to start waiting in line for the iphone yet? It’s still a couple of days to go until the premiere of the iphone (Friday 6pm) but several sites (e.g.appleinsider, cnet, macnews) were reporting that some are already starting to line up to buy the iphone at the apple store on 5h ave. I can understand the hype – I’m also a big apple fan – but I wouldn’t even dare to think about spending my time sitting there just to be the first one…
Archive for June, 2007
How boring must life be…
Tuesday, June 26th, 2007Evacuation of NY office
Monday, June 25th, 2007Today I was glad not to work in the NY office as they’ve evacuated the whole building because of a bomb scare. Sounds quite frightening but I guess that’s what you have to deal with working/living in NYC. Thank god there was no bomb and the office was opened again after 15 minutes…
Evan Almighty
Sunday, June 24th, 2007Surrounded by a bunch of children I was watching this sequel of Bruce Almighty starring Steve Carell who was also in the cast of the predecessor. On the side of Steve Carell was Lauren Graham (playing his wife) who got famous as one of the Gilmore Girls and as I have to admit that I’m a big fan of the Gilmore Girls and I love Morgan Freeman playing his role as god which were other reasons to watch this movie. As far as I know many people didn’t like the predecessor but I found it quite funny and the preview looked nice so I had to go and I wasn’t disappointed. Although the story is very foreseeable and they try to give you a little moral lesson I laughed a lot as I like this kind of jokes (e.g. when god is giving Evan signs a move marquee displays “Now showing: 40 year-old virgin mary” 
). Strongly recommended if you liked Bruce Almighty and still recommended if you fancy a nice evening watching a funny movie.Â
Some things are different
Friday, June 22nd, 2007After being in the US now for a couple of weeks it’s time to describe for you guys back in Austria some differences I’ve recognized so far. This is just a small collection – more to come 
- Drive through ATMs: I don’t think we have something similar in Austria.
- Self Checkout at the shopping mall: This means that you scan your articles yourself at the cash desk and pay with debit/credit card. The first time I’ve tried this it was a little bit uncomfortable but once you know how to do it it’s pretty nice.
- Credit cards: First of all it is very hard to get a credit card especially when you don’t have any US credit history (which is the case after moving over from Europe) and all banks want to get an evidence that you have a permanent residence in the US e.g. by showing them a utility bill of your apartment. The way credit cards work here is a little bit different to what we Austrians are used to. The due amount is not automatically transfered from your account as your credit card represents an separate account where you have to transfer the money to from you checking account.
- people here are eating potato chips, nachos or even popcorn as sides to their lunch and everything is of course packed in plastic and forks and knifes are plastic. The amount of waste one is producing here is unbelievable.
- everyone leaves the engine of the car running when waiting for somebody. These days gas prices are rising in the US but it is still to cheap to change some behaviors.
- cab drivers are driving over curbstones if they’ve missed the exit on the highway (fair enough – this might also happen in Austria)
- commercials: whenever you see something in an advertisement that somebody wouldn’t do in reality like driving a car very fast or someone jumping from on escalator to the other you see a flash telling “professional driver on a closed track” or “do not attempt”. Seems somebody could get sued if one would try this in reality and got hurt
Eva in NYC
Wednesday, June 20th, 2007I’ve been a little been a little bit lazy recently – sorry! Actually, I have to give you some update from last week as there was a visitor from Austria: Eva was in town which was reason enough for me to fly back to NYC and visit here there. We had some nice dinner two beautiful days in Manhattan and Hoboken although Eva brought some rain over from Austria As I know that Eva is a loyal reader of this blog she deserves publishing of some pictures here. Eva, it has been a great pleasure to have you here and I hope to see you soon again.
Waiting for the Staten Island Ferry:
Enjoying Hoboken:
Fantastic 4 – The rise of the Silver Surfer
Sunday, June 17th, 2007I have been in NYC this weekend and used Saturday evening to watch a movie at the cinema. I originally wanted to see Mr Brooks with Kevin Costner but had to discover that they were not playing it at the cinema I went to so I switched over to see the new Marvel movie and my low expectations were not outbid. This movie is just another simple action movie with very simple dialogues and a flat story. Not recommended.Â
Cicadas
Friday, June 15th, 2007This year is Cicada season here in the Chicago area. Cicadas are 2 to 5 cm (1 to 2 inches) long and the world’s loudest insects (up to 106 dB). They spend about 13 to 17 years underground, feeding on tree roots and this year they are emerging in very large numbers and you can hear them in the whole Chicago area. When I heard the alerts on radio first to close windows and doors because of these insects I thought they were kidding but these Cicadas were really emerging in very large numbers and I saw them even in the Gate at the airport today. Here is a picture of one that I took in the shuttle bus of the rental car service today:
Summer Break
Wednesday, June 13th, 2007Supposed to be the celebration of summer break we had a picnic lunch today at the client site where we enjoyed some hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, fruit salad and beverages and here are some pictures.
 
 
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And I don’t like…
Wednesday, June 13th, 2007when my provider is changing my IP-adress. Sorry for the downtime; the blog is now up again and I’m currently thinking about hosting it somewhere else.
i hate delayed flights
Friday, June 8th, 2007Have I ever mentioned that I hate delayed flights? I’m sitting here at o’hare waiting on my flight to newark which already is 1 hour delayed and might get postponed further 