WTF?
From Time Magazine, July 24, 2006, issue:
The number of potential terrorist targets in Indiana is 8,591.
The number of potential terrorist targets in New York State is 5,687. Times Square is not listed. (Not in Time, the Brooklyn Bridge is listed, but isn’t a high priority.)
The number of potential terrorist targets in California, the most populous state, is 3,212.
WTF?!?!?
7/22/2006
BBC’s Flashbaction Weekend
You gotta love the old British detective shows. BBC America’s having a weekend of the shows The Saint, The Avengers (with Diana Rigg!) and The Prisoner. Three words, awesome, awesome, awesome!
In other news, I celebrated my birthday recently. Thanks to all of you who called and wished me a happy birthday. A friend made a request to Rant & Rave about it. Well, it took me an hour-and-a-half to make a half-an-hour journey home. The blackout in Queens (which has been going on for about a week) meant that on Wednesday the trains going to Queens were very limited. I work on the West Side and live on the East Side, so I usually take a crosstown train (a train that goes on to Queens) and then make my way up the East Side.
I went to one station, saw that the platform was packed, and immediately made my way to the other train, where I waited for 30 minutes while only 3 trains went by, all packed, all not an option. I finally ended up walking half the way home before grabbing a train on the east side. This with bad knees and heels.
Well, Adam and I were on vacation the week before, so I wasn’t too bummed. And I did get Munchkins at work…
All this comes to my point. For the love of all that is good and pleasant in the world, please conserve your energy. Unplug appliances you don’t use regularly. Cell phones chargers use huge amounts of energy just waiting for something to be plugged in. Are there computer components that aren’t in use all the time? And do you really need the AC on that high?
Companies are also to blame. They have lights on in rooms that aren’t in use. The AC is usually really high. And why do the lights and computers in office buildings need to be on at night? All this chalks up to a ton of unnecessary energy consumption.
It may sound cliche and corny, but a little bit of discomfort now can save us all from a week long blackout in the future.
7/8/2006
I’m on a roll…
I used to be on a bagel, but seriously folks.
A couple of years ago, there was a huge covenience store/deli a block from me. It was an all right place, though I didn’t shop there often since the prices were a little too much for convenience store food. They did have some awesome fudge (I told you it was big.)
Anyway, they closed last year. I think it was because they couldn’t pay the rent. The place never seemed to have more than a couple people in it at any time, so that doesn’t surprise me. It was empty for a little while, then there were construction workers chopping the place in two (It looks like it was originally two stores.) One of them became a restaurant, and the other became a 7-11 - the bane of modern existence. All the processed food you can eat and then some.
And with a super-cheap, super crappy convenience store comes loads and loads of cops. Talk about cliché. Now I’m not actually complaining about the fact that there are many (many, many) cops in my neighborhood, but we’re talking about the Upper East Side of NYC - not exactly the crime capital of the world. Before the 7-11, there were plently of cops walking around here. I don’t know if they’re just starting out and need an easier neighborhood, or if they’re supposed to be somewhere else, but I remember once seeing a cop on almost every corner on my way home from the subway (there wasn’t anything special going on that I knew of.)
Of course, this neighborhood isn’t a cakewalk. But there are far worse neighborhoods. At least stand to the side of the sidewalk and don’t yell at the jerk who’s honking his horn. You’re worse than the kids who hang out there after school.
7/7/2006
OMG, two posts in one day
I didn’t want this blog to be about me, but my friends are really the only ones seeing this (and even then I can’t get them to visit the site,) so here goes…
This summer, I plan to do the following: finish the play I’ve been working on for over 5 years (a modern adaptation of Macbeth,) get a tattoo (of Bettie Page on the back of my thigh,) and learn Japanese (based on an online test, but I like the idea.)
I hope to have a working first draft of Mac and Beth by the end of next week (I’m on vacation, yay!!!) Of course, now that I’ve told you, I have to go through with it. I’m definitely going to get this tattoo, and I was going to take a film acting class, but I was lukewarm about the idea anyway, so I’ll take that $ and get some language tapes.
7/7/2006
Where’s Superman?
So this morning on NPR, there was a short news story about how officials foiled a terrorist plot to blow up the Holland Tunnel, thereby flooding the Financial District.
Not to make light of the whole thing, especially remembering the London train bombings one year ago today, but doesn’t this plot reek of Lex Luthor? Or any comic book supervillian?
No, definitely Lex. He has the panache to pull it off and go out for drinks afterwords.