Best Friends

 

I used to see these two guys in the mornings at the bus stop going to work. They would walk over, sit down on the bench, occasionally say hello to me, chat in Spanish for a little while, then get up and walk away. Every morning, without need to catch a bus.

Village Street Fair

 

Fallen

 

Revolutionary War Tavern, Tappan, NY

 

Murdered?

 

Volunteer with the Peace Corps

How awesome would it be to do this?

Autumn Leaves

Just went for a 40 minute run along the Oradell Reservoir. It's the perfect day for a leisurely run - clear skies, cool but not cold enough to freeze your lungs. There aren't many days like this left in the season. The leaves are changing colors now. It's wonderful looking up through the canopy of green, yellow, orange, red and seeing the suns rays break though. I looked for the friendly deer I saw a month ago staring at me from inside the gated area of the reservoir but didn't see her this time. I keep saying that I should do this more often. What's keeping me?

Powerful Images

We should all think twice when we start complain about our lives.

http://nineghost.ohlavender.com/unforgettable-photographs/

Linda's Hong Kong Adventure

I made this movie last year (2006) before I left HK. I only recently figured out how to compress it for uploading.

Sicko

Laughed, cried, loved it. Every American should see this movie.

A really bad day

I had the worst day on Friday.

It was lunchtime so I decided to get something at the food court at the Garden State Plaza. Everything was going fine, I got a great spot next to the entrance, I bought my food in a snap and was out in a jiffy. I saw a Honda CRV behind my car and then it stopped as I got into my car. Naturally I thought that it was waiting for my spot so I pulled out. Then, it started backing up. I thought it was going to slip into the spot that I had just left but instead it was backing up towards me. I'm asking myself, "What is she doing?" so I start beeping my horn. BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP! But it just didn't stop. CRASH! into the front right panel of my Dad's Toyota Corolla. We both jump out of the car and look at the damage.



The thing that infuriated me was that all she could say was, "Oh, I couldn't have done that." She didn't even apologize. What a B%$#H! I mean the least she could do was say she was sorry. What did she think that the dent was there before?

Anyway, the police came and filed a report stating that she was at fault and I have to pick it up at the Paramus Police Station on Tuesday.

I was literally shaking after the incident but I had to go back to work.

As if it couldn't get any worse, I had an eye exam later that day after work on Route 17. I hate driving on Rt. 17 especially at rush hour. It's crazy busy and the highway is already so disorganized. But I had to go so I'm driving northbound and I know that it's right after the Paramus Park exit. As soon as I see the Paramus park exit I turn onto the shoulder because I'm thinking that it's coming up but I don't see it. Before I know it, a cop is behind me. I get a ticket for improper passing. F%#@! $85! Bastards! I can't believe this. The officer was such a jerk. I told him I was driving slowly on the shoulder because I was lost but he didn't want to hear it. I even have to show up to court and am probably going to get points on my license. I felt like crying.

I was really upset Friday but I'm fine now because I realized I don't even have a car or insurance for that matter. It doesn't effect me at all really; It's just a big waste of my time.

Water World

 

Got a handle on it

 

Cop Cars

 

B&H superstore

 

Go Puerto Rico

 

Columbus' Circle

 

NYC Pedicabs

 

Jazz Echo

 

Daily Commute

 

Hanging out in Central Park

 

I have what you need

 

Parkour in the park

Tourist Confusion

 

Moon shot

 

Rock Climbing

 

On your mind

 

Hard at Work

I hate lying but I do it for a living. As I mentioned before, I'm in market research or competitive intelligence or business intelligence or whatever fancy name you want to give to the field of lying to people to gather as much information about them as possible and using it against them.

I've been working on this telecom project for the past few weeks and basically it involves calling these telecom companies up and asking how much it costs to link up two sites in Europe with a specific kind of broadband line. I've had to talk to sales people from all over and tell them that our "sister company" is trying to open up a business in the UK and that they are interested in implementing this service. I actually got someone to finally take the bait, a really nice guy from California (I know from where because it shows up on the caller ID). We had a conference call with at least 3 other engineers from Ireland all so nice and willing to help me. It almost makes me feel worse when they are willing to cooperate and be helpful than when they are jerks and don't want to give out any information because now I feel terrible about what I've done. I've just got a whole team of people working for a cause that will never happen. And believe me, this is not the first time.

I try my best not to lie. I always give out my real name - what difference does it make anyway? But there's only so much of not lying that you can get away with. I would never get anything done if I said that I was a researcher at a marketing company and that I need to get information from you to give to my client who is your competitor.

So this has the moral dilemma that I've been dealing with recently.

To balance things off, I've made a commitment to consuming less and leaving as little a mark on the environment as possible. Here is a list of this that I've committed to:

• Taking the bus as much as possible
• Walking or riding my bike to nearby places
• Refusing plastic bags at stores
• Walking up 4 flights of stairs at work everyday instead of taking the elevator
• Using fewer bottles of water and opting for tap
• Using compact florescent light bulbs
• Consuming less and only buying things that I need or really want
• Not using anything that is disposable

Perhaps I'll add some things in the future but I think that this should be enough to work on.

What's that for?

This is great - My Boss went to the UAE for business last week and brought back presents for my coworkers and me, a kind gesture, may I add. Each of us got a small tin of scented Arabic herbs and a clay stand to put them in to burn like incense. I wasn't the only one who thought it a strange shape as it is narrow at the bottom and wide at the top; one of my coworkers consulted another who speaks Arabic and she said that the little stand is not a stand for nice smelling potpourri at all but in fact is used to smoke hookahs!

No Swearing in the Workplace

My job mainly consists of calling many different money transfer companies all over the world in order to put together a report about product offerings for the client. Well, the other day I'm calling an agent of a company in the UK that deals with sending money to East Africa to confirm their location; I ask what the name of the store is and he replies, "Al Karat". After I hang up, I ask my Moroccan co-worker what Al Karat means in Arabic and she laughs, "It's a bad word. It's the plural of shit." This guy cursed me off and I didn't even know it!

About Nothing in Particular

Wow, it's been a while since I've written. Every time I tried to remind myself to write in my blog, I was always pushed back by the thought of not knowing where to start. So here it goes.

Shortly after I got back to the States I began my job search though websites like Career Builder and Monster.com. I soon discovered that many if not most of the applicable jobs that were listed were scams operating on pyramid schemes where the more people you recruit to work for you the more money you made. So, I decided to try my luck with some temp agencies. I worked as a pharmacy technician (fancy name for the person who puts pills in blister packs), as an assistant to a loan officer at JP Morgan, and also as a fact checker at a market research company. I ended up getting a full time job at the latter as a project manager.

The job has pretty much taken up most of my time since I started late January. There are ups and downs but I'm fairly content with where I am as of now. I can't say I love the work I'm doing but I do enjoy working with my co-workers which I've heard is probably more important that anything. I will post more work update in the future since it is what comprises most of my life.

I've lived at home for about 4 months now which is longer than I had previously though capable of doing. Two weeks was my record in the past. Initially I wanted to stay for a couple of years to help my family out with financial matters. After moving in, I changed that figure to a year and after these 4 months I'm not sure I can make it to even half a year. So my search goes on to find decent housing in NYC. I searched on Craigslist and found a few apartments that I went to check out one Sunday afternoon. The first appointment was a no show. The next one was a 100 sq. ft. studio in Midtown to share with this gay dude for $650; The room was semi divided with space for a small bed and a dresser. I basically got a corner of a room. The next was another studio on the west side to share with a "non-matriculated" student. It was a bit bigger and had a nice view of the Hudson but I still didn't think that it warranted the $800 rent. Then, I went to see a place to share with a room of my own in the Upper East Side. That was $1,200 for a tiny room with space to put a little desk. So this is what you get for that amount of money in NYC. I almost considered the $650 because it was the cheapest but I didn't go for it. All of them were nicely furnished. Living in NYC for at least a little while is just something I've always wanted to do so the search continues. If you know of anyone looking for a roommate, please contact me.