Bill Cunningham

I love Bill Cunningham, and I understand that watching a downpour at Bryant Park is awesome. But look at this. One of the stills shows a woman from behind trying to keep her bottom covered in the wind. Did you really need to publish this photo, Bill? She is just trying to be modest and you showed the world a photo of her grabbing at her butt. Now, is that fair!

Why I heart Heroes

Ultimately, Heroes is just a good tv show. It isn't transcending the medium or changing the way we live: it just shows up once a week and delivers some well produced, seriously entertaining, moving images. Really solid story telling. This week's Heroes ended with a intense montage narrated by the Yeats Poem "The Second Coming." I enjoyed the literary nod, and it really did deliver.

The poem has been used often in film, and because of the strong language it is a great tool to up the drama. I just love it. For the same reasons I love Heroes, big boldness. (That sort of sounds like a wsj wine review. Well, there you go. This poem would probably make a great Thanksgiving dinner accompanying Cab.)

"The Second Coming"

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Seriously, guys. What rough beast will soon be upon us? Tell me!

And, while you are at it, check out Yeats. Kinda a cool guy.

Com'on people! Its September 28!

Somebody get Al Gore on the phone: this weather is as unacceptable as his hanging chad problems! (Well, maybe not that unacceptable.)

Last Sunday I watched the Packers play the Cowboys in Lambeau. Fall had arrived. I wanted to enjoy the cool night air through an open window-unit-less window, so my roommate's bf took out the unit.

Well we are now having the grossest September weather and I just started to sweat. The stats for the day are 65/74 and raining. It is super humid. I am consoled by the thought that the ac might not even help now. Sometimes you just can't fight gross.

Conclusions for the week

This is a kitty burrito. Who came up with that!


Chipotle Burritos: I always cut them in half and wrap up the second half for dinner so that I don't eat 460-890 calories (see menu) in one sitting and become a cow. This week I twice dug into the second half and ate until my tummy hurt. (yeah, why was I even there twice in one week? I eat at Chipltle all the time. Whatever, its close to campus and the uws is slim pickin's). However about the eating a whole burrito in one sitting: Just don't do it. Just don't. Just stop.

Fall: It is a sweaty 65 degrees. I don't know what is up with that. But its raining and humid and not quite really cold. I'm just loving the change.

the iphone: it's trying to get to me

Disclaimer: I understand that all you iphone users out there love your babies. I'm not trying say anything bad about them, I'm just going to discuss my preferences.

So the iphone: what is the deal with the iphone? People freakin' love their apple products. However, I've spend way to many minutes of my life on a cell phone that didn't do its job: to be a phone. The jury is still out on how the iphone will rate as a phone. I've also come to love my verizon service, which does its job well. After seeing the iphone's big movie break in SatC when Carrie says "I don't know what to do with this," I sort of feel like it is just one more gadget in my life that be bring me one closer to too many.

What is my point? Do I just really love hating on the iphone? Well, yes, but I also have a point. Just now, while at the itunes store purchasing "Apologize" by Timaland, I saw that they have a graphing calculator app. This made me think, Wow, I could really go for an iphone. It turns out that the app still isn't bug free-it crashes the phone, and like most high school students I've met, uses the wrong order of operations. But, still, I do love my graphing calculator. I'm having fantasies of, in the manner of those who can't compute tax unaided, busting out my phone to do some math. But then, instead of doing a simple 20%, I would do, like do a little multi-variable equation using a matrix. Oh, Bob and Tom both made purchases using only dimes and quarters, and between them they used 30 dimes, and both purchases totaled $5.30. Don't worry I've got it. Let me just pull out my phone.

Oh, man, am I a dork.

Sometimes people ask me if I ever use calculus. My answer: well often my Dad uses calculus recreationally. Example: on a ski trip he ended a conversation with: "well, you just take a derivative of the mountain.

So the real question is nature or nurture.

Autumn has arrived!

One of the worst things about growing up in Houston was back to school advertising. You're sitting there dreading the end of freedom, looking at young, happy people all bundled up on plaids and wools and its 100 degrees with 80 percent humidity. You're not getting anywhere near a layer for two months, at least. Historically, Houston's September is warmer than Houston's June. September is really the last month of summer in Houston, not the first month of fall.

Well, here in New York, we have been having a very Houston-like fall. It has been hot and humid and a bit disappointing. I just love fall so much, and it's keeping me at bay. We've all grown bored of the heat and no one has time to go to the beach. It's just too late in the year for a sweaty commute.

Today I saw a red coffee cup and my heart jumped at the thought of gingerbread lattes and Thanksgiving. To my chagrin, it wasn't a holiday S'bucks cup, it was just red.

But in the absence of beautiful crisp windy weather, the autumnal light has just snuck up on me. It is nearly the equinox and the change in angle of the sun has become apparent. The light is dimmer and crisper; it looks cold.

Even though the thermostat is still in the 70's, out the window you expect to see students in wool and scarves and sweaters. And boy, am I ready for wool. I'm ready for fall and winter. I'm ready for sweaters and boots and jackets and excuses to be lazy. I'm ready for snowed in weekends with a DVD and an afghan, a bottle of wine, and maybe something a little warmer, like a cat, or a boy.

Every one's a critic

First Cheeseboomboom and now this guy.

Unionpool

Yesterday my friend texted me:

6:52 pm Wanna go to the Union Pool in BK?

So, because pools are one of my passions, I said of course I wanna go. FYI, I have no idea where Union Pool is.

7:20 pm Going to union pool at around 1030-11

However, because of a volunteer commitment I had on Saturday morning I said I wouldn't make it until 1. At this point I told a friend I was going swimming on Saturday. We discussed the rain predicted in the weather forecast and confirmed that neither of us has hear of Union Pool or knew where it was.

10:18 pm Gonna be at union pool around 1115pm

I thought that this was just a mass email confirming Saturday morning swim time. I ignored it and planned on arriving at 1pm.

Then, at about 11:55pm as I was just falling asleep, I got a phone call asking if I was coming out.

12:02 am I'm at union pool!

So, I feel like a fool. Unionpool is a club and there were people playing music there last night. I missed it because I just went back to sleep. I feel a bit vindicated because no one I've talk to today had ever heard of Unionpool.

Celebrity Look Alike!

Where's George

This is what I've been doing instead of gearing up for school. I thought that this old ragged bill I found must have traveled, however, there wasn't much info. I am party to blame since the bill has been in my possession for the past six months.

I can't get enough

Watching The Situation Room running continuous biographical sketches of Sarah Palin is as good as the tear jerking clips from the Olympics. This woman is a hero of Alaska and the religious right; its just as moving as those clips about the 30 year old gymnast and the 40 year old woman competing.

It's worth noting that the reason we need all this background is that very few Americans or CNN viewers are either Alaskan or members of the religious right.

ahh, childhood as an adult

Several things have happened recently that have made me feel like a child.

One: I now have a bed that I can actually crawl under thanks to the joy of 7 in. risers. And crawl under it I have several times to arrange all my stuff neatly.

Two: As a child I thought it was hilarious to look up furniture stores in the yellow pages, call them, and ask, "What is your cheapest chair?" In retrospect, it was sort of pathetic how poorly the question was answered. Usually, something like, "Well we have a lot chairs, what specific kind were you looking for." Seriously, look at your catalogue listing and answer the question.
This has come up because I am looking to unload the cheapest chair at IKEA. IKEA's cheapest chair, one year used, with a large coffee stain: how much is that worth? Posted on craigslist under free for two days. One response, asking for a photo. Not to promising. Seriously, people: free. Soon it will be sitting on the street where hopefully someone will take it home. The cheapest chair, not even wanted for free.

Three: My whole like I coveted CapriSun drinks. The fun squishiness, the whole ordeal of putting the straw in the hole on top and not all the way through both sides of the pouch: it was so fun. My mother never bought them for me as a child because they were full of sweeteners, and they weren't real juice. As an adult I still coveted them, but I read labels, and they are full of corn syrup, which we all know is poison for kids and adults.
So today in Target while looking for snacks for the beach I spot HonestKids fruit pouches! My dream come true: real juice in foil looking squishy pouches. Because I was in a hurry and because it was freaking HonestKids I did not read the label as I usually do. Well, Honest my foot. They are full of organic cane sugar and water and organic flavors. Its not going to rot your teeth because its organic sugar? Ten percent juice: are they serious! I railed about this for some time in a loud voice, not exactly beach mood music, but I had something to say. But, just between you and me, they were pretty delicious. As Erin pointed out, each one has have the sugar and calories as regular "fruit drinks" so when I drank two it was like I was having a single traditional teeth rotter.