The Global Trip LIVE!

In the tradition of motivational speaker Tony Robbins and many countless evangelists, The Global Trip is coming to you LIVE!*

*provided you're in Greenville, NC, USA on September 16th

FIRST OFF, an update for all you faithful Blogreaders who still look me up from time to time (plus all you new fans who discovered me this year). It's been one hell of a productive summer. Without landing a full-time 9-to-5 job, I've managed to work my way out of post-trip debt via freelance design projects, and am finally on my financial way to the next phase of my life -- whatever that is. But the summer hasn't been all about workin' for The Man; I've also managed to get published in the September 2005 edition of Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel magazine and the September 4th edition of the Chicago Tribune's travel section. Pitches for further publications are in the works.

But perhaps the most significant event of the summer (or at least the most relevant to this entry) is when I received an email from one Stephanie James, a Blogreader and fan who just so happened to be a member of the Program Board at East Carolina University, Home of the ECU Pirates. On behalf of the Student Union, Stephanie invited me to fly down to ECU's Greenville, NC campus as a guest lecturer to talk to 1985ers about 'round-the-world travel and to share my personal insights and experiences about life on the road.

After months of back-and-forth e-mails and phone calls, I've finally signed the contract and am happy to announce that I'm slated to appear for an exclusive engagement on the evening of September 16th. This is both good news and bad news for me: the good news is that I'll be put up in a nice hotel near campus, and that I get to hang out and party with college kids (again), but the bad news is that I might actually have to write something and speak before a crowd of people for an hour.

It may be of note that this will be the first time I'll be speaking in such a circumstance, so not even I know what to expect -- the lecture is either going to be really great, or like watching a train wreck. Either way, come on down because I'll be giving away free stuff.

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