Yes we now live in a police state

Thanks to the threat of terrorist, the area around the Madison Square Garden is controlled tightly by the police. I have had no problem outside the Garden of getting around. The police are more concerned with large groups of people doing something rather than one or two individuals.

Yesterday, Monday, me and my roommate went to the Empire State building, my second visit, and the Guggenheim museum, my first and only visit. The Empire State view is nice and great for identifying building around Midtown New York. The Guggenheim museum had only one floor that had any art to speak of. I could have done some stuff and I would have been embarrassed to do the rest. There was more pornographic material there than I would have thought. No models or anything of Frank Lloyd Wright's creations.

Last night was extremely hectic. Security has increased and become more anal. I can't walk around a corner and not have someone check me out. At one point I had to go to editorial tables in the stands and the security guy would not let me up. He finally let me up to our area, with me being frim with him that I was not going anywhere else. Well, I did not know that Micheal Moore was only a few rows above our news position. And security was doing it's best to protect him from any possible attack. Interesting the left's biggest mouth comes under the roof of the Republican's party, but you didn't see any major rightwing big mouth (O'Reilly doesn't count) in the Democrat's party.

In NYC for one more week

Tuesday night I took the "D" train to Coney Island. It was interesting, but afterward I understand the puzzled look the lady gave me when I asked if there were any good places to eat while visiting Coney Island. The answer is obviously "NO!". Nathan's is right there off where Stillwell runs into the beach, but I was not impressed with their hotdogs in Manhattan, so did not try them. There was nothing but various types of arcades and rides, like a fairground. It was not that appealing to me, but I'm sure twenty years ago, with the right friends I could have found some enjoyment.

The rest of the week spent eating at various different places around Times Square. John's Pizza was pretty good and the price was great. Some of the other techs found a great place to get either yogurt or ice cream on 7th just north of Times Square. It was good, as I had a cup of blueberry yogurt. Ate at Tony's and it was filling Italian food. We went to Dallas BBQ off of 23rd and enjoyed it. You have to eat at the Cheyenne Diner at 33rd Street and Ninth Avenue it's what you think of as the typical diner, but with really good service.

The show really gets cranked up today. Some photographers and editors are already showing up. I'm the baby in this group of techs and I'm not that young. Me and another tech are trying to get (maintain?) in shape running in the hotel athletic room. I think if I can keep this up when I get back home and build on it, I can really seriously consider a triathlon in the next month or so. Will have to see where my swimming and biking strength is.

NYC is too much

Friday night ate a Brazilian Grill. It was ok, but not great.

Saturday morning a few of us went to Ground Zero. My heart sinks everytime I think about how not only the lives of those who died on 9-11-2001 was destroyed, but the lives of all those who constructed and maintained the World Trade Center complex were devasated. It's like you constructed a peice of art and it's ruined or broken. It's like God awarding you the gift of creating a life and before the child has a chance to take it's first breath it's over. I am thankful for the state of health I have and have had in my short life.

Went to Little Italy Saturday night. Enjoyed the company and the scenery. The crowd was pleasant as there were only a few weirdos. I am getting real acquainted the subway system here, it's not so bad. After you think of the history, the subway system is really a work of art. Much better than our transit system in Atlanta.

Sunday morning went to the Intrepid Sea and Air Museum. It was worth the visit. Wanted to go to Central Park, but did not have the time. The weather was great and I'm sure the scenery would be good.

Visited the Barnes and Noble on 6th and 22nd and it is huge. Lot's of books, but not one in particular that I wanted. Got some other books though.

It's been a week in NYC

Well, we may not be as close to being done as I thought. We have to setup some locations around the complex that our people will be working in. When one was mentioned and where it was, I thought of the Halle Berry movie "Gothika" and scenes in a mental hospital. It was not that bad as there was plenty of lighting and activity. This is some big deal that's coming together. We're going to have a lot of things working and happening.

Visited the Empire State Building with a few of the other techs this evening. It's more interesting than I had thought. You can get a better sense of the other buildings in New York City than you could from the Towers, they were so high that everything was a long way off.

Realized that some folks I thought were carrying regular iPods may also be listening to mini-iPods. So I'm counting both together. iPod count today was 11, and I may have missed some cause I wasn't paying attention for much of the time. Stopped wearing mine, because the techs visit and sometimes taxi's honk their horns at important moments.

lot's going on

We have got the main news area setup. Yesterday we began configuring the pc's and organizing the particular workstations. Today we continued cleaning up and getting things just right. Got to walk around the bottom of the Garden, that is under what will be the floor of the Convention. It's interesting to see how the Madison Square Garden folks are preparing for this convention. We are preparing to setup network connections to our camera positions looking at the stage.

Monday night four of us took the subway down to Little Italy and ate at Lombardi's Pizza. The pizza was really good and was interesting environment. Saw a cop run into an apartment with a bunch of people outside pointing to some commotion inside. Seconds later a police van arrived and the two cops in it followed the first, who was huge like a professional wrestler or a weight lifter. We had walked past this event on the side walk and down the street at the intersection we wanted to turn on was passed by a ambulance. We were hungery so didn't stand around to see what happened.

Tonight, Tuesday night, I went via the subway to the Soho Apple store. It was full of people. Walked back to the hotel and that was quite a hike. The weather was nice, but it felt like it wanted to rain.

iPod count today was 16. This does not count the people wearing an iPod in the Apple Store, but I did see a three in the subway and another three in Soho part of NYC.

In NYC to support RNC

Well, I'm staying in New York City till September 4th to provide technical support for the Associated Press for the RNC. The flight was kind of rough, guess we were going through some tough weather. Sat next to a wonderful gal who was a NYC bus driver and she imparted some advice on how to get around the city for very little... ride the bus. The hard part was getting the two dollars change at Laguardia Airport, but after that I rode the M60 bus to Harlem and transferred to M7 and rode that around till it was going north on 6th Avenue. Got off near the hotel I was staying and except for the fact that both bus drivers were not very friendly it was not a bad experience and if you are coming to NYC you should consider using the bus, the locals do.

Thursday late afternoon toured the new AP offices on West 33rd Street. It's a great working environment a wonderful facility. The dumbells in the gym only go up to 50 pounds. I routinely workout with 60 and 70 pound dumbells, but since I have been losing weight that may be different now. The tech shop is rather small and cramp, while all the other departments have lots of space. The lighting is excellent and the feel of the place is great. We ate at O'Ferrals and it was nice, but small and service was slow.

Friday we put up the tables and distributed the computers (but still in their boxes). Got to see how to get around the complex. We are working great as a team. I am impressed with the staff, real professionals and go-getters. Finally met some folks I had only spoken with on the phone. We ate breakfast at Andrews Coffee shop on the corner of W. 39th Street and Broadway and were pleasantly surprised by the reasonable prices.

iPod count... 8... This is how many people I "know for certain" were listening to iPods while walking the streets today, here before 6 pm. Will update later if I see more folks listening to their iPod tonight when we go out to dinner.