844 days, 20,256 hours, 1,215,360 minutes, or 72,921,600 seconds. That is the approximate duration of my world tour. I never wanted it to end and now, in a manner of speaking, I suppose it never has to. If you wish to go by country do so by clicking on one above. They are numbered in the order I visited them, more or less. If you enjoy reading about it even a tenth as much as I enjoyed living it then you will not have wasted your time. Grab a refreshing beverage, settle in a comfortable chair, and make a journey across the world, experiencing it as I did. Then get off your ass and check it out for yourself. You're not getting any younger.

Just an Idiot…

Since the travel log aspect of this blog (i.e. the more interesting portion) will not develop until I leave for Indonesia, I am forced to hone my blogging skills with background info and pointless tangents. One may wonder how I have the time to wander aimlessly for a prolonged stretch. Am I wealthy, retired, a traveling salesman? Negative. Just an idiot. Inveterate moron, really. I spent two and a half years working as a civilian in Baghdad. I was able to pay off my debts and squirrel away a bit of coin. Civilian contractor in Baghdad, you ask? It's true. I might be a dirtbag.

I'm not married and own neither a house nor an automobile. I am rootless. If there was ever a time to roam the earth this would be that time. I'm about to buckle my safety belt. Get ready. Get buckled.

I use the word 'idiot' because now may not be the best time to be unemployed. The world economy is in the shitcan (Author’s Note: As of June 11th, 2011 world markets are still pretty much in the shitter. Hindsight is mocking me). Pissing away my savings on Happy World Fun Tour ‘09 may be ill advised. Welcome to my world. Prudence? Not one of my strengths. I've always wanted to travel at my whim. Here's my chance. Have you buckled up yet?

And now for a bit of random...Did you know that a human head transplant is theoretically possible? It’s been done with puppies and monkeys. I shit you not. In the Soviet Union in the 1950s a scientist (perhaps of the mad variety) named Vladimir Demikhov grafted puppy heads onto the necks of live dogs. The dogs survived for up to twenty-nine days. The grafted heads drank, bit, and tried to tug themselves from the recipients' bodies. 

 And in Cleveland (I knew that place was shady) in the '70s a neurosurgeon named Robert White severed the head of one monkey and connected it to the body of another decapitated one. PETA would be very, very disappointed. 

 Why not humans? According to Robbie (still alive I believe)? Possible. Of course, the technology does not exist to reconnect spinal cords. This means any person benefiting from the surgery would still be paralyzed from the neck down. Hey, you can’t have everything. Where the hell did I read this? Mary Roach's Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. Worth a read. 

 12/08
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