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First hit from the Patagonia Trip Written on February 9, 2011, by Tom.

ok ok ok… so I am on the first trip of the rest of my life… the farthest and longest I have ever been away from home and so far so good… PLENTY to do, Amazing scenery and always a smile on my face. I have brought all of the technology to connect to my home planet, but 90% of the time, no service and no way I am getting to get on. No worries with all of that, at this point I am Loving Life and having a great time. I hope everyone back in Boston and where ever you may be are feeling this great energy… so, I took off from Logan at 4pm on Feb 5th in stopping in Atlanta, then Santiago, Chile and finally to my first destination in Balmaceda, Chile… population 500…

About the trip… When I am checking in to Logan, I check one bag and have one carry on and the lady at the ticket counter tells me that I dont need to worry about my checked bag until i get to my final destination… more on that later and get over to the plane for a quick 3 hour hop best part of the journey with no one in my whole entire row leaving PLENTY of room to sleep

From Atlanta, this is the large leg of the journey en route to Santiago Chile. I meet this lady who loved to talk calling herself Trace – a regular world traveler and full of what ends up being some very pertinent information that would help me on the way and set me for future long trips on where ever I may go as to the ways of the airline. She was an Australian living Phoenix, Arizona and working as a Chilean mining engineer. First thing she told me was that i didnt need this heavy and expensive voltage converter for my laptop… i could have just gotten an adapter for the plug and that on the power adaptor it says that it can handle voltages from 100-240… and that works for anything with that rating… good to know Next, after dinner and more chatting about this and that she whipped out a Tylenol PM and offered me one… best thing I could have done, within 20 minutes I was out cold and woke up just in time for Breakfast… and usually i can never sleep on planes.

I arrive in Santiago and head immediately out to the area through customs and right away get accosted by one of the local “helper people” who really wanted to help me find out where I was needing to go or if I needed anything… must have been some of the jet lag/grogginess from the 10 hour flight, so I didn’t immediately shoo him away. He came with me up to the area where I would catch my connecting domestic flight to my final destination of this segment of the journey to Balmaceda, Chile which at this time was completely empty probably because since i didn’t have to claim any bags, I was there far before anyone else. At this point he was able to interpenetrate for me to the ticket lady that I was told in Boston that my bag was supposed to arrive in Balmaceda… she let me know that I was told wrong and that I needed to go back downstairs and get my bag from the baggage claim and check it through customs… again the helper guy came in quite helpful and showed me a little known path to back downstairs and showed me how to sneak in backwards to the customs/baggage claim area. I was then able to grab my package, and run back upstairs to the ticketing area where the line went from no one to more than 4 rows of people! I threw the helper guy a 5000 peso note (~$12) and was on my way. Lucky for me I had just enough time to get through it all and to the terminal thinking i had about 5 minutes to spare…. yea I am learning that things in Chile don’t exactly run on time and the flight was about an hour late… so all the rush for nothing, but I am able to board and everything is seeming to work out so far as travel goes.

It is a surprizingly nice plane from Santiago to Balmaceda and it is the only plane so far that has a drop down screen with the map of where we are for me to see exactly where i was… and you know, it was the first time i realized i was no where near where i started from… and this is just the beginning…

I arrive at approximately 2pm local time which is +2 EST and my great friend and travel companion for the next month Sarah is awaiting my arrival with a “TOM LATO” sign as if i wouldnt notice her amongst the 20 or so other people… haha… from there we catch a bus back to the hostel we will be staying at for the night and I get my first chance to admire the astonishing landscape of the Chilean Patagonia. I have never seen anything like it with the Andes mountains cascading all around me, the hour long ride back was nothing as I was basically jaw dropped the entire ride watching the white caps and large fields. Although, as Sarah explains to me, the fields are not naturally occuring, in fact, in the 50′s the Chilean government in a move to increase real estate and get more people in the area, made it a requirement to burn down the forests in order to claim that land which spurred growth at the cost of much of the forests. Something that at the time with lack of foresight would never have known that there would be issues with the local soil and cause many other unexpected problems. I guess that’s just they way of the Western influence and the need to make money… which is sorta funny in that this land was “unsettled” by westerners until late into the 19th century… this is one of the last frounteers in the world… and one way it is easy to see is that there is seriously only 1 major highway that runs down it… and the majority of it isn’t paved!

We ride to Coyhaique, the “city” where the hostel we are to stay at the first night before our next stop and it just so happens there is a true Chilean rodeo happening just down the street! very cool, I am in patagonia not more than an hour and I am already hot on the trail of a wicked culture adventure…

At this point I am getting a bit long winded and it is getting late… I will update soon with pics of the rodeo, our trip to camp at this Fjord in a tiny town called just down the road from a hanging glacier that was absolutely magnificent! Until then…

-tom

ACK the Collective Vol 1 Released! Written on September 23, 2010, by Tom.

Kickin ass and takin Names Written on August 11, 2010, by Tom.

More to do than time allows… def going to have to figure that one out… the single most limited resource we have is the time of our lives. We can make an effort to leave our mark and make a difference, but maybe its better just to be ourselves and be the difference we want in the world. I sure hope that the total scheme of things is the same as this thing i aim to stay in tune with. Hope i am hearing the same music as everyone else. This is surely a huge effort to get up every day and make the trek to the office. I may have a nice job with interesting things to do, but sometimes it feels like i go just to go with out questioning. The need to be more than just another rat in the race is provoking me to stand up and make a change. What change?…. well that is something that will have to be answered by unexplainable synoptic connections… an idea….

Music, work, and Martial Arts Written on June 29, 2010, by Tom.

Running around like crazy to get my everything in order… always so much to do and never enough time… i read a quote today from Benjamin Franklin which truly seems to be in order with my life in its current state… “By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail”. The best work comes from the best prep work – the rest is easy. I have so many projects in the works, I am feeling as if my time and energy are stuck in build mode and not create mode, although I am seeing more and more lately that the more I prepare, the better the final product. True mastery can only come with practice, patients and perseverance… Again the need to hurry up and wait. I think that happiness must come from the enjoyable ride, the destination is only a reason to take the trip.

Here we go Again Written on June 10, 2010, by Tom.

Well, here it is… back from a long hiatus from the blogisphere… working and reading becoming something better than not… the facebook demons wasting our time or maybe connecting us to that one special someone you thought you forgot about until they send you a friend request. What ever is clever. A new day. No Limits, only plateaus on the path to the apex, the ridgeline of something better. Time to update and get something better. Never give up. Always move on. Just some simple thoughts from another person trapped in the office waiting for a call back from someone who has certainly already forgotten that you are staying late for them… gotta love management

Yume no Kage the Puppy has Arrived!! Written on March 24, 2010, by Tom.

So we picked up Kume on Saturday… Took a lot of blood sweat and tears to figure on a name and we have finally landed on Yume no Kage which means Dream Shadow….she is just about the cutest little thing and is whipping our house into shape. Absolutely astonishingly smart, she is already great on the leash, has gotten great at letting us know when she needs to go outside…. Currently in the mist of an awesome upgrade to the studio which has caused me to not write anything in a while – sooo busy trying to bring the content to the level it needs to be. This is a process, but in the end i know it will be worth it. We just got to keep our heads down and keep moving forward… nothing can stop us now….

Always Busy never Bored Written on March 10, 2010, by Tom.

More and more to do this weekend…. going to get the isolation booth designed, framed and built out… Hackintosh will be active and recording… we should have the command center active and ready for all future endeavors.

Puppy on the way… she will be coming home next Saturday the 20th… cant wait… totally stoked and needing some time off… definitely thinking of taking a week off when the little one arrives

Running out of Time Written on February 8, 2010, by Tom.

Every moment is one step closer to our last… we need to make the most out of every opportunity. Whether 2012 really has anything to do with the end of the world or not, it certainly is in our best interest to live each day as if we knew when the end was. Rather than putting off what can be done tomorrow, we should tell those we love that they are loved… we should play music when it needs to be played… who cares why we are here, we are and lets make the most of it!!

Back To Business Written on February 5, 2010, by Tom.

Back in the groove, getting into a rhythm… Another action packed weekend that needs to have more music in it. Been so busy I am feeling the need for an outlet – need to smash down some writers block and progress. this weekend i will write a song. the spirit of Dante lives on…

Shootin Videos, Training and Makin Music Written on January 25, 2010, by Tom.

Got to get a TON done this weekend… Jamming out till i passed out on Friday… Training and more music on Sat – even attempted to check out my buddy Josh’s play which we inevitably missed but were just in time to help break down all the lighting and gear… And we were shooting more of a music Video for Re-Surch and our ACK crew… more to come

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