Month: December 2007

NY Day 1

I suck at coming up with titles for these kinds of posts, so I figure I’ll just go the boring route and number them (unless something really sticks out). I just uploaded 115 photos to my New York set on Flickr. I am kind of amazed at how much we accomplished today! I’m also ticked that none of my txt updates to Twitter worked. I know it’s not my phone, because other text messages were working. Stupid Twitter.

Inside Macy's Inside NBC Experience Store Rink at Rockefeller Sharon on the roof

We started out by walking to Rockefeller Center to pick up our Explorer Passes. We saw the tree, and the skating rink, and stopped across the street at Dean & Deluca for coffee. We spent most of the rest of the morning wandering around Fifth Avenue, checking out some stores like Saks, FAO Schwarz, Barnes & Noble, and the Disney store. We also stopped to pickup tickets to the Sex and the City tour. Clearly, one of Sharon’s choices for activities! We went to Macy’s (which was a complete jungle) and stopped at Pax for lunch on the way back uptown.

Empire State Building They have snowboarding in Ontario?! Dean & Deluca Mack on the roof On "The Stoop"

I kind of wish we had something like Pax in Edmonton. London had the same kind of little places with fresh sandwiches and salads. Aside from Quizno’s and Subway, we don’t have anything really similar back home. Speaking of Canada, we stopped at Bryant Park where we found a giant glass dome advertising Ontario. Yes, Ontario. Inside were two people with snowboarding gear. Riiiight, because Jasper & Banff are in Ontario?!

Eventually we got on the bus for the SATC tour. It was a bit of a gong show at first, but once we got going it was alright. I actually wasn’t as bored as I thought I’d be, and there were clips of all the places we saw, so I could at least make sense of what our tour guide was saying. I think Sharon enjoyed the tour! Apparently our tour had an abnormally large amount of guys – seven out of fifty-five people or something like that.

Inside the Disney Store The Pleasure Chest Start of the SATC tour Grand Central Light Show

The tour bus dropped us off at Grand Central Terminal, which was cool as we definitely wanted to check that out. The place is amazing! Lots of people bustling about, everywhere. We ate dinner at a pizza place called Two Boots on the “fast food” level of the station. Afterward, we finally used the subway to get to the Empire State Building. All the way up to the 86th floor observation deck we went, and it was quite a sight. Part of it was closed, unfortunately, but the views we had were still pretty amazing. A very touristy thing to do, but I’m glad we did.

Market @ Grand Central On the Observation Deck View from Empire State Building Times Square

Our final stop of the night was Times Square. It was everything I was expecting and more. Lights, buildings, people, excess all around. I loved it! We checked out a bunch of stores, including the really awesome Toys ‘R’ Us, the Virgin Megastore, and M&M’s World. Very, very cool places. We’ll be back there again for sure.

Mack @ Times Square Times Square Times Square Sharon @ Times Square Lego Empire State Building

I’m pretty tired at the moment, no doubt from all the walking we did today. We spotted a souvenir shop at one point that had 18 postcards for $1. Thinking that was damn good, we bought them, only to find two blocks later another shop that was selling 30 postcards for $1!! I am determined to not get ripped off like that again! Heheh.

Though it seems like it’ll be hard to top today, I am looking forward to the rest of the week. I could spend months here and not run out of things to do!

Ah New York :)

We arrived in NY tonight with no problems – not even a delay! Even though it was more expensive, we opted for the taxi in from the airport over the shuttle or public transit. I think it was worth it. We’re both feeling a little claustrophobic, but not because of the hotel room (it’s bigger than we anticipated). It’s the buildings! We were walking down the street and I said, “hey look it’s Trump Tower”. Then we looked up…waaay up. Everywhere you look, there’s another building! Kinda neat, but kind of strange for a couple of kids from the prairies. Heheh.

We went to The Burger Joint for a quick dinner. It’s an interesting place, like a fast food diner in the middle of a fancy hotel just off Fifth Avenue. Kind of expensive, but tasty. We also checked out the Waldorf Astoria, a Starbucks of course, and then we headed straight for the Apple store! It was just as I imagined. We browsed around inside, used the free Internet, and then I bought my iPod touch. Thanks Santa!

Ah I love free Internet…missed it in London! We’re back at the hotel, obviously, which is quite a bit nicer than I expected. I guess I didn’t trust the pictures 🙂

Here are some photos of our evening. Lots more to come! It’s gonna be a great week!

Huckabee isn't running for 8th grade

Holy crap politicians like Mike Huckabee scare me. Or more accurately, the fact that some Americans will vote for Mike Huckabee scares me. I think there should be a test you have to take if you want to run for President. One of the questions on that test should be, "do you think the Earth is 6000 years old?" Anyone who denies evolution is simply not fit to be President. End of story.

Check out this YouTube video of Bill Maher interviewing Mike Huckabee. Maher asks about one of the debates, in which Huckabee was one of three Republicans to raise his hand when asked if he did not believe in evolution. As part of his explanation, Huckabee calls the question "silly" and explains that he is "not running for 8th grade". For the sake of everyone living on this tiny marble, I sincerely hope that no one like Huckabee is elected next year.

Bush might be an idiot, but people like Huckabee are downright crazy.

Read: Digg

I'm Batman! No, I'm Batman!

Post Image As you may know, I absolutely loved Batman Begins. I walked out of the theatre totally amazed, and I still have no problem watching the film again and again. Not even Katie Holmes could drag the movie down! Needless to say, I am really looking forward to The Dark Knight.

I was less impressed with Superman Returns, but I have to admit it wasn’t so bad the second time I saw it. I think Bryan Singer’s interpretation of Superman threw me for a loop at first, mainly because I’m a huge Smallville fan and was totally immersed in that world at the time. It’s not as high on my list as The Dark Knight is, but I will definitely check out Superman: Man of Steel.

So, I’m a fan of both Batman and Superman. Should be no surprise then that I’m also interested in the Justice League of America movie. That’s right, another big screen flick with Batman and Superman.

  • 2007/2008 – Smallville Season 7
  • 2008/2009 – Smallville Season 8 (possible)
  • July 18th 2008 – The Dark Knight
  • June 2009 – Superman: Man of Steel
  • 2010 – Justice League of America

I think you can see where I’m going with this. Within two or three years, we’ll have two different actors playing Batman, and two different actors playing Superman. Three if you count Tom Welling in Smallville.

Will simultaneous Batman/Superman franchises work? More specifically, simultaneous franchises with different actors and directors?

Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan have created an awesome Batman. Brandon Routh and Bryan Singer have done a pretty good job themselves with Superman. You don’t want to mess with either of those. Now, if the JLA movie was co-directed by Nolan and Singer, perhaps you could have Bale and Routh in the movie. Same characters, same actors. But they aren’t directing the movie – George Miller is. Which means he’ll have his own vision, and will most definitely want his own actors. I think that’s gonna be strange.

I would love to see Batman and Superman together in the same movie a la JLA, but I really hope Warner Brothers rethink their strategy here. If they release JLA so close to the Batman and Superman sequels, audiences may feel overwhelmed. More importantly, it could seriously damage the momentum that Bale and Routh have going with the characters.

Obviously Bale won’t be the last actor to portray Batman and Routh won’t be the last actor to portray Superman. You’d think they could have some time to own their respective roles, however! Introducing two additional actors in the same roles just doesn’t seem fair.

And yes, I realize that Val Kilmer and George Clooney each took on the role of Batman in a period of two years, but that was with the crap Joel Schumacher was peddling. Make no mistake about it – Nolan’s Batman is an entirely different animal.

Maybe all three movies will kick ass, who knows. My guess however is that even if all three are great movies, either Man of Steel or JLA will suffer at the box office.

Bon Jovi Rocked!

Bon Jovi!Last night I went to the Bon Jovi concert here in Edmonton with Megan, Riva, and Ken. My parents flew down from Yellowknife for the concert too, which was pretty sweet. Megan saw Bon Jovi in Calgary during the summer, and she said last night’s show was probably better. I have to say, I was really impressed!

There was a really wide range of ages in the audience. If you couldn’t tell by looking at faces, you certainly could by the high number of lighters in the crowd! At JT it was almost 100% cell phones, but not so last night. Hedley opened the show, but I think the young people were still there for Bon Jovi.

Megan was the photographer for most of my photos, as she has steadier hands than I do. My new camera worked pretty darn well, I have to say, even zoomed in 15x.

It was the most expensive concert I’ve ever been to (~ $160) but it was well worth it.

Notes for 12/9/2007

Here are my weekly notes:

  • I’m back from London. I think I have text messaging withdrawal.
  • Your next Dell might not come direct…they are going to be selling at Best Buy starting next year.
  • The IE team recently confirmed that the next version of the browser will be called Internet Explorer 8. That’s the only thing they’ve told us, however, and even Bill Gates is confused by the silence, commenting that he’ll "have to ask Dean what the hell is going on". Hopefully we’ll get some more IE8 details as a result.
  • While on the plane, I read Andrew Keen‘s "the cult of the amateur: how today’s internet is killing our culture". Essentially he argues that sites like YouTube, and Web 2.0 in general, are killing culture. The book contains many errors, as Lawrence Lessig and others have pointed out, but the worst part is how it makes the word "amateur" seem like a bad thing. I kept reading, expecting Keen to write "just kidding" but it never happened.
  • I also read Super Crunchers by Ian Ayres, and I really enjoyed it. The book was a bit dry in places, but on the whole, it was a similar read to Freakonomics (no surprise considering both the book and its co-author Steven Levitt are mentioned like a gazillion times).
  • Here’s a really funny post by Fake Steve Jobs on the news that Apple has a $15 billion cash stash.
  • Bon Jovi concert is on Wednesday! It’s gonna be great.

What a week!

I finally got back to Edmonton last night around 1 AM. We were supposed to return just before 11 PM, but our flight leaving London was severely delayed after four passengers didn’t show up. Somehow their bags were onboard the plane however, so they had to find them and take them off (and they apparently removed the wrong ones the first time). As a result, we missed our connection in Toronto and had to take the later flight.

I walked out of the airport and just about died…I forgot it was minus 22 degrees here! Edmonton is pretty dry, so waking up in London with a bit of humidity (or a lot when raining) was a nice change.

The rest of the week in London was more of the same – work followed by drinking. I made the trip sound kind of boring in my last post, but it wasn’t that bad. I saw a side of London that you wouldn’t normally see as a visitor. The small pubs that the locals go to, for instance. They are all unique and unlike anything we have here in Edmonton. I was quite glad to find all of them served cold beer!

On Thursday we went to the, um, "sports bar". Essentially they put a TV in the place that no one watches and they can call it a sports bar! The guy who took us called it "cultural exchange" heh. He always makes fun of the few similar places we have here, and now I know why. Friday morning sure was rough though!

Friday night we went to another pub, then to a "kebab place" for a quick dinner. Seems they are quite popular with the night crowd, and I was quite impressed with how much food we got for so little. It was quite tasty too! After that we went to another venue that had a live band. It was interesting as the crowd seemed very young compared to everywhere else I had been.

Saturday was mostly traveling, but I managed to stop in at a souvenir shop on the way to the airport. It was raining when we left, just like it was when we arrived.

Some observations:

  • I think the tube kicks ass, but the locals think it sucks. Perspective I guess 🙂
  • The power outlets are massive in the UK. They take up so much more space than ours do here, and I think ours are pretty big as it is.
  • The area we were in, Camden, was pretty much empty during the week, but so busy on weekends that it was hard to walk! And the tube station became mostly exit-only, with only one way in.
  • Also in Camden, you can’t walk for more than a minute in the evenings without being asked if you want to buy weed. I wonder if they are selling Canadian stuff?
  • Wireless Internet access is hard to find and expensive, at least in my experience.

I’d love to go back and explore more of London. Hopefully I’ll be traveling there again for work, and I’ll be sure to take some extra time to do so. For now though, on to New York!

The Conference Room is Home

I’m really surprised at how exhausted I am already. Essentially we’ve been in the conference room here at Questionmark for the last three days. All day, every day, from 8:45 AM to around 7 PM. And there’s still two days to go!

Tuesday evening was fairly uneventful…just went to the pub for beer and pizza! Last night was the company Christmas party, and that was…interesting. We went to this medieval-themed place with entertainment like fake sword fighting. The food was really good though!

Also last night, the Chairman/Founder of the company was nice enough to drive me around a bit, to see things like the Tower of London. That’s about the only touristy type thing I’ve done, and am likely to do, on this trip. Definitely going to have to come back sometime. I’m not even sure when I will have a chance to go buy souvenirs and stuff!

So that kinda sucks. On the other hand, this is a business trip, and from that perspective it has been incredibly productive.

London – First day of work

Today was the first day to meet everyone in the UK office and actually get started on some of the things we hope to achieve for the week, and for the most part I’d say it went quite well. I met a few people I had previously only spoken to via email or phone, so that was good. There’s still a lot more people to meet however, so hopefully I’ll get a chance to do that this week.

In terms of London itself, we didn’t see much today. Another stop on the tube and a few pubs, but not much else. We went to a Japanese place for dinner which was pretty good. I’m definitely going to have to come back someday, because I’m not sure how much time I’ll have to explore on this trip.

I discovered a Starbucks on the way back to hotel tonight, so I’ll have to check that out this week. A little bit of home 🙂