Category: Life

• 📅 Jul 19, 2021 🏷️ Life

  Exercising online privacy rights

  Following Europe’s 2016 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), California passed its own California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in 2020. I won’t pretend to understand the intricacies of the law or the differences between the two, but from what I understand this gives you the right to know exactly what data of yours do businesses use, and request that this information is to not be sold or to be deleted.

  As a California resident, I decided to dedicate a long weekend to exercising my privacy rights. The long weekend turned into a week worth of back and forth with a dozen-or-so companies, and me having a much better idea of what information about me is out there.

  Turned out many large websites provide privacy dashboards where you’re able to review and see information collected or inferred about you. But most of this data is hidden behind a formal request process which takes a few days to a week.

  ---

  First, I decided to stroll through Google’s privacy settings. There are two ways forward: privacy dashboard, or full-on Google Takeout. Google Takeout allows you to download an archive of everything Google has on you, which took a few days to process, and is near impossible to go through while keeping your sanity. So I decided to play with the privacy dashboard instead.

  Google Maps has location history of most places I’ve visited for the past ten or so years (creepy, but I found it useful on more than one occasion), and YouTube and Search history stores thousands of searches. I already had Assistant history disabled, since storing audio recordings is apparently where I draw the line when it comes to privacy. Targeted ad profile was an interesting thing to look at, accurately summing up my lifestyle in 50 words or less. I ended up disabling targeted ads from Google (and all other services as I went about on my privacy crusade).

  Google had some of the finest privacy controls compared to other services, with actionable privacy-leaning suggestions. Google’s not known for its services playing well together, but privacy is where Google feels closer to Apple experience - everything is in a single place, surfaced in the same format, easy to control, and plays well together. Given the amount of transparency and fine grained control, I feel pretty good staying in the Google ecosystem.

  ---

  Next I looked at LinkedIn. Outside of the expected things – emails, phone numbers, messages, invitations, and a history of just about everything I’ve ever clicked on, a file labeled “inferences” stood out. Whether LinkedIn thinks you’re open to job seeking opportunities, or what stage of career you are in, or if you travel for businesses, or if you’re a recruiter or maybe a senior leader in your company.

  Since LinkedIn is a professional network, all information I share is well curated and is meant as public by default – and I found LinkedIn privacy settings in line with my expectations.

  ---

  As an avid gamer, I went through Steam, Good Old Games, Ubisoft, Epic Games, and Origin privacy details. Unsurprisingly, the services tracked every time I launched every game, shopping preferences, and so on. Thankfully the data seemed confined to the world of gaming – which made this level of being creepy somewhat okay in my book.

  I also looked at random websites I use somewhat frequently – Reddit, StackOverflow, PayPal, Venmo, AirBnB, and some others – not too many surprises there, although I did end up tightening privacy settings and opting out of personal data sharing and ad tracking for every service.

  Last year I requested deletion of all my data on Mint, Personal Capital, and YNAB (You Need a Budget), and to be honest I’m a little relived that I didn’t have to look at the data these companies had on me.

  ---

  Amazon data sharing turned out to be the scariest finding. Until now I didn’t really self-identify as a heavy Amazon user, but that turned out to be a lie: Prime shopping, Kindle, Audible, Prime Video.

  The amount of data Amazon kept on me was overwhelming: Kindle and Audible track every time I read, play, or pause books, the Amazon website keeps full track of browsing habits, and Prime Video has detailed watch times and history. Most of this data ties back into real world – including nearly every address I ever lived at or phone numbers I had.

  Even scarier, despite never using Alexa, I found numerous recordings of my voice from close to a decade ago – me checking status of the packages, but a few of me just breathing and walking around. I found no way of deleting these, as they didn’t show up in any privacy settings (including me installing an Alexa app just to get into privacy settings).

  All of this gave me pause. It feels like the privacy controls are either lacking, hidden, or spread out thin across Amazon’s various apps. And I’ve only briefly scanned through the data Amazon had on me.

  ---

  That’s where I had to take a break.

  I have accounts with hundreds of services, and I have no idea how my personal data is used, and what it’s joined with. As I’m go on about my daily life, I’ll start tightening privacy controls, and maybe deleting services and their data where possible.

  It’s just too creepy for my taste.

  ---

  While you have control over the services you have accounts for, companies and ISPs collect a trove of private information on you even while you’re not logged in. For that, I strongly recommend using a VPN. I’ve been using PIA since 2019 and I’ve been very happy with it. Wholeheartedly recommend.

• 📅 Nov 11, 2020 🏷️ Life

  Writing for fun

  I’ve had this blog since 2012, and I’m only now getting close to my 100th post. All because I’m a perfectionist, which sure as hell didn’t make me a better writer.

  I love writing, and I feel like I’m getting better after every piece I write - be it publishing blog posts, journaling, countless design docs, navigating email politics, or writing a book. I write a lot, about many different topics - if I’m interested in the topic for at least a few hours - you can bet I’ll write about it.

  

  Then how come this blog barely gets one post per month?

  I meticulously research and edit, generously discard drafts, and it often takes me days strung across weeks to put something together. Something that I feel is worthy of being displayed next to my name. Perfectionism at its core, attached to hobbyist web content.

  I struggled with this when writing Mastering Vim too - the first edition was rushed out by the publisher long before it was ready, with various errors and inconsistencies in it, and a few downright unfinished bits. It took over a year of me avoiding even thinking about the book and two more editions to become comfortable with merely sharing that I published a book.

  And all of this sucks the joy out of writing. I’m not a for-profit writer. It’s not part of my career path, and I obviously didn’t go to school for it (not that I went to school for anything else). And it sure as hell shouldn’t be grueling to have to come up with what to write.

  This blog has a rather modest following - it brings in around 3,000 readers a month, with a few regulars sprinkled here and there (honestly - I would love to meet at least one of you weirdos someday). I don’t target a particular market niche, I don’t have a content or SEO strategy, and I opportunistically monetize to cover the website running costs.

  What’s crazy is that nearly half of that traffic is organic search for a quick note I jotted down back in 2013! I could spend weeks putting together a literary love child and not even get a fraction of attention this back of the napkin screenshot received.

  Back in 2012 I used this blog as a way to categorize my discoveries about developing software, and later what I’ve learned about working with people. Over the years I gradually expanded to travel (including that time I lived in my car for a year), and general things I like - like keyboards or tabletop role playing games.

  I’m putting this together to remind myself that I love writing and why I started this blog. That not every piece of content requires hours of research, or even have a clear audience in mind for that matter.

  I wouldn’t have blinked an eye flooding this blog with unfiltered thoughts, perspectives, and experiences if it wasn’t attached to my real world persona. It’s easy to throw out something I perceive as “unworthy” anonymously. It’s mortifying to publish such a piece at my-first-name-last-name-dot-com.

  So here it is, the first post I wrote purely for fun! I’m still taking a light editing pass on it, and drastically cutting it down in size - I’m not a savage! But unlike in my usual writing, there’s no clear value I’m providing or a skill I’m trying to teach - and that’s a huge step for me. Feels good!

• 📅 May 4, 2020 🏷️ Life · Productivity · Work

  Adjusting to working from home

  Like many, I moved to working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parts of California enacted shelter-in-place order back in March, and it’s been over a month and a half since then. I briefly worked from home back in 2013 as a freelancer - and I really got the whole work/life balance thing wrong. So this time around I’ve decided to approach remote work with a plan.

  My day begins around 7 or 8 am, without too much deviation from schedule. I used to bike to work before the pandemic, and I try to head out for a 30 minute ride in a morning a few days a week. There aren’t a lot of people out early, and I love starting my day with some light cardio.

  I share breakfast and coffee with my partner, often while catching up on our favorite morning TV show. At the moment I’m being educated on Avatar: The Last Airbender. Ugh, Azula!

  Breakfast is followed by a calendar sync. We check if either of us have overlapping or sensitive meetings. That way we know which calls either of us needs to take in another room - and which are okay to have in our workspace. Both of our desks are in the living room, and we use noise cancelling headphones throughout the day to help with focus. During the day we convert our bedroom to an ad hoc conference room.

  

  By 9 am, I have my desk set up: I replace my personal laptop with its corporate-issued counterpart. An external webcam helps with the image quality, and a dedicated display, keyboard (Vortex Pok3r with Matt3o Nerd DSA key cap set), and a mouse (Glorious Model O-) alleviate the cramped feeling I get when using a laptop.

  Most importantly, I’m showered, groomed, and dressed by this time. While working in whatever I slept in has worked well for occasional remote Fridays, it proved to be unsustainable for prolonged remote work. Whenever I wasn’t dressed for work, I found myself slowly drifting towards the couch, and trading a laptop for my phone. In fact, some days I dress up even more than I used to when going to the office!

  This is where the clear separation between home and work is established. I’m fully dressed and have my workstation set up: it’s work time!

  I spend the next few hours busy with heads down work, usually working on a design, writing some code, or doing anything which requires concentration. Playing something like a Rainy Cafe in the background helps me stay in the zone.

  Back in the office, 11 am used to be my workout time: a gym buddy of mine would consistency exercise at 11 am, and I adopted the habit of joining him over the past few years. I decided not to move the time slot: at 11 am I change into my workout clothes and exercise: 30 to 45 minutes of bodyweight exercises or online classes use up the remainder of my morning willpower. I’m so glad there are thousands of YouTube videos to keep me company!

  My partner and I alternate cooking, and the next hour or so is reserved for cooking, lunch together, and cleanup. Remember the noise cancelling headphones? We haven’t heard (and often seen) each other since morning! Getting to share lunch daily has definitely been the highlight of staying at home for me.

  After that - back to work: design reviews, meetings, busywork.

  I wrap up around 5 pm, and make a point not to work past that. I swap out my work laptop for my own (even if I’m not planning to use it), and stow it away for the night. Disassembling my setup paired with showering and changing into house clothes creates a solid dividing line between work and home.

  Cooking dinner together and evening activities follow, but that’s a story for another time. Stay healthy and productive!

• 📅 Aug 11, 2018 🏷️ Life · Gadgets

  Minimalist phone launcher

  For the past few years I’ve been trying to focus on having more mindful experiences in my life. I find it rewarding to be present in the moment, without my thoughts rushing onto whatever awaits me next.

  I present to you the biggest distraction: my phone.

  I use to get in touch with people I love. I’m more productive at work because I have access to information on the go. I also use my phone to browse Reddit, YouTube, and every other media outlet imaginable. Even worse, sometimes I just waste time tinkering with the settings or mindlessly browsing through the apps I have installed.

  It’s an attention sink.

  Nearly a year ago as I was browsing the Google Play Store I bumped into a new launcher: KISS. The tag line caught my attention: “Keep It Simple, Stupid”. I went ahead and downloaded the launcher. I haven’t changed to another launcher since.

  Here’s how my home screen looks today:

  

  There’s nothing besides a single search bar. The search bar takes me to the apps I need, web searches I’m interested in, or people I’m trying to reach out to.

  It’s simple to use. Start typing an app or a contact name, and the results show up above the search bar:

  

  This simple concept has been responsible for cutting hours upon hours from my phone usage. Opening an app becomes a more deliberate experience, I open my phone with a purpose (granted this purpose might be to kill hours looking at cat videos). There’s no more scrolling through everything I have installed just to find something to stimulate my attention for a few more seconds.

  You can download the KISS Launcher for Android from Google Play Store.

• 📅 Mar 26, 2018 🏷️ Life · Programming · Travel

  Making a packing spreadsheet

  Being the unique person I am, I love traveling. Oftentimes I end up getting deep into trying to optimize my packing methods. There are dozens of tools online designed to help with this exact thing (services like Lighterpack or GearGrams). But, being handy with code, I decided to dabble in the subject on my own.

  One of the most important things in packing is the overall weight of the pack, and I always want to know what type of things are the heaviest. I also want to be able to run random queries on my data, whatever it is that I’m trying to learn. I want to have an inventory of items (backpacks, clothes, storage solutions) which I can plug in and out of a spreadsheet to see how the resulting picture changes on the go. Working with software as my day job, I’d also like for the solution to be automated whenever possible.

  Google Spreadsheets turned out to be the perfect solution, providing the ability to quickly sum up the weight of my things and output insights about the data.

  Final Result

  Here’s a link to the spreadsheet, I encourage the reader to copy and play around with in anyway you see fit.

  Here’s the final result for a multi-day trip I will have for this year. As you can see, my pack weighs around 3 kilograms or a bit over 6 freedom units (not including water). My recently purchased Nintendo Switch is the heaviest item (and it’s worth every gram as it makes flying tolerable), but clothes take up most of the weight:

  

  I use indentation levels to show that some items are contained within other items. This also lets me calculate the absolute and relative weights of a whole container with everything inside of it (see fields labeled “Container” and “Percentage”).

  The “Weight” and the “Breakdown” fields indicate absolute and relative item weight respectively, which accounts for quantity of the item (quantity defaults to 1 if not explicitly set). Weight-related fields are color coded from lightest items in green to heaviest items in red.

  Categories are used to group items and execute queries on the data and learn insights like these:

  

  There’s a separate sheet where I enter item names, categories, and weights, which I then use to automatically populate values above and autofill item names in the primary sheet:

  

  The Technical Details

  I haven’t worked with Google Spreadsheets (or Excel for that matter) a lot in the past, but with an access to clear documentation (and a hundred of web searches later) it was straightforward to get the hang of the it.

  I started off by manually populating the final result sheet, manually adjusting formulas for Container/Percentage cells, as I had no idea how I would detect the indentation yet. I like when things look pretty, so I applied conditional formatting rules right away, and the looks of the sheet really haven’t changed throughout the process.

  Next, I created an inventory sheet, which I wanted to use as a source of data in the resulting sheet. A few Google searches and some trial & error resulted in a lookup formula:

  =ArrayFormula(
   IF(
     NOT(ISBLANK($B2)),
     INDEX(InventoryCategories, MATCH($B2, InventoryItems, 0)),
     IF(
       NOT(ISBLANK($C2)),
       INDEX(InventoryCategories, MATCH($C2, InventoryItems, 0)),
       INDEX(InventoryCategories, MATCH($D2, InventoryItems, 0))
     )
    )
  )
  

  ArrayFormula is necessary in order to create arrays on the fly without printing intermediate results in the spreadsheet. InventoryItems and InventoryCategories are named ranges referring to item names and categories in the inventory sheet. MATCH finds an index of a first occurrence of the item name in the sheet, and retrieves corresponding category name. An item weight is retrieved by the exact same principle.

  Trying to find the container weight took a lot more time, and resulted in a lot more headache. Solution for handling indentation in Google Spreadsheets wasn’t as elegant as I would have hoped for, but it got the job done:

  =ArrayFormula(
       SUM(
         $I2:INDIRECT(
           CONCATENATE(
             "$I",
             ROW() + IF(
               NOT(ISBLANK($B2)),
               MATCH(FALSE, ISBLANK($B3:$B), 0),
               MATCH(FALSE, ISBLANK($C3:$C), 0)
             ) - 1
           )
         )
       )
  

  The formula above finds the first non-empty cell in a column. It starts searching from the next row (for example, for an item on a second row, we look at the third row and below). After it knows which row first non-empty cell is in, the formula turns it into a string (column $I contains item weights) and use it as an upper bound of a sum of the weights. Finished formula is a bit longer (it adds sugar to only display the number when needed), and if you’re interested - you can look it up in the spreadsheet.

  

  For example, in the screenshot above, the formula will start looking at cells in a column right after the “Packing cube”. As soon as it finds a non-empty cell (“Nintendo Switch case”), the formula will determine this row to be an upper boundary. The formula then will sum weights starting with a “Packing cube” row, and up to but not including “Nintendo Switch case” row.

  The rest involved many small tweaks, adding pretty colors, hiding N/A errors and zeroes, and trying to find the perfect shade for column borders.

  And, since you made it this far, here’s how the numbers above look in the real world:

  

  Hopefully you found this useful, or at least somewhat entertaining. There’s a lot of room for improvement, and I aimed to provide a framework and a few basic ideas for building a spreadsheet to accommodate one’s twisted ultralight needs.

• 📅 Nov 13, 2017 🏷️ Life · Travel

  A trip to Salt Lake City

  This article is a collaboration between my partner and I.

  Since moving into a studio, I have missed the freedom of taking off randomly, getting to know a different city or state and overall not being tied down to a routine or a location. I love the idea of trivializing travel, so it was only natural to have a random trip at the end of the week.

  My partner watches The Bucket List Family on a weekly basis and caught the traveling bug as well. Unfortunately, we are not yet at the level where we can afford a 5 star trip to international locals or have companies pay for our travels (one day!). Our goal was to spend a few days going out of state to break the work week and avoid living for the weekend.

  

  We decided to leave Northern California on Thursday afternoon for Salt Lake City, Utah as soon as we were done with work. Roughly 800 miles each way, if one counts exits and driving around sightseeing. Inspired by an acquaintance who travels the world with a folding bike, my partner and we took our bikes with us: a borrowed Brompton folding bike for my partner in the back seat, and my ZycleFix Prime mounted on the rack in the rear.

  

  Driving through California, Nevada, and Utah on I-80 was always one of my favorites - and it was nice to share the wonders of the world with my partner. She clocked in a lot more international travel than I did, but only been to a handful of states. It was her first time in Utah and each stop on the way to the Salt Flats exposed us to all kinds of people, different from the type of individuals we typically see inside the Silicon Valley tech bubble. We saw people with different lives, habits, hobbies, and worldviews, which to be perfectly honest, was refreshing.

  Throughout the trip, we made it a point not to make any plans and go with the flow – be it our driving pace, entertainment or food options, or cities we decided to stay the night in. Traveling that way removed the stress associated with finding the perfect location and planning a fun trip. Don’t like the town we stopped at? Let’s keep driving. Enjoy a specific city? Let’s spend the night there. Having issues at a hotel? Back on the road we go.

  

  We found a hotel while driving on the I-80 and settled there for the night. Unfortunately the place did not have a strong enough WiFi, which led us to drive to the next town over for coffee and internet to work remotely. We ended up spending 6 hours in the coffee shop making sure that we kept ourselves well caffeinated and the servers well tipped. After a somewhat productive day, we decided to explore the city’s downtown and save the Salt Flats drive for the daytime.

  Our Super 8 Motel in Wendover cost us around $70 for the night and was more comfortable than expected. We ended up passing out as soon as we got to the room, exhausted from the day. We tried to stay at cheaper hotels/motels, while avoiding shady looking places. We would most often pick the 2nd or 3rd cheapest option. We never stayed in one place for more than a night and lucked out every time we got ourselves a room. Every room we slept in was clean and we even managed to squeeze in a daily workout before the start of each day.

  Keeping a healthy diet on the other hand was a whole other challenge. Between cafes, restaurants and late night cravings, we failed at maintaining proper eating habits and saving on food. We spent around $300 on food alone. Eating is definitely one area for improvement, especially as we decide to travel more. Dieting is hard and dieting on the road is even harder.

  On Saturday, we finally headed to Utah and stopped at a rest stop by the Salt Flats. The view was marvelous and cold for an October day. We left the Salt Flats for a mall, City Creek Center, in Salt Lake City where we had another amazingly delicious and unhealthy lunch. To feel better about our life choices, we used our bikes to get some cardio and discover the city on two-wheels. We biked through Memory Grove Park, crashed a wedding, and biked almost to the Capitol. Almost. Due to Salt Lake’s incredible, deadly hills. Next time, SLC, next time we shall conquer you.

  

  After a day of biking and testing each other’s patience, we decided to go for a date night and talk through our attempts at making life on the road work. Traveling solo is a very different experience than traveling with a partner. We chatted over Brazilian BBQ, another unhealthy choice, and agreed that we needed to include time alone as part of our travel routine and constantly check in with each other.

  We headed to the hotel and decided to leave back for California after breakfast on Sunday. Oh, and on the topic of car, the subject of staying in the Prius or camping came up a few times. We even prepared our tents in that event but the cold weather and the thought of a hot shower took priority… Oh well, hotel Prius will get more use some other time.

  In one day, we drove from Utah back to Northern California. We have different memories of the road back. For her, it was long and slow. For me as a driver, it passed within a blink of an eye. Overall, our trip to Utah was a success and we learned a lot:

  1. Nothing can replace the freedom associated with the absence of a plan. When there’s no agenda or times to be at specific places - you’re never late, never in a hurry, and you’ve always seen more than you planned for. It allowed us to be surprised and delighted by places we encountered without imposing our pace on said locations.
  2. Taking time for oneself is a necessity when traveling with someone else. Time alone does not always mean actually being alone. It can be whatever works for you as a couple. For us, it’s spending time on our devices while sitting next to each other.
  3. Approaching each location with an open mind. You are not always going to get to travel to exotic places like the Bahamas, but the opportunity to fall in love with a place or its people is always there.
• 📅 Oct 15, 2017 🏷️ Life · Travel

  Him and her: what's inside the bag?

  Living in a car for nearly a year made me pick up number of travel-related skills, here and there. Having limited available space forced “less is more” philosophy on me, and it’s something I carried over into more stationary life. Right now I’m taking a break from car dwelling and living in a small apartment in Bay Area. It didn’t stop my love for travel though, as I’m writing this entry on my flight to Nassau, Bahamas. 5 days at the destination, leisure. One of the many weekends I’m not home.

  

  I’m not traveling alone this time, and my traveling partner has a similar outlook on travel.

  Him

  Less is more. Every trip starts with packing. I use my eBags Motherlode Weekender backpack, which is about the perfect size for me when it’s compressed tightly. I can probably fit in double the stuff I packed in the backpack, but I love having room in case I pick something up at the destination.

  I never have to check in my bag, and it’s light enough to carry on my back without any strain. I can explore my destination as soon as I arrive, without the need to find arrangement for my bags.

  

  I pack minimally, only having two-three sets of each type of clothing. I hand-wash the clothes I wear before I go to bed. I cycle through a total of 3 pairs of undergarments - most dry overnight as I sleep.

  Furthermore, all my outfits can be mixed and matched together, so I don’t have to worry about pairing tops, bottoms, and shoes. I like to think I have some sense of style to, for those wondering. Most people I meet won’t likely see me for more then one-two days in a row, and those who do are not likely to pay attention to my small wardrobe - as long as it looks clean and sharp.

  Here’s what the clothing items for this trip look like:

  

  • Business-casual dress-shirt.
  • Two T-shirts.
  • Pair of shorts.
  • Icebreaker merino underwear, 2 pairs.
  • Darn Tough socks, 2 pairs.
  • Jacket.
  • Swimming trunks.
  • Travel towel, for the beach.
  • Flip flops.
  • Workout outfit:
    • Tank top.
    • Shorts.
    • Sports underwear.
    • Running sneakers.

  All of the above is contained within a single packing cube and a travel shoe bag.

  Doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s plenty (add the outfit I’m wearing on the plane - pants, T-shirt, sweater, shoes, pair of underwear, socks). The above lets me have outfits for all kinds of events, activities, and anticipated weather at the destination.

  My personal hygiene stuff fits in a dettachable bag which comes with the backpack. Not much special here:

  • Toothbrushes.
  • Toothpaste.
  • Floss.
  • Deodorant.
  • Hairbrush.
  • Quick dry scrub net.
  • Contact lenses.

  For entertainment and downtime I have my trusty Google Pixel C (with attached keyboard) and a pair of cheap apple ear buds. Bonus point for USB C standard - I only need to use a single charger for my tablet and a phone.

  Her

  Traveling with a space obsessed partner (him: Hey!) has forced me to look at packing in a different way. I first experimented with the idea of minimalism after watching The BucketList Family and avoiding airline fees is always a bonus. With every trips, I refined my set up. While I am not as lightweight and nimble as my partner, I have made significant improvements to my travel routine and picked up a few tips and tricks from him.

  

  For example, the eBag Weekender was my first real travel purchase, which I made sure to always have ready for use, meaning that it’s always stocked with toiletries, travel documents and packing cubes. Given my propensity for sweating, I upgraded to a clean/dirty packing cube and a charcoal odor remover for my workout outfit.

  

  For this trip, this is what is inside my bag including the clothes I am wearing to travel:

  On me:

  • A tank top.
  • A hoodie.
  • A denim jacket.
  • Lululemon leggings.
  • Bra and underwear.
  • Sandals

  In my luggage:

  

  • Button on shirt.
  • Tank top.
  • T-shirt.
  • Pair of pants.
  • Pair of shorts.
  • Rain jacket.
  • 5 pairs of underwear (one is never too prepared in terms of underwear, and this is where I refuse to become a minimalist).
  • Workout oufit:
    • Leggings.
    • Dry fit T-shirt.
    • One pair of socks.
    • Workout bra.
    • Sports sneakers.
    • Bikini

  Toiletries:

  • Foundation.
  • Makeup brush.
  • Travel-friendly lotion.
  • Natural oil for face washing purposes.
  • Feminine hygiene soap
  • Ingrown hair serum.
  • L’Instant de Guerlain perfume (while the current bottle takes a lot of space and adds weight, I have yet to find a travel friendly way to carry it).

  If you haven’t noticed, my backpack is bigger, and my setup is a bit heavier. To be perfectly honest, I am not yet fully on board with this whole minimalistic travel but I have got to say, my shoulders are thankful.

  Making Yourself at Home

  We’ve learned from the bucket list family that it’s really important to unpack as soon as we get to a hotel. Especially since it’s easy to do when there’s little clothing in the bags. This way we feel at home whenever we go, even if we’re just staying at a hotel for a single night. Every item is in it’s place, and there’s no digging through the bags for clothes or gadgets.

  

  We’ve also found that we really value downtime, every day we travel. Taking time to unwind (however long it needs to be) in the hotel room, a coffee shop, or anywhere else helps take the edge off flying and booking accommodations and the subconscious pressure to have fun as a pair.

  We’ve learned this the hard way on our first trip together. Our days were packed with activities and sightseeing stops, and we were at each other’s throats by the end of the trip. Lesson learned.

• 📅 May 9, 2017 🏷️ Life · Travel

  Journey of a friend

  A close friend of mine has a story similar to mine. She wanted to share it for a while now, and I’m humbled she chose my blog as a medium for telling her inspiring story to the strangers on the Internet:

  

  I can’t count the number of times I have attempted to tell this story on paper. It all started 8 months ago when my then-husband, let’s call him Carl, told me that he no longer loved me and was in love with someone else. There are a few moments in life that seem to happen in slow motion and this was one of them. Until then, my life had been being Carl’s wife and in the blink of an eye, I had to figure out who I was in a world without Carl. I forced myself to write every thoughts I had, dark, depressed, once a day but it didn’t stick. I bought various domain names hoping that it would give me the final push to start writing all this down but all the sites remained “under construction”. So here is my final attempt to write this up, organize my thoughts and hopefully let someone going through this know that they are not alone. How did I get here? Well funny you should ask, pull up a chair and listen to my tale.

  Carl and I met when we were 22 and 18 respectively. It was far from love at first sight but he intrigued me. I had just got out of an unhealthy relationship and wanted something different and Carl was that, unapologetically himself. Up until then, I had always felt pressure to conform to the idea of who others wanted me to be and meeting Carl, who let’s be honest was a straight nerd, was surprisingly refreshing and attractive. We dated for 5 years before getting married. We struggled with money throughout the first years of our relationship so when the opportunity to make more at a job I was unqualified for presented itself, we jumped at the chance. We packed our bags and moved for my job. Thus started the beginning of the end. I was so focused on keeping said job that I overworked, became a ball of nerves and lost all desires to do anything outside of work. While I struggled with the demand of the job, Carl found refuge with his younger, funner coworkers. We started living separate lives, which eventually led up to the fateful day when my husband told me that he loved someone else.

  I will not bore you with the details of my attempts to become a stable, contributing member of society. It included a lot of sleepless night, Nutella for dinner, and lies. I would smile everyday as I got to work, joked with co-workers and call family members and friends to discuss everything and anything when deep down all I wanted to do was to crawl in a dark place and wallow in my sadness. This period led to a lot of physical and mental changes. I lost 20 pounds in 2 months due to stress but the vain person in me was happy to see myself get skinny. Mentally, I had to come clean to my family and explain to them how I became the first divorced person in a deeply catholic family. I created a smaller, more dependable community of friends, most of them divorced or separated who could provide me with a different perspective. I had to admit to my manager that I could not continue work as is. Maintaining the lies became exhausting and emotionally draining. One had to give and after a heart to heart with my manager, I decided to cash out all my vacation hours and head out to Southeast Asia for a month.

  Prior to Southeast Asia, I had never vacationed alone. For the first time in my life, I was in charge of my itinerary and my own entertainment. It was overwhelming. After discussing the trip with veteran solo travelers, I only purchased one ticket. All I knew was my departing and arrival date from and to the US. I arrived at my first stop, Ho Chi Minh City, at midnight on a blazing hot night. The bustle of the city took me aback and made me question the trip in its entirety. I was running away and I knew it. I have always thought of myself as a strong person but dealing with this separation made me feel like a scared kid. Just as I was going through this mental exercise, my cab driver hit a motorcyclist and the impact broke one of his side view mirrors. The driver angrily got out of the car and argued with the individual he had just hit. They spoke in Vietnamese for what felt like hours and came back without explanations. At that point, I was sure that this entire trip was a mistake and if I had spoken the language, I would have asked the driver to turn and drop me back at the airport.

  The rest of the drive to the hotel was much calmer with the occasional surprise looks from locals seeing a black tourist through a taxi window at midnight. Blame it on stress, jet lag or even regret but for the first time in months I slept for more than 4 hours. Somewhat invigorated by the night of sleep, I decided to venture into the city to find food. After multiple failed attempts to cross one of the main traffic arteries, I gave up and sat down miserably looking at a bowl of pho from a restaurant located in the same block as my hotel. The Ho Chi Minh City traffic had won once again. I sat by a window seat, staring into the street, dreading the rest of this Southeast Asia trip. To travel Asia required an adventure spirit and it only took me 2 days to recognize that this was not one of my hidden talents. I told myself, only half believing it, that my second stop might be different but deep down, I knew I was on my way to yet another disappointing time.

  

  Bangkok was a life changing stop for my trip and myself as a person. I had contacted a Turkish-based traveler on CouchSurfing visiting Bangkok during the same time. I was excited to meet up with someone that could understand the struggles of being in an unfamiliar country. This guy learned English by watching American sitcoms but did not let his basic knowledge of English or his lack of Thai stop him. It led to some interesting conversations about the meaning of “Netflix and Chill” and other American colloquialisms. Seeing him tackle the challenges of navigating a foreign city showed me what my journey could look like. Not only did he help me see the wonders of being open to the world, but he also inadvertently started my process of self love. Let me explain. To avoid having to carry a heavy suitcase and pay airline fees, I limited my wardrobe to whatever could fit in a carry-on backpack. As a relatively fashion-focused person, this decision was uncomfortable. With that in mind and the unforgiving sun, I was either dripped in sweat or looking like a lost 1920s explorer. Having someone still think that I looked good in those conditions did wonders for my broken self esteem. We spend 4 adventures filled days and parted ways. We still talk to each other and I am grateful to have encountered him so early on during my trip. I finally embraced the lack of structure and decided to thrive through it. Remember this word “Thrive”, it will come back later on in this story.

  

  After Bangkok, I headed to Chiang Mai for the Lantern Festival. Given my positive experience with CouchSurfing, I decided to continue using it to meet locals and travelers throughout my stops. I used all the lessons learned in Bangkok and forced myself to open up to people. I had a heart wrenching conversation with an American girl trying to find herself in the world despite familial and societal pressures. We quickly bonded and within minutes were sharing our deepest darkest fears. In addition to looking differently at people, I started focusing on things that made me happy. I took a Thai cooking class, a skill I desperately lacked in, and learned Muay Thai. With each new activity I undertook, I felt a change inside of me. I was slowly starting to fall in love with myself.

  

  Next stop: Singapore. A few coworkers happened to be there around the same time and I had always been intrigued by the country. I experienced the country’s renowned cleanliness, mix of cultures and wide array of food options. It was in Singapore that I learned another fact about myself: I loved meeting new people. I struck conversations with random people in elevators, buses or hotels. Not having an itinerary turned out to be a blessing. I ended up extending my time in Singapore and enjoyed some retail therapy from one of the cities’ amazing malls.

  My goal for this trip was not only self discovery but also to be fully emerged in each country’s history and culture. So that meant that I purposely landed in each new locations not knowing anything about religious beliefs, language and social norms. It worked in my favor up until I arrived in Kuala Lumpur. On my first day in the country, I had planned to follow my typical plan and visit the national and art museums to learn about Malaysian culture. Unfortunately, I arrived during yellow and red shirt protests. All local attractions were closed and I ended up smack in a protest. While I am sure I was never in any real danger, being stuck in the middle of a screaming and upset group of people was scary. I took refuge in a nearby mall and ended up being stranded there for 4 hours. No taxis or Ubers wanted to come to my location due to road closures and fears of property damages. With each hour, I got more and more scared and worried. When I was finally able to get to my hotel, I made arrangements to leave the day after to go to Cambodia. I am hoping to go back to KL and get a chance to see all the city has to offer.

  After my failure in Malaysia, I landed in Siem Reap defeated. Cambodia was breathtaking. It was the first time that I saw real poverty and luxury in the same location. It was in Siem Reap that I realized how small my problems really were. I saw and talked to people struggling to afford day to day life and here I was suffering from a broken heart. Siem Reap helped me refocus and gave me a different perspective. It wasn’t about what my problems were but how I approached them. I was not as powerless as I thought I was. I could make the choice to not let my situations impact me and move forward. There, I met some of the most life-loving individuals. As we were exchanging travel stories and tips, we all realized that we were into the same type of music. One of the members of the group ran to his hotel room and brought back his turntables. We had an impromptu dance party in the middle of Siem Reap. I sang and danced my heart away to familiar songs in a an unfamiliar land with unfamiliar people. At that time, I realized that I was happy. For the first time in months, there were no hidden emotions behind my smile, it was pure happiness and I never wanted it to end.

  I went to Angkor Wat at sunrise and felt lost and transported to a different world visiting all the cultural sites of the country. The Tuol Seng prison and the lives lost there forced me to put my life into perspective. I realized the following facts that I knew deep down but up until then was unwilling to accept: 1) I was getting divorced, 2) I was deeply hurt that I wasn’t enough for my husband , 3) I still loved Carl and needed to respect his choice, 4) This was not the end for me. Weirdly, coming to these realizations made me calmer. I knew what I had to do. I had to use the remaining days of this trip to try to discover as much as I could about myself.

  

  Along with self discovery and adventure-filled days came the not-so fun ones. Thanksgiving day landed while I was in Phnom Penh. As an immigrant, Thanksgiving meant spending time with Carl’s family. Up until Thanksgiving day, I thought about Carl during my trip but never more than “Carl would have loved eating this, or visiting this area or enjoyed talking with this individual”. But as I was staring at my plate of mashed potatoes and turkey, I not only felt a overwhelming sense of loss but also felt shame. Only a few hours prior, I was reveling in the country’s history and congratulating myself in having a fresh new perspective on life. I could not finish my plate and walked back to my hotel room beaten. For the first time since I started on this adventure, I was happy that I was traveling alone. I spent the rest of my day watching TV locked in my hotel room.

  After 3 weeks on the road, I headed back to Vietnam for my last week abroad. For convenience, I reserved a room in the same hotel I had checked at the beginning of this trip. I suddenly realized that the person who checked in 3 weeks ago was not the person who was walking in. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was specifically but I felt more confident and more at peace with myself. A former coworker traveling in Ho Chi Minh City at the same time reached out and we connected for dinner. His first words to me were “… so, what is going on, where is your husband?” We hadn’t seen each other for 4 years and apparently, my social media accounts had become a “Eat, Pray, Love” tribute. I explained my current situation, no longer ashamed of the fact that I had a failed marriage, and we traded travel stories. He had not left his hotel room until our meeting because he was overwhelmed by the city, especially the traffic. I can’t put into words how satisfying it was for me to be able to teach him how to cross the road. I fondly remembered my old self, seating defeated in front of a bowl of pho. I couldn’t have engineered a better end to 4 wonderful weeks in paradise.

  

  Of course I glanced over many more experiences, people and locations visited. It would take days to write it all. I came back to the US on a high that I knew would not last but I was determined to keep it as long as possible. I had felt true happiness and connected with new people for the first time in 7 months. I was accepted even after I showed my true, deeply flawed self, but most importantly, I met myself. I discovered the foundations of who I was, what made me smile, happy and tick. I realized that I could survive, not just survive, I could thrive in a foreign environment and to commemorate it, I tattooed “Thrive” on my shoulder to always remind myself of that feeling. Told you that word was going to come back.

• 📅 Jan 17, 2017 🏷️ Life · Travel

  Prius adventures, a year later

  It’s time to write more about my adventures. I’ve been traveling and living in my car for nearly a year now, mostly full-time (excluding hotels on infrequent business trips, occasional friends’ couches, or AirBnB a few times I was sick or wanted a home). I’d love to share what I’ve learned over the past year.

  

  Here’s how a typical conversation with someone who just learned I’m living in my car goes:

  You live in that?

  Yes I do. I think I need to start from the beginning.

  About a year ago I wasn’t in a very good place emotionally. I’ve been going through a divorce, my dream company declined my job application (spoiler: I got the job this year, yay), and my landlord decided that 12 tiny houses on a property isn’t enough and it’s time to kick everyone out to build a more dense apartment complex. I didn’t do much outside of going to work and sleeping.

  I think I saw an opportunity to do something drastic with my life, and I decided to take a leap of faith. I gave away everything I couldn’t fit in the back of the car, and set on a road trip across continental United States (after spending a month doing test drives and adjusting my setup dozens of times).

  The experience turned out to be more enjoyable than having a house.

  How do you even fit in there?!

  Everyone I talk to thinks the space is really cramped up, and I have to sleep curled into a ball in the trunk (or something along those lines).

  

  I’m 5’11”, and I have a flat twin-width bed in that’s around 7 feet long (it’s been awhile since I measured). I sleep on an inflatable pad wrapped in a sleeping bag, on top of another sleeping bag all wrapped in a silk sleeping bag cover - my composite mattress is about 3 inches thick. I use regular blankets and pillows, adding or removing a few depending on the temperature outside.

  It’s one of the most comfortable beds I’ve ever slept on.

  Poor soul, want to crash on my couch?

  This is an offer I get as soon as somebody learns I’m living in a car (it’s right up there with “You must be saving so much money not paying rent!”). Most people are really nice, and offer a place to stay. I think it stems from an understandable notion that one probably would only live in a car because of being in a bad situation.

  

  Oddly enough I really enjoy the lifestyle, and I always reject the offers (always appreciate them though). Sometimes I contemplate getting a small RV or a van, but I’m way to attached to air conditioning on demand and 50 mpg on the highway. But I probably won’t need to crash on your couch.

  I think the TL;DR here is that majority of people are really nice, once you get out and get to interact with them enough.

  Why on Earth are you still living in a car?

  There’s more than one reason at this point. Part of it is that it has become a habit now. The biggest reason is probably all the fun things it has forced me to do.

  I’ve met a lot of cool people, tried out so many things I would’ve never considered trying, and found exciting hobbies I would’ve never had otherwise. I’m also now in a great shape physically since I usually have to hit up the gym to shower.

  It also made me confront my inner demons, since car living tends to consistently provide me with time to be alone with my thoughts - be it driving somewhere, or falling asleep in an area where I wouldn’t want to use electronics. I feel more in tune with myself, and I can close my eyes without being afraid of stream of thoughts keeping me awake at night.

  That’s cool! What else is inside?

  

  The front

  I try to keep driver’s seat and front passenger seat area clean and empty, with storing some low key items in passenger seat leg space – portable 12V vacuum, water jug, water boiler/thermos.

  The front seats are separated from the back by a dark curtain. Unless you shine a (powerful) flashlight inside a car it’s almost impossible to tell the curtain is there.

  The back

  

  One of the passenger seats is lowered to make a bed. The bed is extended with a wooden panel specifically made for this purpose which creates a flat surface about 7 foot long. A mattress with a blanket and some throws creates /a nice homey look.

  Under the bed is “the basement” – large clear container where I store winter clothes and things I rarely use. If I’m camping extra water jugs go here as well. And some bicycle maintenance stuff, and extra pairs of shoes.

  I use the other rear passenger seat as my primary relaxing area when I’m inside the car. There’s a little trashcan stuck to the floor in between the seats.

  Cargo and the bike

  There’s an old suitcase I use for organizing various cooking and camping supplies. It’s split into nine compartments by some separators I’ve put together. This is where I have some freeze dried veggies, spices, grains and pasta, cooking oils, camping pots and pans, equipment for cleaning the dishes, etc. On top of the suitcase is a backpack where I keep clothes. There’s also a propane burner, camping table and a chair, as well as a toiletry kit. Dirty laundry goes in a dry bag.

  

  I also have a bike strapped to the outside of the car, exploring places by bike after arriving to a new city is very rewarding!

  Isn’t it dangerous?

  You often read stories of people suffocating in their own cars, and it’s something to be aware of. There are a few rules I follow to be safe, and there are three main dangers here:

  1. Carbon monoxide poisoning.
  2. Carbon dioxide poisoning.
  3. Extreme temperatures.

  I sleep with carbon monoxide alarm not far from my head, and my car is a hybrid – meaning it only turns itself on once in a while when batteries need to be recharged. Sometimes I sleep with my car on, and sometimes not. The alarm never went off so far (it works, I check regularly).

  Carbon dioxide (stuff you exhale) poisoning is not a silent killer (unlike carbon monoxide), humans are pretty good at detecting high concentration of CO2 – panic attack on par with a headache are a rather clear sign of this happening. I keep windows cracked open most of the time, plus my AC is often on.

  I love sleeping at low temperatures (50-60F is my comfort zone for snuggling up under a blanket), but if local forecast suggests the temperature will drop below 50F at night - I make sure to sleep with AC on. If it’s below freezing - I roll up the windows, otherwise I still keep them cracked open a little.

  And if it’s really cold and I don’t want to run AC all night, or I just feel like I want to stay inside for a bit - I can just get AirBnB for a couple of nights. Speaking of, by pure chance I stayed at Gayle Laakmann McDowell’s guest house few weeks ago, and I left with great memories and a signed copy of Cracking the Code Interview. Bonus point for meeting cool people.

  How does Prius AC work anyway?

  This question pops up often enough to address here (along with condensation concerns from seasoned vandwellers).

  It’s a hybrid with two electric motors assisting the internal combustion engine. The electric motors power up from a ~1.3 kWh battery, which is recharged using the engine and regenerative brakes. That battery is connected to the 12V battery, and as long as there’s gas in the car – both batteries will be charged. In practice, if the car isn’t moving, engine turns on every half an hour or so for a little under a minute to recharge the batteries.

  This allows one to keep the car on and use the AC throughout the night. AC also keeps the moisture level at bay, preventing condensation. I also noticed that when I don’t use the AC cracked windows help with condensation (I have rain guards for stealth and keeping the rain out).

  Um, how do you do bathroom stuff?

  If we’re talking about changing - there’s plenty of space in the back of the car to change.

  For hygiene - I use gym showers (I take quite a lot of classes), or wet wipes if I’m out camping or shower is otherwise unavailable. I’m now kind of an expert on all sorts of wipes. Any restroom works for brushing my teeth at night, and in US it’s very difficult not to be within the vicinity of a public bathroom.

  Where do you park at night?

  Rest stops are the best when I travel, since everyone on a rest stop is just resting/sleeping in their car.

  

  There are so many places to park: since this is just a passenger car, anywhere where cars can park is good. Usually somewhere with either a lot of foot traffic (or the exact opposite). Parking lots of 24/7 business, residential areas, anywhere and anytime.

  What do your friends and coworkers say?

  Most colleagues and acquaintances don’t know, since it’s not really a topic that pops up during a normal conversation. I go to work and social events well groomed, with clean clothes, and (I’d like to think) demonstrating a sense of style.

  Few friends and colleagues that do know that I live in the car don’t see it as anything out of the ordinary (past the initial shock of course). I can’t remember the last time conversation got stirred towards car living with any of my close friends. A few are rather jealous but reluctant to make the move. I try not to preach.

  My love life surprisingly didn’t suffer. Maybe it’s because I tend to pursue women just as odd as me, but me living in a car didn’t have any negative effects, and even got me a date or two. If someone doesn’t want to go out with you because of living arrangements - they would probably not make a good partner in a long run.

  Do strangers bother you?

  When you observe people you start noticing how much everyone’s concerned with what people think of them. In fact, most people so concerned with themselves - that they don’t look around. Encounters with people who notice I live in a car are nearly non-existent. Nobody cares to look inside one of the hundred cars in a parking lot or parked on the side of the street.

  I’ve had a few rather friendly encounters with parking lot security, with people usually just demonstrating concern. Until I share my setup that is, then concern is often replacement with mild jealousy.

  

  Most encounters with strangers approaching me happen at rest stops, since I usually don’t hide much – there are enough misfits and travelers. Every encounter like that I’ve had was positive, with people commenting on how amazing my setup is, how they wished they could do a similar thing, or sharing a story about their own travels.

  How do you not go crazy?

  This is where the fun part starts. You see, the thing about living in the car is how boring it is. There’s really not much you can do in a confined space. So I have to get out of my way to entertain myself.

  I take a lot of classes like various martial arts or archery. I tried miniature painting, rock climbing, long distance cycling. There are numerous things I’m “forced” to do in order to keep myself entertained.

  There are a lot of things I do inside the car too. Writing or coding (even though I prefer coffee shops), rare indulgence in video games (I recently picked up a gaming laptop for this), guitalele (it’s a ukulele-sized guitar), reading. Drawing, keeping a journal, or just relaxing.

  

  And of course there are people. When I travel I end up meeting a lot of different people. I often get invited to join somebody at a campsite, and we’d cook a meal together or share some stories. Or somebody sitting next to me in a coffee shop works in the same industry and we grab lunch to mingle and share interesting ideas. Wherever I go I get lucky enough to make friends for a couple of minutes, hours, days, and sometimes months.

  What’s next for you?

  For now, I’m used to living in a car. I sometimes pop by AirBnBs or friends’ places for a couple of days, but I wouldn’t say I enjoy being tied down to a single location for a long period of time.

  

  I’m contemplating getting an RV to be able to stand up inside and have more room and privacy, but potential difficulties with air conditioning at night, atrocious gas mileage, and inefficient and noisy generators for my power usage are a concern of mine.

  Once in a while I contemplate getting myself an apartment. Since it’s now winter I end up staying in AirBnBs more often, but I feel like having a place to call home makes it harder for me to a fight a lazy person inside me. I like when that person is forced to learn, explore, and create.

• 📅 Jun 5, 2016 🏷️ Life · Travel

  Thoughts on travel

  I like traveling. I’ve been living on the road on and off for the past half a year, traveling across the US. This whole time I live in my car, and quite frankly, I enjoy it.

  

  Passing beautiful vistas and not having a place to call home are two sides of the same coin. It’s something that gives me time to think.

  From a very young age we surround ourselves with objects of comfort. It all starts with toys we have as children. First things we own. Our room. Friends. House. Job. Town. Country. We take comfort in certain parts of the environment. Be it objects, people, or places.

  After getting rid of most of my belongings and starting my journey - I felt like a lot of things which made me feel comfortable and safe were gone. It made me feel very exposed to the world.

  When objects of comfort are gone, one has to face a lot of their own demons. Issues hidden by a security blanket are let out to roam freely. Living on the road amplifies the experiences I have: the ups are high, and the downs are low. A wider specter of emotions is thrown onto me.

  I guess there’s a reason why majority of people all live in a similar manner. It’s comforting. It’s a void inside you that needs filling. It’s things we don’t want to think about, deal with.

  But there’s also strength in letting go. Items, places, people. Thoughts. Ideas. It’s a way of growth. To become a better version of yourself, you need to be destroyed a little. Deal with the darkness within.

  Some days it’s exhausting, some days it’s revitalizing. But that’s why I do what I do.

• 📅 Feb 22, 2016 🏷️ Life · Travel

  Living in a car for 5000 miles

  I have set on my journey across the United States and back a few months ago. It’s a fun thing to do, and really gave me a breath of fresh air. I watched elephant seals and whales on a California coast, spent what felt like days stuck in LA traffic, ran from a blizzard, made it through a flash flood, passed a tornado, celebrated New Year’s on the road…

  But don’t let me get ahead of myself.

  

  What’s inside

  My path started in San Francisco Bay Area, a place I’ve been lately calling home. I tried out living out of a Prius before, thus not having a sturdy place to call home wasn’t really a shock. After only a few weeks I didn’t feel like anything is out of place - being on a road feels just as normal as renting a house.

  Living areas

  First - the packing and organization. Just like in any living space, zoning is important. Space inside a car is separated into 5 major areas:

  • A driver’s seat, used solely for driving. No other activities are permitted, and the less time is spent in the driving seat - the better. This helps one to stay alert when on a road.
  • Front passenger seat. There’s not enough room to sit here due to the seat being moved to the front all the way (to give the most space for the bed). I usually just keep a backpack here (which I always take with me, so this area stays empty when I’m not in the car).
  • Rear passenger seat behind a driver. This is a primary seat for activities - reading, fiddling around with a laptop, having some tea or a snack. A cooler is taking up the leg space, but it’s never a problem: in the wilderness I put it outside, and nine times out of ten I don’t want to sit with my legs down (since that’s the position I drive in).
  • A bed. Level surface, approximately 6 and a half feet long. Sleeping mat, winter queen sized sleeping bag folded in two as a second mattress, a summer sleeping bag, two pillows, and a plaid on top (for added coziness).
  • Additional cargo storage under the bed. Water supply, out-of-season clothes, shoes.
  • Cargo area in the rear. A suitcase with food and clothes, toiletry kit, and miscellaneous stuff. Some things I don’t access often are in a secondary cargo compartment Prius has underneath the cargo surface.

  

  After about a week, moving between the areas within a car becomes surprisingly easy and natural. I usually put on a hand brake, lock the car, leave my shoes in a driver’s seat and move to the back sit or the bed.

  Food, water, and cooking

  Being prepared is essential for living on the road, so I keep a lot of food and water in the car. I make it a rule of thumb to keep 6-8 3-liter water jugs in the car, which amounts to 18-24 liters (5-6 gallons) of drinking water.

  For boiling water I use RoadPro Smart Car Pot. I’ll upgrade to something better eventually, since it requires me to plan too far in advance - it takes 20-25 minutes to get water to boil.

  I also have teabags and coffee with me. I used to have instant coffee, but it tastes terrible compared to the real thing. Now I use a simple one-cup coffee maker (the one where coffee drips through a funnel) to brew my pre-ground coffee.

  When it comes to food - I use rice, grains, and pasta as a base for some meals. Canned goods like corn, peas, mixed veggies, pasta sauce, or chili add a nice touch to the base. I heat up canned soups with a backpacking stove when I’m not in the mood for cooking whole meals or doing the dishes.

  

  I have a 16-qt Stanley Adventure Cooler which keeps items inside cold for nearly three days (or practically indefinitely if I’m up in the mountains where it’s cold). When I’m preparing to be out in the wild, I fill it up with eggs, meat, cheese, veggies, fruits, and berries.

  In addition to everything listed above I always carry 6 days worth of MREs and water in an emergency backpack underneath in the cargo compartment in case I am ever stranded somewhere.

  Washing the dishes

  For cleaning my cookware I’m using a backpacking approach I’ve read about on WikiHow. I spray the dishes with some natural cleaning solution, let them sit for a bit, wipe it off with paper towels, and then thoroughly rinse degreased dishes off in a 5-liter travel kitchen sink.

  Clothing

  Most of my clothing is pretty regular - pants, T-shirts, shirts, cardigans, sweaters, jackets. However I did switch to using merino wool for all my base layers: underwear, socks, compression tops and bottoms. While being significantly more expensive, merino wool is much more comfortable to wear, and it stays clean for much longer than normal clothes.

  All the things I wear day to day fit in a backpack. When I stayed in New York City for a few weeks without a car I had everything I needed in it:

  

  In addition to all of the above, I carry a few pairs of shoes and an additional outer layer I wear when I anticipate to be near a campfire. That goes in a storage bin under the bed.

  Laundry

  I started with visiting laundromats and just carrying a lot of coins with me. But after a while, a number of items which require hand washing or delicate care have increased - mostly due to above specified merino wool base layers.

  I’ve been looking for an excuse to try out Scrubba wash bag I’ve heard so much about - basically a dry sack for washing clothes. I found it to be quite convenient and not at all cumbersome to use.

  While I still use laundromats for washing bulkier items, I hand wash my easy to clean and quick to dry base layers.

  Sleeping

  A self-inflating sleeping pad and a winter queen-sized sleeping bag folded in half create a great mattress. I sleep in a summer sleeping bag, with an added sleeping bag liner and a few travel pillows.

  I run AC in the car throughout the night. While keeping the temperature pleasant, it tends to dry out the air and results in a major case of a sore throat in a morning. I use a small travel humidifier which connects to a USB power supply to regulate the humidity in the car at night.

  Entertainment

  Boredom seems to never be a concern with this lifestyle. I use laptop for rare acts of writing, and a Kindle for reading during the little downtime I have. I also have a little harmonica I hope I’ll learn to play one day. And some juggling balls I throw around once in a while.

  A few words on stealth

  While I enjoy staying at campsites, a large portion of my journey involved staying in urban areas. Looking inconspicious is a big deal when you’re relaxing in a car - it’s not fun when somebody comes knocking on your door (didn’t happen to me though).

  

  The fact that it’s a white-ish Prius helps a lot. Car dwelling is not a first thing people think when they see a tiny city car parked on the side of the road. Tinted windows (heavier tint in the rear, lighter in the front) are enough to shield the dweller from the passers by. A blackout curtain separating the front seats from the back area and covering rear windows is enough to cover one from curious eyes peering inside the car.

  Here’s how the car looks in ful lighting with the curtains down, if you look closely you can see the black fabric behind the seat backs. But most likely you’ll just pass the car:

  

  Finding a place to stay boils down to four simple steps for me:

  1. Drive around in advance, find a place where it’s easy to blend it. I prefer a balance between empty and fully crowded lots. Avoid parking at a chosen area until later in the evening.
  2. Arrive late, hide in plain sight, park near similar cars. Don’t tuck in somewhere far and look suspicious.
  3. Be respectful to whichever place you picked for the night. If possible, leave it cleaner than it was when you arrived. Try not to be in and out of the car too much either.
  4. Leave early. Do not stay at one place multiple nights in a row. Avoid easily recognizable patterns when returning to the same spot.

  Final thoughts about my journey

  I traveled for an approximate of three weeks, and ended up hunkering down in New York City for another month while leaving a car outside the city.

  I gave up my apartment back in Bay Area for the duration of the travel, and it feels liberating. It’s comforting to know that one doesn’t need to own a place to live a happy and fulfilled life. Even further, living in NYC for weeks with a single backpack worth of posessions and realising I don’t need anything else was an eye opening experience.

  

  Turns out I really don’t need much stuff to enjoy life.

• 📅 Sep 19, 2015 🏷️ Life · Travel

  Prius camper conversion

  As requested, I took some detailed pictures of the Prius Camper Conversion Kit I mentioned in my previous article. It adds valuable space to the back of the car when the seats are down, and helps to push down the seats all the way in order to achieve a level surface. This particular kit works for third generation of Prius, but can be slightly modified to fit other models. In theory, something like this can work with any car, as long as the rear seats can be forced down all the way to create a flat surface (170 pounds of my bodyweight was enough to flatten out the seat back).

  This is how the final conversion looks, with a mat cut to a custom shape on top of it:

  

  A wooden platform which is used to fill up rear leg space. Notice the blue strap on the rear seat, that’s what pushes down the seat to create a level surface:

  

  The lid can be removed for storage space access:

  

  It’s a relatively thin wooden platform. Top (on the picture) side of it is a bit slanted to fit on a rear seat back:

  

  View from the bottom: metal pieces are there to hold platform legs when the platform is not in use, but I don’t find them necessary. Additional (darker) piece of wood is what the lid rests on:

  

  View from the side:

  

  With passenger front seat pushed all the way forward (and seat back in further possible forward position), wooden supports are inserted into exposed seat railing. I added some duct tape layers at the bottom of each leg so that they don’t wobble when the wooden platform is removed.

  

  Here’s a right leg:

  

  I noticed that the left leg needed to be approximately 5 mm longer in order for the platform not to wobble, so I extended it with whatever I had on hand:

  

  Adjustable belt with a hook on one side and a strap tie on the other:

  

  On the back side of rear seats there are places to secure a baby seat. I removed the plastic covers (use some force), and attached a strap there. I added a piece of cloth to (hopefully) prevent damage to seat fabric:

  

  Tricky part is getting the bottom hook in the right place. Rear seats are held in place by two metal locks. If you grab a rear seat from the bottom (when the back is not folded) and pull up with approximately 50-100 pounds of force, the seat will snap out of the place exposing the lock. Attach a hook to the exposed part of the locking mechanism. Jump down on a seat to snap the rear seat back in place. Exercise caution while you make your way through this, took me nearly an hour to figure out how to properly attach a hook and snap the seat back in place:

  

  When both sides of the belt are in place, fold the rear seat, push in down with your body weight, and tighten the belt.

• 📅 Sep 18, 2015 🏷️ Life · Travel

  Urban Prius living

  Not so long ago I stumbled upon a blog titled “Hotel Prius”, and I loved the idea. Being a Prius owner myself, I decided to give Prius living a test run. Being cautious person I am, I decided to give it a test run for a week in a familiar area.

  

  Preparing for the journey

  First, I decided to tint my windows. In addition to making a Prius look much more pleasant, it keeps the car cooler throughout the day, and most importantly makes it hard to peek inside the car. Especially at night.

  Next, I ordered a Prius Gen III Camping Sleeper Conversion Kit. It’s just a fancy name for two belts to push down the rear seats, and two wooden platforms with detachable feet to cover leg space. And two custom cut carpet runners to cover up the panels. Nothing one can’t make in their own garage, if the money is tight.

  The kit requires front seats to be locked in the furthest possible position, rendering them unusable. So I only installed a panel behind a passenger seat. With the panel installed, I have nearly 7 feet of level surface to sleep on.

  Another problem with the kit is that it blocks the console from being opened (arm rest storage between driver and passenger seat). I stopped using console as a quick access box, and it doesn’t feel like a big loss.

  

  I packed all my clothes in a duffle bag, bought a small toiletries kit, and put the rest of my belongings in a backpack. Queen-sized sleeping bag I had came in handy as a bed (with a couple of travel pillows).

  

  After a second night I swapped my sleeping bag with a lighter and more compact summer sleeping bag. That’s also when I added a 1.5 inch sleeping pad to my inventory.

  

  

  My backpack/briefcase is on the passenger’s seat, I always take it with me.

  

  In addition to all of the above, I took my guitar - even though it’s bigger than anything else I had to take with me, it’s a great source of entertainment.

  

  If you’re feeling impatient, links to all the items are at the bottom of the post.

  Sleeping in a Prius

  Night one

  First night in a Prius left me with mixed feelings. I parked in one of the corporate areas of the city at about 9 pm. I picked a well lit parking lot with some (but not much) evening traffic. I parked in one of the slightly darker areas of the parking lot (approximately one out of twenty parking spots was taken, and large number of cars made me feel safer).

  It was 74F outside, slowly cooling after a 100F day. I left my car in accessory mode (spoiler: bad idea), turned on the AC, locked the doors, and hopped on my bedding arrangement to the back of the car. I didn’t want to keep the windows open since I just got them tinted. And sleeping with windows rolled down felt a bit eerie.

  First thing I noticed was how obnoxiously bright instrument panel and GPS are. It was the opposite of stealthy, and it was plain annoying to sleep with those bright lights on. I reached out for my duffle bag, and pulled out a couple of towels to cover up both the instrument panel and GPS, as well as few AC control LEDs. This made me feel at ease, and I tried to doze off into sleep.

  

  The parking lot lights were a minor annoyance, mostly filtered out by a 20% rear window tint. I’ve heard some people pass somewhere within 20 feet of my car a few times, but other than that it was quiet. Still, unfamiliar situation made it hard to fall asleep.

  And then a few voices and an engine noise disturbed my peace, pretty close to my car. I waited for about 10 minutes, and the noise didn’t go away. I raised my head to see what’s happening - turns out someone had a tire blowout a 2 parking spots away from me, and a pickup truck pulled in next to them to help with changing the tire. There were anywhere between 3 and 5 people walking around and talking.

  That’s when I quickly got dressed, climbed to a driver’s seat, and drove off to look for a quieter spot. It was 9:55 pm.

  I went to a more secluded, but still well lit parking lot behind one of the offices. Concentration of cars was about the same, but it looked like those cars were left there overnight. I picked a spot within 50 feet of other parked cars, where a tree was covering my car from the harsh street light.

  

  Accessory mode, AC, lock the doors. Climbed in the back, and after some restlessness (a fairly normal thing for me), I fell asleep. I woke up sometime around 11:30 pm. It was fairly hot in the car, and it was hard to breathe. Turns out accessory mode turned itself off at some point. Maybe the battery ran low, or maybe there’s a time limit of sort. I opened all the doors to air out a car for a couple of minutes while I walked around and stretched.

  In the meantime, I also noticed that because of the tinted windows, it’s nearly impossible to see what’s inside the car while only standing a few feet away from it. That was comforting.

  Second attempt, this time I turned on the car the usual way (by depressing the pedal). I used a foot brake for a peace of mind, set the AC to 68 degrees (with external air flow setting), locked the car, covered the instrument panel and a GPS, and climbed in the back.

  AC was blowing on my neck, but I was too tired to worry about it. The car cooled down and I climbed inside a sleeping bag (it was too hot before, and I was just lying on top of it). I’m used to sleeping on hard surfaces, so the setup felt comfortable enough. The light from surrounding light poles was a bit too harsh, so I covered my eyes with a T-shirt. I fell asleep.

  I woke up a few times throughout the night, but I feel like I’ve had enough sleep. I woke up with the sun at about 6:30 am, got dressed, opened all doors to ventilate the car, packed away a sleeping bag, and drove to work. I felt well rested, even though my throat and neck felt a bit sore from the AC directed at me.

  Oh, and it cost me $1.40 to have an AC running through the night. The car would turn on for about a minute every once in a while (30 minutes?) to recharge the battery.

  Night two

  This time, I found a perfect spot in a small parking lot behind an office. Less crowded than the previous time, but still well lit. I got lucky and found a space with no direct street light being visible when laying down.

  

  Turn the car on, AC to 68 degrees, lock the doors, hop to the back seat.

  I’ve slept well for the first couple of hours, but I ended up waking up well rested at midnight. I stopped by my office and worked for a couple of hours. Back to the car to get 4 more hours of sleep.

  It cost me $1.38 to camp through the night with AC on.

  Night three

  My sleeping bag was too hot to use at room temperature, so I swapped it with a summer down filled bag. I also purchased a self-inflating sleeping pad for more comfort.

  Things are getting better from now on.

  

  Feeling more confident, I found a four-story corporate parking lot and drove to the top level. I parked at a well-lit spot without any direct lights coming through the windows. I easily fell asleep a tad bit past nine, and woke up at 6 am refreshed and well rested. Secluded spot, comfortable sleeping pad, summer sleeping bag, and increased confidence - all contributed to making sleeping in a Prius a delightful experience.

  This was also the night I learned a neat trick: if you recline the driver’s seat all the way, it becomes really easy to move between front seat and a sleeping area.

  Cost of running the car through the night: $1.63.

  Night four

  I decided to camp out in the same multi-level parking garage I did yesterday (it has high enough number of cars so that I don’t stand out - about one per fifty parking spots; and the foot traffic is very low to non-existent). I found another part of the garage with a roof access on a second level and pulled in there. After getting situated, I realized I didn’t account for all the lights - bright parking lot lights from other levels ended up shining right in my face. And even though I knew I couldn’t be seen behind the tinted windows, it did leave me feeling exposed.

  I slid to the driver’s seat and drove up a few levels to the previous spot. Doors are locked, AC is set to 68F, instrument panel is covered, driver’s seat is reclined. I climbed to the back, and fell asleep.

  It was a warm night, temperature outside was at 73F. It was hot enough for me to wake up two times through the night, but that was a minor inconvenience.

  Cost: $1.73.

  Night five

  It was one of the chillier nights, so sleeping was a very pleasant experience. I picked the same spot I used on the third night. Absence of direct lights visible from the car windows plays a huge role in making you feel safe.

  Cost: $1.53 while also bringing Nexus 6 to a full charge.

  Night six

  Picked another spot in a similar area, I parked under a broken street light in a well lit parking lot. I’ve slept well. Mostly due to this being a cooler night (65F).

  Cost: $1.29 while also bringing Nexus 6 to a full charge.

  Night seven

  I was stuck in traffic in the evening, and I fiddled with the GPS for a while. Turns out you can disable the obnoxiously bright screen by going into “Setup” -> “Display” -> “Screen off”. Pushing any button on the GPS turns the screen back on. I’m still using the towels to cover up the instrument panel and AC controls though.

  Another fairly cold night, which made sleeping more comfortable. I went back to the top of the parking garage. Night was a delight.

  Cost: $1.39, with full Nexus 6 charging.

  Impressions

  Stealthy living in a Prius is very comfortable. With tinted windows there’s just enough privacy, it’s safe and cheap to run AC through the night (cost averages to about $1.48 per night). There’s more than enough space for someone of my height (5’11”). It took me a couple of days to get used to feeling relatively exposed in public, but once I did - it was a breeze. Last five nights I have slept without any problems.

  Surprisingly, I’ve slept better in a Prius than I did in my own bed. Here I should probably note that I’ve been having troubles sleeping on an off for some time lately, and sleeping through the night in a car was a step up from where I was before.

  Lessons learned

  Some things I didn’t know before trying out sleeping in a Prius:

  • Pick a well lit parking lot, ideally with some cars of similar value parked overnight. Make sure there’s not too much foot traffic.
  • Park in an area without direct light source near you. Also account for lights visible from inside the car (light nearly a hundred feet away can still be bother).
  • If you’re using the AC, turn Prius engine on instead of leaving it in accessory mode.
  • Proper AC vent direction is important. Fiddle with those until there are no drafts in the sleeping area.
  • Use a sleeping mask to avoid being bothered by the lights if you couldn’t find area without visible light sources shining directly through the windows.
  • Since the temperature inside the car is regulated, summer sleeping bag is a must.
  • Sleeping pad is very helpful in making the surface softer. 1.5 inches made a huge difference in comfort.

  Items I used

  

  Here are the items directly related to the trip which I either purchased or already owned.

  • Prius Gen III Camping Sleeper Conversion Kit. While not as good of a fit as something one can make with a garage and a set of tools, it’s a quick (but rather expensive, depending on your situation) solution.
  • eBags TLS Mother Lode Weekender Convertible Junior.
  • Kelty Cosmic 550 Dridown Sleeping Bag, Regular/41-Degree. I started a journey with a sleeping bag I already had around - winter Coleman Calgary Cold-Weather Scoop Sleeping Bag. Needless to say, Kelty Cosmic 41 is lighter, and by far more compact.
  • Therm-a-Rest ProLite Plus Sleeping Pad. It’s a 1.5 inch tall matress, I found it to be extremely comfortable.
  • REI Roadtripper Duffel - Medium. I don’t have too many clothes (and I live in California, taking winter clothing is out of the picture), so everything fits in a duffel bag.
  • Eagle Creek Pack-It Clean/Dirty Cube. Holds underwear and socks, also doubles as a sealed laundry bag for both.
  • Therm-a-Rest Compressible Travel Pillow, Medium. A comfortable pillow which goes under a sleeping bag.
  • REI Grande Shower Kit. It’s fairly big and holds all my toiletries.
  • Ready America Emergency Kit, 2-Person, 3-Day Backpack. Something I always have in a car for the peace of mind.

  Future improvement ideas

  I have a great stealthy setup, but having more privacy would’ve been a nice bonus. I’ll probably look for some inconspicuous looking shades or curtains, provided that the setup doesn’t look too obvious.

  Philosophical implications

  This was an interesting experience. Inability to retreat to the safety of my house got me out of my comfort zone. Initial discomfort passed quickly, and a world of possibilities opened up to me.

  Not having access to a house made me, well, feel bored. And that’s amazing. Without having an ability to default to a TV, gaming platform, or even a laptop (it’s really not that comfortable to work on a laptop in a car) - I had to get creative. I got to play a guitar, a piano, sing, practice with a drum set. I worked on my blog (this article took multiple revisions and hours upon hours of time to look the way it does now). I went to Mozzart’s Don Giovanni publicly hosted in a nearby town.

  And I finished this article, which took me about 8 days of revisions and additions to finish.

  Now, thanks to self-imposed restrictions, I’m doing all the things I wanted to do.

  I’m a perpetual planner. And that sometimes becomes a problem, since I’m always looking forward to the next thing that’s going to happen, sometimes not paying attention to life right in front of me. With everything I have packed in a car, there’s nothing on the horizon. Nothing is far away. There’s no home to go back to, so I don’t rush anywhere. I savor every moment I have.

• 📅 Jul 18, 2015 🏷️ Life

  My experience with minimalism

  Minimalism was always appealing to me. The philosophy of not having more than one would need is close to my heart. Over the past few years, I’ve been “trimming the fat” off various parts of my life.

  I can’t recall when I started being drawn to a minimalistic lifestyle. I think my passion for minimalism originates in my desire for organization and order. It’s comforting to know that a world around me has a certain structure.

  I remember the time when I started living on my own. I just moved to United States, away from my family. All my life fit in a half-empty suitcase at that time. Few sets of clothes, a blanket, a pillow, some hygiene products, a small laptop. Moving to a new place was as easy as throwing few things in that suitcase.

  After some time, I started accumulating more things. A guitar. More variations of clothing. Cheap coffee table and a shoe rack from a dollar store. At that time I rented a room in one of the shady areas of the city. Adding a few pieces of furniture made a place feel like home.

  Time has passed, and I moved again. Left the furniture behind, took the rest. Still light, but I did have to make a few trips to move everything I needed. I got even more comfortable. A gaming PC. Significantly more junk here and there.

  That’s when I did my first big cleanup. I went through every item I owned, and tossed it a trash bag if I didn’t use it in the past 6 month. Old clothes, some action figures, other useless junk I accumulated. As a result, I tossed two big bags of stuff I didn’t need. I still remember the liberating feeling. Knowing that everything I own serves a purpose.

  It felt like I could breathe again.

  Years pass. I don’t rent rooms anymore, but apartments, houses. This comes with having to own more things. Real furniture. A TV. More musical instruments. Having to accommodate guests. Cooking supplies. A bike. Outdoor furniture.

  But I’ve kept the minimalistic mindset, and I still do periodical clean outs. Tossing almost everything I haven’t used in a past six months. Reducing what I own only to things that I need to have comfortable and enjoyable living.

  Today, I don’t think I can fit everything I own in that single suitcase. Hell, I most certainly will need to hire a truck for my next move. But that’s not important. Minimalism isn’t about the absence of things. If you feel like you don’t have enough - you’re probably doing something wrong. Minimalism is about not being excessive.

  For me, knowing that my belongings serve a purpose makes me feel content, clear-headed. It’s comforting. It feels right.

  Sometimes, I forget and start accumulating stuff. And that’s when I go back to reducing again. It’s not an obsession, but a healthy periodical maintenance. Often it takes months, or even years to get rid of certain things.

  Replace a queen sized bed with a Japanese futon mat. Digitalize the growing paper trail I keep. Travel the world for with a single suitcase.