Well since my last post about having No Fixed Office, there have been a number of things which have changed. Nothing has really changed much if at all in the way that I will be working with No Fixed Office. Although some changes may be coming. But it is more in just what I will be doing and how often my Portable Office will be getting used.
Potential changes to the Office Equipment
One thing that I have worked with but not really been that fond of is the netbook that I tend to use as my only computer while traveling. To be honest while it has served well and does get the job done, I would like something with a little more power that can get things done and multitask without so much of an issue.
The biggest issue with the computer is that by virtue a netbook uses an underpowered processor. This of course is not good for doing more then one thing at a time and will often lead to graphic work taking a lot longer then it should. So as a result I am looking at really two options.
Option 1 – Buy another Laptop, which runs on windows. This option is kind of difficult in the range that I am looking at as there are not as many 13″ laptop’s around. There is one or two, however most of them are not really as powerful as when you step up to 14″. While most people would say get the bigger one, I am trying to avoid this as I do carry this laptop around ALOT.
Option 2 – Buy an Apply Macbook PRO. This is sitting slightly ahead as my preferred option, however there are a couple of reasons I am hesitating. The first one is that from the time I have spent playing with one in the store, I am still struggling to ensure that it will do what I want it to do out of the box like the PC versions I am looking at. Spending extra on the laptop to begin with to get an Apple is one thing but then to have spent more money to get software that will do what I want it to do is another thing. The other point is that I really do not think it the wisest move to be making such a big change (from PC to MAC) with so little time between purchase and travel.
Anyway the Laptop problem, will probably end up getting left until my return from my next trip anyway.
Work Changes
After my last trip which really tested the idea of a Portable office for me while traveling, I come to the realization that travel is something I want to do more of. As such I actually resigned from my job. Which became effective in the second week of January. However I have continued working part time for the same company, which has definitely allowed to continue adding a bit of money to the savings, but has also hampered some of my efforts I was wanting to make to get an income coming in and clear out a lot of my stuff.
What this means
Ultimately this means that I will be looking to make a better use of my portable office, to the extent that I will be using it for more then just my blogging while I am traveling. In fact in the last few weeks I have started a course, which will help me to work through my writing and photography styles and ultimately enable me to be a better writer. The end goal here is to become a Freelance travel journalist. Which should hopefully help to start that income stream, as well as give me another purpose for my travel as well.
This was not really the direction I was seeing things going 6 months ago, however it is a direction that I am fairly happy to work with at the moment and just see how things pan out really.