ZDXP Choose My Adventure

The Quick & Dirty Summary:

  • I am your personal remote droid.
  • I do things you suggest (go places, meet people, and participate in activities based on your challenges, invitations, or requests).
  • I am free to go anywhere you tell me, so long as it is between 1-120 (sometimes up to 180) miles from my current location. Each day I am (usually) somewhere new.
  • You can track me in real-time when I am active.
  • You can interact with me in real-time (facebook / twitter) when I am active.
  • I often post photos as-things-happen or shortly after on flickr and facebook.
  • When I’m not being told what to do, I go on automatic and simply go roaming & exploring on my own until someone gives me something interesting to do.

Here’s how choose my adventure mode works…

First — it’s good to get an idea of what I’ve got going on at present, whether I am in “adventure mode” or not, and whether I have other influences overriding my my current path of travel. The best way to do that is to interact with me and others on my Facebook adventure page.

When you’re ready to participate:

Starting from my current location, I need your help in connecting me to another location, event, or person to meet — one that that is between 1-120 (sometimes up to 180) miles from where I am.

So get on Roadside America, Atlas Obscura, or look up events going on between 1 and 180 miles of my current location and find something for me to do or just make something up — make it fun, funny, interesting, or helpful.

I will accept suggestions, challenges & requests and I will do volunteer work. In the event multiple good suggestions are provided, I will create a poll on my blog and let people vote for their top picks.

Consider this:

If it’s something you always wanted to do or a place you always wanted to go to, but cannot at this time, I will do it for you and as you suggest — living and reporting on an adventure just for you. I can even do this in real-time (or near real-time) — posting photos, live video, audio, whatever.

Yes, I will consider:

  • Meeting you for an activity — suggest one. Let’s have some fun.
  • Doing real “work” for you in exchange for the story it provides. Yes, real work. Put me to good use. Yard work? Sure! Help you move? Absolutely! Provide you with a photo shoot? Yup! Just make a suggestion — even a crazy one — I want to help and I want a good story.
  • Volunteering for your company. Yes, really. We can work out the details as necessary, just give me an experience to write about or a good cause to promote.
  • Challenges: Either one-on-one (me & you) or group activity challenges, or  ”solo challenges” where you suggest I do or accomplish something (go to X place, do this, and this, and this…).

Example challenges I’ve previously accomplished (big list):

  • Meet a Mythbuster
  • Eat Rice-a-Roni on a moving trolley in San Francisco
  • Hug a Redwood (Redwood National Park, CA)
  • Eat a Baby Ruth Bar on the Goonies Beach (Astoria, OR)
  • Visit [X] place (various: a rain forest, Four Corners National Monument, Devil’s Tower, the Field of Dreams…)
  • Photobooth challenge (Portland, OR)
  • Tons more…

Things to consider:

  • I’ve been on this adventure since May 8, 2010. I made a couple videos before I left that still mostly apply to what I’m doing.
  • I want to do things I wouldn’t normally do resulting in good “Yeah, I did that” stories (and photos & videos to go along with them).
  • I really want to knock things off my bucket list if possible or yours by participating in an activity with you.
  • I love taking photographs & would love some “photo adventures/challenges” (photo scavenger hunt, anyone?).
  • I love to visit National Parks (have a universal pass) — I like state parks, but they often have an admission fee — I’ll consider it, but it depends on how awesome & irresistible the suggestion is.
  • This costs money — especially admission fees and gas. Please help me conserve my resources and/or find some to keep me going (sponsors, donations, etc).
  • I need more exposure, press, and people to get involved in order to make this work as it was originally imagined waaay back before I left.
  • Participation, ideas, suggestions, etc are welcome.
  • I try to avoid revisiting/backtracking to places I’ve already been in the past 30 days, but if you have a super suggestion, make it! Some things are too awesome to resist and worth backtracking for.

What I need from you:

  • Check out where I am now.
  • Suggest an activity for me to do event for me to participate in, location to visit between 1 and 180 miles from my location. Be specific and provide details! (The “story” is in the details)
  • Example:
    • Not specific: “Visit X restaurant“. Ok, that’s fine, but making a specific request is more interesting for everyone…
    • Specific: “Visit X restaurant. Order this item on the menu. See if you can get a photo with your server…“
  • Help spread the word! Share this page, “like” & invite friends to my  facebook page, blog about it, whatever. The more people who are actively involved & “watching”, the better.

Where to post your suggestion, challenge, or request:

  1. My facebook page (99% of the action happens here)
  2. You can also use my email form (if the above options don’t work for you or if you have special details or something you want to work out or keep private). Alternatively, my email address is zerodean.com (at) gmail.com (yes, myname.com followed by @ gmail.com).

How to make a “generic” request more interesting:

  • Personalize your request or challenge by having me do something unique. Make it fun, funny, absurd, or actually helpful. Have me dress a certain way, pose a certain way, whatever. Be creative and have fun with it. If it makes people laugh or gets people’s attention, chances are I’ll really want to do it.
  • Make it personal. Tell me why it matters to you.
  • Can it “help” in some way? Maybe draw attention to a cause or help people, places, animals in need? Let me know.
  • Consider this: “Eating Rice-a-Roni in San Francisco” = not that interesting. But put me on a moving trolley while doing it = awesome! (I did it). Suggesting I “hug a tree” = not that interesting. But have me hug one of the world’s largest trees = awesome! (I hugged what was once considered the tallest tree in the world).
  • You can tie any activity you want me to do or location you want me to visit to a movie or music reference or location or anything in pop culture.

Things I can do that you may not know about:

  • Shoot & broadcast live video in places with fair 3G reception
  • Tweet or post to facebook as-things-happen.
  • Shoot 1st person video (head-cam, car-cam, etc).

Where the interaction happens online:

Questions & Answers:

Q: Why?

  • Because I can. Because I want an “experience”. And because I want an adventure. And I want to do things that I wouldn’t ordinarily do.

Q: Why “1-120″ miles? (subject to change)

  • It slows me down and helps me conserve resources (fuel, etc). I’m not opposed to driving further in a day, but the primary thing is that I have hopefully interesting, entertaining, or productive things to do. By limiting how far I will travel, it gets people actively involved in researching places that are relatively close to my location or by suggesting multiple creative things for me to do along the way to the destination they really want me to visit (ie. Get me to do 3 things or visit 3 places between “here” and Albuqueque).

Q: I am further away than 120 miles, how can I get you to visit me?

  • Be selfish! Get on my radar. Get involved in helping to create a series of “dots” (adventures) that steadily lead me in your direction. Or see the “One last thing…” section below…

Q: Can I make multiple requests at one time? (ie. Get you to travel farther, etc).

  • Yes. I just want to stay busy and for interesting things to do/happen along the way. The point is to have fun. So if you have a super idea, but it’s a few hundred miles from my current location, then make 3 suggestions (“adventure dots” is what I’m calling them) that connect me from where I am to where you want me to be.

Technical Issues & Details/Shmeetails!:

  • The details are subject to change! We just want to HAVE FUN WITH THIS.
  • If there’s a technical or logical issue, so what. If it’s irresistible, we’ll find a solution and a way to make it work.
  • So if you have an idea or suggestion, don’t worry about the technical details (distance, cost, etc)! You and I are in charge here. We are making this up as we go, so I might adjust things depending on what “works” and what doesn’t.
  • The main point is just to get people involved and to entertain.
  • I will likely create a specific page for this post on my site. But this will also remain a blog entry here.

One last thing…

So you’ve just read everything and you want to get involved. But you want to skip all work and just get me doing stuff for you right away, regardless of distance or admission fees, etc. Well, let’s just add this additional twist…

I can be “bribed” – well, sort of.

You can help pay for my expenses (travel and/or admission fees) and I will give your suggestion, request, or challenge top priority.

I say this before anyone has ever taken advantage of this, so I leave this as a distinct possibility to see what happens as a result. If it becomes disruptive or removes any of the fun or entertainment value, I’ll reconsider. But for now, this is your chance to cut to the front of the line.

Donations vs. “Bribes”

Donations:

  • There should now be a “donations” button in the right column of my blog. Please note, a “donation” is just that, a donation, and comes with no implied response on my end. It just means you want to make a contribution. THANK YOU.
  • What it will be used for: Food, gas, “resources” – whatever I need to help keep me going another day. Nothing extravagant. I’ll even tell you what you helped pay for, if you want.
  • In real-world terms: I have a 17 gallon gas tank. I get between 200-350 miles from a tank of gas depending on highway/city/off-road miles. Gas costs me $3.00-$4.50 per gallon depending on where I am. I have traveled over 40,000 miles since May 8, 2010. Do the math.
  • I’ve stayed in 1 hotel once since embarking on my adventure. That was on day #10.

Bribes:

  • A “bribe” implies that you want to make “donation” in order for me to accommodate a  request by you quicker. It allows you to cut to the front of the line. To do so, use the same “donations” button in the right column of my blog, but please consult me before making anything other than a donation to make sure I can & will accommodate your request.