It took two months and six days to arrive, but it is here. My 2.5 GHz G5 is here. It is blazing fast and is quite sexy. Thank God because I'll need to use it for the next fifty years before I feel like I've paid it off.

What I'm enjoying even more than the computer is the 20" Aluminum LCD display I got with it. I'm not used to all this screen real estate. It's wonderful, but it's also tough to adjust to having the entire screen fill up your field of vision. I was doing some work on it yesterday and I was able to have three BBEdit documents up side-by-side-by-side and it was awesome.

If you'd like to come visit it, I'm arranging viewing times for visitors. Seriously. Okay, not seriously, but you can definitely come drool a little if you'd like.

Sunday night I had one of my favorite meals in New York City. What's better is that both locations are next door to one another.

The first half of the meal began at John's Pizzera on Bleecker Street. Unlike it's midtown brother, the original location uses a coal-burning oven, which provides a different flavor. I much prefer the downtown location because of this. In fact, it's my favorite pizzeria in the city.

While there, we got two small pizzas. One had onions and sausage while the other had onions, peppers, mushrooms and olives (the last two only on half). The pizza was fantastic. Their toppings aren't as good as Grimaldi's, but the rest of the pizza easily makes up for it.

Afterwards we walked next door to Cones, the best ice cream in the city. It's not your traditional ice cream it's not hard-frozen. As a result, the ice cream is very soft and the flavors stand out a lot more. If you're into sorbet, this method works quite well.

While there I had one of my favorite combinations: dolce de leche and banana (truthfully I like anything and banana). I definitely recommend getting two flavors, even if that means sharing with your dining partner(s). The juxtaposition makes everything exponentially better.

While this is my favorite, I'm sure tons of other people prefer the Grimaldi's and Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory combo. This is definitely a safe bet and I highly recommend these places as well.

What's up with bagels? Seriously, no one in this city can seem to spread on the right amount of cream cheese.

When I go to a high quality bagel place they tend to give me an unbelievable amount of cream cheese. I end up wiping off 3/4 of it. When I buy one on the street, it is not spread on. Instead it comes in a square that doesn't quite cover everything. Today I went to Dunkin Donuts and there was barely any cream cheese at all. Why can't someone get this right?

At least Einstein's Bagels hasn't arrived in NYC yet. Their so-called bagels taint the whole industry. Instead of an actual bagel, it's more like a round roll with a whole in the middle. And what self-respecting bagel-lover would get a cranberry bagel with jalapeño salsa cream cheese?!? I mean, come on! Keep away from New York, Einstein's.

To end on a positive note, I highly recommend Bagel World on Court Street in Brooklyn. They make a good bagel and have a few locations throughout Brooklyn.

In a little over a month, Jori* and I are going to Southern France and Italy for about two weeks. We leave town on Monday, September 27th and return on Sunday, October 10th. We have a loose plan, but I thought I'd throw this out to my readers for suggestions.

We arrive in Nice, France around 5pm on the 28th. Following that, we have 11 full days to plan out. We fly out of Rome around 1pm on the 10th. During this time we'd like to go the following cities, and their surrounding areas (with approx. time in each city):

Nice (2.5 days)
Cinque Terre (2 days)
Siena (2.5 days, including day trip to Florence)
Rome (2 days)
Amalfi Coast (2 days)

I'm pretty sure we can get this all done, but that's where you come in. I'll take any help you can provide -- sights we shouldn't miss, restaurants, hotels, travel deals, anything. Also, let me know if you think this is the right breakdown of days spent in each area. We're flexible. The only thing you have to keep in mind is that Jori has been to both Rome and Florence once before.

Currently, we've been using the Rick Steves' Travel Guides, which have been fabulous. So if you're planning a trip to Europe yourself, definitely give these a look.

*girlfriend

According to The Register, Apple filed for a design trademark in May for a tablet-like device. You can see the drawings to the right.

I'm sure everyone would be skeptical if Apple came out with a plain old tablet computer. I know I would be. So, that's why I have a feeling that they're up to something else.

Imagine if they came out with a tablet-like device that was only 5 or 7 inches in size. You could access Safari, iTunes, iPhoto, iCal and a couple other apps. The device would most definitely have WiFi and Bluetooth and would be compatible with Airport Express and AirTunes. For professional users, it could double as a graphics tablet and for home theater types it could be a universal remote. And there would be an optional keyboard for the times when you were sick of using a stylus.

What would be the kicker, in my eyes, would be if it had a small hard drive so that I could use this as an iPod. Then I could travel with it. It would be my PDA, mp3 player and computer on the road.

A device like this is something I could really use, but the biggest issue is the price point. If they released something like this for $1,000, I would never be able to afford it, but if they could do this for $600-700, I would really consider it. At that point it would be the same amount as some high end cell phones. I doubt it's feasible, but that would be the only way I could use something like this.

In today's Circuits section of the NY Times, there is an article about race and video games that tells us virtually nothing new. Just like television and movies, video games are introducing people of color in racially insensitive ways.

For instance, the new version of Grand Theft Auto is set in the early 90s, when gang wars were prevalent. Obviously, many of the gang members are not white. The other example is Def Jam Fight for NY, which depicts black and hispanic men fighting -- a lot.

Similar to past articles of this nature, the author questions whether games that promote racial stereotypes should be encouraged or even allowed. He quotes a parent-like figure, who says, "They are nothing more than pixilated minstrel shows." I think that's taking it a bit far, but you get the meaning.

Yes, these games promote stereotypes, but show me a single game that doesn't. This man is concerned about a 7 year-old kid, whom he helps to raise, and his exposure to these games. His, and many others, chief complaint is that despite the game-makers claim that this is meant to be a fantasy world, the kids can't make that distinction. I agree, but I think it the onus is on the parents to keep their kids away from these games. I am able to play GTA and understand that not every fat hispanic man in the ghetto sells guns and hand gernades.

The critics want to see a game that promotes positive depections of non-white people. Unfortunately, these games would likely be boring to their intended audience (people seventeen and up). Comedy and entertainment is based around stereotypes for a reason -- seeing something you can relate to is engaging. These games, shows, and movies are not going away, which is why it has to be up to the parents to teach their children and provide a positive role model. Kids will only relate to these negative stereotypes if they are surrounded by them.

I don't claim to be an expert on this issue, but parents should not expect media to conform to their expectations. We live in a free-market economy and the most popular item will sell, with few limitations based on morality. If you don't want your kids to play Def Jam Vendetta, that's fine by me, but don't tell me it can't exist.

I'm currently searching for a new flatmate and I've found the responses from Craigslist entertaining. It's fun to read through an email and try to figure out what the person on the other end is all about. Most of the time they don't end up being much like what they their email indicates, but that doesn't take away the amusement. After I make my decision I might post some of the responses and let you guys try and guess what the people were actually like (names and specifics excluded, obviously).

Oh, this wasn't a backhanded attempt to have you find a friend to move into my soon to be vacant room, but if you happen to know someone who needs a place September 1st, I'm your guy.

I spent the last three days at the Sheraton Hotel in Newark. I left the building once the entire time. I never really had a solid meal, instead opting to intake my food continually over the 72 hour period (pausing for several hours a day so I could sleep). As you may have guessed, I was at a conference.

My company has a staff conference once a year, and it is always held near the airport for maximum blandness. What made it worse was that I work for a non-profit and the conference is primarly geared towards the solicitors; the national staff just shows up to make nice with our various regional offices. Thus, I spent a minimum of 16 waking hours working on improving my fund-raising skills, which have little to no effect on my job. Not so much fun.

Like all of these events, the fun part is hanging out with people you don't see often or hadn't met before. Thankfully, the non-profit world tends to attract interesting people. So, this is what kept me entertained.

Next time I go to a conference I'm hoping it'll be something geared towards my discipline, otherwise I'll need to paint fake eyes on my eyelids. Oh, I'll do it.