Last night, I joined a discussion on Stanley Kubrick's films. While I am not particularly cultist, I can see a distinction to his work: a patient layering that allows for whatever interpretation your mood desires. He certainly has his weaknesses as a film creator. Yet it is fascinating when you can consider that The Shining might be about Native Americans, or that Eyes Wide Shut might be about the difference of perception and reality. I began to appreciate his films anew.

Tangentially, I also began to appreciate the riddle that is about to become my pursuit for the next year. Certainly, I cannot declare my work Kubrickian before it has even begun. Yet, if a similarity is presenting itself at the outset, it is that my project likewise has a degree of patience and multi-layered perseverence. I am freed from the obstacle that burdened me most in my summer research of 2001; I don't have a thesis mission that I must pursue at all costs. Instead, I can enjoy the challenging role of emulating an Intellectual Curious George.

Thus, to my thoughts of today. First, location. My drive took me towards the Military Turnpike, where at the crest of Murtagh Hill, the Green Mountains shared their eminence. Just below lay the calm blue of Lake Champlain. Champy lays within. So it would seem.

Second, reflection. What an amazing feat is the belief in a lake-monster. Is it not a spiritual affair? A belief first, a rational reckoning second. A consumption of the local at the expense of the cold equations of the global. I believe that lake-monsters, the subject of which is initially humorous, and by some corollaries, mere entertainment, rests at the threshold of epistomology. Do we believe our own senses and practicalities, or do we believe more-globally accepted truths?

I'm quickly realizing that this project is as much an external "disciplined whimsy" as it is an introspective gauntlet. These are big questions. This is going to be a huge challenge. I am excited for the travel, even the inevitable dark and uncomfortable times. I would almost beg of it to come sooner. But the deeper stuff, the people that I will meet that will introduce me to thoughts that wrestle within the cacophony within my own cranium... will I be ready for those?

This is what I am most concerned about. When forced to consider sketching a mental geography of my life's recent events, I must consider that it has been a long and difficult season, one that stretches several of nature's seasons. Perhaps now is not a good time to cover them in detail, so I will hide behind the generalities. It is good to know that New York's coldest winter for the last 25 years, while a suitable background setting for these times, is about to give way to the longest summer of my life, since I will be moving from northern to southern hemisphere accordingly. All is about to significantly change. It is through making this website that I fix my gaze on my approaching Watson experience. And while looking at this horizon, my eyes, more than my legs, are the means by which I pull the destination closer. And somewhere behind the eyes, I make of it what I will.

What about will, then? While reading the inspiring book, Vagabonding, I realized that Rolf Potts was onto something when he reminded the would-be traveler to reconcile their emotional and financial baggage before embarking. This will be important. I must calibrate the grey matter behind the eyes, so that what is taken in through the eyes, the nose, the hands... has a place to fit. The dramatic season I have experienced must come to a definitive conclusion. So perhaps I need more than to simply look to the hills ahead.

Enough for now. Enjoy the new website. You know more, now, of the forces of its conception.