Journal — Page 2 — Wandering Jon

Blogging is hard

November 14, 2015 by Jon Brown 4 Comments

I wrote my first blog post in March of 2006. That means I’ve been doing this, or not doing this as the case may be, for close to 10 years. I’m already making plans to mark that anniversary with a little celebration, but for now just wanted to write a bit about blogging.

Blogging is hard, for me, for so many reasons. It’s hard to find the time. It’s hard to establish a routine. It’s hard to not get lost in all the seemingly important, yet ultimately inconsequential, junk I know about publishing content online.

What photo should I use as the featured image? What keywords should I target? Is there an affiliate link I can/shold include? Is there a good time of day to publish it? Should I look at my historical analytics and let that drive what I write about and when I publish it? It’s paralyzing.

And then… Wait? What was I going to write about?

I know people… I know lots of people actually that blog daily. One of the most prolific being my friend Chris Lema. Where does he find the time?!? The inspiration and dedication? Ok, if you know Chris you know the inspiration and dedication is never a problem, the time is still a mystery.

He’s not the only one I find inspiration in. Mindy and Ligeia surprise me every week or two on Bounding Over Our Steps with writing I really enjoy reading. Kelsey and Peter on TravelinFools whom I know from Maui and _just_ moved to Bali are fun to read as well. And of course my former business partner John Hawkins still turns out infrequent but great writing on VegasGeek. The list could go on, but then that’s another post topic I don’t want to waste.

So here’s my goal. I want to publish a post at least once per week. I use the word publish because while I don’t write a lot, a lot of what I write remains 90% complete and goes unpublished. I literally have 4 draft posts sitting in WordPress right now waiting for grammar editing, or a photo, or… enough of that. Publishing weekly or better is the goal. So establish the routine now, and then in 2016 do it with ease. Some of that will be here, some of that will be on the wedding site turned shared blog Elena and I are building on JonAndElenasJourney.com.

Help me, inspire me hold me to it. Tell me what you want me to write about. Tell me it’s too long, too short, has typoos, whatever… help me get on track to blog the next 10 years.

Dream Desk Built from Black Iron Pipe and Bamboo

August 10, 2015 by Jon Brown 5 Comments

After years of dreaming and several weekends over several months spent sourcing, measuring, figuring, cutting, building and painting I have the desk of my dreams. It’s beautiful! So beautiful I never want to leave it! (j/king in a couple weeks we leave for a couple months, but I’ll get to come back home to this!)

The desk is built from 3/4″ black iron pipe and has a 3/4″ custom cut bamboo plywood top.

I’ve long wanted an L shaped corner desk. I like to have extra room on my desks and I like to stretch out my legs, so this arrangement is perfect. I’ve looked for years for something just like this and could never find it. Ikea’s Bekant desk comes close and was very tempting, but wasn’t quite perfect. Not to mention there is no Ikea in Hawaii and they won’t ship to Hawaii. I could (and have in the past) arrange shipping myself but it gets expensive fast. Combining this desk with my treadmill desk (just out of the pictures to the right) I now have the work environment of my dreams.

If people want I’ll try to put together a more detailed write up with pricing and how I planned and built it. For now though I just wanted to share the joy and the photos!

A few detail shots of the beveled edge of the bamboo plywood. Note: I was planning on cutting and staining the top myself. I hate staining and I’d have whimped out and done a straight cut on the corner instead of the radius, so I’m glad I hired that out, it was crazy expensive, but they did a fabulous job.

Never Ending Peace And Love

May 18, 2015 by Jon Brown 3 Comments

Normally it’s a delight when I’m reminded of somewhere I’ve been by seeing it in a movie or reading about it in the news. Each time it happens I’m reminded of how blessed I’ve been to see so many beautiful places.

Lately though, it’s been Nepal in the news and the merry memories of Nepal are mixed with sorrow for all Nepal’s people are going through right now.

I decided to go through my 2,040 photos from Nepal and pick out a few that struck a chord with me now 8 years later. Those fall into three categories, the enduring natural beauty of Nepal, the hard working people and the smiles… oh the smiles on so many faces. Here’s a few slightly less than the full 2,040 photos. Click on one and take a few minutes to scroll through them and please share do your thoughts.