Did you noticed flickr’s redesign? Did you see their intro or quick guide to the new features?
Okay, did you see the Panda?
No?!
You can read the local coverage about the updates.
Well, local to me anyway.
Or go straight to the FAQ covering the updates.
As you review, note on how simple they kept it. How out-of-the-way it was presented. And how true they’re staying to their mission.
Love it.

But that’s not that’s not the point of this rant. I wanted to rant about redesign efforts and mention flickr. But the post just sat there for a few days and whatever thoughts I had, left me. So the post formerly about online feature updates, is now about cool photo series.

One of the things I love about flickr are the gems in the community often featured on their blog.
Persona series by J Trav is a great example.
A very clever study of people and the stuff they carry. The images are each a Diptych… a new word for me. And there are very interesting people depicted here.
After going thru the entire series (over 100 when I got a hold of it) I reviewed the content of my laptop bag; which incidentally no longer carries a laptop. And I’m happy to report I’ve placed more interesting objects in there. Because you never know! That’s what happens when you get sucked into a voyeuristic mood, in the early morning hours.

So we decided to use one of every modes of transportation while in South Africa. Cabs got us everywhere in Johannesburg, we planned on flying to Cape Town with a boat ride very much likely while there. And train ride back to Johannesburg to get us to our home flight. Car rental seemed like the right fit to get us to Durban.

Let me tell you, finding an automatic in short notice was not easy, so we went in style with a Mercedes which is all that Avis had left. Why be picky? Why not drive a stick shift… Because driving on the other side of the road is different enough as it is. This was a good decision in retrospect as I’ll explain a little further.

The drive to Durban is about 6 hours. Five of which is perfectly straight. I mean straight! Straight enough for you to put a phone book on the gas peddle. Do they have phone books still?! This is very a much a single road thru plain fields with almost no population. Pretty easy drive overall except for a few serious accidents we witnessed. First there were two 18-wheels carrying new cars that we saw jack-knifed. Two!

Later, I noticed there was another large truck on the side of the road with giant rolls of sheet metal. Seemed odd as the driver was on the side of the road and it seemed not to have a full load. No worries, everyone is in some state of nap time in our car anyway. Coasting down the hill/mountain, still going perfectly straight for miles, I see the traffic coming to a stop. And no on-coming cars.
We stop.
We wait for a while.
Obviously there has been an accident of some kind. They begin to let us thru and we see another large truck with the front cabin pancaked. Presumably with the driver still in it. Not trying to be morbid here, but it looked bad. Still no clue as to what happened. No ambulance, just one police car and more on the way.
It takes a while to get beyond the backup.
As we drive thru and witness the massive traffic on the other side of the road, it seems clear that one of the sheet metal rolls on the truck we saw on the side of the road, had came off as it was climbing straight up the gradual slope. It than bounced a few times, hit the poor driver of the other truck, skipped over and hit a few more things. As the roads are completely straight, the 18wheeler (the pancaked one) coasted off to the side and came to a stop. All very surreal.

Needless to say, I was very alert the rest of the way. If there was a cruise control on that Mercedes, I wasn’t going to use it. Nice car though.
Eventually, as we got closer to Durban, the terrain changed to more greenery. We began to lower altitude and get closer to the coastline. It was a fun drive at the end, thru the windy mountain roads.

We arrived safely to Durban around 6, just under 7 hours including our lunch stop. Finding the motel and returning the car in a town we did no homework for, was another adventure entirely.

And what is my design, tech or geek-out connection here… ah… we did use the GPS app on one of our 3 iPads on the trip. It tacked the journey and we looked at the downloaded maps. With no actual service, it was kinda hard to utilize its full potential. It did help us as we got closer. But the printed map from Avis was never that far away. Final grade of geek-out on the ride = fail; unless you count listening to iPods while driving; which is like so 2001.

Our first match in South Africa was the Spain/Honduras game. Very exciting and not just because it was the 1st game. The fans were happy, friendly and just great. The venue (Ellis Park) is a smaller stadium and much more intimate. We had a good view of the game. Just great all around!

After the game, there was a stampede on the way to buses. We were in the middle of the city and nothing nearby. Nothing for tourist anyway. Between the mad rush out of the stadium and our mandatory stop to get a sausage with Chakalaka spread on top… We got to our meeting spot exactly 2 minutes before the end of an hour window for pickup. As you can guess, no bus. Our ride later said otherwise, but such is life. We also were one man short.

Looking confused and still drunk, we wondered around the neighborhood as tens of buses came and gone to places other then our random suburbia accommodation. One of the cops directing traffic comes up to us and asks if we knew where we were going. In a very concerned tone, much more concerned then any of us 3 in fact. Several confusing conversations later, he summons another officer (Muoosa, spelling?) and offers us a ride home. Totally unexpected! Apparently he was off duty. So he drove us the half hour trek back to our hotel in his private car. Would have been nice to ride the police wagon. Then came the awkward moment: is it legal to offer a cop money for doing a us a favor? Is it actually expected? So we offered and he took it as he was ‘low on petrol’.

What about Allen, our our fourth traveler you ask? Well, we wracked our brain. Each of us had a computer in his pocket and we had no way of reaching him since none of setup local phone service. Major fail. We know he has the only crappy phone with international minutes, in addition to his many other devices, so as soon as we got back to the hotel we try to text him. This is after calling the bus. Yes, we had the number to the bus. We forgot we could just make a roaming call the entire time, but we remembered to ask for the bus driver’s number just in case!
Anywho, he wasn’t on the bus.
As we are trying to reach him, he walks in. And it turns out he had a similar adventure after missing the bus.
Moral of the story, transportation in Johannesburg is a bit dodgy. AND your mobile device is as good as you remembering to use it.

With all the security forces, we never felt unsafe or in danger. All was well with the world.

Everywhere you look in Joburg, it’s worldcup. Not just related events and consumer stuff surrounding the tournaments, but the whole place is all geared up to welcome folks from around the world. It’s what you would expect off course, if it wasn’t for all the negative coverage: stadiums not ready, hospitality not adequate, etc. Most interesting is how everyone goes out of their way to help you out even when you’re not asking for anything. The locals are so friendly. It’s clear they want us to have the best experience and prove the negative coverage wrong.
It’s working.
We love it here.

Will I try to actually work though? Clearly, I can’t get off e grid on a sporting trip. That and I have an addiction problem. There, I said it! As for work, I did sit next to an old couple who were, you guessed it, AARP members. They’re on their way to a big hunt so no connection to world cup. Oh well. But I did get lots of advice… You cant sleep and watch movies for all of the 15 hours!
So the short story is, if I see some seasoned world cup fans, I may actually whip out the AARP card and go for the work angle. 
As for my work, digital and screen addictions… That’s for another trip to deal with. Likely a clinic!!