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May. 29th, 2005
(no subject)
May. 29th, 2005 01:29 pmTrains are officially the best way to travel in my opinion. I'm going to be stuck in here for another 7 hours, but it's nice. I have power, i have my laptop running, there's nobody next to me, i have plenty of space, and i have net acces when i get close enough to a GPRS network that supports data.
Which i don't have access to while i'm typing this post, or i'd be chatting instead.
At the moment, i'm travelling with a total of around 100lbs of luggage, split between three bags. Originally, i was supposed to have only my huge backpack and a smaller secondary bag for my laptop and a few tech-things. But it turns out i had MASSIVELY underestimated the space all the clothes and wires would take. So i ended up with two 75L bags, PLUS my laptop bag.
I really panicked while packing when i noticed it wouldn't fit, and i panicked again when it was time to weight the things. I ended up over 120lbs total, with one bag weighting 75lbs alone. There's a limit of two bags, and 50lbs/bag. So i tried to cut back on what i'm carrying as much as possible. So i left a few not so essential things at home, like my bigger tripod, secondary/backup cables for stuff, extra clothes, my bigger towel, my walkman, etc...
I got everything down to 100lbs, including some extra i carried in my coat and pockets... Around 10lbs there.
But all that switching and weighting completely messed up my schedule, so i was ready to leave around 15 minutes late. Which means that i panicked a bit and just packed whatever i thought i was missing and ran out. Almost forgot my PDA, i lost my micro-webcam and forgot my lunch and water. At least, that's all i know i did at the moment. Might be more...
It's pointless to say that with all that, the checklist quickly became useless.
My dad's girlfriend gave me a lift to the subway station, and i tried to run as much as possible while carrying over half of my weight in junk. Which worked surprisingly well for the first hundred metres, but then ... well, i wasn't that good at standing up. But then i realised i partially made up for the time i had lost, so things went better then. I was really scared of not being allowed on the train because of the weight of my junk. But it turns out, my laptop bag doesn't count. So with that out of the bigger bag, it means i was now under 50lbs for both, which made me feel much better. It turns out they didn't really check for weight or size this time.
The hard part was carrying that junk all the way to the train along the track. I was still feeling weak and shaky, from being afraid of being late or refused because of my junk.
Once we left the station, i was starting to feel much better. I managed to get online for a bit over GPRS network, and poked a few people online.
Then after maybe 30 minutes, i lost the signal. I didn't want to get my laptop and everything out yet, so it was a bit boring. All i had to watch was the scenery outside, and the searching/calling that resulted from a person who didn't have her tickets, and claimed that the person in charge of the line took it. It turn out the person had dropped it on her way to her seat. But it wasn't a problem case, it just resulted in the person in charge of tickets explaining how it works between Amtrak/VIA Rail, and how they must have tickets. They apparently got the whole station back in Montréal searching. But it turns out the ticket was on the floor near the front door of the wagon.
After that, not much happened until we got to the US Custom checkpoint. I was almost forgetting about it, but i got much more calm. But then i saw the agents get on board. I froze right away. I saw them come right for me, so it really scared me. But it didn't go too bad. Got to answer a bunch of questions. A lot more than i expected. Where i'm going, why, how long, what i'm bringing, where i work were expected. But not "how did you mean that person", "What's their full name?","How are you planning on meeting them?","Why did you chose to go meet them?","Could you identify them?" and stuff like that...
The worst part of all that was when the agent took my passeport, looked at the picture, then sat down in front of me and just stared at me for over a minute. I guess he was checking if i matched the picture, but it was kinda intimidating. He didn't say anything while doing that...
After that, he checked the other people in the train. Except for one or two other people, nobody got asked as many questions...
Then we started moving. I was sure that everything was right now, since it was around 10 minutes later than the time we were supposed to leave the checkpoint. But it turns out they had to check the whole train with X-Rays. Which worried me again, because the battery packs were obviously going to show up on these. Sealed Lead-Acid batteries don't exactly let X-Rays pass thru.
But nothing showed up, so they finally let us go.
And now, we're rolling toward New York, and the only points where the whole trip could have crashed are behind us.
I'm now installed in the train with my laptop, GPS, Cell phone and camera connected. It's nice, the only thing missing is food and internet right now. Can't wait to get back into a service area for the GPRS cellphone net access.
Which i don't have access to while i'm typing this post, or i'd be chatting instead.
At the moment, i'm travelling with a total of around 100lbs of luggage, split between three bags. Originally, i was supposed to have only my huge backpack and a smaller secondary bag for my laptop and a few tech-things. But it turns out i had MASSIVELY underestimated the space all the clothes and wires would take. So i ended up with two 75L bags, PLUS my laptop bag.
I really panicked while packing when i noticed it wouldn't fit, and i panicked again when it was time to weight the things. I ended up over 120lbs total, with one bag weighting 75lbs alone. There's a limit of two bags, and 50lbs/bag. So i tried to cut back on what i'm carrying as much as possible. So i left a few not so essential things at home, like my bigger tripod, secondary/backup cables for stuff, extra clothes, my bigger towel, my walkman, etc...
I got everything down to 100lbs, including some extra i carried in my coat and pockets... Around 10lbs there.
But all that switching and weighting completely messed up my schedule, so i was ready to leave around 15 minutes late. Which means that i panicked a bit and just packed whatever i thought i was missing and ran out. Almost forgot my PDA, i lost my micro-webcam and forgot my lunch and water. At least, that's all i know i did at the moment. Might be more...
It's pointless to say that with all that, the checklist quickly became useless.
My dad's girlfriend gave me a lift to the subway station, and i tried to run as much as possible while carrying over half of my weight in junk. Which worked surprisingly well for the first hundred metres, but then ... well, i wasn't that good at standing up. But then i realised i partially made up for the time i had lost, so things went better then. I was really scared of not being allowed on the train because of the weight of my junk. But it turns out, my laptop bag doesn't count. So with that out of the bigger bag, it means i was now under 50lbs for both, which made me feel much better. It turns out they didn't really check for weight or size this time.
The hard part was carrying that junk all the way to the train along the track. I was still feeling weak and shaky, from being afraid of being late or refused because of my junk.
Once we left the station, i was starting to feel much better. I managed to get online for a bit over GPRS network, and poked a few people online.
Then after maybe 30 minutes, i lost the signal. I didn't want to get my laptop and everything out yet, so it was a bit boring. All i had to watch was the scenery outside, and the searching/calling that resulted from a person who didn't have her tickets, and claimed that the person in charge of the line took it. It turn out the person had dropped it on her way to her seat. But it wasn't a problem case, it just resulted in the person in charge of tickets explaining how it works between Amtrak/VIA Rail, and how they must have tickets. They apparently got the whole station back in Montréal searching. But it turns out the ticket was on the floor near the front door of the wagon.
After that, not much happened until we got to the US Custom checkpoint. I was almost forgetting about it, but i got much more calm. But then i saw the agents get on board. I froze right away. I saw them come right for me, so it really scared me. But it didn't go too bad. Got to answer a bunch of questions. A lot more than i expected. Where i'm going, why, how long, what i'm bringing, where i work were expected. But not "how did you mean that person", "What's their full name?","How are you planning on meeting them?","Why did you chose to go meet them?","Could you identify them?" and stuff like that...
The worst part of all that was when the agent took my passeport, looked at the picture, then sat down in front of me and just stared at me for over a minute. I guess he was checking if i matched the picture, but it was kinda intimidating. He didn't say anything while doing that...
After that, he checked the other people in the train. Except for one or two other people, nobody got asked as many questions...
Then we started moving. I was sure that everything was right now, since it was around 10 minutes later than the time we were supposed to leave the checkpoint. But it turns out they had to check the whole train with X-Rays. Which worried me again, because the battery packs were obviously going to show up on these. Sealed Lead-Acid batteries don't exactly let X-Rays pass thru.
But nothing showed up, so they finally let us go.
And now, we're rolling toward New York, and the only points where the whole trip could have crashed are behind us.
I'm now installed in the train with my laptop, GPS, Cell phone and camera connected. It's nice, the only thing missing is food and internet right now. Can't wait to get back into a service area for the GPRS cellphone net access.
(no subject)
May. 29th, 2005 04:35 pmWhee, i'm now online in the states using T-Mobile. This is very nice.
It's really an interesting effect. I'm typing on my laptop while watching the trees and city pass by the window. I wish i could find my webcam right now.
I didn't do much since the last update. I took some pictures of stuff, then i fell asleep for a few hours. Now i'm back and finally got the net to work on the networks availible here.
Can't wait go get to NYC!
It's really an interesting effect. I'm typing on my laptop while watching the trees and city pass by the window. I wish i could find my webcam right now.
I didn't do much since the last update. I took some pictures of stuff, then i fell asleep for a few hours. Now i'm back and finally got the net to work on the networks availible here.
Can't wait go get to NYC!
(no subject)
May. 29th, 2005 06:44 pmThe connection is fighting me at the moment, so i'm mostly taking pictures.
Some here, if i can finally get something to upload...
It's a bit annoying to take pictures thru a glass.
Some here, if i can finally get something to upload...
It's a bit annoying to take pictures thru a glass.