“On the final day of September 2007, I left Jasper Alberta Canada without any agenda, plans or time. Living simply from my passion of photography and writing, living a freedom life while riding my Suzuki DR 350 motorcycle in search of rock climbing, surfing and experiencing different cultures along the way.
Now nearly 100 000 km, 19 countries and 4 years later… I continue to ride the dream… north from South America.
You can follow my stories and collection of images through my blog.
-Alain Dennis”
https://ridingthedream.blogspot.com/
I thought this comment was worth bringing front and center. Also, I don’t necessarily endorse or love everything I put up on this blog. I put up stuff that I find interesting.
“Anonymous has left a new comment on your post “Tiny Homes: Container Housing in Salt Lake City”:
I get in trouble from container zealots when I say this, but I owned a container for over ten years—and they make lousy houses. They are short, hard to insulate, hard to cut doors and windows in, have flat roofs that leak, they are noisy and wet inside due to condensation, and, in general, make very good containers and very poor houses.
When somebody makes a “house” from a container, they usually have to build a miniature stick built house inside, with framing, insulation, and interior walls. Due to the fact that ordinary carpenters dont have the metalworking skills, this usually costs MORE than if you just built a little house from whatever materials are locally used and local workers are fluent in- wood, concrete, brick, adobe, you name it.
Me, I am a metalworker, and, periodically, I get paid to cut windows in one, or weld tabs for studs, or drill holes for wiring or stovepipes, and I will continue to take their money…
Ries”
“Expedition 360 was a successful attempt at one of the last great firsts for true circumnavigation: reaching antipodal points on the surface of the globe using only human power (no motors or sails). Bicycles, in-line skates, kayaks, swimming, rowing, walking and a unique pedal powered boat were used by Englishman Jason Lewis and an international team to travel over 45,000 miles across five continents, two oceans and one sea (12th July 1994 – 6th October 2007).” www.expedition360.com
Sent us by Rich Jones
I fell in love with this magazine the first time I laid eyes on it. The layout, the drawings, the consistency. There are no ads! The design is elegant. The front cover and rear cover of each issue are always lovely paintings of food by two different artists: Robert Papp and John Burgoyne.
Not only does it look good in the graphic arts sense, but the articles and recipes look to be a cook’s delight.
It’s tied in with the TV and radio shows America’s Test Kitchen.
https://www.cooksillustrated.com/
What a beauty! It’s in Silver City, Nevada. Notice how the top window has been placed off-center so as not to conflict with the cupola roof below. The eaves look straight and true, indicating a sound foundation. This website, by photographer Steve Bingham, is a treasure trove of ghost town photos.
Click here.
There was a well-written, funny, perceptive article in the New York Times today (actually dated 5/1/13) by Henry Alford on Williamsburg (in Brooklyn). I’ve been telling people over the past few years that these twentysomethings are different.; they’re a new ballgame.
Henry not only gets what’s going on with young people, he likes them:
“I like this generation of young folk. Their food is terrific, and they find even the most insignificant things “awesome.” I admire their adventuresome quality vis-à-vis fixed-gear bike-riding and their non-prudishness in the face of nudity. Yes, their attention to detail on the fronts of locavorism and beard care can verge on the precious, but I’d much rather have a young Abe Lincoln serve me his roof-grown mâche than I would have an F. Scott Fitzgerald vomit all over my straw boater. Today’s twentysomethings are self-respecting, obvi.
If every youth movement says as much about the status quo as it does about itself, then this new eco-conscious, agrarian-seeming, hair-celebrating nexus of locavorism is maybe telling us that the rest of us need to plunge our fingers into the rich loam of the earth, literally and metaphorically.…”
Click here. I subscribe to the Times, so get the full stories on their website. If you don’t, I’d go buy today’s paper if possible, this article (in the Style section) is worth it. I think it’s a journalistic reporting masterpiece. Very funny, and some exquisite turns of phrase. Ridic. Obvi.
“…a Salt Lake City man is taking an out-of-the-box approach to one of the problems of poverty by offering an in-the-box solution: “tiny homes” cheaply and efficiently constructed out of used shipping containers.”
Click here.
Lovesick Blues by Hank Williams on Grooveshark
From a great Hank Williams album: Low Down Blues
My friend Louie recently sold his sailboat, the Roy Fox, to his friend Bill, and last week, Louie, Bill, and Titsch sailed the boat from Bodega Bay down the coast to Sausalito. Actually, they motored all the way, leaving Bodega at sunset in order to come under the Golden gate Bridge with an incoming tide. When I met them in Mill Valley, they been up all night, freezing, and were wind burned and wiped out.
We had dinner at Frantoio’s; I’d seen the restaurant, but never been there before. Not only is the food great, but a feature at this very Italian restaurant is a giant olive press for making olive oil. During olive pressing season, the press operates night and day, so customers can watch the magic of oil coming from olives while having dinner.
With a bottle of Pinot Noir, the hardship of 20 sleepless hours at sea faded into memory, and we had a great dinner.
“…light-weight living roof, thanks to using sedum which grows happily in shallow soils.”
From Rob and Jaki Roy’s Earthwood Building School website here.
“On the final day of September 2007, I left Jasper Alberta Canada without any agenda, plans or time. Living simply from my passion of photography and writing, living a freedom life while riding my Suzuki DR 350 motorcycle in search of rock climbing, surfing and experiencing different cultures along the way.
