However probably the one that I have enjoyed the most is the concept of ‘magic time’. I have consciously changed my schedule so that I now wake up generally between 4 - 430 a.m. every day.

... It really hit me. I have a serious blind spot as a TCK. And I think I've had it my whole life, and it has unwittingly gotten me into trouble many times.

Genetically I appear to be a white male. However, growing up as a TCK, I have a very checkered cultural makeup. I can discern five or six major cultural components to my personality.

Road To Buenos Aires – I (¡Voy a ir para Argentina!)

I will be going to my penultimate continent, South America. The only continent that I won’t have been to then will be Antarctica and I think I will get that too before too many years pass. I hope to be adding at least four or five countries to my tally, which is kind of cool for me personally.

My father was a civil engineer,  and, in his early years, a Wyoming cowboy who fought in WWII. He started going overseas, I believe, in the 50s. Certainly before I could walk he had taken his family to Europe on the Queen Mary, and I remember from stories that I was not yet speaking when we moved to Bangladesh (it was East Pakistan then). He worked on numerous projects all over the world, improving roads, dams, bridges, etc. And on average, up until I was 17 or so, we averaged a different country every 2 - 3 years. 

As part of my minimalism kick, over the last year or so I have been going through what few mementos I still had. Most of my keepsakes burned up in a storage unit fire in the year 1999 - lost everything from my childhood and the military and family (very liberating in a way). But I still had stuff that I carried with me.

Minimalism. What does it mean? At the risk of sounding vague, this absolutely depends on the individual. However I am approaching it from the point of view of a serial expatriate, and as a TCK. And I'm sure other serial ex-pats and TCKs will be able to relate to this.

I work out very regularly. There have been times in my life when I don't work out as often as I should, when my commitment has fallen by the wayside, but following the downward spiral of my health some years ago I have been quite, I hesitate to use this word, "religious" about it. Particularly since I had gained a lot of weight and I wanted to lose it. But of course losing weight is mainly diet and not exercise (but that is another story)

It comes from the fact, in western (European) cultures and mythology primarily, that a silver bullet is the one thing needed to kill supernatural creatures, mainly werewolves. From that it grew into a way of speaking about a simple solution to difficult or intractable problems. E.g. "I may have a silver bullet for this problem."

I thought I would have a light hearted discussion about travel bags. I traveled extensively for decades and although I am traveling mainly within Asia, I still travel at least once a month. I have been watching the travel bag industry and I have some comments.

Although I understand and really identify with the idea of a tribe ... I remember from a podcast somebody, I believe Seth Godin, talking about finding the smallest number of people that you can have a positive impact on. I have yet to find that tribe, although I have a good idea of where to start looking.

I feel I'm not ready to blog (and I'm sure I'm not alone) ... but as I heard somewhere ... the best way to done is through begin.