here's a sign that the days of cost-cutting and layoffs are a thing of the past: free board games. today i noticed a shelf full of board games in the cafeteria placed between the tray return and the sauce-dispensing station. the poster said something about "making work more fun!"
time to go catch my train home. i hope they won't mind if i leave my car in westchester for the whole weekend...
So yesterday Michael & Bryan came over and we looked at a couple of apartments in Inwood, this 3BR place ($1450) and this 4BR place ($1775). It was cheap -- wait, compared to Williamsburg / Park Slope that's really cheap! -- so the thinking was we could afford to have a spare room for an office or guest room or something.
The apartments were really great, big, with hardwood floors, granite kitchen and marble bathrooms. I don't know why marble bathrooms and crazy granite are such a plus but it was neat. All literally steps from the A train in clunky pre-war places with this charming ancient elevator. So that would be cool. But the apartments we saw will probably go by tomorrow so we should look again later.
Then we scurried around in Inwood Park, the "last natural park" or somesuch in Manhattan. Every time I passed earlier, I thought that the big hills towards the west were in New Jersey or something, I hadn't realize that all 200 acres were part of Manhattan and part of the park I live next to. So apparently there are all sorts of trails to walk around in back there, and spooky stuff.
Afterwards Michael took us down to Cafe Habana in Soho and it was ultra-amazing, the seasoned grilled corn on the cob they had, it was really good. I got the best Cuban sandwich ever ever and Bryan got burrito something something. Then Michael and Bryan talked about how all they ever wanted in life was to be mentioned in my blog, and so that takes care of that.
here's the combination of leftovers i'm eating tonight: pork chops, beans & rice, macaroni and cheese. i made my own soul food!
yesterday it was raining and i forgot to turn my car's headlights off as i parked at work in the morning; later that evening the car was dead and needed a jump start. fine, a fellow employee helped me out and i was on my way. this morning i went to find my car at its parking spot and it was gone, whisked away by mysterious forces unknown -- that is, until i checked my license plate online and found it'd been towed. and i was so proud of finding a spot close to my apartment last night.
once down at the impound office, pier 76 (they push your car off the pier if you don't come to pick it up), i was informed that they checked with the NJ DMV (they can do that?) and my car wasn't registered. the registration had apparently expired last december -- the renewal notice probably got thrown out with my parents' junk mail or something. so a few phone calls later and the parents were on the case while i got lunch in nearby times square and wondered if i'd ever get to work today.
i didn't. even with my mother waiting in line at the NJ DMV for me (thanks mom!), by the time i had my paperwork in order, paid my $185 impound fee, and taken the subway to the uptown impound lot on 203rd & 9th (where i saw a live rooster walking around nearby, odd), it was already 5pm. argh, just when i'd been planning a long day of hard coding, the catch-up i've been meaning to do since getting back to work.
this car is a major hassle. but what to do? i've been looking at taking the train from the marble hill station (just a short walk over the broadway bridge) to work every morning, but this raises the question of how to get to the office once i've arrived at the croton-harmon station. in the past my office owned several electric cars (seriously!) to perform this task, but the tech bubble burst, remember?
so here's my idea: parking at the croton-harmon station costs $4/day and overnight parking is allowed, so i could leave my car at croton overnight during the week and only bring it back to NYC on the weekends if i need it. basically, westchester would become my new parking spot. so let's analyze.
pro's:
of course, that last point might also be a pro, as it would force me to be more disciplined in the mornings in getting into work. any opinions?
So, back from upstate New York and moving into an apartment at the very tip of Manhattan tomorrow. Not much else to report except for this article I saw in the Star-Ledger on the train yesterday: Collection of DNA brings huge task
It's a matter-of-fact account of how they're going to start collecting the DNA of "anyone convicted of a crime in New Jersey," beginning with those currently in prison but eventually extending to the collection of saliva by the bailiff upon conviction in court. The article states that NJ previously required only violent criminals and sex offenders to submit DNA, and with this new law will be expanded to include "anyone convicted of a crime." Can you have yoru DNA removed from the database if your conviction is overturned on appeal? Does this include jaywalking, traffic violations, political protesters, "white collar" criminals, etc? I can only assume so. (I have to do a little digging now to find out before my next NJ speeding ticket.)
At first I found the idea of having my DNA in a national database very alarming, but then I reasoned with myself, arguing it's no different from fingerprinting. But it IS very different! DNA carries much, much more information than fingerprints. What if the information begins to be used by other parties -- maybe as a sort of genetic screening test before you can get a job at the FBI, or leased to health insurance companies who will give you prohibitively high rates if you happen to have the "breast cancer gene" or some other hereditary disease? Every day the world becomes more like the movie "Gattaca".
Then this UPI article on Ethics and mapping the brain arrived in my mailbox this morning, declaring "Researchers may one day find brain activity that correlates with behavior patterns such as tendencies toward alcoholism, aggression, pedophilia, or racism." Maybe after they take your DNA, they can check you for thoughtcrimes ...