In spite of my newfound popularity in the Phillipines (they were the only ones viewing my profile and e-mailing me) and the "19/f wanna chat, go to my profile on naughtyhighschlrs.com" crowd, I'm tired of Friendster.  I just killed my profile.

It was fun at first.  I even went on some Friendster dates that worked out pretty well, admittedly.  But now, its just a pain.

Its one thing to not provide any value...   I never get any new friend requests because the service is losing users, and not gaining any.  If that was the only issue, I would just leave my profile and let it drift.  But, I get spammed by fake hot girls trying to send me to porn sites elsewhere.  Why am I spending any time deleting those notification e-mails (which don't show me the message, requiring me to go to the site to check them out) if I don't get any value from the site?

So, it was fun while it lasted, Friendster, but well...   even above all this, the reality is, its not you, its me.  I'm not the kind of guy you're looking for.  You need someone more valuable.  Someone who clicks on all the ads, perhaps?  Someone who wants to list things for sale in the Friendster classifieds or start/join a Friendster group.  You want someone who wants to sign in and invite more friends to the service as soon as they enter before they even check their Friendster e-mail.  You want someone who wants to skin their Friendster profile, but not actually have full flexibility on the format.  You deserve better.  I'm sure you'll find better friends...   just look at the hundreds of people who aren't on Myspace and/or the Facebook.  I'm sure there are some of those people out there for you.  I'm just not that guy.

Link: Coat Idol.

Selection   Votes 1) New University Coat (with Thinsolate) 42% 20 2) Columbia Men's Leather Bib Hipster Jacket 8% 4 3) Kenneth Cole Reaction Wool Peacoat 17% 8 4) Kenneth Cole REACTION  "Boxcar" Coat 17% 8 5) Andrew Marc's Marc New York 8% 4 6) Leather Car Coat 8% 4 48 votes total Poll results are subject to error.  Pollhost.com does not pre-screen the content of polls created by Pollhost customers.

Has TV learned nothing from the music industry??

Link: NBC might sue TiVo over PSP and iPod support - Engadget - www.engadget.com.

I know, I know, I'm doing a terrible job of keeping up... but I've been busy fixing the layout of this blog.  :)   Well worth it so far, no?   This is the end of phase one.  In phase two, I'll be fixing the layout of the sidebar and reorganizing some of the bells and whistles.

I rediscovered Ghostbusters not too long ago.  I never really realized the quality of the writing before.  Almost every single line in the movie is either funny or just plain good.  The commercialization around this movie really made it cheesy, but if you go back to it years later, its actually a fantastically written movie.  The humor is often subtle and I don't think you pick up on half of it unless you see it a few times.

"Do you have any hobbies?"

"I collect spores, molds, and fungus."

The other thing I like is how genuinely New York the movie is.  So many of the extras couldn't get any more Gotham, from the unsuspecting Upper East Sider who walks into the corpse's cab, the Mayor, and all of the wiseass cops.

"You do your job, pencilneck, don't tell me how to do mine."

Nice cameo by local anchorman Roger Grimsby, too...  I remember Grimsby and Bill Beutel every night at dinner on Channel 7.  Little details that just make the whole thing a little more authentic...well, as authentic as you can get a movie about catching ghosts.

"What are you supposed to be, some kind of cosmonaut?"

"No, we're exterminators.  Somebody saw a cockroach up on 12."

"That's got to be some cockroach."

"Bite your head off."

This is also a movie that never should have had a sequal, and I think the cheesiness and commercialization of the franchise really detracted from the original.  But, you know, Ivan Reitman's got to put some food on the table...  which, if you've seen him lately, doesn't seem to have been an issue.  Same with Ackroyd.

I'm finally upgrading my site template over the holiday weekend...

Biking Hazards, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

A week or so ago, I had a flat tire on my bike... the bike store found the culprit.

I hate "Best of" lists.... unless, of course, I'm on them.  Then I have an entirely different opinion.  :)   Check out the "Biz Bloggers" list.  Honerable mention.  Not too shabby!  Thanks!

Link: Mighty: God's Informed People '05.

My best friend Brian, who I know for twenty years now, since we first played t-ball together the summer before first grade, has invested in a new business with his brother Jim.  Its called Diamond Player Development and its a great place to fine tune your baseball skills if you really want to develop into a top tier player.

When I was younger, I had coaches who played favorites--got other kids more playing time.  It wasn't until I was put on a team that was so bad that there was no way anyone was going to cut into my time  that I even started to get any good.  By then I  was 13, and although I developed into a  pretty good contact hitter and a solid outfielder, I really didn't have much of a chance of making my high school or college teams.

I always wish I had real coaches when I was at critical points in my development.  Well, I went down to DPD last weekend and I saw firsthand what kids have the advantage of today.  There were kids in batting cages who were getting videotaped and had their swing analyzed by a pro instructor.  Who knows how good I could have been with that kind of technology!  Ah well.  I suppose corporate softball will have to do.

So anyway, Brian and I spent some time in the cages on our own.  Think of this video as the "before" video.  Maybe Jim will will be kind enough to point out all the stuff I'm doing wrong.  I know one thing I have an issue doing is really turning my hips and using my legs to generate much power.  They turn, but they're not really planted very well and so its just more like spinning my wheels and not going anywhere.

View this clip on Vimeo

So drop on by to DPD or if you have a team or individual that wants some real coaching, contact Jim.

I just had an unsettling experience.

As I was leaving the our office to walk down to the train at Union Square, I spotted a man fall down as he was stepping onto the sidewalk.

Tara's got a great post on how our generation is truly living online more and more everyday...

Link: ::HorsePigCow:: life uncommon: My so-called online life.

What I'm saying is that things are going to get interesting as more and more people migrate online. I don't know if it will bring us closer together or further apart.

I do know that we can connect easier with people all over the world - enabling all sorts of opportunities. On the flipside, we are choosing to interact online more often than offline, so what does that do to intimacy?

What I find is that a lot of this online stuff fuels intimacy.  Just the other day, a placement agent called me about a deal.  He sent me pitch deck and when I replied with a thank you, he clicked on the blog link that I have in my e-mail footer.  He called me back ten minutes later to tell me all about how he used to be really into the canoeing and kayaking community back in the 70's in Philly.  All of the sudden, he became a multidimensional person to me... not just a phone call and an e-mail Powerpoint deck to be screened and triaged.

Yesterday, I got a pitch from a guy in Latin America who asked about my leg. No better way to get free sympathy than to blog about your various injuries.

When I blog, my friends are able to catch up on my life so that, the next time I actually do see them they know what's going on.  We don't waste time "catching up" with monologues, but just actually conversing and sharing real time together.  It invites people I'd never know to comment, exchange, and impact my thinking.  More people know that I'm dating someone now than anyone I've ever dated, because I blog about her.

That's intimacy, to me.   Its different than we've previously known it to be.  Call it Intimacy 2.0.  :)

Fast, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

It appears as if 31.2 is terminal velocity on the city end of the Brooklyn Bridge for me. It's not enough to send be back to the future, but it will do.

Nifty new help section...  cool!

Link: del.icio.us/help.

Link: apophenia: MySpace blamed for alienated youth's threats.

"Another beautiful MySpace article: Online Terror Threat Hits Local High School. The "terrorists" are two boys who are threatening to show up in school with machine guns. As a result of their posts to MySpace, most students didn't show up for school. The school district is pissed and blames MySpace for enabling students to "post their thoughts and ideas" without surveillance. They are deciding whether or not to sue MySpace."

I'm just glad most of the parents allowed their kids to stay home.  After Columbine, I think if my future kids told me they shouldn't show up at school because of some kids posted terror threats, I'd make sure they didn't go to school.  They should be thanking MySpace.  What if MySpace took those comments down before anyone saw them, and then those kids actually showed up at school, guns blazing?

Then, I'd sue MySpace.  But that's what parents seem to want.  "Take it down... hide their eyes...   keep them locked up."

If you're a parent out there, create a MySpace account.  Don't spy on your kids.  Ask them to be your "friend" on it.  If they don't want to be your friend, get your own friends on it. Get them to teach you how to put up music from your favorite bands.  Help them fix your template. 

I really think some kids might accept it, because they'll think its funny, but more than anything else, you'll seem like a parent who either "gets it" or is trying.  So, instead of getting freaked out about what's on MySpace, contribute your own content and join the crowd.

Accident Prone, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

This is what happens when pedestrians run out into the street between cars and you're nice enough to try to avoid them.

"In eighteenth century London or Paris, sociability did not depend on intimacy.  Strangers meeting in parks or on the streets might, without embarrassment, speak to each other.  They shared a common fund of public signs which enabled people to conduct a civilized conversation without feeling called upon to expose their innermost secrets  The romantic cult of sincerity and authenticity tore away the masks that people had worn in public and eroded the boundary between public and private life.  As the public world came to be seen as a mirror of the self, people lost the capacity for detachment and hence for playful encounter, which presupposes a certain distance from the self." - Christopher Lasch, Culture of Narcissism

When I was in high school, I read On the Road by Jack Kerouac.

I don't remember that much of it, but I do remember the importance of conversation...  Two of the guys in the book used to get together for these extreme "brain dump" sessions where they'd literally spend hours, even a full day or two, just talking about everything... Everything. 

The didn't let time constraints get in their way.  They just talked until they were done.

College was a little bit like that.  I was so fascinated by new people that I often ignored the clock for the tradeoff of some good topical exploration.

Blogs do that to some extent, but I feel like they're  somewhat self-reenforcing.  They're great for attracting likeminded people or at least people talking about the same topics as you, but they're  kind of bad for discovery. 

I don't think anyone's quite figured out that algorythym yet...  "people and things not like me at all that I would still find interesting."  How do you find something you've never sought after before, yet something you weren't consciously avoiding?  And, how do you do it in a limited way?  I could subscribe to a blog about metaphysics, but I'm really not that interested in it as a totally new pursuit. 

I'd read a post a week on it, though. 

That's why I loved those college dorm conversation.  Dorm life stuffs you in with people you might not have ever encountered otherwise.  Your friend group is random and accidental, and it takes you some time to gravitate towards more similar people.  I think that's good, to a large extent, to develop this kind of a network, but I also find myself pining for a little more of a mix...  People whose worlds are really interesting who introduce me to new stuff.

Dating never quite worked for this...  In theory, dating introduces you to a fascinating set of people with diverse interests, but the reality is that most people want to meet people just like them.  I never met an artist who found it really interesting to date a business guy.

Where was I?  Oh yeah... Conversation.  When is the last time you had a really interesting face to face chat with someone semi-random about a topic you usually don't talk about?

While I'm doing an address change for a misdirected order:

Customer Service Person:  "I do apoligize as I am from Canada myself...  Broadway is spelled B-r-o-a-d-w-a-y, is that correct?"

My question is, was she apoligizing because they don't have any Broadways in Canada or because Canadians are poor spellers, which would be news to me.

Landed, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

On the beach past the Palasaides...

Saturday paddle, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

Heading out with the DTBH crew up the Hudson...

Setting up for Our Annual Meeting, originally uploaded by ceonyc.

Just minutes away from LPs...

I didn't do a movie post last week...totally forgot.

So, this week, I've got not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR movies for you.

And, in the spirit of Halloween, they all revolve around one man:

Dr. Hannibal Lecter

Silence of the Lambs is probably the best in this series of four, based on three books (three movies + one remake).  Its also my favorite, but the other movies are solid and stand up on their own, too.

We first got introduced to Dr. Lecter in Manhunter, then played by Brian Cox.  That's also the first time I got introduced to Iron Butterfly's In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida, which is scary as hell if you're in a dark room chased by a lunatic, being captured by low quality camerawork.  Manhunter has a kind of low-budget Halloween feel to it, but the script is good and the charactors give it some depth.  Not a bad adaptation, and in, fact, I like it better than I liked Red Dragon.  I think Tom Noonan was better cast than Ralph Fiennes to play Dolarhyde, although the Dolarhyde charactor gets explored much deeper in Red Dragon.

Still, Anthony Hopkins is Lecter, and he redefines movie psychopaths in Silence of the Lambs.  A lot of people get really freaked out by this movie, and to be honest, I find movies like Se7en to be more disturbing, but that doesn't mean it still isn't an excellent movie.  Silence is the movie that will actually be going on my Top 50 list...  these others are just gravy in a great series.  Or... chiante rather. 

We lose Jodie Foster after Silence, but Julianne Moore does a good job as a replacement in Hannibal.  In fact, I almost think its better that we see the tougher, more agressive Moore here since this is supposed to be Agent Starling later in her career.  Hannibal is a beautifully styled movie with a great score by Hans Zimmer.  This time, we catch up with Dr. Lecter in Europe, coaxed out of hiding by a melted Cabbage Patch Doll, played by Gary Oldman.  The dinner scene at the end is over the top, but the rest of the movie is an admirable follow up to the favorite.

Red Dragon finishes up the series with yet a new and fresh take, telling the story of Dr. Lector's capture and the first case that he helps out on.  Edward Norton does a fantastic job here, as always and the movie is pretty suspenceful throughout, especially when his family gets roped into this terror.  I think I like the original Manhunter a bit better, I still think, as sequels and prequels go, this one is pretty good....  its a solid and scary series all the way around.