THE TRAVELING CHEF

The true cost of war as of Oct 28th 2007…

US deaths: 3,839
US wounded: 37,659
US suicide: 128

Iraqi Civilian deaths: 54,771
Iraqi insurgent deaths: 9,754
yeah, that means that over 64,000 Iaqi’s were killed in order to kill less than 10,000 insurgents.

Cost of war as of today: $464,910,832
4 weeks of the war could support a full year of free health insurance for ALL of the children in the US. < a bill that was denied by the senate by 14 votes because republicans are choosing “partisanship over pediatrics” said a republican who voted for the bill.

Bush’s current US approval rating: 28%
Bush’s international approval rating: <2%

extra credit: 2000 election
Bush votes: 50,456,002
Gore votes: 50,999,897
Gore had over 400,000 more votes than Bush
only 42.45% of the US population voted in the last election

So I have been hinting here and there about this “project” I have been working on, so I figured it was time to fill you in on it.

In my free time here in Costa Rica, I began brainstorming up an idea with Casey and Jesse to build an online travel guide geared towards long-term travelers, eco-tourists, and backpackers. We began playing with the idea and started building a prototype of the site. The original intentions was to build a platform where travelers could create their own blogs, post stories, write destination reviews, and offer each other advice in the forums. As the idea grew, so did the workload, design issues, database problems, and in order to make it to a final product, we had to have 5 different applications to run on a single platform. It wasn’t working right.

Solution: We looked at what was going on the the Web 2.0 world today. 37 signals put out a book called Getting Real and pointed out the flaw in conventional web design: “Conventional wisdom says that to beat your competitors you need to one-up them. If they have four features, you need five (or 15, or 25). If they’re spending x, you need to spend xx. If they have 20, you need 30″. If you look at some of the most successful web developments these days you will notice something is drastically different: “The answer is less. Do less than your competitors to beat them. Solve the simple problems and leave the hairy, difficult, nasty problems to everyone else. Instead of one-upping, try one-downing. Instead of outdoing, try under-doing”. You can see that with such companies as Twitter and Tumblr. So I decided to choose the part of the original concept that I felt would make the most impact on the traveling community, filling a void.

The main focus was the community aspect. A place where people can share their experiences, thoughts, stories, and advice with the rest of the travel community. What better way to connect than through a”social network”. I don’t have to explain what that is because if you have used Myspace or Facebook, you know what it is, and if you haven’t by this point, you most likely won’t care.

So that brings us to where we are now. After trying out an testing many of the possible pre-built solutions out there, we have decide to build our own interface from scratch with “Ruby on Rails” a.k.a. geeky web programming stuff you won’t care much about. So far there has been an interest brewing in the tech-world, and it is not even finished yet, or been publicly discussed, but people know, and my email inbox proves it.

Learn more by visiting the website: BackpackthePlanet.com

and the company blog: Ian.BackpackthePlanet.com 

and more about me: BackpackthePlanet.com/Ian.htm

Okay, so I usually don’t use this blog as my personal soap-box but certain events have filled me with intense anger a frustration this evening.

I have noticed several media giants (NewsCorp/Fox) and “conservative” bloggers have been bashing the Nobel commission’s decision to give the Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore and the UN Panel on Climate Change.

Now, The Inconvenient Truth, alarmist or not, over-exaggerated or not, and whether you are a Gore fan or not, does not take away the fact the his movie and the publicity behind the movie, as well as Gore himself- has made a significant impact on informing the world about the environment and climate change.

Everyone (republicans and conservatives) wants to exploit the holes in Gore’s data, and sure, there are probably several as research on climate change changes daily, and very from scientist to scientist, but nobody in the world can deny that climate change and greenhouse gases are affecting and going to continue to effect out planet in a negative way. We are burning through our planets resources at an alarming rate and this is not the World Bank, cause when credit runs out – we can’t pay it back with anything but the future of our species.

The fact is that over 98% of the scientific community agrees that global warming exists, and is destroying our planet.

Gore may just be the cover-boy for the Global Warming campaign, but he is one of the biggest reasons that it is in the public eye and a house-hold word.

So does he deserve the Nobel Peace Prize – Fuck yeah! And nobody has ever deserved it more.

After all this time, Casey and I finally have some pics of beautiful Costa Rica, and a few of the Volcano in Nicaragua!

Click here to see the Pictures 

Hope you all enjoy, and thanks to some new software we have, we should be updating pics on a regular basis.

Have you ever dreamed getting back to nature? Growing your own food? Living sustainably with the lightest footprint possible? How about living less than 8 miles from primary rainforests, national parks, and the Pacific Ocean? The Laughing Gecko Eco-Village project is making that dream an affordable reality. We are located between Manual Antionio National Park and the Cerra Nara Primary Rainforest on 7 acres of land up against Rio Naranjo.

We are seeking like-minded, eco-conscious people to join our community here in Costa Rica. We are, at the heart of the project, a true community. All members take part in the farm activities, helping grow our own fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices to enjoy at our community meals, and sell at the farmers markets. We will have many projects and educational seminars where we install grey-water and rain water catchment systems, composting, eco and alternative building with materials that are natural to our property such as bamboo and sustainably harvested hardwoods. These things are just the tip of the iceburg.

Did I say affordable? Well how does $150 a month sound? Yeah, it’s not a typo. We have 5 completely separate rooms in the main structure where you can call home. And if you choose, we can begin building your more private dwelling with materials that grow naturally on our property. Yep. Still just $150 per month! And we also have and even greater opportunity for those we want to dive in deeper… We have 3 large lots for sale on the farm. They include access to water and electric, a beautiful creek, and all the amenities of the farm. All at less than $80k. Build your dream!

If you are interested and want further information, contact Ian Winscom, the project manager at thecrew@laughinggeckohostel.com

So just some quick updates on what’s going on down here in beautiful Costa Rica. First of all, Casey and I decided to stay here at least another 3 months and continue to run the farm and hostel. You may have picked that up in the Nicaragua posts. Having put so much work in around here, it feels wrong to leave so soon, and the busy/high season begins next month, and it would be ashame to miss out on the possible financial rewards (hopefully).

Around the farm, we have begun “round 2″ of some projects. Closest to my heart is our new nursery and vegetable garden I have put into the works. The farm is primarily fruits and spices so this will be an awesome addition for the farm itself and our diner plates. I managed to get ahold of some seeds for mixed lettuces, squash, zucchini, tendersnap green beans, red bell pepper, among others. I have planted the lettuces and zucchini 3 days ago and they have already germinated (usually takes 10-14 days). They say if it can’t grow in Costa Rica, it can’t grow anywhere else. Plus we have awesome soil. In the States we talk about top soil in inches or even less, but here the top soil is meters deep. Another project is more reforestation. We are planting 100 more native hardwoods on the property.

As far as the “big project” (website) we have been working on… we have hit a few design snags, which is pushing the release date back a little. I have also decided to take a week off of design because sitting in front of a computer for 14 hours straight till daylight has really taken it’s toll, mostly on my eyes, which have just gotten better after what I think was a bursted blood vessel or something. Not only that, but our computer got infected by a “trojan virus” and I have been battling it to the death for 2 days. I think I may have finally won. Thats why I use Macs, cause they do get hit with those BS viruses. But I have to make don’t with what I have.

Getting screwed by the border currency exchangers. Cab drivers trying to get 20 times the going rate. Sitting around a 3^rd world shack with 10 local farmers drinking illegal homemade “Guaro” (Central American moonshine). Waking up at 5am to find our local “guide” rifling through our backpacks. Missing busses and hitchhiking across the island, and making it home without a penny to spare. This all in our 4 day trip to Nicaragua to get our passports restamped for an extra 90 days in Costa Rica – fun shit!

Well, Casey and I are coming up on our 3 month mark here in Costa Rica, so we have to head up to Nicaragua for a couple days to get our passports re-stamped. We will be leaving on Wed. and should be back in 5 or 6 days. We’re gonna go check out some volcano’s on an island in Lake Nicaragua while we are there.

project update: 80% complete, hopefully done before we leave.

It’s been a while. Things have been hectic over here. Casey, Jesse, and I have been brainstorming about a really huge project, and have it almost ready to be unveiled to the masses. Between that, and running Laughing Gecko, I have neglected posting. I know everyone (all 3 of you) are waiting for part 2 of the story, and that will follow soon.

As a result of the “huge project”, I will be moving this blog to a different website, so I will let you know where that is as soon as I get it all set up.

All I will say about the project right now is that is that I have been on the computer coding and designing till 5am every morning for the last 3-4 weeks, it’s a website, and it will be live in the next few days, so get ready!!!

Ian