2/26/2008 …
I recently did one of those online personality tests and the results came back to tell me I’m an “Explorer / Negotiator.” Which, is a more interesting description of a personality type than I think I’ve heard. I’m also an ISTJ on the Meyers-Briggs, but considering I’m quite the explorer I’ll stick with the first description.
I do like to travel, and wander and generally move around, never quite content to stay in one place for too long. But, I have been to a few places I could stick around for a while. Like southern France and the Inishowen Peninsula of Ireland. I lived in Seattle for a record length of time, but I’ve moved to the eastern USA and now live in Southeastern Ohio!
I somehow ended up in the perfect line of work to be this nomad, doing freelance web and graphic design work. I currently do work for clients that are located in various parts of the country and world. Though I have yet to do work from various parts of the world myself, the potential is there and I hope someday to take advantage of that more.
For 2008 / 2009 I pursued my interest in small-scale organic farming. Mainly I wanted to explore my interest in food and alternative lifestyles. I have also never been content with the fairly typical American lifestyle I was living between graduating from college in 1997 and 2006. I had my share of debt between a new car payment, a manageable credit card debt, a house at one point, a modest appetite for consumption of unnecessary and irrelevant things. After a while I realized living in debt and not being aware of how I’m spending my money and not caring where my money goes when I spend it was not a good way to live. And I also realized in 2006 that not traveling abroad, at least to Europe is really short-changing yourself. So, I took a year off and traveled through all of western Europe, Norway and even went way down south to South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and a tiny corner of Zambia.
Now, in mid-2009, I decided to alter direction slightly. I’ve discovered a different life than the corporate grind city slog. There are some amazing people living in rural America, and it is mostly a great place to be. The only issue is it is under-appreciated (i.e. most Americans have this irrational idea that food should be incredibly cheap) and jobs are scarce (at least for a graphic designer). Mainly, though, I realized I want to get back to a long-time interest : electronics and electricity. At this point, I’d really like to get into the solar and other alternative energy field and start working and learning there. As I see it, food and energy are two main things we will always need, and they happen to be two great interests of mine. Since we as a nation and planet will be needing to shift our dependence on oil to a local, renewable resource, it only makes sense to me.
(The pictures in the masthead of this page are mostly from my travels. There are hundreds more on my flickr account.)
Steve Wilson 
