Sweatpants Across Europa: An Introduction

A decade ago, I applied for a work visa in Britain and used it to work and travel for several months. This is that story. To begin at the beginning, go here. You can pick up a hard copy here or download the PDF here.

"You know the message you're sending out to the world with these sweatpants? You're telling the world, 'I give up. I can't compete in normal society. I'm miserable, so I might as well be comfortable.'"
- Jerry Seinfeld

What do sweatpants and Europe have in common?  Not much.  In fact, people in England don’t even call them sweatpants, which makes it hard to find them there.  English people refer to them as track suit bottoms.  “Pants” is either slang for underwear or a synonym for terrible (as in, Hardees breakfast is pants).  Neither interpretation will work for a piece of ultra-casual leg-wear.  Predictably then, whenever a customer asks an English sporting goods sales clerk for sweatpants, the clerk inevitably scrunches up his nose, looks confused, and points the customer towards some Adidas wind pants.   If the customer is a connoisseur of sweatpants, wind pants will not do at all.  Unfortunately, this confusion is not limited to England; the rest of Europe is equally unaware.  Clearly, this is a collection of countries without proper appreciation for sweatpants.  

I, on the other hand, am a true lover of sweatpants.  Both functional and adept at hiding any semblance of figure, they are an essential part of my wardrobe.  But there is a deeper, more symbolic connection between me and  cotton, drawstring-cinched, elastic-ankled bottoms.  In November 2001, I began a six month trip through Europe.  I was a fish out of water, to say the least.  I was the sweatpants in a drawer full of European skinny jeans - odd, directionless, and shapeless.  

 

I had been looking forward to this trip for years.  I had a brief semester of study in London during the fall of 1999.  During those months, I discovered how fantastically challenging life becomes when home is thousands of miles away.  But it wasn’t quite enough.  I wanted to go back, get a job, travel, and figure out how to survive on nothing but my wits, a few bucks, and whatever creature comforts I could fit into my suitcase.  As luck would have it, I found a wonderful little program called BUNAC that let me do just that.  My then-fiancée and current wife, Karie, wanted to come along as well.  This seemed like a swell idea.  

BUNAC allowed us to plop down in any number of countries, but we decided to work in Britain since they speak English almost the same way we do.  We settled in Oxford, took several small trips during our time there, and backpacked for six weeks after our work visas expired.  What follows is the story of those few months slaving away in Oxford and getting lost and confused in Europe.

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Sweatpants Across Europa: Preface

A decade ago, I applied for a work visa in Britain and used it to work and travel for several months. This is that story.

Below are the chapters of Sweatpants Across Europa. Drafts of these stories have been sitting around in my drawer collecting dust for several years, but I'm finally getting around to cleaning them up and posting them. 

You can pick up a hard copy here or download the PDF here.

Many thanks to my wife Karie Johnson, my sister Courtney Johnson, and my friend Peter Borchers for endlessly helping me finalize these posts. All remaining weaknesses are my own. Enjoy your time here, and feel free to contact me at drew@drewyaks.com.

 

An Introduction

Iceland

London

Oxford

Norway

Sweden

Denmark

Germany

Austria

Hungary

Croatia

Slovenia

Italy

Greece

Turkey

France

London Again

The End

Parenting Must Read

The best parenting book I've ever read:

http://www.amazon.com/Parent-Effectiveness-Training-Responsible-Children/dp/0609806939

Vim baby steps

Yehuda Katz, one of the leading Ruby on Rails framework developers, has a great post on vim, a text editor for those who dream of hyper-productivity and don't mind a steep learning curve. If you're familiar with graphical editors such as Eclipse or TextMate and you're thinking of giving vim or emacs a try, read this. You'll find you're not alone.

Firefox and the future of web browsing

Check this out: http://vimeo.com/13560319

Steve and Jerry

If you're aspiring to create software of your very own, something the world finds useful and you find fulfilling, read Steve McConnell's Code Complete. It's hefty, but full of good advice backed by research. I can't speak for the whole book yet. I'm on page 67 of nearly 900. But he's already convinced me that requirements are worth the time it takes to write them. So read it! You can thank me later.

Your second piece of unsolicited advice comes from Jerry Seinfeld: work on your project a little every day. I've tried the Big Bang work schedule, working from 9 - 1 AM once a week, and I've tried the Little Bangs work schedule, working from 9 - 10 PM every day possible. Little Bangs works much better. In my experience, they are more productive, more encouraging, less stressful, and less tiring. But don't take it from me. Take five minutes to read this, then get your little bit of work in today!

Book Review: Everything Is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger

Everything is miscellaneous. Sounds obvious, right? Boring, even. If it weren't for rave reviews from some sources I respect, I never would have picked up this book. And I certainly wouldn't have made it past the first few pages, which discuss the finer points of silverware drawer organization. But I have a neurotic tendency to finish books I start - and I liked Weinberger's previous book - so I kept with it.

By the end, Weinberger completely dissects the implications of the title. Everything is miscellaneous, so don't try to categorize. Put all your information in a giant heap, attach simple metadata (tags) to elements that you find interesting, combine it all, and let the web sort it out. This is the secret behind Flickr, Google, Amazon, and zillions of other extremely useful, innovative, and seemingly magical web sites. The power to sort through miscellaneous, unorganized data is a new phenomenon, powered by the internet, and is quickly replacing previous organizational methods that were built to organize objects within limited physical space (such as the Dewey Decimal System and the card catalog system).

This is a wonderful book for anybody designing software, a process that inevitably forces the designer to decide how best to store information and display it to the user. Weinberger provides a clear answer: organize minimally, if at all. Let customers define their own categorizations. Provide few limitations. Create an easy-to-use, simple, enjoyable experience. The better the experience, the more customers you'll attract. The more customers you attract, the more information they'll give you. The more information they give you, the more useful the information becomes. The more useful the information becomes, the more powerful your application becomes. The more powerful your application becomes, the more customers you'll attract. A virtuous cycle indeed.