Hello there,

You might have noticed a couple of things have changed around the ol' blog since I last posted. I got photoshop three days ago and it is everything I dreamed it would be and more. Love! I redid my blog header by scratch, including the pink watercolor in the background. More to come on that later.

In other personal news I took the GRE last weekend (I won't find out the results until late November) and I passed into the final round of my teaching competition! According to a possibly arbitrary standard of measurement, I am one of the top 15 best teachers in a city of 3.6 million people. It feels good to have made it this far. I'll let you know if yours truly is ranked number one after my final open lesson next month.

Now lets get to the meat of the post: the documentary 180 Degrees South: Conquerers of the Useless. To summarize, it's a documentary following adventurer Jeff Johnson as he tries to recreate the epic 1968 journey of his heros Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins (the founders of Patagonia and The North Face) to Patagonia. I think any good piece of art should stir you emotionally but a great piece of art should "leave you with answers to questions you didn't know you wanted to ask." That is what Yvon Chouinard said about adventuring in the film, but I think it applies to art as well.

I highly recommend watching this documentary. I'm neither a climber nor a surfer but anyone who is interested in traveling or examining how we live our lives would benefit from watching it. I was deeply inspired by their ability to live in the moment and appreciate life without trying to "keep up with the Jones."

The amazing thing is that Yvon and Doug, founders of multi-million dollar climbing gear companies, fell into it chasing what they love. After achieving success by society's standards, both men took a step back and realized that was not what they valued and became philanthropists- buying land in Patagonia's reservation for the people and supporting grass roots organizations.

I couldn't help but draw a parallel to Greg Mortenson, the founder of Central Asia Institut, whom the book "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Journey to Promote Peace...One School at a Time" was written about. He was living his life climb to climb when he stumbled upon a village in the Himalayas and vowed to come back and build a school for them.


In a world full of pressure to start a career young, go to grad school, start that Roth IRA, it's refreshing to hear different advice. Get out in nature. Enjoy the journey. Be.

Oh, if you need one more reason to watch 180 Degrees South, the soundtrack is awesome. It even includes a song from my neighbor in Iowa City, Greg Brown. This Ugly Casanova song was pretty sweet too.

Thanks for reading and have a great Halloween!