Glasgow: first impressions

In no particular order:

Goodbye, Rose's money. Everything -  cabs, meals, services, clothing/misc goods - seems to be about 30-40% on average more expensive here than in the States. Factor that in with the travel plans I am making and 2014 is already looking to be a bleak financial year for my savings account. But the unexpected kicker atop all of this? My corporate apartment is located about half a block from the Glaswegian equivalent of the Magnificent Mile. In the span of five minutes I can walk to Topshop, LUSH, the Body Shop, and a plethora of other stores that like to party hard with my credit card. I keep glancing at prices and thinking "Oh, that's quite reasonable" before realizing it's all in pounds, not USD. Also, my UK laptop is trying to convince me to spellcheck realizing with "realising".

I am surrounded by stunning architecture. It is a wide-angle-lens-owner's wet dream. 

Wet with rain, that is. So far it has rained about 50% of the time I've been outside. The threat of precipitation seems to loom above the other 50% of the time. There were a few glorious hours of sunshine and blue sky this morning which left me jonesing for more. Overall I'm pleased with the weather here and prefer it much over to the Chiberian tundra whence I came. 

Everything is smaller. Most noticeably, the portions, and second-most-noticeably, the people. (Though I suppose it would make little sense if that didn't hold true.) The cars, the homes, the street lanes all seem a fraction of what I'm used to in the States - especially since I lived in Texas for the better part of two years, where all of the above are bigger even by US standards. 

Also, Glasgow in general feels much, much smaller than Chicago - in the span of a day and a half I think I already have formed a somewhat good idea of the city and can orient myself fairly quickly using local landmarks. The boy and I also went on a run today to explore a bit; you can see that we covered quite a bit of the city ground with 5 miles.

People are extremely kind and I keep suspecting they want money from me when they really don't. Examples include the immigrations officer at the airport, waiters & waitresses at restaurants, and random Glaswegians I ask for directions from on the street. They are all incredibly helpful and polite. Even the people who do want money from me - cab drivers, beggars - are extremely cordial. I'm feelin' the love, Glasgow!

Glaswegians aren't workout fanatics...at least not in public. On my run today I saw a grand total of 3 other runners. In Chicago that number would easily have been 30. I also don't see people wearing sneakers, yoga pants, North Face, and other athletic/lounge wear which are pretty much ubiquitous in the Midwest. People here seem to dress for appearances rather than comfort, which I can certainly get behind. The boy, on the other hand...

That's it for now. I have a few more photos to share but unfortunately the internet in my unit isn't the best for uploading. I'm hoping to get my hands on a 3G dongle to fix that issue. More soon!

appity doodads

i did something stupid yesterday.

in an attempt to fix a bug that seemed to have planted itself in my EVO after a current software update, i accidentally wiped my whole phone. no mo' settings, personalizations, contacts, apps, saved texts, etc for this goober. nada.


(now this might not seem like a big deal for normal people, but for me it was a catastrophe. i use my EVO religiously. it is literally with me 24/7. i have panic attacks if my fingers can't find it on or within close proximity of my body. seeing my old friend in its lobotomized, empty state - ugly black wallpaper, annoying vibrations on touch, empty contacts list - was gutwrenchingly, soulcrushingly, heartbreakingly terribad.)

after i finished mourning my loss, i decided to pick up the pieces of my life and begin the slow reimport/recustomization process. along the way i found the silver lining of my traumatic deletion: in addition to erasing my phone's beloved features, i had also inadvertently wiped it of its unnecessary, taking-up-space, good-for-nothing apps. and boy were there some of those.

here are the apps that made the cut and those that i decided didn't deserve the disk space on my precious:

the losers:

pandora internet radio
shazam
bar code scanner
where's my droid?
adobe reader
spades

it's not that i didn't like these apps. it's that i never touched them. i downloaded them from the android market thinking they were pretty neat, and then they just sat on my phone, wasting space and collecting e-dust. spades, however, was the exception; i played this game a ton, despite the fact that my AI partner, "don", had rocks for brains and once famously bid nil with seven spades. seven. i mean, who does that?

but i digress. i found something better (see below) and in light of my self-imposed one-game-at-a-time-on-my-phone rule, i regretfully did not re-download spades. goodbye, don and your seven spades.

the winners:

transit tracker
i would literally be lost without this app. like its name implies, transit tracker tells you how long it takes for bus or train to arrive at any CTA station or stop. immensely quick, reliable, and easy to use. i love that you can save routes too - it makes commuting in Chicago so much more pleasant. whoever designed it obviously was used to living in a city!

androminion
dominion, with all the expansions, in whatever combinations you'd like. on your phone. free. eurgakdghadg goodbye productivity, nice knowing ya. if you've never played dominion before, this app would probably be a bit confusing, but my god, if you have, it's a darn great way to play the game against AI characters. i'm torn between telling you to DOWNLOAD THIS APP IMMEDIATELY and STAY AWAY FROM THIS APP IF YOU VALUE YOUR FREE TIME. lately i've been limiting myself to playing it only when i'm on a bike at the gym. and i've actually been looking forward to going to the gym. that should indicate what a miracle-worker this app has been for me.


push ups
this little doodad is wonderful. i've been using it for the better part of six or so months and have been slowly but surely increasing the number of pushups i do at the gym. the pacing is good and the app is quick and simple. i love simple. i also love that you can listen to music without any interference.

colornote
handy for grocery lists, to-dos, and keeping passwords or login information that you need on-the-go. the lock feature is pretty darn nifty, and the different colors are definitely useful for OCD sticky-iers like me. i hear evernote is also good, but am beyond content with colornote.

other apps that i redownloaded which require no explanation:

yelp
imdb
youtube
google maps

so there you go, these are some of my favorite things. oh, and did i mention they are all free? i love android.