September 29, 1998
Saint John, New Brunswick, CanadaIt is 10:50pm. At this time, 16 days from now, my father and I will be touching down in LA. Three days later, we will be enjoying relaxing days of snorkeling and paddling in the warm turquoise waters of the Sea of Cortez, in sunny Baja, Mexico. I am currently so far away from that state, both physically and mentally, it is hard for me to believe that it is in fact reality.
I gave five slide-show presentations last week, and I have nine more to do over the next 9 days. My website still needs several days worth of renovations, my laptop needs to be sent away for repair, I don’t have a digital camera yet, and I still have no idea how to use my satellite phone or GPS.
I wanted to drive to Newfoundland to give Stratos(my soon-to-be sat-phone air-time provider), a slide-presentation to help gain their support, but I don’t have time for that now, so tomorrow, I have a meeting over the phone with their director of sales, and I will give him a personal tour of my website as we view it simultaneously.
The next day, I have a meeting with the president of NBTel. He is genuinely interested in my journey, so I’m hoping that he will make it possible for my website to reside on NBTel’s server at no charge. At the present time, it resides on a server in California, and it costs me $35 US per month.
My sister, Ivy, just arrived home from Alberta. Her one year old daughter, Shayna, whom I just met for the first time a few minutes ago, and is now sitting on my lap as I type this.
At the age of 13, I thought that most people 18 years of age were mature, and persons 21 years old were full-fledged adults, and anyone in their thirties was kinda old. Now, at the age of 21, I still feel as though I’m 13, but my perception of what is mature and adult-like behavior has changed drastically. Now that I have many friends in their the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, and even 60’s... forty just doesn’t seem old anymore.
I say, "I still feel as though I’m still 13", because I still think, and do the same things as I did then, but now, I just have the freedom to go farther. At times, I get a strange feeling and think, "I can’t believe this laptop is really mine.", "Why does the CEO of a multi-million dollar corporation care what I have to say?!", or "How am I getting away with this? Don’t they know I’m just a punk kid?!" I just think I should feel older than I do. The only explanation I can find, comes from mister John Barrymore, who once stated, "A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams."
My first slide presentation was on my birthday, and I didn’t have time for a party(not that I’m a party-person anyway), so after the show, my mother surprised me with a cake. The audience was invited to share it with me. The icing depicted a scenic image of trees and water, and on water, sat a miniature kayak made of Styrofoam.
My second slide presentation, and first in a series of four at the New Brunswick Museum, had a small audience of about 20 people, but that was fine, because I had a few technical errors, and needed to work out the bugs.
The show consists of two parts. The first is a travelogue, which is one and a half hours long, and is a narrated slide presentation using two projectors which fade in and out on one screen, displaying images of the people whom I interacted with, and the places I visited. And on another large screen, using a third projector, I display maps and show the audience my exact route using a laser pointer.
The second part of the show, is a compilation of songs with slides corresponding to the lyrics. I have programed four slide projectors synced to a cassette tape, so once I press PLAY, the show just runs by itself. The songs I am using are: Over My Head - by Martin Sexton, Wild Flowers - by Tom Petty, All I Want to do is Have Some Fun - by Sheryl Crow, Fly - by Sugar Ray, and The Time of Your Life - by Green Day.
The opening lines of Over My Head are "I’m looking out into the ocean.....this boy in a boat that I am.", and obviously, corresponding with that, I have an image of me looking out into the ocean on one screen, and an image of me in my kayak on the other. The opening lines of Wild Flowers is "You belong among the wild flowers. You belong in a boat out at sea. Sail away.. kill off the hours. ...You belong somewhere you feel free." Once again, the photos I use were obvious. It looks amazing! I just wish I could get more people to see it.
I have gorgeous posters all over town advertising the show, I’ve given away tickets on two radio stations, and there was a good article about my show on the front page of the local section in the newspaper, with a color photo. In total, over the four shows at the museum, I only had a little more then a hundred people show up. Oh well... the people who did come loved it. I got a few $100 donations, and a couple 20’s, so I must be doing something right.
Even though most of the city knows about my trip, a lot of people must think "It’s just a slide-show... how good could it be?!", and don’t bother coming. Hopefully, my presentations to high schools will help get the word out, and I’ll have a good audience for my last public showing in Saint John on the 6th. I also have a television interview that will air tomorrow night, so that should help too.
Next Monday night, I have a slide-presentation at the University of New Brunswick, in Fredericton, and the following Thursday in Moncton, so I have a ton of advertising to do between now and then to get butts in the seats on those nights, so I better quit this journal for now, so I can get some sleep and be able to get working on that tomorrow - along with the other 2 million things I need to do. I know it sounds like I’m bitching, but I think it is important that people know what I go through to make this website happen.
The reason why I’m home doing these slide shows, is because my website is putting me deep into debt. If I didn’t have this web-site, my journey would be much easier, and I’d be far more relaxed. It’s a total pain in the ass, but... people keep sending email telling me that they are lov’n it... so I keep telling myself that those same people will eventually going to give me a donation, and the site will pay for itself in the long run.
As of yet, I have only received 3 donations from the thousands of people who have read my journals thus far. If I quit the web site now, I’d have to say it was still worth it. I’ve met so many people because of it, I can go almost anywhere in the world, and have a place to stay and cool folks to hang with. I’m not really thinking of quitting, but I do sometimes wonder if it is worth continuing. I ask myself, "What is better; living a life full of adventures... and being totally selfish, or... living a life half-full of adventure... and spending the other half sharing those adventures with others?"
Today was an beautiful day, and I had the chance to go rock climbing with a buddy, but instead, I sat in front of my computer all day, prepared images to be placed in my earlier journals which have none. It sucks!!! I know... I know.... I’m bitching... but it’s freaking annoying, and I’m just frustrated!
Man... that sea of Cortez is going to feel some good!!!
