What has changed between our trip last January and this next trip? How can I adapt and make things even better?

• I'm traveling with A- while W- stays home. This means he can drop us off at the airport. We've traveled the same route without him before, so I'm less worried about handling long flights on my own.
• A- will be too big for a bassinet. Instead, we're going to try the baby seat provided by Korean Air. According to SeatMaestro, the baby seat is good for 9.1-31.7 kg (20-70 lbs) and a height less than 124.5 cm (49 in), so A- should be okay in it. She's been focusing on the bassinet in her pretend play, so I hope she doesn't get too disappointed.
• I requested grown-up meals for A- instead of child meals. I used to throw out half of the child meals anyway because they were too sugary. We might as well go with the regular meals so that we can try different entrees.
• A- may want to be carried in my arms instead of the carrier. If I can get away without bringing a rolling carry-on, going with just a backpack might be more convenient.
• A- often likes walking. If I don't have to worry about scrambling for overhead bin space, it might make sense to let her run around first instead of boarding the plane early.
• A- is more talkative. Her pretend play is more elaborate. She can even sometimes be reasoned with. On the flipside, she's also more particular about what she wants.
• My dad is no longer alive. No fun stories from him. New family dynamics will take a while to adjust. On the other hand, A- won't feel nervous about the IV stand or my dad's coughing. We'll deal.
• My sister and her kids will be moving from the Philippines to the Netherlands in the middle of our trip, and my mom will be figuring out her new normal. So things will probably be busy and chaotic, and my mom will probably be sad. I'll continue to focus on A-, of course.
• I won't bring a laptop. I sorted out how to write my journal and Emacs News on my phone, so I think I can probably get away without my personal laptop this time. I was able to turn over my consulting stuff to my client, too, so no work laptop either. This should make getting through airport security a bit easier, although I might still need to take the iPad out.
• I won't pack a lot of snacks. There's plenty of food on the plane and at the airport, and it's good to spend money to explore new tastes. Still, I might bring some fruit or cheese next time.
• I'm using more travel organizers. W- has convinced me of the power of organizers. I also bought packing cubes to help me keep my backpack and my suitcase sorted. Having zippered units will probably help me a lot while packing, since otherwise A- tends to unpack my stuff at the same time.
• I have a phone with a good camera, and a long battery life, and a stylus. This probably means way more pictures and videos, some writing, and maybe even some drawing. It's bigger, though, so I need to think about stashing the phone securely.
• I have an iPad with a stylus. I can't reliably use it for notetaking yet because A- gets distracted by it, but maybe I can figure out a good workflow for drawing and learn more by doodling. W- lent me his Bluetooth keyboard, too.
• I'm going to keep the ditty bag and toothbrush from the airplane amenities kit. The bag is handy for organizing things, and A- recognizes the toothbrush as “airplane toothbrush.”
• I'll buy an electric toothbrush head in the Philippines. I noticed there's an electric toothbrush body in the bathroom, so I'll just get my own toothbrush head while I'm there instead of bringing the one from home.
• I'll bring our backup nail scissors. I'll probably leave them in the Philippines, too.
• I'll try to leave my Philippine things neatly packed in a bin at my mom's house. That way, I don't need to take up drawer and closet space in between trips.
• We're landing in Toronto on a Saturday. It was really helpful to have W- around when I recovered from the long trip. Well worth paying extra.
• We're paying for our own hotels in Korea both ways. We're not eligible for the stopover paid by carrier program (STPC) even on the return leg. We used to get it on our previous itineraries, but maybe we can't this time because we're flying out on Friday and there's another flight that leaves later. Maybe they've changed their rules. Anyway, since we'll still have a bit of energy after the 4-hour flight from Manila, I'm going to go check out a different hotel on the way back.
• I'll postpone moving off nursing or diapers. I'll continue talking to A- about it, but I won't nudge her too much.
• I'll organize my everyday carry. A-‘s new bag doesn't have as many pockets, so I'll need to stay better organized. I'll probably need to use a wallet. I wonder if it's time to try the vest again. I wish I'd gotten it in beige instead of black – no need to be any warmer in the sun. Anyway, I can see if it works for going through the airport and lounging around at home. If I like it, I might consider getting a lightweight khaki one for my next trip.
• New Crocs. Same as the old Crocs, but not worn down.
• I can wear scrubs again. No nurses in the house, so I can go back to wearing scrub pants without feeling weird. Pants with pockets for the win.
• I'm not bringing a backup sling, just my main carrier. If my main carrier needs washing, I'll just carry A-.
• I'm packing Giraffe in check-in instead of carry-on. I think A- is comfortable enough to get away with one stuffed toy instead of two during the flights.
• We're traveling more frequently. It's been just two months since our last trip. But I decided to take A- more frequently this year while my mom gets used to life without my dad. Going now means we'll have a few days with A-‘s cousins too. If we didn't go now, we would probably wait until June, since A- has a couple of big medical things scheduled for May. Time to take the first circus, as my family would say…

Because my dad was in poor health and it was possibly the last Christmas that my sister and her kids would spend in the Philippines, we decided to all go despite the chaos and expense of flying over the Christmas holidays. It turned out to be an excellent decision. We got to spend lots of time with everyone, and we had lots of conversations that helped us prepare for what happened.

We initially planned to be away from Dec 17 to Jan 10. When my dad was scheduled for potential surgery on Jan 8, I extended my trip until Jan 26, while W- kept his original itinerary. It was a good thing I extended my stay. My dad died on January 6. We had a wonderful wake for him until Jan 11, and I had a couple of weeks to spend time with family and help with paperwork.

I'm feeling surprisingly okay with the whole thing. We prepared a lot for this scenario, and I know we can get through it. In fact, this trip has helped me develop an even deeper appreciation of my family.

A- had a marvelous time. She played with her cousins, who were both enamoured with her. She took to asking her Lola to read to her, which my mom did with delight. She learned many new words and names. She liked following the household staff around so that she could help with washing the dishes or sweeping the floor. She started experimenting with establishing her boundaries (“No grab. This mine!”) She stopped being anxious around dolls. She often sought out her cousins to play with them. At the wake, it was delightful to hear the kids bouncing around and being their usual cheerful selves.

There's more paperwork to be done, of course. My next priorities are:

• Take care of A- and figure out new routines considering the travel we're planning for the year
• Handle all the medical appointments and other things we planned for this phase in Canada
• Keep track of work in progress and coordinate paperwork as we go in and out of the country
• Help check on my mom as she deals with the transition
• Invest in little improvements

We might experiment with a cycle of two months in Canada and one month in the Philippines, at least for this year's transition period. It's going to take a lot of money and effort, but I think it might be worth it in terms of relationships and paperwork. I'll scale it back if we get too disrupted by the changes in environment and routine, but maybe we'll be able to take it in stride. We'll see!

Constraints:

• I need to deal with SMS one-time passwords, especially for online banking in the Philippines.
• I like my plan with Freedom Mobile, but they don’t offer roaming in the Philippines.
• My Philippine prepaid SIM will expire if I don’t regularly load it.

I could leave my SIM plugged into a phone and set up some kind of forwarding or logging. However, this means I can bring only one phone to the Philippines. Having two Android devices was handy for setting up WiFi Baby Monitor and for writing even if my battery was running low. On the other hand, we could use W-‘s phone as the receiver, I can keep a power bank or charger handy, and there might even be a spare phone at home that I can set up.

Alternatively, I can try to set up my Fongo number for incoming texts. I’m planning to pay for Internet access anyway. Some services like Namecheap won’t let me use the Fongo number for two-factor authentication, but others do.

I can check with W- if he has roaming. If so, maybe I can use his phone number as a backup.

I can use my Philippine prepaid SIM as the contact number (likely to be more successful with Philippine banks anyway), enable roaming before I leave, and periodically reload online to keep it active. If I can find the Smart Pinoy SIM, that can receive text messages with zero balance and it expires a year after the last load. I might also be able to change the contact number online once we’re back in Canada.

Hmm… Plenty of things to try. I think I like the convenience of bringing both phones, since they’re already all set up for writing. I’ll try Fongo first, then I’ll try the Philippine SIM if that doesn’t work. If I have to keep my SIM active by buying a roaming SIM and/or spending a few dollars a month, it’s probably worth it, and it won’t be for a super-long time anyway. It’s a good opportunity to experiment with paying for convenience.

We're still jet-lagged from our trip to the Philippines to visit family and friends. Winter's short, cold days have been making it difficult to use sunshine to help reset A-‘s circadian rhythm. Ah well! She'll adapt eventually. We managed to get through a few daytime appointments that we had already scheduled, and now we have a more flexible schedule.

It was an excellent trip, easily my favourite of all our trips back. We stayed at Kathy's house, acquainted ourselves with the local supermarkets, and took over her kitchen. W- discovered a nice pork bun recipe. I even managed to make a couple of lasagnas – my first time to make bechamel sauce. It was such a treat: plenty of people to eat experimental food, and other people doing all the cleanup. Also: no road trips, plenty of time to relax and take care of A-… We got to be homebodies while spending time with family. Whee! My kind of thing.

All of us were there, as my eldest sister Ching and her husband John also flew in from the US for a week. We got the requisite family photos done, of course. It was great seeing John and Kathy raise their family, and seeing my parents in their roles as grandparents, too. We got a sense of family life over there. Good stuff! A- got pretty comfortable with my parents and with John and Kathy, which was awesome. Yay!

I enjoyed playing with G* and A*, who were so excited about meeting their cousin A-. It was like a preview of life with toddlers and preschoolers. Lots of good practice in redirection, guidance, running commentaries, dispute resolution, word definition, explanation, and safety and sanity preservation. I think we'll be okay.

The rhythm of the day worked out nicely. We were up at 7 or so because of jet lag. I had a relaxed breakfast, planned cooking, picked up groceries, had lunch, hung out with people / did paperwork, took care of A-, cooked dinner, and then retired back to our room for the evening routine.

I took care of some paperwork while I was there, and we exchanged our demonetized bills before the deadline. I also helped my parents with their Canada visa application. I learned a bit more about estate planning, too. There's more to do, of course.

I caught up with my barkada, and it was good to get a sense of where they are today. It's interesting to notice the aspects that have stayed the same and the aspects that have changed a lot.

Speaking of change, A- learned a lot. She's now quite good at creeping around on her hands and knees, and has also been pulling herself up to stand with support. She likes walking when we're holding her, too. She tried lots of food while we were in the Philippines, and she turned out to like green mangoes. As I mentioned, she's gotten more comfortable with other people, although she still often wants me or W- in particular. She seems a lot chattier now, babbling and waving her arms excitedly. She also seems more flexible in terms of sleep. She's slept in a small airplane bassinet and on recliners, although she usually still needs to nurse before she's ready to drop off.

Time is double-edged, and my parents are both dealing with health issues. Still, I feel less anxious about my parents now. They have pretty good plans and coping mechanisms, and it's all part of life. My sister is also dealing with her own challenges. We're happy to help out however we can.

We picked Korean Air because of its reputation for baby-friendliness, and we were satisfied with the experience. The bassinet was roomy enough for A- to hang out in, and she even napped in it a few times. She wasn't a fan of the baby meals, but then she's not into commercial baby purees in general anyway. The child meal worked out well, though, since she could eat some of it and I didn't mind eating the rest. The play areas and rest areas in Incheon were a pleasant places to spend a few hours waiting for connecting flights.

The only wrinkle was that we lost A-‘s ocular prosthesis during an otherwise awesome trip to Manila Ocean Park. No worries, that's why we have an oops fund. We'll try out the less expensive clear conformer first before considering replacing the painted shell, as she won't be eligible for funding a replacement painted shell for another 1.5 years or so. If the clear conformer works out, it'll be easier to let her go play and do stuff, since the impact of losing it will be smaller.

Other little notes:

• Didn't use my dress shoes or socks. I can leave them behind next time.
• Should probably copy photos from people's phones/cameras a day or two before leaving.
• I wonder how Tim Ho Wan makes those buns…
• W- is super awesome! The trip would have been very different without him.
• It was nice to spend time with everyone.

Good trip, and good to be back.

Update: Fixed incomplete sentence regarding Google navigation – thanks to Geoffrey Wiseman for pointing it out!

I’ve just come back from a trip to the UK for an Emacs conference. (Emacs!) While the memories are still fresh, I want to think about what worked and what can be even better next time I travel.

What worked well:

Keeping a close eye on flight fares versus visa paperwork: When the conference date firmed up, I checked the flight prices (~$1200)… and then realized that I still needed to get my visa paperwork sorted out. It took me about a week to gather all the papers, and then another three weeks to get it processed. I didn’t want to book the flight until I got the visa, but I also didn’t want to pay sky-high last-minute prices. Because I wasn’t sure that I’d be granted a visa, I kept a close eye on the flight prices throughout the period. I figured that if it got to two weeks before the trip or flight prices started trending up, I’d book the flight and then deal with the change fees in case I didn’t get the visa after all. Fortunately, I got the visa notification two weeks before the flight, and I booked my flight for ~$1000 – cheaper than it would’ve been if I’d booked it right away. It won’t always work out this neatly, but I’m glad that it did!

Couchsurfing: It was super-nice of the organizer and his wife to let me stay at their place during my trip. Not only did that make it much easier to fit the transatlantic flight into my budget, but it also meant that I got a glimpse of everyday life: buying groceries, walking around the neighbourhood, eating yummy home-cooked food and discovering Serbian tastes. That worked out much better than staying at a hotel.

Oyster card: The Oyster card was my very first purchase, and it worked out wonderfully. I had no problems navigating the London public transit system, which I used to and from the airport and around town. I could probably have loaded 20 pounds on it at the beginning instead of topping it up throughout the trip. I ran into a negative balance at one point and ended up paying the cash fare on the bus because I didn’t want to delay other people. Still, public transit = good! I returned my Oyster card for a refund when I got to Heathrow.

Withdrawing cash from the ATM: I withdrew GBP 50 from an HSBC ATM once I reached Paddington. It worked out to CAD 79.19 plus a CAD 5.00 fee, for an effective total exchange rate of 1 GBP = 1.684 CAD. This was better than the foreign exchange rates posted there, although slightly worse compared to how much it would have cost if I’d gotten my act together and either converted cash through my bank before leaving (penalty: ~$5, which was the bank withdrawal fee) or switched my account to something that doesn’t have international withdrawal fees (but that would cost me maybe $53 in forgone interest per year, and I don’t travel or withdraw enough to make up for that). So it all worked out. It was the right amount of cash to have handy, actually, although I could’ve probably gotten away with GBP 40.

Sketchnotes: I took notes during the conference and I posted them right away. People really liked the notes! I need to go back and add more details so that they’re more understandable even for people who weren’t at the event or who aren’t familiar with the topics, and that will be part of my Emacs Conf followups.

Meeting people: The Emacs conference was incredible. I’d never seen so many Emacs geeks in one place, and it was fantastic to meet all these people I’d gotten to know over IRC and elsewhere. During the rest of my trip, I met several people for coffee. I chatted with Dave, Louise, and Joanne(sp?) about travel, paperwork, comics, and drawing. John Wiegley and I brainstormed ways to make the Emacs community even awesomer. I hung out with Michael Olson while on a walking tour (see below). I didn’t get around to meeting everyone I’d wanted, but it was great meeting lots of people face to face. Such is life!

Walking: I walked to places whenever I could – an hour-long walk along Regent’s Canal from home to Camden Town, another long walk coming home from Covent Garden… Walking around in London is enjoyable because there are plenty of shops and interesting sights, and I felt safe.

Walking tour: Michael Olson suggested meeting up for one of the London Walks, so I did. It was a lot of fun hearing the guide tell stories about the buildings and the people who lived or worked in them. Walking tours might be an excellent way to observe well-polished storytellers.

Offline navigation using Google Maps: I downloaded the map of London, which was handy. Although I couldn’t search for places while offline, I could use the navigation function if I’d already set it up previously. I also used the map to verify that I was walking in the right direction. I also wrote addresses down in my notebook in case I ran out of battery or lost my phone.

Eating supermarket food: Quite a few of my meals were from supermarkets and department stores, which worked out wonderfully. One time I snagged a 99-pence chicken tikka masala meal (warmed and ready to go, marked down from 3.50) from Sainsbury Local and ate that in a nearby park. Three pigeons tried to mug me for the food, and about 30 pigeons stared at me throughout the meal. ;) Supermarket food turns out to be tasty and inexpensive. One downside is that I hadn’t realized that self-checkout lanes sometimes don’t give you exact change, and I neglected to ask the assistant for the rest of my change. Oh well.

Free museums: I spent most of Monday at the British Museum, where I got to see the Rosetta Stone and other amazing things. Neato!

Fish and chips: Yummy, crispy fish and chips. I had these with mushy peas for the first time. I could’ve probably walked around a little more and found cheaper fish and chips, but the one I settled on was very filling.

Bank holidays: My trip coincided with the long Easter weekend, which was nice because that meant people were generally relaxed and unhurried, and my hosts had plenty of time to hang out. It meant that many shops were closed, but I wasn’t there for shopping anyway.

Evernote: Evernote worked really well for saving small maps, directions, contact info, and so on.

Technical flexibility: There were some technical issues during the conference, but we managed to make things work. For example, the Mac we were using to project the Google Hangout didn’t pipe its audio out the headphone jack, so we got my laptop into the hangout and routed audio out that way. This meant that taking notes was more awkward, but it was worth it. At one point, I had to write things down on an index card (forward and backward, just in case my webcam was set to mirror!) in order to pass messages along to Steve Yegge, who might not have been monitoring the text chat in the Google Hangout. Audio feedback was a challenge, too, so we ended up typing questions in. Anyway, it all worked out! =)

Weather: I can’t claim any credit for this one, but it was great to have sunny weather throughout the trip. =)

Hat: My black Tilley winter hat was a practical choice – a wide brim to shade me from the sun, and earflaps to keep me warm. I got several compliments on it, too.

Bringing stationery for a thank-you card: It’s always nice to say thanks, and it’s even nicer to not have to raid your host’s stationery stash or write it on plain paper. ;)

Saving the next day for recovery: I kept the day after my trip free of appointments, which was nice because I didn’t have to worry about jetlag. I ended up doing productive stuff anyway, but at least that was completely optional. =)

What I can improve:

Packing: One pair of comfortable winter boots saw me through the whole trip, and my scarf was also really handy.

• I could probably have packed more thermals, but I compensated by walking faster and the cold didn’t bother me.
• I didn’t use the headphones or the tablet as much as I had hoped.
• I forgot the USB cable for my phone, so I conserved power for the first few days. Then I realized I could borrow a cable from Alex, which allowed me to charge my phone and use it more for navigation. Yay!
• I think I misplaced my tablet USB cable at the conference venue. It must have gotten tangled up with my power cord. No worries!
• Since I didn’t have anything liquid in my suitcase on the way back, I might have been able to carry it on and so skip waiting for baggage in both Montreal and Toronto. I wasn’t sure if I could get away with it, though. Anyway, I made it through the 1-hour transit in Montreal by asking people in the security line if I could cut in ahead of them. (“I’m so sorry, but my plane is boarding now – can I please go ahead of you?” Everyone said yes.)
• I didn’t need the foreign cash I brought (USD, EUR, and CAD), siwith the ATM withdrawal worked fine. It would probably have been good to carry one currency just in case.

Roaming: I forgot to enable roaming before flying out to London, so I had to use payphones. This made it harder to coordinate, but I managed. There was one time when I had the opportunity to meet up with Alex and someone else who had flown in for the conference. I received their e-mail while using Michael Olson’s portable hotspot, but that was two hours after they’d met up. I didn’t think of finding a payphone and calling them to see if they were still going to be in the area for a while; instead, I walked around London some more. If I had called them, I’d probably have met up with them instead of walking around as much (although that was fun too!).

Tools: Camtasia Studio crashed and wasn’t able to record my part of the keynote presentation. =( I think it had to do with missing or disabled audio devices. This is the second time this has happened to me, so I have to figure out how to reliably capture my screen. My tablet video capture stopped after a while. The livestream wasn’t working in time for the keynote. It’s a good thing that my phone captured all the audio from the keynote, so at least we have that!

Setting aside time for video editing, or finding someone who can do it: We’ve got all these recordings… now what? I’ve volunteered to spend some time slicing them up into talks and getting them out there, and I plan to spend one day a week focused on this and other Emacs goodies.

In general, blocking off time for follow-up: There’s a lot of good stuff to follow up on, and I don’t want it to get buried in the day-to-day.

Publishing presentation: Would probably have been nice to have a Dropbox folder all ready to go. And screenshots/sketches of my own so that I don’t feel weird about the licensing of other people’s images…

More productive use of plane time: I mostly watched a few movies and slept a little bit. On the plane ride to the UK, I had an empty seat beside me, so I knew I wouldn’t be interrupted by anyone who needed to use the facilities. That meant that I could break out my computer and write code. I wrote my presentation code, and it actually worked. =) On the plane ride back, I was next to two people who needed to use the facilities frequently, so I didn’t feel comfortable setting up my notebook or even writing letters. And the Air Canada in-seat entertainment system wasn’t working for me on the ~8-hour trip back. =| Maybe I should use plane time to listen to audiobooks instead?

Better camera? I probably should’ve packed a small camera instead of using my phone. It would also have been nice to remember to take pictures, especially of the conference. I’ll just have to draw from memory.

All in all, an excellent trip!

Emacs Conf 2013 was a blast! It was super awesome meeting so many Emacs geeks in person, and the talks were fascinating. I’ve posted my sketchnotes and will be revising them to make them easier to read. Some of the other speakers have shared their presentations, so I’ll update that page with links as I come across them. I’m working on pulling together the videos (thanks to jamief for the livestream recording, which I linked on the sketchnotes page). Our keynote wasn’t recorded on video, but I’ve uploaded the audio (also linked on the sketchnotes page).

I’m flying out from London on Tuesday, April 2. The weather forecast for Sunday and Monday looks great and this is the first time I’ve been in a city with a (temporarily) high concentration of Emacs geeks. This is also only the second time I’ve been in London, and the first with an appreciable amount of free time. So I need to decide what to do, otherwise I’ll spend all the time working on Emacs-related follow-ups on the couch.

Possibilities/things to do:

• Meet up with other Emacs geeks at a coffee shop somewhere. Advantages of doing it in person instead of IRC: higher throughput, fewer tech problems, more ability to move things around or sketch things out? Although many Emacs geeks are still recovering from yesterday… Some possibilities:
  • Braindump things to write about in more depth. (Outline for book? Pages on Emacs Wiki?) Emacs docathon!
  • Hack on various things together. Maybe dig into Org issues? Emacs hackathon!
  • Help people with their configuration files. Emacs configathon!
  • Commiserate with other Windows users and borrow their configuration tweaks. Umm… Emacs unmiserathon?
• Hang out with other Emacs geeks and do non-Emacsy things, like wandering around London, because people are awesome and it would be great to get to know them.
• Wander around London for walking exercise. Have fish and chips. Have a good map to navigate my way back. Maybe walk up to Camden Town or take the tube? Go to the Museum of London and marvel at history?
• Wander around the neighbourhood. Have a good map to navigate my way back.
• Write letters. Because letters. =)
• Work on Emacs-related followups: adding more information/colours to sketchnotes, processing video, writing blog posts, working on code… I can theoretically do this when I’m back in Toronto, but there’s value in getting things out reasonably quickly and with good momentum.

Okay. I think the plan is to hang out and enjoy a nice relaxed day over here, meeting up with John Wiegley or other Emacs people if they reach out to the mailing list or through e-mail, and maybe wandering up to Camden Town if not. I’ll snag some postcards and write. Tomorrow, I’ll go to the Museum of London with my trusty notebook and pen, and collect interesting thoughts. I’ll block out some time every week to do Emacs followup, so I can spread it out over time. Should be good!

I’m in London for Emacs Conference 2013 (squee!!), which is tomorrow. John Wiegley and I are starting the day off with a whirlwind tour of Emacs’ past, present, and future. The program looks excellent, and I can’t wait to learn from all these wonderful people. Let’s find out what sketchnotes of an extremely geeky conference look like! =D

I’d worked on this presentation about 9 hours before leaving for London. I wrote most of the presentation code on the airplane (functions to go forward and backward, and to process the current slide).

I finished the rest of the content this morning, then headed out with Alex and his wife Tina. Today I got to experience a slice of regular life over here: a walk through the market, a grocery trip, a yummy home-cooked meal. Alex and Tina have been fantastic hosts! =)

After dinner, I worked a little more on the presentation. I made slides and a PDF just in case my Org presentation doesn’t work out, and helped with nametags and the list of people attending.

I’m looking forward to the conference. I think this will be an excellent adventure! I’ll post my presentation afterwards, so subscribe to my blog or follow the #emacsconf hashtag. If you’re attending tomorrow, come and say hi! I’ll be the short Asian girl bouncing around and possibly hyperventilating at all the awesomeness. I’ll also be drawing sketchnotes on a tablet PC, assuming I don’t give up and stick everything into org-capture instead. =)