Tag Archives: travel

April 14, 2019 · 8:04 pm

Across the Pond

Hello,

I’ll be leaving the country soon and it will be the first time that I’ve done so since I’ve gotten here.

I’m excited about it, but I don’t think I’ve really processed it yet.

And to be clear, we’re going to London, so this is not as out there as we could possibly go. I think I’ll be able to pick up the language pretty quickly. I don’t think I’ll be able to repress my strong and constant desire to mimic accents, which is a problem here, at home. And if you don’t understand why that’s a problem, you haven’t heard me do my Boston accent.

Sorry, that was a digression.

Or maybe it wasn’t.

I’m starting to become anxious about the fifteen thousand ways I might act as an obnoxious American tourist, without even meaning to do so.

I’m also concerned about the likelihood that I’m going to miss out on something. I have no idea if I’m ever likely to go back to London, so I need to pack everything I can into this one trip.

Driving is a concern.

Also, Brexit.

So, as always, I’m turning something fun into an anxiety riddled blur of emotions and I just need to take it easy.

But if you have any recommendations for things to do in London, lemme know.

Because I’m worried about missing anything.

-D-

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June 6, 2012 · 10:06 am

I Want to Go to There

This is Mars:

Stolen from NASA

Ever since I was little, I’ve wanted to go into space. Most of the science fiction I grew up with was all about how awesome it is to explore space. I read space books and I watched the Star Trek and I fed my imagination on final frontiers and strange new worlds.

I’m less interested in the physics and the engineering behind it all. I’m more interested in exploration, discovery, experiencing something new. Because HERE there may, in fact, be dragons. We know so little about what Mars holds. Hell, we’re still surprised by things that we find on Earth.

There’s a venture that’s taking shape now called Mars One. They’re planning on having a viable, human settlement on Mars by 2023, which is only eleven years away. The reason why they feel confident about that timeline is because they’ve made no allowance for a return trip. Their idea is that the first trip to Mars is a one way trip. You go and you will never come home.

They plan on sending four people to Mars to start and then more people every few years to build up the settlement’s population. Rovers and supply shipments will get the base ready for them before anyone arrives planetside. The plan is to ensure that the colony will be as independent from the Earth as possible, so they’ll be sent equipment to make use of their surrounding environment. Which, if I forgot to mention, is MARS.

If they, for some reason, came to me tomorrow and said, “Do you want a one-way ticket to Mars?” I would seriously consider it. I wouldn’t do it. I think. But I would be severely tempted.

So just a heads up Mars One. If you need an astronaut, I’d be your willing, but unable guy.

-D-

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August 12, 2010 · 11:56 pm

An Extended, Steam-Powered Metaphor

I am heading very quickly into the UNKNOWN.

And there’s something kind of spooky about that. This UNKNOWN, a territory that stretches further than the distance between New York and California. It is vast, an expanse that boggles the mind and contains any number of horrors and wonders. There are dragons there, of course, and they may eat maidens or they may just talk in annoyingly obtuse parables. There are trolls and riches and demons and angels and all kinds of things litter the roads that wind and twist and snake their way through the UNKNOWN. And these roads are treacherous things, it’s a foolish notion to walk along them unaided. One must have a plan to travel through the UNKNOWN safely.

My plan is a rough-hewn construct; really nothing more than a skeletal structure, steel girders riveted together in a rapid fashion, rust streaking it from where I neglected it and left the parts in the rain. And this construct is what’s going to carry me deeper into the UNKNOWN; a mechanical titan that totters about on shaky legs and runs on steam and has guts made of cogs and whirling gizmos. It creaks and groans and does not endow feelings of security upon its operator. It’ll stumble on obstacles, most likely, faltering on treacherous ground.

But it’s what I have made for myself. And I am fine, for the most part. I’ve never been big on grandscale plans, much to the chagrin of everyone who knows me. My plans extend, maybe, five years into the future. But they get creakier and more wobbly the further out you go. Most people, I think, do not march into the UNKNOWN in such devices. They have sleek and shiny vehicles that run on hopes and dream and common sense and foresight and an IRA and job security.

In 13 days, I’ll be testing out my plan. And we’ll see how far it takes me. And if it breaks down, deep in UNKNOWN territory, I have no doubt that I’ll be able to make another one right on the spot.

Dylan Charles

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