8/31/11

Day 68

Not sure what was going on tonight at the theater, but it was crowded as hell and there was a TV camera here.



Later I found out the camera crew was from some channel that was going to be cast in Hong Kong. If any of you out there happen to see me sitting in the background somewhere, let me know.

8/30/11

Day 67

Spent the evening here tonight:While the Mets have generally been associated with mediocrity, I do understand that it's only mediocrity in the inherent shadow of that other New York baseball team.After all, the Mets do have 2 World Series championships in their short history as NYC's second chair baseball club. That's twice the amount as the Giants have won in the same period of time.

Still though, it's gotta be depressing to be playing in a field in which this is the average attendance:



Traveling Bear Addendum:Yes, Mocha got to enjoy the game too tonight.



8/29/11

Day 66

Any of you ever heard of a Traveling Bear Project?



The gist of it is that there's a teddy bear that changes hands every few weeks. While in possession of said bear, the person in charge will take the bear around the city they're in, taking photos with the bear at all the sights their person's home city has to offer. Ideally, the bear would visit multiple cities, all over the world, bringing new depth to the term, "getting around."



I happen to be the second stop on this particular bear's journey, how fitting that I be in New York at the time. The bear has already been out and around San Diego with my friend, so these next few weeks I'll be sure to show this stuffed animal a good time! (oh get your head out of the gutter, I know I know, I heard it the moment I typed it).

"Today, Mocha sleeps with the fishes"...The first of many cheesy captions you should expect to hear from me concerning this bear.

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J5's first single from their last album and their first album sans Cut Chemist.



It's red hot.

8/28/11

Day 65

Isn't there supposed to be a hurricane going on right now? Why am I able to look out my window without being blown away? Where are the torrential rains? The 70 mph winds? Why are people walking around the streets like nothing's going on?



What am I supposed to do with these now??As it turns out, Hurricane Tropical Storm Irene didn't cause quite the amount of damage the media hyped it up to be...in New York City, that is. While we in New York managed to get by with barely a scratch and perhaps nothing more than a few inches of rain, at most.



The people who did suffer were the residents of many low-lying towns in New Jersey, who experienced close to billions of dollars of damages this weekend:And of course, as is with any major media event, the internet is not without its shining stars of human compassion:

8/27/11

Day 64

In case you haven't heard already, there's a hurricane heading towards New York as we speak. Not sure what to expect, the city has ordered an evacuation of the lower lying parts of the city and have declared a state of emergency. Even the subways have been closed until further notice, the first time this has been done due to weather in the history of the New York subway:

Since path of the hurricane is still unknown at the moment, no one's sure how hard the city will be hit by the hurricane. Multiple news outlets have been covering this round the clock, hurricane trackers have been developed online, and it seems no one's taking chances.

I wasn't able to take a picture tonight, but by nightfall, businesses were closed and people cooped themselves indoors for the whole night. The "city that never sleeps" was actually sleeping. I, of course, however, am using this as an excuse to spend the whole day indoors doing nothing but watching tv without guilt.

8/26/11

Day 63

On the last Friday of each month, our office has a "pizza and pictionary (and beer)" event for the sake of bonding as coworkers over pizza, pictionary, and beer (as you might have guessed). I know many offices have similar activities and social gatherings, but the fact that this happens regularly (and with beer) is a far cry from what I'm normally used to.

8/25/11

Day 62

I sure do take productive notes at my meetings...

8/24/11

Day 61

Just some pretty, pretty subway art. Found at the 34th Street underpass to transfer from the A,C,E line to Penn Station and the 1,2,3.

I know this means nothing to you if you don't live in New York. I just wanted to sound cool.

8/23/11

Day 60

Came home from work, saw this outside the apartment door. Panicked at first since I thought my stuff was thrown out of the place.



It wasn't. Phew.



These are tense times in student housing.

8/22/11

Day 59

The school year is starting soon, and since I'm currently squatting on Columbia University housing, I need to lay low these next few weeks while housing officials sweep through these residences to weed moochers like myself out. As such, I've been relegated to the couch and living out of my luggage. Looking at that picture, it's not too obvious that I'm still around, is it?



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Not sure why, but it's been a Stevie Wonder kind of day.

8/21/11

Day 58

This is where I spent the day today:

If you know me, you know that I'm a self-proclaimed geek. I've always thought that people who were self-proclaimed-whatevers were really phony to begin with (anyone who describes themselves as the 'laid back' or 'sensitive' types turn out to be real assholes in the end in my experience), but I never denied the fact that I have no shortage of geeky interests. I even say this is in a world where the term 'nerd' and geek' are being thrown around too easily, thus saturating the term and skewing people's perceptions on what these types of people actually are like. Case in point:That all aside, today I found myself in a situation where I realized that I believe I may have grossly misunderestimated how geeky I actually am. I realized that today when I went to "Magiquest" with a meetup group. I guess the easiest way to describe this is by saying that it's a sort of real-life interactive video game in which the participants actually walk around a pre-fabricated magical kingdom with real plastic wands that they use to to open chests and swing around wildly at screens showcasing some low-budget medieval-ish productions with bad actors playing fairies, wizards, and singing princesses. Observe:

and



A few minutes into this, I realized that what I was doing was completely ridiculous. I mean, it's all fun and good when you're 8, but I happened to be hanging out with 30-somethings here. I had to feel a bit out of place when I had 3rd graders darting in and out of my way. Now, I don't mean to sound like I'm criticizing these people or anything. They all happened to be really friendly people who I got along with fairly well throughout the day. I think I may have just realized that there's a certain limit as to which I can exude my inner nerd. I'll quote The Simpsons in everything I do, I'll pick up any Final Fantasy and invest 40+ hours playing it whenever I can, but I just don't think I can bring myself to actually spend my afternoons wandering around a shopping mall arcade waving a magic wand at a plastic statue of armor and take myself seriously anymore.



Does this mean I've grown old and boring? A part of me fears that this may be the case.



On the bright side, I can pretend the initials of the place stand for "Mark with a Q"



8/20/11

Day 57

Remember when I told you about Summer Streets? And that I didn't really fully enjoy it because I didn't have a bike? Well, I made sure I made it early enough this morning so I actually got a chance to rent a bike. Plus, this time I didn't go alone, so it was a bit more enjoyable.



Later this evening...

Just more Elmo. Comes with a video now too!



8/19/11

Day 56

Yes, that is who it looks like is.



I just met Elmo in the flesh...or whatever it is muppets are made of.



Docuweeks justs started showing its second set of films, one of them featuring Kevin Clash, the muppeteer who plays Elmo. I haven't seen the film yet myself, but hearing that he was actually gonna be here tonight, I couldn't miss out. Who doesn't love Elmo?



UPDATE: I can actually name at least 3 people who don't love Elmo. That makes me feel sad.

8/18/11

Day 55

Day two at the theater. There ended up being a thunderstorm tonight, so I got to sit inside. Which meant even less work for me since there weren't people passing by on the sidewalk wondering what I was doing there.

8/17/11

Day 54

A friend hooked me up with a short term gig here helping coordinate The 15th Annual Docuweeks Film Festival. Basically, I get paid to sit at a table while people pick up programs. I also have to introduce the filmmakers during the Q&A sessions every now and then, but even then, that takes about 15 seconds of my time.



Anyways, the film festival showcases 18 documentaries over the course of 3 weeks, all of varying topics. I hope to take advantage of my staff perks to be able to see whichever movie I want, and will do so these next few weeks.

8/16/11

Day 53

Here you go ladies and gentlemen. This is the inside of a Macbook Pro. It doesn't look any different than a PC, it's twice as hard to take apart and cost 3 times as much as any other PC.



I've concluded that performing major computer surgery on a Mac is much more complicated than PCs hands down. Hopefully I never spill on my keyboard again.

8/15/11

Day 52

On the road(air?) again.

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The Limosuines - Very Busy People



Admittedly I'd never heard of The Limosuines until I saw them at Outside Lands, but I didn't think this track of theirs was too bad. Of course, I was hemped up on goofballs at the time, so really, everything seemed awesome.

8/14/11

Day 51

I don't think I'll need to elaborate on this too much. You've seen this before.



Meat.



8/13/11

Day 50

Just more highlights from Outside Lands, is all:













8/12/11

Day 49

As you may have guessed from my post from yesterday, I flew back home to California. I only plan on being here for the weekend, so really, it's going to be a short trip.



So what justified a short 3 day trip all the way to the other side of the country?



Outside Lands.



Outside Lands is a 3 day music/art/wine festival held annually in Golden Gate Park. Having only existed for the past few years, they aim to rank among the big time music fests like Burning Man, Coachella, or Lollapalooza. And with 59 artists, the headliners being Arcade Fire, Muse, Phish, The Shins, The Black Keys, The Roots, Erykah Badu, Big Boi, Girl Talk, MGMT, The Decemberists, Arctic Monkeys, OK Go, and so many more, I think they succeeded.



Since the festival takes place in the middle of Golden Gate Park, it's in the heart of San Francisco and as such you don't have to drive out to the middle of nowhere for it like Coachella or Burning Man. Plus, the backdrop of Golden Gate Park makes it feel like you're in the middle of the forest.

And not only did the concert boast multiple stages to accomodate the sheer amount of artists:



But the trees were adorned with art:...and white people toking it up:...which admittedly, is a normal occurrence for any music fest, I guess.