furley (2007-2008)

It's good to be home, but unfortunately when my honey V. picked me up at the airport she had some sad news... my little fishy friend Furley apparently missed me too much and kicked the bucket on Friday. I didn't get as teary eyed as I did when his predecessor Spencer went to the fish bowl in the sky, but it wasn't really the kind of news I wanted to hear upon my arrival. Anyways we gave him the royal flush ceremonial sendoff this morning and I think we are going to hold off on getting any new fish friends for a while.

Poor Mr. Furley.

NYC5

On my last day in NYC, I decided to take a scenic walk through Manhattan. I started from the GM building on 5th Avenue where our office is, and headed south through all the ritzy hotels and luxury shopping destinations. I walked past the iconic St. Patrick's Cathedral, Trump Tower, the NY Public Library, and the Empire State Building. Then I headed up Broadway towards Times Square, walked amongst the throngs of people there, saw a parade under way on 6th Ave., and walked past Radio City Music Hall back to the office to catch my ride to JFK airport by 1PM. So I covered about 50+ city blocks in 2.5 hours on foot, Niko Bellic eat your heart out.

Unfortunately the tight time frame meant I didn't have time to stop anywhere to grab some NY style pizza, but I didn't think the pizza around Times Square was going to be that great anyways. I was hoping to hit up Brooklyn on the way to the airport but my driver was not too cooperative and said we were going through Queens to get to JFK so it wasn't on the way.

Anyways I ended up at the airport early and the security checkpoint was nowhere near as busy I had been led to believe, so went into the gates and I hit up the pizzeria for a pair of strombolis, which are kind of like calzones. Good stuff for airport fare. Anyways the flight home was pretty uneventful and I got some work done in between sips of vodka and Coke and snacking on some Terra Blue chips. That's how I roll, baby.

For the rest of my phone camera pics from NYC, click here to my Photobucket album.

NYC4

Yum!!!

- CBS has its studios in the same building as my firm, and they use the plaza outside for live concerts and such. Apparently they were setting up the stage this morning as I was walking in, and I missed a live performance by Rihanna. I heard she was asking for me afterwards but I was busy in a lunch meeting with the patent litigation counselors group.

- Another burger place caught my eye, right across the street from the office. It's called Pop Burger and it seemed pretty hip and trendy. Like a White Castle meets Andy Warhol. Got a pair of mini cheeseburgers for $6 and you know what, it wasn't that much different from the bigger one I had at the Burger Joint last night. Pretty dang good and a lot easier to find.

- Well, tomorrow is my last day and I fly home to see my honey. I hope she's been feeding my fish Furley. She never remembers to feed him. Anyways, one last chance in the morning to do some exploring of NYC before I leave.

NYC3

-it's cramped in the conference room we're in. We set up a projector to show some of the work we're discussing and I have to say it's one of the most ghetto-style configurations I've seen in a while. the projector is a table-top model that is designed to project upwards from the table but we found there isn't room for it with us all sitting there so we put it on a chair, propped up on the far counter and because it shoots at an upward angle we had to tilt it with a binder and a stack of notepads. G-h-e-t-t-o.

-Some coworkers told me about this secret burger place that some regard as one of the best burgers in NYC. And it was within walking distance. So naturally I had to go check it out. It really is hidden, in a little alcove within a swanky hotel lobby of all places. You walk past a tall velvety curtain, spy a simple neon burger sign, and hang a right. Suddenly you're in the Burger Joint and it's all good. In keeping with its secret nature I couldn't take a picture of the burger that does it justice. But it was good. And I have a shot of the neon sign which also seems to evade clear depiction. You'll just have to ask someone that knows how to get there.

NYC2

More random thoughts from New York.

-being right across the street from the office is pretty convenient. A 5 min walk is a nice contrast to the usual 35min commute.

-went out for lunch with a coworker and he took me to a place called Beacon. I ordered a $19 hamburger with fries and "custom" ketchup. Not bad, but for $19 you'd expect something pretty awesome which it wasn't.

-lots of European tourists walking around 5th Ave during the day. Strong Euro and weak dollar means great shopping deals for the Euros.

-My coworker pointed out the Abercrombie & Fitch store on 5th Ave doubles as a trendy nightclub at night. There's even a velvet rope outside the door during the day and when it gets busy, you sometimes have to wait outside to get in ... just to shop. How incredibly pretentious.

-the office is in the GM building which has been decked out in the ground floor lobby to look like the inside of an iPod or something. Everything's white with silver accents and there's these pointless flashing red lights in the elevator that don't tell you what floor you're on or anything useful.

NYC1

NYC is nice. highlights so far:

-my flight on sunday was cancelled. flew redeye into JFK instead Sun night/Mon morning.
-checked in at 6AM, showered and then went to work all day Mon.
-hotel is pretty nice, best part is it's directly across the street from the NY office. towels are nice and soft.
-sudden rain and thunderstorm hit NYC last night. I got drenched in the one block run back to the hotel
-had a street stand hotdog at 2AM after the rainstorm, then visited the 24hr Apple Store right outside the office.

flex

Chris Bangle, the Director of Design at BMW has been both praised and villified by the automotive press for his accomplishments. Love it or hate it, the "Bangle-Butt" you see on cars like the BMW 7 Series has made an impression on the world of auto design and it has now manifested itself in cars as mundane or mainstream as the Toyota Camry.

I can't say I cared too much for the Bangle-Butt but now with the newest concept design from BMW I have some new-found respect for Bangle and his team. They've taken the "flame-surfacing" ideas they showcased on the BMW Z4 roadster and coupe, and moved into a new organic direction... with a flexible fabric-based skin and motorized moving structure that can resculpt itself and even blink its headlights, this really is the kind of car that one could imagine as a 21st century car of the future. Check out the promotional video from BMW featuring Bangle and showing some of the cool effects you get from a flexible skin and adjustable structure. The look of the folded skin when the doors open is very unconventional for sure, but I think it's pretty breath-taking to behold. I hope to see this car or an evolution of it in person someday.



See more photos of the BMW GINA at Autoblog

duality

Now I'm not a particularly big fan of football, but when one of the partners that I work for invites me to play in the office's newly formed flag football league, I found myself having a hard time saying no. To be honest, I haven't played flag football since high school, and I didn't fare particularly well then either. But you know what, it's moments like this that slap you in the face and make you sit up and pay more attention to your own health and well-being. But when we took to the field for the first time on Friday, the slap in the face was more harsh than even I imagined. Out of shape and with no athletic skills or conditioning, I found myself gasping for air after only a few plays and eagerly self-benching myself so that others could get a chance to play. Oh, man am I out of shape. My elliptical machine has really built up a fine patina of dust over the last few months from disuse. The guilt is starting to take its toll on me, so I think I'll be popping some fresh D-cell batteries into it (yeah, seems kinda silly that an exercise machine couldn't be self-powered, right?) and putting it through its paces soon. Maybe next week's game I can actually stay on my feet and not collapse from exhaustion.

But as they say for every force, there is a corresponding opposite force to keep things in balance. And so with this renewed pledge to exercise and get into shape, comes a desire to stuff myself silly in the most extravagant way possible. And so I have reconvened the Carnivore Club, a ragtag collection of similarly meat-centric folks who take no shame in eating as much food as they can, to return to the fantastic Brazilian steakhouse Espetus Churrascaria in San Francisco. If you're a meat lover and haven't been to a Brazilian steakhouse, you have to try it. You know how you go to a normal steakhouse, order a steak, and while it tastes great when you first dig into it, by the time you're finishing it the meat has cooled off and it's not so tasty anymore? Well at a churrascaria, you get smaller slices of beef off a large skewer fresh out of the kitchen and brought right to your plate, so every bite is a nice hot and tasty experience. I can't say enough about it and I can't wait to go back there next week. But I leave you with a few Carnivore Club Rules, or in the spirit of Pirates of the Carribean, they're more like guidelines.

Rules of Carnivore Club

#1. You do not talk about Carnivore Club.
#2. OK, you can talk about it a little but only when recruiting others.
#3. If someone says “stop” or turns over the red card, the food stops coming.
#4. One man (or woman), one plate. Nobody shares from their plate.
#5. You finish what’s on your plate. Unless it’s nasty.
#6. No soup, no salad. Unless it’s got meat in it.
#7. Dinner will go on as long as it has to.
#8. If this is your first night in Carnivore Club, you have to eat.