I’m really beginning to feel the difference too. Today I jumped in the lift to head down for a lunch-time run and by the time it reached the ground floor, my heart rate had dropped from 75bpm to 53bpm Last Friday I did a brutal hill session with the club and peaked 199bpm, which is pretty unusual even for guys in their 20s (though unfortunately that doesn’t mean that I’m naturally fitter than other people, just that I have a high heart rate and can push myself hard …)

Just over two years ago, I blogged about taking a leap of faith and turning down two great jobs because they didn’t involve doing something I was truly passionate about. It was a gamble, but even after two months I could tell it was going to pay off. Sure enough, two years later, I found myself with a wealth of new experience and knowledge which I’d had a ton of fun acquiring, plus a healthy boost to my CV and set of friends and connections within the industry.

Then the stars aligned again, and I found myself with another life-changing dilemma: take an even more awesome job than the one I was in, or quit IT altogether and face an indefinite period of zero income. Pretty obvious what to do, right? I quit.

If that sounds crazy, it’s because it probably was – definitely another leap into the unknown. But I’ll try to explain my decision. I’ve had a number of life-changing decisions to make over the years, and I’m gradually learning to trust my gut instincts in those moments, because they’re generally right. I think they work out well because they’re usually based on my need to keep doing things I love doing (or to put it another way, my pathetic lack of tolerance for things I don’t enjoy), rather than concerns about money and other tedious “real world” distractions.

But wait, I hear you ask – didn’t I just say I decided not to pursue an even more awesome job than the one I loved doing for the last two years? How could my instincts guide me away from that? There are two parts to the answer.

Firstly, I had a bit of luck recently which combined with existing savings and investments meant that I could afford not to work for a while. Secondly, I’ve had an itch for a long time to play more music, and it just wouldn’t go away. In fact it kept growing and growing, until (20 years later than would have been ideal) I identified it as a basic need that I’m stuck with for good. When I say “play more music”, I don’t mean the kind where you go off and play along with CDs in your bedroom every now and again, or join an amateur orchestra. That’s enough for some people, and I totally respect that – but for some reason (false pride, perhaps) I could never bear to think of myself as a hobbyist musician. For better or worse, I only ever enjoy playing music when I’m playing to the best of my ability, and experiencing real progress.

Unfortunately, in music as with many things in life, progress requires hard grind – the standard blood, sweat and tears formula. Jazz musicians call it “shedding” which is short for “woodshedding”, because the idea is you lock yourself in a woodshed for 6 months and practice non-stop. If a 15 year career in IT has taught me anything, it’s that you can’t develop your musicianship quickly alongside a full-time job outside music. So I quit. Or at least, I’m taking sabbatical. To be honest I have no idea what will happen. Maybe I’ll go back to IT full-time, maybe part-time, maybe never. Right now I’m just focusing on studying, practising, playing with other people … whatever I can do to improve.

I decided that I’m most interested in developing my non-classical skills, especially jazz but also various types of folk, pop, Indian, and whatever else takes my fancy. I’ve played (Western) classical music my whole life and had some of the most incredible experiences from it, but now I want to explore what can be done on the cello outside that – cello is such a versatile instrument and there’s a whole new sound world which is a mostly untrodden path at this point.

That’s all I have time for now, but I’ll blog again soon about the amazing experiences I’ve already had around the USA in the last two months – I have a whole ton of photos, audio and video, so watch this space!

• http://cellobello.com/blog/chamber_music/cello-is-my-co-pilot/
• http://cellofun.yuku.com/topic/4483

My situation is different because I have a Luis and Clark carbon fiber cello which is incredibly robust and generally does not even go out of tune when checked in as normal baggage and placed in the hold of the aircraft in a normal hard case. My case is a Bam Hightech measuring 54.5 × 21 × 88.7″.  It seems virtually all airlines policies regarding oversized baggage operate in “linear” or total dimensions, i.e. by summing up the 3 separate dimensions together.  This means my case has a linear dimension of 88.7″ which unfortunately is outside the 62″ standard limit, and even just outside Delta’s second tier limit of 80″.  Having said that, so far I have always managed to get it treated as normal sized baggage simply by confidently pointing out that the height is 55″ which is under 62″. In my experience, most staff at the check-in gate are not familiar with the exact terms in their airline’s policies, so having the right attitude (confidently knowledgeable and up-front but non-confrontational) can go a long way.

I’ve done some research on the policies of some popular airlines and referenced the relevant extracts below, with one section per airline. The quotes I’ve taken are focused mainly on national flights within the USA, because despite being from the UK, I’m currently flying around the USA a lot. However the policies for international flights seem similar, although sometimes with higher fees.

N.B. In addition to the below fees, most airlines typically charge around $25 for checking an extra bag.

Delta Air Lines

http://www.delta.com/traveling_checkin/baggage/special_baggage/musical_instruments/index.jsp

What Musical Instruments Can Be Checked?
Musical instruments or equipment can be checked if the total linear dimension (length+width+height) does not exceed 115 inches (292 cm) and provided the weight, including the case, does not exceed 100 lbs. (45 kg).
Standard rules and fees for overweight and oversized baggage

http://www.delta.com/traveling_checkin/baggage/excess_baggage/index.jsp#oversize

175 USD/CAD* for bags measuring 63–80 inches (161-203 cm) in combined length, width, and height. Some Specialty Items may be exempt from this fee.

300 USD/CAD* for bags measuring 81-115 inches (204-292 cm) in combined length, width, and height. Some Specialty Items may be exempt from this fee

Summary – could cost over $300 but been lucky so far.

Jetblue Airways

http://help.jetblue.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/webisapi.dll/,/?St=351,E=0000000000047971896,K=4928,Sxi=18,Case=obj(2132)

Musical instruments as checked baggage:
There is no charge for Musical instruments as long as they are within size and weight requirements. JetBlue accepts no liability for damage to Musical instruments. We suggest packing them in a hard-sided container designed for travel.

http://help.jetblue.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/webisapi.dll/,/?St=351,E=0000000000047971896,K=4928,Sxi=18,Case=obj(634)

63 – 80 inches (203.2 centimeters): $75 per bag
Bags over 80 inches: Will not be accepted

Summary: could be forced to buy an extra cabin ticket, or even turned away. However they have a good reputation amongst cellists.

United Airlines

http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6867,50773,00.html#music

However standard oversized baggage allowed up to 115 linear inches:

http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6867,52907,00.html#oversize

for fee of $100:

http://www.united.com/page/article/1,,53403,00.html

Summary: musical instruments discriminated against and limited to max of 62″ whereas other oversized baggage can go up to 115″ for cost of $100.

Frontier Airlines

http://www.frontierairlines.com/frontier/plan-book/travel-info-services/baggage/baggage-chart.do;jsessionid=5DBD43BCE9C1368C59705E648F626AD4

For musical instruments, no extra charges but excess, oversize and overweight charges apply if applicable.

http://www.frontierairlines.com/frontier/plan-book/travel-info-services/baggage/checked-baggage.do

We know it’s a weighty issue, but please remember items which exceed 62 linear inches (length + width + depth) or weigh more than 50 pounds will incur a fee. There is a $75 fee for bags exceeding these weight limitations and a $75 fee for exceeding the size limitation. These fees are charged separately and one item can incur multiple fees. You can read more about baggage in the Contract of Carriage (PDF).
We take the safety of our passengers and employees very seriously. Frankly folks, our employees have to lift and carry these bags to get them to your flight and we’d really like to keep those checked bags under 50 pounds each. And, as much as we’d like to help, we don’t accept baggage that weighs more than 100 pounds or exceeds 110 linear inches (length + width + depth). If you need to transport items this large, please check with your favorite package delivery company. Thanks for your understanding of our policy.

Summary: $75 worst case – the best policy I’ve found so far.

Continental Airlines

http://www.continental.com/CMS/en-US/travel/Pages/BaggageExcess.aspx

Oversized Baggage

• Customers who travel with checked baggage exceeding 62 linear inches (157 cm) (total length + width + height) will be charged at the rate of $100.00 per piece for travel within the U.S., and between the U.S. and Canada, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Customers to Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America with oversize baggage will be charged at the rate of $200.00 per piece.
• These charges are in addition to any charge assessed for additional or overweight baggage.
• Baggage measuring more than 115 in (292 cm) (total outside dimensions; length + width + height) will not be accepted as checked baggage.

Summary: $100 worst case.

American Airlines

http://www.aa.com/i18n/travelInformation/baggage/baggageAllowance.jsp#overweight

Checked baggage which is larger than 62 in/157 cm will be charged at the rate of $200 per piece.
Baggage measuring more than 126 in/320 cm will not be accepted as checked baggage.
…
Instruments may also be transported as checked baggage, however, due to their fragile nature AA does not accept liability for damages and has limited liability for loss. AA is also not liable for any damage to checked musical instruments not presented in a hard-sided case. If the outside of the hard-sided case does not have visible damage, AA is not liable for any damage to the musical instrument inside the case.

The implications of the last two sentences don’t make any sense – if they do not accept liability for damage (as in the previous sentence), why even bother specifying requirements for hard cases and visible damage on the outside?

Summary: as bad as Delta, and with highly ambiguous wording regarding liability for damage.

Conclusion

Any cello case, even a non-flight case, will exceed the standard 62″ limit for oversized checked baggage, and unless you are lucky at check-in, will incur a fee typically around $75 to $100. Most cello cases are unlikely to top the overweight baggage restrictions. Generally musical instruments are subject to a slightly different “special baggage” policy to normal checked baggage, but usually this amounts to a disclaimer of liability and similar or identical rules regarding dimensions.  Some airline policies are much worse, e.g. Delta, will potentially charge a whopping $300 for exceeding 80 linear inches, but having said that I have travelled with Delta several times and they didn’t charge me any oversize fee at all, just the extra checked item fee. United could potentially require a cabin ticket, and Frontier have the cheapest and most tolerant policy I’ve found so far.

People, it’s 2011 already! Whilst technology is still far from perfect, it landed a man on the moon 42 years ago way before mobile phones existed, and certainly solved this particular problem of disappearing phones several years ago.  So for those of you who still haven’t figured this out, without further ado I will outline a solution which should only cost 10 minutes of your life and ensure you never have to broadcast a panicked message cursing your pet donkey and asking everyone to send you their numbers.

Android phones

Firstly, if you already have a phone belonging to the rapidly growing family of Android phones (such as any recent Samsung, HTC, Sony Ericsson or Motorola phone), then congratulations!  You’re immediately at an advantage.  If you have a Google account, you probably already linked your phone to it when you first went through the phone’s setup procedure, in which case your contacts / calendar / e-mail etc. are most likely already being automatically synchronised with your account, and are safely backed up within Google’s cloud.  To make sure, visit http://google.com/contacts and you should see all your contacts listed in a very nice interface which lets you do other handy things like automatically merge duplicate contacts.

If you don’t see your contacts there, or you don’t have a Google account and/or never linked your phone with a Google account, take the following simple steps:

1. Create a Google account if you don’t have one already (it’s free)
2. On your phone, go to the Settings menu, select “Accounts & sync settings”, and then ensure that your Google account is listed and that sync is enabled.

iPhones, Blackberries, Nokia / Windows / other vaguely modern phones

Again the solution I would recommend is to set up automatic synchronization to a Google Account, because it’s free, proven to work, and means your data is backed up in the Google cloud, which statistically speaking is a far safer place to store your contacts than one of your own hard drives.  Instructions for these phones are listed here: http://www.google.com/mobile/sync/

Even if you have a “dumb” (non-smart) phone, unless it is really ancient, the chances are that it supports SyncML which means that the above will work.  If however your phone is so old that it doesn’t even support SyncML then I would simply recommend that you upgrade.  Modern mobile handsets are so sophisticated that even the cheapest, most basic models (given away for free with low-cost contracts) will support SyncML.

It’s more than just contacts

If you follow the above suggestions, you’ll find that your phone’s calendar will automatically get synchronized too.

Non-Google solutions

If for some strange reason you are highly anti-Google, there are of course plenty of other options.  I’m not going to go into detail here, but here’s some food for thought:

• Choosing between MobileMe and Google
• The Great iPhone Sync Debate: Desktop, Laptop, or Cloud?

Wrapping up

That’s all for now.  Hope it was useful – feel free to leave comments.  Oh, and here are two final suggestions for what to do if you see one of your poor friends send out a facebook message like the one at the top of this article:

• DON’T respond by posting your mobile phone number on their wall (do you really want the whole world to have your number?)
• Send them the link to this article.

So the other night I found myself desperate for a replacement.  I do have a Boss ME-70 with me which has a built-in phrase looper, but it only stores 38 seconds which is barely enough to get to the bridge of Cherokee.  Even worse, there is no way to undo/redo loop layers or store the whole thing after you power the unit off.

Then it occurred to me that I could potentially combine my laptop (a cheap Samsung N150 netbook) with a microphone, headphones (as a poor man’s substitute for an amp), and some software to achieve the same thing.  At this point, those of you with a Mac will exclaim “sure – use GarageBand!”  However, as shiny as Macs are, they are expensive and I also can’t stand Apple for philosophical reasons.  (I can’t stand Microsoft either, which is why I use Linux, but I digress.)  If you are interested in an alternative approach to looping with software, read on!

My netbook already has a built-in mic, which while surprisingly good for something so tiny, couldn’t ever hope to compete with a proper mic.  Plus it picks up noise every time you press a key or click a mouse.  Luckily however I recently bought an excellent little portable PCM / MP3 recording device when I was in New York: the Sony PCM-M10.  I’ve been using this to record all kinds of things on my travels – private lessons, groups classes/workshops, masterclasses, performances, jam sessions etc.  However one really cool feature is that if you press the red Record button, it goes into paused “ready to record” mode, at which point, any audio captured by its built-in stereo mics get passed straight through to the 3.5mm (1/8″) headphones / line out socket.  In other words, it will behave just like a pretty decent stereo mic!  So, one trip to Radioshack later, I had a male-to-male stereo cable for connecting the headphones socket to the microphone input on my laptop.

So at this point I could record fairly decent stereo audio directly using any simple recording software.  The next step was to see if I could find some good looping software… I tried out SooperLooper which looked very promising and is Free Software (free as in freedom, not just price), but I found the interface very confusing and poorly documented, despite only needing to do basic looping.  From 1996 until a few weeks ago, I was an IT professional, so if I struggled, it’s likely that less technically minded people would too.  Plus it only runs on Linux and MacOS X, which rules out anyone with Windows.  To be fair, I do believe that SooperLooper has a bright future – with a few tweaks and some comprehensive documentation, most of the difficulties could be eliminated.  But for now it isn’t quite right for what I need.

Then I looked very briefly at other Free Software loopers: Kluppe, and FreeWheeling, but neither had enough polish, and trying to progress as a musician is hard enough without the distractions of trying to help fix software bugs.

Finally I realised Audacity, the superb cross-platform sound editor, could do everything I wanted, and actually do it surprisingly well!  So, here’s a first stab at explaining how to emulate a loop pedal with Audacity.  (Later I may collaborate with Chris to produce an instruction video on this…)

1. Download and install Audacity – it’s Free Software (as I said above, Free refers to freedom not just price, which is much cooler than freeware) and it works on Linux, Windows, and MacOS X.
2. Ensure your computer can record audio via some kind of microphone (ideally a decent external one as explained above, but a built-in mic will do) or line in.
3. (Obviously) ensure your computer can play back audio to you.  When you add new layers onto the loop, you will be playing along with the existing layers.   If you’re using an acoustic instrument with mic, and want to avoid including sound from the existing layers getting mixed in with the new layer being recorded, one cheap trick is to use headphones instead of an amp/speakers.  This is what I do because I can’t lug an amp around on my travels.
4. Start up Audacity, click the red Record button, and check that it’s correctly recording sound from your mic or line in.  You should see a waveform appear, then hit Stop, and Play to check it’s working.
5. Click the cross in the newly recorded track to discard it.
6. (Optional but recommended) Record a count-in track.  This could simply be you saying “a-one, a-two, a one-two-three-four”, or four clicks from the metronome app on your phone, or whatever.  Leave a few seconds of silence before clicking the Stop button to stop the recording.
7. (Optional but recommended) Click “Audio Track” at the top left of the new waveform, click “Name…”, and enter something like “count in” as the new track name.  Optionally click the up arrow at the bottom left of the new waveform to shrink it vertically, if you want to save screen space.
8. Click the Record button, then record your first loop layer after the count in, then stop recording soon after (it doesn’t matter exactly when).  Chris Howes recommends that if you are using the looper as a practice tool to improve your internal pulse and groove, your first layer should contain as many of the subdivisions of whatever meter you’re playing in.  So if you’re in 4/4, consider starting with a chopping or comping pattern which covers all the eighth or sixteenth notes.  Then the bass line can come later and lock in with these nicely.
9. (Optional but recommended) Rename the track you just recorded, as in step 7.
10. Repeat steps 8 and 9 to record additional layers (you can also skip this for now and do it later).
11. Select the portion of audio across all tracks which corresponds to the loop you want, i.e. omitting the initial count-in and any trailing silence or noise.  To do this, drag the mouse from the left-most point within the second waveform (track) from the top (remember the top one was your count-in track) where the loop starts, and then drag to the right-most point where the loop ends in the bottom (i.e. most recently recorded) loop layer.  You should now see the desired loop region in all tracks but the count-in track turn a darker color.
12. Now hold down Shift and click the Play button, and you should hear your loop.  If the start or end isn’t quite right, move the mouse over either boundary, and drag it left or right, then stop playback and start it again to check that you got the right loop region.
13. When you’re happy, click Edit > Play Region > Lock to avoid accidentally changing the loop region.  (If you want to change it later, you’ll have to unlock it first, then repeat steps 12 and 13.)
14. Carry on recording new layers at will.  Existing layers can be muted, changed in volume, panned left/right, deleted, and edited in a zillion other cunning ways, because Audacity is primarily a sound editor, not a looper.
15. (Advanced usage – entirely optional) If you want to temporarily focus on practising a smaller portion of the loop, for example you can’t quite nail the Cherokee bridge or those pesky 9th and 10th measures of Countdown above 350bpm, then you can select those measures as in steps 11 and 12, but then click Tracks > Add Label At Selection, and enter a label for this portion.  You’ll see a new label track containing the new labelled region, which can then be used to quickly select this portion for playback.  You’ll probably have to first unlock the play region set in step 13, so instead you might want to have a label for the whole loop too.
16. If you’re happy with the final result and want to keep it for another session, click File > Save Project from the menu or hit Control+S.

That’s it!  It may be a bit more involved than stomping on a couple of pedals, but it’s simpler than the steps above make it look, and it is a hell of a lot more flexible, doesn’t include the stress of having to stomp precisely when you start and finish playing, and doesn’t cost several hundred dollars either (yes, I’m writing this for an American audience, in case you hadn’t already noticed by the spelling and vocabulary above …)  The only downside is that you can’t do all the steps seamlessly for a live performance in the way a looper pedal lets you.

Hope that was useful.  Feel free to leave feedback in the comments!

Despite being sold as a “chromatic” harmonica, it could only manage a rough approximation to three octaves of C major. Also, the holes are in a different place for the top octave, which meant every time I attempted the “do re mi” major scale, I accidentally finished with “… fa sol la ti MI” followed swiftly by a profanity, and consequent howls of laughter from Corinna. It cost very little and sounded progressively worse the more I practiced it, although I only place the blame partially on the harmonica for that. In case you don’t believe me, here’s the proof:

Download audio file (terrible-harmonica-scale.mp3)

(Now seems a good time to mention that if you haven’t already seen Shane singing 5 octaves on the piano, go and watch it immediately.)

Eli followed suit shortly after, although he managed to buy a harmonica which was not only roughly in tune with mine, but even stayed in tune with itself! He also proved to be a quicker and more dedicated student than myself. Nevertheless, by the time we reached Xmas day in Bangkok, we were able to give reasonably credible renditions of the harmonica duet version of Jingle Bells to our unsuspecting families over Skype.

Corinna sensibly eschewed^* such a crude instrument in favour, sorry, favor of something much sweeter – her voice. She also steered us very gently away from the harmonicas towards singing too, although with my range being comparable to Shane’s, and Eli’s “occasionally unstable” falsetto, I’m not sure that was quite as sensible.

Anyway, I digress. We learnt Tim O’Brien’s beautiful song “Foreign Lander”, and figured out some harmony and a bass line, which by the time of the final performance with banjo in Changi airport actually sounded pretty good! If you don’t know the tune, this youtube video has the original version as its soundtrack:

However my jazz tendencies mean that I sometimes get the urge to take something simple and beautiful and do evil corrupt things to it. So when I got back to London I reharmonised it as follows:

Download audio file (Foreign-Lander-reharmonisation.mp3)

(If you know how to play the piano properly, please ignore the fact that I don’t …)

[*] One of the many running themes of the trip was “words you write/understand but never say” – for me ‘eschewed’ falls into this category. ‘Sidewalk’ used to too, but after 25 days with two Americans, I found it magically popping out of my mouth. Eli came up with ‘idyllic’, Corinna with ‘laviscious’ and ‘ephemeral’, and there were several others I will need help remembering …

Luckily however Corinna booked us into a little place in the heart of Little India, which couldn’t be further from that mirror image of the West. More on that later.

On arrival in the airport my first task was to locate Eli, which proved more difficult than anticipated as neither of us had remembered to agree a meeting plan, and somebody had accidentally directed him to the wrong terminal.  That hiccup aside, we finally figured out how to navigate the various metro lines to get to the hotel. Immediately it became obvious how modernised public transport is here. The trains were cleaner and quieter than in London, and even had coloured LEDs built in to the maps above the carriage doors, so you can see exactly where you are.

After freshening up at the hotel and re-arranging the contents of my shiny new backpack a few times, I headed out with Eli to soak up some of the local atmosphere. It wasn’t long before we encountered our first of undoubtedly many temples on this trip, in this case an intricately decorated Hindu temple on an otherwise fairly bland road in the district:

We headed in the direction of where Corinna was about to finish work and experienced our first “Asian” shopping mall, which was incredibly similar to something you might find in London, other than a slightly creepy Santa at the entrance:

Then we found Corinna who had just finished work, and after playing human frogger on a large roundabout just as the heavens opened, the newly formed Epic Adventure Dream Team had our first meal together:



You are deciding how to pack for a 3.5 week trip to Southeast Asia. Do you:

a) find a promising looking 46l pack and then revisit the same hiking shop twice more over three days deliberating whether it will be big enough, finally deciding it will after googling for packing advice on your phone to find a backpacking article which says that travelling light is the one true way to exploration nirvana?

c) pack all your worldly possessions into two small suitcases, move house, choose a tiny 32l pack over Skype which will fit 6 items of clothing which can be worn in a total of 712 ways, several phrasebooks, and large amounts of sickly sweet cough medicine?

e) opt for a rather charming and slightly oversized brown leather pouch from World War One, together with a 36l pack with attachments for two shoes which masquerade very effectively as two extra suitcases surreptitiously enough that no airline hostesses bat an eyelid when you take them on the plane as hand luggage?

You’re feeling social and decide to check out the local nightlife. Where do you go?

a) You read every Lonely Planet publication and internet review for the best spots, and use Google Maps to successfully navigate to a beach party/concert of local music where you purchase a rá nâat and jam along.

c) You accidentally accept an offer from a John who asks to “enjoy” you, and after realizing your mistake and fleeing the scene, you spend the rest of the night practicing the Thai phrases for rejection.

e) You befriend two Thais who turn out to be diplomats who gift you an elephant on which you ride to Cambodia.

The sun is up and Bangkok is bustling. Wake up! What is your breakfast choice?

a) You don’t dare open your eyes before 10am. Ask again later …

c) You haven’t exactly eaten in five days, but when you see a stall selling Pad Thai, you are instantly transformed into a drooling mutant and scarf down three servings in one bite.

e) Strange new food makes you happy. You search out unrecognizable treats from street vendors, then skip off to find a boat ride, temple, or whatever might be around the corner before your companions are even conscious.

After deciding to part ways for a few days to explore your favorite parts of Thailand, you arrive at BKK airport at your designated meeting point only to find your companions are missing. Do you:

a) write a computer program which hijacks government satellites and tracks down your friends?

c) never actually make it to the airport as you are still lost in a national forest somewhere in central Thailand?

e) buy a tuk-tuk in a chance encounter with a newfound Thai friend and drive it to Hanoi to meet them?

You’ve been elected to choose lodgings in your next destination. Do you choose:

a) a room with ensuite bathroom, fast wifi, and at least 42 power outlets to charge your gadgets

c) the forest, as you are still lost and cannot find a hotel

e) a tin hut with local children, for the fee of a harmonica lesson

My general sense of smugness whilst settling in on the plane was furthered by Quantas’ choice of relaxation music: Tina May (I think), the Pat Metheny / Brad Mehldau duo, and Herbie Hancock’s take on the slow movement of  Ravel’s piano concerto.  Finally an airline that eschews musack for real quality!  (God, I’m such a snob.)

The Quantas experience continued to impress.  The seatbacks had very large touchscreens with a slick interface to a wide range of films, ‘Skycam’ offering a view out of the rear of the plane, and even phone calling, SMS, and webmail.

At the beginning of the flight, they explained that you could continue using the touch screens even after touchdown because “entertainment this good should be gate to gate”.  Nice!

They also provided a food menu card which included a very cool Journey Planner timeline showing what to expect for each hour of the flight, which is very useful when planning when to sleep:

After a short stay in Singapore I’ll be travelling to Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and maybe even Cambodia for a bit, with two of the best travel companions anyone could ask for.  Internet access is going to be sketchy in places so bear with me if these blogs arrive with you a little late.

P.S. OK so I’m way behind with these.  It’s just turned into Christmas day here in Bangkok!  Many pictures and stories still to come …

After wasting a few more minutes under the showerhead concocting highly delusional visions of setting up ShowerBoards’R'Us® to patent, manufacture, and market this revolutionary concept, making zillions, and retiring earlier, I had breakfast, got to work, and promptly forgot about the idea … until later, when in an ironic twist which perhaps demonstrates its worthlessness, I remembered it again and did a bit more research.

So it turns out that it’s not a remotely original idea (hey I didn’t say that all ideas originating in the shower were good), and in fact it’s very well documented that the shower is conducive to fresh thinking. Mitch Ditkoff suggests 20 reasons why the best ideas come in the shower, although I have to say I can’t agree with #19 – “if you shower with a friend, and he/she happens to be in a brainstorming mode, lots of great ideas get sparked”. If I’m sharing a shower with someone, brainstorming is not going to be the top priority.

There are plenty more blogs on the same topic. Andy Hunt’s highly original book about the brain suggests that using involving multiple senses during problem solving activates more neural pathways, and quotes the example of one study which showed a 500% improvement for students using multi-sensory techniques. Clearly being in the shower activates different senses to sitting motionless staring at a monitor or book.

As a result, it’s not surprising to find that many people have already invented water-compatible solutions to this idea capturing problem. For instance, on the forum belonging to David Allen‘s Gettings Things Done (GTD) company, there is a whole thread which suggests ideas such as voice-activated dictaphones, scuba diving slates, waterproof notepads and zip-lock bags, even memory tricks such as mnemonics and visualization. One guy has even installed an entire office wall next to his shower, which is pretty hilarious. In fact there are so many waterproof notepads that I am going to have to buy one and spend a lot more time in the shower to have any chance of an early retirement…

I am a huge fan of Avaaz and regularly sign petitions. The beneficial changes the organization has achieved so far across the world are truly staggering and inspirational.

However the latest email I just received from you entitled “Hilton sex slaves” did not quite meet the high standards that I customarily expect, and in fact demand from an organisation whose now enormous membership base enables it to wield immense global political power.

The language used in the email sounds worryingly similar to the kind of article frequently found in the UK tabloid press, which deliberately uses sensationalist language (and frequent use of bold typeface) in order to manipulate the reader into agreeing with the writer’s viewpoint.

For example, the 3-word email subject is vague enough to imply that Hilton actively promotes or even organizes sex slavery. This is a far cry from an apathetic lack of preventative action, which is of course a genuine issue but nowhere near as bad.

Then the opening paragraph (“It’s shocking. Hilton [...] could be complicit [...]“) focuses on aggressive sensationalism rather than facts. The Pope could be complicit in a heroin trafficking, but is that shocking? No, of course it isn’t – until it’s proven fact, it remains unsubstantiated speculation.

Thirdly, the sidebar on the right states “Hilton refuses to sign an international code of conduct on sex trafficking” which directly contradicts this text in the main body of the article: “Hilton acknowledged its need to address the problem of child prostitution. But to date no concrete steps have been taken.” Again, the former is an active refusal to act, whereas the latter is a passive failure to act.

It also seems slightly odd that Hilton has been singled out for this campaign, given that other huge hotel chains such as IHG (incorporating Holiday Inn) and Marriott have not signed up to ECPAT‘s Code of Conduct either. I appreciate that Hilton’s terrible track record in this area should compel them to act without hesitation, but it is important that your campaigns should remain as balanced as possible. This could have been achieved by including a sentence in the email such as “Other large hotel chains such as IHG and Marriott have not signed up, but if we succeed in persuading Hilton to sign up, it will send out a strong message to their rivals to get on board too.”

Incidentally, the email omitted a link to the ECPAT website, which may seem like a trivial point, but it encourages your members to independently verify the facts provided, which strengthens the credibility of the campaign.

I should point out that I have no loyalties, connections, or other interests with Hilton or anyone else in the hotel industry. I’m purely concerned that Avaaz campaigns maintain an extremely high level of quality and accountability, and that the Avaaz “brand” name continues to be perceived as completely trustworthy, so that you can continue these wonderful achievements.

So please, don’t be tempted to stoop to Rupert Murdoch’s level by using sensationalist or manipulative language – just keep focusing on the facts and let people make their own minds up.

Last but not least, many thanks for all your amazing work so far!

Regards,
Adam Spiers
UK

P.S. I have also published this as an open letter on my blog at http://blog.adamspiers.org/open-letter-to-avaaz and would be very happy to include any replies from you there. (You can also comment directly there if you prefer.)

Sent via webform at avaaz.org/en/contact

Great news. Every year we invite an exclusive group of customers to join our Premier Service for 12 months – and this year you’re one of them.

It went on to offer me a dedicated customer services and a USB dongle providing 3 months’ free mobile broadband, then 2p per MB after that.  Amazingly generous, no?  Then I realised why they’re being so nice to me:

• My team is amazing. Really – full of uber-smart, motivated, helpful guys supported by great management, great interface to the business, and very slick, well-oiled processes.
• This was a huge sideways move, so the learning curve has been a similar experience to last year when I started triathlons and had to learn to freestyle without drowning. I love learning new things, definitely feel like I am over the hardest part now, and am trying to contribute to the team effort with as close as I can get to the breakneck speed the other guys do.
• When you really love something, it sucks you in – sometimes too much. Last night I was up until 3am   I need to follow the advice Michael Meeks gave me when I asked him for tips on how to deal with being a full-time home-working geek:
  

  Sure – get up at the same time every day; and quit work roughly 9 hours later without fail.

  Then you stay sane

• It’s a more solitary lifestyle than my previous role, so I need to make more effort to get out and socialize in the evenings. Actually this could be a good thing because I used to occasionally use “work is quite social” as an excuse for not going out if I was tired.

For the last 3.5 years I’ve been working as a Solutions Architect for Novell, a job which has:

• trusted me with working from home, even before I’d proved myself,
• introduced me to some great colleagues and new friends (Novell is full of highly motivated and talented people),
• pushed me outside my comfort zone many times (and in case it’s not obvious, that is a very good thing), including forcing me to confront and completely overcome my phobia of public speaking,
• taught me a whole range of technical and “soft” skills,
• given me the opportunity to work on projects with some of the finest minds in the industry and stay at the cutting edge of technology,
• given me the opportunity to meet, learn from, and help countless client customers and partners, both existing and prospective,
• rewarded me for innovation (I co-filed two patents),
• taught me how to understand, and where possible sidestep people politics (although politics are inevitable in any large corporation, Novell is relatively free of it and even the CxOs at the top are very down-to-earth, approachable people)
• and probably many other things I missed.

Despite all that, a while ago I started feeling that I needed a fresh challenge. And the feeling wouldn’t go away – in fact it kept growing. I started thinking about what to do, and as often happens when you open your mind to possibilities, a very promising new opportunity presented itself to me out of the blue, in the form of a job at another company.

So we come back to the crazy thing. I interviewed for this job, found out that it was certainly challenging role, and had phenomenal opportunities for career growth and networking, got an offer, and after much stress and agonizing, turned it down.

Two weeks later, almost exactly the same thing happened with another company.

Especially in today’s economy, what the hell was I doing turning down two great job offers? Well, I was taking a gamble based on the possibility of being offered something new at Novell which sounded more exciting than either of those.

Let’s back up again, this time much further. When I was about 8, I first discovered computers and quickly realised that they presented a whole new world where you could invent all kinds of wonderful new creations and you were pretty much limited only by your imagination. Well, this was quite a long time ago, so admittedly having only 1 kilobyte of memory and a cassette tape recorder which only worked once every 10 times for storing your programs on was a bit of a limit too, but hopefully you get the point. I realised that I liked making stuff.

This passion has stayed with me my whole life – it sort of went into hibernation for two amazing years at music college, although even then you could argue I was making stuff (i.e. music). And it’s why I turned down both those two jobs – even though they were great, they didn’t present immediate chances to create, and my instinct was telling me that’s what I needed.

So the great news I received earlier today is that the gamble paid off, and I have been formally offered a job as a Software Engineer Consultant, joining an extremely talented team based mainly in Santa Cruz in California. This is getting scarily close to being a dream job! I remember years ago voluntarily pulling 100 hour weeks at guideguide despite terrible pay, simply because I loved it so much – and I think this will give me the same kind of rush

For those wondering whether I’ll be relocating to California: for now, I’ll still be officially working from home here in London, but I’m crossing fingers for a business trip across the pond to meet the new team soon I hear it’s a beautiful stretch of coastline, and would be triathlon training heaven …

“That’s weird, it’s got a strange line through it”, I said to Becky, and then 3 seconds later swore loudly as I realised what it actually was:

These nice images come from an amazing piece of software called Stellarium which is free and works on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

But actually after my mouth got X-rayed, peered, poked and prodded at, my new dentist announced with some astonishment that indeed apparently all my teeth are basically fine. So I’m remaining a member of the elusive “zero fillings” club for now. Ah, the virtues of being raised with good dental hygiene habits by a health-conscious mum …

By the way, when Matt got back, he promptly went for a 10 mile run with his mates, and apparently followed it the next day with another 20 mile run and an appearance at the swimming session…

View Larger Map

Thanks Matt for providing the .tcx file of the route recorded by his Garmin, which I converted to KML using this converter. I also recorded the route on my phone as per normal, but it was so damn long that the phone ran out of battery before it finished recording…

View 2009/05/02 120km with Tritons in a larger map

View Tritons 112km in a larger map

That’s about 350km I’ve covered over the last 3 Saturdays, hope I can keep it up…