Category Archives: Personal

Subtleties

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I’m 30. I’ll be 31 in just a few weeks and I still love Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches. It’s been one of those nights I got home, had so much cleaning to do that I didn’t bother making anything for dinner. That AND the fact I have to go food shopping. I always tend to revert to a childhood state of mind when I o for the Peanut Butter and Jelly from the fridge.

To make it worse, I HAVE to sing that damn song. You know, the one that goes “It’s peanut butter jelly time!!!” over and over.. and you can’t sing it without doing the stupid dance that the banana does in the popular flash video!

I need to get off the Internet 😉 lol… I love the little things. They amuse me. They keep me content! Thats my secret to how I am always positive and happy, even when things are down.

Lost in New York

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Grand Central Station while waiting to meet.

Grand Central Station while waiting to meet.

It’s been a while since I blogged so I thought it was about time for an update. As it always is, the holidays are a busy time for me. The radio promotions keep me busy on my weekends and my regular job keeps me busy during the week. I took Thursday off and headed into the city to meet a friend for the first time. I had been talking to her online for a while and was excited to get to hang out.

I met Katie at Grand Central Station, so while I was waiting for her, I decided to explore the station a bit. I remembered hearing about certain archways that you could whisper in one corner and about 15 feet away, someone could hear your whisper as if you were right next to them. I hopped on the net and found exactly where the area was. While waiting around, I must have witnessed half a dozen people trying it out. She must have thought me crazy when only 5 minutes after meeting, I asked her to stand in the corner while I walked to an opposite corner and whispered to her.. lol. She heard me though. It was pretty cool.

So, we decided to check out the tree in Rockefeller center. After taking us on a trip on the wrong subway in the wrong direction, we decided to walk 🙂 We got to the tree and then headed out for drinks and then off to lunch.

We were both starved,and not having any real plan we picked a diner and stopped in for burgers. I forget the name, but I believe it was Cozi’s or something like that. They had the absolute biggest hamburgers I’ve ever seen. They were the same size around, but were the thickness of three burgers stacked. Okay, maybe only two, but they were BIG! and good 🙂 Unfortunately, I could not finish mine. A first for me.

We wandered around the city a bit and took the elevator up to Fantasma, The magic shop I try to get to whenever I make it into the city. Despite being there earlier in the day, I spent even more money. I tried to take her to one of the Back-stage tours at MSG, but we were too late. I didn’t realize that they only ran until 3PM.

We headed to times square and spent the rest of the night at Dave & Busters. Playing DDR, I just HAD to show off, but it backfired on me. It’s been so long since I played, that I started with one of my more active levels and couldn’t complete the second level. I could barely catch my breath. Just breathing slowly caused great pains in my back and chest. It was fun, but foolish.

At the end of the night I took Katie back to her train and we said our goodbyes. I wish that she lived in New York, or me in Connecticut, but we both have ties keeping us where we are. I’ve thought about trying to maintain a long distance relationship, but that’s always been something I felt could never work. With my oddball schedule and the things I do, I don’t get to meet people that often. It’s rare someone that I am actually interested in comes along. For now, We’re just friends. I’ll admit that I’m disappointed about that. Who knows what will happen in the future. We’ll definitely hang out again, and hopefully it won’t take as long to coordinate in the future as it did this time (We’ve been making plans to meet for a few weeks.)

Home Depot is Awesome!

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It all started with this idea I had for a Halloween costume. I’d tell you more, but someone might take my idea. It’ll be good (If I can put it together)… But thats not what this post is about. Casey joined me and we went for a stroll through Home Depot. It’s always fun finding things there that are usefull, and not at all for what their intended use was.

We stopped in the PVC pipe aisle. The friendly staff at Home Depot kindly cut various sizes of PVC pipe and stacked them in a display. I picked up a 4 inch diameter pipe and a 2 inch diameter pipe and asked casey to start looking for various interconnecting peices. One of their less lazy employees came by and asked if I needed assistance. I explained I needed a peice to connect this to that and that to this and such. He asked, what I was using them for in a manner that showed not his curiosity, but to help recommend the right producs. The look on Casey’s face when I exclaimed, “I need them for a Potato Gun” was priceless.

Nonetheless, the clerk assisted me in finding all the right fittings and even recommended the PVC primer and glue. I already had the Spud Gun assembled and was walking around home depot looking for various parts I needed. I needed a push-rod and an igniter. The guys working (or I should say, not working) in Kitchens and Baths got a good kick out of it and advised I go with the BBQ igniter. I would like some sort of electronic ignition, but I can work on that in the future. They didn’t have the BBQ lighters in stock so I headed out to another home depot with Tiffany and Kerri. We picked up a BBQ lighter and I had everything I needed.

Assembly was simple. Casey and I primed and cemented all the PVC parts together and I gave it 2 days to dry. We drilled 2 holes and set 2 screws, a quarter of an inch apart from eachother. We hooked up the igniter to the screws and headed out for some Hair Spray and Potatos.

With all the components, we headed out to a secluded area and stuffed the potato into the barrel of the Spud gun (Spud Cannon? BOOMSTICK!!!). We sprayed hairspray into the larger chamber and sealed it shut. One of the leads from the igniter came loose so I had to hold it against the screw while I hit the ignition….

CLICK!

Nothing happened. I tried again…

Click..BBBBBOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!

I could have sworn that the entire spud gun turned orange for a second as the potato was launched way out of sight into the distance. The recoil pushed the gun back, even though both me and Casey were holding it! It was music to our ears (and enough to get us in serious trouble if anybody else heard. lol)… We took a drive by the probably landing area, but we didn’t find much and I wasn’t comfortable with parking the car and walking around.

The next step will be to find some large fields/woods where we can fire and test range/acuracy/etc and do so without bringing a lot of attention to us… Also, we have some plans on painting it and making it look a lot cooler. It’s very plain now, just some joined PVC. Picture available after the cut and I’ll post more when we decorate/paint it.

Blogs, Phones and Cams

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I was talking with Casey last night about LJ and it occurred to me that I haven’t posted anything in a bit. We were talking about how LJ is an online journal and should be used as a means to communicate our inner-most feelings and emotions with our friends. I never really saw LJ that way. I used it more as a means to catalog my life and to post generalizations of the activities I take part in. For the most part, my best friends are not on, and/or do not read Live Journal which is one reason I probably never saw it in the same way Casey does. Also, I don’t believe in publishing my private life for the world to see, nor do I see the need to post information on the Internet and then make it Private so only a select few can read. This is why my LJ, MySpace and website are open for anybody to read. if I want it private, I don’t clutter the Internet with it 🙂

Sprint Shannanigans
Over the past few months, friends of mine have been giving me pointers on how to scam Sprint for a new phone. The only advice I followed was to apply the Insurance on my phone, but I did not bring myself to break my phone just to get a free replacement. As it turns out, I didn’t have to. The screen developed a dead spot affecting my writing/typing on it, so I headed down to the Sprint store and they are ordering me a replacement. Since my phone is no longer supported/carried by Sprint, they ordered me the new one. The PPC-6800 HTC Mogul. It’s a Pocket PC phone, just like mine, but it’s running the newer Windows Mobile Operating System (WM6)and I think it has more memory than my phone did. I should have it with in the week.

Web Cam Connundrum
Did I spell Connundrum right? Oh well.. I finally took the plunge and spend $100 on a Web-Cam. For years, my Web-Cams have been run using Logitech’s low-end $20 and $30 cameras. I used to use the QuickCamVC which was a $20 camera with comparable quality to most $80 cameras of its time, but Logitech could not get the drivers to work with Windows XP. Even in Compatability mode. So at the advice of a Manager in Logitech, I bought their $50 webcam and the quality was EQUAL to their shitty $20 cam. I was annoyed, but it’s the cam I use currently. It’s grainy, the focus is never right, and works like shit in low light. This will change when I get home. I picked up the Microsoft VX-6000 web-cam. It’s reviews claim it to be a GREAT camera, so I’m looking foward to hooking it up and getting away from Logitech altogether.

I’ll post comparisons and reviews this weekend.

The MP3 Experiment

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Yesterday’s festivities began with Improv Everywhere’s MP3 Experiment. Like the past 3 MP3 Experiments, participants were instructed to download an MP3 track from the IE website and refrain from listening to it until further instructed. We were instructed to synchronize our watches and head down to the The World Financial Center Plaza by the North Cove Yacht Harbor wearing a Red, Blue, Yellow or Green shirt. At 4:00 PM sharp, we were to start the MP3 and about 600 or so people did just that.

Like the past MP3 Experiments, we were lead around on a fun journey by Steve, the Mountain-dew drinking omnipotent being from above. The fun began with a huge game of twister on the colored tiles in the center of the plaza. Most of us couldn’t get onto the “twister board” area as there were so many people, but imagine if you were just there for lunch, or worked there and were outside on your break when people just hoarded around the plaza and started playing twister while everyone else waved them on from the sidelines.

We went for a walk, greeting strangers as we walked.. Smiling, Giving them thumbs up and even high-fiving people who were having picnics, walking dogs, riding bikes, etc… At a few points we even pretended to be walking dogs or roller blading. Imagine 600 people pretending to be walking a dog simultaneously 🙂 Outrageous.

We gathered in a clearing where we were instructed to take out digital cameras and camera phones and given specific instructions on what to take pictures of. Red and Blue but no Yellow, Take a picture with a camera, with no camera, with red and blue shirts only, with green shirts only, etc… Everyone was running around and taking pictures of everyone else. It was disturbing yet fun all at the same time!

next, Steve told up to form a human bullseye, greens as the bullseye, then reds around them. Yellow and green forming the outer two rings. Everyone had to squeeze close together then..oops.. The center should be red!!! red and green, Switch! 🙂

Then we all went into a game of freeze tag… Each color taking turns being, “It” and running around and freezing everybody. This got a bit chaotic because the people who started their MP3 early were at an advantage. I was about 20 seconds behind, so I had no idea who was “It” until it was too late.

Keep in mind that all this was going on while people were picnicing, sunbathing, etc.. There were maybe 40 or so people scattered across this field who were just there doing their thing, and about 600 or so of us doing all this around them.

After freeze-tag, we all laid down to rest. We just stopped where we were, laid down, looked up at the sky and waved. A harmonius wave of “Bye Steve!!!” was heard by those around us, at this point looking on in wonder. The MP3 track went on, about 5 minutes or so we just laid there and listened to steve’s younger brother talk us through relaxation techniques.

The MP3 Experiment ended and everyone sat up to applaud Improv Everywhere on another great mission accomplished.

I insist that if you read this, and are even the slightest bit intrigued, head over to www.ImprovEverywhere.com and sign up for the mailing list. You can take part in their next mission.