Have you noticed a ridiculous overusage of “Top 5, 10, or 20 lists” in the media over the last few years. Know why? Another symptom of the internet age shortening people’s attention spans and media outlets watering down content to retain readers. They (the lists) annoy the shit of out me.
I’ve noticed upon my return home, that people don’t want to “just” ask me about my trip, because they don’t want to spend more than a few minutes hearing about it, or I must be pretty unbearable. So they ask for a Top 2 instead. 
It also amazes me how some supposed friends of mine can’t take 10 minutes out of the last 6 months to even glance at my travels and get an idea of what I did. (you’re all off the hook) Whatever. It was for me, not them.
So without further ado, I reluctantly present to you my Top 6 
of my 9 country whirlwind backpacking “don’t call me a backpacker” trip.
6. Lisbon, Portugal – having friends/tourguides made the quick visit of this cool city very thorough, not to mention home cooked meals.
5. The Acropolis, Athens, Greece – yeah
4. diving on Ko Tao, Thailand – an improvised plan that was such a great decision
3. Cordoba, Andalucia, Spain – just a perfect small Spanish town, and the Mezquita was very moving for me. In retrospect maybe it’s just the feeling one gets the first time you see Moorish architecture in person, but still a very special city.
2. Kochi, Kerala, India – the last bastion of old, slow, friendly, beautiful southern India. I sooooooo want to go back and explore more.
drumroll please Anton…
1. Borobudur, Central Java, Indonesia – simply incredible monument surrounded by spectacular scenery.
pictures do not really do it justice. they do not convey feeling.
Greetings dear blog readers… if there are any left! Have you missed me?
I guess I took a little break there. Wow it’s been a long “come down.” Things have been ok. The new job is a good balance of being busy but not overwhelming, and things seem to be going well in terms of them liking me. I have to say it’s so nice being back working in SOMA (south of Market for you outsiders.) I walk, I see people I know, there’s even more lunch places then when I worked there before. Why the hell did I work in Oakland so long?!?! Oh yeah… that severance package.
With my newfound income (heh) I’ve done some comfort shopping, and a lot of work on bringing my fish tank back up. I’ve bought a TON of music, I think a definite symptom of having worn out everything I had on my iPod during my travels to the point I can’t listen to it anymore!
New fish tank setup:
New music: Deerhoof, J.J. Cale, Silver Mt. Zion, Blonde Redhead, Battles, Bobby Hutcherson, the new Modest Mouse (which kinda sucks), Marconi Notaro (a Brazilian poet) to name a few.
Part of my new job was researching, (drooling) and buying a new A/V system for our conference room. This made me realize my 10 year old stereo receiver that I bought from a friend was pitifully behind the times. And if there’s one thing I should feel good about spending money on, it’s my stereo. So I have a sweet new Denon. 
good times.
Guess what else??? I’m in school for the first time in 11 years! Ok, so it’s only City College, but it’s still a bit shocking. I’m taking Spanish in summer school, 3 hours a week. I am determined to make a dent in my language deficiencies, and we’ll see where this goes from here. But right now I’m tentatively thinking my next trip will be in South America, so I wanted to start with Spanish and see how hard it is for me.