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  • 2010 – Year In Review

    “Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder…” – Henry David Thoreau

    Last year I wrote a “year in review” style post about the year in my life. I figured I’d keep that going again this year. It’s fun to look back and ahead to the new year.

    Dorothy and I have been fortunate enough to have another fantastic year. We’re healthier and happier than ever.

    The Start of 2010
    We started 2010 living in a chalet in whistler complete with hot tub and BBQ courtesy of VANOC. The first few months of 2010 we’re spent going back and forth between Whistler and Vancouver. We had two AMAZING roommates in Duncan and James. As you can imagine living in a chalet at Whistler was quite a treat and having two great roommates was just bonus! It was a fascinating time up in Whistler. The place was being turned upside down in preparation for the olympics and people we’re partying like crazy.

    I can now check off “live in whistler” from my bucket list…

    During this time I got to see the Olympic torch go by a few times. I streamed it live on my phone and friends from various places around the world watched from my phone. In fact 2010 was the first time I ever did any live streaming from my phone.

    In order to get ready for our big trip I started to pear down on our possessions. Anything we didn’t want to keep was either sold, given away, or tossed out. We’d already been living a minimalist lifestyle but this process still took longer than we’d anticipated. It really is remarkable how much “stuff” works it’s way into our lives. Our goal was to get rid of everything we possibly could. From furniture to to clothes. We we’re left with a few items which we put in storage. Things like our vintage bicycles and photo albums. Things that you can’t really replace.

    The Vancouver 2010 Olympics
    Before we knew it a little event called the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games took place! Dorothy worked to help put the olympics together so we had “backstage” access to many of the events. We had an official VANOC vehicle with no driving or parking restrictions. Since we we’re at Whistler for part of the games we could actually walk to some of the events. We ran into Buzz Aldrin at men’s super G. I was more excited to see him than to see the skiing… My family also came out to Vancouver to see some of the events so it was really fun.

    It was a crazy fun time. We we’re working, partying, enjoying the Olympics, spending time with family, and getting ready to leave town.

    The end of the olympics we’re really special for Dorothy and I. It was the most incredible day I’ve ever spent in Vancouver. People we’re lined up at bars all over the city to watch Canada play the United States in Men’s Gold Medal Hockey. After we watched Canada win at a pub I went out into the streets and saw the city literally erupt with joy. Someone was smart enough to record the audio of the city as Canada won. You can watch it (or rather listen to it) below.

    There was a massive party in the streets and total strangers we’re hugging and high fiving everywhere. It was amazing and i’ll never forget it. This epic street party lasted all day long, right up until the closing ceremonies.

    Being at the closing ceremonies was an incredible experience as well. It was the end of a chapter in our lives. Dorothy had been working day and night for YEARS to help put the olympics together and it all came to a close on that night. It was an emotional and exhilarating time for everyone.

    Here are my Vancouver 2010 Olympics photos.

    It’s hard to believe that was just the start of 2010 for us.

    #RTWnow
    After the Olympics wrapped up we went on a Round The World trip. #RTWsoon went into #RTWnow mode! (RTWnow is the Twitter hashtag for people who are on Round The World trips and want to share content and experiences with each other.)

    On April 1st 2010 we flew to Toronto, dropped off dog with Dorothy’s family and then we flew to Paris. We’ve had an amazing trip that will literally have taken us all the way around the world when we finish.

    Abbreviated list of cities we’ve visited in the 2010 calendar year:

      Whistler, Canada
      Vancouver, Canada
      Toronto, Canada
      Paris, France
      Lisbon, Portugal
      Casce, Portugal
      Sintra, Portugal
      Madrid, Spain
      Barcelona, Spain
      Majorca, Spain
      Marseille, France
      Interlaken, Switzerland
      Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland
      Gryon, Switzerland
      Venice, Italy
      Rome, Italy
      Vatican City
      Athens, Greece
      Santorini, Greece
      Ios, Greece
      Mykonos, Greece
      Athens, Greece
      Dubai, United Arab Emirates
      Manila, Philippines
      Cataclan, Philippines
      Boracay, Philippines
      Sydney, NSW, Australia
      Melbourne, VIC, Australia
      Geelong, VIC, Australia
      Adelaide, SA, Australia
      Port Augusta, SA, Australia
      Cooper Pedy, SA, Australia
      Uluru/Ayers Rock, NT, Australia
      Alice Springs, NT, Australia
      Tenant Creek, NT, Australia
      Katherine, NT, Australia
      Darwin, NT, Australia
      Kununura, WA, Australia
      Broome, WA, Australia
      80 Mile Beach, WA, Australia
      Port Hedland, WA, Australia
      Krratha, WA, Australia
      Exmouth, WA, Australia
      Cape Range, WA, Australia
      Coral Bay, WA, Australia
      Carnarvon, WA, Australia
      Monkey Mia, WA, Australia
      Denhim, WA, Australia
      Shark Bay, WA, Australia
      Point Quobba, WA, Australia
      Kalbarri, WA, Australia
      Hutt River Province (A ‘sovereign’ area within Australia. We met “Prince” Leonard himself)
      Geraldton, WA, Australia
      Jurien Bay, WA, Australia
      Perth, WA, Australia
      Fremantle, WA, Australia
      Rockingham, WA, Australia
      Bunbury, WA, Australia
      Busselton, WA, Australia
      Margaret River, WA, Australia
      Augusta, WA, Australia
      Cape Leeuwin, WA, Australia
      Albany, WA, Australia
      Esperance, WA, Australia

    The Now
    As I write this we’re at our “secret” spot for Christmas. A friend of ours who has been traveling around Australia for the last 18 years “reckons” it’s his favorite spot in all of Australia. Only the locals even know it exists because it’s way off the beaten track. So we’re very happy to have been invited here. We wouldn’t want to spoil the fun and tell people about this place. It’s quite nice with no tourists here and the fishing is fantastic! Living the beach lifestyle and living off the sea is like a dream.

    We still have the entire East Coast of Australia to see including the Great Barrier Reef! We will fly back to Los Angeles on May 1st 2011. About a week later we’ll fly to Vancouver, then Toronto, and finally we’ll be in the 1000 Islands area for part of summer 2011.

    This trip has changed my life forever.

    I’ve never been more inspired and happy in my life.

    My Photography In 2010
    Just a quick note on my photography.

    I’ve been into digital photography since about 1999 when I bought my first digital camera. I’ve probably taken almost a million photographs by now. Photography is such an important part of my life. In 2010 I really focused on my photography school. I’ve found that helping other people learn photography is really fun.

    In 2010 I sold all my Nikon gear (lenses and all) and switched entirely over to Canon. So far I’m happy with Canon but Nikon is still far superior in terms of the ergonomics of the camera itself.

    I’m starting to really hate flickr and I’m still looking for a better alternative. I have yet to find a better photo sharing and hosting service. I’ll probably try photoshelter this year.

    Speaking of photos… Here are some random photos from this year. I would upload higher resolution versions but we have slow internet here at the moment.

    Here are some photos from this year:

    Things I Hope To Do In 2011
    I stopped doing “new years resolutions” a few years ago. I find new years resolutions to be like “the secret” style thinking where you just think positive thoughts and hopefully something good will happen to you. I believe in taking concrete action towards very specific goals and just making things happen instead of letting things happen to you.

    As ridiculous as it sounds, I plan to embark on another epic trip.

    I hope to continue traveling whilst working (online) for the foreseeable future. The digital nomad lifestyle is full of adventure and excitement. I’m not keen to stop that anytime soon. Maybe we’ll drive from Alaska to South America in customized Mercedes Sprinter Van? Who knows… As of now there is no plan for fall 2011.

    I hope to spend a big chunk of the Canadian summer with my father in the 1000 islands.

    I will probably publish the ebooks I’m writing now. Maybe I’ll sell a copy or two. Who knows, I’m just doing it because I enjoy writing anyway. I might just give them away.

    I think I’ll stop doing any consulting work for the time being. It’s just not that interesting anymore.

    I will dramatically improve my photography school in 2011. I will update the course content, improve the student forum, change the price structure (raise prices), and make it scale a little better. A Chinese outfit is looking to license the course and it’s content so that could work out nicely. We’ll see…

    Wrap It Up Already!
    I hope you all had a great year and wish you the best in 2011!

    Dorothy and I miss you guys.

    Here’s to 2011!! Happy New Year everyone!!

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  • 2009 – Year In Review

    It was a great year for Dorothy and I:

    delightful dinner was had here
    Dinner at the Wickaninnish Inn

    Loungin at Whistler
    Loungin at Whistler

    Dorothy and I atop "The Chief" Mountain
    Dorothy and I atop “The Chief” Mountain

    Dorothy and I Smoochin
    Dorothy and I Smoochin

    On a personal level I stopped worrying about pissing people off and avoided seeking perfection. I focused on making stuff that was just barely good enough and then iterating on that. Here are some side projects I started this year in that vein: a vancouver webcam, a weekly mixtape, and a wiki about augmented reality. They all sucked at first and continue to suck a little less over time. The point is they exist. Last year I probably never would have started them for any number of reasons.

    In 2009 jettisoned lots of baggage both physically and emotionally. Physically decluttering your environment and your mind by letting stuff go feels great. More importantly I started to believe in myself again. I’m trusting my instincts and making investments accordingly.

    Dorothy, Pepper, and I live in Vancouver and have designed our lifestyle such that we’re relatively untethered. Currently we’re not attached to jobs, leases, mortgages, kids, or even our location. Dorothy is working hard on the 2010 Winter Olympics and my work online is going better all the time.

    Dorothy at the Olympic Oval
    Dorothy at the Olympic Oval

    The only thing stopping us from doing being completely mobile is the dog. Luckily Dorothy’s parents are happy to take her off our hands when we travel!

    A Dog's Life
    A Dog’s Life

    I don’t do new years resolutions anymore. I used to set expectations that we’re just flat out unrealistic. I’ve never been a big partier and this morning’s reflective blog post is my own little way of bringing in the new year.

    “New Year madness is a thing of quite modern making, and hardly an improvement on the tradition that long preceded it, which called for a somewhat sober, respectful and reflective morning celebration.” – Simon Winchester

    As I mentioned above I’m more into to just good enough, not perfection. Instead of thinking “I want to get super fit and run a marathon this year” it’s “I want to be healthier this year by having fun doing some exercise, whenever.” It’s just a softer way to deal with yourself.

    Given that, here are some things I’ve done in 2009, stopped doing in 2009, and hope to do 2010:

    Things I stopped doing in 2009:

    Using the same password everywhere:
    A few of my websites got hacked this year because Media Temple had a security issue. That got me to thinking more about security. I realized that I was using one or two passwords across all my accounts. I switched to using 1password with dropbox syncing and haven’t looked back. You’d be amazed at how many accounts you have when you start doing this. My 1password has 265 account passwords stored it in.

    Tweeting too hard: (see year in tweets)
    For a while there I was tweeting my life all all of the boring minutiae. I was also link blogging like crazy and generally adding noise online. I even had my tweets published on my blog. At some point I was like who the hell cares… So I’ve dramatically lowered the volume across all the feeds and content I produce. I respect your digital space. Less is more…

    Using Voice Mail:
    This may predate 2009 but I haven’t looked back since I stopped using voicemail. It was just another inbox that I had to check all the time and 99 percent of the messages we’re “hey it’s so and so, call me back”.

    Trying to keep up with the fire hose:
    At one point I was subscribed to like 350 RSS feeds and followed like 500 people on twitter. Today I read about 30 feeds and follow about 70 people, which is still way too much. I hope to cute rss feeds out entirely this year but this is one of my vices.

    Things I started doing in 2009:

    Using Virtual Assistants:
    I’ve been using virtual assistants to help me in areas that I have weaknesses. Let’s just say this has been a learning experience. I’ve used oDesk to find people to do work that I can’t or don’t want to do.

    Composting:
    On the environmental front I decided to stop being preachy about and it and focus purely on taking personal responsibility. I’m taking personal responsibility for my footprint and doing something about it. We’ve reduced the amount of waste we put out to about one of those little white kitchen garbage bags per week. Everything else is recycled, composted, or not even purchased in the first place.

    Blogging again:
    I’ve starting actually blogging again. I’ve been writing reviews, posting photos, and having fun with it. Hopefully it has added some value. Did I just blog about blogging? Sheesh this post needs to end soon!

    Making mixtapes:
    I listen to music all day long when I’m working. I often made mixtapes for people in the past so I figured it would be fun to share them with everyone. As such Friday Mixtape was born. Now the whole world can get to know my shitty taste in music!

    Monitoring Productivity:
    Working online can often be tough when people are constantly sending you amazing things to watch or read. It’s good to know how your time is being spent… I’ve been using Rescue Time as a tool for this. You’d be amazed how much clarity this gives you into how your time is spent.

    Using Moleskines Again:
    Aghast the horror analog?! Yeah I’ve been using moleskines again to document stuff, scribble notes, and just keep stuff. This post about a designer who has used 85 notebooks in 26 years got me thinking about this. 25 years from now the files on my computer now won’t even be readable but a collection of moleskine will still be useful as an arhive.

    Backing Up My Stuff:
    My digital life and media are important to me. I’ve been looking out for a good solution but I’m kind of stuck between local and cloud based backups. I have too much stuff to backup everything to the cloud. So I backup the big stuff like video and thousands of RAW photos locally to a Drobo. Check out my Drobo review if you’re interested in those. The rest gets backed up to the cloud. Mozy is great for backing up your stuff to the cloud. You may also want to check out backupify, and Amazon s3 + Jungle Disk.

    Waking up super early:
    We’ve been waking up around 5:30 to get up and ‘eat your worms’ as Sean says. I wrote this post before starting work today. It’s so quiet that I can focus really well. It’s my favorite time of the day.

    Organic Food:
    Dorothy and I decided we didn’t care if it was more expensive to eat all organic food. After watching documentaries like Food Inc and reading about the food industry we decided to try to eat as much organic food as we can. Can you think of a better investment that your own long term health?

    HDR Photography:
    I learned how to create HDR photographs this year. I use photomatix software. You can check them out here.

    Inbox Zero:
    I work from zero in all my inboxes whether it’s snail mail or email. If there is something in an inbox, something needs to be done. My brain is then free to think about other stuff knowing things will get done. The trick is to only check them on a semi regular basis.

    Things I hope to do in 2010:

    Epic trip with @dorothyjs:
    This is in the works. We’ll be checking out after the olympics. We’re not sure how nomadic we’ll be but we’re going away for sure.

    Work:
    Continue working on all my projects big and small no matter how crappy they seem at first.

    Contribute more resources charity:
    I’ve made 50 loans on Kiva.org to date and I’d like to increase that number. I also donated several computers to charity this Christmas to Free Geek. I think they’re doing great stuff and I’d like to volunteer for them.

    Continue working to mend relationships:
    Just like everything else, even if they’re broken the key is to improve upon them…

    In closing here is a nice thought Justin Ritchie posted on his blog from Thom Hartmann’s Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight:

    A Cree Native American storyteller and teacher told me: “According to my tradition, from the beginning of creation, every morning, when the sun comes up, we are each given four tasks by our Creator for that day. First, I must learn at least one meaningful thing today. Second, I must teach at least one meaningful thing to another person. Third, I must do something for some other person, and it will be best if that person does not even realize that I have done something for them. And fourth, I must treat all living things with respect. This spreads these things throughout the world.”

    Hows that for something to live by?! Happy New Year!

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  • A Year in Tweets

    Here are all the photos I put on Twitpic this year. Click on each photo to view it a little bigger.

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  • Blogging again

    having fun blogging

    I’m having fun blogging again. I’m not worrying about what anyone thinks, or how bad my writing is… I’m just putting stuff out there that I find interesting. Kinda nice.

    [photo by ishrona]

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