A Day Too Late, But I Found Mai USB Drive!

And almost in time, too! 

Here’s to my 26th birthday!

Now… time to get some sleep!  After spending about 30% of my waking hours today playing Arcanum (reinstalled it even though I’ve beaten it twice over the past eight years) I think my mind – and my eyes – are totally shot to hell.  I’ll be back soon with additional … ummm… what was I typing?  Oh yes – must get sleep.  Good night everyone, and thank you to all those that called me to wish a happy birthday, and a shout-out to all those who posted on my Facebook wall!

EDIT: I forgot that the wordpress servers are located on the west coast… hence the 6/11 posting.  Oh well. EAST-SIADE!

Battle of the Buses

The primary way that I’ve gone to and from DC has been by bus, being that I don’t own (or care to own) a car and all.  That said, for several months I’ve been a pretty loyal customer to Eastern Travels, which is one of the bus companies that operates under the more commonly-known Chinabus – you know, the crazy-cheap busline that gets you to various places in the northeast on the cheap?  The past month, however, I have finally gotten around to trying the alternatives to the Chinabus: Bolt Bus and Megabus, the more organized competitors to Chinabus.

So without further ado, here’s my quick, early-morning review of all three buslines!  Personally (and at this particular juncture in my life), pricing takes top importance, followed by comfort and then extra amenities such as sockets and whatnot.

CHINABUS (EASTERN TRAVELS)

Pros: cheap ($21 w/ online fee); fun to be on, especially when you get a crazy driver!

Cons: when you get a crazy driver, you may be delayed thanks to the 5-0; very disorganized and sometimes shady; almost always packed to capacity; delays frequent on Friday’s.

I’ve spent the most time riding the Chinabuses out of the three, so I can definitely give some stories of what I’ve seen over the months, most of which isn’t good for this bus, especially after trying the alternatives.  Pricing aside, you have to be really careful when booking on Friday evenings; every time I did the bus was delayed at least 30 minutes, although one time it was delayed over 2 hours, long enough to say “Fuck it” and jump on Amtrak instead.  You definitely have to have a sense of adventure to ride these buses, since most of the time the drivers are plain psycho.  A common thing you’d see: Eastern Travel buses speeding while in the speed lane of a highway – like easily 75-80mph at times.  There was one time my bus was pulled over for speeding – ended up waiting about 25 minutes before we moved again – but we still got into NYC within 4 hours, which was amazing!  The departure and drop-off locations for Chinabuses are sometimes pretty sketchy, and can change on-the-fly, depending on the city and time of day.  In NYC, for example, they usually take up MTA bus line stops to pick people up.  But more drastically, they usually pick up and drop off in old parking lots between buildings or, in one case in DC, in a wide alleyway normally used for freight traffic.  Friggen awesome!  And Lastly, be ready for some crammed seating – because of the busline popularity, these buses are almost always stuffed to the ceiling w/ passengers!

BOLT BUS

Pros: very, very comfortable seating; sockets in every seat; all-American bus drivers that have bus licenses!

Cons: most expensive of the three ($25 w/ online fee)

I’ve ridden Bolt Bus twice, and in both cases I was not disappointed at all with my ride.  The buses never ran late, left almost precisely on-time, and seating was brilliant!  Everything about the bus was pretty slick: two sockets per person (very nice for my media player and phone) made the trip really good, and I personally had ample leg room, which is not a common trait in buses in my experience, given my height.  However, the pricetag makes it much less desirable today.  So…

MEGABUS

Pros: cheapest of the three ($19.50 w/ online fee); lots of space to yourself; movies shown that are good; double-decker buses!!!

Cons: sockets – ya either got ‘em or ya don’t; you could end up boarding a Chinabus chartered by Megabus.

The most recent run of buses has been Megabus, which initially blew me away by how cheap it can be, and then floored me when I had a socket to myself in the seat!  The fact that the buses are double-decked makes riding Megabus compulsory at least once, people!  The bottom level actually has tables and everything for groups of people I suppose, while the top houses the bulk of the seats.  Even with this arrangement, the seats are very comfy and despite the lack of overhead compartments, odds are good the seat next to you will be empty so you can utilize that!  However, the second ride did not have electric sockets, nor did the third, which leads me to believe that a small number of their buses actually have sockets, which sucks.  Also, when you go on their website you’ll notice that two types of buses run under the Megabus name: the trademark double-decker buses and then the single-level buses, which can sometimes “become” Chinabuses!  Whoa, dude, what’s up with that?!  I honestly don’t know, but because of this, I’ve always made sure I booked rides that were on the double-deckers so I knew I was going on a Megabus, er, bus.

FINAL CHOICE

~Megabus~

So there you have it, folks!  This will most likely be the bus I’ll be riding to and from DC for a good while.  Oh, never take Greyhound – they just suck 100%. Aight, time for me to pass out before I do just that on my keyboard… <yawn!>

Getting to the Purple Zone: “Yes We Did NOT!”

“Extre, extre, read all about it! Tens of thousands of people stranded and nowhere to go in the Purple Tunnel of Doom!”

Inauguration Day. Ahhhh, Inauguration Day. It finally arrived: the day practically the whole world was waiting for (though I’m sure Hillary had a different idea as to how it would go…). My friends and I woke up at 5am Tuesday morning, got dressed, wolfed down some simple breakfast foods, and left at 6am for one of the biggest political events in our lives. The 30-minute walk from my house in Southwest to the Purple Gates in the NW section of DC was uneventful, though we got an eyeful of military hummers, jeeps, buses, unmarked white vans, and black Suburbans driving around, parked everywhere, and generally making sure you KNEW what the hell was going on. As we walked closer to the Purple Gates, the increasing presence of police officers directing foot traffic definitely gave me that added amount of security, even if it got a little annoying at times.

Once we arrived at the Purple Gates around 6:30am, it was clear that we arrived late: the line looked to be endless, wrapping around the artificial barrier (made of 8′-tall metal fence) along C Street NW against some buildings, and looped back across the street, around the corner onto New Jersey Av NW, then around that corner onto D Street NW and finally banked left into the I-395 tunnel, where we got checked for the purple tickets, and proceeded in. Although I had my doubts, I was sure – sure – that we’d still get into the designated area. We walked down what would normally be an off-ramp into the closed 395 tunnel… and kept walking… and walking… and walking! Until around 6:45am, we reached the back of the line, which I’d say was about 1/4 of a mile into the tunnel at the time; we could still wee the offramp that led outside, but we were still pretty far in. And the people kept coming, making the line ever longer behind us until you couldn’t even see the end of it. (I learned today that the line for purple ticket holders stretched into my neighborhood, out to 2nd Street SW!)

It was here that my friends and I spent a good three-and-a-half-hours in, which includes the time spent slowly moving towards the tunnel exit. We didn’t get out of the tunnel until about 10:45am, at which point the true disorganization of what was supposed to be a very orchestrated process came to light. But before I get there, let’s focus on the positives, pretty much all of which resided back in the tunnel.

The thousands of people that were pretty much left stranded in what would ultimately be dubbed “The Purple Tunnel of Doom” were surprisingly jovial despite the circumstances and lack of security. A great example of this was a group of seven or eight guys singing a variety of songs in acapella, from “The Star-Spangled Banner” to “My Girl” seemingly to just keep the spirits of those around them up. And it worked in spades: scores of people sang along with them, their vocals echoing deep into the crammed tunnels, which followed by a round of cheers and applause from all around. This was kept up for about an hour, stopping only when they exited the tunnel.

Another great scene were the several drawings and quotes that were scribbled onto the very dirty tunnel walls, as kids and adults grew bored from the excessive wait. Some played tic-tac-toe; a picture of a lion and bear were being worked on by some pre-teens and an adult drew the Obama logo. Did I do anything involving the years of soot and dirt on those walls? Well, after listening to a couple of people constantly talking about “The Tunnel People” I decided to go ahead and write that on the wall as well, using my finger wrapped in a torn plastic bag to keep it clean.

Right after I completed “the” and began working on “Tunnel” I guess people got the idea of what I was writing because that was when the flashes of cameras and people cheering started behind me. Once I was finished, I pumped my fist in the air, cheered with them, and got back to my place in line. Unless the city decided to be complete douches and clean the walls (after all the years of just letting it collect shit from all the vehicles), I’m sure that message and all the other pictures will stay there for a long time.

So those were the really sweet parts of the time spent during the Inauguration Day campout.  And I can proudly say that I was one of the Tunnel Peoples.  But as I was saying before, once we got outside again around 10:40am, it was clear what the problem was, and that the rumors we heard while in the tunnel were true: the security checkpoint we were cleared for when originally entering the tunnel was no longer there, people who were already outside were simply cutting off everyone in the tunnel (hence our moving slowly outside, although that was compounded by us being funneled into a bottleneck back at street level), and the lack of police pretty much meant you could cut off whoever you wanted without repercussions.  Barricades were trampled on the streets as people streamed over what was once a controlled area earlier in the morning and there was little control over where people went, so entire streets became bloated with people all trying to get to the Purple gate.  By the time we got to about 40 feet of the gates, it was confirmed around 11am that the Purple gates were closed off completely and nobody was getting in.  At this point I was completely fed up and decided to go home to watch the inaugural events on TV.  It was a bit of a fight, but after breaking free of the crowds I managed to get home around 11:45am, just making it in time to watch VP Biden get sworn into office.  And although I wasn’t on the grassy fields of the Mall watching and listening to Obama live, I still felt like I was a part of something really special.  Hell, at least I can say I tried!

Once I get my hands on my camera I’ll upload a few more pics to help further sum up the day’s events, but since my camera is in the car – and the car is in possession of Jillian – and I’m not seeing her tomorrow cuz of an event she’ll be attending for the day – I won’t be able to upload anything till Friday at the earliest.

And with all that, I am through with this little rant.  I have a feeling I’ll be back with a Part Two of Inauguration Day, as I didn’t even tackle the other end of the day with the Youth Ball!  Stay tuned!

Dragging an SUV and Gran Torino

Today was an exceptionally long day, mostly because this Saturday I had to work.  And because I worked, I missed the company holiday party.  Don’t ask me why they have the holiday party a good two weeks after the holidays have passed.  Just hold it the Saturday before Christmas or something like most companies do.  And let’s make sure to lock in the date after I commit myself to a work-related event that would end up being the Saturday following the party.  An event that I would have no way of backing out of…

You know what I think of that?  It is this, my friends:

Yes, I went there.  It’s as fucked up as this blasphemous eyesore that is Loonatics, one of the worst uses of the eternally classic Looney Tunes characters.  Thank fucking god it was canned after a season.  And if any countries have syndicated this series, they should be glassed.  Period.

With that finally vented out, lemme tell you about my drive to and from work today… my 201-mile drive (402 round trip).  For one, I’ve been driving an SUV… a small one from what I’ve seen, but an SUV nonetheless.  Don’t ask me the make and model – I don’t follow that stuff unless I’m the one doing the renting, or if I’m stealing said vehicle in GTA4. All I know is that it has the Chevy logo on it… at least I think it’s Chevy… Anywayz, the point is this: flashing your headlights at people driving Corvettes and riced-out Honda’s is never a good idea cuz you’ll most definitely NOT win the race.  I think I averaged 80mph both directions to work today, and probably a little faster on the way home – at night, in the pouring rain, with no streetlights to guide me, and no guard rails to prevent me from flying into a tree, ejecting myself through the thick front glass window and make my head pop like a watermelon as it says hello to some 80-year-old tree that barely shrugs as the tonnage of the SUV and the 155 pounds of me settles onto its lower body.  So yes, I was speeding really fast, making rather reckless maneuvers through traffic, rarely dropping below 70mph – and MAN did it feel good!  And nothing brings out the racing fanatic in you like some good music, and fortunately I had two CDs with me (the SUV doesn’t have an AUX port to plug my Cowon into), both of which were perfect for hi-speed driving, so I was pretty jacked.

There were a total of three cars that I flashed my headlights at, which generally followed by me pulling up alongside them (usually at 75mph), turning on my interior lights, and nodding at them in approval (only one turn on theirs, but all got the idea), which then led to us taking “position” at either adjacent lanes or separated by at least one lane… and then at no particular moment, we’d just floor our respective pedals, usually leading to them blowing me out of the water like I wasn’t even there.  I tried keeping up with the one guy in the Corvette, making a LOT of risky moves like changing lanes with maybe 4-6 feet of clearance behind and in front of me while doing 80mph – this helped to keep up as he slowed down – but in the end they always got too far ahead to catch up no matter how fast I drove.  I’ve been told that people have been shot just looking at other drivers in the DC area… well, good thing I didn’t try this out here!

After I got home, I stripped out of my work clothes (finally!) and into my robe, only to get dressed again in record time to join my housemates for a movie!  The movie for the night: Gran Torino. I originally wanted to see this movie cuz it has an old white man being VERY racist and possibly killing lots of minorities.  After the movie concluded, I will say that I was smiling from ear to ear – and laughed a lot partly because it reminded me of my relationship with my boy Frank and how such a relationship can work.  Hahaha, just thinking about Frank makes me laugh… I gotta call that damned, dirty gook and see what’s up.  But in the end, I felt that Gran Torino was worth every dollar spent and is something that I am willing to see again – and I can’t say that about many movies anymore.  I mean perhaps I’d see Slumdog Millionaire again, but it would have to be on a date.  Or if I DL it.  But yea, I can’t think of many movies I’d want to pay to see, let alone pay to see more than once.  However, Monsters vs Aliens looks hilarious – I will definitely have to find someone to see that with!

So there you have it.  It is now almost 1am, I haven’t had dinner, I’ve been passing incredible amounts of gas (probably a side effect of taking a forced, semi-solid dump earlier today, which may have been triggered by my 100% solid dump that was incomplete two days before), and Noah called me like 20 minutes ago, which I will return following the posting of this entry. Now lemme find a quick snack to eat to settle my stomach as I go give Noah a callback.  G-Night everyone!

“I’m the best meng. I deed it!”

Ahhh, what a vacay this was! I’m currently waiting for my Amtrak train to roll in – waiting for my 10pm departure – while taking in my last couple of hundred breaths of the sweet New York air. Sure, it’s dirty and probably has some messed-up germs floating around in it, but it’s my NY air and I wouldn’t trade it in!

Cept that I am trading it in for awhile, living in DC and all. Since I haven’t flown into DC yet, I am not sure exactly how dirty the air is out there when compared to NYC. It may almost be safe to say that it is cleaner, only because there are less people and more vegetation surrounding metro DC. Either way, my lungs have been hardened by years of playing on a school playground 7 storeys above some of the most congested avenues in downtown Brooklyn.

But anywayz, I had a great time in NYC, from the moment I arrived just before the beginning of Xmas Day to the moment I left my family on the Brooklyn-bound Q train.  In a nutshell, I got the chance to see a number of my good friends both during and after Xmas, got to eat like there was no tomorrow – every day, and I had a lot of good laughs!  One of the biggest moments of laughter involves this YouTube clip that seriously brought almost everyone that watched it to their knees in laughter.  After showing it to my sister on the laptop, she nearly bowled over laughing (and lost it again when showing it to her bf), and Ben… well, he pretty much wasn’t breathing for a good minute the first time he watched it, he laughed so hard. And man, did he turn red!  If all of this hasn’t piqued your interest in watching this vid, just stop reading now, watch it, and come back to where you left off here – after you’ve composed yourself from all the laughing you’ll do.  For some reason, some of my friends didn’t find this clip amusing one bit, though they did feel really bad for the guy that was the focus of the vid (and said the line that comprises the subject for this post).  Alright… I’m going to watch it now, excuse me…

…

<wipes away tears and dries off hands> Ahhhhh, now that I can see again and calmed down, let me continue.

Another moment in time was when I got the chance to take care of baby Ariana (dunno if I spelled that right… I’ll check with my sis later), my cousin Sal’s latest newborn daughter who is just shy over 3 months old.  If there was a single word to describe her, it would be talkative! She just would babble and babble until she tired herself out from all the babbling, which everyone found really amusing and adorable (as you can imagine).  She was definitely the most friendly, lowest-maintenance baby I’ve seen in recent days, even moreso than little James, Hodge’s son.  She laughed and smiled at everything – it was really, REALLY cute.  And I rarely use that word, but babies tend to do so… unless they are Eskimo babies – if you’ve ever watched “Ice Age” you know what I’m talking about.  Jee-bus!  Even when she cried (it happened a few times, but it didn’t overshadow all the positiveness she was giving off – not by a longshot!) it was just cute.  The picture of Ari and me here doesn’t do her justice  – once I get my hands on a better pic I may come back to this and replace it with one that’ll make your heart turn into a puddle of goo.  Oh, and the sound she makes when she coos… wow, it’ll make you simply melt.  She also had a menacing grip on my fingers whenever she held them. =)

Xmas Day was a great day in the end.  Sure, I didn’t walk away with a lot of swag (a featured gift: GTA4 for the PC, which I’ll be installing promptly upon getting into my bedroom), but that’s ok, since I wasn’t expecting much, didn’t ask for much at all, and, unfortunately, couldn’t afford to buy gifts for as many people as I wanted.  For this two thousand and eight, Xmas meant more about spending time with some of my close friends and really appreciate their presence and their company.  Moving to DC and the holiday season was a double-whammy to my finances, but in the end, none of that mattered when the holiday season finally came to a head.  And although I won’t be able to come to NYC for New Year’s I will teleconference into the one or two parties I would’ve gone to and join my friends up north that way!  I do look forward to celebrating the new years with my housemates – I’m sure watching the east-coast events as they unfold on my projector is a great bonding experience for the four of us (assuming everyone is staying in – if not, I’ll just head to the National Mall to watch the fireworks).

So to conclude, this vacay was much-needed and was a blast, through and through!  I deed it!

Now You’re Playing With POWER!

It’s finally done! My multimedia center, after nearly two weeks of living in DC, has finally been re-established!  From 6:45pm to 8pm, George (one of my housemates) and I was busy running speaker wires and connecting everything up according to my specifications.  Once everything was hooked up and the audio tests for the Yamaha AV Receiver were completed, we satisfied his request with a round of Goldeneye on the biggest screen he’s ever seen!  Believe me, George was totally stoked about this and was very accomodating, which I was plenty thankful for.  We even converted my rolling multimedia cart to, well, a regular shelf which the projector now sits on top of.  Unfortunately, that puts the projector at just shy under six feet high, so it doesn’t take much at all to accidentally block the screen and, of course, playing games like Wii Sports will have to be done on the sides of the couch versus in front.  There is plenty of space, so I doubt a four-way tennis match won’t be a problem with some minor furniture adjustments.

That said, George and Paula had to leave for an outing, so Jillena and I played a couple of games to really break in my reborn multimedia center: Super Mario Bros 3, Mario Kart Wii, and Wii Sports (bowling) were all rocked extensively.  It almost doesn’t need to be said that I have a ton of gaming experience, but it must unfortunately also be mentioned (briefly) that Jillena hasn’t seriously played games in over 12 years… so with the exception of bowling, she was pretty bad.  It’s ok though – most people get pretty good at video games when hanging with me while I play, so I’m sure Jillena will be no different.

That said, why the hell am I still typing?! I have two weeks worth of console gaming to make up!  Peace!  To hell with sleeping!