In the hot sun of northern Australia, during a moment of feeling especially proud of my travel achievement, I pondered some of the people I'd met. Some were travellers who sat around the hostels in the evenings swapping stories about places they had never even seen. Others were locals who worked tirelessly at their jobs, but had no dreams about leaving the small town where they were born. I thought both of these groups have it wrong, and I said so.	Sand, Stars, Lilacs, and Me
I finally got an apartment of my own after traveling for about twenty months following a six-year stint in the Navy. It was just a studio, but it was the first place I had of my very own in eight years. I was just about to start a math degree at San Jose State and had just backpacked around the world. I wrote this on my first day in the place as I sat in the big, empty room, thinking about who I was and what life is all about.	My New Room
After a few years on submarines, you get bitter. When you first go topside after a long time underwater, the sunlight hits you like medicine. You stand there and drink it in and feel sooo glad you're alive; it makes you see things you didn't see before. Once, we went underway with a new mechanic; his ignorance and innocence irritated me, and I treated him worse than he had coming. Stepping out onto the deck after this underway, I was hit by the light of my own injustice and wrote this 'thank you'.	Sun
This love-haiku details the four stages of finding the purpose of life thru email.	This Is All of Life, My Love