2012, Hey Now from Austin

Blogging, "that's what's up" quoting the In lingo of  "now". Been a while, not on facebook anymore either. Oh snap.

Cheers from  4 in the morning Austin. A great city I will be soon leaving only to return to another day.
I've been writting a fair amount down here, but mainly in mah journal my mom got me for X-Mas. Tis wonderful thing, with Great words-to-BE on the front of it. But tonight I'm blogging. Err, this morning I'm blogging :)
Prolly night somewhere! :P Still dark anywho, so yeah. This Night. That's what this is "about". The names of my Super Friends are changed to Super Nick-Names. Well roodie-a-doo!Wrote this on the bus home;

I left Shaggy (Fuz & us had been laughing it up at Boldin & 6th) puffing my way to the bus stop (chomping a pizza slice) I walked up to a couple. The guy was tall with short dirty blond hair, his girlfriend to our left had blue hair.

We all sorta stared at each other until the woman asked "Where do we know you?"

I meet a lotta people

in lottsa different places. 

I like doin' so.

They didn't pop into any gatherings

I recently have been

Then I thout I knew where.

T.h.e. A.I.R.p.o.r.t

Day 1. of my fall migration.

We had just flown outta Logan & now arrivd in Austin.

Her hair hadn't been blue. I don't recall it so.

Great shit.

I had to run.

Thro the weird step-downed shoes on & my pizza in my pocket and got on.

Chomp Chomp 

 &

gone.

A Mexican didn't speak English got on with a really drunk

?Irish?/white guy.

Not the bus they needed. 

Worked at the same place.

Guy next to me asked if i had weed 9to sell or give) Also semed to see what I was scribbling. Cool hehe.

oh and, I said "no." cuz 

I didn't.

<3

Some really loud drunk (obnouixs) people 

who were then yelling at some lady.

Blahzoo....tried to get them to shut up/stop yellin' around

Notice: "Bouldin" is "Bouldin Creek Cafe, a cafe turned restaurant that's pretty neat~6th is 6th street, the wild place with lots of crappy bars & clubs, crazy place~The step-downed shoes were these well worn women slipper shoes I found after loosing on of my flip-flops~The "?irish?" was written in mah journal with the second question mark flipped, as in espanol~"obnouixs" quick hand spelling of "obnoxious"

As to what else is up in my life....I'm leavin' Austin to go to Asheville, then to Tennesse for "ARGH"-a homeschooling/unschooling gathering. Pretty excited for that, then I'm busin' it North to Bahston.

Home sweet home. That'll be real strange, bein' in a quite little suburb after this music hoppin' mad city.

Well, well, gunna be a trip.

Lottsa love

<3

Snow day

Today, for me, feels like a snow day. I lounge around in bed reading, one of my cats sitting nearby licking herself. Instead of wearing my regular pants, I put on pajamas. I want to feel cozzy. There is no snow down here in Texas (though a night that was freezing!), but feels as if there could be. I put on my tie-dye socks for some brightly colored coziness. All I have planned is to read. Read & watch movies.

Last night I got The Pacific from the library. It's a fairly thick book by Hugh Ambrose (Son of Stephan E. Ambrose, author of Band of Brothers) about WW2 in the Pacific (for the U.S. Marines). Recently (last year or so...) HBO made a miniseries by the same name, and this book is "The Official Companion" to the show.  Before HBO made The Pacific, in 2001 they made (or more accurately released) Band Of Brothers. But wait, Liam, you just said this Stephan Ambrose guy wrote a book called Band of Brothers. Why yes, he did, and then HBO made a tv series of it. BOB follows "Easy Company" 2nd battalion, 506 Regiment, 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army. They fought in Europe from Normandy to Germany.
Anyways, I started watching The Pacific online after I read an account by one of the soldiers who is depicted on the show (E.B. Sledge's With The Old Breed). Both shows do a fantastic job of showing war, through unexpected explosions blowing limbs off, to the sweat & tears from the men. It can be a bit hard to understand what's goin' on though, so I grabbed the book (and I love reading, and love history, and well, yeah, love reading history). Anyways, it's quite well written & I recommend it for people who enjoy history.
Well, I talked about that a long more than I wanted too. Blah, war sucks. Always fascinated me (in a historical sense) though.

Anyways, X-Mas is soon to be here & I'm quite excited for that. I have sent several gifts in the mail for friends which will of course reach them after X-Mas. That's nice to receive, cause you've already thought you'd gotten what you would be gettin'! I've got several gifts under our lovely tree (decorated by my mother, a wonderful decorator) and have already opened one. 
A camera! From my snappin' Dad. I say snappin' for he is a photographer, and always "snap's away" during the day. Thank you very much, that's been fun to fool with. Currently I can't put up what few good photo's I have, perhaps another day. I always find it amusing that Christmas is the biggest holiday of the Christian faith celebrated by non-Christians (myself completely included). I think this has to do with the previous generations raised in Christendom, and even if they themselves don't consider themselves Christians, they still celebrate it. That's my crack at it. Maybe one day only Christians will celebrate it. Maybe it'll continue being celebrated by Christians & non-Christians alike. Frankly, X-Mas for me doesn't have to do with the homeboy JC and his devotee, it's just about caring & love for others. Hence "Christmas Spirit".  Even if it's quite commercialized.....
I'd like to see the love that comes out during this time, all the time. Which is what I go for. Now that I think about it Christmas Love doesn't seem to be there. Just in old movies.... Now, maybe this is just a little thought I think as I sit alone in this house...Do you feel X-Mas love? Or love from any other holiday that goes on this time of year?
Maybe one of these years I'll celebrate the Hanukkah Spirit (which I assume is just caring & love for folks) and get or make or claim a menorah.
Heh, but of course, that seems more religious to me that continuing to celebrate X-Mas, and not having considered myself Christian since the third grade or so.....interesting.

Well, this is just one big ramble of course. I'm gunna go, make some cereal-yogurt-healthy-stuff, eat it, watching some movies & read. Cause, I feel like being cozy. Made a nice fire last night, maybe I'll do the same today.

Whatever you celebrate or don't, Happy Happy to you.
I wish you well, and a greatcrazynew-New Year on it's way.
Liam.

Hello Fall My Old Friend

  In-case you didn't get what was running through my brain when I typed the title, it's based off the first lyric of "Sound of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel. Lisssten to in maaaan.
 I like fall, except for the coming of the cold.
It happens to be the prettiest season up here in New England. The leaves turn over their crisp green and show off golden yellows, & oh so sweet oranges.

  My fall started with the wonderful Not Back To School Camp.
An amazing camp for teenage unschoolers & homeschoolers. I want to write about my weekend, so I shall be brief about this camp. I was there last year, at the gorgeous campground of Farm & Wilderness in Vermont. This year due to Hurricane Irena, (devastating damage to Vermont) we moved sites to Camp Huckins, located in Freedom NH. Camp Huckins is an all girl YMCA camp, right across the lake from Camp Robin Hood, the current home of Dance New England! If you don't know, DNE Aka Dance Camp, is the hippie camp I've been going to since I was in the womb. I in fact kayaked out to Camp Huckins during Dance Camp, only to find out a few weeks later that I would be in that area soon. At Not Back To School Camp (NBTSC) there is soooo much to do! Different classes ranging from blues dancing to hide & go seek go on all day. Run by both the staff & kids :)
Only meetings and advisory groups are you actually required to attend. The advisory group is a group of 6 or 7 campers that meet in the mornings, and "check-in". Good stuff.
 If ya just want to hangout, see old friends. You are more than welcome. It was a beautiful time.

    But now! My weekend! What an adventure! And when I say weekend, I refer to yesterday. A day of great fun & adventure. I have a good friend in Winchester named Julien. His17th birthday is this Wednesday, and decided that it'd be pretty cool to grab our friends & go camping for a night on a mountain in New Hampshire. He's got a house up here (In fact I'm sitting out on his porch now. Now being at the time this is written...who knows where I'll be when you read this) in New Hampshire & we would be staying up there the rest of the weekend. But as it turns out the party to be, was well, just me. Never the less, Julien & I plannded to still hike up the mountain & campout for a night. The two of us! All alone!
Mountain, mountain, mountain. Now what mountain? A ski mountain. The name I shall leave out....(perhaps we tented in a no tent zone & made a fire in a no firezone...but perhaps not)
Alas, the name doesn't really matter.
Julien drove his family & me up to his house Friday night....Saturday morning, we set up & took down his tent several times to get the hang of it. Not that hard...

   After a scrumptious lunch we were dropped off at the trail.
Boy, oh, boy it was just two wild boys now!
Our journey started with crossing a rushing river!
Sorta.

   It certainly seemed so with our high spirits. Hopping from rock to rock we crossed the stream (it was a decent size, not a little creek or such ). Raving about a minute into our hike we had to cross water, we found ourselves at a smaller stream. This one we could easily get over, but oh no I couldn't have that! We grabbed a fallen log and pushed it over the water. It was quite heavy, and got it most of the way across. I quickly (alright I wasn't that quick 'bout it) walked over the log and with a small jump made it to the other side. Julien did the same. Now, I of course brought hiking boots of this adventure. But man, what a beautiful day it was, so being the stubborn bare-footer I am, didn't wear them. Not at all :)
Pretty soon we stopped, I was gettin' hot with my clothes on. Changing into the shorts my dad advised me to bring, I also ditched my shirt (keepin' my comfy flannel shirt unbuttoned on at least for a bit longer). Eating half a cliff bar we continued.
Up, up, up.
           After a few stops we found a large rock, that had a nice little seat jutting out. After climbin' around & snapping some photo's we continued our hike. Our legs sore we marched & marched.
Pretty soon we got to some beautiful areas....the path had flattened out a bit which was wonderful to our thighs. The trees at this stretch of the hike were giving off a great vibe. I started hugging them, tall purdy birch trees. Birch are now on my top favorite types of trees to hug. They give fantastic hugs like most trees, but what I found so amazing was their size. Just big enough for a firm hug, but easy to wrap your arms around.
Julien wanted a picture, so I told him to "Get his camera out next time I hug one, which will be soon. I don't really want to pose." And so, around the bend, there was a patch of some sort of leafy thing, that looked utterly gorgeous with the golden sunshine shining down on it. In my nature-loving hippy mood I hugged more trees, to which Jules got photo's of.
  Soon though our trail headed up, up, up again. We passed a fair amount of folks, all pretty friendly.
And then, filling our hearts with joy, we saw blue sky ahead of us. We were so close to the top!
The summit was quite small, but ever so pretty. We threw our packs down & literally flew up a side path to see the best view we could. Sadly, there were a lot of trees all around, and so we only got a small glance at some mountains behind us. After hanging out, we continued on the trail. Julien believed this was not the final peak! He had been here before hiking, and sorta new the area. As we followed the path it took a dive down the mountain. A slow dive, but none the less a descent....where was the peak we were searching for? Looking for answers (and for the kicks) we searched for trees to climb. There were two pines (one for each of us) that looked like they'd give us some sort of answer. I told Julien "To tell my mother I love her" in a dramatic voice that woulda fit some World War 1 movie, and scampered up the tree. Julien's was harder to climb, and he didn't get far. I however, plugged on, and got as high as I could, breathing in one of the best view of the day. Could be my favorite one, due to having to climb through a maze of branches to get that wonderful sight. But, there was some disappointing news for us. We were going downhill, but seemingly would go up a bigger mountain. After climbing down, I took a short video, showing my few cuts from the climb, and showing off the eager yet tired grin of Julien & I.
   The hike up the mountain wasn't as bad as we thought...and quite pretty. Full of moss. How I love moss, that soft delicate green. I'd love to sleep on it for a time...
Climbing through many mossed covered rocks, we were once again rewarded with a fantastic view of the valley & surrounding mountains. There we met two other hikers, two older guys. Chatting for a bit, we all made our descent though on different paths. Julien and I took a path that looked promising & of course pretty.
  Promising for what? adventure of course! It soon looped to the path the old guys took, which then led to a very steep path of rocks. Rocks. Lots of rocks. Now my feet were fine up to this point (the same with the booted Jules) but then they became sore (and Julien's blisters were, driving him blistering mad! ;).
We continued walking down, complaining of the rocks. Julien also was bummed out for this wasn't the path he wanted to take, and we were now not going to stop at the top of the ski area. I could see his spirits dampening, and try to "zen" him out of it, bring him into the now. But then, just as luck would have, he exclaimed that he found the path! "The path to the ski slope man!" He explained. It didn't look like much of a path, but I followed hopefully. And once again, a beautiful view came into our sights. A ski slope in fall.
  That quick sentence doesn't do justice to the spectacular view we saw, and how our hearts were lifted.
"We can make camp at the ski lift stop, it's close." The scruffy faced Julien said pointing to the ski lift line..."We'll just follow it" he said with a grin.  He then had the brilliant idea of climbing up the ski lift pole. We took turns, photographing each other as we climbed to the top (there's a small ladder :).We headed down the steep slope, wide-eyed with goofy grins. The sun was slowly setting to our backs.
  The marvelous "Northside" ski lift was our camp. After arriving, we sat down on one of the lifts and breathed. Julien set up the tent, as I gathered things for a fire. It was a warm night. Cloudless.
With the tent set up thanks to Jules, we gathered a little more firewood, and started a fire.
Wait sorry, did I say start a fire? Oh gee, misspoke there. TRIED. That's the word I was looking for.
We had plenty of canned food, which we could eat cooled, but man, we wanted fire. But fire didn't go.
Now, a little bit of chemistry. When a lighter is punctured, the fluid spews out from the chamber. Very quickly. In fact it shoots out as pressured gas, so the liquid dissipates within seconds. Basically, if you are trying to start a fire, with lighter fluid from cheap little lights, it doesn't work. You spray it everywhere instead.....I'd also advise against taking an axe to a lighter.....not sure were the other half went....
*NOT THAT WE DID THIS OR ANYHTING*
Ahm...noooo waaay maaaan.
  Laughing as we stared at ember & wood....we remember the holy birch tree. "JULIEN, BIRCH.WE NEED BIRCH BARK!" He dived off into the woods and came back with loads. It was time for Fire On The Mountain. "Fire On The Mountain"
  With an actual fire, our spirits flew like an eagle (Fly Like an Eagle-Steve Miller Band)
  We cooked green beans & corn, totally one of the best canned food meals I've ever had. Warm water for our throats, and hot food for our stomach. Mhmm :)
We also cooked up a cold vegetarian stew thing...very tasty!
Julien then mentioned how he wished we had some music. A stero or something.
  Only a couple of minutes later, we heard music. Amazed, we got up from the lift and ran to the slope. Live music, pop stuff. Right at the bottom of the slope. We quickly grabbed what we needed (phone, knife, wallet, water, almonds, boots & flashlights) made sure the cute little fire was out....and ran down the rest of the way. Ran, and uh, jumped. Skipped & slid. It was was wet, grassy, and a bit sharp even (cut off bush stems). I didn't realize how cut up me feet were till we were at the bottom. Oh yeah, if you though I was wearing the boots, nope, a course not man.
  We weren't really sure if it actually was live music, for the songs were different hit pop songs.....As we got closer, we saw tents. Tents & tents. Lots of tents. And a live band. Plus, a big group of people. Mainly kids younger then us, some our age. Lots of Boy Scout uniforms too...
  The band was called The Zoo, "MTV's Cover Band". It was pretty rockin'.
Of course not really my music, but a very fun show! We raved about the chance to pick up chicks as we sprinted down, but soon realized that was that nights fantasy, and another nights adventure. We quickly went up as close as we could to the stage (ditching my boots & Julien's flashlight in a hiding spot) and started to boogie. Of course we also happened to be next to a few girls. Pretty much the only girls there. The band took a set break, and I shat in a portie-pottie. We found out that this was a Boy Scout Jamboree, only happening every 4 years.
  With the music pumping we jumped and dance for a while longer, till the band left.  Calls for an encore came from a few people of the crowd (me included), though most started to leave. The male lead singer came back on, asking if they could do an encore. I screamed a yes (more, more, more! Neither Julien or I wanted to hike up the mountain to camp). The band came back on, doin' a request. Jay-Z. I showed Jules my "gansta hippy dance" and soon realized the song was "New York", the song Mr. Z did with Alicia Keys.
 Alicia Keys performs this on Colbert, my favorite version.
  It was good. At the end, the band was signing posters, and Julien & I hung around watching the crowd & the band. The female singer was super hot, and I found it quite funny how several of their songs (all covers) had sex themes, and this hot lass was shakin' up the stage, to a bunch of 12 year olds. Hee Hee Haw!
We got a photo with the band, though sadly the guitarist snuck away (or so we think). We then became roadies! Alongside the "Service Corps" (a new section of the boy scouts dedicated to helping out with a smile) we packed up the sound stuff. It was a lot of fun.
  Afterwards, we may have almost taken an American flag that was left on the stage, and taken some pop tarts from on of the unlocked buildings. At 1 in the morning, we hiked up to camp.
Gawd, it was hard....but the sleep was sound & good.
Peace & Love,
Liam Here Comes Sunshine
P.S. Occupy Wallstreet is pretty "boss" for a slightly ironic description. Rock on guys!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=259977164037403&set=a.206387512729702.43344.108734602494994&type=1&ref=nf

Well, I did want to blog....

Hawllo der folks, the current time is 7:30 AM, EST.

My life's been pretty crazy, though what I really want to talk about is the Grateful Dead.
I will just say what I've been up too since June. I've now finished both The Original Scroll of On The Road, and the 1957 version...and I want to read them again. Mhmm-hmm.

For the past 3 weeks I've been at a Larping (Live-Action-Roleplaying) camp. It was quite exhausting, though much fun! I got to play crazy goblins, bandits, & ferocious vampires!
I am also single now (my choice) but I'm not really gonna go into it. If you're really curious, I'd be down to talk. Anyways, I'm going to Chicago!! Frankly, according to "the plan" I was supposed to be there by now (9:22 AM, see how 2 hours went by in just a couple of paragraphs)....but I missed my flight. My freakin' 6:25 flight.....Ughbazzam. I'll be leaving in a couple of hours, and arrive over there around 3.

And whaaaaayyyyyyy might you ask (or maybe not....)? Because of friends! Friends, love & joy! Friends being love & joy that is. Mainly the Souers (Emily & Wyatt) & Will Surhbur, but I plan on seein' as many folks as possible! They are all wonderful & cool!
We shall jam too! Wyatt, Ty (another hip Chicagoian) & I will have a beautiful blues jam I'm sure. Ahh! I'm excited! Then after the fun in Chi-Town, I'll be home for a night, a single night before Dance New England! DANCE CAMP! The wonderful hippie camp I call home (been going since I was in de womb :)

Then, after those kicks, it's time for more adventure at the Northeast Unschooling Conference! Fun fun! I'm so ver excited this year. I'll be stayin' with the Kimi Biegler kid (what a surprise!) but we'll be joined with two good friends; Abbi & Brianna'h! It'll be a party :D

So, the Grateful Dead....my love. Jerry Garcia's birthday was 2 days ago, on the 1st of August. He woulda been 69 (and I'm sure still playing). And now comes "The Days In Between", the time span between his birth & death. Datewise, not age wise. First-ninth of August, verse 53 wholes years (well, some leap years...)
Now I don't have a lot of time, for brother Jason is buggin' me to watch somethin' on Netflix (Since I missed the flight, we've finished Clerks, which is utterly fantastic, and played two games of magic....and ate), but anywho, story time of how I got into the Dead. I had heard their name as a small child (for my father has a Dick's Pick's Grateful Dead Cd), but never listened. Not that I know at least....but this memory of the cd, and the cover photo (a flying magic ticket) stayed with me. After my Dad & I moved into our Mystic Valley residence, I found a "Best Of" cd for the Grateful Dead. I then listened, and oh boy, did I dig it! Yass yass yessir I did. It was wonderful, & totally rockin'. So I looked for other cds at the library. I took two out, Reckoning, & Go To Heaven. None of the Best Of cds had any tracks the other cds had. Even better I thought!
Well, I was disappointed. I think I listened to Reckoning first. It now holds several favorites of mine....but when I first heard it, I only liked "Dire Wolf" the first song...that rest was "eh" to me.
Dire Wolf
I then listened to Go To Heaven, which had some cool stuff....but I wasn't really diggin' it. Now, what I didn't know was the Best Of was made in 1974, "only" 10 years in the Grateful Dead's carer. Reckoning was made in 1980 (though the songs were mostly from the early 70's) & Go To Heaven also came out in 1980. It was definitely way more 80's than, well, the 70's & 60's stuff. But I was annoyed, the Best Of had such great tracks such as sugar magnolia, Casey Jones, & Uncle John's Band!
A rockin' Sugar Mangnolia, from '73

I felt compelled to like them, but I needed to genuinely like them of course.  I didn't wnat to only like "the best of". The summer before, at a camp (North Woods) some of the councilors had Grateful Dead shirts, talked about them, or sang a song of theirs. They were cool, I looked up to them (Not knowing anything 'bout them though...just a little kid, lookin' up to the cool older guys....which I saw at Larp Camp, from now the perspective of the older kid, being "idolized"). I listened to the albums again, trying to like it.

And frankly, I guess it just happened. I'm not really sure. All of a sudden I like it! Mainly Go To Heaven. Reckoning wasn't a big on my list (the like list that is) till a little while ago (as I said, I dig it now!). And since this was 3 or 4 years ago now, my love for the Grateful Dead has only grown. Man, I freakin' love 'em!
Here's a whole show of theirs, I haven't listened to to much, but it's good man!
Love ya
Liam
http://www.archive.org/details/gd72-08-27.sbd.orf.3328.sbeok.shnf

Drivin' and other things (Battle of the Bands, Cousin's Graduation)!

 Hey Now!
Been "ages" since my last post, so I'm writing now!
My return to Boston was pretty nice. Marin (My girlfriend) came & surprised me at the airport. A fuuuuun car ride indeed ;)

Now that I'm back here I've been doin' a lot of driving! Much fun dude!
I realized I'd gone driving multiple times without my permit....I had put my wallet (with my permit inside) in a pair of pants that were then plopped on the floor of my room. Oh well! Got it now so we're all good. Anyways, before what was today but now yesterday (June 4th) I had been on the highway once. A short little journey from Burlington to Winchester (Mass, not to Burlington Vermont). It was a bit scary, but alright.
MY FATHER RULES.
He wanted some appreciation (He was right next to me as I typed this), for he is certainly a great dad & totally annoying.
Anyways, Winchester's Battle of The Band was pretty fun. I always dig live music, and the bands were pretty good! Cool stuff, sadly no shenanigans afterwards, but oh well. Certain friends had some love duties to attend too :)
And then it was time to head to New York City! Not that night though,  Saturday, June 4th.
 My cousin Nerissa is graduating on Monday, and the family is comin' down to celebrate!
Nerrissa's mom came from Bainbridge Island Washington, and my Aunt Mauli arrived to New York from Kauai Hawaii! My other cousin & her mom are comin' down too! Plus I'm sure others. We're staying at an old family friends house, Genie Rogers. She has a really nice house that has a great porch overlooking water! She lives right off a canal or somethin' of the sort. Well, it's a very lovely place in Brooklyn. Dinner was super tasty....grilled corn, quinoa salad, potato salad, bread. Man, I just wanted to keep eating. And it wasn't even the "real" party!

As I was saying, I drove on the highway again. It was nerve-a-rackin' & fun. I also got annoyed with my father much more than I normally do while driving.
Definitely harder (and more stressful) to drive on the highway then regular streets.
Twas fun though, even when *kinda* lost control of the car....
Yep, goin' probably around 65 mph, and trying to get into the other lane, and well, then I'm not really sure what happened. There coulda been aliens man. I heard my father shout my name in alarm, grab the wheel for a second, but then I had "control" of the car, though it was gettin' curvy at the high speeds. With I'm sure a smile (even though we almost ran off the road and possibly coulda hit a sign that my father recollected was there, though I don't remember it) I regained control of the car and thought that after the yell of danger, it was a fun time. This I found pretty crazy. Seconds later my father told me to take deep breaths (which was possibly more for him then me) and then nervousity kicked in.

We soon got off the interstate (took a pee/breather at dunkin donuts) then I continued to drive on what was the old highway before the interstate. Two lanes in each directions, and still driving fast paced (for me, going close to the speed limit, 50-60-65 mph). There also was of course on & off ramps, so it was quite similar to the big interstate, except smaller. Definitely better for me (and my father), even though at one point I was blocked in on the fast lane (and calmly freaking out) until I could get back to the right lane.

All in all a fun drive, and listening to the Grateful Dead totally helped me out (staying calm and not too annoyed with my dad).
My dad took over to head into the Big Apple, and we arrived.
More driving will come, hopefully all when I'm in control of the vehicle :)

My Austin Life

Since my last post I have not thought about blogging until today. There was no crazy adventures that made me want to write, write, write. Nothing utterly fantastic that I wanted to share with everybody (everybody meaning whoever actually reads these things). Just life. And so it hit me not long ago (It is now 3:41 on the 11th) while I sat on a stump outside enjoyin' a cool Austin day as I ate my salad, that my life would be great to write about. Great not because of mad adventures, great for it was pure & simple, like carrot juice.
Carrot juice is a delicious juice made from the fruits of carrot trees. My father & I would make juices often when I was a small child, and carrot juice was not only a favorite, but a regular. Here in Austin we have Odwalla's carrot juice, which not as good as the soft foam off of fresh juice, but it is still quite nice.

Since my first few days of exploring the city with friends, I've mainly been at my new home. I enjoy my yerbe mate tea everyday. That is quite delightful. It's to hot as soon as I brew it, so I let it steep, then put it in the fridge or freezer to cool. Hamilton (My mom's good friend who lives here, in the house) bought a whole kilo of the leaves for $5, a great deal.
I've never been so hot, sweaty, clean all in a single day before I moved here.  It's crazy! I've taken one shower already today, and I know I will have a second soon!

As for my day to day activities, it starts early (for me). The first few days I'd be up before 10, but now I'm sleeping in til around 10:30.  Then I simply lie in bed. Read, check facebook. My days are relaxed, I drink tea, play my guitar, and read. I've read most of the free comics that I got, and near the end of "On the Road". I keep talking about that book, cause man, it's the best. It's just faaaan-tastic. And I'm in love with it! In-case you didn't see my status I recently bought "The Original Scroll" which is the first draft of "On The Road" that is "rougher, wilder, and racier than the 1957 edition".  It doesn't contain alias, and as I just mentioned, a lot wilder. The first part of the book is different people talking about Jack Kerouac's writing of "On The Road".....then it's the original thing. He wrote it all out on 8 pieces of thin art paper that he attached making a long "scroll". Pretty groovy. That'll be really fun to read once I'm finished with the 1957 version. Other than reading, drinking tea and showering, I'm playing a lot of guitar. Specially when I first arrived. Now not as much...for I'm watching a show called Dexter. It's a  crazy show about a serial killer who kills criminals (that have escaped the law). It's quite good and I just finished the 3rd season. But back to that thing about guitar, man it's rad. I've learned a some new scales too which is really helpful & cool. Backtrack after backtrack, just jammin' out.

I don't know really what else to say. Oh, I've been writing some poetry too!

My life is really nice down here and I dig it all.

Skippin' posting about the last day or so of my journey to Austin (I'm gettin' right into what I've been doing). This place is so great!

I've had an amazing time in Austin so far. End of the second day! MAN.
So many cool things. Yesterday (hard to believe that today was my first full day...and that I'll be here 10 more!) as Hamilton (the guy we're staying with) & my mom went out to a developmental movement/dance class, I decided to head into the city! I wanted to jump right into things. I sent a facebook message to a mutual friend who lives in Austin (Brooke). Since I was already gonna go to the city, I threw in my phone number in case she wanted to meet up. I hopped on a bus (without evening waiting :) and soon after I got a call from Brooke. We then met-up nearby the Whole Foods (The Mecca Whole Foods, where all of 'em are based off of). It's really big! We had smoothies, and Brooke showed me around the city. We did a lot of walkin' & talkin'. Austin is very cool.

I then headed to First Street, to try to find a bus back to the abode. After 30 minutes or so of walking, I got on a bus. Just in time for the end of a really "late" supper!

Today (the 7th) I awoke early and laid in bed, sleeping & resting. I then made some yerbe mate (favorite tea:) and a big bowl of cereal. Twas quite good! Then, for the first time since we moved I played my guitar! And boy, oh boy it was gooo-oood! I stopped because my finger tips where gettin' roughed up & hurtin'.

Super nice time though...played with some backing tracks (rhythm music of someone to solo over) and jammed out! I then had a driving lesson with me mom. With a stickshift! I have only driven in an automatic before, so this was a challenge. Alternating between the clutch & gas. Fun time though!
I then set off to do more exploring, and visit shops. My mom got me a good guidebook of where all the hip shops are in Austin, and I looked at it last night before I slept.
First up was a thrift store! It was a cool place and I bought some pants. They are plaid pants that were marked at $4.50, but I got 'em for a dollar 25 ($1.25)! When I told me mom this she thought it was to expensive...:P
Gettin' on a different bus, I was headin' for the North Loop...a place in North Austin where a bunch of shops are. I got off a few blocks away from it, for the bus driver didn't think there was a stop on 53rd where I planned to get off. As the bus drove away I saw right across the street a big sign (and tent) for FREE COMICS. "Well how about that" I thought. Earlier I had tried downloading Neil Gaiman's Sandman with no luck. I then headed over to get some free comics! The store was celebrating it's 10 anniversary, and I lucked out! Got 10 free comics and a $1 bottle of water.
I then needed to head downtown for the show. Show? What show? Lucinda Williams! Yesterday I happened to see a small poster of hers, for her show on the 7th (It was the 6th at the time). I then bought a ticket that night! So I trudged along till I got on a bus, which brought me closer to downtown. I got off after chattin' up the driver, to get some vegetarian food. Turns out the place was closed so I had a long walk to the show on the other side of town. I then passed some art buildin' which had some live music. There was also a group of young dudes (girls & boys) watching. One of them waved for me to come in. And of course I did! The musician playin' was really good. The dude who called me in is named Kevante, and we're plannin' on hanging out soon. If I didn't have a show to catch,  I totally would have stayed longer. They had tea and a bit of food! I went to the pizza place next store, where I got two slices of cheese pizza. It was quite tasty! Turns out my rush to get to the venue wasn't really needed...for the show didn't start till an hour after the doors opened (7 Pm, when I wanted to be there). It was a groovy place.  I currently forget the name of it though.....it was outside, but with walls/buildings all around. While  waited for the opener to come on, I talked with this young lady (Christine). She had been livin' in Austin for two years, gong to school to get her PHD in Sociology. She has been doing a lot of research on the effects of deportations of undocumented migrants AKA illegal immigrants. Fascinating stuff.

When the opener came on I left to go into the middle of people near the stage (we had been sitting talking on the side of a wall). After the opener which I thought was alright, I moved again. I got some more water, peed, then went to find a better/different spot. I ended up next to 2 really nice people. I had noticed them when walked in, and saw they saw me too. Anyways, I'm pretty sure it was a mother & duaghter hippie duo. Vicky & Meagan. Meagan noticed my sarong was of the "Steal Your Face" symbol, a Grateful Dead logo! We talked for a bit before the show & durin' the breaks.

Lucinda Williams is a FANTASTIC songwriter & artist. My Dad really digs her, and I did too....but now I really DIG her. Man! Great stuff! Some of the songs she played are :
Something About What Happens When We Talk
Joy
and my favorite Honey Bee
Then the band left, and came on for the encore! Several great groovin' songs later, they left. Man, the second part of her setlist and encore was so farout! I was dancin' away, so was Meagan, and most of the people there! Fabulous time....and then they came out AGAIN! To top this amazin' time off, they played Buffalo's Sringfields "For What It's Worth"!!
Man that was hoppin'! I was boogieing like crazy! Her lead guitarist was quite skilled and rocked the solos.

What a great night. Hope to connect with the people I met today soon.
P.S. The venue is  called Stubbs.
I love you!
Liam