Nuevo Casa

So, what does $1350 a month in rent get you in Manhattan? Come take a tour of my new studio! Ladies, it is heretofore your responsibility to provide me with recommendations on how to reorganize my room for maximum utility, although I have to admit that I like the setup as is....

This is the view from the front door. The bathroom is to the immediate right, and there are two closets on the right-hand sideo of the picture.


This is the opposite view of the view above, facing the door with my room behind me.


This 2'x2' area is my dining room, with my bed on the left. The table and chairs were purchased from the previous apartment lessor. Note the "video screen" on the phone, so I can see who wants access to my castle.


Ahh, the room where the action takes place in my bachelor pad - the kitchen! It's the perfect size and actually has enough room for me to fit all my pots and pans. Of course, the cupboards are brimming full of food ;o), and the counters are weighted down with German chocolate.


This is the view from the "kitchen doorway". You can see the bedroom (with the queen bed for a king :), the home office, and the living room from this unique vantage point! Note the bay windows, which have a wonderful view of a small, quiet street here on the Upper East Side, right across the street from a theater. They provide a LOT of natural light in my chateaux and I plan on growing herbs there (not THOSE herbs; basil, rosemary, oregano, etc.).


Another view of part of the bedroom and the living room. The space between the bed and the windows is open so that I can buy a "love seat" (or two-person couch for the bachelors out there). The idea is that I want plenty of open space around my "home office" so that I don't feel couped up when I'm slaving away behind my laptop for work.


A view of the home office from the middle of the living room.


Here's the living room, where the two-person couch will reside. Visitors should become familiar with this area, as I plan on setting up the guest blow-up mattress in this region of my cavernous palace.


A view from the living room, next to the home office.


Suggestions?

Special thanks to Paul and Sean for helping me lug my apartment-in-a-box up and down 2nd Avenue on the hottest day of the year. I only had to yell at Paul once after for "putting a bleeping nick in my piano" that I'd strapped to his back for the quarter-mile walk down the street while I supervised (There's Something About Mary ;o)

By the way, I visited a cool restaurant last weekend. It was a Malaysian-Indonesian restaurant called Eastanah. Check out the pictures of this place on the website! It had a very Yogan atmosphere. It was like yoga for the stomach. And the wallet...

Hurting Guy

So my sister Summer decided, in her infinite wisdom, that I needed to do something besides just Yoga at the gym (something about fitness...I don't know). I knew she was right, so I sent her to my gym's website and told her to figure out what classes I should take. She recommended a cardiovascular class called Total Body Workout that is held every Thursday. I was a little skeptical and was thinking that the class would be something like the 80's show "Fame" with leotard-wearing ladies doing jazzersize around a gym. That's not my scene, really.

But I went and was pleasantly surprised at the energy, the excersize, and the workout involved. Today, my body is like one gigantic sore muscle, and I LOVE it! I first felt the effects this morning at 4:45am when Alex decided to give me a call from Germany. Yea, read your text message again dude. I DIDN'T say to call me when I was sleeping... ;o)

Tomorrow morning I'll be packing up my apartment into a box and moving over to my new apartment. I forsee another day of "soredome" on Sunday....

Address Update

Update your address book, people, I'm moving soon:

Justin Haines
317 E. 91st St. Apt. 2C
NY, NY 10128

My phone number (mobile phone, 408-XXX-5756) will stay the same.

Epiphany

Epiphany (e·piph·a·ny)

1. A sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something.
2. A comprehension or perception of reality by means of a sudden intuitive realization.

I had an idea a while back to create something that I termed a "Flashbank" (hence my blog name). The idea behind this is that when you get together with friends and family and you start to share stories with each other of "Remember when...". Well, each individual remembers different things from the past, and different parts of each story. When people get together and talk about these events, the people in the conversation start remembering those events and a piece of their history goes into their memory bank. So, "flashback" + "memory bank" => "Flashbank" . Bare with me, I'm getting to the point...

I had an epiphany the other day. My good high-school friend Russ and I like to remind each other of these stories with each other, because we have some good ones, such as many drawings of dogs with satellite dishes, drawings of certain Italians, physics projects, technological terms, etc (Sorry, inside jokes!). Well, I realized that I wish I would have kept some relics from those days, such as many of Russ's genius, comical drawings, photographs, etc.

Then, the epiphany hit me. I am living in NYC, the center of the universe, and I have not bothered to find or define such relics, I have a digital camera sitting on my desk that I never use, and I'm having the time of my life! But, in ten years, I'll look back and say "Wow, I was living in NYC in my twenties, and all I have are memories." Not that there's anything wrong with memories, but why not support those with some other items?

With that in mind, I am contemplating the purchase of a new, smaller digital camera to capture my life as a twenty-something single (and very eligible ;o) guy in the center of the universe. A Canon Powershot S410, to be exact....

End of the World

Great cartoon:

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/endofworld.html

Jersey and (another) Blond Moment

Whew, Sunday night has arrived and I'm exhausted! Friday I had a follow up doctor's appointment to get my eye checked out after last week's painful steroid injections (Chalazion, see earlier blogs). I'm happy to say that the prognosis was good and they have all but disappeared, in part because of my dedication to good eye hygiene -whatever that means! Unfortunately, while the steroids did achieve their intended purpose in dealing with my eye-lid, I have not noticed a significant increase in my muscle mass....

Friday night, after eating some leftover penne vodka that I had whipped up earlier in the week, I met up with my former roommate Alan, who has his new apartment about a mile down the road from me. I knew it would end up being a late night when we didn't even meet up until 10:00pm! His girlfriend was coming into town, so we chilled at his place and had a few tasty beverages while we were waiting. Well, she didn't get into town until about midnight, so it was definitely going to be a late one. We headed to the Upper West Side to a place called MOD, which was right up my ally and lived up to its branding as a place Austin Powers would hang out - psychodelic colors, wide variety of music, and a good atmosphere. Groovy, baby! We left there at about 3:00am, so a good time was had, for sure...

Saturday was dedicated to sleeping in and doing some chores around the apartment. I caught some of the Olympics at Paul and Cathy's and performed my duties as the toll-free tech support line for some people back in California and here in the city. Got spyware (annoying pop-ups with ads)? Get Spybot or Ad-aware.

Saturday night I had planned on taking it easy, but I had told my buddy Sean that I'd head over to Hoboken, New Jersey with him to check out the scene. This is hard to explain, but suffice to say that New Yorkers are often confused when I tell them that I voluntarily went to Jersey to hang out for an evening. Jersey is NOT New York, in fact it's quite the opposite. It's a standard, SUV and mini-van-drivin', burger- and chain-restaurant eatin', Abercrombie & Fitch -wearin', city-traffic-hatin', Caucasian American state, not the Euro-styled, diverse city that is NYC.

I have heard good things about Hoboken, so I figured that it at least deserved a reconnaisance mission. It pretty much lived up to it's expectations as a city where 20-somethings from Jersey and Pennsylvania congregate to in order to save some cash and have a good night out. It was kind-of like San Luis Obispo on a much bigger scale. According to some Jersey residents, Hoboken has more bars per-square-mile than any other city in America. I'm not sure how true that is, but there were lots of place to go, for sure. We hung out at a place that had a live band and enjoyed a few $2 Miller-Lite drafts for the evening. There were definetely some cute 20-something felines there, so I had a good time shooting the breeze and earned the nickname "the Ice-breaker" from the guys I was hanging out with. I guess that's a good thing :o/ !! I was well on my way to adding another set of digits to my cell-phone before disaster struck me (as usual) and I bumped into my friend Sean's arm, causing him to drop the glass of wine he was holding and distributing glass shards into "Sonya's" open-toe shoes. Oops. That didn't go over too well with her (and especially with her friends), freeing up that reserved space in my cell phone's phonebook. Game over.

Today was a beautiful day, one of the best we've had all year. Mid-to-high 70's, clea, blue sky, not a drop of humidity. An excellent day to head down to Greenwhich Villiage for a 1:00pm brunch. I haven't spent much time on Hudson Ave. down there, but I plan on enjoying that area much more frequently now that I've discovered how wonderful it is. Thou-shalt visit me, and thou too will enjoy how wonderful Hudson Ave. and Greenwhich Villiage is.

Congratulations to my friend Ewa on her engagement! I look forward to attending your wedding in Poland next year :o) !!

Ta ta for now....

(P.S. Daniel Calandrino, if you're out there, what's up with your email address? Did you change it? I keep getting emails returned to me)

Secret Garden

There's a "secret garden" at the corner of Hudson and Barrow that's maintained by a church. It's definitely visit-worthy..

Justin's First Fish

Well this week has been really slow business-wise, but quite active social wise. Tuesdsay night I even skipped yoga with my favorite instructor so that I could go to happy hour #1 of the week, which was being hosted by someone Paul works with. Somehow she won a free happy hour at a place down by NYU, so I felt obligated to go. The idea of lots of female PWC auditors was just too hard to resist! Paul joined me as my wing man, though we need to have a few more flight-simulator missions so that he doesn't forget to include crucial information about availability, if ya know what I mean ;o) .

Wednesday afternoon, I finally got the chance to go to the Metropolitan Musuem of Art. Well, I should say that finally I went to the Met. I tell ya, that place is massive and I plan on buying a membership there so that I can spend a few hours there at my convenience. I really enjoyed the Hassam exhibit, which had about 100 paintings from the American artist, most of which were oil and water colors, all of which were amazing! I never thought I cared much for art before, but this time I couldn't figure out how in the world these artists could make something so beautiful with a paintbrush and some colors! Amazing!

Wednesday night I was off to the West Villiage with my friend and former-coworker Sean, who has a writing class down there. We went to a little pub called the Blind Tiger. I had high aspirations of making it back uptown in time for Pilates at the gym, but when I realized that that night was a chili-cookout, I just couldn't pass it up. So, I indulged.

Thursday night was the New York Cares (the organization I volunteer with) monthly happy-hour at the Mission. I hadn't been to one before, but it was a good chance for me to mingle (flirt), get out (have a few free drinks), and wonder what in the world it takes for me to find a girlfriend in this city! Speaking of New York Cares, they are having a fundraiser right now to help support New York Cares Day on October 23rd, when thousands of us city dwellers head to public schools to help clean them up. If you'd like to participate, check out my donation page!

A few items on my "to-do before the end of the summer" list (from a larger list in Time Out New York):

1. Go to the farmer's market "Union Square Greenmarket" (completed!)
2. Go on a sunset sailing excursion on the Shearwater, "a smooth perch from which to enjoy the wave-cruising view".
3. Attend the Mostly Mozart Festival at the Lincoln Center
4. Enjoy a $30.12 three-course prix fixe meal at one of the city's hot-spots
5. Go canoeing in the Gowanus Canal and Newtown Creek, Brooklyn
6. Possibly go to a free movie at Bryant's Park at sunset (if it doesn't conflict with yoga)
   

I've been told that this is me. Click on it for a full-size picture:

Craigslist: On The Record

This weekend I was lucky enough to take a day trip to an island called Fire Island, which is a small island about an hour from the city, just south of Long Island. I wasn't sure what to expect since this was my first trip to a vacation spot outside of the city. I thought it might be something like Catalina, off the coast of LA. But it was very much different. There was lots of tall grass growing and lots of vegatation. But the idea was pretty much the same - vacation homes for rent, no cars allowed, lots of trails, and beach! It was fun to be back at the beach for the first time in a while. The water was definetely warmer than it is in Santa Cruz, but not nearly as warm as San Diego. Because of the impending hurricane down south, the water and currents were rough, I definetely found out that I probably should keep to the areas where I could touch ground after I drifted about two hundred feet down the coast after just a few minutes....

Some of you know about Craigslist, which is sort of like an online community where you can buy and sell stuff, just about anything in fact. I actually found my apartment in New York from Craigslist. There's a good interview of Craig here. Interesting note for my computer friends, Craig still uses Pine for email, just like me :o) !!! For some entertainment, you can check out the Best of Craigslist.

Chalazion

A few weeks back I had a chalazion removed off of my eye-lid. This week, I noticed a second one on the same eye-lid. The doctors injected both of them (the recovering as well as the new) with steroids, which was quite painful. Maybe I'll get big muscles from doing Yoga as a result :o/ .....

I saw it coming, but I should've seen it coming

When am I going to learn. Some of you probably remember an incident a few years back that happened to me at lunch in San Jose, when I met up with my PWC friends downtown for a nice little Indian feast. All white shirts in my closet have been specially designed to attrack equal and opposite colors, such as a brownish-red color from Indian masala. That mixture ended up on my shirt that day, just like many other times when I've eaten things like pasta.

I saw it coming.

Well, today I decided to reward myself at lunch with a healthy portion of Penne Vodka. After about five minutes of eating, I felt inner peace (it must be the yoga) and realized that none of the brownish-red sauce (a mixutre of heavy cream, vodka, and tomatoes, very good by the way) had been drawn like a magnet to one of my new white (with yellow and blue stripes) shirts. I thought to myself "this could be a miracle, I am going to focus my energy on putting only solidly-forked noodles on my eating utensil so that I can get through this meal without spilling." Sure enough, on the very next bite, mind you, a noodle from my fork lost it's grip and commanded the tomato sauce to part like the Red Sea (pun intended) and my dream of getting through a day with a clean white shirt was gone forever.

I should've seen it coming.

In other news, I amused quite a few people this weekend with an interesting fiscal strategy. I'm still recovering from my job switch, and the fact that I'm moving into a new place in a few weeks, which means I need to have some cash on hand for security deposits and what not. On Saturday, I decided that I would curb my spending and really put an effort into saving some money in the next few weeks. So, I drew $100 from my checking account and formally announced to all concerned parties that I would make this $100 last until the end of the month by relying on my frugal skills that got me to where I am today.

One baby-lobster-pasta, one bottle of wine, one chocalate fondue dessert, and several hours (and beers) later, that $100 had vanished. Less than 12 hours after my strategy had been inplemented, it had failed. I should've seen it coming....

This (19 mb video, modems beware) is amusing, if you like Will Ferrell...

News (pun intended)

There's lots of new things going on these days for me, and for those I know.

1.) New babies: I would like to congratulate several people on their new children, two of which are twins. My cousins Suzie and Tedd were blessed with twins earlier in the week. It's too bad I live so far away, I'd love to see them! Likewise, my former (woh, that sounds weird to say) coworker and friend Craig and his wife Tanja were also blessed with twins! Finally, my longtime friend Russell and his wife Darcy will soon be blessed with a baby. In fact, Russ didn't answer his phone when I called him earlier, so maybe he...I mean his wife....is in labor right now! Well, actually, Russ never answers his phone when I call. I think he screens them ;o) .

2.) New apartment: When I last left you, I think that I mentioned that I was entertaining the idea of moving into my own place. Well, that is more than an entertainment now - it's a fact! At least, if I can pass my credit check. I hope they don't disqualify me for paying my credit card bill late back in June of 1997....In any case, if anyone is going to visit me anytime soon, I hope you like to get up close and personal, because this place will be a tight squeeze with two queen size beds (one for the guest and one for the host & the guest's girlfriend, if applicable ;o) .

3.) New favorite soccer team: I would like to formally announce the latest addition to my "favorite teams" list: Liverpool FC (of the English Premier League)! Liverpool will be added to my ever-growing list of favorite soccer teams, including Corinth...I mean Palmeiras of Brazil, Eintracht Frankfurt + Borussia Dortmund + Stuttgart of Germany (in that order), Juventus Turin of Italy, and whatever team David Beckham is playing on. I took a girl named Liz to see the Liverpool vs. AS Roma game over in New Jersey and had a great time, despite being somewhat late to the game (we missed the announcement of the players).

4.) New job progress: My new job is going well. Because I work at various locations in the city of NY, would you believe that my current work location is ONE block away from my apartment?? Let me tell you, it's a rough commute. I get through about 1.379 songs on my iPod (results may vary) from door to door. (geek speak warning) Today I was running a vulnerability scanner at work and apparently my coworker and I took down a hospitals network because the old-school Cisco switches thought there was a denial-of-service attack going on. Oops. (/geek speak warning)

5.) New eye-lid: I am pleased to report that my lower right-hand eye-lid is recovering well from the surgery that I had two weeks ago. It's still a bit puffy, but that should recede as I continue to baste it in anti-bacterial ointment and as time goes on.

6.) New investments: With my new salary and my newly acquired funds from the sale of my precious car, I am eagerly anticipating my re-entry into the mutual fund / stock market. If anyone is planning on an entry into the market anytime soon, I would recommend that you wait until about two weeks after I buy in, because the market will surely be a good 10-20% lower within days after my purchase :o/ .............................