The power of technology and innovation

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I woke up at 6 am to begin packing for my trip and I had a flashback to the time my family went to Disney World in the late 90s.

Back then I clearly remember the steps we took to prepare for the day of travel. It was a time when we packed our suitcases with more than 6oz of shampoo, we checked a very inefficient website to check the status of our flight, and the process of traveling was a bit more stressful than commuting on 379 west or east during rush hour.

I was lucky, my family was lucky to get to share the experience of travel to such a great place (I think few will disagree that Disney World is not only great, but the happiest place on earth. Even Kim Jong Un, the head of North Korea, thinks it's great http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/8972975/Kim-Jong-un-secretly-visited-Tokyo-Disneyland-as-a-child.html ).but if you would have said travel days could be easier I don't know my adolescent self could have imagined how easy it was for me today.





Today all my problems associated with travel were solved by technology developed in the past decade.







Problem: sleeping in

Solution: set 3 separate alarms on my android phone, with varying ring tones. That's a big upgrade from the blaring sound of the alarm that woke me in the 90s.

Problem: packing my suit case efficiently to maximize space we a weeks worth of clothes

Solution: Ziplock travel bags. Thanks Mom! It trimmed the bulky clothes like jeans and dress shorts into packages that could occupy the space of a few cotton shirts. Huge win.

Problem: ipad stopped allowing me to take pictures this morning. This could have been an epic problem since I would lose the means to update you of the sights I will see.

Solution: DropBox. Learn about, download it, and use it. The problem I encountered was one of space on my device. I had two choices this morning. Keep the photos on my ipad from my best friends wedding with no pics from Georgia, or delete priceless memories to replace with other priceless memories. In my moment of decision my current roommate offered a solution - Dropbox. What a recommendation, thanks J. I was easily able to upload the pictures from my best friends wedding, and now I have more room to snap the Georgian experience.

Problem: With no access to a car, and a scooter that gets 80 mpg and a max speed of 45 mph I had to find another way to get to the airport.

Solution: Take the port authority flyer from Duquesne? Too slow. Call a taxi? Expensive and reliable, Yes and perhaps. The solution was Lyft. Lyft is a ride sharing application developed out of San Francisco that allowed me to hail a driver, who showed up promptly, offered a fun riding experience, and was only $28 dollars from downtown Pittsburgh to the Airport. It was faster than a bus and much cheaper than the $40 to $50 fare cabs have charged me in the past. I highly recommend Lyft to you. In fact, have a free ride for your first ride on me. Simply go to https://www.lyft.com/login and when you download the app in the payment tab there will be a code box. Just enter this TIMOTHY632.

Sidenote, my Lyft driver, Chris, was very professional, offered candy, a means to charge my phone, and some general updates on how Lyft works. If you live in Pittsburgh you can't miss Chris. He has a silver 2011 Honda Fit and is the infamous Hello Kitty car. I asked Chris if I could take a picture for my blog and he agreed to it, but only under one condition that I feature his Hello Kitty theme (for the record, while very unusual to me, I think the Hello Kitty theme really helps Chris stand out and market himself in a market that will get more crowded as more learn about Lyft).



Problem: Communicating with Archil from Pittsburgh on the day of travel.

Solution: Skype. In the 90s we were just getting used to webcams on your desktops, but the idea of mobile video conferences in real time by means of phone was a foreign concept. Today, while I was riding in Chris's car using Lyft, after using Dropbox, i skyped Archil. Literally I spoke with someone on the other side of the world in real time and even though the technology has been around for a few years I am still continually impressed with the quality improvements within the application.



Problem: Checking my flight.

Solution: I had an automated email sent to me this morning confirming my flight was on time. The airline service model has inverted and as the consumer I love it. I didn't have to pull information, they just sent me what I needed.



In summary, it is 12:19 pm EST. My flight leaves in two hours. I will go to Toronto, and spend a moment there before I board a Boeing 767. I am very curious about how the flight will go across the Atlantic Ocean. This is my first time flying over the ocean so we will see how that goes. It's supposed to be a 14 hour flight to Instanbul, Turkey. I will have a layover there for 5 hours, then its off to Tbilisi, Georgia. I don't know how much more time I will have today to write, but if you wish to send me any messages Facebook, goggle chat, email, and I'm thinking about downloading WhatsApp.



Today has been great and I want to send a shout out to Silicon Valley. Thanks for doing you and keep up the good work.



Perhaps I will be saying "beam me up, Scotty" by the time in the coming decades.

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