June 4, 2001
Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada

11:36am. I heard buzzing early this morning. Still in a dream state, too tired to get up, I dismissed it as crickets or some other kind of bug, then went back to sleep.

Before going to bed, I put AA batteries from the digital camera in the recharger. The charger works with normal alkaline batteries, like Durracell and Energizer. They gotta be recharged before half their power is used, otherwise it is hopeless; the machine freaks out with buzzing, until fresher batteries are put in or it is turned off.

The charger came with me paddling down the Sea of Cortez. It was hooked to the solar panel, but I don't remember it working well. I want one that is smaller and water proof, so I can lash it to the deck and recharge while paddling.

I awoke depressed, and I'm still not in a happy mood. The folks are annoyed cuz I'm having fun and not making much money. Mom said I'm wasting my time with this web site, because it is not generating income as I intended. I my mind, I'm still in school; there are still stuff I gotta learn, and teachers paths I gotta cross.

Lots of people make lots of money. This planet doesn't need more money; it needs action heroes-- teachers and artists sharing insightful and inspiring views-- keys to open doors of consciences, enabling wider awareness of where we are and where we are going-- the effects of which will echo infinitely. Being successful isn't about how much you have; it's about what you do... with what you got.

When a stranger criticizes my work, I can brush it off, justifying, "that's just their opinion;" but when family members discourage me, it really gets under my skin. Last week, my older brothers laughed their heads off as they ceremonially burned a mobile I created from natural and man-made objects I picked up from the shore near our cottage. My older sister, who I've spent very little time with, was also telling me how it is, and that really pissed me off. Without friends on the same level, who appreciate my work, I'd feel like a mental case.

So, my batteries are running low on energy and there is annoying buzzing, but I'm a dreamer, and I'm gonna believe in my fantasies until they become reality.

I have found that the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and advise them to do it.
 - Harry Truman

Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.
-John F. Kennedy

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
-Alan Kay

It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!
-Emiliano Zapata

I got this email today:

I'm, carlos, kayakista argentino, i don't spyke inglish.
Bye, congratulation.

http://www.findelmundoexpediciones.net/

Hey Max. I have been reading your journals for the past couple of weeks and have truely been inspired. I lived much the same way when I was your age (I am now staring at 40). My mode of travel then was by thumb. I traveled the west coast and in land as far as Phoenix, where I landed for 12 years after having my wings clipped by the great institution of marriage. I stayed with friends or under picnic tables, where ever I had to. I dug it then and I miss it now.

In reading your June 4, 2001 entry I felt compelled to offer you encouragement. Your site, if it is being read as I have read it, offers something alot of us tend to forget. The only thing chaining us down to a life of routine and drudgery is our mindset and the social concept of propriety. Who says we have to get a job, get married, make kids, teach them to study so they can get a job so they can get married and have kids? This pattern leads to the distruction of everything that makes being HUMAN so cool. We need artists, wanderers, explorers, people to test the boundaries. Without it we loose our identity and become a variation of the great machine our governments want us to be.

So forget about the nay sayers and continue your fantastic experiment. Maybe all this swirling negativity in your life is a sign that it is time to break out of the safe zone and re-enter the fray. Time to return to the edge perhaps?

Take care, keep up the journals, and get back to class!

Dan Stine
Mountain View CA