User:Damotclese/sandbox

David Sebastian Rice (popularly known as "Desertphile") is an American cowboy, writer, and actor who has spent decades living homeless as a wandering hermit in deserts across the Southwestern United States, writing extensive essays about the desert, about the life and death of creatures that enter inhospitable environments without understanding the consequences, and writing about his life delivering yachts as a ship captain. He currently spends most of his time working as a hired hand on a New Mexico cattle ranch while working to get his novel published.

Early life
David was born in Arcadia, California and has lived most of his life in the American Southwest, attending school at Costa Mesa High School, California where he majored in computer sciences, taking computer classes for the IBM 370 across the street at Orange Coast College while still a student at the High School.

During High School he ran a computer Bulletin board system called Astro Net BBS which became a popular system for religious studies of major as well as obscure world religions as well as for information files and articles on matters of the occult. The BBS shared information extensively with the Bay Area Skeptics and the The Skeptic Tank which disseminates information on the scientific debunking of claims of the paranormal.

After school he was hired by Baxter Paramax which manufactured medical products primarily for the treatment or alleviation of chronic blood-related diseases. During the time of his employment at the company David attended ship-sailing classes at Dana Point, California where he acquired a commercial sailing license and purchased a Lancer 30 sailboat.

When the Baxter corporation closed their offices in Irvine, California, David became a full-time sailor, sailing around the world solo in his Lancer while also delivering other people's yachts to harbors around the world, writing about his travels and adventures in well-known as well as obscure docking ports as the winds or as the owners of yachts directed.

The Bulletin Board Systems of the time eventually gave way to the growing commercial access of the DARPA Net which eventually became the Internet, and during that era of transition David wrote extensively about his experiences sailing the world's oceans while delivering yachts around the world.

In later years David sold his sailboat, terminated his apartment rental, sold off nearly everything he owned, and drove to the Mojave Desert where he took up long term residence as a squatter living in a shallow cave for approximately two years.

Desert Life
Living in the Mojave Desert, David spent most of his time hiking from water source to water source while also examining the remains of mineral mines and prospects within a few week's walking distance of his primary cavern habitat. When time permitted, he wrote about was it is like living alone in the desert, walking long distances at night, seeking shade before the morning Sun drove most desert creatures in to hiding, and writing about the occasional forays in to small towns to resupply, writing about the turmoil of other humans collected together and how city life was no longer acceptable after living on the edge of starvation and perpetual Sunburn in the desert.

In a memorial visit by his brother | Fredric L. Rice toward the end of his hermit time spent in the Mojave, Fred brought a newspaper advertisement which described possible hire ranch hand employment in New Mexico where it seemed likely David could apply his decades-long desert experiences toward cattle ranch work.

David answered the advertisement and shortly found himself employed at the ranch where he has been working ever since, hiking the deserts of New Mexico when time permits and continuing to write about his experience living alone in wife-open outdoor spaces.

The Lure
In 2016, firm director | Tomas Leach created the documentary | The Lure, produced by Robert Fernandez. The documentary covers the Forest Fenn treasure which Fenn hid somewhere in the Rocky Mountains some time in the year 2010.

Fenn wrote a book about the treasure called | The Thrill of the Chase within which he wrote a poem containing hints as to where he placed the treasure, a treasure which at the time contained a marketable value in excess of one and a half million U.S. Dollars.

The nine clues have been | published many times over the years since the treasure was placed however as yet the treasure has not been located despite many claims by people who have consistently failed to provide evidence that they had in fact found the treasure.

David features prominently in The Lure, with his iconic image appearing in the documentary's advertising, showing him standing in front of Anasazi Petroglyphs etched in to the wall of a sandstone cliff face.

During movie reviews, one reviewer called David's commentary about what he would do if he located the treasure to be “rather creepy and a little bit disturbing.”

Books and Interviews
Most of the author's writings have been published in magazines with limited subscription and distribution, and on the Internet in numerous web sites, however in 2016 he wrote “Desertphile: A Paranoid Misanthrope Hides in the Desert” which noted author Douglas Preston called “a cynical, fabulous, outrageous, politically incorrect, foul-mouthed and absolutely hilarious modern-day Walden.” One reviewer on | Critique Circle called David “Thoreau reincarnated as an emotionally disturbed comedian.”

Though the novel has seen some preliminary reviews and commentary within the publishing environment, the novel continues to seek a publisher who will commit to releasing the novel for actual commercial distribution.

Due to the documentary's popularity in the limited venues in which it has been shown, David has conducted a number of interviews to talk about living in the desert as a hermit as well as to talk about what the “thrill of the chase” hunting for the Forrest Fenn treasure has been like, where he and others have searched, and where he thinks the best places to search are.

Other activities
As part of David's desert trekking and the search for the Fenn Treasure, he coordinates an annual gathering called | Fenboree where like-minded individuals seeking the treasure (many of whom live unconventional lives, including solo desert dwelling) gather to discuss their adventures, hopes, and desires as they have hiked the Rocky Mountains.

Fennboree was started in 2014 and continues to draw ever-larger crowds of people attending who hope to find out where others have searched and where they have not, hoping to catch a hint from Mr. Fenn himself and from David, in the possible chance that Fenn has given him possible clues.