seanmcgrath
I almost sprayed a coat of hot coffee all over my monitor when the words came up “Your Dream. Our Money. Earn it.” emphasized by the fact that the number “10,000” never looked quite so good. The marketing think-tank at Teva (pronounced “teh-vah”), makers of sandals and shoes made popular by adventure seekers of all types, really had something going. Their new promotion, a contest coined “Teva Life Agents”, is promising $10,000 not one but various new “Life Agents” that are willing to share the stories of their corporately funded adventure through blog posts, photos and videos. Read the rest of this entry
Dan4th
I first heard of Dan Pink when browsing through some of the more popular talks on the TED website. Dan Pink has written books on career and businesses. In his latest book, he has taken a great interest in researching and publicizing what it is that motivates people. This content is what fueled his TED talk in July of 2009 and, more recently, another video that he put together. The general premise of these new ideas in motivation, as Philip Brewer puts it:
Paying more for excellent performance is not only a poor way to motivate people, it is actually counterproductive. When a large bonus depends on doing outstanding work, work quality declines. – Philip Brewer
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In August of 2008, I embarked in a month-long trip to Southeast Asia. During my trip I made various posts describing my encounters and experiences. I have decided to go back and revise and reorganize my posts applying a lot of the new writing techniques I have learned over the last couple of months. I have removed some posts that were not interesting or just unnecessary. I have also renamed some of the posts so they are more relevant to the contents. It’s been a lot of fun to go down memory lane and read over my posts, the scribbled notes on my journal and the pictures. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did! Read the rest of this entry
Apparently, conquering the world’s largest continent was not enough of for everyone’s favorite English duo. Pushing the envelope of modern adventure, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman continue their motorcycle escapades in the television series “Long Way Down”.This time, the lines drawn on the map lead from the northern tip of Scotland to the southernmost coast of South Africa. Three years after their first adventure, “Long Way Down” takes on fourteen of the African countries. That’s right. I said fourteen.
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I just had one of the most extraordinary days on The Road of Bones. We started at 7:30 and we didn’t stop for a break ’til 6:30 this evening. They were twelve of the most exciting hours of motorcycling I’ve ever done in my life, unbelievable. The roads were just deteriorated and deteriorated. We were riding on mud, gravel, and puddles, and pot holes, and rivers, and bogs. It was just everything thrown at us at once. - Ewan McGregor
“Adventure” is one of those interesting words. It really means something different to everyone. There are adventure movies, adventure books, and adventure sports, and then there are adventure toys and adventure games. Each of these carrying a different definition and with each definition a different interpretation. At some point in history, maybe when fewer and fewer discoveries were being made, adventure has become an adjective and not a noun. Most recently, I had the pleasure of coming across what I believe is a genuine adventure, noun, not adjective.
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Saint Augustine declared that “the world is a book, and those who have not traveled have read only one page.” Only firsthand experience can validate or challenge our intuitions, giving us confidence about risky political decisions in a complex world of instant feedback loops and unintended consequences. During travel, perception and thought merge; a contradiction can emerge as a truth to be revealed, not some exception to be disproved. Such ambiguity is the corollary of complexity, after all. Reality is famously resistant to theories that measure the world according to what it should be rather than how it really is. Instead, exploring the patterns of the second world aesthetically, honoring the value of purely sensory judgments — this exposes characteristics that are common to the entire second world; differences are revealed to be more relative than absolute.
Parag Khanna, The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order (2008)
The frigid temperatures of Montreal, Quebec set the stage for this past weekend’s adventures. It all started last Friday after work when Lucas and I decided to drive five and a half hours north into Canada for a couple of days checking out what our northern neighbor has to offer. The adventure started off on an exciting note with my little car coming close to running out of gas somewhere in the middle of Vermont… at ten o’clock at night… during a snow storm!
Never the less, my little car made it’s way across the border into Quebec finally stopping in a snow-accumulated Montreal just before one in the morning. Luckily for us, we made it just in time! As the hostel where we stayed at, the Alternative Backpacker’s Hostel, locks their doors at 1am.
We did a lot of exploring in this great little city. Due to the freezing temperatures, the majority of the exploring was done via the very convenient and very much appreciated "underground city" (locals call it the RÉSO) that sprawls for kilometers and kilometers under the city providing easy and warm access to just about anywhere in the city. The downside to the “underground city” is that it feels like the entirety of Montreal is one huge shopping mall.
The Auberge Alternative du Vieux-Montréal was located in Old Montreal and was a great price for a cozy little hostel at a great location. It was a couple of blocks away from the underground city and had some great cafes near by. The for a dorm bed was CA$20 which is about US$16 a day… can’t beat that price! And I personally really enjoy the hostel atmosphere where travelers are abundant and friends are easy to make.
During the trip, we visited the spectacular Musée d’art Contemporain de Montréal, where they had a great exhibition on the ever blurring relationship of art and music in our modern times of rock and roll. The exhibition was called “Sympathy for the Devil” and included the distinct interaction of art and rock in the different scenes through out the world, such as New York, London, Continental Europe and West Coast and Midwest US, amongst others. Lucas had a field day taking pictures with his IPhone as the museum security folks followed us around.
We also got a chance to meet up with some of the “frenchie” folks from the guild at an Irish Pub where the beer flowed and the WoW references never stopped! It’s always so much fun to meet the folks behind the keyboards and see how great people they really are. I’ve met a bunch of them over the past year or so and I have yet to be disappointed by the their warm hospitality, great company and interesting conversations.
