Not in a writing mood but here's a forced one

Listening to: Travis - Selfish Jean

Not really feeling the writing flow lately, maybe it's because a lot of other stuff has been going on and probably because I've been tired lately from all that other stuff. Anyways, this past weekend I went to a rooftop BBQ at 56th and Broadway with an AMAZING view. I had a great time!












On Sunday, Andrew and I went out to Williamsburg Brooklyn to take some pictures and I got a couple good shots. The more adventurous part of the day was walking through south Williamsburg which is a large Hassidic jew community... Here is a blurb from an article on Williamsburg:

Despite the vast and rapid changes to the neighborhood, South Williamsburg remains almost exclusively the domain of the Satmar. This is an area where Yiddish is more widely spoken than English, strangers are regarded with suspicion, and most of the businesses cater exclusively to the needs of this devout, insular community

http://blatherfrombrooklyn.wordpress.com/2007/06/21/signs-of-south-williamsburg/



Let's just say we felt very uncomfortable and were stared at by pretty much everyone up and down the street. Imagine two white guys, with red hair holding cameras around their necks walking through the heart of an Hassidic jew community...yeah, awkward!

Wisconsin Trip Summary

Listening to: The National - Mr. November

Here I am typing away on my blackberry on the plane...pretty nifty!



We had a really nice trip to Wisconsin. My sister and my mom met me in chicago on thursday night after a long airport delay due to the threat of thunderstorms. The next day we drove up whitewater a back way that avoided most of the Illinois toll roads.



We met my moms cousin paulette and her daughter lauren at my grandma paulines's retirement home. My grandma has Alzheimer's disease so she doesn't remember us but ewe could tell that she warmed up when we were around and could tell we were family. The nurses said that grammy lit up every time a family member came to see her so we feel that she knows that we're at least family.



We drove through the Wisconsin countryside to get to a small town called black earth where my aunt, uncle and two cousin's live. It was so beautiful driving through the back country where rolling green hills and red farm houses were common to see. I wouldn't want to live in Wisconsin but it's a relaxing place to visit and get any from the hustle and bustle of city life. We took a few pictures of the surrounding area but were on a pretty tight schedule the whole trip. I would've enjoyed driving around for 1/2 a day just taking pictures of the beautiful landscape! But we'll have to save that for another trip.



Some things we did on our trip:

* ate at a restaurant in cross plains called the monk's retreat

* went to the farmer's market at the capitol square in Madison

* ate at the orpheum plaza in Madison

* bought an Ande's mint chip cookie and a piece of spicy cheese bread

* tried on cheese head's and hat's and got one!

* got ice cream from the daily scoop on the university of wisconsin campus (pb chocolate...mmmm)

* took a walk in the arboretum through a grassy plain and thick forest and saw a wild turkey poke its head out of the tall grass

* ate bbq'd bratwursts...SO GOOD!

* lots and lots of driving which I didn't mind so much



Overall it was a great trip and oddly enough one of the highlights was sitting in the airport with my sister for an hour and just chatting and catching up on things. I'm really glad I made the trip out there as it reminded me how important family is.


courtesy of ahna's camera

Remembering My First Internship

Listening to: matt nathanson - gone

I had a weird flashback come into my mind today and I'm not sure why. I was remembering when I got my first job in the summer of 2000 working for Cubic Communications.



When I went in for the interview, I wore my dad's old, brown (or grey) suit and I felt like an old man. I know I didn't look good in it but I felt I needed to dress up for the interview. One of the guys asked me how to solve the problem of battery life to which I had no idea.



At one point I decided to come in early so I could leave early (I think it was my second summer there). I remember staring blankly at my monitor and being so tired from waking up early. In the early morning, I came in through the back door with my lunch pale which I didn't have a keycard for. So I had to wait for someone to enter/exit because the secretary wasn't in the office yet. I remember working a 9/80 which meant working an extra hour each day so I could take every other friday off...man those were the times!



There was a lady with blond hair that was in way over her head financially just so she could own a BMW 3 series. There was another guy who I was convinced did nothing but surf the internet all day. He dated a stripper I think... The guy at the end of the hall to the right was responsible for updating and correcting documentation for new products. How much more boring of a job could there be? He was kind of a weird guy too...overly nice and an unusual sense of power and responsibility from his job title. Clancy was my boss and that's all I remember. I think I worked with a guy named Grant who I talked to the most because he was like a mentor and insisted I come to him with any questions.



My first job was to take old 5 1/4 floppy disks and copy them onto a network drive. I did that half the time and the other half I worked on a website. There's only so much monotonous copying I can take before I became bored out of my mind!



I talked with them a bit here and there but to my recollection, there was nobody even close to my age... I showed interest in web development at that time so I would go downstairs to talk with the intranet guy every now and then but they never let me work on their site.



At lunch, I would have to get out of there so I drove a couple blocks and parked in the shade, listened to the radio or a CD and just sat there for an hour. I found a new place the second summer that was by a golf course so it provided trees with more shade. There were other people with the same idea because the parking lot would be full at lunch time...everyone came down there to take a nap in their car.



The second summer I was given a less monotonous task but still equally boring and not at all interesting. The only thing I can remember from it was modifying PDF files of designs or documentation. I designed the front cover of one of the books and remember taking pictures for it but that was about it...more of my time was spent working on my own web development.

Red Hook Ball Fields = Delicious Weekend

Listening to: Travis - Standing on My Own

Just got back from one of the best food experiences in recent memory. My friends and I headed down to brooklyn on the F train to Caroll St (although Smith-9 st might be closer). We took a nice 10-15min walk down to Red Hook and feasted on some terrific, authentic mexican food.



**Info before you go**

Months: May to October

Days: Saturdays and Sundays

Times: 12-5pm

Distance:

From Midtown ~ 30min on Subway + 10-15min walking

From UWS ~ 45min on Subway + 10-15min walking

See http://events.nytimes.com/2006/08/23/dining/reviews/23unde.html for more information.



When we arrived, we were parched from our walk so we located a juice stand to the right of the entrance. They had large glass containers of different kinds of juices (see photos). I chose the Watermelon which was SOO good and perfectly refreshing for a hot summer day. A friend of mine ordered the cantaloupe which was equally tasty. I went back later to this stand to get an Orchata (a rice milk drink with cinnamon) which was the perfect after lunch drink...so refreshing!



We walked across the pathway to a blue tent which was selling Huaraches (among other things). They were HUGE and piling over the plate they were served on. I ordered a queso hurache con bisteck but others got the pork and said it was really good. The giant, elongated tortillas are homemade in front of your eyes alongside the sizzling meat and melting cheese. After the Huarache was cooked, they piled it with lettuce, onion and sour cream. I added guacamole and a fairly spicy red sauce to it.



The Huarache was so freakin delicious, messy and hard to eat but the strategy was to pull it out of the plat a little and wrap the plate around the rest. This seemed to prevent it from spilling everywhere but juice still squirted out the end...beware! I thought this was going to cost me a fortune just from the look of it but only set me back $5!!!! AWESOME!!! I will be going back here as much as possible this summer/fall, what a great place!



The monster huarache that's now in my belly!













Watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapple juices!