The Saturday Morning Post: Taking Creativity on the Road

My peak travel year, I boarded 32 airline flights, and spent 73 nights in hotels.  I don't travel that much anymore, but when we do leave home we tend to be gone for longer periods of time.  And while travel exposes me to ideas, and feeds my creativity, my ability to create art is limited when I am on the road.  So how do I take creativity on the road?

I always travel with a camera, really two of cameras, because my phone has a surprisingly great camera with three lenses and a 48 megapixel sensor.  The cameras allow me to be creative on a day to day basis. 

I carry a small notebook, that I can jot down ideas in, or make simple sketches.  These are things I should do more of. I will try this year. 

I take along a tiny computer, that gives me access to blogger and writing software. I try not to take work on the road, but I have edited reports and articles while traveling.  The change of routine of being away from home, often frees my mind to reexamine projects I have been working on in new ways, when this happens, a Chromebook allows me to get thoughts on paper before forgetting them.  

The creative process is different when on the road, and that is probably a good thing. Practice makes perfect, but doing the same thing over and over makes "Jack a dull boy." We can leverage travel to shake up the process, and bring freshness to our creative endeavours.  

I am on a digital detox. This post was written ahead of time and scheduled to appear today. I have not missed posting at least once per day in over a decade. While on this detox, I will not have internet access many days, when I do have access it will be limited. Please continue to leave comments, but I may not reply to comments. I will read comments when I can. Normal service will resume in late May. 

Funky Friday: Chunky Funky Buildings

 I love modern brutalist architecture. This is a modern building, built atop a traditional street level building. If you don't look up, you would never see it.  I do hope the cantilevered section is over engineered and carefully built, so it will last for hundreds of years.  If I ever moved, I would love to have one of those balconies overlooking the canal below, with my office/studio in one of the corner windows just to the right of the terraces. 

Modern buildings don't need to be boring. 

I am on a digital detox. This post was written ahead of time and scheduled to appear today. I have not missed posting at least once per day in over a decade. While on this detox, I will not have internet access many days, when I do have access it will be limited. Please continue to leave comments, but I may not reply to comments. I will read comments when I can. Normal service will resume in late May. 

The Thursday Ramble: Culturally Open Minded Travel

 

About three months ago, Angus in Scotland posted a link to an article about first impressions of life in the United States. The article talked about how visits to the United States impacted the thoughts of visitors from Iran, China and Russia.  Reading the article made me think, about how travel changes us. Timely as I am headed out on a grand adventure. 

People live differently in different places. The biggest differences are in international travel, though even from region to region within your country you will find differences. Differences in culture, in norms of behaviour, differences in language, the way homes are built, in the way that people live. 

There is much to be learned from the differences in culture.  To benefit from travel, I need to be culturally open minded. To expect that things will be different. To accept that what is different is normal. 

When I travel I suspend judgement. I remind myself that no one way is inferior or superior. This is the hardest thing for most people to do. When I judge another culture against my norm, I fail to understand the culture. 

I have learned many things when traveling, that have improved my life. I have tried not to try to change cultures, when I travel. I suspend judgement, and travel with a culturally open mind. 

What will I learn on this grand adventure?  

I am on a digital detox. This post was written ahead of time and scheduled to appear today. I have not missed posting at least once per day in over a decade. While on this detox, I will not have internet access many days, when I do have access it will be limited. Please continue to leave comments, but I may not reply to comments. I will read comments when I can. Normal service will resume in late May. 

My World of Wonders April 22nd 2026

 

Where have I been this week? If all has gone to schedule, we flew to Ft. Lauderdale over the weekend, and went to sea on Monday, we should be nearing Bermuda. 

What have I been up to? Exploring the ship, relaxing, reading, taking a few photos. 

Who I have I talked to? My sweet bear and strangers.  I always talk to strangers. 

What am I enjoying? A change of pace, a change of scene, the grand adventure of travel. 

What can I see out of my window? Water-Water everywhere. 

I am on a digital detox. This post was written ahead of time and scheduled to appear today. I have not missed posting at least once per day in over a decade. While on this detox, I will not have internet access many days, when I do have access it will be limited. Please continue to leave comments, but I may not reply to comments. I will read comments when I can. Normal service will resume in late May. 

Travel Tuesday: Sea Views

I am on a digital detox. This post was written ahead of time and scheduled to appear today. I have not missed posting at least once per day in over a decade. While on this detox, I will not have internet access many days, when I do have access it will be limited. Please continue to leave comments, but I may not reply to comments. I will read comments when I can. Normal service will resume in late May. 

Monday Mood: Retreat from a hyper connected world

I remember my first email account, I started law school in the late summer of 1996, and the University assigned me an email account. To access it, I had to go to one the terminals at the University and log in; later there was remote access; I opened my first personal email account that fall. A couple of months into graduate school, I bought my first cell phone, 30 minutes a month of calls in a limited area, for $30 a month. School was 82 miles from home, it felt better to have a connection on the road. That fall I bought my first desktop computer and we had dial up internet access at home. A few years later, I bought my first "smart phone" a blackberry. The salesman lied, he said in a week they wouldn't be able to pry it out of your hands, it was only couple of days until I couldn't leave home without it. And it had good international phone service. 

Today the easiest way to reach me is email, text is a second choice, I am hard to reach by phone as I often leave my phone in the other room and don't hear it, and if you don't show up on caller ID, I don't answer. I check email on my desktop computer, my phone, an Ipad, and a couple of Chromebooks.  I spend several hours a day connected to the web, YouTube is my primary media for entertainment. 

I probably spend far to much time being connected. And it is hard to get away from. 

Starting late this afternoon, I will be disconnected to varying degrees for a month, a retreat from my hyper connected world. In the first couple of weeks there will several days of complete retreat, interspersed with four days when I will be connected for a few hours, but only a few. After that I will have phone service, and WiFi in hotels. Last year we did WiFi at sea and found it disappointing, the service was really not very good, and it didn't provide a break from the connected world, it just moved it a new venue with crappy service. We are not doing that this year.  I will have phone and email when we are in Port (my phone plan includes 36 days of year of international service) and on the land based part of the trip.  

Just before the sun sets today, my retreat from the hyper connected world begins.  Worry not, there are posts scheduled for your reading enjoyment.  I will reply to comments when the retreat is over. 

My digital detox. 

Our Sunday in Ft. Lauderdale

 

The Sunday Five: Travel Dreams

1: If there were no limits, where would you go today? 

2: Where have you long dreamed of going, that you have not gone to? 

3: Apart from where you live, where do you feel most at home? 

4: Where have you traveled to the most times? 

5: How would you like to travel across the continent? 

My answers: 

1: If there were no limits, where would you go today? Italy - that is where we leave for tomorrow. 

2: Where have you long dreamed of going, that you have not gone to? Japan.  

3: Apart from where you live, where do you feel most at home? London. 

4: Where have you traveled to the most times? Florida, several times a year when my parents were alive. 

5: How would you like to travel across the continent? I would like to drive it, but in very short travel days, maybe 100-150 miles a day average. 

Please share your answers in the comments.