Roof is leaking.

I say that only so that there is a record of it. 

The squeaky wheel gets the grease, and I'm sick and tired of those squeaky wheels, and their inability to step up to the plate and face their responsibilities, while forgetting there are other people in the world. I was supposed to have two tests today. Rough, but doable, and complaining, I thought, would be counterproductive. Last night, I, and the rest of my math class, got an email from a classmate asking each of us to email our professor to ask him to postpone the test til next week. I thought nothing of it. This guy is failing the class, and a week won't help. Well, I get to class, and the test is postponed. Now, we only meet four more times in this class, and we have a lot of material to cover. But, fine, we'll take it next week. Too bad I studied for this test now, when I could have been spending all that time studying for the other test I took today. Total bullshit, and points off for my professor for giving in.

I just read the rules for a photo contest, and they included this section:

CONTEST IS VOID IN ARIZONA, CUBA, IRAN, NEW JERSEY, NORTH KOREA, THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC, SUDAN, SYRIA, VERMONT AND WHERE PROHIBITED.

Interesting combination.

Happy Halloween.

Explaining abandoned lots.

You're gonna need a bigger desk.

My Physics text book is 1300 pages, and weighs 6 lbs, 9oz. Oh, I mean 2.975 kg. And unbelievably expensive.

Offer.

People.

People die all the time. Somebody died on my corner last night. I think he actually made it to the hospital, but really he died right there when he went through a red light on his bike and got hit by an SUV and that was it. People die all the time in this city. Chances are in this city of millions there is someone dying right now and it's not gonna matter to you. The world will not stop and right now people are driving over the spot where he landed. The world will keep on going even though someone just died and you need to get used to it. You need to get used to it because someone you love will die and you are going to wonder why the world keeps on going when everything in your world does not. It's because people die all the time.

And then, someone got hit by a car.

On my corner.

Still investigating.

I was on the phone with Hank when I heard a crash.

Nothing brings a neighborhood together like a car service car full of goths with Trash and Vaudeville shopping bags plowing into a bunch of parked cars.

Night.

The girl next door.

deductibles and hold times

To customer_service@hipusa.com
I've been on hold for about an hour because my new plan has a $2000 deductible, and I want to know if that includes PCP office visits, specialist visits, bloodwork, the colonoscopy I'll be having soon, whether or not office copays are deducted from the fees I'll have to pay to my doctor, if I have to have a referral to see my GI doc and have a colonoscopy, and whether or not it matters if I have a PCP at all. 

I'm very disappointed that I can't get someone on the phone. This is a service industry, and your customer service department apparently doesn't exist. I've been a member for over a decade, and I expected better.

Josh Wertheimer
(Still on hold)

Not a great name for your restaurant.

You can click pictures to enlarge them, ya know...

Advice.

Play it cool, kids.

When your professor asks you where you sat when you took an exam, the correct answer is NOT, "I sat alone."

Met.

Across the street.

Sunset tonight.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy.

Really?

Lean.

nonplowed

In today's mail.

Besides a paper cut, I received notice of a retroactive rent increase, and my first doctor bill ever. So much for my "insurance."

Last night's walk to the studio.

4:30am workout.

1/11/11

As much as I would like the events of this weekend to be caused by rhetoric from the right, Jared Loughner seems as political as John Hinckley Jr.

A Crossroads.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

New Year.

I was watching a video from the early 90's of the Jesus Lizard. Yow gets hit in the head with a bottle, and he goes down. But he get back up, starts the song over, and I realize, with sudden clarity, that the young generation of bands that I'm currently subjected to has never seen or heard such a wonderful thing as a Jesus Lizard show. It just about made me cry. Not for them, but for me. I sit here now blasting "Zachariah" thinking I didn't know how good we had it, and let it get away.

I went to a photo show at ICP yesterday. Mostly war/combat photography. The Spanish Civil War, and Cuban Revolution. There were some beautiful pictures taken by people not considered great photographers, but photographers in the right place at the right time. I did not agree with that point of view. Putting yourself in the midst of conflict, in harms way, because there's a story that you feel must be told, even if your own personal or political views skew that story, takes greatness. Jeska asked me, in the middle of that gallery, if I would be able to go out with my camera if shooting broke out in New York City. I didn't answer. I didn't have an answer. I want to think that I would, but I can't even imagine. It's such a different time. War breaking out in NYC wouldn't take the form of shooting in the streets. It takes the form of planes hitting buildings, and bombs strapped to cars and fools. Even when it comes to war, we didn't know how good we had it.

I'll never take pictures that will live up to those I saw yesterday, and I'll never make music as good as the music I'm listening to right now, and I'm really not okay with either of those facts. I start off 2011 throwing my hands up in bitter resignation. You win, time. Happy new year.

Revelations about my job.

I am at the point where I can effectively do lights for a band while thinking about something entirely different. Would that be my unconscious, or subconscious doing the work? Also, I've never played Guitar Hero, but I suspect it's similar to doing lights. It's more or less manipulating arbitrary buttons and levers to the beat of the song, right?

ATP NY 2010

A little late, but I just realized I can upload videos here.

Gogogo!

In the time it takes me to figure out the fastest way possible to accomplish a task, I could have already finished it using the slowest, most inefficient method.