Drew Yates

I’m on my computer… a lot. Here’s how I have things configured.

I’m running a garden-variety franken-PC that’s a couple years old. The specific stats don’t matter. This is the year 2006. If anyone starts spouting their PC performance specs, they are either a shameless nerd or clueless. End this conversation. Hardware is a commodity. Everything is software. Unless you are a hardcore PC gamer, hardware stats don’t matter.

What DOES matter in hardware is your peripheral devices, since these are how your PC interacts with the physical world. I have two decent LCD monitors. Frankly, I don’t know how people use only one monitor. How can you be serious about computer work with only a single CRT 17″ monitor? That’s like working at a tiny, messy desk —just stupid. You can get a decent pair of monitors for very cheap if you buy older, used models.

Also of note, that camera-looking thing is a headmouse. Yep, I wear a reflective dot on my forehead and can move the mouse cursor to match where I’m looking on screen. Why? Because when I’m programming or writing, with the headmouse, I don’t have to move my hands away from the keyboard. I got the idea from Steve Yegge’s Wizard School.

How is using the headmouse? Well, I don’t use it for ordinary web surfing or navigating. If I’m not typing anything significant, then it’s faster and easier to use the ordinary mouse. That’s because during little tasks like these, I’m not focused on the computer screen, and that makes the headmouse go screwy. For instance, if I’m eating, the chewing motion will make the cursor bounce, and that’s obnoxious. But for serious development or writing, the headmouse helps.

It was really easy for me start using the headmouse, and I was using it functionally within a day. However, I also taught myself Dvorak touch-typing on a QWERTY keyboard in a few weeks, and I used to win FPS tournaments, so your experience may be different. I can even draw using the headmouse, but it’s easier and faster to use the hand mouse when I need precision.

My remapped custom Dvorak keyboard layout

Oh yah, my keyboard. Like I mentioned, I am a Dvorak typist. I have also remapped my keyboard with some custom modifications. (I used KeyTweek to help). Notably, I can “click” the mouse with a keystroke, “zero” is before “one,” and parenthesis are non-shifted keys. I use a Das Keyboard which has all blank keys, so there is no labeling confusion. (if you touch-type already, I recommend getting a Das Keyboard for your office. Your coworkers will think you’re a genius. That’s important, because who can know who has good ideas but the people who have good ideas themselves?)

This is what my desktop looks like as I write this post… mmm… recursive…

Now to software. I have a dual boot between Gentoo Linux and Windows XP. I very rarely use Linux, if ever, anymore. Again, with some Steve Yegge inspiration, I use a Windows + Cygwin + Emacs hybrid. This system lets me run any Windows software, handles my devices without hassle, and gives me all the power of the Unix terminal. I pipe Cygwin through PuTTy, and Cygwin is installed at the same level as Windows. It’s like running a Linux machine, but instead of GNOME, the windows manager is… Windows… and devices work with no configuration!

But, you may say, I get multiple desktops on GNOME. Windows doesn’t have that! O rly? Maybe for you slovenly noobs, Windows has only one desktop, but I use VirtuaWin. “Shift + PageUp / PageDown” cycles through my multiple, dual monitor, Windows-native desktops. But, there is more! I also use a program called AutoHotKey to further enhance my operating system.

What is AutoHotKey you ask??? Oh ho ho! It’s a little scripting application that lets me write macros for Windows. It is awesome. Here are the two macros managers that I wrote for myself:

ClipRing: Keeps clipboard information in an emacs-like kill-ring.

Keyboard Shortcuts: All of my shortcuts and productivity macros. For instance, if I press “Win + Shift + e,” a new, quarter-screen-sized emacs windows launches in the right monitor. I also map “Command + w” to “Command + backspace” for applications that I type in (like Firefox) to prevent accidental window-closage when I want to delete a word emacs-style.

I have a zillion fonts, a legal copy of Adobe Creative Suite 2 and I run WAMP web server for local development.

I am a Headmouse Dvorak Emacs Cygwin Designer Developer Guy.

Respect.

Is the day-to-day rat race too slow for the likes of you?

Play World of Warcraft!

In a mere six to sixteen months, you can compress the entire spectrum of the American economic experience! Start with nothing in an egalitarian world. Work hard doing repetitive tasks for hours to earn the skills, equipment, and experience to accomplish progressively more challenging objectives. Get to level 60 and max out all your gear!

And then, um, something.

I guess you could jump back into the rat race. Or maybe you could wise-up and start living your life instead of wasting your time chasing whatever small reward is stuck in front of your face day-to-day.

Free Bonus!

Some have you have expressed interest in the Glaukai project. First, thank you for your support and interest. It means a lot. Deepak and I are working very hard to release a prototype this mid to late winter. We’re both really excited about the Glaukai mission and the potential good we can do for the world.

That said, some of you have either privately mentioned to me in emails or publicly in the comments that you are interested in the Glaukai project and would like to participate.

We have opened a community section in our company forum at www.glaukai.com/forum. If you’re interested, please register an account and make an introductory post. We’d like to meet you

Again: Glaukai Community Forums

The Symbolism of Glaukai

Glaukai, or ???????, was the common name for the ancient Athenian Drachma, the major currency of the time. The name derives from “Glauk,” meaning “owl” in Greek, because an owl was printed on the coin. An owl in Ancient Greece represented the wisdom of the war goddess Athena, the patron goddess of Athens. The double-circle “owl eyes” were also a symbol for wealth and prosperity, hence the Glaukai logo glyph.

The double-circle logo glyph was also selected because of the connection between “circles” and “money” in Asian cultures. Literally, “yuan” means “round object” or “circle” in Chinese, and both “won” and “yen” derive from this same root.

All of this meaning is beyond the obvious “infinity” symbolism that most modern westerners would probably first recognize. That just happened to be a happy coincidence. And, of course, the most of ratios in the logo are to PHI.

Shameless Company Propaganda (for apartments)

My Internet was down Friday and Saturday, so I designed business cards and… mission cards? I think they’re cool… Plus, if you match all the Corps logos together, you make a peace symbol.

Tabloid print of the logo by the door, courtesy of Kinkos.

What is RAJAH? No… you do not get to know yet.

What better way to decorate your new apartment than with books?

Photographs added for The Cross Country California Drive.

All serious epic voyages begin with breakfast.

My rental minivan packed full of my things. Also good for driving noisy children to soccer practice.

From a gas station on I-80. People actually live here?

View from inside the guest center overlooking I-80.

Yah, not very many, sorry.

I feel that I owe an short explanation about my philosophy. After a short break doing other things besides writing (working on Glaukai), it seems to me that my opinions could be misinterpreted as something that I don’t mean. I reserve the right to be totally full of shit.

I believe we can live best by understanding ourselves and our world.

First and foremost, the quality of human life is improving. I mean this on a scale that matters: centuries. Yes, improvement has been uneven. But 3000 years ago, life was nasty, brutish, and short. Do you think that getting the flu is unpleasant? Imagine from dying from it before you’re 35. Do you think that working to pay bills is a drag? Imagine working to pay starvation.

But what is improving? The human animal is the same. More accurately, humans aren’t evolving at a rate proportionate to human progress.

So if you were the sort to invent the first time machine, naturally, the first thing you’d want to do dial back a few millennium and shag you some Cave Babes. Biologically, this would be totally legitimate.

But what makes you, the Modern Man, better than the Cave Man, ill-fated to lose his cherished harem of Cave Babes to the cunning wiles of Time-Traveling Super Geeks of the Future?

Your technology? Your knowledge? Your language? Your mathematics?

Are these yours? Really?

I have some bad news for our Casanova Chrononauts: this time machine strips you naked and drops you in the wilderness. Have you ever considered who you would be if society didn’t exist? What good is your name, even, if nobody exists to know it?

Our identities have meaning almost only within the context of society itself. We elevate ourselves not as biological expressions of genes, but as participants in a system. It’s the system that flourishes; we are merely the cells of a larger organism. ^[1]

As genes remember molecules, as people remember genes, so society remembers people. Everything is information manifest.

So I am very pro “the system.” Since the system is society, and since society exists as an idea among people, I am for anything that helps people share ideas. Language? Great. Mathematics? Awesome. Literature? Fantastic. Art? I like. Technology? Ever read a book? Have you even used the Internet?

As we are free to share, we are free to learn about better means for better lives. Sharing itself is even personally enriching, instilling us with purpose and enabling us to contribute to society as individuals.

Free trade, free speech, free choice. Life improves.

But society doesn’t necessarily exist to make our lives better, nor does it even exist for its own future existence. It exists only to exist. With the conscious of a cancer, it can live to die.

Historically, society, like life, tends to stagnate at local maxima. ^[2] But society, unlike life, isn’t a system of cells. We are people. We want to be happy. Since when has safety been the ultimate human virtue?

Freedom means change, and change threatens the status quo. A stagnant system must mitigate freedom to survive. Yet, we are naturally curious about our world. We want freedom to learn and explore. How can this behavior be controlled?

Quick question: you spent a year studying “math” every weekday your freshman year in high school. What did you learn?

Quick question: who Britney Spears’ husband? Name two Britney Spears songs. Do you even like Britney Spears?

Does it concern you to know that you know things that you may not want to know?

Does it concern you to know that your attention, energy, and time is limited?

Does it concern you to know that there is no definitive distinction between what you know, what you think, and who you are? I encourage you to find any neuro-biological study that suggests otherwise.

In a free society, we trust our understanding of ourselves and of our world because we trust that our beliefs are perpetually challenged and verified by others.

In a non-free society, we trust our understanding of ourselves and of our world because we do not ask the right questions.

If you yourself do not question your beliefs, then how can you expect others to do so? And if nobody questions anything, then how can you expect not to be mired in superstition?

Oh, right. Since everything is made for an end, everything is necessarily for the best end. Thanks, America.

I believe we can live best by understanding ourselves and our world. But at all times we must consider that we do not.

Is it so odd to assume responsibility for yourself? If so, then I hope less so.

That said, I would like to state that the value of freedom is proportionate to the richness of society. Nobody will tell you what to do in the wilderness, and Cave Babes are notoriously difficult to sweet talk.

Footnotes:

1. Disclaimer: I mean this purely as metaphor. Please do not misinterpret what I mean as bullshit hippie mysticism. I hope to mean only exactly reality. Any metaphor that I use is only my futile attempt to express myself within the limits this meat-filled shitbox that I’m forced to think with. Sorry. ^
2. For instance: Society: Medieval Europe, Life: Siderian Era ^

I try not advertise techy-things here, but I really want to share these with you:

Pandora

Internet radio that intelligently builds personalized radio stations… with science! Seriously. You choose a song or artist, and the application identifies unifying characteristics of that music, and then builds a station for you.

I only wish that you could download music and explicitly choose music to play, but because of licencing, you can’t.

Jamendo

A large collection of free music that you can download or play in your browser. Lots of crap, but there are some real gems. I recommend trolling the “ratings” board. If the song is good enough for somebody to bother to write a positive review, I’ve found that it’s worth trying.

The website has a large french community, so if you can read french, that helps.

Some albums that I like:

• Silence — L’autre endroit
• Greg Baumont — Wood
• MEA — Mysterious Sounds

…How are things going in Ohio?

Phil S*
to drew

show details
11:02 am (5 hours ago)

In Ohio? It’s (expletive deleted) Michigan week. What more is there to tell?

Sorry, that was just too funny not to post.

So. Richard Dawkins is answering questions (video) about religion and science. Garnering public support. Popularizing science and reason for the masses.

Yah… No.

Could Richard Dawkins answer the poor man’s question without being such a pompous ass?

The answer to that is actually very simple…

So accurate, that the great theoretical physicist Richard Feynman…

…one can take in one’s stride because of the brilliance of the experimental verification…

…impinged upon…

…and leaves one in no doubt…

Hey, how about you treat people with questions with a little respect instead of belittling them and exaggerating your intelligence? Do you think that by making that man feel stupid that you will convince him of anything? People believe what they want to believe. Your utter disregard of even the most base axioms of human psychology hurts your own cause far more than you seem to be capable of understanding.

So guess what, Richard Dawkins: Shut the fuck up.

Yes, yes… I agree with science, of all things. But no wonder people hate atheists and distrust science so much!

How about (this is off the top of my head):

Thank you for your question, that is a good point. Both the mystery of the Trinity and the mystery of Quantum Physics are beyond our limited ability to visualize and fully understand. But using the theories of Quantum Physics, we can conduct experiments that either refute or support the theory. We don’t know why the theory works the way it does, but it does work to the best accuracy we can test.

How can we test the Trinity? We may have an understanding of the Trinity or Quantum Physics in our own minds, but how can we verify that understanding in reality? That is, if all contempory human understanding was suddenly lost, how could we rebuild it? The answer is by experiment and observation. Reality doesn’t change, only our understanding of it changes.

I invite any of you to conduct any experiment that contradicts the result predicted by quantum theory. Publish the result. If others can conduct your experiment and they achieve the same results, will have refuted Quantum Theory. You will be a hero.

I also invite any of you to demonstrate (or refute) the Trinity by experiment. If that seems too audacious, then demonstrate that God could not be, say, four parts (rather than three) by experiment.

You cannot. That is the difference.

Some people believe that men and women cannot be friends. I agree with advice in the same way that I agree that you should “stay in school.” That is, if such banal advice is useful to you, then you need it.

So Mountain View, I have already made one such female friend. We’ll call her C. Maybe she reads this site? I hope so. Well, actually I hope she doesn’t get pissed because I don’t feel like dealing with shit storms, or even shit blusteries. (note: Ok, maybe I like shit storms a little.)

Anyways, I’m happy to entertain a platonic relationship a with women as long as:

• She does not bore me
• She does not entangle me in stupid dramatic bullshit
• Any sexual undercurrent is implicitly understood, expected, and trivialized

I’m even willing to compromise a little because I understand men and women want different things from friendship. In general, Men want to be amused. Women want to be validated. Fine. I’ll emphasize empathy over analytics in conversation. I can do that.

But, warning, I’m not your “girlfriend.” I’m not your “gay friend.” Yes, I can discuss fashion, physcoanalyze whomever behind their backs in ways that are flattering to you (what a coincidence), and usually identify subtle social undercurrents. I can do this because I’m a genius and I can do most anything if given the right circumstances. However, this requires conscious effort. Don’t be fooled.

So, C, why are you setting yourself to be burned? You don’t think I don’t apply all those clever things I say about others that amuse you so much… to you? Oh yes, I’m a good listener. And I notice details. I notice details like recurring, unpleasant themes between you and men. I notice details like your “conditional respect.” Fine, you can be however you want. Your stories amuse me, and I like you, and you were very helpful and supportive when I first moved here. I appreciate that.

But, warning, I’m not your girlfriend, AND I’m not your boyfriend. I’m not interested in forming a dependency relationship with you. I’m not interested in your validation. I’m not interested in validating YOU. And I’m especially not interested in your silly vortex of drama. Sure, observing your drama vortex is amusing. But I sure as hell will make any and every effort to avoid it —including ninja-vanishing your ass.

So let’s set a few ground rules.

• When you see me outside the cafe where I am meeting a friend to go somewhere else for lunch, do not call me ten minutes later to “catch up on me.” That was disturbing and embarrassing. In fact, that incident is my inspiration for writing this now. You do not “catch up” with your platonic guy friend. That you had the gall to do this makes me question the viability of this friendship. Grow up.
• I do not want to come with you to run errands. Ever. I did that one time because I didn’t know the town and you were being nice and I appreciate that. Even though I already knew where the grocery store was, I pretended I didn’t. See? Compromise. Otherwise, that will never happen again. It’s cool that you can tow men around. Good for you, bad for them. But I’m not “your man.” You’re an adult, make the distinction.
• You can talk about other men in front of me. It’s like being a spy, and it’s amusing. But, warning, praising other men in front of me will piss me off because the implicit message is emasculating and disrespectful.
• Thanks for lunch, but don’t use your male roommate’s credit card. I don’t care what the nature of your relationship is. From a purely platonic standpoint, if my friend used my credit card to pay for something for somebody else, I would immediately sever that person from my life. Immediately. Unless it was beer or something to be brought back to share. Or some emergency. This wasn’t. Could you at least try to act a little more honorable and respectful towards other people… even if just around me?

So, women, here are some tips of what not to do if you want to keep your own opposite-sex male platonic spy-friend.

Last month, I left Columbus, Ohio and my Computer “Engineering” degree at Ohio State University with one quarter left to move Mountain View, California and pursue entrepreneurship. After over a week of moving and settling, I have finally settled into my new apartment. Ironically, I am still enrolled for classes at OSU for this quarter. I suspect that my future classroom attendance may be poor.

Thanks to Housing Maps, by mid October I was equipped with a room-for-rent and rental minivan (that took some smooth talking; I don’t have a credit card and I’m 22. Thank you, rental car station people.) I boxed and loaded all of my things, I stripped the identification off of my junker car and left it in the ghetto with a “free” sign, and I was off to California!

Note: I did bring my camera as promised, but I didn’t take many pictures for reasons including “not getting in a car accident” and “I forgot.” Sorry.

Ohio

I was on the road and into Bob Evans by noon. Nothing else of note.

All serious epic voyages begin with breakfast.

My rental minivan packed full of my things. Also good for driving noisy children to soccer practice.

Indiana

Your “major attraction” boast itself as the “Crossroads of America.” These are your words, not mine. Driving through Indiana was otherwise exactly like driving through Ohio, but with “NASCAR news” on the radio.

Illinois

Dear Illinois: Please do not close your entire state along I-70 after dark. It’s obnoxious enough that your “fuel-stop” signs lead me on meandering country-back-fuck expeditions. But with an entire quarter tank of gas, I could not find an open gas station. I had to wait until morning in one of your gas station parking lots because I ran out of gas. I had planned to drive through that night. I also took a huge dump behind your gas station. Sorry, but you were closed, and nature called.

I thought I could try walking to the next station along the highway to see if it was open since I had the night to kill. Apparently not. You had to list the nearest interstate intersection on the “city mileage” sign because there were no nearby significant cities. Unfortunately, I had to walk 40 minutes to learn this. WOW, walking along the highway SUCKS. If you see somebody walking the highway, you should stop and help them out. No, not some other guy. You do it.

I also took a short nap in one of your empty fields off the highway since walking in wet, tall, freeway-margin grass to avoid trucks is exhausting. It was pleasant to watch the clouds race by the silent moon. Unfortunately, these clouds were racing to a rainstorm. I would have known about this, but your AM radio couldn’t shut up about Jesus for five minutes to broadcast a weather report. Fortunately, I made it back to my car before your shitty rainclouds rained on me too much.

Fuck you, Illinois (except Chicago.) The Burger King lady in Nevada says that her entire state is open 24/7. It was. Nevada even had “Focus on the Family with James Dobson” on the radio. You didn’t. What do you have to say to that? Are you going to let Nevada beat the “State of Lincoln?”

Missouri

I stopped in my old home town (though I was only a baby at the time) of Concordia to buy groceries. Missouri, your women looked like they had tried to fix their ugly with the entire WalMart cosmetics department. They failed. I’m not saying Missouri all women are ugly. I’m just saying that a couple of eyebrows never hurt anyone.

The St. Louis Denny’s breakfast pleased me with its reasonable cost and tasty deliciousness. Good work. Otherwise, Missouri was a potpourri of weather-worn low-income country housing and cookie-cutter mega franchise extravaganzas.

By the way, your state seemed blatantly racist. At least, it seemed to me, an outsider who grew up largely isolated from anyone not white and suburban. Did you know poor whites are statistically most likely to be racist? It’s because they think they can improve their own questionable social standing by repressing others.

At least you voted out Jim Talent. I did notice that he still won almost half the vote, though, despite the Foley scandal.

Oh, after promising to help any roadwalkers, I did meet one in Missouri. The radio was blaring Jesus something fierce between CDs, but here was this cowboy with his thumb out dragging a suitcase down I-70 in the middle of nowhere. I didn’t have any space in my van, so I stopped at the nearest station, bought a Snickers and some water, got some cash from the ATM, and drove back around. He was a cowboy with a mustache, weather-worn skin, thick glasses, and (duh) a cowboy hat. He said he was moving to a new ranching job in New Mexico. I bet he could punch a horse dead and skin it barehanded and then sit down to a pleasant meal of beef and beef with the children. I tell you this story to alert you that the ATM in Missouri charges $3. Bastards.

Dude! Somebody should punch a horse dead. That would be so awesome. Horses stink and they are stupid. If you disagree, you are a woman. As such a woman, you probably enjoy powerful but oblivious men whom you deftly manipulate for the same reasons you enjoy horses.

Kansas

Since I credit Kansas City as an otherwise “Missouri” sort of city, you get good marks for flat roads and low traffic. Huge marks for the Topeka Jiffy Lube. You guys fixed my van for free when the maintenance light popped on. Jiffy Lube rules. You were also kickass in Columbus. Why is Jiffy Lube so awesome? I don’t know. The people that I met in Kansas were all pleasant. The lady at the Hays Pizza Hut moved my order to the front of the pizza-queue because I said something funny, but I forget what I said.

Colorado

Imagine driving into the mountains Halloween morning as clear dawn breaks behind you. The ground is stark and grey, little snow has fallen, yet the air is crisp and freezing. Denver rose out of the earth like an assault against nature itself. Because, seriously, fuck nature. Also, TA “travel stations” rule. No more of this Illinois “Le Petite Depot de l’Essence” froo-froo nonsense.

Wyoming

This state prefers that it kills you, but wouldn’t bother to notice if it did. It is my new favorite state. My new fantasy is I want to build a stone guard tower on a Wyoming mountain and live there in hermitude as a rogue billionaire cowboy. In hermitude, I plan to indulge in programming language flame wars and masturbate excessively to free hentai Internet pornography.

Wyoming is so hardcore that I bought a half-pound bag a beef jerky, a quart of water, and dental floss at the Cheyenne gas station at I-25 and I-80. The store clerk remarked, “that’s quite the combination.” Hell yes it was. Almost made me want to vote Republican.

The drive-thru-girl at the Rock Springs, Wyoming Arby’s was cute, but not hot. She pretended to accuse me of stealing her pen since you have to sign even for fast food in Wyoming. Pff. The West should learn Fast Food from the real West, the Midwest. Arby’s girl, your clever flirtation techniques may work on the Sinclair Oil Refinery regulars, but they are no match for my suave midwestern suburban computer programmer savvy. Super-size? I think not, you fox.

From a gas station on I-80. People actually live here?

View from inside the guest center overlooking I-80.

Utah

Um, it was Utah?

Nevada

I drove through most of Nevada at night. Gas was very expensive. The entire state of Nevada smelled acrid and piney. For the first time this trip, I spent the night in a hotel. The desk lady was nice: she even stocked the Halloween candy to complete a fine hotel lobby breakfast. I mentioned that I was moving to California, so she warned me in motherly tones that Californians were not to be trusted like the “people in my hometown” and that California was full of “creeps and weirdos.” The next morning, it rained. I thought Nevada was all desert.

California

I drove into California during a rainstorm. Driving down mountains in an overloaded van in blinding rain was not particularly pleasant. It took me over five hours to drive from San Pablo to Mountain View. Bad traffic that day. Also, did you know that all the bridges in San Fransisco have tolls? I do now, thanks to my new yellow San Fransisco toll violation ticket.

Mountain View, First Impressions

California smells different. Kind of piny and clean. The sky is usually clear and sunny, and the city is very clean and attractive. Downtown Mountain View is absolutely fantastic. There are restaurants for nearly every ethnicity, cafes full of friendly people, and bars that don’t smell like stale urine and skank. Everyone here talks business and technology. I also visited the Googleplex. It is big and shiny. This place is awesome. Best. Move. Ever.

Learned Cross-Country Driving Tips

• Never drive with less than a quarter tank of gas. Start looking at half-tank.
• Avoid driving through major cities. Avoid stopping for food and gas in major cities. You’ll get lost in traffic. Stop for food and gas at the little towns that grow around highway exits. They exist explicitly for your convenience.
• Do not drive while tired. The risk isn’t worth it, and you’ll feel even worse the next day. Pull over and sleep for a couple hours. Interstate rest stations are good for this.
• Do not read maps, change CDs, or look for things in your car. Pull over or wait for a stop. Getting in an accident or missing an exit isn’t worth saving a few minutes.
• Keep a small bag in the car for trash. Any bag will work.
• Bring something to listen to for the entire trip. I brought a 20-CD “Book on Audio CD” literature pack and bought a few music CDs along the way. However, every few hundred miles, run through the local radio stations to get a feel for the local culture. I remember that once there were three AM stations broadcasting Rush Limbaugh simutaniously. The fourth AM station was sports-talk. Also, I am now an expert in Christian Radio Music. For any radio tune of any genre, I can tell if the song is about Jesus or not within three bars.
• Budget much more money and time than you think you may need. Always keep about $20 in cash with you at all times.
• Do not be cheap, do not bargain hunt, do not make shortcuts. If you have a 1/3 tank of gas left, buy gas at the next station. Don’t wait to see if the next station is cheaper. Don’t piss off the locals with your cheapness and impatience. Keep the attitude that you are a temporary guest in a foreign town and that you are happy to pay full price for any convenience. Tip extra and smile. Don’t rush. Sometimes the locals will cut you a break, but never expect it. This is not the time nor place to mind cents and seconds.
• Keep your cellphone off and in your car when possible. It is your last hope in an emergency. Don’t risk breaking it or losing it by taking it out for small errands, and don’t risk not having enough power to make or take important calls.
• Buy maps. Keep them in the car. If you are about to drive through a major city, review your map again. Expect to miss your exit and know what to look for to know if you’ve driven too far.
• Don’t overplan. An overplan makes every glitch feel like a mounting disaster. The only thing that you “must” accomplish is to arrive at your destination safely and in good spirits.
• Drive at night if you have the constitution for it. There is much less traffic, so you can drive faster, safer, and with much less stress.

TOTAL: 2500+ Miles