This city is killing me

I only have one of Sugarcult's albums - in general, they're a little too pop and not enough punk for me - but I do like the opening tracks of this album (Lights Out) a lot. The melodies of the song are done well, and it's a song that I like listening to every now and then.

Put those umbrellas away

If it's snowing outside, you do not need an umbrella. Why people use them when it's snowing is a mystery to me.

Reliving history

There's this nifty blog that has a bunch of reactions to the networks calling the presidential election. It's quite possible that there will never be the same kind of reaction to an election as there was to this one in my lifetime.

It was an incredible night...one that will live on for the ages.

Soon enough

I've seen my girlfriend once, for a couple of days, in the past 5 weeks or so. I can't wait to see her in a few days for a week. Long-distance relationships are hard, but it makes you treasure the time you spend with each other.

I'm bored...so I'll review some restaurants

With not much else to do to pass the time while my laundry is going, I figure I'll write a bit about some more restaurants I've eaten at recently. I have other things I could write about, but I think for tonight (or this week, to be more cynical about my lackadaisical musings), this is as good a topic as comes to mind.

My roommates and I went out to Arctica Bar & Grill for one of our birthdays recently. It's got some sort of affiliation with Minnesota, as everyone in the house was a fan of the University of Minnesota's football team (except for one unruly Penn State drunkard). The food was extremely well-priced, as well as delicious; my chicken pot pie was a very nice dish. Dessert was a bit overdone; they tried a bit too hard with the molten chocolate cake, but overall, it was an enjoyable experience. Sitting in plush chairs that made us all feel like kings was a cool bonus.

Near school, there are two places that are somewhat renowned for their brunch menus - Rx and Marigold's Kitchen. While both meals were quite good in their own right, Marigold's wins hands down. The brioche French toast in maple whipped cream had to be the best French toast I've ever had. The side of sausage was good, and my girlfriend's meal - smoked salmon served with a poached egg and potatoes - was tasty as well. Rx wasn't bad - I had a standard breakfast meal of eggs, bacon, and toast, while my girlfriend had an omelette - but the menu wasn't that creative and can't hold a candle to Marigold's.

While visiting the expansive King of Prussia mall in the Philly suburbs - something that far outclasses something like the Palisades Center mall near where I grew up - we had lunch at Bahama Breeze, a chain restaurant that attempts to emulate Caribbean cuisine and atmosphere. While I think the branding is a rather poor excuse to get people drunk in the middle of the day, the food was quite good for its price. The appetizer - roasted Cuban bread (right...) was a nice light beginning dish. The salmon (my dish) and the mahi mahi (her dish) were both done quite well. It's hard to be getting wood-grilled salmon for $12...it's certainly cheaper than Legal Seafood, which was another place we were considering eating.

Lastly, my girlfriend and I had dinner near the base of the Ben Franklin Bridge at Swanky Bubbles, a nice cozy champagne bar down in Old City. The sushi roll was nothing to write back about, but their ahi tuna roll was quite good - although not as good as the one we had in Hawaii. The miso glazed Chilean sea bass was truly marvelous...I've never eaten fish that was so flavorful and flaky. The filet mignon was a bit disappointing; the sauce was far too heavy. Overall, it was a good meal.

My sentiments exactly

Balloon Juice is one of my favorite political blogs to read, namely because it's headed by a former right-winger who saw the light over the past 4 years and is now an Obama-backing registered Democrat. Nevertheless, I have to concur with his thoughts about The Jonas Brothers. Would the world be a much better place off if they just vanished from the face of the earth.

I hate them with the fire of a thousand suns.

One of the hardest days of my life

Yesterday was not a day I'd like to relive anytime soon. It was mentally exhausting and quite sad.

These are serious times

When news articles are openly talking about the possibility of Citigroup failing, you know that we are in dire economic times. If one of the one-stop-shop giants - the banks that provide retail, commercial, and investment banking, along with numerous other financial services - goes under, the collapse of Lehman Brothers is going to look like peanuts next to what could happen next.

But given the absurd levels that Citigroup stock is trading at, one has to wonder if the clock is ticking loudly for them now. It's pretty worrisome.

From a time long ago

Everyday brings a different set of music to the forefront of my playlist...and today happened to be the day I was in the mood for some Red Hot Chili Peppers. While By the Way isn't their best album (most would say Californication), it certainly is the one that is the most mellow and laid back. For some reason, whenever I listen to the songs from it - particularly 'Venice Queen' (above) - it takes me back to high school, to one of those nights when I'd be driving home from somewhere else, alone on the long, abandoned stretch of North Street that went past the high school. I'd have the window down, the music playing.

And then the end kicks in, the music speeds up, and you're no longer back in those lazy days before serious things mattered, before you had to catch up with life. It's a faint memory, blowing through your hair like a soft autumn wind that rustles the leaves, carrying you up and away...

Someday, I'll be in Venice with my queen.

How far we've come

Two years ago, SurveyUSA, a respected polling outfit, was polling a bunch of hypothetical presidential matchups. Here's their result for Obama v. McCain. Oh, how the times change.

Tomorrow, we make history.

Song on my mind

Radiohead, 'Street Spirit (Fade Out)'

Maybe I'm a sucker for bad movies

With HBO on Demand working again, I decided to blow some of my afternoon watching Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. The movie got fairly mediocre reviews, even though it performed reasonably well at the box office. While I do think that the movie was hurt by its PG rating - why the directors aimed for the more kid-friendly instead of the PG-13 that the original received is a mystery, given that it constrained the depth of the humor and the story - I still was pretty entertained by the movie. While a lot of superhero movies take themselves quite seriously nowadays - some with great results (The Dark Knight), others not so much (Spider-Man 3) - the FF4 flicks were just fun to watch. It's a damn shame that another film to round out a trilogy doesn't seem to be in the works.

Only in America

I don't think anywhere else would an utterly pointless, tragic crime like this would happen. The Founding Fathers deserve a lot of credit, but the Second Amendment was a huge mistake on their part. Just take a look at American gun deaths vs. the rest of the world. It's not even close.

Left out

This year is a bit of an oddity for me; for the first time since I have taken a formative interest in politics (back in 2004), I am not involved in any political activity (canvassing, phonebanking, and the rest of the legwork that goes into last-minute GOTV). There are limiting factors to this, namely that because I now reside in Manhattan instead of Philadelphia, there isn't an affordable method to go and help out in a state that needs the attention constantly. But I certainly miss the bustle around campaign offices as the election nears, and from the reports I have read around the country when it comes to volunteering at Obama offices, it seems like history is at hand.

I had the privilege of volunteering for the Obama campaign for one frigid week in New Hampshire at the beginning of this year (how long ago that seems now) and sporadically in Pennsylvania during the primaries. It's likely the last political campaign I will have taken an active volunteer role in for an indefinite period of time, but what a hell of a ride it has been. Going from the depths of despair (the 2004 election) to the pinnacle of history in 4 short years is amazing in political terms, and I only wish I could be out there knocking doors when the celebration begins in little more than 2 days.

Edited at the request of my friend. Paragraphs suck, by the way. They're a construct designed by the grammar police to thwart lazy writers like myself.

Another show consigned to history's dustbin

King of the Hill is the latest long-running show to hit the can. That being said, I'm not going to miss it terribly. I was never an avid viewer, and when I did watch it, I didn't find it particularly funny - especially in comparison to the other animated comedies that Fox has churned out (The Simpsons, Futurama, Family Guy, to name the most prominent). It's been around for 13 seasons, but it never got much publicity. I won't miss it, and I suspect most people won't care when it's gone.

Things that got old a while ago

A couple of things I've noticed that make me curious if the proprietors of the proceeding properties are even paying attention to their businesses:

-My local New York Sports Club has had a sign advertising one-day sales outside since the summer. At some point, it either becomes an irritating gimmick, or it is just a sale all the damn time.

-A steak restaurant near where I live still sets up outdoor dining - complete with silverware, chairs, and table mats - even though it's been quite some time since I'd call it warm enough to eat outside. They do have lamp-like burners that are meant to generate some heat, but it hasn't seemed to convince anyone to eat outside, at least from what I can tell.

A few more restaurant reviews

'A bit overpriced' would be my description of Bocca Restaurant, where my girlfriend and I had dinner a weekend or two back. While the atmosphere was nice, the service left something to be desired - there was one waiter who took orders for the entire restaurant, making service rather impersonal. The food was good - the veal meatballs as an appetizer were delicious (too bad you only get 3, for $13), and the entrees were very delicious as well...I don't remember them (I had steak, my girlfriend had pasta with crab sauce), as Bocca has a rotating seasonal menu, and we caught the end of the summer menu. The glass of wine was an excellent choice. That being said, I felt like that for what we paid, it was a bit underwhelming. So far, fine dining in Philly would outpace my opinion of restaurants in New York.

We also had brunch at Penelope's, which I had heard from an acquaintance from the political blogosphere was the place to eat for weekend breakfasts. It was definitely worth it. For $14, you get a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice (or something equivalent) and one of their excellent choices. I had the farmer's omelette, while my girlfriend had pumpkin waffles with apple butter. Absolutely delectable, and a real treat despite waiting about 15-20 minutes to grab a seat. If it weren't so busy on the weekends, I'd probably end up being a regular visitor.

Lastly, my mother and I caught up over lunch at Chennai Garden, a vegetarian kosher Indian restaurant at the corner. The prices were extremely reasonable (lunch for both of us was less than $20 without tip), and while the service wasn't that great, the food - which was on par with Saravanaas Bhavan (which I reviewed a while back) - was less spicy and very easy on the taste buds. I'd never heard of kosher Indian before, but it was a good meal overall. At some point, I'd like to get a meat dish outside of chicken tikka masala, which is quite expensive around this area (around $13-14 for an average-sized amount, judging by the two other places I've eaten at around here).

Anyways, that's it for recent dining spots. When I have more time, I'll catch up with a few others I've neglected to mention.

Sometimes, things change

I was a big fan of Qdoba when I was at college. Now that I'm in New York...not so much. I had my first Chicken Queso burrito for lunch yesterday, and it was quite mediocre. I'm not sure why, but the sauce - which had previously been fantastic - was far too cheesy. The chicken was rather dull in flavor as well. All in all, I'm a much bigger fan of Chipotle now...and not just because I've had it more since coming to the City. It just tastes better. Sure, it has less variety than Qdoba, but at least it's an enjoyable eating experience.

Fall in New York

I haven't been around for autumn in New York for 4 years, so it's been a pleasant surprise to remember how nice the weather is around this time. In Philly, I remember it being a bit warmer a bit longer, but I don't mind the mid-60s temperatures that pass for highs these days. It's markedly more comfortable, and it's just nice enough that I walk the 20 blocks home every now and then.

Life is okay

Work is going pretty well now, I feel like I'm getting into the flow of work now. While I can't do every last thing yet, I definitely think that I'm picking up a lot of the 'process' stuff well, and it's just learning to apply the knowledge on a wider level as I get more experience.

My personal life is okay. I miss my girlfriend, but I suppose that it's only natural we talk less and less because of busier schedules. Oh well.

Reviewing recently-cooked recipes

It's been a long time since I've written about any recipes I've done, so I figured a relaxing Sunday evening is the best time to catch up...

One of the nice things about having a slow cooker is its versatility. A couple weekends back, I made this chili. I got all of the ingredients from Whole Foods - which, except for the chili powder and the ground beef, were exceptionally cheap (at least for New York) - and threw it in my handy-dandy slow cooker on the Low setting for an entire day. It was fantastic, and the chili powder - a mix based on what's used in New Mexico - gave it a nice kick, making it spicy but not to the point of sweating bullets. Definitely would make it again; it could feed you for 10-12 meals or so...slightly less if you like big servings.

Another slow cooker recipe I tried out, this time with my girlfriend, was pot roast. I enjoy eating meat that falls apart in your mouth, and this recipe (using a chuck cut) made a great meal. Unfortunately, I have to figure out a way to store it better; in the fridge, all of the fat in the gravy condensed, making it rather difficult to re-heat and eat afterwards. I suppose it would just dissolve upon being microwaved, but the sight of white globs of fat isn't something I like imagining eating.

Chicken noodle soup is one of my favorites, and this was a pretty quick recipe to throw together - although the serving sizes are way off, in my opinion. We cut the serving size down somewhat, but it still seemed like there was too much liquid and not enough 'other stuff' I ended up throwing in more of virtually everything (chicken, carrots, celery, onions, basil, oregano, salt, and pepper). It turned out quite well nevertheless, although the noodles ended up being a bit overcooked...probably a function of the haphazard method with which I put together the soup after realizing the serving sizes were out of whack.

Last, but not least, we also made some garlic bread. I now understand how they get the garlic taste in - you have to basically bake a ton of garlic cloves and mash them into a paste - but it turned out very well. The Italian bread I picked up from Whole Foods worked out quite well; something slightly thinner may have worked better, but there wasn't much variety at the store (apparently, they're huge fans of French baguette). Considering my appetite for pasta, it's a nice complement to round out the meal.

These potatoes lyonnaise, which I have probably eaten before but never knew what they were called, was my girlfriend's choice for a complement to the pot roast. They turn out quite well, despite her protestations that they could be better. The flavor is really baked into the potatoes, and they make for a good side dish during dinner or a quick snack. I have to try making them sometime, but I probably suck at boiling potatoes.

A strange, strange world we live in

I find it highly ironic that Republicans who call themselves 'conservatives' are now the ones backing the biggest government bailout of the economy in history. The irony would be rich if there weren't so many concerns...namely the fact that Henry Paulson is the absolutely wrong person to be pushing such a plan. There's the blatant conflict of interest (he was CEO of Goldman Sachs in the credit boom years of yonder), as well as the fact that the man has positively zero empathy when it comes to making sure any bailout plan helps out taxpayers. No, he effectively wants a blank check (that's what it is; $700 billion is a joke of a price tag) for the banks, and he wants the government to overpay for them.

What the hell. Just weird, messed up, and indicative of how strange the whole situation is when both Newt Gingrich and liberal Democrats alike are pissed off at the proposed deal.

Not too worried

Being in the financial sector, there are probably a lot of people who would be worried about losing their job. Me, I'm okay with where I am right now. Not really as a factor of believing I am excelling in my performance at work (I've worked barely a week and a half on the desk), but more that I don't control the economy and is therefore not something to be morose about for the time being. If things don't work out, I don't have any question that I'd brush my shoulders off, pick myself up, and be able to do something else.

Just take it day by day...that's my motto.

Interesting facts that I did not know

According to the Wall Street Journal, only 5% of the jobs in New York City are in the financial sector - yet they account for roughly a quarter of the wages paid out by jobs here. Pretty scary to think what the budget numbers will look like when tens of thousands of jobs just disappeared into thin air along with Lehman and Merrill...and that's not counting Bear Stearns or the layoffs all across Wall Street that have already claimed somewhere around five digits' worth.

What an insane weekend

I work in the financial services industry - as someone at the bottom of the food chain - but this weekend is going to go down in the books as unlike anything else the financial services industry has seen in a while. I never bought any of the pooh-poohing BS that was being floated about a collapse by Lehman Brothers being any different than that of Bear Stearns; it was clear that the firm was in trouble and wasn't going to survive. The fact that neither Bank of America or Barclays stepped up to the plate gives you an idea of how problematic the assets Lehman is carrying are. Dick Fuld, the soon-to-be last CEO of the firm, is going to take a huge hit to any legacy he has because of his stubbornness in dealing with Lehman's problems. In the end, he fired just about everyone but himself - but it didn't save the firm.

More intriguingly, out of the blue today, Merrill Lynch appears set to sell itself to BoA. I'm a bit surprised at the kind of premium Merrill is being valued at...its stock closed just above $17, and BoA is offering $29/share in an all-stock transaction? I think that's a bit optimistic of a valuation, considering how many losses Merrill has had to absorb in the past year - and how much it probably has left on its books.

That means that the #3, 4, and 5 investment banks in the country will have ceased to exist in a matter of 6 months, leaving Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as the last investment banks standing at the top. You'll also have 3 gigantic players in the one-stop financial services field - BoA, with Lehman's investment banking operations, will finally be able to compete on the same level as Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase.

Hopefully, that will be the end of any more realignment in the sector...but I wouldn't count on it.

Kicked the tires, went back to Old Reliable

After using Chrome for a few days, I got tired of it and went back to Firefox. My main problem with it stems with some of its Ajax implementation (I'm assuming that's what Facebook uses); it makes the new version of the website very aggravating to use and doesn't properly function at all in some instances. It also has a couple of issues with Flash with which there are workarounds in Firefox for. While I may go back to Chrome in the future - it is definitely faster than Firefox - some work needs to be done before I use it full-time.

Speaking of new things, the new Facebook sucks ass. Oh wait, I already wrote about that.

The art of pathological lying

Yeah, I have plenty of problems with Sarah Palin, as I have previously noted, but could she at least have the decency to tell the truth? Her most egregious lie has been this line in her stump speech:

I told Congress, “Thanks, but no thanks for that Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska.” If we wanted that bridge, we’d build it ourselves.

That's bullshit. It's been noted by one of the major Alaska dailies, the Washington Post, the New York Times, ABC News, and just about every media outlet with a thinking brain somewhere in the news department that Palin is being less than truthful about this, which was first mentioned in her initial stump speech in Dayton, Ohio (for what it's worth, it seems like she's given the exact same speech over and over again on the trail - probably because she doesn't know enough about national politics to speak on her own).

What's audacious is that she's repeated the lie 27 times. That is an awful lot of times to repeat the same falsehood over and over with a straight face, and especially after it has become widely disproven. Have some decency and 'fess up to your support, Governor.

The way things are vs. the way I wish they were

Pardon the Fall Out Boy-esque title, but I feel like musing about life right now.

Today is my last day of 'freedom', so to speak. That's not to say that work is like being stripped of your essential rights, but there won't be a day now - whether I'm at the desk, at home, on vacation, or anywhere else I am - that passes when I can be free of any obligation other than to enjoy myself. That being said, I do look forward to starting. It's a mix of excitement - I highly enjoyed working on my desk last summer, and I anticipate it being just as good, but with more responsibility. At the same time, the metrics by which I'll be judged are much more subjective. As someone on the bottom of the food chain, it's hard to claim that I will be driving desk performance as my colleagues will be - which is really the only quantitative metric around. No grades, no curve, nothing. While I have had my qualms about college in the past, the one thing I will give much credit to it for is that it prepared me for the work environment.

In the end, I think I'll be good to go. The learning curve will be steep, to be sure, but I'm confident that I should overcome it.

The second part to ponder is personal. My girlfriend and I have been together for about nine months, and as I've told her many a time, her being in my life has been the best thing that's happened to me. That being said, I've wondered how it's possible to be the best boyfriend you can be when you're a secondary part of her everyday life - not out of any fault of your own other than distance. And with work starting, the communication we have will likely be reduced to a phone call at night, at most. At some point, it may even be a string of days or a week that goes by without any contact at all. I love her dearly, but coping with talking with her sporadically and seeing her even less will be a test of commitment and the strength of our relationship.

We shall see what happens.

Up north, they are laughing at us

From what I've been told, Canadians have an even lower opinion of America after the selection of Alaskan governor Sarah Palin to the Republican ticket. In all honesty, anyone who thinks she's qualified to be vice president, let alone president, is a complete joke. She's a religious fundamentalist in the mold of the wackiest out there, and she's a pathological liar (just check out her continuous claims about the 'Bridge to Nowhere', just to name the biggest one).

I don't blame them. And the fact that the tracking polls now show John McCain even or slightly ahead of Barack Obama after the selection doesn't speak well to the intelligence of the American population at large. That the GOP could get away with such a blatant, cynical pick for a running mate - and show that it would work - is pathetic.

For once in this century, can't America get it right on the presidential level? Just once? That's all I'm asking.

It's lonely being online

Not many people online anymore. It used to be my main mode of communication, but no one's on much these days. I guess I won't really be able to say that once I start work on the desk, which is later on this week.

Just a late-night observation.

A pleasant surprise

Listening to more of Coldplay's latest album, Viva La Vida (I refuse to type out the extended title of the album now; Chris Martin should've made up his damn mind about the name), I'm fairly impressed. In particular, I do wish they had made the first track, 'Lost in Technicolor', a lyrical track. The instrumental melody and the underlying beat is very good and much unlike the usual staid material from their first three albums.

Although Coldplay's lyrics undoubtedly still suck (I could be wrong), you can't say that they didn't mix it up. When most bands are comfortable sticking to a proven formula, they broke out and succeeded elsewhere.

Pretty nifty

I'm using Chrome, Google's new Web browser. Even without blocking ads, it's markedly faster than Firefox when it comes to loading most websites. I'll probably be using it for the foreseeable future unless Mozilla comes up with a way to optimize browsing speed. It's probably a good idea to give up on Microsoft ever presenting an iteration of Internet Explorer that will ever compete against Firefox and Chrome, which I predict will have a fair amount of switchover from Firefox users over time.

That being said, getting some kind of adblocker on Chrome is a must...it will probably speed up load times a reasonable amount.

Watching as twilight falls

I don't get outside as much as I used to, but I can still sense the end of the summer upon us - even if I don't have the beginning of another year of school to guide me. Walking to pick up lunch this afternoon, I could tell that the sun was already hitting the ground at a lower angle than usual, making it feel as though it was later than it actually was. While I'm not necessarily as big a fan of the summer as others, it's a bit sad when the season begins to wind down. It's a sign that people are going to be getting back to their jobs and relaxing less than usual.

So goes life.

Good for a laugh and little else

Digg is a popular website where users can uprate content that they like. There are often amusing items at the top of its lists, which is why I usually read it. However, I'm particularly confounded by the vast support Ron Paul has there. Even though people with any sense of the political landscape knew he never had a shot - despite the money he was raising - Digg users continued to uprate his material.

Now a popular story currently on the top list talks about how Paul equates Obama's and McCain's foreign policy to each other. Aside from being as intellectually dishonest as Ralph Nader's claim that George W. Bush and Al Gore were the same in 2000 (see how that one turned out), it's also amazing how many idiotic, libertarian-minded fools there are roaming the Internet. Even after Paul's campaign has ended, these people still support him and his call for a 'revolution', whatever the hell that entails.

There's a reason that, despite the gobs of money they gave to him, people like Digg users failed to get Paul any traction in the presidential race. It's because the people who backed and supported him had no freakin' clue about how politics works in America...and that's not something they can blame on a corrupt system or the traditional media. It's because Americans, surprisingly or not, can identify fringe politicians when they see one.

Even when it's self-identification amongst Republicans.

Kicking ass and taking names

Just watched history on television, and what a hell of a speech Barack Obama made. A lot of people (Bill Clinton, John Kerry, Bob Casey, and Bill Richardson, to name a few) have hit John McCain pretty hard this week, but Obama just laid the smackdown on him.

It's long past time that the Democratic Party fought for itself like this.

The show's almost over

Only two more days of the formal training program, and it will be all over. There's a lot of things I'd like to write up about - restaurants, movies, and other stuff - but it's been a busy time for me. All in all, the summer hasn't been so bad, and given that I'll be working non-stop for time immemorial in a few weeks, it could be worse.

On the bright side, some of my favorite TV shows (Entourage, Heroes, The Office) will be returning soon. It's hard to put a damper on future couch potatoism.

Them lies don't tell themselves

Maybe it's because everyone's so in awe of John McCain being a prisoner of war that no one feels like they can call him out on his bullshit when he exploits his time in the Hanoi Hilton (which he does plenty) for political gain. Earlier this year, it was claiming that he recited the defensive line of the Pittsburgh Steelers under interrogation when, in fact, he had written in his book that it was the Green Bay Packers' offensive line. Now, it's some little story about seeing a 'cross in the dirt' when he was a POW that gave him strength.

Nice little story, except that it's eerily similar to a story the late Alexander Solzhenitsen wrote in "The Gulag Archapelago". Given that McCain never started pushing the story until later on in his political career, it's pretty clear that he's pushing another little lie in order to score some cheap points with the religious crowd. What's worse? Having other veterans come out and cover McCain, even though they are known members of the shady 527 political action committees, including the infamous 'Swift Boat' group of liars from 2004.

But none of this matters, of course, because John McCain is an honorable man.

Not.

Pure, unadulterated bullshit

Anyone who knows my politics knows that I am about as big an anti-religion person as it gets when it comes to the involvement of faith in politics. That being said, America is the last developed country that lets religion play an inexcusably large role in its politics - and explains why both Barack Obama and John McCain took time to visit another evangelist pastor, Rick Warren, to go talk about their beliefs.

What's more of a farce is that the whole thing was unbiased, though. Both candidates were asked the same questions, but with Obama going first, McCain was supposed to be under a 'cone of silence' (what the hell kind of term is that, anyways) - in other words, he and his advisers were under the honor code in not watching the questions ahead of time when they were posed to Obama. Republicans, being the amoral kind of people they tend to be when it comes to politics, didn't obey the rules...which explains why McCain answered the questions before they were even asked. Given that he finished 5th from bottom of his class at the Naval Academy, it's not really much of a surprise that he would cheat.

They must have been bored

I don't know what would inspire anyone to bestow knighthood upon a penguin. Maybe the Norwegian royal family thought it'd be a good way to get attention. Whatever the reason, it highlights the fairly absurd pastimes that Europe's now-ceremonial royalty undertake.

Where hath the blogs gone?

Back in the day, it was the rad thing to have a blog where you'd post your thoughts about whatever the hell you wanted (usually your life), all with the wonderful anonymity of a screen name...which didn't matter because the only ones who read your blog were people who knew you to begin with. Anyways, I've noted that the few friends of mine from the good 'ole hometown have blogged significantly less - and in some instances, stopped completely - since they've began their post-graduation obligations. I've always enjoyed reading even the pithiest of entries, as it helped me to keep up with how people were doing...even if I couldn't keep in touch with them on any sort of regular basis. Nowadays...not so much. Not that I should be complaining, as my productivity has dropped off markedly since I began work myself.

Impending doom?

I'm getting somewhat of a bad feeling about my computer. It's been functioning a bit slower as of late, and some oddities have developed. Most notably, my audio becomes scratchy occasionally after reviving the computer from sleep mode. In general, response time has become somewhat halted; I'm not sure if that's due to computer age or to Windows Vista suddenly hogging more memory than usual. To be fair, the majority of components in my computer are more than two years old, with my sound card being even older (it was a legacy carryover from my previous desktop, which survived three years) and my backup internal hard drive and the graphics card being the only newer pieces.

All in all, though, it may be time to do an overhaul sometime in the winter...for the first time in a long time, I looked at computer parts and pondered how a new configuration would look. While I do enjoy my case a great deal, not all of the fans works, and I think it'd be better to go with a case that had more airflow (read: bigger fans) or had water cooling (probably not, as it's beyond my technical expertise and comfort level to set it up on my own). It's all fun thoughts...for the time being...

A strange sight to behold

I went to an Earth, Wind, and Fire concert tonight with my family. While the music was absolutely fantastic - I had never heard their music before, but I'm a true believer after two hours of a soul-shaking set nearly brought the house down at Radio City Music Hall - there was one person there I didn't expect to see: Bill O'Reilly. Yes, the bloviating talk show host from Fox News was taking it in and seemingly enjoying himself. Was he reliving his younger days secretly? I do wonder what his reaction was (or what his audience's would have been) to the band's lead singer when he talked about "all of you who were conceived to our music", or something to that effect.

Nevertheless, I shook his hand (even though I despise him as a human being) and jokingly noted that I had no idea he was a fan. It's still a bit hard to believe.

The new Facebook sucks

There's really no other way to put it. Yes, having tabbed browsing is the 'in' thing ever since Firefox introduced it on a wider scale, but it simply doesn't work for Facebook. The whole point - at least when I first joined, way back when in 2004 - was that it would be a compact page where you could easily access people's profiles. I understand that some people's profiles may be so massive so as to require tabs (namely those who can't help themselves and add every last application), but it just screws up the easy-to-view nature of the website. I already switched back to the old interface and have no intention of returning to the new one unless they foist it upon all users.

Selling yourself well

Walking back from the gym yesterday, I saw two signs posted outside of an apartment building. One said "Man with Van", presumably hawking himself for moving services. The other was "Cleaning by Russian woman", or something to that effect. Oddly enough, almost all the phone number stubs were pulled off for that one. What does being Russian have to do with cleaning? Fascinating...

On another note, a lot of shops in the area have signs with this flyer in them. It's mildly hilarious, but these signs have apparently been around New York City, particularly Manhattan, for several years now.

Wasting everyone's time

I've been paying less attention to politics since work began, but the latest dust-up in the campaign seems to be over Barack Obama's comments about not looking like "all those other presidents on the dollar bills"...which is true and isn't a racist statement at all. However, John McCain, his campaign, and the rest of the sinking craphole that is the Republican Party decided to throw a hissy fit over the comments, with McCain's campaign manager saying that Obama was playing the race card "from the bottom of the deck."

Just shut up, Rick Davis, Lindsey Graham, and the rest of you idiotic, babbling fools. It's an insult to everyone's intelligence to waste time on something that is a non-issue. Of course, the GOP knows all about using racial tactics to secure votes - the main reason why it was able to flip the South into a solidly Republican voting bloc at the national level - and this is merely another perpetuation of the strategy. I guess it's hard to try and win on the issues when polling on what counts - the issues - shows the GOP to be desperately out of touch with the electorate.

It will be nice when these tools are relegated to a long-suffering minority standing nationally after November.

Self-ownage

There was a lot of brouhaha when a new search engine, Cuil, hit the intertubes yesterday. Created by some ex-Google engineers, it claims to have indexed triple the web pages that Google has. After the big debut, though, it turns out that...it kinda sucks...badly, if this article is any indication. Based on my test run, I would be inclined to agree.

Perhaps the funniest thing, though, is that when you search 'Cuil' with Cuil, it didn't initially turn up anything (now it does, but the search engine doesn't even hit the first page of its own results). Basically, that's the equivalent of punching yourself in the face. Good job, guys.

What the hell

I don't have a high opinion of the NYPD, but they've certainly gotten better over the years, particularly since Rudy Giuliani left office. But even they wouldn't get away with this kind of bullshit. Tasering a guy 19 times when it was clear he was injured and didn't have anything close to full mobility?

The mentality of finality

When I was in college, I didn't make much of a big deal of graduation, which loomed ever larger as the years went by. There was too much to do to think about the bigger issues in life beyond finishing the next homework assignment or cramming for the next exam. But in the end, graduation came and went, and now I'm part of the workforce.

It's different. That's not necessarily a bad thing - I enjoy the people I work with to a large extent, but being in a semi-academic setting for as long as I am right now is a big readjustment - but the mindset to approaching life changes. In particular, there are no longer any formal milestones to define the path ahead - no more exams, no more semesters or vacations. Training goes on for a little over another month, and that's it...we're a bunch of small fish in a big-ass pond. For someone who likes structure, it's mildly disconcerting for myself to get used to the idea of the endless here and now...but I'm sure I'll get used to it in due time.

Overheard in the apartment

"It's difficult being cool." Even more so when it costs money to be 'cool'. It's also vaguely interesting to reflect on how the meaning of the word has changed markedly since the early days of elementary school, when being 'cool' was largely an intangible attribute aside from all the kids wanting to be friends with that person. Nowadays, even the dorks and the nerds have a shot at being the man.

Not quite what I had in mind

If there's anything that my 1 week+ of training has shown so far, it's that I should be prepared for things that I don't expect - particularly on the business end of the program. It's been good meeting up with some familiar faces from last summer, but I'm struck by how few (at least to me) there seem to be. I'm also settled into the apartment here, for the most part - I have some random odds and ends I need to clean up - and I'm thankful we finally got air conditioning in; it definitely makes a difference.

That's about all for now. As plainly evidenced, I'll likely be writing less for the foreseeable future, but that's the way life goes. I've come to accept that there's really only so much complaining one can do before facing the music.

An interesting endorsement

According to the spam in one of my email accounts, there's an email titled, 'Obama endorses herbal supplements'. I didn't bother to click through the link, but I wonder if the folks who sent it were audacious enough to Photoshop him into a picture. That'd be a real winner.

Not that funny

Jimmy Kimmel and Sarah Silverman have broken up. While it's another celebrity relationship ending, I take issue with the article's description of the now-ex-couple as being 'one of Hollywood's funniest'.

Really? Aside from the Matt Damon/Ben Affleck videos (which, to be fair, are downright hilarious), I never found either of them funny, particularly Silverman. And there's a reason that Kimmel is rarely mentioned in the same breath as his main late-night competitors (Jay Leno and David Letterman).

Maybe it'll taste better now

Anheuser-Busch finally agreed to a deal to be bought out by InBev. I know there was a lot of faux-protectionist sentiment around the deal, namely because the company is America's largest brewer. But given that most European beer tastes a great deal better than American lagers, I don't have a problem with it. And in the end, it's not as though people will stop drinking it at the bars or the tailgate parties because it's foreign-owned.

Working on peace...without America

I haven't been following the peace process in the Middle East closely; ever since the Bush administration decided that invading Iraq was the most important action to take in the region, I've thought that there wouldn't be any serious attempts at working towards peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. That being said, there are currently meetings happening in Paris between the two sides, and Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert seems to think there's a good chance of an agreement being struck.

As always, I remain skeptical of any sort of peace agreement being reached until it's actually being implemented, and there are real decreases in violence as a result. Nevertheless, it's telling that this is happening in Europe and is occurring without any tangible U.S. participation. So much for the 'road map' George W. Bush spoke of at the beginning of his administration. Then again, given his record on matters of foreign policy, it's probably a good thing that we aren't playing a major role in shaping the outcome of any accords at this time.

Final thoughts from a town I never really called home

Well, the day's finally here - it's time to say goodbye to White Plains, at least for the time being. I'll be coming back every now and then, and maybe, way down the line, I might end up living here again.

To be honest, for a good deal of my life, I never really felt that White Plains was 'home'. Having moved from Japan to California and finally back here, I always felt as though I were an outsider - a mere visitor who was passing by on my way to other things in the future. It probably affected the way I behaved when I was younger as well...looking back, I can say with fair certainty that I wouldn't have gotten along well with past versions of myself. I wasn't that friendly, and my greatest flaw - perhaps something that still exists, but on a much less personal level and more on bigger issues (e.g. politics) - is that I was far too judgmental. Most of it was without basis or reason, and it's a shame that it colored the way I viewed the people and the environment around me here in Westchester County.

But in the end, I suppose I've mellowed with age. I still think that the area's still too populated with overpriced shopping centers, but it's been a long time since I felt active antipathy towards what I felt was a privileged group of peers who didn't work as hard as I did in school. Who am I to judge others if I don't know them that well? My pastime as a 'dispassionate observer' of what happened around me was really more that of an uninformed person who merely viewed White Plains as a foreign place that was hard to associate with. With age, I've come to realize that the town, more so than either Japan or the deserts of southern California, is what will prominently be home in my mind...no matter where I end up down the road...and that it wasn't half as bad as my half-empty view of everything back then made it seem.

Coming full circle

It's somewhat appropriate that I spent my last full day as a resident here in White Plains at one of my friend's house, swimming in his pool. When I first arrived back here in New York, almost 14 years ago, I had met him for the first time at his place...swimming in his pool.

Good times. For the most part, the past 14 years here have been good to me.

The long goodbye

Aside from changing my address, it's also a time to say goodbye to many people that I have come to know well over the years. Today, I bade farewell to an online community that I've been a part of for several years. It was also the last time in potentially a long time that I'll see one of my best friends from my school days. Such is life these days.

The final step: cleaning up

The end of moving in is near when you're beginning to clean up the place. My living area now looks respectably cleared up; the next area to work on is the kitchen. I only wish Ikea made their damn boxes smaller. They're a pain to figure out how to get rid of (I don't get the vibe that the building managers like big things getting thrown out).

Open your eyes

That's something I need to work on. Either that, or my phone's alarm clock chose today to simply not function. Whatever the cause, it gave me a near-heart attack when I leaned over to check what time it was this morning.

More stupidity: Rudy Giuliani edition

Rudy Giuliani is lionized by the media as some kind of savior, even though a vast majority of people in the city he used to serve as mayor hated his guts. His doomed campaign for president was best summed up by Joe Biden: a noun, a verb, and 9/11. He has made millions off the thousands of lives lost that day, which is what disgusts me the most. So it's hard to take him seriously when he says crap like this:

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-N.Y.) said Thursday that Barack Obama is capturing 'an anti-American feeling' responding to Obama telling a town hall audience in Georgia that their children should learn to speak Spanish.

"Well this is why he is a popular candidate in Europe, because there is such an anti-American feeling and he is sort of capturing that," Giuliani said on MSNBC.

I'm not quite sure how those two are even connected...and what the hell does that have to do with 'anti-American feeling' anyways? For someone who's raised the most money of any presidential candidate in history from the most donors, there must be a lot of self-loathing Americans out there.

Someone needs to tell Rudy to shut his trap, go back out to the Hamptons with Judith Nathan, and stay hidden away from public view before he makes a further idiot of himself.

Cash money millionaire

Visited the local grocery store to use their coin counter. In the end, rolling up the obscene number of coins I had (which amounted to somewhere around nearly 600 dimes, 400+ nickels, and the random quarter and penny) would've been a too laborious a task. Despite the 8.9% cut the machine took, I ended up with a solid $80 after fees. Not bad for a bunch of coins that had been sitting around in my room since the end of high school doing nothing.

What'll be more interested to see is how many pennies I have on this oversized plastic bottle from a bar mitzvah that is 8-9 years old. It just weighed in at over 53 pounds. Damn.

Widening the musical sphere

When I was younger, my musical tastes were pretty rigidly defined - I listened to a few set number of artists, and that was that. With the advent of YouTube, Pandora, and other places where listening to streaming audio is a breeze. I still don't like a couple of genres - country and rap/hip-hop to be specific (the former just doesn't suit my tastes, while you hardly need any musical talent at all for the latter) - but I'm just about open to listening to anything other than that. It's been useful helping me to get exposed to entire genres (for example, European power metal, through bands like Nightwish, Kamelot, and Sonata Arctica), as well as individual bands in genres I wouldn't ordinarily pay attention to (e.g. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, an indie rock band).

There's also the old-fashioned way - getting music from friends. One of my good friends from the good 'ole days in New York introduced me to a couple of divergent bands - Muse (an English prog rock band) and D'espairsRay, an industrial JRock band (my Japanese Pop Culture professor didn't expose us to any of their music) - through a mix CD. They're widely different styles, but I enjoy the music of both a great deal. Given that I don't listen to the radio - it's dominated these days largely with rap/hip-hop and pop punk garbage - listening to new music, even if it's not 'new' in the true sense of the word, is always an event for me.

A superhero flick with heart

It's hard to take comic-book superheroes too seriously, and for those that try to delve too much into emotions, they usually end up failing miserably (just watch Spider-Man 3). That's why I liked Iron Man - the character of Tony Stark fits perfectly into the flighty world that superheroes live in.

To the main point: I got around to seeing Hancock last night, inspired mainly to do so because of the promise of Will Smith flipping a whale into the ocean (it was worth it). Reading reviews, it seems like a lot of movie critics had a problem with the film not being as satirical as advertised. To which I say: did they even bother watching the trailers for the movie? It was clear that Hancock would undergo a transformation at some point and that he wouldn't keep being the drunk-ass, wholly imperfect superhero that he is at the beginning of the movie. I thought it was put together well, and that the introduction of an intriguing backstory for Smith was a plus - namely because it's nice to hear about superheroes who don't get their powers through a freak accident.

I'd be down for a sequel in this movie, if only to see the trio of Smith, Charlize Theron, and Jason Bateman (who was giving off a serious Michael Bluth vibe in the film, unlike in Juno) together again. The chemistry between all of them was great.

Working to the death

Hopefully something like this doesn't happen to me. Japanese companies are notorious for instilling a sense of hard work in their employees, so the extreme hours aren't that surprising. Nevertheless, it's still jarring to see someone who is roughly double my age die from working too hard...given that the field I'll be in (finance) is known for its long hours as well.

First tastes of Manhattan

I've had a chance to sample a few restaurants in Manhattan since moving my stuff in, so I figured it would be a good time to write about them...in the case that anyone should come to the City and find the urge to eat at somewhere other than a local pizza joint (which could be hard, I know):

Umi Sushi: This little shop was fairly empty when my girlfriend and I visited for a weekend lunch (I feel like the sushi shops only fill up at night; I'm not sure how they stay in business otherwise), but the sushi was delicious. The prices were very good for New York (only slightly more expensive than Vic's in Philly, which I've mentioned several times before), and the special roll we ordered (called the Shogun roll) was huge - 10 large pieces - for a very reasonable $13. The rice-to-fish/veggies ratio in the regular hand rolls was very manageable, but I wasn't a fan of their tamago sushi - the egg was a bit too big.

Shanghai Cafe: My girlfriend loves these Shanghai specialties that she calls 'soup dumplings' (but seem to be referred to as 'tiny pork buns' on the menus), so we visited this restaurant on one of her friend's advice. The soup dumplings were extremely delectable - better than New Yeah Shanghai Deluxe, which is where we had previously eaten them. The dumplings here were larger, and the liquid had a better taste to them - namely, they didn't make my arteries choke on fat with each bite (as much). The other food was delicious as well; we ordered wontons and mooshu pork, which we ended up getting for free when we discovered plastic in the dish. That ruined it a bit.

Aki Sushi: Slightly more expensive than Umi, but the taste was very good here. I wish I had a Dragon roll there, because the one that the chef at Aki put together melted in my mouth - it was that good. The hand rolls were good, but there was a bit more rice in them than at Umi. They did a better job with the tamago, though - it was a much more manageable size. This is closer to where I live (half a block away, compared to 4.5 blocks for Umi), so I may be visiting more often.

Black Duck: Also close to where I live (one block up and half a block over), the food here was very good. While my girlfriend had some qualms about the service, they did a good job with keeping the water glasses filled. The soup was a good appetizer; I had their clam chowder, which was different from authentic New England chowder - it was thinner and also employed a lot of dill. Their cream of spinach soup was very good as well; it wasn't the cheap kind that mixed spinach into condensed cream, diner-style. That being said, the portions were too big; I wish that they had served less soup. The entrees were fantastic; the host wasn't lying when he said the chef did seafood well. I had salmon done medium-rare over cous cous; my girlfriend had their fish of the day (wolf fish, which turned out to be quite tasty in its own right). Dessert was a chocolate granache - a great finish to the meal. It doesn't quite match the level of Roy's famous chocolate souffle (which is served hot), but for a cold dessert, it was very well done. I would visit the restaurant again, but I'd probably get a lighter appetizer.

Saravanaas Bhavan: I ate food from here with my mom after we finished a long day of unpacking/building furniture. The apartment's pretty damn near the center of Curry Hill, so I might as well get used to the cuisine. While the meal ended with me sweating a river, the food itself - I had a dosa (basically an Indian crepe) filled with spiced potatoes and various dips - was very filling and tasty. I'll probably end up visiting it on a regular basis...as long as I have the air conditioning on.

Todai: We ate here for a Sunday brunch-style meal. For the price, I don't think it was worth it. The sushi was above average, but the pieces were tiny, and there weren't any standouts among what I ate. The fruit was...well, fruit (it's hard to distinguish), and the desserts - bite-size pieces of cake - were far too creamy. Maybe if I had a bigger stomach, I wouldn't mind, but I didn't feel like I ate $18 worth of food, either in quantity or quality.

Pants, pants, pants

So I went to the local Syms, and it turns out they are having an awesome sale right now (simply called 'Bash'). I ended up picking up a ton of slacks for work at a very good price. I got more slacks than I can wear in a workweek, but it will help keep the frequency of dry-cleaning down that needs to be done.

Daily dose of stupidity

I'm really thinking of starting a set of posts related to John McCain when it comes to this, because the candidate himself - not even surrogates, but the man who wants to be president - says so many idiotic things that it makes one wonder why someone who finished 5th from the bottom of his graduating class at the Naval Academy could be considered a competent president.

Anyways, here goes: first, John McCain jokes about killing an entire country:



How exactly is talk like this supposed to help burnish our image in a region where it has suffered the most? That's aside from the fact that it's completely inappropriate for anyone to say, much less a presidential candidate.

Then there's this gem, which shows McCain talking about Social Security:



The money quote from this:

Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today. And that’s a disgrace. It’s an absolute disgrace, and it’s got to be fixed.

Except, you know...that's the way Social Security has been run since its inception in the 1930s. That's what a 'pay-as-you-go' system is all about. Are there some problems with the program? Sure. But any modifications to Social Security, even steps that go towards privatization (which will never happen, at least in the current political and economic climate), don't eliminate the fact that current workers fund retirees.

Duh.

Wasted

No, not in the sense of being obscenely intoxicated, but in feeling extremely tired. Today wasn't much in terms of moving in or building furniture...nevertheless, I have an acute sense of feeling devoid of any energy at all. Maybe that's the way I should feel at the end of my last vacation.

Shooting fish in a barrel

This is too easy to pass up. On the heels of John McCain's wonderfully insightful explanation about how we're going to get out of a recession, he comes up with this gem on today's morning shows:

Mr. McCain said, “I would imagine that technically there’s some question amongst economists about that. The fact is Americans are hurting, they’re hurting badly.”

It's good that he can imagine that we might be in a recession, but does he know? I'd bet a lot of money that he doesn't have a flippin' clue.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

I finally got the wireless set up for my desktop. At the very least, it's a marked step up from the last time I tried a wireless rig-up for the mission control. Several years back, I tried to go without wires with my desktop at home, but for some reason (possibly the presence of a few concrete walls, coupled with the fact that the antennas were aimed at a wall, under a desk) the connection absolutely blew. It's much improved this time around.

Clap your hands and tap your heels

That's basically what John McCain's plan to deal with the budget deficit boils down to. Really, can anyone believe this?

It's pretty straightforward, as we win, costs will go down with a smaller footprint over time, and those savings will go to deficit reduction. It's really the logical extension of Senator McCain's position as articulated in the 2013 speech. Achieving success in Iraq would obviously lead to reduced expenditures on the effort.

Oh right, the 2013 speech...the one where McCain explains how we get from the present to his ideal future without explaining any of the details from getting from Point A to Point B. His campaign should stop insulting the public's intelligence with this nonsense. It's the equivalent of this:

A substitute for air conditioning

Well, nothing is a perfect substitute for AC, to put it in economic terms, but I do believe that this fan (or 'air circulator', as Vornado apparently likes to refer to it as) will function quite well. I went to a local Bed Bath & Beyond and tried it out...and man, does it spin out a lot of air. Lucky for me, I have a 20% off coupon I can use on it.

One of those days

First, it turned out that my bed frame from Ikea wouldn't fit in my mom's car.

Then it couldn't get delivered at a reasonable time today, so I had to get it delivered tomorrow - at additional cost (makes no sense; Ikea charges more the later it arrives).

Next, I got a $65 parking ticket 5 minutes after my time expired. Thanks, NYPD.

Finally, after I moved the car to a new parking spot and went to a nearby sushi restaurant (named Aki, which I will discuss in a future entry), I found that it was closed between 3-5 PM. It was about 4:20 PM or so.

What a great day.

A weekend of films

My girlfriend and I watched a few movies this weekend, mostly thanks to HBO's OnDemand programming. In an apartment with no cooling besides a solitary fan, it's a way to get some form of entertainment without having to move around and work up too much of a sweat. Anyways, here's what I thought:

Jet Li's Fearless: I remember seeing previews for this, largely because it was advertised as the title actor's last martial arts epic. We'll see if that holds up, but the film is definitely entertaining to watch from an action standpoint - the fight scenes are very well choreographed. The balance felt a bit off, as the movie spent more time on Huo Yuanjia's time as a fighter solely focused on being the best in his province instead of his redemptive arc. While a great portion of the movie doesn't appear to be remotely related to the real-life Huo Yuanjia, it was an entertaining film to watch.

Ocean's Thirteen: Maybe I missed something from Ocean's Twelve (which is the worst-rated of this high-wattage star ensemble series), but I didn't find this movie as compelling as Ocean's Eleven. The first film had a definitive plot, and it was also a bit more realistic - namely, that Ocean wasn't able to pull off everything perfectly. Here, the crew somehow gets a drill underground (a real WTF moment), and Al Pacino's character, billionaire casino mogul Willy Bank, gets played like a fiddle. Is it a fun movie to watch? Sure...but the wholly unrealistic nature of parts of the movie left me scratching my head. I also felt like some of the actors, particularly George Clooney and Matt Damon, were phoning it in a bit.

Finding Nemo: Okay, I finally got to watch the fish movie, and it wasn't that bad. I found the first scene of the movie (no spoilers) to be somewhat gratuitous in terms of adding drama to the film, but the rest was pretty good. It's easy to see why Ellen DeGeneres was highlighted for her voice work in this film, but I think most of the props have to go the animation team in creating beautiful seascapes.

Mr. Bean's Holiday: British humor is typified by awkward situations, and Rowan Atkinson's iconic character is...well, the epitome of that. There's plenty to laugh - and cringe - at during the movie, but surprisingly, everything works out to a happy ending. The Bean shorts are some of my favorite comedy moments (and Atkinson excels at making the most out of visual humor, given that the character says very little, if anything at all), and this movie doesn't disappoint in adding to a comic collection.

Late-night amusement

Via Balloon Juice, another political blog I read, there's this rather hilarious musing made at a right-wing blog:

A totally crazy Saturday-morning thought: Wouldn’t George W. Bush make an awesome high-school government teacher? Wouldn’t it be something if his post-presidential life would up being that kind of post-service service? How’s that for a model? Who needs Harvard visiting chairs and high-end lectures? How about Crawford High? (Or wherever?) Reach out and touch the young before they are jaded, or break them of the cynicism pop culture and possibly their parents have passed down to them. Whatever you think of President Bush, he’s a likable guy in love with his country with some history and experience to share.

Like I said, crazy. Saturday. Have a good one.

I would take my 12th grade AP Government teacher (who is a tree-hugging, bleeding heart liberal in the best sense of the word) over George W. Bush any day of the week...at least if I was concerned about getting myself a decent education.

More light posting

I'm spending the holiday weekend in Manhattan with my girlfriend, so this will probably end up being my lightest week of posting to date.

Acknowledging reality

Japan is peculiar: while it is certainly one of the most advanced cultures when it comes to innovation and creativity, particularly in the technological space, it can be irretrievably backwards when it comes to matters of cultural sensitivity - even facts that cannot be denied. The example cited most often (and in the media the most) is the government's extreme - and somewhat odd - reluctance to acknowledge the horrific war crimes that were committed during World War II under the Showa emperor (better known to the Western world as then-Emperor Hirohito). It's a function of a conservative ruling party (the Liberal Democratic Party, better known as the LDP), which has effectively dominated the Japanese political scene because of opposition parties that function incompetently and don't have a cohesive platform other than opposing the LDP's grip on power. As the country has moved further and further away from the initial reforms that Douglas MacArthur attempted to implement in the early days of the post-World War II occupation, nationalism has become a more potent political force...and not in a good way. I don't understand how refusing to apologize, or worse, being insensitive to the countries who suffered under Japanese rule and flat-out denying the atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers, is a good thing. The sociopolitical culture of Japan is screwed up when it comes to the issue, that's for sure.

Another issue is the discussion of the Ainu, the indigenous people of northern Japan who have been dwindling in population and recognition ever since the Meiji emperor forcibly colonized the area (now known as Hokkaido) and effected Japanese culture upon the Ainu, whose culture has nearly disappeared. While it's indisputable that the Ainu are indeed native to the island (what passes as Japanese these days is a result of the Yayoi migration of Chinese and Korean immigrants, after which the newcomers mixed with the native Jomon population), the group - along with virtually every other minority within Japan, have not been given recognition of their status and are often treated as something less than 'Japanese', whatever that may be. So it's with a warm heart that I read about how the government is finally acknowledging that the Ainu are indigenous to Japan. I'm somewhat skeptical if this will result in any real change of the sad state of the people (just see Japan's tortured position on how it deals with its World War II issues), but at least it's a start. It may shatter the nice myth that Japan is ethnically homogenous, but it's long overdue.

The sound of silence

Apologies for less blogging nowadays, although it's probably going to become a more frequent occurrence that I post more infrequently. What with moving in and building my furniture, I've been spending increasingly less time in front of my computer, deciding what I want to muse about. It's probably for the better, as I'll have to wean myself off of my blogging habits once work begins so that I can fully focus on not losing my job (which is hard, given the market conditions). Nevertheless, it's been a good start to what I hope continues to be a long-lived online repository of...well, whatever the hell's on my mind.

Pretty damn shocking

There are many problems with America's health care system, but you'd at least expect hospitals to take care of people who are at the hospital for care. So reading this story about a woman who collapsed (and died, as it turned out) in an emergency room - and then wasn't tended to for an hour - is disturbing. That's either an illustration of shocking incompetence or utter callousness by hospital staff, and it illustrates that the main problem with health care isn't necessarily that everyone isn't covered - but that we can't even get the care right.

Ouch

My feet are killing me after an epic day of moving yesterday and from doing some furnishing today. Sooner or later, I should wrap ice around my feet or get one of those foot massage baths. That would feel extremely good right about now.

While there's still some stuff I need to construct - basically all of my furniture - the hard part of getting it into the apartment is done. It couldn't have happened sooner (or, it could have...but that's a story for some other time).

Good cookies that come cheap

Back in the good 'ole days, grabbing a cookie from the cookie shops at the local malls used to be simple - have a George Washington handy, and you could get yourself a tasty treat. In more recent times, though, it's become more difficult to score a cookie with just $1; it's usually set me back $1.25 or even as much as $1.50. That's why it was a delight to find, at the Great American Cookies store, a regular-sized cookie that cost me a dollar even. It was like being a kid all over again.

Stressful times

Thinking about moving in is weighing heavily on my mind. Aside from the labor-intensive effort that it has been to date (and tomorrow is going to be the worst of it all), there's also a lot of planning and detail that has to go into it. In a way, I'm almost looking forward to starting training - because by then, I will be done with moving in, and then I can focus on other matters.

With some luck, we'll be done with our adventures by mid-afternoon tomorrow. I really have no urge to be doing any of this for longer than necessary. I may also need some ice packs handy.

End of an era

'Home' is going to officially be my apartment in Manhattan in 12 days (not counting the rest of today). It'll be a bit weird thinking of my place of residence as somewhere other than where my parents are, but that's life. In a sense, though, home will always be here in White Plains.

Customer service, or the lack thereof

Following up on my outburst yesterday, I have yet to receive word from Ikea after leaving 2 voicemails and 1 email message about my order. It's nice to know that they care so much about their customers.

Massive hate for Ikea

Earlier this week, I noted how I was purchasing a good deal a furniture and the like. I placed an order with Ikea and when the receipt said the goods would be ready to ship on June 28th, I figured I was set. Well, I had the unpleasant surprise of finding out that none of my stuff will likely arrive before I start work, making moving any of the stuff in virtually impossible. Although training hours are not as rigorous as when full-time work will begin, I am not going to be around when these deliveries are made - and I probably won't feel like putting them together, either.

On another note, the hold times are too damn long. I get transferred to another department to deal with this issue, and they never freakin' pick up.

Next time, I'm hiring a moving company

Well, that's if I have the money. I've moved a good amount of stuff into my apartment in Manhattan; I still have a little more to do. That being said, my arms are sore to no end from all the heavy lifting. I also think that the experience absolutely destroys any energy I have; after yesterday and today, I've crashed hard and slept a good portion of the afternoon.

At least I get a respite for a couple of days...then it will be back moving in. Hell, it's a pretty good workout, but I will be sincerely happy when it's over.

Scenes from an Eastern Asian restaurant

More bad plays on song titles, this time from Billy Joel's Scenes From An Italian Restaurant...I ate dinner at a Japanese/Chinese restaurant with my stepfather tonight. It's a place my family used to frequent on a more occasional basis when I was quite a bit younger; personally, I hadn't eaten there in more than 4 years, so it was a nice little trip back to the past. The restaurant was much emptier than it was back in its heyday, and the vast parking lot in front (it's a part of a fairly large shopping complex) was also equally lacking in cars...but the food still tasted the same. Which is to say, at its price, it was a good deal.

Unintended consequences

NBC had a show, To Catch A Predator, that was effectively a televised version of prostitution stings that you might see on Cops, although much more personal and confrontational. It turns out that one of the men confronted on the show killed himself, and the network had to settle a 9-digit lawsuit with the sister of the man. Yes, there are bad people out there who stalk kids, but televised humiliation of people who may or may not have committed any crimes is awful. I bet NBC didn't think about this when they were giving Predator a green light. Hell, the head honchos probably didn't even care about the 'public service' they probably claimed they were doing. It's all about the money...

Taking time off

I need a little bit of time to clear my head, so posting may be lighter than usual.

It's hard to top that

Top that...in the sense that it's hard to imagine the service at a restaurant could be any worse. My friends and I ate at The Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant where everything is cooked in front of you in fondue bowls. That is, if the food ever gets to you. We ended up leaving after the appetizer (cheese fondue), which took 90 minutes total. The lady at the front said they were understaffed and that there were a lot of graduation dinners, but that's no excuse. Another diner came out and said that the staff forgot that her party was there for a birthday.

It'd be one thing if the restaurant was completely new, but they've been open for 6 months. All in all, the company was fabulous - I enjoyed seeing most of my close friends from high school for one last big get-together - but boy, they didn't earn even half of the 18% gratuity they charged us for having a large group.

Pain in my wallet

Filling up my mom's car with Regular Unleaded here in downstate New York set me back a cool $63.75. It's damn good that I am living somewhere that won't require me to drive. It also makes me empathize a little more with those whom I have previously criticized vociferously.

Not going quietly into the sunset

The Los Angeles Times has a nice little profile on The Offspring's lead singer, Dexter Holland, that discusses the band as well. It's true that the band's mass-market appeal from the days of Americana and to a lesser extent, Ixnay on the Hombre and Conspiracy of One are long gone. In a sense, though, as Holland points out, that's not a bad thing:

One inevitable question is about career plans, the long-term variety. He says he has no flight plan to share. "We're making music now really only because we want to and it's the music that we want to play and hear. We're not doing this for the money anymore, we're doing this because we're friends and we love it. The challenges come from inside the band now."

That's nice to hear, as I always got the sense after the infamous 'Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)', The Offspring were always trying to hit the jackpot again (just listen to 'Original Prankster' or 'Hit That'). But I get the sense that on Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace, the band just put out an album that they wanted to make. Although fan reception, at least as far as I can tell on the Internet, has been overwhelmingly positive (many say it's the best album since Ixnay or Americana), it's not really because the album is The Offspring's tried-and-true punk rock formula (although in some songs, it is) but because it really feels like they tried on this album. There's not much filler, if any at all, and it's just a pleasure to listen to. Holland had said the band was going to hang it up once they hit 40 (he's now 43), so this is just a happy bonus.

Blind no more

I picked up my new glasses today; so far, they feel pretty good. For the price I was able to get them at, it's definitely better than my alternative plan - which was to order glasses online, where getting frames similar to those I had before would've cost markedly more. I ended up giving up the transitions, figuring that they probably weren't the best idea to wear in a professional setting...maybe I'll get prescription sunglasses down the road.

While these frames resemble my first pair more, the lens are not as boxy and thus provide a much better look (in my opinion).

Weirdest directions ever

The assembly instructions for Ikea furniture (which is where I ordered mine from) are mildly amusing. They are completely wordless and have humorous two-window comics to give advice (can't read direction? Call Ikea!). The directions seem a bit more daunting, if only that the numbers appear to be completely out of order. It ain't like building a Lego set.

Doing my part

While it's hard not to see that the economy has been slowing down, I've been doing my part to prop it up - and I didn't even get one of those damn rebate checks. Buying everything I need to sleep in (mattress, bedding), along with the furniture (bed, desk, dresser) has set me back a little bit. But don't blame me for not doing my best to push the economic indicators along.

Maybe not so bad

I've always thought I was a bit overweight in recent times; being at school never particularly helped encourage exercise - the gym was always crowded, and, excepting the last semester, I was chronically busy. I've lost a fair bit of weight so far this summer (not enough in my mind), but the doctor said during my physical that my blood pressure was perfectly normal.

Maybe I'm in better shape than I thought...that ought to please a certain someone who was weary of hearing about how fat I claimed to be.

Aaaaaaaaaaand...that's all she wrote

When I was younger - mostly in middle school, but a little in high school as well - I would listen to the local sports talk radio station, WFAN 660-AM, fanatically. I knew the entire schedule, all of the hosts, and even some of the frequent callers. However, as I grew older, I became particularly disillusioned with the biggest show on the station (outside of the now-defunct Imus In The Morning), the weekday afternoon program Mike and the Mad Dog. Hosted by Mike Francesa and Chris Russo (the 'Mad Dog' who was more like a yelping puppy at his best), the show would often devolve into one (or both) of them yelling mindlessly over the people who were calling in. Francesa came off as an arrogant bastard, while Russo was just an idiot, plain and simple.

So it comes with a hearty platter of schadenfraude that I read today that the show is likely coming to an end. It's not that Francesa or Russo won't find another gig, but they are paid an obscene amount of money to do a job that the average sports fan in the Tri-State area would do better. Getting paid nearly a cool million and a half to do what they do...WFAN would do better by replacing them (and a lot of the rest of the useless roster of hosts) with new, younger, and most importantly, more knowledgeable, talent.

This kinda sums it up

This really boils down the thinking between the two major political parties in America (hat tip to Eschaton):

What do you see as the gravest long-term threat to the U.S. economy?

Obama: If we don’t get a handle on our energy policy, it is possible that the kinds of trends we’ve seen over the last year will just continue. Demand is clearly outstripping supply. It’s not a problem we can drill our way out of. It can be a drag on our economy for a very long time unless we take steps to innovate and invest in the research and development that’s required to find alternative fuels. I think it’s very important for the federal government to have a role in that process.

McCain: Well, I would think that the absolute gravest threat is the struggle that we’re in against Islamic extremism, which can affect, if they prevail, our very existence. Another successful attack on the United States of America could have devastating consequences. You’ve been a supporter of climate-change legislation that would essentially impose a penalty on the use of fossil fuel.

Seriously, Islamic extremism is the most serious long-term threat to the American economy? I guess McCain was more insightful than he realized when he let everyone know he didn't know a damn about economics.

The good guys never stay around long enough

While I was in Philly this weekend, I happened upon the sad news that George Carlin passed away. I'm not his most rabid fan - I've only listened to several of his bits on YouTube - but it was enough to know that he was one of the best comedians around, and he far surpasses just about any comedian that's around today. He'll be missed...and to get a sense of how popular he was, just check out Digg. I've never seen an article get Dugg so much.

Rest in peace.

Epic

I haven't seen Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but I have seen Requiem for a Dream, and the ending music is about as haunting as anything you'll hear. Combining the visual of the former with the audio of the latter, though, leads to this promo:



It's hard to come up with something more epic.

I've got a brand new bag

I ordered a new bag for the beginning of work. I'll be using it for the first time when I travel to Philly this weekend, but so far, it looks pretty solid. I ended up scoring it for $90 (there was an additional 10% off at eBags, where I ordered it from), and it came with a free business card case that has an MSRP of $45. While I could still use the free bag my firm gave me during last summer's internship, it's more of a gym bag than one that holds notebooks and other assorted papers with ease. Nevertheless, it spells the end of using backpacks for me in the near-term future...they're now just another vestige of an academic life that is now part of the past.

Frustration

I would save myself a lot of grief if I read things more closely.

New glasses needed ASAP

As I've tried to struggle on for a couple weeks without wearing my old glasses - the left lens continually pops out, distorting my vision (as well as occasionally pinching my eyebrows) - my left eye has grown very sore, probably as a result of having to overcompensate for my useless right eye. It doesn't feel great, and I wish Lenscrafter would hurry the hell up and get my glasses done. The soreness is fairly constant by this point, which makes having my eyes open a vaguely unpleasant experience.

Dungeons and Dragons

Today was my first exposure to the ultimate game of dorks. The setup took a bit of time, but when things got started, it was fairly engaging. To me, it's effectively a combination (from games I've played in the past) of Magic: The Gathering (not surprising; Wizards of the Coast makes both games) and Diablo II. It's far more interactive than multiplayer games on the computer, but I'm sure it takes a while to complete...I don't know if we even defined what 'victory' was yet.

All in all, I got off to a good start. Of the 3 enemies in the first encounter, I dealt the killing blow to 2 of them.

More nutrients, please

I've been taking Centrum as my daily vitamin since last summer. Doing some research today, though, it doesn't necessarily cover all of your bases. While I'm not going to become someone who takes a billion pills a day to get 100% daily value of absolutely every last vitamin and mineral, I think it couldn't hurt to get a little more. Right now, I'm thinking of adding omega-3,6,9 gelcaps and a calcium supplement to the plan. We'll see, but if the cost isn't prohibitive, why not? It can only help.

Internet traditions

There are a lot of Internet jokes that get circulated around, but only a few hit critical mass (such as the Rickroll). However, this is the first time I've seen a new one unfold while I'm paying attention. Courtesy of John Cole:

I am aware of all internet traditions and also of literary conventions in which placing something in quotes or in a blockquote means that your are quoting that person.

But here you are not.

It seems to me that what your are about is, well, sort of questionable.

Can you please expand on the idea your propose that putting something in blockquotes that does not appear at the linked item is a fair thing to do.

Just do a Google search to see how far this meme has been spread. It's hilarious.

The inanity of offshore drilling

A couple days back, I had blasted a Facebook group for its short-sighted thinking on energy policy - namely, an asinine proclamation for lower gas prices without considering any of the consequences (as well as the likely failure) of any actions to do so. Not to be outdone, though, it appears like Republican presidential candidate John McCain has proposed lifting the ban on offshore drilling - with Bush's help: From the AP:

On Monday, McCain made lifting the federal ban on offshore oil and gas development a key part of his energy plan. The Arizona senator said states should be allowed to pursue energy exploration in waters near their coasts and receive some of the royalty revenue.

Never mind the fact that the only state that is being targeted by this move - Florida - has a long history of politicians on both sides of the aisle who oppose offshore drilling. In his quest to be considered as the vice presidential nominee (which really is the only explanation in my mind), Florida governor Charlie Crist announced his support for the move as well. Frankly, it's nice to see the vast majority of commenters on the Miami Herald website fed up about this as well.

The basic issue is this: building an offshore oil rig takes anywhere from 2-4 years, if this link is to believed. Offshore drilling is not a quick fix to our higher energy prices, and in drilling off of Florida - which routinely gets visited by hurricanes year after year - it probably would pose a much bigger environmental risk than offshore drilling platforms further in the Gulf of Mexico. This isn't a long-term solution to anything, much less driving down the price of gas. But I suppose we'll have to suffer through a debate about it now.

Didn't know it existed

I had lunch with an old friend from high school today at the Atlanta Bread Company. While I've eaten there previously - the only dish I've had is their chili, which is usually very delectable, save for the time right before it closes - I've never really had any of the meals that sets the restaurant apart, for better or worse. In the end, I tried out their California Avocado sandwich, which turned out to be a nice light sandwich. I am a fan of avocados, as my girlfriend has correctly stated (not obsessed, though!), but I've never eaten them in anything other than guacamole or as individual slices in a salad. It never occurred to me that there was some other use for them.

Fare thee well, Willie

Overnight, the Mets ended up firing manager Willie Randolph for failing to get the most out of a team many thought would dominate the National League. I've always been fond of Willie, in large part due to his ubiquitous presence as a Yankees coach during their golden years nearly a decade ago. He was doing well as the manager until upper management decided to play head games with him and the team. I tend to agree with Buster Olney that Omar Minaya and the rest of the Mets' honchos (starting first and foremost with the useless owner of the team, Fred Wilpon) are to blame for this mess. Having the sword hang over his head for most of the season wasn't fair to Willie or the team.

But it's not much of a surprise that the Mets managed to bungle the situation. They are, after all, the Mets.

Running out of time

Hard to believe that I officially start training for my full-time job in just under 4 weeks. It's oddly appropriate that my last (official) summer break is the shortest of them all.

That's life, I guess.

Planning ahead...generally a good idea

Building on a previous post, one of the things I wish I had done when I visited my future place of residence was to take more pictures and do some measurements. The pictures would've been more for referential purposes - just to see where things would be located. However, measurements are more important, particularly when trying to figure out what furniture I can buy. I can't, for example, order a desk right now because I don't know how wide my living space is. The same goes for a bed (although I'm more confident about the space I have for that) and other things, which makes my life more difficult.

In conclusion, thinking about all of these little tidbits would've been useful back when we were first scouting everything out.

A case of the extremes

The Offspring's self-titled debut came out in 1989. The last track on that CD, 'Kill The President', used to be on its CDs until it mysteriously disappeared in 2001 (note the timing and subsequent events in America). That kind of sucked for me a couple years later, when I lost that CD. Although I still have the case lying around somewhere (I think), and the MP3 of the song on my computer, Nitro Records doesn't release the record with the full set list intact anymore.

What's the big freakin' deal? Sure, the title of the song and its lyrics (read them here) are somewhat incendiary, but is self-censoring really needed? The First Amendment exists for a reason, rendering the claim that it was taken off due to legal reasons (source: Wikipedia) a bit weak. Furthermore, the song was 12 years old...if there was going to be legal trouble, it would've happened a long time ago.

It's a tiny issue in the bigger scheme of things, but it's always puzzled me since I went to my local Borders (which sadly closed 4 months ago), checked out The Offspring discs that they had, and discovered that their discography had magically shrunk by one song.