Santacon NYC 2007

This Saturday, 12/8 it's the annual Santacon in the city. Which basically means that hundreds of people will gather at a place yet to be disclosed at 9am for a pub crawl around the city dressed in Santa suits...

Here are a couple of pics from previous years; I actually don't think that they depict what it is, but it gives you a general idea:

Two very funny clips

These are two clips that I got sent and i thought they were very funny. The first one is a Saturday Night Live skit of Debbie Downer (wah, wah, waaaaah...) and the other one is from Mad TV, a new Apple product. I'm not a big fan of Mad TV but this one actually has a funny twist. It gets better as he reveals the new "i product"... Check them out:

I still haven't figured out how to place the actual clip here so you don't have to click on the link, sorry...

Debbie Downer: http://www.buzznet.com/tags/debbiedowner/video/

New i product: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw2nkoGLhrE

And just for fun, here's a picture of Debbie Downer:

When did the word billion become synonym with hundreds?

My brother sent me this info and I thought I’d share; it’s pretty interesting as well as disturbing, upsetting and frustrating. Here it goes.

The next time you hear a politician use the word "billion" in a casual manner, think about whether you want the "politicians" spending YOUR tax money. A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases.

A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.

B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

So far the war in Iraq has cost the US $1.9 trillion… so pretty much the US has spent 475 billion dollars a year for the past 4 years.

I'm not big on politics but these figures are just sick.

G-squared gets their own blog!!

G-squared, the official national championship fan club of the New York Rugby Club, gets their own blog! Check them out at:

http://g-squared-nyc.blogspot.com/

Go G-squared go!!!

Two of my favorite things come together

I love The Killers (pictured above*) and I love the Dire Straits song "Romeo and Juliet". Well, The Killers came out with a version of the song; apparently, they are huge Dire Straits fans.

Here's the link to the song and video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9VqosFpHe4

sorry, i can't figure out how to post the actual video here so you don't have to go to the you tube page...

*the lead singer, Brandon Flowers, is a cutie, but i just found out he's 26... and married... and a Mormon... anyhow, here's his wikipedia page... very interesting...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Flowers#Early_life

Congratulations Should’ve-Been-Our-President Al Gore!

Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize for all his efforts in trying to make the world get a better understanding of global warming. Global warming it’s such a scary thing but I think what’s even scarier is the fact that people don’t seem to care so much for it, or just not take it as seriously as they should; “I’m not gonna be around by the time the world ends, so why bother?” Ummm, yeah. I actually wonder how many advances or at least how much closer to making it better we would be if the Board of Elections wouldn’t have cheated in Florida back in 2000. Bastards. Ok,that’s as political as I’ll get.

Here’s the article on the Nobel Peace Prize.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21262661/?GT1=10450

I am not promoting frogs in blenders…

But this has been one of my favorite JoeCartoons and so I’m sharing it with you.

http://www.joecartoon.com/cartoons/67-frog_in_a_blender


Once you are in his page, you can see the other ones he’s got. His latest one is Chris Cocker in a blender… you know the “LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!!!!” guy. Um, yeah lots of crazy people out there with access to the world… crazy to think that he is close to having his own show… http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117972243.html?categoryid=1238&cs=1

Miss Teen South Carolina (word for word)

I'm sure that everyone has already seen this clip, but it's just ridiculous. I must say that the first time i saw it i couldn't stop laughing but now it's just a scary because I'm sure she's not the only one out there than is this stupid. Anyhow, here's the question and her answer. Below the text is the link for the video clip if you haven't seen it yet.


"Recent polls have shown that a fifth of Americans can't locate the US on a map. Why do you think this is?"

I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because uh some uh people out there in our nation don't have maps and uh I believe that our ed- education like such as in South Africa and uh the- the Iraq everywhere like such as and I believe that they should uh our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or- or- should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for our children...

Here's the clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WALIARHHLII

Is this safe?

I came across this picture just now and I had to stop and ask myself, “is this safe?” If I was the mother of this kid I wouldn’t be thrilled by this picture. What if something were to go wrong? Say, the alligator does what it does instinctively and bites the kid and they start to wrestle and inevitably the kid looses… “Um, Mrs. Smith this is Coach Adams. I’m terribly sorry to inform you that Johnny got eaten by our pet alligator… (pause) Yeah, it seems like a good idea, but I guess looking back we should’ve gotten a pet squirrel rather than a gator…Anyway, I’m sorry.”

I mean, trying to look all tough to scare the opposing team is one thing, but to pose with a freaking gator just seems silly… Anyhow, it made me laugh so I’m sharing!!

Have an awesome Friday!! Yeeeees.

Promoting Katie's blog

No blog from me today, but I am promoting Katie's blog of the day (Take a U Turn, Fool!)because it's simply hilarious!!! click on the link and enjoy!!

Stupid little trivia just for the hell of it.

Question 1:

If you knew a woman who was pregnant, who had 8 kids already, three who were deaf, two who were blind, one mentally retarded, and she had syphilis, would you recommend that she have an abortion?



Read the next question before looking at the response for this one.



Question 2:

It is time to elect a new world leader, and only your vote counts.
Here are the facts about the three candidates. Who would you vote for?

Candidate A
Associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologist He's had two mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10 martinis a day.

Candidate B
He was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in college and drinks a quart of whiskey every evening.

Candidate C
He is a decorated war hero. He's a vegetarian, doesn't smoke, drinks an occasional beer and never cheated on his wife.


Which of these candidates would be our choice? Decide first..., then scroll down for the response.







Candidate A is Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Candidate B is Winston Churchill.
Candidate C is Adolph Hitler.


And, by the way, on your answer to the abortion question:
If you said YES, you just killed Beethoven.


Finally, can you imagine working for a company that has a little more than 500 employees and has the following statistics:

* 29 have been accused of spousal abuse
* 7 have been arrested for fraud
* 19 have been accused of writing bad checks
* 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
* 3 have done time for assault
* 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
* 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
* 8 have been arrested for shoplifting
* 21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
* 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year...

Can you guess which organization this is?



It's the 535 members of the United States Congress. The same group that crank out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in line.


Also, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic...

Greeeeeat, this gives me a lot of hope...

One of my favorite pictures

Dar just posted this picture of Chachi and I taking a nap; I had totally forgotten about it. I love it! I think this was after a very long day at the Sweet 16s tournament that the NYRC hosted a few years ago in good ol' Staten Island.

Awesome bike ride*

It's such a beautiful day today that I decided to bike to work. However, since my bike sucks, I asked Dar if I could borrow her brand new one. And she said yes! It was an awesome ride and I'm very much looking forward to this afternoon so I can bike back!

This bike is so smooth and fast that I felt like I didn’t had to pedal... Well, a few seconds after I stopped pedaling, I realized I wasn’t going anywhere so I had to start pedaling…

I must say that I have a little bit of bike envy. Although since Dar now has this new one, I now have her old one which is WAY better than my old shitty bike with a purple/pink frame… I mean seriously, if I were to be seen in Brownsville riding that thing I would be a dead woman. Even if I were to be wearing my blue O shirt!

* I always forget how awful the beginning of Brooklyn bridge is… but it’s ALWAYS so worth it!

que momento mas triste cuando se acaba...

Summer is over! This, of course is a bitter sweet moment for me because although I'm happy that all camps have ended and I now have time to live, it also means well, the end of the summer. So no more long days (sunsets at 9pm, how awesome is that!). No more free concerts at the pier or park. No more dinners on sidewalk cafes. No more shorts everyday (although I might still wear mine until November...) and no more iced coffees (which is good for my pocket since they are more expensive than regular coffee... thanks Starbucks...

But with the end of summer comes the fall. And honestly NYC in the fall is a great place to be. You've got multi color trees (well, their leaves anyway) and awesome weather. Not too cold, not too hot, just perfect. Kind of like the weather in San Francisco, but without the usual SF fog. Perfect weather to go biking, hiking (not that I ever go hiking) and jogging (again, not that I ever jog, but you get the point.)

All in all, like I said this is a bitter sweet moment for me, but it's looking sweeter by the minute.

I now have time to write shit like this!!

Proudest moment for a mother (or a nun)

A friend of mine from college posted this picture on facebook and I just had to share with everyone (or whoever still checks my blog since I haven’t posted since March… thanks for your loyalty ;)

This picture was taken in October 2004… Halloween in SLU. SLU is a Jesuit school and we were trying to upset the nuns so we decided to dress up as pregnant nuns… we went to several parties and bar hoping later... it’s so terrible, it’s great! Good times at SLU… definitively good times at SLU…

Guest Blogger!! DAR

Following an invitation to do a guest spot on Jayne's blog, my wonderful wife* decided to also allow me to share my two cents on her blog so here I go again:


Friends, let this be a warning to you all that WE ARE NOT ALONE.

There are various realities in life that we accept without question and without any deep and insightful thought. The truth of the matter is that we live in a populated planet. We live in cities, we live in neighborhoods - we generally operate our lives with people constantly around us in one capacity or another.

You must accept this premise before you can continue to read.

That said, privacy plays a pretty big role in our lives and can take various forms. There are just things that we have to do alone. And, I argue, these are activities that we have to somehow fit within our daily populated lives.

I present before you, the jury, the strangest of all sociological experiments: the public bathroom

I can talk about this topic for hours, but, let me focus on just one scenario that consistently puzzles me:

I like my privacy in the bathroom as does a majority of the population. So, if I am in a bathroom with 5 stalls, all empty except for the last one (where I happen to be peeing), what exactly motivates someone to take the one right next to me? C'mon, we have the room, don't you want a little privacy too? A little personal space? Can we just pretend for the next 1.5 minutes that this is our time to resolve our biological needs….alone?

And, here is where we come to the striking reality, friends, that we are NEVER truly alone.



* Please note that the author used the term girlfriend and this editor decided to change it wife. Hey, why not? We have two weddings, a Canadian certificate and 200+ witnesses to prove it!

I didn't know Darlene had her own clip art!!

Although I wasn’t the one that found this clip art (I think it would’ve been a very weird moment!) I wanted to share this with you guys because the clip art is uncanny. Dar is pretty sure that it is her and I agree… Take a look; it’s very bizarre!!!

Circa 1992

Through a friend’s site I found this picture. It took me a while to notice that I was actually in the picture! Holy crap... I must’ve been like 15 when this picture was taken… I look so young and I feel so old... :(

I think this was during a mock election that we had in school and I was “voting” for the New Progressive Party. It’s a shame that the elected governor (from that party) ended up going nuts a few years later… Oh well. See if you can find me…

Holy crap!

So while I was doing some work at home (so much for having the day off), I went to attach a file and came across a bunch of old pictures from our apartment.

Our apartment needed a lot of help when we bought it, we knew this. And we spent several months under construction, surrounded by useless contractors and freaking Rasheed (bastard!). I must’ve blocked it out because I don’t remember it being so bad! In any event, here are a few before and after pics. Alos, keep in mind that these pictures were taken about 2 yers ago so some of the decor has changed maybe a liiiiitle bit...

Spain and Portugal with the family

For new year’s we went with my family (we were 12 and this was just my mom and her brother’s family) to Madrid and Lisboa (Portugal). Aside from both destinations being incredibly beautiful, I must say that I am a very lucky person to have the family that I have (not that I hadn’t realized this before!). We had such an amazing time together. We were together for a week and we didn’t have any arguments whatsoever; none. We enjoyed each other’s company so much and had so much fun that it made me realize that I miss my family incredibly. I wish I could see them and hang out with them more often.

Although we had a full schedule everyday, my favorite part was late afternoon around 6pm where we would gather in the hotel lobby and just grab a few (several) drinks, relax and then go to dinner around 9:30-10pm.

No joke, we have close to 800 pictures from the trip (12 people taking pics), but here are just a few of my favorites. Enjoy!

Just hangin' out in Plaza Mayor... what wigs? What are you talking about?

1st night; nice restaurant. Why do we have napkins onour heads? Just 'cause...

Later that night... umm, yeah, I don't know...

Babe, can I hang this up in our living room?

New Year's Eve...

Before

After

“Hey, where do I go?” Dar’s new phrase

So although this has been going on for years now, it has finally been caught on camera. This is Chachi taking over Darlene’s side of the bed… this happens every night!


And here are some other pictures of Chachi and Luka…

Luka has arrived!

So after much anticipation, Luka is finally here! She arrived at JFK last Wednesday around 3:30pm. Unlike Chachi who was calm from day one and incredibly shy to come out of the cage at the airport, Luka jumped out of the cage and couldn’t stop squirming, moving, jumping, licking, running, eating, drinking, etc. She’s incredibly cute and we’re very excited to have her. We went straight from the airport to the vet (I know, talk about having a traumatizing day!), and they said she was fine, all’s good and that she weighted 5 pounds… At this point Chachi is looking like a Giant Schnauzer at 12 pounds!

Amazingly Chachi reacted very well when she first met her; she was playing with her and she seemed very happy. Later that night, after she realized that this new tiny-constantly-moving-thing wasn’t leaving her house, she got really pissed and started to mark her territory. Oh well, a week and a few days later, they’re getting along fine. They play all the day, speaking a very odd language that it seems only Chewbacca would understand, but at least they’re playing… I do miss sleeping all throughout the night though… I shall never take that for granted ever again. I’m thinking (and really hoping) that Luka will get into a regular schedule and sleep all throughout the night soon. VERY SOON!!!

Here are a few pics! Enjoy. On the last picture you will notice that Luka has something funky on her nose; yup, slobber from playing w/ Chachi!