traybucket




I'm doing 39 things
 

traybucket's Life List

  1. 1. lose weight
    5 entries . 3 cheers
    36,269 people
  2. 2. get in shape
    2 entries . 3 cheers
    9,353 people
  3. 3. implement GTD
    1 entry . 6 cheers
    462 people
  4. 4. learn how to drive stick-shift
    1 entry . 15 cheers
    4,458 people
  5. 5. start a blog
    6 cheers
    964 people
  6. 6. spend more time outdoors
    13 cheers
    939 people
  7. 7. Read War & Peace
    2 entries . 3 cheers
    57 people
  8. 8. read harry potter
    6 cheers
    82 people
  9. 9. learn guitar
    1 entry . 6 cheers
    3,057 people
  10. 10. master TextMate
    4 people
  11. 11. Learn a martial art
    3 cheers
    1,447 people
  12. 12. set up an aquarium
    1 entry . 5 cheers
    13 people
  13. 13. Read "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
    10 cheers
    534 people
  14. 14. read every book I own
    1 entry . 4 cheers
    2,115 people
  15. 15. travel to every continent
    4 cheers
    1,409 people
  16. 16. finish unpacking
    1 entry . 2 cheers
    121 people
  17. 17. read the Chronicles of Narnia
    2 entries . 3 cheers
    218 people
  18. 18. Make new friends
    4 cheers
    12,717 people
  19. 19. write a book and have it published
    4 cheers
    2,697 people
  20. 20. Finish Reading The Fountainhead
    6 people
  21. 21. Contribute to an open source software project
    1 entry . 3 cheers
    801 people
  22. 22. See Cirque du Soleil
    7 cheers
    254 people
  23. 23. Learn Spanish
    1 entry . 5 cheers
    15,444 people
  24. 24. Do 100 sit-ups daily for 100 consecutive days
    2 entries
    209 people
  25. 25. develop a sensible disaster plan and survival kit
    2 cheers
    40 people
  26. 26. Reduce Paper Clutter in My Home
    3 entries . 6 cheers
    5 people
  27. 27. get promoted
    1 entry . 1 cheer
    287 people
  28. 28. Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro
    3 cheers
    437 people
  29. 29. visit all 50 states
    3 entries . 1 cheer
    7,112 people
  30. 30. hike the appalachian trail
    2 team members . 5 cheers
    1,644 people
  31. 31. get rid of all my clutter
    2 cheers
    1,141 people
  32. 32. write a book
    2 cheers
    25,991 people
  33. 33. master Ruby
    1 cheer
    179 people
  34. 34. Learn Objective-C
    113 people
  35. 35. Go mushroom hunting
    1 cheer
    23 people
  36. 36. see the northern lights
    2 cheers
    16,846 people
  37. 37. learn to ski
    3 entries . 6 cheers
    845 people
  38. 38. Do the Couch to 5k running plan
    4 cheers
    312 people
  39. 39. Write a will
    1 cheer
    775 people

How I did it
How to eat more locally grown food
It took me
1 year
It made me
Smarter about food.


Recent entries
get in shape (read all 2 entries…)
I hate this goal. 2 months ago

This goal is way too nebulous. Am I in shape now that I weight 10 lbs less than I did at the start of the summer? It all depends on how you interpret “in shape”.



lose weight (read all 5 entries…)
Current status 2 months ago

I’ve been using Stickk.com to motivate me on this goal, and it’s worked out well. I made my goal of 154.9 lbs this last week, so I need to get down to 153.9 lbs this week. That’s over 10 lbs lower than where I started.



read 20 books in 2007 (read all 7 entries…)
#5 Vagabonding 2 years ago

Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts

This book is so short (203 pages, but a lot of it is references) that it scarcely qualifies as a book, but I’m behind in my quest for 20 so I’ll count it.

This is a book about both the hows and whys of long-term, low-budget international travel. “Vagabonding” is the term that Potts uses for this kind of travel, which he separates from “vacationing”. To Potts, vacationing is about escape—vagabonding is more about curiosity and discovery.

Potts spends much of the book exploding the myth that long-term international travel is the exclusive domain of the wealthy—before becoming a writer, Potts himself traveled Asia for over a year and a half financed entirely by doing landscaping work and teaching English in Korea for 2 years. According to Potts, not only is it possible for normal people to travel the world, but by keeping the budget and baggage low, normal people can have deeper, more fulfilling travel experiences than the rich people staying at the Hilton.

Potts offers many good pointers on the hows of travel—language, money, safety, health, etc, but it’s when he’s talking about the philosophy and attitude of travel that this book goes from good to brilliant. He talks about how the naive quest for authenticity leads many to pay large amounts of money for synthetic culture. He talks about ridiculous “anti-tourists” who show their superiority by visiting far-away places and refusing to go anyplace that mere “tourists” go. He talks about how travel is fundamentally a personal experience, not a status symbol.

This is book is one of the most intelligent, insightful books I’ve ever read. It was also extremely well-written and easy to read, so much so that I got it from the library yesterday and finished it today. It is also inspirational—so much so that I’m wondering how I can NOT take some time off to see the world for myself.



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