no, really

It is always at this time of night that one does the deep introspection.  Perhaps it’s because the sanity of daylight is long gone, and the distractions of life are at a minimum.  That and an alcohol-induced lack of inhibition.  Throw in a visit to a pretty party, and you’ve got yourself a crisis.

I’m not insecure in my life.  I’ve got it pretty damned good, but I do see how it’s always a bit of a tightrope walk.  If I get too lazy with things, they go south.  It’s that never ending game of spinning plates-on-sticks.  Lately, I’ve had way too many plates on way too many sticks.

I’ve been trying to simplify it all so I can do better with what I have.  I think I’ve done a good job on a few fronts:  work is good, I know where I’m going with it, and have little choice but to succeed.  Love life is good: I’m single, enjoying it, but open (and ready) to whittle it down to someone special.  Home is good:  I love my apartment, my commute, my roommate(s), etc.

But there’s always room for improvement.  So I’ve decided there are three areas I need improvement in.  I’ve got some good metrics on two, but the third I’m still working on.

(more…)

I’ve been kind of casually working on getting back in shape lately.  After a very stressful winter/spring period, I did a bit of work to cut down my body fat percentage.  But since I wasn’t working on bulking up at all, apparently I lost a lot of weight.

In the past two days, two different people told me I look like I lost a lot of weight.  One told me I lost my “ba donka-donk” (which I found flattering in a post facto way) and the other (whose English is not perfect) said “You look like skin.” Plus, I was looking at pictures of me from this summer, and comparing them to last… frankly I look terrible.  I can’t imagine I weighed that much more last year, but I looked waaaaay better.

Enough.

I started yesterday doing the “phase one” exercises, and I joined the city Rec center.  This has just gotta happen because I can’t look like this anymore.

Stake it!

On my way to moving the truck the other day (I had to park it way over on Graham), I stumbled past a sign that said “Buy our coffee now” in aggressive chalk bubble letters.  It took a minute before I realized that I had never seen that sign before, nor noticed that there is a coffee place called “Variety” in that storefront.

That’s because it’s brand new.

After just having visited el Beit on Bedford, and loving their $5 (ouch) mocha, I figured why not try something a little closer to home?

Amazing.

First off, their iced mocha (it’s summer and worth the extra $.50), is outrageous, and even iced, is still less than el Beit.  Today I was a little pekkish, so I got a croissant.  Also very good.  Hurray!

Now I need to work this place into my budget…

the clouds are so pretty today

We had a call with the outsourcing firm we’re looking into yesterday morning.  I continue to be amazed at the level on which these guys operate.  Anyone who’s worked with me knows that I have an absurdly high expectation of the people that I work with, particularly in their ability to examine a problem and understand all its facets.  The particular tech lead we had the conversation with asked all the right questions.  I actually got the feeling I was a little under-prepared for the conversation.

I spent the rest of the day preparing the tools they’ll need to finish spec-ing out the project to give us a quote.  I set up a duplicate copy of the site for them to browse and poke at.  I also took the time to finish installing Trac.  At FiLife, we used Trac, and I actually learned to like it.  It may not do any of the big features amazingly well (wiki, ticket tracking, planning), but I came to appreciate the cross-links between the different feature sets.  Plus, it’s a very easy way to browse a Subversion repository.

Tonight we’re going to visit the Food Film Festival in LIC (bringing our own beverage, of course).  It’s going to be a gorgeous evening with the sunset and all, so… sangria, anyone?  I wish I could take the ferry, but there are conflicting reports about the east river ferry running.  We’re waiting for Bill’s week off to take a day trip from the Williamsburg landing to Pier 11 in Manhattan to Ikea at Red Hook!!

I’m also having fantasies about trading in the truck for a BMW 135.  SO HOT!

I love being able to be home during the day on occasion now, because there is so much life that happens when you’re not looking.

At the suggestion of Ken I stopped by Gimme! Coffee on Lorimer to pick up a cup and a pound of coffee, and good lord is it worth it.  First off, it’s exactly what you would expect of a boutique espresso joint in a hipster hood.  Excellent coffee, a bench with tables along it, overpopulated by “writers” and their $2100 Mac laptops (yes, one was an Air).

On the walk home, I saw them move the big Italian festival trailer thing that’s always parked on Metropolitan.  I assume it must serve its purpose on a regular basis, and not one of those once-a-year events.  But what could it be?  I’ll take a picture next time so you know what I’m talking about.

It was also nice to play “dog walker” for the cars and switch sides just at the right time.  And still, all of this while getting work done.  I’m so productive like this!

It has been far too long.  And what a long three and a half months, indeed!  Let’s see…

• Bill moved into the apartment.  Hilarity ensued.
• I worked several ~70hr weeks at FiLife.  We launched today.
• I started working full time with Mahdad on Noo.  We got financing.

Along the way, there were some good points (Birthday bash, weekends on Fire Island), and some sad points (grandfather passing, tax nightmares).  In the end, I’m grateful for loving friends and family that have been there for it all.

So, yet again, I’m at a point of transition.  I’ll miss very much working with the FiLifers - a talented and crafty bunch who have been so much fun to work with.  I’m still tingling with excitement as I do work on Noo.  Success is within reach!

As part of my new regimen, I will get back to blogging regularly.

My good friend Charlie has been working on starting a fashion label for his t-shirt designs.  It all began with the Promiscuous Cheeseburger, and the rest have poured out of his head over the years while laboring in his cube at JP Morgan.

Last summer he made a buch of promo shirts and all of us wore them when we’d go out.  Every night we got compliments and people asking us where we got them.  After a few stalled attempts at getting an actual store up and running, Charlie’s finally launched his own store!

Bulldozer Designs is totally bizarre, hand-made-to-order shirts that remind you of something from childhood.  They’re some kind of strange world like SpongeBob on acid.  Always adorable, totally confusing, and most come with a story, which he provides in narrative detail.

Naturally I’m sort of his technical adviser, but he’s done all the store setup, build and config, so props to Charlie (and citymax)!

Check them out, buy one, wear it, and be ahead of the trend

After a rather turbulent year on all fronts, I’ve gone and done something life-changing.

I moved.

Some of you knew I was working on this for a few months, but otherwise I’ve kept it pretty private.  Not sure why - on some level I was afraid I was making a mistake.  On another level, I was afraid of jinxing the process.  It really had the potential to be a full-fledged nightmare, but only turned out to be a short bad dream.

In short order, I managed to find a tenant for the house that I really liked.  They’re very sweet and funny people - very up front - and more importantly, they loved the house.  About two weeks later, they were moving in - that was yesterday!

Somehow, after finding them and agreeing on the house, I had to find a place to put myself.  I shopped like crazy everywhere.   Finally I found a place in Williamsburg that I loved at first sight.  The potential was huge, and it was already almost there.  I crossed my fingers and told no one, and ended up getting it!

Those two steps, while stressful, were the easiest parts of the process.  It was the timing of everything else that stressed me out.  Packing all the stuff in the house, dancing around Vin’s feelings, getting a closet built upstairs, cleaning up/out the basement… the list was huge.  Somehow I got most of it done (including finishing and painting the closet) just under the wire.  Even after my movers canceled, I found a replacement and made due.

After getting mostly set up last night, Jim and George came all the way in to visit.  I can’t take all the credit, tho - George had this hot loaner 535i with nav he wanted to play with.  We went to alligator lounge for pizza and metropolitan for a hot second.  I was exhausted and needed sleep.

I slept like a rock.

Today I went to the ‘depot and bb&b and got the finishing touches.  I got on my hands and knees and scrubbed my (yes, my very own) bathroom.  I vacuumed.  I set up my wireless speakers and tv.

Long story short - I live in Brooklyn.  And I feel like I’m home!

I mean, they can’t be an inherited monopoly without some underhanded crap.

I’ve had FIOS at home for a couple years… pretty much as soon as it was available. I figured - if the choice were between Verizon and Cablevision, I’d pick the one that had the better service. Not exactly the lesser of two evils, but at least I get something out of the deal.

So now (long story I’ll elaborate later) I’m moving. While going through and canceling all the utilities, I get to Verizon and can’t figure out for the life of me how to do it. I look through every page of “My Account” online. Plenty of docs on how to switch to another service, complete with contact numbers and practically home telephone numbers of cancellation agents. But not a peep about how to cancel Verizon.

Then I go to their “email us a question” section. After filling in a few bits of information and getting thoroughly frustrated by how the form keeps reloading, I notice a message that this form will send me an automated response, and that I won’t ever hear from a human.

This blows. I’m terrified to know what’s going to happen when I call on the phone. The old AOL “we’re not going to let you cancel, even if you move to Nairobi” method?

What sucks is that I’m considering yelling at AT&T for the service crap I’ve had lately so they let me out of the contract, and who can I go with that’s any better? Verizon. Just pray I never have any troubles with them…