Travel

Here I am at 33,000 feet and I’ve been going through two days worth of RSS feed material whilst offline using Vienna. I’ve been getting a vast amount of data and I’m more inspired to write. I hadn’t really thought of downloading feeds until documentally of Ourmaninside told me about the browser. It’s a simple browser. You export your feeds from greader as an OPML and import it. All your feeds are added and downloaded to the hard disk for you to skim through at a time most convenient to you. There are a number of features I like. First of all it’s layout. It’s built like an e-mail client. On the right you have your feeds, at the top right you have the headers and below right you have the articles. It’s a quick and easy interface to use. There are three controls you have. Read/undread, flag and whether there are any attachments. These are easy and clear to see as a result of which you can conveniently mark articles that you don’t want to read instantly but may want to go through later. Overall its a good tool to have for when you’re offline, when it’s easy to work your way through the feeds without being bombarded by new ones. It’s a great productivity tool and I’d recommend using it. The biggest drawback is that you can’t share the articles you find interesting easily therefore it is hard for others to follow the articles that you’re finding interesting. If they added this it’d be a great tool.

In today’s Twittervox episode we had Nik Butler talking about his idea of the flatlister. The concept is based around the idea that when someone is promoting themselves and building their own persona they are a flat lister. In other words they are in charge of their own persona and their own reputation. This carries on from a topic that was discussed by Jeff Pulver when he asked whether we prefer to use our real name or a nickname. There is one school of thought that believes that you should turn yourself into a brand whilst another school of thought believes that you should create a nickname as your brand can be sold off should it become successful enough. That’s just scraping the surface though and here is a short description of how others and I are attempting to use new media and social networking to promote our skills. A few months ago I got a message from a documentary producer asking whether I had more footage of an event they were interested in. They had seen a short edit either on youtube or my site and thought that this would be of value to their project. I said that I had more footage and so over a period of time I sent over the material which they looked through. They decided to use my footage and as a result their documentary will be broadcast sometime in Springtime of 2008 on Arte. That’s great news for me and I’m really happy. There’s going to be a screening of the documentaries and I’m going to do my best to get there to meet these people in person. Any opportunity should be taken to meet new people. In today’s media and cultural landscape any job that’s advertised is seen by thousands of eyes. What that means is that you’ve got a lot of competition and sending your CV is not enough. One job I recently applied to had over a thousand people apply to it. With such great numbers of people applying there’s little chance of finding work through as passive a method as sending an e-mail and electronic cv to find work. One person in Geneva said that you’ve got to stand out, after all those sorting through applications have a pile of several hundred cv on their desks to sort through. I’ve been using Linkedin recently, adding all those people whom I have had contact with to see whether there are any of their contacts that could help me find people whom have a need for my expertise. Jemima Kiss recently made a comment about Linkedin asking why people don’t put their full CV on the website. As a result of that comment I added a few of the more interesting experiences I have had. When you’re at Podcamp every single person has a website. Everyone is their own brand. If you listen to them introduce themselves they will all say who they are and what their website is. Some will even wear the T-shirts that promote either their site or that of the software they use as work tools. They also have twitter accounts. Twitter is one of those tools that’s great for entrepreneur and freelancers because it makes it so much easier to judge the quality of character of those you are working with. You get an idea of their lifestyle, of their work ethic and more. if you’re awake by 7 or 8am then that shows through. If they’re working on one large project or several smallers ones you see it as well. In brief you know when is the best time to contact them for working on current or new projects. We are now living in an era where everyone has access to the same information around the globe and as a result we have a great deal of competition. It is up to us, as individuals, with the tools we have available to demonstrate that we have the required know how. How do you use the tools currently available to us and do other people in your circle of friends also use them? Has it changed your way of working? I’m looking forward to Nik Bulter’s Flatlister article and your feedback.

Travel with an i pod touch is great because of what it can do. I was able to test the usability of the device on two flights between Geneva and London and found the experience to be good. Whilst I was travelling on the tube I prefered to keep it hidden so I listened to podcasts but once I got to the airport I changed tact. It’s at this point that I started to watch video programs. I watched NBC’s Meet the Press and it’s a nice clear easy to view image. I also watched Futurama and it’s good as well. I had no problems with glare or reflections whilst watching it in the terminal and once onboard the aircraft it was good to use as well. One thing I did notice was how fast the device notices wifi networks. Within just a few seconds I had nine wifi networks but the only free access one was for printers so I preffered using the laptop. In Switzerland I connected to the home WIFI and took advantage to surf to a number of websites of which Facebook was one. The user interface is really nice, optimised for the device’s screen with tabs context sensitive to the type of activity. On the way back from Switzerland I listened to podcasts, rather than watched and one of those was Macbreak Weekly. One of the special features of that podcast are the chapters that are added. The i pod touch is great at displaying a menu for each chapter as well as the running time for each therefore if you zone out for a few minutes you can return to the bit of conversation you want to follow. In other situations you have the ability to jump straight to the chapter heading of interest to you. It could save you time if you’re in a rush. On board the plane I noticed that there were some contact details I wanted to save from a magazine so I tested the user interface for the contact book and am quite happy. Inputing all the details was quick and easy, with a slightly different layout when inputing phone numbers, e-mail addresses or normal text, for example notes. So far I’m happy with the device and have used it in a number of different situations without finding any major problems. I’ve working at learning to touch type on the device but there is improvement still to be made.  It’s still a great toy to have for video content and web surfing whilst on the move.

A tall slender woman was sitting on a chair by the podium where her husband was delivering a presentation to a hall filled with people. Each group of four people had a white board in front and on this board was the name of the deleguation. Canada, USA, France, Lithuania and more. In the balconies NGO names could be spotted. The location is the general assembly hall in Geneva and the occasion is Abdullah Il bin an Hussein the second of Jordan speaking to all these deleguations. I was the cut away camera and I was told to focus on cut away shots. This took place on my second year of working for the International Labour Conference, general meeting of the International Labour Organisation. My job during this time was to cover the plenary sessions. Whenever a deleguation requested for their presentation to covered  I had to be there and record it, either on VHS or Beta, depending on what the client wanted. When the ILC began you would always find every seat was filled but as breakout sessions took place so the general assembly hall would empty. You would find only three or four deleguations at a time and quite often you would spot them leaning back in their chair with a beige object over one of their ears. This was the simultaneous translation. Quite often the deleguate would have both eyes closed. Was he sleeping or focusing on what was being said. I’m not sure. You can see diplomacy in action in such halls. Occasionally there would be an important person speaking and many other deleguations would come and listen. Once the speaker finished talking everyone would get out of their seat and go and congratulate them on their great oratory and the things they had brought up. Some of these speakers did deserve the praise but most of the time they speak in droning monotonous voices, hence the closed eyes I described earlier. Occasionaly I would get something fun to do like press conferences. There are two press conference rooms where i might have gone. Room 1 and 4. Room 1 is an informal room with tables and the personality would speak at the head. Each of these rooms had a breakout box so that placing a microphone was not necessary. Room 4 is one you have seen many times in news items from Geneva. That’s the room with the blue UN logo repeated over and over again. Above is a mural. The drawback to working at the UN is the long corridors you walk down to get from place to place. When you’ve got a camera, two batteries, a tripod and two or three tapes you’re lugging quite a bit of wheight. Add the summer heat and you see why it’s not to everyone’s liking. Personally i miss it. Once the press conferences were over I’d head back to the general assembly hall and sit through ten more plenary speeches. Occasionaly i would take the camera and the tripod and walk around the room getting cut away shots. That’s quite fun. You look at people and you see what they’re doing. You isolate people. You see a person writing something down, you get a shot of that, someone else yawning you get that. If someone is focusing on the speaker you get that. In certain cases you get shots of the deleguate and the board saying which country they represent. Other times you’d get a behind the shoulder shot looking up at the speaker. There are some press conferences that are emotional than others. I remember taking one of the nicer cameras and recording a press conference about slavery. During that event some experts talked about the situation in certain countries before getting to the special guest. One of these guests started to talk and described her ordeal, how she had left her country of origin only to end up as a slave in a western country and how she was never allowed to leave. Hearing someone speak about this and not having a television screen or monitor to separate you from their reality has a powerful effect.  Such occasions take certain things from being abstract to reality. When I went to Tanzania I was one year away from completing the IB and I saw such a different way of life that I wanted to stay there. I was impressed by the improvisation and happiness of those children. I also liked having to walk for fourty minutes through banana plantations and fields to get from one place to another and experience their culture, at least fleetingly. If there’s anyone reading this that needs to cover the humanitarian work that they are doing to bring awareness to their work then let me know and I’d love to be part of those expeditions.

There are many podcamps but Podcampuk was my podcamp. This was an event which was similar to just one previous experience. It was an event where everyone you talked to had at least one website and others may have had several. They also used twitter and prepared radio programs. What is great about the podcast UK crowd is that they’re a creative entrepreneurial group. Rather than take a 9 to 5 job some work as freelancers. They have a variety of skills from drivers to information technology people, university and schoolteachers and more. They range in age from mid twenties and upwards. It’s a nice sample of people. When I arrived on Friday night I heard John Buckley talk about his podcast Dissident Vox and it was interesting to see him describe the cost of creating podcasts. He was talking about time. For certain topics he would spend more than seventy hours researching the topic in order to gain an in depth understanding of his topic. Another podcaster mentioned how the personal nature of podcasts, reaching their audience through earphones, meant that he should be careful about how to present his research. In reality certain podcasters are highly informed people who want to present their ideas and worry as much as academics about what they present. Podcasting I simpler than some thought initially. One great example of this is the presentation by Jason Jarrett who talked about how he had complicated his own life when learning about podcasting. Equipment requirements for podcasting are not as great as some had expected. He talked about how he had purchased one piece of technology and then another to attempt to resolve an issue he was having, sound in just one ear. It’s only after a few weeks that he was informed that the problem was mono sound. He was a great presenter getting many laughs from his audience. Another presenter that was of interest is the one by Trevor Dann from the Radio Acadamy talking about broadcasting. What I got from his presentation is the contrast between professional sports and broadcasting. In both mediums people who are at the top of the scale can make really good money whilst those at the bottom do so mainly for the pleasure. One point which I thought was of particular interest was that of amateur cricket players not taking money away from the professionals. In other words both could cohabit quite easily. I really appreciated that sentence. For months or even years I have been worrying about the new media and what effect it will have on me whilst I look for work. If more and more people want to get content for free and appreciate mediocrity would this mean that there is less space for professional content to be in demand. According to that speech I understood that whilst people’s consumer habits are changing the need and appreciation of well-produced work will still be great enough to make a living. In effect both complement each other. As more and more people pick up a microphone and camera to create their content so the same passion from amateur footballers watching the best of the best is transposed from the amateur viewer to the professional player. Podcasting has a great diversity of talent and some participants of podcamp UK looked at this from an education point of view. Joe Dale from the Isle of Wight was telling us about how he was using podcasting within the classroom. He is in charge of students ranging from 7 years and up and encourages them to create audiovisual content which will help them learn French. They have to produce, write and script their own shows. As a result of this they are involved in improving their written work as well as their aural skill. This is a great, and for young students, far more fun way of learning. It also creates an opportunity to link with people living in different parts of the world. If you’re in England and you’re learning one language then via the World Wide Web it is easy to reach a global audience who may give feedback as to how you could improve. What made Podcamp UK so interesting is the European flavour of the event. One person travelled from Rome to be there whilst UK podcasters came from everywhere in England. As a result of this we saw what the British podcast environment has to offer rather than be limited by what’s going on in San Francisco. I’m glad I got to meet so many interesting individuals with so many interesting projects and I hope to remain in contact with them and see how their ideas progress. It was a great look at the podcasting sub-culture and how it’s progressed in parallel with mainstream media.

From friendships and the people we meet so our knowledge of authors increases. It is through English literature classes that I learned to appreciate Milan Kundera. I read all his books over a period of years. Following a conversation with an Albanian friend I heard of Ismail Kadare. He originally wrote in Albanian and French, living in Paris for many years.

The two books I have read so far are Spiritus and Les Tambours de L’automne. Both of these books are interesting in their own right. Spiritus is interesting because it’s taking a look at the effect that being a listening spy can have on how you feel others perceive you. It’s an eye opening book into the world of spying that is not often discussed in books. Les Tambours de L’Automne is based on a key moment in Albanian history several centuries ago. It’s only near the end that you understand the title. Now I’ve started to read L’Hiver de la Grande Solitude and so far I’m enjoying it. It was completed in the mid 1970’s and within the thirst few pages I found what I love. There is a description of a photographer and film developer who is about to retire. He was developing photographs of a personality and as he did so he noticed something different. Upon closer inspection he realised that the expression he read on the photographed person’s phase was one of concern. I enjoy reading such sections because of the depth of perception that comes from books from this time period. Rather than having on a superficial level you learn about characters and their perception of the world. It is through the characters that we learn a lot about the world within which we live. Some like Sartre write more technical documents whilst skilled authors write like Camus, Kadaré and Kundera. These are the authors that bring history and a different world to life. Ismail Kadare reads better in French and finding his works can be a challenge so whenever I drop into a bookshop I look to see what they have available hoping to find one or two of his books. It’s a shame that his writings are not easier to find.

As I was looking through the applications I found an application that helps to map your friends according to the geolocation details they added to their profile. As your social network is more global so you will find that your friends are more spread around the world. As you’ll see for me there’s a lot of clustering around London where most of the people I know on Facebook are living.

The problem with living in two countries is that the climate between the two homes may be very different. Whilst the weather in Switzerland is warm and sunny in England it’s cold and dreary. It’s gray. I was hoping that the weather in Switzerland would break the day I flew back to London so that the transition would not feel as bad but it backfired. What I had wanted is a cooler rainy day that would be enough to make me indifferent to the trip. This backfired as severe storms delayed quite a few of the flights. As a result of these two or three flights were delayed and waiting in the terminal and everyone was sitting where they could. I found a comfortable place against a wall. At first, I saw that 6 out of 12 flights were delayed due to météo/weather and then 5 of 12. Finally, my flight was delayed by 40 minutes which is not that bad when you’re as used to travel as I am. It’s amusing to watch people as they wait to travel. Young children are tired, falling asleep whilst others are complaining about the delay. Yet more got up and stood for over fourty minutes queuing for a plane that had not even arrived in the gate yet. I was living in luxury though. Two mobile phones, a charged iPhone, and my MacBook pro with over 4hrs of battery life. I twittered jokingly that it’s a 40-minute delay with four hours of entertainment. It was an opportunity to work on the showreel. One of the beauties of the machine I use is the battery life. I’ve been doing some testing whilst at home and I’m quite happy with the results. I’ll go into more detail in another section of the website. Having the level of familiarity I have with Geneva airport I’m more observant, knowing the procedures from months spent there. As I felt that people could start boarding I got up and was by the second cashier. Whilst everyone queued at one deck I saw the second one so of course, I took advantage of this, being the first one to go through although I had been one of the people who had not been standing anxiously. That’s an advantage of frequent flying. Aboard the plane, I started to wonder something. Is it worse to be stuck with children who can talk or babies that cry? I think that talking children are worse. Some of them are not very articulate and others play with words and songs. It wasn’t that bad luckily. Stewardesses are amusing because sometimes you see them get anxious. One of them saw some gormless passengers blocking the aisle and sounded stressed as she asked them to move in so that others could board the plane due to the short flight slot the aircraft had been allocated. In the end, we took off without much delay and the rest of the flight went well. Had to take the Stansted express to seven sisters and from there caught a bus to get home due to the tube lines closing, no problem though. Now it’s back to London life and getting on with my career.

There is such a large contrast between life in London and the village where I grew up in Switzerland. In one place you can walk for kilometers before getting to the shops whilst in the other going down the street is enough. In one place there is a 24hr a day life going on outside your window and in the other you hear children playing and you hear the birds tweeting whilst water flows in a river next door. It’s amusing to sit in a house in Switzerland rather than a flat in London because of how much space there is. The entrance hall is as big as London bedrooms. The kitchen is as wide as the house I’m living in in London. There are basements in Switzerland whereas in London those are rare. You find that the people wake up far earlier in switzerland and are so tired by the evening that they loose the motivation to go out. In London you can start the day at 9 or 10am and leave later. By 10pm you should be quiet in Switzerland whilst in London noise starts at 1am and sleep is not attainable till about 3am but this depends on what you’ve been doing before attempting to sleep. You’d pay 14CHF to go back and forth to Geneva whilst in London you’d pay around that price and have access to over a hundred stations for at least one day. That’s quite a contrast. There aren’t as many people. In Switzerland minorities are small enough not to be noticed whilst in London they’re large enough to take large swashes of London over. Go around North West london and you’ll understand what I mean. I can walk from one country to another from where I’m sitting. If it’s foggy I can go up several hundred meters and arrive above the cloud layer and see the Mt Blanc and blue sky. I can also go for an hour’s walk and walk through a few villages. In London I’d have to drop by a number of parks, three of which are conveniently on the tube line I live along. Food shopping is more fun in Switzerland because I’m brought up on this food rather than that found in England. It’s fun to get fresh pasta with meat in the tortelloni rather than vegetables for example. It’s nice to have arrabiata sauce. It’s nice to find European food, whether French, Italian or other. It’s nice to have international news, news that focuses around UN organisations since the TSR is in the same town as the broadcaster. Another thing that changes is driving. A few months ago two close friends of mine and I decided to meet at a drive in McDonald’s and we were all in different cars and this struck me as odd, as though we were in America. Driving is an integral part of life in Switzerland for those who live in the countryside rather than towns like Geneva. It means that we’re comfortable behind the wheel and think nothing of driving back and forth from Nyon to Geneva several times a day. It does get tiring and boring after a while, especially with four or five road radars trying to catch and fine you. We know where all the radars are but this does not take away the nuisance that they are.  When there’s a lot of traffic it doesn’t matter but if it’s 3am and you’ve been with friends the whole night all you want to do is open up the throttle and race down the motorway and get home to sleep. Instead you’re coasting at 120km/h. It’s frustrating. To add to this over the years I’ve learned that Genevans hardly ever leave the city. It’s always up to the rural people to make the effort and that’s often frustrated me. As a driver you need to put up with congestion, increased fuel costs and parking fees. It’s also time consuming. When there’s no traffic it takes 20 minutes to get to Geneva, when there’s traffic then the time doubles. Once you get to Geneva people will want to drink whilst you’re having ice teas. They’ll have glass after glass whilst you’re no longer on the same wavelength. After a while it gets extraordinarily tiring. That’s why my dislike of the city of Geneva grew worse and worse. Nyon is a small town set in a beautiful surrounding. You can cycle, you can sail, you can pedal on a pedalo, you can swim in a swimming pool with the Mt Blanc within sight and the CGN boats passing by. It’s a really nice town. It’s close and has good transport connections with Geneva. It’s got everything you’d expect to do in Geneva but without the hassle. I’ve hardly ever known Genevans to come to the town though. They think it’s too expensive and there’s nothing to do. That’s what I think of Geneva ;). That’s one reason I love London. Everyone has an oyster card and everyone moves around the city. If you meet with friends they travel some distance as well. They will catch the tube as will you to meet in one place or other. You have such a wide selection of things to do. Go to Covent Garden and you’ve got the street performers, go by the Tate Modern and you’ve got the guy with the birds, go by the Film theatre and you have the street painter doing famous painters. Find an arch on the Thames walk and classical artists are performing as a quartet, as operatic singers and more. Go to other parts of London and you’ve got a huge selection of international foods. It’s got so much to offer and once you get to know the city you can easily walk from one place to another. (just got a phone call… to be continued….)

it’s vacation time are words that were uttered at the end of a long night in crete back in 2000. They were uttered by an older guy who was with a group of us as we watched the sun rise. Those words always stuck in my mind.

On Wednesday I’m flying back to Switzerland although it’s a one way ticket. During that time I could work on re-editing some old footage and uploading it since people are finally welcoming it with open browser windows.