My research through the twisting and turning corridors of British music continues. As promised when I wrote about listening to all of the Kinks' albums a few months ago, I went on to listen to the Rolling Stones' discography, then The Who, and on and on. I've explored how the blues and R&B fascination of the 60s turned into the hard rock of the 70s, and from there into the stadium rock of the 80s, a trajectory that encompassed all three bands, and might have included the Beatles, if they'd lasted that long.
I had a brief delve into folk, with the Small Faces (though not the Faces) and Fairport Convention, though there again I wasn't sure I wanted to continue through their discography which (impressively) continues to the present day. I might still be on Fairport Convention if I'd done that.
My other big takeaway so far from this whole business is that prog rock is not for me. I gave the albums of Jethro Tull a game stab, but didn't start very promisingly with This Was or Stand Up, and I gave up completely when I got to A Passion Play. Aqualung may be considered a high-water mark but with that in mind, why subject myself to the likes of 1999's J-Tull Dot Com?
The one exception to my "no-prog" rule is Pink Floyd, but I think they really only got good when they left behind the worst excesses of the genre with Dark Side of the Moon. And even they had a difficult decade in the 80s, when David Gilmour and Roger Waters decided they'd had enough of each other.
The Bee Gees are another band that I fail to see the charms of, now that I've listened to their whole oeuvre. They weren't very remarkable before they took up the whole disco thing, nor were they very remarkable after, when they opted for the same over-produced sounds that many a British rock band's career foundered on. Come to think of it, the disco years weren't particularly exciting either.
The most interesting thing about them, I'd say, is the late Robin Gibb's uncanny resemblance to former Tory leadership candidate Rory Stewart. The proof that we're in the darkest timeline is that a Google search for "Rory Stewart Robin Gibb" fails to throw up pictures of the two side by side for comparison (I'd do it myself, but I'm not that bothered, frankly, and I don't have loads of time for such bollocks tonight).
There are positives, of course. I really liked going through Elton John's back catalog. I loved his 70s albums when I was in middle school and high school, and revisiting them had the same effect as re-reading my old comics - being reminded of stuff I hadn't thought about in twenty years and revisiting what I liked about it then. Of course, he had a pretty difficult 80s too, a fact that comes to mind especially when I watch the video for Nikita and realize that Ethan Phillips based the character and look of Neelix in Star Trek: Voyager on Elton's get-up for that video, right down to the unfortunate mullet.
Slightly more seriously, it's interesting to see the similar trajectories, where these artists find out how the things that worked in the first decade of their career don't necessarily work in the second, only to find that a back-to-basics approach allows them to carve out a respectable third decade. It worked for the Kinks, the Rolling Stones and Elton John - the tragedy is that the Kinks broke up just as people started to recognize how good they'd been.
It's worth noting that there's a point to the whole enterprise, beyond muso credit. In a lot of cases, I knew about these less-heralded bits of favorite artists' careers, but only glancingly. It's been nice filling in the gaps in my knowledge, for instance by listening to Genesis and figuring out where both Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins came from.
There's loads more to go, of course. The 60s were easy because if you listen to The Beatles, the Kinks, The Who and the Rolling Stones, you've basically hit the high points (though I did go further and also listen to the Small Faces and the Zombies), but the 70s are when rock splintered into a number of sub-genres... and that's even before you get to punk.
Ironically I'm already a lot more conversant with the best bands of the 80s and 90s, but I'm sure both decades will throw up some interesting stuff. I'm also hoping that the 2000s will hold up as well, and that I'll be able to find some decent bands from the 2010s, though I may have to draw the line at Bastille...
Showing posts with label Stupid Experiments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stupid Experiments. Show all posts
Monday, 12 August 2019
Sunday, 18 November 2018
Roam Like Home: What I learned from three months of using my phone abroad
I've talked a little about my three or so months in London this past winter, where I was working on a contract to make some money after having lost my job back in December. From a money, and cultural, and social standpoint it was an interesting experiment - getting acquainted with a new company, new parts of London and new people, alongside all the things I already knew well about the place.
But there was another aspect that struck me about it recently. In the months I was away, although I bought a little pay-as-you-go burner phone, because my contract required me to have a local number, I continued to use my US smartphone as my primary means of communication. Not only that, I didn't make a phone call on it once - my bills from T-Mobile during that period remained resolutely the same as always.
The key is that my mobile operator here in the US is T-Mobile, which alone of the four big carriers offers free roaming for texts and data, albeit super-slow data, although as it turns out that wasn't such a problem. Voice calls are charged extra if you're abroad, whether making or receiving, but at 20 cents per minute (now raised to 25), even that wasn't excessively high.
Back when smartphones were newish, a number of reporters and analysts that I followed on Twitter were running experiments to see how they coped with using a smartphone as their primary or only computer. The conclusion seemed to be that they were actually pretty good as computers, and that if you needed to downsize you could do so without too many problems.
The result of my experiment feels a little more radical, somehow - in three and a half months of using a smartphone for messaging, surfing, texting and the like I didn't make a single phone call.
(OK, that's not strictly true, because I used my burner once or twice, but even in those circumstances I could have gotten around it - the burner was, as I said, more for my job and for signing up for stuff there in London, like a gym near my flat).
I guess we're still conditioned to think of our smartphones as phones first, but we've come to a point, with WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, social media and so on, to say nothing of texting, where the old voice calling capabilities are probably not as important as they were even as recently as the 3G years. There are so many ways of communicating with each other that voice isn't as necessary as it used to be, and even when real-time communications are necessary you can now just video call on FaceTime or WhatsApp and use your data rather than your minutes (though this proved a little tough when I was away from Wi-Fi, because as I said, my data was SSSSLLLLLOOOWWWW).
As 4G was rolling out in Europe and North America, one of the big ideas was Voice Over LTE, or VoLTE, similar to VoIP technology that apps like Skype use. This would have allowed users to make voice calls over the LTE networks that their phones connected to, rather than having to switch between the 2G or 3G radio and the 4G radio to call. But it seems we've bypassed that a little bit, by using video calling or just plain old VoIP through Skype and WhatsApp, and by having data allowances that are large enough to cope, if not actually unlimited.
One aspect of this unintended experiment that I didn't get to test was how long it would have lasted. T-Mobile's fine print says something about not roaming long-term, but doesn't really give a set amount of time after which they cut you off. I kept waiting for some kind of notice that they needed me to come back, but every month I just got another "Welcome to the United Kingdom" text explaining the terms of my roaming.
The reason this is important is that I do spend a lot of time overseas, and to be quite honest, I'd like to spend even more time overseas. But I don't want to have to cut off all my services when I do go, or fiddle about with things like prepaid phones (which get disconnected after three months of non-use), or any of that.
So I have to welcome the fact that some services just continue to work regardless of what country you're in. In fact, during those months not only did I use my US smartphone much as I always have, I also used my Netflix subscription as normal, with the exception of watching certain things that are only available overseas (like Star Trek Discovery). In a world where almost every aspect of living across multiple countries is a pain in the balls, frequently by design, it's nice to see that some companies don't hassle you too much about it.
I've mentioned T-Mobile US here, but a couple of European operators do it too, and with the abolition of roaming in the EU, this stuff is going to get even easier. And I can't help but welcome it.
But there was another aspect that struck me about it recently. In the months I was away, although I bought a little pay-as-you-go burner phone, because my contract required me to have a local number, I continued to use my US smartphone as my primary means of communication. Not only that, I didn't make a phone call on it once - my bills from T-Mobile during that period remained resolutely the same as always.
The key is that my mobile operator here in the US is T-Mobile, which alone of the four big carriers offers free roaming for texts and data, albeit super-slow data, although as it turns out that wasn't such a problem. Voice calls are charged extra if you're abroad, whether making or receiving, but at 20 cents per minute (now raised to 25), even that wasn't excessively high.
Back when smartphones were newish, a number of reporters and analysts that I followed on Twitter were running experiments to see how they coped with using a smartphone as their primary or only computer. The conclusion seemed to be that they were actually pretty good as computers, and that if you needed to downsize you could do so without too many problems.
The result of my experiment feels a little more radical, somehow - in three and a half months of using a smartphone for messaging, surfing, texting and the like I didn't make a single phone call.
(OK, that's not strictly true, because I used my burner once or twice, but even in those circumstances I could have gotten around it - the burner was, as I said, more for my job and for signing up for stuff there in London, like a gym near my flat).
I guess we're still conditioned to think of our smartphones as phones first, but we've come to a point, with WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, social media and so on, to say nothing of texting, where the old voice calling capabilities are probably not as important as they were even as recently as the 3G years. There are so many ways of communicating with each other that voice isn't as necessary as it used to be, and even when real-time communications are necessary you can now just video call on FaceTime or WhatsApp and use your data rather than your minutes (though this proved a little tough when I was away from Wi-Fi, because as I said, my data was SSSSLLLLLOOOWWWW).
As 4G was rolling out in Europe and North America, one of the big ideas was Voice Over LTE, or VoLTE, similar to VoIP technology that apps like Skype use. This would have allowed users to make voice calls over the LTE networks that their phones connected to, rather than having to switch between the 2G or 3G radio and the 4G radio to call. But it seems we've bypassed that a little bit, by using video calling or just plain old VoIP through Skype and WhatsApp, and by having data allowances that are large enough to cope, if not actually unlimited.
One aspect of this unintended experiment that I didn't get to test was how long it would have lasted. T-Mobile's fine print says something about not roaming long-term, but doesn't really give a set amount of time after which they cut you off. I kept waiting for some kind of notice that they needed me to come back, but every month I just got another "Welcome to the United Kingdom" text explaining the terms of my roaming.
The reason this is important is that I do spend a lot of time overseas, and to be quite honest, I'd like to spend even more time overseas. But I don't want to have to cut off all my services when I do go, or fiddle about with things like prepaid phones (which get disconnected after three months of non-use), or any of that.
So I have to welcome the fact that some services just continue to work regardless of what country you're in. In fact, during those months not only did I use my US smartphone much as I always have, I also used my Netflix subscription as normal, with the exception of watching certain things that are only available overseas (like Star Trek Discovery). In a world where almost every aspect of living across multiple countries is a pain in the balls, frequently by design, it's nice to see that some companies don't hassle you too much about it.
I've mentioned T-Mobile US here, but a couple of European operators do it too, and with the abolition of roaming in the EU, this stuff is going to get even easier. And I can't help but welcome it.
Sunday, 7 April 2013
Mostly Plants, Part Two
Last week, I went vegetarian, mainly to see what would happen and to see what I'd eat when I couldn't just go to the store at lunch on autopilot. I envisioned trying out meat substitutes like Quorn (which I did), and using beans or lentils as the main block of my meals (which I didn't entirely do).
The first thing that struck me last week, when I went to one of my favorite cheapie Japanese places in the center of London, was how I usually go to restaurants for a certain dish. During this week, I had to check out different dishes than my usual, so that, at least was a positive. My big discovery in this area was the vegetarian burritos from Tortilla - they load them up with rice and beans and guacamole, and they're just as tasty and filling as the ones with meat. I also experimented with the veggie patty sandwich from Subway, which was fine, but not exactly something I'll be adding to my usual repertoire, I think.
In addition to trying new things at my usual lunch places, I also got the chance to try a couple of new places, including a pita place near my office. Overall, though, it's fair to say my lunches weren't too different from the usual, at least in terms of range of sandwiches and burritos and stuff like that.
My dinners were also maybe a little less successful than I'd have liked. On a couple of nights I ended up getting a pizza, which was technically allowed, but not entirely in the spirit of the thing. I also got an order of chips (ie, fish and chips without the fish) one evening, after I'd been out at the pub. Pasta also made up a large part of my diet during the week, which is probably why my diet tracker app shows that carbs made up an even larger part of my diet than usual.
That wasn't entirely surprising, of course, nor was the fact that protein was kind of lacking. That said, the first couple of days were actually strangely light on carbs (if perhaps a little heavy on fat). The next time I try this I'll have to balance my diet a little better, clearly.
As for things like Quorn, I can see why vegetarians steer clear. If you're used to eating meat, the texture is all off, and it doesn't taste that great anyway. I was also a little annoyed that it didn't signpost more clearly that it contains egg, which I was trying to avoid during the week. I'll know to stay away from it in future, anyway.
And with regard to effects on my body, I wouldn't say there were many. The increased bean intake didn't make me fart a lot, and I'd say my energy levels were about normal, including when I went to the gym on Wednesday.
So overall, I think it was a successful experiment, at least in terms of making me think about what I ate - even if I ended up eating things that were pretty similar to what I usually have.
And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go get a burger. With bacon on it.
The first thing that struck me last week, when I went to one of my favorite cheapie Japanese places in the center of London, was how I usually go to restaurants for a certain dish. During this week, I had to check out different dishes than my usual, so that, at least was a positive. My big discovery in this area was the vegetarian burritos from Tortilla - they load them up with rice and beans and guacamole, and they're just as tasty and filling as the ones with meat. I also experimented with the veggie patty sandwich from Subway, which was fine, but not exactly something I'll be adding to my usual repertoire, I think.
In addition to trying new things at my usual lunch places, I also got the chance to try a couple of new places, including a pita place near my office. Overall, though, it's fair to say my lunches weren't too different from the usual, at least in terms of range of sandwiches and burritos and stuff like that.
My dinners were also maybe a little less successful than I'd have liked. On a couple of nights I ended up getting a pizza, which was technically allowed, but not entirely in the spirit of the thing. I also got an order of chips (ie, fish and chips without the fish) one evening, after I'd been out at the pub. Pasta also made up a large part of my diet during the week, which is probably why my diet tracker app shows that carbs made up an even larger part of my diet than usual.
That wasn't entirely surprising, of course, nor was the fact that protein was kind of lacking. That said, the first couple of days were actually strangely light on carbs (if perhaps a little heavy on fat). The next time I try this I'll have to balance my diet a little better, clearly.
As for things like Quorn, I can see why vegetarians steer clear. If you're used to eating meat, the texture is all off, and it doesn't taste that great anyway. I was also a little annoyed that it didn't signpost more clearly that it contains egg, which I was trying to avoid during the week. I'll know to stay away from it in future, anyway.
And with regard to effects on my body, I wouldn't say there were many. The increased bean intake didn't make me fart a lot, and I'd say my energy levels were about normal, including when I went to the gym on Wednesday.
So overall, I think it was a successful experiment, at least in terms of making me think about what I ate - even if I ended up eating things that were pretty similar to what I usually have.
And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go get a burger. With bacon on it.
Sunday, 31 March 2013
Mostly plants: Part One
Back in January I wrote about food, and how sometimes things that we assume are awful for us aren't as bad as things that are positioned as "healthy". In writing that, I mentioned Michael Pollan's maxim on how to eat healthily: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
I've been thinking about it since writing that post, and my thinking has intensified over the last few weeks, after I bought Tim Ferriss's 4-Hour Body on Kindle (as well as his latest book, the 4-Hour Chef). Specifically, I've started thinking about self-experimentation, and how to make some changes to my diet, so I've decided to go vegetarian for a week.
Tim Ferriss does have a section on going vegetarian in 4HB, in which he recommends doing it gradually, but I've decided to do it now, because I've just come back from a week in Italy, where I mostly lived like a vegetarian anyway (and on calorie restriction, although that's another story). Part of my thinking was to just get started, while I'm not necessarily in training for anything.
Also, my usual pattern is to start back on the junk food as soon as I get back from Italy; in previous years, my first meal back has frequently been McDonald's or Burger King (sometimes I haven't even waited to leave the airport before hitting the nearest Burger King). Naturally, one benefit of trying to go meatless now is that I break that pattern, which can only be good for me.
Another key reason is that I always worry what I'd eat if I did stop eating meat, so this is the perfect opportunity to find out. It's helped that my sister is around, and given that she was a vegetarian for a while, she's been helpful in giving options for what to eat since I announced it to her earlier today. Just as importantly, I'm hoping it'll give me more ideas on cooking meatless dishes, which is clearly lacking from my repertoire.
As for how I'm defining "vegetarian", I've gone for a relatively strict interpretation, without going vegan. Specifically, in addition to cutting out beef, chicken, pork, etc, I'm not eating fish or eggs this week, but I will be eating dairy. This will allow me to keep having my normal breakfast when I'm in the office of a bowl of cereal. Also, where it can't be avoided, I'll eat something like fish - lunch today was a bowl of udon with bean curd, which included those weird little flat fishcakes that frequently appear in Japanese soups. Of course, I'll be avoiding sushi and other dishes where fish is the main component, but I don't think this will be too much of a problem.
I'm not expecting massive changes in my health over the next week, although I figure my energy levels might be a little off. Seven days isn't really enough to make lasting changes, but for the moment the idea is really to gain ideas for the next time I'll try it (which will be for longer, probably two to four weeks). I'll be keeping a diary of what I eat, and plan to log anything out of the ordinary, preferably as it happens.
Of course, given that it's Easter and everything, including supermarkets, is shut today, my experiment might not get off to the greatest start, if I end up ordering a pizza from Domino's. While a cheese or even a vegetable pizza fits the strict definition of what I can eat this week, it doesn't exactly conform to the spirit of what I'm doing. But if there aren't any options, then so be it.
Wish me luck, and I'll report back in a week!
I've been thinking about it since writing that post, and my thinking has intensified over the last few weeks, after I bought Tim Ferriss's 4-Hour Body on Kindle (as well as his latest book, the 4-Hour Chef). Specifically, I've started thinking about self-experimentation, and how to make some changes to my diet, so I've decided to go vegetarian for a week.
Tim Ferriss does have a section on going vegetarian in 4HB, in which he recommends doing it gradually, but I've decided to do it now, because I've just come back from a week in Italy, where I mostly lived like a vegetarian anyway (and on calorie restriction, although that's another story). Part of my thinking was to just get started, while I'm not necessarily in training for anything.
Also, my usual pattern is to start back on the junk food as soon as I get back from Italy; in previous years, my first meal back has frequently been McDonald's or Burger King (sometimes I haven't even waited to leave the airport before hitting the nearest Burger King). Naturally, one benefit of trying to go meatless now is that I break that pattern, which can only be good for me.
Another key reason is that I always worry what I'd eat if I did stop eating meat, so this is the perfect opportunity to find out. It's helped that my sister is around, and given that she was a vegetarian for a while, she's been helpful in giving options for what to eat since I announced it to her earlier today. Just as importantly, I'm hoping it'll give me more ideas on cooking meatless dishes, which is clearly lacking from my repertoire.
As for how I'm defining "vegetarian", I've gone for a relatively strict interpretation, without going vegan. Specifically, in addition to cutting out beef, chicken, pork, etc, I'm not eating fish or eggs this week, but I will be eating dairy. This will allow me to keep having my normal breakfast when I'm in the office of a bowl of cereal. Also, where it can't be avoided, I'll eat something like fish - lunch today was a bowl of udon with bean curd, which included those weird little flat fishcakes that frequently appear in Japanese soups. Of course, I'll be avoiding sushi and other dishes where fish is the main component, but I don't think this will be too much of a problem.
I'm not expecting massive changes in my health over the next week, although I figure my energy levels might be a little off. Seven days isn't really enough to make lasting changes, but for the moment the idea is really to gain ideas for the next time I'll try it (which will be for longer, probably two to four weeks). I'll be keeping a diary of what I eat, and plan to log anything out of the ordinary, preferably as it happens.
Of course, given that it's Easter and everything, including supermarkets, is shut today, my experiment might not get off to the greatest start, if I end up ordering a pizza from Domino's. While a cheese or even a vegetable pizza fits the strict definition of what I can eat this week, it doesn't exactly conform to the spirit of what I'm doing. But if there aren't any options, then so be it.
Wish me luck, and I'll report back in a week!
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