Ikea

So I've had (and having) a nightmare of a time with Ikea. Delivery originally scheduled for Thursday.. no delivery. I waited around all day Thursday waiting on a call/buzzer that never happened. Of course, a call can never happen when I didn't have my cell phone! Friday morning, I yelled/argued/had a gentlemanly discussion with the Ikea staff in their terrible execution of said delivery. Luckily, they saw it my way and agreed to do the delivery on Saturday.

Finally, my furniture arrives and it takes up my entire (entire) apartment. My living room is now boxes. I'm frantically trying to build everything so I can move into my room and move all of Matt's crap into his. I wonder how he's going to build all his crap. Ah well.. his problem!

Back to furniture building.

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Song Of The Moment: None.
Comment: I've been keeping the music down so I can hear the Ikea guy.

NYC: First Post

I have arrived. Sort of.

Physically, I am obviously here. And when I say physically, I literally mean just myself. The furniture, not so much. The rest of the clothes, not so much. The wine opener, still in transit.

The point is, while I have been here for a week, I have not settled in. Owing mostly to the lack of a cell phone and the lack of furniture, the lack of the former prevents me from contacting anything in the city while the latter prevents me from putting damn things away. (The little that I actually brought with me.)

In any case, I am becoming more familiar with the subway; while being very familiar with the art of walking and sweating. The city doesn't operate as fast as everyone says. I think I can keep up.

Not much else to say right now except for the pitiful way I am living while waiting for the furniture to arrive. My bed doubles as my chair. My suitcase doubles as my desk. *sigh* Furniture arrives tomorrow. It can't come sooner.

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Song Of The Moment: Ciara Feat. 50 Cent - Can't Leave'em Alone
Comment: Finally, a good 50 song.

Moving.

There is something slightly trumatic with the process of moving permanently. Trauma may be a negative term, but it definitely changes you when you realize that you have to pack up and go.

Co-op at Waterloo has given me the experience of moving many times. To different cities, homes, and jobs. Through all of this though, there was the root. "Home home": the place I spent my formative years; the place I could put all the useless crap. Now, even that is being uprooted.

As a result, every little thing I own is being catagorized: to NYC, to maybe NYC, to the basement, to the garbage. You find stuff you never see, touch, use and yet can't throw out. Stuff you use all the time that you can't pack which means you'll probably forget to bring it. Stuff that you've used for 10 years and wonder why it's so ghetto.

In any case, revisiting your life through your material goods is indirectly a way to revisit your life period. The high school years in Markham, the university years in Waterloo and everywhere else, and now, the career years in New York.

I better not forget anything.

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Song Of The Moment: Augustana - Boston
Comment: Where no one knows my name.

Guy Rules

Courtesy of Bill Simmons:

0. Pay up when you owe somebody money

1. Don't operate the remote control at someone else's house, unless they give it to you. (I break this one religiously)

2. Don't ask to borrow a porn movie under any circumstances.

3. Don't even think about hooking up with a friend's ex-girlfriend or sister.

4. When you're sharing a bed with another guy, sleep as far away from him as possible.

5. Don't use somebody's towel when you're using the same shower, unless there's absolutely no recourse.

6. Don't drink the last premium beer in someone's fridge, unless they give you the OK first.

7. Don't ask to borrow a DVD, unless it's someone you see at least two or three times a month.

8. Don't call to make fun of them after their sports team suffers a tough loss.

9. Don't let your friends keep buying rounds without stepping up to the plate yourself.

10. Don't order a seven-course breakfast when everyone else is eating bagels, then say "Let's just split the check evenly" when the bill comes.

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Song Of The Moment: Rick Ross Feat. Mario - Get Away
Comment: Summer song

China Economy

Chinese Goods
There has been some fallout over Chinese manufactured goods in the past few weeks, focusing upon non-people/pet friend goods in people/pet goods. Namely, contaminated pet food and fake toothpaste.

What does this mean in the world economy?

Two thoughts. The first will be an erosion of confidence in Chinese manufactured goods by the end-user. This in turn will drive manufacturers to make some good PR measurements and use other (read: more expensive) locations to produce some of these good to restore faith. How long this lasts depends at least one thing: if the company passes on the increase cost of production to the consumer, when will their wallet and price-consciousness in this competitive world? If they choose to bite the bullet (again for PR and brand-recovery purposes), how long do the diminished margins irk management and shareholders to go back to the cheaper production choices? At the end of the day, everyone will have to forget these two incidents to allow everyone to benefit from China's cheaper labour.

Secondly, China will now have to prove its inspection and delivery systems are up to par with the demands of the world. Every incident will increase the chost of production with special inspections on Chinese goods when the costs of not doing so is so high on the companies whose name are on the goods in question. As a result, China's labour advantage may be slightly degraded as it already is by the increasingly flexible exchange rate of the yuan. Is that day of almost equal competition closer to fruition? Will other labour markets and unions finally realize that it is a lost cause to continually demand higher wages when the choice today is already simple? Will I be out of a job soon because someone elsewhere will and can do it for 50 cents on the dollar?

Sorry to interupt with this geekery. I now return to you the normal author.

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Song Of The Moment: Savage Garden - Two Beds And A Coffee Machine
Comment: Bringing back old school

Version 2

Back.

Post Convocation, it's evident that the previous posts must be purged. (They are somewhere... don't you worry.)

Still debating whether to be politically correct or pull no punches. We'll see.