Archive for October, 2008
Not Safe For PETA
Oct 14th
Hey Team,
Yesterday brought with it a five am wake up call, which brought with it some interesting new experiences. For instance I now know that there actually is a five am…and that it’s apparently legal to wake someone up at that time. Who knew?
On a brighter side (Hmm…interesting choice of words, brain. The sun wasn’t even up until 7:30.), the events following the slow crawl from a surprisingly comfy super-twin bed turned out to be MUCH cooler than I would have thought.
Getaway Girl and I were invited out to, her dad, Jimmy’s ranch to “help” round up about fifty cows that weren’t breeding to be taken to a “happier place.” I was probably exactly as helpful as you’d imagine.
After gathering the horses, we mounted up and made our way out to the pasture. What with my current reputation for falling off of everything I try to ride on and this being my first solid experience riding a horse I was understandably not 100% confident the day’s events would play out in my favor.
As I sat on top of “Woody,” (Wow. There’s GOT to be a better way to put that! It was the horse’s name! Woody. It’s not some sick…okay, let’s More >
#28 SCUBA Diving in the Atlantic! [*updated with pictures!*]
Oct 13th
Hey Team,
Guess who went SCUBA diving in the Atlantic…
Hmm…this is a dumb game. I can’t even hear you.
Oh well. The answer: ME!
After heading down to Sebring, FL with The Getaway Girl and meeting her family (Who, I’m told, were pretty leery of homeless folk crashing their lodgings…until they met me.) we borrowed her dad’s SCUBA gear and shot east to Fort Pierce.
The easiest option was to dive from shore so after lying on the beach for a while trying figure out how I wanted to shoot the madness I handed the camera off to GG and started to suit up. It was a nice change from the Pacific Ocean in that stepping in the water didn’t instantly make me cringe and scream like a little girl from temperature shock. I didn’t even have to wear a wetsuit, which was kind of a novelty for me.
Eventually I managed to get my gear on (including flippers) without falling down and high step into the waves like an idiot with the entire coastline watching the one guy in SCUBA gear wondering why he’s planning on diving in murky water with a lobster basket tied to him when there have been Bull Shark sightings all More >
Life of Brian
Oct 11th
Hey Team,
I’ve spent the last couple days hanging out with Brian Brushwood, host of Scam School on Revision3.com and all around good guy. He’s been putting me up and putting up with me while I’ve been in Orlando trying to figure out how I’m going to make SCUBA diving happen on my now incredibly tight schedule.
“But Brett, don’t you have a plan?”
Well, Mr. Disembodied Voice, I understand where you’re coming from, it’s only a little over two weeks before the big end of Amtrekker party so it would be safe to assume that I do know what I’m doing and everything is well scheduled.
Unless you knew me.
It looks like “Getaway Girl” is going to go out on a limb and see if she can’t make something happen since I’m obviously incapable. But in the meantime I’ve been having a great time.
I spent last night at Brian’s Bizarre Magic Show at Halloween Horror Nights “helping.” Which roughly translates to carrying a couple of props and hanging out all night while occasionally screaming like I just saw a ghost in my cell phone just in case no one else could.
After the show we walked around the theme park for awhile checking More >
Dirty Minds
Oct 8th
Hey Team,
Here’s a little something I ran across yesterday that kind of (read: REALLY) bothered me. Granted, I was waiting at the airport ticketing desk in Los Angeles at four in the morning on no sleep so I probably wasn’t exactly in a happy-go-lucky mindset to begin with…
Behind me I hear something fall. (Nothing bigger than a waded up wrapper.)
“Hey Bob, you dropped something.” Bob’s friend leans into him and points at the floor drawing my eyes down to the wrapper at Bob’s foot.
“Meh, it’s just trash.” Horrified, now I can’t take my eyes off the wrapper…but Bob continues, “I was going to throw it away so I set it on my bag but it fell off. Not my fault.” Then he steps on the trash and rolls over it as the line moves forward!
Seriously?! I can’t believe people can do that! How much personal entitlement do you have to feel before you can convince yourself that 1) It’s not your fault YOUR trash ended up on the ground and 2) It’s not your responsibility to pick it back up?
It killed me inside to not walk away from the ticketing counter and pick up this dude’s trash in front More >
#14 Make Moonshine Pt. 1
Oct 6th
Hey Team,
I decided to release the Moonshining with Dr. Tiki video in two parts (it will be a few weeks before part 2 rears it’s ugly head thanks to the fermentation process). So, here it is!
“Amtrekker travels to international waters to meet with the famed Dr. Tiki for some moonshining hijinks!
Uncertainty ensues.”
Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player. var WT1_1 = { params : { wmode : "opaque", allowscriptaccess : "always", allownetworking : "all", allowfullscreen : "true"}, flashvars : { file : "http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amtrekker.com%2Findex.php%3Fxspf%3Dtrue%26id%3D4", volume : "80", bufferlength : "5", controlbar : "over", 'logo.hide' : "false", shuffle : "false", playlist : "bottom"}, attr : { id : "WT1", name : "WT1"}, start : function() { swfobject.embedSWF("http://www.amtrekker.com/wp-content/uploads/player.swf", "WT1_1", "437", "522", "9.0.0", false, this.flashvars, this.params , this.attr ); } } WT1_1.start();And here’s the YouTube link
I’m done.
Brett.
Annnddd…here are two great ways to help out Team Amtrekker! Our new affiliation with bookingbuddy.com means all you have to do to help out the site is click on one of their ads and sign up for an awesome newsletter filled with travel deals! Thanks everyone!
Thanks!
AKPC_IDS += "381,";Uncertain Times
Oct 4th
Hey Team,
Here’s the update. I’ll be flying out of LA in the next day or two on a donated airline buddy pass bound for Orlando so I can knock out SCUBA diving. That should give me a couple weeks to hitchhike back across the country for the big finish passing through Atlanta for the horse through the covered bridge with CNN’s News To Me!
It’s funny that even after almost a year and a half practice put into “amtrekking” AND with the October 25th deadline looming the final two objectives still feel so tenuous. I haven’t actually spoken to anyone about SCUBA diving but I have sent out a few emails so basically for that one I’m relying on the fact that I’m already certified and blind dumb luck. I’m really not sure how that one is going to happen but I figure I have at least a little bit of time to figure it out.
I got a call from the folks at CNN (the ones I did an interview with earlier in the year) last week and they sounded pretty excited about helping to set up the horse through the covered bridge but I haven’t heard from them in a More >
