Hope Day 0

Today is the first day of Hope, but this post is about yesterday.

I arrived slightly late. By the time I completed the check-in process and headed across town for dim sum it was heading for 3:30. While it wasn't yet 3:30, and the Golden Unicorn serves dim sum until 4:00, I only managed to get three or four plates and was largely ignored by the wait staff. While those few plates were okay, they weren't that great.

By quarter to 4:00 they stopped serving entirely. An hour later I stumbled on the Golden Steamer, I ordered some steamed buns (black bean and roast pork) and some egg custard. After that, I wandered from uptown Staples to Staples trying to find a Rocketbook Everlast. It's a so-called "mart notebook" that I'm writing this post in. If the Rocketbook moniker sounds familiar, it's the same brand that produced a notebook that you erase by microwaving it. So, now, rather hilariously, they have microwave warnings on all of their other notebooks.

It's essentially a notebook full of white board pages with an accompanying smart phone app that will digitize to JPEG or PDF. After three different stores' salespeople gave me funny looks and claimed they had never heard of it I went to the conference check-in and got this years "badge".

This years "badge"

It looks like a hospital or carnival wrist strap. I'm going to have to buy a lanyard because there's no way I would be able to wear it without ending up with angry, red and irritated skin.

After check-in, and showing off a project that I'll be posting on Utopian soon, I wandered back to the hostel, worked on my project for a bit, hit a local drug store for some forgotten toiletries and then set out on a new quest for my notebook.

There was a Staples at Union Square open 24 hours that had it. I also picked up a cheaper, but not erasable, notebook that I plan to use eventually.

And now, time for breakfast. If I can convince myself it's worth it, I'll post about some actual conference stuff later.