We don’t ride as much as we used to.

That’s not a good thing, but it’s just the way it’s been for the last few years.

We’ve been focused on adjusting to being back here in the U.S. and other aspects of life.

So, we haven’t been riding as much as we used to.

But, Saturday, Steph was up for a ride.

There are not many who would turn that down, and I am not among them.

If we learned nothing else from our travels, each part of the world, each country, each area, has interesting roads—you just need to go and find them.

Sometimes, those roads even force you to make big decisions about your life, such as whether to take the high road or the low road.

Those roads can lead you to many places, many destinations, many things.

Some small.

Some famous.

Some that can be nothing but an oxymoron

Some wonders of the season

And some wonders of life, such as this restored Rock Island caboose in a back yard in Texas.

How did a perfectly restored, sheltered and lovingly cared for caboose from an obscure railroad that ran through my grandparents’ farm in Iowa ever end up in a back yard in a small town in Texas?

Life is like that sometimes.

It brings you things that are both significant and mysterious.

It’s often a question of balancing the significance and the mystery.

For instance, this is a very unusual railroad station.

The reason it is significant is that the station sits diagonally to the railroad tracks.

Almost every train station in the U.S. is oriented parallel to the tracks, but not this one.

The reason this station is diagonal is because two mainline railroads cross at 90 degrees in front of it.

That is the significance.

It is a true crossroads.

Two mainline tracks meet there.

Both tracks come from and head away to faraway destinations.

Both tracks come from and head away to the four corners of the compass.

There was a 90 degree railroad junction like that in Grinnell, Iowa, where I lived until the age of 10.

My friend, Marty Canfield, and I would venture down there and marvel at the trains, the tracks and the places that were out there, somewhere, far away, along those tracks, at the four corners of the compass.

That is the mystery.

I’ve spent quite a bit of my life out there exploring those places, the places far away, the places at the four corners of the compass.

One thing I learned on that journey is that it’s not so much the road you’re on, it’s your perspective while you’re on it.

* * * * *

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

* * * * *

While Texas’ best known wildflower is the Bluebonnet, the wildflowers in the photo are the White Prickly Poppy.

* * * * *

The unusual diagonal railroad station is located in Elgin, Texas.

Elgin, TX is pronounced with a hard “g” as in go.

* * * * *

The two railroads that crossed at Elgin, Texas were the Southern Pacific and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, better known as the “Katy.”

* * * * *

Grinnell, Iowa was founded by J.B. Grinnell, who was the young man Horace Greeley famously advised to “Go West young man, go West.”

* * * * *

The train station in Grinnell is not diagonal to the tracks at the junction.

* * * * *

The two railroads that crossed in Grinnell were the Minneapolis & St. Louis and the Rock Island.

* * * * *

The Rock Island Railroad was, of course, the most important minor railroad in the history of the world.

Counting the cars on a passing Rock Island freight train on my grandparents’ farm.	Dreaming of my own Rock Island railroad empire.

* * * * *

A PDF version of this post is here: http://www.hackneys.com/travel/docs/2012-04-07-the-crossroads-and-the-compass.pdf

]]> http://hackneys.com/blog/2012/04/09/the-crossroads-and-the-compass/feed/ 8 http://hackneys.com/blog/2012/03/05/this-years-annual-sxswi-survival-guide/ http://hackneys.com/blog/2012/03/05/this-years-annual-sxswi-survival-guide/#comments Mon, 05 Mar 2012 16:00:25 +0000 Douglas Hackney http://hackneys.com/blog/?p=1051 It’s that time again.

For all the SXSW rookies or those who can’t clearly remember what they experienced at last year’s Geek Bacchanalia, here’s this year’s guide to SXSW Interactive survival and success:

• When you’re here, always call it “south by.” If people don’t know what you’re talking about, they are not people you want to talk to anyway.
• SXSW started as a music festival. It’s still a festival. It is *NOT* a tech or business conference. Approach it like ‘Spring Break for Geeks’ and you’ll have the right mindset.
• SXSW is about relationships, old and new, and soaking up the scene.
• All the action @ the convention center is in the hallways.
• Don’t book yourself back-to-back-to-back in sessions. Instead, hit a few that are super-relevant to what you do, attend at least one keynote so you can say you went to one, but spend the majority of your time meeting people and interacting with them.
• For a session you for-sure want to attend, be outside the door at least one hour before that session starts. Don’t worry about the wait. Some of the best connections and conversations you’ll have will be in line waiting for a session.
• Most of the real innovative thought and “what’s next” will happen in the tiny meeting rooms in the hotels five blocks from the convention center (the show is about 3x larger than Austin can accommodate, so sessions are in hotels all over town)
• Stay flexible and be ready to change your plans instantly. Serendipity rewards flexibility and spontaneity at SX (no, that’s not a typo, that’s your chance to practice saying “south by”).
• Be ready for 18 hours of continuous, heavy phone use. Bring extra batteries or an external, rechargeable power source.
• Don’t get too hyped up about anybody you meet or connect with. Almost *nobody* follows-up after SXSW. If you want to sustain a relationship or connection, it will be on you to do it.
• Try to spend at least 15 to 30 minutes a day watching the scene and immersing yourself in the energy at different locations:

• Charging station @ the convention center
• Hilton main lobby
• Hilton 4^th floor lobby (startup accelerator)
• Vendor/brand reception/party (too many to begin to comprehend until you witness it for yourself)
• Local club/bar (best scene is not 6^th street, seek out the other areas of downtown for more interesting interactions)

And, very important:

• Pace yourself. Drink a lot of fluids. Load up on “Airborne” every morning to ward off the exotic mix of worldwide germs. There is no shortage of parties, receptions and general festivity. It’s a long show. Save some energy for the last days.
• Bring lots of business cards. For all its techiness, it’s still a physical business card show.

[edit: added need for 18 hours of phone power]

[great additional points in the comments on this post]

The views were impressive looking out of the mansion, across the expansive lawns and down to Santa Barbara and the Pacific Ocean spanning the western horizon.

I don’t think I ever knew how many rooms were in the place. More rooms than Steph has shoes, of that I’d wager confidently. But, of all of those sitting rooms, drawing rooms, ballrooms, etc., we’d gathered around the kitchen table, which was somehow fitting.

Clusters of kids flitted in and out of the kitchen, snatching handfuls of nourishment and then disappearing into the various wings, swallowed by the long hallways and flights of stairs. Some of the children were blood related to our hosts, Neil and Susie. Others were familiar neighborhood kids, part of the ambiance of the home. Others were less known, and were very possibly living surreptitiously in forgotten rooms or levels, but were, as all, clutched into the warm bosom of hearth, health and home that so defines Neil and Susie.

Soon after the opening pleasantries of our visit and in between sweeps of locust-like teenage consumption, Neil turned to me, pinned me down with his piercing gaze and demanded, “So, what are you two really up to?”

At the time, we were on our way to the docks, in the last stage prior to shipping our overland expedition vehicle to South America, the start of a planned two- to four-year, multi-continent extension of our world explorations. We’d just spent nine months building the vehicle and a few additional months testing it across the western U.S. It had been more than four years since I’d shared a keynote podium with Neil, a friend from my years in business intelligence, and walked away from that career.

Neil’s certainty that, no matter what else we did, there was something that we were really doing, was and remains a common belief among our friends and family. Some younger members of the family (and, truth be told, some older members too) are convinced we are secret agents. Some friends and former colleagues harbor a conviction we’ve been stealthily incubating a business startup for the past seven years that will burst forth and sweep all before it. Many, if not most, have never been able to quite figure out what it is we did or are doing, no matter how many books and essays I write, articles magazines publish or blog posts we share.

Last Spring Steph and I both decided that since we a) were going to be back in the U.S. for a while, b) don’t play golf and c) don’t watch television, we needed to get something going or both our heads were going to explode. Subsequently, the speculation has only grown even more intense. The more we poked around, attended conferences and explored business models, the more fevered the theories amongst our friends and family has become. Just about everyone is now, more than ever, convinced that there is something that we’re really doing.

A few years ago, sitting at Neil and Susie’s kitchen table, I hesitated to answer his, “So, what are you two really up to?” question. It wasn’t as if we were really hiding anything. After all, we were just doing what we were doing. Finally, I blurted out, “Nothing, nothing, we’re not really doing anything. We’re just heading overseas.” Neil and Susie’s doubtful looks were identical as the room resonated with uncertainty, if not outright suspicion. They didn’t buy it.

So, after all these years, to finally answer Neil’s question and to end, once and for all, all the speculation as to what we’ve really been up to, watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0aAX2biCio

It turned out to be one of the most popular essays of that era. 

Since then, it’s turned into a bit of a holiday tradition, with old friends asking early in the holiday season if I’m going to post it again.

As I mentioned last year, we’ve been to more places since I wrote this, so we no longer have room on the tree for decorative ball ornaments, it’s completely filled with just the lights and the little things Steph collects along the way we use as ornaments.

Otherwise, the story remains the same. You can read it here: http://www.hackneys.com/travel/seekers-12.pdf

We’ve got our own list of lessons learned from those travels here: http://www.hackneys.com/travel/index-lessons-byarea.htm

Gary Arndt, who spent the last three years doing the same, was recently interviewed by Tim Ferriss and gave his 20 lessons learned here: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2010/10/30/20-things-ive-learned-from-traveling-around-the-world-for-three-years/

I echo every one of Gary’s lessons learned.

I also encourage everyone to get out into the world so they can see these realities for themselves.

(click on image for larger size)

This is a panorama created in Photoshop CS5 64 from nine separate shots. The photos were taken handheld with my Canon S90 pocket camera in manual mode, 1/60, F5, ISO200, RAW format.

This is the same scene, later in the morning.

(click on image for larger size)

This panorama was also created in Photoshop CS5 64, this time from 16 shots. Also taken handheld with my Canon S90 pocket camera in manual mode, 1/400, F8, ISO200, RAW format.

While Scott is out wandering the world, we are left to more pedestrian, plebeian pursuits.

Devoid of exotic destinations, we must settle for the typical, the mundane, the merely domestic.

(click on image for larger size)

That’s not to say it is without its simple pleasures.

(click on image for larger size)

And charming character.

(click on image for larger size)

And elegant beauty.

(click on image for larger size)

But out here, where things are simple, and a reminder of a by-gone era,

(click on image for larger size)

there is accommodation that is yurt size, but sans yurt smells.

(click on image for larger size)

The lunch views are good,

(click on image for larger size)

and there is more on the menu than fermented mare’s milk.

(click on image for larger size)

But, even out here, when things go bad,

(click on image for larger size)

you can still find a little piece of heaven in the customer lounge.

(click on image for larger size)

* * * * *

“Scott” refers to our friend, Scott Brady, who is currently participating in a Europe to Mongolia rally.

I wrote this for Scott, the publisher, and our other friends at Overland Journal magazine. Everybody there except Scott is like us, stuck here stateside, while Scott enjoys the fermented mare’s milk and boundless skies of Mongolia while sleeping off the last stage of the rally in a yurt.

I think Scott will like this composition, since he was recently featured in a story in Forbes and the arrangement here implies he owns one of the world’s leading companies.

(click on image for larger size)

* * * * *

Tire replacement, a little bit of heaven and the best customer lounge I’ve ever seen, anywhere, courtesy of Big Sky BMW, Missoula, MT.

http://www.bigskymotorsports.com/

* * * * *

Post Script:

Sport bike riders and road racers will look at this photo and wonder, “How did that tire get scrubbed all the way to the absolute edge like that? Don’t they ride two-up with big camera bags and a bunch of luggage?”

(click on image for larger size)

And the answer is, yes, we do.

(click on image for larger size)

* * * * *

Click here to view as a PDF: http://www.hackneys.com/docs/oneforoj.pdf

(requires Adobe Acrobat reader 7 or higher)

First, in a story in MSN Money: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/FindDealsOnline/big-discounts-on-little-pleasures.aspx

Second, in a story on FoxNews: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2010/04/16/rv-travel-beginners/

The Fox story included a link to our Travel web site, www.HackneysTravel.com, which was nice of them to include. I haven’t checked the traffic levels on the site yet to see if they spiked or not.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/02/dell-latitude-e6410-e6510-finally-make-it-to-us/

(click on any photo for larger size)

How this came about is, I’ve been waiting for the new Intel  i7 CPU update for the Dell Latitude to come out for months now.

My old Latitude is literally wearing out, so I’m limping to the finish line with it. Every day brings another prayer, another incantation and another stuttering trip through a day’s productivity, ever uncertain that I’ll reach tomorrow with a functioning computer.

Consequently, I’ve been monitoring the tech blogs and Dell’s site closely for signs of the updated Latutude’s arrival and spotted the 6510 and 6410 on Dell’s web site the first morning they were available in the U.S.

In the previous days I saw the new model numbers start to appear on the Dell site’s laptop accessories listings, so I knew the new laptops themselves were imminent. Sometime between 11:30 PM 30 March when I checked before bed and 6:30 AM on 31 March when I got up, the new models went live on the Dell U.S. site.

I ordered my 6510 while I drank my first cup of coffee that morning.

I do not know if mine was the first consumer order or not, but I doubt it. There was probably some guy in his pajamas sitting up all night, every night, waiting for them. That wasn’t me since I was, officially, sleeping every night. And besides, prior to their consumer launch the 6510 and 6410 were available to enterprise customers and large institutions for pre-order, so there wasn’t going to be any iPad level hype surrounding being first in line.

Engadget, a tech blog, monitored the updated Latitudes through their design and regulatory approval process, as well as their intro in foreign markets such as the U.K. After I ordered mine, I emailed the Engadget reporter who wrote the U.K. story for Engadget and used their “Tip Us” feature to give them the news. It took them more than a day to get it posted. Note that, yes, I waited until my order was in the queue before unleashing the masses straining to buy new Latitudes who might have delayed mine. Mea Culpa.

 The Dell Latitude series laptops are built and optimized for IT deployment in large organizations. The Latitude line has design requirements of five years of design and utilization stability for accessories, such as power supplies and docking stations, and 18 months for the design model (the laptop models themselves). This aids people responsible for purchasing, configuring and deploying large fleets of laptops in their organizations to buy products that will stay viable for lengthy time-cycles in their organizations. In addition, they are designed and built to withstand the rigors of delployment into the hands of a typical corporate workforce. That means getting coffee spilled on the keyboards, being dropped off of conference tables and desks, being plugged into outlets all over the world, getting punched when bad news comes in, etc.

After years of loyalty to Thinkpads, which I used for our entire field force in my last company, I bought our original D620 Latitudes on the recommendation of my brother, Jeff, whose company, Emerson, had excellent experiences with large deployments of Latitudes.

At the time, I needed two identical laptops, one each for Steph and I, that could survive going overseas for a few years.

I took my Latitude D620 out  of the box, plugged it in, loaded some software and ran it non-stop for a few weeks at 100% CPU load rendering video files for a massive family history project.

Between then and now my D620 traveled all over the world, from the world’s driest desert,

to the 100% humidity of the Amazon basin rain forest.

It spent a lot of time in the salt air of the beach at sea level,

and at very high altitudes for weeks at a time, such as on this road at over 16,000 feet  (4,877 meters) elevation.

While in some very unlikely places, such as next to this glacier,

I used my D620 to write thousands of emails, scores of blog posts, dozens of essays, a few white papers and two books.

As well as editing, processing and posting tens of thousands of photos.

(click photo for full size collage)

Including a few from some very special places,

and a few from places where we had absolutely no idea where we were.

So, now, after several hard drive and memory capacity upgrades, after thousands of hours of 100% load usage, after literally wearing through the keys, and after zero failures, it’s finally time to retire the trusty Latitude D620.

The King is dead. Long live the King.

It turned out to be one of the most popular essays of that era. 

We put up a Christmas tree last week for the first time since then. It was amazing to realize it had been five years since we’d either been in town or had a home to place a tree in.

This year’s Christmas tree resembles the tree in The Seekers. The only difference is that we’ve since collected so many objects from additional places around the world, there is no longer room for any balls, only lights and ornaments.

Otherwise, the story remains the same. You can read it here: http://www.hackneys.com/travel/seekers-12.pdf

.