Uh, everything's under control. Situation normal.

I'm still here, promise. It's been a busy few weeks, but not in a bad way. Lots of social engagements, some work for Extra Life and just life in general. Work is...well, work. I put in my time and then off to bigger and better things.

So Extra Life's national event is coming up on November 7th and 8th. I spent Sunday at the Portland Comic Expo recruiting gamers for Extra Life, and it was a blast! I got to talk to a lot of people, and the expo was great. It was only its second year, but it was already much bigger than the year before. I got an amazing local artist Ben Bishop at bishart.net to do a Star Wars concept cover with his interpretation of Han Solo. It came out so great! Here it is -

 

 Ben is a great guy, he donated some original art (A great Casey Jones Sketch from TMNT) to last year's Tabletop Game Marathon for Extra Life. We can't wait to see more great stuff from him in the future. It's nice to see local artists doing such amazing work!

In case you missed the announcement, the date for the next Tabletop Game Marathon is going to be April 29-30, 2016. We've started planning and already have some donations lined up! Outstanding!

A hike with a view

I'm currently sitting on a path through the woods, leading down the mountain that I just (mostly) climbed. I made it about 3/4 of the way to the top of Pleasant Mountain, a 1500 ft peak in western Maine. Discretion being the better part of valor, I decided to turn around while my legs still had enough strength to make the descent without risking injury. 

The whole climb and the part of the descent I've made so far, I've been thinking of next year, of course. I'll be doing this kind of hike nearly every day. The views I've seen are nothing short of breathtaking, even though I've lived in this part of Maine for a good chunk of my life. I can't wait to experience other parts of the country and see what they have to offer. 

The wind is whistling through the trees. The sun is bright on my face, drying my sweat and giving a pleasant burst of warmth. My legs are shaky and tired but I can honestly say that I'm happy to be here right now. Experiences like these are too often blown past at the rate we do everything nowadays- too fast. 

Go out...take a walk. Look around a bit. You might like what you see.

Dreaming

I had one of my first anxiety dreams about hiking last night. I may have had others but I don't really remember any of them. Last night's was pretty vivid-I was running around my house gathering things that I'd need for the trip, because I KNEW I had to leave immediately or I'd miss my chance to go. I couldn't find everything so I was frantically searching everywhere to no avail. Sounds like I'm a bit anxious, doesn't it?

I was fine once I woke up, it's just a symptom of my personality. I have a sizable task ahead of me so my mind constantly turns back to it, turning the problem over and over, working at it like a loose tooth. I'm making strides towards my goal. My stove is in (and it is really cool! I can't wait to test it out) and I'll be ordering more stuff this week, after I do some digging into pricing and what sales are going right now.

Taking a hike up Pleasant Mountain on Saturday, which I'm looking forward to. The foliage here in Maine is pretty much perfect right now, so it should make for some great views. I'll post when I have some good pics!

Trail names?

I survived another week, and days are ticking by quickly. Only about 7 months until I leave! I ordered my stove this morning, just a little one, weighs about 12 oz. Here's a pic -

Pretty cool little rig, huh? It boils water in about 2 minutes. That'll make my morning cups of coffee, pretty darn fast!

Last week I was on call for work, which leads to a bit of anxiety. It was my first time on call, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't paged a lot but still, I didn't sleep well all week, I kept having work dreams and waking up thinking I was hearing the phone go off. I'm glad to be off that rotation for a few weeks.

Jeff and I were talking trail names the other day. One of the things that is part of doing a thru hike, is the assignment of a trail name that you go by. Some people choose their own, others are nicknames given by other hikers. I honestly have no idea what mine will end up being. Jeff wants to go by "Coin Flip" cause that's the name of his Twitch channel, maybe it will stick, we'll see. He suggested "Sheep Dwarf" for me, cause one of my favorite games is one called Caverna, where you play a family of dwarves- mining and farming. It made me laugh, but we'll see!

Long time, no post

The day to day has been dragging me back into its seductive grip. I wake up each morning, trying to grasp what day of the week it is and what I have going on. All I've been doing lately is working. Playing a few games here and there. Trying to limit my spending, cause I'm going to need a ton of money to get through my journey. Being gone for 6 months will be interesting. I'll need to be paying my bills while I'm gone.

I know I've mentioned this before, but it's pretty amazing how trivial a lot of our daily existence has grown to be. We're very far from our roots, hunting and gathering to get food, clamoring for shelter, trying to survive. Our way of life is very soft. Even when I'm living out of my backpack next summer, it will be with items that are highly engineered and ultra light. Our advancements have been nothing short of incredible, and they continue to be. Stop and think a moment about how easy we have things. Food is fairly easy to obtain for most of us, shelter the same. Very rarely are confronted with issues that are life and death. Even the charity I support provides a lifeline for many children that even a handful of years ago would not have survived.

Our world is truly a wonderful place, our society has its issues, but even so- it is a marvel. I hope that I will gain a renewed appreciation for it after my excursion.

Long week

It's been a long tough week here. We're down below half strength at work, so the days have been long. Same number of calls and less than half of the number of people answering them. Makes for mental exhaustion. Plus I'm going on call starting this weekend, so who knows how much rest I'll be getting over this next week.

Still making baby steps towards the trip, working on logistics etc. Got a longer walk planned for tomorrow early, like 7 miles or so. That will be good, it's with my friend from San Fran that I walked with last week. I'm looking forward to it. It's also the Extra Life Tabletop Appreciation Weekend, so I'll be out promoting Extra Life at my friendly local game store Crossroad Games on Sunday.  Stop by and talk to me or play a game if you're around! It's for the kids!