the amount of work that has to be done this semester is just getting out of hand... seriously.

trader joe's is in union square now. they've got a good selection of healthy organic stuff, for low prices. the first time i ventured into a trader joe's was when i was in the bay area in cali. they're like the wegmans for organic food.

the new version of samba can control active directory domains from the server-side! i will have to compile and test this one of these weekends.

this is kinda cool... genes make your earwax dry or "normal".

so i spoke to my cousins, aunts, uncles, and other relatives over this past chinese new years. i haven't talked to some of these people in something like 10 years at least... 15 years for most. many of them are very much into their careers, which is strange to think about since we were so young when i last saw them. so i'm thinking that since the rents are going back to taiwan this summer... i will probably tag along for maybe 10 days before heading back state-side to really concentrate on my research. unfortunately i'll have to give up a trip over to hong kong and china... kinda disappointing. trip is currently planned for may, after classes end. hopefully we can fly out of new york, and i'll be able to maybe spend a couple days there. anyone want to come along? it's a good opportunity to travel to asia... you'll have locals as guides, and i'll try and translate =].

blah... work.

for the new year. so usually for chinese new year people will clean up and out old stuff. i've been working on networking and designating different computers for different fuctions here @ home... so i've had to reorg and consolidate folders, files, media, etc. after looking through media files on different computers... found this here. shezhad was the short-lived band a couple of us formed in high school. the link above is to the song mohammed, which i felt was our most well rounded song. i think RS still has the DAT... i'll have to see if we can get the songs transferred using a direct digital transfer to a computer someday. since cds were still kinda expensive to make at the time (96-97ish), we ordered all our demos on cassette tapes.

maybe i'll post the other 4 songs if anyone wants to dl em. those were some fun days.

PK and i were talking @ work last week about how getting older has made us lose our creativity (or at least it feels like it). why do we take ourselves and everything so seriously when we age? we both talked about how we would just use our imaginations and make up games; she did it with her brother, and i did it with mine. we'd build forts out of sofa pillows. the couches and tables were islands and the walkways were always flowing with lava. in my house, my brother and i had to get from the family room to the kitchen (safety) by jumping/walking on everything except the floor. as you can imagine, it made my mom quite mad haha. play time was a time to get creative. it was not nearly as structured as it got when we got older. now when we're not @ work or studying, when we have "play time" we have to be doing something. why don't we make up stupid games anymore? why don't we have competitions where we see who can win @ hopping on one foot the longest? when was the last time you went outside on a nice day and just spun around and fell down? don't you wish you could be a kid again with not inhibitions whatsoever and just feel happy that you can run around and dream up adventures in your own backyard (literally) and be content doing that again? kids are good like that. i can see that happiness in them... and sometimes i can't help but wish i could feel that kind of weightlessness in life.

hey... wanted to wish everyone a happy chinese new year.

ok. now i'm done with my asian duties for the day haha =].

i'm working on a big post of links i've saved up... but i didn't feel like finishing it. i thought i'd post this original instead to mix it up a bit from the tags, and the otherwise boring posts on sports, politics, and day-to-day stuff.

startled to sleep

last night i woke up in the depths of the night
a little dazed... a little anxious.
with stars in my head and on my eyes,
looked out to the stars of the sky.
there was a connection for the briefest of moments;
a split second, a past memory, long forgotten.
i knew you were ok,
i knew you were happy.
my heart settled, and i fell back asleep.

wanna see something scary (courtesy of tc)?

i've been tagged for my 7 ideal jeopardy categories. thing is there really are only 2 maybe 3 categories i would probably be able to run. the other ones, i'd know enough to answer a few but not everything thrown @ me.

1) just do IT (as in information technology). dot-com deaths, buyouts, and mergers, to terminology. if there was a category i think i'd be able to take a run at, it'd be this one.

2) new york city neighborhood abbreviations and acronyms. this one like the first one i'd probably do well in at the moment. though since neighborhoods are constantly being redeveloped and rebranded, the more time i spend outside the city the worse i'll do in this category.

3) south park characters. i'm referring more to the odd characters that will show up randomly or make guest appearances. ursula the giant douche, towelie, kevin, token, chef's parents, john edward the biggest douche in the universe (the psychic not john edwards the vp candidate).

4) renowned architects and planners with works in buffalo. did you know that frederick law olmsted designed the entire buffalo park system? why is that significant? he also designed central park in manhattan, and prospect park in brooklyn.

5) street drugs. while i am past my "experimental" days. i still do feel it would be beneficial for all world leaders and military commanders to sit in a room together and roll (with translators of course). world peace could be achieved in about 4-5 hours.

6) chemical formulas for common substances. c6h12o6. anything more than that... i'd be screwed.

7) months that start with feb. oh... we're not doing snl celebrity jeopardy? ok... how about hockey then. it might surprise you, but i think i would really suck at this category (especially if it got down to the history).

so i guess i should be off to do some work huh?

so here's my ever changing, dynamic, n.c.p.l. these are the songs i'd have to have on my ipod (if i actually had one... am i the only holdout?) for winter 05-06. pretty much all slow, low-key, kinda melancholy songs... which i suppose is my default music mode. coldISH winters are made for this kind of music (and i say coldish only cause it's like frickin spring outside lately. wtf?! january showers bring february flowers? NO! screw that! it's APRIL showers!)

the luckiest, ben folds - i had to reference this cd after 'annie waits' was mentioned. ben folds singing, playing piano, with touching lyrical content. my fav lyrics.

next door there's an old man
who lived into his nineties
and one day passed away in his sleep
and his wife, she stayed
for a couple of days and passed away

I'm sorry I know that's a
strange way to tell you
that I know we belong
that I know

that I am, I am
I am the luckiest

sure it's a "strange way" to tell someone you KNOW... but that's just it. sometimes you know but can't explain things in words. isn't that what most relationships are built on? just a feeling... but a feeling that can't be described.

f train, david usher - when i listen to this song, it makes me miss new york. it's about riding the f train (i like the song, but i hate the f train btw), wandering around anonymously in a sea of people. ave a, alphabet city, and the lower east side are kinda cool to walk around in the winter when it's not frigid outside. they're perfect places to suck down a cigarette while walking into some crisp cold air.

coax me, sloan - this was the first sloan song that hooked me on cfny oh so many years ago. i did like underwhelmed, and i am the cancer pre coax me, but i really wasn't all too into the over distortion of the guitar. coax me did it though. i remember picking up my first copy of twice removed in hmv on yonge st. while i was in toronto with the greater buffalo youth orchestra performing @ UT and hitting up a TSO concert. man... that was a long time ago. i think i was a junior in high school. 10 years ago! damn i'm frickin old.

everloving, moby - i think perhaps this may be one of my favorite (if not favorite) all instrumental/synth pieces. it starts out with an acoustic guitar, then someone humming something barely audible is added and the volume on that track is increased slowly. after awhile drums and piano enter while the acoustic fades into the background, only to enter back in with force. the layering and texturing of the middle of the song is done beautifully towards a climax that fades to just an acoustic guitar carrying on at the end. i think the title is fitting as the acoustic guitar to me is methodic beat of the heart that carries on a love that starts, swells, breaks, and fades but is not extiguished in the end.

canadian skye, spirit of the west - so when i think of the canadian skye, i think of what the sky looks like up here in the north in the winter time. picture a nice blue, with a couple wispy clouds, and white snow all around. desolate, cold, and a fierce wind that makes you feel alive as it's blowing. the north is where i belong. i've always felt that. while i'd welcome living somewhere else like california for a little bit, i think i would have to eventually return up to the northeast, or great lakes. the sky is such a big piece of the winter puzzle that i'd miss.

mercury smile, treble charger - figure i'd throw in another up-tempo song. it was either this one or red, and i decided that we need more energy so we don't sink into depression. though this song isn't necessarily an overly happy song lyrically either. "I love your mercury smile. It keeps me outta line." this album really seperates old treble charger from new treble charger.

letter from bilbao, the lowest of the low - one of the best short songs available to listen to. musically, lyrically, just an overall outstanding song. if you evaluate the utility of this song (time vs. song value), you'll find that for the amount of time listening to this song, it will pack a powerful punch because of how much goodness is packed in it. "'Cause I was never much on dreams. And they were never big on me. And I can't dream my way home from a grave-sight by the sea."

elsewhere, sarah mclachlan - this song just speaks winter to me. standing on the pillars @ baird point in the middle of the night, surrounded by snow and a frozen lake lasalle muting all sounds.

I believe
this is heaven to no one else but me
and I'll defend it as long as I can be
left here to linger in silence
if I choose to
would you try to understand

i am a rock, simon and garfunkel - all about hermiting.

A winter’s day
In a deep and dark december;
I am alone,
Gazing from my window to the streets below
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

disco inferno, the bee gees - i'm using this as my potentially embarrassing song, but whatever. it's a good song. it's a fun song. it was used in mystery men! the disco boys! c'mon! you can't tell me that after listening to this song you don't have a smile on your face. i'm not sure where it would fit in on this particular playlist (i think i would need to expand this list to include some not so down songs), but i will guarantee you that it'd be there on all my playlists (tc knows all about my obsession with this song). burn baby burn!

psalm for the elks lodge last call, the weakerthans - a great song about friends, old happenings, old times, etc. to wrap up this list with. "Oh, protect our secret handshake. Once more, with feeling, let the toast to absent members push through the ceiling, before we say goodnight."

other potential songs that i took off but would probably put on if it were another day/night: walking after you - foo fighters, lusitana - the watchmen, the hardest part - cold play, street spirit (fade out) - radiohead, rosy and grey - lotl, hmmm and others... but i'm tired so i'm done. this was a hard one.

instead of tagging anyone else, i would like to ask that anyone reading this please go over to the corner and motivate tc to get off his ass and post. hopefully i'll get to jeopardy this weekend, but i would also like to pre-emptively tag tc for that too. i hope his inbox blows up from all the comments you're all gonna leave for him right? =]

it's a good thing tc and i go way back (so really blow up his mailbox, you have my permission).

start up the new semester tuesday. this is my last night of non-worry for awhile. i always get amped up when a new semester starts. i know tomorrow night i'll be in bed trying to fall asleep but unable to. it usually starts that downward sleep deprivation cycle i experience throughout the semester.

well... not too much to write about tonight, and christielli unofficially tagged everyone who hadn't done this... so here's my thing. i'm gonna tag tc, maybe it'll motivate him to finish that first thing i tagged him with... frickin slacker.

Four jobs you've had in your life:

amazingly it seems like i may be the few in my group of friends who has never had a job in food service... ever.

1) jr. network administrator @ a dotcom
2) user support specialist @ a university
3) freelance it consultant
4) systems analyst @ a real estate investment firm

Four movies you can watch over and over:

this one is hard to answer, and i think there are definitely a lot more than 4.

1) pulp fiction
2) tlotr trilogy (yes it's 3 movies, but i think it counts as one cause you need to watch all of them. it's a trilogy after all.)
3) monsters, inc.
4) office space

Four places you have lived:

i've only really lived in 3 cities

1) dallas/carrollton, tx (boo to the stars. boo to the cowboys.)
2) buffalo/amherst, ny (half-hearted yay to the bills. yay!! to the sabres.)
3) new york, ny (boo to the jets and giants, who don't even play in new york state. boo to the yanks, yay to the mets. *shrug* to the knicks. boo to the rangers, and *shrug* to the isles.)
4) brooklyn, ny (yeah it's part of new york city, but brooklyn is so different from manhattan)

Four TV Shows You Love to Watch

i don't get too much time to watch tv... but when i am able to watch these i usually do

1) lost
2) scrubs
3) the daily show
4) sabres games

Four Places You Have Been On Vacation

1) most of the u.s. minus washington, oregon, nevada, new mexico, arizona, hawaii
2) from ontario to the n.s. in canada
3) china/hong kong/taiwan (officially mainland china considers all three part of china, but taiwanese will say they are not... and hong kong is just a different place altogether i think)
4) singapore

Four Websites You Visit Daily

1) gothamist
2) buffalonews.com
3) mucho blogs
4) cnet's news.com

Four of Your Favourite Foods

1) super mighty burrito
2) anderson's vanilla custard in a sugar cone
3) duff's wings
4) grimaldi's pizza w/ shrooms

Four Places You Would Rather Be Right Now

1) in bed sleeping
2) at mighty taco trying to devour the el nino burrito
3) travelling around somewhere i haven't been yet
4) out with friends i can't easily see due to geographic circumstances

TEN! TEN to one! 2 hat tricks... by my favorite german hecht, and a recent newcomer pominville. i am totally bad luck @ hsbc arena. i'm tempted to not go to the flyers game in 2.5 weeks to test my theory (or make sure that they don't lose). man our special teams are on fire. the power play went 4/9, and pk unit went 0/7. i love our abilty to roll 4 lines. everyone except peters our enforcer had at least 13 min on the ice. it's nice to hear that the sabres are selling out at home again. it's been a rough 3 years with the collapse of adelphia, indicment and sentencing of the rigas family, bankruptcy, no owner, and lockout. add to it the struggles of the bills over the last 5 years (our coach just resigned yesterday)... and you've got lots of sports fans who are jaded. thanks to the sabres... there's finally some hope.

this is actually kinda scary. i think we should take normal precautions toward healthy lifestyles... like washing hands after using the bathroom and all. however, i'm not big on getting flu shots and using antibiotics/anti-bacterial soaps, sanitizers, etc., for everything. these products should be used only when needed. bacteria and viruses are just getting more resistant to everything we throw at them.

stephen colbert is such a funny guy.

howzit?

i am relieved that it's friday. it's been one long week of work. open enrollment season is upon us, and people are switching their plans all over the place. on top of that there are some whispers around about reorg... so it's kinda freaked out a lot of the people that've been there for awhile. me? i'm just a lowly intern. don't think they're gonna cut people like me cause they get people like me relatively cheap. it doesn't matter anyways i probably won't have too much time on my hands to continue on past summer possibly (and i'm even iffy about that with the majority of my research being done this summer).

so i am thinking of buying a new used car. i like nissan's, but their newer cars aren't so reliable i hear. their plant in missippi has been doing very poorly (even before the katrina thing). i'm not really a fan of honda's, and while toyota's are ok i'd prefer something else. i'm kinda leaning towards mazda's or suburu's, or older nissan's pre-reliability issues. i guess you can see that it's all japanese cars, but they hit a good used price while being reliable. i will not buy any GM cars (unless it's an old school cutlass or monte carlo). anyone have other ideas? nothing flashy, just a good car that won't break down often, that's semi-fun to drive, and has decent utility. i don't want to be afraid to scratch it up.

so car related... they're thinking about reintroducing the camaro. it just looks plain ugly. i very much like the new mustang, but if the new camaro comes out looking like this? i think ford will have won. i've never been a camaro fan anyways.

so i think i might go to toronto tomorrow with the fam, and some family friends that are here.

i suppose the sabres losing was bound to happen. they're missing about 1/3 of their starters due to injury. we've pretty much called up all of the rochester americans by now =].

there was something else i wanted to write, but since my short term memory sucks... i can't remember. oh well. off to get some anderson's or sumpfin.

i'm seriously starting to believe that i carry some sort of bad luck for my sabres. every time other people have been going to the games i can't go to they've won... in brilliant ways. tonight we were up against phoenix... PHOENIX!! they're in a frickin desert! they've lost like their last 9 or something. we had 4 days off since our last game! we came out slow. we only scored a goal in regulation. we lost in the shootout. my first shootout... and we lost. this game was a lot worse than the 10 goal blowout loss i went to against the sens. i just gave up on the sens game... this game though... i thought we'd pull through being on home ice and all. you all should just stay away from me cause my bad luck might be contagious... or something =p.

oy. i'm tired. got up extra early to get to work so i could make up the time i'll be missing for tomorrow. ok. need to sleep... getting up early again.

wanna make pho?

check out the full russell peter's set here. this is by far one of the funniest comedy sets i've seen in awhile. or if you use bit-torrent (mac, win) use this link here.

seriously. people are dropping like flies or something here. everyone seems to pass up free hockey. do i smell?

just found out i got my first choice for research lab. gonna be working on blood cell differentiation and denucleation. yeah i KNOW you're all so interested =p.

blogger's being a total POC right now.

i'm done.

it's about that time of the year again... to redo/reorganize all 6 of my computers (as windows usually starts to crap out @ the year mark anyways). i only have a week before school starts, and i want to get everything all setup for the next 12 months. i finally had enough time to pull the bad hard drive out of my linux box and put in for an rma. i'm in desperate need for file serving/storage space, as i brought back a bunch of music and media from new york courtesy of TC. i'm still missing a bunch of stuff from my hard disk failure from last year that i will never get back =[. i'd like to do up samba accounts and permissions correctly this time on the linux box, with the ability to have a true roaming profile from basement to upstairs. oh and TC gave me a peter jennings report on ecstasy that seemed to turn out quite pro MDMA... which i think is a very cool thing. why the feds are regulating this drug... i have no idea. if you want to check it out... it's from a peter jennings report from 01-04-04. don't know if you can search for it... maybe i'll try to find a copy somewhere on the web and post a link.

so i also put in an rma for my jumpdrive which crapped out this past semester while i was prepping for a presentation that went horribly wrong. don't you LOVE it when things always seem to break when you need them most?

i listed a bunch of my textbooks from last semester on half.com last night, and 2 of them sold already. yay money for credit cards! i'm all about half.com... errr actually it's half.ebay.com now since ebay bought them out awhile ago.

one thing that i like when i open up to yahoo is when they have links to baby names on the main page and this guy is on. how cute is that?

ok... well since i'm still kicking myself for not taking pics... i'll give you some pics that EM took in philly @ DR's place. i'm leaving out all the pics that were taken towards the end of the night... which were quite ridiculous. thanks for the pics EM!

so here's BS and me sittin around @ the edge of the scene (sloan reference for all you sloanies.).



here be DR and BS during our williamsville north vs. everyone else wasabi peas eating contest. ahh the stupid things people do when alcohol is consumed.



so yesterday i went into work for about 5 hours. hammered out a query that had to be rushed to completion by early monday morning since bad things would happen if issues weren't ironed out or something. i also finished with my part for the moment of insurance product conversions in the database. i totally enjoyed going in on the weekend. not as many people running around all stressed out. i could concentrate and finish up my work more quickly. very low key.

so KL figured out what i am truly looking for in a partner... it all pretty much sums up to... canadian girl & ice. that's the great thing about KL, she gives it to you straight with no bs... gotta give it up to friends to simplify life down to the basics. it all seems so simple doesn't it? =]. now my preference is non-chinese since diversifying the gene pool is a good thing, and an avid leafs fan is a super plus. now i love the sabres and all, but i think a sabres-leafs rivalry in a relationship however strained it can get at times will make for some interesting wagers and fun times.

oh... yeah... about my missing the flight thing. i had to fly standby to boston, and then catch a flight to buffalo. only ended up paying $10 more to cover landing fee & taxes @ boston... was pretty happy about that. they coulda really screwed me if they wanted. you'd figure they would with all the big domestic airlines going belly up reorg recently. i was impressed with logan, you get a really nice view of boston from the airport. another thing to add on... after checking out the bus route to the q33, it only goes to LGA... there isn't another route. so wtf with dropping us off 5 min from the airport in the middle of queens?!

while flying nyc to boston... i was on the plane with biz travellers, consultants, etc. just listening to some of the things they talked about... makes me glad that i switched outta the biz path for now. that lifestyle seems kinda empty. when people were boarding the plane, they'd see old co-workers who they've worked with say "hi", exchange biz cards, always talking about work, old/new projects, what they've been doing, etc, then they'd be off. while observing, those relationships seemed so fake... every person that was talking seemed to just do it for the networking. it really does take a certain kinda person and personality to do it. i still think it'd be fun to be a consultant of sorts and do some travelling all over... but not forever. i think i'd be burned out after 2 years of surface level relationships. it's no wonder why people start sleeping with each other on biz trips. if you're out with the same people day in day out, travelling all over the world, who else do you have time for or know?

to set the record straight for a comment JP left. there are multiple patsy's locations in new york... but during the middle of the century, the city of new york started restricting coal ovens. the original patsy's location has always had a coal oven, and diners agree that the pizza there has been the most yummy and consistent. plus, you can get it by the slice as well as sit down in the restaurant section. they definitely keep it real up in east harlem. and if you ever want to know more about new york pizza (or nyc pizza locations)... check out the website slice. hoping i can get back out there in may after exams.

in other news... the bills brought back marv... but this time as GM. here's to hoping the bills start to not suck under the new regime.

lastly... a fun link (courtesy of KL of the west coast, i think i have to go to another name system to keep people straight). i was impressed... the guy nails down a hong kong/cantonese speaking chinese person speaking english as their second language quite well.

look what you've done, jet

take my photo off the wall
if it just won't sing for you
'cause all that's left has gone away
and there's nothing there for you to prove

oh, look what you've done
you've made a fool of everyone
oh well, it seems like such fun
until you lose what you had won

give me back my point of view
'cause i just can't think for you
i can hardly hear you say
what should i do, well you choose

oh, look what you've done
you've made a fool of everyone
oh well, it seems likes such fun
until you lose what you had won

oh, look what you've done
you've made a fool of everyone
a fool of everyone
a fool of everyone

take my photo off the wall
if it just won't sing for you
'cause all that's left has gone away
and there's nothing there for you to do

so yesterday i missed my plane coming back. whenever i've flown outta lga, i've pretty much always taken the e or f which runs express in queens to roosevelt ave/jackson heights. then i would transfer to the q33 bus to lga. they all went and redesigned the subway station and the bus stop was moved so it's all weird now. so i was running about 5-10 min behind which wouldn't have been a problem, but for some reason the q33 dropped us off like 5 min from the airport and was all... "uhhh... i'm not going there", then the driver proceeded to tell the 3 or 4 of us headed to laguardia that we had to catch the next q33 across the street or something. we all thought... so does the q33 have some weird dichotomous sched? we all thought it was a possibility, because of the rearranging of the stop and station (in new york there are 6 express and 6 local trains that run or something depending on times of day, and other weird things that happen when rush hour is on... and we were travelling @ around 5pm in queens). so we wait for awhile... and another q33 drops some more people headed to lga off where we are and tells us he's not going to the airport either. wtf? so we wait around some more... by this time i've given up on making my flight. we were standing outside by the dollar car rental airport garage, and after waiting a bit longer, the dollar car rental shuttle bus driver was all like... hop in. so HE ended up taking us to the airport which was nice (props to dollar car rental co... you guys were awesome when i rented a car from you the first time... and you guys were awesome when i didn't rent a car from you!). so anyways... i ended up having to fly to boston, and finally got into buffalo @ around 10:30pm thur. i've never had a problem with the q33, but i don't think i ever want to do that again. from now on... i'm gonna take the m60 exclusively for lga (which is operated by the mta and not triboro coach).

so the trip was good. i did not get a chance to go to grimaldi's like i wanted to. for those of you who don't know... grimaldi's is the best pizza in new york (i think at least). it's in brooklyn heights, right underneath the brooklyn bridge by the promenade. it was the one thing that i told myself i must do... and they were filming for the new series "lovemonkey" @ grimaldi's. so... on top of pissing me off... they also pissed off a good number of other pizza lovers (and KL was totally hardcore and walked over the brooklyn bridge to meet us on a damn cold night so f-you lovemonkey... you ruined everything). i can tell you one thing though... i will never ever watch this lovemonkey snow. in fact... i can tell you right now that it is the worst show ever. two thumbs down. instead we found a nice japanese restaurant on clark street in brooklyn heights. when i move back to new york... hopefully i'll have enough money to get an apartment in the heights... it's such a nice area (one of the many places i'd like to own an apartment/house =]).

i did end up going to patsy's which i've never been to. many people think patsy's is the best pizza in new york, but it's all the way up in spanish harlem on the east side (117-118th and 1st ave.), so it's a bigger pain to get to than brooklyn if you're staying on the west side, and there's not as much stuff to do in the area. patsy's was good... but i still think my experiences at grimaldi's were better. i think it does warrant another visit though. next visit, i think i'm gonna have to do the pizza tour to judge the best. lombardi's (only cause it's the oldest of the old school), patsy's, grimaldi's, john's, and maybe some pizza place out in frickin forest hills, queens that t.c. says is the BEST (who goes out to forest hills for pizza anyways? it's not even in new york... you might as well say let's go to new zealand for pizza).

the trip itself was good. it felt like so much time has passed since the last time i've seen people... but it's only been 2 years since i've moved. had a lot of good conversations with some old friends (KL, ML, TC, BS, LM, AS, JP), put some things i've been thinking about in perspective. this time around, i decided to spend more one-on-one time with people instead of doing a whole ginormous group thing that i usually try to get going. i kinda like it better this way, even though i ended up seeing less people. it's so much harder when people have jobs.

like i always do... i forgot to break out the camera. i always get so pissed off after i take a trip because of this. it's like i have nothing to show for the thing... plus i miss my peeps.

other discoveries on this trip. if you catch the 1 train @ 125th st downtown and look over toward the hudson/west side highway. look for the fairway (a supermarket) billboard LED news scrolley thing, it says some funny things. for instance there was this one things about kenneth lay (enron) and how he couldn't eat just one. i like philly more than i thought i did (in reality the only reason i hated philly was because the flyers always kicked us out of the playoffs in the early 90s). i went to the mummers parade on new years day. i thought new years day was reserved for recovering, but apparently not in philly. the 8th st. station (n/r) is all nice now. i still don't like the silver center... it should be main building. so now that they have kimmel, when is nyu gonna knock down and build the new coles with a shadow that will cover washington square and have the residents of the village complain about shadows that nyu buildings cast? i really like boston... i almost wish i had a longer layover there.

i went to work today.

i am going into work tomorrow... because it is busy season in this industry.

fun.

night.

just thought i'd share a link my cousin sent me. it's quite creepy.

here's the description.

This one is really wild, but make sure you read the info below before you view the video and turn up the volume if you can. This is a car advertisement from Great Britain. When they finished filming the ad, the film editor noticed something moving along the side of the car, like a ghostly white mist. They found out that a person had been killed a year earlier in that exact same spot. The ad was never put on TV because of the unexplained ghostly phenomenon.

Watch the front end of the car closely as it clears the trees in the middle of the screen and you'll see the white mist crossing in front of the car then following it along the road....Spooky!

Is it a ghost, or is it simply mist? You decide. If you listen to the ad, you'll even hear the cameraman whispering in the background about it near the end of the commercial. A little creepy but it seems to be authentic!

like the description says, i recommend putting the sound up a bit to hear what some interesting first hand observations of the cameraman. don't recommend for work in case you pee your pants.

here's the link to the ad.

happy new year! first post of 2006.

so overall it's been a fun trip so far. got to see some old friends, explored philly a bit. walked around new york some... but damn i'm tired. i wasn't feeling 100% last week when i got in. i'm all better now, but i think i really just need to sleep some more cause my sched's all sorts of messed up.

i think this is the last new years event i will be going to. i'm just done with watching everyone, their SO's or wives/husbands get plastered and me just being sober. i still like the whole taking a trip business to see friends, but i think i'm going to start skipping new years parties, and just see people before and after the night of the 31st. i've been sober for the last 2 new years and drunk people are only fun for so long before it gets ridiculous. the 2 new years before that i wasn't sober but wasn't drinking either... and that was ok i suppose... but it wasn't so great that i'd do it again. the last time i got plastered during new years was way back in college... and i'm pretty sure i threw up which wasn't so fun either. i think i just need to spend new years somewhere and just sleep through it. i think i'm just getting too old for it all... i'm seriously an old man... like a 70 year old trapped in the body of a 26 year old or something.

so yeah... i think it's about time for bed now. oh yeah... before i forget. congrats to N & S. i'm seriously going to be the last one of my group of friends to get married... if that even happens at all.

ok that's all. gotta meet some more peeps tomorrow... night!

elliott smith - st. ides heaven

everything is exactly right
when i walk around here drunk every night
with an open container from 7-11
in st. ides heaven
i've been out haunting the neighborhood
and everybody can see i'm no good
when i'm walking out between parked cars
with my head full of stars
high on amphetamines
the moon is a lightbulb breaking
it'll go around with anyone
but it won't come down for anyone
you think you know what brings me down
that i want those things you could never allow
you see me smiling you think it's a frown
turned upside down
cos everyone is a fucking pro
and they all got answers from trouble they've known
and they all got to say what you should and shouldn't do
though they don't have a clue
high on amphetamines
the moon is a lightbulb breaking
it'll go around with anyone
but it won't come down for anyone
and i won't come down for anyone