Monday, August 30, 2004

rnc march, aug 29

Luckily, it was not a typical NYC August day. It was sunny, and probably 80 degrees, but there wasn't much humidity, and there was a slight breeze, even in the crowds. We were silly enough to forget sunscreen and something to cover our heads, but kind folks in the crowd gave us sunscreen and bandanas. And, semi-miraculously, Genevieve and I ran into two groups of people we knew.

From within the crowd, it was impossible to get a sense of the scale of the march, since you could only see people and signs as far as the eye could see. The group that sponsored the march (United for Peace and Justice) estimated the crowd at "more than 500,000", the New York Times said the police basically agreed, CNN called it "tens of thousands", and Fox News just called it a "swarm".

There was plenty of chanting and random cheering, but for some reason the only bits I can remember were "Fox News sucks!" and "Fox News lies!" Note the Fox News sign a block to the North/right of Madison Square Garden... Macy's also had a huge screen showing a live Fox News feed, which got a lot of booing, except when they showed a segment with a shot of Kerry and Edwards.


















Wednesday, August 25, 2004

i've got some unpacking to do


Tuesday, August 24, 2004

this afternoon at astor place





Monday, August 23, 2004

chinese tonight

tonight google ordered from chef ho's dumpling house. i had an OK steamed chicken and broccoli with garlic sauce on the side, and a fortuitous fortune cookie....

Friday, August 20, 2004

a hot tip

If you're trying to use the free WiFi access in JetBlue's JFK terminal (terminal 6), and you're using a Powerbook running MacOS 10.2.x, then to get this wireless service to work you might (like me) have to go to your Airport menu and uncheck "Interference Robustness." (Hmm, it always sounded like such a good idea...) YMMV. Luckily, the A train to the Airtrain works quite well without configuration.

Thursday, August 19, 2004

and around the corner today...



Tuesday, August 17, 2004

google nyc at night

the view from the google nyc office at night:




nifty

wordcount (try "america")

will ferrell as dubbya

flowers!

flowers from genevieve:



the roof

I discovered the route to the the roof; here's the view to the North:



Monday, August 16, 2004

first day at the office

First day at the NYC office! The commute was just as I'd imagined: 15 minute walk, 15 minutes on the NR. 30 minutes door-to-door.

It's a little spooky/sobering how much emergency info they give out during NYC orientations in the post-9/11, post-blackout world...

Sunday, August 15, 2004

arrival

Got into JFK at 1am after an uneventful flight. Shrek 2 is quite lame the second time around.

Stayed up until 5:30am (eastern, which is quite reasonable on pacific time) futzing on Holiday Inn's free wireless Internet access. The Internet is way more interesting than hotel TV at 3am.

Arrived in the city and got the keys at 1pm. My new place is in the East Village.

First things first - getting rid of my cruddy/annoying Verizon phone/service. Back to Cingular. Turns out porting your phone from SF to NY (through them, at least) is annoying, so i got a new 212 number.

Then on to K-mart, for something to sleep on, etc. My stuff doesn't arrive for another few weeks.

The rest of the day I've spent hopping between free WiFi access points in the neighborhood, in order to get some work done (I'm on duty today). Links and tips:

Free Wireless Internet (WiFi) Access Points in Manhattan, New York
free wi-fi New York hotspots wireless internet access list
NYCwireless
evill

alt.coffee
- cool, but flaky Internet access (too many users using a single DSL line?)

veniero's pasticceria
- only has WiFi 8am to 4pm

ace bar
- doesn't actually have WiFi (or at least it wasn't on when I was there)

public library @ 10st bewteen a/b
- not open on sundays

sympathy for the kettle (tea shop on 8th at A)
- so far, so good

My first night in the apartment (kinda fuzzy - maybe I'll get a better one soon...):