How SOUTH got credit-crunched...

Danger! Ridiculously steep cliffs and chaotic tumbles..., originally uploaded by www.alastairhumphreys.com.

British sports events and expeditions are facing delays and cancellations this year amid a severe shortage of corporate sponsorship (wrote the Sunday Telegraph).
The credit crisis has led to companies slashing their marketing budgets, with dismal consequences for many sporting events. Richard Gillis of SportBusiness, the marketing and research firm, said straightforward brand exposure was no longer enough to attract corporate big hitters.
"Sponsorship budgets are the first thing to go in a downturn," said Gillis. "These events are going to have to start lowering their expectations on price or generate more compelling business opportunities for companies."
This analysis of the £5.3bn industry comes as an unprecedented number of major sporting events seek backers for 2009 as one in five firms cut sponsorship budgets.
The worst affected is snooker, with 888.com cancelling its sponsorship of the World Championships and Saga Insurance terminating its contract with the Wembley Masters. The World Snooker Association told players: "Both companies have stated that the current economic climate is affecting marketing budgets in all industries."
Tennis is also under pressure. The Queen's Club Tournament, once known simply as the Stella Artois, has been renamed after the 30-year association was not renewed. Even within Premiership football, West Bromwich Albion was forced to start the season without a shirt sponsor.
"Companies don't have money to splash around at the moment, so they are going for the big events," said Ben Speight, the head of research at SportBusiness. "The middle tier really are struggling to come up with new sponsors."
Among the events currently suffering setbacks, the Cowes Week regatta has come to the end of its deal with Skandia and the Epsom Derby has lost Vodafone, its sponsor of 14 years.
The Wentworth Matchplay golf tournament will be scaled back or cancelled entirely this autumn after a replacement for its sponsor, HSBC, could not be found.
Explorers Ben Saunders and Alastair Humphreys have been forced to postpone plans to journey to the South Pole on foot after their sponsors Ernst & Young pulled out, writes Sarah Butler.
The accountancy firm backed out of a planned three year deal in which it would also have provided £850,000 for the expedition.
Saunders said the firm had told him it would not back the trip because it was “cutting back on any non-core marketing activities” in the current economic climate.
The 1,800 mile return trip to the South Pole, which was intended to start in October, will now be postponed until next year after four years of planning.
The four month expedition would have been the first since Captain Scott’s ill-fated venture to attempt an unsupported return journey to the South Pole. It will now begin in October 2009.

Desert Island books

Virgin Solo Row, originally uploaded by Virgin Global Row - Olly Hicks.

Imagine you were stuck on a desert island for 18 months...
What books would you take?
This is the sort of delicious quandry I can daydream indecisively about for ages.
But a friend of mine, Olly Hicks, is departing in a few weeks to row round Antarctica. This lunatic, courageous, epic solo expedition will take about 18 months to complete. A while ago I promised I'd help out with his on-board 'library' (makes it sound like a relaxing cruise!). And so, in a bit of a rush last week, I delved into Amazon and ordered these books:

- The Penguin History of the World: JM Roberts
- Withnail and I; the screenplay (Andy's choice as this kept him entertained as he walked from London to Istanbul)
- For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ernest Hemingway
- The Unequalled Self: Samuel Pepys (Ben's choice)
- Blackadder, the whole damn dynasty
- East of Eden: John Steinbeck

I wanted books with substance, to keep Olly entertained and curious for those long, lonely months. What would you have chosen?

Filming at -40

Photography at -40 is tough, very tough.
Fortunately Martin Hartley is tough, very tough.
Here he is snapping Ben just prior to his North Pole speed record attempt in Spring 2008.

Explorers: Geographical boundaries or Human Limits?

IMG_4687.JPG, originally uploaded by www.alastairhumphreys.com.

Last night I spoke at the Arete Club at the very plush Oxford & Cambridge Club on Pall Mall. Thankfully YouTube taught me how to tie a bowtie in time. The discussion was titled "Explorers: Geographical boundaries or Human Limits?"
Unfortunately I came unstuck at the first word. Google Earth has removed the need for anyone to claim to be an 'Explorer'. I don't like calling myself an 'Adventurer'; it just sounds a bit daft and puerile. And 'Writer' gives the wrong impression: I write to ride, not the other way round.
But it was an interesting evening, and I was relieved to find that the very clever audience were still curious about the sore-bum suffered by cyclists, as well as fellow speaker Jake Meyer's concerns about peeing at -70C in Antarctica!

John Muir - a real adventurer

I really admire the achievements of Australian adventurer John Muir. He's climbed Everest and trekked to both poles. I learnt about his walk across Oz (thanks, Wolf) as I am currently toying with the idea of walking across Australia. The vid's a bit cheesy, but it's a heck of an expedition.

Standing Out

Us 'Adventurers', or 'Explorers', or whatever else we call ourselves are pretty interesting people. What we do is a bit unusual, and most of the world would not want to do it. Standing out's how we can pay the bills. The reasons we do what do varies a lot. Some do it for celebrity, some for glory, some to impress girls (or boys), some to pay the pay the bills, some with a lust for life, some with a death wish, some to avoid 'real jobs', some for fun.

Many people climb mountains, ride bikes, sail boats, run and row just because they enjoy it. That's the best reason of all. A few of us enjoy them so much that we decide to try to make a living from it. And that's where the difficulties begin.

To make a living as an adventurer you need to do some of these things:

a) interesting expeditions

b) write books or articles

c) take pictures or make films

d) 'motivational' speaking

You don't need to do them all. A few people get along fine without even doing category 'a'!

In order to survive, let alone thrive, in this 'business' you need to stand out. You need to be the first or the fastest or the funniest or the most inspiring or the best looking if you want to be top of the heap. And, if you're not careful, your undignified scramble to the summit can begin to be done by stepping on other people's heads and pushing them down.

It's very hard to stand out in our niche little market. The webshots of some successful adventurers below demonstrate that. There are too many motivated, intelligent, tough people scrabbling for too-few sponsorship, book and speaking deals. And we all need to claim to be the best and different. The reality is that we are not that different. We're mostly doing this stuff for similar reasons. We need to remember that we're all pretty similar, and we should respect and help each other rather than standing on heads. 

The critical thing is to maintain your self-respect and remain true to your original motivations. Don't fool yourself on the way to fooling others. If you do that, the rest will follow OK.

Disappointment

SOUTH is postponed until 2009.

It looks simple like that. It was an easy thing to type. It's easy to say. It was even an easy decision to take (our sponsor pulled out and there was no Plan B).
But a year is a long time. I quit my job to become what I really want to be: a full-time adventurer and writer. Now I am without an income and sitting in an office for the next year, chasing sponsors and dreams.
For now, I am not going to think too much about it.
We have so much potential for SOUTH - the filming, the charity aspect, an epic expedition. We now must take the chance to really, really make the most of this project, and to maximise our chances of success down in Antarctica.
I read an interview with Seb Coe recently. He was asked how he maintained momentum with years still to go before the London Olympics. He spoke about the need for "every day to add value", to ensure that you end each day closer to your objective than you began it. What I worry about now is that we have 14 months until we head for Antarctica. It is so easy to fritter days, weeks and then months when the pressure is off. I am conscious of the need to work like men possessed, to be driven and desperate to secure sponsorship as soon as possible so that we can get on and concentrate on the fun stuff and ensure the success of SOUTH. So much to do, possibly too much time to do it in?
SOUTH is a wonderful project. I am thrilled and fortunate to be a part of it. It is a great thing, and great things require lots of hard, hard work.

(The day after I wrote this entry I came across a similar blog from Seth Godin.)

All you need to know

(Thanks 5Alpha!)

Struggling for impetus

Motivation and inspiration are elusive things. At times I feel an urge to get out and train, to push my body to its limits and, through that, push those limits just a little further away. This stretching towards the rainbow's end is the addictive, invigorating aspect of training.
At the other extreme are the turgid, listless days. The days I'm grumpy and want to kick pigeons on the street. I mope around with a small knot in the stomach and a faint air of unease and dissatisfaction. I fidget and cannot settle to anything, even to accepting that I'm not going to train and enjoying the relaxation. These are the days when I would most benefit from getting out there, sucking in some fresh air or battering myself in the gym. But for some reason on those days I just can't be bothered. It's not as though I do anything else useful with my time. I just feel myself getting irritated with myself and the world at large. I know I'll be glad if I do the exercise. But it is as though there is some unseen force gluing me down, clogging me up and clouding my thoughts.
On days like that I do pointless things, like writing this blog entry. What I really need to do is stop wasting my life, turn off the bloody computer, put my trainers on, stop being all that I despise, and get down to the gym. After all, I'm going to be murdered at Gym Jones next week.
There, that's done it. I'm fixed.
Off to the gym!
(You too...)

South Pole anyone?

Hmmm... The firm that has long pledged to back SOUTH in order to promote their values of
achieving potential, overcoming difficulties, pursuing passions, supporting the community etc etc etc has bailed out on us. This was not credit crunch belt tightening, it was just playing safe, taking the easy option and choosing to coast rather than striving to achieve their potential. I don't blame them for choosing this route, I just don't respect them for it. But there's no sour grapes in the SOUTH office at being led a merry dance for months and now left highish and dryish with just 3 months to raise several weeks' worth of John Terry's salary. We feel unleashed, galvanised, determined. We also realise that we are really up against it now if we are to pull this off. Any ideas, please do

get in touch

!

Scott Polar Research Institute

On Thursday evening Ben, Andy and I went up to Cambridge to visit the Scott Polar Research Institute. Our friend, Martin Hartley, was exhibiting his brilliant polar photography. What makes his portraits all the more special is if you watch this very brief film clip that shows how difficult it is to operate at temperatures of -40. Impressive stuff. Shame about his taste in shirts. The exhibition is a big thing for him, and richly deserved.
Whilst at SPRI I took the opportunity to visit the museum. It was thrilling. Memorabilia from Scott's tent, final letters home when they knew their fate was sealed. The courage, the sadness, the pity of it all. Their stoic resignation and the lack of regret or recrimination. Powerful stuff.
From the poles to the orient: I'm off to Vietnam tomorrow for a speaking gig. Looking forward to being back in a mad, whirlwind sort of country again; it's been too long.

Sled pulling

It was our first session pulling a sled today, the first time I've ever done it. I was looking forward to giving it a go seeing as I have committed myself to 4 months of it. 30kg on the sled and then haul it round the running track. Repeat.

Ben said that the feeling with the friction was akin to pulling a heavily-loaded sled on the ice. So I'm pleased to have had a taste of that. My butt, groin and calves are going to be mighty stiff tomorrow! We did 8 minutes hauling, then 8 minutes jogging round a field and repeated it 6 times. Each haul we had to cover at least the same distance as the time before. To pass the time as I plodded round the track, sweat streaming on this most un-Arctic of muggy summer's days, I did a bit of mental arithmetic [that's what comes of being married to an accountant!]. Our trek is going to be 2900km... equivalent to 7250 laps of the track. We hope to have 110 days to accomplish this. So each day in Antarctica we have to haul our sledge round 66 laps of the track. Today I did about 10. I came home, had an ice bath, stuffed my face with pasta and thought "crikey, I'm pretty weary now." There's a long way to go. In every sense.
On the track we were in illustrious company, being at the England Institute of Sport in Twickenham. Mo Farah, one of Britain's Olympic medal hopes, was being put through his paces. Several lithe looking Kenyans were also hurtling round the track at amazing, languid speed. Ben and I hugged the outside lane, plodding our way through almost 2000 calories of effort and, for me at least, excited to be manhauling for the first time. It felt like proper training. I suspect that after 110 days the novelty may have faded somewhat...

What does SOUTH mean to me? Why do I want to do it?

Two questions I was pondering as I plodded round the track this morning. (Another question I was asking myself was "what on earth am I going to think about through 110 days of this?") What I am looking forward to, and what inspires me to do all I can to get the expedition off the ground, is the moment when the plane flies away and leaves Ben and me alone, completely alone. Alone at the very edge of Antarctic. The bright sky and the silence of the ice all around and the moment when I think "wow! Antarctica! I am here.

We

are here." What a privilege!

I think that that is the biggest appeal for me of the entire expedition. Secondly, to walk alone to the pole: that's a big deal for me. And thirdly, to turn around, to walk back again through all the memories of the pain of those miles, back again to the very beginning: that's the icing on the cake for me, the thought that makes me want to laugh out loud at the sheer craziness of it all. If we pull it off, when we pull it off -no, it's certainly an "if we" not a "when we"- if we pull it off, I will feel deeply, deeply satisfied. But to stand on Antarctica for the first time and inhale a gulp of fresh, frozen air: that will be the whoop out loud moment for me.

Good Friends

Some people are just inherently decent. People I am reluctant to ask for favours because I know they will never say no and who will offer up far more time and energy than I have a right to take. A few weeks ago we were looking to print a nice, glossy brochure for

SOUTH

. When we were having no joy in finding a suitably priced printing firm I decided to email my friend

Jim

who works in

that kind of world

. Now, a couple of weeks later, 500 brochures have just arrived in the

SOUTH office

. They are stunning, exciting, and if we don't entice a corporate sponsor now we ain't never gonna do so. Jim designed them all, unpaid, despite being very busy. He never muttered a complaint or a sarcastic aside as Ben and I sent back tweak after tweak. Thanks Jim, you're a star! Here's our brochure, in all its glory:

SOUTH brochure - compressed

A new beginning

Riding over to the SOUTH office (Ben's spare bedroom) today marked a new beginning. I've left my job. I'm unemployed. I'm thrilled to bits.
It's my first day working full time, 9-to-5 and every hour before and after that on the expedition. I can't wait to get stuck into it. The river was beautiful, the sun was shining, I couldn't help but get competitive and overtake a guy on his road bike so I got to the office sweaty and hot. But I didn't care. There's so much to do. There's so much potential. It's going to be a mad, busy, colourful summer. There's cash to raise, flights to book, muscles to build and cricket to listen to on Test Match Special. Bliss.

Training

Just home from a week in Andalucia and happy memories of true adventure; a mapless hike from Ronda to the coast that I did with Rob at university. We spent £5 in a week, walked south in a straight line up mountains and through valleys until we reached the sea. We swam in rivers, nicked apples from the trees and I slept in a sewage pipe for the first (but not the last) time.

This holiday I was eager to keep on with my training. I tried swimming but the hostel's 5m pool soon broke my resolve. Ditto aquajog. But I did begin running, tentatively at first, then sweating and puffing, then with relief that my foot was healed and exuberance at the pleasure of running up the dry-smelling dust tracks, up from a hermitage dating from 1537 up to the castle on the hilltop at Gaucin.
I'm enjoying getting fit, but quite worried about my strength work: I'm simply not very strong. I am new to gyms and gym mentality, I'm naturally scrawny, and I know I've still got a long way to go. I'll get there though.
What I'm most excited about though is that I'm no longer a teacher. I'm unconstrained and free (aka: 'unemployed') once again and able to dedicate 100% of my efforts to SOUTH (if I was a footballer it would be 110%). I can't wait for tomorrow morning: it's Monday morning and the expedition office beckons. Shorts, T-shirt and a fierce energy to get the show off the ground.

Training - what's the point?

“For what is the point of training but making pain seem routine? You work the body, yes, but the real point of training is to accustom the mind to endure discomfort: to know it, tolerate it and even, finally, to like it.” - Matt Seaton

The vision for SOUTH

What is our vision for SOUTH and what do we hope to achieve, long term, from the expedition? My opinions:

SOUTH is an exciting, adventurous, enormously ambitious project. It has all the ingredients to inspire the development of a leading learning and quality culture, to promote the pursuit of the highest levels of integrity, quality, and professionalism.
We believe that the experiences of SOUTH can help other people achieve their potential and make a difference, personally as well as professionally. Though SOUTH is but two men, we are conscious that we are always part of a community, and that means a great deal to us. So this idea of giving back and driving change for improvement is critical. Every day is a new day, and every day we have the opportunity to become better; as people, to those we work with, and to what we are in society.
We are both motivated people, energized and enthusiastic, determined to pursue our passions and ensure that we maximize our abilities.
But achieving potential isn’t just about us – it’s about those who follow the expedition and our stakeholders achieving their potential too. SOUTH involves great teamwork, a great respect for difference, and a great respect for people who are looking at their own challenges and solving them.
Environmental awareness has changed corporate planning, organizations, corporate accountability, and accounting. SOUTH is a flagship for the imperative for changing habits and attitudes. Today corporate responsibility is seen as a business imperative. It’s not enough to think of profit and loss only. These are highly relevant issues and sponsors taking steps to make their organization more sustainable, and anything else that makes a positive difference, send an important message to their people and recruits. We know that young workers expect a level of commitment to these issues. And that commitment has to be credible, meaningful, and complete. When they see that kind of effort, it tells them this is a place where they can be part of solutions to problems they care very much about. It is a wonderful way to inspire them. Corporate responsibility includes the full range of doing the right things in the market, in the workplace, and in the community.
Where’s the payoff for sponsors? They get better people. Because when their people grow outside of the office, and they get a chance to make a difference, they achieve more of their own potential, and they become even more creative and thoughtful about every aspect of their work.
We have broadened our view of what it means to be part of change. We can get energy out of disappointment and build things despite setbacks. We are looking to create value in society, and to endorse nonprofit organizations. We want to celebrate that: it’s inspiring, and it underscores the importance of people willing to have a vision and go through all the barriers to achieve things, and make society better.
But we need to focus to ensure that we can make an impact. SOUTH sees corporate responsibility as an entire wheel, not just the environment, not just communities, and not just workplace issues. So SOUTH is focusing on three big areas - knowledge, environment and education.
The vision of SOUTH has tremendous potential. We need only to find the right bold organization to stride forward with us into an exciting future.

Now, if you buy all that, have a look at this

interview here

and you will see how I believe that SOUTH is applicable and relevant to so many corporate situations. It's a bit cheeky, but I feel it makes a good point.

Advice for the Antarctic

"Courage alone will not take you far in the Antarctic as we knew it in its old man-hauling days. The lady gave the bus conductor a penny and said "how far will it take me?" "To the door of the Ritz," was the answer, "but it will not take you far inside."
Courage or ambition, or love of notoriety, may take you to the Antarctic, or any other uncomfortable place in the world, but it won't take you far inside without being found out; its courage: and unselfishness: and helping one another: and sound condition: and willingness to put in every ounce you have: and clean living: and good temper: and tact: and good judgment: and faith. And the greatest of these is faith, especially a faith that what you are doing is of use. It's the idea which carries men on." - Apsley Cherry Garrard

Some serious training...

Fingers crossed, Ben and I are off to Utah in August for a training camp. It is important for us to be fit and strong (of course), but it is also important that we have some shared experiences of pain and suffering and the techniques required to push through that.
To that end, I think we have chosen well.

Mark Twight

("it doesn't have to be fun to be fun") us a world class mountaineer who does not tolerate weakness or mediocrity. He has set up an extraordinary gym and that is where we hope to train. Here is a

video

from the

Gym Jones website

that makes me a bit scared about what we are getting ourselves into!

Gym Jones is not a cozy place. There's no AC, no comfortable spot to sit and there are no mirrors. Stressors are intentionally designed to cause discomfort and apprehension. Effort and pain may not be avoided. Physical and psychological breakdowns occur. The support of a like-minded group, dedicated to The Art of Suffering, provides a safety net. An individual will push harder and risk more in the company of trustworthy peers and that's one reason the gym is not open to the public.

Twight's writing is worth a read too. You may not like it, you may not agree, it may raise your hackles. But you've got to applaud him for having the courage of his convictions. I love this piece below. I read it when I'm tempted by complacency.

(Twight would no doubt disapprove with my meddling, but I've removed his well-placed expletives)

.

What's your problem? I think I know. You see it in the mirror every morning: temptation and doubt hip to hip inside your head. You know it's not supposed to be like this. But you drank the Kool-Aid and dressed yourself up in someone else's life.
You're haunted because you remember having something more. With each drag of the razor you ask yourself why you piss your blood into another man's cup. Working at the job he offered, your future is between his thumb and forefinger. And the necessary accessories, the proclamations of success you thought gave you stability provide your boss security. Your debt encourages acquiescence, the heavy mortgage makes you polite.
Aren't you sick of being tempted by an alternative lifestyle, but bound by chains of your own choosing? Of the gnawing doubt that the college graduate, path of least resistance is the right way for you - for ever? Each weekend you prepare for the two weeks each summer when you wake up each day and really ride, or climb; the only imperative being to go to bed tired. When booming thermals shoot you full of juice and your Vario shrieks 7m/sec, you wonder if the lines will pop. The risk pares away life's trivia. Up there, sucking down the thin cumulus, the earth looks small, the boss even smaller, and you wish it could go on forever. But a wish is all it will ever be.
Because the ground is hard. Monday morning is harsh. You wear the hangover of your weekend rush under a strict and proper suit and tie. You listen to NPR because it's inoffensive, PFC: Politically F***ing Correct. Where's the counter-cultural righteousness that had you flirting with Bad Religion and the vintage Pistols tape over the weekend? On Monday you eat frozen food and live the homogenized city experience. But Sunday you thought about cutting your hair very short. You wanted a little more volume and wondered how out of place you looked in the Sub Pop Music Store. Flipping through the import section, you didn't recognize any of the bands. KMFDM? It stands for Kill Mother F***ing Depeche Mode. Didn't you know? How could you not?
Tuesday you look at the face in the mirror again. It stares back, accusing. How can you get by on that one weekly dose? How can you be satisfied by the artifice of these experiences? Why should your words mean anything? They aren't learned by heart and written in blood. If you cannot grasp the consciousness-altering experience that real mastery of these disciplines proposes, of what value is your participation? The truth is pointless when it is shallow. Do you have the courage to live with the integrity that stabs deep?
Use the mirror to cut to the heart of things and uncover your true self. Use the razor to cut away what you don't need. The life you want to live has no recipe. Following the recipe got you here in the first place:

Mix one high school diploma with an undergrad degree and a college sweetheart. With a whisk (or a whip) blend two cars, a poorly built house in a cul de sac, and fifty hours a week working for a board that doesn't give a damn about you. Reproduce once. Then again. Place all ingredients in a rut, or a grave. One is a bit longer than the other. Bake thoroughly until the resulting life is set. Rigid. With no way out. Serve and enjoy.

"You see your face reflected there in a sweating brow, you hate what you see, but what can be done when there's no way out, no way out?" 


The Chameleons, "Intrigue in Tangiers"

But there is a way out. Live the lifestyle instead of paying lip service to the lifestyle. Live with commitment. With emotional content. Live whatever life you choose honestly. Give up this renaissance man, dilettante bullshit of doing a lot of different things (and none of them very well by real standards). Get to the guts of one thing; accept, without reservation or rationalization, the responsibility of making a choice. When you live honestly, you can not separate your mind from your body, or your thoughts from your actions.

"If you really want to hurt them and their children not yet born tell them the truth always". 


Henry Rollins, from the book See a Grown Man Cry

Tell the truth. First, to yourself. Say it until it hurts. Learn the reality of your own selfishness. Quit living for other people at the expense of your own self, you're not really alive. You live in the land of denial - and they say the view is pretty a long as you remain asleep.
Well it's time to WAKE THE F*** UP!
So do it. Wake up. When you drink the coffee tomorrow, take it black and notice it. Feel the caffeine surge through you. Don't take it for granted. Use it for something. Burn the Grisham books. Sell the bad CDs. Mariah Carey, Dave Mathews and N Sync aren't part of the soundtrack where you're going.
Cut your hair. Don't worry about the gray. If you're good at what you do, no one cares what you look like. Go to the weight room. Learn the difference between actually working out and what you've been doing. Live for the Iron and the fresh air. Punish your body to perfect your soul. Kick the habit of being nice to everyone you meet. Do they deserve it? Say "no" more often.
Quit posturing at the weekly parties. Your high pulse rate, your 5.12s and quick time on the Slickrock Trail don't mean anything to anybody else. These numbers are the measuring sticks of your own progress; show, don't tell. Don't react to the itch with a scratch. Instead, learn it. Honor the necessity of both the itch and the scratch. But a haircut and a new soundtrack do not a modern man make. As long as you have a safety net you act without commitment. You'll go back to your old habits once you meet a little resistance. You need the samurai's desperateness and his insanity.
Burn the bridge. Nuke the foundation. Back yourself up against a wall. Have an opinion one way or the other, get off the fence and rip it up. Cut yourself off so there is no going back. Once you're committed the truth will come out. You ask about security? What you need is uncertainty. What you need is confusion; something that forces you to reinvent yourself, a whip to drive you harder. 

"I never try anything - I just do it. Want to try me? 


White Zombie, "Thunder Kiss"

In Dune, Frank Herbert called it "the attitude of the knife,” cut off what's incomplete and say “now it has finished, for it has ended there.” So finish it, and walk away, forward. Only acts undertaken with commitment have meaning. Only your best effort matters. Life is a Meritocracy, with death as the auditor. Inconsistency, incompetence and lies are all cut short by that final word. Death will change you if you can't change yourself.
“If I can change one, then I can change two. If I can change two, then I can change four. If I can change four, then I can change eight. If I can change eight, then I can change.”


One Minute Silence, "If I Can Change"