Read the footnote at the bottom for my disclaimer:
You Have Got To See This...
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Monday, November 29, 2004
Note To Self:
Happy Holidays! So last night I was standing in the mile-long taxi line at LaGuardia Airport at 12:30am and an idea hit me after waiting about a half hour in the line. Maybe, just maybe, one of the other thousands of people in this taxi line are going to Manhattan, like me. I know it's a long shot, but I would have put money down that there was at least one other person going to Manhattan. I looked at the couple in front of me and the guy behind me and thought, yea, they might be going to Manhattan. But I wasn't in a sociable mood, so I left it at that. Another ten minutes go by and right when I hit the front of the line, somebody else was hit with a similar idea and a lady and gentleman asked if anyone else was going to Manhattan. Quickly realizing that this was an opportunity to save some cash, I volunteered to share my cab. It was a win-win situation for both of us, they didn't have to wait in the line and I didn't have to pay the full fare. Why don't people do this more often at the airport? I mean, probably at least 50% of the people are going to the same 12x3 mile island, so it makes perfect sense. I ended up paying $10 for door to door service rather than the $25-$30 it would have cost me if I rode alone. It doesn't get any cheaper than that, folks....
I had a great trip back to Cali for the past few days for Thanksgiving. It wasn't warm enough for me to work on my tan, but I guess the company of friends and family more than made up for that! I even scored on the shopping front, purchasing a new pair of running shoes for $30 and finding a hip Sears & Roebuck jacket, light blue with white paint and black grease stains galore, in my dad's closet that he probably hadn't worn in about 10 years....
The J. Riley
I had a great trip back to Cali for the past few days for Thanksgiving. It wasn't warm enough for me to work on my tan, but I guess the company of friends and family more than made up for that! I even scored on the shopping front, purchasing a new pair of running shoes for $30 and finding a hip Sears & Roebuck jacket, light blue with white paint and black grease stains galore, in my dad's closet that he probably hadn't worn in about 10 years....
The J. Riley
Monday, November 22, 2004
Bushwhacked!
Tonight, my schedule was bushwhacked - and I'm not referring to the movie, the book, or any other media piece about the effect of President Bush on our country. My Spanish teacher went off and got sick on us, leaving me with a big hole in my Monday night schedule. Luckily, my favorite Yoga class (which I normally have to miss) is at the same location, so I walked downstairs to the gym. But I was bushwhacked! I didn't have my yoga clothes with me! Rats. So, I decided since I'm there, I could always go to the sauna, because clothes are not optional in a sauna. But, yet again - bushwhacked! Since I had the Justin-the-academic backpack with me rather than the Justin-the-super-athlete backpack, I didn't have my padlock with me. I huffed and I puffed, and I walked home.
Maybe I need to create a contingency plan for all of my events, in the event that someone bushwhacks my schedule next time. Great, something else for me to lose sleep over....
Carpe Diem,
J. Riley
Maybe I need to create a contingency plan for all of my events, in the event that someone bushwhacks my schedule next time. Great, something else for me to lose sleep over....
Carpe Diem,
J. Riley
Sunday, November 21, 2004
Latest Major Purchase
Maybe it's the new job, but I seem to be going out of control on spending my money lately. I've been thinking about this latest purchase for at least two weeks, losing sleep over whether or not it was worth buying or not. I thought about trying to find it on sale or maybe searching the internet for coupons, but just the thought of dedicating that much time made me very self-conscience. I contemplated putting it on my Christmas wish list, but I just wouldn't feel right putting it down and actually expecting (or hoping) someone would come through and spare me the drama of buying it. Today, at around 12:37pm, I decided that it was something I could not live without anymore. And I walked down and made the purchase. I am now the very, very, very proud owner of 80 sheets of Snuggle Botanical Bliss fabric softener sheets. Actually, make that 78 sheets now...
In an effort to make purchases of grand spectacle like these seem more reasonable, I've been taking measures to save money. For the last two weeks, I have more or less consistently been making my lunch at home every morning before heading off to work. Spending $8 a day (at least) on lunch can really break the bank over time. In addition, and more significantly, I have been trying to reduce my booze intake in public places over the last month, which can potentially save me $60-$100 per weekend. Of course, this hasn't been taking place purely for financial reasons, but, more importantly, for both philosophical and health reasons (note the reduction in chalazion occurrences ;o) . I've been happy with the results, and for the first time in months I have made contributions to my savings account (in addition to my automatic withdrawls for investing at the beginning of the month).
In accordance with my new healthy, strict lifestyle, I went to Alan's house Friday night to make some dinner. I had a ton of organic veggies that I needed to use up, so I waltzed over to his place around 8:00. He bought some (organic, on my insistence) chicken breasts use as a side dish for our dinner. We popped a bottle of not-so-good Merlot (we didn't want to waste it, though, so we struggled through it) soon after I arrived while Andrea sipped her French martinis. The boys got to work in the kitchen, me cooking up some delicata and striped squash with maple syrup glaze as well as fresh green beans with honey-lemon vinagrette and roasted pine nuts. Alan put his apron to work on chicken cooked in broth and bourbon. Andrea....read a magazine.
Dinner was great (and cheap), so we went ahead and popped another bottle of better-tasting wine while Andrea continued drinking her Vodka and Pucker paint-thinner drinks. We decided to play some Balderdash, which I hadn't played before. In a nutshell, a topic is read and each participant writes the definition or what have you and you try to guess the one that is actually correct. Well, suffice to say that by the time the second bottle of wine was done, the alcohol-induced definitions weren't really G-rated anymore and so Andrea scalded us and I ended up the winner. :)
Saturday was a crazy day. To begin with, my thoughts go out to the Arnaudo family who lost Grandma Rita this weekend. Many of you knew were fortunate, as I was, to hear her stories about Los Gatos before the Silicon Valley SUV's moved in and have a classic Italian dinner at her house over the years. She will be missed by many people in Los Gatos and by our and her friends and family around the world. Her passing ends a chapter of the original Italian families that helped bring the Bay Area intoworld prominence as an agricultural center.
After waking up around noon, I got on the phone with Stefan to help him with some web page stuff. At about 3:00, I decided to get dressed for the day and go down to watch the Real Madrid vs. Barcelona FC soccer game, which are basically like two of the best teams in the world. Stefan broke the news to me about Grandma Rita right before I arrived and it cast a dark cloud over me the rest of the day. When I arrived at the bar showing the soccer game, I found a line around the block to get in and see the game. Who are these soccer fans, and why haven't I met them before!?!? By that time, the bar was already full, so about 40 of us broke rank and crowded around the window in the door to try to catch Ronaldhino jinking and tricking the defenders with Brazillian passion while Zinidene Zidane roamed the midfield with his talismic French character, looking to punch holes through to his Brazillian and Spanish forwards. As fun as it was to sit outside in 40 degree weather and a crooked head, trying to make out the dots on the TV monitors inside, I gave up after half time and left with game being broken open by the speedy Ivorian Samuel Eto'o and Dutchman Giovanne van Brockhorst's left foot.
After wandering around downtown for a few hours and reading a few chapters of a book on Real Madrid and David Beckham, I met up with a former coworker and friend of mine who is (finally) leaving EY and moving to Africa (Mauritania, mom) to work as a voluteer for a year. Chatting it up with him and his friends helped me break out of my anti-social state-of-mind. After dinner, I met up with my buddy Sean, who rummaged up some girls he knew from the spa to go out with us. Yes, in true New York fashion, Sean does go to a spa and get facials. A true Upper East Side metrosexual, no doubt ;o) .
So the four of us headed down to catch some live music in Greenwhich Village and chill out with a glass of wine or something. The amazing part of the evening was that, of all places in the city, I ran into Baltimore Jenn in the same bar. I guess great minds think alike ;o). She had friends in town from down in Maryland and Virginia and I was just amazed that we would end up in the same place. So we chit-chatted briefly before the four of us headed back up to the Upper East Side and somehow ended up in the Euro-trashy restaurant Baraonda, where the gorgeous and glamorous hang out. Never a dull moment in the packed indoor area that felt more like a club than a restaurant with their Latin, American, and Middle-Eastern music blasting out of the corners....
Today, I contemplated the meaning of life and whether that meaning required the use of fabric softener. The apartment is clean, the clothes are botanic blissfully clean, and I am living static free for another 78 loads of laundry!
Carpe Diem, see some of you next week for Thanksgiving...
J. Riley
P.S. I've got a new "Comment" deal down below, so check it out and drop me a line!
In an effort to make purchases of grand spectacle like these seem more reasonable, I've been taking measures to save money. For the last two weeks, I have more or less consistently been making my lunch at home every morning before heading off to work. Spending $8 a day (at least) on lunch can really break the bank over time. In addition, and more significantly, I have been trying to reduce my booze intake in public places over the last month, which can potentially save me $60-$100 per weekend. Of course, this hasn't been taking place purely for financial reasons, but, more importantly, for both philosophical and health reasons (note the reduction in chalazion occurrences ;o) . I've been happy with the results, and for the first time in months I have made contributions to my savings account (in addition to my automatic withdrawls for investing at the beginning of the month).
In accordance with my new healthy, strict lifestyle, I went to Alan's house Friday night to make some dinner. I had a ton of organic veggies that I needed to use up, so I waltzed over to his place around 8:00. He bought some (organic, on my insistence) chicken breasts use as a side dish for our dinner. We popped a bottle of not-so-good Merlot (we didn't want to waste it, though, so we struggled through it) soon after I arrived while Andrea sipped her French martinis. The boys got to work in the kitchen, me cooking up some delicata and striped squash with maple syrup glaze as well as fresh green beans with honey-lemon vinagrette and roasted pine nuts. Alan put his apron to work on chicken cooked in broth and bourbon. Andrea....read a magazine.
Dinner was great (and cheap), so we went ahead and popped another bottle of better-tasting wine while Andrea continued drinking her Vodka and Pucker paint-thinner drinks. We decided to play some Balderdash, which I hadn't played before. In a nutshell, a topic is read and each participant writes the definition or what have you and you try to guess the one that is actually correct. Well, suffice to say that by the time the second bottle of wine was done, the alcohol-induced definitions weren't really G-rated anymore and so Andrea scalded us and I ended up the winner. :)
Saturday was a crazy day. To begin with, my thoughts go out to the Arnaudo family who lost Grandma Rita this weekend. Many of you knew were fortunate, as I was, to hear her stories about Los Gatos before the Silicon Valley SUV's moved in and have a classic Italian dinner at her house over the years. She will be missed by many people in Los Gatos and by our and her friends and family around the world. Her passing ends a chapter of the original Italian families that helped bring the Bay Area intoworld prominence as an agricultural center.
After waking up around noon, I got on the phone with Stefan to help him with some web page stuff. At about 3:00, I decided to get dressed for the day and go down to watch the Real Madrid vs. Barcelona FC soccer game, which are basically like two of the best teams in the world. Stefan broke the news to me about Grandma Rita right before I arrived and it cast a dark cloud over me the rest of the day. When I arrived at the bar showing the soccer game, I found a line around the block to get in and see the game. Who are these soccer fans, and why haven't I met them before!?!? By that time, the bar was already full, so about 40 of us broke rank and crowded around the window in the door to try to catch Ronaldhino jinking and tricking the defenders with Brazillian passion while Zinidene Zidane roamed the midfield with his talismic French character, looking to punch holes through to his Brazillian and Spanish forwards. As fun as it was to sit outside in 40 degree weather and a crooked head, trying to make out the dots on the TV monitors inside, I gave up after half time and left with game being broken open by the speedy Ivorian Samuel Eto'o and Dutchman Giovanne van Brockhorst's left foot.
After wandering around downtown for a few hours and reading a few chapters of a book on Real Madrid and David Beckham, I met up with a former coworker and friend of mine who is (finally) leaving EY and moving to Africa (Mauritania, mom) to work as a voluteer for a year. Chatting it up with him and his friends helped me break out of my anti-social state-of-mind. After dinner, I met up with my buddy Sean, who rummaged up some girls he knew from the spa to go out with us. Yes, in true New York fashion, Sean does go to a spa and get facials. A true Upper East Side metrosexual, no doubt ;o) .
So the four of us headed down to catch some live music in Greenwhich Village and chill out with a glass of wine or something. The amazing part of the evening was that, of all places in the city, I ran into Baltimore Jenn in the same bar. I guess great minds think alike ;o). She had friends in town from down in Maryland and Virginia and I was just amazed that we would end up in the same place. So we chit-chatted briefly before the four of us headed back up to the Upper East Side and somehow ended up in the Euro-trashy restaurant Baraonda, where the gorgeous and glamorous hang out. Never a dull moment in the packed indoor area that felt more like a club than a restaurant with their Latin, American, and Middle-Eastern music blasting out of the corners....
Today, I contemplated the meaning of life and whether that meaning required the use of fabric softener. The apartment is clean, the clothes are botanic blissfully clean, and I am living static free for another 78 loads of laundry!
Carpe Diem, see some of you next week for Thanksgiving...
J. Riley
P.S. I've got a new "Comment" deal down below, so check it out and drop me a line!
Friday, November 19, 2004
What I Want for Christmas (Geeks-Eyes' Only)
I think I need this for my apartment so I can run X-Windows in Linux at reasonable speeds. I mean, built-in liquid-cooling? How tight is THAT?
Where'd I Put That Dunce Cap?
Wednesday night I was fortunate to have the opportunity to go to dinner with my new friend, Baltimore Jen. We headed out to La Paella down in the East Villiage for some healthy conversation, tapas, paella, sangria, and demonstration of my hair's attributes - the pigmentation, to be specific (see the next paragraph). Maybe we should have noted that the paella said "2 person minimum" before ordering up the tapas (stuffed peppers with goat cheese...yummy) as well as indulging ourselves with bread. Two paella plates each later (verrrrry slow plates on my side of the table, of course), we still had roughly half of the paella, shellfish, lamb, and chicken left to eat, which would prove to be vital to providing me with calories at lunchtime on Thursday in preperation for my regularly scheduled cardio class at the gym.
Thursday morning, I quickly realized that I had lost my debit card somewhere along the way. Thinking back to the last time this happened (a span of maybe three weeks, folks...), I figured I left it at the restaurant. What is ironic about this situation is that Paul, Cathy, and Dee have been pestering me lately about getting a credit card so that I can be protected in the event that I lose my credit card or wallet (hey, it's not like I have a HISTORY of losing these things....oh, wait, nevermind. ;o) I refuse to change my position on the issue, although I'm beginnging to soften my stance. Especially when I do things like leave debit/credit cards at restaurants on a regular basis, as the trend indicates....
In other news, I'm happy to say that roughly 50% of my blog hits are coming from Firefox now. Thank you to everyone who upgraded, you saved me the trouble of trying to figure out how to trick Google/Blogger.com into allowing me to block hits from Internet Explorer. Once I established the obvious link between using Internet Explorer and supporting George W. Bush, the Euros quickly made the switch. During the consultation phase of demonstrating Firefox's badass-ness, I was able to demonstrate to Alex the power of Firefox by showing him all the spyware that was in his computer. We cleaned him up with Ad-aware and some registry hacks, but it just goes to show what happens when you use something as un-secure as Internet Explorer. You people think I'm lying, but I'm not.... :o)
Yesterday I bought tickets for some Lake Tahoe skiing during a weekend in late February with a bunch of former coworkers. Who woulda thunk that I could get round trip tickets for a measley $185 from San Jo to NYC? Siblings, you really have no excuses for not having visited me yet, especially with these prices. Or at least for planning to visit me. Summer, I recommend that you come before you graduate since you know that your trip will be significantly subsidized ;o) .... Faryn, you too....
Note to self: consider eating Tibetan vegetarian food sometime at Tsampa, which is near La Paella.
Thursday morning, I quickly realized that I had lost my debit card somewhere along the way. Thinking back to the last time this happened (a span of maybe three weeks, folks...), I figured I left it at the restaurant. What is ironic about this situation is that Paul, Cathy, and Dee have been pestering me lately about getting a credit card so that I can be protected in the event that I lose my credit card or wallet (hey, it's not like I have a HISTORY of losing these things....oh, wait, nevermind. ;o) I refuse to change my position on the issue, although I'm beginnging to soften my stance. Especially when I do things like leave debit/credit cards at restaurants on a regular basis, as the trend indicates....
In other news, I'm happy to say that roughly 50% of my blog hits are coming from Firefox now. Thank you to everyone who upgraded, you saved me the trouble of trying to figure out how to trick Google/Blogger.com into allowing me to block hits from Internet Explorer. Once I established the obvious link between using Internet Explorer and supporting George W. Bush, the Euros quickly made the switch. During the consultation phase of demonstrating Firefox's badass-ness, I was able to demonstrate to Alex the power of Firefox by showing him all the spyware that was in his computer. We cleaned him up with Ad-aware and some registry hacks, but it just goes to show what happens when you use something as un-secure as Internet Explorer. You people think I'm lying, but I'm not.... :o)
Yesterday I bought tickets for some Lake Tahoe skiing during a weekend in late February with a bunch of former coworkers. Who woulda thunk that I could get round trip tickets for a measley $185 from San Jo to NYC? Siblings, you really have no excuses for not having visited me yet, especially with these prices. Or at least for planning to visit me. Summer, I recommend that you come before you graduate since you know that your trip will be significantly subsidized ;o) .... Faryn, you too....
Note to self: consider eating Tibetan vegetarian food sometime at Tsampa, which is near La Paella.
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Readers who need to upgrade to Firefox
OK, I warned you to upgrade to Firefox. Please note that Firefox is created by the open-source community, who is quite notorious for being fanatically liberal (politically speaking). By supporting Internet Explorer (as you violators currently do), you are supporting Microsoft and, therefore, are supporting the Republican party. In other words, if you're not using Firefox, you are supporting Bush. How's that for slippery-slope? Here's the list:
Alexander, please download and install Firefox (click here)
Rebecca, please download and install Firefox (click here)
Summer, please download and install Firefox (click here)
Nana, please download and install Firefox (click here)
I'm going to consider setting up a page to block people who use Internet Explorer, just to make my point. It's a small download (4.5mb), so you would be wise to go ahead and start preventing viruses, trojans, and spyware from invading your computer.
In other news, I played three or four games of racketball tonight (my blood blister is still flourishing on my thumb, but the activities didn't piss it off) and continued my out-of-form (as they say in soccer news) streak by losing all three. All I gotta say is that payback is a bitch, and thou who art challenging me to a game will feel my wrath on thy backhand.
Tomorrow I'm taking Jenn out to dinner. I believe that tapas are definitely in order....
The J. Riley
I'm going to consider setting up a page to block people who use Internet Explorer, just to make my point. It's a small download (4.5mb), so you would be wise to go ahead and start preventing viruses, trojans, and spyware from invading your computer.
In other news, I played three or four games of racketball tonight (my blood blister is still flourishing on my thumb, but the activities didn't piss it off) and continued my out-of-form (as they say in soccer news) streak by losing all three. All I gotta say is that payback is a bitch, and thou who art challenging me to a game will feel my wrath on thy backhand.
Tomorrow I'm taking Jenn out to dinner. I believe that tapas are definitely in order....
The J. Riley
Monday, November 15, 2004
To Russia, With Love
Today I began my regularly scheduled walking tour of the area that I'm working in, and this month it's South Brooklyn. More specifically, Brighton Beach / Coney Island. Yes, the same Coney Island where they have the infamous Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest every Fourth of July weekend. Yes, the Coney Island that has the east-coast equivalent of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Yes, the Coney Island that has inspired the delictable "Coney Island Hot Dog", which has....some kind of ingredients on it that...are...from...Coney Island (OK, I have no idea what I'm talking about, but I know such a thing exists, just like the elusive minivan taxi here in NYC!!) Coney Island (which isn't really an island) is home to America's connection to the Russian mafia and thousands of other Russians. So, today I ate some authentic beef stroganov served by a lovely Russian gal at a coffee cafe that was playing Euro-techno and was filled with the sweet music of the Russian language (:-\ ??). In the heart of Brighton Beach, which I caught a glimpse of when passing it on the subway, has Russian signs on buildings (and no English) and the beach itself looked marvelous with our beautiful, warm (~55 degrees), sunny afternoon. I was tempted to take my three layers off and go for a skinny dip, but I withheld the urge...for any spectators sake.
I realized that I haven't given anyone an update on my Spanish classes. I will not embarrass myself by attempting to write something legible, but suffice to say that the further I get in Spanish, the better I realize my German is. Now that I'm thinking about it, I can see that my German is actually pretty good. I can put sentences together with ease, I can conjugate verbs without thinking about it, and my vocabulary is pretty extensive. It's a good feeling to realize how far I've come with learning a foreign language and to realize that the five years of German I took and the two summers I spent there were not wasted! On that note, someone told me about a website called meetup.com that has all sorts of random meeting groups for a million different events, including one for people like me that want to practice speaking German. So, I went ahead and signed up for that one, maybe I'll miss a Thursday-night cardio class sometime and meet up with some other kraut-speakers at Hallo Berlin down in Hell's Kitchen (I love saying that!) for some beers and bratwursts...or knockwursts....or tueringers...or bockwursts...or weisswursts....or....well, you get the idea.
Bis dann,
J. Riley
I realized that I haven't given anyone an update on my Spanish classes. I will not embarrass myself by attempting to write something legible, but suffice to say that the further I get in Spanish, the better I realize my German is. Now that I'm thinking about it, I can see that my German is actually pretty good. I can put sentences together with ease, I can conjugate verbs without thinking about it, and my vocabulary is pretty extensive. It's a good feeling to realize how far I've come with learning a foreign language and to realize that the five years of German I took and the two summers I spent there were not wasted! On that note, someone told me about a website called meetup.com that has all sorts of random meeting groups for a million different events, including one for people like me that want to practice speaking German. So, I went ahead and signed up for that one, maybe I'll miss a Thursday-night cardio class sometime and meet up with some other kraut-speakers at Hallo Berlin down in Hell's Kitchen (I love saying that!) for some beers and bratwursts...or knockwursts....or tueringers...or bockwursts...or weisswursts....or....well, you get the idea.
Bis dann,
J. Riley
Sunday, November 14, 2004
How Many Blondes Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb?
Well, I'm checking in with my weekly weekend update blog. Like most weekends recently, it's been busy, it's been late, and it's been COLD! Ladies and gentleman, winter is here, whether we like it or not. There were reports of snow in Jersey on Friday night / Saturday morning, and my layer-count increased to three on Saturday, not including gloves, scarf, and beanie hat....
Friday, to add to the unpleasant temperature, we were inundated with some rain and heavy winds. However, even this wouldn't prevent me from attending my first cooking class in New York downtown in the Murray Hill area. The theme for this class is eating well and living well, so there were only fresh, organic vegetables used as ingredients. And only organic wine was drinken...drunken...drunk?? In any case, the class was a great way to spend a Friday night, meeting a group of about 10 people and a wide variety of age groups. We were given recipes and cooked up an autumn dinner, from adzuki bean soup to Delicata squash, black rice, and green beans. and it was wonderful! I plan on putting some of these recipes to use in the near future to impress my guests. "Oh, it's just something I threw together"...
Speaking of impressing guests with my cooking, I may have the opporunity to invite someone I met on Saturday over for a little dining delite and conversation. Saturday was my monthly engagement at a Hell's Kitchen housing center with some kids. This month, we took the kids to the Sony Wonderlabs, which is basically like a place that kids can go to and play with multimedia items that teach them a little about technology today (and sends subliminal messages to ask for Sony gadgets for Christmas). I was hoping that some of the volunteers from last month would be there again because it was a great group. Unfortunately, there was only one repeat volunteer, an intruiging young lady named Jen that I got along with very well last month. Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to meet up with her in the very near future....
After "saving the world" (as some of my friends call it), I did a little shopping for some work pants at Jos. A Bank. Paul just returned from his second business trip to Israel in three weeks, so I met up with him and Cathy to try to get lottery tickets to see Rent! on Broadway. After being unsuccessful, we headed over to another street to try to get standing room or cheap tickets to something else. We struck gold at the theater playing "Dracula", $21 student fare for upper orchestra seats. We all whipped out our Cal Poly ID's and were golden.
I have to admit something: Dracula just plain and simply freaks me out. I envision Translyvania as a dark, mystic place with ghosts and vampires flying around. What is it about "Transexual....transvestites....from Tra-tra-tra-Transylvaaaaniaaaa" (Rocky Horror Picture Show)? I don't know, but one of these days maybe I'll get over it and take a trip to Romania to visit Vlad the Impaler's castle and get over this dracularphobia.
In any case, the show was mediocre, it was worth seeing for $21! The singing was good, but the melodies didn't sound right to me. The killer part of the show was all of the flying and physically suspended effects that the characters went through. Oh yea, and the part where the main actress pulls her dress down to her waist ;-) . Cool stuff! The story line was typical Dracula, cheesy at some points, freaky creepy at others....
Sunday I spent half the day trying to fix a guy I know's computer (stupid CDROM hardware issue - nothing I can do about that!). And also trying to change a LIGHTBULB! How hard can that be? Well, it's pretty tough if you're blonde. My badass chrome halogen light went out the other day and, after a trip to the local hardware store, I had my part. Except that now the lightbulb doesn't FIT into the spot?!?!? Does anyone have any hints? It's the right part, but it just isn't quite wide enough for both sides of the lightbulb contacts to touch. I guess I don't have the mechanic in me like....my sister does :-
J. Riley
Friday, to add to the unpleasant temperature, we were inundated with some rain and heavy winds. However, even this wouldn't prevent me from attending my first cooking class in New York downtown in the Murray Hill area. The theme for this class is eating well and living well, so there were only fresh, organic vegetables used as ingredients. And only organic wine was drinken...drunken...drunk?? In any case, the class was a great way to spend a Friday night, meeting a group of about 10 people and a wide variety of age groups. We were given recipes and cooked up an autumn dinner, from adzuki bean soup to Delicata squash, black rice, and green beans. and it was wonderful! I plan on putting some of these recipes to use in the near future to impress my guests. "Oh, it's just something I threw together"...
Speaking of impressing guests with my cooking, I may have the opporunity to invite someone I met on Saturday over for a little dining delite and conversation. Saturday was my monthly engagement at a Hell's Kitchen housing center with some kids. This month, we took the kids to the Sony Wonderlabs, which is basically like a place that kids can go to and play with multimedia items that teach them a little about technology today (and sends subliminal messages to ask for Sony gadgets for Christmas). I was hoping that some of the volunteers from last month would be there again because it was a great group. Unfortunately, there was only one repeat volunteer, an intruiging young lady named Jen that I got along with very well last month. Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to meet up with her in the very near future....
After "saving the world" (as some of my friends call it), I did a little shopping for some work pants at Jos. A Bank. Paul just returned from his second business trip to Israel in three weeks, so I met up with him and Cathy to try to get lottery tickets to see Rent! on Broadway. After being unsuccessful, we headed over to another street to try to get standing room or cheap tickets to something else. We struck gold at the theater playing "Dracula", $21 student fare for upper orchestra seats. We all whipped out our Cal Poly ID's and were golden.
I have to admit something: Dracula just plain and simply freaks me out. I envision Translyvania as a dark, mystic place with ghosts and vampires flying around. What is it about "Transexual....transvestites....from Tra-tra-tra-Transylvaaaaniaaaa" (Rocky Horror Picture Show)? I don't know, but one of these days maybe I'll get over it and take a trip to Romania to visit Vlad the Impaler's castle and get over this dracularphobia.
In any case, the show was mediocre, it was worth seeing for $21! The singing was good, but the melodies didn't sound right to me. The killer part of the show was all of the flying and physically suspended effects that the characters went through. Oh yea, and the part where the main actress pulls her dress down to her waist ;-) . Cool stuff! The story line was typical Dracula, cheesy at some points, freaky creepy at others....
Sunday I spent half the day trying to fix a guy I know's computer (stupid CDROM hardware issue - nothing I can do about that!). And also trying to change a LIGHTBULB! How hard can that be? Well, it's pretty tough if you're blonde. My badass chrome halogen light went out the other day and, after a trip to the local hardware store, I had my part. Except that now the lightbulb doesn't FIT into the spot?!?!? Does anyone have any hints? It's the right part, but it just isn't quite wide enough for both sides of the lightbulb contacts to touch. I guess I don't have the mechanic in me like....my sister does :-
J. Riley
WWJD?
We've all seen this acronym on bumper stickers (well, those of us in the 'States, anyway). This question was posed as a comment by Dad on my massive political debate blog:
"Doug said: "One other thought. I have heard a lot about how to not deal with terrorists, ie war. What would some of you have done? I have not heard much on that. I am also interested in situations like Ruanda (sp??). Here is a case where tons of people are dying. What is our response? We know sanctions only hurt the little guy, and don't like war, so what are some other options?"
To paraphrase, "What Would Justin('s friends and family) Do?" Enquiring minds want to know...
"Doug said: "One other thought. I have heard a lot about how to not deal with terrorists, ie war. What would some of you have done? I have not heard much on that. I am also interested in situations like Ruanda (sp??). Here is a case where tons of people are dying. What is our response? We know sanctions only hurt the little guy, and don't like war, so what are some other options?"
To paraphrase, "What Would Justin('s friends and family) Do?" Enquiring minds want to know...
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Polyester and Inferior Genes
With winter quickly approaching, my wardrobe is being reshuffled, with shorts being replaced by jeans, my boxers being replaced by thermals, and my t-shirts being replaced by anything made out of wool or cashmere. Or polyester.
There's a big difference between polyester and wool, in terms of warmth, quality, durability, and, one of the most important factors for me, price. In the past, if something was made of polyester, but it was significantly cheaper than something made out of wool or an equivalent fabric, I didn't think twice about going for the polyester. But now I know the real truth about it. I've learned that the most important trait of polyester is it's incredible ability to generate enormous amounts of static electricity during the winter months in cold places (that would be anywhere BUT California). And this static electricity is released frequently during these winter months, often passing through my body and out through my finger tips whenever i touch something made of metal. And this is extremely annoying. I'm starting to feel like the main character in Office Space (who is shocked every time he touches his office door). Does anyone know how I can make myself shock proof???? Maybe one of my "layers" should be aluminum foil or something like that.
After taking some time off to recover from a horrific injury caused by yogan down-dogs (my thumb hurt), I returned to the gym to start playing some raquetball against Cathy. Being the masculine man that I am, I refused to stop playing until I beat her. Well, we went five games and all I had to show for it was a massive blister on my thumb. And a big 0 in the "Win" column. Clearly there is an inferior gene in my body that relates to my thumb. Not to mention my inferior lower eye-lids.....
P.S. Funny article (among many others) on Craigslist. And there's lots of activity going on on my Friday Night Smackdown blog entry...
There's a big difference between polyester and wool, in terms of warmth, quality, durability, and, one of the most important factors for me, price. In the past, if something was made of polyester, but it was significantly cheaper than something made out of wool or an equivalent fabric, I didn't think twice about going for the polyester. But now I know the real truth about it. I've learned that the most important trait of polyester is it's incredible ability to generate enormous amounts of static electricity during the winter months in cold places (that would be anywhere BUT California). And this static electricity is released frequently during these winter months, often passing through my body and out through my finger tips whenever i touch something made of metal. And this is extremely annoying. I'm starting to feel like the main character in Office Space (who is shocked every time he touches his office door). Does anyone know how I can make myself shock proof???? Maybe one of my "layers" should be aluminum foil or something like that.
After taking some time off to recover from a horrific injury caused by yogan down-dogs (my thumb hurt), I returned to the gym to start playing some raquetball against Cathy. Being the masculine man that I am, I refused to stop playing until I beat her. Well, we went five games and all I had to show for it was a massive blister on my thumb. And a big 0 in the "Win" column. Clearly there is an inferior gene in my body that relates to my thumb. Not to mention my inferior lower eye-lids.....
P.S. Funny article (among many others) on Craigslist. And there's lots of activity going on on my Friday Night Smackdown blog entry...
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Upgrade to Firefox 1.0 NOW!
Do you like getting spyware on your computer? Do you like viruses? Do you like the fact that someone has the ability to look at the files on your computer, or see your financial information? Do you like those annoying pop-ups that always appear when you use Internet Explorer? If not, I highly recommend you upgrade your web browser to Firefox 1.0 NOW. It's a quick, easy installation and you will be able to sleep at night knowing that people won't be able to read that essay you had to write for your college entrance exams....
Monday, November 08, 2004
Czeching out Brooklyn
Things are finally getting back to normal for me in my humble New York abode. On Thursday night, the last of my string of Autumn visitors left to return to Germany, leaving me with an odd-feeling empty apartment. Without having to entertain anyone and finally having ample floor space again, I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself, so I hunkered down on my futon and thumbed through my weekly Time Out New York magazine that I get. It's a great magazine, it tells you what's going on in town and where it's happening, as well as random articles on fashion, style, art, culture, dining, partying, etc. As I was going through the pages and pages of events, I realized that I'd never really focused on the events, mostly because I rarely have time to hunker down and read the mag before the next issue arrives. With nothing on my weekend agenda, I started making a list of things that I could do to keep myself entertained.
One of the gems that I found hidden in the magazine was right up my alley: New Czech Films being presented at the BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) as part of the Czech Independance Day festivities. Many of you know that I have a weird obsession with Eastern Europe, especially with the Czech Republic. Maybe it's the beautiful women, maybe it's the magical architecture, or maybe it's the interesting history, but regardless, I am obsessed with that region of the world. When I relocate to Europe someday in the future, that area is definetely on my shortlist of locations. But I digress....so Saturday night Sean and I headed over to Brooklyn, checked out the hip restaurants on Smith St. (two thumbs up!! I'll be going back there; We ate Thai food at Tuk Tuk) and then walked to the BAM to see this random Czech film with subtitles called "Bored in Brno". After some of the movies, they have a Q&A session with the directors, but unfortunately, our's wasn't one of them. BUT, the movie was excellent. It was totally low-budget, but the actors did a great job and it was a hilarious movie. Let's just say that it's about a couple (both of whom have a few screws loose upstairs) who are going to spend their first night together, and everyone is giving them advice. It was really great....
While I'm on the subject of Eastern European obsession - and Brooklyn -, I spent most of Saturday in Brooklyn at Fort Greene park with some people from New York Cares, my volunteer organization. We performed some reconstructive surgery on an area of the park that, interestingly enough, I had performed some reconstructive surgery on back in May for Spring Cleanup Day. We also planted a ton of bulbs in preparation for the winter, so next spring it should be looking good. I was talking to one of the other volunteers (who, coincidently, I had met about a month back at a completely different event in Manhattan) about how I was going to be going to BAM to see a Czech film that night and I declared that I had a strange obsession with Eastern Europe. It turns out that she's studying Eastern European history at Columbia and just got back from spending a summer in Berlin, because she's learning German as well. Unfortunately, she took off before I had a chance to say goodbye and invite her to that evening's festivities, but I'm sure I'll see her next weekend at my monthly kid's event in Hell's Kitchen...
Also of note, I ate at Angelica's Kitchen in the East Village on Friday night. It's one of those vegan organic restaurants that are all over the place here in the city. It was quite good, though, and had something called a "community table" for people who are eating by themselves or in small groups. I ended up sitting next to an 85 year-old lady who eats at the restaurant almost daily. She was born and raised in New York City and now is an artist after raising her family on the 20th floor of a building overlooking the East River and downtown.
Sunday I shopped for winter clothing. I was somewhat successful at limiting the spending and still picking up some vital items like cashmere-lined gloves, beanies, scarfs, and socks. Gotta love discount shopping at Century 21!
And, finally, the last event of the weekend was signing up for a health-and-fitness cooking class sponsored by Whole Foods Market for next Friday. I have no doubt that this will inspire a yogan outlook on in-home dining in the near future!
J. Riley
One of the gems that I found hidden in the magazine was right up my alley: New Czech Films being presented at the BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) as part of the Czech Independance Day festivities. Many of you know that I have a weird obsession with Eastern Europe, especially with the Czech Republic. Maybe it's the beautiful women, maybe it's the magical architecture, or maybe it's the interesting history, but regardless, I am obsessed with that region of the world. When I relocate to Europe someday in the future, that area is definetely on my shortlist of locations. But I digress....so Saturday night Sean and I headed over to Brooklyn, checked out the hip restaurants on Smith St. (two thumbs up!! I'll be going back there; We ate Thai food at Tuk Tuk) and then walked to the BAM to see this random Czech film with subtitles called "Bored in Brno". After some of the movies, they have a Q&A session with the directors, but unfortunately, our's wasn't one of them. BUT, the movie was excellent. It was totally low-budget, but the actors did a great job and it was a hilarious movie. Let's just say that it's about a couple (both of whom have a few screws loose upstairs) who are going to spend their first night together, and everyone is giving them advice. It was really great....
While I'm on the subject of Eastern European obsession - and Brooklyn -, I spent most of Saturday in Brooklyn at Fort Greene park with some people from New York Cares, my volunteer organization. We performed some reconstructive surgery on an area of the park that, interestingly enough, I had performed some reconstructive surgery on back in May for Spring Cleanup Day. We also planted a ton of bulbs in preparation for the winter, so next spring it should be looking good. I was talking to one of the other volunteers (who, coincidently, I had met about a month back at a completely different event in Manhattan) about how I was going to be going to BAM to see a Czech film that night and I declared that I had a strange obsession with Eastern Europe. It turns out that she's studying Eastern European history at Columbia and just got back from spending a summer in Berlin, because she's learning German as well. Unfortunately, she took off before I had a chance to say goodbye and invite her to that evening's festivities, but I'm sure I'll see her next weekend at my monthly kid's event in Hell's Kitchen...
Also of note, I ate at Angelica's Kitchen in the East Village on Friday night. It's one of those vegan organic restaurants that are all over the place here in the city. It was quite good, though, and had something called a "community table" for people who are eating by themselves or in small groups. I ended up sitting next to an 85 year-old lady who eats at the restaurant almost daily. She was born and raised in New York City and now is an artist after raising her family on the 20th floor of a building overlooking the East River and downtown.
Sunday I shopped for winter clothing. I was somewhat successful at limiting the spending and still picking up some vital items like cashmere-lined gloves, beanies, scarfs, and socks. Gotta love discount shopping at Century 21!
And, finally, the last event of the weekend was signing up for a health-and-fitness cooking class sponsored by Whole Foods Market for next Friday. I have no doubt that this will inspire a yogan outlook on in-home dining in the near future!
J. Riley
Friday, November 05, 2004
Friday Night Smackdown
Enquiring minds want to know: Why was Bush re-elected? I know a lot of my readers voted for Bush (myself excluded), and a lot of my readers either voted for Kerry or would have voted for Kerry if they were citizens. See the link below this post that says "Comments"? Let's hear why you voted for the candidate that you chose (or would have chose if you were a citizen), and hopefully we'll get some discussion going on this subject. No holds barred!! Feel free to hide behind the "anonymous" cover if you don't want to reveal who you are, or put your name in your post if you are courageous enough. I will delete any comments that are personal attacks (unless they are personal attacks on Bush) and I will steer the discussion to my one-sided viewpoint. Just kidding!!
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Raiders of the Lost Blog
I had a great blog qeued up yesterday, but thanks to the worthlessness of Internet Explorer, it has been lost. Fear not - a new version of my preferred browser Firefox is coming out next week, which I will install and use for future blogging.
Most of you know how I feel about the elections, so I shouldn't have to say much. It was pretty disappointing to hear Bush's victory speech, using rhetoric about how he "needs support from those that voted for Kerry...bla bla bla". Obviously he doesn't need our support since he's been re-elected and now has no reason to do anything but push his "radical" (as BBC termed it) conservative agenda. He didn't "need" our support before, so why should he need it now?
I'm done, and I'm stepping off my soap box. Politics are pointless to discuss for the next three years....
Most of you know how I feel about the elections, so I shouldn't have to say much. It was pretty disappointing to hear Bush's victory speech, using rhetoric about how he "needs support from those that voted for Kerry...bla bla bla". Obviously he doesn't need our support since he's been re-elected and now has no reason to do anything but push his "radical" (as BBC termed it) conservative agenda. He didn't "need" our support before, so why should he need it now?
I'm done, and I'm stepping off my soap box. Politics are pointless to discuss for the next three years....
Monday, November 01, 2004
One Day Left Before Voting Time!
Well it looks like we're getting one last stretch of nice weather here in the city before it becomes miserably cold outside. Yesterday the thermometer mercury reached somewhere around 70 degrees, which isn't too bad for the end of October! It made it much more appealing to wander downtown to see the Halloween parade with the millions of other people crowded into the corner of 14th St. and 6th Avenue, where I was standing. Of course, with that many people, it would have probably been a comfortable temperature regardless of the thermometer reading...
This was my first time actually seeing (partially) the infamous New York City Halloween parade. Last year, we wandered down to catch a glimpse, but with so many people on the streets, it was impossible to get close enough to see anything. This year wasn't much different, but the visiting Germans and I left early to get good "seats" and we got reasonably close enough to see some interesting costumes. And getting there early also meant that we were subjected to a wide variety of people complaining about minor things like "I can't breathe", "Stop pushing", "Excuse me, can you please keep walking", "You're stepping on my dog", etc. I wish I could have kept track of some of the things people say when they are faced with stressful situations like not being able to move. Of course, being a family-oriented blog, I wouldn't be able to publish most of them without requiring the visual equivalent of "EarMuff It"...
This week I start working way way way down in South Brooklyn, near Coney Island (you know, where they have the annual hot-dog eating contest, which is almost always won by a short, skinny Japanese guy). This is the first hospital that I've been to that actually has English signs, Spanish signs, and Russian signs. Yes, this is where the Russian mafia resides. Of course, when you cross "Moscow" with "Hospital", you get "Russian Nurses", and that is not a bad thing, as those of you who have had the pleasure of visiting Eastern Europe can attest ;o)....
This was my first time actually seeing (partially) the infamous New York City Halloween parade. Last year, we wandered down to catch a glimpse, but with so many people on the streets, it was impossible to get close enough to see anything. This year wasn't much different, but the visiting Germans and I left early to get good "seats" and we got reasonably close enough to see some interesting costumes. And getting there early also meant that we were subjected to a wide variety of people complaining about minor things like "I can't breathe", "Stop pushing", "Excuse me, can you please keep walking", "You're stepping on my dog", etc. I wish I could have kept track of some of the things people say when they are faced with stressful situations like not being able to move. Of course, being a family-oriented blog, I wouldn't be able to publish most of them without requiring the visual equivalent of "EarMuff It"...
This week I start working way way way down in South Brooklyn, near Coney Island (you know, where they have the annual hot-dog eating contest, which is almost always won by a short, skinny Japanese guy). This is the first hospital that I've been to that actually has English signs, Spanish signs, and Russian signs. Yes, this is where the Russian mafia resides. Of course, when you cross "Moscow" with "Hospital", you get "Russian Nurses", and that is not a bad thing, as those of you who have had the pleasure of visiting Eastern Europe can attest ;o)....
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