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How much energy was wasted to promote this hybrid vehicle?

Life and Times

Go read this.

Sir, you can’t ask to not be seen as a racist when you say things such as:

Blacks Using 8-Bit Music To Entice Youth

and

I’m worried that this rapping mongrels want to brainwash our children to be the next gangsta thug. I’m love blacks, I just don’t like their hipped hopped culture.

I wish I had the faith in humanity to believe no one would take this guy seriously, but well…I know better. I wonder if the concept of me being an ivy league graduate working for MS is too much for him to grasp. It would probably just eradicate his mind to know that I’ve been listening to hip hop and rap since I was a teenager. How can anyone be successful under such conditions, especially being black. Shouldn’t my “hipped hopped” (wtf does that even mean?) culture prevent me from succeeding. And I won’t even begin to start on his “x-tian” (I refuse to acknowledge him as a Christian) values. His responses in his comments are so anti-Christ it’s actually painful.

Oh the internet, allowing me to see how retarded humanity can get since 1997.

As an aside, you should check out the “satan” music. It’s pretty hilarious. How anyone could take this seriously is beyond me.

Life and Times, Music, The Internet

As you can see by the side bar, I’m now Twittering. I’m still not sure how I ultimately feel about making such a decision. It’s one of those things I always kind of ignored, and now I’ve just kind of started doing it. It’s kind of strange, honestly, given that I’ve been blogging for so long. I was wondering if I’d blog less because I have twitter. But 1. I honestly don’t think I can blog less and say I still have a blog; and 2. you really can’t fully express yourself in 140 characters.

Interestingly, I no longer feel a need to update my Facebook status anymore. With the twitter plugin, there’s really no incentive to do it. Twitter is essentially Facebook status messages in a more public space; which, given how many people are on Facebook, might as well be public.

This leads me to wonder about where our current society is going. It’s clear that with Blackberries, iPhones and every other smartphone on the planet, we’re approaching the always connected world described in so many cyberpunk novels. I think I’m going to have to go back and watch Lain because I honestly feel like we’re approaching that world, or at least to some extent.

Hmmm, this might be an interesting blog post for another time.

Technology, The Internet

So, after months of searching craigslist and basstalk.com I have finally finished acquiring bass gear. Or at least I have for now. I’ve got enough basses (3 of them) and I have my amplification and effects all in hand. If you’re interested, read on under the cut:
Read more…

Life and Times

[Note: I was supposed to write this on the 24th]
So this past weekend was a bit of an adventure. I know I haven’t blogged in a while, and well, being stupid busy does that to a guy, but I definitely want to just recount a bit of my previous weekend. Because it was definitely…interesting.

To begin, this past weekend was my friend Erik’s bachelor party up in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The affair started Thursday and went through Sunday. Of course, due to me being on a recruiting trip to Princeton, I was scheduled to arrive late Friday night. Notice how I said “scheduled” to arrive.

So Friday afternoon, after talking to Princeton undergrads for four hours, I hopped a train up to Newark Airport so I could catch my 9:15 plane. Now, because I had been smart with my scheduling, I arrived at Newark Terminal at 5:50. Plenty of time to get everything in order, and because I only had a carry-on I was super set. I had my boarding pass and had made my way to my proper gate by 6:20. Seriously, I was golden. Once situated, I sat down, opened up my laptop and began to finish the write up for my problem set. About two hours later, I look up and realize, “hmmm…they haven’t changed the next departure board for my gate.” This should have been my first sign of…awesome to come. I walk up to the gate and find out, “SURPRISE! Your flight was canceled due to ‘weather’!” Terrific. Since I had scheduled myself on the last plane from NJ to Montreal, I was stuck.

Deciding to make the best of the situation, I got tickets for the 8:10 flight to Montreal and called up my friend Laura in Manhattan. Since Laura is awesome, she said I could crash at her place. And because she’s a law student, she said she had work to do, which I was totally down with since I had to get up at 5:45 in the morning. Thus, I hopped on a train and headed to NYC. Now, sometime between Newark and her apartment, Laura decided we should go grab drinks somewhere. Not one to turn down a chance to chill with a friend, I said I was down. So, I submitted my problem set, got ready and Laura and I went out.

After a quick bite to eat at a Chinese restaurant, I decided to drag Laura up to my favorite wine bar in…well..the world, La Rendevou. And I like La Rendevou, it’s got great music, good wine and the staff is really cool. (It doesn’t hurt that my sister’s boyfriend hangs out there a lot) So yeah…we have a bottle of wine. And then, we split a wine flight. And by this time, I’m well socially lubricated. And, I’m waiting for my friend David to call me back. Since I hadn’t seen him in over a year (my previous trips to NYC, he’d been away on gigs) I wanted to catch up. Of course, because everything was spur of the moment, he had plans. BUT, he would be free at 2. Deciding I shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to see a good friend, I figured I’d be out. Sure why not.

So at 2:00 AM, David calls me and says, “Stay there, I’m on my way.” And at 2:15, I see one of my best friends. Of course, we decide to have a glass of wine. This last glass may not have been a good idea, in retrospect. But, I didn’t care at the time. David and I caught up, and it was pretty awesome. Afterwards, Laura and I headed to her place to crash. It should be noted that the time was 3:15.

Now, I had set the alarm on my phone for 5;45 BEFORE we left. I wanted to make sure it was set. Well, somehow, in my alcohol-induced fog, I turned it off. I woke up at 7:20 in the morning. Yeah…Thankfully, it was before the flight and for 50 bucks, I was able to get on the 12:15. So, I went back to bed and got to Newark and boarded and everything was fine.

Well, except for the fact that, in order to be fully with it, I didn’t take my anti-anxiety medication. I quickly remembered why I do that. Yeah…that was a very craptacular hour.

But, once on the ground, everything was pretty cool. The bachelor party was great. The food was amazing. It was…well…awesome.

Then Sunday happened.

I’m not sure what it is about my family, but we just attract shit to happen to us when we fly. Honestly, my dad; my sister; me…we just can’t fly anywhere without it being an adventure. To start, it started snowing late Saturday night, early Sunday morning. Already, I’m dreading the travel. For I know I’m doomed. And while all of my friends were sure everything would be fine, I knew better.

Oh how I hate being right.

So first, after we said our good-byes, my buddy Brad and I hopped a cab to the airport. About 15 minutes into the drive I feel a THUD. Yup, that’s right, our cabby rear ended a guy. It wasn’t any major damage that I could see. But the check engine light came on. Now, thankfully, Brad speaks conversational French and was able to handle everything; including getting me out of having to be a witness since I would be useless to the poor Canadians. But, after that was resolved and information was exchanged we got to Montreal Airport. Little did I know, we were just beginning.

We got to the airport with about 2 hours, which, is cutting it closer than I would like for international travel, but it’s ok. So, I swiped my passport at the ticket machine and was told to immediately report to the counter. Why? Because my flight to Newark was delayed and I was going to miss my connection to Seattle. Ok, not a problem, there’s a flight to NYC and you’ll have an hour and a half to make your connection to Seattle. Sweet. The only problem: it leaves in an hour. D’oh.

Soooo, Brad and I haul ass to customs. We get through there and through security and I have about 5 minutes before boarding starts. So I’m racing through the airport. I give Brad 5 bucks and tel him to meet me at the gate, I need him to get me some water for my meds. Brad’s cool like that, so he obliges me. I get to the gate sit down, brad shows up 2 minutes later; and I take my meds. All will be fine. Then 20 minutes goes by and I’m still not boarding. I go up to the counter and ask about the flight.

“Oh yeah, it’s been delayed.”

Terrrrific. Ok, not a problem, this gives me just enough time to get to the food court and get food. Why? Because now I can’t eat in NYC, and I can’t go 9 hours without eating. It’s a bad scene. So, I haul ass to the BK in the food court, get food and get back. I eat and I’m good to go for boarding. We’re running late, but if we leave when we’re supposed to. I’ll still get back to Seattle.

So I board the plane. Sit in my seat, and as is typical for me on my meds. I pass out. Then I woke up an hour later. Because we were taking off. Shit. Yeah, we were delayed again on the tarmac. But it’s ok. I might just still make it. I could. We landed at 7:15. I have 15 minutes. We could make it. We just have to…wait, why aren’t we taxiing…shit.

Time I stepped off the plane: 7:33
Time my flight to Seattle left: 7:30

Well, not one to panic I assessed the situation and got on the first thing smoking to Seattle. 8:15. At this point, I decide, who can I stay with, and decide to call my friends Jim and Jenn. (Who are also awesome, btw). They are nice and let me crash at their place, as well as use their washer and dryer so I can have clean cloths.

The next morning, I’m woken up by all three of the cells phone I’m carrying with me. I get up, get to JFK and somehow manage to get back to Seattle. Where I promptly went to the office.

So yeah. It was…interesting. I had a great time, and I’m really glad with all the people I got to see. But man, I really hate the act of flying.

Life and Times