JB's Blog

So my power to my laptop has been temperamental.  It keeps shifting from battery to AC power despite the fact that it is constantly plugged in.  I haver to play with the wire alot.  Pushing it in or out doesn't seem to help.  Do you know what a new AC adapter costs for a laptop?  Like $70.  Cuz I'm sure that's even close to what it costs to produce an AC adapter.  Non-laptop ones sell for like $10.  It's part of the whole lets make every replacement part so expensive they have to buy a new one...well I'll show them...I'm gonna put up with this shit for as long as humanly possible...that'll show em...  :\

I'm not really sure what is up with my blog design.  I still have the same old template selected, yet the background and format do not appear at all when you load my blog.  So I am at a loss for why it is appearing the way it is, and hope it goes back to old format.

To update you why my posts have been so far apart lately, I was in the midst of taking finals, and I have been going on interviews for summer jobs.  There's too many law students really.  Still working on that, but at least my second year is done...just one to go.

Anyway, this site was real popular via emails a few months ago, but always makes me smile:  http://www.ebaumsworld.com/flash/numanuma.html

As a frequenter of networking sites, I come across profiles where women will claim to have a "J-Lo booty."  I feel the need to do a public service announcement and help them, for they are confusing this with a Jello Booty.  If you have a big fat ass, this is jello, not J-Lo.  I do not think you could get a multimillion dollar insurance policy taken out for a fat ass.  Now if you are in shape, and it happens to be round, but not flabby, that is more along the J-Lo lines. 

This has been a public service announcement.

Did anyone wonder what the grand plan was for allergies?  Earth is made, earth has pollen, ragweed, molds, spores, etc.  Humans come into being.  Half the humans are allergic to these things, causing histamines to go crazy making their eyes itchy and watery, sneeze uncontrollably, have an itch in your throat which you cannot scratch.

Now what is the point of all these.  For three months a year some people have to be in agony as they are allergic to the earth.  Not like you can really escape it, unless you're in a desert.  I've racked my brain trying to come up with the developmental design of it.  If you're a creationist then there is only one response you can have...nice work buddy.  From the evolutionary standpoint when will being able to survive depend on who has allergies and who does not.  Is there a war due in a highly pollenous region of the world? 

Clearly the most logical answer after considering this, is that humans came here via spaceship.  Makes sense really.  Douglas Adams, your books had it right.

Since going to Cornell and now living by Union Square, I've had many interactions with squirrels.  The first is when a squirrel knocked on my door room door my sophomore year to ask me to come out and play.  I heard a light tapping at my door, and I look over and see nothing.  Then I look down and there is a squirrel standing up staring at me.  Somehow it got into the building, and then through my suite door.  I looked over and said hi.  Fifteen seconds went by and it was still there.  I then said I was busy, and the squirrel scampered away.

Something I also noticed was that squirrels seem to play hide and seek with each other, or tag.  I dunno, maybe it's just me (I had lots of time to kill between classes at points).

Finally the squirrels in Union Square are almost domesticated.  I remember during the blackout sitting in Union Square, and some of the squirrels felt comfortable jumping on your shoulder and sitting there.  They'd see you eating and run up next to you waiting for food.

And with that...back to studying for finals (10 more days!)

Has anyone ever noticed the phenomenon of when New Yorkers get out of train or subway cars, they all head for one staircase to get out.  Everyone will be bunching to try and get through on that one staircase, when 20 feet down there is another staircase that nobody is using.  This will usual prompt my friends and I to shrug and move on down to that staircase. 

*Last week I was out of staples.  I actually went to Staples solely to get staples.  Out of a two-store floor with many rows, they are in the middle of one row taking up a tiny shelf.

*I took the train home this past weekend for my dad's 50th birthday.  Out of my window I saw that a building was called "Austin Towers."

*I saw the Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy over the weekend.  Twenty minutes before it started, my brother and I decided to go to that show.  It was rainy, the weekend, opening weekend for that film, and Long Island.  I was sure it would be sold out.  I Fandango'd the tickets, paying the extra fee (buying in advance online).  Our theater was half-empty.  It was the number one film this past weekend.  I wasted money on the fee.  But I did get to fill out a survey.

Well for all of you Mets fans in Manhattan, and neighboring Time Warner served areas, you know we cannot see the Mets because of a dispute between TIme Warner and Cablevision.  Cable companies through vertical integration now have stakes in some of the channels they provide.  This is especially problematic in the sports realm.  Cablevision has stakes in MSG and FSNY which broadcasts 2/3 of the Mets games during a season.  The other 1/3 can be seen on broadcast tv.  The problem is they are the New York Mets, and Cablevision only serves Long Island.  Therefore when a dispute arose with Time Warner, Cablevision no longer allowed TIme Warner to carry those channels and us Met fans are blocked out!

Well Time Warner has recently advertised that to minimize our inconvenience, they would refund us $2.00/month.  So over the course of the approximately 6 month baseball season, I will save $12 on my cable bill.  A nosebleed seat at one single game is $15.  I miss 90+ games because of this dispute.  Also, my cable bill just increased by $5 a month two months ago, and so even with this rebate, I am still paying $3 more a month...and getting less!!!!  Gee Time Warner, thank you.  I feel my convenience is minimized :/

I really wish there was more competition in the Cable marketplace so that when two mega corporations are catfighting, the rest of us could give them a big F.U.  Unfortunately, living in the city, I cannot really switch to dish (i'm in a courtyard), and Time Warner is the only cable service that services my block. So essentially there is no competition.  I feel as if every Met fan arranged to all cancel their service at once on a particular day, then we get this resolved.  But let's face it...none of us want to risk any prolonged period without cable...*groan

Well this story comes tro you from my freshman year of colleges, way back in 1999.  Yes it is a tale from a century ago.  I had just come out of some fine dining for lunch :/ with some of the people from my floor.  I was walking back babbling away about something stupiud I am sure, when as I was about to put my foot down, I noticed there was a bird that well, wasn't flying away.  So I hopped over it.  The two girls I was with and I look down and the bird is staring off into to space just not moving. 

Now this also happened to be parents weekend at my school, and my folks were due any minute.  So sure enough they pull up and see a bunch of us staring at this bird.  Somehow, being the jackass I was, pretended to care about this bird and say, and agree to go with one of them to bring it up to the animal hospital at my school with our new found "ride" (my parents).

So one of the girls goes back to her room, puts on a pair of gloves and lifts the bird into a shoes box.  Then one comes with my parents and I into the car and up to the hospital.  The whole time the bird is not moving, not flying at all (which is a good thing since we probably would have crashed the car if it started flying around in there).  We get to the hospital take the shoe box out of the car, and as we are walking to the entrance...of course the bird decides to fly away.  An hour of my life gone...over a stupid bird!

Okay so has anyone besides me noticed how unbelievably quickly a pop tart warms up in a microwave.  Seriously you put in for like 7 seconds and it comes out with the inside steaming hot and all melted.  I mean nothing else really heats up that quickly.  Cheese doesn't melt that quickly.  Try biting into it right away after it comes out of the microwave, and you could burn the crap out of your mouth.  Maybe if we line containers with pop tart remnants  stuff could heat up really quickly, in case the four minutes for a microwaveable meal is too pressing.

So I have one last MTA story.  A couple of months ago I was taking the LIRR from Manhattan to the island to visit my cousin and folks for the weekend.  Normally my ride takes 50 minutes.  Well as the train approaches Merillon Avenue, we find out the track has a problem.  Therefore we have to wait for trains on the opposite track to go, and be cleared to go on that track.  We also had to backup to a point where we could switch over.  Well, this was a Friday Peak train.  So there were trains stuck behind us.  So we have to wait for those later trains to either back up or go first. 

So seeing as it looks like I am not going anywhere for awhile I take out a Snickers...okay i didn't, but maybe they'll send me some free ones.  I figure this is a good chance to call people, and so I call my grandmother.  Then I call my parents who are picking me up at the train station to tell them we are late.  Well they call back , now I have been sitting still for 50 mins.  As I answer the train starts moving and I tell them.  The things is I have to tell them, we;; we're moving backwards, and we continue to move backwards for another five minutes.  Then we finally get to go forwards.  So my trip took two hours...great way to spend a Friday night.

I think this is not just me.  I don't know, maybe I am wrong, but it seems like there are people in life who always seem to say we should get together or meet up sometime, and that sometime never comes.  Certain people can never give a specific date, but prefer to go with the sometime approach.  And it is somewhat mutual.  You'll both acknowledge it's been awhile, and then go yeah we should meet up sometime.  Then the conversation ends, with that sometime never being figured out.  Then weeks or months will go by. 

Well for those of you in New York, you know this past weekend the weather was great.  I had to get outside.  So I decided to pack up my laptop and bring my books to Bryant Park and  do some work there.  What's great about Bryant Park is that they have free wireless internet.  So basically I get to do exactly what I'd be doing at home but be outside with just one exception...usually there are no people that pee right in front of me at home.  After about an hour there I look down and notice a puddle dripping my way, and I look up from the book to see three feet in front of me, some guy has whipped it out and just started peeing on the ground.  There was no bushes or anything to cover him.  I guess he reached that point where he was like, hells dogs can do it...Needless to say I took that as my cue to leave.

Ok, how come everyone thinks your=you're.  Your deals with possession.  You're is the contraction of you are.  It is already a shortened version dammit...it doesn't need to be shorter.  Yet people will always write your instead of you're.

Now don't get me wrong, I certainly shorten many words when typing, just not into completely different words.  For example I notice when I say the word probably, I kind of mumble my way through the b's, maybe because I'm a New Yorker, I dunno.  So i'll type it as prolly.  It's actually caught on with most of my friends.

One night I was supposed to meet a friend of mine at a bar on 40-somethin street and 8th avenue.  This means I had to get to the Times Square stop.  She called at 11:30 to say she was there and to come down.  I decide to head to the union square station and take an N, Q or R train there.  I'm waiting and waiting and ten minutes go by.  I see a train coming down the express track but it is going unbelievably slow.  In fact I see it coming for another 5-10 minutes before it gets there.  Turns out it is going like 1mph with cameras analyzing the track for problems.  As it passes through it lets out an unbelievable amount of heat.  Clearly no trains are coming on the express track anytime soon.  The MTA guy says to look at the local track for trains, they'll be coming there.  I hear clanging and look over at the local track.  There are 4 guys standing on the track, chatting away while one of them is prying up pieces.  Call it a hunch, but I figure no trains on these lines are coming in the near future, and I let the guy know this.

I have two options, I can get out and walk up to the 7th avenue stops, or i could walk to the 4,5,6 tracks, takes those uptown to grand central, and then take the 7 train to times square.  Since I did not have a monthly and every swipe costs me money I stay in the station and do the latter.  I wait another 10-15 minutes for a train to show up along with a bunch of other displaced people.  Then I get to Grand Central and wait at least 20 minutes for a 7 train to come!  I get to the bar after 1:00am!  She is ready to leave by then.

Let this be a lesson.  If someting seems screwed up late at night, just take a cab.

I'm not sure what I ever did to the MTA gods, but public transportation in the metropolitan area has been cruel to me.  Whenever I have to be somewhere there seems to be some sick passenger that got sick at the stop I needed to get off at so I need to get off at a stop before, or a stop after and either walk or take the train back one stop.  Then when I allow for screw-ups, they run like clockwork and I am really early.

One of my favorites is when you are waiting for a Long Island Railroad (LIRR) train and the train pulls up, and the car you are lined up with has doors that do not open.  You're standing there wondering what is going on, c'mon doors open up...and then you notice everyone else is on the train.  Now you have to rush to another car along with the other poor folks who chose the lucky spot on the platform, and you dive through the first open door just in time for the door to close right on your arm (yeah that really happened).  Then I have to plead with the conductor that she might want to open the door for all the old ladies and children I pushed out of the way to get on the train (i'm kidding about that last part).  Then the conductor looks bewildered that a car is broken.  You think they might notice something is wrong when NOBODY IS IN THE CAR!

First of all I don't know how many of you watch 24 (it's a telelvision show for those out-of-country).  After every episode before they show previews for next week, they advertise to buy the soundtrack that is a collection of all the music over the first three seasons.  I do not recall any music.  What is it going to be, 12 tracks of buh-buh-buh-buh.  That'll get annoying.

Secondly, earlier this week my dad sent me an email for the very first time ever.  Not my mom using his address, actually him.  Granted all he had to do is hit reply, all he typed was one sentence, it was a terrible joke, and the first letter of all the words was capitalized.  But we're making baby steps

Finally, I appreciate all the messages you guys I have been sending to me directly on Friendster.  I stopped replying (except for people in the tri-state area) because I am getting A LOT.  I do however, read them all.  Like I said you do not have to be my friend to read my blog, it has a direct web address of http://jb.blogs.friendster.com    

I had a comment wondering what the 1-3-5 rule is.  I guess i take for granted that readers will know, and I forget I have an international audience.  The 1-3-5 rule is every other urinal in the men's bathroom.  i myself prefer to use a stall as i do not like to be that close to people while taking care of business.  This is especially bad when it is really crowded and someone is waiting for you to finish at a urinal.  The pressure gets to me and i cannot go...thus why I prefer the stall. 

The second problem I have with urinals, and for some reason this seems most prevalent at airports and train stations is that some guys feel the need to stand like 3 feet away like they are doing target practice.  These tend to be old people that just whip it out and don't care if it is visible to the whole bathroom...i mean they're old, they just don't care (kinda like the Seinfeld pulling out of the driveway joke).  Many of these people are the same ones that just like to chill naked in the lockerooms talking on their phones, etc.

Yesterday I had a class cancelled because of the death of someone if my professor's family.  Yet the first thought that popped into my head was "nice...class is cancelled, early day!"  Then I went to poor professor thoughts.

There really is nothing like gettin the unexpected surprise of classes or work being cancelled when you are not expecting.  You think about how great it is for you, but fail to consider the costs involved right away.  For every snow day, that means a day when you have to make these things up.  If your boss calls in sick and gave you nothing to do, chances are you will get twice as much work when he gets back.  Human nature really is to favor immediate gains.

So this year is the very first year I could not find a Cadbury egg anywhere.  I'm not talking about the mini ones or the imitations ones...the original cadbury egg.  Is there some sort of embargo on these things in Manhattan.  I tried all the drug stores in my area, and alas, all they had were the Snickers, Hershey's and Russel Stover wannabes.  People in Manhattan, have you seen them?  Duane Reade, Walgreens, and Kmart have let me down. 

Now don't get me wrong, I love asian cuisine, but it may not be a great place to take a date.  Why?  Well I'll tell you.  They serve the food too freakin fast.  For example, I took a girl out for Thai food at an area restaurant.  We each ordered an entree and I also ordered some wine.  Well no more than 3 minutes after we ordered they brought the wine AND the food to the table.  Dinner was over in like 20 minutes!  It kinda kills the whole mood when dinner flies by that quickly...especially when you didn't make any further plans.  Now if you already have several things planned, then it might be alright, but on a second or third date it may not be the way to go.

EDIT:  You all seem to have ignored the fact that I said I love asian food and some write me angry letters.  In general chinese and thai places serve fast.  Some have messaged me saying Japanese is slower and there are some other places that are slower.  Well now you know.  Obviously if you ALREADY KNOW of a place that is not that fast then this is no big deal.  I am speaking about places in New York...so for all you international readers not from here that blasted me, how would you know?

1)  The direct web address to this blog is http://jb.blogs.friendster.com     You do not have to be my friend on friendster to get to this.  You can bookmark/favorite that if you want to find my blog in the future.

2) I ordered in Chinese food last night.  I didn't get a fortune cookie!  I don't know what that could mean.  Is that like the ultimate bad fortune?  Well you're gonna be dead tomorrow so we're not even going to bother to send you a cookie.

3) I do not think every who kisses ass is successful.  I think the rates are the same, just they like to brag more about what they are doing.  Remember they talk more to begin with.  I've always had the opposite problem anyway.  After class or around the halls professors would come up and start talking to me.  In college I was planning on skipping my philosophy class and on my way out of the building i stop in the bathroom.  I am at the urinal when low and behold someone uses the urinal next to me in clear violation of the 1-3-5 rule and says hello!!!  Don't talk to me while I'm doing my business!  Anyway it was the professor whose class I was going to skip.  Foiled!  The other example is my contracts professor last year who had just come back from a week long hospital stay and after class comes up to me and says he's concerned about me because I look overly tired.  He's concerned about me!  He just nearly died or something and he's worried about me looking sleepy.  It was one of those awkward conversations I just wanted to get out of.

Well you may have noticed this all the way back to your elementary days, but sadly it even exists outside of college.  In college, I suppose I could sort of see a point as your names where actually on the tests.  In law school your finals are all graded anonymously.  They do not know what test you wrote.  You get a number, and then a separate office correlates the grades.  So kissing ass in law school is well...it just makes you look stupid.

There are people who somehow feel the need to go down to a professor after every single class to ask questions.  They same three or four students harass the poor professor after every class.  Now these students are never that dumb, they clearly get the material.  Yet somehow they feel the need to invent questions.  I can't help but think that if I was the professor up front and these same jackasses came up everyday after class with questions, they might be borderline retarded because obivously they do not grasp the materials EVERY CLASS.

Well in case you haven't figured out by now I am a back row person.  I come in take my notes, learn, then bounce.  As for the people that always sit in the front, I don't know how they do it.  What happens if a random funny story pops in your head, or the kid next to you asks you something.  Hard to laugh or say anything when the prof is 3 feet from you.  Ah well...I'm done.

I think there should be a new type of music that combines Country-Rock, and Piano.  In other words, CRAP music.  Technically those can work together.  Take country-rock.  There is this group called the Old 97's who did all country.  Yet they have this song called "Won't be Home" that is being played on the indie rock station right now.  It's kinda catchy.  Anyway, point is that is country-rock.  Throw in a piano, then you'd have CRAP.

Think about how great that'd be.  This music is CRAP.  You could be like, yes, it is, how did you know?  The world has gone to crap...well i dunno about the world but some stations have.  See the possibilities?  Aren't acronyms fun?

This could be the start of something folks.  You know some DJ from Cleveland in the 1950s came up with the term "Rock n Roll" (thus why the hall of fame is there).

Yesterday I went to visit my uncle in Connecticut and at dinner we went for Chinese Buffet.  When we got there, the buffet maybe was 20x20 ft.  Yet everyone felt the need to tell everyone else where everything was.  Oh they have ribs over there.  Well the soup is over here and te ice cream is over there.  Yeah I get it, the ice cream is under the flashing neon lights that say ice cream.  Alright that was an exaggeration, but the point is none of this stuff is hard to find.  Yet every time I remember going to a buffet, I remember people doing that no matter how small the buffet is.  Are you really gonna go into a buffet and totally disregard a whole row of food...uh-uh i never go browse the penultimate row...c'mon now.

Anyway as for the sleep, I think some of the comments did hit on it.  I do have a very active mind, and yes the key is to let your mind go blank...easier said then done.

Well I have noticed I have inspired some people on my friend list to get into the bloggin thing.  Good luck guys.  Anyway as my time on the featured list I'm sure is winding up, I hope you folks that have been reading stay with me and tell your friends to read.

Next, as I was microwaving my popcorn to watch a movie last night, I realized the guy that invented the popcorn button deserves the Nobel Prize.  No more will we have to figure out what in the 2-4 minute range to set our microwave to.  We will not have to sit there at the microwave with a stopwatch counting the time between pops.  Wait, was it 3 or 4 seconds between pops when we shut ut down...crap I threw out the box!  Screw that up and it's all burned.  On the other end if you screw it up you have a bunch of kernels.  We all have thought, maybe I can put it back in the microwave.  EH!  Not a every good idea.  You could of course also try to chew on the kernels, but then that hurts the teeth.  So in short, or is it long already, thank you Mr. Popcorn Button Inventor Guy.  Bud Light should have made him a real american hero/genius.  Afterall I was (I was a supermarket deli meat slicer briefly)

To answer those U.S. History comments, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."  That was the speech, Stephen, was Senator Stephen Douglas.  Roger was Justice Roger Taney.  Franklin would have to be President Pierce.  For James, President James Buchanan. 

I have always been jealous of people that could fall asleep right away.  We all know the type, their head hits the pillow, they close their eyes, and five minutes later they are on their way to tomorrow.  So peaceful, so serene, so not me.

Let me give you a typical night for me.  Well if I want to get 8 hours of sleep, I will need to start 10 hours before I want to get up.  I will lay down, and I'm a side sleeper.  I'll go to one side of the pillow, and I have to have one arm around a smaller pillow (i'm not sure why).  Well I close my eyes, I'm exhausted, but nothing.  Sleep is not taking.  Now that side of the pillow is getting warm.  Time to make the move to the other side.  The same thing happens.  And thus the cycle.  Back and forth, back and forth, oh crap my arms are falling asleep.  Now I have to lay on my back until my arms recover.  Now I start thinking about maybe I should go pee.  But then if I get up to go, I feel like I am resetting the cycle.  I debate about this in my mind for five minutes, maybe more, who knows?  Of course I eventually go.  Usually 60-120 minutes later I will finally fall asleep.  I consider how bad my night was based on how many bathroom trips I make.  Once that bathroom thought comes into your mind you pretty much cannot fall asleep until you go.  However, I am lucky that I am a sound sleeper.

So this is my nighttime curse.  I can be exhausted but will still go through this.  I do not have caffeine after 4pm, I drink chamomile tea at night.  I've tried the over-the counter sleep help, but ah well...they all fail.  Clearly I will need a king sized bed when I start having to share my bed regularly or any relationship will fail because of my tossing and turning.  Also sharing a room with someone that is not a sound sleeper (i.e. a hotel room) seems to be a problem as well.  But to end on a positive note...AT LEAST I DON'T SNORE!

Well last summer I had an internship in Newark, NJ, which meant I had to get up at 7am to get there on time.  So when I came home Friday night I was exhausted.  Then I got the call that four of my friends where minutes from my door...do I want chicken n rice?  Yeah what the hell, I did not have dinner.  They also showed up with banana falvored vodka...yuck!  I was afraid if I drank I would fall asleep.  Meanwhile they finished off the bottle.

They decide we should go to this club up by Tenth Avenue or so.  So we all start walking there and the alcohol has clearly taken hold of them.  What should have been a 15-20 minute walks took 30-40 mins.  We get to this club and have to stand on this long line.  Well from now on the four frends will be labeled A, B, C and D for anonymity.  Well friend A just wanders off the line and doesn't say anything.  I say I will get him, but friend B says he has him.  So C, D and I are on the line and 20 minutes go by and we are getting closer.  So I call B, and B says he tried to give A a hot dog because he was not feeling well.  Brilliant plan as I am sure being drunk and nauseous will be cured by a hot dog.  Apparently A yelled, "NO HOT DOG!"  Anyway B lost A.  A is lost on the streets of NYC.

Well B never comes back either and it is time to enter the club.  So the three of us enter.  It turns out to not even be that crowded, the line was there for the sake of having a line.  After 30 mins of nothing interesting happening we decide to leave, still missing A and B.  They wanted to randomly comb the streets, but I suggest we go back to my place and wait for a phone call and continue to try to call them.  We get back to my place, and now C passes out on my floor and D goes into my bathroom and starts throwing up despite having appeared fine.  This goes on for two hours until B calls.  He was drunk and went back and spent hours in the wrong club.  Great!

Well the three of them leave at about 5am.  It is not until the next day that we hear of A's journey.  A passed out on the street.  A door man called for an ambulance.  They check his wallet and see two great schools and wonder what the world is coming to.  After a few hours of chillin in the ER, he bounces, takes a train and a taxi home.

Now technically if you were to all take IQ tests and you were to look at our past academic performances, I would be deemed the dumb one of the group.  Go figure.

So Friday I got to visit my brother at college.  I realized what I missed about college.  All we did was simply have some beverages, chill, and listen to music, and belt out incorrect lyrics.  That's about all I remember doing for four years...and you know what, in hindsight it is/was great.  In college you always thought you had a lot of work but you really didn't.  You just had absolutely no time management skills and wouldn't start doing things until the every last minute that giving you the idea that you had a lot to do. 

The past couple of days I just trekked around Boston.  I have been here plenty of times before so there is little to comment on.  I ate dinner at Houston's one night and I noticed they gave 10% 15% 20% of the total bill listed on the check.  Who really tips 10%.  That is just damn cheap and shame on you if you do it!  I left 20% and the waitress was very appreciative.  Now are people up here bad tippers, or do people who are used to their taxes double the tax not realizing it is 5%?  I don't know. 

Ah well.

I'll start off by saying of course on my trip up here I managed to have something interesting happen to me.  After getting off my Amtrak train after numerous delays waiting for a "favorable signal" and it coming in ten mins late, we were only 7 minutes late.  These times Amtrak comes up with are just phantom numbers.  The damn snack car closed as I was on my way to it.  No, hey the snack car will close in five minutes guys...just it is closed for the evening thank you for your patronage..."yeah thanks for the notice," my stomach growled angrily. 

Next waiting for the T subway to get to my friend a guy comes up to me and asks, "Hey man are you a student returning from break?"  I was on the Red Line which goes toward Harvard.  I was like no man, just visiting.  He then rambles about how he likes sunglasses and needs a nice pair, and did I know where he could get a nice pair of counterfeit sunglasses.  This was 12:15 am (which is like the end of the night up here in New England apparently) and so I decided I should take a step back from the edge of the platform.  He then nagged someone else.

Next I have a question for you folks.  When on a commuter train how come the row with three seats has an aisle seat with no headrest always?  My friend on I cannot figure it out?  My guess is so children standing could have something to grip on, as well as other shorter people.  But dammit, if a child or old short person is standing, give up your seat!

Finally for those of you that say you don't know me when you post your comment...who cares.  That's the point.  It's fun to have people that don't know me post comments.  I obviously realize this fact, and so you all do not have to qualify your comments.  I also have noticed some have used my comments to advertise their blogs...whatever, i guess do what you gotta do.

Tomorrow i will cover Fri and Sat happening or mishappenings.

Well yesterday sucked and I was too busy to make an entry, sorry.  But now I am on my spring break!  I am heading to Boston tonight to visit my younger brother at college and a friend who is a phD student up there.  I might make an entry while I am there, but if not I'll be back strong...I promise. 

Well Tuesday night I got to go to the premiere of Hostage.  They made all of us regular folk sit in the front five rows or so, but we did get free popcorn and soda.  I enjoyed the movie, and the whole cast was there and they said a little something before it started.  Pretty much as names scroll across the screen for credits in the beginning the invited guests of that person start applauding.  At the end everyone claps. 

I have to hand it to you guys, you are all good sports when I start ranting.  Your comments make it that much more fun for me to write, so keep them coming.  If you have any suggestions for things I should take on let me know. 

I'll leave you with another one of my pet peeves today.  In law school there is always the person who just has to raise their hand as class should be handing.  They clearly see there is no time left, but dammit, they have to ask their question.  Who cares if everyone else gets help up an extra five mins.  Can't you just ask it after class?  I've got other pet peeves, but I can't give them all away at once. 

    I'd like to talk briefly about umbrellas, and their use or misuse in Manhattan.  Now many streets are crowded and hard to walk through during the day.  Yet some people feel the need to carry an umbrella that could fit a family of four for themselves.  Look rain is water, if a tiny drop gets on you you'll live.  I mean these people are wearing the long raincoats anyway; a normal size umbrella would do.  Also when they carry these umbrellas I am convinced they can't even see where they are going.  I see no faces kinda like when you see the cars coming at you with no faces in southern Florida.  They walk right into people and bump them.  And it is hard to get by these people, which makes the umbrellaless folk even wetter.

     I also find that I have terrible luck with umbrellas.  They always blow inside-out.  They really need to develop a windproof umbrella.  I've broken two so far this year.  One time I was doing that thing where you flick the umbrella out, and the top half shot out and went flying a block.  Luckily no one was hit and it provided for a good laugh.  Also I picked up an umbrella from one of those guys at a subway station and the girl I was seeing at the time gave it two weeks until it broke.  It made it two months and did not break from the wind, but I simply dropped in two feet from the ground on to carpet and springs went flying everywhere...go figure

Anyway tonight I am going to see the world premiere of Hostage which should be fun with a friend of mine who is working on distributing a mockumentary movie about paintball, which you can find out about at http://www.bobbydukes.com

Oh yeah, and I bought an umbrella for tonight!

Why is it we all think we can do great impersonations?  They sound great to us in our heads, and then to others...they suck.  I remember I once had to watch the movie Vertigo for a class.  I tried to immitate Jimmy Stewart.  I could swear I had his vocal inflections down.  Everyone seemed to disagree.  A few weeks later I was doing a Forrest Gump impersonation to my friend Jenn (saying Hi Jenny, and I do to this day when I call) and she said I didn't sound like Forrest Gump.  I kinda sounded like Jimmy Stewart!  So apparently I can do Jimmy Stewart doing Forrest Gump. 

I was surprised to find out my friends thought I did a decent Mike Tyson.  I personally think it's terrible.  Impersonations appear to be in the ear of the listener.  Much like singing.  How can on person say you sound great while another says you suck?  Ah well...leave your thoughts and comments

Well technically it is the afternoon...we'll see if I see the sun today or not.  I have to thank you guys for taking the time to read my random stories and musings.  I am surprised to receive so many comments, thank you guys.  It makes it that much more fun to write.  I have had comments from Alaska to the Phillipines to Florida.  That is real cool considering I am writing this from my apartment in Manhattan.  Overall I've had a good week.  Things in my life are going well.  All i need is a paying internship for the summer, and I'll be set!  I'm going to have a very busy upcoming week and I will try to make entries when I can. 

I figured I'd share a few observations from the past few days.  One, the way my photo is on the left, it looks like I am presenting an award.  Second, I have a pet peeve I'd like to share.  When I go to the gym, I can see the people that hop on a treadmill and they run with their hands flapping up and down, fingers out like they just got a manicure.  You're supposed to run with closed fists....I don't think they know how ridiculous it looks.  Sometimes I wonder if these are the people that would have a fan blowing on them so they don't sweat when they run.

Finally is there a situation where you wished you had stood up and did something.  Well yesterday an escalator broke down and my grandmother had to walk up it which is not an easy feat.  It was a single file escalator and this woman behind her was giving her shit.  I should have just sat down on the escalator and said no one is moving until you apologize...but I didn't.  I have always wanted to play the role of hero ever since I was a little kid, and I blew a chance!

I should start out by saying I just found out I won two tickets to the Hostage world premiere on Tuesday.  Friendster has been quite good to me this week, featuring me, and now this.  Does anyone know the style of dress for such an event?  Alright, moving on.

Well seeing as I received very little response on my comment on news articles and plenty of response of dumb old stories I'll do another one.  Here's the other main story from my senior year of college. 

I happened to have a great schedule my senior year.  I had Mondays and Fridays off and all my classes started at 10 or later.  This meant no problem getting into the bathroom because my roommates had earlier classes.  No problem at all...until the day it was.

I had just gotten out of a hot steaming shower.  I had closed the door to the bathroom obviously.  All I had on me was my towel because my bedroom was right across from the bathroom and everyone was gone anyway.  I dry off and go to the turn the door...nothing!  It won't open!  I'm turning the knob with all my might...nothing.  No screwdrivers or hammers in the bathroom.  hmm.  Well one of my roommates normally had come back for lunch at 12 or so, so only like 30 mins for me to kill I figure.  Well time goes by...and it becomes apparent he is not coming back for lunch today.  I know decide to try to punch a whole in the door.  OW!  Not like in the shows.  It hurt.  I decide breaking my hand is not a good idea.  Ithen try teaing the door down again to no avail.

Well I decide I might as well be productive.  I start cleaning the bathroom with some cleaner in there.  Great idea, right?  EH!  It had bleach.  So there I am in a hot steamy room armed with nothing but a towel, some paper towel and bleach.  So now I am choking on bleach waiting for someone to come home, singing the greatest hist from 1500 to the present.

Finally my roommate comes in and I explain it to him.  He breaks out his tool kit and he takes off the knob on the other side of the door and nothing.  He has to call maintenance.  While explaining the problem you can hear them laughing on the other side.  So they come and I finally escape after like 4 hours.  Of course I come out in nothing but a towel as they open the door.

To this day if I am by myself I will either bring a phone into the bathroom or leave the door slightly ajar.

Well I heard two interesting news stories as of late.  First, the mayor of Moscow is now threatening action against weathermen who get the weather wrong.  Everytime they get the weather wrong, the mayor wants to fine the weather service.  I say...great!  As I sit through boring law school class after class, I wondered if perhaps I went wrong, and should have been a metereology major.  I mean I think I look good enough to be put in front of a blue screen on some tiny channel and read a prompter.  Seriously what other job can you go into and be consistently wrong and get away with it.  Could you imagine if doctor's did this, or lawyers?  We would all get sued for malpractice (well they already do).  People plan their day around the stupid weather...an umbrella takes extra room, etc.  In fact this past Monday night, my friend's nighttime class was cancelled because of the snow storm...like no snow accumulated in Manhattan!  We were hearing 10 inches.  He then had to make up the class on his busiest day of the week.  So while Russia is on its way to communism again...at least they'll have accurate weather!

Secondly, I heard that Miami-Dade County was considering naming a street after Jose Canseco.  You've got to be kidding.  We have a guy that admittedly accomplished all is feats while on steroids, got arrested and was confined to his home under house arrest once for several months (which he was selling time to spend with him on eBay while serving)...and you guys are naming a street after him!  I can think of so many more deserving people in the world.  How about the guy that works 2-3 jobs to support his family?

Alright, I'm done for this listing, have a good day!

Well as I have four classes today, nothing much exciting to write about so I figured I'd share another old story.  This one is from my senior year in college.  I lived in an apartment with two roomates (a 3 bedroom).  This was in Ithaca, NY so we never though much about locking the door, and half the time forgot to do it before going to sleep.

One night while I was having trouble going to sleep, and rolling around at 4am, i hear a sound of someone walking down the steps.  I then hear our bathroom door open, a flush and then footsteps out.  I decide to come out of my room slowly, James Bond style hugging the wall, and peering my head around the corner to find some random guy passed out on our living room couch. 

I decide to wake up one of my roommates (the other one would be useless i figured) and i pound on the door and get no response.  I then lightly tap and he shoots out of bed.  I relay the events, and I ask what we should so.  He suggests I put some pants on and come back.  I do.  We then slowly walk into the living room.  My roommate grabs a frying pan from the kitchen, just like in the television shows.  He walks up the guy and said something to the extent of,  "excuse me sir...SIR!  what are you doing here?"  The kid wakes up, turns out he was in the wrong apartment, was at a party at a neighboring apartment.  He was drunk and passed out on our couch.  How much does it suck to wake up hungover with an unshaven guy with a frying pan in his hand yelling at you.

Anyway this lead me to fear what may be in our bathroom.  Of course there was piss all over the floor.  So we're about to go to bed and we hear footsteps again!  He forgot his glasses. 

Needless to say we always locked our door thereafter.

Well this story is from the summer of '04.  I was coming back from Cancun, incredibly hungover and not feeling well.  Luckily for me I had the chance to sit in the emergency seat.  I thought great, extra foot room.

Well it turned out to suck.  Of course I have this crazy older woman sitting diagonally in front of me.  Every time I started to fall asleep she'd be like, is he okay, wake up, you have to be alert to sit there.  I mean seriously, what does this lady think I will do.  We crash at a gazillion mph into the ocean or ground, i somehow am still conscience and able to direct people out.  She was like let me out first...riiiiiight.  Sure while i'm oozing blood and my legs are crunched like an accordion I'll be sure to note to let you out first.  She offered a pillow and my cousin was like thanks, and then she goes no it is for him (me). 

This got me thinking in general, does it really matter who sits next to the emergency seat.  Also, remember, there's a crazy annoying lady for every nice thing.