Don't Expect Luggage To Arrive, or, Friends Don't Let Friends Fly Delta

Luggage, once checked onto Delta Airlines, ceases to exist. Really.
They can't track it. They have no idea where it is. Bob from Bangalore
can't help you.
I've been calling Qantas too and they've been only slightly less
useless, but as the fault didn't originate with them that's not all
that surprising. As the final carrier, it's their responsibility to
check

http://www.worldtracer.aero/filedsp/qf.htm and offer useless
platitudes.

Luggage has now been missing for 48 hours, somewhere within JFK,
because Qantas have no record, so there has been no handoff.

If anyone has any better ideas re: Delta, let me know, but I'm going
to try to hunt down a number for the JFK terminal Baggage Claim .

New York, New York

I am EXHAUSTED. Safe to say I've probably never walked so far in my
life before.

Spent the weekend in the big Apple, of which Ive only seen a tiny bit
and probably not the good parts . Yesterday I explored some of uptown
and today was downtown, Wallstreet, Battery Park, Soho, Noho, possibly
Tribeca. I dont know, I got lost a lot. But if I hadn't got lost on
53rd trying to find MoMA, for example, I wouldn't have found the
Berlin Wall piece, off the sidewalk in a little courtyard (scene where
world got better). And I found Ground Zero more or less by accident,
wondering briefly why there were all those cranes behind Century 21
(where world careened off into absolutely fucked up with no reset
button) .
Though tawdry Century 21 right next door kind of makes me smile. It
seems kind of wrong, but as I get older I know there's no Right. We
are what we are. We tolerate. We do our best.
Second ever snow experience while I was there. It has stopped snowing
much by afternoon, but the sidewalks were slick with ice. I learned
quickly to not try to walk on a slope (can't keep your balance). You
have to brace your leg muscles at every step for stability. Came
close but did not fall on butt in a grubby snowdrift, or worse, slip
into traffic. I'm sure nobody does that, but if you know me, you know
I'd find a way.
Thanks to the many free wifi providers I used along the way to help me
find stuff not on the Lonely Planet map. This would be the Pod Hotel,
CBS, Staples, the free NY city wifi on Wall Street, and occasionly
Linksys. Another tactic that worked was getting directions off a
display iPhone at AT&T. Heh heh heh.
Five million photos of NY will be going up on my blog shortly.
As an aside, the food's a bit overrated, and the closer to the
tourist strip you go, the crappier and more expensive it gets. Rhode
Island is better.
Note - everyone I sat near in every Starbucks seemed to be a British
tourist. Also tourists asked me for directions a lot.
Other than the ice and losing a glove, no bad experiences. Subway
stinky but not dangerous during day and early evening.
--
Sent from my iPod touch

Ducks

Went to Boston again on Sun. The other options were doing my expense
report, or doing my laundry. I coaxed myself out of the hotel with
the promise of getting the couple of groceries I needed while I was
there. (I can't wait until I can get home and Leopardize this laptop.
Blank slate, two years of binary cruft just squeegeed off. Right now
it chugs along reluctantly).

Current Inventory : Boston Duck Tour receipt, a Harvard fridge
magnet, and a Red Sox teddy bear.

I went to Back Bay this time, to check out stores like Neiman Marcus
and the rest of the pretty nice shopping district. This is in the
vicinity of the Mass State Library and the Trinity Church as well.
(Nobody seems to pronounce their way through the whole word
'Massachusetts' . I'll be watching for this next time I see a tv show
or movie set around here. ) Pics on Flickr.
I went looking for the flagship Boston Apple Store allegedly also in
this vicinity, close the Prudential building, also hoping to leech
some wifi for Google Maps. Well, said flagship store is still a
construction site. I was still not sure I hadn't just missed it,
until I noticed that someone had helpfully stuck an Apple sticker on
the metal building notification placard on the fence. I like that
there are people out there far, far nerdier than me. This also
restored my faith in Google Maps - when Google Maps on my iPod can't
find an Apple Store, I should just accept that it probably doesn't
exist (yet).

It was getting up in the afternoon so I went to the Prudential center
to book onto a Duck tour, the last of the day as it turns out
(www.ducktour.com) . You get into a 1940s all-terrain vehicle,
whimsically painted up, and you get a driver with lots of personality
giving a tour, driving you to the Bay, *into* the Bay, around the
Bay, and then back to the mall. I actually had a really good time.
The only downside was the cheesy tourist photo I picked up afterwards
(mild extortion pricing. And as usual, I look like I'm on drugs.).
Anyway, Duck tour rules. Do it.

Conserving my cash for New York next weekend, after another week at
work.

Dave and Busters

Went to Dave and Busters at the Providence Place mall and had some
fun there. The food is pretty good, and if you could weld a video
arcade to the side of a TGI Fridays this is pretty much how it would
look. I killed some Aliens and then went back into the mall to blow
torch a few more holes in my credit.

Psychically clean and tumble dried

Not an action-packed Sunday. Caught up on laundry, sometimes its good
to just chill out and blend in. So I found this laundromat near the
university with free wifi.
Got plenty of walking exercise over the weekend which is important,
because I've eaten all kinds of stuff lately that you won't find in
the Atkins book.

--
Sent from my iPod touch

I'm in ur Boston, eating ur lobster

I'm in a tiny nautical themed restaurant called "the salty dog" in
Boston, near the waterfront. I'm surfing the free wifi here, courtesy
of the city. I found the Mall and the Hard Rock Cafe. Even though we
just lost Melbournes, I didn't feel like going to a chain restaurant.

Sent from my iPod touch

Did I mention ...

I miss Dave? I do.

Sent from my iPod touch

NyQuil vs jet lag

Red Clams
Originally uploaded by MidBlueMac

I think I'm winning the war on jet lag. I've had a couple of nights of cherry-NyQuil comatose sleep, some high-protein meals, some vitamins, and a couple of semi-productive work days.
I'm feeling displaced in a way that I never have before, and simultaneously irritated at my own cowardice. I'm not in freaking Kowloon, I'm in a first-world country with every modern convenience (except maybe a coin laundry, I still have to figure that one out).
I'm getting a weekly workday routine sorted out, and every normal thing I can do is suddenly so important. My iPod playlists , reading a book, geeking out, watching The Chaser's War on Everything, even going to the mall, I need to do every normal thing I can so I have that sense that I'm still connected to my life.

Should have paid more attention to Family Guy

Should have paid more attention to Family Guy
Woke up 8am again (don't know why I do it here, I don't do it at
home!) , though about going out to the mall but decided to stay in
until work to give my immune system a break.
The hotel is great, the food is great. (I'm going to post about that
on www.auslowcarb.com) .
I'm blogging from an ipod touch which is amazing. (do want an iphone ,
but decided to wait for an Aussie 3g version). It is pretty lame out
of the box, but once properly hacked it does most things my Palm used
to, and for the things it doesn't there are workarounds.
For the family guy fans, Pawtucket is a real place. I need to watch
that show again because I will get more of the jokes .....
(any incoherence is still due to jet lag, apologies. )
Btw the thanksgiving day parade in NY will feature a giant hello kitty
balloon ! I won't be in NY until the week after though.
Ps I miss you Dave.

Sent from my iPod touch

Checking in

Flying into LAX
Originally uploaded by MidBlueMac

There's a few pics of my trip on Flickr. I'm sooooo tired. More to come.
Paid the $10 for internet access at the hotel, it was good to Skype Dave.

In the US now

Hi guys...

I'm now in the US.

Its allegedly sbout 6 degrees c outside, not that it really feels it. Its not all that cold. I've spent most of this trip uncomfortably warm, I think everyone sets their thermostat too high (including planes).

I went (briefly) to the mall and all the chain stores, Borders, Starbucks, etc, are all exactly as you would expect. Went to the Apple Store, I think the iPod touch is going to win out, just because the thing has a warranty when I take it home. Le sigh...

I have too much energy because I'm jetlagged, but I'm going to crash any time now.

I'll post more (possibly photos) later.

Longwait

Longwait
Originally uploaded by MidBlueMac

Qantas longwait ... Err, longreach.

04-11-07_1952.jpg

04-11-07_1952.jpg
Originally uploaded by MidBlueMac.

Waiting on a tram, because my train got cancelled due to graffiti. At this point, i dont know whom are the bigger asshats, connex or vandals.

04-11-07_1903.jpg

04-11-07_1903.jpg
Originally uploaded by MidBlueMac.

Looks like storm damage, on the waterfront near Flinders st station.

LAM - International edition

I'm packing for my trip to the east coast of the US in a few days.

30-10-07_1937.jpg

30-10-07_1937.jpg
Originally uploaded by MidBlueMac.

Railway graffiti, near Camberwell.

This aint a scene, it's a GODDAMN ARMS RACE

The iPhone has been getting progressively unlocked over the past few days, as of now the current version iPhone has a click-and-drool GUI SIM unlocker -

http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/first-free-open-gui-iphone-unlock-software-tested-it-works/

Apple has decided that future firmware updates probably *will* break installed apps http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/12/apple-backtracks-updates-will-most-likely-break-3rd-party-iph/
after initially claiming today it was neutral toward third party software.

The arms race is on, people!

Its amazing what the hacking / open source community can do, with their concentration focused like a lazer beam on a shiny, shiny device with 'Property of AT&T' written on it. (The apple on the Tree of Knowledge probably looked a little tastier, but not much.


/I can has iPhone in Australia?

iPod Touch potentially useless as PDA

So, Engadget says no Calendar edit at all?

Wow, Apple products quite often have one stunning oversight, a glaring brainfart in a well thought out package (in the case of the iPhone, its the pricing curve).

But this, this is *special*.

However, my gut feeling is that something about the software wasn't ready for prime time and as it wasn't mission-critical, the Touch was going out anyway with the function disabled (fixable via future software update).The iPhone should have much the same software, but leaving references to the phone functionality in the Calendar app would be shoddy.

I guess in a month or three, the thing might be hackable or upgraded to the Palm/iPod replacement I wanted. Or maybe by then we'll hear something concrete on 3G. Who knows.

Touch!

This initially published blank. I'm not sure what the heck happened

I cancelled my impulsive iPod touch pre-order, as I changed my mind on getting one the second the arrived. Taking a risk on there being available stock, but I want to put a few more miles on my 5G Ultra Classic iPod first. Free wifi ala' Telstra and Nintendo DS might have sealed the deal of course :D
I can't wait until this thing is out and cracked like a Cadbury Creme Egg.

update

Hmm... too soon to tell for realsies, but a few features whose existence can't be confirmed or denied include Bluetooth, a Mail client (eh, webmail) , and being able to edit iCal (What?)

You could say, it's an iPod. Do you need this stuff on an iPod.

And you'd be right, these are things I can live without... but I can live without a new iPod too.

Its really making sense to hold off and wait and see how it all shakes out. I have a phone, a PDA, an iPod. There's no hurry.