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June 21, 2004
Now i know my ABC's
Act your age? Not really -- sometimes older, sometimes younger :)
Born on what day of the week? Uh... saturday? (i know what time tho -- 10:34pm!)
Chore you hate? dusting, b/c you have to move every single darn thing so as to not knock it over... and the dust makes me sneeze
Dad's name? Larry
Essential makeup item? Lipstick... j/k! (i don't own any makeup)
Favorite actor? Tom Hanks, Kevin Spacey (John Malkovich is also very cool)
Gold or silver? Silver
Hometown? Hellertown, PA
Instruments you play? Clarinet, since i was 10
Job title? grad student by trade, tho currently an intern with the title "assistant information architect" which sounds much better than it actually is ;)
Kids? once i'm ready... altho i do look forward to it
Living arrangements? apartment with one roommate (currently with no roommate while on my internship)
Mom's name? Linda
Need? a private jet ;) (and a job eventually)
Overnight hospital stays? yes, one
Phobias? used to be of deep water, tho i'm slowly getting over it
Quote you like? "The happiest people seem to be those who have no particular reason to be happy except that they are." -- W.R. Inge
Religious affiliation? Catholic
Siblings? Yes, one.
Time you wake up? 15 min after my alarm goes off, so usually around 745... but i wish it was more like 10...
Unique talent? i can bend my arms around the back of my head in inhumanly strange ways...
Vegetable you refuse to eat? brussell sprouts
Worst habit? mumbling / making people say "what? what?" to me too much :)
X-rays you've had? my head (well, my teeth) and my abdomen
Yummy food you make? baked chicken stuffed with cheese; chicken with rice and pineapples (hmm, i must like chicken...)
Zodiac Sign? Taurus
via srah blah blah.
Posted by MaTT at 09:39 PM | Comments (16)
June 11, 2004
Probably Too Expensive For Jim
Walking around the Avenues of Park and 5th tonite, i discovered some common patterns of extravagance. Let me define them in terms of Jim, a hypothetical, middle-income guy who makes enough cash to have a good life but also can't just go out and buy that Porsche he's been desiring since he was 16. So...
-- if a hotel has a name, especially a stuffy European name like Worchester or Dorchester or Morchester, it is probably too expensive for Jim;
-- if a jewelry store's shiny rings and necklaces magically disappear from their display cases every night after closing, the jewelry is probably too expensive for Jim;
-- if a building's lobby is bigger than any house you've ever seen, and has an American flag on the wall that is big enough to cover the biggest house you've ever seen, whatever is inside is probably too expensive for Jim;
-- if a furniture store seems to have nothing in it except an old kitchen sink with a spotlight shining on it, that old kitchen sink is probably for sale, and it is probably too expensive for Jim;
-- if a clothing store has nothing in its display windows except billions of pieces of popcorn piled two feet deep, the clothing is probably too expensive for Jim;
-- if a restaurant serves ice cream sundaes with peanuts in separate little bags that you must put on yourself, then it is a McDonald's, and... well, Jim can probably afford this (because that's what i bought on my way home...)
Posted by MaTT at 12:04 AM | Comments (9)
June 09, 2004
My Weekend As A Tourist
Since coming to NYC, i haven't had alot of time (or made alot of time) to see the many sights of the Big Apple. Fortunately, this weekend changed that. The 3rd SI intern arrived at CCH this past week, and incidentally, had two of her friends from China visiting her this weekend. So i got to tag along with them, visiting all sorts of places.
First we went to the Statue of Liberty, which i haven't seen up close since i was like 7 or 10 years old. Security is so tight there -- they scan all your stuff and your person before you even get on the ferry (i had to remove my belt - it felt a bit naughty... ;) ) They also don't let anyone tour inside the Statue (darn terrorists!) so i just got to take pics of the outside. Then we stopped at Ellis Island, which isn't that amazing, except in they building they have a huge glass flag made of offset vertical blocks, which from one angle, you see black-and-white pictures of immigrants, but when you moved 90 degrees to another angle, the whole flag transitioned to red-white-and-blue. It was pretty amazing, and we were trying to figure out for a while how they did it...
Then we went to Chinatown, stopping at a Chinese restaurant for dinner. Nothing better than touring around Chinatown with 4 native Chinese people, tho we had some unusual 'delicacies' that i politely tried (like spicey cow tendons... eh heh, yeah...) The rest was good, and i practiced my chopsticking... Then, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge at dusk, which was cool b/c the lights were coming on in the skyscrapers and it looked really photogenic. i took a few pics. Then we went for Bubble Tea (finally!), except that we *didn't* go back to Chinatown. Apparently there is a better one in Flushing, so we rode the above-ground subway for over 30 minutes to Flushing and got some great bubble tea. (I took a pic of this too). its a bit creamier than Bubble Island's, but very similar.
After that long day, i continued the next one with some of the same peepul, going to see Harry Potter 3. Of course we went and it was sold out for 3 shows, so we got tickets for the later show, and decided to walk around Times Square in the meantime. We went into Toys R Us, and inside they have a giant ferris wheel! Wow... we would have tried to go on it but there were like 30 kids waiting in line... :( So we played with the stuffed animals... Then we were just walking around, with me talking to Srah on the phone before her flight to France, until we got back to the movie theater -- a half hour early. Good thing too, b/c even at that time the theater was almost full! We managed to get semi-good seats, and i liked the movie, even tho it was very different than the first two. At least the kids can act now... :)
So, now i feel a bit more like i've gotten some of the New York experience -- time to explore The Village, and museums around Central Park next! Any other suggestions anyone?
Posted by MaTT at 12:33 AM | Comments (2)
June 02, 2004
Semi-Weekly Recap
Pardon the lack of updates lately -- two big things have happened (well, relatively big) that have kept me away from the computer. First, my sister came home from Japan! She was attending Kansai Gaidai University for the last 5 months, and i hadn't seen her since the beginning of January! She had a wonderful time, and is planning on going back, as soon as next year maybe. So, this Memorial Day weekend was full of Japan stories, of how Japanese kids will not cross the street under any conditions unless the sign says 'walk' (or whatever it is in Japanese) -- even if there are no cars coming! Ones like how they have crazy Americanized words like 'MacaDonalido' (for McDonald's) and 'cakee' (for cake). And how they don't hug there -- two girls can be ecstatically happy to see each other and be like 6" away, waving their hands around and babbling like crazy, but they don't touch. It's great to have you home, Mere!
Secondly, my friend Kyle moved out of his apartment to a new one, and so now i have my own place. He cleared everything out, and it seems like a much bigger space (b/c i have so few possessions here). Unfortunately, he also took with him the internet connection, and so besides at work, i have no way of accessing the Web. So, here i am in The Coffee Monopolist, drinking a token Passion Tea Lemonade and happily accessing my T-Mobile Wireless HotSpot. Yay for Wi-Fi! My DSL modem should be coming by this Friday, after my company's building door-people refused to accept the darn package the first time. So, hopefully will be back to fueling my normal online addiction by this weekend :) What else is there to do in a place like New York City??? ;)
Posted by MaTT at 09:33 PM | Comments (4)