I've arrived in Buenos Aires which I never intended to be my destination just my starting point. We have to weigh out options to exercise our freedom of choice but I'm having trouble measuring those right now. I think sooner or later luck will tip the scales one way or another to send me spiraling into an experience I'm not going to attempt to imagine. Just wandering around the city and meeting people has been fascinating. I've been able to meet people so easily and it feels like it's on a whole different level. The conversation gets past small talk and self-consciousness to deepness and meaning very quickly. This in itself, if continued, would make the entire endeavor worthwhile quite easily.
The local people are very friendly for the most part and seem to be quite happy to put up with my miming in place of language. The hostels make everything very easy to the point where some never seem to leave them. I can tell already I'll notice too many things and experience too much to write about it all. I'll try to record the highlights. The Subte (subway) has made it possible for me to wander all over the city with out worry of not being able to find my way back to the hostel and my bags. I will be couchsurfing soon I think. Someone suggested a hostel chain that would be happy to employ me. My options are developing quite quickly.
11.29.2008
11.10.2008
Goodbye Arkansas
The last few weeks have been a time for reflection over the last few years of my life in Arkansas. I regret very little and I have had some amazing experiences with people and situations. I'd like to share some of those stories but this blog is going to be about the next chapter in my life. I really believe in living life as if you're writing your own story and I've really enjoyed this last chapter. I feel like I've grown tremendously and discovered some of what is worthwhile in life. I have some amazing friends in Arkansas and I really appreciate their support. They've helped me along in my journey in ways they may never know. Thanks to all of you so much!
Hanging out with friends in Paragould
Living and working in Jonesboro
Hanging out with friends in Paragould
Living and working in Jonesboro
11.06.2008
Food For Thought
What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is in others.
-Confucius
Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.
-Friedrich Nietzsche
Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it. Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
-Henry David Thoreau
We are what we repeatedly do. It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Law is mind without reason. To perceive is to suffer. Happiness depends upon ourselves. -Aristotle
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. Never discourage anyone... who continually makes progress, no matter how slow. The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. -Plato
Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions. Imagination is more important than knowledge. It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. The important thing is not to stop questioning. The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible. Truth is what stands the test of experience. The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend personal God and avoid dogma and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things natural and spiritual as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description. If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism.
-Albert Einstein
I cannot teach you violence, as I do not myself believe in it. I can only teach you not to bow your heads before any one even at the cost of your life.You must be the change you want to see in the world.
-Mahatma Gandhi
Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.
-Voltaire
Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb. Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
-Sir Winston Churchill
-Confucius
Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.
-Friedrich Nietzsche
Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it. Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
-Henry David Thoreau
We are what we repeatedly do. It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Law is mind without reason. To perceive is to suffer. Happiness depends upon ourselves. -Aristotle
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. Never discourage anyone... who continually makes progress, no matter how slow. The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. -Plato
Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions. Imagination is more important than knowledge. It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. The important thing is not to stop questioning. The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible. Truth is what stands the test of experience. The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend personal God and avoid dogma and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things natural and spiritual as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description. If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism.
-Albert Einstein
I cannot teach you violence, as I do not myself believe in it. I can only teach you not to bow your heads before any one even at the cost of your life.You must be the change you want to see in the world.
-Mahatma Gandhi
Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.
-Voltaire
Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb. Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
-Sir Winston Churchill
10.27.2008
Good News for Travelers
Looks like there is at least one good side to the global recession. Cheap countries to travel to for American travelers are about to get cheaper, some are saying airline ticket prices are about to go down, and competition is heating up in the tourist sector so bargains abound. Happy hunting!
10.21.2008
Smoky Mountains
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park served as a test for myself and my system of backpacking. It was difficult but enjoyable. If we were not under pressure the whole time it would have been a better experience all around. Luck was on our side for the most part. It was definitely worth the 8 hour drive out there but I wouldn't do 11.5 miles uphill completely sleep deprived ever again.
Sam's Blog Post
Sam's Blog Post
16 year old Jacob's Perception of the Government's Role in the Lives of Citizens
The relationship between a citizen and a government must be one of responsibility and action to be mutually beneficial. The responsibility of a citizen is to be aware of and to protest or support his government's actions and laws according to his conscience. The responsibility of a government is to recognize and protect its citizens' actions and freedoms from invasive control. This relationship is necessary for justice to prevail within the State; if it does not exist and the government becomes corrupt, it is necessary for citizens to revolt against the State.
It is necessary for citizens to be responsible in order to remain free of oppression. A responsible citizen must act as an individual, unconformed to the majority. He must have a cultivated respect for his conscience, obligating him to do what he thinks is right at any time. He must decide for himself what is right and wrong, what to support and what to resist, and how he should act upon his decisions. He must serve the state with his conscience, rather than with his mind or body. He must analyze his government's laws in contrast them to his own principles, and compare the actions and responses of his government with his own in the same situations. He must act upon the differences between himself and his government.
It is also necessary for a government to be responsible in order to promote goodwill towards humanity. A responsible government must operate with the recognition that the individual citizen is a higher and independent power, the foundation of its State, and the source of all its power and authority. It must acknowledge it is simply an organization of ordinary people subject to all of the faults inherent in every human being. It must function as an expediency, systematically returning control to its citizens who are capable of self-discipline. It must allow those who have fulfilled the duties expected of them and wish to live separately of itself, neither contributing to it nor benefiting from it, to do so. Its laws must be few, simple, and effective, uninhibiting to its citizens' rights, applicable as much to the future as the present.
If a government becomes irresponsible, if it ignores the rights of its citizens, or if it ceases to govern efficiently, the duty of responsible citizens is to revolt against it by refusing allegiance to it. If a government passes unjust laws, it is necessary for responsible citizens to disobey these laws, for the beginning of a revolution is just one act of resistance done well. It is not enough to cast votes, even if voting against wrongful policies. Every resource and influence must be used in response to injustice. If an act of injustice is committed by the government, responsible citizens must immediately take effectual action against it, not wait for a majority to accumulate. Citizens must issue complaints to guide the government, but if the government is unreceptive, the citizens must make themselves heard. The methods used by citizens to get the attention of the government must be gradual in severity, so as not to cause unnecessary damage to the State. If the government becomes unendurably oppressive, then it becomes necessary to dissolve the State, dethrone those in power, and destroy the laws of the tyrants.
A grand and glorious State closer to perfection than the present one is possible if the citizens and the government actively participate in and contribute to a relationship that truly promotes liberty and justice for all: a relationship in which the citizen can freely act from principle, perceive and perform what is right, and change things and relations, a relationship in which the government realizes the essential value of the individual and strives to nurture it, and a relationship in which a mutual respect for the other presides over self-centeredness. An enlightened State can only be made possible by the combined effort of both parties involved to achieve perfection.
It is necessary for citizens to be responsible in order to remain free of oppression. A responsible citizen must act as an individual, unconformed to the majority. He must have a cultivated respect for his conscience, obligating him to do what he thinks is right at any time. He must decide for himself what is right and wrong, what to support and what to resist, and how he should act upon his decisions. He must serve the state with his conscience, rather than with his mind or body. He must analyze his government's laws in contrast them to his own principles, and compare the actions and responses of his government with his own in the same situations. He must act upon the differences between himself and his government.
It is also necessary for a government to be responsible in order to promote goodwill towards humanity. A responsible government must operate with the recognition that the individual citizen is a higher and independent power, the foundation of its State, and the source of all its power and authority. It must acknowledge it is simply an organization of ordinary people subject to all of the faults inherent in every human being. It must function as an expediency, systematically returning control to its citizens who are capable of self-discipline. It must allow those who have fulfilled the duties expected of them and wish to live separately of itself, neither contributing to it nor benefiting from it, to do so. Its laws must be few, simple, and effective, uninhibiting to its citizens' rights, applicable as much to the future as the present.
If a government becomes irresponsible, if it ignores the rights of its citizens, or if it ceases to govern efficiently, the duty of responsible citizens is to revolt against it by refusing allegiance to it. If a government passes unjust laws, it is necessary for responsible citizens to disobey these laws, for the beginning of a revolution is just one act of resistance done well. It is not enough to cast votes, even if voting against wrongful policies. Every resource and influence must be used in response to injustice. If an act of injustice is committed by the government, responsible citizens must immediately take effectual action against it, not wait for a majority to accumulate. Citizens must issue complaints to guide the government, but if the government is unreceptive, the citizens must make themselves heard. The methods used by citizens to get the attention of the government must be gradual in severity, so as not to cause unnecessary damage to the State. If the government becomes unendurably oppressive, then it becomes necessary to dissolve the State, dethrone those in power, and destroy the laws of the tyrants.
A grand and glorious State closer to perfection than the present one is possible if the citizens and the government actively participate in and contribute to a relationship that truly promotes liberty and justice for all: a relationship in which the citizen can freely act from principle, perceive and perform what is right, and change things and relations, a relationship in which the government realizes the essential value of the individual and strives to nurture it, and a relationship in which a mutual respect for the other presides over self-centeredness. An enlightened State can only be made possible by the combined effort of both parties involved to achieve perfection.
10.17.2008
Red Cross Fire Track
I recently setup a program for the Red Cross Disaster office in Jonesboro to use for tracking the single family fires they work across 13 counties. What's cool about it is how googly it is. It uses Google Docs and Spreadsheets (with a form) as its GUI, engine, and database.
I then embed the form and spreadsheet into a page hosted at Google Page Creator. Then I use the Application Shortcut feature of Google Chrome to create an icon on the volunteers' desktops.
I have two other pages that uses the same spreadsheet database to plot the fires on a Google Map and chart the data using Google Gadgets. It took me about 4 hours to setup and has helped them immensely.
8.15.2008
Funnel Cloud
I was driving from Memphis to Jonesboro and I went through this amazing little storm system. I was certain I was seeing a funnel cloud but when I checked all the channels on the radio there was no active warnings. I had to slow down to 30 mph to get through it and small hail pelted the car for about 2 minutes. As soon as I got back to the office I brought up the radar. There was a hook formation just for an instant (shown below). I was in the exact right place at the right time!
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