Cynically Optimistic

I've upgraded to MT 3.2. I'm having issues importing my old entries. I'll probably focus on that before playing with the CSS and templates.

Update: Ok, imported... now onto the image files...

Posted by Jeff Smith at 05:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A formerly full yellow moon hangs low in the sky. I bask it its glow for a moment and reflect on the days and weeks past. Lately my thoughts have been focused on the future Ð my future. Four graduate school applications have been fully submitted, only two more to go. Inside, I feel like IÕm about to graduate high school again, and the whole world is open to me again. All schools and states are possibilities; all programs lead me to an exciting future Ð in my imagination. Slowly, however, doubt begins to creep up on me. In this case, itÕs not doubt of my ability to choose a school and complete a grad program, but the doubt of whether or not itÕs the right decision to go at all.

Why? Why the doubt? IÕve already come to the conclusion that I cannot stay in my current job forever, and that I value intellectual freedom and the feeling that I am contributing to society in a way that eventually may leave a mark on the world. Unfortunately, warm fuzzy feelings do not pay the bills. A Ph. D. program is a 5 year commitment, with a high probability of 2+ years as a Postdoctoral Fellow just before getting a Òreal jobÓ. 7 years down the road is further than IÕve had to think. Ever.

After that, who knows what the future holds. The standard voices are speaking to me both internally and externally. ÒYou should be buying a house!Ó ÒYou should be traveling and having fun and partying and living your life now!Ó ÒYou should be dancing!Ó ÒJust get an industry job, or go work for a law firm!Ó ÒYouÕll be fine!Ó The voice that wins out every time is the one telling me to invest in myself, get a degree so IÕll have more options down the road. ItÕs a high price to pay, both in terms of dollars and hours. As rewarding as science is at times, it can be frustrating as well. Is it really worth putting so many years of my life into something that in the end might not pay me a great salary?

Maybe.

The problem with graduate programs in the sciences in general is that they train you to think scientifically, ask questions, and write grants. Basically you are groomed to become a university professor. The job options beyond that are not actively promoted, but they do exist, and they pay much better than academia, but would I still be happy? Only one way to find out, I suppose.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 08:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Tonight the roommate bought a pork loin from the "ehSuper ehStop and ehShop". She calls me to the kitchen saying, "Come look at what I cooked for dinner!" I walk in the kitchen and say, "I am NOT eating Horse Cock for dinner."
*giggles*
Feel free to offer up your best caption.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 10:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

My first iPod was the First Generation 10 GB model, right after it was released. I used it every day at work. I loved it. And then, it had that obnoxious battery issue that they're now famous for having. Luckily, I moved to NY and had access to an Apple Store. The SoHo store hooked me up with a replacement, and that lasted all of 6 months, and then the Huntington store replaced it again, due to freaky battery/restarting issues. And then, THEN, the Play/Pause button stopped working completely. I gave up and bought a refurbished 3G 10GB iPod, which I'm still using... until yesterday. It had been acting up, and the center select button was less than responsive. Then it quit registering, and it's a solid state device. I figure I'm screwed, again.

I'm kind of enraged that I've broken 2 of these gizmos so far, so I figure what the hell, it's broken and wont be fixed for free, so I'm cracking this thing open. I go on the web and find a really helpful video from the folks at Other World Computing that gave me step-by-step instructions to open the case. I didn't have their fancy little tool, so I used a piece of wedge shaped plastic we had in the lab. It's quite a piece of engineering inside that little thing. The HD is tiny, the battery is tiny, it's all teeny-tiny! And now they have a Nano?

I take out the HD and notice that the software actually still works, which was surprising. Cool! But, the button still doesn't work. I can't see anything that's obviously burnt out or damaged, so I rub my finger all over the inside of it, on all the little capacitors and chips and everything. The little box made a bunch of squeaky chirping noises, and I turned it over to find that the button works again! Wheee! So I put it back together and everything's happy now!

Kiiiiick-Aaaasssss!

Posted by Jeff Smith at 10:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As predicted, the north shore of Long Island received about 4 inches of snow. It's heavy and wet and will mostly melt into slushy mess during the day today, with our 38 degree high temperatures. I dug out my car and did some half-assed shoveling of the front porch and driveway. It wasn't really necessary, but I looked at it like a warm up for the predicted storm for Friday. I need good karma so I can get the heck outta dodge. I have places to be!

Posted by Jeff Smith at 03:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

*Godfather Theme on my Cell Phone*
>>>Josh Calling<<<

Hidden so Donor doesn't get spoiled...

Continue reading "Bowl Game? What? Who?" »

Posted by Jeff Smith at 11:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This evening I'm chilling out at home, watching some TV and surfing the web. I read this blurb on Slashdot about the Forbes Fictional 15 richest individuals. Santa is #1, Daddy Warbucks is #2, etc... I start with Daddy Warbucks and it's got a fictional biography listing his education as: SUNY Stony Brook. Uh-huh, I'm sure.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 11:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I did find one other picture when freeing up hard drive space. I bet that very few people who read this blog have seen it before. If you have and you're out there, leave a comment and let me know. Shield your eyes because this photo is overexposed and scratched up.

Continue reading "Found Artifacts" »

Posted by Jeff Smith at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

I started to get this annoying message from my work computer today.

Warning! Your Startup Disk is almost full!

Also, I wish that web applications wouldn't crash right when I need them most. AARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!

Posted by Jeff Smith at 06:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone. I've managed to complete exactly no Holiday shopping thus far, after swearing last year that I would buy all my gifts in October. Such is life I suppose. Lately my minds has been all over the map, in some cases literally. This whole "personal statment" thing is really a sadistic torture exerscise. I just like science, I want to study it. I should already have a Ph.D. Just let me in damnit!!! Somehow I doubt that's persuasive enough. We had quite the Dog-and-Pony show today in the department, as my boss gave a big talk in recognition of his endowment *snickers* as the Memorial Something-Something Watermellon Chairman. Lots of rich folks being paraded through the lab, meaning I actually had to do experiments instead of write and work on applications. I need to puut some more happy, upbeat music on the iPod, since after my reset software re-load and complete wipeout I just added on the stuff I've been into recently - too much emo. But that Maroon 5 album... it's too too good, I'm still digging it. Must focus. Do not let yourself get distracted. Taaaapa-Taaapa Tappa.


1000 Bonus points if you can figure out the exact Manhattan location where this photo was taken. And if you were there it doesn't count, so shaddup!

Posted by Jeff Smith at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Did the subway somehow take me back in time? What is with the old cars on 72nd Street? Oh, wait, they must be filming a movie - it is New York City after all. The "No Parking" signs said the film was called "The Misson" which I hope is somehow misspelled.

Oh, and could I procrastinate writing my personal statments any more? I don't think it's possible.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 04:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As promised, selections from Thanksgiving dinner. Everything turned out just right and everyone was full by the end, except we still made room for the pecan pie. I would be remiss without mentioning that I was coached through the whole procedure over the phone by my mom. I'm so glad to have an earpiece for my cell phone.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Tradition in my family requires that during Thanksgiving dinner everyone state at least one thing for which he or she is thankful. In celebration of the miracle that I cooked Turkey, Stuffing, Yams, Giblet Gravy, Cranberry Sauce, Biscuits, and Pecan Pie without burning anything, hereÕs my list for this year:

I am thankful forÉ

• My health, both physical and mental
• My caring, loving, helpful family
• My new friends I have made this year
• My international friends who open my eyes and challenge me daily
• My old friends (who continue to amaze me Ð I donÕt give you guys enough credit)
• My job, which I still enjoy after nearly 5 years
• My decision to move on from this job and go to graduate school
• My boss, who encourages me to do whatÕs right for me
• My washer and dryer, and dishwasher, yes they are truly luxury items
• My liver (my liver rules)
• Microbrewed Beer, so I can enjoy the flavor and get drunk
• Fresh Sushi, the most delicious food on the planet
• I am a Mac User
• My digital camera, so I can remember the blurry moments in my life
• Snowy Mountains, so I can ski and enjoy beautiful vistas
• Sandy Beaches, so I can try to tan my pasty white skin
• Hawkeye Sports, proving IÕm a crazed fan, since 1996
• Crazy New Yorkers, who amuse me so
• Old music videos on VH1 Classic
• Thousands of other thingsÉ. Life is good.

Dinner was complimented by a couple of veggie dishes from Naoko and beverages provided by the French contingent.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 05:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm all done with the GRE now. It went reasonably well, overall. I didn't do as well on the verbal section as I had expected based on the practice tests I took. Those giant words make my brain hurt. My quantitative reasoning skills, however, shined through and I did pretty well on that part. I also think I rocked the analytical essay portion, but humans are slow with the grading process. So, we wait. While waiting, I played around with photoshop and my fire hydrant fetish as of late. Can you tell which one is the correct color. This one is from some street in Chinatown, or maybe it was Little Italy. They're basically the same place anyway. These lack coveres, which BC says doesn't mean it's broken, because you turn on the thing from the pentagon on the top. So, there ya go.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm taking the night off from studying, since my second practice test (after studying a lot) didn't go so well. To relax, I'll share a few photos from this past weekend in NYC. George's birthday was Saturday, and he treated us to dinner at Keen's Steakhouse. The service was impeckable and the food was delicious. Below are a few selected photos.

Group shot: Jeff, Dave, George, and I.

The Chateaubriand Steak (for two) which George and I split. YUM!

Apparently you're not supposed to eat it in one bite.

The place was decorated with over 20,000 pipes on the ceiling.

I almost forgot , they also had my favorite Single Malt Scotch, Glenturret.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 08:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I scheduled myself to take the GRE. I have had some hellacious luck with realtime online scheduling this week. On Monday, I was trying to get tickets to see the Eddie Izzard in NYC this weekend. They even charged my credit card, but alas, I get no tickets (the charges did get reversed, but still). And then, today, I'm trying to schedule a test date and the link disappears as I click it. Thankfully my disgust with the whole real-time web reservation system in general prevented me from immediately reserving a December date, as any sane person would have done. As luck would have it, however, a glitch while trying to register for the December test date tonight (stupid flash animations in another tab dragging down Firefox) caused me to inadvertently close the window. Start over, and *poof* there are new November dates available.

It's on for November 15th. Now, I need to run out and have the quadratic formula tattooed on my forearm. I do NOT remember how to factor these equations. I also do not remember how to perform algebraic manipulations of radicals, or of fractions. And let's not even get to the parts with the triangles and circles and angles.... Oh... my head hurts....

Posted by Jeff Smith at 12:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

After recovering from Friday Night's Halloween party, I caught the LIRR into NYC and eventually met up with George, Jeff, Dave, and Edgar for dinner. But first, I swung by the Apple Store in SoHo to check out the video iPods and laptops with brighter screens. I couldn't do a side-by-side comparison, but the new ones looked a LOT like the last model, although they're a bit cheaper. Maybe. MAYBE, if this TiBook dies I will pick one up, but I'd like to wait for the Intel chip laptops.

Saturday night we hit 4 bars and then I ate some form of curried street meat at about 2 or 3 AM. Love that daylight savings time change to add to the drunken confusion. And don't hate on the street meat. Like you've never had a F.G.E. (Fat Girl Episode, shamlessely stolen terminology). In fact, I think I have previous photo evidence of such activities.

After brunch on Sunday morning, which included Eggs, English Muffins, Bacon, Turkey Bacon, Sausage, Coffee, and Juice, we decided to get out and enjoy the weather. Not 2 blocks out the door, we encountered this 5 month old Boxer puppy in a Superman Costume. He was SO excited to get attention from us, as you can tell from the photo. The reason for the costume: An 80 dog costume party at the dog park.

Instead of checking out the doggie party, we took a leisurely stroll through Central Park. It was such a beautiful day, we sat a spell in Sheep's Meadow and then battled the tourists at the street fair in Times Square. Victoria Secret bras for $10. Get 'em while they're hot. Don't believe me? Check out the photos. Jeff and Dave headed back to DC on the infamous "Chinatown Bus". The rest of us continued our stroll and ended up in a Starbucks for almost 3 hours just chatting.

Then I met up with David and his friend Dev outside the Virgin Megastore and we nearly sprinted to the Belgian Beer Bar for a couple of drinks. Dinner followed at John's Pizza on Bleeker Street. I'd seen that place with huge lines before, and there was virtually none on Sunday - so we ate. This place has been voted the best pizza in New York. It was very good, with a crispy thin crust, but I almost felt like it was a bit burnt. If there was no line again, I'd probably go back, but I'm not waiting in line to eat there.

I would have loved to make it back to the city tonight for the parade, but it just wasn't happening between the issues at work recently, and the worst excuse for a flag football playoff game that anyone could ask for. Yeah, let's START the game at 5 PM after daylight savings time ends, that way no one can see you throw the elbows.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 10:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Encarni, Naoko and I tore up the pumpkins tonight. I picked up a carving kit last week when I was stocking up on low-grade crack candy for the trick-or-treaters. Extremely sharp knives were my tools of choice in the past, so this was kind of a nice change. The little saws in the kit are extremely handy for the detail work necessary on the patterns the kit supplied. Yes, I used a pattern for my castle, although I tweaked a couple of things. Encarni used the template for the witch, and Naoko used an original design of halloween kitty (it even had a tail). Much photography ensued after the last chunk of pupmkin hit the ground. I hope they last until Monday, but I kind of doubt it.

This weekend I will be hitting one Halloween party, out in the woods like previous years. Creep-tacular. I have given in to my tacky-yet-hilarous and easy costume idea. You'll just have to wait and see. Saturday and Sunday I'll probably be in NYC, and Monday I'm going to miss the big NY Halloween Parade. So sad, I loved it the previous times I've gone. But now I have to be home for trick-or-treaters, and it's televised (out here anyway).

Happy Halloween Kids!!!!

Posted by Jeff Smith at 11:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Or as it is also known, The Wolfman Jack Memorial "I'm totally gonna win the lottery and do all this cool stuff with the money" post. How many times have I had this same telephone conversation? At least 10 times with Jack, probably the same number with Wendy. This time, the question was posed by Jeff Utech. At a bookstore in Coconut Grove in Miami a couple years ago, I thumbed through a book titled, "How to Win the Lottery and Still be Happy" (or something close to that). This book offered several bits of wisdom that I never would have thought of had I just seen my numbers flash on the TV screen when I won that amount of money.

First off, you cannot tell anyone. Not your wife, not your mom, not your best friend. Nobody. This has got to be the hardest part, because I'd be ready to explode with that kind of news. Second, hire an attorney and make him sign a non-disclosure agreement right away. Wait at least 3-6 months before having the attorney claim the prize money without using your name (you have up to 1 year in most cases). Third, Do not quit your job for 1 year (although I bet after a few months it would be ok).

The book also offered advice on how, after the initial shock wears off, smarter ways to reduce your tax burden and donate to charities without bringing a lot of publicity to yourself. One thing the book stressed is that it's hard to keep your family and friends on good terms after winning, because money changes things. Everybody thinks they deserve a piece of you, and folks will come out of the woodwork asking for a hand out. Imagine being called every day by dozens of charities, each deserving, and having to constantly tell them no (or some of them no, anyway).

I'd donate some serious cash to fund research on diseases such as diabetes and AIDS. The amount would have to depend on what's allowed with the tax code, but probably around 50% of the lump sum amount.

All that aside, after the dollar bills settle, and I've got a huge wad of cash (because obviously I'd take the lump sum) I would hire a financial advisor to help set me up. A team of financial advisors, actually. Preferrably led by Suze Orman (LOVE her!). It's been a pipe dream of mine to have homes in various fabulous locations around the world, so I would make some smart investments in places like Manhattan in a fabulous pentouse in a classical building with fantastic architecture, but completely modernized. In San Francisco I'd have a nice Victorian home made out of old redwoods. A comfortable flat in Seattle. I'd buy a nice big ranch in Jackson, Wyoming, and staff it to care for the horses and grounds. Finally, I'd buy a villa in Lake Como, Italy, for when I want to go pretend to be fabulous.

Instead of flying commercially, I'd have to become a member of something like Marquis Jet so I could collect people on a whim and jet off to fabulous worldwide events. From now on, I travel in style. I get myself a personal trainer and private chef, but no hair plugs. I'm gonna be rich AND hot.

One of the crazy things we end up talking about is buing some big house near the HMB practice field to house the Saxophone section. Also, completley re-do the practice field so it's level and there are no holes in which to twist your ankle. You know you've got to give back to your band geeks. Also, I'd have a private box at Kinnick stadium, and good parking place. I wonder if the hospital would let me land a chopper on the roof?

Now, when it comes to giving things to people you love it gets tricky because you must draw the line somewhere, and people will invariably get pissed off. But I'll try anyway. I'd pay off my family's debts. I'd buy them all fancy cars. Wendy gets a Mini Cooper S. Actually, everyone gets a Mini Cooper S. Except Jack, he gets a Harley and lessons on how not to die while riding it. If you've got a baby, he or she gets a college fund. If you are childless and fabulous, you get plastic surgery (if you want it). And somebody is gettin' a platinum grill, yo. Fo' Shizzle!

And I think I'd still keep my job.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I tried for 4 hours tonight my MovableType setup to MT 3.2 (keep up with the Joneses... or the DeCoras as the case may be). And it ended badly. Luckily I learned my backup lesson from earlier this week, and neatly compressed all my old archived stuff. One quick command-line entry and we're back to where we were 4 hours ago. PHEW!

I may try again tomorrow, but if so I'm doing a completely fresh install and re-importing all my old entries. Excited yet? Yeah, me neither. This is the reason I only dabble in true computer geek-dom. 1 A.M. Time for bed.

Well, maybe a little eye candy for you. Did you think Iowa City was the only town with a dust buster (a.k.a. The Bionic Bus)? Think again!!!

Posted by Jeff Smith at 12:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I can name that sound in one note. "The Click of Death" by Maxtor. Being sans laptop yesterday, I decided to fire up the old reliable G4 Sawtooth and burn a CD or two and look for some older photos for a friend who requested them. I was greeted with the horrible grey screen, and nothing more. Quoth the hard drive, "nevermore". Le Sigh.

After fighting for a while with jumper settings (thanks George), I managed to see that my extra backup drive was still ok, but NONE of the partitions on my main drive were showing up. And now you're thinking, "big deal, he's got it backed up for sure". You might be right, but my backup strategy has been, shall we say, less than extensively organized. I'm fairly sure I've got most (if not all) of my music backed up somewhere. Even if I don't, it's easily replaceable (thank you BitTorrent and Limewire and friends with copies). The thing that has me really nervous is my digital photos. I'm fairly certain that I went through and burned all of them off to CD, I just don't know where they might be. We're talking 3000+ photos here. They were all nestled gently in iPhoto, and now, I'm hoping that I was smart enough to copy that folder over to my other drive as a backup so it'll be easy to replace them.

So here's your disaster stimulated reminder to backup your digital files if you have things you don't want to lose and can't easily replace. Hopefully I haven't lost 3 years of NY memories to a bad HD and lazy backup practices.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 01:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

I probably should have. According to CNN:Money, Iowa City, Iowa is one of the top 5 places to retire (in the US). Personally, I think I'd like to retire to a villa in Lake Como, Italy. Except I think they have less college football there.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

And as Lewis Black says, "Fuck Fall!" Actually, I like fall. I like it a lot. College Football. Crisp evenings. Leeeaaaaves! I've been having a busy summer, and it's progressing into a busy fall. Halloween is almost here. Last weekend I went camping during a huge tropical downpour. It would have been easier to put up with the rain if there had at least been some exciting lightning shows to see. Oh the way home, we ate at a diner in Pennsylvania and as we were leaving we noticed some cats in the parking lot around back. And by some, I mean at least 10. One was the ugliest cat I think I've ever seen. Poor thing had a cleft palate and was all scratched up and scarred.

Luckily, there were cute little kittens hiding underneath the deck. Super cute. Hyper cute, even.

The weekends only get more busy from here on out. Every weekend is booked through Halloween, when David is coming to NY again. The Halloween parade is always fun, and I might have to miss it this year, since it's on a Monday. I'll do my best to be there, though. Just might not be in the cards this year, what with work and all. What does November hold?

In other news, I will be sans-laptop for a few days. The boss's daughter needs it until her new iBook shows up. So, annoying for me, I have to clean off all my... ahem... personal articles and let her take it to school for a couple of weeks. On the positive side, it's a good excuse to clean up my computer files and back everything up, and I'll get to play with a shiny new iBook for a couple of weeks. So, if I'm around less during the evening, you know why.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 08:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Equals SimmerDownNow, so Simma Down Now! Or, if you prefer, 1 cup rice, 2 cups water, simmer! The photos are coming. I do like to crop/red-eye reduce and tweak my pictures before posting them, so they'll be up when they're ready. And they're not ready. Check back on Thursday.

I had a great time seeing everyone. I just wish it could have lasted a lot longer. More to come.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 12:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Barring more acts of Mother Nature and her destructive forces of late, I'll be touching down at CID on Thursday afternoon. I plan to eat, frisbee golf, parade, beer band, tailgate, march, relax, and catch up with good friends. Plans are to crash at la casa de Wendy and party wherever I get invited. So if you've got plans for a get-together, I'm in town. That's all I'm saying.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 11:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Saturday morning, of this most recent weekend past, I drove out to Orient Point and caught the ferry to New London, CT. The intention was to catch the fast ferry and take the free bus to Foxwoods Casino and meet George. Also, I wanted to watch the Hawks play, but we wont speak of that disgusting event.

Since I missed the noon ferry, I had to take the car ferry and then I drove back around to NY with George and stayed over. Sunday morning in NYC is now my favorite time in the city. You can park anywhere! I went to the Apple Store in SoHo to check out the new iPod Nano. It's incredibly delicious! Lust worthy! I almost bought one on the spot. Luckily I didn't, because the thing only syncs with USB 2.0 and all my machines are USB 1.1 damnit. It's smaller than a business card, and only as thick as a pencil. I want one in Black. Think about Christmas.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 08:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, sometimes my best intentions of a long and excruciatinly detailed post never actually materialize. Instead of just succumbing to the pressue of my best intentions (like Wendy sometimes does) and not posting forever because of it, I'm just going to get something on paper (or, on the computer as it were). Indeed, it was a good weekend.

As Jenniffer and BC have already noticed (and commented, thanks kids) I've put up photos from both the Green Day Concert and the DCA Prelims. The concert was amazing. Jimmy Eat World opened up for Green Day and played just about 35 minutes of songs from their newest album and a few classics. They even played "The Middle" and I rolled my eyes at Donor and we enjoyed the rest of the show. I am not familiar with the band that opened for Jimmy Eat World, but they have a crazy squirrely drummer. I've been a fan of JEW's music for several years now, and they played "The Sweetness" and the whole stadium sang along. It's a cheesy gimmick, and it's been done, but in a huge stadium it was really cool. In between acts, some guy in the section across from us actually started the wave - for no reason. And the stadium went with it.

They eventually changed the stage to the full-on rock out configuration for Green Day, all while a drunken guy in a bunny costume stumbled around on stage. When Green Day did take the stage, they totally owned Giant Stadium. Owned it. Later on, Billie Joe said it was the largest concert they've played in North America. Killer! They played about half the songs from their album American Idiot, saving "Wake Me Up When September Ends" for the end. They also played a lot of songs from their earlier albums. It was amusing to have heard all the kids at the show sing along to the new songs, but fall silent during the classics. Yeah, they've been together 16 years, and you're only 10, kiddo.

For the encore, they played "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" which is a really emotionally moving song. And then there were fireworks. Lots and lots of fireworks! They really had quite a big pyrotechnics budget for the show. Flames, raining sparks, and a huge disco ball. Actually, that was really neat. They had a bright enough spotlight on the huge disco ball that the entire inside of the stadium was lit up with moving lights. Might sound cheesy, but that's a big 'ole stadium and trust me it was cool.

I was stressing a bit over how to get to the Meadowlands sports complex over in East Rutherford, New Jersey since I was driving from Long Island. I decided eventually that it would be foolish to drive across the NY Metro area during rush hour and try to find the place and pay $15 to park there. Instead, I drove into NYC in the afternoon, took the subway to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and got a $9 roundtrip bus ticket. I spent 4 minutes in line to buy the ticket, and 2 minutes waiting for the bus to fill up. Once full, off we went. I thought for sure we would sit in traffic for a long time trying to get through the Lincoln Tunnel. Wrong! There are special bus lanes getting to the tunnel from the PABT, and we were there in 20 minutes! Getting back to NY was just as easy, wait in line 15 minutes, 20 minute ride back, 5 minutes on the Subway and I'm back on the Upper West Side, where George and Edgar generously put me up for the night.

Who wants to go to work after a night like that?! Not me, for sure so I slept in and then had a nice visit to the Museum of Modern Art. Actually, I was less impressed that I wanted to be. Where, oh here can I find some Salvador Dal’ in New York. MoMa has the tiny yet famous Persistence of Memory and the Met has a piece or two, but I am still not satisfied. They did have a Rubik's cube, and subway signs, and the classic clear crystal Bic pens. And that horrible Jackson Pollock mess. I did kinda like a few things, check out the photos from the end of the Green Day photo album.

Friday night - off to the campground. I drove to the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania to the campground, found Adam, and relaxed. I hadn't been camping in nearly forever. I think it was confirmation camp way back in the day, and that was in a cabin. I had to fix the air mattress in the tent, as it was a bit leaky, but other than that things went smoothly.

Saturday I left for Scranton, PA to watch the Drum Corps Associates preliminary competition with Donor and the Bulaga family. I was there early enough to park for free [I had your mom, I crawled inside, I parked my car for free!!!] and helped Donor watch the souvineer stand for a few minutes. For our efforts, we were rewarded with wrist bands allowing us field access (which we never used). We got some lunch, and some beers, and then settled in for hours and hours of drum corps. It was great. I needed my drum corps fix, and I got it!

The scary thing that happened, you ask? Oh that. During the second song of the Kilties performance, one of the horn players dropped on the field. This isn't unheard of in DCI, as sometimes people pass out but quickly recover. This guy didn't get up or show any movement at all after the song ended. Someone in the stands starts screaming that he fell down and one other horn player breaks formation (gasp!) to check him out. Several other people run on the field, the Drum Major puts the corps at parade rest and it's really clear that this guy is not moving at all. The corps marches off and 10 minutes later an ambulance arrives. The entire stadium watches him get shocked twice. It was very scary and we didn't know what happened after they took him away. After cleaning up and another corps marching, the Kilties came back on and performed the whole show again. Very admirable.

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing in the woods. Bonfires. Dancing. Variety Shows. Y'know, the normal sort of campground peace and quiet. And then I drove back to NY, had dinner in NYC with George and Edgar (who loaned me their GPS which was incredibly handy) and Vinny. Then I got lost in Brooklyn and ended up taking way too many bridges to get home. The BQE is a strange an mysterious road, truly. And I almost got into a horrible accident when a minivan had a tire blowout right in front of me. ABS brakes saved my life, and no more scratches were put on my car.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 10:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This will be short, and I'll edit and lengthen it later, just wanted to say that my vacation was wonderful. Wonderful. WONDERFUL! So random, so relaxing, so much what I needed. I'm better now. I have pictures. Green Day rocked. ROCKED! The drum corps show was cool (yet a scary thing happened). The camping was perfect. Every star in the sky was shining, the days were warm and the evenings cool.

And now I'm back at work again.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 09:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Friday night beers were followed by Friday night bowling. Sometimes bowling does crazy things to people. Some get violent. Some get sad. Some just have a bad attitude. What's my reaction, you ask? My legs tend to multiply.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 12:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This year, after moving into the new house, we decided to plant a little garden. We planted 4 tomato plants, 2 pepper plants, a squash plant, some herbs, and 300+ Okra seeds. The squash died. Only 3 of the Okra seeds germinated and grew properly, thanks to Dad's wondeful seed store. The price was right. In June, things were going pretty slowly.

We kind of neglected things during the month of July, and the weeds took over. Gardening is not my thing, really. And tomatoes aren't my thing either. Peppers are ok. Okra, though, is one of the veggies that I do really like (albeit breaded and fried). Finally, we're here in August and things look a bit better. All that empty space exists because I was expcting to have more than 3 measly Okra plants. As it stands, I have harvested 4 pods. For those that aren't up on Okra, here's a closeup. Points of interest include the flower, which only opens for one day, in the morning. It quickly falls off and then the fruit starts to grow. You can see a young one on the right. A mature fruit is on the left side, kind of behind the flower. When it gets about 5 inches long and fills out in thickness it's time to cut it off. You only get one okra pod per flower, and there's only only flower per leaf. I'm hoping I can keep them in the fridge long enough to collect about 10 or so, enough for an appetizer.

Fear not, however, that while this garden expeiment has been interesting, my true food passion is using fire to burn dead animals. I loves me some steak and potatoes.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 11:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The lab is wearing on me these days, and I think it's time for a break. I haven't gone on vacation at all this summer, which I guess I shouldn't complain about since I went skiing in March. I'm going to get away for 6 days at the end of the month, thankfully. In other news, the lab renovation is finished for the adjoining area, and the wall dividing the two was removed on Friday, much to the chagrin of everyone who currently occupies the space. We'd all like to keep our sanity, and instead, we get to deal with 3 labs worth of people moving in. I'm trying to keep a positive attitude, but broken equipment is complicating my life. We've got 2 broken tabletop centrifuges, a dead fridge, a broken drying oven, and a gamma counter with computer issues. Just a week and a half until the US Open.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 12:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Every once in a while, surfing the web brings me to a site that is completely honest in intent, but causes me to guffaw for several minutes. This is one of those sites. "Mommy! I want to sleep inside the giant beagle!" Please also note that you have to enter the room through the Beagle's butt. Only in Idaho, people.

Another site which I stumbled upon recently that I think is worth spreading around is the Museum of Bad Art or MoBa for short. The descriptions of the pieces are subtly hilarious, and some of the works are really startlingly bad. If I'm ever in the area I'll definitely have to check it out.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 01:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I was again in the city this weekend, hanging out with friends and watching movies and window shopping. Oh the things we saw! For one, another bejewelled item in a store window caught my eye. I can't remember which store we were near, but this little watermellon purse would go well with the bejewelled iPod Shuffle from a few weeks ago. Don't you think? Like, Totally, for sure.

I broke my old faithful Wenger Swiss Army watch a few weeks ago and haven't yet found a suitable replacement. I went to check out Barney's NY, but didn't find anything I wanted (or could afford) but I did try on a Mont Blanc watch that cost $3000. Seeing that I wasn't satisfied with mere trinkets, George takes me to Tourneau to shop for things I really cannot afford. Oh, the humanity! My Eyes were suffering from all the bling. We began at the lowest floor of the store, in the affordable section, and worked our way up. ALL the way up to the 4th floor. When the affordable section starts around $600, you can only imagine what they have upstairs. Downstairs I tried on a $10,000 watch by some company I'd never heard of. It was a little flashy for me. By the time we reached the top floor, we were being shown a Blancpain watch that ran a cool $80,000. It had automatic tourbillon winding, and it was made of platinum or dilithium crystals or something. The nice saleswoman removed it from the case and allowed me to hold this precious object, but that's as far as I got, even after I complimented her lovely eyes. Apparently my charms don't work on everyone's mom.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 11:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

As if I need to promote Overheard in New York any more, but this made me guffaw in my chair at work.

There's a Keebler Elf Graveyard Up in There

A fat girl's belly is pooling over the top of her jeans.

Guy: Hey, check out her muffin tops.
Girl: Dude, those aren't muffin tops; they're a whole cake explosion.

--N train

Overheard by: Tina

Posted by Jeff Smith at 03:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I actually scored as a low ranking computer geek, but thought I'd try to fight the system. See what it gets me.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Warning: herein lies a rant.

I've had this discussion with several people over the years, but what qualifies as a sport? ESPN often shows Cheerleading, Bowling, Billiards, Dance Teams, and Jump-Rope Competitions. Now these all require some physical exertion (well, except maybe billiards). I'm all for diversity of sport on ESPN. I'd really like to see them air DCI Finals, at the very least. It's at least as much of a sport as Billiards or Cheerleading. Tonight, to add to my disgust (and inspire this post) ESPN aired the US Open of Competitive Eating, sponsored by Alka Seltzer. How the HELL is this a sport? HOW!?! And if this qualifies, please can I get some Drum Corps International coverage?

Luckily this year they're showing DCI finals on the big screen in theatres around the country, if you're lucky enough to live near one. I think I'm going to watch it in NYC, rather than trying to drive up to Boston and sit in the nosebleed section. It's this time of year when the humidity and temperature are both oppressive and I think back to when I was forced to march around outside every day, getting a tan, and getting skinnier every day. Where's count 5? Indeed. The smell of diesel fuel, the fire ants, the crappy truck food. The stink of the tour bus. If I had some photos from that summer I might be inspired to scan them in and post them, but they're all at my parent's house.

Ok, so this rant turned into a trip down memory lane. I'm still mad I can't watch DCI on ESPN, though.

And another thing... the Spaniards have arrived again! OlŽ!

Posted by Jeff Smith at 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been jogging regularly now for about 7 weeks. I go at least 3 times a week, and I've come to enjoy the time it gives me to process my thoughts, like how my Mom cancelled her trip to visit me because she wants to have some beach time in North Carolina. So rude, these kids and their unreliable changing of plans.

We played softball today, and beat the No. 1 team in our league. Due to an injury (our pitcher got hit in the ankle by a ball) I had to leave my normal, designated hitter position and suck it up in right-center field. There's a reason I hated t-ball when I was a kid. Just let me hit singles. Seriously. But our team is 7-3-1, so with any luck we'll make the playoffs.

Friday I had an out of town visitor and went dancing all night at a dance club on Fire Island. I haven't been out all night dancing since I was in England. It was kind of crazy, yet fun. We got to hang out in the DJ booth in the club and then sat around talking as the sun came up, since it's NY law that all clubs must close by 4 AM.

Saturday, we saw 2 films at the Stony Brook Film Festival. Smile was a film about surgeons who perform plastic surgery in third-world countries to repair children with cleft palates. I loved it. It was very sad and touching and in the end heartwarming without being cheesy. The director and the lead actress were present at the screening and stuck around to answer questions for 30 minutes after it was over. The next film was called My Tiny Universe, a dark comedy about a suicidal actor who finds the cell phone of a big Hollywood producer. It was a little too fast paced and crazed to be called a fantastic movie, but if you like dark comedies you'll love it. The movies were also accompanied by short films. The one of note was called West Bank Story, and is a musical about 2 competing falafel stands in the West Bank. One is run by Jews, the other by Palestineans. It had crazy costumes, fun dancing, lots of visual gags and hilarious lines. At only 21 minutes long, it was the perfect length and I laughed so hard I nearly peed myself. If this film ever gets released anywhwere, or is available online, I highly recommend it.

And now. I need to get some sleep, because I'm still trying to catch up from the weekend.

Oh, one more thing. At one point we went to Starbucks and the total came to $6.66. The kid behind the counter gasps and says "I've never EVER seen that before". Then Adam says, "See! See! PROOF that Starbucks is Evil." And the kid responds, "Yeah, we'll deny it."

Posted by Jeff Smith at 11:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Apparently it's monsoon season on Long Island. Forecast is for torrential downpours of biblical proportions, for the next 20 minutes. Look out for the mini-tsunamis rolling down the storm drain-free avenues. Add to that temperatures of 85 degrees and it's been a hot steamy foggy few days, and not in a good way. I forced myself to go for a jog Monday night, thinking it would be pure torture, running through the fog as steam rises up off the asphalt. And it was thick outside. The fog had a nice quieting effect on all the normal noises of the evening so I could barely hear cars on nearby streets or the dull hum of air conditioners, even the crickets seemed quieter. The lightning bugs put on a good show, so I actually enjoyed my jog even though I was drenched after about the third step out the door.

The jogging was necessary after eating so much guacamole this weekend. My friends George and Edgar came to visit for a BBQ on Saturday. We ended up watching WAY too much Sex and the City on DVD, and they taught me how to turn avocados into guacamole. Yummy! We also grilled sausages and pork chops, since I've finally figured out the subtle nuances of my charcoal grill with the charred wood instead of the standard Kingsford briquettes.

Good food, good friends, good conversation... all in all it made for a great weekend, in spite of mother nature.

Posted by Jeff Smith at 12:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)