Growing up there were certain values that were instilled in me. Not necessarily by my family or friends, but rather by society as a whole. Society led me to believe that there was a certain path that I should follow, and if I didn’t, well then I must be a failure. This path included your traditional college education, getting a prominent career right after graduation, and were I to continue down the path I am on, marriage, kids and a hefty mortgage would certainly be the next steps. While I have nothing against marriage, kids and a mortgage (and hope to have all three when the time is right), it is amazing to me that to this day if you
Continue Reading > 26 Comments posted: October 29th, 2009
First thing is first. I have to thank each and everyone of you who made last Thursday the biggest single day for traffic in the history of Location180. With over 40 comments and hundreds of page views for “My Last Day” I am absolutely humbled and amazed at the amount of positive feedback I have received. In a time that is as uncertain as this is for me, to have such a strong support system is the best thing I could ask for. Now with that being said, it is a week later and I am still here. I am not dead, I have not been swallowed up in a black hole of self pity, I am here and as motivated
Continue Reading > 15 Comments posted: October 26th, 2009
Well, it happened. Tuesday was the last day at my job. This has honestly been one of the most overwhelming experiences I have gone through in my life. For the last 24 hours I haven’t been sure how to feel. However, I think at the moment the majority of me is feeling a sense of guilt and relief. While I don’t think my job was perfect for me, it wasn’t terrible. I worked with good people that I think extremely highly of, however in the end, we just didn’t quite see eye to eye on how my employment would evolve there. I purposefully won’t go into many details, but the gist of the story is that I submitted a proposal
Continue Reading > 84 Comments posted: October 22nd, 2009
A lot has changed over the last couple of months, and I am finding myself adopting a very frugal lifestyle. Now, I have never been the best when it comes to saving money. I usually attend at least a couple happy hours each week, buy something if I want it, and while I always put away a portion of my paycheck in to savings, it probably isn’t as much as it should be. This all began back in March when I started thinking more seriously about traveling; oh, and I got a 20% pay cut. Yeah, that will wake you up from your rogue spending habits! Since then, I have been extra conscious about the things I spend money on. Purchasing my
Continue Reading > 20 Comments posted: October 19th, 2009
Have you ever caught yourself daydreaming? Every once in awhile I certainly do, and today it happened to be about some of my dream trips. Where would I go and what would I do if money wasn’t an issue. This was brought on by a recent listing for a Thai villa on Koh Samui that I think would be AWESOME to stay at for a week. While any of these may or may not actually happen I figured I would share with you some of my dream destinations that I have stumbled upon over the last few months. First, the one that inspired this post: Suralai Villa, Koh Samui, Thailand. I am not sure whether it is the massive infinity
Continue Reading > 22 Comments posted: October 15th, 2009
Wow, this has been a long week. It is quarterly report time at my job, and as usually happens every three months, I am swamped. With that being said, it is amazing this post made it out on time (this is an assumption, it is 5:30 on Wednesday and I am still not sure if I will be able to finish it tonight). So, if you are reading this on Thursday morning, feel free to congratulate me, as I wasn’t sure if this one was going to meet the deadline! UPDATE: It is now Sunday afternoon, and I am still putting the final touches on The Bucket List 2.0 and this post. So much for Thursday morning, congratulations are definitely
Continue Reading > 20 Comments posted: October 12th, 2009
All week I had plans to launch a big update to one section of the website. It was supposed to go up Thursday morning, but life got in the way, and it just wasn’t quite complete. Alright, thats cool, it’ll go up Friday. Well after a few hours of work last night, I realized it just wasn’t going to be where I would like it to be in time for a Friday release, so it is getting pushed back til next week. With that said, I felt really guilty about not getting a second post up this week. I think that is when you realize how serious you are about your blog: when you are genuinely stressed and bothered about
Continue Reading > 7 Comments posted: October 9th, 2009
“I am a hypocrite” I think my biggest blogging fear is the thought of having to say those words. While there aren’t really true yet, the next few months are going to reveal a lot about my credibility as a blogger. 99% of the people in the world are really good at talking about all the things they want to do, and all of their big plans. Yet there is only a very, very small percentage that actually has the courage to act. As of this second, I have not designed my ideal lifestyle. I am still working at my job, making my car payments, and generally living a comfortable life. What does that do for my credibility as a
Continue Reading > 26 Comments posted: October 5th, 2009
I did it. After 8 years of holding out, and not giving into the masses, I bought an iPod. You might be wondering why it took me so long to join the legions of cool people out there globe trotting with their white headphones. Or perhaps why I was even against it in the first place. After so many years, I am not even sure I am able to answer that question. However, I think it started out with my hatred for iTunes. I have never been so against something that I have no experience with, in all my life. I was perfectly happy using winamp for all of my music organizational needs. I didn’t need an Apple program to come in
Continue Reading > 19 Comments posted: October 1st, 2009
