crazy subway guy
I'm riding the F train from Brooklyn to Queens late last night after a movie fest with the FS gang when this guy decides to sit next to me. He's pissed at the world. Pissed at the NYPD. Pissed at George. And yes, he bloody reeks of goof juice.
For once I actually had a camera with me when one of these sorts of things decides to happen. Apologies for the angle but really I'm quite lucky I even got him in the shot at all, as all I did was pull the camera out of my bag and set it on my lap. Something told me Mr. Pissy wouldn't appreciate being videotaped.
Unfortunately my camera died right in the middle of taping (although I didn't know it at the time since the screen was facing away from me) so I only got less than a minute of his rather lengthy rant. There was a portion of time when he was slamming against the subway walls, which would have made for some quality screen time. Alas, my battery deemed it not so.
Oh I s'pose I should say there's some um, explicit language. So put the kiddies to bed (...nudge...Chris and Stashia). That is all. Enjoy my rant-laden life.
If you pause it and let it load for a second your viewing experience will be much more enjoyable.
The laws of the universe are beautiful, intrinsic, perfect. We know so much and so very little about this life. Biology is beautiful and I'm astounded that I am a part of it. How can life ever be dull or sad when there are millions of atoms bonding, photons flying, proteins twisting and curling, and polymerases zipping down molecules. I cannot imagine myself as anything other than a scientist.
And I'll say it. Only because I believe it wholeheartedly. Anyone who isn't is missing out on the greatest part of their life.
I'm donating my body to science. Burial is not for me. I'll rest in earth when all I can give is given.
sean bell protests
My last day of undergrad was yesterday and while I was at school I saw a group of people forming in front of the Brooklyn Bridge across the street. I remembered reading in the paper that Rev Al Sharpton was planning on executing several civil disobediance protests citywide over the murder of Sean Bell and the recent acquittal of the NYPD officers involved in the shooting. I was guessing this was one of those. I headed over there and passed about 30 NYPD officers lined up as a backup for crowd control.
And the equestrian police was on my campus, presumably for riot control.
I found out Al Sharpton and Sean Bell's family were at this location for the protest. They had blocked off traffic to the Brooklyn Bridge (at rush hour) and had organized tandem protests across the city at other transportation hubs like the Washington Bridge and Holland Tunnel. They were standing in the middle of the road surrounded by protesters, police, and news crews. I wandered out into the street (since it wasn't being used for traffic at this time) and tried to get a better look. A woman came up to me and said, "Do you wanna get arrested wit them?"
"No, ma'am."
"Then you bess stay out of the street, 'cuz they's all gonna get arrested."
(I stepped back on the curb.)
I found out that the group was going around getting people to volunteer to be arrested with them for increased publicity.
Turns out Al Sharpton was arrested along with the family members, and others were arrested citywide at the other locations. Everyone stayed peaceful though, no violence ever happened.
I don't know if anyone outside of NY knows about the Sean Bell trial. It's a big one around here, but I'm not sure it is anywhere else.
Dear Avocado,
We need to talk. I think you're out of line. I mean, I love you. Really. That's why I feel the need to write this. But you already know that don't you? Jason & I travel all the way to Times Square to get our beloved Chicken Avocado Wrap for you. We fight the crowds. We wait in line at ESPNZone...all for you. But I discovered your nasty little secret today. I mean, I always knew you came with a little baggage. I guess I just never realized how much. I went behind your back this morning after gorging on Roxana's delicious guacamole last night (don't worry, you were fantastic) but I felt like something was wrong. I looked up your nutritional information. I'm sorry! The internet...it was there at my fingertips, begging to be scoured for information! But maybe it should be you who is apologizing. 27 GRAMS OF FAT! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE! You're a fruit for god's sake! All that guacamole, all those chicken avocado wraps, all that love--wasted. Sure sure, the website says it's the good kind of fat. The mono- and the poly-, yes I know all about them. But I don't accept this. When I'm looking for a fruit, I'm expecting to receive deliciousness without the guilt. Sure, maybe I'll binge on you every few months, but I guarantee it won't be with pleasure, it won't be with love. I'll simply be fulfilling a biological need. I hope you're happy. I want you to know I found someone else. The mango. Roxana introduced it to me. I never appreciated it before. But you know what? It's delicious. And before I jumped into it with this one, I did my background check. Mangos help with skin complexion. And they invigorate the nerves. THE NERVES! So you can take your polyunsaturated fat and shove it, avo.
Love,
Mango Michelle
Dear Gasoline,
Look. I'll be completely honest. I forgot all about you. I haven't bought you in almost two years. But I was watching the news the other day. And now I know. You've let yourself go. You know, when I left Michigan you were hovering around $2.50 a gallon. But on the news I saw that you're flirting with $4 a gallon. What the fuck, dude? You think this makes me ever want to come back to you? I'm glad I left. I'm glad I sold my car. I'm glad I know exactly how much I pay for transportation every month. Because you know what? The subway is loyal. It gets me anywhere I want to go in this city and I pay one price a month. THE SAME PRICE. You could learn from this, petro. Because if you don't change your ways you better believe that when I leave this city someday, I'm going electric.
Some friends from Michigan have been crashing at our apartment for a few days and last night we broke out the brand new Mario Kart Wii game.
Wootsors.
Michelle's Wise and Expert Opinion: Fun, natch. The Wii Wheel (TM, ja?) definitely takes some getting used to. I thought it might be difficult to turn with, but it's not at all. The hardest part for me is remembering which button fires items and which one does the power skid. I keep mixing them up. Go me.
Least favorite part: The new battle mode. We've only done it a few times but it seems like you can only be on a team of 6. So the computer will play as the rest of the team, and you're not dead when all your balloons pop. Your team wins by getting points. When all your balloons pop you still come back. I dunno, I like the good old-fashioned balloon-popping deaths. There's also this coin battle, but I haven't done it yet.
Favorite part: Playing people from all over the world. We jumped on the Wii network and joined a race with like 16 other drivers from different countries. Unlike Super Smash Brothers, the M.Kart network doesn't lag AT ALL. It's amazing to be so connected. For those of you who are wondering, I did not represent our country well. I need to work on my skillz and give America a good M.Kart rep.
Very fun.
Very not studying for my Forensic Bio final.
Very d'oh!
Also, super excited for the new Wii Fit that comes out in May.
Exercise away from school?! Hells ja!
ok funny
So I noticed today on my stalkerfeed that Facebook has a new experimental feature called Facebook Lexicon.
It's basically a search engine that counts the occurrence of words on people's Walls. I messed around with it for awhile. I entered Michelle and the date with the highest incidence of my name was Christmas. I entered hey and the results weren't that variable except there was a noticeable decline on one day--Christmas again. I guess people were saying Merry Christmas Frankie instead of Hey Frankie on that day. So this is all fun and interesting to me but I want something more striking.
So I entered vagina.
zomg success! a spike!
The chart lets you zoom in to further satisfy your intellectual curiosity in human linguistics.
At which point I discovered, not to much surprise, that Valentine's Day has the highest occurrence of vagina on people's Walls.
i must be twitterpated
my brain is going a million miles a minute.
this weather isn't good for my education.
79 tomorrow?!
why am i at school & not swimming in the ocean?
| fun stories |
Alicia called me last night. All the way from her new life in Los Angeles. She told me she was watching Juno and it reminded her of me. She is officially the 5th person to tell me this...all independent of each other. Even an ex-boyfriend from 9th grade who I haven't seen in years wrote on my Wall to tell me. It's all very weird. I need to call up this Ellen Page and tell her that we share a statistically unprobable number of nucleotide sequences. Or something. Then Alicia told me all about her celebrity encounters, and man, she caught up to me in like half the time. LA is just oozing with those. Also, she will be back in Michigan this summer and since I will too for a couple weeks, we have decided to go skinny-dipping in Caddy. Hooray!
||
So we have a window in our shower here and while I was showering this morning a bird landed on the windowsill and just chilled next to me and my sudsy hair. So of course this brings me back to visions of Cinderella and Rapunzel singing love songs to birds on their windowsill. Of course this wasn't a beautiful medieval castle, but a dirty window with paint peeling off, and instead of hearing birds happily singing Disney songs, I heard cars honking and ambulance sirens, and of course it wasn't a pure white dove, but an infested New York pigeon. Alas, the moment passed me by.
||
So I try my best to workout a couple days a week at school. Well, the other day I'm down in the bowels of Pace University sweating away on the beloved elliptical and I'm totally and utterly parched. Like, I need some freaking water, yo. I dutifully finish my workout, but instead of going to the locker room to get my bottle of water, I make a beeline for the water fountain next to the basketball court. Zomg water ::outstretches:: I press the button on the fountain and just as I get my face aligned over the spout the water stream turns into a freaking geyser and nails me right in the FACE. Like, not a little squirt. I fucking got served. To make matters worse, there's the whole male basketball team practicing on the court right next to me. So instead of looking all sultry in my pink tanktop and glistening sweat, I'm a sputtering fool fumbling at my eyes trying to figure out if I lost a contact in the FOUNTAIN OF DOOM.
||
Woohu is no longer pay only. It's free again. Just like the good ol' dorm days. I guess Andy finally wised up and now he's getting a ton of new users. (Uh yeah Andy, people expect this shit to be free, mkay?) He's giving out 100 free invitation codes every month. Read the homepage: www.woohu.com for more details. My lovely friend Steve has been finagled into getting one. So here's Steve's new woohu. He takes really good photographs and works for Kodak (omg free printing) so hopefully he'll be posting some pics for us all. If I have any readers who would like to get on the Woohu train, let me know. Especially my New York readers in da house.
It started with me crying at school.
(Go me.)
And then ended with getting an internship at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Manhattan (the biggest DNA profiling lab in the entire United States), getting Coldstone ice cream with Jason, buying Juno on DVD, then making this my desktop:
[Thank you Rachel, thank you. PS: There's a bigger version here on my Flickr if your masturbatory habits require higher resolution.]
More about the internship later.
No more about me crying at school later.
I just want to move on from today, but I will say this:
I had an exorbitantly shit-tastic day at school up until 6pm. And when I'm rich, in a prestigious forensic position, I'm going to take the time to help students because I know the insane crap they have to deal with. The people that were there for me today made all the difference.
How can my whole world come crashing down and be rebuilt all in one day?
::uncurls from fetal position::
::
2008 14 April :: 8.59pm
:: Music: Modest Mouse- Missed the Boat
i gave it another shot. While we're on the subject
Could we change the subject now?
I was knocking on your ears
Don't worry, you were always out Looking towards the future
We were begging for the past
Well, we know we had the good things
But those never seemed to last
Oh, please just last
Everyone's unhappy
Everyone's ashamed Well we all just got caught looking
At somebody else's page
Well, nothing ever went
Quite exactly as we planned
Our ideas held no water
But we used them like a dam
Oh, and we carried it all so well
As if we got a new position
Oh, and I laugh all the way to hell
Saying, "Yes, this is a fine promotion"
Oh, and I laugh all the way to hell
Of course everyone goes crazy
Over such and such and such
We made ourselves a pillar
But we just used it as a crutch We were certainly uncertain
At least I'm pretty sure I am
Well, we didn't need the water
But we just built that good goddamn
Oh, and I know this of myself
I'd assume as much for other people
Oh, and I know this of myself
We've listened more to life's end gong
Than the sound of life's sweet bells
Was it ever worth it?
Was there all that much to gain?
Well, we knew we'd missed the boat
And we'd already missed the plane
We didn't read the invite
We just danced at our own wake
All our favorites were playing
So we could shake, shake, shake, shake, shake
Tiny curtains open and we heard the tiny clap of little hands
A tiny man would tell a little joke and get a tiny laugh from all the folks
Sitting, drifting around in bubbles and thinking it was us that carried them
When we finally got it figured out that we had truly missed the boat
Oh, and we carried it all so well
As if we got a new position
Oh, and we owned all the tools ourselves
But not the skills to make a shelf with
Oh, what useless tools ourselves
There's this guy on Flickr who keeps tagging my photos as "beautiful," which is flattering and all but they're all photos of me and since Flickr doesn't distinguish which user adds a tag to a photo, it just looks like I've been sitting around tagging myself as beautiful. It's all rather awkward. Can't he just leave a comment saying "hey there fancy pants" ?
Anywho, Remy was in heat last night. How do we know? Well, she was acting funny and Googleland told us why. What does a rat in heat do exactly? She runs in circles, jumps on our laps, scurries up our pantlegs (ow claws), and her ears do this weird vibrating thing. Oh, and she arches her back and sticks her butt up in the air.
I know Remy, I know.
It's like she loves us more (surprisingly enough she seems to love me just as much as Jason, although I lack phalic accoutrements) and she's also (somehow) more spastic.
I'm at work, not working. Jason is at home, pretending to work.
via G-chat(sors) Jason: i'm using the same exact test as a year ago, 'cause i'm lazy! me: that's my boy. Jason: mmm, Sr (that's loser ABA shorthand for reinforcement) me: THEN WHY DOES IT START WITH AN S??
o god, you people are worse than i thought. Jason: to make your head explode me: done and done.
PS: Rachel! Jason bought Portal and he didn't tell youuu! He even played it and loved it but he didn't share his love with you! What kind of woohu friend is that? /tattle.
Every time I encounter tourists from France on my way to school I have the urge to talk to them. I usually help them out because the smile on their faces is so rewarding.
I forgot to post this a few days ago...
Start: April 4, 2008
End: January 1, 2011
The Mission: Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.
The Criteria: Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on my part).
Why 1001 Days? Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple goals such as New Year's resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organizing and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.
Click through the picture to see my favorite NY oasis.
The Las Vegas Series
I finished this album awhile ago but kept forgetting to link it here. I cut our 600 photos down to 100 uploads. Then I spent an hour of my life adding titles, descriptions, and tags. Oy.
So cozy up to your computer some groggy Saturday morning with a cup of coffee and browse the city of sin, courtesy of yours truly. Click the picture above.
Laaastly
since A Fine Frenzy is my favorite female artist as of late, I thought it would be polite of me to share her fantasticness. We went to her concert for my birthday and it was lovely. I uploaded a song on my Box (heh. box.) so you can listen to it. If you like it (which you will), I even give you the option to download it.
Whoever said only children don't share their things?
But man do I love her. I never would have expected it, but a rat makes a fun pet. It's kinda like having a miniature ferret. Except it doesn't like bells. Or any noise. Ever.
::
2008 1 April :: 2.21pm
:: Mood: accomplished
:: Music: Arcade Fire - (Antichrist Television Blues)
Best of 2007
This is hella late, and I still have a few flicks to pick up from Netflix, but I figured I shouldn't wait any longer.
Top Movies of 2007
1. There Will Be Blood
2. Ratatouille
3. Once (2006)
4. The Darjeeling Limited
5. Juno
6. No Country for Old Men
7. God Grew Tired of Us (2006)
8. I Am Legend
9. Knocked Up
10. The Bourne Ultimatum
11. American Gangster
12. Breach
13. Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix
14. Zodiac
15. The Simpsons Movie
Top CDs of 2007
1. Arcade Fire :: Neon Bible
2. Modest Mouse :: We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
3. A Fine Frenzy :: One Cell in the Sea
4. Radiohead :: In Rainbows
5. Johnathan Rice :: Further North
6. The Shins :: Wincing the Night Away
7. The Decemberists :: The Crane Wife (2006)
8. The White Stripes :: Icky Thump
9. Spoon :: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
10. Grinderman (2006)
11. Bright Eyes :: Cassadaga
12. Foo Fighters :: Echoes, Silence, Patience, & Grace
13. Once Soundtrack
14. Rilo Kiley :: Under the Blacklight
15. Silverchair :: Young Modern
on the set of Law & Order
Law & Order is filming an episode next to my school.
So I stole some food from their catering cart outside.
Mmm, donuts and trail mix.
I don't have my camera so excuse the grainy, indescript camera phone picture. That's the view from the window where I work. The apartment directly across is where they are filming. I always used to look at that apartment when I was bored at work because it was so freakin pimp. Srsly. I guess Law & Order liked it too.
the marrow of mirabelle
Have I ever told you about Mirabelle? No, it's unlikely. I've kept her hidden. She's been a part of me since 2005, when I lived in Goldsworth.
Schizo?
No, don't worry.
Complex.
Michelle is an analytical thinker. She is the scientist, the ambitious one, the level-headed, lab report writing, education whore. She swallows documentaries whole, falls asleep with an Einstein biography on her chest, and craves all the knowledge the world has to offer.
Mirabelle. Well, she creates. She gives into her inhibitions. She is a photographer and an abstract writer. She would rather describe something than be told what it is. She closes her eyes when the wind is in her hair. She smells the pages of her books because the musky ink is intoxicating. She lets sand slip through her fingers and wants nothing more than to capture the world between them.
We are vivid silhouettes. Once, maybe two years ago, I wrote an entry that I wished I could fade into Mirabelle. I was questioning everything I had stood for. The biochemistry. The labs. The work. I wanted to leave it all. But somewhere along the way I realized it was all the same. I could be both. I could let go and still succeed. I could find my balance. I found it here in New York somehow. I don't remember one instance or point where I clicked together, but looking back over the years I see that it happened somewhere.
So I present to you Mirabelle. My other half.
I'm not crazy, but you can't expect such a delicate balance of cells to operate rationally all the time can you? We all have a purpose. I just happen to have two.
This introduction comes on the cusp of an "unveiling" of the Marrow of Mirabelle. The quotations are in place because I'd rather it not sound so dramatic. It's really not. I converted my old blogspot into a connection point for my internet network. I look at it as a nucleus. You can connect to all parts of me there that I want you to know about. It was inspired by Mira because she often creates and keeps up places such as that.
You know you love Woohu if... I ganked this from Jessa.
You are logged in with cookies.
You have woohu as your homepage.
Andy is on your friends list more than once.
You know Rachel ends all her entries with "I love you all."
You refer to periods of your life by referencing what your user icon was.
You have ever done a Gunny sighting.
You know Andy as Gunny.
You have referred to your real life friends by their user names. As in- "You know Kevin? You know, tuwang?"
All your entries have changed security levels five times.
You participated in the entry with the most comments.
You have ever wondered who Homsar was.
You've stopped by dead journals and posted a comment saying "I miss you."
On Facebook your 'website' is listed as your journal.
You were excited when the 'mass action' feature was created.
You noticed when Andy changed the saying.
You are part of any community journal.
You remember what the old saying was.
Your password is 'helloandy'.
You get nostalgic for the old school front page.
You are part of the Woohu Peeps Facebook group.
You paid the two dollars.
You have private, friends only, and public entries.
You think about what you are going to post when you aren't at home.
You remember emo Andy.
You've gotten drunk and posted something embarressing.
You've ever posted a entry that simply said "No posts here anymore" or "This site is dead" or "Wow, it's been a long time".
You have a t-shirt and even the old magnets and stickers.
You have a homemade woohu t-shirt.
You've been banned by Andy.
You are from Cedar, Boca, or Spokane.
You've ever started a flame war.
You ever wondered where those invitation codes were hidden.
Your user number on Bzoink is in the double digits.
You have a This Crush and a Fake Pop.
Jessa paid your two dollars for you.
You were part of Woohu Day.
You are friends with both members of 'the show'.
You have a 'secret journal' you think nobody knows about.
You know everyone else's 'secret journal'.
A large number of these are embarrassingly true. Er, I mean awesomeingly.
