-
Help Me Speak at SXSW in 2012
Last year, Jason Boehle generously shared his speaking slot at SXSW with me. I had a great time, met a lot of great people, and, according to the feedback we got, gave a good talk. This year I want to do an updated version of my Risk Speech. To get there, I need people to…
-
My Workflows for Writing and Programming
I always find people’s workflows interesting. It’s such a personal process, unaffected by outside demands, that I think it sometimes reveals something about its creator. A lot of readers write or program, so I thought that my processes might be interesting. Writing Most people who write WordPress blogs write them in the built in WYSIWYG…
-
Polarizing Purchases
A new friend asked me how I save money for travel. I get this question a lot, in different forms: how did I buy a Ducati? How can I afford not to work (people assume that because I don’t have a job that I don’t work)? How do I travel constantly? These questions stab at…
-
The Standby Trick
Standby flying has always been a bit of a mystery to me, as I’ve heard stories of people flying standby to foreign countries for half the cost of a reserved ticket, but never seen a way to do it. Even after interviewing a few ticket agents, it seems impossible to do this these days, but…
-
The Only Meditation That’s Ever Really Worked For Me
The thing that really scares me is spontaneous personal expression. For example, I can actually freestyle pretty well, but I’ve only done it for an audience a handful of times. Doing it for one person is even scarier. Rapping someone else’s lyrics for any audience doesn’t raise my pulse at all, but having people hear…
-
How To Get Paid to Go to Las Vegas (Once)
My flight is at 7:25. At 6:30, instead of being at the airport, I’m mashing on the buttons of a video poker machine at The Tropicana, playing $125 hands of video poker. I haven’t become a compulsive gambler– I just found out about a casino loophole worth hundreds of dollars, and I’m trying to cash…
-
The Four Elements of a Perfect Day
I have a habit of analyzing everything. Call it a hobby, or a side effect of having a blog, constantly worrying that I might just run out of things to say some day. After all, how many different ways can I yell, “Be happy! Do what you want to do! Go to weird places! Wear…
-
Selective Comparisons
If you tell someone who is into personal improvement that you compare yourself with others, his kneejerk reaction will be to tell you not to. This advice comes with no contemplation, and is offered because it sounds so noble that no one argues with it– except for me. I think that it’s valuable to compare…
-
Answers to Your 2011 Gear Post Questions
I was going to post something new today, but there are so many questions on the 2011 Gear Post that I figured it’s better to answer them in a separate post rather than the comments, since blog commenting systems suck. What happened to the Vibrams / huaraches? Vibrams are gone. They just smell too bad…
-
The 2011 Gear Update: Style Edition
(Note: if you haven’t read last year’s post, you may want to read it first, since this is only the gear that is different) During South by Southwest this year I was lucky enough to see the Kanye West show (thanks to my brother, Devon, and Colt Woody). Kanye had about a million different guests…
