Merry Christmas to All

I received some Sprinkles cupcakes for Christmas Eve dessert. They were all Christmas themed cupcakes, which basically meant that they were variations of eggnog, peppermint, and other Christmasey flavas.

The main meal included charcoal grilled New York steak, grilled Louisinana Hotlinks, steamed vegetables, and a nice cabernet. It was a great meal. Oh, and there was a candied apple which was excellent.

Today is an exciting day because I get to watch the Lakers vs. Celtics game...live.

Bowling night

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Wide Awake

My sleep schedule is completely fucked up.

I have been traveling a lot lately and it really messed me up. I have been flying back and forth across multiple time zones and my time travel has left me confused and constantly tired.

It's 3 am and I am wide awake. I really want to sleep because I have shit to do when the sun comes up but I can't.

To make matters worse, I'm flying again tomorrow.

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Rebirth

My fridge issue has been resolved. Actually, it was resolved yesterday. Our super is indeed super because he replaced my fridge in 5 minutes. As soon as I told him about the situation, he had a new fridge ready to go in my apt. Fantastic.

Death

My fridge died. My freezer smells like dead flesh.

I threw up in my mouth.

That is all.

-My luck continues...

Late Cab

I really hate it when the cab that is supposed to pick you up is late. How can they be an hour late? It's fucking annoying. Did I mention I hate airports?

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Exhaustion: The Sequel

I am exhausted. I know I'm exhausted because I don't give a shit about anything right now. I have to fly again. I really hate airplanes. I really hate airports. I really hate redeye flights.

I am getting too old for this shit. I know I'm too old for this shit because my neck and back hurts. It's really painful. There may be nerve impingement or some shit.

Best Beer in the World

We went to Taylor's restaurant the other day and they had these coasters. We all got a kick out of it and had a nerdy laugh. Fun times.

I didn't get to try the beer though since it was a dinner paid by the department and I was there for a job interview.

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Penny Arcade Hilarious

Penny Arcade has a yearly Dickerdoodle making contest.

Dickerdoodle Gallery

Here are some examples:









These may be NSFW but since you saw them already, sucks on you.

Exhaustion

I must wait at the airport for 5 hours. I really hate the airport and I really hate flying. I wish there was a better way to travel long distances.

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BUTTer Fish

My dinner tonight was not great.

I decided to order the fish at my hotel/motel restaurant. Sadly, i think it is a 2 star or less restaurant because the so called Mahi Mahi tasted like cardboard dipped in Grade D butter. I tried to make the food palatable by seasoning it with table salt but nothing could have made this dish remotely edible.

I'm trying to cleanse my palate with Peanut M&Ms but for some reason, the M&Ms taste like ass. The peanut doesn't taste right...

On another note, I found this website:

I Hate Tom Cruise

I really like the emails sent to the owner of the site.

The Real California Adventure : Soaring Over California

I am once again flying...excuse me, jetting off to another destination looking for employment. I am very tired and I think the constant exposure to the radiation in the atmosphere will eventually destroy my body in cancerous ways.

I am in Sacramento, California today and the weather is a bit chilly. It seems like it's a nice enough place but it is certainly different than the big city. I think I could find my nice suburban lifestyle here. I am conflicted (yes, I worry about many things these days) about whether I truly want the suburban lifestyle or the city life though.

My mind is occupied by a lot of things and stress is an ongoing issue for me. Granted, I am WAAAAAY less stressed than last year but it's a confusing and nerve-wracking time right now. However, one thing I like to think about is where I want to travel next year. It is my 'last hurrah", a sort of a pre-employment bachelor party, before I take the big plunge...into my career. The only criteria with regards to the destination is that it must have good food. I am hoping that a few of my friends come with me so we can relax and hang out at an interesting destination.

A few places under consideration right now is London, Paris, Singapore, and Madrid. A friend suggested the British Virgin Islands but it may be less likely because in order to fully enjoy that area, you have to rent out a boat and hire a captain. It's certainly an option but I don't know how far my friends want to go to have the ultimate experience. My sister had a great time island hopping on a fancy boat but I'm not a sailor and I hear people look down on you if you get one of those motor boats. I don't like it when people look down on me. Heh.

In any case, I think I'm done with my breakfast vegetarian burrito with bacon so I think I'll go check out the neighborhood.

Peace out.

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Where do I go from herre?

I have been struggling with decisions I must make with regards to my future employment. I am not sure where I should or could end up next year. I don't know if I should forget everything else and go to warmer climate or if I should pursue my career ambitions.

In high school, I had my life planned out and I knew exactly what I wanted (or at least I thought I knew). However, I now realize that life does not turn out the way you expected and many unexpected occurrences happen along the way to wreck havoc on your well laid plans.

I have to choose between prestige vs location. Sadly, I cannot have both. I don't know what I want in life any more. Like Jim in the tv show "The Office", I think I have peaked. It seems like it may be all downhill from herre.

I really hate decisions like this. In high school, I had to make a similar decision and I still wonder what would have happened if I had decided to go to one of the other institutions.

I need a vacation.

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Ye Olde Union Oyster House

I was craving for some good New England Clam Chowda so I headed over to the Union Oyster House. It is a quaint establishment that bill themselves as the oldest restaurant in America. It's also a tourist joint so some natives look down on it and describe the place as overhyped and overrated.


Because it was a weekday and it was still before noon, I had no problem finding a table. I sat down and ordered a Harpoon, which was on tap. I also requested a half dozen oysters (I figured since the restaurant was called the "oyster house" I should try their oysters.) I, of course, also ordered the clam chowda. My main meal would be fish and chips.


The beer really hit the spot and the corn bread was very tasty. The oysters came promptly and to be honest, I don't even remember how they tasted because I inhaled them so quickly. I must have liked them because they were gone in 60 seconds.


The famous clam chowda arrived. It was good but if you gave me progresso soup clam chowder, I wouldn't have known the difference. I wish they gave you more clam chunks though.


Main course arrived and I gotta say that the fish and chips were pretty tasty. I have been traumatized as a child eating those shitty nasty looking fish sticks in the cafeteria during primary school so I don't order fish and chips as much. However, these fish and chips did not bring back bad memories. The fish wasn't overcooked so I was really happy to bite into those flaky, juicy, and fried pieces of sea meat.

I will say that I had a good meal but I don't think I will be going back any time soon. There is nothing there that you can't find anywhere else, and most of the food, while tasty, were not unique enough to seek out this particular establishment for the food mentioned above. Still, I guess if you're looking to dine in one of those historical restaurants that has been around for a ~180 years, this is worth looking into.

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Salt Lamp

Yes, that's right. That is a photo of a SALT lamp and I have one.

It is a lamp made out of a block of salt. I didn't buy it. I got one as a gift. It's a big sucker so it must have cost quite a bit. It's also pretty heavy and it tastes like...salt. Apparently, this salt lamp business is all the rage amongst the homeopathic/voodoo loving peoples.

According to the "literature", these salt lamps create negative ions. Apparently, these negative ions have positive effects on the body. You're supposed to be less fatigued and have less headaches. It's also described as the "natural" version of ionic air cleaners.

Supposedly, fresh country air has ~3000 negative ions per cubic centimeter whereas the air in major metropolitan areas have about 100 negative ions per cubic centimeter. Salt lamps increase negative ions to mimic those desirable environments.

So what are you waiting for? Go buy you salt lamp! It's the solution to all of your troubles!



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Sleeping on the plane

I have not been getting much sleep recently. I have been sleeping on planes, eating at airports, changing in crappy bathrooms and now I am just exhausted. I have flown every two days this past two weeks.

Jet Blue's movin' on up

Jetblue has moved to a new home in New York. They used to be in Terminal 6 but now they are at the grand spankin' new Terminal 5. Actually, the terminal isn't really new because it used to be the old TWA terminal. However, they made some major changes and had a big facelift.

Everything has that "new car smell" and they have some interesting stores. They have a Lacoste and they have a few interesting bars. They also have a jamba juice. The ciba world market has a small buffet breakfast spread which I get everytime I'm catching a flight there. The breakfast is mediocre but it's better than nothing. they also have a pretty decent selection of snacks and drinks at overpriced prices.

This is my breakfast of choice. Overcooked scrambled eggs, decent home style potatoes, one french toast and one pretty tasty sausage link.

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Crappy Dog

I seem to be a magnet for bad luck. As I was waiting for my flight, a couple and their dog sat next to me in the terminal. As soon as they sat down, the dog took a big crap. Fortunately (or unfortunately), the dog was in a doggy carrier.

So the dog is in cramped space but it took a big crap. What do you think happened next? First, the smell was incredibly nasty. If a human took a shit as smelly as that, I would have recommended he/she see a doctor. Second, the dog's ass rubbed all over the crap thus turning the once white and pristine dog into a furry pile of crap. A big chunk of stool was stuck to the dog's behind.

The guy started freaking out and he didn't know what to do. The girl asked for some paper towels and he ran to go get some. The girl took the dog out and put the dog ON THE SEAT! What the fuck?!?! People have to sit there! Don't rub the dog's shitty ass on the seat!

The guy comes back and starts cleaning the dog while saying wonderful phrases like "awww gross. Awww nasty! The butt is all shitty! Ugh!"

The girl tells the guy to go to the store to get some sanitation wipes to clean the dog. The guy runs over to the store and comes back with the wipes. He then asked,

"These wipes cost 22 dollars. Is this a 22 dollar mess? Because if it's not, I'm returning it."

He then looked at the dog's shitty ass and said,

"I'm returning it."

At this point I had a few questions running through my head:
Why didn't they just take the dog in the bathroom and clean it up?
Why didn't they get some wet paper towels and clean the dog up?
Why was this douche still in the terminal with the crap covered dog?

After 10 minutes of smelling the shitty dog, I got up and went to a seat far away from this mess. I would have left earlier but there were no seats and the terminal was really crowded. I hoped that this couple would not be sitting next to me. Thankfully, they weren't on the same flight.

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Double Tree Double Cross

My shitty luck continues as I travel the nation searching for my future. I checked into the doubletree exhausted and cranky. I asked for my room and they told me that although I had reserved a non-smoking room, they somehow gave me the fucking smoking room. Fan-fucking-tastic. They said that the smoking king doesn't smell like smoke. Is that right? Then why the hell is it the smoking room? They asked me if I wanted it.

They gave me the worst room possible which is the fucking 1st floor double. God loves me so.

And of course the ice machine doesn't have ice.

They gave me a cookie. Is that supposed to make it all better?

The answer is a big fucking NO.

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Flight of the Navigator was a great movie.

This is the kid's hand and Star Wars action figures. I did not show his face because he is a minor.

The experience of flying can be hit or miss and the pleasantness of the flight depends on many factors. Some factors include carrier choice, number of connecting flights, size of leg room, food served, wireless access, etc. An unpleasant flight can come about because of rude or unruly customers, rude flight attendants, medical emergencies, a disproportionately high number of smelly people, lack of proper air circulation, poor climate control, terrible food, lack of food, lack of beverages, or mechanical failure.

One of the most important aspects however is the people that are one your flight. One demographic that can make or break your flight is kids.

This flight was a terrible flight. Half the plane was full of children. I am not opposed to children flying and I don't' hate kids. Shit, I almost became a pediatrician. However, when you have 50 kids crying and running around the flight for 6 hours, it can be an extremely taxing adventure to say the least.

The other thing that made the situation worse is that the children were evenly distributed throughout the entire length of the plane. I have a theory of what happened on this flight.

Majority of adults traveling alone or with another adult purchased tickets early. Therefore, most of them occupied either the aisle or window seats as expected. Then all of the families with children purchased tickets but realized they didn't have many seats next to one another. So, they placed all of their children in the middle seats all throughout plane. They planted these kids across the entire plane to cry and annoy.

Now, the child planted next to me was a boy 6.5 years old. (I know this because he told me many times while I was trying to sleep. He also told me that his birthday is March 11th and his favorite food is spaghetti. Good thing I'm not some child abductor or molester).

He was visiting his cousins during his vacation and was really excited about going to a major amusement park and meet all of his favorite characters. He was also a big fan of Star Wars.
Normally, this would be great because I always enjoy talking about the galaxy far far away. However, I had just finished a long shift and had 2 hours of sleep. I really wanted to get a few hours of rest in before I had to start the day again after the flight. However, this kid had other plans for me. He started asking me about Clone wars. I told him I saw the movie and I saw a few of the tv epsidoes. That, of course, was a mistake because he would talk nonstop about the history and legend of jedi masters. I wanted to tell him, "I already know all of that! In fact, I know more! ". But because I thought that testing my Star Wars prowess against a 6 year old would be childish, I kept my food hole closed.

He was a rambunctious child, as he continued to occupy more and more of the space left and right of him. On the left was me, a patient, kind and gentle gentleman who have come to tolerate all kinds of uncouth behavior and on the right was a harpy woman who was dead in side. You can probably guess what happened next.

After 2 hours of the kid's shenanigans, I guess the woman had enough. She grabbed the child's shoulder and said to his face while drawing an invisible line between him and her, "This is my space. This is a line. You do not come over this line. You can do whatever you want on your side but leave this area alone or else I will get mad. Okay? Do you understand?"

This scenario played out like the scene from Kindergarten Cop when Arnold's character breaks a pencil in front of the annoying kid's face on the plane showing that he meant business.

The child calmed down for about 30 seconds until he started back up again.

Anway, the next 4 hours continued with him ripping up all of the napkin on the floor and spilling all of the crackers everywhere including onto my jacket. He also ate so many of those Dorritos Snack Mix that I thought he was going to puke all over me. He then asked me about my job and I told him I work at Sax Fifth Avenue and that I usually work 14 hours a day.

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Don't matter if you're black or white

This grainy crap-tacular picture was taken at the NBA store.

The interesting thing about this was that the white guy on the left was kicking the shit out of the black guy on the right in this game. Normally, I wouldn't care and it's not even worth mentioning but the black gentleman was the recipient of constant derision from his friends and the issue of race came up.

His friends were arguing that because the gentleman on the right was 'black', he needed to play basketball well. I felt that this was offensive since it implied that white people can't play basketball and shouldn't play as well as black people.

Actually, I'm not offended and I didn't care. I needed something to write today and this is all I got.

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Street vendor food

Double Cheese Steak sandwich. Yummers.

...Actually, that picture makes the sandwich look pretty nasty.

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Littering

This piece of shit fucker just left that crap on the train. This is the kind of shit that makes these trains go to crap. As soon as the train stops abruptly or makes a sharp turn, the left over drink and food goes flying everywhere and makes the floor filthy. These fuckers need to die. I should have taken a picture of the asshole and should have posted it but he left the train before I realized he had littered.

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Happy Thanksgiving

This is my thanksgiving dinner. Awesome.

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Interesting People on Trains

There are many interesting people that ride the train. Everyday I encounter people acting weird or doing strange things. Today I sat near a 50 something woman who treated the train as her personal bathroom.

She first washed her hands with some wet naps and then she began furiously picking her nose with a paper towel. I guess she wanted to get every spec of nose crap out of the nose hole. She also drank her coke and then applied makeup and then lipstick. She then proceeded to wash her pits with her wet naps.

She made a phone call and talked really loud in a language I could not understand. It sounded eastern european but couldn't get a handle on the specific country. She looked at her mirror and brushed her hair. She opened up a bag full of food and ate snacks and drank her coke some more. She kept looking into her mirror to see if there were any more boogers in her nose.

She stood up suddenly and then fixed her pants. I guess her crotch was bothering her. She looks like the kind of person that cannot sit still for even a second.

Oh, I forgot to mention that she did this while sitting next to a stranger. The man was horrified that she was doing all of this next to him. He was probably wondering why he had to be stuck next to this woman. There were many many empty seats available on the train but she sat next to him.

She sat at her seat for about 10 seconds until she started rummaging through her bag again. This time she pulled out her magazine. I couldn't quite make out the entire title but it looked like "Artist's ______". She would read for about 10 seconds and then look in her bag. She read again and then stopped to fix her hair. This went on the entire time.

She wasn't the only weird person.

A 50 something man sitting near me had his jacket over his face the entire time. He looked like Dracula with his cape covering his face. I have no idea why he was doing this but he did it the entire time he was on the train. I could only see his eyes and they were nervously scanning the train for something. Strange to say the least.

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Pirates!

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gZeyeAHtrDVQhPXkHEQd_aeCPCWQD94GP5SG0

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Pirates_release_Stolt_crew_on_way_home/articleshow/3720902.cms

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/17/content_10371983.htm

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jo-hyNp6ML_OVHUpGVRJv3z-gCsg

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hLP_NjSaPllcYkHtoYULFg7463aQ

Recently, I have noticed that the number of pirate attacks in international waters has increased. It's incredible how these small groups of pirates can take down large tankers with small arms and rpgs. I suppose that's understandable though since these shipping captains and crew are not military individuals and are not equipped to fight off attackers.


Since every boat in international water cannot have an escort with fighting capabilities, I think it's time to equip these boats with various weapons to protect themselves. I have learned however that private boats cannot carry arms. I proposed on a friend's forum many months ago that there are ways around that and can find creative ways of destroying the enemy ships. I think the sonic weapon technology used on some cruise ships have been found to be effective. I also think that other non lethal methods of deterring pirate activity must be developed for these ships.


Maybe the US could destroy these pirates from space. It would be good target practice. United States have several satellites in space that can destroy objects on land. During the Star Wars era, many secret satellites were launched and they remain orbiting the earth. Perhaps we can resurrect some of that technology. I remember one of the engineers who worked on the Star Wars project describing the various satellites orbiting the earth at this moment. One project he worked on dealt with advanced targeting capabilities. That technology is now used in the "missile shield" systems. There are satellites that can launch payloads that can flatten entire cities. Maybe we can use some of those to destroy pirate boats. Or perhaps that's overkill.

In any case, I think it's time to kick some ass on the high seas. We can't let these thugs gain more and more control of international waters.

Great NY Noodle Town

One of my favorite lunch spots is the Great NY Noodle Town in china town. I order the shrimp wonton with noodles soup. It's cheap and it's really filling. if you look at the picture, it's half eaten already. I couldn't wait to dig in and forgot to take a picture beforehand. Oh well, next time.

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Macchiato Espresso Bar

Macchiato Espresso Bar has become my favorite coffee joint. I can't go as much as I would like because of the price but when I want t o treat myself with a latte, I go here.

The reason I like the lattes here is because the cafe lattes are made creamy. The milk that is added to the coffee is thick and creamy and they expertly mix it with the espresso shots to create a wonderful cafe latte. (They also create a nice swirly pattern) It is unlike Starbucks crappe latte where all you get is just hot milk with burnt tasting espresso shots. I don't know how they heat up the milk here but it's definitely different from most of the other coffee places.

The one other problem other than the price is that it's always packed in the morning. It's almost impossible to get in to order because so many yuppies are elbowing each other to get their caffeine fix.

I will definitely miss this place when I leave the city for the holidays.

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