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ship at sea

It’s time to go.

By the time you read this I will be flying from Brisbane back to Auckland, where I’ll tie up some loose ends and have one last ice cream cone. Then I go home.

It’s been eight and a half months since I exchanged final goodbyes with my family at Winnipeg International. Before I disappeared through the security gates, my well-travelled sister hugged me and said, “You’re going to have so much fun.”

I remember thinking “Really?” It’s hard to believe now, but “fun” was not what I was picturing at that moment. That day I was quite nervous about the whole thing — enduring a 17-hour flight, navigating Bangkok’s chaotic streets alone, establishing myself in another country where I didn’t know a soul.

That seems like ages ago.

The gravity of my trip’s ending has been coming down more heavily every day this last few weeks. It’s been a sentimental week, as I seem to be doing everything for the last time: booking the last hostel, buying the last batch of backpacker groceries, confirming my final flight. It really does feel like the end.

It was so much more than fun. I had the time of my life.

Right now Brisbane is grey and rainy and I’m in a 24-hour internet café. I’ve come down with what is hopefully a mild bug, and my head is cloudy. The moment feels very heavy and words are failing me right now. But I’ll just say it feels like the most pivotal chapter of my life is coming to an end.

It doesn’t exactly feel like I’m going back though. My hometown almost seems like a new destination now, because I’ve become a different person.

If I think of how overwhelmed I felt on my first day in Thailand — stepping out of a cab, beyond exhausted, into Khao San Road’s sweltering gauntlet of pushy vendors, trying to look like I didn’t come straight from the airport — it almost seems like that happened to a different person.

It did.

The young man who was so nervous to throw himself into a new country last October is not coming back. He perished sometime between the 4am train to Hua Hin and the ice-cold swim in the Clinton River. I’ve never grown so fast as I have this past nine months. I am calmer, more grateful, more aware. I’m much better able to socialize, to walk into unfamiliar settings without trepidation, to live my life without explaining myself, to bear pain and tedium (thank you kiwifruit industry), to live with few possessions, to flirt (with people and disaster), to try new things on a whim, to be upfront about who I am, and to appreciate whatever I have, wherever I am.

My voice is a bit louder, my posture a bit better. I use words like “mate” and “boardies.” I say “it’s meant to…” instead of “it’s supposed to…”

I am still reeling from the whole thing. Something huge has shifted, and I won’t know exactly what until I’ve spent a bit of time back in Canada. There is so much to talk about, but tonight I’m as dull and dreary as the streets outside.

This is my last post from this side of the planet.

Monday evening, I will be home.

Photo by David Cain

Aw, I miss it already. I’ve spent the last half-year in one of the most beautiful countries in the world, and I’ve got thousands of photos to show for it. A few days ago I moved along to Australia, but New Zealand is still very much on my mind. I visited dozens of gorgeous and unique places there, but here are my ten favorites:

10. Napier

The first and only city on my list, Napier stands out among New Zealand communities. Much of its distinctive character came after a 1931 earthquake leveled the city. The rebuilding effort spurred the local economy out of its depression, and the facades were styled in progress-oriented Art Deco. It’s a city that values form and aesthetics, both natural and man-made. Exceptional weather doesn’t hurt either.

Beachfront greenspace Clean lines are everywhere in Napier Both evenings I spent there ended with a world-class sunset

More Napier pictures can be found here.

9. Punakaiki coast

South Island’s west coast feels a lot like the edge of the world. The beaches are violent and rocky, and the lush vegetation gives it a primal, wild sort of atmosphere. Punakaiki is a tiny settlement that exists for no purpose other than to service the hordes that come to see the area’s most striking feature: a unique coastal rock formation called Pancake rocks.

Beach walkway behind my accommodation “The Pot” — a tumultuous, football-field-sized basin in the Pancake Rocks The beach behind Te Nikau, where I stayed

Read More

Thought I should check in since I didn’t post my usual Thursday post.

I’m in the beautiful Coromandel Peninsula, enjoying my last few days in New Zealand. I will be flying to Australia Wednesday, and will spend the last seven or eight weeks of my overseas trip there. Then it’s back home for the start of July.

I’ve been so excited about Australia that I almost overlooked the fact that my New Zealand experience is almost over. I’ve been here almost six months, and now I have to say goodbye.

My last hurrah is a solo road trip around the Coromandel. I just returned from the most beautiful drive of my life, up the rugged edge of the peninsula and back.

There doesn’t seem to be an internet Café anywhere in these parts, so I can’t upload today’s article without driving to Thames. I considered spending most of today doing just that, because I don’t like missing scheduled posting days.

But I chose to spend the day soaking up a bit more of New Zealand, and it was absolutely the right decision.

I’m writing this from the computer at the Visitor’s Centre. It’s a dollar for ten minutes and it doesn’t even have a USB port. I wish I could show you the pictures I took today. I will soon, both here and on David Goes Kiwi.

Anyway, I’m down to my last 48 hours in New Zealand, so I’ve got to go enjoy it. See you soon.

candle flame

Recently I hinted at a huge goal I’m working on. It’s been on my mind for a few years now, but two weeks ago it graduated from wishy-washy “dream” status to concrete “goal” status.

In previous articles, I’ve made clear what I think about supporting myself by working for an employer. Having been at the mercy of the fickle and disorganized kiwifruit industry for my income for two months, I’m remembering how strongly I yearn to be free of arrangements where somebody else decides when I work and don’t work, how much money I can make, and what I can wear, say, or do at work. I no longer want to have sell my weekdays to somebody else’s purpose.

By my 31st birthday, I will be completely self-employed. That’s less than 18 months from today. Mark it on your calendar: I will cease to be an employee by October 8, 2011, and I will never get a job again.

I know I can do it a lot sooner than that, but 18 months will give me the option of maintaining a more-than-decent lifestyle in the mean time. I always knew I wanted this, but I did not actually believe it was within reach until a recent insight made it clear that I can pull it off in a relatively short time-frame. I’ll explain what that insight is below.

Now, I have made similar “Okay things will change from this day forth” resolutions before. Typically, I come up with a thrilling new project, and enthusiasm mushrooms until it has crowded out all my other concerns of the moment — like that afternoon I became infatuated with the idea of tracing my family tree. I dropped everything I was doing and lost myself in dozens of blogs and articles about genealogy. By 8pm I was quite over it, content again to sit on it for a few years. But at 4pm it still felt like I was turning a giant page in life, undertaking this huge, rewarding project.

That same jilted-project pattern should have happened with this blog, too. I could have just as easily devoured Problogger articles for a few days, registered a domain name and written half an article, only to drop it all and start something else when the initial excitement faded.

That “honeymoon period” for new projects always fades. You need something to keep it moving after that. Willpower might work for a while, but it’s not sustainable either. Read More

books of awesome

I don’t remember which Awesome Thing it was that StumbleUpon spat out at me that day — When you get the milk-to-cereal ratio just right maybe — but I stopped Stumbling right there.

This was an interesting site. I browsed the archives, and couldn’t believe what I saw. This man knew me! Every page was something I personally found to be awesome. The smell of rain on a hot sidewalk. Multitasking while brushing your teeth. The sound of a solid crack from a good break in billiards.

How did he know? Or had everybody else silently been enjoying these curious blessings too? If so, why did nobody mention them?

Well, Neil Pasricha mentioned them on 1000 Awesome Things, and the internet rejoiced.

Exactly why we all find it so gratifying to pull a huge gob of lint out of the dryer trap is still mysterious and fascinating to me, and that’s why I’m such a fan. Neil has a keen eye for the unassuming little miracles that bring us all together.

As of today, Neil’s Awesome Things are now in printed form, as The Book of Awesome.

Back in February he and I decided to hold a contest. Send in a question you’d like to ask Neil, and the ones that get chosen get a free, signed copy of The Book of Awesome. I interview Neil with those questions and publish it here on Raptitude.

Well the questions were awesome indeed. And some stellar responses from Neil. Maybe it’s just me, but they seem to hint at something bigger than just celebrity baby names or all-day bedhead.

Thanks to everyone who entered. The winners have been contacted, and here is the interview: Read More

The beginning

Raptitude was born March 15th last year, but it was conceived in the last week of January. I had just visited Problogger for the first time and saw that blogging wasn’t simply speaking your thoughts into a void, it was an interactive community. The words went back and forth, and side to side. There were big shots and little shots, up-and-comers and has-beens. People were making friends, improving their craft, building their livelihoods and legacies.

I wanted to be a part of it, but had no idea where to start. Darren from Problogger said he was a big fan of Yaro Starak’s Blog Mastermind course. I read his free report, and something about it spoke to me. The ad video seemed unusually frank and upfront for some guy selling something on the internet. My BS detector did not go off. I bought the course and was off to the races.

That upfront financial commitment removed any possibility of not following through, and the course itself removed any doubt about how to go about it. I got busy, excited in a way I hadn’t been for a long time. I spent two weeks shopping for hosts and themes, designing a logo, learning WordPress and breaking down the whole technical side.

Once it was all in place, I was all very proud of myself. The future looked bright. I felt with unusual certainty that I was barking up the right tree.

There was one minor task I hadn’t yet gotten around to, but I would need to do it before I could launch. In fact, it really was an integral component of a working blog. Read More

forest

Today is March 15th, Raptitude’s first birthday. A longer post will follow later this week — I was ambushed by an immediate-start job at 10pm last night — but it’s an important date so I just wanted to tell you I am so grateful you decided to spend some of your precious time on earth reading what I write here.

I hope it has brought something to useful to you, whether it’s a different way of looking at something in life, or just a few minutes of entertainment two mornings a week. If I’ve become a regular part of your life, no matter how small, I am proud of that role.

You play a crucial role. It’s something like that tricky Zen question: “If a tree falls in the forest, and nobody hears it, does it make a sound?”

If I posted on Raptitude and nobody read it, it wouldn’t exist.

Thank you all for coming.

Photo by Frielp

A private room at a mansion-turned-hostel in Nelson

Since I left home four months ago I’ve slept on 49 different beds, couches and other horizontal surfaces. I never quite know what the conditions will be like next, and sometimes I have to contend with an unexpected absence of privacy, internet access, or some other ingredient that is crucial to timely blogging. I think I’ve mentioned this once or twice. Attitudes and moods, too, are constantly in flux, with the plot and cast of my little adventure here changing all the time.

I’m typing this post quietly on while sitting on bed #49 (a creaky bunk in a small hostel room.) A Japanese teenager is sleeping on the other bunk, and my internet connection keeps going in and out.

So that’s my way of saying that today’s post will just be a post (as in “to keep you posted”), not the article I was planning. Thursday’s article, which was to be today’s, is important to me and I wanted to give it due attention.

But I do have a few things worth mentioning in the mean time:

Experiment No. 5 is going about as well as expected. My effort to stop griping is slowly working, but I’m discovering a lot about myself, as well as the nature of negativity itself. This one is going to be interesting. My progress is being recorded in the progress log.

Thursday’s article will contain a shocking revelation (!) about myself. Or maybe it’s not so shocking. Be sure to tune in.

The deadline is extended for the The Book of Awesome contest! To recap, I’m going to be interviewing Neil Pasricha, the man behind 1000 Awesome Things, for his book release this April 15. All you have to do is send me an interesting, thoughtful, or otherwise awesome interview question, via the Contact page. If I pick your question Neil will send you an autographed copy of the book, made out to anyone you like. You don’t have to do anything else!

I’m loving the entries so far, but I would like a few more so I can stitch together a consistent tone throughout this Frankenstein of an interview. So the new deadline is March 8, that’s two more weeks. Full details are here.

Raptitude’s first birthday is coming up. March 15th was a bad day for Julius Caesar, but I’ll always remember that date as the day I launched this blog. Hard to believe it’s only been a year. Thanks so much for reading! And your emails and comments! I always love hearing from you.

Photo by David Cain

The book of awesome

If you haven’t yet stumbled across a remarkable blog called 1000 Awesome Things, you may want to check your internet connection. Each weekday since June 2008, blogger Neil Pasricha has been celebrating one undeniably awesome thing everyone knows. Not awesome like the Hindenburg explosion awesome, but awesome like the first shower you take after not showering for a really long time awesome. Or the moment at the concert when the crowd figures out what song they’re playing awesome.

Neil has an incredible knack for identifying the tiny unsung miracles that make our lives glimmer, so it’s no surprise he’s struck a chord with a lot of people. 1000 Awesome Things has featured on such media heavyweights as CNN, CBC Radio, the BBC, Wired Magazine, and a humbling list of others.

Back in May, I wrote a post about three notable blogs, one of which was Neil’s. He paid a visit to Raptitude, apparently liked what he saw and dropped me a line, and we’ve been back-and-forthing ever since.

This April, Neil and his awesome things will emerge in book form as THE BOOK OF AWESOME, and he’s giving a few lucky Raptitude readers a chance to win their very own autographed copy. And not a Lotto 649 kind of chance, a seriously decent chance.

Here’s how it works:

To commemorate the April 15 release of THE BOOK OF AWESOME, I will be conducting a short interview with Neil.

I have often remarked that Raptitude’s readership is one of the most thoughtful and interesting groups of people in these parts of the internet, and Neil agrees. So we’ve decided to let YOU interview Neil.

I am seeking a few (3-5) interesting, intriguing or otherwise AWESOME questions to ask Neil during the interview. Send your question to me (one question only please) and I’ll pick my interview questions from the entries I receive. I’m looking for questions that will make for an awesome interview, so be creative. Read More

behind the scenes

Hello, dear reader. I hope 2009 has been good to you.

It has been good to me. Maybe the best year so far. A year ago Raptitude did not exist in any form. It hadn’t even occurred to me to start a blog. That happened in January. And now I’ve got this promising little baby, though I’m not always the best parent.

As a reader, normally you see only the finished product, but today I’ll give you an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at how these things are made.

Most Raptitude posts are 1500-2000 words, and take about five or six hours start to finish. That includes outlining, writing, editing, proofreading, finding images and publishing. So two articles a week takes about twelve hours on top of my regular day-to-day obligations.

I’ve never been much ahead of the game; I don’t keep articles in reserve, and I often finish them within half an hour of my self-imposed deadlines of midnight Sunday and midnight Wednesday. In other words I’ve never left myself much of a cushion for unforeseen crises or delays, yet I’ve pulled it off for the most part.

Until I left on my trip, I was extremely lucky, and was almost always able to slip articles in there before the deadline. Sometimes I’d have to stay up late, sometimes I’d toss an article at the last minute and start again, sometimes I’d publish something that I have misgivings about. Such is the downside of the Just-in-Time philosophy of blogging. Read More

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