Note on prices (all prices in Canadian dollars).

Subway ride: $2.30
2 eggs, 2 toast, 2 bacon, 1 orange juice: $15!
Bottle 'o' beer: $9
Avg hotel: $375 according to Lonely Planet, $225 according to USA Today
1 bed in 6 person hostel room: $45
64 megs of memory for camera: $100

Let's just say I'm glad I live in Canada and yet earn US Dollars. (John actually bought a blown up 1 dollar bill to put on his wall and worship).
[11:12:04 PM] []

Our New York photos are online as well as Friday's TO Pho.

John and Matt's NYC Trip

Everything you've heard about NYC traffic is true. On the way to Manhattan from the airport our SuperShuttle 'bumped' into a car that was competing for our lane.

Stepping off the SuperShuttle on 42nd (that's where the driver thought it'd be best for us to get off since we hadn't figured out a place to stay yet (42nd is basically Times Square)) a lady walked by and told me to shave my legs. Kind of random.

Our first quest in New York was for food. Our second was to buy a New York Lonely Planet because we had no clue where we were or where we were going to stay. Next we had to find a working pay phone to call hostels. They were all full except for the Chelsea Int'l Hostel on 20th at $30 each a night.

On the way to the hostel to drop off our bags we stumbled upon the Flatiron my favorite New York building. Coincidently it's the entrance to Silicon Alley (here's a story).

Before dinner we'd thought we'd visit the Empire State building (official site). When we got down to the basement we found the world's longest line. Supposedly it was an hour and we could by-pass it for only $x more. Well you know what our time is worth. We skipped the line and paid the extra. For the extra you get to go on a lame ride. Which doesn't really make the wait longer you're just distracted. Note for you. Pay the extra, skip the lame ass ride and get in line for the elevator. Here's a picture of the elevator line. Be warned. There are many lines and it will really take you 1-3 hours to get to the top. Once up there you'll find it very smoggy. On the way down we somehow skipped the lines and got in an empty elevator.

We had dinner Saturday night in the 'Theatre District' (i.e. Broadway).

Sunday we visited Central Park and Madison Ave.

For dinner we sought out New York's best pizza (Pizza Therapy's answer, Swine and Dine's...) . We settled for Lombardi's but of course every New Yorker has a different answer to the pizza question.

Monday we caught an early morning train to Wassaic. Note. We didn't bring an alarm clock (or towels). Fortunately one of our hostel mates had a cell phone with an alarm function. At Wassaic we got picked up by Guy and Ken (Ken's Volvo had a GPS map unit) and then were whisked off to Guy's farm were we met in their boardroom (outside under the trees). At one point we got to herd the goats (see their picture).

After meeting all day we all drove 2.5? hours back to New York for my first real Pho (learnabout Pho). Highlights were meeting Jon from Tucows and finally putting faces to everyones name. Of course everyone knew who I was but I only had vague ideas about who they were (I don't lurk while many do).

Tuesday we bought some flash ram for the cam and hit the financial district. Highlight was probably the bull.

Our flight ended up being cancelled and the subsequent flight was delayed. We were not impressed.

And you'll probably find out about the content and results of our day long meeting in due course :).
[11:04:01 PM] []

Webnoize is running a story entitled 'OpenNap Server Operators Challenge Canadian Copyright Law' and the teaser is (you have to pay to read the full story (or email me)):

Refusing to disable a web server that enables copyrighted music file sharing, two Ontario college students hope to inspire debate in Canada over how the government should handle online copyright reform...

My favorite line of the article is this Brian Robertson quote:

If our legal people didn't think there was copyright protection in that area, we wouldn't have sent the letter in the first place.

I beg you to find a reference to any Canadian law in their letter to us.

The article also refers to Canada's third world like copyright laws, and the fact that Canada has the highest per-capita use of file-swapping services.

The funny thing is that when the reporter called I just spouted off like I normally do and didn't actually think they were going to run a story.. But they did since one of the New York guys mentioned it during our meeting.
[8:44:18 PM] []

I've decided not to put my photos online this morning because I know everyone will look at them before I can put descriptions and comments.
[10:53:17 AM] []

That last post is from yesterday.. Someone turned this machine off so it never made it up till now.

So I'm back in Toronto. We survived NYC and didn't end up in the east river. I'm now slugging through 300 emails, 60% are Pho and are therefore non-essential. Some are billable (i.e. having to deal with my 'day job') but the ones that require the most attention are not (unfortunately). I also don't think that posting my photos is a billable item even though I know Gary will be checking them out for any hint of what went down during the negeotations on Monday in upstate New York.

I'm also catching up with the world (so much can happen in 4 days). While catching up I noticed this entry from Wesley (whom I respect which therefore confuses me as to why he reads this.. ):

Matt Goyer's weblog always confuses me, but he points to Straight but not narrow, which is a good idea.

Now I'm trying to figure out if it's good or bad that I'm confusing. Feel free to enlighten.

Anyhow, details on everything will have to wait till after work.
[10:47:48 AM] []

Hey All. We're still alive and doing well. We haven't ended up in the east river yet. Yesterday was a crazy day with lots of talking, travelling, and finally Pho. Check back tonight for the complete report on the trip.
[10:36:39 AM] []