INDEPENDENCE DAY Joshua Benton could not imagine a more pleasant 4th of July weekend. The sky had remained perfectly clear and blue while the afternoon temperature hovered around 83 degrees. The best thing about this weather for an East Coast transplant like Josh was that it wasn’t even muggy outside. Such were the benefits of living in the mild Pacific Northwest. He had spent all of Saturday grilling steaks in the backyard with his closest friends and extended family. The older kids had tossed horseshoes and played badminton, while the little ones that had sprung from his loins kept busy making castles in the sandbox all afternoon. He and his wife Lindsey were extremely happy. They had every reason…
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Thank goodness, I have had a few days to adjust down here and recover from the fatigue of traveling. I pulled an interesting maneuver during my 8 hour all night layover in Bogota, Columbia that is worth mentioning. I had chosen a nice spot for a long nap directly across from the digital screen at the airport sine I was waiting for the announcement regarding the gate that my flight would depart from at 6 am. Of course, as soon as my slumber bacame satisfying, an airport security guard woke me up and informed that I would have to move. She escorted me to Gate 1, which evidently had no more flights for the evening. What they did have however…
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PSYCHO WINGNUT INFERNO -a wildfire slasher saga from the mind of James Barnums Our tale of treacherous psychosis and murder begins with a very strange man sitting alone in his low rent lodgings in Eugene, Oregon. The fact that it’s summer is evident by the bright sun and blue sky, which is barely visible through the black pentagram emblazoned tapestries covering the windows. The date is July 10th, in fact, about the time summer really arrives in wet and soggy Western Oregon. This man, Jacob Langley aka “Joker” to his fellow firefighters (a moniker given to him because of the insane grin that is usually visible upon his countenance) with long blonde curly hair and a very…
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The Luxury of Privacy Recently, I had occasion to spend a few weeks in a remote village in the tiny Southeast Asian nation of Laos. Just as I have seen in many other parts of the developing world; they are accustomed to a few more people packed into small places than we are in our spoiled and pampered society. I have witnessed buses and trains overflowing with humanity. I have seen bustling streets and marketplaces crowded to the brim but these observations were always made in public. Even though the thought had crossed my mind before in various and sundry exotic locales, a short stay with the villagers of Ban Nakalom provided the realization that something that is held…
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ILLUSION of the time passing by a new conception of reality as an infinite river that eternally flows forth from the heart of creation a cosmic celebration with reverence to the medium we, as human beings, use to communicate of course, I refer to words and the soft sincere structure of sound TAP INTO THE VEIN OF SECRET CREATION Uncover the forgotten stream ANCIENT ECHO that gives birth to this particular form of thought FROM THE WOMB OF EARTH LIFE SENTIENT CONFUSION Comes the revelation muse seeker’s Magick flow etched in ink To be forever catalogued in the halls of history And the TOWERS OF TIME Branded forever in a greater reality That we, as organic compound…
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James Botwin, aka “Stream Daddy”, had come to a decision and he was sticking to it.He was leaving behind the USA and all of the wishy-washy flakes in it for an extended period of time. As he watched cold raindrops spatter against the window of his basement apartment on hip and fashionable Northwest 23rd street in Portland, Oregon, he thought ahead toward fantasies of warm tropical sunshine and beautiful expansive beaches south of the border. Yet he could not keep his mind from focusing on recent events that had led to this situation. Only a month previously, Jim had shared his life and this apartment with a beautiful young blonde named Elisabeth. The two of them had enjoyed a whirlwind…
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My tropical journey got off to a slightly bumpy start due to my typical last minute preparations. I was mostly packed the night before but did not really look at my itinerary closely until the day of departure, Thanksgiving day. Upon further investigation, I noticed that after an hour and a half flight from Atlanta to Dallas, I had an 8 hour (!!!) layover there! Damn, I guess that is what you get when you book these extreme budget flights. Also, I noticed that my final destination seemed to be Toluca, Mexico not Mexico City where I thought I was flying into. WTF?? Where in the hell is Toluca anyway? Davey got me to the airport without incident and on…
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Now we move on to the much more social portion of the adventure. While I had been surrounded by many good people in my early part of the journey, I had also retained a certain level of independence. The joyous part of the situation was that I had many exciting reunions in store for me. First off, my friend Mindy (and her friend Caroline) was due to arrive via a flight from San Francisco to Cancun. The big bummer of my whole trip is that they did not make it successfully into Mexico. Mindy was turned back at Immigration due to some hassle with her British passport. Poor girl, she had dropped a large chunk of change on this flight…
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