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To Vietnam

Published March 14, 2023

The bus was now stopped on the street. I could see it, it was within reach.

I grabbed the straps of my backpack and swallowed the humiliation of running. Every atom of my being was disgusted by the motion.

I got to the bus out of breath and stepped inside the crappy metal can on wheels. My name wasn't on the passenger list, not surprising since I had just booked the ticket before I left the hostel.

There was no argument from the driver or clipboard worker though, which was helpful considering the current state of my lungs. Less than a minute after I put my bag between my legs and got comfortable, the bus sped off. Life's a game of inches and all that…

I transferred to another bus and then another bus and then me and a fellow group of travellers were on our way to the country I had been looking forward to the most on this trip, Vietnam.

I was still thinking about whether to go north from Ho Chi Minh - back to Hanoi and then onwards to Ha Long. The plan for this trip was rough by design, since I threw away my flight to Bangkok and decided to hop up the Malay peninsular from city to city by train, my original outline of the trip had changed, I had been looking for those greatest of iterations.

I was going to see how I felt about Ho Chi Minh. Although it was the first place I visited in Vietnam five years earlier and I really did explore it, for some reason I couldn't remember it as vividly as the other areas of the country.

The girl on the bus took my passport and wrote out all the information. The bus came with a bottle of water and a small, tasty Cambodian croissant. I felt happy, what a way to spend the last day of such an incredible year, on a bus from Phnom Penh to Saigon.

This was the last leg of a wild journey, a race against time -

Vientiane > Bangkok by night train > Plane to Phnom Penh > Bus to Siem Reap > Bus to Phnom Penh > Bus to Vietnam ... all within a few days.

I wanted to get my ninth new country of the year done, my stretched goal from seven, and I wanted to get back to Vietnam for my second 'Nam New Year's in five years.

...continue reading

To Vietnam

Published March 14, 2023

The bus was now stopped on the street. I could see it, it was within reach.

I grabbed the straps of my backpack and swallowed the humiliation of running. Every atom of my being was disgusted by the motion.

I got to the bus out of breath and stepped inside the crappy metal can on wheels. My name wasn't on the passenger list, not surprising since I had just booked the ticket before I left the hostel.

There was no argument from the driver or clipboard worker though, which was helpful considering the current state of my lungs. Less than a minute after I put my bag between my legs and got comfortable, the bus sped off. Life's a game of inches and all that…

I transferred to another bus and then another bus and then me and a fellow group of travellers were on our way to the country I had been looking forward to the most on this trip, Vietnam.

I was still thinking about whether to go north from Ho Chi Minh - back to Hanoi and then onwards to Ha Long. The plan for this trip was rough by design, since I threw away my flight to Bangkok and decided to hop up the Malay peninsular from city to city by train, my original outline of the trip had changed, I had been looking for those greatest of iterations.

I was going to see how I felt about Ho Chi Minh. Although it was the first place I visited in Vietnam five years earlier and I really did explore it, for some reason I couldn't remember it as vividly as the other areas of the country.

The girl on the bus took my passport and wrote out all the information. The bus came with a bottle of water and a small, tasty Cambodian croissant. I felt happy, what a way to spend the last day of such an incredible year, on a bus from Phnom Penh to Saigon.

This was the last leg of a wild journey, a race against time -

Vientiane > Bangkok by night train > Plane to Phnom Penh > Bus to Siem Reap > Bus to Phnom Penh > Bus to Vietnam ... all within a few days.

I wanted to get my ninth new country of the year done, my stretched goal from seven, and I wanted to get back to Vietnam for my second 'Nam New Year's in five years.

...continue reading

The Early March Blog Post Published March 6, 2023

Morning my friends. I'm in England. A great country. My country of birth.

It's gone four in the morning.

I'm writing this instead of doing all the work I wrote down to do today.

Sometimes you need to tell yourself to fuck off.

I'm telling myself to fuck off.

I don't feel like doing it. But, if I don't do it and don't do something else, something productive, meaningful, creative then I'll feel awful. So here I am, at my desk, typing away.

I did a lot of really important technical things too earlier, so I think I'll sleep proud and not sick.

I've been reading about Scientology again lately, and the Falun Gong and other New Religious Movements, a term I don't really like. I've read a lot about these kinds of groups for many years now.

One of the things I love about them is this - operating outside of government control, freedom in a word.

Although none are sovereign or even claim sovereignty (unlike me), they do act like they are sovereign. Scientology for instance basically run a giant global network of torture mansions and very real, very strange prisons. The government doesn't touch them.

The Pope has the Vatican. Li Hongzhi has Dragons Springs in New York. The Mormons own a state. I want a place.

One day I'll have my spot. An island maybe or a mountain or a great ranch.

...continue reading

The Early March Blog Post Published March 6, 2023

Morning my friends. I'm in England. A great country. My country of birth.

It's gone four in the morning.

I'm writing this instead of doing all the work I wrote down to do today.

Sometimes you need to tell yourself to fuck off.

I'm telling myself to fuck off.

I don't feel like doing it. But, if I don't do it and don't do something else, something productive, meaningful, creative then I'll feel awful. So here I am, at my desk, typing away.

I did a lot of really important technical things too earlier, so I think I'll sleep proud and not sick.

I've been reading about Scientology again lately, and the Falun Gong and other New Religious Movements, a term I don't really like. I've read a lot about these kinds of groups for many years now.

One of the things I love about them is this - operating outside of government control, freedom in a word.

Although none are sovereign or even claim sovereignty (unlike me), they do act like they are sovereign. Scientology for instance basically run a giant global network of torture mansions and very real, very strange prisons. The government doesn't touch them.

The Pope has the Vatican. Li Hongzhi has Dragons Springs in New York. The Mormons own a state. I want a place.

One day I'll have my spot. An island maybe or a mountain or a great ranch.

...continue reading

Laos and Cambodia

Published January 10, 2023

I knew a great amount of pain was about to hit me. Pain has a delay to the brain. In that delay I did a lot of analysis and made a lot of decisions.

'I'm hurt.'

'How badly?'

'Bad, not fatal, not critical, but severe.'

'Ready?'

'Yes, I'm ready.'

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHFUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!"

I was melding dimensions. Jumping realities. It hurt.

A lot.

The story of this pain -

I was standing on the bed and stepped over the void to the desk chair.

This is where all the fun stuff happened.

As I placed my right foot on the cushioned chair, the chair legs slipped on the slick floor and away we went. I threw my body forward in the air, sacrificing my leg to save everything else.

...

The wound was deep and it hurt to the bone. It was right on the bone. The tibia was hit. A long, deep slice of flesh had been scraped and stolen away.

In the coming days I would be limping past the prostitutes and other Bangkok street freaks of Sukhumvit.

It wasn't a total disaster, I always made it far enough to get the food and drink I needed to sustain me and even somehow still fucked a girl with one leg offline.

A few days later I packed up, jumped in another 3rd class train carriage and had an uncomfortable ride through the night in a Thai-stuffed train before arriving in Udon Thani the next morning.

In the morning I woke up with that MISSION feeling. I wanted the 'Special Mission' part of this 'An Asia Trip' to begin.

I had two countries left of the nine countries I had planned out for the year -

...continue reading

Laos and Cambodia

Published January 10, 2023

I knew a great amount of pain was about to hit me. Pain has a delay to the brain. In that delay I did a lot of analysis and made a lot of decisions.

'I'm hurt.'

'How badly?'

'Bad, not fatal, not critical, but severe.'

'Ready?'

'Yes, I'm ready.'

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHFUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!"

I was melding dimensions. Jumping realities. It hurt.

A lot.

The story of this pain -

I was standing on the bed and stepped over the void to the desk chair.

This is where all the fun stuff happened.

As I placed my right foot on the cushioned chair, the chair legs slipped on the slick floor and away we went. I threw my body forward in the air, sacrificing my leg to save everything else.

...

The wound was deep and it hurt to the bone. It was right on the bone. The tibia was hit. A long, deep slice of flesh had been scraped and stolen away.

In the coming days I would be limping past the prostitutes and other Bangkok street freaks of Sukhumvit.

It wasn't a total disaster, I always made it far enough to get the food and drink I needed to sustain me and even somehow still fucked a girl with one leg offline.

A few days later I packed up, jumped in another 3rd class train carriage and had an uncomfortable ride through the night in a Thai-stuffed train before arriving in Udon Thani the next morning.

In the morning I woke up with that MISSION feeling. I wanted the 'Special Mission' part of this 'An Asia Trip' to begin.

I had two countries left of the nine countries I had planned out for the year -

...continue reading

An Asia Trip Blog post

Published November 11, 2022

November 8, November 9, November 10 finally November 10. In my hotel room, in Chinatown, in bed, time to sleep. I do sleep, I sleep for 12 hours, and three days of the travel state is washed away.

Surprisingly I wasn't that tired by the end of it all, well tired maybe, but not exhausted, I didn't even have much in the way of heart palpitations. As I lay my head down 12:00 UK time, 20:00 Malaysian time, I fell into dreams, awaking, saying to myself "These are dreams." this repeating itself until one dream took me all the way in, an invitation to that other world.

I woke up 12 hours later fresh and ready. Ready for Malaysia, ready for Asia. It's been a while since I last was here, and for several reasons Malaysia was the last Asian country I left from four and a half years ago, before that global pandemic, before that period of ambulances and hospitalisations, before I stopped nicotine, caffiene, alcohol and every other addicting substance, before so much else happened and so much else changed.

...continue reading

An Asia Trip Blog post

Published November 11, 2022

November 8, November 9, November 10 finally November 10. In my hotel room, in Chinatown, in bed, time to sleep. I do sleep, I sleep for 12 hours, and three days of the travel state is washed away.

Surprisingly I wasn't that tired by the end of it all, well tired maybe, but not exhausted, I didn't even have much in the way of heart palpitations. As I lay my head down 12:00 UK time, 20:00 Malaysian time, I fell into dreams, awaking, saying to myself "These are dreams." this repeating itself until one dream took me all the way in, an invitation to that other world.

I woke up 12 hours later fresh and ready. Ready for Malaysia, ready for Asia. It's been a while since I last was here, and for several reasons Malaysia was the last Asian country I left from four and a half years ago, before that global pandemic, before that period of ambulances and hospitalisations, before I stopped nicotine, caffiene, alcohol and every other addicting substance, before so much else happened and so much else changed.

...continue reading

leBRADburg's Mission

Published November 5, 2022

TO DOMINATE OR DESTROY, NON-FUNGIBLE TOKENS

TO CREATE BURGERS THAT ARE GENUINE MASTERPIECES

TO MAKE HUMANITY BETTER OR WORSE, MAYBE BOTH

TO CREATE DEEPLY STRANGE THINGS

TO REPRESENT BRAD NICHOLLS AND THE BRAD NICHOLLS EXPANSIVE MULTIVERSE

TO BE A DIVINE FLAG-BEARER OF THE EXPANSIVE MIX ERA

...continue reading

leBRADburg's Mission

Published November 5, 2022

TO DOMINATE OR DESTROY, NON-FUNGIBLE TOKENS

TO CREATE BURGERS THAT ARE GENUINE MASTERPIECES

TO MAKE HUMANITY BETTER OR WORSE, MAYBE BOTH

TO CREATE DEEPLY STRANGE THINGS

TO REPRESENT BRAD NICHOLLS AND THE BRAD NICHOLLS EXPANSIVE MULTIVERSE

TO BE A DIVINE FLAG-BEARER OF THE EXPANSIVE MIX ERA

...continue reading

Not A Suicide Note Published September 22, 2022

These words were written a while ago.

I suddenly feel a great sense of sadness and loss. I don't know why. The weather is horrible. It's been hot lately. Too hot. Too hot for England. It's not too hot today, but not cold. It's the questionable heat after a thunderstorm, which happened earlier. I have a tower fan a few feet from my legs and they're being hit with a cool breeze. Too cool. Too cold. I don't like it. But when I turn the fan off I feel hot again. So I'll keep it on.

I am procrastinating. That's why I'm writing this. Better than Netflix, or jerking off. It's something productive. Some work. Some thing. Some thing to add to the list of things I've created in life.

I should be finishing an episode of BRAD NICHOLLS Podcast now. But the episode is horrible. Horrible because I want to finish it, there are some great things about it, but the current edit just isn't it. And, I can't seem to fucking make it work the way I want now.

All of this is annoying, but even more annoying because it has been several days of this.

Some times I get stuck, here I am stuck.

I watched one of the greatest films ever made last night. The Vanishing. It was so beautiful I almost cried. The entire film was almost perfect, there was only a handful of things that I will change, I say will because I am going to edit the thing, I am going to perfect it. It was such a natural film. Special.

I feel very sad. I ate some cheap ice cream before writing this, it was the only sweet food about. Now I have a pain in my neck, on the right. I don't think these things are connected. I'm in the mood to fuck or burn down a police station or marry a tranny in an airless desert, illuminated by giant spotlights. Oh well, I'm sad tonight, I'm sure it will go away.

...continue reading

Not A Suicide Note Published September 22, 2022

These words were written a while ago.

I suddenly feel a great sense of sadness and loss. I don't know why. The weather is horrible. It's been hot lately. Too hot. Too hot for England. It's not too hot today, but not cold. It's the questionable heat after a thunderstorm, which happened earlier. I have a tower fan a few feet from my legs and they're being hit with a cool breeze. Too cool. Too cold. I don't like it. But when I turn the fan off I feel hot again. So I'll keep it on.

I am procrastinating. That's why I'm writing this. Better than Netflix, or jerking off. It's something productive. Some work. Some thing. Some thing to add to the list of things I've created in life.

I should be finishing an episode of BRAD NICHOLLS Podcast now. But the episode is horrible. Horrible because I want to finish it, there are some great things about it, but the current edit just isn't it. And, I can't seem to fucking make it work the way I want now.

All of this is annoying, but even more annoying because it has been several days of this.

Some times I get stuck, here I am stuck.

I watched one of the greatest films ever made last night. The Vanishing. It was so beautiful I almost cried. The entire film was almost perfect, there was only a handful of things that I will change, I say will because I am going to edit the thing, I am going to perfect it. It was such a natural film. Special.

I feel very sad. I ate some cheap ice cream before writing this, it was the only sweet food about. Now I have a pain in my neck, on the right. I don't think these things are connected. I'm in the mood to fuck or burn down a police station or marry a tranny in an airless desert, illuminated by giant spotlights. Oh well, I'm sad tonight, I'm sure it will go away.

...continue reading

Sweden and Finland

Published September 19, 2022

It was an overnighter at the airport. Not the worst ever. But still, an uncomfortable energy draining time. And without nicotine, without caffeine. Long ago, a while ago and recently for these long airport stays I had nicotine, I had caffeine, those two aides to artificially push my body through, I no longer have either, self-imposed and final. I must make it through alone. Oh well. I did it, and all the other painful hours that this trip provided, I did them too.

This trip was both long and short - a couple of days in Sweden and a couple in Finland but the nature of the travel schedule meant I had little sleep and a lot of moving to do. It was made that more difficult by the fact that my feet were cut up and so very sore, new shoes with a terrible mad design responsible for it. By the time I arrived back in England I had multiple, large open wounds on both of my feet.

Let's talk about these countries then. Sweden, I liked. Finland, I liked. Both SEVEN out of TEN countries. With potential to climb higher than that.

In fact - Norway, Sweden, Finland and Estonia, I would rank on a very similar level, with Estonia edging the rest. Maybe one great union could one day form from them, leave Denmark out of it and Latvia and Lithuanina. Nordenfinstonia. Great place, love it.

...continue reading

Sweden and Finland

Published September 19, 2022

It was an overnighter at the airport. Not the worst ever. But still, an uncomfortable energy draining time. And without nicotine, without caffeine. Long ago, a while ago and recently for these long airport stays I had nicotine, I had caffeine, those two aides to artificially push my body through, I no longer have either, self-imposed and final. I must make it through alone. Oh well. I did it, and all the other painful hours that this trip provided, I did them too.

This trip was both long and short - a couple of days in Sweden and a couple in Finland but the nature of the travel schedule meant I had little sleep and a lot of moving to do. It was made that more difficult by the fact that my feet were cut up and so very sore, new shoes with a terrible mad design responsible for it. By the time I arrived back in England I had multiple, large open wounds on both of my feet.

Let's talk about these countries then. Sweden, I liked. Finland, I liked. Both SEVEN out of TEN countries. With potential to climb higher than that.

In fact - Norway, Sweden, Finland and Estonia, I would rank on a very similar level, with Estonia edging the rest. Maybe one great union could one day form from them, leave Denmark out of it and Latvia and Lithuanina. Nordenfinstonia. Great place, love it.

...continue reading

Bacon and Eggs and the 'Queen' is Dead Published September 9, 2022

I spent most of the day in the bath, editing.

I was struggling, the editing was a mix of the creative and the mechanical.

The creative parts were becoming really trying, my head was foggy, I took long breaks to meditate on the placement of a word, the structure of a sentence.

I got out of the bath before six.

I changed my underwear and socks, put on my old shorts - the ones with the hole from when I caught them on a motorbike in a narrow street in Tuy Hòa, Vietnam - and my simple blue t-shirt, the same clothes I had been wearing for days.

I went downstairs to the kitchen to cook bacon and eggs.

And then the 'Queen' was dead.

'Alright, then' I thought, 'Special Day Exception'

Soon after a great rain began to smash against the ground. It had been dreary for days and especially grey and disturbed that day in particular.

...continue reading

Bacon and Eggs and the 'Queen' is Dead Published September 9, 2022

I spent most of the day in the bath, editing.

I was struggling, the editing was a mix of the creative and the mechanical.

The creative parts were becoming really trying, my head was foggy, I took long breaks to meditate on the placement of a word, the structure of a sentence.

I got out of the bath before six.

I changed my underwear and socks, put on my old shorts - the ones with the hole from when I caught them on a motorbike in a narrow street in Tuy Hòa, Vietnam - and my simple blue t-shirt, the same clothes I had been wearing for days.

I went downstairs to the kitchen to cook bacon and eggs.

And then the 'Queen' was dead.

'Alright, then' I thought, 'Special Day Exception'

Soon after a great rain began to smash against the ground. It had been dreary for days and especially grey and disturbed that day in particular.

...continue reading

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