My home away from home?

Park Motel on Google

Adding the text below if you can't read the picture:

JohnPic ‎ - Sep 23, 2009
Hell hole This place is so bad and over-run by whores/day laborers, it's used in tv/movies as a go-to "Crack hotel" Filthy sheets, owners mill around the parking lot at night/early AM preventing any chance at sleep. Dog-faced lady tends weeds on back wall, and screeches like a banshee the minute it's "Chekooooo" time,. Better off sleeping in your car-safer, less chance of scabies. The proverbial "Turd in the Punchbowl" in an otherwise nice neighborhood. Days Inn 2 doors up is a much safer alternative. You've been warned.

Dmitry ‎ - Mar 18, 2008
The worst motel I've ever been... The worst motel I've ever been... If you like japaneese horror films you might like this place otherwise I would strongly recommend to find other place to stay. =)

The Weight of Ideas

When we moved from NJ to Florida we boxed up all our books, weighed them, and mailed them so we could just throw the rest of our stuff in the car and drive.  I learned that a box of books averages 25 to 40 pounds.

That was the first of 6 moves over the following seven years.

Subsequent moves averaged 10 boxes of books for me and approximately 30 boxes for Jaru.  That's over half a ton of books.  And that's not including the bookcases.  Each move involves schlepping that half-ton of books twice -- once into the truck, and once up to the apartment.

And it's not just during moves.  You end up with a wall piled with boxes of books that every two months or so need to be re-arranged when you have to get to an outlet or adjust some furniture.

Then just last week I had to drag a 50 pound boxed bookcase up to our apartment and spend four hours punching little plastic bits through holes in cheap press-board to assemble it.

I am fucking ready to see the book as technology vanish into my personal rear-view mirror.

I'll miss the cotton gin more than I'll miss books.  At least the cotton gin hasn't personally tried to kill me.

Squirrel Tricks

We've been feeding the squirrels in Central Park lately and noticed a couple tricks they've learned.

The parks people put out little feeders for the birds -- and, knowing that squirrels will go after the seeds, they hang these small feeders on the thinnest branches so that only the light birds can get to them. But the squirrel in this first photo is brave -- he climbs down the thin branch to the very end, then pulls up the string hand-over-hand to drag the basket closer, then holds the basket with one paw and grabs seeds out of it with the other.

The pigeons have also figured out a strategy for this -- the squirrel drops a lot of seeds in the process so they all hang out below the basket.


As you can see in the second photo, they aren't shy. They also have another thing, which I suspect is a trick. You'll throw them a peanut and it lands maybe a foot from them, but they'll wander around looking for it and not finding it. Sometimes even walking right past it so their butt is practically hanging over the peanut.

We point and make clicking sounds to get them going the right direction, but eventually grow so frustrated that we simply toss them another peanut. Playing dumb gets you twice the food...

7th Anniversary

We don't make a big deal about our wedding anniversary and don't mention it to people, but at dinner last night -- our 7th -- got this fortune in my cookie.

Would You Check?

Via Mind Hacks -- Steven Pinker says of the genes that increase the risk for Alzheimer's disease:

Still, I figured that my current burden of existential dread is just about right, so I followed Watson’s lead and asked for a line-item veto of my APOE gene information when the P.G.P. sequencer gets to it.

I would check. One reason is that I'm young enough that there's still hope for various forms of treatment or preventative measures to arise before I reach risk age. But second, if prevention isn't possible I'd just as soon kick off due to heart disease as have my soul slowly destroyed -- Camel unfiltereds here I come! -- at about age 55-60.

A future iconic image?

From the Flickr Slideshow.

Brooklyn Shenanigans!

It's been two weeks since we finally found a place in Brooklyn and signed a lease -- and, since one doesn't need a car in NY, someone helped us solve the annoying parking problem by stealing ours.

The problem with having your car stolen in Brooklyn is that you park a 5-10 minute walk away on one of a dozen identical blocks and constantly have to move the car around to deal with street cleaning issues so all these blocks start looking familiar since you've parked in them at least once.

And, while I had high confidence that I remembered where I did park the car originally, the fact that the car wasn't there is potent evidence that I'm mistaken. It's either that or, like some incredibly lame light comedy about bumpkins moving into New York, our car was stolen within the first two weeks of being here.

(My actual first thought was towing -- but all the various services have no record of towing the car. Apparently, they don't tow cars in NY until they can make a bundle off the unpaid parking tickets.)

After scouring a three block radius, going to the police precinct, and trying to file a report, I must conclude that I am, in fact, living in some incredibly lame light comedy.

Google Street View

An invaluable tool when moving to Brooklyn.



Brooklyn College looking east from Bedford Avenue

NJ vs NY -- apartment hunting

In the process of apartment hunting for our move. Unlike previous moves we're not going to rent a place based on photos -- so we're dragging all our stuff there then going to scurry around looking at places.

Because Jaru has many very good friends in New Jersey, we're looking at Highland Park. There have been 15 apartments advertised for Highland Park over the last month and we've set up three appointments for next Tuesday to look at them.

Because Jaru's school is in Brooklyn we're also going to look in Brooklyn. There are 100+ apartments advertised per day in Brooklyn and the only guy who replied to my email for an appointment wants God to steal my money.

Brooklyn apartments also frequently want your tax returns, copies of W2s, three months of bank statements (shouldn't have bought all that porn on the ATM card!), and a colonoscopy.

Rental Scams

I saw a Craigslist ad for a $1,000/month apartment in Brooklyn -- photos too good to be true. I'm willing to risk a little spam since gmail has great filters -- here was the response:

Hello Dear,

Thanks for the email. My name is Green Gin,I own the 1 bedroom apartment address 8 Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11215. The apartment is available for you to move if you are serious about moving in and also want you to know that it was due to my transfer that makes me my wife and Son to leave the house and also want to give it out for rent ,so we are looking for a responsible person that can take very good care of it as we are not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean at the time and the person that will rent it to take it as if it were its own. So for now, We are here in west Africa, our new house.

I personally wanted to Sale the apt before but I and my wife decided to put it out for rent.If you could promise us to take very good care of the Apt,the you can send an email with the information required. One Mr. smith called me about the apartment,I told him that I cant give him the apartment because he is married with 4 kids ,I do not want his children to get my property damaged.

If you are still interested, Note that the rent is going to be $1000 Inclusive Utilities.I will like you to give me a call on this effect to know how serious you are.
below is my phone number
0112347032367105 or +2347032367105
YOU CAN CALL AT ANY TIME, if serious.

Your information

1) Your Full Name
2) Your Full Address & Phone Number
3) Age
4) Marital status
5) How many people will be living in the house?
6) Do you have a pet?
7) Do you have a car?
8) Occupation?
9) Duration of lease/Rent
10) Gender
11) Your Picture if available

I personally will actually come visiting you at September as our new tenant.
Looking forward to hear from you with all this details so that i can have it in my file in case of issuing the receipt for you and contacting you. Await your urgent reply so that we can discuss on how to get the document and the keys of the house to you.
If you are still interested, kindly let me know so that I can delete the ad from from crigslist...


NOTE THAT THE KEYS WILL BE SENT TO YOU via FED EX to your personal address
As a man of God please I am giving you all this base on trust and again i will want you to stick to your words, I am putting everything into God's hand, so please do not let us down.

Regards
Green Gin

If you whore out your supposed religiosity enough perhaps you'll be able to steal a little extra money!

Cleverly, the crook merely mentions "God" without going into specifics regarding religion. Being New York, you don't want to accidentally offend marks who follow a different faith.

5th State in 6 Years

Moving again! This will be the fifth state we've lived in over the course of six years.



As you might imagine, Jaru is ecstatic.

Lexington's April Fool's Day Joke

Lexington is playing an April fool's day joke on us this week -- it's looking gorgeous and trying to convince us to stay!

Two houses from us -- it's some kind of historical site.

Chapel near Jaru's office.

Old rail trestle

The Fifth Branch of Government & My Own Crowd-sourcing

The Google-your-government law struck me as an elegant solution to some long-time problems of democracy. In fact, I suspect this sort of transparency is not merely a good, practical, and affordable alternative to greater internal oversight of how the government spends money -- but, in fact, flat out superior. In theory, you could achieve something similar with internal watchdogs within the government -- but then you just run into the "who watches the watchmen" problem. And I think historically the watchdogs just become part of the corruption.

So you just lay all the info out there and let bored nerds on the internet serve as your check and balance -- a special benefit of transparency combined with crowd-sourcing, something really only available due to the technological breakthrough of having the internet piped directly into nerd homes.

NERDS! They're the fifth branch of government!

And it's a good thing because I'm not so sure about the other four lately...

Although, truthfully, our modern news media is probably better than it has ever been in the past (probably our government too). The problem it has is that now news stations/papers are much better at revealing the failures of other news stations/papers and subject to the scrutiny of NERDS! -- who are often ridiculously expert in their incredibly narrow field of expertise, and thus able to show the shortcomings of the news media that, in the past, would have slipped by without question.


Hiking Trails in the Lexington VA area
In a vaguely related bit -- I've added some of my own effort to the crowd-sourcing: posting a bunch of hiking trails in the Lexington VA area to Google maps. Some of the directions to the trails in the guide books were either wrong or horribly confusing, so having them on the map makes it a lot easier.

Thank God for NetFlix

All the movies showing within a 40 minute drive of our house:

R/C State Cinema 3

12 West Nelson Street, Lexington, VA, 24450 Theater Info | Map It 10,000 B.C. Rated PG-13, 1 hr 49 min Showtimes: 7:00 College Road Trip Rated G, 1 hr 23 min Showtimes: 7:10 Semi-Pro Rated R, 1 hr 30 min Showtimes: 7:05

Valley Cinema

2275 Beech Avenue, Buena Vista, VA, 24416 Theater Info | Map It Bucket List, The Rated PG-13, 1 hr 37 min Showtimes: 7:00 Fool's Gold Rated PG-13, 1 hr 50 min Showtimes: 7:00

A one hour drive gets the following as well:

Dixie Theatre

125 East Beverly Street, Staunton, VA, 24401 Theater Info | Map It Bucket List, The Rated PG-13, 1 hr 37 min Showtimes: (4:00), 7:10 Definitely, Maybe Rated PG-13, 1 hr 52 min Showtimes: (4:15), 7:05 Juno Rated PG-13, 1 hr 31 min Showtimes: (4:30), 7:15 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Rated R, 1 hr 56 min Showtimes: (4:20), 7:00

Regal Staunton Mall Cinemas

90 Lee Jackson Hwy, Staunton, VA, 24401 Theater Info | Map It 10,000 B.C. Rated PG-13, 1 hr 49 min Showtimes: (4:10), 7:10 College Road Trip Rated G, 1 hr 23 min Showtimes: (4:30), 7:30 Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who Starts on Friday, Mar. 14 Click here for Showtimes Semi-Pro Rated R, 1 hr 30 min Showtimes: (4:40), 7:40 Spiderwick Chronicles, The Rated PG, 1 hr 37 min Showtimes: (4:00), 7:00 Step Up 2 the Streets Rated PG-13, 1 hr 38 min Showtimes: (4:15), 7:15 Vantage Point Rated PG-13, 1 hr 30 min Showtimes: (4:20), 7:20

Visulite Cinema

12 North Augusta St., Staunton, VA, 24401 Theater Info | Map It
2007 Academy Award-Nominated Shorts: Animated Not Rated, 1 hr 30 min Showtimes: 9:10	Kite Runner, The Rated PG-13, 2 hr 7 min Showtimes: 3:30, 6:30
No Country for Old Men Rated R, 2 hr 2 min Showtimes: 9:00	Savages, The Rated R, 1 hr 53 min Showtimes: 4:00, 7:00

Continuous Functions

The one-touch faucet is a marvel -- a long faucet arm grants fine-tuned control and you can simultaneously adjust water flow and temperature across the continuum of the amplitude/temperature state space.

Unless you have our faucet -- which, as you can see in the below photos, goes from unbearably hot on the left (perhaps -1 degree off vertical) to the kind of tepid that feels like it leaves your dishes teeming with bacteria on the right (+.5 degrees off vertical?). I put in the scrub brush to help center the frame of reference.

Somewhere in between those two settings is the comfortably hot point. So, one learns the technique of getting the handle close to right, then tapping it until it gets to a temperature that's acceptable.

Virginia's Impact on Screenwriting

One of the worst parts about being in Virginia is that the humidity makes the paper swell up just enough so that you have to futz around with a stack to get it into the printer -- then the hot, damp pages that come out of the laser printer curl up into a disorganized mess that requires half an hour of knocking against the table to get straight.


In other bits, my attorney, Gordon Firemark, has a blog where he occasionally posts various entertainment related legal articles.

Why South Park is better than The Simpsons

The Simpsons Movie is coming out this week and that gives me hope -- hope that it'll finally get back into syndication 2 to 4 episodes per day on various channels like it used to back in Jersey.

After moving to Florida we were dropped to having The Simpsons in syndication on only one channel, and that maybe once per day. As of right now the only Simpsons is what comes on Sunday night -- this despite there being 19 years of Simpsons available, five years of which where we haven't even seen any new episodes.

That's why South Park is better than The Simpsons. I can watch 2 or more episodes of South Park every night.

Moreover, this points to a problem endemic to network TV. If I miss an episode of Lost I've missed it, whereas if I miss an episode of John from Cincinnati I can catch it late on the Pacific Coast feed, or a couple other times during the week. That means that I simply don't watch Lost or Heroes or Battlestar Galactica, and instead studiously avoid all mentions of the programs until they come out on DVD a year later.

Anyway, despite the movie coming out this week, I'll have to wait until late August to see it since part of being married is that you go to see The Simpsons together and Jaru flies to Taiwan this Friday.

Our Own Countess Bathory

I noticed that after our cat eats her dry cat food she immediately starts licking herself all over -- i.e. taking a bath.

And I'm thinking that here she has crunchy little bits of IAMS stuck to her tongue and is now working all that kibble into her fur. Who knows, perhaps that's how the hairball care part works.

But it occurred to me that this is evolved behavior, and thus developed long before cats could eat food in convenient kibble form -- that is, they evolved to do this back when they ate live rats, birds, and baby bunnies. And what they'd be bathing in then is the blood of their devoured prey.

Step 23 -- Spreading the word

via Bruce Cordell's blog:

1. go to http://www.google.com
2. click on "maps"
3. click on "get directions"
4. type New York in the first box (the "from" box)
5. type London in the second box (the "to" box) & hit "get
directions" on the same line
6. scroll down to step #23

Here's a direct link to the instructions if you're too lazy to type.

Oscar Season Bonus?

One benefit of the Oscars is that afterward some of the more obscure films end up getting screen time in theaters close to you. San Antonio is actually good for getting movies, but I'm hoping that Last King of Scotland and Pan's Labyrinth will end up in the walking-distance theater.


In unrelated news, the street that they just repaved outside our apartment last summer is now being torn up for some reason. Maybe somebody lost a contact. I'm almost certain that the whole roads department in San Antonio is hopelessly corrupt. We moved here almost three years ago and they're still only halfway finished at putting in the interchange ramps at the intersection of two of the major freeways, which they started before we got here.

Another major interchange on the north end of town (where the majority of the development is occurring) also lacks ramps. People tear off the roads at 65+ mph, crowd into street traffic, then make left turns at the lights to get on the other freeway. And all this happens at an already busy intersection. Nobody had the foresight when building the freeway overpasses and such in the first place, that a lot of people might switching between them?

That kind of planning ensures that your cousin who owns a construction company is always at 100% work load.