under construction will be up soon

SITE WILL BE FULLY FUNCTIONAL ON JUNE 3rd.

All text is subject to change. VIDEOS and pictures will be added soon.

Please don't judge us while we are under construction :)

We will be hammering away at the site to get it ready!



picture from flickr user:
http://flickr.com/photos/sweden_otsi

About Us

Our desire for this project is to share the beauty of going the extra mile for people.
This teaching is a little different because it does not just mean doing things for people you like or who can help you back, but even for those you don't like or even necessarily know. It doesn't require anything in return, either for the giver or for anyone else. It is simply a no obligation, free gift.

We will be video blogging the process of our 6,000 mile (10,000km) adventure around the US and hoping to capture on film those we meet who are going the extra mile.
We hope this will inspire others to go the extra mile also.

We will be travelling mostly via social hitch-hiking. This alone really tests the questions we have, as a lot of people are wary of picking up hitch hikers, never mind ones dressed as monks.
We also have been helping out & learning from homeless people along the way.

The video below will explain more of what we are doing:

FUTURE VIDEO WILL BE EMBEDDED HERE
“This will be our first footage, documenting people we've met so far going the extra mile.”
We hope to have it up the footage by 6/16/08
We have some awesome material to post and can't wait to share it :)

I have had many things inspire me but I have to mention that Oprah fanned my flames to go on this journey.
Oprah’s show “The Big Give” inspired me to Give Big. Philanthropy is my lifestyle. I have been always involved in various projects trying to help people in many ways. I liked Oprah’s idea of giving in a big way to others. So, I auditioned along with thousands of people who wanted to be a part of something big and make a real difference. The Oprah's team searched for 10 contestants, and I was in top 30. Although I did not make the final cut, it was a life-changing experience.

Learning more about Oprah’s philosophy of helping people and trying to make their lives better, and also meeting people who dedicated their lives to helping others, gave me a reason to stay up at night thinking about my own way of giving big. I realized that I just should keep doing what I love that is being persistent in continuing to do good work in the world. As Oprah Winfrey put it, “I don't think you ever stop giving. I really don't. I think it's an on-going process. And it's not just about being able to write a check. It's being able to touch somebody's life.”

Today the power of social media gives all of us a great opportunity to share the message of kindness encouraging people to do good for others. It is my hope that you will be touched and inspired too.

How did all this start? Well, Tim and I always wanted to live the monk life, but we just never got around to it because we always thought that if you were not having fun, then you were not doing it right. So, we came up with this idea that lets us live a monk life while having fun!

First off, I want to explain what the heck we are doing. We are trying to spread the message of "Going the extra mile" for people. This teaching is a little different because it does not just mean to do things for people that you like but even for people you do not like. Nor do you expect them to do anything in return for you or for someone else.

We are also trying to add a comic relief angle and an adventurous slant. We will be "social"* hitch hiking just under 6000 miles around the US (link to route) in hopes to create some serendipity moments as we come across strangers. Some stuff we do is fiction and some is non-fiction. Most of the acts of kindness are real unless it's extremely silly. Then, hopefully, you can tell.

We also will be doing our own acts of kindness. The challenge will start on June 4th at 12:00:00 a.m. from Mt. Shasta and will end on July 13th 2008 at 11:59:00 p.m. in NYC. Join us and go the extra mile with us!

Tim's bio:

I need to tell you about myself. I guess it's probably safer than getting someone else to tell you about me. I am from New Zealand. Though to tell the truth, at the age of 17, right after graduation, I left New Zealand to study abroad. This progressed to working with Australian kids, both running surf camps & working in a high school with 'behaviourally challenged' students. I travelled further abroad for a few years before returning to New Zealand to snow board, mountain climb, kayak & spend as much time in the beautiful nature as I could. I got certified to take people kayaking & mountaineering. It scares me to think that I have a piece of paper to say I'm responsible enough to take a group of peoples' lives into the dangers of the outdoors & guide them safely & with respect. Somehow I got drawn back to the behaviourally challenged & challenging kids & I am stoked to have escaped before they influenced me too much. (They're awesome kids though, truth be told. I'm old enough to be a dad, so maybe that paternal instinct is kicking in. Hmm. I'd rather not dwell on that right now.)

I love doing things that push the boundaries of the norm & of safety, discovering that the only thing keeping us from full, enriched life is a thin veil of fear.

I have worked with young people who others have deemed beyond the realms of help & have seen gold in those kids, shining bright. I’ve seen them do good things for others that would shock those who stopped believing in them, because they couldn’t control them.
I challenge the value system we use to judge people as good or bad.
I believe in the concept of travelling across the USA, documenting people going the extra mile for others, because I believe that people on the whole, want to help other people, regardless of their financial state or social standing. I believe that people are more in touch with their humanity than the media gives them credit for.

So for me, this is an experiment, to see if what I believe & what I’ve experienced so far in life is real, or if I've just been lucky.

God is love.

I intend to find Him in the people of America over the next 40 days.

Here is Tim's application. Once I read it, I knew right away that I could train Tim to be a social monk.

Paul's (Abbot) bio:

I believe that Social Marketing has the power to make a positive and powerful change in our society (social marketing orignal difintion 1978). Social media is a great vehicle for social makreting if not the most powerful tool we have ever had in mordern history. After I saw what impact my video had, it struck a cord with me that I had found my nitch in life. The fact that a person who was living paycheck to paycheck could have an impact on a scale that I had with my "8 Wishes Project" lit a fire inside of me. I believe the solutions to issues as big as human trafficing, finding alternatives to crude oil, and the cure to cancer can all be reached with the help of social media.

On the lighter side of things, I'm known to spend 18 to 20 hours on the net a day. My heroes range from Jim Buckmater, the CEO of Craigslist, Stevo, Skip Yowell, Yvon Chouinard, Vinod Khosla, Martin Luther King (I have read almost everything published about him..ok, maybe not everything but a lot), C.S Lewis, Jesus and his 'disruptive' teachings, and people who are crazy enough to think they can make a differance. Also, I am always looking for people that do what they do because they love it and not just because it makes good money.

My favorite movies, to name a few, are Forrest Gump, Dumb and Dumber, Sweet Mud, Good Will Hunting, We are the Strange, short films like the Narrartor, and tons more, but I don't want to list too many. Sometimes I say something and don't even know if I'm joking or being serious. I take pride in that I have broke bread with bums and on other occasions kings. I have to say I learned more from the bums then I did from the privlaged. If anything else you want to know, just email me @ soloride@gmail.com.

I did want to add that I was inspired to hitch hike first by “Kindness of Strangers” I read the book before I went on my bicycle tour around the perimeter of the USA. Recently these people also inspired me, Jacob Holdt link to, and David Choe
Jason Lankow

CONTACT

The fastest way to get a hold of us is by email:
socialmonks@gmail.com
We will be checking email on the road, but the best way to get our attention is to say less.

Mt. Shasta 06/04/08

We are aiming to begin our trip by cresting the summit of Shasta, robes flowing in the alpine breeze – we pray not up them - However, weather around Shasta is partial to no man, regardless of religious persuasion, past charitable acts, intended future kindnesses…or fitness levels. It does have the potential to prevent a successful summit, though of course, we’ll be calling on the Almighty for intervention. I (Paul), being out of shape, could also stop us too & the Almighty wants me to deal with that myself. So, we are open to assistance from any of you who have had success in commanding weather or who have Sherpa ancestry. We have a few surprises that we want to video up on the mountain.



picture from http://flickr.com/photos/twiliger/

CONTACT

The fastest way to contact us:
socialmonks@gmail.com

We will be checking email on the road via cell phone but the best way to get our attention is to say less (very monk like).

Keep it to 3 to 5 sentences (300 to 400 characters). Longer emails will be read after the trip is over.

We appreciate all emails long or short and will read all of them! Be blessed.

Your extremely humble servant,

Paul

NYC 07/13/08

DO TO THE FACT THAT TIM CAN NOT GET BACK IN TO THE STATES WE HAVE CANCLED THE MEETING IN BOSTON. I (PAUL) WILL STILL BE IN BOSTON SO IF YOU WANT TO MEET UP JUST EMAIL ME SOLORIDE@GMAIL.COM



We know you New Yorkers are busy people, so we’re keeping the information minimal for this one to allow you more time for prayer.

We will be meeting up at the Barcade . Hope to see you there. We will be hanging out in the City for a few days to live, love, learn & give, before Tim flies out to London.

New York City picture by flickr user http://flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/

Denver, CO 06/28/08

We will be meeting up at Sengers on the Fax @ 8pm and then we will head over to the Rockbar around 11pm. We will stay at the Rockbar until closing time. Hope to see you there. Please, if you are coming just email us at socialmonks@gmail.com

We also want to stop by the Brightkite office and do a blessing.

I'm very excited to say that we will be meeting up with a superhero. His name is Steve Shopman and his superhero status is gained by the fact that he is currently traveling the world by road . Steve Shopman below. We don’t just label anyone a superhero. See for yourself. Perhaps not captured here leaping a tall building in a single bound, but he is flying through the sky over a burning… fire:



Here is Steve's and his team The World By Road route:









Picture of Denver from flickr user http://flickr.com/photos/johnmiller613/

Chicago, IL 07/03/08

Will be meeting up with peeps @ The Gage around 6pm (if we can even get in due to it being July 3rd). Otherwise, we will have our faces hanging out by The Big Faces in Millennium Park. If you are having a hard time finding us, we will update our status via twitter.com/socialmonks to let you know our location.

Also, we will be meeting up with my wonderful, random & very kind friend, Daisy! Here is a link to some beautiful footage of her going the extra mile:
Daisy Video

We also will be interviewing Liz Strauss . She showed Paul the ropes on blogging a few years ago. When Paul asked Liz if we could do an interview she said, "We'll have a drink at the top of the Hancock building when you're here." How cool is that!

Chicago picture from flickr user http://flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms

Boston, MA 07/12/08

DO TO THE FACT THAT TIM CAN NOT GET BACK IN TO THE STATES WE HAVE CANCLED THE MEETING IN BOSTON. I (PAUL) WILL STILL BE IN BOSTON SO IF YOU WANT TO MEET UP JUST EMAIL ME SOLORIDE@GMAIL.COM




We will be meeting up with peeps @ Midway Cafe we will get there around 8pm and stay until closing time. Hope to see you out there. Also, if you plan on coming please email us at socialmonks@gmail.com

We hope that Arstechnica will let us stop by to bless their office. Not saying they need it more than most, but we want to go the extra mile for them because they have blessed many with all their great content.

Boston picture from flickr user http://flickr.com/photos/mshanenum2/

Las Vegas, NV 06/22/08

We may need a lot of prayer for the City of Sin.

We will be meeting up @ Quarks.
Quarks

We will be meeting up with anybody that has the guts to come and meet us.
We believe that with experience comes understanding. With understanding comes compassion, and with compassion comes love. And God is love.

We will arrive around 8pm and take off around 10pm ,and, then, we will then be walking around the strip. We will make sure to do updates on our twitter.com/socialmonksso you can catch up with us if you miss us at Quarks.

Phoenix, AZ 06/20/08

We will be meeting up with the legend Brian Shaler. The guy can jump, and we just might do some jumping with him, if he permits it. We will be meeting up @ Tavern on Mill. We will be there at 8pm and will be there until the place closes.

If you know of any start ups or tech business we should stop by, please email us! :)

If you are going to be meeting up with us, we would love to hear about it. Please email us socialmonks@gmail.com also add us on http://twitter.com/socialmonks

Collection Basket

We are on a tight budget for the trip, but it does not cost much to maintain our trip. What we want to do is be able to give gifts to people we meet on our journey. Lets say if we meet up with someone that has a broken down car and we can just pull out 200 dollars and give it to them to help them get back on the road! Please keep in mind that we are NOT a Non profit, so you will not be able to get a write off. All money donated to us will be divided up into two sections. One section is our gift section and the other will be for our trip.

75% Will go towards gifts (acts of kindness) for people on the road.
25% Will go towards our trip.

If you have any good ideas of for going the extra mile for people, please send us your ideas. 75% of your donation will go straight to acts of kindness. Please posst your ideas here:
socialmonks.ning.com

San Diego 06/18/08

We will be stopping by the Divx office to say "hi" to some friends. We also will be having a meetup at Stout Public House. By this time, the beer consumption may well be helping us form the shape of the beverage name. Hoping to meetup with bloggers and anybody else who wants to say "hi". We will be there around 8pm and will stay until the place shuts down.

We will also be meeting up with @jbruin, and she even said she would help us plan the event! She is a twitter God.



San Diego picture from flickr user http://flickr.com/photos/serkanc/2128673667/

Palo Alto, CA 06/13/08

We will be having a meet up at the Rose & Crown. The Union Jack enticed us with the promise of unity & Jack & we’re hoping for a good English pub atmosphere. We would love to meet up with bloggers, social media peeps and anybody else who wants to meet us. We look forward to meeting you in person. We will show up around 8pm and we will be there until 11ish. If you are going to be there, please email us at socialmonks@gmail.com

We are also hoping to stop by QIK.com and Ustream.tv to do a blessing there.

From there we are off to Santa Cruz for a bonfire on the beach!

Newport Beach, CA 06/16/08

We will be having a get together @ Rudys Pub and Grill and Jaybol (Jason) will be helping us plan the little get together. We will be there at 8pm and we will hang out until the place shuts down. If no one shows, then we’ll just be forced to go meditate on the beautiful beach, or steal a boat & preach a sermon from it to the ocean birds & fishes.

Jaybol picture from digg

Newport beach picture from flickr user:

http://flickr.com/photos/claimsman1/

Seattle, WA 06/07/08

We will be meeting up with Jott.com (very cool voice/text service) peeps and we would love to meet up with bloggers, social media people, and anybody else who whats to come out and have drinks with us. We will be at Six Arms at 10pm & will try not to bury our noses any deeper the entire time until it’s closed. If you are going to meet us, please email us at socialmonks@gmail.com
Six Arms Picture below:


picture of Seattle from http://flickr.com/photos/drwhite75/
picture of Six Arms from http://flickr.com/people/photovox/

Portland, OR 06/06/08

Just added 06/05/08 We will be also stopping by Startup Drinks (Life of Riley Tavern) please check our twitter for our location :)

We will be meeting with bloggers, friends, and anybody else who wants to meet up! We decided to go to the Green Dragon to have our meetup. We found out about the Green Dragon via Beer and Bloggers. They meet every Friday from 4pm to 6pm (I found beer and bloggers via siliconflorist.com). So that we won't step on anybodies toes & risk the rise of the dragon, – monks arriving at your regular social gig can be a bit out of the ordinary & out of the ordinary can throw some people into a small spin - we will meet at 6pm and be there until it closes. I'm also hoping that I get to meet up with a friend of mine Brian Reeder. He is a stumble pro. Want proof http://brianreeder.stumbleupon.com



picture of portland taken by flickr user http://flickr.com/photos/drwhite75/
picture of Green Dragon taken by flickr user http://flickr.com/people/87263593@N00/

EVENTS

Below you will find links to dates and events. Also, if you think we should do something, please add a comment!

Mt. Shasta 06/04/08
Portland, OR 06/06/08
Seattle, WA 06/07/08
San Francisco 06/12/08
Palo Alto, CA 06/13/08
Newport, CA 06/16/08
San Diego 06/18/08
Phoenix, AZ 06/20/08
Las Vegas, NV 06/22/08
Denver, CO 06/28/08
Chicago, IL 07/03/08
Boston, MA 07/12/08
NYC 07/13/08

ROUTE

Total Miles 5,635 mi
11 Major Cites
16 States
For the 13 markers on the map we will be meeting up with bloggers and people who watch our videos. We my deviate from the exact route a little – we’re praying not a lot due to abduction or catastrophe - but we will never skip a city with a balloon marker on it. You will find 13 markers on the map starting A and ending with M. Come and join us in the cities we will be visiting!

View Larger Map

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