Pithy Title Here

They say don't judge a book by its cover. Nor should I probably judge a new tech toy after one day. But, when your one day includes time at home and 8 hours of plane rides, you could argue you've done all the needed testing on a portable device of any type. So... new Kindle verdict: OUT-FLIPPING-STANDING. Firstly, can I get every electronic device I have to hold a charge like this? Probably not, bc unlike every other device I have, the Kindle isn't backlit . It uses "electronic paper," which ( thank you Wikipedia : "Unlike a conventional flat panel display, which uses a backlight to illuminate its pixels, electronic paper reflects light like ordinary paper and is capable of holding text and images indefinitely without drawing electricity, while allowing the image to be changed later." This basically means it really reads like a book. As in it gets dark and you need to shine a light on it. But the non-glare screen makes that a non-issue. The interfac...

When I lived in NYC, I did plenty of drinking, eating and the like and never gained a pound. I has no gym membership. I did have the City's 13,000 miles of sidewalks at my disposal, however. Getting to work involves a 10-minute walk to the subway and five after getting off. The same after work. I would take the train to Herald Square and walk to SoHo . Then I moved to Charlotte and bought a car. I had a good life in Charlotte. I also had a gym membership and heaven help me if I hadn't. Short of walking the dog through the neighborhood, something that sounded good, but rarely really happened, most transportation was via the car. Now, here I am, back in an urban metropolis. My commute now? A 10-minute walk that starts by climbing a big hill. This morning, I needed to go to the hardware store. four blocks later, there I was. We needed to go to Trader Joe's. Bus ride, then 12 blocks. Hell last week, we walked most of the way to the store. And the dog? No choice but to walk her....

I am officially a Washington resident (more on that in a moment). The past several days involved setting up the apartment, which has been no small task. We’ve had to get creative with storage solutions, look at some items and determine if we really need them and make countless trips to both our in-building storage unit and the trash area. And the result it… we’ve got a pretty fantastic place. Pictures will come soon enough, but, really? The place is fantastic. It’s the kind of urban living I was always somewhat envious of back in my New York days. And, truth be told, I lived well there. But this is something else both from an aesthetic standpoint and a practical one. Part of the practicality is access to Seattle ’s amenities. Not only can I walk to work, but I can easily walk downtown. Or to the Queen Anne neighborhood. Major bus lines stop on both our cross streets. The streetcar stops in front of the place. And my walk to the light rail to get to the airport is 10-15 mins at th...

It's a night of firsts here, folks. It's the first night I feel like I have "living" space and not a repository for IKEA boxes. It's the first night I have been on the interwebs here bc my wifi card has been on the rag or something that prevented it from working as normal. Incidentally, if you need some IKEA furniture built, I am your guy. Though I'm pretty sure that after the next - and last - piece there is to assemble, I never want to see a wooden dowel again for at least a good 30-day period. But I digress... The movers arrive at 9 a.m. or so tomorrow. The next two days I am spending the bulk of time getting the place in some kind of basic shape, moving items into our storage unit and getting it ready for the arrival of the fabulous wife and dog (and Spragg !) on Saturday. That said, I have been working full time this week and a few things that are immediately notable: I have a 10-minute commute. Walking. You have no idea how fantastic this is unless ...

I just changed the settings on my computer and Blackberry so that everything is on Pacific Time. From here on out, I'm three hours behind the east coast I have long called home. In five hours, I hop on a plane and land 3,000 miles away... at home. Kinda cool, no? Sarah, Ashley and friend Jen are en route, as well, via car. I strongly suggest you follow their travails on Sarah's blog over the next few days. There will be much to report on a new city, but before that, I think it's only proper to send off Charlotte, a place I have enjoyed greatly. I've made great friends, had good times and learned a bit about what makes the South the South. So... a few things I will miss about Charlotte and some I won't (and people don't count on here. I am talking about material things...) I will miss: The trees. Charlotte is still a city of trees. Crepe Myrtles, Magnolias, Mimosas... even some palms here and there. The coniferous Northwest beckons, but there is something ab...

You know the saying "you are what you eat?" I have a whole new view on it since I read Michael Pollin's The Omnivore's Dilemma last fall. Now, don't get me wrong, I still grab myself a Bojangle's Supremes combo every couple months. But the book demands you look not only at what you eat, but also at your place and role in creating the food you consume. What the book basically gets at is that, if we are what we eat, what we are is corn. Piles of corn. High fructose corn syrup. Corn oil. The chicken you eat at most restaurants? Fed on corn. Beef, too, which is actually really bad for cows. Pollin gets into the reasons for all this. And I couldn't do it any justice by typing all the reasons here... you should just read the book. What's interesting is that Pollin isn't some holier-than-thou warrior for vegetarianism. In fact, he's pretty clear on the idea that simply looking at a human shows we're supposed to eat some meat. Our teeth hand...

This morning, I woke up in the Mountain Time Zone. I have since flown back to Eastern. This means my day is only 22 hours long today. But I feel like I have more than a days worth to cover here... but I assure you, all these observations come from today: I never want to hear the phrase "Hey, I forgot something in my hotel room. Can we go back?" This was uttered by some numbskull on the shuttle bus from my hotel to Denver International Airport. Actually, the shuttle served four places on the hotel farm where I was staying. And the driver, who was apparently a nice guy, took him back and we waited five minutes for numbskull to go get whatever he forgot. Fortunately, I had plenty of tie to make my flight. But, seriously... why didn't the driver poll the other passengers? I wanted to turn to this guy and say "Yes, it sucks you forgot something... but get off and get the next shuttle because you're not the only one on this bus with a flight to catch buddy." ...