I rise at 5 am. My alarm goes off 15 minutes prior, and as I snooze, I lie in bed reciting affirmations to myself, through the open door of my subconscious mind. "I love my life." "I believe something wonderful will happen to me today." "I am so grateful for my life." "I breathe in [...]
I don’t like to reinvent the wheel. I prefer to find out what successful people are doing, and model how they are doing it. Chris Brogan wrote an excellent blog post some time ago about how he prioritized his day. The man is a content output machine; he is one of the indisputable masters of [...]
Today we received our Cedulas in the mail, the ID cards that designate us as Costa Rican permanent residents. Today the Costa Rican bureaucracy, rightly earning its legendary reputation, spent an hour and a half stonewalling me over the legibility of an unnecessary stamp on a translation of my marriage certificate. Today I spent an [...]
We went to San Jose last week to finalize the paperwork for our Residency status. In 2011, we came to Costa Rica while Johanna was five months pregnant. Because we were having a baby in Costa Rica, all first-level relatives (parents and siblings) of a Costa Rican citizen are eligible to apply for Permanent Residency. [...]
You're setup with an email newsletter, but nobody is subscribing. Dangle the carrot, or I'll give you the stick. People are already dealing with information overload in their email inboxes. In order to overcome someone's reluctance to add to their inbox problem, you have to solve a different problem for them. Offer to solve a [...]
My 6-year-old girl really didn't know. While discussing the differences between policemen and firefighters, I used a word Indilea had never heard before. She has acquired the excellent habit of asking for the meaning of any word she doesn't understand. "What's a gun?" she asked. "You know," I said as I mimed a gun. "Kapow." [...]
There are some things Costa Rica does really, really well. Beaches. Palm trees. Friendly strangers. Crazy animals and fruits. But the internet? That's a problem. There's a maxim here that goes, "Costa Rica is ten years behind the United States." With fashion, with technology, with any advancement that happened in the United States ten (or [...]
This is a pretty heavy commitment for me. I generally work 4-5 nights a week, after the kids are off to bed, from 7:30 to 10 or 11. Many Saturdays I work in the afternoon, as well. Once or twice a week, I stay up late with my wife and we watch movies, or take [...]
I ask my daughter, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" "A dolphin flying squirrel trainer." Of course.
Its always fun to get unexpected visitors on my desk in Costa Rica.