The odes, oddities, and O Deities of a world traveler

Ode to Getting Up to Do Something Cool

People have finicky sleep schedules I suppose, but getting up to do something cool is where the best memories are built. It starts out extraordinary because you have gone outside your normal pattern to wake up and get out the door in the first place. You feel weird to start. Often there is a long…
Did you know: ampersand

the ampersand (&) is a fancy way of writing the word “and” (et) in Latin? The e is the top loop and the down-stroke. The t is the bottom loop and the down-stroke.
Ode to Driving Winding Roads

Driving winding roads usually means the terrain is complex. Complex terrain is usually very interesting and very beautiful. Thus, driving winding roads usually means there is something neat to look at. This also means they are probably more dangerous as far as being in the car with me because I am often looking at the…
Did you know: fire water

fires produce water? Combustion of hydrocarbons, the Hindenburg, etc.
In which I run down a mountain in a typhoon

In the course of my master’s degree, I had to do research observations in the mountains of Taiwan every two weeks. Oh, darn. I HAVE to go spend time in a beautiful national park? How will I ever manage? This usually ended up being some cobbled together collection of six random days clustered close to…
Did you know: Sarah Brightman

the name ascribed to Sarah Brightman in Chinese translates as “Salad”?
Ode to My Garden

My garden is a sanctuary. It is the product of over 26 years of work: digging, rock-moving, planting, cement-working, land-sculpting, flattening, re-planting, sports-facility making, re-planting, weeding, re-landscaping, raking, cinder moving, weed-cloth stretching, re-planting, terracing, plumbing, watering, pruning, re-planting and all the other little tasks that go into nurturing plants and building a landscape. My dad…
Did you know: Honey

the word for honey is the same in Latin and Hawaiian? Mel