"Just how many etch-a-sketches did you get finished?"

XXOX

2010-10-28T21:24:00.002-04:00

Don’t know when I first noticed them

but it has reached epidemic proportions

Silently asking to be reciprocated

xxox

they confuse me

how many?

what order?

are they required to be symmetrical?

I appreciate the sentiment

to be sure

xox

but I hope you forgive me

if I just sign my name

Sunset Cell Phone Pics

2010-08-22T22:31:00.001-04:00

Reflected in the glass of the door

Through the door.

Zzzzz haiku

2010-08-17T21:52:00.000-04:00

When you cannot tell
if it's Tuesday or Wednesday
time to go to sleep

Mateo's First (Pre) Birthday Celebration

2010-08-16T21:22:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, we were lucky enough to celebrate with a group of babies, all born in August 2009, all in our Astoria Moms Group.


Mateo was not sure what to think of so many birthday friends!


Or what to think of the pool...

Thanks to Jürgen Fauth for these lovely pics.

We had so much fun getting together with all of the other families from our August "cohort".

How we spent part of our lovely afternoon

2010-08-15T21:05:00.000-04:00

Coconut rice pudding with whipped cream

Thanks a lot, Rice to Riches

Getting my creative mojo back

2010-08-15T20:41:00.001-04:00

I just challenged myself to write one post a day for a month. I've since modified that to averaging one post per day, which is why I'm writing 3 posts today. I have a little making up to do.

After years of sporadic blogging, this is a bit of a challenge. If this week is any indication, many of my posts will be written, half asleep, in bed, from my phone.

But they will be written. I'm trying to focus more on the process, and less on the outcome. Trying not to worry if I piss people off, or if I write insipid things.

I don't know if it's working. But it does feel good already.

Botox Schmotox

2010-08-15T10:44:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine (same age as me) told me that she's started using Botox for "frown lines". This completely freaked me out on several levels. Firstly, people MY AGE (34) are getting plastic surgery?! Okay, that's probably a super naive reaction, but it was my genuine first thought. Secondly, my friend who told me this is just absolutely beautiful. If she does, in fact, have any visible frown lines, then I'm sure they just make her look a little wiser or cooler or something.

Then, I came across this article in the NYTimes the other day about an abundance of TEENAGERS using Botox. I am so ready to rant about this, but really, is there a need? Clearly, this is fucked up. Enough said.

The bottom line, as I see it, is this (and I know this is cliche, but only because it's true)... None of these physical procedures will make you a beautiful person. Not beautiful in the way that matters. As soon as you get to know someone well, their physical attributes pretty much melt away anyway, and what you are left with is the essence of who they are. What their actions are. How they make you feel when you're around them.

Sure, you want to look your best. By all means, make sure you have decent grooming habits and put a little effort into your appearance from time to time. Especially if that makes you feel good.

But really, if you want to be beautiful, just be a wonderful person. People will see that in you. If you're an asshole but you look gorgeous on the surface, who gives a damn? You won't be fooling people for long. (Author's note: My Botox using friend is NOT an asshole, she is a lovely person.)

* * *

SKIN DEEP: This Teenage Girl Uses Botox. No, She’s Not Alone.
Doctors inject teenagers with Botox for a variety of perceived flaws, from a too-gummy smile to a too-square jaw.

Defying gravity prohibited between the hours of 11 PM and 6 AM

2010-08-12T22:25:00.002-04:00

Dear Kittens,

Please stop tearing down the hall and up and down the walls like a god damned maniac. Yes, it was impressive at first, but now you are just showing off.

Love,
Jor

p.s. If you wake the baby one more time, you are fired.

First of all, dinosaurs can't drive

2010-08-11T20:41:00.000-04:00

We just bought M some new pj's. They are adorable, of course, but also, sometimes I can't help but think these kid pj designers are really phoning it in. One of them is nothing but a bunch of dinosaurs driving cars. I can imagine that conversation...

- So, what do we want on these?

- Let's see... Little boys like cars, right? And they like dinosaurs. (pause. Thinking real hard.).

- I know! We'll draw the dinosaurs IN the cars.

Brilliant. Also, I want that job.

Learning opportunity

2010-08-10T21:01:00.000-04:00

I look over and see Mateo sitting in a pile of toilet paper, busily shredding it into a million pieces. He's in full view of Steve all the while.

Me: What is he doing??

Steve: Learning about toilet paper.

(I've been laughing about this all day )

3:10 AM

2010-08-10T09:19:00.002-04:00

Never thought waking
Would be so hard to give up
Love you more than sleep

***

I want to be in pictures! on the radio!

2009-11-24T20:20:00.009-05:00

Listening to podcasts is one of my favorite past times. This American Life, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, The Moth, Fresh Air, Pregtastic, Savage Love.... the list goes on and on, but those are my current favs. Usually I only listen to these while in transit - while driving or walking Maeby - but since Mateo was born, I've found that I don't have nearly enough transit time to listen to all of the programs I want.

So, I've started plugging my ipod into speakers and listening while I'm at home playing with Little M, instead of watching TV or listening to music. It's a whole different kind of experience. I can be more engaged with him.

Anyway, I just discovered http://transom.org/ - a website that has all kinds of information on how to get started creating your own radio programs. I am so down for this. Who's with me??

The pictures above have nothing really to do with this post. Just thought I'd post something about my "other children", Maeby and Kittens, since M has been getting all the camera love lately.

"All of the candy corn that was ever made was made in 1911" - Lewis Black

2009-11-01T21:02:00.003-05:00

Another first yesterday. Mateo's first Halloween!

Unlike his father, he did not love dressing up. I guess he takes after me in something at least because I'm not a fan of dressing up either. Of course it could be that M just didn't like the wussy pea pod costume we got him. But what are you gonna do? He's 9 weeks old. Notice our neighbors downstairs dressed their son Daniel (2 months older than M) as Batman. Insult to injury to M's ego, I guess.

Now that I have a child, I think that takes some of the heat off me from having to dress up every year. Also, I look forward to next year when M can provide some input on what he will be. I imagine it will be superhero related and Steve will also go all out in his costume as well.

Final Halloween thought - every year I am tempted to eat a Jolly Rancher, and every year I remember how much I dislike them.... why?? See also: Candy corn. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8yuvMsvNqY

Mateo 8 weeks (22 photos), by Jorli Baker

2009-10-28T13:54:00.001-04:00

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
Click here to view photos

The Complexities of Sleep Deprivation

2009-10-16T10:33:00.003-04:00

Every day is tiring in a different way when you're sleep deprived. Prior to Mateo being born, I had never really experienced this at all. Since I can fall asleep almost anywhere, with any amount of light or noise level, it's not been an issue for me.

Surprisingly, it's not always so bad. I have my days when the lack of sleep makes me a little loopy/giddy. There are those other days when my patience is razor thin, and I feel like I'm continually apologizing to Steve for being snappy. Right now, my eyelids just feel heavy, but besides that I'm doing fine.

The best part about being sleep deprived is that when you do get to nap for like 20 minutes that can feel like hours. It's really strange.

Day 1 of the Experiment

2009-10-14T20:47:00.001-04:00

The No TV for one day a week experiment...
Will let you know how it goes. Month long,once weekly trial begins today.

Dear Answering Machine.. We're Through

2009-10-13T11:07:00.004-04:00

I don't remember a lot of significant inventions in my lifetime, but I distinctly remember the day we got our first answering machine. After having it a few days, I couldn't imagine how we ever got by without it. The days of sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring, or being fearful you might miss that all important call were over. Hallelujah. I never thought my love affair with the answering machine would end.

These days, however, I loathe having to listen to voice mail messages. Actually, it's been this way for a few years at least. I once accumulated 34 new voice mails in the course of a busy day, and I asked my then-assistant to listen to them and try to accurately capture the callers' moods, so that I didn't have to listen to the rants myself. I have messages on my cell phone that I don't listen to for weeks at a time, and don't even get me started on my home office land line voice mail... that damn red message light taunts me to no end. Usually there are between 12 and 23 messages at any given time, before I finally muster up the strength to go through and listen/delete them (or not listen/delete them, as the case may be).

It's not that I don't want to talk to people. I do. Especially over instant messenger. Or in person. If I am at my desk, I reply almost immediately to any IM I get. Text messages I also respond to very quickly. At my company, almost no one ever calls you without scheduling it ahead of time or IMing you first to say "hey, can I call you now?" It almost seems rude not to do that first.

And I do enjoy the phone, but only to catch up with old friends. For these calls, I generally make a phone date, so that we actually have time to really spend talking, undistracted. Working from home with an endless amount of conference calls has just worn me out for all other calls.

I never could have predicted that I would prefer people sending short text messages or emails to actually listening to a recording of their voice. Who has the time though? If I see on my caller ID that you called me, and I want to call you back, then there you go - I will. I'm sure part of my frustration is so many of the calls I get at home are unsolicited calls like telemarketers and political campaigns. Land lines like disappearing beacons for telemarketers and political campaigns.

So enough of this confusion. I decided to act. At least people should be fairly warned that I hate voice mail and there is almost no chance I will listen to whatever messages are left for me. I just changed my outgoing home phone message to say, "Hello, you've reached 718-726-XXXX, I no longer listen to these voice mail messages, so please try to reach me on my cell or via email. Thank you and have a nice day!" So far, everyone that has called has hung up right after the word messages. Brilliant! I would have just turned off the voice mail from picking up, but I don't want the phone to ring and ring.

What is worse than breaking your phone?

2009-10-13T10:31:00.001-04:00

Just breaking the screen so that I can hear when I get texts and calls but can't do anything!! Aaaarrrgh.

Another casualty of late night feedings. I dropped it on the ground. Who knew the 1 millionth time I dropped it would be the one that sealed it's fate?

Coincidence? I think not.

2009-10-11T20:03:00.002-04:00

So I decided today that I'm going to blog a lot more. As an experiment, blog all the time, maybe even several times in a day. (I can already hear my skeptical friends scoffing at this goal, since I have fallen short of similar goals many times before). Whatever, we'll see.

My point is, just after making this blogging proclamation, I discoverd that gmail has the option to let you post blogs directly from your gmail web page. F*#king awesome!!! Since I am constantly on gmail during the course of any given day, this will be a huge help. Whether or not I will have anything interesting to say, that remains to be seen. Not really the point anyway. I just want to start writing more.

Sunday = Football

2009-10-11T17:46:00.002-04:00

Today was the first time we had people over since we had the baby. I may be biased, but our baby is pretty awesome. Little M can sleep in even the most extreme noise situations - whether there be a fire truck blaring down the street or 6 extremely loud people chattering while watching a bunch of football games in the apartment (as there was today).

It is wonderful that M is so cool and chill around people, because I don't get out much these days, and it was really nice catching up with friends. I didn't even mind that my breastfeeding status precluded me from drinking anything except a single sip of hard cider.

Where do I even start?

2009-09-12T17:59:00.002-04:00

The more things happen in my life, the more I seem to retreat away from sharing it via social media. Ever since the birth of my son, Mateo (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) a few weeks ago, I have been almost lights out on social media - almost no Twittering, no blogging, very little e-mail. Oh wait, well - ahem - I have still been active on Facebook, because that's where I've been posting all of my pictures of little M, as we've started calling him.

The point is, the more intense/exciting/dramatic/wonderful my life is, the less I want to share about it. I'm not exactly sure why this is, except now that I think about it, it could be because I can't imagine words possibly doing justice to the feelings that I'm experiencing. Trying to capture them completely would most certainly fail, so why even try? I'd much rather spend all of my energy savoring all of this bliss, and not waste one ounce of it on anything else.

Unfortunatley, this trait does not make me the best blogger in the world. Sigh. I do have quite a bit of time on my hands when the little one is napping though, so maybe I will start posting more. If I make any promises though, that is usually a recipe for disaster, so we shall just wait and see.

On a related note, thank you to all of our friends and family for your well wishes on our new little addition. Mateo will hopefully get to meet all of you in due time!

"Maybe poker's just not your game. I know.. let's have a spelling contest."

2009-08-01T22:17:00.005-04:00

We're watching Appaloosa right now. Thumbs up so far.

It's making me think about my favorite movie of all time, Tombstone.

Word of warning, you will never want to watch Tombstone with me because I sit there and say all the awesome lines right along with the movie - of which there are many. My favorite is the title of this post, but here are a few more:

Wyatt Earp: You gonna do something? Or are you just gonna stand there and bleed?

Doc Holliday: Oh. Johnny, I apologize; I forgot you were there. You may go now.

Jack Johnson: Doc, you ought to be in bed. What the hell you doin' this for, anyway?
Doc: Wyatt Earp is my friend.
Jack Johnson: Hell, I've got lots of friends.
Doc: I don't.

Billy Clanton: [to Holliday] It's the drunk piano player. You couldn't hit nothin.' [draws a knife.] In fact, you're probably seeing double.
Doc: [draws a second gun] I have two guns; one for each of ya.

Doc Holliday: It appears my hypocrisy knows no bounds.

Johnny Tyler: I swear, it's like I'm playin' cards with my brother's kids or somethin'. You nerve-wrackin' sons-a-bitches.

Wyatt Earp: All right, Clanton... You called down the thunder. Well, now you've got it! You see that? It says "United States Marshal."... Take a good look at him, Ike, because that's how you're gonna end up!... The Cowboys are finished, you understand me?! I see a red sash, I kill the man wearin' it! So run, you cur... RUN! Tell all the other curs the LAW'S coming! You tell 'em I'M coming... and Hell's coming with me, you hear?! Hell's coming with me!

Doc Holliday: There is no normal life Wyatt, There's just life.

Okay, I'll stop now. Back to Appaloosa.

Going Back to my Roots

2009-07-30T19:22:00.004-04:00

Nevermind that last posting here announcing that I'll no longer posting on this blog..

I've been doing a little soul searching, and it comes down to this. I used to love writing this blog. For years and years. Unselfconsciously and unorganized and fun.

Then I decided to get a new fancy pants squarespare blog and write about technology. And even though I love technology, it turned into a chore. More of something I had to do than wanted to do. Perhaps because technology is my day job. Anyway, then I changed the blog to be about everyday stuff, but it was too late. That blog was soulless.

So I'm coming back home. To good old blogger. I already feel better.

Announcement - New Blog Address

2009-06-09T07:59:00.003-04:00

Alas, I am no longer updating my blog here.

My new blog can be found at www.jorlib.com

Hipster is the new Yuppie

2008-08-17T21:51:00.004-04:00

From the [awesome 1998] movie Last Days of Disco:

Des McGrath: Do yuppies even exist? No one says, "I am a yuppie," it's always the other guy who's a yuppie. I think for a group to exist, somebody has to admit to be part of it. Dan Powers: Of course yuppies exist. Most people would say you two are prime specimens.

This weekend I went to this place that was so full of hipsters, it was all I could do not to openly gawk... and Des' above quote came to mind. I mean, would any of them admit to being a hipster? Doubtful. But when witnessed in such a herd, it was impossible to deny their existence. Also impossible to not be a little creeped out.

Will the apartment please stop swaying? I'd like to get off

2008-05-18T22:31:00.002-04:00

So let's file this under "things they never tell you BEFORE you do something". I returned Saturday from a 7 day cruise to the Bahamas with Steve, which was delightful and relaxing and all kinds of nice.

I did my fair share of time being seasick while I was on the ship (on my worst day, I believe the phrase "F*#k the F@~king ocean" escaped my lips), but Dramamine and slowly getting my sea legs made it go away relatively well.

However, despite being back that I'm back on dry land, my sea sickness is showing no signs of stopping nor adhering the laws of physics and decency. I just googled this phenomenon, and apparently it is pretty common. Ugh! This is not what I signed up for.

Strangely enough, Steve wasn't sick at all on the boat, but he too is experiencing it now that we're back. Apparently we have confused our inner ears and will be paying the consequences for another week. I don't know if that all you can eat buffet was worth it. Make it stop.

National Treasure – Day of Reckoning

2008-04-05T00:20:00.003-04:00

Sure, sometimes I like to make snap judgments. One example is when I first watched the preview for the movie National Treasure: Book of Secrets. I didn’t see the first installment of this movie franchise, but as soon as I saw the preview for the sequel, I renamed it “National Treasure – Day of Reckoning” and would say in one breath whenever I saw a tv commercial or billboard for it “OhGodThereItIsNationalTreasureDayOfReckoningTheWorstMovieofAllTime!!!” If you’d "like to confirm this, just ask Steve or Ang, who had to put up with me saying this all the time.

Looking back, it was a little unfair. Fun, but unfair probably.

Anyway, today I’m stuck on an airplane, and guess what I’m stuck with watching? Yep. I could have just not watched I guess, but after about 15 minutes, curiosity of the badness got the best of me.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes:

“The president’s secret book… for presidents, by presidents and for presidents’ eyes only.”

"Of course somebody else is after the treasure. It’s the axiom of treasure hunting."

“Okay..it’s tee time chaps.”

“This is an extinct, exceedingly rare language.” (which one is it?)

“Your great great grandfather killed President Lincoln1” – spoken by a random 6 year old

“Last time I checked, we pretty much make our living off crazy.”

aaaaaaaaaaaaand my favorite:

“He carved Mount Rushmore in order to erase the map’s landmarks that would lead to the City of Gold.”

So is it the worst movie of all time? You tell me.

p.s. Helen Mirren plays Nick Cage's mom in this. what??

p.p.s. I suspect that the people sitting on either side of me must be really wondering what the hell I'm doing typing down quotes from this trainwreck of a movie. It's a risk I have to take though.

Easy source of blog content

2008-04-02T17:04:00.000-04:00

You know, I'm always thinking that I have nothing to write about on my blog, and there are many gems of IM conversations that are completely forgotten overlooked, never to be seen again.

Well no more! I plan to post some of the more entertaining IM conversations. Like this one I had today with Ang about the this McCain supporters video.

angelaiscaustic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaP9eiWuX3s
WTF?!?!?!
me: these ladies are HORRIBLE singers
angelaiscaustic: its like im watching it
but my brain is rejecting it
me: hahaha
my ears are bleeding. thanks.
Sent at 1:57 PM on Wednesday
angelaiscaustic: ha sorry
the old lady is terrifying
me: GET OUT OF MY HEAD
angelaiscaustic: hahahahhaha
me: i was just going to say, waht the fuck is up with the old lady
i mean, really?
Sent at 1:59 PM on Wednesday
angelaiscaustic: with the weird eyebrow come hither thing towards the end?
Sent at 2:00 PM on Wednesday
me: i didn't watch that part
and hells if i'm watching it again
angelaiscaustic: its at like 2:08
hahhahaha

Happy Easter - A Photo Essay

2008-03-23T13:25:00.005-04:00

OOh! A peep with my latte...

Wait a minute, I hate peeps...

You know, it's not half bad....

A watery end.

StoryCorp

2008-02-20T11:52:00.003-05:00

So, I've been looking the past few months for some kind of volunteer opportunity. I figure, I'm not in school anymore, and I have some free time, but I want to find something that I find truly interesting and worthwhile. Well, I think I've narrowed it down to StoryCorp.

In a nutshell, StoryCorp is a nonprofit project that allows everyday people to record stories from their lives through being interviewed by someone in their lives. They have these interview booths set up all over the country, and then they edit them and make them available on the web and the radio.

Many of these stories are truly fascinating. They can be heartbreaking, hilarious, thoughtful... What is most interesting is that they are real. This is the kind of history that inspires me, and I think too often falls through the cracks, lost forever.

So, take a listen. Subscribe to the free podcast if you like what you hear. Or even better, record your own story with someone you love/admire and want to know more about.

As far as how I will be assisting StoryCorp in a volunteer capacity - I'm not sure. They are headquarted in the Brooklyn though, so I'll keep you posted.

DRUMS!

2008-01-13T00:07:00.000-05:00

When I read the premise of this video, I thought it was kind of lame. But watching it made me really happy for some reason. Enjoy:

Oh, and I haven't written much lately because I've been really sick (well maybe that's not why I haven't blogged much, since I rarely blog even when I'm well, but I have def been sick for almost 3 weeks). I am so effing over this.

Hello Homeland!

2007-12-20T19:52:00.000-05:00

Just got in to San Diego yesterday. A couple of things that I really miss about being here:

1. Unabashedly talking on my cell phone while driving. This is illegal in New York, and oh so frustrating. I felt like calling everyone I knew, just because I could. (note: I do not recommend driving while talking on the phone whilst reading a newpaper, as depicted to the left. I have merely included it for dramatic effect.)
2. Turning right on red lights. This is also illegal in New York City. Also oh so frustrating.
3. Burritos. Obviously.

I finally finished my xmas shopping today. Phew! (except you Casey, you get yours when you stop hanging out in India. I mean working. I mean, come home!) Now I'm making some CDs. Did you know that you can copy songs that are in your ipod to your laptop without buying software?? Not that I did this. Just sayin. Very handy to know.

"My Only Friend is Guitar Hero"

2007-08-30T13:45:00.000-04:00

I was at a concert last night where you could text messages and they would appear on the big screens onstage. (Yay technology!) Anyway, that was probably my favorite text of the night. At first, I thought it was kind of sad. And then I thought, dammit, why haven't I played that game yet?!! I can't help but thinking there's a growing list of things I plan to do, and I keep forgetting all about them. Like I'm gonna wake up one day when I'm 80, and think, "Did I forget to take my pills today?" and then all of sudden realize, no, that's not it -- I forgot to play Guitar Hero!! Blasted.

In Defense of Parking Ticket Offenders Everywhere

2007-08-28T14:26:00.000-04:00

How come on cop shows (I've been watching a lot of Dexter lately), whenever they have some suspect, and they are looking up that person's record, they say stuff like, "Nope, this guy has lived here 15 years and never had so much as a parking ticket". It's generally said in a way as to imply that s/he is less likely to be the murderer/thief/bad guy because of this.

Are parking tickets somehow the gateway to larger crimes? If so, I could be in some serious trouble.

Newest obsessions

2007-07-30T13:44:00.000-04:00

Ok, this will be a short blog cuz i don't have much time, but I wanted to point out a few things.

1) I will be sending twitter updates to my blog which show up in the right hand column. You can also check www.twitter.com/jorli

2) I am in love with my new iGoogle pages, especially the Frogger game. If you haven't customized your own page yet, well get on it....it's effin awesome. Here's a screen shot of mine.

The Plane

2007-06-02T03:22:00.000-04:00

(Note: This entry is transcribed from my messy hand-written notes. Also, it is now Sat and these are my notes from Tues. I'm a little behind, but oh well, more to come!)

- Arrive the airport (JFK). I figure I can just pick up a voltage adapter at the airport so that I don’t fry my laptop when I try to plug it in in Paris. Turns out this is not so easy. They only sell voltage converters, which allows you to plug in your cord, but doesn’t change the voltage and hence, just does a better job of blowing your appliance up. This confuses me to no end. I buy one anyway, making a mental note not to use it.

- On the runway, where we wait for over 2 hours to take off. Can’t help but feel it is a BIG mistake that I only bought one magazine (Allure). Keep accidentally flipping to the article on feet, which grosses me out every time.

- Finally take off and dinner is served shortly after. I’m having beef and mashed potatoes. Am I the only one that loves airplane food? Or is it that I’m really hungry? We may never know.

- Sleep for many hours. It’s alllll good because the seats next to me are empty and I get to sprawl across all three.

- I wake up to see that Andy Rooney is on the screen ranting about something or other. I’m surprised (and relieved?) to see that he is still alive. Cheers is on next. Man, that was a good show.

- They serve breakfast. It’s a “croissant” and OJ. I put croissant in quotes because it is really really crappy and can hardly be called one. Even I won’t eat it. (Scratch what I said earlier about plane food.) I’m a little embarrassed for our country that we are serving the French people on the plane this sorry excuse of a pastry.

- Land. Get in a car that takes me to the hotel. I am DETERMINED not to nap because it will make my jet lag worse. If only I can hold on till my meeting in a few hours.

- After about an hour, I take nap. Fuck jet lag. Luckily I set the alarm on my phone. I’m good like that.

Creative Wasteland

2007-05-28T17:28:00.000-04:00

I have not written anything in forever. I'm attributing this to complete lack of creativity and laziness. but here I go again.

I'm going to Paris tomorrow for a last minute work trip. Here's to finding something interesting there!

Eddie Izzard alert!!! ATHF too!

2007-03-09T16:12:00.000-05:00

I was once asked (on a Bschool admissions essay), if I could have dinner with any person, living or dead, who would I pick. Well, I picked Eddie Izzard. (I didn't get into this school, btw. It would have been better if I picked Jesus or Warren Buffet or something. Oops. Hindsight = 20/20)

My point is - he's a genius. Absolute comic/historical genius. If you've never seen any of his stand up, please rent or download some asap. It will enrich your life.

So imagine my delight when I heard the other day that he is going to be in a new TV series on FX, starting on Monday. It's called the Riches. I'm setting my TiVo now. The only downside is that he'll be playing an American, so he will be without his delightful British accent. Ah, well.

Oh! And if that's not enough exitement, I just heard that there's going to be an Aqua Teen Hunger Force MOVIE coming out in April!! (Thanks Steve.) I am beside myself.

One thing I do not recommend....

2007-02-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

...is playing volleyball after you've been drinking. I really had no choice though, as there was a work happy hour last night in the city (which are only once a month and I've missed the last 4 or so) and my volleyball team only plays every Thursday.

I thought I had a good plan though. I showed up at the happy hour early and I wasn't playing for a few hours. It was a bad call to start with red wine, as it was putting me to sleep and probably making my teeth red. So, my second drink I switched to a vodka tonic, which just seemed like a more althletic alcoholic beverage (if there is a such a thing).

Normally, 2 drinks wouldn't make a big difference, but I hadn't eaten much all day and I was still feeling a little buzzed when I arrived at the gym at 9 o'clock to play. I bought a purple vitamin water at a deli on the way, which probably saved me. I ended up playing fine, but it took every ounce of concentration I had to do so. I already feel really nervous playing on this team because the people are good playwers and take it very seriously. Luckily, we won all three games we played.

Alls well that ends well, but no more happy hours and volleyball. Unless I'm in a Coors light commercial or something - which is not likely.

Gotta love Astoria

2007-02-01T16:09:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to keep up with my goal of posting more to this blog, so it's just gonna haveta be that I'm gonna end up posting stuff that may be at times sub-par. Just a warning in general, not about this posting.
So, I'm still trying to work on meeting people in my 'hood. Don't get me wrong, I love going to Manhattan and all, but it would be nice to meet some people here in Astoria. Strategy #1 to extend my network here was joining the Astoria myspace group. The group is awesome. They crack me up.

So it turns out there's this online tv show called "We Need Girlfriends", which is all filmed in Astoria. I can't say that I'm 100% in love with the program (and perhaps I'm not the target age group), but it's sorta cute and I'm happy to see all the local shots. You can check it out here: http://weneedgirlfriends.tv/

Oh, and if I had to pick, I'd be on Team Tom.

one zero zero!

2007-01-21T22:38:00.000-05:00

I just realized (because Blogger keeps track of these things) that is my 100^th blog posting. Holy crap. I would have guessed the number was closer to 30 or something. You wouldn’t know it by how infrequently I post.

I’m on a plane right now headed to Raleigh, so I guess I’ll be posting this from my hotel room later. This is one of those tiny little planes, which I hear bother some people, but I like ‘em because it means we all get off really quickly once we land. I was this close to missing my flight (probably close to the 100^th time that’s happened). I wonder when I’ll actually miss one. It’s bound to happen sooner or later. Incidentally, they charge for pillows and blankets now (at least on American). For some reason this makes me much angrier than charging for food.

I just finished reading the latest Chuck Klosterman book, and I have two things to say about him: a) I can’t help but think he’s a genius and b) this bothers me, because he’s keenly aware of this fact and is arrogant about it (as far as I can tell at least from reading all of his books). It’s like meeting a really cute guy who knows just how cute he is. That just ruins it for me. It’s fine for a hot guy to suspect how hot he is, but if he knows it…I don’t even want to be bothered, and he somehow becomes less cute. Have a little humility. Self-deprecation is much more attractive. Thankfully, Chuck Klosterman is (self-admittedly) a little funny looking, or there’d be a real problem. The last thing I need is to ever run into a really hot genius – my head would explode.

Happy Happy Birthday Casey and Hillary!

2007-01-17T20:43:00.000-05:00

What better way to celebrate the birthdays of my Casey and Hillary than to post celebratory pictures of Hillary's dog Duke in some of his favorite costumes?

Well, I couldn't think of any. So there you are.

I miss you guys. San Francisco and Seattle are way too far away.

It's also Benjamin Franklin's birthday.

Procrastination kills

2007-01-16T22:00:00.000-05:00

Well, it doesn't really. But it certainly kills time. Or sucks it away. The more I have to get done, the more I feel the need to check reddit. One word of advice....try not to procrastinate when you are supposed to appear in traffic court. I had a bit of a nasty run-in today.

Which reminds me. Most of my friends know me as someone that hates to break rules. This is still true (although since I've moved to nyc I've gotten over my fear of crossing the street on a red hand when there are no cars in sight). But there are some rules, that I flagrantly disobey. Somestimes really big rules. I have no explanation for this.

Do you know what's worse than writer's block?

2007-01-10T17:09:00.000-05:00

...Power Point chart creating block. I'm begining to fear that my life has been reduced to drawing carefully crafted rectanges with rounded edges and trying to decide on which font color and size I should use. The humanity!

If it wasn't for football playoffs this weekend (Go Chargers! Go Colts! But Chargers more), I might be in complete depair. That and the new Apple iphone. I'm starting to save my pennies now.

Bye 2006

2006-12-22T19:59:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope to catch up with everyone I can while I'm here in SD. (A looong time, btw, I don't get back until Jan. 4) I also hope to write more next year, on the blog, or otherwise.

Here's a little something to keep you entertained - http://www.viceland.com/int/dd.php?id=532&country=us
I forgot how much I miss Viceland's do's and don'ts. Do yourself a favor and check out a bunch of them. Thanks for the reminder Case.

Have a happy and healthly and above all fun 2007! I intend to.

2006-11-04T08:27:00.000-05:00

** casey sent me this, btw.

Hey, on another note, I'm going to Boston tomorrow!! To see the Patriots/Colts game (thanks Galina!)

Then, I'm going to San Francisco on Monday for about a week. SO excited! Man, I gotta pack and clean right now though. ugh.

NY Times vs. NY Post

2006-10-01T21:26:00.000-04:00

I know what you're thinking. How can I compare a world-renowned newspaper like the New York Times with a smutty, sensationalist rag like the New York Post? I would tend to agree with you, but please direct your attention to the except from an article I cam across in the Post today. (I like to read the Post when I know I'll be on the train for a bit and have no other reading on me.)

This excerpt is from an article about a guy that was holding a woman hostage at knifepoint in Brooklyn who the police ended up shooting, saving the woman's life. Still, in short amount of space, thank heavens they included the bit about that before getting attacked she was "on her way to buy yogurt". I'm sorry....what? How is this salient information?

However, clearly this kind of overly-thorough reporting, rather that answering my questions, has only generated more questions, such as, what kind of yogurt was it? Was she going to eat it with a spoon, or was she looking for the on-the-go drinkable kind?? We may never know. But I do know that these obscure, useless facts will keep me coming back for more.

US Open: Another example of all the cool things that happen in Queens

2006-08-30T18:49:00.000-04:00

Here a are few pics from Wed, which I spent at the US Open. I was operating on roughly 4 hrs sleep that day (due to some travel snafus the day before), so much of the day is blurred. I do, however, recall that the players are very fond of Playstations and they were all very polite.

After I'd logged in my 8 hours staffing the players' internet cafe area, I was free to roam around the rest of the night. The blank statium picture (above), I took after I rushed upstairs to the Arthur Ashe Statium once I was free, only to find out that the night matches wouldn't start for another hour. So, then I proceeded to just wander around restricted areas to see where my credidentials would get me.

I ended up watching most of the night matches, which weren't very close that early in the tournament (Sharapova and Roddick both killed). It was fun, but I was fading toward the end - and woulda been more fun if I had a friend or two with me. Maybe next year.

P.S. How cool is that globe statue?

A Word About Automatic Hand Dryers

2006-08-03T22:13:00.000-04:00

I went to Japan last year, and although many things impressed me (e.g. the toilets are more advanced than NASA scientists could ever hope for), none so much as their automatic hand dryers. I was used to the US version, where you could hold your hands under them for a full 20 minutes and still not feel dry. But in Japan, they don't mess around. It's like mini hurricane at the press of a button. For this, I would consider swearing off paper towels forever.

So you can imagine my surprise and delight upon encountering not one, but two such hand dryers worthy of Japanese praise. Pictured above is the Xcelerator dryer I found in the bathroom of the White Plains Target store. (Incidentally, the White Plains Target store is by far my biggest vice of late.)

You can also find the Xcelerator in the bathroom of my favorite Mexican Restaurant in NYC, Tortilla Flats. Suffice to say, although I go there for the Margaritas (they sell by the pitcher!), the mole sauce and the pretty twinkling lights in the bar, I stay for the hand dryers.

One of the proudest moments in my life....and i MISSED it!

2006-07-23T14:12:00.000-04:00

okay, for those of you that aren't familiar with the sharing site, reddit.com, it's awesome. in a nutshell, people submit links to cool articles, websites, pictures, whatever...and then other people vote on if the like it by giving a positive or negative point. anyway, so many people vote on this site that the end result is that there are consistently good recommendations (updated constantly) to some of the most interesting stuff on the internet.

so, i've been checking reddit regularly since my brother told me about it a few months ago, and i've tried in vain to submit things to get enough votes to merit being placed on the reddit home page. sadly, all of these previous attempts failed miserably. last week i posted this dolphin-training article from the nytimes up, but never followed up on it. low and behold, i saw today that it frickin killed! 447 points!! that's unheard of. i almost cried.

Back in action

2006-07-13T19:36:00.000-04:00

Um yeah. I don't even want to start by apologizing all again about sucking at blogging because you've heard it before. I was really just taking a break for awhile. And then you know how it is when you keep putting something off like this, and then you feel like if you start up again, you should really have something fabulous to write about. Well....not really the case, but I'm writing anyway.

However, I will add this...reason #117 why I love Astoria: If you need a gastroenterologist, you can find one within 3 blocks.

Although I've had so much fun traveling to a plethora of weddings lately (Congrats Kelsi&Vince, Hillary&Jason, Jess&Troy and Can&Paul!!), I am severely looking forward to hanging out at home for the forseeable future. Especially now that I have a couch (pictured here). And it folds out for you friends that want to visit NYC. :)

Okay, and I know that Amy sent this story out to some of you via e-mail, but I swear I was already planning on posting this gem of an story about Mickey Rouke's pinky. I hope now that he realizes how important it is to have 2 full length pinkys. I should know. Crazy bastard!

Settled? Yeah, sorta.

2006-05-23T20:54:00.000-04:00

Well, I've been in NY over a week now. Honestly, it feels like ages ago that I was in Btown. Everything's going well, although I miss everyone from school lots. It's a damn shame I didn't get to go to Mexico.

Work's going just fine. Not much to do yet, but I'm sure that will change soon. My apt is great although it only contains an air mattress and a spattering of clothes. The movers are coming tomorrow with the rest of my stuff and I am def looking forward to sleeping in a real bed, having chairs to sit on and a tv to watch.

I've decided to drive to work instead of taking the train (hence the pictures of the Triborough Bridge). For those of you not from here, the boroughs it connects are Manhattan, Queens (my hood!) and the Bronx. It's a really long drive (min of 1 hour each way), but I'll usually only go up there 3X per week. Still, I would certainly die w/o my trusty ipod to keep me company on the drive. I've managed to find parking on my street every night, and I've only gotten one ticket so far (forgot to check the signs on the street when I was gone this weekend).

That's all I have for now. I'm exhausted...I plan to start getting some more sleep soon. Luckily, I'm headed to Hawaii on Thurs for Hillary's wedding. Let's hope I remember to take some pictures to post. I'm always forgetting things like that!

Don't give up on me yet.......

2006-05-01T18:00:00.000-04:00

......it's just that i have to finish this week o' school, graduate, move, and all that crap, and then i will start having things to write about again. i promise. i know i'm lame right now.

I laugh in the face of boredom! ha!

2006-04-05T19:17:00.001-04:00

I recently found out that I will be starting work quite a bit later than I thought (May 15th!) This is good news, I guess, except that I've been scrambling for the past few weeks to finish all of my GA hours and classwork early. The net result is that I have a bunch of time on my hands until I graduate.

This would be fine for most people I think, but I can honestly say that one of my biggest fears in life is boredom, so this could have been cause for panic. I dread boredom, which probably explains some of the poor decisions i have made in my life in order to avoid it (a lot of bad dates come to mind). But here I am, nearing the end of Day #2 w/o much to do, and things are going swimmingly. Here is what I have done so far:

- read a lot
- started writing a book
- worked out twice (not even counting softball)
- watched more than my share of crap tv
- done some stuff for school
- scored many high scores on that fun game on my cell phone
- emptied the dishwasher (which is my least fav chore)
- looked online at apts in NYC
- prob lots more i can't think of right now

Phew! Let's hope I can keep up this pace.

Here's some links from the week that I think are interesting:

- I think I've seen these before, but they are still funny
- Some girls aren't very smart
- Batman Onomatopoeia

Newsworthy?

2006-03-22T16:11:00.000-05:00

I have an idea. Instead of always writing about things that happen to me (for example i will spare you the details about the comings and goings here at the front desk of the MBA office from today), I am going to post links from time to time of interesting stuff. Kind of along the lines of my fav news source, Pinkisthenewblog.

Nothing wrong with following in the footsteps of the I.R.A. in this case. (nytimes)

Grammar = first casualty of war (reddit.com)

I'm not sure why people are obsessed with this version of crusty mac'n'cheese. I would have probably fallen for it too, if not for this warning. (slate.com)

oh, the pic is of Hillary's new dog, Duke. He's so frickin adorable. I still don't want a dog, but I'd sure like to babysit.

Just Like Barbie's Dream House. Except with a job.

2006-03-07T15:43:00.000-05:00

Alright, the blog hiatus is over. I know, that was really quick. To be honest, I didn't want to write much b/c I was really freaking out about the job situation (or lack thereof), but I have fully recovered since receiving an offer last night. It's really the perfect job for me too.

I'll be starting sooner than I expected (like in a matter of weeks), which is a little insane, but I'm really excited anyway. I'm sad to leave B-town, but at least I'll be back for graduation.

You prob won't hear a lot about the job in the future (as I have a no blogging rule about two subjects - work and boys), but i will certainly blog about everything else that happens to me in NYC.

Last posting before Hiatus

2006-02-23T14:05:00.000-05:00

hey all. i think this blog will be taking a hiatus in the near future. i just need to take a break, and trust me, nuthin' exciting is happening to me lately.

however, in honor of tonight's flip cup tourney, i thought i would post this video of a flip cup match from last year. for those of you that are not familar, this is a game of intense competive skill, and of course, drinking. (who says you don't learn anything in B school?) unfortunately, in this match my team (blue cohort) lost to the green cohort. this had better not happen tonight!

View this clip on Vimeo

I don't wanna go

2006-02-14T22:29:00.000-05:00

but alas, I must. I am leaving tomorrow.

here's info the pics:
1. 7 AM at this great club on the river in B.A.
2. Last dinner in B.A.
3. home section at the River Plate fútbol game

Buenos Aires was great. Way too much fun actually, and we mostly compensated from our long nights by sleeping away a good part of the days. Still, we managed to see the sights, and ate lots and lots of food. Any good I'd done for my body with all that hiking in Patagonia went way downhill after my stay in Buenos Aires.

Now I'm back in Santiago, and have been mainly relaxing. Tis nice.

Still alive

2006-02-09T16:47:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven´t posted in awhile, but it´s just not that easy when you don´t have internet at your apt. these internet cafes may be all over the place, but they have a lot to be desired in terms of speed.

anyway. we´ve been here in buenos aires since sunday. it feels like we live here already for some reason - maybe b/c we have this great little apt. it´s only US$25 a day too which is a frickin´ steal.

i´m not feeling too well today. i really hope i don´t have the flu or something. i took a four hour nap today, so i´m crossing my fingers that that makes me all better. we´re gonna try to go to tango lessons tonight.

i´ll write more later! i arrive back home on thurs, btw. too soon!! but...it will be nice to see everyone.

(Pic is of a street in BA called el 9 de Julio- not taken by me, btw. nope, that is not the Washington monument, although it looks just like it. we´ve walked across this street many times, which a feat when you realize that most cars speed up and try to hit ya when you´re crossing!)

I know...I didn´t think I could do it either!!!!

2006-02-02T11:46:00.000-05:00

i made out of Torres del Paines in one piece. (well, kind of. my feet are hanging on by a thread. next time = spend more money on shoes).) the trip was INCREDIBLE, but i will write a more detailed account later, when i am on a better keyboard and have time to post pics. Important to note about this elevation-distance map that we did this ´W´ trekking circuit in 4 1-2 days. holy cow. (by the way, i couldn´t ask for a better group of traveling companions: Linds, Tim, Blake, Kelly and Phi)

until then, i will recount the comical (well not-at-the-time) events of yest:

10 AM to noon: hike down from Campo Chileno to the shuttle stop that takes us to bus out of the park.

2 PM: shuttle to bus staging area.

3 to 5 PM: bus from park to Puerto Notales

5 to 8 PM: change clothes at our old hostel, pack, eat hamburgesa completas at a local restaurant (pics will follow of these hamburgesas. incredible.)

8 PM: packed and waiting for bus to pick us up and take three of us (me, Phi and Kelly) to Punta Arenas. (Punta Arenas is where the airport is, and about 2-5 hours from Puerto Notales).

8:11 PM - We realize that the lady that owns the hostel didn´t call the bus company that afternoon to reserve us seats after all. Realize that bus is not coming. Since this is the last bus leaving P. Notales and Phi and Kelly have a flight from P. Arenas at 8 AM the next day, mild panic commences.

8:15 PM - Taxi arrives with the intention of catching up to the bus and making it pull over and let us on. (Apparently these things happen.) Unfortunately, once we are in the cab and two blocks away, the taxi driver says that this is impossible and pulls over. We take our stuff out of the cab and stand by the curb, but he doesn´t leave us stranded there, tg.

8:16 to about 8:50 PM - Driver decides to call someone else who might be able to drive us to P.Arenas that night. He says would be much more expensive to rent a car and leave it in P.Arenas. Wait a long while for this new driver to show up, while the first driver gives us lots of advice on how to negotiate a good price. (All these converstions are in spanish, btw.)

8:51 PM - Roberto, our new driver shows up in a little minivan. He says it will cost 80,000 pesos total (about US$160) for the trip. (Note, the bus would have been 10,000 each) We try to negotiate, but he says we have to talk to his boss, the lady that owns the cars.

9:05 PM - Arrive at the casa of the lady that owns the cars. I ask her if we can pay 60,000 instead, but she says this is impossible b-c the minivan is reliable but guzzles lots o´gas. Instead she offers to have Roberto take us in this old Peugeot, which gets better gas mileage - for 60,000. We have a deal.

9:15 PM - Set off in the Peugeut. Stop for gas and see the original taxi driver at the station, so we thank him for his help earlier. (Incidentally, did I mention that on the way to P. Arenas, our bus ran out of gas b-c the driver forgot to check it? Anyway, other story.)

sometime around 10: Discover that our driver Roberto likes many types of music, but there is only one tape in the car, the Backstreet Boys. Listen to this tape for the first of many times.

11:30ish - first sign of car trouble.

12:00 AM - Car dies. Just outside of P. Arenas. Roberto calls his boss, who says that her brother-in-law will arrive to help us in 15 minutes.

12:45 AM - No sign of help. Still by the side of the road, with very cold strong winds raging outside. Call Roberto´s boss again and she says we should be patient.

1:05 AM - We call our hostal and ask them to call us a taxi.

1:35 AM - Taxi and brother-in-law arrive at almost the same time. We pay Roberto, say chao and hop in the taxi.

At long last - After about a 15 min drive, we arrive at the warm, cozy hostal. We take real showers (!) and fall asleep around 3 AM.

Phi and Kelly had to go back to the airport a 6:30 AM, but I slept in until 9:30. I´m catching a plane back to Santiago (warm, sunny!!!) in a few hours. Phew. I will miss the beauty of Patagonia, but not this frickin cold wind. Stay tuned for pictures.

Funniest Thing I've read in years

2006-01-25T12:49:00.000-05:00

I know that I can be pretty random sometimes, but the guy who wrote this is my officially my new idol. here's the link: indoor swimming pool

Here's an excerpt:
Manager: Sir, can you tell me why you’d like to return this pool?
Tynan : I was going to buy a penguin, but I was worried the pool was going to leak on my carpet. It doesn’t say anywhere not to use it inside, but I don’t think it’s sturdy enough.
Manager: Are you being serious?
Tynan: Yes.
Manager: Ok… I guess we’ll take it.

By the way, i discovered this story on reddit.com - a wealth of info and hours of fun.

Busy, busy, busy

2006-01-24T15:15:00.000-05:00

What have I been up to? Well besides peeling copious amounts of skin from my body (damn that hole in the ozone layer - see previous posting), I've been buying the necessities to prepare for my trip to Patagonia. Most of the stuff I can rent down there, but I needed a jacket, hiking shoes, pants, headlamp, cutlery, scarf, hat, gloves... TG for Lindsay, or I would never know what to get. (Incidentally, Lindsay and I are not allowed to go shopping together ever again. We are bad influences and cannot resist deals on shoes or tank tops at Zara.)

I tried to take some pics of the really cool buildings here in Santiago, but the pics just don't do them justice. They other pics are from this cool, organic restaurant called Fresh/Good. The one pic that looks kind of blurry is the tag on some back to school uniforms - the brand is called "Hate the School". Freakin' hilarious, if you ask me. I saw it at this store called Jumbo - Chile's more upscale version of Walmart. We had a bit of an incident there trying to return some $12 bottle of sunscreen that my friend Phi bought and decided to return right away. 20 minutes later, after giving them my passport number, address, phone number and promised my first born child, we were out of there.

Inside the Mountain

2006-01-20T20:44:00.000-05:00

(note: until I get a new camera, I will be posting pics from earlier in the trip, so they won't really match the current posting. These 2 were taken from my bedroom window here at diff times of day.)

Things are great here. I have pretty much recovered from the unfortunate events of last weekend...new eyeglasses, new chilean cell number (using my US phone too-it only cost $10 to get a chip that works here) and not so sunburned. Speaking of nasty sunburns...for those of you planning on visiting Chile sometime, there is a big ol' hole in the ozone layer down here, so much more sunblock is needed than normal. Yes...this certainly would have been useful information had I heard about it before last week. Ouch! Don't worry, now I lathering myself in sunscreen at all times.

Despite having a lot of homework (this week being our last and all!!), I've had so much fun. I have to say, you really can't beat the people here. They are wonderful. The other students have been showing us around quite a bit. Tonight I do planning on catching up on some sleep though.

A n y w a y. Today we went on a visit inside of the worlds largest mine. It's a copper mine that is on the inside of the Andes Mountains. Seriously, it was unreal. A lot of the mining is done with robots that are controlled with joy sticks. They let my friend Kelly operate it for awhile even. It looks just like a video game, except you are busting up giant rocks instead of playing Madden. I can't imagine a US company allowing some random person to control million dollar equipment, which is another thing I love about here. Not v. many rules.

Love the food too. I've become a big fan of the Chilean style of eating bread with butter and salsa. (They don't call it salsa, but it's pretty much exactly like pico de gallo.) Yum. Plus, there is really good meat everywhere, and I've never eaten so much fruit in my life.

Stolen

2006-01-16T08:25:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a very bad day. It started out great, a bunch of us had rented cars and drove to Viña del Mar and Reñaca for the weekend. I would post the pictures that I took (this one I just found on the internet), but but my camera was stolen...along with my wallet (cash and credit cards), cell phone, new eyeglasses and everything else that was in my little bag.

This happened about 15 minutes before we were leaving. I went to have something to drink at these little tables in the shade on the edge of the beach, and I ran into two of my friends and sat down to talk to them. I put my bag on the floor next to my feet and chair (yes...like an idiot). A few minutes later I realized the bag was gone, but none of us had noticed anything or anyone suspicious. By that time, the person who took it was long gone. Ironically, the reason I had so much important stuff in it is because it's not so safe to leave things in the car.

Anyway...the good news is that I still have my passport and one visa check card (which were at home in my apartment). I am v. thankful for that. I cancelled the other cards.

After it happened, I felt physically sick for awhile, but I think that was also partially due to my extreme sunburn (see...bad day all around). Today, I still am bummed but definitely feel much better than yesterday. (And I've pretty much stopped replaying the whole thing over and over in my head..."If I'd only done this..or this..., etc.") After all, it could have been worse, and it was a sobering wake-up call which will remind me to be vigilant at all times during the rest of this trip. Also...thanks to everyone that was with me for being so great and helpful and to Ames for helping me get money transferred from my wamu account to my bank1 one. I would have been a wreck w/o you guys.

One final thought: What is wrong with these people that steal things? Don't they know how mean it is? Get a real job.

En Vino Veritas

2006-01-13T17:07:00.000-05:00

Our Doing Business in Latin America class took a field trip today to a vineyard about 2 hours out of Santiago. The landscape looked exactly like Southern California, which was little weird. Clearly the best part was the lunch (pictured here). I also got to brush up on my wine tasting skills, although none of us spit out the wine as apparently you are supposed to do.

Bachelet - Por Chile. Por la gente. (that's the slogan)

2006-01-13T16:47:00.000-05:00

View this clip on Vimeo

Here's a video from a political rally we attended yesterday. (Countdown...2 days left till Presidential Election.) It was a very excitable bunch, and very loud with lots of musical acts. There were vendors selling everything from flags to beer to confetti to ice cream. V. festive feel.

We didn't stay for the whole thing (I went to see a play - which is a whole 'nother story prob not fit to explain here on the web...ask me about it when i get back though b/c it was really interesting), but still managed to get stuck in human gridlock as we tried to leave. Dio mio! I'm a little bit clauterphobic in crowds, so it was a less than pleasurable experience. It was fun though before we tried to leave.

Do I look like I speak Spanish?

2006-01-08T19:49:00.000-05:00

Apparently, in Santiago, I sure do. I do understand some of what is being said, but the accent here is really confusing. I had a very comical encounter with the plumber who just kept getting madder and madder the more I said "no entiendo". and "despacio, por favor". People here just keep talking on and on whereever I go, and I barely get a gist of what they're saying. I've perfected the "nod and smile" strategy, which works like a charm until they ask me a question.

Anyway, today we walked all around cerro san cristobal, which is a hill overlooking the city with a park on it and a big statue of the Virgin Mary. To get up there, you take this funicular (which is like a small bus on a train track that goes straight up the mountain) which was has not changed much since it was built in 1925. Then there's these little cable car things which takes you to the other part. There's also a trememdous public pool, but I didn't know to bring my bathing suit.

We had lunch at this restaurant at the top. A word of advice about dining in Chile: be sure to give yourself a good two to three hours because you won't be getting out of there before then. The waiters don't like to visit your table (or even enter the dining area) but once every 45 minutes or so. Oh well, at least the food is good and it's not like I'm on a very tight schedule.

"...clever ways of fastening bits and pieces together."

2006-01-05T21:08:00.000-05:00

Here's a pic of one of the courtyards at my school. It's really quite a beautiful little campus. My fav thing (not surprisingly) is that we get a 15 min break in every class and they give us coffee, little sandwiches and fruit. How about it, Indiana?

I'm taking two classes here: one of them is great (Doing Business in Latin America) and the other one sucks big time (International Marketing). I could honestly go on and on about the bad prof in Int'l mktg, but I will try to hold back a little. To amuse myself, I write down stupid quotes that he says and keep track of how many times he mentions Canada, his current home and fav subject. Today, I almost lost it after he kept mispronouncing Chilean ("Chilly-en") and Nicaragua ("Nikki-a-ga"). I really wouldn't make fun of someone pronouncing things incorrectly (lord know my pronuncian is far from perf), but he really is a complete pompous jerkface windbag, so I feel justified.

made

2006-01-02T21:25:00.000-05:00

We're here. Didn't do much exploring today, but we did walk down to our nearest metro stop (Av. Cristobal Cólon) so that we'll know where to go when we head to escuela tomorrow. These pics are of the metro station. V. new and reminiscent of O'Hare airport.

I also included a pic of a political poster - there are hundreds of these around the city. The Chilean presidential elections are this month, and there's a woman candidate, which is cool, I think.

down down down time

2005-12-30T23:24:00.000-05:00

well, i have certainly been resting up the last few days here in B-town. the weather doesn't help any either. just when i thought i couldn't handle any more grayness, it started to rain today.

oh the upside, i have been able to catch up on a few season's of america's next top model. why i love that show so much, i really can't say, but it's v. addicting when vh1 shows episodes back to back. Here's a blog from one of the ex-contestants which is actually pretty entertaining: www.livejournal.com/users/elysesewell/

I heart going out to breakfast in SD

2005-12-27T14:20:00.000-05:00

View this clip on Vimeo
Which is why I went to the Mission 3X during my one week visit. mmmmmmm.

This clip is of Ann and Karl chatting during breakfast yesterday. Fascinating conversation! :) miss you.

hi, my name is jorli and i am addicted to making short videos

2005-12-23T14:03:00.000-05:00

View this clip on Vimeo
yesterday, i wandered around la jolla most of the afternoon. the waves have been ridiculously huge this week, and although they were biggest on wednesday, i still went down to take a look. it was predictably overcast at the beach, and at least 20 degrees cooler than a few miles inland. the other pics in this clip are from the stephen birch aquarium.

be sure to turn your volume on before you hit play.

Grandma Alice - testing the vlog frontier

2005-12-20T19:00:00.000-05:00

Kevin Wickham suggested I start video-blogging. I'm not really sure how this works, but I'm determined to figure it out.

This video I took yesterday when we were trimming my grandma's christmas tree. My grandma cracks me up. Actually, this video was a little bit longer and funnier, but i'm having technical difficulties. I'll work on this later. (Director's note: my voice is waaay louder than it should be in this b/c i was holding the camera. I will try to be quiter in the future.)

View this clip on Vimeo

influx

2005-12-20T18:09:00.000-05:00

After a week of feeling lost and aimless without the use of my computer (for the most part), I am happy to report that my power cord is functioning again. It is probably on its last leg, but at least it is working for now.

Right now I am at my fav coffee house in Golden Hill - influx. Here's a few pics. The reed looking things on the top are planted outside and are fun to pull apart and put back together. They are like nature's legos. okay...clearly, i don't have a lot to do right now.

i love snow.

2005-12-06T21:50:00.000-05:00

it didn't stick though. just my luck. oh well.
I'm sure I'll get over my snow infatuation sometime, just not anytime soon.

nightwatch man

2005-11-27T01:08:00.000-05:00

i was just coming home tonight after getting a drink, and i came across our building's nightwatch man hanging out in his little alcove. he was just sitting there munching on a bag of Cheetos, and it nearly made me stop in my tracks. I just said hi and kept walking, but it made me think - what is this man doing here, eating Cheetos and watching some building that will never be burgled in this sleepy little town? he's at least eighty years old and i wonder what made him end up here of all places. it just bothers me for some reason, but what do i know? i'm tired and sleepy.

Miracle

2005-11-26T16:42:00.000-05:00

As you know, my digital camera has been dead, dead, dead for about 6 months now. It was stuck in the on position, and no amount of fresh new batteries could make it do more than whir and sputter.

So imagine my surprise when I put some new batteries in it yesterday, and it came back to life. It is working perfectly now and I am beside myself. Who know why this happened, but I'm not going to question it.

This could really not come at a more convenient time as I have recently become obsessed with Vice Magazine's Do and Don'ts (www.viceland.com) - thanks to my brother giving me a compliation book of them last month during my visit to SF. I am inspired to now snap shots of notably dressed strangers at every turn and mock them in this forum, although I am still a bit afraid to actually take their pictures on the sly. If I could be half as funny as the guy that writes that column for Vice, I think I would die happy.

BTW, these pics at the top are 1) my fav chair, bought for only $10, that just hangs out in my bedroom for no reason whatsoever and 2) the bizarre glass passageway in my building that looks like it should be in Versailles or the Tavern on the Green or something.

thanksgiving

2005-11-24T21:55:00.000-05:00

I am stufffffed. Well, actually it's been a few hours since we ate, and I am recovering nicely. Quite a dinner Ames and I made though. I wish we coulda taken pictures. I was not worried about most of the cooking, but was terrified to make gravy. Everyone always talks about how hard it is, but once we got through the whole giblet/no giblets debate(we decided on none), it was no trouble at all. I don't know why people whine about it so much.

Later we saw Walk the Line. Loved it. I think I should put on some Johnny Cash right now.

Oh, and last thing. I bought my ticket for Chile yesterday. So i'm really going. Jan 1st through February 15th. Phew.

Homesick

2005-11-13T23:32:00.000-05:00

(pic of Raya with her chocolate turkey from See's candy.)
Just got home from a trip out to SF. Man am I homesick now. Probably more so because it's pretty unlikely I'll be moving back to California anytime soon. At least I got to see a lot of friends and family. And I'll be back to SD next month. And, yes...I realize that it's my choice to live so far away (but that doesn't mean i don't regret it a little sometimes).

Okay, quite recap of my day. It was long.

wake up waaay too early
car to rental car place
bus to air train
air train to SFO
plane to Dallas
air train to other terminal
shuttle bus to really far away terminal
realized that we are at wrong terminal
take the bus back
miss plane!
rest, get a latte, check mail
air train to other terminal
plane to Indy
shutte bus to car
car to Trader Joe's
swing by Chipotle
drive an hour home
shower
study
get distracted by blog (right now)
sleep (soon, I hope)

that's all for now. TO EVERYONE I SAW THIS WEEKEND, I MISS YOU TIMES A HUNDRED! ALREADY!

Nobody Puts Baby In the Corner

2005-11-06T15:50:00.000-05:00

Last night was a refreshing night on the town in B-town. I had no intentions of going out, but after a few very potent glasses of sangria at the Latin MBA club pre-party, I put on a twirly skirt and headed to Second Story for salsa night. It was my first time there, and it seemed very much like a scene out of Dirty Dancing. More specifically, I felt like Jennifer Grey at the beginning of the movie when she really sucked at dancing. No matter though, it was loads of fun anyway. It was nice to get my mind of school and interviewing for a minute, and focus on other matters such as how badly I speak Spanish. I'm still a little worried about my upcoming trip to Chile in January. Thank heavens my classes will be in English!

CARssssssssssssssss

2005-11-03T20:34:00.000-05:00

Right now, my life consists mainly of studying or practicing for interviews. Quite the exciting life I lead.

Oh, here's a pic from Halloween though. Much to my chagrin, I dressed up (Happy Birthday Amy!). That night turned out to be pretty interesting, and not just when I ran my head into a pole on the front porch because I was laughing so hard at Bmac's Scarface impression. ("You want to know something about girls?...They like ice cream.) Our team dominated flip cup, which is one of the more important skills I have learned in the last year and a half.

C H I C A G O

2005-10-24T14:09:00.000-04:00

(1:26 PM - Monday) In Chicago right now visiting Candice, Paul and Benny (the anonymous looking pug pictured below). The sun just came out after much rain. Having a hard time adjusting to not having a million things to do. Perhaps I will get used to it.

Okay, so I adjusted just fine to few days of relaxation. We spent most of our time watching episodes from the first season of Lost and playing Diner Dash. In this pic, we are playing Trivial Pursuit at the bar just down the street. I deviated from the beer routine I have adopted in grad school and drank rum and cokes like the good ol' days when Can and I lived in PB.

This weekend was productive in one respect...it has confirmed that I must live in a big city when I graduate. Crossing my fingers on that one.

Ouch!

2005-09-29T17:33:00.000-04:00

Last night, I got shot in my dream. It was one of those long, complicated dreams that doesn't make any sense when you wake up. (Well, I guees most dreams don't make sense.) For some reason, my friend had to shoot me, but he shot me in the left hip to minimize the chance that it would hurt me. Then, I refused to go to the hospital for some reason, and just had this little whole in my left side for the rest of the dream. Weird. I guess I'm glad I don't remember my dreams very often.

Estoy Enferma and other things

2005-09-27T19:35:00.000-04:00

patio
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Here's a pic of me and Ames' balcony. This was our inagural bruch (a few weeks ago). Ames is on the left, Wags is on the right.

Yes, yes, i've sucked more than normal at my blog. So, here's a quick summary of my life lately. I'm sick, last weekend i thought i broke my ring finger (but it seems to be healing well enough now), I was in an MBA fashion show and i managed not to trip and fall, and most days, I am very stressed out about interviewing for full time jobs.

Oh, the plus side, I love my apt. Especially the balcony. I really like my classes. And next week I'm going to New York with some friends from school to visit companies and to have fun. I'll prob have to study while i'm there, but whatever.

Sorry this posting is so boring. I'll write more often.

Nice catch Dad

2005-09-11T21:51:00.000-04:00

My dad just e-mailed me this pic of him and this fish he caught. (Fishing is his new pasttime. He gets many less broken ribs fishing than playing soccer.) The funny thing is that he caught this fish off the beach right near his house in Cardiff. Who knew they had fish that big right there in the surf? I was always too preoccupied with the sting rays to worry about fish, I guess.

This blog is just hobbling along

2005-09-07T00:45:00.000-04:00

So, good news. My neighbor just paid me $140 to trade parking spots with him. Granted, the parking spot I had was pretty sweet, and I'm not the best perpindicular parker. (Note: I do excel in parallel parking.) Still, his car is much bigger than my little Focus, so it was the nice to do, I guess. Let's just hope I don't crash into the pole next to my new spot.

Incidentally, my room is going on 4 days now being insanely spotless. I'm not sure how long I can keep this up, but it sure is fun for now.

Not much else new. Lots of school. Every night before I fall asleep I've still been reading from a non-school book. Too bad the one I'm reading right now is insanely depressing. All the people are starving and killing babies - it's horrible. On a lighter note, I just finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay which was super.

Slow Cooker Overdrive

2005-09-02T01:55:00.000-04:00

I am clearly too busy lately to blog. Or to have fun doing things like say...sleeping properly. What is taking all of my time, you may wonder?

Crock pots. We're doing this case on crock pots and I am just over it. We're presenting tomorrow though, so that's a relief. Have to be at school at 7 in the AM. Damn it. I really can't even say if our presentation is any good either. It could really go either way. I'll let you know.

"And Always Searching for Beauty"

2005-08-26T22:33:00.000-04:00

I saw this painting by Joan Snyder and figured it is a pretty good representation of my life right now. I'm all o v e r the place. Run ragged. Even during sleep, which I can count on to be dreamless pretty much always, my mind has been throwing me unexpected adventures lately. Enough already.

The Back-up Pilot

2005-08-18T13:55:00.000-04:00

--- i apologize in advance for this being an uncharacteristically long posting. i was on the plane and didn't have much to entertain me -----

I have no desire to talk to people on planes. This is a little strange since normally I talk on and on with anybody who will listen. I think the difference is that you can't escape the conversation on planes if you want to, unlike if you are at a bar or a party or something.

Yesterday, while I was waiting to board my connecting flight to Chicago, this older man sat down in the seat next to me. (There was clearly many other open seats in the area, so I right from the start I figured he would be a talker.)

Without so much as a hello, he pulled out a leather American Airlines embossed ticket holder thing and said, "It's good to know that there will be someone else to fly the plane if anything happens to the pilots."

"Hmmmm," I answered, but I thinking, What?! Is that supposted to be impressive? Or perhaps comforting? I found this comment extremely annoying. First of all, plane crashes or pilot catastrophes are the last thing on my mind when I'm getting on a plane. I'm much more concerned with things I can control, like what do I have enough reading material and how charged my ipod is. Still, that is exactly the kind of thing that would freak out a person that is afraid of flying.

He went on to tell me that he was on his way to the Bahamas. That he went there every month in fact. "Wow, that's nice," I said. I really don't know how to respond to comments like that. Congratulations?

I'm sure I sound pretty cynical, but I don't understand people that try so hard to impress strangers. Such a waste of your efforts.

Oh, on another topic. Last night, my mom and Casey and I went out to dinner in SF after they got off of work. We were talking so loud that the table next to us had to move. That's happened before, but not for awhile. So all you guys that always tell me to keep my voice down when I'm telling some story really loudly, keep in mind that my loudness is genetically predisposed. Actually, if you've met my mom before, then you already know that.

Somebody call Guinness.

2005-08-15T15:46:00.000-04:00

I'm going to work out right now.

Laugh out loud?

2005-08-10T18:43:00.000-04:00

LOL is rampantly overused in instant messaging and e-mail. I think it should really be reserved for when you actually laugh out loud. It's a close cousin to people saying "that's funny" after you tell a joke. If it is actually funny, the correct response is to laugh.

Splenda Mennnnnnnntos

2005-08-08T20:49:00.000-04:00

mentos
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It's been a week since I've blogged? Where does the time go? I'm really too tired to blog right now actually. All I can do is post of pic of this fabulous sugar free mentos. Try 'em.

The Story of a Swiss Girl?

2005-08-01T22:11:00.000-04:00

jorli
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Good news!! My cousin Lisa in SF and her husband Mario are expecting another baby in January. Very exciting...Raya will be a big sister now. What's more exciting than that, you may ask? Lisa called me on Saturday to say that if it's a girl, they are going to name her Jorli. I think it's the best idea ever as it would be out of the question for me to name any of my kids Jorli. With two of us in the world, maybe I won't have to tell people how to spell it so often. Plus, it may catch on as a name in Bulgaria too. Thanks to Mario for being so persistent!

They find out the sex on August 12. Cross your fingers.

Home Sweet Home

2005-08-01T21:37:00.000-04:00

I've totally put off posting pics of the house I'm living at this summer. Mainly b/c my real camera broke I have to use my limpy little camera phone nowadays. But still, I don't want to forget what it looks like.

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This is taken from on the dock, looking out to the left. I'm a big fan of the lounge chairs, but a bigger fan of the water. On the right is this floating trampoline thing my roommate just bought. It's really not as fun as you think it would be.

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This is what it looks like when you walk from the back of the house to the lake. I can't believe the summer is almost gone. Back to B-town in 2 weeks.

When did your head get to be so big?

2005-07-25T18:58:00.000-04:00

Another picture from my brother. Casey, honestly, you need to get your own blog.

That being said, of course I'm going to post this picture though b/c it kicks ass.

Why Beverages?

2005-07-24T23:52:00.000-04:00

I took this pic today of this cold green tea that is one of my favorite refreshments ever (probably second only to vitamin water, and maybe tied actually). That really isn't interesting in itself, I know, but I realized for the first time that I tend to take pictures of beverages all the time. Which is odd, especially b/c it hardly ever occurs to me to take pictures in the first place. So, why beverages? Plus, the best painting I've ever done is of a cappucino. So, I don't know. It's odd. Maybe I'm just thirsty. I don't think that's it though.

Shady Dealings in Chinatown

2005-07-24T23:45:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, I was stopped on the street in Chinatown by this lady, who said she could lead my friend and I to some really nice purses. We followed her about three blocks, through a closed restaurant, up a sketchy elevator to one of those secret little shops selling fake bags and Tiffany jewelery. Honestly, after all the drama getting there, I probably would have bought whatever they were selling. What a genius marketing ploy. Even if I was being had, I had a fun time doing it.

Highlight of the Week: (NEW FEATURE)

2005-07-20T17:09:00.000-04:00

Last week's highlight of the week was late night Japanese karaoke on Sat (Sun really). Songs included (not all sung by me) - Brass Pocket by the Pretenders, Let's Stay Together by Al Green and Summer Nights / Grease.

Incidentally, the low light of the week had to be killing the kiwi-sized spider in my room. I don't know how much longer I can stand these crawly things in my place o' sleeping.

My brother wanted me to post this picture

2005-07-20T17:05:00.000-04:00

Uh-Oh

2005-07-15T20:41:00.000-04:00

I just checked my last two postings. They are both about TV. That makes me kind of sad, but the main reason for this is because I am editing myself quite a bit on this blog. It's important to edit a blog, because damn it, anyone can read it. But on the other hand, editing too much leaves you with a blog about TV.

Anyway, right now I am waiting to go out tonight. No idea where we're going exactly, but I'm sure that will work itself out soon enough.