Analog to Digital: Drawing on the iPad

My mother was an art teacher. On Sunday afternoons she would sit us children down in front of big sheets of news print. Offering us chunky crayons and pots of paints she would test out her new lesson plans. So I have never been afraid of the blank page. As I grew up, my diary and my sketchbook were always in my bag. I understand the world through the words I write and the pictures I draw. Sketching is about taking the time to really look rather than about creating ‘art’.

When I acquired my first iPad a few years ago, things changed. It seemed pointless to carry all these books when I could write, draw, read and play with my iPad. So I gave up buying the newspaper and got an online subscription. I started buying ebooks, and eventually I gave up my beautiful red leather diary and switched to a digital journal. It seems that giving up a sketchbook would be even easier. Because you don’t just carry a notebook, you carry ink pens and cartridges, bundles of coloured pencils and erasers, watercolour brushes and paints and little pots of water.

But for years, every drawing app I tried left me frustrated. David Hockney creates masterpieces with the Brushes app, but all these apps had one thing in common: Every paint mark looked like something a computer had made. The results were lifeless. Until Paper. 53’s digital sketchbook was basic: a limited number of colours and brushes, no layers. But oh, those lines! Finally I could make rough and ready pencil lines and blodgy watercolours. I could just draw without having to first define line width, opacity, radius, intensity…

Art school drummed into us to ‘push the material’. My first acrylic painting was rubbish. I discovered that my iPad was just another medium. It was just like learning to use oil paints. I needed to practice.

I first drew with my fingers, moving on to cheap Chinese styli. I have bought some expensive styli, but found them no better. Recently 53 released the Pencil. It replicates a real pencil: I flip over the pen to use the eraser, I smudge with my fingers. The perfect combination of analog and digital.

Recently I have been asked to make drawings for other people. My Tumblr gets regular feedback, whereas my old sketchbooks sit in a box in the spare room as they have always done. Without the paraphernalia of analog sketching I am liberated to perch in front of a painting at the museum, whip out my sketch book on the Tube, draw in bed. I draw more. I get better. And I make my mother proud.

My Anti-Hoarding tips

Inspired by my friend Deidre, house converter extraordinaire, here are a few random tips for keeping down the stuff we accumulate. As Deirdre says: First World Problem, still...


1) Move house often. It's amazing how the effort of packing boxes and the cost of a container can concentrate the mind. Don't pack anything that you can't assign to a room or a purpose (no 'miscellaneous' boxes allowed).

2) Discarding clothes is hard. I have emotional attachments to my clothes: "I wore that all summer when it was so hot." "That was one of my favourite outfits when I lived in Wellington." "I wore this dress at that great dinner party."... My solution is to be harsh and stuff everything I haven't worn in a while into a bag and stash it in the bottom of the wardrobe for  on cycle of seasons (varies by climate). I can take out anything if I think of it and miss it, wear it and put it back on the hanger. Anything else gets chucked without looking at again at the end of the term. The 'not looking at it again' is the magic ingredient, because otherwise my memories are triggered and I can't do it. Works a treat.

I have also been known to cut up a load of old jumpers and patchwork them into a blanket, or to frame that perfect t-shirt. That requires a bit of a DIY effort, but can be worth it.

3) Get a scanner and Evernote or Dropbox to cut down on paperwork. I use the Fuji Scansnap 5500M, as it has a multi-page feed and scans double-sided directly to a folder. Great for articles and receipts, and you can set it to do OCR - text recognition - so the article is full-text searchable. Then dump it all into Evernote or Dropbox until you need to read it again.

4) Indulge one vice. It might be hats, or art books, or commemorative mugs. I collect camels. No guilt, no restrictions.

5) Find a freecycle place or a charity. Passing on items rather than throwing them out is much easier. Often what you don't need, someone else is looking for. I am not keen on selling on eBay, it's a lot of effort for little return. Be generous with the things you don't really need any more, and make someone else happy. Sometimes just placing things next to a bin rather than in it means that someone else will find it and take it home.

There you have it, my anti-hoarding tips.

More from the creative frontline

Talking about making things: since my iPad is my new best friend, I am constantly discovering apps that allow me to create in materials I used to use, but haven't for a long time. I used to be hooked on screen printing. Something about the logic of layering inks, the mind twisting required to think back to front and in mirror image, put me in a special frame of mind. The only problem is, screen printing requires a lot of space, inks, tools, drying racks...

Enter LetterMPress. Yes, I know it's a letterpress simulation, and therefore mainly for text-based prints. But the same brain-scrambling effort required to put together a decent print makes it better than any game for me right now. Only $2.99 to the end of the month. 

Reasons for owning an iPad #73

I've been meaning to read Hilary Mantel's "Wolf Hall" for ages, but have you seen the size of the hardback Stuart bought? Instead, now this:


That's better.

Mobile Data Update - Egypt

After multiple visits to both Mobinil and Vodaphone Egypt it transpires that there is no mobile internet for pre-paid phones in Egypt. To think how relatively easy it was to get mobile data in Sudan...

Bummer.

Mobile Data update

A short bit of information about mobile data, my favourite travel obsession in Africa. After having data access in Botswana (Orange), Zambia (Zain), Malawi (Zain), Tanzania (Zain), Kenya (Safaricom) and Uganda (MTN, expensive!) it was disappointing to find when we arrived in Moyale on the Ethiopian border that we couldn't buy a SIM card until we got to Addis Ababa. A whole week without Facebook, email or news feeds. How would I live? When we got to Addis one of the kind people at the Global Hotel procured a SIM card for me, which was just as well as even for a pre-paid card you need proof of local residence. Not easy for travellers, then. Credit was easy to get, as there is only one mobile phone company (Ethiopian Telecoms), but to my great disappointment there was no mobile data for pre-paid SIMs. Ever since Botswana I have been able to get email and other internet on my phone with just a pre-pay card, so it was a surprise that Ethiopia didn't have that service. I don't think it's to do with local demand, as even a very poor country like Malawi provided mobile data, it's just built into these modern mobile networks. Oh, well, so much for monopoly suppliers! The real bummer was that even in the places where there is nominally reception we couldn't make calls, because the power supplies for the mobile phone masts were down. Lalibela, where we spent a few days, and which is a mayor tourist attraction, had no mobile phone access while we were there, which was really hard for the local guides and other small business people, as everyone relies on contact through the mobile since no-one has a landline. Sudan on the other hand was a blessing. We still didn't get a SIM until we got to the Afra Mall in Khartoum, but there we found our old friend Zain, a Kuwaiti company covering 12 countries in Africa and the Middle East, who set me up with a pre-pay card and mobile internet (APN 'internet', no user name and password!). Sweet. I still needed to fill in an application form and show my passport, but I put that down to Sudanese love of bureaucracy and tracking what people are up to (until recently you needed photo permits to take pictures of the Northern pyramids and registration every time you stayed in a new town, very Soviet). Pre-paid mobile data is not cheap here - I have used €30 in 6 days, but that included ordering books on Amazon while driving through the desert, so I guess I am paying for the convenience. I have a SIM card for Egypt, but am not holding out much hope for data, as I know the Egyptian authorities are not too keen to have its people connected (iPhones sold in Egypt don't have GPS, for example). I will keep you posted.

More power from the sun

Supplementing the power supplied by our second battery (to prevent the primary battery from being accidentally run down while charging laptops and such) has been an aim for a while now. We were constantly running into limitations of our admittedly large electricity needs, specially when we were parking up for a few days, so the engine couldn't recharge the additional battery. Our workaround consisted of a combination of incessant searching for mains power (not always easy in countries where even the power supply for locals isn't constant), always charging when on the move, and occasionally running the engine for a half hour when the inverter started beeping. It didn't help that the deep cycle battery was of lower capacity than we would have liked, and, as we later found out, wasn't a sealed unit, so at one point had actually run dry.

Ever since Maun in Botswana we were looking for solar panels to fit to the roof. Finding solar panels is not a problem in Africa per se, as there is a slow and steady development towards self sufficiency with electricity in the face of governments' inability to provide its citizens with a reliable power infrastructure. The problem is getting the right size and capacity to fit a car roof, where most panels are built to supply a household and be propped up on the ground. So we looked again in Lusaka, and in Dar es Salaam, but kind of gave up eventually.

At last, in the unlikely location of an upmarket shopping mall in the embassy district of Nairobi, while looking for a rechargeable torch, we came across a system just small enough and light enough in size and sturdy enough to withstand the bumpy roads, and now we are kitted out with a full 36 W set of three small panels screwed to the lid of one of our roof boxes, plugging into a controller and then into the new deep cycle battery we acquired in Marsabit.

Unfortunately the Ethiopian habit of throwing stones at passing cars meant that two days after finalising the wiring and making the setup work we got hit and cracked the glass cover on one of the panels, reducing our capacity. It's fixable, though, and luckily was the only stone throw we received.

Money money money

We still haven't found the best way to acquire local currency and US dollars (the usually accepted currency North of Namibia). Our requirement is to have enough local currency to keep us going for camping, food shopping and the occasional meal out, Internet access and laundry while not having too much left over at the border crossing so as not to be at the mercy of the unofficial money changers. We have no problem finding ATMs, even small villages along the Okavango in Botswana have them. Petrol stations only take cash, so they always have an ATM attached, but they only give us local currency and only with some cards (it turns out that New Zealand's ASB cash cards are universally accepted while I have had no luck so far getting cash from my UK HSBC account - go Kiwis!). The other fun fact we found was that Lloyd's TSB insists on putting a block on our card every time we use it in a new African country (which is every few weeks) and we have to call them to unblock the card. We tried to give them an itinerary, but in the immortal words of Little Britain: 'Computer says No'. We love ASB for that reason and the fact that we can just email Jennifer at the bank to sort things out for us. Thanks, Jennifer! The problems with getting US dollars - our emergency currency and increasingly the preferred local payment method - can be manifold: 1) In Cape Town we got Rand from the cash machine but weren't allowed to change it into US dollars as we had no proof where the Rand had come from. Lesson learnt: Make sure you keep your ATM receipts when you withdraw cash for exchange, so you can show the bank you are not a money launderer. 2) When we tried to get dollars in Swakopmund (a fairly normal tourist destination in Namibia, which is a pretty well-visited country), the banks needed anything from 24 hours to 2 weeks notice to get US dollars. All exchange transactions go via Windhoek, a half day's drive away, so any money exchanged gets sent there every day. One bank managed to scrape together some dollars for us by holding back their day's takings, a unique event, it seems. Lesson learnt: Get cash in the capital when you can or try the banks early in the morning so they can hold currency for you as it comes in. 3) In Shakawe, nothing more than a spot on the map in North West Botswana - which surprisingly hosted a Barclays branch - the teller was so slow to process our money exchange that Stuart had time to fill in the satisfaction questionnaire twice (Was your teller knowledgeable? Did you receive prompt service? Was your wait in line reasonable? Did your teller treat you with courtesy and professionalism? No to all, twice). The rate we got for Namibian dollars and South African Rand was completely different, which came as a surprise, as the two currencies are officially linked. Lesson learnt: If you can, spend your money before you leave the country. Exchange local currency only, rather than the last country's, as the rates are guess work. 4) In Lusaka we had learnt all our lessons and were still caught out when we tried to exchange US$2000. It turns out that each country has different limits on the foreign currency it is allowed to sell, and in Zambia that's US$1000 only. There are also limits on the cash available on a credit card, and the transaction (times two, as both Stuart and I exchanged $1000 each) took forever, the paperwork was all done by hand as a grumbly queue formed behind us. Lesson learnt: Leave lots of extra time to get through bank bureaucracy. It's easier to cross some African borders than to get Kwachas changed into US dollars.

Internet access in the Wilds

Being the geek that I am and suffering from an extreme case of internet addiction I was really concerned how I was going to be able to get my fix on the road. When my data plan ran out on my phone on leaving South Africa I was in withdrawal for days, missing my news feeds, Facebook updates and email. Stuart tried to get me a fix of mobile net in Lüderitz with a Namibian SIM card, but we never got the data working, although it was very useful for calling camp sites and such.

Getting online in towns has been surprisingly easy, though. The guide book always lists internet cafes, but it's easy to tell if a town is the right size and consistency to be online. Prices vary, and usually there is no wifi, but at least so far we've been able to connect our own Macs to the ethernet cable. It makes a big difference when we can use our own machines to upload and do mail (specially with our anti-Windows bias).

The first time we got online after leaving was in Cape Town, first at the Formula One hotel, and then in the lovely Mugg and Bean coffee shop at the Waterfront, where the cool staff provided me with a power outlet and endless cups of tea and didn't complain when I sat there for four hours. A lot more pleasant than the cramped quarters of the Formula One. Moving on up the coast Stuart managed to locate an internet outlet (can't call it 'cafe' by any stretch of the imagination) hidden away by a closed down restaurant, on the main road, but pretty invisible. We had a frantic one hour session, eager to get on to the camp site, and this has formed our online experiences so far. Always we swoop into a place, bearing three Mac laptops, plug in at least one ethernet cable (we can share one connection with an ad-hoc wifi network) and then it's all upload tracks, blog entries and photos, download updates, emails and podcasts, do backups and get up to date.

Namibia has few big towns, so we knew we would be limited with access, so we were pleased when the owners of the Sandrose Hotel let us log into their own personal wifi. I'm afraid we bashed their bandwidth a bit, It had been a week and there were a lot of photos to put on Flickr and exciting stories to tell on the blog.

The next stop with internet was Swakopmund, where we swooped on to the little wifi cafe in the Adlerpassage, a tiny place with tables out in the mall, who kindly gave us power if we didn't trip up the other customers and let us sit with one can of coke for hours. We returned there three times.

Rundu was a whole different experience. We had just been robbed, and were still a bit jittery, so Rundu felt threatening and crazy. It's a proper border town, which adds to the lawless feel, and it was the first time I was glad someone was watching the car in the car park. Sparks Enterprises was busy with local ladies, but were very glad to give us some ethernet cables (only one of which worked) and power. The morning was very rushed, as Stuart had lots of problems getting online, and we were trying to get out of there quick to go to our next camp site. We were over Rundu.

There is nothing much in the way of towns on the South Road from the Namibia/Botswana border, so Maun was our next online stop. Here every shop and his dog run an internet cafe, or has a few computers shoved in the corner. There was an embarrassment of riches, so we checked all the prices and setups, but didn't think to ask if there were bandwidth limits. So when we had settled down at the counter, ordered a coffee and carrot cake, we discovered that two hours of internet only gave us 40MB of bandwidth. We laugh at 40MB. We eat 40MB for breakfast and then have elevenses. We had a word with the manager, who kindly increased us to 100MB, which surprisingly was enough. So as you can see the map and calendar have been updated, there are blog entries and photos, all for your delectation.

Oh, and the SIM card from Orange set my up with data access (on Edge) automatically. Like magic. So I can get Facebook on my phone.

Enjoy it while it lasts! I will.

Yet another use for the Pogo

So I mentioned my cool photo toy - the Pogo printer from Polaroid - before, but with our travel prep in full swing I came up with yet another useful application for it. We have a set of 6 ammo boxes filled with stuff stacked on a shelf in the back of the car, but they are black so it's impossible to see what's in which one without dragging them out and looking inside. Instead of writing labels I photographed the content, printed a photo and used the sticky backing to glue it straight to the box. Voila.

Skype is good for travellers

I can't begin to explain in how many ways Skype is keeping us connected right now and how much we are going to rely on it on the trip. We have had an account with Skype for years, although we had a bumpy start when they ate some credit of mine a few years back. But lately it has got more and more handy.

To start with we use SkypeIn, which gives us three local numbers in different countries. We have a landline number in Germany my family can call, one in the UK for Stuart's family and our friends, and one in Wellington for Merryl's gang and everyone we keep in touch with there. This means that people in those countries only have to call a landline in their country, not the expensive South African number. As a result people actually call us, which makes us feel more wanted ;-)

The money we spent on a Skype phone that doubles as a landline (it's hands-free and the base station connects to the router. Looks just like a normal phone) has been so worth it. All our international calls go through SkypeOut, where we pay a monthly fee for free calls to lots of countries. Stuart can make his conference calls, I can chat with my mum - brilliant. The phone displays all the Skype contacts which sync with Addressbook on the Mac, so we don't have to type in numbers. It also displays voicemails and any missed calls we receive via Skype. This alone has made it so much easier to use Skype to make calls. Before I was never logged in on the computer at the right time, and the sound quality is just like a normal landline call without having to dig out the headphones.

When we are on the road, we will have a satellite phone for emergencies, but people will still be able to leave us messages on voicemail, and since we get an email notification we can actually respond when anyone pings us. I am also hoping that we will be able to make use of Skype on the iPhone when we are at a hotel or other place with wifi.

I know this all sounds like a sales pitch, but after years of not really seeing the point (we had 2 hour long international calls for NZ$5 from New Zealand and pretty cheap rates from Dubai to most of Europe, so weren't too bothered so far) I am now a total convert. The only problem is that calls to Dubai are still really expensive, so it's not been an option to call anyone there.

This is driving me crazy!

There are many little inconveniences when one moves countries a lot, but none seem so deliberately infuriating and purposely designed to force me to tie myself in knots while trying to do something simple than DVD region coding. Man, as if it wasn't enough that I have to rip or re-buy my films if I want to watch them on my iPod, but to stop me from watching stuff on my computer just because I buy DVDs in a variety of countries that have been randomly assigned to different regions, that is just too stupid.

Of course my Mac should have a region free drive, and of course I could just wait to buy DVDs until I am back in Europe, or I could pay for a download from iTunes and then deal with the DRM on that and pay extra for the bandwidth to get the film that isn't all that much cheaper than a DVD in the first place and includes no extras, but why? How did we get to a place where I am a criminal for wanting to watch a movie? Soviet Russia much?

Grrr.

Just to give you an idea how totally ridiculous these regions are, here is a map. South Africa with Europe, why? And Australia with NZ and South America, good idea! At least Leo doesn't have this problem (as long as he stays out of the US).

Plugs of the World

I was going to write a long rant about the lack of standards related to anything from plugs to water hose connectors, to gas bottles, never mind electronics, and the annoyance factor for us travellers, but then I discovered this map and I realised that this is just another opportunity for neogeography, and that I shall map my experience of non-matching connectors in my life instead of complaining about it.

Map: Eurocom

I'm in love...

The answer to all my prayers, well at least the ones revolving around cheap international calls, is called SkypeIn online numbers. With the power of the internets, a Skype enabled phone on a local landline and a monthly fee I now have three local phone numbers (New Zealand, UK and Germany) where our friends can reach us without having to endure horrendous international charges. And we can, using the Skype phone, make free calls to landlines in lots of countries with great sound quality - I don't think my mum has noticed that I am calling her over Skype) for that same monthly fee. Yay! (Except for Dubai, which still costs shed loads for some reason, probably to do with Etisalat). So if you live in one of those countries and want to call me, email me and I'll let you have my number.

Vodaphone rant

With every house move there has to be a rant, because the least fun job when leaving a country is the cancellation of bills and accounts. Water rates, rent, car insurance, tax, landline phone, internet, mobiles... I could go on. Cancelling involves navigating through imprenetable websites, waiting for hours on the phone to atrocious hold music, sending letters and visiting dingy offices.

The prize for most ridiculous excuse for refusing to cancel a contract so far goes to Vodafone New Zealand. Vodafone has a track record for flakiness, cancelling international roaming just as I leave for Australia or changing contract details without notification, inevitably resulting in endless calls to the outsourced call centre. From the beginning, despite signing a contract in person in the shop, my bills said "Mr.". Knowing the haphazard results from calls, I never bothered changing it. When I called to cancel my account today I was informed that I could not do this because I was not male as per the account details. The fact that I know the date of birth, password and any other details was to no avail. Even the supervisor was adamant that they would see my passport in person to verify my gender. The back and forth went on for so long that I was starting to doubt my identity at the end.

Oh well. I guess I will be trying to find a male who can make the call for me. It's almost like being back in the Middle East...

Ill-advised Ads

It's normal nowadays that websites make their money with advertising
(although I would have thought that a government site might be ok
without it) but to see the New Zealand weather report advertise
holidays in Australia seems kind of ironic, if not wrong.

navigating around

After years of resistance - and living in countries where I either knew my way around or where the road system was transitory, to say the least - I have finally succumbed to using a GPS navigator for the car (a "Navi" in German). It has made me aware of and transformed my hesitancy of getting around in South Africa, and made me more adventurous about using back roads in New Zealand.

Ever since we talked about going to Johannesburg we have been getting aghast looks and dire warnings about the danger of being out on the road in the murder capital of the World. Advice has ranged from keeping all doors locked and never going out after dark, to keeping a car length space at traffic lights so that in the case of a car jacking attempt it is possible to swerve past the car in front. It has made me hesitant to drive on my own. To be fair, the first few weeks in the crazy traffic of Dubai were pretty nerve-wracking, but there the issue was confined to being accidentalyy in on purpose being rammed by a speeding Landcruiser, not robbed and murdered on the open road, as people have been predicting.

All this has changed now that I have the dulcet tones of Sally the navigator telling me to "in 200 metres turn left" and "recalculating" when I miss a junction. She is amazingly easy to program and even lets me download my routes to my Mac when I return so I always knew where I went. The fear of getting lost is gone now so I know whatever else happens I will aways find my way home.

Re-cap: Stockholm

Travelling in the last weeks has been a bit ridiculous, what with going back to Joburg and then spending less than a week in Stockholm before going back for 6 days to Joburg and then - today - returning to Kiwi-land for the New Year holiday.

But I didn't want to miss out on posting some of the things that struck me in Stockholm:

First of all I have realised that Arlanda Airport is a place of many entertainments. Not only did Stuart find a book dispenser last time he passed through, I also discovered my favourite word in Swedish:

And while we are at Arlanda, the ticket machine makes the most laughable plops when buttons are pressed (which I can't post as his blog doesn't allow posting of sound files, so you will have to just try it for yourself when you go there, or ask me and I will send you the clip - it would make a great text message tone for your phone).

My new toy

I photograph a lot. I also draw sometimes in my diary where I also keep pictures, clippings and interesting bits of paper. So far I have not found a good way to combine the photography into my diary. Digital helps, since I can print out photos myself instead of waiting to get print back from the shop (how quaint that seems now). But usually I forget or don't get round to printing photos for ages, and them I can't find the glue, and the writing in my diary has moved on... Anyway, a minor pain, but annoying to my completionist creative tendencies. A few weeks ago I remembered that you can find anything on Google. Now I am the proud owner of a Polaroid Pogo. It's a tiny battery powered printer that makes 3x5 inch sticky photos without the need for ink cartridges. How cool is that! My life is minimally better now. Is that sad?

Rip off much?

Now that I finally managed to crack the net lock on my iPhone, allowing me to use it with any SIM card, I am starting to look at data plans here in New Zealand. .

The iPhone really is deprived of most of its functionality if there is no access to non-wifi data, i.e. 3G. It was pretty straightforward in South Africa, where I had a pay-as-you-go card and just converted some of my minutes to data as needed.

Returning to New Zealand I spent an hour perusing the confusing range of plans on the Vodaphone website - YouChoose, Base, Starter, iPhone - until I thought I knew what I wanted. 200MB for $40 seemed ok, and there was no minimum contract, which was important since I am leaving in January. So I call them and change the plan, all well and good. It's when I call tech support to get the access details to allow the phone onto the 3G network that I find out that iPhone data is not the same as normal data. Apparently I can't just use the normal data plan, I need an iPhone specific one. Whatever. But this one has a 24 months minimum running time, so I would have to pay to get out of it. So basically if you have a phone that can really use the data you pay for, you need to commit yourself for two years.
I declined that offer, stuck with my vanilla data plan and so far I have had normal operations. So much for those sales tactics.