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| At the end of their first dance  | |
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| Back to your regularly scheduled programming...  | |
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| People say the current Penn Station is ugly, dirty, and claustrophobic, especially when compared to the original. I say it is all these things and has some interesting beam work. I find it interesting that most of the people who bemoan the loss of the old Penn Station never were in it, and never take trains. The ones who are old enough to have been in it don't take trains anymore, if they ever did. By the way, we're in Pittsburgh for Tom's wedding. Should be fun.  | |
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| This one seems to refer to the law of big numbers. Or perhaps these guys don't ride the train. Or maybe it's a reference to their anonymous nature. Since I got the pedometer, I've taken at least 37192 steps. This does not count times near sleep, or times near practice, because I'm not wearing these pants then. A few people have told me they've been enjoying these many new mobile posts I've been making. I'm really glad to hear that, but I'd like to know what it is that y'all have been liking about it. I'm nearly done with the Delawanna photos I've got, though there's at least 1 more I want to take when the weather's nice again. I'll likely keep digging into the archive from the old phone, but I'd be interested to know what y'all'd like to see. OTOH, I just took two more pictures walking to my NJTransit train. Still, I'd like some input, if you can afford it.  | |
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| Found from my old phone's photos that were backed up. Photo taken on 60 and Columbus. What would happen if graffiti was legal? Just glad to be off a series of annoying trains. Both NJ Transit trains had drunk middle aged people acting like children & they appeared pleased that they were. The 1 had a dude w/ a high, affected voice and a girl both clearly still in HS going loudly over the minutia of socializing. Got me some new books so y'all may be getting fewer posts shortly...  | |
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| Thanks for the weather report, guys. 22574 steps since Wednesday, 930a. I'm pretty pleased. In other exercise news, I'll be running Pat's Fordham class, as he'll be doing security for Bay Ridge Prep's 'prom'. Lately I've been having some lovely ear/throat irritation consistent w/ my allergies. So it must be spring, right? This weekend, Erin & I will be going to PA for Tom's wedding. That promises to be a good time.  | |
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| Evidence that most of the work at this station was done by one couple, who are very clearly very much in love-both with each other and with Sharpies. How's your day going?  | |
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| Ah, teenage poetry. It's always the same... And let us not forget the lack of poles in the older subway cars. At least I can touch the ceiling in the car. And here by the a/c, I could even touch w/ my head. Since 930a yesterday, I've walked over 12003 steps. Work's been giving away pedometers, probably b/c of the chubby engineer cliche, which is absolutely true at my work. It's kind of neat to multiply that by my stride and figure out the distance covered. Now it looks like I'm going to have to run for my next train. Thanks MTA.  | |
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| There's clearly a bunch of kids near my work that fancy themselves some sort of anarchists. They spray paint modified Anarchy 'A's with the text 'Meth Orphans' and I'm pretty sure they busted the heater in one of the shelters and a window or two. However, one of them seems to have more artistic aspirations.  | |
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| Every time I see the 'Are you clear enough to be a child protective specialist?' ads, I think of Scientology and I wonder how long until Internet Group Anonymous figures this out, too. Today has me on a new NJTransit schedule. I should have checked it before leaving the house. Oh well. If I have time, I'll pick up a copy at my transfer. About to get to Penn Station, so off to the Drafts folder. Now I have nothing to read, unless I reread the pulp that I didn't manage to return on Saturday. Specifically, it's one of the Kris Longknife books, 'Audacious'. It is thoroughly Escapist gung-ho military sci-fi. Lately, however, it has become even more jingoistic than I previously thought possible. For instance, the main people are all in the group of planets called the United Sentients. Anyone who isn't in the military is presented as craven and unprepared for when excrement hits the turbine. While our lead is a princess, her planet has a constitutional monarchy, with a parliament. Even though we're in the far-flung future, where Earth is a nearly isolationist power center, and our Princess is from the galaxy's Rim, people still get 20th Century cultural references—the Marines even sing the American Marine's Hymn, which, in case you've not heard it, makes reference to the "halls of Montezuma" and the "shores of Tripoli" in the first stanza. Recall that all those things are dozens of thousands of light-years away from these Marines. Oh, and all the various fighting men and women in this book are all witty and eloquent, while civilians are all shallow and often caught speechless. But as I said before, it's nice, escapist pulp.  | |
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| Found at Carroll street station.  | |
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| So Borough Hall is apparently more radio transparent...  | |
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| Farms not arms. Sticker found on the North-bound side of the express platform.  | |
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188K 1:05
| “This has come to mind recently. I just recently upgraded my phone and this I'm sure I've mentioned and when doing so and every time in times like call T Mobile my cellular provider, they tell me that wow you got service on that thing and I think it's like 2004 January 2004 and they're shocked that I was seen so long on their network which I find strange coz I don't see any reason for somebody to change network so much there's one particular killer phone I guess or if you have a particularly bad customer service experience. Now I've never which one who the deal you know having the killer phone and then whoever which one for oh every time I call customer service there have been absolute ___. So not really sure why all these people are switching. Because you know what people are switching networks network and I don't know why.”
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169K 1:00
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| Found on a Toyota Prius in Clifton, NJ  | |
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| I wonder if 5 de Mayo has become bigger here than it is in Mexico. | |
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| Found on Amsterdam.  | |
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| This is the Brooklyn Municipal Building. It's old and drab, but you gotta respect the massive columns. On another note, it's amazing how many stores in Downtown Brooklyn don't open until nine or later.  | |
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| No sleep makes Peter really unpleasant to be around. Well, even more than usual. | |
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111K 0:37
| “So I noticed a very strange set of advertisings apparently. Nicko is turning itself into some kind of ___ band or a specially band and you are deciding that new, you know Amber Park, a new, a new quarter you that you've done and it just seem weird that they're going for all these ___ big highlights or something or I thought the other one ___, anyways, bye.”
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| New cell phone loves you! Or me at least.  | |
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| So, after some deliberation since my last post (sorry, friends-locked) on this, I've decided to go with the following image:  I decided that I found the hand of Eris in the middle to be a little distracting, and I like the pure geometry of the rest of the mandala. Same location (the upper left deltoid, aka under t-shirt sleeve), same size (~2.5 inches in diameter). I punched the mandala through Vector Magic to get an SVG version so all my future experiments with the image can be nice and smooth, regardless of resolution. For instance:  However, I still have some questions about the tattoo remaining: - Where is a good, inexpensive but not cheap (get the difference?) place in NYC if I were to do it?Q. 4 from original post
- I have freckles on these spots, how will they interfere? Will they simply be obliterated by the black ink?
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) amalthya recommended going towards the end of the summer, as getting it will ban me from swimming for some time. I'm guessing I shouldn't go there with a sunburn, but if I have a tan, how will that affect things?- Are there any questions I should be asking that I am not?
Thanks all! | |
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| A little memorial near my house.  | |
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| I was talking with faerykat and I realized that I've never really been ogled. I mean, there was one time I was at Vertex, and this very drunk 40+ lady (at the time, twice my age) called out, "Hey tall stuff!" very thickly, but I don't think that counts. What is it like? Is it always negative? How do you know? Do you have a notable ogling story (as either the oglee or the ogler)? - Tags:question
- Location:07014
- Mood:curious
 - Music:my god, it's full of fans...
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| Today I am that creepy guy all alone @ the chain family restaurant. Who are you today? | |
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| Name a particularly graceless animal. | |
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| I've been reading an AskMetaFilter post about life-changing events, and I've decided to try and catalogue some of my own:
- On Religion: Many of the comments in that thread talk to a single moment where a person realized that there was no God. I never had such a revelation because I never believed in one. I intensely realize, however, the moment I became a Discordian (albeit a non-theistic one): I was reading the Illuminatus! Trilogy and I realized that, despite my interest in order which drove me to engineering, science, etc., chaos was equally valuable, and should be respected. Of course, that doesn't mean that everything must be chaos (those who follow the purely Eristic path worry me), however, but instead that chaos has its place, and that creation/destruction is the sides of the Sacred Chao I'd rather worry about. Around this time I met shoujo_mallet and shortly after I met malaul. Taking into these two important people, along with the "Enlightened Nihilism" I picked up from faboo, helped form much of my personal philosophy, such as it is. The fact that there is nothing that I have to do, except die, is something that I needed to learn during the more stressful portions of college, and I still need to remind myself of it often (c.f. my time troubles in an earlier post).
- On Adults Being Wrong: Although often being told to take bullying by not responding and failing, I never considered this bad advice from my parents. The worst was when I was in first grade and I got a math problem wrong. I started crying (I cried a lot in elementary school, now I nearly never do) because my Dad had checked the work, and he should have caught any mistakes. I remember once being upset and loud about it when my mom screamed, "What do you want, my blood?" That shut me up quick and I felt how badly I was hurting her over nothing, simply by complaining. There's one more, and it involves riding back from Rochester with my dad, and talking with him about it a few weeks later that I'm not going to go into here, but a lot of you know this story, and if you're curious, drop me an email or a text.
- On Mental Health: I was sent to a child psychologist twice when I was a kid. I never understood why, until my mom told me as an adult that it was because I was asking about suicide. The question I was asking was about English, actually. It was "What's the penalty for committing suicide?" See, that word, commit I'd only ever heard on TV law shows, committing purjury, committing murder, committing a felony, &c. She said that it was its own punishment, so I asked why anyone would do it then. See, committing murder makes sense, because you get some gain out of it (revenge, or sating a compulsion or something), same thing with stealing, or lying. To be fair, however, I was/am depressed a lot, and I was bullied a lot until about HS.
- On Failure: In college I had a lot of angst about my first withdrawn class. Did this mean I shouldn't go into EE? Was there anything I was good at? I talked with my advisor about how it would look on my transcript, and he said, rightly, that one or two W's is not a bad thing—it shows that you know when to cut and run, and when to ask for help. Making a habit of it, however, is another thing. I never made a habit of it, and here I am.
- On Success: When I earned my First Degree Black Belt back in 2000, I felt an intense sensation of having everywhere to go. I felt that I had so much to learn and now I was able of at least beginning along those paths. It was euphoric. Trivia bit: at every black belt test, your teacher comes up and says a few words about you, and at every one of mine, Howard has used the phrase "gentle giant."
- On Speed: One time I was rushing off the train while I was still working in Chelsea, and the door hit my ankle as it was closing. I can still remember time slowing down and I thought: "I could do this to avoid falling, but if I screw it up, then I'll hurt worse and have more broken electronics on me than if I fall flat correctly." I fell flat, and I'm sure it looked very undignified, but I landed right and had no major injuries. Bonus story: While rollerblading at RIT, I took a turn a little too wide and had to hold my outside skate over the mud to avoid falling. I did OK for a good five feet, but when my wheels sunk in and got stuck in the mud (I had detachable wheels at the time) I did a roll, shoulder to hip, and came out unscathed.
- On girls: This may not be accurate, but I feel I lost a girlfriend (back in college, not anyone I'm currently dating) due to a lack of libido on her part triggered by hormonal birth control. Since then I've been a little quick to assume drugs' influence on others' lives. This pisses off Erin when I jump to such conclusions about her.
OK, that's enough ridiculous introspection for one shirking from work day.
Big question: What would you say was your "life-changing" event? Or perhaps events?- Tags:audience participation, complaining, discordian, failure, family, girls, love, meta, question, rit, school, sex, tae kwon do, tmi
- Location:07014
- Mood:contemplative
- Music:Mindless Self Indulgence - Faggot
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| | VoicePost
196K 1:08
| “When I got to the train station tonight after school, I had a moment of sheer terror because no one else is here at this train station. It's empty there's always like one or two people, few people I know to chat with occasionally. Look good but there was no one here and I thought I was early so I you know left up my phone and said it says 7:43 7:43 is when the train is supposed to depart by but there's no evidence of a train. The signals make no evidence of the train, it's just not there and I mean there's no body on either direction, it's kinda freaky and I freaked out there for a moment and then I looked down the line and I still didn't see anything, I was like crap and I looked down the line again and I saw the glow of on coming head lights and it's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. So apparently I'm the only person getting on this station on this train and you know what I'm ok with that. So long as I get on this train at this station.”
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| Peter needs to read more before presuming he owes the Feds five grand. | |
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| Time Budget (approx.)Sleeping: 49 hrs/wk (generous) Commuting: 17.5 hrs/wk (conservative) Working: 48 hrs/wk Lunch break @ work: 6 hrs/wk TKD: 6 hrs/wk School: 5 hrs/wk Total accounted hours used per week: 131.5For reference, there are 168 hours in a week. Therefore, I have 36.5 unaccounted hours—a little over 5 per day (although most of those hours are on Saturday and Sunday, where my only time constraints are TKD and work, respectively [and, of course commuting])—perhaps shoujo_mallet has something when she worries about my work/life balance. | |
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| Everyone has things they don't blog about.
Challenge me out of my comfort zone by telling me something I don't blog about, but you'd like to hear about, and I'll write a post about it. I reserve the right to filter appropriately.
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