Better Travel Pillow/Set Jetting/Top Expat Countries

Nomadico issue #178

Versatile Travel Pillow

I’ve tried my share of airplane pillows over the years and most often have just carried a camping pillow half-inflated because that can also double as a seat cushion elsewhere. I don’t like the typical airport ones because they’re bulky and push your head forward instead of supporting your chin. I purchased this inflatable Modern Age one to take to Patagonia and back and liked it though, so it’s currently in use as this newsletter goes out while I fly across the Atlantic. You can wear it multiple ways and it solves the chin problem if you flip it over and around. Plus while I thought the included hood was kind of silly, I used it instead of an eye mask when one flight got really frigid and the vents were blasting cold air.

My Pre-packed Toiletry Kit

I always feel a little stressed when packing the day before a morning flight’s departure, but it’s gotten a little easier since I realized I could just buy two of everything and have a toiletry kit that’s packed and ready to go each time. It has a smaller electric toothbrush than I use at home (mentioned earlier here) and second versions of floss, toothpaste, face cream, comb, nail clipper, etc. in TSA-friendly sizes. The only thing I add/remove is a larger sunscreen bottle if I’m checking a bag and headed to a beach.

Data-backed Trends in Travel

Expedia and a few of its partner companies released their annual travel trends report recently and since this one is backed by search and booking data, it’s worth paying attention to for what’s really happening. The destinations seeing the biggest increase in searches are a mixed bunch: the top 5 were Big Sky, Okinawa, Sardinia, Phu Quoc (Vietnam), and Savoie (France). Other trends they highlight included “salvaged stays” in repurposed buildings, “hotel hops” of staying in different places, and “set jetting” — exploring places where movies were set or filmed.

Top Asian Countries for Expats

When more than 10,000 expats gave their opinions in the most recent International Expat Survey, 5 of the top 10 destinations were in Asia. Latin America still wins the medals with the top 3, but Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, China, and Indonesia all made the top 10. No surprise since you’ll run into hundreds of expats in Chiang Mai, Da Nang, or Penang, but it’s interesting to see China showing up so highly. “Convenience is a recurring theme, with expats across China raving about fast public transportation to efficient online shopping.” See the full story here, with a link to the source material.

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

What’s in my NOW? — Ken Batchelor

issue #229

I’m an avid reader and walker, a poet and wannabe adult (when I have to be). I retired early from the medical industry to care full-time for my parents (Dad 92, Mom 89), who I’m fortunate to still have with me. Namaste. — Ken Batchelor

PHYSICAL

• You Matter Cards. You Matter cards are business cards that say “You Matter” on them, plain and simple. They come in various designs and are a “powerful way to spread kindness, compassion, and gratitude with others.” I carry several in my wallet and pass them out at every opportunity…to the waitress at the restaurant, to the nurse at the Red Cross, to the checkout person at the grocery store, to the patient sitting next to me in the waiting room.
• Barefoot Shoes. A category of shoe that features zero lift, zero arch support, and a wide toebox to allow your feet to do what they’re supposed to without being constrained or artificially supported. I discovered these in 2022. I’m an avid walker and routinely go barefoot indoors (a habit I picked up from my sister), so barefoot shoes intrigued me. Three years on, my feet, ankles, and calves are stronger than ever, and my former non-barefoot shoe collection has been donated.
• Candle Accessory Kit. I love to burn candles and incense around the house. This kit includes a candle wick trimmer to keep your wicks short for better-controlled burning, a candle snuffer for extinguishing tapered candles, and a candle wick dipper. A wick dipper is a little hunk of metal with a crook on the end that allows you to submerge a lit wick into the pool of melted wax at the top of a pillar candle and extinguish it absolutely smokelessly. You can then use it to straighten the wick back up, now with a coat of wax on it, which will make it burn without sputtering the next time you light it. It may be old hat for some folks, but it took 61 trips around the Sun before I discovered this ingenious tool.

DIGITAL

• LibraryThing. A terrific online service for cataloging books. You can tag and classify them as you wish, keep track of which books you’ve read, and pore over reams of charts, statistics, and information about your library. LibraryThing is a massive resource on books, editions, authors, cover art, you name it. They offer discussion boards and contests. They even provide an app to help you scan the barcodes on your books as you get started, which makes it easier and quicker to work your way down your shelves. They’re currently celebrating their 20th birthday.
• AlphaGuess. A minimalist word game where you guess the word of the day by determining “where it sits” in the alphabet. Simple but addictive. One game per day. My sister and I play it every morning and share our scores.

INVISIBLE

Listening for the sound of the anklets on the feet of an insect as it walks.

From Philip K. Dick’s autobiographical essay in his short story collection “The Golden Man”:

“Kabir [the Sufi poet and mystic]…wrote about the sound of ‘the anklets on the feet of an insect as it walks.’ I would like to hear that sound; perhaps if I could my anger and fear, and my high blood pressure, would go away.”

My doctor prescribes atenolol for hypertension. It does the job I guess, but somehow I think hearing that sound would be a magical de-stresser, so I keep a spiritual ear out when I’m not running “madly off in all directions.”

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Free Press / Building Stories

Issue No. 91

FREE PRESS – A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF UNDERGROUND NEWSPAPERS 1965-1975

Free Press: Underground & Alternative Publications 1965-1975
by Jean-François Bizot (editor)
Universe
2006, 264 pages, 9 x 1.1 x 13.5 inches (softcover)

Buy on Amazon

The mid-1960s were an exciting time for art, music, youth culture, society, and politics, all of which were transforming at dizzying speed. The left wing underground press of the time reflected these mind-boggling changes in their design, content, and distribution methods. Underground newspapers from around the world joined the Underground Press Syndicate, sharing articles and illustrations free of copyright restrictions.

These papers gleefully taunted the establishment by promoting recreational drugs, recreational sex, black power, gay rights, women’s liberation, anti-authoritarianism, and anti-war activism. The covers of the papers were bold, experimental, and subversive. When I was designing bOING bOING (the late 1980s/early 1990s zine) I was inspired by the precious few samples of The East Village Other, The Realist, and The Gothic Blimp Works that I could find in used bookstores. I wish I’d had a copy of Free Press back then! Almost every page of this book has a full-color photo of a cover or interior page from dozens of well-known and obscure newspapers from the era. Though much of the design is amateurish and ugly, there are examples of brilliance, too, making this a worthy reference for designers.

– Mark Frauenfelder

BUILDING STORIES – CHRIS WARE’S MAGNUM OPUS INCLUDES 14 LAVISHLY PRESENTED STORIES IN DIFFERENT FORMATS, ALL IN ONE BOX

Building Stories
by Chris Ware
Pantheon
2012, 260 pages, 11.7 x 16.6 x 1.9 inches (hardcover, softcovers, boxed)

Buy on Amazon

Chris Ware is renowned as the kind of comic artist who makes you expect more from the genre. For nearly three decades, his unfussy, formalized style has given birth to cult strips such as Rusty Brown and Quimby The MouseM. Despite his style being modeled after the simplicity of Tintin in order to express emotion in as universal a way as possible, his style is a vehicle for the minutiae of human struggle. Building Stories is no different.

Largely comprised of strips previously published in national newspapers, but also featuring unreleased material, Building Stories is Ware’s magnum opus – 14 lavishly presented stories in one beautifully designed box, itself adorned with extra strips and illustrations. The separation of the stories into physically distinct objects is intended to allow the reader to acquaint themselves with the characters in any order they choose.

Revolving around the lives of the inhabitants of an apartment block in Chicago, his pet themes of social alienation, excessive rumination and the pervasive feeling of being railroaded by mundanity are all present and correct. A number of archetypes populate the building – the lonely old lady, the bickering couple, the single young woman, but Ware imbues each with its own identity.

Arguably the most prominent character is the young woman who has a prosthetic leg, observed at various unassuming yet pivotal moments in her life, whether she’s summer house sitting, lying awake at night thinking of her newborn child, or trying to overcome her anxiety in a writing class. It is tough not to feel empathy for her directionless existence, constant anxieties over wasted potential and the recursive spikes of past trauma. A soap opera in the best sense, there is more than a touch of Charles M. Schulz about Ware’s existentially preoccupied, neurotic characters.

Ware also experiments with layout to sometimes dizzying effect. The effusive nature of Branford the Best Bee in the World is matched by spiraling circular panels, whereas our aforementioned heroine wearily lives out her life inside row after row of regulation size square panels.

The presentation of the strips in wildly differing formats makes this a true collector’s package – pamphlets, news sheets, hardback book, comic on a fold-up “game board,” and more. If you happen to be looking for the graphic novel’s answer to Ulysses, then look no further. If not, buy it anyway. You’ll believe a comic can do amazing things. – Nick Parton

Ecosphere

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 162

No maintenance micro-world

EcoCosm/EcoSphere

As I write, a dozen brine shrimp dart about in the bowls on my desk. They nibble on green algae coating the rocks inside. I have never fed them, nor cleaned the bowl, nor aerated their water. In fact their home is sealed airtight in a glass globe; nothing goes in or out. They are completely carefree pets, living in a completely self-sustaining world. The algae produce food and oxygen from room light, the shrimp and snails make carbon dioxide for the plants. Together all three organisms support each other with no input from me, other than admiration. Their globes are little sustainable planets of sorts, a balanced ecosystem that could in theory continue indefinitely. One of my spheres thrived for many years before accidently being smashed.

I keep these micro-worlds for three reasons: 1) as a lazy-man’s aquarium (vacation? You could leave for a year and they wouldn’t care), 2) for the constant reminder of how we humans are kept alive by other species, and 3) for the inspiration of a self-sustaining whole system.

You can purchase a ready-made small 4-inch Ecosphere filled with about three shrimp, one snail and a bit of algae, sealed airtight in a perfect glass sphere for $65. The same producer has other larger models, but this one is about the size of a softball. The best place to get one such is at Brookstones store; they are cheaper here than from the manufacturer and Brookstones has a more generous return/exchange policy. The latter is important because a system this small is very sensitive to room conditions, and it is easy to kill off the inhabitants before you find the optimal place in a room — which is warm but (surprisingly) not brightly lit. With this off-the shelf option you get an instant world (works as a gift), but one with few individuals and a somewhat delicate balance. My shrimp and snails are still going strong 10 years later.

For the same price you can assemble a much larger — and better– eco-habitat at home by purchasing a small kit from EcoCosm in Hawaii and upgrading the bowl. Order the smallest size micro-habitat ($40), which will give you about a dozen or more Hawaiin brine shrimp, a few snails, and a beautiful bit of porous rock and gravel seeded with algae, all afloat in sea water and packed with a small plastic hexagonal container. Discard the container and substitute a glass fish bowl. I found the best and cheapest spherical bowls are not sold in pet stores but in art stores for use in decorating, holding glass marbles and the like. I got a 8-inch globe for $4. I put in the creatures, the rocks, and then added brine water (1 part sea water to 2 parts fresh water) to top it off. I cut a small circle of plastic to seal the top. The shrimp (about 1/2 inch long when mature) are amazingly visible and active during the day. They constantly distract in a good way.

The question many owners of these brine shrimp/algae worlds want to know is, how long will they live and can the shrimp reproduce? While an individual shrimp can live for up to 5 years, unlike most marine invertebrates, the endemic Hawaiian red brine shrimp (Halocaridian rubra) reproduce very sparingly. This is why they are expensive to culture (and why it is illegal to use wild brine shrimp from the rare anchialine ponds). There are reports of Ecospheres hatching shrimp fry, but they are rare enough to offer little hope yours will. However, even if the shrimp die, the algae will continue to live for decades or longer — an additional ecological lesson.

From my observations of the micro-habitats that friends and I have owned it is clear that the usual cause of decline is too much light. Room light, even dull overhead fluorescent in a Dilbert cubicle, is all the light these worlds need. The tiny orbs of self-sustaining life are great instructional aids. If you like living things nearby but don’t like the slavery of upkeep, these are perfect pet/gardens, and ideal office mates.

May you be a fine god! — KK

Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

Ambient music streams/Thinking skills guide/Kindle hand strap

Recomendo - issue #486

Thinking skills guide

A sensible little book is The Great Mental Models (Vol.1) by Shane Parrish. It presents nine different “General Thinking Concepts,” or what I might call, best practices for critical thinking. You may already use some of these when approaching unknowns, but others may be unfamiliar. The tone and strength of this book are ideal for young people and students, starting out on their journey of lifelong learning. It is a great little chest of handy tools for grappling with complexity. These are all post-AI skills. — KK

Catalog of Dark Patterns

The Dark Patterns Hall of Shame was created by a team of researchers and designers to raise awareness about manipulative design techniques used by companies and websites. There are lots of visual examples of dark patterns — including hard-to-cancel subscriptions, hidden costs, nagging, and tricky wording. I wasn’t at all surprised to see Amazon Audible as a repeat offender. Although it’s called a “hall of shame,” the aim isn’t just to call out bad companies. The website serves as a cautionary guide, offering suggestions for better approaches, examples of what to avoid, and explanations of what isn’t a dark pattern (and why). — CD

Kindle hand strap

I‘ve been using my left pinkie to support my Kindle for so many years that it feels permanently damaged. Recently, I noticed my sister had an elastic hand strap on her Kindle. It lets you slip your hand between the strap and the Kindle, so you don’t have to grip the Kindle. I bought one made by Kowjaw, but there are many different designs available. Too bad I didn’t learn about this sooner; I wouldn’t have ende up with a sore pinkie. — MF

Explore the World of Wine with André Mack

I’m not a big YouTube watcher, but if I were going to subscribe and consistently follow anyone’s channel, it would be Bon Appétit’s sommelier André Mack. He is incredibly likable and nothing like what I imagine when I think of a traditional wine expert. He’s naturally charming and generous in the way he shares his knowledge about wine and spirits, along with practical advice on how to buy, pair, and taste wine. I have an upcoming trip to Kentucky’s Bourbon Trail, and I’ve learned so much from him about what makes bourbon truly “bourbon.” I highly recommend checking out his entire playlist on YouTube. — CD

Perplexity browser

The Comet Browser combines Perplexity’s AI engine with daily browsing tasks. After a month, it keeps surprising me: it can navigate websites, compare deals, summarize articles and videos, automate online purchases, draft and organize emails, manage my calendar, and intelligently group tabs using language requests. I migrated my Chrome bookmarks and extensions with no hassles. Here’s a demo video, plus a free trial of the Pro version for a month. — MF

Ambient music streams

Fifty years ago Brian Eno invented ambient music. The music was intended to stay in the background while being present, like furniture. For best results ambient was meant to be always on, but that was easier said than done. Constantly changing disks or setting up multiple playlists is a chore. What we’ve been doing at home is tuning a music streaming service to play “Eno and Eno-like music” round the clock. The channel is always on, low volume, and it rarely repeats, so what we get is the endless ambient music Eno originally had in mind. Try it. – KK

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Cheaper Holiday Flights/Most Powerful Passports/Corporate Good Guys

Nomadico issue #177

USA Airfare Price Drops

Softening demand from a weakening economy, increased seat capacity, and plummeting visits from abroad have led to cheaper flights from or around the USA during the holidays. Prices are lower than they have been for years. This report from Dollar Flight Club shows that domestic holiday flight prices are down an average of 19% across the board and international flight prices are down 9%. The destinations where you’ll find the best deals are the cities in Florida, Dallas, and Cancun. For departure airports, the biggest drops are in Boston, Nashville, and San Jose (CA). For international departures, prices have dropped the most from Houston, San Jose, and Chicago.

Brain Trick for Plane Sleeping

There are as many tips about trying to sleep on a plane in economy class as there are colors of neck pillows at the airport, but I’ve got one trick that has worked consistently for me for a hundred+ flights and bus rides. I pop on an eye mask, put in the noise-canceling earbuds, then play one of the two albums that are my “sleep albums.” These never change. What you pick probably doesn’t matter as long as it’s mellow, but the idea is to find something that trains your brain to say, “Ah, okay, the sleep music. It must be time to snooze.” I’ll put the album on repeat, but I rarely make it past the third song before I’m out.

The Most Powerful Passports

Which passports will get you into the most countries visa-free? This year’s report says the three most powerful ones are all from Asia: Singapore, South Korea, and Japan. Five countries tying for fourth are all in Europe. Australia is tied for seventh, the UK is in the group ranking eighth, and Canada is tied for number nine. For the first time since the index started 20 years ago, the U.S. passport dropped out of the top-10 and now sits at #12. That’s down three places from last year, tied with Malaysia and just one point above Bulgaria and Romania.

The Case for Wearing Patagonia

I was just in Patagonia, around a lot of people wearing Patagonia, and I made a YouTube video about that here. I also published this blog post about buying quality travel clothes that will last instead of throwaway fast fashion. I noted in there that Generation Z is leading a resurgence in buying responsibly and buying used; hopefully it will spread. No company has done more for this cause than Patagonia: they are the most sustainably run large apparel corporation in the world, from every angle. They prove it every day by making clothing good enough to carry a lifetime guarantee, plus they give you a credit for trading in items you don’t want anymore (or accept worn-out ones for recycling). They regularly send staffed trucks into adventure travel destinations to repair rips and broken zippers. And that’s just the start. See more on their website here.

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

What’s in my NOW? — Ken Batchelor