What I learned on my summer vacation

- I got extremely accustomed to not posting to kottke.org. I almost didn’t start up again. Maybe I’ll quit again soon.

- No one seems to use the bathroom here at work. I’ve gotten in the habit of drinking lots of water so I’m in there a few times a day and I never see anyone else in there.

- Thought it was weird that all these PC owners were weighing in on whether the iTunes Music Store was going to work or not when most of them hadn’t even used it. I’m in danger of turning into an evangelist here, but it’s the user experience, stupid. There are other services that do what the Music Store does, but none are as easy. Apple has made buying music easy by closely incorporating it with other things that people do with their music. I play my music in iTunes, I organize my music in iTunes, I can share my music from iTunes, and now I buy my music in iTunes. (Some quick down sides: no discounts on multi-song or full album purchases, no pooling of payments (I don’t want 8 $0.99 payments on my CC)**, and the selection is relatively small and undiverse.)

- I work in midtown Manhattan and my walk takes me up 5th Avenue for a few blocks. I feel so out of place there. Everyone looks like they care so much about their appearance and I’m just wearing what they wear to fit in. I can almost feel it…deep down, they all know I shouldn’t really be there.

- I quite like not having a phone.

- Bryant Park is a wonderful urban park. Reminds me of the jardins of Paris.

- The new X-Men movie is quite good and fun, especially for a sequel.

- I checked out America’s most postmodern pirate supply store while I was in San Francisco. Mr. Eggers was not in at the time, but while I was making a small purchase, the cashier remarked to one of her coworkers, “Neal Pollack just walked by in a tuxedo.” Surrounded as I was by glass eyes and peg legs, this did not seem strange.

- Ladies, no more wearing shoes with 2-inch+ platforms. It looks silly. I saw a woman wearing them this morning; she looked like a Star Wars AT-ST transport tromping down the street. Good for attracting Wookies, I guess.

** I looked at the Music Store preferences and there is a way to pool purchases into a shopping cart for bulk buying. Also, purchases made on the same day are pooled by Apple into one charge on your credit card.