Tuesday, Dec 31st 2002

I must be getting old. I'm still sick from whatever was coursing through my body last week. This morning, I felt absolutely miserable (still do), and I called in sick. I remember taking only two sick days while at PwC, but I think I've already used up all my sick days at New York Life this year. I used to never get sick. Is this the next sign that I'm aging?

Last night, Num and I were invited to a dinner party in Wayne with a few of the teachers from her school; the dinner was at one of their houses. It was a nice little evening, and I ate a bit too much. It had to be the most interesting dinner conversation. I guess that's what you get when you have teachers running the conversation.

MSNBC has a prominent article on Jersey City on their News Front Page: Jersey City: Boom or bust town? about the ever-changing fortunes of Jersey City. Ah, Jersey City. It's a love-hate affair.

For a limited time, the Star Wars website has this Geonosian Toy Factory mini Flash movie. Sorta funny.

Amazon.com just sent me the good word: my music cds have shipped. Finally, some new tunes.

Is it really New Year's Eve? Here are my reflections about a tumultuous 2002.

Career

• I got laid off from PwC, the only company I dreamed about for two years while going to Pace University. What a shock after 2 1/2 years of travelling and working so hard. And so abrupt.
• How odd it felt to have graduated from college less than 3 years ago, yet I was sitting at home out of work.
• I turned 26 this year, and my only income was an unemployment check.
• How good it felt to find work again at New York Life.
• I still miss my friends Evans, Dana, Haji, Mahesh, Jenny, and George.
• I also miss getting frequent flier miles, hotel points, rental car points, and AMEX Reward points.
• As a big gamble, I hunkered down, and spent over $700 (exam books, association membership fees, etc.) to try to pass the CISA certification exam. Two months of heavy all-day studying paid off in June with my first almost-certification (I'm still completing the necessary paperwork.)
• My web and graphics designing skills have been getting better. I've learned more about the mysterious world of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), I can do more tricks with HTML, and I'm not too shabby with Adobe Photoshop. I've even used Macromedia Flash to make my website a little more dynamic and interesting.
• I redesigned the church website, and I'm pretty happy with it. I've started a new personal website, and I'm now one of the webmasters for the NY Chapter of the IIA. I'm working on the redesign at the moment.

Life, Love, Family, and Friends:

• My dad had his prostate removed. I hope there are no more complications.
• I moved out of Jersey City to Glen Ridge.
• I've learned to actually enjoy life, and to relax.
• I've started to really appreciate the worth of friends and family.
• Num and I are still going strong, and she was such a rock of support when I was sitting at home unemployed.
• My parents moved out of Congers, where we had lived since 1983. They moved to a wonderful house in Wesley Hills. I know they wished Julie and I lived with them.
• I've had a chance to do more charity work this year through various organizations, and I've learned more about the spirit of giving. It gets more rewarding each and every time.
• I've learned to forgive and forget. (I didn't say I was good at it.)
• I had my first car accident with my car. What a pisser, and it happened in Jersey City exactly two weeks before I moved out of Jersey City. I almost made it out of that town scratch-free. Sigh.
• Since my parents got tired of taking care of the cat's frequent urination on the furniture, I brought Missy to NJ to live with me in May, but I didn't tell my parents. She's doing well, and hasn't caused too much fuss.
• I had friends come out of Detroit (Anil, Paul and his friends) and Houston (Josh, Jimboy and company) come to New York to have a good time. I'm glad to report that all went well, and no one went home pregnant.
• I accepted my first youth fellowship position at my church the CSI Congregation of Hudson Valley. I didn't take it to show off or for my own benefit. I was hoping I could teach the kids how a youth fellowship could have great programs and be enjoyable, and maybe even teach them something. I hope they got something out of it. I think I just got more bitter and more convinced that I need to move on with my life. I can't be a "youth" forever, you know?

Movies:

• My favorite movie this year was Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. No surprise there, because it's based on my favorite book series. Spiderman was good too.
• I was slightly disappointed in the latest Star Wars movie, pretty disappointed in the latest Star Trek movie, and I'm pretty sure that The Scorpion King and Austin Powers: Goldmember were the worst movies I saw this year.
• Honorable mentions go to Monsoon Wedding and My Big Fat Greek Wedding as two very cool little movies.

Travel:

• My travel was kinda light this year: I finished up my work in Detroit this year. I visited California (for leisure this time!) I drove to Stamford for a weekend to see the fall foliage. I even flew down to Houston for a weekend to see some good friends.

I think that's it. Happy New Year to my friends and loved ones. See you in 2003!

Sunday, Dec 29th 2002

Nope, still no Drumline movie. Bad logistics this weekend. I'm still sore all over--it's either from the flu, or walking around crouched last night at the Joint Carol Service taking pictures. I hope it was the flu; otherwise I'd be one mighty embarassed photographer.

I went to church today, and finally gave my Secret Santa gift to my person. Turns out Feby was my Secret Santa, and he got me an awesome shirt from Brooks Brothers (one of my favorite retailers.) Thanks, Mr. Feby. It was unexpected, but awfully thoughtful of you. It was also nice to chit-chat with some of the guys at church. I haven't done that in a long while.

I spent the rest of the day:

• working on my web designing skills, playing with CSS.
• wondering how not to go crazy over this party?
• wondering what I should do for New Year's Eve.
• and how Banquet Frozen Lasagna dinner can look so good on the box, but taste so bad in real life.

Damn!

BTW, I went to the bank today, and someone had left their bank record at the ATM. Normally in this type of situation, I curse the moron for foolishly leaving that type of info there, and go on with my life. However, the amount in this person's bank account kinda caught my eye. I tell you, I have no idea if I'll ever have this kind of money sitting around in an account.

Saturday, Dec 28th 2002

I hate it when I write a bunch of stuff, Dreamweaver crashes, and I realize I never saved any of my work. Collective ARGH!, anyone? Let's try this again.

I went to the the 4-hour joint carol service, and took some pictures, but I don't even think I want to put them up here. I'll save them for the church site. I didn't even stay for the whole program, because the entire service was just so boring.

After I got home, I met up with Num and we went to Diva Lounge to scope it out for next Saturday's party. It's a pretty nice place, with couches and all that. I even saw the bellydancer. I'll call Monday to ask about reserving the private room. If it's too pricey, my partygoers (party people!) may have to settle for Rascal's Comedy Club, or just bumming around in Glen Ridge.

Since I paid too much recently on simple undershirts and socks at Amazon.com's Apparel store, they sent me a $30 gift certificate to make me feel better. Tonight I used it to update my starting-to-get-stale music collection. I ordered new cd's from Audioslave, Sean Paul, and the Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack. 5-9 business days for Super Saver Shipping? Hmm, I'll sit here and wait.

Friday, Dec 27th 2002

I was supposed to go with Num to see Drumline tonight, but I'm still feeling ill, so she cut me a break. Maybe next week.

After the housewarming party, I'm thinking all the cool cats should head over to Diva Lounge to party the rest of the night away. See the site. It looks encouraging. I'm going to check it out tomorrow night after this Joint Carol Service I have to attend.

Finally, here are the pictures from Christmas.

Thursday, Dec 26th 2002

Looks like I'm slowly getting sick: sore throat, headaches, run-down feeling, blue spots on my face and neck, the ability to control the minds of others--the usual. I'm trying to drown myself in Vitamin C, because that usually works for me.

After a thrilling day at work (almost everyone was off today), I went with Gary and Doug to see The Two Towers again. Well, I had that free movie pass, so I had to go. The theater was so crowded that we three had to sit separately. They loved the movie, though, and I'm glad. Again, people were clapping at the end of the movie, so that must be a good sign.

I sent out the official evite for the housewarming party. It's a little more than a week away, and I'm already starting to get anxiety thinking about it.

Watched CSI and Without a Trace. I'm really getting into the latter; I love watching the investigation unfold as they try to find the missing person. CSI is still good, but I'm just saying "Trace" is good too.

Wednesday, Dec 25th 2002

It is miserable outside! Snow is coming down hard, and I battled it on the road earlier today.

BTW, the past 24 hours has been interesting. Last night, Num and I went up to my parents' house for dinner. In actuality, only Julie, Num, and myself ate dinner. My parents just stood there criticizing me. At least they were nice to her.

Num's parents' invited me for lunch today. Anju and her fiancee were there as well. That was nice, and I even got a nice sweater from her parents!

Watching the Kings-Lakers game on ABC while I do laundry. When did ABC start broadcasting NBA games? I hope the Kings win this one. Damn the Lakers!

The Hudson Valley church site is almost done--I just have the Officers page to complete.

Stuff! Magazine (same family as Maxim) just published their list of Sexiest Women of the World for 2003. Here's the Top Ten:

1. Monica Bellucci
2. Jennifer Lopez
3. Jamie-Lynn Sigler
4. Jennifer Love Hewitt
5. Shannyn Sossamon (was in "The Rules of Attraction")
6. Britney Spears
7. Shakira
8. Cameron Diaz
9. Krista Allen (was in "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind")
10. Gwen Stefani.

The list goes on to 100 and Jennifer Garner just missed the top-10. She's 11. Halle Berry's at 49. Lucy Liu's at 65.

Hmm, I hate Shaq. Ok, how about strongly dislike?

The church site is finally done. Ah, now I can rest. Please check it out, because I think I'm happy with it.

Monday, Dec 23rd 2002

Newsweek just printed a big article on the upcoming Matrix movies Reloaded and Revolutions. There are major spoilers, but if you don't mind....

I haven't been too happy with the Google search option, so I'm looking for a replacement.

Sunday, Dec 22nd 2002

Woo-hoo! I spent some time this evening working on the church site, and I made some major changes:

• Fixed that hover problem with the links. Just took some time comparing my CSS file to the CSS file I use for this site. Yeah, I am pretty happy about fixing that stupid problem.
• Though I'm still having trouble getting a grip on making navigation buttons in Flash, I decided that for now I'll just make the navigation menu as a regular image file.
• I added title graphics for all the pages.
• I created Directions and Youth Fellowship pages.

Yup, some serious progress. Now I just have to convert all those Album pages, and I'm done. Later this week, because I'm too tired tonight.

Saturday, Dec 21st 2002

Oh, my head. I think I'm still recovering from Friday night's department holiday party. Ohh, my head. I even missed my train stop, so I did the long walk back to my apartment. Anyway, the pictures are in the Friends Photo Gallery.

Speaking of Friends, NBC just signed a deal to bring "Friends" back for another season? Is that advisable? Who wants an extra season and no one watches? Remember what happened to Mad About You?

I have not waited in anticipation for a movie in a very long time. In what seemed an eternity, Julie came over, and 6PM rolled around. We left for the theater, and got parking. We walked into the theater, confidently passing the lengthy line for the box office. We were meeting up with Ranjith, Priya, Lesh, Nisha, Vijay, and Num (who bought all the tickets Thursday night.)

With the prepurchased 7PM movie tickets, we walked smack dab into the unbelievably huge line to get into the actual theater. I haven't seen a line like that since I went to Star Trek: First Contact opening night when I was in school at Albany. Yeah, back in 1996.

I came, I watched, I enjoyed.

Gandalf, reborn	Grima Wormtongue, making the moves on Eowyn	Elrond and Arwen having the parent - child talk	Legolas, Mr. Horseback

Yes, they took some really big liberties with the story, but it was still worth it. I can only hope the liberties taken was for the benefit of the film. I'll probably see the movie again on Monday with Doug and Gary. I still have that free movie pass to use.

Afterwards, we walked to Applebee's for dinner. Deciding that we didn't want to wait 45 minutes to get seats, we walked to Chevy's, and were seated immediately. Ah, Tex-Mex, I have missed you so!

Thursday, Dec 19th 2002

Is it really Thursday already? Hmm, time flies when you're really preoccupied. Much of it was my usual running around. Tuesday night, I met Doug in the evening to see Star Trek: Nemesis. Hmm, disappointing. And that, my friends, is the last Star Trek movie you'll see for a while.

Maybe, you aren't aware, but the theory has always been that the even-numbered movies were always great, interesting, and did well:

• #2 The Wrath of Khan [Ricardo Montalban as Kirk's old nemesis.]
• #4 The Voyage Home [The crew travels back in time to San Francisco circa 1986. Talk about fish out of water.]
• #6 The Undiscovered Country [Great cold war story involving the Klingons.]
• #8 First Contact [The Borg are back!]

The odd-numbered didn't have great stories and generally did bad in the theaters:

• #1 The Motion Picture [Slow and plodding, but the DVD is pretty decent.]
• #3 The Search for Spock [Christopher Lloyd and John Larroquette, but still not so great.]
• #5 The Final Frontier (shudder) [It just sucked. The search for God?]
• #7 Generations [Really, wasn't that moving or interesting.]
• #9 Insurrection (more shudders) [I hated this movie.]

Nemesis breaks the mold, because it's #10, and it's bad. Oh well, there goes that.

Last night, I started dinner by getting the ingredients out (oh,who am I kidding? It was just Ramen noodles), when I decided to lay down on the bed for a second at 7:30PM. I woke up at 7:05AM. Poof, there go my mighty dinner plans. I guess I was really tired.

So....I might be going to India for work sometime next year. We shall see if it pans out.

In the news, some 7-year-old Minneapolis boy stole a car and took a joyride. The interesting detail is that this is his second time in two weeks.

Anybody else find that "Joe Boxer guy" oddly fascinating? Something about that face...the sheer joy.....hmmm, so intriguing, yet I'm still not gay.

I also sent out all my Christmas cards this year. First time ever. Yeah, about time, I think. If you get one, that's great. If not, it either got lost in the mail, is late, or I really don't like you enough to send a card. Think about it!

The department holiday party is tomorrow night, and I'm also participating in the "Dirty Santa" grab bag game (Yeah, I don't get it either.) at noon. I picked up my grab bag contribution--a $20 Blockbuster gift card. I'm sure somebody with 20 kids can use that. I heard that there's an awful good chance (statistically speaking) that I'll receive liquor. I just hope it's something I drink; otherwise I'll save it for the housewarming party.

Afterwards, I'm meeting up with Num, Julie, and Doug for some dancing and such. I head something about "The Tunnel" so I'll hope for the best.

In case you forgot....one more day 'til The Two Towers!

Monday, Dec 16th 2002

Miranda Otto as Eowyn

I must admit it. I'm actually getting all riled up about The Two Towers this week. I'm only reading good reviews, and the American Film Institute has named it (and Gangs of New York) the two top films of 2002. How neat is that? I am so psyched!

I'm already getting some nice kudos from people for my redesign for the church website. Of course, I'm still working out the kinks and glitches (with some help from the sultry Jenny Cu.) Also, I have yet to finish converting the remaining sections and create new graphics. This week, I really hope to make some progress.

Other interesting news--it's official. I'm one of the new webmasters for the NY Chapter of the IIA (Institute of Internal Auditors.) We'll be redesigning this site too. So much to do, and all these girls just knocking on my door! How will I ever get anything done?

Sunday, Dec 15th 2002

Finally put that dining table together. Now I just have to move my bike somewhere else.

Didn't see Nemesis yet, but plan to see it with Doug this week. You know, I'm reading so many bad reviews for this movie, I feel disappointed already. I started thinking about how Enterprise is on every week, and I've missed a whole bunch of episodes, but I don't care. I know I won't be missing anything important. How sad is that, compared to when I would wait with bated breath for the next Saturday's episode of The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine. [Voyager sucked, so I really didn't watch that often.] The stories on Enterprise have been simply uninteresting.

What has happened to Star Trek?

In other news, YAHOO! MOVIES has a version of the X-MEN 2 trailer online – it's not available in Quicktime, only in Windows Media or Real Media formats. Enjoy! BTW, I checked out the X2 movie site. It features Flash, and definitely is years beyond anything I can do. To see the amazing things you can do with Flash, go to the site, and Enter Cerebro, then poke around. It's pretty darn cool.

Saturday, Dec 14th 2002

The kid is smiling, because he soiled my pants!

This morning, Num and I met up to help out at The Community FoodBank of New Jersey. We met up with other PRINA members. We all spent 2 hours preparing and labelling mailings that ask for donations. If you receive one, I might have labelled it. You'll know it was me if the mailing label is all crooked.

In the evening, I attended the Lessons & Carols service at St. Pauls & Resurrection (Wood-Ridge, NJ.) I had a nice time. I have 11 pictures waiting for your curious eyes on my Church Photo Gallery. Guess which kid drooled all over my freshly dry-cleaned pants and clean shirt?

We love a camera!	Oh, those crazy Philips!

Friday, Dec 13th 2002

After work, I picked up my car at home, and drove to Yonkers for a Youth bible study at Ajo's house. My last bible study in the church, actually. My favorite part about the bible study was when some people mentioned how some Christians say they're holy, yet go out drinking. Meanwhile, I'm all dressed up to hit the bars in about an hour. Nice.

Afterwards, I drove and met up Doug and a few friends at the Mercury Bar and then Bar 515. Long story short: it sucked. Doug was fine, but the rest of the bunch wasn't that fun. It was probably because the women showed up late and really sloshed, then spent the time picking up jocks. I wasn't trying to pick them up, but that left less people for conversation.

Also, both bars had that whole...."Long Island" feeling to it. What do I mean? The music was the Bee-Gees, Kung Fu Fighting, and K-C & the Sunshine Band. And these drunk women were getting down and dancing to this stuff. All I could hope for was to drink enough to forget the images I saw.

Doug and I just made fun of people we saw, so that helped pass the time. We got some pizza later, and I was home by 4AM.

Thursday, Dec 12th 2002

I'm very tired right now. My cat was throwing up all over the place early yesterday morning. I missed my train, because I had to walk around and clean up all her puke. I can not tell you disgusting it was. In the evening, after the NJ ISACA chapter dinner, I was washing my bedsheets and comforter, but fell asleep around 1AM. Woke up this morning, went to the laundry room, and the comforter was still dirty. I ended up washing the comforter, getting ready for work, and before leaving for the train, stuffing the comforter in the dryer, and hoping no jerk stole my comfy. Bastards.

Looks like it's clean now. What am I going to do with Ipe Junior's puke in the future? Bleh.

Reading the latest entertainment news on TV Guide, I realize it's gotta be bad for Sylvester Stallone:

Sylvester Stallone is a signature away from a final deal to write, produce and star in a sixth installment of the Rocky saga. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Rocky VI will return the franchise to its indie-style roots, with MGM budgeting the pic in the $10-$15 million range. This latest sequel would find a 50-year-old Rocky lured back into the ring for one last fight.

Oye!

Guess what? My dining table and chairs arrived today. My super is the best: I told him the stuff was coming today, and he had the huge box in my apartment waiting for me. He's the best. Num and I started putting the chairs together, and I just finished putting them together. The toughest part was just screwing the seat cushions on. Here they are. I figure I'll work on the table Saturday afternoon. As you can see, there's a significant mess from the packaging materials.

Tomorrow, I'm rushing home, picking up my car, and driving up to Yonkers for my last church youth bible study. After that, I'm driving back down to the city to meet up with Doug for drinks. Should be fun.

Star Trek: Nemesis is out this weekend, so I hope I get to see it Saturday or Sunday. Two Towers comes out next Wed, so I hope to see it next Saturday. After that, I guess I'll see The Two Towers again. :)

Wednesday, Dec 11th 2002

Although I was a little late to the dinner (I got out of my meeting late, and missed my train), it didn't really make a difference--they started late anyway. Dinner was pretty good, and I got to listen to two speakers (one from the FBI and an IT recruiter.) Afterwards, they presented us with certificates. Pretty cool!

Tuesday, Dec 10th 2002

Since I hadn't slept all that much this weekend, I conked out last night at 8PM. I just set the VCR to tape CSI: Miami, and went to bed. I was so tired.

I love when Stormtroopers go bump in the night.

Looks like another wishlist item is coming my way: crazy Jimboy out in Houston is transferring to me Jedi Knight 2 to me via MSN Messenger File Transfer. And as you all know, "I loves me some Jimboy!"

Today was my parents' 29th wedding anniversary, but I didn't call them to wish them or anything. Kinda slipped my mind. Well, I remembered in the morning, but didn't want to mention it on the phone with my dad later on. Does that make me the bad son?

Little known fact: my sister and I seem to oscillate between who's the "good one" and the "bad one" every few months in my parents' eyes. I was the "good one" for most of this year, but it seems I'm the "bad one" nowadays, always causing grief in the house.

I hate to admit it, but I think I'm getting old. The arch of my left foot has been kinda painful on-and-off this week, and I think I'm getting this pinched nerve in my lower back. Is this normal? I'm only 26. Damn, I think all those years working in the circus are finally catching up with me.

And finally, I just completed my updated, new-and-improved "Joel's Favorites" page. It's an Easter Egg. After spending all that time on the original page, I realized that it was pretty ugly and kinda boring. Version 2.0 here is much nicer, prettier, and rather informative.

Also, it'll secretly make you desire me. Even the men. Muh-hoo-ha-ha.

Sunday, Dec 8th 2002

Soooo, it's 4:14AM early Monday morning, and I still can't sleep. I had gone to bed yesterday morning at about 7AM, went to church at 11AM, then came home and slept the entire afternoon away. I got up a few minutes before the Sopranos season finale (Thanks Julie for calling me!) Now I can't sleep, so I'm cleaning up my living room. At least I'm rested.

In the news:

• Glenn Quinn, best known for playing Becky's husband Mark on Roseanne died this month at the age of 32, of undisclosed causes.
• Reruns of Knight Rider start next month on the Sci-Fi Channel. [Let the 80's nostalgia continue!]
• What is up with Whitney Houston's assertion that crack dealers give out receipts? I didn't see the interview, but damn that woman is messed up.

The winter social for NJ Chapter of ISACA postponed from last Thursday evening (on account of snow) is this Wednesday. That is the only highlight for this week. How sad.

And now an important drug awareness message from Whitney's interview with Diane Sawyer:

"Crack is cheap. I make too much for me to ever smoke crack," she said. "Let's get that straight, OK? I don't do crack. I don't do that. Crack is whack."

Yes, folks. That was on national TV.

Saturday, Dec 7th 2002

Ok, so I didn't quite make it anywhere last night, due to a comedy of errors. So, I wasn't the happiest of campers.

Tonight, Sunil had a small get-together for some friends. Simple stuff. I got back at 4AM, but it was fun....card games, the perfunctory viewing of Deuce Bigalow, Male Gigolo on TV, and even a drinking game for the "Mafia" card game.

Jason, Saji, Num	Vijay, showing how he gets the chicks	Sunil, Lisa, and "that guy in the yellow"
Lindsey (spelling unknown)	The Saji-meister and yours truly [we took this 4 times]	Aw, man, it's getting late.

Ok, I was planning to have a Housewarming/holiday party in two weeks, but with more people who won't be around, I'm going to bump it to the 1st Saturday of January. Probably dinner, drinks, and then catch a show at Rascals Comedy Club. Since this is my first actual party (ever), I've got all sorts of anxiety hoping it goes well. E-vites go out in a few weeks!

Thursday, Dec 5th 2002

It's snow, baby! We had an early closing today at 2:30pm. I caught the 3:21 train, and home by 4:10. Ohh, it feels so good to be home.

Any Mira Nair fans out there? In entertainment news, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Mira Nair is developing a comedy series for ABC about an upper-middle-class Indian family. How cool is that? I'm sure it'll get cancelled cause no one will watch.

In an odd bit of news, an Italian man who packed his bags 44 years ago and told friends he was leaving for America was found dead inside one of the walls of his own home. How weird is that?

Speaking of weird, what is wrong with Michael Jackson? He's been in the news for three weeks now with his antics. What a freak.

Going to my friend George's birthday shindig at Spa down in Union Square tomorrow night. I hope it warms up a little tomorrow.

New furniture alert! Num just bought me a dining room set for Christmas. Neat, eh?

It's on its way, and hopefully should be here early next week. Now what will I do about my bike? The dining room has been my garage. Hmm.

That Taken mini-series on Sci-Fi Channel looked so promising, but the beginning intro bored me. I watched the rest of the 1st episode, but it was pretty boring too.

I did watch this week's episode of CSI (one of my favorite shows.) I watched Without a Trace tonight for the 1st time. It actually was interesting. Think I'll catch it next week too.

Is there a funnier show than The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central? I don't watch regularly, but every time I do catch it, it's rip-roaring funny stuff.

Sunday, Dec 1st 2002

December already? Man, I really need to get on with my Christmas shopping. I also have to mail out my Christmas cards.

Hung out with Kenar, Vib, Chirag, and company. Nothing fancy. I was just glad to drive in (and out of) the city that night with minimum fuss, i.e. traffic. Met for some drinks, dinner at this Afghan restaurant in the village, then shot some pool. Thankfully, I didn't embarass myself with my pool skills. I actually won a few games.

Sunday, I ran around a lot. Went to this PRINA member appreciation lunch at Moghul restaurant in Edison NJ. Good food, and totally free (member appreciation, remember?)

Then went to buy new sneakers with Num (I took way too long to actually decide on sneakers.) I even did the perfunctory running around the store trying out the sneakers. People must have wondered where I was rushing to. If you happen to see a very handsome blur pass you by, it was probably me in my new running sneakers. Checking the website, it says that these sneakers are an "all terrain model designed with ABZORB cushioning in the heel and forefoot and an aggressively lugged outsole."

You know, my mom always said that I was always about the aggressively lugged outsole.

Finally, I went to my last CSI Regional Youth Committee meeting. We all met up at the Star Diner on Hillside Ave in Queens. I feel kinda sad, since I won't be doing any more CSI youth programs (I'm retiring after 11 years), but I just feel that there's just this horrible, pervasive apathy with the CSI youth. It's depressing, and I just can't take it another year.

Wonder what I'll be doing starting January, and where I'll be doing it.

Anyone notice the new Google search bar? I put it here for now, until I get a better spot.