The Future

The year is nearly over as I write this, yet I don’t have much to say. Around this time last year I was in a club in Shinsaibashi slowly losing contact with reality and formulating my single New Year’s Resolution, it was this: “To be happier by this time next year than I am now.” Now, it’s one year later, almost to the minute and unlike many other people, I can honestly say I accomplished this goal.

Okay, you’re saying that’s stupid and easy, but no it wasn’t. I made myself more happy by improving myself. I worked hard to improve my Japanese (almost like night and day between last year and now), got back into web design, wasted less time and did more, went to the gym more and lost more weight and focused on my future.

But now I come to an impasse. I would like to continue with the resolution to make myself even happier next year, but I find myself having trouble on how to proceed. I have a few ideas and I will start them next week (continue studying Japanese and web design and some programming, rejoin the gym here in Brooklyn), but I wonder how the year will play out. True I didn’t know what was in store for me in 2005, but it turned out okay and I have nothing but a positive outlook for the coming year. Still the words of a song I like keep echoing in my mind:


Wisdom of the Day: There is not future, there is no past, I live this moment as my last. There’s only this, forget regret or life is yours to miss. No other path, no other way, no day but today.


Happy New Year from all of us at the World of Jedicraft and NickCorp!

Link Me

On my site I have a lot of links, but I’m lazy and the internet is unbelievably huge. Yesterday, while looking for something in my bookmarks, I noticed a large number of links that I bookmarked for future blog post that I never actually used. Today I will.

Latke Larry – Are you Jewish? Like weird toys? Can’t get enough of Jerry Stiller? Then this is the toy for you. It kvetch about as much as any Jewish friend you have won’t cook anything either (but I don’t really know anything about the cooking habits of Jewish people. Little help?)

SETI@home – actually something I have known about for a long time. SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) has been around since the 1970s, but soon they realized, it’s a big fuckin’ sky and they didn’t have the computing power to analyze everything coming from space (most of which is background radiation from the Big Bang, ever see that static on your TV, that’s it) and in 1999 started using distributed computing methods to spread around the workload. Using a program called BOINC, your computer can download data to be analyzed and work on it for SETI or any number of other programs using the software. Some are studying climate change, while others focus on diseases and other things that may or may not benefit everyone. Over 300,000 people worldwide are currently involved with projects with this group. Try it out.

Forbes Fictional Fifteen – as if the E! Channel and A&E didn’t make all us poor and middle class people feel bad enough about not having enough money to buy our own islands in the South Pacific complete with mansions, private airstrips and supermodel maids, Forbes decided to go ahead and publish a list of fifteen fictional people who are more rich than you or I usually dream to be. A few things: first up, Santa Claus is fictional amongst even the fictional; Ducks don’t count; and why didn’t they include George Lucas? What….he’s not fictional….huh?

WebCam – Many of your remember my Dental Cam poster from my toilet room in Bentenchou, this is kinda similar. A live webcam link to a dentist’s office in Hachinohe, Japan. Personally, I feel this dentist’s office is not sexy enough.

Reindeer Games – Like to waste your free time? This is the game to do it. I got 76 on my first try, but apparently it’s nothing compared to the 216 score achieved by OMAC, whose name, for reasons of friendship and a love of my unbroken legs, will go unsaid.

Phylotaxis – tough to pronounce, cool to look at. Phylotaxis is a sort of Java-based experiment showing a number of science based news stories in an attempt to show people that science together with culture creates harmony, where as either without the other results in undesirable extremes, although why this is news is anyone’s guess.

Melody’s Blog – Melody is a J-Pop singer of Japanese origin who was born and raised in Hawaii. She speaks fluent English and Japanese and has an incredibly alluring voice, not to mention she’s beautiful. Unfortunately a quick scan of her blog reveals that she has nothing to say and what she does say is of only slightly more consequence than what I write here. Oh, and btw, Melody, don’t worry about those two pounds from Christmas, it might have been five if you came to my house. God, I love those Magic Bars!

CoverPop – got this one from NY1 that I watched incessantly during last week’s transit strike. I won’t spoil it for you, the only thing I will say is that someone has waaay too much free time on their hands.

Hiroshi Yamauchi Wired Interview – this is really funny. An interview with the former head of Nintendo of Japan, Hiroshu Yamauchi. In the interview he is abrasive, angry, threatening, arrogant and impolite, everything a Japanese businessman usually isn’t. The best quote is where he told Steve Balmer: “HEY, BALLMER, WHY DON'T YOU SUCK MY TINY YELLOW BALLS?” Okay, so by know you have realized that this interview isn’t real. Still it’s very funny and worth the read if only for some small insights onto Japanese culture.

Fight Kikkoman! – I wish I could remember who sent this to me, but next to Khaan, it’s my favorite clip on the web. FYI = Show You also means soy sauce in Japanese.


Wisdom of the Day: Dogs who drink bottled water aren’t necessarily wusses, but it doesn’t help.

Two...Movies

As you can asertain from previous posts, I love movies. In the past few weeks I have seen Memoirs of a Geisha (different but interesting), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (sucked!), Rent (still listening to the soundtrack) and Syriana (much better than Traffic) to name a few. But this Christmas weekend I also watched two excellent films from the far east, Oldboy and Densha Otoko.

Densha Otoko, from Japan, is a sort of modern age tale of romance based on a true story. To explain I need to tell you about the Japanese word: Otaku. Otaku is basically the Japanese version of a nerd taken to the extreme. Otaku (otakus?) usually focus all their energy on video games, animation, computers, internet or some combination of them. They also shun human contact and have very little if any female contact outside of a professional atmosphere.

Luckily for our protagonist, a drunken salary-man on the subway one evening gives him the opportunity for some unscheduled contact when he, unexpectedly, defends a girl from his ranting and harassing. In response to the rescue, in typical Japanese fashion, the girl sends him an expensive thank you gift, which indicate to his internet message board friends that she likes him. Using their advice he pursues her, nearly screws it up and ends up winning her heart. The emotional part of the story is not only his struggle through a world he knows nothing about, but the commitment that the internet friends invest in the situation which ends up paying off for everyone. This entire story was extracted from the boards and published in Japan, along with a few private emails to some of the people involved, in book form. The Japanese greeted it with enthusiasm and later made it into a film, comic and TV form. Recommended for anyone who liked You’ve Got Mail.


Oldboy, from Korea, is another sort of story. Imagine during a normal day you are unexpectedly kidnapped and imprisoned in a sort of apartment. After 15 years of eating the same food you are released and given 5 days to find out why this has happened to you. Without revealing anymore of the story, this is the gist of Oldboy, a sort of action thriller directed by Chan-wook Park, whose latest story can be seen on the screen in Three... Extremes. The story kept me guessing until the end, which I would have never guessed and it included some of the best cinematography that I have ever seen. Highly Recommended. Your homework is to go out and rent this movie before they release the American version with Nicolas Cage...


Wisdom of the Day: Too much Apple Sauce is good for nobody.

No News...

What makes good news? Recently, as well as the period before recently, the American media has been accused of many things: The Left have accused them of being too conservative, lying too much and being tools. By the international media, they have been accused of lying and catering to the Bush Agenda. The Right has said on numerous occasions that they are far too liberal and automatically attack the conservative agenda including their Health Care Initiative (don’t ask me what Health Care Initiative!).

Well, let’s cross over to the the side of the world and see what stories are breaking their. This story in the Japanese news tells us that some people like bowling. Here’s another one telling us that Japan has a lot of people, but not quite as many as last year.Be careful, the North Koreans might wash us to death. Miki Ando is generous and cute. China’s state run propaganda machine (propaganda is so 1875) seems to enjoy more talking about US problems than their own. But what bad things happen in China?

Oh and how bored do you have to be to bowl for 11 hours?


Wisdom of the Day: Keep it to yourself.

Boxing Day

Christmas is the perfect time of year to spend time with your family members, even the loud ones; eat lots and lots of food; decorate the Christmas tree; decorate other things; find interesting things on the street; and pose with a reindeer made of tree cuttings, like a moron.

Also, today was Boxing Day in most of the world. In America we just know it as the day after Christmas, which just happens to be a good day for shopping and buying cool black suede looking blazers from the GAP.

Whhhhhhhhhat?

Wisdom of the Day: Don’t pose with inanimate objects in public.

Merry Christmas

What else can I say?
For everyone who celebrates something else:


Happy Holidays

And to everyone:

Happy New Year

This is the time of year to put aside our differences and realize that no matter where we come from, what we believe in or what we do, we are all the same. This is a time of giving and being happy for what we have and to spend time with all those we love.

Wisdom of the Day: Try not to end up like that guy.

A Walk in Manhattan

Cold is the main word I can use to describe my walk through Manhattan from the intersection of Wall and South streets (after being dropped off by the NY Water Taxi Ferry from the Brooklyn Army Terminal on 58th Street) up to the Starbucks on 41st and Park Avenue, yesterday. And after a distance of roughly 4 miles in under an hour I was pleased to reward myself with a crispy marshmallow square (because they are too scared to call it a Rice Krispy Treat) and an iced tea.

But the point of this story is Manhattan itself, without its mass transit system. And quite a mess it was. Cabs were everywhere running to and fro, filled with 3 to 4 different passengers, all going to different locations. The police were out enforce: directing traffic, handling disputes and keeping the city calm. The people were everywhere. I have never seen so maybe people walking through so many streets in Manhattan. Side streets, main streets, back alleys; it’s true that during the day the population of Manhattan swells to over 8 million people, but yesterday these people, who are usually working or taking the subway, were walking everywhere, on every street I turned. Long lines of people were waiting for private buses that were nowhere to be found, or waiting for the city busses to come back. Others were pilling into cabs or just walking the same as I.

Today, the strike is over and the mass transit system is back to normal (if you can call slow, rude and dirty normal) and we are glad to have them back. I wasn’t terribly inconvenienced by the strike, but it did anger me, mainly the ignorance of the striking workers. None of them seemed to realize why he strike was happening, they all had different reasons and they were all different from their president’s public reasons. I consider myself to be a progressive (not communist!), pro-labor guy; but this was a blatant abuse of power that cost New York City over $1 billion in lost economic revenue, probably killed a large number of small businesses, endangered a lot of lives and made this a miserable Christmas season.

Still, it’s over. When you ride the subway or take a bus in the next few days, instead of being angry or frustrated, look at the transit worker, take mayor Bloomberg’s advice and


Wisdom of the Day: say: “Glad to have you back, we missed you.”

Strike!

Some of you know what’s happening in NYC these days. For those who don’t, here’s the situation:

At 3AM this morning, the TWU Local 100 (transit workers union) voted overwhelming in favor of and commenced a city wide transit strike, effectively shutting down the subway and bus system and dealing a crippling blow to the people and economy of New York City.

Now, I’m gonna try to be fair to both sides in talking about this. First the MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority): they have a huge upper and middle management division that drains funds from where they need to go; fight over every penny in contract negotiations; take forever to fix issues in the transit system; raise fares and cry poverty at regular intervals; basically have been accused by a large number of people both inside and outside the agency of bad treatment of workers; have a history of bad spending decisions.

Next: the TWU. Yes, their salaries are not the greatest, but they have full health benefits, pensions, tons of paid holidays and overtime available; many people attribute the issues with the bus and subway system (such as late trains, missing busses, etc.) to a lack of strong work ethic among the workers; they are basically acting selfish, not to mention that they are breaking the law, since it is illegal for state workers to strike and will end up paying more for it.

My take is simple. The TWU’s concerns should be noted, but they can’t get everything they want. True, the MTA did have a large surplus this year, but not all of it is for the TWU workers, since they only represent some of the workers in the MTA. The TWU needs to realize that a strike doesn’t only hurt the company they work for, but over 7 million people in New York CityNew York City seem to be extremely severe. According to most sources, the total dollar amount of the current sticking points is about $5 million dollars. This is not a lot of money for the city to be closed down over and since there are about 34,000 people in the TWU, this amounts to about $147.05 per person. and the surrounding area. Additionally, the end of the Christmas shopping season is upon us, and the economic repercussions on businesses all over the 5 boroughs of

I could go on and on about both sides of the situation, but it comes down to this: the strike is hurting everyone and the TWU will ultimately pay more than they could hope to get.

Wisdom of the Day: Go back to work; oh and Sandra Endo is awesome! (so, what are you doing later?)

Widgets

Why does cool software get all fucked up when a big company takes it over? Case in point: my recent issues with Konfabulator, now known as Yahoo! Widget Engine. Konfabulator was started way back in 1998, the author apparently looking for a way to skin his desktop with certain programs or information. After a few development cycles of trial and error, as well as a hunt for additional programmers, Konfabulator was released for Mac OS X in 2003, and later on for Windows. Apple later copied (stole?) this feature, integrated it into the 10.4 desktop and called it Dashboard.

But what happened to Konfabulator? It still hung around as an alternative for non 10.4 users and Windows users, until recently. As many programs like to do these days, about a week ago Konfabulator told me to upgrade to the newest latest, super-cool version available. Much to my shock, I found that Yahoo had assimilated Konfabulator into their umbrella and viola: the new Yahoo! (don’t forget the “!”) Widget Engine was born.

Upon first glance the software is nearly identical. But using proved to be a problem. All my widgets I liked were replaced, without being asked, with Yahoo! versions of the same type. My old ones were deleted or moved, because I can’t seem to find them. The engine itself crashes, refuses to boot-up widgets and bothers me waaaay too much about updates. I finally updated and after an installation I’m up and running again, although the program gets very nervous when I try to run my old widgets I found on the site. Also watch out for the number of links to Yahoo!, default homepage resetting buttons and extra secret software it will try and install. At least it’s nice enough to ask.

So which cool semi-independent software is gonna get fucked up next?

Wisdom of the Day: The Mario Widget is funny.

The Good Life

Today, I’ve decided to wax philosophical. Six weeks ago I returned to NYC amid much fanfare, excitement and a bit of hesitation on my half. I hadn’t lived here for nearly 4 years and the memory of my life here had begun to degrade. I had forgotten all the time I spent in Manhattan during my college days. All the times I drove in and around Staten Island. The majority of the non-fun times working at Unos in Bay Ridge.

I did, however, remember that I was happy and I also remembered that I loved my life in Osaka. True I was busy. I worked 6 days a week and usually spent Sunday running around doing something. But I went out a lot, always had friends coming over or joining them to some event and generally seemed to be unaware of the river of time passing with me in it. NYC, Bay Ridge in particular seemed so far from that enjoyment and life seemed like it wouldn’t return anytime soon.

Yet, now 6 weeks later, I feel good. My social life is coming back together with friends both new and old, American and Japanese. I’ve begun to re-explore Manhattan and find places and people I hadn’t before. I can finally watch movies when they come out rather than 3-6 months later. I can understand what the names of the medicine, food, movie means, rather than struggling through kanji. Within a few weeks, I hope to be gainfully employed and will rejoin the gym. A few months later I expect to move out of my parents house (again) and finally settle the final pieces of my life back into place. Before long, I also intend to add another piece in the puzzle with grad school.

Where did all this come from? Well, while standing on the very cold corner of E 9^th Street and 2^nd Avenue last night, waiting to meet my sister and her ride home, I thought about everything and realized that again, I’m happy. It’s brings back one of my favorite quotes. I’m sure it was said by someone else, but I remember it from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles graphic novel volume IV. In the story, right before Christmas the turtles are attacked by there enemy, almost lose Raphael, retreat to an old house in upstate NY in an attempt to heal and regroup. After a long period and a tough winter, the turtles look at what they have been through, where they are now and what is coming next and they realize:

Wisdom of the Day: Life is good, and therefore life goes on.

Brooklyn Pizza Politics

Like any version of it, Brooklyn Pizza Politics is complicated, robust and has the potential to split families and blocks the same way Sal and Alfredo used to split pies up with their pizza slicers.

Today’s tale focuses around the duo of Leo and Joe, formerly of Leo&Joe’s Pizzeria, on 3rd Avenue between 88th and 89th Streets. I don’t know much about Joe, except that he is Italian and supposedly created and controls the recipe for the pizza that they made there. Leo, I knew from childhood, though he’s a few years older than me. Leo was always the neighborhood guy. He knew everyone, well. He was friendly, knowledgeable and had the hottest girlfriend I had ever seen when I was in elementary school.

The combination of the two into their own shop seemed like a match made in heaven. It tasted that way too. Within a few weeks of their opening, many pizza lovers I knew had switched. Nino’s (formerly the duo’s employer), Pizza Wagon and Sal’s all lost customers to the new pizza shop that had opened in the place of the old and dying pizza shop, whose name I shutter to mention here (mainly because I don’t remember).

Things seemed well for the fledging shop. When I returned from Japan for Christmas visits, I found the shop to be in good business health and spoken of well. My family even catered a few small events from the shop. Life was good. Until this year.

With the duo’s lease about to expire, the building owner asked to enter into the business as a partner. Actually, it was more of a threat, that if he wasn’t allowed into the business he would pull the lease and effectively end Leo&Joe’s. The pair refused, the lease was pulled and the shop closed down.

A few months later, a new shop opened in its place, Buono Gusto Pizza. Diehard Leo&Joe’s lovers boycotted the establishment in droves, angry over the new owner’s treatment of the previous tenants. Still, after a while, the new shop’s combination of awesome pizza and a spotless shiny new dining room had won them over. As for me, I never really was interested in entering the Pizza Cold War that was brewing in Bay Ridge, but I refrained from crossing the imaginary picket lines, until I received the okay from my local representative (okay, okay, I accidentally went there once because I was in a hurray, sorry!).

Leo and Joe, themselves, seem to be fine. Leo became a partner in Casa Calamari on 86th Street and 3rd Avenue, although a current rumor states that he was in the process of leaving before the demise of the shop, where he is currently a partner. Casa Calamari, unlike most pizzerias in Bay Ridge (with the exception of Vesuvio, on 3rd Avenue between 73rd and 74th, which expanded into a restaurant a few years ago before Casa opened), offers a full Italian restaurant menu in addition to the pizza shop functions. Joe, who was most responsible for the flavor, has moved to Verrazano Pizza on the corner 4th Avenue and 91st Street, amid much fanfare and a huge window sign that blocks out all of the sun. But it could be down by now, that shop is a little out of my way.

So what does this story teach us? Ummm… I’ll get back to you.



Wisdom of the Day: Don’t blame their oil olive good looks.

Anybody Out There?

Is anyone out there? Seriously? According to my website stats tracker you guys are there. You read my site (is it really interesting? I’m sorry it’s a little unfocused these days, maybe not enough sex? I’ll try and remedy that, hey! I just had a good idea, okay keep watching here!!!) but yet no one comments. I haven’t had a comment in weeks. I read my friend’s blogs. I comment, their friends comment. What you don’t like me anymore? Nothing to say? I know I’m rather verbose, but would you have me any other way?

BTW: the Vagina Test wasn’t so successful. Guess I was wrong. I promise to avoid all filth like that in the near future.


Wisdom of the Day: Spell check works better if you write a word the way it sounds.

Nintendo World & Christmas Tree

On a cold winter evening in December, Anne and I decided to take in a movie. While waiting for the show to start, Anne (I’ll get an angry phone call when she sees this picture) remember she wanted to buy some earrings from Bryant Park, which was also cold.

Afterwards, with still over an hour to kill, and cold wind breezing by our heads, we decided to be tourists and hit Rockefeller Center and the giant Christmas tree. Nintendo World (I don’t know why I didn’t take pictures!!!) was just a bonus.

Nintendo World was two floors or Nintendo. It has been recently converted from Pokemon World, since the Pokemon craze is finally starting to die down. On the bottom floor there were a wide variety of Nintendo DSs displaying various new titles. I gave Mario Kart DS a spin and was surprised at how good it looked on the screen and played. I hear Sonic Rush and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow are both excellent as well (not a hint). The top floor, very warm, had the Gamecube setup showing the latest and best titles. An oldie but goodie being: the Legend of Zelda: the Wind Waker, which looks incredible, even two years later. Resident Evil 4 also looks great. Also included was a mini Nintendo museum containing every system Nintendo ever made, a prototype FAMICOM (NES here in the states) never released, an original Gameboy damaged in the first Gulf War, but still working and an autographed DS, done so by no other than Shigeru Miyamoto.

The Christmas tree, that seems to be one of the few things Japanese people know about NYC, stands between 75-90 feet tall, in the cold air, and contains something like 5 miles of lights. For those who are interested you can read about the tree, it’s history, Rockefeller themselves and even see the tree cam at those sites.

It’s still cold.


Wisdom of the Day: Two words: gloves and socks.

Review of Aeon Flux

Aeon Flux. To be honest I wasn’t originally interested in seeing it. But it seemed better than sitting in the house and playing City of Heroes, right? After seeing it, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. The movie’s story was top rate, the style was cool and the acting was good. Overall I liked it, but it didn’t stand out in the way the animation did. The animation was a very stylized form of Japanese manga that at first looked like a bad imitation, but upon further inspection was very well thought out and designed.

The movie on the other hand was disappointing in this aspect. Unlike movies that have stunned me like Sky Captain, CASSHERN, Sin City, Chronicles of Riddick and Minority Report, Aeon Flux failed to pull me in. I feel the big difference is that world. In the three other movies, the directors didn’t go out of their way to make the world look real and like ours; rather they created a fantasy world and used costumes, digital grading, blue screens and other techniques to blend the characters into the world creating a quasi-believable modern day fairy tale.

Aeon Flux, on the other hand, used none of these and the whole movie seems visually dull to me, especially after the powerhouse that was CASSHERN, the stylizing of Minority Report and the stuff I’ve seen from the remake of King Kong.

It’s a fun movie and won’t disappoint too much, but I’d recommend save your money for King Kong (next week!), Chronicles of Narnia (next week!!) or Memoirs of a Geisha (next next week!!!).

Wisdom of the Day: see here.

Vagina Test

Note: If you under the age of 18 please do not read down any further!

Ready?

I’ve given you ample warning, still reading?

Okay, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

This was a test. According to Keith, who works for Rush Limbaugh, when they put a story on their site about chocolate vaginas, their hits soared, so I figured I’d try it too. While I’m ass at it I’m going to randomly boobs throw a few more words that are sexual-related sex into the next few sentences, which breasts will not make any sense, so I will put vaginal them in italics so that you don’t try to read anal the sentence nipple with them inside. Maybe tits Google will pick them up pussy also and give me more hits. I will give you the rim-job results of this test after a few days. Anything else I miss?

Wisdom of the doggy-style Day: You definitely can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

Previous Record

Well, it’s official. Everyone in Japan who put bets on before five weeks has just lost money, and the fact that I’m deep in the job hunt and will probably have said job for at least 6 months, means that anyone who has money down before then will lose it as well!

The previous record comes from back in the ‘03/’04 period when I made a mistake. I quit my job at NOVA feeling that I was finished with Japan; the reality of the situation was that I was finished with NOVA and still wanted to live in Japan. I didn’t realize this until I was home for about 3 days and had the epiphany that I wanted to return. Five weeks, many fights and a bunch of money later I was back in Osaka living in Doug’s living room (which was freezing but comfortable) and looking for my next job. So why reveal this now? Basically I feel it’s a stepping stone for me to beat my old record and move one. Today is technically more than five weeks, so I am beating myself. Another reason, well I didn’t have much else to write about on this cold day. Did I mention it’ll be snowing tomorrow or the next day? Oh well, that too.

Wisdom of the Day: Don’t blame it on his oil olive good looks.

Digital Crack

Thanks to my good friend Mike, as listed in yesterday’s post, I am now addicted to what is usually referred to as an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game). This one in particular, City Of Heroes, attempts to simulate the worlds of comic book superheroes we all knew and loved growing up.

Among the many things to do, it features a very complex system for designing your character’s costume, which includes settings for controlling the size of all parts of the body, clothing types, textures, etc. There are so many options that no two characters will look alike. Remember a superhero’s costume is as unique and important as a Jedi’s lightsaber. I hope I can have sex again in the future…sigh….

When you enter the city you are introduced to the various gangs and bad guys you will fight and will meet a large number of other heroes. One of the coolest things about these kinds of games is the emphasis on grouping and meeting people. While you can play solo and do missions and hunting by yourself, it will take you far longer to build your characters than if you join or start a team.

The city itself is a living breathing entity, as the zones are changing and being populated by bad guys and new quests and items frequently. It’s got a definite Metropolis feel to it and features a large number of huge statues of former heroes from the game’s backstory which resumes the designs from Gotham City in Batman and Batman Returns.

I guess the main question posed is why is this game so addictive? I couldn’t tell you. It’s not the social contact (at least for me) because I have plenty of that everyday. Maybe it’s the idea of createing an unique character and putting him in a world that is changing and designed to be like what all the comic fans have always dreamed of. I dunno. Still I can play for two weeks on my free trial, and then after I’ll switch over to World of Warcraft. And let’s not even talk about City of Villains…

Oh yeah, and don’t expect that site update for another two weeks or so, thanks Mike!

Wisdom of the Day: Your mother should have warned you about it.

What We Do in Staten Island

Ahh Staten Island. Some of you reading this are wondering what is Staten Island? Well, since I know you aren’t going to read this lovely link I have left for you, I will give you a quick summary before I get into my usual thing.

Staten Island is one of the five (and most poorly known by non-New Yorkers) boroughs of New York City. The Dutch originally attempted colonization on the island, only to find the local tribes hostile to their invasion plans. Still work continued, and by the end of the 17^th century, the island of Staten Island was an English colony, partially populated by Dutch settlers.

Other important points in Staten Island history include the building of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, the opening, closing, reopening and reclosing of the Fresh Kills Landfill, the New Wing of the Staten Island Mall (built at some point in the early 90s, yet still has that new Mall smell) and Staten Island’s role in the American Revolution:

The island played a significant role in the American Revolution. In the summer of 1776, the British forces under William Howe evacuated Boston and prepared to attack New York City. Howe used the strategic location of Staten Island as a staging ground for the attack. Howe established his headquarters in New Dorp at the Rose and Crown tavern near the junction of present New Dorp Lane and Amboy Road. It is here that the representatives of the British government reportedly received their first notification of the Declaration of Independence.

The following month, in August 1776, the British forces crossed the Narrows to Brooklyn and routed the American forces under George Washington at the Battle of Long Island, resulting in the British capture of New York. Three weeks later, on September 11, 1776, the British received a delegation of Americans consisting of Benjamin Franklin, Edward Rutledge, and John Adams at the Conference House on the southwestern tip of the island (known today as Tottenville) on the former estate of Christopher Billop. The Americans refused the peace offer from the British in exchange for the withdrawal of the Declaration of Independence, however, and the conference ended without an agreement.

British forces remained on Staten Island throughout the war. Although local sentiment was predominately Loyalist, the islanders found the demands of supporting the troops to be onerous. Many buildings and churches were destroyed, and the military demand for resources resulted in an extensive deforestation of the island by the end of the war. The British again used the island as a staging ground for their final evacuation of New York City on December 5, 1783. After the war, the largest Loyalist landowners fled to Canada and their estates were subdivided and sold.

But still that doesn’t answer the question of this blog post. On Saturday I spent the day hanging out with my good friends Mike and Angela for what turned out to be a usual Staten Island day of relaxing, playing too many hours of games, watching movies, hanging Christmas lights, buying Christmas trees, playing with Max, eating some good Italian food (hey, its not called the Guinea Gangplank for nothing), chilling out and generally doing nothing in what I always called the perfect backup shooting location for America Beauty.

Wisdom of the Day: The SIRTOA is actually considered a MTA subway line.

Snowy Days, Happy Days

It’s finally arrived. Yes, after many days of talking about cold, warm or rainy weather, NYC was touched by the first true feeling of the winter to come, snow. On Saturday night the NYC area was covered with about 1.5 inches (about 4 cm) of snow.

First, while I did see the weather report on my weather widget, love that little guy, this was still somewhat unexpected, but well received by all. In fact many people think that this is the lightest snow we will have all year and because of the late Indian Summer we had this year, we will have a really heavy (snow-wise) winter.

While many cities (like Osaka and Tokyo) like to panic when snow hits the ground, NYC learned and designed its snow response system the hard way, trial by fire. The first huge snowfall I can remember was in 1992, mainly because I broke my arm in the aftermath of ice that covered much of Bay Ridge and the city. Since then the NYC government prepares for this every year will an army of garbage, and other assorted trucks, armed with high quality salt dispensers that hit the roads early and often. My only main complaint is that not enough people shovel in front of their houses and leave the pathway to become a skating rink. I hope you don’t complain when another silly person from our overly litigious society sues you.

Wisdom of the Day: Don’t put it off. Do it today.

I'm Right

I always am. If we have a difference of opinion, then always remember this post.


Wisdom of the Day: Don't doubt it.

Junk Mail

Well, we finally got it. The cold of December has hit and prevented me from my morning constitutional. I’ll give it a shot tomorrow.

I think this post would be a good time to say a few words about junk mail and spam. As most of you know I am currently in the job market having just come back and my email account, particularly the special hotmail account I created for all things business is very important to me. Yet, it insists on sending certain emails to the junk folder. This is bad, as I received a few random but promising job leads that would have been tossed if I hadn’t checked, even though I was a little late replying.

Not only that, but even occasionally it has sent emails from friends and family into the junk mail folders thinking it was spam. And what drives me nuts is that weird mass mailings addressed to someone named Alexander continue to make their way into my inbox. And don’t even get me started on yahoo mail. I guess I’m saying that you should always check everything and no matter what they software makers say, spam and junk will be around for a long time to come, so figure out ways to deal with them and make sure what you wanted wasn’t tossed.

Wisdom of the Day: 2 + 2 = 5 for the right price.