The Thin Red Line

This is a clip from my favorite movie. I guess it’s in many ways, and in different ways, my theme song for life.

It has some amazing actors, amazing cinematography, and a great story.

It’s sort of an existential and life searching version of Saving Private Ryan (which was also good but not nearly as good).

It may seem cheesy and awkward watched out of sequence, but what the hell, I just want to get you to be interested enough to watch it.

Fight the Power: Office Space

Cars in NYC

A huge pet peeve of mine is when cars turn right when pedestrians have the right of way.

We dutifully wait for our turn to cross and then drivers act like they’re doing us a favor by letting us cross, and are practically driving over us turning right while we’re crossing.

I’ve started a campaign of pointedly and ominously glaring at drivers who do this (and walking even slower) as I cross to attempt to condition them never to do it again.

Not sure if the campaign is working yet.

Join the fight.

Words to Live By

“[I]t’s hard to stay mad when there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much. My heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst …

And then I remember … to relax, and not try to hold on to it. And then it flows through me like rain. And I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life. You have no idea what I’m talking about, I’m sure. Don’t worry … you will someday.” – Lester Burnham in American Beauty

Lost in NYC

Sometimes I just feel like I’m lost in NYC. Time for a full strategic retreat from NYC to higher ground.

My Photography: Bolivia 1999

Weekend Friend Blog Stroll (April 1-8)

MROD “Blog Master” Rodriguez has Subway Thoughts. I’ve had some as well...so many issues on today’s subways.

2.0 Keeps things in perspective by watching babies giggle to themselves.

Viviana “La Loca” Perez blogs like once a millennium, so she’s still asking… Do White People Work at Whole Foods? Can somebody please let her know that if she’s going to create an entire blog, she may as well write more than three posts…as lovely as they are.

Henry “el Caquito” Obispo also blogs once a millennium and is still asking about Black&Latino Relations. Diddo for him.

Bollywood’s Brain discusses the Middle East and reminds us that Bill Gates is a dick.

Hot Girl…is still hot (although not yet my friend…I’m working on it).

I’m not entirely sure what Ghana Girl is talking about, but it’s something sexy about Middlesex.

Monica has gotten her blog called Pura Vida going. Check it out.

LCJ is soon to be Dr. J (myspace account needed)

Oscar Girl has found the best love song..ever. Maybe it will be the soundtrack to the movie she shouts me out for!

Sabrosura…basically no longer writes anything. Shame… (myspace account needed).

Iquo talks about her Love Lesson.

K-Shaw is the only person left without a blog….besides Rupa.

Defeat or Strategic Retreat?

That’s the new philosophical question I have recently been pondering with the help of my partners in crime. Oftentimes we can’t go for gold on something and have to settle for something less than the absolute ideal, but when is it a defeat and when is it a strategic retreat?

Some people like our esteemed President can’t distinguish between these two things. And yet, they’re very different. Moreover, the ability to strategically retreat is critical to many famous ultimate victories such as World War II (in the Phillipines), the Cold War (the moderation of the response to the Cuban Missile Crisis), Vietnam (for the Viet Cong), and the Battle of Marathon (for the Greeks).

So how do you know when you have embraced a defeat, or just a temporary strategic retreat?

It’s tough to know but important to understand so that you don’t lose heart over a strategic retreat and mistake it for a defeat, and so that you remember that a strategic retreat is just that.

Sometimes the odds for your objectives in a certain period of time are basically insurmountable, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t just walk around the mountain in your way…i.e. strategic retreat.

For example, friday night MROD and I were went out to see a Comedy Show. I will put commentary on the show aside, except to say that despite some funny comics, it reminded of all the reasons why I don’t go to comedy shows.

Moving on, after comedy show style we traveled to get some macaroni and cheese at this place that ironically serves only that (while we were eating it Bollywood’s Brain called and MROD accurately described the entire meal as disgustingly East Village..which it was…but damn it’s so good). And yet, I love the East Village. Sorry Brooklyn.

Moving along more…. we had been planning to go to a friend’s b-day party, but were so tired and filled up with mac & cheese, that we decided to call it a night ad go watch TV (sorry Caroline…we’re really old now).

Part of the reason was that we were exhausted from the previous night’s festivities at Babel on my technical birthday. The other part was that we wanted to save energy for the weekend birthday party celebration. We also didn’t want to go to an expensive, crowded, commercial club.

Then again, we may have missed out on a great party, we missed a b-day, and could have met the woman of our dreams (even in our only slightly conscious states).

Defeat or Strategic Retreat?

Politics Can Be Sexy

Especially if you stock the house with wine and have a spare bottle of Havana Club laying around! All the more with MROD’s photo by photo commentary on it all.

Obama 08!

Today I Turned 27

I would usually have some witty diatribe discussing age and aging…. But at 27…. I’m out of funny insights.

Please do offer them!