In which Seanan spends the day working at Orbit, visits a circle of hell, and encounters bloggers.

[seanan_mcguire]

Monday dawned bright and (very, very) early, since DongWon had asked that I be at Orbit at nine a.m. to do some recording. Now, Orbit is located near Grand Central Station, which is very much Properly In Manhattan. I was staying in Jersey City, which is very much not Properly In Manhattan. It is, in fact, in a different state. As a California

Comments

[spectralbovine]

I admire your ability to describe in a concise fashion what it would take me tens of thousands of words to capture.

[seanan_mcguire]

Time constraints keep me brief.

[starletfallen]

It is, in fact, in a different state. As a California girl, this causes me a certain amount of existential confusion every time I need to go from one to the other very quickly, since I know, deep down in my soul, that it takes at least eight hours to go from one state to another. Such is the eternal divide between the East and West Coasts.

Having grown up on the West Coast, I had a similar problem when, while living on Long Island, one of my roommates gleefully announced we were going to go meet up with some friends in Pennsylvania. TWO WHOLE STATES AWAY. And we were making a day trip out of it. We didn't even have to leave before sunrise! It was deeply unnerving, let me tell you.

[kengr]

It helps if you've grown up or lived near the border. From Spokane, driving to Idaho was no big deal. Living in Portland, especially at my current location, I could *walk* across the border and back in a few hours.

[dr_zrfq]

And if one lives in San Diego, traveling the distance between Jersey City and East Midtown can put you in another *COUNTRY*.

[palmer_kun]

I'm in Vancouver BC

I can drive to another COUNTRY in half an hour.

And frequently do so just to pick up mail.

[kippurbird]

Seconding the whole confusion about going to different states thing on the East Coast. I remember one trip we took and hit like three different states all the way through in one day. They're so tiny! It doesn't feel like they're proper states. States are supposed to be HUGE MASSIVE THINGS that take forever to drive across.

[seanan_mcguire]

Yes!

[kippurbird]

We should down grade them from proper states to micro-states, like they did with Pluto.

[dr_zrfq]

And what would you do with places like Switzerland?

[alicetheowl]

It is, indeed, a very different point of view to grow up on the East Coast. I live in Schenectady, in New York state. It takes less time to drive to Boston than to NYC. For that matter, I could make a day trip of all of the New England states from where I live, and still get home before dark.

But then, I'm regularly boggled by the idea of needing a passport in Europe if one wishes to drive more than a few hours, so I guess it's all relative.

[seanan_mcguire]

Yeah, pretty much. We set our standards according to our environments.

[oreouk]

Most of that 'needing a passport to drive more than a few hours' thing in mainland Europe has diminished. In the EU they have taken away the border checkpoints (or rather, stopped manning them). It's probably still a good idea to *have* your passport with you, but it's not necessary (unless you are travelling into/out of the UK, where we still have the passport checks).

All of this makes driving to a German filkcon a lot easier than is used to be, since our route goes through France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany (IIRC - it does depend which way we go). Nowadays the most obvious way of telling you have moved from one country to another (if you blink and miss the border signs) is the quality of the road surface (particularly when moving out of France).

[alicetheowl]

I totally forgot about the whole EU thing making passports less important. Still, the notion of passing through several different countries in a day just boggles my little mind.

[kengr]

My sympathies on the circle of hell event.

In other news, while out and about yesterday, I bought the last shelf copy of Deadline at the Barnes & Noble in Lloyd Center here in Portland. If there were other copies, they were hiding.

I'm only halfway thru it at the moment. But I will note that the last line of chapter 9 confirms you as a member in good standing of the group known as Evil Authors.

[seanan_mcguire]

Woo!

[kengr]

Ok, now that I've finished Deadline (and the first chapter of Blackout, that you stuck into the back) I find you even *more* evil.

At least the first chapter of Blackout removes the "oh god, it was only a dream" thoughts that were going thru my head.

But those two chapters (last of Deadlines & first of Blackout) make what you did at the end of Chapter 9 even *more* Evil.

[seanan_mcguire]

Heh. Heh. Heh.