“It seems to be a problem with moving slowly and in pieces is that every time you move something you say yeah I moved this last night some one ___ and I was just shocked and disbelief and kind of an ___ if you were confident you would have finished moving all that.”
erin_trying and I are going to Toronto, Canada from July 7 to July 12. You guys have any touristy suggestions? We like architecture, museums, tasty food, and pretty things. Obviously free/low-cost is better than not, but suggestions are suggestions. I'll be picking up the DK guidebook (my favorite brand, thanks Eyewitness Books from my childhood corrupting me to this very day) today or tomorrow for more ideas, but personal ones are best, of course. We'll be staying in Harbourfront, but the subways and Zipcars can take us anywhere, so long as it's not too far afield.
First off, the new Zipcars: · 2008 Honda Civic — The cockpit looks like a spaceship! It's surprisingly roomy inside with a nice amount of acceleration and handling. I didn't have it for long or use it for much, so I cannot really comment on it too much. · 2008 BMW 328i — So much fun! From the push-button start to the three different shifting modes (Drive, Sport Drive, clutchless manual), this car was all about a good time. The inline 6 rode smoothly and powerfully and erin_trying and I had a great time opening it up once or twice. Being a 3-series, the backseat was a little small, but the trunk is surprisingly large for such a small car. The only problem I had with it was the steering was a little tight at low speeds, making it slightly harder to park. As a geek, I really appreciated the MPG meter right below the tachometer.
See the other cars I've driven. On to the important stuff: This weekend, Erin and I got married again! This time with family and friends!
Thursday I randomly ran into my dad as well as my cousin and his wife down in the Village and had dinner with them and Erin. Well, not entirely random, as my cousin and his wife were in town for the wedding.
On Friday, Erin and I took off from work. We brought some final stuff to the venue in Queens as well as bought the wine. Then we returned to Brooklyn and picked up my brothers for help set up the venue. We got there at 3pm and nearly finished by 6pm. We all returned to Brooklyn yet again for dinner with my dad's family, with even more people from out of town!
Saturday, very early in the morning, I took the train to lower Manhattan to pick up the aforementioned Beamer and drive it back to Brooklyn. I took the Brooklyn Bridge and bought flowers and bread and way too many breadsticks on the way back home. After a short while at home, Erin and I took off with the really truly final load of stuff for the venue. We were a little late, so Alex and Kitri were already there, ready and willing to help out.
After some setup, Erin and I took off for some last minute supplies (coffee things, balloons and an emergency undershirt for me) and came back to some small emergencies. While the cupcakes arrived on time and in perfect shape, the Fairway order had gone slightly awry. The lasagna had been completely sloshed about, the wrong salad was delivered, and an entire entree was missing! Our servers from Barnard Bartending Agency were able to rescue the lasagna before guests arrived, while Fairway was able to redeliver the correct salad, the missing chicken, and a "we're sorry" cookie plate along with a 10% discount. So yeah, I'd still use them again. I heard rosefox may have had something to do with all that, but I was in the car, so I'm not too sure about what exactly happened.
During some of the Drama above, I got dressed, then picked up malaul and Erin for them to do the same. Then I schmoozed with the now-arrived guests while they got ready. Sometime in there, Rose gave me her very cute paperclip cufflinks to replace the ones I left at home.
Shortly after the ladies returned to the venue, we did the ceremony (again). Afterwards, Erin and I returned to the car to enjoy some alone time and A/C. (The venue forgot to turn it on, initially, so it was still rather warm in there throughout the entire gathering.) We came back, and used a text message to cue Rose (our lovely DJ) to start some big band song I'd only ever heard less than 24 hours prior, but it was sweet and true. Dinner was served according to flower color (my idea, thank you very much!).
All the while, everything moved very smoothly, and for that I have to thank the Barnard girls as well as the powerful solution finders of Rose and Faelan. Erin and I schmoozed primarily with our friends and family, rather than our new in-laws, but that seems rather natural to me.
After dinner came cake and after cake came the last dance. We hired the Barnard girls for an additional hour to help break down, but they were done in less than a half-hour! Perishables were loaded into my car (never I have I ever taken so quickly to such possessive language with a Zipcar), gifts loaded into my father's car, and everything else loaded into Erin's parents' van. Erin and I stuck around to make sure the breakdown went successfully and to pay our delightful servers.
Erin and I returned to Brooklyn to drop off said perishables, and it is during that time that any liberties that may or may not have been taken with the car happened. We dropped off the car at its home in lower Manhattan and walked to the hotel.
Picture this: Young couple in semi-formal wear, lady with a veil, gentleman with a vase and a bouquet of roses. The couple checks into a fancy hotel, just across the street from the WTC site. The person at the desk takes a break from checking them in to go into a back office. Moments later she returns with her (presumed) manager who asks, "You two got married today?" The couple responds affirmatively, and he replies, "Well, I just got you an upgrade I think you'll be very happy with."
We went up to the 52nd floor and found some lovely fireworks over the East River visible outside the window in the elevator lobby. After a little bit of watching, we headed over to our room. I should say "headed over to our massive suite with 1½ bathrooms, jacuzzi tub, king bed, and views to the North, East, and West". We were so invigorated (and hungry) that we ran out to a diner and came back to sleep a peaceful sleep — after all the planning and the stress, we were done.
Got up the next morning, ogled the view some more and wend out for brunch. Came back, checked out and went home on the subway. Did dishes and laundry and then Erin went out for a massive massage while I chilled with my dad's family for one last evening.
My coworkers are discussing various methods of avoiding getting raped, should they end up in jail. The amount of agreement with the sentiment that suicide is preferable to (forced) anal sex disturbs me. "Yeah, I'll be dead, but at least I'll be an ass-virgin."
They also all agree that I would not be able to defend myself in prison.
· 2009 Toyota Matrix — The previous Toyota Matrix I drove was the 2006, which was the first model year, I think. They certainly improved this vehicle. It's got a goodly amount of pickup, big interior space, and it handles very well. It was the first car erin_trying and I have driven in where she started asking me questions like, "How much do you think this car is?", and, "What are payments on that amount like?" The only problem I had with it was the same problem I always have with cars: I have to duck slightly to see stop lights if I'm at the line. One day I'll get a convertible, and this won't be a problem!
Crabbiness Planning Not sleeping (not insomnia, just lack of time spent in bed) Walking around Back pain Moving Getting married (soon) Work slowness Rain Difficult decisions Lists
My first entry was pretty thin, about not much in particular. One thing to note was how much I've stopped talking about here. Other entries from that day talk about my grades in High School like they mattered. Weird.
Dan Bern has this lovely song called "God Said No". In it, our narrator asks God to go back in time to correct certain things he views as mistakes in time. For instance, to prevent Kurt Cobain's suicide or kill Hitler or save Jesus. God replies in the negative for all of these, telling our narrator what he would do instead of accomplishing these goals. But my favorite line is as follows:
God said, "Time, Time belongs to me. Time's a sacred weapon. A final advantage."
In addition to Dan Bern's gorgeous vocals all throughout this piece, its truly haunting melody, and its grim subject matter all fit together in an amazing piece. It just reminds me that time is the one limited thing we have. I mean, sure, there's only so much gold, and only about 1 ounce of Francium in the Earth's crust at any given time, but most things are reasonably infinite to any given human, so long as they have enough time to get them.
One of the last lines is, "I knew I was beaten / And that now was all I have." And if that doesn't fit my Discordian Hedonist Atheist Humanist outlook, then I'm not really sure what does.
18th-Mar-2009 09:56 pm - Quoted from erin_trying, regarding wedding stuffs and friends
"Hello all,
Regarding inviting friends to our wedding--we should have room for between twenty to thirty friends. However, we are going to wait approximately till mid-May before inviting any, giving our families enough time to RVSP so we have firm numbers. The wedding is 2pm to 6pm on June 13, so if you are potentially interested in coming, please let us know and keep the date open--but understand, at this point, things are still very in flux.
I ran and did my forms in the neighborhood this morning. Before the sun was up at all. I guess about 15 minutes of exercise? Not a long thing, but I felt nice and awake afterwards. It's nice to see spring return.
· 2006 Toyota Matrix — Small in every way except for the cargo space. Slightly better acceleration than the xB, but only just. Handling is nothing special. The engine seemed particularly loud, but I can't say how much that was due to possible poor maintenance or design. See the rest of cars I've driven list
Edit: While my wristwatch and the car's clock both said I was 4 minutes late, and my cellphone said I was 2 minutes late, the Zipcar website says I returned on time. I hope the site keeps that decision.
This morning I had two dreams. The first had me at Brooklyn Bridge park and someone was talking about how hard it is to start a fire. I took a cloth suitcase, filled it with accelerants and set the Manhattan bridge (and most of lower Manhattan) on fire. I distinctly recall the image of the flames flying up the buildings. Then I tossed the suitcase into the East River, where it exploded in a lovely fireball. After that I was in Battery Park meeting with Joe and Kit from Fordham TKD and I was debating telling them that I did it. The next dream was simpler. I was at a friend's house (the same friend featured in this friends-locked entry). She said something like, "No sex, no. Not unless IP2 goes down." [I distinctly remember "IP2", which must be some corruption from dealing with "eth2" and such at work all the time.] I said that was easy to fix and took my computer and started to do things to her router while she watched. She neither stopped nor encouraged me.
That's my 3rd nosebleed of the day. Should I bail on TKD? Text me through my info page with your opinion. I'm not feeling tired or woozy, just frustrated.
Snatched from, mountainheather Association Meme: Comment to this post and I will give you 5 subjects/things I associate you with. Then post this in your LJ and elaborate on the subjects given. The subjects that she chose are: Zip cars Tae kwon do polyamory engineering NYC
For those of you who don't remember, I've been keeping track of cars I've driven, and what I think of them. This past weekend I drove a new (to me) Zipcar that I will be adding to the original list, once I've added it here.
· 2007 Honda Odyssey — Highly drivable. It rode very low to the ground which was nice (car-like handling), but also not so nice (I drove it in Gilboa, so a little higher undercarriage would have assuaged some fears). The electronic stability control system performed like a champ on the tiny piece of ice we found out there. But the most amazing thing was the depth of the trunk. Because the rear seats are designed to fold flat into the vehicle, behind the third row is absolutely cavernous. The most annoying things about the vehicle had to deal with internal documentation. Many cars' fuel gauges tell you which side has the port. This one didn't. It was also hard to find the levers for the fuel door and the hood (I had to add windshield washer fluid).
Ok, so I got tagged something like five times over Facebook with this one. Sorry in advance. When it imports into Facebook, I might add some tags to it. If I remember.
The 25 things meme involves rattling off 25 "interesting" things about yourself and then tagging 25 people on Facebook to make them do the same. You're also supposed to tag back whoever tagged you, so hopefully this will act as an appropriate suicide function for it once it has reached saturation.
1) I am a Discordian, mostly because it's a funner branch of Zen. 2) I am an atheist. So, yes, that means I do not believe in the literal existence of Eris, or YHWH, or whatever. 3) Truth be told, I can't really understand why anyone would look at the questions of the world and come to the conclusion that there was a god or gods somewhere as the simplest explanation. 4) In case it's not obvious, I do believe in Occam's Razor. 5) I'm tall. I normally forget this except when I'm on the train and I notice someone's head pop up above the rest of the heads. Then I think he's tall, and then I realize that I'm taller (or sometimes shorter) than he is. 6) Speaking of, I was always the tallest kid in class, and the tallest kid in school until High School. 7) I hold a Third Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do. The name of the particular style is Chung Do Kwan. 8) I'm still a klutz. 9) I've had a total of seven regular students in Tae Kwon Do. One quit after a week. Three made it to yellow belt and I never see them any more. One made it to green and I never see him any more. One made it to brown belt (faboo) and then moved out of town. And one semi-current student who is a yellow belt. I hope she continues. 10) I also taught Tae Kwon Do at the Seagate Beach Club for two summers. I even had a regular student or two there, but it was mostly kids just running in and out as they pleased. 11) To tell you the truth, I felt that giving the kids the freedom to go to class or not helped me immensely. If I was stuck in a gym or studio, I'd have to maintain their attention. 12) I used to swim all the time. But I didn't swim competitively until High School. I was the fastest Freshman for the first week of practice because I already had the technique down. 13) But physical quickness has never come easily to me. I don't know if it's because I'm so big, or because I really wasn't much of a sports person as a child. 14) I love living in New York City. 15) I work in Clifton, New Jersey for a defense contractor. I do not make bombs. I make digital communications systems. (And the one I'm working on now is annoying me, but work is work and it's not actually that annoying.) My commute isn't that bad, surprisingly. 16) Speaking of my commute, I use public transit, and it does me quite well. When everyone's out because of a few snowflakes, I'm chilling in the lab with my boots on. It does take an hour each way, though. 17) I've been growing to like driving, although spatially I sometimes have trouble with the edges of the car. That is to say, I often think the car is bigger than it is and handle accordingly. 18) I'm something of a grammar nazi. I'm willing to bend to convention on occasion, but even my text messages are complete sentences. 19) I often feel out of place in traditional male gatherings. So much time is spent in negativity. I appreciate the wordplay though, and can fake it pretty well for a while. 20) For that matter, I don't much like going to "normal" parties. The loud music, dark lights, and large amount of booze are annoying and make it hard to focus. I also just feel out of place. 21) Because, you see, I don't drink. Never have, and I don't intend to. Nor do I use any other psychoactives stronger than caffeine or kava kava. 22) Not that I have anything against those who do, within reason. For instance, I think marijuana should be legalized (and regulated and taxed). What bothers me is when people get too sloppy with any intoxicant. 23) I can't believe it took me this long to mention that I'm polyamorous. I'm currently engaged to erin_trying and kinda-sorta seeing two other ladies. I'd like to have a full-on girlfriend as well as Erin, but right now I just don't have the kind of energy for that kind of pursuit, especially if I have to work too hard for it (i.e., I'd like to be sought after). Now that I write that out, it sounds kind of bad, but you wanted honesty, right? 24) Yes, I ignored the Discordian holy numbers 5 and 23 above and put nothing particularly significant in it. A Discordian is Forbidden from Believing What He Reads. That said, every thing I have put down (and will put down) is the truth. 25) It took me three days of sporadic writing during work to get this damn thing written out. Some of the rest of you had better take it eventually!
I do not recall the three cars I drove from my drivers' ed classes, so I cannot go over those. I'll try to keep this current as I add new cars to my experience.
My family's: · 1992 Toyota Camry Station Wagon — The V6 gave this old little buggy some serious pickup, although it was still a wagon, and a creaky one before it was donated to my brother and then driven into the ground. · 2007 Toyota Avalon &mdash Poor man's Lexus, indeed. Smooth ride, excellent handling, and some fun when you hit the pedal. · 2001? Subaru Outback — The driver's seat has excellent support. Not excellent acceleration, but it did the job. I didn't have the chance to try out the All-Wheel Drive, and I'm OK with that.
erin_trying's family's: · 2001 Dodge Grand Caravan — Decent all around car. Killer amounts of storage space, though. Doesn't feel too vanny, but it's no car. · 2005 Mitsubishi Lancer — Utterly unremarkable, although the environment where I drove it (Mesa, AZ) was a true drivers' heaven: flat, straight, dry, bright.
Zipcars: · Scion xA — Itty bitty, but surprising amounts of storage space if you put down the back seats. Decent pickup. · Scion xB — Small on the outside, huge on the inside. Absolutely no acceleration. Absolutely none. · Toyota Tacoma — It's a pickup truck. It drives like a truck. Could have used a few more tiedown points in the bed, in my opinion. · 2007 Honda Odyssey — Highly drivable. It rode very low to the ground which was nice (car-like handling), but also not so nice (I drove it in Gilboa, so a little higher undercarriage would have assuaged some fears). The electronic stability control system performed like a champ on the tiny piece of ice we found out there. But the most amazing thing was the depth of the trunk. Because the rear seats are designed to fold flat into the vehicle, behind the third row is absolutely cavernous. The most annoying things about the vehicle had to deal with internal documentation. Many cars' fuel gauges tell you which side has the port. This one didn't. It was also hard to find the levers for the fuel door and the hood (I had to add windshield washer fluid). [added Feb. 16, 2009] · 2006 Toyota Matrix — Small in every way except for the cargo space. Slightly better acceleration than the xB, but only just. Handling is nothing special. The engine seemed particularly loud, but I can't say how much that was due to possible poor maintenance or design. [added Mar. 2, 2009] · 2009 Toyota Matrix — The previous Toyota Matrix I drove was the 2006, which was the first model year, I think. They certainly improved this vehicle. It's got a goodly amount of pickup, big interior space, and it handles very well. It was the first car erin_trying and I have driven in where she started asking me questions like, "How much do you think this car is?", and, "What are payments on that amount like?" The only problem I had with it was the same problem I always have with cars: I have to duck slightly to see stop lights if I'm at the line. One day I'll get a convertible, and this won't be a problem! [added Jun. 1, 2009] · 2008 Honda Civic — The cockpit looks like a spaceship! It's surprisingly roomy inside with a nice amount of acceleration and handling. I didn't have it for long or use it for much, so I cannot really comment on it too much. [added Jun. 15, 2009] · 2008 BMW 328i — So much fun! From the push-button start to the three different shifting modes (Drive, Sport Drive, clutchless manual), this car was all about a good time. The inline 6 rode smoothly and powerfully and erin_trying and I had a great time opening it up once or twice. Being a 3-series, the backseat was a little small, but the trunk is surprisingly large for such a small car. The only problem I had with it was the steering was a little tight at low speeds, making it slightly harder to park. As a geek, I really appreciated the MPG meter right below the tachometer. [added Jun. 15, 2009]
Other: · Ford 15-passenger Van — Huuuuge! Very floaty on the road, almost feels like you're driving a boat. Handles decently down steep dirt roads in low gear. I couldn't park it to save my life, however.
27th-Jan-2009 11:47 pm - Question meme stolen from mountainheather
Ask me a question about each of the following:
1. Friends 2. Sex 3. Music 4. Drugs 5. Love 6. Livejournal
No matter how rude or confidential I will answer the question honestly (though I reserve the right to screen my answer or your questions or both, this is googleable, after all). Then post this in your journal and see what questions you get asked!
I had an excellent time working the Green Room with erin_trying, rosefox, sinboy, glib_dichotomy, malaul, and Randee [edit: kitteridge, and anyone else I missed [edit: deyo, and mactavish, for example]. I didn't get to spend much time out and about in the con, but it all worked out. Got some tasties from Dealer's Row, and got significant driving experience—at night and in (light) snow on the way home, even!
Big loud drinking/dancing parties hold no interest for me, and I must remind myself that this is not a character flaw, and it does not mean that I will never meet anyone interesting, and it does not mean that I should force myself to go. It does mean that the "inflationary" portion of my friend-gathering life is likely over, however, as I don't have the forced social environment like High School anymore. [By "inflationary", I am referring to the cosmological concept of inflation, which is when the young universe expanded extraordinarily fast before slowing down to where we are now.] I'm OK with that. It also means that I will likely have a bad time at any party like that. And I already know that I will have a bad time at any party I'm too sleepy at.
Reading the above, I wonder if I'm becoming an introvert lately. I've always loved casual contact with people (i.e., living in the city, making small talk), but I just cannot deal with loud, crowded, hot, dark parties. They do not move me in the slightest, and I find them uncomfortable. Much the same thing with bars, although, in addition, they seem pointless.
Bah, after writing such things, I feel like such a stick-in-the-mud and/or old man. Also, boring.
January: Just as I'm about to leave to have hot water @ my parents', the hot water returned. February: In other news, I'm a moron. March: Pete April: “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." May: This is the Brooklyn Municipal Building. June: Found in 125 Street Station. July: Erin and Chris finished it before I got home last night. August: The back side of a street sign near the train station has had this tag on it for months. September: Someone must really dislike this person. October: It seems we have a new artist inside the train shelter. November: My alarm did not wake me this morning, but it's OK, because the school across the street did. December: So it appears that there is some major problem with the test I'm currently running at work, but the bigger problem is that while my coworkers were trying to debug the issue yesterday, they managed to trip the breaker for our bench's UPS, causing the whole thing to shut down.
The obvious problem here that I see is that they do not appear to have controlled for sexually active teens or not. The study itself may have, but this article does not mention it. I would not be surprised to find out (although I have no evidence one way or the other) that many GBLT folks start having sex earlier than their straight brethren. Now, however, I feel that I may be stating assumptions not in evidence and falling for the classic "teh gheyz are horny" stereotype.
So it appears that there is some major problem with the test I'm currently running at work, but the bigger problem is that while my coworkers were trying to debug the issue yesterday, they managed to trip the breaker for our bench's UPS, causing the whole thing to shut down. Now I have to bring the bench up from a cold boot, which is always fun. Luckily, someone already reset the breaker, which is good, because I wouldn't want to flip the wrong switch on the UPS!
There's snow on the ground here. It was wet in Secaucus. Dry in Harlem, if I remember right, which is doubtful as my memory doesn't work so well at 6:30a.
Missed the MSI show last night due to a bunch of unforeseen circumstances. At least I have a few albums of theirs on my work computer.
No one's online, but it's good because I need to finish what I'm working on so I can... I guess retry the broken test yet again?
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
erin_trying, regarding wedding stuffs and friends
6 (85.7%)
