Love Life's Questions

"I would like to beg you to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer." --Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Learning to Learn

Random thought: What would it be like to grow up in an urban city like New York? I have no idea. I can't even fathom it. I always assumed that I would raise my children with a white picket fence around my lawn and be 20 feet from my neighbors. But I have no idea how kids who were raised in an urban environment turn out. I think I'll dwell on that for the next few days.

Here in New York, it seems like I'm learning something new everyday. Whether it's a new route that can potentially save me up to 30 seconds on my commute to the North Bronx, or learning that the Third Avenue Garden grocery store sells Tropicana orange juice for only $2.99, or learning that if I apply enough layers the temperature becomes tolerable and nothing to write home about. So, I'm walking home from making a delivery, and something else occurred to me. I suddenly realized, for the first time in my life, something very important. I realized that if I come home and hang my coat in my closet, put my scarfs away, hang my work-clothes up where they belong, and put my work shoes in the closet, my apartment stays clean!! So, putting those things together.....if I don't make the apartment dirty, it stays clean!! Incredible!!!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to clean my apartment.

J. Riley

More Pictures!

When it rains (or, more appropriately, snows), it pours! I finally got Roland's pictures - from our trip over two years ago. Yea, the mail is a bit snow from his part of the world to mine. Of course they're on my website. Some of these are my pictures, but many of them are his.

Speaking of pictures, do you people know about Skype? Well, okay, it really has nothing to do with pictures. But it does have to do with "speaking". I remember a few years back, in the technological dark-ages, I tried out a program that let me call home for free, using my PC and a microphone as a phone and using the internet as my telephone circuit. The quality was terrible and the company quickly went out of business (Dial-Pad, I think it was called). Well, here we are a few years later, and along comes Skype. It doesn't really serve up too much value for us in the states because of the promiscuity of mobile phones and free long distance calling. But, for those of you outside the country (and I know pretty much none of you are out there since you don't read my blog), this is key! I've gotten a few of my friends to get on Skype and the call quality is breath-taking good! Very crisp sound, full duplex, etc. I've even had a conference call between three people in three countries and had no issues whatsoever. Add to that the fact that file transfers actually work (unlike when using programs like MSN Messenger or AOL) and that they are encrypted, and we've got ourselves a wiener....I mean winner. Download Skype. I'm jrhainers....

J. Riley

Digital Revolution

My new, compact Canon SD300 arrived today. Let the digital capture of my New York pulse begin!!

New pictures were posted from last weekends events (taken with the OLD camera):

1. Our first snow
2. Lazer Tag!!
   

Rocky VI

Rocky is back!

How Very Euro!

SF is going very Euro! Check this out:

Yahoo! News - San Francisco May Charge for Grocery Bags

Operation Winter Survival

It was almost like a theme for a video-game:

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to smuggle a group of rebels (with their parent's permission) out of prison, through an arctic, cement jungle and lead them into battle against the enemy in a secluded, hidden location. You and your team will be provided with high-tech, impenetrable body armor protecting your entire body with the exception of vulnerable locations on your chest, the middle of your back, and your shoulders. In addition, you will be (self-)provided with a stepometer that will measure each step of your day. Following the battle, if you survive, you will need to lead your team back to the outpost location that they were initially smuggled from and provide them with rations that offer little sustenance and lack many essential vitamins and minerals.

I accepted the mission.

So, Saturday morning, I went to my monthly volunteer event. We walked through a blizzard with the kids to a Lazer Tag center in the middle of Times Square and dis-robed our plethora of layers and placed the full battle gear on our bodies. This consisted of four body sensors and an arsenal of lazer guns with ample, replenishable ammunition. Okay, maybe I took the mission a little too seriously. Tell that to the kids that I had to pistol-whip when I ran out ammunition. During the battle, I staked out my sniper position so that the target on my back was covered, I covered the sensor on my chest with my folded arms, and picked off the kids one by one while annihilating and pummeling their "goal", easily leading my team to victory in the second round. Of course, the whole time I was being chased by Maria, the little girl that was put in charge of keeping me in line. The only victum on that trip was my health conscience, due to the fact that my pedometer, which was counting my steps throughout the day and the battle, was dislodged from it's secure position on my waste sometime during the day. Which is unfortunate, because I had a massive walking-weekend....

By the time we left to take them back, the snow was just dumping loads and loads, and I was loving every minute of it. So we finally got the snow storm I had been hoping for. This meant that I could bust out my waterproof hiking boots that I purchased last summer, giving me girthy traction and leather protection from the elements. They are still in the process of being broken in, but they successfully resisted the temptation to give me fat blisters on my feet...

Sunday, I took a few pictures of the snowfall aftermath, which I will post to my website in short order. Paul and I checked out Central Park with it's acreage of snow and kids in their bunny suits with their slides sliding down the hills. Last year, my hellish employer's scheduling pretty much caused me to miss out on seeing the park covered in snow, so I had to do that as soon as possible this year. Quite awesome!

For the sake of our healthy lifestyle, we decided not to play raquetball tonight and instead spent about four hours at a sports bar/restaurant with our eyes marginally following football games while we scarfed down burgers, fries, and desserts while playing trivial pursuit with the cards provided at each table. As usual, the women killed Paul and I. It's pretty sad when we can't beat them at basketball, raquetball, or tests of intelligence. With the exception of domesticated questions, like how many tablespoons are in a cup. How in the world did we get that question right? Aren't we men????

J. Riley

You Gotta Know When to Hold'm....and When to Fold'm

Last night I participated in my first poker tournament in quite a while. The last time I played a game of serious poker - for money - was in Lake Tahoe a few years back when I was with a friend and a bunch of his friends. We stayed up into the wee hours of the morning playing back then and I thought it was hilarious because I was robbing them blind. Even though I'd never played before.

When Alan was my roommate, he and I used to gang up on tables in online poker - though it was always with fake money. Last night, Alan hosted a poker event at his place. Most of these guys are serious players, they know all the nicknames, how to split the pots, time limits for each round, etc. Me? I was just trying to remember how to deal every once in a while. I figured they'd spit me up and chew me out within a few minutes and I'd lose my $15 buy-in but maybe could learn a few tricks. I really don't like losing my money, but I figured it would be in the name of socializing, which is always a good thing.

Four hours later, things were different. I walked out of his house with $220 in cash, taking the boys to town in each of the rounds. I had enough good hands to make them buy the bluffs and I outright bought the pot several times with that strategem. I was king on that night, though I know next time I'll probably get skunked.

Of course, I'm so cheap that I still walked home that night, despite the fact that it was about 10 degrees outside and the cab ride would've cost me, at most, $5. Refer to the fabric softener and yogurt case studies for more evidence of that :o) !!

J. Riley

My Imaginary Friend

For the second successive week, my Sunday has been consumed with discussing the World Cup and talking to my international friends. Logistically, The World Cup planning is proving to be tenuous and stressful, even though it is still a year and a half away. Here are the issues involved in solving this puzzle:

1. I am helping to organize the trip for about 9 people in three continents and five countries
2. Tickets for the games go on sale in two weeks
3. We won't know who is playing in what group until December (kind of like buying playoff tickets before the beginning of the season, only any team can be playing at one of eight stadiums)
   
4. Each game has different pricing
5. Everyone has a different opinion and has different teams

So, the issues are numerous, and the logistics are a nightmare. But, we're working on it. For me, the important part of the whole event is that I'm going to be meeting up with my friends from South American and Europe once again. Of course, there are two different sets of friends, which always makes things interesting. My goal is to not end up with two sets of friends annoyed with me because I'm favoring the other set. It sure sucks being so popular ;o) ....

I've also discovered something cool that I can do with my instant messaging client - MSN Messenger. For the first (actually, second) time, I am successfully having a discussion with my friend in Slovakia over a free program and over the internet. The interesting part of it is that he doesn't have a webcam or a microphone (which is what I have), so he can see and hear me, but I can't see or hear him. It's kind of like having a dog - I can talk to the dog, I know the dog can understand me ("Hanna, wanna bone???"), and I know the dog watches everything I do, but the dog never talks to me. So, I've been sitting at my desk or nearby for a large part of the day while Roland works the night shift at his hotel and he sends me an instant message and I answer him in person. It's pretty funny. And he's been watching me all night as well as I go about my daily tasks, provide technical support, and entertain my guests. Pretty funny - it's like I'm talking to myself or to an imaginary friend...

Last night we went out for dinner to a nice little Cuban restaurant in the West Village with a waitress that looked an awefully lot like Ashley Judd. The food was outrageously tasty, as was the dessert at a small cafe that made me feel like I was in Paris afterwards. The cafe pretty much had a wall made of glass, so we could see people stumbling out of the bars around the area and listen to the Louis Armstrong and Billy Holiday music quietly serenading us and the other guests at the cafe while we sipped Cappuchinos and ate our dainty desserts. Does it really get better than this?? If only I had "someone special" to share it with.....

J. Riley...and his not-so-imaginary friend on the other side of the continent

Bio Hazard

So last night I pushed myself to attend my Thursday night cardio class at the gym. I was late (as usual), so I was hauling ass up the hill to get to the gym and get my spot in the class and do some yoga stretches to lengthen my muscles prior to them getting destroyed in class. Well I got all the way to the corner of the block that it was on when I noticed that the whole block was taped off the police. Luckily, I didn't have to go all the way around the block to get in, the gym security dudes had opened a side door. I asked what was up and they said that there was a "suspicious package" out front. Being a prestigious Jewish center, they are pretty tight on security and they don't mess around (almost like going through an airport just to go to the gym). So I flew up the stairs (I gotta get my steps in - even though I wasn't wearing the stepometer) only to find the class empty. A few people mingled in late, but still no motivational teacher. The girls in the class (let's face it, I'm one of the only guys, which is a good thing as far as I'm concerned. Is there any doubt that I'm not in the back row of every class? ;o) started doing sit-ups, push-ups, jump rope, etc. on their own after a few minutes. But me? Hell no, I waited around a few minutes, determined that I couldn't motivate myself to do anything, and so I headed downstairs to the sauna to do a super-soak. I did find it mildly amusing that I was willing to risk being a victum in a bombing rather than miss my cardio class. I guess I figure that if I live my life in fear of being in a terrorist attack, I won't ever do anything fun. I have my contingency plans in place and have developed a succession plan in the event that something happens, so all the appropriate parties would be notified. So what do I have to worry about?

I got through three rounds of sauna-until-I'm-drenched followed by freezing cold shower, sauna-until-I'm-drenched...etc. I was nice and toasty after that, so I headed home with my shorts and t-shirt feeling nice and warm. I made a little something different for dinner - fruit parfait, or something similar to what mom used to make - yogurt with cut up fruit inside. A little yogurt salad, if you will. Was just right after a hearty business lunch!

Turns on someone left a medical case labeled with "Bio Hazard" across the street from the gym. Too bad the teacher never showed up :-\ ....

J. Riley

Step-o-meter Update

Thanks to Summer's generosity at Christmas, I am now the proud owner of a pedometer, although I've heard that the proper term for my model is a "stepmeter" or something like that. Regardless, it counts the number of steps that I walk each day. The goal of the whole thing is to get you to walk more every day, which makes you a healthier person regardless of whether you belong to Gold's Gym and do bench presses like it's nobody's business (like me). Apparently the "ideal" number of steps is somewhere around 10,000 or more (which is roughly 5 miles per day of walking). The results are in:

1. I did a cumulative count of steps for one week
2. Two of the days during the week, I worked from home, so I didn't even bother wearing it
3. I rarely wore it after I got home from work
4. I wore it once when I played raquetball, and I didn't wear it the other time I played raquetball
5. My stepometer reported roughly 50,000 steps in 7 days, or roughly 25 miles in a week.
   
6. When I wasn't working from home, I was somewhere in the neighborhood of 8,500-10,000 steps per day.
   
7. I made very few trips to the grocery store this week, if I made any at all. Under normal circumstances, I make a trip at least every other day.
   

All in all, I'm somewhat surprised at how few steps I make compared with some people that live in the 'burbs! I have noticed that a majority of the steps made are actually just walking from office to office, or from the couch to the bathroom, etc. Dedicated, time-requiring walks (such as to the subway station) account for a lesser percentage of steps than I would have figured. Speaking of that, it is around 1500 steps, or .75 miles, from my apartment to the subway station.

Maybe I need to go shopping for something. You know, for the sake of having more steps....
J. Riley

Information Overload

I feel like I just ordered a dessert from Cafe Mozart and have taken my customary two or three bites (with several minutes and frequent sips of water interspersed between each) and have decided that I can't go on. But I'm not talking about overwhelmed palletes and rich desserts here. I'm talking about overwhelming my capactiy for storing information in my head. If I don't get it out of my head right now, it may never make it on paper - I mean on my blog...

So last week we celebrated the final birthday of the year (Paul's) with our customary ritual of picking a ridiculous restaurant to eat at for dinner and not holding back on the feast. Paul's choice was the refined kitchen of Eleven Madison Park, which is located inside the building that houses a prestigious international investment bank and was filled to the brim with people in suits, sport coats, and silk ties - a truly professional "New York" establishment that you see in movies and read about in books. I don't have the same animosity against those "types" as I held when working for my previous employer, but suffice to say that I was not sporting any of those items. In fact, I was probably wearing jeans. And white socks. And a jacket that had oil and paint stains all over it.

Anyway, the feast was really a festivus-for-the-rest-of-us. Although we all enjoyed our meals immensely, I thought D's dish (simple beef short ribs) brought down the house because the meat was amazing and just melted in your mouth like the goat cheese in one of our appetizers. Yummy! Now we can save up our money for the next few months since we have until July before our next outing. Good thing, cuz I'm feeling broke all of the sudden.

I don't suppose feeling broke would have anything to do with the fact that I decided to hold off on purchasing a new digital camera and decided to be more practical and order myself a whole new computer instead. Prices were so low on that day that I couldn't afford not to buy a new one! So, sitting inside my apartment, I have a lovely new Dell computer, my first new computer since my junior year of college. Unfortunately, in an effort to save a few bucks, I ordered the monitor from a different vendor and so my Dell has been sitting here face-less since Friday, just beckoning to be setup and put to good use....storing mp3s or something menial like that. No wonder I've been having problems sleeping lately....

Friday evening, Paul, a co-worker of his (Nadia), and I met up at a Spanish restaurant for our first monthly book-club meeting. We just finished the book "War Trash" about a Chinese POW's experiences in South Korean / American prison camps. Although it got rave reviews from the guy behind the counter at B&N, I frankly found the book mediocre and a bit shallow. But I did learn a lot about the Korean War and the way prisoners camps were run, which appealed to my history appetite. It even mentioned that Czechoslovakian (remember, this is pre-Velvet Revolution!) soldiers helped patrol the neutral zone following the war, so it even appealed to my Eastern Euro appetite.

After our discussion, and tapas and sangria consumption at 1492, we cruised the Lower East Side looking for a suitable location to settle into for the evening. While looking for a live music venue that I'd heard about (and discovering that Google's SMS service was WRONG about an address), we came upon a French cafe/bar called Cafe Charbon that was pretty mellow with some housey-ambient music in the background being spun by a DJ. I totally dug this place for whatever reason, maybe because it was one of those "hidden gems" so prevalent, yet so rarely found, in the LES.

Sunday was my planning and catch-up day. I started it off right with a nice hour-long discussion with Roland in Slovakia, getting caught up on the latest stories of Eastern Euroland and what he's up to in his life. Following that discussion, I began filling my calendar with visitors for spring/summer. Three requests in one day!!! Wow, it's great to be popular ;o) . Alexander's friend Anja sent a reservation request for the end of May and about an hour after I sent her her reservation confirmation code, my bratty sister and her friends dropped the bomb on me that she and her friends were coming at the same time! To be fair, Summer said she was going to come "sometime in May" last week, so I had to bump Anja and make room for the teenagers. I mean the college graduates (that's scary).

Then came the barrage of IMs. First I got to provide remote assistance to the LA region in computer hardware maintenance. After working through some of that and coming to the conclusion that my "Midas Touch" in breaking anything electronic was contagious and that Jeff caught it from me when he was my roommate in Sunnyvale, we both gave up for the day and saved it for (another) rainy day.

While I was talking to Jeff, I got hit with questions about "why is this pirated software not working" from a former colleague of mine. "Don't ask me, you're the computer science student who's going to be working as a hacker in a few months" is what I implied, especially when I saw that my long lost friend from Peru, Vanessa, had just come online. So I started up that conversation and talked to her for a while. Sure enough, reservation request number three for for my apartment in one day! That's a world record.

In any case, I'm excited to have all my friends and family members that are coming to visit. It's not too late for you to come too!!

I couldn't sleep last night because I slept in too long on Sunday morning. I'm an insomniac, and I'm exhausted, especially after the mental strain and stress over waiting for my new 17" LCD monitor :-D . The computer was freshly formatted. It's purring like a kitten. And I'm in geek heaven....

Thanks for you attention,
The J. Riley

New Pictures Added To My Website!

Thanks to Alexander, I have a whole slew of new pictures on my website. They are from his camera, so don't blame me if they don't look good ;o) . They are the directories labled with (Alex) at the end . Enjoy!

The French diet connection

I guess the Canadian-French in me really shows it colors when I eat! Yahoo! News - The French diet connection: "'In America, we think if you love food, you eat huge quantities of it, and you eat it fast.' But if you stuff your mouth, you can't taste most of the food because your taste buds are only on your tongue. Plus, when you slow down with smaller bites, you savor food more and are satisfied with less, he says."

New Website!!

I spent the last few days automating my new website. Check it out! You'll even find some pictures from Christmas in Los Gatos there!

Who's Got Game? That's Right....I Do.

It's late. Do I have the time to blog? Yes, I do.

So, as expected, I did the New York New Year's Eve gig. Pub crawl from 4:30pm until around 9:30 followed by attending Sean's party on the UES. However, due to the large volume of beer (and water) consumed during the previous 5 hours, I had no room in my stomach for any of Sean's delightful fresh-pressed OJ/Grapefruit juice with refreshing top-shelf beverages. So, it was a sober night more or less - which isn't a bad thing.

Let's talk about my game. Most girls know that I have major game. However, my bountiful game usually doesn't (or, should I say "never") pay off for me when it comes down to "game point". Of course, you know what I'm talking about: raquetball. I have been in a major slump since...I started playing. But especially here in NYC - against both Paul and Cathy, I have accumulated maybe two wins up until today. That would be like a 13.333333% winning average - not exactly hot. Well, they faced my wrath today, game face and all. I put the smack down on both of them as well as D, who is an up and coming all-star newbie to the game. Now that my winning percentage is up to about 25%, I think I can go ahead and call her my protege. I will take her under my wing and show her what it takes to win in this game. I'll explain that throughout my trials and tribulations, it's comforting to know that if you stop hitting the ball into the ground before you hit the wall, you will actually accumulate points and win every once in a while. She'll learn....

Today was the first annual Geek Fest. Or, more appropriately, Get-Justin-To-Fix-Your-Computer-For-Free day. I successfully reconfigured a laptop and iPod, found and configured free wireless access from my friends' neighbors for them, and copied around 1000 copywritten songs from one laptop to three other laptops. Geek Day was a success for everyone but me. I've been working on re-doing my website to create dynamic directory links for my photo album since about 10:00am and have not successfully completed it yet. That's why it's 12:30am, my eyes hurt, and I'm sitting here blogging. On top of that, I have been pounding my head against the wall for weeks now about whether or not I should throw down $350 on a new, sleek, slim, sexy digital camera. And, to add to the madness, I am now being tempted by my former roommate Alan to purchase a new <$600 computer from Dell, complete with a 17" LCD monitor. Oh, woh-is-me, the geek :o|

J. Riley needs sleep.