Outsider follows journalist Brett Popplewell as he uncovers the story of Dag Aabye, an aging former stuntman who lived alone inside a school bus on a mountain, running day and night through blizzards and heat waves.
The book chronicles Aabye’s life from childhood to the silver screen, reflecting on our notions of aging, belonging and human accomplishment.
Dag Aabye is often credited the world’s first extreme skier.
His life is extreme, as well.
GREAT ending.
Into the Wild meets Born to Run meets The Stranger in the Woods in a fascinating true story of a marathon-running hermit and a journalist’s quest to solve the mystery at the core of the enigmatic man’s existence
A few nights before Halloween, as Cork O’Connor gloomily ruminates on his upcoming birthday, he receives a call from his son, Stephen, who is working for a nonprofit dedicated to securing freedom for unjustly incarcerated inmates.
Stephen tells his father that decades ago, as the newly elected sheriff of Tamarack County, Cork was responsible for sending an Ojibwe man named Axel Boshey to prison for a brutal murder that Stephen is certain he did not commit.
Cork feels compelled to reinvestigate the crime, but that is easier said than done.
Not only is it a closed case but Axel Boshey is, inexplicably, refusing to help.
The deeper Cork digs, the clearer it becomes that there are those in Tamarack County who are willing once again to commit murder to keep him from finding the truth.
Clean, efficient, safe. An ideal tourist destination for me after chaotic Indonesia.
Almost everyone speaks English. They are very welcoming of visitors.
Yes, some things are very expensive. But you can have a great time spending very little money.
For example, Shimano Cycling World will rent you a high end road bike for $150. Or you can take one of their mountain bikes for free. Nice.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. Drone footage I shot of myself was done in one of the parks dedicated to drone pilots. Singapore thinks of everything. 😀
Changi Airport (always ranked #1 in the world) provides free city tours if you have a layover of enough hours at the right time of day.
Singapore’s diversity of cuisine is touted as a reason to visit the country, due to its combination of convenience, variety, quality, and price.
Cold Storage is a 2019 science fiction novel written by one of the top screen writers of all time.
After decades underground in a forgotten sub-basement, a highly mutative organism – capable of extinction-level destruction – has found its way out.
Only Pentagon bioterror operative Roberto Diaz can stop it. With the help of two unwitting security guards, he has one night to quarantine this horror, before it destroys all of humanity.
Loser Teacake is hilarious.
It’s one of those end-of-the-world thrillers. Not too believable — but would make a good Hollywood film.
I did enjoy the humour. Some of the dialogue could be kept for the movie.
If you liked the rest, you’ll probably like this one.
I do enjoy the many little scientific nuggets included.
But Brown is an infamously terrible writer:
At this stage, everything that needs to be said about Brown’s sentence-by-sentence ineptitude as a prose writer has been said.
Fear not: he’s still hopeless. It may be counted as a metafictional joke that in a novel where a favoured adjective like “elegant” can appear in two consecutive sentences, where bells are said to “blare” …
This is, in other words, a Dan Brown novel. It’s weapons-grade bollocks from beginning to end, none of it makes a lick of sense, and you’ll roar through it with entire enjoyment if you like this sort of thing. …
The Associated Press review described the novel as a 650-page thriller featuring Langdon on a dangerous quest through Prague, where he is caught up in an international race to unlock the mystery of what happens after death.
Brown once again blends suspense, philosophical themes, travelogues, codes, puzzles, and secret societies …
Too long. Tom Hanks must be exhausted.
Killers stop to join in long, philosophical discussions.
I just travelled Indonesia for a month. Most of the popular attractions.
It’s not a good fit for this old backpacker.
Aside from major city train / bus service, tourists end up taking a lot of personal vehicles. Bad for the environment. Terrible for traffic jams.
Ride sharing apps like Grab and GoJek are essential as there are no alternatives in much of the nation.
Indonesia is ideal for young invincible backpackers who love to ride scooters through dangerous traffic. While chain smoking. Adrenaline junkies.
Instead of touring, I’d recommend picking one spot you like. Rent a place for a month. Concentrate on a few things: scuba, snorkelling, health & fitness, yoga, surfing, writing, reading, partying, …. Whatever you’ve always want more time for.
Don’t travel very far.
I’d like a month in the Gili Islands, for example.
The culture tourists face is (mostly) men, (mostly) chain smoking.
Every young guy in Indonesia dreams of getting a scooter. And then enough money for fuel and cigarettes.
This MIGHT be an A.I. generated image. 😀
While it’s easy and quick to move between Bali, Lombok and the Gilis, island-hopping elsewhere often involves a flight, bad bus, or lengthy boat journey.
To be fair, there ARE a number of island chains where you can jump between islands on a short speedboat or long-tail-boat ride. The Banda Islands and Kei Islands in southern Maluku are compact and a breeze to travel among, while it’s also easy to move around the Karimunjawa Islands off Java, the Togean Islands off Sulawesi, the Banyak Islands off Sumatra and Raja Ampat off Papua.
That said — I’ll be returning to Jakarta soon for the World Gymnastics Championships.
Rick McCharles 