One full year in New York City

As of this month I’ve been back on the east coast, and living in New York City, for exactly one year. It’s been a while since I’ve given any updates, so as I sit on a wifi equipped Virgin America flight from JFK to SFO for a short west coast visit, I felt that it is only fitting to reflect back on the past year and give an update on how things are going. So here goes:

Things are going great

There you go. Updated. Okay seriously, it’s turned out to be better than I ever expected. New York City is so much fun and there’s always stuff going on. Plus, you don’t have drive anywhere and worry about parking. Plus, there’s amazing food on every corner. Plus, the music scene is incredible. Plus, the seasons change.

In summary, I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather live at this stage of my life. But with that said:

New York City is expensive

I had been making steady progress on my student loans, but I feel like I’ve slowed down quite a bit since moving here. I’m not sure if it’s just the allure of a big city, but I find it harder not to splurge on things.

How long will I live here?

I don’t know, but I have no plans to leave anytime soon. I’m having too much fun and there’s a lot that I need to accomplish here. I’m guessing I’ll be a city slicker for at least the next four years. After that it might be time to mellow out in the suburbs somewhere, but then again, maybe not.

P.S. Gogo inflight wifi is pretty sweet.

P.P.S. The “Mile High” Foursquare badge I just earned is pretty sweet as well.

1 Comment / Posted in: life, Tech, travel

Ending my two month blogging hiatus

Sorry. It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post. Things have been pretty crazy the past couple of months, but now that I’ve settled back in on my native coast I can fill you in on what’s happened recently:

I drove back to New York. New York City, that is.

When I moved to California from New York three years ago I did the drive in four days. I did the reverse drive in about five days. I also logged the entire trip in Google Latitude thanks to the new location history app. Here are 450 data points from my drive. I’m not sure how that single St. Louis plot got there. I may have drifted off the road into a vortex or something.

View Larger Map

I also took some crappy, and relatively boring pictures along the way with my iPhone, geo-tagged for your viewing pleasure.

I moved to Brooklyn. Greenpoint, that is.

Greenpoint is a fun little Polish neighborhood located in the north part of Brooklyn. I love it so far. It’s a lot cleaner and quieter than Williamsburg, but is only a 10 minute subway ride away for when I get brave enough to face the hipsters. I’m also 15 minutes away from Manhattan, and less than 30 minutes away from work.

There’s also a lot of great food, coffee shops, and stores around. My street looks like this.

I’m working in Manhattan. Chelsea, that is.

It’s great. I sold my car and commute on the subway. My building looks like this. The Google office in NYC is definitely a lot smaller than the Mountain View office, but it’s still very exciting and there a lot of fun things going on all the time. Plus, it’s in NYC. California doesn’t have a NYC.

I’m hoping to get back into blogging once again now that I finally have internets in my apartment. There’s a lot of stuff going on around here. I should have made this move a long time ago.

4 Comments / Posted in: life, travel

Road trip test run

I have 49-ish days left in California before I embark on my cross country journey back to the east coast. I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve developed  an unhealthy obsession with the relocation. I’ve been looking at Craigslist ads and wandering the streets of NYC in Google Street View almost every night for the past month.

I’ve been able to keep my excitement in check by doing some test runs of the trip back in Google Maps with Street View directions. Here are a few highlights:

Leaving Santa Clara, CA

Just outside Salt Lake City

Approaching Denver, CO

Chicago!

Fulton, NY – My hometown

Brooklyn! My new home

Want to try out my planned road trip for yourself? Here’s a link to the map!

2 Comments / Posted in: life, travel

Cross-country road trip…reversed!

When I moved out to California two and a half years ago, I drove from upstate NY all the way to California. It was in the middle of winter and I was dodging several winter storms (I almost didn’t make it out of the Northeast). Winter isn’t the best time to drive 3,000 miles, so I just wanted to get it over with. I did the drive in under four days, taking a half-day break in Colorado.

I now have an opportunity to do the same trip, this time in reverse, and with better weather and a little more time. Right now, it’s looking like I’ll be making the voyage the last week of September.

Below, I’ve mapped out a first draft of a potential route. They key stops are marked.

View CA > NY Option #1 in a larger map

Here’s my reasoning for the stops I chose:

1. Salt Lake City, UT — 11h from Santa Clara, CA

If I could make it to Denver in one day, I probably would, but 18 hours of straight driving is a bit too much. So Salt Lake City looks like a good place to stop. I actually stopped here on my way out to California. It was beautiful in the Winter. I’d like to see how it looks in the early Fall as well. Stopping in SLC will also set me up with a nice arrival time in the Denver area…

2. Denver, CO — 7h30m from SLC

Yeah, I stopped here my last cross-country drive as well, but I like Colorado. Also, my brother lives here, so it’s a necessary stop. On top of that, I can’t think of a better way to say goodbye to some of my favorite beers, those brewed by the New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins CO, than by visiting the actual brewery for a complementary 1554 and/or seasonal brew. Unfortunately for me, they don’t distribute anywhere east of Chicago :( Speaking of Chicago…

3. Chicago — 14h30m from Denver

This would be my longest day of driving, but there really isn’t much between Denver and Chicago anyway. I’d like to spend at least a full day in Chicago. It’s been over three years since I’ve been there and I’m long overdue. Plus it’s the only remaining city I have left on the “Cities I need to visit in 2009″ list that I made at the beginning of the year. I also know people in Chicago, so I guess I should say hi.

4. New York, NY — 12h30m from Chicago

My new home! I’ll leave myself the option to take a detour during this stretch and stop in my hometown of Fulton, NY if needed, but it actually looks like my parents will be in NYC the same weekend that I’m arriving, so I might not have a reason to.

So that’s my first draft of the road trip schedule. I’ll probably revise it several times before I go. Do I have it all wrong? Have any other recommendations?

6 Comments / Posted in: Beer, life, travel

Exploring a city with help from your iPhone and Google Transit

One thing that I really enjoy doing is flying to city that I’m unfamiliar with and doing some exploring. Of course flying means that I don’t have a car with me, and not having a car means that I have to rely on public transportation to get around. In the past this has involved fumbling with multiple bus route pamphlets and subway maps, trying to coordinate time schedules to get from point A to point B.

But ever since I got my iPhone and Apple integrated Google Transit into the Maps application, I haven’t even had to think anymore.

Let’s say I’m at some random point A. It doesn’t matter where I am. I don’t even have to know where I am. All I need to know is where I want to go, and I don’t even need to know the address of point B. I just search for the point of interest and let Google Maps find it for me:

From there I click the blue arrow from my desired result and then select “Directions To Here” on the following screen. “Current location” should be the default starting position on the following screen:

Now I just click “Route” and let the magic happen:

Bada boom! I don’t even have to think! Google Maps tells me where I need to be  at 7:15pm to catch the closest bus that will get me to my destination, as well as providing me with the trip cost and any transfers necessary. To see the itinerary in list view, click the page flap icon in the lower right corner:

Most cities will offer a two or three day unlimited metro pass, which is usually the best deal if you plan on doing some extreme exploring.

To see a list of global cities where Google Transit directions are available, visit the Google Transit site.

Happy exploring!

* Disclaimer – I work for Google, but I’m still allowed to think this is awesome.

1 Comment / Posted in: Tech, travel