urbanTechnocrat

Are you TRYING to rent the apartment?

I found this on Craigslist in the apartment section. I'm not sure if this is real or was posted to be funny... either way, its still funny. LOL!

Here's the deal:

I'm leaving my apartment to go live somewhere cheaper. Dunno what they're raising the rent to, but I suspect it'll be like 1300. I hated the broker they use, and brokers are like leeches. So if I give your name to the management co., you could bypass the very expensive process of brokers and save me tons of hassle.

The positives of the place:

*Your own space...oooh, so very fantastic. I love this apartment to death, but I'd prefer to have more money by paying less rent.

*Union square-ish! Center of the turning universe! A block away from Trader Joe's!

The downside of this place:

*1300 (or whatever) a month is a lot of money.

*The heating is iffy. I complained and now it's like 90 degrees in here all the time. But it probably will get cold again, so be prepared to complain to management. Oh, and the radiator handle doesn't work.

*The neighbor frat boy is loud & obnoxious. And the walls to his apartment are thin.

*The kitchen area is a little old. It's the kind that always looks dirty, no matter how hard you try to clean it.

*The one window opens onto the fire escape. Which is a security risk. You could put up bars, but that costs money and the place would get even less lighting than it already does.

*There's not a lot of good lighting in the place.

*The pirated internet here sucks. You'll have to buy your own.

So that's the deal. Email me if you're interested. I'll show the place over the weekend to interested parties. Oh, and I'm selling my couch & ac too, if you're interested in that.

Cheers.

Madonna's Confessions DVD

Ahhhh!!! Just what I was waiting for since seeing the concert back in July '06.

Madonna has released the concert album and DVD of her Confessions Tour or 2006. It seems as if the video is of the concert in the UK which means I can get rid of the version I taped on NBC back before Thanksgiving. YAY! No Commercials!

The songs from the actual tour were great because most of them were remixed. So, if you weren't able to make it to a concert venue AND you didn't see it on TV, get out and buy this CD/DVD set right now!! Hell, even if you did see the concert (even multiple times) go get this! You'll be glad you did.

My little nephew, Oliver

Awww... Isn't he sooo cute? I just got this picture yesterday. This is Ollie, my friend Beto's little boy. He's a Jack Russell Terrier and only a few months old. He's so full of energy and reminds me of Nicolai, the puppy Dana and I had. Wow, that was a long time ago.

According to Beto, I'm Ollie's uncle and sitter. hehehe!! I can't wait for my first puppy-sitting job. He's gonna be so spoiled.

¡Toro Toro Toro!

           

While in Mexico CIty, Aaron, Joe and myself traveled down to the Plaza de Toros to catch a bullfight. It was, well... interesting. Something you really only need to experience one time.

Anyway, this was the second bullfight of the evening and when this one came running out of the pen, you could tell he was crazy. Before you know it, the bull is scaling the wall of the ring, jumping right towards us. I panic and duck behind the wall before realizing I'm still recording and that I'm totally fine. Recording of the bull then resumes... LOL!

Pest Control

Yes, pest control. And, no, I am not referring to a "code phrase" that warns friends of a touchy-feely troll of an old man that lingers in the bar. There are bugs in my apartment. Worse than that, they are in my room.

GROSS! GROSS! GROSS!

Tonight, I was moving some boxes in my room when I noticed some strange holes at the bottom of one box that has my framed college diploma and another framed print stored inside. It looked kind of like an ant hill on the side of the box, or like something came out of the hole from the inside. And there were a few of them which meant this wasn't good at all. So, I tilted the box away from the wall to look behind it.

It didn't look pretty. The bottom 2 inches or so of the box has been chewed through with particles of it all over the floor and partially on the wall. When I first tilted the box back and looked down, I did see a few little things moving around (YUCK!) that looked, to me anyway, like termites. Yes, I know termites eat wood. But a little research will also tell you they eat cardboard... as do cockroaches and ladybugs. I know this wasn't done by ladybugs and if it is cockroaches then I'm moving as soon as I can. Termites I can almost handle, although I have been really itchy since discovering this.

Now I have a few issues to deal with, both immediate and long-term: (1) How to get the box out of my apartment without dragging bugs everywhere, (2) How to kill them after, (3) The unpleasant thought of looking in the boxes stored nearby (that are under my bed) to see if bugs are eating those too, (4) replacing my college diploma which was stored in that box and has most likely been chewed on, and (5) being paranoid while living here about bugs returning or being found elsewhere.

I am far from a dirty person and have no idea how they got in or how long they've been feeding off of that cardboard box and its contents. Its quite disturbing that I was sleeping in there with a colony of insects gnawing at my personal possessions. I guess that's better than chewing on me, but still... GROSS!

I'm going to have to call the management company in the morning to get this taken care of ASAP. Hopefully, its not as bad as it looks. If I'm lucky, my other stuff is fine. But this weekend, cardboard boxes are being replaced by plastic bins from Target.

A return to ALEGRIA

I know, I know... After my last ALEGRIA experience, I vowed never to return. Well, my one condition was if I had gained weight and built up some muscle. That was back in October 2005. And today, I probably weigh the same and I am no more built than back then. So, why did I decide to go? I'm not really sure. One reason may be the free ticket that my friend (who works there) managed to get me. Or maybe because this year I knew a lot more people that were going to be there that I could hang out with. Who knows why, but I'm glad that I went.

ALEGRIA Tribal V was held at Crobar (as per the usual) yesterday, or should I say this morning. I again attended with Stephen although this time he was sans boyfriend. This time he brought along a friend of his whom I have met before. Kris is a very friendly and very adorable British lad with a cute face and a sexy body. And he's a good dancer. Bringing friends to ALEGRIA is totally fine, bringing a boyfriend is not. Keep that in mind, kids.

Mexico City photos

To hold you over while I get all of my photos posted up here on my blog, I have them up temporarily on my Google Web Albums page. Follow the link below to watch a slideshow... I even added captions to most of the pics. Enjoy!

Mexico City

Holy iPhone, Batman!

FINALLY! What every technologist, Apple aficionado, and gadget geek has been waiting for. Today, Apple announced the release of the iPhone, a device that is a cell phone, a widescreen iPod, and web browser. I want one. Now.

Unfortunately, I have to wait until June to get my own. But, a friend of mine here in the city works for Apple and happens to have a prototype with him. I may shoot over to his place this weekend to get my hands on it and check it out. Poor guy had to basically lie to my face this weekend about what was happening at the expo this week... DAMN HIM!

Apparently over 2 years in the making, the device has finally left the rumor mill and headed straight to stardom. Hopefully, it'll actually live up to all that it is promising. This could be Apple's next big device takeover (strangely enough, Google is also involved; they provided a special version of Google Maps. I talked about these two companies taking over the world in a previous post). They also released AppleTV; I'll be grabbing one of those when it is released in February to keep me occupied until the phone hits the street in June.

70 and January

Its the 6th day of January and New York City has hit a record high temperature of 72 degrees. I just got done dropping off my laundry down the street wearing a tshirt, shorts, and flip flops. And walking back I realized... "WTF?!?! Its January!"

I guess I don't know if I should be enjoying it or should be really scared about what the future holds. I mean, according to Al Gore, if the heat keeps up across the globe, my apartment would become part of New York Harbor. Hopefully, I'll be dead by then; I don't have flood insurance.

O'Frickin Hare

So, here I am at a hotel in Chicago with about 4.5 hrs before I need to get up to be back at the airport. My flight from Mexico City was late taking off this afternoon. And by the time I got to Chicago, they wouldn't let me re-check my bags after going through Customs because there wasn't enough time. So, I could have attempted to bring everything through security as carry-on but by the time I made it to the next terminal, I had 5 minutes. It wasn't happening. And the next flight to NY wasn't until today.

Back to NYC tomorrow... <sigh>

BTW, someone please remind m next time about flying through Chicago. Something irritating always happens when I fly through here.