American dream

To think Americans get the opportunity to do this all the time. I am sitting in Seattles's Best Coffee cafe within the Borders Store in San Ramon, California. I know I'm here because I was playing with my iPod Touch Google feature to see how far I am from Mt Diablo when I hit an on-screen button I've never taken notice of before - and it zoomed in on my present location. I am not quite sure how it did that - and it is quite amazing when you think not only can I tell where I am - but it would allow others to track the device as well and, obviously, me with it. There could be privacy issues here - as with a recent exercise in a non-American yet industrialised country where people were "followed" by tracking the bluetooth from their mobile phones. But back to the reason for this post - does it get any better than sitting in a coffee shop, reading the National Enquirer (wow - are there some stories in there or what!), and catching up with email and blogging. The other amazing thing about this coffee shop is how many people are in here - reading, writing, studying. I'm lucky enough to have secured a table today - but you can see that it would be easy not to. And another thing about Borders - it reminds me of an episode of Seinfeld (George Costanza wouldn't like it) - there is a notice here saying that only books that have been paid for can be taken into the restroom.