Jason Pearce

Last night, I did a little work on the Where I’ve Been section of my site. I decided to add a column that displayed each nation’s flag. I also linked each flag to the CIA’s World Factbook, which contains an excellent summary of each country. I like this site because it starts with a country map, a paragraph of background information, and then follows with a bunch of stats.

A few of the places I’ve visited a no longer countries or are considered territories, and thus, were not in the CIA’s World Factbook. For those, I had to look elsewhere to find their flag. In doing so, I found Flags of the World; a content-rich site that covers the history of each flag, its design, its use of colors, and a whole lot more.

Now my “Where I’ve Been” page has some color. I’m still not very happy with how the table/chart looks, but I do like its function, for sorting the columns by date first visited, country name, and continent is useful.

I continue to contemplate the definition of “country” and “visit.” Of of the places I’ve listed some are considered territories, which questions what I consider a country. Other places I’ve listed I visited for less than a day. For some, I saw a lot in a single day. Others, I saw only in passing.

Qualifying my list of places visited continues to challenge me. Perhaps I’ll flesh out that debate in a later posting.

Norwalk hosted a boat show this weekend just a mile or so away from my place. Though I thought it was silly to charge folks a $15 admission fee to see a bunch of boats that are for sale — I mean, you don’t pay to see houses, cars, and other big items for sale — it was still fun.

They had some very impressive boats for sale. Several were so lavish and large that no price tag was mentioned. But from the looks of the other $750,000 boats we were on, they could have been worth a few million.

It would be neat to have a boat you could live on. It makes you think about how different of a lifestyle one would have once they became a boat owner. But I suppose it wouldn’t be much more different than those who buy second homes; unless, of course, the boat becomes your primary home.

I suppose a part of me dreams about having a boat I could live on. It would have to have satellite Internet access so I can work from any location in the world. This would give me the means to pick up and explore new locations on a whim. Wouldn’t that be sweet?

My cousin Will Cameron will wed Abby Knerr on December 1, 2003. They have built a great website that is simplistic, clean, and well designed. More so, it contains useful content in regards to their upcoming day. A nice touch.

Another upcoming wedding I’ll be attending will be the marriage of Michelle Blackwell (Sigma Kappa) and Cameron Jeffreys (Lambda Chi) in Toronto on October 18. I became friends with these two while living in Indianapolis. I suppose I also had some influence on helping them meet.

Sadly, I missed a wedding of another Indianapolis friend, Megan Melissa Hansen, on August 9 in Indianapolis. Megan worked for for Zeta Tau Alpha, was a client, and a kind supporter/fan of my website during my brief Peace Corps experience.

Oh, and I almost forgot, the whole reason the family is making a trip to Thailand this Christmas is because my brother will be attending a wedding of two of his friends. We’re just tagging along.

Tis the Season — for weddings, that is.

I spent $189 on a replacement headlight bulb for my Audi today. That’s right; nearly $200 on just a headlight bulb. And that did not include labor or installation. I still have to put it in myself. It’s a Xenon bulb, which must mean it is made of diamonds a gold.

On a happier note, Norwalk’s Oyster Festival is this weekend. Located just two blocks away, I’m sure it will make up most of my weekend activities. Of course, I’ll also have to content with far greater traffic problems. But I’m looking forward to eating oysters, drinking beer, and listing to live music.

On Saturday, roommate Adam and I drove up to Rhode Island to do some scuba diving. After renting all of the gear, hauling it up to Fort Wetherill, snorkeling 20 mintues out to the spot we wanted to dive, we realized that neither of us was wearing enough weight. Though I’ve worn a seven millimeter wetsuit before with only 15 pounds of weight when diving in Lake Erie, I forgot to account that I would more boyant in salt water. Disappointed, we had to abort the dive. Thankfully, the dive shop gave us a full refund, although they were under no obligation to do so.

This got me thinking about my upcoming trip to Thailand with the family over Christmas. My brother Cameron and I would like to incorporate a day or two of diving, for I hear the conditions there are outstanding.