GlitchNYC

This was the 9/12/01 feeling. The sudden feelingrealization that nothing that you’re working towards, saving for, or betting on may actually come to pass.

I just read http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/.

All of it.

I cannot summarize, explain, or even articulate what it’s about. Just read it - at least the first page - and come to your own conclusions.

It’s not a question of if but when, and It’s time to start planning.

Whew.

I mean really… Whew. I was attempting to think about this post beforehand so I could write a short, funny sum-up of the last 10 days or so, but it’s just not possible, so I’m winging it.

We escaped NYC just after the transit strike lifted, and made our way out to CT to visit with Sara’s family. Her mom was violently ill, so it was pretty laid-back, and we had a nice, quick, Christmas morning exchange before we headed up to visit Sara’s extended family.

Now that Sara and I have been together almost 7 years, the cousins are really starting to feel like family, and I love hanging out with them. The only wrench in the works was that I was having a pretty hard time with my allergies and the 3 dogs + wood fire, so I ended up sidelined for a bit of the night.

The next day, we went to the mall.

Yes. The day after Christmas.

Even though there were about a million people all trying to return stuff, find various exchanges in the right size, and elbow their way around, it was actually quite enjoyable, mostly because I didn’t have to be anywhere myself. I spent a good deal of time just walking around and people-watching, and since I wasn’t in any hurry, I didn’t have the shoulder-ache of stress that most of the other people there seemed to carry.

I got myself some generic loratadine+pseudophedrine, which combined with my singular pretty much stops my allergies in their tracks, so the rest of the visit was quite enjoyable.

After saying goodbye to Sara’s family (and recording episode 13 of The GlitchCast with Sara’s sister Jenn), we rented a car and made our way to upstate NY.

Seeing my family is always great, as is hanging out with my best friend Rye and getting to see Kate and Doug, who drove out for New Years. Although it was great to see everyone, I ended up with just about the nastiest stomach bug I’ve had since I was in middle school. I’ll spare you the details, but suffice to say that I was really sick, and 3 or 4 days later, food is still a touchy subject.

Unfortunately, that meant that the New Year’s Eve revelry was pretty low key, but we had a good time playing lots of games like Super Scrabble, Texas Hold-em’, and Apples to Apples.

It went too quick as always, especially since I slept through a pretty good portion of the latter half of the week, but I certainly got a lot of downtime to brainstorm on what the next year will bring.

To all of my friends and family, I don’t know if I could ever express it enough, but I love all of you and thank you for making 2005 one of the best years ever.

I had a realization last night while saying goodnight to Sara and before embarking on the “first great coding binge of 2006 (more in the next post).” We just spent 10 days in stressful situations, surrounded by company, and packed in cars, malls, and overcrowded rooms, and yet in that time, we didn’t have anything close to a fight or even an exchange of words. What that’s not that abnormal for us, it just hit me that compared to most couples, that’s like running a marathon without breaking a sweat! If that’s not love, I don’t know what is! I love you Sara, here’s to a great 2006.

25 years ago, New York came to a halt for 11 days.

Today, we begin the ritual again. Sources say the Transit Strike is on. Now, at 2AM, Announcements are expected any minute.

Both NY1 and twuLocal100.org are having trouble loading pages, suffering from a Slashdot like “strikedotting” as everyone in NYC refreshes the page in hopes of some concrete news one way or the other. After all this chest beating by both sides, we’re all sick of waiting.

This time, telecommuting, vpns, remote email, and holiday vacation time make it much more manageable for the average office joe to handle the strike, at least for a few days. The most affected will be the businesses in Manhattan who will be robbed of the frantic last minute Christmas shopping sales. Shop owners in the outer boroughs will probably be extremely happy with the added foot-traffic that tomorrow’s “Strike-day shoppers” will bring.

I’m toying with the idea of setting up a temporary Transit Strike podcast. I’ll let you know if I go ahead with it, but if I do, it will be at http://www.glitchnyc.com/TransitStrikePodcast

The podcast would consist of daily news updates, interviews with union picketers, affected business owners, and commuters just getting around any way possible. What do you think, is anyone interested?

Okay, well, we started off at the BigContact event. It seemed to suck at first (which I kind of smelled before-hand) and I didn’t find a single podcaster there. Seeing as this was an event to bring musicians and podcasters together, among other things, that’s not really a good sign.

After Adam and I snuck off for a quick bite to eat and came back, things were much different. The place was hopping, there was a band playing, and Adam overheard people talking about podcasting and we joined the party.

After that, we had a nice hour of excellent conversation with Nat from Big Contact and Patricia from Indiefeed’s Folk-Americana and Alt-Rock channels (which have been on my playlist for the past 2 weeks, killing radio). Being a novice wine drinker, I’m also really interested in her other brilliant idea, the Wine Scout, where she tours the country in search of great wines. Time was short, so we said our goodbyes and headed over ot CB’s Gallery (right next to CGBG’s) to hear Adam’s friend Bobby Blue. Adam did his website (which I can’t seem to find right now), so if nothing else, I figured we’d hear his stuff, and maybe persuade him to be podsafe.

As a side note, Veronica Varlow was also going to be performing Burlesque tonight at CB’s. I’ve been a fan of Veronica’s for years, so I figured I’d say hello.

It turns out we arrived a bit too late, and Bobby had already played, but we got to see Veronica perform, and her partner in crime Burke Heffner was there too.

If you don’t know Veronica Varlow of DangerDame.com yet, go check out her site. Aside from having awesome designs and great photography (which is by Burke - he’s got more amazing photos at ThingsToLookAt.com), they’ve also written a screenplay and have pretty much the best damn indie trailer you’ve ever seen over at revolverthemovie.com.

I managed to wrangle them into giving us an interview, so you can tune in over at the GlitchCast next week to hear more.

At that point, I started to head home, but it turns out I wasn’t quite done. The trains were god-awful slow, so on the way home, I made conversation with a member of “The two man Gentlmen band“, a good subway performer (who’s name I didn’t catch, but he got a card), and a guitarist on the train (who also got a card) .

Not bad for a tuesday night out! Unfortunately, I missed the Invite Them Up CD release party to make it to all these events. Congratulations to Bobby, Eugene, and all the other great Comedians on their new Comedy Central CD/DVD set. For $19, this is the best 3-CD/1-DVD comedy combo you can give this Christmas.

Our good friend Marianne has produced a great show tonight at UCB Theater. It would be great to see any friends in the NYC area!

Broin’ Out with Leo and Tony

Monday, November 28 at 9:30pm

UCB Theater (26th between 8th and 9th Ave.)

Admission: $5

“Somewhere between ‘The Dick Cavett Show’ and ‘After Dark with Hugh Hefner’. In this live talk/variety show, host Leo Allen (Saturday Night Live) and ’sidekick’ Tony Camin (Marijuana Logues) welcome real celebrity guests for a straight up talk show - with booze.”

Tonight’s guests: Todd Barry (comedian), Laura Krafft (Colbert Report), Scott Bateman (Bateman365) and Corn Mo (musical guest).

RESERVE TICKETS

This past Sunday, I deviated from my normal Chipotle order, and added a wrap so I could eat it on the subway.

I went to chipotlefan.com to see just how much worse that made it for me. Holy crap! It added over 300 calories and tons of fat… I don’t know how people eat the “normal fare” there. I don’t even put rice or meat in my burrito, and it’s still half of what I should be eating in a normal day.

Here’s my normal order (sans wrap) at Chipotle.

Bol + lettuce + black beans + corn and tomato salsa + guac + more lettuce

My burrito has 17g of fat, and

430 calories. How about yours?

This essay at changethis is a startling picture of many of our lives: months of normalcy, even lethargy peppered by periods of intense creativity, sleepless nights, and ADHD-like concentration issues.

Hypomania (a less intense form of the nightmarish mania that manic-depressives experience) affects a large number of people in the US, and apparently appears in extremely high numbers among successful entrepreneurs. A slightly “amped up” version of the natural cycles we all experience.

For me, reading this essay was like looking in a mirror. I agree with the interviewees of the piece that while these hyper periods are slightly disconcerting, they can be extremely useful for actually getting stuff done. I’ve attempted (and eventually accomplished) more during these periods than at any other time in my life. This site, the GlitchCast, my Music, lex, and countless invention ideas have all come out of times when I’ve felt “rammy” (short for rambunctious, a phrase which I’ve used to describe the feeling for lack of a better word.)

So what do you think? Are you a Hypomanic American? Is it a blessing, or a diagnosis?