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Here is my Slice fo Life recording from my trip into the future, as our ds106 colleauges west of the international date line refer to it. On Friday, November 25, yes Black Friday, I drove from Strawberry to Phoenix, got a ride to the airport, flew to San Francisco to Sydney to Melbourne… here is the future.
The drive down from the Arizona high country did not disappoint, with the winter phenomena of seeing clouds that hover over the high mountains, even down to the road. I had always passed this one spot south of Rye, near Deer Creek, a lovely little horse ranch that reminds me of Bonanza. Today was the day to stop and take that photo.
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There is some relevance on this trip to just doing something, instead of always thinking about it, or putting it off to another day. Maybe I lept atop Red Dog and yelled to the sky, Carpe Diem!
Maybe not.
The drive down never gets dull, and it felt more meaningful as I have not done it for at least 6 months. The desert and mountains seemed almost as new as my first taste back in 1987.
I reflect on the trip I am embarking on, enabled by a chance visit in October to Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach. Her partner in the PLP Network projects, Will Richardson, was unable to travel with her to Melbourne, and she asked if I was interested in doing a keynote in his place.
(post slice- the blog summary of my session)
I thought about it… for about 2 nanoseconds. This trip also enables a road trip to the Great Ocean Road with an old friend from Maricopa, getting to hang out and do ds106radio/whack videos, and meet for the first time with Rowan Peter, then a trip to Tasmania (sick on first visit in 2007) to see two colleagues to visit, then I found out Nancy White would be in Hobart as well at same time, and on top of that the ASICLITE 2011 conference was there on the same dates, so I would get to connect with a batch of my kiwi colleagues.
It was like a triple hat trick of serendipity.
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I began musing about ways to put together media from the road odyssey and the StoryBox, not just as a linear book, but something media reach, with many paths… but I still don’t know what it could be.
The trip to San Francisco Airport was uneventful, and I had 7 hours there to waste. Normally I would have considered going into The City, but I was a bit tired, and had prep to do for my presentations (and to tune into Dean Shareski and Giulia Forsythe run Name That Tune on ds06 radio).
I warbled a bit in the international terminal, though the Voice Recorder app on my Android again set its levels way too high.
The next segment was Sunday morning in the Sydney airport, sitting on the plane getting ready to go to Melbourne. I mention a couple I talked to on big flight to Sydney (both Americans living in Sydney)- the guy was R&D head for a medical engineering firm, his fiance a field reporter for AP. She had great stories about covering disasters in Japan, New Zealand. I talked about my trip and showed them the storybox; he was a guitar player and said he might share some music.
By the last segment, I am firmly in your North American future. It is Sunday at 10pm in my hotel room, doing photos from the day. I have a bunch of griping about my fubar attempt to get a Yes Optus sim card to work in my Android phone.
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Earlier I took a wonderful 2 hour walk on Yarra river, a beautiful sunny day. I sample a box full of Lord of the Fries.
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On the way back I literally stumbled onto the Giant Theremin that Grant Potter had tweeted about earlier– and got to interview the guy who built it (check it out).
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This unexpected serendipity really jazzed me—
You cant make serendipty; it just happens, but you can put yourself in a place where the possibility is high.
And then (no “spader” here), “G’Day”.
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