My van is in the shop right now being checked over and they are making sure there is nothing wrong with it. It kind of sucks because I want to keep working on it and pimping it out into what will soon be my home. I feel like an artist who's mural was taken away from him right after he started to paint it. I just want to keep painting and finish the job. Me and my family are leaving on vacation in a couple days now so it should be done by the time we get back. Hopefully the sun and the sand will help keep my mind off my masterpiece and I can just relax and enjoy life before I have to finish preparing for my big trip.
I feel like I'm a pretty impatient guy. Whenever I have to wait for something I want I get pretty frustrated. It seems like almost everything in life has been set up for speed and convenience so I rarely have to wait long for anything. I think I'm impatient mostly just because I'm spoiled by society. I'm hungry, OH I can just go to Wendy's and get a whole meal in like less than 5 minutes. I want to talk to my friend, OH look I can just call them on my phone and talk to them instantly. I want to know the capital of Bangladesh, Oh I can go to Wikipedia and look it up in 3 seconds. Everything I want in life I can usually get it in less than 5 minutes.
I feel like this trip will teach me to be more patient. If I want to look for something online, I'm going to have to find free WiFi at a McDonald's or somewhere. If I want to put on a clean set of clothes I'll have to do my own laundry, because my Mom won't be able to join me. If I want to eat a cheap, healthy, organic home cooked meal I'll have to spend time shopping or foraging and then I'll have to cook it myself. Everything that I'm going to need to do for just everyday life is going to take longer so my patience will have to keep up.
In a way it's going to be a good thing that everything will take longer because I'm going to have tons of free time while I'm on the road since I'll be unemployed and therefore more likely to get bored. One thing that I know will take a really long time, but that I really want to try and do is get almost all my food from wild sources. I want to forage for cattail stems, fern fiddle-heads, various wild berries, morel mushrooms and anything else I can safely identify as edible. However, I do not plan on being a vegetarian on this trip so I'll also try to look for good meat sources such as fish, small game (squirrels/ rabbits/etc.) and maybe something exotic like a fat rattlesnake or wild birds eggs. Maybe I've been watching too much Man vs. Wild, but I think it will be exciting trying to eat almost exclusively things I'm able to forage and hunt for in the wild. I've always been somewhat of an outdoorsman, so this challenge really isn't that big of a leap from things I've done in the past.
Just typing this stuff out is making my head go into day dream mode again and I'm thinking about all of the adventures that I'm about to embark on. The change from where I was a year ago ONLY daydreaming about this to now where I am actually planning this all out is making my impatient side really rear it's head right now. I think it will be hard for me to stop thinking about this trip while I'm vacationing with my family this week. But I have to try. I don't want my mind to be focused on a future trip without being able to enjoy the one I'm on.
Monday, March 25, 2013
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
I'm getting my van shit together
I've got about a month and a half left before I leave on my trip and I'm starting to stockpile on the items I'm going to need while on the road. I just got my super long lasting rechargeable batteries in the mail yesterday along with the super awesome battery charger. These will help me get to most out of the various electronics I have. Like flashlights, cameras....and a few other things. I wish I could get my computer to run off of rechargeable double A and Triple A batteries because my laptop battery only lasts like 10 mins before the stupid thing loses power. I know I have to either fix it or buy a completely new battery for it because there is no way I'll be able to use my computer for any length of time unless its plugged into something. And from what I've found with the little bit of research I've done is that those batteries are fuckin' expensive. FML
Anyways, my van is being worked on right now so that I don't just all of a sudden break down one day while i'm in the middle of some isolated forest. Also the cig lighter is being fixed so I can plug in an adapter and charge my various things that need charging. And last but not least my window is being fixed so I'll be able to roll it up and down so I can tell the fast food voice box "Yes I do, in fact, want fries with that".
It's starting to feel real now. Like I'm actually going to do this. I'm actually going to drive all the way to western Canada wile living in a van for a year at minimum. All these thoughts are sinking in now and as the amount of days between now and my departure date keep shrinking, my feelings of excitement are growing. Just today I was thinking about how little time I actually have to prepare and I started to feel a little overwhelmed. It wasn't that bad though because right along with the feeling of being overwhelmed was the feeling that I'll actually be on the road in no time at all. I thought about how long ago 1 and half months seemed which would have been at the beginning of February this year and that seems just like a few days, so logically the time I leave should feel like it's going to be in just a few days.
It's hard to believe that I had just came up with idea last summer and at first it wasn't a real plan. It was just this cool pipe dream I would think about whenever I was bored and I started to daydream. But now those days are over. I've got the van, I've spent a lot of time and money on this project and I'm finally accumulating all the stuff I'll need for the trip. It's went from a dream to a reality. And when I finally drive down the road to exit my neighborhood with my fully prepared, fully stocked van, I can't even imagine how it will feel.
Anyways, my van is being worked on right now so that I don't just all of a sudden break down one day while i'm in the middle of some isolated forest. Also the cig lighter is being fixed so I can plug in an adapter and charge my various things that need charging. And last but not least my window is being fixed so I'll be able to roll it up and down so I can tell the fast food voice box "Yes I do, in fact, want fries with that".
It's starting to feel real now. Like I'm actually going to do this. I'm actually going to drive all the way to western Canada wile living in a van for a year at minimum. All these thoughts are sinking in now and as the amount of days between now and my departure date keep shrinking, my feelings of excitement are growing. Just today I was thinking about how little time I actually have to prepare and I started to feel a little overwhelmed. It wasn't that bad though because right along with the feeling of being overwhelmed was the feeling that I'll actually be on the road in no time at all. I thought about how long ago 1 and half months seemed which would have been at the beginning of February this year and that seems just like a few days, so logically the time I leave should feel like it's going to be in just a few days.
It's hard to believe that I had just came up with idea last summer and at first it wasn't a real plan. It was just this cool pipe dream I would think about whenever I was bored and I started to daydream. But now those days are over. I've got the van, I've spent a lot of time and money on this project and I'm finally accumulating all the stuff I'll need for the trip. It's went from a dream to a reality. And when I finally drive down the road to exit my neighborhood with my fully prepared, fully stocked van, I can't even imagine how it will feel.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Possible future topics
- What it's like being a loner
- The Weather Channel is controlled by teenage girls
- Van updates
- The Weather Channel is controlled by teenage girls
- Van updates
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Writing N Stuff
What is the point of me writing this blog? I'm actually not 100% clear on why, but I'm going to try and figure it out over the next few minutes. Let's see.
The obvious reason to me of why I am writing this blog is to entertain my friends and family while I am on my Offensive Vacation. :) Ideally, it would be cool to get an audience to follow me over time so they can see my adventures in van living and so maybe I could put some ad's up and develop an income, but that's mostly just a pipe dream at this point. Maybe if I'm able to really bring people into my experiences I can gain popularity and develop a cult following, but that would be something that wouldn't happen until way off in the future.
Why else? Well.......I guess it's helping me with my writing skills. I was never that into English class, but over the past few years I've learned to write pretty decently (or type in this case). Whenever, I've got a lot on my mind it's always nice to record my thoughts and feelings down onto something more permanent than my mind. It always brings me joy whenever I look at something I wrote along time ago because I can see how I've changed and how I haven't. Sometimes I'll read about something that happened to me that I've completely forgot about and rereading its jogs my memory and makes me have an intense and enjoyable reminiscing session.
Plus it's just a good idea to practice writing. I think it not only helps with my expression on paper, but it helps to organize my thoughts so that I can even speak more clearly and in an organized manner.
Writing is a lot like talking. If you don't do it for awhile, then your skills will start to rust around the edges. When I write on my blog it's like I'm sanding down the rust on my skills and repainting them so they can last longer. Even while writing this post I can tell that my skills are being dusted off like an old album player in someones attic. And now that I've been typing for a few minutes, I am starting to finally get into the swing of things. When I first started writing I was going slow and my mind was having trouble trying to figure out what to put down. But NOW, my finger are going so fast I feel like I have the fingers of one of those morse code guys, who would send out distress signals during the civil war.
So I guess the reason I'm making a blog is because when I really get into the swing of typing my mind onto the computer screen it actually becomes enjoyable to me. My goal here is to bring at least a part of the joy that I am feeling to my audience, whoever they may be.
The obvious reason to me of why I am writing this blog is to entertain my friends and family while I am on my Offensive Vacation. :) Ideally, it would be cool to get an audience to follow me over time so they can see my adventures in van living and so maybe I could put some ad's up and develop an income, but that's mostly just a pipe dream at this point. Maybe if I'm able to really bring people into my experiences I can gain popularity and develop a cult following, but that would be something that wouldn't happen until way off in the future.
Why else? Well.......I guess it's helping me with my writing skills. I was never that into English class, but over the past few years I've learned to write pretty decently (or type in this case). Whenever, I've got a lot on my mind it's always nice to record my thoughts and feelings down onto something more permanent than my mind. It always brings me joy whenever I look at something I wrote along time ago because I can see how I've changed and how I haven't. Sometimes I'll read about something that happened to me that I've completely forgot about and rereading its jogs my memory and makes me have an intense and enjoyable reminiscing session.
Plus it's just a good idea to practice writing. I think it not only helps with my expression on paper, but it helps to organize my thoughts so that I can even speak more clearly and in an organized manner.
Writing is a lot like talking. If you don't do it for awhile, then your skills will start to rust around the edges. When I write on my blog it's like I'm sanding down the rust on my skills and repainting them so they can last longer. Even while writing this post I can tell that my skills are being dusted off like an old album player in someones attic. And now that I've been typing for a few minutes, I am starting to finally get into the swing of things. When I first started writing I was going slow and my mind was having trouble trying to figure out what to put down. But NOW, my finger are going so fast I feel like I have the fingers of one of those morse code guys, who would send out distress signals during the civil war.
So I guess the reason I'm making a blog is because when I really get into the swing of typing my mind onto the computer screen it actually becomes enjoyable to me. My goal here is to bring at least a part of the joy that I am feeling to my audience, whoever they may be.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)