My trip overseas begins this Sunday when I fly south to Brazil. Here’s what I am packing, adapted from Tim Ferriss’ article How to Travel the World with 10 Pounds or Less. I haven’t weighed everything, but here’s what I’ve stuffed into my Victorinox E-Motion luggage. Continue reading “T-minus Five Days to Brazil”
Spam Gem of the Day
While skimming the inbox of one of my unused (read “junk”) mail addresses, I came across this little gem.
Hello. You are the beautiful man. I want to tell about myself some. I am cheerful, kind, sincere girl. I am assured that we may find a lot in common. I am very like sport, the sea.Im love to cook. I think you will like my cake with strawberries. I want to communicate via e-mail. My e-mail: [email protected] love, Anna.
Of course, the name in the “From” field was “Alycia,” but maybe she changed her name by the time she got to the end of the message. Also, the sending address was from a .ru domain. Hm. A Russian woman thinks I am the beautiful man. Interesting way to cap off an overall good day. On a serious note, I’m wondering what the real intention of this email is. Scam? Social engineering?
Summer Wrap-up: 2010
It seems like just last week it was Memorial Day and I was at Jamie and Lisa’s for a barbeque, yesterday it was Independence Day and I was at a barbeque with Steve, and now Labor Day has come and gone in a flash. So much for summer.
I’ve been more outgoing and made more new friends this summer than I have in years past, which is excellent. I’ve been channeling my inner Tim Ferriss and killing my inner wuss. (Watch out, Kim).
My biking was rewarding. I did more road biking than mountain, which isn’t my preference, but it was certainly enjoyable, so I’m not complaining.
Aikido has been getting fun again. My sensei has informed me I will be testing for nidan next month in Boston. I am happy.
The coffee shop has been up and running for a month. Business is steady, and I am only involved on rare occasions. Paradigm is under the daily operation of a new manager, so I get to jump in and do the work that I enjoy only when I am really needed or want to be “in the way.”
One casualty of all this has been the Fresh Ubuntu Podcast. While it hasn’t been pronounced dead, it is definitely on life support. I’ve been busy. Harlem has been busy. Leftyfb is getting married in a few weeks. CafeNinja is a regular contributor to our friends at h4cked.
Finally, I will be departing for a month-long trip to Brazil in November.
And yes, I’m still on Facebook. *grumble*
Wow. Life is good.
A Real Man
A Real Man
(author unknown)
A real man is a woman’s best friend. He will never stand her up and never let her down.
He will reassure her when she feels insecure and comfort her after a bad day.
He will inspire her to do things she never thought she could do; to live without fear and forget regret.
He will enable her to express her deepest emotions and give in to her most intimate desires.
He will make sure she always feels as though she’s the most beautiful woman in the room and will enable her to be the most confident, sexy, seductive, and invincible.
No wait… sorry… I’m thinking of wine. It’s wine that does all that…
Never mind.
As Young As I Feel…
Today, I define happiness as being close to twice the legal drinking age and being carded. The best part was the fact that the woman didn’t even ask at first – she just looked at me as if what she wanted was totally apparent. After a few seconds she simply said “ID?” I thanked her, paid for my beverages, and moved on.
It’s a good day.
UPDATE: After seeing this license plate, I’m even happier that I feel this way just because of the date on my driver’s license.
On Choices
I just read this article on he blog of Tim Ferris, currently my favorite author and inspiration for what I hope to be some serious life-changing events. The article discusses “the choice effect,” which boils down to “the more choices we are given, the less satisfied we tend to be” because we’re always suffering from buyer’s remorse. Put this into the context of a relationship, and it’s an interesting read.
Note that it is a guest article written by Claire Williams, not by Ferris himself. Still, I enjoyed the article, and found it somewhat relevant to my current state.
UPDATE: Along the same lines, check out this talk at the TED conference by Barry Schwartz.
Outside My Comfort Zone With Work, Bikes, and Blondie
Comfort breeds complacency. Why is that such a bad thing? We spend a large chunk of our lives trying to get comfortable, and then one day, our comfort suddenly changes from something that we are happy and, forgive the circular reference, comfortable with, to a hinderance which makes us want to kick ourselves later. Continue reading “Outside My Comfort Zone With Work, Bikes, and Blondie”
Small Delay in Travel Plans
Due to my still getting over this cold thing I’ve had (for two and a half weeks), my vaccinations being somewhat out of date, and my passport being close to expiration, I’ve decided to delay my travel plans until next month. By then the antibiotics will have done their job (or I’ll be dead), my vaccinations should be back in full effect, and my new (RFID-enabled… can you spell “DIFRwear?”) passport will be here. At least now I can make a somewhat more informed decision about where to go. What are my options? Anywhere. What’s in the front running? Ireland, Germany, Japan, Thailand, Costa Rica (‘though it’s rainy now), Brazil (just suggested by a friend), Argentina, and Nepal.
If you have suggestions of a country you’ve been to, I’d really love to hear them.
It's (Almost) Go Time
I just finished burning through Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel
Happy Belated Birthday, Blog
I totally missed the fact that I created this blog four years ago in April. It definitely took a hit when Twitter and other social networking fun, as well as other factors reared their ugly heads from time to time. However, I wanted to drop a quick thanks to all of my readers and you few commenters who’ve stuck with me and my blog. Apparently you find something funny, intriguing, useful or, at least, distracting about it.