JB’s Blog

Well for all of you Mets fans in Manhattan, and neighboring Time Warner served areas, you know we cannot see the Mets because of a dispute between TIme Warner and Cablevision.  Cable companies through vertical integration now have stakes in some of the channels they provide.  This is especially problematic in the sports realm.  Cablevision has stakes in MSG and FSNY which broadcasts 2/3 of the Mets games during a season.  The other 1/3 can be seen on broadcast tv.  The problem is they are the New York Mets, and Cablevision only serves Long Island.  Therefore when a dispute arose with Time Warner, Cablevision no longer allowed TIme Warner to carry those channels and us Met fans are blocked out!

Well Time Warner has recently advertised that to minimize our inconvenience, they would refund us $2.00/month.  So over the course of the approximately 6 month baseball season, I will save $12 on my cable bill.  A nosebleed seat at one single game is $15.  I miss 90+ games because of this dispute.  Also, my cable bill just increased by $5 a month two months ago, and so even with this rebate, I am still paying $3 more a month…and getting less!!!!  Gee Time Warner, thank you.  I feel my convenience is minimized :/

I really wish there was more competition in the Cable marketplace so that when two mega corporations are catfighting, the rest of us could give them a big F.U.  Unfortunately, living in the city, I cannot really switch to dish (i’m in a courtyard), and Time Warner is the only cable service that services my block. So essentially there is no competition.  I feel as if every Met fan arranged to all cancel their service at once on a particular day, then we get this resolved.  But let’s face it…none of us want to risk any prolonged period without cable…*groan

Well this story comes tro you from my freshman year of colleges, way back in 1999.  Yes it is a tale from a century ago.  I had just come out of some fine dining for lunch :/ with some of the people from my floor.  I was walking back babbling away about something stupiud I am sure, when as I was about to put my foot down, I noticed there was a bird that well, wasn’t flying away.  So I hopped over it.  The two girls I was with and I look down and the bird is staring off into to space just not moving. 

Now this also happened to be parents weekend at my school, and my folks were due any minute.  So sure enough they pull up and see a bunch of us staring at this bird.  Somehow, being the jackass I was, pretended to care about this bird and say, and agree to go with one of them to bring it up to the animal hospital at my school with our new found "ride" (my parents).

So one of the girls goes back to her room, puts on a pair of gloves and lifts the bird into a shoes box.  Then one comes with my parents and I into the car and up to the hospital.  The whole time the bird is not moving, not flying at all (which is a good thing since we probably would have crashed the car if it started flying around in there).  We get to the hospital take the shoe box out of the car, and as we are walking to the entrance…of course the bird decides to fly away.  An hour of my life gone…over a stupid bird!

Okay so has anyone besides me noticed how unbelievably quickly a pop tart warms up in a microwave.  Seriously you put in for like 7 seconds and it comes out with the inside steaming hot and all melted.  I mean nothing else really heats up that quickly.  Cheese doesn’t melt that quickly.  Try biting into it right away after it comes out of the microwave, and you could burn the crap out of your mouth.  Maybe if we line containers with pop tart remnants  stuff could heat up really quickly, in case the four minutes for a microwaveable meal is too pressing.

So I have one last MTA story.  A couple of months ago I was taking the LIRR from Manhattan to the island to visit my cousin and folks for the weekend.  Normally my ride takes 50 minutes.  Well as the train approaches Merillon Avenue, we find out the track has a problem.  Therefore we have to wait for trains on the opposite track to go, and be cleared to go on that track.  We also had to backup to a point where we could switch over.  Well, this was a Friday Peak train.  So there were trains stuck behind us.  So we have to wait for those later trains to either back up or go first. 

So seeing as it looks like I am not going anywhere for awhile I take out a Snickers…okay i didn’t, but maybe they’ll send me some free ones.  I figure this is a good chance to call people, and so I call my grandmother.  Then I call my parents who are picking me up at the train station to tell them we are late.  Well they call back , now I have been sitting still for 50 mins.  As I answer the train starts moving and I tell them.  The things is I have to tell them, we;; we’re moving backwards, and we continue to move backwards for another five minutes.  Then we finally get to go forwards.  So my trip took two hours…great way to spend a Friday night.

I think this is not just me.  I don’t know, maybe I am wrong, but it seems like there are people in life who always seem to say we should get together or meet up sometime, and that sometime never comes.  Certain people can never give a specific date, but prefer to go with the sometime approach.  And it is somewhat mutual.  You’ll both acknowledge it’s been awhile, and then go yeah we should meet up sometime.  Then the conversation ends, with that sometime never being figured out.  Then weeks or months will go by. 

Well for those of you in New York, you know this past weekend the weather was great.  I had to get outside.  So I decided to pack up my laptop and bring my books to Bryant Park and  do some work there.  What’s great about Bryant Park is that they have free wireless internet.  So basically I get to do exactly what I’d be doing at home but be outside with just one exception…usually there are no people that pee right in front of me at home.  After about an hour there I look down and notice a puddle dripping my way, and I look up from the book to see three feet in front of me, some guy has whipped it out and just started peeing on the ground.  There was no bushes or anything to cover him.  I guess he reached that point where he was like, hells dogs can do it…Needless to say I took that as my cue to leave.

Ok, how come everyone thinks your=you’re.  Your deals with possession.  You’re is the contraction of you are.  It is already a shortened version dammit…it doesn’t need to be shorter.  Yet people will always write your instead of you’re.

Now don’t get me wrong, I certainly shorten many words when typing, just not into completely different words.  For example I notice when I say the word probably, I kind of mumble my way through the b’s, maybe because I’m a New Yorker, I dunno.  So i’ll type it as prolly.  It’s actually caught on with most of my friends.

One night I was supposed to meet a friend of mine at a bar on 40-somethin street and 8th avenue.  This means I had to get to the Times Square stop.  She called at 11:30 to say she was there and to come down.  I decide to head to the union square station and take an N, Q or R train there.  I’m waiting and waiting and ten minutes go by.  I see a train coming down the express track but it is going unbelievably slow.  In fact I see it coming for another 5-10 minutes before it gets there.  Turns out it is going like 1mph with cameras analyzing the track for problems.  As it passes through it lets out an unbelievable amount of heat.  Clearly no trains are coming on the express track anytime soon.  The MTA guy says to look at the local track for trains, they’ll be coming there.  I hear clanging and look over at the local track.  There are 4 guys standing on the track, chatting away while one of them is prying up pieces.  Call it a hunch, but I figure no trains on these lines are coming in the near future, and I let the guy know this.

I have two options, I can get out and walk up to the 7th avenue stops, or i could walk to the 4,5,6 tracks, takes those uptown to grand central, and then take the 7 train to times square.  Since I did not have a monthly and every swipe costs me money I stay in the station and do the latter.  I wait another 10-15 minutes for a train to show up along with a bunch of other displaced people.  Then I get to Grand Central and wait at least 20 minutes for a 7 train to come!  I get to the bar after 1:00am!  She is ready to leave by then.

Let this be a lesson.  If someting seems screwed up late at night, just take a cab.

I’m not sure what I ever did to the MTA gods, but public transportation in the metropolitan area has been cruel to me.  Whenever I have to be somewhere there seems to be some sick passenger that got sick at the stop I needed to get off at so I need to get off at a stop before, or a stop after and either walk or take the train back one stop.  Then when I allow for screw-ups, they run like clockwork and I am really early.

One of my favorites is when you are waiting for a Long Island Railroad (LIRR) train and the train pulls up, and the car you are lined up with has doors that do not open.  You’re standing there wondering what is going on, c’mon doors open up…and then you notice everyone else is on the train.  Now you have to rush to another car along with the other poor folks who chose the lucky spot on the platform, and you dive through the first open door just in time for the door to close right on your arm (yeah that really happened).  Then I have to plead with the conductor that she might want to open the door for all the old ladies and children I pushed out of the way to get on the train (i’m kidding about that last part).  Then the conductor looks bewildered that a car is broken.  You think they might notice something is wrong when NOBODY IS IN THE CAR!

First of all I don’t know how many of you watch 24 (it’s a telelvision show for those out-of-country).  After every episode before they show previews for next week, they advertise to buy the soundtrack that is a collection of all the music over the first three seasons.  I do not recall any music.  What is it going to be, 12 tracks of buh-buh-buh-buh.  That’ll get annoying.

Secondly, earlier this week my dad sent me an email for the very first time ever.  Not my mom using his address, actually him.  Granted all he had to do is hit reply, all he typed was one sentence, it was a terrible joke, and the first letter of all the words was capitalized.  But we’re making baby steps

Finally, I appreciate all the messages you guys I have been sending to me directly on Friendster.  I stopped replying (except for people in the tri-state area) because I am getting A LOT.  I do however, read them all.  Like I said you do not have to be my friend to read my blog, it has a direct web address of http://jb.blogs.friendster.com