This is the last 3 months of my life as a digital nomad / vagabond / traveler compiled into a timelapse, set to Drager’s Vinyl 2010 Vinyl pre-party mix.

This was compiled from 3,326 sequential photos. Most of the photos are taken with the Canon 5D mark II and chronicles my life on the road and all the fun times we’ve had with our friends.

In this video:

Me, Ashley, Nick Reese, Lilah, Joe, Heather, Emily, Duane, Pearson, Jesse & Chelsea, Sean, Eddie, Martina, Tony Adam, Oilman, Boser, Dax, Doug Hac, Erin, CK, Pam, Chiropractic, Oilman, Willie, Barnes, Kat, Rob, Amy, Matt, Joseph, – getting on a plane – will add more…

Today is day 5 of my Plastic Diet Challenge – an experiment in living plastic-free (not using or touching anything made out of plastic).

Besides making some preparations (dismantling the toilet for example), we’ve had to make some adjustments and become very aware of where we’re sitting, what we’re coming into contact with, and what we’re touching and using.

Some of our adjustments have been:

• having to climb 18 flights of stairs to get in and out of the hotel (since elevator buttons contain plastic)
• using only cash & remembering to sign for all bills with a pencil
• not touching menus at restaurants (or most other things like straws & salt/pepper shakers)
• not being able to buy any beer or cocktails because our ID’s are plastic
• having to constantly decline straws, ensure our beverages are not going to be served in plastic, and make sure our food isn’t being served and packaged in plastic

The Toothbrush Dillema

While it’s possible to find non-plastic replacements for most day to day things, it’s been extremely difficult to find personal care items that are not plastic free – and the hardest one has been a toothbrush.

I was determined to find a solution. We walked to a health food store that reminded me of Whole Foods and looked at the toothbrush isle. There was NOTHING that wasn’t made of plastic or that wasn’t packaged in plastic.

actual miswak toothbrush stick

Determined, I kept searching for options online and stumbled upon the miswak stick. It’s a branch of the Salvadora persica tree that’s been used for centuries to brush teeth and is still popular in parts of the Muslim world. I called all over town, asked around halal shops – I came up empty. Later my mom sent me a picture of a “stick” she made for me back in Florida (haha – thanks for the effort, mom).

a poor man's miswak. ouch

Australians are cool

My friend Emily found a wooden toothbrush that was not packaged in plastic, but they’re only available in Australia. Not wanting to walk / swim 10,000 miles or brush my teeth with a nearby non-miswak stick, Tuesday night I caved and used my plastic toothbrush. After all having all them teeth and no toothbrush was starting to make me ornery.

The irony is that even wooden toothbrushes AND even miswak sticks that you can order on Amazon are all wrapped in plastic.

Hidden plastic everywhere

The deeper I get into this challenge, the more I realize between the blurring lines between what is and isn’t plastic and just how ridiculously difficult it is to avoid coming into contact with objects that have some hidden form of plastic – such as rayon, zippers, linings, vinyl coverings, etc.

I’ve spent the last several days reading a ton and educating myself about plastic issues, the biggest 2 being environmental pollution and what all the plastic is doing to our health.

Because it’s so ubiquitous, we’ve all learned to accept it and it’s almost invisible to us now. We all take it for granted. What we all tend to forget – is that no plastic ever leaves or disintegrates. Every bit of plastic that has ever been produced ever since plastic was invented (except tiny fractions that are incinerated and released into the air as toxic gas) eventually ends up in landfills or in our oceans, breaking down into ever-smaller pieces, absorbing toxic chemicals, and entering the food chain.

One of the best articles I’ve come across about the issue is Our oceans are turning into plastic…are we? (PDF) which explains a lot of the core issues.  Here are a few more good videos I came across (and a post by the Onion):

• The Story of Bottled Water and the original Story of Stuff
• Plastic Gets There First
• Plastic in the Ocean – the Soup
• Yay for plastics in the 1940′s!
• “2 Million Plastic Bottles Are used in America Every 5 Minutes” from Charles Moore TED talk.
• ‘How Bad For The Environment Can Throwing Away One Plastic Bottle Be?‘ 30 Million People Wonder (the Onion)

Want to help out? Here’s a good video describing the practical ways we can reduce our plastic use:

• Plastic Bag Solutions VIDEO – Some practical advice and solutions for the grocery store, dog poop bags, and more.

What is YOUR plastic concern? What would you like to replace? (that you’re currently using plastic for)

I’ll do the research for you and let you know some alternatives that might exist for whatever it is you might consider replacing plastics for.

So far I’ve found one site – Living without Plastic – that already answers a lot of these questions for you and offers sustainable alternatives.

Please feel free to ask your plastic questions below and I will work on finding you a good answer.

Since today is the first day of my plastic challenge I thought I’d put together this video of some of the stuff I had to do to prepare myself for living a week without touching plastic.

I got a pencil (since no pen out there is plastic-free), said goodbye to my car for the week (sniffle), and made some “adjustments” to the bathroom here at the Hotel Indigo where we’re staying in Asheville, NC.

Good thing this place has a lot of hippy restaurants and the Hotel is already very eco-conscious (more than most anyway). We’ll be walking everywhere and figuring out things we can do that don’t involve the use of plastic.

This week I’ll be documenting all this and posting useful and helpful resources about living plastic-less (since plastic-free is probably a bit too much for most people).

Introducing – the mCrate – a laptop “alternative” powered by Windows 7 and perfect for hipsters, Steve Jobs lookalikes (as seen below) and people who don’t need to tote an iPad to Starbucks to feel smug.

Starting at only $199 it’s going to revolutionize mobile computing the same way the Zune revolutionized the music industry.

Now when you go to Starbucks, people won’t think you’re just another fanboy. People will think you’re … something other than a fanboy.

Props to my friend Tara Russell of 3 Month Visa Coach for snapping this pic of the mCrate prototype in San Francisco earlier today.

Starting Monday I am Living plastic-free for an entire week.

I’m calling it the plastic diet. What does that mean? I am challenging myself to see what life is like when I CANNOT USE OR TOUCH ANY plastic.

Why Plastic?

A while ago Ashley and I saw a Youtube film called Plastic Bag (a film about a creepy-sounding plastic bag) which made us stop and think about the implications of how much plastic we all use in our day to day lives. At the end of the film there’s a reference to the The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which we promptly Googled. We then watched another 3-part documentary series called Toxic Garbage Island, which was at once entertaining, eye-opening, and very disturbing.

Plastic garbage that washed up ashore. I guess at least it still didn't have any oil on it then #optimism

Ever since then we all but eliminated our use of plastic bags and have been paying close attention to all the plastics we use in our daily life. Once you start paying attention, you very quickly start to realize the enormous extent of the problem.

Every day we use (and discard) mind-boggling amounts of plastic, from Starbucks cups & lids, to plastic bags, to wrappers, straws, shampoo bottles, and the list goes on forever. We are literally swimming in plastic.

The problem is that plastic NEVER biodegrades. It never leaves our ecosystem. It only breaks up into finer particles that end up in the ocean and literally choke our sealife which we then eat and reabsorb into our systems. It’s a problem of stupifying magnitude that I want people to at least notice.

Plastic Diet

As soon as I realized how difficult it would be to live plastic-free, I knew that it had to be my first official Living on Impulse challenge. The stuff I thought of already that this will entail curbing (without even having started it) includes seeming life-necessities such as:

small taste of what I'l have to give up

• toothbrush
• deodorant
• toilet seat
• light switches
• waterbottles and plastic cups
• to-go coffee (since I’m traveling)
• credit cards
• pens
• my CAR!
• telephone & cell phone
• buttons of my clothes

The only two pieces of equipment that are exempt from the plastic challenge are my camera, laptop, and iphone. Even though the outer casing of the laptop is aluminum (Macbook Pro) the keys are still plastic and so is most of the camera(s) I will be using to document my plastic free week. I hate to have exemptions, but I cannot do the challenge and document it without these 3 crucial pieces of equipment. Everything else that’s plastic is forbidden.

No Plastic for 1 Week

I don’t even know how I will be able to do the simplest things – like brush my teeth, get around, and pay for things – but that’s what the upcoming week will be all about. So please follow me along as I see just how ridiculous it will be to attempt to live in a plastic-free world.

Oh, and we’re doing this experiment out of our room at Hotel Indigo in Asheville, NC since we’re currently homeless and are living and traveling on impulse.

Follow me on Twitter, Subscribe to the RSS Feed, and I would love it if you Retweeted this post, shared this challenge with your friends on Facebook, and gave this any social media votes that you can to help spread the word about what it’s like “living without plastic.”

Update 7/5/10: See my first video about Preparing for the Challenge.

The videos that inspired this challenge are below:

(I also took the opportunity to do the same for my girlfriend Ashley’s Shoerazzi shoe site – if you know any shoe lovers please forward them to the new Shoerazzi 3.0 – she’s next to me as we speak, updating it).

New Directions

I asked myself what I wanted my personal site to be about – and I decided to make the primary focus of the site into challenges and experiments in unconventional living. I will be documenting my travels and adventures and my life of “living on impulse.”

I added a new maps feature, a section for my photos, new categories for favorite places, things that make life easier, and great music – plus a lot of other fun stuff (and more to come).

However, the primary functions of this site going forward will be:

1. Unnecessarily complicating my life through challenges – and sharing these “life experiments” with you – and -
2. Writing really useful articles to help you travel, think differently, and get the most out of your own life.

Let me know what you think of the new site design, give me a challenge, or suggest new features or directions to this site in the comments below. Thanks for visiting and reading!

I have it saved in my iTunes (here’s the iTunes link) and turn it on whenever I want to zone out and get a lot of work done (or plork done). The music does exactly that – puts me into a trance that lets me concentrate on whatever it is that I’m working on. They play a lot of electronic trance but it’s not overly repetitive or beat-y to the point of being distracting. Plus it’s all FREE.

DJ Sophie Sugar

One of my favorite Di.fm DJ’s that I heard on the Trance channel the other week is Sophie Sugar. Check out her site to hear some of her music – her beats and tunes are cool and mellow but will keep you rocking in front of your computer screen without putting you to sleep late hours.

She’s one of my fave DJ’s at the moment. You can also find her on Facebook.

Hotel Costes compilation album

One of my favorite all time records for all kinds of moods and occasions is the Hotel Costes: A Decade By Stephane Pompougnac (1999-2009) album. It’s from a hotel in Paris where I’m guessing the guy DJ’d over the past decade.

It’s a compilation of really great chill songs and beats and is hard to describe except saying it’s a mix of:

• French Pop
• Electronic or Electro
• Downtempo
• Dance
• House

Two of my favorite songs are: #4. Dream Machine (sooooooo good and mellow) and #6. Hip Hip Chin Chin (so fun) – you can listen to them on the widget on the right.

I’d really recommend picking it up – I’ve listened to it many many times – in the car, at home relaxing, while doing work online. It’s a great album.

You can pick it up on iTunes or get the CD from Amazon (if you’re all oldschool).

The complete song list:

Disc 1

1. Adore (I:Cube)
2. Sunday Drive (Stephane Pompougnac feat. Charles Schillings)
3. L Amour (Rouge Rouge)
4. Dream Machine (Mark Farina Feat. Sean Hayes)
5. Cleopatra In New York (Nickodemus Feat. Carol C)
6. Rolf Royce (Tosca)
7. Night Over Manaus (Boozoo Bajou)
8. Paper Aeroplane (Angus & Julia Stone)
9. The Ballad of Sacco & Vanzetti (Stephane Pompougnac)
10. Broken Wings (Villablack Feat. Juanita Grande)
11. In The Black Of The Night (Slow Train)
12. Love Is Queen Omega (Zuco 103 Feat. Lee Scratch Perry)
13. Mirage (Shazz with Michael Robinson)
14. Fleur Blanche (Oersten)

Disc: 2

1. Emotional Rescue (Freedom Dub)
2. S.O.S. Sound Of Silence (Trinity FM)
3. Con Mi Sombra (S-Tone Inc)
4. Kiss Kiss (Parov Stellar)
5. Sous Le Soleil (Major Boys Feat. Aurelia)
6. Hip Hip Chin Chin (Club Des Belugas)
7. Tocame (Dublex Inc)
8. Glamour Girl (Louie Austen)
9. Hello Mademoiselle (Stephane Pompougnac)
10. No Communication No Love (Charles Schillings & Pompon F)
11. Jus Dance (Mr.V)
12. Granada (Slow Supreme)
13. Soda Pop Confusion (Variety Lab Feat. Kidsaredead)
14. Morento (Stephane Pompougnac Feat. Clementine)

I don’t know about you, but for me – seeing the pictures of birds caught in the BP Gulf Coast oil spill is tremendously sad. It makes me want to do something.

So I came up with an idea – why don’t we join as a blogging community and remake our Twitter birds into Oilbirds to rally to get people to donate to the Gulf Coast cleanup efforts?

Other ways you can help:

• National Audubon Society: Volunteer, Donate or Take Action
• Oil Spill Volunteers: Info on volunteering in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama or Florida
• Matter of Trust: Donate hair to Help with Cleanup
• National Wildlife Foundation: Donate to help animals (Text WILDLIFE to 20222 to donate $10)
• Oceana: Sign the petition and tell President Obama to ban offshore drilling.
• Oxfam: Help Vulnerable Communities Threatrened by the Oil Spill
• Surfrider Foundation: Donate to help preserve our beaches
• International Bird Rescue Research Center: donate

Ways You Can Help Right Now:

1. Retweet this message and get other bloggers involved.
2. Put the Oilbird Widget on your blog and link to this page to let people know about the movement (instructions below).
3. Get creative and remake your Twitter bird into an Oilbird (or black Twitter bird) to show support (if you do, please post your link in the comments)

Our goal is to raise money towards the cleanup effort and encourage donations to all the organizations coming together to alleviate the Oil Spill disaster.

Put the following widget on your website

Place the following code into your sidebar:

<div style="width:220px;height:112px;text-align:center;background:transparent
url(http://blog.auinteractive.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/oilbird-220.png)
no-repeat top right">
<script type="text/javascript">
tweetmeme_url = 'http://livingonimpulse.com/oilbirds';
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js">
</script>
</div>
<a href="http://livingonimpulse.com/oilbirds"><img
src="http://livingonimpulse.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/donate-txt-210.png"
alt="Help the Oilbirds" title="donate-txt-210" width="210" height="76" /></a>

Now bear in mind this is just some CSS code I threw together on short notice – if you’re a programmer and want to help me create a real widget, please contact me.

Oilbird graphics

Black icons by Iconive

Oily bird

Small oily bird

Oilbird Photoshop Tutorial

Here’s a video I made about how to cover a Twitter bird in oil in Photoshop:

If you have any ideas about how to spread this message, want to contribute code or graphics, or have any suggestions – please leave me a comment below.

Update 06/10/10: I replaced the Chipin widget with a direct donation button so 100% of the donation money can go straight to the relief effort right away (and avoid Paypal fees).

(Sidenote: I just redesigned this site and have a new mission – to keep challenging myself to do extraordinary things. More about that later.)