The sun is setting on "Brian Blogs in Brooklyn"

I believe the end of an era is approaching. As you may have heard, Alicia and I will be returning to live in Minnesota. Given that this blog is entitled "Brian Blogs in Brooklyn," I've got two options.

1) Rename the blog.

2) Retire the blog.

Well, I suppose there's a third option: I could always move to Brooklyn Park, MN. But that just seems silly.

To be fair, I certainly could just rename the blog. But I really like the name of this blog. I think it has captured (even if only through a sprinkling of posts) my life in New York City. I think this blog has given my family a window into my life they couldn't have seen any other way. More than letter writing or telephone calls, this blog allowed me to actually post photos of the life Alicia and I carved out of Brooklyn for ourselves. Retiring this blog just seems to be a natural last step as we set sail towards Minnesota.

But never fear, I'm not out of New York City yet. And you can bet good money that I've got a few good posts brewing in my mind. There's definitely a New York City Rant in the works, plus photos of our move.

And just as my previous website http://jhinra.googlepages.com/ continues to tell the story of my life in Duluth and the move to New York, so too will this blog float on in the ocean of the internet.

I've returned the blog to it's old theme, since it might as well finish the way it started almost two years ago. Be sure to check back over the next few weeks while Alicia and I pack up everything and get more and more excited to move to Minnesota. I'm sure it'll be a lot of good reading.

Google Reader Backlash

I'm feeling upset about Google Reader lately. For those of you who don't know, Google Reader is an RSS reader that acts like an email inbox for the various things you read across the internet. You tell Google Reader "I'd like to be sent copies of everything so-and-so website publishes." Google Reader then keeps an eye on the so-and-so website, grabbing a copy of every new article. When I decide to sit down and read Google Reader, I've got a copy of all the new articles around the internet.

The problem with Google Reader is that it send you everything. You get every single article published on a particular website. This can result in about 20 to 30 a day, depending on the source. That's overwhelming. And even worse, I don't typically want to read 20 or 30 articles from the same source. I've really started to burn out reading a few of my favorite websites.

Much worse, a lot of the bigger internet blogs have engineered their feeds to make it difficult to read. Nowadays, they always include ads. Much worse, occasional websites won't let Google Reader copy the whole article.  As a result, I've got to actually visit the website to read the article.

So, every day, I've got 100 things waiting for me to read in Google Reader.  I've got to manually click through each one. Even if it's just a simple click to indicate that I don't want to read the article, it's still more work than I've been willing to do.

I hate to admit it, but I think I'm done with Google Reader. I think I'm going back to manually surfing websites I'd like to read.

Let's talk, it's been too long.

Hello! Have we sat down and talked, lately? It's been too long, I think!

The last month has been filled with a lot of happenings.

We were just visited by good old friends, photoed above. I'll call them Andrew B. and Nicole A. to protect their identities. No wait, maybe that gives away too much. A. Berns and N. Anderson. Better. They may not want it advertised that they were associating with us Copelands.

It was a short trip, but we packed in some good times. There were burgers made, New York skylines viewed, brewery tours taken, fancy meals eaten, and even a trip to see some Art. They brought along good weather and even better subway luck. I doubt we spent more than five minutes waiting for all seven trains combined.

Berns took a great picture of me cooking some burgers, which I'm now using without his permission. 

Most importantly, though, they harassed our cats. Which is awesome.

Doesn't Livia look abused?

I turned 25 years old in March. Alicia treated me like a king, with some scavenger hunting, a few gifts here and there (Scotch glass! Minimalist art book! Book by this guy! Trip to Target to buy Neft Shotgun!), and even a midnight trip to a bar to celebrate a quarter century. I guess I've gotta thank my parents. But if I do that, I have to thank their parents, and so forth. Oh well. Thanks Mom and Dad! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! On both sides! 

I'm teaching even more, now. I picked up an additional teaching gig Tuesdays and Thursdays from now until the end of the semester. It's through the tutoring center at Citytech, so it only pays half of my normal teaching gigs, but it will still work out to a little extra cash every week. 

I have not yet received my teaching appointments for the summer and fall, but I've got no reason to suspect they won't come. Apparently I can keep teaching college mathematics as long as I'd like. I'm worried that the position is a bit of a dead end (I can't get a better position without a degree) and it's limited money, but for now, it's good to have a decent paying job. 

Taxes are done! I actually did them myself this year. I feel like I understand taxes about a thousand times more than any time before. Which is to say I don't understand them very well, but at least I know what's going on now. I'm just proud we didn't procrastinate until April 14th. 

Would I do them myself next year? I'm not sure. I really, really enjoyed the experience and I felt like I've now got a good handle on tax preparation. Still, I might want to run it by a tax service next year to make sure I'm not costing us money. 

I'm happy! It's been strange not attending class this semester. In fact, it's been scary not knowing what the future will hold. Never in my life has my future been so wide open. I could be doing a hundred different jobs in a few months. I'm disappointed that I'm being rejected for jobs that seem perfect for me (bank teller?). But I've really started to relax about the whole experience and try to keep an open mind. 

 This picture is unrelated to anything above. But Berns really got a good looking photo of us, didn't he?

I'll see if I can't return to my old update formula later this week. But take that with a grain of salt. If you're reading this, you know my record on blog posting. 

Good talk! 

Boston Trip

You may have seen Alicia's fantastic coverage of our March 29th trip to Boston. Here's my contributions.

We started out the day early as heck. I believe we woke up at 5am to leave at 5:45am to catch the 7am boarding of a bus to Boston. It was a 8 hour round trip, but it was really nice to leave the city. 

Here's Alicia in the bus station when we arrived: 

That's the smile of "I'm not sitting on a bus anymore!" 

I was a bit worried about all the walking, as we didn't have any means of transportation in Boston. Luckily for us, everything in downtown Boston was within our usual walking distance of Brooklyn. 

First stop, Boston Commons. It's like Central Park in NYC, but supposedly used for much more than a park. It was nice, wide open, and comfortable.

Yeah, that's rain. There was a lot of it.

From there, we saw a lot of history. Let's skip all that and go straight to what I remember: 

What? It was raining outside and it was my Spring Break!

We saw a lot, and Alicia documented it pretty well. My camera is getting up there in camera-years, and really couldn't handle the rain. Thus the lack of pictures. But it took a good photo of this half drank beer at the Cheers bar built into the tourist shopping center. 

Overall, the trip really tested the strength of our Umbrellas. But it was a fun trip and really cheap! 

Me with my beard. Had you seen that yet? I've finally figured out how to keep it short.

The Copeland Picture of the Year

This is what happens when I try to touch Alicia.


Well, okay, when I try to touch Alicia after accidentally touching bird poop. Luckily, the camera was ready. Talk about a Kodak moment.

Playing the Lottery

I thought I'd come out and confess that I've started playing the lottery. They started featuring the Powerball, one of the biggest multistate lottery in the US.

But that's not what got me started. What got me started is a list of instructions to follow should you win. I hadn't actually thought of the logistics of winning the lottery. I couldn't find any copyright concerns and the website was called "Rotten Library," so I'm going to go ahead and publish the list here for you:

   Strangely enough, winning millions in the lottery can be the worst thing that ever happened to you. The money can strain relationships with your spouse and relatives. It can turn your friends and neighbors into leeches. It can ruin your privacy. It can cause security problems, threaten your physical safety. Paradoxically, it can lead you down the road to bankruptcy. And, of course, it can also turn you into a raging asshole. 

Tips for the Latest Instant Millionaire
[Bear in mind that none of us is a lawyer or a lottery millionaire, so these recommendations are anything but authoritative. Caveat emptor, you rich bastard.]It's great to be rich, but fame is a bitch. So your primary mission is to claim the money without divulging your identity or having a mental breakdown. Here's how to do it:

1. Don't tell anyone. The single most important rule for maintaining sanity after winning the lottery is: Do everything you can to keep your precious anonymity intact. Of course that means keeping your goddamned mouth shut. Don't share the news with your friends, neighbors, coworkers, or family. Resist even the urge to tell your spouse or significant other, at least for the time being. Otherwise you will have forever blown your one chance at being anonymous. You can always spill the beans later, after all the excitement has died down.
2. Don't sign the ticket. After you write your name on that ticket, you might as well call up and announce the news to your local TV stations and newspapers. Remember that the state lottery commission will publicize the identity of every claimant. Toss the ticket into a clean Ziploc bag (to avoid spills, etc.) and temporarily stash it someplace away from excessive heat, sunlight, pets, children, roommates, coworkers, etc. Make sure it's someplace safe that you won't forget.
3. Act casual. Maintain your normal routine. Continue to attend work, school, church, social functions, etc. Whatever's typical for you. When people ask you what's up, refer to rule number one.
4. Make a few photocopies. At your earliest opportunity, take a trip to a 24-hour Kinko's around 2am when nobody's around and make six copies of the ticket, both front and back. Use one of the self-serve machines and take any and all bad copies with you (i.e. leave none in the trash). And before you leave, doublecheck to make sure you didn't leave the original in the machine.
5. Rent a safe-deposit box. Contact your bank and see if they have any vacant safe deposit boxes, tell them you're going on a trip and need to store some documents for a few months. Make a point of asking them how much it costs, even though you couldn't care less. You're trying to keep up appearances. When you go down to the bank in person to open your box, you will probably need some ID and your bank card. Bring the ticket, along with some other (fake) papers. Don't show them the ticket, obviously. Loose lips sink ships. Stash the ticket in the box and put the box key on your keyring. Don't lose the key.
6. Open a blind trust. Hire a tax attorney. Once you're a client, the lawyer is legally bound to maintain your confidentiality. Tell them you want to open a blind trust in order to claim the lottery prize as an anonymous trustee. Provide three photocopies of your ticket. All contact with the lottery commission will be made through your lawyer.
7. Contact a financial planner. Rich people don't tend to stay that way without a little planning. If you have the choice between annual payments and a single large payout, you should consider the big jackpot. It's less money total, but it's probably about the same as the annuity if you take the lump sum and invest it in interest-bearing savings bonds. However, the single large payout may incur a higher tax rate. Ask your tax experts.
8. Tie up any financial loose ends. No reason to procrastinate now. Pay all those traffic fines and parking tickets. Catch up on alimony or child support payments. Settle any debts. Instruct your financial planner to scrub those black marks off your credit score, but don't cancel your credit cards -- that'll screw up your rating. And don't think it won't matter anymore. It matters.
9. Draft or update your last will and testament. If there were ever a time for estate planning, it's now.

I read that, got excited about the lottery, but then thought the same thing I always do: it's a waste of money. The odds are simply so far against me that they are not worth trying. What finally pushed me to purchase my first lottery ticket was realizing two things:

1. Tickets are only $1. Seriously... Is there anything in this world that is actually only $1 anymore? My god is that cheap, and it lets me think about having fun with the logistics of winning the lottery. 
2. I was married in Las Vegas. I love gambling. Maybe spending $1 a week isn't so bad. After all, that will come to a whopping total of $52 at the end of the year. Perhaps I'll skip a fancy meal once a year with Alicia. 

So, I've got my Powerball ticket posted on the pinboard above our desk. I'm using my cell phone as a random number generator, because if anyone's going to generate some random numbers, it's me. I'm actually considering switching to a smaller state lottery. The odds of winning the Powerball are so low, it's almost no fun. I'd take $500,000 just as happily, ya know? My only complaint about the smaller lotteries is that it happens every day. I can't afford that! 

If I take the advice above, you probably won't ever find out I've won it. Sorry! Wish me luck anyway! 

25 Years, just a few lessons

When I told Alicia the subject of this blog post, she laughed at me. Told me I was cute. Pfft... I may be young, but I could have wisdom. Even if it's just a tiny bit. Here's a few things I've figured out in no particular order:

1. Don't go cheap, especially with umbrellas. In Minnesota, umbrellas are kinda a novelty. After all, how much rain can you really get on yourself between a building and your car? Here in New York, if it rains, you get soaked without an umbrella.

Resist the urge to purchase one of those $3 umbrellas sold on the street. They are always black, and look like this:

 Photo stolen from www.dalesorenson.net

It's rare that many cheap purchases actually add up to an expensive purchase, but these $3 umbrellas will do it twice over. They last approximately one rain storm, and a decent umbrella maxes out around $20.  What the $3 doesn't account for is the rain you'll get on you because of it's size, and the rain you'll get on yourself when it inevitably breaks and you are stuck without any protection. 

Don't go cheap on umbrellas... this lesson probably applies to many other things in life, but I'm too young and cheap to have found that out yet. 

2. If you want to enjoy something, don't start cheap. This is how I've learned to enjoy coffee, beer, scotch, cigars and vegetables. This tip is different from the first one, because there's nothing wrong with going cheap, especially on coffee. But you won't enjoy these things if you don't know what's good about them. If you've had the best of something, cheaper versions will remind you of that goodness. If you start cheap, there'll be nothing to really enjoy. 

3. Do some research before an interview. I got my job at City of Duluth because I had looked at their website before hand and brought it up. It really impressed them. I recently interviewed to be a bartender at a local bar. I don't know if I've got the job, but the exact same thing happened... I looked into the bar and brought that up during the interview. They loved me for it, at least that's how it seems. 

4. Flattery makes things better. I've gotten a lot of free things in this city by being nice. Now, I haven't tried being fake, and I haven't tried pushing for free. But I've certainly had very pleasant discussions talking to people who are helping me and these almost universally start with me complimenting.  

Example: I was going to Katz Deli to pick up some pastrami sandwiches to bring home for Alicia and I. I complimented the Katz guy and talked to him about his job. He asked about mine, and it was generally pleasant. He was a nice guy. If you've never been to Katz, you are given a ticket at the door. Every food server writes your charges on this ticket and you pay on your way out. This guy saw that I had already picked up french fries and told me they were on the house. He crossed out the total and just charged me for the sandwiches. 

Photo of Katz from commons.wikimedia.org

Do I think the Katz Deli sandwich carvers are the best on the planet? Maybe yes, maybe no. But it doesn't hurt to tell them that they do a fantastic job. 

5. Scoop the catbox and sweep every day. This one might be more specific than the others, but I do this while the coffee is brewing. It really makes a big difference.

Well, that's about all I can think of right now. Sorry these weren't grand sweeping lessons, like "Live life to the fullest!" These are just things I wish I would have known earlier. 

Changes are a-brewing

Hello! You may have noticed a change to my blog (if you subscribe to my RSS feed, go check out my homepage, briancopeland.blogspot.com). I know rainbows aren't my normal forte, but this design was too cool to skip over.

You can expect to see some more activity from Brian Blogs in Brooklyn. Stay tuned!

How I celebrate pi day...

By rocking. Guitar Hero 2 on expert? I've still got it, baby.

Edit: I originally tried to post this March 14th, 2010. For whatever reason, it never made it up. Because I'm still proud I can still beat Guitar Hero II on Expert, I'm posting it now.

Alicia has cat pictures...

Then so must I. Here's Leela stretching out during an early evening nap.

Some useful websites for you to surf...

I think I'd consider myself a pretty seasoned internet user. As such, I'd like to share. Here are some really useful websites to enjoy:

Pixlr Online Photo Editor

It's like your favorite photo editing software, online (cough photoshop cough). It's amazing what can be fit onto a browser now-a-days.

Sumo Paint

Another online paint program. This one is more geared towards art and painting, the other is more geared towards photo editing. 

50 Air Traffic Control Audio Streams

Bored? Want something to listen to? Why not the Air Traffic control tower at your favorite airport? Why? Why not? Does this description only have questions? Yes?

The Sixty-One

Perhaps this is a better site for listening to music. I'm not in love with it, but it's a cool looking website. It'll pop you into music you've probably never heard of.

Simply Noise

Need some filler noise to make a distracting work environment quiet? Here ya go. I'm partial to the oscillating feature when the kids next door are throwing themselves against the wall. 

Rainy Mood

Alicia and I have fallen asleep to this storm more times than we care to admit. It's the most peaceful thing on the internet. 

Ninite Easy PC Setup

This is a great website for introducing you to popular software. If you're curious what kind of free anti-virus software is out there, this'll let you select what you'd like to try. Even better, you download it all at once. I'm using this every time I clean a computer.

List of common misconceptions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This will take you a long time to read through. Save it for Friday night when you've got hours to kill.

TVTropes

So you spent Friday on Wikipedia, spend Saturday night on this website. You'll spend hours going link by link. 

MIT OpenCourseWare

Got even more time to blow? Why not follow along with a course at MIT? They don't offer everything, but more than enough to teach yourself some subject. Hey, why not try Calculus?

Kuku Klok

Need to wake up? This'll do the trick, provided you sleep near your computer.

Pipl

This is how I usually stalk someone. It's got a lot of links that try to trick you into paying for a premium person search, but it also scans a lot of the internet looking for someone's name, email, or internet nickname.

Retail Me Not

I check this website before buying something off the internet, no exceptions. Occasionally I'll even get free shipping.

Zombo.com

You can do anything here. Anything at all. The only limit is yourself.

My view from the Math Dept.

Just thought I'd share the view outside my office in downtown Brooklyn. It's a very wet, giant-clump-snowy kind of day. Sounds like a great day for math!

Flower on Display

For Valentine's Day, Alicia and I bought some flowers for the apartment (I bought them for her technically, but she was there helping). The idea was that I wouldn't put all the flowers in a vase. So here's the flower that made its way to my desk area.

The vase I'm using here is actually a glass liquor bottle I bought in Italy. It held lemonchello, a lemon based liquor. I made the mistake of hoarding the liquor (because it was special to me... I did buy it in Italy) instead of enjoying it. Of course, it went bad about a year ago. I would have thought alcohol would hold up for awhile (to be fair, it did stay good for approximately 3 years), but it just stopped tasting like anything worth keeping.

So, just last week, I finally got the courage to empty it down the drain and use the bottle. I think it looks great. Thoughts?

As a side note, splitting up a bouquet of flowers around the apartment is a great idea. Just use some spare drinking glasses. Here's some pictures of the flowers we arranged:

Our Apartment Technology: Television

Over the past few years, Alicia and I have slowly worked up our television system. We've moved through many different solutions, and we are still evolving our system. What we're most proud of is putting computer capabilities onto the computer. Our new flat screen television had this:

That VGA is the input to connect a computer (it's essentially the same thing a computer monitor has). Most laptops come with this:

It's a spot to connect a monitor cable. This is so that you can hook up your computer to a projector when giving presentations. All that was left to fit the pieces together was the cable. Here it is:

The cable is the same on both ends, and it's pretty common (it's just a monitor cable)! Now we can treat the tv as a monitor. What does this mean? Well, first off, we can just sit on the chair and cruise the internet, or do anything you'd do at a regular computer. But we've got a whole lot more.

• We can watch internet television. Hulu.com, Netflix, Youtube... any video that plays on the internet, we can watch on our TV. This is the primary reason we've managed to avoid paying for cable.
• We can use it as a stereo system. We purchased these speakers with wedding money:

The speakers are on either side of the tv

The bass of the system

They are cheap as far as surround system speakers go, but they are high end for computer speakers. As a result, we've got great sound intended only to come out of computers... but it's coming out of our television. Using the laptop, we have access to our entire music catalogue.

• We use our system to watch movies. Occasionally, there's a movie that comes with a digital copy. We download it, put it on the laptop, and we can watch it at a moments notice. Theoretically, we could load all of our DVDs onto the computer and treat our movies like our music. We'd only have to open a file to start any movie in our catalogue. Now, this is technically pirating, since making a copy of a DVD is an unauthorized reproduction. But we wouldn't do this, of course.

What's great is that Alicia's laptop was going unused ever since we built the new computer last year. So we're both happy to be taking advantage of all our technology. If you've got a television with the above port and a spare computer, I can't recommend doing this enough. If you like it, you could get rid of cable and save hundreds of dollars a year!

Two side notes: First, you couldn't see the laptop in the above picture of the speakers. Her laptop is behind the television. Here's the side view:

What's awesome about this is that whatever is currently showing on the television will also be showing on the laptop screen. So when standing in the kitchen, you can still watch whatever's on.

Second, Alicia has since cleaned up this system. She moved the television back, cleaning up the cables and making it look great. But you'll have to come visit us to see it!

Goth Stan on Display

This here's the character Stan from the television show South Park. This guy's actually a bizarre figurine, since it only refers to one specific episode.

In that episode, his girlfriend Wendy breaks up with him. Heart broken, he decides to hang with the goth kids. "In order to hang with us, the non-conformists," they tell him, "you have to dress exactly like us and listen to the same music." So this vinyl figure is Stan dressed up as a "goth." He usually meets the other goth kids at Denny's at midnight and drinks coffee while writing poetry.

I got Goth STan approximately four years ago. My parents bought me a winter hat with The Legend of Zelda's crest on the front. At the time, I didn't really wear anything with stuff on it, so I exchanged the hat for Goth Stan. And here he is! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Brooklyn Streets

You may have read about the screen Alicia and I found out on the streets a few weeks back. Well, that was a rare gem. It's not all great stuff. Here's a different kind of free bonus you can find on the sidewalks of Brooklyn:

Snow day in Brooklyn

We were spared snow over the weekend, but it's coming down hard today. Protip: use flash to really show the snow in your pictures (thanks, Alicia!).

I woke up this morning with classes being canceled at all New York City public schools, but Citytech classes still being held. Their website even had a mean message, "Public Transportation is still running, we suggest you use it, but leave time for delays." Not having class today, I was lazy and went back to bed.

I was woken up at 10:30 by a call from one of the full time faculty at City tech (it's part of the notification program the math department set up). Classes starting or ending after 12pm would be canceled.

So it's a full snow day here in New York City. I'm sitting next to the window right now staring at very heavy snowfall. Unfortunately, it won't stick around: tomorrow we've got forcasted temperatures in the high 30's. So I'll sit here sipping coffee and enjoy it while it lasts.

Tostadas

Over the weekend, I attempted tostadas. Above is the result. Let me just say, I haven't been this proud of an improvised meal in months. This followed no recipe, but was just assembled from memory and taste.

The big new addition to my cooking repertoire is the corn tortilla. Honestly, I hadn't noticed that they were sold uncooked at the grocery store. They were next to the flour tortillas... really, I thought they were all flour tortillas. So I grabbed them and fried them in vegetable oil. They are like chips you get fresh from a restaurant. I've even been frying up some to munch on here and there.

On top of the fresh fried corn tortilla we've got refried beans; chicken that was chopped, cooked, and combined with taco seasoning; lettuce; sour cream; tomatoes; and queso fresco, which is a Mexican cheese we've often seen at restaurants. I fit four of these bad boys in my stomach.

My recommendation is be sure you include the lettuce, sour cream, and a light cheese. The fried corn tortilla, beans and chicken are very heavy. What makes this a great dish is the fresh light ingredients on top. The tomatoes really didn't add anything and I'd skip them next time.

Give it a shot.

Some good advice.

Came across a page on Reddit with a lot of "Pro Tips." Thought I'd pass along some of my favorites.

Technology Tips

F6 highlights your address bar.

Ctrl +Backspace deletes the entire word.

In Super Mario Brothers, the clouds and the bushes are the same:

If you must use PowerPoint, for god's sake, save as, or just rename, your presentation as a PPS file. Then you can open it straight into the player.

Have separate email account for registration on websites.
F2 renames files.

Life Advice

When you're giving a presentation, bring a bottle of water up to the podium. If you find yourself in a spot where you blank, taking a drink will allow you to gather your thoughts. Nobody will be the wiser.

Save 50 bucks from each pay check.

Your local library is probably the most valuable source of knowledge in existence. Visit your local library often.

If your about to puke in a toilet, flush as you feel it coming up. No puke water splashing back in your face. No puke smell. No puke to look at as you continue. Granted you have to be coherent to pull this off.

Keep two wallets: one to leave at home with the bulk of your bills and one to carry with you. Keep only a limited amount of money in your carry-wallet. This should reduce trips to ATMs and stop you from spending more than you normally would.

Salt your food to the point just before you can percieve saltiness.

Never drink or cook with the water from your water heater: water heaters don't get hot enough to sterilize the water. It's basically bacteria incubator and a great way to catch Legionnaire's Disease. Not to mention all the sediment build up at the bottom. Also, that wire mesh filter on your kitchen faucet? You're not cleaning it enough.

Drink a coffee right before taking a nap. The caffeine takes ~35 minutes or so to have an effect, which is as long as you should be napping for anyway. Waking up refreshed and with a caffeine boost is a great feeling.

If you leave it until the last minute, then it only takes a minute.

Update

The Bad News: No job yet. I've sent resumes out in big spurts, but nothing comes back. The worst cases are when I get fraud job offers: they'll want me to shop for them. I'd receive a check, use the money to purchase goods, then send it to them. Eventually, the check would bounce and I would be out any money I spent. It's honestly slowed me down a bit, since I don't send out my resume to every single job anymore. Oh well. I'll keep at it.

The Good News: I've got a backup plan incase the job search stalls. I'm going to try fixing computers. I'm hoping to charge $30 an hour. I've got my stuff together and I've even made a website: www.interrobangbrooklyn.com. The only step left is to put out flyers and hope people contact me.

Why name it interrobang? I think it's a cool - if not rarely used - punctuation mark. I'm hoping the hipsters of my neighborhood will grin and remember me the next time their computer crashes.

I'm sure you'll hear more about Interrobang as business (hopefully) blooms.

The Great News: I'm teaching again. It feels great to be working! What's really great is that I've already been paid. Our first payday for the semester was day one. So before I lifted a finger, I got my check deposited in the bank. Let me just say, it's awesome being paid for doing no work (technically it's future work, but don't be a buzz kill!).

What I'm thinking about: Technology, mostly. Building my website forced me to relearn css (an internet thing) and other web design tricks. Most jobs want programming experience, so I'm trying to find an open source software project to help with. I've also been teaching Alicia to program, and that's proceeding steadily. But mostly, I've been preoccupied with reading about computer repair so that I'm ready to fix any problem a potential customer could have.

What I've enjoyed: Quesadillas. All you do is heat a frying pan, warm the tortilla until it starts to inflate, put cheese on half, fold it in half, then back on the frying pan for another 30 seconds per side. Wow! Easy, delicious, full of possibilities. Wednesday night, I choped onions, garlic, combined them with frozen corn and black beans. This was layered with cheese on the tortillas. The result was a full blown meal. Yummy!

Grad School

It's time to announce it, I suppose: I've withdrawn from the Ph. D. program in Mathematics.

Don't worry, I feel good about it. I might return one day, but for now, I'm ready to stop being a student for a tiny bit.

This decision slowly came to me over the winter break. During the break, I took two weeks off from thinking about mathematics. I was happier during the break than I had been in as long as I could remember. Studying math had become a very large source of stress in my life.

Let me give you some history. I started grad school in September 2007. The math department hopes you'll complete your first round of exams within two years, one year ideally. I haven't. I took two tests, failed them both. I know why I failed, but I just didn't ever seem to get good enough to fill in the gaps that caused me to fail.

This past fall, someone finally told me "you need to know real analysis." I really hadn't studied it. I even prided myself in avoiding it during my undergraduate classes. So I've been at a serious disadvantage. In October, I resolved to start teaching it to myself. But all that did was bring about more stress. It was more that I needed to study, in addition to the classes I was taking and the classes I was learning. I still believe I could do it if I wanted to. But I don't want to kill myself over it anymore.

So here's where I am now. I will still be teaching at New York City College of Technology, at least for Spring 2010. I'm in the process of looking for a second job. And I'm happy.

Screen off the street

Alicia and I have learned to keep our eyes open while walking around the city. Especially in Brooklyn. Especially the night before the trash goes out. Here's why:



We found this! It's not broken, dirty, or punctured. It was just sitting on the curb in a big cardboard box. It was a pain in the butt walking it back, but we got a free screen out of it.

It even has double joints, so it can bend in any direction (Bonus points for spotting the cat):



Okay, maybe only 1 bonus point. We haven't figured out what to do with it, but it's too cool to throw away. It's folded up and leaning against a wall for now. Any ideas?

Displaying My Junk

One of the hard parts of living in a small space is enjoying all your junk. You know, that stuff that you really like or that has emotional significance, but doesn't do anything. In a big house, I'd probably have a basement where I could display it all. But here in Brooklyn, most of my favorite things end up in a box in the closet.

You may have read about how Alicia and I rearranged our bedroom. After buying a new Billy bookcase from Ikea for Christmas, I've suddenly got a small surplus of space in my desk area. Here's my little area:



See that spot, right there?



It's free space! Every week, I intend on putting one item on display there. I plan on cycling through the junk that's sitting in boxes, putting one thing on display every week. If I'm good, I will even write a blog post each week about my newest display item.

I'm really excited about enjoying my old stuff, even documenting and archiving my memories of it. I hope you'll join me.

Our Apartment Technology: Video Games

Alicia and I are fans of technology. We aren't rich, so we rarely get to indulge in the latest technology. But we try to make the best of what we've got. Let me give you a little tour of our set up in the Apartment.

Our Video Games

It took three years, but we've managed to acquire all the latest video game consoles. I purchased the Wii on the day it was released back in November 2006. Alicia and I saved up over the Summer of 2007 and purchased the Xbox 360 in October 2007 because we were too excited about Grand Theft Auto IV and Rock Band. We finally finished the collection in September 2009 using money given to us for the Wedding.

Here they are, on display using a Lerberg shelf (only $15 at Ikea!). I think it looks pretty darn good, if I don't say so myself.



Prior to the new TV (also a Wedding gift), we had to use a manual switch behind the TV to switch between games. But these fancy new digital televisions can auto-detect what signal it is receiving. I was very, very skeptical about buying an HD Tv. I just didn't see what the point was. DVD's were pretty enough for me, and I wasn't worried about size. But this auto detect feature is worth its weight in gold.

So all three systems are hooked up to the TV. To play one, just turn on the TV and turn on the gaming system. Simple as pi!

Bag of Crap

On Christmas Day at 1 am, Woot.com put up for sale a "Bag of Crap." They sell these about eight times a year, and they sell out almost instaniously. That's because they only cost $3 and can come with anything. There have been reports of flat screen TVs, appliances, etc. One guy got 2000 toy soldiers. The site warns you to expect nothing, especially because they call it crap. But Alicia and I were excited!

Flash forward three weeks later, and our bag of crap finally arrived in the mail.



Well, they were right. It is crap. Here's the nicest thing we got:



You can see the fact or crap daily calendar next to it. We haven't even opened it up yet, honestly. Spock is great, though.



We also got these "luxury" calculators. I bet they went all out on these.





Last but not least, we got some buckets. They had tags from a florist on the bottom. Huh.

Well, it was as advertised. Very fun, though. I'd do it again for $3!

Damages films on our street

Just going through some of my pictures from Fall 2009. Back in November, the FX show "Damages" filmed a few scenes in front of our building. They posted flyers all over the street two days prior to filming, then began to park trucks everywhere. I didn't see anyone famous walking by the apartment, but there were signs pointing to catering, trailers and principle photography. It was a cool insight into how a show is made (there were a lot of people!).

Here's some pictures I took from my roof: