I feel like I’ve been doing more traveling over the last month than I had in the previous six months combined. Although I guess when I think back, I’ve been a lot of places and seen a LOT of cool stuff. Currently I’m writing from a nice bakery on the Thai island of Ko Tao. Ko Tao is without a doubt one of my favorite islands that I’ve been to thus far. A far cry from the insanity that is Koh Phi Phi, as soon as you get off the boat you can tell that this place is much more tranquil. Ko Tao is one of the dive capitals of Thailand, and I think we are probably the only people
Continue Reading > 19 Comments posted: July 12th, 2010
Have you ever had something you’ve really wanted to learn how to do, but couldn’t seem to pry yourself away from work long enough to actually get it done? Yeah, me too. My whole life I’ve had an interest in photography. I’ve always wanted the ability to be able to capture the photo that would make people say “wow”. However, up until recently I never really put much effort into it. My high school photography teacher told me that my pinhole camera was one of the worst constructed she’d ever seen – needless to say that class left me slightly disillusioned. More importantly, I think I always thought that I had to have a decent camera in order to be
Continue Reading > 14 Comments posted: June 7th, 2010
For the longest time in my life, I’ve struggled with finding balance. I was always the guy that would get ridiculously excited about something and then let my world revolve around it until I lose interest. This has happened with everything from golf and rock climbing (which I usually get reinvigorated on about once a year) to business start up ideas. Oh the business ideas. I could go on for days with things that I was convinced would be the best businesses ever, only to lose interest a week later. The point here is that rather than staying level headed and continuing to live a balanced life amidst the new found obsessions, I’d let them dictate how my life went.
Continue Reading > 19 Comments posted: May 31st, 2010
I’ve learned more about myself in the last 6 months than I think I have in the previous 6 years. There is no denying that since I began publishing at Location 180 I’ve acquired a ton of new skills that I didn’t previously have. There are the technical skills such as basic html, WordPress and a bunch of SEO knowledge which have transferred great to the business side of my life. Along with that I’ve greatly improved my writing and general communication skills. However it’s the less tangible feelings that I think will stick with me most. The feeling of moving to a foreign country with no set plans for the future. Knowing what it’s like to make your first
Continue Reading > 12 Comments posted: May 29th, 2010
Dear Reader, Today marks the official one year anniversary of Location 180. Wow. It kind of snuck up on me, much the way that Cinco de Mayo, St. Patrick’s Day, the Super Bowl and every other big American event that no one cares about here has. But in all seriousness, the last year has without a doubt been the most profound I’ve ever had. For the first time in my life, not only did I outline a path that I wanted to follow, but I acted on this plan in some extremely rewarding and terrifying ways. Looking back, I can safely say it has been completely worth it. This past year has been all about my transformation. If you were
Continue Reading > 18 Comments posted: May 8th, 2010
“A bucket list can be your best friend or your worst enemy.” Did you ever watch Wheel of Fortune when you were younger (or perhaps you still do)? Every once in awhile they would have categories called “Before and After”, well here is my bucket list before and after. The Before: Bucket List. My Bucket List has been pretty much the one thing about this site that has remained fairly constant since the beginning. Sure about 6 months back I did a bit of a remodel of it, but if there has been one thing that Location 180 has been known for, it’s this list. I’ve received emails from numerous readers and other bloggers saying that they’ve been inspired to
Continue Reading > 15 Comments posted: May 3rd, 2010
In life, the enormity of your success or the depths of your failure rely entirely on the consequences you establish for yourself. If you set your life up in a way where consequences, both good and bad, are at the forefront of everything you do, you will be much more likely achieve your goals than if you don’t. Think about the time you worked the hardest in your life. A time when you spent hours and hours working on something, and never thought twice about quitting or doing something else. That was also the time when you had the most at stake wasn’t it? During my last term of college I had one class that I really struggled in, but
Continue Reading > 24 Comments posted: April 29th, 2010
Yeah, I’m talking to you. The guy (or girl) sitting in your comfy office, with your sexy 401k plan and that fat raise you’ll be getting in July now that the economy is picking up again. Perhaps from time to time you’ve thought about how great it would be to be working from a beach on a Tahitian island? Maybe you just want to sit at home in nothing but your boxers and spend a whole day without having to shower. Yeah, you aren’t cut out for this life. While working from your laptop on a beach with a cute little umbrella drink in hand, may seem like a dream come true, did you stop to think about the heat
Continue Reading > 30 Comments posted: April 26th, 2010
Let’s face it, making money from your blog is no easy task, and takes hours and hours of hard work. Over the past year I’ve considered ways to monetize this site, however my primary goal is to not let that interfere with providing high quality and useful content. So far I’ve made a little bit, perhaps enough to cover my hosting costs, but nowhere near enough to support myself full time. However, there are people out there who have done a much better job of utilizing affiliate adds, product creation or a combination of both to live AWESOME lifestyles. While I’m still unsure exactly which direction I will eventually head (although there is a thinly veiled attempt in this post),
Continue Reading > 13 Comments posted: April 22nd, 2010
I’ve had a few requests over the last week from people who are curious about my interactions with Thai people while living over here. I haven’t written about this as much as I would’ve liked for a few reasons. Partially for the trivial reason of I have no idea how to spell half of the things I’d like to write about, but also because my interactions have been *fairly* limited. This isn’t necessarily by choice. With the language barrier being as difficult as it is, especially as a non-Latin language, you really have three choices for how to proceed. The first is to try to avoid the interactions altogether. I’ve met a surprising amount of people who’ve been living here for months,
Continue Reading > 12 Comments posted: April 19th, 2010
