From spartanwandering.files.wordpress.comWhy?
Because I can. And tumblr is done-zo. I'm getting new followers everyday, and I love you guys for taking a second to click that button. Comparatively, I'm still a rinky-dink blogger, a drop in the ocean, and still I never thought I'd have this big of an audience. More followers create a problem that tumblr does not address so well: communication. I'm getting a few questions each week ranging from general comments on what I'm doing (which make me blush and keep me writing) to very specific questions regarding visas (thanks to China's bitchy process).
Sometimes these are in the Disqus comments at the bottom of each post. I usually always reply to those. Often they are in tumblr's own "reply" thingy. If I reply to those, it creates a separate post and sort of screws up the appearance that I'm going for, which sucks for me and isn't fair to you guys if I don't respond simply for that reason. Basically, it's a headache to have any substantive dialogue with tumblr's system that was so clearly designed for shorter attention spans. We're better than that, right?
What's new?
As I just mentioned, it will be much easier to comment, for me to see your comment, respond and get a nice discussion going. This month is going to be full of the things I dislike about China, so I'm sure I'll get a lot of flak for that and it will be a great opportunity to put Wordpress through its paces. I tried to keep the design as zen as possible to reflect my minimalist values and make it easily navigable now that there's a few pages. Feel free to look through the archives and subscribe in the sidebar!
What's next?
Okay, some of you may remember me shooting my mouth off about a future ebook. That's still coming, even if by this point it sounds like I'm talking out of my ass. This upgrade to Spartan Wanderer 2.0 was quite impromptu and began with me just fucking around with Wordpress during a break from lesson planning. I liked what I saw. Everything was put on the back-burner until this was finished.
Moving to Wordpress means a new audience and I want to make it easy for them to get caught up with us tumblr veterans. They, too, should be able to see my early, mediocre ramblings. While there is an archive on Wordpress, I will be making a downloadable, offline version. New followers will be able to download every post from the beginning in 2011 to the end of 2013 from the Kindle Store.
After the archive is easily digestible for the masses, I will resume going full steam on the ebook. That's all I'll say about it until I'm closer to getting it up on the web. I haven't thrown up a T-shirt design in a while, so more of those will be coming to Skreened soon. As far as material goes...well, hehe...don't you worry. I'll be going to Harbin's famous ice festival soon, and shortly after that, partying in Hong Kong for the Chinese New Year.
Welcome!
This is where I write about longterm travel and the minimalist lifestyle that makes it easier to pursue and enjoy. I write anything from personal travelogues, to articles on interesting cultural stuff, travel advice, rants and reviews for helpful things in my pack. If I get a lot of questions or comments about a particular issue, I'll write about that. Minimalism is a huge thing here, but I am not part of the establishment that is going to tell you to throw out everything but 100, or 50, or 25 things - with many stipulations excluding cookware and underwear and whatever other mental gymnastics they need to do to sleep at night - in order to be happy.
My only goal is to show as many people as possible how positive a force for good travel can be, and how that lifestyle can be achieved by anyone who wishes to pursue it. Anything beyond that is just gravy. So kick back, open a beer and join the journey. I assure you, it's still quite young.
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