Status

As of today, I have been disconnected from traditional life for 1101 days .

ZDXP IS ON HIATUS.

A few months back I was forced to make a judgement call and suspended the “you choose my adventure(s)” aspect of my journey due to increasingly limited resources. I’ve been funding “ZDXP” almost exclusively from my personal savings since the beginning and — well, I’ve gone into “preservation mode” until I can figure out my next steps. Of course, even without having an audience pick & choose what I do, my life is still an adventure.

If you’d like to help, the biggest thing holding me back is lack of sponsorships. So if you know someone (or know someone who knows someone) in a position to help provide support in order for me to take ZDXP to the next level, please have them contact me. I’m willing to entertain all ideas.

In any case, with a little luck & ingenuity, I still hope to come across (or create) an opportunity that will allow me to continue to travel and share my experience and the things I’m most passionate about with others.

ZDXP CHEATSHEET:

Latest Status updates…

September 5, 2012

I left Fremont and made my way to Redwood National Park in an attempt to capture some magical photos — but lighting conditions were not ideal, so I continued north after only spending a day in the area.

I’ve been in the Portland, Oregon area for a few days and really don’t have any plans to travel anywhere — although it eventually happens when there’s nothing specifically holding me to a place and I’m drawn elsewhere.

In other news, my web site was hacked back in May, but the exploit took full effect a few days ago — this resulted in my site being temporarily flagged and blacklisted by google (and others), so I’ve spent the past few days fixing the issues (which should be completely taken care of now). I still don’t understand how some can spend their time simply trying to make the existence of others more difficult.

August 19, 2012

Drove from San Diego to the San Francisco Bay area yesterday. Presently in Fremont, CA. Plans to be determined.

July 24, 2012

I’ve been back in southern California (North Country San Diego area) for a few weeks. As before, I don’t have any major travel plans.

Since my “Stronger than my excuses” post in February, I’ve been focusing more and more on my fitness.

My hours at the gym increased from 1 hour to 2 hours and now 3 hours per day (two hours in the morning at one gym and 1 hour at night at another).

Despite what is commonly suggested, I haven’t actually taken a full day off since April 20 (the day I had food poisoning) — and I feel great. It will be nice to eventually cut back — and have a good reason to — but for now I am in “training mode” and taking my goal of “getting into the best shape of my life” very seriously — constantly trying different things to break plateaus and get results.

I dare say that I think I’ve already reached that point (of being in the best shape of my life), but I know I can do better (but it is tricky without complete control over the contents of my meals). The trials and tribulations of my journey over the past two years have done nothing if not convince me to not give up easily — and that there is always room to raise one’s bar.

May 6, 2012

Having made my way back (again) across the United States, I landed in my home state of California in mid March. I may take some day trips, but I currently don’t have any major travel plans.

I’m currently in the San Francisco Bay Area working through the steps necessary to put together a Kickstarter project for (hopeful) funding.

March 1, 2012:

Spent a few weeks in the Denver Colorado area before making my way to Arches National Park in Moab, Utah. While there I came down with a nasty case of laryngitis. Still, I managed to make the most of my time in the area (about 6 days) before making my way to Las Vegas, Nevada — which is where I am for the time being.

February 6, 2012:

Started heading west from Baltimore 1 week ago — hitting Columbus, Indianapolis, St Louis, Kansas City, Hays, and Colorado Springs. I’m presently in the Denver, Colorado area. As it’s one of my favorite places to be, I may work on staying here a bit and see how things go — I’m totally open to the possibilities.

January 24, 2012:

Since first suspending the “you choose my adventure” aspect of my journey in September, 2011, I made my way from San Francisco and across the USA (through Texas) to the Florida Keys. The plan was to spend a mild winter working & relaxing in Florida… As has so often been the case in my travels, that isn’t how things turned out.

After a few weeks in southern Florida (Oct/Nov), I got… restless. So I decided to find another place to “settle” — and that lead me north to Atlanta…  then west to Memphis… then north to St. Louis… and finally east to Baltimore.

Those who know me know I used to live and work out of Baltimore and DC, so it’s an area I’m pretty familiar and comfortable with — though living anywhere as I do is still a challenge. I’ve mainly resided between Baltimore and DC since early December. I say “mainly” because I did manage to sneak away to upstate New York a couple of times.

My goal to find a place where I can settle down for a bit, perhaps even rent a room or an apartment, get some work done, and re-strategize, still stands. But despite my intention to do so, this hasn’t exactly happened (yet) — despite me telling the universe that this is something I am entirely open to…

But one of the things that happens after you spend over 600 days constantly traveling from one new location to another is that when you suddenly stop anywhere for any significant length of time, you get restless — and/or wanderlust…

So even as I write about how much I’d like to settle and have some stability, I also yearn to continue traveling, taking photos, and sharing the experience — despite the very real issue of not having any income to offset the costs of doing so.

Anyway — right now — without a specific project to pour myself into — or people to work with (or adventure with or simply hangout with), I have much less incentive to simply stay in one area than I would if I did.

So what am I really up to now?

Well — I’m considering (and have been for a long while) a Kickstarter project, but it’s tricky coming up with something I think will yield the sort of support necessary to make it a success — and allow me to continue doing all the things I want to do (travel, write, photograph, and share the experience). It’s not just coming up with “an idea” — I want to come up with something I’m passionate about that I really think there’s a chance it’ll get funded.

I’m also considering other options as well — more on those when I have more to share — as well as just waiting for “her” to present herself, which I think would lead to a rather dramatic re-structuring of my priorities. ;)

In the meantime, you can find and interact with me on my facebook page here.

Cheers!

Zero