New Pictures.
Check out our new pictures here at Picassa
http://picasaweb.google.com/trekkingaround/20080820TaipeiTaiwan
Entries Tagged as 'LIP'
Arriving in New York
We are staying just outside Rochester New York in the North West corner of New York State. It is home for Karen and will be our launching spot for our big trip to Taiwan.
The Finger Lakes area as it is known is a great place to be, it is absolutely beautiful with deep clear fresh water lakes, rolling country, and over 100 wineries. It could not be a better place to start our trip, but we have a lot to do before we get going.
Summer Itinerary
- Travel to Michigan to visit Bryan’s Family
- Travel to Vermont to visit more of Bryan’s Family
- Visit everyone we can in the New York area for Karen
- Travel Back to Michigan for one last Visit
- Travel to Virginia for Karen’s Brother
- Finally leave for the far East
Whew it will be a lot of traveling, but it will be well worth it. So stay tuned it will be a fun time
Breaking Away from 9-5
As the days get closer to us having a boat I am getting more and more excited. We are finding lots of great resources, we are getting tons of support from everyone we talk to, and the plan is coming together nicely.
One of the funniest things that we have run into is the complete lack of understanding about building your own lifestyle. What we are talking about is breaking free from the day to day grind of work to home to work to home to work to home, to church, to… well you get the idea. We are all very lucky to live in the Information Age. In the Information Age most of what we do at work we can do on a computer at home. For those of us who are entrepreneurs, we can develop large streams of income right from our home using just our computer.
There are many places that you can go on the Internet to find more information. That is really not what the post is about, I will include some links on the bottom for you to follow. What I want to talk about is just what is important.
For us the important thing is to simply do what we want to do when we want to do it, from a location that is of our choosing. We are both teachers and we love teaching. The development of students right in front of your eyes is an amazing thing. It is incredibly rewarding. But who wants to get grumpy kids in desks at 7 am every day. Who wants to get up at 5 am to down some breakfast and coffee just to get to school to find out that the copiers are broken and you cant to the lesson that you had planned?
It is certainly not limited to teaching. I used to be an engineer and I fought the traffic to and from work just to crawl into a florescent light cubical to bang away at a computer all day for what? I suppose that I brought communications and Internet to some desolate places in the world. Norlisk, Russia comes to mind. But the daily grind of going to work at a certain time to get home at a certain time was just not working. So I worked like George Castanza for a while, and of course lost that job.
I guess being forced to work at certain times never has worked for me. I almost stayed in Mexico just because of the siesta. I find that the worst times of the day for me are from 2pm to 4 pm. I am always really good in the morning, and have always thought that I can get more done in the morning than most people can do all day. But I am also finding from about 6pm to 9pm I can be very productive. A cup of coffee after dinner and I can sit at the computer and get some great work done.
Not everyone is productive at the same time of the day. Not everyone is good from 9-5. We do need a standard time of business, but we do not need a standard time of work.
So how do we get out of this 9-5 (or more likely 7-6) routine. Well first we have to change our thinking. We have to know that work is not so much work when you are doing something that you love. Then doing something at 11:50pm is fun and not working. Secondly we have to have a little more self discipline to be able to get the things done that we need to while away from the office. Lets face it, at home there are a lot more distractions. Finally we have to exploit our skills. Everyone has something to offer, a skill or a talent. If you are working a job making widgets you may not be able to break away from the standard work time. But if you can offer a skill or a talent then you can change your work schedule to what you want it to be.
What do we get out of it? More time for you, for your family, for your mental health. Just think no more sick day just to stay home and watch Oprah. As a matter of fact there becomes no such thing as a sick day anymore. You just work when you have something to do. If you have an appointment then no problem. Do a little more in the morning, or stay up late and get things done. Then you can sleep in you deserve it.
Resources to look at:
Welcome to Trekking Around
Welcome to Trekking Around! We are proud to introduce our blog and website to promote the love of living.
We are two young Location Independent Professionals on a journey around the Great Loop of North America by boat.
There are a few things that you will see throughout this blog, and as the site is developed.
We are a couple who love life.
Karen has always known how to live free and independent. It is in her soul. She has a pirate heart with butterfly wings. Life surrounds her and she embraces it. She embraces all of it, every little twist, turn, adventure, and journey that comes along.
Bryan is a technician and a self proclaimed geek who actually likes math and science. But he is also a dreamer and a roamer. He loves change and new adventures. He embraces new challenges and dives into them head first and learns everything that there is to know about it.
We are a couple who have come to know the power of belief, believing in ourselves and our dreams.
Bryan’s other site Coach Kip is developing into a great personal development and leadership site. His basic premise is — Conceive It, Believe It, Achieve It — a mantra learned from his High School Football Coach. He has traveled a long way through self-discovery and is an expert at reinventing himself. The key: Believing that you can do it.
Karen has always known that she is the one who controls her destiny. Belief is what drives her. She believes in her goals. She believes in her life. She believes in her adventures. That belief makes life fun for her and all those in contact with her. You will soon be able to visit Karen’s website, TheLoveofLiving.com.
Together they have decided to
Live Right:
In working hard and barely paying bills both came to realize something that needed to be realized a long time ago. Focus on the important things. The most important thing to Karen and Bryan is time. They love to be together. They love adventures. They love to do what they chose to do. In order to do what they wanted they realized that they needed to adjust their lives so that they would be able to get that time back. What they discovered is something that is very simple, less stuff equals more time to enjoy life and live their dreams.
Go Green:
In their discovery of what they really want they found that they both love the outdoors. It sickens both to take a nice nature walk and find trash littering the trails. It is appalling to see a film of oil on a reservoir that serves drinking water to millions. So what to do? Karen and Bryan have always done their part in recycling, and trying to be good about reducing waste. They both are concerned about the environment around them. Why? They live in it! In doing the research on the boat and the Great Loop they both decided to live right. With less stuff, focus on the important stuff, and be GREEN. So in their journey the couple has decided to live life as green as possible. This means that they will procure a boat with a diesel engine and convert it to run as much Biofuel as possible. It is something that is rarely done, and it needs to be brought to the public’s attention. Biofuel, clean living, reducing waste, is not only possible but easy with some very subtle life changes. There are lots of possibilities and we hope that you can all help us with finding new ways to live clean and green.
To sum it up, Karen and Bryan are going to travel the Great Loop of North America on a Green boat. Living life to the fullest, meeting new people, and enjoying the time that they have together. All the while, an undying belief in what they set out to accomplish will drive them forward.
Enjoy our journey. There will be plenty of opportunities to join us, both virtually and personally along the way. We hope to see you along our journey.
Bryan and Karen
Our Pics
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