First id like to apologize for the fact that computers found in internet cafes here in Costa Rica dont have all the grammatical symbols as in the states. Next ill ask you to give your free airmile ticket to my little sister so she can visit me here for two weeks and expand mankinds understanding of creativity and happiness.
Im living here in beautiful Concepcion de San Rafael, studying and working on a draft for a book about alternative education. As seen in tourist travel statistics, this part of the world is the definition of paradise for many Americans. Apart from just hanging out with my sybling again, (im 19, she just turned 13 and lives with the rest of my family in California) we would hope to help answer the question, is the desire for paradise mere escapism, or does a beautiful, tranquil, and exotic locale enhance human creativity and productivity and if so in what ways.
Some background. My sister and I have lived in some cool places already, including the pacific island of Bali. I remember seeing Mick Jaggers house three blocks from our own there and wondering how his music would be different had he started out living on the island. My sister is a really talented pianist and artist, and has written some great stories. (One for example about a family of guns, and there barbeque, parts of it written in Indonesian.)
Even so I think shes kind of getting burned out of being uniquely expressive by a suburban lifestyle... so if she would come we would chill in twin hammocks and eat pineapples and bananas which cost one half of one cent each, and with some Costa Rican friends we would spend a day in each of several pretty environments, nearby foothills resembling a tropical Swiss landscape, dense cloud forest, black sand beach, corral reef.... etc.
Wed talk about how the being in each place made us feel and then take some time to make stuff there, me with my book and tunes, her with stories and art. (Wed both take photos to put on the web... there are some great pictures waiting to be taken... for example my neighbor breeds tiny bunnies, which are white with red eyes and can and do rest entirely inside tropical flowers.)
The content could consist of a set of pictures of the different places we used as consciousness laboratories, which would serve as links to the what we thought and wrote there. My sister and I have already collaborated on web writing, some of which has appeared on mediocre humor sites. http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/lists/lumpeemeen.html
I was part of creating a site with original content about learning and the mind. http://www.thinkquest.org/library/lib/site_sum_outside.html?tname=C0120760&url=C0120760/
Above all I can promise you we would produce interesting, funny, and perhaps insightful content, if for no other reason than to impress our pals and let our Mom know what we are doing. Good luck deciding the winner,
Sincerely,
Leif Larsen