Hello, Lovine.com

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Haven't had the chance to sit down and write lately - been spending a lot of time in the temporary man-cave I setup in the garage. I took all the cars out and parked the Samurai on jack stands while I spent the last week (trying) to swap out suspension parts, and other doo-dads in preparation for this year's Death Valley excursion. I am by no means a mechanic, which pretty much explains a 5 hour turnaround last weekend to remove 3 tires. Wheel threads were all seized up and one stubborn stud broke free from the rear drum so it was rotating along with the nut. I had to drill it out. Fun times.

Last night I installed new window channel guides, new window regulators, and cleaned up the muck on the windows using Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. That stuff is truly magic, I took out a LOT of paint overspray on the glass from the previous paint job. Hopefully I get around to doing the same to the windshield, there's a lot of paint I want to get rid of, and this Magic Eraser deal really just rubs it out without damaging the glass at all.

I'm expecting more parts to come in through the mail (thank you Low Range Offroad), and should hopefully have the Samurai back on wheels tonight or tomorrow afternoon. Other stuff I need to do is replace the defective thermostat (taking it to a mechanic for that one, I don't want to drain anything from the cooling system), wire back up the cigarette lighter assembly, scrub the muck and grease off the flooring, pack my stuff, and of course, plan our route around the desert!

There's nothing like heading out and away from the familiar city. Samurai, you shall be my mountain goat. Hehe.

Nothing like enjoying beautiful fall colors come out with your best friend. :)

Fuck, they're really good. Had a blast at the Fonda, and I've really gotten over the part of going to gigs by myself. I've been waiting for this gig for SO LONG, and I've been stopping myself from buying their album in anticipation of buying out their merch tonight. Unfortunately, I was mildly disappointed when they didn't have vinyl on their merch, and of course as usual they ran out of shirt sizes on my first two picks. I'll probably just eat it up online.

I'll bet a lot of money that TDCC will be playing Coachella this year. These guys whip out a big serving of happy music.

Tomorrow I'm taking a flight back out to Las Vegas to attend the rest of the AAPEX and SEMA shows - I was there this morning and it's honestly better when you go out there with people you work with, instead of roaming around aimlessly by yourself...

My love is a quiet river that runs swiftly underneath my feet. A fountain of strength where I seek solace and shelter in times of weakness, against times when my selfishness is brought up to the surface, only to get pacified by its taciturn tides.

By and large, I've lived by myself the past decade, and learned to appreciate the silence of my thoughts and the arresting peace of having no one else rain their drama on my party. However, it continues to amaze me that the powerful tides of solace we seek can also be found outside our own walls of silence.

I realize that the world is a far greater place than we could place ourselves in. That the struggles we choose to keep are ones that are precisely our own, and the world will continue to turn, oblivious of our transgressions and failures. And that one cannot underestimate the simple things in life which allow you to step off from its hypnotic cadence, those moments of space and humanity that require nothing outside of themselves to be beautiful.

A kiss on the cheek. A hug a few seconds longer than expected. A cloudless sky. Beautiful music. The sun. One doesn't need to climb the highest of mountains nor understand the impossibility of life - sometimes all there is to do is sit still, and let the world turn. The meaning will make itself known, when you allow yourself to listen to the delicate rhythms of the world.

All at once - yesterday, today and tomorrow. Live, and love forever.

I think you really should make a radical change in your lifestyle and being to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, Ron, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty.

- Alex McCandless

Love really is the binding force that enables the world to make sense, even if love itself occasionally never does.

All that is beautiful, as delicate as a butterfly wing.

In one of the many fine passages in Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha, the young brahmin - contemporary of Buddha, the Enlightened One - is sitting on the riverbank. It strikes him that once the measurement of time is waived, the past and the future are ever-present - like the river, which at one and the same moment exists not only where he sees it to be, but also at its source and at its mouth. The water which has yet to pass is tomorrow, but it already exists upstream; and that which has passed is yesterday, but it still exists, elsewhere, downstream.

- Tiziano Terzani

Taking the early flight out of Guam again tomorrow. Work is never ending, and I'll need to plan a longer trip here for next time.

The fun part is trying to make ourselves better, in everything that we do. Isn't that what makes life interesting anyway? Without the struggle to make ourselves better people, without breaking the sweat which builds our character, the accumulation of time on your plate becomes meaningless.

Try not to run too fast in your hamster wheel - but if you have to, might as well have fun doing it.

Ran into a Thai restaurant awhile ago to satisfy a late night Pad Si Eew craving.

First lesson of the night is to pay attention. When a Thai restaurant asks how spicy you want your dish, medium means shit my balls spicy.

Second lesson of the night is to pay attention. When the table of 20 teenagers behind you scream in anguish when the staff tells their table that they ran out of water, medium means shit my balls spicy. I couldn't help but overhear the commotion: "What? No more water? Call the fire department!" and "Brah look at my lips they're so red.. It's like I have an STD on my face" could possibly mean that the restaurant serves spicy food. Quite possibly.

Third, is to pay attention. Never leave your car window open while you eat inside a restaurant with tinted windows because you'll never know when it'll start pouring outside while you're too busy sweating it out indoors.

Brah, call the fire department.

... he found that if you are stupid enough to bury a camera underground you won't be taking many pictures with it afterwards. Thus the story has no picture book for the period May 10, 1991 - January 7, 1992. But this is not important. It is the experiences, the memories, the great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent in which real meaning is found. God it's great to be alive! Thank you. Thank you.

- Alexander Supertramp

Sleepy greetings from Guam. Raining a bit. I need a new pair of slippers.

Hopefully I can hit the ground running hard, and make some wheels turn.