The Journey| Frequently Asked Questions | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Q What did you do with all your stuff? |
| A The majority of our stuff is sitting in an extremely tightly cramped 10x15 storage bin, which couldn't hold so much as a tissue more. The rest of it resides with our very generous friends, who have eagerly taken in our furniture, electronics, and kitchen goods until we return. (At that point, they will be returning them. Got that, folks?) |
| Q What did you do with Bubba & Gwen? |
| A Ah yes, the kitties. Our very gracious friends Ellen and Charles had agreed to be their foster parents at first, but they ran into unforseen problems a few months in. During our break back in the US in April, we relocated them to Keith's parents house in New Jersey, where they are much happier and already forgetting about us. So are the cats. |
| Q Are you taking a laptop? |
|
A
Yes. After surveying the competition for a few months, I settled
on a
Sony Vaio Picturebook, because of its size, weight,
and battery life. Aside from the nightmare it took me to actually get
it from the corrupt
and deceitful vendor I sadly chose, it's been standing up to its
claims — except that it runs Windows ME, which means I'm
rebooting it about every two hours. The hardware itself has a
wonderful form factor, but the quality is very poor, as I've suffered
more hard drive failures, floppy drive failures, and speaker problems
than intestinal problems. Most likely, it'll crash before I'm done with
this fffs9e90)ee#AV)*AD}}}#R%$!)
Along with this laptop go an ethernet card (for Internet cafes and the occasional visit to an Oracle office), four or five AC adapters, and about a dozen or more phone adapters (a few at a time). Thank God for standards, eh? |
| Q What cameras are you using? |
| A We have one digital camera, and one SLR. The digital camera, an Olympus C-4040, will be our primary camera, making it easier to edit and post images to our site. The SLR, a Canon EOS Rebel 2000, will be used for those once-in-a-lifetime slide-film shots — all three of them — and in extreme weather conditions, where digital cameras tend to flake out and fail. Other than that, though, it's more of a burden than anything else. I've found that the quality of the pictures taken by the Olympus are extraordinary, and there's something to be said about that instant gratification, even if our faithful readers aren't yet able to enjoy that luxury. |
| Q Can I get prints of your pictures? |
| A What on earth for? Seriously, if you really do want prints, we are planning on using an as-yet-undetermined online photo service for storing our photos, and you will most likely be able to order prints through them. (We have been leaning towards Shutterfly and Ofoto, except that neither accepts slide film, so we're still looking.) |
| Q What other neat gadgets do you have? |
|
A
We also have a Palm Vx (on our second now), along with a
Stowaway folding keyboard. In addition to acting as
a basic organizer, we're using it to carry e-books, language
dictionaries, and maps. This is also easier to carry around during the
day than the laptop, and allows us to both write at the same time, in
the unlikely event we're simultaneously hit by the muses of
inspiration.
But that's about the extent of our technology. There will be no CD players or MP3 players (that's all on the laptop), and no GPS (Erin is perfectly okay asking for directions) — at least, there wasn't a GPS until our friends John and Ali bought us one as a wedding gift. There are also no fancy-schmancy watches (just things that tell time and wake us up), and no cell phone (only global phones would work everywhere we're going, but they weigh 10+ pounds, and cost several dollars a minute to use). Call us old-fashioned, if you will. |
| Q How did you decide what clothes to bring? |
| A Manmade fabrics all the way. Everything is lightweight, durable, packable, and quick-drying. Erin has a soapbox talk on the very topic of clothing. |
| Q How much do your packs weigh, fully loaded? |
| A About four hundred twenty pounds, without the day packs. |
