I’m in Vancouver, Canada and it’s been one of my goals to take the train across this country. I won’t be heading that direction today, just back home across the border tonight, but as I stared out the window (yes, ‘wistfully’, I was totally staring wistfully out the window) on my way here from Everett, Washington (motto: We have more aircraft carriers than Seattle!) I was struck by the fact that often train travel is romanticized. For right or wrong.

The click-clack of the track. The warmth inside while rain or snow flies outside. Backyards and hidden bays you never see from the road or only glimpse from 35,000’.

It feels different. It IS different.

I’ve ridden the train around the USA a number of times. Once for my wedding back in Pennsylvania. Once to visit my brother on the East Coast. Down to the Grand Canyon. Up to Canada. It always seems like a preferred way to travel (if time and location allow). But why? Is it just those things I listed above? That it’s different?

I posed this question on ye olde social sites and gleamed some gems of insight from the wise answers. These answers attempt to put into words what I’m feeling and I’d like to share them with you:

Gabriel Fitzpatrick  -  Because most of us have never been on one and those who have often like to pretend there’s something special about them so that they seem special by extension.

G Dan Mitchell  -  I’ve been on a few – starting when I was very young and continuing much later – and there is something special about them. There is a feeling that you are in a sort of mobile community on a train. You can get up and walk around. You actually see the terrain that you travel through – warts and all. And you have a connection to a mode of travel that has been around during three centuries.

Gary Crabbe  -  Because it was the first form of modern land transportation that wasn’t pulled by horses. Therefore, it was the first form of ‘exotic’ transportation; boats had been around for ever by comparison.

Shannon Lane  -  Train travel makes you take a slower pace. In the US you get to see the back yards of America, giving you a glimpse of a simpler way of life. You don’t have the stress of the TSA or frustrated flyers. That’s romantic to me :)

Robin Locker Lacey  -  I think it’s a combination of slower travel and seeing lovely landscapes pass by. My first family trip to Disney in Florida was done on a train from NY. 23 hours on Amtrak and my fondest memory was being so impressed by the waiters who served us coffee, OJ and French Toast (that was delicious) magically balanced their trays and never spilled a drop! Ah, the good ole’ days :)

Mary-Alice Pomputius  -  Perhaps because you NOTICE that you’re traveling (plane travel is, for me, pretty much like walking into a closet and then walking out again in four hours), and you’re being driven, not driving yourself, so you can pay real attention to what you’re seeing. Also, I’m a total sucker for tiny houses, like sailboats and minivans and sleeper compartments.

My friend Mike stated – Because it was the first mode of transportation that allowed the masses to travel relatively inexpensively and conveniently. (and received 3 Likes on Facebook)

Jeff was a voice against trains with – I used to romanticize train trips, but then I spent 30+ hours going from Chicago to the Grand Canyon in a coach seat…

Pam Mandel pointed out – Because it beats flying for space and comfort.

Tom posted a link to Young Frankenstein (complete with Spanish subtitles)-

I believe for me, train travel will always have a romantic feel. In the USA at least (I have yet to speed along at 200MPH, which might have a different feel). And for all the reasons listed above.

I can’t wait to get on the train for my ride home.

©2012 The Carey Adventures. All Rights Reserved.

In the calm that is the quiet of my house when my daughter is not here I have had time to ponder many things while not staring at a screen non-stop.  Previously when I’ve given myself a break from distractions I have come up with lists.  Lots of list.  Goals, mostly.  Things I want to do and achieve.  Ideas that pop into my mind when I give them the space away from the computer and all distractions.  This time around my mind went backwards.  Not backwards in the sense of the wrong direction, backwards in time.

Instead of making a list of where I want to go, I started a simple list to remind me of what I’m grateful for.  At first I thought the task would be daunting.  I mean, I do have a lot to be grateful for in this life and I know it.  How can I get that all down?  The answer is simple; with this.  It’s a tool anyone with a computer can use and I’ve found it very handy.  I leave it open on my computer as a tab and can pop in items as they pop into my head.  Easy, quick, simple.  And in a week, maybe the page is filled.  Maybe more than one page is filled.  Who knows.

I do know it’s helped capture the important parts of my life I am grateful for.  Give it a whirl.  It takes a second to download and 5 seconds to start using.  It’s that easy.  Heck, you can even print it out and fill in the blanks if you want to get all old fashioned with a pen and such.  In no time you too will be giving yourself a document to help you remember what’s most important in life, what’s worth remembering and being thankful for.  Here again is the link.

©2012 The Carey Adventures. All Rights Reserved.

It wasn’t until last week that I really learned the value of forced time constraints. Oh sure, I have had deadlines aplenty, but it has been a while since I couldn’t just plan my work and get it all done. That changed last week when an odd aligning of the stars gave me an hour to get something done. Only an hour. But what? I had a bazillion things to finish!! That hour was one of my most productive (while not actually writing or photographing anything) in a long time. From it, I gathered some helpful hints to reproduce it artificially when I want to kickstart my motivation mojo.

No Clocks

Sounds stupid and bassackwards. I know. Yet, the moment I removed the clock from both my MAC and Windows machine (the little one in the corners) I felt liberated. I felt more task orientated. I still NEED a clock, mind you. But I’m not transfixed by it and letting it fuel my craziness.

Turn Off Email

You’ve heard it from a thousand productivity smartypants, just do it. It really helps with the distraction factor. And when you only have an hour to get stuff done, distraction kills. Put your email in offline mode or turn it off altogether. You’ll live.

No Facebook/Twitter/Other

Turn it all off. No exception. Live without it for an hour (or the time you have allotted).  It’s going to be ok.

Grab A Pad Of Paper

This is your distraction pad. Wanna write “DISTRACTION PAD!!” at the top? Knock yourself out, but don’t get too hung up on the details. Grab a piece of paper so you can jot notes. What kind of notes? The kind that pop into your head and DEMAND to be taking care of RIGHT NOW!!! Like “Email Fran about soccer” and “Research alligator bite infections”. They can be taken care of later. Unless it’s “Call 911 to report scalding coffee burns in my lap”.

Thoughts Are Just Thoughts

Experiment time! Next time you need to concentrate and random stuff comes up, write it down (you have your pad of paper handy, right?). When that doesn’t help, remind yourself that they are just thoughts. Maybe this is too out there, and it does take practice, but if the main distraction is YOU, then it’s time to realize you don’t have to act on every little thought that comes into your head. Let them float by. The stream may be steady for a while because it’s what the brain does best. But give it some practice, which includes…

Learn To Sit

This is all Buddhisty. Well, not even. It’s not about the religious aspects at all. Plenty of people of other faiths meditate with the goal of an empty mind. Learn to sit and not react to all those thoughts. If taking a meditation class helps, do it. It’s exercise for not reacting to all that chatter your monkey-mind is throwing at you. It has helped me become more productive and it has helped me not overreact in other areas of my life. One book that has helped me to get started with this idea is Brad Warner’s Hardcore Zen. Take a look if you don’t like the fancy, calm, floating on a petal meditation stuff as his speech is straight-forward.

Start A Timer

Ok, it’s just about time for the rubber to hit the road! Take a serious look at your task and guess how long it will take to accomplish. Or, go the other route, and start with how much time you can allow. I’m not a productivity expert, so I’m not sure which is best for you. For me, I give myself 30 minutes for a task, because my brain likes fresh things. I can then cut a task up into 30 minutes sections (if that makes sense). There are handy widgets for Mac and Windows that give you a count down timer if you lack a stove, microwave, watch (wait, no, you don’t want to look at the time!) or other device.

Get Set…

Just before you hit “Start” on that timer, make sure you are set. Coffee/tea/hot chocolate/spiced rum? Check. Water (always!)? Check. Phone off the hook and snacks handy? See where I’m going with this? Don’t give yourself an excuse to get up for the next X minutes. Your timer is set and you need to work in that time frame. In my real world example I had to be some place in one hour and had five emails to send, two quick posts to post and some other small items. I had no flexibility on the deadline and a sea of items to get done. You need to give this inflexibility to yourself, if even for a short period.

Go!!!

Pedal to the metal! Only look at your timer from time to time. Don’t obsess, but keep it off to the side for reference. Knuckle down knowing nothing is going to distract you (except earthquakes and the such). Let all that other crap that is screaming for attention fall by the wayside for just this one slice of time.

I have found this method works well for me when I need to concentrate, especially on things that don’t seem fun and cool at the moment (case in point: Twitter conversations vs. invoicing. Which sounds like more fun?). It’s not fool proof or perfect, but it is a good starting point for me.

Have you an additions to this list that you would like to share?

©2012 The Carey Adventures. All Rights Reserved.

Then have I got a prize for you!!  Travel Blog School.com is donating one spot in their inaugural class this April($650 value) to Passports With Purpose‘s efforts to help build a village in India with Friends Of LAFTI.  All it takes to enter is a $10 donation to Friends of LAFTI on Passports With Purpose’s donation page (make sure you choose the right prize!) for your entry into the random drawing on December 17, 2010.

What Is Travel Blog School?

Travel Blog School is two days of hands-on workshops in Seattle that will give you the tools to become a better writer, photographer, and blogger.  If you want your blog to be more than just a catalog of your travels, this course is for you.  Class size is limited to a dozen students to keep the learning intimate and relevant.  More info, including the bio of class teachers, can be found on the Travel Blog School.Com.

What Is Passports With Purpose?

Passports with Purpose is an annual Travel Bloggers’ fundraiser. In 2009, 90 bloggers participated and raised almost $30,000 to build a school in rural Cambodia (complete with a school nurse and a kitchen garden that provides each child a daily meal). In 2010, we have set our sights even higher. With your help, we will raise $50,000 to build a village, brick by brick, in rural India through our partnership with Friends of Lafti.

What Is Friends of LAFTI?

Friend’s of LAFTI’s mission is “To support Land for Tillers Freedom (LAFTI), a non profit, non-governmental  organization that gives impoverished families in India an opportunity to own land, receive training, build homes, earn their own income and give their children an education.”  Further, LAFTI’s mission is “to liberate Dalit (“untouchable”) women and their families from their misery and their servile bondage to the landlords in the Tanjore area, the rice bowl of Tamil Nadu.”

How Do I Help And How Do I Win?

Visit Passports With Purpose’s donation page.  You will be making a donation directly to Friends Of LAFTI on this page.  I take no money. Travel Blog School.Com takes no money.  Passports With Purpose takes no money from your donation.  100% of the donation goes to Friends of LAFTY, a 501(c)3 organization.

Once you are on the page, scroll down until you see the prize “Travel Blog School 2 Day Class”.  There’s a box to the right of that entry.  Simply type in the number of entries you would like (each entry is $10), enter your email address at the bottom of the page and click “Donate”.   Passports With Purpose will then grab your payment information and then it’s time to wait.  December 17th will dawn with a drawing for each prize and if you’re the lucky one, you will secure a spot in Travel Blog School’s 2 day class in April!!

Fine Print: Prize is non-refundable.  If the class is not held, for any reason, no refund of donation can be made.

©2012 The Carey Adventures. All Rights Reserved.

My first post for them is entitled At Home In The Himalayas and chronicles my surprise at finding a rhododendron forest so high up in the mountains.  Rhododendrons are all over the forests of the Pacific Northwest USA, where I live.  They are regularly  used as ornamental plants in gardens are come in a number of varieties.  They typically grow in shadier areas, under evergreen canopies of cedar and fir trees.  So I wasn’t ready to find a rhody forest in full bloom out in the open on my last trip.  I had seen the hillsides covered with them on a past trip, but to see the color covering the hills, was something special.

Read on at the Avid Trips blog!

Do you have a compelling story that Avid Trips might like to use?  They pay well and are looking for story pitches.  Email them!

©2012 The Carey Adventures. All Rights Reserved.

Then one day when this lady met this fellow, and they know it was much more than a hunch. That this group would somehow form a Mafia. That’s the way we all became the Seattle Travel Writing Mafia.  And what a fun loving bunch of hoodlums it is.  I’ve only been hanging with the group for about a year and a half , but I’ve been very pleased with how the community….errr…..crap, no, I mean, Family, is a fun place to be.  Without actually being a place, because it’s the people.  Just like Rush would not be a band if it were not for the people.  It’d just be a bunch of expensive instruments laying about on stage.  We’re just like Rush.  I call dibs on being Neal Peart! And we’re going to have a LOT of backing vocals.

One of the things I’ve liked best about the Mafia is how open we are to visiting dignitaries from the writing world.  Any time someone mentions coming to town, the battle cry is raised and we find a bar or coffee shop at which to gather.  Some place with wifi, probably.  And treat our guest as one of our own.  I like that about this Mafia.

Now then, if you’re coming to town, I thought I’d put together an unofficial register of the Mafia to make life easier for you.  This list is not complete, it never will be.  I’m only starting of with a few people I know who are in the Mafia (we have no formal Don so we can never be taken down) and are open to receiving visitors to Seattle.  Email me if I left you off the list, it’s not intentional, I’m just trying to get to the ferry before the line becomes too long.

The (Not So) Underground Seattle Travel Writing Mafia

(in no particular order)

• Peter West Carey – The Carey Adventures – @pwcarey
• Pam Mandel – Nerd’s Eye View – @nerdseyeview
• Kelly Goodman – Travellious (two Ls, people!!) – @kag2u
• Austin Hill – Travellious – @aghman
• Debbie Dubrow – Delicious Baby – @deliciousbaby
• Beth Whitman – Wanderlust & Lipstick – @wanderluster
• Michelle Duffy – Wander Mom – @wandermom
• Mary Jo Manzanares – Traveling With MJ – @flyawaycafe
• Geraldine – The Everywhereist – @everywhereist (she’s spooky, with no last name, I think she handles the money)
• Charyn Pfeuffer – Global Citizen Project – @global_gourmet
• Jonna Bell – Vas-Y Fille – @vasyfille
• Chris Gray Faust – Chris Around The World – @caroundtheworld
• Special Portland, OR representative: Jessica Spiegel – Italylogue – @italylogue
• Mary-Alice Pomputius – Dog Jaunt – @dogjaunt
• Emily Hyndman – Her Blog Has No Name – @eehyndman (she’s more secretive than Geraldine, I think)
• Harriet Baskas – Stuck At The Airport – @hbaskas
• Meg Paynor – @mpaynor (secret underground mole who successfully infiltrated the PR industry)
• Andrea Duchon – The Flying Salmon – @AndreaRenee
• Lora Shinn – Cascadia Kids – @cascadiakids

If you’re traveling to Seattle, look up one of us and ask us to show you around.  Some of will be nice, some will be mean. It’s like sitting next to someone on the bus, without the stench.

http://www.dogjaunt.com

©2012 The Carey Adventures. All Rights Reserved.

Hay there!

First off, thanks for checking out The Carey Adventures!  I’ve been amazed at the growth of this blog in the last 6 months and to that end I feel a need to narrow the focus of information presented here.  I’ve decided to focus on the following subjects of great interest to me and keep the blog relevant for you all, hopefully :

• Photography – This will include links to my guest posts at Digital Photography School, a tremendous resource in and of itself.  Photo Of The Day will be the center piece of this effort as well as other coolness in the land of photography.
• Travel – Interesting tidbits from around the web as well as personal advice/inspiration to help you explore the world beyond your front door.
• Technology – I love it when technology finds a way to make tasks easier or just plain cool.  Content will mostly be light and will likely center around gadgets and photography.
• Personal Travel Journalling – Currently I’m posting from notes on two trips, Nepal Trekking and Peru Adventuring.  While I’m not crazy enough to attempt to keep this blog updated in true real time, I do take real time notes and attempt to journal the days on this site for those looking for inspiration, motivation or just want some info on a far flung place.

If those items sound of interest to you, great!  Stick around and I’ll attempt to deliver relevant information and be a useful service for learning more about the topics presented.  I do have another blog centered a new site I’ll be officially releasing soon, called Organic Reviews.Org.  It will obviously be targeted to useful information about organic products and news.  That blog’s subscription information can be found here.

Of special note to those not signed up with an RSS/ATOM feed or automatic email delivery for The Carey Adventures; you’re missing out on some of the content in the subjects above!  I use Digg to tag certain items online that automatically show up in just the RSS/ATOM/Email feeds for this site.  It’s a handy way to quickly pass on relevant information without duplicating a lot of web info.  Subscription buttons are located below to help you receive this blog with Digg items via feed or email.

And please feel free to tag this or any post with the handy social networking buttons located at the bottom.  Or simply point friends you feel might be interested to this post to help get them started!!

Thank you,

Peter

Updates Through Email

©2012 The Carey Adventures. All Rights Reserved.

I enjoyed the sessions I had with Eva Shaw.  She’s dynamic, a bit kooky in a lighthearted way, and gets her point across well.  One of her biggest pointers, coat-tailing on the book she wrote titled Ghostwriting: For Fun and Profit , was that ghost writing can be quite lucrative if you are able to set your ego aside.  Mind you, this is coming from me with no research and while still on that conference high, so take it for what it’s worth.  I liked the concepts she brought up and how she included everyone, remembered names from the day before (yes, we have name badges on too) and really made the atmosphere positive.

The keynote speaker yesterday and today was Jack Dalton. His presentation today of how he became a story teller was heartwarming and inspiring.  Heck, I even sniffled a few times as his words and delivery really connected with me in a way I hadn’t imaged.  He also possess  great pace and rhythm to keep the audience entranced while proper doses of humor force your body and spirit to alternate between the tenseness of what comes next, and a release of tension through well placed humor. I ended up buying his CD entitled The Two Stories + 1 for Sabrina, although he mentioned it’s not really a kids story.  Sabrina is really starting to enjoy stories on CD, especially Native American stories such as Knots on a Counting Rope , so I hope this will have appeal to her.  I think it’s great she enjoys storytelling in a classical sense, if even on a CD.  It’s better and more imaginative than just watching it on DVD.

Bharti Kirchner was also one of my favorite presenters from yesterday and today.  Both times she provided very helpful and non-overlapping  information on the magazine article side of things.  He information alone cleared up a lot of questions I had about magazine article writing and how to get published (and then what to do next).  She’s a Seattle based author of eight books and has written for many regional and national publications.

I’m really enjoying my time at the conference and would highly recommend it to anyone thinking of getting into writing.  It’s been well worth the admission for this beginner.

©2012 The Carey Adventures. All Rights Reserved.

We both gained a from the individual sessions we attended.  I chose Emerging Writers since, well, I’m emerging and don’t know a lot.  Kim chose Memoir Writing as she has a passion to write a memoir of some life experiences.

It’s a bit late at night and my brain is a bit fried, with two more days of the conference to go, so I’m keeping this short.  Let me say that at this point, the conference is well worth the price of admission (and it helps that we live on Whidbey).  If you are interested in writing or even if you’ve been at it for a while, I’d encourage you to check out http://writeonwhidbey.org for information on workshops as well as next years conference.

©2012 The Carey Adventures. All Rights Reserved.