiar?
I did however, get do a bit of boldering on some of the exposed rock clefts about midway up the mountain as well as experience some of that exhilarating mountain air I hold so dear! It was spectacular! There is something so incredibly gratifying about putting some of my climbing training to use!!!Oh I loved it!
When we got back to the house, I put little Judah on his first skateboard as any responsible cousin would. I've never been so proud of that little crumb cruncher! and he's goofy foot just like me!!! The reason why it took me so long to finish this post was because I wanted to get those pictures of Judah and I on the skateboard but they got erased somehow. This post just doesn't seem complete without them. They would have turned out so well! Well enjoy the rest of the pics and thanks for your patience!

-Mark

My Uncle doing what he does best "look over there!(hits Mark in sternum)" on the summit of Mount Diablo temperature 30F

A more dignified pose fit for the summit

2 kooks halfway up Mt.Diablo
Merglatroid

Words of wisdom I've come across and taken to heart. Get Inspired!

"To submit to other peoples guidelines has never been acceptable to me; I would far prefer to live a few short decades doing what I enjoyed, than to spend a life conforming to rules hedged in by convention and mediocrity"

-Reinhold Messner The Big Walls

"Only the unknown can be overcome -most of all, the unknown within ourselves. I have proof positive of "The impossible" but none of the inconceivable"

-Reinhold Messner The Big Walls

"What matters is to evolve one's own standards, not to be coerced by any outside attitudes, and above all, to find one's own goal within oneself."

-Reinhold Messner The Big Walls

"There is nothing we can do for our friends but to leave them their pleasures and to increase their happiness by enjoying it with them."

-Goethe The Sorrows of Young Werther

"However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there is life, there is hope."

-Stephen Hawking

-"I only know that underealisation of the bodily and emotional resources promotes a cancer of the soul, an unlived life."

-Reinhold Messner The Big Walls

"Every man dies, not every man really lives."

-Brave Heart

Success!: going against the flow

The scene as we pushed off the dock this morning

This morning I drove my dad's jeep to the San Marco seawall where I planned to kayak with my climbing buddy Chris (He just so happens to be a veteran sea kayaking guide). The air was cool, the sun was low on the horizon and the river steamed upwards as only nature's cauldron could conjure. I stepped out of the jeep and grabbed my bike out of the trunk. A group of runners passed by and I recognized Sean, one of the cross country coaches from Stanton, and said hi as he passed. Then I got on my bike and headed for home. When I arrived home, Chris and I pushed off from the dock and headed out. The water was calm and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, a more perfect stage for a good kayaking trip could not have been asked for. As we reached the middle of the river he thought he'd be cute, and tried playing bumper boats, to which I answered with a subtle splash to his face. We carried on and in about an hour we had already reached the Landing!

Kickin it at the landing, completely soaked and feeling foxy

Everyone on the docks of the landing looked confused to see two guys kayaking amidst 40ft yachts. The closer we paddled to the main part of the landing, the more we heard people laughing in our direction, but we enjoyed it. A couple families came down to ask us how and what we were doing. Chris just said

"We'd prefer to have a little more horse power but we'll manage."

I just smiled and went along with it.
After we finished talking to the curious families, we walked around the Landing for a bit, sporting our paddles resting on our shoulders. When the novelty of the strange looks from even stranger people wore off, we hopped back in the kayaks and paddled the rest of the way to San Marco. Upon arrival, a nice guy from from Bosnia we met, came to watch us pull our kayaks out of the water and load up. What a day! 75 degrees, calm water, clear skies, a good friend and the Jacksonville skyline. It was a great trip!

Sleep

Well I finally quit my job on Thursday. To celebrate my liberation, I decided to stay up all day yesterday. I went climbing around 8 and then I hit the lynx after that. Then I tried going to sleep when I would normally be working, but it did not work. I just laid in bed, just laid there, like I was suspended in time, and then I finally started getting tired. Now I am writing this to you after sleeping the whole day through to the present time of 6:20. I don't feel refrehed, relieved or any of that crap, just depressed. I feel like I just wasted another day of my life; it's almost like a form of guilt. All I know is that I just want to get on a regular sleep schedule and forget about the state of things.

Inspiration for a new adventure

This is how blue the sky was today!

Lately I've been doing a lot of cycling around Jacksonville! Today Courtney and I road through downtown and over to Riverside, a route I refer to as the Tour de Jacksonville. I really had a great time! Anyways, when we got to the park with the huge statue of an angel on top of the world in riverside, I looked out over the mighty St.Johns and an idea struck me: I haven't kayaked from my house to the San Marco seawall yet! The weather is perfect for kayaking right now, so I hope to do it within the next 2 weeks. It's only about 6.5 miles there, which is less than half of what lewis and I did our first day when we were kayaking to the ocean. There is one BIG catch though...it's strait upstream, but thats why I want to do it, to experience the potential challenge! I also just thought of going to Tahiti to climb. Maybe I should just make a list of all the things I need to do, and then post it as another entry?

Bonfire Night!

Guy Fawkes (Baller)

On this night, 402 years ago, Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament with 36 barrels of gunpowder, but was caught. Now everyone in the UK gets an excuse to have a bonfire tonight in honor of the Queens safety. It's a sort of 4th of July type of activity, except they have a million national holidays! I mean we would too if the history of our country ranged over a period of 2000 years!

The Wisdom of R Kelly

It really made me think deep thoughts when he asked the question "Is you tweekin?!"

!Las Olas Grandisimos!

I wiped out on a wave head first today and my eyelids swallowed me head! yeah the waves were pretty insane. I'd say about 2 times thicker than Laird's wave at teahupoo.

Looking back on existence

I was sitting on a bench at school today talking to a friend, who I will leave anonymous here, about how she was slowly demoting one of her friends on her top 8, to get a message across when all the sudden (dunh dunh duuuuuuuh) this thought raced across my mind:

One thing I've always noticed my teachers and professors say is that the students continue to get lazier and lazier. I was thinking about it today and instead of thinking that they all were just bitter old people who thought their generation was superior, I thought that maybe we are in fact "lazier" as they put it. I think they misread what is really playing out though. When looking back on the pattern by which human existence has gone from "primitive man" to "technological man" I see, at least for my part, that we have slowly outsourced our faculties to some less tangible means. One of the very first examples of this was when man went from using visual movements to using verbal (invisible) language as a means of communication from one man to the other. Another primordial example is warfare. We have gone from using swords just a few feet, to using intercontinental missiles thousands of miles apart, to settle our disputes. In trigonometry instead of using long tables for sine, cosine and tangent we use sin, cos and tan buttons on our calculators to aid us in calculating the angles of a triangle. Instead of asking someone how they are doing, just check their status on facebook. And to see where you stand amongst your friends, you needn’t look any further than their “top 8” on their myspace profile! I'm not here trying to condescend with the examples I use, just catering to you my reader, I leave those judgments to you to decide on. So it is not that we are lazier, we are just using means to express ourselves that are intangible to the older, condescending generations, and this disdain towards our supposed "lack of academic rigor" is just a representation of their inability to asses the youth's answers to their academic inquisition!


p.s. Sarah, I'm sure this is rife with grammatical errors, but I really could care less hahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Chapelle bitch!

Another one of my mountaineering pipe dreams

Me looking at Half Dome from Glacier Point click it for the full effect!

Alright, I have decided that I will climb the northwest face of Half Dome in Yosemite. The Route I want to take goes strait up the most vertical side of it. It is a little over 8800ft and the actual dome by itself is 2000 vertical feet. This translates into a 2 day climb with 24 pitches (sections). When I went there the summer before last, I saw this gigantic, granite monolith as more of a scene out of an IMAX film, and not something I would ever see myself doing, but ever since I've started climbing again, I've begun to realize that this is something I can see myself doing in a very real since! Dream it, Think it Do it!

-Mark

This is the last 2000ft of the route

One of my hero's and something I've learned from him

“I only know that under-realization of the bodily and emotional resources promotes a cancer of the soul, an unlived life.”

-Reinhold Messner
The Big Walls. p90

So when you're sitting in your cubicle farm (or whatever you are doing) 10yrs from now, it better be pushing your personal abilities to their fullest extent. It's like holding your breath in, if you don't exhale, then how can you inhale, and continue to live? If you can't do your best because you are not in an environment that can foster your abilities to their fullest extent, then you're missing the opportunity that life gives you everyday, and therefore it is like an unlived life, as Messner would say.

ah winter dreams

nostalgia, regret, despair

the waves were extremely fun today, I had a great time at the Crypteria show last night and class was depressing, but I've had some good ideas lately and some new inspiration.

I've always lived in a state of transition in my mind, when I should have lived in the hear and now, just for the day at hand. i should have embraced who and where I was instead of living for a stage of life existing forever in the future. I just finished a book called Vagabonding: an uncommon guide to the art of long term travel, a few minutes ago, and NO it was not one of the souless self-help peace of shit books. Getting to the point, it made me realize something so simple and so fundamental that I'll put in to words by saying: When you are where you are, be where you are, physically and spiritually. So take that for whatever it means for you



A Song of The Rolling Earth

Whoever you are! motion and reflection are especially for you,
The divine ship sails the divine sea for you.

Whoever you are! you are he or she for whom the earth is solid and
liquid,
You are he or she for whom the sun and moon hang in the sky,
For none more than you are the present and the past,
For none more than you is immortality.

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

Lady Kati

Dearest Kati Brown,

Thank you for your prolific feedback. You are my favorite commentator on this blog, and so I dedicate this entry to you.

Sincerely,
Mark A. Walters Esq.

yes, I unicycle and walk on water

A little frustration, a little catharsis

what part of "unless the house is burning down, DO NOT bother me!!!" do you not undertand?!?!

It has now come to the point in the Walters' household that in order to get a decent hours rest with only one or two knocks on the door, one must place an 8"x11" sign reading "BUZZ OFF!" on the outside of one's door. Every time I hear someone come up the stairs, my mind starts racing with anxiety knowing that there is an 85-90% chance that my mom or dad(especially) will knock on my bedroom door wanting my attention for some bullshit reason. In my mind I think "WTF dad? I'm a grown ass man. stop following me around the house, dammit!" I mentioned for the first time tonight that I wanted to go to FSU or UCF next year, to which they were not pleased. The first thing out of my mom's mouth was "but you can only get better at home." I thought "haha..hahaha." I just didn't have the heart to tell her that they both were a good portion of the problem. uuuuuuhhhhh I'm loosing it, I'm loosing it

Shut-eye

After I wrote the previous entry, I took a quick nap and kept on dreaming the exact same thing over and over again. In the dream, I was looking at my blog and noticed that the last 2 entries had 3 comments on them. I was thrilled and I kept thinking it was real, as I was dozing in and out of consciousness. So to my dismay, I checked it after class and saw it was just another dream. That was basically the cut and dry, but it was really vivid and seemed so real! It's pretty confusing not being able to distinguish between reality and your own dreams. You know what I'm talking about? I've had a lot of those lately. Alright back to sleep before I have to go to work. busy busy busy bleeeehhh

Well its been

Well its truly been way too long a time to not have told a tale or two, or even shared a video with you. I've been soooo busy lately, which I find kinda unfortunate. This past weekend was really fun. I went over to Tallahassee to hang out with Lewis and Shaina. I'm almost sold on transferring over to FSU now. I really like the campus and everyone i met was pretty cool too. Sorry about the vagueness but i have to get some sleep, I just had too much fun this weekend and I have class in less than an hour. maybe I'll right more later

The zoo known as the pier and dawn patrol numero tres

A quick shot I took this morning between sets I swear! Click on the image to get the full effect

I moezied on out to the pier again at 6:00 this morning, and was greeted with a beautifully illuminated horizon and glassy 2-4ft surf. I walked up the boardwalk and peaked my head over the first dune and saw an almost empty line up, so I charged on out there. I would catch a wave, paddle back out, wait 30 seconds, catch another one, over and over again, with almost no one there! After about an hour of surfing, every skin head, wanna-be rasta, general kook and their brother were all out there to get a piece of the peeling perfection. I started getting cut off a lot, and whe I did get a wave, I was just trying to avoid people and couldn't ravage the waves i do oh so swell hahaha not. I tried my luck further up the beach where there were less crowds, and resumed my destruction for the rest of the morning. This was a great day and this swell couldn't have had a better conclusion, nor this paragraph. cheers

!!!!!!!!!!!~~~~~WAVES~~~~~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm soo stoked right now!!!!!!! there are less than 3 more hours of darkness separating me from the first rays of dawn and the first true fall swell of the year!!!!! My shortboard has acquired a layer of dust thick enough to write "surf me" in, and that's ashame! It's time to shred!!! weh heh whooooooooo! not to rub it in or anything daniel and lewis

I've watched this at least 30 times

If you watch this 100 times you will still laugh

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Scale of Blackness

I am going to climb these mountains...

Alpamayo 19,511ft


Huascaran Sur 22,205ft



Parinacota Volcano 20,827ft

Coffee and Birth Control

Tonight I went to uncommon grounds to read. Upon arrival, I was greeted by a fairly attractive representative of the female kind, who was sitting on a couch doing some sort of writing. I sat down at the couch adjacent to hers and said nothing. Upon saying nothing and reading for about 45 minutes, she left. She also left behind her pen, which I discovered about 5 minutes after she left. It was one of those cheezy pens that pharmaceutical companies give out to doctors with their respective drug advertisement printed on the sides of them. This particularly pink writing implement was advertising for Femcon Fe, which I just found out is a chewable birth control pill. The possible implications with which my naive little mind toyed with made me laugh, and I think recounting this account will make you laugh too. cheers

aah you tube

I just realized how lame this video was so i did something about it.

statement

I just heard the most brilliant statement: death is the number one killer

The Scene

Check it

well, I got my boots and bindings in the mail yesterday so without further adieu, behold:

ghostown

Well everyone is back at school now and i'm bummmmed. I finally went ahead and got a membership to the ymca at emerson, so I can start learning how to climb. I had one the best summers ever this year and I'm gonna miss you all!

Too hot

never thought I'd say this, but I wish it were winter right now. It's been too hot to do anything outside except sweat a river. I was out fishing on the seawall tonight, and even sitting in a stationary position, I was sweeting in a viciously viscous way. The bugs weren't bothering me though, so that was nice, in an omititive, thankful kind of way. I digress, I went swimming after mowing the lawn today and in the words of Bruce Brown, "It felt dryer in the water than it did in the air!" I'm getting cabin fever not being able to go outside and read. I just ordered my snowboard boots and bindings last week and all i can think about is climbing extremely high and cold mountains in South America like Huascuran Sur, Parinacota and Sajama just to name a few. Alright i guess I'll stop complaining and go sweat some more. later my friend

(Happy birthday to me) Febuary 15th

All eyes on the calendar, another year I claim of total indifference
To here the days pile up with decisions to be made
I'm sure all of them were wrong
Into this song, I send myself
And with these drinks I plan to collapse and forget
This wasted year, these wasted years
Devoted friends, they disappear
I'm sorry about the phone call, and needing you
Some decisions you don't make
I guess it's like breathing and not wanting to
There are some things that you can't fake
I guess that it's typical to cling to memories you'll never get back again
And to sort through old photographs of a summer long ago
Or a friend that you used to know
And there, below his frozen face, you wrote the name and that ancient date
And you can't believe he is really gone
When all that's left is a fucking song
I'm sorry about the phone call and waking you
I know that it's late
But thank you for talking, because I needed to
Some things just can't wait

-Connor Oberst

Chamblins pt.II

I went back to chamblins today and got Vagabonding Down The Andes and I paid a mere 3 bucks for it!!!! It's a 1937 edition, so it's almost as old as me. I also discovered a secret room. I'll let you find it, but I'll say this, beware of Beth the naughty clown.

Hanna Park

Surfing and camping was pretty fun this weekend at Hanna park. The waves didn't get above three feet, but I still bagged some good head dips in the curl this morning at the poles. It was peaking right and left directly in front of the last pole and i got some great rides, some of which were about 100yrds long, which for Florida is pretty damn good. Dan and Jeremiah got great wave after great wave after great wave. Besides the surfing, we spent most of the time sweating, listening to Bob marley, and staring into the abysmal fires of Mordor. It's hard to describe how looking at a fire for hours is so entertaining, but it just is; maybe it's the sheer simplicity of this primordial pleasure that gets me? It was another great trip, another deep, brief breath of satisfaction.

The mothman

I watched the mothman prophecies 2 nights ago, and I'm still a little spooked at night. This kind of presents a problem for such an exceptional insomniac as myself, because I'm usually outside fishing in the backyard, looking at the stars or reading all night. So basically I've been kooked up in my room doing a little more reading than usual and watching "Insomniac Theatre" on channel 17. I feel pretty ridiculous, especially after reading what Schopenhauer had to say tonight.

Chamblin tried to rip me today

Today Dan and I went to Chamblin Bookmine. I got some books that can be described in no other way than "Mighty." They were mostly anthologies on Old English verse, of which I am a huge fan. Anyhow, I was looking through the adventure section and found an old green hardback entitled Vagabonding Down the Andes, and immediately my heart skipped a beat. Naturally, I bagged the sucker faster than a crazed harry potter fan at a new book release, and examined the browning pages of the green bound book. It looked like a keeper to me. When I went to the counter to buy it, the delusional cashier lady told me it was 25 skins to which I replied "whaaaat? are you kidding me?" Keep in mind this book looked pretty used, pretty old and pretty cheap $. I asked her to check on it but she was uncompromising and refused questioning. I was outraged. I told her to put it on hold for me and that was that. I have a bunch of junk books that I'll trade in and get the thing for free next time I'm there. I still can't believe she really thought those 612 pages were worth that much!gahh

insomnia part II

I finally figured it out, I'm superhuman -I don't have to sleep, in fact I can't sleep. Ha, I can't believe I thought it was insomnia. If you are up, I can guarantee you that I will be up so give a brotha a holla and we'll chill at 4:30am!!!

psych...

I know I told you before that I want to start my trekking in Bolivia and work south towards Patagonia, however, after talking to Nathan Shellhorn (if you don't know him, he's a good skating buddy of mine) yesterday, who's going to hike the Inca trail in Ecuador and Peru, I think I'd like to start in Ecudaor. See my main goal in this adventure is to carry what I need for living on my back all over the andes, climb up and around all the killer peaks, snowboard down as many as possible, surf as much as possible, get to know the locals well, and to be dissolute amongst the massiveness of it all. Said another way, Karen Horney wrote about people finding dissolution into something bigger by using the Upanishads' image of rivers flowing into a sea, and I can think of no more beautiful an image when describing what all I'm talking about. Anyways, back to what we were discussing, the Inca trail starts a little north of Quito, Ecuador, and goes through all the places I want to go through anyways, so why not stick with it? The Incas were an amazing civilization; their road network system alone, stretches farther south than Santiago, Chile, which makes it about 3,230 miles from top to bottom! No I'm not thinking about walking that far, but I'm just gonna use it as a guide line. Your thoughts?

Farley's the Man!

A list of 43 items

A list of 43 items was written out on a page, describing her faceless lover, as if it were peace of meat passing an inspection, grade A, B or C. She passed up any and everyone who came along her path in life , and with a laugh as empty as her skull, she chastised her days away. As the years passed by it started to seem as if her list of impeccable qualities laughed right back at her, as she slowly came to several grim conclusions and piece by piece lost her sanity. Yes in her vanity of what a man fitting for her would uncompromisingly have to be, she found none other than her reflection and her own identity. The quantitative grew teeth, with an insatiable appetite for the soul, as she stayed true to her list, and the list slowly ate her whole.

The Next Chapter

The latest Brand New album "The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me" is killer, get it, especially if you really like cathartic lyrics. It reminds me a lot of Thursday's "Waiting." One of the best feelings in the world is climbing a mountain. It's like a microcosm of life. A first kiss comes once, forgiveness twice, anymore and you're a fool. Never become a martyr of your decisions, be willing to change.

Schopenhauer, Voltaire

-Life is given us not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome -to be got over -Schopenhauer

-Happiness is but a dream and sorrow is real -Voltaire


Men of kindred thoughts...Solitude really is the route of happiness -a state unreachable- a dream. I'm thinking I was wrong concerning community. Community is wasted wind.

The Andes

I want to go hike through the Andes starting in Bolivia south of Lake Titicaca, working my way southward into Chile and through the Patagonian Andes. I figure it'll be fun to be popsicle in South America

Bill Swerski's Superfans w/ HIS AIRNESS

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The Barry Gibb Talk Show

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SOCRATES AT HIS FINEST, if you don't read it, then you're missing out big time!

"It appears there is a narrow path which brings us safely to our journey's end, with reason as our guide. As long as we have a body, and this evil can mingle with our soul, we shall never completely attain what we desire, namely truth.For the body is forever wasting away our time with its demands. Whenever it is ill it hinders us in our pursuit of real being. It fills us with passions, desires, fears and all kinds of imaginings and foolishness. It is always preventing us from thinking properly. The body alone, and its desires, cause wars, social divisiveness, and battles: for the origin of all war is the desire for wealth, and we are forced to pursue wealth because we are enslaved by the wishes of the body. On account of all this, we have no leisure for philosophy. Even if we manage to free ourselves from the body for a while , and try to examine some matter, it hinders us at every step of our inquiry, causing confusion and trouble and panic, so that we cannot see the truth for it. Truly we have learned that if we are to have any pure knowledge at all we must be freed from the body. The soul by itself can see things as they truly are. Only after we are dead, it seems, can we gain the wisdom that we desire and for which we claim to have a passion. But this cannot happen while we are alive, as my argument shows. For if it is impossible to have pure knowledge while we have a body, one of two things must be true: either we can never gain any true knowledge, or we can only gain it after we are dead. For then, and only then, will the soul exist by itself, separate from the body. While we live we come closest to true knowledge if we have no use for or communion with the body beyond what is absolutely necessary, and if we are not defiled by its nature. We must live pure of the body until God releases us. When we are thus pure and released from follies of the body we shall dwell, I imagine, with others who are pure like ourselves, and we shall of ourselves know all that is pure."

-Socrates talking from Phaedo by Plato

Insomnia

It's presently 4:17a.m. I kayaked 3 miles, loathed the fact that Florida has no waves for 4hrs, played 9 holes of golf, dodged lightning bolts, ran 3.5miles, and I'm still not tired at all! I've been up since 9am and haven't slept since then. I feel frustrated right now because this has been going on and off for about week and a half. I'm sick of taking sleeping pills; I can only take so much artificial additives into my daily diet, or should i say nightly? The good news is that I'm listening to some good music (explosions in the sky), and I got my snowboard in the mail yesterday, so I'm stoked about that, but I'm getting rather irate with my body doing weird things, I've definitely had my fair share lately. I think my parents are stressing me out more than usual because my sister has been gone for about a week now. I just need to get out of the house for a while. UHH...going to pool in zombie-like fashion...

I sit and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all
oppression and shame;
I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men, at anguish with
themselves, remorseful after deeds done;
I see, in low life, the mother misused by her children, dying,
neglected, gaunt, desperate;
I see the wife misused by her husband--I see the treacherous seducer
of young women;
I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love, attempted to be
hid--I see these sights on the earth;
I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny--I see martyrs and
prisoners;
I observe a famine at sea--I observe the sailors casting lots who
shall be kill'd, to preserve the lives of the rest;
I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons upon
laborers, the poor, and upon negroes, and the like;
All these--All the meanness and agony without end, I sitting, look
out upon,
See, hear, and am silent.

-WALT effing WHITMAN

Truth

Is the only truth that there is no truth? really!?!? If you believe this , then it is a paradox -a truth that wears a self-contradictory mask, if you don't believe this statement, then is it a self-contradicting statement. Socrates said "It is Truth you cannot contradict." So there is left in the equation, the human element of decision -to affirm whether or not this statement is true. To me, that Decision is the core of what makes humans what we are...At this point I'll say "I know nothing," as a badass philosopher said, but nothing is something.

A Few Goals

1.Read The World as Will and Representation again
2.Play Vivaldi's 4 seasons on viola
3.Surf Raglans in New Zealand
4.Go backcountry snowboarding
5.Skate Vert
6.Learn Spanish FLUENTLY
7.Summit Parinacota Volcano
8.Run for an hour
9.Kayak to the ocean from my house
10.Backpack the Scottish Highlands

somethinng to think about

Breathes there the man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne’er within him burned,
As home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonored, and unsung.

-Sir Walter Scott

Kona's 30th Anniversary

Today was Kona's 30th anniversary, the park was packed full of little grommits swarming around and two old dogs named John and Mark. The pictures pretty much tell the story. One of the most epic days in Kona history!

The Crew

The Mob

The Scene

Tony Hawk

Sergie Ventura

THE POOL

Sergie Ventura

The inventor of the McTwist

The Tale of Two Kayaks

Last Friday Lewis and I decided we would go on a small adventure by kayaking from my house to the ocean, which is just over 20 miles, and my fellow bros and sheilas let me tell you, it was an experience I'll never forget, for a few good reasons and several extremely bad ones.

To begin our journey, a nice rain cloud poured down for about the first mile and a half. After paddling around 6 miles we reached Goat island, which has actual wild goats just roaming around with nothing else but palm trees and cactus. They were pretty shy little devils so Lewis and I used our extensive herding skills to get them all at the tip of the island in an attempt at wrestling one to the ground, but all to no avail. Lets just say they're really illusive creatures. After we got tired of trying to catch one, we paddled about 8 miles, now to the east, into a mouth drying, bicep burning 8knot head wind. This wayward weather feature slowed our pace down considerably and it seemed we were paddling just to stay in the same place. Finally after 3 and a half hours of more monotonous paddling (but truly beautiful scenery), we reached Calypso island, where we planned to camp.

Since Ft. Caroline was right next to us we decided to camp right next to the fort. The park had already closed so we had the whole place to ourselves, including the original fort founded in 1564 by the Huguenots!!! That evening after setting up the hammocks and gathering firewood, we decided to go find some food in town, so we started walking out to the main road. We had no idea where a convenience store was so we asked a runner we passed on our way who told us where to go. After 3 miles of walking, we found a Macdonald's and ran into the same guy who gave us the directions, except this time he had already taken a shower and was just getting some beer with his girlfriend, so he offered us a ride back to the fort! We were set, we had hot food, a ride back to Fort Caroline, and the gratification aching away in our arms from 13.5 miles of paddling. The Sun started to set, as we ate dinner on the battlements of the fort overlooking the river, and we knew right then without saying anything that this was one of the most kick-ass adventures we had ever gone on!!!

After the sun finished it's westerly dive, we started a fire to fend off the blood thirsty insects which our great state is so famous (or should I say infamous?) for. We gazed into the gleaming fires of Mordor, and had a really funny conversation going, but I don't know what it was about (thats another story). We started getting tired so we put out the fire and tried going to sleep. The bugs started getting really bad for both of us, despite the fact that Lewis was using my hammock with a mosquito net and I was covered in two extremely humid towels. The blitzkrieg began on both fronts -that is, through our hammocks and on top through my towels. Their ravenous blood-sucking appendages knew no boundaries! It got to the point where I remember sitting up in my hammock and thinking to myself "Shit, I'm either gonna die, or I'm gonna have to keep a fire going all night." Naturally, I decided to go through with the latter of my two options and Lewis quickly joined me. So their we were sitting on a makeshift bench we put together, curling up to a smoking fire that we fed the rest of the night (about 6hrs more). In retrospect, it doesn't seem as dire as when the actual event happened, but if you use your imagination to embellish the actual event I think you could come pretty close to what it felt like in the HEAT (hahaha) of the moment. At 5:15 a.m. we went to the shore to get our kayaks and pack up camp, the only problem was that there was only one kayak left! We stumbled over the boulder-lined coast for 15 minutes or so hoping that it would show up, but all to no avail. So with one kayak in hand, we carried it up over the battlement and to our camp. As we packed up I remember talking to my self in low somber tones with about every other word tinged with some form of "f@*k!" So While it was still dark we carried the one kayak we had left up to the main road. I called my dad around six and told him that we had a bad night and that he needed to come and pick us up. When he arrived and found out about what had happened he wasn't happy but he thankfully didn't lose his cool. When I got home I called up the coast guard, marine patrol and police to tell them about my missing kayak. I then promptly collapsed on my bed and remembered that it was my birthday today(June 30th). It all seemed to horrible to be true, so I retreated to my dreams. When I awoke, my mom told me that they had found the kayak pretty close to where it must have drifted away! I was relieved to hear that I wasn't still out 1,300 skins, but my terminal sunburn from the previous day seemed to completely diminish this extremely good news.

Looking back at the experience, I realize that sometimes bad things happen, and if you never use what you have, in my case kayaks, then you will never have the experiences that make life exciting and worth living to the next day for! It's times like these that bring color to life and rid you of the bleakness of the hypnotic routines we all must face at some level. Thanks for reading this far and if you liked what I had to say or not, let me know with a comment! I need to know I'm not talking to a brick wall! I really hope you have a great day and that you and I have an awesome adventure together sometime. cheers -MW

England, Scotland and Wales

Fresh air in the Scottish highlands

Edinburgh Castle (temp 40)where I walked through the same gates as William Wallace

The summit of Arthur's Seat overlooking Edinburgh and The North Sea!

Hadrian's Wall built c.120 A.D.

The Tower of London built by one of the only badass Frenchman in history, William The Conqueror

The final resting place of King Arthur
Glastonbury Abbey

Caernafron Castle in Wales (my idiom)

Atop a mighty mountain in the Scottish Highlands

Off the face, back again, and the tangible

Over the past year I've lived life in reclusion, partially because I chose to, like Thoreau who wrote: "I wished to live deliberately", and partially because I had no choice. From this experience ,or lack there of, I have realized how people need people! Said another way, I've grudgingly come to the conclusion that people need community, we need people to tell our story too, we need an intimate audience, people to help us through the awful bloody struggles we face from just living through a day, people we can Trust. To sum it all up I'll say this: "Life is a battle for the tangible." So here I am fulfilling that which I now perceive to be the right way of living -living in the tangible and making myself accessible once again. I hope you get something out of my blog, and that I don't just waste your time. Enjoy