Link: CNN.com - Record 'Jeopardy' run ends - Dec 1, 2004.

Well, its about time.  Now I can go back to watching Jeopardy without having to watch this goofball anymore.  I'm sure Trebeck is relieved, as well. 

Ken Jennings, your 15 minutes of fame is up. 

I'll tell you one thing.  If it was me who beat him, I definately would have been obnoxious.  I would have probably jumped up on the podium and screamed, "In your face, Kenny boy.   Wooooooooooooooooo."   Then, I would have sung a little "Sha na-na na...."

Link: Worst drivers: Teens, doctors, lawyers - Nov. 18, 2004.

This is really interesting, because if you combine the data from speeding tickets and accidents, the result is that politicians are the best drivers.  They are one of the least likely professions to get in an accident, but one of the most likely to get a speeding ticket.  Therefore, they're driving really fast, but avoiding crashes. 

They're building a 24 story hi-rise right down the street from me on 83rd and York.  They leveled 4 or 5 walkups that were abandoned when I first moved in 2001 and now they're finally starting construction.  I think these big cranes are wild.  These are the ones that climb alongside the building as it goes up.  It just looks so out of place at the end of this block before the building is visable.  Check out the big hole in the ground for the foundation, though. 

I'm in the newspaper!  (I'm not sure if that link will always work, but the article is written by Patricia Kitchen and its in today's Newsday.)

The article is about young people and their careers.  Here's my part:

"New York, especially, can be a breeding ground for a who's-in-the-lead mentality, says Charlie O'Donnell, 24, an analyst in a New York City private equity group. A graduate of Fordham University, he's set up a young alumni mentoring program there for students and finds that some are "very focused on getting a job as opposed to getting the best job for them," which would call for slowing down and doing some self-assessment.

Young people also can "pay too much attention to what they perceive as the pace around them. Others get jobs and move up and it's easy to feel like you're falling behind."

While he's no advocate of staying stuck in a going-nowhere situation, he does say there's value to finding some kind of fulfillment in the job you're in for as long as you're there. He addresses such career issues on his Web site www.findmypath.com."

Ok, how cool is that?!  The story behind it is funny.  I e-mailed her months and months ago when I was trying to generate interest in my book, and she literally just called me last Monday for this article.  She even featured the Find My Path site!  haha... wooooo   I'm going to get to work on advertising the site more now that its been featured in a major newspaper.  wooooooo

Ugly Sign Misses the Mark in NYC Subway

Leave it to idiocy to bring out idiotic comments from people.  So someone hacked into the transit message system in the subway and made the signs say, "Pretty Girls Don't Ride the Subway". 

So a reporter goes around asking people about this, as if this is real news that we should be wasting brain cells on. 

The responses?

"It's a vicious lie," said Rachel Russell, 37, an East Village arts-program coordinator, mostly in jest. "I think someone is trying to be clever."  (Someone... not you, but someone...)

Another woman...

"That's horrible," she said of the sign. "I'm pretty, and I take the subway every day."

(Horrible?  Horrible is a curious puppy getting his nose snipped off by a weed wacker.  This falls slightly short of horrible, ma'am.)

Nick Bello, 57, a technical representative from Brooklyn, said he has seen proof that the message is wrong. "It's very strange," he said. "I see a lot of pretty girls on the subway."   

(Good to know that 57 year old Nick is ogling pretty girls on the subway on his way home.  I'm sure his wife will have something to say about that.)

Actress Katharyn Bond, 33, of the upper West Side, who was wearing a little black dress with heels and a pink shawl, was taking the subway to a theater to see a play. "Pretty women," she said, "take the subway so we can go spend money on more important things - like alcohol."

(Clearly she already had a few in her when she gave the reporter the spelling of her name.)

So after I walked out of the Starbucks this morning, I walked down this street with a sign to "Coit Tower".  There was a long set of steep stairs up this hill and a spire at the top of the hill... looked like an interesting place to go, plus I wondered with the view might look like from up there.

The sun kind of washed out the second and third level of stairs above this....  its such a curious setup, right up from the end of this side street.

At the top of this set of stairs, halfway up the hill, there's a really great view.  PS... this post is now a race against my laptop battery.  Can't find a plug in this Starbucks.

Odd pink castle up the hill...

You gotta be kiddin' me...   

"Hey, where do these stairs go?

They go up..."   

- Ghostbusters  (One of the most well written comedies ever.)

Who says people in California are strange?  This woman appears to be completely normal.  Of course, I'm not sure I can say the same thing for the owner of this house.

Well, maybe I do have some photographic talent.  Although, a untrained monkey probably could have taken a good shot from this spot given this fantastic scenery.  Obviously, that's the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance.  Perhaps New York should start painting some of its bridges.  How about painting the Verrazano bridge yellow?

I'm here.... literally.  The little black asterisk on the top left of the map marks my spot...   but I'm also right there in the reflection.  Cool, no?  My tat my reflect my inner badass, but this picture definately reflects the inner dork.  Check out the panorama of photos at the top of this hill by the Coit Tower below...

Sweet.

You know what, I'm not even going to include a picture of the tower itself, because its not nearly as cool as the view.

But you know what is cool?  This guy's door...

I took that on the walk back down the hill.

The rest of the day I spent mostly driving.  I drove down to Palo Alto to have lunch with Valarie from CM Capital at Zibbibo.  I had a puttenesca pizza... good stuff. 

I did visit Stanford, but I didn't take any pictures.  I don't want to jinx it, because then I'll feel like a goofball.  After Stanford, I drove around University Avenue...  there are some great houses down on the other end.  I love looking at houses.  I took an architecture course in Regis and every time I look at an interesting design, I mentally add it to the list of stuff I'd like in my own house one day.  I think it would be great to design my own house--with someone special of course. 

A really special architect.  ;)

Oh, Holian will appreciate this.  On the drive back into the city, I snapped off a quick photo on the highway..

   How sweet is that Vette?  Its like a '70 or so.  I also saw a new Mustang at Stanford.  I can't decide whether or not I want a new Mustang or an older car like this.  I guess it depends on whether or not I'll be driving to Greenwich everyday.

I wish more people would post comments on my blog.  It would be nice if it was a bit more interactive.

I just got a visit from the Spot Fairy. I was walking up my block and I noticed a spot on the right side of the street for tomorrow. I had planned on waking up a 1/2 hour earlier to park the car in Queens by Deirg's house, as per the usual game of musical cars I play. Now, I get an extra 1/2 hour of sleep, b/c the car is legally parked right across the street from my apartment.

Thank you, Spot Fairy.

Sometimes, I like to think of myself as a badass... at least as badass as an investment analyst can be. I drive a badass car But, admittedly, I have some non-badass fascinations... things I can't help but stop and notice. The last few weeks, its been a voice at DTUT. Like my own personal Enya or Dido, all work comes to a screeching halt when she plays her two songs that combine for under eight minutes, only one of which can be a cover (or so the rules go.) I wonder... people base relationships around looks sometimes... can you base it on voice. What's the audio version of arm candy? Vocal cord candy? I just want her to walk around with me and sing in my ear... She's a voice hottie. That's probably not as badass as my car.

"Every little thing..."

Well, I just had one of the most bizzare computer experiences I've ever had. First of all, to put it in context, I'm locked out of my home computer at the moment. Somehow, my password got changed, or I forgot it, which is less likely, because I use the same password or variations of it for just about everything. Anyway, if you don't have an administrator set up on it, you're basically fucked. I have one user account set up, and I can't get into it. There are a few freeware fixes for it, but unfortunately, they're located on sketchy sites that the GM internet won't let me one. I suppose I'll have to get Jeff the intern to download me one of these safecracking programs.

Anyway, that's not even the bizzare thing. I'm sitting at DTUT, and all of the sudden, my computer tells me that its going to shut off, and starts counting down from 60. Now, I'm supposed to be working on my Stanford essays, so this isn't exactly the most opportune time for such an event. And of course, the "why don't you try turning it on and off" method (see "EDS manuever" in the dictionary) didn't work. So it just kept shutting off on me. I tried to connect to the internet to wirelessly e-mail myself my essays, but I couldn't do it quick enough. I had to go back to work, swap my CD drive for the floppy, and see if I could copy my files onto a disk before the countdown ran out. Then, I figured, I'd grab Jeff the intern's computer and type it on there. What was bizzare was that, while I was at work, the countdown never started. It sat there fine. So, I tried to figure out what was different about logging on at work vs logging on at DTUT, even if I'm not actually on the network at work. The only difference is that, at DTUT, the wireless card picks up a network and starts doing stuff. So, after copying my files and lugging BOTH laptops to DTUT, I unplugged the card and restarted. It worked fine. Then, I even went as far as to plug it back in after startup, and, well, I'm obviously blogging now so that works. So, for some strange reason, if I start the laptop with the wireless card plugged in around a live network, a 60 second countdown starts on my PC and it shuts off.

WTF?

What the hell kind of malfunction is this? Dude... whoever designed these things was touched in the head. I'll tell you... Open Source can't be any worse than this.

You know what I realized, though? One of my strengths definately has to be my ability to be methodical and keep a cool head in a bad situation. I didn't get frustrated or annoyed. My pulse barely moved up a hiccup when my computer crashed. I calmly thought about what I needed to do, packed up, walked to the subway, and went back to work and did it. No stress, no nothing. Just effeciency. :)

I just keep looking at this http://scbhooper.com/archives/000834.html and I have to say, its probably one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.

I'm sorry, but this is just fantastic... No wonder Puba is excited about the expiration of the assault weapons ban. :)

Pup shoots man, saves litter mates
PENSACOLA, Florida (AP) -- Nice shootin', Rex!
A man who tried to shoot seven puppies was shot himself when one of the dogs put its paw on the revolver's trigger.
Jerry Allen Bradford, 37, was charged with felony animal cruelty, the Escambia County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday. He was being treated at a hospital for a gunshot wound to his wrist.
Bradford said he decided to shoot the 3-month-old shepherd-mix dogs in the head because he couldn't find them a home, according to the sheriff's office.
On Monday, Bradford was holding two puppies -- one in his arms and another in his left hand -- when the dog in his hand wiggled and put its paw on the trigger of the .38-caliber revolver. The gun then discharged, the sheriff's report said.
Deputies found three of the puppies in a shallow grave outside Bradford's home, said sheriff's Sgt. Ted Roy.
The other four appeared to be in good health and were taken by Escambia County Animal Control, which planned to make them available for adoption.

So Larry and I are on a conference call at 2:30 today, and within about 5 minutes, the sky turns pitch black... like nighttime. Crazy.

Just want to take this chance to welcome our new reader from the Boathouse. :)

PS... I'm a hurracane now, although I'm spelled wrong. Its "ie."

(CNN) -- Florida emergency officials ordered visitors out of the middle and lower Keys Wednesday as newly declared Hurricane Charley rushed in from the Caribbean and Tropical Storm Bonnie approached the Florida Panhandle from the Gulf of Mexico.
At 2 p.m. ET, the National Hurricane Center declared Charley a hurricane, with maximum sustained winds near 75 mph, just over the hurricane threshold.

.Definition of serendipity:

Its 7:40AM and you've conceded that you won't find a spot on the right side of the streat after 20 post gym minutes of aimlessly traversing the Upper East Side.  So, accepting the fact that you'll now have to take the car over to Queens, because you won't be getting home early enough for Early Bird garage specials, you drive home, only to find a spot two doors down from your apartment.

Faaaantastic.

I have been so overwhelmed at work, its ridiculous. When you work in an environment where things just need to get done, yet there isn't generally a lot of strict assignment as to who is supposed to get them done, you tend to get the short end of the stick if you are the type of person who won't let balls drop. Some people are fine to walk out before questions are answered, things are taken care of, etc. I'm not one of those people.

I'll tell you one thing, I'm glad to have Jeff the Intern around, that's for sure. Its like having a tree chipper in my office. Stuff comes in that I don't have time for and I just shove it to his side and listen to that immediate "neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrr" sound as he works. Good stuff.

Lately, I've been quite the flake when it comes to these sorts of things. Pursuing stuff, then pulling back. Being indecisive. Rethinking stuff from the past, and contradicting myself as well. One person I'll knock for being too aggressive and someone else I'll knock for their own passiveness. What's going on here? What am I even looking for?

It definitely reinforces the notion that the search for others is really a search for self, because the times in my life where I've been most clear about what I've wanted, are also the times in which I experienced the most personal clarity. In the last six months, personal clarity has been muddied by potential moves, a floundering book, new work responsibility, monitoring programs, family stuff, etc... and thus I've been rather flakey to people personally. Its not an excuse. I'm just pointing out the causal relationship, or what seems to be the cause.

At most issue is what level of commitment, and just really participation I want from someone else. First off, I'm generally not someone who has a lot of free time in general, so its easy to say I just want someone informal, casual, etc. But, to be honest, now I think that sometimes casual stuff takes more time than serious stuff, because casual stuff always seems to imply more than one person. Its a mirage that casual is easier, I think, because that never seems to be the case. Plus, you need to spend that much more time convincing someone you're not just using them, because they are not backstopped by some formal relationship.

Also at issue is how I want the other person reacting to me. On one hand, I think it would be hard for me to deal with the pressure of someone pursuing me hard, asking for all sorts of time. On the other hand, I do feel like I deserve someone who at least asks. Aren't I good enough to create a need in someone else to see me all the time? Who wants someone that acts as if they can take you or leave you? Sure, that's convenient from a life management perspective, because you know you can cancel on them, move them around, etc... but is love the kind of thing you want to be so convenient? I think its a lot like getting median venture capital GPs. If you're going to be in it, you want top quartile, otherwise its not worth it.

Part of it has to do with the idea of chemistry vs. criteria. I'd be interested if people had comments here. Think of it the spectrum as, on one end, you meet someone and before you know it, you're smooching away and lots of things are happening. You're laughing and being cute, and as far as you can tell, you've really hit it off with someone, without really knowing a lot of the details of someone's life. On the other hand, you meet someone and really invest the time to get to know them before anything happens. You learn to appreciate what kind of a person they are, if you share the same values, etc, before you discern whether or not you have a match. Which one is more true? Does chemistry exist, or is it just lust based on perception that may not actually be truth? Or, is getting the details of someone's life a cold, logical way to arrive at something that should be based on gut feeling and emotion? Do you fall for someone with your heart or with your head?

Oh, and I just learned there is a Blog spellcheck. Nice... now you'll all think I'm smaart.

Lastly... here's the last GM Softball news:

Miracle Motors Down, but Not Out, After Skid Reaches Three

After eight games, General Motors was sitting pretty at 6-2, only a game out of first place. After a 2-10 season, the team started looking at the standings, and counting down to the playoffs.
Three heartbreaking losses later, capped off by a 6-4 loss last night to Metro 53, GM should be completely out of the hunt. However, the Northern Division has completely collapsed over the past four weeks, and GM finds itself with a glimmer of hope. Four teams have clinched the six playoff spots, and another six teams are vying for the last two. For GM to get in, the Law Sox need to lose at least two of their last four games, which will be mostly rainout makeups. In addition, two of White Case, Oz Capital, and the Clinchers have to lose their final games.
Of course, for all this to work out GM needs to actually win its final game and stop the second half slump. After scoring a total of seven runs in its last two games, one thing that will have to happen is for the bats to wake up. Mike D'Annunzio scored the team's first run again early on, but the offense would slow to a crawl until late. Ted Feury kept GM in the game, holding Metro to four in five, and John Cross notched a scoreless sixth. Strong defense by third baseman Mark Attanasio and Gold Glove first baseman John Stevens also helped. GM got a step closer when Charlie O'Donnell scored in the fifth on an Alexis Kramer sac fly, making it 4-3. In the sixth, Sam Pollotta launched a huge RBI triple to tie the game up, but that would be the end of the GM scoring. Metro 53 pushed two runs across the board, one on a monster blast to left center, which was that Metro hitter's second time going yard.
In their last at bat, GM failed to replicate its early season last inning heroics, and failed to score. They will attempt to finish the season strong on 8/19, and all they can do in the meantime is hope for the misfortune of others.

OK... so PS, I just went to go post this and it had timed out, and I almost thought I lost the whole thing. I would have been REALLY pissed and probably never blogged again. You guys came really close to losing me.

I now have an XM radio in my office.... courtesy of Jeff Reals, who won it in a GMAM office pool.  Dave Brubeck's Take Five: Pure Genius.

"A cache of recently obtained information -- including hundreds of photos, drawings and written documents -- indicates that al Qaeda operatives have undertaken meticulous preparations to case the five specific buildings." - WSJ

I'm sorry, but if I see ANYONE of ANY ETHNICITY taking hundreds of photos of the Citigroup building, I think I might stop to ask them what they're up to.  Its just like the story about the terrorists being at the WTC a day or two before with a GPS finder.  This is the kind of suspicious stuff that people need to be asking about.

Anonymity...     we think it exists, but it definately doesn't, not on the internet anyway.  Like, for example, if you leave anonymous posts on a blog from far off places like Denver or Fordham...  people will find out.  Its just a matter of technological knowhow.  :)

We know you're watching...

Its apparent to me that my life has become my own personal crusade... to weed out idiots, assholes, and the inconsiderate. The world, or at least this city, has run let these people run amuck. Amuck, I tell you! People who aren't doing the right thing, mostly in the realm of treating their fellow human beings with decency and respect, need to be stopped, or at least told off. When this guy parked across two spaces in front of my apartment, to save a spot for his other car, I said something to him. "Its hard enough to park in this city without people like you doing shit like that. That's a bush league move, dude." He just stared at me. The people on the stoop next to me looked at me like I had two heads--but I shouldn't be the one to be made to feel like I'm taking the world too seriously. We need to put a stop to all this--to speak out when wrong is done. Its like that movie where Chris Rock runs for president. You need to just turn around and say, "That ain't right!" Otherwise, all of these people will just gone on doing the same insensitive, selfish things over and over again. We need to collectively put our foot down as a society. No more laughing at someone when they drop a fly ball in kickball. No more saving spots, or even worse, going headfirst into one from behind while someone else is pulling in. And, when you makeout with someone, you owe them an explanation if you decide you don't want to anymore. Ignoring phonecalls is bush league and so is stalling. Stop the insanity!

So the last softball game went much better... In fact, it nearly went perfectly. We won 16-1 in a mercy rule shortened five innings, and the only run they scored was on the last play of the game, where the next runner they tried to send home got cut down at the plate by yours truly. :)

Anyway... Its 3AM on July 5th, and I'm eating an apple w/peanut butter. (Skippy Super Chunk) I've been spending more and more time, as I did tonight, with people I've met kayaking. I think what I like about spending time with these people is that it expands your social horizon--challenging you to mesh with people you would otherwise have no social connection to. I mean, when I go to ILPA conferences or Fordham Young Alumni events, there are certain shared sets of circumstances that give you something to work with--social training wheels so to speak. Here, there's nothing of the sort, and the extent to which I know zero of the lives of the people around me overwhelms me (in a good way, I think).

As I was driving home, there was a car in front of me whose license plate said, "Howyedoin".

I think pretty good.