march 4, 2008

i think it was saturday nite, while working out at the gym and looking for something to watch on tv, i came across this show on mtv called "america's best dance crew."   i've been hooked since!   mtv has been playing repeats of the show over and over again though, and hopefully people won't get sick of it.  here's a taste of my fave crew (in mp4 format).  i suggest clicking (not rt. clicking anymore) and saving.  it's about 13mb.

the food industry is getting ready to sell cloned meat.   go to my "articles and opinions" section to read an article and my opinions on the subject.

november 4, 2007

yesterday was the eve of the nyc marathon.   i was gonna walk around and take some pics, particularly around tavern on the green.  it had been pretty overcast the entire day, but i noticed some patches of blue, so i decided to stop by one of my fave central park picture taking spots and am very happy i did. i had been meaning to stop by this area and take some nite pics, so this was a good opportunity.  the only thing that could have made the pics better (in my opinion at least, and since i'm the photographer, i'm entitled to think this) would have been if the leaves on the trees were at peak autumn color (which it usually is this time of year).  besides that, i think the lighting was great and the panoramas came out really well (considering i didn't use a tripod).  

the panoramas took me HOURS to stitch together though (which is where the tripod would have been handy).  all the rotating, cropping, resizing,... frickin' pain in the ass.  if you saw the panoramas in full size, you would notice where the blemishes are in two of them.  panorama #4 was the hardest, eventhough it's only 2 pics stitched together.  it's my fave though.

fyi - i sat there for about 1 1/2 hours so i could get the changes in color of the sky and the clouds.  one other thing i learned is, if i plan on taking more nite photos in that area (this was unplanned), i should bring a flash light.  i almost killed myself getting out of there.

check 'em out.   of course you'll have to deal w/ the obnoxious watermark, but oh well.



september 3, 2007

decided to skip the monday nite run cuz of a sore arch, and take some nite pics in cp instead.   check them out.  of course they have my infamous nagging watermark on them.  oh well.  i've kinda made them a little more transparent after someone said something to me about it... a "little" more transparent.

check out the pics...



NOTE:  all the pics were taken w/o a flash... it was a bitch holding the camera steady so the pics wouldn't come out blurry.  i'm pretty happy w/ the results.  i may need to invest in some sort of a tripod though.

september 2, 2007

went to the central park zoo yesterday for the very first time.   i was surprised how tiny it was.  there was a seal show, boring polar bears sleeping, monkeys, turtles, a petting zoo, which had a big pot bellied pig (that i annoyed by slapping it too much on the back and butt (i love eating pig and was just sizing it up)).

later that evening, i was in the time square area and decided to take some pics.  it was jam packed!  holy crap!!!  i annoyed people by stopping and taking pics and i heard someone bitching about tourists getting in the way.  HAHAHA!!!

check out some pics from yesterday. 



today i decided to make some blueberry ice cream.  frickin' blueberries are damn expensive!  i just keep telling myself, this is how i get my fruit intake, so it's worth it (i guess).  the blueberries alone were $9.50!  holy crap!  anyway, this is what it looked like:

 

august 21, 2007

ok, i've decided i may either cut down or discontinue taking pics like this.   i realized as i was taking today's pic, that when i stand over them to take the shot, it looks like i'm gonna attack them or do something really bad (at least viewed from the back, which is what people on the other side of the station see).  rather than get my ass in trouble just for doing something stupid like this, i'm (semi?) retiring.  it's just not worth it.  here's a scenario:

cop: did you see who did this?

bystander: well, i saw some guy standing over him before.

cop: what did he look like?

bystander: him! over there!   the guy w/ the camera phone!!!

me: <running away as fast as i can>

later...

me: behind bars trying to explain "but i was just taking his picture!!!"

i must admit though, it is fun and addicting.  you should try it.  just cuz i'm stopping (or cutting down) doesn't mean you can't try.  you may find it just as addicting.

this was at the franklin street station, downtown platform.    his zipper is down too.



august 20, 2007

i'm addicted!  here's a pic of someone making themselves at home (during rush hour as usual) at the franklin street downtown station staircase.  the funny thing is, 1 block away is the police precinct.  i'm debating about carrying my regular camera around to take pics, but i think my phone's camera is pretty decent, so i really don't see a reason.



august 9, 2007

here's a vid from august 1, 2007 explaining how our mayor, who brags about being green and taking the subway, takes his suvs (2 of them) from 77th street down to 59th street just so he can catch the express train, instead of walking over to lex from 77th street.   THEN, both his suvs follow him the entire trip down to city hall.

it took me a while to post cuz i didn't feel like uploading it.   the vid is almost 9MB, so you've been warned.

ah yes, you can't be a politician if you can't work the half truths.

i'd like to know what would have happened if the west side stadium had taken place, w/ all the traffic it would have caused.   and i'm still waiting for park row to open up!!!  i guess those things have nothing to do w/ traffic though (or just conveniently forgotten).



august 8, 2007

today none of the subways were working during the morning commute.   the reason was because of severe flooding from an overnite rain storm.  we even had an ef2 tornado (winds reaching up to 135mph) touch down in bklyn.

after going to my usual train station and finding out that line wasn't working, i walked over to the other line to find out those trains weren't running either.   i was debating over making a 30 min walk to the east side to see if the 4,5,6 trains were working, but decided it wasn't worth it, and boy am i glad i didn't, cuz they weren't running either.  i called into work and took the day off.  from what i heard and saw on the news, the commute back home wasn't very good, although many lines (not all) were running, but w/ massive delays.

meanwhile, i watch the cw11 morning news every morning and they mentioned probs w/ metro north, but not a single thing on the subways having any probs.  WTF?

somehow, the mta is blaming the national weather service for not warning them of the severe rain (2.5 inches over 2 hours).  my question is... if the national weather service had given the mta more warning, what would the mta have done differently?  if we blamed the weather people for getting the forecast wrong all the time, well, we would probably not have any more weather people.  the mta just can't have the balls and take the blame for their screw ups.  they single handedly brought down the city cuz people depend on their service so much, and no one has a back-up if something like this happens, and this isn't the first time this has happened!  it's just like us depending completely on con ed, and when con ed screws up, we're all fucked!

anyway...

today is wednesday, and we had our weekly speed session.  it was a hot and steamy nite.  when i got home the temp on tv said 89F.  when i weighed myself, i lost 8 lbs.  i originally thought it was 3 lbs, but then i looked more closely - it was 8 lbs.  that's probably why i felt so sluggish the entire run and just couldn't pick up speed.  good thing i hydrated well all day.  i was peeing up a storm before the workout, so i know i was definitely well hydrated.  my legs feel fine cuz i couldn't run as hard as i wanted.  in the end, i guess i'm just happy i didn't fall down 3x and smash my head into the pavement.

july 15, 2007

i got to see the latest harry potter movie today:   "harry potter and the order of the phoenix."  i think this was probably the best one so far (not to mention i got to see it for free, which made it even better).  they really cut a lot out of the movie (as usual), and it was still 2 hours long.  i was surprised at some of the things they left out cuz they were mentioned a lot in the book (i won't mention those parts here, but they were a little on the boring side anyway). 

the theater i went to was the sony imax theater, and the finale was in 3D.  it was frickin' awesome!  the special effects in 3D are amazing.  i'm glad the entire movie wasn't in 3D though cuz the glasses were sitting on my face funny and i had to keep adjusting them.  that's what happens when you have a short asian nose.   i also wonder whether or not they disinfect those 3D glasses.

my prediction as to who gets killed in the final harry potter book... i don't think any of the 3 main characters will get killed.   rowling made it clear 2 characters will be killed though.  i think neville longbottom, hagrid, or prof mcgonagall, and maybe even malfoy.   neville cuz his parents were in the order and were heroes, hagrid and mcgonagall may die protecting the main characters, and malfoy cuz deep down he's not the evil bastard his father is and will die fighting along side harry (that's a long shot, but hey, you never know).

peanut butter ice cream:

  

july 9, 2007

it's really really hot in nyc right now.   it hit 92F in central park, but it was actually hotter cuz the foliage makes it cooler.  i think the actual temp should be measured somewhere other than central park.

in any event, i decided to make ice cream... raspberry.  HOW DOES THIS LOOK???  it tasted awesome!  i did it the right way, as you can see and strained the seeds (thanks to qr's suggestion).  it was a ton of work cuz the seeds and pulp made it slow going, but now i don't have to worry about the damn seeds getting caught in between my teeth (although they're probably high in fiber).  

nothing beats freshly made ice cream, esp during a heat wave!  

   

june 27, 2007

wed nite speed... my legs, esp my quads, have been feeling tired, and w/ the nasty hot, hazy, humid day today, i was praying for rain as an excuse to skip speed.   well, it didn't rain before or during speed and i ended up going.  the good thing was, it didn't feel all that bad!  the finish actually felt good and i'm glad i went. 

it was so hot and humid though, that in the middle of the workout, i took my shirt off and noticed what a difference that made!  it felt so much frickin' cooler, like 10 degrees cooler (or something, you get the point)!  i also noticed that i need to do more ab workouts.

anyway...

last nite i made a fresh batch of strawberry ice cream.  the last time i made it i said i wasn't gonna make it anymore cuz it took so frickin' long, but i got a good deal on strawberries and since i had gotten a hand blender a couple months ago, i figured, what the hell.  i also cheated w/ the lemon and bought lemon juice.

the hand blender saved me a ton of time and the strawberries are pureed this time instead of being in chunks, and it only took a fraction of the time.  the thing w/ the hand blender though was, in the beginning, before i figured out what to do, little chunks of strawberries were flying all over the kitchen.  holy smokes!  i mean clear across the kitchen all over the place.  and ya know what?  strawberries stain!!!

june 25, 2007

monday nite run... i didn't run this weekend cuz i just couldn't wake up at a reasonable time and kinda didn't feel like running.   today was no different.  i had a headache while leaving work and i knew it was from the humidity / dehydration.  i made myself go to the run though and it was bad.  i actually walked a bit and once i started running again, had to speed up cuz i didn't want one of the older (age wise) runners, lets call him chuck, to start farting in my face or flicking his sweat on me.  weighing myself, i sweat off 5 lbs on a 5 mile run.  thinking about it though, that's more than half the weight of my cat.  this always happens during summer runs.

on my walk back home (aft the run) my quads and calves started tightening up like they were on the verge of cramping... definitely dehydrated.  it wasn't even hot (77F during the run), just really muggy. 

the lesson?  hydrate better during the day for an evening run.

june 21, 2007

i was watching channel 2 news new york (at 11pm) and noticed what they said about the congestion tolls the mayor is trying to get passed.   now, before you watch the vids, go down a bit and read what i wrote on april 23, 2007.  all i can say is, billionaire mayor, hire me as one of your planners / strategists.  i'm a real new yorker.  i'm one of those new yorkers that's about to get squeezed out of the city cuz i won't be able to afford living here anymore.  or better yet, just read my blog from time to time.



this next vid features some londoners telling us to not use the congestion toll.  london has had the congestion toll for 4 years and the people there hate it.  nyc is supposed to be modeling their congestion toll plans after london and whatever other cities that currently makes use of these tolls.   watch what they have to say.



june 12, 2007

seems like people can get some major zzz's on the subway.  this is actually a dude, not a chick.  after i took this pic, i was gonna stand up to get a better shot, but he woke up.  HAHAHA!!!!   gotta love camera phones!



june 10, 2007

on june 8, 2007 cbs 2 news new york broadcast a story on a teenage track star's death because of an "overdose" of muscle cream, such as bengay and icy hot cream - particularly of the main ingredient methyl salicylate.  if used occasionally, it's completely safe, but if used in excess, it's deadly.  they didn't touch on how much they consider "in excess," which would have been helpful.



i'm wondering, maybe it wasn't just from it being absorbed from the skin.  maybe she didn't wash her hands well after applying it and ingested some accidentally.  who knows.   that stuff is greasy and needs to be washed off well.  i don't use that crap so i don't know.

may 9, 2007

today was the first speed workout in a couple of weeks (missed 2 workouts being in austria, and i didn't run at all while i was there except for the relay).   my allergies were in full force.  i always have trouble breathing and running at the same time, and my sinuses usually open up and i have to sniffle, but today, today, i felt like snot was gonna shoot out my nose the entire time.  actually, it always feels like that when i run, but it's esp bad during allergy season.  it kinda makes speed a little harder than it should be. 

here's a nice pic of someone that's gotta work for am new york (one of those people who shove it at you).  this guy was sleeping real hard and snoring up a storm.  i decided to take a pic of him cuz it's good advertising for metro (am new york's competition).  this was during rush hour and i was sitting across from him.  the quality isn't all that great cuz it's from my cell phone camera.  all things considered though, i think the pic is pretty good.  i was lucky to have enuf juice in my phone to take the shots cuz the battery was almost dead. 

note: you can kinda see in the first photo, his zipper is also down.

 

may 5, 2007

vacation's over.  sad.  it was fun.  it's been a few years since i've gone away, and it's been a few years since i've been on a plane.  i don't have any probs being on a plane, but i just can't get comfortable enuf to sleep.  i also didn't remember the seats being so tight.  i ain't a big guy and i felt cramped, big time.  took air france.

went to austria (vienna and salzburg) and it's pretty damn nice over there.   my first time to europe.   the weather was amazing.  not a cloud in the sky and i was in shorts and t-shirt until the last 2 days there, and even then it was comfortable weather.  went to a concert in salzburg (string quartet) and they were excellent.  i wish i could have bought a cd afterwards, but i guess that sort of thing is an american thing.

the second i got back my allergies kicked back in w/ a vengance (my allergies went away the second i got to austria and didn't have to take any meds - i'm on the meds again).

these 2 weeks went by way way way too quickly.

here are some pics from the trip.   hope you like 'em.

april 23, 2007 (part 2)

because of my ranting on local (nyc) politics, i forgot to mention, this past weekend (sat nite) some friends came over to try out my strawberry ice cream.   they seemed to like it.  i don't think any of them got sick, and 2 of them had races the next day (sun morn) and they kicked ass!

while we were about to walk into my building, we saw (actually, everyone was too busy yapping, i was the only one that actually saw them) kevin bacon and kira sedgwick (they're married) walking hand in hand.   it didn't dawn on me until later to invite them up to my place for some ice cream.   while i'm sure they would have turned it down, hey, you never know.  i don't think we look like a bunch of creeps or hoodlums.

today was our team's mon nite run.  i ran w/ the fast group and we did the 5 mile loop.  they really took off.  mon nite runs are supposed to be easy runs, but since i've been slacking off (i skipped last week's killer speed workout cuz i was under the weather), and won't be able to do speed again this wed, i decided to push it a little.

unfortunately, my allergies got really really really bad and my nose just clogged up to the point where i really really really needed to blow my nose, but couldn't.   because of that, my throat started to phlem up really badly and just suffered thru the run (it completely screwed up my breathing).  towards the very end, exactly at the bridge (on e85), i decided to walk for 1 minute before running again (and after looking at my watch, it was only 1 more minute to the finish - crap), and still finished just barely below 8 min pace.  all things considered, that's not bad.  not to mention, it was around 83F when i left for the run, so it was pretty damn warm.   allergies suck.

oh, so it's definite, the old sneakers were causing my leg pain.  i've been running w/ the new sneakers and the sharp pain i was having is gone.  i've run w/ them a few times now, so, yeah, new rule is every 6 months, new pair of sneakers.  i just have to remember that 5 1/2 months from now.

april 23, 2007

my thoughts on limiting pedicabs in manhattan: i think it's good they limit them and i think they should limit cabs also.   they keep talking about making the city greener, but pedicabs hold up traffic.  they're in the most congested part of the city (tourist areas) and all the cars having to try and change lanes cuz there's a pedicab in front of them can cause a chain reaction and literally back up traffic.  if they kept them to confined areas like central park or something, then it would be better, but that's not gonna happen.

my thoughts on tolls for cars and trucks below 86th street: i think it's full of shit.  one of the main reasons for the congestion is because of the double parked cars and trucks. one of the fixes:  take away the parking plaques from the people who have them and force them to take mass transit.   elected officials and their cronies have their own parking spots, so they don't need the plaques, but other city employees should NOT have them (this includes cops and firemen).  if they need one to go to a non-local site or whatever, they sign it out for the day, and there would only be a couple of plaques to sign out.  then the transit system will get more riders, make more money, you'll have space for people to load and unload w/o blocking traffic (this is for businesses to get their supplies... remember, businesses have to keep costs as low as possible.   don't forget the smaller businesses, which give this city it's character, not the big businesses which makes everything uniform everywhere they're located).

if you pay attention, sanitation trucks will block traffic to throw out garbage, and that's cuz cars are parked on the side so they can't pull up to the curb.  for that little bit of time, they can just cause a pretty big backup.

then there are the tour buses (which the city needs to bring in tourists) which double park, the college buses which double park AND KEEP THEIR ENGINES IDLING (note: nyu buses are esp bad - i will take pics one of these days cuz i see it everyday).  the reason they're double parked is cuz there's nowhere else for them to wait.

many roads downtown have more than one lane (3 lanes usually), but cars are always parked on the side, so if you have someone (cab for example) letting out a passenger or quickly unloading a car, there's gonna be backup AND road rage.

i can go deeper and give more examples, but hopefully you can figure out where i'm going w/ this.   fix the main reason on what is causing the congestion - traffic flow.  yes, there are way too many cars in the city, but they should fix the deeper problem before taking the easy way out and "passing the buck."

also, less cabs and more buses.

april 19, 2007

it is officially safe to pack away the winter running gear!!!   it will be 60+ F degrees from this point on!  (but if i'm wrong, oh well).

HERE'S THE STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM!!!

 

strawberry ice cream is too much work.  you have to chop up 2 cups worth of strawberries, get a lemon and juice it to get 3 table spoons, and then mix the chopped strawberries, lemon juice, and 1/3 cup sugar and let it sit for 2 hours!  what a pain in the ass!  it took me forever to chop of the strawberries and i almost cut myself 3 times (not kidding).  luckily the knife hit my finger nail and not my finger! 

maybe the next kitchen gadget i get will be a blender.  this way i can make smoothies.  gotta love smoothies, right sd?

the strawberry tastes awesome.  the strawberries have to be chewed though cuz they're frozen, and i think the strawberry juice made the ice cream harder than the vanilla ice cream.  whatever though, it tastes really good! 

april 13, 2007

this entire imus issue has just annoyed many people.   i didn't care for what he said, it was wreckless and racial, but as far as i'm concerned, many people have said worse and absolutely nothing happened to them.  

i happened to be talking to some friends and mentioned that if this happened to asian people, it would only have lasted a couple of days (if even) and then everyone would have completely forgotten about it.  want an example?  it was as recent as december 2006, w/ rosie o'donnell.

this is what she said:

"The fact is that it's news all over the world. That you know, you can imagine in China it's like: 'Ching chong. Danny DeVito, ching chong, chong, chong, chong. Drunk. The View. Ching chong.' "

to add insult to injury, this is what her publicist cindy berger said:

"She's a comedian in addition to being a talk show co-host. I certainly hope that one day they will be able to grasp her humor."

finally, about a week later, rosie stated this on the view:

After running a clip of the offending segment, which originally ran Dec. 5, she said, “This apparently was very offensive to a lot of Asian people. So I asked Judy, who’s Asian and works here in our hair and makeup department. I said, ‘Was it offensive to you?’ And she said, ‘Well, kinda. When I was a kid people did tease me by saying ching-chong.’

“So apparently ‘ching-chong,’ unbeknownst to me, is a very offensive way to make fun, quote-unquote, or mock, Asian accents. Some people have told me it’s as bad as the n-word. I was like, really? I didn’t know that.”

is that supposed to be some sort of apology?  i really don't know if imus' statements were any worse.  this certainly didn't get all the media attention imus got.  how is it asian people are always forgotten? 

i think if someone poked fun at gay, fat, or ugly people, then rosie would be able to relate and be offended and start ranting.

here's the vid of her ching chong imitation:



as someone pointed out to me at dinner, shaq did a racial thing on yao that i had completely forgotten cuz it barely made a blip.  however, if you watch his clip versus rosie's clip, i think rosie's was much worse.  not to mention that shaq is definitely not known to be an "edumacated" person.



what's my point?  if you're gonna scream (you meaning the public as well as the media) about imus saying crap like nappy haired ho, you'd also better start screaming when people like rosie or shaq say crap like that also.  don't think just cuz they're saying that against asian people that it's ok, but if someone says something against black people, that it isn't.  it's either all or nothing, otherwise just drop the entire imus issue and move on.

april 11, 2007

i finally bought a new pair of sneakers.   my leg pain wasn't going away, eventhough i had cut down on the mileage and intensity of the runs.  after speed workouts i would even get sharp pain to the point where i would limp home.  wearing the new sneakers for the first time today (at speed), i noticed my feet weren't rolling out and felt so much cushioning. 

earlier this week, the team had a get together at urban athletics, which is located on madison between 91st and 92nd.   urban athletics was really generous to us.  they treated the team to pizza, beer, bottled water, gave raffle prizes (where everyone won a running hat and water bottle), and on top of all that, gave us 15% off everything in the store.  it was great. 

while trying on a pair of sneakers which i eventually bought (NB 1061), i had mentioned to the coach that i didn't feel my orthotics as much cuz my feet in my old sneakers were leaning out more.  then he looked at the bottom of my shoes and pointed out how worn down they were.  the sneakers i showed him, which were causing my leg pain, were 10 months old.  yeah, i guess it was time to get a new pair.  what made it even worse was, the previous old pair were about 12 months old, and i replaced those cuz i was getting leg pains (which i didn't remember until later).  hey, at least i got my money's worth out of my sneakers.

maybe i should get a new pair every 6 months or so.

     

i don't remember who had said this to me, and i wish i could so i can give them credit, but they said... your feet support your entire body, when you're standing, walking, running, your feet take the brunt of everything, so don't go cheap on shoes (or something to that effect). 

here are pics of my first batch of ice cream.  it's vanilla.  i figured i would start off easy.  tastes good!  no stomach ailments, so that's a good sign.  next batch... maybe strawberry.

 

april 2, 2007

why do i keep running.   i've been asking myself this lately.  it seems like it never gets easier.  while i'm getting faster, i've lost some endurance cuz i've only been running twice a week.  maybe it's the cold and the fact that it's dark.  hopefully i'll feel better once the weather starts warming up and the daylite lingers on.

speaking of weather, i've decided to quit washing and packing away my cold weather running gear until may.   that's gonna be my new rule and hopefully i'll remember this next year.  it's supposed to get cold again, and on saturday the hi temp is supposed to be 39F!  WTF???

speaking of saturday, during this past saturday's run, i was running in a group that consisted of nl, dima, dc, and kate (a british chick i've seen a couple of times running w/ the group in the past).   now, saturday runs are usually casual, but i noticed it started out a little on the fast side.  so fast that i found myself at the back of the pack!  it took me a couple of miles to warm up so i could catch up to the pack i mentioned above.  what i didn't realize was nl and dima were only doing the 5 mile route, and dc was doing the 7 mile route, so that just left me and kate.  kate's pretty hot and she introduced herself to me (i don't think she remembers that she introduced herself to me the other 2 times she's met me... anyway) and i knew she was gonna try chatting w/ me.  unfortunately, i have this prob where i can't talk and run at the same time (which ties in w/ the fact that running seems like it just isn't getting any easier).  i had to let her know that i wasn't being rude, but i can't talk and run at the same time.  just my luck, i'm running alone w/ an extremely pretty chick and i can't talk!  dammit!!!  WHEN IS RUNNING GONNA GET EASIER SO I CAN AT LEAST TALK A LITTLE DURING MOMENTS LIKE THIS???

i think i did a pretty good job tying everything together.

getting ready for summer, i just got an ice cream maker today.   now i have to experiment on recipes.  i don't know how long home made ice cream can hold for.  it'll probably cost more than buying store bought ice cream, but at least i know what's going in it.   i'm gonna look for some recipes and buy some ingredients tomorrow.  hopefully it'll rain on wed so i can rest the damn legs and make a batch of ice cream (hopefully the first batch won't be a disaster).

the yankees won their first game of the season!

march 21, 2007

i've been experimenting w/ using favicon.ico files on my web site.   what they are, are icons which will show up in the address bar of your browser when you're on my site.  they'll also stay in your bookmark if you bookmark my site.  the thing is, IE is so screwed up, it'll only show up in your browser if you bookmark the site.  if you don't wanna bookmark me, it won't show up (i've even gone as far as to hard code the exact location of the icon, which you're not supposed to have to do).  if on the other hand you use something like firefox, it works perfectly.  not only does it work perfectly, you can use animated gifs!  you can have a gif animation show up in the address bar and in the bookmark.  stupid microsoft.

oh, one other annoying thing about ie and favicons is, if you bookmark me, the favicon for my site will be in your bookmark, but if you clear your cache, it'll disappear and will only reappear if you delete the bookmark and make a new bookmark.  stupid ie.

PAIN PAIN PAIN!!!  my leg has been feeling a little off for 3 weeks and i actually took a week off of running, but couldn't muscle out the speed workout.  i bailed w/ one loop left of the final 3 (meaning - 3 loops for each set, 3 sets, finished 2 loops of the third set), but finishing the last loop wouldn't have accomplished anything except more pain.  i was putting way too much effort into the run, trying really hard not to limp while running (otherwise i would most likely have hurt something else).   now that it hurts more, i can feel where the pain is better (before i really couldn't figure it out).  it's pretty much the upper part of my quad.  yes, i've been trying to stretch it, but that part is hard to stretch and i couldn't figure out where it was (as i said, now i can).  i don't think it's serious and will be back at speed next week.

march 16, 2007

ok, maybe it wasn't safe to pack away the winter running gear, or down jacket for that matter.   it went down to 26F today and we got a little over 3.5 inches of snow in central park.  after this weekend, and you can quote me on this one, after this weekend, it will be safe to pack away the winter running gear.

march 12, 2007

i'm officially stating that it is safe to pack away the winter running gear.  

i also think we should make daylite savings time permanent.  why can't we have an extra hour of sunlite all the time?  i don't understand that.

a bunch of us got together on saturday to celebrate our finishing of the 2007 los angeles marathon.  i'm too lazy to make a photo album of it, so here are the pics:

       
 

march 11, 2007

there was bad news in the entertainment world on friday.   i was really upset when i read it... salma hayek is pregnant, and it ain't from me dammit.  the dude is some sort of business tycoon, and his daddy is the 75th most wealthiest person in the world (or something like that).  who says money can't make you happy.  if i had that much money, i would have the biggest smile on my face, esp if i just knocked up salma hayek.

  - she ain't gonna be lookin' like this no more.  at least not any time soon.

i forgot to mention, a week or so ago, a friend had a bday party at one of the bars we've been hanging out at, and i got carded!!!  couldn't believe it.  none of the girls that were there, who look much much younger than i do, got carded.  one of them even went to texas for a work conference and the hotel people refused to serve her wine cuz she looked too young (she didn't wanna go back to the hotel room upstairs for some reason to get her drivers license).  SHE didn't even get carded. 

here's a hilarious vid of a baby panda sneezing.  i actually saw it on the tv show 30 rock.  it cracked me up.



march 6, 2007

the weather has gotten cold.  it was about 59F on saturday and i decided to wash a bunch of cold weather running gear to pack away and now the weather is going back down to the 20s.  wtf.  i think this happened to me last year also.

speaking of howie... got my toilet fixed... again (for the 3rd time).  my bldg has a couple of handymen and the first 2 times i had to pay for the part and gave a tip.  this time around when i asked the guy how much, he said whatever i wanna give, so i gave him a $5 (assuming it was for a tip).  i'm really pissed at the other handyman now, cuz i ended up giving him $10, thinking the part was $6 and tacking on $4 for tip (it only takes about 5 - 10 minutes total to change the part).  the other handyman is gonna get a smaller xmas tip from me this year, although of all the people, the handyman is probably the most important... gotta think about this.

i'm telling you... kids are doing drugs at a much much younger age these days.  i found the actual vids of them on cnn toking up (w/o the annoying newscasters chiming in) and an interview w/ the uncle saying there was nothing wrong w/ the kids smoking at this age cuz they were gonna start doing it sooner or later (he was talking like he was still high).  the vid was a dat file, which is some sort of wmv format, but i couldn't find anything to successfully convert it, so this one file was the best i could do.  oh well... deal w/ it.   again, it's in mp4 format.   in the original vid (which i couldn't convert) you see the kids fighting over a bag of crackers cuz they had the munchies. 



finally, con ed wants to make a "substantial" raise in rates.  hmmm... overpaid execs, not prioritizing which areas get improvements, and clear vids of their workers sitting around doing nothing during the blackout in astoria.  yeah.  ok.  and it sounds like our "great" mayor is going to back them up on it.  thanks billionaire mayor.

february 27, 2007

as i was walking to work this morning, about 1 1/2 blocks from the train station i saw this man walking w/ his tiny daughter, who must have been no older than 5 years old.   from a distance, i saw the 2 approach what i thought was a hat or a rolled up scarf on the ground, but the man's eyes widened and he hurried to cross over to the other side of the street.  just  to let you know, i was on the same side of the street they were walking.  as i approached the object, it was a frickin' rat!  upon closer inspection, it looked like it had just finished eating a big meal and was napping.  it wasn't laying down on it's side like it was dead, but on all 4 w/ it's eyes closed.  it didn't budge.

i will walk by there again in the morning. if it's still there, then it's definitely dead.  

i'm ain't making this up just because of the taco bell rat story.  it definitely happened.

speaking of which... if any of you have watched the vids below, have you noticed how fat those rats are?   fast food even makes the rats fat, and they move about much much more than humans.  that's why our society is so overweight.  it's the food (esp fast food) we eat, or something in our food.  i think if you eat fast food all the time, no matter how much you exercise, you're gonna be fat.

february 26, 2007

yesterday was the oscar awards and the big winner was the departed.   it won for best picture and martin scorsese won for best director.  unfortunately no one at the oscars double checked the facts and they incorrectly stated it was based on a japanese film while it was actually a hong kong film.  i guess hollywood's thinking is... a chink flick is still a chink flick whether it's japanese or chinese... what's the difference.

the next thing you know, they're gonna say penelope cruz is mexican, meanwhile she's from spain.  i'm sure she and the spanish community won't care about that.   oh wait a minute.  they did say she was mexican.

i almost got run over by a motorized wheel chair yesterday after lunch.  i was walking on the sidewalk chatting and suddenly from my left a motorized wheel chair almost ran me over... literally.  all my friends were as surprised as i was and none of us realized how fast those things can really go.  next time i see a handicapped person, esp if they're in a wheel chair, they'd better watch out.  actually, i think if a motorized wheel chair can go that fast, they shouldn't be allowed on the side walks.

taco bell has been in the news recently, but that news is a bad thing.  it's RATS!  big fat rats!  it's disgusting.  no one better say anything about chinese restaurants anymore after seeing these (3 separate) vids (courtesy of cbs 2 news new york)...

     

note: at the request of a web site regular, the vids have been converted to mp4 format so my friends who use macs don't feel left out... i'm sick of their bitching.   oh, you discriminate against mac users.  my response?  bite me.  HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

if you have a problem w/ playing the mp4 file, go here to download the codec.

february 4, 2007

i went to a party saturday and definitely felt out of place in the beginning.  however, the outgoing person i naturally am, i started mingling and met this guy who turned out to be a mexican pimp and had two of his whores w/ him there.



the one on the right kept calling me her big hombre... i liked her...  couldn't tell if she was pregnant though.

the one on left scared me.  she had on a pair of shit kickers and was a little too butch for me.

suffice it to say, it turned out to be a "fun" party.

JUST KIDDING!!!  it was a themed party.  i dressed up as myself, the boring person that i am.   i think if you looked at the photo carefully, you can see stuffed animals in the background.  that should have given it away that it was all a joke.

today was the super bowl and the colts finally did it.   in the beginning, i thought it was gonna be a huge upset cuz the bears had a 92 yard kickoff return touchdown.   they also had a bunch of penalties, but the colts ended up having the lead going into the half time break and ended up winning the game 29-17.

january 28, 2007

EXHAUSTION - what an exhausting weekend.   i didn't even go out partying - it was all from frickin' running.  yesterday was the saturday morning run.  i had planned on going really slow and doing only the 5 mile route cuz sunday i was going to rocky again.  well, i have this prob where i like to speed up and i did it again (although i wasn't crazy enuf to run really really hard), as well as doing the 6 mile route.  today's run up at rocky was definitely much much more difficult than it was 2 weeks ago.  not only did my legs not feel fresh, but i was over dressed.  i realized i was over dressed about 5 minutes into the run.  oh well... i tuffed it out.  legs are exhausted and i just wanna go to sleepppppppp. 

january 22, 2007

last week was probably the hardest i've ever run in one week.   hardest not in mileage, but in intensity.  sunday, as i mentioned in my previous post, was a long run up at rocky (about 10 or 11 miles).  i don't think i've run more than 6 miles since the last time i went up there, so i was a bit nervous.  we hit the big hills a few times, which surprisingly felt kinda easy.   i was expecting my legs to die, esp since i wasn't sure how long the run was gonna to be, but they held up pretty well i think.  i didn't run on monday or tuesday cuz the workout on wednesday was supposed to be a killer, and it definitely was.  my legs still weren't fully recovered from sunday, and i worked really really hard just to finish.  it was our coach's bday present to himself - the joy of seeing us all suffer.   they were the following pickups w/ 1/4 mile recoveries:

.99
1.15
1.03
1.04

i survived, but my legs were completely dead.  then i joined up w/ the coach saturday morning to do another speed workout.  i was able to finish, but it hurt quite a bit.  there were supposed to be 2 others joining us for the workout, but they wussed out cuz of a tiny coating of snow on the ground.   oh please.   this workout didn't have the lingering soreness or heavy legs like wed's workout did, so that was good.  not gonna run until wed's speed session though, cuz i don't wanna push it that much or get carried away. 

on another note, i finally washed my coffee maker carafe after 10 months or so.  i don't know why i never washed it sooner, but it was pretty damn gross.  there was a film of coffee on the carafe (mind you, it's glass), and it took about 10 minutes of scrubbing before it was clean.  yikes.  i must have a really strong stomach.

january 16, 2007

i've updated the photo gallery to include zoo pics.   took me forever to remember the steps since i haven't done it in a while.  just because it took so long, you may not see any moma pics unless i really really feel like updating the gallery again (that means "don't count on it").



winter is back.

january 15, 2007

well well well... lookit who decided to write in his blog again.  what happened, ya missed me? 

anyway, it's been pretty busy.  i took some time off for the holidays, hoping to "tidy" up my apartment (esp the bedroom), but whaddaya know... no luck.  too damn lazy.  caught up on my sleep though.

this weekend (long weekend) was just crammed full of action.   saturday had some friends over to watch some vids, sunday did a long and hilly run up at rockefeller state park (wish i had my camera again) and at nite was supposed to go to a play but the "friend" co-ordinating the get together decided to diss everyone and not call us to let us know we weren't going... big BOO to her.  she "claimed" she didn't feel her phone vibrate when we called her... whatever.  today (monday) was a trip to the bronx zoo where my camera died on me dammit.  that was fun.  hadn't been there since i was tiny and don't even remember anything i saw back then.  now it's back to work.

there were other things that went on bet nov 28 and today, but at the moment, don't remember anything.  maybe i'll post more tomorrow or whenever i feel like writing again. 

oh, i went to the moma for the very first time.  that was pretty cool.  got to see some really cool and famous artwork, and they actually let you take photographs there, unlike the stinky met museum where they don't even let you take a pic of their xmas tree for some reason.  WTF is that all about?  i should ask for my money back next time.  i'll post some pics when i feel like it.

november 28, 2006

today, 2 1/2 years after google's gmail, microsoft's hotmail has finally increased the mailboxes to 1gb.   way to stay up w/ the times microsoft.

this weekend, over 50 shots were fired at unarmed men, and one of them was killed.   one of the officers fired 31 rounds!  holy crap!!!  i think the only reason he stopped shooting was because his trigger finger cramped up.

there was a study done, and it came to a conclusion that everyone, men AND women, already knew... women talk 3x more than men.   they will say 20,000 words a day!  here's the vid courtesy of channel 2 news.



november 27, 2006

if you've noticed, there have been a decent amount of "sales" going on, but have you also noticed, many of those "sale" prices involve rebates?

the only reasons i can see for having rebates are:

1 - to get your info - if you want your check, you have to give them your real address.

2 - hopefully people are too lazy to send in those rebates, or they forget the due date for the rebates.   either way, there's nothing to lose and everything to gain for the retailers and/or the manufacturer.

THEN, if you forget to fill something in or do something incorrectly (send in original this or copy of that...), they don't notify you and by the time you realize you haven't gotten your rebate, IT'S OVER!!!

rebates should be outlawed.   i'm sick and tired of them.  i've lost money from "sales" because i've been lazy AND forgotten when the due dates were.  the last "sale" i lost, i think was a $40 rebate.

rebates are so annoying, i think i've written about them in the past. 

...and i hate to say it, but i have have a whole month of having to work every day before the next day off.  then i have a week off!!!!  not that i'm going away or doing anything, but wtf, i have plenty of vacation time.

november 26, 2006

ok, so i've been lazy and i've been sick... like you've never been lazy and/or sick and not wanted to do anything?

i spent most of my thanksgiving sleeping and recovering from my cold.  i've gone thru almost 1 1/2 boxes of kleenex (blowing my nose).

i got a notice from etoys.com stating they were going to sell the tmx elmo on november 24 at 1pm.   i was online at 12:55 and when 1pm came around, their frickin' site crashed.  even at 1:50pm i was still getting an error stating page could not be found.  it was their entire site, not just the tmx elmo page.  now, if their source of income is selling merchandise over the web and they can't handle this type of load, how am i to know their security is any good?  screw that.  i'm glad their site crashed and now i know their site can't be trusted.

i'm thinking of changing a category on my site.   since i've got dead categories above, i may get rid of "downloads" and change it to something like "did you know."  you're gonna have to wait until i'm not feeling sick and lazy anymore.  i need energy to do crap like that (although it really won't take long at all).

check out some more pics i took.  i'm too lazy to setup a web album for this...

     

november 11, 2006

i decided to skip out on speed this past wednesday cuz we had over 3.5 inches of rain in nyc.  good thing it wasn't snowing - who knows how much that would've been.

however, i had off on friday for veterans day and the weather was fantastic.   after an easy run i went out to cp and took some pics.  check out the pics at the photo gallery.



i know i've mentioned this somewhere, but i'll repeat it... i'm am SO not a morning person, esp when it comes to running.   i struggled to hold an 8:30 pace for a 10K run this morning, but it was kinda humid and i've got a major knot in my quad.  the knot has been nagging me for a couple of months now, but now, if i squat, i can feel it pulling and hurting my knee.   it'll go away eventually (i hope) w/ stretching and massaging, which is probably what i should before and after i run anyway.

on a positive note... eventhough i struggled to hold that 8:30 pace, just a few months ago i would have cut the run short and run just 5 miles instead of the 10K... that's a fact.

november 5, 2006

nyc marathon was today.   it was perfect weather for the marathon, but not for spectating... i froze.   not that anyone cares or anything.

anyway, i got to see lance pass by and even got a decent photo of him.   there were 2 teammates by him also, so they must've gotten on tv.  too bad i didn't record it otherwise i would post it.  you can check out the photos i took at my photo gallery.



not too many people showed up to the post marathon gathering this evening.  only 8 people.  good thing i didn't have to hike over to the east side, otherwise i would have been pissed. 

november 2, 2006

exhaustion... w/ the nyc marathon 3 days away, the first day of the expo was today.   i got there at 5:45 and didn't leave until almost 8.  all i did was wander around and look for free goodies.  i guess i made out alright considering i'm not running.  =D

lets see, what did i get: 2 water bottles, a powerbar bag, 3 snickers marathon energy bars, a gatorade powder mix, 6 sample sized smuckers jelly (which mom is getting), some tylenol, and i actually purchased a summer running hat.  the snickers marathon energy bars expire on november 2006, so i guess that's why they were giving them away so generously.

when i got home, i did laundry and didn't finish until 10:30.   now i'm dead tired.  time to rest.

here's a pic of a friend showing her support of running simply naked.



october 30, 2006

today was the team's monday nite "easy" run... i got my ass SPANKED in the last 2 miles of the 6.1 mile loop.   out of the 4 of us, i was easily the weakest runner (for some reason that's always the case).  i barely kept up, but now, what's the saying?  what doesn't kill me... makes me... have a heart attack?  pull a muscle?  have a stroke?  all of the above?

lets see how i feel for wednesday.

october 29, 2006

the weather wasn't all that great this weekend, esp yesterday.  lets just say, this was the type of weekend where i was glad i didn't have a dog (although today wasn't so bad... just windy).  i had wanted to tidy up the apt yesterday but just didn't have the energy, so i decided to do it today instead.  step one was to go thru about 2 months worth (at least 2 months worth) of mail... holy crap.  2 months worth of mail equals 2 bags full of junk mail.  it took me 3 hours!  after that i was just too tired to do anything else.  i keep telling myself i'm not gonna let this happen again, i'm not gonna let this happen again... yeah yeah yeah, whatever... get real.  i should know by now this is gonna happen again.

who knows when i'm gonna do step 2.  i think step 2 should be to tidy up the bedroom.  that'll probably take another 3 hours... eh, maybe not.  i wish i could afford a house keeper.  too bad i don't make enuf to have servants.

anyway, that's all the excitement i had for this weekend... woo-hoo!!!

october 27, 2006

i've decided to go w/ a new web host.  i have about 13 months left on my contract w/ my current web host, but i've decided to move on.  there's absolutely nothing wrong w/ my current web host, but i want more features, such as streaming vid and aud capabilities, forums, chatting, as well as being able to have more than one domain hosted under the same account at no extra cost.

this ain't gonna happen overnite though, so...

i'm gonna use one of my other domain names to test it out first and gradually move my coffeepulse data over to the new host (that'll take mucho time).   we'll see how it goes.

october 24, 2006

so i'm trying to be a good uncle and get my tiny nephew (3 years old) one of those tmx elmos.   i've been trying to order one for the last 3 weeks online and just haven't been able to get one.  i refuse to break down and get it on ebay for about $100 when i can get one for half the price (if i can get one).  walmart is a pain in the ass.  i just sit at work and constantly refresh the screen and suddenly they'll have it in stock and literally, 30 seconds later it's out of stock.  i've mastered the payment so i know where all the buttons are, but by the time i get to the confirmation screen, they're completely out of stock... sorry kid, looks like there's not gonna be a tmx elmo for you this x-mas.  oh, and walmart keeps raising their prices.  originally the elmo was going for $35 and shipping was about $6, now they're selling the elmo for $40 and shipping is $8 (and they charge tax on the s+h).

i'm officially rooting for st. louis to win the world series, esp after kenny rogers' "dirt on his hand" story.  i have never ever liked kenny rogers, esp when he was w/ the yankees.

i just got this french cd called "notre dame de paris."   it's from a french musical, and... well... it's in french.  i don't know french, but it sounds so frickin' awesome that i'm gonna put it on my ipod tonite.  it's worth listening to.  AND NO!!!  it's not one of those tommy tune or peter allen type of musicals!!!  i know you'd expect that from the french, but it isn't.

october 23, 2006

weekends go by too quickly, esp when you're having fun...

this weekend i went up to rockefeller state park preserve again with some friends for a change of running scenery.  it was perfect... the sky was clear, the temp crisp, and my legs felt great.  we ran almost 10 miles and i felt like i could have kept going.  afterwards, while we were in the parking lot, one of the people who came up w/ us (who i didn't know) was changing in one of the cars that had my bag.  now, i didn't know she was "about to change" and i didn't realize it when i opened the door until i looked down at the seat and saw her bra... RATS... gotta work on better timing.  i just apologized, grabbed my bag, and closed the door.

then we went to a diner, ate, and went home.

today, while i was at work, my manager was standing behind me while i was doing something on my computer.  he finally noticed my t-shirt had holes in them.   i've been wearing this particular t-shirt for a while now and i keep forgetting there are holes cuz they're in the back.  i blamed my cat for them, but believe it or not, that's one of my good t-shirts.  i have other t-shirts that look like they'll disintegrate if you just touch them.  i wear those to work also... maybe i'll wear one tomorrow.  =D  meanwhile, my jeans have huge holes in them, but i guess since i was sitting down, he didn't notice.  can you imagine what my underwear must look like???  YIKES!!!

the pic below doesn't do the park justice.  the sky was clear while we were running, then became overcast just as we finished... but considering it's the parking lot, it's a pretty good looking parking lot (but small).  it's even got porta potties.



october 16, 2006

this evening, the cw11 news at 10 (new york) viewed a report that states "men are smarter than women!"  but we already knew that.  =D

the female reporter, kaity tong, wasn't too crazy about that, but i guess you can't blame her... well, now he have a reason to justify why men make more money than women, eventhough they may be at the same level... CUZ MEN ARE SMARTER, THAT'S WHY!  HAHAHAHAHA!!!!

october 7, 2006

i have absolutely no comments on the yankees horrible post season.   i'm actually debating on whether or not to delete my yankees section.  i'm just furious at them for losing... i couldn't even watch today's game.

anyway...

today at the saturday morning run something that could have had a disastrous outcome happened... a horse got loose from it's owner and started trotting parallel to us.  it could easily have turned toward us (it looked like it was going to) and just trounce us.  i know absolutely nothing about horses whatsoever and was not about to try and catch it.  the owner was to the side on "her" cell phone (in one hand) and holding the horse's reins in the other hand.  to make matters worse, there was an asian couple w/ a full sized husky dog that was trying to charge the horse.  instead of walking away w/ the dog, the idiot owner tried to control the dog and said "no, just sit and watch the horse."   what a damn moron.  the dog must have spooked the horse and the horse broke free.  luckily a woman walking in the opposite direction (towards the horse) was able to calm it and grab the reins... i guess she had experience w/ horses... whew.   the rider whose horse it was should be banned from riding in central park and the dog owners should just get punched in the head repeatedly for being such idiots.

here's a hilarious vid about sexual harassment at the workplace.  while i would not ask someone at the job out, my luck w/ women seems to be that of the nerd and not the hunk...



october 2, 2006

after work, on my way to the train station, i saw this old chinese lady and this little boy, maybe 6 or 7 years old.  she must have been the kid's great grandmother cuz there's no way she was his grandmother.  anyway, the old lady was going around rummaging thru all the garbage cans looking for empties.  whatever wasn't empty she handed to the boy and he would empty them while she rummaged for more.  the entire time (the span of maybe only a minute or less that i watched) the boy was just so good-natured about it.  it was a crushing thing for me to see.  i guess the fact that he reminded me of my nephew, who's about the same age (he may be a year older than my nephew) made it worse.  i wish i could have done something, but what should i have done?  if i gave her money, that wouldn't necessarily stop her from going thru the garbage (old chinese people do stuff like that - you'll just have to take my word on it).  seeing something like that for less than a minute, and not being able to take my eyes off of them... just a sad feeling.

on a lighter note, i wasn't able to stop talking about yesterday's yankee game.  i was showing off my pics to everyone and even the met fans that work w/ me admitted those were awesome seats.  i've even gone as far as to make the pics into my screensaver at work.  everyone was shocked when i told them i took 108 pics.   gotta love digicams!

one of my co-workers had box seats on saturday's game, but when i told him where my seats were and he saw the pics, well, there was no comparison.  

here's the summary of yesterday's game.

i know it's been a while since i've updated my yankees section, but w/ the post season starting, start checking it out.  it'll be updated for as long as the yankees stay in it, which will be until they win the world series.  =D

october 1, 2006

this has been one of the best sundays ever, if not THE best sunday ever.   i'm a HUGE yankees fan.  i'm not one of the jump on the band wagon fans.  i'm a TRUE yankees fan.   i suffered w/ them in the 80s and celebrated in the 90s.  i've always wanted them to do well.  what do you expect from a guy who was born and raised in da bronx.

i woke up this rainy morning and to my surprise, a friend of mine EG invited me to the final regular season yankees game.  these weren't regular seats mind you, these were some KICKASS seats, 9 rows behind the visiting team's (toronto bluejays) dugout!  HOLY CRAP!!!  i immediately responded to her "YES"  and made coffee, showered, and stuffed my face w/ food.  i later left a message on her cell just in case she didn't get the email... never hurts to make sure.  then i was like... why hasn't she called me back yet???  oh, she ran a half marathon in the pouring rain, but SO WHAT??!?

i can't remember when the last time i was so excited for something.  i mean truly excited.  i don't think people really realize what a HUGE yankees fan i am.  i'm still smiling over it and will never ever forget how great it was.  the few times i've gone, my seats were always in the bleachers.  this was so awesome.

the weather was horrible in the morning, but literally, not long after i read the email and responded, it frickin cleared up and you couldn't have asked for more beautiful baseball weather.  i couldn't stop taking pics.  i took 108 pics, not all are posted in my web album, but a good amount are (i omitted the blurry ones).

it didn't matter the yanks lost (7-5), but i wish jeter was able to get the batting title (he didn't).   there's still the mvp though.  it's unlikely since arod won it last year (voters like to spread the award around), but i don't think big papi should get it.

afterwards, we went to a friend's place for unlimited waffles and pancakes for dinner.

...just and awesome sunday.

september 26, 2006

BOOTYLICIOUS - did you know, there are now butt implants?  they don't use silicone, but fat from other parts of your body and inject them into your... BOOTY!  i never knew they had that.  i had a conversation w/ some friends recently, but i can't remember how the topic came up.  i thought this was interesting, that's all.  here's a vid from the newscast, and here's a muzik vid (for my boy "gangsta" morrissey) that says: even white boys gotta shout - baby's got back!

   

my buddy morrissey, the ccm, pretty much kicked my ass on saturday's "easy" run.   as usual, we started slow and the next thing i know we're frickin' speeding along before we even hit the fence!  i had to tell him to slow down, i'm a slowpoke!  i'm one of the riff raff that runs in the park!  actually all this slowpoke crap stems from something someone from my most fave team - central park track club wrote.  here's the link:

running with slowpokes

i think they need to realize other people are entitled to enjoy running in the park as well as running in races.  if they want a race where only elite runners run, then they should tryout for the olympics or something.  of course, then they'll be considered the slowpokes and riff raff.  this just shows they're extremely narrow minded in not seeing this. 

some people (slowpokes) take up running for health reasons.  we're in a society where most of the people (children included) are overweight, and the running events are set up to help encourage them to start running and get in shape.  should they be denied running in the park or running in races?  if slow people get in the way of a race, here's a word of advice... line up in the front.  see?  that wasn't so hard to think up (but who said "fast" people were intelligent). 

writers, which the author of that articles claims to be, are supposed to be open minded so they can view things from different angles.  apparently he doesn't have that ability - papa must've hooked him up w/ a job.

their entire team thinks like this, not just him, so i guess morons find other morons and the next thing you know, they have a running team called central park track club.  oh, i forgot, they're now called nike / central park track club.  i wonder what nike would think if they knew members of the central park track club thought like this.  hmmm.....

one final thought... i'd rather be a slow runner than a fast runner who's an asshole.

september 18, 2006

well, it's been over a week since my last entry.   it's mostly cuz nothing much has happened.  lets see...

last week i got invited to a get together at someone's apt to see some teammates' pics of their relay race (hood to coast).   i didn't do the race, and i didn't know the person who hosted, but i had nothin' better to do, so why not go out and meet someone new (actually i kinda did meet her before, but not really).   i didn't have anything to bring, and my friends got some chips, so i figured i would bring a jar of salsa.  the whole time i felt kinda guilty that all i spent was something like $2.49 (actually i still feel really guilty).  oh well... so i made a bad first impression.  nothing new... it's not the first time and certainly will not be the last time (unfortunately).  i don't plan on being invited to any of her future get togethers.

i broke down and ordered an ipod nano.  i wanna be like my teammate morrissey - his aka is "ipod ken."   my goal is to be as fast as he is.  if that means wearing an ipod and workout gloves while running, so be it.  i'm gonna wear an ipod and workout gloves.  we get mixed up all the time as it is anyway... you know, us chinaboys all look alike.  although, realistically, i know i will never be as fast as he is, but i can always dream... not of him, but of running fast like him - just to clarify.  =P

i'm getting spoiled running w/ the team.   i have trouble motivating myself now to run alone.  yesterday i had to drag my butt out and all i did was run about 2 miles, then gave up.  in a way it was good i stopped, cuz in the beginning of the run, i felt a twinge of pain near my knee.  it went away after a while, but now i feel it while standing and walking.  i think it's just a knot in the muscle and i'm trying to massage the crap out of it.

i've also discovered something very very bad for me on youtube.  one of my fave animes is naruto.  it's currently being shown on cartoon network, and turns out, youtube has all the episodes.  i spent all of yesterday just watching hours of naruto.  holy crap!!!!  unfortunately, it's in japanese and the subtitles are tiny.  luckily they let you pause so i can read what they're saying.  sometimes it's blurry, but that's ok.  i went to bed kinda late and was really tempted to watch it at work, but didn't wanna get in trouble.  SHIT!

...and when did cops start wearing shorts?  i was at the subway station today and these 2 cops who were in there also were wearing shorts!  one of them had huge tattoos on both legs!  it just doesn't look right.

i think that's it.   i'm gonna rest the leg, massage the crap out of it, and see how it feels for speed.  good thing i don't race!  ok, time to watch some more NARUTO!!!!  =D

september 7, 2006

here's the description of yesterday's mile from the coach, and here's a pic of the route:

"The long pickup begins at the East 102nd St. entrance to the park, goes through the transverse, and ends at the traffic light at West 90th St.  You may run this at between your 5K race pace and your 10-mile race pace, depending on how you're feeling and what you're training for."



so now, going back to yesterday's story of parking abuse, cbs 2 news posted an article on their site, which i've added to my site, and it shows the police are already abusing the patriot act in order to hold people indefinitely w/o charges.  awesome!!!  note: that "awesome" was sarcasm.

september 6, 2006

just finished my weekly speed workout.   the first set was a 1 mile tempo run, and there were only 2 groups, slower than 8 minutes, or faster than 8 minutes, so i went w/ the faster group.  i started off feeling really strong (although in the beginning i didn't think the warm up was very long and my legs felt kinda weak and numb) and tried to keep up w/ the much faster people.  oh, while i was running, one of my teammates, we'll give him the initials BI, tried talking to me.  i forgot what he said, but i just said "yeah" or something and kept running.  i think he could tell i didn't wanna talk.  luckily another teammate was there, we'll give her the initials EG, and he turned and started talking to her.  =D

anyway, the first half of that mile felt really really easy, so i kept speeding up, and then i just hit the wall (or incline) and started gasping for air.  the legs felt fine, it was just the lungs, and i could feel my upper body tightening up, esp around my neck area.  the coach had pointed that out to me over the winter, and i tried my best to relax, but it may have been too late at that point.  in the end, i finished w/ my best 1 mile time ever.  of course i must give credit to my coach and teammates, otherwise i would have quit before finishing the mile (don't think i didn't think about it).  i actually haven't run this hard in quite some time now, so in a way it was good.  who the heck needs to run the 5th ave mile!  save your money!!!

i'm really happy w/ the time, and i'm still seeing improvements w/ my time and endurance.  i'm actually still seeing progress!  although, i really wish i could have kept up better w/ the fast people, but then i thought about it and realized, those guys have been running a lot longer than i have, most likely run a lot more, and probably take it more seriously than i do.  they probably even run when it rains!!!

ok, i'm hating running less and less these days. =D   i don't think you'll ever hear me say i like running though...



here's a very disturbing vid...



i think everyone should watch it and hopefully something will come of it.  it took place in our very own chinatown (in nyc).  luckily the guy to got arrested had his camera and had changed it to video mode and had it recording while it was happening.  talk about unlawful arrest (although he wasn't officially arrested).  it's extremely upsetting and i'm glad it made it onto the news.

september 5, 2006

i heard on the news the price of coffee may be going up cuz of bad crops...   that's not good!!!  i have to start stocking up on coffee.  i know starbucks is gonna use that as an excuse to jack up their prices. 

i got my laces from new balance today.  those idiots... i told them the laces had to be at least 58 inches, and they sent me laces that were frickin' 66 inches!  those are the length for boots (and they're not the fancy laces either)!  who would wear white laces for boots!  WTF!!!!  those morons.  i shouldn't get too upset i guess.  it's like i said, i wasn't expecting to get anything anyway.

september 4, 2006

steve irwin, the crocodile hunter was killed by a sting ray today while filming a documentary (he was 44 years old).   although his shows were geared towards children, i was a huge fan of his and watched his shows every time i came across them.  he seemed genuinely nice, was so energetic, and seemed to truly love what he was doing... i guess that's why he had so many fans and was successful all around the world.  if he had to die, i guess it's like the saying goes... at least he died doing what he loved.  i also just tried going to his web site.  it appears to either be down or has so much traffic that i can't get thru.

of all things, he got killed by a frickin' sting ray.  sting rays doing even have teeth.  anyway, at least it was quick... they actually filmed it (him getting pierced by the sting ray).   for more info on his life, here's an article i ripped from wikipedia.   i took all the links and ads out, so it lost some of its nice formatting.



in other news, i finally got a new pair of much needed shorts.  they were supposedly on sale at the super runners shop, from $40 down to $23.  i still think they're damn expensive, and it figures i get them when the temps are now in the 70s.  i'll get about 1 1/2 months out of them (maybe not).

september 3, 2006

some people just shouldn't use or even have computers.  take my friend for instance... i've known him for years!  great guy... i went to LV w/ him, and planning to hopefully go to AZ w/ him, so i know him pretty well.  i even spec'ed out his laptop and ordered it for him almost 2 years ago.  it was such a sweet laptop back then, it's still considered a powerful laptop today.  anyway, he just dropped it off this afternoon cuz he screwed it up, and instead of calling me up first, he called up dell and they had him reinstall the OS... stupid-ass.

it was a crappy saturday and i didn't do a single thing.   i didn't even go workout... nada.  all i did was watch tv.  ya know what though?  i didn't mind.  it felt good to just sleep in and veg out.  i think it's good to do that once in a while.  i've also found some music vids on youtube that i'll post here one of these days.  they're awesome. 

oh, and new balance is sending me new laces.  i measured the 857 laces, which were 54 inches, and the 856 laces were 58 inches.  new balance made it clear that they may not be able to give me the laces that came w/ the 857s, but they will do their best and yada yada yada...  well, this was more than i expected anyway.  i just wanted to make a point to them, so the new laces will be a bonus.

august 28, 2006

after over a year running in my new balance 856s (i don't even wanna guess how many miles i had on them), i finally bought a new pair of sneakers about a month ago... new balance 857s.   i loved the 856s - they were wide and just felt awesome.  i was nervous when i found out they weren't made anymore, and that the 857s had replaced them.  i tried the 857s on, they felt ok, and decided to give them a shot.  one of the first things i noticed about them were the laces.  they're not plain old laces.   they were made so they wouldn't become undone while you're walking/running.  they've got bumps or whatever you wanna call them.  they're pretty cool.  the other thing you'll notice about the laces are how fuckin' short they are.  they're so damn short i can barely tie them!!!  why bother having fancy shmancy laces if they're too damn short to tie?  i've increased my mileage lately and since i've had to tie the laces really tight i feel the onset of an injury to a tendon on the top of my foot where the damn knot is.  so much for the fancy laces... now i've gotta use an old pair of plain laces that will fit my sneakers.  i just sent new balance a nasty email about this.

august 27, 2006

on august 23, channel 2 news did a follow-up piece on the parking abuse.   i was too lazy to upload it, but here it is.  it's pretty good.  you see a ranking officer trying really really hard to find some sort of violation to pin on the crew, but couldn't.  i'm not sure if there were any follow-ups after this one - if there were, i didn't catch them (i haven't been watching much news lately).



here's a really really funny pic i just had to post.  i didn't take the pic - i found it on the internet.

  - robin to batman:  "you want ME to go in first???"

august 22, 2006

today at lunch-time i made my usual walk over to c-town for some grub.   while going there, this woman walks in front of me.  not that i was staring at her butt or anything, but she was wearing extremely tight baby blue spandex pants (can they be called pants when they're that tight?), and they were kinda see thru - i could tell she had a g-string and had some cottage cheese going on.  it's not like i wanted to keep looking or anything, but i just couldn't believe what i was seeing and kept asking myself... "is she really wearing that?"  and "is all that really cottage cheese?"  and "that's gotta be a g-string... is it?  yeah, it is."  i don't think she should have worn baby blue.  never saw what she looked like though - believe it or not, she walked kinda fast.

saw the doc yesterday and he was very happy at my recovery. he said i was way ahead of schedule, that the majority of people don't have full range of motion so quickly, and he didn't think i needed phys therapy anymore.  i'm sure my phys therapist is gonna be happy to hear that.  i actually had full range of motion about 4 weeks ago.   he also said i could do weights, but w/in reason (of the amt of weight)... fyi - i just got back from working out.  =D

channel 2 news just did a piece on police parking abuse, esp w/ their personal cars.   i've always believed (and i've written about it in the past), that just cuz they are police officers, it doesn't mean they should automatically get parking plaques (sp?).  i don't think it's fair, and i think they should take public transportation just like everyone else.  if they wanna drive to work, that's fine, but they should have to look for parking, just like everyone else.  the same goes for people in public office and their support staff.  that's the only way they're going to know how poorly maintained certain things are - it'll be edumacational for them.  they'll notice which stations have the most homeless (such as columbus circle - a ton of homeless people there), which are the filthiest, and which ones smell like vomit.



hell, i'm still waiting for park row to open back up to the public.

i cannot believe my legs are still tired...

august 16, 2006

my legs are D-E-A-D.  we had speed workout today and i just had nothing.  before the workout i thought my legs were fine, but when it came time to run fast i had absolutely nothing.  oh well... this will be a quiet running week.

i've come to the conclusion if you have surgery and survive, you'll die from trying to deal w/ the complete lack of communications between your health insurance company and the hospital / doc's office.   you'll get a frickin' heart attack from the stress.  it's a damn good thing i keep copies of my health insurance statements cuz a doc's bill was paid for by my insurance company ($359), yet the doc's office sent me a bill.  i sent them a copy of the stmt and letter stating it was paid, and a few weeks later, they sent me another (same) bill.  after speaking w/ someone at the billing staff (who said they did receive my letter), they said maybe the check was sent somewhere else and did i happen to know where it was sent... uh, no.  they're gonna have someone call my insurance company to find out.  maybe they shoulda done that before sending me the second bill and pissing me the fuck off.  AND THIS IS ONE OF THE SMALL BILLS I'VE GOTTA DEAL WITH!!!  this is nothing compared to the rest, but i'm not gonna mention those, just know my blood pressure has probably shot the fuck up as well as my stress level and temper.

i pray i never ever have to have surgery again.   if something happens, i hope it's a quick and painless death and i don't have to go to the hospital... just skip the ambulance too, just take me straight to the funeral home (by cab, not ambulance).

august 13, 2006

did another longish run today.   this time it was around 10 miles (for me) and a much flatter course.  didn't think i was gonna make it since i got up at 9:45 and was supposed to meet them at 10:45 (i need my coffee - didn't get to do my pre-run stretch rituals, but it turned out ok).  my quads felt really fatigued at the start of the run, but as the run went along, they felt fine (they're feeling fatigued again, so no running tomorrow).  i guess my confidence is kinda building up, knowing i can do longer runs, so that's good.  of course i had to take a nap right after i got home - i was dead tired.  this is becoming a habit - running then napping.

this is good cuz i ran 6.2 miles yesterday and last week, for the rockefeller run, i skipped the saturday run.

yesterday we had a picnic after brunch (after my nap).  we spent a few hours there and then a park person drove up to us (around 8pm) and said the area we were at was under lock down and we had to leave.  what???  what was gonna happen, the swat team gonna come rappelling down from helicopters and arrest us or something?  geez.

the weather has been awesome this weekend - clear skies, low humidity, perfect temp - picture perfect.

oh yeah, almost forgot... i had a donut this morning before running.  donuts and/or cookies AND coffee make an excellent combo for fuel before long runs.  it has worked out perfectly for me.  it's easy on the stomach and just keeps me going.

oh yeah, talking about running fuel, i saw the funniest thing with power gel today.  i've never had it personally, and after today, i don't think i even wanna try it.  as someone who was "eating" it said: "IT LOOKS LIKE BOOGERS!!!" and after tasting it:  "AND IT TASTES LIKE BOOGERS!!!"   it was hilarious! 

i'll stick to my donuts, cookies, and coffee, thank you.

august 6, 2006

i finally hit the double digits on a run... today a group of friends and i went up to rockefeller state park and did some trail running.   didn't realize how hilly it was going to be, but no biggie.  i just remember this steep hill, and when there was a fork in the road, silently praying we would turn left, cuz turning right would have kept going up (we turned left).   oh, in the end, i think the distance was 13 miles and the pace was 8:55.  i'm happily surprised that i was able to run that much (my previous longest run was only 8 miles).  as i alway say, i would not have been able to do this by myself... i don't know how to pace myself and it's all too easy to quit while running alone.

the first mile and 1:40 into the run were hardest for me.

i was starving towards the end of the run and we stopped at a diner.   i thought the portions were small (i was starving) and when i got home i had 2 more sandwiches, a donut, and drank a ton of gatorade.  i can't remember when the last time i was that hungry or thirsty.   then i showered and took a power nap - i had to set my alarm so i wouldn't sleep thru the afternoon.  my body is still hot from the run.

while we were going to the park, we saw this guy walking to the beat of the music we were listening to.  what made it funnier was he was walking funny - short choppy steps, like he was doing it purposely to go along w/ the beat, not to mention he was in a shirt and tie and the only one walking on the sidewalk.

all in all, dare i say it?   i may have actually enjoyed today's run...

friday i took the cat to the vet to have his teeth cleaned.  it cost $185!!!!  holy crap!  the cat gets his teeth checked out and cleaned more than i do!  

july 31, 2006

screw the comments section... i'm too lazy to try and setup wordpress to the way i like it, and i like the way my site looks now.   i think my current blog format kicks ass, esp w/ the turtle wallpaper.

chinatown smells really really bad right now.   it's nasty.  i walk thru it everyday to get lunch.  i usually walk thru this tunnel to cut bet elizabeth street and bowery street and it reeked in there big time.  when walking back to work i walked around it in the baking sun, that's how bad it smelled.

today was the first time i saw a chinese chick that had peach fuzz on her upper lip... not a good look.

this weekend i had dinner w/ some friends and had mentioned i ate fruit about 2x/month (max).  everyone was kinda surprised.  it has made me kinda self conscious about my diet.  i like eating fruit, i'm just kinda lazy i guess.  i also don't each much veggies.  so, today i had chicken and broccoli on rice for lunch and it was a little on the bland side.  i think i've made my veggie quota for the week... whatever...

here's a really funny dilbert clip.   sadly, i can relate to this clip...



july 25, 2006

have you ever had cataracts or had a parent who had cataracts and needed to go to the doc's to get them removed?   well i do.  lemme clarify... my parent has / had cataracts.  they've got a doc that has a private office in c-town, but does the surgery at st. vincents.  they told my parent to show up at 10am, so they wanted to get there early just in case there's a prob w/ the trains, so we ended up getting there at 9:15am... whatever.  THEN, one hour passed, then two, then three... you get the idea.  they didn't see them until after 3pm!!!  i was frickin' pissed!!!  holy crap.   i really wanted to scold the doc, but figured it would be a bad idea considering my parent's about to go in for surgery.   we didn't leave the hosp until a little after 5pm!!!  an entire day wasted waiting around!!!

before the surgery, in the pre-op area, i happened to look up at the flourescent lite fixture above us and saw a dead waterbug.  the waterbug must have been there a while cuz it was partially transparent (meaning a lot of its guts were decayed - decomposing).  great, just what you wanna see in a hospital.  good thing it wasn't the skeleton of a mouse

have i EVER mentioned how much i don't like st. vincent's???  that's where i had 2 unsuccessful surgeries on my elbow.   the second surgery i had to stay overnite and heard someone either in the next room or a couple rooms down, bite the dust... not something i wanted to experience.  not to mention i was hooked up to the iv the whole nite and was peeing up a storm and couldn't get up to go to the toilet... something else i didn't wanna experience.

suffice it to say, if i have a choice, i will never again have surgery at st. vincent's.

oh, st. vincent's also has a doc (who happens to be the chief of sports medicine there) who was sued for operating on the wrong leg of a dancer/choreographer.  then the doc had enuf nerve to hire a private investigator follow the guy around and video tape him to try and show there was nothing wrong w/ his leg... jerk.  here's an article of it.

today the little gato had to get his checkup.  he's normally passive and gentle... don't know what the heck happened to him today.  he ended up scratching the vet's tech when they went to take his blood.  i also found out he porked up a bit and now weighs 11 lbs.  about 1.5 lbs overweight for his frame.  guess i gotta start chasing him around more often.  next up for him... teeth cleaning!!!

just got back from working out downstairs and someone keeps stealing the freakin' remote control for the tv!   i was so pissed!  i ended up watching emeril live and rachel ray's $40 a day.  i'm gonna buy my own remote... damn thieves.

one final thing... i've been looking around for a particular knot, called the adjustable bend, and for the life of me, couldn't find how to do it anywhere on the internet.  luckily, i've got a great local bookstore which lets readers sit down and enjoy the books... this is how you make the adjustable bend:

  

july 19, 2006

yesterday was the central park concert in the park.   it was pretty good.  the music was awesome, we had food and wine, and we thought we were finally going to have a dry outdoor outing... WRONG!!!  the emcee (or whoever she was) said they were going to cut the performance short cuz they had inside info from the man above, that it was going to rain later in the evening, and finish the performance and fireworks around 9:40.  at 9:45 it was lightning and thunder and HUGE drops of rain.  there was no way anyone was going to stay dry in that downpour.  in any event, it was still an enjoyable evening.



tonite was speed workout.  after reading the description, i thought it was going to be a piece of cake.  it may have been, if it weren't for the damn humidity.   and i thought i was finally going to have a good hair day.   anyway... it was another one of those workouts where it was good to run w/ others, otherwise i would probably have quit after cat hill.  all i told myself towards the end was "they're only frickin' 330 yard pickups!!!"  after that i ran a loop of the rez w/ the prez.

july 17, 2006

there is a massive heat wave going on in NYC since this weekend.  to keep myself busy (inside) i've been looking for blogging s/w to install and trying to customize it.  i like this current format, where it's just so easy to do this or that, but people are complaining about not having a comments section.  who cares about a comments section???  blah blah blah...   anyway, if you want a preview of the new one, here it is.   i'm still learning how to use the s/w so i don't wanna hear anything.

july 15, 2006

this is terrible.  i took these pics almost 3 years ago at the grand canyon and i finally decided to stitch them up.  looking at them now... not too bad, considering i didn't have a tripod w/ me.  it required a tiny bit of touching up, but overall, i'm happy w/ the outcome.  click on them if you wanna look, but just know that each pic is about 2MB.

  

not much going on today.   been feeling really tired from the lack of sleep, so i decided to sleep in today and been playing ball w/ the cat.  he's not good at bringing the ball back to me.

july 13, 2006

tried to do some speed work w/ the coach this evening.    it was pretty bad (for me).  i may have done 1/2 the workout, skipping the hard half.  i would like to blame it on the fact that i've been averaging less than 4 hours of sleep everyday since last week (damn phys therapy).  my sleeping is all screwed up.  i'm gonna try and do the workout again, maybe on sunday.  i don't know if i've got the discipline to do it by myself, but i'll give it a shot... although john bolaris says it's supposed to go up to 92F on sunday.  well, at least i'll have an excuse to not do it.

while i was walking back to the reservoir, a HUGE pack of runners were running towards me.   the group was called "team for kids."  they were EXTREMELY rude and took up the entire path and just ran into me.  well, if you read below on june 23, you know i don't take lightly to a-holes like that and didn't budge an inch and bumped into them just as hard... jerks.   of course they just have to slam into my bad arm, isn't that always the case?  luckily my arm is in much better shape.  can't wait til it's 100%...

july 12, 2006

this physical therapy is just exhausting... i'm so sleepy at work.   today i had to read some technical mumbo jumbo crap and i just couldn't focus.  i read it over and over and over again and all i did was get sleepy.  then i realized what i was reading didn't have the info i needed... crap.

i was supposed to skip out of speed today and go to cp and listen to some classical music, but it poured and i didn't do either one.  it wasn't a total waste.  i worked out at the gym doing weights.  i started to do really really light weights w/ my left arm and i noticed how really really tiny the left arm is compared to the right arm.  it's always been smaller, but it's really scrawny!!!  i've got a whole lotta work to do once it stops hurting.  i was actually able to lift my cat up w/o dropping him today.  last week or 1 1/2 weeks ago i tried picking him up and almost dropped him - it freaked him out.  i tried doing some curls to see how heavy i could go w/ the left arm before it started hurting.  it started hurting w/ 8 lbs.  that's not good.

you know, mr. g, the weatherman on channel 11 is pretty good.  he said it's supposed to rain between 10:30 and 10:45 and it's actually raining and it's around 10:45... not bad.   wow, i just heard the lightning crackle (literally) outside my window... i've never heard that before.

july 9, 2006

three is a magical / mystical / spiritual number in some societies.   on the running club i'm on, for some of the newer people, it signifies M - F - F.  what has happened and why are we getting these people, i have no idea, but i just have to remember, this is NY and our club is not a small club any longer.  we're going to get a wide variety of characters and for some, i guess the running club is an opportunity to fulfill something.  what that something is, who knows, but lately it's been the M - F - F thing, which is making some of the chicks uncomfortable.  we had a new guy start running on the team this wednesday, and on friday he asked one of the girls if she was interested... she wasn't.  i guess you never know unless you ask.  he's from oregon and heading back there soon, so he had nothing to lose i guess.

today was the world cup final and it was hosted on the UWS by good old howie.  he's got the bachelor pad w/ the awesome roof deck.  we pretty much spent the entire day / evening there (from 12:45pm to 8pm).  if it weren't for the fact that it was sunday, we would probably have stayed there even longer.  the weather was terrific, the food was great, and no one was made uncomfortable by asking for a threesome, although the bedroom was available.

physical therapy sucks big time.  it's scheduled really early in the morning and i found out in some exercises, i can't even do it with 1lb.  that's how much my wrist still hurts.  i wonder how i'm gonna get better in 6 weeks if i'm struggling w/ this tiny amount of weight... we'll see.

july 4, 2006

had some friends over today for july 4th.  a memo always goes out about watching the fireworks on the roof every year so i figured why not invite some friends over.  i've never watched it from the roof, so i didn't know how good it would be, but it wasn't all that viewable... crap.  oh well...

i had a brand new cork screw which had never been used, and it broke on the first attempt at opening a bottle of wine.  i should have taken a pic of it before i threw it out.  what a waste of money.  then someone else broke out their cork screw and on the second bottle, the cork screw broke.  we were just unlucky in wine.  luckily someone brought a bottle of wine w/ a screw off top (which i didn't know existed).

the main course was hotdogs and grilled turkey burgers.  we also had chips, cheese and crackers, a patriotic cake, shrimp salad, fruit salad, and dip.  whole lotta food.   the only bad thing was watching the fireworks, which was why everyone came over in the first place.  it would have been better watching it on tv... next year.

oh yeah, forgot to mention earlier in the day we did a 6.2 mile run and eventhough it was slow (really slow), after the 2nd mile i just wanted to quit.  i sweat off about 5 or 6 pounds.   that was one run i wouldn't have been able to do by myself.

july 2, 2006

i checked out a friend's blog today and noticed he had a superhero quiz to determine which superhero you would be.   his turned out to be spiderman.  this video is the perfect example of the type of spiderman he would be.  JUST KIDDING EL!!!  HAHAHAHA!!!!  couldn't resist though cuz the vid is so funny (i have to be nice to el).  the vid is almost 13.5 MB so download to your HD first.  it's hilarious!!!



july 1, 2006

yesterday i helped a teammate move apartments.   she had almost no furniture whatsoever.  1 twin sized bed, 2 small bookcases, a small pc and monitor, a tv, and little nick-nacks.   that's nothing.  it fit in a van no problemo and we were finished in no time.  there was only one little mishap, which was the guy driving the van, when he was trying to pull into the parking spot, dented the trunk of the car in front.  OOPS!  he felt bad and left his contact info for the person to call.

an annoying thing i learned is, not to have a bunch of chicks help you move.  it'll just be yap yap yap the whole time.  i actually started to get upset... too much estrogen going on.

just as we were finishing the move, it started to pour.  of course we were supposed to head to the boat basin, which is an outdoor restaurant/bar.  we still went and later on, after it stopped raining, was really nice.

today was awesome weather.  after the team's morning run i came right home, showered, and did laundry.  then i accidentally fell asleep for a couple of hours.  oh well.  wasted a nice day sleeping.  i woke up just in time to see france score against brazil in the world cup though.  not as fun watching it by myself at home.

june 27, 2006

yesterday was central park under the stars.   it was more like central park under the dark ominous clouds.  however, dana tyler, co-anchor of cbs 2 news and current love interest of phil collins opened the show, and john bolaris the weatherman of cbs 2 news guaranteed her no rain and he was right on target.  it was fun.  i've never been to a bway musical, so that was nice.  i actually didn't care much for the tony winning jersey boys.  they just didn't sound very good.  evita kicked ass though. 

there were 6 of us in the park (although there were supposed to be more).  the grass was damp, but not soaking wet.  i got a free flashlight out of it too.  can't go wrong w/ free.   check out the photos in my photo gallery.



i finally got the hardware they took outta my arm.  it looks like they didn't wash it cuz i still see little bits of meat on it.  they may have rinsed it off, but i think that's it.  i finally got it though - the piece of crap that was causing all that pain for over a year.  still shiny, not rusty.  it's a lot heavier than i thought it would be (i didn't notice how heavy it was when it was in me), and as one person stated, i have a doorknob in my arm.   it actually looks more like and is the size of a drawer handle... a very solid drawer handle.

june 23, 2006

i'm on my way home from work, walking to the train station.  i follow the usual protocol, walking on the rt side of the sidewalk.  i'm walking on a wide sidewalk where a number of people can walk side by side comfortably if they wished.  anyway, i see these 2 guys walking towards me.  now, when i go outside, i always wrap my arm up in a bandage and put it in a sling to help position it and add cushioning to possible bumps and stuff.  these 2 fucks are walking towards me and i see the guy who is along the center, slightly on my side of the sidewalk look at me.  i knew immediately by the way he looked (basically stared) at me that he was going to walk into me.  so i braced myself, turned, and nailed him with my shoulder as well as the rest of my arm (which did hurt).  he of course put no effort into trying to avoid walking into me and to be