These are my Momentos, short personal diary entries I write daily – since 2013 – and publish monthly. Some links are affiliate links.
1
Do you ever have bad days, he asks. I don’t think I do. Not really. I dated a nurse several years ago. Intensive care. She saw people die every day, traumatically, sometimes beneath her chest compressions. She’d come home and ask how my day was. Terrible. Fucking internet wasn’t working. That’s still about as bad as it gets.
2
Grabbed a rental car this morning, drove across the island, stopped off at a sports store to buy a towel, three tennis balls and a pair of cycling gloves. Then coffee at Playa de Las Teresitas, read Ambrose Bierce for a bit with my toes in the sand. Later some Ido-inspired movement on the beach, trying not to be self-conscious, and a little swim practice to finish.
3
All three roommates checked out of the coliving this weekend, leaving me by my lonesome. Now it’s Sunday afternoon and I’m dangerously close to spending the day Netflix bingeing on the couch, when a new guy checks in and we chat for a couple of hours and I’m buzzing after and decide to go get some shit done at the coworking. This is why it’s better for me not to live alone.
4
Set up a Patreon account and announced it to my email subscribers today. Would be nice to bring in a bit of money that way each month. I support Sam Harris’s podcast on there myself, also give a little something each month to the Love & Courage podcast. It’s important methinks, to support work you enjoy and want to see more of in the world.
5
Been hitting the work stuff hard the past few days. Set a goal with my mastermind buddy that I’ll send at least 250 outreach emails before October hits, and before I can even start that I need to create a couple of juicy content pieces. If I fall short of the mark, I’m on the hook for a $1k penalty. Pushing hard to get the bulk done before my lady gets here next week.
6
There are a few things I only learned were “Irish” after leaving Ireland. Examples: green beer; The Boondock Saints; spelling Paddy with two T’s; coal wrapped in tissue paper on NYE. Also, the concept of an “Irish goodbye.” Never heard anybody mention that in Ireland. It’s when you’re out for the night with a group of people and then you just leave without telling anyone. Like I did tonight.
7
How do you improve your ability to focus? You practice. No different to anything else. Except there are all sorts of obstacles to practicing focus. We’re living in the age of distraction, constantly training our brains to look for novel stimuli. Every time your phone beeps you stop to check it. Every time you wait in line you’re scrolling through your Facebook feed. That’s you practicing distraction, the exact opposite of focus.
8
Reading a book about bees. Fascinating creatures. It’s the females that do all the work apparently. The males (drones) don’t even live in the hive as adults. They hang around outside, waiting for the queen to emerge so they can get jiggy with her. Unfortunately, for a male bee getting jigging entails putting his penis in the queen’s “sting chamber.” She then rips it off and he dies. Royally fucked.
9
Listening to a podcast about climate change. That’s one of those things we should all be outraged by… but aren’t. More people are probably outraged by Game Of Thrones spoilers on Facebook. Come to think of it… actually, never mind. A cockroach just dropped from the ceiling onto my chest and now nothing else matters.
10
Critical comment. Heart starts beating faster, and I feel that impulse to defend myself and attack the critic, to prove him wrong and me right. I feel all that, but I’m able now to recognize it and step back for a minute. Take a breath. Okay, what’s a better way to respond? I can ask questions, try to clarify and understand where he’s coming from. Or I can just ignore him.
11
Podcast time, almost 2.5 hours chatting with the Cuz about faith. What happens after we die? Is praying for someone a waste of time? Are some religions better than others? This was our ninth episode, and more than ever I felt we forgot about the audience and talked like we would in private. I’d be surprised if anyone listens to the whole thing, but then I’m surprised anyone reads these Momentos and hundreds of people apparently do.
12
Wondering if I have a block when it comes to money. I get regular offers for sponsored posts on my site, and thus far I’ve always declined. I tell myself it’s to keep my corner of the Internet pure, and only promote stuff I’d be recommending anyway. But I see others making a killing off sponsored posts. It’s often their primary business model, and that income gives them the freedom to do some great things.
13
Fourth rental car in three weeks, headed back to the south of the island, sun setting beyond coastline to my right, a mighty volcano to my left. Got a lot of work done these past three weeks, had a good routine going. The next couple of weeks won’t be so work-focused, with my lady here and a camp about to begin and death on the doorstep back home.
14
Wolfhouse for the first day of Remote Workers Camp. Morning time on a slack line moving like a monkey, then surrounded by good people running down dreams, airport trip with thirteen white roses to pick up la señorita especial, crushed an evening client call, social warm fuzzy dinner by the pool, prep for tomorrow talk, night time all snuggled up. Perfect ten this one.
15
Knew it was coming for a week or so. She’d taken a turn and it was only a matter of time. That old country heart of hers held on longer than anyone expected, but it was a mercy that it finally stopped beating. She had little quality of life the past two years. I’ll be on a plane tomorrow, heading home to pay my respects, in the clouds thinking about life and death.
16
We curse a lot, us Irish people. I find myself spilling expletives more often when I’m home. And on this flight from Lanzarote I’m sitting in the vicinity of some middle-aged folk from West Cork who think nothing of throwing a casual fuck into almost every sentence. Sometimes two in one. I’d fuckin love a cup of tea now I’m fuckin tellin ya.
17
Six of us carrying this wooden box from the pointy building where men dressed in robes said my grandmother is in a place called heaven now. We walk to a hole in the ground and put down the box and some men lower it into the hole and cover it with a sheet of fake grass. Then there are words and tears, singing and hugs and handshakes. I find it hard to believe but I hope those robed men were right.
18
Fresh morning on the way to Cork. Humble mountains in the distance. A valley draped in fog. Lines of cloud across a pale sky. And those green fields stretching out, dotted with farms and cottages. That’s where the custodians live, tasked with taking care of the land as long as they live. To do the job well, they’ll have to give it better than they got.
19
Back in Tenerife. Different landscape. Kayaking across glass as the sun goes down, a white ball fading into the haze. We’ve been paddling a half hour to the feet of the giants, Los Gigantes, massive walls of rock almost a kilometer high. We see odd streaks on the rockface like melted wax running off a candle. We stop paddling and float for a while.
20
Most people selling something don’t want prospective customers to know their competitors exist, especially strong competitors. But holding back like that means you’re not serving people as well as you could be, you’re not pointing them towards the best info, the best service, the best value for money. I like to think you can be a signpost as well as a destination and still do well for yourself.
21
Camp is over, Wolfhouse is quiet. We’re in a hammock in the garden after a tiring day, looking up at a thousand stars. You know how they say many of the stars we see in the night sky may not exist anymore, because the light we see from them has taken millions of years to reach us? Blows my mind every time I think about it.
22
Teide. An active volcano once believed to imprison the devil. Columbus sailed past here on his way to the new world and reported seeing a great fire. Modern-day scientists come to test robotic vehicles destined for Mars. Sulfur dioxide and other gases can be seen spewing from the peak. Four million people visited last year, and we’re locked in a metal box with thirty strangers headed for the top.
23
€121 to rent a car here for eleven days. That’s €11 per day. Ridiculously cheap. What tends to bump up the cost though is parking on the footpath overnight because there’s nare a free space to be found in this town and then you wake up in the morning and the car is gone and you have to walk to the impound and pay €200 to get it back.
24
Looking at an attractions map of Tenerife. Dozens of dive sites around the island (including three shipwrecks), scores of beaches, endless hiking trails, plus all those caves and cliffs and pueblos to visit… you could spend a couple of years here and do something different every week and still not say you’ve seen it all.
25
In a stupid supermarket, scowling at their sub-par hummus. I’m tired and cranky and everything sucks. Why can’t the future hurry up and get here and I’d be wearing some device that would measure my blood sugar and other biological stuff and tell me to eat some cashews or whatever to get my mind right and not be standing here hating the world.
26
Going through 36 questions that lead to love. The fourth: What would constitute a “perfect” day for you? Well, today wasn’t far off. Woke up beside my lady. Morning beach swim and workout. Solid work sessions. Healthy eats and better hummus. Money in my inbox. And now we’re on another beach watching the sky fade and falling deeper.
27
Loving life in Las Palmas, easily one of my favorite places in the world. The coliving situation here is even better than last year, staying at this epic apartment close to the beach. Cost of living is reasonable and there’s a great community of entrepreneurs and digital nomad types. Only issue is my lady can’t stay here for more than three months at a time :-/
28
Coming up on seven years since I quit my last real job. If I had stayed with regular employment I’d surely have a lot more money in the bank by now. But man, the things I’d have missed out on these past seven years. And even on a day-to-day basis, the freedom I have is hard to beat. Simple example: I woke up early this morning, a Thursday, read for three hours, then went back to bed until 11.
29
Beach again, fourth day in a row. We’ll see how long we can keep this streak going. There early today, for a quick bit of movement and a cheeky swim. Had to hurry back to get everything setup for another episode of Digital Nomads Having Coffee. Great guest for it but had some technical issues and the audio/video came out crappy. That annoyed me more than it should.
30
Double date breakfast down by the beach, croissants and coffee and chat. Then road tripped the day away in a rental car with another couple. Stopped off at Roque Nublo, long lunch in a lazy village, then hit up the sand dunes in the south for sunset. Good food, cool people, nice weather, beautiful scenery, and another day with my lady. One of those days that doesn’t cost a lot, but leaves you feeling wealthy.