Adventures In Manhattan, Magic Edition

Saturday Steve and I took the Megabus to NYC.
It was a very good day.

We arrived at the Whitemarsh Park & Ride at 7:30am for the 8am bus. There was NO parking. And the lots are assigned, so there's no leeway. I was forced to park at the Ikea parking lot across the street and pray it would be okay there until we got back at 2:20am... It was, but I didn't like it.

The Megabus is a double-decker, and has free wifi. But the Bolt Bus has more comfortable seats, with more leg room, amd friendly bus drivers. The only thing that's "better" with Megabus is that they have buses like every hour around the clock, whereas Bolt Bus' last departure is 8pm.

We got in Manhattan a couple of blocks from Times Square, predictable. Got our requisite corner cart hot dogs and started walking south. Then we jumped on the subway and went to Battery Park. Very windy, with a nice view of Lady Liberty, since the park is at the southern tip of the island. Steve bought a "Movado" watch for $20, talked a Nigerian down from $40. =D I took a great b&w photo of the metal sphere sculpture that is now there, having been damaged and recovered from in front of the Twin Towers. Very cool, very steampunk. 8:-) Also right there is the American Indian Art Museum, which was used as the art museum in Ghostbusters 2.

We then walked north, popped into Trinity Church to see the architecture, woodwork, and the cemetery. Continued to walk north, passing Wall Street on our way to Ground Zero. They've already got the frames & floors for 2 very tall buildings going up, many many stories tall. I love tall buildings. They make me feel small, and give me a sense a wonder at their grandiose scale.

Then we continued north to Canal Street, passing thru Chinatown. Got McDonald's there, the jumped on the subway to Herald Square. Macy's Christmas window displays were all set up and in motion, and the area was being set up and decorated for the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Steve had talked to a magician friend of his the day before and arranged to meet at Tannen's magic shop on 34th there (a regular stopping point for us). I got to meet Tony Chang, underground NY magician who has a few effects/sleights published on Theory 11's webpage. Nice guy! =)

We hung out at Tannen's until they closed at 4pm. Then Tony took us to a pizzeria around the corner for a laugh: it's where the "old school" magicians in NY hang out. By old school I mean the non-progressive, lame, old guys... well, I won't rant (that's another blog post). Anyway, we met a few of these guys and later laughed about 'em.
Left there and the 3 of us walked north the Rockefeller Center -- Steve wanted to check out the Lego store. The big tree was up, with scaffolding all around since they were still putting all the Christmas lights on it. We hung out on a bench there, telling magic stories for a while.

Then Tony made a suggestion that aligned with the reason I wanted to stay in Manhattan late: go to a bar. We went to a small bar downtown in Tribeca where he knew the barmaids. The 3 of us got a booth and a few drinks, and had playing cards all over the table. That's pretty normal for a group of magicians. ;-P We spent all that time drinking, telling jokes, a showing off card tricks. Perfect.

Steve and I caught the 11pm Megabus back to Whitemarsh and got home at my apt around 3am. I actually slept on the bus! In fact, I slept for about 3/4ths of the trip. I wasn't too comfortable, but at lease we had gotten the back seats so we could recline them a fair bit.

Chatting and jamming with Tony was great -- I miss doing that frequently like Jason, Josh, and I did back in college 2+ days a week. I spent most of Sunday watching magic DVDs, reading magic books, and playing with cards.

A Needed Day Alone

Today was a good day alone. No plans; for once a good thing.

I got up at a reasonable time, 10:30am. Toasted some chocolate chip Eggo waffles for breakfast, then checked the various blogs and jazz on the net which I follow; took my time. That's always nice, because during the week I rush around in the morning doing my morning routine before work, with very little spare time built in to dilly-dally.

Then I took a shower and put on clothes. Following that, I updated my laptop's version of Ubuntu Linux to the latest, 10.10, released 2 weeks ago.

Researched some ideas for an articulated arm & wall mount for my iPad. I want to put it on the wall just above my computer monitors so that it would be easily accessible. That could be great for Skype (iPads have built-in speakers & a mic), and using the iPad as a jukebox, especially with Pandora radio.
So I headed out & about for a while, driving to various stores looking for at least *something* that might be viable. I checked out Target, Staples, Best Buy... no dice. Closest thing I came across was a small TV wall mount with a swinging arm... but it cost $90! That's about 1/5th the price of my iPad. No.
But it was 69 degrees so a good day to drive around with the top down. Might be the last warm day for that until Spring...

Came back to my apartment, looked thru the Ikea catalog to see what else I want to put on my walls (floating shelves? art? giant clock?) and killed some more time reading online.

Then I popped out to Caribou Coffee and got a dark chocolate mocha with almond flavor. Yum! I then went next door and ordered 2 rolls of salmon & cucumber sushi. The drink and the sushi go very well together; I suggest you try it.

Took the food home and watched the last 2 episodes of Warehouse 13 which I hadn't gotten to since the season ended. Good stuff!
Following that I logged onto WoW and played for an hour or so. I did the quests relating to phase 3 of the cult & elemental invasion, ran a random dungeon, and did a few daily quests while testing out my secondary spec: Affliction.

After that, started researching apartments in DC. Spent the rest of the night doing that while drinking Scotch.

In the past month I've been working on my resume, researching jobs and apartments in NYC. If the stars align and my coz Joe and I could each get jobs and start about the same time and get an apartment together, it could work. It would work...
However, by myself, it would be a huge stretch, even if I was making more money to compensate for the higher cost of living. A little disheartening.
So I've moved that goal back a bit in my head. For now.
My current job eventually might require that I work from home, that is, remotely. This would at least give me more freedom in where I live... I could move to DC and still get the city life that I want. DC is a bit smaller than NYC, but still a fun city. I know, I spent a couple of years hanging around DC 4-6 days/nights a week. ;-)

Stuff

Yeah, stuff. A memory dump [from RAM? heh]. This won't be eloquent.

Lately I've been pretty discontent. I'm comfortable in my life and where it is. But I'm not satisfied. I endeavor to change that...


I need to create art. It's been a couple of months. I've got images in my head that need to get out, and my creative impulses need to run free for a bit.


Bought grey jeans, which I've been searching for for over a year. They are perfect. I can never find jeans that are comfortable & look good, so I always just buy darkish blue jeans in the loose/baggy style. Not very fashionable, but comfortable. These grey ones are I think "relaxed" fit, boot cut. I like baggy in the legs, but they look damn good on me, IMHO. ;-P

Also, when going out last Wed, I was hit on by a college girl (age I assumed 18-19 cause she looked young) and she invited me to a concert at the Power Plant Live in Bmore the next night. The whole time I'm thinking "Aw, you're acting so cute, you have no idea." A little condescending in my head, but I did love the attention. I know where to find her for future interactions. >:-]
It must've been the jeans; that was my first night wearing them.

So that Wed night, Steve & I headed to Denny & Lee's magic shop to see Aldo Columbini lecture. Italian magician -- hilarious! His wife, Rachel [she's English] also does some magic and lectures. I was in on one of those tricks, and afterwards she gave me the "props" of that trick (a 1-way force deck and a gimmicked jumbo card), said I seemed really nice or something like that. ;-)
Rock on, my Grey Jeans of Attractive Power, with +13 to Luck!


A couple of weekends ago was my sister's birthday. She, my bro-in-law, and I went up to Lancaster PA for the outlet shopping and then the Amazing Maize Maze, which we did at night with flash lights. Going up there is an annual Fall tradition. =) It started with us and 2 of our cousins before they moved to LA a couple of years ago. =( I didn't buy anything this year, no real need, but it's always a fun day.


Halloween at my parents' -- I discovered a technique to keep Cali (their female yellow lab) quiet when the doorbell rings! Standing behind her and straddling her while holding her collar (she's big & powerful) is the normal way to restrain her. But she's a loud barker. She doesn't want to attack, no not at all. She wants to jump up on you and lick you in the face and show affection and have you pet her until your hands go numb. ;-P
What I discovered is if I leaned forward and placed my free hand on her neck, just below the collar, she released her tension and didn't bark at all! It was as if this was a signal to be quiet/calm.


Went to Illusions Saturday night. Spencer had fallen from a strait-jacket escape Friday night during the show and busted open his forehead. Thought it was finally time to pay him a visit. Sadly, it had been a year since I was last there, and last saw him. =( We've tried to get together in the past year to hang out, but we're on opposite schedules entirely. I used to be on that bartender's schedule of waking up at 1-2pm, going to bed at sunrise.
They've rearranged the layout of the place. Moved the leather couches downstairs and the formal tables upstairs. Built a new stage on the far back wall, it's nice. Should've been designed that way on Day 1... [ahem]
Jerry did the show that night, it was also good to see him. We reminisced about the 3 of us on the road trip doing magic at that trade show in Binghamton, NY two (3?) Februarys ago. Good times. Ahhh, the stories of my life could fill a book. =)


Been playing a bit a WoW lately. Almost daily, at least for a little bit. Catacylsm, the big expansion, comes Dec 7th, and there are pre-expansion events going on in the world, more each week. A cult has moved into the major cities, and Elementals are invading. The in-game earthquakes have gone from tremors to larger quakes... all in preparation for Deathwing to burst out of the ground and sunder all of Azeroth. Here's the intro cinematic for the expansion that'll kick it all off. Awesome! Makes me want to log in and kick some ass every time I watch it.
I was leveling a Draenei Shaman with heirloom gear for a bonus 20% to XP for a while. Really fast leveling, I liked it. Last week I started an Undead Rogue on a new server entirely, cause I like the Undead lore and Undercity, and I want to get familiar with Rogues. Rogues are the anti-Warlock (my main is a Warlock you know), and I've decided that come Cataclysm, I want to level a Worgen Rogue. >:-]


Why does spell-check flag "grey" expecting it to be "gray"? Checking the dictionary, "grey" appears to be the British/Canadian version of "gray"? Somehow in my mind, G-R-E-Y is the proper way to spell it.
/shrug


I always use the Oxford comma. It bugs me that almost no one else does. Then again, I've observed that American grammar has gone down the tubes in the past ~5 years, so I'm not surprised. People need to remember their "forms of Be" and match the plural subjects with plural verbs!
It should be "they ARE" and never "they is"!
...and such.
I can't blame this on the youth growing up with IM and email and txt msging shortcuts, cause adults, even non-technology-inclined ones, are speaking worse and worse.