Writing Travel

The year is new, everywhere, every day, and not just for dragons

 

Chinese New Year reminds me that a new year can start any day of one's life. Here are a few of my favorite sites celebrating this week's beginning of the Year of the Dragon.

• Based in Taiwan, Carrie Kellenberger shares her experience of last year's Year of the Lion Lunar New Year Celebrations in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia Borneo.
• From Malaysia, Wilson Ng & Rachel Ting's PlacesandFoods.com blog features their Neroteca Meatilicous Chinese New Year 2012. Alas, no dragon meat appears among the many carnivorous treats. 
• In Southern California, Kayte Deioma lists all the Los Angeles-area Chinese and Vietnamese New Year celebrations planned throughout January and February This week, Disneyland Resort celebrates from January 20 through January 29. You can also catch the Golden Dragon Parade on Saturday, January 28, in Chinatown.

Where is your favorite place to celebrate Chinese New Year, or any other new beginning?

Photo credit: Daniel Y. Go/Flickr Creative Commons

 

NaBloPoMo, daily blogging, and other priorities

On November 8, the score was 8 for 8. Then I got tired of keeping score and looked at other priorities.

The real question is why I maintain this so-called travel blog. And the real answer: for fun and challenge and interaction and learning and sharing with a (presumed) audience. The false answer: for fame and fortune and Google PageRank.

When did blog posting become a burden? I think it goes back to the travel blogging advice about posting frequency that began appearing in the last couple of years. You've got to post every day, some bloggers exhorted, or if not every day, at least three days a week, on a regular schedule.

Well, as much as I hate to reveal this personal detail, I don't do much of anything on a regular schedule, neither privately nor publicly. That's just the way I roll, the rules of my game. I'd love to be one of those regular folks. I admire them. They always put their keys in the same place, their dresser drawers are replenished regularly with clean folded laundry, and nothing rotten has ever gotten lost in their crisper drawers. They have never traveled anywhere with more than two pair of shoes.

I don't live in that world. I'm stuck in an alternative universe. So when I heard that I had to blog every day if I wanted to be a success at travel blogging, my contrarian self staged a rebellion. I went on a blogging strike of sorts.

Somehow, I thought a public commitment to NaBloPoMo would shake things up. And it did, until I realized I was churning out that daily blog post at the last possible moment.

So I took a break, but I'm back for the important stuff.

Passports with Purpose 2011 is coming up, beginning on November 30, and that's a true priority for me. I've got posts to write about two fabulous prizes from great sponsors. Beyond that, we'll see what develops between now and then. I'll try not to bore you or blather on about my personal limitations or make false promises about my lofty goals.

Blogging is optional.

 

30 days, 30 blog posts: Can I do it?

When I started this blog more than 5 years ago, I promised myself I would not post unless I had something worthwhile to say. Over the last year, for a number of mostly personal reasons, my posts have dwindled. Most have closed with false prediction of more frequent posts in the near future.

Yesterday, my collaborators and I decided to postpone the revival of the National Travel Writing Month (NaTraWriMo) challenge until January 2012. Shortly after putting that project on hold, I ran across two other November writing challenges that captured my imagination.

The first is BlogHer's NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month, a challenge to publish a blog post every day during November. The second is SheWriMo, sponsored by SheWrites; it has a simpler, more general mandate: write every day and report your success.

Will this accountability help me establish a daily writing habit? Will I crash through my writer's block and begin to share some travel stories? Will I bore my audience and lose all social media credibility?

I guess the next 30 days will reveal the answers to those questions.

Check out my embedded ShortForm video channel

A few months ago, I was asked to participate in the early launch stages of ShortForm, a video-sharing startup. ShortForm defines itself as "the social entertainment video property that delivers continuous channels of the best videos from anywhere on the web to curate and share short videos."

Yesterday, ShortForm announced the launch of an embeddable widget that enables me to share my favorite YouTube videos right here on Writing Travel. Sometime, sooner or later, I'll have my own YouTube videos to share. In the meantime, I'm able to spotlight the videos of the travel and food bloggers I follow, such as Barbara Weibel of Hole in the Donut, whose videos lead my channel.

Today, Ryan Lawler of GigaOm covered ShortForm in his post ShortForm Widgets Let Users Take Their Channels Anywhere, graciously mentioning WritingTravel as one of the early installers of the video widget. For more information about ShortForm, see their recent press releases.

Better yet, become a VJ yourself by creating your own free ShortForm channel.

Note: I received no material compensation for sharing my enthusiasm about ShortForm.

Blasting past our $50k goal! Donate to Passports with Purpose by 12/13

Exclamation points fully justified! Passports with Purpose 2010 has reached and exceeded our goal of raising $50,000 to build a village for 25 families in India.

But we're not finished yet. There's still time to see the numbers continue to rise, but you need to act now!

If you've been putting off your donation, don't hesitate if you want your chance to win a fabulous prize offered by our generous sponsors. The fundraiser ends on December 13 at 11:59 PM PST.

The money part is easy. The donation form is simple and straightforward.

1. Enter a number next to the prize(s) you covet. You can purchase multiple $10 entries for any prize.
2. The form totals your tax-deductible donation.
3. Proceed to PayPal to complete the transaction.

Now for the hard part, the high level analysis that may have caused you to put off making your decision to donate. With so many great prizes, you're forced to make difficult decisions. Would you prefer the Norwegian coastal cruise sponsored by Nancy D. Brown or something simpler and more long lasting, like the Flea ukelele offered by Pam Mandel?

Not the gambling type? Here's a list of the prizes offering the best odds as of December 7.

I must admit I've postponed my choice of entries. Aside from the two prizes already mentioned, here are my other top picks under consideration:

$150 Scottevest gift certificate

The brilliant Johnny Jet is offering enough gift bucks to purchase one or two Scottevests. Is there anyone who hasn't heard me exclaim about how much stuff I've lost in my travels or about how I cannot trust myself to travel with anything that is not attached to me? The Scottevest seems a perfect solution that I must test one of these trips.

$800 towards a HomeAway holiday rental

Lara Dunton and Terrence Carter of GranTourismo.com have procured an extremely flexible prize, $800 toward a HomeAway holiday rental anywhere in the world. Perhaps I could use this toward my next stay in Paris, where I hope to introduce my 18-year-old art student daughter to the wonders of the Louvre and all the other art treasures of the City of Light.

Travel blogging and writing seminars

Considering this is at least nominally a blog about travel writing, perhaps I should improve my craft with one of two education prizes aimed especially at travel bloggers. Maybe I'll donate and enter to win a MatadorU online travel writing course. Or perhaps I should shore up my commitment to travel blogging by meeting face to face with Peter Carey, Debbie Dubrow, and Pam Mandel at their two-day live Travel Blog School seminar. Or maybe I should take a chance at both of these opportunities, considering my recalcitrance toward good writing and blogging habits.

Tech tools and electronic toys

Now that I'm looking so carefully at the long list of prizes, I see more stuff I want. Oh crap. The raffle will end before I can finish this post.

How about an Apple iPad 16 GB Wi-Fi + 3G? Or an Amazon Kindle? Or a Microsoft xBox 360 with Kinect? 

A visit to the Authentic Seacoast of Nova Scotia

I can't end without giving a plug to the prize I'm offering through the generosity of The Authentic Seacoast Resorts on the lobster-filled Chedabucto Bay near Guysborough, Nova Scotia. Also known as the hometown of the late Stan Rogers and his very much alive and rocking brother Garnet Rogers (as well as the base of the yearly StanFest folk music extravaganza), Guysborough is where you'll find the world-class food, wine, and hospitality of the DesBarres Manor Inn.

Thanks to all our sponsors and contributors!

Special thanks to all the generous sponsors and donors who make Passports with Purpose such a successful venture, especially BootsnAll, LiveMocha, Round the World with Us, HomeAway, Traveller’s Point, Hostelling International, Quintess, Raveable, TravelPost, Uptake, and Cheapo Air.