DailyLit: Adventure Books by Email–A New Concept?

One of my good blogging friends–ISUALum–recently made a post about a website that he had ran across called DailyLit.

This site is a good idea for all those casual readers out there that find it impossibly hard to either 1) find the time to read a full length book or, 2) can’t seem to tear yourself away from the computer for a given length of time.

DailyLit now let’s you read that book you have had on the backburner for some time now–through email–and the best part about it is that it is completely free.

After reading ISUALum’s post on his site “Me, Myself, and Who?” I decided to check it out for myself.

What DailyLit does is it breaks down a book–I will go on the one I have taken up reading–Let’s say “Moby Dick”–DailyLit breaks this book down to 242 emails and delivers one a day into your email box at a specified time that you designate.

There are a ton of catagories to choose from, everything from my personal favorite “Adventure” to “Poetry” and “Classics”..there is something there for everyone.

I did recieve the first email of “Moby Dick” today and enjoyed it–not to long..not to short–could be read in 5-10 minutes time, and it made me actually feel like I was getting something done.  I will be looking forward to that next installment–

If you decide to check this site out, leave a comment here about your thoughts.  I would also be interested in if you signed up and what book you are reading.

As for my good friend Alex, or rather “ISUALum“–he started reading “The Adventurist” and commenting, quite possibly the day I came online 5 months ago–he has a running joke with me about wanting to stay “original” by putting the link up to this site as “The Hendricks Report”–my first concept which eventually lead me to “The Adventurist”–He is a great guy, a training tri-athlete–and a very big family man.  I hope you will all stop by his place and enjoy his witty, yet down to earth posts.  Thanks Alex.

River Swimming the Amazon

Martin Strel from Slovenia could very well be the World’s most accomplished River Swimmer.  That is right, Martin has swam some of the greatest and most dangerous rivers in the world–but his latest adventure might just be to much.

Martin Strel is attempting to swim the raging Amazon River in it’s entirety–and he is halfway to his destination.  The 52 year old has swam the likes of The Danube River, The Mississippi, and China’s Yangtze River–but the Amazon is proving to be his greatest challenge to date.

Read more

Outerspace Extreme: Michel Fournier and the 130,000 Ft. Skydive

Michel Fournier, 62, plans to be the first person to ever skydive from outerspace–back to Earth…a distance of 130,000 ft., and he is planning on doing it this year!

Michel Fournier Plans to jump from an atmospheric balloon suspended 130,00 feet in the stratosphere over Saskatchewan, Canada, breaking 4 records in the process.  They are as follows: Read more

The Adventurist: Going Legal and a Couple of New Features

Alright, so I had to finally get “legal” as far as The Adventurist was concerned.  If you will look to the upper right hand corner of this site, you will notice a new area–the “Legal Mumbo-Jumbo”.   What this is, is the license and copyright information for this site.  If you will click the link (the highlighted words) it will take you to my legal agreement.

What this agreement does is that it allows a blogger or website or anyone else for that matter to republish, reprint, or distribute any article found on The Adventurist as long as you follow three criteria: 1)  That you acknowledge The Adventurist as the source by including a link back to this site as well as including my name as the author,  J. Alan Hendricks, of the article being used. 2) That if you decide to use an article on your blog, webpage, ect. that you send me a note and let me know where it is being featured and lastly, 3) that any portion of this site or it’s written or photographic material submitted by myself or any writer of this site shall not be used on a Commercial Website without the expressed consent of the owner, myself, J. Alan Hendricks.

This is just a little bit of protection I have set up for myself as this site continues to grow and generate interest from abroad.  It is a binding contract and in every sense of the law, Legal.

Now on to the fun stuff!  I have updated the left-hand side-bar with a couple of new additions. 

1. If you will scroll down past the AlanArnette RSS Feed, you will notice a small photo and link that promminently says “Donate your Opinions, Save the Planet” featured on a very nice photo of someone rock-climbing.  This comes from the Laneo website–I think being the outdoors types that we are, that it is very important for us to protect our world and natural and wildlife resources.  This great feature will let all of us help without spending a dime.  It is really a neat organization and I am proud to make myself and The Adventurist a part of it.  By the way, this is not advertising–no one has been paid.  This is trying to keep in the spirit of keeping this a free site for all of my loyal readers.
2. On past the Laneo Ad, You will now find a pretty neat feature called “Global Visitors”.  What this does, is it allows everyone to see where the readers of The Adventurist are arriving from.  It will also rank the top 10 countries that have visited this site.  Should be pretty interesting to watch and will be nice to know how far out in the world The Adventurist is being read.
3. Below the “Global Visitors” Box, you will now find a small tag that says “Blog Top Sites”.  This is a ranking of Blogs and how they are doing.  There will be a small number listed to the right, in a small box giving The Adventurist’s current ranking–which I see is currently 399–but I just put it up and it is new, so I am sure the ranking will rise (hopefully)
4. and lastly added is a small text link that says “Who Links to Me?”  If you will click this, this will give you information on who links to this site–how many links are found in search engines ect. 

 For the most part all of this new stuff that I have added will aid all of us to know and understand how this website is working and doing in general.  This is a way that I can allow all of you to be a part of our continued growth and success.—Now click that Laneo link and go SAVE the World….

The Adventurist: Additions and New Links to some more “Adventurist” Websites

I have finally decided to update my links on The Adventurist.  There are just SO many sites out there that beckon attention that I have a hard time keeping up.

As the 2007 Everest season approaches, my first priority will be to update the Everest Expedition Links–that way we all have the chance to follow along with this season’s summit attempts.  Currently speaking, there are at least 17 expeditions that are suppose to take place this season with some very interesting stories and individuals that I will be trying to get to as time permits.

I am also doing the following:  I have added an area entitled “Live Your Adventure” to my links area on the right hand of the site.  This area will be used to showcase some of The Adventurist’s Favorite Blogs and Websites.  There is some really great information here and a whole community of like minded individuals.  I hope all of you will eagerly check out these fellow adventure sites.  My newest site to this area is the “All Climbing” Blog some very nice information and discussions on climbing taking place at this one.  I highly reccommend checking it out. I will also start featuring the All Climbing RSS feed here to my readers, that way we can all keep up on this fantastic site.

I have also added “Supersherpas” to my Everest Expedition Companies–although this is not neccessarily an Expedition Company–they are planning a 2007 climb for a very interesting reason, which I covered in the story found here.

Another new addition to The Adventurist will be a new page listed at the top of this site entitled Everest 2007.  This page will feature links to all the stories covering the 2007 Mt. Everest Climbing season.  If you have checked out the Mt. Hood page, also featured at the top of the site, then you will have a pretty good idea of what I will be doing with the Everest Page.

As if all of this isn’t enough, a couple of things on the site might get moved around a little bit.  The Title of the Mt. Hood page will be shortened.  The Boskoff-Fowler Page will be shortened as well..to give a more dynamic look to the site.  I will also be searching for new Adventurist RSS feeds to feature here–if you know of any good adventure sites and what-not, feel free to drop me a line.  I am always glad to here from my fellow readers.

I am hoping that in an effort to make this the best “Adventure” site on the net, that you will find these changes helpful and will definately check out some of the great info that I try to bring to you.  Each of the sites I feature, I personnally check out and try to contact the owner’s for their permission.

I have also decided to keep this site “free” of advertising so to speak by deleting my “Adventurist Bookstore” from this site.  I am not here to make money and that is not what this is about.  If you want to show your support for this site, I ask that you only spread the word–or even better–put up a link to my site and LET ME KNOW…I can help you out as well.

As Always,

J. Alan Hendricks, Editor “The Adventurist”

A Clear View: The Top of Mt. Hood After Tragedy Struck

With the recent and unforgettable tragedy in December of three climbers on Mt. Hood and the recent successful rescue of three more climbers this past week on the same mountain, I have finally come across a picture that will show everyone just how treacherous this the summit of Mt. Hood is.

If you will think back to December when Jerry Cooke, Brian Hall and Kelly James were lost on Mt. Hood, you may remember that after James’ body was found that rumors started circulating that Jerry and Brian may have been swept off the mountain. 

For some of us, this is hard to believe that someone could be blown clean off a mountain.  I, myself am not to familiar with mt. Hood and when this story was breaking, I had no clear picture of what the summit looked like–now I do!

Now it is a lot easier and a sombering thought to imagine that, yes, they could have been blown off Mt. Hood.  Notice the steepness of the last few meters of the summit.  These three climbers were around 100 meters from the top when tragedy struck (perhaps a little lower than the climber pictured).

This is absolutely the best picture of the top of Mt. Hood that I have seen.  It is just amazing to sit here and think back to the transpiring events of last December.  The only thing that comes to mind is “Oh, My God!”

Now we pretty much have a clear view of why it was so hard for anyone to get to these climbers, let alone find them buried inside the snowcave that at least one of them had built.

The Pain still lingers.

If you would like to go back and witness this event as it was happening–in real time, please click here as The Adventurist covered this story from beginning to end last December.

All I want to do is stare at that summit–the events that transpired, the people, the thoughts, the prayers….they will never leave my mind.

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