Molly and I went to the UPS store on Saturday to ship some gifts back home so that we didn't have to bring them on the plane. We had packed everything into a box at home, but we didn't have any packaging tape, so we brought our open box to the UPS store right near the apartment. I set the box down on the counter at the store and asked if they had some tape that I could use to seal the box. The woman behind the counter, who looked a little bit like Ms. Swan from Mad TV combined with a troll doll and the Crypt Keeper, told me that it would cost $3.90 to tape my box. We said no thank you and purchased a whole roll for $5 instead.
As we were taping the box closed, (and then re-taping it because I failed miserably) we listened to a guy at the counter trying to ship a box of his own. He had brought in a gift and had the clerk pack it for him. She then asked him how he wanted it shipped. She explained that there was no way ground shipping would get it there in time for Christmas. She said that 3-day select probably wouldn't either. She said 2-day might, but overnight was the only way to ensure that it would arrive in time. She explained that if he used any other method, the delivery date would be the 26th, just a day too late. We spoke up and came to his aid. "There's no way that can be true," we said. Molly ships stuff with UPS all the time for work and has a pretty good idea how long it takes shipments to get to their destinations. The clerk insisted that nothing but next day air would get there before the 26th. I asked incredulously, "Christmas is in 10 days. You're telling me 3-day select delivery will take 10 days to arrive?!" She kept to her story and the guy relented. "Whatever, it has to get there by Christmas, so I'll just use whatever I have to. " The little demon troll squealed with delight (ok, so maybe not, but this is my story) and told him that it would be $89. At this he was taken aback. "That's more than the gift itself cost!" he said. He (rightfully) refused to pay for the scam and said he'd ship it somewhere else. He said he'd just pay for the box and go. They charged him around $20 just for the box and some tape and he went on his way.
After listening to this exchange, we were not about to go through the same ordeal. Molly got out her iPhone and we looked to see if there was a Fed-Ex/Kinkos location nearby. There wasn't. We share a hatred for the USPS, so we gave in and decided to stick with UPS. We asked the clerk again if it would really require 2-day or overnight shipping to get our box to Ohio within 10 days. She insisted that it would, so we said, "ok, we'd like to ship this using ground then". She reminded us that our box wouldn't arrive until the 26th. We took our chances and paid for our ground shipping.
I'm happy to announce that our box was delivered today - 3 days later. (including Sunday)
This whole incident was infuriating. The UPS Store is taking advantage of people's worries about Christmas deadlines and price gouging the hell out of people. We were smart enough to avoid the scam, but I'm not sure how many other people were. As we were leaving, a guy was walking in with an item to ship. I'm sure they pulled the same crap on him. I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau of New York. I doubt it will have any effect, but hopefully it will at least put it out there that there are some unscrupulous business practices going on.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
White House
I've been working in Washington DC this week and last. Here's a picture from my 10 seconds of sight seeing (as I walked from my office to my hotel)
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Top 101....everything
This site is lots of fun. It's a huge collection of top/bottom 101 lists. Here's just a few that I clicked on and found interesting...
Top 101 cities with the coldest winters (pop. 50k+): Cities in Minnesota make up 16 of the top 20. (Minneapolis/Bloomington are 19th and 17th respectively)
Top 101 zip codes with the highest 2004 average Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) for individuals (pop 1,000+): New York is number 1, Greenwich, CT is 7th and 15th, nothing in Ohio made the list.
Top 101 zip codes with the largest charity contributions deductions as a percentage of AGI in 2004 (pop 1,000+): Richmond, VA is way at the top. Cleveland, OH is number 6.
Top 101 zip codes with the most big companies in 2005 (at least 1000 employees): Las Vegas is number 1. Who knew? (New York has 7 of the remaining top 10 and Atlantic City is in there at number 6.
Top 101 cities with the highest average wind speeds (population 50,000+): Chicago didn't even make the list.
Top 101 cities with the highest maximum monthly sunshine amount (population 50,000+): Cities in California make up the top 73 spots.
Top 101 cities with the lowest maximum monthly sunshine amount (population 50,000+): Youngstown, Columbus, and Cincinnati are numbers 16, 20, and 21, respectively.
Top 101 counties with the worst general health status score of residents (1-5), 3 years of data: Lorain and Cuyahoga counties are numbers 30 and 31, respectively.
Top 101 counties with the highest percentage of residents that visited a dentist within the past year: Leading the pack in Ohio and 39th overall is Lucas county.
Top 101 counties with the highest average weight of females: Lets hear it for Hamilton county (Cincinnati) for having the 4th fattest women in the nation. Franklin county (Columbus) is number 23, Lorain is 40, Cuyahoga is 41, Lucas is 63.
Top 101 counties with the largest number of people moving out compared to moving in (pop. 50,000+): Ohio counties account for 16 of the top 101 with Cuyahoga leading the way at number 9 overall.
Ok, that's all I've got. There's so many lists on this page, there's no way I could even look at them all.
Oh, and if you haven't wasted enough time reading through the lists, try searching for an individual city. It returns a crazy amount of information. I searched for Sylvania and it gave me the number of students at Sylvan Elementary...
Top 101 cities with the coldest winters (pop. 50k+): Cities in Minnesota make up 16 of the top 20. (Minneapolis/Bloomington are 19th and 17th respectively)
Top 101 zip codes with the highest 2004 average Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) for individuals (pop 1,000+): New York is number 1, Greenwich, CT is 7th and 15th, nothing in Ohio made the list.
Top 101 zip codes with the largest charity contributions deductions as a percentage of AGI in 2004 (pop 1,000+): Richmond, VA is way at the top. Cleveland, OH is number 6.
Top 101 zip codes with the most big companies in 2005 (at least 1000 employees): Las Vegas is number 1. Who knew? (New York has 7 of the remaining top 10 and Atlantic City is in there at number 6.
Top 101 cities with the highest average wind speeds (population 50,000+): Chicago didn't even make the list.
Top 101 cities with the highest maximum monthly sunshine amount (population 50,000+): Cities in California make up the top 73 spots.
Top 101 cities with the lowest maximum monthly sunshine amount (population 50,000+): Youngstown, Columbus, and Cincinnati are numbers 16, 20, and 21, respectively.
Top 101 counties with the worst general health status score of residents (1-5), 3 years of data: Lorain and Cuyahoga counties are numbers 30 and 31, respectively.
Top 101 counties with the highest percentage of residents that visited a dentist within the past year: Leading the pack in Ohio and 39th overall is Lucas county.
Top 101 counties with the highest average weight of females: Lets hear it for Hamilton county (Cincinnati) for having the 4th fattest women in the nation. Franklin county (Columbus) is number 23, Lorain is 40, Cuyahoga is 41, Lucas is 63.
Top 101 counties with the largest number of people moving out compared to moving in (pop. 50,000+): Ohio counties account for 16 of the top 101 with Cuyahoga leading the way at number 9 overall.
Ok, that's all I've got. There's so many lists on this page, there's no way I could even look at them all.
Oh, and if you haven't wasted enough time reading through the lists, try searching for an individual city. It returns a crazy amount of information. I searched for Sylvania and it gave me the number of students at Sylvan Elementary...
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Minneapolis on a rare, gorgeous Fall day
This is the view from my audit room in Minneapolis. Last week it was cold and raining every day, tomorrow is going to be in the 40s, but today is 70 and sunny. Sure, I'm inside all day, but at least my view is nice.
Friday, October 26, 2007
I've got a question for FEMA
The Washington Post is reporting that the press conference held by Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy administrator of FEMA, was completely rigged. The reporters at the press conference lobbed softball question after softball question at Johnson. If this seems a little fishy to you, considering the press's distrust of FEMA, you're right. It turns out that the "reporters" were FEMA's director of external affairs, deputy directors of external affairs and public affairs, and possibly a press aide. (Apparently the Washington Post isn't so sure on that one)
FEMA denied all of this though, right? Not at all. One of the fake reporters had the following to say: (From the article)
But the staff did not make up the questions, he said, and Johnson did not know what was going to be asked. "We pulled questions from those we had been getting from reporters earlier in the day." Despite the very short notice, "we were expecting the press to come," he said, but they didn't. So the staff played reporters for what on TV looked just like the real thing. "If the worst thing that happens to me in this disaster is that we had staff in the chairs to ask questions that reporters had been asking all day, Widomski said, "trust me, I'll be happy."
FEMA denied all of this though, right? Not at all. One of the fake reporters had the following to say: (From the article)
But the staff did not make up the questions, he said, and Johnson did not know what was going to be asked. "We pulled questions from those we had been getting from reporters earlier in the day." Despite the very short notice, "we were expecting the press to come," he said, but they didn't. So the staff played reporters for what on TV looked just like the real thing. "If the worst thing that happens to me in this disaster is that we had staff in the chairs to ask questions that reporters had been asking all day, Widomski said, "trust me, I'll be happy."
The elusive deposit: The final chapter?
In the last chapter, I wrote about filling out the stop payment form, having it notarized, and sending it to the management company. Here's the rest of the story...
Two days later, I got a call from the management company. The manager told me that she got my form and forwarded it on to the bank branch manager for processing. That's good. But later that day, she also got my security deposit check returned from the post office. That's sort of good.
Of course it would work out like that. It's all well and good that they managed to return the check, but they managed to return the check right after I signed an affidavit swearing that if I received the said check, I wouldn't cash it. So I asked her to call the bank and straighten it out and I picked up the check later that day.
The manager wasn't in when I picked up the check, so I couldn't confirm that the dispute had been closed. The following day I was too busy to call her. So finally, today, I got the chance to call and confirm that she spoke with the bank manager, the dispute is closed, the stop payment has been ripped up, and I'm free to deposit my check.
So tonight I'm going to deposit and begin the waiting process. I'm not going to believe this whole ordeal is over with until the check clears the bank.
Two days later, I got a call from the management company. The manager told me that she got my form and forwarded it on to the bank branch manager for processing. That's good. But later that day, she also got my security deposit check returned from the post office. That's sort of good.
Of course it would work out like that. It's all well and good that they managed to return the check, but they managed to return the check right after I signed an affidavit swearing that if I received the said check, I wouldn't cash it. So I asked her to call the bank and straighten it out and I picked up the check later that day.
The manager wasn't in when I picked up the check, so I couldn't confirm that the dispute had been closed. The following day I was too busy to call her. So finally, today, I got the chance to call and confirm that she spoke with the bank manager, the dispute is closed, the stop payment has been ripped up, and I'm free to deposit my check.
So tonight I'm going to deposit and begin the waiting process. I'm not going to believe this whole ordeal is over with until the check clears the bank.
Monday, October 22, 2007
On the hunt for my deposit: an update
About 2 weeks ago, I wrote about my lost deposit check. Well, I got back from a week in Minnesota and my former management company never received the returned check. According to the USPS's website, my deposit is still floating around somewhere between the first and second delivery attempt. I called the management company and had them fax me the form. Luckily, I found a list of notaries in my office and there are a bunch to choose from. I filled out the form, had it notarized, and sent it on to the management company. We'll see where it goes from here...
New Phone
I was going to call this post, "I'm officially that guy," but I'm still in denial about that part.
Last week I switched to AT&T and got myself a blackberry. My number is the same, but for those of you using Verizon, I'm no longer in your network...
Last week I switched to AT&T and got myself a blackberry. My number is the same, but for those of you using Verizon, I'm no longer in your network...
Monkeys kill Delhi deputy mayor
The deputy mayor of the Indian capital Delhi died on Sunday after being attacked by a horde of wild monkeys.
SS Bajwa suffered serious head injuries when he fell from the first-floor terrace of his home on Saturday morning trying to fight off the monkeys.
The city has long struggled to counter its plague of monkeys, which invade government complexes and temples, snatch food and scare passers-by.
The High Court demanded the city find an answer to the problem last year.
One approach has been to train bands of larger, more ferocious langur monkeys to go after the smaller groups of Rhesus macaques.
The city has also employed monkey catchers to round them up so they can be moved to forests.
But the problem has persisted.
Culling is seen as unacceptable to devout Hindus, who revere the monkeys as a manifestation of the monkey god Hanuman, and often feed them bananas and peanuts.
Urban development around the city has also been blamed for destroying the monkeys' natural habitat.
Mr Bajwa, a member of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is survived by his wife and a son, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Why would anyone use cheaptickets.com?!
A few months ago, I asked the same question of hotwire.com. This time around, it's cheaptickets.com that has earned my scorn.
Molly and I have been watching the travel sites waiting for the right time to buy tickets home for the holidays. Early Saturday morning, we found that right time and purchased two tickets through cheaptickets. (via kayak) At 11:37am, I received an email from cheaptickets that said:
This reservation request has been sent to the airline(s). Final purchase is pending until we receive confirmation from the airline(s). Once that confirmation is received, usually within 24 hours, we will update your travel document.
Ok, I thought, no big deal. I bought my tickets through cheaptickets, so now they have to turn around and buy the tickets from the airline. No problem, right? I mean, how long could it possibly take to electronically purchase some tickets?
At 10:02pm, nearly 12 hours later, I received this email:
Dear Valued Cheaptickets Customer,
We regret to inform you that, due to limited availability, the airline was not able to confirm the flights you requested. Therefore, no tickets have been issued for this trip and your credit card has not been charged.
Situations like this are rare; however, when they do occur we attempt to contact our customers immediately as to avoid missing out on advance purchase opportunities.
To help you understand how this situation could occur:
Cheaptickets is a full service travel agency. Our advanced search engine searches two billion fares within seconds from over 450 airlines. Our secure on-line booking system accesses fares and availability from the same central reservation systems that other travel agents and airline reservation agents are booking from worldwide. As you can imagine, with the extensive volume of agents booking flights at any given time, availability for a particular flight can be gone in an instant. Therefore, when your ticketing request reached the airline, availability for the flight(s) you selected was no longer available.
The confirmation e-mail that you may have received is only an acknowledgement that the flights you selected for purchase have been sent to the airline for approval prior to ticketing and does not guarantee ticket issuance.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and thank you for your understanding. We appreciate your business and look forward to serving you in the near future.
Please click on the following link to make your new reservation http://www.cheaptickets.com
Sincerely,
Cheaptickets Ticket Advisory Department
Seriously? Well, maybe the flight wouldn't have sold out if it didn't take cheaptickets 12 hours to book the flight. Maybe next time I will use those "other travel agents and airline reservation agents" because they seem better able to do their job. They have got to be kidding with that link at the bottom of their email. I'm against hotwire.com because I think the idea behind their booking system is just stupid. I'm against cheaptickets.com now just based on principle.
Molly and I have been watching the travel sites waiting for the right time to buy tickets home for the holidays. Early Saturday morning, we found that right time and purchased two tickets through cheaptickets. (via kayak) At 11:37am, I received an email from cheaptickets that said:
This reservation request has been sent to the airline(s). Final purchase is pending until we receive confirmation from the airline(s). Once that confirmation is received, usually within 24 hours, we will update your travel document.
Ok, I thought, no big deal. I bought my tickets through cheaptickets, so now they have to turn around and buy the tickets from the airline. No problem, right? I mean, how long could it possibly take to electronically purchase some tickets?
At 10:02pm, nearly 12 hours later, I received this email:
Dear Valued Cheaptickets Customer,
We regret to inform you that, due to limited availability, the airline was not able to confirm the flights you requested. Therefore, no tickets have been issued for this trip and your credit card has not been charged.
Situations like this are rare; however, when they do occur we attempt to contact our customers immediately as to avoid missing out on advance purchase opportunities.
To help you understand how this situation could occur:
Cheaptickets is a full service travel agency. Our advanced search engine searches two billion fares within seconds from over 450 airlines. Our secure on-line booking system accesses fares and availability from the same central reservation systems that other travel agents and airline reservation agents are booking from worldwide. As you can imagine, with the extensive volume of agents booking flights at any given time, availability for a particular flight can be gone in an instant. Therefore, when your ticketing request reached the airline, availability for the flight(s) you selected was no longer available.
The confirmation e-mail that you may have received is only an acknowledgement that the flights you selected for purchase have been sent to the airline for approval prior to ticketing and does not guarantee ticket issuance.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and thank you for your understanding. We appreciate your business and look forward to serving you in the near future.
Please click on the following link to make your new reservation http://www.cheaptickets.com
Sincerely,
Cheaptickets Ticket Advisory Department
Seriously? Well, maybe the flight wouldn't have sold out if it didn't take cheaptickets 12 hours to book the flight. Maybe next time I will use those "other travel agents and airline reservation agents" because they seem better able to do their job. They have got to be kidding with that link at the bottom of their email. I'm against hotwire.com because I think the idea behind their booking system is just stupid. I'm against cheaptickets.com now just based on principle.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Where in the world is Ross Sandiego
So I've been really busy for the last few months, (hence the lack of any activity on this site) but this week has been fairly light, so I've had the chance to make some posts on here. Part of the reason I've been incommunicado is the amount of traveling I've been doing. I thought I'd share some of that travel with you, so I prepared a handy map. The size of the Sporky pencil topper is approximately proportional to the amount of time I've spent in that city. (Click the map for a bigger version)
Thursday, October 11, 2007
How much does crack cost? $25
This is an old story at this point, as it happened back when I was working in Connecticut, but I suppose better late than never...
So a little while back, I was commuting to Greenwich, Connecticut every day for work. It was a bit of a pain in the ass. My commute went something like this: Walk a mile to the subway. Take the subway up to Harlem, 125th street. Walk a block to the Metro North commuter railroad station. Take the train for about 45 minutes up to Greenwich. Walk a half a mile to my office. Total round trip commute: About 4 hours and 3 miles walked.
The important part of this story is the one block jaunt through Harlem. I made this walk at 7:30am each morning and around 8pm each night. The crazy thing was that Harlem was a lot worse in the morning.
Occasionally I would stop at the 'carb wagon' located outside the metro north station. This is a mobile cart that sells bagels, donuts, coffee, etc. I stopped to buy a bagel one morning and there was a line of people at the cart. I was 4th in line and the woman in the front seemed to be buying in bulk, so it was taking a while. I amused myself watching the pair of crackheads in front of me. One girl looked like your stereotypical crackhead. She couldn't have looked more like Dave Chappelle's interp
retation. Actually, she looked a bit like that character mixed with Flava Flav. So anyway, I was standing there watching them when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw another shady looking character walking up holding one of those zipper bank bags. It caught my attention because who walks around Harlem with a bank bag?
So anyway, this guy walks right up to the alpha crackhead and says, "I got 3 for $25 for you." She pulled out $25 and he handed her a little bag with three white rocks in it. I was witnessing my first crack deal at 7:30 in the morning on a crowded street. He took her money, she took her crack, and they both walked away. She must have been so excited to have more crack that she forgot that she was waiting in line. The woman in line behind me started freaking out and screaming about how they should be ashamed of themselves for buying drugs out in the open. Not for buying drugs, but for buying drugs out in the open.
I was now 2nd in line (since the crackheads left) and I had my bagel within a few seconds. I turned to head up to the train station and noticed two cops standing not 10 yards from the carb wagon. A lot of good they did...
I did that commute for about a month and I actually witnessed two drugs deals and was offered something for $4, but I had no idea what it was that I was being offered. At this point I don't remember what the guy even said to me, but I googled it and looked it up on urban dictionary, but it wasn't there.
So there you go. That's my crack story...
So a little while back, I was commuting to Greenwich, Connecticut every day for work. It was a bit of a pain in the ass. My commute went something like this: Walk a mile to the subway. Take the subway up to Harlem, 125th street. Walk a block to the Metro North commuter railroad station. Take the train for about 45 minutes up to Greenwich. Walk a half a mile to my office. Total round trip commute: About 4 hours and 3 miles walked.
The important part of this story is the one block jaunt through Harlem. I made this walk at 7:30am each morning and around 8pm each night. The crazy thing was that Harlem was a lot worse in the morning.
Occasionally I would stop at the 'carb wagon' located outside the metro north station. This is a mobile cart that sells bagels, donuts, coffee, etc. I stopped to buy a bagel one morning and there was a line of people at the cart. I was 4th in line and the woman in the front seemed to be buying in bulk, so it was taking a while. I amused myself watching the pair of crackheads in front of me. One girl looked like your stereotypical crackhead. She couldn't have looked more like Dave Chappelle's interp
retation. Actually, she looked a bit like that character mixed with Flava Flav. So anyway, I was standing there watching them when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw another shady looking character walking up holding one of those zipper bank bags. It caught my attention because who walks around Harlem with a bank bag?
So anyway, this guy walks right up to the alpha crackhead and says, "I got 3 for $25 for you." She pulled out $25 and he handed her a little bag with three white rocks in it. I was witnessing my first crack deal at 7:30 in the morning on a crowded street. He took her money, she took her crack, and they both walked away. She must have been so excited to have more crack that she forgot that she was waiting in line. The woman in line behind me started freaking out and screaming about how they should be ashamed of themselves for buying drugs out in the open. Not for buying drugs, but for buying drugs out in the open.I was now 2nd in line (since the crackheads left) and I had my bagel within a few seconds. I turned to head up to the train station and noticed two cops standing not 10 yards from the carb wagon. A lot of good they did...
I did that commute for about a month and I actually witnessed two drugs deals and was offered something for $4, but I had no idea what it was that I was being offered. At this point I don't remember what the guy even said to me, but I googled it and looked it up on urban dictionary, but it wasn't there.
So there you go. That's my crack story...
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
US Mail. When you absolutely, positively got to lose every piece of mail in the room, accept no substitutes.
As you probably know, I moved out of my old apartment at the end of August. What you may not know, however, (since I didn't write about it here) is that I had a number of problems with my management company, with my super, and with my building. I was more than happy to vacate the property, but I was a bit worried about getting my security deposit back. (Shades of Madeline here)
So I moved into my new place and started waiting for my check to come. And then I waited some more. Then I called my old management company and they told me they'd mail it out the following week. The following week came and went - nothing. I called back and they told me they had mailed it. A few more days went by - nothing. I called back and this time they gave me the USPS tracking number. They had sent it by certified mail, so luckily I had a way to track it... sort of.
I went on the USPS website and it told me that the letter had been mailed on the date my management company said it was. It also said that there was a delivery attempt the following day, but no one was home, so they left a notice. Then, nothing. See, here's the thing, I never got that notice. And the second delivery attempt that was supposed to have been made 5 days later? Yeah, that never happened. The website makes no mention of a second delivery.
So I went to my local post office, tracking number in hand, and inquired about my missing certified mail. I spoke with a low level mail jockey, but quickly realized that I was getting nowhere, so I asked for a supervisor. The supervisor was better dressed, but that was about the only improvement. Both employees scoured their mail room, but neither could find my letter. After a solid 20 minutes of discussing my issue and searching for my letter, the supervisor told me that the letter was indeed missing and there was no way for them to track it down. You see, what I can see on the USPS website is the same as what the postal employees can see in their computer. The supervisor told me that he could see the first delivery attempt, but for some reason, no second delivery attempt was made. The computer had no information about where the letter may be held or even what address it had been sent to (or from).
Here was his final thought: "What I think happened is that they accidentally sent it to you with the 10075 zipcode. It probably went to the wrong post office as a result and you wouldn't have gotten the delivery attempt notice."
And this was my response: "What the hell are you talking about? My zipcode is 10075 and this is the freaking main post office for that zipcode. Where would it have gone if not here?
He tried to explain that my zipcode was not 10075, but actually 10021. I guess I need to explain here that a few months back, a big section of the city in the 10021 zipcode was divided up into 10021, 10075, and 10065. My apartment falls into the new 10075 area. He was insisting that I was actually in the 10021 area. But the kicker? There was a giant map posted in the lobby of the post office showing that not only was my apartment in the 10075 zip code, but it was as far from the 10021 section as you could possibly get. This guy was totally worthless.
The post office had lost my certified letter and had no way of tracking it down. It was time to call my management company back. I told them that the post office lost their check and asked if they could put a stop payment on it and send me another one. (Or better yet, let me just come pick it up) They told me that there was a problem with that, as my deposit was a bank-held security and therefore the check had been sent directly from the bank. I was told I'd have to call back the following Tuesday since Monday was a holiday and the manager wouldn't be in until then. Tuesday came and went, but I was too busy to call.
Now it's Wednesday and I had a minute to call. I spoke with the manager at the management company, explained the situation, and asked for a new check. She told me that in order to get me a new check, we'd have to do the following:
She would have to call the bank and request a form from them. They'd fax it to me and I'd fill it out and have it notarized. I would then mail it to the management company and they'd fill it out and also have it notarized. Then they would send it back to the bank and they would stop payment on the old check and issue me a new one, but they may or may not charge me a fee for doing so.
The post office had told me that if the letter wasn't claimed after 15 days, they would return it to the sender. That's assuming that it isn't lost though. The 15 days are up next week, so I'm going to wait it out and hope it just ends up back at the bank/management company. If not, we'll take it from there. This is completely asinine, but I'm not the least bit surprised that this is how I'd end my relationship with my management company.
More details to follow as they arise...
So I moved into my new place and started waiting for my check to come. And then I waited some more. Then I called my old management company and they told me they'd mail it out the following week. The following week came and went - nothing. I called back and they told me they had mailed it. A few more days went by - nothing. I called back and this time they gave me the USPS tracking number. They had sent it by certified mail, so luckily I had a way to track it... sort of.
I went on the USPS website and it told me that the letter had been mailed on the date my management company said it was. It also said that there was a delivery attempt the following day, but no one was home, so they left a notice. Then, nothing. See, here's the thing, I never got that notice. And the second delivery attempt that was supposed to have been made 5 days later? Yeah, that never happened. The website makes no mention of a second delivery.
So I went to my local post office, tracking number in hand, and inquired about my missing certified mail. I spoke with a low level mail jockey, but quickly realized that I was getting nowhere, so I asked for a supervisor. The supervisor was better dressed, but that was about the only improvement. Both employees scoured their mail room, but neither could find my letter. After a solid 20 minutes of discussing my issue and searching for my letter, the supervisor told me that the letter was indeed missing and there was no way for them to track it down. You see, what I can see on the USPS website is the same as what the postal employees can see in their computer. The supervisor told me that he could see the first delivery attempt, but for some reason, no second delivery attempt was made. The computer had no information about where the letter may be held or even what address it had been sent to (or from).
Here was his final thought: "What I think happened is that they accidentally sent it to you with the 10075 zipcode. It probably went to the wrong post office as a result and you wouldn't have gotten the delivery attempt notice."
And this was my response: "What the hell are you talking about? My zipcode is 10075 and this is the freaking main post office for that zipcode. Where would it have gone if not here?
He tried to explain that my zipcode was not 10075, but actually 10021. I guess I need to explain here that a few months back, a big section of the city in the 10021 zipcode was divided up into 10021, 10075, and 10065. My apartment falls into the new 10075 area. He was insisting that I was actually in the 10021 area. But the kicker? There was a giant map posted in the lobby of the post office showing that not only was my apartment in the 10075 zip code, but it was as far from the 10021 section as you could possibly get. This guy was totally worthless.
The post office had lost my certified letter and had no way of tracking it down. It was time to call my management company back. I told them that the post office lost their check and asked if they could put a stop payment on it and send me another one. (Or better yet, let me just come pick it up) They told me that there was a problem with that, as my deposit was a bank-held security and therefore the check had been sent directly from the bank. I was told I'd have to call back the following Tuesday since Monday was a holiday and the manager wouldn't be in until then. Tuesday came and went, but I was too busy to call.
Now it's Wednesday and I had a minute to call. I spoke with the manager at the management company, explained the situation, and asked for a new check. She told me that in order to get me a new check, we'd have to do the following:
She would have to call the bank and request a form from them. They'd fax it to me and I'd fill it out and have it notarized. I would then mail it to the management company and they'd fill it out and also have it notarized. Then they would send it back to the bank and they would stop payment on the old check and issue me a new one, but they may or may not charge me a fee for doing so.
The post office had told me that if the letter wasn't claimed after 15 days, they would return it to the sender. That's assuming that it isn't lost though. The 15 days are up next week, so I'm going to wait it out and hope it just ends up back at the bank/management company. If not, we'll take it from there. This is completely asinine, but I'm not the least bit surprised that this is how I'd end my relationship with my management company.
More details to follow as they arise...
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Some days it seems that the world is just out to get you...
Yesterday was supposed to be a really productive, yet relaxing and fun day. The key phrase in that sentence was "supposed to be". Go get yourself something to drink, something to snack on, and read on. This is probably going to be a long one.
Molly's boss Robyn has a beautiful beach house in Larchmont, New York. She was nice enough to invite us up there for the day yesterday. Since we also need to furnish the new apartment, we figured we would combine the trip to Larchmont with a trip to Ikea. This seemed like a pretty good idea and it also seemed fairly simple and straightforward. We sure were wrong...
We figured that we would need to rent a large vehicle to bring our Ikea purchases back with us, but after calling every rental car company in the city, I learned that there were no SUVs left to rent in the New York Metro area. Since we couldn't exactly fit a couch into a Taurus, I made a reservation for a 12' Penske truck. That's what I drove from Ohio when I moved out here and it was a good experience, so I thought I would give it another shot. The only problem was, for some unknown reason, the Penske website wouldn't let me make the reservation online. I had to call the Penske place and reserve it over the phone. It took 5 or 6 calls before I got through to someone, but he was nice enough and I got a pretty good deal on my reservation.
So everything was in place yesterday when we started our day. We had a Penske truck waiting for us, Robyn gave us directions, and we had our ambition hats on. But us being us, we were running a little behind schedule. "That's no problem," I thought. "I'll just call Penske and tell them that we'll be about an hour and a half late to pick up our truck." Here's a paraphrased transcript:
Me: Hi, I have a 12' truck reserved for 9am this morning. I just wanted to call and let you know that I'm running a bit late, but I'll be in to pick it up around 10:30. Is that ok?
Penske: Sure, what's the name?
Me: *Tells him my name*
Penske: Um, could it be under a different name?
Me: No, it's definitely under my name. Try looking it up by my phone number. That's how they found me last time I called.
Penske: Photolight?
Me: What?
Penske: Photolight?
Me: You keep saying that, but I don't know what you're talking about.
Penske: Ok, well, we only have one reservation and it's a business rental for Photolight. So that's not you?
That was the first little hiccup for the day, but he was really nice and told me to just come in when I could and he would have a truck for me. We showed up right around 10:30 and he did, in fact, have a truck for us. We chatted with the Penske guy as he filled out the paperwork and we talked about Ikea, moving, and heavy CRT televisions. When everything was settled, he said, "Ok, so no Henry Hudson, no FDR Drive..." and he started listing highways. Molly asked why not and he told us that we have commercial plates and we're not allowed on any parkways or restricted roads. He asked us if we needed to take any of them. Molly looked at our directions and we pretty much had to take exclusively those roads he named. But again, this guy being really nice, he took us into the back office where they had big maps on the wall and helped us plot a commercial vehicle course. We could make it there, but we had to use I95, which is a hellish stretch of gridlock. Oh well, at least we can still make it there and we have my GPS, so we're fine. Right?
We went out to get our truck and he informed us of the next issue. The seatbelt was broken on the truck and he didn't have any other trucks to give us. The seatbelt still worked, but it couldn't be unbuckled. This meant that in order to get in, I had to pull the belt out as far as I could and then sort of climb underneath it. It was funny looking, but it worked, and he knocked $50 off the price and gave us unlimited miles. It was an inconvenience, but we benefited from it, so it wasn't a big deal.
We set up the GPS and went on our way. It worked out just like we had planned and we were to I95 without too much delay. Then, delay was all we had. I95 was so backed up that we were just sitting there for an hour. Then two hours. It was a painful stretch of highway, but eventually the gridlock cleared and we made it upstate. Since we could no longer rely on the directions from Robyn, we were relying on the GPS to tell us where to go. When we were practically to our destination, the GPS told us to exit into downtown New Rochelle. Downtown New Rochelle was a quaint little town and it seemed like we were in the cute little beach town we were looking for. We weaved around the little streets following the GPS's instructions when we hit traffic. Molly noticed that up in the distance, firefighters were putting out a building fire. We were detoured by the New Rochelle police department right into a traffic jam. At this point we had to laugh. We finally got out of the gridlock of I95 only to find ourselves in the gridlock of a cute little town. That tacked on another 30 minutes, but eventually we got through it and we arrived at the beach house. All in all, it took over 3 hours to go 41 miles.
The beach house was great though. It was right on Long Island Sound, the house was amazing, and the view was spectacular. The original plan was to spend about 6 hours on the beach before heading to Ikea, but because of the delays, we had under 3 hours to relax. We walked out to the end of a pier and sat by the water, we hung out on the beach, and we played with Robyn's kids. (20 months and 3 years. Both boys. Both adorable) Robyn even treated us to lunch at the private beach's snack bar. (Which was surprisingly good) Unfortunately, it was quickly time to leave, so we headed back to the house to collect our belongings, figure out how to get to Ikea without using parkways, and get on our way. Right as we left the beach, a loud thunderclap shook the sky. It seemed about right that we would end up driving in a thunderstorm. I mean, who couldn't see that one coming?
We were even further behind schedule at this point and now our quick jaunt to Ikea was going to be further delayed by the fact that we couldn't figure out how to get to the Paramus, NJ Ikea without taking the Garden State Parkway. Since that was off limits to our commercial vehicle, we decided to just go to the Elizabeth, NJ Ikea which was accessible by the NJ Turnpike. It was further away than Paramus and we had to head back down I95...oh yeah, and it was storming. We got in the car and started to head out, but I realized that I couldn't turn on the headlights. Well, I could turn them on, but they wouldn't light up. I called the Penske place to ask if I was just missing something and they told me to try calling the 24-hour emergency SOS line to see if they could walk me through something. I called the 800 number and I was not a happy guy. We were already so late and this was not what we needed. Here's the thing. This was the only day that the two of us could get to Ikea. Molly has a busy schedule with work and two different theatre things going on. I am about to start working in Connecticut and I was told to expect to be working the weekends. We had to get to Ikea today or it wasn't going to happen. And not going to Ikea wasn't an option. I need to find a short-term subletter/roommate and no one is going to rent an empty apartment.
So I called the SOS hotline and the guy who answered was totally worthless. I told him what was going on and he spent the first 5 minutes trying to figure out if we were in Canada. After repeatedly telling him that I was in New York, I finally asked him why the heck he kept insisting that I was in Canada. He told me: "Well, you said that it's getting dark, but it's 4:30 in New York, so it wouldn't be dark yet. You must be in Canada then." Does that make sense to anyone else? Did I miss that episode of 3-2-1 Contact where they explained that Canada is some dark netherworld where it's always night time and Penske employees aren't completely retarded? (I apologize to actual retarded people. I'm giving you a bad name by comparing you to this guy) I finally convinced him that I was, in fact, in New York. He then spent another several minutes trying to figure out where exactly I was parked at the time. I asked him if he was sending someone out or what he was trying to accomplish. He told me that he was just trying to fill out his incident report and I needed to bear with him. As I said, I was not happy at this point, so I wasn't willing to sit quietly while he filled out his paperwork. I told him that he was not helping and he was making the situation worse by further delaying me. I asked him what he was planning to do after he finished filling out his incident report. He told me that we was going to tell me the closest Penske location so that I could swap trucks. I told him that that didn't exactly help me, but I was willing to listen. Ok great sage of the Penske emergency hotline. Where is the closest Penske location? JFK airport. "Thanks sir" I told him "but JFK airport cannot possibly be the closest Penske. That makes no sense. I'm upstate and JFK is at the bottom of Queens." He was now frustrated with me because apparently no one had ever questioned his all-knowing abilities and he said, "Listen sir, I'm just trying to help you with your problem and this is what it's telling me." I thanked him (for nothing) and told him just to make sure it was noted on my account that I was given a rental truck without functioning headlights. I hung up and started driving. Molly and I debated whether or not we should just head back to Manhattan and give up. We were fine driving through the storm at that point and we were a huge yellow truck, so we weren't hard to miss. We thought it would be best to just head back and play it safe, but as we went, we decided to go to Ikea anyway. The appeal of cheap Swedish furniture was too great to resist and we were going to have to drive without our lights either way we went. It probably wasn't the smartest decision, but at least our parking lights and high beams worked, so we weren't totally helpless.
So we set out on our journey to Elizabeth, NJ, but first we had to scale the Cliffs of Insanity (I95) and navigate through the Fire Swamp. (The George Washington Bridge) It was more gridlock, but this time around we had the extra benefit of it also being rush hour on a Friday. And storming. We somehow made it though. After getting across the GW Bridge and getting to the turnpike, it was a quick drive to Ikea. The original plan was to get there around 5, which gave us a solid 4 hours to do our shopping before they closed. We arrived with under 2 hours. (From this you'd think we were only 2 hours behind schedule, which we were, but we also lost 3 hours of beach time, so we were really out 5 or 6 hours from our original plan) The saving grace of the trip was that we found everything we needed at Ikea. (It was scary for a moment though. One of the most crucial things we needed to buy was a sofa bed and every one was labeled as "out of stock." We finally found a cool futon chair which was labeled as "in stock," but when we asked an employee, he told us it was out of stock too. Exasperated, we asked what they actually had in stock, and he told us our first choice of sofa bed was just mislabeled and they had plenty of them.) So it worked out. We completely furnished the apartment with Ikea stuff and it cost far less than we had anticipated.
We loaded our Penske truck and headed home. I could see enough of the road without headlights that I could drive, (mostly) but I was worried about other cars seeing me. Granted, I was in a 12' yellow box, but still. I decided to drive with the hazards on. This at least made sure my taillights were illuminated. Molly joked that if we had a flashlight, she could hold it out the window to light up the road. Actually, I told her, there was an emergency flashlight in the truck. I took it out of the emergency kit that came with the truck and turned it on. It didn't work. The batteries must have been dead. Seriously? It can't be legal to rent out a truck without functioning headlights nor a functioning flashlight. Anyway, we drove 55 in the right lane the entire way back to the city. For some reason, New Jersey doesn't use their street lights, (which would have been really useful) but we made it back in one piece. Once we got back to Manhattan, driving was fine. It was actually kind of funny. Manhattan is so bright, even at night, that headlights are pretty unnecessary.
We made it back to my apartment, unloaded the truck, and drove it back to the Penske place. It was after hours, so I told the night security/return guy that the headlights didn't work, but his only response was, "Wow, and you didn't get a ticket?"
So there you go. That was our day yesterday. It was one ridiculous thing after another, but we made it to the beach and we made it to Ikea. I called Penske this morning and told them what happened. I told them that it was downright dangerous and, as a simple show of good faith, I didn't think they should charge me for the rental. (I could probably sue them, but I just want my money back) The guy who I talked to said he'd have to talk to the manager when he came in on Monday, but he'd get back to me. I'll update this post to let you know what happens. But the moral of the story? It's probably best to rent a U-Haul or a big van without commercial plates. Oh, and make sure the headlights work before you leave the rental place.
Molly's boss Robyn has a beautiful beach house in Larchmont, New York. She was nice enough to invite us up there for the day yesterday. Since we also need to furnish the new apartment, we figured we would combine the trip to Larchmont with a trip to Ikea. This seemed like a pretty good idea and it also seemed fairly simple and straightforward. We sure were wrong...
We figured that we would need to rent a large vehicle to bring our Ikea purchases back with us, but after calling every rental car company in the city, I learned that there were no SUVs left to rent in the New York Metro area. Since we couldn't exactly fit a couch into a Taurus, I made a reservation for a 12' Penske truck. That's what I drove from Ohio when I moved out here and it was a good experience, so I thought I would give it another shot. The only problem was, for some unknown reason, the Penske website wouldn't let me make the reservation online. I had to call the Penske place and reserve it over the phone. It took 5 or 6 calls before I got through to someone, but he was nice enough and I got a pretty good deal on my reservation.
So everything was in place yesterday when we started our day. We had a Penske truck waiting for us, Robyn gave us directions, and we had our ambition hats on. But us being us, we were running a little behind schedule. "That's no problem," I thought. "I'll just call Penske and tell them that we'll be about an hour and a half late to pick up our truck." Here's a paraphrased transcript:
Me: Hi, I have a 12' truck reserved for 9am this morning. I just wanted to call and let you know that I'm running a bit late, but I'll be in to pick it up around 10:30. Is that ok?
Penske: Sure, what's the name?
Me: *Tells him my name*
Penske: Um, could it be under a different name?
Me: No, it's definitely under my name. Try looking it up by my phone number. That's how they found me last time I called.
Penske: Photolight?
Me: What?
Penske: Photolight?
Me: You keep saying that, but I don't know what you're talking about.
Penske: Ok, well, we only have one reservation and it's a business rental for Photolight. So that's not you?
That was the first little hiccup for the day, but he was really nice and told me to just come in when I could and he would have a truck for me. We showed up right around 10:30 and he did, in fact, have a truck for us. We chatted with the Penske guy as he filled out the paperwork and we talked about Ikea, moving, and heavy CRT televisions. When everything was settled, he said, "Ok, so no Henry Hudson, no FDR Drive..." and he started listing highways. Molly asked why not and he told us that we have commercial plates and we're not allowed on any parkways or restricted roads. He asked us if we needed to take any of them. Molly looked at our directions and we pretty much had to take exclusively those roads he named. But again, this guy being really nice, he took us into the back office where they had big maps on the wall and helped us plot a commercial vehicle course. We could make it there, but we had to use I95, which is a hellish stretch of gridlock. Oh well, at least we can still make it there and we have my GPS, so we're fine. Right?
We went out to get our truck and he informed us of the next issue. The seatbelt was broken on the truck and he didn't have any other trucks to give us. The seatbelt still worked, but it couldn't be unbuckled. This meant that in order to get in, I had to pull the belt out as far as I could and then sort of climb underneath it. It was funny looking, but it worked, and he knocked $50 off the price and gave us unlimited miles. It was an inconvenience, but we benefited from it, so it wasn't a big deal.
We set up the GPS and went on our way. It worked out just like we had planned and we were to I95 without too much delay. Then, delay was all we had. I95 was so backed up that we were just sitting there for an hour. Then two hours. It was a painful stretch of highway, but eventually the gridlock cleared and we made it upstate. Since we could no longer rely on the directions from Robyn, we were relying on the GPS to tell us where to go. When we were practically to our destination, the GPS told us to exit into downtown New Rochelle. Downtown New Rochelle was a quaint little town and it seemed like we were in the cute little beach town we were looking for. We weaved around the little streets following the GPS's instructions when we hit traffic. Molly noticed that up in the distance, firefighters were putting out a building fire. We were detoured by the New Rochelle police department right into a traffic jam. At this point we had to laugh. We finally got out of the gridlock of I95 only to find ourselves in the gridlock of a cute little town. That tacked on another 30 minutes, but eventually we got through it and we arrived at the beach house. All in all, it took over 3 hours to go 41 miles.
The beach house was great though. It was right on Long Island Sound, the house was amazing, and the view was spectacular. The original plan was to spend about 6 hours on the beach before heading to Ikea, but because of the delays, we had under 3 hours to relax. We walked out to the end of a pier and sat by the water, we hung out on the beach, and we played with Robyn's kids. (20 months and 3 years. Both boys. Both adorable) Robyn even treated us to lunch at the private beach's snack bar. (Which was surprisingly good) Unfortunately, it was quickly time to leave, so we headed back to the house to collect our belongings, figure out how to get to Ikea without using parkways, and get on our way. Right as we left the beach, a loud thunderclap shook the sky. It seemed about right that we would end up driving in a thunderstorm. I mean, who couldn't see that one coming?
We were even further behind schedule at this point and now our quick jaunt to Ikea was going to be further delayed by the fact that we couldn't figure out how to get to the Paramus, NJ Ikea without taking the Garden State Parkway. Since that was off limits to our commercial vehicle, we decided to just go to the Elizabeth, NJ Ikea which was accessible by the NJ Turnpike. It was further away than Paramus and we had to head back down I95...oh yeah, and it was storming. We got in the car and started to head out, but I realized that I couldn't turn on the headlights. Well, I could turn them on, but they wouldn't light up. I called the Penske place to ask if I was just missing something and they told me to try calling the 24-hour emergency SOS line to see if they could walk me through something. I called the 800 number and I was not a happy guy. We were already so late and this was not what we needed. Here's the thing. This was the only day that the two of us could get to Ikea. Molly has a busy schedule with work and two different theatre things going on. I am about to start working in Connecticut and I was told to expect to be working the weekends. We had to get to Ikea today or it wasn't going to happen. And not going to Ikea wasn't an option. I need to find a short-term subletter/roommate and no one is going to rent an empty apartment.
So I called the SOS hotline and the guy who answered was totally worthless. I told him what was going on and he spent the first 5 minutes trying to figure out if we were in Canada. After repeatedly telling him that I was in New York, I finally asked him why the heck he kept insisting that I was in Canada. He told me: "Well, you said that it's getting dark, but it's 4:30 in New York, so it wouldn't be dark yet. You must be in Canada then." Does that make sense to anyone else? Did I miss that episode of 3-2-1 Contact where they explained that Canada is some dark netherworld where it's always night time and Penske employees aren't completely retarded? (I apologize to actual retarded people. I'm giving you a bad name by comparing you to this guy) I finally convinced him that I was, in fact, in New York. He then spent another several minutes trying to figure out where exactly I was parked at the time. I asked him if he was sending someone out or what he was trying to accomplish. He told me that he was just trying to fill out his incident report and I needed to bear with him. As I said, I was not happy at this point, so I wasn't willing to sit quietly while he filled out his paperwork. I told him that he was not helping and he was making the situation worse by further delaying me. I asked him what he was planning to do after he finished filling out his incident report. He told me that we was going to tell me the closest Penske location so that I could swap trucks. I told him that that didn't exactly help me, but I was willing to listen. Ok great sage of the Penske emergency hotline. Where is the closest Penske location? JFK airport. "Thanks sir" I told him "but JFK airport cannot possibly be the closest Penske. That makes no sense. I'm upstate and JFK is at the bottom of Queens." He was now frustrated with me because apparently no one had ever questioned his all-knowing abilities and he said, "Listen sir, I'm just trying to help you with your problem and this is what it's telling me." I thanked him (for nothing) and told him just to make sure it was noted on my account that I was given a rental truck without functioning headlights. I hung up and started driving. Molly and I debated whether or not we should just head back to Manhattan and give up. We were fine driving through the storm at that point and we were a huge yellow truck, so we weren't hard to miss. We thought it would be best to just head back and play it safe, but as we went, we decided to go to Ikea anyway. The appeal of cheap Swedish furniture was too great to resist and we were going to have to drive without our lights either way we went. It probably wasn't the smartest decision, but at least our parking lights and high beams worked, so we weren't totally helpless.
So we set out on our journey to Elizabeth, NJ, but first we had to scale the Cliffs of Insanity (I95) and navigate through the Fire Swamp. (The George Washington Bridge) It was more gridlock, but this time around we had the extra benefit of it also being rush hour on a Friday. And storming. We somehow made it though. After getting across the GW Bridge and getting to the turnpike, it was a quick drive to Ikea. The original plan was to get there around 5, which gave us a solid 4 hours to do our shopping before they closed. We arrived with under 2 hours. (From this you'd think we were only 2 hours behind schedule, which we were, but we also lost 3 hours of beach time, so we were really out 5 or 6 hours from our original plan) The saving grace of the trip was that we found everything we needed at Ikea. (It was scary for a moment though. One of the most crucial things we needed to buy was a sofa bed and every one was labeled as "out of stock." We finally found a cool futon chair which was labeled as "in stock," but when we asked an employee, he told us it was out of stock too. Exasperated, we asked what they actually had in stock, and he told us our first choice of sofa bed was just mislabeled and they had plenty of them.) So it worked out. We completely furnished the apartment with Ikea stuff and it cost far less than we had anticipated.
We loaded our Penske truck and headed home. I could see enough of the road without headlights that I could drive, (mostly) but I was worried about other cars seeing me. Granted, I was in a 12' yellow box, but still. I decided to drive with the hazards on. This at least made sure my taillights were illuminated. Molly joked that if we had a flashlight, she could hold it out the window to light up the road. Actually, I told her, there was an emergency flashlight in the truck. I took it out of the emergency kit that came with the truck and turned it on. It didn't work. The batteries must have been dead. Seriously? It can't be legal to rent out a truck without functioning headlights nor a functioning flashlight. Anyway, we drove 55 in the right lane the entire way back to the city. For some reason, New Jersey doesn't use their street lights, (which would have been really useful) but we made it back in one piece. Once we got back to Manhattan, driving was fine. It was actually kind of funny. Manhattan is so bright, even at night, that headlights are pretty unnecessary.
We made it back to my apartment, unloaded the truck, and drove it back to the Penske place. It was after hours, so I told the night security/return guy that the headlights didn't work, but his only response was, "Wow, and you didn't get a ticket?"
So there you go. That was our day yesterday. It was one ridiculous thing after another, but we made it to the beach and we made it to Ikea. I called Penske this morning and told them what happened. I told them that it was downright dangerous and, as a simple show of good faith, I didn't think they should charge me for the rental. (I could probably sue them, but I just want my money back) The guy who I talked to said he'd have to talk to the manager when he came in on Monday, but he'd get back to me. I'll update this post to let you know what happens. But the moral of the story? It's probably best to rent a U-Haul or a big van without commercial plates. Oh, and make sure the headlights work before you leave the rental place.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
New apartment!
After much ado, I finally signed a new lease this evening. I move in on September first. Check out the details and pictures here...
Just a note of warning, I went a little overboard on the design of my picture page and it might not work so well in every browser
Just a note of warning, I went a little overboard on the design of my picture page and it might not work so well in every browser
Thursday, August 09, 2007
When it rains, it po... shuts down the subways
As you probably heard, we had a big storm yesterday that included an EF2 Tornado in Brooklyn. (On a side note, did you know that the Fujita scale was replaced by the enhanced Fujita scale? I didn't...)
Anyway, on top of the damage done by the strong winds, the rain flooded the subway tunnels and shut down pretty much all subway activity. The MTA encouraged people to stay home and avoid going out if they could. I took them up on that and "worked from home" yesterday.
This was the worst mass transit shut-down I've seen since the transit strike...
Anyway, on top of the damage done by the strong winds, the rain flooded the subway tunnels and shut down pretty much all subway activity. The MTA encouraged people to stay home and avoid going out if they could. I took them up on that and "worked from home" yesterday.
This was the worst mass transit shut-down I've seen since the transit strike...
Thursday, August 02, 2007
What Happened To Us?
Last weekend I went to the Museum of Modern Art to see an exhibit called "What Happened To Us?" As promised, here are some pictures. These were hand painted onto a wall in MoMA. (Note: These images are scans of the free pamphlet handed out at the exhibit, so ignore the images bleeding through from the other side of the page)
The artist's bio from MoMA.org: For his first solo museum exhibition in the United States, the Romanian artist Dan Perjovschi was invited to create a large-scale drawing installation, executed over a period of two weeks directly onto the wall of The Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium. Inspired by current events reported on television and in newspaper and tabloid headlines, Perjovschi explores political topics including the Middle East conflict and the recent extension of the European Union. Through concise phrases and wordplay, his sketches and skits portray reality with a sense of criticality and pointed humor. The work's rhetorical title, WHAT HAPPENED TO US?, offers a textual pun, in which US may refer either to the subjective pronoun "us" or to the proper noun "United States of America."
Monday, June 11, 2007
Tony Awards
Through one of Molly's many theatre contacts, we were able to go to the 2007 Tony Awards as seat fillers this past Sunday. As the Tony Awards are a black tie affair, I had to rent a tux and Molly had to borrow a dress. Unfortunately, when we were all dressed up and ready to go, both of our roommates were out of town, so we had to settle for taking pictures in Molly's poorly lit hallway with her camera's self-timer. It may not be the best picture, but you can still see how dashing we looked.
We were given instructions by the Tony people about when and where to arrive. We were also told that we were going to be there from 4:30 to 11:00 and we wouldn't be able to bring food or drinks. As such, we went out for a late lunch and stuffed ourselves around 2:00. We went to Molly's apartment, changed, took pictures, and then realized we were dangerously close to being late. We jumped in a cab and asked the driver to get us to Radio City Music Hall as fast as possible. There was just one little problem. Sunday wasn't just the Tony Awards. Sunday was also the Puerto Rican day parade. The cab driver could only get us so close before we had to get out and fight our way through the crowd, cross the parade route, and get to the theatre. Even though we were nervous about being late, we could still appreciate the fact that we were dressed in our black tie attire and were surrounded by this:
The disparity was vast and comical. We got all sorts of strange looks as we passed through the crowd.
We made it across the parade route and arrived at the theatre at about 4:29. By the time we got there, a fairly large line of seat fillers had formed outside the theatre. This was yet another factor to make us nervous. At lunch we had discussed the various possibilities for our night, but not even getting in was not one of them. Luckily, the line started moving and after no time at all, we were given wristbands and escorted to our seats in the back of the theatre.
All the seat fillers were corralled into a big group at the back of the theatre. They were running the rehearsal, so we got to sit there quietly and watch as the stand-ins delivered their speeches and accepted their awards. It was pretty interesting to watch.
After the rehearsal was over and we were allowed to make noise again, the seat filler crew gave us our welcome speech and went over the rules. We were given instructions about how the seat filling would work, who to talk to for further instruction, and where to stand, but it was clear that it was going to be pretty chaotic as there were around 200 of us and maybe 10 of them.
When they were through talking to us, we were split into three groups. One group of 50 lined up against the far wall on stage left, our group of 50 lined up against the far wall on stage right, and the remaining 100 seat fillers stayed in their seats in the back of the theatre. At first, we were a little jealous of the people who got to stay in their seats. We were going to be standing all night while they got to lounge comfortably in their seats. But then we got to our wall and discovered our close, clear view of the stage. We had a far better vantage point than the obstructed view seats of the other seat fillers. And then it got even better. Patti LuPone walked right in front of us and we realized that we were standing 100 feet from the door to the backstage area. Nearly every presenter and a handful of other celebrities began walking right by us. The list was vast, but included:
Eventually the main show began (the tech awards were earlier, but we stood in the wings and watched celebrities, so we barely even noticed that they were going on) and the seat fillers began to fulfill their destinies. Since we were towards the middle/back of the line, we didn't get seated during the first commercial break, but we ended up pretty close to the front of the line.
I suppose now would be a good time to explain how seat filling actually works. Since the cameras at the Tony Awards are up close and personal, they want to make sure that all the seats are filled at all times. During commercial breaks, the guests go to the bathroom, talk in the aisles, or just get up to walk around. As soon as the commercial begins, the seat fillers start taking empty seats. Sometimes, a seat filler will sit in a seat only to get up again a few seconds later when the ticket holder comes back. The seat fillers were taken from the front of the line to fill seats and they returned to the end of the line after being bumped. If they got seated and subsequently bumped during the same 3 minute commercial break, however, they were allowed to return to the front of the line. The other important rule was that if you got bumped from a seat, but you saw another empty one, you could take it without being placed there by a crew member. The whole process took place at a rapid pace due to the time constraints and things got a little nuts when they announced 30 seconds or 10 seconds remaining.
So anyway, we didn't get seated during the first commercial break, but Molly got seated during the second or third. I moved up to the front of the line, but as people got bumped, I kept getting pushed back to 7h, 8th, 9th in line. Molly was seated towards the back, (the back of our seat filling section, which was the first 15 or so rows) got bumped at the next commercial, and moved to the another seat near the back.
I was then seated at the next commercial break and got a really nice seat. I was sitting directly behind Jan Maxwell of Coram Boy in the 5th or 6th row.
At the next commercial break, Molly was seated across the aisle from me right in front of Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts. You can see us as Jay Jonhson walks up to receive his award.
The woman sitting to my left must have realized that her companion was not coming back because she gathered her stuff and stormed off leaving an empty seat next to me. Molly took advantage of that and, at the next commercial break, moved across the aisle to sit next to me. We sat there happily for a couple of segments until two ticket holders bumped us from our seats. We were upset because we had great seats and the ticket holders were bumping us from the wrong seats. I had seen the people previously occupying our seats, so I knew that these people were mistaken, but we weren't in a position to argue. There were two seat fillers sitting directly behind us, so those were probably the seats these people were looking for. Regardless, we politely vacated our seats and Molly ran up to a crew member to ask if anything was open. He directed us to the front row and we sat down in our best seats of the night. Molly was right next to Anne Heche and I was diagonally in front of Angela Lansbury. Any lingering anger about our unjust seat bumping was quickly erased, but we knew our time there had to be limited. We had too great of seats to stay for long.
Sure enough, in the middle of the next segment, I felt a tap on my knee. I looked up to see Kevin Spacey staring down at me. I quickly and graciously got up, but it wasn't a commercial break. The show was going on and I was being bumped from my front row seat. I crouched down and started to take my leave, but I was trapped between two camera men blocking my exit. So there I was, crouched down on the floor of Radio City Music Hall - in the front row - while the show was going on - in front of Kevin Spacey and Anne Heche - with nowhere to go. I was starting to panic when Kevin Spacey suddenly decided he wasn't ready to sit down yet, told me he would be right back, and walked away. Molly and I decided that Kevin Spacey just does whatever he wants, whenever he wants. Kevin Spacey doesn't let commercial breaks get in his way. So I sat back down and a few moments later, Journey's End won Best Revival of a Play and walked right past us and onto the stage.
This is a great shot of Molly and Anne Heche during Journey's End's moment.
And here we are - perfectly framed - in the front row - in front of 6.2 million television viewers.
During the next commercial break, Kevin Spacey came back and decided the time was right for him to take his seat. As I got up, he put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Thanks. Sorry about that." So Kevin Spacey not only touched me, but apologized to me as well.
Kevin Spacey's companion bumped Molly from her seat as well, so the two of us retreated to the back of the seat filler line. At this point, the show was nearly over, so we didn't expect to get seated again. We stood there discussing the night's events and we would have been happy to let it end there. We were pretty well fulfilled. At that moment, the only thing we really wanted was water. It was some time after 10pm and we hadn't had a drop of water since around 3pm despite the fact that we were running around under the hot lights. All the celebrities and crew members were walking around with bottles of Fiji water, but the lowly seat fillers got nothing.
As we waited around in our line, Spring Awakening took the stage to perform. We couldn't see very well from where we were standing, so we edged closer to the seats and to where other people were standing and trying to see as well. Molly ended up standing right up next to Vanessa Williams during the performance.
Then, during the final commercial break, Molly was picked to go out into the seats and I took it upon myself to find one of my own. As I walked out into the crowd, I saw Kevin Spacey walk by, so I made a beeline towards his seat. I sat down next to Anne Heche and a few seconds later, Molly ended up getting seated right next to me. Molly and I were discussing our good luck, since we randomly got seated together again and we were back in the front row, when Anne Heche turned to me and handed me her cell phone. She asked me to take a picture of her and her date. I was happy to oblige.
Angela Lansbury took the stage to wish everyone farewell and the show ended. We got up to leave, but we were stuck behind the massive crowd. As we were standing around waiting to get out, the front row celebrities were doing the same. Seeing an opportunity, Molly walked right up to Zach Braff and had the following conversation:
Molly: Hey Zach Braff, you don't know me, but do you think you can get me a gift bag?
Zach Braff: You don't want one, they're not that great anyway.
Molly: Come on, I'm sure they are.
Zach Braff: It's really just an energy drink and a gift certificate for a cubic zirconia.
We eventually made our way up the aisle and out of the theatre. As we walked out into the night, we were greeted by the sight of fans packing the street and trying to get pictures of celebrities. Since Molly and I were directly behind Zach Braff, we probably ended up in a lot of people's pictures.
All in all, it was a really fun night. We'll definitely go back next year if we get the opportunity.
We were given instructions by the Tony people about when and where to arrive. We were also told that we were going to be there from 4:30 to 11:00 and we wouldn't be able to bring food or drinks. As such, we went out for a late lunch and stuffed ourselves around 2:00. We went to Molly's apartment, changed, took pictures, and then realized we were dangerously close to being late. We jumped in a cab and asked the driver to get us to Radio City Music Hall as fast as possible. There was just one little problem. Sunday wasn't just the Tony Awards. Sunday was also the Puerto Rican day parade. The cab driver could only get us so close before we had to get out and fight our way through the crowd, cross the parade route, and get to the theatre. Even though we were nervous about being late, we could still appreciate the fact that we were dressed in our black tie attire and were surrounded by this:
The disparity was vast and comical. We got all sorts of strange looks as we passed through the crowd.We made it across the parade route and arrived at the theatre at about 4:29. By the time we got there, a fairly large line of seat fillers had formed outside the theatre. This was yet another factor to make us nervous. At lunch we had discussed the various possibilities for our night, but not even getting in was not one of them. Luckily, the line started moving and after no time at all, we were given wristbands and escorted to our seats in the back of the theatre.
All the seat fillers were corralled into a big group at the back of the theatre. They were running the rehearsal, so we got to sit there quietly and watch as the stand-ins delivered their speeches and accepted their awards. It was pretty interesting to watch.
After the rehearsal was over and we were allowed to make noise again, the seat filler crew gave us our welcome speech and went over the rules. We were given instructions about how the seat filling would work, who to talk to for further instruction, and where to stand, but it was clear that it was going to be pretty chaotic as there were around 200 of us and maybe 10 of them.
When they were through talking to us, we were split into three groups. One group of 50 lined up against the far wall on stage left, our group of 50 lined up against the far wall on stage right, and the remaining 100 seat fillers stayed in their seats in the back of the theatre. At first, we were a little jealous of the people who got to stay in their seats. We were going to be standing all night while they got to lounge comfortably in their seats. But then we got to our wall and discovered our close, clear view of the stage. We had a far better vantage point than the obstructed view seats of the other seat fillers. And then it got even better. Patti LuPone walked right in front of us and we realized that we were standing 100 feet from the door to the backstage area. Nearly every presenter and a handful of other celebrities began walking right by us. The list was vast, but included:
- Patti LuPone
- John Mahoney
- Idina Menzel and Taye Diggs
- Jeff Daniels
- Neil Patrick Harris
- Anne Heche
- Harry Connick Jr
- Eddie Izzard
- Angela Lansbury (who asked the line of seat fillers if we were waiting for a bus)
- Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts
- Zach Braff
- Christina Appelgate
- Rainn Wilson
- Cynthia Nixon
- Vanessa Williams
- Robert Sean Leonard
- Brian Dennehy
- Sam Waterston
Eventually the main show began (the tech awards were earlier, but we stood in the wings and watched celebrities, so we barely even noticed that they were going on) and the seat fillers began to fulfill their destinies. Since we were towards the middle/back of the line, we didn't get seated during the first commercial break, but we ended up pretty close to the front of the line.
I suppose now would be a good time to explain how seat filling actually works. Since the cameras at the Tony Awards are up close and personal, they want to make sure that all the seats are filled at all times. During commercial breaks, the guests go to the bathroom, talk in the aisles, or just get up to walk around. As soon as the commercial begins, the seat fillers start taking empty seats. Sometimes, a seat filler will sit in a seat only to get up again a few seconds later when the ticket holder comes back. The seat fillers were taken from the front of the line to fill seats and they returned to the end of the line after being bumped. If they got seated and subsequently bumped during the same 3 minute commercial break, however, they were allowed to return to the front of the line. The other important rule was that if you got bumped from a seat, but you saw another empty one, you could take it without being placed there by a crew member. The whole process took place at a rapid pace due to the time constraints and things got a little nuts when they announced 30 seconds or 10 seconds remaining.
So anyway, we didn't get seated during the first commercial break, but Molly got seated during the second or third. I moved up to the front of the line, but as people got bumped, I kept getting pushed back to 7h, 8th, 9th in line. Molly was seated towards the back, (the back of our seat filling section, which was the first 15 or so rows) got bumped at the next commercial, and moved to the another seat near the back.
I was then seated at the next commercial break and got a really nice seat. I was sitting directly behind Jan Maxwell of Coram Boy in the 5th or 6th row.
At the next commercial break, Molly was seated across the aisle from me right in front of Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts. You can see us as Jay Jonhson walks up to receive his award.
The woman sitting to my left must have realized that her companion was not coming back because she gathered her stuff and stormed off leaving an empty seat next to me. Molly took advantage of that and, at the next commercial break, moved across the aisle to sit next to me. We sat there happily for a couple of segments until two ticket holders bumped us from our seats. We were upset because we had great seats and the ticket holders were bumping us from the wrong seats. I had seen the people previously occupying our seats, so I knew that these people were mistaken, but we weren't in a position to argue. There were two seat fillers sitting directly behind us, so those were probably the seats these people were looking for. Regardless, we politely vacated our seats and Molly ran up to a crew member to ask if anything was open. He directed us to the front row and we sat down in our best seats of the night. Molly was right next to Anne Heche and I was diagonally in front of Angela Lansbury. Any lingering anger about our unjust seat bumping was quickly erased, but we knew our time there had to be limited. We had too great of seats to stay for long.Sure enough, in the middle of the next segment, I felt a tap on my knee. I looked up to see Kevin Spacey staring down at me. I quickly and graciously got up, but it wasn't a commercial break. The show was going on and I was being bumped from my front row seat. I crouched down and started to take my leave, but I was trapped between two camera men blocking my exit. So there I was, crouched down on the floor of Radio City Music Hall - in the front row - while the show was going on - in front of Kevin Spacey and Anne Heche - with nowhere to go. I was starting to panic when Kevin Spacey suddenly decided he wasn't ready to sit down yet, told me he would be right back, and walked away. Molly and I decided that Kevin Spacey just does whatever he wants, whenever he wants. Kevin Spacey doesn't let commercial breaks get in his way. So I sat back down and a few moments later, Journey's End won Best Revival of a Play and walked right past us and onto the stage.
This is a great shot of Molly and Anne Heche during Journey's End's moment.
And here we are - perfectly framed - in the front row - in front of 6.2 million television viewers.
During the next commercial break, Kevin Spacey came back and decided the time was right for him to take his seat. As I got up, he put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Thanks. Sorry about that." So Kevin Spacey not only touched me, but apologized to me as well.Kevin Spacey's companion bumped Molly from her seat as well, so the two of us retreated to the back of the seat filler line. At this point, the show was nearly over, so we didn't expect to get seated again. We stood there discussing the night's events and we would have been happy to let it end there. We were pretty well fulfilled. At that moment, the only thing we really wanted was water. It was some time after 10pm and we hadn't had a drop of water since around 3pm despite the fact that we were running around under the hot lights. All the celebrities and crew members were walking around with bottles of Fiji water, but the lowly seat fillers got nothing.
As we waited around in our line, Spring Awakening took the stage to perform. We couldn't see very well from where we were standing, so we edged closer to the seats and to where other people were standing and trying to see as well. Molly ended up standing right up next to Vanessa Williams during the performance.
Then, during the final commercial break, Molly was picked to go out into the seats and I took it upon myself to find one of my own. As I walked out into the crowd, I saw Kevin Spacey walk by, so I made a beeline towards his seat. I sat down next to Anne Heche and a few seconds later, Molly ended up getting seated right next to me. Molly and I were discussing our good luck, since we randomly got seated together again and we were back in the front row, when Anne Heche turned to me and handed me her cell phone. She asked me to take a picture of her and her date. I was happy to oblige.
Angela Lansbury took the stage to wish everyone farewell and the show ended. We got up to leave, but we were stuck behind the massive crowd. As we were standing around waiting to get out, the front row celebrities were doing the same. Seeing an opportunity, Molly walked right up to Zach Braff and had the following conversation:
Molly: Hey Zach Braff, you don't know me, but do you think you can get me a gift bag?
Zach Braff: You don't want one, they're not that great anyway.
Molly: Come on, I'm sure they are.
Zach Braff: It's really just an energy drink and a gift certificate for a cubic zirconia.
We eventually made our way up the aisle and out of the theatre. As we walked out into the night, we were greeted by the sight of fans packing the street and trying to get pictures of celebrities. Since Molly and I were directly behind Zach Braff, we probably ended up in a lot of people's pictures.
All in all, it was a really fun night. We'll definitely go back next year if we get the opportunity.
Microsoft Surface
If you haven't heard, Microsoft has announced a new tablet-PC-like table called the Surface. You can check out some demos here: Microsoft Surface
I first heard about the Surface from digg articles and I watched the demos on Microsoft's site, but I wanted to see it for myself. Luckily, the one open-to-the-public demonstration was in New York and even luckier, it was on my way to pick up my tux for the Tonys.
For those of you who don't know, the Surface is really a tablet-PC embedded in a table top. It tracks movement like a normal tablet, but also utilizes cameras so that it can spot "optical identifiers." As of now, these identifiers are the only way that the Surface can interact with things.
This is the optical identifier on the back of a demo credit card. The idea is that you can place any object with one of these stickers onto the Surface and instantly be able to interact with it. As far as the demos went, it worked, but I have to wonder if this is going to work in the real world. I asked a Microsoft employee if they were going to add bluetooth or RFID support in addition to the optical stickers and he said that they were, but he couldn't give me any details about how it would actually work. I'm a bit skeptical.
For demo purposes, they had stickers on credit cards, a smart phone, a sidekick, a drinking glass, etc. They worked really well, but it was a demonstration, so of course they did. When they placed their Zune onto the Surface, their music popped up. When they placed their sidekick onto the Surface, their ringtones and contacts popped up.
There isn't a whole lot to say about the Surface beyond what you can see in the demos online. I was hoping that they would be showing off some functionality beyond what I had already seen, but alas, they did not. There were three Surface tables set up in the lobby of the Sheraton Hotel and each one was cycling through the same stuff.
The one feature they seem to love the most is what I'll call the "pile of pictures." When you want to access your photos, instead of bringing up a directory of picture files, you are presented with a stack of photos. You can then use your fingers to move them around, resize them, rotate them, etc. I played around with it, and it's cool, but totally useless. While I like the idea of being able to resize an image by grabbing it and pulling it apart, I like being able to find my pictures more. If you want to see the bottom picture on the pile, you have to drag every other picture off of it first. Beyond the initial "wow, how cool factor," the picture functionality seems to be a bit of a bust. The Microsoft guy showed how you can add a picture to a virtual postcard for emailing, but it was ridiculous.
Look, you can email a picture with a 5 letter message. Awesome!!!
One feature that's actually pretty cool is the ability to use the Surface table in a restaurant and order right from your table. The idea is that it's linked to the kitchen and you can select your items and send it directly to the chef without having to wait around for your waiter. That's cool, but could probably be accomplished with a $100 PDA as opposed to a $10,000 table. The really neat restaurant feature is being able to pay from your table. The Microsoft guy showed an example where he placed two credit cards onto the Surface. It read the cards and then brought up pictures and prices of all the items ordered. He then just dragged each item to the various credit cards and pointed to "pay." Since no one seems to use cash anymore, that would be pretty handy. I suppose the waiter would still have to bring you a receipt though.
This was a demo that I was looking forward to seeing. I had seen these little squares before, but I didn't understand what they were. Each one had a translucent optical identifier on it and the Surface played a bit of video under each one. The idea is that it's a video puzzle. As you move them around, the video follows the pieces. You can even flip the square over and the video will do the same. The two guys in the picture never did solve the puzzle, but it was entertaining to watch.
My thoughts overall is that the Surface is a really cool concept, and it might have practical purposes in the future, but for now, it's not worth the price tag. The Microsoft guy said that they will start appearing within the next year in Harrah's Casinos, T-Mobile stores, and Sheraton Hotels. He said that they wouldn't be ready for the average consumer for at least 3 more years. And that's probably for the best...
I first heard about the Surface from digg articles and I watched the demos on Microsoft's site, but I wanted to see it for myself. Luckily, the one open-to-the-public demonstration was in New York and even luckier, it was on my way to pick up my tux for the Tonys.
For those of you who don't know, the Surface is really a tablet-PC embedded in a table top. It tracks movement like a normal tablet, but also utilizes cameras so that it can spot "optical identifiers." As of now, these identifiers are the only way that the Surface can interact with things.
This is the optical identifier on the back of a demo credit card. The idea is that you can place any object with one of these stickers onto the Surface and instantly be able to interact with it. As far as the demos went, it worked, but I have to wonder if this is going to work in the real world. I asked a Microsoft employee if they were going to add bluetooth or RFID support in addition to the optical stickers and he said that they were, but he couldn't give me any details about how it would actually work. I'm a bit skeptical.
For demo purposes, they had stickers on credit cards, a smart phone, a sidekick, a drinking glass, etc. They worked really well, but it was a demonstration, so of course they did. When they placed their Zune onto the Surface, their music popped up. When they placed their sidekick onto the Surface, their ringtones and contacts popped up.There isn't a whole lot to say about the Surface beyond what you can see in the demos online. I was hoping that they would be showing off some functionality beyond what I had already seen, but alas, they did not. There were three Surface tables set up in the lobby of the Sheraton Hotel and each one was cycling through the same stuff.
The one feature they seem to love the most is what I'll call the "pile of pictures." When you want to access your photos, instead of bringing up a directory of picture files, you are presented with a stack of photos. You can then use your fingers to move them around, resize them, rotate them, etc. I played around with it, and it's cool, but totally useless. While I like the idea of being able to resize an image by grabbing it and pulling it apart, I like being able to find my pictures more. If you want to see the bottom picture on the pile, you have to drag every other picture off of it first. Beyond the initial "wow, how cool factor," the picture functionality seems to be a bit of a bust. The Microsoft guy showed how you can add a picture to a virtual postcard for emailing, but it was ridiculous.
Look, you can email a picture with a 5 letter message. Awesome!!!One feature that's actually pretty cool is the ability to use the Surface table in a restaurant and order right from your table. The idea is that it's linked to the kitchen and you can select your items and send it directly to the chef without having to wait around for your waiter. That's cool, but could probably be accomplished with a $100 PDA as opposed to a $10,000 table. The really neat restaurant feature is being able to pay from your table. The Microsoft guy showed an example where he placed two credit cards onto the Surface. It read the cards and then brought up pictures and prices of all the items ordered. He then just dragged each item to the various credit cards and pointed to "pay." Since no one seems to use cash anymore, that would be pretty handy. I suppose the waiter would still have to bring you a receipt though.
This was a demo that I was looking forward to seeing. I had seen these little squares before, but I didn't understand what they were. Each one had a translucent optical identifier on it and the Surface played a bit of video under each one. The idea is that it's a video puzzle. As you move them around, the video follows the pieces. You can even flip the square over and the video will do the same. The two guys in the picture never did solve the puzzle, but it was entertaining to watch.
My thoughts overall is that the Surface is a really cool concept, and it might have practical purposes in the future, but for now, it's not worth the price tag. The Microsoft guy said that they will start appearing within the next year in Harrah's Casinos, T-Mobile stores, and Sheraton Hotels. He said that they wouldn't be ready for the average consumer for at least 3 more years. And that's probably for the best...
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Random Picture of the Day
This is the view out my bedroom window. I awoke to discover a street festival happening right in front of my building. I had no prior knowledge of said street festival...
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Jews on Parade
I set out earlier today with the intention of walking around Central Park. On the way, however, I stumbled upon a huge parade celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem. 5th avenue was absolutely packed with people wearing yalmukas and sporting payot. Nearly everyone I saw was wearing some sort of Israel-related t-shirt as well.
Here's some pictures I took:
There were countless floats like this one. I didn't take many pictures until the end, so I missed most of them. It was kind of funny though. Most of the floats were for Jewish Kidney Donation organizations and other groups of that ilk having no connection to the reunification of Jerusalem. But I suppose if you need Jewish themed floats for a parade, you'll take what you can get.
The parade was mostly made up of little kids waving flags and holding banners for their local yeshiva. 
This was the best part. At the tail end of the parade were a sea of bikers. There were probably 100 of them.
Israeli bikers are quite the sight to see...
I tried my best to capture the Hell's Angels patches and jackets people were wearing, but it was bright and my camera phone sucks. Who knew there was a Jewish Hell's Angels chapter?
So there you have it. Yet another random day in New York.
Here's some pictures I took:
There were countless floats like this one. I didn't take many pictures until the end, so I missed most of them. It was kind of funny though. Most of the floats were for Jewish Kidney Donation organizations and other groups of that ilk having no connection to the reunification of Jerusalem. But I suppose if you need Jewish themed floats for a parade, you'll take what you can get.
The parade was mostly made up of little kids waving flags and holding banners for their local yeshiva. 
This was the best part. At the tail end of the parade were a sea of bikers. There were probably 100 of them.
Israeli bikers are quite the sight to see...
I tried my best to capture the Hell's Angels patches and jackets people were wearing, but it was bright and my camera phone sucks. Who knew there was a Jewish Hell's Angels chapter?
As I was walking back, an ambulance came screaming up from behind the parade. People weren't getting out of the way because they thought it was part of the parade...
I found this kind of interesting. At the front of the parade route, they blocked off the street with huge dump trucks instead of the normal wooden police roadblocks. The more I thought about it, the more I noticed the security. The front (and presumably the back) of the parade route was blocked off by dump trucks. The sides were blocked off for blocks. There was a massive police presence and I even saw a number of K9 units. I wonder if all this was to prevent suicide car bombers?
I found this kind of interesting. At the front of the parade route, they blocked off the street with huge dump trucks instead of the normal wooden police roadblocks. The more I thought about it, the more I noticed the security. The front (and presumably the back) of the parade route was blocked off by dump trucks. The sides were blocked off for blocks. There was a massive police presence and I even saw a number of K9 units. I wonder if all this was to prevent suicide car bombers?
This is about a half hour later. I was sitting in my room when I heard police sirens directly below my window. I looked out and saw that they had blocked off second avenue and the bikers were proceeding one at a time down 84th street. There was also a wall of school buses parked outside for some reason. Maybe that's how all the yeshiva kids got there...
So there you have it. Yet another random day in New York.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Boston Legal: Obama for President
I was sitting in my hotel room a few nights ago watching Boston Legal when something really surprised me. Now, Boston Legal has always had a knack for working current events and politics into the show, but this particular episode caught my attention. This is the first time on Boston Legal, or any non-news show for that matter, that I know of, that came right out and named names when it comes to political affiliation. I don't necessarily find anything wrong with it, I'm just surprised.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Kurt is up in Heaven now
It is with a heavy heart that I write these words: Kurt is up in Heaven now. Although he's no longer with us, saying that sentence allows us to share a laugh with him one last time. In his last book, A Man Without a Country, he wrote the following:
"We had a memorial service for Isaac a few years back, and I spoke and said at one point, 'Isaac is up in Heaven now.' It was the funniest thing I could have said to an audience of Humanists. I rolled them in the aisles. It was several minutes before order could be restored. And if I should ever die, God forbid, I hope you will say, 'Kurt is up in Heaven now.' That's my favorite joke."
I remember reading Vonnegut for the first time like it was yesterday. It was sophomore year of high school and we read Harrison Bergeron in English class. I instantly fell in love with his writing and I was desperate for more. Later that day, I went to A Novel Idea, a used bookstore in Sylvania, and asked if they had any Kurt Vonnegut novels for sale. I remember the guy who worked there telling me that it was a rare day that anyone actually sold them a Vonnegut novel, but I was in luck, because that day they had one book of his. It was a collection of short stories called Welcome to the Monkey House. I read it from cover to cover several times. It was fitting that the second story of the book was Harrison Bergeron. I've since collected nearly everything he's written and take every opportunity to share his work with others.
I received his last book, the aforementioned A Man Without a Country, from my brother Eric as a gift. I knew as I read it that it would most likely be the last book he wrote, so I intentionally read it slowly. It's a collection of short essays and I could easily have read it in one sitting, but I stretched it out over the course of a few weeks in order to savor his writing. In one essay, he writes of going out to buy an envelope. In this story, he mentions that he lives in Manhattan on 48th street, between 2nd and 3rd avenues. As I read that story, I was sitting in my apartment on 56th street, a mere 8 blocks uptown from him. Ever since then, I've been on the lookout for him. Every time I left my apartment, I secretly hoped to be able to walk by him on the street. I didn't want to stop him and talk to him, for I didn't want to waste his time. I was simply hoping to be able to give him a nod of appreciation as we passed on the street. Alas, I never got that chance and now I never will.
It's a very sad day today. We've lost one of the greatest writers of all time.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
November 11, 1922 - April 11, 2007
I received his last book, the aforementioned A Man Without a Country, from my brother Eric as a gift. I knew as I read it that it would most likely be the last book he wrote, so I intentionally read it slowly. It's a collection of short essays and I could easily have read it in one sitting, but I stretched it out over the course of a few weeks in order to savor his writing. In one essay, he writes of going out to buy an envelope. In this story, he mentions that he lives in Manhattan on 48th street, between 2nd and 3rd avenues. As I read that story, I was sitting in my apartment on 56th street, a mere 8 blocks uptown from him. Ever since then, I've been on the lookout for him. Every time I left my apartment, I secretly hoped to be able to walk by him on the street. I didn't want to stop him and talk to him, for I didn't want to waste his time. I was simply hoping to be able to give him a nod of appreciation as we passed on the street. Alas, I never got that chance and now I never will.
It's a very sad day today. We've lost one of the greatest writers of all time.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
November 11, 1922 - April 11, 2007
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Overreaction Du Jour
Ok, seriously? This Don Imus "nappy headed hos" story is still dominating the news? Who cares? Why is this such a big deal? Should he have said that? Of course not. Should people be absolutely consumed by it? Of course not! I'm not defending Imus, but I think people need to take a deep breath and just calm down.I feel like this whole story could be called Janet Jackson's breast at the Superbowl 2.0. This is just another case of our country losing its collective mind over something that, in the grand scheme of things, doesn't freaking matter! If you pay attention, you can hear far worse things said on TV shows, popular music, and movies. I completely agree that what Imus said was wrong, but why does it have to be national news? At least the Superbowl incident happened in front of millions of viewers and was forced into the spotlight. How many people actually listen to/watch Imus? I don't know a single person who does. (How many people had even heard of him before this incident? If it weren't for his feud with Howard Stern, I wouldn't have)
I guess this country just needs trivial issues to fuss over every once in a while. I think that we, as a country, must get bored and look for something to obsess over. Every few months, something pops up to grab our attention. It was Janet Jackson, it was cartoon sex in Grand Theft Auto, it was Terri Schiavo, and now it's Don Imus. At least Congress hasn't gotten involved in this one yet. The bottom line is that stupid people say stupid things. There's no need to blow them out of proportion. If this hadn't turned into a media spectacle, the only people who would have been affected by Imus's comments would have been the 40 or 50 people who actually listen to his show. End of story.
Have you ever seen Vanilla Sky?
Yesterday was my Executive Health Exam, the annual uber-physical provided free of charge to employees of the firm. The EHE building is on prime real estate, sandwiched between the NBC News studio and Nintendo World at 10 Rockefeller Plaza. I walked into the pretty lobby and checked in at the security desk. I told the guard/receptionist (who looked strangely like Idi Amin) that I was going to EHE on the 4th floor and presented my ID. A few seconds later, Amin presented me with this:
"Ok," I thought "this is really creepy." If you haven't seen Vanilla Sky, you have no idea why. Or, you have seen Vanilla Sky, but it was only mediocre, so you don't remember it all that well. I'll explain... Vanilla Sky stars Tom "Nut Job" Cruise. For the first 90 minutes, a lot of crazy, yet unexplained things happen. For the purpose of this story, you don't need to worry about what those things are. Anyway, after the 90 minutes of crazy, Tom ends up at the Life Extension Institute where he learns that he's dead and he's been suspended in a state of lucid dreaming. He had signed a contract with LEI to erase the memory of his death and to keep him in this perpetual state of false life. Honestly, I don't remember the movie all that well myself, but I'm pretty sure he jumps off a building or something at that point. The bottom line is that it's not good to end up at the Life Extension Institute because it means that life isn't real and in about 5 years, you're going to reveal that you're a wacked-out Scientologist and rally against Psychiatry.
"Ok," I thought "this is really creepy." If you haven't seen Vanilla Sky, you have no idea why. Or, you have seen Vanilla Sky, but it was only mediocre, so you don't remember it all that well. I'll explain... Vanilla Sky stars Tom "Nut Job" Cruise. For the first 90 minutes, a lot of crazy, yet unexplained things happen. For the purpose of this story, you don't need to worry about what those things are. Anyway, after the 90 minutes of crazy, Tom ends up at the Life Extension Institute where he learns that he's dead and he's been suspended in a state of lucid dreaming. He had signed a contract with LEI to erase the memory of his death and to keep him in this perpetual state of false life. Honestly, I don't remember the movie all that well myself, but I'm pretty sure he jumps off a building or something at that point. The bottom line is that it's not good to end up at the Life Extension Institute because it means that life isn't real and in about 5 years, you're going to reveal that you're a wacked-out Scientologist and rally against Psychiatry.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Interesting Wired Article
I read a really interesting article in this month's Wired, so I thought I would put a link up on here for those of you who don't subscribe.
See with your tongue. Navigate with your skin. Fly by the seat of your pants (literally). How researchers can tap the plasticity of the brain to hack our 5 senses — and build a few new ones.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Why would anyone use hotwire.com?!
I've been searching all the various meta-travel sites in order to find the cheapest way to get Molly to Cincinnati for Dave's wedding. I was finding pretty much the same flights on all the sites, but Hotwire added an extra layer of stupidity into the mix.
Take a look at the screenshot:
$249 is the same amount that I was finding on most other sites, but only Hotwire refused to tell me when the flight takes off, when it lands, what airline it is, and all that other information that is, I don't know, essential?! Maybe I'm being too harsh on Hotwire though. I mean, they do give you "helpful tips." They are nice enough to tell you that the flight will depart somewhere between 6am and 10pm. Wow, a 16 hour window? That's so generous. Hotwire is even worse than Time Warner's policy of, "We'll be there between 9am and 5pm, so just sit around and wait for us."
Take a look at the screenshot:
$249 is the same amount that I was finding on most other sites, but only Hotwire refused to tell me when the flight takes off, when it lands, what airline it is, and all that other information that is, I don't know, essential?! Maybe I'm being too harsh on Hotwire though. I mean, they do give you "helpful tips." They are nice enough to tell you that the flight will depart somewhere between 6am and 10pm. Wow, a 16 hour window? That's so generous. Hotwire is even worse than Time Warner's policy of, "We'll be there between 9am and 5pm, so just sit around and wait for us."
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