I am officially homeless in New York – well until next week when I move into my new apartment in the Financial District. Thanks to the kindness of friends I have a place to stay this evening, then in the morning I am headed up to Provincetown for the interim days prior to moving into the new place. What better way to bridge the stress of moving that resting at the beach for a few days

Am hopping the train from New York to Boston in the morning, followed by a fast ferry from there and I will be in Cape Cod. Not sure exactly what to expect, but with some friends from work also staying over it will be a nice time I am sure.

Apart from that, just trying to get in a few enjoyable days of summer while they last. Headed out to Fire Island last week, which was relaxing as well amidst the drinkies, beach and lots of sleeping in until midday – must have be the salt air

Categories: Apartment, New York
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Strange happening in Financial District today, with the Deutsche Bank building at Ground Zero on fire.

Categories: New York
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Woo hoo for me, it has officially been one year since I arrived in New York (give or take a margin of error +/- 12.5 days). The party to celebrate the event passed unassumingly, with the greatest satisfaction being that I have in part assimilated into the culture that is New York.

What the hell does that mean? Well, lets see, it means finding a balance between neurosis and self-assurance. The neurosis is a preemptive reaction to an innate fear of failure, in effect a defense mechanism to failure. Better to say you are allergic to foie gras than to acknowledge that you are getting old and that your system can no longer cope with the richness, or cope with the social anathema of not conforming to liberal animal welfare concerns. I like foie gras by the way, even though I am a liberal and have a delicate system haha. Self-assurance stems from the need to belong, which even in an impersonal city like this really is the crux of survival. Self-assurance ensures you have and keep friends, as well as ensuring your ego isn’t crushed to distinction if you spend a night in a bar and don’t talk to anyone. Maybe these things are at the center of all western cultures, just a little more pronounced in New York.

So after the first year, I am beginning to get it. The city is a mess in many ways, it is also real in many other ways – a city that has been through so many periods of ups and downs, which if you look closely you can see the scars and silent monuments to. It is a great city.

Categories: New York
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Okay, a couple of friends have suggested that I might be a little focused on life within a 10 street radius from where I live. I like to consider it an environmentally friendly position to take, with less drain on the social infrastructure by traveling outside my realm.

That all said, I ventured to Times Square for the first time in six months to see the movie “Talk to Me”. I am freshly reminded as to why I don’t travel north of 23rd Street too often – it was maddening chaos, which took nearly half an hour to get 100 yards down the street to the theater. But hey, since I was there I did the tourist thing an took a photo or two of the chaos.

So let’s see, the movie, “Talk to Me” was the history of a Washington DJ, Petey Greene (Don Cheadle) and a radio manager , Dewey Hughes (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Set across a 30 year span, taking in the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. It’s a beautiful movie, just about real life, making it, limitations, some great lines and a message that the people we travel through life with offer us the things that we are too often afraid to grasp for ourselves. Oh and I swear to God, if that’s what my parents wore in the 1960’s, I am totally shocked

Besides all that I found Dale and Thomas, gourmet popcorn on the way to the movie (yes I know, New York does have a tendency to call things gourmet when in fact it is actually dingey self-serve hot food that has been sitting in the corner store for too many hours than is healthy – but in this case Dale’s is great!). This meant that I picked up a bag of Spicy BBQ, mixed with Buffalo and Blue Cheese for the movie … mmmm.

Categories: Entertaining, Movies, New York
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Well all I can say is that the iPhone Rocks! It has it’s glitches but it still Rocks!

In New York, the hype was palpable – every water-cooler conversation you could imagine included the phrase “iPhone”. If you really thought that 6:00pm Friday June 29th was when Happy Hour started, you had clearly lived the previous fours weeks with your head in the sand.

So what to do – do I get sucked into the hype machine, or do I go with my normal dislike of investing in first generation. Haha I mean it took 15 years of being a PC user before I dared move to the dark side and became a Mac User. I did the rational research, the really reviews, and by 6:30pm on Friday 29th I was standing in a massive line outside the Apple Soho Store waiting for my turn to get the iPhone.

And getting it within the first hour of launch meant I avoided the technical problems connecting with AT&T. For me it was straight home, plugged into iTunes and had a new AT&T account within 5 minutes. And then the fun began …

Seriously it is one sexy, sleek phone. The functionality that is on the phone is faithful to what had been advertised – which means that not everything you would want is there – but what is there works well and integrates beautifully with each other piece of software. There are some minor software glitches and hangups that occur, but you would have to be pretty naive to think these wouldn’t have been there. Thankfully they will likely be addressed over the first few software updates in the coming months.

There are some great little tips and tricks within the phone and if you are a true Mac Geek, then you will spend lots of time on the Apple Discussion Forums understanding the in’s and out’s of the device.

And have to say, Saturday June 30th saw more New Yorkers wanting to stop and talk about the phone than in the whole year that I have been living in Manhattan. It gets attention that is for sure.

So my rating – its worth the hype and I know it will only get better over time – this is a great step forward in the mobile market. And my favorite feature – Google Maps simply ROCKS!

Categories: Computer, New York
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