Setting Up the New Apartment

I've put together a layout of the new apartment to figure out what we can put where. I'm worried that we won't be able to get our couches through that hallway and around the corner. The diagram is to scale, and I've decided to put it, as well as the measurements, on the series of tubes to ask you, The Internet, if you think it will fit. So what do you think? I'm nice to you, can you help a guy out here?

The hallway is 34 inches wide, but the doorwar is just about 30. The ceiling is roughly 109 inches, or nine feet, high. The distance between where the wall against the kitchen is and the other wall is 44 inches. The bigger couch is 30 inches high, 39 inches deep and 79 inches wide. So it seems like the couch will just barely fit. Do you agree, The Internet, or am I a fool?

By the way, sorry about the mess, we're still trying to figure out where to put things. Why yes, those are cherry wood floors.

Sydney at Night

Sydney at night. I took this photo a few years ago from the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I sent it to Sydney's free weekly newspaper, City Weekly, and it was published. I also won 100 free digital prints! The warm color of Rocks is a nice contrast to the cool blues of company logos on the buildings.

The Empire State Building

Last night I snapped a couple of interesting shots of the Empire State Building. It was a wet, chilly night, and the clouds clung to the top of the city's skyscrapers. The architectural icon was illuminated yellow in honor of the 10th anniversary of "The Lion King" on Broadway. While that's kind of lame, the building looked beautiful. The lighting changes frequently, for holidays, special events or seasons. While on the topic, I'll add another photo of the Empire State Building. This is in my banner above. I took it back in August.

A few interesting facts about the top of the skyscraper:

• It was completed in 1931.
• It's height is 381m (1,250 ft).
• The dome on which the antennas now stand was meant to be a docking station for zeppelins. Unfortunately, the updraft through the building was too great and each attempt at docking resulted in a near-crash.
• The broadcasting antennas were added in 1951.

Obviously, there are a lot more interesting facts about the Empire State Building, but I decided to limit myself to facts about the very top.

Guy Fawkes Night at Pacific Standard

The guys at Pacific Standard threw a Guy Fawkes Night party last night, the 5th of November, of course. Remember, remember? The 5th of November? Jeez, I could have sworn I told you about it. Most Americans don't know who Guy Fawkes is and only recognize the mask from V for Vendetta. This is understandable because we're no longer a colony. They still celebrate it in the colonies of Canada, New Zealand and Australia, to some degree. And I think they still pay tax on tea.

So who is Guy Fawkes? He's the guy from the famous Gunpowder Plot in 1605. He tried to blow up Parliament and kill the king of England. They caught him with loads of explosives and gave him a a bit more than a slap on the wrist. They tortured him, hung him and then did it again once a year for four hundred years. The holiday is also known as Bonfire Day or Fireworks Day. Setting off explosives seems like a funny way to celebrate his failed attempt, but it is less violent than burning him in effigy.

"Are you setting him on fire?" an early visitor to Pacific Standard inquired of the dummy-in-the-making. "No," John, one of the owners, replied, "Not allowed to, but he's actually a piñata."

Ah, Guy Fawkes makes it to the New World as a piñata. Perhaps one day we can see his face on a totem pole! I did not stick around long enough to see the destruction of Guy "Guillermo" Fawkes, but I stayed long enough to have a great time. This bar is a gem, and, with 4th Avenue Pub a few doors down and Cherry Tree right across the street, the block might be the best beer bar block in the world. I'm moving into an apartment two blocks away! Seriously, I am.

New Apartment in Development

Last week I popped into our new apartment to take some measurements for furniture. They were redoing the entire place! It was great to see the new tile in the kitchen and the rewiring in the bedrooms was a nice bonus. It turns out that dealing with an idiot broker has its upsides, like the broker neglecting to mention that the management company intends to renovate the entire apartment. We lucked out because we loved the location and went for the apartment despite the flooring and wiring, which have now been redone. That's a photo of me and the bathroom. Thankfully the water had not been turned off. Next time I should think twice about drinking a large coffee and a sport bottle of water while en route to Brooklyn from Jersey.

Work in progress.

Pigeons Rule the World

Humans create statues of heroes and gods. Pigeons stand on their heads and defecate. I don't think there's any question who's in charge here. More pigeons being pigeons.

Faces in Stone (and other matter)

Shortly into our trip, I began to notice a common visual element to locations we were visiting: freaky faces. Usually in the form of a sculpture and frequently the part of a fountain, they were carvings in wood, granite or other material of mythical, historical or fictional characters. As we distanced ourselves from Rome and grew closer to Brussels, the medium and the message both became more bizarre. From Bacchus in Florence to an overwhelmed tourist in Wurzburg to a mouth-bleeding piece of graffiti in Antwerpen. Here's a little collection of some photos I snapped of faces during our trip.