Personal

Busy Day

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Today was one of the two busiest days of the year for the company i work for. That ment i had to be up at work really early last night and work through the night. I got to the office at 9PM or so and worked to 10AM. It was very hectic because we had allot of executives watching everything as well as a few “minor” issues that kept people busy. Over all it was an interesting night and even with our issues it was apparently a successful day.

Last night i went and signed the lease to my new apartment so i am finally squared away with my living situation.

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The New Baby, Not Mine BTW

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Today I went to Rick & Amanda’s baby welcoming party. I guess that is what you call it. It was a small party Rich’s cousin threw to have friends and family welcome the new baby, Madeline (hopefully i spelled it right). I haven’t seen Rich or Amanda in a while so it was nice to see them even if the party was a bit awkward at times since i didn’t know many people and i do tend to be shy around people i don’t know. WIth people i do know, i won’t shut up. But with strangers it always feels kind of weird to me. Overall it was a good time.

At night I ended up back by Austin Street to have dinner with Jayson at Sante Fe. I like that place and Jay and I got to hang out and drink for a bit.

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Drinks with Gus

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Jayson & I, and eventually Gretchen meet up with Gus for some drinks tonight. It is always hard to nail Gus down to plans so it was good to see him. I probably drank more than i should have but we had a great night out just talking and drinking. Gus tried unsuccessfully to recruit either jay or i to work for him at his latest venture. I was tempted but I am not ready for another start up just now. Of course who knows if he wasn’t kidding the whole time. I can never read him!

A New Place of My Own

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I finally found a new apartment that I am going to rent. After looking far and wide i found something that meets my tastes, is affordable (for me), quick commute to work, and in a decent neighborhood. I go to sign a lease in a week or two. The down side is i wont be able to move in until the 2nd week of august since the building is new so they are staggering people moving into individual floors. I will probably stay with my parents for the duration. More news as it happens.

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Please Pass The Crazy Pills!

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I received my lease renewal paperwork in the mail this week. I knew my rent was going to go up, but someone must be on some really happy pills if they think that i will pay a 14% increase in my already overpriced rent for another year. I couldn’t stop laughing because someone was serious when they mailed this paper to me. I like my apartment, and i like my neighborhood, but it isn’t worth the price anymore. Especially now that i have a new job and it is no where as easy to get to work as it used to be.

I have already begun looking for apartments in Queens for significantly less money. I am trolling Craigslist for ad’s. Hopefully i will find something soon.

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Apartment Hunting, or Not?

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It is that time of year again. Yes, summer time but that is not what i meant. It is time for me to renew my lease. I have been eagerly awaiting the paperwork from my current building to see how outrageous the rent increase will be. I have read that the average increase in NYC is 9-13% this year. That is of course crazy. I love my apartment, and my neighborhood but I don’t think i will want to pay that much to live here if the rent goes up. I am looking into alternatives, but everything is a trade off. My current apartments trade off is the cost. I have been pondering this issue for a while, and i still don’t have a final decision, but i know deep down that the rent increase is going to be so great that i won’t want to pay it. Can i afford it, maybe. The point is do I want to shell out that amount of money per month when I could get someplace nice for significantly less? If I do move the location might not be as nice. Of course that last statement isn’t true from some peoples points of view. So for now i just ponder my choices, and hope the right decision comes to me, eventually!

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X-33 Discontinued?

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Apparently my Omega Speedmaster X-33 has been discontinued from sale to the public. I love this watch, and when I traded up from a used one to a new one i was kind of ticked off that i had to wait 2 weeks for them to get it to me. At the time Tourneau did tell me that they only saw about 9 or so of them in Omega’s world wide inventory. Now that makes sense, since I am seeing people posted noticing that it had been discontinued about a month after i got mine. The final tip off was that Omega does not have it up on their website anymore. I guess that NASA still can order them, but the general public can’t. Lets hope that means i can still get parts for it beyond the typical amount of time for a discontinued model since they will still be making them for the government.

For me this is the perfect watch. it is a nice real grown up watch, but it has digital features also. I think it looks allot nicer than the comparable model from Breitling. Now that Omega isn’t making the X-33 any more I just need to be sure i take good care of mine.

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So This is Outside

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I went to the Sakura Matsuri Festival today at the Botanic Gardens in Brooklyn. I know, two days in a row leaving Manhattan really takes allot out of me! It was an interesting experience, especially since it is outside what I would normally do on my Saturday. I am still trying to figure out what was more interesting the festival itself or the people dressing up in costumes? There were the people in traditional Japanese costumes that you would expect, but there was also a noticeable number of people dressed up in Animea characters and other costumes. I even saw a guy dressed up as a transformer. It was just weird/interesting.

All in all it was a good day, except for the fact that after I got home I started to get a migraine. I took some Amerge and a 2 hour nap and I was allot better but not 100%. I ended up having to cancel my plans to go out with with some friends.

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Lazy Saturday

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I was up late last night so I decided to have a lazy Saturday. I just got back from some light shopping. I got a book at B&N, and some blank DVD. Nothing fancy. It is really nice out today.

I am not sure what my plans are for tomorrow or tonight for that matter. I am playing it by ear, but I don’t mind not doing much. This week was busy at work, and I was out half the nights also.

Why Do Some Stores Treat You Like a Criminal?

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Why do some stores in NYC treat their customers like criminals? I know most places out of NYC don’t do it, but some chains especially electronic stores like Best Buy seem to be treating everyone who buys something like a criminal these days. Every time I buy something at Best Buy I get badgered to show my receipt to some one at the door before I leave. It use to not be this way. I am a customer. Treating your store like a police state does not encourage me to go back and spend lots of money.

A few months ago on a consumer blog I read that unless a store is a members only store like Cosco, I am under no legal obligation to show my receipt if asked when leaving a store. I have tested this theory several times at Best Buy (hasn’t happened at CompUSA since I decided to try this) and so far I have not been stopped when I just ignore the guy at the door and continue on my way out. Is it sad that a small part of me wants one ignorant employee to try and stop me one time?

On the flip side I just got a new monitor at the Apple Store and walked out without a receipt (they email you a pdf of your receipt if your email is on file) and no tags or anything on the box. I asked the clerk about getting out of the store with no receipt and they were like you have to buy the monitor before we can give it to me from the back, so I don’t need a receipt to leave the store. See not treated like a criminal. And to make sure I compare apples to apples (no pun intended) I have bought computers at Best Buy that they can only get from the back of the store and I have still been asked for a receipt. How can some stores get it right, and others so wrong?