Hello everyone,
This journal/blog has been moved to http://mindkeep.dreamwidth.org/. Comments have been disabled (and consequently hidden)! You can still view and post comments using your LJ name by logging in through OpenID. New posts (if I get around to writing any) should be crossposted here, but you may only comment on the dreamwidth site.

I found this on the interwebs (posted on http://digg.com) and thought I'd share. It's an interesting peek in a country that arguably has the most heavily fortified doors on the planet. The site links are sorta broken, but you can manually edit the URL to get to the whole documentary. I'll just give you all the links:

http://www.vbs.tv/newsroom/vice-guide-to-north-korea-1-of-14
( links 2 to 14 )

So first off, I started going to Church! Most of you are probably thinking, "Um, okay..." but most of my older friends are generally shocked with this news... Until I tell them a little bit about the church. I think I posted on twitter something to the tune of "It's church without the whole ""YOU'RE GOING TO HELL"" bit." Aside from that, please feel free to make your own opinions: http://uucch.org/

I've been finding a bunch of new live journal friends through newish real life facebook friends. The sharing concept came up and it reminded me of this sermon. Admittedly it's somewhat ramblish (to be fair it was his first sermon at the new church, and I do think they're improving), but the bit that beings at about 3 minutes in on sharing yourself and having witnesses to your existence resonated well with me. If your interested in more, here's a link to past sermons. I'd guess most of this comes from my mortality concerns.

It's been bothering me for a while. I don't like the whole idea of not living. I think it's lame. The End... but wait... I don't want to end! Ahhh!

While out with tangerine42, we were staring up at the moon and I thought, "Hey, I could be a celestial body someday." Maybe conscience thought and awareness would drift away, but my matter would someday return to the earth and be part of it, or a swallowing star, or something else exponentially more awesome, and I'll be connected to eternity. That crazy thought is somehow comforting.

Also I'm still completely serious about that whole natural burial thing.

Last weekend was quite eventful, apparently the music gods were smiling on me last weekend.

I've had it in my head to try bass guitar for a while because I've always been drawn to the lower notes of various instrument types. (I absolutely love my bass ocarina and would probably play it a lot more if the creator didn't fuck up the fingering.) At some point I thought I'd price things out. After some research for beginner bass guitars, I figured about $250 for the bass, $100 for an amp, and maybe $50 worth of other crap I'd need. $400 was a bit too big a number for me to just "give it a try".

Friday, I happened to catch a coworker browsing guitars on craigslist, the first(latest) entry on the bass page was the exact model that I had priced out. Included in the package was an Amp, cord and guitar stand, all for $100. I pretty much immediately went back to my desk and sent the guy an email. He called me about 30 minutes later and we made plans to meet the next day. When I arrived, he told me he had about 8 responses not far after me. It's an Ibanez GSR200. It has a couple minor dinks/scratches on the body, the front pickup knob is little wobbly in the socket, but functional, and other than that, it's in great shape and has a nice sound (at least to my relatively untrained ears).

As I was bringing it home, I realized just how cluttered my apartment was becoming and went on a mini cleaning spree to remove several of the empty boxes that had become Luci's occasional playthings. When I dropped off the first round of junk at my building's trash shoot, there was a keyboard sitting there. "...", I thought. It was dusty, but looked okay, no power adapter, battery cover was missing, but I brought it home and, sure enough, found an 12V adapter from my random bag of potentially useful cables, and it worked! All the keys are functional and everything. tangerine42 was probably just as excited (maybe more) with this news as I was. I'm not sure I really want to learn keyboard/piano as a primary instrument, but the prospect of us playing/practicing together is pretty awesome.

I've been pretty good with practicing on my own the last couple days. No, I'm not playing songs or anything like that, but I've learned what I think is proper technique for some basic strumming. I found an excellent resource at http://studybass.com/. The hardest trick is to mute the strings that aren't being played. I'll keep everyone posted with developments as they come.

Oh yeah, and I got Rock Band 2, so I have a reasonable chance of learning some drum basics too! If anyone wants to do a rock band party, just let me know!

I'm guess that the most amazing thing about this post is probably the title. I turned 30 May 16th. I think 29 was a little more scary as I had this, "Oh god, I'm at the end of my 20s!" year long pseudo-freak-out. Other than that, it was a good night out with a handful of friends. Shame on me for planning everything about two days before, so not a lot of people could show, but that's okay too. I still get just as many "oh to be 30 again" as I did "oh to be 20 again" comments, so I guess it's all just relative.

I think maybe I should try looking at age like I do weight, it's just a number it all depends on how you feel. (Of course that brings to light recent "old man" symptoms of aching joints, but that's beside the point. I'd think I'd be quite happy at age 327 so long I could keep the look of a 30 year old... maybe by then, I'll be okay looking 40, who knows.

Alright, I've put off this post long enough, and no I still don't have my pictures up, but there are pictures available from others here:

http://adventuresintravel.shutterfly.com/
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaMWjVs1Zs2Ti4
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=bettsterg&target=ALBUM&id=5331408009262920897&authkey=Gv1sRgCN71_uq9k5GrbA&feat=email
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=daniels.carole5&target=ALBUM&id=5334708863974544161&authkey=Gv1sRgCK655_Kv-sW17gE&authkey=Gv1sRgCK655_Kv-sW17gE&feat=email

( Preamble )

( Guadeloupe )

( Dominica )

( Martinique )

( Homeward bound )

This started as a post to announce my upcoming vacation plans, but really the details are all available here: http://www.chesapeakeflotillas.com/trips/2009/westindies/

I was talking with tangerine42 about this the other day, and since there is the extremely unlikely possibility that I may be lost at sea or randomly hit by a meteor while walking across the paring lot, I thought I might as well document my last wishes :-P.

I've never been a fan of the idea of embalming. I think my father first said to me that he'd rather be cremated so that he wasn't taking up otherwise useful space in the dirt. I like the sound of that, but I always wonder, hey, what if I was burned just slightly prematurely, now you're really sealing your fate, and fucking ouch. Why not just let nature do that thing it's been doing for billions of years? At some point people used the phrase "pushing up the daisies". I like daisies. Why not do that? A few years back I stumbled upon this site (or one very similar to it): http://naturalburial.coop/USA/. Also be sure to read: http://naturalburial.coop/about-natural-burial/.

That's how I want to go! Of course, this may be moot in the case that my body is lost at sea, in which case, I have no problem feeding the fish either.

A few years back, my friend, and at the time coworker, asked if I had one thing that I could tell children or future generations what would it be? My reply was this: "Life is perfect and complete. Live life knowing that everything you do is part of that perfection." I always thought that would be a nice departing thought for a headstone. If not, well at least I've said it here. :-)

It's kinda of amazing how far I've let myself slide over the years. Whenever I talk about my old passion, I generally tell people "I used to be a black belt". At this point (and really for the last few years) I can't in good conscience claim to still be a martial arts with my current state of physical health or mental discipline... and it really bums me out at times.

I'm trying to get back into exercising, but my recent knee pain/problems have put some of my old work out routines into the too physically demanding category. Thus far I started http://hundredpushups.com/ yesterday and I may start up http://www.twohundredsitups.com/this week too. I like these because the time requirement is pretty low. If anyone has other ideas they can suggest that are pretty low impact, I'm all ears.

I don't really feel like writing out articulate thoughts so I'll just list...

Not so fun facts:
 - Last 3 doctor visits I've had high blood pressure
 - High cholesterole
 - BMI puts me clearly in the Obese category and not far from Excessively Obese
 - Weak lower back muscles have been causing sporadic semi-regular problem for the last few years
 - Most recently, right knee isn't doing too well with extensions, going up steps is especially painful, if I do a slow front kick I can hear and feel clicking and popping, and the cortisone injection I had last Thursday has done little to nothing to help.
 - other than that life's pretty good.

I was re-inspired by the xkcd "Fuck that shit!" post, and I'm unlocking most of the articles that I might otherwise hide.

My thoughts are all but useless unless someone can share and/or benefit from my experience. Some of what I've already exposed is more than I would I might want to a perfect stranger (or potential employer) to know about me. However, if you're a generally/genuinely curious person or an actual friend, I have no issue letting you into my more private ramblings as well. Just let me know and I'll add you as a friend.