G Train.

The G Train (Ghost Train) is the main artery for my travels

between Clinton Hill and Williamsburg. It runs up and down

Brooklyn making a few strategic bends along the way. If it

were a fully functioning train, it would be remarkably useful

for the citizens of my borough. Unfortunately, the fact of the

matter is that the G Train has not functioned on weekends

yet this decade and weekdays I have waited up to 48 minutes

on a platform for a train that I honestly thought might not

come. What could be 10 minute bike rides are turned into

90 minute trials of introversion and super monkey ball

on the iPhone.

If I didn't have to take it, I would boycott it so hard.

Brooklyn Brewery.

A few weekends ago I visited the Brooklyn Brewery in

Williamsburg on a walk around the neighborhood. It offers

free tours and tastings of their entire line. I see signs all

over New York for Brooklyn Lager. I was even surprised

to see that the Paint Creek Tavern in Rochester Hills, MI

offers 3 varieties of BB Beers.

Good Lookin'.

New Hoodie Day!

Brooklyn Industries had a sale on last

season's zip-ups.

This candle is obsolete.

or, it just had a bright idea.

Brooklyn Flea.

On weekends in the winter the Williamsburg Bank is transformed

into "Brooklyn Flea" which is the Mecca for hipsters. Prices are

high and directly proportional to how ironic the item is.

In the basement is a huge vault with 5' thick doors that serves

as a cafeteria. I had Chicken Mole Tamales.

Maynard's Shins.

Frida Kahlo.

Now in toy form.

No Parking.

Anytime.

Post Game Report.

Strolled in pretty late this morning. Snapped a few pics

of my buds before we all went to bed. My lateness was

made clear to me by the conversation I had with my

father over AIM who was already at work preparing

the day ahead of him.

Sleepy.

Jazz Fest Coors Light.

Moral of the Story:

Maynard does NOT take bad pictures.

Sanna is hyped about her Coors.

Andy is going to shock something.

The End.

Fambly.

Bunch of 22 year olds living in Brooklyn

havin' a good ol' time.

Getting ready to go out for what would

be a late night/early morning.

Merril.

Merril and her Roommate came over last night to hang

out. They got hungry and bought way to much Chinese

food, leaving me with a ton of Chinese food to eat today.

For Free.

Fancy Burrito.

Ben and I devised a plan to get "fancy burritos", which was

just dressing up and getting regular burritos. I put on my

3-piece which has not been getting too much use out here

and we walked to a place called Burrito Bar near Park Slope.

Ben's comment on the burritos: "That picture you took

makes the burrito look a lot less mediocre than it was".

Agreed.

Left Overs.

Left over cooking on 17" Unibody MacBook Pro goodness.

Learning how to Cook: Reaping Benefits.

While the Oatmeal Apple Pie didn't exactly match the other

two dishes, it was all ridiculously decent food. The fact that

I actually had a hand in making a fair portion of it made it

all the more gratifying.

Second Helpings all around.

Cleo.

During the down time of cooking a three course meal,

I got to play with Kim's room mate's Kitten, Cleo. She

was pretty excited to see a camera and did some posing

for me.

She would change moods every time she heard the

auto focus adjust.

Cute Cat.

Cooking Food!

Hung out with Kim to make cat shelters/watch tv/cook

delicious food, because that's something someone my age

should be able to do.

We started out with Pad Thai as the goal, but an ambitious

Kim shot for a full three course meal including a Spring Rolls,

Tofu Pad Thai and Apple Oatmeal Pie.

It took 2 and a half hours to cook but was more than worth it.

Guggen-Zeit.

The Soloman R. Guggenheim Museum has a "Pay what you

want night" on Saturdays from 5:45 to 7:45 on Saturdays.

I paid about $free.99 and got to see the whole Guggenheim

which was admittedly sparse because it is in between

exhibitions.

Balto.

The only thing Valerie wanted to do during her time in New

York was see the Balto Statue in Central Park above the

Zoo.

The only thing I wanted Maynard to do while see the statue

was do lewd things to it while I took pictures.

The Park in the Middle of the Island.

Val came into town this weekend with the goal of checking

out NYC from a poor junior contract industrial designers

perspective. I gladly accommodated her by walking through

Central Park for free.

Central Park is like a bio-dome without the Paulie Shores.

Pan-o-rama.

We got down to the East River just south of DUMBO (DUBBO?),

and were presented with this view of the Island of Manhattan.

I don't use Photoshops Automate->Photomerge enough,

so I through this together for you guys.

Bike Trouble.

I was crushin' my way home on from my friends birthday

party in Williamsburg on sunday morning at 5:30 when

disaster struck. There was an unavoidable expansion

strip/dip/hole thing in the road that I hit head on at a

mightily impressive rate of speed. I rolled out of it, but

I started to hear a rhythmic clicking from my rear wheel.

Luckily, the only problem was a popped tube (because

aerospokes are bomb proof/heavy). I had all the tools I

needed to change the tube aside from another tube and a

pump, so I picked up my bike and hoofed it the rest of the

9 blocks to my apartment.

Not nearly as bad as Shanghai Bike Troubles, but enough

to make me laugh in frustration for 9 blocks.

Learning how to Cook

Twisty Pasta, Veggie Sauce, Sesame Seed Baguette,

Zucchini and Mango.

I hung out with Merril on sunday and she helped me

pick out some shirts and do my laundry. Then we

decided that at 22 years old, it was high time I start

learning how to sustain myself.

While she did most of the work sunday, I replicated

the effort today and it turned out alright.

High

Brooklyn Bridge.

Installation.

I've seen a few of these guys around. Alligator with human

hands periscoping out of a fake manhole cover and eating

a baby with a bag of money for a head.

Architecture on Jay Street.

Wavy building.

Become an NYC Firefighter.

This is actually a rolling advertisement for Firefighter

enrollment and not a casting van for an all black gay porn.

Could have fooled me.

On another note, every other Ford Econoline Conversion

Van just got a little less cool by comparison.

Melancholy.

Brendan called us about 50 meters from that park bench

to tell me that he saw Krista Serda working at a Taco

Bell. We giggled and Ben apparently heard his family died

or something.

Sad looking dude.

Park Benches.

We stopped here for a minute to admire a green space

and quietly observe 1990's dude practicing Karate in the

corner of the square.

Ben looked like he had dementia for awhile.

Theme of the Day: Sculpture Penis.

For reasons unbeknownst to

me (or anyone participating

for that matter), the unofficial

theme of Saturday was having

Ben stand next to Phallic things.

Example A.

Delta Gamma.

Nothing super special about this picture. It is the greek

letters for Delta Gamma, the sorority my Mother and

Sister are both in.

And it was carved into the cement on DeKalb.

Pratt.

January took a break on Saturday and let the good weather

shine through, so Ben, Maynard and I decided to go for a

walk around Brooklyn. First stop was Pratt where several

of my co-workers at ECCO hail from. They have a pretty

extensive sculpture garden on campus, though impressive

as it was, it was the Discovery Channel-esq squirrel love

that grabbed our collective attention. Thank goodness my

camera takes full HD video, so you can relive the tryst as

well as Ben's manic laughter in full 1080p.