about this site

...a place for the photos and a few words about what I've been up to since life took a sharp turn east in 1997, and where I can (one day hope to) share what I've learned along the way. It's also a way for me to represent, and others to understand, the deep gratitude I cannot express in words to Peace Boat, my family and everyone else for making possible these immense experiences I will forever be trying to get my head around. Every day now is simply bonus, and I can do no better than use the rest of my bonus days on this planet to pay my good fortune forward, and get a few waves now and then.

about stacy


(or, a few of the roses I stopped & sniffed along the way...)

  • MAS, Peace Research & Conflict Transformation, World Peace Academy, Basel, Switzerland. 2010
  • MA (luckily aborted after one semester), International Policy Studies, Monterey Inst. of Int'l Studies, California. 2008.
  • Peace Boat: Japan-based NGO, eight years, 11 circumnavigations, 60+ countries, peace-study + peace-building, discovery of purpose in life. 2001~
  • Photography: an unexpected knack found on the Peace Boat.
  • Wave sliding: bodyboard, bodysurf, longboard, any which way, the more styles the richer the ride. Like Aikido of the ocean.
  • JET Program, Chiba, Japan. 2000
  • BA, Politics, UC Santa Cruz. 1998 (still trying to undo the nonsense I picked up there)
  • Coffee Shops: Pergolesi in Santa Cruz, Zoka in Tokyo, Zum Roten Engel in Basel, Jazazi in Mombasa, Hljomalind in Reykjavik, Vagen in Bergen...
  • Dreams include: visiting (and surfing) DPRK, going to space, surf trips to everywhere, flying a sail plane, living on a boat, and that one day we'll have a world where dreams are achievable for everyone, because we'll stop behaving like gorillas-in-the-mist (the term "fog of war" is a misnomer) who lack empathy and shut our eyes, grunt, break stuff when we're upset (ie the running US-DPRK 'dialogue').

    • more jibberish


  • #1 advice to young people everywhere (and especially Americans), based on pts. 1 & 3 (and in spite of pt. 7) above:

    Learn at least four languages by age 25, one of which is Chinese or Arabic. A year in Guatemala, a year in Syria, a year in China: not only cheaper than university in a place like the US, but incomparably better learning experience, and top schools should be beating down your door to pay for that experience and real world knowledge. Or, do a gap year in Guatemala, then two years of uni studying Arabic & Chinese, then two years abroad before finishing the BA with a nice scholarship that will more than pay back money spent in Syria or China.

    At the very least, study abroad (all four years if possible), where the value can be so much better. If the horribly overpriced US higher education system needs to be slapped awake by an exodus of students to better, cheaper options elsewhere before we decide that our higher education should not be a debt factory, then let it be.
  • #2 advice:

    If you were lucky enough to be born with a passport in hand and ability to see the world, USE IT. Think of all the humanity alive now and that have ever lived, how many of them have had such opportunity, and what one can gain from knowing the world beyond one's own borders... better than all the sparkly things in the world sez I.
  • #3 advice:

    One possible 3-step path to world peace:

    1. that 80% of global military budget is re-allocated, with a big chunk for space exploration (building / inspiring / exploring, yet still satisfying *man's* cultural and psychological need for daring-do, competition, and rockets that go zoom and boom) and an improved United Nations.

    (The world spends about $1,500 billion on the military, and $25-30 billion on the entire UN, and kicks it in the shins like uncooperative snots while complaining that it doesn't work?)

    2. that anyone who becomes a leader of anything - political, religious, etc - must first see the earth from space;

    3. whilst the men outdo themselves playing Buck Rodgers in space, women assume stewardship of life on earth, and lead with 'peace' (defined here as the ability to address challenges, problems, conflicts big and small with empathically, creatively and constructively).

    • support

    Purchase of photos or photography services helps greatly in allowing me to continue peace studies + work and photography.


  • All photos available for purchase as prints, screen-saver slideshows, etc. - think of it as a scholarship for peace studies with a nice photo in return : )
  • Photography services: weddings, portraits, etc.