So many choices, how is one chosen? On my back looking up at glowing keypad, screen, 11:31 pm. Past screen is moonless sky--milky way, stars, planets. Temperature pleasant, some wind gusts. Squeaks and rustles of plants. Ants my only fear.
I'll answer Alan's comment--the easier choice of the many things to ramble about. But much of recent focus has been on sexuality and attraction. My friend who was out here--well, I felt desire, she, no. Its been a long-running theme. Hope springs ever anew. And it's not really hope. But if opportunity, aspects of being wish it not lost.
And the city is an anti-aphrodesiac. And I remembered another time, another girl, another desert, and she was not American, and the desire was not mine, and communicating sexually seemed such a part of who she was. 10 years younger, and here the other way.
And the buddhist joy and restriction--
and the contempation of the organ--the missing unknown testes-penis monologue, the reflex to not display erection, my focus-switch to shadows and sparkles and perhaps then to breathing to make that possible.
but we're in the forest now, where men wear kilts and others scold them and the women in skirts for lack of underwear when coming into town.
how was it when codpieces were worn? Were they really? Was it progress to have lost it? The male short skirt. But hikers wouldn't wear what confines.
In other news, I walked the same Mt Laguna -> Scissors Crossing walk I did last time. I could take the bus in from here, in to SD, or could try hitching to Temecula, 395 to get to Sequoia NF, where it was chosen that the forest-dwelling adventure would continue.
The walk to this point was a bit crazy. 30+ miles this day, and no one walks this section this time of year--I will be the first to put an entry in the new register at the cache of water which now is thoroughly flavored with the taste of the plastic jugs from sitting out here for months now in the rough closet. But I drink it and add it to my dried potatoes and milk--this water let me put off my hitchiking adventure a bit longer.
[The article about Billy Goat/ Geoff (see 'pct' de.icio links): "I've walked through many places called unattractive. It's the walking that's important" has been helpful. Walking is a sort of easy / simple person's meditation.]
My dried, unsalted fish and goat has worked well, so far, by the way. The mackerel especially--very tasty, I ate it first. The goat, more gristly, I go through more slowly. Both feel nourishing, and I've been recovering well from my long walking carrying a pack probably overfull with food. And I'm not dead of botulism yet.
At the same time I was drying that, I got some of the ripe bananas, peeled them, stuck my finger in their bottoms, splitting them in three, like the peel. Don taught this at the Green Anarchy gathering. His vision was of city residents dumpstering old bananas, climbing to the roofs of the stores, laying out plastic sheets, peeling, splitting, laying, returning to collect them when well shriveled. Mine, I dried in the oven, avoiding flies and the black dusting from the SoCal air. In his remote spot in Idaho, Don lets the flies do what they want, he dries everything imaginable on black cafeteria trays, and I doubt he gets the black dust.
At any rate, the bananas I dried in the oven on about the 'keep warm' setting were too good for me. I ate them all before I left. Another ripe banana trick is to freeze them. Don has no refrigeration, so he dries. I don't think he cans.
Out here I've also been eating fava beans, seaweed, mushrooms, peppers, all carried in the dry state--combined with various fresh vegetables, including a beet from the garden. I also had three pounds of parmesan/romano when I started. Fat: cheese; protein: dried milk, meat; carb: potatoes; alkaline to counteract the acid-forming fat?, protein, or so I've heard from _The Garden of Eating_, and think I feel: the dried and fresh vegetables. Should be more wild greens in the sierras.
So, Alan's questions!
> I am with you mentally but I just dont have the skills to rewild...
I'm not exactly doing rewilding as demonstrated by ancestralways, wildroots. I don't think of it as rewilding, but as doing whatever seems helpful to get myself out here-- To stay somewhat sane, to find/emulate people I can somewhat understand and appreciate. . . To make 'out here' not wild, but home. BTW, I've been meaning to add Tom Elpel's _Participating in Nature_ as a main link--a beautiful book and a valuable contrast to the Jardines / compulsive hikers / fancy-gear ultralighters.
If there is an ideal (not just desperation, inability to deal) in what I'm doing, it is this: that people can live beautifully (I can hope) without attempting to own real estate, that 'ultralight' extends what I've learned by not using cars: as cars enable accumulation of stuff which entraps and distracts, so do bikes and having a place to keep stuff you get delivered to you. If I only have what I can easily carry--life will be more worth living for me.
> also, there is the factor of income. How do you pay for all the "stuff" in your life... Rent? Transport? Gear? Computer gadgets for the bush? Food?
I haven't paid rent with money since April 2003. I made less than $3000 last year, and probably will make less than $2000 this year. I spend little and rarely travel far even for important family events (weddings, reunions). I have about $2300 to last me until next summer, I hope. Usually if savings get too close to $2000, I start to fret about how to make more. No insurance. And I do have a family farm in TN I could live on maybe. Quinn's 'living in the hands of the gods' idea was helpful. As was the knowledge that I was killing myself slowly by the way I was living in SD: calorie poisoning, lack of community I valued, danger from cars, air, lack of beautiful places to explore by walking.
I have been doing challenge course / experiential education work for money. Work is per program, and sometimes pays as much as $275 / day. Some make $400 / day for corporate programs, but I never have.
In the future I may look to try something different--maybe the merchant marine? I want to stay loose and unstuck, it was so hard to get unstuck this time. Maybe I could deal with a month of helping ship plastic toys or oil and dealing with whatever polluted, smoking environment is on those ships. And the shifts. But if I can thrive on $2000/yr, and not be concerned about old age or sickness, and not pay rent while I earn $$, there may be better options.
> We eat such crappy food in the US, too much meat, not enough veggies... too much sugar...
The dry dog and cat food in the small Mt Laguna store is far cheaper and appears far more healthy than what is offered to humans (re. sodium, sugar, oils). I imagine someone on the Internet has already written something about using this to resupply / for human food. . . Of course, no packaged food, & forest or ecovillage living would be best.
Oh, it looks like there is no cell reception up in Sequoia NF--Crow was twittering her hike, and I didn't see anything from there. So there may not be much more from me except a brightkite checkin once I make it to Lake Isabella or Walker Pass.
2:11 a.m.
Peace,
Monday, July 28, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
laguna, sequoia, perhaps
Current plan is to go to Mt Laguna on Friday with neighborhood friend, then to Sequoia NF, somehow, and walk mostly on PCT to Yosemite, where I sent a 5 gallon resupply bucket for $17.
After the last post, I leapt up and took care of many things, as if I were to leave today. I was stressing about the resupply bucket--where to send it and pickup fees and so on. And decided to pay to ship it off to get it off my mind.
The previous day, Sunday, I had walked across the highway to Windmill Farms to get food for the bucket: $30. I may not get there in time to pick it up- I wrote: hold until 8/21.
The walk I might do is maybe around 250 miles. It looks like there are places to resupply along the way. Or I could walk out to a road and hitch somewhere if necessary.
Staying here till Friday I will: eat some of the food that would be awkward to take. I've begun to try to dry in the oven some of the meat that was in the freezer that grandma don't want me to leave there: goat I got for free, and 2 of 5 whole jack mackerels. I learn by failing--next time I should do better. Just hope I manage not to poison self. Probably will use dried stuff, if it works, only in pot of cooked stuff. If you want to email me instructions and warnings, feel free. My computer is packed up--no Internet here. Cookbooks were mailed off too.
An issue with most human processed food is added sodium. There was some dried chicken at WF for dogs that was $6/8oz or about that with no added sodium, antibiotics, preservatives, and came in chamomile, glucosamine, and other varieties. Probably better than most packaged human food.
Today I went to personal spa @ Kroc after some morning business: full kata, swim, sit, weights, then cooking a good pot of stuff. Had not taken that kind of time for all that for a while.
Next: work on sewing projects: scarf of extra quilt materials, finish tarp pulls. That's about it.
Peace,
After the last post, I leapt up and took care of many things, as if I were to leave today. I was stressing about the resupply bucket--where to send it and pickup fees and so on. And decided to pay to ship it off to get it off my mind.
The previous day, Sunday, I had walked across the highway to Windmill Farms to get food for the bucket: $30. I may not get there in time to pick it up- I wrote: hold until 8/21.
The walk I might do is maybe around 250 miles. It looks like there are places to resupply along the way. Or I could walk out to a road and hitch somewhere if necessary.
Staying here till Friday I will: eat some of the food that would be awkward to take. I've begun to try to dry in the oven some of the meat that was in the freezer that grandma don't want me to leave there: goat I got for free, and 2 of 5 whole jack mackerels. I learn by failing--next time I should do better. Just hope I manage not to poison self. Probably will use dried stuff, if it works, only in pot of cooked stuff. If you want to email me instructions and warnings, feel free. My computer is packed up--no Internet here. Cookbooks were mailed off too.
An issue with most human processed food is added sodium. There was some dried chicken at WF for dogs that was $6/8oz or about that with no added sodium, antibiotics, preservatives, and came in chamomile, glucosamine, and other varieties. Probably better than most packaged human food.
Today I went to personal spa @ Kroc after some morning business: full kata, swim, sit, weights, then cooking a good pot of stuff. Had not taken that kind of time for all that for a while.
Next: work on sewing projects: scarf of extra quilt materials, finish tarp pulls. That's about it.
Peace,
Monday, July 21, 2008
Re: New Member Intro; Camping Community; Freedom; The Politics of Simple Living
Jayna,
I'm happy to help with this (you'd be helping me?).
For a long time now I've been preparing to go live in the forest--
I'm basically all ready. Nothing's in the way except where to go and what to do.
I've been looking to the uber-hikers of the pacific crest trail for guidance. But never really shared the drive they have to hike 30 miles per day, day after day. Nor to have a goal of walking a particular trail from one end to the other.
I've never been so keen on staying in SD (noise and bright lights affect many otherwise ok camping spots), but there are plenty of places to camp here (and I've camped out perhaps 13 days in the city over the past 5 years alone and with others). There are encampments along the various rivers that are reported on in the paper occasionally.
Well, let me know what your thoughts are. Currently I'm "trapped" by having a free and relatively discomfort-free place to live, but very soon (this evening?) I'll be walking away. If I don't respond to messages on the list, email me directly.
I've considered many places to go-- but get stuck on that. And for some reason there are no Amtrak tickets north until the weekend (at least online).
So, one possibility I've come up with is just to walk for three hours in the morning and three in the evening and go where ever seems best each day.
Giving myself that freedom, I find I feel like heading to Mexico now rather than waiting till the winter.
I just logged on to see if I can find a mexican mobile service to send/receive text messages.
Yet another way to procrastinate. We just need to walk out the door.
You don't even need a sleeping bag or a tent to sleep outside right now--just something the mosquitos can't bite through.
We can start walking and follow that weather south. (If you don't have a passport you perhaps could walk through the gaps in the fence at the beach if they haven't been narrowed yet).
Now a problem with being totally free is that one is disembedded from many cultural and behavioral requirements / ecosystems--.
One can do anything (except what might lead to confinement (any commitment)), so what does one do?
And when one considers any course of action it is very nearly always a well-channeled path or a slight modification of one already traveled. For example, hiking the PCT.
I don't really know what freedom might be.
Slightly more creative perhaps is going to live in Los Padres National Forest. There aren't guidebooks for that. Perhaps even more creative is just walking three hours/day in morning and evening wherever that leads.
Well, as briefly contented and excited as I/my mind was to hear your inquiry and to respond, I know actually interacting in person won't be as simple.
Doing so, in fact, is the beginning of a confining of freedom. We might arrange to meet at a particular place or time. And then have to get ourselves there!
And then do we cooperate? And there will be compromises. Two+ people can't just walk 3 hours each day morning and evening and stay together unless they agree on which way to walk.
Even so, many suggest that in our commitment to each other is a root of our development in life--for example @ Deer Park Monastery:
Jayna, so perhaps encourage me to finally walk out the door. Give me a place and a time, and on the way to ?? Mexico? I'll stop by. If you can't make it--and don't show--no problem. You'll have helped me out the door.
For some background on my attempt to walk out the door and my multitude of means of procrastinating:
http://fo-rest.blogspot.com/
and
http://purl.org/net/cfu/Members/colin/walkingsangha/ (If I ever get established out there, perhaps I'll be inviting others along!)
I could be leaving for Sequoia National Forest but may not because it costs $50 and mechanized travel to get there. And I'm not sure I want the bears and the cold and various regulations to sweat about (Though I doubt I would really need to worry about these things, as long as I'm careful).
So maybe then, Los Padres NF-- but again, mechanized travel.
So I'll walk out the door, and find a spot for the night in a canyon on the way south or on the way to the ferry to Coronado for the night.
Or I could head out through Mission Trails park and make my way to Mt Laguna, where I've been before.
I am happy there are many people working constructively--on permaculture farms and gov't policy--
For those not interested in going out and living in a tent (or tentless), below I've pasted a link to a text of possible interest, _The Politics of Simple Living_.
It should be clear that one reason I'm slowly headed to a sort of wandering monk / hobo existence is that I just don't know how to deal with the millions of options (and have not found any narrowing pleasure in any particular option, except walking, sitting), so I've been lowering and lowering my sights/my aim. Just walk, three hours in the morning, three in the morning (or something like that) let everything else follow. Maybe.
Whatever it is, it can't require too much of me, because so far, I'm not that motivated in any particular way. Or I'd have gone that way already.
I know I'm monastery fodder: should just sit, and otherwise accept orders, and enjoy the peace, commitment, community, discomfort, and challenge that comes with that, but that requires getting to a monastery, following their regulations.
For those who follow my blog, you can see why I have not posted recently. My mind needs no excuse to babble like this and avoid focus and action on walking out the door.
Peace,
Colin
While I'm posting, an Internet friend wanted help publicizing his free text:
--- In SDIshmael at yahoogroups.com, "mychloe24" <mychloe24@...> wrote:
>
> Hello, My name is Jayna and I just joined this group. Ishmael was an
> amazing book as well as My Ishmael. I am less and less tolerant of the
> way in which we are imprisoned every day. I would like to find a place
> where people can live in tents here in San Diego. This would be the
> ideal place to do it. A camping community that helps each other out
> and goes against the grain. If anyone else has any other ideas or
> knows how to make my idea happen please do tell. It is going to take a
> revolution to enact world change and it needs to start with us.
>
Let's do it!! Let's get started! I can still walk three hours in the morning and evening and camp in the same spot, at least for a while.
I'm happy to help with this (you'd be helping me?).
For a long time now I've been preparing to go live in the forest--
I'm basically all ready. Nothing's in the way except where to go and what to do.
I've been looking to the uber-hikers of the pacific crest trail for guidance. But never really shared the drive they have to hike 30 miles per day, day after day. Nor to have a goal of walking a particular trail from one end to the other.
I've never been so keen on staying in SD (noise and bright lights affect many otherwise ok camping spots), but there are plenty of places to camp here (and I've camped out perhaps 13 days in the city over the past 5 years alone and with others). There are encampments along the various rivers that are reported on in the paper occasionally.
Well, let me know what your thoughts are. Currently I'm "trapped" by having a free and relatively discomfort-free place to live, but very soon (this evening?) I'll be walking away. If I don't respond to messages on the list, email me directly.
I've considered many places to go-- but get stuck on that. And for some reason there are no Amtrak tickets north until the weekend (at least online).
So, one possibility I've come up with is just to walk for three hours in the morning and three in the evening and go where ever seems best each day.
Giving myself that freedom, I find I feel like heading to Mexico now rather than waiting till the winter.
I just logged on to see if I can find a mexican mobile service to send/receive text messages.
Yet another way to procrastinate. We just need to walk out the door.
You don't even need a sleeping bag or a tent to sleep outside right now--just something the mosquitos can't bite through.
We can start walking and follow that weather south. (If you don't have a passport you perhaps could walk through the gaps in the fence at the beach if they haven't been narrowed yet).
Now a problem with being totally free is that one is disembedded from many cultural and behavioral requirements / ecosystems--.
One can do anything (except what might lead to confinement (any commitment)), so what does one do?
And when one considers any course of action it is very nearly always a well-channeled path or a slight modification of one already traveled. For example, hiking the PCT.
I don't really know what freedom might be.
Slightly more creative perhaps is going to live in Los Padres National Forest. There aren't guidebooks for that. Perhaps even more creative is just walking three hours/day in morning and evening wherever that leads.
Well, as briefly contented and excited as I/my mind was to hear your inquiry and to respond, I know actually interacting in person won't be as simple.
Doing so, in fact, is the beginning of a confining of freedom. We might arrange to meet at a particular place or time. And then have to get ourselves there!
And then do we cooperate? And there will be compromises. Two+ people can't just walk 3 hours each day morning and evening and stay together unless they agree on which way to walk.
Even so, many suggest that in our commitment to each other is a root of our development in life--for example @ Deer Park Monastery:
We have come to practice together as a community. We do not encourage isolated practices or solo retreats. We are part of a body--the Sangha body, the community. Our practice is that of inter-being. Our joy and our sorrow contribute to the collective joy and sorrow of the community. Our transformation and realization on the path can nourish us all. The community can also be of great support if our heart is open. Our insight and development must be realized in the community. There is no individual, separated happiness.
Jayna, so perhaps encourage me to finally walk out the door. Give me a place and a time, and on the way to ?? Mexico? I'll stop by. If you can't make it--and don't show--no problem. You'll have helped me out the door.
For some background on my attempt to walk out the door and my multitude of means of procrastinating:
http://fo-rest.blogspot.com/
and
http://purl.org/net/cfu/Members/colin/walkingsangha/ (If I ever get established out there, perhaps I'll be inviting others along!)
I could be leaving for Sequoia National Forest but may not because it costs $50 and mechanized travel to get there. And I'm not sure I want the bears and the cold and various regulations to sweat about (Though I doubt I would really need to worry about these things, as long as I'm careful).
So maybe then, Los Padres NF-- but again, mechanized travel.
So I'll walk out the door, and find a spot for the night in a canyon on the way south or on the way to the ferry to Coronado for the night.
Or I could head out through Mission Trails park and make my way to Mt Laguna, where I've been before.
I am happy there are many people working constructively--on permaculture farms and gov't policy--
For those not interested in going out and living in a tent (or tentless), below I've pasted a link to a text of possible interest, _The Politics of Simple Living_.
It should be clear that one reason I'm slowly headed to a sort of wandering monk / hobo existence is that I just don't know how to deal with the millions of options (and have not found any narrowing pleasure in any particular option, except walking, sitting), so I've been lowering and lowering my sights/my aim. Just walk, three hours in the morning, three in the morning (or something like that) let everything else follow. Maybe.
Whatever it is, it can't require too much of me, because so far, I'm not that motivated in any particular way. Or I'd have gone that way already.
I know I'm monastery fodder: should just sit, and otherwise accept orders, and enjoy the peace, commitment, community, discomfort, and challenge that comes with that, but that requires getting to a monastery, following their regulations.
For those who follow my blog, you can see why I have not posted recently. My mind needs no excuse to babble like this and avoid focus and action on walking out the door.
Peace,
Colin
While I'm posting, an Internet friend wanted help publicizing his free text:
_The Politics of Simple Living_
This short book describes political policies that give people the choice of downshifting economically, so they have more time for their families and their own interests. This sort of policy is a key to sustainability, but the environmental movement has ignored the issue of consumption.
You can read the book at <http://www.preservenet.com/simpleliving>.
This short book describes political policies that give people the choice of downshifting economically, so they have more time for their families and their own interests. This sort of policy is a key to sustainability, but the environmental movement has ignored the issue of consumption.
You can read the book at <http://www.preservenet.com/simpleliving>.
--- In SDIshmael at yahoogroups.com, "mychloe24" <mychloe24@...> wrote:
>
> Hello, My name is Jayna and I just joined this group. Ishmael was an
> amazing book as well as My Ishmael. I am less and less tolerant of the
> way in which we are imprisoned every day. I would like to find a place
> where people can live in tents here in San Diego. This would be the
> ideal place to do it. A camping community that helps each other out
> and goes against the grain. If anyone else has any other ideas or
> knows how to make my idea happen please do tell. It is going to take a
> revolution to enact world change and it needs to start with us.
>
Let's do it!! Let's get started! I can still walk three hours in the morning and evening and camp in the same spot, at least for a while.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Hacking Humans01:Unstable Appearance,p01
[I've been avoiding progressing on leaving, though I have a pretty solid deadline of July 11 to be out of here (at the latest), and will put the finishing touches on the quilt today. Sat: wrote blog post and finished _Monkey Wrench Gang_. Sun _Da Vinci Code_. Mon: exercise and _Solaris_ (Lem?). But I can't just keep reading ebooks. I may as well make up some of my own. So here's a scenario I got to figuring out how to set up. Maybe now I can think of a story.]
Continent 2, earthplanet 254 (ep254) was the area used; it was separated by at least 900 miles of ocean from all other lands. The seed stock had this characteristic: all biological features but memory would rotate through the variation found in the tracked sapiens control population (of those born within +/- 15 ep1 days) on earthplanet 16, which has a stable population of about 3 billion.
Technical achievements enabling this setup included: modification of the sapiens genome to enable abilities to (1) communicate with a biosatellite (via a species of relay tree), (2) randomly select one ep16 biological profile per day, and (3) continually metamorphose toward that profile (a modification of the ability to gradually fully regenerate lost body parts). In addition, the ep254 continent 2 ecosystems were seeded (to the extent ability at the time allowed) to make the additional calories required for continual metamorphosis easier to obtain.
The ep16 population had been established for experimental purposes with the ability to record and transmit individual biological data to a biosatellite via relay tree.
Everything about the bodies of ep254 sapiens except for their species-unique genetic abilities and their individual, personal memories would change. Metamorphoses to ep16 profiles were gradual and rarely completely achieved: e.g., finger length changed (and a lost finger could regrow) at about 0.1 cm per hour. Certain characteristics, such as hair, showed effects over time of the continually changing target profiles.
The sapiens were introduced to ep254 continent 2 by artificially inseminating a species of simian designed for the purpose.
So there we are! All that to get humans with memories but without lastingly recognizable physical characteristics.
The rest, I guess, is imaginary psychology and anthro/sociology.
Further details of the metamorphoses: (1) females do not metamorphose from the onset to termination of pregnancy. (2) Alternation of sex occurs in 6-month cycles--every six months the sex of the ep16 population from which an individual's random daily profile is selected switches. In sexually mature individuals it takes about 15 days for a fertile male to become a fertile female or vice versa.
Continent 2, earthplanet 254 (ep254) was the area used; it was separated by at least 900 miles of ocean from all other lands. The seed stock had this characteristic: all biological features but memory would rotate through the variation found in the tracked sapiens control population (of those born within +/- 15 ep1 days) on earthplanet 16, which has a stable population of about 3 billion.
Technical achievements enabling this setup included: modification of the sapiens genome to enable abilities to (1) communicate with a biosatellite (via a species of relay tree), (2) randomly select one ep16 biological profile per day, and (3) continually metamorphose toward that profile (a modification of the ability to gradually fully regenerate lost body parts). In addition, the ep254 continent 2 ecosystems were seeded (to the extent ability at the time allowed) to make the additional calories required for continual metamorphosis easier to obtain.
The ep16 population had been established for experimental purposes with the ability to record and transmit individual biological data to a biosatellite via relay tree.
Everything about the bodies of ep254 sapiens except for their species-unique genetic abilities and their individual, personal memories would change. Metamorphoses to ep16 profiles were gradual and rarely completely achieved: e.g., finger length changed (and a lost finger could regrow) at about 0.1 cm per hour. Certain characteristics, such as hair, showed effects over time of the continually changing target profiles.
The sapiens were introduced to ep254 continent 2 by artificially inseminating a species of simian designed for the purpose.
So there we are! All that to get humans with memories but without lastingly recognizable physical characteristics.
The rest, I guess, is imaginary psychology and anthro/sociology.
Further details of the metamorphoses: (1) females do not metamorphose from the onset to termination of pregnancy. (2) Alternation of sex occurs in 6-month cycles--every six months the sex of the ep16 population from which an individual's random daily profile is selected switches. In sexually mature individuals it takes about 15 days for a fertile male to become a fertile female or vice versa.
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