New York - Day Seven

It turns out blogging about everything that is happening to you in New York including all the stuff you're learning in training...takes a lot of time. I haven't posted here since Day Two and here it is Day Seven. I spent a couple of days blogging about my training (link above for anyone interested) and there were a couple of days where there was not a lot of interesting things for this blog or I was just too tired.

So, here are some highlights from the last few days. On day three (if I recall correctly) after training, I decided to go visit Times Square. I chose the worst possible night of my stay to do it. While I was there there was a significant hail storm and I snapped this picture to send to Kris to show her the "great" weather for my visit to Times Square. So I was a little cold, but mostly just my face and hands. It was a fun visit despite the snow. I visited Hard Rock cafe and a few shops along the way. While I was there I took the below photos of the area, which in some ways is more impressive than all the lights on the strip in Las Vegas.

While I was walking down times square I noticed the times square vistor's center so I went in to take a look. In the visitors center I took this picture of the original times square ball that is dropped every New Years Eve. Then I noticed the "wishing wall". You can see the wishing wall in this picture on the right; it has hundreds of colorful notes pinned to it. I suspect there are thousands of these notes and that the clean them all off the wall from time to time. These are notes that people write on confetti and these notes are then collected and added to the confetti that is dropped over times square on new years eve. While I was looking at some of the notes I saw the one below (the yellow one) that I thought was quite heart-breaking. The note reads, "I wish from the bottom of my heart that mom and dad love eachother." What a sad statement, it makes my heart break for all the broken families in the world.

But I thought the wishing wall was an awesome idea. So I looked around and found that you have to get the confetti from the gift shop which was closed. So I asked the security guard if there was a way to get any and he said you can just write on any piece of paper. So I ripped off a piece of a receipt from my visit to hard rock cafe (foreshadowing what I may or may not have for the kids when I get home) and wrote a note on it. That note is the white one below.

After I was done walking through times square I went to Carnegie Deli to eat. I was looking forward to a great sandwich and some New York Cheesecake. I asked the waiter what he'd recommend and he said, "pastrami or corned beef". So...I got the sandwhich that has both. Well...I didn't really get a sandwich. What I really got is in the picture to the right. It was a huge pile of pastrami and corned beef with two very thin pieces of bread. I have to admit I was a little dissappointed. Although I don't generally mind large piles of meat, fork-full after fork-full of pastrami and corned beef (with the occasional small sliver of bread) got a little tiring after about 10 fork-fulls. But it was fun. I ended up having to take the cheesecake home, it was delicious once I had room for it.

Thursday after training the whole group of us, including the instructor, Eric Evans, went to the local NYC DDD user group meeting which happened to be that night. After that meeting I was tired and wanted to see the BYU game, so I ordered pizza from Seamless Web (www.seamlessweb.com) and headed back to my hotel. The pizza was way better than the game. Actually it was a great game with a horrible ending.

Friday I went to the empire state building. I was trying to hurry and get there before it got dark so I could get some good pictures, but our training went a little late and so I didn't get there in time. I don't have any great pictures to show or I'd include them. All the pictures I took just look like a night-time city view and you can't tell at all how high up I am. It was a cool visit though and I'm glad I went. On the way up it was kind of cool to have my ears pop. I've never had that happen in an elevator before! On the way back home I still needed dinner so I decided to stop at the Palm restaurant one last time. I got the 4-course meal again but tried the top sirloin. I knew better than to choose sirloin but I wanted to try something different; I should have stuck with the fillet mignon, but still it was a great dinner.

Saturday was my day to go visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I had bought my ticket the day before. That was an awesome trip. This picture is a picture of Lady Liberty from the ferry on the way there. When I got there I decided to do the audio tour and was glad I did, it offered some interesting insights. As I toured the statue and the museum that is in the pedestal that supports the statue, I was emotionally stirred several times as I thought about the symbolism of the statue of liberty and what it has meant to so many people.

Although she has come to be known as "The Statue of Liberty" the real title of the statue is "Liberty Enlightening the World". Which is why I had to take this awesome picture when I noticed the sun in just the right place. While listening to the audio tour, the narrator mentioned what it was like for immigrants who at long last saw the Statue of Liberty with her glowing torch from a distance as they approached the harbor. Imagine having planned this trip for months and after several weeks of a horrific boat voyage finally seeing that statue that had already become known around the world as a symbol of hope and liberty. I had always known that the Statue of Liberty was a gift from the French, but what I never knew was that those who donated her did it in part as a statement against their own repressive government under Napoleon III. Édouard René de Laboulaye was a French politician who supported the building of the statue and suggested that it should be a joint effort by the US and France (the pedestal that the statue stands on was created by the United States. Laboulaye respected the united states, in large part, for their willingness to outlaw slavery. That is one reason why at the foot of the Statue of Liberty there are broken shackles representing liberty breaking free from the chains of bondage.

The Statue of Liberty faces east and stands as a challenge to the "Old World" which in large part was still ruled by monarchies and repressive governments. The statue stood then, and still stands today, as an invitation to repressive governments to bring liberty to their own people. The statue if you look closely is not standing still but is stepping forward indicating that the United States will "bring liberty to the world". For those who were trying to escape the repression of their governments, the torch of the Lady Liberty must have been such an awesome symbol of hope during the period of open immigration at the end of the 1800s and beginning of the 1900s.

I love the words of the poet Emma Lazerous who wrote the following about the Statue of Liberty:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

I love the rejection of the Old World pride and pomp and the beckon to the poor and huddled masses. What great imagery. There is something quite ironic about the day the Statue of Liberty was unveiled; I still shake my head that the politicians (and the citizens who agreed with them) could not see the irony -- it seems so blatantly obvious. On a day that was celebrating liberty and freedom from bondage, and using the symbol of a woman no less to represent that liberty, despite all this, women were not allowed on the island and still were not allowed to vote. It really is incredible to me that people could seriously move forward with that imagery while rejecting liberty to the women of their own land. And so, it is a monument, not only to what America was at the time, but what it would become. The poem penned by Emma Lazerous was also somewhat prophetic since the doors had not really been freely opened to immigration at the time she wrote it.

My visit to the Statue of Liberty was all I hoped it would be. Following the statue, the ferry took us to Ellis Island. I'd write more about that, but I'm running out of time. But let me just say, during the Open Immigration years, only 2% of immigrants were rejected, these were mostly rejected due to mental illness or serious contagious disease. What joy it must have been for the 98% and what heartbreak for the 2%. And also what heart-break for the families of the 2% who were allowed to stay and had to see the loved ones that they traveled with be sent back home -- the the lands they were trying to escape for countless reasons.

What a great country we have. How blessed we are to be citizens of it. And my heart feels for those who live in lands that, still today do not have the same liberty.

New York - Day Two

This morning I woke up with a massive headache...probably from eating too much meat the night before. As I am writing this, I have a massive stomach ache...definitely from eating too much meat tonight. More about that later...

As I headed out this morning, I knew I was looking for 1 Water St. So I headed down the street in that direction. As I approached the building I was impressed with it's size (like all other buildings around here). The name on the front of the building is "One New York Plaza". It is right on the coast, so it has some great views of the Hudson. Below are a few shots of the building. In the shot from a distance, it is the one furthest back.

I went into the building and was given a badge that lets me get past the security guard by the elevators. I was told my training was on the 31st floor. When I got up there, I found my class room and since I was about 30 minutes early, put my stuff on a desk and went looking for breakfast. I grabbed a few things to eat and went to a lounge area. This is were I noticed the beautiful view...including an awesome view of the Statue of Liberty. Below are a couple of images. One is a shot of the Statue of Liberty and the other is a shot of an interesting looking and tiny island with large buildings around the perimeter (presumably too large to be homes). In the center are a couple of open grassy areas and some smaller buildings that could possibly be homes, but I couldn't tell. If they are homes, that'd be a cool place to live.

So I finished up my breakfast and headed into class. As I unpacked my things I noticed I left the cord for my laptop back at the hotel, so I spent the morning frantically taking notes by hand in an old-school paper notebook. I ran back to the hotel during lunch and brought it back with me.

Before class began, I noticed that the name on the instructor's name tag said, "Eric Evans"! I seriously thought to myself, "No, that's not really Eric Evans. Either this is another guy by the same name, or it is the instructor goofing around." But, alas, it really was Eric Evans. (For those who don't know, Eric Evans is the author of "Domain Driven Design", the book on which this training is based.) I was so thrilled that I would be learning directly from Eric. There are a number of authors that I really admire including: Martin Fowler, Allistair Cockburn, Uncle Bob Martin, Dave Thomas and, of course, Eric Evans. All but Eric Evans are signatories of the Agile Manifesto, but Eric has earned his place among the ranks in my mind for his work on Domain Driven Design. And for the record, I'm not fans of these individuals because they signed the manifesto, but because I've read some their books and what they say makes a lot of sense. These are all people who, I believe, are pioneers in bringing the software industry (an industry that is still in it's infancy as professions go) out of obscurity and defining methodologies and practices that help the masses to write the type of great software that they've been writing for a long time.

So ya, learning that the class was actually going to be taught by Eric Evans was a thrill for me. I won't bore the readers of this blog with more technical information, that info can be found in my other blog (once I get it updated): UbiquitousGecko. I'll just add that the training involved some hands on work with others in the class, something that I wasn't really looking forward to, but the group of guys in the class is a great group and I'm glad to be working with them.

After the training, I headed back to the hotel to decide where I was going to spend my $50 for dinner (the training provides breakfast and lunch, so my full $50 per diem can be spent on dinner...booya!). I decided I'd try out The Palm, a steak house that my brother's wife, Teri, had recommended. Wise choice. As I approached the restaurant, I saw the a line of limos in front of the restaurant, as shown below, which indicated the type of restaurant in which I was about to feast-to-bursting. They had a special this month for a 4-course meal for $49. I got the three filet mingon medallions. One topped with crab, the other topped with onion straws, and the third topped with Lobster. Me oh my. It was amazing, as wer the side of cheddar baked potatoes and the creme brule. I'm seriously thinking about going back there Friday.

On the way to the restaurant I also snapped the picture below of the Wall Street subway stop. It was kinda cool to walk down Wall Street, although, I have no idea which buildings are of any significance. I'll have to do some research on that before I go I guess.

Well, I think I've digested a significant enough portion of my dinner that I can lie down without the pressure crushing my internal organs and my stomach ache seems to have subsided. So I'm going to call it a night. Looks like I'll have to work on my technical blog tomorrow.


Goodnight all!

New York - Day One

It's 8:55pm and it feels like it's 11pm...which is weird, since the time change should make it feel like it's 6:55pm. But it's been a long day.

Got up at 6am, and got on a plane at 8:30. The flight was a little bumpy, but otherwise uneventful. I sat next to a nice lady from New York, returning with her (probably 18-22 year-old) son. We chatted a bit from time to time, but mostly I read "Domain Driven Design Quickly", listened to a little U2 and slept some.

When the plane landed, I found a taxi and told him (trying to appear confident): "126 Water Street, Holiday Inn Express". The drive took me through...well...who knows where, but a few dirty and dilapidated NY outskirt cities. It made me grateful for where I live. As cool as it is to be in New York, the garbage and run-down buildings made be glad to live in Layton, and near Salt Lake, where things are much cleaner. I understand now why I've heard people comment on how clean Salt Lake is.

Anyhow, 50 minutes and $50 later I arrived at my hotel. After checking in, I asked, "Is there a concierge?" Since I have no idea where I am or how to get anywhere. The reply, from the same guy that just checked me in, came, "No, but I can help you with whatever you need." My concern with this response turned out to be warranted, when every question I asked him was answered by the man at the desk searching Google and telling me what he was reading. It was like my own personal voice recognition Google agent with built in text-to-speech. So...I asked for a map with subway routes and with that map and my trusty Android, I set out.

I started by walking immediately to the Hudson River a block away and as I approached I could smell that distinct smell of the sea that I love. As I approached the river I snapped this...somewhat boring...picture of a ferry.

I turned to the right and kept walking since I knew that was the direction of the Statue of Liberty even though I had no intention of going (and didn't go) there tonight, but that was one of the few things about New York that I knew about so it felt natural to walk that way. I shortly arrived at the Staten Island Ferry. This picture of the Ferry station was taken a little later as I headed back to my hotel.


I decided I ought to make a decision about where to go, so I decided to take a look and see how far I was from the World Trade Center. I new it had to be close since I knew I was staying in the financial district. So I went inside the ferry station and found a seat. My objective was to be looking at a map as discretely as possible so as to appear as little like a tourist (and a target as possible). With the help of my map and my phone (and no help from the "concierge"), I managed to find the World Trade Center and got there without any trouble via the subway (except for wasting $2.50 on the wrong type of Subway ticket before buying a 7-day pass for $29).

Of course...I say got "there", but "there" is mostly just a big construction site with big fences around it making it impossible to see in. I asked a few "official looking" people (such as traffic and construction folk) if there was a visitor's center or museum or something and was mostly left staring at disinterested faces who gave vague, un-useful directions. I did manage to stumble across a memorial center and went in and took a picture of this fireman's helmet from 9/11. Kind of a cool picture I thought.

At that memorial center I was able to finally get some helpful information about where I could view the WTC site better. He directed me to a building next to the American Express building where I could go up to the second floor and look down into the site. As I was walking there I was shocked to realize that this year is the 10-year anniversary of that tragic event. I realized that because a guy had told me that it is hard to see into the site from anywhere because of all the construction since they're trying to the site done for the anniversary. It didn't dawn on me until a little later that it was the 10-year anniversary. I can't believe it has been that long. I still remember the feeling of awe and horror as I watched those two towers fall to the ground. At one point as I was walking along the street I realized this had to have been one of the streets that we saw so many images on the news of with people running from those huge clouds of dust and debris as those buildings came down. It's still a shocking memory today.

This image is the view of the site I was able to see. The big rectangular shape, that you can see about half way up the image towards the back, is one of the two memorials that is in the footprint of one of the buildings. There will be two of these (one for each building). These will be essentially 30-foot waterfalls, dropping from ground-level into the interior of that rectangle and dropping down 30 feet into the ground.

Here is another image that shows the architectural plans for the memorial site. You can see the two waterfalls in the center where the old WTC buildings used to be. This is almost the same view I had that I took the picture above from except that I was down much closer. In the picture above you can see the frame being built (behind and to the left of the red crane) of the big tall building on the left of this model.

As I was leaving where I took the picture, I noticed a man explaining to a group of people some things about the site. I think he was a tour guide, not sure if it was a paid tour or not, but as I walked up he was mentioning that American Express had lost
11 people in the 9/11 attacks and that they built a neat memorial to those 11 individuals. And he said, "come this way and lets take a look"...so I "went that way to take a look." It was a neat monument. The video below shows the memorial. It is an 11-sided pool with the names of the 11 individuals inscribed on each side and a few words from loved ones inside the pool for each one of them. In the video, you'll notice small splashes in the pool. These are "tear drops" falling from all the way up at the sealing. The memorial is titled, "Eleven Tears".

I then decided I better go get something to eat and head back to the hotel before it got too late and too dark...didn't want to get lost (or mugged) my first night in NY. So I looked up the Brazilian Churrascaria (Brazillian BBQ ala Rodizio Grill) I had heard about, Churrascaria Tribeca. And, again trying to be discrete, found the restaurant on my Android and then found the subway route to get there. It was delicious (and expensive! $60 just for the meal!). The beef ribs were as big as my forearm and had to be wheeled out on a cart. The "succulent pig" (they're words, not mine) was as big as my leg and also was wheeled out on a cart. It was very good, although, probably not $60 good. So there you go, I had $50 to spend on dinner and managed to spend $80. You can thank me later, Kris. I suppose it's worth including this picture of the red/green (more meat/I'm stuffed) card.

Well, when I started this post I said it was 8:30 and it felt like 11:30. Now it is 11:30 and it still feels like 11:30. Weird. Here are a couple of final pictures, this is a picture of my hotel room. It is quite small, but very nice and most importantly the bed is very comfortable! Good night!