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Tipping is kind of a big deal in the States and New York in particular. You're unlikely to be confronted by someone you undertipped, but you might get some pretty serious stares.
Rule of thumb: 15% for waiters. If you feel like they were special, by all means give more, but nobody can complain if you go 15%. Some people apply that to the before-tax price, some to the after. Sales tax in New York City is fairly high, somewhere beyond 9%, so that might be a big difference.
Other suggestions, which may or may not come up:
Tip $1 per drink for bartenders. If you drink particularly expensive drinks, you might need $2, but for a beer or most cocktails, one is fine.
Taxi drivers, barbers, maids, bellhops/doormen who help you carry things will all expect tips. To be frank, I"ve never really known how much to give them. Maids I tip daily, but small, maybe $1 per day. Taxi drivers and barbers, I might go 10%.
Tip jars are EVERYWHERE. I never tip counter staff in a major chain shop/restaurant, personally, but I will tip in a really small place sometimes. For example, I love this little Japanese place called Otafuku on 9th St between 2nd and 3rd Aves which specializes in takoyaki & okonomiyaki - I always tip them. In those cases, a dollar or two is usually fine.
Tour guides sometimes look for tips. I only go for it if I felt their presentation was particularly good...or if absolutely everybody else on the bus/boat gave them a tip. >_<
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 3/13/2004
Posts: 1118
Location: Kansai, JAPAN
Circle Line! I forgot about that. That's a great trip. A little pricey, but you're on the boat for hours and you get a fantastic view of Manhattan, all 20 of its connecting bridges, and the Statue of Liberty. It's especially worth it in summer because it will cool you off. New York can get pretty muggy in July and August.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 3/13/2004
Posts: 1118
Location: Kansai, JAPAN
Bisqwit wrote:
I don't think I should even attempt to arrange my leave to overlap with July 4th. As such an American celebration, it's not a party I'm party to, anyway.
How fascinated would you be of the Finnish independence day? You know, if it wasn't dead boring.
If you like fireworks, it shouldn't matter where you're from. New York has a gigantic fireworks display every year on the Fourth. There's also the Hot Dog eating contest at Coney Island, if you want to have your mind blown while your stomach turns a little bit. Last year's winner ate 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes.
yeah...read those numbers again
Hot dogs or no, Coney Island is a fairly pretty place. The Cyclone is a scary-as-hell roller coaster, although most of the fear comes from its advanced age, giving every rider the sensation that maybe THIS is the time the cars will fall off the track.
Other folks mentioned baseball - if you love the game or if you're just curious, New York's got plenty of it. Not just the major leaguers - there's a nice little park on Coney Island as well as Staten Island. If you don't care about baseball, I don't know what going to a game will do for you. But dear lord, don't go to Shea Stadium. The neighborhood is a nightmare, day or night, and once Shea is gone nobody is going to miss it.
I'm not sure what I can say about Times Square. It's full of bright lights, I guess, but other than passing through it for passing through's sake, there's nothing interesting to see there.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
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*sigh* Figures you'd come to New York while I'm not there!
I notice this conference is being held outside the city. Are you staying in Manhattan and commuting to the conference? Or are you staying in Westchester while planning to visit New York City on your own time?
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
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Fabian wrote:
What a strange thread to sticky.
My thinking is that this list will be of interest to a large number of forum members, new and old alike, so it should not be buried. Without regular updates it might easily sink to page two or three, dooming it to complete irrelevance as an information source.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 3/13/2004
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Location: Kansai, JAPAN
Here's a really dirty rap song about Star Trek: The Next Generation. I suspect your amusement level will be directly proportional to your familiarity with the characters - these guys obviously did their homework.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClP8n6asn3w
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
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Location: Kansai, JAPAN
Bumping an older thread here, but I just recently got into Brawl. I like it a lot, even though I have to play mostly by myself. The online is OK, although the time difference between Japan and EST makes it very hard to catch my friends.
As far as the connection goes, I know mine is super strong, but the online play still feels a little "looser" than when I play by myself. That is, I find it harder to stop running or pick up items as smoothly - my inputs are always a little delayed. Only occasionally does the game truly "lag," and I'm pretty sure that was due to something with my friends' wireless connection.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 3/13/2004
Posts: 1118
Location: Kansai, JAPAN
Two quick thoughts from someone who hasn't picked this game up yet:
[1] Please consider sharing "friend codes" or whatever in the Friend Code topic to encourage online battles among forum members.
[2] On SNK Boss Syndrome, I point anyone to check out World Heroes 2 and feast their eyes on DIO. Technically, it's not an "SNK" game, but it was released on the Neo Geo and he is the most underhanded bastard on that console. Others might have been stronger to the point of unfairness, but DIO's cheap tactics made him nearly invincible.
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Deign wrote:
i can pretty much agree with everything there except for jumping in an FPS. Never had a problem.
I only hate FPS jumping puzzles when there are a finite number of lives or limited save situations, as in the recently-TASed Turok. In games like Half Life or Portal, I'm fine with trying a couple times until I get it right.
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http://www.cracked.com/article_16196_7-commandments-all-video-games-should-obey.html
Via Cracked.com, a pretty funny website that mixes broad humor with occasional dead-on assessments of pop culture, etc.
I agree with just about all of this, although not owning a PS3 or an XBOX means some if it is lost on me. But that bit about unskippable cutscenes is absolutely correct, and it affects games on every damn platform.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 3/13/2004
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Location: Kansai, JAPAN
I've had some trouble lately with my anti-virus software (AVG Free edition) and it suggested a re-install. But I'm considering switching, or possibly abandoning, anti-virus software. What do people think?
I'm running Windows XP on a Thinkpad. I know not to open weird attachments on e-mails and I rarely browse internet sites that might mess with my system (plus I use Firefox, and most of those shady scripts affect IE).
Can I get away with not using anti-virus software? What do other people use? Is there something that just sits in the background and isn't too resource-demanding?
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 3/13/2004
Posts: 1118
Location: Kansai, JAPAN
One of my favorite games. Thank you so much! Loved the sliding/rolling action, amazed at how badly you rocked those bosses (especially on stage 3 and the final boss). Isn't his hair supposed to hurt you when he swings it at you, whether you're ducking or not?
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 3/13/2004
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Location: Kansai, JAPAN
Funny how those Chuck Norris facts totally don't work when Chuck Norris reads them. Reading them to yourself makes all the difference.
For something totally different, how about a little Popo-chan?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChTsGDPcCdY
For the record, Popo-chan is a Northern White-faced Owl.
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 3/13/2004
Posts: 1118
Location: Kansai, JAPAN
My wife gave me a 30G iPod last summer, shortly before Apple decided to start calling it the "classic." I bought her a 16G iPod Touch for her birthday in December. We are both very satisfied with our music players, although she seems to get twice the battery life I do (or she uses it half as much, I can't tell).
Experienced Forum User, Published Author, Former player
Joined: 3/13/2004
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Location: Kansai, JAPAN
I did pretty poorly, only 18 out of 50. So far as I can tell, the ones I don't know I simply never played.
#19 is one of my favorite game soundtracks ever and I game I played over and over again. One of the harder final bosses around.