Complex Numbers

Still Planning

Time for a travel plan update, though it's probably going to be short. But maybe I have some other things to write about.

The travel agent I'm going with has a subcontractor for local knowledge. In this case, a French woman. And I'm completely on board with that, but the sub didn't get back to her before Wednesday of this week. And that matters because the agent took off for vacation on Wednesday, so that means no further information until, at least, Thursday of next week. Probably later, because she's the owner of the agency, so she'll be coming back to utter chaos that she'll have to deal with first.

Or, you know, maybe she's a better business owner than I was, and everything will run smoothly in her absence.

Must be nice to go on vacation when you're a travel agent. You can get yourself the best deals.

And there's not much else I can do until I at least know when I'll be leaving, which I don't yet. I tried searching for fun things to do in France, but Google keeps pointing me at the Olympics, and I don't give a shit about that.

Which, it occurred to me, may be hypocritical of me, as I've harped in here again and again about how there's no such thing as useless knowledge or experiences. And I do believe that. My rationale (or at least rationalization to make me feel better about myself) is that I also tend to avoid anything that's too popular. Like Taylor Swift (who I acknowledge has talent) or "reality" shows.

But yeah, I do have an aversion to sports. You know how kids sit bored in math class wondering how they're ever going to use this? You ever notice no one says that about gym class, even though the vast majority of the kids aren't going to go on to be professional athletes? "But, Coach, when will I ever use sit-ups in my career as a veterinary technician?" "Well, um, strong abs will help you lift big dogs onto examining tables."

My argument is that you never know when the stuff they teach you in school will be useful or necessary. Was it "necessary" for me to spend high school in orchestra and drama class, let alone Latin? No, probably not. And I didn't know I was going into engineering until like senior year, so even math was questionable. But I learned all that shit anyway (and promptly forgot most of it).

The point being that just as strong abs are generally a good thing (something even I can acknowledge) even if you're not a pro athlete, so it is with a strong mind.

Now if only schools would emphasize that sort of thing instead of being all about the football team, we might actually get somewhere.

What does this have to do with travel? Well, nothing, except that maybe I can stretch (another good exercise) and claim that travel broadens one's perspective, so it's the same sort of thing. But, mostly, I'm rambling because I didn't accomplish anything else in terms of travel planning this week.

Next week, I'm going to look into relatively cheap laptops so I can bring one on the trip. Like a Chromebook or something, so I don't have to use my phone to make blog entries. I don't want to take my expensive gaming laptop with me (the one I'm typing on now), so this seems like a reasonable thing to do. Besides, it never hurts to have a backup here at home in case this thing blows a circuit one day.

And then I have to see about getting internet there. I'm well aware that they're ahead of the US in that regard, but that doesn't mean the systems are compatible, kind of like how I have a plug adapter to handle the different electrical outlet configurations.