honing the kit
Inspired by a recent post on getting better at traveling I'm working on honing my travel kit a bit. On my latest trip to London, I knew I'd have to do a lot of walking around with my luggage so tried to keep everything to a single EMS backpack/travel bag that I've got (a la Rick Steves), but it was just a little bit heavy for me to carry around on my back for very long so I opted for a pull behind and a smaller backpack for my carryon. It was manageable but I could have gotten away with paring it down a bit more. Traveling in winter and the fact that I had some fairly high-end meetings to attend made it more difficult since it meant i needed to double up on jackets and such as it's a bit difficult to pull of rolling up to a lunch at a fancy joint wearing a fleece hiking vest and a sport jacket. So here's my notes for next time
• Electronics
• USB phone charger/cable
• plug part not necessary as can charge via usb off of laptop
• camera (no charger or extra batteries brought as I know my LX3 can go a while on one charge)
• laptop
• laptop power adapter with UK plug (Apple handles internationalization of adapters like a champ).
• clothes for business trip
• Biz clothes
• 3 pairs of wool dress pants (wool pants are key and I could have gotten by with two pairs for four days)
• 3 dress shirts
• wool dress sweater
• sport jacket
• clarks - wore these the whole time and shouln't have brought sneakers since the hotel didn't have a gym
• wool top coat (man this was a bear to lug around, i prob didn't need to bring it).
• travel clothes
• cords
• fleece vest and rain layer (the rain layer was key in london and i ended up wearing it around over my sportcoat wherever I went).
• longsleeve smartwool t-shirt (this was great for the plane where the temp changes a bit)
• tshirt
• 1/4 zip wool sweater
• sneakers
• exercise clothes
• endo pants (never ended up running while I was there so this and the sneakers were a waste)
• tshirts (2)
• toiletries
• razor
• toothbrush
• toothpaste
• shaving cream
• prescriptions
• promethazine (nothing like abusing some prescription drugs to help get me on a sleep schedule).
• tylenol
• sinus rinse
My trip to London in 10 photos, from islington to the underground to regents park
jet-lag.
Day 1 in London.
When I got up this morning to get ready for a day of meetings my body said it was 1AM despite the alarm clock reading 6AM. Getting a run in would probably help but I can tell you what doesn't help: 1.) "sunrise" results in an approximate 10% increase in the amount of daylight over since it is raining out and overcast and generally feels like a Dickens novel. 2.) It is apparently impossible to find a good cup of coffee within a walkable radius of my hotel.
When I got up this morning to get ready for a day of meetings my body said it was 1AM despite the alarm clock reading 6AM. Getting a run in would probably help but I can tell you what doesn't help: 1.) "sunrise" results in an approximate 10% increase in the amount of daylight over since it is raining out and overcast and generally feels like a Dickens novel. 2.) It is apparently impossible to find a good cup of coffee within a walkable radius of my hotel.
Apparently, I'm not a tasteless cad for only enjoying the first movement of this piece.
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto In E Minor, Op. 64 - 1. Allegro Molto Appassionato by Anne - Sophie Mutter; Herbert Von Karajan: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
I sent out an email to some folks this AM looking for some guidance on Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. I thought that I was perhaps overlooking something in the second and third movements of this piece but here's one of replies I got:
" . . .Violinists love it, but like some piano concertos and other works (like Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata) they suck you in with a great first movement and then they don’t find a good way out. It makes for great list potential – works with great first movements that fall apart after that. Then there’s works with great finales that you have to suffer through. And Rachmaninov is the king of this – there’s usually one great movement in all of his works and the rest of it is sub-John Williams orchestration/time keeping." Anyway, here's the first movement, listen loud: Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in Em, first movement:Day 1 of my new gig as CTO for Passionato
So, yesterday was my first day as CTO for Passionato. After a little over two years or so of doing consulting work (much of which was spent integrating the All Music Guide dataset into a Jazz and Classical CD retailer's website backend), I'll now be responsible for rolling out some very cool (and hopefully revenue-generating) features for Passionato.
I ordered business cards, spent some time learning the names of the people involved in the company and spent a lot of time on the phone/skype to the UK where the company's developers are currently located. We're in the process this week of launching v2 of the website, after which launch I'll take the reins from the current acting CTO. Everyone I've had the opportunity to work or speak with so far has been very bright and articulate (the British accents don't hurt in that regard.)
I am excited on several fronts, not the least of which is I'm surrounded by people who all have a deep love for music (mostly classical but the breadth of musical knowledge is amazing). It just feels good to be around people who are more like me than not in that sense. The joy of discussing the Miles Davis Quintet and Sibelius over lunch is a perk that I've never had in my previous jobs.
Next week I'll be traveling to London to meet the developers face-to-face. I'm looking forward to that. Over the next few weeks we'll be looking for beta-testers for some new features. There are some sweet benefits (if you like classical music) to beta-testing, so if you're interested drop me an email.
Safe neighborhoods from many connected eyes.
Red Bank's newly appointed Chief of Police, Steve McCarthy, gets that social technology can be a huge assist to keeping neighborhoods safe. Take this latest text announcement sent by the RBPD using the Borough's citizen alert tool:
Red Bank Police are investigating a suspicious incident that occurred at approximately 1 PM on Prospect Avenue. Two male subjects claiming to be utility company employees approached a residence and attempted to gain access for the purpose of installing water equipment. The resident became suspicious and did not admit the subjects to the home. Subjects are described as two hispanic males with dark complexion, one in his late 40's wearing a black coat and a cap with the letters "CA" on it. Second subject is in his 20's last seen wearing a black jacket with white piping. Subjects were operating a tan or cream colored 4 door vehicle. Anyone observing suspicious activity is urged to call the police department immediately. RBPD
The above announcement landed in my inbox minutes ago and I was able to forward via email it to a bunch of my neighbors who are home today. It's almost unthinkable to imagine this kind of quick report->distribute information cycle in the days before social technology.
No doubt there are a few obstacles to overcome (SMS is arguably more ubiquitous than email, collecting and maintaining residents' contact information, etc.), but a scenario where several dozen residents in the area of the activity have been warned about it within an hour of it being reported is clearly preferable to the police sending out a few patrol cars to monitor the situation.
Many eyeballs connected via email and SMS can be a serious impediment to crime.
Second set of terrific Merl/Jerry show on Deadpod this week
Stinky? Smartwool shirts on sale at EMS.
The mid and lightweight shirts are the lynchpin of my "ride to work without stinking up the place" technical wardrobe strategy. If you don't have one of them, do yourself a favor and get one while they're on sale: http://www.ems.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=3982400
Friends stuff on Flickr
Funny pattern of "things" in this email I got from flickr today.
