Life is a Daring Adventure | The Inspiration Thread

Favorite quotations, etc.
SavingWithBabies
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Re: Life is a Daring Adventure | The Inspiration Thread

Post by SavingWithBabies »

Website of Roger Taylor is interesting/inspiring:
I’m Roger Taylor, ex-skipper of a little junk-rigged Corribee called Mingming, and now skipper of the converted Achilles 24 Mingming II. This is my website. Only time will tell what it will be about, but initially it will be about Mingming and Mingming II, their voyages and the principles of Simple Sailing that underpin my approach to ocean voyaging. I’ll also post, from time to time, pieces I have written about sailing issues in general.

I have put Simple Sailing in capital letters. This is to give it some importance. A title, if you like. Sailing is becoming a sport riddled with unnecessary complexity. This complexity is commercially driven. We are under severe marketing pressure to buy more and more gadgets, to buy ever bigger and more sophisticated yachts. The more we succumb to these pressures, the happier and more profitable the ‘marine industry’ becomes.
http://thesimplesailor.com/

Youtube interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2z1xBKFVsA

Youtube videos from Roger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mttx8Z-AvJ8

@J_ mentioned him here on @theanimal's blog: viewtopic.php?p=252337#p252337

Western Red Cedar
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Re: Life is a Daring Adventure | The Inspiration Thread

Post by Western Red Cedar »

Two Years on a Bike - from Vancouver to Patagonia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY0i2wUmIak

The fourth part of the series should be out soon.

theanimal
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Re: Life is a Daring Adventure | The Inspiration Thread

Post by theanimal »

Lost in the Valley of Death

https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Valley-Deat ... 0062965964

Very much Into the Wild esque both in narrative and personal journey.
In the vein of Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, a riveting work of narrative nonfiction centering on the unsolved disappearance of an American backpacker in India—one of at least two dozen tourists who have met a similar fate in the remote and storied Parvati Valley.

For centuries, India has enthralled westerners looking for an exotic getaway, a brief immersion in yoga and meditation, or in rare cases, a true pilgrimage to find spiritual revelation. Justin Alexander Shetler, an inveterate traveler trained in wilderness survival, was one such seeker.

In his early thirties Justin Alexander Shetler, quit his job at a tech startup and set out on a global journey: across the United States by motorcycle, then down to South America, and on to the Philippines, Thailand, and Nepal, in search of authentic experiences and meaningful encounters, while also documenting his travels on Instagram. His enigmatic character and magnetic personality gained him a devoted following who lived vicariously through his adventures. But the ever restless explorer was driven to pursue ever greater challenges, and greater risks, in what had become a personal quest—his own hero’s journey.

In 2016, he made his way to the Parvati Valley, a remote and rugged corner of the Indian Himalayas steeped in mystical tradition yet shrouded in darkness and danger. There, he spent weeks studying under the guidance of a sadhu, an Indian holy man, living and meditating in a cave. At the end of August, accompanied by the sadhu, he set off on a “spiritual journey” to a holy lake—a journey from which he would never return.

Lost in the Valley of Death is about one man’s search to find himself, in a country where for many westerners the path to spiritual enlightenment can prove fraught, even treacherous. But it is also a story about all of us and the ways, sometimes extreme, we seek fulfillment in life.

chenda
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Re: Life is a Daring Adventure | The Inspiration Thread

Post by chenda »

@the animal. Thanks for the recommendation, it sounds like an interesting if tragic read.

RoamingFrancis
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Re: Life is a Daring Adventure | The Inspiration Thread

Post by RoamingFrancis »

I first became acquainted with Justin Alexander in high school when I listened to his interviews on Chris Ryan's podcast - the guy was an inspiration for me. Tragic story. The interviews are still out there if you do some Googling.

Western Red Cedar
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Re: Life is a Daring Adventure | The Inspiration Thread

Post by Western Red Cedar »

@RF - thanks for the suggestion. I've listened to a bunch of his podcasts over the last couple weeks after finding the Justin Alexander episodes. Here is a link to Chris Ryan's podcast with the author of Lost in the Valley of Death:

https://chrisryanphd.com/510-harley-rus ... alexander/

That page has links to two different interviews with Justin Alexander. Very interesting conversations and I enjoyed them more than the discussion with the author. I'd recommend listening to those first before checking out the conversation with Rustad (which is also good).

theanimal
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Re: Life is a Daring Adventure | The Inspiration Thread

Post by theanimal »

Ego wrote:
Mon Dec 06, 2021 3:14 pm
With an ego the size of Texas and a chip on his shoulder the size of Mount Everest, Nepali Mountaineer Nimsdai Purja sets out to stand atop all fourteen 8K+ meter mountains in the world in record time. The previous fastest to completion was 7 years. Purja attempted it in 7 months.
Purja is on today's epsiode of Joe Rogan.

Still the same character. He is no doubt talented, but some of his claims appear to me far fetched. For example, he says for 6 days a week over a period of 6 months, daily he ran ~32 miles (half of it with 75 lb pack), biked ~40 mi and swam 5000M, while working full time.

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Slevin
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Re: Life is a Daring Adventure | The Inspiration Thread

Post by Slevin »

theanimal wrote:
Wed Mar 09, 2022 1:18 pm
he says for 6 days a week over a period of 6 months, daily he ran ~32 miles (half of it with 75 lb pack), biked ~40 mi and swam 5000M, while working full time.
Given better than average pace at each that is 4 hours of running, 2 hours of swimming, and 1.5-2 hours of biking.

Roughly 8 hours per day of endurance training, 6 days a week? :lol:

I'm not an endurance athlete (i got bored after 1 half marathon) but I used to hang out with professional runners in the saunas around town due to coincidental timing, and they all thought that this one girl who was putting in 100+ miles of mountain running per week was insane and they didn't know how she could survive it. I think most ultra runners put in about 60ish miles a week. This is like that, but the guy says he's putting in 192 miles / week on just the running, which is pretty much triple what most ultramarathon runners put in, and that is just 1/3rd of the whole training routine.

Obviously the man is a monster of a human (just see his accomplishments) but agree these claims are just too far fetched IMO.

SavingWithBabies
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Re: Life is a Daring Adventure | The Inspiration Thread

Post by SavingWithBabies »

Kevin Boothby is an interesting person that I haven't seen mentioned here yet. Like Jacob, he was a physicist by education. He worked for something like 7-8 years in the financial industry and then left it and working with the 2008 crash (at about 40 years of age). I'm watching an interview of him now from 2021 which says his annual budget is about $15,000 USD.

He has a website/blog at kevinboothbysailing.com but I came across him from his Youtube channel "How to Sail Oceans" (HtSO). He lives aboard a ~31 foot junk-rigged wooden sailboat without an engine (except the outboard on his dinghy) but with some technical systems like electricity* (battery and solar panels), a laptop or two, in later videos an Iridium GO! (satellite connection, very very slow speeds but suitable for getting weather reports) and a radio. He has a handful of playlists and I think his most popular would be the Transatlantic 2020 in which he sails from the East coast of the USA to Ireland, south to Canaries and back to the Caribbean following the "great circle" or trade winds route. I missed it until now but I think the Alone Around the Atlantic (2020-21) appears to be a summary of the video playlist linked earlier. One of his more philosophical videos is You Bet Your Life (an essay).

[*] Apparently, the batteries and solar were added at some point, not sure when.

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Ego
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Re: Life is a Daring Adventure | The Inspiration Thread

Post by Ego »

@SWB, I enjoyed "You Bet Your Life".
When I lost my job with Merrill Lynch I felt it in my bones, so to speak, that this chapter of my life was closing. I had done it long enough to earn the means to fund the next phase of my life. What exactly that was, or whether it would work or not, I had no idea. It was truly a leap of faith, a bet with myself that I would figure it out, and –perhaps most importantly–I felt that I really had no choice. Psychological or perhaps divine forces led me on adventures, and into danger. Perhaps these forces were merely the result of some emotional bruising way back in my past, yet the result is undeniable: they revealed worlds to me that I would have never known had I stayed ashore.

And that is my faith, the extent to which I call myself a religious man. While the path I choose is objectively a gamble, inwardly I sense it as an unfolding mystery, a gradual tracing out of one tiny mortal thread in God’s phenomenal tapestry.

Western Red Cedar
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Re: Life is a Daring Adventure | The Inspiration Thread

Post by Western Red Cedar »

Western Red Cedar wrote:
Thu Feb 03, 2022 6:35 pm
Two Years on a Bike - from Vancouver to Patagonia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY0i2wUmIak

The fourth part of the series should be out soon.
I'm going to bump this documentary again because the fourth part of the series was recently released. Stunning landscapes and impressive cinematography:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caCM58F3yHA

I realized later that the filmmaker, Martijn Doolaard, was highlighted in a Kirsten Dirksen video and had begun rehabilitating an small cabin in the Alps. She also covered a similar homestead with a priest that was really good. The priest and Doolaard are neighbors.

Dirksen and Doolaard - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc6Tis5lYwY

Dirksen and the Priest - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF1jJy1F-8I

Doolaard has created his own channel documenting his rehabilitation. A life of daring adventures indeed:

https://www.youtube.com/c/MartijnDoolaard

dustBowl
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Re: Life is a Daring Adventure | The Inspiration Thread

Post by dustBowl »

Western Red Cedar wrote:
Fri May 13, 2022 11:18 am
Doolaard has created his own channel documenting his rehabilitation. A life of daring adventures indeed:

https://www.youtube.com/c/MartijnDoolaard
I meant to link this exact channel but @WRC beat me to it. So I'll just chime in with a second recommendation for Martijn's stuff.

His cabin rehab series reminds me of Alone in the Wilderness. Lots of static shots of our protagonist at work, minimal dialogue, sweeping mountain vistas. Good stuff.

Freedom_2018
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Re: Life is a Daring Adventure | The Inspiration Thread

Post by Freedom_2018 »

I am always inspired by Iohan and his spirit as a human being: https://youtu.be/Z0wAPztOO2U

He is (sorry was) one of the most inspiring content creators on YouTube I've seen. I'm sorry I never got to meet him in person.

I love all his videos.

RIP Iohan.

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Re: Life is a Daring Adventure | The Inspiration Thread

Post by AxelHeyst »

Jenny Tough, a Canadian solo bikepacker and fastpacker.
https://www.youtube.com/c/JenniferTough

Scott 2
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Re: Life is a Daring Adventure | The Inspiration Thread

Post by Scott 2 »

I'm currently reading Tsh Oxenreider's book - Notes from a Blue Bike: The Art of Living Intentionally in a Chaotic World

https://www.tshoxenreider.com/about
https://www.amazon.com/Notes-Blue-Bike- ... B00GUTB784

Not an extreme athlete, but she travels to Albania for charity work, lives in Turkey for awhile, then tries to bring the intentional pace of life back to the US. Her story is enjoyable.

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Re: Life is a Daring Adventure | The Inspiration Thread

Post by jennypenny »

The existential dread discussion is now in a new thread. Here is my original post in this thread ...

I feel like this thread needs a bump ... lots of talk of meaning again in the journals. People should go back to the beginning and watch some of the earlier videos. I particularly like Alastair Humphreys' video on eleutheromania.

Sometimes finding meaning isn't as hard as people make it out to be. And sometimes you'll look back at times you were pursuing being you (whoever you were at the moment) and realize that there was meaning in the endeavor, even if you couldn't see it at the time. Gretchen Rubin has a mantra "Be Gretchen" that I find a good guide when I'm feeling rudderless ... 'be jennypenny'.

The overexamined life is not worth living any more than the unexamined one. Get out and do stuff, and when you're exhausted from all the doing you'll have time to sift through it and see what brought you meaning (or you'll discover that the search for meaning isn't as important as advertised -- that it's a coping mechanism for difficult times but not a required component of every day life).

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Re: Life is a Daring Adventure | The Inspiration Thread

Post by jacob »

New thread here: viewtopic.php?t=12427

theanimal
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Re: Life is a Daring Adventure | The Inspiration Thread

Post by theanimal »

I love reading accounts of people in their 70s and 80s doing things that they are supposedly not able to be doing at that age. Here is a short video about Ginette Bedard, who ran her first marathon at age 69 and runs ten miles everyday.
Running the NYC Marathon at age 86


"If I do the marathon, then back come in the house. I hate housework. Yeah, the day after I run again. It doesn't bother me. I don't feel sore, my legs, nothing, nowhere. Because my legs are used to it. I don't feel 86, I feel I'm 36. I could still wear my bikini when I was 16 years old. Who can wear bikini at 86? Not too many."
.....
"[Interviewer] What do you think is the hardest thing about getting older?

It's looking old. Not feeling old, looking old. Yeah, the wrinkles. Oh, shit, I hate that. But you can keep your body younger than your face!"
......
"I love it. You know why? I earned it. Lot of people tell me, There's no reason why they shouldn't be the same. Okay? You are what you do to your life. [speaking foreign language] of discipline, determination, pride, a little bit of everything. Oh, I feel great! [speaks foreign language], life is good. Now I'm gonna go, and I'm gonna go and have a croissant and a cappuccino."

Western Red Cedar
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Re: Life is a Daring Adventure | The Inspiration Thread

Post by Western Red Cedar »

The River Runner (currently on Netflix):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdLovewceng

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Re: Life is a Daring Adventure | The Inspiration Thread

Post by guitarplayer »

Ego wrote:
Thu Apr 15, 2021 5:49 am
I really enjoy living. I do not have a death wish. But if I have to go some time, I'd want it to be something similar to how Aleksander Doba went. It is before 4AM here and I'm getting ready to start my workout. Nonetheless, I propose a toast to Doba.
My dad's retiring in a couple of weeks, I sent him links to interviews with Doba.

Nice to listen to him, a very down to earth person. To give one example, when he got some sort of medal from the Polish president in 2015, he wanted to feature in a t-shirt but some PR people had talked him out of it. So he had to borrow a suit from a friend.

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