If we switched to the iPhone 3G, it’d be about $140 per month for the same plus data. So basically the iPhone experience + data is going to cost us an additional $45 per month over what we have now. Is it worth it?

I think home internet connections are going to become less important as mobile data networks become faster and more robust so maybe it’d be a step of faith in technology to get the iPhone and maybe even get rid of the home internet connect but I can’t imagine doing that at this point.

If you think the iPhone’s features add an extra $45 worth of value per month for two people (and not just in a way where it’s like “oh, it’s sorta cool I can do X now” but more of how it adds *real* productive value to your life), please comment and make your case. I’m all ears.

Tim Horton’s had a booth (there aren’t any Tim Horton’s shops here in London, so this was specially set up for the Canada Day festival):

Canadian girls:

Last Saturday, I went to Surrey Quays to check out a Cuban festival. There were a ton of people there. It turned out to be more a celebration of a bunch of African and Carribean cultures. It wasn’t that interesting walking around by myself so I left after just being there for about ten minutes. I caught a random bus that I knew was headed towards Central London (I like getting on buses and sitting in a front row seat on the top; it’s a great way of really getting to see the different neighborhoods in London). The bus went through some neighborhood that had a bunch of streets named after stuff in Canada. I could see Canary Wharf in the distance (which I still haven’t visited yet but want to). The bus then went through Rotherhithe—a friend from church in NY who married a Brit and has lived in London commented on my Facebook photo to ask what the heck I was doing in Rotherhithe. I guess there really is no good reason to go there. I got off at Waterloo and walked by County Hall, walked over Westminster Bridge, got some good photos of the London Eye and Big Ben, then went home.

County Hall:

County Hall and the London Eye:

Yes, I was in Rotherhithe:

The Saturday before that (June 21st), I wandered aimlessly through Central London. For some reason, I always find myself going towards Leicester Square, the place I actually least want to be. Anyway, here are some photos from that day.

This tow truck actually picks up the car to put on the truck:

Neal’s Yard in Covent Garden:

Finally, about today. I had a bit more of a plan. I went to Argos in the morning to buy something for the bathroom. Argos is weird. I don’t know if other cities had this chain, but in Chicago, there was something called Service Merchandize. I think Service Merchandize actually had a showroom but basically you walk around, figure out what you want, then give the list of things you want to the cashier. They ring it up then send in the request; you wait for some stockboys to get it from the shelves and put it on the conveyer belt for you to pick up.

Argos is sorta similar but even more weird. They don’t even have a showroom so you can’t actually look at what you’re buying before you pay for it. The public area of the store is basically a bunch of rows of booths that each have a massive 1000+ page catalog that lists all the products they sell. When you figure out what you want, you punch it into a stock checker thingy; then if they have it in stock, you write the catalogue number on the piece of paper and take it to the cashier. Then you wait for them to get your purchased items. For the first couple of weeks I was in London, I really tried hard to avoid Argos because I really like being able to actually see and touch the products I’m potentially going to buy. But it sorta become unavoidable; Argos has a lot of stuff that’s pretty hard to find elsewhere and has reasonable prices too. So since then, I’ve been going to Argos and I guess I’ve just gotten used to it.

Anyway, I went back home to drop off the stuff, then went out with a plan. No aimless wandering today. Or that was the plan. I went to my real estate agent’s office to take care of some errands, then walked through Shepherd’s Bush Market. This market is sorta more geared towards the working-class local population that lives around Shepherd’s Bush. (aka it’s not like the yuppie touristy markets you’ll find in Central London). Lots of Halal food that looked and smelled good—I already had lunch so I didn’t get anything, but next time… I also stopped by a pet store and saw some hamsters.

Shepherd’s Bush Market entrance:

The Time Out London book highly recommended the Wellcome Collection so I took the tube to from Goldhawk Road to Euston Square on the Hammersmith and City line. The Wellcome Collection basically has a bunch of random stuff related to this guy named Henry Wellcome. He started a pharmaceutical company so he was really interested in biology and anatomy. But apparently he also had a strong interest in archaelogy so he sponsored some excavations in Sudan. Anyway, the museum had some weird stuff like old artificial limbs, Napoleon’s toothbrush (it’s amazing how the fundamental design of the toothbrush hasn’t changed since then), and human torture chairs. I don’t know if I share Time Out London’s glowing review of the place but heck, it was free and I’d say it’s worth the trip out there.

Wellcome Collection building:

I made my way down to the area near where the British Museum is. There was some street festival going on which was neat. A Korean restaurant was selling some food on the street as a part of the festival but they were selling both Korean and Japanese food. I think because there aren’t so many Korean people here, they have to do both Japanese and Korean in order to make money. Kinda sad but I guess that’s pretty common in places with small Korean populations. I walked to a Korean grocery store, then walked to Chinatown to get a pastry. During this walk, there were a whole bunch of gay people walking around because today was the London Pride parade. I tried to avoid the crowds (not because they were gay but because I just don’t like massive crowds). I went to Trafalgar Square and noticed a lot more flaming gay people; there was live music and lots of booths set up promoting gay causes. I stopped in the National Portrait Gallery for a little bit to get another museum in for the day, then came back out to check out the London Pride celebration.

London Pride celebration:

I went home, had dinner, then took the bus to Notting Hill to watch My Winnipeg. The movie was showing at the Gate Picturehouse. Pretty neat theatre. I like being able to drink alcohol during the movie. The seats were also nice and plush. Overall, a really classy theatre—I think that’s the best way to describe it. Movie was good. There was a trailer for The Visitor; it really made me miss New York. Even though I’ve only been in New York City for a year, I feel really attached to it. Got out and took the 28 bus back to Kensington Olympia.

The wife comes on Thursday so I’m looking forward to sharing some of these adventures with her. We’ve booked a couple of weekend trips to Dublin and Paris and we’re considering an extended trip to Morocco or some other relatively exotic place. We also need to visit some other parts of England like the Lake District or Wales.

I think people like the idea or concept of Obama. People love the idea of having a mixed race person become president of the United States because as we all know, America has been becoming progressively less white since the country was founded basically and pretty soon, white Americans will become the minority. Obama stands for what America is and will continue to be—a melting pot of many colours, ideas, creeds, etc.

However, I still don’t get it. Yes, he may give some stirring speeches about his vision of America and that may give people a sense of hope in our country that they haven’t had in the past 10-20 years. But honestly, if people haven’t felt hopeful about America and are finding it now in Obama, I think they’re perspective is a little screwy. I would argue that one man, especially the president, should not be the source of inspiration for our reason for being excited about America and all it stands for.

To me, the United States of America is a result of what happens when millions of crazy, independently-minded, ambitious, hard-working people get thrown into the same physical space and set their minds on accomplishing something better, something different. The first Americans came over from England because they wanted freedom to worship God in the way they wanted to and have a form of government that was completely revolutionary at the time. Then over the next two centuries, waves of immigrants from western Europe, then eastern Europe, then the rest of the Americas and then Asia and Africa left everything they knew to join this crazy, radical bunch of people in the United States to accomplish something better and something different, all in an environment where they were free-er to live the way they wanted than ever before.

In my opinion, America has primarily become what it is because of the efforts of all these people who have come before us. Sure, government intervention has had a significant role in defining America but when I think of America, I don’t think of what the government has done over the years, I think of the spirit of the American people.

This is why I’m troubled by the idea that so many people are looking to Obama for hope. One man should not be the source of hope for our nation. The source of hope for what America can be in the future should come from within ourselves. The ambition and drive to do something better and something different that has been the core motivator for millions of Americans through the years is what should be driving our hope and vision for the future now.

Can one man help us regain that sense of ambition and drive? Maybe. But that’s not the rhetoric I’m hearing from Obama. Obama believes in the power of the institution of government to save America—in everything he says, it’s always “Government can do this” or “Government can do that”. Government has never been the primary driver of innovation and growth; it has always come from free-thinking, ambitious, intelligent individuals. I believe government should give private individuals the freedom to innovate and make sure disincentives don’t get in the way of growth—this will unleash a new era of prosperity in our great country.

I’m also going to throw this out there—I know some of you who aren’t religious will strongly object to this. However, I’ll argue that people in America used to find their sense of hope from a higher being and from their local faith communities. When things didn’t seem to be going well, people would find hope when they approached God in prayer and when they attended church on Sundays and experienced the live-giving spirit that comes from being actively involved in a local community. Unfortunately, both of those sources of hope have now lost their influence in the lives of many Americans. So instead of turning to God, people are turning to Obama? I know that sounds like a crazy argument to some of you but I really think there’s something there.

When you go to the polls in November, think about why you’re voting. Are you placing too much hope in one man to accomplish things that are really out of his control? I’ll concur that Obama has a lot of things going for him, but please, don’t vote for him because you think he’ll renew your sense of hope in America because in that, he will undoubtedly fail.

On Monday night, we went to see a Mets game. As you can see, we were pretty high up but tickets were only $10.

My company is shipping me off to London for a few months to work on some new projects they have starting there. It will be nice to go back to London. It’s tough because we’ve only been in New York for a year now and I feel like we’re really starting to get settled and develop closer relationships with people but now we’re getting uprooted again. A co-worker from the NY office is already out there so I’m looking forward to hanging out with him. I know I’ll be slammed with work during the short period of time I’ll be out there, but the wife and I are hoping to make some trips to Dublin and Paris on the weekends.

My dilemma lately has been on whether I should bring my digital SLR or not. I’m definitely bringing our small point and shoot digital but I’ve come to hate lugging around my DSLR. After being so into photography for a few years, lately I’ve been wanting to take a step back… As in when I have my DSLR and I’m in “photographer” mode, I feel like I’m missing out on fully experiencing the actual moment. If photography is something that you strongly value, then yes, the act of capturing those moments in the best way possible is worth the cost of having to step outside of that moment to do it. I don’t think I actually care about capturing those moments anymore. If I’m in Paris having a picturesque moment eating a croissant and having coffee at a street cafe, I just want to soak that moment all in; I won’t need a fancy DSLR-produced photograph for me to remember that it actually happened. So maybe there doesn’t have to be this huge difference in the mentality I have when photographing with my DSLR vs. with my point and shoot but for me, right now, it does. I’m probably going to end up taking my DSLR but just not using it all the time when I’m there. My plan is to get a wider prime lens before I leave so that carrying it around isn’t as much of a burden.

Look forward to seeing some photos here in the coming months from across the pond!

The best part of living car-free in New York City is that rising gas prices are largely irrelevant. Okay, I’m intelligent enough to know that even if I don’t own a car and don’t have to fill my gas tank every week, rising gas prices do affect the cost of everything I buy. However, the impact of these indirect cost increases is much less than if I was completely dependent on a car to get around.

It’s unfortunate that a large majority of American cities were designed around the assumption that the cost of transportation is extremely low. However, as gas prices are increasing, the impact of burning fossil fuels is potentially causing global climate change and mass production of “clean” technologies is still decades away, people will have to make difficult decisions. A lot of people are attached to the idea of having their own single-family home with a two car garage and a large backyard but is that ideal sustainable?

What would it look like if the US consisted of twenty densely-populated, car-free metropolises that were all linked by high-speed rail? One could argue that this is what Europe is; I think this is one reason why I’m drawn to Europe. I’m afraid that the American ideal of “bigger is better” could eventually be its downfall.

I just got an AT&T data card for work and my tests seem to concur with the article’s conclusion. This thing is awesome.

We just got a Canon PowerShot SD1000 point and shoot digital camera. The pictures that come out of it obviously are not of the same caliber as those from my DSLR, but they’re not bad—especially when it’s nice and sunny outside.