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.

craigslist karma

In the 'what are the odds of that??' department:
I posted an ad on craigslist to sell off a lamp I have (as part of my craigslist blitzkrieg to try to sell of about 50 things in in my apartment that have been left over from past roommates or otherwise completely useless). Here is the ad: http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/fur/387010073.html

Anyway, the first (only) response I got was from a girl I know who works at the same tutoring company as me (she is a bit higher up on the ladder and actually works at the office). Wow! Talk about odds.

Though this reminds me of 2 years ago when I was moving out of my first apt and into my second (currently I'm at my third), and located a twin size bed on Craigslist. Turned out it was Evan's (a good friend who loves sushi and has a TV show www.weneedgirlfriends.tv).

So the pupil has become the master...

Everything has gone well so far --

On thursday, the flight to san fran was on time, and the trip passed quickly as i watched 5 episodes of Heroes,, a great show. the in-flight entertainment was crappy tv but had a few minutes of bobbly flay cooking something, which i found amusing.

Randomly, it turns out my high school friend Alex's father was on the flight as I noticed him across the baggage claim area. He didnt seem to recognize me so I wasn't sure if it was really him or just his doppelganger, but a text message to Alex confirmed that yes, his father was there for business. But i was gone before I could say hello.

Sarah, my neighbor from freshman year who I am staying with in oakland, picked me up and we headed over to her place. we grabbed some mexican food at "campadres" which was playing a country music radio station. There are things i dont like that i never really gave a chance -- things like asparagus and cooked carrots. i've tried them once and never tried again. Country music never made it to my list of things I enjoy... but i confess i never gave it much of a chance. Well, after listening to maybe 20 songs of the most annoying, cheeseball country songs ever, i'm glad to report that yes, i hate country music. that is confirmed.

oh, reason we went to mexican -- there are no mexicans in china so i should get my fill beforehand.

Funny story... first, read the story below about how my friend Joke (pronounced yoka) saw me in a National Geographic documentary about the NYC subway that aired in Amsterdam (where she and Anuj live). I worked on that doc as a production assistant and did not think I was ever filmed, but apparently I thought wrong.

And apparently I am now something an international star...

Two days ago, I get a call from my old housemate from Hopkins, Julian. Let me tell you a bit about Julian -- he is a funny Italian guy from LI who also happens to be an amazing musician/conductor. I hadn't spoken to him in 1.5 years. He calls me out of the blue, from Grand Central, and says he just arrived in NY from Sweden where he was on vacation/doing some musical stuff. He says he took Malaysian Airlines and decided to watch a little TV. He turns on a NatGeo doc about the NYC subway thinking to himself, "what am I going to learn that I don't already know" as most NY-ers approach most subjects. And he sees the same shot that Joke had seen a while ago... me getting into a subway car. He said he had to rewind it and watch it again to be sure but yes, it was me. I am a star. I am in Amsterdam, and Malaysian Airlines... perhaps I'll get to see myself when I fly "Air Pacific" to Australia or "Finnair" to China.

I need a copy of this video...

On my run today in unbelievably warm 70 degree NYC winter weather, I ran/bumped (whatever) into Joke (pronounced Yoka) and Anuj (pronounced a noodge). Joke was the first attractive girl I met at Hopkins and Anuj was the first student I met at Hopkins (right when I got out of the car just before orientation began). I haven't seen them in over a year and a half at least. They're married and live in Amsterdam but were visiting NYC for a few weeks and just walking around the park. This is why I love running central park -- the random run-ins!

So I got a funny email the other day. It was from my buddy Dave, a guy I went to college with. Turns out, he wanted to make good on his promise to "pay me back" for a Jethro Tull concert ticket I picked up for him back in 2000 when they played Baltimore. Yes, he wanted to remit payment for a ticket I completely forgot about, 6 years afterwards. How ridiculous! I just got his paypal payment for $50.

I was thinking, though, that with even a modest interest of 10% would make that about $90 today.

I was going through some footage of a central park video I made with a friend a few months back. We needed to get some footage of the Reservoir so my friend went and shot some while I stayed back on the road and hung out with the rickshaw driver guy we had hired for the day (long story).

Anyway, I'm going through the footage today and I notice a familiar guy's back running away from the camera on the reservoir. I took a screen capture of it and sent it to my friend Evan to see if he recognized himself and sure enough it was him! What are the odds of catching him running on the reservoir the same time my friend is actually filming!

So for your viewing pleasure.... evan's bare back while he runs past the camera. Enjoy!

On my way to the museum, I ran into my aunt and uncle! Totally random. I'll be seeing them next week for Thanksgiving.

On Saturday I randomly bumped into Dan on the UWS. He's from Westchester, my age, and doing well as a radio producer. Incidentally, I've been filming my father's house-calls each week in an effort to document his work for use in a possible documentary. Last week we went to see Dan's grandma (who lives in Westchester), so he mentioned that when I saw him.

Walking home, I walked into a woman I worked with on a National Geographic TV piece a few years ago. I asked her if she ever got a copy of that piece -- a documentary about the NYC subway system. I've never seen it, even though it's been almost 2 years. She said she still hasn't seen it and that it never aired in the US. Goddamn Nat'l Geographic.

Ran into Maddy's cousin on the cross-town bus last night. I saw her and had no idea who she was since I had only met her once when she came to my apt with Maddy's other cousin. But she looked at me, looked some more, then said "arent you Jeff, Maddy's boyfriend?" Then I knew who she was. Cool, NYC is small.

My SAT Experience:

I took the SAT this morning. As an SAT tutor, my company requires me to take the actual SAT once a year to not only see how well I score, but also make sure I have a sense of what my students are actually going through. It's been over 10 years since I last took the SAT, but it seems like not a whole lot has changed.

I took the test on Columbia University's campus in the business school. My ticket said to arrive at 7:45 a.m. I walked into the building and the first thing I am greeted by is perhaps the most obnoxious woman I have ever met. It's her job to explain to the arriving students that they have to locate the number of the room in which they will be taking their exam, which is specified by the first letter of their last name. This information is displayed on an easel, but could easily be missed by rushing students. So this woman's job was to basically say hello, point to the easel, explain what the student needs to do, and then give directions to the stairwell around the corner. This woman could not have done this in a more obnoxious way. She immediately yelled at a student in front of me, and told him he needs to find his name on the easel. He must not have heard and, because he was already holding his admission ticket, showed it to her. She looked at it and yelled "what is this? What are you showing me? Why you showing me this? You need to find your name over here. There, there!" She was the bitchiest woman I've ever met. Then she yells "go down the hall and through the X." Of course this doesn't really mean a whole lot, and I start walking down the hall looking for an elevator to get to the third-floor. What she meant to say, but was too much of a bitch to explain it properly, was that the stairs were marked "staircase X” and were down the hall and to the left.

Then I get up to the third-floor. I am inundated with maybe 150 high school students all waiting around in a narrow hallway. You could cut the nervous energy with a butter knife, but that would be cliché. I start to wait, thinking, this shouldn't take too long since it's already 7:45 a.m.. Then I bumped into a student of mine from last year for whom I taught the physics SAT II. He is a really nice guy and we chatted for a little bit about how he did and how everything was going. I kind of expected to run into a student.

About an hour later, after standing around waiting, they finally decide to start letting people into the classrooms. I have no idea why these idiots told us to show up at a quarter to eight when nothing happened for at least 45 minutes after then.

What really pisses me off about this whole process is that these students are incredibly stressed to begin with. They're walking into this exam a bundle of nervous energy. They have been working intensively for the last few months, maybe even six to eight months, on preparing for this one exam. They have been thoroughly tutored, have attended classes, have spent countless hours doing review problems and questions as well as taking several mock tests. A lot of them, especially the ones from top private schools, earnestly believe that the outcome of this test will determine their future course in life. But the sense I got from the way this test is administered is that the proctors and people running the show could not have cared any less about this. I'm certainly not saying these students should be coddled or anything like that, but it really seemed as though this experience was meant to ADD a ton of unnecessary stress to an already stressful situation. Proctors should do their job and not try to add their shit to the already stressful atmosphere. I don't believe this is helpful in any way because I think student performance suffers at a certain point. It is perfectly healthy to come to a test like this a little bit nervous, but once you're there, other things should simply fall into place and not compound that nervousness.

For example, why exactly were we waiting around for an hour before the exam even came close to starting? What was the point of this? What was the urgency?

The proctors are really the face of the College Board, and judging from my brief run-in with several of them today, they tend to be pretty obnoxious and not very bright, and not all that experienced.

So we finally were allowed into the classroom, our tickets were checked, and we were all seated. Next, the Proctor, an austere middle-aged woman, read us our rights -- I meant read us the SAT instructions. One line really stood out. As she introduced the test, she read "the SAT is designed to test how well you are prepared for college," or something similar like that. I will speak a little bit more on that in a minute.

The Proctor explained that nothing can be on our desks, no water, no food, nothing. A girl raised her hand. Could she keep some water on her desk because she has a really bad cough and her throat gets dry. No. Another girl raises her hand. Could she keep a box of tissues on her desk because she has a cold and has to blow her nose. Yes, that would be okay. I was amazed that these kinds of exceptions were made out to be such a big deal. Why the hell would a box of tissues on a sick kid's desk be an issue?

Also, unbeknownst to me, you are not allowed to use mechanical pencils on the SAT. What the fuck? I actually stopped in Duane Reade to pick up a package of mechanical pencils, (which was all they had), because I don't have any real pencils at home since I always use a pen. I could not believe mechanical pencils aren't allowed. Of course, consistent with the way the entire test was being administered, the Proctor gave no hint as to why mechanical pencils would not be adequate for the test. Instead, her assistant came around with a box of regular pencils. The really inane part of this is that in writing the essay, a 25 minute section of the test, using a pencil with a dull point is a huge pain in the ass and it slows you down.

And the test begins. The first section is the writing section, and the question -- yes, I'm going to spoil it even though after the test the Proctor said we were not allowed to discuss the question until after we got our score reports back, but I don't give a fuck -- was the following:

Do people achieve more success through cooperation or through competition?

I wrote a pretty solid essay that I couldn't have disagreed more with. my first example was the medical industry, where in order to become a doctor you must get through a rigorous series of highly competitive phases, beginning with achieving high grades in college, competing with your classmates to get into cutthroat medical schools, and ultimately getting into a good internship. I argued that this competition yields the best minds in medicine, although in reality I disagree and believe that because medicine is chock-full of the most competitive types of people, all struggling to outdo the next doctor on a given patient's case, patient care and the health-care industry in general both suffer as a result of the lack of cooperation.

The next example I used was Wal-Mart and how the market economy is a highly competitive environment that yields benefits for the consumer when businesses have to compete to offer the best product at the best prices. Of course Wal-Mart does this at the expense of paying their workers a fair wage and giving them health care, but it was a wonderful example for my crappy little essay.

Finally, my last example was the space race -- when John F. Kennedy said we'd put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. This, of course, was a competition between the United States and the USSR, but in reality the success of our space program owes almost everything to the cooperation and collaboration of all of the scientists who worked together in NASA.

I’m so good at writing bullshit!!

The rest of the test was by no means a breeze, but I think I did all right. Curiously, there was one short reading passage about wind turbines and their associated impact on carbon emissions, and another short passage about sea turtles and habitat destruction. I am a big fan of the College Board sneaking in environmental issues into their test.

I'd like to discuss a few of my ideas on how the SAT isn't exactly the best way to evaluate how well a student will do in college -- which is their claim. Ostensibly, you would assume that because I went to a top college and majored in physics and computer science, and then went to Columbia for a masters in journalism, I represent exactly the type of student who should have aced my SAT. I performed well in college and pursued a masters. But I only got a 1360 out of 1600 when I took my SAT almost 10 years ago. I would argue that the College Board probably does virtually no back testing to see truly how well its test evaluates how well a student will do in their four years in college. My father’s example is even more egregious – he barely broke 1,000 but he is one of the best doctors in Westchester and is by any standard a success.

My biggest problem is the essay that students have to write by hand using a pencil. At no time in their college career, I can safely say, will students ever -- and I mean ever -- have to hand write and essay using any writing instrument. Obviously all writing is done on a computer, and because most students these days are understandably and fortunately in the habit of typing papers rather than hand writing them, a good test would offer the same environment students would be used to. For instance, with e-mail, instant messaging, and Microsoft Word, pretty much every student these days can type 40 to 70 wpm. Most cannot hand write that fast legibly. Additionally, when writing an essay on the computer, students are used to deleting and rewriting sentences, phrases and words until they get it right and say exactly what they want how they want to. Unfortunately with the essay on the SAT, you have a limited space to write.

What they don't explain to you at the beginning of the test is that your essay will be photocopied numerous times and distributed to teachers across the country who will be responsible for grading that essay. In photo copying these essays, you will be at a disadvantage if you try to erase words and write over them because when you erase pencil it leaves a gray marketing that will make it very difficult to read those words on a photocopy. Therefore, my tutoring company strongly encourages students to cross out rather than erase. Well, you run out of a lot of space very quickly if you aren't writing exactly what you mean to say. Anyway, a 25 minute hand written essay in a limited space, written in pencil is going to be far different from one written on the computer. When I took the GRE several years ago, which was administered on the computer, I wrote several essays that were pretty good and comprehensive thanks to my typing skills. If I had to handwrite those essays, they would have been an illegible mess.

The other major problem I have with SAT questions is that the math and reading passages don't have anything to do with the real world (with the notable sea turtle and global warming exceptions). I'd like to see real math problems that deal with real issues one would encounter in the real world. For instance, a good question I thought of on my way out watching all of these students put on their iPods was the following:

Apple outsources their production of iPods to a Chinese manufacturing company. Ping works for this company and gets paid $0.07 for each iPod he produces. If Ping can produce 8 iPods per hour and works 16 hours a day at the factory, how much does Ping make per month?

Now there is a question that is more appropriate.

And who the fuck is EVER going to be docked points in college for not having a number 2 pencil or not bubbling in their answers properly. What the fuck kind of progress has the college board made that they haven’t been able to figure out a more advanced system that can handle other writing utensils. Its been 10 fucking years. Fuck you college board!

I think I should probably finish up this rant about the SAT so I can move on to more interesting rants.

This from my friend Jessica:

listen to this: I met this guy on the train last week, we were sitting across from each other on metro north. There was this coffee cup that kept rolling between our feet, thus began the conversation about how rude and gross people are, and how the MTA is trying to put an end to rolling food and beverage parts on the train. MTA conversations are usually long and fluid, I've taken part in many, but here's the clincher...the point: He all of the sudden says, "what's with the MTA advertisements, like the one with the cobra?" I told him about your blog, which is so fucking hilarious by the way, and he said that he was glad to know that someone else notices these things!

This morning at Iron Chef, I saw good ol' Marc Summers walking around. If you don't remember, or are too young to remember, Marc was the host of Nickelodeon's Double Dare game show. Here is a youtube link: 20 years of double dare



and this is funny too... sad, but funny.

I ran into Dana around 1pm at 59th/8th ave(or whatever the street there is). Random!

Then, later that night, down in the Lower East Side w Zak and Chung we ran into Meghan, a girl who came to check out the apartment when we were lookign for a new roommate last month. The funny thing is she doesnt know anyone b/c she's new (from canada), so the fact that she ran into someone she actually did know is pretty cool -- very low odds of that happening.