So, for a while, I thought I would not write any new posts till I got rid of all of my comment spam. But, at 16,994 spams and counting, I don't think that's going to happen. Sigh.
Life's been very exciting in the meantime. I've been working my butt of at work, and Catherine and I found an apartment in Tribeca. It's not exactly the cute neighborhood Chelsea is, but it's close to stuff and SO MUCH cheaper than Chelsea luxury buildings. And for the second time, the building's broker volunteered to bargain down the price with the owners when I was ready to pay the initial asking price. I just don't understand New York real estate.
I also saw a play, Fluffy Bunnies in a Field of Daisies, which was incredibly funny. It also did a great job exploiting the medium of the stage (if there were a Google-my-overpriced-college-education service, I could remember what particular philosophical diatribe put that idea in my head).
Oh, and I saw a movie. The pengiun movie. Way better than I expected. Penguins are nuts, though. The lengths they go to to have babies!
Oh, and we had a pretty good dinner at La Belle Vie, and it was 15% off because we booked online for late at night. And the owner gave us a free drink. The appetizer (zucchini and green apple soup) was more exciting than the entree, much like at Spice Market. I really need to work up the nerve to eat more appetizer-and-dessert meals at these places.
I'm very stressed about moving and work. I can't wait for summer to be over. Terrible, but true, given the things that tend to co-occur with summer. Hopefully we'll at least get some more beach time in, hopefully on a day when the sky isn't ominous.
Other recent valuable lessons: Culture Club has an exceedingly favorable ratio of women to men. The only place to find the price of luxury buildings without calling is in the print NY Times. Squash blossoms are tasty. Madras Mahal might be better than Pongal.
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Long time no see
Life's been hectic, what with my trip to Seattle and California, visiting Boston for the 4th, and other random goings on. But Catherine and I finally got around to captioning our Turkey pictures. Here they are!.
Meanwhile, I feel like I have all these big decisions that are very hard for me to make about apartments and what to work on at work and such. I always think that thinking about them for a long time will lead to some grand insight, but mostly they just cause me stress. So in the end I pick somewhat arbitrarily. It's very odd and annoying. I'm much better at making decisions when they don't involve my personal life. ;-)
Meanwhile, I feel like I have all these big decisions that are very hard for me to make about apartments and what to work on at work and such. I always think that thinking about them for a long time will lead to some grand insight, but mostly they just cause me stress. So in the end I pick somewhat arbitrarily. It's very odd and annoying. I'm much better at making decisions when they don't involve my personal life. ;-)
Monday, June 20, 2005
random observations after returning from turkey
tomatoes just taste better in turkey. there is plenty of vegetarian food in turkey, but a lot of it is along the lines of cheese and bread, e.g. cheese on bread, cheese between two layers of bread, cheese in a deep-fried pastry with dill or parsley. menemem (tomatoes meet scrambled eggs) and just stir-friend veggies were a bit more exciting. there is also gelatinous ice cream. i kept stealing catherine's.
turkey is very pretty. there are lots of mountains and different kinds of trees and cute little farming towns.
the economy in turkey is just bizarre. the effects of the low cost of labor are very obvious. people lurk around bus stations trying to get a commission on a pension or bus. nobody can make change. bus attendants serve drinks and spray hand cleanser on people. sometimes people will tell you a bus doesn't go to your hotel or that your hotel is full or that a bus goes straight to a town that it doesn't go to, just to make you choose them. there are many, many bus lines and the bus stations feel like airports. the longest bus we took was overnight, and the heat was stuck on for 2 hours and a baby next to us was crying. the busses don't have bathrooms but stop every few hours at elaborate rest stops. shops are open very late in turkey. everybody wears suits.
in some ways, it's nice that turkey is less letigious that than the US. the standard tour of capaddocia is pretty physically involved.
in the spice market, there was a dessert called turkish viagra. the sign said, "you make love 5 times in the night."
the jfk airport has terrible food options in terminal 1. istanbul and milan airports don't seem to understand that some fliers are interested in shopping for non-luxury goods. flying out at 5:30 and waiting for a connection for 5 hours later in the trip sucks.
coke is moderately pricey in turkey. why is coke cheaper than water only in the US?
it turns out i do get sunburned. and have inopportune fevers.
touristy mosques are a pleasant departure from touristy churches.
european tourists wear skimpy bathing suits.
it's hard to find women in Turkey. the streets of towns were filled with men hawking wares or playing some sort of tile game in parlors with no women in sight. creepy.
"harem" really just means private. it's the name of the town, and of a part of a home. the way to say thank you is te-shi-kut ed-er-em. that's a lot of syllables. compare with danke, gracias, thanks, merci. odd. the g with the funny symbol on it is silent but makes the preceding vowel longer.
the turkish tea cups are very cute.
oh, and, lots of people thought i was turkish apparently since i have dark skin. confused, i guess, by my speaking english, they asked "where are you from?" if i said america, they were confused (they assume all americans are white?) and asked where i was really from. one guy wondered if i just had a bad sunburn.
pictures TK.
turkey is very pretty. there are lots of mountains and different kinds of trees and cute little farming towns.
the economy in turkey is just bizarre. the effects of the low cost of labor are very obvious. people lurk around bus stations trying to get a commission on a pension or bus. nobody can make change. bus attendants serve drinks and spray hand cleanser on people. sometimes people will tell you a bus doesn't go to your hotel or that your hotel is full or that a bus goes straight to a town that it doesn't go to, just to make you choose them. there are many, many bus lines and the bus stations feel like airports. the longest bus we took was overnight, and the heat was stuck on for 2 hours and a baby next to us was crying. the busses don't have bathrooms but stop every few hours at elaborate rest stops. shops are open very late in turkey. everybody wears suits.
in some ways, it's nice that turkey is less letigious that than the US. the standard tour of capaddocia is pretty physically involved.
in the spice market, there was a dessert called turkish viagra. the sign said, "you make love 5 times in the night."
the jfk airport has terrible food options in terminal 1. istanbul and milan airports don't seem to understand that some fliers are interested in shopping for non-luxury goods. flying out at 5:30 and waiting for a connection for 5 hours later in the trip sucks.
coke is moderately pricey in turkey. why is coke cheaper than water only in the US?
it turns out i do get sunburned. and have inopportune fevers.
touristy mosques are a pleasant departure from touristy churches.
european tourists wear skimpy bathing suits.
it's hard to find women in Turkey. the streets of towns were filled with men hawking wares or playing some sort of tile game in parlors with no women in sight. creepy.
"harem" really just means private. it's the name of the town, and of a part of a home. the way to say thank you is te-shi-kut ed-er-em. that's a lot of syllables. compare with danke, gracias, thanks, merci. odd. the g with the funny symbol on it is silent but makes the preceding vowel longer.
the turkish tea cups are very cute.
oh, and, lots of people thought i was turkish apparently since i have dark skin. confused, i guess, by my speaking english, they asked "where are you from?" if i said america, they were confused (they assume all americans are white?) and asked where i was really from. one guy wondered if i just had a bad sunburn.
pictures TK.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
In Turkey!
I,m at an Internet cafe ın Pammukaleö Turkeyö where the keyboard ıs a bıt screwyç Rather than tryıng to fıght ıtö I,ll just let you decıpher thıs cryptıc blog postç Thıs country ıs gorgeous * Iill have more to say about ıt later when Iim not payıng by the mınuteç Great mountaıns and beachesç And yummy foodç Lots of tomatoes and cucumbersç And cheeseç Also a lot of people tryıng to rıp us offö thoughç Makes you hope the dıe*hard lıbertarıans never have theır way ın Amerıcaç
Monday, May 23, 2005
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
While I'm waiting for Eclipse to restart (again, sigh)...
...I figured I'd tell my dear readers about the fun night I had last night. Catherine really wanted to see this movie called After Innocence at the TriBeCa Film Festival. She started waiting in line about an hour before the movie was supposed to start, but just before we got to the front of the line, we were told there were no tickets left! Alas! Woe! But a kind old woman in the line had told us that sometimes they say that and then change their mind, so we hung out for a bit. Lo and behold, some guy came up and gave us 2 free tickets. Wow. This totally makes up for the free circus tickets I wasn't in town to use. Not only was the movie really moving, but the director and producer and all of the exonerees and Phil Donahue and the Innocence Project people were all in the audience and did a Q&A afterward. And then we rode back on the free double-decker American Express shuttle, which was cold and assailed by tree branches but otherwise entertaining.
One of the funniest parts of the evening was hearing Barry Scheck rail again Florida, which in the movie is shown to spend 3 years trying to keep an innocent man in jail on technicalities and is now apparently regressing. It's very depressing that these people receive no compensation or assistance and don't even have their records expunged. The chart of causes of wrongful convictions is pretty fascinating.
One of the funniest parts of the evening was hearing Barry Scheck rail again Florida, which in the movie is shown to spend 3 years trying to keep an innocent man in jail on technicalities and is now apparently regressing. It's very depressing that these people receive no compensation or assistance and don't even have their records expunged. The chart of causes of wrongful convictions is pretty fascinating.
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