Tired In Tokyo

Some things go without saying, so a total of 17 hours of flights and wait time (3 hours), will make one very tired. What hit me the most was my cell phone alarm going off on the way to the hotel by Shinjuku Station – The alarm indicated 24 hours with no sleep, well, none but the two hours of dozing in and out of sleep while traveling to Tokyo from Chicago. Now, for what goes without saying – I had to hit the streets, even in the rain. The streets were quite crowded and I was fortunate to meet some friendly people and some good noodles. But, Alas, I had to head back to the room, for all of my east coast friends; it is about 6am on Sept 30 when I write this or 19:20 Sept 30 Tokyo time and of course 1300 Vilnius Time Sept 30.

So it is time to get some sleep as 5am comes very early and it is time for trains and tours for my day two. Is going to Kamukura. To add to the complexities the morning and evening meetings will serve as brackets to the day tour!

So – I will have to do a blog post tomorrow night and then the next one will be in Bangkok.

Ciao,

Rob

IGF10 – Badge Acquired

Today was fun to start and crazy at the end. To start the day I went to LITEXPO and acquired my badge for this weeks IGF10. It is going to be a pretty good set of workshops. From A11y, Sec and to Privacy it should be great. Working out the schedule was hard for us but there are only so many workshops one can attend.  The final count was 17 workshops in 4 days, a US Embassy Reception and a couple tours. After completing the registration today there was a brief tour of The Cathedral and Gedimas Tower. It was pretty cool. My Favorite photo of the afternoon is in this post. So some of the workshops that were decided upon are:

• The future of privacy
• Legal aspects of Internet governance: International cooperation on cyber-security
• Governance of Social Media
• ACCESS AND DIVERSITY
• Enhancing Transparency in Internet Governance
• Privacy and Social Networking
• Engendering confidence in the cloud – answering the questions of security and privacy

That is all that is decided on at this point and of course there will be more and I will see how it all works out. You would think this is enough for one day, but a walk on the street, some kava, soup and salad and then it was time to head back toward the room as the Lithuanian basketball team was winning the bronze medal. The streets were crazy and I had to high-five my way through the crowds at cathedral square and town hall square to get back to my room to watch some football.  All-in-All it was a good day to be in Vilnius. Watching the Lithuanian team get their  medals on TV now and the Eagles just got a field goal in what should be a low scoring team. And just think redskin fans, if mcnabb is relaxed should be a great game!

cheers,

rob

A morning run along the Neris River

It is interesting that I was even able to do this run due to the bad jet lag and the cold I am “sporting”, is sporting used properly here??  But somehow I pulled it off on this day two in Vilnius and on 5+5 hours sleep. It was a cool morning, 55 degrees F and I decided to walk through the old town and start my run at the cathedral square. It was a good Idea and then I ran down to the Neris River bank and went up and down the river for about 30 minutes at a easy 9-10 minute mile pace. This was a good Idea because of the Jet Lag, people fishing along the river, and just the nice morning. After finishing I thought twice about the walk, as I was tired!

However, the walk was good, even though I was tired and had to walk back through the old town. The town was alive with tourist already at 9am and the shops were all opening. It was busy and there were many runners walking back through the streets looking for kava! I think tonight I will do a night run through the city also as I prepare for the opening ceremony tomorrow. Now Off the The Expo Center to check in and figure out the week. As a side note running in a country other than your own can be great fun. You can ask your hotel for good running routes.

Cheers,

Rob

Vilnius – Design, Utility, and the Mission

I am off to Germany/Vilnius this week and I have started to pack. Talking about packing, what an amazing improvement I noticed on my trip to LA a couple weeks ago. I went out to see DMB and I decided to bring my trail/hiking pack instead of my normal carry-on.  The NorthFace Headwall pack was simply perfect. Much lighter and easier to swing around in every way with better protection for my electronics.  Change, can be traumatic and from the second I left the door for the airport I questioned the decision.  It should be noted that the NorthFace pack was lighter packed than the Briggs and Riley pack was empty and it was about two-hundred less in cost. Perhaps this is something to always remember, select something based on the mission.  So, as I am packing, I have a new problem: what to bring from my electronics stockpile. This question has arisen because I added a new device the iPad to the stockpile recently.  So now I have the ;  iPod, iPad, Kindle, MacBook Air and associated adapters. Do I bring it all or leave something behind?

Here are the mission requirements:

• Plane reading and Listening
• Music and or Ethics book when running in Vilnius, walking around,  or when bored in airport
• Notes in conferences
• Movies and Music Videos
• Write some code

OK everyone; shout it out, the iPad and leave everything else at home! Did apple hit the homerun of fusion or what?  I was thinking the same thing but hit a few snags when considering mission.

Running, Walking, bored in airport (walking around): It would be like strapping a boom box on your arm in 1995, I would rather have a walkman and a cassette than the iPad in that case. The iPod wins.

Plane reading and listening: I have to figure out if it downloads a newspaper like the kindle, but when we get to international 3g cost for a daily newspaper the kindle wins. But we are talking about the plane. I guess if it was for listening as I fall asleep crossing the Atlantic I could put it in the seat pocket or wedge it against me, but it surely won’t go in my shirt pocket like the iPod. iPod and Kindle win.

Notes in conference: iPad will beat the battery life of my MacBook Air and I can use the web and everything I need, but the on-screen keyboard and I are not the best of friends yet and I may be a two to multi finger typist that turns into a two thumb typist because you have to hold the iPad – right. MacBook Air Wins.

Movies and Music Videos: If that was the only requirement then the iPad beats all except for the MacBook Air. However, iPad has a cool factor beyond the air, but as I said above my decision will be based on mission and cool is not one of my mission requirements.

Write Some code: MacBook Air, no question.

So there you have it. The iPad did not make the cut for my business trip; it is the kindle, iPod and MacBook Air. Maybe the iPad is best suited for a weekender. Going to London and Paris next month, maybe the iPad will make the cut!

Be Back

Hey All – as the summer is ending I am not blogging as much. Be back next week 🙂

-rob