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Friday, 2 November 2012 - Gasolina

 
 
Well it looks like the gas stations have fuel again, and that was reason enough for a good man-hug. This was on my way to work this morning, just before the bridge I cross into Manhattan. I was passing that queue for no less than about five blocks!
 
Last week the cost of regular was about $3.80 per gallon. Bastards.

 
While I was here this cab drove past the queue, stopped at the front, and looked as though he was going to pull in. That was until two people got out of their cars at the front of the queue and 'politely' suggested he drive on and not do that hehe. Speaking of which, fights apparently broke out at many gas stations in New York and across in New Jersey. More info here.
 
Meanwhile in Lower Manhattan they're still in the dark, with a couple exceptions like the Empire State Building here and One World Trade Center in the background. The latest update from the utility company is they may be in the dark for potentially another week yet!
 
 
That hasn't deterred these bar patrons though. Then again, there's not a lot else to do.
 
This is the Williamsburg Bridge, one of four that cross the East River into Manhattan. Guess which half of it is on the Manhattan side.

Saturday, 3 November 2012 - Wow, poor bastards

 
 
One of the hardest areas hit by Hurricane Sandy, at least in New York, was the popular summer resort area of the Rockaway Peninsula, better known as simply The Rockaways. Although it's in my borough of Queens, it's still about a 40km ride away and none of the Subways (even if they were fully running) go all the way out there so biking out was my only option. I found this as I was getting closer.
 
Trees came down all over the show, and as can be seen in the shot on the left, they took power lines with them. There is (or was) a huge tree a couple blocks from where I live that came down, though it has since been pulled off the road and somehow managed to avoid all the power lines (else that probably would've been us without power for several days too).

 
Once I hit the peninsula this was a common sight - parked vehicles that had been tossed around in the flood waters, all of them pretty well banged up.
 
 
An even more common site was mounds of furniture, appliances, and bags of stuff all piled up on the roadside from people's homes that were flooded.

 
 
Every street was full of people trying to clean up their properties, all looking pretty depressed and pissed off.
 
Sand!This is two blocks inland from the coast, but shit the amount of sand was amazing! All of it washed in during the record-breaking storm surge.

 
It reminded me of the liquifaction that inundated of my home city of Christchurch during the earthquakes. That shit went everywhere too.
 
This is one of the main roads along the peninsula. Again, sandy sandy sandy (the hurricane's name was quite appropriate as it turned out).
 
 
At the height of the storm, an electrical fire broke out which rapidly spread in the extremely high winds, and took out about 100 properties all up.
 
This is what's left. I had been hoping to see this but just a couple kilometres away I was turned back by police who were letting locals through only (with ID to prove it).
 
 
So while this dude has a yard full of sand, at least he still has his home. Everything I saw was the kind of stuff you see on the news time and time again and think "Wow, poor bastards! Hope that never happens to me!" Horrible stuff.
 
With that I found the nearest bridge and headed back to normality, feeling very lucky to be returning to a warm, dry apartment with hot water and electricity. And all my shit still in one piece.

Tuesday, 6 November 2012 - (In)Decision 2012

 
 
Yup, it's an exciting night in the US of A - the presidential election of 2012 (a four-yearly event)! Just look at how excited Kristina is hehe. For those of you who have been living under a rock, Democratic president Barak Obama is up against the Republican nominee, Mitt (baseball glove) Romney. We're spending the night watching a bunch of grey-haired men on CNN giving us all the facts and figures. As I write this it's still very early in the count, and much of the country is still casting their votes. Kristina is from Texas - a Republican stronghold so naturally she voted for Romney. I on the other hand am rooting for the black man (not that I'm eligible to vote of course). Although it has little to no bearing on me personally, here's my view on the matter...

The Republicans, under the leadership of George W. Dumbass Bush, were in office for eight years between 2000 and 2008. During that time, they single-handedly managed to royally screw this country. They took us into two very questionable wars: Afghanistan in 2001 right after the 9/11 attacks on the hunt for al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden (who appears to have been in Pakistan most of the time), followed by Iraq in 2003 under the assumption they possessed weapons of mass destruction (which was later found to be false). Both wars have cost a combined total of around the $1.4 trillion dollar mark, depending on the source. They went on to deregulate the financial sector like crazy to the point where financial institutions had almost total free reign to do what they wanted. And do what they wanted they did. Before long the financial markets collapsed (and took the housing market with them) and we went into a near-global recession (because rightly or wrongly, when the shit hits the fan in the US, it hits the fan everywhere). In short, by the time the Republicans lost the 2008 election and the Democrats took over, they had left behind an absolute shambles.

Obama took office amid great hope for the future. He promised a lot, but in a nutshell he has failed to deliver fully on everything he promised (don't they always). However, he has delivered. We pulled out of Iraq in 2011, and a complete pull out from Afghanistan is imminent. He overhauled the healthcare system (dubbed "Obamacare"), aimed primarily at decreasing the number of uninsured Americans and reducing the overall costs of health care, though he's pissed a lot of people off in the process. Above all, the financial sector was reigned in, the economy is slowly but surely growing again as is the housing market, unemployment is on the decrease, and everything is heading in the right direction.

One of the Republican's main arguments is that Obama hasn't delivered on what he said he would. For example, unemployment is still higher than Obama said it would be, and the economy isn't growing as fast as he said it would. Fair enough. But, all things considered, not least of all the utter mess Obama inherited from Bush, to be in the position we're in today with the key statistics heading in the right direction, I think Obama has done an amazing job! My opinion is the Republicans brought this country to its knees over their two terms in office, and their big argument for re-election is essentially that Obama hasn't fixed their mess fast enough - ha! Why on earth would we want to put them back in charge to potentially screw the country over again?! We're heading in the right direction, let's stick to what's working.

One thing I haven't mentioned is the national public debt of some $16 trillion dollars (it was $10 trillion when Obama took office). That's a pretty piss-poor statistic, but I don't know enough about it to comment. On that subject, I don't know which party I really identify with the most (if any) - the left-wing Democrats or the right-wing Republicans. I certainly don't agree with some of the Democrat's policies. With that in mind, assuming I'm still in the country four years from now I may have a different opinion on who I'm rooting for and why, but for now I believe sticking with Obama is in the country's best interest. But that's only my 10 cents :)

Wednesday, 7 November 2012 - Winter Storm Athena

 
 
Two things were making headlines in this part of the world today: Obama won last night's election, and the north east is due to be pounded by a second storm in as many weeks but this time of a different kind. Hurricane Sandy unleashed high winds and flooding last week, and now we're getting more high winds, freezing temperatures, and the first big dumping of snow for the season thanks to Winter Storm Athena (yup, it got a name too). It was clear and dry when I cycled into work this morning, and this was the picture when I left it again. I haven't seen snow (or winter) since Paris two years ago, and I gotta say, I'm damn near freezing my ass off hehe. To add to the fun, I haven't got around to putting my winter tyres on the bike yet - I'm still on smooth slicks which made this ride home all the more fun ;)

Sunday, 11 November 2012 - The High Line

 
 
Nothing like starting your day at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, but after a very messy night out in Manhattan and an even messier hang over this morning, that's how it goes. Regardless, we still set out to do what we'd planned for the day. This is the High Line, a one-mile linear park built on a section of the former elevated New York Central Railroad spur called the West Side Line, which runs along the lower west side of Manhattan. The High Line opened to trains in 1934. It connected directly to factories and warehouses, allowing trains to roll right inside buildings. Milk, meat, produce, and raw and manufactured goods could be transported and unloaded without disturbing traffic on the streets. The growth of interstate trucking in the 1950s led to a drop in rail traffic throughout the nation, and eventually in 1980 the High Line was abandoned. It lay unused and in disrepair for the next three decades. In 1999, a non-profit organisation was formed and advocated for the line's preservation and reuse as public open space - an elevated park or greenway. Community support for the project grew, and in 2004 the New York City government committed $50 million to establish the proposed park. The first section of the High Line opened to pedestrians five years later in 2009, followed by a second section in 2011. A third section is currently on the cards also.

 
 
The High Line approximately follows Tenth Avenue from 30th Street in Chelsea to below 14th Street in the Meatpacking District. Redevelopment of the High Line has spurred real estate development in the neighborhoods which lie along the line. As such, there are some pretty funky buildings around. The park passes right under some of them, so you can stare up through the windows and creep on people ;)

 
 
Also along the length of the park is art, a lot of art. Impressive stuff!

 
 
More art, for sale this time.
 
The park is also a popular spot for buskers, though I don't think these two were actually doing this for the money - I think they were just bored.
 
Hurricane Sandy did a bit of a number on the park, including taking out its lighting system which is yet to be patched up. Apparently it's really nice here in the evening, but instead we got kicked out.

 
 
And that's it really. It's only a mile long (for now) but it's a great spot to just kick back and breathe it all in, above the hustle and bustle below.
 
Oh, good sunset views too across the Hudson :)

Monday, 12 November 2012 - NYC in B&W

 
I've mentioned it several times over the past while, but I've been shooting a bunch of New York cityscapes in black and white for my roommate's father, who is looking for something to fill a large empty room in his living room. Well it took a while, but I'm finally done with shooting them, sorting them, processing them, and if you're interested the final bunch are here (which were picked out by my roommate's father from this initial bunch here).
 

Tuesday, 13 November 2012 - "Arizona woman runs down husband with car for not voting"
The elevators in my office all have a small TV displaying news headlines and the weather and so forth. I saw this story this morning and couldn't help but piss myself laughing (in an elevator full of Americans). A 28-year-old chick in Arizona was extremely upset about Obama being re-elected last week, and extremely enraged that her 36-year-old husband hadn't bothered to vote (for Romney obviously). Their argument on the subject in the middle of a busy parking lot last Saturday morning escalated to point where she started chasing him with the car and ran him over, pinning him underneath the vehicle hahaha! But here's the thing: Romney won Arizona, so in hindsight his vote wasn't required anyway! The US voting system is such that it's not about who wins the most votes, but who wins the most individual states and that doesn't actually require a majority (it's more about where you win your votes as opposed to how many - long story). So she was pissed that he couldn't be arsed to vote and Obama ended up winning, even though Romney won their state so his vote would have been superfluous. The mind boggles.

Wednesday, 14 November 2012 - Back in the south!
Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and good ol' Texas! Kristina and I are back on the road for the next week and a half for a wedding, a road trip, and Thanksgiving - that strange American holiday the rest of the world doesn't understand :)

Sunday, 25 November 2012 - Back to the cold!

 
 
This state...
 
This state...
 
This state...

 
 
And this state - we stepped foot in (or at least passed through) them all!
 
And we stepped foot in Texas - back to San Antonio in fact (Kristina's home city). Whose house almost completely burned to the ground? Find out when I'm done sorting through all the photos and whatnot :)

Tuesday, 27 November 2012
And they're up! All the photos, videos and stories from the deep, deep south are here :)

Wednesday, 28 November 2012 - $550 million; you're not going to win it, and neither am I

 
 
Yup, the Powerball has hit a $550 million jackpot after not being won for the last several weeks (compared to the Mega Millions measly 12 million hehe - 'mega' my butt).
 
As such, the lines a tickets were out the door! As per this website, $550 million (more than half a billion) is a shit-tonne of money, but, as per this website, you ain't gonna win it and neither am I. "Now, with a record $550 million Powerball jackpot up for grabs Wednesday, we figured it was a great time to, once again, dash your dreams. We know, we know - someone will win at least a share of the prize, if not Wednesday, then in some subsequent drawing. But it won't be you." hahaha! The chance of a ticket winning a Powerball jackpot is 1 in 175,223,510. The chance of being killed by lightning is just 1 in 3,000,000 by comparison. But hey, you gotta be in it to win it, and for the sake of $5, $10, $20 or whatever one chooses to 'invest', the potential returns are unthinkable.

Thursday, 29 November 2012 - No bloodshed today
Your chances of becoming US President are apparently better than winning the Powerball hehe, but two people did (or two groups - no one knows yet as no winners have yet come forward to claim their prize). Needless to say I wasn't one of them. In other news, New York City has apparently, for the first time in living memory, made it through an entire day without any violent crime hahaha! The NYPD's chief spokesman said that Monday was the most bloodshed-free 24-hour period in recent history. Not a single murder, shooting, stabbing or other incident of violent crime was reported for a whole day. Ah-mazing! Full story here.

Friday, 30 November 2012 - Christmas is coming, again!

 
 
Sixth Avenue just along from my work has been spruced up, as has the rest of the city. Oversized Christmas ornaments...
 
Oversized Christmas lights...
 
And, a train? When this thing was first put in a few days ago you could barely see it through the mass of steam it was pissing out of its chimney there hehe. They've toned it down now unfortunately; I liked it better how it was.

 
 
And of course, the famous Rockefeller Center Christmas tree overlooking the ice rink. Impressive stuff :)

Saturday, 1 December 2012 - Chicago

 
Kristina's folks and an aunt and uncle I hadn't met came up to the Big (cold) Apple for a long weekend. Good reason to go see our first Broadway show. Photography is strictly forbidden at these things but it was the usual affair - a lot of singing and a lot of dancing etc. Chicago is set in prohibition-era Chicago, and is a satire on corruption in the criminal justice system. Starring in the one of the lead roles was none other than Billy Ray Cyrus hehe, good stuff.

Tuesday, 4 December 2012 - Getting into it

 
 
In the middle of summer it looked like this...
 
...now it looks like this. This is Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan. The ice rink here is known as Citi Pond, and is just one of several popping up all over the city at the moment.
 
And while New York is getting thoroughly into the Christmas spirit, so too are we with our cute little tree here. Isn't it adorable ;)

Wednesday, 5 December 2012 - Driving school for dogs in New Zealand

 
After work tonight I rode up to East Harlem to get a couple Christmas stockings from Target to match our cool tree (like I said yesterday - we're getting into the Christmas spirit ;) It's a little rougher in this part of town; in fact East Harlem has the highest violent crime rate in Manhattan. Just a couple blocks from Target I found this: a lot of cop cars (out of shot), and a lot of cops gathered around the front of a bus with its hazard lights on. From asking around and from overhearing a cop talking on a cell phone, it sounds like a passing car shot at the bus driver, or at the very least threw something at him - I'm not sure which but the word on the street (hehe) was that a shot was fired. Either way, no one was hurt. My guess is the bus pulled out in front of a car as they do, and a bit of road rage ensued.

In other news, a charity in New Zealand is teaching rescued dogs how to drive a car hahaha! Video here.

Update: Just found this new article about the bus incident above. A shot was indeed fired at the bus driver and it was indeed an act of road rage, however it was actually the car from which the shot was fired that cut the bus off - not the other way round as I suspected might be the case.

Thursday, 6 December 2012

 
The view from our Jersey City office looking towards Lower Manhattan with the unfinished One World Trade Center dominating its skyline. Despite working with UBS for over five months now, I hadn't been here before and was yet to meet most of the folk I talk to every day on the phone hehe. This would have been the front row seat on 9/11.
 

Sunday, 9 December 2012

 
A few weeks back Kristina and I were down in Alabama for Kristina's friend's wedding. Over the course of that weekend I took a couple hundred photos which I subsequently processed up to make everyone look pretty, and here are the finished results :) Anyone getting hitched and need a photographer by chance?!?!
 

Wednesday, 12 December 2012 - All the twelves

 
Yes, today was the 12th day of the 12th month of the 12th year of the century, and at 12:12pm and 12 seconds this afternoon I was watching the clock on my iPhone before getting back to work and forgetting all about it. Today was hailed by some as the luckiest day of our lifetime, and an exorbitant number of marriages apparently took place all over the globe today.
 
Not so lucky for these dorks though. I could hear some commotion outside my apartment this morning (a lot of car horns) and stuck my head outside to find this blocking the traffic hehe. Not hard to figure out what happened here: the car at the top pulled out in front of the car at the bottom, and smack! Despite the apparently obviousness of it, all concerned were having a mighty great yelling match in the middle of the street. Anyway, nine days from now is the end of the Maya calendar's 5,000-something-year cycle which has long inspired talk of an impending doomsday. I wonder how many marriages there'll be for that?

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