Lord Jim

Hey guys, it's Adventure Van here with a blog about the book Lord Jim. Written by Joseph Conrad, this book is the story of a sailor named Jim in the 1880s. Based off of a real person, Augustine Podmore Williams, the story follows Jim, a first mate, as he does a single cowardly act of abaonding a ship and taking a place on a boat that should have gone to a passenger, when he himself knew that he should go down with the ship and let someone else take the place. The ship survives, along with the people on it. All of the crew, including the captain, run and disappear, not wanting to give testimony and taking place in trial. Only Jim insists on appearing in the court. He is and will be haunted by this act of cowardice for the rest of his life.

After the case, he's taken aside by Charles Manlow, who tells us the story of Jim, as the entire book is written down from his point of view and stories from others. Jim confesses his guilt to Manlow, who takes pity on him and finds him a place to live. However, Jim encounters an engineer who also abandoned the ship there and leaves. Jim then spends time wandering, from going into a job and doing successfully until the name of the ship is mentioned and he immediately leaves, and then getting into a fist fight. Marlow realizes Jim needs to escape the place that knows of what Jim did, so he contacts his old friend Stein, who gives Jim a job on a remote island as a trade representative.

Jim leaves to take this job, and then finds peace in the fact that he is now mysterious and clouded, and no longer known as someone who abandoned his ship, and instead gets a new start. However, just his presence makes enemies, especially from one person who was the former trade representative. His name was Cornelius. His step daughter, who he abused, flees to Jim for protection after Cornelius is ousted from power by his arrival. Cornelius is enraged by this as well.

A pirate known as Gentleman Brown comes with a starving crew to the outpost, but is driven off. The natives and traders there want to land a killing blow on him and his crew, but Jim goes against that and simply send the pirates back thru a guarded riverway to get back to their ship. Cornelius sneaks out and meets with Brown, and then tells him about a better, less guarded way. Brown takes it, and kills some of the sentries as he escapes easily. One of Jim's servants figures out Cornelius' involvement and kills him, and Manlow advises Jim to leave. But Jim doesn't want to abandon his 'ship' again, and takes personal responsibility for the deaths caused by him and goes to the native chief to get himself killed.

It's a sad story about the life of a man, but it's much more heroic then who Jim was based off of. As it's all from the point of Jim's friend, Manlow, you can't tell how much is fully fact and if an attribute or two, or even all of them, is completely made up. The story of how an honorable man would seek penance for a singular crime he committed for the rest of his life is haunting.

Buffalo Japanese Garden

Hey guys, it's Adventure Van here with a blog about the Buffalo Japanese Gardens. Buffalo is a sister city with Kanazawa, a Japanese city. Because of this, Buffalo has this amazing park which seems unnaturally natural in art! I went on a tour there the other day, and it's a great place, with tons of views. All of them beautiful. And it's lasted a good 40-30 years, which is amazing. Even with people trying to destroy it and steal parts, it's an amazing part of the community and structure. And some people don't even know it exists!

Adventure Van, strolling out.

Creativity.

Hey guys, it's Adventure Van here with a blog about creativity. Creativity is a funny thing. It's both encouraged and suppressed. And humanity is one of the only species that can do it, really. Sure, others can use a tiny amount of it, but humanity has the monopoly on it. And, for some reason, everyone has different views on it. Is it good, is it bad, what is it really? And will we ever find out the truth?

When we're kids, parents have a huge say on how creativity should be used. Which is the exact opposite of creativity, isn't it? If they allow us to live our early years and be creative, build and break things, cause a bit of trouble, we might still be uncreative. As much as they have a say in it, the real thing that decides if someone is creative or not is still mostly in the human in question's hand. And medicine. Medicine can disable creativity. But that can be a good thing? Some people can get too creative they never actually do anything. 

Creativity can be affected by tons of factors. Dictatorships and people who depend on brute force will be against creativity, as it challenges views that the leaders. But creativity is good for civilizations in most cases. As much as we have reached Pandora's Box like scenarios where creativity has been the bane of us, inventions won't happen without someone saying "What if..." What's super confusing is the fact that mankind is confusing. Sometimes creativity is supported in dictatorships. Not often. But it happens. My point is that you can't just put a definite on what mankind does. Mankind is weird.

Inventions are the result of creativity. As otherwise, we wouldn't really have felt a need to make them. Anyone can look up at a bird and say "I wish I could fly." But it takes creativity to have someone look up at a bird and say "I wonder if I can fly." Or breath underwater. Or do any of the amazing things humans can do, just because we think it may be possible to. Creativity is a good thing mostly.

But sometimes it's not. Sometimes, it's a very bad thing. Sometimes, people poison water supplies due to it. We have done horrible things due to our "What ifs" and "I wonders". But does it balance out with everything else? Possibly. But we can never be sure. Something we always have to be on guard for. As well the benefits, it has drawbacks. Like everything else. But that's a normal thing with humanity. Because we can't just put it in a single box, we're curious about curiosity. How curious.

Electrical Bracelet

Hey guys, it's Adventure Van here with a blog about connections. Electrical connections. You can harness a power that was mythical for the majority of humanity, that only the gods could wield, and put it on your wrist. That's what I did, using a conductive thread, a LED, and a battery. Conductive thread is a really cool invention. Being able to transmit electricity thru an easy to maneuver substance is an amazing thing. And the fact that you can connect it to snaps, batteries, and LEDs make it super easy to create a bracelet that lights up upon being snapped. Of course, you need a good fabric that won't just rip. But that's okay, and easy to find.

Adventure Van, shining.

The 'Vessel'

Adventure Van here, with a blog on the "Staircase to nowhere", a structure being built by Thomas Heatherwick. In New York, this large building is said to possibly be able to rival the attraction of the Statue of Liberty. It costed over 150 million USD to build. And... there's no full point. Like most art, it's a visual masterpiece. And it's in New York, which is kind of over saturated in pieces of art, be they murals, statues, or interactive buildings such as this. The question is, what type of art is actually needed anymore. Art is a good thing. But something that blocks pathways, looks somewhat like an eyesore, and is simply unneeded? Can that really be art?

Adventure Van, thinking.