Back in Portland.

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After being away for a couple of weeks it feels really good to be back. I have to say that my first experience in Manhattan was very pleasant. New York is certainly no place for a hundredaire like myself although Bob disagrees with this statement pointing out the variety of events going on with free food and entertainment all the time, as a visitor it’s a little more difficult to be in the know.
I realized that a number of my hundred dollar ideas might actually be bigger in a city of that size. Advertispets for example might actually flourish in a place like Manhattan.
One of the greatest highlights of my trip was checking out the people playing chess at Union Square. I was watching for a little bit then someone asked me if I wanted to play a game. I haven’t played for a while so when the guy mentioned $2 to play I was a little skeptical and was ready to be taken for some sort of hustle.
“Two bucks to just play you chess?” I asked.
“Two bucks to play or we can play for two dollars.” He said.
“I’d rather play for two dollars.”
I think there might have been a communication error but to me it really sounded like he was trying to charge me just to play regardless of if I actually won or not.
He took me down pretty easily in that game and I lost two dollars. I guess I was just getting warmed up. When he asked to play another game, I had to review my financial situation. I had about $4 buck on me and I needed $2 for the subway. I justified another game by the rational that it might be a while before I return to NY to play chess in the park. Game two went better for me and I beat the guy, I don’t think this made him too happy. Also since he had given me some chess advice after the first game. I had won my money back.
He insisted on playing a third game, despite being very tired and ready for bed I decided to play. My whole opening was crap and my game play was as weak and tired as I had been. My defenses had been down and I saw several traps he had set up. Then I changed my mind set to win and I actually took him down in the third game. For me this was a wonderful experience. He was a little more jammed up after this game. Unfortunately he didn’t have $2 on him so he had to ask his buddy to borrow some money, although, his buddy had no money either. I told him not to worry about it. As I was leaving he shook my hand and slipped me a dollar coin, and told me to return tomorrow for the other dollar he owed me. I never saw that other dollar.
When playing chess, I find that if I look at the opponent’s king and focus on taking him down the game play before that just takes care of itself. This is my general tactic if I want to win. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in laying traps or setting up some awesome defenses. I think I should try to play some more chess it’s really a fun game. I guess Backspace has tournaments from time to time.

In NY they sell those I heart NY shirts in touristy areas, they are very tacky and you can get about 7 shirts for $10. I feel bad about not getting Annie a stack of shirts but, on my last day in NY I was running way behind and had a lot to do to escape.
One day while walking to get some food, I saw a girl who had put on one of those shirts after obviously just buying it. Behind her was two different stores almost side by side, selling those shirts. What a sight. For Annie’s sake I’m sort of glad I didn’t get her one of those shirts.

I had a number of wonderful experiences and saw some amazing things. The Wired NextFest was really cool. I’ll write some more about that stuff soon.

It was weird taking a little time away from the MoHDI site. I say site because the ideas have been filling up my head and my notebooks. When I find some time you will hear all about a number of my ideas sparked from this trip.
I do thank Peter Mucha from Steal my Ideas, Please for his wonderful posts, I asked a number of people to help me with MoHDI while I was gone, he was the only one who actually got around to it. It sort of fits with the MoHDI business model I suppose. In exchange for his help I’m giving him “1 Awesome Song” and some other MoHDI swag as soon as I get it together, I look forward to seeing what it is he actually decides to have a song about. When google starts buying ideas from people, Mr. Mucha is going to be a Billionaire.

There is a lot to look forward to in the upcoming months. The Idea Bomb event has been moved back due to this trip and we hope to have a new date set soon, the location will still be at Ron Toms (East Burnside and 6th) he just opened last night and it’s an awesome new Portland bar, you should check it out if you have a chance.

I have to get packed cause I’m moving soon and have a ton of things to take care of.

As fantastic as NYC is it really made me appreciate Portland that much more. I really do love this city and have a number of hundred dollar ideas to improve the city. This is new MoHDI project I call, “Feeling City” you will be hearing more about that and other things very soon.

Thanks for reading.