Monthly Archives: July 2012

Olympic Opening Ceremony

 

What’s Up With That?

I was home for a couple days in between some trips and caught the opening ceremonies. What has happened to the Olympics?

Athletes took a back seat to queens and rock stars… sigh.

So I was looking for the Track and Field schedule on the official 2012 Olympic Website, but it is not listed as a sport. If you look at the 2012 Schedule and Results page, you will find a sport named “Athletics.” If you click on Athletics, you will find that that sport is Track and Field. So Track and Field is athletics. But are swimmers not athletes? That sport is listed under Swimming.

Continue reading Olympic Opening Ceremony

What’s Up With That?

I grew up in the 1950’s and entered adulthood in the late 1960’s. As a kid I drove my parents crazy. I guess it was the “generation gap.” As I moved through adulthood I became more conservative than my parents, although I do not classify myself as a conservative or a liberal. Independent would be most correct, but some would say objectivist is more accurate. Use whatever label you want, it doesn’t matter to me.

So when I look around at Gen X and Y, I am often perplexed. It must be that Generation gap thing.

Occasionally I am going to post about things that perplex or confuse me; and it seems that it comes down to the culture of the younger generations versus my world-view. The posts will be sporadic, random, rambling, and satirical.

Wasn’t Satire some sort of existentialist French philosopher? Well, however he was or wasn’t, it doesn’t matter. Maybe Mr. Satire never existed. Maybe the name is a pseudonym for Mark Twain, Chevy Chase, Aristophanes, or even Al Gore. Hopefully it was Alfred E. Neuman. But I am not going to worry about it.

Photo Sharing Websites

Like many people, I have been storing and sharing my pictures on a photo sharing Website. It is convenient and quick… if you do not add comments, tags and other stuff. I have been uploading pictures to Webshots for a few years. Eventually I ran out of free space and had to pay a yearly fee for more storage.

Now I don’t mind paying for the service, but it irks me that I have to read all the ads on a site I pay to use. Today I noticed that my albums have generated 1,275,883 views. That seems a lot to me and since I am paying to bring some of the traffic to Webshots, I feel I shouldn’t have to pay for a service and have to look at advertisements. Heck, I am not against ads. Who knows, someday I might put some on this site, although I have no idea how one would go about doing that or if you can really make any money.

The other thing about Webshots is that my albums don’t really tell a story, other than each album is based on a specific subject or a trip. So people don’t  really get the flavor of what was behind the pictures. That is part of the reason why I create this site. So I hope to eventually transfer all the pictures here on PopUpBackpacker.com with a story or report to accompany them before my next Webshots bill comes due. If I can do that, I will delete all those pictures and close the account.

popupbackpacker.com

This is my first post. I am a lucky man because I have figured out why I exist… to live a Good Life. For me The Good Life is my family, productivity in my work, camping in my popup (tent) trailer with my wife Joyce, and backpacking.

The best camping is somewhere in the “boondocks” alone with Joyce, and the best backpacking is hiking solo. All simple stuff, and all of it rewarding.

This blog is really for my family and friends only. But as I document The Good Life, I realized that other folks with similar interests might like to read about what I do. There are no comment pages here, because I really don’t care what others think about my life.

Life is like a long hike. It is just a series of small steps, that when placed end-to-end, becomes an epic adventure.

I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I do!

– Nick