Survival School: Day 17
Jul 31, 2007, 11:49p - Life
Terrible weather - cold, overcast, no sun :( Woke up early because too cold. Been awake for 2 hours, everyone else still asleep.
Morning sky, moon in sight - damn it was cold
Self-portrait on day 17 - like I said, I was cold
Where we camped - slept on a grid of sticks so the ground wouldn't suck the ... more »
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Survival School: Day 16
Jul 30, 2007, 11:07p - Life
Self-portrait on day 16, as we loaded up to leave the camp we stayed at for the past 5 nights
PRIMITIVE EXPEDITION
Woke up early, helped break down debris shelters & clean up camp. Continued my ritual of kissing Beccafly every morning & night, saying "good morning" & "good night". The day started off really lazy & slow. We had ... more »
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george
- Jun 10, 2008, 6:56p
I love watching as you are discovering the truths of life.
One thing that you will never get clarity on until you recognize a human is different than the animals is your struggle in understanding.
Humans and animals are not equals.
we have conciousness, love, a soul with God's spirit.
I am not trying to invalidate what you are saying on animals, its just a bit more to true understanding, animals are not human, and vice versa.
I think you could come to a clearer understanding of this by spending a significant amount of time with animals. They act out of instincts. Look at the African species, they coexist right next to one another and know many will be eaten.
Is it wrong for the lion to eat the Gazelle?
crocodile to eat the Duck?
shark to eat everything it wants?
just some thoughts for you.
We are above the animals.
Survival School: Day 15
Jul 29, 2007, 11:59p - Life
Self-portrait on day 15 (Crit in background, twine holding up kitchen tarp wrapped around tree)
(full moon last night)
Wake up to another breakfast of amaranth, sugar, & honey. Today we got 2 helpings - I savored every bite, said a silent prayer before I started, & tried to say "thank you" & look @ each spoonful before each bite. ... more »
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Survival School: Day 14
Jul 28, 2007, 11:59p - Life
Where we've been sleeping for the past 3 nights - Abe's on the left & Leland, myself, & Hannes are to the right of the path
Self-portrait on day 14
Opened Becca's letter today - I've been saving it for the halfway point, & we've finally made it. Tears welled up - I read it twice. I can't wait to ... more »
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Garry
- Jan 21, 2008, 6:47p
Dude, this entire series has been totally awesome. Thanks for posting and sharing.
Survival School: Day 13
Jul 27, 2007, 11:14p - Life
Still @ the campsite - Not too much going on, pretty relaxing. Breakfast of amaranth w/ honey and sucanut (sugar) - very little (half of the blue cup), but better than nothing. Amaranth is like cream of wheat, & we had it warm. It's native to the Americas.
Next we had a few lessons. We learned how to nap (flake) ... more »
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Wesley Tanaka
- Dec 18, 2009, 10:48p
Is it possible that there's a third choice: rather than avoiding or wantonly embracing pleasure, experiencing it in a detached state, where you experience it fully but are not consumed by it?
Survival School: Day 12
Jul 26, 2007, 11:42p - Life
LARGE GAME PROCESSING
Today we got to kill & process a sheep. Steve told us this morning, & we're going to be @ the same campsite for the next 4 nights, so we also have time to practice our skills (e.g. fire). The sheep was female, weighed ~80 lbs, and was a member of the Navajo churro (sp?) species. We ... more »
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Brian
- Jan 13, 2008, 10:58p
aah! where are the rest of the entries? I can't see anything past day 12.
I'm trying to decide if BOSS is worth the expense and effort, and your journal has been really helpful so far - do I get to read the rest of it?
Thanks!
nikhil
- Jan 14, 2008, 4:44p
I'm doing one post per day, so over the next couple of weeks the rest of the entries will be published.
Patience :)
george
- Jun 10, 2008, 6:26p
good luck on sorting out the whole concept on the animals pleasure/ pain validation.
Its noble to be on a search for truth.
krhea3
- Nov 11, 2009, 11:56a
you ass see hole how could you eat a poor dog !!!!!!!!!! i could someone not likeing a dog but eating a dog come on how low can you get !!
Survival School: Day 11
Jul 25, 2007, 11:12p - Life
Woke up @ Five Lakes. Ate the last breakfast of Group Ex - a few oats, milk, sugar, & cinnamon. Didn't sleep much, so pretty tired & quiet & isolated all day. Packed up. Took my 3rd shit, first in 4 days. I'm getting better at it, though it's still a pain.
Self-portrait on day 11, outside Five Lakes
And ... more »
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Survival School: Day 10
Jul 24, 2007, 11:50p - Life
Our poncho tent, which I was pretty proud of. Hannes, Leland, & I shared it.
Self-portrait on day 10
Woke up - Ben found 4 eggs (maybe duck) that were cold, so we hard-boiled them. Rich, bright-orange, creamy center. He said he found them on the embankment - somehow he found exactly 4, which is too much of a coincidence ... more »
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george
- Jun 10, 2008, 3:33p
It sticks with you I promise.
mmmmmmm ash cakes!
Survival School: Day 9
Jul 23, 2007, 11:46p - Life
Day 5 of group ex. Hannes & Ted leading, Abe & Cliff in sweep. Packed up, but didn't feel like shitting today. 6 mile hike to Pleasant Lake, mostly flat. Hannes keeping a fast pace, a bit too fast for my tastes. Learned about bearings. Very hungry, ate GORP continuously all day, one at a time. Gave Brit Nic a ... more »
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george
- Jun 10, 2008, 3:28p
Its amazing the ....differences the generations have. I am so sorry your' generation has to grow up in a time of such violence as has occurred on campuses, etc. that it becomes a feature in your dream.
Violence has existed almost as long as man (Cain & Able), but is worse now than if we look back at the horrendous stories from the bible.
as they grow wise they become as fools,or something like that.
well atleast you have been given the gift of seeing life for what it really is. And I believe you are wise enough to recognize that.
Survival School: Day 8
Jul 22, 2007, 11:18p - Life
Woke up late, cause of the craziness last night. Shorter hike today, from Green Lake to Twin Lakes - 800' up. Cliff & Abe led, Leland & I swept. Got off course to start, but recovered. Pack is getting lighter, cause we're eating more. Oats for breakfast, warm this time. It's nice to have a map [only leaders and sweepers ... more »
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george
- Jun 10, 2008, 3:21p
you are a wise and insightful young man. Its a joy reading your journal, and knowing you already know why your there, so many struggle with that.
Survival School: Day 7
Jul 21, 2007, 11:35p - Life
Took a dump in the morning [#2 of the trip]. Today was the most ridiculous day so far. Ben & Nick led, Hannes & Ted swept. We had to go from 7500' to 10,300' feet, most elevation in a day yet. Followed the river upstream, then started scaling a mountain. Started raining w/ thunder, so we hunkered down on the ... more »
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george
- Jun 10, 2008, 3:17p
your right,
anyone thinking of trip you should stop reading, oh well your probably already screwed anyway :-)
hay maybe its not as bad as it sounds ;-)
It'll be different for you.
LOL, thanks so much for the journal, drop me a line sometime if you read this. georgegglenn@yahoo.com
note the g in the middle.
Survival School: Day 6
Jul 20, 2007, 10:55p - Life
Day 2 of Group Ex: Jeff & Brit Nic in lead, Ben & Yogi Nick Ph. in sweep. Today was a tough day for me. Dismal scenery - in a canyon most of the day, damn hot. Began questioning why the hell I was out here - it's the most masochistic thing I've ever done. Talked to Hannes, Abe, & ... more »
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Survival School: Day 5
Jul 19, 2007, 10:15p - Life
(GROUP EXPEDITION begins)
Took a shit in the morning [first of the whole trip]. Group expedition begins today. We got our food rations for the next 7 days (4 people per group): 9 potatoes, 2 onions, 4 carrots, bag of lentils, bag of quinoa, bag of sucanut, salt, pepper, cinnamon, bag of oats, bag of condensed milk, bag of vegetable ... more »
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george
- Jun 10, 2008, 3:10p
whats the deal with the fire cans?
thats a new one on me.
noticed on several sites.
we just had a soup can personal, and 1 group can for stews, just regular open fires. forest fire safety maybe ??
nikhil
- Jan 3, 2009, 11:30a
we had to use the fire cans ("billy cans") because there was a "fire restriction" underway. i guess it was very dry and the people who manage the forest decided that it was too dangerous to have open fires.
after about day 20, the fire restriction was lifted and we were allowed open fires.
Survival School: Day 4
Jul 18, 2007, 10:43p - Life
Drank 1.5 qts before hiking out. Today was the hardest day - we hiked up 2000 ft, and my stomach was feeling nauseas for several hours. The sun was seriously beating down. This was our third day without any food, though I did eat 6 pine needles & a Juniper berry yesterday. My stomach was very upset by this.
Pure, ... more »
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george
- Jun 10, 2008, 3:05p
love the journal,
thanks so much for sharing.
one thing different, when I went through, impact was three days no water. was something I have never forgotten. don't be sad ya missed that experience.
Nicky
- Mar 30, 2009, 12:05p
This is amazing Nikhil! Thanks for sharing it!!!
Survival School: Day 3
Jul 17, 2007, 9:10p - Life
Woke up & tried to drink as much of the Earl Grey as possible. There was mosquito larvae in it, but they get killed in the stomach. "The stomach is the best canteen" [which means that you shouldn't "save" water by not drinking it if you have it - apparently many hikers who have died of dehydration were found with ... more »
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Survival School: Day 2
Jul 16, 2007, 11:19p - Life
Self-portrait after first night
Hannes, sporting a versacloth
Guides David & Steve w/ students Leland, Nick C. (back), Jeff, Rob (crouched), & Cliff, getting ready to leave our first sleeping site
Where Hannes & I slept the first night (yes, I didn't realize I was sleeping on rocks)
Lots of hiking. Found 3 water holes. Beautiful red mtns.
The southern ... more »
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Jon
- Jan 2, 2008, 3:11p
will continuing to read this fantastic account spoil some of this if we opt to do it ourselves, or is it harmless?
thank you, by the way...
nikhil
- Jan 2, 2008, 3:35p
Yeah, I should emphasize that this is a (virtually) unedited copy of my journal, so it will contain spoilers.
If you've already decided to do a BOSS field course, I would stop reading now. Mystery and surprise seem to be key elements of the experience. When I first decided to do this trip, I purposefully did not look for more info from previous students, because I wanted to go into it with as few expectations as possible. That said, each trip is different, so the details will certainly vary while the general activities remain the same.
If you're interested in survival school, or if you're curious about primitive living, or if you're considering doing a different (non-BOSS) survival school, I would certainly read on. If and when you decide to do this with BOSS, I would stop reading.
Random visitor
- Jan 29, 2008, 3:57p
No offense, but what is the point of doing this camp? It just seems like a major pain.
nikhil
- Jan 30, 2008, 1:23p
It's difficult to rationalize, even more difficult to try to persuade someone to do it.
Seems like you either feel the urge to go, or you don't.
george
- Jun 10, 2008, 2:54p
love the journal, looking forward to reading on.
Must say a trip like this is a personal thing, borders on spiritual. i would say you could read on going or not. The surprises are going to come as you get to know yourself and your limits as you surpass them.
Been there , done that, lost the t-shirt. but never lost what BOSS gave me.
Survival School: Day 1
Jul 15, 2007, 10:52p - Life
Sleeping is getting a bit easier. I'm dreaming 2-3 times a night. Brief recap:
(IMPACT)
5 hour drive from Provo to Boulder. We stopped 3 times on the way. 2 vans. Intro from Josh (Field Director) at BOSS property. [He reminded us that no matter how bad we feel out there, we should remember that it was always] "better than ... more »
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John
- Jun 14, 2010, 7:43a
Way to be man. I wish I journaled as much as you did about my 28 day. Or took as many photo's.
It's cool to read about similarities.
Survival School
Jul 14, 2007, 10:57p - Life
[Note that this post has been back-dated, for reasons that may become apparent. This post was really written on Dec 29, 2007.]
It's been nearly half a year since my last post, the longest period of serenity this blog has seen since 2002. A lot has happened in the last 6 months, so much so that I'm not quite sure ... more »
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lilly
- Jan 5, 2008, 3:23a
hey! We are fellows in our reservations about modernity. Well, I guess yours are really reservations about post-hunting-gathering existence. I'm actually starting to read a lot of STS and anthro stuff and get interested in "development," questioning the notion of economic and technological development that Western policies have sold. Many people in the so called developing world have done a better job of living a sustainable life than we have -- why are we trying to sell them our techno-capitalist consumption culture?
Gift Cards, Post-Pay Style
Jul 11, 2007, 11:44a - Business
aka
The End of Trading Money for Nothing
Gift cards are lame because you shell out a bunch of cash up-front, narrow its purchasing ability, and give someone a piece of plastic that they may never even use. It'd be easier to just lose $20 on the street and tell your friend "Happy Birthday!" Of course, you could also just ... more »
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Matt
- Jul 12, 2007, 10:02p
Perhaps I am missing something, but what is in it for the merchants in the states where escheat laws do not exist?
nikhil
- Jul 13, 2007, 5:42p
This service would primarily benefit consumers, and secondly credit card companies (as they take a fee on each transaction). Merchants would be forced to adopt this type of gift card due to competition.
For example, right now Best Buy gift cards are really big. If Circuit City, who isn't a leader in the electronics category, adopted post-pay gift cards, consumers may buy them instead of Best Buy gift cards because they're free up-front. So Best Buy would be forced to adopt the post-pay model to compete with other retailers' post-pay gift card. That's the theory, at least - it's unclear what would actually happen without trying it out. It's unclear whether consumers would prefer the post-pay model over the pre-pay, but my guess is that they would. I certainly would.
Mark Herpel
- Jul 14, 2007, 2:16p
Classic Americana. It took a lot of guts to post this.
Mark
DigitalMoneyWorld
omar
- Jul 19, 2007, 11:28p
i was thinking about 10 and 11 before i got to them; namely, thinking that those two things alone make this scheme annoying.
sure, they may never come up for the average person, but if i put $200 post pay on my card, and someone tries to cash that out and i'm over or don't have the cash, then not only do they not get their gift, i have to likely pay some fee to my bank.
this could develop a whole little cottage industry: scan your post-pay gift card here to make sure that it can do what you want it to do..
actually, you make a big point about privacy, but i was thinking that it'd be great if a buyer could check a box and have the merchant send me a picture in my email of what they bought.. "look what sandra bought with your post-paid gift card." of course, they could do this with prepay too but since they are taking my money i might be able to make that a requirement...
anyway interesting things to think about. hope you're not only thinking of where your next meal will come from at this moment.. :)
karl b
- Aug 20, 2007, 10:09p
i like the idea but like omar, #10 and #11 were the exact first and second thoughts I had of being annoying. Would be fine to give a post-paid card with $0 balance for someone you don't like.
i might have missed this but another benefit:
- have multiple persons (gift giverS) pay for the recipient's gift. For example, if Omar and Nikhil want to spend $50 each to buy Karl a gift(lets just imagine this unlikely scenario for this example), when Karl buys something for $100, the first $50 can be charged to Omar's card and the second on Nikhil's - or shared equally. A group of people would love the ease of this concept when buying pooling their money to buy a gift. Each person can provide their credit card info online and get billed later when their one friend uses the gift card. This would make it much easier to get gifts as typically one person is the decision maker in the gift card idea and others just "chip" in later.
Cash is still my preferred gift. My old professor, Joel Waldfogel, at Wharton said it best in his paper: "The deadweight loss of Christmas"
http://www.mises.org/freemarket_detail.asp?control=107&sortorder=articledate
TC
- Nov 12, 2007, 3:01p
WOW! I hate to offend you but you are thinkig WAY too much. This idea sucks major, MAJOR "you know what." You are making it way too complicated for the consumer to track when these charges come out of their bank accounts. Sounds liek you are more concerned with retailers not making money for nothing. So what. Lets say you give them religiously - a consumer could have money floating out there forever. Do you have nothing better to do with your brain, such as coming up with a solution to stop global warming? Maybe if you put all that energy into something worthwhile then you could do society some good.
Suv
- Oct 17, 2009, 1:08a
Did you do anything your Post Pay Gift card ? Landed up on your post doing some search on GC.
I am at nextinfostrategy@gmail.com ---if you would like to share your comments.
Suv
10/16/09
nikhil
- Dec 12, 2009, 10:31a
I just found some useful data. Apparently the Tower Group keeps track of the gift card market, and says that ~$5 billion will go unspent on gift cards this year. Best Buy and Home Depot each reported ~$40 million of predicted-to-never-be-spent gift card revenue recently.
Press release: http://www.towergroup.com/research/news/news.htm?newsId=5500
NY Times story: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/12/your-money/credit-and-debit-cards/12money.html
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