*digs around in her old CollegeClub account*

Crazy how sometimes you turn around on life and think, “Wait a minute. Did that actually happen?”

“Did I REALLY work under a webcam ten hours a day for over a year?”

“Did I REALLY go on a date with a dead & stuffed porcupine?”

“Did someone REALLY photoshop a picture of me into porn and send it around the world wide web?”

But the thing about going virtual — is the evidence doesn’t fit in the shredder…

View WebCam Pictures

View “Pricky Date” Commercial

View Sol Porn

*falls out of her chair laughing*

Ahhhhh… good times.

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If it isn’t obvious, I’ve hit a bit of a blog-block.

So if you’ll allow, I will now casually place all the blame on my Oregon associates, with whom I’ve spent the entire weekend dancing on table tops and chasing waterfalls.

The suspects look a little like this…

…and if spotted, should be knocked on the head with quick comment of the “Quit making her have so much fun in Oregon! How are we ever gonna get her back on the road again and blogging useless babble if you keep this crap up?!” sort.

Ah. It’s late. I hiked 13 miles today and my feet need to be euthanized.

Until my cranial gets crackin’ again, I leave you with a video clip of my adventure under the cascades of Tunnel Falls today….

*Click on image below to view. You’ll need QuickTime.*

See All Table Top Dancin’ & Waterfall Chasing Pictures

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To date, I have owned SEVEN different digital cameras. The first four I bought and sold as fast as the technology became outdated, because *quite admittedly*…I’m digitoy obsessed. The last three, as we all know, were all removed from my ownership by shady Guatemalan characters by the use of bag-slashings, mail interception, and guns. I am obviously honey to the thieving-bears. So as I prepare to embark on yet another year of travels, I ask NOT what shady characters will do for me, but what I can HIDE in my SHOE from shady characters….

And thus I present to you, our new replacement who will be capturing the .jpg and .mpg abroad-action of Solbeam.com 2002-2004….

Weighing in at an hefty 5 ounces and standing an entire 3 inches in height and a half inch in width… let’s hear a round of applause for “Sol Digicam the VIII“!

The Minolta Dimage X

Please excuse me now as I go stand by the door, drum my fingers, and wait for the delivery man to arrive….

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*blub, blu, blu, blu, blub*

(Thank you Richi for the pictures!!!! I MISS YOU GUYS!!!)

Hey look at that! Color looks good on this page! *glances down* Look at the way I’ve been babbling on with no visual love!

*digs through her new pictures*

The Guatemalan “American Football” team helped us paint the church at the project this Saturday.

Mayan girls I met in the park.

The travelers’ convertible: bed of a pick-up truck. How will I resist my thumb urges in the States?

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Me and one of *MY* kids.

The pullman from Pana to Antigua. Don’t think for a second that THAT is crowded. THAT is the tourist bus. In the second picture, I’m stuck in what is sometimes referred to as “ethno-tat” — clothing that is local, cheap and completely appropriate *if sometimes a bit “touristy”* on the road, but that looks completely absurb when worn anywhere else but the country it was purchased in.

Some of my house mates at our Christmas dinner. The “dueno” (owner) of our house is also “Mr. Antigua” (trophy and all!) and he will KILL ME if he ever finds out I posted that online.

A sign I just added to my newly-reopened “Funny-Ass-Signs-From-Abroad” gallery.

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My favorite Central American sunset and sunrise. Took both pictures in Belize and posted them before, but lost them in the Zing crash. I entitled them, “Belize It” with the caption, “The only authority I respect is that which is responsible for these.”

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Was digging around online today to find out what search results people are coming up with when they look for information on my project, Camino Seguro.

A “HA!” loud enough to turn a few heads in the internet cafe came from me when I discovered this. But, Thank You WorldSurface.com… we need all the help we can get!

Imagine the sound of my “HA” when I then dropped “solbeam” into the Yahoo Search engine and came up with 36 Results! Including this video clip that I`ve NEVER seen before (again from the good ol´ CC days). Oh yeah…it`s VJ Sol. (Actually, I have no volume on this PC, so I don`t even know what I´m shouting in the clip.) But oh how I miss my mpeg-making!

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A public announcement made by the US Department of State, warning Americans in Antigua of a possible terrorist attack, has ruffled a feather or two of my fellow travelers. We`ve also had three Anthrax cases in the City. Apparently, in this world game of hide-and-seek, there is no home base to claim “safe.”

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Shook out of bed this morning to an earthquake. Not the first time. Not the last time. Funny the things you get used to around here.

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Did you know that the rest of the world doesn´t have fraternities, sororities, cheerleaders or high school prom? Yeah. Try to explain those concepts over dinner to a dozen questioning Europeans…

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“Einee. Mennie. Miny. Mo. Guate, Xela or Ecuador.”

My current return ticket to The States is set for this week. *smirks*

Not a chance.

Put in a request to change my departure date to January 22nd and my departure city to Quito, Ecuador. Currently researching and deciding between: Volunteer programs in Xela; Teaching English to 6 yr-olds in Antigua; Bartending at some posh resort on the Pacific Beach; Divemastering in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador; and volunteer service at a shelter for homeless women and children in Quito.

Round and round she goes, where she´ll land, we´ll all soon know….

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AH! And thus….

A NEW Sol Album was born!

Yup. It´s missing about 20 albums and a G of pictures, but it covers my documented travels on THIS trip AND I´ll be able to move forward with it…which I think counts for a c-point or two. Merc has made all kinds of offers to stay up all night and create a gallery to host the pictures ON solbeam.com. But you know what I think? *spins finger around temple and points at Merc* I think Merc needs to stop being such a sacrificing and selfless individual. That´ll get you no where in life kiddo….except for maybe heaven. *winks*

Anyway, point being — the sol show will go on!

(The archives will just be a little graphic-neud, but archives are just that…archaic, old, bedridden, moldy….so who cares?) *good rationalization, eh?*

The site I´m using now, ImageStation.com, is owned and run by Sony (but happens to be using the beautifully user-friendly Zing infrastructure). I figure they are in this game for a longer run for the following reasons: 1. Those cameras are expensive as hell. There´s a clear-cut “plan-to-profitability” for ya. 2. The word “Sony” is the second most well-known word in the entire world (after “Coke”). This show isn´t run by any 20 year old entrepreneur. Nope. Some old fart with ten mansions is callin´ the decisions on this one. Sony´s got the cash to move like a three-toed sloth. Which is what you need in this industry today.

(I think Kodak just purchased Shutterfly too…funny how all the big guys came full swing round, eh? Like they were just mad giggling behind all our dotcommy backs while we put in the 80 hour weeks…and now? Now, wiping their eyes from tears of laughter *while we wiped our from option packages written in invisible ink*…they´ve worked up a little hunger from all the floor-rolling…they´re craving something sweet….in fact, isn´t this cherry-picking season?)

Anyway, sitting here in this internet cafe moving photos ALL day has me in disbelief that I ever sat in front of a computer like this ten-plus hours a day. *head spins*

*Screen flashes: “Please wait while your photos are being processed.”*

That´s my cue…back to work….

This guy puts out some of the best content on the web. His latest project, “Date My Sister“, had me in hysterics for an hour this morning. (Or check out the other Spark Science Projects: equally sick and amusing!)

The Date-My-Sister Project

(Get past the first couple pages though…the author warms up a bit before presenting the roflma material.)

Two days of rolling around in hot sweats with Tom and I´m feeling almost 7 out of 10 stars today.

(Updated clarification: Tom is that of, Tom Robbins, the author of the book, that I was reading, in bed, while I had a fever, over the last two days. (Sorry if I took a year off your good Christian life, Mom.)

(Note: Rambod, one of the fantastic guys that I traveled through Belize with, says that what my site lacks, is more romance and sex. That *points to lead sentence* was my pathetic attempt. Also, he points out, that in my QA session, I come across as “WAY more innocent” that I actually am. SO, for the record: I am hardly innocent and have a dried-blood-red streak in me that I apparently tend to under-exaggerate on the site. Ask my parents, I was grounded a good 70% of my high school career, which is a statistic I hold with pride given that I was caught red-handed (or as they say in Guatemala: “with my hands in the corn” *LOL*) for only about 2% of my actual bad deeds. And, speaking of…. rumor has it that my little brother has been cleaning HIS soul of MY past bad deeds as of late, and should that rumor be true…*gives Nick that evil-older-sister eye*…I should warn you that I KNOW where that Christmas ´84 home video is. Yes….THAT one.

*cackles evil-older-sister laugh*

I apologize now for my recent tendency to ramble. Where was I?

$115.00

to ship the new digital camera to Guatemala! Okay…that´s not where I was…but BAH! Can you believe that? But I guess it´s a small price to pay to shut me up and bring back the visuals to Solbeam.com, eh? And in actuality, I´m more ecstatic than a puddle-happy-puppy that I´m going to have MY CAMERA in my mosquito-eaten hands in less than three days!!!

And…you know what having my camera means? It means, Sol can start to scratch that travel itch again! Two days of bed time got a girl thinking and I´m gonna lay my options out in cool little virtual-voting-booth as soon as I figure out how to do it *later today*. Right now, I´ve got to go learn the stinky-subjunctive. Duid…WHO made this language anyway?! Talk about aggravating.

Yeah, yeah, yeah….the River Caving Trip story IS coming….promise!

*un-crosses fingers*