intellectual properties

AMS

things are going well here in amsterdam. not too exciting, really, despite the city’s reputation. or maybe it’s just that i’m getting old(er) and getting really high and going to touristy/springbreak style clubs is utterly unappealing to me now. the autumn weather is gorgeous. i love the non-car culture - so many bicycles! wow! the dutch are very chill, and we have just been poking around cafes and museums and historical sites, although we did go to a little music festival in a town about 90 minutes away right off the plane the first day we got here, and to see The Orb last night, although i think jet lag finally hit me pretty hard yesterday and i was so tired when we went to the show i only lasted 45 minutes. that and with their live drummer and MC it kinda reminded me a lot of one of those bad disco-jamband shows we used to go to in like 2000-2001, and i wasn’t really that into it.

we’ve been posting photos and videos to jay’s flickr account, and i’ve also been twittering little updates every day if you want to follow along. whee!

SFO>AMS>BER>PRG>VIE>BUD>AMS>SFO in 30 days

the supposed plan is to arrive, or at least be on the way, to SFO international airport at approximately noon tomorrow, September 19th.

we will then take a flight direct from SFO to Amsterdam at 3:12PM, arriving in AMS at 10:20 AM on sunday morning, and go to our hotel, Hotel V, which i found by googling “hippest hotel in amsterdam”. yeah, just like that.

we will hang around Amsterdam and do Dutch things for 3-5 days.

we will then make the rest of our journey by train, moving next to Germany, visiting Berlin and maybe some smaller towns for 4-6 days.

then on approximately the 29th of September, we will meet up with Justin in Prague, where we have rented an apartment, and we will celebrate my and Justin’s birthdays for several days straight. i will turn 33 years old in Prague.

sometime after Justin leaves Prague on the 4th of October, we will go to Vienna, where we will stay somewhere for 4-6 days, then moving on finally to Budapest, where we will spend our last days possibly staying with friends families before flying out of Budapest at 10:10PM on Friday, October 16th, back to SFO via Amsterdam, arriving back at SFO on Saturday, October 17th at 1:05 PM PST.

those are all the plans we have. i didn’t want to schedule every stop, every day, every location, hotel and activity. i want to wander. i am looking forward to new streets/restaurants/cafes, sleeping late, being lost, staring at countryside and cityscapes through train windows, marveling at strange customs, not speaking the language, having to adjust, feeling as if in a dream, taking in museums, learning histories, and generally just wandering. i may post blogs/photos, i may not. i don’t know. i like being unplugged.

“We have advantages. We have a cushion to fall back on. This is abundance. A luxury of place and time. Something rare and wonderful. It’s almost historically unprecedented. We must do extraordinary things. We have to. It would be absurd not to.”

— dave eggers

please me have no regrets

it sort of feels like when i decided to stop going to church.  when i decided i understood enough, had gotten what i needed, had seen behind the curtain, and that i did not need to go anymore. but i could not just throw it all away, all those hours and thoughts and emotions and time, such a large part of my formative years, and so moved on to studying religion, to tracking its history, to seeing its parables and metaphors and literary tools for what they were, developing a different kind of appreciation, one that i carry around deeply with me to this day.  will i ever go back to a church, sit in its pews on a sunday morning, and return to the beginning of my journey?  i cannot - it’s impossible.

and so it is with burning man, that special place where a community belief and value system is set out in plans, preached, acted out upon, put forward in signs and banners and songs and dances while the revelers let their eyes see the sky and their mouths speak in tongues. where am i with this? did i get enough to continue to pay it forward without going back? will i ever return to those morning worship services even though i know they will never be the same? i cannot know until i have moved on whether my heart will simply look back or long for return.

we leave for europe in 11 days. i will turn 33 in 23 days, on the other side of the planet. in my 34th year, i am to learn many things, see many places, live many lives, and that journey started with this, collecting what i have and moving forward, not taking the path already tread.

burning man 2008: american dreams

this post has been sitting in draft since september 16, 2008, and i have kept revisiting it, trying to finish, trying to think of what to say, so this is pretty fragmented and definitely incomplete.  now that we are definitely NOT going to burning man this year and pretty much everyone we know who is going is leaving for BM 2009 within the next 5-7 days, i think i’ve reached a time limit and feel like i should say something about last year. it did happen.

.::.

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the final countdown

we leave for our european adventure in exactly 30 days. (!!. !!!. !!!!!.)
sept 19-oct 17.

seeking tips on places to go/things to do, eat (vegetarian suggestions PLZ!!), see + who/what/where to avoid (and why) in:

Amsterdam, Netherlands (this is where we fly into, direct from SFO!)
Berlin, Germany
Prague, Czech Republic
Vienna, Austria
Budapest, Hungary (this is where we fly out of, back through AMS to SFO)

we’ll be there in the off season, which should be very nice. no Prague plagued with summer tourists!

we plan to spend approx 5-7 days in each city, and wouldn’t mind getting out into the countryside or visiting smaller towns nearby, but we won’t have a car, so we’re only looking for suggestions for places fairly easily accessible by public transit. also, if you’ve done any sort of adventures similar to what we did in mexico (guided outdoor excursions of the adventurous kind) in any of these countries, i’d *love* to hear about those.

yay!

way fun in mexico.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amyleblanc/sets/72157622067319010 + http://www.flickr.com/photos/jayober/sets/72157622071561272 = PVR adventures

activities not shown: many hours laying on the beach drinking margaritas and body surfing the waves. lots and lots of that.

srsly happy campers

Group Photo by Benjamin Chun

Adventures in Navarro River State Park and Russian River Gulch, Mendocino, CA

i <3 my friends.

wanderlust: quenching scheduled

several months ago i created a savings account with the login ‘wanderlust’.  since then, i’ve been squirreling away money. i’ve written before how my desire to travel has been almost painful at times, and i decided earlier this year that i wouldn’t let it torture me anymore, economic bubbles bursting or not.  a bunch of my friends took off for europe last week, and that pretty much made my pent up wanderlust overflow. it has been more than 6 years since jay and i have taken any kind of extended vacation, and we both really need it. i am blessed to have a well-paying job and flexible boss so that i can now report that some long-awaited adventures have been booked.

this weekend, i purchased 2 sets of plane tickets.  first, to Puerto Vallerta, Mexico in mid-August, to join my parents on their first ever get-on-a-plane-and-go-somewhere vacation. just a long weekend, but still exciting.  i might get to swim with dolphins!

and just now, i purchased two tickets to europe for mid-september to mid-october, during which time i will celebrate my 33rd birthday.  1 month.  sfo->amsterdam->berlin, germany->prague, czech republic->vienna, austria->budapest, hungary->amsterdam->sfo. to say i am excited is a severe understatement.

2/26-3/25

it’s now been a month, so here some crib notes for recent doings (work and gym not included, which has also been a lot of time/energy), some of which may or may not be expounded upon later:

2/26 - transportedSF. wow. that seems like a helluv long time ago. like, i barely remember it. it was fun though!!

2/27 - went to see Port O’Brien and Ezra Furman at Cafe du Nord, except that Ezra Furman wasn’t there. which sucked. Port O’Brien was not that awesome live. we left early.

the first week of march, i went to michigan to see my family, including my new niece, for a week. omgcold!! besides adorable niece, highlight was being approached at the university gym to have a 3some with some random girl and her BF. the freaks, they are everywhere, and i attract them.

i came back to SF and went high-end window-shopping with Miss Velvet Cream.

friday the 13th we went out and did something but now i can’t remember what except that i drank too much and woke up the next day with a hangover.

3/14-3/15 we went to wine country for a friend’s 30th birthday (sonoma/russian river)

discovered antiseptic fashion during fashion show planning mtg for Alchemy. am in love.

my back spasmed on a week ago on 3/19 and i’m still recovering.  learned that my new chiropractor is a way more helpful person than my family physician, and that the AMA is sort of evil. as soon as my body quits hurting/freaking out and i get some sleep, maybe i’ll blog more.

went with reagan to see a guru/mystic. had lots of subsequent thoughts about how much pressure it is to acknowledge that you do, indeed, have the all the power you need to create the life you want for yourself.

hottubed with jasonsays

scored tickets to both Nine Inch Nails/Jane’s Addiction (NIN/JA) and Phish for summer concerts @ shoreline

made some signs for Alchemy. you should come.

declared a long-awaited vacation.

approached to possibly teach a hooping class at the downtown oakland YMCA. it’s been long enough now that just might be into that again.

this weekend:

tomorrow: “Metamorphica” live art/drawing/fashion/music conglomeration soiree, with MVC and Bad Unkl Sista

weekend: friend’s birthday campout thingy somewhere in the woody peninsula, and then rendezvous with SFlovestory.

letting go

“We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us” - Joseph Campbell

~via

btw, yesterday i bought 2 plane tickets to new york for jay’s birthday.