NYC TRIP REPORT
FLY/TRAIN/FLY/TRAIN.
That’s the age-old dilemma. You’ve got to leave early to get to the airport and then you have to get there an hour early and then once you land in NYC, if your flight hasn’t been delayed, you need to catch a cab to the airport. With the train, it’s off to the train station and it’s a straight shot down to NYC.
So I took the Acela high-speed train to New York City today. It’s great. Funny thing is that they let you board the train only 10 minutes prior to departure. So you don’t even have to worry about getting there 1 hour prior.
You really don’t even have to talk to anyone either if you bought a ticket over the internet with a credit card. You just stick your credit card into a machine and it prints out your train tickets. Nice.
On the train I was reading the New York Times Circuits section. It’s a great technology section of the paper.
This week they’ve recycled about six of my stories that you’ve already seen here on Off On A Tangent! Oh yes, if you want to read the news before it happens, Off On A Tangent is the place.
Here are the stories that I had before they did:
1. Jason Eric Smith Got his Mac Back from an eBay scammer. One interesting thing the Times uncovered was the fact that eBay wasn’t actually involved in the transaction because the buyer asked the seller to end the auction early and sell the Mac directly bypassing eBay. That isn’t rightSo I got off the train in Penn Station and needed to find the Krispy Kreme Donuts. That was the meeting place Josh and I agreed upon. Well as I got off the train and entered the big lobby of Penn Station I saw about 6 people eating Krispy Kreme Donuts! I went over to the fat guy was just finishing off a six pack, of donuts. He pointed me in the right direction.
2. Firewire Dinosaur – This is old news. I’m sure I already talked about this over a month ago.
3. Advent calendar – Had it already. Remember the snowman thing I posted a link to?
4. Picture yourself – Did that too, remember when I ate the Kugel and took a scary picture of myself. Josh says I looked scary, I just thought I looked hungry.
5. That guy who tracked a package sent to Santa – This just proves that electronic new dissemination is much more speedy that the old once a week techie newspaper column.
6. Virtual Tour of Boston’s Big Dig – OK, that’s the last straw. The writers of this whole section must have been reading me daily. I mean how can they find this tour plus all the other stuff? When I saw this story I said, “Harumph.” The other people on the Acela were looking at me with crazed looks on their faces. Well, not really, there were only 5 other people in my car that’s meant to seat about 70. Hey Acela, how about some discount tickets?
Once we got outside in the street we saw a McDonuts! Hey, we don’t have that in Boston. I guess hte pressure from Krispy Kreme is geting to them. they were even making donuts in the window.
We went on an excursion to the Mecca of videographers. That’s what we are. We went to B&H Photo.
It just so happened that right outside of Penn Station a guy was handing out B&H pamplets. He directed us to the store.
I didn’t know that B&H Photo was run by orthodox Jews. Most of the sales people in the store had a Yarmulke.
After our fun experience at B&H we needed to find a place for lunch. We went back to the B&H guy, since he was so good at directions the first time, and he sent us over to the STAGE DOOR DELICATESSEN and RESTAURANT. It’s at 5 PENN PLAZA. It was a great place for lunch.
Josh said I made a good call in deciding that we should split the sandwich instead of each getting our own. So we each got a half of a pastrami sandwich that wouldn’t fit into our mouths.
Our business meeting went well and I caught and earlier train back to Boston in time to have a Beer at the Hard Rock Café in Boston. It’s at the BAck Bay Station which is one stop before south Station and a lot more convenient if you live in town.
Oh, one more thing, there’s this Christmas CD out with music made by a couple of guys using rubber bands. It’s called a Rubber Band Christmas. Download free mp3’s of Rudolph the rubber Nosed Reindeer and Deck the Halls with Rubber at http://www.bostonphoenix.com/Bost_mp3/previous/RUBBER_BAND.html
Nice was to pass the time on a train trip, writing the longest weblog post ever.