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Vagabum is the pseudonym for me (Mike “Indiana” Lopez) - a self-proclaimed World Adventurer and amateur archeologist / historian. I created the name (an obvious contraction of ‘vagabond’ and ‘bum’) in order to create a simple, inspirational, memorable and unique domain that was easy to remember and had not already been registered, nor copyrighted.
Vagabum is the pseudonym for me (Mike “Indiana” Lopez) - a self-proclaimed World I am 39 years old and I have been designing video games for the past 15 years, having lived for 11 years in San Francisco and 3 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. I was born and raised in San Diego and graduated from the University of California, San Diego in 1991 with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Quantitative Economics and Decision Sciences (management sceince with a heavy dose of engineering math and science) and with a Minor in History.
I am 39 years old and I have been designing video games for the past 15 years, having lived for 11 years in San Francisco and 3 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. I was born and raised in San Diego and graduated from the University of California, San Diego in 1991 with a Bachelors of Arts degree in Quantitative Economics and Decision Sciences (management sceince with a heavy dose of engineering math and science) and with a Minor in History.I feel lucky to have travelled to 49 countries on all 6 inhabited continents. My first major International trip was a graduation backpacking adventure to Western Europe in 1991 with 3 of my closest college friends. I spent the next 9 years focused on my career and buried in my work (often 80-100 hours a week) and all but forgot my love of travel until I was granted a paid sabbatical in 2000 and took a 12 week trip to Southeast Asia. All my introverted life I had been painfully shy and horribly nervious of the unknown, all traits that I longed to change. I saw the sabbatical as an opportunity to make an effort for change and took a huge leap in that direction by venturing abroad all on my own without any itinerary or solid plan, in order to force upon myself many socially and functionally challenging situation from which to learn and grow.
I feel lucky to have travelled to 49 countries on all 6 inhabited continents. My first major International trip was a graduation backpacking adventure to Western Europe in 1991 with 3 of my closest college friends. I spent the next 9 years focused on my career and buried in my work (often 80-100 hours a week) and all but forgot my love of travel until I was granted a paid sabbatical in 2000 and took a 12 week trip to Southeast Asia. All my introverted life I had been painfully shy and horribly nervious of the unknown, all traits that I longed to change. I saw the sabbatical as an opportunity to make an effort for change and took a huge leap in that direction by venturing abroad all on my own without any itinerary or solid plan, in order to force upon myself many socially and functionally challenging situation from which to learn and grow.During the Southeast Asia trip I was travelling by myself and on my own schedule, but I was never alone and I would be constantly challenged to introduce myself to fellow travellers every day in order to find fun and insightful social and travel support (often anxiety inducing events for an introvert). The trip was fantastic and became a life-defining event. I know my venturing out on my own was very unexpected by many of my friends, as were the added confidence and personal growth that surprised them upon my return. I had a lot of time during this trip (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia & Singapore) to reflect upon my life and I realized that I was unhappy with my life and especially my unhealthy work schedule and I vowed to improve things.
When I left Electronic Arts in 2001 I took a year off to pursue a lifelong dream to travel around the world (16 countries in 9 months), during which I continued my metamorphosis and personal growth as I visited dozens of amazing locations and met literally 100s of other travellers. My favorite part of solo travelling is meeting others as it becomes both significantly easier and more necessary to meet other travellers who already have similar travel experiences in common.
Upon my return from this World Adventure I made a conscious effort to find a new job that would challenge me both personally and professionally and allow me to continue travels in the future so I made an excellent decision to accept a job at Radical Entertainment and to relocate to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The move was also a challenge as Vancouver was a new arena and forced me to completely establish a new social network (I had built up a social network over 100 or so in San Francsico but was forced to live without that network for the first time in a decade). Since the move there I have been lucky to have been able to reorganize my career and my life to be able to take a major 5+ week trip every 18 months or so and I look forward to at least another trip or two before I am fully settled down (thankfully Canadian culture is much more accepting of personal travel and that was a key reason why I chose to make that move).
When deciding where to visit, I typically choose to go to locations that are rich in archeology and/or history. In 2003 I took a 5 week trip to Peru / Ecuador and especially loved the Incan ruins and the Nasca Lines. In 2004 I took a 3 week trip to Guatemala / Honduras and visited key Mayan ruins at Copan and Tikal. Over Christmas 2004 I took 10 days to visit a friend who had been living in Thailand and was very lucky to have stayed in Bangkok an extra day by chance when the Tsunami hit (I would have been in the decimated area of Phuket).
When I left Radical in August 2005 I immediately headed back out on the road on an 8 week trip to China, Tibet, Hong Kong, Macau and Phillipines. After returning home and moving my apartment into storage in Vancouver I noticed the end of year job market was slow and I used this as an excuse to take another trip to Egypt, Jordan and Israel. And just before starting my job at THQ I took a 3 week Mayan Highlights trip back to Yucatan, Guatemala and Belize. As soon as I started my current job in the Summer of 2006 I was already communicating plans for an extended 6-week trip to Southern and Eastern Africa in 2008 so as not to surprise my colleagues with an extended absense. I am very much looking forward to that extended adventure, but until April 2008 I will have to keep my habit in check with shorter excursions over the Christmas holidays (I had 12 days in El Salvador and Nicaragua over the 2006 Holidays and I am thinking of going back to Thailand for a similar duration at the end of 2007).
~ Vagabum Mike