The Rationalist Manifesto » Sydney http://www.rationalistic.com Memes and other creatures Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:46:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Already? http://www.rationalistic.com/2007/08/30/travel/already/ http://www.rationalistic.com/2007/08/30/travel/already/#comments Thu, 30 Aug 2007 05:50:59 +0000 Tal Rotbart http://www.rationalistic.com/2007/08/30/travel/already/ I’m not even within a week’s radius of landing in Israel and already I’m pissed at Israelis again.

Why? Because while sitting at the airport waiting for my flight I hear that every time they page for late passengers there are always Israeli names included, always. Do you realize how small the percentage of passengers are Israeli? Yet they are the star of the show when it comes to rampant disregard to anyone aside of themselves.

Passengers Vardi, Shavit, Egoz, Ronen and co., please get your lazy asses out of the duty free store and onto the bloody plane on time!

]]> http://www.rationalistic.com/2007/08/30/travel/already/feed/ 0 Waiting for my flight… http://www.rationalistic.com/2007/08/30/travel/waiting-for-my-flight/ http://www.rationalistic.com/2007/08/30/travel/waiting-for-my-flight/#comments Thu, 30 Aug 2007 04:40:41 +0000 Tal Rotbart http://www.rationalistic.com/2007/08/30/travel/waiting-for-my-flight/ Sitting here in Sydney’s airport, waiting for my flight to board in about an hour and a half.  These days with Gabe were great, and I should definitely arrange to visit more.

Bangkok, here I come!

To be continued…

]]> http://www.rationalistic.com/2007/08/30/travel/waiting-for-my-flight/feed/ 0 A chip and a chair http://www.rationalistic.com/2007/08/29/personal/a-chip-and-a-chair/ http://www.rationalistic.com/2007/08/29/personal/a-chip-and-a-chair/#comments Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:18:00 +0000 Tal Rotbart http://www.rationalistic.com/2007/08/29/uncategorized/a-chip-and-a-chair/ Just came back from a lovely night with Meg and Gabe, which started with an amazing meal at a restaurant called the Red Lantern and ended with me tying a game at the PokerDome, winning $85 having re-built my stack from 125 in chips to most of the chips on the table.

Truth be told I’ve had an amazing run of luck, but it was enjoyable. I was chip leader but agreed to split the total prize with the other person left on the table as it was getting late and I just wanted the game to end.

The funniest part is that with 125 chips when the blinds were at 600/300 I was ready to call it quits, but got convinced to stay by Gabe and two others which later in the game I took out (Gabe was out at that point). As Gabe said to me- as long as you’ve got a chip and a chair… :-)

]]> http://www.rationalistic.com/2007/08/29/personal/a-chip-and-a-chair/feed/ 1 Melbourne again http://www.rationalistic.com/2007/02/28/travel/melbourne-again/ http://www.rationalistic.com/2007/02/28/travel/melbourne-again/#comments Wed, 28 Feb 2007 00:31:52 +0000 Tal Rotbart http://www.rationalistic.com/2007/02/28/travel/melbourne-again/ Melbourne is a beautiful city, well laid out and relaxed.

To me, Sydney was much like Los Angeles — seedy and unkempt, with some exceptions such as the Circular Quay, The Rocks area, Annandale, Sydney University and King St. in Newtown. One could enjoy touring the urban decay, but I would not like to live in it. Much in the same way as I can enjoy Bangkok as a tourist but would never consider living there.

Melbourne on the other hand reminds me of Chicago in its architecture but San Francisco’s downtown in its feeling. Even the less appealing suburbs such as North Fitzroy are nicer than your average suburb of Sydney. There’s room on the sidewalk to enjoy the city while walking, not just walk from origin to destination as in Sydney. People here are less about ‘getting there’ and more about enjoying the journey. There are trees everywhere and the air is clearer and less polluted. Less cars on the city roads and almost no busses as the trams serve the same function without the noxious exhaust.

My kind of city.

]]> http://www.rationalistic.com/2007/02/28/travel/melbourne-again/feed/ 0 Observation: iPods in Sydney http://www.rationalistic.com/2007/01/12/sydney/observation-ipods-in-sydney/ http://www.rationalistic.com/2007/01/12/sydney/observation-ipods-in-sydney/#comments Fri, 12 Jan 2007 04:06:45 +0000 Tal Rotbart http://www.rationalistic.com/2007/01/12/sydney/observation-ipods-in-sydney/ Well, everyone has them. I can get that, it’s a good product, I had one myself.

But here — they are a status symbol, not just a good MP3 player.
I finally got it when I saw a guy, he had an iPod but he didn’t have the trademark white earphones, so he was walking around with the iPod in his hand, so people will see that it is an iPod. You could see it in the way he held it, awkward position but the iPod was very visible.

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