Greetings fellow seekers of life. What a strange life we live, no? My life has taken me places I never thought existed. You never know what is going to happen next.

I am about to embark on a little adventure in the great Northwest. The land of milk and honey. I am bursting at the seams as I get ready for this trip. You will see a map of Oregon with a little bit of my plan for the next week of my life. This trip is dedicating to slowing down the pace. Doing something different. Screaming at the top of you lungs to no one. Turning to the person sitting next to you after not talking for hours and yelling. Pumping random peoples' tires up on their bikes. Understand?

I hope to meet this fellow on the road.

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I currently don't have a camera to use. My mission tommorrow morning is to find a camera to use. No one trusts me with their cameras... I don't understand why...

Much love.

Luke where are you man? You never call me back. I miss the jams. Life will not be the same in Bend without you. I have been looking at a job in Jackson. Want to move there if i get the job?

I am really looking forward to the next two weeks. I have some chill out time. Finals week which is going to be a cake walk and then I have spring break. I plan on reading alot over my break. I am not sure what i will read yet. I have recently be interested in the my Experiencal Education class so i will most likely be reading some stuff from that. John Dewey.

My brother and sisters are some of the coolest people alive. My brother Blaine is the most talented photographer our there. He shoots the most unique and interesting photos. You can see his stuff on his website: www.blainefranger.com. Not only is an extremely talented artist he is a sincere loving person. He has always be a role model I look up to. Just yesterday in class I thinking about our childhood. I was thinking about riding our bikes and moped around Fallbrook. What great memories. The red Schwinn with a plastic seat. Blaine you are the best. I cannot wait to see you this summer. I really want to go dive, surf, hike, anything with you.

Not to mention the fact that he is married to fabulous woman, Bethany. Bethany is one of the funniest Franger's. No doubt we are all interesting and funny in our own ways. Everytime I see Bethany I am so excited to hear stories. She always tells awesome stories about stuff her and Blaine have been doing. I enjoy every minute I spend with her. Bethany you're flippin sweet.

I will have to write about Lindsey some other time because it could take a while and I should be doing school work. Blogging is a good way to distract yourself from homework.

Here are a couple of my favorites from Blaine's wide selection of awesome photos.

My dad and I fishing. Taken by Blaine. These photos were taken by Blaine and can be seen at www.uppercutimages.com

About two weeks ago I lost my camera... It was a very sad event for me because I wanted a camera for a long time and finally bought one and loved it. I was taking so many photos. Now it's gone. I suppose it is a good lesson for me to realize my attachment to material things. But that means I am not able to put any new photos on my blog.

I have moved into a new house in downtown Bend. We hope this house to be a project. A place that supports community and conscious living. We are doing everything we can to minimize our waste. Keep our energy use to the minimum and cook good hearty earth friendly food. On top of that we are hoping this will be a place feel comfortable stopping by at, sleeping the night, or finding someone to talk to. As of right now there is going to be six of us living in the house. I am going to be outside in my bus on the street. We have such a good group of people from all different walks of life. We are all around the same age but there are very diverse viewpoints represented. It really is beautiful and exciting. It seems to make so much sense to live this way. In many places outside the US this is the way everyone lives. The community raises the children, teaches the children, community cooking. I could write about this for ages.

Two more major (kind of) events in my life.

1) I had to take out my first loan. After fixing my van and going to Central America and returning to school I had to borrow money from the bank. It is not the best feeling to owe someone (something?) a large sum of money. Is that a part of growing up... getting a loan. It sure seems to be the trend in our culture.

2) My birthday is tomorrow. I will be 21. Finally. I will be able to have a beer with dinner. But that is not what I am most excited about. I get to see music! There have been so many shows I have not been able to go to just because of my age. It is rather frustrating. It is over in 9 hours.

This has turned out to be a journal. Welcome to the strange and sometimes peaceful mind of Colin Franger.

I hope you are able to find peace in these strange, crazy new times. I love you my friends and family.

Cheese. Cheese. Cheese. Cheese is one of my favorite foods, and it also very expensive. But that doesn't deter me from eating lots of it (espically with the discovery of the rainbow market). But this weekend I came up to Portland and visited Linz and Daniel and I discovered (through Daniel) that making cheese is an extremely easy process and it much cheaper. We made some delicious cheese.

Here are some photos. I have to go.

Since I have been back in Bend I have seen two GREAT bluegrass shows. This is a photo of the Moon Mountain Ramblers a local band from Bend. Well actualy it's more of a photo of the back of Marvin but you can see what is going on. This show was great because it was mostly an older crowd so everyone was sitting down. Of course all of us dirty hippies cannot sit still while there is dancing music playing. So we did some moving of tables and got the dance floor started. The band was into it. Then after the show we went to a friend of Steve's and jammed with the band for a long while. The members are wonderful people and about sharing their music.

Then last night I saw a band called the Avett Brothers. That was even better, everyone was dancing. Hats off to free local music. It just makes sense.


I still have Central America pictures seeping out. Here is Brent diving off a thing in the middle of the water. This photo is the begginning of a very sketchy kayaking adventure.