New York City Photobloggers @ The Apple Store

Laura Holder
Laura Holder, lauraholder.com

Khoi Uong
Khoi Uong, infrangible.com

Anil Dash
Anil Dash, SixApart

David Gallagher
David Gallagher, lighteningfield

Audience
Audience

Adam
Adam, Fotolog

Jake Dobkin
Jake Dobkin, bluejake

Tien & Cookie
Tien finally gets his hands on Jen‘s cookies

Mike Epstein
Mike Epstein, satanslaundromat

Jake Dobkin, Rion Nakaya
Jake Dobkin, bluejake & Rion, rion.nu

Jen Chung, Redrick DeLeon, Khoi, Uong
Jen Chung, Redrick DeLeon of 990000, Khoi Uong of infrangible.com

Meg Hourihan, Jason Kottke
Meg Hourihan and Jason Kottke

Last night I sort of planned to go to the New York City Photobloggers event at the SoHo Apple Store, but sort of just wanted to go home and crawl into bed. I ended up stopping by on the way home and staying for the whole thing. It was fun to see the people behind the NYC photoblogs I read explain what they do and why they do it and what their techniques are. There were a ton of people there, so many that the Apple Store staff was getting annoyed. Some people I knew others I met for the first time. Jen baked cookies the night before and shared them with Tien and Dahlia and I (they were delicious!). Also, nice to meet Chris G. after the event. Thanks for introducing yourself, dude. And good to see WhatISee + girlfriend again.

After the presentation everyone headed over to Merc Bar. Jason Kottke was there and I knew it’d be my last chance at meeting the ever-elusive man behind the site, so I introduced myself. He said that he didn’t know if he should even be speaking to me. He’s still sore about the whole tator tot hotdish thing. It was good to see my nerdy friends one last time – Dahlia, Jen, Jake, Corie, Mike – you’ll have to let me know if you’re ever in Chicago! And, Jake, I’m going to hold you to that “If it doesn’t work out in Chicago you can stay with us” drunken offer you made!

See Also:
» Photobloggers, Blogged by Jen Chung for Gothamist
» NYC Photobloggers @ Apple Store SoHo by Jake Dobkin
» NYC Photobloggers at the Apple Store by Tien
» Look Away Game by Corie
» Apple Store Photobloggers and I am Glowing by Chris
» NYC photoblogger exhibition by Jason Kottke
» The photo Anil took of the audience and moblogged to his typepad site while presenting
» Mike’s photo of the audience taken during his presentation
» NYC Photo Blogging Event by WhatISee

» How to cook tator tot hotdish by Jason Kottke
» Gothamist on the Tator Tot Hotdish Challenge
» Jason Kottke’s Tator Tot Hotdish by rachelleb

Insomnia

My typing this right now means that

1. I have major insomnia. I still maintain that sleeping is for losers. I haven’t slept through a night since last year.. neither should you!

2. During this insomnia tonight I have resorted to using the Dell laptop I’ve been forced to adopt for my new job since my baby Ruby is packed up and ready to be moved. Pretty sad.

3. On the Dell and while in a not really awake but not really asleep state, I somehow figured out how to use my VPN.

Can somebody please update their site now so I have something to do here? Thanks. Or maybe I should start to go through and reply the buckets of email I’ve neglected and that has been piling up over the past few weeks. Sorry! Or maybe I should be working on one of my many new projects. Ahhhh!

The Pose

In September of 2001, just two weeks after the attacks on the World Trade Center, I moved to New York from San Diego. The city was big and intimidating and scary but I was exhilarated to be here and to find something new around every corner. I had very few friends but it didn’t matter. I went to dinner, I went to movies, I went out. By myself. I was just happy to be in the city. Then after a while that wore off. And I wanted friends. I wanted people to explore the city with and people to share experiences with.

In January of 2002 Jessica moved to New York from Boston. I saw her around the office but never really spoke to her except in passing. Around the end of March or early April of 2002 we found ourselves having drinks together after work at Cafe Noir along with another coworker. We had a conversation that went something like:

Jessica: “How do you meet new friends in New York?”
Me: “I don’t really. It’s hard.”
Jessica: “Me either. It’s really difficult.”
Me: “Hmm.”
Jessica: “Hmm”
Both: “Will you be my friend?”

Afterwards we exchanged phone numbers. The rest is history. For almost two years exactly Jess has been a true friend to me in New York and always there when I needed her. Our mutual friends call us The Odd Couple because we are so different in many ways but so alike in other ways. I will really miss Jessica when I move to Chicago. As a testament of the true friend that she is, she will be helping me move this weekend – helping me drive a UHaul there when I haven’t driven anything since 2001.. and helping me settle in to my new home.

The following is a series of self portraits that Jessica and I have taken of ourselves in New York over the past couple of years. I believe we started taking photos of ourselves because we would go out, just the two of us, and wouldnt want to ask a stranger to take a photo for us. As we’ve met more people and made many more friends we have always insisted on continuing to take these self portraits even when there are plenty of other people around to take the photo for us. We affectionately refer to this our self portraits as “The Pose”.

Blue Ribbon Bakery

Blue Ribbon Bakery
Poached Eggs with Shrimp and Bacon Hash, Blue Ribbon Bakery, West Village, Manhattan

Blue Ribbon Bakery
Blue Ribbon Bakery, West Village, Manhattan

For about a year and a half I have lived pretty much in the same building as Blue Ribbon Bakery but have never been inside. In my mind, when I think about it, I remember days that have seemed gray, or snowy, or days when I was feeling down.. and walking by the restaurant and just feeling like there was this warm glow coming out of it and that there were good friends and couples gathered there, huddled against the window, basking in the glow.. it was like a utopia that I wasn’t a part of. So yesterday we became a part of it. And it was delicious. I had the poached eggs with bacon and shrimp hash in hollandaise sauce. Yum! Also, they had a really good bread basket.

My First Hot Pot

Hot Pot
Hot Pot, Wu Liang Ye, Murray Hill, Manhattan

Hot Pot
Masako, Jessica, Yvan :: Wu Liang Ye, Murray Hill, Manhattan

Name Bland
Name Bland, Wu Liang Ye, Murray Hill, Manhattan

Last month I read about hot pot on Jen‘s and Tien‘s sites. It seemed really interesting and afterward I became infatuated with trying it myself. Last night we got together at Wu Liang Ye and had hot pot. It was really fun. Basically you get a pot full of boiling broth and plates of raw meat, seafood, vegetables and noodles. You then take the meats and veggies and things and put them in the hot broth and it cooks. When it looks done you fish it out with a small mesh basket or with your chopsticks. We got 2 pots because we had 11 people and each of our pots were divided in half: one half was really hot (spicy) and one was more mild. The shrimp and scallops were my favorite. Afterwards we went to Junior’s for cheesecake.

See also:
» Sichuan Hot Pot by Tien
» Hot Pot by Dahlia