Born without an identity, The 28th Expedition has had no focus until now. You see, past Expeditions were driven by Spotify playlists around a theme. There was even an Expedition that went with a disco week and another week for The Office! In my return to Spotify, another addition from yesterday, I wanted to create something as both a symbol and a soundtrack to drive success. With everything that is new, while giving off a decidedly retro feel, I wanted to create soundscape that applauds the past while takes the wheels to drive into the falling sun.

And thus I'm doing something new...and old. A playlist not of a daily track, but of an album that has meant much to me over the years. I kick things off with the soundtrack from the second movie of the Jason Bourne franchise.

The movie came out a month after my first backpacking across Europe, an event that not only needs its own post to summarize, but one for which I once typed up 100 pages. It was a threshold of existence for me, a recognition of self-reliance and self-discovery. The highs were the thrill of adventure while exploring new places and meeting new people...the lows were breaking down with the loss of my father and finding no place to sleep to roam the night in Cherbourg and Belfast. It was a legendary time of saving those British girls from their Italian attacker on the train platform, crossing through an anti-American protest by Arabs in Paris, standing atop Vernazza's Doria Castle with the Mediterranean stretching out before me and simply sitting on a bench overlooking a loch in Scotland with a beer and haggis takeout. I felt ALIVE in the backdrop of a 2004 and its impending couch stay in Arizona and concrete floor in Tennessee. I had nothing more than my steel stallion of thunder against the night wind, my '93 Chevy Silverado.

When I listen to this soundtrack, I am 2004.

The 28th Expedition is more than just its music. It's the build up to 2023. Even its weigh-in lands on January 1. It is a return to something special.

Extreme ways are back again
Extreme places I didn't know
I broke everything new again
Everything that I'd owned
I threw it out the window, came along

This is the first post on my brand new MacBook Pro 16" Laptop - Apple M1 Pro chip. A Black Friday find with $500 off, this laptop is superior to my Acer Nitro5, my sometimes Windows 10, sometimes Linux Mint workhorse that's complete with duct tape and struggles with a nasty habit of locking up when being moved. To be fair, I don't do too well when somebody picks me up either.

To commemorate the event and to further support a fundamental shift in 2023, I have boxed my Jekyll installation in lieu of this Wordpress install. And thus, not only is this my first post on my new Mac, but also the first one for this new setup. I do LOVE Jekyll and its text files, but 2023 will be far less technical with a greater emphasis on creativity. Yes, there will be a lot less SSH in my life. Can I imagine a year without installing a Linux distribution?

Even running my own Mac is a throwback for me. There was once a time in 2004 when I toted a silver MacBook Pro around the country, transcribing my European adventures, applying for jobs in Flagstaff while drinking coffee at Bookman's. Later in 2005, I'd pick up a 20" iMac, which was a beautiful machine in its day. Still later, there was a run-of-the-mill, white iBook to lug around a 2007 Europe. And as the years rolled on, I moved on to other hardware. When I think of a Mac, I'm reminded of my 2001 time at the Ugly Mug when my very good friend then, Nic, used to proselytize ALL-THE-TIME about its features. I mean, if you're gonna jump on board with its ideology, what a great time it was with the release of the iPod in October 2001. And the rest, of course, is tech history.

As I continue to gear up for 2023, I've got a strap replacement by Kiwi coming in for my Quest 2.  With Facebook's use of velcro to secure the set to my head, it makes me think they were all out of duct tape over in Menlo Park when they threw the thing in the box. I thought I could just wrastle with it as is, but I do look forward to greater support. And hey, I just started applying a drop of Dawn dish soap to the lens to mitigate my heat during a workout!

I've also thrown a couple more apps into the VR workout mix:

• Les Mills Body Combat - I REALLY like this app and its greater focus on form. While I do enjoy Supernatural, I like LMCB's one-time purchase of $20 with its specialization on striking.  I appreciate this guy's review in comparing the two. He's spot-on with his assessment as LMBC feels like coaches where Supernatural comes off too...cult-of-personality/relational. I mean, yes, if there was a REAL person there, sure, tell me about your life 20 years ago and how that song impacted you. But there's gotta be a realization that you are just a stand-in for AI.

• Ragnarock  - Yeah, the same reviewer referenced this app and after watching its video, I HAD to go with it!  I don't know if its the blood within me from my 19th century Viking forbearer or just my like for Wardruna, but its a lot of fun to crash along to the music!

I've got a new store in Memphis that I LOVE: Gordon Food Service Store over on Union in the old OfficeMax (YouTube of specific loc). I picked up 20lbs of ground beef for $2/lb.

Leading up to today's Thanksgiving holiday, I plopped down my $19/month fee for Supernatural, as I dedicated this upcoming 30 days toward getting fit as I accelerate toward 2023's pace. Throughout yesterday, I invested two hours of my time into it as I suspect it'll do good for this ol' right leg of mine. This wheel's performance has dipped a bit in the second half of the year as it was down for repairs while brooding from a mix of entropy & atrophy and its role as a critical piece of the pack mule puzzle.

At morning's light, let's hit the Oregon Trail.

I would welcome a Facebook return if I have any friends to share a leaderboard in Supernatural or Beat Saber. It's not so much to beat them, rather, it's that feeling of camaraderie that there are real people who are out there. The virtual world is a desolate place. I am reminded of ST:TNG's Hotel Royale. Ahh, yes, the "alien contaminator."

I nearly wound back on there as I was willing to have a FB account to use the Quest 2 VR set, but recently they removed the requirement. And maybe (for me) that's the unsettling thing about Facebook's VR platform is how geared it is to...well, unremarkably, socialization.

Sadly, I don't think we will ever understand the lyrics to The Sound of Silence. Is there room for humanity in the context of monetization? What problems arise with news sites intersperse real stories with third-party clickbait off to the shadows of an alley?

Furthermore, at what point do we market our lives like clickbait? And yes, my ideal for Facebook, a place to encourage and build each other up, is...unrealistically optimistic, perhaps even tenaciously untenable? Is it only a series of SNL Penelope skits? We do know everyone posts from a place of utility maximization; as such, their posts drive toward what their hearts hope to attain the greatest satisfaction. But, is their focus the script or the production? Indeed, "the (post's) the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king."