The constraints are simple. Pack

• warm clothes for -7F and snowing in Chicago
• cool clothes for 73F and sunny in Sarasota
• hip clothes for a tech conference
• fancy clothes for attending the symphony
• grungy clothes for crawling around airplanes
• a guitar, maybe

Fit it all in a carry-on bag.

Piece of cake. Except for the guitar – I’ve bailed on that, and Fitz has promised to lend me one when I get to Chicago. That’s for the informal musicmaking that’s been known to break out spontaneously at ORDCamp.

I’m pretty excited about ORDCamp. I think I got invited because of the Antarctica gig: in the tech world, going to the bottom of the planet to fix computers brands you an “interesting person”, and as such, this random little adventure of mine has turned into the best career move I’ve ever made. If, you know, I uh, had a career right now.  But I’m still really excited – I’m going to get to hang out, brainstorm and (hopefully) make some music with an impressive gang of scientists, engineers, makers, artists and um, interesting people.

And the South Pole experience may come in handy in different ways. I mean, Chicago’s forecast is for sub-zero weather and a 40 mph blizzard this week. We might have to bivouac, or build a snow shelter there in the hotel. Or maybe someone’s computer will need fixing. Heaven help us all.