omniumgatherum

Receiving is an act of bravery

2009-06-01T19:06:00.000-07:00

Today, I let a stranger do something nice for me. And I was struck by how much I fought against it before I realized what I was doing.I was running an errand as a volunteer intern for the theater where I am studying improvisation, picking up groceries from a market in Hollywood. Parking anywhere in LA is a minefield, and punishment is usually swift and brutal. I docked my Yaris in a near-ish

Writing for dollars

2009-03-16T16:14:00.000-07:00

I have a new job! My first work as a freelance writer for the music channel of entertainment website IGN was published today. It's a brief review of Chris Cornell's latest album, Scream. In itself it's a very humble beginning, but you can read it here.I want to be careful not to get ahead of myself, but at this point indicators are good that (very) soon I will be a regular. I am excited by the

It's the end of the 'round the world

2009-01-23T10:24:00.000-08:00

Last October and November, I started to notice a change in the way it felt to be traveling. I declared it the emotional end to my latest around the world travels, though it still clearly felt nowhere near the end of the journey. On 18 December, another end of these travels milestone was reached when I arrived at my new home in Los Angeles. And now I can report the technical conclusion of travels,

The Return Of The King

2008-10-27T01:45:00.004-07:00

(Budapest, Hungary)The quest to find an appropriate fate for my wedding ring is now satisfyingly complete. I have made previous mention of this unexpected stowaway amongst the belongings I had brought with me on my travels, and the time has come to relate the final chapter.In my first iteration of this post, at this point, I embarked on a major expository digression covering my feelings about

The end is the beginning

2008-10-24T14:42:00.001-07:00

Chicago, U.S.A.Last night I touched down in Chicago, marking the end of my roaming. This comes as a bit of a surprise to me, as this was not a premeditated gate. It is so because it suddenly feels so, and I am still in the stage of feeling and understanding it. The end of the journey has always been Los Angeles. Still is. And so I find myself in the transitional space, between the end of my

Where oh where could he be?

2008-09-04T04:23:00.007-07:00

Budapest, HungarySo. I have been away from my blog for a while now. A month and a half actually. How could that happen?I arrived in Budapest on Sunday, 20 July. I had been to Budapest before, almost exactly three years before, and I like the city and absolutely adore Hungarian food and culture and history and the language and people. The original plan was to spend some time here and then to use

Pegasus And The Phoenix

2008-09-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

Budapest, HungaryToday marks the birth of a poetry project called Pegasus And The Phoenix. It's a collaboration with another writer and the objective is to write a poem every day for the month of September. The concept is we take turns proposing the muse for the next day, then each complete our poem by the end of the day. And no reading the counterpart poem before ours is complete.

Finding my inner Viking

2008-07-18T06:06:00.002-07:00

Oslo, NorwayFair hair and blue eyes? Check. Fair skin? Check. Tendency to avoid eye contact, be emotionally reserved and slow to trust others? Hmmm...For a long time now I have wanted to visit Oslo, or at least Norway, with Oslo being the most obvious destination. Since my early twenties, since I started to see more of the world and meet more people with diverse and sometimes unimagined

What I love about Kathmandu

2008-06-18T06:00:00.001-07:00

Kathmandu, NepalHonk. Honk. Honk honk. Beeeep. Bee-beep. Honnnk.Hello. Hello. Where you from? Australia. Australia, capital Canberra! Wow, that's right! When you arrive Nepal? Yesterday. First time Nepal? Yes. How long Nepal? Two weeks. You go trek? Oh, no, I'm not really sure. I can guide you, we can have tea, we can talk? Um, no thanks. Why not? Uh, what? Why not? Uh, sorry I'm not interested.

I got Seoul but I'm not a soldier

2008-06-10T00:00:00.007-07:00

(Seoul, South Korea)Brief though it was, I thoroughly enjoyed my two days in Seoul. This was my first solo adventure in a city where English is mostly unavailable.My hostel was in a part of Seoul called Daehangno. Armed with fairly detailed instructions from my booking confirmation email, brimming with satisfaction at having made my way into the city exclusively by train, both for the money it

Where are the bullet trains?

2008-06-09T17:03:00.000-07:00

Tokyo, JapanThe last few days have been a bit of a blur. I've got that fuzzy vibratey eyes-hot dehydrated lack of sleep thing. I haven't looked in a mirror today, thankfully, but I can feel the failure of the micro-tethers that hold my face up that last millimeter, that seem to appear and start to loosen as one hits thirty, that seem to more and more easily surrender to late nights, alcohol and

Made in Taiwan

2008-06-02T03:00:00.002-07:00

Taipei, TaiwanBefore I decided to travel to Taiwan, I would have struggled to place it on the map. Oh sure, if you asked me to, I could have faked it; scanning the Asia Pacific region hoping to spot it quickly. I probably would've had as good a shot as anyone.What did I know about it? I was aware there is a pretty serious dispute over the sovereignity of Taiwan, that it considers itself a country

10,000 Buddha bellies

2008-05-24T01:00:00.004-07:00

Sha Ting, Hong KongI sit here; digesting my lunch of vegetarian fried duck with greens, rice and tea; in a not quite fully realised cafe adjacent to the main temple of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery on a suburban mountainside in Sha Ting, Hong Kong.I know almost nothing about this place, to be fair precious little about Buddhism, much less Chinese Buddhism, and so I feel I lack any kind of

Ernesto

2008-05-21T22:30:00.002-07:00

(Wellington, New Zealand)My favourite cafe in Wellington was called Ernesto. If I can work out how to add photos to my blog, I will include one here. ("Uh, you're a web designer" my friend Andrew tells me. True, but I admit I am also somehow Web 2.0, mobile phone, all those things the kids are into these days developmentally challenged, or as they say in Australia 'intellectually mild,' or as

One ring to rule them all

2008-05-21T21:30:00.002-07:00

(Auckland, New Zealand)At one point, rummaging through my satchel (or man bag or murse) for something I forget what must have been something related to going out that night as I was amid my young roommates in Auckland perhaps my money clip, I happened across my wedding ring. What was it doing there? Even I had to ask. Well, one of my last days in Sydney was spent with Erika and among other

Reflections on New Zealand

2008-05-21T21:00:00.000-07:00

Cathay Pacific Airlines Flight CX108 to Hong KongSigh... So many things I wanted to write about, such a bounty of intention, so much brilliance I'm sure has evaporated into the ether. I suppose I could go back and do a few entries retroactively. I met a pair of English girls who were doing that, faithful to their commitments to write in their journal each day (and rumour has it also to their

What a difference a week makes

2008-05-19T21:44:00.003-07:00

Wellington, New ZealandI have been away from the blog for a solid week now. Not at all by design, each day I intended to set aside some time to extract some pearl from my headspace, yet each day somehow got away from me.In one arena, I have been busy with errands, some still left over from my life in Sydney, some related to the next phase of my travels. I finally went through the stack of

Where did that guy go?

2008-05-10T22:20:00.005-07:00

Wellington, New ZealandI must confess, I have been pretty down for pretty much all of this trip so far. I definitely don't want to be feeling this way, and I don't want to be writing about it, but it seems if I'm not then I'm not writing about anything.I expected to go through a recovery period. My last month in Sydney was emotionally and physically gruelling. I had hoped to make a triumphant

40 is the new 30

2008-05-04T19:30:00.003-07:00

Auckland, New ZealandI can't help feeling my time to do this backpacker thing has come and gone. I am aware this is a feeling more than a fact; or to use my current pet parlance: a feeling truth or poetic truth more than a thinking truth or literal truth (more on this topic in a future entry).And this in turn gives me pause, to instead be patient, to stay present as I do this backpacker thing,

What have I done?

2008-05-02T22:00:00.014-07:00

Auckland, New ZealandThis is a story about embracing the real me.As I take the first substantive leap, it is a story about saying goodbye to an extraordinary group of friends that seem to know me and love me for who I am, putting a perfectly reasonable career indefinitely on hold, and leaving the city that has become my home. It is a story about traveling around the world, on my way to an unknown

My Itinerary

2008-04-30T18:35:00.030-07:00

So that I have an integrated view of all my travel plans; so that my friends and family can track where in the world I am or am likely to be (if anyone has friends in these places, please let me know!); so that my mother will know precisely how close I am to the natural disasters and plane crashes in the news. I will maintain this page as details unfold...2008-05-01, ThuSYDNEY, Australia @ 11:

It's a-me, Shoe Shine Guy!

2007-09-01T16:00:00.010-07:00

Istanbul, TurkeyTrying very hard to calm down, prevent myself from dying of embarrassment, assess the damage, then find the silver lining so I can get on with enjoying my stay.My very first act, in essence, at least of significance, has been to get suckered out of 80 lira. It was as brilliant, well conceived and executed as my trusting fatigue was pure.I arrived in this country with two pieces of