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Eff this house [May. 7th, 2008|02:34 pm]
Charlie came into town this weekend and we had an awesome time.  We saw the weird hanging/exploding cars at the Guggenheim and the pack of wolves crashing into a transparent glass.  I also finally saw Fellini's 8 1/2, which is a discombobulated but great movie. I think I need to watch it again though in order for it all to come together, especially since I fell asleep for a lil bit in the middle (come on, anyone who knows me should be proud - I was actually awake again by the ending!)

I'm going crazy again trying to deal with finding new roommates.  I can't take this house anymore.  Every 3 months or so I get super stressed by this process. I had a feeling I was going to get screwed over with this responsibility when we signed the lease, and lo and behold look what's happened.  Never again. I'll live with maybe 1 other roommate, but never again will I make the exception of living with people that aren't on the lease.  So now I have to find 2 new roommates to fill our 2 smallest rooms, in the 2 hottest months of the year, and the other girl on the lease is off somewhere traveling around Europe. My other roommates are not helping with the Craigslist inquires, nor helping at all to find replacements. Fucking awesome.
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[May. 2nd, 2008|04:01 pm]
[mood | cheerful]

Charlie comes into town today!
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[May. 1st, 2008|09:16 am]
Dinner & a drag show! Meet me tonight at Lucky Chang's, @8pm. Show starts at 8:30.  Give me a heads up for the reservations tho ;D
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Get Bent [Apr. 24th, 2008|02:02 pm]
At the Bent Festival.
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Raquel's update in 10 seconds [Apr. 21st, 2008|03:17 pm]
[Tags|]

1. Started volunteering at the Culinary Center of  NY. (Cooking skills +10.)
2. Am working on getting a band to play at my house for my birthday (either the StumbleBum Band or maaaybe MSI??)
3. Am going on this stupid lemonde detox diet tomorrow, because hey why not, I could use a detox.
4. Am unhealthily obsessed with MSI's new album.
5. Actually have stuff to do again at work. Yay!
6. Will be done with War and fucking Peace, finally. (Reading skills +20, Patience skills +200)
7. Have come to terms with the fact that Tina Fey is my long lost twin.
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[Apr. 11th, 2008|11:50 am]
No longer looking forward to the birthdays.


Dammit. *slams head on desk*
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Yay, spring. [Apr. 9th, 2008|10:42 am]
[mood | giddy]
[music |99 red balloons]

Some how every spring I always get caught by surprise.  One day I look up, and all of a sudden the trees are blooming.
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[Apr. 4th, 2008|10:53 am]
The Global Gaming League has announced a Tournament for Frontlines: Fuel of War with $15,000 and a trip to play live on TV in New York City up for grabs. Check it out:

GGL LAUNCHES $15K TOURNAMENT FRONTLINES: FUEL OF WAR

The War of the Future Begins TODAY! GGL Global Gaming is proud to announce the launch of a 4v4 tournament for Xbox 360 players.

WHO: GGL - The Leading Media Company for the Expansion and Culture of Videogames

WHAT: GGL’s Frontlines: Fuels of War 4v4 $15,000 Tournament (http://frontlines.ggl.com/)

* Overall prize purse of $15,000.
* Ladder Format - Join anytime, for your chances of advancing!
* Final two teams (8 players total) receive Round Trip to New York City, NY, for live Final, from May 9 – 12, 2008, including round trip coach airfare, hotel accommodations for two nights/three days, ground transportation between airport and hotel, and $100 spending money.

WHEN: NOW!

* Register between February 26 – April 6 by 8:59 PM
* Play from February 26 – April 6
* Finals on May 9 – 12

WHERE: Online Ladder (http://frontlines.ggl.com/) - Finals in New York City
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[Apr. 3rd, 2008|02:09 pm]
I can't stop laughing about this. Oh, god, make it stop. Bwahahahahahahahahaha......
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Heavy Metal in Baghdad [Apr. 2nd, 2008|08:38 am]
I REALLY wish I could go see this tonight. Unfortunately its not something my mom would go for, her not being metal and all.
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[Apr. 1st, 2008|08:47 am]
Mom is in town, and I'm half way through the visit and still surviving.  For those of you that know my mom, you know how amazing that is.  I checked out the Met over the weekend, yesterday we did the mother-daughter thing at Macy's and visited this German-Austrian museum.  Sunday I had a family reunion of sorts - my bro Frankie and my aunt came out to Williamsburg (first timer) to meet up my mom and Sid.  Today I'm gonna swing by Jacques Torre's chocolate shop, followed by a trip to Chelsea Market, and the Guggenheim if time allows!
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[Mar. 26th, 2008|06:28 pm]
An occasional restuarant. As in, occasionally they exist and occasionally they don't. Just depends on what the owner feels like.  Brought to you by Brooklyn, of course.
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[Mar. 24th, 2008|03:29 pm]
Can I has free taxes plz? thx.
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A Saturday Well Spent [Mar. 23rd, 2008|04:47 pm]
[music |Danzig]

Hung out at Dangerous Mathematicians yesterday for about 5 hours.  When Karen, the store owner, found out I was a programmer she just about flipped.  I ended up doing some modeling for her and will have some pictures posted on the website and inside the store.  Her store rocks! Its loaded with fun, sexy clothes, framed by mathematical formulas with physics books littered about the store.  I spent the afternoon playing dress up and drinking wine, basically. It was awesome!

Apparently Stephen Hawkins's co-author on A Brief History of the Time wandered in there by accident one day.  He was lost at night on the lower east side, saw a place called Dangerous Mathematicians and figured he could at least get directions out of someone there.  Imagine his surprise when he walked into a women's clothing store! Karen has a picture of him staring up at the math formulas and rubbing his chin, deep in thought (or maybe thoroughly confused).

Another really cool thing is that Karen is going to start tutoring some local kids in the back part of her store (ironically located next to the lingerie).  Outside of the designer boutiques and over-priced restaurants, the L.E.S. is a pretty economically depressed area.  A lot of kids there don't get the education they should, so she plans to offer deeply-discounted tutoring. 
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I'm attempting the impossible. [Mar. 22nd, 2008|12:34 pm]
Taken from here:

"To come to New York intending to make great gobs of money on Wall Street is one thing. To come to New York intending to eke out a quiet existence in some more moderately remunerative field (say, journalism) is quite another. The former makes perfectly good sense. Getting rich is a proud area tradition dating back at least to the days of Peter Minuit. The latter, however, is a nakedly bizarre pursuit requiring something in the way of explanation. Being middle class in today’s New York is like swimming the English Channel or climbing Everest without oxygen, or translating the Bible into LOLcats. Sure, it can be done, but is it really worth the effort?"
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Taken from the L Magazine's Money Issue [Mar. 22nd, 2008|12:15 pm]
[mood | anxious]

Estimated annual family income corresponding to a middle-class lifestyle in NYC: $75,000-$135,000

Estimated annual individual income corresponding to a middle-class lifestyle in Manhattan: $45,000

Estimated annual individual income corresponding to a middle-class lifestyle in Queens: $32,000

Per capita income in NYC: $41,803

Per capita income in the Bronx: $23,513

Per capita income in Queens: $31,912

Per capita income in Brooklyn: $28,462

Per capita income in Manhattan: $93,377

Manhattan’s rank among U.S. counties: 1

Percentage of New York families with an income falling within 20% of the city median income: 16

Major American urban areas with a smaller percentage of middle-class residents than New York: 0

Median income of a white Manhattan family with a child under 5: $284,208

Median income of a black Manhattan family with a child under 5: $31,171

Median income of a Latino Manhattan family with a child under 5: $25,467

Minimum number of years since Manhattan’s population of white children under 5 has outnumbered its population of black or Latino children under 5: 40

Average income of wage-earners in the uppermost fifth of Manhattan earners, as of 1990 census: $174,486

Average income of wage-earners in the uppermost fifth of Manhattan earners, as of 2000 census: $365,826

Increase: $191,340 (110%)

Average income of wage-earners in the lowermost fifth of Manhattan earners, as of 1990 census: $5,435

Average income of wage-earners in the lowermost fifth of Manhattan earners, as of 2000 census: $7,054

Increase: $1,619 (30%)

Median price of a Manhattan apartment, as of 2007’s final quarter: $850,000

Percent increase since 2006’s final quarter: 6.4

Mean price of a Manhattan apartment, as of 2007’s final quarter: $1,439,909

Percent increase since 2006’s final quarter: 17.6

Mean monthly rent for a non-doorman studio apartment in Manhattan’s most inexpensive neighborhood, Harlem, in February 2008: $1,185

Mean monthly rent for a non-doorman studio apartment in Manhattan’s most expensive neighborhood, Tribeca, in February 2008: $2,735

Percentage of New York households in 2005 spending more than 30% of their income (the threshold of affordability according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development) on housing: 36

Percentage of New York households spending more than 50% of their income on housing: 19.9

Percentage of low-income NYC households spending more than 30% of their income on housing: 38.9

Percentage of low-income NYC households spending more than 50% of their income on housing: 62.6

National rank: 1

NYC households out of 5 earning $32,000 or less per year: 2

Percent decline, between 2002 and 2005, in NYC housing affordable to households earning $32,000 per year: 17

Percent increase, over same time frame, of unsubsidized apartments renting for between $1,000 and $1,200 per month: 34

Percent increase of unsubsidized apartments renting for between $1,200 and $1,400 per month: 52

Percent increase of unsubsidized apartments renting for above $1,400 per month: 31
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[Mar. 22nd, 2008|12:05 pm]
"Dangerous Mathematicians is a women's clothing boutique where intelligent, stylish women can find elegant, sexy clothing to reflect their femininity and their minds.  Opened by Math Teacher-Turned-Fashion Designer, Karen Patwa, it is one of the of the few designer run boutiques on the Lower East Side, and one of the only ones to offer custom design services."

Damn it! Of course, I just found out about yesterday's late night lingerie shopping party this morning.
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[Mar. 20th, 2008|03:45 pm]
Once you hit a certain, it seems like a lot of choices come down to lifestyle decisions.  Not just a personal preference here and there, but more like what kind of life I'm trying to create for myself. Things that were previously unimportant seem to take on new, more meaningful significance. 

....I don't know how to explain this well.
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[Mar. 20th, 2008|11:20 am]
I'm not religious. I haven't celebrated Easter since I moved out of my parent's house when I was 18.  So why am I so gung-ho for Easter this year? I almost want to attend mass. Actually I reeeally want to hit up Agozar, since they have a killer Cuban brunch menu + free mimosa this Sunday (all included menu - prix fix $20).
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[Mar. 17th, 2008|04:01 pm]
I took a guided tour of the New York Public Library's Jack Kerouac exhibit this past Saturday.  It was great! I didn't even know they *had* exhibitions, but they have several, apparently.  They even have the original Winnie the Pooh characters on the 3rd floor. :)

Anyway, getting a new dose of Kerouac makes me want to rediscover my beat self.  I got to see half of the original scroll for "On the Road".  I love how crazy those guys were back in the day.  I forget which friend of his it was, but at one point Kerouac, Burroughs, Timothy Leary, and the other guy rented a bus and traveled across the country together; for the destination they just put "Further".  Fucking priceless...
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