about me
Roger Jackman
Most of my friends say “Roger has done everything!”, but my friend Adam will always add “except for SCUBA dive”. The rest will say that I can talk about almost anything with anyone. None of this is true of course, but I definitely have a need to get out and actually ‘do’. I cherish my experiences, and have a million stories that I share with anyone who will listen. I try to learn from my mistakes and have no shame in telling a story in an honest way – even if I look like a fool (which is regularly). Honestly, my experiences are no more extraordinary than anyone else’s, I am just not as modest.
I have not done everything, but I have done a lot of diverse things from working in a book store/educational toy store, a college computer lab, a posh restaurant, a ship ‘chandlery’ in Alaska that catered to commercial fisherman and ‘yahties’ from Down Under, and played several roles at the Alaskan Brewing Co in Juneau, AK. I was a suspension engineer in motorsports, business/marketing manager for a company that builds race cars for ultra rich Microsoft founders, and finally worked on racing simulators at Microsoft Game Studios (Project Gotham Racing and the Forza Motorsport franchise) on the Design, Content Coordination and Test teams and helped write user manuals and articles for the community website. I have raced bicycles, cars and have participated in numerous other athletic events. I am essentially a professional house sitter and have – spent 2+ non-consecutive years going from one house sitting job to the next without having to have a place of my own (technically homeless) and house sat in the south of France (Narbonne) for over month with a gig in Costa Rica that has been eluding my for almost 6 months now.
The bottom line is that I require a lot of variety and I find it, for better or for worse.
I have had to create detailed movement plans that outlined all activities for a half dozen people that was accurate to within 15 minutes, but when it comes to my own punctuality I am hopeless. This especially applies to my travels as I am the guy who chooses a potential route, but has no real agenda (ask my ex-wife). I find that there is no way to really experience a new place unless you see it through the eyes of a local and hunt down the places off the beaten path (ask my ex-wife). Not to say that people who jump on a bus and get dragged around to all the popular sites and fight with all the other tourists are not having fun, or even as much fun as me, but it is certainly not my gig.
I am currently not working for anyone and have decided to hit the road and attempt a cross country ride on my bicycle in order to share my continuing adventures and inspire you to shake up your life a little bit to allow yourself the joy in following your own dreams. I hear a lot if people say “Some day…” with resignation in their voice. Next time say “Next week…”, “Next month…”, “Next year…” or even “Before I retire / the kids get too old / my next relationship…”