neon paper

I love blank paper.  Really. I get excited about the possibilities it holds, and inspite of the cliche, the possibilities are endless.  Its just there, waiting to be filled with thoughts, ideas, emotions.  Unbiased and open, perhaps listening even.  So, I write a lot.  My first journal had a neon pink, stuffed plastic cover and a heart shaped locket...I broke into it a few years back and read the scrawls of an independent 10 year old, vowing to never pierce her ears (cartilage doesn't count ;) and a dream about Zorro rushing in to save the day.  I have numerous journals, their bindings literally bulging with paper mementos stuffed between pages filled with handwritten accounts of my travels.  The pages are wrinkled and worn from backpacking in snow, rain and sun, dusty from staying in a rural Malawian village and perhaps even a little tear stained after visiting Hiroshima.  The physicality of a filled journal, the wight of all those bound pages bearing the stains of each day's experiences, is in itself a satisfying thing.  Even just holding the two, hundred page lab notebooks I have filled since starting grad school gives me a sense of accomplishment.


Perhaps this is why blogging has never really appealed to me.  The obtrusive glow of an LCD screen glares back at me, burning my eyes in the late night when much of my writing and reflection takes shape.  Plus, its hard to type when you have stowed all your paper mementos, maps, postcards and cookie fortunes in the space between your Netbook's keyboard and screen.  It is also not advised to take Netbooks into the wilderness on backpacking trips.  Finally, rain, desert dust, coffee spills and all of life's smudges and stains that add to a journal's value only degrade the value of your computer.  A short-circuited "A" key on the keypad could serve as a serious infringement on your creative expression...and that may be the least of your worries in a rain, dust, coffee spill scenario :).


But, I like sharing my experiences and want to keep you!, my family and friends, updated on my life's adventures and whereabouts though words and some of the one billion photos. So this round of travel, I will be attempting to maintain both a handwritten journal and this little blag which neatly avoids spam emails. 


T-minus 13 days and counting!  Then I'm off to Thule Greenland.


Reg. the title:
I used the term "Jerry Rigged" numerous times today while describing my quest to attach a standard, hefty, weight bearing bike rack to an aluminum framed bike with absolutely no brazons.  i.e. its not made to take this type of rack.  However, it seemed like a bad idea to put a seat post clamping rack on a carbon fiber seat-post... So, Jerry -Rig it!   Turns out, Jerry-Rig is a combination of two sayings: Jury rigged and Jerry Built.

"Although their etymologies are obscure and their meanings overlap, these are two distinct expressions. Something poorly built is “jerry-built.” Something rigged up temporarily in a makeshift manner with materials at hand, often in an ingenious manner, is “jury-rigged.” “Jerry-built” always has a negative connotation, whereas one can be impressed by the cleverness of a jury-rigged solution. Many people cross-pollinate these two expressions and mistakenly say “jerry-rigged” or “jury-built.”"
http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/jerry.html

There is now a bike rack attached to my bike.  It involved a trip to the hardware store for longer screws, nuts, p-clams, and some electrical tape.  Its unclear wether the setup is "Jury-Rigged", "Jerry-Built", or in fact "Jerry-Rigged"...Hopefully its the former of the three options since I'm using it to carry my gear over 180 miles of road biking to, and on, the San Juan Islands this weekend! 


As for the title, perhaps I'm moving through life in a Jury-Rigged manner: seeking out and collecting up all the opportunities, tools and friendships I can at any given time, in any given place, and trying to put it all together in some clever, functional and satisfying way that produces something valuable.  Each place I live provides new pieces and parts, rendering the past a temporary construction that is built upon with the future, an ever adapting, endlessly developing Jury-Rig.
cheers!