Travel? I travel! Do you travel?

So this morning I headed out on a bus to Boston – yes, that’s Boston, Massachusetts, not Austin, Massachusetts! – where Lisa & family live.

The bus was a nice long 4-odd hour long ride, thanks to Greyhound’s partnership with Peter Pan bus line. I had actually reserved, paid and printed my own tickets ahead of time, so all I had to do is get to Port Authority, find my gate and then wait in line.

It worked almost too smoothly, so I was a little suspicious of what lies ahead. Continue reading Travel? I travel! Do you travel?

Some people are pretty darned cool

So my good friend Erez sent me this via email, and I thought it was pretty darned awesome. A company comes together to do something as strange and creative as this, now that’s a company that everyone wants to work for.

So check out how they’ve taken an old idea of recording yourself lip-syncing into a whole new realm.

See it here: Continue reading Some people are pretty darned cool

Learn from others what not to do

So a while ago, my friend David sent me a funny article (funny for us, not for the article’s subjects).

It showed what some brilliant SysAdmin had done at his company’s location, and how it backfired miserably.

Read it here: A “Priceless” Server Room: Priceless – Worse Than Failure

I hope you enjoy reading the article. I think I may have Continue reading Learn from others what not to do

And they call this “horror”!

A word to the wise: Don’t waster your time on movies that have nothing new to show you.

Oh yes, spoiler alert for The Messengers (2007) – it’s probably worse than you think.

To start off with – the cast is nice and small, so there’s not 50,000 characters and plot lines to follow. However, the one plot that is there is so weak that it makes you want to kill the writers, not just the actors.

The suspense scenes are so badly drawn out, and the music tries to heighten the sensation – but if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.

It all starts out with the family moving from Chicago to North Dakota to a Continue reading And they call this “horror”!

Oh, Internet, I love you so!

I just have to say that there are some really cool things out there and some really useful services that I am pretty impressed with.

To start off with, I am a big fan of Skype – especially since I got a nice webcam – the Microsoft VX-1000 Life Cam. The camera hangs nicely off the top of my LCD screen on my laptop, and in combination with Skype, I get to speak and be seen by people all over the planet. If I’m lucky (or if their brother brought them one back from the USA), they have a camera too, so we get to see each other. It’s great to be able to spend a minute or two – or more! – with people that aren’t around at the moment.

Another service which I use – which is a little Continue reading Oh, Internet, I love you so!

D00d, I’m in NYC!

OMG, where to start?

Well, this has sure been a fairly eventful week or so. OK – first things first.

Thursday night’s party was awesome – so thank you everyone for coming and partying with us! Over 60 people came through my door and I think just about everyone had a good time. Much booze was consumed, and thanks to Dan’s predictive abilities, we had exactly 2 bagels left over the next morning (which were promptly consumed).

Thanks a mil to Alter & Naomi for Friday night’s dinner (and also to Josh for organizing it, and Shawn & Yaffa for being there to tolerate me one last time).

Thanks a TON to Ruth, who got up in the middle of the night and drove me to the airport.

My flight was thankfully uneventful – I caught up on a few episodes of “The Inside”, slept some, ate some cookies that Batsheva had sent over on Friday afternoon (YUM!), slept some more, ate terrible airline food, and had some fun conversations with my seat-mates.

I got picked up from the airport by my aunt & cousin, and they drove me back to Manhattan. The traffic is horrible – I’m resolved to try and stay on public transport for as long as possible. I’m still unsure which is the more cost-effective MetroCard to get – the pay-per-ride for $2/each or a weekly/monthly? I guess it depends on whether or not I’m planning on more than two rides a day – any advice?

So I’ve spent a couple days recuperating and trying to get on track. Got most of my stuff folded & put away – still a little more to deal with before I have a clean living room.

Last night, I made it to “Avenue Q” on Broadway, and it was a hoot. Little advice: you can get Box Office tickets for about $48 in the Rear Mezzanine, or add another $10 over at TKTS and get much more superb seats. It was a lot of fun, and I’d go see it again anytime.

After I had gotten my ticket at the window, I kept hearing screaming from somewhere around the corner Continue reading D00d, I’m in NYC!