I am happy where I work now but I thought it'd be fun to make a goofy application for a job at A9 traveling cities in the US taking pictures.

I am interested in the block view driver position. I find myself having to calm a down a bit as I write this because I have spent the last ten years of my life practicing for this job. As you weren't there for the last ten years of my life, allow me to catch you up. I have done solo drives to every state, except Rhode Island. That includes a trip to Alaska to just a smidgen south of the Arctic Circle. I've driven and hiked through remote Bureau of Land Management areas or the dense streets of Boston. I have camped, slept in bus stations or stayed in hotels all across the country. Each night in a new place I would meticulously record my routes in personal journals and my thoughts about where I'd been. I've faced down snow storms with white-out conditions, tornados, flat tires, being locked out of my car, washed out roads all with nary a scratch on my car (quite a feat as one travels through the Yukon wilderness). While my passion for travel contiues to this day, particularly by car, I've made a map of the highlights of my travel between 1997 and 2002 at http://gnumatt.org/greencar.html.

I'm familiar with digital cameras and GPS technology. I still remember the day I won my first GPS in a giveaway years ago. I immediately bought batteries and proceeded to run around in the parking lot measuring my speed and tracking my route with the GPS. While I'm no William Eggleston when it comes to documenting the colorful ephemera that drifts through my life, I continue to work on my photography skills and feel comfortable troubleshooting any digital camera problems. As far as my technical skills I started with an Amiga 1000 in 1986 and have built a career of sorts for myself around the Internet and in particular the web. As you can tell from my resume I've been working with the Internet since 1993. While I began doing Unix system administration and networking I've tried to focus more on backend development the last few years.

I sincerely welcome the opportunity to discuss the block view driver six month contract position.

Excerpts from journal entries while in the Sahara:

2-19-04 (large tent of nomad family) 4:21pm
...Currently I'm excited by the sand storm raging outside. It built up slowly at first and then all at once it kicked off. I keep having to wipe sand off these pages. I'm in a nice, large, camel fur tent. It keeps the wind out but the not sand. Too much sand, write later.

2-20-04 (large tent in nomad house) 8:41am
...The sand storm was "very strong" according to Ahmed. The wind was hard and fast by any standard I know. Sand coated everything. It was in our food, our clothes and the crevices of our skin. When I woke up I had to wipe a layer off my eyes and face. I had many dreams through the night.

[...]

I think the dreams may have been brought on by the surreal experience of going into the storm at night. The tent was pitch black inside. I lifted up the wall to go outside and it was another world. The wind was screaming past my ears and tearing at my clothes. The sand stung my skin. All I could see was greyness with blurry black spots where the nearby nomad buildings were. It was like I was floating because there was no ground and no sky. Nothing was near and nothing was far. I walked into the desert to go pee. Even though I walked about 30 feet it still felt like someone could pull me right back into the tent. I'd lost a great deal of my ability to judge distance by sight. All I knew was how many steps I'd taken. It was an unforgettable moment.

I've been reminiscing and wanting to feel like that again. I think it's time to plan the next desert trip. I had been thinking about the Gobi in August but a 30 hour plane trip sounds like my idea of Hell. I think I'll do the Gobi and Siberia at the same time after 2005. I'm looking at September 2005 then for the Atacama desert in Chile, the driest desert in the world. The 7-10 hour flight into Santiago and bus ride to San Pedro is a lot more appealing.

I wonder if anyone else would go?

I've stayed in Knoxville, TN, Asheville, NC, Washington, DC, Portland, ME, Boston, MA and Toronto, ON. Each stop has been really great and full of fun, enriching local moments. I've been keeping sporadic updates in a separate area.

After having a good time with James and Brooke in Toronto I've weaseled my way into my sister's place in Pittsburgh. She's out of town till 11pm so I'm soaking up the Internet access while I recover from some illness and lack of sleep. Plus it's overcast so I think I deserve a little rest.

The Great Sand Dunes have joined the A-List of the National Park system by dropping the Monument designation and becoming the newest National Park. The Interior Secretary had a ceremony for it September 13th, 2004. President Clinton had signed the bill in November of 2000 authorizing the designation.

The Great Sand Dunes now stand alongside Colorado's other National Parks Mesa Verde (1906), Rocky Mountain (1915), and Black Canyon of the Gunnison (1999). Since 1980 only nine areas have received the National Park designation. Cuyahoga Valley NP in Ohio is the only other designee from 2000.

The National Park Service (and I'm including their excellent battlefield monuments) is one of America's great accomplishments. I've been to many of the National Parks outside of Alaska and Hawaii and the Great Sand Dunes deserve their elite designation. I still remember the last time I was at the Great Sand Dunes when I finally climbed the big dune.

I did it. On my third attempt I summited the tallest peak at the Great Sand Dunes. It's a 750 foot high sand dune. It's more intimidating if you think of it as a 75 story building.

I'd taken the first two peaks before. The second time I tried I made the mistake of not loading up on water and I got really sick when I got to the first peak. This time I had a three egg omelet with green chilies in Raton, NM and water before driving up. It's so dry that when you first start to sweat it evaporates right away and leaves a weird tingling/stinging sensation all over your body.

The moment was rife with metaphors for my life.