What might you expect to find?

Day 2 [Backdated]

2003-09-24T14:40:43Z

Leslie woke up early and went in to work. My plan was to take an easy day, wander around the south zone, work on my acclimation, and practice my Spanish. Silly me to make plans!

I did manage to get out of the house and wander around for about an hour. Before I forget, here are a few more pictures from Leslie's house:

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From the driveway, where you get a good view of the second floor.
It is hard to get a good angle on the house with my digital camera.

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There is a nice patio behind the house with a grill for BBQs.

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And a lovely little garden outside as well!

Around 10 AM I got a call from Leslie. The city was going to be shutting down tomorrow (Friday) because of a massive protest march. She asked if I wanted to take pictures. I was a little intimidated, but decided that I should definitely do it.

So instead of easing in on Day 2, I took a taxi to the World Bank office in Sopocachi (an area of La Paz). Leslie figured if I had some connection with an actual press office that I would be able to avoid some hassles. A good idea, so I called the regional office of the Associated Press in Santiago, and they gave me contact info for the La Paz office of AP. No one was around (surprise! they were out taking photos), so we had a few hours to kill.

Leslie and I went for a picnic lunch at a nice outlook, and then went to the black market to try and get the mobile phone working that Leslie had bought in the US and I had brought with me. The black market is not as sketchy as it sounds, it is simply where all the illegally imported electronic (and other) wares are sold. They managed to repair the phone, and a little while later I went and got it activated.

In case you are curious, my number is 712.35701. I don't honestly know what you'd need to dial from the US, but will happily put that info up if someone fills me in.

Leslie was also very close to buying a car, so we went to go check it out one last time, and work out payment details with the owner. Having a car should theoretically make it easier to take weekend excursions.

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Leslie's soon-to-be baby

About this time I managed to get in touch with Dado Galdieri, the AP staff member here, and went to meet with him. We agreed that I could string for the AP, and if I get any good shots while I am here I can maybe get them on the wire. That out of the way, Leslie and I went back to her office.

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Leslie's boss John and co-worker Ale

After about an hour at the office (I kept Leslie from doing much actual work all day), we ended up going to a jazz concert with the La Paz Big Band. It was actually pretty good, an impressive blend of Bolivian sound with the more standard big band stuff.

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The La Paz Big Band

Finally we got back home and went to sleep so that we could wake up at 6 AM and get to El Alto for the start of the protest march!

Day 1 [Backdated]

2003-09-24T14:16:11Z

I arrived in La Paz early this morning after an overnight flight from Boston via Miami. I managed to get in the slow line at immigration and was almost the last one through. I didn't get hassled at customs (which is good considering it would have been a pain to go through all my camera gear and whatnot), and met Leslie right outside the airport.

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Leslie, with "you are SO off my friends list" t-shirt

She had procured a nice cab to take me to her house, which is on the other side of La Paz in the south zone (Zona Sur). Let me give you a brief introduction to the urban structure of the city. La Paz is located in a valley that descends from a plateau (the Altiplano). El Alto is where the airport is located, at the top of the plateau. You descend from El Alto into the center of La Paz, which blankets all the sides of the (rather steep) valley. It is amazing to see how many little houses have been crammed together.

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A not-so-great picture that illustrates my point

Zona Sur is further down in the valley, connected to the center of La Paz by only a few roads. Outside of the city and the south zone, the landscape becomes phenomenal. Eventually I'll post some pictures.

Enough of a geography lesson! We got to Leslie's house in Cotacota (a neighborhood of the Zona Sur), and I had some coca tea. I had decided not to start taking the altitude medication I had gotten in the states because Leslie and I had planned to go with the World Bank to Riberalta on Thursday night. That trip was postponed, though, because the airport there had been taken over by the locals. (More on the social unrest in Bolivia later!) Anyways, the coca tea is supposed to help with acclimation and digestion, both appreciated.

The change in altitude wasn't hurting me too much yet, so I unpacked. I managed to forget a few things, probably due to the ridiculous pace of the last day in Boston. Nothing critical, thankfully. Leslie's house has three bedrooms, which is good because she constantly has houseguests! I get my own bedroom and office:

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Note all the (practically new) clothing on the bed

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My "office" where my injured laptop will live

At this point I pretty much needed to crash, so I went to sleep. After a few hours I woke up with a nasty headache. I started taking the acetazolamide and drank more tea, took some ibuprofen, and went back to sleep for many hours. Thank goodness for sleep!

Backdating: Day 0

2003-09-23T01:24:25Z

Leaving totally sucks. The day all-in-all was pretty awful.

I needed probably another 24 hours to really deal with everything as I had wanted to. I didn't have it, though Lisa totally saved my ass by dealing with most of my packing. I could not have made it without her, and I would have gone nuts trying. I felt terrible because our last day together was pure, awful stress.

I backed up my hard drive overnight, then shut it down (still hard to start, though not impossible). Lisa's room was a disaster area filled with all of my crap, and I tried to organize some of it. But I had a doctor's appointment at 10:00 AM for my last rabies shot, and time was running short: my flight left at 6:00 PM, and Rawhide and Terri were picking me up at 3:00ish to ferry me to the airport. On top of everything, it was raining, so I couldn't rollerblade from place to place as I had planned.

Thankfully (actually, mega-thankfully) Abby lent me her car once again so that I could deal with all my last-last-minute crap. Which I had waaaay too much of. I organized all my gear at Technique, rolled film (again with Lisa's life-saving help), and also went to CVS.

My malaria medication, which I had ordered from Canada, had not arrived. They had promised I would get it by the 12th, and when it didn't show up on the 16th I was royally pissed. Now Dasha has to mail it back whenever it finally does arrive so that I can get my money back. So much for trying to save cash -- CVS costs almost twice the rate I got from the Canadian pharmacy.

The packing wasn't quite finished and I was in a towel when Rawhide and Terri showed up. There was also probably at least an hour of cleaning that I should have done in Lisa's room that I simply wasn't going to have time to do. I felt like a total jerk. Augh.

Saying goodbye at the airport was awful. I had managed to avoid thinking about how much I was going to miss Lisa and everyone and everything in Boston until I was outside of security, and then it all suddenly hit me.

It was worse than this, for me especially.

After a weepy goodbye, I went through security (only took 45 minutes), and my adventure began.

Backdating: Day -1

2003-09-23T01:24:15Z

I haven't slept much since yesterday morning, and it looks like I won't have a chance until I get to La Paz.

Yesterday I woke up early to pick up a rental van from UHaul. Lisa (the goddess that she is) helped me move the bulkiest stuff out of Sparkle Motion and into the van, all of which I couldn't have done alone. She then helped me move most of it into Emily's basement before she had to take off to campus for meetings and whatnot. I stored the rest of it as compactly and as far out of the way as I could, though I fear that if I end up leaving it there for more than three months some of it will be moved and/or disappear. But such is the risk of free storage in a friend's co-op's basement!

Next came the heavy stuff. You probably know that I own N books, where N is a very large, weighty number. I had packed all the books into boxes on August 31st, and was storing them in the dining room at Sparkle Motion (thanks again to those peeps!). There were about 25 boxes in all of books, plus a mishmash of stereo equipment, artwork, and miscellany that I didn't think would fare so well in a dank basement. I thus asked Ania if I could store all of that in her parents' house out in Weston. Thankfully they had room in their attic. The only trick was getting it all out there.

I loaded what must have been about 2,000 lbs. of stuff into the van and drove it out to Weston. There was no way I was going to let Ania try and lift any of the boxes since her wrists would not deal well at all. Unloading went surprisingly quickly, and I finished in time to head back to Cambridge for a going-away party at 8 PM.

Wally and his bubbly beverage.

The party was nice. Nick and Terri brought lots of food and beverages (which was awesome since I hadn't really had time to shop!), Emily brought dry ice to make drinks all funky, and I got a chance to hang out with people. It wasn't at all a sad affair, perhaps cause I'll be back for about a month in January. Avery and Dave couldn't make it, though, cause they were desperately packing for their trip. I hope things are going well for them!

After people left I went to work on a variety of last-minute projects. I had to prepare the Bramblepix for those folk, I had to collate all my business negs and files so that I could hand them over to Helen for the duration of my trip, and a bunch of other random stuff.

At around 6:30 I took the UHaul back, had a short breakfast with Emily, and then proceeded to spend the day preparing in earnest for my trip to La Paz. Lisa skipped her classes and helped me tremendously in the search for new shoes and clothes. She even bought me a swank new digital watch. It doesn't have a calculator (**) but is otherwise a fantastic device.

The day managed to be reasonably pleasant and remarkably productive. Almost all of this is due of course to:

Lisa

No sleep tonight, though, cause I haven't even really begun to pack. Things are likely to get ugly.

** What is the deal with calculator watches these days? Casio has stopped making my sweet-ass nerd watch and instead charges double for a product that is less rugged and has fewer features. I'm pretty pissed off about the whole deal.

Backdating: Dalai Lama, Bramblepix, Havdallah

2003-09-23T01:21:16Z

The Dalai Lama is in town for a conference on how the mind works wherein he and several Western and Buddhist scholars talk about various aspects of cognition, emotion, etc. I didn't have time to attend the conference, but I did manage to get a press pass and take a few photographs (though they only gave us about 20 seconds to do so!)

I ran from the morning session of the conference to a photo shoot at Brambleberry. The folks there wanted me to do some portraits and some situational photos of the house members. I'll post a few here for your enjoyment:

The obligatory shower fashion shot.

Maggie makes a slam dunk.

Lifto and his chopper.

Moana

Lifto

Edgar

After the shoot I went with Lisa to a candlelit Havdallah service. It was held on the bank of the Charles and was really beautiful. The service was (as advertised) "short, sweet, and spiritual." Afterwards there were several group songs, though most were in Hebrew so I could really only be an audience for them. Strangely I didn't feel too much like an outsider. I suppose I owe that to Lisa. :)

Backdating Madness Begins: Technology & Moving On

2003-09-22T22:47:47Z

I have not written in my LiveJournal for about a month. The next few entries (up to "Day 6" assuming that I get there) are all being written at the same time, and thus are not so much live nor really a journal. Well, tough cookies. My use of present and past tense is probably going to be all screwy as well. Also with the cookies that are tough. And so:

Part of the reason I have not written is due to the fact that practically every electric/electronic device around me has decided that now (**), just a few short weeks before I leave the country, is the best time to fail. My computer, which had been flaky for a while finally decided not to start about 90% of the time. (I lost one hard drive and one 512 MB RAM chip as well, both hopefully to be replaced under warranty when I return to Boston...) My digital camera would not allow me to zoom or take pictures. My digital watch started freaking out and randomly resetting. One of my camera flashes totally died. My mobile phone would often not ring, and I would just get voicemails later instead. Even my electric razor started to flip out and not work.

It all made me realize how much impact technology has on my life. With all of those devices failing, my life went on, but my daily patterns (in as much as I have them...) were totally disrupted. It was frustrating and liberating simultaneously.

The second huge reason I have not written of late is because much of my time has been spent moving out of Sparkle Motion. I am now officially homeless (though the kind SparkleMovers will be holding my mail). Lisa is putting me up (and putting up with me), and my stuff will be stored in a scattered array across the greater Boston area.

In any case, enough of this, and on to a real entry.

** See how difficult this is? "Now" as in the 13th of September, which is actually the past, and just a convenient starting point for me to begin my backdating? Or the "long now" as in the intervening month in which I did not write? Or even "now" as in the 22nd, which is the present for me, but will likely be in the past for you, dear reader? A veritable cornucopia of confusion for me. Once again, the cookies, they are not so chewy for you.

[NB: By "Music" above I mean the music as I write "now", and by "Mood" I mean the mood as I was "then". If you care.]

Hmmm...

2003-08-24T07:34:33Z

I think the severity of my inebriattion doesn';t really shine thourtgh, so I have decided to post an entry without the pain-staking editing that I have been carefully give giving to the other entries. Note that the frixcking fire alarm has nbot stopped chirping every 30 seconds or so. Drasstic measures may be called for;.

7& drinks in two hours is too much for me I think. I'm going to have to be careful in the minimal oxygen o' Bolivia... Augh.

Dude! Not the computer at all, but rather the fire alarm!

2003-08-24T07:29:01Z

I'm way too drunk to understand what the hell is going on! Help?

Whoa... Hard to type legibly.

2003-08-24T07:26:32Z

I just returned from Nicolle's

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I just returned from Nicolle's <stop the fucking beeping already!> going-away party. I spent the past <damn beeping!!!> 20 hours making her present, which consisted of a framed collage <damnit! argh! Make it stop!>, a CD from the concert, and a video of the show. Of course, it took me five months to get together, but <AUAHAHUAHAHGGGH!!!!> I think it turned out well.

I have a bunch of updates to write about the past week, but I am a bit too intoxicated to really deal. I got a lot of advice for Bolivia tonight, the majority saying, "Get drunk and go to clubs -- you'll learn a ton of Spanish taht way." Maybe that should be my plan?

It's a Friday night

2003-08-16T01:59:01Z

Do I not go out on the weekends because time loses all meaning for me as a freelance worker? Or because I am just a loser? You be the judge.

(I am sitting at home working on, well, work. At least Rufus is keeping me company. I need to get this done before I take off for the south shore of New Jersey tomorrow... I hope there will be power when I get there!)

Bottle Caps

2003-08-14T02:33:15Z

I just realized that I hadn't followed through with my promise to explain how I won four Red Sox tickets. Here is the story:

About three months ago I noticed that Dr. Pepper was running a promotion where they were giving away free soda via messages under their bottlecaps. Being the naturally devious/curious boy I am, I spent a minute examining the bottles and realized that it was not that hard to read the message on the cap while the bottle was still closed. After checking several bottles I found a winner (a free 20 oz. Dr Pepper). I took it up to the cash register, removed the cap, and gave it to the cashier. She looked dubious, but took it, and I walked away with my first free soda.

Shortly thereafter I saw that Coke and Pepsi were also running bottle cap promotions. They were much harder to read, but not impossible. I don't drink Pepsi, so the free soda wasn't too appealing. I didn't spend too much time checking them out. The Coke caps, however, were more intriguing. They were running a promotion at the time where you could win prizes related to the Red Sox. The odds were not great, but I figured I'd spend some time checking it out.

A variety of caps -- all Coke, the top being the old promotion.

After about an hour at Star with my friend Wally, I hit upon a valuable cap -- four free Red Sox tickets. This turned out to be the best prize I'd win over the course of the next three months, but the memory of it (and the fact that I sold the tickets for over $100) kept me going.

The prize!

After a while I got into a regular routine -- every couple of days I'd take my collection of free soda caps (I had to buy four sodas early on so that I'd own the caps...) to various stores and look for winners. I'd trade the old caps for the new winning sodas, drink them over a few days and repeat the process. Often Lisa would be with me, and she would help me search the caps for winners. It could take 30 seconds or 15 minutes, but usually one or more could be found.

People would look at me/us funny in the stores, but I figured it was just a good lesson in not being embarrassed by outlandish behaviour in public. The promotions are mostly over now -- I think they are mostly a summer phenomenon. But next year I am totally going to exploit the system, and maybe I'll never have to pay for soda during the summer again!

Fingers and Toes

2003-08-14T02:10:21Z

I went tonight to the MITOC climbing wall for the first time and spent two hours bouldering around on a variety of thier easier routes. I rented shoes from them and tried going without socks. My toes are a bit sore, so I might try slightly larger shoes with socks the next time I go to compare and contrast how it all feels.

Overall, though, it was awesome! I totally suck and lack upper body strength, but that will hopefully come with time and practice. I'm gonna get a book from the library (Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills) to get an intro to roping techniques and climbing philosophy so that I won't be a total novice when I get to La Paz.

I keep getting distracted from actual (paying) work by all these side projects... I have got to concentrate for the next 48 hours! Augh!

Hikin'

2003-08-12T05:47:23Z

This past weekend I went hiking in the White Mountains with Ania, Elizabeth, Kevin, and Andy:

It rained a lot, which made the rivers really gorgeous (though a pain to cross!)

I accidentally set up my tent where a 2-inch deep puddle would later form, so I had to move the tent at midnight in the pouring rain. I could have possibly just gone to the nearby shelter, but I was afraid of the snakes.

Turns out that besides the big snakes there were also some smaller (cuter, less frightening) snakes.

I managed to get some sleep despite the soggy sleeping pad and tent, but I went out today to REI to get a Thermarest mattress. (More comfy, packs smaller than my current pad, and also waterproof. Sadly it was also like 5 times more expensive, but I think it will be worth it.)

While at REI I looked at the climbing shoes and harnesses and realized that I don't know enough yet to make an informed decision about buying anything. I am hoping to get some climbing in with some MITOC peeps so that I can get a better idea of what I'd like. Ugh! So much to do and so little time!

PoMos

2003-08-08T00:07:41Z

I think I am going to open a restaurant someday. What's your niche? you may ask. Well I'm glad you did. The answer? Pastiches.

What's a pastiche? Well, some may call it a "bagel pizza" but then they wouldn't really get the idea behind my whole new line of foods. At PoMos, I'd serve only foods that are mimetic parodies of other foods. Hence, not actual pizzas, but instead bagel pizzas. We'd probably have to branch out from there, inventing all kinds of referential menu items.

I'd be tempted to offer things like caffeinated water, but that seems like the easy (and kinda gross) way out. No, I'd need to be a real culinary innovator. Perhaps the peanut butter and jelly burrito ("PB&JB") or the egg-less omelette (basically fried cheese with bits of ham and mushrooms and things in it, maybe called the "Om").

The more disparate and eclectic the selections, the better -- as long as as it can all be tied back together under that postmodern theme.

Time

2003-08-07T22:38:25Z

Augh. Even though I don't leave the US for over a month, I am starting to feel anxiety in my stomach (some might call it "ulcerous" but I scoff at their medically inclined opinions and prefer to think of it as "butterflies" or perhaps "malevolent faeries"...)

I have several "to do" lists, but items get added every day. Last night I realized that I haven't looked into vaccinations. Do I need anything for my sojourns in South America? If I stay in the cities I'm probably okay, but what if I end up in the rainforest? I'd probably need yellow fever at least... Augh. At least I actually have health insurance!

Last night I made a batch of flash cards to help me learn Spanish. Speaking only English fluently has bothered me for years, but at this stage of life, learning languages is hard! I so definitely want to raise multi-lingual kids. Assuming I have kids someday, that is.

I should get back to work. I have to make serious headway on a bunch of projects in the next 24 hours, cause this weekend I'm off to backpack in the Whites... And then in two weeks I'll be down on the south shore of New Jersey for a week (the perils of dating a Jersey girl!)

Exercise

2003-08-05T22:05:09Z

Even though I have had minimal experience with it, I think that I would really like to take up rock climbing. Some of my fondest memories of are of scaling the "cliffs" behind my childhood home, climbing trees at school (though not so much being sent to the principal's office...), and even scrambling out of French ditches just for kicks.

Gonads are useful for their purpose, but they are no substitute for brains

2003-08-05T04:35:15Z

Google is our era's Oracle at Delphi, sans virgins. Well, I suppose you can find them there if you want.

But tonight I encountered something unusual. Zero hits. Nada. Nothing. I was trying to look up this band a friend pointed me to, "Phuzzknut" and I found zilch.

I was shocked. I was awed. Am I just misspelling the name? What is going on?

It all reminds me of the game of Googlewhacking.

I wonder what the productivity of the world would be if we didn't... Oh nevermind.

Design

2003-08-04T22:46:16Z

Instead of posting an actual entry I keep adjusting the journal settings and playing with the external posting software. For example, I made a macro to post pictures...

Why don't we have sunsets like this more often?

Ugh. I should return to the administrivia of my "workday".

Photographs

2003-08-03T18:19:49Z

Alrighty, so here I go testin' out some picture postin' magic.

First of all, an image that should hopefully link to something (in a new window, ideally):

Okay, now just some pictures & captions and all that goodness:

These are some of the peeps that I will be embarking with on the great Chicago adventure of 2004. Leftish to Rightish are Jeremy, Lori, Me, Adam, and Maria. Woot!

My dear friend Ania. Is. A. Scientist! (Working on her MD/PhD...)

And this is one of my favorite images of late -- a Kronosaurus from the Harvard Museum of Natural History. It's hu-normous!

Toolin'

2003-08-03T17:22:54Z

Even after five years of working as a freelance photographer, I am still not accustomed to how routine-less my days are. I really wonder what it would be like to have a regular 9-to-5 job in an office somewhere. How would I cope? I am so used to working in 20-hour spurts and sleeping for 12 hours at a time that a 40-hour/5-day/50-week work cycle seems totally alien to me.

Today, for example, I sold some Red Sox tickets that I won (a long story I'll write about later); I have to file a claim for damaged equipment with the Transportation Security Administration; I have to copy a bunch of videotapes; I have to update databases of equipment and software and file them with my insurance company; and I have to send a ton of emails.

Maybe that is about as random a list as an administrative assistant or any other office job (am I an assistant to myself?). I think my issue is that you never have to question the purpose of tasks assigned to you from above, no matter how random, if you don't want to. But I am constantly wondering how all of the day-to-day balogna I do coheres into a meaningful career (or existence for that matter!)

Sigh. This is what a degree in philosophy will do to you. I recommend against it, in case you were considering the option for yourself.

Phoenix

2003-07-31T15:08:38Z

This is just a test of an offline posting app.

If I add HTML, does it show up? Like:
Check out my website!

Alright, back to work.

Beginnings

2003-07-31T15:00:59Z

I can't seem to write anything casually.

This is why I dread email correspondence -- it takes me forever to decide what to write, how to phrase it, and to check and make sure it has the proper wording and tone. Tons of casual missives are a nightmare for a perfectionist like me. Dreadful.

But Leslie gave me this account (Thanks Leslie!), and maybe it would be a good way to keep family and friends updated about my life, especially given how crazy things are going to be in a few months.

Maybe the trick is just to write in small chunks, and not to worry about how everything sounds. Urgh. Or maybe this whole LiveJournal thing will give me an ulcer. Hard to say.