Yesterday night I shot a handgun for the first time. A 9mm semi-automatic made by SIG Arms. I shot at the gun range of course! At On-Target Range in Laguna Niguel, CA. The 2 hour class was $50 (Includes range time and gun rental) + $20 for 100 rounds of ammunition. Excellent instructor - Greg Block (sp?) has been shooting professionaly for 22+ years, 30 years total. For military folk this is certainly routine training. For civilians like me - definitely not an everyday occurrence. Why did I go shooting? Part of it is sheer curiosity, the other part self-defense. Not that I am going to buy a gun or expect to use one, but with all the places I will be traveling too - who knows what situations I will be in? If anything, it would probably be better to just lay low and come across as a non-threat, unarmed. I want to pick up martial arts again someday, but that will take alot more time. After all, the hands can be deadly weapons too. (And to think that the Seattle-Tacoma airport security were worried about my mini-screwdriver set that I tried to bring aboard a recent flight back from Seattle, WA to Orange County, CA) But, at least now I have a passing familiarity with how to handle a gun (Handguns anyway) and how to use one if absolutely forced.

I recall playing guns in elementary school, whether it was a cap gun or with our hands. Or with a paintball gun several years ago. I thought shooting the real thing would be a "bigger deal" than it actually was. It seemed too easy. It almost looks like a toy. Racing through my mind was how easy it is, at least mechanically, to strike someone or yourself down accidentally or intentionally. I think about the increasingly realistic and violent computer games on the market targeted toward kids. I've played my fair share, but they didn't look as real as they do today. Are they more healthy fantasy outlet to let out aggression, lessons in self-defense, seeds of violent behavior for the weak minded, or perhaps the backdrop for learning that weapons are the means to achieve goals, personal goals, or the goals of a nation? As I was driving home I also remembered what I learned in driving school - that vehicles are deadly weapons too. And look how many there are of those too.

Hello again. I have recently finished my first trip report that I just posted to the site. It is for China only (Not sure if I will have time to write up Taiwan). This is my first stab at a country report - I hope you like it. You can find it under Destinations -> Asia -> China. Or click here. There is a downloadable slideshow at the end of the page. You have to scroll down quite a ways to get there. Generally speaking, I would like to tour through more of a country before writing a report. For the larger ones such as China multiple reports are warranted. This China report is kind of a test in a way. Please let me know your thoughts about the writing style -- too negative, too positive, bjective/subjective, balanced, etc...and the pictures too.

I have also posted another article in the writings section - Curse of the Camera.
Quality, thoughtful writing takes time. More time than I seem to have these days. Believe it or not, in many ways I am actually more busy than when I was working. Between my final preparations (Selling stuff, moving stuff to storage, health insurance/travel immunizations, etc..), learning languages, configuring the website, and hanging out with friends -- doesn't leave me as much time as I would like to get all of the ideas out of my head onto paper. I don't like sitting in front of the computer too long either so that limits my ability to get new material on the site. One day at a time I say...I've got plenty in front of me.

I already think my timetable for visiting places is too aggressive. I have a feeling when I am on the road, I will only be transiting (As opposed to spending quality time) through alot more countries than I'd like to because of the desire to spend more time in certain places, and because my brain will only be able to absorb so many new things in a given period of time before getting "tired." Plus, it takes time to write! Which is part of the absorption process.

I'll be adding a "What's New" area soon so it will be easy to determine what has changed on the site. Hopefully I'll be able to upgrade the engine behind this journal soon too. I write this journal through an online weblog tool called Blogger. The Professional version allows you to automatically notify people when a new entry is written.

In addition to all the packing and preparations I have to make before my journey starts in January 2003 I have also been planning a trip to experience Carnaval in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil and other parts of South America in late Feb. - March 2003 with some friends. I inserted a 6-week trip to South America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay) to break up the US/Canada travel, as well as to use up some United Airlines miles and to take advantage of favorable currency rates. Originally South America was the last continent on my route plan - but nothing like the forces of economics to mix things up.

I faxed in my hotel reservation for Rio yesterday (Need to do it early for Carnaval). The hotel rep kindly informed that I faxed him information on my Mastercard, not VISA as indicated on the form. My mistake. In all of the places I've used credit cards save one, Mastercard and VISA are from a usage standpoint, the same. Apparently it makes a difference down there. The little details! I remember visiting an ATM in a smaller town in Costa Rica which accepted only VISA Plus linked ATM cards. Aie. Fortunately there was one that accepted Mastercard after further prowling around town. I now am armed with 4 different credit cards to go travelling with. Diner's Club (62 day billing cycle before interest - useful when you can't always access the Internet or a phone - or having too much fun to think about bills!), American Express (For their customer service network and offices around the globe in case of trouble), and now both Mastercard and VISA.

Speaking about money -- I received a $150 rebate check recently from Simon & Schuster, publishers of the Pimsleur language learning series I mentioned earlier. If you want more information about how to get the 1st Level of one of their languages for a significantly reduced cost after rebate visit Language Lovers. The web retailers Big Red Garage and Plurality Language also have good prices and customer service on Pimsleur audio courses.

It has been nearly a week since returning from China and Taiwan. I'm still adjusting to the time zone shift, something I won't have to deal with very often when my formal journey begins. Unfortunately (Fortunately?) I have nobody about to kick my butt if I don't wake up in time. Ahh..the art and discipline of self motivation. I'm currently processing the photographs from this recent trip. I'll post a general write up in the next couple of weeks.

My intention isn't to just tell you verbatim where I've (We've - I went with my dad and sister on this trip) been and throw up some pictures. There are plenty of books you can find at the library or bookstore for that. I hope to talk about some of my observations both big and small, and relate them to a larger context if appropriate. I also want to tell you about the ups and downs. No trip is 100% fun. No destination is 100% beautiful. Some aren't even 50%. Many books and travel advertisements tend to overweight the positive aspects of places, or they try too hard to find the "silver lining." Not here. Of course, beauty and attitudes about beauty are in the eyes of the beholder - but I can at least tell you why I feel a certain way. Of note though is that for one of my first times travelling this extensively - I was surprised that I found myself not being as judgemental as I might otherwise normally be about what I experienced. Not judgemental free, but significantly less than prior trips of this length. It is as if while I was there I was doing more absorbing, rather than judging. Leaving the judgements at "home" until one has time to reflect can make even an arduous trip (Not this one) plesant.

I also hope to tell you how my eyesight has changed / evolved based on the things I see and experience. I'm not sure exactly how I will do this but I feel it is important to explain. We all evolve as we grow older. Many people count things like marriage, death of a close family member or friend, death of a parent(s), school graduation, a new job, a new baby, major illness or accident, a new hobby, a new faith, etc... as markers of change. These will indeed change you! But, the "right" kind of travel (Dependent on how, where you go, and if you think about it) can bring about an equal amount if not even more changes in one's eyesight. Life for most is a recycling of the previous day. Broken up by some of these one time events. There is nothing wrong with that. We all need our routines, even in travelling.

The way I like to travel surprises me by forcing me to re-evaluate things I never questioned before. This is what I want to share. In a continually globalizing and rapidly changing world (Historically speaking) the importance of this is ever more important.

I'm writing this entry as I sit in a VERY noise Internet cafe in Taipei, Taiwan. A bunch of young kids are playing a networked computer video game - at 730AM! What a life.
I would have written a journal entry sooner but I have had Internet access problems in China due to the Chinese government restrictions on Internet access via firewalls and general crackdowns on cybercafes due to a fire. I suspect this fire and resulting deaths was a good excuse to shut down alot of cafes. These restrictions made me think even more about various freedoms that exist in some parts of the world but not others. I will write an article about it after I return to the US this Saturday, October 5th.

In some ways I wasn't that "shocked" about visiting China, which I think is because of my prior visits to Taiwan (4 or 5 total in my life, the last one being 6 years ago, all occurring before I had any other foreign travel experience - Europe, Central America, Australia / New Zealand, Hong Kong, South Africa, but more importantly new eyesight) and because I carry some implicit understanding of Chinese culture due to my ethnicity. Yet, looking a little closer revealed numerous differences between Taiwan and China. Also, some of my preconceived notions about Chinese culture were broken, due to both this recent trip (Beijing, Huangshan / Yellow Mountains, and Shanghai) and my general state of awareness. My next entry will be next week when I am back in the US.

Intl Herald Tribune - China Information Blocking