Train-time: 6 Days on the Trans-Siberian

I finally did it.  

I took the trans-siberian across 25% of the world, starting in Moscow and ending in Beijing.

It took 6 days in our "first class suite" (i.e., 35 sq feet room with bunk beds.  No toilet.  A shared sink w/ a spray nozzle know as a "shower").

I loved it.  

I'm inherently lazy.  There are three things I really excel at in life: napping, traveling while still holding a full-time job and being tall (6'1").  Skill #1 and #2 were well served on the train while Skill #3 made the bunk bed situation a challenge.

My typical day went as follows:

• 9 AM: Naturally wake up to light filling our cabin (no alarm clock, thank god)
• 10 AM: Put on my ushanka (isn't that a great name) & parka and check out a random, Siberian train station for our 30 minute stop
• 10:30 AM - 3:30 PM: 
• Read Infinite Jest (we finished it, long-winding footnotes & all)
• Take some photos out the window
• Play a little Spit.  Accuse each other of cheating.  Play again
• Watch the topography change while laying in bed
• Take a nap (the train basically rocked me to sleep)
• Eat some food.  Make some tea using coal-heated, scalding water
• Chit-chat with train neighbors about their LonelyPlanet books
• 3:30 PM: Repeat above at another random Siberian train stop
• 4:00 PM - 8 PM: Repeat activities above.  Start including beer & vodka in the mix.
• 8:30 PM: Make a dinner that can fit in a large, tin cup
• 9:00 PM: Head out for one last train stop & then read more Infinite Jest until falling asleep wondering how in the hell David Foster Wallace wrote such a witty and confusing and depressing book all at the same time.  Finishing it might just be my top accomplishment of 2014 -- it's excellent, just hard to read.

If you're planning a similar journey, here's a few recommendations on what to bring:

• Sleeping bag:  The train-provided comforters looked questionable, at best
• Tin camping cup & spork: We both became quite attached to our cups.  Great for tea & meals
• Dry shampoo: We did not bring this; therefore, I got the nickname "greaser."  The showers are "budget" to say the least, and the water is too cold to use in winter
• Playing cards: Just like on a family roadtrip, playing cards can save the day
• Long book: Six days on a train is a great time to dive into a good book.  I'd recommend something challenging that you've been wanting to read for a long time, whether it's War & Peace or Atlas Shrugged
• Groceries: The train restaurant is expensive with mediocre to bad food.  We brought power bars, lots of dried nuts / fruit, pasta, soup packs, muesli, crackers, cheese, sausage, herbs like mint & rosemary, etc, which made for some pretty good meals made in a tin cup. You can also grab snacks at the train stops
• Tea: Instant coffee is gross.  We brought lots of tea
• Slippers: There's two communal toilets per train car.  It's good to have slippers for the journey back and forth.  They are also good for hanging out since I doubt the carpet in the train cars ever gets properly cleaned
• Toilet paper: Enough said
• Hand towel: If you do any cooking, it's good for washing your cup or dishes
• Carabiner: The rooms are 35 sq feet (I measured using my 6'1" body... one more use for my Skill #3).  Therefore, the more you can use the space (and hang stuff), the better 

Below are some photos from our journey.  You can find more here and even more on my hard drive.
 

Collage on a Friday

I discovered this artist, Ashlie Chaves, this morning.  Her collage work is beautiful.  

Check out some of my favorites below.

Note: Collaging has been on my art project "to do" list for about a year...  One day.

The Stories We Tell Ourselves

Do you believe your memories?

Sounds like a trick question, right.  Of course, you believe what you remember to be true.

Elizabeth Loftus, a cognitive psychologist who studies false memory, says that most people think their memory works like a tape recorder -- we simply record the sights and sounds around us and then recall those memories, verbatim, in the future.

Makes sense to me.  But, it's false.  

As humans, we do two things:

1. We tend to reconstruct memories when recalling an event.

Dr. McGaugh, a professor on autobiographical memory at UC Irvine, explains that:

 "All memory is colored with bits of life experiences.  When people recall, they are often reconstructing.  It doesn't mean it’s totally false. It means that they’re telling a story about themselves and they’re integrating things they really do remember in detail, with things that are generally true." 

2. We tend to change or distort our memories when fed misinformation.

For example, Elizabeth Loftus ran an experiment in the 1980s where she was able to plant a false memory that they were lost in a shopping mall as a child in 25% of the participants .  Her study is one of many along a similar line -- convincing people that they were attacked by a vicious animal or that they witnessed demonic possession as a child.

We are malleable creatures.  We can make our memories match our current situation.

What does that mean if we can change our memories and thereby, change our life stories?

In the podcast "How I Got Into College" by This American Life, Michael Lewis interviews Emir Kamenica on his life story.  He was a Bosnian refuge that eventually made his way to a tough neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia as a teenager with his widowed mother.  Emir describes himself as having trouble in school due to his terrible English and feeling very isolated from the other students.  One day, a peppy substitute teacher, Ms. Ames, asked the students in Emir's class to write an essay about a photo -- she gave Emir one of a young boy with a haunted expression on his face.

Emir went home and plagiarized a passage from a favorite Bosnian book, The Fortress, translating it from his native tongue into English.  Based on his memory, the teacher liked the essay so much that she brought Emir along on an interview to a fancy prep school nearby.  

Eventually, he gets to go to the prep school on scholarship and magically goes from there to Harvard undergrad to a Harvard doctorate program in Economics to a professorship at the University of Chicago.

Emir believes that the copied essay saved him.  
That Ms. Ames was his guardian angel.  
That his success is all luck...

"I mean, it is by far the-- in everyone's life there are many forks. This is by far the biggest one. This is what made the most difference. There's no doubt that my life got onto a very different kind of a track. And I'm pretty sure that if it hadn't been for her, I would've stayed in Clarkston High School. I wouldn't have thought to apply to a private school. I most certainly wouldn't have gone to Harvard.And if you gave me a piece of paper and a pen 10 years ago and said, OK, describe what you think of as the most wonderful life, I think I'd come up with something less good than what it actually is."

That's a nice, feel good story, right?  Except, it's false.

Halfway during the podcast, they brought on Ms. Ames (who took a long time to track down).  It turns out that she was actually his permanent teacher (not a substitute) and was repeatedly impressed by Emir's "genius" in her classroom.

When recalling the moment she decided to help Emir, she said:

"Well, actually, I think it was the day that he diagrammed sentences for me on the blackboard for the rest of the students. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to make them learn it. And it was just mind-numbingly boring. 

And Emir said to me, I really think I can explain this. And they'll understand it. So he took over, and it was a great class. And he did a wonderful job. And it just occurred to me, right there on the spot, this kid is just capable of so much more than this school can offer him."

She couldn't recall the essay.

And,  it wasn't pure luck.  Emir was exceptionally talented.  In fact, Ms. Ames said Emir would have been successful even if he had stayed at Clarkson High School.  

Even after Emir discovered the truth from Ms. Ames on the podcast, it didn't seem like he was going to change his story.

And, why would he? Emir's wife describes him as the happiest person she has ever met. 

Michael Lewis describes a possible reason for this happiness:

"Now, there is no obvious connection between a person's happiness and the way he tells stories about himself. But I think there's a not-so-obvious one. When you insist, the way that Emir does, that you're both lucky and indebted to other people, well, you're sort of prepared to see life as a happy accident, aren't you? 

It's just very different than if you tell yourself that you simply deserve all the good stuff that happens to you. Because you happened to be born a genius or suffered so much or worked so hard-- that way of telling the story-- well, it's what you hear from every miserable bond trader at Goldman Sachs, or for that matter, every other a-hole who ever walked the earth."

What if we all told ourself stories more like Emir?  

Stories that make us grateful.
Stories that make us indebted.
Stories that make the world seem like a happy accident, despite turmoil.

Or, you can always do the opposite and be this guy:

[Advertising Technique] Targeting the Right Audience

I often think of direct mail & trash in the same sentence.

But, what if your advert actually reached the right person (or cat in this case)?  Check out the creative technique used in the video above.

PS - Speaking a felines, whoever made this really loves their cat...

[Advertising Technique] Elicit Empathy II

Personally, I don't think it's possible to ever *really* know someone.  In fact, it's difficult to even know ourselves.  (Or, maybe I just a pessimist).

As Atticus said in "To Kill a Mockingbird":

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it."

A mix of listening and empathy are the only ways to come close.

In the ad below, Alzheimer Nederland makes a good attempt at getting folks to empathize with people suffering from Alzheimer's disease with some help from photoshop and Facebook.

I wonder if this advertising technique could be used for other cause-based organizations.



PS - The diagram below shows the differences between a healthy brain & an advanced alzheimer's brain from azl.org

 

From Inside the Kremlin

Well, the title is not 100% accurate.  Not all photos are from inside the Kremlin.  Regardless, here's a few photos from our two days in Moscow before getting on the Trans-Siberian.  

Why do vacations go by so fast?  

I think my post-vacation blues are just setting in (the first few days back in Singapore I was just really excited about warm weather and putting my ushanka to rest)

Finland knows textiles

Marimekko, Unikko

I've mentioned before that I really like the artist, Lisa Congdon, especially her textile work -- bright colors, fun patterns, a bit air -- all things I like.  I knew that she looked at the Nordics for inspiration (hence drawings like these), but it didn't really make sense until I visited Helsinki.

Finland is textile heaven.  It's where the goddess, Marimekko lives with friends like Kauniste and  Finlayson.  Their colorful creations go a long way in making the drab winter more joyful.

Here's the secret behind Marimekko, along with some of my favorite patterns.

Now for some eye candy...

Kauniste, 2014 Calendar

Kauniste, Sunnuntal Tray

Kauniste, Kuma Green

Finlayson

Finlayson, Kitchen

FInlayson, Elephant

Marimekko, Onnea

Marimekko, Kurjenpolvi

Marimekko, Spring Collection '14

Marimekko, Home

Marimekko, Classics