Illinoir

28 feb 1997

where do i find the time to ogle,
day after day,
the memory of myself?

Well, after much hard work and anticipation, the beaters site is up and running. Check it out — www.beaters.us

Here’s the long-awaited birthday entry, over a week later. I’m 29 and 7 days or so, yippie dee doo dah day.

Here are photos of my birthday trip to Philadelphia arranged by the one and only Chia-Jung, god bless her. She conspired to get me out of work for the day. Very groovy.

Birthday pictures!

But now I’m tired, and the problem with things you’re looking forward to is that letdown afterwards. And now I’m really really tired.

The joy of the new Beastie Boys album has actually worn off. I don’t feel like there’s as much territory within the CD to explore as their previous couple. Not sure. Maybe I’m wrong. It’s great stuff, but I feel like it only took me a few listens to really know it, whereas I’ve listened to Hello Nasty so many times and I still don’t know my way around it….

And I’m really really really tired.

Chia-Jung is moving in with me this weekend. This is exciting and scary…. I’m looking forward to it, but not the dealing with storing stuff, moving stuff, lifting stuff, etc. etc. etc….. And then Sunday is our 1-year anniversary, and it’s been a hard hard year….

I’m asleep.

Driving through Manhattan on Saturday around noon, I had the following experiences:

• Driving up 7th Ave, crossing a street, the avenue went from 4 lanes to two due to some construction business on the other side of the street. So as the cars are jostling for position to get into the two lanes on the opposite side, I allow a cab to pass me on my right so it can get past the barriers blocking off the closed lanes. I get honked at by people behind me.
• Turning right onto 32nd or 34th, there are several pedestrians crossing that street. Instead of plowing through them, I wait for them to cross. I get honked at by a person behind me who then proceeds to go around me to my left, turn right in front of me, weave through two pedestrians and head down the street. I make my turn a few moments later and pass the guy as he’s stopped halfway down the block. He made it there at least 30 seconds faster than if he’d waited for me to make my turn. Kudos to you, impatient man!
• Attempting to parallel park on 29th St, I am honked at by numerous people who have nowhere to go as the light in front of us is red. They scare me away from a perfectly good spot.
• Turning left onto FDR Drive, I again wait for pedestrians to cross the street before making the turn. Am honked at.
• Heading north on the FDR in the far left lane, there are suddenly 3 cars just stopped on the road in front of me and a 4th straddling the left lane and the middle lane. I come to a stop, hit the right turn signal and when the middle lane is clear, I start to move into it. The car behind me, however, has decided to scream on past instead of just following me on our merry way.

The best part about the FDR is that it took us to the Triboro Bridge which took us to 95 which took us the hell away from Manhattan which is absolutely the crappiest place on Earth.

Next: Why East Coasters can mostly go to hell.

I don’t know if my friends in the Midwest and on the west coast are aware, but we on the east coast have been invaded by Cicada Brood X and it’s getting creepier and creepier….. Chia-Jung’s front steps are covered with the buggers and it’s just kinda gross trying to get around in Princeton. Fortunately, Plainsboro has not yet been hit and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it won’t. It’s freaky freaky stuff….

….so here are some pictures.

Brood X

…i don’t have cards for my real job, but i do for my fake job (beaters web developer…or “web beater”)…

I love when commercials say “From the director of…” and then name a movie that’s like…. “That movie had a director?”

• for the first time in ages i looked at my bank account summary and wasn’t terrified by what i saw
• constant dreams about housewares, chicago, family, friends
• can’t go look at any sorts of housewares (dinnerware, candleholders, picture frames, anything) without thinking about the product, the quality, work…. this is stuff i used to always just look past, forget
• side project — beaters.us — is coming along nicely. i’m really happy with how the site works and i think it should be good. the site should be up soon….

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is fantastic. Really well done, a neat romantic comedy/mystery with the mental anguish of Memento and the trippiness we’ve come to expect from Charlie Kaufman in Adaptation and Being John Malkovich…. Just good stuff all around. Me diggie.