How Embarassing...

I just pre-pulled myself. I don't know how. This must be some kind of first.

Celebrities

Is Kathy Griffin an A-List D-List celebrity?

Kirby

I realized today that I don't know anyone named Kirby.

The Subway is Cray-Cray

I didn't know the subway system doubled as a makeshift sewage drain. Apparently, due to this morning's rain flooding the tracks, roughly half of all subway lines were shut down today. Of course, that half afflicted included all my possible routes from home to work.

Now, I normally take the 1 (red line) to Times Square, where I switch to the 2/3 and ride all the way to Burrough Hall in Brooklyn, where the office is located. That's it.

When I stepped out of the 1 into the Times Square stop, I find out that the 2/3 is not fully operational as a result of the rain.

"Well, fuck."

The next best option for me is to take the 4 (green line) directly to Burrough Hall, so as I'm walking, I ask a random and he tells me that, no, the 4 is not running either.

"Well, fuck."

So then I make my way over to the N/R/W/Q (yellow line), my last possible option, and ... NICE! I finally find a train that has its shit right.

Or does it?

I take the express Q for a couple stops and switch to the R. As we roll into another stop, I see a frenzied mob (and by frenzied mob, I mean about a thousand white-collars tapping their feet, BlackBerries and Wall Street Journals in hand) rush the car. As they clamber in, the voice over the PA:

"THIS TRAIN IS GOING TO WHITEHALL, WE'RE GOING TO WHITEHALL"

And the frenzied mob, presumably trying to get to Whitehall, collectively sighs, presumably in relief.

Beat.

"THIS TRAIN IS NOT GOING TO WHITEHALL, I REPEAT, WE ARE NOT GOING TO WHITEHALL."

Frenzied mob, collectively: "FUCK!!"

So most of the frenzied mob clambers off the car, and the remaining stragglers (who I soon would realize were trying to get to Canal St) have a good laugh. But we don't start moving. The doors don't even close. We just sit there for a minute.

"THE NEXT STOP IS CANAL ST, DOORS CLOSING"

Good, that makes sense.

Beat.

"THE NEXT STOP IS DEKALB AVE DOORS CLOSING"

Everyone: "WTF?!"

Now everyone is scrambling to get off the train. As they're doing so...

"THE NEXT STOP IS CANAL ST. THE LAST STOP IS DEKALB AVE DOORS CLOSING"

Again: "WTF?!" And they scramble back on.

(I should interject here and give some background. For those who don't know, the yellow [or gold?] line splits at Canal St, half of the trains going down to Whitehall St, then Burrough Hall in Brooklyn, and then to DeKalb Ave, and the other half going straight to DeKalb Ave in Brooklyn. The plan for me was to go to DeKalb Ave and take the uptown R back to Burrough Hall.)

So ultimately, I get to DeKalb St (the time now being around 10AM). I make my way to the uptown R stop and wait. And wait.

Luckily, after waiting for five minutes or so, I decide to just walk to the office. I say luckily there because, on my way out, I ask a random and find out that the uptown R isn't even running. Good call, self.

Finally, I walk about seven blocks and get to work. At 10:30AM. Approximately two and a half hours after I left home this morning.

And, apparently, my story isn't even half bad compared to some others. Some loud-mouthed woman at the uptown R stop was raving about how she began her commute at 6:30 in the morning and still hadn't gotten to where she wanted to go. She's probably still standing there right now waiting for a non-operational train.

Man, what a ridiculous morning.

RJD2, etc.

I've been listening to these five RJD2 songs non-stop, thanks to Sierra. Highly recommended to all. Please acquire immediately, but do so legitimately:

Final Frontier (ft. Blueprint)
Ghostwriter
The Horror
Good Times Roll Pt 2
Smoke and Mirrors

I think Smoke and Mirrors is a bit slow for my taste, but otherwise I'd say they're good working music.

We breathe adrenalin, elevate organically

Listening to well written lyrics make me want to verse. (that's a verb, yes.) But alas, I cannot "spit with an intensity you have to witness."

I guess it's not that difficult. Something like:

You call yourself a balla? [censored] please,
I run you up and down the court with ease.
You stink like Febreze, quit makin' me sneeze,
Throwin' elbows like you macaroni and cheese.
Jeez.

Lol. Kay, I'm out of rhymes. That was straight off the dome, btw. Oh man, I should have done a balla limerick. Limericks are always crazy badass.

I DEMAND THAT ALL COMMENTS ARE LEFT IN LIMERICK FORM.

Photoshop Excursion

So I think I'm going to try to learn Photoshop. I've attempted this many times before... this time I am for real! Definitely.

I think I'm going to Barnes and Noble to buy a book after work.

Good thing Diablo 2 is no longer that interesting to me. Hopefully I can pursue Photoshop with enough vigor to last until classes start.

And obv I want to draw cool thangs.

Lyric of the Day 7/23/2007

From elegant to elephant...

Devin the Dude "She Useta Be"

Windowsill Tragedy

"EWWW WHAT THE FUCK THAT'S FUCKING GROSS."

... was my reaction when I realized that there was a fucking dead pigeon lying face-down on the windowsill. Yeah, a dead pigeon. GROSS.

Sierra prodded it off the windowsill with a stick. It fell four stories and hit the ground with a thud.

In case it hasn't been made clear, that shit is fucking nasty.

Lyric of the Day 7/19/2007

Tryna own a thousand islands like we salad dressin'

Pandora Music

On days when I forget to bring/charge my iPod, I've been using this Pandora Music Genome Project for all my music needs. This site is pretty fantastic, I think. Not sure how well known this site is (it debuted a while ago, I know), but I actually put some effort into thumbing-up and thumbing-down songs, and now the song selection is pretty solid. Granted, it doesn't seem like a complex formula; obviously, a song that has been thumbed-down will not get played again, etc.

I started a station on Brother Ali, so now I've been listening to a lot of rhythmic rap tunes, not really sure what the genre is. A couple songs I liked:

Viktor Vaughn "Saliva"
Sweatshop Union "Close To Home"
Atmosphere "Smart Went Crazy"
CunninLynguists "Love Ain't"

The beats are nice.

Brother Ali

Bruce, you'll be happy to find out that there is a column on Brother Ali in the morning paper. They give him mad props.

But apparently he's not a black albino. He's Caucasian. Bah, it was much more interesting when I thought he was an albino black guy.

"No Problem!"

Back in middle school, one of my teachers always talked about how much he hated it when people responded to "Thank you" with "No problem". He claimed that saying "no problem" implied that the one saying thanks could have potentially created a problem for the other person. This, apparently, was impolite.

I don't know why I thought of this the other day, but I realized just now how ridic that sounds. Seems like the reason why someone would thank someone else is because the thankee did something that doesn't necessarily benefit himself to benefit the thanker. Thus, it almost seems necessary for the thankee to inform the thanker that the thankee's loss did not outweigh the thanker's gain.

I'm not sure if any of that makes sense.

Oh, but I remembered why I thought of this. My manager here at work seems to thank everyone at every possible opportunity she gets, regardless of circumstance. She just thanked someone via phone approx four times in a 15 second span.

Weird as it may sound, I dislike this degree of thankfulness. Not only does it diffuse the sincerity of each thank, but I feel it makes her seem like she's way above everyone else. It's as if other people are always doing favors for her, like she's entitled to those favors.

Not sure if that makes any sense either.

Oh man, a two-fer

Whoa. Kanye for two?! I just found this on Youtube. I'm very impressed. Here is an excerpt:

I'm relaxin', my feet is up.
I'm leavin' you haters,
Like when Shaq left the Lakers,
Just to Heat it up.
...

I don't need to front,
I make black history e'ryday,
I don't need a month!

And again with the clincher:

"Ralph Lauren was borin' before I wore 'im."

Harharhar, so clever. Oh, I just discovered that that verse is from the song Brand New. A pretty sweet flow, if you ask me.

More Sweet Flows

Being bored at work allows me to listen carefully to good musics. More sweet flows to soothe your soul.

Yeah, I need my loot by rent day,
But that ain't what gives me the heart of Kunta Kinte.
...
That's why my breath is felt by the deaf,
And why my words are heard and confined to the ears of the blind
I, too, dream in color and in rhyme.
So I guess I'm one of a kind in a full house,
'Cause whenever I open my heart, my soul or my mouth,
A touch of God rains out.

And the clincher:

"Cats think I'm delirious, but I'm so damn serious."

I think that will be my new motto.

BTW, these lyrics are from Kanye West's Never Let You Down (featuring Jigga and J. Ivy).

Limp Bizkit?

So I actually listened to the song Nookie by Limp Bizkit today. Remember them? As it turns out, I think the lyrics are really good, relative to the level of music quality to which Limp Bizkit is generally attributed. Here is an excerpt:

I can't believe that I was deceived
By my so-called girl, but in reality,
[She] had a hidden agenda,
She put my tender --
Heart in a blender,
And still I surrendered.

Err, actually now that I read it, the line "tender heart in a blender" reminds me the Eve6 song Inside Out. In any case the above flow is pretty sweet. I also like the interplay between Fred Durst and himself, i.e. the background accompaniment.

I think if this song were remixed to a hip-hop beat (i.e. removing the annoying chorus and hardcore rock vibe), it could very possibly be awesome.

Like a chump, heeeeyyy

Subway Action Vol. Deux

I saw a woman on the subway today.

I think the only phrase I can use to describe her is phenomenally large. I'm not quite sure how she fit into her shoes because her trunks were maaaad thick. Not thick like "Daaaaamn baby I never seen an Asian so thick!" (a comment made to an Asian friend of mine by, obv, a black guy), but thick like elephantiasis. Imagine parachute pants on MC Hammer...

But they aren't pants.

That is all.

Subway Action

So I'm in the subway going back home from work. As we make a stop somewhere I don't remember which exact stop, I see that there is exactly one empty seat between two black guys. The doors open such that anyone entering can immediately see that seat.

So this woman walks on, immediately eyeing the empty seat (as expected). Now, despite the fact that in no time that seat will be claimed by some moron, she first glances around the rest of the car, as if to say, "Uhh... I hope I don't have to sit next to this black guy."

Then, of course, seeing no other seat available, she takes the seat.

I thought that was weird.

Overheard in New York City

"It is totally your fault."
"No it isn't."
"Yes it is!"
"No it isn't! I have never seen that rash before in my life!"

Exciting Events

I saw Coach K today! (Yes, the Coach K.) Krzyzewski has only two vowels. Ridic.

Not only that, but some little black kid yelled to me: "CHING CHONG, BITCH!"

Coffee

So I was thinking about if someone ever asks me something like "what was the hardest challenge you faced while working in the city? / during your internship? / this summer?"...

I discovered on my first day in the city that the waiting area for the subway is too hot and inside the subway train itself is too cold. I bought hot Starbucks coffee the first day, only to find that drinking coffee simply amplified the heat while waiting for the train. Then the next day I thought, oh well I'll just get iced coffee instead, but then I was too fuckin' cold while actually in the train. What a ridiculous dilemma.

But it's okay, because then I found out that there is free coffee at work, so it's all good. Dilemma resolved.

Speaking of coffee, even though I don't regularly drink it, I now drink something like five cups a day. I pretty much cannot stay awake otherwise. I think that has to do with my crappy bed.

Speak of my bed, I'm pretty sure it's just a boxspring. The apartment I'm renting is a little shady, so I guess I'm not surprised. But yeah. Just springs. No mattress. I suspect that is why I wake up and I feel more tired than I did when I went to bed.

Anyways, back to the coffee. One time, I thought the coffee making machine at work broke. It's one of those fancy ones, with all the gadgets and gizmos; you press a button and this slot pops out where you put in a small packet of coffee and close it and it whirs around and makes delicious coffee. You don't need to pour in hot water or even dispose of the coffee packets. There are always people hanging out in that kitchenette area sippin' on coffee and chit-chatting.

I guess I have more things to say but they aren't really pertinent to coffee.

NYC

Speaking of things I think about, I'm in NYC for the summer, interning at an unspecified company. (Uhhh what if they fire me because I write in a silly blog?) General programming/IT stuff, not really all that interesting.

I have very little to do when I'm not at work, so I guess I'll start jotting down my thoughts in this blog. Obv this is the obligatory first entry.