Semi-Intelligent Thoughts

That Was Fast

Well, the internship is over. I'm heading back to Pittsburgh tomorrow. Wow.

Of course, the difference between this and every other time I've headed home is that I'm planning to come right back as soon as I find an apartment. I've got better connections and experience now, so I may actually be able to find a real job sometime this year.

Also, I know I kind of slacked off on the stories, but I can still share some interesting memories once I'm home.

In the meantime, just to give you an idea of what the past six weeks have been like, my resume now includes all the following experiences (my thoughts in italics):

• Transcribed several hours’ worth of interviews [The main reason I haven't blogged more]
• Performed research for various projects [Google is my friend]
• Located and organized several hundred digital photos/images for use in a documentary [Google Image Search is my friend]
• Logged and captured footage using Final Cut Pro [I was the only intern who already knew how to do this]
• Converted DV files from PAL to NTSC [If you understand all three of those abbreviations, you could probably do this one too]
• Ripped and burned DVDs [I don't even know if we had the rights to do this]
• Performed script coverage [I never actually finished this because the guy who gave me the script went to work on another project and still hasn't come back]
• Assisted in transporting and setting up equipment for shoots [Fun with FYF and Frenchy]

And that's just the stuff that's worth mentioning to potential employers. It doesn't even go into all the time I spent sweeping floors, rearranging closets and shelves, buying food for people, etc.

Anyway, more details to come later. Also, I saw a huge rat in the subway station yesterday, and I can't think of a better way to work that fact into a post than this.

UPDATE
So, a little while ago, I thought I smelled smoke, and it was gradually getting stronger. My two remaining roommates (the one I was actually sharing a room with has been gone for a week) and the one guy's girlfriend just left, so I went to the common room to investigate. Here's what I found:

At least open some fucking windows before you smoke cigars in the fucking apartment, you fucking inconsiderate shitbags.

I'm kind of glad I'm moving out in 12 hours.

Also, as long as I'm taking pictures of my roommates' stuff, here is some of their alcohol (or at least the evidence of its consumption):

Wooo.

CD's Midtown Adventure

I know it's hard to believe, but I actually went outside and did something on Sunday.

I'll give you a second to recover from the shock of that sentence.

Anyway, I figured that since it's my last weekend in NYC (for now, at least), I should probably use it for something other than sitting around, so I headed up to Midtown Manhattan to check out Times Square and The NHL Store.

I took some (very low quality) cell phone pictures during the day, and there are quite a few of them, so for the sake of everyone's browsers, I'll continue this in the extended entry.

(DISCLAIMER: You probably won't understand half the jokes/references in this post unless you're a hockey fan)

Obviously, you can't go anywhere if you don't know how to get there, so I printed some subway directions from HopStop and headed out.

This ended up being rather interesting, since they're working on a bunch of tracks this weekend and changed some of the routes. I somehow managed to get on the proper train and transfer to another one without too much trouble, and after a long and boring ride, I emerged from the station at Rockefeller Center to find that The NHL Store was right next to it.

Convenient.

I circled around a couple times to get a feel for it...

...And then I found the front entrance...

...And headed inside to check it out:

At first, I was, as Penguins head coach Michel Therrien would say, kind of disappoint. I expected the store to be bigger and have more eye-catching features. I eventually tracked down some good stuff, though.

However, as you can see in the center of the previous photo, I was immediately kicked in the balls by this:

They could at least put a Pittsburgh Satan jersey next to it or something.

Fortunately, the pain was soon alleviated by a rather large reminder that the Pens still have the best player in the world:

There are a few more of those "larger than life" things throughout the store, such as Alex "watch me shoot puck" Ovechkin...

..."Jumbo" Joe Thornton...

...And Martin "the only reason the Devils keep making the playoffs" Brodeur:

For some reason, despite the fact that he was second in both points and MVP voting, they didn't have a picture of my favorite player, Evgeni Malkin. This just goes toward proving my theory that the league hates him for skipping the 2007 NHL Awards. Or maybe they just didn't want to look biased toward the Penguins. Whatever.

Anyway, the front of the store also features a promotional thingy for the 2009 Winter Classic:

Also featured is the "NHL Chopper." I don't even know:

Note the subway exit right outside. I told you it was convenient.

There's also a board or something with some autographs on it, but I couldn't figure out whose they were because athletes aren't allowed to write legibly:

A bit higher up, there are screens playing NHL Network stuff, as well as a big chunk of hockey sticks:

As they advertise, the store has jerseys from every NHL team lined up around the windows. For example:

I like how they make the Crosby jersey even more desirable by putting it between two that nobody is ever going to buy. Work on actually getting some fans, then you can sell merchandise. One step at a time, Southeast Division.

I hear that the store sells some pretty cool Dany Heatley and Daniel Briere jerseys too, but I couldn't get pictures because they're only visible between October and April.

(Insert rim shot here)

I think I also saw a Chris Osgood jersey, but I accidentally brushed up against it as I walked by, and it crumpled to the floor.

...Anyway...

The other clothing-related items range from cool, old school stuff like this:

...To pointless and retarded crap like this:

Also in the "retarded crap" category:

Although, to be fair, a Rubik's cube is probably more exciting than watching either of those teams play. It would give you something to do after the Devils take a one goal lead.

In the...whatever is the opposite of "retarded crap"...category, they have the Penguins' 10 Greatest Games DVD collection:

Fun fact: I already own this and have watched every game at least once.

Getting back to old school stuff, there's some pretty sweet early NHL equipment on display above the merchandise:

In addition, there's a case of autographed pucks off to one side:

Moving on, check out the entrance to the fitting room:

Despite the Obstructiontown theme, I have to admit that it's kind of cool.

In the back, you can see the booth where Gary Bettman tries to convince the audience that the refs aren't incompetent they air NHL Radio shows:

Finally, they have the actual Stanley Cup on display:

Of course, by "the actual Stanley Cup," I mean "a cheap decoration that kind of looks like the Stanley Cup." Not a huge difference, right?

Incidentally, I have seen the actual Stanley Cup (or possibly the replica cup they put there sometimes) at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, but that was years ago.

So, that's about it for that portion of the adventure. I didn't actually buy anything because there wasn't a whole lot of Pens stuff that interested me. It's not like I really needed anything, since I already have a Malkin jersey, a Malkin t-shirt, a Penguins t-shirt from Fan Appreciation Night, two Mellon Arena White Out t-shirts, a Penguins logo hat, and a Penguins Eastern Conference champions hat, as well as a bunch of posters and pictures, as I pointed out back in June. But it was interesting just to be there and check it out.

On the way out, I took this artistic shot of the building:

I think that picture would look good on the cover of an elementary school social studies textbook.

The next step was to get back home, but in order to do that, I had to go to 42nd Street Station, which is in Times Square. The trip to the general area was uneventful, but I took a picture just for the hell of it:

Soon enough, however, I arrived at Times Square, and things got a little...well, crowded:

After wandering too far and backtracking a bit, I did manage to find the station, and I successfully navigated its labyrinthine passages to locate the proper platform:

At this point, I waited...and waited...and waited...and waited...and waited. You see, I was waiting for the 2 train going downtown on the 7th Avenue express route. A couple of local 2 trains came and went on the track behind me, but I just watched them go by.

What I didn't realize until I took a closer look at some flyers posted around the area was that the 2 is only running locally on weekends for part of this month, but it still hits all the express stops, so I could've gotten on either of the ones that passed by.

Oops.

Anyway, I got on the next one and made it back to Fulton Street without further incident. When I left the station, it was raining a little, which soon led to this:

A bunch of people were gawking at it as if they'd never seen a rainbow before. Also, I heard some guy behind me say that he was going to "go beat the shit out of that leprechaun." Oooookay, dude.

That's about it. I stopped at a Subway and got a sandwich, then headed back to my room and ate it. I didn't take any pictures of that, though.

So...comments? Questions? This post took a really, really long time, especially when you factor in how long it took to upload, download, then re-upload all those photos, so I hope you all enjoyed it.

Later.

TODAY...WE CELEBRATE...OUR INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!

So, I fulfilled a lifelong dream tonight.

Yep. I finally did something I've been wanting to do for almost ten years...

I watched the Macy's 4th of July Fireworks live. They were almost all visible from the common room of my suite. Being on the 26th floor of a building two blocks from the East River has its advantages.

The smoke obscured the fireworks from one of the barges, and there was a building in front of the barge closest to us, but still...holy fuck, what a show.

Also, after the display, I did the opposite of what the old CD would've done and stuck around watching TV/movies with my suitemates and their friends. We watched some of Independence Day, hence the post title, and a couple other things.

A quick tip: If you want to lighten the mood during Independence Day (assuming other people are already going MST3K on the thing), say "Oh, shit! They have virus protection!" during the scene where Jeff Goldblum's character connects his laptop the the alien mothership. It worked for me, at least.

Of course, they're all out at a party now, and I'm still here, but since I don't expect them to just magically invite me to something they were planning to go to before I showed up, I'm not taking it as a sign of failure. At least I didn't make an idiot of myself like I normally seem to in these situations. I still have to learn to keep my damn mouth shut sometimes, but I'd say I'm making progress.

The fact that I'm 23 years old and I'm still analyzing my social performance to this degree says a lot about my life up to this point...but hey, it's never to late to improve yourself, right?

...Right?

The Adventures Continue

I think I figured out how I'm going to get to work.

I think.

Anyway, if I had to think of one word to describe today, it would be "ironic."

You see, I seem to keep ending up in situations that don't allow me to interact with others, despite the fact that I'm actually looking for social situations now rather than actively avoiding and/or running away from them like I did in the past.

Let's go through the day.

I started off by taking the NYU bus to campus, and it was eerily quiet most of the way. There were only about half a dozen people there, so that's kind of understandable. Still, I had already started noticing something: Everyone here seems to be preoccupied at all times with their own business. Whether they're talking on their cell phones, reading various materials, or whatever else it is people do, they don't seem really interested in anyone else.

Moving on...

The first order of business was to get my official ID card so I can get in and out of buildings. Kind of important. After walking around in circles for about 15 minutes, I finally found my way there, and there was a line from the card production area all the way to the door.

Those two are not in the same room, just to give you an idea of the congestion.

This is where things got interesting. I actually started looking around for someone to talk to, since it was obvious that I was going to be there for a while. After a couple minutes, another guy in line went all the way to the front to see how long it really was, and when he basically announced to everyone else that he could barely see where it ended, I made a casual comment in an attempt to start a conversation. We both kind of laughed about the ridiculousness of the line...and then he decided that he didn't want to wait and proceeded to leave.

Shit.

So, there I was once again, standing by myself with nobody to talk to. In front of me was a dude who had barely even moved since I had been there and didn't look like he wanted to even make eye contact with anyone else, and behind me was a dumpy high school girl who was watching/listening to something on an iPod and loudly snort-laughing every 30 seconds.

Again, I go into the situation actually looking to socialize, and one attempt doesn't go anywhere, leaving me in a situation with no other clear opportunities. Why couldn't I have been standing next to, say, a couple of cute girls who needed help finding their way back to the bus stop?

Just once, let me catch a break, universe.

After a very long time, I did manage to get to the front of the line, and the situation left me slightly pissed off, as you may be able to tell from the card photo:

(Fun fact: My hair looks weird because I forgot to use conditioner last night)

The next step of my day was to attend a class meeting for the internship course I'm technically enrolled in. I actually did manage to talk to the two other people who showed up early while we were waiting to get started, and I was thinking of possibly asking them if they were going somewhere to eat afterwards, but...oh, wait! I had to stay after the meeting to talk to the internship coordinator about getting my credits changed.

Shit. Again.

So, I ventured over to the student center food court and proceeded to sit by myself near the balcony eating a sandwich. Fun times. At one point, there was a girl (are you seeing a pattern in what's on my mind lately?) sitting a couple seats down eating by herself, and I guess I could've tried to start a conversation, but I have no idea what I would've said.

After that, I headed back to campus, again on a bus full of people either talking on cell phones or reading.

Let me reiterate once more: I used to actually try and create situations where I wouldn't have to talk to anyone, and I would try and find tables far away from other people when I ate so I wouldn't be bothered. Now, I actually want to socialize, and every time I try/plan to try something, it doesn't seem to work, and unlike the first weekend at Syracuse, for example, when orientation activities basically forced everyone to try to make friends, I've been thrust into a situation where everyone around me already has their own business and isn't particularly interested in anything else.

Wow, that was a long sentence.

An observation: One of the things that caused me some trouble in the past was that I tended to avoid eye contact and speak in a fast, kind of subdued tone so people couldn't understand me and/or thought I was trying to end the conversation. Also, the way I look in the above photo was the way I used to look all the time (except I was about 45 pounds fatter). I seem to still be slipping back into that persona occasionally, although I'm trying to exude more confidence. Interestingly, it's happening more around authority figures than my peers, while it used to be just the opposite.

I'm not sure what to think about that.

Oh, well. I start my internship in the morning. Maybe that will go more smoothly if I don't get lost in the subway system.

In closing: Somebody please be my fucking friend. Attractive, intelligent females, go to the front of the line.

Thank you.

Hooray for Awareness of One's Surroundings

I just realized tonight that the bridge in the foreground of the photos I've been posting is the Brooklyn Bridge. I'm not sure how that escaped me for so long.

They've done a pretty good job of repairing it in the 10 years since it was used to trap Godzilla.

More to come later, if I ever finish planning my itinerary for tomorrow.

Morning in New York

Another picture for your enjoyment:

Fun fact: I went back to sleep for another five hours after I took that picture.

Another fun fact: I didn't have to get out of bed in order to take it. That's a really interesting view to wake up to when you have a paralyzing fear of heights.

Also, I'm pretty sure my new roommate thinks I'm the world's biggest douche for staying up so late last night while knowing that he had to get up at 6:15. On the other hand, he left the blinds open, which caused me to wake up multiple times, so maybe we're even.

Also, it's almost 2:00, and my other suitemates are either gone or still asleep, so maybe my schedule is the norm now. Or not.

Wasn't I supposed to be making progress or something? This is surreal.*

Yet another fun fact: All three of the people living with me have first names that begin with B. I almost feel like my being assigned here with an exotic first initial like "C" was some sort of affirmative action initiative.

Oh, well. Time to get back to emailing the production coordinator at my internship in an attempt to figure out how the hell I'm going to get there tomorrow morning. Apparently, most of them take the subway and then walk the rest of the way. It's a good thing I've been exercising.

*Warning: Authors in post may be more optimistic than they appear.