Laughing Fish: Las Vegas Coffee

Some things got picked out

Nevada. Rad. Most empty place I've ever been; the whole state's an army of 8,000-12,000 foot gold and silver caterpillars crawling miles long out of Mexico. Every kind of cliff, snow cap, rock, and gentle ridge was there. Everything was this dead yellow.

Donkeys, Cows, and Joshua trees! Ever since I saw old films like "It came from outer space" I've been obssessed with this thing. Most surreal plant in a most surreal environment. If aliens do walk among us, this may be one of them.

I even saw a UFO which was probably a military training jet flying low in the valley but since i don't *know* that it is still a UFO to me.

There Many shooting stars; ghost towns,

old gold and silver mines;

contemporary gold and silver mines, friendly people.

Locked my keys inside the car. They rip you off to remedy that around here.... all my gambling and prostitution cash gone to the lock smith. I've been so obsessed with life right lately I'd almost pay for a prostitute just to be able to analyze the experience; but diseases and brothels with old sheets and many other people's pubic hairs and semen scare me. Sigh...

Tomarrow's just breakfast, tour booking, and if I've done a lot of good I'll walk the strip at night just to see it. More on this...

If you haven't heard it yet: Travel. I don't care who you are, what gender or sexual orientation you are, what ethnicity you are, what you look like, what medical conditions you have, what family you have, what job you have. You owe it to yourself.

I re-align my sights upon a job, a girlfriend, a rent, and a semi-career. But these months I will take with me. And thus I have been converted, to a travel-propagandist. I don't care who gets sick of me talking about it.

I'm talking about it because I'm not talking about myself; I'm talking about you and what your life is and where your mind is; and what these things could be. Travel is the one thing that contradicts nothing... neither philosophies nor lifestyles. Simultaneously, it enriches everything, and everyone it touches.

I'm not usually very nationalistic-anything at all, and I don't totally think it's nationalistic to say this; but if you live in the US, you should really make an effort to criss cross it by car a bit... not because the veterans died to protect the freedoms you have here to own a strip mine, to have a brothel, to bury nuclear waste under a mountain, or get drunk.... not because God wanted you to kill the Indians and live here; nor even because 'the road' is still as romantic and sexy as it was 60 years ago to Jack Kerouac. Last but not least, do not travel so you can have sex with lots of strangers (though this is not precluded).

See this stuff because in traveling you learn a lot of good people skills about humility, relying on others, relying on yourself, and asking for as well as giving help to people. Plus it's beautiful; and even though like the sailor washed overboard most proletarians can but afford the briefest gasps of air amid these whirlpools of jobs, families, health insurance, etc... You gain a sense of confidence and perspective in nature and yourself that is irreplaceable as it is invaluable:

1) Your apartment does not matter. Your apartment is a pile of matches that one day tourists will graffiti obscenities over while looting your remaining brick, floorboards, and food packaging for souvenirs.

2) Your boss is tiny, weak, and short lived. Your boss does not have a diverse ecosystem, snow caps, thousand foot cliffs, open ranges, dry lakes, or towering mesas. Your boss is a bug and is not the true source of power; Earth is. Subsequently: are you still afraid, cowered? How about respecting what deserves it the most, starting with yourself?

3) There are a lot of fucked up people. Many of them are more fucked up than you will ever be, and they're still living, even: reproducing! Therefore; do not worry.

4) Puncturing your oil pan on a dirt back road in winter on a deserted mountain days from the nearest human settlement is scary. Rent is not scary. Fashion choices are not scary. Rude customers are not scary. Ignorant people are not scary. All these things are obstacles; but you will not DIE from them. After travel, your appreciation of not being dead can offset the pull of a surprisingly high degree of human negativity.