BLOGGING or BLOGING?

We may soon have the capability of posting comments. When/if that happens...do you think the gerund form of the verb "to blog" is spelled "blogging" or "bloging"? You can send email to josh@matrixmasters.com with suggestions until we get the comment feature up.

TRAVELLING, BLOGING, AND VOLUNTEERING IN ASIA

Hey friends!

I'm writing to let you know that I leave tomorrow (December 1st) to return to Asia. I've had a good Summer and Fall in Ann Arbor (enjoying my home state of Michigan), but it's time to strap my pack to my back and hit the open road once again... and you're invited along for the ride.

In case you just want to bookmark the site of my web log (blog) before reading this message, the address is: http://www.matrixmasters.com/blog/josh/joshblog.shtml I'm calling it "A Backpack and a Keyboard." My friend Lorenzo Hagerty is hosting it on his site. It's in a somewhat nebulous form right now, but it's shaping up nicely. Thanks Lorenzo!

To some of you, the news of my imminent departure comes as a surprise. If so, I'm sorry I haven't had the chance to tell you personally. I feel sometimes as if I'm pushing against a great tidal wave in getting on the road when I am. And even if I'm a bit rushed, the timing is mostly right.

I've worked hard all summer polishing my travelogue "Life in the Development Zone: Missives from the Middle Kingdom" and it is now in a form suitable for a few of my close friends to read and comment on. Time will tell whether an editor wants to publish my work and whether I will pursue it to ultimate completion.

I've also worked hard as a gardener and pre-school teacher, both jobs I felt grateful to hold. I kept the garden of a four-star hotel, several residences, and an advertising agency. The kids at the preschool filled my fall days with joy and kept my perspective youthful. I can think of few ways to "gather the gold" that are more fulfilling than what I was doing this summer.

I also had the responsibility and fun of playing spacelord" in Arbor Vitae loft in Ann Arbor while the real spacelord traveled in South America. (He's not a landlord because he rents out *space* to the "tenants" of Arbor Vitae). This allowed me to stay in Ann Arbor longer than I would have otherwise. I owe a thanks to my loftmates and to my spacelord!

But on to my travel plans...Although I'll be giving you more detailed accounts of my travel, here's a rough itinerary...

First, China for one month (and with my mother there for two weeks!). I've got a free stop in San Francisco to see old friends for a couple of days. My mother will be in Shanghai a day before me, using the same ticket she didn't use last year to visit me in Qingdao because of SARS. I'll meet her a day after her arrival in that fare city of Shanghai ("ni shi yi ge bu yue cheng," -- "you're a no-night city," so goes the pre-revolutionary pop song). We plan to take the train north and revisit some of my old haunts. Then me mum returns to The States and I head south.

From there, nothing is too definite, but I plan to take my friend Jim Secreto's advice and "drop out" for a while in the southern city of Kunming, Yunnan, (China's "city of eternal spring"). Jim is volunteering there to educate farmers about pesticide use. From here, it looks like Vietnam and Cambodia. At any rate, the Chinese government will lock me up if I stay more than a month in their capitalist empire, so I've got to go somewhere. Depending on money, time, visas, etc, I'll snake my way through Southeast Asia. Ultimately, I'll end up in Thailand, where I'm going to volunteer in a border town with Burmese refugees.

More details are forthcoming. Check my blog often for a less "pushed" version of Life in the Development Zone ( www.kafka4prez.unowhere.com/zone ). This time around should be more off the cuff and a little rougher. But thus more real, no?

I look forward to connecting with you all down the road.

Lots of love,

Josh(away)