Twice today I read almost the same article on the New York Times and International Herald Tribune. The article was reporting on the weak dollar bringing in loads of tourists from abroad. Most cosmopolitan cities are expensive. The short list is Moscow, Tokyo, London, Paris. New York has been pushed down somewhere in 20s which means it just that affordable. But it's become a summer and travel right. Just about everyone has a similar strategy of flying to New York City with an empty or partly filled suitcase and loading it up. I've only done this once on a trip to Miami because I had most of my clothes in my closet at my parents' house. Even when we were there I felt a little guilty buying semi-expensive things. Gadgets I wouldn't normally look at until they were on sale became much more affordable. Hell even my student loans don't appear to be the "dreaded, monthly evisceration of our bank account".
But in the long run this will be a good reminder to the US that things won't always remain constant. It can happen where one day you won't be on top. And it's starting to reveal it's way to a lot of Americans. The precarious position they are in on an international scope. When the dollar was weak loosing value against the euro it was easily cast off as temporary, just inflation on the european central bank. But as Canada, Australia, and other nations have risen against the dollar at the same rate we've come to realize the dollar has actually been weakening.
No matter what the talking heads tell you, when planeloads of tourists start arriving from war torn central asian countries, you've entered a new era.
Recently in Rants & Raves Category
After weeks of screwing around with this laptop and thinking I was having a software problem. I blew away my windows partition. Twice. Installed Ubuntu and then Fedora Core Linux. I was still out of a fully functional laptop. I even went as far booting various LiveCDs and scanning the hardware and hard drive for errors. But this problem would still persist. The keyboard and mouse would lockup after a few minutes and be unrecoverable. Well now I'm back on Windows Vista...Basic. After using Business for a few weeks late last year I was hardly getting anything done. Click and wait was the operation of the day. Basic is supposed to be the lighter brethren of all things Vista. And frankly it's marginally better. Lots of features have been dropped in the name of making you pay more for the slightly better and resource intensive Premium. Turns out the same thing did happen. But after poking around on the internet I found other people who had the same problem.
Turns out there is a bug in Acer laptops. A bug where when the battery goes kaput it manages to lock the keyboard and causes hellish amount of problems. All this from a fooking battery? I should really slap the taste out of the engineers mouth that managed to let this slip by. I should also slap the design team for integrating the rubber standoffs into the battery. In my case I can't use it and I can't through it away unless I also enjoy trying to work on a three legged square table. You see the battery holds the ass end of the laptop up. And there you have it. The worlds largest manufacturer of portable PCs couldn't bother to think what would happen if someone tried to use the PC without the battery in the by. In other words "Get a Mac".
I've been here for atleast 2 years. I've been in Paris for a little less than that. tomorrow I'll be taking a trip home with my family to see my family. I'm that cousin that everyone sees every few years. Before Paris it was college. and before college I was busy preparing for college. While Costa Brava was fun nothing takes place of seeing grandma and mom. Mac will see his cousins and will know he has 2 grandmas, and a great-grandma. I'll visit my friends, and see the places I used to hang out as an old Miami head. And I'll see how my favorite city has changed since the last time I was there.
I'll also be interested in how the housing market has changed. When I left, the price of property was eclipsing the salary of what people could afford. Before leaving I was looking but saw that there was nothing I could afford on the salary I was getting paid. I also learned that people were taking exotic loans to afford the McMansions they were buying. It's funny, but Paris is even more expensive than Miami but the salaries are better and the price of property is more. But there is nothing like living in building built by true craftsmen of their time. From my window I stare out to another building (a pied-a-terre) that resembles mine, but the similarity stops there. The iron bars, balcony, and window decorations are all different. Some have faces of angels sculpted into the shelf that supports the balcony while others have flowers. My living room has a fireplace with an oval window above the fireplace. Created by an architect that used skillful ductwork to move the flue along. Between Miami, Paris, and New York there is quite nothing like any of them.
I got a new notebook a few weeks ago. I'm putting it through its paces and so far its been doing well. An Acer is what it is. With the bright screen and French keyboard. and all the other goodness. Like I said I'm putting it throught the paces and decided to play one of the songs I purchased on iTunes. Thats my mistake. Since it can't reach the server to authenticate my license to play this stupid song. I paid for it. I want to hear it. right? wrong. Sorry, "iTunes could not connect to the Music Store." And this is why I don't agree with DRM infested music.
I'm home this weekend. I was contacted by my family. car accident. so I'm leaving in a few hours to see moms. I haven't seen her in a long time.
Spam, spammers and the people that are involved with them are scum. I've been getting a lot of usage on the blog lately. I found out it was some link spammers bouncing traffic off my site to get their pageranks higher. I was also updating the CMS and with all the junk in the system it made it tough to get anything done.
Many hours later I got the pollution out, kept my sanity and now I'm on the latest edition of movabletype.
uhhhhh. Every bone and muscle in my body is aching at the moment. It hurts to talk, and laughing makes me see lights. Being sick sucks. I'm breaking a rule by even being here. K said to stay in bed and away from the computer. Now my head is swimming from all the crazy stuff I've been drinking. Being sick sucks, I know I said it but I just want to reiterate. And Joe never gets sick, not recently anyway.
After having to live in the wake of 9/11 hysteria. Congress finally listened to the voting public and cancelled the renewal of the Patriot Act. I have waited for this for a long time. And for those that did not pass US Gov't in Highschool. An act is a law that has to be renewed at an agreed interval for it to remain valid.
Hopefully congress is getting wiser and won't replace it with something more draconian.
We can only hope.
I've been using the same Movabletype system for ages it seems. I think I'm still at 2.64 Copyright 2003. I drop by the Six Apart website and there is a new one out 3.2 with all the whizzbang new features that I've always wanted(sarcasm). And just when I think I'm about to donwnload the damn thing they want me to register. Register for what?! Fuck it. I'll do it later
Mission aborted.
If you've been watching the news at all today then you've heard, by now, there was a plane crash at the airport near Toronto. Here is the link to CNN's coverage of the event. Why is this important? Well, the plane (an Airbus 340) is gutted and burned to a crisp. And all 297 passengers and 14 crew managed to make it out safely, except for minor injuries. I would just like to remind everyone the flight crew is there for your safety and not to get you another pillow!
My hats off to the flight crew who managed to get everyone out of a burning plane before it got really serious.
Signed,
cabin crew spouse
Okay, I'm keeping it light today. I have a few things to work on today so I won't be maling my almost weekly or daily posts. But I did take some pictures and posted them online. Take a look at our house, and make an offer.
I've been in France for 2.5 months and while it has certainly taken time in getting used to it I'm still enjoying the novelty of being in France. Let me say that again...in France...learning a language I barely know...living amongst people that don't know my tongue...and typing on the godawful French clavier.
But being here has plenty to offer and I'm enjoying it all the time. Kamala is great and very understanding. I'm brave enough to go out on my own without bringing my translator along. The madame in the village boulangerie (bakery) enjoys my meek attempts at buying bread and snacks. I've created my own language to get me through the day, it's a mixture of basic french, some english, some frenchified english (LOL) and if all else fails, handsignals. It works, occassionally, and when it doesn't I go home and ask how do I say... try again to not get laughed out the store.
The French gov't love paperwork. Lots of paperwork, be prepared to need all types of documents. Birth certificates, passports, utility bills, IDs, IDs, family books, you name it. And they'll want duplicates, certified translations, notarized triplicates, ad nauseum.
The food is good. Great is an understatement. It really is off the chain. And you'll drink wine and love it for all occassions. Anything from Bourdeaux and red is good with me. I'm still trying to learn which years are good. I'm still pissed at how much I was paying for "good wine" in the states. I can go in the local supermarche and get a good quality wine for under �10.
I can't say the same for the cheese. I like cheese, I really do. But I prefer it to be a certain consistency? Not smell like something died in my fridge and the less "hair" on it the better. I've been good about trying the cheeses, once, but if it's not working for me then I'll remember. I've already developed my list of safe cheeses that I get at any grocery store.
Which brings me to french men. I'm in the doctor's office with Kamala and he is trying to chat her up right in front of me. I may be american, I may not know a lot of french, but I know when another man is trying to hit on my wife. "You went to Miami to find a husband? What's wrong with french men? blah blah blah" Being french, and a flight attendant I'm sure she's used to it...I hope. But it happens and we smile and laugh and drink our cafes.
Now back to that paperwork.
For all those spring breakers out there on South Beach, Welcome to South Florida! Now please don't piss on the side of my car. I miss those days and, if I have the time, I'm longing to engage in the shenanigans that most college students will endure for a week. God, I feel like one of those creepy old men hanging around the all ages club. I'm not "that old" yet but I've worn my badge of honor well. Time to conquer something new besides drunk college chicks.
These city girls you gotta step your game up, or down (some are real easy to impress ;-) ).
Who's ready for St. Patty's!
