Forget the war, the real

Forget the war, the real sign that the final hours of mankind approach is the loss of our right to have a cigarette in a public place. I had my last cigarette in a bar on Friday night. Out with Sapient folk from FBR days and later at Ace bar with Adam, Anya, and the Suicide Girls, I had me quite a few cigarettes and I felt like shit in the morning, but what would life be without feeling like shit on a Saturday morning?

The 70 East 12th household

The 70 East 12th household has been selected to take part in a TiVo's Home Media Option BETA program. This means we'll be able to play mp3s stored on our network from our TV. Geek chic, baby, geek chic.

I was just doing my

I was just doing my usualy online news read this morning. I usually check the BBC first then go to CNN. This morning the disparity between stories reported was greater than usual. The BBC's front page story was on a shopping center being hit in Baghdad with at least 15 people dead that included a nice little picture book and all. CNN's site, on the other hand, doesn't mention it, not even in the smaller headlines.

Even more interesting, is that if you select to view CNN "International", the shopping center bombing story does come up as the front page story. Surely there are Americans who would be interested in this story.

I've been back from Costa

I've been back from Costa Rica for a few days now so I figured it was time to break the ice and give a vacay debrief. Overrall it was a good time and certainly a break from butt cold New York and the daily routine. But there were some hiccups that made it that more interesting.

First and most importantly is the loss of my digital camera. Let's take a moment and remember the good times we had with that camera.

start montage with theme from the movie Ghost

fade from funny to goofy to joyous to intense to twilight.

end montage

That's right, the beloved Olympus has left us. Stolen in a flurry of unnoticed snatchery. So that means no pictures, at least not shortly. We did take plenty of pictures with two disposable cameras that Arielle thankfully brought along which are apparently pretty decent so I'll get that those up when I get them put on CD.

We were at a bus station when all the bad business went down - early morning on the way down south to the Osa Peninsula from San Jose. I had taken the lid part of my backpack off (it acts as a small bag on its own) and filled it with all the necessary 8-hours-on-hot-bus accouterments. There was a prick of an American at the bus stop too with his Tica girlfriend. I was talking to him with my backpack and the lid bag maybe about 8 inches behind me. Some local asks the American I'm talking to a couple questions, which I'm guessing was the indirection used to snag my bag. For I turned round 1 minute later and it was gone. Bye-bye camera, cell phone, passport, travelers checks, books (one a gift from the indomitable Mike Elliott - The Power of Myth, another a gift from Arielle - if on a winter's night a traveler), and Arielle's journal. I thought about doing the whole police report and UK embassy business for a minute but decided that would be no fun, so on the bus we went.

The kicker comes when we return to San Jose a week later to take care of all that passport business and get ready to leave Costa Rica. After taking care of the passport situation we wander around San Jose and decide to run into a book store so that I'll have something to read on the plane. I spot a copy of The Power of Myth and think that can't be my copy. I flip through and notice that pages are earmarked that I remember earmarking, but Arielle is not convinced. So we look for the other books, the Lonely Planet Costa Rica, and the Calvino book that Arielle had given me for Christmas. The Lonely Planet isn't there, at least our copy isn't. But I spot the Calvino book and lo and behold there's Arielle's inscription to me. That's a pretty decent feeling right there, minor retribution I guess. Well the owner of the bookstore, after seeing our police report, kindly gives us the Calvino book and discounts the Power of Myth since we can prove that it was mine. He then proceeds to tell us that we should try the pawn shops near the Mercado Central for our other stuff, especially the camera phone.

So off we head to the Mercado Central which is in a somewhat sketchy part of town. The pawn shop area though is like Ground Zero for petty thieves. It was kind of cool roaming around there checking out the wares of thousands of unsuspecting tourists on display which, I hate to admit, were quite enticing. Cameras, cell phones, mini-disc players, cd players, and plenty of other goodies. Alas, my camera and cellphone never made it here. But an interesting side trip nonetheless.

At this point in the trip I was starting to feel sick and realized that I'd contracted some sort of G.I. bug from which I'm still recovering. I've a pretty good knack for contracting G.I. bugs in countries where I get my bags stolen (see Morocco).

More to come when I get them pics up!

Today I've been getting all

Today I've been getting all packed up and ready to go and get mucky in the jungles of Costa Rica. I had a great morning of drinking lots of coffee and getting silly of the fumes from the seam sealer I used to seal up my tent. The indoor part of the this whole great outdoors thing is more fun than I thought. That fact that it's snowing outside right now makes me feel that much better about gettin the fizzy outta here. No doubt I'll be getting those pics up here first thing when I get back.

And thus began the journey of the monkey back to his native habitat.