Posted: December 7th, 2009 | Author: Shawn | Filed under: blah blah blah | 3 Comments »
I moved to Montreal one year ago, and thought I would share my observations. I’m originally from British Columbia, but directly prior to Montreal I was living in San Francisco. Montreal was a perfect destination for my move as I was keen to return to Canada, but also wanted to try somewhere new. I quickly found that Quebec has some interesting differences from the rest of Canada. I considered writing a thought provoking essay on the cultural nuances of the various regions of Canada. However, I instead figured I should show some respect to the fifth graders of the world. So I made a simple like/dislike list.
Some of these would be true in general for most folks, and others are very specific to my preferences. Here is just one man’s opinion of living in Montreal for one year.
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Posted: December 3rd, 2009 | Author: Shawn | Filed under: blah blah blah | 5 Comments »
More than once in my life I have woken up, had a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios, then randomly decided that I need to get rid of everything I own and leave the country. This post isn’t about the psychological issues that cause me to compulsively jettison all my cargo. Instead it’s my abridged, unsorted list of tips for effectively purging yourself of stuff. I got to thinking about possessions and how much we want them from a great post over on Chapter 37. So I next got to thinking about the business end of having stuff, and had started to write up a huge guide on getting rid of it. It kept putting me to sleep though as apparently how to throw something away just isn’t that interesting of a topic. I’m going to approach this brief list from the example of purging your stuff in preparation for a long backpacking trip.
Here are a few tips that help me to easily go through my belongings and get rid of them. Maybe some of them will be helpful for you.
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Posted: November 20th, 2009 | Author: Shawn | Filed under: blah blah blah | 1 Comment »
There’s something awesome, yet sobering, about the moment you buy the departure ticket for a long trip. Everything is just chatter until you pull the trigger and book that flight. I just bought my one way flight to Japan from Vancouver. On the afternoon of January 12th February 3rd I will officially be cast to the wind. I don’t have any clue yet what I want to do in Japan. Or when I want to leave there. Or where to go next from there when I finally do leave. All I know is that I am going there, and there is no turning back. I’ll have nowhere to turn back to. And so it begins.
If you have any Japan advice or the such, I’d definitely be happy to hear it.
Edit: I had to bump my departure from Jan 12th to Feb 3rd. Such is life.
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// shawn
Posted: November 14th, 2009 | Author: Shawn | Filed under: blah blah blah | 2 Comments »
Here’s my plan. If you can call it that.
1. Get rid of everything I own (easy)
2. Quit my career/job (last day is Dec 18th) (hard)
3. Fit everything I need and want into my backpack (easy)
4. Live a little. See some places, do some stuff, experience life. (hard?)
5. Write about it here. Maybe take some pics too. (medium)
6. Win.
The only constraints that I know of are money and attention span. I have a limited small savings to milk. So I guess we’ll see how long it, and I, last.
What do you think?
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// shawn
