Spur of the moment voting

November 2, 2010 – 11:23 pm

I voted today. Hooray!

I actually hadn’t planned on voting. I thought that I wasn’t registered to vote, but then I saw Nelson’s nifty I Voted Foursquare badge and got jealous. So I checked on the interweb and it turned out I was, in fact, registered to vote AND my polling place was less than one block from my apartment. So I got a nifty I Voted Foursquare badge as well.

My rent is too damn high

Also exciting: Jimmy McMillan, candidate for The Rent Is Too Damn High Party, was on my ballot. As high as my New York City rent is, and as much as I love handlebar mustaches, I will admit that I voted for a different gubernatorial candidate.

Hmmm, my rent is actually due today…I might be regretting my vote…

Meh, I’m sure you are who you say you are

I find it pretty crazy that a photo ID is not required. I just had to state my name and address after which they showed me my previously scanned signature (from the DMV) and then all I had to do was copy the signature directly below it. I guess if the two signatures look remotely similar then the trap door doesn’t open below you. My signature looks like two scribbles anyway so if someone wanted to impersonate me two years from now it probably wouldn’t be all that difficult.

Maybe they will be more daring than me and actually vote for The Rent Is Too Damn High Party…

1 Comment / Posted in: politics, Tech

One full year in New York City

October 20, 2010 – 9:08 pm

As of this month I’ve been back on the east coast, and living in New York City, for exactly one year. It’s been a while since I’ve given any updates, so as I sit on a wifi equipped Virgin America flight from JFK to SFO for a short west coast visit, I felt that it is only fitting to reflect back on the past year and give an update on how things are going. So here goes:

Things are going great

There you go. Updated. Okay seriously, it’s turned out to be better than I ever expected. New York City is so much fun and there’s always stuff going on. Plus, you don’t have drive anywhere and worry about parking. Plus, there’s amazing food on every corner. Plus, the music scene is incredible. Plus, the seasons change.

In summary, I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather live at this stage of my life. But with that said:

New York City is expensive

I had been making steady progress on my student loans, but I feel like I’ve slowed down quite a bit since moving here. I’m not sure if it’s just the allure of a big city, but I find it harder not to splurge on things.

How long will I live here?

I don’t know, but I have no plans to leave anytime soon. I’m having too much fun and there’s a lot that I need to accomplish here. I’m guessing I’ll be a city slicker for at least the next four years. After that it might be time to mellow out in the suburbs somewhere, but then again, maybe not.

P.S. Gogo inflight wifi is pretty sweet.

P.P.S. The “Mile High” Foursquare badge I just earned is pretty sweet as well.

1 Comment / Posted in: life, Tech, travel

New toy

September 6, 2010 – 9:01 pm

I wasn’t looking to buy a new guitar this weekend, or anytime in the near future for that matter, but it happened. Fate. I’d like to believe that it wasn’t me that found the guitar, it was the guitar that found me.

It’s been a long term goal to eventually buy a new electric guitar. I sold my previous one in California before I move back to the east coast and I’ve been meaning to upgrade at some point, but I’ve had a few other toys to keep me occupied for the time being and a few reasons why I shouldn’t be spending my disposable income on things that make me happy.

The Gibson SG Standard has always been my dream guitar, but they don’t make the natural sunburst finish anymore and that’s what I really wanted. It’s certainly not impossible to find, but it’s difficult to find new. My options were to either resort to buying it from some weirdo on eBay (ugh) or to search around in random music stores until I found it. I made a mental note to keep an eye out but I wasn’t in any rush.

But as fate would have it, I randomly wandered into the 30th Street Guitars and there it was. One of maybe four SGs that they had total. I was in shock for a few minutes. As I stood there staring up, with my jaw almost touching the floor, and the store clerk asking me to please stop drooling on amps, I remember vividly hearing Wayne Campbell proclaiming “It will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine.”

Or maybe I had actually said it out loud.

I knew I wanted it, but I still needed some encouragement to dish out a substantial sum of money. In the past I would have just flipped a coin or asked a magic 8 ball, but we have the Internet now and the Internet is never wrong.

So I asked the Internet.

And within a few minutes I got the answer I was looking for. “Outlook good :)”. Good enough for me!

“Not today, my good man. I’m feeling saucy. I think I’m gonna buy it. Do you accept…cash? Cha-ching.”

No Comments / Posted in: life, music

The end of StudentPwned.com

June 17, 2010 – 4:57 pm

If you’re one of the dozen or so people that would occasionally stumble upon my Student Pwned website, I have some bad news: I’ve retired it. I only have myself to blame. I think the last blog post I wrote on the site was in April 2009.

When I first started the site it seemed like a great idea and a good way to help other people out there in the same financial situation as me, but I just don’t have the time to work on it anymore. So rather than keep the site up collecting dust I decided the best thing to do was to just shut it down.

Well, not completely. You can still follow my up to date loan balance and I’ve also added a graph of my balance history, updated monthly (thanks Google Chart Tools). It was also a good opportunity to mess around with Google’s new Font API, which is incredibly simple to use.

4 Comments / Posted in: Uncategorized

The most annoying thing ever

May 14, 2010 – 10:42 am

This is probably the most annoying thing that I have to deal with at work:

Someone: URGENT! OMG we need [some project] built ASAP! There’s no time to spare! Puppies will die if we don’t act quickly! The apocalypse is imminent!!

Me: Okay. Here is [some project]. Please send me your feedback.

wait 3-5 days…

Someone: Can you change X, Y and Z? Also, we decided to completely change everything. Can you make these changes ASAP?? Puppies will die!!!!

Me: :(

1 Comment / Posted in: wtf