Five thousand meters above sea level

In a pleasant surprise, my room here in Lhasa has a computer with internet access, unlimited usage and free of charge. I am also sharing my room with a mouse, one that roams untethered to the computer and was last seen somewhere between the television and the wall. A fair trade, I'd say.

The train ride here took more than twenty-four hours and stopped only twice. The train twisted through the North Eastern parts of Tibet, through the outskirts of the Himalayan range. The scenery was pretty awesome.

Snow capped mountains as jagged as the Rockies; the worlds highest lake; silt-covered riverbeds framing crystal clear glacier rivers; frozen tundra; rolling plains and foothills as lush as a windows desktop picture... all sandwiched by lots of naps. so, so many naps.

The thin air definitely is getting to some. The conductor lady who was servicing my car had to stand outside at a stop for about thirty-minutes, and when she got back in she was literally a shade of pale blue.

I seem to have suffered no ill-effects thusfar, but I haven't really spent more than ten to fifteen minutes at a time outside. I like to think my superior conditioning has more to do with my imperviousness to human weakness however.

As a bonus, I've managed to read three books so far this trip and am halfway through Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine. Normally it takes me ages to read Klein's writing, just because I spend half my time re-reading passages to filter out her angry-rhetoric from the actual points of note. I must say that compared to No Logo, her newest book is much less openly antagonistic, it really is a more effective criticism of corporate capitalism. Her research is really impressive, it's much more meaty than simple activist sentiment and doesn't have the pervasive single-mindedness of No Logo.

I'm not done but I highly suggest it to anyone with even a mild interest in cutting to the heart of geo-political matters and what is happening in the world around us, behind the wall of media.

Going to check out The Potala Palace tomorrow morning, it's on a giant hill in the middle of the city, illuminated as the bus drove from the train station to my hotel. It's actually quite similar to how the Parthenon in Athens is visible on the hill from everywhere in the city, it should be an interesting excursion.

Internet one more night as I'll be in Lhasa at least another few days.

a prologue

1:24am. Seven hours forty five minutes remaining. 

This will not be the most exciting vacation I have ever been on. 

Some might dismiss this as a prophesy of the self-fulfilling variety, but I am rather assured that despite the practical and mildly interesting experiences that will come from this month out of country, it will not be four weeks of mindless fun. 

Rather, I see it as an opportunity to wax philosophical about a rather unexpected phase of life wrapping itself up and -- again --  being tossed into the professional wilderness; wondering where the winds will take me next. 

Lazing around with friends, I wondered if this was any way to live a life. 

We discussed the meritocracy of marriage in our social circles, and though I know nothing is wrong with being single, I do ponder the masochism of choosing to self-flagellate oneself through submersion in the world of the betrothed. 

I cannot say however strongly enough -- that is not an indictment. It is merely an honest query about the different paths we choose. 

But I digress. At the very least, I am anticipating a trip that gives my brain an opportunity to again expand. 

If I can do that at the very least, I am excited about my return. 

How was that on a pretentious scale? I'm completely out of practice, having written nothing but basketball news for the past eight months. I've forgotten how to shape the english language I feel, outside of paraphrasing a lede.

The formula of online publishing was truly more stifling than even I realized until I began putting words to screen freely again.