I’m getting tired of all of this traveling, in the last three and a half weeks I’ve flown five times and driven 2500 miles, tomorrow I fly to San Diego. Holly doesn’t know yet, hopefully its a good surprise and not a “crap! daddy came home and ruined all the fun” kind of thing

Yes, its true. Just like you, I get sick of my job too. I’ve been sitting on my couch with my laptop since 9:30am this morning meeting with Colin regarding the new Witch’s Rock Surf Camp website. I am so sick of talking about it, my head literally won’t take any more.

When I woke up this morning there was a guy on tv who had implanted a chip in his arm and was using it to communicate with computers. He was claiming that within 15 years people would be getting microchip implants in their brains so that as they thought, they would be communicating with computers. What the hell is going on?

The rain hasn’t stopped for three days and its depressing me. I’m looking for a flight to San Diego as its just about time to skip town. Nothing else to report from the Skybox…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvXJca15uCY]

As you know, I’ve just returned to Tamarindo from being gone for three weeks. There was a new guy named Steve who was working at the front desk, actually a really cool guy. He is married to a tica who is quite hot, and I guess pretty interested in other guys from what Steve says. I get back to Witch’s Rock Surf Camp from Bill and Emily’s wedding and post party, its about 2AM, and Steve is at the hotel’s front desk with his arm dripping blood. It was so nasty. After just having some stitches myself I told him that he had at least four cuts that needed 8-10 stitches. He was in shock, saying that he had gone to the Best Western and caught his wife having sex with some guy in a hotel room, and that he punched through the window in an attempt to get in. I gave him my extra basketball shorts as a blood rag (yeah, its nasty) and sent him to the hospital.

Yesterday, the morning after, I wake up and look for my basketball shorts. No, it wasn’t a dream at all. I’m having a coffee and start talking to Colin. Colin tells me about how he ran into an old friend who was staying in a hotel in town. The guy goes on to say that he went to the bar the night before and some little hottie comes up to him and says “hey, you remind me of a guy I know, only hotter. Want to go back to your room??” So then of course Colin’s friend does just that, and is doing this chick when some crazy guy punches through the window.

Isn’t life full of funny little stories like that? Poor Steve probably doesn’t think so.

The current time is 12:31am, so I guess its already Sunday and not Saturday. Bill and Emily’s wedding was a success despite the rain showers, and I’m still feeling it 24 hours later. When you mix champaign with beer with rum with copious amounts of marijuana and then sleep it off on the most uncomfortable couch known to mankind you’ve got last night just about summed up. Now that I’m back in Costa Rica I want to take this opportunity to thank all of my friends for making my homecoming that much better. I left my toothbrush back in Avellanas and my teeth feel hairy, maybe I should go to bed and worry about it in the morning.

When I talk about working remotely, I’m talking about working where you want and when you want. Some of you are entrepreneurs like me and you already are your own boss. Others of you, a vast majority I’d assume, work for the man. I’ve got a little insight for you and your job security (it isn’t secure). Whoa! Did I just scare you? I hope not. I just want you to realize that sooner or later someone younger than you will probably take your job from you, and then someone overseas will probably take that job from them. Its a vicious cycle where the large corporation is looking out for number one, and you’re not number one. In a world that has become flat, just understanding the position that you’re in is giving you an advantage over most everyone else. Doing something proactive about it will help give you the edge to actually keep your job. That is, unless, you’re ready to stop working for the man and start working for yourself, which I entirely suggest that you do. If you prefer punching in and out and are happy doing what you’re doing, thats great too. Either way, working remotely will help you create more free time so that you have more time for your family and friends, to travel, to start new hobbies, and so on.

We as humans have evolved over millions of years, but our work methods have evolved annually. The internet has made anything possible. We can now call tech support for a printer that doesn’t print and Apu in Bangladesh can walk us through step by step. Or Apu can simply log in to your computer and do it for you. With wifi hotspots and mobile devices doing more and more, submitting a cost analysis from Yosemite on your Blackberry last year or from your iPhone last month is as easy as clicking a few buttons. Internet technologies are dumbing down and as a result more and more people are becoming productive members of our worldwide online community. You’re probably quite internet savvy because you’ve found my blog, but maybe someone printed this article for you or you found it while searching for “Blackberry” or “iPhone”. I’ll assume that at least part of what I’m saying can help you out. Here are a few tools that I’ve found helpful as I strive to work remotely:

Email- duh! Probably the biggest advance in communication technology, email allows you to send information to someone at 4am and not piss them off. I’ll assume you figured this one out already.

Skype- This program is just awesome. A VOIP program that acts as your phone service provider, connecting you to any phone number in the world with predetermined cost per minute. If I’m in Costa Rica, I sit in the restaurant of my business Witch’s Rock Surf Camp and use the wireless internet and my headphones to call my parents in San Diego, my friend Adam in England, my lawyer in Panama, and my clothing factory in Honduras. The price is less expensive than a traditional phone or cellphone. This service is quite convenient if you’re traveling between countries and rely on the internet as your sole means of communication. Other features that I use from skype (www.skype.com) are its call-forwarding features. Basically, I have a US-based phone number and then forward that number to any phone that I happen to have at the time, or borrow, or even to a friend or family member’s phone while I’m at their house. And if I don’t answer, it goes to voice mail and I can check it later. To the caller, they figure I’m in San Diego and have no idea that I’m in Peru. You can use your computer’s internal speakers and microphone, or you can be a big spender and buy a nice headphone/microphone set. Check it out if you haven’t already.

Efax- Just like it sounds, this is a fax service that sends faxes to you by email. I’m sure it does more than that, but for me I simply use it when someone needs to send me a fax. I have a San Diego based fax number and picking up faxes is as easy as checking your email. The downside is that viewing the fax requires an efax viewer, which even though is free can be a bit of a pain if you don’t have your computer and are checking your fax via web mail. If this is the case, try using a USB key (see next section).

USB key- a small hard drive that fits on your keychain, this small piece of hardware is great for storing vital documents that you may need in multiple locations and/or if you don’t have your computer. You can keep it password secured, and then keep all of your other passwords on it. You can use it if you’re on the road and need to print or fax a document from your hard drive at the local Kinko’s. USB keys are a great tool, although as I write this I realize I forgot mine on my VW Jetta keychain in San Diego this morning.

credit cards- yeah, of course credit cards, but for a few other reasons too. First, when you pay with credit card you have a record of all of your purchases. This is great for space cadets like me, who lose receipts faster than you can say W2. Another good thing is that, with a good credit card company, you can collect air miles and get free travel the more you spend. Capital One offers 2 air miles for every dollar spent.

mac vs pc- OK, some of you will like me and some of you will hate me, but I’m a mac guy all the way. I didn’t used to be, and two years ago when I switched it was a frustrating first couple of ways. Perhaps the mac’s simplicity is what confused me more than anything. Some great things for the remote worker are a super long battery life of 4-6 hours on average, a stronger-than-pc wireless antenna that picks up wifi where a pc doesn’t, no viruses or virus software constantly reminding you of how unorganized you are with your downloading of new anti-virus scripts, and so on. Trust me, mac will one day rule the world, and not just because they’re cool looking. If you want a better-made machine, buy a mac. I NEVER shut my computer down more than twice a month, I simply close it and open it as needed and it RARELY crashes. This is after two years of use, and if I remember correctly, I’ve never had a pc work for two years period unless I never traveled with it.

A great book on this topic is called “The Four Hour Work Week” by Timothy Ferris. I suggest that you read it as soon as you can. Even for seasoned veterans, this book makes you realize that you’re touching the tip of the iceberg in regards to what is possible. I was motivated by it and have made changes in my life to clear up more time, allowing me to do tons of things including writing this blog! There is of course an entire bookshelf full of books on this topic. All I’ve really done is make a short list of some of the tools that I use personally in order to work effectively without being in any given place at any given time. I run a 65 employee surf camp in Costa Rica, and over the last three weeks I’ve flown to San Diego, driven up the California coast and over to Montana, flown to Tennessee, back to San Diego, and then back to Costa Rica. Work didn’t stop and neither did I!

I’m getting sick of talking about all of the traveling I’ve been doing, as you probably are. I’m even more tired of actually doing the traveling. Right now I sit in the Houston airport between connections, heading to Costa Rica in a couple of hours. I tried passing the time by in the airport Border’s Books. The fact that there is a book title “the Idiot’s Guide to Amazing Sex” scares me a bit and makes me wonder how many copies have been sold. I tried to find a good business book, as for some reason reading about work seems to interest me when I’m not working (very sad actually). All of the books were about how to get rich, how to get promoted at work, to invest, buy and sell real estate, not piss your boss off, and so on. I saw a copy of “the Art of the Deal” by Donald Trump, which I read a few years ago and remembered liking quite a bit. That was suggested to me by my friend Dean Warren, the same guy who believes that global warming doesn’t exist. Well, maybe he does now, as it was two years ago that we had that talk, and its been getting warmer and warmer, hasn’t it? Our time in Nashville was dampened by the 95-100 degree temperatures with no wind. It is actually cooler in Costa Rica than the midwest scary enough. Holly, Otis and I flew to San Diego on Sunday, one of the longest days I can remember in recent months. At 2AM we were up and leaving for the airport in Tennessee, by 1PM I had been to Home Depot on Sports Arena Blvd in San Diego and was preparing to paint one of our units in OB with my dad. I keep going back and forth on whether or not I want to start renting our places on a nightly basis now or wait until next summer. It has proven to be quite hard to get things done to the place with us traveling all of the time. I posted a craigslist posting, http://sandiego.craigslist.org/apa/392215922.html , so if you know anyone who wants a sweet place in OB tell them to check it out. Holly, Otis and I (effectively called “we”) stayed in my parent’s camper in their driveway when we returned from our trip. Well, we got to our place in OB and realized how much work needed to be done. The homeless guy Ron from previous posts had moved out, which was good, and so had Justin. Our neighbors told us that Ron had been driving our car while we were gone, so that was super news also. I’m not sure what it was exactly, perhaps a combination of things, but this particular trip has been more of a culture shock than ever before. I guess I’d start by reiterating that I’m almost 30 years old and upon returning to my own home I was unable to allow my family to stay there but instead opted to stay with my parents, in their motorhome in their driveway. To me that is a sign of regression, but I can get over it. We hadn’t been in our place for 8 months and everyone else had been apparently using the place, so you can imagine the state it was in. Then compare that to our family reunithon, where we see family we haven’t seen in years and realize that we’ve spent all of our 20s living in the jungle. It is hard to explain how that makes you feel, especially with things seeming to advance so quickly. I moved to Costa Rica when Clinton was President and the dot com bubble was just starting to burst. Holly and I have been talking for quite some time about spending more time back in San Diego. Now that we’re pregnant again it seems even more of a solid option, at least once the baby is born, as my folks are there and can help out quite a bit. Then I start considering things like the new Simpson’s movie, that I’d like to see it and that I’ve missed the last 500 good movies or so. I’ve never owned a Tivo or DVR and am jealous of all my friends who have one. There are tons of magazines I’d love to have subscriptions to, and having them sent to my address (past the second river in Avellanas, on the right, Costa Rica) just doesn’t seem to work. I wish to God I could have Netflix… When I’m in the US I get overwhelmed by people talking on blue tooth enabled devices about their myspace blogs and, even though I’m writing a blog right now, I’m miles away from anyone I know who is doing the same. Its like that story about the person in India who stumbled upon an advanced physics textbook and became a physics expert without ever having any experience with it before (except that writing a blog requires no expertise whatsoever). Maybe I’m just missing some of the practicalities of life back in San Diego. I mean, if I want something I can just go and get it while I’m up here. It sounds simple, but after almost seven years of living in Costa Rica I’m just feeling a bit left behind. The last few months have been scattered around the continent looking for long-term solutions to an inner struggle between me and me. Then I realize that I’m about to have a second child and that my first child and my wife don’t have health insurance, nor do I, nor do I have a retirement account or a stock portfolio or most things that people my age are “supposed to have figured out”. And now this morning I leave Holly in San Diego as she is deathly ill with her pregnancy, nothing to worry about except to receive this reality check of what I’m doing and where I’m going. I guess life has many crossroads and I’ve been standing at this one for quite some time and didn’t realize it completely. It must sound completely incoherent so I apologize for that, but sometimes its nice to just talk to you and not really know who you are. Just an fyi, I’m amidst a website overhaul. I’ve seen the light and it looks good. This blog has nothing to do with my business Witch’s Rock Surf Camp, so I’m taking it down and putting it onto another site. Don’t worry, I’ll let you know what it is. I’ve started a business blog as a way to not only clear my mind of it’s never-ending thought process, but also to share with anyone who wants to gain insight towards doing whatever the hell they want to do. You can find the start of this project at http://joewalshproject.blogspot.com . Trust me when I say it isn’t much, and soon it will reside elsewhere and include my personal blog and other tidbits as well, I hope it helps you moving towards where you want to be. I saw a guy with a t-shirt on this morning in the security checkpoint line of the San Diego airport, and it said “one life one chance”, and I thought to myself, holy shit, he’s right! aloha- joe

I feel like I died and then came back to life, and who knows, maybe I did. The reason I decided to get hand surgery was pretty good, even if it was a spur of the moment type thing. You see, a year ago my parents were in Montana visiting our family when they noticed a lump that was growing on my dad’s neck. Worried, they went to the doctor in Butte, Dr Kaufman, who advised them to return to San Diego for immediate testing. Later we found out it was Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a common form of cancer. Fortunately my dad didn’t hesitate a bit and started chemotherapy and radiation treatment, and today he continues to live a cancer-free life. So, back to my story, I’ve noticed a lump on my hand over the last few months. It started growing bigger, which started to scare the crap out of me. Maybe it was me being in Butte a year later, and then meeting Dr. Kaufman and showing him my hand. That was on Sunday. Monday morning I woke up to a message that I was having hand surgery at 3pm in the afternoon.

I’m not afraid of needles or people cutting into my body or anything like that. At least I don’t think I am. As I sat on the hospital chair in a semi-reclined position, the nurse shot me up with tons of procaine until my hand didn’t seem to be attached to my body. My dad is in the room and we’re talking with the doctor as he’s digging around, doing his thing. I feel them hit a nerve and I tell them. And then it happens again and I tell them. Then I slightly feel the nurse begin shooting my hand up with more and more procaine. My stomach tightens up and my head rushes, I feel like I’m going to be sick, and the last thing I remember is saying that I wasn’t feeling very good. It was more like “I’m nooot feeeeeeeeliiiiiing veeeeeeeeeeeeeeryyyy goooooooooooooo…”. My dad explained to me later that I then went into a seizure that lasted 15-20 seconds. I was coughing, almost choking, unable to breathe, and then began violently convulsing in the chair. I lunged forward, up in the chair, and this is where I start remembering what happened again. Everything burned back into perspective and I’m looking at a doctor and nurse in their medical clothes, and my dad, all starting at me scared and telling me I’m ok. “Where the hell am I?”, I ask a few times. I had no idea why I was there, or where I was, that I was having surgery, that I was even in the US, for a couple of minutes. It was messed up. Not to mention I felt awful. This was about halfway through the procedure, and as I sat there I started to realize that my entire body was still in shock and shaking. I can’t really explain it any better than that.

Looking back on it now, I wonder if what I experienced was an allergic reaction to the anesthetic. You hear stories about how you’ve got to sign papers in the dentist office because every once in a blue moon some poor soul dies while getting their teeth cleaned, or during lasik surgery, or while getting a mole removed, and so on. I’d like to think that I just passed out for a few seconds, but what I saw between passing out and waking up was crazy enough that I can’t begin to explain it. It was crazy enough to wonder if I died and came back to life, all in those 15-20 seconds. I’m not going to spend too much time worrying about it, because I’m still here, so I guess if nothing else I’ve got a good bar story if ever on the subject. Oh, and the lump on my hand was a cyst, so thats good news.

Right now I’m sitting next to a lake in Tims Ford State Park in Tennessee. This is the true south, and where they lack in teeth they more than make up for in hospitality and fried catfish. I’m pretty burned out on the whole family reunion thing, I mean seriously, why did I plan such a long trip away from surf? I don’t know. Today we take the ski boat and get pulled behind the boat while riding surfboards, so thats about as close as its going to get. I’ve just got to find a way to do it without using my right hand. So far I’ve driven by about a million churches (they sure praise the lord a lot down here), seen a thirteen year old girl sucking her thumb (reminds me of the movie Deliverance), watched (I swear not for long) as some guy tried to get his boy horse mate with his girl horse, and, uh, well, thats about it because I’m stuck in Tennessee.

We fly back to San Diego on Sunday morning. I’m excited to finally get our beach cottages there set up so that I can rent them out to friends, family, wrsc guests, basically anyone who wants to go on vacation to San Diego and stay in Ocean Beach a block from the ocean. Justin finally got the homeless guy to move out of my driveway so that was nice. I was trying to explain the story to one of Holly’s cousins last night around 1am. It sounds more and more crazy every time I tell the story. I mean come on, where were my SD friends through all of this? We hadn’t been back to San Diego since last November, which is quite some time, but hey, I was busy. Someone could have called me in Costa Rica or sent a quick email explaining that I had a homeless guy living in Justin’s van in my driveway, that he had used my yard to disassemble his own van’s engine. He even built a fire pit and some storage shelves there, and would have other people come by the house and work on their cars there. Are you f#%king kidding me? No, I’m not. I swear, its like a funny part to a bad movie. The fact that my friends knew about all of this and figured that I’d be ok with it shock me, but I guess thats what happens when you never make an issue out of anything. I mean, I was letting them brew beer in the front yard while the homeless guy Ron was changing neighbor’s oil in the back yard. It reminds me of my college years living on Poole Street with Doug Cole.

So, anyways, no more homeless dude, no more beer factory. I’m painting everything, we’ve gotten some great furniture for our surf cottages (they come fully furnished) and will be renting them out starting next weekend (Friday August 10th). If you or anyone you know wants is planning a trip to San Diego and wants a great place to stay, send me an email. The beach cottages go for $120/night, they are on Abbott Street between Cape May and Brighton in Ocean Beach, 92107. There is tons of surf right out in front, plus great local hangouts on Newport Avenue three blocks up. OB is definitely the last remaining local beach of San Diego, so if you haven’t visited you should. I’ll have a website up shortly and will include it in my next blog. Until then, I’m going to try and make the best out of this family reunion thing, its actually pretty cool to be forced to hang out with people you don’t know. I just sometimes get tired of it as I’ve been doing it for as long as I can remember. hasta la pasta- joe

new plans emerge and I’m getting hand surgery in about 30 minutes, so I’m not sure if I’ll be surfing, or even typing. Tomorrow is Nashville. Then Sunday morning back to San Diego, and then Thursday to Costa Rica. Then I think I’m scheduled for a trip to Panama the week after that. go Chargers. I can’t wait to get back to the beach, Montana is nice but flat and no ocean whatsoever. New blog to come soon.