tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53474023343806529072011-04-21T11:11:22.070-07:00Rick Stromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13321852008958506975noreply@blogger.comBlogger11100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5347402334380652907.post-19702697650290501722009-03-13T23:27:00.000-07:002009-03-13T23:42:32.150-07:00Here's the deal: for a couple years now, I'm been putting together the trip to end all trips in my head. <br /><br />Around the world, without ever leaving the surface of the Earth.<br /><br /><b>Why I Need This</b><br /><br />All I do is work. I literally work a minimum of 70 hours a week. I write software. Nothing has ever really paid off, but I still love doing it, and I never run out of ideas, so I keep on keepin' on. But damn it I'm tired and I need a vacation.<br /><br />I have pretty much been in school my entire life. I earned a B.S. in Mathematics at 21, from UCSB. Then I went to film school. Then I earned an M.S. in Computer Science at CSULA. Then I started a Ph.D. at UCLA. <br /><br />Thankfully, I yanked myself right out of the Ph.D. program. I had been in school long enough.<br /><br />But since then, all I do is work. I never take vacations, unless you count a couple hundred trips to Vegas and two short trips to New York (one by train). I haven't left the country since I was 15. My 20s are a fading memory. I need to get out of the US.<br /><br /><b>The Voyage</b><br /><br />So the plan is, I'm going to leave Los Angeles heading west, hit as many spots as possible and return to Los Angeles from the east. This, so far, includes:<br /><br />* Driving across the US, from LA to NY.<br />* Taking a boat from NYC to London.<br />* Training, hitching, and possibly motorcycling around Western Europe, slightly into Eastern Europe, and up to Scandinavia.<br />* Ferrying to Russia, and taking the Trans-Siberian into China.<br />* God knows how I'm going to get across China, but onward to Japan<br />* Boating from Japan to Hawaii<br />* Boating from Hawaii to Los Angeles<br /><br /><b>How Will I Pay For This?</b><br /><br />This trip is going to take months. I'm broke. I'll be broke a year from now.<br /><br />Get ready to laugh.<br /><br />I'm planning on selling iPhone apps and using the money to finance the trip.<br /><br />I'm currently building and submitting 2 iPhone apps a week. I have 6 in the store as of this writing. I'm not stopping until one of them hits, and then I hit the road.<br /><br />So far, a lot of really great people have given me some amazing ideas for iPhone apps. I've got a list a mile long of my own ideas as well. I'll be listing apps as they become available on:<br /><br />* this blog<br />* on my code blog at http://www.stromcode.com <br />* on my personal site http://www.rick-strom.com<br />* on my myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/strom<br />* on my company site: http://www.glowdot.com<br /><br />and anywhere else I can spam links to the app store.<br /><br />Oh, and I'll also be using this blog to round out my plans for the trip. If I decide on a place I want to visit, I'll make a post about it.<br /><br />Wish me luck. And if you want to buy a couple .99 apps right now, here are two:<br /><br /><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=306987083&mt=8">Ball Drop</a> (game, .99)<br /><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=306733183&mt=8">Conway's Game of Life - Paper Edition</a> (simulator, free)<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5347402334380652907-1970269765029050172?l=stromaroundtheworld.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Rick Stromhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13321852008958506975noreply@blogger.com0