I lied. Nothing from me tonight. Just got back to the hotel (at 11:30pm) and I still need to hit the gym.

Tomorrow - podcasts. Fer real.

(This was just to keep me posting. Trying folks. Falling off the horse, but...)

For any of you who don't know, my day job consists of driving a car. Lots and lots of driving.

This lead me to start listening to 1. Audio books and 2. Podcasts. Lots and lots of podcasts.

I go through a lot of them both. Audio books I burn through at an alarming rate (alarming because of costs involved in getting good quality audio books) and podcasts I 'go through' because I'll subscribe for a while, find that they annoy me in some form or another, and then I'll unsubscribe.

I've heard/read a number of my friends recently bring up  podcasts of one form or another, so I thought I would do a post to get folks talking about it. I would love to find some new casts that I'm not familiar with, and share what I've found to be good/fun/quality in my own hunt.

In case you're curious, I use Pocket Casts for Android. I download the episodes to my phone overnight using the wifi at the hotels so I'm not killing my data plan (and I don't have data in Canada anyway).

Friends

These are podcasts which friends of mine are actively working on/in.

•  Elvis, And - Some of you may already be aware of this one. Kevin Reagan is working on it, and Hot Breakfast! has contributed their musical skillz. Premise: short improvved 'stories' based on details left by friends of the King. Likes: I love me some improv. The fact that I have friends that are really good at it provides me with a great deal of happiness. I love that this is a new (to me at least) idea/format for telling improv stories. Dislikes: It's hard to say if I'll have any actual dislikes for this show in the end because they're just starting out. I'll keep you posted. Note: some of the dialogue in this can be very NSFW. You have been warned.
• Totally Beverages and Sometimes Hotsauce (TBASH) - My buddy Josh (aka JoJo or Intern Josh on the show) turned me on to this. Kinda a strange premise - a show entirely about beverages (and sometimes hotsauces) but it really actually works. Just try an episode or three. You'll see what I mean. Premise: It's a show about beverages. The hosts bring on a new guest and discuss beverage profiles, sample various drinks live (in the 'shootout' segment) and generally talk about... beverages. Are you getting the theme here? Likes: First of all, these guys are really pros. In a sea of podcasts which have the technical skill of "my buddies and me sat around a speaker phone and made a podcast!", this show has the technical skill of a more traditional radio show. Think NPR as a podcast that err... isn't NPR. If you had told me about the concept, and it wasn't cohosted by a buddy of mine, I probably would have turned my nose up at it. I'm glad that I didn't. Dislikes: I honestly don't have any. These guys make what should be a very dry subject (Ouch. Sorry.) really fun.

NPR

Yeah. They get their own category. I listen to a lot of them. I've subscribed and then unsubscribed to a bunch over time, but here's the current list. Most of these, I will assume you're familiar with (thanks to them being radio shows) but I'll jot notes for the ones I wasn't familiar with prior to the podcast. If you want to know more about any of them, lemme know.

• Freakonomics
• Wait Wait Don't Tell Me
• All Songs Considered - Great show most of the time. I love the very broad spectrum of music. Sometimes the do a 'life performance' recording, and I get bored with those fairly quickly.
• Snap Judgement - Storytelling with a beat. I lovelovelove the music that tends to back this show. When I first listened to it, I found the mood... over the top. Now? I crave it. It's enough to make me bounce with happiness when I hear the host come on and the music start. Highly recommended.
• Invisibilia - Another storytelling podcast (probably my favorite type) but with a focus on the hows and whys of human experience. Double thumbs up.
• Intelligence2 (squared) - A debate show about current topics. Focus on the debate, not on which side is 'right' or 'wrong'. Interesting listening.
• TED Radio Hour - Clips from the TED talks and a slightly more in depth (or at least from a slightly different angle) discussion with those who gave the talk.

Business / Entrepreneur

What can I say? I'm a sucker for this sort of thing.

• Smart Passive Income - Ok. I'm going to go ahead and confess: I'm a bit of a Pat Flynn fanboy. Short version? The guy found himself out of a job, and started trying online business ideas. Once he started seeing some success, he started given what he knew back out to those who wanted to hear it. And then he kept on giving. Now he makes a ridiculously healthy living from his online businesses and posts the income statements and all his tricks and tips for the world to see. One seriously refreshingly open dude. 
• Ask Pat - Another Pat Flynn joint. Super short format where he takes one phone call question and answers it. Simple, to the point, and in typical Pat fashion - fun.
• 1 Day Business Breakthrough - Pat and his friend Chris Ducker take an emailed question / request for help from a fan, and disect that fan's business in an attempt to help them grow. Another fairly short but delightful podcast.
• Home Work -  Hosts Aaron Mahnke and Dave Caolo discuss elements of working from home (or in my case - from the road) whether you're a freelancer or just have the ability to work outside the office. This one can sometimes be a bit 'goofy', but it's always good hearted, often helpful, and I like the show.
• Social Media Marketing - Michael Stelzner hosts this show on - you guessed it - social media marketing. Overall a good show, but it sometimes seems like the show is primarilly there to market his live events. That's not to say that the show isn't useful / helpful.
• Social Good - A 1/month show about using the power of your business to help out the less fortunate. I wish this show got more love / support and was able to produce more episodes.
• Internet Business Mastery - Heard about these guys via Pat Flynn. Enjoy the show, and I have to say that aside from Pat, they're the only folks I've ever considered buying from. And I'm pretty sure I will.
• Startup - Familiar with Alex Blumberg from NPR? Well, he's gone off to create a new company - Gimlet Media - and is producing a whole slew of new shows. Startup is a show about startups - including Gimlet Media. Season One was all about how they created the foundation for Gimlet. This one is a seriously high recommendation. (Especially if you like the NPR format for shows.)
• Freedom Fast Lane - I enjoy this one, but as he's talking about investment real estate (among many other topics) I sometimes get the feeling that he's working with folks on a level that I won't be for... a looong time (if ever).
• Confessions of a Pink Haired Marketer - Pretty much what it says.
• Nomad Together - A show I just subscribed to about families living a location independant lifestyle. Don't worry - I'm still not planning on a family anywhere in my future, but I figured the information (or most of it) will likely be useful to me too.
• The Tim Ferriss Show - The author of The Four Hour Work Week (among others) hosts a show where he interviews 'top performers' and attempts to break down their process / methods and determine what makes them so good at what they do. Everyone from Hollywood stars to athletes to business folks. Great concept, interesting show, and somehow I'm not always thrilled enough to listen to the whole thing. Pretty sure that's my ADHD talking.

You know something? There's a LOT more for me to go through and it's getting late, so I'm going to call it a night. I'll try to do a post tomorrow with the rest.

In the meantime, feel free to let me know what podcasts you're listening to and why. I'm always looking for more...

I swear to you I'm not just going to post links to my blog here. I'm just reaaally focused on spending my time adventuring right now, so what little writing I'm doing...

There will be normal stuff here soon enough. For now, check out the latest post over on ROITS...

A breakdown of the trip thus far...

Friday February 6th, 2015

Left northern Florida (JAX) via Southwest. Stopped in DEN and then on to LAX where I was met by my buddy Jason who swept me off to his place to crash. The slight headcold / congestion did very little to dampen the experience.

The Denver stop was a bit of a tease. I have some really great people in Denver and I've been wanting to go for a visit for some time now. So being in their city and not able to visit was a touch frustrating. I, of course, find this to be one of those scenarios where "If that's my biggest problem in life..."

Saturday February 7th, 2015

I had breakfast with Jason and his family at a place called Country Deli in Chatsworth CA. Delightful family place which serves a yummy sausage breakfast burrito. After breakfast we visited local fish/reptile shop because they were looking for some things to fix their aquarium.

Post pet store, I had a planning session with Mark via Google Hangouts in order to go over some of our plans for the first adventure one I'm in the country. First up? Tropical jungle camping/hiking on one of the southern islands of Japan - Iriomote.

Chilled out with Jason and his son while his wife and daughter were off having some girls only chill time. Then the boys made their way to a swanky steak house for a really satisfying meal.

Funny side note: I'm planning on using Japan as a jumping off point to improve my diet. Content of my diet, sure, but the primary focus is portion control. To that end, I was proud of myself for ordering 'only' the six ounce steak. Of course, the the portions on everything else about the meal were so ginormous as to render my herculean effort null and void. C'est la vie.

At the end of the night, Jason and I watched John Wick starring Keanu Reeves. Stop laughing - it was surprisingly entertaining. (And not in a "I can't believe how awful this is..." sense.)

Sunday February 9th, 2015

Woke up fairly early and reduced / repacked my bags in order to get rid of some of the 'excess' that I had collected. Yes, I felt like I had too much stuff with my two bags loaded.

I explained to one adorable little girl and her very awesome brother that "That Boy" would come back soon.

Jason and I made our way to brunch with some dear old friends (Patty and Mike) at a place called Pann's just outside LAX. Patty and Mike are great human beings. They scratch a very specific itch I have for chatting with crazy creative people who also have more than enough brains to support that creativity. While I'm really blessed with so many folks of that particular mix in my life, Patty and Mike have a different flavor to their creativity that I feel like my life would be greatly reduced without. A chance to hang out with them is something I will never pass on. I also got to  consume one seriously yum Louisiana Omellette. 

Once Jason dropped me off at the airport, my check in went easy on a ridiculous scale. My only objection there was the fact that they forced me to check my backpack because it was a couple kilograms over the weight limit. Not the end of the world, certainly, but I work really hard to keep it to carry on only, so this frustrated me. On the plus side, the woman who checked me in and made the request couldn't have been more gracious. I suspect that's a taste of things to come, and frankly, I'm looking forward to that.

My take off was a different story altogether. My flight was originally scheduled to leave at 2:20pm. Due to some technical issues with one of the engines, and the need to replace some component therein, we didn't actually take off until 6:30pm. End of the world? Far from it. It was  a little bit stressful, but mostly from the fact that my brain wouldn't let go of the idea that "there's something wrong with one of the engines". Still - they fixed the part, the staff was gracious and responsive, and eventually we were on our way.

A side note about the staff of Singapore Air flight SQ011 - I don't know if I simply 'lucked out' or if they have some sort of attractiveness requirement for their staff, but pretty much every crew member on this flight is of model level attractiveness. The men are handsome and the women are beautiful on a 'my chest aches just looking at this human' level. None of this really matters for anything, but as it's a first in my air travel experiences, I thought it noteworthy.

More soon from this Aimless Drifter...

Small post for today. I'm electing to go to the gym now rather than write for multiple reasons. The main being that I can feel the bare tickle at the back of my throat that I always get just before a throat cold/thing. This is something I DO NOT WANT as I prep for Japan. So? Time to beat up my body in a good way and get to bed early.

That said, I didn't want to not post anything, so here's a mini update:

Got a good day's work in. The boss will be happy. Found a new issue with the system that I need to report, though I think it might be an oddity for just my car. (Storage drives not showing newly added sessions despite having recorded them. Rebooting the laptop resolves this. Happened twice. Tested twice. Resolved twice.)

Throat thing. Fraaaaack!

I listen to a crap-ton of podcasts. A large number of them are 'self help-y' enough that I'm embarassed for folks to learn of them. (Though obviously not that embarassed if I'm going to mention them here.) One of those is Michael Hyatt's "This Is Your Life" podcast. While I don't mean to badmouth the man, it's not really my bag. He's a religious dude (I'm not). He's high up the proverbial 'ladder' (I'm not). And he tends to look at things from a vantage point that I don't.

But every once in a while... Like today. Since I took some time away from podcasts (and was listening to audio books only) I have some catching up to do. Today's episode was Season 3 Episode 1: How You Can Better Control Your Time. Given my recent frame of mind / planning efforts, this is an episode I'm likely to listen to more than once. The big thing I took away from the first round: Creating an 'ideal week' in Google Calendar (since I use that anyway) to use in my planning/scheduling of things. Seemed like a Really Good Idea.

There's probably more that I should write here, but I really do need to get my ass into the gym so I'll queue this up and come back to it if there's time.

* * * * *

Back from the gym. 1/2 hour on the hard setting on the elliptical. 60 x 20lb reclined butterflies. 30 x ... curls? (It's a cross chest curl thing that I created.) 30 seconds (in 10 second chunks) of isometric arm extensions with 20 lbs.

Not quite as "Rar!" as I was with Sunday's workout, but good. Now? Shower.

All the things.

All of them dammit.

Looks like I'm getting a jump start on the whole "Write a Crap-Ton in February" thing some of us are doing with L. M. Lopez. 

I want to accomplish a lot. Not just with the writing. With life. When I look back over my lifetime, (yeah - pull up a chair - it's like that) I see a lot of wasted time. I'm not here to make excuses or anything, I just want to fix it. I like to think of myself as a problem solver, and not a 'problem talker abouter'. Sure, I appreciate some good planning, but...

Anyway. I think that I've figured out the reason. Call it ADHD, call it ping-ponging, or call it whatever you like - I don't finish things. All my life I get really excited about some new project or some creative concept, I start it, and then a few things happen:

1. I get bored with it. Really bored with it. And I drop it.

2. I think of some other new project/concept, get really excited about that thing, and drop the current thing.

3. I tell everyone about what I'm planning on doing, feel like I've done it, and say "Ahhh - eff it." and drop it.

Before you say anything - I know that I'm not alone here. The world is chocked full of peanuts. Errr... of people who do the same thing. (Peanuts just goes with 'chocked full'. I had to.)

But that's just it - it's long past time I do something more. It's time I started to accomplish some things. This has been a large part of the end of my last two serious relationships, and each time it... built in intensity. I've made steps since then, but not enough progress for my liking.

I need to keep myself on track. It's way too easy to fall to the side or be distracted by some new shiny thing.

Okay, okay. Shut up already and tell us what you plan to do about it.

You may not have actually said it, but you were thinking it.

So here's the deal: I'm going to re-focus myself. At first, my intent is to do this three times every day. Those times will not be specific hours in the day, but after specific events:

1. First thing in the morning. Before I head out to work every day, I will review my list. Then I will meditate. (Duration TBD.)

2. When I get back to my hotel room, I will review my list. 

3. Just before bed, I will review my list.

So what's on my list?

That's actually what I'm here to discuss. I'm looking for broad categories to put things under.

The format that I'm currently picturing is this: Separate sheets in a spreadsheet. Physical Health, Financial Health, Creativity, and Work/Career. Something like that. Then on those sheets I can do the breakdown of tasks and goals. The details aren't too important for the purposes of this conversation though. I just need to work out the basic 'infrastructure'.

Simplicity is key, of course. I want this to be about doing things, not spending time working on the spreadsheet. I do, however, want to be smart about this start.

So what do you think? Have I covered all the 'primary categories' with Physical Health, Financial Health, Creativity, and Work/Career? If not, what do you feel I'm missing?​

No news is good news?

Yeah, so I've been negligent for a while now. Sorry about that.

Things have been good. Really good. I'm going to Japan. I keep having to tell myself that because it hasn't really sunk in yet.

For those who don't know - this is huge for me. I started looking into ninjutsu as a martial art when I was young. Maybe when I was... 15? Anyway - that sparked a desire to go to the land of the rising sun that wouldn't leave me. Ever.

Thing is, I'm not a guy who really expects to be able to do much. My financial resources have always been woefully stretched, I spent most of my life pretty solidly planted in a single locale, and I just always thought of Japan as a kind of dreamscape - a place on the map labeled hic sunt dracones.

And now I'm going to go. For a month. With my best bud.

While I'm still 'in town' (even that has come to mean something entirely different for me - currently in Jacksonville Florida) I've been training a new recruit - Tanner. He's not going to be doing my job - he's going to be supporting it. I'm showing him the ropes so he knows what it's like for us out in the field before he starts supporting us.

Kid's smart. He's funny as fuck. He's 'our people' - completely our people.

So really, this has been like hanging out with one of my beloved PhilaDel pholks and getting paid to do so. He understands when I explain things to him - the first time. He can repeat it pretty much flawlessly after the second.

While I know that isn't all that goes into being a good support person, I'm happy to know he will be supporting us.

Did I mention that I'm going to Japan? For a month?

Which brings me to another point: I'm nervous as hell.

Those of you who know me can appreciate that I don't get nervous much. You might say that I'm too much of a buddhist, I guess. I figure there's not much point in worrying about what might be. Just prepare as best you reasonably can and go with it.

For the record, it's not really true. I do stress. A lot. I just usually manage it - at least on the surface. I've seen what happens when person A is stressing out and person B fuels the fire by also stressing while in close proximity. It's the wildfire with a tank of gasoline. I would much rather be a calming influence when I can.

But in this case? I'm openly freaking the fuck out. I've been doing a lot of homework. I've been polling friends and family who are in the know about Japan (despite the fact that Mark will be there for a large portion of my time). I've read countless web pages. I've learned about flight plans and rail schedules and cities and towns. I've studied for this more than any other single adventure in my life.

And I feel like I know nothing.

I won't speak the native language. That's a hurdle. In the end though, I will probably pick up enough to survive (generally speaking). The real thing that is worrying me is that I won't be able to read the language. That's a problem since I don't like interacting with people when I need help.

It's not the 'typical male' thing. I'm not a proud man. I just really like to understand my situation as best I can, and that happens (more often than not) by reading.

Reading the nearby signage. Reading the expressions and body language of the people around me. Reading... anything and everything.

I won't be able to do that as a stranger in that strange land.

I've grown too comfortable in my travels thus far, and I know it. When I find I don't have something I need, I can just 'stop somewhere and pick it up'. Difference in Japan? I'll be a giant. A fat giant no less. Who can't read the signs. I'm actually a bit fearful that I will be a perfect example of a fat dumb gaijin. I do not want to be a (bad) archetype.

I recognize that at this point I'm just rambling on about my stress, and that's not productive, so I'll stop.

Suffice to say: I'm only bringing my two bags of worldly possessions and that feels a little like grabbing the first backpack you see and jumping off that nearby cliff - hoping that the backpack holds a parachute.

I'm off today. Rain does that. Don't have the car, because the coworker is using it. Didn't want to let that keep me locked up in the hotel room, so I went for a walk anyway. What the hell - it's just rain - it won't hurt me.

That means that by the time I got to Perkins for my brunch, I was pretty thoroughly soaked. I'm ok with that, but it might have shifted my mood slightly. (Full disclosure.)

The annoyingly ubiquitous X-Mas music was being piped through the dining room. Many songs played. One stuck in my head, and I found myself analyzing the lyrics in a different way than before:

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, 
Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen., 
But do you recall?
The most famous reindeer of all?

I'm sure you're about to tell me.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (reindeer)
Had a very shiny nose

Dude has a drink every now and then. No big.

And if you ever saw it (saw it)
You would even say it glows (like a light bulb)

Actually, I wouldn't. At least (if I'm honest) not to his face. Come on - that's just rude!

And all of the other reindeer (reindeer)
Used to laugh and call him names (like Pinocchio)

The other reindeer sound like jerks. They're not even creative jerks.

They never let poor Rudolph (Rudolph)
Join in any reindeer games( like monopoly)

What exactly makes a game a 'reindeer game'? Sounds to me like the other reindeer are not only uncreative jerks, they're also biggoted douche bags.

Then one foggy Christmas Eve, 
Santa came to say, (ho ho ho)
Rudolph with your nose so bright, 
Won't you guide my sleigh tonight?

Oh, so you wouldn't lift a finger to help Rudolph with the uncreative biggoted jerks before, but now that you NEED something from him...

Then all the reindeer loved him, (loved him)
And they shouted out with glee, (yippie)

What shallow pricks these reindeer are! They're all about tearing good ol' Rudy down until Santa gives him the thumbs up and now he's better than sliced bread? This is starting to sound like an after school special about cheerleaders. Seriously Rudolph? Get a better class of 'friends'.

Rudolph the red-nose Reindeer (reindeer)
You'll go down in history (like George Washington)

Because being a slave and towing the line (literally) to the fat white dude is all it takes huh?

What? I'm not grumpy. Just disillusioned.

Warning: I'm about to get verbose. At least verbose by most social media standards. You've been warned.

We're going to start doing a new thing at work. They're trying to reduce vehicle down time. One means to do this is to have people rotate through the different vehicles when people go on break. Person A moves into Van B when person B goes on break. When person B comes back from break they move into Van C and so on...

I'm reserving my judgement of the process for when we've had a chance to really try it out and work through things.

First

I headed up to Lebanon NH (where the office I'm based out of is located) and dropped off/disassembled the van that has been my home for the past year and a half. That was actually less emotional than you might expect.

Next

I bounced down/over to Oaklahoma City where I was picked up by a fellow driver. We were both a bit in the dark (as to the big picture plans and to each other's plans), so my flight into OKC could have been arranged a bit better. I drove him down to Dallas so he could catch a flight out on Monday, and then headed back up into OK to prep for work this week. I'm covering for him for a week while he's away on his break. Trying to keep vehicle down time reduced, remember?

Finally

I stopped in Atoka, Oklahoma and got a room for the night. This put me in the perfect spot to get started mapping right away the next morning (this morning). I won't bore you with details, but I couldn't start today and will start tomorrow. The good news is that this gave me today to walk around a little bit of Atoka. I prefer to walk once I'm stopped in a town. As Thomas was saying - you get so much more out of a town when you're walking than when you're driving through (he was talking about riding a bike, but the concept applies).

I'm staying in a 'not sexy but not gross' hotel. It's all but empty. Maybe a dozen cars in the lot late last night. Mid day, there are none but mine - looking a little lonely.

While I'm on the topic - the new vehicles that we're using for mapping? Sexy as hell. Back up camera. Digital displays with lots of technical data displayed in a comfortable fashion. Microsoft Sync. A very 'cockpit feel' to the driving space. Tight control of the vehicle and smooth exceleration. Brakes are tighter than I'm used to, but that too seems like a good thing when looked at together with the other elements of the vehicle.

I'm a fan of the newer Ford Escape.

I still haven't actually used it to map yet, but I suspect that won't be an issue.

Also - the wraps we have on the vehicle are far less... obnoxious. Still (as all wraps do) screams "LOOK AT ME!!!" - which I'm not a fan of - but not as bad as the old 'Ecto1' that I was driving around.

I walked up the street to the Wal-Mart. Mostly for something to do while stretching my legs. You can see how suave that experience was.

I did find it interesting though. There's a layout that used to exist for Wal-Marts that I had forgotten. I haven't seen this particular layout of any store for decades. That's multiple decades. That is, of course, how this place was laid out.

For the record - yes, I prefer to shop just about anywhere over Wal-Marts as a rule. Alas, there aren't many options in Atoka, Oklahoma. 

After stopping at the big W-M, I was feeling a bit peckish. So when I encountered this little gem, I couldn't resist. Ladies and Gentlemen, may I introduce the Atoka Truck Stop Diner.

Hey - it's still a far cry better than Taco Bell which was my only other breakfast option at that point. Yeah. Let that sink in for a minute - Taco Bell serves breakfast. Oye.

In truth, it wasn't as bad as this pic makes it look. I had the breakfast burrito, and it was damn tasty. Coffee was decent too.

The thing I most enjoyed about the ATSD though was that it let me know just how deep into the South I was.

• CMT was playing on the tv. Not any of that newfangled pop-country neither. Good ol' fashioned stuff. Dolly Parton. Kenny Rogers. That era.
• There was a couple of old timers sitting together on the other side of the place. One was speaking loud enough for me to hear every word without trying. He was saying things like "I never did touch another drop o' tha booze. It makes yer suger jump up like whoah!" (Though you'll have to imagine the deep southern drawl.)
• And lastly - I swear to you I'm not making this up - my waitress was wearing camoflage. As if she was going hunting the minute she got done with her shift.

There's a tiny Choctaw casino next door to my hotel (you can the sign for it in that previous pic with the hotel) but I haven't stopped in yet. I might have to - just so I can play around or two and say that I did.

Mix all that with a lot of southern twang and lots of cowboy hats and the cattle on the opposite side of the road, and you'll have a pretty good idea of what it feels like to hold up in Atoka Oklahoma for a day.

A while back, I offered some free portraits.

Anyone recognize this lovely lady? (Who I must appologize to for not doing her justice...)