Life on the road, Cage. Life on the road.

Yesterday, I got introduced to the crew at my new job. My impression is that I will be working with a lot of intelligent, well educated, very motivated group. My boss took me out for "first lunch" which is always sushi. We went to a place called Nobel Fish which had very high quality at reasonable prices. I had a bunch of Michigan Rolls (salmon, avocado, and crab meat, wrapped in nori and sushi rice on the outside) and a really fresh fatty tuna. So much food, I actually ate sushi as a meal (which I usually don't do, because of the price). We walked out for right around $15 each, and I was full.

After work, I decided to deal with a problem that I encountered the first night that I got into the hotel. It turns out, the TVs only have an RF input on the back of the box, and since all I had was A/V (RCA) and component video (for HD), I needed a converter. Since I didn't rent a car this trip, I was hoping there would be a local shop that would sell a product I could use.

Turns out, the RadioShack that was nearby had something that worked, but... they were over 3 miles away, and it was getting dark... and it was starting to snow... and it was very windy. I figured I could make it there and back on foot, but it turns out, I couldn't. I got about 2/3 of the way there (without gloves or a hat) and had to stop in to a CVS to warm up. Fortunately, I really needed toothpaste and some chapstick so I walked around inside for a while while I soaked up enough heat to get me all the way to the parking lot of the mall that contained the RadioShack. I say the parking lot because, as I was walking from the edge of the lot to the mall entrance, the wind really picked up and blew every degree of heat from my head, starting with my ears, then jolting down the sides of my face. My eyes were watering from the cold gusts that blasted them dry. I finally made it into the mall, and found a directory that took me 20 minutes to decipher, probably due to the lack of warm blood to my brain. The whole time that I was frantically searching through the lists of mall vendors, I was thinking that the RadioShack was not really in the mall at all. I didn't bring the directions with me, so it was possible that it was out at the edge of the parking lot. Fortunately, I found the number, and then the location. I bought my goods and had dinner in the food court at Chester Fried Chicken, where they had an assortment of fried fish on a homemade sign next to the register.

The fried chicken warmed me up, but not enough to, persuade me into a walk back to the hotel, so I called a cab using 411 on my phone. I ended up leaving a message which, after repeated calls to different cab companies, turned out to be some sort of Detroit area cab call in number. The were supposed to call back, but my cell phone died as I was leaving a message, so I wasn't sure if they even got it. I went back into RadioShack, but they wanted too much for their phone charger, and half of the kiosks around the mall were cell phone accessory vendors. A charger, and about 15 minutes of charge cost me almost $20! I talked with the middle eastern guy who sold the charger to me while he was watching "Night at the Museum" on his computer (which was still in theaters).

I finally got through to a cab company and was picked up a few minutes afterwards. Once I got back to the hotel, I set up the Xbox and got ready to log into Xbox Live. The Xbox wouldn't log in for the exact same reason as my first attempt to log into Live at Bo's. Something to do with the MTU setting on the router, which I most likely couldn't access, so I was stuck. Perhaps the next hotel that I stay at won't have the same problem. I ended up playing the demo to Dead Rising until it was time to get some sleep. I will have to get up early to meet a few more people, and get some final coaching on how to do my new job.