About Joël

			Mark Twain opened "A Dog's Tale" with, "My father was a St. Bernard, my mother was a Collie, but I am a Presbyterian." Sounds familiar. I'm not actually Presbyterian, but I think this says quite a bit about who you are and how you identify yourself. My name is Joël, I share a birthday with P.T. Barnum, and I hold citizenship in the U.S. and Switzerland.  I'm into anything that gets me outside and always willing to try something new. I spend a large amount of my spare time triathlon training, but I'm also into mountaineering, photography, and homebrewing.

What I Think (my credo)
More proof that I have never learned when to keep my mouth shut...

Edward Abbey wrote a little something which rings true for me in my head (no, it is not tinnitus and I am not in denial)... "How to Overthrow the System: brew your own beer; kick in your Tee Vee; kill your own beef; build your own cabin and piss off the front porch whenever you bloody well feel like it."

I was initially exposed to that quote by a college friend who parsed it from one of Abbey's musings. What is the significance of this quote you may or may not ask? I have always had a problem excepting just about everything at face value and soon find myself digging beneath the surface. Deep down I will always be a little kid who tugs incessantly at pantlegs asking "Why?" until he gets an answer. I guess I just have a an insatiable craving for details. What does this have to do with the words of the late Edward Abbey? Everything. If you take his emphasis on self-reliance you will see that in order to live by your own rules you have to forge an active existence, be your own boss, answer your own questions, and fight your own battles. There is such a thing as a free lunch, but someone else is eating it.

There you have it...

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