Turning Right on Red

The Mustache in Me

2011-04-06T19:15:00.001-07:00

It's been years but for whatever reason (laziness) I decided to grow a (shitty) beard, as I am want to do. I went on a two week sales trip to Florida and I kept wondering if it made any difference to how people perceived me. After failing to resist the urge (temptation?) to not leave myself with a mustache when I decided to shave this week, any questions around changed perceptions and facial hair have been dropped.

Today I noticed a pretty attractive girl walking next to me who I had recently actually set across from at a neighborhood cafe for about 2 hours (while still having a mustache) and she decided to casually cross over to the other side of the street. She continued walking in the same direction, parallel to me, for at least 4-5 blocks, while avoiding all eye-contact. It was amazing.

(note: photo on left - creepiness added for effect)

Case in point - example #2, a small child holding his mother's hand walking in front of me turned back, saw me (or probably really just the mustache), issued a small whimper, and did not turn around for the rest of his stroll.

The Upsell

2010-11-28T13:18:00.000-08:00

Hello dear readers (if there are any of you left out there),

I stopped posting awhile back because I found out my mom was reading this blog. Not that it's a private blog or I reveal any deep dark secrets, I just didn't like her talking about my gas problems or knowing about some things when I had previously just assumed that she was very far (my father Herb as well) from the blogosphere realm. Well not sure what I will do going forward but recently had a blogworthy event I thought I'd write about (+ I am on a 4.5 hour bus ride back from NYC this weekend too).

I used to have two frogs that a friend bought me (I named them Ace and Gary because they were both male and seemed to cling to each other about as much as their gay Saturday Night cartoon counterparts). After Ace or Gary died, not really sure which one was which, I thought it was kind of sad that the other didn't have a friend. So I called my local pet store and inquired about getting an African dwarf frog (see above picture) and the pet store dude inquired about my current tank - which truth-be-told is a tiny little square of a tank with just enough room for a little bamboo plant, snale, some rocks, and the frog (it's a self sustaining tank). After telling me these little tanks were just gimmicks and I needed to give more space he said he could help me out. Upon arrival at the pet store with Ace (or Gary) I asked to see the African dwarf frogs and the same guy from the phone told me he wouldn't sell me another frog in my little tank and I kept explaining that I didn't want to buy a bigger tank and the pet store guy continually telling me to look at the sad little face and meek legs of my current frog I told him to just show me the damn frog. He finally showed me his albino frog (see other pic.) which is about 4 times the size of mine. I asked if they would be ok together and he replied, "no this one would eat that one." So in the end he never even had a frog he could sell me and was just trying to get me to buy a new tank. It turns out one bigger and cheaper option was only about $10 (and he threw in the gravel at 50% off) but I was so annoyed by the experience I told him that I didn't care if my frog was comfortable and stormed off with Ace (or Gary) never to enter this store again. He told me he thought the frog would be dead in a few weeks but that is something a deceitful and spiteful pet shop owner would say to a customer, who wasn't in the end, actually a customer so we'll see who wins this round later. For now, I think Gary (or Ace) is happy to know that I tried and seems pretty fine with the home he's had for a year and counting.

Confessions of a gaseous man

2010-07-22T08:12:00.000-07:00

So I have this problem - I pass a lot of wind. One problem specifically is at work, I pass gas when no one's around, but then my boss comes by as it lingers and it's really embarrassing. It's incredible too that this mostly only happens when she comes around (and it's a she so that makes things worse) and it's almost as if she times the once or twice a day when she comes over to my desk for when it stinks, and I mean it really stinks. She doesn't say anything but I know that she knows and that probably she know's that I know which is even worse since normally she just leaves as soon as possible after arrival with no comment and cutting her agenda short. I think I have a few options to remedy this situation and would like your opinion on this debacle:

1. Take beeno

2. Change my style so as to avoid the "time bomb" and make it somehow more instantaneous

3. Excuse myself and publicly acknowledge it

4. Walk the 30-40 ft. from my desk to the bathroom

I don't know if man has yet to find a solution to this but it truly is awful

Nudity: Not always a good thing

2010-07-18T18:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday a very large girl with a very large butt mooned me in Newport. It was not a pretty sight. She even asked beforehand, along with my two friends, whether it would be ok, to which we replied quite simply, "no," and she went ahead and did it anyways. I mean did she think we would enjoy this? It made me think that there's this perception that nudity is always a good thing and everything naked is more fun, and well I do believe there's some truth to that, this was a stretch (yes I know there's a double entendre there).

Speaking of girls (and not mooning) Danilo, my roommate in Jamaica Plain, said a great quote tonight. We were talking about how we really needed to start composting and he commented: "yeah, girls here love composting." After laughing about it for a bit we sort of thought it could be true. "They would be so impressed and we would be drawing them all in" he commented. While we were at it we could start using rain barrels and vermaculture - all very interesting ideas I suppose. It also made me realize how Jamaica Plain has changed me and how I would never have thought like this in the past.

I do wish I could write about girls more (since that's where most of the good stories are anyways right) but in the wishes of not defaming anyways I refrain in this blog. Suffice it to say that if I did I would probably embarrass myself more than anyone else.

If this song said "Andy" instead of "Dandi" it would be my theme song:

http://s0.ilike.com/play#Nortec+Collective:Dandy+Del+Sur:453729:s27492597.9571032.7360331.0.2.17%2Cstd_41e09a8dcfdf49e582f7434e308991bf

(does it bother anyone else that this stupid "Ilike" thing only lets you place the song once. We can obviously search around on the internet and find it somewhere -pandora, youtube, grooveshark, last fm, vimeo, the options are limitless these days. They can't stop us! oh wait, shoot, I don't want to tempt fate - I take it back)

Polo & Guatemala

2010-04-29T20:48:00.001-07:00

So I’ve been wondering what to write about my trip to Guatemala for about a month and polo came to mind. I’ve got a very open mind and am usually up for anything but one thing that blew my mind was attending a polo match in Guatemala – I’ve been on a Cameroonian radio show, attended a Monster Truck Jam, visited a sex museum, and swam in a bio-luminiscient bay, to name a few more eccentric things I’ve done as far as attractions and events. What made this recent experience more shocking was the fact that I had just been living in areas that hardly had roads let alone horses. “Boston?” one of the indigenous farmers had remarked when I told him where I lived. “Massachusetts?” I tried next, and still no reaction. I finally explained I was from the Northeast, U.S. At the polo match, quite a different venue with a very different crowd, it therefore should not have been a surprise when after answering the same question and telling the person “Boston – It’s in the Northeast U.S., Massachusetts” they replied, “yeah no shit.” (in English too).

The match was in Guatemala City with my friend’s former boarding school friend who came to the States for a decade or so before returning home to help run his family’s business. This man is one of the elite of the country; he was actually the president of the polo club. So he made sure we were well taken care of. Before seeing this though I have to admit I had never even thought people really played the sport, certainly not in the U.S.

Apparently you need at least six horses (which cost about $250 each to feed a month) –one for each period of the match, membership to a club (also usually pricey), a lot of $ to maintain the beautifully grassy playing field, and the money to pay for international refs. to fly in ($2000 a game maybe) and if you really want to win, you can bring in up to two players a team of higher ranking, who for a nice fee, will join your team for the match. As you can tell, it’s not the easiest sport in the world to join. What’s crazy is how interesting it is to watch and how powerful the horses are. It’s actually a really violent experience and people getting trampled are not uncommon. But it’s less about the game then the prestige of being there, hanging out with other wealthy and influential people, and honoring your family’s tradition of running the local polo club.

Our team ended up losing but it didn’t matter, we ate the best food there that we ate the whole trip (it was catered by a five star Guatemala City steakhouse) and met some powerful and racist Guatemalan’s who skin was sometimes lighter than that of my own (and my Jewish friend who traveled around with me). We were also constantly given more alcohol resulting in some contentious debates about Guatemalan history with some of the polo crowd lackeys. I highly recommend Guatemala as a place to travel internationally with beautiful sights, an interesting and colorful history, and an amazing disparity between the wealthy elite who play polo every now and then, and the poor who have no electricity or running water.

Quarter Life Crisis - It's not time to panic...yet

2010-04-21T06:56:00.001-07:00

Today I turn 25. This seems like a monumental achievement in some ways. On the other hand, I about the same age as NBA legend Lebron James and Mozart had been composing incredible symphonies for his last 20 years at this point in his life. But I'm not Mozart and I'm not Lebron James, or am I? No I suppose I'm not, so I don't need to panic. But birthday's are strange things. I really don't want people to know because as soon as they find out they start telling other people and those are probably people you don't care about and then you just have a bunch of people wishing you something and making you feel like most of the people you know are not really people you will know in 5 or 10 years and you have very few close friends. I feel ok writing it here on this blog since no one really reads it, except perhaps a few close friends. It is fitting that my friend Sean, who's blog I also read avidly, wrote to me to a few days ago:

"You know what scares me even more, rationalizing this irrational existence." (in reference to finding a job, what to do with his life, and playing the game of sending your resume in, trying to look impressive, etc.) - see http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www.eyeweekly.com/article/55882&h=19117 for a great piece on quarterlife crisies

Ok sorry for the depressing note there, 25 years, big thing, big news, go me

-here's to the next 25!

Mental Block in Guatemala

2010-03-14T18:26:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Guatemala, well actually Honduras for the moment. I´ve crossed the boarder to check out some ruins here in the infamous Copan, ok maybe not imfamous but something along those lines.

After visiting some coffee farmers last week with Equal Exchange I´ve gotten away for a week to explore Guatemala some. I´m pretty excited to be here. The weather is beautiful and all is well.

I got a fish the other day at a restaurant and they brought the whole thing out so when I got to the end I asked the waiter if normal people ate that there and he said, ¨if you want to.¨ Which definitely wasn´t clear enough for me so when I forced the issue he told me that some Guatemalans did eat it, including the eye, but most gringos did not. Since I wanted to be stronger than most Gringos I decided to take a stab at it...I mean literally, but when I did it´s mouth opened and I just couldn´t do it. I just kept staring at it and I couldnt get over how discusting it was to eat a fish´s brain so I gave up and submitted to my mental block.
sad, maybe next time I´ll have more courage, although I still don´t know about the eye.

One other thing is that I got electrocuted in the shower the other day since they don´t have much warm water here and it was an electrical head which heats it and I mistakenly hit and caused a terrible electrical chock that passed through my arm to my entire body. I guess it´s part of the adventure but I´m just saying, appreciate what you got with your warm water no electrocution showers up in the Global North

Skiing like and old man.

2010-02-22T19:42:00.001-08:00

Once again returned from soccer in poor condition. I don't know if it's because I'm small, fall down a lot on this damn Astroturf, am getting old much too fast, or if I just actually suck at soccer but I can't seem to escape without damaging myself. The worse is that we have lost every game I've played (our record is something like 0-4) and I've been on a number of losing teams in my life and can't help but wonder if it's me, the team, or both? What a crummy thing being a loser, especially after losing to a bunch of old men in doubles (see Sportmen's Tennis Club) and having to drive to Weston, MA for it too. I guess it's better than sitting around and the alternative of going to a gym or running regularly sounds terrible.

Lot's of questions, not a lot of answers. Another possibility is that I have pre-maturely aged and my back is giving out and I should not be skiing, playing tennis, and soccer all in one week. Stretching might also help, but who wants to do that? Speaking of skiing, I went up to Loon Mountain in New Hampshire this weekend and had a pretty good time. Loon is something between Bolton Valley and Sugar Bush or Stowe in VT. The funny thing with skiing is at least half of it seems to be the adventure off the mountain and the culture of the mountain. There's so many funny personalities there (think Southpark ">"Asspen" not to mention the "ski bunnies (see above*)" Everyone is there to have fun which I love too -although the head phones thing is something, beyond the safety aspect which you can debate, I'm not quite sure I like (even though I've done it myself, especially if you are skiing alone). But it seems stupid that we spend like $70 for a day and spend an hour sitting at a table buying ridiculously expensive fried food for lunch and then quitting often before the end of the day. Then you go home and you talk about skiing and talking about skiing and the "freshies" and all is another cultural phenom in it of itself. Given the price, the distance to drive, the lines, and all sometimes I think we are convincing ourselves that it's better than it is. Furthermore, taking off your boots and grabbing a beer at the end of the day really is the best part which seems counter-intuitive. Maybe I don't even like skiing, no wait that can't be true, I just don't have the balls I used to and don't try anything that exciting anymore (actually I probably never did but just think I did - like when you get 8 inches of air and think you got 4 ft). It reminds of college and being on the diving team where the best part of practice was being done and sitting in the hot tub...probably a bad sign that you shouldn't be doing something if that's the case.

We did have some adventures before and on the mountain. After almost losing my ski bag off the top of my friends pick-up because I forgot to tie it down and it nearly fell off while we sped down the highway at 70 miles an hour (it was like 7:00 am) we made it to the mountain only to falter once again when my friend took out a little kid at the top of the mountain moving about 3 miles an hour and just not seeing him. It's really hard not too laugh when things like this happen even know you're not supposed to. I then crashed into a tree trying to wedge my way into one of those quick woods offshoots that comes back to the trail a little too quick. I'm sure it was fun not being me and hearing me scream at the last minute.

Anyways, that's it for now. I am taking off for Guatemala for work in two weeks to visit some coffee farmers and I am pretty psyched about that, one might even say stoked. I'll report more soon, sorry for this lame post and thank to you anyone who's actually reading this.

*Disclaimer: Picture of ski bunny may or may not actually be a real girl that I saw but in any case there's something really hot about athletic girls who can ski and look good with all those clothes on.

Sports, Love &/in Minnesota, & More

2010-02-09T20:43:00.000-08:00

Playing in the Boston Ski & Sports or BSSC as people say has been fun but a big step up from previous recreation. We play on a real indoor soccer field with a real scoreboard, ref, uniforms, and the whole 9 yards. As you could imagine, some people take this much too seriously and as I sit in pain writing this post I can't help but wonder why the goalie last night thought it was necessary to check me into the board as I felt several bones snap - ok not really, but I did have trouble moving today. The worst though is getting knocked over from some these woman who must be on steroids or something. I mean what are you supposed to - knock them back over?

Speaking of moving, this past weekend I went to the Milky Way in Jamaica Plain which moved last year to basically my back yard, which I was pretty psyched about. There aren't a whole lot of places to go out in JP, definitely not the best place to move if you are looking for good night life in Boston. There are even fewer places to dance but The Milky Way is one of them and on Saturday night they had some great DJ's and some spinning lights on the dance floor. Only problem - no one dancing. There were people there for sure, although everyone seems to be about 5-10 years older than me on average, and they stood around the dance floor just talking. And if you can't get people to dance to good music on a Saturday night I don't know what you can do. My strategy was to get on the floor even if with the 3 other people (2 of whom were men) and pull some good moves - this did not help. Everyone continued not dancing while I made a fool of myself.

Lastly, I am taking off to Minnesota this weekend after a bizarre series of events. I was facebooked by a girl I have not spoken to since freshman year of college (who I was never particularly close with) who said she wanted to buy me a ticket to my former roommate and good friend's surprise birthday. Wait, hold on a second, were the strings attached? None apparently she said. Oh she must be rich? Probably not as she does Teach for America. So I decided to go with it and take a chance since free trips are always sweet and I want to see my friend. We'll see how it goes and hopefully this isn't some grand hoax where I have to pop out of a birth cake somewhere naked or something- but apparently this girl and my friend are pseudo dating long-distance which I didn't hear about from him and seems rather odd. Although not that odd considering my other roommate from college was dumped shortly after a 3 year relationship ended just after graduation when he found while travelling in Israel that it was for a woman that she'd been cheating with for almost a year and she was now a lesbian! So much for their plan to move to Hawaii together. Or take my friend who studied abroad in Ghana and met a military man there that's more than twice her age (mid-forties) with 2 daughters just younger than us, and became friends only to later fall in love after graduation after he moved to Japan and then she moved there too to get married. The latest I hear is they are planning on making some children of their own in New Orleans where they now live.

If all goes well I should be dating a trannie soon on the streets of St. Paul that comes back to Boston only to find out that it's my boss' mother who is pregnant with 3 children, and needs me to travel to Zanzibar to find the father whose whereabouts are unknown.

The Herb Files (part III)

2010-01-05T20:56:00.001-08:00

It's been awhile since I wrote anything about my dad Herb and going back to Vermont this past weekend made me remember some things. The funny thing is that to me his "eccentricities" are probably pretty prevalent amongst fathers in the baby boomer generation but as an economist and being around college students you would think he would be a little bit more hip at this point.

The first thing is a mis perception about price. Perfect example was me getting some very nice new Patagonia shoes for $60 and upon bringing them home he remarked, "I've never spent more than $25 on a pair of shoes in my life, that's outrageous." Now this obviously can't be true first of all and second of all he then proceeded to give $60 for gas money as I left to go back to Boston without any hesitation. So it's obviously not about cheapness it's just that every day there's probably a new item in his life, or I should say category of items, like shoes for instance, whose price seems unreasonable. Clothing in general really is the big category here but there are many others.

The second thing also has to do with inconsistencies - and that being in the field of technology. Herb does know a good deal about computers, Blue-Ray, and flat screen TV's but when it comes to checking his messages on his cell phone or sending a simple text message he is clueless. I can't figure out whether it's a lack of motivation and interest or really an ineptitude at figuring out the small buttons. It's not that I'm that embarrassed for him about this...but it was pretty amazing that when I came home talking to him while driving the other night he kept talking after I hung up. How do I know this? Because I pulled into the garage (in which he was standing and speaking into his cell phone), rolled down the window, hung up my phone, and while I proceeded to finish our conversation from a large and very noticeable car with him standing 5 ft. away from me, he continued for a few minutes to respond not looking at me and still speaking into his cell phone as if I weren't there.

Is there any way to bring these people into the new century?

A Study of Contrasts

2009-12-14T20:17:00.000-08:00

The last few weekends has been a tale of many lives for me, or maybe more since I seem to cross a few different crowds these days.

The weekend before last I went to see Phish in Albany NY for two nights. The "scene" is perhaps the least enjoyable part about seeing Phish and I had almost forgotten about this until I realized that my friends are part of the scene. Let's just say it's not always about the music for everyone there. In the past I didn't know they were referred to as the "nitrus mafia" and that other people are actually blogging about this. It just seems stupid to me. So anyways, Saturday during the day we had time, well actually the whole day to kill and let's just say there's not a whole to do in Albany, NY. After a leisurely 11:30 am wake up I was trying to inspire my crew of 7 or so dirty and smelly male comrades to leave the trashed hotel room we were staying in to do something, anything really, and not a single one of them seemed to have any interest in moving. On the contrary, they seemed content with watching Ritchie Rich, Blade II, and then Blade 3 Trinity, and a number of B movies while ordering pizza for breakfast. I couldn't take it so I left to check out the local food co-op since I had previously heard about it and wanted some real food.

My timing was impeccable: 12:30pm Saturday's just happens to be the time for a free half hour session of "Yo Ba" Chi Gong, which to my luck was open to the public. This is the description from the co-ops website of this class:

"Join Unchatwa (aka Tim Stoddard) on a gentle journey for health and vitality. An eclectic fusion of Pasha (gentle heart) Yoga and Ba Gau Zhang (8 palm change) circle walking with kidney cleansing Chi Gung to cleanse the blood, tonify the kidneys, and energize the body, mind and spirit."

Wow - if I had to describe food co-ops to someone and the people there - I would use the exact above description to offer a really poor stereotype of a co-op shopper. While I am pretty open to anything, this is not something I would normally do but having nothing to do in Albany for the day and thinking about the disgustingly dirty room of friends awaiting back at our cheap hotel I decided to give it a try. I actually felt a lot better afterwards, although it was pretty strange - of course I never heard the end of it when I got back to the hotel room, which to no surprise did not see any movement until the show at night except the brief walk to buy snacks from the gas station across the street.

Last weekend I went to NYC and joined my friend's holiday party (he works for Sungard Financials) at Bryant Park. Luckily we are the same size and I could borrow some clothing since I forget that my workplace is very different than a lot of my corporate contemporary's and I had to snag a nice shirt, pants, and tie (when it's warmer I sometimes go to my work in my Cameroonian shorts by contrast). While they didn't ask who I was to get in since I guess I looked the part, this was one of the most extravagant work party's I've ever been to. Catered and delicious meal with the type of deserts you see in commercials, multiple open bars, beautiful roof-top deck view of, the Manhattan downtown, and a solid DJ spinning tunes all night. I was actually in New York for a retreat for a group I volunteer with called CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People's of El Salvidor) - man I am really taking a turn to the left lately...and it was such a contrast to be with this radical leftist group the next day, who probably mostly are anti-consumerists and work for non-profits (or are unemployed). We did exercises such as "activist yoga" and "anti-oppression workshops." My friend would probably have felt pretty weird there and he's also a pretty open guy.

Finally, just to top things off on my way back Sunday night I stopped in Springfield, MA and wondered upon the most amazing and unexpected restaurant ever called Teresa's Soul Food. at 10 pm Sunday night I couldn't believe there was anyone there but Teresa, just returning from church, bounced right in and started cooking up some great candied yams, collard greens, and Southern Fried chicken while a huge bible lay open on the restaurant counter (it was kind of diner style). She put on gospel music on the CD player, fried up some cat fish as samples while we were waiting and persisted in trying to get us to try the pig feet. The obvious point of contrast here was that you wouldn't normally associate Springfield, MA with great soul food cooking - and even though we were the only people in the place, the food was really amazing. I highly recommend the stop if you ever for whatever reason find yourself in Springfield, MA 10 pm on a Sunday night. And if you ever the opportunity to do Yo Ba" Chi Gong, I say take it. Why not? You only live once and you don't need to go abroad to see the incredible diversity of layers that exist right here within our own society

Birdie in the Nest

2009-12-09T06:50:00.000-08:00

Growing up I always was told by my mom that this was one of our family recipes so I assumed it was special. I've always loved Birdie in the nests but then later on found out that lot's of other people eat them too. I've heard lots of names for them too including:

Egg Island

Eggie Weggy (England)

Toad in the Hole

Egg in the basket

And just now I check in Wikipedia and they've got also:

It is also known by a large number of alternative names, examples being "Rocky Mountain toast",^[4] "moon egg",^[5] "egg-in-the-hole"^[6], "One-eyed Jack",^[7] "Bird's nest"^[8] and "frog in a hole"

So somewhat disappointing, but it still is bomb and I highly recommend this to my readers

The Return of Trainwreck

2009-11-18T07:45:00.000-08:00

Picture above may or may not exeggerate age of average tennis player at the Sportman's Tennis Club in Dorchester, MA

So last night I made my 2nd appearance (group hit night) at the Sportsman's Tennis Club in Dorchester, MA. It's the only club of I know of in Boston that's relatively affordable. I guess I am back on the courts again after a long hiatus (except for a few good stretches during the warmer months of the year) and thinking about joining. These guys also do league play which is cool and I can represent Boston.

It's funny - I've never really thought about rankings and levels (3.0, 4.0, etc.) but now I need to. What's also funny is that this group, maybe around 20 strong, is mostly a bunch of old men who play some good old man tennis. Last night I played doubles and felt pretty shaky. These guys do not look like they should be that good but they are deceptive and play smart. In addition when you move indoors the balll just seems to skid and move a lot faster. These guys are probably not serving more than 70 mph but it feels like 100 mph.

It's funny how quickly I revert to old habits. I know I can play the game, but the minute I get on the court, especially with new players, I start second guessing myself. I have always been this way - a real headcase. When I am confident - I can hit ridiculous shots that I should not be able to hit but the opposite is also true and I don't what's in my genetics that playing with a bunch of average old men can make me so nervous.

In general, I think having some competition and being challenged with some stakes are a good thing to have on a weekly basis in your life. It keeps things interesting. And yet I'm not gonna lie by saying it wasn't somewhat of a relief to graduate MAC and not have to think about playing another match there again in my life and the thought of playing in a competitive league again makes me think again about how quickly "Trainwreck" (my college alter-ego) could return.

Weekend fun

2009-10-26T19:50:00.000-07:00

Many of you (and by many I mean probably no one) might wonder what I do with myself in Boston on the weekends. I can't say this was the best weekend I've had in awhile, but here goes a few highlights:

Friday
I get home from work to entertain a visitor from a non-profit soliciting me to get involved with anti-bottled water campaign. This same group sent someone to my house on a similar occasion a few months ago with similar results. For the second time in a row, they send a beautiful young woman around my age who does an amazing job at acting (or maybe not acting) genuinely interested in my life, my work, and being as friendly and nice as possible. How could I say no? After already becoming a monthly donor this new one fished a one time donation out of me - this is exactly why 90% of their office is probably young hot females.
I then went to a Harvard law party (I have a friend there) - unfortunately the lights were very bright, the punch was warm, and the music was awful. Since I wasn't in anyone's "section" I felt a little out of place. You gotta be open to new ideas and you never what experiences life will throw at you - this time not a whole lot but who knows if I went to 10 Harvard law party's what could happen?
Saturday
Went to a few party's and after figuring out it wouldn't be smart to drive home I drank some more -It always takes one of these moments to later remember why you shouldn't do this. Just a word of advice here - I would advise against taking a shot of flaming Sambuca (and doing the sniffer)-I hate licorice and when drinking beer all night it just doesn't seem to fit. Anyways, this is probably what made me sick and it's been awhile since I really felt it so bad. It probably didn't help that I was the only one in the house without a bed or couch and slept in a half curl in a chair.
Sunday
Not much to report except my pancakes debacle in the morning (I was in so state to be cooking in all fairness):
1 cup of pancake mix, 1 cup of milk, 1 cup vegetable oil
Wait a second, did I just say 1 cup vegetable oil? I meant 1 TBSP - too late. I ate 2 crispy pancakes oozing with oil that almost made me run to the bathroom again mid-way through the 2nd pancake.
I proceeded to spend the next 3 hours curled up in the fetal position in my bed having a hard time deciding whether my it was my head pounding or my stomach clenching harder.
According to my brother, 1 cup of vegetable oil is more than you normally consume in a week - it's like eating a full stick of butter or something.
I eventually forced myself out of bed at around 3 because it was so beautiful outside and generally I think being in bed doesn't actually make you feel better. They weren't my best 9 wholes of golf but I got through them.

You can't say I don't live an adventerous life

Monsey, New York

2009-10-14T19:42:00.000-07:00

I recently visited the great large apple of NYC and the beautiful state of New Jersey on a recent sales trip. One of the highlights was seeing my rabbi friend Heshy in Monsey, NY. Since it was the night before Sukkot - Heshy wanted to take me out and see the community and how different it would be for someone like me coming from a secular background.

Joseph Berger of The New York Times said in a 1997 article that Monsey in the 1950s "was a small rustic intersection with a single yeshiva." By 1997 Monsey had 112 synagogues and 45 yeshivas (Wikipedia).

I saw a number of interesting things but surprisingly my biggest cultural shock moment was going to the Orthodox supermarket at about 11 AM on a Thursday night, bussling with people. This 100% kosher supermarket was, not joking, a slightly reduced in size version of Cosco. My friend is not Hasidim (see pic. above) but almost all of the other shoppers were (and were men). The majority of these folks speak the dying language of Yiddish while the people working there were almost all Spanish speaking. Given the product mix - which was also almost entirely foreign and in Hebrew and the noise level of so many people speaking and yelling things accross the aisles at once, I really thought I was in another country. I also wasn't sure whether my Spanish or Yiddish needs more improvement - oy gevalt what am I saying I don't speak any Yiddish!

Anyways, I'm walking around in awe when all of the sudden I get hit with the worse heart burn (reminescent of a previous occassion - I should probably do something about this at some point) and fell to the floor clutching my chest in pain. It wasn't like I wasn't already receiving a wide range of stares dressed and looking the way I was. After Heshy finally found me and finished his shopping we were able to leave with only slight embarresement. No one did offer any me help, Sukkot was too soon around the corner (actually I sort of ran off an hid between cash registers in a crouched position)
This entry finally connected my two favourite things to write about - heartburn and Judaism. Coincidence? I hope not

My Top 5 Cities

2009-10-03T14:41:00.000-07:00

I'm heading home on the Bolt Bus from NYC right now and thought I'd use their free wi-fi to write a quick blog entry - it's crazy that they have this bus now and it's not anymore $$ than the Chinatown bus (and your bus will not explode into flames mid-way).

I had a few days in Jersey for a business trip and in the past have used this opportunity to visit friends in NYC. This time I kind of wanted to get back to Boston and it made me realize how this has become my new home and how much the city's grown on me. It's still not my favourite - in fact right now, at least for cities in the U.S. (plus Montreal since it's close to where I grew up) it might go something like:

1. Montreal*
2. New Orleans
3. Burlington***
4.Minneapolis/St. Paul
5. Pittsburgh/Madison (tie here)
*The one caveat with these ones is in the winter they probably doesn't even make the top 5 because it's so cold.
***Not because it's cold but because of all the annoying UVM students is really only #3 because of it's amazingness in the summer

NYC is a tough one because it goes from 1 to last so quickly from moment to moment - it's just such a crazy place that has extrreme potentials for coolness or terribleness and it's different every time I go. Pittsburgh is surprisingly very cool - lot's of hills, up & coming with very affordable living (and bars), lots of artsy type stuff going on - give it a chance it will surprise you. I imagine Philly and Portland would make the list if I spent more time there. Tuscon is cool too - but doesn't seem really together like a lot of places out West you need a car so it gets cut from the list.

I feel pretty lucky that I've been able to go to a bunch of Red Sox games, see a few shows, go on a few adventures, and many times at-the-last minute, which is much harder to do in NYC. So for now I'm sticking around and hoping that winter won't suck too hard

Police brutality

2009-09-17T08:56:00.000-07:00

Going through Dorchester on my way home from the Cape this weekend I had an interesting experience with the police. And by interesting I mean I almost pooped my pants.

I seem to always get in trouble when I am with my friend Higgsy from London who doesn't usually wear a seatbelt for whatever reason and usually puts his feet high up on the dashboard. He's also quite a lanky fellow so it's very noticeable for a passerbye. Dorchester is not such a great neighborhodd in Boston but it wasn't too late, only around 9 or so and it was Sunday.

I still don't know why I was pulled over but there were two cars and the one unmarked one had a big black dude in street clothes that was the most intimidating "police" officer I've ever had to talk to. I think they thought we must have been someone else because they first were asking about what Higgsy was holding on his hand (a GPS) and where we were going...he asked me if I had been drinking and I said no and he pressed me on it saying, "so you haven't a single drink today??!!!" and since the truth was that I had had a beer at around 11 am I told him so and he went bezerk and asked if I thought he was an idiot and told me to step out of the car. I tried to explain that what I meant was that I had drank one beer and not "been drinking" - seems like two very different things right? He started shouting at me about if he asks a question he wants an answer and he asked if I was drinking water whether I would tell him or not. It was absotuely ridiculous. He then was saying how I was stumbling and my eyes were all glazed over - which none of this was true and I told him to breathalize me. He then told me he could put me in the slammer if he wanted. and after telling Higgsy (as they continued to harrass me) that they were fuc$#ng me, they even searched through my car and asked about open containers. They were saying that Higgs was going to have to drive my car home and I told them that he only had an international liscence and didn't know how to drive stick and they were like "we don't care."

The whole thing was crazy and when they finally let me go back in my car they jokingly said to Higgsy, "what's going on here?!" and he told me that they were indeed screwing with me. And actually as I found out afterwards he had told them to do so when they asked him halfway through if they should keep doing it. If he had said no things probably would have gotten worse so I think it was the right answer. But still, they couldn't have been completly screwing around since they continued to search my car even after they told him it wasn't real.

I'm just glad I got away unscraped but it was really terrifying and I'm never good in those situations anyways. I wish I could know why I was pulled over - they just told some lame thing like "slow down" right at the end but I feel like this is exactly why so many people hate cops. They probably could have actually put me in jail for some made up thing if they had really wanted to.

Something smells Fishy at 3231 Washington St.

2009-07-09T06:03:00.000-07:00

A christian from Ecuador, a Muslim from Springfield (MA), and a Jew from Vermont walk into a bar...

sounds like the beginning to some joke right? Well this is the rainbow that is my apartment and for the most we get along pretty well. Last night my Muslim roommate Hammed (who's not really observant at all but that's his background) expressed some frustrations with me. I understood a lot of his complaints and I can get in trouble when I fail to see something that is common sense to most people. Take this for instance:

My roommate Hammed told me that his whole family and a bunch of friends would be coming to the house for a graduation party and he gave us some good heads up notice. While I knew they were coming I didn't really think it would be such a bad idea to fry up a quick fish before they got there. Problem was, by the time I actually started frying this smelly greasy fish, his whole family was there, and for some reason, many were in suit and ties and standing around me as I fried. I was the loan white person there too. His mom and sister invited me though to come and join outside with their bbq but I could tell Hammed would not be happy if I took her up on this offer.

So no one actually said anything about the fish at the time, and looking back it is somewhat humorous, albeit rude. But apparently, as I found out last night, my roommate has been holding a grudge against me for the last few months after since this fish frying incidence. I can understand his frustration - I just don't do deal with passive aggressive people who hold things in like this.

Canadian Cougars

2009-06-03T19:45:00.000-07:00

Going home for Memorial Day was really nice. I took a trip to perhaps one of my top 3 favourite cities - Montreal. There's just a lot to do there, beautiful parks and overlook at Mont Royal, lots of good eateries and cultural events, and the city just always seems to be more alive than Boston (or Burlington for that matter). And I'm not just saying this because when you turn 18 in Vermont you go to Montreal to drink legally (slash see some "dancing"), it really does seem to be more vibrant. Every time I've been there seems to be some funny or crazy thing that happens. The highlight from this trip was going with my current roommate in Boston to a club downtown (unlike Boston you can actually hang out downtown at night) known as "le Funkytown" that a random stranger had recommended to us. The funny thing was that it actually was pretty funky town (the music wasn't bad)- just not in the way I expected. After paying a $10 cover there was no turning around after coming in and noticing that there was hardly a single person there under the age of 39. Now for most 24 year olds this would be a pretty awkward moment - and it was. Especially because many people had that real traditional Quebecois thing going on. But I figured I had nothing to lose so I took to the dance floor and after some time was in my element and had a small crowd dancing with me. I ended up having a pretty fun time with some of the Canadian Cougars - although for some reason all of these woman were about a foot taller than me. I even inspired some older balding men to join the dance floor - good times.

The funny conclusion to this trip was that ever since the border police searched my car as a teen many years ago I always freak out at the border (not that I wouldn't anyways). Going to Canada the guards pretty much say, "have a good time eh (added for emphasis) and if you go to that club Funky Town make sure to say hi to Edna for me," but on the way back into the U.S. they are really terrible. You feel like you are going through interegation and you've done something wrong and have to crap really badly all of the sudden. This time was no different and I knew I would screw up. The border guard quickly fired off 6 questions in a menacing tone not giving me anytime to answer: "What were you doing in Canada? Where are you from? How long were you there? What illegal substances do you have in the car? Did you buy anything in Canada? How do you (in the car) know each other?" He had asked me where I lived too and I mistakenly said Shelburne Vermont and not Boston because I was nervous and after my roommate had said Boston and I had answered we knew eachother because we lived together, it didn't quite add up and we had to get out of the car while my roommate (who's from Ecuador) recieved an additional 30 minutes of questioning. While these questions might seem easy, put in the right context and with the right tone of voice it's really intimidating even when you've done nothing wrong.

Summer begins

2009-05-16T15:26:00.000-07:00

It really is great that the sun is out, baseballs are flying, and we are on our way...

This past week was bike to work week and even though I work way out in the boonies (West Bridgewater, MA) I was able to borrow my roommates old rickety bike and do the 28 miles back each way on Thursday. My legs were dead but it was an interesting experience, also a sad one as I realized that this would really be impossible to do on any regular basis.

The ride in itself was uneventful but coming back I found a parking ticket (street cleaning) on my car and couldn't believe it - not because I got one, this is probably my 7th ticket or so since moving here, but because I had forgotten about my car specifically because I biked that day. This was sadly ironic.

Speaking of sadly ironic, just a few days later I was playing tennis at the MIT tennis courts and noticed afterwards that a joyous barbecue was taking place so I went by and was offered hot dogs, chips, drinks, the whole works (I sweat I didn't even try to fit in as a student, although I guess I already do - small, dorky, and Jewish). I wasn't going to say no and so I partook and enjoyed a free afternoon of food and drink on M.I.T. But was it really on M.I.T.? The more I thought about the more I realized how college tuition is so high these days and some portion of our parent's tuition money is being channeled into places like this and ending up in the mouth's of the wrong people - like me. I guess you could say the same thing about a thousand budgeted items at a college and all of the student organizations which serve no purpose except to have their own bbq's and partake in the fun and enjoyment of redirecting a small portion of our parent's tuition money towards our fun. Yeh college

10 cavities

2009-05-05T20:43:00.000-07:00

No, I didn't actually think this was possible, but today I found out I have 10 cavities when I paid (which will soon also be litteral) the dentist a visit after taking a year of absence. I know you probably don't care about my teeth but I just need a minute to complain here about the problem of incentive structures in this world. Obviously, every dentist has a different opinion over what constitutes a problem or something that actually needs fixing sooner rather than later. Dentists, like mechanics, stand to gain when they have more work and problems to fix.

Luckily, I DO NOT work on commission in sales for Equal Exchange so this problem really is avoided. I don't even get bonuses at Christmas. That way if some one is being a jerk or wants to bring in our coffee for the wrong reasons I can even say no (although yes in a small unnoticeable way my individual patronage rebate goes up slightly with each sale). But I would say this incentive based work structure - the "earn your keep" model that fuels most of America and has CEO's earning mega million dollar bonuses to sell sub-prime morgages in irresponsible manners is clearly not sustainable even if it does induce most recent college grads to work their asses off for an extra couple hundred dollars a week in exchange for having no life. There has to be some middle ground...Alpha, the alternative learning program in grades 6-8 that I went through where we each just set our own goals seemed to work just fine. Those of us with little ambition did little and for people that actually wanted to learn it was a great environment. And in the end, everyone knows, you can't beat a dead horse, or maybe that's the wrong expression, what I meant to say is some people will work hard and others won't and incentives, while well intentioned, often produce unexpected and additional results to the primary purpose.

So with all of that being said and a good rant out of my system, you might think I'm being cynical and over-the-top but I'm not. As I was leaving the dentist today, they sold me a tube of prescription tooth-paste for $15 - can I get a second opinion on this? I mean common!

Turning 24

2009-04-22T20:43:00.000-07:00

My birthday was yesterday and I turned 24 - yeh me, happy birthday. Actually I really don't like Birthdays because they are so much more fun when you are a kid and you get to actually enjoy them - as pirates or mini-golfers or whatever, and you have friends. At 24 most of your childhood friends are gone and you are a loner along with your few close friends - or maybe I am just talking about myself. But I'm actually feeling like an adult now, which is weird, because it does happen so fast and 24 sounded so old to me when I was in college. I suppose when I'm 28 I'll say the same thing and maybe some day I'll just accept it.
I ended up spending my Birthday with my brother Adam which was nice. My (now) 4 year old neice Esther asked me why I had gotten kicked out of my old house. This was probably the highlight of the night as it was completely unprovoked and I have no idea how she knew that (I was't really kicked it, ok well, sort of, but that's another story) and it caused an uproar. But she really does remember everything. She's going to be a genious.
Anyways, now I am older, still can't grow a beard, and don't look that much different than I did 10 years ago. I'm not sure if this a good or bad thing yet.

Daily Catastrophies, etc.

2009-04-09T20:23:00.000-07:00

So I was recently voted in as a worker-owner at Equal Exchange (I think it was in February for my one year anniversary - I can't believe it's been one year!). This was a great moment and it's pretty cool that I am now a co-owner of a $35 million company. I get a share of the profit, eventually a trip to source, voting rights, 401K, etc. I also got my one year review at this time and one of the comments from a close peer was that it seemed like there were daily catastrophes in my life, not always work-related, and that I needed improvement in this area cause it was disruptive. Well it's not that I totally disagree and I did get the name Train Wreck in college for a reason, but Ialso had some particularly bad luck right around my worker-ownership vote and one year review. For example, probably 2 or 3 coffee mugs flying off my desk after the the corner of whatever piece of clothing I was wearing smacked it as I turned to run to catch the van at the end of the day leaving in one minute (I am in a van pool for work and it leaves with or without you). Being late to a few too many times didn't help, and of course, there was the time a few weeks ago when I suddenly remembered last minute that my flight out of Logan was an hour before I thought it was and I somehow made a flight that I got to the airport 15 minutes before it was leaving after running from bus, to subway, to shuttle, to gate and arguing with baggage assholes for 10 minuts about my carry-on being too large (I did eventually get it on btw). I would say that I usually have good excuses, but I guess when this happens often enough it doesn't matter.

For awhile I've haven't been finding the time to write about these sometimes ridiculous events that I think some people might find humorous but today presented another chance:

It being the second day of Pesach (Passover), I was celebrating at my aunts an hour or so outside Boston. The reason why I didn't have my car and I was stuck at work at 5:15 running around trying to figure out how I was going to get there by 6 (I didn't have time to go back home to get my car as it was 45 minutes w/out trafffic to get there) is not even worth telling as somehow I always get myself into these situations. Needless to say, I would have pretty much missed passover if it hadn't been for a friend/co-worker who let me borrow the Equal Exchange events van (this was probably illegal) and told me "GOOOOO!!" So here I am running late (always running late), in this ridiculously colored farmer/artisan coffee van (think large multi-colored bath tub) trying to get through Boston rush hour traffic while (this is true) 1 - my GPS has run out of batteries (at least I am trying here, got the GPS for Chanukah a few months back) 2 - my cell phone is dying and I don't have directions 3 - and I am really stressing because my friend forgot to mention that the van had no gas. After quite a bit of sweaty armpits, I somehow make it 40 minutes late to my aunt's sedar with car still intact.

So the ridiculous part is that I was like the second person there! I should have known - my family is actually worse than me at being on time (really just my mom's side). So they finally show up an HOUR LATER!! and we start the Sedar but of course my aunt has these guide books from the 1950's - "Maxwell House Presents the Passover Sedar" filled with ridiculous adds for Kosher Maxwell House coffee. The language in these books was incoherent and noone really took it seriously (I always find it weird doing things like this with my family since it seems like we're always praying for God and most people in my family have never professed any belief in God -?)

Anyways, the night ended fine but this daily catastrophie stuff really does need to improve. At least for the time management thing, one suggestion from my brother has been to start enacting the fudge ratio but the rest of the world might just have to put up with me. It's all in the adjectives you use: loveable, goofy, fun, unpredictable OR unreliable, careless, clumsy, lacking foresight/common sense, whatever

To do Today

2009-04-06T18:43:00.000-07:00

To Eat:

-Broccoli cake -
-Kale cake: check
-Carrot cake: check
(my life has become surrounded by hippies!)

Post in my blog that I've ignored for 4 months: check

Something

2009-02-02T20:46:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRX5kH6IrkY

terrible lunch

2008-12-05T09:45:00.000-08:00

I just got back from the A & W/Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet up in Brockton - oh god what a terrible lunch. I don't know why but I just had this terrible and sudden urge for a Cheeseburger - does that ever happen to you? It must at least be in part because I have been living with my brother and his family now for over a month and they are vegetarian. Plus, I am moving into a housing Co-op, who happens to be Vegan (at least for the shared meals), in about a week and that is an ever impending thought in my head. I'm not even a vegetarian, although I support their cause.

So anyways, I got in my car and drove the 10 miles to buy some shitty fast food, which I think, was mostly inspired by a "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle" like moment, in which I either made up a memory, or this actually happened, of some nostalgia involving winning a youth soccer game and our coach taking us to A & W afterwords. Result: Everything was predictably terrible and made me feel awful. I now return to my desk to work knowing that at least the whole meal was only $5 and knowing that there really isn't such a thing as good cheap food. Although the Root beer from the tap might have been my one saving grace.

You drive me crazy

2008-11-27T20:57:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone,

After the perennial all-you-can-eat fest that my family and countless others engaged in earlier today, I'm still feeling stuffed and it's midnight. By the way, did you know 25% of food is wasted every year at Thanksgiving? and like most facts, I made that one up - but I think I heard somewhere that the number is something like that. Anyways, it's been awhile since I've posted so I thought I'd give a quick update with time for a story maybe (I can't help myself can I?).

I've been kicked out of my house as a result of some personality clashes and ageism from my annoyingly elitist roommates who ended up sucking pretty hard in the end. They just came out at me at a house meeting with no pretext or any real reason but just a general dislike of me. I've never really had anything like this happen to me so it was pretty shocking and made me pretty angry. It basically all started with this art girl roommate of mine and some paintings falling (no this was actually not my fault at all this time she just chose me as a scape goat) and the rest of the story is not even worth recounting. The ironic part though is that she is now leaving (either on her own accord or not I'm not sure sure) and since there is no lease, my one friend in the house is leaving too since he is so upset about all of this bullshit.

After living with my brother for the past month and looking for a place to live, I am moving into a housing co-op December 15th. Unfortunately it's just a sublet but it should be an interesting experience; especially learning to be a vegan for the house meals. More to come on this...

I also got a promotion to senior executive sales strategist and a $20,000 raise. Ok, that parts not true, the raise was $2,000. Okay, fine, you got me, none of it is true -but just wanted to keep you on your feet. I did however find a girl that I am now seeing who's really cool and who I am having a great time with but unfortunately lives in Brooklyn. So I'm doing that whole thing now going from Boston to NYC every few weekends (or her coming here). Actually on my last trip to the city I was at this bar and this guy started staring me down. He eventually came over and flicked me on my forehead. I was so surprised that I didn't even know what to say. After he stared me down again a little later I went over to him and asked if I knew him or if there was something he wanted? He said no and offered no further explanation. Eventually he told me to come over where he was standing with this girl and he asked me if I could help him. I nervously asked in what way and told me to just relax and since this wasn't making any sense to me and I was starting to really not like where this was going, I just came out with it and asked if he was gay and told him I was not. He then replied that it was impossible that I wasn't gay and proceeded to move in on me as the girl next to him stepped in front of him and told me to fuck off and that he was her boy. Bewildered, I jumped away and started by for my girlfriend, who, this whole time, I don't know how he didn't see her as we were on the dance floor together.

I have no idea why things like this happen to me but this wasn't the first time. I apparently attract gay men (this was the second black dude too). The first one, I will never forget, told me as I just finished doing Karaoke at this bar in Minneapolis (don't ask me what song until I've had a few drinks - oh wait, better yet, don't do that cause then I might do Karaoke again), anyways, he said: "little Jewish Boy, you drive me caaaarazy." Surprise surprise I ended up running from this guy too. oh good times

Credit the Red Sox

2008-10-19T19:12:00.000-07:00

Luckily it hasn't affected me much since I have no savings, no 401k, no investments really, and am glad that it's happening now and not later at least for me. On another note - I've been counting how much junk mail I get lately -like in the actual mail, and it really is incredible. But I actually decided to count how much I've been getting and in the last 5 months or so, I have over 35 letters from credit card companies trying to get me to get a new card. This probably isn't surprising since every body seems has experienced this at one point or another (or maybe I am just really attractive from a credit standpoint). After living in Cameroon and Guatemala and seeing the difficulty they have in getting credit, this is even more outstanding. Even trying to get a $100 loan in Cameroon was so difficult for so many of my friends and over here people are throwing credit at me trying to get me to go in to debt. Then today, at Best Buy with my brother, I discovered that Best Buy will give you an interest free 18 month loan when you spend over a few hundred dollars. And no wonder why people in this country live beyond their means.

Speaking of living beyond our means, I decided to go to the Red Sox play off game versus Tampa on Thursday night even though I didn't have a ticket or the money (seemingly) for a play off ticket at the most expensive stadium in baseball. I didn't have tickets and was driving (which is possibly the most stupid thing you can do near Fenway) and some how got a legitimately free parking spot right near it. I then proceeded, along with a friend, to get scalped tickets at $75 a piece (the face value was some thing like $120). Ridiculous really since I had tried to get tickets in the mlb.com lottery before and was unsuccessful. As any body knows who watched or read about this game - it was incredible. The Sox game back from 7 runs down after every body thought they were done in the 7th. I have never been in such an electric sports atmosphere - I didn't sleep that night. Now I'm listening in the 7th as they are down 2-1, oh wait, excuse me (f$#k) 3-1 (thank you Willy Aybar) in game 7 and even if they go on to lose will be happy to have witnessed what I did.

The Herb Files (part II)

2008-09-14T15:33:00.000-07:00

After going to Fenway with my brother and father at yesterday's magnificent 7-5 Red Sox triumphant come back over Toronto I thought I would recount a humorous story about my father since it was back in one of my first post's that I wrote about him and I really could just devote this whole thing to him.

The story takes place about 10 years ago I believe. I should also preface this story by saying that my dad does not swear very much and does not take kindly to his sons or their friends cursing either (or at least back when we lived at home).

So my brother had his friend Kevin over and as was often the case my dad just happened to have a project that he wanted help with (on a side note - I know a lot of parents who do this - are they just saving the projects for when we have friends over since most of the time when you are a friend you have to be polite and helpful when you are at your friend's parent's house?) and not surprisingly it involved some heavy lifting. So they picked up this dresser and after moving it discovered a large pile of mouse feces. To every one's surprise (both the amount of poo and my dad's reaction) my dad proclaimed: "Wholly shit that's a lot of crap!" But Kevin was (is) a wise guy and couldn't hold back and so added: "You know, Mr. Kessel, you could have also said: 'Wholly crap that's a lot of shit!"

Even though I would have been rolling over laughing at this point my dad apparently reacted with stoicism and not even the slightest hint of a smile.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse

2008-08-21T20:24:00.001-07:00

I know I write about cooking a lot but I just can't help it. I think it's because writing about my faults helps me get over my lack of common sense but maybe more importantly some times I think even I surprise myself.

Last night I was steaming (or attempting rather) to steam broccoli with a salad spinner and lid on top. I was using this because when I didn't see the pot with the wholes in it for steaming I just grabbed the next best thing (or so I thought) and put it on top of the boiling water pot. I then went upstairs to put on clothing (I was cooking just in my towel after my shower - I often go around like this delaying putting on clothing) and of course by the time I came back the spinner, made entirely of plastic, was melting through in several places. But to top it off I had been cooking potatoes in tin foil in the oven for more than an hour and since they were still hard I decided to put them in towels in to the microwave (at least I knew to take away the tin foil) so that I could have towel smelling potatoes which also did not soften. So finally I cut them in to small pieces and boiled them and an hour and 40 minutes (in total) later I had my two potatoes.

I think I also write about this because some day I think all of this could make a great T.V. show. Or maybe just a cooking show where I cooked dishes and actually called people in the audience with questions (sort of a reverse to the norm).

While after spending last week end in the Cape I'm off to spend another week end outside of this hell whole that is Boston (just kidding) in the great state of Vermont where Herb and a pile of squash he will be offering me await (even though he knows I don't like squash...I can already hear him now, "It's fresh from the garden")

Friends

2008-08-05T20:20:00.000-07:00

I think one of the hardest things about moving to a new place is finding new friends. You either don't want to put the work in or just don't find too many people that you can actually hold a conversation with. So what I'm wondering is whether the majority of people can't hold conversations - and if this is true what do these people do when they are hanging out, or if it isn't true, how is that most people probably feel the same way? And I'm not talking about some stupid conversation about oil prices going up or trans-gender people being accepted in to society - I mean more like who people actually are.

I have made a few friends since coming to Boston. In fact, most of the people I hang out with are lesbians at least 4 years my senior - They call me their "lesbro" since I am the one dude. It's funny that I never got along with lesbians before this because it's great being able to talk about girls with girls. It just sucks that even besides this horde of people all of my friends are girls. It is kind of weird telling people right now that I really just want to meet a cool guy, you know have a wing man or what ever. But then what if I do meet a cool guy who could be a good friend, what do I do? Ask him for his number? That might come off wrong.

Maybe I am having a hard time because some one saw me the other day walking the dog when he dropped a deuce and I didn't pick it up because I thought no one was looking and then that person told every one else.

the pluses and the minuses

2008-07-20T20:11:00.000-07:00

+ I thought Boston might kind of suck - it doesn't (for the most part). I biked to Boston Common this week end for a "Life is Good" festival (man that company can get annoying) and low-and-behold they had Melvin Sparks and Robert Randolph and the Family Band playing a completely random free show. That was sweet.
- I don't like spending too much time with co-workers outside of work and that is pretty much how I spent the majority of my week end
+ I went to Water Country in Portsmouth, NH and relived my childhood years at the water park.
- Water parks in general are filled with chlorine and god knows how many other chemicals as well as urine filled water and inappropriately dressed 14 year old girls. Water Country is no exception.
+ On the way back we got some surprisingly good Polynesian food at Kowloons - the most ridiculous restaurant (see above) - They had decadent fountains, weekly entertainment (I guess they have a sex hypnotist on Friday nights - don't ask me what he does), and menus the size of Shaquille O'Neill head. Additionally, the chicken on the pineapple (also pictured above but hard to tell) came out flaming - big +
- This restaurant is off of Route 1, just north of Boston, and if any body has ever driven there they know how disgusting this segment of the road is. Every other building is a completely over the top version of what ever chain exists in the country. The McDonald's arches are bigger than ever, there is some Tex Mex place with a ginormous cactus, seafood place with full sized boat, you get the picture - this type of stuff is no longer a novelty but just like the Mall of America in Minnesota, a disgusting representation of the extravagance of our waste in this country.
+ Every one should visit these waste sites from time to time when looking for inspiration in chanting: "U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!"
+ I just heard about some M.I.T. research being done for these cell phone chargers that will store energy from within a women's brassiere from the simple every day movement of their breasts.
- Men cannot participate (except fat man) and women with smaller breasts will not power their cellphones as quickly (or maybe at all unless shape might play a factor). More research will need to be done on this.

The mix was a little bit off that day

2008-07-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

1.The title of this entry is supposed to refer to two previous recent incidents where the mix was a little bit off (esp. one of them) but just now coming back from Somerville I felt like it was a little off too. I decided to bike seeing as it was nice out and 20 miles in Boston by car can take just as long. It took me literally 10 minutes to get a stubborn pigeon, who for some reason, decided he didn't want to leave my bike's handlebars- I was brushing him with my hand and my bike lock and he still wouldn't fly away - so weird, I have never seen any thing like this. These city pigeons are just no longer afraid of any thing. Then I got a little off track and had to walk next to Storough drive with my bike on a one foot section of grass (major highway like road through Boston) for several miles to get back - this was incredibly scary as cars were flying by me at 60 Mphs. Why didn't I take a bike map you may ask? The answer is that I did but was too stubborn to use it.

2. A few nights ago I was hanging out with my new friend here who had applied for a job at Equal Exchange and I had invited another Equal Exchange person to join us. This person, who is new, actually ended up getting the same job that my friend had applied for but I had glossed over this minor detail when inviting everyone. While it was definitely awkward when I realized this when we went to hang out, it was not nearly as bad as what happened next. Us 3 went to a bar and just happened to run in to another Equal Exchange employee - but not just any one - it just so happened to be the woman who did both of their hirings - ouch, talk about awkward moment and a lot of silence...not a good mix.

3. What I really wanted to write about was my trip to the dentist a few weeks ago. I had to get fillings and I was already a little concerned with my new dentist here in Boston (seeing as they were completely random but only a few minutes from my house) but decided to give it a chance - BIG MISTAKE. I have never seen such shoddy and unprofessional work. The assistant was falling asleep during the procedure and when the dentist asked her for tools she gave him the wrong ones and when scolded replied: "It' Monday." These are my teeth we're talking about - I don't care what day it is! The real problem came later in the day when parts of the filling were coming off in my mouth. Doing sale's calls as silver bits and pieces came out of my mouth was not easy - I asked if this was a problem and they told me to come in. Turned out, luckily, my teeth are fine but the dentist did reply when asked if it was normal: "yeah, the mix was a little bit off that day."

Best Show East of the Mississippi

2008-07-01T19:58:00.000-07:00

So this post has been a long time coming and obviously long over due. This picture is from my recent trip back to Burlington for my dad's surprise 60th Birthday. Some times it is scary when I think about how we are all getting older and then I remember that I am still 23, and that's pretty good. I met this street performer on Church Street during Jazz Fest who claimed, when I asked if his show was any good (I have this terrible problem that I inherited from my father if asking if things are good in situations where the answer is that they obviously have to be good), that it "is the best show East of the Mississippi" - well this claim was incredible enough that I had to ask to get my picture taken with him. Unfortunately I missed the show so I will never know if it was truly better than some of those shows just west of the Mississippi, like in Cape Girardeau Missouri.

I did get to do some cliff jumping with my friend Joey and that is always a blast despite my fear of heights-I will never jump the 76er but the 35 is still pretty high at Red Rocks - I highly suggest it (see below for random youtube video of random kids jumping off some unspecified height at Red Rocks - come on give me some credit, I'm trying to incorporate some more media in to this thing). Another highlight, I don't like to brag, but what the hell I will, was beating my older brother and father in golf - although it was his birthday so I kind of felt bad, but I played the round of my life and am now thoroughly addicted - it's a shame I chose one of the most pricy sports on the world to be addicted to. Yet another highlight would have been Free Cone Day at Friendly's (Friendly's is paying me hundreds of dollars to mention them in my prestigious blog) but sadly when we arrived minutes after the 5 pm deadline they wouldn't give us a free cone even though they were still selling cones. It's a small thing, but this type of customer service goes a long way and their whole generous free cone day thing comes off as kind of half ass this way too. What's even worse than this type of thing is when the video store is already closed when you get there 10 minutes before closing. My dad use to say that my grandfather would come back and open the store up again for people who would come even 30 minutes late to our family business: Lynn Lumber (does this make up for my link to Friendly's?) I sort of wish we operated on the same clock that they did in Cameroon when I was there - what ever you feel like and when ever. Although I guess this did create massive problems most of the time.

Hell's Kitchen

2008-05-22T19:42:00.001-07:00

I watched the show Hell's Kitchen the other night - no I didn't actually watch it but my roommate rented some season on Net Flix and I got sucked in to watch 2 episodes. At first I was fascinated at how any one could watch this crap but then I realized that the ridiculous drama of these amateur cooks was kind of entertaining. I hate to write another blog entry relating to cooking but I could not hold back; especially after the real drama from my cooking class as of late.

Two classes ago we had a mentally handicapped kid who was supposed to come with his sister as an aid. Of course she doesn't show up and who ever dropped him off said he would be fine and he could use knives. Sure enough, a few minutes in to the class he cuts himself and starts bleeding everywhere. He doesn't go for help he just keeps cooking bleeding all over the ingredients. When the teacher finally gets him to bandage it, he decides he doesn't feel like wearing the bandage and takes it off a few minutes later and continues to bleed. As you can imagine, everyone was freaking out and things finally ended with this kid being kicked out of the class and the screaming aid threatening to sue for prejudice against the handicapped.

Also not surprisingly, the class size dropped dramatically for the last two classes even with this kid gone (I guess people didn't like the idea of blood in their food) but tonight we lost yet again another student. This time, a girl in the class who has constantly complained about how bad the instructor is (in all fairness she is pretty bad) got fed up with the teacher as the teacher kept grabbing her pan and cooking it the way she saw was best rather than instructing her how to cook differently. It happened three times to the same girl before she lost it and screamed: "YOU KNOW WHAT? I HATE THIS CLASS AND YOU ARE A TERRIBLE TEACHER AND I"VE HAD ENOUGH, I"M OUT!!!" IT was easily the most dramatic exit I've seen in awhile and it left every body else (all 5 of us) frozen not knowing what to say. It truly did seem like a scene from the show Hell's Kitchen.

On a side note, out of nowhere there finally appeared a hot girl but with all this drama she almost just seemed like a side show.

So I'm off for my second business trip. First, I'm going to D.C. for Memorial day week end to visit friends and from there to Phili. for a week of business. Until next time...

They can't fire me now - I'm on the map

2008-05-19T13:56:00.000-07:00

These come up when you click on the states on the Equal Exchange website:

Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland & Delaware Sales Rep
Andrew Kessel
akessel@equalexchange.coop
Phone: 774-776-7387

Pennsylvania Sales Rep
Andrew Kessel
akessel@equalexchange.coop
Phone: 774-776-7387

I have major heart burn right now

2008-05-15T19:48:00.000-07:00

My chest feels like it's about to explode. No seriously, not joking, it really does. Does any one have those random moments of intense pain where they feel like they might die or some thing and in reality they probably just need to drink some water? That's me right now, except I can't drink any water because I can't move...at least I can type and if you are going to be stuck in pain any where for a period of time what better place than at your keyboard with your blog, face book and nba.com as your tabs when you get distracted, and some good tunes.

I probably feel this way because I ate nothing but muffins for dinner and then came home and drank some beers - but this is not entirely my fault. Amongst other things since I have last blogged, I've joined a cooking class. I really am an active person when I'm not experiencing intense chest pain. The class was ridiculously expensive but my parents agreed to pay for it seeing as I eat rather poorly (mostly from laziness rather than lack of skill but a beginner cooking class couldn't hurt right?) Even though I failed cooking twice in high school, and by fail I mean dropped out, I decided to give it another chance thinking I might meet some new people in Boston. But sure enough, just like high school there are no interesting people, no lack of awkward people, and just because I know one of my readers will appreciate this (you know who you are) - a real lack of hot girls (I have determined that the hot girl perception of cooking class is obviously false at this point, or maybe this was just my perception) - although this is not why I joined. I do want to learn some real skills, but instead tonight we were taught how to make muffins. I cannot see anything less important than muffins. Even learning how to make a Indonesian salad (does this exist?) would have been better but instead I had 9 muffins and some beers for dinner and now feel awful. But enough about this nonsense - lot's of stuff has been going on for me.

Two week ends ago I got to go on my first business trip. We went to Chicago and had a pretty good time. I might write about this later but it really is it's own story and might require some thinking about appropriateness. But I went to Vermont this last week end and got to see a few friends, play golf, play paint ball - which was fun but also scares the shit out of me, celebrate mother's day, and renew an old tennis rivalry with a close friend. Just a quick note there, we both played awful, but at least I broke my strings before we even started playing and I played with two broken strings as an excuse--> Best quote from the match from my friend: "yeah. I'm definitely having a meltdown - but you're gonna ride this one out with me until the end" --> which I did as I nervously lost all faith in my swing with two strings down. Just like I would have in my college tennis meltdown days (and I still didn't come to net).

Favourite current phrases:
"Off the record..." --and then you can insert anything you want, the possibilities are limitless. What a great expression!
"Schlitzed/schlitzing" --as in the lower quality beer known as schlitz, or as I like to say: the "schlitz." It sounds like some Yidish word but to me seems like a funny way to say hammered - as in "Let's get schlitzed tonight...or: "last night I was schlitzing so hard." Take it or leave it I think it's great

Matzo: Not a grain to be found in JP

2008-04-23T20:08:00.000-07:00

Already having missed the annual passover Seder this year as I was in Minnesota for the MAC alumni match, I felt some thing was lacking. I decided to buy some Matzo at Harvest Coop. a place with stuff for everyone and hippies. But guess what, they ran out of Matzah and said they would be getting some soon. Because I am trying to keep the tradition, didn't want to eat non-passover cereal, and didn't have any Matzah I skipped breakfast that day. I have been struggling ever since with out the patented staple of this holiday.

A brief interlude here: I did have Matzo pizza with pepperonis (cheese & meat + pork) and clam chowder (clams) during Passover earlier this year and while this may seem contradictory since, as you will see, I have gone to great lengths to get Matzo. I love many pork products and don't really see eye to eye with the oral tradition as opposed to here with the sacrifice of bread which is more the cultural tradition.

Anyways, where was I? Oh yeah, so I went to the Stop N Stop and they were all out too and told me that they didn't think this demographic existed here, it's more for Hispanics they tell me. This is a huge grocery store with just about everything! They tell me to check the Stop N Shop in Brooklyn. So I venture in to CVS not too far down the block, don't ask my what I was thinking, and I interupt a long line to ask the lady at the register, a young Latina women. She calls out over the inter-com and asks if they have any "Ma-s-o" (I even spelled it out and tried to describe it) as she calls it and then: "it's a brand of cracker." So now I am embarresed in front of this whole line of waiting people and of course they do not have "this" brand of cracker. After 3 days with no Matzo I go back to Harvest today and they still don't have any. "Funny you should ask the grocery person tells me, every one has been coming in here and there isn't any." Huh no wonder - there actually are Jews that exist in JP, or just a bunch of Hippie cracker eating mo fos. Also, usually when people want some thing at a grocery store and there are enough people asking for it, don't they get it right away??!! Any who,this lady tells me there will be more crackers in Friday and asks is there any other brand of cracker she could get me?

This type of thing never happened in Vermont where there are far fewer Jews. I really don't understand it. The annoying Stop N Shop lady was right, I should have prepared before the holliday - just never thought it would be a problem. Looks like I'm going to have to go to Brooklyn for a freaking piece of Matzo, or maybe I'll just get some crackers and forget about the whole thing.

The Organics Movement

2008-04-08T20:17:00.000-07:00

One thing I have learned a little bit about at my job is the organics movement. It is an interesting parallel that has happened there with everything in this country, and really in the world, with consolidation. Check out this video if you get a chance:

http://www.msu.edu/~howardp/OrganicIndustry.mov

I have conflicted feelings about the movement. On the one hand, I can definitely see the value to eating fewer chemicals, decreasing health risks for producers and consumers, and a better quality product in general I think. I also think the price is too expensive for me to actually afford to start buying all organic foods. So I chose eggs for now. On the other hand, I think people may be overly obsessed with organics (see the blog "stuff white people like") in a crazy way that doesn't always make sense. Just because some thing's organic doesn't make it better and doesn't mean that the person producing it was a farmer in overalls wearing a classic yellow hat. People just associate organics with small producers, economic empowerment, healthy food, and other ideas which are not necessarily true (unless you are one of the thousands of yuppy soccer moms now shopping at Whole Foods). So many supporters come off as self righteous too and make it seem like this is the most important ethical decision one can make. Some times I feel like I'm not radical enough for this job.

A plug for E.E.

2008-04-02T19:39:00.000-07:00

Equal Exchange's recent trip to Chiapas. I know this is some what self-promoting advertising, but I feel like this will give you a better idea of where I work.

Wings and Spaghetti

2008-03-30T18:42:00.000-07:00

I've been learning a lot lately since moving to Boston and adjusting to full-time work and actually cooking more than Macaroni and Cheese. Two nights ago I learned that spaghetti, believe it or not, is actually flammable. Yeah, you probably already knew that, and I should have. I should probably say also that I haven't really upgraded that much from Mac & Cheese since that night I was making plain spaghetti and tomatoe sauce, come to think of it, that really is no upgrade so maybe I haven't really changed and I still suck at cooking. Anyways, I put half a box of spaghetti (which was way too much for just me) in, for no particular reason except laziness and lack of thinking, a tiny pot thinking I could just push it down after it got soft. Instead, a good amount of the spaghetti leaning over the edge cut on fire (I don't really pay attention when I'm waiting for things to boil). Needless to say burnt spaghetti is not a delicacy of any country that I know of. Just to further point out my ineptitude at cooking, I tried to steam challets the other night (don't ask how or why I got challets) and realized after 20 minutes of steaming that that didn't actually accomplish any thing.

On a completely different note, I went out the other night with my new friend who's a lesbian. We were going bowling (every thing's candle stick around here) and couldn't get a lane so we went to get drinks instead. She recognized some one and then two other girls came who knew the first girl. All the sudden it was just me a four lesbians and I was serving as wing man to my friend. It was very awkward also considering I just met this friend. How do I get myself in these situations? Maybe more importantly, why do I blog about these embarrassing things? I'm not sure if it makes me feel better to get it out or to know that at least I might be giving a few laughs to some friends.

Check Engine Light is on

2008-03-27T20:28:00.000-07:00

This might not be interesting to any body but me but I feel like raving about my car for a minute. I am so pissed off at Wendy (I never should have named my Corolla either or any car for that matter- for people who do this - it is stupid), today this tomorrow that. Let me give you a short 1-2 year history of my luck (rather dismal luck) with my car which by the way is only 8 years old, which for the following summary, is remarkable.

-Two days ago I was driving and parking my car when I either ran over some glass or hit the curb going very slowly and my wheel just popped (lost all air) completely. I almost put the rescue donut on without professional help but couldn't get the tire off because of the rust. Triple A comes and taps it with a big log and the problem is fixed at a discount of $25 (the tow would have been terrible). On a side note, maybe I should start carrying one of those big logs around except it would get annoying when each of my passengers asks: "what's the big log for?"

-That wasn't actually so bad. What was, was driving home from Minnesota this past summer and having a deer run in to my car at 2 in the morning in Michigan after a 12 hour drive. I'm not sure but I think the deer was more destroyed than my $2000 damaged car whose door who would no longer close and whose shell was sprayed with deer blood and hair.

-Two windows smashed and two stereos systems jacked while at school

-Pebble or some small rock hitting my windshield while I was driving creating a small whole that I ignore for several weeks until the crack spreads across my entire wind shield and I am forced to pay for a pricey replacement.

-Sitting in a car line waiting to get tickets to skiing last winter in Minnesota and the car in front of me backs right in to me for no particular reason as I lay on the horn wondering what the hell he's thinking. Another big damage but luckily he took responsibility.

-Driving down 94 last year when my car hood decides it wants to suddenly shoot up, completely bend in to the frame of the car, and blind 99% of my vision while driving 70 on a highway. Not only was this terrifying but it also cost another $1000 in repairs.

-Every trip I've taken since school (New York, Boston, Pitt.) I've had some repair some minor (serpentine belt) and some major (new clutch - even though I only had 65,000k) and basically my dad, whose anger is renewed each time these things happen, thinks I am entirely to blame. I also have gotten two parking tickets and one towing since moving to Boston - this is probably mostly my fault except that they are crazy here about that stuff.

Now the lesson here is that I probably shouldn't be driving. But I disagree - I'm not a bad driver and I'm not causing accidents but at the same time, could all of this stuff really happen to one person in the period of less than two years? Besides some other things that I think I am forgetting and an equally scary array of things from the previous period of two years, having my "check engine light" go off today might be one of the last straws. I don't even care if the light is just screwed up (like my E-brake which for some reason is always on now).

There are pills in my fish

2008-03-01T20:19:00.001-08:00

I was watching the news tonight (some thing I do rarely now that I don't have a t.v.) and to my horror I discovered that there's been a recall of Gortons frozen fish. Apparently some one in Pennsylvania found pills of some sort in their fish. Coincidentally, I had 6 frozen Gorton fish earlier this week and actually became very ill that night with a sore throat, irregular heart beat, and excessive sweating. I haven't felt good all week and it all made sense...until I realized that the 1,000 recalled frozen fish cases weighed 4 ounces less than the ones I got and the UPC code of mine was one digit off: narrowly escaped a bullet and coincidental got sick or is there some thing fishy going on with GORTONS?!!! (sorry, I couldn't resist the pun)

Selling hot chocolate

2008-02-28T20:37:00.000-08:00

Some of my friends described my new job to other people as selling hot chocolate. The truth is that that's not exactly right. Here is a run down from today:
-Get up at 7 (eeg), actually no, try to get up at 7, get up at 7:23 with difficulty, 45 minute commute to work in West Bridgewater, MA.
-Check email/read some fair trade/international articles sent to me
-Not feel too bad about using Outlook (very annoying program) and having to organize in a program called CRM (this is where all of our customer's info. is held)
-Prospect - we look for grocery stores (mostly) who would carry our bulk coffee, since this is where the real $ is at. Hot chocolate is really not so important, at least as much as it is delicious. On a side note, we just came out with a drinking chocolate that's $9 that is most the premium hot chocolate drinking experience I have ever had-it is like drinking pure goodness.
-Cold call = try to talk to this guy Stepan Yang at Mulberry Market in Philadelphia (this is where we are concentrating right now) and here for the 6th time in a heavy accent that he is not in...explain to other people that fair trade is not the same as free trade and ask if their customers care (about organics, fair trade, etc.) which most of the time they don't
-Informational session on the nature of worker-owner coop. and what it means to be a worker-owner (this happens in your 2nd year) but is central to the company, or coop rather
-Observe boring board meeting
-Return to van for long commute home
The good: this was kind of a boring day but some days we have Brew Crew where we learn how to do coffee cuppings (like wine tastings), or go visit accounts, or talk to the hippies at Whole Foods, or do competition analysis. This is not just another office job with the same thing every day. The people are also cool.
The bad: Even though I am trying to promote some thing good; namely, small farmers from poor 3rd world countries and an alternative trade model, I have to reconcile with the fact that I am a sale's man (or sale's person if you want to be PC about it). It's not really a bad thing except I get the feeling people look at sale's people like lawyers, except on a less prestigious level. Luckily, I'm not selling stupid retail, tchotkes, or selling cars and saying: "I've got a deal for you! Just today, because I like you, I'm going to give you my special price. For just 10 easy installments..."

The Northern Racoon Eclipse

2008-02-20T20:43:00.000-08:00

I don't know why but I threw together a couple of interesting things I saw tonight for my blog. The picture of the eclipse here is current and cool but I did not expect the weirdness level when I went outside into the chilly Boston night that I saw. There was the eclipse, but there was also a tree with a raccoon sneaking around (I actually have seen another urban dweller in the last two days -a skunk) and peering over at me as brief faded northern lights streaked across the sky. It was surreal. Besides that, I was sent an interesting political art page here that people might want to check out:
http://www.brazilianartists.net/home/flags/

Beer Map

2008-02-11T20:39:00.000-08:00

Feeling Young Again

2008-02-10T08:59:00.000-08:00

I've just started my new job at Equal Exchange, 45 minutes south of Boston. This is how I've felt most of the time (see above -clueless, inexperienced, and ridiculous). When the secretary at EE first saw me she said: "Who's the new 10 year-old?"
I'm trying not to be too self-conscience of my appearance or reveal to the 40/50 + year olds working next to me that I am 22 (and yes, probably look younger). But I guess this is normal in a lot of work places.

It's just weird that at the end of college you feel sort of grown up and matured and then you enter the real world and you are the youngest again; like being a freshman in high school but worse. To add to that, my house mates are 32, 30, 28, and 26, which isn't really a big deal, except that they ask to see my I.D. when I drink a beer.

So other than that, the move has been pretty smooth so far. My new house is good, the roommates are cool, and the job seems pleasant - more on this to come as well as some pictures hopefully of my new place.

Leaving Vermont Never Easy

2008-01-31T21:48:00.000-08:00

I spent my last night in Vermont taking advantage of the icy conditions with some skates at Shelburne pond; a small pond a few minutes from my house. I went with friends in the middle of the night and although there wasn't too much moonlight, the stars were out and it was beautiful. Even though I skied earlier in the week, it was nice to do one last thing that will be more difficult to do in Boston (at least at night while listening to the coyotes) and nuanced creeks and cracks of the ice. Only one word really to describe the experience: liberating.

I Missed my Virtual Tee-Time

2008-01-26T07:32:00.000-08:00

Any one who knows me knows that I am not so great at being on time. Being in a van pool at work will make me more punctual like being a tennis captain did but I have some work to do. Yesterday, I went to play golf at an indoor facility that had HD virtual golf screens. Yeah, I know, it's pathetic; I'm addicted to golf and needed my fix. But anyways, my friend Joey told me we needed to be on time for our 4:00 tee-time since they were booked all day (and apparently almost every day). I mistakenly played tennis with my dad from 2:30-3:30 thinking I had enough time. And I would have except that I refused to leave at 3:30 with the match still going on (I needed to put my dad away). So much to my friend's dismay we showed up 10 minutes late to Gonzos (the golf place). We proceeded to walk in anyways with our full set of golf clubs.

You wouldn't think virtual golf clubs would be like the real ones but apparently since we had booked an hour and we were late we would have to pay for the full hour. We asked if we could just play and pay for half an hour since that was a normal option there but they said, "No. You booked a full hour. We have a tight schedule and don't want any gaps." Considering it was going to take 10 minutes to set the thing up and they were charging other people extra who were still playing on "our" course, we decided to leave as my friend said: "and now you have a gap in your schedule." End of the story: half hour drive for nothing and my tardiness making some one angry once again. At least I won the tennis match.

Bait and Switch

2008-01-13T17:19:00.001-08:00

I just got off the phone with my uncle Rich (Herb's brother) who had a message for my dad: (in very strong Boston accent) "Tell your fathah that I have an issue that needs to be settled: I know a girl who wants to get in to Saint Mike's and she needs your fathah to show her around. Now here's the thing: academically she's mediocre, but you should see her. She makes it up in looks and personality." My uncle Rich networks and uses connections better than anyway one else I know. He wasn't asking my dad for a favor but he's smart to use these connections anyways. He even went through the people-who-like-coffee-networks in my family for when I start selling coffee next month: "your uncle Glenn, yeah, he would like free coffee, and you uncle David, he could use a free cup, and I'm at Starbucks 365 days a year, every day. You don't believe it's possible but it is." Even though using connections could have helped me get my potential job, I'm sort of proud that I got it on my own. Looking back on my job search, one thing stands out that I've wanted to write about for awhile.

As difficult and annoying as the job search process can be, the worst part is that not only are there tons of crappy jobs out there to sift through, there are also the pyramid and ponzi schemes to watch out for. I had one such encounter with an entry level "no experience needed" job at Nova Marketing. This is Barbara Ehrenreich's classic "Bait and Switch." Perhaps I should have been warned by the job description:

[All openings are FULL-TIME and need to be filled A.S.A.P.!!
There is no experience necessary. If you are a new graduate, or someone who is aggressively pursuing a change in careers, please APPLY! ]

No experience? Should I be a good guy? How bout a team player? In fact, there was no job description, the base pay was "n/a," and the amazingly poor website playing techno music should have tipped me off that there was nothing of substance here. What does Nova marketing do, who are they? Of course it is just some random marketing company in Woburn, MA with a nice name like NOVA. Fortunately at the top of a google search on the company I found two people complaining about them. I decided to go the interview (getting one the day after I sent my resume in - with no cover letter) anyways just to see for myself and to make things interesting. Sure enough, I got there and while I waited, about 20 other people must have been called in with the receptionists: "well, the sooner you can come the better. We have lots of openings." Surprisingly, I did not get a group interview but got to meet the president herself: Kate Malone. Kate talked a mile a minute while her fingers snapped on keywords like: "We work with DARE (snap), 100 other national (snap) businesses, etc." After only 10 minutes of speaking with perhaps one of the most fake people I have ever met and not being asked a single question about my past or who I really was she asked me when I would be ready to start. But first, it was my turn. I asked how much the salary was and she said that we would talk about that in the second round interview (the one where you work an entire day for them for free). I then said that I was a poor college graduate and needed to have an idea of how I would live my life working for NOVA. She said that most people make about $30,000 their first year but the second they can, not all the time, jump up to $65k! "Wow," I said, "that's great." But unfortunately when I asked about the base salary she said we can't discuss that at this time and then asked with a frown whether I had a problem with working on commission?

I suppose all of my questioning didn't get me called back for the second round but it was an experience to remember and I'm glad I went. I still don't know how this job got on career builder.com

Apartment Hunting

2008-01-06T17:01:00.000-08:00

...is like looking for a job but a whole lot more fun. People also need me as much as I need them so the game is a little more even. I'd like to find some cool roommates but is that likely when every one you meet is random? A few more days in Boston than back to VT to study for the GRE's because even though it's the last thing I want to do, taking them at some point was inevitable and I don't start work until the 11th of February.

New Year's Resolution: No more cheeseburgers?

2008-01-02T16:15:00.000-08:00

After a short hiatus from blogging I am back. I just came back from L.A. where I saw some MAC friends and went to a Jewish retreat about an hour and a half north of L.A.. I know what people are thinking: I went to some brainwashing weird religious thing. But it wasn't like that. Besides it being a really good vacation (although California wasn't very warm), I learned a lot and had a good time. We played paint ball and did some rope's course stuff, which I'm into, and then we had some good discussions about religion. While I was not brought up religious, I decided I needed to learn some more and figure out what I want to do with it in life. We talked about more academic discussion topics like Jewish history, the decline in our numbers, intermarriage, etc. and we also talked about more religious things like latkes and dreidels, no not really, but things like why Judaism is different, living ethically, how you should judge some one (actually: how to be a mench), why being more observant can bring meaning to your life, and how exactly people who eat cheeseburgers can go cold turkey. While I am not going to become orthodox or anything now, I think celebrating the Shabbas (even if that means just lighting candels and eating dinner with family) once a week might be nice and maybe I should try dating a Jewish girl for once.

I finally got a job after 3 1/2 months of frustration. I am going to be selling natural food products at a fair trade company called Equal Exchange. It is a little bit outside Boston but I am planning on moving there in the next few weeks to start in February. It was such a relief to finally get some thing interesting with a useful purpose. More on this later...

Lastly, I spent a weird New Years bouncing around the city (N.Y.C.). I was trying to make it to a party right when the ball was dropping but didn't realize that you can't move within a 10 mile radius of Time Square. Now normally I would never do any thing as stupid as go to Time Square to see the ball drop on New Years but this was even more idiotic. I spent the precise moment of 2007 becoming 2008 looking up at some scaffolding squeezed between a few million people I didn't know joking about no of us could move. At least it seemed like a fitting ending to a year that I was all too excited to end.

In L.A.

2007-12-23T00:57:00.000-08:00

I've been kind of busy lately, on the move again. A quick update: After spending a week with Katy in Vermont I drove to New York and caught a plane to L.A. I've been hanging out here for a few days and will be gone for awhile. This is an interesting city, really different than any where else I've been. New Years in New York should be fun. More on that later...

I should Have Taken A Water Taxi

2007-12-13T19:18:00.000-08:00

Boston got slammed today
(this picture is after the plow)
I was supposed to have an interview at Zoomoozik, an online record label, but it got canceled because of the oncoming blizzard. Unfortunately for me they only told me an hour or so before the interview and hence I didn't leave from Somerville (my cousin's) to go to Roslindale (my brother who lives closer to an interview tomorrow) until 2:00 pm when the snow started coming down at about 2 inches an hour. What proceeded was probably one of the most unenjoyable, messy, and crazy traffic jams I have ever witnessed. Don't get me wrong, I've been in some bad traffic before, such as an 8 hour wait for a Phish festival (IT), but that at least was justifiable. People here are bad drivers and without people directing traffic, the normal timing on the traffic lights became useless. At the Mass av./Melnia Caste intersection there were about 30 cars, many facing in unexplained directions, completely jammed in the middle of the intersection. 40 Minute waits at intersections like this turned a normal 40 minute scoot from one end of Boston to the other in to a 6 hour plus affair! At least in Minneapolis/St. Paul they recognize that they are gonna get hit and they deal with it much better. Maybe I can win the longest drive with least amount of gas award (1/8th a tank of gas used...I have an 11 gallon tank).

Being Jewish

2007-12-08T20:50:00.000-08:00

In following with my last posting I wanted to write another relevant and recent entry about identity. This is my first posting from Boston where things have been going pretty well. I've got some interviews at some interesting places and I have done yet some more random temp jobs including registering people at a mental health conference, being a typist for a deaf women at a school meeting in a troubled area of South Boston, and spending the last two days doing market research at Wendy's about the Stack Attack (pretty much the same as McDonald's double cheese burger $1 deal but just a name that reminds people better that what they are really eating could be named heart attack).

At the 1st job, the mental health conference, there were two other temporary workers. We formed an awfully strange threesome for participants to be greeted by: Noni, a very large black women, Rob, an old out of luck, unattractive, and stereotypical bony Jewish guy, and me: a short young guy from Vermont. Now don't get me wrong, I love being Jewish-the tradition, the food, the jokes, the history, the community, the fact the religion focuses most on being a good person than believing in one particular thing (i.e. Jesus as our savior, surrendering to Allah, or even God-I'm still not sure where I stand there), and the list goes on. But admittedly there are a lot of bad stereotypes about Jews as an ethic group: big noses, greedy with money, and overly neurotic to name a few. This guy Rob embodied all of these and was on top of our shoulders the whole time. For example, I validated some one's parking and he would ask 3 seconds later in a loud annoying voice: "Did you validate their parking? Make sure you validate their parking." At one point Noni turned to me and asked what was wrong with the guy. Honestly, I didn't know and even know I don't really know this guy, on the surface, he is what gives Jews a bad name.

As I mentioned above, the jokes are a good part but only when, as Seinfeld notes, they are told by Jews. The other day a friend from home and I were discussing a recent date I went on in which I conferred that I had not told the girl I was Jewish (she was not). He replied, I think and hope jokingly: "that's like not telling some one you have aids." Now besides the obvious ridiculousness and non-nonsensicalness of this comment, I hear things like this (maybe not as ridiculous) some what often from some friends. While he still contends that the parallel of the non-disclosure of information is clear, I didn't, and usually don't, get too mad. However, it is some what surprising because even though people are joking, what types of things would they say if I wasn't there? The whole "don't Jew me" thing really bothers me but comparing a Jewish identity with having aids? I just don't get it.

Being short

2007-11-30T14:02:00.000-08:00

I just got back from a Ween show tonight. I didn't really know too much about them but I had a good time. They have more versatility than most bands I have heard: anything from rock to country, jazz, punk rock, jam-band, Irish folk, and all points in between. Plus, it was way better than the last show I saw at Higher Ground (Umphrey's McGee just didn't have it), even though the crowd seemed to disagree. But I feel like most people think that the band has so much energy and is playing such a killer show at most of the shows they go to. This is just not possible because some shows have to be better than others, energy can be faked, and the crowd even more easily so. The only thing that really sucked about this show (besides a few terrible smelling people in the crowd) was the Security. Security is always annoying but this was really unwarranted. I was searched three times, had to bring back a bag of chips back, had to show my 21 wristband it seemed throughout the night, and was blocked several times.

I normally don't mind being short (besides feeling weird around tall girls) but one place I can't stand it is at shows. I am all the more aware of it and I always have a hard time standing over people. I'm not asking tall people to break their backs but when security guards on several occasions excused themselves to get by me and then simply stopped directly in front of me you would think they would know that all I could see was the back of their necks. And if I say anything I look like a cranky small guy. So I just sit there and take it making faces at any one next to me who is observing this atrocity. If I was really tall I would make an effort every once in awhile. I know if you're reading this you're probably thinking that no one cares about any body else at shows but that's not true of me. I even offered any one who wanted a ride back to downtown after the show because it was poring and I believe in the concept of pay it forward.
(actually the reality is that at the last show no one would help my friend and I out with a ride so I felt I had to make up for this. But Pay it Forward is still a good idea (check out Wikipedia if you don't know what this is)

Break from a Break

2007-11-26T21:51:00.000-08:00

So I'm back from Thanksgiving after a large 20 person family gathering in Vermont. It was quite the event and some what stressful having so many people around needing so many different things and everyone offering me advice for the future. But now it's over and it's back to work. Well, sort of. I'm now working at the UVM admission's department. Now this job may sound like it is better than the last few but it's not much better except that it pays and it's easy. What I do for 8 hours a day is alphabetize (I also attempt to practice my Spanish with the hot Peruvian girl who works with me as well as try to find the secrets out to getting in to college or helping my buddies from home out when I find their files, just kidding...I actually got in trouble for asking some "sensitive" questions to the admissions officers, but I digress).
This job is better than the alternative of not having a job. I went one week with nothing and almost lost it (I found myself doing home art projects and playing game cube). I couldn't tell the difference when the weekend and weekday. I was (and still am) going nuts being stuck at home. Here's a good recent example involving my dad (as usual): I'm talking with my friend Maria who's in Japan and were skyping (which I just got in to and is very cool and free by the way). My dad remembers her (she's visited and just as a background point her parents are Swedish diplomats) and upon hearing her voice he tells me I should see if her parents can get me a job. I explain to him that even if I could get a job in diplomacy it wouldn't be for the Swedish government. He then counters with the fact that the Swedish were very good to the Jews in the 1st and 2nd World Wars. Wow, check mate I guess.

So I've decided to leave for Boston (again) and live with my brother, wife, and two nieces until Katy comes to visit in mid December. I've decided I need to stop being so indecisive and worrisome about my future. What ever happens happens and better that it start today rather then in a few months.

Just one last note. I'm really into Pandora right now and if you haven't heard of it, go check it out: http://www.pandora.com/
It really does a good job with suiting your tastes and its some how free. Although I'm guessing if it gets more popular and people find out about it, there will be some law suit because it doesn't seem completely legal to me.

Funny News

2007-11-16T08:53:00.000-08:00

I can't believe this is real news:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2007/11/16/intv.cannonball.run.cnn
these guys are so stupid.

Hard to really tell the difference between real news and dumb news.
Also, via Khraiglist
http://www.kasperhauser.com/khmc/archives/000151.html

Does any one know how to just post videos or picture of a website in here?

Hangin' Around

2007-11-14T08:19:00.000-08:00

(does any one know which song the title of this entry refers to?)
I just got back from Boston for my third trip in three weeks. Maybe the third time is the charm. I had probably one of the best interviewing experiences I have had yet. This place really seemed chill and we basically set around and had a nice discussion on a couch for two hours. They also told me I could take my tie off and gave me a small tour of the area after the interview. I don't know if I'll get the job but it's nice to feel like some employers really do care about people whether they hire them or not.

Since I've been back in VT without any temp. work (last week I was doing interviewing for the UVM Rural Studies Department on buying local food) I've had a lot of free time. I play way too much golf, which is the most expensive habit ever but since it could snow any day and most places are closed, I am just a bad golf addict who gets some cheap end-of-the-year deals. I miss playing more tennis but belonging to clubs is expensive, especially without a job. I have also been watching a ton of old movies lately that most people have probably already seen. A few quick thoughts on some of the films I've seen:

Quadrophenia: This is the Who's 2nd rock opera (the other being Tommy). It's not that great of a film but the last 10 minutes makes it all worth it. This very distraught drugged out British kid takes steals this scooter and rides high along a cliff for a few minutes before sending the bike (not himself) over the edge and into the ocean all while "Love Reign O'er Me" is playing. The song is already epic (Townshend said it was one of the best song's he ever wrote) and this just made it all the more powerful.
The Big Chill: I knew the soundtrack would be great but did not expect it to be so perfectly integrated with the movie. Lot's of stars in this quality movie but a little hard to follow all of the dialog and who is who.
Boys N the Hood: Really enjoyed this film and can understand why it was entered into the American Cultural Archive or what ever it was. The sad ending was so similar to the ending of many similar films (Clockers and a Bronx Tale) but the soundtrack is great and so are Ice Cube and Lawrence Fishburne.
A River Runs Through It: After seeing this movie and the Natural (among others) I really respect the talent and versatility of Robert Redford. It's a pretty good movie even if it's a little slow. Mostly, it really made me want to visit Missoula.

We'll that's about it for me except that I am really going crazy living at home. I get in the most idiotic fights with my dad. Last night we argued about whether a trip I was thinking about going on that is unisex was also homosexual (I think he was joking though) and today he really wanted me to sand our kitchen table. The problem is that I have an irrational fear of sanding. It is like bad chalk on a chalkboard to me. I don't know why but anyways, he thought I was being ridiculous. Hasn't any one else experienced a lot of discomfort hearing and feeling that terrible sand paper rub up against other surfaces?

success

2007-11-04T08:44:00.001-08:00

...well, sort of. I was back in Boston this past week back on the job hunt. I finally got offered some jobs but both kind of sucked. One was being a travel consultant working 5 out of 8 hours a day on the phone, making $30,000, and pushing travel insurance sales on people. I also had to do a group interview for this job which sucked because people are already so fake in interviews and then you have to compete and kiss ass to other people who are trying to take your job. But the good thing was that I never really thought this job was so great and so I didn't care about the interview and did well because of that. It felt great to reject a job and tell them that I didn't take it because even though naive recent college graduates are going to take low-paying exploitative type of jobs more often than not, I could at least send a message that they should pay more. For that wage I could be slaving away in the non-profit actually doing some thing good in life. The other job was recruiting for professional staffing group for also $30,000 but with commission. But commission sucks too because whether you are a car salesman selling "lemons" or a job recruiter placing people at waste management plant and either way, the incentive is always more about yourself than the people you are supposed to be helping (as well as competing with your co-workers). Ahhh ethics and morales, what good are they in the real world?

The other thing that has been frustrating with looking for jobs is how no one takes the time to even write back to tell you didn't get the job. It wouldn't be that hard and you can always make up some bullshit reason. The people who get back to me, and usually very quickly, are people that can make money off me, like recruiters and staffing agencies (hence the commission).

So I'm not that desperate yet. It's only been two months and I can hold off probably 3 or 4 more before I accept some thing not so great. I just wish my Macalester diploma held more esteem around here. In the Midwest things would be different perhaps than my latest interviewer asking me, "oh, so you went to MAC-a-lester, what was that like?" (this is the way we pronounced the name at a group gathering before a tennis match and Tobin or Alex would say 'a-lester' after we said MAC!) I mine as well have gone to Champlain Community College in Vermont and not have thousands of dollars in debt hanging over me like a dark swarm of bees about to dive in. Wow, sorry about the depressing entry (this has truly turned into "dear diary.")

Spam and why I hate NYC

2007-11-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

Via the New York Times, why I hate NYC.
Also, via Seinfeld:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=sBG-JAe24KQ

I don't know exactly how spam is generated but I had to save this one:

Subject: I'm pretty sure your house is haunted
Sender: Ghost Control

The Herb Files: Far from the tree?

2007-10-25T08:14:00.000-07:00

When I was growing up I really did not get along with my father. In fact, neither of my brothers did either. It explains in part why I chose to leave home my senior year and study abroad in Belgium. Now, as I have been getting older it has begun to hit me long after it hit both of my older brothers. We all turn in to our parents at some point. It is a tough cookie (or in our case maybe matzah ball) to swallow but acknowledging it no matter how far you've fallen from the tree is important. I'm not saying that it is all necessarily a bad thing; certainly my dad has many admirable characteristics. But I'd like to think that I will fix the mistakes when I raise my kids that my dad made with me but everyone probably thinks that and then makes the same mistakes. I will say though that I must have gotten some of my goofiness from Herb. We both some times ask ridiculous questions and dress poorly among other things...

Last weekend at a larger family gathering at my brothers in Boston he needed to change his pants so he just took them off right there in front of everybody to my mother's dismay. Everyone burst out laughing and while I thought it was pretty funny too, my former college roomates would be quick to notice I've done the same thing. I would like to think my slightly less hairy legs and boxers (as opposed to tight underwear) make it more acceptable.

There's one the thing though that I can't relate to with Herb. Any one who's ever been to a restaurant with him will never forget the experience. Some times I can be picky with food but he is just over the top. In the past I've heard him ask questions like: "how does the fish compare with the soup?" or his favorite joke question: "do you accept cash?" On our recent trip to Boston we stopped at a Chinese place in New Hampshire where Herb spent probably 4 minutes with the incomprehensible waiter trying to determine whether the coke, since they did not have bottles or cans, had chlorine in it. After not determining anything there was another 3 minute conversation about whether they had fountain drinks or a soda machine and whether these two were different. When they didn't have Sam Peligrino (which he usually gets) he got the fountain soda and then exclaimed, after performing his usual smell test, (as if the chlorine is the expected taste): "I'm not tasting a lot of chlorine, this is unusual." Later on in the meal: "It's funny, this lobster doesn't taste like lobster." So baring that my taste buds don't change too much and I become paranoid about chlorine...

Traveling and New Baby

2007-10-22T07:53:00.000-07:00

So I am now an uncle: again. Born yesterday at 9.4 pounds in the early morning, I have a new niece: Sara-Havah (http://esther.rosi-kessel.org/). I did not get to see my first niece until months after she was born. This was a weird experience and kind of scary because it made me think of having my own baby.

I haven't had the chance to blog in awhile because I've been traveling quite a bit. Coincidentally, I was probably not too far from Jacobs field when the Sox were there last weekend and last night two hours before the game visiting the hospital we actually drove right by Fenway. Pretty frustrating considering I couldn't go see any of the games. Only at the lovely Metrodome are the tickets cheap enough that I have been able to see some play off games.

Last weekend I drove to NYC to visit some friends and to pick up a friend to drive to Pittsburgh with me. Every time I go to New York I have mixed feelings. Coming from a small place like Vermont, I'm always impressed that the big lights and huge skyscrapers are only 5-6 hours away. But then again, I'm driving, which is nice until you get anywhere near New York and then it's brutal. I still don't understand why I sat in 2 hours of traffic at 10 on Thursday night. I also hate how every one is trying to scam you and get your money there (making any less than 500,000 and you are considered lower-class). I had a real New York day there while waiting for my friend at the New School. I got a free shave and a massage from some nice girls who directed me in to their shaving van (they were on Segways...Dave Arbit and I once proposed we take a Segway tour of the Twin Cities), I then listened to a lunch-time Bach cathedral performance, saw some people modeling on the street, listened to an author talk at Barnes & Noble, and met up and had lunch with a different friend. That type of day makes me want to move there and I might if I find a job there (although I would probably not survive very long in that city).

I then went to Pittsburgh, another 6 hour drive and met up with our friends the University there. It was my first time at Pitt. It's actually a pretty cool town even though it seems everyone is just paying their dues until they can leave the place. Just as would be suggested geographically, it's kind of a mix of St. Paul and an East Cost city. I could see how Pitt. would be a fun kind of grimy city to live in. Check out the "Cathedral of Learning" at the University, it's really crazy and strange that I had never heard of it.
http://www.getting-to-the-point.com/graphics/photos/economy_4.jpg
Anyways, I'm back home now and pretty excited that the Sox are going to the World Series. Time to resume looking for work and being bored...stay posted

Sports Fever and the Job Search

2007-10-10T07:44:00.001-07:00

I hope I'm not posting too often for any one who reads this but I've got a lot of free time on my hands and some things I've been meaning to write. Scooping ice cream at Ben & Jerry's has been possibly been one of the worst and most degrading jobs I've ever done in my life. I think I might quit even though it is just temp. work. I almost lost it yesterday when one of my scoops I was making fell off and landed on my shoe in front of the customer.

But today's a new day and I'm really gonna sit down and look for real work since it appears no other jobs are coming through. On as side note, Herb had a hamburger for breakfast at 9 this morning, which he reasons is normal because it was already cooked. I never can quite understand how you can eat hamburgers and hot dogs with cokes at 9 in the morning (maybe if I was really hung over and not in my own house). Lots of times I ask my dad for advice about the job's I'm applying to and he'll tell me things like: "You're not gonna get that job. They're looking for a black man," or "yeah, I think they're really looking for a woman." The no experience thing I can understand but the rest?

The good thing about having time right now is that I can watch all of the post-season games which is really exciting because I normally had too much work at MAC. I some times think of needing a fix as I wait to watch the next Red Sox game. My friend Benjy told me: "when you're a sports fan, you're joining the ranks of a lot of illogical people." I definitely think this is true. I've been a sports fan my whole life and even though I've never really understood why. I have no allegiance to Boston except that I live 4 hours away and most of my family is from there. But looking back, my family is really from the former Soviet Block, so why not root for Lietuvos Rytas? It's not like any of the players from Boston are even from there (or any other team for the most part). But the BoSox also spend a shit load of money on players who don't come through their system, many of their fans are Massholes, and they also have more support than any other team in the country. I usually root for the underdog and the Twins could definitely use more fans than the Red Sox. And yet I'm still more of a Red Sox fan. It's probably because childhood sports memories reign much more important than recent allegiances and whether I'd like to admit it or not, I'm susceptible to the usual fan based success that the Red Sox have had. Anyone who say's they like being a fan of some shitty team like the Devil Rays is full of it. In fact, at any given Red Sox-Devil Rays duel in Tampa there are probably Red Sox fans than Tampa fans.

Minus all of the money and annoying fans, even in college I never really felt that much of an allegiance to Macalester sports and I played four years of tennis and 2 and a half years of diving. But that's probably just because the sport's programs at MAC are terrible. Some times I feel bad for old people who have been fan's of teams like the Cubs who haven't won in so long and they are so faithful to their clubs. After 60 years or what ever of treating baseball as religion these people wither away and die without so much even a thank you note or any thing recognizing their support except the occasional player thanking the larger general mass of fans. But that's what being a fan is, you can't take it too seriously. You just gotta have fun and enjoy it for what it's worth because in the grand scheme of things it really doesn't matter.

Lastly, I know this entry is already too long, but a quick related story. I played golf with my dad's friend's son against our dads the other day in a tight competition. It starting raining, we played through (as gold addicts do). Then it started lightening outside (is that a verb?) and we were on top of a hill so we decided to go inside in the middle of the hole. We all got to the club house except my dad. Finally, 10 minutes later and soaking wet my dad comes in and says: "I got a bogey."

Child Pornography

2007-10-06T13:43:00.000-07:00

I've been wondering for quite some time about what my stance is on online privacy. On the one hand, it's nice to be able to be who you are on things like face book and in your blogs without having to block people with passwords and constantly watch what you write on friend's profiles. Isn't that the point of an online diary? On the other hand, the recent developments of social networks on the internet may have created more problems than they have solved. Employers regularly go behind potential employee's backs to decide whether they want to hire a person who has a picture on face book in which they are holding a bear. It's easy to say that I just wouldn't work for snakes like that who judge my potential performance (whether it be in an academic context or job context) because of what I write on people's walls or what I look like in a picture. On the other hand, even before the internet promoted such openness employers found other ways to do this. If I really wanted to write all of the crazy shit that goes on and what I really think about things I would have an anonymous web log like many people do. I'm writing about this right now because a recent event involving web openness has really had me thinking more critically about this.

So a few days ago I received a recent letter from my former camp employer telling me that she had found a picture of a naked male on my face book page and that, as she noticed, I had recently become friends with a 12 year-old camper. Thus, I may have inadvertently violated some serious federal laws by distributing child pornography to a minor. Now I can see how this was incredibly offensive to her as well as people reading this blog but let me explain what really happened. I have a ridiculous friend who does stupid things when he is drunk (more so than most drunk people). In this case, a friend of his took a picture of him doing the "mangina" (see http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=man-gina) and I commented on the picture stating that it was disgusting. Even though neither my friend nor I posted the picture, because I commented on it, it came on to my recent activity page that every one sees on face book. Because I have my profile on limited access to campers and other young people I don't think any one saw this but I just can't believe how things like this can happen. Some how I get mixed up in allegations of gay child pornography when not trying. Guess I better straighten up and be more careful from now on.

How many blue cars?

2007-10-01T17:49:00.000-07:00

Today I went to Chicago for a job interview. Between waking up at the crack of ass and arriving when the plane was boarding (it was direct flight), waiting for the pickup, having the interview, and coming back, I probably had about 10 minutes of extra time where I just sat around. I'm sure for professionals who travel all the time this is nothing but it's crazy for me that I could leave my house this morning and be back in the afternoon all the way from Chicago. They also picked me up in a stretch limo, although only on the way there. On the way back I had a "limo" but it's funny how that can just mean a nice car nowadays.

The job is an newspaper auditing job with 100% travel in the North East. I think the interview went well but you never know. The last question the guy asked me was how many blue cars there are in the nation. I felt like I was at an interview for Google trying to come up with some creative response but all I could say frozen on the spot was, I don't know, you'd have to do some research. Anyways, it's all just a game of both sides trying to figure each other out. I never would have pictured myself even thinking about a decision like this 3 or 4 months ago. Funny how people end up where they do...gotta pay the bills (living at home and being fed nice meals every day can be expensive).

Sox Clinch Division

2007-09-29T09:11:00.000-07:00

Watching the end of last night's game and then hearing that the Yankees lost made my day. I could not be happier that the Yankees stranglehold on the division is finally over. Interestingly enough, the Sox might have been better off choking away their lead (despite the loss of momentum) because the Yankees have struggled against the Angels this year. However, the Angels are some what beaten up with a few injuries to key players. The new best record rule would be some what of an advantage for the Sox to win but at this point it's more important to rest Ortiz (knee) and make sure everyone's healthy.

God, I love this time of the year. No only is it playoff season for baseball but it's also fall, my favorite season. I have not been in Vermont for more than 5 years the last time I saw fall here. It is such a brief and amazing season that by Thanksgiving (I think I was home about once during college) the leaves are already all dead. What's great about Vermont is that the temperature is always nice and crisp and the air is fresh making it perfect for golf/tennis and hiking.

On a side note, I started scooping Ice Cream for Ben & Jerry's at their factory in Waterbury for the temp. agency. This is probably the furthest commute (40 min.) for the lowest pay ($9.00) and most work I've ever done in my life. These buss loads of incredibly wealth old people from all around the world show up in groups of 50 all wanting this deliciously unhealthy ice cream. Many of my co-workers are high school students coming after school... I don't think I can do this for long

The Herb Files: small pox

2007-09-24T22:35:00.000-07:00

So every once in awhile I feel it be might be a bit humorous to write a short post about my father: Herb. My dad's a pretty good guy and he certainly is not your typical dad. He has an interesting personality with more neurosis than most Jews (he believes that drinking coke-cola three meals a day, from a can (not bottle, this is important), in a glass (again, important), and using a straw and ice, is the only way to go. Mowing the lawn in the pitch black at 11:00 at night is common and pronouncing my brother's name Jonah "Jonerrrr" causes general hilarity among friends who like to imitate him.

There's a lot of funny stories I'd like to tell about Herb like the time he asked my mom at dinner why they called the restaurant "Hooters" its name and how he makes sure to always tell me not to speed even when I'm not driving, but just the other day he gave me a new laugh. I was going to hang out with my friend Ryan who has the chicken pox and my dad overhearing my phone conversation like he often does exclaimed, "I don't want you hanging out with any one who has small pox." I explained to him that he had chicken pox and not small pox and he countered, "it doesn't matter. You're not insured right now. I don't want you hanging out with any one with any diseases right now until you have health insurance." I took my chances and I got in the car to go see Ryan anyways...luckily I already had chicken pox, or a vaccination for it, or was that small pox?

The beginning of some thing beautiful

2007-09-24T18:35:00.000-07:00

I've been encouraged for a long time to create my own blog (probably since when I first got the nickname TrainWreck (this story to come...) from friends. From hence forth, my wacky adventures (personal complaints) and fun stories (things that only my friends will probably care about) will be posted for the public to see. I am excited about this because it really couldn't have come a better time.

So things didn't work out with the Peace Corps. Loopholes are always getting me but on the plus side I am a newly turned college graduate living at home unemployed. I wonder what percent of us find ourselves in this situation? I'm actually employed as I am working at a temp. agency doing random tasks. So far I've worked at a shoe store (no I didn't have to wear the referee shirt, it was Reebok, which btw I might add is a very socially responsible company, no just kidding), a medical health records group, and to top it all off for most random, an assembly man at a military goggles factory in Essex Jct., Vermont. I find it some what ironic that I was going to serve my country as a member of Peace Corps but because things got screwed up I ended up helping to construct military gear for people who also serve our country. Look what a college degree can get you these days!