When I left the house to run errands yesterday I had no intention of acquiring a well designed object. As I persuaded the isles of Versaci Hardware on 23st for a new garbage can for the office, there it was, Garbino, the trash can designed by none other than the modern day indestrial design Godfather, Karim Rashid. And, for the low low price of 5.99 (I later found out the container store has them for a dollar less, but hey, its Manhattan, everything's got to cost more, and god only know where the nearest Container store is). Aparantly Garbino has won much aclaim. Garbino won the 1997 Good Design Award (aparently this does exist), and, is in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Mesuem of Art, Chicago's Athenaeum Museum, the Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts, and is at the the Toronto Design Exchange (which is a lovely building in downtown Toronto that I highly reccomend visiting if you are ever in that town). Who would have know my afternoon trip to the hardware store would have landed me smack against what apparently is the best thing for your trash since sliced bread.

Also yesterday was the ITP orientation. The incoming class is very, very diverse. About 35% of the students are international students. Backgrounds range all across the board, from psychology, to painting, to MIS, acting, film, sculpture. Quite the mix. I meet with Jean-Marc Gauthier, my advisor. This semester I'll be taking Applications of Interactive Technology, Introduction to Computational Media, Spatial Design, and Introduction to Physical Computing. All of the class I'm very excited for. And they updated the People page in the ITP website, so my abbreviated bio is now in the mix.

We completed our move to New York yesterday with a sixteen and half hour drive. Yey. The drive was long, but now, we're mostly settled in. New York in an amazing place. We'll have our car for a few days until we move it to Westchester, and, the parkign experience has been somthing else. Most streets, including 24th street, has alternate parking. The street cleaners and sanitation need to come thru. This means that you can't park on the street from 8:30-10:00 (on alternating sides daily). At precisely 8:25 people start hanging around their cars, hoping they'll find something on the other side that they can dash there before the bell tolls and the street cleaner shows up. When the gigantic brush mobile does make an appearance, all of the drivers miraculously move out of the way. It is by far the most coordinated driving I've seen outside a car commercial. It's syncrized, like swimming, but not as symmetrical. The drivers only move for a short time, enough so the street cleaner can go by, then, they back up and get back to the space they were a moment ago.

Tomorrow is orientation. I'm excited to get things under way. Here's an ITP link for ya: Ze Frank.

JFK is a zoo. Every flight is grounded from thunder storms and the natives are getting wrestles. While sitting in the holding pen, I realized that the JetBlue Arrival/Departure display is organized by time. The flights leaving soonest are at the top. I remember this confused me the first time I encountered this while traveling in Italy. I think organizing flights like this its mainly a European thing, (hell, everyone outside the US may be on a time based flight display system) and, quite frankly it makes sense. The US system lists flights alphabeticly by city. Listing flights in the order of when they depart shows a relationship of your flight to other flights. It gives you greater sense of your flight in relation to other flights. After all in the end it's never just you and your plane on the tarmac.

And, this is going to sound very nerd-o-rific, but I was mildly excited to use JetBlue's self check in. Their new self check in terminals were deigned by Antenna. The form of the kiosk (and I still dispute the 'kiosk' term for somting more accurate) is sleek, modern and simple. The UI was easy to get thru and overall the experience was a seamless one.

I'm taking a break from the design focus for the month of August and will be writing (obviously) less often and more about personal activities. This departure from writing about design and interactivity is primarily due to the long anticipated move to New York. Uprooting my life has been an emotional roller coster, full of testimonials from friends, goodbyes, and the purge of many personal possessions that didn't make the cut.

We've been in New York for about a week now, and, this new dwelling, neighborhood, and arrangement is gradually staring to feel like home. Moving was something else. The movers arrived twelve hours late, yes, twelve hours late. And, Tricia and I had a plane to catch at 7AM the next morning. They packed thru the night, we cleaned until 5AM, caught our 7 whatever flight, and made it to my cousin wedding on time.

To say the least, New York is an awesome city. And, by awesome, I mean awe inspiring and not the vernacular 'dude, that's awesome'. Example: a few nights ago I was walking home up 2nd Avenue and came across Pommes Frites. I recognized it from the Food Network. I thought, I can buy some fries and walk home instead of paying cab fare, and, I did. The fries were awesome. There's been many pleasant surprises.

For the next few week's Tricia and I will be traveling between NY, VT, and WI. I'll be posting when I have access and when I can. Mainly all is well and I'm excited about starting at ITP this fall.