Quora Question: What kind of guitar do you own, and which one do you want to own?

What kind of guitar do you own, and which one do you want to own?

This is my answer from a Quora question...

What Kind of Guitar Do You Own?

Late last year, 2017, I bought a brand new surf green made-in-Mexico Fender Stratocaster.



It’s the first time in my life I’ve touched a guitar. I’m 48 now. In 3rd grade I played the cello for a year, when my mother had a future planned out for me as a concert cellist (I think she was mostly attracted to the idea I’d have a job where I had to wear a tuxedo to work). Then we moved, wound up in a small town and there weren’t any cellos to borrow or rent for me to continue my lessons.

In 6th grade I played the saxophone for half a year when our whole class had half a year of band. I stunk at both instruments. Twinkle Twinkle Little Starwas always out of reach for me, and I minced the Little Lamb Mary Hadbeyond any reasonable form.

But I love music. It’s one of those things I spend an inordinate amount of my income on. And the last few summers I’ve been watching punk rock bands play concerts in Tompkins Square Park here in New York City. So I felt inspired to try and learn a little how to play, and I figured the first step was to actually get a guitar.

I’ve long liked the look of Stratocasters. They simply scream out “rock n roll!” (there’s others that do, too) and I figured since I never held a guitar before the contoured shape might be a little more comfortable to learn with. Since I’m obsessed with the color green, that was the obvious color. I debated whether I should spend more for a genuine branded Fender, or go for a cheaper Squier, but I read the Squier ones have less quality control, and I figured that with my complete inexperience paying a little more would ensure the godawful sound coming from it was my playing, rather than a defective instrument.

I bought a bunch of beginner books, and I signed up for Fender Playwhich has some good beginners’ lessons, that I’m struggling with.

I bought Rocksmith 2014 as well, so I could plug the guitar into the computer as a controller. I got started with that, but my desk chair isn't comfortable to sit on with the guitar and play. My wife is going to give me her old laptop, so I’ll install it on there when she goes overseas for a few months. Then I can put it on the coffee table and play sitting on the floor.

So, I’ve been practicing off and on for over half a year now. I still can’t play any songs. I can’t even play any chords that use more than two fingers on the frets. I can’t play many of them that use just two fingers.

With riffs that use just one string I can’t get my left hand’s fingers up and down the fretboard accurately to actually play note after note after note correctly.

One issue I’m having is I’ve gotten terribly fat the last few years, so the guitar hangs at a funny angle over my belly. That means I have to twist my wrist further around the neck to reach the strings further up on the neck.

Maybe what I need is a live tutor, someone who can start off by seeing how I’m holding the bloody thing to help me correct myself, and then start off with solutions to my obvious problems. I don’t know.

I haven’t been practicing as much since my wife returned from her previous four month trip home to India. I feel a bit foolish picking it up and fumbling around while she’s in hearing range. She’s not very patient with other people trying to learn things around her, either. And when she sees me with it, she assumes I’m free to do chores and run errands.

Maybe I shouldn’t have waiting so long in life to try and learn. Not when my fingers are stiff and achy, about the same age when arthritis started to get debilitating for my father.

And Which Guitar Do You Want to Own?

Well, there’s a few… From punk rock concerts I’ve been to lately, I’ve noticed the majority of the guitar players, especially the ones I liked, were playing various guitars with humbucker pickups rather than single-coil.

I want a Stratocaster with one (or more) humbucker pickups, as they produce more of the sound I’d like to get, if I could actually play it. They have a few green options, plus I could pay more for one from their Mod Shop that would be nicely customized for me. Now that they introduced the Player line, I’ll probably buy one of those.

I was thinking I’d like a green Gibson SG as well. There aren’t many green options out there, unless I look around on eBay. Most of those in any sort of affordable range have only one pickup, but I’m not such an advanced player that that should affect me. The few others are whoppingly expensive professional models.

And while not green, some of the 2018 SG models, the Standard HP 2018, are absolutely gorgeous… I could see myself getting the blood orange or even the hot pink fade. They’re a bit more than I’d like to spend, though, given that I can’t actually play the thing…

On the other hand, I’d long admired, but dismissed for myself, Gibson Les Pauls, despite a number of musicians whose work I like playing them. I remember a friend long ago who said they were extremely heavy, so as a raw beginner I didn’t want to find myself fighting the extra weight of one when I already can’t play. But I went to a couple of punk rock shows in June and some guitarists were playing Les Pauls, including several groups with two guitarists, a Les Paul player next to an SG player and I found myself drawn towards watching the Les Paul player quite a lot more. I mean a lot more.

Looking around online, I sure like the green Slash Anaconda Les Paulis beautiful (and green!). But its price is more than I should actually spend on a guitar I can’t play, no matter how good I think I’d feel holding it and failing to play (I suppose a less expensive Epiphone version is an option). Maybe I could hold it, pretend to play and put on a Guns & Roses CD or something…

Of course, no purchases until my wife goes on her three month trip home to India in a couple of months. I’ll buy whatever I buy on a credit card she doesn’t know about (I’m not talking about screwing around with credit cards, I’ll still pay it off once I get the bill) and my story is basically that I found it/them on Craigslist being sold by “Mrs. Jepsen”. Her husband had passed away and their adult kids weren’t interested in his guitars, so she was selling them… A little more practice and I’ll get the finer points of the story down convincingly…

And bearing in mind our teeny, tiny New York City apartment doesn’t have much space for “stuff” to accumulate… Although, I think if I get more I can buy wall mounts to get them up off the floor so my wife won’t get too mad.

Baggin' It!

I'd been using the same backpack for years, a nice, cheap purple one I bought on a whim in 1993.  I wasn't shopping around for a backpack at the time, I just happened to be in a department store in Beaverton and bought a Computer Shopper magazine that was too big for the backpack I was happily using at the time, so I went to the stores bag section and found one that would hold the magazine, was cheap and I liked the purple.

The original, hard-to-replace, worn out bag...

After that, I used it all the time, I carried it to work every day after that.  I used it as my carry-on bag when traveling on vacations.  I hauled it to India on vacation where it got chewing gum stomped onto one shoulder strap on the Jhelum train from Delhi to Pune...

I carried spare clothes in it when walking to work in the pouring rain, laptops wrapped in multiple plastic grocery bags.  I've stuffed it almost to the bursting point at times.

It was the near perfect bag.  The pockets were arranged just right, everything I put in it was exactly where I needed it to be, and easily accessible without pulling the bag out from under the airplane seat in front of me.  Laptop, books, camera, water, snacks, sweatshirts...  One pocket was just right for any of the diaries I took with me on my travels, plus nice pens.  And the outermost was perfect for travel papers, passport, plane tickets, cash...  And since everything had its place, I could easily take stuff out and put stuff back in while walking through an airport or a busy sidewalk...

But alas, time had its way with it...  And the TSA, too...  The first real damage to it came while boarding a flight out of PDX, when a security agent tore off one of the zippers at the last check before getting on the plane...  Oops...  She apologized, and when I asked if there was anything they could do about the damage, she said yes, but I'd have to skip my flight to file paperwork.  So I didn't anything about it (not with more than 20 hours of connecting flights starting in San Francisco and Seoul before arriving in India...)

Hipstamatic photo with an
octopus toy...

After that I also started washing it in our washing machine and then the water resistant lining inside began wearing away.  And the zippers got worse and worse over time, and the nylon fabric started unraveling and threads got stuck in the zippers...  And the hand strap is getting close to ripping out....  Well, you know, it was a cheap backpack, and it's getting worn out after nearly two decades...

In 2007 and 2008 I browsed around shops in London looking for a replacement backpack, and saw some interesting ones (I particularly liked some stuff at a water sports shop near Embankment, and one of my friends bought a pretty cool bag when I took him there), but I guess my heart wasn't quite into replacing a trusted, old friend because nothing was "just right".

Now in New York City I've been looking for a replacement, and I've tried a bunch out, too...

First I got a nice, green waxed canvas backpack from Brooklyn Industries that seemed good, especially for daily hauls to work and back when I don't need to carry much.  I used it a bit, off and on.  Being small, it's good in a crowd, I don't have to worry so much about bashing other people with it.

But it had some significant flaws...  The wax felt kind of funny on my hands, but not a big deal, not compared to the other problems.  The red flannel lining looked cool inside, but then my iPad, camera and anything else I carried ended up with red fibers all over, which is not good...  And one day I bought a box of Saltine crackers to take to work as a snack, and no matter how I oriented it, it simply wouldn't fit.  The bag just got too narrow at the top...

After that I rarely bothered with it.  For the rainier days I simply wrapped things in plastic bags and tossed into my leaky, purple bag.

Then on New Year's Day in 2011 I had a whim to go look at some bags at the Oakley store on 9th Avenue at 14th Street (don't look for it now, it's closed...).  Oakley has some good sports gear.  I ended up buying the Surf Pack, and maybe I wouldn't have if I didn't have a rip roaring headache that day.

I really didn't use the Surf Pack much right away.  It's quite big, and as I was taking the subway daily at the time it felt too bulky in the crowded trains, like I was using more space than I really needed to.  It has one main compartment, so everything sort of jams into there, without much division, except for stuff like medicines and pens and a small notepad into some of the side pockets.  Really, as the name implies, they intend it to carry a bundle of wet suit gear, not really urban adventuring...

Still, though, it proved exceptionally useful when I was moving apartments, simply because it's big.  I could carry a significant amount of stuff per trip using it, and it was comfortable to haul a heavy load right on my shoulders.  I'm glad I got it for that alone.

On the other hand, when I had something recently that was large and blocky, it wouldn't fit into the tapered top of the Surf Pack, even if the total volume was okay for it.

Shortly after that I got a Wenger Synergy bag that I bought on a whim at Best Buy, where they had it in the section of laptop bags.  It's got lots of pockets, lots of space, a sturdy bottom so it stands up straight most of the time.  It's quite a bit larger in all dimensions than my old purple one.  But the odd thing is, when I was transferring "stuff" between them, the things I always seemed to have in the purple one, with plenty of space for shopping, seemed to take up much more of the Wegner bag.  It seemed like much of the Wegner bag's space was taken up by compartment separators and things like that...

Another major problem with it is that the zipper pulls inside are all solid pieces of metal, without small holes in them like most zippers.  Minor thing, but my mother gave me a glass pendant on a small chain years ago "to ward off the evil eye" and this bag doesn't have a good place to attach it.

Worse still, once I started actually using it a bit, it wasn't all that comfortable.  The arrangement of the back padding just didn't seem to conform to the shape of my back very well.  I was constantly fidgeting and moving my shoulders around to try and get comfortable in it, but no luck.  I think it's made for someone with a larger back than me.

el Cheapo Target

And frankly, I was never happy with the color, the blue, black and silver, with some red highlights and some high tech looking, but useless grommets...  After I bought it I've seen a few people around with green ones, but not many.  I'd rather have that...

At Target one day I picked up really cheap green backpack, but after getting it home and comparing it with others, it's really small, and the nylon makes an annoying crinkly sound.  I haven't even taken the tags off it yet to try it out.  Maybe I will, maybe I won't...

A couple of weeks after that I bought another Oakley bag, Contact that I don't see online anymore.  It's kind of classy looking, and has lots of pockets, while not being too big, so everything is fairly compact.  It has a removable bag on top, with a few pockets, good places to put everything.

Oakley Contact

It's comfortable enough to carry, but is smaller than the old purple one, so I can't fit quite as much as I'm used to.  Its two main pockets are different sizes, which always throws me for a loop, too.  Carrying a camera, spare lens, iPad and a book is really too much for it, they fit, but nothing is comfortable to get in and out without something else feeling like it's in the way.

And unfortunately, it doesn't have a mesh sort of pocket outside for a water bottle, so to get a drink I have to set it down and open it up.

And when shopping, it doesn't have much capacity, especially not if I already have my camera gear in it.  Since a lot of the shopping I do is books, bulky books, that puts a serious crimp in my style...

Recently I ordered a Kelty Women's Redwing 40 from Zappos.  I did a bit of reading and comparison before picking that and thinking it sounded like just what I need.  I figured a women's size might suit my smaller back a little better, and the overall size looked pretty good.  Not to mention the kick-ass green!

The night i got it I figured out how to get the waist belt off it, since I've never really used one of those and wasn't sure I needed it in the city.  Maybe it'll be useful to put back on in cold weather, but in the heat it can't be comfortable.

While I like it, after a few weeks of using it, I suspect it's designed more for hiking out of the city and overnight camping than for city adventures and commuting...  It came with detailed instructions on how to pack it, including putting light, bulky things, such as a sleeping bag, on the bottom, and heavier stuff on top. Plus it's got a lot of straps and harnesses that probably hold it steady while hiking on uneven terrain, up hills and down mountains (and if I tried to use all of them, taking it off would probably be as complicated as getting a bra off my wife...) that aren't necessary on pavement and walking up the steps to the High Line...

Regarding their packing instructions, I can see how they make sense.  When I simply toss in my camera and a lens, the bottom isn't rigid at all, so those heavy item just pull it down and inside the bag they bounce against my butt when I walk, which is annoying.

Due to the floppy bottom and the width, it proved useful in Manhattan at stopping a handball some kids accidentally knocked over a fence.  I was able to swing the bag down at the ground and keep the ball from rolling into the street, then hand it back to them inside the fenced handball court.

Another problem is when riding on the subway, without it being packed pretty full it won't stand up next to me for me to use as an armrest.  When I try that, it just sort of slides away from me along the seat.

It also does have ice ax loops though, so now I can finally buy that ice ax I've always wanted but never had anywhere to put...

I recently ordered the Burton Profanity Pack from Zappos and after about a week of using it I like it.  It doesn't seem to have the biggest capacity, or the most pockets, but for a general use bag, it seems pretty good.

I've carried it to work for a week and there hasn't been any trouble, although it wouldn't hold a larger size Amazon box that I received at work.  It has two mesh pockets on the sides, so I can carry a water bottle in one and a Thermos of cold-brewed green tea in the other.  When loaded with just the camera and lens it didn't weight down heavily like the Kelty bag.  And I was still able to do some light shopping and carry on top of that.

With the camera and lens in the main compartment, I carried the iPad and a book in the narrower laptop compartment, and the book was easy to take out and put back in when I hung out in a park to read.  That was a lot better than the same situation with the Oakley Contact bag.

Certainly with name like "Profanity Pack" it puts a bit of a grin on my face whenever I put it on...

Online Order Wishlist

Now that I'm preparing for a trip to India, we're doing a lot of online shopping for things (what things? that's not important for this...).  So far we've had at least one package go awry, and maybe more of that to come...

One feature I'd like to see from online stores is either being able to specify a shipping company, e.g. UPS or U.S. Postal Service, or be able to specify a shipping address based on what shipping company the seller picks.  With nearly all online stores, as a customer I only pick what level of shipping service I want, and the seller picks which company to use for that service.

The problem I have now is that my office is actually on a residential block in Brooklyn, and so the U.S. Postal Service won't deliver packages there, and so far the mailman has yet to leave one of those yellow slips, so anyone going to nearest post office to get it has to fight and argue with the clerks.  UPS delivers reliably (and I'm buddies with the delivery guy, we talk about Hindi movies and things when he comes by...)  FedEx is a toss-up, some packages come, some don't.

On the flip side, my apartment has a small entrance where anyone can come in, but then a locked door to reach the lobby and the mailboxes.  The local mail carrier has a key so he or she can get in to deliver the mail and leave packages on a table.  But UPS doesn't, so UPS requires someone to actually receive the package or they can leave it in the unlocked, unsecured area.

So, the problem is that when placing an order, if I don't want to pay extra for some fast, expensive shipping, I don't know if the seller is going to use UPS or USPS, so I don't know which address to give to actually receive the package.

With Amazon or Zappos, it's easy.  I paid for Amazon Prime, so they ship almost everything with 2nd day air via UPS.  Sure, it costs, but the $79 a year is worth it to get things fast and reliably.  With Zappos, Leena and I are VIP customers, so they ship everything with overnight shipping for free, via UPS.  With those two I know exactly how I'll get the package and it works great.

But with any other sellers, I just don't know.

This past weekend we placed an order from Macy's, who has used USPS in the past.  I mistakenly ordered it to be shipped to my office, then spent time Sunday morning on the phone with a Macy's customer service representative to get it changed to my apartment address.  She wasn't able to do it because the package was already packed and in their shipping department for pickup.  Later I saw it was being shipped via UPS and figured that's fine, I'll get it at the office.  Then Tuesday morning she called me back and said they were successfully able to make an address change request after UPS picked it up, so UPS would deliver it to my apartment address as I requested...

Yesterday we got an online notification that UPS delivered the package, left it at the door of my apartment building.  However, when I got home there was no package.  No package anywhere....  It's probably been stolen.

So, the feature I'd like to see from online sellers is to set up conditions or "business rules" where I can specify the address based on the shipper they use. 

A March Saturday Wandering Manhattan

The full album of photos is on my Picasa page...

After Lenea and I got off the phone I used the washroom, took a shower and then got dressed and prepared to head out.  I figured I'd carry my most extreme opposite lenses for the camera and see what I'd see...  It didn't seem too cold, so I wore layers with my worn-out green sweatshirt and the "new" green sweater with the massive hole in the back (which would be covered by my backpack all day).

I only had two goals for the day.  First, get sushi in the East Village...  Second, get some photos of a synagogue on the Upper East Side.

Leaving the apartment I walked up to 59th Street so I could catch the N express train, instead of the R local at my local stop at 53rd Street.  The 59th Street platform was more crowded than usual.  Just as the R was pulling into the station there was an announcement about the N train, but then the R made so much noise it drowned out the loudspeakers.  After the R left, the announcer repeated it, saying that "due to a stalled train at Stillwell Avenue, N service is temporarily suspended.  All Manhattan bound passengers should take the R train."  Fortunately, a couple of minutes after that announcement an N train rolled in...

It also turned out to be about the most crowded I've seen the N train on a weekend afternoon.  It was packed.  I squeezed in, though.  My nose was slightly stuffed up from the migraine (a normal effect of the migraines) but several people complained about the smell in the train and walked through the doors to the next car to get away from it, though I didn't particularly smell anything.  I mean, it wasn't like fresh, outside air, it smelled like the subway...  After people moved out I saw there was a dirty, filthy homeless looking guy with his bags of "stuff" on one of the benches not far away, so maybe that's what they were complaining about.

Unfortunately this N train wasn't on the right track to see the light artwork in the tunnel in Brooklyn.  I still haven't figured out exactly which train to be on to see it consistently.  Mostly I think I've seen it when the N is running local in Brooklyn, but that's unusual during the day.  The R definitely doesn't go by it.  Maybe the Q?  I might have to try switching to a Manhattan bound Q in Atlantic Avenue and see.

In Manhattan I got off the train at 8th Street - NYU in the East Village and walked a bit of a zig-zag path up four blocks and over a few avenues to 2nd, where I stopped in at Shima for a sushi lunch.  It was good, as it always has been on my trips there.

Once I'd paid and left I went out and walked up to 15th Street, then turned to head over to Union Square, figuring I'd catch a subway train up towards Grand Central or somewhere, still unsure what I really wanted to do with the day.

On the way over to Union Square I was near a scruffy looking, somewhat older guy who was ranting and raving quite loud, to no one I could see.  "What the fuck was she thinking?" and "Fuck her, she wouldn't give me $5 to get home...  What the fuck was she thinking?" and variations on those two themes over and over...  I happened to glance at him, mostly curious because when I'd first seen him I didn't notice a phone headset wire, and he noticed, then patted me on the shoulder and said "hey, sorry about the language, man."  I never said anything to him but "yeah" and "hmm..." and "ahh" while I listened to him tell me parts of story.  Someone, I guess, was supposed to give him cash for subway fare to get home or something.  He went on, hoping he wouldn't have to beg in Union Square for it, but prepared in case he'd have to, and how he believes "what goes around comes around" and "it's not always about money, you know, I help someone move, but when I ask a favor they always seem unhappy I've turned up..."

Once we got to Union Square he dashed across the street while I waited for a light and went our separate ways.

It looks like the farmers market in Union Square has started up again.  It wasn't quite as packed as I've seen it before, but it was there from when I first arrived in NYC in September, all through the winter, until the weekend I took my parents to see it in February, then it wasn't there till this weekend...  Some good looking items, honey, breads and things, I'll have to try some stuff out when I get moved...

At Union Square I couldn't squeeze into a 6 train because it was so crowded, but then got the next 4 or 5 (I forgot which) and took that uptown to Grand Central Terminal.  Always a good place to stop and use the bathroom...  I also looked at the subway map for some inspiration on where to go, but couldn't decide.

So, I went out of the station and walked up along the west side of it.  It was bright and sunny, with sunshine gleaming off the skyscrapers all around, so I took out my camera and took a bunch of photos as I walked around.  I was using my 11-16mm wide angle lens, which often results in overly dark pictures in the daytime, but it was so sunny I couldn't see the display on the back of the camera to see what the photos looked like, or which direction to adjust the settings, so I hope they came out (haven't offloaded them from the camera yet...).

I worked my way up Lexington, Park and 3rd Avenues from 42nd Street to 58th Street.  I stopped to take some photos of the synagogue I had in mind at 55th Street, but from what I could tell on the camera I didn't get any good shots.  The sky was bright, but the face of the building was in shadow, so it was really dark, with the sky too bright, and trying to lighten the building ended up with way, way too bright sky...  Oh well...

At 58th Street I wasn't sure if I should continue up, or go somewhere else.  So, I stopped to look at Leena's Amazon wish list for that Bluetooth headset, figuring that with the Apple Store a few blocks away, between 58th and 59th Streets, I'd pop in and see if they had it.

On the way I passed the ING Direct bank branch.  It didn't look much like a bank, actually, except that it was all orange inside with ING signs, their lion logo and bank sorts of product ads on the walls.  It was two stories tall, all windows, with a cafe inside and people sitting on orange chairs at orange tables drinking coffee.  Unless those were actually the bankers' desks?

When I came up on the back of the Apple Store I got a look at the line going in...  There was a steady stream of people backed up about twenty feet from the entrance, with the line snaking inside and down the spiral stairs that go around the glass elevator.  I decided not to go in, too much of a line...  Then I remembered there's another Apple store a few blocks away on Broadway, at 67th Street (well, "a few blocks by my walking") so instead of waiting two minutes to get into this store, I walked about twenty-five or thirty to the other store...

Across from the Apple Store, at Grand Army Plaza (not to be confused with the one in Brooklyn, which is my Friday "crossroads" decision time, to go to the apartment or anywhere else) I joined a throng of spectators watching a dance troupe performing on the sidewalk for a few minutes.  Some of them were fun, but then one dorky guy took his solo and I couldn't understand what he was doing, but whatever it was, it wasn't interesting to watch, so I left.

It was crossing the street there that I got hit by the blast of cold, cold wind that pretty much continued all the rest of the afternoon and evening.  East of Central Park was merely chilly, but from the park on westward was downright cold.  I should've worn a warmer jacket...

The other Apple Store didn't have any of those Bluetooth headsets at all...  But I did take some notes on other products I'm thinking about, a couple of video devices for the Mac so I can probably view video from other things.  I was thinking about getting an XBox 360 or Wii, but didn't want to buy a TV just for that, so if I can hook it to the Mac, that'd work...  This store has lots of tables of Macs with store workers giving shoppers lessons at almost every one of them how to use some of the software on them.  I was listening to one guy teach some people how to do some image manipulation.

Back on the street again, I worked my way in another zig zag path over to Central Park.  I walked down Central Park West, along the outside of the park, taking some photos of the inside of the park and people on the sidewalk.  Around there I swapped lenses from the wide angle to the 100-300mm zoom, the longest, narrowest one...

At the bottom of the park I stopped and enjoyed the sunshine at Columbus Circles, which had a bit less wind than the rest of the west side of Manhattan.  I saw some of the first flowers of spring there.  I got startled by one guy who came up behind me while I was paying attention to the camera viewfinder, and asked "do you want a ride in the park?".  I think he was a cycle-rickshaw driver, since there didn't seem to be any horse carriages waiting around there...

I walked around Columbus Circle, taking photos of buildings and statues shining bright in the afternoon sunshine.  There's one that's all covered in gold that practically glowed in the sunshine.

From there I walked down 9th Avenue a few blocks, taking photos where I saw any interesting architectural things, mostly juxtapositions of old buildings and new buildings in the background, or details on old buildings that appealed to me.  Neither of the lenses I carried were well suited to that, though...  Lots of things were well lit up by the west-ward moving sun.

And then I wound up at Times Square again...  Naturally I made my way up to the red steps at the north end...  While standing up there a few different pairs of people gave me their cameras to take their photos, all wanting the hordes of people below in the square as the background.  This is the first time anyone's ever handed me a fancy digital SLR, though, to take their photo...  Maybe they were confident I wouldn't steal it because I had my own, with an impressive looking lens, around my own neck...

When my hands got cold and numb from holding cameras in the biting wind I took off.  I walked over to the Port Authority Bus Terminal to use the bathroom.  While deciding what to do next, I figured I might as well go try the Thai grilled chicken salad at the New York Burger Co. that I've been curious about for a couple of months.  So, I grabbed the E train at the Port Authority Bus Terminal and got off at 23rd Street, and walked to 10th Avenue.

The guy at the order counter of the restaurant greeted me just like he knew me, a little too familiar than appropriate, so I was confused as to whether I should know him or not, because I certainly didn't recognize him, and I'd only been to this one once before (there's another one of them at 21st Street and 6th Avenue, where I've been twice).  This meal was disappointing.  I've had better Thai chicken salads before.  I think maybe I'l stick to burgers when I go to these places...

Since I was close to the High Line, it seemed like a good idea to go there.  And it was, except it was really cold up there.  But I enjoyed some photography from there, even if it was too cold and windy to sit down and relax (then again, if it hadn't been, all the places to sit would've been taken).  There were lots of other photographers up there, too...  I think I got a couple of good shots of the sun setting behind New Jersey.

After it got dark I was walking up 14th Street towards Union Square to get a train home, when I got a whim to go see Prince Street after dark, so I hopped on an A train at a closer station and went down there.  It was fun walking around there for a bit, but cold...

Walking along I was listening to some young women very closely behind me talking.  They mentioned how the English language is changing, how they don't like some of the changes, and agree with some of their professors from when they were in college.

I was just about turn around and tell them how I've spent ten years overseas in a country where nearly all who speak English speak it as a second (or third) language, and while I've heard some speak it perfectly, mostly I've heard it butchered beyond belief…  But as I was about to turn, one of them abruptly changed the conversation, "hey, I need to buy a pair of black tights…"

I listened to them talk of that until I came upon the Oakley store, where I wanted to check out backpacks, so I popped in.  There was one I asked to see and the clerk took it down for me then went back to doing some work at the checkout counter.  I nearly bought it, but kept standing at the checkout counter and no one there even glanced at me to say "just a moment."  Once the impatience set in, I decided I really didn't need it, left it on the counter and walked out.  I really didn't need it, so fortunately their rudeness overrode my impulsiveness and saved me some money.

I caught an N train at Prince Street as soon as I got into the station and came home...  It was relatively late for me and I didn't get home till close to 8:30pm...

Weekend Adventures and Lens Shopping in Manhattan

Saturday

After Leena and I got off the phone in the morning I got dressed and made the dry cleaner my first task, to pick up this week's clean laundry.  I also set up the humidifier with a completely full reservoir to run while I was out so the room wouldn't be too dry when I returned.

After getting my laundry I packed up my camera with my best general use lens, put the MacBook into its neoprene sleeve and my backpack, put on my sweatshirt and jacket and headed out to the subway station.

The train felt slow, like it wasn't running fast and spending longer than usual at the stations, with the announcement that "we are being held momentarily by the train's dispatcher, please be patient."  I got off at 14th Street - Union Square, where much of the station was full of people dressed up like Santa Claus, whooping, hollering and jumping over the turnstiles, then walked a few blocks to the Apple Store on 14th.

I ran into roving bands of Santa Clauses, many drunk and drinking, all the way from Union Square throughout my walk up to Times Square, but none at all farther up than Times Square.  The largest groups of them were smoking and drinking outside all the bars between Madison Square Garden and Times Square.

In the Apple Store, I started asking one guy for help, who got another guy, who got another guy.  In the end, it turned out they didn't have RAM for my "legacy" computer in stock (legacy being two years old) at the store, where they keep only things like that for the current models.  The final guy I talked to recommended I go to another store, Tekserve, on 23rd & 6th, and said they'd definitely have it.  He gave me detailed instructions to get there on the subway and said when I got out to look for the red Apple logo.

Instead of the subway I walked, since my plan was to walk all day, except for time in the store.  It wasn't too hard to find, except their big flag with the Apple logo was blue, not red.  It wasn't an Apple company store, but another dealer that specializes in Apple.  At the front information desk they asked what I wanted and I said RAM for my MacBook installed so I got a blue ticket and was told to go and wait by the big fish tank.

I waited.  The iPod help desk went through five or six numbers while I was waiting by the fish tank, and after about fifteen minutes of not hearing any calls for blue tickets, and noticing another whole row of seats on the opposite side of the fish tank, possibly all people waiting for computer service, I gave up and left.

From there I planned to check out all the grey market camera, computer and souvenir dealers that are all around the Times Square area and look for the lens a friend recommended, which also has really good reviews on Amazon and other camera sites.

Beginning around Broadway & 34th, by Herald Square, I started popping into every one of those shops I saw and asking for the Tokina 11-16mm lens, and every one of them shook their head and said they didn't have it.  A few were pretty hardcore salesmen who then tried to sell me other lenses.  One salesman asked, "why would you trust your friends' opinion instead of a pro, like me, would you smoke marijuana if your friends suggested it?"

I stopped at the north end of Times Square to climb up the red staircase and take some daytime photos of the crowds there, and the continued on..

Finally, after around 20 shops, at one shop the guys there said they had one, and did some digging around and some phone calls and said it was in their warehouse.  He asked if I wanted the f/2.8 or the f/3.5 and I said the f/2.8, which confused me.  I thought I'd done my homework on this and didn't know there was another one.  The price he quoted me was very, very low, too.  Maybe that was because it was grey market, but still, that was only 2/3 the regular price from all the legitimate dealers.  He asked if I wanted anything else and I said "no, that's all that's in my budget for now," to which he asked "so, what is your budget?" and I explained it wasn't fixed, just all I'd budgeted for was one lens and he kept on, "come on, tell me your budget, we've got lots of other stuff..."  I didn't, but I gave him my phone number and he gave me his card about when he could get the lens from the warehouse on Monday or Tuesday...

Back outside I kept walking up, in the direction of Central Park, still checking out more shops and all of them saying they didn't have it, eventually I got into a neighborhood with more classy sorts of shops and fancy hotels and no more grey market electronics dealers and started enjoying the walk a bit more and site seeing.

I made my way up to Central Park, but didn't cross the street to go in.  Just walked on Central Park South.  All the fancy hotels had big heat lamps set up over the sidewalk by their entrances and that felt nice, very noticeably warm.

On 5th Avenue, on the opposite corner from Central Park was another Apple store.  I'd seen it before, but never gone in.  It's so busy there it has a line to get in.  The store is below ground and on street level all that's visible is a big, glass cube with a big Apple sign and the elevator to go down.  The elevator is circular and all glass, with the glass bent into a circle.  Fortunately there were stairs spiraling around it, so I went in to check it out without waiting in line for the elevator...  But it was super busy and I didn't stay long, almost straight back up to the street again because it was crowded it was hard to move around.

From there I felt like using a bathroom, so I figured I'd just walk back down to 42nd Street and use the one at Grand Central Terminal.  It was quite a bit of walk.  On the way, St. Bartholomew's Church had a big Christmas shopping fair set up on the sidewalk, and some orange juice company was giving out free samples so I got a bottle of that for quick refreshment.

I walked down Park Avenue because from a distance I was curious what the buildings were that were sort of blocking the street.  That turned out to be the Helmsley Building and the Met Life Building, and though I didn't figure it out at first, Grand Central Terminal.  After going under the Helmsley Building I found out where I was and entered Grand Central Terminal, but a door I'd never gone in before and I got lost inside and couldn't find the bathrooms.  I exited it so I could see where on the streets I was and walk around to a place I knew, so that worked out.  Inside the line for the ladies' room stretched some way into the food concourse, with probably at least 50 women waiting...

Back on the street again I decided to walk up Lexington Avenue.  I watched the movie, The Seven Year Itch with the iconic photo of Marilyn Monroe standing on a subway grate, enjoying the wind blowing up from underneath (in the movie it's summer and the wind is cooling).  I figured out where that was and figured I'd walk up there.  The buildings are all different, or completely renovated at street level, so nothing looks the same and the older shops and restaurants, visible in still photos, are all gone.  But in the cold, the warm air blowing up from the subway, sure does feel good!

After that, on my way back down to a restaurant I saw on Lexington and thought might be good for dinner, if it wasn't crowded, I passed a good looking camera store, Camera Land, a real camera store, not a discount, grey market camera and computer dealer.  So, I went back and stopped in and asked if they had the lens I wanted.  One guy directed me to another, the "lens expert" who said he did have one stock.  I said I'd take it.  He had to search around the store a bit to find the cabinet key, but he got it out and rang me up and I walked out with it.  So, that was great, after all that searching and not even most online dealers having it.

A couple of blocks from there I stopped on a bench and swapped lenses, putting the new one on the camera and sticking the old one in the new one's box.  My first photos with the new lens ended up being the same St. Bartholomew Church where I got the orange juice earlier, simply because I was on the same street again, but the lens was great in the evening light.

I worked may way towards Times Square.  Last week, when those women on 5th Avenue in Brooklyn asked me about Rockefeller Center, I looked it up online and found out there was some park like stuff there and thought I'd go check it out.  And that was a mistake.  Because of the Christmas tree there, the crowd was insane.  I ended up in Rockefeller Plaza and packed in so tight I couldn't move at all some of the times, and couldn't not move some of the times as the whole crowd would just sweep me along.  A few times when a stream of people were actually moving, my camera strap would get caught in other peoples' accessory straps because we were all so close and it would take a bit of quick untangling to get loose.

It took around half an hour to move just over a block and get out of the worst of it.  Fortunately my camera, backpack, wallet and phone were all still with me.

It was a relief to get to the relatively uncrowded Times Square again.  Relative, of course, as it was as crowded as normal, but Rockefeller Center was just that much more crowded!

I wanted to test out the new lens at night in Times Square and see how it performed.  I worked my way up the red steps on the north end and had some fun playing around.  I tried various settings on the camera to compare how they came out.

Once I was done up there, I hit the streets.  I worked my way down, on Broadway, 7th, and 6th Avenues and some of the cross streets.  I stopped at Madison Square Park around 23rd Street to take some photos.  I thought I'd grab a quick bite at the Shake Shack there until I saw the line and decided not to bother.  Instead I continued my way down Broadway to Union Square, where I stuck my camera back in my backpack and hit the subway to Brooklyn.

Getting off at 53rd Street, I dropped my backpack off in the apartment and headed up to buy groceries, thinking I'd fry up another salmon fillet, but when I got to the store around 7:40pm, it was closed and shuttered.  I got a couple of slices of pizza next door instead.

When I returned to the apartment I found the bedroom, which I'd left closed hours earlier and the humidifier on, was quite warm and tropical.  I don't know if it was the door being closed, since I'd never actually closed it before, or if the humidifier really put out that much heat.  It was nice..


Sunday

Okay, a bit less today...

I didn't mention it one way or another, but I had a light migraine in the morning when Leena and I talked on the phone, and was in the "denial" phase of hoping it'd go away on its own (which is extremely rare).

It was raining heavily while we were talking, but after I finished with shower after we called and stuffed my camera with the new lens into the waterproof, underwater camera bag, got my shoes on (first time I've worn shoes instead of sandals in a couple of weeks) and my double layer of sweatshirt and jacket, the rain pretty much stopped...  It wasn't obvious from inside, with the rain splattered windows, though...

I got outside and took the R train towards Manhattan.  I almost gave up, as the train was running so slow.  The announcement was a problem on with signaling on the Manhattan Bridge, which was backing up train traffic with all the trains that share lines with ones that go over the bridge.  It took much longer than usual to get to Manhattan.

My first goal was to try out the new wide angle lens at a neat plaza, with an interesting configuration of circular and spiral benches, outside the Javits Federal Building, a few blocks up from City Hall, so I got off the train at City Hall and walked up.  I'd been to that plaza once before, but tried a funky program on the iPhone to take panorama shots, which didn't work well.  Only this time it was blocked off with fences.  I walked around it and found a notice on the fence that it was closed for construction, with an expiration date of the construction permit in April.  No idea when it'll be open again for photos.

A little bummed out, and no rain to try out the waterproof bag, I worked my way up and west towards the High Line.  It was fun walking through neighborhoods like TriBeCa, Greenwich Village and whatever else there was.  I stopped by at Washington Square Park, near NYU so I could use the public bathroom.  On a bench there I also removed my camera from the waterproof bag, giving up on any possibility of rain by then, as there wasn't even a drizzle from the sky...

Once I got to the lower end of the High Line, I took my camera out of my backpack and started taking pictures.  It was fun.  I walked the length of the park, trying out different settings on the camera to see how things would come out.  It's the first time I brought such a wide angle lens there, so my pictures are a closer approximation of what I see when not looking through the camera.

Fortunately everyone seemed to be up at Rockefeller Center, so it wasn't crowded at all.  I was even able to get down to the windows in the "Living Theatre" part of it, which is a set of benches going down to some windows that overlook 10th Avenue where it the High Line crosses it.  I got a bunch of photos of cars going by underneath.

After getting to the end of the currently open section of the High Line I went back down to the street.  It felt like it was getting a little late for a Sunday, especially given how slow the subway was getting to Manhattan, so I worked my way down to 14th Street.  On 14th I stopped for a quick frozen yogurt, then grabbed a train at Union Square back to Brooklyn.

In Brooklyn again, I got off at 59th Street, a stop past mine, so I could hit the grocery store on the way back and pick up another salmon fillet.  Fortunately it was open this time and I got what I wanted.

In the apartment I fried it up, pretty much like last time, but with a lid.  This time, though, I let the pan really heat up before I dumped stuff in.  I had the gas on kind of low, but the butter scorched the instant I put it in.  It was already turning black and smelling burnt after I put it in and before I even got the wrapper in the trash bag.  The fish got a bit burnt on the outside, and still undercooked on the inside, but less so than Friday's.

More Shopping ... Some Success, Some Failure

Whew, a busy day today and I'm tired, physically...

After Leena called I got dressed and went out.  I took the subway up to 9th Street & 4th Avenue and walked up to the Brooklyn Industries store on 7th Avenue and bought the backpack I'd been eyeing online (the one I've been using since 1992 is getting worn out, especially the zippers, plus threads keep unraveling from the nylon inside and jamming the zippers, but it's served well and I've hauled it all around the world).  It was high up so I had to get a clerk to help get it down for me, then I tried it on and it felt comfortable so I bought it.  It's definitely not as big as my purple one, but well suited for a lot of the shopping I'm doing, where I don't need to the bigger capacity.  It feels a bit more comfortable on my back, as far as the material, so I don't sweat quite as much.  When I bought it, the clerk put it in a shopping bag that's pretty cool, too, a heavy plastic one with the Brooklyn Industries logo and handles.

From there I found that Barnes & Noble I tried, and failed, to find yesterday after work.  Their computer programming section wasn't very big, but I found a one book that I was looking for in particular, about iPhone software development, so I got that.  And a few others, as well...

Then I wandered around that neighborhood, Park Slope a bit before taking the subway back to my apartment to drop things off.

Ah, one of the tastes of my
childhood...

A quick trip up to the grocery store netted some ice cream sandwiches I really miss (I like the cheap, generic, store brand ones, they're just more pleasing to me than the fancy ones), a jar of the chocolate milk mix that was my favorite when I was a kid in New Jersey years ago (Paul used it at Paul's Luncheonette, the diner right next door to the auto parts shop my father and grandfather ran), a small box of fresh chocolate eclairs and a raw steak, as well as a few other misc. items...

I brought all that back home, rushing along the crowded sidewalks to get the ice cream into the freezer before it melted..

Then I headed out on the subway to Manhattan intending to shop at the Apple store.  I figured I'd look for the neoprene laptop sleeve Leena wants as well as what I wanted, a set of speakers for the iPhone, iPad and MacBook that sound better than what's built into any of them.

I got off at 14th Street and Union Square, where I did last time, and it was super packed with people for a fair or market going on.  I got out of the subway on a different stair case than last time and was completely lost until I walked around the outside of the square almost all the way, and then recognized some of the buildings and got my bearings.

The walk to the Apple store was long, again...  On the way I stopped in at a liquor store and found a bottle of Viking Blod mead so I got that...  I haven't opened it yet so I don't know how it tastes, should be good, though.

At the Apple store I looked at a bunch of the speakers and just couldn't make up my mind.  No one offered to help me try them out.  I looked at the sleeves, but the only ones they had in stock were pink and black, the two colours she specifically said she didn't want.

After that I spent a while wandering around 14th Street and a few blocks up or down from there, just checking out that part of Manhattan...  I wasn't sure which trains to take to get to any of the other Apple stores.  One thing cool with the iPhone 4 is on 5th Avenue I happened to open up the notes I wrote earlier, including the 5th Avenue address of the other Apple store, but it highlighted 5th Avenue as a link to show me what was nearby, based on my location being on 5th Avenue (but many, many blocks from the Apple store).

I tried a couple of times to buy a pretzel from street vendors, but each one was so busy yacking on his cell phone that I couldn't get their attention to make a purchase.  I wonder if they realize they're losing business by not paying attention.  Actually, last weekend when I got one, the guy was so busy with his cell phone conversation that he served me a hot dog instead and I said "I said pretzel, aren't you listening?" but he didn't react, just kept on yacking on his phone and put the hot dog back and got a pretzel...

I went to a Best Buy store as well to look at electronics.  They had a nice sounding set of speakers, from Klipsch, a company that makes high end stereo speakers and I'm giving it some thought.  I may look up reviews online of all the ones I saw and see what people in general like, as far as sound quality, then go back tomorrow.  They didn't have any 17" sleeves...

Around 5:30pm or so I took the subway back to Brooklyn.  The train that goes under my apartment is the one I took to Manhattan, so getting back was easy enough and I got out right at my block.

I dropped off my backpack and picked up my dry cleaning ticket and went back out again to pick up the clothes I left for cleaning on Thursday, but they hadn't returned to the shop yet.  The guy there said they should have them on Monday.  Unfortunately, that means I have no clean pants for work on Monday, because I gave two of the three pairs for cleaning and I have the remaining pair, but I wore them all week and then walking around yesterday and today, so they're definitely not even remotely clean...

The first steak I've cooked
in at least ten years...

Back in the apartment I took a nice shower to wash off, then cooked up the steak for dinner...  Not bad, the first steak I've cooked in like ten years or so.  I enjoyed it immensely.  Of course, for plates all I have are the paper plates a previous occupant left in the apartment, and the juice from the steak soaked through that quickly and I had to clean the counter up...

Now I'm just relaxing...  It's 9:40pm.  I'll probably go to sleep pretty soon, or maybe I'll watch The Empire Strikes Back...  I'm exhausted and I still want to shop for some speakers for the computer tomorrow so I can have decent sounding music in here...

Shopping for Home Items

Well, today was a busy day, and not a whole lot got done...

I stopped by the apartment with a backpack load of stuff, just to make space in my suitcases for the dirty laundry that's no longer nicely folded and takes more space.  There was a paper from the landlords with a "welcome to the neighborhood," some instructions about the doors and basic information about garbage disposal and stuff, with a bottle of red wine to hold it down.  They'd opened the windows last night as well, so there was fresh air inside the place.

Then I took the subway into Manhattan.  I wrote down the addresses of the four Apple stores in Manhattan (none in Brooklyn) and the one on West 14th Street was the easiest to locate on a map and match up with a subway stop, so I aimed for that first.  A mariachi band got on at one the stations and played some songs while moving up the car and the doors to the next one.  I got off the subway at 14th Street and Union Square, where there was a weekend fair sort of thing going on, people playing music, vendors selling lots of fresh made snacks and things.  Across the street I saw a Bank of America so I popped in to the ATM there to get some extra cash.

Then I headed up the street to look for the Apple store, and went the wrong way.  It took a bit to realize I was going east on East 14th Street, but once I noticed the shop address numbers and matched that with the direction of the sun (still morning, so the sun would be south with a bit of east) I realized it and turned around.  It looks like 5th Avenue divides east from west on the streets.

Unfortunately, west of 5th Avenue the blocks were gigantic, so even though I only had to go four of them, it was quite a long walk.  The Apple store's sign was sort artsy, and in the bright sunlight and a little dazzled and tired, I kind of missed it and walked an extra block too far.

Once I realized that I turned around and went in.  I asked at the entrance for iPhones and the workers sent me up to the second floor (first floor by Indian counting) where Gemma asked if I needed help.  I told her I wanted an iPhone and she went over the plans and all that.  She was quite helpful and fascinated that I'd just come back from India.

Towards the end, she had to call AT&T to activate the account, and they asked her to put me on the phone, which was something she'd never experienced in selling iPhones.  The AT&T woman said she would ask me a few multiple choice questions and I should give the best answer.  First was which mortgage lender held the mortgage to my property, and I said "I don't have a mortgage".  Then she asked something else about another financial loan and I said "I don't have a loan," and Gemma looked pretty puzzled about the half of the conversation she heard.  I thought for sure they'd looked up the wrong Kevin Rubin in some database.  Finally, the last question was "in what state was your social security number issued?" and I said "New Jersey" and the AT&T woman said "congratulations, you've answered all the questions correctly."  So, instead of mistaken about me, they were trick questions to verify I was me and not someone else pretending to be me.  Gemma speculated that having been out of the country the credit report AT&T had on me to activate it was probably too empty, since I wasn't paying bills or anything in the U.S. for longer than 7 years, so they wanted some extra verification.

So, I got the iPhone 4.  It seems pretty cool so far.  The screen is very, very sharp.

After leaving the Apple store I had a long walk back to the subway station at Union Square.  I stopped in at a Red Mango shop for a green tea frozen yogurt that was pretty tasty.  I stopped there for a while and wrote in my journal a bit.  While I was doing that I faced out the window to watch traffic go by.  At one point a black Lamborghini sports car stopped in traffic, and five or six people all whipped out their cameras to take photos of it, including a guy on a motorcycle who took one next to it, then backed his motorcycle up to get more shots from different angles.  Then the light turned green and they all left...

From there I went back to the apartment (the other night I was talking to the realtor about not having any recent rent payment receipts or check stubs because "we own our flat in India" and she said she liked how I called it a "flat" it sounded really fancy and foreign, and she said she had an English friend who told her not to refer to her flat in London as an apartment or people will think she's extremely posh).  I used the phone to call my parents.  I'm not clear if it's just a bad signal in the apartment from AT&T or if I had the iPhone antenna problem, but they could only hear me if I stood in one part of the apartment, and the call got dropped twice...  Not a good start...

It was also kind of loud...  Yesterday I'd noticed the signs posted on the street about no parking on Saturdays.  Today the street was blocked off at both ends with police barricades and a whole block party was in action.  Many, many families out, kids playing all kinds of games in the street, one family had their stereo outside, pumping out Mexican tunes, and a huge barbecue going on in front of that one.

Once I got off the phone with them I headed up to a nearby grocery store.  It was small, without a huge selection in most departments, but had many of the basics I wanted, like Cheerios, some yogurts and Silk chocolate soy milk.  I bought paper towels, soap, shampoo, 409 spray cleanser and dish soap.  Someone left paper plates and plastic knives and forks in the kitchen already, so they were less urgent.  I dropped those things back at the apartment and went out again.

This time I wanted to find several items:

• pot
• pan
• coffee mug
• pillow
• sheet
• blanket

And those things are hard to find there.  I checked in a lot of stores but none of them had any of those.  Up and down, no one had those.  Some people were selling stainless steel pots and water filters on the street and I asked one of them.  At first she said "they're stainless steel.  You do know what stainless steel is?" and I said "yeah, I know what they are, I'm more concerned with can I buy it now and take it home?"  She went on to explain that the water filter "holds 50,000 gallons of water" and I stopped her to clarify that it doesn't hold 50,000 but will filter 50,000 gallons before it needs replacement and she agreed to that change.  Unfortunately, they only had demo models, and would ship the real ones to people who buy them, so I told her that wasn't really the time frame I was looking for, thanked her and kept walking.

Eventually I decided to call it quits for the afternoon, stopped and got some pizza slices and went back to the apartment to pick up my backpack and head to the hotel again.

The R train to Atlantic-Pacific was easy, but this weekend the 3 train isn't running at all, and its routes are being serviced by the 4 train, but that meant the 4 train came on a different platform than usual, so I waited on the wrong one until I saw one, but didn't make it down the steps and under the tracks fast enough to catch it and had to wait for the next.  And it was hot down there, like an oven.

I got off the train one stop earlier and took some time to find my office so I'll be ready for Monday.  I know where it is now...

So, I'm back at the hotel.  I had a good shower after being so hot and sweaty and I don't think I'll be up late tonight.  I'm tired and I need an early start tomorrow.  For those missing items I think I know where there's a Target that'll have all of them, right near the Atlantic-Pacific subway station so I can check that out.  It's just one train from my apartment so I can do that after I check out of the hotel and get my suitcases into the apartment (that's going to be a bit of a challenge, they're heavy and it's a steep, narrow stair case, but I can take them one at a time into the building, then one at a time up the stairs).

Shopping with Leena in Dream City

Had an interesting variation of a regularly recurring dream this morning, between the first time I woke up and when I finally woke up and got up… For years I've dreamt of a city, a bit like Portland, Oregon, but not exactly, but many of my dreams take place there. And they're mostly about shopping (being that the dream city is mine, there's a disproportionate number of bookstores, of course).

This one had Leena joining me…

We began somewhere out in the suburbs, each on our own scooter. Leena, of course, had no trouble negotiating the freeway (for those familiar with Portland, this would be like coming from Hillsboro into Portland on 26) on hers, while I struggled, getting confused over driving on the left side or the right side. Every so often I'd realize I was on the wrong side of the road, and facing oncoming buses and cars, forcing everyone to screech to a halt, or me to swerve off the road. And then confusion again about which side of the road to go on…

Leena got into downtown Portland way ahead of me, and was already in the small, classy mall by the time I parked and want in. I caught up with her in a store selling miscellaneous stuff, but where I've usually bought toys in past dreams, including a kitty cat stuffed animal (which in the real world I actually bought at the Oregon Historical Society museum gift shop, which looks realistic enough that kittens who've wandered into my Beaverton apartment in the past when the door was open have seen it and started crouching down and moving towards it slowly). She bought a white hat there and was just paying for it when I arrived, so she handed it to me and I stuffed it in my white backpack.

From there we went to one of the other stores, a store selling lots of feminine sorts of things, lacy tablecloths, candles, scarves and what-not, with dark, antique-style wooden display cases and matching benches and framed mirrors all around. I'd been in there before, but mainly just to walk through on my way somewhere else.

This time, however, the store was closing and most of the display cases were empty. Leena was enjoying browsing around and picking things up, while I just watched, more or less thinking about the bookstore in the mall.

I Pad, You Pad, We All Pad for iPad?

All last year, Leena kept asking "what you want for your birthday?" and I kept saying "I don't know" or "no idea" even as my birthday flew past in August. She kept asking me, a few times a week, often prefacing it with "I won't ask again, you'll tell me when you know," as August flew past, September, October, November and December.

Finally in January Apple announced the iPad and I said "I know what I want!" and she thought it was totally cool, too, and the perfect thing to get me for my birthday.

In February some of her Canadian relatives visited and she gave them the cash to buy the iPad when it's released in Canada or they make a trip to the U.S. and can get it there. There's a a friend of Leena's family who travels regularly between India and Canada and said that since his luggage is rarely full he'd be happy to carry it.

March came and went, the iPad released. Then April... Finally in May Leena's aunt said they'd ordered it and expected it to arrive at their house by the end of the month. In the meantime my mother bought an iPad from Cory Comstock, the local Apple dealer in Waldport.

Last week, Leena's aunt apologized for not getting hold of the traveling friend, but they'd been busy in Toronto with other things going on. The traveling friend's phone number isn't reachable to ask what's up. The aunt said she'll try to track him down.

Now it's the middle of June, no iPad yet. I keep seeing my colleagues in Europe mention on Yammer they've got them. None of them are saying they don't like it... The latest comment is making me even more anxious to get it. The conversation goes a little like this:

New iPad owner: Internet on iPad IS different!

Sarcastic response: Different like this: http://bit.ly/aahsvW ;-)

New iPad owner: Nope, not in that sense (i have flash and ad blockers on all my browsers), internet on iPad becomes closer to you, even the same web based Yammer feels different

Future iPad customer: sound like a touchy-feely sort of thing, which is exactly the kind of "experience" Apple was aiming at. It changes everything when you actually "touch" the web with your fingers. Interesting.

Ooooh, I want one even more now that I'm reading things like this.

I'm not too worried about the missing Flash stuff, since I almost always leave pages if it looks like there's going to be Flash on them anyway, too much time for too little value (well, except for the Flash application I work on developing at work).

Maybe within a few weeks?

Book Shopping on Sunday

I went book shopping on Sunday to Landmark in SGS Mall for my couple-of-times-a-year shopping and picked up a load of books. Mostly fiction with a few software development books tossed in for fun.

• "Song of Kali" by Dan Simmons - I've actually read this before and some of it is incredibly chilling. The best was when one character was describing his initiation into a secret Kali-worshipping cult and says that unlike most idols of Kali, the one in the temple had no severed head dangling from her fingers, and the new novices all knew there would be one by the end of the night.
• "Queen of the Damned" by Anne Rice - One of my two favorite vampire tales.
• "Diary" by Chuck Palahniuk
• "Absurdistan" by Gary Shteyngart
• "2 States" by Chetan Bhagat - Bhagat is incredibly popular in India and it looked like half the people at the checkout were buying this, his brand new one. All of his books, so far, have a number in the title.
• "Conan Chronicles I" by Robert Jordan - I've read these all before, and Jordan is amongst the best of the pastiche writers. His Conan stories are certainly not Howard's, but hey, they're not bad.
• "Conan Chronicles 2" by Robert Jordan - I've read these all before, and Jordan is amongst the best of the pastiche writers. His Conan stories are certainly not Howard's, but hey, they're not bad.
• "King Rat" by China Mieville
• "Priestess of the White" by Trudi Canavan
• "Last of the Wilds" by Trudi Canavan
• "Voice of the Gods" by Trudi Canvan
• "Bone in the Throat" by Anthony Bourdain
• "Gone Bamboo" by Anthony Bourdain
• "Bangkok Tattoo" by John Burdett
• "Divine Justice" by David Baldacci
• "Tall, Dark & Handsome" by Nisha Minhas
• "The Marriage Market" by Nisha Minhas
• "Witches' Brew" by Terry Brooks
• "The Tangle Box" by Terry Brooks
• "Up In Honey's Room" by Elmore Leonard
• "A Winter Haunting" by Dan Simmons
• "Hamlet" by Shakespeare - I used to hate Shakespeare dramas after a few bad experienced in high school, but I've read enough other stories since then that reference Hamlet in one way or another that I figure it's time to read it.
• "Real World Haskell" by O'Sullivan, Goerzen & Stewart - I don't know what Functional Programming actually is, but with a name like Haskell, I want to learn the language. That way if anyone ever asks me "do you know Haskell?" I can laugh and say "are you kidding? it's my middle name!"
• "Learning Rails" by St. Laurent & Dumbill
• "Head First Rails" by Griffiths - The Head First series is fantastic, lots of humor and good tutorials, and I want to learn more about Rails...

The worst problem there, besides the incredible crowds, was that I wore a pair of Birkenstock sandals that I haven't work outside much, so the soles aren't scuffed up rough, making it hard to walk on the smooth polished stone floor of the store. It was a bit like walking on ice and I had to take small, careful steps to avoid slipping and sliding.