Ramblings of a Weary Traveller The incoherent mutterings of John Cleland, and other strange diversions

He is the best sailor who can steer within fewest points of the wind, and exact a motive power out of the greatest obstacles. Henry David Thoreau.

I have been around a bit. More than most. Less than some. I have been to Europe, the Americas, north and south, Africa, Australia and of course my native New Zealand. I flatter myself to think that I have profited by my travels. I have learned a bit, perhaps even become a better person. Perhaps not. Either way I have had a lot of fun.

Rather than boring you all with photos and tedious tales I will give those few who are interested the chance to follow this trail and hear a few details about the places I have travelled.

To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer. Anonymous.

I am a computer programmer by trade. I studied physics and Computer Science at the University of Waikato. I ended up as a programmer rather than a physicist, which is probably a good thing as no sane man would want me to mess around with the workings of the universe. If you wish you may take a detour to look at some of the programs I have written.

It would be a poor thing to be an atom in a universe without physicists, and physicists are made of atoms. A physicist is an atom's way of knowing about atoms. George Wald.

I used to live in Minneapolis. If New Zealand is God's own land, then Minnesota must be God's own ice box. It truly is miserably cold in winter, and hot and mosquito infested in summer. If the people weren't all so nice I wouldn't have have stayed there as long as I did, nor returned there as often as possible.

That is a good book which is opened with expectation and closed with profit. A. Bronson Alcott.

One of those nice people in Minneapolis is Steven Brust, a talented author and musician, a dangerous poker player, a sharp wit and all around excellent dude.

Art-the one achievement of Man which has made the long trip up from all fours seem well advised. James Thurber.

Another is Jeff McNair. While I have no talent beside a small skill at cutting code, Jeff is an artist. A good one. So check out his art and spread the word.

Art is not a study of positive reality, it is the seeking for ideal truth. George Sand.

Were art to redeem man, it could do so only by saving him from the seriousness of life and restoring him to an unexpected boyishness. José Ortega y Gasset.

I don't work all the time, it only seems like it. In those scant few hours between work and travel I indulge my other Interests. I have not yet found an ideal truth, nor have I yet lost my boyishness, which perhaps I owe to my travel or my foolish games. I fully intend to continue to indulge both and maybe one day I will discover something of value true.

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