St. Pancreas sculptures

I linger at St Pancreas station, the terminus for the Eurostar and a jumping-off point into London from Cambridge.  It has good restaurants, a first-class bookshop, free wifi, (free toilets), and a dozen Ingress hotspots.  It also has a first-class set of sculptures, especially upstairs towards the end of the platforms.

Centered beneath the station clock is Paul Day’s gigantic (9m high) “The Meeting Place”,   Beyond is the perpetually distracted poet, now mirrored by ethereal figure floating on overhead on fluffy clouds (Martin Jennings “John  Betjeman” and Lucy and Jorge Ortega’s”Cloud I Meteoros” , respectively)

 

My favorites are a series of modernist bas-reliefs around the base of The Meeting.  Depicting Dante-esque scenes of commuters and refugees, they are tiny tableaus that are each filled with feeling and detail.

   

More pictures,as always, at my Flickr site.

Easing through the weekend

I’m back in the UK for the week – alternating days in Cambridge, Sheffield, and London. The annual carnival (small ‘c’) came to the Green as well, a blue space rocket outside the window in the morning.  ‘kind of a cheerful blue-on-green-on-blue as warm spring Weather finally arrives.

Summer fairs, with whirling rides and barker’s games, junk food and neon lights, were always events that I enjoyed growing up.  It was grass underfoot, twilight overhead, a group of friends from work or school, easy banter and relaxed laughter,  There was never a sense of stress or hurry, just easy drift from game to ride, long into the warm evening buzzing with insects.

And speaking of buzz, let’s turn to coffee.

  

I’m using an AeroPress to craft my morning brew.  It’s a press device that extrudes a single shot: a scoop of coffee in the cylinder, boiling water and stir, and press through the filter.  Simple, yet the results can be very different depending on how much coffee, time, and water are used.

I’m no good at science projects pre- coffee, so I went looking for the ideal mix of factors. It turns out that there is an AeroPress World Championship, with winning recipes recommending pre-wet filters, 85C water, and  double-fine ground coffee.

And the Inverse AeroShot.  Flip the cylinder to hold  the coffee while it brews,  then shoot the shot.  Mornings became even more complex after looking for  advice – I’ll converge on a single recipe soon.

Fairport Convention came to the Junction on Saturday evening, a venerable folk band that sound like Gordon Lightfoot and attracts a crowd of ex-DeadHeads.  Great fun.

The older folk / jazz / blue artists in small venues really do put on a superior show.  They are comfortable with one another, they know their material, and their one-liners are well-honed.  The shows tend to be relaxed and interactive, with a familiar audience and self- depreciating references to their 60’s gigs and 70’s tours.

I like to be challenged when I go to see art; but I prefer to be warmed when I go to listen to it.

Usual disclaimer;  I have neither been asked nor incented to give my opinions.

Three C’s across my mobile devices

I’ve been living in a new-tech matrix since the holidays.  I replaced my old Vaio (now sadly consigned to a corner running Windows 8) with a slim, nimble Sony netbook.  I’ve picked up a Nexus 7 to (hopefully) replace the satchel of books and equipment that keeps me leaning permanently to one side.  And I swapped a Lumia 720 Windows phone for my aging, ailing Nokia X6.

Change has been good.

All have access to a vast array of apps, and I’ve been pulling things down and experimenting.

I’ve found that there are some tasks that I want to share across all of my devices, and have the same app everywhere: Dropbox for files, Evernote for outlines, Pocket for webpages. 

I’ve also found that cheap connectivity is vital on all devices: they are hugely limited without the Internet.  WiFi is not (yet) universal, so a good 3G data chip is essential.  I started with a universal SIM chip from Roamline, but the bills grew rapidly with modest use.  I’ve taken a plan with  Dutch, a British, and a US carrier for separate monthly data plans that total up to about 35 euro per month, half the universal charge.

Cross-talk is the worst issue.  The device compete to see who can get email first, and CamStent’s Dotster server erases messages after the first pickup.  When a Skype call comes in, everything rings and all to the devices try to pick up at once.

At the same time, I’ve found that there are things that each device is good at, and it makes sense not to push the boundary. 

The phone is good for keeping in touch.   It’s best for voice and messaging, for getting quick notices in “live-tile” apps for weather, exchange rates, and Facebook.  I like getting notifications and alerts, it’s  handy for walking-navigation and location-based searches.  It’s small, light, handy.

The tablet is good for media.  I like it for reading books and magazines, movies or TV (on WiFi), browsing mail, and en-route travel support (tickets and schedules).  I like the navigation  in-car and being able to check-in when I’m on-grid ad reaching out. And for playing Ingress (everyone needs a vice as they travel).  It works nicely with responsive touch, and the display is a good size and crisply bright for the bus, train, or exercise bike.  And for bed: it’s a nice reader/browser at night, and I can do a quick email check when I get up in the morning.  That maneuver, in particular, saves me  

The computer is good for getting work done.  If I need to write a  paper, analyze data, blog, do research,  or hold a  conference, I need a keyboard, horsepower, and disk space.  I still like to command a computer (I miss Unix BSD, actually) and touch desktops just mask and distract from what I want to get done.

I haven’t figured out a single source for Podcasts, Calendar, or Contacts yet, and so still carry my MP3 player and Diary.  None replaces my camera.

So, I’ve made a mental division between a device which Communicates, one which is for Consumption, and one for Creative work.  I know what to install on each of them, I know which to take along for a particular task, and I’m increasingly comfortable with dividing the day along those lines.  If I know I’m going to be on the bus and in meetings, the tablet is all I need: I can be productive with reading and email.  If I need to do heavy browsing and spreadsheets, I’ll pack the computer and leave the tablet home (charging).

I know people who watch videos on phones, email on tablets, ad don’t even own a keyboard.  I may get there, especially if I get comfortable with voice transcription (which will need a headset). But for now, it’s feeling like my mobile tech is really coming together nicely.