maybe later

I've been sitting here for awhile now and still this blog post is zero lines long. Literally every time I start to write, it just doesn't feel/come out right.

For now, just know that I love you all and I am doing well.

I leave in 3 1/2 hours to go home and visit my parents. I'll likely be back to NY sometime next week.

i need to ride more

After waking up today, i rode on my rollers for a half hour. (I think my last ride was two weeks ago.) Since it had been awhile since my last ride, I didn't ride particularly hard, but when i got off my bike i felt like i was going to throw up and pass out.

My body said "stop" at about 20 minutes, but I forced myself to go for a full 30, pushing up my speed somewhat toward the last couple of minutes. Perhaps that was dumb. Apparently my body wasn't very happy with me directly after.

I feel fine now.

Average Speed: 19 mph
Max Speed: 34 mph
Ride Time: ~30 minutes
Distance: 9.7 miles

Chance Encounters: 1-800-call a billboard lawyer

On the way home from institute tonight I saw an ad on the subway for a law firm that specializes in accident cases. The headline of the ad read, "No it's not the lottery. It's justice."

Next to the ad someone had placed a religious tract entitled, "God's Judgment."

I found the chance juxtaposition slightly humorous.

Puppies in need of a home

I got an email this morning from a friend at work about these guys:
Aren't they just adorable?

The email said this:
Rescued 6 black lab (mix) puppies out of the middle of the road on Saturday. PLEASE help find them homes - otherwise, it's Animal Control - which means they only have 5 days. We've bathed them, sprayed them for fleas and wormed them....but we can't keep them. They are currently in a kennel in my basement since I don't have a fence. I've lost count of the number of rescue groups that I've contacted, only to be turned down due to no room. Please check with every dog person you know to see if they need a puppy.

I'm not posting the email senders contact info here, but feel free to leave a comment on this post and I'll email or text you their name, email address and/or phone number.

The Boom Stick

It had been awhile since I visited myspace. Tonight I figured I'd check to see if I'd received any messages, comments, or friend invites. Well I ended up visiting some of my friends' pages.
I found this video my friend Sam posted on his page. Sam and I are good friends from high school. Oh how it makes me smile.

It's a beautiful thing

As you can tell from this picture, my bike arrived on Monday as planned. What drove me crazy was that it was "OUT FOR DELIVERY" from 7 AM and wasn't delivered until 4:40 PM! Talk about anticipation. Oh well, when it finally arrived it was like Christmas.

I had it shipped to work because that's just how things go in NY. I mean, nobody would have been home to sign for it or anything and it's not like that's something I want sitting on my porch outside all day. In anticipation of its arrival I had brought a sharp pocket knife and some tools to work in order to unpack and put it back together (thanks Sean for packing it all so well and for keeping the putting-it-back-together process simple). I just had to put the handlebars, front brake calipers, pedals, seat, and front tire on and she was ready to go. Oh, and I had to walk the bike over to a bike shop to air up the tires.

(NOTE: always let pressure out of bike tires when shipping. You never know what kind of air pressure differences the tires might go through while in transit on planes and...trains and...zeppelins. You should also loosen the strings of your guitar and other such instrument before shipping or extensive travel. Sean knows this. He's smart. Thus the reason I needed to run to a bike shop to use a pump before my bike was truly ride-worthy once again.)

Anyways, due to the lateness of the bike's delivery I wasn't able to put it together Monday night. I got it all unpacked and left it locked up in a room at work where we keep the servers and extra computer equipment. After leaving work I met up with a friend and headed into Queens to Shea Stadium to watch the Mets vs Nationals game with a bunch of other Mormons. It was a good activity. There was plenty of socializing and I was able to see some of my friends from other wards that I don't get to see too often.

Tuesday after work. I put it together, got some air in the tires and rode it home---from 4th Street and 2nd Ave all the way up to 128th and Lenox. It wasn't too bad, but it wasn't all that great either. Traffic was horrible. I'm really unfamiliar with which streets are best for biking so just headed north up 3rd Ave. There was a lot of stop and go up to 60-something where I turned left and into Central Park. From then on, the rest of the ride was great. I rode the loop in Central Park up to 110th Street and then went straight up Lenox.

Once I got home I couldn't not try out my new rollers, so I set them up in the living room and hopped on for a couple minutes.

I rode them again tonight for a short little ride. I didn't want to go crazy, but I did want to get a little riding in so i can ease myself back into shape and get use to the rollers. In case anyone is interested, here's what I rode tonight on the rollers:

Ride Time: 21:45
Distance: 8.6
Average Speed: 23.7 mph
Max Speed: 33.7

PS - both times I've ridden on the rollers nobody else has been around to go downstairs and tell me how loud they are (I've been riding in the living room directly above my room rather than in my room above the neighbors downstairs.) They seem pretty quiet to me, but I'm wondering what they sound like when you're directly below them.

When the metaphorical becomes literal

Sometimes we're too busy banging our heads on locked doors to notice the Lord's ever quiet whisper to try the front window.

90 days and counting

That's right. Today I hit my 3 month mark. What does that mean entirely? I'm not exactly sure, but I do know that it means work will start taking more money out of my paycheck to cover for benefits that kick in soon (hurray for Insurance, 401(k)'s, all that other grown-up stuff and the paperwork that comes with them). Hitting my 3 month mark also means that my third subway pass since moving here expired today. And that I'm nearly finished with my third jar of peanut butter.

It's a little crazy to think that much time has passed since moving to New York; but at the same time, it feels like I've been here a lot longer---strange how things like that seem to happen.

Now all I need is my bike

I've been going through withdrawals. It's been over 3 months since I've gone riding.

Can you blame me for buying these rollers when I saw them online for a decent price? I knew I'd be wanting a set of my own after leaving Provo and no longer having access to Sean's set, so in my mind it was inevitable. Honestly, it was only a matter of time.

Well, they came in the mail about a week ago. I put them together and now they've sat folded up under my bed unused since. (Oh yeah, they fold up---for easy storage)

Let's hope that once my road bike gets here on Monday I'll use them regularly.

Did I mention that my road bike arrives on Monday. :)

Maybe size really doesn't matter...

...maybe what it's really about is frequency.

Lately I've been feeling the pressure from some of my dear friends to post more frequently. I know it's been awhile since I've published a "real" post and believe me, it's not for lack of having things to post about. I have plenty to post about, and I think that's part of the problem. I've also been living with the paradigm that I have to "compose" something significantly well put together before publishing it for all my readers--it takes time and careful thought to find and upload the best picture or video, to link the most appropriate words with the most relevant website page, etc.

I'm starting to realize that perhaps a simple and short report on some of my activities would suffice. Although they may not be as long or as polished, I will try to publish posts more regularly so you all can stay up to date with the happenings of my life.

The Plan: the Cannon Center - March 30th, 2007

I friend of mine sent me links to these videos a couple weeks ago. They're from...I think it was our second show? I didn't even know that she had recorded video of the show. I don't think anyone from the band knew. haha. Anyways, good times. I thought I'd share.

for my brother

So, I know it's been awhile since my last post. This is just a quick post to let you all know that I've doing well and am busy with good things. I have a number of drafts saved to post, but none of them are ready for publishing just yet. Just know that there is a number of posts in the pipeline, so don't you worry...in the words of that one song by that one person that said something like (well, if she would have been singing the chorus in the firt-person singular instead of plural it would have been something like), "I'll give you something to talk about."

Or maybe just "read" about.
Perchance comment about? :)
We'll see.

Stay Tuned

haha, i don't know that any of that made sense. lovely. just lovely.
i dont' even care. it's gonna be posted! Here you go!! aha!!! and now I'm getting case-INsensitive and explanation point crazy. LOL. I mean exclamation point crazy. Yes, with a C!, not a P. haha, I wonder if this post is more entertaining or annoying at this point. oh well, if you've made it this far you must think it's leaning to the former...or perhaps your'e just hoping that it will somehow redeem itself somehow even though you have no idea how it possibly could and so therefore your'e driven on to continue reading by mere intrigue. now I'm being apostrophe-insensitive. Hmmm....that play on words doesn't really work as well as the case one. dang. Maybe it's more like using my apostrophes' a letter too late...which would mean I was late in my use of proper punctuation and so therefore I would not be punctual. (cue drumroll and cymbal crash)

and...I'm done.

The Format at Webster Hall - 21 Aug 07

(Alyssa Scheinson took the original pictures in the above thumbnail grid. Check out the full pics here and the rest of her amazing work here.)

A couple weeks ago I went to Webster Hall to see The Format. It was awesome. I wanted to see if anyone would post some good video of the show onto YouTube so I waited a little while to see what would turn up. Nothing too amazing (I really need to get my own digital camera), but you can get a taste of what I was able to experience at least. (Nate Ruess's voice is just as amazing live.)

On Your Porch:


Oceans:


The First Single:
(This was the first song I heard of The Format. I knew right away I was going to love their music.)


Here's a pic of the setlist that somebody posted on their flickr account. :)

The last 4 or 5 songs on that list made up their awesomely long encore.

In case you feel teased by only hearing parts of each of the above songs. Here's one in its entirety.

Ready for a marathon

I was talking with a group of friends on Sunday and I got this crazy idea. What if I ran a marathon (26.2 miles) while I'm 26 years old?
I haven't fully committed...but I'm definitely toying around with the idea. I turn 26 this November. After that I'll have a full year in which to make it happen. Anyone want to join me? What do you think? Am I crazy? Any advice?

I did buy a pair of running shoes today. Check them out here. Turns out I pronate slightly. Who knew?!

My Labor Day Weekend...

a list (well, kind of anyways)

Thursday

My Labor Day weekend started Thursday night. Since I didn't have to work Friday (company holiday), my Thursday night was pretty much my Friday night.

I spent the evening with Christina at her house where we watched Run Lola Run. I had never seen the movie before, but due to recommendations from film professors and people I trust it has been on my list for awhile now. I'm glad to say now that I've finally seen it. It's amazing.

Friday

I slept in and then took it easy.
I played guitar for a awhile. A long while (my fingers were pretty sore by the end of the day.)
I neglected to help Adrienne move (but I hear she had lots of little helpers.)
My roommate Matt and I helped move a girl I home-teach to her new place. If you were there you would have seen us carrying large pieces of furniture through the streets of Harlem. Quite a sight. (I think I may have actually hurt my wrist somehow during the process--one of my tendons got aggravated and swollen. I'm pretty sure I hit it on something and didn't notice it until later.)
Later that evening we helped move another girl.

Saturday

Slept in yet again. Oh glorious!
Went to Long Beach with Matt, Matt's girlfriend, and a couple other people. We met up with a good sized group of singles (mostly from the 8th ward) and enjoyed a beautiful day at the beach.
I...swam in the ocean for the first time. Threw the Frisbee around on the beach. Dove in the sand in an attempt to catch said Frisbee. Did i mention that I swam in the ocean for the first time? Oh, and by that I mean for the first time ever! Read a book on the beach...the list goes on. It was great.
Did I mention that I swam in the ocean?

After the beach, getting home, showering, and changing clothes. My roommate Nick and I went out to dinner with several of the girls and another guy that was at the beach with us earlier. We ate at this small hole-in-the-wall Taquerilla on Amsterdam and 107th. It was really good and quite cheap for NY.

Sunday

I had a marvelous talk (over IM) with a dear friend about the gospel. She makes me smile.
I taught Gospel Essentials. My preparation was less than par and lots of people showed up. The Lord is too kind and things went much better than it should have thanks to everyone's participation.
I ate dinner at Connie's new studio apt (first girl I helped move on Saturday) with Matt and several other mutual friends.
Stopped by a get-together for some beverage and snack refreshment down on 96 and Riverside.
Went home. Chilled.

Monday

Slept in (let's hope this habit ends by tomorrow.)
Went to NY Running Company at Columbus Circle and bought a pair of running shoes.
Bought some groceries.
Had a small last minute bbq on our roof. (Thank you Marcus and Matt for providing the meat and cooking, and thank you Matt for providing the grill. You guys are great.)
Posted on my blog.

mp3 experiment four

Last Saturday was a great deal of fun. I participated in improv everywhere's mp3 experiment four. Some of you may have remembered last year's mp3 experiment III and my report on that. It was a lot of fun. This year was a little different but equally as enjoyable. Here were the biggest differences:

-Instead of 4 different mp3's, everyone listened to the exact same one
-We weren't in Central Park
-Instead of meeting in groups with a leader from Improv Everywhere to know when to press play we all started scattered out on our own within the same general part of Manhattan and just needed to have our clocks synced up
-We were all instructed to wear a colored t-shirt (red, green, blue, yellow)
-There was aerial photography involved (from the top of a skyscraper looking down on us)
-We didn't see Steve :(

I'm glad I was able to go and enjoy the activity. I almost didn't. Long story short--when I attempted to transfer the mp3 (something I should have done earlier, but instead waited till I had like 30 minutes to get out the door) I saw this:
NOT a pretty site for anyone to see...EVER.
Notice the time. We were suppose to be in place pressing play at 4:00. With the subways running local on the weekends, transfers, and the fact that the experiment was taking place all the way down in the financial district, I was planning on it taking me about an hour to get there. I had wanted to leave at 2:30/2:35 so that I'd have plenty of time to get there, meet up with friends, and would get there early. At this point I was beginning to seriously doubt my ability to make it there on time with a working ipod.

After some struggles, I ended up running out the door with my inoperative ipod sitting next to my computer and Chateau's ipod shuffle in my pocket. I was definately going to be late, but I just figured I'd start it ontime while in the subway and then catch up with everyone when I got there. Easy enough, right? I knew my cellphone was only a couple seconds behind the online clock they had asked us to sync our watches to so no worries there...Oh wait, in my mad dash to get out the door I had left my cellphone! How was I going to know what time to start the mp3? How would I sync it up to the right time when i got there since the ipod shuffle doesn't have a screen where you can see the play time? Also, we were suppose to have a camera or camera phone to use during part of the experiment. I had planned on using the camera built into my phone. And how was I going to find all my friends during/after the experiment among so many people? Frustration!

This is where I make the long story short: no worries, it all worked out perfectly.

As for the actual mp3 experiment...well, rather than detailing out the whole thing here...I'll let you go someplace else where the wheel has already been invented. If you want, you can read more about it here at the mp3 experiment post at improv everywhere honestly, they have a great breakdown with pictures and video of the whole thing.

Friends who came and posted on their own blogs about it:
becca
seth

Also, check out beccashim's post (cool "Where's Waldo" style pics...I'm wearing a green shirt and khaki cargo shorts; see if you can find me).

a day late and a dollar short

Originally I wanted to write more about this, but I'm beginning to realize that setting aside time to compose really well thought out blogs can be difficult of late. So instead, you get this several days after the fact:

Last Friday night i saw this movie with a group of friends. It was good.

I'm intrigued

On my way to work Friday morning I saw the following written on a post-it note attached to the cover of this book a girl was beginning to read:

Stephanie,

This is one of my most prized possessions.

Cheers,
Colin

The name of the book was "The Man Outside" by Wolfgang Borchert. I have no idea what it's about, nor do I know Colin, but his note really intrigues me.

Overheard in New York

Girl on her cell phone:
"(I can't) I'm going to this nude party on Sunday."

Overheard on the corner of 8th and Broadway
7ish PM, 15 August 2007

Jazz Mobile

I got off the subway at 125th on my way home from work today and as I walked past 127th I saw and heard this:


Well...not exactly. I just found that picture of the Jazz Mobile trailer/stage on the internet. That's basically what I saw...what with the cool stage and signage. The band was different though. What I heard was this guy.

It was great. Nothing quite like good jazz in Harlem -- good free jazz on the streets of Harlem.