The Kind Purgatory

WHITE PRIVILEGE

2008-09-16T08:56:00.002-04:00

I read an article by Tim Rice that Nancy has passed on to me.I truly believe that racism is alive and thriving in this country. It may not be as overt as it once was (I really couldn't tell you as I am not a direct victim and it would be foolish for me to speak for those who are victims of racial atrocities) but it is still present.

I think this article does a nice job of pointing out the hypocrisy off the media and the double-standard whites or any hegemonic power holder place on minorities. This race would not be close if Barack Obama was a white male.

here is the link or you can read it below.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

This is Your Nation on White Privilege

(NOTE: I added some things to this piece, and made a few changes to other parts for accuracy and clarity. So, if you are going to send the piece around to more people m please send this version if possible)

This is Your Nation on White Privilege
By Tim Wise
9/13/08

For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested."

White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.

White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.

White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto is "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being disrespectful.

White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college and the fact that she lives close to Russia--you're somehow being mean, or even sexist.

White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because suddenly your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a "second look."

White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.

White privilege is when you can take nearly twenty-four hours to get to a hospital after beginning to leak amniotic fluid, and still be viewed as a great mom whose commitment to her children is unquestionable, and whose "next door neighbor" qualities make her ready to be VP, while if you're a black candidate for president and you let your children be interviewed for a few seconds on TV, you're irresponsibly exploiting them.

White privilege is being able to give a 36 minute speech in which you talk about lipstick and make fun of your opponent, while laying out no substantive policy positions on any issue at all, and still manage to be considered a legitimate candidate, while a black person who gives an hour speech the week before, in which he lays out specific policy proposals on several issues, is still criticized for being too vague about what he would do if elected.

White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates America.

White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.

White privilege is being able to go to a prestigious prep school, then to Yale and then Harvard Business school, and yet, still be seen as just an average guy (George W. Bush) while being black, going to a prestigious prep school, then Occidental College, then Columbia, and then to Harvard Law, makes you "uppity," and a snob who probably looks down on regular folks.

White privilege is being able to graduate near the bottom of your college class (McCain), or graduate with a C average from Yale (W.) and that's OK, and you're cut out to be president, but if you're black and you graduate near the top of your class from Harvard Law, you can't be trusted to make good decisions in office.

White privilege is being able to dump your first wife after she's disfigured in a car crash so you can take up with a multi-millionaire beauty queen (who you go on to call the c-word in public) and still be thought of as a man of strong family values, while if you're black and married for nearly twenty years to the same woman, your family is viewed as un-American and your gestures of affection for each other are called "terrorist fist bumps."

White privilege is being able to sing a song about bombing Iran and still be viewed as a sober and rational statesman, with the maturity to be president, while being black and suggesting that the U.S. should speak with other nations, even when we have disagreements with them, makes you "dangerously naive and immature."

White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism and an absent father is apparently among the "lesser adversities" faced by other politicians, as Sarah Palin explained in her convention speech.

And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.

White privilege is, in short, the problem.

Scott: here is part of the solution:

Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form.

2008-09-04T12:27:00.000-04:00

Community Building Works!

2008-08-18T08:51:00.007-04:00

I have been doing some volunteer work for a local organization called "Community Building Works!" Community Building Works is a not-for-profit group whose mission is to build affordable green housing while teaching skills to an all-volunteer labor force. We were rebuilding a home in Ithaca, rebuilding the second floor before tackling the insides which have been gutted.
This renovation is being done for Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services, and the money Community Building Works earns for this work will help offset costs of future projects. Some of these projects include building homes in developing nations. Community Building Works plans to build one house abroad for every one it builds locally.

It was a really cool day as I was using circular saws to build scaffolding that I would later use to walk on. Then I used a nail gun to do top plating on the walls that we raised up, standing on the scaffolding we built (in the background in the below image) It was fun, and scary.

Here are some of the photos that were taken by the Ithaca Journal. We were featured in the paper on Saturday in the local news section.

I trusted you! more Andy Kaufman genius

2008-08-01T12:26:00.001-04:00

My hero - Andy Kaufman

2008-08-01T11:06:00.002-04:00

You may not know this about me but my favorite comedian, above all rest, is Andy Kaufman. Forget Man in the Moon - that horrible catastrophe of a movie, below are 4 embedded parts of an Andy Kaufman appearance on HBO. I won't even try to describe his comedy in depth. All I can say was that the man was a genius and he bent the rules of what comedy was and what a comedian can do on stage. Thank fgoes out to thelonelysandwich for posting these on youtube.com

rest in peace Genie

2008-07-07T16:14:00.004-04:00

Genie passed away this weekend from internal complications related to stasis and adhesions from spaying. She was the most incredible rabbit I have ever encountered. She was big in every way, not just in size. Nancy and I first rescued her from Geneva, NY (hence the name Genie) where she was living on the street. Little did we know that this big rabbit was going to grow and grow and grow and take a big place in our hearts. It was amazing to watch her - from the soaring twirls and binkies in moments of happiness and the walloping flops she would make at your side, showing her loyalty and affection-she was always fun and interesting to watch. Sure she had an appetite for destruction (futon legs, book spines, carpet) but it was easy to overlook when you'd get a glimpse of those big eyes and that big bunny nose. She'll forever be linked to that great David Bowie song. which I know is playing somewhere as a big gray rabbit does binkies into the sky " the jean GENIE let yourself gooooooowwhooooah!" '

We'll miss you dearly.

Jill Bolte Taylor: Neuroscientist and Stroke Survivor

2008-06-26T11:00:00.002-04:00

I listened to this woman speak on Fresh Air this morning. It is an amazing story and one that is close to my heart as my dear Aunt Blanche suffered a few years ago and I want to understand more about this medical occurrence..

In short, Jill's story:

One morning, a blood vessel in Jill Bolte Taylor's brain exploded. As a brain scientist, she realized she had a ringside seat to her own stroke. She watched as her brain functions shut down one by one: motion, speech, memory, self-awareness ...

Amazed to find herself alive, Taylor spent eight years recovering her ability to think, walk and talk. She has become a spokesperson for stroke recovery and for the possibility of coming back from brain injury stronger than before. In her case, although the stroke damaged the left side of her brain, her recovery unleashed a torrent of creative energy from her right. From her home base in Indiana, she now travels the country on behalf of the Harvard Brain Bank as the "Singin' Scientist."

4th Generation Cattle Rancher is VEGAN

2008-06-25T10:26:00.002-04:00

If you care about the future of this planet you'll watch these. If you don't, you'll at least understand why I don't eat meat. It isn't ONLY about the animals. It is about the human race. We can't survive at this pace of reproduction, deforestation, and livestock farming. I am not trying to persuade anybody. I am just trying to get the information out there so that you can make an informed decision and TRULY understand the impact of a meat-eating diet. Al Gore, for all the good he did with The Inconvenient Truth left out the BIGGEST cause of greenhouse gases: confined factory farming. Not surprising since Al was raised by ranchers but it was an Incomplete Incovenient Truth. Well, here is Harold Lyman, the mad cowboy.

Part I

Part II

food for thought and thoughts on food

2008-06-24T14:31:00.004-04:00

The Skatalites

2008-06-23T09:29:00.003-04:00

Thanks to my good friend, singer-songwriter Jonny Meyers I was given some free tickets to see The Skatalite at Castaway's here in Ithaca New York. This weekend was the Ithaca Festival and they were here as oine of the visiting bands . Jonny is doing some work with Kevin Batchelor who plays trumpet in the band and Kevin was nice enough to put me on the list. I wasn't feeling like going in the afternoon but i got my ass together and went to the show. Thanks nancy for being my designated driver! We saw Jon and Suki there - I even ran into my masseuse, Janna, who was dancing the night away — the press's IT guy, Adam, and a thousand others i always see around town. It was a fun night - thanks everybody! I especially want to thank the 60- year old white guy in the button-down shirt for doing the elaine-robot dance. That was rhythmic ;)

George Carlin

2008-06-23T08:55:00.003-04:00

Found out that George Carlin passed away. I love people who test limits and push the edge, especially in a funny way. He just had an amazing perspective on things and could frame the absurd found in the ordinary and make it incredibly funny.

As good 'ol Wiki says:
George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008) was a Grammy-winning American stand-up comedian, actor, and author.

Carlin was especially noted for his political and black humor and his observations on language, psychology, and religion along with many taboo subjects. Carlin and his "Seven Dirty Words" comedy routine were central to the 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation, in which a narrow 5-4 decision by the justices affirmed the government's right to regulate Carlin's act on the public airwaves.

George Carlin's most recent stand-up routines were primarily focused on attacking the flaws in modern-day America. He often took on contemporary political issues in the United States and satirized the excesses of American culture.

He was considered by many to be a successor to the late Lenny Bruce and was described by Comedy Central as the second greatest stand-up comedian of all time behind Richard Pryor, and right before Lenny Bruce. He was a frequent performer and guest host on The Tonight Show during the three-decade Johnny Carson era, and was also the first person to host Saturday Night Live.

Below is a video of his famous "Seven Dirty Words." Enjoy!

Another great bit is Baseball and Football,
also below.

Here is a link to his bit on Stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac

Another bit on Drugs

And last but not least, SOME PEOPLE ARE STUPID

It's been a while....

2008-06-20T09:55:00.002-04:00

...since I posted about what is going on or has gone on in the last few months. I guess the biggest thing would be the end of my relationship with nancy and the sale of our house in Groton. Nancy and I are still great friends and talk everyday so that has ended up well (and yes, I remain a vegetarian). The house sold in three weeks and we made a few bucks so that wasn't as bad as it could have been. Honestly I am not going to miss Groton. Now that I have moved back to Ithaca I realize how dead, boring, and backwards it was out there. Groton will remain behind because that is what it wants to do. The people there are just 'good 'ol boys' who blindly follow what has been passed on from generation to generation. Shit like hunting, and souping up your pick-up truck, the piles of junk on front porches and political views that scream "I am an ignorant, biased person." The house and yard were great but the populous not so much. I do have to say that I had great neighbors out there and there are maybe two handfuls of residents that are free thinkers.

So now I am renting an attic apartment in Cayuga Heights. It is a lot to get used to - less room, less privacy, neighbors that make noise.... One good thing is that I am able to walk to work and save money on the gas (it was a 1/2 hour each way driving back and forth to Groton). More exercise, less gas consumption: sounds good to me.
Plus, my commute leads me ovber suspension bridges that cross over the famous Ithacan gorges. I'll post some pics soon.

Peaceable Kingdom trailer

2008-05-16T11:54:00.002-04:00

">

Need I say more? Watch. Learn.

Understand that the meat you eat and the milk you drink is laden with cruelty—that mothers and their children are separated, that it is unhealthy.
Some people say it is a choice.

Yes it is.

It is a choice between ignoring the truth about factory farming (and as a result dehumanizing yourself) and realizing the truth about where your food came from—the realization that it was once alive with emotions, feelings, desires just like yours.

I ask how any mother would feel if their children were taken away from them so that milk could be harvested from their breasts.
How can any Jew or any culture that has been slaughtered and treated "like an animal" by another "superior authority" not make the connection between that experience and what a farm animal goes through before it gets to your plate, into your mouth, and a part of your body.

You may find plenty of rationalizations and excuses but none of them ring more true than reality—the reality of now, the reality of the choice you have. I am not trying to change you- I am trying to give you the opportunity to seek the truth and listen to your heart and make that decision to change, all by yourself.

It's Springtime in Ithaca

2008-03-28T10:17:00.005-04:00

Been a while since i have posted. Lots has happened. The relationship is over (but the friendship isn't) and the house is in the process of being sold, and everything is going to be alright.

What isn't ok is the snow we got last night. It is officially Spring, but you wouldn't know it based on the snow on the ground. It's pretty the first few times but by the 20th snowfall I can say that i am officially sick of the snow. I'll be less aggravated by it once i move into my new apartment in Cayuga Heights. I'll be able to walk to work if I want and won't have to worry about driving in this snow. The public bus has a pickup a block from home and a drop-off right in front of work.

Official Designer

2008-01-16T14:47:00.000-05:00

Many have heard of the NBA (National Basketball Association) but few people know about the NDA.
The NDA you say? Yes, the national Designers Association. I got this t-shirt online after a co-worker saw it. I had to have it. It takes the style of the NBA logo and MLB logo but puts a designer in it-obviously.
The dude in the picture actually looks a lot like me. Which is funny.

First Snow

2007-11-16T08:51:00.000-05:00

Last night it started to snow. I was driving home from the car mechanic on dark country roads and I got the strangest sensation. The flakes were so big and because of the forward motion of the car it had a strange vertigo-like effect. I had to pull over because it made me feel sick to my stomach. It reminded me of that amusement park "ride" where you are in front of a huge screen and are sent flying through the air on a first-person perspective of a roller coaster. It always made me queasy because my eyes told the brain we were moving but the part of the ears that helps us balance was telling the brain we weren't moving. The end result-nausea. I took nancy's advice and didn't focus on what was straight ahead and just kept my eyes on the white line of the shoulder. Needless to say we made it home in one piece but it was really weird.

Anyway, here is a picture of the year's first snowfall (for those of us who live the in Groton and Ithaca area). Was just a dusting, but hey, it counts!

A note to Cameron - I bet you aren't missing Ithaca right now ;)

Farm Sanctuary, Watkins Glen, NY

2007-10-29T16:00:00.001-04:00

Nancy and i went with a group of animal friendly vegans and vegetarians to Farm Sanctuar y, located in Watkins Glen, NY. It is a great place that gives homes to farm animals who have been mistreated and abused because of factory farming practices.

This is Bertha. She had the softest hair on top - this wavy white blonde patch of hair. She was really sweet and greeted us as we approached. The moo was so loud it echoed back at us 3 times.

Now that is a real goatee!

Jennifer and the group check out the turkeys.

This poor guy gets around on a prosthetic leg.

Nancy is petting some of the younger pigs. They were adorable and LOVED to have their bellies rubbed.

Pigs like to sleep too. Look at those little arms! I have video of one of them snoring. Perhaps I'll add it to the post when I figure out how to get the movies off the camera - the disk won't mount.

With a snout like that it is no wonder they can smell things several feet underground.

Autumn pics

2007-10-29T12:20:00.000-04:00

After nancy ran her half-marathon we decided to take the long way home and drove through some of the farmland that surrounds Groton. It was a clear crisp fall day - perfect for being a lazy photographer and taking pictures from the passenger side of nancy's car. Here are some photos. It was a particularly good year for foliage.

See nancy run. Run Nancy run.

2007-10-29T11:59:00.000-04:00

A couple of weekends ago nancy broke a personal record of running 13.3 miles (a half marathon) just over 1 hour and 52 minute ath the Cortland "Leaf peeper" race. I am impressed. Congratulations nancy! It was a beautiful fall day complete with mist rising over the early morning water.

the cold is trying to return.

2007-10-29T11:44:00.000-04:00

As many of you know, Central NY is cold. It has long dreary winters. Some of us like it, some of us can't take it (you know who you are). I like the change of seasons but I really dislike having to deal with a frozen car every morning. Here are a few pics of the frost.

Catching up

2007-10-29T11:42:00.000-04:00

Hi folks, I know it has been a while since I blogged — I am going to try and catch up in the coming weeks and get some pics and stuff up on the blog.

So here goes....

where does pleasure come from?

2007-10-26T16:10:00.001-04:00

Cat Confused By Scratching - Watch more free videos

Goodbye, Schuyler

2007-09-19T11:36:00.000-04:00

Sad to say, but our menagerie has lost a member, Schuyler.
He was a blue and white parakeet who shared a room with Roxy and Henry.

Nancy adopted him locally after my co-worker and pal Lou told us about him.

Wish I had a picture- he was a beautiful bird.

Rest in Peace Scooter

2007-08-14T12:13:00.000-04:00

Beloved Yankees SS and TV broadcaster, Phil Rizzuto died today. In addition to "The Money Store" advertisements, this one is a classic.

process enacted

2007-08-13T11:45:00.000-04:00

Well done movie using 987 polaroid pictures.

Old Grandma Hardcore (OGH)

2007-08-10T16:03:00.001-04:00

You can never be too old and enjoy video games. Check out Old Grandma Hardcore's Blog and watch some of her videos as she plays all the current-gen systems. Some viewer discretion is advised.

Sousaphone Hero

2007-08-01T12:40:00.001-04:00

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/activision_reports_sluggish_sales

The word "fuck"

2007-08-01T09:06:00.000-04:00

insomnia

2007-07-31T03:33:00.000-04:00

it's 334 in the morning.been up an hour and i know tomorrow will be hell. have heartburn and i imagine little tiny trolls with torches and pickaxes traveling up the CPAP tube crawling through my nose and down my throat. there is a leader who yells a direction and gets a chorus response in a helium pitch confirming the action. i turn to watch nancy sleep soundly trying to focus on her breaths as i watch an incredible curl fall down her back. I want to curl up into her but don't want to wake her. she'll be running 5 miles in a few hours. i wake a cat instead.fiona opens her belly up to me and purrs. i think about a dream i had last night - a new medical discovery that a fetus has the strength to grab your hand and pull you back into the womb with you it supposedly feels like experiencing God. hey, it's a dream! all i can do is describe it. means as much as the other dream i had— the one about me and nancy getting married and how i couldn't find any clothes to wear except for my old little league baseball uniform. in the dream i think it is funny but nancy...not so much.
my ADD rattled brain is spinning wildly as it goes through a random circle of topics from the rangers to geriatric diapers back to sports and and some cover design ideas. mental pinball. the thought of a round silvery ball makes me think of escher.i start to stare at the keyboard and see if i can form words by connecting keys that are next to each other but only get as far as typing that in for you to read. saw a video of myself and some close friends playing poker-took place in a another life back in nyc the night of a date with a former coworker whose incredible beauty intimidated me to complete insecurity and a frozen state. wish i had the confidence i sometimes feel now but that was part of a long path to the "here and now." wish it had gone better but when you feel like a dot of uniform complexity, impenetrable, only wanting acceptance, you can't possibly be open to just being who you are. nevertheless, an experience to hold onto one of a series of experiences that lead to the ones who followed, other mild disasters, falling for the right ones at the wrong time, the wrong ones at just the right time. I feel like getting up and walking in the back of the house in the wet grass - I fantasize about having a caveman battle with one of the the coy dogs that lurk back there at night and it makes me laugh as i picture myself doing battle in the shale blue boxer briefs i am wearing and envisioning the slow-mo undulations of my central new york gut. after an even battle, bloodied and caked in mud i make friends with the coy dog and ride him like a horse in the woods. ruling and proud of our domain. my typing makes nancy stir and i yawn. twice. we made vegan blueberry pancakes for dinner. my thoughts float upwards as i am flying on a billowing sheet over india with salman rushdie. we fly over a crowd of people trying to break the Guinness world record for the largest naan bread ever made. i see how high i can get it to fly and think of icarus and chuck yeager and how i better not push the limit.

Thriller!

2007-07-27T09:17:00.000-04:00

Prisoners in the Phillipines doing....Thriller !?!

wait to you see the "actress" lmao.

The Furry Grim Reaper

2007-07-26T09:26:00.000-04:00

Oscar, a hospice cat at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, R.I., seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours. Here is the article.

Edits: Some colleagues of mine, here at Cornell University Press, have turned me onto to some related ideas and web sites, in case you are interested.

Jonathan wrote: That's really cool! Glad they didn't completely dismiss it like they generally do. Reminds of the research being done by Rupert Sheldrake.

Susan wrote:Not to be gross, but I think it's probably an atavistic neurological ability; in the wild, it would be to a feline's benefit to wait for prey that might be attracted to a carcass.

What I Call Justice

2007-07-23T09:25:00.000-04:00

Birthday visit

2007-07-16T16:16:00.001-04:00

Went back down to NYC this weekend to see my mom who turns 65 today, Monday July 16, 2007. I'd say she looks great for her age? No ? That raw food diet and the running really pay off.
We went to Arqua Restaurant - an Italian Restaurant on Church St/White. The food was excellent and my sister Michelle, who couldn't make it, "sent" a bottle of champagne to start the celebration. It was very tasty!

My Aunt Blanche(my mom's Aunt, also named Blanche) gave each of us a picture that she took of us in the far past. My sister Lori and i received pictures of ourselves from when she took us to Europe. In the above picture, my cousin Carol is holding up an image of my mom posing with her younger brothers Peter, Paul and Richard as well as her younger cousins (my Aunt Blanche's daughters) Carol and Robin. It was nice to see Robin who made the trip down from Carlisle, Mass.—taking a break from running the store she owns with her husband Larry called Fern's Country Store

Before i went to the restaurant i got to say hi to my friend Henry who shares the same birthday as my mom. He lives in one of the new buildings being erected in Long Island City that are right on the water. Just a few steps outside his building and you get this view. The above picture of henry was taken in the garden area of the Long Island City Bar.

It is pretty spectacular and a neat perspective of manhattan—one I haven't ever experienced before. He is taking a lot of great pictures and taking some very cool time lapse photos of the East River and manhattan skyline that you can seen on his blog.

Tetris Dreams

2007-07-13T09:35:00.000-04:00

Remember back in the day when you would play Tetris for hours and hours. Do you also remember closing your eyes before falling asleep, and even during sleep, how you would continue to "play"? Well here is an interesting article, titled Tetris Dreams that explains why.

More from Keith

2007-07-04T21:54:00.000-04:00

How is Bush still president? I am truly amazed that he continuously gets away with so much. Maybe even more amazing is that we seem to let him.

These guys are nuts

2007-06-18T15:09:00.001-04:00

I LOVE JAPANESE TV.

Human Japanese Tetris

2007-06-14T16:06:00.000-04:00

WMDs in the US waters-and we put them there!

2007-06-14T10:19:00.000-04:00

This is pretty sick. Our armed forces have been dumping chemical weapons in the oceans.

First Mercury in fish now Mustard Gas with a side of nerve gas. Yummy!

http://scienceblogs.com/deepseanews/2007/06/munitions_dumping_at_sea.php

i can has cheezburger.com

2007-05-25T12:49:00.000-04:00

There are a lot of animal picture sites but this one is pretty funny. I don't quite get the cheezburger reference but it is funny nevertheless. Thanks to Chris for showing me the site.

http://icanhascheezburger.com

Happy Birthday Bob

2007-05-25T09:04:00.000-04:00

Today is Bob Dylan's birthday. Some of you may be turned off by the voice-I know, I know, but more important is the message that voice brings forth. So take a minute to reflect and pay tribute to America's greatest self-described "song and dance man."

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

Meeting the neighbors BITES!

2007-05-08T12:26:00.000-04:00

Nancy and I walked over to meet our new neighbors late Saturday afternoon. They have a dog—a pit bull mix named Nutmeg. Everything seemed fine, the dog approached nancy and sniffed her hand, she was wagging her tail and then without warning Nutmeg decided to take a closer look at nancy's face and bit it. It happened in a split second. I immediately turned around to look at nancy and it was clear that she had been bitten badly. The skin beneath her right eye, where "bags" reside, was hanging down, exposing the fatty tissue that lies underneath. We immedately went to the emergency room and got Nancy patched up. Luckily the doctor on call is well-known in the area as one of the best facial surgeons around. Nancy has stitches on her top right eyelid and below the right eye in two directions. She also has a puncture wound in her left cheek that got stitched up.

We felt really bad for the neighbors and for Nutmeg as it was their first day in the new house and we know they were mortified about what happened. We wanted to make sure that nothing happens to Nutmeg as that would be the real tragedy but the neighbors are going to have to be careful in the future and I think it would be a good idea for them to get a muzzle.

For those of you who have the stomach I will post an image of Nancy's eye. Scroll down. Waaaaaaaay down. More to come on this story....

keep going

UPDATE: Not so new Amazon - WTF !?!

2007-05-03T10:53:00.000-04:00

It gets better. I took another look at the shots of the damaged camera - it isn't even the right camera! This is the 630. I ordered the 700 ! (I had to enhance the image to make it clearer).

I called Amazon and reported what had apparently happened. See, they use vendors who then ship the materials as Amazon.com. Looks like someone there did a little switch-a-roo and put an old damaged 630 into the box of a new 700. Look at the pics from the "New Camera "post and compare.

I guess we all need to remember Amazon.com is merely a ditribution center - not an actual store.

The good news is this. Just got this e-mai from Amazon:

I have placed a new order for the Canon PowerShot SD700
IS 6MP Digital Elph Camera with 4x Image Stabilized Zoom.  There is
no charge for this replacement.

Estimated Delivery Date: May 4th

Not so new Amazon - WTF !?!

2007-05-03T10:07:00.000-04:00

So I got my new camera. New? I doubt it.

The box looked fine, everything looked brand new but when i opened the box and looked at the camera it was dented, and scrtached all over. There was even a piece buckling off of it. I made a couple of calls to Amazon.com. They have this neat new feature where you type in your phone number and customer service calls you - odd. You still wait but it was kind of neat. Anyway they are sending me (supposedly) another camera to replace this one and are paying for shipping. It is just really odd as it looks like someobody returned this camera and then it was repackaged and sent to me. I expect crap like that to happen on EBay but not on Amazon. Well I'll let you know how this ends up.

For the few minutes I looked at the camera I liked it a lot. The viewfinder is almost as big as the camera-it will be a blast to use. Now all I need to find is a non-leather case to protect it. Maybe something neoprene or a skin like those they sell for IPods.

New Camera

2007-05-01T14:51:00.000-04:00

I have had my Sony DSC F717 for 5 or 6 years now and I have finally decided to get a smaller digital camera for everyday use. The Sony is 5 megapixels but the optics and the lens are great and I use it all the time for my cover designs. This new camera is small enough to use and while not a big leap in megapixels (this has 6.0) it is well known for really good optics and for taking great pictures for a compact camera. So what did i get? I got a Canon Digital Elph SD700 IS.

See the pictures below. It is tiny!

Birthdays!

2007-05-01T12:40:00.000-04:00

Nancy and i traveled down to NYC the weekend of April 13 to celebrate her birthday (pictures above). We decided to take the bus down and get down there stress-free (the trip back was a little harrowing with the noreaster but I was still happy to not have to drive through wind, rain, and snow). We spent some time with family and friends and were able to enjoy a nice weekend of Vegan dining and shopping I( didn't make a blog entry but i am now in my fourth week of eating vegetarian). We ate at Blossom, (where we saw Ethan Hawke-he should stop talking so much and eat his food-what idiot cheats on Uma anyway? dumbass) Red Bamboo Soul Café and picked up dessert at Babycakes. Nancy has links to these places on her blog.

My mom made vegan brownies to mark the occasion (no she is not saying "hey fuckin vegan brownies with a NY accent in that picture).

It was good eating and good times.

There was ANOTHER birthday that weekend too (quite literally). Sophie Rotstein was born on April 13, 2007 to proud parents David and Simone. Congrats to Dave and Simone! What good timing - she decided to wait for Uncle Scott to come down to the city for her grand entrance into the world ;-). We ran into Henry and Emily Mahon at the hospital as well as Simone's mom and Fred. It was nice to see everybody.

I was afraid to take the pics with a flash so I used the infrared mode and then converted them to black and whites. They are a bit noisy but I think they came out okay anyway.

Freedom!

2007-04-30T11:05:00.001-04:00

Just a short note to mark a happy moment—this weekend I wrote THE check that freed me from credit card debt for the first time since I got one back in 1994 in college. Between not properly budgeting, buying luxuries, and NYC living I had gathered what seemed to be an insurmountable pile of debt. Not that I am out of it completely - there is that mortgage to speak of - but at least that is an investment !

Overhead view

2007-04-19T16:10:00.000-04:00

I have taken lot of pictures of the property nancy and I live on but unless you have been here it is hard to orient yourself. So I rented a helicopter and took some pictures. No I got these off maps.live.com (Microsoft's version of Google Earth).

The first image (above) shows our property line. We live on 1.36 acres of land.
The second image (below) shows the house (arrow at top) and then the other arrow shows the tressel from the old railroad. That path you see running along the land behind our property is where we take walks and where the beaver damn pond is located (that large body of water). There are many birds and plants that live back there. Rabbits, deer, racoons, beavers, muskrats and turtles to list a few. It is a lovely place to go wander and enjoy nature. I only wish people would stop riding motorbikes and snowmobiles back there. Click on the images for larger views.

Snowy Day

2007-02-19T09:04:00.000-05:00

I wanted to take some pictures of the nice winter scenes up here in Groton NY but when motivation struck the snow fell AGAIN adding to the 2 feet already on the ground. I didn't venture far (in fact i didn't take these outside)but here are the pics I took this Sunday. It was fun experimenting with shutter speed and trying to capture the snow as still. There is something beautiful about capturing a perpetual movement. I have been focusing on the concept of 'time' lately having read Peter Høeg's Borderliners for which I am redesigning the cover. (Thanks Henry!) Interwoven within the plot is a philosophical study of time—its meaning, its measurement. I digress! ;) When it is sunny I'll venture out and see how the trail looks and if the beaver dam pond has frozen over.

I LOVE coffee

2007-01-18T09:54:00.000-05:00

One of my greatest pleasures is a good cup of coffee or a well made latté. It can be an exspensive treat going to my favorite café, Gimmee Coffee (located here in Ithaca) or to Starbucks so I invested in a Super Automatic Espresso maker. I have had other models before but I decided to splurge on this one since they tend to be fragile and I think the better models make a better shot of espresso.

These machines grind the beans, brew the espresso, and discard the grounds all with the touch of a button. I have the machine at work since that is where i spend most of my time and do most of my coffee drinking. We don't froth the milk that often because it makes a lot of noise but it makes a great caffé crema, which is an extended shot of espresso to the size of a cup of coffee. It is a lot like an Americano.

.

Random photos

2007-01-18T09:23:00.000-05:00

Howard Zinn rocks

2006-12-19T09:57:00.000-05:00

I'll be reading The People's History of the United States over this holiday break.

He recently spoke in Madison, Wisconsin where he was receiving the Haven Center's Award for Lifetime Contribution to Critical Scholarship. His lecture, "The Uses of History and the War on Terrorism" can be listened to at this link.

It is an hour long and can be downloaded as an MP3. There is also a written transcript. I think it is well worth your time. Take a look, have a listen, and think about it.

Happy Holidays

2006-12-19T09:04:00.000-05:00

Another hilarious SNL short with Andy Samberg and Justin Timberlake.

How about some Fall foliage

2006-10-12T20:06:00.000-04:00

Well, being a few hours north of the city we are already experienceing some peak Fall foliage. I don't know what kind of tall bush this is but it has turned from green into a vibrant maroon and red. It's nice to walk out the door every morning and be greeted by such beautiful color.

This tall tree which resides on our neighbor Chick Yatsko's property but hangs over ours is turning color on its northeast side but hasn't yet turned on the Western side.

Taking a few steps further towards the back you can see that some trees have started to turn color while others have not. The Red Maple should turn orange or red before the leaves fall.

We had a few dying trees that we removed to the left and right of this one a few weeks ago when we had Eric, the local tree serviceman, trim the large locust tree in the front of the house, and remove the Arborvitae tree from the front porch area. We are going to replace it with a Japanese Maple tree in the Spring. The old swing set will be home to some hanging plants, probably some Impatiens, Lobelia, and some other annuals. We are also thinking of starting a little pet cemetary in front of the brush behind the old swing set.

Groton is situated in a valley. Here is a picture of the hillside taken from the trail behind our house. Already many of the trees have gone brown from the rain we have gotten in the last few days but some are still green. Different trees have different times for turning color. The ones that bloom in the Spring are the ones that usually lose their chlorophyll first and begin to show their yellows, oranges and reds.

Walking on the trail behind our property you can already see most leaves near the beaver pond have already fallen. There are lots of deer tracks in the mud—they have been coming by our house, eating the apples that have fallen from the trees.

Nancy and I have seen a mom and her two fauns. They are really beautiful animals...

...and difficult to photograph—they get spooked very easily and can run really fast!

Yankees game—before the "fall"

2006-10-10T17:27:00.000-04:00

Back in August Nancy and I went down to NYC to see the Yanks take on the Minnesota Twins. Both teams would eventually get knocked out in the first round but the real signifigance was that it was Nancy's first visit to Yankee Stadium and her first time meeting my sister Michelle.
Michelle used her superpowers (corporate connections) to get us some choice seats in LF where we perpetually made fun of Jason Tyner's lack of defensive ability. My mom, Blanche, a master of stealth, managed to sneak in all sorts of natural goodies for us-dried fruits, veggie burgers. Thanks for the tickets Michelle.

Olberman blasts Rumsfeld the fascist

2006-08-31T09:20:00.000-04:00

Don't feed the pigeons!

2006-07-28T14:15:00.000-04:00

Aggressive pigeon

How big a fish can a cat carry?

2006-07-07T10:56:00.000-04:00

Sorry it has been so long since I posted but here is an entertaining interlude:

I saw this on cuteoverload.com. I love cats - this just made me crack up.
I love hearing spoken Japanese when they are being emotive. It's 11 minutes long, but worth every second. WATCH IT!

Poppies are here!

2006-05-30T15:29:00.000-04:00

Our poppies finally opened up. Really beautiful flowers. It is too bad they don't last very long. Then again, that is what makes them even more special. Close-up to follow. Sorry my focusing was a little off.

First Visitor

2006-05-30T14:50:00.000-04:00

My mom came to visit—we were happy to have our first visitor to the new house. One of the things we did was go to Fillmore Glenn, a state park near Groton. We hiked for a few hours and came across a lot of spring growth, including these white flowers that were verywhere. Here is a solitary one with Blanche in the background.

Here we are at the base of the trail, sitting near the basin of a waterfall. It's still early in the season so a lot of the trails were closed off for safety reasons. I imagine a lot of trees fall during the winters here and they nbeed to clear it out.
Unfortunately, it meant that a lot of the nicer vantage points were not available. We'll go again though as this is only a 15 minute drive from the house.

Birds never stay still long enough for you to photograph them. This time I was lucky and managed to get little birdie in a pensive moment.

Our 13th president, Millard Fillmore. The dude this park is named after. The park is much prettier than the plaque.

This is a replica of the log cabin Millard Fillmore was raised in. Mom and nancy were taking a peek to see if 'ol Millard had his knickers on. Methinks he didn't!

After a long hike even Fiona needed some time to relax and cool off. That or she really wanted someone to pet her belly!

Why Live Teleivision Is Great

2006-05-15T12:08:00.000-04:00

I forget how to do the HTML so please copy this link and see a very funny incident that happened on the BBC in relation to the Apple Records vs. Apple Computers lawsuit:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=386136&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source=&ct=5

May Garden Pics

2006-05-09T09:09:00.000-04:00

Had to mow the lawn again this weekend and finished on Monday night. I took the camera out and took some pictures of the garden and then headed towards the back of the property where I entered the old Lehigh Railroad bed which is now a private trail for the residents who live along the property lines. I went as far as the first tressell and took some pictures of the swamp that has been created by beaver dams.

These are the three crabapple trees that line the front of the yard.

A close-up of the flowers on the crabapple tree.

Standing in front of the crabapples lookig towards the back. There is another crabapple tree. Can't wait to play "baseball" with them ;)

Looking towards the front of the house, standing besides the pines. The vegetable garden is growing. I think there is garlic growing in there now. I still haven't decided if I am going to plant any vegetables and start rabbit/deer proofing the fence.

I am behind our property , standing on the railroad bed that now functions as a trail for local walkers, hikers, motorcross and snowmobile riders. I wish they wouldn't take vehicles out there, especially the snowmobiles in the winter. I might have to make it more difficult and pull some logs out to impede them.

I am standing on top of a neighbors tiny bridge. This is a view of the mouth of the pond/swamp that has been created by beavers and thir dams. In the winter I could see trees that were being gnawed at by them. Little beaver must have moved on to other trees and decided that the ones I saw were too thick.

The next few pictures are of the pond. The houses you see atop the hill are on my block, if you made a right out of my driveway.

A lot of the trees that were once growing have been killed by the beaver dam. The birds (they flew away before i could focus) love this tree. I saw many birds-blue jays, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, and a lot of others i didn't recognize.

Buyu, I'll miss you

2006-05-04T13:13:00.000-04:00

I was saddened to hear that my friend Rich's bird, Buyu, recently passed away.

Here is a favorite story of mine about Buyu.
Rich had this blue phone in his room, the same one we used to make our prank phone calls on. If Buyu was waddling around on the floor, playing with us and you touched that phone...you'd have an angry bird biting your hand. Why? Well it is actually very sweet and shows how smart she was. She figured out that every time the phone rang it would get answered. Not the same for Buyu though as she "rang" a lot but somebody didn't always come by to chat with her or give her rubs on the back of her neck. I think she was jealous of the phone and would attack anybody or thing that paid attention to it and not her. The best part is that she found a way past that by using her incredible powers of mimicry. You would have a hard time distinguishing her "phone ring" from the actual phone. Her voice is ingrained in my memory. I can close my eyes and hear her now, singing her greatest hits like "Fuck Off," "I love you," "give me a cracker," and last but not least "cubruck erroo" which I think was her way of saying hello, how are you?

April Garden pics

2006-04-19T08:59:00.000-04:00

I went outside this morning to take some quick pictures of the yard. Not too much has popped up besides the daffodils, as you'll see.

Also taken from across the street, here is a picture of the house. We own the property from the tall hedges on the left in the previous picture to about 10 feet to the right of the house.

Now I am walking across the street up the driveway. That turnaround section comes in handy! Daffodills mark each post and I think there are some rose vines in between.

Here is a close-up of the daffodills.

Now I have walked behind the garage to give you a better look of the back property.

As I was walking to the pine trees Nancy came out and said goodbye. She has to get to work a little bit before i do. We like to drive in together when we can, but today is one of those days we needed both cars.

I have walked further into the pine trees and turned around to take this shot looking towards the front where the house is. Notice the rectangle in the ground. That is the garden bed. It needs raking, etc. but we are leaving it alone for now unbtil we see what comes up from the ground. It's fun to go out there after work and make new discoveries.

I turned around and am now facing the back left of the property. If you follow it back there is a little bridge that leads down to the old Lehigh Railroad track beds. I have found pieces of coal back there that must have fallen off of a train many years ago. Not much of the tracks remain except for some rotting rail ties but two of the tressells that crossed over the swamp and pond back there. You can walk straight for miles back there. I'll take some pics of that the next time I walk back there.

I have walked out of the pines, further towards the small footbridge to the railbeds. There is an old tree stump somebody did a chainsaw carving of a bear in. It is right in front of the bench.

Checking In

2006-04-18T07:04:00.000-04:00

It's early on Tuesday moning and Nancy is up and about feeding the bunnies. It's been a while since I logged in and wrote and i thought I would log in. I was annoyed by some marketer getting on the blog and writing dumbass comments. I have since changed settings so it won't happen again. Retards.

So we have moved in and things are going really well. We still have a lot of unpacking to do—well I do—Nancy was a tornado of organization. I have no idea where anything is but she has it all catalogued in her mind so I just ask her where things are.

I'll tae some pictures soon as we are having a great time discovering what they previous owners had planted. From what i hear we have an abundance of hostas that are waiting to pop up all over the grounds. The picture above is what we can expect to see-but that isn't my picture. Right now there are just shoots emerging on the outer edges of the back of the property. Things are growing slow though as it still dips down below freezing at night. It's exciting to see. It is almost like we are slowly unwrapping this gift of a house.

Uh-oh, better get up, Nancy just told me we are carpooling into Ithaca today. First we have to fix the toilet paper. Maestro!
Ah, the joys of having not 1, not 2, nor 3 cats. The oy-joy of four.

Countrification complete!

2006-04-05T12:07:00.000-04:00

In case you didn't believe me, here is the proof. I am John Deere.

Happy little trees, digitized?

2006-04-04T12:45:00.000-04:00

I can't believe it. I just read that Bob Ross Inc. is making a video game of the Joy of Painting, featuring the late, great and funky Bob Ross. One of the coolest cats, has to be the only man in the world who could get away with a Jewish Afro while painting tiny little trees in a voice that makes smooth jazz DJs sound like fog horns.

Sometimes I miss NYC

2006-04-04T12:42:00.000-04:00

Writin' leeterz n sh*t yo!

2006-04-04T12:38:00.000-04:00

The Living Room

2006-04-01T04:00:00.000-05:00

One of our first projects has been to have the living room floors refinished.This is the living room as it was when we were looking at it for the first time. Old brown carpeting covered the entire floor. The walls we will do later. They're drab but will have to wait.

Here you can see what the floors look like after we pulled the rug out. Overzealous, inexperienced, and full of adrenaline, we didn't think of cutting the carpet before trying to roll it up and move it out of the door. Let' s just say nancy showed some patience and Scott did not. We laugh now, but didn't that day. It was too heavy and cumbersome but we finally got it out onto the front porch. Notice the neat pattern we discovered was under that rug. Who knew!

Our hero AJ has sanded down the old veneers an is putting on coat one of the polyurethane. Already there is such a big difference. He has been working tiredlessly, sometimes for 12 hours straight. Thanks AJ ! If anybody needs some work done on their home contact Momentum Builders. momentumbuilders@hotmail.com

Moving on...you like haddock?

2006-03-30T10:38:00.000-05:00

The date is set. April 8 the moving vans come to pick up the heavy stuff. Nancy and I have been packing our cars to the brim with the small stuff, like books, CDs, and the boxes that never get unpacked and go directly from one attic to the next. It's fun to look at your old stuff. I found a bunch of Galactic posters and one from a group called Smilin' Myron that I used to see in New Orleans when I was at Tulane. They were a lot of fun and a pretty good NOLA funk band.

This week we are having the dining room and living room floors refinished. We had some old veneers underneath the carpeting that had staining and needed some touching up. I don't know what they were thinking of in the 70s. Why did everybody carpet everything? It's ridiculous how they covered up these wonderful patterned floors. Anyway, A.J., the man who is doing the work is putting in some long hours for us sanding the floors done, repainting the floor mouldings, and putting on 2 coats of polyurethane. He started Monday and it will be completely dry and safe to walk on. I am not expecting miracles, but a little shine and smoothing out of the floor will be great. It's an old house so I think the little imperfections are welcome.

What else? Oh yes. Tom and Earl/Howard. These guys are a trip. I had them haul away the old carpets and demo this thing that was attached to the garage. It was covering a concrete patio deck and the roof was heaving so off it went. Tom is the talker. He loves to gabe and he is one of those out in the country guys who talks too fast and laughs with a wheeze and a smile. Earl said nothing. Well that's not true. After 30 minutes of talking to Tom, Earl, who is a large burly man, turns to me with jowels sagging and says in a drone low voice "you like haddock?" I was waiting for him to ask if he could pet the rabbits to complete my real life Of Mice and Men experience.

Tomorrow the drier arrives from the store, and then Saturday the lawn tractor comes. I don't know why, but it makes mne nervous to ride that thing, like I'm going to lose control of it and hit a tree. Nothing to really worry about though as I think it usually only goes 5 miles per hour at max.

My sister Lori sent us two John Deere caps. All I need now are some green and yellow overalls.

If you told me...

2006-03-20T09:13:00.000-05:00

...three years ago that I would be living in an 1870s country home and be sitting on a riding mower Saturday mornings, well....
No, you aren't hallucinating. What you see here is a picture of my newest toy. A John Deere 115 Lawn tractor. I just can't stop laughing to myself - I own a freakin lawn tractor. It's crazy.

So nancy and I have started moving more and more things into the house and it looks like it is taking shape and beginning to feel like home. We won't be living there for a few weeks yet, but this week the house gets a new circuit breaker and an increase in service from 100 to 200 Amps (it would be nice to run a taster and a microwave without causing a circuit break). Tonight, Tom Sloughter, "the shit job man" is going to come by and haul some carpets and junk away. He'll also be taking a look at this self-built montrosity that they built to cover a concrete patio next to the garage. At one time nice, at this time, a wart. it is coming down. I think the floor guy is coming by too. He'll tell us what we can or can't do with the veneers that were under the carpeting. Wish us luck!

We own a home!

2006-03-13T12:22:00.000-05:00

Well, nancyand I finally closed the deal on Friday and are the proud owners of home. We can't wait to make some small changes and have our friends over this summer! I'll be sure to document some of the changes we make.

Who is Nate?

2006-03-05T08:59:00.000-05:00

Click here to find out who doesn't like him.I don't know who he is but i was surfing and came upon it.

I'm the Juugernaut Bitch!

2006-03-03T09:38:00.000-05:00

I'm the Juggernaut

Any X-Men fans present or past should check this out. I love overdubbing. Reminds me of how me and my friend Rich Vecsler used to overdub Oprah in the early days as well as German track meets. Sophmoric and scatalogical humor abound.

No surgery for my shoulder

2006-03-02T09:34:00.000-05:00

Some good news - found out thatI will not need a second surgery on my right shoulder. Just some good old physical therapy at Finger Lakes Physical Therapy. Perhaps this early morning exercise will spur me on to continue the habit.

A Noble visitor

2006-02-27T13:57:00.000-05:00

Well, I forgot to take my camera and blogument the occasion but I had a visitor over the weekend - my ol' pal Kristen Nobles. She has realtives in nearby Freeville and was here to join family members for a weekend ski trip to Greek Peak, the local ski slope. It was really nice to see her as it had been since Dave and Simone's wedding in Block Island that I had seen her. Things sounded good for her - sort of in a transition - taking classes, shifting career priorities-but seemed to be happy. Good luck to Kristen!

That was close!

2006-02-25T17:29:00.000-05:00

The other day I was walking along and minding my own business. I forgot about that old saying "Hey idiot! Watch out for big silver Vikings coming out of the ground" and what do you know, if it wasn't like Murphy's Law was in full blossom. Out of nowhere I tell you! An inquisitive bystander captured the moment. I was grateful that the photo was taken, yet was like, hey Mr. Photograph Guy, why not help me out, I'm getting eaten alive over here! Ithaca can be a strange town.

Arthogram - what will we find?

2006-02-24T13:07:00.000-05:00

So today I am going in for an arthogram. About 8 years ago I had arthoscopic surgery on my right shoulder to repair a partially torn rotator cuff. I had a huge bone spur that needed to be shaved down to make room for my shoulder joint in the capsule. I had what is called 'impingement syndrome."

Todays MRI is different than the others I have had since they are injecting dye into my shoulder. Then the dye forms a greater contrast and can determine where there are leaks in my capsule.

Hopefully I won't need surgery again and physical therapy can do the trick. we'll see.
Oh, and that isn't my shoulder in the picture.

Xbox 360 gamertag added

2006-02-20T15:11:00.000-05:00

If you look at the sidebar you'll see that I added my Xbox Live gamertag.
Yes, I am 12 years old. If you are a 360 player, you'll appreciate it, if not, just watch my gamerscore rise!
Thnkfully, it doesn't log how much time I waste playing these games!

Just spoke to Henry

2006-02-15T14:49:00.000-05:00

I like when we talk - it makes me think - which i don't usually like to do.
He told me he didn't leave his house all weekend.
We also talked about the Graduate-how it is just an incredibly well-done movie. Everything in it is there for a reason and it cuts to the core of the characters emotions and mindsets.

HOUSE UPDATE:
nancy and I have received approval of our loan which means we just have to close the deal.
It's funny, I have always been a free spender and not worried too much about money, but now that I have a house and property it makes me wish I had been more careful. From now on I have to budget and stick to it.

It is easier to do that, living up in Central New York State—as I don't find myself so into the material up here. I don't need the latest and greatest this or that and don't feel compelled to create an identity around the clothes I wear, the phone I have, the movies I see, the music I listen to , the TV shows I watch. Those all seem like masks now. That's not to say that wearing a mask isn't fun once in a while, but I feel like I know more about myself without those things. Don't get me wrong, I still like 'nice things' and escape reality more often than I probably should (video games and othe extracurricular activities) but when it isn't constantly surrounding you it is easier to be more selective.

Ring that bell!

2006-01-19T10:51:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to my sister Michelle. She got to join her CEO and CFO and rting the opening bell at the Nasdaq. For those of you who have never met Michelle she is the woman on the left with the blonde hair and the cute smile that seems to be saying "Yaaaaayy for us!" Way to go Michelle!

Goodbye, Rick

2006-01-18T10:45:00.000-05:00

This was a hard decision but the right one. I sold my Rickenbacker 4001 Electric Bass to a local guitar shop in Ithaca.
Another surprise to me and Nancy-you need a chunk of money when you APPLY for the mortgage. You pay 1% of the loan to lock the interest rates and have to pay for appraisal fees, credit reports and some other crap that escapes me. (Maestro is trying to help me type this-in moments like these he gets called by his nickname, "Bug").

Moments after selling the instrument I called henry, knowing he'd understand what a bittersweet moment it was, and we put a good philosophical touch on it that does leave me feeling really good about doing it. Really, what good was a guitar doing by sitting in the corner of my home office? Haven't played it since I was taking lessons in Brooklyn, looking for another creative outlet besides work, which at the time was not a healthy situation. (I could write a whole other blog about my former boss-probably one of the most evil and underhanded people I have ever met. I cringe when I hear when good people go to work for him-really, a very selfish, manipulative person, who in fact is a criminal-charging items he bought on eBay to the budgets of our books!) Anyway, that guitar, to me, represented a past time where things weren't as good as they are now, represented unfulfilled self-promises and wasted potential as a musician—represented a time when I was silly enough to pay a couple thousand dollars on a guitar I barely knew how to play just to make myself feel better.... It's good to pare down your things, simplify life, live in the now, forgetting the past without forgetting its lessons, and forging ahead with the future.

I got rid of something yet feel much fuller—and yeah, the money doesn't hurt.

Time to shower and get ready for TODAY.

2006-01-12T12:34:00.000-05:00

Well, buying a house ain't cheap. You'd be surprised at all the fees, insurances, state crap, you have to pay at closing. Everybody, I mean EVERYBODY gets a piece of the transaction.

So where does one get money from if they don't have the cash. well, it was a bittersweet moment but I sold off half of my Coca-Cola shares. I have been holding onto these shares for 20 years now waiting for a moment like this. On one level it makes me sad-I'm not sure why - perhaps it is just the realization that this moment has arrived, that I am not as young as i used to be. On the other hand it is cause to celebrate. I took about $500 and 20 years later I have 5 figures to play with. And what better reason to take one investment and turn it into another one. I can't think of anything more worthy than the home that the love of my life and I will share.

Tomorrow's the inspection. I'll take my camera, just in case there is a nice ass-crack siting ala Dan Akroyd in early SNL skits.

2006-01-10T16:33:00.000-05:00

This is Maestro. Once he was a kittewn, like in the picture, but he is growing up real quick. I wonder how well he will get along with nancy's cats Ernesto (aka The Tiny Man) and Frank (aka the AutistiCat). He loves playing with my other cat Fiona so I am hopeful.

I am also hoping that he stops his nightly habit of (sweetly) grooming my beards as I sleep. He is showing affection but we all know where that mouth has been. If his little cat farts are any indication of what is going on in that little belly of his I don't want him licking my face.

2006-01-10T15:42:00.001-05:00

We did it! Nancy and I have had an offer accepted on the house we wanted to buy. Now it is to the banks, the inspec tion, the lawyers. Isn't going further into debt awesome!

408 South main St. Groton NY 13073

408 South main St. in good 'ol Groton, NY

1st blog evah!

2006-01-05T12:37:00.000-05:00

So, just spoke to my friend Henry down in the citay and he suggested i simply post some pictures and show snippets of life up here in Ithaca. I think I'll do that. Stay tuned.