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Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Fri May 12, 2017 11:52 am
by C40

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APRIL 2017
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MONEY
Keeping it simple:
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TRAVELS

April travels included:
  • In Arizona: Phoenix, north of Phoenix towards Payson, Sedona
  • In Nevada: Lake Mohave, Las Vegas
Here's a blog post about them:

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April 2017 Travels



Oh, and here was the first drone footage I shot: https://youtu.be/5LD_XWpTVss

I'm having fun with it, and learning some video editing software pretty quickly. I'll have much better stuff to come…




BLOG

I haven’t been all that motivated to make posts for the last 6 weeks or so. Once I actually do write a post, I enjoy it, but often when I think I’ll do it a certain day or time, when I sit down to write, I don’t feel like doing it at that moment. The format I’ve been using of essentially making trip reports is feeling repetitive and a bit boring.

I’ve been brainstorming some ways to make more creative posts that I’ll enjoy making more. Most of the ideas I have fall into three categories:
1 - More artsy/creative/weird stuff
2 - Posts sharing my current thoughts/feelings/emotions (particularly relating to my travels/adventures, post-retirement life, social life while traveling, and more)
3 - Informational posts. These would likely be interesting and very useful for people who want a similar lifestyle (Vandwelling, travel, outdoors stuff). I haven’t had enough interest to make a single one so far. I have an idea on how to write them in a way that would also benefit myself, so that might get me more interested in making them. This would be by not making them as “how to xxx”, but rather just sharing my current routines as they are - without necessarily declaring them to be the way to do it). This would likely trigger me to recognize ways to improve them.

What would go away are the trip reports from each place I visit. I think I’d still like to make those, if nothing else, for me to look back at in the future. What I may do is summarize the travels monthly or so, as I did for April.

My goals for the blog are quite vague, which I believe is contributing to me not having an obvious direction for changes. If I really wanted to start making money on it, I’d be pumping out “how to” posts. But I don’t think I want to do that.

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Mon May 29, 2017 12:26 pm
by C40
A couple quick updates:



Blog Post: How full time travel makes appreciation harder, and what to do about it
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Drone video: of campsite near the Colorado River
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This has been my favorite campsite in a year of travel around the western US. (I'm not aware whether it's possible to embed a youtube video in a blog post (???))



And here are a couple quick picture from my first day in Zion. More to come. This place is amazing. I'll be sharing much more from Zion. I'd like to spend about a month here, but it's getting pretty hot, so I may move on and come back in the fall
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Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Mon May 29, 2017 12:50 pm
by GandK
Nice pics!

We just traveled from Custer, SD to Spearfish, then westward to Buffalo, WY, and then SW to Shoshoni > Lander > Farson > Rock Springs on a tent camping expedition. It is the prettiest drive I've ever taken, bar none. Every time we topped a hill or went around a bend there was another breathtaking view. I so love WY in late May/early June. It got down below freezing, though.

Currently in Salt Lake City, where the parks are overrun for Memorial Day. :-/

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Mon May 29, 2017 1:02 pm
by C40
Yeah, Wyoming looked super amazing.

I've left Zion N.P. for a few days while the memorial day weekend crowds are there. Tomorrow, they'll go back to work, and I'll go back to the park :-)

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Mon May 29, 2017 2:14 pm
by BRUTE
C40s latest journal entry reminds brute a lot of his own recent traveling "burnout".
C40 wrote:After about 6 months, I began to notice a couple things. First, that compared to when I went on trips while working, it was now much harder to remember the details of my adventures. Second, I’m not feeling as much wonder, or amazement – or basically appreciation of my travels as on those other trips.
given another 6 months, it is possible C40 will completely lose the appreciation for new places, cultures, foods, and so on. this happened to brute eventually, where all places eventually blended together into "airport -> hotel -> airbnb -> supermarket -> repeat for a few weeks or months -> airport". the exotic locals started feeling less exotic. brute started missing "boring" things he'd never missed before - being able to purchase heavy cream at the store, good roads, Amazon.com, the ability to build a longer-term gym with weights..

[edit]

interestingly, brute's strategy for "solving" seems the complete opposite from C40's. first, brute doesn't think lack of appreciation is a problem. it's just hedonic adaptation. brute does not like to take pictures or read about things he did in the past or places he's been to in the past, even if they were positive. brute simply accepted that he'd picked the low-hanging fruit he could attain with this mode of travel for now, and his desires had changed. they might one day come back, and brute still has interest in other modes of travel, like in a van for example.

the realization for brute was this: nothing lasts, but nothing is lost.

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Mon May 29, 2017 4:19 pm
by Dragline
@C40 Those are some cool pictures and videos. What kind of a drone/camera is that? And can you see what you are filming in real time on a screen, or is it more like a GoPro?

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Mon May 29, 2017 10:14 pm
by distracted_at_work
Amazing photos. That campsite by the Colorado River .. :shock:

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Mon May 29, 2017 10:31 pm
by Gilberto de Piento
Regarding embedding YouTube videos on a blog, if you are using WordPress you should be able to paste the address of the video into the post and WordPress will take it from there.

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Mon May 29, 2017 11:00 pm
by C40
Whoops, I meant to say 'forum post', not 'blog post'

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Mon May 29, 2017 11:03 pm
by C40
Dragline wrote:
Mon May 29, 2017 4:19 pm
@C40 Those are some cool pictures and videos. What kind of a drone/camera is that? And can you see what you are filming in real time on a screen, or is it more like a GoPro?
It's a DJI Phantom 3 Advanced. They come with a camera on them. It can film at 1080p at, idk, 30 or 60 frames per second. It has a controller for flying it, and the controller has a thing to hold a phone or tablet that you connect with a USB cord. The view from the camera on the drone is transmitted back to the controller and displayed on the phone.

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Tue May 30, 2017 12:47 pm
by bryan
Stunning pictures! Looking forward to knowing what you favourites were in the future.

Maybe one solution for the appreciation/adaptation issue is always shooting for doing something more unique while in a new place. Or have a selection of things to do that you randomize over locations. What are you doing otherwise, mostly bicycling/camping?

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Tue May 30, 2017 3:35 pm
by sky
Superlative site on the Colorado River, got any coordinates on that one?

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2017 11:58 am
by C40
sky wrote:
Tue May 30, 2017 3:35 pm
Superlative site on the Colorado River, got any coordinates on that one?
Yep. I'll PM them to you

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2017 12:05 pm
by C40

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MAY 2017 - MONEY
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SPENDING

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INVESTING

I want to do some investing work this month. I have ~$13k cash in my Roth IRA, most of it is from converting ~$10k from the Traditional to Roth. So I need to buy some stocks. Probably REITS. I’ll look at buying more O. I also need to research others. I also already own some DLR, HCP, and OHI. Of those, the only I’d think about buying more of is OHI, though I haven’t looked at many of the numbers for it yet.

I also may convert some of my Traditional IRA from Vanguard funds to individual stocks in order to get better yields.

Plus, I have some stocks in my post tax account that I’m going to think about selling. (VOD, MCD, NSRGY, the rest of my KMI, and - because the prices have more than doubled since I bought them - some of my RAI and MO). And before selling them, I’ll try to decide what to buy with the proceeds, or, at least make sure there appear to be some good things to buy out there.

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2017 7:43 pm
by SustainableHappiness
Your story/journal is really cool (although I've only gotten the surface so far). Thank you a ton for sharing!

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2017 12:02 pm
by C40
Here's a summary of where I went in May.



New Blog Post: May 2017 Adventures
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Sedona, Grand Canyon, my favorite campsite ever (along the Colorado River, pictured above), and Zion National Park (maybe my favorite place ever)

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2017 10:07 pm
by Noedig
Great thoughtful blog. Like the bit about how people seize upon a positive experience and turn it into a personal Meaning Of Life for a while. I wish you inner peace and good encounters.

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Sun Jun 11, 2017 11:51 am
by C40

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 10:17 am
by C40
HI FOLKS!



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Spending Update - Q2



I'll have a post coming summarizing my travels in June. I took a TON of pictures, so It's going to be a while to get through them...

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 11:01 am
by Viktor K
The vast majority of my income is from dividends
I meant to send you a PM about a month ago but I think I exited out of it because I was intoxicated and it seemed like a drunken ramble :lol:

I'm still curious, though. If I may ask, how is the blog income?

More generally if needed, would you recommend starting one with the intention to monetize it?