Peanut butter & tequila #01

And there I was at the Vulcan in Oakland with a budget as tight as, well let's not get to visual. Thinking to myself that I don't have the money to support my journey to the Mexico because any flight I could find would end up in taking to much time or being in the wrong day. Damn it all! I thought to myself, I should have planned this step ahead.

A day passed as I got closer and closer to the date of Flame Master Fest when I finally found a trip that didn't strip me of all the money I had and would leave me with more or less exact the amount I needed to enter the festival plus a few usd to keep me alive for some days before my salery.

But the plane trip home felt like it was going to kill me. Four hours to get to Cancun, Mexico but nine and a half  hours to get back! This silenced my excitement for a while until something stirred up inside of me.

A sense of destiny.

Faces of the people back at home flashed before my eyes, somehow drawing upon the strength of knowing that if I didn't fulfill my destiny I would not be able to return from my travels with the same sense of fulfillment.

I knew then because of their help, what I had to do. I ordered that ticket, took a leap into the unknown and didn't look back.

Actually I didn't look back until I sat there at the airplane a few days later, peering through the window trying to construct visuals of clouds. This is when I saw that we were flying right over the desert.

I had never seen a desert before it felt so alien somehow, sand as far as the eye could see. It all felt very surreal.

Immigration was kind of smooth. Immigration to the USA is a lot more painful. Much to my surprise almost nobody talked English, even a surprisingly few at the airport talked English.

After getting my bearings for a few minutes I've finally found an atm and the buss ride. While waiting for the buss to leave for Playa del Carmen I did some poi to releave some of the eagerness I was carrying around.

This is when I met a girl I will henceforth refer to as Suzie. I asked if she wanted to sit together in the buss and have a talk, socialize.

Suzie is a sweet girl who used to live in Mexico who travels a lot and is currenctly working on her masters at university. She's also an amateur fire spinner, she tells me how in Mexico it's not about your flow, its' about having a beutiful essence. A notion I have come to adapt myself since flow never really stuck to me.

When we finally arrived at Playa del Carmen she helped me get my bearings to find the camping spot and more or less put me in a cab without any way what so ever for me to communicate with the taxi driver. I just trusted her and you know what? it all worked out.

After a brief moment of confusion about where to go and where to be I found the camping and I also found two beutiful souls by the name of Jay and Elliot of whom I got the wonderful honor to stay with for a few days during the festival.

An hour or so into the night the opening ceremony was on, presented by Atomic Weight I have some pictures from the show that I'll post later so keep checking back if your interested.

After the ceremony, later that night it rained like there was no tomorrow and in the damp air there were huge bugs flying around everywhere, getting too heavy to fly, they crashed to the ground, raining down around us.

I had read about bugs raining down from the sky in a book when I was a child, but I never imagined I would witness or be a victim to it myself. I recall waking up while sleeping in the tent, several times from bugs crashing into the tent. Quite horrifying.

Signed, Mireneye

Picture dump

I will add context to these images in time. But for now Im just securing them while I continue the adventure.

Lost in Chicago

Prolouge
The new adventures of Mireneye in the land of USA begins with an unlikely turn of events and continue to do so. In Stockholm I finally found a place to stay for the night at my old friend Progma's new apartment.

Tried playing Killzone 3 on his 3d setup with one of the gun peripherals for the PS move. Didn't go very well but it did go better then I expected it would. Early morning I made my way back to Arlanda for the flight to Chicago. The first stop of my travels.

Day one:

For those who don't know you have to have the name of the first place of residence you will stay at to enter once you get to the US. Here's how I passed:
G is Guard
P is Me

G: It says here on your paper that your going to "Destiny"? Where would that be?
P: I don't know sir but I'm going to find out.
G: (Smiles) Allright, well good luck!
P: (Smiles back) Thank you and have a wonderful day.

When I got to the Airport I was going to get picked up by a peron who didn't show up. I waited for a few hours just in case there was some problem. The person ended up having other important matters to attend to so I was left to reschedule my adventure.

I couldn't really think with all the people around so I decided to find a more silent and tranquil spot to plan my next move. After a while I found a spot but there was a girl sitting there already. I asked her if it was ok if I sat down for a while, she seemed sad for some reason.

After having sat down I asked her "Excuse me for asking but why are you sad?" to which came the reply "The customs were really mean to me". And we had a brief talk about how they can be real jerks sometimes. After our talk and briefly hanging out chilling for a while I felt more confident about my next step and she had regained a smile on her face.

After that I visisted the tourist information booth downstairs to check if there was a cheap hostel I could live at for the night days. After almost two hours of trying to find a cheap enough place I found a 33USD spot living with randoms in a room at the Getaway hostel. I wouldn't have been able to do this if it wasn't for the awesome personell at the tourist info. He really went out of his way to help me out, calling, waiting, fixing all while helping other people with their issues as well. The second hero of the day.

But let's not forget that I met at least one other "hero" that day. The last one was an old war veteran who stayed in the same room as me. He told me fascinating stories about war and being in the military and travelling a lot. A very wise man I believe I could sit there and listen to him for hours. Such a great character

But I'm getting ahead of myself, sorry.

A few minutes ago I was still at the counter paying for my first night and getting my bearings on what's happening. Apparently people were gonna gather around and go to a local pub and party.

So I left my stuff at the room, listened to some stories and then went for a quick shower before heading out.

Nick the Aussie of the night, Phil and Daniel and Ross. And me went out for the pub together.
After having a few drinks, 20USD drink as much as you want we came upon the subject of what I was doing in the US. So I grabbed my hyperlight poi and gave a little performance, people clapped when I was done saying i was "The man of the hour". Totally rocked!

Day two:

When I woke up i was faced with a decision, keep staying at the hostel another night or do something else. After hearing that another night was only 33USD more I made the decision quite quickly. After my first food in the form of breakfast since the plane from Sweden I was ready to start the day. Yes in all the chaos I had forgotten to eat. So stupid.

I took a long walk early in the morning to lincoln park and also visited the Zoo. Here's a few visuals of what I experienced, note that I was there before a lot of children arrived and stayed unti maybe an hour or more after. Annoying little bastards, the zoo was so tranquil before they arrived and the animals seemed more at peace.

When I returned from the Zoo I met Ross again who invited me for drinks later at nine. Didn't really see a reason why not to join them. But first I had to get a belated breakfast.

For late lunch I had chicken wings and for early diner I ate a quarter pound burger. I was so incredibly stuffed that when we went to the first bar, a college bar with lots of pretty girls I could hardly finish my beer.

After having hung out there for a while not finding anywhere to sit down we went to a jazz club who had a live band playing music great music, really talented wish I remembered their names. At the club we met two girls that Russ knew from earlier. We called it a night me forgetting that the bartender had my credit card still.


When we got back to the hostel I realized that it was gone. Ross halped me get back to the bar and the other people joined us. On a whim on our way back we stopped at the college bar where the two girls we met earlier had ended up. We all started drinking a bit together and talked and had a good time.

After that me and Russ helped the girls find their way back to their place. I don't remember quite what we were talking about but I remember one thing he said that was just so hilarious quote "

Shut your mouth when your talk to me!"

When we returned I said my goodbyes then I started packing my things after exchanging some contact information. I had just began feeling attatched to the place when I had to abruptly leave, I almost shed a tear as I was leaving the hostel. Love the managers, loved the people in my room. Such an awesome adventure!

Now I'm stayin at the Vulcan in San Francisco. With the San Francisco being divided into intermissions (seeing as it is the hub for my travels). Look forward to the next chapter in my new adventure.

Experience

Many have tackled trying to explain how everything in the 

world is connected, how you can change events with you simply 

thinking about it. At first these thoughts might seem 

completely irradical. And even after you've spent time to 

research it, it might still strike you as too far fetched. 

I understand and level with you on this matter.  

But allow yours truly to try to explain the phenomenon in a different way. 

A way that I think you will find acceptable to much greater lengths. 

First let's get rid of a few misconceptions about the subject.

The mind is limited to constants outside of it's own reach.
We can't directly change physical properties at will. Therefore 

when you choose a lottery ticket, you can never really choose 

the outcome. 

With me so far? good.

Also it's rediculous to believe that everything exists because 

you will for it to exist. What is a world void of existential reason?

We believe that to change the world to our image we need to 

interact with it. This is basic Newtonian physics. 

There are practically millions of alterations, switches, and 

neurons firing off in your brain right now as your reading this.

My point is that your being is in a constant flux. It's always changing. 

That change is a result of your experience.

Instead of believing the utter nonsense of the world is being 

created by you at your will, let's assume that the world is 

actually the influence and summary of EVERYTHING you experience. 

Hence your experience becomes your reality.

And if you can accept the fact that you do this to everyone 

around you - suddenly it shouldn't be so hard for you to  

realize that it's all connected. 

I wondered for the longest time what separated me from the 

trees in the forest. What made my body into the prison it is when the 

entire cosmos is my potential?

What stops me from not being part of the tree in this cosmic 

body? We live of the same earth. We breath the same air, we 

bathe in sunlight. We are a part of a system. A system you 

know very well. 

But I assume you very rarely think of it as one of the things 

that connects you to everything.

In the end the only rational answer to what separated me from 

the tree is my counciousness.

But since we just came to the conclusion that my reality is a 

result of my experience I think you can connect the dots yourself.

People sometimes wonder how I'm so lucky, well the trick I 

think is because I have so much positive influence around me. 

You create such a wonderful world for me to live in that the 

occasionally bad luck becomes incredibly redundant. 

Hence you create my experience.  

Allwo me to connect the final dot in this intricate web for you. 

If you go out there and start today, creating a wonderful 

world for others akin yourself -  you will slowly create your own reality.

Signed, Mireneye