Traveling

Well, in two days, I'm off to Turku, Finland for my brother's wedding. Of course, that means some substantial travel. To get there: New York->Vienna->Stockholm->Helsinki then the train to Turku. Coming home: Train from Turku to Helsinki->Frankfurt->New York. There are a few miscelaneous buses in there to facilitate local transport. Here's my packing list: 2 Suit Coats Khaki Pants Suit Pants 2 Dress Shirts 2 Underwear 2 Undershirts 4 T-Shirts 4 Underwear 2 Dress Socks 5 Reg Socks Ex Oficio cold weather pants Green Wool Sweater Dress Shoes 2 Ties Black Belt Pentax Q Charge Block k5 Charge Block 1 Power Cord Simple 2 plug usb w/ micro usb and ipod cord DS Charger Flash Battery Charger Flash Batteries Kindle Ipod Video Ipod Nano DS/Games/Manuals LOD Cable Rubber Bands 3Move Headphone Amp K5 DA* 55mm f/1.4 DA 18-135mm WR Flash Camera Accessories Wallet Cleaning Cloth Parka Gloves Over Gloves Thin Hat Pentax q Clothes/Shoes for the Plane Passport Sam/Saga Gift Travel Papers Believe it or not, all of this is going in one carry on sized suitcase! The Red Oxx Airboss. This was the only bag I could find that seemed like it could carry two suits in a marginally wrinkle free arrangement, as a carry on.

The bag uses this bundle folding method. So provided you are comfortable packing like that, It is a stellar bag.

Windows 8 Thoughts

I spent the evening (about 5 hours) installing and optimizing windows 8. It has gotten some pretty mixed reviews, but I have to say, I have managed to get everything exactly the way I want it! A necessary download is Start8... it gives you a start menu (a very customizable start menu) back. Why Microsoft didn't include it originally, I'll never know. But frankly, I don't care because Start8 is so good I might have downloaded it anyways. The Aero interface (formerly known as metro) is solid. I can see why some people don't like it, but if you spend some time customizing it, it provides a very fast and efficient launch pad. I have to look for a modifier that lets you run more than one aero tool at a time, as right now there is little multitasking capability, but overall I don't mind it. Multiple monitor support is improved - you don't need to run a 3rd party app to get two different desktop backgrounds. So that's a plus! Software install was fine - no problems with Windows 7 application support in 8. Only problem I am having is getting my Razer Peripherals Tron Mouse Driver to recognize the Tron mouse that is attached to the computer. I will work on it tomorrow when I am not dead tired! Of course, I will need all day tomorrow to recover from this upgrade session. So if you are on the fence about Windows 8 I say go for it provided you also download Start8. Spend the time customizing aero and finding where Microsoft has hidden things (like the nicely buried Windows 7 disk backup tool - now in the control panel!). I think if most users put in the time, they'd be perfectly happy with Windows 8.