Road Ripping – WildernessPunk

WildernessPunk: The Adult Quiz

What does it take to be an adult? If you think it only means being older than 18 then you probably aren’t one. I’m sure everyone has their own answer and definition. People with different backgrounds and ages would list off various requirements. This is not touching on how other cultures might view this transition.

In this article, I’ll be focusing primarily on the cultures within the United States and sticking to the outlooks of the people currently living here in this year of the Current Era 2024. Obviously, what made someone an adult in 1200 CE or 12000 BCE would be so different from what we view today we would be hard pressed to draw many parallels.

Instead of going over the outs and ins of being an adult, I’m going to jump into the quiz. Before I start there is going to be something on this list which will anger almost everyone who reads it. Perhaps some will think I give too many points for certain things. Maybe there will be things I haven’t included which you think I should. In general, I am giving more weight to accomplishments over experiences. Going to Europe on vacation may help someone feel more confident and self-reliant, but I went to Europe as a child, and it didn’t suddenly make me an adult.

Something I’d rather not glorify is doing jail time. In many ways this might force you to grow up fast but I’m going to exclude this one. If you feel it is needed for you, give yourself 10 points for spending a few nights in jail, 50 per year in jail and a 100 for each year of hard time.

The instructions are simple. Just read through the categories and give yourself the indicated points for each of these things you have done. There will be a grading matrix at the end.

Finally, the Point Reduction section is optional but if you are comparing with another make sure you are each making the same decisions.

The Wildernesspunk Adult Quiz

Life Milestones

200 Points for being in a successful happy marriage
50 Per extra marriage
20 Points for each divorce
20 Points for each year you have taken care a child, for every child under 18, in your home
10 Points per year, for each child you split custody with
10 Points for being a step parent of a child who lives with you per year per child
20 points for being a step parent for a child no longer living at home
20 points for every year you have not lived with your parents
10 points for every year you have lived outside your parent’s home without having roommates
100 points if you own your home
20 points per car you have paid off and still own
10 points per year of your longest employment with a single company
Bonus 10 points per 10,000$ you are currently making a year
150 Point for getting a PHD
100 points for getting your Master’s Degree
50 points for a Bachelors
100 points for surviving being homeless
100 Points for quitting each drug you were once addicted to
1 point per hundred miles for the longest road trip you took without your parents (One way)
2 points per night for the longest camping trip you have ever been on
1 Point per 100 miles for the longest distance you have been away from home when you are not living with your parents

Creative Milestones

10 points per year for the longest band/orchestra you have been a member of
5 points for each additional band/orchestra you were in which lasted longer than a year
20 points for each real art show you have displayed in
20 points for each published novel
10 Points for each self-published novel
20 points for running of some type of creative group which has lasted longer than a year
10 points for being a member of a creative group which lasts longer than a year
20 Points for any serious acting/dance performance you have participated in
10 Points for any creative project you were a part of per year
10 Points for every thousand dollars you have made through a creative project

10 Points for each sports team you have been a member of (after high school) for longer than a year
10 Points for every thousand dollars you have made through playing a sport
1 Point for every 100$ you have saved by building something yourself
1 Point for every 100$ you have saved by growing your own food
1 Point for every 100$ you have saved by repairing something you paid for
10 Points per book for the average number of books you read a year

Responsibility Milestones

100 Points for each tour in the military
200 per tour if you were involved in armed conflict
100 Points for helping a loved one through a serious health problem
100 Points for helping a loved one through a serious mental illness or disability
100 Points per year for helping a person with a disability in your home
20 points for each year you have helped a child with college/professional school
10 Points per hundred dollars you spend a month to support children who live outside of your home
10 points per year you have been a successful pet owner
10 Points per 10 miles you commute to work or run errands without driving
10 Points for every hundred pounds less of a cardon footprint you create under 3000 pounds
10 points for every month you went for the last year without ordering a product online

Point Reductions

– 10 points per hour for each hour on average you play video games each week
– 10 points per 100$ your parents pay for you in any manner each month
– 50 Points if you do not recycle
– 10 Points for each use of a restaurant over two on an average week
– 10 Points for each time you had to move over the last ten years

Grading System

Under 0 = Can you at least take your own trash out of the basement

1 – 300 = You have got to stop hanging out with the high school kids

301 – 600 = Don’t worry you’ll met a nice partner one day

601 – 1000 = Sorry I’m too busy to help you move again

1001 – 1400 = This is a nice place you have

1401 – 1800 = Cool Library, my friend

1801 – 2200 = So I’m looking for people interested in buying some land

2201 – 2600 = Can you give me some advice

2601 – 3000 = I’m proud of you

3000+ = Who’s a rock star

If you feel inclined you can check out one of my novels here and I guarantee Dak lives and exciting life.

WildernessPunk-Important

Before I start, I’m not coming out and saying this article is important, but it could be. Instead, I want to poke a sharp stick at what is important for you, me, and the other they. However, I’m looking to dig into something more timeless than what’s important in the current political scenes or what yesterday’s buzz words and click bait were.

Sure, some individuals might care how people voted in the last election or if you may think tRump shouldn’t go to jail because jail is only for poor people. But for me many of these mainstream values and click of the minute causes are designed more to distract you and sell products rather than give life real meaning.

What does give your life meaning?

Or in other words: what is important to you?

Opinions on modern issues might help define where you sit on the bell curve of human rights, but as usual, I seek to dig deeper. How do you measure your self-worth or perhaps the worth of another? What should your life’s true goals be and what sort of yardstick can we use on how well you achieved them. Or perhaps more important… are these goals a bunch of manmade, whitewashed bullshit?

Here are some traditional measurements of human accomplishments. Some have reached such status as to have obtained an almost mythical belief system. Others might be less mainstream and rush through the underground. If some appear sexist or uncool, don’t blame me, this is the world you live in.

Measures of Human Success

Personal Worth = Net Worth
The Individual = What They Create
Scene, You Hope What You put Into It = What You Get Out of It
Entertainment/Socializing = The More Enjoyment you Experience the better the Day Is

Personal Worth = Net Worth

This often seems to be the most popular means to measure someone’s importance and self-worth in the United States. I see a sort of Capitalism Karma in effect with how many people in my country regard the value of others. Might doesn’t make right, capital does. You can see a lot of how dare you insult this wealthy person? What gives an improvised person the right to condemn someone who is so successful? Somehow a teenager slinging drugs on the corner should be punished worse than a millionaire who steals the retirement funds of a thousand elderly.

Is having the most toys really the ultimate goal in life. Is it better to be wealthy or have a family who loves you, or friends who like you for who you are and don’t laugh at your jokes just because you invited them onto your boat. If your kids only talk to you so they won’t be cut out of their inheritance, I think you’ve missed life’s boat when you were busy being a workaholic to get yours.

Personal Mental Achievement = Your Psychological Growth

In case anyone was wondering, this is where religion goes. Until someone can prove to me something supernatural exists all methods of mental self-betterment are going under the importance of the psychological development umbrella. Whether you are meditating, receiving therapy, or think your prayers are being heard by a big sky daddy, it all falls into this same category for me. Some just work better than others.

I think growing wise is important. Sometimes I wonder how the huge mistakes I’ve made in the past would be so easy for me to avoid now. I guess this is because I’ve learned the hard way…

Gaining personal knowledge and awareness is important. Being smart is better than being ignorant. Being at peace with yourself and your world is better than living in a constant bundle of stress.

Still, one has to wonder how much intelligence and mental enlightenment is worth in the end. It seems to be the brain slows down as we age and outside of trivia games does the endless pursuit of knowledge matter as much as joy and companionship? Also, I’m sure it goes without saying, that if you’re devoting hours of your life praying and hearing the words of some savior that doesn’t exist, you have probably wasted a shitload of time you could have used for, well…anything real. (Say 4 hours a week for religion over seventy years = 14,000 hours or about three years of your waking life)

Your Strength of Character = The Strength of your Family and Friends

Your strength of character can mean many things. However, if we attempted to measure it, the yardstick might be how strong your relationship with your family and friends is and how important this is to maintain for you.

For many people nothing is more important that your family. If you are a stalwart lover, I think we should throw he, she, they into the family category. But not everyone has a family they made, and some lose the family they had. This doesn’t have to diminish the strength of their character because some things are measured every day even if you never speak to another evolutionarily advanced primate.

As stated above this could be the baseline for most individual’s perception of personal importance and in the end, I don’t think Darwin would have agreed with you.

What You Deserve = How Hard You Work for It

One might call this the motivation paradigm and is probably closer to something I believe. Whatever you feel is important you should work toward. If you want it, do the things it will take to get it. However, too often, in capitalistic America, this is watered down to ‘make that cash’ or ‘nail that hottie’. Okay, maybe this is important for some, or for some of the more immature parts of your life, but the number of other needs, wants, and desires which could be tossed onto this plate could blow the mind.

This could be something as simple as just having a girlfriend to designing the perfect city-state for Dungeons and Dragons. Others want to be in a tight band, live in the woods, or see the pyramids. Getting a car or your own place seems more capitalistic and mainstream, but when you don’t have such things so many of us need, they become critical.

The dark side of this is the sometimes held, almost mystic belief, that if we work hard enough, we get what we want and if others don’t have what they want, they must be lazy. I hope I don’t have to point out this is obviously bullshit. Life is chaos from what types of parents we were born to and the extent of our physical abilities. We all might be created equal under the law, but no two people are created equal. So, the concept that we all have an equal opportunity as long as we work hard enough is absurd.

This doesn’t cancel our hope of following a personal dream to success. If you have a passion, consider yourself lucky for that’s half the battle. So many people don’t have a clear goal or have more advanced goals blocked because they can’t accomplish more basic things such as finding a mate, a good job, or stable housing. I always admire people who set their sights on harder goals and then accomplish them, although you don’t always have to post them on Facebook. Just do it for yourself and not bragging rights.

The Love You Take is = To the Love You Make

This might be a potential way to measure one’s success. The more people who love and care about you = your level of success in life. Personally, I don’t think it is as simple as that. Is someone more successful because their parents had a bunch of kids and now you are loved by an extra dozen nieces and nephews? I think one should earn some of these accolades.

Of course, staying tight with your family and extended family is usually a sign of good character but it is also more of a given. More or less, you will be okay with your family as long as you don’t royally fuck up. More impressive are the relationships with others you create from scratch. I’m not saying being an ‘everyone friend’ is always good because spreading yourself too thin can water down how real these friendships are. However, in the end, you can usually measure how cool and all around decent a person is by the number of friends they have and the duration of those friendships.

Think about it like this. If you were considering dating a person, would you rather date a person who has tight friends who have stuck by them since they were teenagers or that person who ‘doesn’t really get along with others,’ and all their good friends ‘moved away?’ I rest my case.

The individual = What they Create

This can be considered the paradigm of the artist, but it goes so much further. If you make a new bookcase and your family puts books into it, you just improved the quality of everyone’s life. For many, creation is one of the strongest reasons to live. Once you get hooked on a certain kind of creation, you ache for being able to do it again. Other personal projects can come and go, or you might be building toward a similar goal but do it in a different way. The punk rock guitarist has now started a rockabilly band.

What you buy can outlast you but is also the same as hundreds if not millions of other households, but what you create is usually one of a kind. You are making something out of nothing or close to nothing. It is the closest to being a god we can come. A life full of creations is a well spent existence.

Relationship = How much you and your lover honestly care about one another

For some nothing is more important than their romantic relationship. Who is better off. the low-income guy who wife loves him and gives his sore muscles a massage or the rich man with a wife who hates him and is having an affair? I’d take the former. In the end if you can afford your favorite drink and a little soft cheese once in a while, who cares about money, it is happiness which is important.

Another way relationships can be a yardstick for success is how much your significant other loves and respects you. In most cases no one knows you better than your partner. If you have one who loves and cares for you, you are probably a good person. If you have a friend, but they can’t keep it together long with anyone they date, it probably is a strong indicator they do not have a centered life and emotional maturity.

Dating = The Thrill of the Ride

Just because I’m in the best relationship of my life (About 7,000 times better than my second best) doesn’t mean other people are there yet. There is nothing wrong with dating and enjoying the rush of trying to get to know a new person. Dating isn’t easy and trying to improve your skills can be, for some, a lifelong quest. For some singles, their skills with dating might be some of their most important attributes. If you are lonely and seek romance such skills become important to measure up to.

Entertainment/Socializing = The More Enjoyment You Experience the Better the Day Is

This can mean more than the Spinal Tap, “Have a good time all the time” motto. I’m going to dive into two quick threads here. First, what can really be a better measure of a life well lived than how much enjoyment a person has every day? It isn’t the richest man who wins it’s the one who has the most fun every day. Sure, there can be drawbacks. Maybe the guy having fun didn’t help his child get through college, but the child will probably want to visit them later because they know they’ll have a good time and are also more likely to be psychologically well balanced.

The second point is what type of person would you like to be? What type of people do you want to spend time with? A healthy person knows how to enjoy themselves and is not always walking through a world of doom and gloom. Hell, I’m the first one to admit this world is full of a lot of doomage and gloomage and problems should not be ignored, but I also only get one life and worrying about global warming while I’m playing cards with my buddies is not a big win.

Scene, You Hope What You Put into It = What You Get Out of It

Lastly, we have your scene, if you are lucky enough to be part of one, or even luckier to belong to more than one. Scenes are sometimes hard to describe, but it is a group of like-minded people with convergent goals who work together as a team to make a project, entertainment, a style of living, or a physical space come to life.

Here are a few Examples:

Type of Music
Art Collective
A Favorite Tavern
Drug Use
Playing Sports
Camping Group
Gamblers
Role Playing Gamers
Online Meeting Places
Schools
Polyamorous Groups

Sometimes they could just be fans of other people’s projects. These could be people who are really into certain bands, sports, or movies.

I’ll end with this. Terry Trash once told me, “The best way to have a strong scene is to spend money within and for the group instead just wasting it at mainstream businesses.” Okay maybe that isn’t a direct quote, but you get the idea.

No matter which of the items we’re talking about, whether it is spending a few bucks to see your friend’s band or buying artwork from a local, try to support the small person then we can all grow what we feel is important to us.

This was a long one. Thanks for taking the time to review these thoughts with me. Now go have some fun and don’t worry over whether you measure up to anyone but yourself.

You can check out some of my fiction here, where Detective Dak is placed in charge of the anti-clone task force. His main problem…. He’s dating one.

Thanks for listening

WildernessPunk- Friends

Despite our friendships being some of the most enjoyable parts of our lives, what a friend is might be hard to define. How do you know you have a great friend? When does someone who was once a tight buddy get demoted into the acquaintance level? Can someone be a friend with someone who doesn’t return the favor?

If I was going to try to define what being a friend means, it would go something like this:

A person you like spending time with, which you share some similar interests with, and you also have each other’s backs during both the high and low points in life.

How about acquaintance?

A person who you share at least one interest and usually see while partaking in that interest. Also, a person you are on good terms with but do not run into often. Lastly, they could be a former close friend who one no longer spends much or any time with.

Friendship and Time

I have held a personal theory about friendship for a few decades now. My theory is to stay a tight friend with someone you need to see them at least once every two years. This would be weirder with someone living in the same town as you, but can still apply, but my theory really addressed when a great friend of yours moves to a different town, which happens so frequently in our lives.

I think if you don’t see someone you used to be friends with for over two years, it starts to get awkward because you are forced to spend so much time catching up and rediscovering the people you have both grown into. You also might not realize the person they have become. Maybe you have drifted apart culturally. I find two years works well, you have some new, funny stories to share, perhaps some drama, but then, with luck you can fall back into your older friendship without much issue. Have you ever hung out with an old friend who you haven’t seen for five years or ten? I’m sure I’m not the only one who can find this becoming strained.

I have a buddy who moved to Vegas. Sure, it is five hundred miles away, but I’ve made sure to visit him as much as I can and over the past twenty-three years, I’ve probably seen him in Nevada a dozen times, and he’s probably visited me almost as much. Yeah, we live in different states, but we keep in touch and know enough about each other’s lives when we meet, we can just pick up where we left off. Hell, there are people who are supposed to be my friends in the same town, I see less than him.

Friendship Length

One of the stranger things about friendship for me is understanding how the length of the original tight friendship can affect its durability. How many times in life, especially when we are younger, do we end up having fast and fun friendships where we grow close to an individual and they become an important part of our lives. We will often look back with fond memories in regard to these people, but then when we remember how long we really spent with them it seems surprising.

I have several friends I met as soon as I moved out of my parent’s house and whom I have been friends with for decades. We always help each other out and spend as much time together as possible. It is obvious they are true buddies. But how about those intense eighteen-month friends I had in my twenties? They seemed super important then, and I was tight with these people, but how good of a friendship do I really have with someone I only hung out with a year or so, twenty-five years ago?

This is the hard part. Sure, I was tight for a year, but now after two decades have passed, how good of friends are we? Are we still tight or was this person just a fun blip on my radar? Of course, Facebook and such things can change all this to some degree but I’ll get into that later.

Still, isn’t it strange to think of someone who meant so much to you but hasn’t been a part of your life for a long time. Are you still friends? I would think so. How close? I guess that would be up to both of you, but I think it is easy to understand my Two-Year rule when we dig down into subjects like this.

Facebook Friendship

I hate to say it, but discussion of friendship can’t happen these days without including Facebook. However, it often brings up more questions than answers. What happens with the Two-Year rule, I reviewed above? Do I need to see my more removed friends every two years when I know what their kids look like, and how they went to Mexico for their vacation? Does Facebook bridge the gap in our current world when at any given time 80% of our once tight friends are no longer in our direct lives?

I also noticed a strange phenomenon with Facebook. Before Facebook started, I used to think about some of my older friends. Maybe people I hadn’t seen or hung out with at all for a decade or two. What would I say to these people if we could speak again?

Then it suddenly happened. I could talk to the girl I dated my sophomore year in College. Or contact that weird guy I used to buy shrumes from. I’m not sure about the people reading this, but I mostly found these interactions unfulfilling. Either the conversation was awkward and underwhelming, or I felt a tinge of guilt, here is this person I always wanted to sit down and have a three-hour conversation with, but now I barely said hi when we were ‘friended.’

Another downside to Facebook, at least for me, is it seems to cheapen my probably unrealistic and romanticized memories. Sometimes you just want to remember things like how the girl you first kissed looked when you were both teenagers. At the risk of pissing someone off, I’m not as into seeing her as some overweight fifty something, with her bald husband and three kids, one of which is older than we were when we kissed.

Maybe some memories were meant to stay idealized and, yes, a bit fake, but those young years of our lives were intense. Often looking back on those wild times helps you when you are listening to cartoons while making dinner for your kids, or just staying home on a Saturday night. Maybe I don’t want to know that crazy guy I took acid with on Mount Lemmon is now celebrating his ninth year of sobriety. I really don’t want to know what that girl I was crushing on when I was twenty-five looks like now.

My personal, and incriminating, gripes aside is Facebook a positive or negative to friendship.

Positives:

You can get in touch with forgotten friends
Reunions and such happen with greater ease
If your kid deletes all the numbers in your cell, you can still get them back
It does add an aspect of life sharing which helps people stay in touch

Negatives:

It cheapens memories
You are forced to watch exciting people slowly become ever more boring
Fun memories become watered down by mundania
People change and you might be subjected to the current nonsense of someone you used to respect

For most people, after family, friends are your next important treasure. Many might put friends first. Personally, last weekend, I finished a huge chapter in a 24-year-old Dungeons and Dragons campaign with friends I have known for 38 years. My friends helped me beyond all belief when I was down and started WildernessPunk. Frankly, without the assistance of Jeremy, Zano, Geff, Dave, Greg, Chris, and Tony I don’t know where I would be. And golly those are some white boy names, but what the hell, we deal with the cards we are dealt.

One last word of warning. If there was ever a red flag in a romantic, or any other type of relationship, it would be a lack of friends. Whether it is a would-be platonic buddy or a potential mate, if they don’t have a gaggle of friends, don’t just run, run fast, and make sure you use a fake name.

This is

Alex

Bone

Signing Out

If you feel like it, consider looking up my Cyberpunk novel. Detective Dak is asked to hunt down all the clones in New Cluster but is in love with one of them.

WildernessPunk- Organized Chaos

Traveling always reminds me of writing and WildernessPunk, or is it telling me I should be writing some WildernessPunk? I was a bit pleased with my WP jumpstart last summer and my writing jumpstart in general. As I have mentioned before, while the rest of the world worked on unfinished projects and novels during Covid, I did the opposite and almost quit writing during the pandemic. Yep, I’ve always been one to buck the crowds, or perhaps a backwards man.

This pause has passed for me, however, for as I experienced the closest thing to writer’s block I’ve ever felt while trying to finish the last book of my 10 book Eternal Aftermath Series, I have now neared the completion. This book has been on hiatus for over two years. I shouldn’t give myself to much credit-I’m not done yet, but finishing a project I started in 2010 won’t hurt me.

Currently, however, I find myself waking up early in an attempt to get words on screen before my family follows suit here in our little hotel room in Silver City New Mexico. I’m not on some epic, change your life, trip. Nope, just more to throw some chaos and variety into my boy’s Fall Break.

Yet what is chaos really, and is it a positive thing? Obviously, chaos is too chaotic to be good all the time. Ha ha. Entropy is more like a force of nature which can give you the best day of your life or leave you wracked and ruined. The question is, can we control chaos? Perhaps control is the wrong word, it might be better to ask, can we use chaos as a positive tool to aid us, and increase our life’s enjoyment levels and productivity?

I often see it work, or should I say not work, the other way. We all wish to have a good time, but often people in my generation try to stay loose and keep things more open ended, like preparing too much for an event which is selling out. Yeah, this would be fine if we were all immortal, lived 2000 years, or didn’t have one of our friends move to another state every six months. In this world, I, at least, prefer to maximize my chaos with a technique one could call Organized Chaos. Yep, I know I might have pissed off a few readers with that one but hear me out.

Say you have an event coming up. I don’t care if it is asking people over to BBQ, trying to get your buddies to meet you at a show, or planning a kid’s birthday party, I feel the event itself injects chaos into the world. Why? Because if you’re aren’t doing something different, then your chaos level is low. What’s more chaotic; staying at home on a Saturday doing some of the same things you did last Saturday. or heading out and doing anything else or creating some difference in other people’s lives by having them get out of their ‘same ol’ by heading to your place?

Yeah, yeah Captain Obvious, so what?

This is where Organized Chaos comes in. So, if we can agree, going or doing something different is more chaotic than doing the same ol, and agree we want to maximize the fun of anything we plan to do, Organized Chaos is the best way to get this done. No, I don’t want to go with the flow and hope for the best. Sure, I enjoy chaos, but being surprised by how badly things go is not something I’m into.

Again, we only have so many days on this planet, if I’m planning something, I need for it to go as well as possible. I want to come in strong and give it my best shot. I’m being chaotic by creating this event out of nothing, but if I’m going to the trouble to do so, I want to do it right. Being half assed isn’t the same as chaotic.

Allow me to explain. Say I want to invite people over for a feast. The last two Saturdays I just hung out and did chores, so inviting people over is much more chaotic than what I could do. I don’t mean to get all mathy, but let’s just say an average weekend has a chaos value of 100 (Come on we’re always doing something weird (I hope)) Now let’s say for each person who comes over to my feast the chaos value is increased by 50 and I invite 10 people.

100 + (10 x 50) = 600

So, in general, I have a chance to increase my Daily Positive Chaos sixfold.

Daily Positive Chaos: The beneficial aspect of increasing the variety one experiences which heightens the productivity and joy for an individual during a 24-hour cycle.

Now let’s imagine that instead of being somewhat Lawful and planning this well (yes I said it) I just assume the chaotic threads of the universe will just flow my way and only 4 of the people I invite actually show up.

100 + (4 x 50) = 300

So, although my slacker attitude about getting things done could be labeled chaotic, for I was leaving the attendance to fate, the results are not. In fact, I have lowered my Positive Daily Chaos by 50%.

Am I going to have a better camping trip just rushing through a store to buy hotdogs and chips, or will we all lounge in luxury if I purchase and prepare some special dishes? If I’m visiting someone who’s going to be working during the day, will it help to coordinate with them what activities are being planned where they live so they can share the best ones with you? Have you ever played Dungeons and Dragons with a DM who was just trying to wing it?

My point is, (yep, I have one) good times can become a strange dichotomy of sorts. One must act lawfully, plan, and plot in order to increase the success of your chaotic endeavor. Stronger Chaos out of Law.

There you have it. Enjoy your next picnic.

You can grab some of my fiction here, which I promise has nothing to do with this.

WildernessPunk: Mists of Babble On (California Road Ripping Part II)

I should have known, but all it took was a few days for Greg to surpass my earlier winnings with his necklace sales, well trades, which are topping 250$ and counting. Yet, competition gives way to smooth sailing as we equip ourselves in style for the journey back, not only to, but also through 1000 miles of desert.

Still, the trip isn’t over. I have sad goodbyes to make. Although if this cat doesn’t stop walking on my computer, some of them might become a bit easier.

cats

And yes, goodbyes are sad and bad, but sometimes you have to pull the band-aid trigger and just move everyone to the next chapter of their life. For some a new chapter, for my daughter, I think it will be the beginning of the next novel.

california lake

Hills of mist lay drenched in fog as we race south and away from the lands of wine and weed. Soon, even in the most populated state, we leave the people and homes behind. A small outpost, like a boat floating over a sea of grass, allows me to discuss Lovecraft with an interested father as we get one more day of rest before heading into Mojave National Preserve.

california mists

The upcoming downlow:

I have never been to the MNP
With the government shut down things will either be locked or free?
Do we have enough gear for a January camp?
Will Greg just sleep in the car?

cali

Seventeen hours later and I have the answers to all those questions.

After driving into the Mojave, we manage to find a Dollar General and stock up, such as we can. Figuring topping off the gas can’t hurt, I head into the K, because hell, an extra sixer can’t hurt either. A heated conversation is going on as I approach the counter.

Hipster Costumer: “Yeah man, I love M and Ms.”

Neck Tattoo Clerk: “Hell yeah, I eat a bag every day. But I just eat three at a time, so I can savor them, but I eat a whole bag every day!”

Hipster Costumer: “I’m going to go home and nap, but when I wake up, I eating this whole bag!”

Neck Tattoo Clerk: “I fucking LOVE M and Ms!”

At this point they look over to me to make sure no innocents witnessed the man on the job drop the F bomb over his love of candy. They see me with just a sixer of beer at 2PM.

Hipster Costumer: “Holy shit dude, you’re tall. I thought I was tall, but you are like a giant.”

Neck Tattoo Clerk: “And look, he’s got beer. This guy is ready to party!”

Hipster Costumer: “Yeah, he must need to drink a whole six-pack to equal us drinking one…”

cali mount

Eventually I get, beer, gas, and laughs and then rip back onto I-40. The mists we’ve traveled through change to rain. Captain Mysterious and I reach an unspoken understanding we will be in a wet camp, with little available in the way of wood. Any wood which can be found will also be drenched, so two people with limited gear, could be hard pressed while exploring the largest desert in the USA.

cali desert

Two hours later, we take the exit into the Devil’s Playground. Worries over the Government Shutdown turn out to be unneeded for the lands swept before us barren and unpopulated. The fog covered mountains looming over the desert confirm this was a strong choice no matter what the outcome. However, despite its beauty, the lands prove sparse and there will be little obvious resources available to help us through the January night.

cali majove

Heading north, we moved deeper into this no-man’s-land or NML. Then I spotted a sixty-foot com tower. “I got an idea. The dirt roads leading to these towers are always better maintained.” And when you have a Honda Accord these things become so much more important. My guess proved right, and we reached the tower without incident. Upon arriving, we discovered two things.

A single fire place sized log.
The road continued.

After grabbing the log, we continued as well and struck gold. A mile past the tower was a giant tumble of boulders with a fire pit. We stopped and as the clouds lowered over the mountains, we got the fire lit before the rains grew stronger, which they soon did. The place proved to be amazing. The fire remained traditional and small. We kept it just big enough to cook on and take away the shivers of the soaked jackets.

cali fire

Intense events should have a meaningful climax and for me, camping out in the mist shrouded desert in a desolated and unexplored piece of this country proved an excellent way to end my 2700 miles power trip to drop my eldest, Katrina, off at her new home town.

cali cliffs

Trips should leave you refreshed and yet anxious to get back to your lives and the projects and goals which infuse your existence. A great trip will spark new ideas and solutions, along with jumpstarted energy to complete your dreams.

Perhaps we need the pause to be able to focus those dreams. Only by being temporarily removed from your steady life and locale can you realize how you wish to improve it and why you should do so. Travel inspires and reminds one how small our corner of the universe is. We are only one story within the billions, but this makes it no less important for us.

I also think stripping down our possessions helps with this. In the USA many seem to feel we are what we own. But when you’re standing in the rain with the only jacket you have, eating the last of the food you possess, it clears you of the excess. Possessions are just what we surround ourselves with, be they shirts or selves, we encase our bodies in what we own, but in the wilds, we have little of this. Perhaps therefore it’s one of the finest ways to figure out who you really are?

Cali Josh.jpg

You can grab some of my fiction here. Heroes who strive on a different Path

Bone hat

WildernessPunk: California Roadripping

There are two types of people in this world, those who walk toward the UFO and those who run away.

Which are you?

I bet you can guess the type I am.

Okay, okay, let me back up a little bit. If you read my last post, you know I spoke on how I was going to focus on serious facts and issues and get away from personal adventures and philosophies…. ahhh, well maybe next time, this roll of the dice involved a random roadtrip driving my daughter, her two cats, everything she owns, and Greg the camera man, opps I mean Captain Mysterious, to her new home in Ukiah California.

Cali Stream

As I jack in at the Iron Door, which is California’s oldest tavern, I look back on how we reached this isolated mountain town hours off the beaten path and decades away from the manic highways and flashing lights which promise convenience and luxuries which would have been unimaginable when the builders of this tavern laid down their first stone in 1852.

cali bar

Grey owned the skies as we left Tucson for points north, well one point really. Vegas baby. Joshua Trees and lead colored clouds fought for our attentions as Phoenix led to Kingman. With the new road bypassing the Hoover Dam. we arrived two hours earlier than I’d told my Gangrel buddy, John, I’d be showing up, so we decided to hit a small tavern/restaurant/casino. I figured it’s a little rude to show up someplace, half starved.

After the bartender, Jewels, laughed at Captain Mysterious for thinking he needed to smoke outside, “Were you people from?” she asked, as we sat at the bar, ordered a few apps, and put 20$ into the machines, and got our free drink. Thirty later, we had the former, but had finished the latters. Feeling the need for one more chance, and another IPA, I give the machine a second try. I kept staying alive with trips. “Trips for the trip, but I gotta get quads.” My compatriots looked on over slices of cheese pizza, while both my mug and my twenty were drained down to their dregs.

The bartender, looked over and she took a little pity on me and said, “You’re still playing hun, you stayed alive just long enough for a final ale.” As she set it before my, by credit read zero. A pair kept me alive. Another trip and then… 4 fucking ACES. 200$ later we left the T/R/C/ and met my Stalwart ally and his family and bounced a bit through Vegas dodging salesmen and junkies. Quote of the night.

Trender salesmen: “You like cologne, right?”

John: “Not at all. My wife’s lucky of she can get me to wear fucking deodorant.”

But then we had a problem. In her quest for proper planning, Kat had reserved a hotel on the fair side of the Sierra Nevadas. This would have been 100, if the roads over the range which trapped the Donner party hadn’t been snowed out. She knew the cats would be the first to go, if we got stuck, so she offered to cancel the room, but the hotel said, no.

John said, “15 to the 5 and you’re done.”

“And drive through Bakersfield,” I replied, “No way!”

California hotel

Instead we tour through Death Valley and yellow cliffs mixed with storms dumping more snow onto the mountains in the far distance. Looming over the jagged desert planes, the white capped mountain ranges divided half the state and blocked us from our multiple goals. But to the south, one pass was rumored to be open. We headed toward it burning through the desert miles. Desert became forest, which was later edged with snow, as I drove onward through hundreds of miles of endless turns, twists, and cliffs. After a titanic effort, we made it to a place with two lanes, but as the sun set, we had to once again press into the mountains to make it to our hotel. Hell, if we were going to toss away over a hundred bucks just to pay another hundred bucks to spend a night in Fresno.

Cali Katrina

Which brings me back to the Iron Union, but we aren’t done yet.

Now we are, but arriving in Ukiah is only half the quest. Employed, but with two cats and no where to stay, we need to set my girl up with a place to keep her out of the driving rains. Damn, I hope Greg can sell some of his necklaces so we can go back to the brewery…

You can grab some of my fiction here, and I can promise you these people are on the Hero’s path.

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WildernessPunk Road Tripping

Normal reality you are slipping, when you start Road Tripping.

Those of you who have been following WildernessPunk for a while will remember much of the original posting revolved around some serious Road Tripping across the grand old US of A. Whether you’re for or against this country, you have to love the environments contained within. We have more open land in some of our states than whole countries enjoy.

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Yet, besides a few exceptions, I’ve been much more grounded this year. This doesn’t have to be a bad thing, but travel does something for your soul. I think we should all remember it doesn’t have to be something super special or a big deal to help us bust out of our routine with knew sights and experiences.

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Case in point, I’m in Sierra Vista and having a great time just walking around and exploring the place and yep, it really isn’t too exciting here…so far.

Why is this? Why does going to a different place, even one less excited then the one we just left, still do it for us? It is just not knowing what might be around the next bend, even though it’s likely to be a KFC? It is the chance to see new environments or maybe spy some animals? Perhaps meeting knew people just a little different than yourself might be the thing.

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Sometimes it obvious. Staying in Mexican Hat, nestled against the cliffs lining the San Juan river, with my father last year, well, obviously that experience was powerful. Some things are just going to be great. Going to Colorado for the first time, heading to Europe, yeah, somethings will just be an awesomeness no brainer, but what about the littler trips, which still raise your spirits and bring out a feeling of adventure in our souls even as we watch those around us going through their mundania?

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Could the anonymity be part of it? “No one knows me here, how exciting. I could re-invent myself. I’m a man of mystery in this place.” This could be part of it, but if we live in a city or a town of any real size, we could roll all day and not see a single person we know, sometimes even when we want to. It could contribute, but naw.

bcc

Maybe it’s not so much where we are, but what we’ve left behind. Maybe what we left behind is something ten times better then way we are. Nope, won’t be moving to Sierra Vista. But this isn’t the point, maybe it is more of the trials and responsibilities we have left behind which have a hard time touching us. Let’s think about some things which cannot happen when we’re on the road or in a different place. This might not apply for every single person, but I’m making sweeping statements, it’s what I do. We’re all good at something. I’m good at sweeping statements and bumping my head.

Most of us won’t be working our normal jobs.

We aren’t doing our usual chores.

Many will not even be cooking or so much as picking a towel up off the floor.

No dropping the kids off at school or various social functions.

We leave our, “I’m too busy tos” behind and we can often catch up on goals and projects we never seem to have time for, even if it’s something as simple as reading a novel.

For the most part, there are no interruptions from spending time with loved ones and friends. No… “I’ll see you after work, school, or next weekend,” nope we’re in this together. This could be the best reason for a lot of us.

So don’t make a big deal about it. No need for weeks of planning or blowing half your paycheck. Just grab someone you care about and head out and discover a new place. A little adventure never hurts the soul, so happy Road Tripping my friends. And if you see me hitchhiking along the road, please slow down and pick me up or at least toss me a beer as you drive by.

Boney

You can grab some of my fiction here, which I promise has nothing to do with this, oh wait this one does.

Beer Sunglasses

Camp 5, Road Tripping, and Saying Bye to my Short-lived Wheels

Okay, so this is by biggest break since starting WildernessPunk, but there was a good reason for this. Give me a moment and I’ll think one up.

Boneatah

When one has a ride all the time, you get comfortable and move at a different pace, but when one strangely has an unexpected ride, knowing you only have the vehicle for one more weekend sends the sparks flying and you have to determine what would be the best use of the ride over those days.

For me the obvious answer was… Tucson.

desert-ii

Let’s face the facts, this WildernessPunk thing I’m doing would not be for everyone and does not come without its challenges, but after all the hell I’ve recently endured, I have been embracing Dionysus over Apollo. Can this go on forever. Should it? Well yeah, but some pieces would have to fall into place very well and one can’t count on perfection giving you an O, so it’s more than a little possible, my life could change, I might have to start grinding and could have to obtain a rectangle of some sort.

Will WIldernessPunk continue? I’ll just have to see how it plays out, but I can tell you I won’t be talking about work and TV some day in the future and calling it WildernessPunk. Certain standards will be kept.

darkness

I was approaching a point and it was, since the cold cometh as well as other situations, I may not be able to continue with my WP ways forever, so it might be time to starting thinking about going out with a bang, reaching a climax, taking it home, and all that. Yellowstone is hard to beat, when discussing climaxes, but since I’m still going, I guess it wasn’t my climax. I might not know what it will be, however a trip to see my oldest friends and poker it up, with even me nerding out and running a first level D + D game was pretty dope. Cactus, poolside, friends, food, and just being a dork was damn fun. I’m so glad I headed down there.

castle

Sometimes the soul needs chaos, but the relaxing kind. Chaos doesn’t have to be a bouncing Duffy Duck, it can be chill and perhaps chilling in some luxury. Chaos often means you’re just putting yourself in a situation which doesn’t occur often and I don’t make it down there often enough, so there I went.

I might have one more climatic trick tucked away, but I will keep it hidden for now.

On the way down, I figured I’d move a few miles behind me before I set up my tent, so I gave a small tribute to my father by camping at the lonely old road called Dugus. My father had known Old Man Dugus. In some respects, I live in Arizona because my father took me out here when I was a kid because he used to spend his summers out in Dugus, with his park ranger uncle, when he was a kid.

dugus

My favorite story about was how Dugus used to catch gila monsters and fatten them up in a barrel, because for Dugus they were a well worth the wait and he considered their tails a delicacy. They were also live in garbage disposals. Camp 5 was nothing too fancy, but it put me an hour closer to my goal and provided me with a fog filled sunrise.

fog

I did manage to get out to the Sonoran Desert more this trip. Wooks and I set ourselves to hiking into the Tucson mountains. I thought we had an early start, but going from high elevation to low doesn’t make up for that pounding heat. Still since my Eternal Aftermath Series has many scenes which take place in this mountain range, the more exploration I can do to scout out for my novels the better.

saquaros

So after my last dose of out of town fun with my pals, I’m back up at Camp 1. The car is gone and so is the sun. I’ve got too many things to do to avoid heading into town. The Real World is nibbling at me, hovering around the edges. It will be interesting to so how quickly things might change and how long I can ride the WildernessPunk.

trail-smaller

Please swing back by and discover which path of Chaos my foot falls n next.

Grab some Skinjumper-Punk here and help support your friendly WildernessPunker

camp-1-sunset

August’s End

Down days are sometimes as good as the adventures. Relaxing. Soaking it in. Pool and Jacuzzi. Seeing a movie in a place that serves up giant mugs of nut brown ale and lets you take it into the theater. Now that’s living.

The rest of the Griffiths clan shows up, except my children. Seeing my nieces makes me want my sons here all the more, but if everything went like it should, we’d have no Punk Rock.

It’s time to leave the desert behind us, at least for now. Jagged cliffs and rolling sandstone will be replaced by dark mountains and sprawling forests.

Steam cliff

A long drive takes us away from the city, the people, and the endless convenience. Although I’m not saying that having a two floor, four bedroom cabin in the forest on the edge of Yellowstone isn’t pretty damn convenient. Having time with my nieces is a blessing, but is also a reminder of the constant knife in my guts. Why I was not allowed to bring my children so they could see their cousins is a mystery and a real crime in my eyes.

Still life without hardship gives us no challenges to overcome. No conflict = no heroes. If writers need to suffer, I’ve managed to pull that off. Still, no need to complain, I’m experiencing some truly spectacular things and in many ways I’m riding on a serious wave of luck, good fortune, and adventure.

I’ll have to see how this continues as we prepare to drive two vehicles into America’s first national park.

I end up being the driving road warrior for the family. Also since I’ve been to Yellowstone more than anyone else (more than half the people have never seen Yellowstone before) so I’m able to AZA it up a bit and be a tour guide for everyone, which I enjoy.

However, when being a guide, one also has to know when to step back and shut up. Part of the enjoyment of going to a new place is the pleasure of exploring it for yourself. Telling everyone your interpretations of past experiences. deludes their own ability to feel like they’re going to a new place, which they can learn and enjoy.

Family

Funny moment when we go to the Yellowstone Ranger Museum and while looking at the replica of a ranger’s back-40 cabin, the ranger working there said, “How’d you like to live in someplace like this?”

My response is, “Damn, that would be so great! Hell, I’d pay money to live in a place this wonderful.”

I haven’t worried too much about sleep for the last week or so, but I ended up getting some problematic news. I shouldn’t complain since I’ve been using Nicole’s laptop for the last five months, ever since my last one broke while fleeing from the Flagstaff PD. But now she’s moving to Indiana and needs it back.

This could put a serious crimp in ShareStorm, which is how I’m making my money right now, continuing my writing, and maintaining my social contacts with the rest of the world as well, the Punk part of my WildernessPunk.

Waterfall

With me being financially challenged and also seeking to travel to Texas for my one-on-one E-Book training workshop, I’m not sure how I’m going to make everything work and somehow get a new laptop so my whole life doesn’t collapse.

I guess I’m back into the conflict and challenge part of life, even if I’m currently living in a notch or two below Nirvana state here in the Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming vortex.

So as I balance pleasure and problems on this perfect forest-filed morning, I sit in on a ‘writing party’ with my nieces. Plotting and planning versus enjoyment and sharing. It will be interesting to see how this works out.

Shadowbone

Thanks for listening and turn back in to see how my the rest of the month goes as I continue to explore the wilds of Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, myself, and the path of the WildernessPunk?

You can grab some of my SkinJumper-Punk fiction here.

Buffo

WildernessPunk: Road Ripping

So yeah, after having my Driver’s License suspended for two years, being denied the Forerunner I bought, and I’m still paying the insurance for, I end up behind the wheel of a brand new Jeep Patriot with only 3000 miles on it. Cherry red and fuking road-ripping. My father rented it, but I’m driving and tearing through monument valley during the combination of thunder/dust storm is pretty close to as good as life gets.

Dust and loki jeep love

As an added bonus, I’m getting to stay in Mexican Hat, which is something I’ve wanted to do for about 10 years now, since the first time I ever drove through the place. Relaxing rooms next to the rain soaked San Juan. My father and I walk to the restaurant the place sports in the rain and I have a sirloin as I watch the river roar by.

San Juan River

Sometimes there are moments in life where you feel you’re getting more than you deserve and I guess this is one of those for me. Are things so perfect I almost feel they’re bordering on the supernatural or is some sort of bounce-back mystic karma in effect and is rewarding me for sucking up the nasty so long for the sake of my children?

Whether man-made or a cosmic gift from Yig and friends, I tend to believe in the later. But enough of the self-absorbed whirlwind for a moment.

Dust and Thunder

We’re about to enter the land which inspired Edward Abbey. I’m not equating myself to him or staying I wish to try, but despite the bad rap and blood soggy baggage the descendants of Europeans get, or subtly feel they should be getting after the history of our mostly foul behavior on this continent, I still believe we have the right to be one with the land.

Sometimes I feel it might be more difficult for us trickle down Euros. We want to connect with nature, but are still new to this hemisphere, while the lands holding our ancestor’s spirits are thousands of miles away. Especially in the west and in Arizona, we’re surrounded by folks with a stronger right and claim to the land than us, at least in theory.

I think some of the ill effects individuals and corporations bestow onto the environment is due to this fear to connect and/or the feeling we’re not part of these lands or even allowed to be part. Perhaps this idea should be rethought, for if we aren’t allowed to feel we’re part of the earth, this will lesson our desire to preserve and protect it.

Horse and donkey

How about the idea we all have an equal right to embrace our environment. Race, gender, age, only an idiot would give a shit. I don’t care if your people have lived here 500 years or 5, to deny someone the right to become spiritually grounded in the land is what leads to its destruction. One could argue it leads to war, torture, and rape, but I won’t bother to go there yet.

Like I said before, we’re still animals of the Earth. We may wear clothes, silly hats, and consult the magic rectangles, but all animals deserve to have their place on this planet. Your place can be a box somewhere too, with more magic rectangles in it, but you may have a harder time finding your true self in the world of ticking clocks and controlled routine.

Do you think I’m waxing on about some nebulous big ideals? Do you think I’m full of shit? Really, how many people do you know who have self-actualized and embraced their happiness? How many people do you know who are backed into a black space, or having trouble with friends, family, work, divorced… How are things going internationally or with the world economy, everything’s just peachy, right…no.

Junky

Reaching an internal peace is the exception not the rule. To quote The Talking Heads, “Some people can touch it, but they can’t hold on.” Like the passion of a new love affair, the best of things can dwindle into mundania and drab angst if we let it.

I’m not saying nature can solve this problem, but it isn’t a bad place to start. For one, nature doesn’t let you take yourself too seriously. I don’t care who you are, a 10 mile hike in the Canyonlands will kick your ass. Even if you’re in rock hard shape, the environment itself is humbling. Twist your ankle the wrong way and you’ll feel real humble alright.

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Millionaire, man, and mouse… we’re all the same creature. Strip away your gear and drop us naked in the Canyonland’s Maze and who has the best chance to survive? I’ll put my money on the mouse.

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The mouse lives with respect for his environment. His is a world of danger and reward, fear and cozy comfort. Motivation when needed and times when the harvest is reaped. Give him a little water, some food, a soft bed, and guess what, it was a damn good day.

So who wants to learn how to be a mouse?

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Thanks for listening and turn back in to see how my the rest of the month goes as I continue to explore the wilds of Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, myself, and the path of the WildernessPunk?

Dust and monument valley

You can grab some of my SkinJumper-Punk fiction here.

Boneman