Updates

I don’t know how many of you are reading this now, as the tour is already over and whoever used to check the website for updates would probably never get this.

Well, as I said… RSS… email subscription… Technology can help. And it’s free.

Anyway.

Sitting at the lobby of my hotel in Barcelona (a hotel that promised free Wi‐Fi in the rooms and failed to deliver; which is one of the reasons I started this), I’m going through the comments on my conclusion post and I’m humbled by it all. I remember waking up yesterday (Monday) morning, looking at my BlackBerry and seeing 12 comments over the course of just a few hours, plus a few private emails; comments and emails kept coming throughout the day, as well as today—and, as I said, all comments are welcome.

Thank you all for your support, I really appreciate it.

Following some of the comments, as well as a few private emails I received ever since that conclusion post came out, I decided to post another entry with a few, well, updates. Sort of updates. I don’t know how to call it; stuff that was left out.

The first thing I’d like to say something about is my impression of a few certain countries I have been to over the last few months. This entire journey has been one hell of an experience, with one of the biggest challenges being having to quickly adjust to new societies, new norms, new habits, new food, new people. I thought it goes without saying, but apparently it doesn’t—so I would like to make it clear: all of my impressions should be taken in perspective, considering the fact that I didn’t have that much time to adjust.

Having got used to the convenience and simplicity of living in Canada, obviously some European countries were easier to get adjusted to than others. The difference between Canada and, say, Norway is much easier to “bridge” over than the difference between Canada and Spain, or Hungary. Or Poland. Remember: of all of the European countries I had been to during this trip, only four of them I have already been to before—and even that was for short periods.

Every first contact with new culture bears the seeds of some sort of a culture shock, and when you fly through multiple such places over the course of a week, it’s natural to get a bit, well, overwhelmed. My frustration, then, has to be put in context, as it resulted from difficulties of me getting adjusted to the culture. Contrary to what a few people attempted to imply, no, I absolutely don’t dislike Spanish people, or Polish people. I don’t dislike Spain, Poland or any other country. I just described what goes through the head of someone, coming from a totally different background, trying to adjust quickly. That’s all.

Fact is, I am right now in Spain, spending a few days here before returning home this coming Friday. Just had the opportunity to explore a bit of Barcelona over the last two days and I tell you this is one hell of a beautiful city—when you know where to go. Hell, I even had a good breakfast here yesterday, and a good lunch today!

So… No hard feelings, alright? Proportions, please.

Next, about the book. I received quite a few emails from people interested in hearing more details—that’s great news. I’m going to dive head‐first into this as soon as I’m back home, talk to publishers and maybe even try lulu.com (thanks Arthur!). Details will be sent by email, as well as posted in this blog.

Next: A song. Someone mentioned that I should write a song about it all, myself being a guitar player and all. Well, not many of you may know this but I did get my hands on some recording equipment very shortly before going on the tour. There will be something composed—maybe not a song, maybe an instrumental, we’ll see. I have a few ideas already and will make the time to realize them. Warning: you may dislike it immensely.

And now, to address a few comments from that last post as well as comments from the Kill to Get Crimson tour’s last post. The fact that the tour is over is by no means a reason for me to shut up. At the moment, I actually have three blogs: the Kill to Get Crimson blog (inactive, but still online); the Get Lucky blog (from now on, will only contain posts related to the book I’m going to publish); and my all‐purpose blog. That last one is called “The Way I See It” and it can be found here:

http://blog.isaac.shabtay.com

It will go through some redesign over the next few days. I usually write there only when I travel, but I have recently decided to write a bit more. What about? I don’t know. You may find lots of things there. I’ll write about whatever I feel like, and it’s not always going to be smart. Or interesting. It may even contain some technology and programming stuff—who knows. I will use tags in order to categorize posts. So, you’re welcome to subscribe to the RSS feeds:

http://blog.isaac.shabtay.com/feeds/posts/default (for posts)

http://blog.isaac.shabtay.com/feeds/comments/default (for all comments)

(Both links are also available as buttons in the blog’s page itself, see the right‐hand sidebar)

And, as always, comments are welcome.

Thanks again for your support,
Isaac