STATUS OF THE CHOOSE-MY-ADVENTURE PROJECT:

A few months back I was forced to make a judgement call and suspended the Choose-My-Adventure Project 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.

The Choose-My-Adventure Project (now on hiatus) encouraged followers to play an active role in my adventure — deciding where I would go, what I would do, and who I would meet.

Giving people the opportunity to make decisions for me pushed me to do things and go places that I wouldn’t necessarily choose on my own — this ensured that I had new and unusual experience and didn’t just stay in my comfort zone.

Additionally, it allowed me to connect with people by providing them with a meaningful experience and letting them live vicariously through my actions. All the while, I relayed the experience in writing, photography, and videos.

I fulfilled dozens of requests and challenges while traveling through dozens of states coast-to-coast (“ZDXP Bumper” video). It was a truly amazing experience.

• Live interactive video broadcasts while on location.
• Real-time GPS tracking.
• Prizes & giveaways while at various locations – including souvenirs and travel mascots.
• Live “quick polls” — which are choose-my-adventure/decision making done while on location.
• Audience participation challenges (photo contests, caption contests, etc).
• ZDXP group meet-ups in various cities.
• Photo scavenger hunts.

• 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.

Click here for a map that accurately reflects the many stops in my adventure.

 

1. Find out where I am by consulting any of the following:

A). My @ZeroTracker Twitter account which I exclusively use to share my location.

B). Foursquare (forwards to twitter).

C). My Real-Time GPS Tracker (An interactive map which displays my speed & location in real-time — when I turn it on).

2. Connect me with an interesting location, event, or person within 120 miles of where I am.

 Sometimes coming up with the idea or challenge is the hardest part. If you want some help, you can find interesting locations on Roadside America, Atlas Obscura – or you can just make something up — make it fun, funny, interesting, or helpful. REMEMBER: The “story” and the thing that makes this interesting for others is in the details (more tips below).

3. Send me your challenge, invitation, or request connecting me to that location.

A). Post your idea on my facebook page to discuss (99% of the action happens here) or –

B). 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).

OR REGARDLESS OF WHERE I AM…

If you would like to extend an invitation to your location (regardless of distance) or if you just have a really cool idea you’d like to share – skip all of the above and just get in touch with me!

• Yes, I will meet you or a group for an activity — suggest one. Let’s have some fun.
• Yes, I will consider 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.
• Yes, I will do volunteer work. We can work out the details as necessary, just give me an experience to write about or a good cause to promote.
• Yes, I will accept one-on-one challenges (me & you), group activity challenges, or solo challenges (where you suggest I do or accomplish something — go to X place, do this, and this, and this…).

• 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…

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.

• 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.

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.