there’s a coupla things i wanted to discuss, ‘specially since i’m suffering from insomnia. it’s the perfect time to address them.

first off, my decision to hitchhike at least part of my route. obviously there’s the money issue, but it’s more than that. one of the big reasons that i set out on doing this whole thing was because i really am fascinated with the country and want to see it, want to experience it, meeting people, hearing their stories, seeing strange sights… and hey, what better way than hitchhiking? i’m not going to hitchhike the whole thing because i’m depending on a lot of kindly people to house me and wanta keep to some sort of schedule for them, but when it’s hostels or national parks or bus stations that i’m sleeping in, why not hitchhike?

sometimes i feel like this country is divided into a bunch of smaller countries. in some ways that was the entire point in the federal system. but (and this sounds cheesy as hell) we are all ostensibly tied together, one people. as such, i want to experience that in a really fundamental way.

that and i figure i’ll get better food by hitchhiking than by traveling by bus.

“i know you’re wise beyond your years, but do you ever get the fear / that your perfect verse’s just a lie, you tell yourself to get by.” – postal service –clark gable

secondly, more grandiosely, whatever that means, i wanted to discuss why i write this. primarily, (and yes, i know i’m doing lots of mini-lists tonight) it’s an exploration, a process through which i get down thoughts and allow myself to explore them in a format that requires at least some modicum of analysis. on another level, it’s a practice of writing, of putting together sentences, even if they aren’t poetry or academic work. it’s a practice that keeps my mind sharp and my writing skills eloquent (or so i’d like to think). and of course, on some level, like all writing, it’s masturbatory. the process of petty immortalisation, especially in this paradoxically ephemeral and eternal medium. and hell, it is fundamentally pretentious to feel that your writing has a value that others can recognize, that others would wish to engage with, that you have some part of the truth in you, that your overuse of the word ‘that’ is a stylistic quirk rather than the failings of an insufficiently erudite mind.

in the end though… what matters is that this gives me some satisfaction to do. it allows me to examine parts of myself that too often lie unexamined. and until the moment i stop gaining utility from the blog i’ll keep writing and hope that you’ll keep reading.

in keeping with that… i just wanted to tell all of you to stay tuned to this page for updates on my odd-yssey. i’m going to be posting a rough schedule of where i’ll be and when. also, i’m going to try to update the blog everyday or whenever i get internet access in order to a) keep you all assured that i am happily alive and b) so that i can have a thorough journal of my experiences.

but once again i am putting the call out, if i am goin to be anywhere near your neck of the woods, throw me an email or sommat and i will meet up with you. if you have a couch or a spare room or know someone who does or know a nearby hostel, get at me. more than that, i just want to see you, see new faces in new places and experience the diversity that a change in geography can bring.

life is the momentary blip of light in the dark expanse of eternity.