Month: March 2002

Yahoo is going to start charging for their POP and forwarding email services. This means that people who used Netscape Mail our Outlook Express or a similar program to check their Yahoo mail (like I do) will no longer be able to do that without paying. Apparently, checking your mail over the Yahoo Mail website will still be free.

The development of the Modern Hebrew Language (based on an ancient language that had been out of use for hundreds of years) destroyed the tradition of the Yiddish language. That’s almost as bad as the French government’s attempts to regulate their language.

Would it be fair if someone got paid five times as much as you to do the same job and to do it much worse? Well this guy gets paid maybe five times more than me to do simple tasks. (Check third to last paragrpah.)

To be fair, while my salary will undoubtedly go up, his will only go down… and he can’t actually DO anything with his money.

It’s been several months now that I’ve gone without fast food. I’m in the mood for something really bad for me from McDonald’s (or Mickey D’s as the kids call it these days).

In other news, my horoscope for the day is pretty uplifting:

When nighttime electrical lighting was new, it was the poor who burned common candles. When electricity became easily accessible and practically free, candles at dinner became a sign of luxury.

This New York Times article is an optimistic view about how new economy and technology are shaping the music industry, just like it has for the last 120 years.

Rejection Massively Reduces I.Q.

A new British study shows that rejection can dramatically reduce a person’s analytical reasoning and increase a person’s level of aggression.

The way I see it, when it comes to kids, two options to counteract this would be to eliminate as much as possible the chance of rejection or to find a way to teach kids to understand rejection and how to deal with it. Since rejection exists in adult life, it shouldn’t be taken out of children’s experience; they should be taught how to handle it without aggression.

The thing is, this study does not mention children at all. It does not go into detail about the ages of the subjects and only goes so far to say that they are “students.”

So, I saw Lewis Black at the Stress Factory in New Brunswick last night (see previous post). Josh was also there.

The opening acts weren’t too bad, actually. But Lewis was very funny; I haven’t laughed that much in a long time. It was a very, very nice feeling.

Earlier today I went apartment shopping. It seems like this is a ritual I go through every few months. Yet, I keep coming to the same conclusion, which is:

I CAN’T AFFORD TO LIVE HERE (by myself)

So apart of randomly choosing someone to live with off the internet (we have discovered this is not favorable), I really don’t have much of an option of staying in New Jersey. But I have to stay in New Jersey because I can’t afford to leave. Argh.

The job I get at the company where I’m temping will probably be some sort of administrative assistant type thing, which may not be enough to pay the bills with my outrageous car insurance… I just would like to have a job like Josh where I can use my brain and get paid well for my skills.

After three weeks, I get my own cubicle. It comes with a fancy-black IBM Pentium 4 1.6 GHz computer (with a seven-year-old Sony Trinitron 15″ monitor). So, there’s that.

And the word from the boss is he’s doing what he can to get me hired somewhere within the company. It’s all good.

On the books for tonight is seeing Bryan, M-D and Lewis. Hilarity is sure to ensue.

Last night was fun. Yes, I ended up going to the St. Patrick’s Day party and event (a benefit for the Fallen Heroes Fund) at the New York Stock Exchange. It wasn’t a bad way to spend my birthday, considering I don’t see friends anymore. Plus it allowed me to delude myself and pretend that all those CEOs and Very Important Persons were there to see me.

In any case, I spent most of the day preparing things for the performing musical groups. We had an Irish rock band (The Gus Hayes Band), an Irish folk band (Aoifa Clancy Band — I’m working on procuring a CD of theirs), Irish Tenor Ronan Tynan, an a capella group, and the daughter of one of the company’s vice presidents (a singer–the daughter, not the V.P.).

Well, that’s my story. All in all I’m pretty happy, and I’m looking forward to this, my twenty-seventh year on the planet.

Also, happy birthday to my little brother, who turned 21 today.

Also, in an unrelated note, I can now play DVDs and DivX movies on my linux laptop. I am very happy, very happy am I.

It was nice to get out and drive a bit–that is how I spent yesterday. I visited my storage area in south Jersey to find a book I had borrowed a while ago. Unfortunately the boxes I needed to get to were behind large pieces of furniture as well as other boxes, so instead of making a mess of the storage area and taking a hour or two, I decided to just go to the mall and buy a new copy. It was only a few bucks.

While I was at the mall, I called a friend and made plans for the evening. I also spoke to my mother which is always nice. Nothing much has changed out there in California.

Anyway, I decided it was time to give myself a little present for my birthday since I’ve been a good boy (and since I have a job and I am making some money). I picked up the soundtracks to O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Lord Of The Rings, and David Byrne’s Look Into The Eyeball. I wandered around the mall some more, and eventually decided to get myself a fancy-new haircut.

After my adventures at the mall, I went to Borders to waste some more time before my eventual dinner and movie.

I saw the movie I Am Sam. It was a bit slow at parts, and a little long, but overall it was a decent movie. Sean Penn did a good job, and Michelle Pfeiffer reminded me of someone I know, but I’m not sure who.

Well, I hope that was informative.