Well. This year hasn't gone according to plan... for probably anyone.
I haven't posted in awhile so I figured I'd give an update. My original plan for the year was to go back to Japan for the summer, maybe work in the Olympic village, guide a guy around, and do a fair amount of training and treasure hunting. After that I was going to go off to Alaska to climb Denali and maybe do some commercial fishing before heading off to East Africa to be point man on a Kilimanjaro climb, and then off to Canada. I had a couple of maybes thrown in there like Mongolia, and some special training.
Then 2020 actually started. Right out of the gate it was disaster after disaster, both man-made and natural, any of which would cause plans to be changed: wildfires, COVID-19, The worst locust plague in history, society altering riots, and a siberian oil refinery spilling over 20,000 tons of oil into the ocean, and China “invading” Hong Kong, just to name a few. We're only half way into the year! Thankfully (?) I'm used to everything constantly going wrong, but not many people are handling things well. Especially the United States government, which has helped worsen the chance I'll get everything done this year.
Japan? Locked down, like most of the world. The Olympics were postponed at least a year. Even if I went there, most things of interest would be closed. I'd have no one to guide, and no where to hangout.
Alaska? The fisheries were projected to do poorly, and Denali has been ordered closed for all of 2020.
Tanzania? They don't have much of an infrastructure even in good times. A global pandemic plus a biblical amount of locusts has crippled much of that region. I'm cautiously optimistic that maybe by September I'll be able to get to Kilimanjaro.
Mongolia? Attached to China, a definite No-Go. The Chinese government wasn't fond of me before all this, and to top it off, they've effectively destroyed the Hong Kong that I wanted to return to.
Canada? The border is officially closed to the U.S., and some are saying it may be for over a year!
Outside of Canada the European Union has even said it won't allow U.S. Citizens in for now, because of how poorly everything has been handled up to now. I don't blame them, or anyone else. I just hate being stuck.
Right before the Coronavirus outbreak I decided I would join my local CERT, Community Emergency Response Team, under the Department of Homeland Security, because they had some good training opportunities and I would like to be an asset to the communities I'm in. Before I knew it, I was staffing the Emergency Operation Command center during it's activation for the first part of the COVID-19 situation. I'm grateful for the opportunity to have contributed during that time.
I haven't posted in awhile so I figured I'd give an update. My original plan for the year was to go back to Japan for the summer, maybe work in the Olympic village, guide a guy around, and do a fair amount of training and treasure hunting. After that I was going to go off to Alaska to climb Denali and maybe do some commercial fishing before heading off to East Africa to be point man on a Kilimanjaro climb, and then off to Canada. I had a couple of maybes thrown in there like Mongolia, and some special training.
Then 2020 actually started. Right out of the gate it was disaster after disaster, both man-made and natural, any of which would cause plans to be changed: wildfires, COVID-19, The worst locust plague in history, society altering riots, and a siberian oil refinery spilling over 20,000 tons of oil into the ocean, and China “invading” Hong Kong, just to name a few. We're only half way into the year! Thankfully (?) I'm used to everything constantly going wrong, but not many people are handling things well. Especially the United States government, which has helped worsen the chance I'll get everything done this year.
Japan? Locked down, like most of the world. The Olympics were postponed at least a year. Even if I went there, most things of interest would be closed. I'd have no one to guide, and no where to hangout.
Alaska? The fisheries were projected to do poorly, and Denali has been ordered closed for all of 2020.
Tanzania? They don't have much of an infrastructure even in good times. A global pandemic plus a biblical amount of locusts has crippled much of that region. I'm cautiously optimistic that maybe by September I'll be able to get to Kilimanjaro.
Mongolia? Attached to China, a definite No-Go. The Chinese government wasn't fond of me before all this, and to top it off, they've effectively destroyed the Hong Kong that I wanted to return to.
Canada? The border is officially closed to the U.S., and some are saying it may be for over a year!
Outside of Canada the European Union has even said it won't allow U.S. Citizens in for now, because of how poorly everything has been handled up to now. I don't blame them, or anyone else. I just hate being stuck.
Right before the Coronavirus outbreak I decided I would join my local CERT, Community Emergency Response Team, under the Department of Homeland Security, because they had some good training opportunities and I would like to be an asset to the communities I'm in. Before I knew it, I was staffing the Emergency Operation Command center during it's activation for the first part of the COVID-19 situation. I'm grateful for the opportunity to have contributed during that time.
Now I'm just doing odd jobs in the midwestern united states trying to create a means of escaping. Teaching school is out, since there is no more school, but I have been coaching privately and rehabing some land to start running larger survival courses. I took a gig at a hardware store because of the hazard pay, but it's been a nightmare. When the hazard pay is gone, I'll be gone. For now I just continue to train on my own and study. I've been reading a ton and doing a lot of “The Great Courses”. I crisis is a terrible thing to waste. Use it as an opportunity for improvement.
Never let life beat you down. Seven times down, eight times up. Osu!
-NASH
In other news, the blog is in the credits of the videogame “Shenmue III” . If you don't know what it is, it probably wouldn't interest you, but I like it.
On a related note, between training and jobs, I've been building a custom arcade machine. Expect more on that when it's done.
Never let life beat you down. Seven times down, eight times up. Osu!
-NASH
In other news, the blog is in the credits of the videogame “Shenmue III” . If you don't know what it is, it probably wouldn't interest you, but I like it.
On a related note, between training and jobs, I've been building a custom arcade machine. Expect more on that when it's done.
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