the strike is on. subways and buses are not running starting today, so all 8 million of us are suffering. I rode my bike to work and went half-numb in the process. when i got to the manhattan side of the williamsburg bridge, the Red Cross was there serving hot drinks to all the walkers, cyclists, and rollerblader (i only saw one). one of my room mates planned to walk over the bridge but got picked up on the way, probably because cars can't enter manhattan unless there are at least four people in it. another friend had to get the airport today. she offered the driver a $70 fare, but halfway there said it was going to be $150! what a scam. The best is my coworker who just stayed home. he's the smart one. i'm sooooo jealous.

growing up, my brother often made fun of me because he said i put my feet up in the air while i slept. you know, one knee sticks up, and you cross you other leg. well, it looks funny when you do it under your covers. it's like a big tent.

recently i've been sitting up in bed and falling asleep with my chin dipped down. then i wake up, probably when my neck gets tired, and think, "what the heck?" and then lay back down and go back to sleep. it's really quite obnoxious. i wonder why i do it. am i subconsciously trying to make myself get out of bed?

i entertain myself. for instance, i just tricked myself with email again. you see, i often email internet links or small pics or notes to myself... you know, things that i come across at work that i want to remember or have at home or come back to later. so i send the email, and soon after my computer beeps telling me that i have new mail. but it's like i forget that i had just sent something to myself. instead, i'm always like, "oh, new mail! i wonder what it is?" and then i see that it's from me. doh! i'm an idiot.

COWS IN SPACE?
being friday and all, i was perusing the internet when i came across a few news stories that seem to support this idea. First is the story in the New York Times (nytimes.com) about scientists finding pockets of methane haze on Titan, one of Saturn's moons. Then the idea came together when i saw this funny story about where methane (can) come from. this one's for you, ryan: (from msnbc.com)

HEADLINE: Scientists working on cure for gassy cows; Food additive could reduce methane emissions dramatically

STORY: LONDON - Cows belching and breaking wind cause methane pollution, but British scientists say they have developed a diet to make pastures smell like roses — almost. (...)

A 12-month commercial and scientific evaluation of the additive has just begun, but he said if it proves successful it could be a boon to cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions.

“In total around 14 percent of global methane comes from the guts of farm animals. It is worth doing something about,” Wallace said. Other big sources of methane are landfills, coal mines, rice paddies and bogs. (...)

In New Zealand the government in 2003 proposed a flatulence tax, with methane emitted by farm animals responsible for more than half the country’s greenhouse gases. The plan was ultimately withdrawn after widespread protests. (IT CONTINUES)

too funny... farting cows are destroying the earth! AHHHHHH! i guess i knew about this, but seeing the story was just too funny. and maybe there ARE cows in space.

today is the last day of november, the month that produces the best human specimens. and while some snow flurries did fly on thanksgiving, it's been in the 60s the last three days. i LOVE global warming.

so now i am 2x2x7 and definitely feeling old age creeping in. or maybe it's just that i played football twice over the holiday weekend. i've got bruises, aches, and (even though i really do go the gym all the time) lots of sore muscles. and lots of very muddy clothes. now i have to figure how to get the mud off my shoes. buy new ones? :)

i hope you're not done buying me christmas presents... because i could use extra presents this year. no reason really, but more gifts is better than less gifts, right? that, and the fact that the post office lost/didn't forward/stole two of my birthday presents. those bass dass-turds!

today is tuesday. but because the holiday means a three-day work week, today is hump day. So today is kinda like wednesday. but since tomorrow is the last day of the work week, you could think of today as thursday. so have a good tue/wed/thu today.

Happy Thanksgiving... you. This year be thankful for what you have and for what you don't have. But don't just be thankful come thursday. I don't know about you, but i have sooo much to be thankful for that ONE day of thanks just doesn't cut it. So what do you say we expand the holiday into a week of thanksgiving? Seems more appropriate, right? okay, then, i guess we can't go to work any more this week, because now the entire week is a holiday. Thanks!

...if only life worked this way.

you missed my birthday, punk!
i just wanted to say that. of course i forgive you... because i probably missed yours too. ha, ha! It was a great day of church, brunch in greenwich village/tribeca, shopping with other people's money (thanks Reb +C!), chocolate bar, more church, country style rigatoni by C, some TV and reading in bed. you really wanted the play by play, right?

you really should get a day off work for your birthday. it only seems fair. but thanksgiving is very soon, so that will have to do.

as you can see, i have nothing to write about, but there are some complainers out there who get agitated if you don't have a new post every time they visit. yes, i'm talking about you.

i'm been trying to put together a christmas list so my family has some ideas when they go shopping. i've thought of lots of stuff that i'd like to have, and even a few things people might be able to afford, but then i thought of my own finances. not so hot, i can tell you. so this year i'm thinking that everyone can pick their favorite utility and foot the bill for a month. exciting right? you could give me hot water for my showers! or maybe a month of phone calls! it'll be the bestest christmas ever!

...i'm kidding of course. i don't take showers. i mean, it's not so bad. what do YOU want for christmas?

today was one of those days where all you want to do is crawl back in bed. i don't know if it's plain weariness or just a foreboding that the day is going to suck, but the "call of the bed" is usually right; you would be better off spending the day between the sheets.

for our weather today, hurricane wilma decided to make friends with tropical storm alpha (or something like that). To really have fun they teamed up with some other system from the midwest to create a triple-whammy brouhaha. but, okay, wind and rain aren't so bad.

Today was also one of those "see how many people we can squeeze onto the subway" days. the platform was already packed when i got there, and there was a long wait just for a train to arrive. but of course most of us couldn't squeeze onto that one. No biggie because a slow train usually causes a log-jam, so there's trains right behind it. but, lucky me, not today. so i positioned myself strategically to be near the train doors to get onto the next one. the price to pay to get onto the train was that i had to be smashed up against like five other bodies. it's like getting molested in a socially acceptable way.

but i got to work only ten minutes late. i took off my jacket and saw that i never put on a belt this morning, so now i feel like a moron... a late moron who can't dress himself and got molested on the way to work. unless someone stole my belt as we were pressed up against each other on the subway. this IS new york after all.

on a bright note, i dragged my lazy self to the gym this morning. after my workout i sat in the sauna. the sauna makes everything better!

i'm a junkie looking for a fix.

without really realizing why, i keep opening my desk drawers. once in a while i'll rifle through my bag. there's got to be something around here... a piece of gum or a mint... anything! i'm freaking out. i need candy, or maybe chocolate! can i really make it the rest of the work day without satisfying my craving? it's only another hour or so, but... AHHHHH!

i'm pathetic. but you still love me.

today was a good car day. On my taxi ride from my job site (a fashion trade show) i saw a Lotus Elise. and earlier in the day my taxi was following a Lamborghini Mercielago. sweet like aunt jemima! (thiking about this, i realize it was a Lamborgihini Gallardo. still nice!)

I ran an errand this morning before work that involved driving into manhattan. as i was waiting to be helped, i looked outside and noticed a NYPD tow truck parking in front of my car. then i realized he wasn't parking... he was looking to tow me! as he was maneuvering into place, i nonchalantly walked over, unlocked the car, and got in as if to drive away. thankfully, the tow truck driver gave up and drove off. whew! God was watching out for me! i even made it to work on time after driving back to Brooklyn.

tomorrow the car goes back to its home on long island. summer is over, and with it the weekend drives to the beach. it's sad, but at least i don't have to deal with moving the car four times a week for street cleaning.

Happy Birthday Holly! . . . . . .

I'm going to be singing on an aircraft carrier on sunday. sound interesting? well, i should clarify: i'm singing with my church choir on board the Intrepid Air, Sea & Space Museum, a decommissioned aircraft carrier, as part of a service to honor the military. they plan to tape the singing & speaking and send out thousands of DVDs to the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

first i must get over this cold. today i've moved into phase three, at least by my count. Phase one: sore throat. Phase two: sneezing and oozing. Phase three: coughing. but since i don't know how many phases there are, i'm not sure how well i'm doing. hopefully phase four is back to full health.

I'm going to visit the land of cheese the end of next week. i can't wait to have a bratwurst! hopefully it won't be snowing there yet.

i'm having lunch right now: an entire stick of big red gum. yummmmm. last night for dinner i had mango juice. Before that was a lot of water. i'm 39 hours into a 3-day fast, so i only have... 33 hours to go. whoo-hoo! fasting isn't easy, but i guess that's the point right? I rely and take so much pleasure in food when i should be looking to God to sustain me. i'm getting it.

My church is holding the three day fast and hosting services every night. join us?

I'm going to visit the great land o' cheese this month, probably the weekend of the 24th. (I guess i should ask off of work before i start making plans though.) a little vacation will be nice. And since i'm 'christmasing' in north carolina this year, i'd better visit sheboygan at least once this year. B+T, will you be in town that weekend? will you eat taco pizza with me? New York has more pizza joints than sheboygan has bars and churches but it seems no one offers taco pizza.

okay, i can't take this talk about food.

after many failed attempts at creating a username so i could leave a comment on a blog site, i came up with a new one: SHASTUN, which stands for Someone Has Already Selected This UserName. that's what they kept flashing at me in big red letters, so i thought... okay, works for me! now don't steal this from me... make up your own dorky name.

tuesday, but just like monday...........................................................................................

i'm always a little sad to go back to work after a vacation day. you know how it is, right? i miss all the free time, and i wish i had done more with that free time. I should have gone on a big bike ride on Labor Day, or maybe spent some time in the park... picnic? instead i did some architecture and watched a CSI marathon, and then switched the channel to US open tennis. I did manage to leave the house though. I tried to no avail to make use of the last day of tax free week at Macy's, but my heart just wasn't into shopping. and i'm so broke that i couldn't make myself part with any money. So i went deep into brooklyn for dinner and a movie at a friends house (meaning free). we watched "open water," the movie about a couple who get left out in shark-infested waters while scuba diving. Thankfully i didn't meet any of those sharks while i was at the beach on saturday.

i'm so sad. ............................................................................................................................

i'm going to miss the sixth annual edition of BADCALFF, or Brent and Dales Cheap-Ass Labor day Film Festival. you may dismiss it as too lowbrow for a film festival, but it's a lot of fun. the gist of it is this: after a pot luck barbeque at Dale's house, everyone heads over to the local dollar theater where, other than a scheduled dinner break, you basically watch 5 or 6 movies all in a row, moving from screen to screen. this is easily accomplished because Dale has called the theater weeks in advance, gotten the movie schedule, and planned out the entire day's itinerary. you just buy all the movie tickets when you arrive and you're set for the day. some are the movies you saw earlier in the year but want to see again, some are movies you missed in the first-run theaters, and the rest are the movies you either kinda wanted to see but refused to pay good money for or were too embarressed to admit to wanting to see them.

i've only been able to go to one festival, but it was enough to make me sad that i'm unable to go this year. maybe next year?

it was one of the best beach days this past saturday. hot sun, cool breeze, warm water; what could be better? after i'd had enough, i went cell phone shopping with my cousin "yuko." we checked out the various providers and pondered which cell phones we liked. in case you're curious, we determined the deal at t-mobile was superior to those at cingular or verizon. (i forbid shopping at sprint.) the Motorola V330 we chose takes pictures and video and has blue-tooth capabilities, although none of that really was the draw. It simply wasn't big and ugly like most everything else we saw. i was shocked at the crappy phone selection; i thought technology and design was supposed to get better, not worse. (brent, i saw the phone you got. very nice! not as small as i thought though. it must be all those features.)

yesterday was good church. Our pastor was back from his 5-week vacation. i WANT one of those!

i'm going to argentina. (have i blogged this already?) i officially registered and gave my deposit for the trip this past sunday at church, so i should be in rosario the last few days in march 2006. now i need some language lessons. dumb american educational system: how could they let me get through 19 years of school without learning any spanish?

my church is organizing a big crusade, so there will be a whole lot of us going over. and since they keep the choir under lock and key, i probably won't even notice that i can't communicate with anyone. But this missions trip includes the young adult choir too (i'm in the adult choir, sometimes called the old people's choir!), so that should make it a little more interesting. it's always good to meet more people, and they're more my age group.

but that's a long ways off. for now, i'm just hoping for beach weather this weekend.

the theme this past week has been "do overs." for example, at work we've been dealing with folks who like to change their minds, which means we're always redoing the drawings. (and yes, they've already started construction.) Now i'm redoing them again, sometimes going back to how they were originally. so much pointless time-wasting is involved with "do overs." (redundant, i know)

Example two is the weather problem at my apartment. you see, it's been raining poo. the toilet on the floor above ours was backing up yesterday, spilling sewage into our bathroom. after scrubbing down the walls, fixtures, and floor with bleach, we experienced yet another poo storm. so now i'll have to re-disinfect. what a nightmare. (see ryan's blog for the start of a catchy song related to this incident: feed me architecture)

but not all repeats are terrible. this saturday i went to the beach again. i could live there.

is a scone not just a failed attempt at a muffin?

As I write, It's 6pm and 93 degrees. We should just shut the city down and head to the beaches. It's really not worth it. Last night was perfect bike-riding weather, so I pedalled over the Williamsburg Bridge (which is just a giant hill!), across manhattan to the West side, and down to the World Trade Center. I went back basically the same way. I never know exactly where i'm going on my bike; I just know the direction i want to go and head that way as much as possible depending on traffic openings and where the streets go. it always seems to work out and i get where i'm try to go. but right now i'd like to just stay inside where it's a/c'ed.

Like Jerry Seinfeld's TV character, I am a big fan of cereal. I have a bowl and half or so for breakfast every day. The actual kind of cereal changes every year or so, but the morning routine stays the same: milk and cereal.

Now that i'm going to the gym and at least pretending to work out i 've been thinking about what else can change in my daily routines that would be healthier or cheaper or whatever. Thinking about my cereal diet, i realized that i consume a lot of dairy. (Plus i'm a big fan of cheese, being from Wisconsin and all.) So i decided to try soy milk to see if 1. i could bear the taste, and 2. if switching helped my weight at all.

This morning was the test. Would it be too unlike milk and too gross to eat? well, the taste was fine. it's different than milk, but reasonable. But by the time i finished my bowl of cereal, my throat was pretty swollen and it was difficult to swollow. Also, my palms were really itchy for the next hour or two, and i was producing all kinds of mucus and coughing it up. Sooooo, it doesn't look like i'll be having the rest of that soy milk i bought. and it seems i have some sort of soy allergy.

I love mondays.

today, though thursday, should really be friday. i should not have to work on fridays during the summer.

i saw the bird man yesterday. he's this guy, probably in his late 20's / early 30's, who goes around with a big feather strapped to his forehead making loud birdcalls. I don't think he's trying to attract birds; i think he's just nuts! Well, he might actually be a bike messanger or something. The noises he makes are really quite startling. They'd work well to get people out of his way and alert cars in close proximity. Yesterday he started out with a WHOO-LALALALALALALALA at the top of his lungs as he rode down the street. It sounded like the African yell/cheer that I heard a lot when i was in Zambia. Then he switched to a loud CAW-CAW.... CAW-CAW. It's shocking, then funny, then slightly annoying.

I love New York.

hot mommas, it's hot! even the beach was hot this weekend. i was there only four hours before i called it a day, although i had some errands to run and a silly notion that i could get back to the city for a barbeque. There's usually a cool breeze off the water, but on saturday the wind blew from the shore. The water was sooo refreshing, but the wacky wind, though strong, meant no waves.

i'm taking a break from the book i'm rereading because rebecca just lent me her copy of the latest Harry Potter. I hope it's good (for a kids books, right?). well it didn't cost me anything.

I've been doodling a lot recently trying to put something togther for a retirement house on the family farm. (not for me, obviously.) It's funny how you can make everything work out nicely in a sketch. Now i have to st down and see if the hardline versions still work. but it's summer, and so dang hot. maybe tomorrow i'll start. :)

Christina and Judith made yellow-cake cupcakes last night. They didn't have frosting, so we made some powdered sugar frosting and i melted some chocolate chips ont top of some for chocolate frosting. not gourmet, but still tasty.

Ryan finally managed to drag himself away from work so we could watch some more "24" last night. I'm going to lose a lot of sleep becasue of those DVDs. We have three seasons of shows to watch, and it's too hard to just watch one at a time. you've GOT to find out what happens next!

well, it's been hot all week. Time to hit the beach tomorrow. Ry adn C went today those lucky...

This morning at the gym I saw a few of what must be my favorite tv commercials, at least for the moment. The first is the AARP commercial featuring Mr. Yang volunteering all over town, made possible after he somehow cloned himself. I love to watch his wife react as she wakes up to multiple copies of her husband.

But even better is the coffee creamery commercial showing grumpy people. There's the woman who grimaces at the smiley face pin before dropping it in the trash; the woman who doesn't hold the elevator; the woman who hoses down the paperboy on his bike; and in the long version, the girl that nonchalantly pushes a stack of documents onto the floor as she walks by a table at work. I love it. Too bad I always see the short version of that commercial.

I hope the other folks at the gym don't think I'm too weird when I crack up laughing on the elliptical machine, because I can't help it.

church just started, but i'm at work. deadlines suck! how to finish all this drawing? 12 hours at work yesterday.

humid heat hovering in the high nineties, but office temp more for polar bears, well that sucks too.

coworker sharing world-famous cheesecake from soho... that rules!

check out my pics from FLW's Fallingwater and from my family reunion. they're on my main site.

this is my break. i've been doing some t-t-tedious drawing all day and it's driving me to the edge... of something. it's that feeling when you're craving something but can't get any of it - like chocolate. maybe that's what my problem is.

so i'm using this blog as a distraction. ______ problem is, there's nothing to write about. Anybody know any interesting websites? I'd watch some movie trailers online, but since i'm at work it would be very obvious that no work is getting done at my station. what i really need, besides that chocolate, is another day/week/month at the beach (once my sunburn goes away. whoa, momma, did i burn this last saturday! i'm still hurting.)

Thank God it's Fourth of July weekend coming up! I love the hol-i-day!

I just added an XML feed to my website. The link is to the left. You can add my blog to things like your myYahoo homepage so you'll know when I've updated... which ain't all that often.

Exciting news! I cashed in my coins this morning. Okay, so maybe it was just exciting for me. I dumped out my checkbook box and a little tupperware into the machine at Commerce Bank on my way to work. You've probably seen their commercials about this free service, even to non customers. Anyway, wowzers! The machine spit out a receipt telling me I had 1 quarter, 211 dimes, 181 nickels, and 638 pennies. It's always more than you expect. I was hoping for $25, but would have been happy with anything over 20 bucks. The machine said I would get a prize if I guessed with $1.99 of the actual amount. So I guessed $30. When it said I didn't win, I figured I had overestimated. But nope, I was getting more cash than I dared dream: $36.78

I wish paychecks were like that.

There's nothing quite like a holiday weekend. On my walk home from church sunday night I was planning what I needed to do at work the next day when I remembered that I had Monday off for Memorial Day. Now that's a happy moment!

After living in New York for 4 or 5 years, I finally made it to a baseball game. Until a few weeks ago, I hadn't seen any professional sports in New York. (Although I've watched a half dozen or so of Ryan's hockey games. Probably doesn't count.) Now I've seen a Mets come-from-behind win over the Marlins at Shea, and I watched as Boston creamed the Yankees 17-1 in the Bronx. And I didn't pay a dime for either. My friend Dalcy sprung a Mets ticket on me out of the blue, and I filled in for a no-show brother at Yankee stadium. Whoever said nothing's free just had bad karma or something. Maybe he or she wasn't a tither!

Did you see the sunset pics I put up on the website? If not, you're missing out. They're sweet.

Nothing exciting going on around here. We had a few days in the low 70's, but since then the high has only been in the low 50's. I went to the park over the weekend, actually two different parks, but it was too shilly to stay very long. hot sun and cold breeze.

We got another pastor at my church this week. One of our frequent guest speakers is now full-time at our church. It was very unexpected; they just announced that it was so. well, not like i expected a vote or anyhting. And we got a new locker room for the guys in the choir. Now we're trying to convince them to make part of it a lounge.

My room mate and a friend are drawing on a wall at home. No, keith, they're not four (years old). Actually it's pretty cool. And it's nice to come home and discover something new up. I can't wait to see what happens once they add color.

And speaking of color, the project i'm working on in the office is getting painted now. Just a few more weeks and they'll be done with everything. I'll have to post some pics soon. And our firm is in the current (may 2005) issue of Architectural Digest, so check it out. You can always just page through it at barnes and noble and then put it back on the shelf. I had nothing to do with that project, but... whatever.

okay, lunch is about over. And this isn't worth reading anymore anyway, right?

It's spring... and it's snowing. Where's this global warming?

I have the ALTIM8 in town this week. I drove into the city so I could go to a church fellowship (aka party) in Connecticut last Saturday, and so I could go to IKEA with my roommates. But the week is so full of stuff going on, we weren't sure we would make it out there. Monday was our day, but something came up (previously scheduled sushi lessons). I have church or choir on tues and thurs, and Wednesday got taken by a birthday dinner. But then I was too sick to go to church Tuesday night. There was no debate out that. But I decided that I wasn't too sick to go to IKEA. We also stopped at Target and ate dinner at Panerra Bread, my favorite! Note: the IKEA restaurant was closed since we were there only for the hour before closing. Let me tell you, it was strange being at IKEA when it's not overflowing with people. I guess I'm usually there on Saturdays. It felt like the place had already closed and any minute someone would catch us lurking around the store. Whatever, I'm just happy I finally got a bookcase to store all my surplus crap that doesn't yet have a home. Maybe soon I'll actually have time to put it together and use it.

Our subway system is falling apart. Every day something new breaks down. On Monday it took four trains before I could actually squeeze onto a train. But it's better than the paying for cabs, like our $30 cab ride home from dinner last night. Ouch! Good thing I have two roommates to defray the costs.

Happy Easter.

okay, so it's snowing outside... horizontally. i really don't want to go out there. i should be working from home today. and speaking of work, i should get back to it, becasue i've got a ton of it to do. It's only Tuesday... There should be a Tivo for life so you can skip ahead to the weekends, and pause during the good times.

TGIF. Why, because fridays are gym-free for me. I let myself sleep in every friday, and boy was it nice this morning.

So we made it through february. Bitter cold and driving snowstorms couldn't stop us. But I can say that it sure slowed me own. But March is so close to spring... i can't wait. And March is Brent and Tracy Month. (B, A, +B)

It was funny, the other night in church the visiting speaker ended the teaching with a Star Wars illustration. That's Pretty funny if you know anything about my church. He told about the problem George Lucas faced during the filming of the "first" star wars movie when the main character got into a motorcycle accident. Everyone said that the movie was sunk because they couldn't continue filming. But George Lucas said, "Give me three days," and he went and rewrote the story. (He just wore a mask.) In the same way, humanity's sin was the death of us, but God said, "Give me three days," and rewrote our story. (Jesus in the grave.) Pretty neat illustration. Obviously, the pastor's long version was more eloquent.

RANDOM THOUGHT OF THE DAY: today just after one o'clock it was 01:02 03/04/05.

Do you get free cookies on friday where you work? sucks to be you!

Have you seen "The Gates" in Central Park? if not, i've posted a few pictures on the webpage from this past saturday. Besides seeing the art, it was great to try out my new camera. No problems. I even took a few movies since "The Gates" looks better in motion. But i might argue that some of the images do okay with showing movement.

Though extremely cold, the park was full of people who had come out to see the temporary art installation. And sun always helps it feel warmer. I bought lunch on my way over to the park. Actually, I picked up a small sandwich and some water in Grand Central Terminal. I mention this only becasue while i was there, i saw some of the squash tournament that was going on inside. So weird. Not squash; the fact that they were playing inside Grand Central.

And i was in Grand Central becasue I started out the day at Scandanavia House, which is nearby. They had an exhibit called "Modern Finnish Churches" that I've been meaning to see. There was a dozen or so designs shown that were pretty interesting. The churches were from the late 60's to the ate 90's, mostly the results of design competitions.

On sunday I had brunch with some friends, a few of whom were visiting from California. We eventually got into Cafe Lalo for some yummy food. (it's the cafe from "You've Got Mail!") While my eggs and salad didn't quite fill me up, Christina gave me a big portion of her waffle that made my day. It was sooooo good. There's nothing quite like a tasty meal. But don't worry, i've been going to the gym again.

Happy V Day. whatever.

it's been a month since i visited this page, but i'm under no obligation to report here at any specific frequency. and it's february, and what really goes on in february? it snowed, it melted, it snowed, it got bitter cold... you get the picture.

but i guess some stuff did happen. My church had another three-day fast. I made it. My project at work finished construction documents and id now in construction. I returned to the gym this morning after a long hiatus. I scooped out litter boxes for the first time this morning.

Sadly, my camera broke a while back. I don't know what happened, but it refuses to extend the lense. I'm sure it's probably fixable, but it gives me a great excuse to go for the upgrade that i've been thinking about.

I would have had a new camera by now, but i took a long time to research for a replacement. I've been scouring the reviews at Cnet.com, and user reviews at amazon.com, and even advice from some local camera shops. Basically much of my free time has been devoted to this decision. I wanted to stick with Olympus, since I've really enjoyed my last camera, but ultimately I decided to go with one from Konica Minolta. I pretty much decided this a week ago, but it took another week for me to go through with it. Indecisive Josh. I had to decided which features were most important to me since no camera does it all. oh, here's what i got:

konica minolta dimage a200

My goal was to have a new camera so i could take some pictures of "The Gates" in Central Park by the artists Cristo and Jean-Claude. If you haven't heard about it, then i pity and look down on you. The piece opened on saturday, but i haven't seen it yet (because i don't have my camera yet!).

The last thing I'll mention is the party I went to this past saturday. A friend from the choir at church invited me to his place for some papayas that friends requested him make. and isince this was a Christian party, I guess i shold refer to it as a fellowship, not a party. Seems strange to me, but i guess it's to avoid the alcohol that "party" connotes. It was pot-luck, so there was an overwhelming amount of food to be had. I made a pistichio torte that went over pretty well. Not bad for the first time making it. Some people sang and played guitar, we hung out and chatted, but it turned out that much of the focus was on games. There were three simultaneous games going on for a good chunk of time. We played 2 rounds monopoly, a round of trivial pursuit, half(?) a game of risk, and there was some informal taboo going on. Sometimes people forget how fun simple board games can be.

but, alas, games are for the weekend. right now it's time to work.

I'm back, and better than ever. i don't even know what that means. Take it in lieu of an excuse of why i haven't posted in so long.

I guess I've just been working harder than I needed to at my old job. And I'm not working by my lonesome anymore. Now i can just talk to keith instead of write to you. ha, ha... I sound pathetic. Well, I'm okay with that.

Strange thing happened the other day. I was looking through the Oct/Nov issue of "Dwell" magazine. A photography spread of locales from the seventies had a picture of Miami Beach, Florida taken on my birthday - THE actual day I was born. I did a double take on that one. "Wow, look, my birthday... whoa, it really IS my birthday." and the pic showed a nice day too.

Unlike the present. I mean, how many cloudy rainy days can you take? I need a vacation from this misery. Except I'm actually fine. I can take it. and only two hours until i leave work to go to church. I just hope that i'm more awake there that i am right now.

The apartment got some new digs this weekend, if that makes sense. I'll explain: I finally got curtains up on my ginormous (jye-NORM-us) bedroom windows. (the windows are big, not the bedroom.) I also splurged on a down quilt and found a great chopping block for the kitchen. The roomies also did well and got a pair of stools for the counter. They're beauties. (The stools, not the... am i going to get in trouble now?)

I'm also contemplating some cheap surround sound speakers. Yeah, i might as well, right? I deserve it!