A Look At The Not-So-Corporate Web

April 3, 2014

Vagabond Girl

Here’s another look at the Personal Web. UNFORTUNATELY, the creative talent behind this blog stopped blogging in 2011. FORTUNATELY, she has left her blog in place, at least for now, complete with photos and a great account of her adventures, one post at a time.

Calia is a Canadian woman, traveling the world alone and blogging about her adventures. As she puts it:

I have very few definite plans really. I intend to fly (no pun intended) by the seat of my pants and follow wherever whims (and budget) take me. That’s how this entire thing started anyway. I woke up one morning and thought about what it would be like if I wasn’t the me that lives in Toronto, but another me that had a different life. That other me had decided to go back to my roots and be a vagabond / nomad. Toronto me started to feel distant and insignificant, so here I am starting on my real world vagabonding adventure. (Yes, this started with a daydream that ran out of control. Trust me, anyone that knows me wouldn’t think that unusual in the slightest. :))

There’s so many places that I’ve always dreamed of visiting Mexico, Peru, Egypt, Ankor Wat in Cambodia and I very much want to visit Europe again for the summer since there was a lot I didn’t get to see last time. The world is also changing fast, I’d like to be able to look back and remember things that I actually witnessed and experienced, not just stuff I saw on telly or read about online.

Lots of neat photographs and interesting thoughts about her various adventures. Enjoy it here.

And here’s the background story on WHY she decided to travel in the first place.

Interesting reading; enjoy!
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originally published elsewhere, 7/11/11

January 27, 2014

Galen Frysinger: Traveler and Photographer

Meet Galen Frysinger, a retired physicist and chemist who now does research on ethnography and travels the world and creating a one of a kind weblog of his travels, including his own photography.

I first stumbled across his site while doing a little research on architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Galen Frysinger’s photos of Fallingwater in Pennsylvania are absolutely breathtaking!

You can also read and see more about his journeys in countries around the globe.

It’s a great Personal Web Site in the tradition of the early, Old School 1.0 Web I miss SO MUCH; enjoy!

(Originally published elsewhere 7/14/11)

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January 8, 2014

Personal Journeys: Sandra Beardsley

Personally, I think that one of the most appealing aspects of the internet has been its ability to allow people everywhere to share their stories.

Stories of inspiration, hope, challenges, joys, hobbies, interests, and more.

I’m somewhat saddened to watch the internet morph into a corporate salesplace, as it slowly loses the human touch that made the early internet a pioneering space filled with real stories about real people.

I hate to be the one to tell you, but Facebook really isn’t the center of the universe and you really don’t have 10,000 “friends” this week.

So, as I have the time to do it, I’m going to share with you some of the “other internet.” The Old School Internet that was composed of people with a burning desire to communicate something of importance to their fellow human beings (not just that they “like” Britney).

We’ll start here:

Here’s the story of Sandy Beardsley, who chose to share her journey as she fought to overcome the effects of a brain tumor. Sandy died in 2006, but her husband, Dan, has left her website in place to help inspire and help others. As she said in the first chapter of her site, “I hope that my words can in some way help anyone that is facing such a challenge. You are not alone.”

Thank you, Dan and Sandy, for sharing your story and helping others find their way through what can be a very confusing and scary process.

Here are more of Sandy’s words, from the genesis of her site in the Summer of 1999:

This is an ongoing written account of my journey through living with a brain tumor. I have kept a journal and continue to write about my experience. At first I kept the journal to express my emotions in a positive way. I began to think I might share these words with others when my journey was finished. Now I realize that that day may never come. Life is a journey and the process is what’s important, not the ending. My husband came up with the idea to share my words on a website.

Please visit the site here and experience for yourself Sandy’s wonderful, giving spirit, filled with strength and hope. And remember this: Life is what’s happening NOW, today. Make the most of it while you have it!