Portability: World Clock Revisited

In December 2012, I recounted my search for a useful world-time application.

I'd found a pretty good app, but I continued to search for better than pretty good.

Well, I succeeded.

World Time Buddy is my new default app for comparing time zones. I don't have to log in, it's free, and I can flip between 24-hour and 12-hour easily. With the free level, I can have up to four zones visible simultaneously, and the default shows my own time zone among the four.

World Time Buddy home page

Also, when I go to World Time Buddy, the home page is the zone-comparison page.

With Time and Date (see below), you have to drill down from the home page to get what you need.

Time and Date home page

World Time Buddy is visually cleaner and "quieter" than Time and Date. I don't like a lot of visual clutter on websites. 


World Time Buddy is one of my new best portable friends.

A Cot's Better Than Sleeping on the Floor, Right? Right?

You'd think sleeping on a cot would be better than sleeping on the floor, right? Especially when the floor is concrete underneath budget carpet and pad?

Let me explode that myth right now.

If you'll recall, my comfortable airbed, which was in my bedroom, deflated and never got back up. I do have two very comfortable second-hand hospital beds, one in the den, and one in the living room (serving as a couch/guest bed).

My mother always told me, "never give up your own bed to guests," and I took that rule to heart except for the one time when my brother and sister-in-law stayed over night and my sister-in-law was way pregnant.

With three visitors this past week - my daughter and her two young'ns - we had between us two comfy hospital beds and two cots. The original plan was for us to try and move one of the beds into my bedroom, and I would sleep in comfortable splendor in my own room, but with a very narrow hallway and an unusual foyer situation on the bedroom side of the bedroom door, it was impossible. Oh sure, we could have dismantled the bed, but I only have the one Phillips screwdriver, so ...

Thus I ceded the two beds to my daughter and her son. Her daughter took one of the cots, and I took the second cot into my bedroom, my desire for privacy having trumped bed possession.

I had no idea cots were so hard. And because there's just air underneath the cot, it's cold. The second night was better - I encased myself in a sleeping bag, added a neck pillow, and then a pillow for under my knees. The third night I had the bright idea to switch cots because the other one looked "softer." It was the worst night of all.

On the final night, I slept on the floor, which was more comfortable than either of the cots.

I'm glad to learn all of this, so I won't ever be tempted to buy a cot for camping in the belief I'll "be more comfortable." Those cots that have the cushion on them might be better; I don't know.

Haven't decided yet if I'll get another airbed just so's I can have a quasi-real bed in my actual bedroom. The $35 price tag for an airbed isn't much, but I've got options that don't cost anything - like sleep in my den or just toss the two hospital-bed mattresses on my bedroom floor. 

Goodbye Sweet Bed

It lasted for six months.

A small, L-shaped tear, unstaunchable by duct tape, seam sealer, double-sided tape. No, nothing deterred the hissing sound of escaping air, deflating air bed.

Goodbye bed.

For the Inept Rootless: 23 Ways to Tie a Scarf

Generally speaking, I'm spatially inept, which includes scarf-tying.

The great thing about scarves for the rootless is that they:

• Are so portable - hardly take up space or weight
• Can be used to protect you from dust
• Get a woman into just about any house of worship in the world
• Offer variation in a monochromatic, traveling wardrobe

If you can endure the obnoxious 25 seconds of advertising that fronts the video, I think you'll find 23 Ways to Tie A Scarf to be very clever. Created (and prostituted) by the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Update, only one day later: I could not abide the aggressive, auto-start of the audio ad on the video that I'd embedded in my post, so I've just put a link to the video here. It really is a clever video. Just hate the invasiveness of the ad, and I really hated that I was an unwilling agent to forcing my visitors to hear the ad just because they stopped at this blog page.

Portable: Duct Tape Refresher

You get a little complacent when you're settled in one place for awhile.

And so it was that I recently needed to dig out a large roll of duct tape from my camping gear and make a new portable pack.

So I looked around for a business card .... and went back into the past.

Back to Releasing More Stuff

Remaining cache of classic sci-fi, Alamogordo, New Mexico

My beautiful science fiction

After a hiatus, I'm back to re-reading my classic paper-back science fiction. Feels good. Ah, I love my Heinlein, Pohl, and Asimov.  But I intend to release to the universe all of my remaining cache before I leave New Mexico in October.

Poster from road trip to Alaska in 1996

Three picture frames with glass

I brought these pictures with me - ones that I hadn't found homes for before I left Missouri - thinking I'd pop in my own photography and then sell or gift them. That hasn't happened yet, and if it doesn't soon, I'll sell what I've got - probably for the frames/glass rather than the current artwork within. I'm feeling weighed down by their presence. One of the frames holds a poster from a road trip I took to Alaska with my daughter in 1996. I care about this one. Don't care so much about the artwork in the other two frames.


Socks

Attrition works its way into stuff divestment - three pairs of socks have been tossed recently because the heels have worn through.  Not sure why it feels good that this is so.


Trousers

Two pairs of trousers have worn through in areas that can't be fixed easily or prettily. One pair I'll have to toss. The other I'll keep and just wear for camping or hiking, then unload when I leave New Mexico.

The pair I'm tossing has gone with me to Mexico, Ethiopia, Caucasus Georgia, and now New Mexico. Good job.

Still feels good to unload stuff. 
  

January - The Review and Refresh Month

Albeit the 30th, it is still January, that month of fresh starts. 


So I'm looking at this checklist of things that everyone, especially portable folk, needs to review and update regularly:

1. My resume - checking my online version and print version
2. File back-ups on my external devices, which in my case, are flash drives. Yes, I have cloud storage that automatically backs up my stuff, but cloud apps get compromised. And if it's not the cloud storage application that fails, it might be my internet access. And my PC. So it's best to also have a tangible back-up.
3. Password review - which passwords have gone stale and warrant replacement?
4. Speaking of password storage - yes, there are some good password management apps out there, but again, one must assume working access to the internet or to one's PC to enjoy the benefit. It's a good practice to store my passwords in hard copy, in a secure place, also. Some entries may fall out of date when I replace passwords, but at any given moment, most will still be valid, assuming I'm fairly vigilant about updating the hard copy. Note: When I'm traveling long term, then I'm not going to have a hard copy of all my passwords with me; I'm only going to carry the most critical ones, and protect that short list as rigorously as I do my money.
5. Access to my data assets in case of emergency or death. Just talked about this recently. Since then, yikes, I haven't yet had my will witnessed and signed, though I've created one. And I have selected a provider that facilitates the access to my data assets in the event of my death.

The Gravitational Pull of Stuff

I had to buy a printer today. I thought I could get by without a printer, but that's not going to work, after all.

Every time I buy a durable good, it weighs me down. It's something I'll have to divest myself of later. And while often I can shrug this off, sometimes it makes me wistful.

Like: I have become fond of my vacuum cleaner.

Is there a tipping point of stuff accumulation that creates a gravitational pull toward geographic inertia? I'm not there yet, but I will confess to having cast about for a U.S. location for next year. Just because of my stuff.  

Like: I am reluctant to leave behind my car again.

As I set up my printer today, I told myself that buying such items is a just a matter of overhead - the cost of living in a place, and not to attach any more meaning onto it than that.

All my stuff three months ago.

Portability: World Clocks

I keep tabs on what time it is in Tbilisi, Addis Ababa, Barcelona, and until recently, Tokyo.

It's surprising there's no app out there that I can:

• Put onto my desktop
• Shows both 12-hour and 24-hour times, simultaneously
• Shows days or dates

Credit. Target

Microsoft has a now-unsupported schoolhouse clock icon that I can put on my desktop - one for each city - that only shows 12-hour times. This is minimally adequate for times that aren't too far from my time zone, but for example, if my Tokyo clock shows 2:30 when it's now 10:30 a.m. in Alamogordo, I've got to think, OK, I know it's not 2:30 this afternoon, so it's 2:30 tomorrow morning, placing it in Tuesday. This lengthy thought process is no big deal when I'm just in curious mode, but when I've got to schedule my calendar for an appointment in Tokyo time, it's a little stress-inducing.


Timeanddate.com offers a personal world clock that is quite nice, with bells and whistles that go beyond just time and date. Unfortunately, it's not on my desktop and I have to log in to get my settings. Also, I can't view both 12-hour and 24-hour times simultaneously. For my default, I prefer what's familiar to me - 12-hour mode - but for scheduling appointments, I then need to change my settings for GMT or 24-hour.

I've now found an app that is almost perfect: Google Calendar Labs' World Clock by Dave M. As soon as I pull up Google Calendar, there are my cities in the right sidebar, showing the time and if it's day or night time. (Night times have a black background and there's a quarter moon showing.) The beauty of this little app is that when I schedule an appointment in my Google Calendar, it shows the corresponding time in one of "my" cities over in the right sidebar, so I can feel reassured I chose the correct time on my end. 

Although still not perfect, it's my most useful world clock program thus far. (Apparently, there's a problem with Moscow's time zone, so it's good to hang on to at least one of my other world clocks for double-checking.)

But I'm still looking .... 

Re-Accumulating Stuff

You wouldn't think buying a colander would be depressing, but it was, a little.

With procuring a new temporary permanent place, I have to re-accumulate some stuff that I shed a couple of years ago. And as I re-accumulate some stuff, I have to be mindful of unloading it again in the future.  I am rootless, after all.

Today, for instance, I bought the colander, a mop, and a toilet brush. Soon, I'll need to buy a skillet lid, but I didn't need it today, so I'm postponing that inevitability.

To add to the angst, I felt torn between buying the cute apple-green colander set - that is perfect for my apartment's decor palette - for $7 versus the super-cheap white one for $2. I fought the same internal battle when I had to buy a cutting board: the one-dollar, milky-white nothing or the sexy green, sassy-shaped number for five bucks. In both cases, my left brain beat out my right, and I made the boring but economical choice.

I tossed about in my mind the utils argument - as in, aren't so many utils of pleasure worth the extra few bucks? Well, no, I argued back, at least not when it comes to kitchenware.  I reminded myself of the law of "lots-of-a-little-adds-up-to-a-lot." So I spend an extra four dollars here and here and here and here ... and before you know it, a month's rent can be expended on transitory cuteness.  

I also toyed with a handsome black-handled, steel mesh strainer, medium or large, and $7 or $10 respectively, before I finally found the serviceable, cheap number I knew had to be somewhere in the store.

Update: In a pinch, tin foil serves as a skillet lid.  
   

Replacing a Laptop Battery

Rustavi, Georgia.

Buying a replacement battery for my laptop

You wouldn't think it'd be a pain in the ass to replace a laptop battery, would you? But it was, kind of.

My battery started losing its life essence last year, but I hobbled along in Georgia (Republic of) until it finally faded away entirely and I had to stay plugged in all the time. One of my colleagues gleefully shared that she was waiting to replace her battery when she returned to the States because she could get a replacement for only 20 bucks. Wow, 20 bucks, that sounded good.

While I was still in Georgia, I went online to order a replacement battery so that it'd be waiting prettily for me when I returned to Missouri.

I wanted a four-hour battery like my original. I went on to the HP site.

And that's when I hit the walls.

First of all, the HP site is not intuitive. For example, you'd think when you enter "replacement battery" in the site's search field, you'd get some prompts asking for details about your original. No, you don't. You get a list of lots of different products with no guidance about how to locate your particular part. Eventually, I think I did finally find a listing for a replacement battery, with a cost of more than $100! Were they serious?!

So that's when I went to Amazon for my after-market need. And this is where my ignorance came into play. I wanted a four-hour battery that would fit my laptop. To my consternation, I discovered that the only time anyone talks about the charge life of a battery is when you're looking at new laptops. So, yes, I knew I needed a 6 Li-ion battery, but are all 6s good for 4 hours? Just because an after-market battery fit my laptop, how can I know anything about its charge life or endurance in general?

I decided to wait til I returned to Missouri and physically visit a Best Buy (where I'd purchased my laptop) to get my replacement battery.  Where I discovered they don't stock replacement batteries. Instead, the clerk looked at my battery and then went to a magic page on HP where he could enter the original battery details, found a list of two replacement batteries, one at more than $100 and the other more than $80, neither of which was accessible. Website glitch? No longer being manufactured? No real answer to this on the HP website.

So the clerk went to Best Buy's go-to replacement battery provider, Lenmar, where it was easy to find the battery that would fit my HP.

But then came the discussion between me and the clerk:

Mzuri: How do I know if a battery is a four-hour battery?
Clerk: Well, you don't really because ..... [lots of words]
Mzuri: Then can you tell me if a 6 Li-ion battery might only be for one hour?  
Clerk:  Oh, more than one hour
Mzuri: More than four  hours?
Clerk: Probably not more than five hours.
Mzuri: Can you give me a range?
Clerk: Could be anywhere between 3 and 5 hours.
Mzuri (weakly): OK. So I'll take this one (~ $53 all told)

Ordered online at Best Buy and shipped to me. 

Here's an example of a website that is not particularly helpful: What Should I Consider When Buying a Laptop Battery.  Although the author writes well with a clear and pleasant style, it's not helpful because:  

1. No date on the information, not even on the comments. If tech info is before 2010, it's probably obsolete IMNSHO. 
2. The first paragraph is just filler; ditto for the first half of the 2nd paragraph. 
3. Then there's the cruel sentence:   "Choose the battery with the longest life available for your computer." As if such data were out there somewhere, sending readers on a merry wild goose chase. 

I will grant the author kudos for a very reader-friendly discussion about the "memory effect" on two types of batteries (if they're even being used still).

Anyway, I've now got my new battery and am in the process of testing its charge life.

[Later same day: 3 hours and 15 minutes.]
[September 17: 3 hours and 6 minutes.]

Getting rid of my old laptop battery

Lithium ion batteries contain:

• Lithium
• Cathode Active Materials (LFP, LCO, LMO, NMC, NCA, CSG etc)
• Anode Active Materials (Graphite, Graphene)
• Copper (Cu) Foils
• Aluminum (Al) Foils
• SBR & PVDF Binders
• Electrolytes, LiPF6
• Separators

There's a controversy out there about whether or not these batteries really are or can be recycled and why (guess --> $$$), but for now, I found out where to recycle my laptop battery by going here. In full disclosure, I found this website via the HP website, but I'm thinking a manufacturer has an obligation to be even more proactive in helping customers get the needed recycling information. The least they could do is to put a sticker on the battery that has an url or phone number to call for recycling guidance.  

Rootless Relocation, Part 2: What Will I Take With Me?

In Part1a, Part1b, and Part 1c, I figured out where I'm going to live next.

Alamogordo, New Mexico.

I don't have a job there yet. And I don't have a place to live yet, though my current plan is to rent an apartment.

But I've got a pretty good idea what I'm going to take with me. I've got a pretty good idea because I don't have much to take. It will all fit into my 1995 Toyota.  

I'm so glad I kept my camping gear because I'm going to need it.

These are my worldly goods with which I'll set up housekeeping:

• My car
• Two camp chairs with cup holders (yay! I already have furniture!)
• Two sleeping bags
• Blankets
• Some pots/pans from my camp box
• Flatware from camp box
• A few plates and cups from camp box
• Pillow
• Coolers
• Two plastic storage things with drawers
• Shelf stereo
• Clothes
• Clothesline and  clothespins
• Aluminum foil
• Lantern
• Tent
• Two plastic storage bins
• Two bath towels
• A few dishtowels and dish cloths
• Rubbermaid rectangular folding table, approx. 2'x4' (more furniture!)
• Laptop and other electronics 
• Some framed pictures, if there's space in the car

I used to have a stove top espresso maker, but I don't know what happened to it. I'll scrounge for one of those before I go.

Well. I guess that's it.

Anything else I'll need I'll have to pick up in Alamogordo. But whatever the item might be, it'll have to fit my  design aesthetic: Rootless Minimalist. 

The Rootless Undead

Real unreal life imitates art

Back in the 70s, Frederick Pohl wrote a terrific sci-fi series called the Heechee Saga.

As the saga unfolded, there were "meat" people and virtual people. If you were super-rich like Robin Broadhead, you could execute a brain dump into a computer application and live on in a sort of Second Life universe. (See how real unreal life imitates art?) Virtual Robin could communicate with meat people, including his wife, and with never-real, virtual personas such as his computer-generated psycho-analyst Sigmund.

I'm confident that some day, a monied few of us will become immortal in a virtual way, in that we can "live" an undead life out in the ether with other undead, perhaps continuing relationships with our surviving family and friends.

(Gosh, we think same-sex marriage is complicated. When we have the power to become undead, will there be constitutional amendments to clarify that marriage is between one living-in-the-flesh man and one living-in-the-flesh woman? Need to redefine the meaning of [end of] life? Allow voting privileges to the undead? Allow them to donate to political candidates? Retire the phrase "pull the plug"? .... I digress.)

Our undead selves in the cloud

In old-timey cartoons, when someone dies, we see them lounging on white fluffy clouds.


Google Docs (which has morphed into Google Drive). Dropbox. Amazon.  Skydrive. SugarSync.

Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, Tumblr, email accounts ... .... 

Repositories of the data of our meat lives assumed into the cloudly heavens.

What happens to our undead, fluffy cloud selves?

And who 'owns' our undead, fluffly cloud selves?

Dave, over at The Longest Way Home, offered detailed instructions for handling undead email and other accounts in his article, What Happens to Your Online Digital Assets? in September 2011.   

Kindle library

Read the answers to Kyle Gerrard's question: Where Do E-Books Go When You Do? in his New York Times article.

"Planned departure" 

"Planned departure" is the name of a company: "Be in charge of your online and digital assets after your death and decide what should be deleted or transferred to someone you love and trust."

I imagine it won't be long before online/digital 'asset' providers will enable a beneficiary or "instructions upon death" feature, but in the meantime, here are some other products or services

Legacy Locker, the "safe and secure way to pass your online accounts to your friends and loved ones."

Lifehacker (or in this case, Deathhacker) writes about another company, Entrustet, here.

... ah, but Secure Safe recently bought both Entrustet and LifeEnsured for what it calls "data inheritance."

I haven't fully explored these services, but I intend to do so soon.


When the Rapture Comes: Guarding Digital Assets

This article, 10 Things IT Groups Need to Know About the Rapture, always makes me laugh.

Credit: CDC

How Has My Portable Gear Stacked Up?

When I started my rootless life, a goal was to condense my material life into three pieces of luggage and some change. Toward that end, I bought various items to manage my portable environment.

How have those items stacked up in the past year or so?

Jewelry bag

My original post on this purchase here.

The bag does everything I need it to do. I like the two zippered pockets (one for necklaces and the other for earrings), the ring column, and the bracelet loops. Occasionally, earrings fall out of the holes in the fold-out earring band (see photo above), with the result that they sometimes lay loose in the fold-out area, but I haven't lost any earrings yet, athough the potential for such loss exists. I haven't noticed any signs of wear on the zipper, the fabric, or the vinyl. 

A good purchase and I still recommend it. Available here.

A good flashlight

There are a bajillion flashlights out there, and I did considerable research on which to get.

I also weighed the handheld v. headlamp question, decided on the handheld, thus didn't look at headlamps.

My original post on my flashlight is here.

I still love it. Here's why: 

• It's very sturdy. I've dropped it several times without harming it.
• It's small. 
• Takes only one AA battery. In a pinch, it will also work with a AAA battery. 
• Has multiple settings for different lighting needs. Where I tend to go, electric power gets lost at regular intervals. This flashlight illuminates an entire room. 

When I'm on the road, I have it with me always. Even when I think I'm only going to be away from my base for a couple of hours, back well before dark .... well, things happen and you often have a change in plans while out and about.

I'll say, though, that a mobile phone with a flashlight is a wondrous thing. The next time I buy a phone, it will have a built-in flashlight as a back-up. 

Laptop 

Everyone has a favorite model or brand, so I'm not going to waste anyone's time talking about my particular model.  (Though, for the record, it's an HP Pavilion dm4 1065dx, and I'm very pleased with it.)

For portability purposes, here are the things that were important to me: 

• Case dimensions
• Screen dimensions
• Weight
• Battery life
• Quantity and diversity of ports
• Optical drive (for CDs, DVDs)
• Keyboard size/look/feel

The 14" screen dimension is just right for me, both for portability (as it affects case dimension) and for readability of content. I dislike having to use horizontal scroll bars, and with a 14" screen, I almost never have to do so. It's surprising the difference just one inch makes: I knew the 13" was too small for my needs and the 15" too bulky for my portability desires. 

Dimension and weight-wise, at about 5 pounds, it's easy to heft with one hand when I need to. It doesn't take up much room in my backpack or weigh it down. (On the other hand, the power cord does take up a fair amount of space because it's long - an excellent feature otherwise - and is rather awkward in it's tangle-prone sprawl inside my bag.)

Battery life. When I bought my laptop in late 2010, a four-hour battery was good. And until my battery began its sad decline awhile back, the four-hour charge was more than sufficient for my needs. 

Earlier this year, I helped my sister buy a new laptop, which has an eight-hour battery. I was really surprised how much weight that added to her laptop.

Quantity and diversity of ports. The things I connect to my laptop: Flash drives, internet cables, mp3 player, voice recorder, Kindle, printer cables, SD cards (and if that port goes kaput, a camera cable), mini-speaker, remote mouse thingie, and earbuds. Not to mention my AC plug. I'm also set up to attach a projector. 

Because my laptop is my virtual life, I need all these bells and whistles on my little rig. 

Optical drive. With the ubiquity of flash drives, an optical drive for CD/DVDs is no longer necessary in most cases for data transfer. But there are still occasions when an optical drive is either essential or more effective. For example, if I'm installing a new device (i.e. printer) to my laptop, then I think it's much faster to do so with the manufacturer's CD installer than downloading the installer from the manufacturer's website (assuming I even have access to the internet when/where I need it). As an ESL teacher in Georgia, I received CDs that accompanied textbooks. These included audio files and the teacher's manuals. This information was not available online for download.

Bottom line: The portability criteria I used to select my laptop were useful. 

And insofar as the decision-making goes in regard to laptop v. notebook v. tablet - it's still the best choice for my needs to stick with a laptop. Note: HP calls my laptop a notebook, but come on, really. No, it isn't. It's too big and too heavy to be a notebook.

Little electronics case

I'm still using this Ethiopian Airlines comfort case I received from generous Yoseph. It keeps my tiny electronics paraphernalia secure and well-organized. Not everyone lucks out with just the right bag like I did. So if you're looking to buy one, here are the qualities I most appreciate about my case:

• Small size for maximum portability
• Two zippered pockets within the zippered outer case
• See-through pockets
• Red color to find it quickly in a bag
• Flexibility in expansion - I've since added spare AA and AAA batteries, a Kindle AC adapter, and a two-prong adapter for old-fashioned US outlets for my three-prong laptop cord

Rain poncho

I bought this when I returned to Georgia after my winter break in the U.S. I went with a poncho instead of an umbrella because I wanted:

• Good cover for my backpack or bag, which I always had with me
• More portability than an umbrella

Hmm. What I discovered is that unless it's a moderate-to-heavy rain or I'm out hiking somewhere, the poncho isn't as handy as an umbrella. 

It's a lot easier to manage a wet umbrella upon arrival at a destination than a wet poncho. An umbrella dries faster than a poncho, too, which means I can fold it up a lot sooner than a poncho. Because of these factors, I found myself reluctant to pull out my poncho from my bag during a light rain, whereas if I'd had an umbrella, I wouldn't have hesitated to pull it out and use it. 

So: I'm glad I have the poncho because it has its uses. But I'll be buying a compact umbrella. 

Kindle

I just bought my Kindle, so I haven't road-tested it yet.

Trekking poles

It's too soon to tell for sure, but so far I believe I made a good investment in money and space to buy these walking poles.

There's no better way to screw up a good time than a stupid slip that wreaks havoc on a bone, muscle, tendon, or cartilage. 

In Georgia, there's no snow or ice removal on the pavements. In many parts of the world, the vertical distance between steps are irregular or are higher than is comfortable for shorties like me. And, frequently no side rails. Unmaintained trails that are slick or precipitous from overuse or erosion. 

So I've found it helpful to tuck my compact, collapsible trekking poles into my backpack for day trips or when I'm venturing onto slippery pavement conditions. 

But over the long haul, the jury's still out on the trekking poles' value when weighed against the space they consume (which is very little) in my bags.

Round-up

If I were to summarize the universal variables for the best portable gear, they'd be: 

1. Size
2. Weight
3. Visibility for efficient identification and retrieval
4. Organization for efficient retrieval and security
5. Utility for my unique needs based on how and where I travel or live (for example, another rootless soul might save considerable space and weight with a tablet or notebook if she doesn't have the same data interests I do)

 

Portable: I Am Kindled

An e-reader!

I had resisted getting an e-reader a year or so ago because I already felt tethered by too many electronic "toddlers" I needed to tend:

• Laptop
• Voice recorder
• Mini speaker
• Mp3 player
• Camera(s)

But I was primed for a change when I realized how much mass paper books take up in luggage, in my borrowed room, and in my backpack. And how limited my portable library had to be with paper books.

When I saw TLG colleague, Sandy, pull out her kobo - that slim, featherweight nothing of an item that belied the library it held, I was dazzled by how little space it took up. 

But what nailed it for me was this post by another TLG colleague, Lauren: An Unlikely Companion.

(And then, of course, there's the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy factor involved in having an e-reader.)

Kindle

Once decided, I did my due research on which e-reader I'd get and I decided on a kindle touchless wifi/3G for $139. Could not wait til I got back to Missouri to get it! But I did.

But when I went to order it from Amazon, I made an unanticipated last-minute swerve and bought the basic instead for $79. 

Because: 

• Turns out that the owners of new 3G kindles only have access to Amazon, wikipedia, and one other website. Really? If that's the case, then wifi is sufficient, so why pay more for 3G? 
• I saw that the basic kindle was slightly smaller and weighed less than the newer, fancier kindles.
• I didn't want to have an mp3 player, color, games, or a mini-tablet - I just wanted an e-reader
• If my basic kindle got lost or stolen, it would be less of a financial loss. 
• This review from a guy who had all the kindles helped me look at the basic kindle

So I'm happy with my kindle. Except. I'm a little wistful that maybe there aren't basic maps for my kindle that I can pull up as I sit across a table with some folks in future countries, but maybe I just haven't found them yet. (Update August 3: I bought and downloaded the 2012 World Atlas, which is an e-reader version of the CIA World Factbook. Includes its maps.) 
 
Also, I somehow had the idea that a lot more contemporary books would be available for e-readers via the library than there evidently are. Example: I want to read all of Daniel Woodrell's books, but it seems only Winter's Bone is accessible on kindle from my library.


What's in my portable library so far

• Jack London (all or most of his books!)
• Louisa May Alcott (ditto) (Little Women recommended by Celia)
• Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn
• Rikki-Tikki-Tavvi
• Every blessed one of the colored Fairy Books (Red, Blue, Green, etc.) that I loved when I was a child
• Grimm Fairy Tales
• Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales
• Bullfinch's Mythology
• Seven of Jane Austen's books (recommended by Rosie)
• Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
• Some works by Jules Verne
• Some works by H.G. Wells
• Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens (recommended by Rosie)
• Of Human Bondage (recommended by Miles)
• Crime and Punishment (recommended by Miles)
• The Four Feathers by AEW Mason
• Wherever You Go, There You Are
• Two Dr. Doolittle books (recommended by Lindsay)
• Siddhartha (recommended by Sandy)
• ..and perhaps the original Shades of Gray - Fanny Hill, by John Cleland

All but one of the above were free.

Loving the concept of my portable library and the reality of reading books on my little kindle.

Security: The Name of the Enemy is Complacency

My laptop has an application that allows me to encrypt documents. I can only open an encrypted document with a password or a swipe of my finger.

Since I supposedly know that all systems fail, I maintained a back-up of a particular encrypted document - in an unencrypted form - elsewhere. Except I got complacent and didn't continue to update the document in its unencrypted form. An important distinction, this. Because I do have an automatic back-up of said document in its protected form.

But what happens when the encryption application goes to hell? Right. Can't access the document that's sitting right there, ready to be opened. Doesn't matter that I've got its encrypted clone sitting prettily on a cloud.

So now, because the magic key isn't working, I've got to recreate the most recent version of the doc.

Security's supposed to protect my stuff from other people, not from me.

Lesson learned, finally? Hopefully.

Where Do I Live? Revisited

Awhile back, the question arose about how we define where we live versus visit.

(I know where I want to live in the future - some place warm. )


But this post isn't about that so much.

Instead, it's about a guy named Dave and his Longest Way Home. His "global quest in search of a place called home." 

After seven years on this journey, he has some thoughts on:

• Home
• Locals getting tired of you
• What if you die on the road*
• What happens to your digital life after your body dies**
• Five stages of long-term travel
• Ethical blogging

*I have a friend who selected a pre-paid funeral plan that includes an international clause, ensuring her body will either be cremated in the country where she drops (and the cremains shipped home) or her body intact gets shipped home, I don't remember which.  

**One of my brothers also wondered what happens to our digital life after we died, and he researched that with the service provider(s).

I like Dave's analytical and pragmatic approach to these subjects, even if I don't always have the same take.

Portable Product Review: Convertible Gloves

While on vacation in Missouri, I bought these convertible gloves to bring back for protection from the Georgian winter cold:

 

I bought them for warmth and for accessible dexterity.

Now that I've used them several times, here's the review:

The gloves are warm and the sleeves are long enough to cover any gaps between sleeves and hands. The suede palm pad is great for gripping items and a vehicle's steering wheel. Their convertibility from mittens to fingerless gloves is a benefit when I need to root around in my bag for something, put on glasses, and with some difficulty, text or phone. 

Unfortunately, the disadvantages of these gloves outweigh the advantages. I've got rather large hands, but still, these gloves feel too big. The mitten part of the glove pulls away from my fingers too easily, exposing them to the cold air. The velcro attachment that keeps the mitten flap out of the way when you're using your fingers - it's in the precise spot to scrape your skin when you scratch your nose. Ouch. And the velcro attachment between the two parts (mitten flap and the back of the glove) isn't very strong, so the two come apart prettily easily. There's already a hole in one glove's sleeve. 

The thumb flap gets in the line of vision when I'm trying to push phone buttons. Super annoying.  

The overall concept is good; I'd just go with a different brand. 

Louisiana Road Trip 2011, Part 5: Natchez to Arnaudville

Road trip packing list. One of the great things about a road trip packing list is you can bring stuff with you that's too bulky for a plane or backpacking trip. Example: For this road trip, I brought my shelf stereo (similar to this) that I can take into my on-road lodgings for guaranteed beautiful sound in my habitat. Falls under the category of "comfort items."

Today I passed a few places that I want to revisit for a better view:

Credit: Cody Sewell

John James Audubon Bridge. A stunner from first glimpse to the final crossover. Two tall sentinals appear in the distance. As you reach the bridge, 22-karat gold rays expand toward you, then away, then toward, then away. 

It is emotionally uplifting to see the elegant execution of a mundane function - getting people from point A to point B.












In the video below, someone attempts to capture the bridge's beauty:



If I go back home via the same route, I'm going to take a try at filming the bridge myself.

Louisiana scenic drive. On Highway 77, almost a country lane, really, the scenery was lovely. On my right were swollen, marshy front yards occupied by egrets. On my left were lush green fields. Live oaks. Spanish moss. Meandering bayou.

Mississippi River from Natchez' Bluff Trail

Natchez. This morning, I had awakened in Natchez. Stayed at the Days Inn on Highway 61, which was not only budget-priced, but served dinner last night, for God's sake! And it wasn't bad either, chicken cacciatore, green beans, and corn muffins. Microwave and fridge in the room plus free wifi. And the staff reflected warm Southern hospitality with friendly greetings and swift, effective remedies to a few issues I encountered in my room.

If you're into casino gambling and plantation tours, then Vicksburg and Natchez will probably keep you delighted for at least two days. I'm not into either of those things, so while the two towns are pleasant, I felt satisfied with the one-nighters in each.

Uptown Grocery, Canal Street, Natchez

In Natchez, I drove downtown and parked in the stupendous Natchez visitor center's lot, which is on the bluff over the Mississippi River. I walked from the visitor center to Natchez' Bluff Trail and its end, then back and down to "Under the Hill" for an indifferent lunch at a riverfront place. Then chugged up, up, up the hill back to the visitor center, and took off for Arnaudville, Louisiana.


 

Portable and Rootless: Trekking Poles

An early Christmas present to myself:

Black Diamond Trekking poles

Black Diamond Trekking poles

Black Diamond Fl Trekking Pole. Selected it because of good user reviews and how compact it is when folded - will fit in my luggage, which is less than 21 inches long.

There's a lot of walking in Georgia on rough terrain, up and down. Can't wait to try the pole out when I return to Georgia from winter vacation in the states.