Second Snack And The Holiday Season

We've got something special planned for you guys this holiday season. Hints will be dropped as we get closer to that special time of year.

1000 Places: New York City

The Big City, The Big Apple, Gotham, The city that never sleeps, the center of the universe. There are a million other ways to describe New York but some nicknames are more well known than others. As the most populous city in the most populous metropolitan area in the United States, New York is our cultural capital. Like most of our states, our country's most famous city isn't our capital, its definitely New York. In many ways, New York City is the most famous and well known of the world's cities. But is this reputation just the result of Americans feeling good about themselves and thinking we're the only game in town? Or does New York deserve all the accolades it receives. To me, it does and it's definitely deserving of its place in the 1000 Places to See Before You Die.

I first saw New York right before I became a teenager. Bill Clinton was in office, the Oval Office scandal was raging and we had just bombed the Sudan. Remember all that? It seems like a life time ago. But that summer, those were the biggest headlines in the news. New York was hot that summer, really hot. I'm used to heat having grown up with Southern California summers but this was a whole different kind of heat. Sticky, humid, disgusting heat. But, despite the physical discomfort, the big city captured my attention like it has with so many millions of people throughout its existence. It may have started as a small village on Manhattan island, but today's New York City is one of the largest and most beautiful cities around.

The next time I ended up in New York I was an adult. This was during a time where I came back to the city at least once every quarter. I quickly felt comfortable amongst the millions. New York is fast, lively, energetic and if you aren't careful, can run past you leaving you feeling lost. However, if you hunker down and go with the flow, its a completely welcoming city. New Yorkers get a reputation for having and attitude but I've always found them to be pleasant. I know I'm generalizing just as bad as the nay-sayers, but New Yorkers just live at a different pace than the rest of us. Like America as a whole, New York is a place people migrate to. Taking on the life and attitude of a New Yorker isn't something you're born with. The city is open and ripe for the taking for those who put in the effort. The lifestyle is open to anyone willing to go after it.

Even though I've been to New York many times, I still feel like a newbie. There is still so much left to explore. On one trip, I was lucky enough to have Sarah join me. We piggy-backed a vacation onto a work trip I had and spent a little bit of time exploring. We saw the Empire State building, took a red bus tour (cliche but totally awesome), and ate at several restaurants. It was a super fast trip and it left us wanting more. We haven't been back together since then but Sarah has been able to go a few times lately. I've always found that being able to visit different cities is great, but being able to visit and work in different cities is awesome. We're both happy to get the chance to do both.

So what about this reputation? The center of the universe business. Well, even though I'm a die-hard fan of where I'm from, I still have to admit that yes, New York really is the center of the universe. It wasn't always this way and it may not be that way in the distant future. But right now, it lives up to all its hype. I've been to many different cities around the world so far and none have the energy and excitement of New York. Rome may be older, London more proper, Tokyo more advanced, but still none can compare to the aura of New York. What evidence do I have? Well, its hard to describe in words. You really just need to go. Perhaps the only proof I have is that everyone I know who has spent any sort of time in New York speaks of it in the same tones and reverence I do. Its not something you can put a finger on, but everyone knows what its all about.

LEGO Project: Sifting

Recently, I crossed over into new territory. So far I've been organizing and reassembling sets from my childhood LEGO collection. There are many bins and lots of space used up by the LEGO bricks and pieces in our office closet. But now, I've taken on another collection of LEGO. Sarah's parents found a great bargain in an estate sale next door and picked up a bin of LEGO. They had asked if I was interested in it and I quickly said yes. So now I am the owner of my own collection, and someone else's. Such a straight forward acquisition of pieces has brought up some new questions in my head.

Even though the bin of LEGO that I brought home from Sarah's parents' house is smaller than my total collection, there was a large amount of new bricks in there for me to sift through. I recognized a lot of pieces and could even pick out special pieces from sets I don't own. It makes me wonder if I could reassemble a set that I hadn't previously owned.

As I sifted through this new collection separating everything into different piles according to color, I started thinking deeper about what I was in the middle of doing. Perhaps it was the wine I was drinking at the time but I started to feel all philosophical. Here I was, an adult man browsing through the tub of LEGO the used to belong to someone else who was once a kid themselves. Judging by the condition and relative age of the bricks I figure that the previous owner was probably just a few years younger than I am. I wonder if they still thought this tub of LEGO was as valuable as I think it is. Or, did they not really see a point in keeping any of this lot and let it go to sale in the estate sale hoping to make a bit of extra cash?

I found it odd to be sifting through someone else's childhood. Mixed in with the loose pieces were half assembled creations born from a child's imagination. The build style differed from my own and I could see what types of things this person was interested in. There were also other non-LEGO toys scattered throughout the box. I separated those out and threw them away. As I threw them away I was thinking about what it was I was doing. I was making a very defined judgement call over what I thought was valuable about someone else's toy collection. These plastic action figures weren't LEGO bricks, so of course I would throw them away. But what if one of those toys I threw away was actually the most treasured thing in this person's tub of toys?

A tub of LEGO bricks and pieces isn't just a sterile collection of plastic. Its a collection of someone's childhood value system. These toys were important enough to keep and they had never been thrown away. Sure, this child eventually grew up and I could tell this LEGO collection hadn't been touched in years. But still, the collection remained.

After sitting and sifting through these bricks, I came to the conclusion that even though I was rummaging through this person's former person property it was overall a good thing. A LEGO brick can outlast almost anything. Its a shame to see something so well constructed fall by the wayside and go unused. Now that I am the owner of someone else's LEGO collection the pieces will be mixed in with my own collection. They'll help me continue my project of reassembling all of my old sets and will help fill in the gaps that my own collection couldn't meet.

Someday, my collection, and the one I just acquired will end up in the hands of my future children. They won't know which bricks came from dad and which came from an unknown former neighbor of grandpa and grandma. All they'll care about is that LEGO makes an incredible toy and that hours of fun are ahead of them.

Meme Monday: Fishsticks

Meme Monday brings you a weekly Internet Meme that we have found. Internet Memes are described as something that catches on like wildfire with Internet communities with no outside source of promotion. They exist purely for enjoyment and laughs.