and sometimes this blog writes itself...
P-Diddy to Run in NYC Marathon
From NY1
mike sold out at - 23:19
Namemaker, namemaker, make me a name
At work today, there was a participant who signed his legal name as "Koolaid A. Tean". This was NOT a typo. Who names their kid "Koolaid"? While we are on the subject who names their kid "Latrina"?
mike sold out at - 01:27
9.29.2003
So apparently our organization is applying for a grant from the Captain Planet Foundation. I guess we're going to take pollution down to zero.
mike sold out at - 17:39
9.26.2003
Home at last...
By the Numbers
11 friends visited (+1 one lon-=lost friend I randomly ran into)
6 beds/couches/futons/mats slept on/in
6 trains riden
600 miles driven
60' vertical feet of rock climbed
150 pictures taken (including 3 movies)
1 tree moved out of road
1 grad school class attended (Planning Law at Penn)
1000s of stars & 1 milky way actually viewed (in Virginia)
1 beard grown and shorn
mike sold out at - 02:01
9.23.2003
Feats of Strength
Over the last two days I have proved I am not a weakling by:
1. Climbing up a 60 foot-high level 5.8 rockface in West Virginy.
2. Moved a fallen tree out of the middle of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
That's all I've got. I'm totally sore now. Be back in NYC thursday.
mike sold out at - 23:51
9.20.2003
Visitin' the peeps in DC. Because the hurricane knocked out power to the water treatment stations for a day, we have to boil water through the end of the weekend. Good stuff.
And today, approximately 4-5 million Virginians are without power. That's most of the state. After the blackout in August, the government and utilities kept talking about the need to "modernize the grid". I think it would be much more worthwhile to protect powerlines from storms & trees, as those are the much more common types of outages rather than the widespread NE grid outage. Just a thought.
mike sold out at - 15:03
9.17.2003
Makin' Movies (Part II)
They're filming another movie in Greenpoint, this time on Java Street between Manhattan and Franklin. It's House of D.
mike sold out at - 22:46
NY1: Domestic Tourism Reaches Record Highs in New York
Can't our elected leaders do something about this frightening rise in domestic tourism?
mike sold out at - 12:04
9.13.2003
Free At Last!
Finally after a long, long, long crappy day at work, I finally have a full 16 days until I have to return. Went to Liz's party, which I kept insisting to her was to celebrate her birthday. Luckily she took it in good humor. Anyways, I have many days ahead of relaxing in Greenpoint and visiting school and camp friends. That's right - I'm conducting a Word Up East Coast Tour.
Sidebar: Why I am Buying a Gun and Moving to Montana (Part VI)
Long time since I had a personal homeland security gripe but heregoes. Costco was hassling me today about buying sodas at their Astoria store. The issue was they would not honor my tax-exempt form for our non-profit. Each time I've gone they've told me something different about this. Then while I'm questioning the manager on their policy he says this:
"You cannot make a purchase without a purchase order from your organization. After 9/11 they passed a law that says that. You know, they want to know where the money is coming from and all that."
Now mind you, I was already ambivalent about buying from this community-killing big box store (apparently they're the cheapest option for bulk sodas). I was also really annoyed that it takes them 20 minutes to figure out whether or not they can let me off w/o sales tax. But I just totally went off on him for the following reasons:
1. I'm really annoyed with him because he's said this to me on another occasion.
2. He's lying- this is not a law. (turns out it's just a Costco policy)
3. I know that the legal burden for ensuring our tax-exempt status is not abused falls on our organization, not our merchants.
4. He references 9/11 for something totally not related in order to end the argument (turns out it's not related to 9/11)
5. He's tacitly implying (although I don't think he quite realizes it) that I'm going to use my "ill-gotten"$3.50 tax refund and 144 sodas to aid terrorism
6. He thinks that somehow Costco has the sole responsibility of ensuring that terrorists can't get tax-free wholesale frozen food, crappy books, or clothing.
Needless to say I cancelled my office's Costco membership.
mike sold out at - 04:13
9.08.2003
According to my sister (who goes to school at Indiana University):
"Peeing in the wrong places when you're drunk is like, the 'in' thing now."
mike sold out at - 21:11
9.03.2003
