"... Another Year Older and Deeper in Debt." =)

I was watching the news tonight and some psychiatrist did a study and apparently because of certain factors such as how far away the past holidays are and how people are usually in debt this time of year, today is statistically the most depressing day of the year. He's named it Blue Monday.

Coincidently, today is my birthday and while I admit turning 30 is a bit depressing, I don't appreciate someone saying that my birthday is the worst day of the year.

Blue Monday.

Could I have a DNA sample, please?

So I'm reading this Times article on how the cops in this town are collecting DNA trying to solve some murder. I guess they'll know the killer when he refuses to give his sample. Way to go Columbo. I don't know. It just seems kinda rude to ask everyone. They say they're not going to save it and use it for other crimes but would you trust that. Do you think they have female fluffer police officers collecting the samples?

Who Will Take The West Wing

So I was watching my favorite show 'The West Wing' tonight and one of the main storylines this season is the presidential election between Jimmy Smits as a democrat and Alan Alda as a republican. At first I thought they might let Alda win because maybe it would open up some new stories and different points of view. They portray him as a smart, honest, moderate conservative so it wouldn't be a far right point of view.
Tonight, though, I noticed that Smits is in the credits while Alda is not. There was also a scene that had him having an intimate conversation with his wife. I'm pretty much convinced he's gonna win now. Between the character development and billing, they put his name at the end like they used to do with Martin Sheen, I think it's pretty clear who's going to win.
Of course, I could be always be wrong. =)
The Sport's Illustrated Swimsuit Model Search also premiered tonight. Finally, a reality show that drops all the pretenses and just concentrates on hot chicks in very small bikinis.

Drop That Laser Pointer!

I feel kinda bad for the laser pointer guy that got caught the other day. I understand he was being a moron and should be punished, but 25 years in jail and half a million dollars seems a tad excessive. I know the far right people are gonna say, "He deserves it. Cut off his arms and legs and kill his family. Lock him up and throw away the key." I just think if we punished everyone who screwed up in a moment of stupidity that harshy, a lot more of us would be in jail.
I also think the law is being misapplied. They know this guy isn't a terrorist yet they're charging him under the Patriot Act. You have to ask yourself, if they really feel this guy is a threat would they send another aircraft to search him out like they did. If a guy is shooting down planes with stinger missiles you don't send a helicoptor to hover around where he is. No, he's more of a distraction and an annoyance than a threat. We have other laws that cover that. He knew it was wrong but he obviously didn't think it through and didn't see it as a big deal. The fact that this happens hundreds of times a year attests to this. He wasn't trying to kill anyone. He was just playing with a laser pointer with his daughter.
They're talking about making laser pointers illegal now. They're already done it in Britian. At least it will get them out of the movie theaters. That gets really annoying. I don't think it's all of them, though. Just the real bright green lasers like the one he was using.

Bowling Helps the Terrorists Win

Remember those commercials that say when you use drugs 'you're helping the terrorists win.' Well, apparently you can add bowling to that list too.
Manhattan's bowling alley was sponsored by Arafat
I always thought it was a weak argument. It may be different with heroin and opium, but from what I understand most the pot in our country is home grown, I remeber this 48 Hours special where they said it was America's largest agricultural product bringing in underground revenue to the tune of 15 billion dollars, and coccaine comes from our friends south of the border.
I think if you really want to fight terrorism you should stop driving that SUV and save some oil. I for one will do my part by staying away from the evil of bowling.

Return of the C64

I saw this article in the NY Times the other day:
A Toy With a Story
It's about Jeri Ellsworth, a 30-year-old high school dropout and self-taught computer chip designer. She like reverse engineered the commodore 64 and put it all in a joystick with 30 games. It's doing pretty well.
Makes you think about education in this country. This woman is obvioulsy brilliant but for whatever reason wasn't the type of person who could sit in a chair and be lectured at for three hours a clip. I've done ok in school, but I'm a moron and I can't do what she did. Maybe they need different ways of teaching so they don't lose out on people like this.
If you look at some of the tech sites they go between discussing the C64 and what a 'hot chick' she is.=) I used to have a C64. Remeber using ,8,1 to access the disk drive? Might be fun to pick one of these things up.

Why Newark Sucks

I sent in the $35 ticket I got the other day when my car got towed. The do street cleanings on Wednesday and Thurday in Newark and you have to have your car moved by 8am. I woke up late and ran downstairs at quater to 9 but they had already towed my car.

Had to spend an hour tracking down what happened to my car. There are three car thieves towing companies working for Newark and two of them said they weren't towing because of the Veterans Day holiday. Finally found where they took it. Had to pay $135 to get my car back and they handed me a ticket. They covered my windows with some kind of crayon that took a razor blade to get off.
Later that day, when I looked at the ticket the chick at the towing company gave me I noticed it was backdated to the day before. It also had the wrong street and the wrong time. I even had a reciept from the towing company to prove it. Probably because the person writing the ticket wasn't supposed to be doing it on the Veteran's Day holiday when the Street Cleaner's weren't running.

I was considering going and fighting the ticket. If they weren't supposed to be giving them that day they probably would have just said the sign didn't say that. If I went along the line that on the date they put on the ticket it would be perfectly legal to park my car where it was, they would have just said my car was on the other side of the street. It kinda stinks because I don't think my word should be any less valuable then theirs. After all, it's the police in Newark who sell drugs and the city who has to have the federal government monitor their elections. You would think that anything a cop in Newark says would be suspect. I'm not even sure the cops write those tickets in Newark. I got the impression the towing company does that too. Anyway, I missed the date to send it in by.
There's this site Parkingticket.com that will fight your ticket for free. They get half if they win. It's actually a legit service. Apparently if you actually fight a ticket you have a 75% chance of dismissal.
You work so hard just to make it until the end of the month. Something like this just kills you. I don't think you'd find a sane person who thinks $175 is fair for a street cleaning ticket. If the city of Newark needs money they should use the tax system, not this method of random muggings.

I need an IPod.

In a shameless plug for myself I would ask anyone who happens to stumble onto this page looking for Gin Blossom or Halo 2 pics to go here and sign up for free credit card or something.
http://www.freeiPods.com/?r=12135918

The deal is if you can get five people to sign up they send you a free IPod. My cousin Thomas got his last week so it's actually legit. Pretty neat.

It's actually pretty hard to get 5 people to sign up. People just lie to you and say they'll do it but they never do. I'll keep you updated if and when I actually get enough people.

Update: As I said, this is harder to do than it would seem. My own mother even lied to me this week. Looks like I may have to do without. =P

ilovebees.com Halo 2 sneakpeak.

I got to play Halo 2 in NYC last night. It was the finale of ilovebees.com. It was pretty fun although I don't know if it was worth the wait. The best part was watching people play from 4 location in the county on x-box live. It was fun to hear the crowd react to the game on the big screen. They gave away a lanyard and a DVD with the whole ilovebees.com internet radio play. I was kinda hoping to score a t-shirt but they didn't produce any. Didn't raffle any games off either. =( They also banned cameras and phones with cameras. Crazy huh? I did manage to snap a few before the theater gustapo put an end to it.

Moviescreen multiplayer goodness.

Before they got the online multilplayer game going the familiar X-Box live update screen made an appearance.

X-Box Live is updating =)

When I finally got to play I got my butt kicked. I'm so used to PC first person shooter controls that I found it impossible to move around in Halo 2. I got to play some halo 1 this weekend to get my skills back up to speed. Then the other guy got a hold of the plasma sword and it was all over but the shouting. That thing is just brutal. Two on two deathmach was kinda lame. You spend half your time trying to find each other on a giant level. The big screen matches were much cooler. They were doing 8 player games. You could hear the people talking from around the country. It was pretty sweet. Game comes out midnight monday. Cheers.

Another Italian Ties the Knot

I'm backdating this one because I'm a bit late in getting these off my phone and posted. Went to Vito's wedding a.k.a. The Queen of peace 1993 reunion. It was a good time. Great family. Good food and drink. Lot's of friends and fun. Cheers to the happy couple.

Vito and Cat

John terrorizing the bridesmaids with bubbles.

Meghan & Lucan

Jeff and English friend.

Gin Blossoms in NYC

Greetings trubelievers. My good friend from Blonde Justice has told me to stop putting "snarky comments" on other people's pages and post something of my own. So...

Last night I saw Gin Blossom at BB King's in NYC. The show was great. They've got some new tunes and hopefully will have a new album in a few months. I know these pictures are kinda sucky but what do you expect from a free cellphone?

I was hoping to get my cd autographed but the club wouldn't let them come out afterwards. Last time I saw them Robin Wilson spent like an hour saying hi and signing stuff. I didn't have my cd on me but I did get him to sign my Metro Card. =) Anyhow the stupid club was rushing everyone out because some big dj was having a show right after. I honestly don't get how a guy can get famous for playing records. Can't he just email what he was gong to play that night?

If you've ever have the chance to see your favorite band play at BB King's do it. It's really the best venue I've seen. You can get right up to the band so it's a zillion times better than at some stadium.


Robin Wilson

Jesse Valenzuela

Gin Blossoms in NYC 10.14.04

Gin Blossoms in NYC 10.14.04

Gin Blossoms in NYC 10.14.04

Scott Johnson

Jesse Valenzuela

Robin Wilson

Bill Leen

Gin Blossoms in NYC 10.14.04

Gin Blossoms in NYC 10.14.04

Gin Blossoms in NYC 10.14.04

Gin Blossoms in NYC 10.14.04

Baggage and a Carry-On

I just wanted to talk for a moment about people with 'baggage and a carry-on.' This is how I've been classifying people who are extra specially screwed up. =) They not only have the normal amount of screwed up bs that most of us carry. They've got extra! They're using up all the overhead compartments and spaces below the seats.

I'm Moving Out

Well, it's official. Me and my friend Dave are moving into an apartment. I think it's gona be a good move. Living at home sucks and I just need some more space and my mom off my back. It's a roomy apartment. The only downside is that it's in Newark but apparently there's a new train station. If it goes straight to New York it could workout really great for me. At least living in the hood is cheap. The rent is very reasonable at $350. I'm excited for the change.

My friend, Ryan, had an extra ticket so I got to see 311 Sunday night. They're a pretty good band. I like their singles but I'm not crazy about all their stuff. I did like their version of The Cure's 'Lovesong'.

No AC in Kearny

Aghhhhhhhhh. My air conditioning is broken. I'm feeling like a dog in heat. Barred indoors from the summer street. Hey wait! That's a Green Day Lyric. I suppose it doesn't help that I have two computers in my room piping out the heat equivalent to a space heater Not much to say today. I got carded at TGI Friday's last night. It's nice to still at least look young if not feel it. =) Aced my Numerical Analysis midterm once again proving you don't have to understand a topic to pass a class. Saw a friend's cover band in West Orange Saturday night. They were pretty good. July is half over.
 

My New Vehicle

Well I haven't been doing such a great job of keeping up with this blog but I'm now adding pictures so if 1 pictue = 1000 words maybe I can catch up a bit.

Last Friday was very exciting as I got my new Scion. It's quite sweet. Except for college it's the most money I've ever spent at one time. I'm really glad to be driving a car I'm not afraid is going to kill me. As I pulled out of the dealer a torrential rain started. I drove up the Belleville Pike at times in two feet of water. I was worried I was gonna get stuck and be teased endlessly.

My new Scion. =)

As for my faithful Civic, it was sold down the street to the tune of $300. The guy told assured me would bring it to a farm where it can retire happily and play in the fields all day.

The beaten Civic.

Gmail Is Cool

I'm loving my gmail account. I don't fully utilize it because it's such a pain to redirect everyone but it's been helpful for work the last few days. I've been having trouble getting rid of invites after the first three or four. Gave my cousin one last night. Still have three left. There's a great site for swapping your invites. I'm trying to barter and address for a six course dinner for four. Wish me luck. =)

Ronny's Funeral Webcam

The associated press has a live webcam setup for the Regan Funeral that let's you see people go by:
http://play.rbn.com/?url=aplive/nynyt/live/live.smi&proto=rtsp

I found it while reading this Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/09/politics/09CND-REAG.html?hp

Seems kinda morbid to me but better hurry up and check the link while it's still going on. =)

Radio Star

My band recorded our first promotional cd this weekend. Hopefully we'll be comming to a wedding near you =). It was a fun experience. Our base player Paul's son JP did the recording. He has this insane home studio setup that probably cost more than 10 times what my car is worth?
Speaking of my car, the current plan is to fly to Texas where my father will assist me in obtaining a new one. He's the one who's good at this stuff so I might as well let him help me.
I spent Sunday night with Kenny watching the final Sopranos of the season and eating giant sandwiches. They're not even going to start filming the next season until next April or May. I'm gonna have to sate myself with old West Wing episodes on Bravo. Is it just me or does TV just suck nowadays? There are so few good shows.

Rocking the PNC Arts Center

Got to see Blink 182 and No Doubt last night thanks to Mr. Duy Nguyen. Pretty good show. I went with Ruy, Charia, and Theresa. Ruy ever the sound engineering musician was saying the vibe he was getting from No Doubt was that the band didn't seem into it probably because of the attention Gwen get. =P He thinks that's pretty lousy of them when all the people cam to see a show. I thought they were good. A bit off at times, but I heard it was only there second show in a long time. Ruy said the Arts Center sound is really low, probably because of the neighborhood or something. He said at Woodstock the amps only put out 150 watts and it wasn't that loud. There's guys drivng around Newark with 10 times that in their car. Gwen really knows how to move. I don't know how she can sing and move like that at the same time. All in all a good show. =)

The Coca-Cola Conspiracy

Has anyone noticed that the 2 liter bottles of Coke are now being replaced with 1.5 liters at the grocery store. The prices, however, have remained the same. At the $1.88 the were charging, if you do the math, its a 32% price increase. What the hell?! Their marketing is saying its "more convenient for consumers." Yeah, conveniently ripping us off. I myself will be avoiding the 1.5l as long as possible, but I'm sure Pepsi is going to jump onto the ripoff bandwagon.