3rd Time's The Charm.

Well, I have returned to NZ, a place I seem to end up when I have lost focus with my life.  And then I get hungry again, find that spark, that passion, the why, the drive to do something bigger and more difficult than anything I've done before.

It's like leveling up in a game.

I find Wellington and the Hutt Valley pretty much like I left them.  Not too many changes, and whatever ones I do note are rather insignificant.  Some things will, and cannot ever change as well (like finding any nice Mexican food around these parts).  The things I wished to do when I got to this city are the same as the last time I was here: look out over the city from Mt. Vic, eat some steak 'n cheese pies, and I suppose seeing my friends as well....

Dug out of the archives: View from the aforementioned Mt. Vic.In the 3 years since I was last here, people have moved to the suburbs, babies have been born, and people have gotten older (like me).  But I'm done reflecting!  Now for what's on tap:Camping.  As much as I possibly can.  I may put together a close-by trip to celebrate my 30th birthday tomorrow night.  It could be me on the ocean, being buffeted by the winds.  I am definitely going Sunday night somewhere over the hills in the Wairarapa, and the South Island is in the mix.Speaking of turning 30, I almost forgot this one. (Full disclosure, I added this part last after I remembered!)  Turning 30 both terrifies me (somehow) and is no big deal.  I feel like I have no real reason to become more mature- I find I generally am an adult.  I feel like I have to start making more long-term choices though, ones that contradict my "wanting to see things, people and places" mentality.  But when I think about that, that doesn't make sense.  Why do I need to do anything?  I have no one except myself to sort out, but that will change one day.  Probably.  So turing 30 is funny to me.  I don't remember my 20th birthday at all, but my 21st I do.  And that seems ages ago.  I think of my oldest friends, and I am still close to them now.  But I also think back, and see a kid.  A kid that didn't know what the fuck was going on, and what he was doing.  I still don't.  But at least I recognize I know not much now....maybe I am slightly wiser!  I see the last decade as going by quickly, but think about everywhere I've gone, and people I've met, and think, "how could that all have happened in that time?"Working on a television show.  Seriously.  5 years ago, I came up with the idea for a show with Morgan Davie  about a German scientist who goes to the rural west coast on the South Island.  There, his sense of order, love of over-planning, and terse diction is at odds with the locals' laid back, pie eatin' ways.  Morgan is convinced this would be a good show.  I am convinced it would be a good show for New Zealand.  It wouldn't really be truly understood, or fit in the context of American society probably.  But who knows.  Writing it over the coming days is on my agenda....maybe we'll have something.Gatorball.  A game I have created with the aforementioned Morgan Davie, based upon the classic Calvin & Hobbes comic strip's Calvinball.  The game that can never be played the same way twice.  Rules change.  Bandit masks are worn.  What we've come up with is basically a cross between kick the can and capture the flag, with dodgeball added for another layer of tactics.  Then, just to make it interesting, before each game, additional rules or variants on the standard rules are drawn out of a hat, and are now part of the game.  They could be pretty normal changes, such as when a person makes it to the jail to get a person out, instead of one being released, all are released at one.  Other rules modifications include penalties for losing, dirty limericks, and water balloons.  I may have created something terribly great.Lots of lamb cookery.  Or just cookery in general.  I hadn't really felt I had been doing much good stuff (besides wings) since I left the farm job.  Something about the ingredients sucking.  But here, if things are available and grown in NZ, they are generally great quality.  Like the Chinese water spinach I found today.  Or the grass fed lamb necks I made into a tagine tonight.  I need to make some sort of bucket wine for the end of the Antipodean summer....as well as figure how to make my meat pies without crack, because they clearly add that to them here....The writing of the Dodge Dart novel.  The one where I sell it.  Yeah, it's fictional, don't worry (or maybe you hoped and prayed I don't know), but the opening line could be, "It was the best of cars, it was the worst of cars...."  But that'd really be my Mercedes if I was truthful.  How many non-race cars almost kill you? Yeah.Cricket.  Playing/watching/attending.  All would be fine by me.And finally how could I forget: The wedding of Ben Davie, The Tallest Ninja!  Now with more Iron Maiden tattoos!So, yeah.  Much to do before I leave.  Suggestions welcome.

Trever was bored.  As you can see.....but it's amazing, so happy new years!

This space will be updated to make it as good as it needs to be for my travels soon....

Time Fracture Wickets.

This is the last post of Aught '11. This year was one of great goals, yet unrealized. It was one where I learned some strengths and finally recognized my bigger weaknesses. All in all, interesting though.

Upside: kids in Noo Zuland get to celebrate my 30th with a game. That game? Calvinball. I will have to make some rules out so it is playable, but needless to say there will be masks and songs. And perhaps even a time fracture wicket....

(there will also be beers and cheese kranskys....)

And then after that NZ nonsense, it will be wide open. Where I stop, no one knows. Exciting!

Return 2: Hutt's Bounty.

This may be irrelevant anymore- this whole blog thing. When even your grandma is on facebook, then does a personal blog act as something different, something that matters anymore?

I've concluded that yeah, it probably has jumped the shark.

That being said: if there's anyone out there that reads this, and doesn't know yet, I've shelved the business idea for the time being (one day!) and will be going traveling back down to NZ. She's the woman I can't get out of my head, and I want-to-commit-but-she-wont.

I will be going down for a holiday, and a most important wedding. I probably will again go on hiatus here till the trip time, then I will perhaps use this place for some travel journal type writings that are lengthy in words.

Until then, please think of the lost children I know in Lower Hutt....

Forward and Up.

It has been a really, really long time since I published anything here. I can't say it isn't for a lack of doing interesting things, I guess what I had to say I either said to people in conventional ways, or via facebook, which does all the things this blog does almost more easily....

Anyways, I wanted to post for 2 reasons:

Firstly, I finished my "summer vacation" off with the most physically demanding hike I've ever done: Carne Mountain. It was a crazy ascent, with non stop switchbacks, but ultimately led to a majestic view, and a good story. Photos here.

Secondly, I have finished my business plan, as a document. It took me far too long, but for reasons not too clear to even myself, I was difficult to self motivate. I might've been depressed actually, and just lost focus for a good month and a half. I thought a lot on my hike regarding what I want to do, and where I want to go, so with that clarity I move forward with renewed vigor. I have a meeting with someone to discuss things tomorrow, and will be looking to secure monies next month.

Moving forward in a direction that takes me to where I need to go, and then from there, hopefully one day to you.

Numb(ers).

Numbers. They really melt my brain after a while.

In balance sheets, financial calculations and even prices (something that typically hadn't been overwhelming). I need to know them all. And there's so many, so, so many. It makes my head hurt sometimes. I am still also not used to staring at my computer screen for hours on end. It's not something does when their career is craft-based so much.

I've concluded, and perhaps you've been one that I've mentioned this to personally:

I could work for the next 10 years at doing financial stuff, and I'd never be really great at it. My mind does not work in that way. Conversely, if I worked at say, wooden ship building, I'd be very good at it. I have confidence in that statement 100%.

So, back to the mind numb.

Here.

Wow. It has been a short while here.

I have been working for a small farm based on Vashon Island, helping them at the farmers markets around town. It's quite fine not to be the boss- I just show up and do my thing. Then I go home and that's it. Drastically refreshing after a few years of being the boss, often feeling like I'm on call on my days off.....

And it's nice, I haven't bought food other than coffee and dried fruit for snacking since I started, since I can trade other farms for stuff, and meat is like gold at the market...I am eating really nutrient dense food, that is all local. And we've just turned the page here in Washington for summer: yesterday, there were cherries picked that morning & the first strawberries showed up in Ballard.

Still plodding along with my business plan. Hit a snag, but will be sorting it out today and tomorrow, things should work out fine, just some numbers things, after I realized I needed to add full liquor from the start. Annoying to have to redo things....

Went down to Oregon last week to hang with my friend Meghan. We went on a nice hike if you didn't see the pics on facebook.