Personal

My Big Boy Apartment

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I am 99% done with decorating and furnishing my new apartment. My mom got me some acent pillows and some sort of blanket throw or I don’t know what to call it for my big chair and sofa. My coffee / dining room table arrived two weeks ago. I even received the 3 prints I bought to hang on my walls in the living room. I haven’t hung them yet but they look really cool.

The last few things that I need to make everything complete is a few chairs for the table when I use it as a dining room table. Michael’s dad had dining room chairs that stacked nicely. I want to look for a few like he had, so I can keep them out of the way when I don’t need them but break them out quickly. I think that is better than storing folding chairs. I need something soon since I want to have poker at my place soon now that I have a table.

I am happy with the way everything came out. This is my first apartment that I bought nice real furniture. My first place i had cheap stuff. Then when I moved a few years ago my parents gave me their old stuff. It was basically nice but almost 20 years old and not my own. Now I think I finally have grown up and did my place up on my own. So it is really my big boy apartment!

Now I need to have a few poker parties to (hopefully) help pay for it all:)

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The Futile Attempt

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Today I made a futile attempt at finding a Notary Public. Apparently no UPS Store I went to or Fedex Kinkos had any. This is in contrast to what UPS said on their website. Apparently when a multinational company lists available services at specific locations that means that one guy may be able to provide said service. If he is on vacation then they cannot.

What bothered me about the whole experience was I did my research and went to stores that said they had the service (UPS only, couldn’t find any info about Kinkos). I get there and I am told the guy who can do it is on vacation. I am not offered another location that can do it, just sorry. On my way back to the subway I saw a Kinkos so i tried them. I was told they don’t have one either but another Kinkos a few blocks away might. At this point, wouldn’t good customer service offer to call that store and check for me? They didn’t, and when i got to that location they looked at me funny. I fared worse at Staples where the clerk just looked at me funny and had no idea what i was talking about.

Now I need to find a bank on Monday that has a Notary that will actually notarize something for me without me having an account at the bank, since we know banks love to turn people away for simple crap like that if you aren’t an account holder. That has happened more times than i care to remember.

I write about this of all things because an errand that should have taken 30 minutes that I actually researched before I left my apartment turned into a 2 hour excursion around mid town manhattan.

Where is the Drama Free Line Please?

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Have you ever wished they had a special line at the store (any store will do) that only took credit cards. Just a simple line where you walk up and hand the clerk your stuff. The clerk then proceeds to ring up everything and everyone who is on that line won’t begin to question if the computer is wrong, or the sale price didn’t ring up, etc. You are permitted to complain if you are buying something for $9.99 and it shows up at $100 or other outrageous errors, but generally you have to be a real grown up to be on the line, not just look like one.

If you accepted the responsibility of getting on this special line you couldn’t ask for discount card applications. You couldn’t try to combine a store credit card with a gift card. You couldn’t ask for gift wrap, or returns. You couldn’t ask questions about the product(s) you were buying. You would just get your stuff put nicely in a bag and you would thank the clerk and walk away. Typically I prefer if workers at the store spoke intelligible english, but on this special line it shouldn’t matter since you wouldn’t have to say anything beyond hello, and thank you to the clerk. So the question is where can I find this drama free line? I am on a quest to find it. I have a theory that this line does exist, and it is at the local DMV and quickie mart in the lost city of Atlantis. If anyone knows of any other locations please let me know! I have my credit card in hand!

More Shopping Today

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Today I took it easy in the morning and then headed out to the Queens Center Mall. The nasty weather didn’t really deter me. It wasn’t really raining/snowing that much by the time I left my apartment. I meet up with Jayson for some light shopping. I ended up not getting much but we found our way to the Outback for some lunch and hung out for a bit. Nice light fare for my vacation!

Saturday Shopping

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Today I braved the cold weather and headed into Manhattan for some shopping. My main goal was to get a pair of new glasses. I have a relatively new pair (a year and a half old) but I wasn’t super happy with the way they looked. They were narrow lenses that seem to be the only major stye you can find in eye glasses. The problem with that is that I have Nystagmus, so even if I am not trying to my eyes would sometimes view an area of my view that was not covered by the glasses. Needless to say this is annoying. I got used to it for the most part but it came up now and again.

I wanted to find a pair of decent pair of round frames like I had previously had. When I got my old pair I couldn’t find a pair of round ones that fit right to replace the old pair I had, so I tried the narrow oval style instead. This time around I was able to find a nice light pair of round frames that covered my field of view so even with the Nystagmus I don’t have an issue.

While the glasses were being made at Lenscrafters I took a trip to the new Apple Store on 14th street. That was a mistake. I didn’t realize it was on 9th ave. For some reason I thought 8th, so it was a really long walk in the freezing cold. I did get a pair of Bose in ear headphones for my iPod Classic. I tried Jayson’s pair and knew in a minute that they were a good buy! I finally got fed up with the Apple ones that came with my iPod that I have been suffering with for years.

After getting my glasses I meet up with Danny in Union Square and went to Dukes for some dinner and drinks. It was a freezing experience, but overall a great day!

Vacation to Nowhere

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I tried to make today as eventless as possible. It was my last day at work before my vacation. I didn’t need any excitement to delay my rest. Thankfully I had good mojo or something since nothing crazy happened like earlier in the week.

I hit the local bar everyone from work goes to for a quick drink before my vacation began. I am off for 11 days counting weekends and the christmas holiday. I am not really going anywhere, but I needed to take some time off. I haven’t been on a vacation since my Cancun trip in 2005. For this vacation I couldn’t think of where to go and couldn’t find any travel companion’s so I just decided to take time off and relax. The second half of the week I am going to my sisters in New Jersey to see her and the kids and to babysit one night. So that will break up the vacation a bit.

Even though I am not going anywhere I am not going to contact work. That means my Blackberry is off, I have the away message in my email client running, and I told everyone in my group I would only answer the phone for them and only if it was during certain times of the day. I need some time to relax. Lets see how that goes!

Lunchtime

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Today I took a nice lunch break to go down to Dukes and meet up with Dan for lunch. It has been too long since I saw him so I wanted to get together. He was still decompressing from leaving his last job (aka the company that I left back in February). It was interesting to get his insight into what is currently going on there. Like me, he was in need of a change.

It was nice to catch up. I am trying to get everyone together that used to play poker for a game at my place after the new year once I get furniture. Dan also offered to host a game or two.

I had to cut our lunch short (well short is a relative term) since I had been gone for almost two hours so I needed to get back to the office. I don’t take lunch almost ever so it wasn’t a big deal but I had allot to do since I am on vacation next week.

Lunch with Danny & Jayson

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Today I was able to get away from the office for about an hour to have lunch with Jayson & Danny. We just hit a dinner, but it was good to get out of the office and sit down for a change. Otherwise a relatively (for me) uneventful day.

Crazy Tech Buying & Selling Spree

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I don’t know what it is about the past few weeks but I have been on a crazy buying and selling spree. I have finally gotten rid of my old 60gig iPod. I have had my new 160gig silver one for a while but after a few problems with eBay I never actually sold the old one. I finally put it up on Craigslist and sold it. Even with my new Nokia 6120 Classic, I have been going back and forth with that phone and my Treo 680. The 6120 is great but I realized I need a phone with a keyboard. I think a phone is not a smartphone without one!

Going back to the Treo wasn’t going to work for the long term so after a false start I ended up picking up a new Nokia E61i off of Craigslist. It is big, but so far is doing everything i need it to. And it has Wifi to boot. I am still getting used to the Symbian OS, and the different applications I need to get to work. I already don’t like the PIM (Address book, Calendar, & Tasks) functions, but that is a trade off for not crashing and a phone that generally does what it is supposed to do. Stability has become important to me more so in recent days. More discussions on the E61i as I continue to play with it.

I am going to keep the N810 tablet because it is just interesting if anything. I don’t need it for any real reason but I am enjoying tinkering with it.

I am also in the process of cleaning out my closet and finally selling the extra DVD player I have (it is new in the box) and my old Tivo. I probably have a bunch of other stuff lying around so I have will be busy for a while.

I guess this is a good time to be doing all of this anyway with the holidays coming up and all.

Dinner With The Family

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I took a trip to the Queens Center mall today to try and do some clothing shopping before the crazy holiday season takes off. Well, I was too late. Apparently the holidays do in fact start before thanksgiving if the level of crowds and decorations at the mall are any indication. I ended up not buying anything. I didn’t find any clothes that I wanted. I was actually disappointed by the selection of stores at that mall. Most of the ones I would shop in that I tend to expect to be standard fare at a mall weren’t there. The ones that were didn’t have anything that caught my eye. So the trip was a bust.

On the plus side the mall trip was part of my master plan to get to see my family for dinner. My sister, niece, and nephew were at my parents so my mom picked me up from the mall and we all went out to eat. I then got a ride home. It was fun seeing everyone. Those kids keep me laughing. Thankfully I will see them again in a few days for Thanksgiving.

This visit with my sister also got me up to date on what I will be getting the kids for the holidays. It is nice to have a web site and a product number so I don’t have to go back to the mall!!! I will be online later this week to place my orders, even though I still maintain that Zack would be happy with an empty box.