Friday, January 18, 2002

Ugh. The Jerked Chicken effect has worn off, and Im having trouble breathing again.

Guh.

Hey! Product idea!

Jerked Sauce nasal spray!!! SinusEverclear(tm)!

No?

You're right. A lot of people would be suffering from pepper burns ....
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Internet Cafe: Times Square

The muzak playing is now ALL Mariah Carey. WTF?

Incongruous moment: Track with Ol' Dirty Bastard comes on.. and suddenly 20 guys spontaneously become The Internet Cafe Hip-Hop Chorus, singing in perfect time and tune with ODB.

The Whole Track. A chorus of Urban Young Men singing along with Ol' Dirty Bastard.

They know all the words to ODB's guttural growl.

Incongruous moment II: As his part fades out, it becomes clear that 3 guys are also singing Mariah Carey's part. In pitch-perfect falsetto.

Three Young Urban Men singing along with Maria Carey's falsetto, in perfect tune.

I kid you not.

I dont know the words meself.
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Coffee and a buttered bagel from a breakfast cart in Midtown. A buck.

A GOOD bagel, mind you.

Cant beat that.

New York.

Made an executive decision this evening..

I got a Jerked Chicken dinner from a local joint on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn. Whoo, it was something.

Cleared my sinuses sumthin fierce, washed down with some... astringent.. ginger beer. (Made by D&G, the Red Stripe Beer brewers).

More money than I want to spend around now, (and more food than Ive eaten inna while) but Im not gonna have access to Caribbean goodness for awhile, so hey.

MAN. I forgot how spicy this schtuff is. Spiced, slow-grilled chicken, long cooked rice and red beans, pepper-marinated vegetables.. oooh.

JPennant: Man, Im gonna miss the patties and rice peas being out there...
george: Well, you'll find some other stuff to get up on, grubwise.
JPennant: wha's good?
JPennant: guess I'll grubbin on mostly asian fare?
george: I reckon. Curries and such.
george: Went to Berkeley Bowl today.
george: They do sell Red Stripe.
JPennant: heh, naturally :-)

JPennant: I do have a prejudice for where I eat out tho
JPennant: how to put it...
JPennant: It has to be a 'regular folk' kinda joint. nunna that 'doin it for the esoteric experience' crap.
george: I don't know of any joints on that tip, West Indian/Caribbean sadly.
JPennant: Oh, I meant in general.. not specifically Carib
JPennant: I can do without Carib until I get back. :-)
george: So, like a diner?
JPennant: yeah. unpretentious, neighborhood joints.
JPennant: Like, if you asked me for a great place for Jerked Chicken
JPennant: I wouldnt send you to some frou frou place in Manhattan
george: I get that.
JPennant: Id send you to specific neighborhoods in Brooklyn or Queens.
george: yeah, I understand what you mean.
JPennant: yep. same difference
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The Daily News had an advertising section, to get people shopping and eating in the downtown area again..

What drew my attention was a full page ad featuring Jackie Chan, for ChinatownNYC.

I have NEVER seen chinatown advertised as a cohesive place before. Its been pretty vibrant and self-sustaining before...

Never needed it, really.

Hmm.

Thursday, January 17, 2002

Nothing' really...
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Decided to expedite the process a bit and prep ye olde laptop for road duty.

@%^#$$%$ microsoft. Reminded me why I turned away from IT.

All I really wanted to do was make Eudora roadworthy. And that was two days ago.

(Adventures with IE, PPTP, memory conflicts, oh my..)

Came to the belated realization that even trusty Eudora has its limits.. (my inbox file is 3 years old and 7 megs in size..)

*sigh*

Common sense sez I shoulda tossed Ye Olde Laptop (A Toshiba 4900CT.. Pentium 75/800 meg drive/16 megs of RAM, circa 1994.. you get the idea) but GODDAM it still runs good.

Eh, it was free.

I just flipped it off. It can wait.
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WTMI Dept..

LilBro was looking at me funny the other night..

LilBro: Dont take this the wrong way brotha....
Me: what?
LilBro: You look so.. I can see your NECK again.. Man, you look .. you look so DIFFERENT now.

Yep. Weight loss continues.

Of course, there is bad news to this.

You know stretch marks? They appear when you gain?

Well, when you lose... the stretch marks un-stretch and become these.. guh.. wrinkles.

Not a pretty sight, as I discovered this morning...
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One of the things you dont discover about NY until you get here.

Dust.

This is an old city, with old buildings... and it generates a lot of dust.

The detrius of humans, machinery, animals, vermin, nature. And it accumulates.

Go outside, and you breathe in a lot of dust. Go inside.. and you breathe in even more.

Living outside the city made me forget this I think..

People were looking at me funny as I wore a towel over my face in the house.

Dust.

Guh.
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I had the sense of waiting for other things to happen.

Well, even when the offer came out of the blue, I was far from surprised.

Changes my plans only slightly. (I'll tell ya later, fred... IF it works out.)
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Heh. Had my ego stroked this afternoon during my daily walk.

After much loud honking, they finally got my attention.

What? You hear horns all the time in the city.

F**: Boy, didnt you hear us HONKING at you???
(She turns to her friend in the drivers seat..)
"C****, this is Joe. Joe, C*****. He's single too. He is a SWEETHEART."
Me: "You gonna move with me out west, C*****?"
C*****: "Oh no. You mean Im not gonna see your pretty face around here?"

Oooohhh. I'll take the ego strokes where I can get 'em. :-)

Grey beard an' all.

Monday, January 14, 2002

What am I waiting for?

I glance at my horrorscope today, and:

If you try too hard to solve some kind of problem today, you'll miss the obvious answer, so relax your body and clear your mind of irrelevant thoughts, and before the sun has set, you'll have reached the right conclusion.
If you're hoping to travel some time soon, now's the time to make plans - but leave yourself some wriggle room
::nod::
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Sunday, January 13, 2002

Funny how its the little things you miss..

With Ma ill and not here... Its sunday morning, and there is no one here serving up Ackee&Saltfish and Tea..

Funny, I never even liked the dish growing up.

I could go out to any of the local caribbean places and get some.. but its not quite the same.

I wonder if I'll be able to find patties and ackee on the West Coast.

Doubt it.