Eight, seven central

The most people live on the East Coast, then comes the central region, and the Pacific Coast in the end.

The good thing, is that apparently there're so few people living on the West Coast, that nothing is really personalized for us. Due to the 3 hours time zone difference if you watch TV here in the evening you already skipped the evening talk show - TV series crap and you get straight to the late night shows. And you don't have to stay up until midnight to watch them. Daily Show with John Stewart at 8pm instead of 11pm, Adult Swim starts right when you get home from work, etc. I hope no one reads this at the TV companies, and they keep this good habit :)

The only strange thing is around live reality shows. Like the talent shows (American Idol, America's Got Talent, So You Think You Can Dance and many others). They are all on air at 8/7c... Live... And they're on my screen at 8PST. Now, if TV networks didn't invented how to travel in time, I don't know how could it be live at 8EST and at 8PST! There's a 3 hours time zone difference; 8PST is 11EST! The other explanation would be that we, here on the west coast don't get these shows live, but recorded! And that is just wrong! They say it's live TV! ;) (Not that I care!)

Anyhoo, for letting me watch the TVMA late night shows at 8pm, I say: Thank You!

Calico Ghost Town

The entrance of the town

If you're on I-15 either towards Los Angeles or Las Vegas in the middle of the Mojave desert you see the sign "Ghost Town Rd" (see left). Considering that you're in the middle of nowhere, this sign is not that surprising, now is it? But it turned out that there is a real, historic ghost town at the end of the road: Calico.

Calico was a miner community and the biggest one here in the late 19th century. If you come here you'll get right in the middle of the environment of western movies. But this is the real deal not just a setup! It is amazing how people preserved the buildings, tools, vehicles, machines and personal articles! Each house is turned into a souvenir shop. But each one has its own theme and many of them provide activities.




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There's a train that goes around and the guide on board explains what is that you see. You can see the entrances of the old mines, and find some really good stuff in the gift shops and children will be kept busy by the various activities.

The first gift shop

View of the street

Western movie

The view on the town from the hill above

Grand Canyon Skywalk

Hard to find, but on their website they give good descriptions on how to get there. Be prepared for a 13-15 miles of dirt road drive with max 20-25mph and a very dirty car afterwards!



View Skywalk in a larger map
The Skywalk is amazing. Not only the bridge itself, but the area around it. It is at least as beautiful as the South Rim I've already seen. However it is quite expensive in comparison. For a family of four we paid around $300 to get in. But the time I need to drive there from Vegas is only 2.5hrs, while the South Rim is around 5hrs to get there; so maybe it's worth its price. The bridge where you can see through the floor is amazing! It's a pity they don't let you take pictures from the bridge. They - of course - do take pictures of you and you can purchase them later... But you're free to take pictures outside the establishment!

The Skywalk - Eagle Point

Some Native American like wigwam behind the Skywalk

The view next to the Skywalk

The Skywalk is the first stop you take in the whole Skywalk experience. Another vista point, the Guano Point is nearby. The shuttle buses come every 5-10 minutes so you really don't have to wait too long to get around. And it is worth to go there, too, since the view I think is even better:

View from the Guano Point

As I said before in my post earlier about the Grand Canyon that pictures are great, but cannot give back the feeling. The feeling of a 4000 feet  (1300m) deep abyss... And here there're no bars at the edge unlike at the South Rim. So you can walk to the very edge and nothing stops you!

The last stop is the ranch. You can either take the bus or your car to get there. It is a fake western movie style town with fake jail and all you need for your amusement. I was not that amazed, but it's definitely fun! And they have shows. And you can sleep over there, too.

So if you can afford the high price, when you're in Vegas, don't miss it!

Wild Wild West

I've just realized why it is allowed in this country to own a weapon. The reason is you cannot really trust anybody nor anything. On the other hand if you hold a gun to the forehead of your 'partner' in the 'negotiation' that might help making him stick to his words or written agreement.

For legal reasons I need to emphasize, that this is my pure assumption and I never prove it by actually conducting an act like that!

My recent experiences taught me that if you sign a lease agreement it is only a bonding contract for you and not for lets say a Ford car dealership. I had to sign 3 contracts and cancel the first two to get through my recent car deal. And it is all because someone made a mistake and assumed that I get the credit they thought I'll get. Unlike the Dodge dealership, where their assumption was correct, and I didn't get the car before they went through the proper channels and finalized all the aspects. But I did feel I made a good deal in the end with Ford. They've lowered my overall price by 4-5k and the total I'll be paying for the car is 8k less than originally. So I'm happy!

The other thing I learned recently that certain professionals in a specific management role are required to major and minor in "Art and Science of Bullshitting People". And they are also required to grow eel skin and lose their bones in order to become slippery and limp.

Gentleman's agreement?! That's only for us, Europeans...

I didn't know what I was missing

I didn't know what I was missing to fully Enjoy California until now: a convertible!

My wife's "namesday" (névnap) is coming up. And our first wedding anniversary, too. And we needed a 2^nd car anyways, so I signed a 39 months lease 60 months purchase deal on this baby:

The color you see has nothing to do with Photoshop or any other photo manipulating tool. This is how it came out of the camera! "race red"

It turned out to be a great gift, since she has nail polish in that color already. I saved another 5 dollars :)

But after we went through all the paperwork, and we could sit in the car, we opened the roof, and started cruising and then (while she was driving) I realized that this was the one thing I missed, and this is what California is all about. And I know why all the guys are sitting on the passenger seats of any convertible while the chicks are driving them: it is much more fun to sit in a baby like this then driving it. I love driving it, too, but I like my Dodge better. But it's fun feeling the warm breeze, and how I'm about to get sunburn, and just glazing all around! And don't forget the sky's always blue here! (Except for 4 days during the "winter" when it is "raining".)

And leasing a car can be cheaper then buying a used ("pre-owned") one. Which is crazy, and a very good thing!

And one note to Dodge: make a freaking convertible out of the Challenger, please! I'd have chosen it over the Mustang for sure! The Challenger is the only muscle car out of the three (Mustang and Camaro is the other two) that has no convertible version. And (at least to me) the coolest looking one. You could make millions out of all the folks living in Cali or in Florida! Get those saws out of the storage rooms and get rid of that roof!

Angry Birds everywhere

Re: Re: I'm getting pissed off at my mobile phone

The very widget causing the problem

After monitoring what applications are using the battery I spotted com.motorola.home. After a little bit of research I learned that the power control widget is also in this application. That I was using. And which tries to use the GPS module in the phone for who knows what reason. You're inside a building? No GPS signal. The program will continue trying to get a GPS location. Why? Who knows.

I removed the widget. com.motorola home's battery usage went down to 2% from 12%. It's a bit ironic that a power control widget is draining your battery. And poor engineering. Very poor indeed!

I've ordered though my extended battery from Verizon. It is only 2mm thicker then the standard one, but provides 40-45% more power. Let's see how that works out! I talked to Verizon about the Gingerbread update and they told me, that they're rolling it out indeed, but per region and serial number. So it will take a while until it'll be available for me.

Re: I'm getting pissed off at my mobile phone

If you install ShakeCall, your phone is set to vibrate on incoming call, and your phone is on the table (or any hard surface) ShakeCall will answer your phone, because it's f*cking shaking... What a sh*t!!

Yepp, I changed the shake intensity to high, but it still does it. I know it's a catch 22, but still, what a sh*t!

My only hope is that Gingerbread will be available to me, too. And soon. Apparently Verizon rolled it out already, but I cannot update to it yet. Not even if I initiate manually :(

I'm getting pissed off at my mobile phone

Droid 2 Global is a great phone. Or it could be. I still love it, but it has two really annoying 'features':

1. Battery life. If I use my phone I need to hook it up to charge around 2-3pm. It is really annoying. During our weekend I had to switch everything off (GPS, sync, display to the darkest setting etc.) so it could last from the morning till the evening. And all I did was using Google Maps a couple of times, no calls just walking around in Manhattan. 
2. Black screen while there's an incoming call. Fortunately it doesn't happen all the time, but it did happen 2-3 times already. And it is annoying very much. Especially if the phone call is important. I googled it, and I'm not the only one with this problem. It is an overall software issue and Motorola and Verizon are lazy to roll out the new Android version to this phone. I doubt if they ever will do so. So a forum entry suggested to use an app that answers the call if you shake your phone. It'll probably work. I already installed it. If you need it go here:

http://market.android.com/details?id=com.ysrsoft.shakecall

My newest ringtone revealed

Thanks, Koppány!

Weekend in New York

So we took the flight at 3:30pm on Friday from SFO to JFK. Thanks to my gold level status we boarded in zone 1 and our seats were at the exit row with about one meter large leg room. My wife was shocked how things go on a Delta flight :) I used my coupons to get us something to eat. I also realized that the on-board entertainment system is not for free any more. You already had to pay for movies, but you could watch a couple of episodes of popular series and satellite TV for free. Now apart from movie trailers everything's for money. I think this is an outrage! Sell that freakin' ticket $10 more and let us use the entertainment system for free. It's a 5 and a half hours long flight for God's sake! No food, no drinks and now no TV?

Well, fortunately I always come prepared and I had my PSP loaded with anime series and movies so that kept us from boredom and didn't cost a dime either.



We arrived shortly before midnight to JFK. We took the AirTrain to get to the place where the shuttle buses of nearby hotels pick up their guests. We had to wait for like 10 minutes, checking in was smooth, the room was clean a bit small but definitely OK. We were hungry. According to Google Maps there was a McDonald's two blocks away, but we couldn't find it. Where it should have stand there was a parking lot. No sign if there was a McDonald's ever... The phone number was OK though... I gave them a call before to know if they are still open. We had like 10 minutes left. In the end we ordered Chinese food from the place our hotel clerk suggested.

Day 1

We got up early took a shower had breakfast and shortly after 9 o'clock we were on our way to Manhattan. We needed altogether an hour to get to Madison Square Garden where our next hotel was for the rest of our stay. Check in was after 3pm only so we left our baggage in the luggage room, and took of.

First: Empire State Building. In about an hour we got our tickets. While we were waiting there was a presentation running on huge flat screen monitors how hard they're trying to make the building more energy efficient because buildings in NYC take 80% of the overall energy consumption. Well if they turn the A/C from 18°C to 22°C no one gets a cold, they lower their energy consumption by 50% and people still free comfortable within the building... So first was level 86. Spectacular view and lots of people. I took a bunch of pictures. We purchased an extra ticket to level 102. $15 extra and it doesn't worth it. You look through windows that are tinted so you cannot really take any pictures because you get weird rainbow like lines on the photos ;(

After that we walked down to Flatiron Building and took Broadway down to China Town. We crossed the Manhattan Bridge to Brooklyn and spent like an hour in Brooklyn Bridge Park to rest our feet after all the walking and to write our postcards we bought on the way in a souvenir shop. There was a guy and a girl next to us. The guy was instructing the girl how to pose for the picture he wanted to take with a black electric guitar the girls supposed to hold above her head and with the skyline in the background. They were arguing for at least 15 minutes until they agreed and then the guy took his iPhone to take the picture. I assumed that he's a hobby photograph with some equipment after all the sh*t he put on the girl. Man! I think they were from the "hipster race".

We walked back to downtown on the Brooklyn Bridge and took the subway to get back to our hotel. After a bit of rest we walked to Times Square to see it at night.

 

Day 2

Unlike on Saturday when it was sunny and hot, today was rainy, humid and hot. The worst! We planned our day to visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Book your tickets online with reserved time, unlike we did! That way you save an hour of standing in line. They didn't have any more tickets for the day to go inside the statue so we just walked around it and took a bunch of pictures. After that we waited another hour to get back on a ship. Here even reserved ticket doesn't help:



Where you can see that little barn-like building in the end of the clip, now that is where the ship docks!

We toured the museum on Ellis Island in the building of the old Immigration Office. They say most of the Americans derive from here. We saw many Hungarian related materials from the time. But that time Hungary was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and its territory took almost half of Europe...

Hungarian Passport

Direct connection from Hungary to New York on the see (!)

We had dinner in Chinatown in a Chinese Restaurant. In the other room there was a wedding reception going on. Was fun to watch! The groom and the bride were not older then 22 years, for sure!

After dinner we walked back to the Financial District. Saw the new World Trade Center construction site and the Wall Street Bull and headed back to the hotel.

Day 3

We checked out from the hotel and left our suitcases in the luggage room. Had a quick breakfast and bought the ticket for our train back to the airport. Went to Macy's which was open before it supposed to be (4th of July savings are demanding and business is business and money talks :D) so we could look around before the crowd came. After that we took the subway to the north side of Central Park, so technically we were in Harlem, too (!) and walked through the Central Park down to 5th Avenue. People were grilling, running, skating, riding bikes in the park. It felt crowded. A lot of people ran that day... It was hot and humid... Brrr.

The only thing that was shocking was the fact that Turtle Pond is called so for a reason: there're turtles living in/around it. How do I know? I saw one :) I'm sure at night there'd be more shocking things to see in the Park ;)

We walked down on 5th Ave to 42nd Street, walked by the Chrysler building and saw the building of United Nations. Then walked back to time square had a huge ice coffee and lunch. Then back to the hotel to grab our luggage and off to the airport.

The plane arrived more or less in time, so by midnight we were at home.

---

Since 2007 either the City changed a lot or I was infected by suburban living and also grew old at the same time, but I was not that amazed any more. Crowd, dirt, smell... Whole Midtown smells like puke, did you realize it?!

Anyhoo, it was a fun weekend, and we saw a lot of beautiful things, and I hope we'll have the opportunity to go back and explore the museums a little more.

One more thing I realized changed in the last 4 years: there're much more Indian people even in New York. I thought the Bay Area was kinda unique since it is the headquarter of computer related industry, but New York was filled with Indians, too. I don't remember seeing them there at all 4 years ago. You know that Americans tend to be afraid of being invaded by China, but I think they should rather be afraid of India. The invasion has already started! ;) I also think the policy should be changed back to the "Melting Pot" approach from the current "Salad Bowl" one...

Can help lower cholesterol

Heart surgery is expensive. People it bad food and are overweight. So doctors try to do everything to lower anybody's cholesterol. They handle it as top priority.

On the other hand food manufacturers are also trying to get to you. Radio and TV ads are full with the sentence "can help lower cholesterol". I agree that the ingredients in that particular meal can help because they have omega-3 fat-acid or something like that, but let's face it: your morning cereal will help lowering your cholesterol. Or even bread with jam. Because you are not eating the typical bacon, egg, cheese breakfast combo, like this one:

Which is extremely delicious!! Compare this to oatmeal with raisins :D Sweet bagel toasted with butter on the grill, omelet, fatty cheddar cheese, bacon (!!!!) It is hard to switch to cereal from this.

And these catchy phrases in the ads... Well you always have to think through what they mean. Yepp, produced something we call cereal helps lowering your cholesterol, because you're unlikely eat it with bacon and egg. It is like no added growth hormones in the milk. Who'd pour growth hormone in anybody's milk?! The cow needs it ;) So whatever milk you have, it has growth hormones, the bottle says no added growth hormone and not "now growth hormone at all"! 

The same what happened to the word "free" a decade ago. If it is written with all capital letters like FREE it doesn't mean free at all ;)

Learn your lesson America!