I don’t have much to say today… except maybe that work on my Project is going along nicely; if you’re interested in beta-testing, and interested in marching band, contact me. I also wanted to say this, for no particular reason:
What if I’d been born fifty years before you
In a house on the street where you lived?
Maybe I’d be outside as you passed on your bike.
Would I know?
And in a white sea of eyes
I see one pair I recognize
And I know that I am the luckiest.
E-ZPass will be charging NJ drivers $1.00/mo for their service, and will possibly reduce the toll discounts. While it’s still a better deal than paying the tolls cash (unless the driver uses less than a few times per month), it’s still unfortunate. The article makes some points about how Gov. Whitman’s administrated mismanaged the entire operation. I’m glad I don’t drive anymore…
Well, not completely glad.
Denise, her brother Kevin, and his girlfriend Steph, and I saw Rent last night on Broadway. I had already seen it once on Broadway and once in Baltimore, but that was several years ago. In fact, I probably wouldn’t have gone this time if I had to pay for the tickets.
Anyway, it was very cool, in fact they’ve even made slight changes to some of the music, some of the book, and some of the staging. The cast wasn’t as good as the cast I saw on Broadway the last time… which was confirmed by our waiter at Ellen’s Stardust Diner, where we went afterwards. When we arrived, the waitstaff even sang a song from Rent for us. (Yes, this is a diner where the waiters and waitresses sing karaoke show tunes. Unfortunately they don’t allow the customers to participate, like they do at Show Place in Beach Haven, NJ.)
The Earth will “Expire” by 2050, and the leader of our country doesn’t seem to care. After all, why should he? By 2050 he (most likely) won’t be alive so it really has no effect on him, does it?
The article talks about colonizing other planets by 2050 as the only other option if we refuse to stop consuming so much, but continues to say that colonization will probably not even be an option by 2050. If it were, my guess is the amount of resources per person needed to support life on the journey to the planet to be colonized is just as much, if not more, than the amount needed for them to survive the same amount of time on Earth anyway.
Of course, if we have developed Star Trek-like replicators, we would be able to go easy on our resources in space. In fact, if we have replicators we might as well just stay on Earth. Apparently replicators won’t exist until the early 24th century. But I digress…
July 4: Barbecue at Darren‘s followed by Men In Black II. Good food, fun movie. Denise and I headed back to her town to spend some time with her brother who was visiting from Seattle. (He’s a Microsoftie.)
July 5: Well I couldn’t sleep, first of all. Stomach pains kept me up most of the night. During the day it wasn’t as bad, but it was progressively getting worse. I wasn’t sure if it was something I ate or something else. It didn’t seem related to my lactose intolerance.
July 6: Slept maybe an hour total, spread over the whole night. Woke up still in pain, forced Denise to drive me to the hospital. (Thanks to everyone who called to find out how I was doing.) Was there for several hours in which I received intravenous fluids (mostly salt water and morphine at 200mg/h) to keep me hydrated and ease the pain, x-rays of my stomach, and a CT Scan to make sure I didn’t have appendicitis or kidney stones. The scan came up clear. After about six hours in the hospital, they prescribed some gastro-intestinal drugs for me and I left.
July 7: In a little bit I’ll be leaving for the Brooklyn Museum of Art to finally see the Star Wars exhibit which I missed both the week before and yesterday.
I’m not one for getting treatment when I’m sick. Usually I just try to take care of myself and wait for my body to heal without involving any doctors. I guess this is a sign that I’m getting older. There was this time and once last December when I was just so uncomfortable and in pain that I decided I should just give in and see a doctor. Of course it helps that I have medical insurance now.
There are only few things in this world that will put a bigger smile on my face than receiving something unexpected from someone unexpected. Thanks for the Random Act of Amazon! I suppose I’ll be “paying it forward” in the near future.
Also making me smile today: the repayment interest rate on my student loans just dropped almost two whole percentage points!
(From the American Medical Association, but please read…)
Is… is it just me, or does Neil Gaiman bear more than just a slight resemblance to Nigel Tufnel?
Neil |
Nigel |
I had what you could call a “full weekend.” It started with a drum corps show in Pennsylvania. It was actually nice to see some of the people I used to work with, even D. The show was great—all the corps look like they’re going to be great this summer. After the show, Denise and I had dinner with another old friend and coworker of mine who left the office a year before I did.
On Saturday, I attended Devon and Keith’s wedding. They seem like such a great couple… a perfect match. They say that weddings are great places to meet new people…
Sunday was Denise’s brother’s engagement party, which was fun as well, but in a different way. I’m still trying to figure out how to be less attractive to the under-ten-year-old girls and more attractive to the over-twenty-year-old girls. That night, Steph treated me, Denise and Kevin to an expensive Hibachi dinner. It was my first time, and it was wonderful. :> Apparently Steph, who is now 16, has been working since she was five making twenty dollars an hour in her first job. I’m exaggerating, but she’s stinking rich and has already bought four orchestra tickets for us to see Rent this month. Speaking of Broadway shows, it looks like I’ll also be seeing Cabaret for free this month as well as Blast in Philadelphia (though not for free but for a drastically reduced price).
If there was a theme this weekend, I guess it would be kids. At the drum corps show I found that I really miss being involved (while I don’t miss working for a particular organization). Music is a wonderful thing. At the engagement party I was reminded of the fact that I’m just really good with children.