"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars..." Jack Kerouac

I'm pretty sure Jack Kerouac is a pretty cool guy. He was Canadian (albeit French-Canadian). He followed the passions of his heart in so many fabulous ways! He hitchhiked across America. He wrote his book On The Road in three weeks! Then he decided to get into Buddhism and went down to Mexico to meditate. After that, he got into - or started - the beat scene, and spent lots of time at poetry readings. I think the coolest thing about him is he wasn't afraid to leave where he was and go where he wanted to. He would totally drop everything and be a nomad ... a vagabond. Wow...
The bad news is he became an alchoholic, which caused his death. Thats sad. Its too bad that so many people live adventurous and enlightening lives, then end up letting something like alchohol or drugs kill them. I hope I live an adventurous and inconceivable life, and then don't die because of something stupid like that. I want die doing something amazing, like bicycling across Greenland, or spelunking in Mongolia. Or swordfighting. Or canoeing around the Aluetian Islands (wow that sounds pretty cool!).