editing in-flight

Anders, the operation itself is a paraesophageal hernia repair, more commonly known as a hiatal hernia. Some people who have a lot of GERD, or heartburn, may actually have a hiatal hernia. This is a weakness in the diaphragm where your esophagus goes up into the chest. If the opening is unnaturally large, part of the stomach can go up there as well. Since the pressure in the chest is different than in your abdomen, this can wreak havoc with your food going down to your stomach, you can aspirate fluid into your lungs getting pneumonia and you generally can get a pretty bad quality of life. This hernia can be reduced and then repaired with sutures and/or mesh (a patch made of polytetrafluoroethylene).
Aren't you glad you asked.

First, to edit on a plane, you should get a seat in business class. However, I tend to fly Southwest, which is open seating. Since I always forget to check-in exactly 24 hours before the flight, I wind up in group B. Thus, I am lucky to get one of the few remaining aisle seats. If I know I have some video work to do, I look for either an open middle seat or a skinny person in a middle seat. This saves the middle seat occupant an elbow to the kidney, and gets me that extra inch or two in my range of motion.

Next, make sure you have all your media and noise canceling headphones. Since we use external SATA drives in a powered drive bay, I try to keep 10 gigs free on my laptop's internal drive for last-minute editing projects. I also have a few ongoing projects that are usually modified slightly a couple times a year.

I also keep my favorite Firstcom tracks in the My Music folder, and have a folder of Jumpbacks on the internal drive as well.

In other words, stay organized.

Next is to make sure your battery is well charged. I have an extra battery for cross-country flights. On my last trip to Seattle I actually got about 10 finished minutes of video for one project, and did some revisions on several other smaller projects.

Oh by the way, I did a whole blog about this topic, including the all too important technique for drinking hot liquids over an active work zone. Check it out.

http://blogs.creativecow.net/blog/867/an-edit-bay-with-a-view

And once again, thanks for viewing.

...now that you have found the videos section, Mike. :o)

Maybe they weren't freaking out, Tim, and THAT would be doubly scary, wouldn't it?

Now where's the barf bags, Kathlyn?

That's the first I've seen of your live-action footage (rather than just stills). Very impressive.

Was your seat-mate freaking out?