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.