Battles With Boredom

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Due to my still getting over this cold thing I’ve had (for two and a half weeks), my vaccinations being somewhat out of date, and my passport being close to expiration, I’ve decided to delay my travel plans until next month.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 by Rolf Potts. My hope was that this book would quash any remaining doubts I had about taking a leave of absence from work, aikido, and general everyday life here in my hometown. To that end, it succeeded. Continue reading It’s (Almost) Go Time…

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.