Rara Avis

The effect of time on my beloved LSC.

2010-07-28T21:58:00.007-04:00

When I was a kid, I loved the Liberty Science Center.

My parents took my sister and me there several times, and every time, I was bowled over by the place - the exhibits were often the same, but the sheer mass of the place, coupled with it's location, always overwhelmed me. My personal favorite thing to see was the giant expanding globe that hung in the middle of the Center, expanding and collapsing. I used to dream about having one that size in my bedroom.

About four years ago, my mother, sister, niece and I visited the Center, but it was almost completely boarded up, due to massive renovations that were about to take place. Half the exhibits were boxed up, and I looked forward to seeing it in two years, when it was promised to be bigger and better than ever.

I didn't get there in two years, obviously, but I got there today. And I was so excited to see it again, like visiting an old friend.

The question is, what has changed more - the place, or me?

Let me step back a second and say that more than anything, I wanted to be a scientist when I was a kid. That dream was squelched by my complete inability to handle math, but science has remained an interest of mine, and I love museums. So I wasn't walking in with the mindset of "Man, this is a kid's museum," or "Pft. Science. We should have gone to the movies."

Tickets, for admission to the museum, and an IMAX film, were $24. That's not unreasonable, since tickets to (what are billed as, but really aren't) IMAX films at the movie theater are close to $15. The entrance and ticket area are now on the front of the building, rather than the right side, along with the new, much larger gift shop. It's very large, very open, and very sleek, and the museum seemed to invest a lot of money in IKEA furniture and fixtures.

That sleek metallic look runs throughout the whole place, giving it a whole different feel. I used to find the place quite homey, but today, I felt like I was almost in a transportation terminal at points. I also found that the building space was VERY poorly used, with a lot of open, unused areas and exhibits spread out, instead of leading into each other, as they previously had.

We visited exhibits about the Hudson bay, with live sea creatures, another exhibit with live animals called "Eat or be eaten", an exhibit about bacteria and viruses, an exhibit about energy, and an exhibit about food. There were also exhibits about skyscrapers and communication, and a very interactive room full of things to play with, but we skipped those three, and here's why:

Children.

The LSC has always been a popular spot for class trips and summer camps, and I imagine they give great group rates. But the day of our visit, there had to be 20 different camps there, all made up of very young children, running, screaming, banging on things, pushing things over, and making such a cacophony of noise, that my boyfriend and I had to yell in most rooms to make ourselves heard (all that sleek metal I talked about before didn't do much in the way of stifling noise, either.) The interactive room was mayhem, simply put. We didn't even go in.

We couldn't get near most of the exhibits, because there were crowds of kids around them, and the ones I did get near that were interactive, were broken, from too much button pushing. I got pushed out of the way about twice, and when you're an adult, you can't give attitude to an unsupervised six year old. Finally, the staff running these exhibits were dead eyed like I had never seen before. This is ultimately what kept me from complaining about paying $24 a person to look at a museum full of broken stuff.

But enough of the negativity - the IMAX theater, as old as it is, is still awesome.

We saw "Hubble", which was about 40 minutes long, and told the story of the last repair mission to the telescope in 2009, and showed a lot of incredible images captures by the telescope of nebulas in the far reaches of space. It was really beautiful.

The cafeteria food didn't suck, and wasn't too overpriced - $25 for a personal pan pizza, a large salad from the salad bar, with all sorts of interesting things on it, a pulled pork sandwich, and two sodas. We got astronaut ice cream from the gift shop, and put quarters into the viewfinders out on the museum balcony, and peered over the Hudson into NYC, like I do every visit.

We only stayed about 2 hours total. The way out, I really wondered if I had outgrown the place, and was so found of it because my initial impression from the POV of an 8-year-old has remained untouched. Or, if I wanted to love it, but it had changed into something different, and ultimately, tired, despite it's massive face lift.

I said to my boyfriend that this would probably be my last time there. But the more I thought about it, if in the future I had a child, I'd want them to see it too, because they might see what I saw when I was their age. And I wondered if when I was running all over the place as a kid, looking at everything, my parents were thinking "God, I can't wait to get out of here." Maybe it really isn't a place for adults. And, like my boyfriend suggested, how much of their admission comes from adults, like us, coming back, trying to relive their childhood?

Ultimately, the LSC will always have a warm piece of my heart. And despite a few crappy experiences there, I'll probably keep going back, because even with all the changes, it feels so familiar.

And maybe someday I'll have the means to build a room big enough to hold that globe.

Pizza party

2010-07-04T11:38:00.007-04:00

Since we don't have a backyard here at the apartment, the possibility of BBQ-ing has tragically decreased, which is a shame, because I love a good cookout.

Instead of using the weird looking grills on the property, I just experiment with other recipes instead. Last night, to make something special for the July 4th weekend, I decided to make this: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/03/caramelized-onion-prosciutto-pizza/

Her version is the picture included above right.

We purchased a ball of dough from Panico's in New Brunswick, after my personal favorite pizza place in the area, Frank's, in East Brunswick, refused to sell us one. Panico's changed $5 for a large, which was expensive, as I've bought dough from a pizza joint in Metuchen for $2.50 a ball. However, we didn't get to Panicos until about 4 p.m., and had perishable groceries in the back of the car, so we just took the dough and ran.

Additionally, you'll need 1 red onion, some brown sugar, shredded parmesan cheese, a ball of fresh mozzarella (I used Shoprite brand. Not my first choice, but it worked well enough) 8 ounces of sliced prociutto, and plenty of olive oil.

The most labor intensive part of the whole thing was carmelizing the onion, after chopping it thin. Throw it in a skillet with two tablespoons of oil and a quarter cup of brown sugar, and cook it down until it gets soft and brown and sweet smelling.

After that you roll the dough out flat on a pan (or pizza stone. I have decided to get a pizza stone, to avoid burned crusts), drizzle on olive oil and sprinkle salt and the parmesan. I added the onions first and spread them all over the dough, then put the sliced ball of cheese on top and added the prociutto, ripped up in pieces, all over the top. The recipe called for 8 ounces, like I previously said, but I inadvertenly only bought three, and felt that was too much for the pizza. So use discretion.

As a result of baking it at 500 degree for 17 minutes, as recommended, a lot of the water from the cheese ran off the pie onto the baking pan and burned. The botton of the dough also burned a bit and became tough. (See, I told you. I need a pizza stone!), so if you have a gas stove, like us, perhaps you'd consider cooking for a shorter time, or a lower temperature. This is what it ended up looking like.

Kinda like Ree's, right? Except the burned residue on the side. But I assure you, once we cut into it, the ham was crisp, like it was supposed to be, and the cheese melted perfectly, and the onions made almost like an onion jam, in lieu of red sauce.

I totally plan on making this again. Next time, I will make my own whole wheat dough, to make it even tastier.

Baby Bunneh

2010-06-19T11:40:00.003-04:00

This little guy was running around the parking lot at work last night.
The Press parking lot contains animal cuteness on a petting zoo scale, as we also have a family of Canadian Geese and their goselings living there too.

He (or she) are the cutest thing that will ever grace that lot, though.

Bread!

2010-06-10T20:57:00.005-04:00

My boyfriend is on a bread baking kick.

It is awesome.

His first loaf was a flax/wheat concoction, made with whole seeds, left to rise for a few hours and baked a hair too long. The loaf ended up being a bit tough, and it didn't rise enough, but it was full of fiber, and filling. Spread enough butter on anything and it tastes amazing.

Undeterred, and faced with the rotting bananas in our kitchen, he made a simple banana bread a day later, and at the last moment, put an egg wash and sweetened flake coconut on top. The results were delicious. Three bananas made it more like a cake then a bread.

You're jealous.

Moving forward, we're thinking of attempting a semolina bread, and a sourdough. I like zucchini bread, but that's simple enough, and can be made alongside something more difficult. I wish we could have made something using the four now rotten avocados I bought last week and didn't use in time, but avocado bread sounds...yuck.

He mentioned that a good goal would be to make some bread every weekend, providing us with fresh bread throughout the week. I like this idea a lot, as processed wheat and whole grain bread is usually too spongy and bland for me. I still buy it though, because there should always be some bread in the house.

Hopefully we'll keep this up. Personally, I really want to make breakfast breads like popovers and muffins on a regular basis. I'd be a hit at work, for sure.

Monday morning

2010-05-24T09:18:00.001-04:00

Just a short post for now.

From the Superbowl commercials earlier this year, quite possibly my favorite commercial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9beQh1yH5uU

Brooklyn's On Fire

2010-05-16T11:37:00.004-04:00

In April, a car caught fire on the Williamsburg Bridge.

I was in a car below on the BQE, and was able to lean out the window and get some shots, as the holdup caused thick traffic. In an attempt to get away from it, cars were driving all over the place, even going the wrong way on exit ramps, causing even more of a tangle. It was insane.

By the time we were heading back, maybe two or three hours later, traffic has rectified itself and vanished, completely, with no signs of the previous mess. Gridlock, to me, is such a fascinating thing. It stops as quickly as it starts, getting knotty in some areas strictly because one car slowed down, then another, and another...

Anyway, summer is approaching, which means more traffic is definitely on the way. I am currently logging 40 miles each way to work, which works out to be about 45 minutes in the morning, and 60 minutes in the evening. Unfortunately, I am going to have to compete with beach traffic soon, made all the all the more depressing when you're hot and sweaty and burning gas to keep the AC on, and the drivers around you are driving with the windows down because they're nice and cool in their swimsuits, swigging iced coffee. D'oh.

I'm hoping to get at least one week down the shore this summer, and would really like to get a rental in Beach Haven or Ship Bottom, out on LBI. I haven't had a vacation in a long time, and would just like to sit around, being lazy and BBQ'ing for a few days. Because that's what summer is all about. Smelling like salt water, sun and charcoal.

Ba dah dah daaaaah!

2010-05-15T19:48:00.002-04:00

I'm back. Expect more frequent updates from now on.

For now, all I'd like to say is that I finally started watching Flight of the Conchords and it's fantastic. If, like me, you are late to this phenomenon, get into it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0863046/

Christmas season stats

2009-11-29T14:49:00.002-05:00

As of November 29:

Gifts bought - 3

Christmas trees acquired - 0

Attempts at acquiring a tree - 1

Halls decked with Christmas lights - 1

Pies baked - 2

Snow flakes fallen - 0

Days of Spring like-temperatures-multiple

Gifts added to wish list - 5

Trips to the mall - 0

Attempts at psyching self up to go to the mall - 2

Outbursts of glee over the ease of Christmas shopping - 1

Stay tuned for further developments, likely to include trips to see the tree in Rockefeller Center, cookie baking, a born-again like realization that online shopping is a gift from the heavens, and drinking way too much eggnog. Christmas!!!

An open letter to Mitch Clem

2009-11-18T12:21:00.002-05:00

Mitch,

I am writing you today to let you know that you and I are no longer besties. It's over between us. Finished. Ka-put.

It's not because I didn't try. Oh Mitch, how I tried, checking your website many times and often, looking for updates, comics, little doodles, anything. Last year, when out of NOWHERE you started updating "Nothing Nice To Say" again, I jumped for joy and thought "That Mitch. He's full of surprises. It's cool that his updates come few and far between, he's probably busy. But this makes it all better."

After that spat of creativity ended, "My Stupid Life" held me for a quite a bit, but it became apparent early in the year that that was waning too. Around the summer, I finally tossed up my hands and said "Forget it. He's not coming back."

After checking out your blog today and seeing the origins-of-your-Razorcake-column comic, along with a ne'er fulfilled promise of a forecoming five page "My Stupid Life" comic, I broke down. How can you keep doing this to me? To all of us, who take such joy out of your goofy observations and usually funny paneled rants. It's time I moved on.

When you decide to pick up where you left off with the strip, I will come back, arms akimbo, waiting to embrace the latest socially awkward punchline that you want to dish out. But I will no longer keep you on my VIP list of sites to visit often. Please know this isn't easy, my friend, but life has to go on.

Enjoy your gig with Razorcake. Hopefully we can hang again someday.

-Jenny Experience

sans pants

2009-09-12T21:34:00.005-04:00

I find that one of the great things about having your own place is the fact that you can leave things any way you want and they will always be there when you go look for them, and nobody tells you to clean up after yourself. Like, I can leave socks on the coffee table, my purse on the kitchen floor and assorted, half read books on the dining table, the counters and between couch cushions and they won't vanish.

I can also eat two desserts or drink a whole bottle of wine all myself. I can watch "Coming To America" or "The Devil Wears Prada" every weekend without hearing a word otherwise. I can spend my Saturday night strutting around without pants. (I've done that with past roommates and they didn't seem to enjoy it.)

Every once in a while I have that satisfying sensation that I'm taking care of myself, and not living at home anymore, or with roommates, and I really have the freedom to do whatever. Were I more adventurous, I may do something more exciting than watch "Lost in Translation" and walk in front of my open windows in my underwear. But I'm not anymore. I don't know when I'll get back to being like that again. If.

Speaking of "Lost In Translation", I tried watching this movie years ago, while tripping balls on Percocet, following dental surgery. I got maybe 10 minutes into it and shut it off. I couldn't handle it. Now, four years later, I've made a second attempt and this movie is still bizarre as fuck.

I'm back

2009-09-11T10:40:00.003-04:00

I think that it's kind of strange how pretty much all of my friends with blogs have abandoned them, even the ones who used to post often. Well, except for Andy, and Graber. They post pretty often, occasionally about the same stuff.

I think I might be motivated to post more frequently if I used Twitter. But I refuse to Twitter, because there is plenty of nonsensical, uninteresting crap floating around the net already. My contributions are not needed.

The summer is officially over, and it was never more evident than the day after Labor Day, when I spent the day in LBI. It was windy and cold and damn near abandoned. Literally. Half the restaurants were closed and shops were shuttering up. The tourists have left. I hate crowds, but I had hoped for sun and a bit more life to be had. The summer definitely passed me by this year. I think it's because I let work get to me too much.

For the fall, I hope to spend more time outside, particularly in Monmouth County, where all the farms are beautiful and filled with changing leaves and pumpkins and they give hay rides. October is my favorite month, I think, and not just because of Halloween. Well, Halloween is a big part of it - I still don't know what to dress up as this year.

Marla Singer? Joan Holloway? A giant banana?

Rita's, Furloughs and other recession anecdotes

2009-03-21T12:29:00.003-04:00

RITA'S TOUR 2K9:

In celebration of the first day of spring, all Rita's franchises give away a free small ice to every customer. And our posse saddled up to tour the Ritas of Middlesex county to claim what was rightfully ours-free ice.

We hit four in total: Edison, Middlesex, South Plainfield and Bridgewater. The Edison location had the longest line and we waited about 20 minutes before getting our ices. Some teenager working there handed out samples to the line, but ran out as he came to us and didn't come back. Punk. I got a vanilla chip creme ice, while everyone else got Georgia peach. The vanilla one was OK. Kind of milky.

The Middlesex Ritas had no line at all, but all they had left was Pina Colada. We took it, but I wish I hadn't. It was overly sweet and the pineapple flavor made me sick to my stomach. I ate maybe 3/4 and started wondering if I could continue on with the trip.

At the South Plainfield Ritas, the line was again long, filled with kids and soccer moms. I got a cherry ice at this location. It was a standard cherry ice. I only ate about half of it.

The final stop was Bridgewater, and we got to the line like 10 minutes before closing. Basil finished his previous ice while standing in line for a new one. My final ice was a mint chocolate chip creme ice and it was really good. I again only ate about half. Everyone else got sweet tea flavored ice and said how amazing it was, which quickly changed over to saying that it tasted like sweetened pool water.

We all congratulated ourselves for actually sticking to our guns and seeing this plan through, but we didn't count on how sick we'd feel afterward. We all were on a sugar high after the first ice, but by the time we got back to Highland Park, we were all in a sluggish coma. Next year we're going to stagger the locations, one every two hours or so. Next year's free ice day also falls on a Saturday, I believe, so we can start way earlier than 8 p.m.

Before you start saying we took advantage of a good thing, keep in mind all Rita's are franchise owned so we're not taking more than our fair share from each location. Also, every location budgeted out a certain amount of ice to be given free, so we didn't cut into their weekly reserve: At the first location, the kid in front of us got the last of the passion fruit, which we were going to order. At the fourth location, I got the last of the mint chocolate chip. Also, we're in a recession and I got my furlough paycheck yesterday. I'm going to be looking for promotional food giveaways more often!

Other upcoming free food days of note include:
Free slurpee day at 7/11: July 11
(Dunkin Donuts, Burger King and Wendy's all have annual free promotion days too, but I'm not seeing them advertised yet.)

Also: The Reverend also blogged the Rita's adventure. Read all about it here.

Furlough, Day 2

2009-03-09T18:01:00.003-04:00

I'm trying to plan my furlough days, so I keep myself as entertained as possible this week, while spending the least amount of money possible.

Yesterday, Lewis and I woke up and had brunch with his parents, followed by a walk around Highland Park. In the toy store, I was struck with the idea to go to IKEA to look at picture frames and root around the discount room so off we went. And in what I consider to be an attempt at circumventing a day of shopping, Lewis suggested we go to the next Turnpike exit and take the Path into NYC. So we did that.

It was starting to rain as we got out of the 23rd st. station, but it was nice and warm, so it didn't bother us. We walked to Fish's Eddy on Broadway and 19th, where I was overcome with joy at handling hundreds of glass and porcelain housewares. I walked outta there with a salt cellar in the shape of a duck, and a serving platter in the shape of a piece of green notebook paper, marked down to $6 from $24. See?

The little blue cow is a gift for Lewis's mother, because she likes blue glass.

After Fish's Eddy, we continued downtown and stumbled upon a Pinkberry, where we both indulged in cups of frozen goodness. I had mine with shaved white chocolate, which adds a snappy crunch. I love the texture of crispy food.

Today, I cleaned. I finally finished getting all of my stuff properly put away, wheareas a lot of it was just thrown in closets to get it out of the way. I finally set up my bookshelf, took all my shoes out of their boxes (and discovered a cute pair that I haven't worn in two years. Love when that happens.) vaccumed, put up a new shower curtain, scrubbed the kitchen, and threw out a ton of shit that should never had made it here in the first place. I have a rule-If I bring new things in here, some of the old things have to go. This may be boring to whoever is reading, but I love throwing things away. It's a small thrill to have that space back again so I can cram it full of newer, shinier things.

Tommorow, I go to Middletown for the day, and Wednesday, I am going to Costco with Rebecca (I think). Friday should entail another movie marathon at Casa de Gapin con Leela, because it's Friday the 13th!

So, if anyone wants to hang out this week, give a holla. I am around and looking for adventures.

Ker-smash

2009-02-27T22:13:00.003-05:00

It's very warm out today. I hope this means that spring is sooner than we think and I can start leaving my apartment windows all night without freezing. I've had enough fo winter. Fo' realz. There was too much snow, and in an urban area like Highland Park/Edison/New Brunswick, snow doesn't look pretty. It gets black and grey and fills up the roads and ices over my car and generally makes everyone miserable. Snowfall is prettier in Monmouth County, but only on days that it isn't getting in the way of work.

Tommorow, I will have had my Honday Civic for one year. Yesterday, while returning from a lunch run (at Wawa, of all places), I was t-boned by an SUV that went through a yield at the end of a jughandle and either see me or tried to beat me.

I have the gnarliest, ugliest, bruise ever on the underside of my left arm from my shoulder to my elbow, where she impacted the driver side of my car, but I am not seriously hurt. But from a distance, it looks like I got my arm slashed open. It's huge, disgusting and itches. Yuck.

The funny thing was, when she hit me, I yelled a lot and then as soon as I got out of the car, all my anger vanished and a calm came over me and I wasn't mad at all.

But, after multiple insurance company calls from three different people, two recorded statements, endless questions asking me to go over what happened again and again, having to get the car towed to a body shop, dealing with police and a general feeling of exhaustion since last night, what bothers me the most is that fact that this woman didn't even attempt to say "I'm sorry''

When I finally got the car over to the side of the road, she gave me a look of complete horror and stopped her car. She got out and stared at the damage to her SUV with her hand to her mouth. I asked her three times if she was OK. She look up at me in shock and then climbed into her car and stayed there. The cops issued her a summons and recognized the fact that I was completely blameless.

I had a big self-pity tirade typed out but I won't post it, because it's useless. I am not hurt. I am driving a big, gaudy bright blue car now with awful speakers, but it's better than driving nothing. My furlough begins in a week, but Watchmen comes out on the sixth. So, I can't be anything less than OK right now.

What I'm feeling a lot of right now is the creeping realization that I need to find something else. I need a new job, particularly after this happened while I was at work for a job that I don't like anymore, picking up lunch from a place I didn't want to go to.

I am hoping to channel this energy into a new spat of job searching, and hope to find something that makes me feel good to do, rather than just puts money in my hands. I don't know what that is, but I've put off finding it for the past year, and I need to get myself back to a good place because where I am now is not healthy, mentally, creatively and physically. I'm ready to go back to my life.

Thanks Giving

2008-11-30T11:42:00.004-05:00

It's been a long time since I updated my blog. A long time. Lots of stuff has happened, but it's a combination of not having internet connection in my place, finally getting an internet connection in my place but not being around to use it, and finally, when I am around, preferring to nap instead of putz around on the net.

But enough about that. I'm behind. You get it.

This is a Thanksgiving post.

I was inspired by Nick's (much better produced) entry about what he is thankful for this time of year, and even though Thanksgiving is over, I think this enitre stretch between Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Year's is all about reflection on what's good in your life.

I've been in a bit of a stressed out funk lately, but that's not what I'm going to talk about. This is some of the stuff I am thankful for this year:

Pulling a steady paycheck

Intelligent media (Gawker. Pacifica Radio. NPR. The New York Times)

My puppy, who is always a good sport, even though I drive him nuts.

Living in a free, developed, Democratic country (This is not an Obama endorsement. This is more in line with watching what is happening in other parts of the world where women and children are gunned down because they happened to be in the rich part of town. This is after watching millions of people who never had a thing to believe in in their lives get excited about something and actually exercize their rights (obligation?) as citizens and participate in the democratic process.)

Finally finding a good apartment that doesn't have pest problems, noisy neighbors or uncaring building supers.

My family, for helping me move in, giving me furniture, cookware, plates, glasses, groceries, toilet paper and everything else one needs to live in an apartment on a daily basis.

My friends for being patient with me even though I haven't been the friendliest person lately.

Good chinese takeout (and Ellios frozen pizza, when the money is tight)

My old man, for allowing me to boss him around all day, and listening patiently when I'm on about something and loving me anyway.

At the moment, that's what's keeping me sane these days. I think I'm ready for the Christmas season. It will be interesting to do Christmas on a shorestring budget, but maybe this year, I'll be ble to sit back and enjoy the Christmas season instead of worrying so much about shopping.

R-O-C-K in the USA!!!

2008-09-17T20:20:00.003-04:00

The fact that the American dollar is burning is really casting a cloud over my personal parade for moving into my new apartment.

There isn't anyone who can convince me now that I won't lose my job in October when the Press is forced to cut more people. When I started this job two years ago, I set a deadline of two years and said no matter what, I'd leave by September 2008. It wasn't for any particular reason, two years just sounded good to put on a resume. Maybe I'm clairvoyant. Hmmmm.....

2008 VMA Liveblog

2008-09-09T20:09:00.003-04:00

(From Sunday)

It's VMA time again folks. I don't know about you, but I enjoy the VMA's because even after 25 years of this show alone, MTV STILL can't get their live broadcasts together. As of 9:37 p.m., Jamie Foxx came in with a nearly 5 second delay after the camera cut back to him, Demi Moore walked out onto the stage without her microphone. And the camera cuts are atrocious.

Opening : Britney looks good; she lost a lot of weight. I'm sure her management company threw a shit ton of money at MTV to have her dominate the first 10 minutes of the show. By the way, that’s what actually happens at the beginning of the show: everyone walking to the stage gets an escort to the stage and then off the stage. They also as you, a la cliché, if you're nervous. It's cool; you feel like a rock star.

Russell Brand is still an obnoxious fuck. I'm surprised MTV decided to go so political with the opening monologue. He wasn't ready for this gig; I almost feel bad for him.

9:00: Rihanna’s opening was kind of cool, but she sounded strained.

9:25: Why the fuck did Demi More wear her pajamas?

9:30: This is actually the very first Jonas Brothers song I have ever heard. I was worried that some of those gyrating teenage girls in the windows were going to fall two stories onto the lot.

9:35: Katie Perry sucks live. She doesn't have the vocals to handle a Madonna song. And Madonna doesn't have a spectacular voice, so that isn't saying much.

9:40: Oh Phelpsy, you're so cute.

9:47: Fanny Pak won the dance award? Are you fucking with me? Kabba Modern is the best crew to appear on that dumb show to date.

9:48: Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls definitely thinks she is going to the prom.

9:59: Paramore’s Haley has already kicked both Rihanna and Katie Perry in the teeth in terms of being able to handle a live song. And she says it’s their last show of the year: hopefully that means they’re going to work on some new music. Why bother saying they’re “on the other side of town” like six times if they’re, uh, not?

10:03: OK, someone needs to tell Paris Hilton that having a show where people have to COMPETE to be your friend isn’t cool. Show’s where people want to date you, ok, maybe, but having to solicit for friends doesn’t seem like something I’d want associated with my image.

10:04: Duh, I’m completely aware the show is fake. It’s just a loserish concept.

10:08: I don’t think Slash has changed his clothes in the last 25 years.

10:21: The Ting Tings! They’re so fun and cute.

10:22: Ashlee Simpson is fucking HUUUUUGE. She looks like she is going to eat Pete Wentz.

10:35: I’ve seen Christina Aguilera’s fragrance commercial four times now, and she looks like a tard in every one.

10:38: And, Christina is the first vocalist of the night to lip-synch her performance. Why??? Girl has pipes!

10:52: Britney wins again. Best female video and now best pop video. This is totally make it up to Britney night on MTV’s part. After 16 snubs, she wins awards on a mediocre album?

11:12: And poon tang takes her third award, who gives a fuck. How delightfully scripted.

2008-09-02T21:51:00.002-04:00

I am sick of being reprimanded for writing articles in the manner of assuming that my readers will be able to easily understand what I am talking about without dumbing it down. I'm SICK of having to go back and rewrite and spell every little thing out and jam my point in your face so you'll be sure to understand it.

So, the next time you pick up a newspaper, any paper, consider the fact that the paper you are giving your money to thinks that you can't follow what they are talking about without them spelling it out explicitly. Chew on that for a while.

2008-08-15T13:48:00.004-04:00

Dear Project Runway,

Please stop editing scenes of the contestants into the show of them saying ""I have NAOOOOO idea WHERE we are goingggggggggg.........." when Tim takes them to their challenge. Every season has been guilty of this.

I KNOW they have an idea of what the challenge is, but of COURSE they can't tell us before they show them getting there. Urgg!!!!!

Black Thursday

2008-08-15T01:15:00.004-04:00

If you follow news or the ramblings of gadflys in the blogosphere (Do I ever fucking hate that word), several people used the phrase ""Black Thursday" to refer to Gannett's annoucement this afternoon that they would be laying off about 1,000 employees nation wide at their smaller papers. Read about it here at Gawker. (And, keeping with the theme of the entry, the Gawker post about this only got 740 views and 20 comments, when a posting about some dumb girl who may or may not attend Princeton posting on her Facebook got 24,319 views and 243 comments. I.fucking.hate.EVERYONE.in my generation who has access to a computer.)

(I'll be honest: I was going to call her a "dumb c*nt', but it's not her fault that generation hip values the Facebook updates of complete strangers more than they do keeping abreast of the news by way of honest, objective sources. But I digress.)

This comes on the heels of the Star-Ledger announcing they would sell the paper in October if 200 employees didn't take buyouts, and Hearst also announcing that they were looking to combine the Daily News with another paper, or sell it.

Why this is problematic for me: The Press will be laying off 50 employees.This is the second round of layoffs in nearly six months that Gannett has gone through. I've said a few times that the business is circling the drain, but now I am legitimately concerned that the end of print is coming a lot sooner than we think.

I'm mad.
I'm mad because I am trying to buy my way into an apartment this weekend, and come Monday, I might not have a job anymore.
I'm mad because I spent four years studying a dying industry and didn't bother to minor in anything. Technically, I would consider Radio my minor, but that's not doing too well either. I wish I had tapped into marketing or advertising.
In the event of losing my job, I know I could probably find something else in a timely manner. The next logical step would be to do PR, but the thought of being a PR girl turns my stomach. when I hear the voice of a 20 something fresh outta college girl on the other end of my line, trying to tell me how totally, seriously awesome something that has no relevance to my beat is, and when do I want to speak to the person in charge of it, I literally hiss.

But most of all, I am upset that as as a whole, the career choice of media has failed me as well as several of my friends, who can't even find work in their preferred field, if at all.

I'm dying to go back to school, get my MBA, take culinary courses and open a small restaurant. But I'm afraid of getting saddled with loans.

If anything, I can be a guest judge on Project Runway. They've been using lots of nobodys this season.

To relax my rattled bones, I am going to go watch Colbert Report and Root of all Evil. The nonsensical rantings of middle aged men usually pacifies me pretty well.

Shut up and let me go

2008-07-07T21:03:00.006-04:00

Ah, July. It's a magical month, as it's the real beginning of the summer, the 4th, and my birthday.

Like a good American, I spent the 4th getting hammered and jolly in the company of good friends, literally sitting on top of the entire world in the lower east side of New York City.

After an amazing homemade dinner of broiled sirloin and roasted garlic spread on baguettes and three growlers full of decent beer, we sat around the apartment and drunkenly reveled in each other's company to the sounds of Devotchka. Leah and I even caught a bird's eye view of the east village from the roof of the building, while the blueish glow of dusk disappeared for the night, and it was glorious. We ended the evening by watching "Vampiros En Habana!", a Cuban adult animated flick from the 70's that Leah and I uhh-dore, featuring lots of Latin music, naked, ridiculously proportioned women with trembling, naked bosoms, and horribly racist characters. It's really a great, great movie.
Friday was a day where every piece of food I put into my mouth all day seemed like the best I had ever tasted, and the breezes along St. Mark's and Houston Street felt cool and sweet against my skin.

The most important part of the entire weekend, however, may have been the passing of the NFT guide from Leah to me-she got the 2008 version, and gave me her 2006 copy, that has gotten us to one end of the island and back, through a million miles of subway routes, and served as a security blanket for the past two years. I'm very glad to now be able to always have it close.
(I did take it saying, ""So? It's just 2006! It can't be THAT outdated!"

::opens book up directly to section about CBGB's::

"Ohhhhhhh!!! Poo!::

Saturday was spent walking around further uptown and polishing off the rest of the spirits, including popping a bottle of champagne for late afternoon mimosas. I was a bit tipsy on the F while heading back up to Penn Station.

I was sorry we didn't get out to the Brooklyn Bridge to see the waterfall, but we weren't in the mood to rush all over the city; the next time I'm in the city, not for work, I'll get out there.

After a weekend in the city, going back to my closet of an office is a bit easier, which is good because Sunday was horrifically busy, and with a shitty deadline.

My birthday is on Wednesday, which makes me old, and then on Thursday, I'm shipping up to Boston for a long weekend. I can't wait; I haven't been there in years, and it's such a playground. I hope I remember my camera this time, as I forgot to bring it to NYC for the weekend of the 4th (And, the only documentation we have of the whole entire weekend is of me grossing out the boys by tossing back a cup of pickle juice at the NY Burger Company. Pussies.)

Leah posted a way more detailed post of our weekend gallivanting on her blog, AND, there's pictures of KITTIES on it. She will also be eventually uploading the video of me doing pickle juice shots and delighting in the dollar I TOTALLY EARNED from doing so.

What the fuck are you talking about?

2008-06-10T21:32:00.003-04:00

Nothing kills the refreshed feeling of coming out of the bathroom to find a missed call from work.

"My boring ass life" by Kevin Smith has reaffirmed itself as one of my favorite books, because it gives me hope for the future. I drift off to sleep with dreams of when I someday write a script or a book or shoot a crappy movie that legions of socially inept schmucks base their entire existence on, those same people will dish out their hard earned money for a copy of my diary detailing little more than what I fed my kids for breakfast, which episode of The Simpsons I fell asleep to, and how often I fuck my spouse. Ah fame-I can't wait to get a big house in LA and fill it with excessive, foreign made shit.

I spent the last hour of my shift today driving up and down Route 36 in Hazlet during rush hour, looking for a graffiti tag that the paper needed a picture of for the next day's paper. It was hot. Everything is hot.

I can't believe it is June 10, soon to be June 11, already. That's the problem with working full time-the seasons aren't really defined anymore. Summer just becomes a lot of excessively hot days spent in a stuff office, that eventually give way to freezing cold.

My birfday is in less than a month. I took the week off from work and am planning a vacation. It won't come soon enough. I want to go to the whole other side of the country and hide in a cave far far away from everything for a little while, but going to New England will have to do.

Pata Pata Pata Pon

2008-05-10T00:45:00.006-04:00

I hate Yahoo. Seriously.

I had to create a Yahoo account to join a league's group, and from the beginning, its given me nothing but trouble.

First, it never let me open attachments. Ever. It would say I had an attachment, but didn't display the little paper clip we've all come to recognize and love. Since the league didn't work out for me, I went to leave the group and it wouldn't let me. Not even that, it just doesn't offer a little tab that says "Leave This Group''. Nothing. It took me 1o minutes and multiple page loads to eventually find that option. Even when I entered it into the help search bar, it brought me to a page telling how how to sign up for a username, when I was ALREADY LOGGED IN WITH MY CURRENT ONE DAMMIT.

Yahoo and Aol are so outdated and work horrifically and I don't know why anyone still uses them. Google is totally the "machine", but it always works and never gives me trouble, and for that, I am a believer. My blood boils at the sight of the Yahoo home page.

In other news, I am patiently waiting for my stimulus check to arrive. My shortsighted generation has been buzzing about what to do with the shot of cash. I originally thought of spending it on another tattooing project, but now I'm thinking of looking for a new computer, since my laptop is about seven years old and showing its' age. I just don't want to have to spend it on lame, real world needs, like a car payment or a rent check. Money like that is begging to be spent on irresponsible things.

Credit must go to Andy for hooking me on lolcats and loldogs, even though I publicly announce my hatred for both cats and lolspeak on a daily basis. Lolspeak is yet another example of both the dumbing down of our culture, and the unoriginality of the general public's sense of humor. But dammit, it doesn't stop me from looking at pictures of little grammatically incorrect dogs almost every day. EL. OH. EL.

P.S.-I don't have the proper platform for it, but this website lets you play demos of "Patapon" on it, a weird PSP game where you command a little army of eyeball guys by following a drum rhythm with your controller buttons. It's really neat. I read an article about this game in what I think was the Times, and I've been curious about it since. It's a good time killer, if needed.

All your base are belong to us

2008-04-30T21:38:00.004-04:00

Happy Anniversary.

2008-04-28T23:10:00.003-04:00

I got a chance to see "Baby Mama", a comedy about a hee-lariously mismatched duo of women brought together by a surrogacy agency.

It was entertaining enough. Tina Fey plays the hard working Philadelphia career woman VP of a Whole Food-ish supermarket chain, Kate Holbrook, who at 37 has baby fever. Amy Poehler is trashy Amy Ostrowski, a surrogate with a mouth breather husband, who drinks a lot of Dr. Pepper and yells every other sentence. After a meeting at Kate's impossibly chic Philly apartment, where Angie and her husband act like fishes out of water, the duo decide to work together to bring a baby into the world. HILARITY ENSUES.

But seriously, it was exactly what I expected it to be. Fey didn't write the movie, but if she had, it would have been so much funnier, I'm sure. Romany Malco was once again sadly but hilariously typecast as the street smart, smooth talking brother with a heart of gold, much like his character in 40 Year Old Virgin, Jay. The chemistry between Fey and Poehler is rock solid and totally believable, which helped the film immensely, especially in parts where the connection between Greg Kinnear's love interest character and Fey isn't really believable. I also laughed at the spoofs on the new agey, natural childbirth movement that is becoming big in this country. But the ending wraps up a bit too neatly and happily ever after for a film starring two women who are so adept at offbeat and black humor.

Bottom line: I'll probably watch it again when it comes out on DVD, but it wasn't one of my favorites. A halfway decent watch, but very much like a not so funny 90 minute episode of 30 Rock.

By the way, when searching Google images for "Baby Mama" to find a picture of the movie poster to put with this (because IMDB doesn't allow pictures to be saved from the site), a million pictures of super-trashy looking women and ugly children come up. Niiiiiiiice.

Easter candy+me-consequence= <3

2008-03-26T22:52:00.004-04:00

I'm going to act my sex for a moment, if I may.

I'm out of shape.

Not terribly out of shape, I've found that taking a six week hiatus from the gym (a result of my new work schedule, NOT my boyfriend, as several people have suggested.), my workout stamina hasn't diminished at all. Sure, I'm not as flexible as I was two months ago, but I found that I could hop back on the treadmill or lift the same weights and not get winded, and after restarting my working out full time last week, I found that not only did I feel awesome, it was like I never stopped. And that is the true measurement of how healthy a person may or may not be.

But, I know I've gained a few pounds back (like, all of them), and it's kind of frustrating knowing that had I stayed on track with my work0ut, I would be able to be looking at swimsuits now instead of saying that I'm going to wait another month because I'm totally going to kick my ass into gear and lose a few pounds.

I've taken great pleasure in the last week of watching bitchy gossip sites rip Carnie Wilson apart because she's back up to 200 pounds of after losing gobs of weight after gastric bypass a few years ago, whoring herself out to every possible media outlet and showing her loose skin off in Playboy. I spent two years in Rutgers doing project after project analyzing the public's appetite for famous and semi-famous and not even semi-famous people, and even if you think that you are above it because you recognize the patterns, I'm telling you that there is still a bit part of your brain that just wants to watch people on TV fucking fail at life and be fat like the rest of us.
So that's where my brain has been yesterday and today.

On a lighter note, I've had a lot of energy building up because of the warm weather, and I just want to go outside and run around and play tennis or go swimming. I'm thinking about entering a contest at Work Out World where you work several times a week with a trainer for six weeks, and the person who loses the most weight wins free dues for life. I get bored very easily with working out, and I've never tried working with a trainer before, so it might be something new and fun to try. Maybe.

Today is the last day before Comcast takes the Cartoon Network away from me and makes it available only through digital cable. I am really upset by this and will miss late night cartoons very, very much. This might actually be enough to make me look into getting a digital connection so I can watch Metalocalypse again. I remember when Cartoon Network was first launched, and it was only available through deluxe cable packages.

Lastly, this made me giggle today. A lot. To the point where I was almost late for work. Leah was grossed out by the plug in tongue, while I laughed audibly at the "Stuffoscope".

There was a mollusk and a sea cucumber. None of them were walking and-

2008-03-20T21:54:00.006-04:00

Vacation goes so fast. It's kind of unfair.

Today was my favorite kind of day off, and was spent doing menial errands that I don't have time for during the week, going to the gym and watching an America's Next Top Model marathon. Today was also free ice day at Rita's, which I am so glad I partook in. I got the birthday cake flavor, which tasted like the icing on cheap sheet cake. mmmm.

Yesterday we went into NYC and saw the butterfly room at the Natural History Museum, which was so neat and fun. Its kind of like a sealed pod that you go into, and its very warm and brightly lit and filled with plants and flowers and moss and a few hundred butterflies are everywhere, flying up to your face, landing on your shirt, standing on the ceiling, just everywhere. Some of them were the size of small birds, so big you could see their tongues curled under, and some were so teeny tiny I was afraid that they were going to fly into my mouth if I got too close. It was a really neat experience, and I took a lot of pictures on my phone, which I'm trying to figure out how to send to the computer so I can post them.

We also dicked around the rest of the museum, looking at the wall of different animal kingdoms and stuff on the third floor and I must've said "Gross" at least 10 times while Lewis explained the different types of invertebrates and worms and fungi to me. Then we went to Carnegie Deli and partook in salted meats and chicken fat and I was as happy as could be. If I could have changed anything though, it would not have been raining; we did a lot of walking and NYC in the rain sucks, no matter how you slice it.

On a more serious note, probably my best story to date was published this week, pertaining to a group of CBA students going to Asbury Park for a community outreach program. It was a cool assignment and I'm pleased with how it turned out. Check it out.

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880319024

2008-03-15T23:29:00.001-04:00

I am officially on vacation, and it is lovely. I laid around with my old man all day, catching up on sleep, ordering takeout and watching all of season one of the Venture Brothers, which I've never watched before this week and got sucked right into.

We went to NYC yesterday with his family and toured the uptown area before going allllll the way downtown and riding the Staten Island ferry, which I've never done before and probably wouldn't ever have, if it wasn't on the itinerary.
I was super exhausted from my weird work schedule from the days before plus the tired-ness of walking around NYC all day, so needless to say, the sole purpose of today was to nap.

This evening, I got to finish watching "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters", which is a documentary about mega-nerds going against each other to see who can get the highest score in arcade Donkey Kong. There were multiple parts that made me doubt whether or not it was a real documentary, but it is legit, and it's mildly entertaining, if you are a classic game enthusiast. It was really cool to see guys break a million points and have the screen reset itself, and to see the kill screens (in old arcade games, there was no end screen because the games didn't have enough memory. Once you started playing the last board, you just died. It's actually a more entertaining end than the end of a lot of old Nintendo games.)

So, to recap, I am out of work until the 24th. Give me a call if you want to go on any zany adventures.

One day before vacation

2008-03-12T23:38:00.001-04:00

I'm finding that store brand cookies are just as delicious as name brand ones, sometimes even more so, AND you get waaaaay more in a pack. Needless to say, I am thoroughly enjoying my brand x chocolate sandwich cremes that I bought to snack on at work, because baby is on a budget for a while after investing in that car.

On a completely unrelated topic, this story was posted on Comcast today and it's one of the few news stories that I've even found hard to believe because it's so weird. OH, and the girl who is at the middle of the Spitzer scandal is from Belmar! She went to Wall H.S...who is surprised by this? Not me, not really. (This is my newfound reporter humor, the editors always place bets when a national news story breaks that someone involved in a negative way is from Monmouth or Ocean County. And you know what? They're usually right.)

By the way, if you are in the Monmouth County area, check your weekly reporter that is mailed to you, two of my stories were front page this week. Check them out, or my dog will eat you.

It's not the men in my life, it's the life in my men

2008-03-09T22:01:00.001-04:00

I decided to switch my Lj over to a better looking page. Also, posting photos on LJ is annoying and diffucult and I havent posted photos of anything going on in my life in like three years. It's kind of weird, and I've decided to put an end to it because people my age are supposed to fill web pages with photos taken of themselves at weird angles, their kittens, their infected tattoos, what they had for dinner, ect.

Above, you see my brand new baby, a 2008 Honda Civix LX Coupe. It had only six miles on it when I got it. I've never had a virgin before, and it's awesome. Both my other cars were over ten years old when I got them and I drove them into the ground. I finally decided to pull the trigger on my Honda Accord when both speakers blew out. My car is sexier than yours and you know it. I'm super stoked I'm finally to a point where I can say that.