CharmingGeek.net Funness

Hello again web, and the developed world! We got back to San Jose yesterday after I picked up two more days of rafting. We took one day on the Reventason and the last day on the muy hermosa Pacuare. The Pacuare was awesome, with class four rapids, one of which I got to guide, and beautiful canyons. It was a relaxing and exciting day. Now all that’s left is a fancy dinner and a flight home. As beautiful as this place is, I can’t wait to get to the States. I’ll post my pictures ASAP. Lots of love…

Ok, so I swam in rapids for 2 days, learned about swiftwater life saving, tossed some ropes to some not-quite-drowning friends of mine, and then hit the r?os. First a day of rafting on the Pejibaye and then two days on the Sarapiqui. Then in a moment of complete anticlimax, I left the shores of the Savegre for the Cl?nica B?blica in San Jos?. I still don?t know if it was the beans or the water, but I?m blogging right now because some GI issues have me tied down at base instead of on the river where I should be.
Ooh, and the rivers are so beautiful! I?ve seen more wildlife in the past week than in any other week in this country. Costa Rica has some of the best rafting in the world, and in the calm spots, these whitewater wonderlands are crystal clear. I can?t wait to get back out there. Meanwhile, I hope the other guys are having fun.
?Pura Vida!

?This crazy Tico keyboard! Wow, electricity! How exciting is that?
Yesterday I finished walking across Central America. From the Atlantic (or Caribean) to the Pacific. And boy are my feet tired!!
Two weeks of rafting coming up.
Wow, I haven?t blogged in a month. There?s so much to say!
Starting in Lim?n, we began marching west, carrying clothes, food, everything on our backs. Hiking an average of 12 miles a day, we started the 280ish mile journey from coast to coast. Mud. There was lots of mud. I don?t know why RAINforest never made me think the ground would be wet. Most of the trails we followed were more like very narrow swamps. I have never before stepped in mud up to my thigh. I completely destroyed one solid pair of hiking boots, one poncho, and three pairs of socks. And you know what? It?s really cold in the mountains here. After climbing 3000 meters of tropical peaks, I was glad to have packed long underwear.
I can now say that I?ve eaten gallo pinto (beans and rice) for 12 meals in a row. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Nothing but beans and rice. I?ll never be able to look at that plate again.
We passed through dry forest, wet forest, rainforest, cloud forest, paramo, and bamboo forest. We slept in a boxcar. We slept on a mountain, and in 30 days, I had two hot showers and two sets of clothes. My legs have never known such a workout or such dirtiness.
The Ticos are wonderful people. Early in our trip, we were faced with crossing a half kilometer of rotting railroad bridge, stepping from one tie to the next, in the rain, carrying 50 pound packs. The locals made several trips across that bridge, holding our hands and helping us make the journey over the rapids below. Another day, when one of our group members could walk no farther, the Tico in the first car to pass offered a ride to the next town. Our homestays were excellent. (Um, beans and rice? no thanks) I want tico children.
Along the way there were many adventures, too many to list here.
See you all when I get back to the States.
Pura Vida!

Buenos dias from Costa Rica!
I’m in San Jose ahora and having mad fun.
For the past 2 weeks, I’ve hit some of the best surf spots in the country, learning to ride the waves, short board and long. The Pacific is beautiful, you guys. It’s a little overcast most of the time, but the water is warm, and the waves are enormous. At night, the whitecaps glow green with phosphorescence.
Soon we’ll be starting a hike from Puerto Limon on the Carribean coast, all the way across to the Pacific again, but first, here’s a little bit of what’s been going on.
After an unexpected 12 hour layover in Miami, I flew into San Jose at about 9am local time, June 17th. I met 17 other students and a number of instructors on a mountain overlooking the capital city and we spent 3 days getting to know each other while earning first aid and CPR certification. Then we split. I went with a group of 9 students to Playa El Rey, a secluded beach near Playa Dominical. We spent three days there in the home of Don Juan, getting our first taste of Pacific surf. From El Rey, we took a taxi to Playa Bejuco, apparently a vacation home for many ticos. It was a pretty wild beach with great rip tides. Three days at Playa Bejuco (with running water this time), and on to Playa Santa Teresa. The trip to Santa Teresa saw us on a couple of Taxi rides, a couple of busses, and a ferry from Puntarenas to Paquete. Santa Teresa was pretty secluded, but the water was drinkable and the waves were fantastic. A couple of 10 foot swells really gave me a pounding, but I had a chance to perfect my surfing on some of the more manageable waves.
Now it is time to wash clothes, repack, call home and start the 30-day cross-country hike blisters and mosquito bites, here I come!

Wow! Today has been a busy day…er…yesterday was a busy day.
Gardening and cooking…I made bread, lemonade, a cheesecake…I don’t even want to get into everything we did in the yard. Put together a grill at my granddad’s…went swimming. Is this really boring? Richelle called tonight, and I was all excited because I had such a good, busy day.
You know what would make my day better? If somebody would e-mail me. Too much to ask?
I’ve got to get a haircut in the morning.
And I have to go to sleep now.
You know what’s really dissapointing? Now that I’m using Stat Smarts to moniter my visits, now I know that no one reads my journal entries.

Counting down the days…I leave this land of the free on Saturday, 4PM from RDU. I can’t wait. My whole family is coming to see me off, and Richelle is following us too. She’s so sweet.
For those of you not paying a lot of attention, I’m spending my summer with CRROBS in the Costa Rican Rainforest. I’ll hike for 30 days, crossing from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, and then I’ll kayak, surf, and check out some crazy Hare Krishna rituals for the next 30 days. I’ll be coming back to Raleigh just in time for school, August 16.
Well, I don’t know how much time I’ll get to use a computer while I’m in Costa Rica, but whenever I get the chance, I’ll be journaling my adventures online.
Keep checking back here to find out where I’ve been and what I’m doing. Hey, and when you do, click here and here to vote for my website at www.studentcenter.org
This moves me up in a silly little ranking, and drives more visitors to my page. The end result is a happier Brad. I’ll feel like people care about my life and all that, you know? Humor me.
Affectionately yours,

The results are in! Who has the best free counter and tracker service? In my opinion, Stat Smarts wins hands down.
Why statsmarts? Because it is invisible. NO BANNER ADDS! The counter can either be completely invisible, with no graphic on the page at all, or you can add a counter with just the number of hits and not even a link back to Stat Smarts. Personally, I really like the Stat Smarts service, so I’ve linked to them about 20 times.
Stat Smarts gives you detailed statistics, including visitor’s domains, time of visit, operating system and browser, reslution, color depth, the path they took through the site, the referrer, and an option to exclude hits from your own computer. The referrer listing is very helpful, because it shows how people are getting to your site.
What’s the catch you ask? No documentation….well, very little anyway. Beyond setting up the account you’ll find next to no information on the service on statsmarts.com.
So, if you’re not that familiar with computers and crazy stuff like that, you may be better off with Extreme Tracking (http://www.extreme-dm.com/tracking/).
Extreme Tracking offers most of the same services as Stat Smarts except you have to include a small (and tasteful) graphic and link back to their site. Extreme Tracking comes in a close second.
If you’re still with me, and you want to try Stat Smarts, here’s some info that will help you: Stat Smarts is actually the implementation of the free software POWER PHLOGGER 2.2.1 from phpee.com. This is software that anyone with a linux webserver can run, hosting their own service just like Stat Smarts. Awesome! So, if you need any help with Stat Smarts, you’re most likely to find it at phpee.com. If you’re running a server and want some visits to your site, here’s a really cool, free service you could offer that would make your site useful to lost masses. I would suggest some documentation, though. If anybody does implement this (any of the 10 people that have ever read this blog), send me an e-mail and I’ll be sure to link to your site. In fact, even if you don’t implement it, e-mail me and I’ll link to your site. I just like you that much.
Sincerely,

Perhaps you’ve noticed that I have lots of ugly graphics and advertisements at the bottom of all my pages now. Yeah, I hate it too. This is an experiment and an attempt to get some statistics on who visits my site. Since NCSU’s server doesn’t allow me any real access to my web domain, I have to rely on comercial counters and such. (How do you spell rely?)

Finally, I’m finished shopping for my 60 day journey with the Costa Rica Rainforest Outward Bound School!
Unfortunately, it looks like I’m going to be taking a little more weight than I had thought. That weight is in the form of two prescription medications and a knee brace. One wild game of broomball and two unhappy wisdom teeth are the cause of my current misery. On a more fun note, my dreams are getting more interesting, thanks to a weekly dose of Larium, an anti-malaria medication.
It looks like its going to rain a lot in Costa Rica. Yeah. A whole lot. This is the rainy season right now, and well, it’s the rainforest. I hear it’s really hot in Central America, too. Something of note…Gortex doesn’t really work in the rainforest. See, when it is really hot and humid, where Gortex is supposed to let watervapor out, it lets water vapor in. Then you’re really wet, and wearing waterproof clothing. Ok, that’s it for now. Pura Vida.

I cleaned my car!!!!
It’s been like two years, and it was starting to produce its own fossil fuel. But about 6 hours with the 409, and I won! Three days to clean my room, one to clean my car, but I’m done. Nothing to do until June 15, now. Nothing but sit in the sun and blog.
Spiderman::entertaining, but corny
Movies::too expensive
Hackers::still awesome
Anybody want to go see that Hugh Grant movie with me? Is it called ‘About a Boy’? If so, IM me or something.