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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind [01 May 2004|03:18am] Ok, I really have to say that this was one of, if not *the* best movie I have seen this year, and probably a lot longer than that. Maybe I think this because it was well written, or well directed, or edited, or the top notch acting performances. Or it could be that since it took place on Long Island, I kinda felt a little more attached, knowing I've been to those places. Or maybe because I occasionaly wish I had a wild and crazy girl like Clementine. Or maybe it's a little bit of everything. I still can't get over how incredible this movie was as a whole in terms of a moviegoing "experience". And just to top off this near-perfect night, my ears are being given the pleasure of a fresh James Holden live mix (Live at Club Glow, 2003-12-13). And on top of that, I found a great running route. 4.2 miles. v. nice and tough with steep hills. Good times. 1 comment|post comment

running outside [17 Apr 2004|11:11am] [ mood | sore ] So after a few days of crappy weather, I finally got the chance to run outside. I thought I'd take a nice stroll out and push myself to 3, maybe 4 miles. I overshot my goal by a little bit. I am pretty new to this area, so I don't quite know all the minor roads around here. I start running down one main road near my apartment, and then decide to take what I think it a scenic side road. It has a pretty challenging hill, but I muster through it and see a golf course, and a really nice neighborhood. I take another turn that runs me parallel to the course, and proceed to run that. I figure I am up to a mile and a half, maybe 2 miles by the time I reach the other side of the course. I have taken 2 left turns, so my internal compass says "lets look for a left turn to connect us back to the main road". So I continue running down this road full of houses I won't be able to afford for some time. And running. And running. I laugh after probably 5 miles and say "ok, definitely giving myself the day off from running tomorrow". Now, i am an extreme optimist, so I always believe that the turn that I need in the road, so to speak, is right up ahead. So instead of going back, I push forward, because I know that turn in the road I need is right around the bend. So I go around the bend. And several more bends. Finally, I come to a 4 way intersection with a left turn. I take that turn and run down a smaller road. Up ahead I see a busy road - "hooray!" I think. It's *the* road I am looking for! I get up to the road, and look at the street sign. It says something like "Tree Rd". This is not the street I was looking for. But I take the left, and run up a long hill. At the top of the hill is a sign - "Welcome to Hopkinton". "Wait," I think, "Hopkinton is like 2 towns over". At this point, I am looking for any familiar sign. I see signs for Upton (wrong direction, but I know my rommmates are at their old apartment, so I consider it), and route 495, and finally I see a road that I recognize (although vaguely) - route 85. I decide to take route 85 towards Southboro, as I know that that is at least in the right direction (really good internal compass). The road is a massive hill sloping downwards and then evening out. I see yet another sign for the Hopkinton state forest - I honestly think I ran all the way around the forest. I continue down 85. It's getting dark and cold, and I don't have anything on me but my shorts, a microfiber shirt, and a set of keys. I run to a point in 85 next to a lake, and I see that the road curves all the way around the lake, with no sign of town or any other civilization (sans cars) in sight. I decide not to chance it, and turn around to head back to Hopkinton. at this point, I figure I'll hit up the police station and get a ride home, or at least some directions. Now I need to go back *up* the massive hill. I push forward and as I am running up the hill, I see a couple of guys talking in front of their house. I walk up to them: "Hey guys, do you know which way Westborough is?" In return I get some looks of astonishment and some chuckles They honestly can't believe I am from that far away. My new best friend Juan offers to give me a ride home. I graciously accept to the tune of "that would be the best thing ever". He drives me back down the hill, around the lake, and then I recognize where I am. It was probably another 3-4 miles from where I turned around. I finally make my way into my apartment. It's been 2 hours. I estimate about 15 miles of running. It was both a blessing and a curse, as I now know that I have it in me to run a marathon. I figure I'll try the route in another 6 months or so if I am feeling especially daring. 1 comment|post comment

yay! not about to die! [12 Apr 2004|04:24pm] So I finally had my doctors appointment this morning to get a physical. Blood was taken, a few shots were given, and numerous tests were performed. The verdict: I am healthy! I figured as much. Apparently I have even lost about 7 pounds. how that happened, I don't know. And I am only 5'10". Thought I was 6'. Oh well. Nothing I can do about that. One of my secret reasons for going was that I had this weird heart thing going on. Occasionally, it felt like I'd have an abnormally hard heartbeat. it felt like if you'd ever been really excited/ startled by something and your heart just jumps. I tell this to the doctor, and she is all "it sounds like Premature Ventricular Contraction!". Apparently this PVC thing is quite normal in many people, especially males as they get older. Since I have no history of heart condition in the family, and my heart rate, blood pressure, and EKGs were all normal, I don't need any sort of treatment for it. She did say that exercise usually helps with them. So now I have clearance to do whatever I wish physically. huzzah. My big plan that I alluded to several months ago is that I plan on training to run the Boston Marathon, hopefully as soon as next year (as this year's is in about a week). 1 comment|post comment

Just About There [05 Apr 2004|11:58pm] Wow. what a long weekend. Taking off friday and monday to move nice and easily was definitely a good idea. I don't think I would have been so happy if I had tried to squeeze it all into 2 days. The bulk of the moving is done. The big heavy objects were moved on Saturday. Sunday was reserved for lots and lots (and lots) of smaller boxes/ items. I think that next time I am definitely getting something closer to the ground floor. Top floor is not so fun for moving. Stairs are evil. Our DSL was set up on friday, but for some reason, the phone was not (yes this is possible, we have built in ethernet jacks separate from phone jacks). I had to wait until today to call, as Saturday we were hella busy, and Sunday they were closed. This whole Verizon telephone deal made me really pissed, and for anyone who knows me, this is an incredible feat. In fact, I think this is the first occasion where I practically lost it. I call Verizon Avenue (some crazy child company of verizon for apartment communities), and they have 2 options. Press 1 for DSL or 2 for Phone. I press 2 for phone, and it redirects me to the big Verizon call center. "Welcome to Verizon" That system tells me to enter the number for which I want service on. Well, I have it written down at work, but I wasn't at work. so I wait and say that I don't have a number. It tells me to wait, and eventually, I get a live representative. I tell her that I am an existing customer who hasn't been installed yet. so she asks me for the address, and then the city. "Westborough" "Is that upstate?" "Upstate?" I think. "Upstate? Massachusetts?" I say. "Oh, this is Verizon New York." Apparently, they use a caller ID-like system to determine where to serve you. I guess this would work in many cases. but not mine, where I still have a NY-based cell number (I am seriously considering changing once the contract is up). "Ok, hold on, I will transfer you to the Mass office." I wait a minute and then... "Welcome to Verizon" Great. it's the same damn place I started from when I was transferred from Verizon Avenue. So I hang up and call my roommate Jeff. I have the new number written down at work, and I tell him to get it for me. He gives me the number and then I call again, this time using the number that I was given by the VZ Avenue operator the week before. "That number is not valid, please hold while we switch you to a voice operated system." This should be good. The system guides me through a series of questions. Home or office, blah blah blah. Then it asks me to enter my number via voice, as if that's more efficient than dialing it in. I say the number. It repeats it. I tell it yes, that is the number I was given. It thinks/ pauses for a second, and then tells me: "I cannot assist you any further. please hold while I connect you to an operator" Why the hell couldn't this have been done 20 minutes ago!?!?! So then the operator gets on the line, and I tell her the whole story where I am a customer but not a customer as my phone is not yet set up. She asks for my name, home address, city, zip code, and everything short of what I plan to name my children, before telling me that I am not even in their system. I find that so crazy that I tell her that, and that I had figured that since I have DSL up and running, so I assume that the installer just messed something up. "You have DSL? you can't have DSL without an active phone line" "Oh, it's a separate wall jack just for the internet" "But you can't have DSL without an active phone line" "Well you said it yourself, I'm not in the system, yet here I am, on the internet as we speak!" "Are you sure that you've properly checked the phone?" "Yes, I plugged the phone into the phone jack, and picked up the handset. There was no dialtone." "But you must have a phone line to have DSL" *groan* After I had assured her that it was possible, as it was a separate connection, she set me up for an install on thursday, and gave me a new number. I can't complete my TiVo setup until I get that phone line in. No TiVo until Thursday make Chris *something something* The polar opposite of this was DirecTV. The installer actually came early (Sunday, nonetheless), and Customer support was awesome. It's pretty sweet watching the channel lineup get activated as you watch. Opening Day baseball gave me several alternate ESPN channels, including my beloved Tribe DirecTV is greaaaaat. Verizon Long Distance is not so great. More on the apartment after things get settled. post comment

19 cruisers and a paddy wagon [09 Feb 2004|08:06pm] [ mood | contemplative ] Sunday was a very eventful day/ night. Instead of going out for an early night and being in by 2-3AM, We decided to head to an afterhours "event". Our night started at about 1 AM as we met one of our friends at a place on Landsdowne St called Tequila Rain. That was short lived, thanks to the city curfew, but our night was just beginning. Our next stop was a afterhours party that was something out of Groove. We ended up at a "house" that was hidden away deep in the city. We parked the car and walked about a quarter mile to a door. There was no sound anywhere in this empty part of the city, but a few knocks on the door made it open and a head stick out, telling us to be quiet. Stepping inside, the faint basslines began to get louder and louder as we snaked through the hallways and entered the main room. There was an impromptu bar serving water, energy drinks, and the occasional alcoholic beverage. There was also a large dance area, a "dj booth" made out of what looked like an old closet, and several couches. We hung out for a few hours, talking with some really cool people, and just had a good time. Then the music went low. Everyone looked around, somewhat confused. There were a few whispers; "the cops are here". I stood up and grabbed my coat, and was promptly told to sit down and relax, but no more than 30 seconds later, the hum of feedback was heard over the speakers, and the overhead lights came on. A few officers came in and looked around. They then informed everyone that the party was over, and that everyone needed to line up to get IDs checked. Everyone passed through the door, and were greeted by a sea of police cars. There were 19 - NINETEEN police cars for I would think no more than 30 or 40 people. Oh yeah, and at the far end of this sea was a paddy wagon, you know, just in case there weren't enough police cruisers about. I don't know what they were expecting to find, but Boston's finest were surely disappointed. Then we went home where this guy passed out on the floor at about 6:30AM while others in the group decided to go to an after-afterhours club. Guess I'm getting too old for this ;) On a more philosophical note, just find it amazing how many separate events occur in order for you to meet new people. If my friend Jeff's now-girlfriend hadn't been chosen to temp where he works, he would have never met her, they would have never dated, probably met the people that they introduced me to, and whom were responsible for showing us/ taking us to the party, where we met a person who I am probably going to go snowboarding with this weekend. Ask me friday or saturday who I was going to go snowboarding with, I would have probably told you "no one". It's so taken for granted, but from my example alone, there were at least 4-5 events that had to happen to get from point a to point b and if just one of them didn't happen just right, point b would never have been reached. 1 comment|post comment

mmm, panther [02 Feb 2004|07:16pm] So I finally took the plunge and grabbed Panther over the weekend. I must say it is quite nice. Not a huge amount of improvements on the surface, but it's most certainly a more polished version of OS X. I also decided to move over to Mail on panther, and i must say, it does everything I want it to do, in a smaller, faster package (I had previously used entourage, but only for email-purposes). After hitting software update, a new version of Safari (1.2) was also out. It is a very very nice update. The only thing I didn't like about Panther was the price. I really wish it had been somewhere in the $79 ballpark than $129, but I'll live. I also installed the PDC release of Longhorn on one of my secondary/ test machines here at work. Yeah, it's not so impressive, but it is pretty much an alpha, so I'll cut them some slack. Time to go home and start my new running program. More on that later. post comment

smallville [22 Jan 2004|10:20am] I find myself oddly enjoying Smallville as of late. I think I just really get a kick out of watching Clark's character progress over time, slowly gaining all of his infamous superman abilities. I don't ever recall him having super-hearing (a little help, anyone?) though. Then again, I wasn't huge into the comics... Him getting a pair of glasses was a nice touch too. How about John Kerry winning the Iowa caucus? A lot of articles I read say "so what?" Well, the big deal, it seems, is that this has given him a lot of momentum going into the NH Primary (he now has a 10% lead in recent polls) My car is back in fine form after receiving a new windshield a few days back, and then going in for a big scheduled maintenance trip. The dealer even washed the car. She's almost good as new now... This weekend I am going to head down to Connecticut to help my uncle see the light. You see, he recently bought a fancy new TV, and is now considering one of my favorite tech toys, DirecTV. I just need to go down there and convince him that he *needs* to get a High Definition DirecTV box. The only problem will probably be cost ($400-$600 for the setup + install). post comment

random/ updates [15 Jan 2004|12:54pm] Again with something happening before I post a huge update! The job is going pretty well. I am actually getting to the point where not everything is totally foreign to me! huzzah! my back has been bugging me as off late. I can definitely say that it has to do with the sleeping on couches, long commute, and sitting at a desk all day. A nice restful weekend on my back may be in order... New episodes of Angel started up again last night. I can say that I am thoroughly enjoying this season. Fish (yell at him for updating less than I do these days!) needs to finish watching season 4 so he can get to the new eps! ;) 2 comments|post comment

best. auction. ever. [06 Jan 2004|10:25am] how can you not buy this, for the tagline alone? I've been boring lately. just driving a lot, working, and occasionally buying new records. Hopefully the beginning of 2004 will be a little more exciting than the end of 2003... 2 comments|post comment

'boardin [27 Dec 2003|04:13pm] Finally got the change to head out to the mountians for some snowboarding. Oh man, it was fantastic. My favorite part of the day was getting to the summit of the mountain and seeing everything miles around (including several other mountains) simply breathtaking. The boarding itself was fantastic. I took a few spills, but all in all, I was pretty happy with where I am in terms of riding ability. Can't wait for tomorrow when I can't move anything!!! anyone got any plans tonight? post comment

I'm a Boston kinda guy [19 Dec 2003|09:35am] Don't you hate it when you go ahead and write a long update, and then accidently close the browser window before you submit the post? Then it takes you a few days to muster up the strength to write up a new one. This is what happened to me a few days ago. bleh. Anyways, I am starting to get adjusted at the new job (I'll never adjust to the new commute though...), and I think I am really gonna like it here. I'm already digging into code and making some quality changes (and even learning a bit, to boot). All of my belongings are now safely in Mass. As I mentioned before, the storm a few weeks back changed my plans and made it so I had to move the rest of the stuff this weekend. The major, unfortunate side effect of all this (aside from the extra driving I had to do) was that I was unable to attend one of my good friend/ former college roommate's wedding in Ohio. I'll need to get him/ them something super special to make up for that... Now that I live in this area, I guess I need to start yammering about the Red Sox. I was/ am/ always will be a Cleveland Indians fan, but as they don't like doing anything in the offseason these days, I'll join the rest of america and talk about the impending A-Rod to Boston deal. They say it's dead, but I think that all sides have burned too many bridges to NOT let the deal happen at this point. The player's union think that they are protecting the rights of all players by not allowing him to reduce his salary, which is crazy. The next closest guy on the salary list is Manny Ramirez, and he's still 4 million a year behind A-Rod. After that, it drops off dramatically. I don't think that letting this guy cut his salary by 6 million a year or so is going to hurt anyone (if there is someone out there who can't live off of 18 million a year, they don't deserve the money in the first place), especially when the league average is about 9-10 times less than what this guy makes. Anyways, I have a feeling that this will get done, one way or another, and A-Rod will be in a Boston uniform by spring training. Now, back to work, and looking forward to Donald Glaude tonight! woohoo! 1 comment|post comment

I'm Back! [12 Dec 2003|09:17am] well, almost... Because of the massive amounts of snow that poured down upon most of the northeast last weekend, my moving plans changed a bit. I went from "packing up the truck and getting up here completely by Sunday" last week to "take the essentials, pack up the car, and leave the rest for later". The drive up wasn't too bad, but still a bit of a pain in the butt digging my car out of the snow (I was actually parked on the road, so i was plowed in), then packing it up and heading up here. So now the plan is to head back to Long Island Saturday morning, rent the truck, and then drive it back up here (along with my car). this will all hopefully be finished by saturday night, and then I won't have to worry about this stuff until I need to move it out of storage. The job is going pretty well. There are, of course, a lot of things to learn, and I have been overwhelmed thus far with the amount of info flying at me. The thing I like least is my commute, mainly because I am temporarily staying in New Hampshire, and I have about an hour to drive each way. This week has been nothing but getting up, driving, working, driving, and going to bed. Hopefully I will adjust soon enough. I also knew I shouldn't have gone looking to see if they had any of the snowboard I was looking for last night. When they told me they only had one of the length I wanted in stock, I of course had to make sure that I would not miss out on this opportunity. I put the board on layaway until after the new year, when i knew I'd definitely have the moolah to pay for it. Bad Me! But hey, now I only need boots, bindings, a helmet, new gloves, and maybe a new coat to finish off the package! 1 comment|post comment

all, bill simmons [05 Dec 2003|03:43pm] If you haven't been reading this since I introduced him a few months ago, then you obviously aren't a Boston sports fan. post comment

moving blues [26 Nov 2003|04:04pm] Man, moving to a different state sucks. Or at least the planning stages do. When I left school, Everything I owned fit into an SUV (and could have been less, but I am a serious packrat). Even the uhaul I took after I moved into my place in NY was nothing more than a van. Now I have actual furniture, and even a bed. Boy did it get complicated. Plus I needed storage. So I make the UHaul reservation and they bill me the processing fee, and *then* tell me that I am on a waiting list, and that they'll call me the day I am going to move to tell me if/ when I can pick up a truck. Then they're like "how about a free month of storage!?!". "Sounds good, I needed storage anyways", I tell myself. so I get it, seeing on the site that there is one in Marlborough, where I will be working. "Oh, the one in Marlborough would cost a fee. you need to take the one in Clinton (5-10 miles further from my friend's place of residence). This shouldn't be a huge deal, but it's a bit of an inconvenience nonetheless. So I am less than 2 weeks from moving, and don't know if I have a truck and a storage place that is just enough out of the way to be a pain. Here's to hoping the move itself goes smoothly. 2 comments|post comment

winds of change [24 Nov 2003|09:55pm] [ mood | optimistic ] So finally the big news is official. I'm moving back to New England. I start my new job in early December. All in all, I've enjoyed my time here. The work was good, the people were great, and I've had some good memories. But I wasn't really happy here as of late. It was mostly with living here. It's expensive and I wasn't really happy with my current situation. So when an opportunity to move back closer to all my family came up (and would be a better financial situation), I decided to pursue it. It's a change for the better for me, I feel. So all you NH/ MA/ CT people, drop me a line :) edit. and Maine :P 1 comment|post comment

Goin West [28 Oct 2003|10:21am] Off to Houston! When I get back on sunday, I'll have 2 less single friends! Congrats again Matt post comment

red sox [17 Oct 2003|01:49pm] If the Red Sox were a girl, you would probably just break up with them. 2 comments|post comment

iTunes [16 Oct 2003|03:35pm] [ mood | ecstatic ] go get it. For Windows AND Mac now. post comment

Angel [02 Oct 2003|01:25am] if there's a better show on TV than (potential spoiler warning in link, if you care) Angel, I don't want to hear about it. I have also decided that the gift I give anyone for big events is going to be a TiVo. Everyone should have one. I love it that much (you can't really understand this adoration I have for this tiny box unless you've actually had the distinct pleasure of owning one). 1 comment|post comment

the brotherhood [24 Sep 2003|11:19pm] [ mood | nostalgic ] Is it bad that I am only 5 minutes into The Brotherhood of Poland, NH and I am homesick? The title with all the shots of my favorite state almost brought a tear to my eye ;) 1 comment|post comment

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