Eve of Election...

On the night before election day, I humbly submit my prediction for the election. After reviewing state and national polls, liberal and conservative blogs, and my own inner Magic 8 Ball, I have arrived at (not surprisingly) a victory for Barack Obama. Final tally: 329 electoral votes for Obama, 209 for McCain.



Let me know what you think...and don't forget to vote!!!

Brian

Reading woes

About a month ago I decided that it was about time that I read "Crime and Punishment" by Dostoyevsky. It was one of those books that I picked up years ago at a used book store for a dollar and a quarter but hadn't gotten around to reading yet. It was also one of those "classics" that I somehow missed out on in high school and college. So, with high expectations and the name Raskolnikov rambling around my head (thanks to one of my favorite Mountain Goats songs) I opened the book and began to read. And I'm reading still. More than 30 days later and I'm barely 150 pages in.
The book is certainly good, but I am finding ploddingly slow at most points. It's the reading equivilant of a marathon race with a 100 meter dash thrown in every 5 miles. Those 100 meter points are great, captivating, exciting. But then we slow down again to a steady jog and amble away to thoughts of depression and slow mental suffering. Frankly, I don't know how I'm going to make it to the end of the book. In the month since I've started reading, I've stopped, picked up, and finished two other books. Far easier and much more entertaining, these two books (a collection of David Sedaris stories and a Sherlock Holmes novel) and those like them are very tempting to sit down with. "Crime and Punishment" not so much.
So now what? As I see it I have three options: 1. I put the book down and never pick it up again; 2. I put the book aside for a few weeks and come back to it later; or 3. I suck it up and read the damn thing like it was a homework assignment. Knowing myself, I'll probably push through and choose option #3. But damn it if I won't complain loudly while doing so.
Thanks for letting me bitch.

Trippin'

On Thursday evening I will be taking my first "real" business trip for my work. (I say "real" because I don't count the day trip I took last year to upstate New York; too close to call it a business trip.)
This time, I am flying to Seattle for a meeting with a client who we are trying to get some more money from. The timing of the trip works out nicely since it gives me the chance to spent a nice weekend with my friend Jared. He and I try to visit one another at least twice a year. He was here in March and I am due to visit him in October, so this will be a nice bonus trip in between. And made even better by the fact that my work is picking up the tab. Gotta love it!
Now, don't get me wrong, the trip is not all about visiting Jared. That's just a nice perk. The main thing I want to do is go into my meeting and, two hours later, walk out with a half million dollars in our pocket. We've been chasing this for a while and now it's finally coming to fruition. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
And now I'm stepping out of the subway and heading home. Catch you later.

A short one

Ahh, New York. Here I am on the subway again, returning home from an evening of dinner and drinks with my volleyball teamates. (That's right I joined a volleyball league. I've been playing with this team since February and it is a very fun, though not too athletically-gifted group of people. We are currently on hiatus during the summer months, waiting for the fall season to begin.) I ventured out from my job in Soho and headed north to a restaurant on 54th and Lex. It was a very cool place, the site of a former speakeasy so the entire bar and restaurant was below ground where the "coppers" couldn't get ya. We had a very fun time, eating and drinking enough to reach the point of almost full and almost drunk. This random assortment of people, a few of whom I have come to really really like, is a wonderful collaboration of souls. I am sure that such a mix of random strangers-turned-friends could happen almost anywhere, but I think that finding this diverse group of people is not a usual thing. It's nice to know that there are plenty of people out there that you could accidentally come upon and find absolutely fascinating. I hope that this kind of thing happens more often. I have sort of (though not officially) joined a kickball league and will be playing Sunday afternoon with a bunch of strangers (and my friend who invited me to join). Hopefully this random collection of people will be just as interesting and fun to hang out with. In this city the possibilities seem to be endless.

Again

Subway blogging, day 2.
Lessons learned from yesterday's experiment: typing on this tiny keyboard leads to a bunch of spelling errors, missing/extra letters, and scattered thoughts.
Not sure if anyone actually read my last post. No comments were added (not that I deserve them) and I've completely lost track of my counter. Let's assume that at least one person (Burb) actually read it. That makes me feel good. I hope you enjoyed it Burb. You've entertained me plenty over the years with your blog so I'm hopeful that I can reciprocate.
For today's installment, I can report that I was a cranky bitch at work today. At one point I uttered the phrase "I'm sick of this bullshit!" and walked out of the building and didn't return for half an hour. "What," you might ask "caused such an outburst?" Well, I'll tell ya: stupid nothingness. My department has been mired by red tape policies for a while and they are completely useless. My frustration with these policies was brought to a head today when I was stopped from taking a set of layouts for one of my programs because it didn't have a folder to route in. When I offered to get a folder for the layout I was told that it had to be done by someone else. That made absolutley no sense to me, so I expressed my frustration, grabbed the layouts and a folder and walked off. There is no reason to deal with that shit. It slows things down and boggles the mind. And, not to be too high and mighty, but I have seniority over some of the people I was arguing with and they should let me do whatever I want!!! Okay, that definitely sounded high and mighty...and elitist...and arrogant. Whatever; screw 'em.
After my walk out, I calmed down a bit and was able to get through the day without assaulting anyone.
And now I'm going home, about 4 hours earlier than last night, with only one more work-related thing to do tonight. It should only take me about 15 minutes, so I should be able to enjoy the evening.
Speaking of enjoying evenings, lately I've been watching a lot of TV online via the wonderful site www.surfthechannel.com (warning: this is not at all legal--in case you care). This site has got everything on it, from crappy 80s tv shows to a bootleg version of Dark Knight. Another warning: recent movies are recorded by a dude with a crappy video camera, so it's often out of focus and has people walking in front of the screen. But for things that have been released on DVD, the quality is great and, best of all, FREE!! I recommend it highly. Oh, here's my stop. Until next time.

Blogging on the run

I am the world's shittiest, most noncommital, lackluster blogger. I have no grand illusions of being able change that, but maybe I can at least throw out the occassional post as I venture home from work.
It is about 10:30 right now and I am just leaving the office, which tells you what kind of a crappy day it was. Plus, just as I am typing this out on my Blackberry, a very tall woman fell on top of me as the subway jerked out a station, causing her not too tiny breasts to nearly hit my face and, thereby, causing me to jerk my head back and smack it against the subway car window...which I am sure is home to millions of disease-causing bacteria.
The Amazon has since sat down next to me and is probably reading this as I type. Let me check. Nope, her eyes are squarely settled on her magazine. Unless she did read what I was writing and by the time I finished typing "Let me check" she had time to look away and pretend not to be reading over my shoulder. It's a damn paradox!
That little excursion aside, I will get back to the true purpose of this blog post: writing about writing about blogging (or, if Amazon is still paying attention, then reading about writing about writing). As I mentioned above, I am using my Blackberry to type this soliloquy out. This fun and fancy device was bequeathed to me by the fine folks at my work. In theory, it was supposed to allow me to leave the office at a normal hour and be able to email easily on the road and at home. Seeing as I worked a 13 hour day today, it's not really doing quite a good job. Actually, I shouldn't discount it too much. On numerous occassions over the past month or so that I've had it, the Blackberry has come in quite handy. Aside from using it as a GPS navigator, a quick way to surf the internet, and a shortcut for checking my gmail, I have been able to get out of the office, go out with friends and still do some work. A perfect example of such an occasion is our weekly Thursday night movies. Every Thursday over the summer, there are free outdoor movies shown at the Brooklyn Bridge Park (google it if you're interested since one of the downfalls of blogging on the subway is lack of internet access to find and copy links). So every Thursday a group of us bring some blankets, snacks, and wine and chill out under the stars (or, rather, tail lights from the bridge overhead). It's quite a fun time and one of the "New York moments" I most enjoy. Last week's movie in particular was quite an experience: we were getting ready for the movie (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) to start when fireworks started going off down the river, behind the screen. The fireworks were quite spectacular and, coupled with the faux art waterfall on the river, made for one hell of a scene. And, right before all that was going on, I was emailing a coworker on my Blackberry--instead of staying late at the office and running over to the movie just at it started. Well, I don't know where this whole thing is going and my stop is about to come up, so I will leave it there. Time to email Blogger with this post and see if mobile blogging works. Until next time! Whenever that is.

Movies

It’s been about a year since I went to the Sundance festival at BAM and saw a variety of outstandingly good movies. It seems that 12 months is the gestation period for these movies to come out (both in theaters and on DVD) and I am seeing them pop up here and there. I recommend that you check out each of the following movies once they are within your grasp:

Great World of Sound
Out on DVD in February, this small indie film about two record company recruiters is a terrific combination of witty, depressing, and awkward. An added joy is the fact that some (if not most) of the bands that show up to audition for the recruiters are real…and don’t know that they are being filmed as part of a movie. Best of all, the movie has possibly my favorite movie soundtrack song on it. The first version (below) is from the movie itself, sung by a young girl in the film.


The second version is sung by Brooklyn-based David Wingo, who wrote the song for the movie. Both versions are somewhat ridiculous, but oddly heart-warming.


Son of Rambow
This was the opening night feature at Sundance last year and has just been released to theaters in a few select cities. Son of Rambow tells the story of 11 year old Will, an imaginative kid raised among a strict religious community. Will befriends the local school bully who takes him under wing and introduces him to a world Will’s never seen: namely “First Blood”. After watching a bit of the overly violent movie, Will envisions a world in which he is the son of the legendary Rambo. He gets other students at the school to help him create a movie in homage to “First Blood.” The movie within the movie unravels at the end and Will must face the consequences of breaking free from the strict society. All in all a very nice, easy to fall into film. And with a great 80s soundtrack to boot!

Rocket Science
A brilliantly funny and quirky film. Set in New Jersey (which is always a good thing in my book), the film gives a startlingly honest portrayal of gawky high school years. The poor main character, who is convinced, through the feminine whiles of a senior girl, to join the debate team despite a terrible stutter, is played convincingly by Reece Daniel Thompson. Echoes of Napoleon Dynamite (but not nearly as crappy) and Wes Anderson (but not nearly as brilliant) come to mind. Out on DVD in late January.

All of the above is on my mind because the latest Sundance at BAM is coming soon. After last year, I have very high expectations for the films. Hopefully Robert Redford won’t disappoint.


PS: At some point I am going to post an unbelievably long and boring entry discussing the many changes that have happened in my life since January 2008. It’s been that long since I’ve shared anything.