In preparation for a short eBook I’m creating, I was taking stock of what I’ve been doing over the past 10 years. I was kind of surprised by some of my accomplishments since 2011. I never realized that I had been so productive.

In the past 10 years, I have acquired and read approximately 534 books (144 Kindle books, 25 physical books, 29 audiobooks, and 336 eBooks). Subjects include photography, creativity, health & fitness, nutrition, inspirational, survival, business, investing, and leadership. There are even a few fiction titles in there, though not many. Most, but not all, books were read verbatim. However, I have no problem stopping a book once I get its gist or if it bores me. I’m currently reading a handful of books and have roughly 30 more titles on my list to buy. I have a bad habit of buying books faster than I can read them.

I have completed approximately 92 different courses, ranging in length from a few days to several months long. Most courses were done online with a few done in the classroom. Subjects include photography, videography, blogging, writing, relationships, piano, harmonica, advanced scuba diving, business, copy machine repair, and computer networking.

As you can see from the numbers above, I am a lifelong learner. I have no problem spending money on books and courses as an investment in myself.  After nearly 50 years doing photography, I continually read books and take courses by other photographers. More than likely, I always will.

I manage 42,595 photo and 889 video files. That may seem like a lot to some of you, but most professional photographers I know have hundreds of thousands of photo files. All of my photo and video files are kept on redundant external hard drives and stored separately from each other. Out of my 42,595 photos, my portfolio only contains 195 images. A number which changes nearly daily as I work my photos.

Excluding my photo and video files, I manage roughly 20,000 personal computer files using Evernote and my external hard drives. I’m big on computer file management and organization. Ask me to read you the paper I wrote in 1989 as part of my Divemaster certification and I know exactly where to look. It’s not always easy locating files, however. I use a combination of folder structures, keywords, tags, and searches in my file management.

None of my personal files actually sit on my computer. I prefer keeping them in the cloud, on external hard drives, or both. I have been using the same MacBook Pro laptop for the past seven years. It works as well today as the day I took it out of the box, but you never know when a computer is going to crash hard. As a side note, I have had to replace the battery twice and the speakers once on my MacBook Pro.

I have amassed 452 full music albums, totally 6516 songs. I own albums in nearly every genre, but my big three are fusion jazz, blues, and classic rock. I typically listen to music for at least 12 hours a day.

I have binge-watched 42 seasons of Survivor, 4 seasons of Australian Survivor, 32 seasons of Amazing Race, and 18 seasons of Hell’s Kitchen. A guilty pleasure of mine. I still have some seasons to watch for all shows except Survivor.

Then there are, I would guess, the tens of thousands of YouTube videos I’ve watched. YouTube is a great source of information. If I need to do repairs on my truck or RV, learn how to be more productive, learn how to play my harmonicas, or see how the newest updates to my photo software work, YouTube always has many videos to choose from. But it’s also very easy to go down the “rabbit hole” for hours on end watching music videos by my favorite performers, or my latest passion, living vicariously through the lives of four families sailing around the world on catamarans. Two in particular account for a lot of my YouTube obsessions, Gone With The Wynns and Sailing La Vagabonde.

I manage 4 websites. A blog and portfolio site for myself, a website for my Sister and Brother-in-Law’s business (MillersWolfHaven), and a website for the National Association of Naval Photography. I am currently in the process of updating all sites, but it could take upwards of a year to finish the tasks.

I have traveled nearly 60,000 miles in the past four years. Which, really isn’t much considering I live a full-time RV life. I tend to travel to a location and set up camp for many months. Especially with the whole COVID virus thing that’s been going on for the past couple of years.

Lastly, I have been actively involved in the National Association of Naval Photography (NANP) over the past four years. In 2018 I was voted in as the 2nd Vice President and also appointed Webmaster. In 2020, I ascended to the role of 1st Vice President for the NANP. As of January 1st of 2022, I ascended to the role of President of the association. The National Association of Naval Photography is near and dear to my heart, being made up of nearly 700 retired, veteran, and active duty Navy Photographers.

So, that’s it. This was originally intended to be a short post for Facebook but quickly morphed into a blog post. One thing that I failed to mention is the number 1. For the past 10 years, I’ve had 1 companion. My lab/spaniel mix, JoJo. He’s 14 now. Limps from arthritis. Can be a cranky old cuss. Gets water all over the RV. But, is still my faithful companion.