18 of 30 - IV - Steamy Pictures, & Departure!!

   I got the pictures that we took on Sherri's camera of the Steam Tunnel Expedition up finally!

( Descend into the Darkness! )

Jason climbs around in the steam tunnels until he pops out three fathoms ABOVE the ground!!
(not really)

Full Set


   In other news, Epic Roadtrip 2007 has already commenced!! Tarisha & Sherri have already set forth from Davis. They'll presumably cross paths with my parents somewhere in the central valley, as they (my parents) are on their own epic ten day roadtrip to Idaho, where my dad is doing an Ironman Triathalon (typical). I'll join Tarbar and Sherri when they arrive down here this evening. Our most ambitious plans look somethiing like this. They are exceedingly ambitious for the 11 day time frame, however, so they may well change drastically.
   I'm looking forward to rendezvousing with Nicole Farazian, finally visitinig my best friend Aaron Aviv in New Orleans, catching up with pavel_lishin in Atlanta, GA, kelleydoodle in Philadelphia. IF we make it as far as New York, Jenn de la Vega is there, and most of my dad's side of my family is in Rochester NY (I really hope we make it this far).
   If you're reading this and live near the planned route, let me know!


   I think our goal is Twentyninepalms, CA, tonight, Vegas tomorrow. Beyond that I don't know. We're bound to pass through Flagstaff, Az. hereticxxii (Justin Sowers) is from around there, but he's in Europe. )= I've had some good times with the Northern Arizona University crew at MUN conferences but I don't think I know any of them other than Justin well enough to warrant meeting up with.

   But yeah, for our roadtrip we have a $600 grant from PBS subsidiary Roadtrip Nation, because we're rockstars like that.

19 of 30 - IV - The Agnostic Pilgrimage

   I'm going to have a lot of time to think during this roadtrip. I think I'll make kind of an agnostic pilgrimage to nowhere of it and do a lot of self-reflection. I have always believed it is dangerous not only to believe you are optimum, but to believe you are even satisfactory. There is always room for improvement. I have severe personality flaws, and so do you, especially if you think you don't.
   However, one must believe that perfection of personality IS attainable, & therefore never give up. I believe that a common flaw with Christian theology is that they accept that the human is imperfect and sin is inescapable, and therefore do not truly make an effort to irradicate such things from their lives.
   In particular, I intend to focus on rededicating myself to morale & ethical rectitude, rhadamanthine justice, & grace. By grace I mean the absense of speaking rashly or without adequate forethought, having greater freedom from emotion.
   Hippies believe in spirituality without moral structure. I believe in moral structure without spirituality.

   On a related, but more general theological note, in terms of remorse, Christian theologians hasve identified attrition & contrition. I think I've written about this before but I can't find it in this lj. Attrition is remorse due only to negative repricussions of one's actions, whereas contrition is remorse "out of love for God" by which they really mean because one realizes the act was wrong and genuinely regret it. I would like to posit that in fact, the belief and "love of God" ini fact make it impossible for a theist to be truly contrite. They can never truly be responsible for their own actions - they regret because they believe GOD thinks they should regret.
   I believe in morality for the sake of morality. I believe I've made mistakes, and I believe I can improve. The pilgrimage to nowhere begins.