W.

If you haven’t gone to see the movie “W.” go see it.  It’s definately not wholly satire nor does it paint W in a purely positive light.  Yeah he’s a dimwit with daddy issues who’s failed at pretty much everything he’s been a part of, but as a friend you’d probably like him.

Underdressed

Today; well yesterday at this point, but I digress; was cold and rainy.  T’was about 40 degrees the entire day with a stiff breeze.  I hurt my foot a bit so I decided that taking it easy was a good idea.  Putzing around on the interbutts has been an area of expertise of mine for some time now and being that I’m in a house of 14 residents, there’s just about always people coming and going.

I made it until about 7pm, then the urge to go overtook me so I put on my sweaters and went out into the cold, hood up.  Why I decided to be a dumbass and not go back for another pant layer is besides me but at 39 degrees with a stiff breeze and what I later found out to be a light rain, ‘chilly’ would be an accurate description to say the least.

My walk was unarguably inspired by my stomach as much as my flight instinct but it could wait for the time being.  Wandering eventually took me to a nearby Subway restaurant where I (ner) got a sammich.  Feeling rushed out the door I went outside to eat my toasted sub that was no where near as good as Quizno’s.  Whoops, I forgot my wallet inside and, now that I think about it, I don’t remember getting my change.  After arguing with the store manager about the fact that I didn’t recieve my change he finally gives it to me.  I don’t care if you owe me $13 and your register is only over by $5, your register was short $8 a few minutes ago you prick, give me my munnies.  iWin.

The walk home is when I really noticed that it was still raining, albeit lightly.  I swear iSaw some snowflakes.  The rain wasn’t bad so much as the strong headwind.  I walked backwards for a while but ultimately decided to suck it up and do it like the rest of the north-easterners; look down, walk forward.  That’s not an enjoyable way to walk but oh well, I’m out so I’m out.

Tree of knowledge

I decided before I left, I’m not well enough read in religion.  Today I checked out Google Maps for nearby libraries and SUCCESS! there’s one just over a mile away, the Hicksville Public Library.  It’s only open till 9pm, but hey, it’s better than nothing.  As is my custom, I wandered around a bunch until the layout became familiar and I picked up a christian bible and started, from page one.  I got about halfway through Genesis before the library closed.  The funny thing is I had some fruit in my bag and pulled out a little something to munch on for the walk home and it happenedto be an apple, lul.

Flash! Bang! POWER!!!!

DISCLAIMER: IF I AM WRONG AT ANY POINT IN HERE, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!!

Cliff was watching, earlier tonight, a DVD called “The Secrets.” I find this flick to be mostly self-help bullshit, “If you imagine yourself successful you will be successful,” kind’ve crap.  An interesting point that was brought up was that if a human was somehow outfitted with a power outlet, they would generate enought power to keep a city running for about a week.  Now being in a house full of engineers, and being a n3rd myself we decided to fact check this whopper of a claim.

Conversion tool: http://www.unit-conversion.info/energy.html

When I hear “city” iThink of the quintessential city, New York City, which works out well imo.  The average NYC household, between 2000 and 2005 used [annually] 4,696 kilowatt hours or 12.87 kilowatt hours per day or roughly half a kilowatt per hour.

The average human weighs roughly 165lbs and the base conversion of pounds to calories (energy) would be 3500 kcal / 1lb of fat but it can’t be too far off for the rest, making the average human having a potential energy of ~577,500 kcal or 672 kilowatt hours.  This means that if an average person suddenly blinked out of physical existance and was converted to pure electrical energy, they would generate 672 kilowatt hours; enough to power an average NYC home for 1344 hours (56 days).  In a city of over 8 million people, 672 kilowatt hours is clearly no where near the power requirements for a solid week…

Meandering about Long Island

At roughly 2:30 in the morning, I decided that no one at the party was really worth talking to so I put on my hat & coat and went to Dunkin Donuts which is less than a mile away! Bagel and a few donuts, yum. I’ve even got a bit of leftovers for breakfast, hooray! I feel almost as if I’m in the college lifestyle that many people pay so much for; I’m getting it ostensibly free. The party is pretty much dead here now at quarter after 3 but there’s still a couple lingers’, learned a lot of what Ive missed out on the past couple years and now rather glad I skipped them.

At any rate I’m kind’ve putting fingers to keys really wasted to see what turns out, and I’m going to post it out of spite to myself.

Football and Alcohal

Once again I bring up the point that I’m staying with my friend Alex and the NYIT soccer team in a big house in Hicksville, NY.  Their season ends this coming Wednesday but that’s because they just narrowly missed the playoffs today meaning that the next game is of little consequence.  They just got back from whichever store is nearby, IT’S BOOZE TIME!  I haven’t been trashed in New York state yet, let alone the city, but Long Island will have to do for now.  The really cool thing about soccer (or ‘football” as I’ve started calling it) is the international draw; the NYIT team has Brits, Jamaicans, Scottish, Irish, Americans, Kenyans, etc so I’ve been on slang/accent overload.  It’s crazy how many variations of the same language are going on inside this house!

New hobby

What with me being oot and aboot most of the time I’ve developed sortbe a new hobby/pasttime: finding power. I’ll literally walk into a place of business, usually a restaurant, walk the length of the place and, I don’t see any outlets I’ll move on unless I’m SUPER hungry. When I look into a building while window shopping power outlets pop out.

42?

Last night at the duffy house which contains almost the entire NYIT soccer team we had a rousing discussion about the origins of life, the human race, religion, the bible, et cetera. Alex, myself, and Ben (one of the residents) bound together collective points arguing towards aethism & evolution, and free will while pretty much the rest of the house didn’t really grasp the concepts we tried to put forth. The one exception was Cliff, a student originally from Kenya who the point of Christianity more elequently and logically than I’ve ever heard it before. Even long after the rest of the house had gone their separate ways (mostly sleeping) Cliff and I went back and forth until 3am.

More discussions on similar terms are bound to pop up if I stay any longer and I’m highly looking forward to some intelligently heated discussions that don’t end up with yelling or fighting. It kindve makes me regret not taking speech and debate in high school until I think back on the people who were in speech and debate…

… 5. Profit!

1. Get a job at Apple.

2. Stay at Apple long enough to get a free iPhone.

3. Buy the new iPhone for $199.

4. Sell the old iPhone for $250.

5. Profit.

ZOMG Huntington!?

My first experience with the Long Island Rail Road was an “interesting” one to say the least.  After an exhaustive greyhound ride from Atlanta to New York, I took the opportunity to wander aimlessly throughout Manhattan.  First off; I love the city, so wandering aimlessly is super easy for me.  They say New York is the city that never sleeps and that’s pretty much true.  In the middle of the night it was bright enough on Broadway to wear sunglasses and there were droves of people crowding the sidewalks.

The real interesting part came on my trip from Penn Station to Hicksville, where my friend Alex lives.  First off, I had no real understanding of how the train system worked so I was pretty much doomed from the get-go.  After that, I’d been up for quite a while and thus exhausted.  I figured out how the train system worked after I missed my connection.  The next train back wasn’t until ~5:30 am, 3 and a half hours later.  I opted to take a cab back to Jamaica station, the transfer I missed; it was a lot further than I thought.  I get to the station a good hour before my 3:27 train so I plop my bag down in the corner in hopes of perhaps taking a short nap.

Now Jamaica Station at 2:30 in the morning contained a crowd of some stereotypically gossipy black people.  No lie.  I faded in and out so I don’t have any golden quotes but I remember thinking to myself that I must be on some soft of movie set.  My train finally shows up and my dumb ass sleeps till the end of the line:

 

  The next train back to Hicksville isn’t for about two hours and the station isn’t open yet, it’s 40 degrees outside.  After leaving the train it’s me on the platform and about 20 feet away, there’s a girl.  Turns out that she, like me, was just kicked off the train by the conductor.  End of the line.  “Where are we?” she asks me, and I uncertainly reply, “Huntington?”  She proceeds to shit a brick.  Turns out she has volleyball practice in about 7 hours, has been drinking, and there isn’t a train back for over an hour.  I let her use my phone to call her roommate who won’t be here for at least 30-45 minutes by my estimation so, being that I have everything I own on my back, I lend her a sweatshirt.  There’s another fellow who has fallen victim to the same situation and the three of us chat it up for a while until this girl (Who’s name I much later found to be Nicole) gets her ride back to Mineola.  The guy, Aaron, and I talk until our train comes.  He’s also taking the train to Hicksville, but only as a transfer.  Once we get off the train at the correct stop, I stay and talk for a bit then we go our separate ways, I begin wandering around Hicksville not knowing how extremely close I am to Alex’s house, but that just goes to show that when things go wrong is when the best stories and lasting memories come.