I’ve spent the week in Lake Forest, IL for company training. It’s only a three hour drive from Grand Rapids, Michigan so I rented a car and drove over instead of flying. Less hassles and yep, still like to bring lots of gear when I can. Think I need to start getting bigger rooms!
Hotel wireless was, well, hotel wireless. So not able to get any work done using that. Luckily for me, my phone and tablet can each be used as a hotspot and serve up 4G service using T-Mobile. I was able to work with no issues what so ever.
My connection also allowed me plenty of bandwidth to take some courses using my Udemy account that my company thoughtfully provided to my team. How awesome is that? Never stop learning folks.
Nothing ever goes quite as planned. I arrived in Copenhagen on July 5th expecting to get settled in to my friend’s apartment over the weekend and prepare for working from there for the month. No sooner did I land than my company laptop died. Motherboard was toast. I spent the next 3 days wiping my personal computer clean and installing dozens of programs for work. It was that or head straight back to the states. Not going to happen.
After a lot of work and stress, I was up and running on Monday morning office time and I was able to stay in Denmark for the month. Sorry that I didn’t get any posts up but I did have other things on my mind.
I did have time to take long walks every single day. I almost exclusively photographed the various pathways and trails that I walked each day. None of those typical tourist pictures for me this time around. I’ll be sure to post those on my web site. https://timstauffer.me if you are interested in those.
The lesson for everybody here is that you can always find a way to make things work. If you want to travel and work from anywhere in the world, you can do it. Also, yes I carry a lot of gear when I travel, this is why.
Thanks all. Promise to post much more often now. Here and my other sites as well.
It’s almost that time. I’ll be hitting the road again for a while. I’m heading back over to Denmark where I’ll be spending some time in my favorite city, Copenhagen. I also hope to spend a few days in Aarhus. I would also like to begin visiting all those places that I see reaching out to nomads and expats, trying to get them to consider moving to their village or island. I’ll be sure to take plenty of pictures this time. I really need to start practicing my photography more.
I have my flight to Copenhagen booked. I’ll be flying
through Iceland again which is always interesting. The airport there is always
a bit chaotic, but I always get where I’m going so all is well.
I just got my haircut. Yep, every year before I hit the road whether I need it or not. Saves space in the suitcase as I will not need to pack a brush or comb. Don’t judge me. I’m a busy guy.
I picked up some of the local Danish currency in case my credit cards don’t work right away. I’ve had that happen too often and it’s always quite a hassle.
Immunizations. Here’s a new one. I’ll be staying with a friend who is undergoing radiation therapy, so they have a compromised immune system. So, I set aside my dislike for the American medical system and went in for some shots. The lady there asked if I had current immunizations as she couldn’t find any listed for me. I told her yes, I got my polio and MMR in 1964. She was less than impressed. I then made sure to also mention my most recent one. They pulled us all out of class and gave us shots for smallpox in the early 70’s. The nurse stared at me a second and said flatly “I’m just going to mark down that you have no immunizations and we’ll go from there”. She then left the room for a few minutes and soon returned with a tray full of needles. I’ve certainly had my immunizations now. I can assure you.
Anyways. I think that I’m good to go now. Stay tuned.
The island of Arranmore, or Árainn Mhór in Gaelic, is one of the latest places to market themselves to digital nomads and expats looking for somewhere to settle down. According to a recent article on CNN “With a population on the wane since the 19th century, the picturesque Irish island of Arranmore is down to its last 469 residents”.
The people of Arranmore have reached out to the world, especially Australians and Americans, hoping to persuade them to give island life a chance. They boast of high-speed internet and beaches free of the crush of tourists.
I now have quite a list of villages, cities, states and countries actively working to lure both digital nomads and expats. I do believe that I need to begin to visit these places and do the scouting work for all of you potential new citizens. You’re welcome. More to come.
For now, if you have questions about this program you can get more information here. #ComingHome
It’s almost June. Time for me to update you on my goals and
how well I’ve stuck to them.
Linux – I have made some progress here. I took a couple classes from Edx and worked through a YouTube playlist by tutoriaLinux. Both were helpful and I think I’m making some strong gains. For now, I’m sticking to Ubuntu. Once I have that down a bit better, I’ll play with a couple other distros.
PythonProgramming – I managed to get in one class on Python and watched a couple of useful videos. I’m not ready to get a programming job with it, but I am moving forward and that’s something. Just keep swimming, swimming…
Italian – Very little progress on this one. I did make it through a few more sessions of my Fluenz training. I’m halfway through the second level. Now that I have a 4k monitor I do need to run it from the website though. The installed version shows up as a tiny, pixelated box on this monitor. I’ll try downloading some content before my full day of travel back to Copenhagen and see how that looks. Yep, heading back to my favorite city.
Filmmaking – A big zero on this one. Haven’t even shot a video for YouTube this year except a screen capture using OBS Studio. Don’t think that counts. I’ll get to work on this one. Pinkie swear.
Music Production – Again, very limited time dedicated to this. I did update my FL Studio and bought some Maschine expansion packs that I liked from Native Instruments. I have planned out the type of music that I want to create and have a theme in mind. Now have some sounds that may help to inspire me.
Laptop, Tablet and Cell Phone. Only one of these things will be useful on my next trip
I haven’t posted in a while. I’ve been struggling with a few challenges that have kept me off the road. Then I realized that it was all part of the digital nomad experience and that I should fill you folks in. So here is today’s challenge.
A few months ago I sat down with a sales consultant for T-Mobile. I told him that I would be doing a lot of travel and that 24/7 access to my network and client sites was critical. I let him know that mostly I would be in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. He set me up with a plan that would handle that. Then I said that I wanted the absolute best cell phone and tablet for the job. Something like $1700 later I had a Samsung Galaxy Note9 and Galaxy Tab S4 and was ready to roll.
I tested the coverage and hotspot feature while traveling around the US. Everything looked good. I have spent months getting all of my multi-factor authentication clients set up and working. I now have a ticket for my next flight to Copenhagen in hand.
Guess what I found out today during a last minute ‘confirm everything’ checkup? My phone and tablet will not work in any of the countries that I am traveling to this year. But don’t worry, T-Mobile is willing to sell me another phone and tablet that will work and add them to my account. Are you freaking kidding me? Sure, I’d love to give them more money since they’ve been so good to me up until now.
I purchased a new router last year and left it at a friends apartment outside of Copenhagen. I will have that available while working. So that is covered. I do still need a phone for the trip since my transportation application for bus and train rides will need to be on it. Guess I’m buying a prepaid when I arrive. Can’t let something like this stop me now.
Anybody have a suggestion for a short-term phone carrier in that region? T-Mobile said that I can’t replace my sim card and get coverage. I need a new device. How awesome is that?
Have you seen the new refrigerators out now? Some sport a 21-inch touchscreen and most are now connected to the internet. I’ve seen them going for $2,000 to over $8,000. Here’s some of what Samsung says about this new $2200 fridge.
Samsung Refrigerator-Freezer
Enhanced by a 21.5-inch LCD touchscreen which serves as the refrigerator’s digital command center, and seamlessly connects to your smartphone, the Family Hub™ is a significant advancement in home appliance functionality and design. Whether sharing family calendars, photos and notes; viewing the inside of the fridge with your smartphone while grocery shopping; or accessing your favorite music or television content, Family Hub™ enriches family life in practical and empowering ways.
I’ve even seen that some of the new refrigerators can order your food if you are running out of something. Great. Way to enable me to keep eating that moose tracks ice cream I’ve been promising to give up. Next, it’ll probably order that cute dishwasher I know it’s been checking out.
The question I have is this. Do we really need a refrigerator to be our network server and home entertainment system? That’s an expensive piece of equipment that should have one simple job.
Here’s a suggestion. How about having it do something actually useful? If it absolutely needs to be cruising the internet all day, then have it send me a notification when something in the fridge has been put on recall. Like if metal shavings have been found in the sausage I buy. I would find that more helpful than giving me…weather alerts. Really? Just my thought for the day.
