Seriously, how could you go wrong with the beautiful imagery?

But that’s not the point of this post. There was a line in the movie that really struck me. From what I remember (and several Google searches semi-confirming), the quotation is unique to this movie—not the book. If anyone knows the exact line, please let me know, but this was the general gist:

[Alice is about to leave Wonderland]

Mad Hatter: You could stay here, you know.

Alice: I wish I could. But there are questions I have to answer. [Pause] And things I’m late for doing.

My memory is terrible, but that sentiment sums up some of the reasons I’ve already said are my reasons for leaving. I think Alice in Wonderland generally has some good travel cred, and the screenplay by Linda Woolverton didn’t necessarily disappoint.

Oh, and as a bonus—here’s a Craigslist personal ad that came up when I was searching for the screenplay:

Looking for... someone to enjoy a Sunday roast with?

In case you hadn’t noticed, Australia has been on my mind. The guy above is a real live wombat. Isn’t he adorable? (Not as adorable as Mr Wombat, but you know, still adorable.)

This photo is from when I visited Featherdale outside of Sydney. It was nice there but not as cool as Taronga Zoo.

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Hey readers! I’ve set up a mailing list to keep you updated on my future travel plans & whatever becomes of this site. Also, you’ll then have a direct line of access to me if you want to keep in touch! Sign up here and you’ll get my FREE eBook 5 Simple Life Lessons (with photos!). Let me know what you think of my first eBook. I had fun with it.

Iceland

Iceland is an eerie place. Anil wrote recently about the infamous IcelandAir stopover on foXnoMad, and Steph has covered it pretty extensively on her site as well with some amazing photos. I’m sure the amazing scenery & unique culture makes for a creativity-inducing environment. That’s why there’s a lot of great bands that come out of such a small country (population: 316,960).

And no I’m talking about more than Björk here.

There’s Emiliana Torrini (I’ve written about her before), The Sugarcubes, and my personal favorite: Sigur Rós.

“Gósóli,” Sigur Rós:

Sigur Rós is perfect for listening to when you don’t want to hear words but need to visualize something beautiful.

Australia

I’ve got a ton of interesting Australian indie rock bands to share, but for now, I’ll just mention Xavier Rudd.

“Better People,” Xavier Rudd:

If you visit his web site & sign up for his mailing list, you’ll get a free download of his newest single.

France

Alright, this indie band has made it pretty big recently. You’ve probably heard part of this song on the Cadillac commercials that have been on U.S. television for several months now. Regardless, Phoenix is one of my all-time favorites, and their song “1901″ really makes me happy.

“1901,” Phoenix:

“Past and present, they don’t matter, now the future’s sorted out.” Uh-huh.

Australia has been on my mind for the past few weeks. Probably something to do with the fact that I’ve got a friend who is leaving for her RTW trip in just a handful of days. She’ll end up in Australia where I’ll be meeting her.

I had the good fortune to study abroad in Sydney in 2006. It was probably hands-down the best decision of my college life. I was lucky (the beginning of a trend?) to get an internship for a major book publisher. I met most of my current best friends on the program. I learned how to live independently.

That’s why Australia is such a big part of my plan for my pending BIG trip. In my mind, it pretty much marks the beginning of my transition to real adulthood. Not that crap I thought I had when I graduated high school. Or when I moved to Boston away from my friends and most of my family for college.

Australia and Adam just go together in my mind. So, we’ll see what happens.

Mr. Wombat had the lucky pleasure of going out on his first solo trip a few years ago (with a friend’s supervision, of course). First stop: the bar.

Bad wombat!

This trip took him on a whirlwind tour of Buffalo, NY, Niagara Falls & Canada. Starting a week-long trip at a local bar is likely to lead to a downward spiral of photos. So, readers, you’ve got many interesting photos to look forward to!

I just got back from New York City. First time in a while I didn’t make it to Brooklyn. I miss the hipsters.

New York City

I’ll be there for probably just under 30 hours all total, but whatever, I like it that way. (You may remember my last trip to the City: Broadway, Beer & Bauhaus in NYC)

I’m excited to celebrate Liz’s pending departure from the corporate life while she starts out on her RTW. Way to go, Liz!

Washington, D.C.

This is my first vacation in a while! I even used 2 vacation days at work to cover it. I’ll be visiting with my little sister (Hi Emily!) and looking forward to meeting some of you Travel Tweeters. Plus, it’s been almost four years since I’ve been to our capital city—when I helped move my sister into her dormitory. Looking forward to some delicious food.

Vermont

This trip is a little unusual. My friend is trying to get to all 50 U.S. states before she turns 25. It’s an impressive feat and she’s almost there; I think she’s maybe down to 3 or 4 states?

It’ll be a nice road trip to get out of Boston, plus there are some actually interesting things in Vermont. Like the Ben & Jerry’s Factory Tour and Magic Hat Brewery Tour. Beer & ice cream, anyone?

I like being on the road this much.

Mr. Wombat enjoys the day’s paper at the plaza in front of Le Centre Pompidou in Paris. How so-very French of him.

I own 72 t-shirts.

I’ve always been a t-shirt collector. Band concerts, festivals & trips have all added to my collection. I’ve gotten rid of several t-shirts that I stopped wearing years ago, but I’ve still got a remarkable amount that I regularly wear. What am I going to do with them all while I’m away on my big trip?

I don’t know what’s going to happen. Some will probably go to friends who’ve expressed an interest. Some will be donated. Some will be stored. Some I can’t bear to part with.

Each one has a unique story & I thought it’d be interesting to share the stories & shirts with you. I know it’s impossible to keep my possessions forever, but I wanted to have a record of some of the t-shirts that have held a special place in my history. Click on the thumbnails to view each photo on Flickr with their full & proper captions.

Or just revel in the extensive amount of color that can be found in my dresser drawer.

Here’s the skills & stuff you’ll need to do this properly:

1. Set up a Facebook Fan page. It’s simple to do.
2. If you haven’t, be sure to set a custom domain name for your page. To do this, go to http://facebook.com/username. You need at least 25 fans before you can set the custom name.
3. Some basic HTML knowledge.
4. Copy & paste skills. Yeah, I’m gonna make this easy for you.

How to set up a welcome page:

1. Go to http://facebook.com/pages/manage (once you’re logged in to Facebook)
2. At the bottom, you’ll see the option to “browse more” applications. If you haven’t already loaded it, the application you’ll want to add to your page is called FBML. Facebook describes the application like this:

Add advanced functionality to your Page using the Facebook Static FBML application. This application will add a box to your Page in which you can render HTML or FBML (Facebook Markup Language) for enhanced Page customization.

3. Once installed, click Edit. This will bring you to a screen which you can input code for your page. Now, all I’m going to show you is a really simple way to custom your text style. There are lots of ways to customize the page by adding images and adjust style/color/etc, but for that you’d need some more coding experience with CSS.
4. In the Edit FBML screen, you’ll be able to add a Box Title. Do that. “Welcome” is probably a good choice.
5. Inside the FBML box, insert the following code:

<STYLE TYPE=”text/css”>
<!–
H1 {
color:#00000;
font-size:3em;
font-style:bold;
}
H2 {
color:#333333;
font-size:2em;
font-style:bold;
}
–>
</STYLE>

6. Now, that will insert a CSS headline style for any line of text that you markup as <h1> or <h2>. Within the STYLE tags, you can add other CSS code for H3, H4, etc – just follow the same format. Change the color by inserting a web-safe number; change the font size (you can measure it in pixels “px” or “em”).
7. Okay, so by now hopefully I’ve made it simple to define your H1, H2, H3 styles. For a welcome page, you probably don’t want to have too much text, so really you only need a few styles defined.
8. After your </STYLE> code, hit return a few times and start typing what you want your welcome page to say. Be sure to tag each paragraph of your text as either <h1>, <h2> or <h3> (or whichever styles you’re using). See how I styled my site in the image below.
   

   Facebook Fan Page HTML/CSS Markup example

9. If you know any HTML code (or feel like Googling a few things), you can insert whatever HTML code you like (haven’t really tested it in the FBML box, but everything I’ve used has worked so far). Bold, italicize, add links, insert images, make bulleted lists, etc. I’d recommend inserting an image because it makes things more interesting. You can host the images on your own site and just link to it using basic HTML code.
10. Once you’ve created the page by inserting all your code into the FBML edit box, save your changes and make sure the tab is visible on your Fan page site. You’ll then want to set it as the “Default Landing Tab” in your “Wall Settings” settings.

Okay, so I’ve pretty much shown you everything I know about Facebook Fan FBML pages. Let me know if you have any trouble with these directions (or additional tips!) and I can try to troubleshoot. Also, please share your finished pages if you end up creating one! If you’ve found this useful, let me know in the comments & then feel free to become a Travels of Adam fan on Facebook.