No Shave November: a community art project*

thelongbrake has done some great community art projects over the last couple years. i have thoroughly enjoyed participating and having my eyes tickled by all the images from around the us and the world.

i have now ventured out to do my own.

with a twist.

josh's usually have some great spiritual truth about them. mine won't. well, i guess it does in that God is truth and it is true that men can grow facial hair.

_____________________

the rules

_take a picture of yourself on nov 1 freshly shaven
_email picture to me (nhughes@josiahventure.com)
_don't shave during november
_take a picture dec 1
_email picture to me

additional rules for the ambitious

_choose facial hair type from the pic above
_attempt to immitate
_email pic to me

please feel free to link this, invite friends, or whatever to make this the greatest facial hair display the world (or at least the internet) has ever seen.

adventures in mexico

there were three very unique experiences that i had on my recent trip to mexico with somanorth here in arizona.

1_while driving through the arizona desert on our way down to mexico we saw ufos. now i'm not saying that they were alien ufos, but they were most definately unidentified flying objects...lights in the sky. i'm not an expert on military aircraft and i really don't know jack about aeronautics, but my friend Christian, the driver of our crew, has a degree in aeronautical engineering and he'd never seen anything like it before. there were two separate types of ufo.

the first was a bright light that would pulse as it fell to earth with each subsequent flare appearing more downward and more to the left. now, it could easily have been something just falling, but the odd thing is that at the end of each of these we saw (there were four or five total) it would arch upwards and then not appear again apparently never falling completely to the ground.

the second were four lights that were in the sky the entire time the other things were falling, but remained completely still during the entire show. in fact, we thought they were lights atop towers on a mountain, but suddenly, these once stationary lights begun to decend upon the earth. Christian exclaimed that they could not be helicopters, because helicopters couldn't decend so quickly. he was at a loss for what they could be.

2_i almost got shot in the head by an ak-47 on thursday night.

my primary role in riding shotgun was to get us to our final destination. my tools: map and a mag light. after entering mexico (around midnight) our senses were hightened to the federali (the mexican police). Christian had worried for hours (literaly) about what a mexican jail would be like, could we run from the federali, would we bail him out if he were arrested, and countless other annoying questions. the federali are notorious for their corruption and senseless arrests. we were even told to have $40 ready in case we got pulled over.

sure enough, as we pulling into puerto penasco (our final destination) the federali pulled up next to us. the mexican driving glaced over at me. i glanced back. he did a double take and slowed his car down. as we pulled away from him, he slid into our lane. Christian begins to get worried...we all do in fact. then, sure enough, the lights come on. we had been driving the speed limit and didn't appear to be doing anything illegal, so we were confounded. after pulling into a dirt lot on the side of the road, the driver came up to the driver side and in spanish (via Jenni's translation) asked us to turn the dome light on. we did. he then asked us to raise our hands, so he could see them. we did. all the while he is looking at me, not Christian. then, upon seeing the mag light on my lap, says, "Oh, lampa." smiles, says "bye" and walks away.

as the beat of our hearts begin to slow everything became clear. when the federali pulled along side of us, i had been holding the mag light in my right hand. apparently, he saw the shine of metal and thought it was a gun! the girls also spoke up at that time and asked if we saw the other guy standing outside of my window. because i'd been focusing on the guy at Christian's window, i didn't. the girls then relayed that he was holding an ak-47! i was one flash of the mag light away from being capped in the dome

3_the bed i slept in was the top bunk of a bunkbed. it was rather comfortable and nice. the odd thing was that it was extremely high. in fact, i could barely sit up straight while up there. the other interesting aspect was that there was a fan that hung over the legs-half of the bed. while not close to my head, it could be if i wasn't paying attention.

on the final night i came into our room at 3 am after watching a movie in another room. the lights were off in the entire condo, so it was pitch black. the white noise of the fan filled the room as i climbed up in bed. forgetting about the fan, i leaned forward in an effort to slide my body into bed.

THWAP, THWAP, THWAP

as far as i can tell i took three fan blades to the head. two to the forehead and one to the bridge of the nose. i was inches from losing an eye. feeling marginal amounts of blood and only feeling slightly dazed, I laid down and wondered as i fell asleep whether i had a concussion. knowing the dangers of sleeping after a concussion, i fell asleep wondering if i would wake up the next morning.

i did.


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here are pictures from other, less exciting times while in mexico:

America vs. Czech

I've been in the States for one week.

Here are the most significant things I've noticed/discovered being back:

_right turns on red are great...if you don't do it people will honk
_laundry is much quicker with a dryer!
_sports are much more fun to watch on TV rather than tracking the scores on the internet
_do not, i repeat, do not remove anything from the scales when going through the self checkout at the grocery store
_do not, i repeat, do not use the self check out by yourself if you've never done it before...thanks Jenni and Christian!
_fruits and vegitables are huge, perfect, and shiny here...i never noticed the difference when i moved to czech...i think its because i never bought fruit and vegitables before i moved there
_i will come back to czech 10-15 pounds heavier
_bowling is much easier for me in America...good lanes and pins without strings led to two games over 200...in czech i never crack 100
_driving an automatic transmission is odd...what should I do with my left foot?

When I am in czech I eat two types of food...czech or italian. Here is what I've eaten since I've been here:

_Cajun
_Chinese
_Mexican
_American
_Seafood
_Pizza
_Italian
_Breakfast Restaurant...nothing like it in Cesky Tesin
_BBQ

I'm sure this is just the beginning of what I'll notice while I'm here...

RIP: Dreads

Yep, its true, the dreads are gone. After nine months of very little showering and caring way too much about how my hair looked, I decided to send them to the afterlife.

Upon closer inspection, I found zero...that's right, zero, bugs in any of them. I did find a ton of sand and a pencil that I thought I lost in February, but no bugs.

Here is a pictoral tribute to some of the more interesting dreads:

The Seahorse Dread:



The Marriage Dread (where two become one):



The Baby Dread (the smallest of this dysfunctional dread family):



The Perfect Dread (this was the closest one to good):



The ? Dread (seriously, is that dread wearing a tutu? I have no idea what happened to this one):


That was the first time scissors touched my head in over two years. In all honesty, my head is cold. But showers are nicer. You win some, you lose some.

days 7 and 8/9: three sunrises, two surfers and five kings

day seven we got up early and watched the sunrise...three times! due to poor timing on our part, the first was as we drove to the beach. fortunately for us, the beach we went to had a huge cliff between it and the sun, so we got to watch the sun rise a second time. finally, since our campsite was located in a huge revine, by the time we got back to our camp the sun was rising there too! oh, lucky us.





we also went to the beach again and jozka and i surfed...



days eightandnine blend together really.

we left sw portugal at 530 am to drive to barcelona. we made it to barcelona at 8 pm, ate dinner and walked around the city.

barcelona has a lot of street artists



then left at midnight to make the 16 hour drive home.

needless to say, when we ate burger king at 3 in the afternoon on day nine we were a little kookoo...



we wore those crowns for the next five hours...literally.

days 5 & 6: tents, naked gymnastics, and psalm 19

this is the difference between morning four and morning five:





we were super excited when we got to the beach:



the beach also had quite a few naked people on it. now, i'm not just saying topless women (a standard at european beaches), i'm talking full on. there weren't a lot and fortunately they were on the other side of the beach, but at one time while jozka and i were surfing i saw a couple of guys doing round-off back handsprings and handstands! i'm including a picture of jozka and i instead to spare you. no one should have to see that:



this is the view i had from where i sat:



we went to a lighthouse last night to watch the sunset on the atlantic. it was the first time i'd seen the sun set on the atlantic...it actually doesn't set. the earth rotates giving it the appearance that it does set. so it was the first time i saw the earth rotate so that the sun appeared to go behind the atlantic:





bye bye sun:

days 3 & 4: lisbon, a banana, and ninjas

day three found us reaching our goal of making it to portugal:



lisbon was beautiful and em's parents hooked us up with a night at the (five star) Sheraton in Lisbon! We were going to fit all five of us in a room, but our consciences caught up with us and we decided not to break the rules (three to a room) and we bought another room...that, coupled with Em's speeding ticket, put us way over budget...

not to be discouraged, we set out for lisbon only to be distracted by rain and a banana:



after helping the banana cross the street we wandered the streets of lisbon and practiced our ninja techniques in case of attack:



more on days four and five tomorrow...

Days 1 & 2: Thunderstorms and Speeding Tickets

Kilometers driven: 2360
To go: 629
Cities: Barcelona (kinda) and Madrid

We camped outside of Barcelona.
It stormed.
We didn't get wet.
Thank you, good tents.
I realized that the level of enjoyment of a thunderstorm is directly related to what your sleeping situation is within the thunderstorm and how tired you are.
Tent and tiredness=low level of enjoyment.



This was the only part of France we liked.
It was too expensive.
Too far to drive through to get to Spain.
And we lost 90 Euros to the Frenchy (as Em likes to call them) Police...she was driving to fast. They didn't like it.







once we got to Spain we ate our faces off.
perviously we had only eaten bread and water.
not really, but close.



Our awesome host, Dawn, competes with Emily for the affections of Juan the Bronze man.
Dawn is a missionary in Madrid.
She is sold out for the Lord.
She invited us into her home without knowing us.
We even ate her food.
Used her shower.
I stole lots of electricity charging my
phone
ipod
computer
camera battery
palm pilot



Madrid has cool grafiti.

I'm going to drink Starbucks now...then its off to Lisbon.

blurry road ahead

i picked up our ride (opel zafira) earlier this evening



it is packed



in approximately six hours we will be on the road to ________

we really have very little planned other than

_seeing the southwestern most tip of europe
_eating seafood
_drinking great wine
_reading books

_surfing
_eating seafood
_drinking sangria
_reading books
_surfing

stay tuned (can you really tune in to a website?) for pics, stories, and an overall good time...

the players: an introduction

name: jozef
alias: jozka (pronounciation = yohsh-ka)
skills: flaminco dancing, growing handlebar mustache
role: cook


name: lucka (pronunciation = loots-ka)
alias: barbie
skills: horticulture, tractor driving
role: getting discounts from the locals







name: erin
alias: er bear
skills: popping collars, giving massages
role: nurse














name: emily
alias: pemily
skills: glamour shots, hair sculpting
role: making sure we look good










name: nate
alias: nate dogg
skills: directional orientation, blogging
role: photographer

to the left, then back to the right (a shorter, more intense trip than the longbrake)

my buddy josh is driving from from Ft. Wayne, IN to Seattle, WA.

he is doing it in 25 days.

he will see many states.

he will meet many people.

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i was supposed to go to greece on sunday.

it was going to cost 600 dollars for eight nights, seven days including airfare, breakfast, and dinner. good price.

but then, three of my friends cancelled.

two were guys.

i decided that i didn't want to go with three girls.

i've spent all summer with two girls.



i like girls, but i also like guys. so we changed our plans.

in order to get my friend jozka to come, we decided to drive to portugal and sleep in tents and buy food from grocery stores.

it will be less expensive.

we are doing it all in nine days.

tentative (and subject to probable change as the wind guides us):

[all dates are august]
twelve_drive prague to barcelona
thirteen_beach in barcelona
fourteen_drive barcelona to madrid (stay with missionary friends...hopefully)
fifteen_drive madrid to sagres (the southwestern most tip of portugal)
sixteen_read in sagres
seventeen_surf in sagres
eighteen_drive to lisbon
nineteen_drive to paris...yeah, the one in france
twenty_drive home

i know there are some people scattered over europe who read my blog. if you live in one of the afore mentioned countries and wish to allow 5 people to sleep for free, please email me at: nhughes@josiahventure.com.