My Vacation in 50 Photos

Recently, my family and I spent about three months hoofing around North America—mostly in New York, but also other parts of the US as well as Canada.  It was an epic trip that was full of fun things.  I’ve been pondering how I can share about it here, partly by way of just processing the experience, and so I’ve landed on this post as one of the main ways to do this.

For context, various global and Australian travel restrictions have meant that it’d been pushing five years since my whole family (myself, my wife and my three daughters) have been back to the States together and seen my mom (my dad passed away shortly after our last whole-family visit).  That’s a long time for my now-82 year old mom to go without seeing her grandchildren.  So because we basically missed our last visit or two (according to our old schedule) we made this one extra long.  That also gave us time to see lots of other friends and do many of the exciting things that the photos show.

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Colorado: the American comic book & cool stuff haul

I didn’t go to America recently to buy comic books.  I went to gather with my family and do another layer of saying goodbye to my father.

But…even though it was not my purpose, I did in fact buy some comic books while I was there, because generally in America it’s easier to get such things a bit more cheaply than in Australia, where I normally live.

Colorado: Farewell in the Mountains

As  I mentioned before, I recently returned from Colorado, where my family had gathered in order to scatter the ashes of my father, who died last year.

Colorado: Memories in Denver

I recently returned from a trip to the United States.  Normally, that means I’d go to New York, but not this time.  This time the destination was Colorado.

49 Forty-Ninth Birthday Blessings

It was recently my birthday!  On the day, I posted some short musings about how it’s okay that I haven’t done everything that I wanted to this year.  Then I did a review of my last year’s “bucket list” and identified what I’ve done and what I didn’t do, and tried to point out how even though there are things I didn’t do, there were other things that I did do that weren’t on the list in the first place.

Now it’s time to look with gratitude at all the cool stuff that I got.  Because really, I have a lot to be grateful for.  And not just the long term stuff, like great kids, a wonderful wife, relatively good health, and a sense of meaning and purpose to life.  I’m talking short-term, often shallow, good ‘ol fashioned stuff!

Strange Sightings: Superheroes in Manila

A couple of years ago I spent a few weeks in Manila, on a missions project.  While there, I couldn’t help but to notice how prominent super-hero related merchandise was, just about everywhere.

49th Year Bucket List

So, point of clarification:  I’m 48 years old currently, having just celebrated my birthday yesterday.  I’m not 49, but that this year is actually my 49th year of living.  When I celebrate my 49th birthday, that means I’m completing my 49th year, not starting it.

And I know, it’s not really a “bucket list” if the deadline isn’t the end of your life…when you “kick the bucket”.  Indeed, maybe it’d be better to call this a “49th Year To-Do List”.  But that’s catchy sounding, don’t you think?

So this is a list of things I’m hoping to have achieved by the time that me being able to say “I’m 48 years old” is cold and buried in the ground.  What do I want to have achieved / completed / accomplished by then?  That’s what we’re looking at here.

Looking Back at Being 47

Today is the end of me being 47 years old.  I’ve been writing all year in one way or the other about how 47 is my favorite number, and now we’re here at the end of the year and all I can wonder is, did I actually do justice to this iconic moment in my life?  After all, I don’t get to go back and do it again.

Can I, indeed, think of 47 things I did or experienced this year that made the year notable or cool?

Let’s try!

Gnomesville: Mostly Harmless

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy
Hamlet, Hamlet

Life is full of wonder, kid, it’s full of wonders you can barely imagine…
Walter P. Matthias, True Blues

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Bridgeport ComiConn 2014 – Non-Buyer’s Remorse

One of the highlights of my trip to New York recently (aside from, you know, family, friends and Niagara Falls) was getting to the Bridgeport ComiConn. I didn’t go because I have any particular connection to Bridgeport or Connecticut, but simply because it was not too far away for me, and I wanted to take the opportunity to go to a comic book / science fiction event of some sort that had more than two comic book people that I am familiar with (which is sort of standard for the events that come to Perth each year). It was good fun, all the more so because I was more-or-less at the last moment accompanied by my friend and former workmate Jane.