GOOOOOOOOAAAAALLLLL (NaNoWriMo)
Like many thousands of other people I participated in NaNoWriMo this year with the lofty goal of writing 50,000 words of a novel during the month of November. I’m proud to say that I am a winner this year having hit 50,000 words on November 27th. This is my first NaNo win and my third attempt. I guess the third time is actually the charm sometimes. I guess it’s a cliche for a reason 
I’m still haven’t quite come to terms with the fact that I’ve written something this long. Last year’s attempt never made it to the 45k mark and I did work on it some throughout the year. I think this year worked much better for me for a few reasons.
1) I had a good idea where I wanted the story to end up before I started writing. It kept my driving forward in a way that writing by the seat of my pants never could.
2) I made very good use of the local NaNo community in Tucson. I went to multiple write-ins every week. I posted on the forums, and in the Tucson NaNo Facebook group, despite my hatred for FB.
3) I used the attendance of write-ins as an incentive. I would not go to a write-in unless I made at least 75% of my writing goal for the day. It meant that write-ins were just fun social time for me and helped me meet and get to know some great people.
4) I refused to let myself settle for less words than my goal. I took two days off from NaNo, but they were on purpose. I also made sure that I was ahead of the goal count to so that I wasn’t getting behind by not writing.
So, those are the ways I managed to bang out more words on one story in a month than I’ve ever written before. Now the question is, can I keep it going? I’ve set a goal for myself to write 1300 words per day which rounds out to about 40,000 words a month depending on its length. That should hopefully allow me to finish up this novel (50k isn’t nearly the end) and move on to something else with the beginning of the new year.
What this all means is that I’m now officially putting on my big boy writer pants and going after my dreams of being a published author. I think 30 sounds like a good age to get a contract signed, don’t you?
Marriage on Opposite Sides of the Technological Divide
My wife on the other hand is a very reluctant tech adopter. She is just now very slowly learning to admit that the MP3 player is superior to the personal CD player. She absolutely hates learning new gadgets. I find the thrill of learning a new gadget to be as addictive as any drug.
I restrain myself from bugging her to upgrade her outdated tech and she tries not to snicker when my bleeding edge device malfunctions and makes me scream. We both still think that our own way is a bit better, but in the end realize that there are benefits to each way of thinking. And…I just realized that this unwittingly became an explanation for how to make a marriage work. Heh.”
Our differing viewpoints on tech and gadgets fascinates me. There are endless options in the world of technology and to some extent they define our personalities. I’d love to hear from you folks about how you and your partners differ. Does it cause strife or bring you closer together? If you’re single does someone’s opinion on technology factor into your decision to pursue a relationship?
Happy Birthday #Amwriting!
For the uninitiated, #amwriting is a Twitter hashtag, created by the lovely Johanna Harness. It’s a continuously running Twitter chat that is an endless font of inspiration for writers. I think I found #amwriting just after it was created. If it weren’t for Johanna and all the other early adopters I never would have participated in NaNoWriMo that year.
That NaNoWriMo was the starting point for my return to the world of writing. I hadn’t written anything to speak of since about the 6th grade, though I had done some pretty extensive roleplaying and character building. The camaraderie and encouragement I found on Twitter that November was nothing short of life changing.
As anyone can tell you that’s faced down NaNoWriMo it’s quite a daunting task. Many times I was reminded of a great Stephen King quote.
“Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it, and sometimes you’re doing good work when it feels like all you’re managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position.”
I don’t think I could have found the courage to keep going if it weren’t for #amwriting and my wife, who constantly reminded me that writing is what I want to do with my life. It was a simple matter of prioritization and writing needed to come first. Once I put writing on the top of my list I began to arrange the rest of my life. Now, instead of working a 9-5 job and scratching out a bit of writing when life allows I’m traveling full time with my wife and working on my writing for hours every day.
I won’t go as far as to say that I wouldn’t be here without #amwriting, but I will say that it was one of the first steps on a very long journey. I don’t know if I’ve every properly thanked the people of #amwriting, Johanna in particular, properly, but I hope this post will serve. Thank you.
This post is part of a blog party to celebrate #amwriting’s second birthday. Happy birthday!
To continue the celebration, head over to L.S. Taylor’s blog and read her happy birthday post.
Playlist for My Novel
Yesterday I wrote a post about how I respond to that dreaded question about my inspiration for my current novel. It was a bit facetious, but I do find a lot of inspiration in songs.
Of course there’s a lot more to it than that. Writing a novel is a complex process and it takes a lot more than a little seed from a song to get those creative juices flowing. It takes a whole bunch of songs! 
To that end I give you a few of the songs that keep me in the mode for writing my little necromancy tale. I put this playlist together on Spotify (free accounts available by signing up with Klout.com) based on things that were on the Pandora station I often listen to while writing this novel. It’s a work in progress, but I’m sure you can see a theme. If you have any ideas for things that would fit in there, I’d appreciate the suggestions.
The links below take you to the songs on Spotify. If you sign up with that link above you can play all of these songs and about 10 million others for free! (I’m not even getting paid for this. I just love the service so far.)
Death Cab for Cutie – I Will Follow You into the Dark
The Cranberries – Zombie
Tegan And Sara – Walking With A Ghost
Dave Matthews – Gravedigger – Acoustic
John Lennon – Imagine
Glee Cast – Blackbird (Glee Cast Version)
Jack Johnson – Breakdown
Donavon Frankenreiter – Free
Metric – Help I’m Alive
Michael Andrews – Mad World
Evanescence – My Immortal – Band Version
Death Cab for Cutie – Someday You Will Be Loved
Death Cab for Cutie – Soul Meets Body
The Postal Service – Such Great Heights
Tegan And Sara – Where Does The Good Go
Nine Inch Nails – Hurt (Quiet)
David Bowie – Space Oddity
Phantom Planet – Raise The Dead
Phantom Planet – Demon Daughters
I Can Haz Inspiration
Writers get asked constantly where they get their inspiration, especially after describing the plot for their latest project. The first time you’re asked this question it really knocks you for a loop. You’re left groping for a succinct way to summarize a process that is about as easy to define as the alchemical recipe for turning lead into gold. After you’ve been asked for about the twentieth time you realize that most of them don’t really want to know all the myriad places you pulled little pieces of your story from. They want something short and sweet and easily digestible.
So, here’s a bit about my novel and what I say in response to the inevitable question about my inspiration.
Me: My novel is about a young woman who accidentally slips into the netherworld after the murder of someone close to her. When she makes it out of the netherworld she’s thrown into a world of mystics and necromancers at war. The mystics claim to be fighting on the side of right and Jenna mostly agrees, but she has made a vow to bring her loved one back to the world of the living and necromancy is the only way to do that. She has to make a choice and the lives and souls of her and her loved one hang in the balance.
Interrogator: Wow, that’s a crazy story. Where did you get the inspiration for something like that?
Me: Well, for me it all started with a little song: I Will Follow You into the Dark by Death Cab for Cutie.
Interrogator: Wow, that’s really a lot to get from a song. How do you do it?
Me: Alchemy.
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So, that’s one way to answer that almost unanswerable question. Give it a shot and see how it works for you. I use music a lot for inspiration. Tomorrow I’ll post the playlist I listen to while writing my novel. It of course includes “I Will Follow You into the Dark” and other tracks that make me think of necromancy and lost love.
If you’re a writer, how do you answer the question about your inspiration? Hit up the comments and if you use music, stop back tomorrow and we can compare playlists.
Contest to Win an Underwater Camera
My lovely wife just told me about a contest at a blog she follows. It’s a cool blog and a nifty contest. You should stop over and check it out.
Turntable and Google+ and Spotify, Oh My!
In the last two weeks I’ve managed to work my way into three different limited release web applications. Turntable.fm and Spotify are both music related services and Google+ is Google’s new social network which it is pitting against Facebook. With three such intriguing services to try out it’s been hard to get much work done, but at least I have some great things to share with all of you. Here’s a little bit about each service and what I think of them.
Spotify is a streaming music service that is very similar to services such as Rhapsody, Rdio, and to a lesser extent, Pandora. It’s been available in Europe since 2008 and just landed in the US a couple of days ago. You download a simple client program that serves as your music player and a portal to search for music. When you find a song you like you can play it immediately, add it to a playlist for later playing, or click to share it with friends on Facebook and Twitter. There are 3 tiers of service: Free, Unlimited, and Premium.
Free: Ad supported and will have limits on hours of music played and the number of plays of each song in the future, though it doesn’t seem to right now. I read that this will be evaluated and probably go into effect after 6 months. These accounts are also restricted right now. You can sign up for an invite on their website or do like I did and log onto Klout.com. As I just now found out, if five of you go there through that link I’ll be able to try out the premium service. Awesome unintended perk of researching this blog post!
Unlimited: $4.99/month. Removes the currently nonexistent time limits on streaming and also removes the mildly annoying audio and graphical ads. You also get a bump in music quality.
Premium: $9.99/month. You get the perks of the Unlimited version plus the ability to use the mobile app for streaming. You can use this feature on up to 3 devices including Android devices, iOS devices like the iPhone/iPad, and several others.
My thoughts: I’ve been playing with Spotify nonstop for the last couple of days and I’m finding it hard to have any real gripes. The music catalog is HUGE! I’ve yet to find anything that it doesn’t have (except when I spelled something wrong, it’s not very forgiving in that respect). And I’ve tried some pretty obscure stuff. There have been a couple of hiccups with some songs not playing or resuming after ads play, but restarting the program seems to fix that. I’m already itching to try out the premium version so I can try it out on my phone. Pandora is great for discovering new music and I won’t give it up, but if I go premium I think I will be using it a lot less. If you love music there’s no reason you shouldn’t at least check it out.
Turntable.fm is a new site where you can share music with people in a group setting. Music is played by DJs at a virtual DJ table in the front of each Turntable room. The coolest part is that if there are less than five people at the DJ table you can click the open seat and become a DJ yourself! On the right hand side of the interface you can pick the songs you want to play when you are at the DJ table and also chat with other people in the room with the box at the bottom. If you like the song that is playing in the room you can click a button at the bottom that says “Awesome” and your avatar will bob its head with the music. The DJ who selected it will also get a point that appears on their profile and helps them unlock new avatars. There is also a “Lame” button. If enough people click the lame button the track will be skipped. You need to be friends with someone on Facebook who is already on Turntable to get in right away, or you can request an invite on the main page.
My thoughts: I love Turntable. I frequent a room that was inspired by the Twitter hashtag #LOFNOTC (Losers Of Friday Night On Their Computers). The hashtag was started by the glorious Amanda Palmer (@amandapalmer), so she pops in every now and then. It’s a great room and I suggest you check it out this Friday. There is also #LOSNOTC for Saturdays and tons of other rooms to check out. Whether you are too shy to DJ or love the limelight, it’s a great place to hang out and hear new music and old favorites.
Google+ or Google Plus, is Google’s first serious leap into social networking. It is similar enough to Facebook that anyone who uses that service should be at home on Google+. You can share links, videos, and photos, as well as make text posts. There is a mobile app for Android phones and the mobile site works well on other devices. It’s currently available by invite. You can sign up for an invite on the Google+ site, or beg one of your friends who is already in to send you one.
My thoughts: If you read my previous post you already know I like Google+.To me Google+ beats Facebook in almost every aspect. I find it simpler and more intuitive to use. I think the +1 button is better than “like” on Facebook because it doesn’t automatically share. That’s what the share button is for. By far the coolest feature though, comes with the Android App. The app can automagically upload all of the photos you take directly to a private album on Google+ for you to share at your leisure. If you find Facebook to be annoying or lacking I highly suggest you give Google+ a try.
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Are you on any of these services already? What do you think of them? Are there any other betas that I should be trying to get in on? Let me know in the comments.
Google+ is the bee’s knees (so far)
I just got into Google+ and I’m loving it so far. For those of you that haven’t heard yet, it is Google’s new social network. Admittedly I haven’t done much as I’ve had it for about an hour, but to me it’s much easier and more intuitive than Facebook. On FB I’m constantly having to ask my wife how to do things (because it annoys me trying to hunt things down and she knows it better than I do). So far Google+ has been smooth sailing.
By far the coolest feature so far is the automatic mobile upload. I downloaded the app for my phone and OPTED IN to have the pictures that I take on my phone automatically uploaded to Google+ (to a private album only viewable to me) and snapped a picture. It was on the website and ready for sharing in under a minute. Bam! That simple. Here it is.
I’ll probably write more about Google+ as I learn more about it. For now let’s just say that if it keeps being awesome I won’t be hanging around Facebook nearly so much. Basically it just needs to NOT add in annoying games and it wins.
No More Weekly Weigh-ins
So, I think I’ve decided to stop doing weekly updates on my weight loss progress. It was becoming too much of a focus for me when I stress out about something I tend to avoid it, rather than getting really dedicated. It all starts with one little spate of neglect and then I feel guilty and stop working on things all together. I don’t want to do this with my weight loss. This needs to be something that just becomes part of my life that I don’t stress out about.
I will still be working toward hitting my goal of weighing 160 by the end of the year. I will probably even do better since I won’t have stress about blog posts and a weekly weigh in holding me back. Some may think this means I’m just copping out, but that’s fine. I know myself and can already feel the weight being lifted from my shoulders. (LOL. No pun intended. Caught that on a second read through.) I may still post my progress occasionally because I will be happy with myself, but regular weigh-ins and such are out.
I’m also hoping that not having the stress of trying to post about weight loss all the time will help me to post more frequently about things that interest me. I want this blog to be updated at least 3 times a week and I think this is actually a step in that direction.
So, if anyone out there wants and update on the weight loss thing, you can always leave me a comment or email me. Until then I return you to your regularly scheduled program already in progress.
Saturday Weight Loss Check-in No. 3
I’m sitting in a park full of people that are enjoying the live music and party atmosphere of the Arcata Farmers Market, but I’m pretty bummed.
I did a pretty good job with exercise this week and I didn’t splurge on food at all. But when I weighed myself this morning I’d only lost a pound.
It’s disappointing and I don’t know how to get past it. I need a good way to exercise that doesn’t feel like an annoying chore or like I’m abusing my body.
In short, I need to just exercise more. I’m pretty much on target for my 13 pounds this month, but it doesn’t feel like enough any more. I don’t want to be fat any more. I want to be physically fit and I’m tired of waiting for it.
We’re going to go for a hike this afternoon. Hopefully that will help me clear my head, because right now, as much as it goes against all that I just said, I just want to lay down and sleep until I can forget it all.
Also, I’m rather disappointed that I’ve gone from one Saturday Check-in to another without any posts in between. FOCUS is the buzzword of the week.
Saturday Weight Loss Check-in No. 2
Nothing makes you feel small like a tree that is 53 feet around.
This week the diet was pretty much the same, except we went out to eat at a lovely Mexican place called Rita’s. I had a ginormous vegan chorizo tofu burrito and way to many free chips and salsa.
I actually did this twice. The first time was way back on Sunday or so and the second time was immediately before my weigh in. Yeah, that was really smart. Load up on heavy foods before you weigh yourself. I didn’t think it through, but no sense in trying to game the system, right?
Exercise was still a little lacking this week, except for a nice long hike through the redwoods. We were out walking through the forest for almost 3 hours and it was beautiful. Otherwise exercise was limited to some walks into town.
So, with all this Mexican restaurant food and lack of exercise, how did I do?
I LOST TWO POUNDS!
I’m now down to 240, leaving just three more pounds to be on target for the month.
So will keep doing the same things this week and just hope for the same results? Of course not. I know it’s not going to work like that forever. If I hadn’t stuck to my diet so well outside of the restaurant I wouldn’t have lost those 2 pounds, I might have gained some.
The nice thing about doing things the way I am is that I don’t feel deprived. That will make it much easier to maintain my weight once I’ve lost it.
So, for any of you following along, how did you do this week? I’m glad to be putting this one in the win column, but if you’re not so fortunate, that’s ok too. There’s always next week.
How We Travel
I get so wrapped up in what we’re doing, sometimes it’s easy to forget that not everyone who comes to this blog knows what we’re doing. While the About Me page gives a general idea for what we’re doing I figured I could go a little more in depth here.
We consider ourselves vagabonds, but the description isn’t 100% accurate since we do plan to have a series of temporary homes. However, we don’t have a permanent address and we probably won’t be staying anywhere longer than two months. Primarily we are looking for sublets, Couchsurfs, and other temporary housing. We also have a tent in case places we want to go are too remote, or we just want to unplug for a while.
We get from place to place in our 2004 Ford Taurus. Almost everything we own is packed inside, including our pet rabbit, Dorian. We left a few keepsakes and irreplaceable items in a storage unit in Portland, but everything else we had was donated, sold, or trashed. What we took with us is mostly our electronics (computers, Kindles, PSP, SLR Camera etc), kitchen stuff, our REI Camp Beds and blankets, clothes, and a tent. For fun we also brought along my ukulele and Faith’s keyboard so we can each learn how to play.
Now that you know what sort of experience we are looking for and how we get there, let’s talk about where we’re going.
We are currently staying at the first stop on our journey, Arcata, CA. We originally planned to stay here for two months, but that may change as more opportunities arise. Or it may not. Our only solid plan after Arcata was just made this morning. We found an apartment with no roommates in the heart of San Francisco that fits our budget (Amazing find!). So now we are staying there for the month of August.
After San Francisco we have no idea. We may head over into Nevada or head further south. While it’s not exactly a whirlwind tour of the US, it’s what suits us. We like staying in a place long enough to get a sense of what it would be like to live there. Living in a place is a lot different than vacationing there. It also affords us plenty of time to see the sites while still having time to do the work online that allows us to live this lifestyle.
So, that’s a pretty decent description of how we travel, but if you have more questions please ask. I love seeing our journey from other perspectives and good questions help me to do that!
Saturday Weight Loss Check-in No. 1
It’s been a hectic few weeks since I made my first weight loss post. In that post I guessed my approximate weight at 250 and set a target of 160 pounds by the end of the year. Well, today I finally got around to picking up a cheap scale and weighing myself.
Assuming that my initial guess was correct I have lost *drumroll* 8 pounds! I’m now at 242 pounds. When I got the scale I was a bit worried about what it was going to say because I haven’t been pushing very hard with the exercise and 250 was just a guess. Thankfully this puts me within easy range of the 13 pounds that I need to be on target for the end of this month.
*claps and does a dance*
*gasps for breath*
Ok, so it’s not much to be excited about. I still have a long way to go, but at least I’m not starting out by being behind.
Now I have to see if my guess was just on the heavy side, or if what I’ve already been doing has worked. What have I been doing? Good question.
As everyone knows, the first key component to losing weight is keeping an eye on what you eat. Being vegan gives me a couple of advantages, but it’s by no means healthy or low calorie by definition. Yes, there is LOTS of vegan junk food.
My diet since we got to Arcata has been pretty simple.
Breakfast:
A bowl of raisin bran cereal with vanilla soy milk.
About 400 calories.
Lunch:
Vegan lunch meat (thanks Vegan Dad) sandwich and usually a big salad a little later in the day.
About 700 calories
Dinner:
Tofu stir-fry with brown sauce and rice
About 600 calories
Snacks:
Sometimes I’ll have some potato chips or an Odwalla bar
About 200 calories
Total: 1700-1900 calories depending on snacks and other variations
I’m trying to stay under 2100 calories a day and mostly I’m succeeding. I don’t beat myself if I need to have something a little extra, I just try to make sure it’s not more than about 200 calories or so.
So that’s the diet part of what I’ve been doing. It’s not complex and that’s the point. Thankfully we just moved, so there’s not a lot of extra crap in the house and that keeps the snacking to a minimum. If you’re going to try to lose weight, I’d highly recommend tossing out or donating as much of your current food as you can and just buying things that fit in with your new diet. It makes things easier.
Now on to exercise, the other key component to losing weight. I still haven’t done a lot in this department, however moving and exploring a new place has kept me fairly active. I’ve also been doing a lot of walking. Before we left Portland I would walk laps around the mall. Here we’ve been out walking around Arcata and up and down the beaches.
I hope to add in some jogging and probably some calisthenics like push ups and sit ups to burn some more calories.
That’s how I’ve been doing things so far and it may or may not be working. I’m going to weigh myself every Saturday and try to make at least one post a week on my progress, or lack thereof.
I’m excited and ready to start seeing some noticeable results.
In Which There is Much Cell Phone Geekery
I’m a technology junky. More specifically I’m a cell phone addict. Ever since I got hired at Verizon Wireless a few years ago. I read phone news pretty compulsively. I love seeing all the crazy new stuff that is coming down the pipes.
The downside to this is that I’m always agonizing over what phone is best to get and when. In an age where your phone is outdated the day you buy it committing to something for 2 years (technically 20 months on Verizon) seems ludicrous. When I worked for Verizon they allowed employees to upgrade every 10 months which was really nice, but now I’m on the 2 year schedule.
We’ve had an upgrade available on Faith’s line for a long time. We’d upgraded her phone right before I left Verizon and she doesn’t like adjusting to knew technology. So, I started shopping around for something to replace my aging original Motorola Droid. It seemed like a good idea since we would be relying heavily on the phone’s GPS to guide us. I originally wanted to jump on the HTC Thunderbolt, but we were in the midst of getting our finances settled for vagabonding, so it wasn’t a good time to buy.
A little while later the Samsung Charge hit Verizon and our finances were more settled, so I was ready to jump on it. It was superior to the Thunderbolt in several key areas, most notably battery life. I was ready to go ahead and buy it, but Faith urged me to sleep on it for a night, so I did.
Of course I did a lot more than sleep on it. I went home and Googled for reviews and thoughts on the phone. Almost every review for the Samsung Charge mentioned the Samsung Galaxy S II which had just become available in Europe. All they could say was that the Charge was pretty good, but the GSII was AMAZING and it was almost certainly coming to the US soon on all the major carriers. Crap. My desire to have the most future proof phone I can get had foiled me again.
Faith’s old EnV Touch had been on its last legs for quite some time. There were parts of the screen that were dim and the phone had started randomly rebooting on its own. As much as she hates getting knew things it was time. She had already found the phone she wanted several weeks earlier in the Droid 2. Just the day before we left for Arcata, we upgraded her phone to the Droid 2.
Now I see how much nicer her phone is and I confess, I’m a bit jealous. I like her phone a lot, but I know after a couple weeks I would be disappointed, so I’m stuck waiting for the Galaxy S II. I’m fairly certain that I can get Verizon to let me upgrade a bit early when it comes out. Now they just have to RELEASE IT ALREADY.
The rumors are driving me nuts! Apparently some spokesperson today said the phone would be out next month and then VZW said that was a mistake and they were actually quoting dates for a Samsung tablet. Argh!
So, what all this boils down to in the end is:
I CAN HAZ FONE NAO PLZ?!
Setting Aside Old Attitudes
The hardest thing about being on the road so far is changing my mindset. I no longer have to get up and go to work at 8am five days a week. I won’t miss out on much if I take a day to just relax. I have all day tomorrow or the next, or the next. It’s hard getting used to having about fifty extra hours a week to do the things that are truly important. The main benefit is a lot less stress and less stress leads to less bickering with Faith.
It’s hard though, to realize when you are stuck in your old mindset because it is so familiar. The other day we were checking out some places in Eureka looking for a new place to work outside of the apartment because it’s just hard for us to work where we live all the time. We weren’t having much success finding a place with wifi that had good seating and power outlets. We’d decided to call it a wash and get gas before heading to the library with the really slow wifi for a less than optimal solution.
On the way to the gas station there was a natural foods store that we’d seen earlier and meant to check out for both groceries and work space, so we decided to stop in and check it out. I passed the main intersection where I should have turned before I realized what it was.
I could see Faith visibly cringe because missing a turn like that usually drives me batty. Trying to find a place to turn around without getting us run down and then making sure I don’t miss it again on the way back…wasting a lot of extra time. It’s infuriating.
This time though, I didn’t freak out. I decided that if there wasn’t another entrance to the parking lot from the street I was on that I would just go get gas and we’d stop there on the way back. It was easier to be laid back about it because I knew we weren’t under a time crunch. Faith and I were both really relieved at my change in attitude.
Do I know that it shouldn’t ever have been a big deal? Of course, but it was still hard not to overreact because all I could think about was all the lost time and frustration it was going to cause. Now I know I’ve got the time and it’s easier not to sweat the small stuff.
That’s the true gift that I’ve been given by living this life free of a “normal” job. Now I just need to be able to do that with all those little things that get under my skin. With just one little incident I already feel like a different person. I wonder how I will feel when I don’t even notice those things any more.
Waking Up Without Coffee
So, as I said in a previous post, I’m a morning person who doesn’t drink coffee. I know most of you are probably expecting a “but” statement to follow that up, saying that I drink tea or soda or some other stimulant to wake myself up. I don’t. Now, before you all start calling me a weirdo you may want to pause and think about that. Needing caffeine to function is not a normal thing and I’m sure most of you know that. Now, please don’t flip me off and go get another cup of coffee just yet. I’m sure many of you have even pondered giving it up at one time or another.
I’m not here to say that coffee or tea are a bad thing. If I could stand the taste, I would probably drink them just for the culture surrounding them. I wish I could say, “Hey, you wanna go out for coffee?” and actually mean it. It’s a great way to be social. Also, knowing someone’s coffee order is a sweet way to show you are paying attention and care about them. Even if I did drink coffee socially though, I wouldn’t drink it in the morning to wake myself up. Why, you ask? It becomes a crutch and an excuse.
How many times have you heard “Well, it’s because I haven’t had enough coffee yet.” Sometimes it’s a joke, but other times the person is dead serious. Whether they actually need the coffee is a matter for debate, but the worst part is that they think they do. I don’t want to become one of those people that blame a lack of coffee for my failures because if I do, then I have no reason to try to improve myself.
So, now that we’ve established that I don’t drink coffee, even though I’d like to be part of the culture and why I don’t drink it, lets get to some tips that help me wake up without it.
Eat breakfast- You’d be surprised how much eating breakfast right after you get up can do for your energy. It doesn’t have to be anything complicated. I usually just have a bowl of cereal or a piece of toast.
Set a regular sleep schedule- Go to bed at as close to the same time every night as you can. After a while of sleeping at the same time your body will adjust and be ready to get up on it’s own at your usual time.
Get enough sleep- I can function well on 7 hours of sleep. My wife needs more like 8 or 9. Every body is a little bit different, but not many can function well with 5 hours of sleep a night. If you get a bit more you’ll find that while you have less time in the day, the time you do have will be more productive.
Be excited to get up for something- I get excited to get up and blog, work on my novel, explore a new city, or read webcomics and tech news. It could be anything. Just save something you enjoy for doing right after you get up and it will be a motivator to get you out of bed. It also helps me start off the day with a smile on my face and that’s always nice.
Well, those are my tips. They allow me to get up at 7am and do things like write this blog post with a smile on my face. Do any of you coffee free people out there have any other tips? I’d love to hear them. I’m not inhuman, I do still have some days where I just don’t want to get out of bed.
On the Road
Well, we’ve made it to Arcata, CA, our first stop on our continuous journey. Along the way down from Portland we stopped at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport.
It was pretty awesome. My favorite parts were the aviary which housed lots of cute water birds, and the Passages of the Deep area which is basically a big glass tunnel which goes right through the tanks where the fish/sharks are. There was lots of laughing about what kinds of villains the sharks would be if they were in cartoons like Finding Nemo. The leopard sharks were the apathetic villains. Also, halibut are some weird ass fish. Seriously. I had no idea they were all sideways and deformed looking. Anyway, you should stop by there just for those two things alone, but honorable mentions include the sea otters and the Japanese spider crab (they have leg spans up to 13 feet!). The aquarium was only 2.5 hours into our trip though, so we didn’t stay all that long.
We hit the road a little after 7 am and didn’t make it to Arcata until 8pm. It was a long and tiring day, but the drive was gorgeous. If you haven’t driven down Highway 101 you definitely should. The views of the ocean are breathtaking.
Now we are just trying to get settled in at our apartment and figure out what our daily lives will be like here. Most of yesterday was spent checking out the different places to shop for those little things we left behind and for where we’ll be buying food. We thought finding good vegan food might be a problem, but it turns out that the North Coast Co Op here is pretty awesome.
There’s lots more to say, but I’ll save that for some posts later when my thoughts are more organized. It’s finally starting to sink in that this is my life now. It’s a big thought to try to get my head around and it will take some time.
A Healthier and More Active Me
I won’t beat around the bus
h here. I’m fat. I’ve been fat in varying degrees since I was little. It’s been a source of much mental distress in my life and I’m finally going to change it. I want a new body to go with the new life I’m embarking on. I don’t want to be limited in what I can do by my lack of energy. I want to hike difficult trails to get to the best view. Right now just thinking about that tires me out. That’s about to change.
Last year for about 4 or 5 months I started exercising daily and reduced my calorie intake and I dropped about 40 pounds, so I know I can do it. I haven’t had a chance to weigh myself, but I’m pretty sure I’ve gained most of that back. In the last couple of weeks I’ve started going for walks every day and I’ve been keeping an eye on my calories. When I’m not working any more I’m going to kick it up several notches.
My goal is to get down to the “normal” weight for my height. In other words I’m aiming for 160 pounds. I will weigh myself when I’m near a scale next, but I’m guessing that I’m at about 250 right now, so that means I’m aiming to lose 90 pounds. Now that I’ve set my goal weight, I need a date to achieve it by. Since I like the idea of heading into the New Year as a new person I’ll be aiming for January 1st.
Now if I’m doing my math right that means that I’ll need to lose almost 13 pounds a month for the next seven months. Perfect. Thirteen is my favorite number.
So, you have my goal. I’ll keep you updated regularly with my progress. Are any of you up for joining me? It would be awesome to make this a group effort. Either way, I hope you’ll cheer me on.
What About All Your Stuff?
The more people I tell about our plans to go out traveling the more I get asked one question. It’s just as frequent as the inevitable questions about where I’m going and for how long, but the answer seems to catch a lot of them off guard. They seem more prepared for the idea that I’m not planning on settling down in the near future or that I don’t really know where I’m going to be going after we leave Arcata. So, what question could have such a shocking answer and be asked with such frequency?
“What are you doing with your stuff?”
The short answer? We’re selling, donating or trashing, or bring it with us. All of it? Almost.
The looks on people’s faces is usually pretty comical. You can almost see the gears turning as they wonder if they could ever do that. After about three awkward seconds the response is nearly universal. “I could never give up X.” It’s the same reaction I get when I tell people I’m vegan.
The funny part about the reaction to giving up stuff is that the X is almost never anything that couldn’t be replaced. TVs, gaming systems, beds, couches, kitchen appliances. We got rid of all of that stuff. So, what did we keep?
Most of what we kept are keepsakes. Paper journals, mementos that remind us of the beginning of our relationship, Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVDs (What? We have a special relationship with Buffy!) All of it is going to be living in a tiny 5′ x 5′ storage unit that we just rented yesterday. The rest of it? Will I miss it? Maybe a few things. The experiences I’m gaining in exchange are worth it though.
I’m not going to debate the need for having a storage unit, or go into our reasoning for doing this rather than leaving our stuff with a friend/relative. It’s the best option for our needs. It was actually even better than we thought! We found out that we can even send packages to our storage unit and have them placed inside. It’s a great option in case we want to buy anything along the way. (We don’t really plan on it) But mostly it’s great because Faith likes to keep a paper journal and we can send them back for storage. So, if you’re planning on getting a storage unit and want this option, make sure to ask for it. I guess they mainly offer it to businesses, but will give it to you if you ask.
Now it’s time to get that stuff packed away. We leave in just over a week. I’ll make a post later about what we’re taking for those that are curious. So, since this post probably got you wondering, I’ll leave you with a question. What things in your life couldn’t you bear to part with?
I’m a Morning Person and You Might Be Too
I am a morning person. It took me quite a long time to realize this. Actually it took my wife pointing out to me for it to really click. Why is that? There’s such a culture in the US that says that “mornings suck” that it’s become one of the #trufax statements that everyone just agrees with when it’s mumbled into a cup of steaming coffee.
So how do I know I’m a morning person? Do I hop out of bed bright eyed and bushy tailed with a big smile on my face? No. I don’t. I wake up with messy hair and rub my eyes blearily for several minutes first. When I get out of bed I slump down in a chair or on the sofa and yawn my way through the morning’s tech news. After that morning routine is completed I start to concentrate on a project.
Right about now you’re probably saying I’m delusional and that I just want really badly to think I’m a morning person for some strange reason. I used to think that when my wife said anything of the sort. Then I realized that being a morning or night person is all about when you are most productive and creative. When do you find yourself getting the most accomplished. It’s not even about what time you get up!
All being a morning person means is that you are better at getting things done a few hours after you get up as opposed to a few hours before you go to sleep. I do tend to get up early in the morning, but that’s mostly out of a personal preference. If I sleep to late I feel like I must be missing out on something. I think it may also be a leftover from being totally addicted to Saturday morning cartoons. Back when they didn’t suck, that is.
So, why does it matter that I’m a morning person? Do I think it’s better than being a night person? No, I don’t think it’s better to be a morning person. It’s just harder to come to grips with in a culture that’s geared toward hating the morning. It DOES however, matter a great deal. If you are a morning person that is trying to live a night person’s life you won’t get nearly as much accomplished as you could. You also will tend to be a lot grumpier while doing it.
Do you find that when you try to do thought intensive or creative work in the evening it’s hard to focus or you get extremely irritable? You might just be a morning person. Your next thought might be that you are just as grumpy and unfocused in the morning and that it takes you 3 cups of coffee before you’re worth a damn. Just because you drink a lot of coffee in the morning that doesn’t mean you’re not a morning person. Make sure you are getting enough sleep and that you have something specific to work on first thing. Take a chance and try being a morning person. It might change your life.
Vagabond Life Here I Come
There are just 19 days until my wife and I pack up our car with the small amount of stuff we’re keeping and hit the road. We’re storing a few keepsakes in a storage unit, but the majority of our stuff is being sold or donated. The other day I officially gave notice that I was quitting my job and signed up for a mail forwarding service. We even have our first destination planned and have a place to stay (Arcata, CA). What all this means is that there’s not much left to do but wait for those last few days to crawl by (at an increasingly glacial pace).
My wife Faith has tried to help me pass the time by figuring out what I will do with all the time I have now that I’m essentially retiring. Wow, it’s weird to think about it that way, but I won’t have anything resembling a regular job so it’s an apt description. Anyway, back to the point. What the hell am I going to do with my time? As Faith would say, it’s time for a list!
What will I do with my time?
Write (novels)
More than anything else in the world I want to be a published author, so I will spend a good portion of my time working on various fiction projects. I’ll write more about those here as I get back into the groove.
Blog
As far as a good portion of the world is concerned I’m about to do some crazy shit and I want to document the ride and maybe make some friends while I’m at it. Hopefully I’ll even entertain and inspire some of you along the way.
Learn Languages
When I was in high school and college the only subjects that appealed to me as a possible career path were languages. My tiny high school only had Spanish, so that’s what I learned and I continued that in college. My skills were pretty formidable, but have atrophied with lack of use. I want to brush up on my Spanish and then start working on other languages. Just a few that interest me are French, German, Japanese, Mandarin, and Russian. I’ve got my work cut out for me, but if I’m going to see the world I want to be able to talk to people!
Read
I’m a fantasy novel addict. If it has a good story and a bit of magic it’s for me. YA, urban, high fantasy, sword and sorcery, it’s all good. I’d love it if you’d check out my Goodreads profile and leave me suggestions in the comments. My Kindle is hungry!
Play the ukulele
About the only non-essential item I’m bringing with me is my beautiful Luna ukulele that Faith got me for Christmas. I want to learn how to play it well enough to maybe do some busking at some point. I say that all casually. The truth is that busking scares the shit out of me and that’s part of the reason I want to do it. I need to get out of my comfort zone.
Explore
What good would all this traveling do if all I did was stay inside? I want to get out and hear, see, smell, taste and touch the whole world. There’s so much out there and I’ve seen so little. I still haven’t even been to California and we’ll be living there for at least a couple of months. It’s all insanely exciting.
So, there you have it. Those are the things that are important to me right now. Will I do other things? Of course, but these will be what I’m holding above the rest. If you were going to narrow your focus like I am, what few things would you choose?
Kimya Dawson is Made of Win
My wife and I saw Kimya Dawson play a benefit show for the Village Free School this week and it was awesome. If you don’t know what a democratic free school is and you plan on sending children to school at some point, you should check it out.
Anyway, the show was great, despite the abundance of children running around. (Kimya only plays all ages shows and this was a benefit for a school, so it had more than the usual share.) One of our favorite songs, of the night was one that will be on her new album. Apparently it’s called “Enema” because it was the first song she wrote after her children’s album, “Alphabutt”. That cracks me up.
It’s more than a little dirty in spots, so be warned!
The Horizon is my Home
My wife has been in love with Frank Turner for quite some time, but I hadn’t listened to him much until lately. The song that really brought me around to his awesomeness is “The Road”. It’s a perfect anthem for our upcoming adventures as vagabonds.
I love the lyrics as a whole, but I especially like the end.
I face the horizon everywhere I go
I face the horizon, the horizon is my home
I face the horizon everywhere I go
I face the horizon, the horizon is my home
Feelings are not logical
One minutes I hate my job and can’t wait to be rid of it and hit the road. The next minute I’m mad that one of our Team Leads quit and they just moved his team members to other teams, rather than offering me his job like I had hoped, maybe even expected.
A bit of history on that. I was offered a promotion a few months back, but the schedule it came with was horrible compared to what I already had and there wasn’t going to be much of a pay bump. I hesitated for a DAY because of that, but eventually decided I could deal with it. They decided to give the promotion to someone else. It stung a bit, but I could deal with it because I didn’t really want the crappy schedule anyway. I was told that they still really wanted me to be a lead and that I would be on their list for the next spot that opened up.
Flash forward to last Friday and I find out that a Team Lead is quitting and that it’s his last day. Since I was just finding out about it the day it happened, I knew I wasn’t getting the position. Today they announced a restructuring of teams and that they were just moving people out to different teams. Now, I know that we have lost quite a few people, so it makes sense to just have a few larger teams than more smaller ones.
I understand it from a business perspective and it shouldn’t really matter because I’m quitting in three months, but it still makes me feel a bit unappreciated.
Wanna know the main thing that keeps me from being too bummed out about it? Morgan, the Team Lead that just quit? He quit because he is moving to Brazil right now to teach ESL and he’s not sure where he’s going from there. When I heard that I realized I’m more envious of him than I’m upset about not getting promoted. I’m ready to get the hell out of this job. The promotion would be nice because it would keep me busy and distracted at work, but in the end I still want out.
It’s weird that I can be upset about being passed over for a promotion and totally excited to quit my job at the same time. Feelings are not logical, but I can’t just put them aside. Sorry Spock, I have failed you.
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