T-shirt time
I made sweatshirt designs for my little cousins for Christmas and I'm going to give them today.
For Kira, who absolutely loves Meg from the White Stripes.
For Sam, who likes dinosaurs and things getting destroyed, like for instance, buses.
mike sold out at - 00:01
12.30.2005
Pataki May Veto Pension Refunds in Transit Pact - New York Times
NYT:
"Gov. George E. Pataki's office said last night that he was inclined to veto a key provision of the New York City transit contract settlement announced this week - one that gives 20,000 workers refunds of pension contributions - noting that he had vetoed a similar provision twice before."
Uh, is Pataki trying to provoke another transit strike? What a dumbass.
mike sold out at - 10:55
Credit where credit is due
12.28.2005
Bronx Terminal Market
full picture
Bronx Terminal Market, under the Major Deegan Expressway (I-87) along the Harlem River. There are dozens of specialty produce wholesalers here from all nationalities - the camera phone picture* completely understates the coolness of this place.
I was in the neighborhood today for work doing a survey and decided to check this place out before the city reams the area and either builds a mall or a Wal-Mart (no joke). There are cobble stone streets and the place is totally bustling. Too bad the city didn't fix up the place as is instead of making it look like any other place in America.
*=got a free camera phone as a reward for 2 1/2 years of slavery, I mean service from Verizon
mike sold out at - 22:49
12.27.2005
Beer Time
My new favorite NYC manufacturer:
Volckening in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn makes the seven-figure machines that seal beer cans and bottles at national brewers like Miller and Anheuser-Busch. Recent changes in the process to have smaller amounts of metal in the cans led to a boom in beer-sealing machinery. Volckening employs about 60 people.
mike sold out at - 16:27
12.26.2005
Miscellany Stew and a Bevy of Links
mike sold out at - 23:03
12.21.2005
Two Funerals in Three Weeks
Sarah Small was a friend in high school, and while were weren't close, it is very shocking to have someone of such high promise pass away. At 25, she was already a Lieutenant in the Air Force. All who knew her would have sworn she was due to be a Senator, a President, the Director of the Red Cross, or all of the above. Even when she lost all of her possessions in a typhoon on Guam, she organized relief efforts to help the residents of the island. Really an amazing person and the world is poorer for having lost her.
Solomon Schnapp, my grandfather, passed away Sunday evening at his nursing home. He died at the age of 95 after living a very full life. We had the funeral yesterday on Staten Island, where he was buried next to his wife.
He always had these stock phrases that he used to relate to people. "Good bye and good luck!" he would say to everyone, whether he knew them or not. My Dad has explained it as being part of him running a pharmacy and having to relate to people while doing business.
I've been told using stock phrases is something that I do as well. I guess along with the name Schnapp, he's given me the trait of being a human tape recorder.
Grandpa led a lot of different lives. He grew up on the Lower East Side, and then moved to Borough Park, Brooklyn. He was a park attendant on the Lower East Side. He enlisted in the Army in 1942 and was a medic in the war. Apparently he was in the Battle of the Bulge and even was at the liberation of a concentration camp.
He was a pharmacist and a shopkeeper in the Bronx for almost a decade. His last job was being a chemistry assistant for the NYC school system. When he retired to Florida, he entertained at nursing homes.
Far more important than his work was his role as a father, a husband, a son, a brother, and a grandfather.
I'm happy that I made sure I saw him all the past few times I've been in DC. He even sang one of the last times I was there. "When you're smiling" was his favorite song and is probably how i'll remember him. If I'm singing Radiohead songs for people at the age of 90, I'll consider myself very lucky.
I will certainly always remember him for his humor, his love of life, and his spirit.
Grandpa, good bye and good luck.
mike sold out at - 21:25
12.20.2005
Dear New York
Just because the subways aren't working doesn't mean that the laws of the road do not cease to exist. If it's a red light, you don't drive your car through it. Also, you don't drive your SUV in a bike lane. Or swing your pickup truck around a car through a red light to make a turn onto a street that the traffic is completely stopped on.
The rest of you are awesome. The End.
Sincerely,
Mikebot
mike sold out at - 17:46
12.17.2005
Top 50!
My cousin and fellow industrial retentionalist Leah's album made Rolling Stone's top 50 albums of the year! I guess it helps to cook dinner for Robert Christgau.
PS- It makes a great present for those who like-a the music.
mike sold out at - 18:36
My Own Personal Songbook
Many moons ago, I laid down the challenge of finding a song you couldn't sing "Schn@pp" into the lyrics.
Well, my friends, that riddle has been solved and the answer is: Personal Jesus by Depech Mode. In order to meet the rhythm of the song, you must sing:
"My own, personal, Free dm@n-Sch n@pp."
Now it is technically possible to sing it as "reach out and touch Schn@pp," but that just doesn't meet the spirit of the challenge.
mike sold out at - 12:11
12.13.2005
The Average New Yorker
They talk about what the average New Yorker is like in this New Yorker article. But they're forgeting one thing:
The average New Yorker is a woman.
mike sold out at - 16:02
12.12.2005
Mikebot and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
So our technie did some work to our computers this weekend and then failed to make sure everything was working. So when I came in this morning, three of our computers, including mine, no longer had our profiles on them anymore. I haven't done any actual work yet today (4 hours into the work day), just frantically running back and forth between people's computers trying to make them work. I haven't even had my coffee yet.
Curse the day I showed technical aptitude and they thought I could stand in for Anne while she was on maternity leave! Curse it! The result is that I've lost all of my bookmarks, which I use heavily for researching land use and legal stuff, all of the ultra-customization of my computer, as well as my last two months of work email. This is the worst day at work since they rezoned the neighborhood.
Sigh. The only thing I've got going for me today is that I got Pakistani tea house for lunch and a Dunkin Donuts coffee. mmmmm.
Update: Just as I was writing this post, I made our part-time technie feel guilty and he restored my email box! All my settings are still missing though.
mike sold out at - 13:36
12.11.2005
transit strike?
I'm willing to wager $5 that there will be no transit strike. I think that the union's biggest weapon is the threat of a strike and once they use it, they've got nowhere left to go.
mike sold out at - 22:56
12.10.2005
Myspace
So this week, multiple people have told me I am square for not being on MySpace. So I set my profile right.
So friend me!
mike sold out at - 00:47
Credit where credit is due
12.08.2005
Found: Old Wall in New York, and It's Blocking the Subway - New York Times
Because I was an archaeology major in college, this is absolutely fascinating. Glaven!
Found: Old Wall in New York, and It's Blocking the Subway - New York Times:
"Three weeks after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority started digging a subway tunnel under Battery Park, the project hit a wall. A really old wall. Possibly the oldest wall still standing in Manhattan.
It was a 45-foot-long section of a stone wall that archaeologists believe is a remnant of the original battery that protected the Colonial settlement at the southern tip of the island. Depending on which archaeologist you ask, it was built in the 1760's or as long ago as the late 17th century."
It was a 45-foot-long section of a stone wall that archaeologists believe is a remnant of the original battery that protected the Colonial settlement at the southern tip of the island. Depending on which archaeologist you ask, it was built in the 1760's or as long ago as the late 17th century."
mike sold out at - 10:20
Credit where credit is due
12.06.2005
