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June 30, 2007
Six Month Resolution Check-Up
What’s the point of making New Year’s Resolutions if you don’t continually check in to see how you’re doing? Well, it’s been half a year since I made my latest round of resolutions, so let’s see how I’m doing and if I need to make any adjustments.
- Set up a meeting with a financial planner.
I’m taking this off the list. I’m very comfortable with my financial situation right now. - Limit fried potato intake to once a month.
This has been surprisingly a LOT easier than I expected it to be. However, the problem is that I’ve been eating other variations of fried food (twinkies, chicken tenders, etc). Therefore, this resolution is being tweaked. Instead of one order of fries per month, it is now one fried food item per two-week span. We’ll see where that gets me. - Visit Kansas City’s museums.
I’m not doing so well on this one. Re-doubling efforts. - Pay off other credit card.
On target to pay off the other card by Christmas. Hope nothing bad happens. - Walk to work at least twice a week.
Out of the 26 weeks so far this year, I’ve walked to work 57 times. I’m a little ahead of schedule. - Use all of my vacation days.
Half-way there. - Go through storage items and purge.
I keep waiting for a crummy weekend to do this, but I should just start weeding through stuff once a week for a few hours. - Boycott shopping at Wal-Mart.
I haven’t been in a Wal-Mart in nearly two years. How refreshing. - Limit my soda intake to one a month.
Those occasional Cokes are lovely.
I feel like I’m doing pretty well. Time for some museums and less fried-foods. How is everyone else doing?
Posted by Seth at 08:00 AM | Comments (1)
June 29, 2007
You Did It! You Just Hit a Home Run!!!
Sometimes we happen upon things by total chance. Like a few years ago, when a friend of mine re-told stories from his brother who worked at a Major League Baseball ballpark. The stories consisted mainly of using the stadium cameras to look around for hot babes and people doing things they shouldn’t be doing. Funny stuff.
I was actually more interested in the story about how this person also had a giant list of phone numbers – some of which were for actual baseball players. Immediately, my mind started racing and I regressed about 15 years in age, back when I was still collecting baseball cards.
In 1991, Frank Thomas became my baseball hero. I had about 30 different cards of his and collected anything that had to do with him. If there was an article about Thomas, Google be damned, I knew about it. Thinking about that crazed time of my life, it only made sense to see if my friend’s brother had Frank Thomas’ phone number.
Sure enough, he did, and I promptly put it into my phone for safe keeping.
One night, while enjoying some cheap beers at Buzzard Beach, Aaron and I were watching the White Sox on television. I had told him the story about getting Thomas’ phone number and how silly it was. Then, the guys on television were discussing how Thomas was one home run away from number 400 in his career. Aaron joked that if he hit it while we were there, I had to call the number to congratulate him.
About 30 minutes later, with the simple swing of his bat, Frank Thomas recorded 400th home run. Before Aaron could even prompt me on what I had to do, the phone was to my ear and Thomas’ phone was ringing. I think this is what I said:
YOU DID IT! YOU DID IT! YOU’RE JUST ROUNDING SECOND BASE RIGHT NOW. YOU HIT NUMBER 400!!! MAN, THAT WAS AWESOME. CONGRATULATIONS BIG HURT! YOU RULE!
I hung up the phone and that’s when Aaron and I busted up laughing hysterically. It was definitely his phone (at least the voicemail sounded like him) and I’m pretty sure I was the first person to ever say congratulations. He never called back, though. Weird.
Anyway, today Frank Thomas hit his 500th career home run. He’s only the 21st person to do that. With a career .300 average and 500 home runs, I have a feeling he might make it into Cooperstown.
Congratulations Big Hurt, can’t wait for #600.
Posted by Seth at 08:00 AM | Comments (2)
June 28, 2007
BMN: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
“We see bad movies so that we can truly appreciate the good ones.”
As soon as the latest Fantastic Four movie came out, the Bad Movie Night crew was excited. You see, when the first movie in a series comes out to a rockin' 24% on RottenTomatoes.com, you KNOW the sequel is going to be something to write home about. What's odd, though, is that “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” actually out-performed the original in the crtics' realm by scoring a 37%.
A 37% doesn't make it a good movie, though.
As we were preparing ourselves at Harry's Country Club, we decided to ask Scoot what he knew about the movie. He said he didn't even know what movie we were watching, “it was either something about the Fantastic Heroes or the Silver Slipper.”
Not even close, Scoot. We then asked for him to name the heroes in the movie.
“Let's see... there's the Orange Hulk Made of Rocks (The Thing). Uhhh, Invisible Chick (The Invisible Girl). Something like a Rubber Man (Mr. Fantastic). The Dude Who Shoots Electricity from his Fingertips (Dr. Doom, a bad guy). And isn't there some guy that blows ice? No? Oh, there's a Fireman (The Human Torch).”
We should've just let Scoot tell us what he thought the movie should be. It was already more entertaining.
Away we went to the movie, Scoot-less, mind you, and soon enough we were whisked away into the Marvel Universe. Or, rather I should say a portion of the Marvel Universe that doesn't match up with the X-Men at all. In the Fantastic Four world, the heroes are super stars, constantly headlining the gossip columns and television shows. In the X-Men world, the heroes are freaks and normal people want them dead. Sure, a big orange rock guy is so much more idol-worthy than a gorgeous red head.
But not only are the Fantastic Heroes superstars, they're also sponsored... by Dodge, Dell and a whole assortment of other corporations just looking to hop on the next big thing. Dodge was even bold enough to put a hemi inside the new Fantastic Heroes hover car that Rubber Man made – yes, they made sure to point that out in the movie.
The lone bright spot of the film was the Silver Slipper. He was so cool, in fact, that there's already talk of a movie JUST for him. Because we need more comic movies. Right?
One of the main plot points (SPOILER WARNING) was how Fireman's molecular structure gets jacked up when he makes contact with the Silver Slipper. After the encounter, whoever Fireman touches, he trades power with them. Trades power. Switches. He can't fly or be on fire until he touches the other person again. Well, the trading notion goes away when he has to take all of the Fantastic Heroes' powers to beat up Fingertip Electricity Dude. It's just a minor continuity error, but whatever. It makes for good story-telling.
Another thing that was prevalent in the film was the writer's utter desire to make us hate the villains by f'ing with some of Earth's more historic landmarks. The Silver Slipper caused the Sphinx had two inches of snow covering it and caused the London Eye to nearly fall into the river. Fingertip Electricity Dude tried to destroy the Great Wall of China (but he's an asshole). And last, but not least, this giant space tornado thing totally messed up Saturn's rings en route to eating our planet! Dick!
Woe is us! Thank God for the Fantastic Heroes. I hope they make another PG film, aimed at kids, with tons of horrible one-liners and Jessica Alba looking un-hot with her fake blue eyes, fake blond hair and one-inch deep make-up. If only!
Posted by Seth at 07:15 AM | Comments (6)
June 27, 2007
Using My Bowling Powers for Good, Again
UPDATE: My donation page wasn't correct. NOW you can go to my page and donate some cold, hard cash.
Last year I used my bowling powers for good – as in fund-raising for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Kansas City. Really, all it entailed was me asking for donations, showing up to a bowling alley, eating free pizza and drinking some beers. I can’t remember exactly how much money I raised, though. My sweet Canadian-themed web site said $240, but those were just online donations and I know I went over that with cash donations in the last day or two.
Well, it’s time to bowl for kids’ sake again and this year I’m aiming to raise $300. That’s right, a whole $50 more than last year’s goal. I think I can do it. In fact, I KNOW I can if each one of my loyal readers would donate just $10 to this very worthy cause.
It’s easy, just go to my radical basketball-themed donation page to make your pledge. When you donate, your name will go in that righteous scrolling banner thing. Cool eh? So if you bring the moneys, then I’ll bring my sweet 175 average and lay a whoopin’ on anyone who dare defy my prowess.
Posted by Seth at 08:00 AM | Comments (1)
June 26, 2007
Close Encounters of the Keillor Kind
Two months ago it was announced that A Prairie Home Companion was coming to Kansas City. Immediately I sent out an email to see if any of my KC friends wanted to go. Sure enough, some of them did and we hurriedly bought up some tickets.
During the two months building up to the show, several of us at work cooked up a scheme to promote one of our clients. After a little investigation about who to contact, we had sent off an email telling the story of Shatto Milk. Surprisingly, the very next day, we received word that PHC would love having our milk backstage for the whole crew to enjoy.
The show was set for Friday, June 22 and we were set to bring some Shatto goodies for rehearsals on both Thursday and Friday.
On Thursday, Andy and I took the product to Starlight Theater. We quickly learned that there was no real schedule and that there really wasn't anyone in charge. Since most everyone loves to eat, we decided that the best bet was to hang out with the caterer. After taking a break and heading back to work, we came back later in the afternoon to set up a table of Shatto products in the green room.
The day didn't go exactly how we had planned – we didn't see, or meet, any of the stars or actors, but at least they could enjoy the milk and cheese. In that respect, our mission was successful.
Friday started off with a bang. We heard from the caterer that the milk was a huge success. There were reports of people taking it up with them to their dressing rooms and not allowing the caterer to take it away when he left. And already that morning, people were asking for more.
We went back that afternoon to replenish the supply and while we were there, we were invited backstage to watch the rehearsal.
There we sat, not 20 feet away from Garrison Keillor and his crew, listening to them rehearse what we were going to hear later evening. After getting up to receive a phone call, I decided to go and check on the milk levels (there were crew members already walking around backstage with glasses full of chocolate milk). When I walked into the green room, there was Mr. Keillor, preparing a plate of food.
I introduced myself and we had a little chit chat. While he gulped down his own glass of chocolate milk (after asking if he could pour me one, too), we made small talk and I told him the story of the Shattos. After he finished his “fantastic” glass of chocolate milk, he opened the skim and put some in his coffee. He said he had to hurry back to work and excused himself.
Rejoining Andy backstage, I told him the story about who I just met and we decided to stick around for a while longer. We were able to listen to the band rehearse several of their songs, listened to the actors preform Guy Noir and had a conversation with Jearlyn Steele. It was an amazing experience.
Later that night a group of us sat near the back of Starlight Theater and watched the radio show live. As hokey as it sounds, I don't think that I remember ever smiling that much for an extended period of time. It was truly incredible to watch so many talented actors and performers in a two-hour timeframe.
If you ever have a chance to see the show live, I highly recommend it. And if you're not a listener of NPR, or the show, you owe yourself a few listens. It's great entertainment and I hope it continues for as long as I do.
Posted by Seth at 07:19 AM | Comments (4)
June 25, 2007
Paying Online Makes it Convenient
On Friday I received my first parking ticket since moving last year. There are usually spaces outside my building and I've never seen a traffic cop around the neighborhood, therefore I was justified in parking there for extended periods of time.
I should've known better to tempt fate. As I got into my car yesterday afternoon, I noticed a rained-on and now dry parking ticket. I couldn't be upset because I know the rules, so I quickly scanned the ticket to see how I could pay it and move on. Parking violaters have two options:
- Plead guilty and write a check and send it to the address on the card.
- Plead not-guilty and go to court.
I'm guilty and I know it, but that doesn't prevent me from suspecting that the Hilti people called the cops to have them come around.
Anyway. I was about to write a check to the city when I noticed you can pay your ticket online. Nice! So I went to the web site, followed the directions and received this error message:
City of Kansas City - Municipal Court Ticket System Error
Your ticket amount information was not located.
If you have waited 15 days for this information to be entered into the system,
please call (816)513-2700 to report this issue.
Uh, what? 15 days? I can't pay my ticket online for 15 days? They're telling me that I could send/receive four letters in the regular mail in the time it will take them to enter a parking ticket into the system? I could get another sinus infection and be done with my antibiotics by the time my ticket is payable online? If I were in the city of Kiev, I could obtain technical terms and conditions from the sewage authority BEFORE I could pay my parking citation on the internet?
I only have 45 days to pay the ticket and one-third will be gone once it's finally online. I think that's hilarious.
Posted by Seth at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)
June 24, 2007
I = Geek, Geek = Chic
Napoleon Dynamite. Hiro Nakamura. Those “Very Very Very Rewarding” Visa commercials. Geek Squad. I could go on, but if you haven't noticed the trend, as of late, it's becoming more and more common to find the geek persona everywhere you look. Geeks are being embraced by pop-culture and, well, exploited by it.
But the examples I threw at you are the more tried and true notions of what geeks are – nerds. You know, the guys/gals with thick rimmed glasses, pocket protectors and zero social skills. They're usually fascinated with science, technology and fantasy. But that doesn't mean that we all don't have a little geekiness in us. Think about it, how many times have you gone on and on about a subject, only to stop, apologize and profess that you were just “geeking out?” Go on, raise your hand. Nerd.
Since we're all in that boat, it means that we need to modify the definition of a geek. Here's how I like to define a geek:
An enthusiast, or expert, who is primarily motivated by passion in a specific field or activity.
I didn't make that up – I just compressed some lines from Webster and Wikipedia, but it sounds about right to me. Geekdom isn't confined by science fiction or technology. Being a geek means you have passion and extensive knowledge about a specific thing. There's nothing wrong about that. So hows about some self-exploraton?
Here are five things that I get my geek-on to:
- Star Wars – Movies, cartoon, action figures, books... they're all fair game here. I haven't played all the video games or attended conventions, but this is my most expansive geeky quality.
- CSS – Coding web sites was my life for 8+ years. I still feel like I'm at the top of my game there.
- Movie Trailers – It rarely happens that I go to the movie theater and see a trailer I haven't already seen online. I also used to help co-write this blog about trailers.
- Sports – I think this one will be common for a lot of guys (in particular). I like football, basketball and soccer the most, yet I find myself knowing a lot of headline news about most sports. Thank you ESPN.
- Harry Potter – This is probably the weakest of the bunch, but I do love the books (and some of the movies).
So what are you geeky about? Post it on your blog, let the world know. Thomas, you could tell us more about your shoes. Scoot, you might elaborate on your walking techniques, or bar-hopping. Gildo, Werlew, Tevis, there's gotta be something you can contribute to the geekverse. Don't hide it, celebrate.
Posted by Seth at 05:17 PM | Comments (2)
June 21, 2007
BMN: Delta Farce & Hostel: Part II
“We see bad movies so that we can truly appreciate the good ones.”
You'll have to forgive me on the timeliness of these reviews. This summer has proven quite difficult to meet up for our normal Bad Movie Night routine, but we're trying very hard to make it happen. This week I bring you two reviews...
Review #1 – Delta Farce
Again, forgive me, as it's been nearly a month since I've seen this movie. But what I remember of “Delta Farce,” I would much rather soon forget. Ranking at a lowly 3% at Rotten Tomatoes, this is definitely near the bottom of the barrel when it comes choosing a bad movie.
Let's forget the fact that it was a starring vehicle for Larry the Cable Guy – the only comedian in the past two decades to NOT get his own 30-minute sitcom. Let's look past that it also starred DJ Qualls – the skinniest man alive. Let's hide the two “24” alums that must have loved crappy scripts so much that they HAD to be in this movie. Let's not even think about the cheap attempts this movie made to be the second coming of the ˇThree Amigos!, because it wasn't even close.
I wish the list would stop there. Sadly, there's even more to ignore than all of that. Instead, let's concentrate on what is the movie's main theme – every country needs America's help, especially if they're not a democratic country. Oh, and that Mexico is a third world country.
Shockingly, the movie wasn't funny. At all. Except to the guy in front of us who nearly fell over he was laughing so hard. Strange enough, he left not even 20 minutes into the flick. Too hilarious, I suppose.
Review #2 – Hostel: Part II
I saw the first “Hostel” a few years ago during my annual snowboard trip. I had heard all the hype about the movie and was excited to see what Quentin Tarantino was Executive Producing. Frankly, I wasn't that impressed. Aside from the gore and teen sex, there wasn't much to the movie, except more gore and more teen sex. Interestingly enough, it scored a 59% on RT. Respectable.
When I heard that part two was coming out this year, I figured it was going to suck. Most sequels, especially horror sequels, rarely ever live up to their predecessor(s). When I learned that Hostel: Part II was indeed the movie for Bad Movie Night, I wasn't surprised. What DID surprise me, however, was the fact that it was sitting around 53% on RT. What!?!
I don't think I'm going to ruin anything by saying that this movie was nearly identical to the first one. And it reinforced what the first one did – Slovakia's tourism is going to suffer if they keep killing the tourists that come there. That's their business model? Lure people there and kill them? I guess it's easy when you've teamed up with eBay and are having online auctions for rich people to come and kill college kids.
But what kind of sick people would do that? I suppose those people who are so rich that the only exciting thing in their life is to kill someone. I guess being rich really is hard.
It's also a place for men who lived on Wisteria Lane to come and wreak havoc on youngsters. But that doesn't surprise me. If I lived on a block with tons of insane, sex-crazed, sex-starved, clumsy, murdering, conniving, back-stabbing, teenage-affair-having, adopting, marrying, divorcing, marrying, divorcing, middle-aged chicks, I think I'd be driven to kill people, too.
Aside from it being the highest rated “bad movie” we've ever seen, and it's identicalness to the first film, there was a nice twist near the end. I'd say it wasn't a bad movie, but I wouldn't have paid to see it in the theaters.
Posted by Seth at 09:34 PM | Comments (0)
June 14, 2007
The All-New MySpace Profile Editor
I finally found myself logging into MySpace for the first time this week and I’ve noticed that they’re starting to clean up the interface some. I’m sorry, I meant they’re "trying" to clean up the interface – it would take a really large bomb to clean that place up. But amongst some of the smaller, insignificant changes, I noticed a link:
Check out the New MySpace Profile Editor NEW!
Don’t mind the redundant "new" in that phrase. Instead, pay more attention to the "New MySpace Profile Editor." Yes, now you can legally change your profile on MySpace with the help of their "still in beta" profile editor.
We’ve all seen the custom profiles that our friends have made – all of them amazing. But now even those of us who didn’t know how to edit a profile by using one of the many many MySpace profile editors out there, well, now we can. Who’s willing to bet that since it’s a MySpace-provided utility, it probably does things the other ones didn’t. Let’s check the list of things you can modify!
- Background
- Modules
- Images
- Fonts
- Links
- & More!
Impressive. For those of you keeping score at home, no, it doesn’t do anything more than you could already do with the other profile editors (unless you're counting on "& More!" to have a hidden gem in it). In all actuality, this is yet another thing that MySpace can sell ad space for – currently, it’s being sponsored by the new Fantastic Four movie (which is rated PG... c’mon, PG!?!). So if you want to see what a basic profile could really be, click the thumbnail to the right. You’ll be astounded.
Done being amazed? Good. If you can, go check out the profile editor page. Underneath the example in the image I’ve provided, there’s yet another one with Tom’s photo as a tiled background. Is that really what we need, MySpace perpetuating the thousands of crappy profiles that it already houses? We’re not living in the early 90’s anymore, web sites and social profiles can be cool looking (see Virb). The last thing we need is MySpace enabling half the known world to make things look even shittier.
But here’s where MySpace really toots its own idiotic horn.
We’re still in Beta, so this feature currently only works for regular MySpace profiles in Internet Explorer. If you’re using another browser or are a band, filmmaker, or comedian, stay tuned. We’re working on it!
I thought we were well beyond the days of things only working in one browser. MySpace proves me wrong, once again. I bet Facebook is shaking in their boots.
Posted by Seth at 07:49 PM | Comments (3)
June 11, 2007
Seth in the Big Apple #5
All good things come to an end, right? If that’s true (and it usually is), then there might be an addendum to that saying. I propose that it should now read, “all good things come to a sometimes lame ending.” That being said, my trip to New York ruled. The way back to KC? Well it didn’t really suck, but it did take a bit longer than I expected and really made me question why I scheduled my return flight to land in KC at 10:00 pm.
I’ll get to that later. First I should say how I spent the remainder of my last day in New York – window shopping. While out on Saturday night, Thomas really got to geek out on his number one past time – shoes (seriously, scroll down this page some to see SOME photos of his shoes... believe me, there are many more than that).
Since Thomas was goin’ off, I decided to see some of the stuff he was talking about. I headed downtown to check out Alife Rivington Club and Dave’s Quality Meat. Basically, if you’re not a shoe collector (not sure what the official term is), what you’ll see is a bunch of shoes that you’ve grown up with, in a TON of different color combinations and materials. It sounds kinda silly, but some of these shoes get up to the $5000 range. We’re talking collector’s items.
From there (there being around Houston), I walked all the way back up to 31st street. It wasn’t a huge walk, but a nice one. Once back to the hotel, I grabbed my stuff and headed to the airport.
While waiting for my flight to board, I finally got to enjoy a Brooklyn Lager and finished off geek book #34. Then I promptly started on geek book #35. Incidentally, I had extra time to read since my flight was delayed 15 minutes due to a holding pattern.
Once I was on the plane, the lost 15 minutes weren’t going to be made up as we sat on the tarmac for at least 30 minutes. Meh, whatever, when I finally landed in KC, I had read nearly 200 pages of my newest book selection. NERD!
I was happy to be home, but sad to be back. I was also perplexed to learn the following about KCI’s economy parking lots. If you’re not familiar with KCI, there are three economy parking lots. Each one corresponds to one of the three Terminals. If you park in lot A, the bus takes you to Terminal A. Makes sense.
But, when leaving Terminal A (which I was doing last night), there was a stop for the Red bus and the Blue bus. The Red bus takes you to lots B and C, the Blue bus takes you to lot A. Yet, when you’re in lot A, the ONLY terminal you can go to is A. So why on Earth would the Red Bus show up there if you can’t come from a different lot? To confuse sleepy passengers, methinks.
Bah. Well, I’m home. Yay me.
Posted by Seth at 05:14 PM | Comments (4)
June 10, 2007
Seth in the Big Apple #4
Saturday morning. A time for sleeping in. Or, in Seth's world, a time for getting up at 8:30 EST. I'm not sure why exactly I can't sleep in, I suppose my internal clock is WAY too fine-tuned and bossy. Either way, I was awake and ready to do more New Yorking.
After lounging around and watching some TV, I decided to get up, shower and start roaming around. To my surprise, the WiFi in the hotel was actually working... for about 10 minutes. So instead of barricading myself inside all day, I decided to take a commenter's advice and check out the free WiFi in Bryant Park. I was not disappointed. Bryant Park is beautiful. It's nestled inside the city and sits right next to the New York Public Library. For a park that's only as big as a block, it's extremely quiet and relaxing.
I also took the commenter's advice and had a PB&J from ’wichcraft, which was delicious. While chowing down on my ’wich, I posted yesterday's entry and then geeked out heavily by continuing to read the Transformers movie prequel novel – which is a decent read.
After spending a few hours in the park, I headed back to the hotel and planned my evening. I was to head up to Harlem around 6ish for dinner with Thomas, Danny and Kristen. But before that, I decided to watch Training Day and work out at the hotel.
Once I met up with the gang, we walked around Thomas’ ’hood and saw the largest cathedral in the world and the restaurant that Seinfeld made famous – which apparently doesn't have THAT great of food. Choosing not to eat there, we instead walked down to Rack and Soul – which Thomas described to us as “a place where after you've finished eating, you feel like you've been punched in the stomach.”
He wasn't kidding. After eating a huge plate of pulled pork, mashed potatoes and baked beans (my attempt at ordering the waffle failed... yes, waffle), we chilled at Thomas’ and then decided to head back downtown to Chelsea for a drink at Trailer Park Lounge & Grill.
While Danny and I were enjoying our Pork Slap Pale Ales, poor Thomas was really wanting dessert. While excited that Trailer Park had Moonpies, they didn't have the banana variety, so it was a no-go. Instead, when we left the bar, we walked next door to Burgers & Cupcakes, where they have burgers, cupcakes and burger salads.
All three of us got a cupcake (Kristen had left for home to feed Buckley) and sat on the sidewalk in Chelsea enjoying their overly richness.
It wasn't late, but I was exhausted. I love walking around in NY, but I think yesterday got the best of me. I slept like a rock.
Today's my last half-day here. I leave at 7:45 tonight and plan to do a little window shopping today. I'm back in Bryant Park and just enjoyed another ’wich from ’wichcraft. I'll probably read more of my book, too. Oh, but on the way here, I saw a photo shoot (for a print ad, maybe) and I saw the filming of a low-budget film. It's also Puerto Rican Day in New York.
Only a few hours until I catch my cab. Le sigh.
Posted by Seth at 11:32 AM | Comments (3)
June 09, 2007
Seth in the Big Apple #3
As I mentioned yesterday, the conference I was attending was definitely better suited for media people. I was able to learn some things and found several things interesting, but this was the conference's first year and it showed. Many of the speakers were the owners of companies and instead of talking about trends and best practices, a lot of the talks centered around what their company did and turned in sales pitches. Lame. At least I got to start my morning off with a donut and chai latte (with espresso) from Dunkin Donuts.
Again, yesterday, we knocked off for lunch and headed into Central Park. Travis, Laura, Ariel and I ended up eating heavy appetizers at The Boat House in Central Park right next to The Lake. While eating we watched turtles sun bathe and people rowing around in rented boats. After lunch, we walked through Strawberry Fields and checked out the memorial for John Lennon. From there it was back to the conference to wait out the remainder of the speakers.
After the conference was over, Arial and I set out on a walking journey to the Art Gallery District. Not far into our trip, we stopped at Bar 12 Bar (I THINK that was the name, I can't find it online) for some happy hour drinks – you don't pass up $3 beers in NY. We made it to our destination, but didn't really see any galleries, so we continued on to Chelsea. We found another spot with happy hour drinks, Calidad Latina, and stopped there for a couple of margaritas.
Then it was to the Meatpacking District and dinner at Vento, a cool italian restaurant. We had a new waiter and ended up scoring some free drinks due to a slight mix-up.
Not much else happened on Friday. A lot of walking and exploring.
Posted by Seth at 10:59 AM | Comments (3)
June 08, 2007
Seth in the Big Apple #2
Day Two in New York = day one of the conference I was here to attend. I easily made my way from the hotel to the venue and quickly hooked up into some WiFi that actually worked. And by actually worked, I meant some of the time. There is an insane amount of people here in the city and when tons of them are trying to WiFi all at once, things tend to NOT work.
As I'm sitting, waiting for the conference to start, I look around hoping to snag some rich people watching – I'm at a nerd conference, after all. Instead of good people watching, I see the back of someone that I THINK I know. Sure enough, it was Travis Kleiner, an old co-worker of mine from VML. He was here with another co-worker of his, so we all sat together.
The conference is interesting, from certain points of view. If you're a creative focused person, then day one was definitely NOT your sweet spot. We learned a lot about online media and ads on blogs. Enlightening, if you ask me. Boring, if you ask Travis and Laura.
Instead of sticking around for lunch, we took off and went over to Macy's Cellar Bar and Grill. The most interesting part of our meal was the old, wooden escalator ride down to the cellar and Laura's choice of food – "New York's Largest Hot Dog," smothered with cheese and chili. Seriously, it was large.
Back at the conference, Travis busted a little snooze and then we took off for Cheap Jacks (a cool retro store infused with a TON of retro-looking new t-shirts), Ground Zero and Battery Park. I can't say it enough, New York has the best parks in the world (that I've ever seen on my tiny list). We chilled at Battery Gardens for a few drinks and on our way out, we signed the giant Goodbye/Wedding Reception/Congraulations card for the party that was going on inside. The hostess was not amused.
From there we took the Metro all the way up to Central Park and visited the sweetest Apple Store evar. Wow oh wow, this place was huge and one of the coolest things I've ever seen juxtaposed to a skyscraper landscape. After playing around with the computers for a while, we took off to finally find some dinner and drinks.
It took us a while, but we finally ended up at Old Castle Pub & Restaurant, where nearly all of the employees are Irish. Travis enjoyed a dinner of Fish & Chips, while Laura and I minded our gallbladder-less bodies (yes, come to find out, she's missing her's, too) and had some Irish pizza.
The highlight of our dinner was the lady who was hammered, walking into the restroom and passing out while on the toilet. Our poor waitress had to help her while she vomited all over the bathroom. Surprisingly, they kicked her out... with the help of two of her friends.
I was glad to run into and old friend, and to make a new one. Otherwise I would've had to actually reach out and meet people. Ugh.
Posted by Seth at 07:58 AM | Comments (1)
June 07, 2007
Seth in the Big Apple #1
Today was Bruno's last day at SHS. Sad right? Yeah. So to show him and what I think of his quitting, I jumped a plane to New York City for the Future of Online Advertising conference that starts tomorrow. If only it were that easy to just leave work at noon and catch a 3:20 flight.
No... I had to rush to the doctor's office to be diagnosed with my fifth sinus infection in two years. I also found out that I've somehow managed to damage one of the nerves in my left thumb — which makes half of my thumb feel like it's dead and constantly waking up from being asleep. Luckily, for us humans, nerves grow back – at a millimeter a month. Yawn.
Amazingly, my appointment only lasted 30 minutes. So instead of taking the prescription with me, I asked them to call it in while I drove to the pharmacy. The problem is that I asked for it to be called in to the CVS on Barry road. Of which there are three. Even worse was the fact that the nurse didn't call the order in for 30 minutes.
That left me scrambling with an hour to get to the airport and all checked in. Good thing I'm not a "granny driver" anymore like I was in high school. Needless to say, I made the flight.
Once here, I hopped into a cab. I love riding into New York. Seeing all the skyscrapers and buildings on the horizon is always awesome to see. My destination was Hotel Roger Williams, where they have free WiFi for the whole building... and by free WiFi, they mean for PCs, since my Mac can't decipher the signal (hopefully tomorrow I can transfer to a room with an ethernet cable).
I was hungry, so I walked a few blocks down to Pinch (Pizza by the Inch) and had some pepperoni/jalepeno/tomatoe pizza and a beer.
I'd say my trip so far is off to a nice start. More to come.
Posted by Seth at 07:19 AM | Comments (3)