Site Update: March 2009
Leave your thoughtsThis update comes to you live from Mahébourg, Mauritius. Where’s Mauritius? Well, it’s a small island in the Indian ocean, a few hours east of Southern Africa. No matter where…
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Live from Heathrow Terminal 5: Knowing Your Audience, and a Quick Survey
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Greetings from the colossal series of structures known as Heathrow Airport, 45 minutes from central London on the underground. When the new Terminal 5 opened a while back, it was a huge mess. Thousands of travelers were stranded, the computers failed, and luggage had to be driven to Italy on a truck.
Many months later, Terminal 5 is quite nice. While I’m sure there’s a lesson somewhere in that, at the moment I’m just happy to be traveling again.
After avoiding the U.K. for at least two years due to the drop of the dollar, I’ve returned on a quick stopover between Washington, D.C. and Port Louis, Mauritius. I turned my 7 hours of transit into 31 by moving my onward flight back a day, and then used the extra day to stay with Naomi, Jamie, and Jack Dunford – otherwise known as ittybiz.
Friends and Enemies
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I’m sitting in a bar in Washington, D.C., listening to another writer talk about the untimely demise of her blog. The blog in question started at almost the same time as The Art of Nonconformity. When I first read her writing last year, I knew she was going places. The posts were crisp, funny, and helpful at the same time.
In fact, when I read almost any of her writing, I thought it was better than most of mine. Then, after a few months of steady content, one day she stopped writing.
Naturally, I wondered, “Why? What happened?”
Happy Birthday to the Art of Non-Conformity
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I started posting here one year ago this week. 34 countries, 174 posts, and 2700 comments later, here we are.
I've learned a lot over the past year, but rather than go through it here I'll be sharing the details in a longer manifesto that I've been working on for a while. If all goes well, it should be ready for your consideration in another 30 days or so.
Sitting Out the Global Recession?
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I’m about to get on a plane and head out to Washington, D.C. by way of Seattle and Chicago. After a few days there, I’ll begin a longer journey to several countries in Southern Africa. Expect more about the trip later. For now, something else has come up – specifically, the small matter of the global economic recession.
Unless you live on another planet (you never know), I’m going to assume that you’ve noticed it too... and there are probably as many opinions about what’s happening as there are readers of this post. Today I want to look at one specific question:
"Is it possible to completely avoid the effect of a serious global recession?"
Expanding the Pie
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It’s time for a confession: lately I’ve been stuck in a mindset of scarcity. Instead of focusing on abundance, I’ve been thinking about petty things. Naturally, I don’t like this, but I’m not sure how to fix it.
One of my heroes is Dean Karnazes, the Ultramarathon Man who runs 200-mile relay races as a solo competitor, runs 24-hours straight on treadmills in Times Square, and generally just runs a lot. Like anything else like this, some people “get it” and some people don’t.
I recently listened to a podcast interview with Dean where he was asked about some recent criticism. Apparently some people are upset that other people think he is awesome. Instead of responding with “WTF?” – a response I would have found suitable -- Dean gave a very cordial and thoughtful answer:
I’m not trying to take more of the pie for myself. I’m trying to make the pie larger for everyone.
New Home in Portland, Oregon
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Hey everyone, welcome to the weekend edition of the Art of Nonconformity. It’s not really an official thing, at least not yet – it’s just for those of you who read by RSS or who happen to stop by the site on Saturdays. I figure I’ll use it for personal updates and random things that don’t fit in a Monday or Thursday post.
Today’s Big News Is that I No Longer Live in Seattle
Yes, it’s true. World Domination HQ is now located a few hours south of the original base in Seattle. Articles and other world-changing information is now published live from my new home of Portland, Oregon.
Travel Ninja Launch
1,396 CommentsFriends and readers, my first product in several months is now available. If you’re reading by RSS or email, come over and read all of the details here. The guide…
Travel Ninja Preview
Leave your thoughtsOn Thursday morning, I’ll release my first new product in several months. The goal of Travel Ninja is to help readers interested in serious international travel. It’s all about travel…
24 Ways to Travel for (Almost) Free
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Several times a year I check into a Sheraton hotel that is free to me. Most of the time, the check-in clerk mentions my Gold status. “Thank you for giving us your business,” she says. “No problem,” I reply. “Thanks for giving me free rooms.”
“Thank you for giving us your business,” she says. “No problem,” I reply. “Thanks for giving me free rooms.”
Notes from the People’s Republic of Bangladesh
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In the lobby of the Sheraton Hotel in Dhaka, Bangladesh, I’m having lunch with a couple of West African gangsters. To be precise, I’m eating a cheese sandwich while they are chain-smoking and drinking espresso.
I started off sitting at another table, but then we said hello to each other and I moved over. Because I lived in their region for so long, I always enjoy talking with West Africans whenever I meet up with them while traveling. The encounter with the guys at the Sheraton in Bangladesh, however, is a bit unusual.
They are very friendly. We talk about Obama, about Bangladesh, and so on. I ask them how long they are staying in Dhaka, and they say “We’re not sure.” I ask if they are staying “here,” meaning the Sheraton, and they say, “We’re not staying here, but we keep a room here.”
Whenever they’re not traveling, one of them tells me, they live in Brazil or Columbia. They work throughout Latin America, Africa, and Asia, but never in the U.S. or Europe.
Hmmmm ...
Creating a Legacy Project
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In the spring of 2007 I was feeling stuck. As amazing as they were, the four years I had spent in Africa were fading off into the distance. In my new life I had migrated to Seattle, entered graduate school, started a new business, and began traveling independently to faraway places during school breaks.
These were all good projects. Grad school, check. New city, check. Business, travel, volunteer work, marathon training, check. But despite the fact that these were worthwhile ways to spend my time, I knew something big was missing:
I had no legacy project, and it really bothered me.
I thought of a legacy project as something I’d create that would outlast me; something I could point to years from now and have more than just memories to show for it. In other words, I wanted something tangible and documented for anyone who wanted to see it at any time in the future.
As I was looking for a new focus, I considered a few options that initially seemed to be good choices ...
Site Update: January-February 2009
6 CommentsThis site update comes to you live from Tokyo’s Narita airport, where I’m on my way home from two weeks in Asia. At the moment I’m in between Hong Kong…
Holiday in Cambodia
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When I wasn’t playing ping-pong and visiting Dunkin’ Donuts, I passed up the chance to visit Cambodia in 2002. After a few weeks in Bangkok, Jolie and I ended up in a small village a few miles from the Cambodian border. There wasn’t much happening there, and one day someone said, “Hey, why don’t we go to Cambodia?”
We looked into it and learned that the visa would cost $20 upon arrival. The transport to get there and back would have been another $10, and for some reason I decided that $30 was too much to spend for a short visit across the border.
Loneliness
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When I venture out in to the world by myself, as I am prone to do from time to time, people sometimes ask, “Don’t you get lonely?”
There are two answers to this question, both of which are true ...
