Ok. SOOOOO. I’m inspired. Let’s not put the level of inspiration on a 1–10 scale. But suffice to say there’s inspiration present. So thanks to my favorite bloggers over at Lifehacker I have something which is no an unoriginal idea. I’m going to blog every day for 365 days.
Why am I doing this?
To be awesome! Seriously. I want to be awesome. Or at least get better doing something I already enjoy. If you’re not familiar (and I wasn’t before the fellows at Lifehacker explained it to me), “Don’t Break the Chain” is a motivational theory attributed to Jerry Seinfeld. The basic premise is that to improve as a writer (in his case comedic) you need to write everyday. And you have to make yourself accountable. How? Calendar based guilt tripping. Put a calendar on the wall and write an X every day you write. It’s sort of like gamification.
Why 365 Days?
Why’s the sky blue? Such is the Mango. Well. Really. A year just seems like a nice round number. And Chris Strom did it for 366 days and he ended up writing three books. Doesn’t sound too shabby does it?
What’s the goal?
Write and post to my blog everyday. Ideally I want to think of something that interests me every day. Do some research about it. And write. This way I’m always learning something new and interesting.
Don’t you have anything interesting to share today?
Why yes! Thank you for asking. If you must know, the first circumnavigation by a solar powered ship was completed on May 4th. The trip lasted 584 days. This made me wonder a bit. How long does it take to get around the world using another renewable energy source—wind.
After some internet searching I came up with a few examples. First, we appropriately start with the first circumnavigation of the globe. Magellan’s ill-fated voyage around the globe took 1123 days. Out of 237 who originally set out, only 18 made it back and Magellan wasn’t included in that 18. (BTW. Thank you Wikipedia for the awesome facts and figures!). So it made it around the world, but I’d say the win goes to solar power in this case. (click for Wikipedia awesomeness!)
What about the fasted circumnavigation around the globe in a sailboat. Well, that award depends on what type of circumnavigation we’re talking about. Eastward is faster than Westward—it’s a wind direction thing. But let’s focus on the fastest which only took 45 days to circumnavigate the globe. Pretty dang good. (sources)
Ok. So you can get around the world faster if you have the best sailboat in the world. I guess in the grand scheme of things two years with no casualties is much better than the first voyage. But for my money, I’d still rather fly.