Date: 2004-12-13
To: Fragments, Focus, Jobs, and Deja
Miles today: 0.0

Wow. It's been a while since I've updated. I had every intention of putting an entry in sooner but things didn¢t work out that way. I guess I've been too busy. Busy? Hey, I don't work! Just like Muphy's Law of Backpacking (all available space will be taken!), it is an interesting phenomenon how all my time is taken up during the day. I perceive there's no time to write a journal entry or send friends and email. My friend¢s who work, that's about 99% of them, are laughing now as they read this. I don¢t have 8-10 hours a day taken up by "work" as they do. You'd think I'd be able to get everything I want done in a day and have lots of playtime too.   Hmmmmm. Makes me wonder what I¢m doing with the time. I ask myself what I do all day to exhaust the daylight hours, and I have trouble remembering.   There are the main things: get up, shower, meditate, go to the firehouse if I'm not already there, do my email, read some websites, research work I might be interested in, do errands, eat lunch, etc¢¦ And, all the sudden it's time to do dinner and go to bed. I ask, where did the day go?When I got off the trail, this wasn't the experience I was having. I did notice that time seemed to move faster here in the frontcountry, but the days felt like what I would have expected without the 8-10 hours of work time.   The longer I stay here in the real world, time flies by faster and faster. I know this has nothing to do with where I am physically (front/backcountry); it has everything to do with what I'm doing in that space.Fragmented focus.Out on the trail, you don't multitask. From my observations of most hikers, one activity at a time was the rule. I don't think anyone consciously made the choice to do it this way, it was just natural. Rarely did anyone read Wingfoot while they were walking or eating. Each activity was given its own space. What I see happening to me now is my focus is going helter-skelter. It might be because my laptop allows me to do my banking, news, surfing, listening to music, and read humor all at the same time. Reading one article will send me off reading another, which peaks my interest in some other topic that I Google for, which takes me away from my original task which was to pay some bills. Even as I type this my mind is wandering to other things. Why can't I keep my focus? Part of it is habit. Years of multi-tasking at work, fragmenting my mind with swirling projects and tens of hundreds of interruptions per day. In the corporate world this is supposed to be a good thing. :-O In the land I call reality, I have found many times that logic is usually 180° off kilter. What is created is the opposite of what I want. Fragmenting my focus adds to the experience of not having enough time.The other thing I've noticed, is I'm not taking time for me as much as when I got off the trail. I used to walk in the park every day. There is something about the movement and being outdoors that refreshes me. These days, I strive want to accomplish so much, I've forgotten about my ritual of play. This is another sticky situation where production is at odds with play. There is some logic that says - when I'm done with my work, then I'll take time to play. Ha! But the work never really ends, does it? Not giving myself time to play adds to the experience of not having enough time.I'm going to play with my focus and my play and see what happens in the weeks ahead.Now for some new stuff:I've been looking into what kind of work I'd like to do and I have a few ideas: wireless networking or motivational speaking. Wireless is coming into its own and will create a lot of competition with DSL/Cable broadband services. I don't know what aspect of wireless I'm into but I think I need to start as an apprentice in a small company that services residential and corporate clients. I am a smart computer science guy, but I can only learn so much from books. Anyone out there have any advice on this one?Motivational speaking. Hmmmm, now there's something that scares the kilt off me. I don't want to be a motivational speaker in the traditional sense, but I haven't found a term for what it is I want to do. In a nut shell, I want to bring "reflection" (as I've talked about in my journal many times) to the corporate environment. Teach corporations to run themselves by watching what reflects back to them. I've seen it in the company I worked for... The execs want profits so badly they're now cutting into worker's benefits and salaries. Plain and simple - they're out of ideas. They see they have no options except to eat themselves alive. (The obvious answer - multitask more!!! ) Anyone who has any advice on motivational speaking/changing corporate environments, please share what you know. Thanks.Maybe I don¢t want a job after all and want to hike the PCT with Wildcat. Spring fever I hear is very alluring.D©j VuFor those of you who know Deja¢¦ I talked to Deja's father yesterday. They said she¢s doing well and has finished her training period in the Peace Corps. She has started her permanent assignment in/or near Garoua, Cameroon. She works in the bush 5-6 days a week and gets to go to town on her day off. Her father says they've had the best luck communicating with her via cell phone and snail mail. Email, I've tried, is not so accessible to her.I've been slowly reviewing my gear in the gear section. My tent (Arapaho), sleeping bags (WM), and pack (Aether 60) were just awesome and I'd recommend them to anyone for a thru hike. My pack is currently at Osprey getting some warranty work done on it. That's all for now. I'd like to say Hi to Warren and my readers at Bell South.