Jeffrey Hoffman I've just had too much going on to keep up with this as of late. I'm gonna keep it up as an archive, but you should feel free to head over to my homepage. 2007/11/21 England are out of the European Championships. Since qualifying started back in the summer of 2006, I've been waiting for this day. Here are the goals. All England had to do to qualify was beat Russia back in October, but they couldn't hold a first half lead. Then, thanks to Israel beating Russia, England only needed a draw in their final qualifier against Croatia at Wembley in order to go through. For some unknown reason, McClaren plays 4-5-1 with Crouch up front but no Beckham to deliver the service and no other striker to play his knock downs. McClaren also starts Carson for his first competitive match in goal. Carson immediately botches a save to give Croatia the lead. Then Bridge plays the counter onside for a roll in goal. 2-0 after 14 minutes. Beckham comes on at halftime. After Lampard converts a penalty, Beckam delivers a sublime service to Crouch which he plays off his chest and volleys into the bottom corner. At 2-2 with 25 minutes remaining, England has one foot in the European Championships. But lax marking creates the space for a long range Croatian strike into the far corner in the 77th minute. England are out. McClaren refuses to resign after the match and has to be fired the next morning. 2007/10/05 After meaning to do so for nearly 2 years, I finally joined Zipcar. We headed an hour north of the city to go up to the very top of Bear Mountain and took a spin on Seven Lakes Drive. I think this would be the suggested flightplan. 2007/09/30 I can't stop listening to Revolver. This album is the tipping point in The Beatles catalog. It is the final step in their transformation from pop stars to music icons. They no longer want to hold your hand - now they want you to turn off your mind, relax and float down stream. Tomorrow never knows... 2007/09/23 Tony Romo can just flat out play football. Folks are going to have to get used to that. 2007/09/16 In order to bail out all the banks in trouble from the credit/insolvency crisis, look for the Fed to lower interest rates at its upcoming meeting - probably with the larger half point move. It does seem that this is necessary in order to prevent a significant market meltdown, but one has to wonder about the moral hazard. 2007/09/09 Roger Federer won his fourth US Open title today. During the tournament he had been wearing all black, and they played Darth Vader's theme from The Empire Strikes back when he would take the court. Hence, he has become The Dark Lord. The good folks at American Express set up a lawn and huge projection TV in the middle of Rockefeller Center where we caught most of the action from week two. 2007/09/02 Many thanks to my dad's college buddy Steve for hooking us up with a sweet place to stay on Atlantic Beach for the holiday weekend. 2007/08/26 My buddy Brian got married this weekend. The spectacular setting was upstate at the house of his in-laws. In his honor, I got my duds for the wedding at Ben Freedman down on Orchard Street. 2007/08/19 Today I made my first visit to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. Took a tour of the hood courtesy of Bonny and Wade of Muppets fame. We attempted to do a little shopping on Montague, but most places had closed early. I guess a return trip might be in order. 2007/08/12 Just another major championship for Tiger Woods at Southern Hills. Nothing to see here. Move along. 2007/08/06 Spent a lazy Sunday on the coast at Sandy Hook. It's pretty cool as you can get from ocean side to bay side in a quick walk. I tend to prefer crashing the surf, but there is something to be said for clamming. 2007/08/02 Starting to beat the folks with whom I play tennis. I like doing something new and then being able to see real progress. I got myself a new racket, the best buy of the year. 2007/07/26 We certainly hope that you are enjoying the credit crisis. Is your mortgage about to reset? I figure the wave should start to crest in March 2008. 2007/07/19 Nothing quite like Old Faithful in midtown. 2007/07/12 You've heard about video cameras in cop cars. These days the latest rage is video cameras on cops. The form factor is getting pretty small here. Eventually they will be able to imbed the technology in glasses and you will be able to record and index your entire life. 2007/07/06 When I was little there was a television show named Space: 1999. One of my all-time favorite toys was the EAGLE 1 SPACESHIP from Mattel. I've recently had vague memories of one episode that scared the bejeezus out of me. Now, thanks to the Interwebs, I've found it. 2007/06/30 I've talked a bit in the past about Congress's inane prohibitions on Internet gambling. When all of the credit card companies quit processing transactions with Internet gambling sites, a company called Neteller took advantage of this and ended up processing nearly $5.1 billion worth of transactions in the first half of 2006. While the credit card companies feared the potential legal liability, the Neteller team thought that being based in the Isle of Man and traded on the London Stock Exchange would give Neteller an offshore status beyond the reach of authorities in the United States. They were wrong. It's interesting to note that the WTO has weighed in against the US on this issue. 2007/06/23 Been playing some tennis in Central Park. I got the annual permit which lets me play on any city court. The Tennis Center is pretty nice and there are actually clay courts over in Riverside Park. 2007/06/17 The new Fantastic Four movie was bad enough that I'm not even going to give it a link here. However, the promise of seeing the Silver Surfer on the silver screen was just too much to pass up. That being said, when a filmmaker has the opportunity to present Galactus in all his glory, he needs to grab the chance rather than present the ultimate cop out. 2007/06/09 As always, many thanks to my man Charlie Dahan (wearing the A's cap due to a lost bet) for the hookup on his annual visit to Yankee Stadium. We got to catch Roger Clemens take the mound and win the first outing of his return to the Yankees pitching staff. As for the seats - let's just say that when you are able to take pictures like this of the Yankees captain, you know they were pretty good. 2007/06/01 Has it been four years already? 2007/05/27 Gotta pitty the folks at AZ Alkmaar. Four weeks ago, all they had to do was beat lowly Excelsior to take the Eredivisie title and the guaranteed Champions League spot that comes with it. However, they lost, and the title went to PSV. Then they took Ajax to penalties in the Dutch Cup final but fell to the Amsterdammers after eight tries. And today, in the playoff final replay for the other spot in the Champions League, Ajax dropped a bomb on the ruin that has become the AZ season. 2007/05/23 I'm gonna be doing a good amount of traveling later this year, so I think I'm going to sign up for the American Airlines Challenge. We'll see if I can peel off 10K points and get my hands on that Platinum Membership. 2007/05/18 The Gutman family went to Madeira and brought back a taste of the local specialty, Madeira wine. Throw in some local cheese and it's a veritable fiesta. Word is Len went over to search for Ronaldo's family. 2007/05/12 Spent a fantastic evening at Lincoln Center with the National Chorale performing Beethoven's Ninth. If you're interested, they're doing it again next year. 2007/05/05 Spent my birthday in Boston this year. We went to the North End and had an amazing meal at The Daily Catch. If you go, do what we did and get the Lobster fra Diavolo. The North End is of course Boston's Little Italy, so I was also able to indulge in my favorite limone sorbetto. This area has really changed since they tore down the Central Artery. 2007/05/02 Gas is gonna be $4/gallon this summer. Folks in America will freak out. Of course, in Europe it will be quite a bit higher. Perhaps it's time to go shopping at Tesla Motors. 2007/04/25 I finally moved to a new apartment. It's a nice sized 1 bedroom which is a big improvement over my previous closet of an apartment. Where did I find it? Craigslist of course. Other tasty finds in this move included the desk I always wanted (Ikea Effectiv now known as Galant) for $75 and the bargain of all time, an Aeron chair for $250. Thank you Craig! 2007/04/18 I've written a few times about how energy resources are transforming Russia into a true world power. In the end, it's projects like this that will solidify that status. Now if we can just get that tunnel under the Atlantic... 2007/04/15 Whatever you make of this Imus fiasco, here's what it isn't: a free speech issue. If the Feds were hauling him off to some prison because of what he said, then we'd have a free speech issue. When a corporation fires someone because one of their employees says something offensive which causes that corporation's advertisers to freak out, it's a business decision. No doubt that Howard Stern is simply giddy. 2007/04/08 And the winner at Augusta is...not Tiger Woods?!? 2007/04/01 Len, Opher, and I have put in our applications for tickets to the UEFA European Championship. Word is that they'll get requests for over 10 million tickets - with only about 330,000 available via the lottery. Oh well. With any luck Israel will keep England out and then Opher can get us tickets via his national association. 2007/03/25 I'm always a sucker for the latest online banking craze, and it would seem that industry leader ING has now upped the ante with their Electric Orange account. 2007/03/18 Do you know what the Yen carry trade is? Do you know what will happen if it starts to unwind? Perhaps you would you like a side order of subprime mortgages with that? 2007/03/11 That's number 16 baby!! 2007/03/06 I don't always agree with the schlubs in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, but this year they certainly got the Best Foreign Language Film right. The Lives of Others is an amazing tale of life under the Stasi during the last days of the German Democratic Republic. Pan's Labyrinth was quite a film in its own right - so you should probably check out both. 2007/02/28 The best candy bar going right now is the Mars Delight. My German is a bit rusty, but apparently it won some product of the year award for 2006. I only seem to be able to find them over in the Westside Supermarket - hopefully other places will catch on to this tasty morsel. 2007/02/25 Excellent article in the New York Times today regarding the political future of Russia. There's a presidential election coming in 2008, and one could argue that Dmitri Medvedev is the most "Western-centric" of the potential options. It appears that his recent performance at Davos may have solidified his status as the front runner. 2007/02/22 I wrote a few years ago about my buddy Jon Kuniholm who got wounded in Iraq. I'm pleased to report that not only is he doing well, he's turning lemons into lemonade. His industrial design crew started the Open Prosthetics Project, and they're getting quite a bit of traction. Check out this interview on The Story. 2007/02/15 I don't watch all that much TV, but I can't get enough of 30 Rock. You can actually watch episodes online. Alec Baldwin is amazing, tho nothing will top the greatest monologue of all time. 2007/02/08 The city has been waiting for the Second Avenue Subway since it was originally proposed way back in 1929. They actually started working on it during the 1970s before the city's finances collapsed. But now, after nearly 80 years, it looks like things are finally back on track. Let the digging begin! 2007/02/01 I've argued with many folks over the years about the use of the serial comma. I say use it. And let's be clear - I have Strunk and White (of The Elements of Style fame); the Chicago, Oxford, and Harvard University Press folks; and of course the United States Government Printing Office on my side. 'Nuff said. 2007/01/26 So much for the azaleas and cherry blossoms blooming at the start of the month. Early this morning we tied the all time low. 2007/01/23 Spent some time this weekend with Bonnie and Wayde out in Brooklyn Heights. Bonnie worked with The Muppets back in the day when Jim Henson ran things so you know these are some creative folks. Wayde has a particularly cool "office pod" featuring a wrap around desk and bookcase - something I'd like to mimic if I ever have an apartment large enough for it. 2007/01/16 Time to revisit my favorite stock: VimpelCom. I started following this Russian wireless provider back in mid-2003. A $150 investment at that time would today be worth a cozy $800. How many of you dropped your bankroll into it and are now retired? 2007/01/09 Next week we'll get cooking with the what should be the legal event of the decade, United States v. Scooter Libby. We're gonna get to see a sitting Vice President testify in this one. While the trial itself will deal with whether or not Scooter obstructed justice and lied under oath, the backdrop of this case will be the pressing issue of the day: how (over)zealous was the Bush Administration in pushing the United States to go to war with Iraq, and to what lengths would members of the Administration go to discredit those that didn't agree with them. To quote Chris Matthews, "HA!" 2007/01/02 Climate change? Nah. Nothing to see here. Just the first December in over 100 years without snow in Central Park. How about an azalea blooming in January? Maybe you'd prefer some cherry blossoms blooming over in Brooklyn? 2006/12/26 Stancil has been on me for a while to get a new laptop. The old one had been on its last legs for quite some time. The hinge was broken and the screen had to be propped up to stay open. Deciding that 4 years was long enough, I finally gave in and went with the Thinkpad x60s. Editor's Choice at CNET, PC World, and PC Mag - I figured they all couldn't be wrong. 2006/12/19 My fascination with Bora Bora started thanks to Woody Allen way back when I saw Everyone Says I Love You. It was only briefly mentioned in the movie as one character's favorite spot, but for some reason it stuck with me. I'd heard of Tahiti before, but Bora Bora was something new. You can actually go to French Polynesia non-stop from New York now. And if yer gonna go, might as well stay at the St. Regis Resort, Bora Bora. 2006/12/12 The Yukos Affair started a downward spiral of negative publicity about how the Russian government treats foreign corporations (not to mention its own citizens). The fact is, there's always more to the situation than meets the eye - and certainly more than the mainstream media reports. Here's a brand new example. The UK media is reporting that the Kremlin is seizing control of world's biggest liquefied gas project on Sakhalin from Shell. What's missing in that reporting is that about a year and a half ago, Shell traded 25% of the Sakhalin project to Gazprom for a 50% stake in another gas field - and a week later told them that the cost of the Sakhalin project would double to $20 billion and that there would be a six-month construction delay. Just how did you expect Tovarishch Putin to react to that? 2006/12/10 I've often thought that it would be pretty cool to live down near Peck Slip now that the fish market is gone. We were wandering around downtown this evening and came across these places. 2006/12/03 I finally got to see Borat. I don't think I've laughed this much at a movie since Happiness. For those of you who just couldn't get enough of our "Kazakh" friend, check out these deleted scenes. 2006/11/26 A tip of the hat to the Graysmiths for hosting the always popular post-Thanksgiving party, Dr. Knouff for an excellent bonfire, and Vetter for his photographic wizardry. While yer at it, you should really check out his amazing State Fair images. 2006/11/19 Bond. James Bond. He's back. Big time. Casino Royale storms its way onto the list of my favorite James Bond films, right alongside From Russia with Love and You Only Live Twice. 2006/11/12 After this past Tuesday, there's a new sheriff in town. Make that two new sheriffs. With the GOP suffering a complete electoral whitewash, Nancy Pelosi is set to take the Speaker's Chair in the House while Harry Reid gets to ride shotgun over in the Senate. That sound you just heard was all the folks on K Street flipping their two-sided portraits from Reagan to Kennedy. 2006/11/05 Last year Tyler Hansbrough was the national freshman of the year. This year he might not even be the best player on his own team. Keep your eye on Brandan Wright - I have a feeling you'll only get to see him play one year of college ball. 2006/10/29 New York City makes for an interesting sociological study in just about every direction you look. Take, for example, this comparison of the city's main train stations. 2006/10/22 Talking about video games, check out what's going on over at Second Life. Here's a game which is developing its own economy and significant interest from the outside world. This shouldn't come as much of a surprise to those of you who read Snowcrash. 2006/10/15 I had previously written about the players in the "business class only" New York to London air travel game. It looks like Silverjet is going to throw its hat into the ring as well with flights to Luton. Note that train service does not run directly to the airport - at least not yet. 2006/10/08 I used to play a lot of video games. These days they are almost ubiquitous in our society. The season premier of South Park was about video games. There are those who are calling video games "the next big thing" - including publishing heavyweights such as the New York Times and the Atlantic Monthly (if you are unable to read the articles, lemme know and I'll send you a copy). The game that seems to have them quite excited is Spore. 2006/10/01 Congress clearly doesn't have any time to deal with insignificant issues (like the pending insolvency of the entitlement progams in the US) since it's obviously critical that they deal with something much more important: stopping Internet gambling. Or more specifically, making it illegal for banks and credit card companies in the US to make payments to Internet gambling sites. Why not just stick your head in the dike while it crumbles around you. 2006/09/24 The Federal Reserve has chosen not to raise interest rates at the last few meetings. Both times there has been a lone dissenter, Jeffrey M. Lacker, who has consistently voted to raise rates. Makes you wonder what he knows that the others don't... 2006/09/17 In New York, real estate is almost like a cult. And no one provides the flavored Kool-Aid better than Curbed. Where else can you find features such as floorplan porn? 2006/09/10 Just back in from a week at Emerald Isle. Despite a few bumps along the way (remnants of hurricanes, demanding customers, and the like), it was all in all an enjoyable week. One of the more interesting adventures was our first attempt at sea kayaking. Things got particularly strange when the shrimp started jumping into our boat. 2006/09/03 Looks like I've managed to crash out of the marathon. Again. It would appear that I have torn or otherwise severely messed up something in my lower abdomen/hip/groin/etc. One possible diagnosis is Osteitis Pubis. Probably no running for at least a month and potentially longer. At this point my main worry is being in shape for the 2007 edition of the Tahoe Super Bowl junket. 2006/08/28 If I lived in Boulder, Colorado, I'd be looking in to what we could do to get our DA removed from office. To all those aspiring prosecutors out there, let this be a lesson: before you arrest somebody for a crime, it's best to have some evidence. Like real evidence. Like anything at all. Otherwise you'll end up having to drop the case in a rather embarassing fashion. Especially after having treated your "suspect" to an all expenses paid trip from Bangkok to Los Angeles. Business class. With champagne and fried king prawns. Congrats to DA Mary Lacy on a job well done! 2006/08/21 12 down and 6 (or 7 depending on whether you like tying or breaking the record) to go. Can anyone stop El Tigre? 2006/08/14 Holy cow! Jamie Gold won this year's World Series of Poker Main Event. His prize? $12,000,000. That's right boys and girls - a 12 with six zeros. Ever get the feeling that you made a poor career choice? 2006/08/07 Do you know who Ronaldinho is? If not, you should check out this video. 2006/07/31 Our favorite critters these days would have to be hoops & yoyo. How can you resist a pink cat and a green rabbit (not to mention a blue mouse)? Certainly a craze that will be sweeping the nation... 2006/07/24 I do enough flying these days that the airline lounges are starting to look like a pretty good idea. Even better, it appears that there is a way, for a reasonable price, to gain access to the lounges of multiple airlines. The Priority Pass seems to grant access to a number of different airline lounges for either a very low fee or no fee at all depending on your level of membership. It's not immediately clear from their site which airlines are part of the program, but I think I'm going to look into this. 2006/07/17 I put enough miles on my old Kayanos that they are pretty much burned out for running. So I hit Paragon to find the shoes that would carry me through the marathon. I wanted to stay with Asics, and since there was a sicko sale running, I was able to step into the Gel-Kinsei. 2006/07/10 It was Winston Churchill who said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried. At least we seem to be proving the first part correct. It all started with our own debacle in 2000. More recently we've had the Germans take it to the brink, a complete fiasco in Italy, and now a mess in Mexico. With November just around the corner, we should be ripe for more election gridlock. 2006/07/03 All systems are go for November. Here's the schedule. 2006/06/26 I didn't really care who won the NBA Championship this year. What I didn't want to have happen was for Gary Payton to get a ring. And this is why. This play pretty much sums up Payton. He didn't like the way the ref called the previous play, so he dribbles down the court, passes the ball, and then goes to argue with the zebra. In the meantime, his teammate tries to pass the ball back, only to have it bounce off Payton and result in a turnover. It was lucky for him that Zo took care of business at the other end. Zo earned and deserved a ring. Not Payton. 2006/06/19 A mickelson - the act of grasping defeat from the jaws of victory, usually due to one's own idiocy; in golf, an act after which one would take a mulligan (which of course is not allowed if you are playing in the US Open). Totally awesome. If you are puzzled, here's some context. 2006/06/13 I've always been a fan of trains - and particularly subways - but the folks over in Shanghai are on to something completely over the top: Maglev. Hop on board a magnetic levitation train at Shanghai Pudong Airport and get wisked off to Longyang Station, nearly 19 miles away, in 8 minutes. That is some serious speed. Unfortunately the technology is a bit pricey so we are unlikely to see these trains speeding across the American frontier anytime soon. 2006/06/07 Like a comet returning every four years, World Cup madness is about to start. Pretty much everyone says that this is Brasil's tournament to lose, but I will be rooting for the Oranje. My favorite piece of World Cup hype at the moment is the latest Adidas campaign. 2006/06/01 Has it been three years already? 2006/05/25 They're opening up the beaches on Long Island this coming weekend. No swimming for me tho. Why not? Let's just say that a water temperature in the high 50s just isn't quite gonna get it done. Call me back around July 4th. 2006/05/18 While most folks seem to hate it, I just love going to the dentist. I'd go ten times a year if the insurance company would pay for it. There's just something about that clean mouth feeling which you can only get after a visit. That being said, here's something I've never understood: the dentist warns you all the time to "never stick sharp objects in your mouth," yet the first thing they do when you show up for an appointment is come at you with these. 2006/05/14 If it were up to me, there is no question that I would include the top goal scorer from my domestic league on my World Cup squad (assuming that he was eligible). Apparently, however, Marco van Basten does not agree. 2006/05/07 After one of their worst campaigns in 40 years, the boys at Ajax managed to pull two rabbits out of the hat here at the end of the season. First, smashing home-and-away aggregate victories over archrival Feyenoord and surprising Groningen allowed Ajax to claim the second Dutch entry into next year's Champions League. Perhaps even more surprising, today the gang from Amsterdam claimed a piece of silverware by defeating league champion PSV in the final of the Dutch Cup. Man of the match, man of the year, and probably Eredivisie player of the year Klaas Jan Huntelaar scored two goals in the match, including the game winner at full time. 2006/05/01 May Day was always a pretty big deal elsewhere in the world, but the current immigration debate has led to rather striking events in the US this year. 2006/04/26 When I used to live in Chapel Hill, the Apple Chill Festival was one of the signs that Spring had indeed arrived. Not anymore. 2006/04/19 The Roosevelt Island Tram is one of my favorite New York City icons. That being said, I'm rather happy that I wasn't riding it yesterday afternoon. 11 hours is a bit too much for a ride that should take 5 minutes. 2006/04/16 Went hiking at Pilot Mountain earlier this week. Having lived a fair chunk of my life not 40 minutes from this natural wonder, it's rather amazing it took me this long to make a visit. 2006/04/09 Just another one of those weekends with no sleep. Spent a good part of Saturday at a wedding and then had a flight down to NC this morning at 6:30, so I basically stayed up all night and sleepwalked my way over to Newark Airport. Later in the day I learned that Waffle House now takes credit cards! I think it's time to get some sleep. 2006/04/01 I haven't seen anything all that jaw dropping to report for this April Fool's Day, so let's take a review of The Top 100 April Fools Day Hoaxes of All Time. 2006/03/25 I really should have stayed out in Tahoe. It appears that they are on track to have a record for the most snow ever in March. There should be hot times on the slopes well into April if not longer. And when the season ends in this hemisphere, you can always make the run down to Portillo. 2006/03/18 Well well well...now how about that. Guess who is the latest member of the Dallas Cowboys... 2006/03/11 For the latest in a long line of Internet phenomena, we now bring you Snakes on a Plane. For a movie that isn't even supposed to be released until August, Snakes on a Plane probably has more fan created Internet buzz going than any other film out there. My particular favorite is this mock audition. 2006/03/04 Duck Fuke!!!! 2006/02/26 There's a great little technology out there named EVDO. Basically it allows you to get close to broadband speed via a CDMA phone network. Don't worry you GSM types...while the adoption rate has been a bit slower, you will eventually get the same thing from HSDPA. The beauty here is that soon you'll be able to get wireless broadband pretty much wherever you go. There are even some companies that are already building this into their laptops. 2006/02/20 There are two interesting new entrants in the New York to London air travel game. Both fly into little known, at least to us Yanks, Stanstead Airport (the other three major London area airports being Heathrow, Gatwick, and Luton). Both cater to the higher end market. The more swanky of the two is Eos, where a plane built for 220 passengers carries a miniscule 48 in first class luxury. While not quite as highbrow, MAXjet takes a plane built for 200 and only loads 102 passengers in business class comfort. The key here is price, in that for $1500 MAXjet will get you there and back in style. 2006/02/13 Spent the weekend down in Miami on South Beach. Got to watch the Tar Heels take down the Canes with my South Florida lawyers. We also made it over to Coral Gables to see the house and corner where my grandparents once lived as well as the fountain where my grandfather and I used to catch tadpoles. 2006/02/08 The 2nd annual Super Bowl junket to Tahoe was quite a success. We made the right call this year by skiing during the week. There was literally nobody on the slopes, and at times we were able to get in up to 8 runs per hour. Depending on how many folks we get next year, perhaps we'll take a run at staying at this penthouse. Or maybe this one. 2006/02/02 The big trip to Tahoe is just around the bend. I'm usually a straight up skier, but this year I think I'm gonna give snowblades a spin. You sacrifice control for responsiveness, but that's just the ticket for trying some jumps in the terrain park. Hopefully I'll still have ligaments in my knees after next week. 2006/01/26 We saw a super film at the Jewish Film Festival this evening. Melting Siberia is a documentry about how the filmmaker helped his mother locate and meet her long lost father in Novosibirsk. I actually emailed the filmmaker and he answered some of our questions about the film. 2006/01/19 I was a little slow to pick up on the Sudoku rage, but I have joined up in full force now. Apparently they will be holding the first World Championship in Italy later this year. 2006/01/12 It would seem that we are in the midst of a heat wave. 60 degrees in New York City during January?!? 2006/01/05 They had a "classic 5-foot Tahoe storm over New Year's" at Heavenly. With a base of over 100 inches of snow, conditions should be nothing short of ideal when we hit the slopes one month from today. 2006/01/01 While the tourist masses hung out in their cattle pens on Times Square, we enjoyed a spectacular evening of fireworks in Central Park from the Hernshead. This is one of the groovier things you can do in the city for your New Year's countdown - unless of course you plan to join in the Midnight Run. 2005/12/25 While it's a bit less applicable this year as the first night of Chanukah falls on Xmas day, but ya just gotta love Kyle Broflofski's sense of alienation in the little town of South Park. 2005/12/11 We went ice skating in Central Park last night. And it was packed. Several hundred folks with many out of control maniacs. A good time was had by all. I think the next time around we are gonna give The Pond at Bryant Park a spin. 2005/12/09 The World Cup Draw turned into a nightmare for the US squad. Stuck in Group E with powers Italy and the Czech Republic, it is highly unlikely that the Red, White, and Blue will make it through the group round. Even thought the Oranje may actually be in the toughest group alongside Argentina, I've still got my money on the Dutch to give the Brazilians a stiff challenge in the quest for the FIFA World Cup Trophy. 2005/12/03 After winning the National Championship and then losing their top seven scorers, Carolina Basketball wasn't really expected to be very competitive this year. Boy was that ever wrong. After today's 83-79 victory over Kentucky in Rupp Arena, you can bet that the Heels will be ranked in next week's poll. 2005/11/28 I had thought that my trip in '03 would be the last time that I would drive from NC to NYC. But I went and did it again. Nothing terribly significant to report, tho the I-95 tolls in Maryland are getting a little out of hand. 2005/11/22 After several sub-par seasons, Ajax is through to the knock-out stages of the UEFA Champions League. Len says they will get Barca next, but I'm holding out for Villarreal. Either way, making it to the quarters is sure to be a significant challenge. 2005/11/15 The failures of the Igles have provided me with many great moments over the years. That being said, you'd have to consider last night's MNF game against the Cowboys as perhaps the finest because I got to watch it with Pat. His Igles have actually played pretty well in the post-TO era. But they just can't seem to win. This game was well in hand for the Igles as they were up 20-7 with just over 3 minutes to go. However, Dallas was able to drive and score a touchdown to cut the lead to 20-14 with 3:04 left on the clock. Then the inexplicable happened. Rather than pound the ball with a running game that had put up over 180 yards for the game, the Igles decided to throw the ball - right to Roy Williams who returned the interception 46 yards for a touchdown. 21-20 and game over. As a bonus, during the interception return Donovan McNabb was injured and might be done for the season. Adios Igles! 2005/11/11 Google made a pretty good call by opening up the API for their mapping software. All kinds of developers are creating neato applications based on this technology. One of my favorites is a great mashup of housing listings. For a somewhat comprehensive listing of apps, check out Google Maps Mania. 2005/11/07 Ah yes, the end of the TO in Philly era has arrived. I do think that it's a shame that this circus won't continue for the rest of the season. It was certainly fun to watch. On another note, 89 days and counting until Tahoe. 2005/11/01 They finally reopened Top of The Rock today. 2005/10/26 After some uncertainty, it looks like this guy is in line to be the next "most powerful man on Earth." Be sure to look for the following buzz words: target inflation rate. 2005/10/21 There's been a lot of angst over the last few years about what we should do with our space program. It seems pretty simple to me. We go to Europa. It's the only other place in the solar system where we know there are ice rafts. Where there are ice flows, there is liquid water. And where there is liquid water, well...seems that's something we should find out. 2005/10/16 After a tremendous performance against the Igles last week, the Cowboys hang tough to take out the Giants in a game that was not as close as the score made it appear. With the victory, Dallas takes over first place in the NFC East. Rest assured, however, that the division will be a dogfight going down the wire. 2005/10/14 Not quite ready to build an ark yet, but eight days in a row means you might should start drawing up some blueprints. 2005/10/09 It's been since the days of LBJ that we have seen a President's base turn on their party leader as vocally as is happening now. Conservatives in America just don't seem to trust his guarantees about Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers. The Right has been patiently waiting for a generation to fill the top bench with players from their deep bullpen, so it's really no surprise that they are seriously displeased with the President's decision to bypass the list this time around and instead make an appointment from his inner circle. 2005/10/03 It's the first Monday in October and also the first day of the Roberts Court. The next few years should shape up as an interesting time in American jurisprudence as the two new faces that will sit on the bench this term may very well cause a seismic shift in the ideology of the Court. 2005/09/28 Starting to gear up for the 2nd annual Super Bowl junket to Tahoe. We'll be hitting Heavenly again and staying across the street from the gondola at the Holiday Lodge. 2005/09/23 I got to catch Mr. Thomas "1/2 of The Orb" Fehlmann at Tonic last night. I've been waiting for music like this all my life. 2005/09/17 It's an anniversary that only geeks may love, but on this date in 1991 the first version of the Linux kernel (0.01) was released on the Internet. 2005/09/10 There was a TV commercial during the 2003 Super Bowl known as "Terry Tate: Sensitivity Training" (also known as "Terry Tate: Office Linebacker"). It was hailed as one of if not the best commercial that year by the likes of the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. I'm not quite sure how this commercial made it on the air. I'd wondered about it for a while, and I found a great article about the fact that the company in the commercial is named Felcher & Sons. Recently the good folks at Nabisco sent up their own masterpiece, the CornHole game. 2005/09/05 The events of the past week have been simply mind boggling. There is no way anyone can claim that this was unexpected. A hurricane/flood wiping out New Orleans is at the top of the list of potential domestic disasters, right up there with a California earthquake and a terrorist attack on New York or Washington. The 80% of the city that could escape on its own did, while the other 20% was basically left to fend for themselves. Even worse, from Louisiana's own disaster plan dated January 2000, we have: "The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating." So how can you explain this? 2005/08/30 The media is saying that New Orleans dodged a bullet from Hurricane Katrina. I was just talking with Pinero about it, and frankly I think the trouble is just starting. 2005/08/25 Just wrapped up my trip down to NC where the new beer law was in full effect. Spent a lovely evening in the Speakeasy drinking down a cool and refreshing Duvel. Word is they might even pass the lottery bill this time around. What has gotten into those old north state legislators? 2005/08/20 This just doesn't make any sense. Thousands of people wait in line for hours, some to the point of soiling themselves, all for the privilege of being able to buy four year old laptops. Then, when the doors open, a violent stampede ensues during which people are thrown to the pavement, nearly driven over, and beaten with a folding chair. Nice work by the officials in Henrico County. 2005/08/15 I think the evacuation of Gaza was a good plan, but one has to question the folks that set up the timetable. Why in the world would you start it at the close of Tisha B'av? It's not like the religious whacko settlers won't see anything prophetic about that. 2005/08/10 Hung out with Wade down at Petite Abeille. All you can eat mussels and a Stella for $16.95 is not a route to profitability when Wade and I walk in the door. Tho I have a feeling that the lightweights around us more than made up for the damage we did. 2005/08/07 Things got dicey enough on the old laptop that it finally became time for a clean install. After several hours and days of tweaking this and updating that, we seem to be in tip top operating shape. Hopefully this exercise will hold me until I finally get off my duff and buy a new computer. 2005/08/04 Back in 2001 I put up a little webpage about the fact that, due to a post-prohibition era law, one could not buy beer with more than 6% alcohol by volume in North Carolina. It eventually turned into a full blown lobbying group. And today, the General Assembly finally changed the law. Suffice to say that the next time I'm down in NC, you owe me a beer. 2005/07/31 Today was my annual pilgrimage with Charlie D. and Sklar to the House that Ruth Built. After winning in the bottom of the ninth last night, the Yankees were assisted by two critical Angle errors which should have all but ended the Bronx Bombers' scoring chances in a comeback 11 inning victory. 2005/07/24 It was about this time last year that I said Lance Armstrong was the greatest athlete of all time. No one wanted to argue then, and I'm sure seven won't change anything. 2005/07/20 Saxapahaw?!? 2005/07/17 While 2000 was amazing, 2005 could be something else entirely. Tiger won the Open to go first, second, and first in the Majors so far this year. Interesting to note that Tiger has now won each Major where the Golden Bear played for the last time. The victory gives Tiger 10 Majors overall - more than halfway to Jack's record of 18. All eyes will be on Baltusrol a month from now to see if Woods can take the top prize at the season's final Major. 2005/07/11 It looks like the marathon might be in jeopardy. I really haven't been able to run since I got the stitches in my knee, and these past few weeks were when I was supposed to really start upping my mileage. We'll just have to see how things work out over the next month. If I'm not able to go, I can always transfer my entry to next year. 2005/07/04 I didn't make it out to Coney Island this year, but once again Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi took the Mustard Yellow Belt at the Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest. His 49 dogs in 12 minutes didn't break his world record from last year. It still boggles my mind that a guy who is my size can eat that much food. 2005/06/29 Got a bunch of stitches in my knee after slicing it up on a mirror. Nothing like taking a cab to the ER. Thanks to the NP in the light injury ER over at Lenox Hill for putting me back together. 2005/06/24 I've been seeing quite a bit recently about the evolving concept of "Per-Seat, On-Demand" jet services. The idea is that you will be able to get a flight from wherever you are to wherever you want to go, whenever you want to go, at a price that will rival commercial air travel. The leading company of the movement seems to be DayJet which should be launching its service sometime in 2006 using the Eclipse 500. It will be very interesting to see how this plays out. 2005/06/19 We finally completed the move to our new office - back to Carrboro and Carr Mill Mall, tho this time into a space in the newer building above Weaver Street Market. The new space is very cool - it even has a shower so I can crash there during trips to NC. Even better, I can now regularly get the best sesame chicken in the world right across the street at Jade Palace. 2005/06/14 Spent the last few days down at Emerald Isle on North Carolina's Crystal Coast. A big tip of the cap to Bruce for hooking us up with his awesome condo. A few lazy days on the beach, the obligatory trip to the Sanitary Fish Market and Restaurant, and breezy nights in Beaufort at the Backstreet Pub were just what the doctor ordered. We even made a run out to Shackleford Banks and successfully tracked down one of the wild horses (picture coming soon). 2005/06/07 It would appear that the Bloomberg/Jets Stadium on the west side of Manhattan is now all but dead. While Mayor Mike will try frantically to salvage a stadium deal with the Mets located somewhere in Queens, this is probably the end of the city's Olympics bid as well. What concerns me the most however is the status of the extension of the 7 train as this whole fiasco may have put that in jeopardy as well. 2005/06/01 Has it been two years already? 2005/05/28 Finally completed the cycle that began 28 years ago by watching Anakin turn into Darth Vader in Episode III. When Star Wars originally came out in 1977, it was the story of Luke Skywalker and (more importantly for me and most other 7 year old boys at the time) Han Solo. Now, when viewed as a complete entity, it is obviously the story of Anakin Skywalker. It actually bears a striking resemblance to the father/son saga of Paul and Leto Atreides in Dune. 2005/05/22 I ran my first real race of the season today. 10K in 1:04:20 for a god-awful 10:22 pace. Time to get back in shape! 2005/05/19 Would you trust these guys? 2005/05/12 There's been a lot written in this space about cheeseburgers. A seasonal delicacy, much like the flowers blooming in the spring, has reappeared in Madison Square Park. With tasty burgers and a milkshake that may rival the New York Milkshake Company, the Shake Shack is the crown jewel (well, along with the reseeded and lusciously green lawn) in the restoration of this formerly dilapidated park. 2005/05/05 35 years and counting. As previously mentioned, it all started at Letterman Hospital in San Francisco. The hospital has since been demolished, and interestingly enough, George Lucas has now built his Letterman Digital Arts Center on the site. 2005/04/28 Way back when I made some suggestions for the MTA. Now, after 50 years of being the subway system's weirdest anomaly, it looks like the uptown 6 at Bleecker will finally connect to the B-D-F-V. We'll also get new stops for the 7 once they extend it over to the soon to be built Bloomberg (er...Jets) Stadium. Now about that 2nd Avenue line... 2005/04/23 Passover starts tonight. During Passover, one is not supposed to eat any chometz (Exodus 13:3). Chometz is any of the five grains (wheat, spelt, barley, oats, and rye) that have come into contact with water for more than 18 minutes. Curiously, Ashkenazi Jews (generally of Eastern European origin) also included legumes (rice, corn, soy beans, string beans, peas, lentils, peanuts, mustard, sesame seeds and poppy seeds) as items which were off limits on Passover. Thankfully the Rabbinical Assembly of Israel has ruled that it is permitted (and perhaps even obligatory) to eliminate this custom. Bring on the sushi! 2005/04/18 Stancil is always asking me what is the "it" laptop of the moment. Right now it's either the Sony T Series or the Dell X1. 2005/04/13 The new bank account on the block is Emigrant Direct. While it functions pretty much the same as the account over at ING, the interest rate is consistently higher. It's your money; might as well make the most of it. 2005/04/07 I've gotten to the point with my running that I can really tell the difference between good and great shoes. And let me tell you, the ASICS GEL-KAYANO XI is quite possibly the best shoe you will ever buy. 6 miles out of the box and my feet were begging for more. About 7 months to M-day, and I can already tell that these puppies will be the key to completing the 26.2. 2005/04/04 WE'RE #1...WE'RE #1...WE'RE #1 2005/03/27 Once again carried by a tremendous performance from big man Sean May, the Tar Heels turned back Wisconsin to make another trip to the promised land of the Final Four. At this point it's anybody's game, and next Saturday's matchup with Michigan State should prove to be quite a test for the boys in blue. 2005/03/23 My favorite stock these days is wireless telco VimpelCom. I initiated coverage back in July 2003 with a buy at $44/share. Now it's trading for a split adjusted $103.50/share. I particularly like this stock because its larger competitor, Mobile Telesys, has a market cap of $14 billion on 37 million subscribers. VimpelCom has a market cap of $7 billion on 22 million subscribers. That's a serious undervaluation. And since Mobile Telesys is part owned by T-Mobile (Deutsche Telecom), it only makes sense that when Vodafone, Orange, Verizon, or Cingular decides to go shopping in Russia, VimpelCom will be the target. 2005/03/15 Beware the Ides of March! 2005/03/06 We're back baby! Thanks in large part to tremendous effort by big man Sean May (26 points, 24 rebounds), my Tar Heels managed to stay in the game and then rally from 9 down with 3 to play for a 75-73 victory over Dook. The win gives the Heels the ACC regular season title and should pretty much lock up a #1 seed for the big dance. 2005/03/01 I love maps. If I actually had more than 5 feet of wall space, my abode would be teaming with maps. But I guess I'll have to make do with the wonderous maps available on the web. Right now my favorite is a set of supercool maps provided by the New York Skyscraper Museum. 2005/02/24 The other night we went for a walk in Central Park during a snow storm. It was a particularly good time to wander through Cristo's latest creation, The Gates. We also made it over to the courtyard at Tavern on the Green in order to capture an excellent photo of King Kong and Little Kong. 2005/02/20 Hunter S. Thompson decided to bring things to an end today. Word is that he had been suffering recently from a host of painful physical problems that included a broken leg and a hip replacement. This was a man who stomped on the terra like few others, and it's not surprising that he chose not to live out a life devoid of his usual gusto. We were first introduced to Hunter via Bill Murray's excellent treatment in Where the Buffalo Roam. It seems vaguely appropriate that the last piece ever written by Dr. Thompson involved Mr. Murray. 2005/02/16 My buddy Ofer moved back to Israel this week. He was my main soccer connection in the city so I'll now have to dig up a new one. We have a running bet about whether or not Chelsea can complete the unprecedented quadruple by winning the English Premier League, the Carling Cup, the Champions League, and the English FA Cup. One of these days I'll have to go visit Ofer. I didn't realize that there was actually a subway in Israel - tho word is they are talking about shutting it down due to a lack of riders. 2005/02/11 Sad but true. And very funny. 2005/02/07 Matt and I completed the great Super Bowl junket at Heavenly. The unique intersection of skiing and poker just couldn't be beat. The view from 10,000 feet was simply spectacular, as was the view of Stateline from the gondola. And of course to top it all off, the Igles lost the Super Bowl. Awesome! 2005/01/28 Checked out Appleseed with my boy Greg this evening. Visually it was a rather stunning addition to the Ghost in the Shell legacy (tho not actually related to Ghost), however the story was not quite as thought provoking as Masamune Shirow's other works. 2005/01/23 Of course as soon as I write that this year has been a bit of a bust for snow storms, we get one of the storms of the century. We're talking big time blizzard here. Word is they got between 2.5 and 3 feet of the white stuff up in New England, and we got around 18 inches here in the city. 2005/01/17 Here's an article about my buddy Jon who was injured in Iraq. It sounds like things are going OK post-op down in NC. I'm very much looking forward to seeing him while I'm there next week. Here's an earlier article about him from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 2005/01/12 We got some really good snow storms in the city last year, but this year has been a bit of a bust. At most an inch or two a couple of times. I should be able to make up for it tho when I hit the slopes in Tahoe as they have gotten close to record snow out that way. 2005/01/07 The fraud that is the BCS was allowed to play itself out yet again this year. One would think that after last year's mess the powers that be in college football would do something. Anything. But of course, they didn't. Now don't get me wrong - I don't think for a second that anyone could have beaten USC. But they should have to prove it on the field. A final poll with three undefeated teams is simply absurd. 2005/01/03 On New Year's Day my buddy Jon was seriously injured when his platoon was ambushed in Iraq as they were on patrol near the Euphrates River. He has since been evacuated and is now awaiting surgery in Durham, NC. Brian Parrello was also seriously injured in the attack and did not survive his wounds. Jon and Brian represent the finest America has to offer, and I can only hope that the sacrifice they have made will not be in vain over the coming years. The picture of Jon was taken on New Year's Eve only hours before the ambush. 2005/01/01 Continued the low key theme for the holidays. No Times Square. No heavy partying. My wacko buddy Todd and Ms. Angela came up from DC and we finally made it to Il Vagabondo. Todd had been trying to get me to go there for years, but such an outing was made rather difficult as he kept insisting that the name of the place was Avagabondo. It can be difficult enough to find a particular restaurant among the thousands located on this island. It becomes all but impossible when your delinquent friends can't even get the name right. 2004/12/26 Keeping it very low key for the holidays. We had considered making a trip upstate to Belleayre to do some skiing, but in the end we just hung out in town. Not to fear. It looks as though my grand plan for a Super Bowl junket just might be coming together this year. 2004/12/22 Got to go see Lone Star Love which was put together by my boy John Haber. It turns out my old roommate Kevin is doing sound for the show. I'm not usually a Broadway musical kind of guy, but I must say I really had a great time at this show. Perhaps the pre-show onstage bar-b-que and poker had a bit to do with it, but I think I would have enjoyed this one even without the extras. If you find yourself in the big city in the next month, I highly recommend checking this one out. 2004/12/18 I ran my ninth marathon qualifier today. Four miles in 35:09 for an 8:47 pace. Well off my best time, but it was below freezing at the start so there was no need to go crazy on this one. So that's pretty much it. Nine races done and I'm qualified for the 2005 NYC Marathon. Still gots plenty of work to do between now and then. 2004/12/12 Continued the holiday season this weekend with no fewer than five scheduled events, tho unfortunately I was only able to make it to four of them (my apologies to Eugene - I owe you a large carafe of the lychee). Many thanx to Len & Olga, Greg & Brett, Kim & Dan, and especially Mr. Shuman for his latkes. 2004/12/08 With a spot in the UEFA Champion's League knock-out round already out of reach, Ajax almost suffered the ultimate humiliation of not qualifying for the UEFA Cup. However, with a solid effort against Bayern and a late collapse by Maccabi Tel Aviv, the F-Side will be playing European football after the break. PSV looks like they'll take the Dutch League, but a strong showing by Ajax in the second half could make them the runner-up and allow them to claim a spot in next season's Champion's League. 2004/12/05 Started the holiday season off with a shin-dig out in Park Slope. Aaron drove up from Baltimore and a bunch of folks I met when Giles was at Northwestern also made an appearance. It felt strangely like a family reunion. We got a little trashed at the party which made the subway ride back to Manhattan fairly amusing. 2004/11/28 Took a nice break to spend Thanksgiving week with family and friends down in NC. Here's my favorite picture from the trip. 2004/11/23 Unfortunately my buddy Jon the Marine is over in Iraq right now. Hopefully he will keep his head down and stay out of trouble. I did find it very cool that a start-up he founded before he was shipped out got written up in Gizmodo for a robot they built which disarms mines and other explosives. 2004/11/21 I ran my eighth marathon qualifier today. Four miles in 32:07 for an 8:01 pace. I wanted to get in under 8, but I didn't start my final kick soon enough. Can't really complain tho. One more race in December and then I'm set for the 2005 marathon. 2004/11/16 How is this possible? On July 29th of this year, Hambrecht said "the tenets of the Netflix bear case range from unsupported to irrelevant" and that the "upside to 2004 results will send bears scurrying, inspire short covering, and drive NFLX shares to $40." Now, on November 16th, not even four months later, we get a "flawed business model and fierce competition could doom Netflix as an independent company" with a price target of $4. Is this a joke? Can these guys possibly expect anyone to take them seriously? 2004/11/07 Helen ran the NYC Marathon today. I was running before we met, but it's become something we very much enjoy doing together. I couldn't be more proud of her for the effort she put forth to make this happen. I've got two more races to go this year, and then I'll join her on the Staten Island side of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge on November 6, 2005. 2004/11/05 It's a very sad day today since as of this morning I have no more grandparents. I find it ultimately appropriate that the last thing I did with my grandfather was attend Ne'ilah a few weeks back for Yom Kippur. I remember when my great grandparents died, and now another generation has gone. We aren't getting any younger... 2004/11/02 A hefty shout out to the Deuce man for the big time hookup on Monday Night Football tickets out at the Meadowlands. The weather was a bit cold for that Miami native - and his team was even colder, but a good time was had nonetheless. 2004/10/31 I ran my seventh marathon qualifier today. Five miles in 41:57 for an 8:23 pace. I've been doing that distance in under 40 minutes, but with over 5000 people running today the start was quite bunched up so my first mile was rather slow. Memo to self: start races closer to the front of the pack. 2004/10/26 Spent the better part of the evening on the street gathering signatures to get the cars out of Central Park. According to the NYC Parks Department, over 25 million people per year visit Central Park. That's almost 70,000 visitors per day. Those numbers dwarf the 2,660 people riding in the 1,487 cars that use the Central Park loop drive during the morning peak hour commute. We're closing in on 100,000 signatures for our petition, and this is gonna happen. Mark my words. 2004/10/21 Watched Ghost in the Shell again. It still hasn't been surpassed, tho The Animatrix came pretty close. Probably a good idea to go and check this out while it's still in theaters. 2004/10/16 So we finally celebrated The Cheat's 30th. We were supposed to do it back in August, but it got cancelled due to possible rain - tho the day turned out to be nice. Hence nobody was too surprise when it ended up raining today. Still had a good time with the gang over at Picnic House. 2004/10/14 A few months back I suggested that Google needed to provide a better way for me to search my email in Outlook. Actually, I suggested that they needed to make Gmail more like Outlook with a calendar and contacts, but being able to stick with Outlook and just doing a Google search on it might even be better. Well, it looks like they've done it. 2004/10/10 4 miles in 31:42. Breaking an eight minute mile pace on a real run feels pretty good. For those of you who still don't believe I'm actually running, I have proof. 2004/10/06 Many thanks to Sklar for the hook up at Shea this past weekend. We usually go after the Mets make their way down to last place. Although they weren't in last place this time, they were pretty darn close. But best of all, we had the honor of getting to watch the last game ever of the Montreal Expos. 2004/10/03 I ran my sixth marathon qualifier today. The Norway Run was only 1.7 miles so again I'm not really sure why it was a qualifier. I managed to finish in the top quarter (231 out of 1084) so that's not too shabby. The upcoming races are a bit longer so that should give me a better feel for where things stand at this point, tho there's still over a year to go for the big event. 2004/09/28 A year ago it was the Sidekick...now it's the Sidekick II. 2004/09/23 Tonight Alex and I went to the Triangle Tech Journal's deck party at the new American Tobacco Historic District. I must say I was quite impressed with this new facility in Durham. None of the tenants had really moved in yet, but the space is simply beautiful. Word is that our friends at Tyler's Taproom will be opening a branch there before baseball season next year. 2004/09/19 Spent the last few days down in NC with the family. Introduced the little woman to everyone. I do believe it went swimmingly. 2004/09/14 The good folks at my new bank threw a little block party today at The Shops at Columbus Circle. The Time Warner Center, which houses The Shops as well as a hotel and CNN, is one pretty amazing place. I'm looking forward to the Samsung Brand Showcase which will be opening there soon. 2004/09/10 Went and saw Slava's Snow Show this evening. Quite entertaining as a whole tho the individual pieces were a bit hit or miss. We were sitting in the balcony and it seemed that the folks down front had a bit of an advantage since the show was quite interactive. I did really like when they covered the crowd with spider webs. The bouncing balls were pretty groovy too. 2004/09/08 Working out of my apartment has its pluses and minuses. The roof deck is certainly a plus. Occasionally banging my head against my loft is definitely a minus. But there are days that I've just gotta thank my lucky stars that I don't have to commute. 2004/09/03 They had a little political convention here in the city this past week. Didn't seem to be quite the mess that some pundits thought it would be. Sunday was probably the biggest freak-out. 2004/08/29 Hit double digits today with a 10 mile run in the park. That's one big loop, two loops of the reservoir, and the round trip from my apartment. Not bad, tho 26.2 miles is still in a different league. Speaking of marathons, what the heck happened in Athens?!? 2004/08/24 One of my new favorite spots here on the Upper West Side is the 70th Street Pier. It's a fantastic place to chill out with the breeze coming off the Hudson River. Best of all, on Thursday nights the Riverside Park Fund folks are showing movies. Got to catch Annie Hall and Casablanca there in the past several weeks. 2004/08/19 The King of Frogtown was up here for the past few days. Crazy kid ended up with two tattoos - one of a monkey on his back which I imagine was rather painful. 2004/08/14 I ran my fifth marathon qualifier today. It was only a mile, so I'm not really sure why this was a qualifier. Basically took it really easy and used it as the first mile of our six mile Saturday run. 2004/08/10 Soccer season is quickly approaching. My boys at Ajax should look sharp after last season's league championship. Hopefully they will be able to make a better showing in Europe this time around. The official Ajax site is OK, but I tend to prefer this one. Sometimes I think I play for the F-side. 2004/08/05 Decided to ditch the old bank and go with First Republic. I simply can't stand paying fees for using various ATMs. The gang at First Republic has an excellent ATM Rebate account where not only do they not charge you a fee for using any ATM, they will reimburse you the fees that other organizations charge. So now I can use any ATM anywhere (at last count over 650,000 of them) without a fee. 2004/08/01 A crew of us went out to Robert Moses State Park yesterday. No boardwalk. No ocean front homes. Just miles of white sand and crashing waves. While Long Beach is quite convenient since you can take the LIRR to within a few blocks of the ocean, I think I prefer the middle-of-nowhere feel you get at RMSP. 2004/07/25 Lance Armstrong is obviously the greatest athlete of all time. Today he won his sixth consecutive Tour de France. Say anything you want about any other sport - nothing compares to the Tour. It's a three week event. We're talking about riding bikes up the Alps. And Lance has won it. Six times. In a row. Oh, and while we're at it, let's throw in the fact that the year before his first victory he was given less than a 50 percent chance of overcoming testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain. The greatest ever? No question. 2004/07/21 You might have guessed that I've become pretty addicted to this running gig. It would seem that the only thing this is going to allow me to be able to walk when I'm 60 is the bridle path. The surface here is much softer than the roadway in Central Park, yet it still provides for many miles of training splendor. I figure as long as I do the lion's share of my training there, the cartilage should be able to hold up for quite some time. 2004/07/17 I ran my fourth marathon qualifier today. Five miles in 44:16 for an 8:51 pace. Under nine minutes is about the pace you need to run a sub-four-hour marathon, tho of course doing it for 26 miles is a bit different than doing it for 5 miles. That's 4 down, 5 to go. 2004/07/14 Living in the UWS allows me to shop at Fairway. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I shopped at Wellspring in Chapel Hill. That is until their corporate parent (whose name also begins with W) got a little more hands on and forced them to change their name to bring them into the corporate fold. I don't really hold a grudge against them as I'll shop at their superstore in the Time Warner Center when the need arises. But Fairway takes me back to the time before yuppies on crack took over the marketplace. 2004/07/11 This is the funniest thing I have seen in quite some time. 2004/07/08 Finally settled in to my new place. Must say I never thought I'd manage to live this close to Central Park, but I'll take it. My pad ain't all that big -- unless of course you decide to count the private roof deck. Anyone for a cookout? 2004/07/04 Went out to Coney Island today to watch Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi destroy the competition once again at the Nathan's Famous hot dog eating competition. Folks, we're talking not even close in this one as Kobayashi set a new world record by putting down 53.5 hot dogs in a mere 12 minutes. Second place was a respectable 38 dogs, which in the days before Kobayashi would have been a world record in its own right. 2004/06/30 When settling in to a new location I tend to seek out a restaurant that will be my local haunt. Fortunately enough, at one end of my block is Raku - It's Japanese II!. Only took a few visits before they knew me by name. A large selection of special rolls and excellent sashimi at a great price should allow me to fill my Raku II Value Card (and earn the free goodies that come with it) rather quickly. 2004/06/26 Charlie, Greg, me, and Adam got to spend the afternoon watching the Yankees play the Mets. Dahan provided the hook-up with tix in the Reggie Jackson Suite. You could almost hear Steinbrenner raging. 2004/06/23 Had a good trip down to NC. Helped my grandfather set up a wireless speaker system with these gizmos from Sony. Although you can get interference when speakers get too far from the base station, they do succeed in beaming through walls and floors. Quite portable too (think indoor/outdoor). 2004/06/19 The "never delete an email" deal from my Gmail account paired with Google's lightening fast search is an intriguing combination. The search in Outlook is abysmal at best. I waste so much time using it. Gmail needs to build an app with contacts and calendars so I can dump Outlook. 2004/06/15 I moved today. Pictures soon. Shouts out to Ty and Shuman with a special WHOO! to The Cheat. 2004/06/05 Made my way out to Belmont again this year, and once again the horse came up empty. That's the sixth time in eight years that a horse lost at Belmont after winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. I'm beginning to think this whole thing is fixed. 2004/06/01 Has it been a year already? 2004/05/26 I went to CeBIT over at the Javits Center today. The show was a bit of a wash except for getting to play with the long-awaited OQO. WOW! This thing is awesome. It was first announced way back in 2002, but now, after a two year wait, it looks like it will finally hit the market later this year. I was surprised by how small and light the OQO is. I could even fit it in my shirt pocket. The keyboard was pretty good and the mouse was quite responsive, particularly if at one time you owned a Toshiba Libretto. Many thanks to Naseem for hooking me up with the private demo. Needless to say, I want one. Now. 2004/05/18 I ran in my third marathon qualifier today. Since it was a short race (2.5 miles) I was able to turn in a personal record of 21:18 (8:31 pace). It was pretty cool to run around the financial district with all the streets closed off, tho some of the places were much too narrow for the number of runners. That's 3 down, 6 to go. 2004/05/09 Spent a great weekend in Washington, DC. Took a tour of the Capitol, went to the U.S. Botanic Garden, attempted to get my Chick-fil-a fix at GWU but failed (it was closed even tho the sign said it should have been open), and spent an excellent evening at Buffalo Billiards. Many thanx to Scott, Diane, Todd, and Angela for their hospitality. 2004/05/05 So I turned 34 today. Actually, if you want to nitpick about it, I'll turn 34 at 1:40am on 5/6. I was born over in San Francisco in Letterman Hospital on May 5th at 10:40pm. So, due to those whacky time zones, over here on the east coast that turns out to be May 6th. 2004/05/04 Well how about that? We made it into the New York Times. 2004/05/02 Just a super NYC weekend. Charlie hooked us up with excellent tix to the Yankees game where Ruben Sierra treated us to an 8th inning grand slam. Today we ran 4 miles with a nice jaunt over the Williamsburg Bridge. I do believe May brings the best weather of the year to the city. 2004/04/25 I ran in my second marathon qualifier today. Knocked about 40 seconds off my last time with better pacing early on and posted a 37:04 (9:16 pace). 2004/04/21 This looks like a pretty groovy flick. 2004/04/18 I ran in my first marathon qualifier today. Didn't pace myself too well early on but still came up with a respectable 37:43 (9:25 pace). I'll need to work on that if I'm gonna go for the full 26+. At least I got the points. 8 more to go and I'll be in the big dance in 2005. 2004/04/15 Didja get your taxes in on time today? I had mine in a while ago (refunds on federal and state, thank you very much) tho a certain someone had me filling out her taxes at 11:30 this evening and rushing over to the James A. Farley Post Office (which will hopefully be converted into the new Penn Station in the not too distant future). 2004/04/12 Quite an interesting scene in the hallway outside our apartment today. 2004/04/07 So it's Passover now. Since last year I've been looking into the status of eating rice during Passover. Seems this issue is very much in flux these days. Perhaps a visit to Aki should be on the agenda. 2004/04/01 Not too many good April Fools items today. Mr. Jones over at ibiblio thought he had a crafty one. Nice try Paul. I did like the one about the Apple PowerPod. 2004/03/29 Managed to convince the good folks at the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services to license our smartASK survey software. They now join the ranks of our other illustrious customers like Boeing and Nortel. If you're in the market for an enterprise level solution for deploying web-based surveys, you should check it out. 2004/03/25 Just back in from yet another wedding down in Miami. I'm the oldest of all my cousins, but they're getting married before me. They're also going ahead and working on the next generation. While in town I got a chance to catch up with Pearson, Levy, and, unbelievably, Overbeck. It was good to see part of the old undergrad crew. 2004/03/21 It's 6am and I'm waiting to board my JetBlue flight down to Ft. Lauderdale. I took the AirTrain out to JFK. JetBlue is by far the coolest airline going right now. Not only do they have DIRECTV at every seat, they even offer free Wi-Fi in their JFK terminal! Now that's an airline that wants my business. 2004/03/17 What was it I said about the weather a few entries ago? Sho 'nuff we got several inches of snow yesterday. I never managed to go skiing this season so I guess I'll just have to enjoy this last blast of winter. Next year I absolutely positively must go skiing. I think that Super Bowl junket I've been dreaming of will be just the ticket - especially since I've got the insiders at Tahoe's Best ready to hook me up. 2004/03/14 Had a birthday to celebrate this past weekend (not mine of course since it's on Cinco de Mayo) so I decided to pull out all the stops. Dial up a Grand Luxe King with a view of the park over at the Bryant Park Hotel. Throw in dinner and drinks in the Cellar Bar, rose petals scattered throughout the room, and Sunday brunch at the Tribeca Grill. That should be sufficient to make your lady's heart melt. 2004/03/08 Chris and Ken were in town for the weekend and we watched the ACC finale up at Brother Jimmy's. I need to make sure to get my southern ID discount there before I get my New York license. It's good to see that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Those of you familiar with Chris and Ken will know what I mean. 2004/03/02 It actually got over 60 degrees in the city today. So there's an old saying that goes something like "if March comes in like a lion it goes out like a lamb, and if March comes in like a lamb it goes out like a lion." Well, I guess it's a good thing I like snow. 2004/02/28 I'm not sure what it is, but they always seem to have absolutely the worst weather when I am down in North Carolina. Many thanks to Mr. Verhoeven and family for housing me and letting me build a little bonfire in their living room. 2004/02/23 Getting ready to head down to North Carolina for a few annual traditions such as a trip to the taxman and the dentist. Hopefully all these trips back and forth will earn me enough miles to take a real vacation. Soon. 2004/02/16 Just back in from Playa del Carmen for my cousin Jon's wedding. I had never been to Mexico for Spring Break or anything of the sort, and fortunately Playa was much cooler than the nightmare of Cancun. Quite interesting to note that there seem to be more Italian restaurants than Mexican ones in Playa. The Italians seem to have taken over the town - except for this gaggle of drunk Dutch girls we came across. I was wearing my Ajax jersey so they foolishly decided to challenge my knowledge of the team. Best of all, I got to indulge in one of my favorite vices: a fine Cohiba. 2004/02/09 Been reading a good bit about George Soros recently. In particular I've been reading about his move against the British Pound in 1992. The British government was keeping the value of the Pound artificially high so Soros borrowed billions of Pounds and exchanged them for German Marks and French Francs. Then in September of that year the British government's hand was forced and they had to devalue the Pound. Soros converted his holdings back into Pounds, paid off the loans, and pocketed over $1 billion. Great work if you can get it. Actually, thanks to the wonders of the Internet, now you can. 2004/02/04 I finally got around to joining the New York Road Runners. I owe 9 qualifying races this year and then I automatically qualify for the New York City Marathon in 2005. I think I have a little bit of work to do between now and then. 2004/02/01 Another good Super Bowl this year. Watched it at Craig's place over in Stuy Town. My boy Mikey was there and seeing as he grew up in Charlotte and all he was really hyped on the game. I felt for him as I watched Adam Vinatieri split the uprights to win another Vince Lombardi Trophy. 2004/01/28 We saw a super exhibit, Russia Engages the World, 1453-1825, at the New York Public Library. I'm a big map fan and some of the maps in the exhibit were simply spectacular, including early maps of Moscow and St. Petersburg as well as a huge detailed map of western Russia that was used by Napoleon to plan his invasion. 2004/01/25 Mike Thomas was in town this weekend. We didn't do too much raging seeing as he's married and all and even got one in the oven. Well, his wife Aylet does anyway. As Mike put it, his work is pretty much done. This baby thing is getting a little out of hand. I think Luke and Nicole are gonna pop any day now. 2004/01/21 Hung out in Chapel Hill this past weekend for Phaedra's birthday. Also got to watch the Panthers beat the Igles with my dad. Sorry about that Pat. Actually, no I'm not. MUUWWHAHAHAHA!!!!! 2004/01/17 WHOO!!!! UNC beats #1 UConn 86-83. I don't get to many games at my Alma Matter, but I always seem to pick the goods ones. There was sheer bedlam after the final horn went off. It was North Carolina's 10th win over a top-ranked team, tying the Tar Heels with UCLA for the most in college basketball history. 2004/01/16 Today New York City matched an 1893 record low temperature for the day at 1-degree. That's 1-degree Fahrenheit. Or -17 Celsius for you metric types. 2004/01/14 Somebody's got to be the big winner in the weekly Hold'em game, and tonight it was me. Tho in the interest of full disclosure, my buddy Mikey wasn't there. He was busy opening up a can of whoopass on some folks in a chess tournament. That's OK. I've been reading Winning Low-Limit Hold'em and starting next week, I own Mikey. 2004/01/11 Quite an amazing weekend for pro football. Two overtime games. Bad play calling here and bad play calling there. Some folks consider the Divisional Playoffs to be the best weekend in sports, and they just might be right. 2004/01/05 Thankfully the fraud that is the BCS has been completely and utterly exposed. USC finishes the regular season #1 in both polls but is left out of the BCS title game. Oklahoma gets shanked and spanked in the Big XII title game but still is allowed to squeak in. USC beats Michigan in the Rose Bowl, LSU beats Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl, and the system which was supposed to prevent a split national championship gives us exactly that. No surprise that the man in charge of the BCS fraud is none other than Mike Tranghese (who also presided over the collapse of the Big East conference). His reply? The BCS "Made a Mistake." What a joke. 2004/01/01 Welcome to 2004. A leap year. An election year. Should be quite a mess. I can't wait. I hung out in Central Park last night and watched the fireworks. It turns out that the New York Road Runners Club does a Midnight Run when the clock strikes twelve. I think I'll have to participate next year. 2003/12/29 Recently my buddy Brian was talking all kinds of smack about his "mad pool skillz" and how he would destroy me in a match. So I got him to put up or shut up on a little best out of five action over at Soho Billiards. Suffice to say that yet another person now owes me a large carafe over at Anyway. 2003/12/25 Went and saw The Return of the King. While I didn't think there was any way for The Lord of the Rings movies to live up to the hype, this one did manage to set the bar as far as bringing fantasy warfare to the silver screen. The Battle for Minas Tirith was what all of us who grew up playing D&D could have only dreamed of. We caught the flick at the Loews up on 34th where you can actually reserve seats. While the extra cost is probably not worth it for most films, it was clearly the call for a sold out marathon adventure in Hobbit land. 2003/12/21 After three 5-11 seasons, the Cowboys are back in the playoffs. There is little question (at least in my mind) that Bill Parcells is the greatest coach in the history of the NFL if not in all of professional sports. He's now taken four different football teams to the playoffs which is something no one else has managed to do. Other great coaches might have won more championships, but they did it with dominant teams that should have won. Parcells has instantly turned around pathetic teams wherever he has gone. But this most recent remake might be the most impressive yet as he took basically the same talent that went a combined 15-33 and turned them into believers...and winners. 2003/12/17 With my move north this year, I'm getting even less sunlight around the winter solstice than usual. While this has been known to cause depression in some people, it always makes me want to sleep. Perhaps I should just hibernate. 2003/12/13 I went down to Chinatown Fair to get some old skool video game action. Rocked out on some Raiden and then got my clock cleaned by some Asian teenagers on a variety of other games. I guess when I used to play video games all day long I was that good too. For what it's worth, the dancing chicken was for real. 2003/12/10 Our Aunt Margie was in Jersey City for some legal symposium so Matt and I decided to show her a good time. Obviously that means a round of burgers at the Corner Bistro and tasty martinis at Fat Black Pussycat. We'd had a few McSorley's at the Bistro, so before too long Margie needed to head back to her hotel so she wouldn't be hung over for the symposium. I dropped her off at the 9th Street PATH, ducked in to this bar below street level at 9th and 6th, and the next thing I knew it was 8am. Interesting... 2003/12/07 The King of Frogtown made a stop into town. Paid up half his debt (for 2 calamitous wagers on his dear Red Sox back in October) by providing a large carafe of the Lychee at Anyway. That stuff will get right on top of you as the King found out after he took a header into a slushy snow drift on 2nd Street. 2003/12/02 Now college basketball season is in full swing. In our first big time match-up, the Tar Heels took down Illinois. As one reporter put it, this was "an 88-81 decision that suggests the No. 10 Tar Heels are as good as their preseason hype." If only the starting five will stay healthy...by the way - hey Matt, what happened to Indiana? 2003/11/30 Closed down Double Happiness last night/this morning. I see a trend developing... 2003/11/27 Made the pilgrimage down to NC for the holiday festivities. Of course my team got humiliated on Thanksgiving Day. I knew I shouldn't have watched the second half. I flew through Newark this time around so I got to take the AirTrain Newark. Pretty groovy. The AirTrain JFK is finally going to open and make it convenient to fly on JetBlue. 2003/11/23 Closed down the Anyway Cafe last night/this morning. The company wasn't too shabby either... 2003/11/20 I've been trying to put together a junket to Heavenly for a while now. Tahoe skiing and casino gambling seem like a seriously dangerous combination for me. It would appear to be the ideal location for a Super Bowl party. 2003/11/17 Doesn't look like I'll make it to the White Stripes show. Try as I might, I'm just not getting any love on craigslist. Hopefully I'll have better luck when it's time to find a new place to live. 2003/11/14 Finally it's college basketball season. I got my first fix of the season with St. Joe's and Gonzaga at the Garden. Jameer Nelson clearly looked like an All-American. Blake Stepp did not. Makes you wonder what some people are thinking. Down in Chapel Hill, the bench is thin - but if the starting five stay healthy, we'll see you in San Antonio. 2003/11/11 Everything that has a beginning has an end. Perhaps that's fortunate when it comes to The Matrix franchise. I went and saw Revolutions on the IMAX. Granted, the Battle for Zion was amazing (particularly on the IMAX) and that alone was probably worth the price of admission. But for a story that started so stunningly with the first film, Reloaded and Revolutions just didn't live up to the hype. Pretty much the same thing was true for The Terminator tho at least T3 didn't have a happy ending. 2003/11/07 Been a long two weeks. First I put one grandmother in Arlington National Cemetery. Then I buried my other grandmother down in Greensboro. It's just that time in my life I guess. 2003/10/21 After a summer of serious cheeseburger consumption, our dreams have been realized. They know us at the Corner Bistro. It started with the peculiarities of our orders being met without us asking. Next, we got a round of ale on the house. And tonight, with the line out the door, we went in to get a beer while we waited but instead were shown to a table. The folks we would have been behind in line were still waiting after we were done eating. I do love this town. 2003/10/17 Now Ken owes me two large carafes. He just couldn't lay off double or nothing action on Game 7. No doubt it was a game for the ages. Yankees against the BoSox. The Curse of the Bambino. Clemens versus Pedro. Boston makes it within 5 outs of the World Series, and folds. But they weren't the only ones. The Cubs made it within 5 outs of the World Series too...only to fold in Game 6 and again in Game 7. At home. The Curse of the Goat lives as well. Probably the greatest week of baseball in my lifetime. 2003/10/14 Speaking of Anyway, Suzie and Ken now owe me a large carafe of vodka each. Suzie was silly enough to choose against Arnold in the California recall, and Ken was foolish enough to take the BoSox in Game 5. When will these folks learn not to bet against me? I'm always right. In any event, I'm glad that my friends have decided to financially support my liquor habit. 2003/10/10 It was Craig's birthday tonight. He swore he wouldn't do any shots, but I knew better. We took him to Anyway and let the shots fly. Needless to say, by the time we were done he could barely walk out of the place. Happy birthday Craig. 2003/10/06 Went to Ne'ilah with my grandfather. This is something we have done most of the years I have been alive and which we'll do every year until he's gone. It's traditions like these that bind families across generations. One day I will take my grandkids to Ne'ilah, and then they'll say Yizkor for me when I'm gone. Wouldn't want it any other way. 2003/10/03 My gang is a conglomeration of freaks that I've been collecting since more or less high school. We have a very bizarre social structure and quite a number of odd rituals. The more I've been talking to folks outside my gang, the more common this type of behavior seems to be. In fact, it appears to be the de facto lifestyle for Gen Xers. So much so that there is now a book about it. Check out Urban Tribes. 2003/09/30 Have you ever had a coffee martini? Me neither. Until I went to the Fat Black Pussycat that is. Stoli Vanilla, Kahlua, Tia Maria, a splash of coffee, and a chocolate covered espresso bean. Wow. Let me say that again. Wow. At $8, this is already one of the cheaper martinis in the city. However, during happy hour, *everything* is half price. $4 for this magical elixir? How can I resist? 2003/09/27 My buddy Luke has been hanging with me in the city the last few days. Always good to have old friends visit. He and his wife are about to have their first kid, so this was kind of his last hurrah. We succeeded in destroying him (even tho he is giant and metal) with many shots of infused vodka this weekend, so at least he did not go gentle into that good night. 2003/09/20 My favorite album right now is Elephant by the White Stripes. The fact that one guy and one girl can make music that rocks this hard is difficult to believe. But they do. There were supposed to be some shows in NYC this summer, but they got cancelled. Maybe I'll see them in November. 2003/09/17 Nokia is coming out with a new cell phone that will let you play video games via bluetooth. It's called the N-Gage. While it will be available in October, Nokia has decided to go ahead and give phones to some folks in certain markets to pump the hype. I do believe I have a FedEx package waiting for me... 2003/09/14 Spent the last several days down in Miami at my cousin Jill's wedding which was at the incredible Deering Estate. Actually got to party for the first tim