Famous Movie Character Interaction Diagrams

For more check out xkcd.com

The Human Experimente

Every once in a long while, something sneaks up on me and breaks my neck in a most fantastically erotic way. The Human Experimente has me swimming the vast sea of twiterpation that was unleashed upon the world with the original release of King Crimson's 21st Century Schizoid Man.



Serration high, endorphins pulsing; I haven't been this excited since I got to the middle of my 1 3/4 inch Jurassic Park Jawbreaker (or "The Raptor's Egg" for those true Jurassic Park fans out there)to find the fossilized mosquito within. (If you had a bad experience with your Jurassic Park jawbreaker, there is a community for you to).


To listen to this classic King Crimson re-make, and samples from The Human Experimente's upcoming album "Dreaming in Exile" (slated for release in early 2010) Click here.

More about The Human Experimente from www.thehumanexperimente.com:

"The Human Experimente has been designed as a unique recording project utilizing the talents of a compilation of various high profile music artists, much in the style of a collective series release usually found in chill-Out or lounge/house genres like Buddah Bar or Cafe Del Mar. However in this case, instead of contemporary electronic dance, down-tempo and/or exotic world music, The Human Experimente collection presents grandly cinematic structured songs—compositions conceived to sound like music for imaginary films.
The songs presented by The Human Experimente — with “21st Century Schizoid Man” representing the first — will have no specific agenda, style or thematic genre. Instead, they are simply meant to be listened to on an individual basis purely predicated upon the merit of each song itself.

“If within our collective consciousness the muse of musical inspiration strikes, and angels blowing golden trumpets lead us astray from our Earthly sleep, then that song may be considered a prime candidate for production by The Human Experimente.” -remarks Fayman

The styles of the songs that will be included within the first compilation from The Human Experimente (slated for early 2010) will range from intensely dramatic industrial rock, to beautifully melodic– and almost operatic– themes. The executive producer/composer/creator behind The Human Experimente is Emmy Award winning musician/composer Jeffrey Fayman. Fayman primarily works in the motion picture industry with Immediate Music, composing cinematic trailer music for the advertising campaigns that promote many of Hollywood’s biggest blockbuster feature films and highly rated television programs, TV movies and specials.

The major contributing artists involved with The Human Experimente include Robert Fripp (“King Crimson,”) John Wetton (“ASIA”/”King Crimson,”) Maynard Keenan (“Tool,” “Perfect Circle,” “Puscifer,”) Adrian Belew (“King Crimson,”) U-G-O (Rap artist “U-G-O” with Sean Kingston,) Anneke Van Giersbergen (“The Gathering,”) and Dann Pursey (“Globus” and “Vantan.”) Various additional artists will be joining the collective within the near future."


If you yourself owned a Raptor's egg... please take a second and enjoy the serenade.



The Predators Milk: Out

Nadia Pero Exposure: Gimme

Nadia Pero..s Live CD "Live in Logan" is here!
Nadia Pero's last show @ Why Sound was recorded and the tracks have been mixed down and are now available! Right now the only thing we have is exposure so let us know what you think of the demo.

Listen and download directly head to Http://www.nadiapero.com/liveinlogan.html

As always, demos are free.
For a preburned Demo or live shows on DVD please contact Jeff@Nadiapero.com.

If you already have a Nadia Pero Demo!
Please PLEASE! leave your mark so we know who's out there. Comment on the site, (www.nadiapero.com) or join up with our facebook or myspace pages... or if you would like to be on a mailing list drop a line saying so to Jeff@nadiapero.com

Nadia Pero´s Final Two Shows!

Be sure to check in again in a week for new Nadia Pero Videos and news about a new demo.


























Want to know about upcoming Nadia Pero news? Sign up for our e-mail newsletter. To subscribe send a message to Jeff@nadiapero.com with the topic, Nadia Pero subscribe.

peace

Videos of Nadia Pero Live!!

Nadia Pero Live @ Why Sound

Nadia Pero Live on June 5th @ The Downtown Hookah Lounge SLC

Nadia Pero Music News

Nadia Pero Music News is a news group oriented around the musical projects of Jacob Bryner, Jacob Johnson, and Jeffrey Fullmer who collectively make up the music group "Nadia Pero". Demos can be heard at http://www.myspace.com/nadiapero

We played our first show on Nov 25th 2008 at the Smithfield Theater in Smithfield Ut. If you like rock, funk, and something a little different, please check out our demos on the myspace page. By clicking the title of this post you can view our facebook news group as well.

Nadia Pero News Letter:

Hello everybody. I just finished extracting mp3\'s from the Nov 25th show at Smithfield Theater. You can find them on www.myspace.com/nadiapero. Please join up with the site as we will be swapping out new songs from time to time. It would me an the world to us if you would show our music to anybody you think might dig it, bands and fans alike. Feel free to spread the word about our Nadia Pero news groups (both myspace and facebook) so that for later shows we can notify as many people as possible using them.

Massive thanks to anybody and everybody who showed up at the Nov 25th show. Your support touched all of us and only locked us in harder towards getting more shows set up and finding our fan base.

ANYBODY WHO WANTS A DEMO, DEMOS ARE FREE, just drop us a comment either here, or at NadiaPero@gmail.com, or on above mentioned myspace or on the blog. Anybody who has a demo please copy and distribute in any way you desire. More is betta.

Also... Nadia Pero is looking for a temporary replacement drummer to play shows throughout all of the spring and early summer. Anybody who is interested please drop a line here, or feel free to e-mail Jeff at predatormilk@gmail.com or the band at Nadiapero@gmail.com

I will also be posting band news on our blog at Nadiapero.blogspot.com for all your RSS\'ers out there.

Thanks for your support! Peace

Why Athiests Care about Religion

Temporary Autism

One Pill Makes You Autistic -- And One Pill Changes You Back

Need to finish that work project, and wish you had the mental intensity to do it? Just take a synapse-regulating inhibitor, induce temporary autism, and you'll want to ignore your friends and do nothing but number-crunching for days. Autism-inducers could become as popular as Provigil among the geek set by 2020. Last night, in fact, a group German researchers announced they'd perfected the method for inducing autism. (They can also cure it.)

Over the past year, researchers have demonstrated several times that they can turn mice autistic by messing with brain chemistry -- and then "cure" them using the same techniques. The discoveries could lead to a scenario similar to the one in Vernor Vinge's novel A Deepness in the Sky, where people are given a brain treatment called "focusing" that essentially turns them autistic and makes them obsessive, detail-oriented workers.

It might also lead to recreational autism, where people who want to take a break from having messy emotions about other people decide to unplug and enter a state where human relationships are no more important than inanimate objects.

Read about how scientists can induce autism [PNAS] and how they can cure it [BBC News].

True Knowledge

I like to follow the evolution of the internet, if ever so slowly, into a thinking machine... enjoy

Three

From one extreme...

(Off the coast of Miami)

(Phoenix International Airport)

(Salt Lake City)

To the other...

I have been back for three weeks roughly. Thank you Tucker, for the beautiful transition picture. Where would I start I wondered? How would I begin my life anew. Little did I know my life in Utah wasn't just here, but here and waiting. So many little projects, little things to do that I had constructed to fill my time. So much junk that I am now throwing away... I want less and less of this space filling junk. I feel very often like the trip never happened, and that I now have fleeting visions of far off lands. As my memory sets in, what my senses once felt decays. Its as tho I ascended into a dream for a few months, and now I am awake and desperately seeking life construction.

I realize that all I have is the here and now, and I desire to do many things. To find some way of mobilizing little cache valley into constructive thought about all things Cache valley. Is it possible, I wonder, for this community to destroy? To destroy social barriers like they do liquor licenses? Maybe I shall have to find out...

This is it...

I have no moving last words, but I will try and make up for that by posting pictures once I am back. Tucker and I are all packed up ,and our room again has taken on the clean hollow ambience of a new apartment, or in our case, a friendly bleached cell. We will be spending tonight saying all of our goodbyes and trying to find some sort of impossible closure for the life changing experiances we all just shared. Its very hard... and strange, to think that I will never see all these people in the same place again, after we have all become such good friends. Even our little groups of 5 or more friends might never again get to travel together.... here comes the next big step... and once I get home, their will be no way to come close to explaining most anything that has happened to me.

Jake, if you out there, Ill see ya soon man.

Kevin Doyles Blog

This... Is Kevin Doyle (not high fidelilty).

One of the best aspects of my voyage has been the fact that it is not, "my voyage." When we have left the port and my travels are done... my experiance continues on as I hear the stories and experiances of around 800 faculty and students told with only slight relish. Here is the blog of my step father, Drama professor on the ship, somebody very dear to me, and a personal role model: http://kevintraveler.blogspot.com or just click on the title "Kevin Doyles Blog" at the top.

"The Blue Mosque" among other things.

These two pictures are from the back of the MV Explorer as we re-fuled at gibralter. That island is of course, the rock of gibralter. Where something liek 22 unique types of monkeys can be found, some to be found nowhere else on earth. "The more you know."

I am slowly descoving how much I love games... and how bad of a looser I am. This is my new favorite. "Weiqi" as its called in China, or more commonly "Go". I have been playing this habitually on the ship since Egypt, and will continue to do so for many years.

Laundry day on the ship. They charge 5$ per bag, so Tucker and I take it personally to get every pice of clothing we own... into one bag a piece. Anything is possible.

and these... are the white streets of Dubrovnik

Back to Istanbul...


As a part of the “Istanbul City Orientation” program on the first day in Istanbul, our group also toured the Sultan Ahmed Mosque or the Blue Mosque of Istanbul. I followed the now familiar actions of taking off my shoes and bagging them up and then padding my feet on the gigantic carpets inside the mosque. Although we had to stand behind a rail in the back I viewed many people laying out flat and going through various Muslim prayers, practicing “Salah”. Above them hung hundreds of small electric lights inside of glasses, the cords from which strung all the way to the dome supports. Artistic Islamic script encircled many of the doorways and arches, and even more lights formed circular metal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. I remember thinking that even in Asia I had never stepped into a place that felt more foreign to me than this one.
For a brief history, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque was completed in 1616 after being commissioned by Ahmed I. It is named the blue mosque because of the blue tile that adorns it, and the mosque itself was designed by Sedefhar Mehmet Aga a student of the famed Sinan architect. It was modeled after and inspired by Hagia Sophia and sits across from it. This was Ahmed I’s first mosque, built to praise god, and work on it would not stop completely until after his death and into the reign of the next Sultan.
The religion of Islam believes in one god and reads from the holy text called the Qur’an which god revealed to the profit Mohammad. Christianity and Judaism are believed to be offshoots of Islam and to have altered in meaning through time to become different in meaning from Islam.
The practice of Islam relies on five main pillars. The first of these five pillars is called the “Shahadah” and contains the “Tawhid” “which declares that there is no god but God, and that Muhammad is God's messenger”. The “Shahadah” could be seen as the mantra of Islam and exists in prayer form. It is the first thing which must be done to become a person of Muslim faith. The second pillar is called “Salah”. “Salah” is done five times a day and consists of ritual prayer which is supposed to reconnect your mind with god. My group had to wait outside of the Blue Mosque while the call to prayer, or adhan, was underway. The broadcasting of Qur’an versus all around Istanbul was testament to the strictness and wide spread acceptance of Islam in Turkey. The third pillar is the giving of alms and is called “Zakat”. “Zakat” is like unto the paying of tithing in Christianity. Forth is “Sawm” “or fasting during the month of Ramadan”. During this month eating is prohibited from day light to day break and is intended, like the “Salah”, to bring a person closer to god. I remember seeing tax drivers in India during Ramadan, pull over after the sun had gone down to eat a super they had tucked away in their trunk. The fifth, and most famous, pillar is the Hajj. This pillar is a pilgrimage. At some point in a Muslims life he or she desires to pilgrimage to Mecca and there perform ritual acts.
Sometimes a sixth pillar is added to the practice of Islam which is that of Jihad, meaning struggle. This sixth pillar gets allot of press, and as I have found out carries very little of the connotations given to it by westerners. Jihad can mean a struggle against “a visible enemy, the devil, and aspects of one's own self” or used alone can have military connotations. Most of the time Jihad is used as a metaphor meant to struggle against your own self improvement.
Notably missing among these pillars of faith is the mention of conversion. Even the sixth pillar of struggle does not mention conversion. While in Istanbul I asked a few people, namely the owner of a hookah bar I frequented, what it took to become one of Muslim faith. He told me that one must approach a person of Islamic faith and himself desire to become Muslim, and that it is a rare occurrence and somewhat difficult to do. The first thing somebody must do to become Muslim is complete the “Tawhid” and show dedication with the “Salah”. This response was new and refreshing to me, myself coming from the mass missionary exporting state of Utah
Islam is thought to be the original faith, that of Jesus as well. After the beginning of Islam with Mohamed the faith spread throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa. Most notable in Islamic empire is the Ottoman Empire which at one time dominated areas of the Mediterranean Sea and separated Europe from the Indian Ocean.
The Blue Mosque had a profound effect on me… Until this trip I knew almost nothing of Islam aside from the word Jihad and the notion of a call to prayer. I can blame growing up in Utah; I can underscore a gigantic absence of Islam from my entire high school experience. Standing inside Istanbul’s Blue Mosque and soaking in “a whole new world” around me I couldn’t help but wonder why I knew nothing about the world of Islam, Why I had never taken a private interest in finding out about it. I realized that much of the world was never discussed in my high school setting. The Blue Mosque inspired me, as the teacher I hope someday to be, to find some way to actually reform US education. It is wrong to let something as beautiful as the Blue Mosque or Hagia Sophia go unmentioned in a high school setting let alone the amazing civilizations and theologies which created them. No wonder the American public allowed Bush to attack Iraq with only mild street protest, I’m not sure a good number of Americans know anything at all about Islam, let alone its differences and similtarities from Christianity. The Blue Mosque reminded me, that as a citizen inside of the monster empire the United States has become, I need and should violently demand a worldly education. The Blue Mosque was a reminder of all the beauty in the world, and the importance of things bigger than myself.







Here are some more random pictures from around the world

Dubrovnik and Sevilla

These three pictures were taken from the walls of Dubrovnk. Dubrovnik is one the ast remaining historically walled cities in the world. Its white streets and entierly tourist based economy were not the most intriguing thigns I have seen thus far, but that view form the top of the walls made up for it and more.

Back in Europe again. I took these pictures while visiting the Cathedral of Sevilla, in of course Sevialla where I walked the very streets that bugs bunny walked in the 60's and 70's.

Hagia Sophia

The last place I visited on my Istanbul city orientation trip was Hagia Sophia. This cathedral is beautiful remnant of Istanbul's strong cultural history as well as symbol of the times for modern Turkish politics. The former basilica and mosque is now a museum, and fittingly so as Hagia Sophia displays Istanbul's rich history from 537 C.E. to present. It was Atatürk who decided the mosque should be a museum, despite the rules of Islam stating that no mosque may be converted from being a mosque. This decision of Ataturk's demonstrates one of his many contributions to Turkish politics, the separation of church and state. The mosque was officially declared a museum in 1935.
The first thing which caught my eye, once inside of Hagia Sophia, was a yellowed looking painting high above the entrance's gigantic two story doors. The painting displayed Mary and the Christ under a cross. The guide informed me that this painting was found underneath plaster on the ceiling when the mosque was turned into a museum. In 1453, with the arrival of the Ottoman empire in Constantinople, many of the church murals were plastered over in the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque by the order of Mehmed II. It is against Muslim beliefs to have pictures of people painted on mosque walls or displayed within, and the Ottomans had no use for a Christian murals anyhow. Now all over the ceiling, uncovered paintings from the pre-Ottoman era can be found.
The second thing I noticed, once further inside, was Hagia Sophias famous gigantic dome. It was commissioned by emperor Justinian the first, and is an amazing architectural achievement for its time. Hagia Sophia is actually the third “temple” to occupy the land it sits upon, and this third rendition was designed by Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles. When I was there a scaffolding was set up for restoration. The crisscrossing bars seemed to fade to the eye before the top could be seen as the reached to the top of the dome, they emphasized just how enormous the dome really is.

Many restorations have been carried out since the time of the Ottomans conversion of Hagia Sophia. One of the most noteworthy was ordered by the sultan Abdulmacid and crafted by the architects Gaspare and Giuseppe Fossati. The restoration included a complete redesigning of the mosques interior decorations, structural repair and fortification, and the addition of some outer buildings. On July thirteenth 1849 the mosque was again opened to the public.
Mustafa Kemal later named “Atatürk” meaning “father of the Turks” was the person responsible for Hagia Sophias conversion into a museum. His face is everywhere in Turkey and on many more than one occasion I witnessed fierce pride after the mention of his name. Ataturk was the first president of Turkey and he himself fought the revolution movement against the allied occupation of Turkey following WWI after which the Republic of Turkey was founded. He brought many “radical reforms” to the republic and Hagia Sophia's transformation to a museum (against Muslim law) is a powerful example of the weight carried by Ataturk. He is thought to be largely responsible for most of Turkey’s progress in the nineteen hundreds and is remembered fondly with gigantic pictures in almost every building. The noble looking figure is always looking off into the future, with a chiseled and thoughtful look; the man had strong eyebrows as well.
We were lucky enough to be in Istanbul on the day which Ataturks death is remembered, and I sat in a hookah bar as a televised countdown to midnight ensued. Our waiter noticed that we were watching the television and imitated a tear falling from his eye and looked thoughtful. After this, he went to the back of the room, with two minutes left in the countdown, and replaced the modern music with some traditional Turkish music. After we asked many questions about the music he had put on, he brought us a copy of the CD as a gift, he was very grateful for our interest in the country of Turkey and our observance of the importance of Ataturk to the Turks.
In Greek Hagia Sophia means “Holy Wisdom”. Over the years, the various cults of wisdom provided within the domes of Hagia Sophia have changed. Even today, with its conversion into a museum, the massage of wisdom emanating from Hagia Sophia is changing. After the historical shift to Christianity and then the Ottoman shift to Muslim, now Hagia Sophia broadcasts a message of tolerance and historical recognition to all those hundreds of thousands who walk through it every year. It represents an Istanbul aware of its conglomerate history and proud of this as well. Hagia Sophia has always been one of the most astounding architectural accomplishments, and now its ideological accomplishments will transcend both Christianity and Islam alike.

Cairo

It is 12:50 A.M. here in Cairo, I awoke yesterday at 4:00 A.M. I will leave an hour from now at 2:00 A.M. to catch a flight to Luxor. I look around me and I see a strange man talking into a hand held computer microphone, laughing maniacally at times, and typing furiously with two fingers at others. Every once and a while he gets up to help somebody fix a computer, and to bum cigarettes from the customers. I am in the second floor of a three story shopping mall, all of which is abandoned, dark, and decaying except for this internet cafe. Outside the door is a dusty window in a dark corner, the space behind which is stacked with old manicans and cobwebs, a site truly fitting so near after Halloween. Strange stains cover most of the floor, and in the moonlight cast above the stairwell can be seen the decorative spirals and invading cobwebs of an iron rail a flight above. On the ground floor, sitting half hidden beneath the shadows of broken escalators, a guard sleeps quietly, one hand resting on his automatic rifle.
No longer do I pretend to know who I am, or what it is that I care about. My self has spiraled outward and I hope never to come back. I have seen the pyramids for the first time as they were intended to be seen. As a ray of light spreading itself from a single point above, onto the desert below, as a path into the sky. I know a real life awaits me somewhere, but apart from spells of panic, I know that thing which I once called myself, no longer to exist. I know from which single point I have come, and in my wake I leave only what decisions I made after whatever moments possesed me. Ahead of me, growing always wider is my path into the ground.

There will always be, more India

In some ports my brother and I signed up for pre-planned trips. Our first trip in Chennai was a three day Art of Living course hosted by an artisan heritage village. Artisans come in rotation form all around India, to display their crafts in this village. The first person I met was a rock carver from Pakistan. He immediately told me how he would be down in this village for ten days with his friend, and they had come this far in hopes of making some sales. His table was packed full of little green carvings of Ganish in every shape and form. He sat me down and showed me the six little iron scrapers from his extremely modest tool kit. Each crafts person whom I talked with showed me the same basic tools, yet their crafts were all very different. The village hosted traditional palm leaf engravings, “green rock” carvings, glass blowing, Henna artwork, mat weaving, painting miniatures, and a traditional herb store.
Upon approaching each booth the usual high pressure sales situation I had grown accustomed to was replaced with a polite and interesting walk through on how each particular craft was created. One man specialized in palm leaf engravings. A series of palm leaves were strung together to make a sort of folding mat on which was engraved elaborate designs and circles with pictures in the middle depicting traditional stories. These engravings were made using the same tools I had seen earlier, only now for engraving. Each of theses circles folded over so that the mat could display either the traditional gods of India, a traditional story, or of course various pictures of the Kama Sutra. The mans best work, which also had the Kama Sutra option, was hung up to the side of the booth and he informed us that it had taken him nine months to finish. It was amazingly elaborate, each strip of palm leaf connected perfectly with the next, the craftsmanship was superb. It was strange to observe how each of these traditional works of art and depictions of sacred could so quickly, and yet secretly, be transformed into Kama Sutra pictures. My first reaction was that the Kama Sutra presence was a tourist hook, and nothing more. But after spending some more time in the village, and in Chennai, I noticed, by talking to various people, that in fact India does have a very sexually charged subculture beneath its conservative surface... just not when many other people are around.
Each persons craft was very specific, and the craftsman was very reluctant to do anything of which he was not precisely trained. There was a glass blower who specialized in making little boats with figures on them, swizzle sticks, and pendants with an air bubble. I ask if he knew how to make beads. He looked at me very uncomfortably and said he was not trained as a beads craftsman, but he could show me how to make an air bubble glass pendant. At this time a girl walked up and asked if he could make a dolphin. He quickly fired up his torch and in about three minutes had a dolphin swizzle stick ready to go. He looked up at the mystified girl, handed her the dolphin, and without missing a beat asked “how many?”
We were able to speak with a woman from India who travels the world doing various charities; she was able to give us some insight into the market. She told us how there were many orphanages, and that when a child was old enough to leave; they had three options open to them. First was getting married and moving out with their spouse, second being college if the child had found the means, and third being a workshop which would teach them a specific craft, such as stone cutting or engraving. This artisan / crafts person group is composed largely of males, yet some females engrave and weave mats. Every craft at this village was an example of a craft that would be taught in this situation; although it was unclear weather these particular craftsmen originated this way. The main source of income for these small crafts people were of course tourism, although some of the more conventional crafts, such as the weave mats, were used by the locals. She also brought up the good point that, no Indian house would be complete without many little stone statues of Ganish or Shiva.
On the way to this village our group had stopped at a couple stone temples. Each time we got off the bus we were swarmed with craftsmen of this exact type, selling anything and everything with the Kama Sutra engraved on it somewhere. Many stone pendants, little bamboo drums, and small reproduced paintings were insisted upon us. They would ask to trade any article of clothing our bodies, from shoes to our watches. This reoccurring situation, later combined with more of an understanding of the purpose and market (tourism) of this artisan class, is a bittersweet image. On the one hand these people were trying very hard to produce something that I really wanted, and in exchange wanted only my dollar store watch. On the other hand, these craftsmen were part of a system which was trying its hardest to lift more Indians from poverty. Needless to say we all bought endless little trinkets.
The last couple countries, Thailand, Vietnam, and China all had complicated tourist infrastructures set up to take advantage of the gigantic market, such as clubs, vacation packages, sight seeing packages, etc... India on the other hand had the basic institutions, but beyond transportation and a translator, these artisans were the only tourist money extracting element I found. Since declaring independence, India simply has not had the time, or lack of more pressing matters, to care about developing a tourist infrastructure, outside of the Taj and a few other exceptions. For Vietnam, Thailand, and China the tourist capital input has become a very important part of their economy. The result of India's lack of tourist infrastructure is that tourist cash flow goes directly to the impoverished artisans, and sadly enough to anyone in a position to exploit those craftsmen. Many, many people are in such a position. The carpet making store which our Auto-Rickshaw driver insisted we go in was of the same nature as these basic arts and crafts, only of higher quality. He sat us down and explained to us the detail with which each carpet was made, and that each had a very specific and unique cultural reliance. Needless to say, we bought on of those as well, and on the way back, our driver stopped to photocopy our receipt, because he had taken us specifically to that store, knowing he would get his own share.

Some More Pictures

This stretch from India to Egypt is one of our longer times at sea. Its also one of the first times Ive had to do any sort of reflection whatsoever about he whirlwind of now things ive seen in the past months. I still am lacking words... so perhaps some pictures will surfice.

Getting ready for India (the blue pill is for malaria)
India
India
The View from my cabin
Spreading the lock love.

Ever Since Hawaii

Chennai India

Withing fifty feet of the ship, my shoes are black. Men in brown wool suits with orange and black automatic rifles hanging across their backs stair me down until I smile for lack of anything better to do, and then they grin back through tired eyes and inspect my landing card. From here I have been strictly instructed to walk between the warehouses, left to the gate, and then RIGHT! Not left... earlier in the week their had been a demonstration to the right, and the guards at that gate insisted that everybody pay a re-entry fee, which was by no means “official”. Outside the coal dust covered gates of port seven, a line of yellow “auto rickshaws” await. The drivers approach me, each dripping his own unique brand of insanity, “Sir, I take you down town, come, come with me now sir” “Brotha, come with me, I'll show you to a nice pipe” “Jonny, come with Jonny, I know where you want to go, no problem”. I kept expecting one to insist on taking me downtown to see a “ping pong show” or meet with “a happy lady”, but I had to remember that I wasn't in Bangkok anymore.
This is an average day for the rickshaw drivers. In fact, the American diplomat whom spoke to us while our ship was being cleared by customs, told us how as early as seven that morning the drivers were waiting for students to begin filing off the ship. When driving by them she had yelled out the window “Don't worry! They are coming, I promise!” to which she received a resounding cheer. Earlier that week a navy cruiser had been in port, and the Rickshaw drivers were able to make a nice profit, I later found out, that the average day for a rickshaw driver includes zooming in and out of buses and motorcycles on roads where the painted lanes could hardly be thought of as even suggestions. I lost count of all the motorcycles we cut off after three blocks, I did however keep track of all the buses that we were almost underneath until five blocks from the port, after that I was then occupied for the rest of the trip with talking the driver out of making a side stop at his friends shops. In Vietnam and Thailand, that last thing we wanted to do was be taken down a side alley for often the worst of things await tourists there, and the same in India could also be true.
Our driver had perhaps three teeth, a maniacal laugh, and the most awesome bed head I have ever seen. After he was kind enough to wait while we ate lunch, we accepted his request to take us to his friends shop on the way back to the ship. He was very grateful and informed us that if we were to buy anything, the shop would give him a percentage, and his four children needed some clothes. He didn't mention until we were stuck in a time-share style high pressure sales situation, that the store only sold 400$ antique swords and very intricate hand made rugs. But we knew just the people for a gift of these sorts, and all things worked out quite nicely.
While flying among green buses with people hanging two feet out of every opening, and darting in between 1950's style embassy cars (complete with hood flags), the truth of something an Indian woman had said to me two nights before proved evident “Whatever is true about india, the opposite is also true”. And indeed it was, I saw families tucking babies into burlap bags behind the dumpsters of five star restaurants with very trim and healthy parking attendants busily parking black Escalades. It was fairly common for us to be followed by three people at once. One asking for money with a solitary hand stretched out and a horrible look in their eyes, another trying to sell me sandalwood beads or trade a little stone statue for my watch, and yet another pawing at my hair with an amazed look on her face.

Life with the Semester at Sea program is absolutely insane. It contains all of the usual college life stresses interspaced with week long forays into unknown lands of unique beauty and profoundness... coming back to college life, and the urgency of college work, compacted onto a ship after these is adventures is to say the least deviding. When the rare chance comes along, and I have time to consider my existance... I am bombareded an overwhelming array of amazements and astonishing truths combined with hundreds of new faces and details about the world... I truly will, never be the same.

Blow is a little clip of me and tucker up in the mountains of Thailands ablsolutly stunning Patong beach on Phuket island.