This time it's sticking!

It started snowing again and this time it is not melting when it hits the ground. Let's hope it sticks around till midnight.

"This may be the busiest day EVER in Midtown"

Crowds in Midtown during the holiday season are nothing new, but this year's crowds appear to be thicker and denser. It is a change that has not gone unnoticed by the people and machines that monitor such things.
Daniel A. Biederman, executive director of the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation, said that by Wednesday a number of Manhattan business people "were saying to each other independently that this may be the busiest day ever in Midtown."
Cristyne L. Nicholas, president of NYC & Company, the city's tourism bureau, agreed, saying that the economic benefits of such crowds may help ease the losses suffered during the 60-hour transit strike. She said Manhattan hotels were at more than 90 percent occupancy by midweek, higher than usual for the holiday week before the arrival of visitors for New Year's Eve.
"I don't recall seeing these kinds of crowds, ever," she said.

full story

Snowy start to the end of 2005

I woke up this morning and it is snowing like crazy. I just have to think of the tourists here in New York, spending New Years in the city. It must be especially nice for them to wake up to the nice big floating flakes that are silently falling right now. I remember when I came up to visit for New Year's 2000 it was cold (and I think some leftover snow on the ground) but no fresh falling snow. Unfortunately, it's supposed to turn to rain later today and for tonight. I hope not . I plan to go out to do something tonight but standing for hours in a freezing rain is not high on the list. Walking around in the snow however would not be bad at all!

If I don't see, talk or write to you by then...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

THE MEEK VOICE (www.MeekVoice.com)

I'm launching another web site, The Meek Voice, today.

Right now I will do a single topic per page. I will update pages based on viewer submissions and related stories I may come across. I will add more pages based on available time and interest of stories.

Each page stays "live" indefinitely so updates and comments will be continually added. New pages will be introduced once a week at the very least.

I will use MQAblog for personal stories and focus on news items on The Meek Voice. You can link to The Meek Voice from the column on the right hand side of this page. I have also purchased specific this domain name for the site.

Direct link to The Meek Voice is

http://www.MeekVoice.com/

Bookmark it if you so desire

Bush Administration also found to monitor US computers

Need more evidence that government surveillance in Red America is more prevalent that you may have imagined? Look at this little nugget I found in the news today. The did it. They hid it and now they have been caught. I can only imagine what else these people are up to.

The National Security Agency's Internet site has been placing files on visitors' computers that can track their Web surfing activity despite strict federal rules banning most of them. These files, known as "cookies," disappeared after a privacy activist complained and The Associated Press made inquiries this week, and agency officials acknowledged Wednesday they had made a mistake. Nonetheless, the issue raises questions about privacy at a spy agency already on the defensive amid reports of a secretive eavesdropping program in the United States.

This is the week

This is the week, in between Christmas and New Year's, where everything seems to slow down. Most people are on vacation and things seem to be on auto-pilot. It's nice. As for me I am working away and enjoying everyone else being relaxed and in a holiday induced good mood.

My Christmas was great. Very relaxing and low key. It was a relief to have the transit strike end and the weather in New York is quite mild. The Christmas lights, in our apartment and in town, still are on and to me they always look nicer after December 25th. Instead of signaling a impeding event, the light now just brightens up the area with memories of a happy holiday.

Since I am so busy this week I may or may not do a 2005 retrospective or a 2006 "look ahead". You'll just have to check back and see.

Quote of the day: Bruce Springsteen

... "We forget that every adult was brought up on fairy tales so it's natural to go on and, politically for example, want to believe that your President is a nice, honest man. The inability to turn to an adult perspective once you get to the age where you have some political weight is a great tragedy, and this is a period of history when it seems the most obvious type of disguise is on display to the entire world and yet those are the people who are still in power".