As a few of you may know, I’ve had a lot of random ideas.  In fact, that’s probably why its so difficult to concentrate for me, I’ve just got hundreds of ideas floating through my head, and many more popping up every day.

Some of the ideas that I actually go through with like this blog for example are very therapeutic.  The thoughts come out, I share, I get them down…and then they burden me a little bit less.

For example, for my recent motorbike crash… I’m sick and tired of telling the same story over & over again, so bamm I’ll send you a link now with all the details.  Great.

So, I’ve been thinking about a change in career as those of you will know with THIS article.  Now this comes down a lot to a feeling of frustration at work, but also the weather in the Netherlands.  But one thing I didn’t address is that it also very much has to do with all the ideas floating around my head and the realisation that by staying in 1 course of action, I’m closing down other potential paths.

Now if I was immortal, that would be fine, I’d just plod along, change when I really wanted to change, go off and work back in Australia, and then eventually do all the projects I’ve wanted to do.

But….obviously I’m not immortal, and more importantly there are only so many hours in the day.

So I have realised that I basically have to try out some of these ideas now, or they just won’t get done.

Let me just quickly list out some of the projects I am already ‘doing’  that word is in quotation marks like that because… most of them are sporadic happenings at best.

-My work.   I work for a Chinese logistics company focusing on e-commerce.  It’s a true international business company helping deliver goods to China from Europe, USA & Japan.
I am a Key Account Manager, + try to increase the efficiency of the European branch office.

-My blog.  Namely this website.  I write about things going in my life, experiences of every kind, motorbikes, travel, audio books, mushy brain movies etc.

–An observational website.  I don’t want to type the name, because so far it’s not really secure (I was actually hacked once & had my website overtaken by a Pakistani weird hacking/maybe political group.    But it basically concentrates on seeing illogical things wherever I am in the world (mainly China) and commenting on it.

–Mushybrainsyndicate.com.  This was a website that was originally meant to be a gathering point for intellectuals that like to do strange things to relax.  Strange events & get-togethers, plus recommendations etc.

I have had many brain-storming sessions with like-minded friends to see where we could push the direction of this… any even though we now have many ideas, nothing ever happened with it.

–Logical Nutjob moto-vlog.  After 1 of my best friends in China, Louis showed me some moto-vlogs on YouTube, I decided to start 1 of my own concentrating on riding a motorbike in China & commentating whilst doing so.

–Mushy Brain Syndicate joint moto-vlog.  (name taken from my website that I didn’t do anything with just yet)
Done,.. or at least planned to do with my moto-vlogging partner, Galen.  Motor biking and making videos in whatever location we are in in the world.  We’ve only made a couple of videos so far, but we’ve got pages and pages of plans & a couple of videos but we’ve also invested in some good gear & good programs to really get going, but basically just don’t find enough time to do it properly.  We planned to do a bunch of advice videos + regulations in different countries + what it’s like videos etc.

–Adobe Cloud software & video production.  Galen’s suggestion, we originally both started out on Adobe Premier Elements which we both used to make a few videos, but both upgraded to the pro version + the cloud.  Very expensive. Especially as this is a hobby and recently we both haven’t had time to do this.

–Chinese learning.  This is strange but Chinese is such a hard language, those of you that don’t think it’s difficult it’s because you haven’t got to a level above beginner.  It doesn’t become increasingly easier like many European languages once you’ve got the grammar basics, it just becomes more difficult.  Plus, due to the huge difference in culture between China & almost every other non-Asian culture, many times you’re not motivated to study…and then forget it.

This is an ongoing battle, and 1 that I’m not winning at the moment.

There’s a couple of secret projects that I can’t really reveal too much about.

–A cultural appreciation app.  A friend & I have been collecting content for this for over a year, but now the problem is to find time to make it into an actual app, and bring life into it. Earliest possible start for this is early December 2017.  If ever I want to work in some sort of government position, with expectations on being ‘politically correct’ then this project has to be up & running before then.  We are also aware we have to distance ourselves from this project, so start-up is going to be slow.

–A guiding of car culture manufacturing business.  This involves my friend Pierre & I.  We both love classic cars, & I have a fairly comprehensive knowledge of cars & car culture.  We planned to import classic cars into a certain country, & then after doing a bit of research & talking to some guys in a number of countries, we found out current legislation doesn’t allow for it.  Found out a possible work-around, and that’s retro-modding.  Old, classic style body shells with new modern engines and running gear.

–A cultural integration course training program/ business.  Where I would teach certain cultures how to integrate with their selected places of international study.  This is research intensive with teachings based on evidence based research / experiments, plus the combination of language learning + slang etc.  Initial investment for company formation has been raised, & basic research & concept is ready, but having 2nd thoughts on success rate, & commitment rate.

Some ideas that have passed by…but still kind of wanting to do.

–cRaZy overland trip.  Was going to take a 2nd hand / 7th hand beaten up shit-box OR a car with sponsorship from The Netherlands, East across central Asia, through China & down to Thailand.
Was prepared to do it with savings or with sponsorships. I was going to do it with my housemate Bob, & we even emailed a few companies for potential sponsorship, however they all wanted to know our social media following which is admittedly zero.
I shared the idea with Galen, and the idea could be to do that FROM China, back to Europe but on motorcycles.
That may be a separate idea altogether.

What I’m now thinking….

Quit my job, and start going through with all these ‘little plans’.

Starting with concentrating on sftbp.com a bit more seriously.
These are all things I want to do, and to be able to do them properly I need to build a social media following… more people reading the blog, more people watching the youtube channels, & across all platforms create some kind of parallels. Ie. My own youtube channel shared with mushy brain syndicate, readers of this blog shared with both of them.
Try to make something of this, to be more than just a side project.
And to do all of this I need more time, to be more free, free from the commitment or even the guilt of the work I’m currently doing.

Mushy Brain Syndicate to become a website/ channel that explores & documents wild adventures from motor biking across Central Asia, car driving from Europe to Asia, riding in choice locations in Australia with the aim of doing something that most tourists don’t see, something wild something crazy, filming something about change within the country. Interviewing the Chevrolet plant in Uzbekistan for the 90% penetration rate of Chevrolet cars there, talking to people that live on the ground, hearing what they say etc.

Not your standard travel blog, more of an adventure blog with travel.

Going to 4 cities in Australia, China or the USA is not having ‘done’ those countries, most people don’t discover anything profound in those countries.  Even having gone to 40 countries on business is not the same as having properly travelled through them, it really really depends on the situation in which you travel.  The idea here would be to do the adventure route.  And to document it as truthfully as possible, the good the bad, the aggravations, the lucky happenings, the breakdowns…everything.
As well as to state rather plainly the qualifications the people participating have, our interests, licenses etc, so people know whether they should compare their potential trips to these countries to our own or not.

For example, if you don’t have a Chinese car/ motorbike license then this is your main hurdle trying to cross into China with a car, NOT the crappy border officials or whatever.
Aim to speak to natives that live in the country, expats that live in the country, students whatever to get all of their perspectives.  On how the country is developing & the interesting things to do and what the country should be proud of.

So that’s kind of what I’m thinking of at the moment.
Whereas my personal blog website would normally take a back seat as compared to my office job, then followed by my other websites & other ideas…(that of course I never have time for), … Instead, the idea would be to concentrate on the personal blog + mushy brain syndicate as a travel/ adventure/ experience combination, and then think about other things, including different projects, business ideas, apps…etc.

Having a job, or  at least making my own projects where I actually want to work weekends due to it being always interesting seems like a good direction to go in, and something worth exploring.

I will be talking to a couple of friends about this in the next 2 months, & we see where I can go with it.