jim in the BIG apple
dispatches from a transplanted Okie in New York · 2004–2009
Well I guess it is about time I get the ball rolling on this deal. I still haven’t decided exactly what direction I want to take with this site, but here is what I do know. On a simple level, I want to keep family and friends updated on whats going on with me and what I do. I will also use this…
Over the next little while I will write a few entries about the start of my journey here in New York. Aside from the stint on the 10th floor of the YMCA and living out of boxes for the past month and change things have actually gone quite smoothly.
I want to try and catch you up so I can start writing about here and now. I left Oklahoma on Friday July 30th with basically no where to go when I got here. I had made reservations at the YMCA for 35 bucks a night, and I had two suitcases… so for all general purposes I was set. A place to stay and…
So barb gave me a gift certificate to amazon for the 30 bucks. She and brandi helped me compile a few interesting things that amazon has for sale. I need some help deciding which one to get - or if you find something else more interesting on amazon for UNDER 30 bucks post a link in the comments.…
Every monday night is my bowling league night, I rock the 6 train into the bronx to “new” fiesta bowl… I put quotes around it because although it is party of the bowling alley’s name there is nothing, absolutely nothing new about it. We keep score by hand, seriously this place isn’t new. The people…
Man, I keep thinking that today is friday. For those of you like me, let me tell you - it’s not. I just looked at outlook and it told me that today is tuesday. What a let down. on a good note though, it is tuesday. ANNNDDDDD… that means it is my bowling league night.
To the untrained eye, nothing was out of the ordinary. Just me going to work on the subway listening to music - no big deal. Just a dude and his morning jams. But to those who know, I was maxed out on the geek scale. I realized as I stood on the platform waiting for the subway that it would be…
me: this doesn’t sound like prince jason: prince never sounds like prince me: thats why prince is prince jason: dude, write that down
Friday night I went to time square to hit up BB Kings for the Air Supply show. The tickets were 30 bucks and seating was on a first come basis. So naturally the people we went with decided to wait until the last minute to go to the show. We ended up sitting right behind a huge pole and had an…
Today I went to lunch with a representative from weather bug to a place called gramercy tavern . The food was amazing. I had smoked bacon chowder and braised rabbit with roasted shallots with chocolate carmel tart and carmel ice cream for dessert. What a great lunch. On top of that our weatherbug…
Last night Jason (sleeping on my couch, jason) and I were fortunate enough to be able to go see Elton John at Madison Square Garden . I received tickets through work and our seats were AWESOME. We were on the floor, one section back from the stage. Elton opened up the show with some songs from his…
It is adweek here in NY and that only means one thing. Lots of coffee in the morning. With all the late parties and award shows the whole week flys by… so cross your fingers I win that plasma tv or that ipod nano or that trip to mexico.
Tony circulated this image from his recent photo shoot with mcdonalds the other day. Pretty funny, that sandwhich is making me hungry. I guess the ad worked.
So, it was 12:48am eastern time. Jason and I sat at a coffee shop/bar type thing that has couches, beer, and free wifi during the day. I say during the day to setup my story. Jason and I decided to get out of my apartment and come to this coffee shop to click around and maybe grab a drink (me a…
You know what they say ... “when you make it to the birthday blog, you really have made it” happy birthday blog
Check out eric myer’s sterotypes page ... pretty entertaining - see what type of face you can come up.
Sunday morning Amy and I took off to central Vermont for a mini-escape from city life. Our trip started out with the Jeep (our vehicle for the trip) needing a jumpstart. But, as far as I can remember, that was the biggest hurdle of the trip. We drove across the back roads of Connecticut,…
To continue our outdoorsey (is that word?) adventures a few us went to the Bronx Botanical Gardens . The place was basically a huge park that you had to pay to enter, that being said it was perfectly quiet. The park was so big that you rarely run into anyone else - leaving you with the feeling that…
Last night amy, jason and I trooped over to madison square garden to see the World Sumo Challenge - Battle of the Giants! But when we got there they didn’t have anymore of the cheap tickets left ($15) - we decided that $25 was too expensive and went to a movie instead. We ended up seeing kiss kiss,…
A few nights ago my buddy robert and I were sitting at a nearby starbucks… we had our laptops up and we were just clicking around working on a few things. Nothing out of the ordinary, except for the old lady who would turn around and stare at us for minutes at a time. Normally wouldn’t be a…
UPDATE: MTA STRIKE OVER ! As everybody knows the MTA called in sick today… sick of their pay. Creating an annoying and inconvient situation for all those who live/work or do business with anyone in manhattan. They sure picked a cold ass day to be striking, I know if I was out there on the picket…
Things are a bit broken for the time being, but I wanted to move forward with the new design. More to come.
Chris Lamarca has posted an amazing photo essay of a pool hall catering to the underground pool shark community. This is definitely worth checking out. It appears that the Golden Q is going the way of fiesta bowl . I hope you all enjoy this photo essay as much as I did.
Last friday a few of the guys and myself loaded up into mike b’s wife’s car. We arrived in AC around 10pm and fueled up at Applebees - then charged to the casino with a dollar and a big dream. The evening was fairly uneventful with the exception of a few highlights - which I have outlined below: -…
That is the what my ipod scrolls as I queue up billy joel for the morning commute, the difference tonight is… I am going to see him live. Yea, FLOOR SEATS ... madison square garden. I am so pumped up for the show. Hopefully tomorrow inspiration will strike and I will provide a little write up of…
On Thursday night (2/2) Amy and I stepped onto the floor at Madison Square Garden for one great night of music from billy joel. He played from roughly 8:30 to 10:30 nonstop. The show started amazingly abruptly with the crowd still filing in, billy jumped right in with a rocker from his Turnstiles…
Tomorrow morning I am off to enjoy some smog free air for the weekend. Thanks to Jeremy , Amy and I are able to have a nice rocky mountain getaway in Buena Vista. Jeremy was kind enough to lend us the family cabin for the next few days. Our plans include, but of course not limited to, cruising…
photos here
Denver, Colorado springs, Nathrop, and everywhere small town in-between. Thursday, Feb. 9th, Amy and I flew to Colorado for a getaway weekend. We arrived Thursday morning in CO., rented a truck and took off in search of the wild west. The trip started off with a bit of a worry as I quickly declined…
punch one: Wednesday night I went to watch the knicks play the raptors (not an overly exciting game at first glance), but we were taken by a representative from AOL. Which meant we ate at the knicks clubhouse (a full course affair), the best part about our clubhouse experience happened as we walked…
When I first was moving to NY my sister and bro-in-law gave me an airport express (which is great… playing music from my laptop across the room is money) either for a graduation or xmas gift… whatever not the point. WIth the acquisition of the express I was left with not one but two wireless…
I am sitting here 3 rows back from jason kottke and heather ” dooce “ armstrong. They are one of the keynotes of the SXSW conference, and so far my favorite. The topics are pretty general and are steering toward the level of personalness (word?) and their respective models of monetizing their…
Swimming in data. I am nearing the breaking point with all of this stuff. What stuff? The stuff you can’t see, the stuff inside the computer, way too many 1s and 0s for me to keep track. That is my dilemma, I just can’t keep track. Whew, sorry for that - had to get it all out. Let me calm down for…
On a night where my friends were out enjoying the fruits of our labor (Espn upfront party, a skybox at the knicks vs cavs game, drinks out with microsoft) I was at home teaching Amy a thing or two about a little game called, Monopoly. One of the greatest board games I have ever played, if I might…
Put away the putter, golf is dead. As of this VW press release the golf moniker will only be used outside of the US and those fancy hatchbacks will now once again be rabbits in the US. "The Rabbit was always exclusive to the U.S. and Canadian markets; while the rest of the world had the Golf, we…
I woke early this morning and witnessed something that I normally take for granted. At 6:30 this am, I sat in the front window of a bagel shop and watched a giant stand up and start walking. I had a black cup of coffee, a blueberry muffin, and a copy of the Times so fresh it was dripping ink. When…
While walking back from the park I noticed these flowers in the median of 92nd and Park. The rest of the flower pics can be seen at my flickr photo page. Happy Easter everyone!
As a joke today, Amy and I bought a friend from work’s name on google. Using adwords and a little bit of creativity, everytime you googled “craig schinn” - you got a personel ad. If you can’t see above, the ad read: Looking for a real man? Are turtle necks all you wear? Then contact me, the…
The sweet sounds of the NY Philharmonic filled our ears last night as we sat in our box seats listening to Mstislav Rostropovich move the orchestra like waves of sound softly washing up on a sandy beach, then, without notice, crashing against hard rock. Mstislav was conducting Shostakovich’s 10th…
In a bit of boredom while I was working on a project, I started watching the O’Grady show this weekend - with, I should add, not high expectations. I have now seen two episodes and plan to watch another as I fall asleep. I am not really sure how to describe it ... very off the wall and quirky is a…
Now you can smell manhattan while looking at a cup of coffee on the street. A very cool idea, and the execution looks amazing. I like it.
Snapped the photo with my treo 650 as I was loading up my mags with bullets. On Friday we took one of our clients to the gun range to fire a few rounds off before we went to lunch. I had never done this before, and I must admit I was a bit nervous that my marksmanship skills would be second-rate.…
one of yahoo’s new schemes.
Our six flags trip has now officially been rained out.
I can’t wait for this place to open… 24 hours a day?!?!!!!?? Might have to stop buy and pick up one of those new macbooks .
It looks like it is starting to heat up !
Let’s do a quick recap and see what we’ve got. Las Vegas: Just over a week ago I went on a company outing to Caesar’s Palace. For some reason I didn’t REALLY think about the how far Las Vegas is from NYC, but after about 4 hours on the plane I realized just how far it was… and still had an hour to…
I think this is the coolest thing since the microwave oven… download, print and make a pin hole camera! It is actually a bit more complicated than that, but it can be done. Check out lighthouse in a tree for more information.
I am afraid I don’t have much of an update. We got in late last night to the hotel (3am), and slept in until about 10am this morning. We proceeded to sit by the pool until 1ish - reading and listening to music. Then came one of the many big events of the trip. A tennis tournament! I promptly lost…
I’m back from paradise. Back where the ocean is now of concrete and the jumping fish are angry subway riders. The trip was amazing… I spend afternoons laying on the beach sipping cold drinks, mornings at the pool, and evenings watching the sunset. I ate my weight in fresh seafood and drank almost…
Lately James Taylor has been getting a bit of rotation on my playlist. After listening to his “best of” album a few times I would definitely like to point out a song that is almost guaranteed to make you feel better. If you are stressed out or having a bad day just toss on Carolina In My Mind by…
Yesterday when I woke up I was reading a few news sites as I typically do on a weekend morning. Yesterday though was a bit different as I typed over to Gothamist and was immediately directed over to this article . It didn’t take long before I knew what had to be done… I needed to buy beer and…
I uploaded a few more of my shots from the keys tonight ... I only had my camera out for one night and all I took were a couple shots of the sun setting… but nonetheless you can find them on my flickr account .
Tomorrow Amy and I are heading out to vegas to meet Barb and my Dad. It appears that the heat is in full effect… although not as bad as I was guessing.
After nights at the blackjack table, drinks at the pool, a helicopter ride to the grand canyon, and a Cirque Du Soleil show - I am back from vegas (well a few days ago). The trip was a ton of fun with the Grand Canyon / helicopter ride being the highlight (we went for my dads bday). Being in the…
Cool composite photo of the lunar eclipse. Here .
Pretty sad when I see a pot rack and think - wow, thats great! Either I am sadly losing at life or Amy is rubbing off on me (shes not losing, thats just how girls are.) update: Looks like I am not the only one.
The creative kids over at readsquare.com have gone on a thrift store road trip. They are heading north from oklahoma looping around lake Erie into canada and back down. The idea simple: wear clothes that they bought at thrift stores along the way. You can catch all the stories and a ton of photos…
Maybe some of you have heard that I started up a little business called “I hate my wireless company.com” And if you haven’t heard before, you just did. It’s a way for customers (current or former) to share what they don’t like about the companies with everyone looking for advice. Jim’s cashing in…
I have uploaded some of the photos that were taken by mike and dave to my flickr account - View them HERE . In the photos you will see a few things: A huge orange tent Small yellow tent (orlandos) 2 Homeland Security urban titanium camo knives (for hunting bears) 4 smaller pocket knives (for…
Here is the dam overflowing after a huge storm and flood at lake overholser near my parents house.
Like many doors here in Manhattan, Amy and I’s new apartment door locks when you pull it shut behind you. This is a nice feature, but one that I am not use to as my old apartment needed to be locked upon exit. The other day while doing laundry (amy in her PJs and me barefoot in my knicks shorts and…
Since he was adopted by staff members as a kitten, Oscar the Cat has had an uncanny ability to predict when residents are about to die. Thus far, he has presided over the deaths of more than 25 residents on the third floor of Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode…
Mike and I are back from Oklahoma - after a long weekend of working and talking with advertising/marketing students. The conference was great with a decent attendance by the marketing students. We had a number of students who were really engaged with learning what the world of digital marketing is…
Today I noticed that the canadian dollar snuck into a 1 to 1 ratio with the US dollar. Times are changing.
A nice personal interest spin on the conference I spoke at last week. Her name is Liz Maute, and she’s a 21-year-old senior at the University of Oklahoma’s Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication, where I’m teaching this fall. She says she’s an advertising major, but that’s just a…
Amy, Brian and I went to see a show last night over at Webster hall. If you haven’t been, Webster hall is a great venue for a show. Big enough, dark enough, has balcony, 3 or 4 bar stations and most importantly pretty decent sound for a beat up old building. The opening act was a band called…
I wanted to thank everyone for all the gifts and cards. This is the first year that the majority of cards and birthday wishes I received were digital. I had an inbox full of ecards this year, as compared to very few in years passed. Ecards seem to be the way - you can do it instantly… its typically…
You are playing plinkoooo!!!! I have to pee! classic.
A little hard to get the right lighting and focus on the self portrait but I went with it anyway. I needed a little break from work so I took the what’s for breakfast photo inspired by Jon Huck and his breakfast series . See a larger version on flickr . Does anyone else want to take a shot?
I am heading down to SXSW in austin tomorrow for the interactive portion of the show. I somewhere marked down that I was going and that information ended up in the hands of Paul Walhus ( see previous comment ). He wanted to chat about my company Media Refined Inc and my overall view on the tech…
I picked up these beautys while on assignment by barb at a flea market in hells kitchen this weekend. I was there to chat and take some photos of the junkmarket Style Maven Sue Whitney . While walking around I saw these shoes out of the corner of my eye. On my approach to the shoes all I could…
I hit the links yesterday morning at the Van Courtland golf course out in the bronx, otherwise known as “America’s oldest public course.” No idea if that is true or not but it was definitely believable after being on the course. Things were a little beat up but I think they were just perparing for…
Push Play and you should see a live broadcast out of my window down onto Madison Ave. If not then the service timed out. Watch live video from jiminthebigapple.com on Justin.tv sorry again about the keyboard reflection.
Been having major computer problems today. An apple update wouldn’t install correctly, safari, mail.app and finder all seemed to either be acting funny or stop working altogether. The main issue was Safari as it renders messages for mail.app - I couldn’t even launch safari or mail. The first thing…
I am just about to take off on my trip to Scotland to discover my inner golfer. I am not 100% sure what I am walking into, except that it should be a trip to remember. I will post pics and a story or two when I return but until then you can look at the links below to which courses I will be…
Sorry about leaving everyone hanging about my scottish stories! The trip was amazing. We flew into Edinburgh on the overnight flight and got in early Sunday morning. We rented a massive 9 person mercedes van (for 4 of us) to fit all of our luggage and four sets of golf clubs. We then drove to St.…
Just playing with an old camera I found in the closet.
Amy and I started the long process of finding, bidding on and buying an APT in the NYC area. As scary as the thought was, we made our first steps this morning. We met with a friend who works at corcoran.com and starting looking at a few places in brooklyn. We saw 2 places both were nice and we were…
Maybe the title should be Tshirts about the internet? Either way, every month I get a shipment of dot.com paraphernalia from startupschwag.com. I just received my 3rd shipment and so far I can only report positive things. I liked all the companys they have sent for the shirts and any cool stickers…
Follow Mike & I on our cross country road trip from OKC to NYC. Watch our twits below for mile updates, cities we are in and especially urls to photos taken. follow Jim on twitter follow Mike on twitter Click the down arrow in the twitter boxes above to see previous twits.
I have uploaded the Road Trip 2008 photos onto my flickr . I still need to sort through the actual bachelor party sets and upload a combined album. I also want to aggregate all the twitter posts onto a page as a road trip log.
More photos and videos here
I know this is old - its just too funny.
Testing 12seconds.tv First Post on 12seconds.tv I have a few invites for this service. If you are interested in testing the service leave a comment and I will drop you an invite.
As you probably know, mainly b/c I am telling everyone I see on the street, I took a photo of american idol vote off - jason castro shopping for an engagement ring with his girlfriend. Below is a quick scan from the August 6th editoin of Star Magazine. For the full resolution version see my flickr
Not quite, but I did get apple to put a motherboard into my MBP. It was having some real problems with booting up and the screen flickering and after 3 visits to the “genius” bar they finally recognized that there was a problem. It was definitely hard to go without the computer for a week but it is…
Hey it’s better than seeing McCain in a bikini! UPDATE: Apparently its fake - source: Sarah Palin photo not real
His was a particular kind of street theater in a city that delights in in-your-face characters who are, and are not, what they seem. For he was the sidewalk pitchman with the Upper East Side apartment. The sidewalk pitchman who was a regular at expensive East Side restaurants, where no one believed…