The Life of Philip

First off, if you haven't heard of (PRODUCT)RED you need to stop reading this right now and go over to their website and find out about them. But since you're probably lazy and won't, let me give you a very brief rundown: (PRODUCT)RED was started a couple years ago by Bono of U2 and Bobby Shriver of DATA. It is an idea that, by the sale of specific products and services, gives money through the Global Fund to fight AIDS. You buy a product or service and a portion of that sale goes to this cause. The reason this works so well is because it is based on consumerism. As long as there is a market and people buy things, money will be sent. To date more than $100 million has been given, enough money for life-saving drugs for 660,000 people for one year. There are a number of companies who do this. (GAP)RED, (EMPORIO ARMANI)RED, (APPLE)RED - you get the picture.

And now Starbucks is joining the fray.

This is how my mind works: as I was sorting out my tips from the restaurant for the past week I realized that I make, on average, $50 a week (I'm just a host, not a server). Using rough figures, I quickly did the math. My wage and web design covers all my expenses. I could easily just save all my tips. Around the World ticket + minimal expenses could roughly equal $5000. That means if I saved my tip money for two years I could buy travel around the globe!

Yesterday I mentioned that I was going to have a challenge for those of you interested. I wanted to try it out myself first before I asked you to do it. I did that today, and I am going to tell you how it went. Over the next few days it will be your turn.

A couple weeks ago I had this idea, probably after picking up my tip money from the restaurant I work at part-time: what if I took ten one dollar bills and gave them away to strangers at random, what would their reactions be? I've given lemonade away for free on hot days for no reason other than my friends and I wanted to hang out and offer a respite to people from the heat, but this time I actually was curious of the social reaction I would get from people. So today, after I got off of work, I tried it out.

I have a small challenge for all of you. I'm not going to tell you what it is though. I want to try it for myself first and see how it goes. I think it will be rad and that then you will want to do it also. I should have the opportunity to do it by the end of the week. Feel free to remind me.

On an equally ambiguous note, I am going to create a survey soon which I will want your help with. I will need honest feedback for this to work. It's a bit random and silly, but at the same time, an issue that affects all of us. So watch this space for the first in what could become several general public surveys!

Places I'd like to be...

New Zealand
France
Alaska
Faeroe Islands
Somewhere in South America
Italy
Mongolia
Thailand

Whenever I have finally made a big decision I like to sleep on it before I tell anyone. Mull it over, get used to the idea, and process it myself. Then I let a handful of people know: my parents and family, a couple close friends, and a few others. I also let that sit a day or two, giving them time to respond and us to talk about it.

And then, if I think it's necessary or good to, I do something to let the rest of my friends and those who know me to hear about it. Often in a way that allows me to clearly state one time the details of the decision.

Like I'm about to do in this post.

The past weekend I went to Sydney to relax and see a friend.
This week my good friend Val comes to visit me.

Pictures of both in two weeks.