a productive thursday

This past Thursday was one of my most productive days in weeks.

First, my sister Laura and I went for a 6 mile walk in the morning around the central Park Loop. Then I met up with a guy from craigslist who wanted to buy my 13" TV/VCR for $15. You see, I am trying to get rid of a lot of the junk that has piled up in this apartment over the last few years. Before I even moved in there was a ton of stuff that was just left over from the previous tenants, but during my stay, all the roommates that have come and gone have also left some belongings. So I'm trying to clean out a lot of the apartment before Maddy gets here so she'll have a clean slate to begin her decorating. Anyway, this guy met me downstairs in his car. He was Asian, but I would actually bet money he was Chinese based solely on how rude and impatient he was. It's not that all Chinese people are rude (and I'm talking about Chinese Chinese people, not Chinese Americans), it's just that if someone is Asian and they are extremely rude, chances are they are Chinese and not Korean or Japanese.

After the transaction, I met up with Greg (who had his bachelor party this past weekend). He just took the bar exam and is looking for a place in the city to move in with his soon-to-be wife, and he just happens to be checking out a place two blocks away from me, at 106 and Broadway. The apartment looked pretty awesome, very spacious, great location, and just really nice. We headed down to the Museum of Natural History to check out the frog exhibit. I used my awesome Citigroup ID to get us in for half price. The frogs were actually pretty damn cool. There were a lot of poison dart frogs that are really small and very colorful.

We walked back up town and met up with Greg's friend Tali, who just happen to be checking out apartments with her boyfriend right around the corner from me. So I figured what the hell, I'll check out what these other apartments look like and what they are going for. There were 20 people waiting at the building for the broker to show up. It was a pretty unbelievable sight to see in a few dozen people shuffle into a tiny studio apartment. The prices seemed pretty reasonable for a studio and a one-bedroom, but they just weren't all that great and the second apartment was in a pretty bad location. You can kind of tell as we all walked over to it, as a bunch of kids were playing with a fire hydrant and spraying people with water as they walked by on the opposite side of the street. Also, the broker was a huge asshole, which I guess can be expected, but that's ridiculous.

I then headed back downtown to 57th street to pick up my race number and information for the half marathon on Sunday. I was waiting for the walk signal while walking west on 57th St and I just happened to turn around and look behind me, and as luck would have it my friend Nina was standing directly behind me! I looked at her incredulously and she looked at me and said "seriously?" So we chatted up for a little while since I haven't seen her in almost a year. I gave the usual spiel about how China sucks and don't ever go and visit. She said she went skydiving. When we were sufficiently caught up, she asked me if my sister was still cleaning apartments, because her apartment desperately needed help.

Then I headed over to the Nike store to pick up my race information, and walked down to 36 and third to meet my mom and sister at Patsy's pizza restaurant. My mom was in the city because she had just made her first digital camera purchase (from B&H). She explain how she spent hours in the store, armed with several issues of consumer reports and went through each and every model of the point-and-shoot digital cameras to find the best value and one that would suit her needs. It will probably take her about a year to figure out how it all works.

Next, I continued walking downtown to meet up with my friend Pete, who I hadn't seen since before I left for China. He is a lawyer and works long hours, so we just never got a chance to meet up. But he said he recently got on a kick of mixing drinks and making up interesting cocktails and that if I came by his apartment (in the LES, which is insanely far from my apartment) he would make me a few. So I picked up some lime and mint for his concoctions and we drank and played Guitar Hero on his Xbox. Guitar hero is such a whack game - you just tap the shit out of the neck of a guitar, just like clicking a mouse at a feverish pace. So obviously it made my hand hurt. But it was kind of cool and there was a lot of good music.

Heading back was a real trip and a half. Because of construction, the uptown A/C trains were not running local past 59th St. So I usually just switched to the 1 train, but that was out of service also. So I had to get out and take the M7 bus. The whole journey was about an hour and a half.

another highly productive day:

- went to B&H to say hi to the hassids and buy a case for my tripod

-met up w my sister at Macy's to buy stuff for Maddy -- I'm going to smother her with gifts bought in NY that were ALL made in China. why not just wait til I get to china? Because maddy is expecting presents, and lots of 'em, when i see her

- then we dined at a deli in midtown.

- I dispatched my sister afterwards to go back to my apartment with the stuff we had bought, drop it off and pick up my big jar filled with all my change. I said she could keep 10% of however much the quarters and dimes and everything amount to. It was $56. I told her she could round up to $6 for her hard work.

- then to tutor at the office, followed by tutoring on the UES.

-finally home to discuss business school essays with my cousin.

- and hammer out more of my crazy Australia itinerary.

-and see the apple keynote address on their new iPhone, which, I hate to admit, looks pretty sweet.

whew, time to sleep. more of the same tomorrow.

Damn what a productive day:

-I braved the crappy USPS to pick up a package they hadn't delivered properly. It seems every single person I meet behind the counter is slightly insane, a sociopath, and just the most obnoxious, rude piece of shit ever. Today's run in with the short woman behind the pick up window was no different. I walked up, passed my slip through the 72 inch thick bullet-proof glass window and gave her my ID and she immediately yelled "hold your ID." Because the woman had been consistently rude to everyone she came in contact with that day, I think she was used to saying this repeatedly so it came out sounding like "hoh-ner-eye-dee". I had to repeat after her to be sure. After finally getting the package and getting the f out of that godforsaken place, I thought: it'd be a good idea if the USPS hired some consultants to provide some insight on how they can do a better job while saving money and being more efficient. But then i realized probably the first suggestion would be to fire everyone that works there -- so I doubt consultants will be coming anytime soon.

- I picked up a bagel with lox and tomato

-I need to do a lot of printing soon and I don't trust me printer so I went to a few computer/printing places on broadway to compare prices. the most outrageous quoted me 50 cents per printed page as if that were a perfectly reasonable amount of money to pay. WTF? The bargain place costs 8 cents per page, but 25cents per minute of computer use. I'm thinking it probably makes sense just to buy a new industrial strength laser printer and call it a day.

- made photocopies of my passport, what a bargain at 11 cents per copy.

- I went to 2 magazine stores looking for the january copy of PCmagazine, which no one has yet. My article about Skype will be in it. Finally, my first clip since Journalism school!

- I called GHI to take terminate my insurance while I switch to travel insurance during my time in China. I called the regular number, hit 2, then 1 (for premiums) and promptly got A WOMAN'S ANSWERING MACHINE. This is fucking GHI we're talking about here, not 'mom and pop insurance co'. And after going through their menu it goes to an answering machine message like : you've reached samantha, i'm not in, leave a message. It was 10am so it was certainly not lunch break (yeah, I called one other time when they said NO ONE IS IN THE OFFICE between 12 and 1...wtf?). No wonder GHI and insurance companies make boatloads of money. They don't answer the fucking phone or they're off eating lunch all day. Meanwhile, I called back, talked to a real person, and found out the fax number I need to fax a letter to saying I'd like to terminate my shit. Jesus, could they make it more of a pain in the ass. Welcome to the way things were in 1978. I'm assuming they all have rotary phones and no internet access in the offices.

- Then there was radioshack -- I popped in to see how much an australia electric plug would cost... just the plug (not the converter from 240v to 110v) cost $18. what a ripoff.

What a super productive day today...

First of all, I woke up at 12:30, checked my email, and these are the things that were waiting for me:

1- the director of a school in shenzhen is interested in my science teaching skills when i get over there. maddy had told me he was looking for teachers and it might be a good opportunity. sure enough, he was very interested in my travel plans.

2- a fellow j-school alum who works for forbes online threw me a video gig for this friday, interviewing the CEO of Federated Dep't stores about black friday. pay is great and this'll be my first gig for forbes which will hopefully lead to other cool stories.

3- the math dept head of a private school in nyc emailed me to see if i could substitute teach next week. i hadn't heard from this guy for a year and out of the blue he asks what my schedule is. i've basically never subbed, but i'm sure i'll be fine at it, and i'm sure it will be a good story.

-then I helped my cousin with his business school essays. i should charge people and do that for a living because...

-a few minutes later, my roommate IMd me and said he got into Columbia Business school!! un-f'ing believable! (i helped him quite a bit on his essays). he found out he got into NYU also about a week ago. i told him i should probably get a pat on the back as well.

- then i downloaded some episodes of "House of cosbys"... an animated show, 5 minutes in length, about a dude who clones bill cosby multiple times, and every 10th cosby has super powers. it's so absurd but actually kind of funny.

-then i tutored for a few hours


yeah, i had a kickass day today.

Today was a highly productive day...

Before the day even began, zak came into my room and woke me up at 8am asking which switch on the circuit breaker goes to which part of the apartment. Zak had blown a fuse in the kitchen and cut power to everythign in the apartment from trying tofigure out which switch was for the kitchen. Agh.

1- It's 9am. I am sleeping. I wake up to a loud drilling noise that sounds like its coming from inside the apartment. I don't care. I'm tired and go back to sleep. Then Benny, my SUPER, walks into my room, mumbles something and hands me his cell phone. Paula (my roommate) is on the line and says Benny is there to fix our shower drain. What a way to wake up. Already the drain was unclogged. I just knew it would be a splendid day.

2- Then I picked up my laundry (sorry for the change in tense, I am more fond of past tense than present). I love picking up my laundry.

3- I headed down to the tutoring office to pick up some stuff. Not that exciting, but I got to chat with the other guys. Found out some great shows that I need to start watching:
-Wonder Showzen
-Venture something
-Robot Chicken
-Harvey Birdman (I already love this show, I just remembered it)
-House of Cosbies

4- Went to the Chinese Consulate to pick up my visa for china... it only took 5 minutes, again! Cost $75, but was worth it. I'm really going to China.

5- Tutored for a bit. Then headed down to my next student, but realized it was probably going to rain... like, torrential rain, so I figured I'd insure myself in case it did. I bought a $7 umbrella from a dude on the street who was in the middle of hawking his wares.

"... but how do I know this isn't a piece of crap." asked the customer.
"it's fine. it'll keep you dry." said the seller.
"Yeah, I bet. And I'll come back here tomorrow and you'll be gone."
Then the seller says this: "I'm out here. The Misses told me don't you come back 'less you makin' green. So I'm out here. Been out here for 6 years now."

I figured it was a good deal. Insurance against rain. It had a "made in china" tag on it, which made me miss maddy. But then I remembered her words of wisdom: "never buy shit that's made in china. It sucks and it breaks and it's constructed cheaply."

I learned the wisdom of those words quickly. Every single time I opened the umbrella, another piece broke off.

After the next student, it started to rain and the wind was blowing hard. I opened the umbrella, so far so good. I walked a few blocks, got to the subway, and realized the plastic thing at the tip of the umbrella to cover it when you go indoors broke completely off. No matter, i didnt need it anyway. I got out, and went to my next student. Afterwards it wa raining badly... the umbrella opened upside down. Ok, whatever. The handle was shaky and i had to hold the neck of the umbrella with my other hand to keep it steady. More rain. I checked the inside of the polyester to see if it was wet -- I stopped trusting the umbrella. After the last student, I opened the umbrella one final time and one of the tips connected to the fabric came loose. This piece of crap was literally falling apart by the minute. The rain let up a bit, so that was nice and i kept the umbrella. maybe I can sell it on ebay. a real NYC umbrella might go for some real cash.

6- I got an email from PC Magazine -- I am going to get published!!! Fuck yeah, at $1/word for a 300 word piece about skype. I've been waiting for this article to go somewhere and it looks like it finally has!

7- Finally, I received my Cowon A2 video/mp3 player. This thing is a bit big, but so damn sweet its unbelievable. CHeck it out on their site: www.cowonamerica.com

8- also I received the footage of an eagle release in Florida for my story about, yes, eagles in Florida. Can't wait to watch it.

And that's my day.

Oral B is OK in my book... I bought one of their electric toothbrushes a few months ago and just recently it started acting strange. Basically, when I take it off the charger, it turns on. Period. It doesn't know how to turn off unless it is back on the charger. It's the weirdest thing. Even smacking it on the sink doesn't turn it off.

This is how the previous one I had broke, but I just bought the replacement, thinking it was normal for it to die after a year.

This time I figured I'd see what I could get from the company. I called Oral B and said their shit broke. I barely had to say anything and the woman said she'd mail me a replacement. Way to go me!

A week goes by, and Fedex sends me a note saying to call a number about a package. They said the package wasn't packaged properly (I have no idea) and that they had to return it to the sender. So I called Oral B again (my breath was REALLY kicking at this point... j/k) and they apologized and said they'd throw in some brush heads as a goodwill gesture.

Today I received the package. A brand new electric toothbrush and a few heads. Go me!

I got back a few hours ago from the Chinese Consulate to apply for my visa to China and had the most pleasing experience there! I had heard from several people that it would be miserable, that lines are long, that the place is mobbed from the second it opens to when it closes, except for the 1 hr lunch break everyone goes on.

A few days ago I went to the website to find the documents I'd need to fill out beforehand. The website barely works. Literally. Pages either do not load or take 10 minutes to load... even the page titled "Notice about the technical problems of the website" DOES NOT LOAD! I could barely get some of the FAQ pages and even the hours of operation page. For the PDF I needed to fill out, I ended up going to the webpage for a service that does visas for a fee... their page actually works and they had a copy of the PDF file to fill out.

Anyway, the consulate website explains that the office is busiest in the afternoons, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, Monday mornings and basically all other times. I was pretty nervous and decided I'd arrive first thing in the morning - at 9am, when it opens. I obviously slept late, till about 10, because I'm just no good at getting up. I anxiously headed over to 42nd and 12th avenue... so far from anything that no one can hear you scream. Except I guess the Intrepid, which is right across the highway.

I walked into a room like the DMV - windows with the call number on LED signs and rows of seats with people waiting. I picked a number and needed to get my photo taken first. That took about 3 minutes with 2 people in front of me. Then I was ready to sit and wait for 10 hours. There were maybe 50-75 people in the room, waiting, filling out forms. It was not crowded but who knows how long these things take. I figured it'd take forever. Sure enough, though, I looked at my number and compared it to the LED signs... It appeared they had already called me. Was it that fast? So I went up to a window and asked, and the nice lady said "do you have your form filled out" I said yes, gave her my passport and photo and form. In 10 seconds she hands me back a slip and says "pick up on Thursday".

Holy crap that was efficient. This was not the bureaucratic, inept, miserable experience I had nightmares about. It was easy, painless. Thank you Chinese Consulat for starting my day off so well. I can't wait to go to your country and buy pirated goods and spend $3 for a 10 course meal. Can't wait!!

Today was another super productive day:
1- did iron chef america at 8am
2- tutored for 2 hours
3- went home and took a nap
4- got up and called one of my contacts in florida to figure out what story i'm going to do when i get there.
5- ran 3 miles
6- tutored another 3 hours
7- watched the adam sandler movie "Click" that came out a few months ago -- on my iAudio on the bus/subway rides. it's a depressing movie about how you dont want work to come before your family. i took some good lessons away from the film. thanks adam.

i am totally exhausted now. florida is in 1 day... gotta get prepared!

Such a productive day today:

1- did my stint as Bobby Flay's double. In and out of the food network in about an hour.
2- went home, called people, emailed people, bought my TICKET to australia
3- watched 2 episodes of "weeds" on my non-ipod X5
4- went to the UN to visit a friend of a friend. She is a lawyer and Israeli and working as an intern at the UN for 2 months. Apparently the UN hires 200 interns and doesnt pay them dick. that sucks!
5- back to apartment, submitted an article I wrote about Skype to PC Magazine, RES Magazine, CNET. Heard back immediately from PC Magazine -- may begin doing some freelance tech writing for them.
6- Tutored 2 students.
7- Went to a Hopkins happy hour down at Aspen (22nd/6th) and chatted with some Hopkins friends. go blue jays.
8- back to apartment to argue for several hours with zak about global warming and statistical significance of data.

Whew, i'm pooped.

Today marks the first day of my being Bobby Flay on iron Chef America, season four. This is the third time I am working on the show. It's pretty cool because a lot of the production people have been hired back each season, so it tends to be the same group that I get to hang out with. One notable exception is my good friend Maureen who was the body double for Kat Cora, the female iron chef, for the last two seasons. She is super busy with real freelance work, editing a feature documentary, so she couldn't commit the time. I on the other hand, along with the other body doubles for Mario Batalli and Morimoto, are back. It's pretty fun because we get to catch up after six or seven months. Anyway, the day was pretty uneventful except for the fact that I woke up at 6 a.m. for a seven o'clock call time. We weren't actually needed until about 930, so I'm going to make a note of that for the next time they tell us to arrive at 7 a.m.

One of the great things about this gig is that I don't have to stay on the set the entire day. All I do, all my job entails, is stand on the stage for about five minutes until they are done shooting the introduction of the challenging chef. When this is over and the director says "moving on," I change back into my clothes and leave. I was out the door by about 10 a.m. on Friday and on the upper west side to tutor a student at 1030. I went home afterwards, did a 4 mile run, showered, wrote a few e-mails, and then came back to iron chef for my afternoon call time (which I showed up an hour late for), and ate lunch for an hour with the crew because they were all running late. When that was over, I went back up to the upper west side and did in other two hours of tutoring. This job is so ridiculous.

Here is the back story of how I got to be “Faux Flay” or “Chef Jeff,” for those of you who have not heard:

About a year and a half ago, I was working at a private high school as a part-time math tutor. Every morning I arrived to school, the receptionist in the lobby told me I looked just like Bobby Flay. I said I didn't know who Bobby Flay was in that I never watched the food network nor did I watch the American version of iron Chef America. (Although the Japanese version of iron chef is awesome and I've watched that several times.) She insisted I looked just like him and kept telling me to go and cook her something. A few weeks later I was checking out the production job web site Mandy.com to see if there was any work as an extra on a film. Low and behold, there was a listing from the food network looking for a stand in for Bobby Flay. I sent the following e-mail in response along with a photo of a candid photo of myself:

“I have been told I am a spitting image of Bobby Flay. I didn't even know who he was until someone said I should go cook something for them. That said, I have no experience acting, but I have been behind the camera for several years. I thought I might have a random shot at this. I am 6 ft, 170 lbs. I am in shape (ran a marathon a month ago). I realize this is a long shot, but I am very professional and if it's worth anything, a fun guy to have on the set. I, of course, happen to think I'm better looking than Mr. Flay, but I hope that doesn't compromise my chances of being picked. I am not afraid of getting up close and personal with knives or raging flames and the like.”

And within five minutes, I was chosen.

I had a surprisingly productive day today. Let's run through my super duper productive day, shall we?

1. I woke up before 10 a.m.. This is impressive in and of itself, as I have been going to sleep quite late each night because I turn into a thinking machine after 11 p.m., and I become very productive in the wee hours.
2. I did an hour of tutoring.
3. I bought soap at Duane Reade, since I have been dealing with a lack of soap for the past few weeks, satisfying my need to be clean with my roommate’s soap.
4. I bought some fish at the fresh fish market down the street from my apartment, and bought some sushi rolling paper (aka seaweed) at the local Japanese store. More on this later.
5. I came home and had a very fulfilling conversation with Paula, my roommate

This is when my already pretty productive day turned into a super Duper productive day.

1. I spoke with one of the main interview subjects for one of my environmental stories that I will be doing in Florida next month. Let me back up here. I am going to be freelance producing environmental stories for Yahoo! News. The pay is pretty low but I do have the ability to shoot several stories in one trip, assuming of course I can find a few good stories that are all different and all near each other in a different city. This is something I have been working on for the past few weeks, and it looks like I'm going to be doing three pretty cool stories in Florida in late October. One about a dwindling bird population, the red knots, that will be preparing for their over ocean journey down south by stopping over for a bite to eat in northeast Florida near Gainesville. The second story is going to be about Lake Okeechobee, a huge freshwater lake just south of Orlando, which has had some major pollution problems over the past 80 years or so. The third, which is still up in the air, will be about a bird rehabilitation and release program near Orlando where they have just released their 300th eagle. Anyway, the woman that I spoke to today is helping with the first story about the red knots, and she was extremely helpful in organizing in scheduling the first two days of my trip to Florida where I will be interviewing several subjects and checking out the areas that the birds will be hanging out in.
2. Yes, it's that time of the season. Season 4 that is, of Iron Chef America, where I get to play Bobby Flay. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, basically it's one of the weirdest jobs you'll ever hear about -- I literally stand with my arms crossed for about five minutes at the beginning of the taping of each episode of iron Chef America where Bobby Flay, one of the iron chefs, is not actually cooking that day. I stand on a pedestal in smoke and shadows and pretend to be him for a very specific part of the show where they introduce the challenging Chef and require the three iron chefs, or rather ONE iron chef and two of the doppelgängers, to stand on the stage in the background. It needs to look like any of the chefs are ready for battle. Of course they already know beforehand which one of them is going to battle, so the other two don't show up that day, and instead they bring their stand-ins. That's where I come in. Anyway, I just found out my schedule for when I will be needed on set during shooting. So this is very exciting. And yes, I do get paid, and no I don't get too eat the food they prepare, but yes, they do feed us catered food. The other cool thing is that I have access to VIP tickets, so if anybody wants to attend a taping of iron Chef America, be sure to let me know, and I'll see what I can do. So far I have two requests from two of my students who think I have the coolest job ever. I tell them that yes, I do.
3. I also spoke with a person at wired magazine to find out about the status of an article I submitted two weeks ago. The article, I think, is quite funny and discusses my use of Skype on my handheld PDA while Maddy and I traveled around Europe during the summer.

Damn, I am one productive mother fucker mother!