Flotsam & Jetsam » Random Thoughts

Large Popcorn, Large Rootbeer, Extra butter.

Zeke — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 03:55:10 +0000

Why is it that people who work the concession stands at movie theatres always appear to be depressed and hate their jobs?Â Â Can’t be as bad as working at a regular fast food joint – at least you get to see free movies.Â I’d think that was a pretty good perk.Â Sure beats all you can eat McNuggets….

Sent from my handheld.
Expect typos

me,me,me

Zeke — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 00:56:30 +0000

Why is it that people always seem to think just because their time is worth
nothing, that others is as well? How many times have you been in line
behind some at checkout and watched as they spent 5 minutes trying to find
their money, ticket or receipt? Then spent just as long completing the
transaction – counting out exact fucking change for instance? Take my
lovely trip through the subway today. The Wall St stop is busy. I get
down into the station and all the turnstiles have a queue. So, I get in
line behind this woman with my metro card in hand. Her time at the stile
comes and … She starts digging through her goddamn purse looking for her
wallet, THEN has to find the friggin’ card. By the time she was done, I
had jumped into another line, gotten through and was 1/2 way to the waiting
train (which she missed).

Grrrr…….

Center of the universe?

Zeke — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 04:28:08 +0000

Every 90 seconds

Zeke — Sat, 27 May 2006 22:40:18 +0000

Lots of things don’t work well here in Russia. Duh.

One of the things that does work well though is the Metro in Moscow. It’s absolutely amazing. Trains come every 90 seconds, all day long. Granted, the trains are old, but they’re a hell of a lot more clean than the ones in NYC, have comfy seats and moves more people than the NYC Subway and London Tube combined. Plus, the stations are absolutely amazing.

If the Russians can do it, why can’t the MTA? This is one place where we can certainly learn. But they won’t.

Grrrr……

White Nites in the Motherland

Zeke — Sun, 21 May 2006 18:14:02 +0000

White Nights in St. Petersberg. Wow. It’s 11pm and still light outside.
We hit the ground, took our xfer to the hotel and …. started drinking.
Welcome to Russia. If anything, it’ll be an interesting week. More later.

Z.
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Adventures

Zeke — Sun, 21 May 2006 18:06:49 +0000

As always – a simple trip started with an adventure. Long story short –
the driver who came to pick us up locked his keys in the car with the
engine running and my luggage in the trunk, so I put my Pelican case
through the rear window.

Grrrrrr……
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Rubiks Cube

Zeke — Fri, 12 May 2006 03:03:46 +0000

I have lots of toys and crap on my desk – I’m a programmer, thats what we
do. One of those toys is a Rubiks Cube. What amazes me is how many people
will walk into my office, pick the cube off my desk when I’m not there and
…. proceed to screw the whole thing up. I recently put a cube that was
3/4 complete on my desk to see what would happen. Within days it was
partially scrambled.

Grrr…..

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Sent from my handheld.

TMI?

Zeke — Fri, 12 May 2006 02:40:21 +0000

Oh, today has already been a doozie.

I get on the 4 train headed to work and stand by the exit door. The guy sitting in the fold down rumble seat next to the door is a middle-aged latin guy, built like a bull and looking like he could kick my ass without breaking a sweat. As I’m standing there, he pulls 3 different boxes of enemas from the bag, reads the labels, grunts and puts the Fleet branded one in his pocket. That was really more info than I wanted to know about a fellow traveller – even if it is just the subway, but I wished him luck when he got off at the next stop. I don’t think he heard me. He seemed to be in a bit of a rush.

I really hope he waits until he gets home.

I want a Cone of Silence

Zeke — Fri, 12 May 2006 02:24:44 +0000

What is it about some groups incessant need to speak at the top of their
lungs on the subway? I mean really – I’m sitting clear across the car,
have headphones on blaring the Damned and I can hear you. Surely, the
person you’re speaking to – who happens to be sitting 2 feet to your left
can hear you.

Grrrr…….

Sent from my handheld.

Toilet Paper Wars

Zeke — Thu, 04 May 2006 15:50:35 +0000

Which way should the toilet paper be put on the roll? Over the top, or under? I’ve noticed that lots of people have strong opinions on this, but rarely discuss them. When they do express their opinion – it’s generally in a strange passive / agressive way. I’ve seen it at house parties a couple times. You go to the bathroom and the TP is in one position. You go back and someone has turned the roll around.

I wonder where this preference comes from – nurture or nature? Do your parents instill it in you or are you born with a preference at birth? Is one more recessive than the other? Both my parents kept the roll under, and my brother and I both do it. We also all have recessive blue eyes – coincedence?

In my house you can always tell who changed the roll last – over the top is Niki, under is me. It hasn’t been the topic of any discussions (much less arguements), but you can tell we each have a strong opinion in the matter (surprise). Here’s the question – if / when we have kids, which way would they want it? If they have blue eyes will they like it under, and over if they have brown? I guess only time will tell…..

Grrrr…..

Bomb Scotland

Zeke — Wed, 03 May 2006 04:21:55 +0000

What is it about the NYC subway platforms that attracts musicians playing obscure instruments? Seriously. I’ve seen more plastic bucket drums, zithers and qin’s while wandering around the subways to last me a lifetime. Occasionally I run into someone who’s really good, but most of the time they just suck and I turn up my mp3 player and drown them out.

Not tonite though. Tonite was not my lucky nite.

As I stepped onto the N/R/W platform at 59th street, I heard a sound I will hopefully never hear again – someone playing free form jazz on bagpipes. I shit you not. Now, I generally like free form jazz – especially when it’s played on a sax or trumpet. I’m also not unfond of bagpipes. There are times when bagpipe music is really the best medium. But, these are 2 things that should NEVER be mixed. Not only was this person an incredibly bad bagpipe player, but they insisted on holding one note for extended periods of time. Repeatedly. I wanted to jump in front of a train – if one ever came. To make matters worse – my mp3 player was out of juice so I couldn’t even drown it out. Luckily the N came before I decided to walk down and pop a hole in his bagpipe. I’m still trying to shake the headache. Grrrr…..

Cooking with Fire

Zeke — Mon, 01 May 2006 05:28:31 +0000

Ok, got blog by email setup. Now I can post my random thoughts via email
from where ever I am and not have to jot them down and post them later. Let
the rabblerousing begin….

Starting Up

Zeke — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 23:23:08 +0000

I’ve been thinking about putting this thing up for a while. Thank god for procrastination or I’d never get things like this done.

Not quite sure what I’m going to write here, but I’m sure it’ll piss people off.