Messiah Sing-along: A Chaotic Experience

On December 12, 2010, I had the pleasure of attending what is called a "Messiah Sing-along." Also known as a "Scratch Messiah," this annual tradition, due to the fact that most of the chorus members are relatively unrehearsed, tends to be a bit disorganized. However, this year's performance was a bit more disorganized than usual.

26.2: Running the Marathon Route… on Public Transit!

Today, I embarked on a journey tens of thousands of people make every year, all on the same day… and I live-tweeted it. Apparently, my attempt at making my tweets public didn't take, so I tweeted anyway. I started on the route at 14:34:24 when the S53 bus left Lily Pond & McClean Avenues on Staten Island.

An iRant

With the popularity of iOS devices (iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad), why are there so many people out there misspelling or incorrectly formatting the names of these devices? For instance, I noticed on a message forum a thread about a new app for iOS devices. The title of this thread not only had a hyphen jammed in the name of an iOS device, but the wrong letter was capitalized!

Let me break it down for you. The name "iPhone" is spelled LOWER-CASE i, CAPITAL P, H-O-N-E! Keep in mind that the i is ALWAYS lower-case, the P is ALWAYS capital, and there is NEVER a hyphen! Never! Looking at the back of my iPhone, I do not see "i-hyphen-Phone" printed on the back, but I see "iPhone" – lower case i, capital P, no hyphen.

Oh, and one more thing. What the heck is an "iTouch"? If you answer that it's a product designed and sold by Apple, and could be described as an "iPhone without the phone," you fail.

VIDEO: 1 of a Kind

My fifth iTimeLapse video, this time on the #1 line, which was running a train of cars from Corona Yard.

“Take the Train to the Game” they say, Many listen, Übercrowding

So as transit agencies have declared for a while, “Take the Train to the Game,” so I did. Having received tickets to the USA vs. Brazil soccer game at New Meadowlands Stadium, I arranged to meet a friend (who was driving) at the stadium and I would take the train in. Coming in from the 7th Avenue subway and LIRR concourse, the first thing I noticed as I reached the top of the escalator was a REALLY long queue. I followed it to see where it leads, and as you may expect, it leads around a corner and to a bank of four New Jersey Transit ticket vending machines. Near those vending machines was another queue for a more distant bank of vending machines, and near those was another queue for a third bank of vending machines.

Twilight: Why I Couldn't Care Less

I was in a Burger King this evening when I saw promo posters for a scratch-off game based on the upcoming film Eclipse, part of the Twilight saga. The Twilight "saga" as it's called is a multimillion dollar phenomenon, drawing in women of ages 8 to 80. I have often expressed my disinterest in the series of films and books with actions such as muting televisions playing commercials for upcoming films, and denying invitations from others to watch with them. In short, I couldn't care less about it. That's about as far as I have taken many conversations about the film series. Here, I make my case further. Here's why I don't care for the Twilight "saga."

(B) Movie #2: The Time Lapse

Here's my latest video.

Announcing "Announcement Video #2"!

My latest video.

Catch Phrase Montage

If anyone remembers the short-lived ABC series "Pushing Daisies" (I know I do), you'll remember that the character Emerson Cod (played by Chi McBride) had a simple 3-word catch phrase.

Here's a brief montage of Emerson's catch phrase being said in a variety of situations.

That Zany Z Train

The third in a series of time lapse videos. Enjoy.

Time Lapse Videos

I recently purchased a copy of iTimeLapse for for my iPhone.

Here are two videos I made so far using this app.

First one is called “Times Square to Flushing in 400 Frames.”


Next one is called “A Very Vivacious V Train.”


Look out for more in the future.

Random thought #77503

Doesn't "Wheels" by the Foo Fighters sound a bit like "Unwell" by Matchbox 20?

Location:Queensboro Plaza, Long Island City, NY, United States

What's So Happy About Valentine's Day?

It's Valentine's Day. A day that celebrates love (eros in Greek) between man and woman. Everywhere I go, people seem to greet me with a "Happy Valentine's Day." What's there for the lonely to be happy about? Seriously. He has nobody to love (at least not in the way that Valentine's Day celebrates). What's just as bad is when someone he likes already has a boyfriend, who obviously is not him.

I've been stating this for a while now:
∀(G∈I)∄(G∈Tʹ)
Or, to put it in a different way:
∀(G), (I∩Tʹ)={ }

An explanation follows:
G is what is known in statistics as a "sample space." This sample space consists of all the single ladies of the church in New York.
I is a subset of G, indicative of all the ladies I am interested in.
T stands for "taken." The opposite of T, T-prime or Tʹ, another subset of G. T includes those who have boyfriends, those who want to be "just friends" with me, and those who are otherwise not interested in me. All those in T are currently unavailable, so the only ones left are those in Tʹ.

The first statement basically says that for all G that are in I (∀(G∈I)), there does not exist any G which is also in Tʹ (∄(G∈Tʹ))

The second statement reiterates the first, basically saying that the intersection of subsets I and T is null. This illustration shows what I mean.



As you can see, there’s no overlap between I and Tʹ.

With all the pressure placed upon me by family, friends, and the Church, looking at this is depressing. They encourage dating, but how can I when those in I are not in Tʹ, and those in Tʹ (assuming there are any in Tʹ) are not in I?

They say that there are “plenty of fish in the sea,” but how can that be when it seems like I’m fishing in the Dead Sea?

I have one person that I know (I don’t want to use the word “friend” because of the hope that it might progress beyond that, though we’ve known each other long enough that even that hopefulness is beginning to fade) who always seems to put a positive spin on something negative I might say (something I like about this person). But sometimes, I feel like I’m in some kind of black hole of negativity, such that not even the most positive thing could help make me feel better.

I invite you, the reader to try and prove me wrong.

To all the girls who have said they want to be “just friends” with me…

Congratulations¡ You've succeeded in altering the course of reality, sending it askew of what I was anticipating. This misalignment is not pleasing to me, and will result in me being in a depressed state for a period of a few days (or months).

If the reason you give is that you just don’t feel ready for a relationship at the moment. Don’t worry, that feeling will pass soon, when some other guy proposes to you and you say yes without hesitation. Or when another guy you say you have no interest in asks you out, and suddenly the two of you are boyfriend and girlfriend.

So you’ve shunted me off into that “friend zone” of yours. Great¡ Is that what you do to all the guys who treat you like a human being? Seriously. Women say they want to be with a “nice guy,” but when such a guy (like myself) comes along, you say that you don’t see him as boyfriend material? How messed up is that? And when you come up to me, complaining about how you can’t seem to find that “Prince Charming” type who whisks you off to distant lands, where he confesses of his love to you and asks to be his fairy tale princess, do you know what I’m going to say? It’ll be something like this: “Snap out of it! Such a man does not exist, and in the off chance he actually does exist, I’m sure that there’s already a long line of women who would do anything to be his bride.” Then I’d point them to this article and let them know that the guy you're looking for has been here the whole time.

The future status of our relationship will depend on how long it has been since we first met, and how much emotionial investment I put into the relationship. If we’ve known each other for a long time, then it’s likely you’ve been leading me on. Bad. If I get the feeling the relationship may go somewhere (even if it doesn’t), I might invest a bit more emotional energy into the relationship than I would if I intended to be “just friends” with you, especially if you send me non-verbal signals indicating that you want to be more than “just friends” with me. If done the right way, at the right time, I might want to be friends with you. If done the wrong way, at the wrong time, the results are disastrous. If you send me signals of interest whenever we’re close by, and do so for an extended period of time, causing me to make a huge emotional investment, then drop the “let’s just be friends” bomb, you might as well rip my heart out of my chest, saying, “You won’t be needing this anymore,” because that’s how it will feel to me. That will take months, even years to heal. Once it does, why would I want to be friends with you?

Just be aware, if you place me in that so-called “friend zone,” in a way that is not as disastrous as I just described, I may just lay dormant — hopeful that some day, you just might change your mind. There have been many fruitful relationships that have sprouted in this manner.

Keep in mind that by the time you placed me in the “friend zone,” the seeds of a relationship have been planted. The seeds may sprout and grow into something great and beautiful. They may sprout briefly before being washed away. They may not even grow at all. The result will depend on how both of us — you and me — treat them.

Sincerely,
Me.

A Comment and a Pair of Music Videos

You may have noticed that most of my posts for Unrequited Love Awareness Week have been of music videos. This is somewhat intentional. I made a good number of comments about unrequited love in the posts I wrote last year. You can easily find them, too. If you'll notice at the bottom of this post, there are labels. All of my Unrequited Love Awareness Week posts have "Unrequited Love Awareness Week" as one of their labels. Click on that label to see all of my posts which have that label.

Most of the videos which I have posted are listed in the "In music" section of the unrequited love article on Wikipedia. I feel that they fit the theme of the week.

That having been said, here's another from a female perspective. It's a story which depicts a happy ending, which doesn't always happen, but I am hopeful that it will.



And here's another one from Taylor Swift. What's interesting about this one is that the lyrics refer to a specific person.



With both songs, the gender roles could easily be reversed. More so with "Teardrops" than with "You Belong with Me," especially since the name Drew could refer to either a male or a female (Look at Drew Carey and Drew Barrymore for example).

Another post that's not a music video coming soon.

You're so very special… I wish I was special…

Weezer - El Scorcho

For me, it's not just the "half-Japanese girls."

Also, it's a bit funny that the sign in the background says, "weerez" then later changes to "weezer."

If I were to choose a movie that best describes the story of my life, it would be…

…(500) Days of Summer. At some point during this week, I have got to write about this movie. Might as well be now.

---

!!SPOILER ALERT!!

If you have not yet seen, but wish to see the movie (500) Days of Summer, please refrain from reading the main body of this post.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

---

The other day, I finally got to see (500) Days of Summer, and I thought to myself at several times during the movie. These thoughts I was thinking were all along the lines of, “Wow. I’ve been through that myself.” I really felt sympathetic with the Tom character. Tom is in love with Summer. Summer “just wants to be friends” with Tom, despite doing things together that fall outside the typical activities which a woman who is “just a friend” of a man would do. For example, a make-out session in the copy room at the office, or going on a date to IKEA, and pretending they live there, or more intimate activities that a “family friendly” blog ought not to discuss.

While my life obviously does not have an omniscient narrator or a kid sister to take and reject advice from, I have had an abundance of women who could fill the role of Summer if I were Tom.

There were times where I thought that reality would align with my expectations of a relationship which, in the end, never reached those expectations. Not even close.

There was even one time, when something did seem to go according to plan, that it seemed that any fountain would come alive at my passing (were it not close to winter time, and had I chosen to walk past said fountain after the event occurred, it might as well have).

There was even one “Summer” who wound up essentially like Summer in the movie. (I wrote about her last year, though only those to whom I give permission to read that writing may do so.)

At the end of the movie (the 500th day of Summer), after moping about his loss of Summer, then deciding to quit his job as a greeting card writer and become an architect, meets a woman who was interviewing for an architect job. She says she has noticed him from the park bench he calls his favorite spot. They start up a conversation, and discover they have a lot in common. As Tom is being called in to be interviewed, he asks if she’s interested in getting together after the interview. She eventually agrees. As Tom walks to the interview room, we cut away to a title card, which clicks over to (1), indicating the first day of Autumn.

That’s where the story ends, but the story of my life continues. As it turns out, as I move on, it seems that those “Autumns” are more like “Summers,” but more like “lesser Summers.” There’s less emotional investment, less damage done when I’m shoved off into Friend Zone purgatory, or the Outer Darkness of the Acquaintance Zone.

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!! SPOILER Ends Here

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Okay, so (500) Days of Summer isn’t a scene-by-scene story of my life (especially with its non-linear presentation), but it’s close enough for me to say that it’s a movie that can be used to describe it. If I were to choose a movie that best describes the story of my life, it would be that one. Of course, names, faces, places, stories, and things like that would be changed to more accurately portray my story, but it would be pretty much the same. Though the sequels (yes, there would be sequels) would be pretty much almost identical to the original.

The Veronicas - Could've Been

A song about unrequited love. Written from a female perspective, but the meaning of the song, and the gender roles could easily be reversed.

It's that time of year again…

It’s that time of year again. And this time, things are going to be a bit different.

That’s right, it’s time for another Unrequited Love Awareness Week (ULAW), a week where I go on about the all too common phenomenon of people not liking you the way you like them.

I say that things are a bit different this time for two reasons. First, ULAW runs during the week before Valentine’s Day, not starting on Valentine’s Day. Second, I’ve gone through a bit of research regarding the phenomenon.

Let’s start with the media. Love, both ideals and fantasies regarding it, exist in the media. Music, TV shows, movies, etc. It’s everywhere.

Even in iTunes, there’s a Valentine’s Day section, listing off various titles categorized as “love stories.” Films like Casablanca, The Notebook, 13 Going On 30, A Walk to Remember, and many others. This week is not about any of that kind of story. There are numerous songs about love. One musician who essentially got thrust into the spotlight this past year is Taylor Swift, who released a single called “Love Story,” which compares a relationship to that of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

This week is not about songs like “Love Story” or movies like Casablanca. It’s more about songs like Taylor Swift’s other recent big song “You Belong with Me” and movies like (500) Days of Summer. Unrequited love is almost as universal as love itself.

I say “almost” because, well, one Halloween, I dressed up as unrequited love. It wasn’t much of a costume, it was just a picture of the two hearts, as you see them in the illustration accompanying this post, along with the label, “It stinks!” beneath it. I went to a Halloween party in this get-up, and as usual, people would ask me what I was. I was a bit surprised at the number of people who, upon my telling them that I was unrequited love, would reply, “What’s that?” Frankly, I am surprised that there is anyone in their mid- to late-20s who hasn’t heard of it. Perhaps many have experienced it, but didn’t know there was a name for it.

That’s the whole idea behind ULAW. Its intent is to make people aware of it, so that they recognize it when they themselves are unfortunate enough to be in the middle of it. Everyone will go through it at least once in their lives. Those who don’t are either extremely sheltered, or just plain “go buy a lottery ticket” lucky.


This… is Unrequited Love Awareness Week!

The SarcMark: Internet Necessity, or Redundant Waste of Money?

Sarcasm. In today's world of text messaging, e-mail, and other forms of textual communication, one's apparent use of sarcasm may be misinterpreted as a statement of seriousness. Even in spoken language, sarcasm can be misinterpreted. In the "Weird Al" Yankovic song "Albuquerque," the teller of the story gives this example of such a misinterpretation.

Okay, like one time, I was out in the parking lot trying to remove my excess ear wax with a golf pencil, when I see this guy Marty trying to carry a big ol' sofa up the stairs all by himself. So I say to him, I say, "Hey, you want me to help you with that?" And Marty, he just rolls his eyes and goes, "No, I want you to cut off my arms and legs off with a chainsaw!" So I did. And then he gets all indignant on me. He's like, “Hey man, I was just being sarcastic!" Well that's just great. How was I supposed to know that? I'm not a mind reader, for cryin' out loud. Besides, now he's got a really cute nickname: Torso Boy. So what's he complaining about?

Another example of misinterpreting sarcasm in one episode of The Big Bang Theory:

SHELDON: I have to say, I slept splendidly. Granted not long, just deeply and well.
LEONARD: I'm not surprised. a well-known cure for insomnia is to break into your neighbor's apartment and clean.
SHELDON: Sarcasm?
LEONARD: You think?
SHELDON: Granted, my methods may have been somewhat unorthodox, but I think the end result will be a measurable enhancement of Penny's quality of life.
LEONARD: You know what, you convinced me. Maybe tonight we should sneak in and shampoo her carpet.
SHELDON: You don't think that crosses the line?
LEONARD: Yes… For God's sake, Sheldon, do I have to hold up a sarcasm sign every time I open my mouth?
SHELDON: You have a sarcasm sign?
LEONARD: No, I do not have a sarcasm sign.
---
LEONARD: You are going to march yourself over there right now and apologize.
SHELDON: (laughs)
LEONARD: What's funny?
SHELDON: That wasn't sarcasm?
LEONARD: No!
SHELDON: Woo, boy! You are all over the place this morning.

("The Big Bran Hypothesis")

Later in the season, Leonard actually creates a sarcasm sign and holds it up for Sheldon to see. This was a one-time occurrence, though.

The need for a visual indication of the use of sarcasm is not new, but some have offered suggestions, with little apparent success.

Enter: the SarcMark.


As the video above indicates, the SarcMark consists of a circular spiral design ending with a dot in the interior of the spiral, similar to the "at" symbol, @. The associated Web site, offers a font and additional software (supposedly for keyboard mappings), for US$1.99. Is it really worth it, though? Here's why I think it isn't.

First off, the mark is mapped to Unicode code point U+E001, which is in a Private Use area, and is not part of the Unicode standard. Next, in order to see the SarcMark glyph, you need a special font which contains the mark at U+E001. This is sold through the Web site. If you want an intended recipient to see this mark, that recipient must also have the font and software installed, unless, of course, your message (or the mark itself) is converted into an image. Next on the SarcMark Problem List, there is no free alternative. Further complicating this issue is that the SarcMark is a trademarked design (USPTO, SN 77522403, RN 3712952, filed 2008-07-15, registered 2009-11-17), so even if there was a free version of this mark, it could be subject to litigation. Further, I do not believe that registered trademarks like this are even allowed in Unicode. Even if it were to be included in Unicode, it would need to be moved from its current U+E001 code point to somewhere else (Probably in the U+2E31 to U+2E7F range, extending Supplemental Punctuation), so documents using the U+E001 version of the mark would have to make edits to their documents. Finally, it is not supported across all systems. Their Supported Platforms page lists several applications in Windows, an apparently kludgy way of entering it on Mac, and several models of Blackberry. It's not like I can open Text Editor in Windows or TextEdit on Mac, press the shortcut key, and it appears. Linux, you ask? What's that؟ There is no official Linux support for this, so you Linux users are out of luck.

With so many shortcomings, I present this question: Why bother? Why would anyone pay money for something that is not universally supported, either in Unicode or systemwide applications, and of course, in Linux? It's basically as useful as those smileys that install spyware on your computer. I offer this alternative. Use characters that are already universally accessible and Unicode standardized.

In the late 19th century, French poet Alcanter de Brahm proposed using something he called a point d’ironie, or irony point. It is essentially a backward-facing question mark, which is to be used to indicate that the sentence should be understood at a second level (irony, sarcasm, etc.) It is found in Unicode at two different code points, U+061F and U+2E2E, the former being the Arabic question mark, and the latter being a simple reversed question mark. There's already one irony mark in this blog post. (Linux, you ask? What's that؟) There's a bit of a problem using the Arabic question mark though. The English language is written from left to right (LTR). Arabic is written from right to left (RTL). This directional paradox is found in many text entry applications, from Web browsers to word processors. When typing using a primarily LTR script (like English), then all of a sudden, a character from a RTL script is inserted (like that Arabic question mark), the software automatically thinks, "Okay, the user has inserted a RTL character. Put the insertion point to the character's left." This can be confusing for writers new to the concept of switching back and forth between LTR and RTL. The solution would be to use the U+2E2E reversed question mark. The problem with this is that while Unicode is supported on Windows, Mac, and Linux, not all fonts have a glyph mapped to this code point. This is why you're seeing Arabic question marks instead of reversed question marks: ⸮.

This leads us to a second alternative, which can be used even on cell phones with international keyboard input. Of course, I'm referring to the inverted exclamation point (¡). Look at the above dialogue from The Big Bang Theory again with this punctuation.

SHELDON: I have to say, I slept splendidly. Granted not long, just deeply and well.
LEONARD: I'm not surprised. a well-known cure for insomnia is to break into your neighbor's apartment and clean¡
SHELDON: Sarcasm?
LEONARD: You think?
SHELDON: Granted, my methods may have been somewhat unorthodox, but I think the end result will be a measurable enhancement of Penny's quality of life.
LEONARD: You know what, you convinced me. Maybe tonight we should sneak in and shampoo her carpet¡
SHELDON: You don't think that crosses the line?
LEONARD: Yes… For God's sake, Sheldon, do I have to hold up a sarcasm sign every time I open my mouth?
SHELDON: You have a sarcasm sign?
LEONARD: No, I do not have a sarcasm sign.
---
LEONARD: You are going to march yourself over there right now and apologize.
SHELDON: (laughs)
LEONARD: What's funny?
SHELDON: That wasn't sarcasm?
LEONARD: No!
SHELDON: Woo, boy! You are all over the place this morning.

You can easily see where Leonard is being sarcastic (even though Sheldon can't) with the inverted exclamation point placed at the end of those sentences.

Entering the inverted exclamation point is relatively simple. For Windows, it’s ALT+0161. In Mac, it’s Option+1. Much simpler (and less expensive) than buying and downloading a font. But what about sarcastic statements which are questions? Use the irony point. Since it looks like a question mark, there should at least be some kind of question associated with it.

In short, I suggest that to show sarcasm in written text, instead of buying and downloading a font with limited use and limited compatibility, use the following:
• The irony point (؟ or ⸮) when the sarcastic statement is a question
• The inverted exclamation point (¡) otherwise.

NOTE: This writing is not intended as sarcasm. If it were, every sentence of it would have ended with ¡ or ⸮.