Homeword bound

International heartthrobs brant and bubbrubb are stateward! Two pictures are rubb at 18000ft on Nevado Ishinka and myself at basecamp of imposing 19800ft Nevado Tocllraju in background climbed earlier that day. Rubb and I used up at least one of our 9 lives trying to climb it (I think I have two left). Peru is fantastic though I threw up for 8hours on the busride back to Lima. It is great to be back stateside I can't wait to see friends and family. Cousin olympics would and should be an annual event even though we are going to have to get increasingly more organized about it due to the everchanging demographic of The Clan. I am glad Kilgore and crafty are going on their hike now because it makes it easier to say no. I wish I could come but I need work, time out-of-tent, and Dunkin Donuts. I await your return to Chicago and am looking forward to coming to CBOT to learn as much as I can about Sopris Trading in the short time that I have left. If nothing else I can be the official panoramic mountainscape desktop digital picture provider for the website. Have a good time and I will pass on some words of advice from two southern mississippi missionaries that we met in Peru, try to look on the outdoors through the eyes of Jesus!

Thoughts

I've been having some real random shit pop into my head and I wanted to post some of it into the archives that are the Cuzzin Blog. So read it if you want or don't, I really don't care. Really, I don't.

Time Travel
I had this thought the other day: I think if you somehow managed to travel forward in time for a significant amount of years that when you arrived in the future you wouldn't last more than a week before you died. The reason is this; I think viruses and bacteria and such would have adapted and mutated over the years and you, being the time traveler, would not have had those years to build up a sufficient immunity to such things. So, my conclusion is that time travel, while very interesting, would not be worth the trip.

Life After Death
I was walking down the street the other day(what a cliche opening sentence!) when I crossed paths with a young woman pushing a older woman in a wheel chair as I was pushing my daughter in a stroller. I found it strangely ironic how you begin life by having your elders feed you, bathe you, change your diapers, and push your around in stroller only to finish life by having someone your younger do the same for you. The only difference is a stroller is now a wheel chair, gerber baby food is now an ensure milkshake, and pampers are now depends(what an apt and amusing name for a product).

Now I'm well aware that I'm not the first person to notice the irony here, but it brought me to this thought:
What if the reason we revert to a childlike state near the end of life is because we are preparing for some sort of rebirth. Maybe the reason we lose our memory at the end of our days is because we're not supposed to know that we lived a previous life.

This last thought made me wonder about the people who don't make it to the later stages in life, the ones who die young. Maybe the ones who die young are at the end of their life cycle. I've heard that children with terminal cancer have said they always new they were going to die and that they are normally more at peace with death than people much older.

Anyway I'd like to think on this much more.

New York
We're moving back to Chicago in a month and while I'll have some fond memories of my time here when I leave I won't ever look back. Some things about NYC that I won't miss: all the trash on the sidewalks, the subway, rats, the insane amount of chicken bones everywhere, street hoods, anyone from the city, any New York sports fan especially the Yankees and Jets, New York cops, moving my car 4 times a week for street sweeping ($70 fine), taxi drivers, traffic,
tolls (one is $9), and so on. I hate New York City with a passion. On a side note--the rest of the state north of the city is nothing short of beautiful and surprisingly accessible.

Cuzzin Olympics
The next olympics needs to be planned soon. This summer is still young. I'm thinking possibly Green Lake again or Aspen over Labor day weekend. I have two ideas about the olympics:
1)This should be an annual event
2)The winner of each years olympics should get to pick the location of next years events but must also be in charge of the organization.
3)The cuzzin olympics also needs a website.

Colorado
I leave for Colorado in a couple days and I think its the only thing keeping me together. Rob if you're thinking of joining us, we're camping Sunday night in Buena Vista and leaving Monday morning so get in touch with me before Friday so we can coordinate meeting up.

This deserves a double post

Photoshoppery in honor of Kyle's graduationing

Lex Talionis

I would like to start this blog entry by stating that it is no way as interesting as Rob's entry and I will not be disappointed if you don't read it in its entirety. That being said, here goes.

I spent the Memorial Weekend honoring the senseless deaths of millions by swimming, drinking, jet skiing, and fishing in southern Virginia where the Confederacy is still very much alive.

I also witnessed the wonders of the Potomac River wildlife by seeing a turtle(pictured), bald eagle, water moccasin, osprey, egret, catfish(pictured and caught by me), maryland blue crab, gopher, and an awesome fish called a Croaker which makes noises like a frog.

On an unrelated topic, I am currently taking a colon cleanser to purge my body of unwanted toxins. I have pooped 7 times since I began taking the pills less than 24 hrs ago. Strangely I had not anticipated the effects this would have on my anus.

On an equally unrelated topic, I have become sadly distressed by the news of dog fighting in the NFL. I have come to the conclusion that the only just sentence for a person caught dogfighting is lex talionis(an eye for an eye). Let said persons be put in a ring with one of this dogs and if he makes it out alive than so be it. I also wonder if there has ever in the history of cats been an all out duel between two felines to the death?

Last note: I absolutely love the look Grace has in that picture but have yet to figure out what kind of a look it is. I'm guessing perplexed.

peru1

a rough recap:

the first night in peru was spent hanging out all night in the hotel in lima, drinking duty free scoth and enjoying the company of my travel mates. we talked to some fellow gringo travelers and shared advice, and got gradually more manic as the night went on. we arrived in cuzco at 7am the next morning, completely disoriented, and enentually found a hostel. a private room with three beds was under $20 and as we sat down to talk about the details we were served coca tea. it would not be my last taste of the leaf.

we spent that day and the next planning our machu picchu journey, sipping the local beer, and getting toursit crap shoved in our face. food and souvenirs are cheap and the people are quite friendly, but the combination can be overwhelming.

muchu picchu journey, day 1: a very confused start. the guide said he'd show up at 7:30 and drive us to the bus station for the 8am 3 hour bus to the start. showed up at 7:50, on a bike. the bus was oversold, so peruvians sat in my lap. after we}ve been climbing a seemingly endless muddy mountain road with attempted construciton and closures for 6 hours through the rain, the guide decides its time to get out and get on bikes. the peruvians happily take our seats and stare dumbfounded as we put on some strange helmets, sit on the bikes, and start riding down to the jungle, instantly covered in mud. expectations were quite low at this point. it was about 40 miles downhill and turned out to be one of my favorite strange adventures. we eventually descended below the clouds, the road and mud on my face dried, no more consturction, great views over the amazon basin. my ass paid the price of entry to this paradise. jake's bike exploded and was stranded in the jungle as night fell.
-day 2 and 3 were about 30 miles through the jungle on foot with small packs, picking fruit off trees for snacks, chewing coca leaves and being dominated by mosquitos. we slept in busted hostels in small jungle town and failed to converse with the guide in spanish. we drink heavily one of these nights in a bar that was like an interrogation room from cop movies and are taught a drinking game that involves poking a cigarette into a napkin on a beer and having to drink the ash beer if you do it wrong. we try to explain flippy cup but it deteriorates into drinking a full beer every time you miss the flip. i got zapatos locos (crazy shows) and refused to go to bed when the guide said it was time and ran away while my travel mates convinced the guide to take us to another bar. he said i was a small problem. roosters do not just crow once during sunrise. those fuckers are relentless. we also crossed a river by a self propelled zipline and learned the hungry chicken handshake.
-day 4 we climbed a moutnain in the dark to get to machu picchu for sunrise, then climbed another mountain to be able to look down on it. absolute beauty. i was really expecting to feel a special power to the place, and i´m a little disappointed that i did not. perhaps it was that there were thousands of tourists and those that pray on them. either way, an incredible place.

then we spent the night partying, making it nearly 24 straight hours awake. we spent the next day in a deep chill and planned a trek, which i am supposed to be on right now, but it got delayed because jake got food posioning. he´s alright. we leave tomorrow and it should be amazing, though if things go wrong we may miss our flight to lima. i just said goodbye forever to the three pretty europeans from the MP journey and i´m really wondering why i didnt try to hook up with any of them, or that one peruvian girl. i,ve written kelly two emails and got no response and have now decided to take off the necklace she made me and experience some local culture in every way possible. before you object, i will state that we decided that we were not together this month, and we're both moving a month after i return.

everything else is basically solid. we eat out for every meal for about 5$. the food isnt spicy enough and i miss solitude, fast internet, my bed, hot showers, friends, family, girl... but its damn beautiful here once you get away from the plazas. today we went to the central market and there were piles of chicken heads and shit. it did not help cure jake´s stomach. tomorrow´s two day hike should be incredible. love to you all.

Somebody had to do it.

Will this do?

STAY PUFT MARSHMALLOW MAN

Kyle updates

I finally finished my PhD requirements, and have a deathly cold to show for it. We're now Boston bound in t-minus 3.5 months.

I'm off to a small island in the south of France in a week. I expect a lot of good wine. Can people get wine guts? I'll find out.

Children of Men is a tasty rental. Check out the two elaborate battle scenes that are filmed with only 1 shot.

Sean is 7 months old now and growing fast. Pretty soon he'll be knocking at your door asking for candy and/or a place to crash.

slump buster

I think I've avoided writing something on our little bathroom wall here a few times because after 10 days of silence, I wanted the first words to be good. Well, they won't be. I don't really have anything to say right now. The pressure is increased by the fact that this is the 400th post, and everyone loves nice round numbers.



"Slump buster" is a term that was developed with a visiting friend of mine, as we debated solutions to his unrequited love. He hadn't had sex in many months (both a support and result of said love) and we decided this was a problem. In a rare moment of forwardness, we started dancing with some girls (repetetive movement as a pickup line...strange choice for society...perhaps because of subliminal similarities to sex?) and eventually ended up at their house. We drove home that night, he got a ride home the next morning after successfully busting his slump. During the awkward goodbye, with both characters knowing they would never see each other again, she vomited on herself in the driver's seat and he said "AHHHHH" and ran into my building.



Tom Robbins is now being definitively stated as my favorite author.



This is a funny video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpBGRA6HHtY

Sometimes I say the line at the end when flushing a nasty poop. I am not sure from whence it came.



I encourage everyone to plan a vacation on Lake Powell. My week on there was among the best in my life.

Anyone have any Colorado trips planned? June 22-24 is Panic at Red Rocks. I have also decided that I will climb Mt. Snowmass. I leave in mid august, and if anyone wants to go backpacking betwenn now and then, I love you.

I'm moving to Ann Arbor, MI for 5 years of grad. school. If anyone can think of ways for me to tear down marketing from the inside, let me know. Also interested in the train from ann arbor to chicago.

Fuck comfort. What collection of Rob thoughts would be complete without my young-adult mantra? My new quote for this thought is "do something that scares you every day." Eleanor Roosevelt of all people said that. "Take a risk, make it sweet" was my friend RobD's version. My latest source of this is exercise. The runner's high. I run fast until I collapse, and then I feel good for a while. As the body falls apart, the mind gathers strength. Meditation tells me I should add this: As train of thought, personality, ego are dethroned (often the result of running or, uh, stretching) a deeper part of the mind is awakened, or at least, less drowned out. This silencing of mental chatter is our deepest and most unexplained craving. Meditation, yoga, fasting, severe intoxication, even orgasm could stem from our soul wanting our brain to just shut the fuck up for a while. While on my vacation, I compared the highs of alcohol, marijuana, fear, exhaustion, beauty, mushrooms, extacy, meditation, orgasm, and ideas. They all had something in common, beyond my enjoyment of them.

Grace's First Cubs Game

Now I know I'm old.

YEAH!!!!

Since we have family all over the nation and beyond, we have created two websites dedicated to the Sean Smackers. Here they are:
www.flickr.com/photos/seanmsmith
www.youtube.com/SeanSmacky
Mr. Trout, what is your flickr address?

Sad day in america

One of the greatest American authors of all time, Kurt Vonnegut, has passed away. He was my favorite author and in my opinion the greatest author of our time.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070412/ap_on_re_us/obit_vonnegut

For those of you who have not read his work I highly recommend any or all of the following:

Slaughterhouse-Five
Welcome to the Monkey House
Breakfast of Champions(my favorite)
Cats Cradle
A Man Without a Country(my second favorite)
God Bless You, Doctor Kevorkian
Galapagos

that thing

We all know the feeling. A sense of clarity characterized by creativty and openness. It's basically a good mood with depth. The train of thought is charging. It's the mood when television is a horrible idea. When most great ideas are midwifed. When bees are funny.

I'm willing to (basically) admit this state of mind is chemical, so the question is this: These chemicals, do they run out? If one were to find away to experience this heightened consciousness constantly, would they eventually suffer a depression (like manic depressive people) or able to sustain it (like possibly buddhist monks). Is it a muscle that can be exercised and strengthened, or is it a well that gets tapped?

It's too bad there isnt an expert on pleasureful brain chemicals on this blog or this question could possibly be answered. oh wait...

stupid post

Dear ESPN

Poker is not a sport.

Love,
Joey Joe Joe Jr.

stupid post

Dear ESPN

Poker is not a sport.

Love,
Joey Joe Joe Jr.

Finish this sentence:

I know that christ is lord because_______________________________.

Kyle extends his congrats to Rob and Jake for grad school admissions. That’s Jakoriffic on both accounts. The more doctors the better on this Godforsaken blog.

Kyle believes you are jealous because he was all up in the press, press, press, and because he gets more money back from taxes than he actually paid in the first place.

Kyle believes you are not jealous because he’s spent the last several months writing a 200pg dissertation, raising a baby, selling a house, and selling a baby.

Has Kyle been coughing up florescent orange bile lately? No, he hasn’t.

Adapt

Drunken train of thought from a few days ago:

"Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend."

Bruce Lee said that. It laid in my head somewhat differently then its existence on the quote websites, but the idea has been phrased by him for me for years. Its always been an interesting debate for me. Water becomes what is around it. Water takes the path of least resistance. Water adapts. But it can also crash like a motherfucker.

Should we?

Tonight, for the first time, I tied this metaphor to the fact that we are 70 or 80% water. Interesting. Just a metaphor still, but it IS in our nature to adapt. We can live in a cubicle and we can live in a jungle. Humans are the most adaptive beings on the planet, we can live anywhere, we can do anything.

But we are also the most self-aware being on this planet. We are able to recognize our deepest goals and how we differ from the other 6 billion humans. Actually this differntiation is one of the deepest goals. We need to believe we are different, we are unique, we should not adapt. Fuck that teapot, I'm better than it, why should I become it.

Personally, I find myself quite adaptive lately. Last night, at a party in Gainesville, watching the Gators play some team, I was a UF fan. Before that, I was obsessed with marketing research. Last weekend, I was really into the University of Michigan, research on preference, and alternatively, scholarly pursuits and doing stupid shit while wearing green. It was fun.

Today I've been myself. And while it may have kept me from swimming in my hotel pool right now with the contents of one of the many sun-dresses I have been surrounded with, it's been right.

There are times to adapt, and evolution has lead us to find ease and solice in this tendency. We must, at the very least, chose what to adapt to. We must face this decision head on, and we must do it alone, because that is the only time when we're only adapting to the rarity of being ourselves.

We should be ourselves, but we become old the day we can no longer adapt.