We can generally see occasions to socialize as fortunate opportunities to engage with fascinating people, and see occasions to do other activities as opportunities to engage with our fascinating environment.

I guess it makes sense not to know off-hand what to do next. Takes some improv, thinking, creativity!

I've now decided provisionally to go to Guyana next. I'd planned on going to Venezuela, then deliberated between Guyana versus Venezuela. With the political situation in Venezuela remaining poor, it doesn't seem practical or desirable to go there.

Guyana would offer a segue through the remainder of the Caribbean, including Suriname and French Guiana. Also, if Venezuela becomes safer later on, then I can visit it while already in the area to go to Colombia and other nearby countries. It would also give me some more freedom in "flagpoling" to and from Brazil (is that what they call? I forgot the term. Spending time in other countries so that I can use more time legally in the country.) Further, that would group together the Spanish-language countries later, and the French and other language countries now.

As another advantage, in case anything crazy like another COVID strike occurs soon, I'd much rather be in a relatively safe place like Guyana than stuck in Venezuela!

Venezuela seems to be in extremely poor shape. Killing and committing other crimes at high rates. Venezuela seems like a country where the criminals have taken over. Looks like one of their kingpins got busted. (Saab)

The ferry from Trinidad to Venezuela may not even be running. In that case I think it would make more sense just to go to Guyana anyways. If the ferry is running, I'd consider that a moderate inducement to go to Venezuela, but probably not enough to justify the risks.

Supposedly there are routes connecting Venezuela to Guyana. You can walk, or you can boat if you ask at the right gas station. Not sure I'm ready for those choices now!

Seems like Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana resemble Caribbean islands in some respects. Even with their larger size, these three countries have smaller populations than some islands. They have Caribbean weather, populations, culture, etc.

Looks like some countries are opening their borders again. Requiring vaccinations and other stupid Coronavirus things, but whatever. Better than nothing. :)

I think there's no more serious reason for me to stay in Guadeloupe after the ferries reopen. I've seen what I want, I've done the chores that I think I needed a stable address for. I've recovered psychologically, physiologically, and financially from previous travels. Now I want to ride again!

I used to worry somewhat about figuring out how to convert currency mentally in all of the different countries to visit. It turns out to be fairly manageable. Often the exchange rates are close enough to an easy multiple, like 1:1, 2:1, 10:1, or 50:1, that you can quickly enough devise a mental shorthand. Also, your brain adjusts to the prices after a few days or so.

Carnivorous Coronavirus.

Distraction. Destruction.

Some more frustrations, I guess that's generally the case, just adapt, etc. :)

While among the more frustrations travel-wise, this has been among the more anti-frustration periods in some other aspects of my life.

Satisfying. I think that satisfying is the opposite of frustrating.

Exciting that it looks like things are finally moving. I've felt super stuck throughout this exaggerated pandemic. It's the most stable I've felt in decades. Time to destabilize! :)

Woah, some crazy explosion in the kitchen as I was editing this. From the butane stove? I think something like that's happened before. Scary. I don't see any signs of serious destruction. Wouldn't surprise me if the butane tank isn't set up properly, seems like practically nothing is here. :)

Whatever! :)

When you do what you can when you can, you can then do some of the remaining activities at later times when they become feasible. Thus, you adapt to the situation, efficiently working through things.

In any age (period of time), at any age (stage of life), there are challenges and opportunities. Things evolve. We can find or create possibilities, and we'll face difficulties. No sense complaining, when there's work to do! :)

It's now been a few years since I've last been in the North American culture that I took somewhat for granted. Starting to feel more like an expat. I generally prefer other cultures than North America. There are a few things that I miss about North America, like the bathrooms, but in general I appreciate the differences.  Other cultures often seem more personable, plus they're different than what I know. New foods, music, etc.

Learning to work with the weather/my emotions. Given how powerfully the weather seems to affect my emotions, I think it makes more sense just to adjust to the weather, rather than to fight it. Nonetheless sometimes some justification to override my weather-driven emotions e.g. if I have some important thing to do.

Some of the gambles don't work, some do. On the balance, you can win much of what you want! :)

Bike touring's good preparation for life. Tons of psychological adaptability necessary! :)

I think you can often do better if you just go out and try things, so go out and try things! :)

My advice: do as many of the interesting attractions/events as you can!

Wearing sunglasses is like taking a psychoactive drug. It alters your perception. It alters other people's perception of you, too, so wearing sunglasses is also like giving other people a psychoactive drug. Technically the same goes for wearing regular glasses, or doing anything else, but it's noticeable with sunglasses.

If we could translate the human genetic code into a computer programming language, it would look something like:

Main()
    Eat();
    Have_sex();
    Child.Main();

All of the other things we do, like learn or use phones or whatever, go as subroutines.

Or as an expanded version:

Main()
    Find_food();
    Eat(food);
    Find(partner);
    Child = Have_sex(partner);
    Child.Main();

Went to the bar/epicerie across the street. Some friendly folks, nice music and drinks. People wearing the same hat as each other, not like the usual styles here. I thought it may have been a special day, turns out the store was giving the hats away with the purchase of two bottles of sparkling wine. I bought some, looks delicious -- one white, one lichi!

I remembered a bit of Kreyol from Ayiti! Jiskaprezent, bon bagay! :)

How much longer until they lift the travel restrictions?!?!

Fears affects people unconsciously. It's not necessarily something you can fix just by willing away your fears. I think it takes some degree of knowledge and action to manage, but nonetheless the fears operate at a deeper level.

Doctors and lawyers deal with sick people.

Does caffeine make me sleepy? A paradoxical effect.

I think there's also a causation-is-not-correlation effect, where I drink caffeine when I'm sleepy, then notice that I'm sleepy anyways after caffeine.

Each day is a new opportunity to see the miraculous structures of nature!

I think that religion, rock & roll (which includes religious music as a main source), drugs, learning for fun instead of school, thrill sports, gambling, and many other human behaviors basically reuse the same neural pathways that evolved to make food and sex and survival pleasurable.

Don't be annoyed or scared by the expected mental delusions. :)

Guadeloupe is ridiculously overpriced, but I can see it as an affordable price to pay for access to France and the EU markets. :)

Whatever you do there'll be difficulties. I think it's a matter of selecting your goals then just going through the difficulties anyways. A reminder.

I don't expect it to be right away, when they run the ferries again. Maybe soon, though.

I now think and feel I'm ready to go!

Before I'd been waiting on some packages, but they've all arrived. Now I think the only thing holding me back is the ferries not running due to the destinations having practically closed borders.

New packaging! Now with 50% more marketing!

Made a few more modifications over at BikeWOW.

Pushing forward. Working through the remainder of the Coronavirus. Then on to new adventures!!!!! :)

Certain topics allow media and politicians and others to manipulate people easily, like COVID-19/Coronavirus, global warming/climate change, dark matter/dark energy, etc. Other examples include new technology fears, crimes, and cults (messages by or about the cults).

These topics seem eerie, mysterious, threatening. They pique people's interest due to the vague threat. Most things that interest or threaten people are rare, which is a big part of why they interest or threaten people. Media and politicians need to pique people's interest or threaten people consistently to make sales or receive votes. So they turn to difficult-to-falsify threats that they can use however they want.

With these topics, you can produce an arbitrary stream of threats. New strain of COVID! Global warming threatens islands! Scientists have new theory of dark matter! You can write whatever you want. People can't quickly test these theories. If any evidence does eventually dismiss some stupid claim, you just write a new claim. Over time these topics become rebranded, e.g. Wuhan virus > Coronavirus > COVID-19 > Delta variant, etc. When people become comfortable with one threat, you make another.

Most people don't have the time or other resources to investigate any of these topics in depth. All they see is the scary headline. Politicians and media on the other hand make their living from this, so they can afford to spend the time and resources developing fake threats.

Often these manipulations occur without much conscious planning from the guilty politicians or media. Rather, it occurs through unconscious social processes. Different businesses or political entrepreneurs take their own approaches, and these vaguely scary ones work, whether the politicians or media intended the deception or not. Deliberate manipulation can also occur.

Not an easy fix for this situation, given that there are millions of people and more coming along regularly, so it's easy enough to invent another fake threat whenever you want. I guess just educate, learn, and manage! :)

And ignore politicians and the news.

You can cover a ton of ground in a short period while traveling. By comparison, staying in one place feels like it runs through time without much progress. I'm surprised at how much ground I covered after Miami, and how fast the time's gone while stuck in Coronavirus Guadeloupe.

Things annoyed me often: noises and other distractions. On the positive side, I guess after all those annoyance I don't have to see them as a new issue.

I think I'm in around the same shape as a few years ago. Physiologically, somewhat older and slower. Psychologically maybe somewhat crazier. :) Financially somewhat better off.

Keep working on your core values!

Sometimes things take a while, but you can make headway! :)

It can feel frustrating while working on things with deferred gratification, yet eventually it can pay dividends.

"Gratification deferred is gratification denied!" :)

And while you're working and waiting, you can also adapt a schedule to do other things that you'd put off before or that arise! :)

It feels like such a relief months later or whenever you do finally finish your goals! :)

I'm feeling more frustration over how long I've been stuck in Guadeloupe due to the COVID, but when I think about it rationally it seems less frustrating. I've taken care of tons of issues that would've been difficult to handle on the road.

Now going through some of my notes, planning for after the Coronavirus. Hopefully soon. I'm extremely excited to tour more!

Knocking off tons of items from my old checklists that I made before starting out on this Caribbean venture!!!!! :)

You can figure out tons of things as you go. Also fun and useful to plan. Before island hopping, I planned out some islands, including a bit of research on how to get among them. I managed to make it through much of what I planned, as well as some of what I hadn't planned. As so often seems to happen while traveling, turned out way more interesting and rewarding than expected!!!!! :)

Keep going!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Adapt, evolve, adjust. Landscapes develop, we should too! :)

The organization or structure of travels (or life) unfolds as we make things happen! :)

And I've eaten TONS of rice 'n' beans in the Caribbean!!!!! :)

Travel makes me enthusiastic!!!!! :)

Simplify!!!!! :)

Many of my worries and anxieties turn out to be part of my personality instead of reasonable, I think. :)

I guess it makes sense just to ignore many of the unfounded fears. Not all fears, but the unreasonable ones.

It's ok! :)

Worry just enough to do the important things! :)

Going back over my old notes from recent years, much of it has expired, things like drafts and notes for projects I worked on. Useful at the time, but not relevant to keep. Other things have remained or even increased in personal interest, like my travel notes and data on personality and health.

Things break often, including computers. I have tons of scattered notes from while repairing or replacing computers. The notes served their purpose. Just do whatever works!

A lot of worries are a weird artifact of being human.

There's tons we can learn, from others, from ourselves, from the environment.

Some of it useful/practical, some of it interesting/beautiful, some of it both or neither.

I guess it's a question of value. What one wants. Material outcomes, subjective pleasures, a combination, or some other rewards.

I think that many people aim for material outcomes, often without consciously deciding to do so.

I'm not arguing that there's a "right" choice.

Personally I go for a combination, as I suppose technically everyone does. I think I'm far less practically oriented than average people, but not as extremely impractical as some individuals. I think. :)

Let's glow!!!!! :)

I've added some more content over at BikeWOW, the bicycle touring wiki. For example, I just added a page on smartphones and phone service while touring:

While touring internationally, it can become somewhat more difficult than usual to maintain phone service. Some methods to handle this include using a phone forwarding service, which lets you keep the same number as you travel, among other advantages. You can often buy these forwarding services in any country, not only in the country where you resided before touring.

I've also done some editing on other pages, like banking and mail. Feel free to contribute!

I think it often makes sense to go out there and do what you want/value.

Instead of waiting out of fear, uncertainty, or other holdbacks. Unless there are serious risks for mistakes, in which case I think it makes sense to take some extra time to work through the decision.

Dive into your issues!

There were things killing each other and eating each other billions of years before any humans walked the Earth.

There were also things eating and having sex long before humans were around.

Just adapt. Try to do more eating and having sex, less being killed or eaten. :)

Pragmatism.

Embrace the troubles, I guess! :)

They're there anyways.

Idea: NASCAR + mascarpone = NASCARpone. Not sure exactly what it is yet. :)

How we think, feel, perceive, and act is heavily reliant on our surroundings.

And the substances in our body.

Video game idea: you play a shadow, in a shadow world. Does this already exist? Probably.

Stuck more in Guadeloupe over this stupid COVID.

There are some advantages too!

I'm seeing it as an opportunity to work through things that can serve practical uses later on.

I feel like I'm in a dystopian comedy. Stuck on a Caribbean island for years, unable to open a bank account. :)

Not long after writing the above, but like a year after starting the process of applying for bank accounts, I opened an account! :)

Idea: a service that automatically analyzes your (or someone else's) personality from their website contents. Does this already exist? Probably.

Idea: a donkey in a Guess shirt. A wild ass guess.

Idea: a PUMA shirt but instead it says PUTA, with a woman bending over instead of a wild cat.

Make the mistakes, learn the lessons! :)

I'm feeling noticeably better than I have been recently. I think through a combination of better weather, some success at work, and finally having some of the tasks I've been working on for over a year make some progress!

Also, eating and exercising and such.

I think it's important to force oneself to do things that one wants but that are tough to do. Noted before by me and plenty of others, but a reminder. :)

Make what you want!

We're so surrounded by opportunities these days that it's easy not to notice them, or to feel frustration.

I guess just take on what you can!

I feel like I've had the opportunity to do many of the crazy things that I've wanted. Still tons to go.

A forced COVID pause, at least an opportunity to reconfigure! :)

Somewhat frustrating to deal w/ the same things from a year ago, but at least making some headway.

A bank account, and also a package that I've waited on for over a year!!!!! The package hasn't arrived yet, but it's at least in the country, and supposed to come today.

Another transition. Becoming older. Then starting a new travel experience!

When things go "wrong", go a different way!

It's "right" for things to go "wrong".

Funny how different I can feel from one day to another. Largely seems to involve the weather. :) Also my emotionally responsive personality. :)

Your life gradually develops as you go about it. Sometimes unpredictably, sometimes through your own efforts.

Frustrations can drive performance.

After positive OR negative events, it can take some time to adjust.

I guess you can't necessarily make things work out exactly like you want, yet you can have some useful effects and appreciate what you've got.

Different stories, same story. :)

Seeing the positives more nowadays. Even on a gray rainy day. :)

Now having more appreciation for the opportunities here while also seeing it becoming maybe somewhat more plausible again for the Coronavirus to pass? Spring 2022?!?

Stay in good shape!!!!! :)

That coffee look! :)

Positive, alert, maybe a little crazy! :)

Human systems. Wanting; having or not having what we want.

I guess we can go out there to make what we want, instead of expecting it.

Supposedly they're going to cut the water to the town for two weeks to a month. As if it weren't annoying enough not to have water every other day or so. I'm not sure that I have enough water reserves for even a few days!

Exciting to work on some new projects! :)

Also looking for more! :)

See the injuries as part of the adventures! :)

Other mishaps, too.

The failures, disappointments, mistakes… scars to remember the lessons!

Just remember to survive! :)

Why are all my coffee and chocolate photos so blurry? :)

Goals are within reach, if you stretch! :)

We are all phosphates. The green revolution has made people bigger.

Relying on our moral instincts is like asking a caveman what to do.

Received a letter from one of the French banks I applied to. They refused to open the bank account, due to lack of the proper documents in France, which I already knew from e-mail. The letter however indicated that people residing in France have a right to an account. Even if banks refuse to open an account, apparently you can have the refusing bank go to their national bank to open an account. I asked that they do so, we'll see how this goes.

We probably have some dinosaur DNA in us! :)

We're sort of like advanced bacterial colonies.

We have powerful genes within us, which make us have certain feelings, thoughts, beliefs, desires.

We can succumb to social pressures, or we can live up to who we are.

I think we should notice more of our underlying mechanical selves and environments.

To achieve our goals, we have to know our goals. We can choose some of our goals. We also have considerable goals programmed within us, deeply.

Respecting our bodies.

It's also important to find a society and a geography that matches with one's body.

We're just finding out what our bodies can do through DNA and other science!

The ideas evolve in our heads.

Weird & funny that we can fit so much capacity to travel or do cool things in a few feet of flesh and bone.

The stresses are part of the path. Manage!

Go out there, get uncomfortable to go for your goals! :)

It would be interesting to see a time-lapse video of the human skin pealing off while regrowing.

The bank that refused me called back, after I'd emailed them to go through with a process they outlined in their refusal letter, where they'd open an account through the national bank. This bank said that they can't do it, for some reason that the employee calling didn't know. I'd have to go myself to the Bank of France, or maybe call or email.

I'm aiming to become more adaptable. To do what I value even if it's not immediately what I want. Also to what I immediately want if I value it.

BTW coffee seems to stimulate the entire body and mind! :)

Get high off of caffeine and exercise! :)

Life: the desperate quest for double-bonds.

Things generally "go wrong" in the sense of not going as expected. So it's only a matter of how to right things! :)

We're just a bunch of cells. Moving around! :)

I'm gonna eventually get out of here! :)

Use your motivations! :)

There are generally hassles. If you want it, go for it! :)

There are smooth people, sharp people, balanced people. Some are like rectangles, some like triangles or blades. Others are like spheres. Which are you? I think I'm somewhat balanced in that regard.

In this apartment building, I've had a microwave, two air conditioners, a fan, and two lights fail. I think the electricity's not up to snuff! :)

I guess things break! Adapt!

Word of the day: bathmotropic, excitability of the heart.

Things generally look different from the outside than from the inside.

You know you've been working hard when your blood is 50% coffee…

Feeling down? Coffee!

Having trouble concentrating? Coffee!

Coffee and toothpaste. Copy and paste. :)

How much coffee do you need to drink to make doing X interesting? :)

As we use tools, technologies, culture, we hang out with people from the past who left these relics behind.

Life has its risks. Make it an adventure!

Whatever you do there are annoyances. At least when you select and execute well there are rewards!

Just dealing with a bunch of headaches, I guess. :)

Go ahead! :)

This is a song I like that I've heard in Capesterre Belle-Eau, Guadeloupe!