these thoughts vaguely fit together, i promise
I've found myself developing a taste for doing things I've never done before. Early this summer I determined that if there was a cool thing that I could choose doing instead of whatever normal activity I'd spend or waste time on, I'd pick it without hesitation - because even if all else fails, I could say I tried it and had the experience. There's a sort of trade-off here where I end up exhausted more often, but this is fine because when that happens I can do the spend or waste time on default activities thing to wind down.
I fell out of a plane yesterday. I think I enjoyed it a little less than most of the other people in the party, but in any case I'm very pleased that I did it. I highly recommend it as an "at least once in your lifetime" activity.
After we got back to Palo Alto I just missed the caltrain by retrieving my bike, so decided to bike all the way home on vague instructions and a good sense of direction. (This was much like the last time I did something similar, only my average speed was four times faster.) (Note: Alma has no bike lane nor shoulder, and lots of traffic. A good time was had when I found myself on it unavoidably and thought, "this isn't my finest moment... wait, i'm here from exploring; of course it's one of my finer moments!")
You have to have a particular attitude when wandering along a new path, the biggest part of which is that you don't care how much time it takes - if you've got even the slightest sense of hurry, it will ruin the "live in the present"-type process of figuring out which way to go next. Another important bit is having no fear of getting lost - this works for me by knowing the general geometry of the area enough to realize that if I go far enough one way I'll get to a place I know.
In skydiving as well as in exploring random places, there's a certain pride you get by having the experience under your belt. In skydiving, it's knowing what it's like and how things are done; in exploring, it's having another area mapped out in your head.
I fell out of a plane yesterday. I think I enjoyed it a little less than most of the other people in the party, but in any case I'm very pleased that I did it. I highly recommend it as an "at least once in your lifetime" activity.
After we got back to Palo Alto I just missed the caltrain by retrieving my bike, so decided to bike all the way home on vague instructions and a good sense of direction. (This was much like the last time I did something similar, only my average speed was four times faster.) (Note: Alma has no bike lane nor shoulder, and lots of traffic. A good time was had when I found myself on it unavoidably and thought, "this isn't my finest moment... wait, i'm here from exploring; of course it's one of my finer moments!")
You have to have a particular attitude when wandering along a new path, the biggest part of which is that you don't care how much time it takes - if you've got even the slightest sense of hurry, it will ruin the "live in the present"-type process of figuring out which way to go next. Another important bit is having no fear of getting lost - this works for me by knowing the general geometry of the area enough to realize that if I go far enough one way I'll get to a place I know.
In skydiving as well as in exploring random places, there's a certain pride you get by having the experience under your belt. In skydiving, it's knowing what it's like and how things are done; in exploring, it's having another area mapped out in your head.