7.29.2005

Beauty, unaccompanied by virtue, is as a flower without perfume. -French proverb

7.26.2005

Road Trip

I left work early Friday, 2:30 to be exact, to try and miss the rush hour traffic. My car was packed and I was ready to hit the road. I was sailing, free and clear of any traffic on the Southern State and even the Cross Island. I was psyched to be getting over the Throgs neck bridge at only 3:15, completely psyched, until...bam! As soon as I crossed the bridge I came to a dead stop. I haven't even made it to the Cross Bronx yet. Now if you're unfamiliar, there's only about a half mile between the Throgs Neck and the Cross Bronx. Dead stopped. I thought, alright, maybe we're merging into one lane, you know, road work or something. Boy was I wrong. I came to find out, through trusty 1010 wins, that there had been a huge accident involving a tractor trailer on the upper level of the George Washington Bridge, exactly where I was headed. All lanes were shut down. Seeing as I had no alternate route, my only option at the point was to wait it out. To my surprise, my wait turned into a 2 hour ordeal. I wish I were exaggerating at this point, but seriously, 2 hours might be cutting it shy of how long I waited. Stopped. In 90+ heat, surrounded by heat emitting 18 wheelers, for more than 2 hours. After a half hour or so I decided to give the a/c a rest and open up the windows. Gross. It was horribly hot, sticky, and uncomfy. I alternated a/c and windows down for the rest of the time. Rolling up the windows to chat to friends on my cell, and rolling down the windows to assure myself that I would not overheat and be stuck in the Bronx for what seemed like it could be forever. My moral was kept high by the 10 mixed cd's I had burned for the trip. Good tunes for wiggling my shoulders to. Even though my car was in drive the entire time (I was really planning on moving), I decided that I would start knitting. Of course, I was half way through a row when, alas, we did start moving. I hate stopping mid-row. If you knit, you know why. If not, lets just say it's a recipe for disaster. A few things that kept me smiling through the whole 2 hour ordeal was:

~phone calls from happy people that weren't sharing in my traffic woes.
~watching stupid men in oversized white tee shirts sell bottles of Poland spring water to potential heat stroke suffering commuters for 5 bucks a bottle.
~music including The Weakerthans (my favorite), Pibald, and Badly Drawn Boy
~Crasins trail mix (crasins, peanuts, chocolate chips, and other yummy, not very healthy things)

Onward.

Seeing as it was 5:30 by the time I started moving, I hit some other spots of stop and go traffic between the George Washington Bridge and Pennsylvania, but after that it was pretty much smooth sailing. I-80 is very very long. Let me emphasize this. I-80 is 310 miles long. It starts at exit 310 I had to go to exit 4. Overall, the ride down 80 was ok. I stopped at exit 185 Logonton (where I stopped the last time I drove out in February), got a coffee drink, some chex mix and gas, and used the ladies room. It started getting dark, and for the rest of the way I was very cautious of deer while maintaining a speed of around 80 mph (had to make up for lost time). I was finally off 80 and on 60 south when I witnessed something extraordinary. The moon was rising behind me, and it was gigantic. I've never seen a moon so full and so huge in my life. It was incredible, and it made me smile for the rest of my half hour drive.

I arrived in Beaver Falls (my destination) at 11:30 pm. 9 hours after I had set off on my journey (last time it took me 6.5)!!! Needless to say I was exhausted. But not too exhausted to go out. I cleaned up real quick and we were off to a bar called the Pittsburgh Pint and Platter. I had barely eaten anything all day, so one Heiniken and I was pretty much set. I had another, then a pint of Guinness, and I was super set. I played darts with my bro like I was a pro. Won every game. I'm so good at darts when I'm drunk. I have pics of the score board (I'm player 2).

The bars close at 2am, so that's when we left. I was begging my brother to play Sunday Morning by Maroon Five, like the last time I came to visit, but he said since he got XM radio, he doesn't have cd's in his car anymore. What's up with that. I was very disappointed. Then, something magic happened. We accompanied a bunch of people to this place called Eatin Park. It's essentially a diner, but more corporate and pretty. We walked in, and guess what was playing? SUNDAY MORNING!! How weird. I was pumped! I had toast, dry, which I turned into a ketchup sandwich. Yum. We were home by 3:30 and I was tucked away on the leather couch, ready for slumber by 4.

I woke up at 9. I couldn't sleep. It was a combination of the leather and dehydration that got me up so early. My bro had to go work in the tower (he's going to school to be an air traffic controller) from 10 to 12, so I was alone in his apartment until then. I put on the movie Rounders tried to knit a little, then decided that his apartment was a little too dusty for my taste, so I did what any nice sister would do and cleaned. He came home and I decided I should take a shower and get the day going. That's when I noticed I had forgot to pack conditioner for my hair. Let's just say that long hair needs to be conditioned, so I think I lost about half of my hair just trying to get a brush through it. I did learn something though. Apparently, when I don't condition, my hair gets curly. It was new and exciting, but I figured one more day without conditioner I might go bald, so we headed to good ol' Walmart to buy some. I made the greatest discovery at Walmart. Energizer E2 Lithium batteries. AA. My (my mom's) digital camera eats batteries. I can maybe shoot 25 pics on 2 regular AA batteries. It sucks. These Energizer batteries rule. I've shot over 300 photos and they are still fully charged. It's incredible. I bought 8 and I'm still on the first 2. Yay! I win. Then the fun started.

My bro took me on a drive through this park that's ginormous. So much nature I didn't know what to do with myself. So beautiful. Granted, we stayed in the car the entire time (my brother isn't much of the nature enthusiast), but it was still sooo wonderful. We even passed by a farm


or two. Good fun. I would have more pics, but my bro insists upon driving 50 in a 35 around winding, one lane roads, so I spent most of my time hanging on for dear life.

Finally at around 4, we decided to take a trip down to Pittsburgh and to a place called the Waterfront. It's basically like an outside shopping mall. We browsed through a few stores, I bought some jeans and a shirt, then we decided to eat. We went to a place called Mitchell's Fish Market.


It was delicious! I had Talapia (my favorite fish) and, of course, a Guinness. Soooo yum. It was beginning to get dark by the time we were finished eating and we were both way too stuffed to be motivated to do anything else, so we journeyed home. I fell asleep in the car, and when we finally got back to Beaver Falls it was 9:30. I requested that I take an hour nap and then we'd get up and go out, but you know that that never happened. I slept all through the night until 10 am Sunday morning. I'm a loser, what can I say.

Sunday we sat around all morning/afternoon until around 2 when we decided to go down to some other town to watch a movie. We got there way to early because the movie didn't start til 4:30. It was Corporate hell. Walmart, Best Buy, Lowes, Staples, Circuit City, Toy's R Us, McDonalds, to name a few, all within a 1 mile radius. Madness. We stopped in Toy's R Us, and I bought myself a backgammon board.

Not quite the one I wanted, but it will suffice. While on line to make my purchase my brother noticed a sign that said "if we don't ask you if you need batteries, a free pepsi on us" (something along those lines at least). So I bought my backgammon board, and the check out girl asked me if I would be needing batteries. I thought that was pretty funny. Then, I decided something would be funnier. I begged my bro to go back inside and buy batteries, just batteries, and see if the girl asked him if he needed batteries. He didn't do it because he didn't need any batteries, and seeing as I had bought 8 of those super duper lithium batteries, I had no need for them either. So the inside joke between us since that moment is "will you be needing any batteries with those batteries". What can I say, that's why it's an inside joke, we have dozens of them.

We decided to see Wedding Crashers, and it was not a bad decision. Very funny. The best part was when the credits rolled and the music was The Weakerthans "Aside". That song is well over 5 years old, and nobody knows about the Weakerthans!!! Damn, I love them. I was pumped to hear them in the theatre. Good stuff.

We headed back towards Beaver Falls, but decided to take a detour to go to a tourist spot on the River for some dinner (what river? I don't know. My brother didn't know, I didn't ask). I had a Cod Sandwich. It was gross. It was a nice ambiance though. We sat out on the deck over the river and the view was pretty. There were gigantic fish swimming below us, I guess maybe that's why I didn't like the cod.

After eating we went back to his apartment and watched Anchor Man. It's pretty funny, I don't see why nobody really likes it, I think it was alright. At around 10:30 we decide to go have a beer and shoot some darts at "The Platter" again. This time I was sober, and lost. Very badly. I don't have pics of that, obviously. We were home by midnight seeing as I had a very long drive ahead of me. I was asleep by 1am.

I woke up at 9am Monday morning, showered, and was ready to leave by 11. I tried getting my brother out of bed quite a few times, but I could only get him up for the 3 minutes it took him to help me carry a few things down to my car. I was on the road by 11:15. Took tons of pics on my way home. It was a pretty good drive...but the best part was to come...

I'll leave the rest to your imagination. I'm tired. Goodnight.

So I went to see Wedding Crashers this weekend

I was truly surprised to find that my favorite band The Weakerthans, were on the soundtrack. To be more specific, their song Aside off of their album Left and Leaving, was the song played when the credits rolled! How exciting! Check out the rest of the soundtrack:

1. Death Cab For Cutie - "The Sound Of Settling"
2. Robbers On High Street - "Love Underground"
3. The Weakerthans - "Aside"
4. Jimmy Eat World - "(Splash) Turn Twist"
5. Spoon - "Sister Jack"
6. Guster - "I Hope Tomorrow Is Like Today"
7. Mungo Jerry - "In The Summertime"
8. Bloc Party - "This Modern Love"
9. The Sounds - "Rock 'N Roll"
10. Flaming Lips - "Mr. Ambulance Driver"
11. The Sights - "Circus"
12. The Long Winters - "Cinnamon"
13. Rilo Kiley - "More Adventurous"
14. Isley Brothers - "Shout (Matter Music Remix)"
15. Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson & The Klezmer Juice Band - "Hava Nagilah"

I'm getting it.

p.s. The movie was definitely worth seeing. Funny, funny, funny.

Clean buidings.

I don't have time to get into how completely rad I think this idea is, but read here and get excited!

I'll never tire of this.

URouLette takes you to random home pages on the WWW.

Lunch.

I had 2 slices of provolone cheese for lunch. Now my breath smells like stinky feet. Gross.

24 Ways.

This site makes me want to go out, right now, and buy some sneakers so I can try all 24 Ways to lace my kicks.

And, we're back.

Well, I'm back- back from a long weekend visiting my bro. I've documented my trip, but it's on my powerbook at home waiting patiently for me to post it up here (I was way too tired last night). Tons of pics and many long boring detailed paragraphs, so if you're still interested it'll all be here, for your viewing/reading pleasure, tonight...I promise.

7.22.2005

Goodness Gracious.

Origami House
I love paper. I love art. I love folding paper into art. I love origami. Check out this house made of paper. Gorgeous.

Road Tripping.

I am leaving this Island for Pittsburgh, the land of my brother, in T minus 5 or so hours. Get psyched.

I want to marry this guy.


This is Ben Saunders. He's planning to journey from the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole and back. ON FOOT. NO HELP FROM DOGS, NO AIR RESUPPLIES.
1,800 miles. 400lb sledges. Temperatures below -45°C. Icefalls, crevasses and wind-scoured plateaus. Frostbite, altitude sickness and isolation.
He's calling his trip "SOUTH". It will mark the first return journey to the South Pole on foot. Visit his site here, and if you think he's as rad as I do, donate a $100.00 to support his trip.

7.21.2005

Right now, this would be perfect.

I am.

Craving chocolate. Dark chocolate. Yum.

My mom sends me these forwards...

SO YOU THINK YOU KNOW EVERYTHING?
A dime has 118 ridges around the edge. A cat has 32 muscles in each ear. A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue. A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours. A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds. A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second. A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes. A snail can sleep for three years. Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer. All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill. Almonds are a member of the peach family. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. Babies are born wit hout kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age. Butterflies taste with their feet. Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10. "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt." February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon. In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated. If the population of China walked past you, in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction. If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at red lights. It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors. Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable. No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple. On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag. Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite. Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated. "Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand and "lollipop" with your right. The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing. The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel fuel that it burns. The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket. The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet. The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid. The words 'racecar,' 'kayak' and 'level' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes).There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar. There are more chickens than people in the world. There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious." There's no Betty Rubble in the Flintstones Chewables Vitamins. Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard. Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance. Women blink nearly twice as much as men. Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks;otherwise it will digest itself.Okay.................Now you know everything

7.19.2005

Architecture for Antarctica.

Two of my favorite subjects.

The competition for The British Antarctic Survey's design for a new base (Halley VI) has been won by Faber Maunsell and Hugh Broughton Architects. Check out the intricate design plan. The buildings will be placed on movable legs with skis at the bottom of each leg, so when they need to be moved, to avoid floating away on a detached slab of ice, they're just lowered down and moved by a bulldozer.

Via: wmmna

Things Remembered.

I remember a few things, like how jealous I was of an ex of mine who could hear a telephone number once and remember it for eternity. I even remember the look on his face, his eyes rolling around, reading, computing what was verbally given to him at the exact moment he stored that number into his mental rolodex. I wished I could be so receptive of information. Unfortunately I've fallen victim to technology. I don't need to remember your number because my cell phone does that for me. I don't need to remember your birthday, because I get a daily reminder from iCal. I don't even need to remember to pay my bills anymore because they're all on an automatic payment plan. I've never felt lazier.
Here is a good article about Mnemonics from NY Times writer Jack Rosenthal.

The walkway that Tetris Built


The walkway that Tetris Built
Originally uploaded by atari2600.
See, playing way too much Tetris can come in handy someday. It helped this guy build a brick walkway.

7.18.2005

Road trip Alert!!

I'm going to visit my brother (aka: the funniest, most fun person in the universe) in Pittsburgh this weekend. I would like a co-pilot for the 7 hour drive. If anyone is interested, please do not hesitate to contact me via comment below.

P.S. I promise you'll have tons of fun!!!

Thunder Cats.

This weekend, despite the really crappy weather, ruled. Saw "March of the Penguins" Friday night. It was better than great. The story is so touching! I love Emperor penguins. Attempted to see the Philharmonic on Saturday. Their instruments were getting too wet from the moisture soaked air, so they had to stop playing. Boo! Then the finale, the fireworks by Grucci, was a big waste of time. Due to the humidity, and the thickness of the air, all you could see was the firework shoot up in the air...the part where it explodes...nothing. All you saw was the sky light up a mucky shade of red or white. It was hilarious, a bit of a bummer, but hilarious. Then Sunday, man, Sunday was "what it is". Didn't get to see the Brazilian Girls, but caught a glimpse of the Opera "Samson and Delilah". Great stuff. Really, really, really great stuff. Also, picked up a new addiction...Atari. Whoop!

7.17.2005

Sunday morning quote.

Melancholy is a musical problem.. a dissonance.. an upset rythm.
While outside everything happens in a vertiginous cascade rythm,
inside there is an exhausted slowness of drops of water falling of
little by little..
Alejandra Pizarnick.

7.15.2005

I'm going to Antarctica, who's coming?



You can review the expedition here.

More work.


Tattoo10
Originally uploaded by newdaystobrave.
I got some more work done last night.

This is the kind of shot you get when you try to photo your own back.

7.14.2005

I win.



See, look at how good I am at backgammon. I'm brown.

I want...


...this backgammon board more than anything in the entire world (yep, even world peace).

7.13.2005

See what I'm missing???

This is why I have to move to the city.

Street Wars.

Ninth Annual International Canstruction® Competition

Winner for Structural Ingenuity

"Manhattan Can Chowder"
Platt Byard Dovell White Architects
New York, NY
3,200 cans
Photographer: Kevin Wick
Host: New York Design Center

Canstruction® website

Check out the rest of this years winners and runners up...

She said, he said.

She said: "Tell me that you love me."
He said: "I love you."
She said: "Don't let me forget that."
He said: ...

The angels are bowling again.

Thunder, lightening and a hang-over.

Unfortunate.

Below is another great reason why you shouldn't blog drunk.

Drunk


Drunk
Originally uploaded by newdaystobrave.
Yep. This is how I look after 4 guinness's.

7.12.2005

My mom sent me this in an email:

Reasons to be Grateful

If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaing the same it would look something like the following:

There would be:
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 Africans

52 would be female
48 would be male

70 would be non-white
30 would be white

70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian

89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual

6 people would possess 59% of the entire world’s wealth and all 6 would be from the United States.

80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth
1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education
1 would own a computer

When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need for acceptance, understanding and education becomes glaringly apparent.

The following is also something to ponder . . .

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness…you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or death…you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death…you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 70% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace…you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.

Someone once said: What goes around comes around.

Work like you don’t need the money.
Love like you’ve never been hurt.
Dance like nobody’s watching.
Sing like nobody’s listening.
Live like its Heaven on Earth.

I think it's great, aside from all the religious mentionings of course.

Sleep Paralysis

BoingBoing blogs about Sleep Paralysis.

This has happened to me. It was terrifying. If you'd like to hear the story, ask me. Re-telling it makes me re-live it. It's absolutely insane...and I go to bed every night fearing that it will happen again.

Check this photo set out.


Kickball Rules.


Behind you
Originally uploaded by newdaystobrave.
New photos from this weeks game.

7.11.2005

This is so rad.

Music-Map.

Go here, type in an artist and it will give you similar artists...they float!
...I have a crush...

A Knitter's Paradise.

Some chic on myspace posted all of these yummy knitting links. I love her.

Here are the sites that I like to visit often:Overall Knitting Resources
Do It Yourself Television Network's Guide to Knitting
How to Knit
How to Knit from Fiber-Images.com
How to Crochet and Knit from BevsCountryCottage.com
Knitting Abbreviations from About.com
AcadiaKnitting.com Tutorials
Knit Shop Reviews
On-line Knitster Magazines/Blogs
Knitter's Review
Knitty.com
Chicknits.com
Knitaddicted.com
General Free Patterns
Knitting On the Net
Knit List Patterns
Crystal Palace Yarn Patterns
Knitting Fairy
Craftown
Yarnmarket (also cool on-line shop)
Yarn Companies Free Patterns
Lion Brand
Lion Brand Crochet
Berroco
Bernat
Caron
Paton Yarns
Free Baby Patterns
Baby Afghan for Beginners
Baby Booties
Baby Booties & Hats
Newborn Patterns
Christmas Tree Hat and Socks
Knitting on the Net Free Baby Patterns

Number 11.


Almost Finished
Originally uploaded by newdaystobrave.
See previous post.

Add this.

11-Get my tattoo finished.

List of the day.

.Top 10 Things I MUST DO Before This Year Ends.


1- Go camping for at least 3 consecutive days.

2- Start and complete 10 knitting projects. (2 in progress)

3- Visit my brother.

4- Drive to Montauk, at night.

5- Learn to play a new song on the guitar.

6- Save $5,000.00. (savings balance = $3,000.00)

7- Ride a mechanical bull.

8- Drink 100 pints of Guinness. (16 down, 84 to go, ha!)

9- Hang out with every one of my myspace friends at least once.

10- Buy an 8 megapixel (or better) digital camera.

7.10.2005

now

my boobs need some aloe.

7.09.2005

I'm going to the beach.

Rober Moses, Field 5, all the way to the right...then maybe, all the way to the left (my boobs need a tan).

7.08.2005

I'm so sick of drama.

I have some furniture if anybody wants it...

It includes:

  • A black wire futon with mattress.
  • A Queen size platform bed and mattress. (very comfy, almost new)
  • A small bookcase.
  • A wicker, 2 drawer set.
  • A desk. (Used to be a drafting desk, but it doesn't lift up anymore, so it's basically a large flat topped desk)
  • And *possibly* a nice sized TV.

If you are interested and can pick this stuff up on Sunday, please let me know.

7.07.2005

flying scotty


flyingscotty
Originally uploaded by newdaystobrave.
New pics from 4th of July weekend.

Swimming prohibited.

There was just a beetle swimming in my toilet at work. How it got there, I'll never know. I flushed that sucker before he flew up my butt. Gross.

Everything is happening so quickly.

Wikipedia entry on London blasts.

London, Falling down.

Flickr photo group on the London bombing.

7.06.2005

Desolation Row.

More abandoned Russia.

I like.

Driving at night with the windows down.

7.05.2005

Daily Eye Candy.

Industrial Photos from Burtynsky at Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University.

=and=

Polar Inertia; Urban Emptiness Photos.

Pacific Crest Trail

I'm considering doing this. Maybe in a year or so. Let me know if anyone is interested.

Obituaries.

While lazily flipping through the newspaper yesterday morn I ran into the obituary page and was compelled to read the lines below the faces of those who can no longer look back at me. A huge rush of emotion rushed over me as I read about their accomplishments and their survivors. Then I glanced over to the right of the page. This is the part of the obituaries that reads like the classified section. It's where people talk to the dead. I began reading..."To Tommy on his 3rd year in heaven. We miss you more every day. Love, Mom Dad and Gina". I've always been an emotional person, but after reading this I couldn't stop the tears from falling. These people miss their loved ones so much that they take out an ad in the local paper acknowledging their anniversary in "heaven". I'm terrible at losing. I hold on to things so dearly, but would I put an ad in the paper? It makes you wonder. With all the universe at his finger tips, is Tommy really sitting in "heaven" enjoying the Monday, July 4, 2005 issue of Newsday? If I were him, I'd go with something more along the lines of the Times or the Seattle Post Intelligencer. Unless, of course, we're sent to the long island version of "heaven", in which case Newsday is probably the most affordable and accessible. Made on lawg island, by lawg islanders. Only the long ones...only the long ones.
What can I say, I'm sensitive. I'm also intrigued by peoples beliefs in "heaven". Something to mull over on a dreary Tuesday.

7.01.2005

What!?



Check out today's weather. A little bit of everything.

Creative.

Headlight typeface. Inventive idea for a font.

I'd like one of these.

Horizontal scrolling mouse.

Are We Alone in the Universe?

Top 25 questions that are still baffling to Scientists.

No way, jose.

Check it. 646 pound catfish caught in Thailand.