http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:The88s&section=today deviantART RSS for by:The88s en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:38:54 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/16928971/ http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/16928971/ Sun, 17 Feb 2008 12:06:47 PST
I have reached the end of chartable territory. My plans have been laid, but at this point, they are laid in the ether.

At the beginning of this summer I will embark by bicycle heading south. The goal is to reach Buenos Aires, Argentina by the end of February 2009. I have lived in South America, and I have traveled on my own in places foreign to me, but this is absolutely unknowable. I cannot know what I will encounter along the way; what kind of people I will meet, what kind of places, weather, dangers.

It has been my plan for several years now to take such a trip, by bicycle for months and months. I think perhaps my motives have changed since the beginning. My first thoughts were born out of my reluctance to return to the United States in Spring 2006. I didn't know what to do with myself and it seemed that biking on the open road would be an acceptable escape from everything I feared back home.

I did return home, and I encountered all of my fears there, as written in the previous journal. I weathered a year of America, finding my niche in the meditative nature of technical and laborious work. Such things keep my mind centered and focused. In the end, I abandoned the idea of a bike trip immediately following graduation, and even the idea of attending school abroad. I went off to college in Ohio.

College changed my mind about a lot of things, but the intensity of this school of 200 students can be difficult to handle at times. With no real outlet outside of the campus community, all of my energy just kept reinvesting itself in my campus life. It built up steadily and by the end of the first term, after working full time, taking 22 credits, and being in the midst of a battle to save the college from death, I was as burned out as I ever have been.

This term, I am looking at things a little differently again. I am no longer that new college student learning what it is to be in college. I am no longer taking an overload of credits. I am no longer working full time. I am no longer very involved in saving the college, as it is out of our hands. Instead, I spend my time reading, thinking, playing harmonica, fixing bicycles, and trying to get a bead on life.

I have a lot of time to process everything around me. Clearly I've got a lot to think about regarding this trip. It is a big deal after all. But I am no longer really worried about what might befall me in the course of the trip. I can't know what will, so all I can do is prepare myself for everything and abandon my worries. What I have been thinking about a lot recently, has been what I'm leaving behind, and what I'm replacing it with.

I have lived in South America, so I can understand to a point what I will have when I'm there. I didn't think much about what I'd left behind when I left the first time, because I really just wanted to get away and know what life is like anywhere but home. I had no desire to stay in the States, and I couldn't appreciate life there. These days though, I'm really beginning to appreciate some of things I have here. I'm not talking about conveniences and freedom and all that bullshit that folks have ended up thinking life is all about. I like a simple life. I don't need anything I can't take with me, in the end.

But there are things that I will miss. Of course I will miss my friends and family, but I have spent a long time thinking about that, and I think I have moved past that particular point. I remember someone saying once that there is no such thing as "American Culture." Well, for sure there can't be any definitive American Culture. We are born of so many cultures, and our nation is so geographically vast that it is pointless to make that claim.

So as I prepare myself for life with little, I remember my time in Montana and New Mexico, and what life is like in the West. Not with all the city folks on the coast, but life that involves real work. We (those of us born to the cities and suburbs) have this ridiculous idea that the good life is the convenient life; the life filled with microwaves, and computers, and plastic. I don't hate these things. In fact, I appreciate them as well, but I have learned how they are not necessary for happiness.

I have learned to value a good pair of boots. When I put on my boots, I feel good. I like durable things. I like to be outside. I like to actually feel the cold in the winter. I like to wear long underwear. I like to heat water in a real kettle. I like to work with my hands. I like to be outside.

Now, what I worry about after... ]]> ~The88s http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/9307350/ http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/9307350/ Fri, 07 Jul 2006 23:20:53 PDT
Perhaps we can define home as simply the place in which we live, but I believe there is much more to it. It's the place where we feel comfortable, at ease, and at peace. This is not it.

But what is? This is a question I am now forced to ask myself. I've been uprooted from a place I felt a growing attachment to, and thrown back from whence I came. Here. I honestly feel this place, these surroundings are more foreign, stranger, less familiar, than when I first touched down in Paraguay.

Paraguay. What a country. I won't be foolish enough to say that Paraguay is my home now, but what I do feel is a certain sense of not belonging. I was a foreigner there, and though I did paraguayan things, and talked in the paraguayan speak, it's not something one shakes. Here, I feel just as much a foreigner. Though I know this place intimately, and it's people, the vast, vast majority are now placed at a certain distance from me. I can no longer be the suburban kid, the American that I was before. Why? Because I'm not him. We've grown apart. I left him behind, fretting over things to pack last August, and received word that he died some time ago. I sleep in his bed now, play with his dog, read his books, but I am not him.

It was not simply travelling abroad that changed me so, but rather a series of events which have culminated in the formation of the me that I am now. The normal exchange experience is always eye-opening, as is travel to any foreign country, but I had the great fortune to be given the opportunity to go beyond that, and really get know latin america on a much more personal level.

Friends, I've seen such things that I will never forget. There are so many things to be found in that continent, so many treasures, so many horrors. I can scarcely begin to recount the things I have seen and experienced, as not all of these things can be told in words, and in this language. And some of these things, I cannot even hope that you will understand if I could. There is something that can be seen in a man's eyes that cannot be transmitted by type or spoken word, by photograph or film. It's a moment in which your eyes lock upon his, and the souls mingle. There is so much there, and the burden these people carry within themselves is so great that in that gaze, it overpowers you, envelops you and crushes you. In some people, those eyes convey a deep saddness, or helplessness, or fear, but in some, for just a second, you touch something so powerful that it remains with you for a long time afterwards. I broke the gaze and managed to make my way back the truck, almost weeping, and he wandered back to his hut to get ready for the next 13 hour workshift, having given me all of his sorrow that I would take.

These things haunt me and inspire me, encourage me and send me to hell in every moment and every day.

I've stripped away what I was before, or what I had on the outside. Stripped away the suit of lies, egotism, worry, fear, and everything that powers this great machine I called home. When I left, I struggled to get a good grasp upon what exactly this country is. But finally I took a step back, and I've been stepping back since. I stopped defending my values and opinions of before, and let the world show me what it had. I saw. I saw the real consequences of what we have and do. It's a beast, a great machine that feeds upon our fears and worries and lies and deceit and greed, and takes us farther and farther away from who we truly are. We're caught in this irony, running away from the beast we feed.

I've found something better. It is something small, and I have not yet defined it, but I know it's there. It's a small flame, but if I keep it close, I can feel it's scant heat. And I must not mistake the bright plastic fire flickering in the fireplace for the one I know is real.

Thank you for reading, honestly. I'd like to speak to each person that manages to read this personally, and I mean that truly. As said, text is a horrible medium at times. This is one of them. ]]> ~The88s http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/8797809/ http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/8797809/ Wed, 17 May 2006 12:18:03 PDT
When I wrote long ago of my plans to do humanitarian work, I had good reasons. I told myself I'd never be able to forgive myself if I did any other thing. I also told myself I'd end up changing my mind, but that I couldn't let myself. Well, guess what happened.

First I went off on my film school tangent, which, frankly, I would love to do...but I just can't. What I've decided is more important. Some day maybe.

Then most recently my bike trip. Which isn't exactly taking the place of the plans, but delays them a while, which isn't so good. 6 years of med school is a while, and I'd like to get it over with as fast as I can.

So, I'm back on track.

I was talking about crazy complex plans a while back- making this and that. Way to much work. It's a pretty simple plan. Go. Study medicine. Graduate. Work in the field. It's not hard, and there's a hell of a lot of work to do. Famine in Niger, Sudanese refugees going to Chad, refugees from Chad going to Sudan, Afghanistan, DRC, Georgia, still picking up the mess from the tsunami, and more come every year.

Every time I see this film or that film, I know I've got to do relief work. I have to. I can't even explain it.

Then when I talk to some people or read something, or ... anyway, I really really want to go study film and arrrrg. It hurts. But I just can't do it.

And that's not the only thing that hurts. I've got a year left in high school, right? And after that, I'm not just heading to UWM, or even to another school across the country, I'm leaving. Up and out. Overseas, faraway. I probably won't see most of these people again. I think I can deal with that for some of my friends, but it's the people that I don't know well that make me sad. I've spent the last two years not getting to know the people I wanted to get to know. And I feel like such an ass for it. Half of them are graduating this year, and I really won't see them ever again most likely, and the other half, well, a year isn't much time when you're looking at bailing out of the civilized world afterwards.

It'd be so easy to say, "fuck the world, I'm going to college like everyone else." And I'd probably be pretty happy. I'd worry about all the things other people worry about, and maybe live a life a bit more interesting that some. But now that I've considered just once, going to do humanitarian work, I would kill myself daily if I did anything else. How selfish would that be, I tell myself, to think to myself, "I should help these people" and then say "no, I'd rather do something else."

And I know I'd be happy with relief work, I really would. I'd love to live in the middle of nowhere making things a little better, but everytime I think of the people I left behind, and indeed the people I didn't even get a chance to leave behind, I know I'll doubt myself. That's something I must never do.

And now I'll be heading home (touchdown in Milwaukee July 6), and I dread living in the US, because I know I'll lose sight of my goal. The states do that, they make everything seem like it's not so bad after all. But it is, it is. And sitting here, I know this. How can I explain this? Damn. ]]> ~The88s http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/8427291/ http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/8427291/ Mon, 10 Apr 2006 12:15:34 PDT
First, I was already planning on going to a university overseas, but then I thought, how will I get there?
So I thought, why not go by bike?

So my new adjusted plan: High school ends, June 2007, and alex sticks around for a bit in the summer, tying everything up. Then, he takes off with one or two other people in a plane to Paris. From there, he unpacks his bike, and sets off on a two-year, 17-country trip to Bangkok, Thailand, including a stint over the himalayas.

I´ve been doing tons of work to figure this all out, because I´ve simply become entranced by the idea of just hitting the road in a bike for two years.

But it´s going to be expensive, which means hardcore fundraising...much more fundraising than I pulled for AFS. Gotta buy a new bike, and these babies run about $800, plus a tent, new sleeping bag (I managed to lose mine...at a hotel of all places), the panniers, smaller cookstove than the one I have, visas, all the bike repair gear.

But man, am I excited. Despite the fact that it might not even happen, and it´s more than a year a way...damn.

Does this interest you at all? You being anyone at all...from graduating seniors, to some kid my age from Lichtenstein. I need some fellow cyclers here.

The country list:

Passing from, Paris
Germany
Austria
Hugary
Romania
Moldova
Ukraine
Kazakhastan
Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan
Pakistan
China (himalayas here)
India
Bangladesh
Myanman
Thailand

The "stan" area is a bit shaky, as they have strange visa requirements. So, I may take a detour through turkey and afghanastan.

Any interest?

Alex ]]> ~The88s http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/8246087/ http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/8246087/ Thu, 23 Mar 2006 13:00:56 PST
I believe there is a way to define ourselves, each and every one of us. Perhaps it is impossible to describe in english or any other language, but I believe that one thing exists nevertheless. It can be a single thing, an action, a place, but it is the one thing that truly allows you to know, for certain, that you are alive. Because in this moment, you live.

While things may come to mind, such as perhaps "I love a good game of tennis," tthings like that bring only base and animal satisfaction; they do not bring a sense of purpose - a uniquely human idea. I've little doubt that there are those who do find themselves defined by the game, the small green ball and it's flight, but most of us will find it no more than a pastime.

I walked this morning along a long and silent street, on my way to school. I stuck on this familiar theme of autodefinition and I made my realization. I have no choice but to define myself as a soldier. Many would look at this with suprise, as it may seem that this doesn't fit me at all. But it's true. It absolutely defines me, ow I think about things, and how I view myself.

"A soldier?! What are you going to do alex? Join the fucking army?"

I sigh.

It's not like that at all. Again, it's this thing that defines me, and really, I'm not sure any of us can truly explain this to any other man who defines himself in a different way. Looking back over the years of my life, I can see this underlying theme. I analyze tactical terrain advantages and just about everything else I see whithout thinking about it.

There's something unique and special about being defined as a soldier as opposed to being employed by an army. While these "soldiers" are indeed fighting men, they probably don't all regard it as their life's calling. America's army actively advertises to the effect of a "one man army." This disgusts me but embodies the very essence of American life today: selfishness.

A true soldier faces a horrible rtial of self. He longs for battle but longs for peace as well. He knows he can only truly live as long as he has a battlefield on which to fight, but is saddened by the destruction war, and he himself cause. There's an excellent quote to this effect in Gundam Wing, but I can't find it.

I can define myself as a soldier, yes, but now I may go further, to say that I am a soldier without a war. This is the curse of the soldeir, to wander, forever searching for a reason to fight.

"In the heat of battle it ceases to be an idea or a flag for which we fight. Rather we fight for the man on our right or left. When the years fall away all that remains are the memories of those precious moments we spent side by side." -The four feathers ]]> ~The88s http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/8110932/ http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/8110932/ Thu, 09 Mar 2006 09:47:45 PST
Kayte, has been forced to abandon here AFS exchange mid-year, due to rules, and AFS staffers who are a little to harsh and un-understanding to be in charge of an exchange program. With this, she decided to plan the next 8 years of her life out, and left me in a tight spot. No worries though, I always pull through and think of something else.

So, this leaves me trying to organize an effort that I realize I´d been organizing on my own all along. I took a hard look at how things were going, and how things weren´t going, and decided to scratch my whole plan and start over.

I´ve been thinking about jumping ship to Africa after senior year, as opposed to S. America. Uganda seems to be my favorite right now, due to their schools (800$ tuition is my friend). Trying to figure out where I want to go after that. I know I shouldn´t try to plan my life so far ahead when certainly my gustos will change, but I like to feel like I´ve got something to work for.

It´s no fun not having a sense of purpose. That´s what I get for not being religious.

So afterwards, I´m not sure. I´d like to pick up some professional military experience just ´cause, but I don´t want to commit 5 years of my life to the French Foreign Legion, nor do I at all like the prospect of America´s fighting force. Blech. Maybe I´ll be a bush doctor. That actually looks rather appealing. I´m still hopelessly in love with film, however, and I know I´ll always regret not having gone to Chapman or Santa Fe after HS, but maybe I can still work with that. You just don´t here that much about film in Africa.

Cuba´s still on the horizon. Can´t let that island fall into American hands when Castro goes down (and America does have plans-this I have on good intel). Murky water.

We´ll see.

Say hello to everyone back home. That means everyone.

Alex
in Paraguay. ]]> ~The88s http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/7927606/ http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/7927606/ Fri, 17 Feb 2006 17:08:41 PST
It''s been about a month now, and my compact flash card is sick (poor thing). I have a number of folders in which I save photos on the camera, but one day, one of them decided to join the dark side. Since then, it's been an abyss. I can't shoot fotos in it, and when I select the folder, the camera tells me there are no photos on the card, and won''t let me shut it off. Bleh.

So I go to the computer, and first the pc won''t even recognize that there''s a camera plugged in. Then I switch the camera usb settings from mass storage to ptp. it appears, but I can''t access it.

So today, I go to all the photo shops in town (sweating profusely) and they plug it in and tell me different things, none helpful. The man at kodak told me my camera was using a different format, that''s why it didn''t work with his machine (that''s shit, I've printed there before). Two others, no ideas. The last one came close, but the computer froze up and had to restart windows explorer. Her diagnostic was the best "tu compact flash tiene algo raro" which is of course the truth.

So now I have a rogue compact flash with several hundred of my best photos, and it appears, no way to retrieve them.

Maybe it's possessed, maybe the abyss really is a pathway to the inferno, I don't really know. I will succeed though, someday.

Alexei ]]> ~The88s http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/7905022/ http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/7905022/ Wed, 15 Feb 2006 09:47:19 PST
This journal won´t be so thought out as the others. It´s only here to say that I´ve got about 30 deviations and 10 scraps to upload as soon as I have time to edit them.

look for that before school starts on March 1st.

Damn is it hot here.

Alex
CG ]]> ~The88s http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/7533850/ http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/7533850/ Sat, 07 Jan 2006 08:51:46 PST
Lima is a beast of a city. It takes forever to get from place to place, but that´s cool. I like to see the city. The city sits in a valley, or at least a place without hills that surrounded by them. The hills (or cerros) are dangerous because they´re all dirt and rock that has a thing for sliding down from time to time. They are also the poor districts.

I had the fantastic oppurtunity to see these firsthand as I took a trip up one cerro with a team of psychiatrists who work in a small mental health hospital for the area. The houses are built in precarious locations where the slightes push on a rock could bring down first a house, and then a whole neighborhood. These are the little wooden houses too..no brick and cement here.

The reality of the thing stunned me. They can´t inhabit land within the city because that costs money they don´t have, so they´re pushed up into the danger of the cerros. The cerro I mounted was one chiefly composed of victims of terrorism in the region not to many years back. The mental health issue is a big deal, but we encountered a lot of resistance (people not wanting to talk to us, not coming down from their houses).

This is all such a big deal. I never could´ve understood any of this back home, seeing pictures, watching documentaries, any of it. You have to stare a man in the eyes to understand this reality. And in those eyes--they´re not empty, but they´re not full of joy. You see his distress with his condition, and that he knows that despite his hardest efforts, his daughter who he loves so much is never going to get out of this place. This mountain of dust and rocks that yearn to see him fail.

Evo Morales is now the president elect of Bolivia. He´s allied himself with Chavez (and Humala--wtf?). We might see some change ahead, but as I´ve said and continue to do, change needs to be something radically new. Peruvians don´t like to be fucked around from outside, but man, they need to pick up their own.

I have work to do. Come Join me. ]]> ~The88s http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/7367636/ http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/7367636/ Tue, 20 Dec 2005 20:22:16 PST
So here's the deal. I have to go through the AFS beurocratic meatgrinder for the next few days for leaving the country, but after that, it's omnibus to Lima (with a stop in Buenos Aires or La Paz (If it's BA, I'll do everything I can to take a spin over to Rosario to see Kayte)). Ah Peru. Cash is going to be short though. Anyone who wants to donate a dollar, algunos centavos, um real, un sol, po sa guaranies, un peso, a euro, anything, please do.

Things have changed for me. My first month here was something else. I took to the change by overhauling my whole worldview and my take on politics and social welfare. Then I settled in for a while. I saw the poverty, it moved me, but then it became part of the landscape. This I, we, cannot let happen. I took another trip last week to an indigeonous colony called Akaraymi, about an hour away. Here I worked with some priests setting up a co op with the indigeonous people. The most humbling experience for me, was when I went out one evening in the pickup truck with one of the missionaries to a little hut in the middle of nowhere where a man lived with his family of seven or eight. How so many people fit into his casita, I don't know, but we came, drank terere, talked, then started building a new hut near the other. Really, what a humbling experience to help build a man's house, using nails, and pieces of a tree you cut down that morning. The poetic beauty astounds me and I was moved.

I came back home and had to think for a while. After that, I had an excellent conversation with my host mother about the work that needs to be done in the world. My work. We sipped yerba mate until three in the morning.

I began penning the next email to kayte, expressing my thoughts. What we need to do; how we need to organize the people so when things get rough, there will be something ready to step up and show the world the way things really are. Kayte and I are going to make a splash if we do that together, and I hope we do. She's a pretty cool person, albeit xhundred miles away in Rosario.

I hope Peru will open my eyes more. It's a different culture, with more poverty and more injustice. I look at the changing of the times in Bolivia, where it looks like the new president will be something of a socialist, looking to nationalize the gas reserves and drive america out. I look at the ready to fight attitude of venezuela, working with Cuba to fight for the people. I look at Cuba, a lone beacon of something we've fought to supress in the tropics. I look at an aging Castro, the charismatic leader who won't last too much longer. I look at the US, ready to claim his throne a day after he is no more. I look at Venezuela, ready to defend their friend it that troubling circumstance. I drop to a knee and offer Cuba my sword. I will not permit imperialism in my adopted home. The people here are ready to fight, but they need a strong voice. It is how it is and how it has been. Che was that voice, but american warriors, fighting for freedom, killed the man, securing the fate of the working man.

I will not be the next Che. I don't want to be. I want to start something new, to construct what needs to be. This is my work, and there is no world superpower who will stop the downtrodden of this continent from saying what they need to say. I just need a bit more time.

I will keep, with luck, a concise journal of my experience in Peru. That I might never forget what I see.

Good night, and off to Peru I go. ]]> ~The88s http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/7360995/ http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/7360995/ Tue, 20 Dec 2005 06:25:47 PST
Alex ]]> ~The88s http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/6979102/ http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/6979102/ Mon, 07 Nov 2005 08:52:21 PST
Things are good here in Paraguay. It´s getting warmer every once and a while, and School´s nearing its end, which means I´ll be in Peru (hopefully) not too long from now.

I´m a little upset at Converse. My new All Stars have a hole in them. They´re suede for Chrissake. arg.

I´ve started writing a screenplay too. A jazz band in a totalitarian corporate state called home. I miss jazz band. Not so much fun having to imagine chord changes while you play. Oh well.

Paraguays crazy fascinating. So much poverty and injustice in this continent, and the government pretends to worry about the international markets and affairs, carefully ignoring the fact that it plays pretty much no role in the outside world, hardly even trading with anyone but brazil, and half of that´s contraband.

They´re filming Miami Vice down the street from my house though. Cuban med school kind of ruins my dream of a film/cinematography major, but we just can´t win ´em all can we?

I´m in Asuncion right now, some 4 or 5 hours from my home in Ciudad del Este. My ´brother´and I are visiting a family here. The mother runs a tight ship, and I´m not really used to that. It´s really weird being the guest and having someone else´s preferences forced on you. Not talking rules here, I can deal with that. When I´m ordered to change my shirt mid day, because I´d worn it to school, it´s just a bit strange.
School´s interesting though. Friday I went and chilled with the Ultimo año Informatica class. It was their last day of class, so they just dicked around all day. They made a pile of desks and chairs in the room, then tipped them over. It was just insanity the whole time. Throwing things at the fan, climbing on things and eachother, in the computer lab everyone did whatever, some playing counterstrike while others checked the email and messaged friends. It was a good day, followed by a party on top of someone´s apartment building.

Saturday was a lot of nothing. Paulo dragged me to a mall (a bad mall, but hey, it´s paraguay, I like the street shops myself). There he spent 10 minutes drilling the poor girl at the watch kiosk about the most ugly watches (I kept repeating "que feo" and making strange faces and indicating how large it was.) They were all overpriced too. 100 american for a digital POS you could pick up for 30 or less back home. The girl was patient though, and sipped her terrere.

We were supposed to eat lunch there. Paulo decided he was hungry at last and we toured the food court. He decided on an empanaderia, and bought us each 1 empanada with the money his mother had given us for expenses we´d have in the city over the weekend. He mourned the loss of the 3500 Guaranies (about 65 cents). He honestly thought that we were supposed to use the money to buy things for ourselves, and had big plans to buy all sorts of things with our 100 000 G( about 17 dollars). We ran a bit short of his dreams. I might note how incredibly insubstantial a single empanada is.

What can I expect of a 12 year old though? I would hope more, but sadly, I suppose not. I really wish he´d stop his campaign to bother me though. The constant noises in my ear, jabs in the stomach, asking me if I like the most unimportant thing, and then when it was actually something i didn´t like, asking me why not (for example, a pile of trash: "Alex, you like?" me:"no" him:"why not? Alex? Alex? Alex? Alex? ALEX? Alex, why not?") I never realized how much I value time alone. Not all the time of course, but when I´m working on things (my screenplay for instance) following a train of thought, characters developing themselves in my mind and suddenly I´m confronted with obscene noises in my ear and then I´m asked if I really do indeed like when he does that. I solidly negate it. No I do not. I´ve yelled at him about it twice now, each time when he kept it up for 15 or 20 minutes. Patience, even in the most stoich, it seems, has limits.

This is quite long now, it seems, and I´ll leave it hear, confident that few will read it as long as it is.

Wish me luck with Cuba, and thanks Kayte, for the idea. I´m sure we´ll make it there without losing sight.

Love from Paraguay,

Alex ]]> ~The88s http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/6493210/ http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/6493210/ Tue, 13 Sep 2005 10:24:28 PDT
I really don't know what to write. The experience so far has given me new goals in life, and I hope to be able to reach them.

More or less, everything is good here. I'll write more if I can get rid of this "nothing really to say" mindset.


From Paraguay with Love
Alex ]]> ~The88s http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/6243568/ http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/6243568/ Tue, 16 Aug 2005 13:13:36 PDT
As you may have noticed, I've reactivated my gallery. I can't keep up with deviantPolitics while I'm here, and I need an outlet for my pictures. All submissions for the next year will be digital, as I don't have a scanner.

Paraguay is lovely. Winter's just ending, and all is good. Ciudad del Este is a horribly dirty city, but it has its good points too. '

I've spent a lot of time watching Brazil from my balcony, thinking and writing. I think I've figured out what I'm going to do with myself when this is all over.

Adios for now,
Alex ]]> ~The88s http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/6116675/ http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/6116675/ Tue, 02 Aug 2005 20:41:40 PDT
In a few hours I'll be on my way to Paraguay, with uncertain access to the internet. I'm afraid I won't be able to do much for the 7th, but I'll reactivate the gallery next time I log on if this has resolved itself.

Good luck to all of you, and °jark, don't let the man get you down. We love you.

Cheers,
Alex.



Here's the info from my last journal:

read this [link] now.

It appears $spyed has released some sort of statement, which jark has replied "Do not let yourself be fooled by rhetoric." Hold it true, and don't let the Man take the deviants down.

________________________________________ _


Hopefully you've all heard by now that °jark's no longer with dA. It's really becoming quite a disturbing situation in which the idea of community, apparently, has been set aside for capital gain.

The truth:[link]

Former staff member °euphoria has said this:

"It is my opinion that the management of this company, for the most part, lacks the most common qualities of integrity and honor. The focus of the CEO’s vision is not one of community or art, but rather commerce and capital. While these are not in and of themselves bad things, when they take over what really matters it becomes a problem and corrupts everything in its path."

`onestar and `krash have been coordinating the efforts for a Great Protest against the recent corporate actions of Dev. `onestar has proposed a day of deviation silence for August 7th ([link]). `krash on the other hand, has suggested everyone submit a yellow deviation, and comment on everyone elses yellow deviations ([link]). This community action is to show the powers that be that this is not how we want our dA to operate: Money first, Art second.

don't miss `justthorne's entry [link]



Staff members who've now resigned:

[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/6082257/ Sat, 30 Jul 2005 21:33:56 PDT
read this [link] now.

It appears $spyed has released some sort of statement, which jark has replied "Do not let yourself be fooled by rhetoric." Hold it true, and don't let the Man take the deviants down.

________________________________________ _


Hopefully you've all heard by now that °jark's no longer with dA. It's really becoming quite a disturbing situation in which the idea of community, apparently, has been set aside for capital gain.

The truth:[link]

Former staff member °euphoria has said this:

"It is my opinion that the management of this company, for the most part, lacks the most common qualities of integrity and honor. The focus of the CEO’s vision is not one of community or art, but rather commerce and capital. While these are not in and of themselves bad things, when they take over what really matters it becomes a problem and corrupts everything in its path."

`onestar and `krash have been coordinating the efforts for a Great Protest against the recent corporate actions of Dev. `onestar has proposed a day of deviation silence for August 7th ([link]). `krash on the other hand, has suggested everyone submit a yellow deviation, and comment on everyone elses yellow deviations ([link]). This community action is to show the powers that be that this is not how we want our dA to operate: Money first, Art second.

don't miss `justthorne's entry [link]



Staff members who've now resigned:

[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
~The88s http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/6062547/ http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/6062547/ Thu, 28 Jul 2005 22:27:40 PDT Cincinnati->Miami. Then Miami->Sao Paulo->Asuncion. Wow. Shopping is done. Packing is not.

I think I'll take the Canon A-1 instead of my even older FTb. Only problem: the A-1 must have a battery to function whereas the FTb can run without one (only the light meter needs the battery, and I haven't been using it). I feel wary being dependent upon one battery and another backup for a year...maybe I'll sneak the FTb in another piece of luggage as a backup.

Film is purchased: 8rolls Kodak 400 max, 3 rolls Kodak B&W, 1 roll Kdk 100, 1 roll Kdk 200. I bought this excellent camera bag on Wednesday. It's a Sony (grr, I know, but at least it's not a camera) backback type thing with a detachable shoulder bag in the bottom. It fits the A-1 with macro attached, macro adapter and the Nikon digi in the shoulder portion with the telemacro, 120mm tele, flash unit1, and macro tripod in the backpack portion. I still need to figure out where to put that second camera and the 50mm. There are a number of little elastic pockets everywhere to put film, pads of paper, notes, etc in. It'll be a much more accomodating camera bag than my "bread bag" messenger bag.

I got the trumpet from back from the shop. All 8 billion mouthpieces are now packed and ready to go. Got my debit card checked out, and we can only hope the Paraguayan ATMs are feeling friendly . I still need to get a haircut and I need to learn more spanish.

Friday. Today I guess: I get the last of the Rabies vaccine series, get my cholorquine Rx and chill for a bit.

We'll see what goes down.

Cheers,
Alex

Check out the "one who left DA" part of me at
and this dude has a few awesome portraits ~jabala

also check the clubs:




The man's got °jark down.
show your support with a and a [link]

°jark ]]> ~The88s http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/5982070/ http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/5982070/ Tue, 19 Jul 2005 22:54:31 PDT
I have some new work I've finally developed. It's not much, but that's what I get when I try to bracket and be stingy with my film at the same time. Mostly flower macro if I haven't forgotten. I'll try to get that up soon, I just have a lot of stuff I'm trying to get finished right now.

Once I'm settled in Paraguay, I'll try to send some shots out here. I'll be in a city, so fewer flower macro shots (though Paraguay has some kickass orchids that I just can't wait to get my film around) and more urban etc. I have 3 rolls of kodak B&W packed already, so I should get some awesome shots of the rampant smuggling in Ciudad del Este. I hope I have some computer access as well so I can get my digi shots out of my camera. I'd hate to end up rationing a memory stick.

It looks like I have some good work ahead of me, so keep an eye out, and don't let the man get you down.

Cheers
-Alex


Check out the "one who left DA" part of me at

also check the clubs:


]]> ~The88s http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/5278623/ http://The88s.deviantart.com/journal/5278623/ Thu, 05 May 2005 19:30:38 PDT
Several years ago I started an account under the name pyro-chernobyl. This account and its gallery don't really fit me anymore, but I want to preserve that art, so here's the new account.

I've purchased a new digital camera with a rockin 5.1 mp, so i'll be having some digi fun, as well as continuing the work with my old canon and macro lenses.

Cheers. ]]> ~The88s