Pushing Daisies is on iTunes!

Last year, I made a post that talked about a show called Pushing Daisies.

Well, fans of the show should be pleased to note that all nine episodes of the first season (truncated due to that writers strike) are now available on the iTunes Store.

This wouldn't be a big thing, if it weren't for the fact that it didn't appear on the Store until this week. If it had appeared during the season (much like my other favorite from that season, The Big Bang Theory), I wouldn't be making this post at all.

Don't know why it was held back for so long, but glad to see it's here.
And in case you're wondering, yes, I bought the whole season.

For All You YouTubers out there…

I just want to note an update to my YouTube Channel. I've organized all my videos into playlists. There are 3 playlists to choose from.

1. My Montages. All the montage videos I've posted to the Blog will be in this playlist.

2. Transit. All the transit-related clips will be posted in this playlist.

3. Et Cetera. The other random things I happen to take videos of. For example, hovering seagulls, or a vending machine selling drinks for a nickel shy of $100.

Check it out!

Video #37 – Here It Goes Again

Well, here it is. Enjoy.

It's absurd, really.

It's called the Gallery of Absurd Stuff, and my own little spin-off blog to showcase things I find to be funny, strange, or just plain weird. For example, if Staten Island is part of New York City, why are there references aboard the Staten Island Ferry which indicate the contrary? Or why does this banner say "Building coming soon" when there's already a building there?

It's the Gallery of Absurd Stuff Blog. You can find a link to it in the Links section on the right.

This game of Scrabble is for adults only.

The title for this post is the text of a sign that should have been posted after a move I made in a game of Scrabble I was playing a few months ago. Here's the situation. This is what the board looked like when it came to my turn.

U

B

B

A

R

N

S

P

A

G

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M

S

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F

A

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It should also be noted that there were no tiles remaining to draw, and my rack had these seven tiles.

Z10

X8

C3

S1

D2

N1

N1

It kinda resembled the bottom row of a QWERTY keyboard (except for the D, the S, and the extra N of course). I pondered over it for a while, and then, I found a word I could use. I put it on the board.

U

B

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I explained that I put it there just to get rid of the X, and play continued from there. Of course, the mention of sex in the church in the context of being used in a game was so funny (especially with words like nun and amen already on the board), that the four of us playing (all but myself being adults who had children) couldn't help but laugh. A lot. One of the other players even suggested using the word, "HEYSEXY" to get rid of his tiles, which resulted in even more laughter. What's worse was that their kids were in the room, hence the desire for the sign with the post's title. One boy asked his father, "What's so funny?" I replied, "We'll tell you when you're older." Play continued, each of us putting down words where we could, sometimes without regard to what other non-words were being formed, and here's the board at the finish.

U

B

B

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N

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So there you have it. You just saw "sex" in church. Now get your mind out of the gutter before I march in there and kick it out!

Ketchup Bombed!

I went over to the neighborhood McDonald's this morning, in an attempt to "Eat & Go"™ to arrive on campus early for my first day of classes. After placing my order, I felt as if something had splattered all over me. I looked down, and there it was. Ketchup was all over my shirt and my face. After getting my food, I spent about 20 minutes cleaning that ketchup off my shirt, and using the air dryer to dry it.

So much for being on time!

My Cat is Going!

For those of you who know me, please note that no, I did not suddenly go out and get a cat. Besides, where would it be going if I had said this about my hypothetical cat?

The name of this post is what it is for a simple reason.

Listen to the video below which appears further down this post.

Today, Elvis Duran and the Z Morning Zoo played a very old "Phone Tap." Actually, it wasn't originally called a Phone Tap when it first aired back in 1999. It was called a Nutcracker.

They played it today, and as with other Phone Taps which debuted in the Z100 era, they removed any and all references to anything that pre-syndication. They even deleted Christine Nagy (who was with the Zoo at the time).

The transcript:
Elvis: …Obviously,
Danielle: Oh, boy.
Elvis: the mother Anita, loves Twinkie the cat.
Christine: Oh, absolutely!
Elvis: We had Dave Brody call her…

Yeah. They eliminated that part as well.


Now, thanks to the good folks on YouTube, you can hear this Nutcracker in close to its original form.

I'll post what I commented on the YouTube page.

This Nutcracker is almost 10 years old! I know. I don't believe it either.

They played it (rebranded as a "Morning Show Phone Tap") this morning (30th July 2008). You cannot believe how much mutilation they have done to this. Of course, everything Anita Townsend says is exactly as it was originally, but all references to "Z100," "Z Morning Zoo," and "Nutcracker" have been eliminated. They even mix the "Spybreak!" Phone Tap intro (which sounds worse than before) as Elvis is reading the e-mail.

Instead of downloading the mutilated version of "My Cat is Going" from the Morning Show Phone Tap podcast, listen to the video below.

 

If you want to torture someone…

Just give them a link to http://tinyurl.com/3yy54t and force them to keep their eyes and ears open all the way through.

Especially with that TinyURL bit, they won't know what they're clicking on until the page loads.

What is the page? The page is on YouTube, and it contains the most annoying 60-second commercial in television history. You guessed it. It's the Optimum Triple Play commercial in reggaeton.

It's back. When I say "it's back," I mean that it's back on TV. The most annoying commercial on TV is making a comeback.

I always thought this one was a much better, and less annoying, commercial.


However, to bring back the reggaeton version is too much.

While I, being Hispanic, am technically a part of "tu gente," I do not subscribe to the various stereotypes portrayed in this turd of a commercial. I do not spend my summer days sitting in a seaside house on a tropical island, watching some brand of cable TV, while surrounded by scantily-clad women (or mermaids, for that matter).

All in all, the reggaeton version should be canned and buried in a hole a mile deep.

Here it goes, here it goes, here it goes again.

So recently, I've been into a song called "Here It Goes Again" by a band called OK Go.

Here's the video for the song. You can buy it at the iTunes Store.



Of course, the popularity of this video has sparked some imitators.

First, some high school students in American Fork, Utah.


Here's another rendition.


And yet another.


They even had to do it on Big Brother in the UK.


But the best rendition other than that performed by the band OK Go has to be from Granbury High School in Texas. The reaction of the crowd says it all.


OK Go vs. Granbury HS.


♪ It could be ten, but then again I can't remember half an hour since a quarter to four… ♪

EDIT: The next video I post to this blog will be one I made which uses the song, but mine won't involve treadmills.

Post #74, Video #36, and Some Box Talk

I am using Post #74 to post Video #36.



It pays tribute to a TV channel I used to watch back in my high school days, The Box. It worked like a jukebox, but you used a 1-900 number to request a video. Of course, I had to use fake phone numbers for the whole thing, but you kinda get the idea of it. I used to get The Box on 3 channels. Channel 17 (only between midnight and 7 AM. Outside of that, the channel had Korean programming), channel 39, and channel 23. The latter was a bit fuzzy at times, since it was based in Cranford. One of my main reasons for getting a VCR was to do what I basically did with my tape recorder. Record videos off the TV.

Speaking of TV, and The Box, I just got myself a Box of a different type: one of those digital TV converter boxes. I like the fact that I can watch shows like The Price is Right and The Big Bang Theory without all the distortion on Channel 2 like I did with the analog receiver. I also like some of the extra channels on digital. For example Channel 4.2 is an NBC-based weather channel, and Channel 25.2 is one that shows you live traffic cameras across the city. (Although every time I've tuned into it recently, it shows the camera at Columbus Circle.)

Then there are the weird things. For example, Channel 5 and Channel 9 are practically sister stations. But Channel 5.2 is basically a simulcast of Channel 9.1, and 9.2 is a simulcast of 5.1. Weird! I guess it's useful if you live outside the range of either one, but since I'm in the range of both, it's kinda redundant.

Anyway, happy channel surfing!

The Chicago post

Well, since I'm starting this post in Chicago, I might as well use the font named for it.

Anyway. Where do I begin? I suppose that I should begin at the beginning.

Mom and I flew into Chicago Monday morning. Rode the "L" to the hotel. The Blue line has some slow spots, but some quick spots as well. There was a bit around the Chicago Avenue stop that was LOUD!

After dropping off our luggage at the hotel, we went over to the Navy Pier to kill some time, as check-in time wasn't until 15:00, and it was only 10:00. After walking to the end of the pier, and eating a "Cheeseborger" with chips at Billy Goat Tavern, and then a Dazzler at Häagen-Dazs. By this time, it was just after 12:00. We then went to see Speed Racer at the IMAX theater. Now that it was 15:00, we went to the hotel and checked in. We then walked up Michigan Avenue (and the "Magnificent Mile" and went up to the observation deck of the John Hancock Center and looked around there. After dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, we went back to the hotel to conclude the day.

Day 2 was a bit stressful in terms of getting to the places we wanted to go. We started out by going to the Museum of Science and Industry. We started by waiting for the #10 bus…and waiting… and waiting… After a long time of it not showing up, we gave in and took the 146 bus, and then took the 6 bus to the Museum. Afterward, we went to the Shedd Aquarium and the Adler Planetarium. It was a windy day! Afterward, we went to dinner at Pizzeria Uno. Interesting thing about Pizzeria Uno. The guy who founded the place, Ike Sewell, also founded Pizzeria Due and a Mexican restaurant in the same area.

The next day, we went to the Field Museum, and then went up to Millennium Park. From there, we took a ride around the Loop. Then after a bit of shopping on Michigan Avenue, we went back to the hotel for a couple of hours. Then, back to Navy Pier for dinner, and then a fireworks display.

On Thursday, we flew back home.

This post contains various links to Wikipedia for places we went to. Check 'em out!

Musical Confusions

If you have a sizable music library like I do, you may notice that certain songs sound like each other. Such that when you hear them on your iPod, you hear the start of the song, think it's a certain song, and then realize a few seconds later that it's not the song you thought it was, but something completely different.

Take this example: "Stop and Stare" by OneRepublic sounds almost exactly identical to "Speed of Sound" by Coldplay. Weird, right? Get this, now. I have four songs which open with sound effects that make it feel like you're listening to a record. I keep them all in a playlist called "Record Open." They are: "Where It's At" by Beck, "Say You'll Be There" by the Spice Girls, "Trapped in the Drive-Thru" by “Weird Al” Yankovic, and "I Don't Wanna Wait" by the Veronicas. However, each record open has a distinctive sound to it. The Spice Girls song has a distinct pop in it which none of the others has. The other three sond more similar. It gets somewhat confusing if all four of these are in the same general playlist.

Then there are songs that sound like each other. A recent example involves The Veronicas and P!nk. The song from the Veronicas is "4ever," and P!nk's song is "U + Ur Hand" I'm not sure if it's the chord progression, the general meter of the song, or what, but those two songs sound very similar to be a coincidence. Just do a YouTube search with the names of those two songs, and you'll see what I mean. Whenever I hear one, I kinda sing along to the other, especially during the last chorus. Like I said, I don't know what it is about these two songs.

The obligatory Earth Day post

Go hug the earth today.

Don't waste paper.

On that particular track, why do some stores give you a receipt that's a mile long when you buy just ONE item?

The Colour and the Shape

Well, actually more about the colour (or "color" in the standard American spelling) than the shape. I just wanted to use the title of a Foo Fighters album in the post title.

Anyway, here's a list of random thoughts.

A. I added a link to my Links section. It's actually a pretty cool link. Have you ever looked up at the Empire State Building and wondered why it was showing a certain color combination? Sometimes, it's obvious (like red and green around Christmas, all red for Valentine's Day, or red, white, and blue for Independence Day), but other times, it isn't. That's how What Color is the Empire State Building came to be. It takes the information from the ESB's official site and presents it in a graphical form.

B. I had a similar idea, but I probably would have used only a graphic of the top of the ESB instead of the whole thing, and made it a Konfabulator Yahoo! Widget Engine widget instead of a Dashboard widget, which is only available on the Mac. However, I googled a bit and found another blog with a link to the site, so there it is. They stole my idea before I even thought of it. But they did a good job.

C. One of the biggest things that irks me is when people refer to lines in the New York City Subway by color. What's worse is when the colors are used in giving directions. If someone were to walk up to me and ask, "Could you tell me how to get to the Red line?" I'd direct them to go to Penn Station and get on the next Amtrak train to Washington, DC or Boston. That's because to me, there is no Red line in New York. In fact, a lot of long-time New Yorkers would agree with that statement. Colors on subway maps first appeared with Hagstrom's 1936 map, which showed lines in each division (at this point seperate operating companies) as a distinct color. The lines of the IRT were in blue, those of the BMT were yellow, and those of the IND were red. Subway maps of the 1950's followed this scheme, but used black and green in place of blue and yellow respectively. Individual routes were well established, and had letter or number identifiers, but each line was under one of three color groups. It wasn't until 1967 when each line was represented by its own color. In that map, each line, including shuttles, was one of eight colors: Red, Orange, Light Blue, Magenta, Green, Black, Blue, and Yellow. In 1979, the color scheme changed yet again to the familiar color scheme that's still in use today, according to the trunk route it used in Manhattan. For the IRT lines, the colors ran as follows: 7th Avenue: Red, Lexington Avenue: Green, Flushing: Purple. For the IND lines, 8th Avenue: Blue, 6th Avenue: Orange, Crosstown: Lime, JFK Express (Discontinued in 1990): Light Blue. For the BMT lines, Broadway subway: Yellow, Nassau Street: Brown, Canarsie: Gray. All shuttles are represented by black on the maps, and dark gray on station and car signs. Many subway lines had letters and numbers before they had colors. Even in Brooklyn, the four BMT lines to Coney Island are still referred to on signs on even the newest of equipment. Example: the new R160 cars on the N say, "SEA BEACH EXP" to refer to the portion of the line in Brooklyn, though technically, "Sea Beach Express" would not match the service provided, since it makes all stops on the Sea Beach line, but it does run express along 4th Avenue in Brooklyn.

Anyway, my point is this: If you continue to refer to New York subway lines by color, you should be shipped to a city where it's acceptible to call that city's subway lines by color, because New York is certainly not such a city. The acceptible substitutes have existed long before colors were put to lines on a subway map. Another acceptible substitute is stating each line of the trunk route you wish to travel to. A word of caution with this one. Each line should be stated as an individual, not as a group (CORRECT: "Four, Five, and Six"; "B, D, F, and V" WRONG: "Four Five Six"; "BDFV"). In other words, the proper conjunction ("and" or "or") must be used when specifying the group.

Further examples:

WRONG: "I was riding on the R/W train last night…"
CORRECT: "I was riding the R train last night…
OR: "I was riding the W train last night…"
You were riding on either the R or the W train, not on both the R and the W simultaneously.

WRONG: "Take the BDFV to 34th Street…"
CORRECT: "Take the B, D, F, or V train to 34th Street…"
You have a choice of trains to take, any one of those will stop at 34th Street, and all of them will be (or are supposed to be) carrying EXACTLY ONE of those letters. Usually the first train to arrive will be the first train to arrive at 34th Street.

WRONG: "Take the One-Nine train…"
CORRECT: "Take the 1 train…"
The 9 train was eliminated over 2 years ago, and some people STILL refer to it, despite the fact that waiting for the 9 train now will result in an eternal wait… until you give up and take the 1.

D. While referring to lines by color in New York is frowned upon, apparently in Philadelphia, it's becoming accepted. The Broad Street subway (Orange), the Market-Frankford line (Blue), and the Subway-Surface trolley lines (Green) all have their respective colors.

Well, that's about it.

Tuesday's Gone: The A210 Video

My latest video, #35.



It's been a year since my A210 crapped out on me for the last time, which resulted in me getting a μ750 to replace it.

Interesting bit about the song. With the exception of "Take the A Train" and "Crazy Train," I haven't used songs from before the 1990's. "Crazy Train" was used twice (#5, MoD Trip 6/17-19/2004; and #10, the Museum Train Video). "Take the A Train" was used once (#29, 75th Anniversary of the A Line). Interestingly, I made another video about museum trains running on the A line, but I elected to use a different song, and got razzed by it (as I didn't have a version of "Take the A Train" at the time), so I decided to make up for it that time.

Anyway, about the song in Video #35. The song is "Tuesday's Gone" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, from the album (pronounced 'lĕh-'nérd 'skin-'nérd). It's quite interesting how I came across it. Last year, I was flipping channels on the FM dial, and I paused at the classic rock station, Q104.3 (while I was about a block away from the nearest Q104 bus stop). I heard the "train" lyric, and thought, "Wow! This would be good for a video!" So, here it is. A year later (I started work on it as soon as I could), a few days late (but not as many as I would have had I worked continuously on it through the original goal of one month after the A210 crapped out on me).

Anyway, enjoy the video.

Who Am I?

I received an e-mail about if you Google your name, you can see information about yourself.

Here's what I discovered by doing this.

According to Google, I am:

• An attorney in New Orleans
• An actor who played a part in an episode of Miami Vice
• A Telecom Engineer at Accenture, who attended DeVry between 1992 and 1995
• Author of Dracula: The Vampire Legend on Film, and other books about horror movies that involve monsters and vampires.
• A sexual predator living in Florida (By far, this is the most disturbing one for me)
• A plaintiff who, in 1974, sued Victory Carriers for damages sustained when I was burned by scalding water from a hose I was operating on board one of defendant's vessels.
• A dentist in Chicago

Well, I can say that I am NONE of those things (I wasn't even born in 1974, and DeVry wasn't the school I was going to between 1992 and 1995, unless at that time it was located in Glendale, NY), but one thing I found as I perused through Google's results IS something I am:

• Some guy whose photos are posted on nycsubway.org, and uploaded some videos to archive.org.

That's why I think it's important to identify myself with the middle initial. Just like how Mark L. Walberg (whose most recent gig is hosting Fox's The Moment of Truth) uses the L. to distinguish him from the similarly pronounced Mark Wahlberg, of Marky Mark fame.

So, that's that. That's me. Do a Google search with your own name, while you're at it. See what it says about yourself.

So I listened to “Last Night” last night…

The new album from Moby, Last Night, was released yesterday. Since the album is supposed to be a condensed version of a night out in New York City, I listened to it, most appropriately, during a night out in Manhattan.

I started at the beginning, which is a fine place to start, [Ooh Yeah] and I just couldn't help but move to the beat as I was walking down 14th Street to the Union Square subway station. [I Love to Move In Here] As I passed the Virgin Megastore, I looked through the windows to see if I could see if the place was still a madhouse (Moby was to make an appearance there). It was well past 21:00, so I figured that he must have moved on, so I moved on, [257.zero] and went into the subway. My intent was to take a Broadway Line train to 34th Street and then a 6th Avenue train to Rockefeller Center. [Everyday It's 1989] However, a northbound Q was in the station, with another Q stopped just outside the north end of the station, [Live for Tomorrow] and another train just outside of the south end of the station. [Alice] So I switched to the Lexington Line [Hyenas] and got to Rockefeller Center [I'm In Love] via Grand Central. [Disco Lies] Once in Rockefeller Center [The Stars], I took a few pictures of the electric fountain. [Degenerates] It was raining lightly, light enough that I didn't need an umbrella… or so I thought. The sky soon opened up, so I took shelter in the entrance to 30 Rock [Sweet Apocalypse] along with a few other people. Once the rain slowed up enough, [Mothers of the Night] I made my way back to the subway, taking the V to the 7, [Last Night] which I took home. [Sweetest] [Land Of]

As you probably guessed, I listed the names of the tracks among the events that took place last night. Also, you could deduce that not only did I download this album from iTunes, but also I pre-ordered it (the obvious giveaway is the presence of "Land Of," which was only available via pre-order). There was a bit of a hiccup when I downloaded it yesterday. The tracks downloaded, but it was in what I call iTunes Minus (the DRM'd tracks of an album that's available in iTunes Plus, which is DRM-free). After an unnecessary upgrade (and $3 later), I had the iTunes Plus versions of the tracks. After listening to the album though, I'd say it was worth it.

Other Music Stuff

The Veronicas finally put a new single out, after releasing their sophomore album Hook Me Up in Australia this past November. The song is called Untouched. After having listened to it numerous times (140 as of this post), I'd recommend it.

That got me to thinking that if I owned a record label, I would implement a “One Planet, One Album” policy. The policy would mean that any recording to be released would automatically be released worldwide within one week of the target release date. None of this garbage about an album being available in certain countries or similar junk. At least YouTube is international enough to not restrict viewers in another country from viewing content.

In fact, here's a rundown of music videos from their 2007 release, Hook Me Up

First is the song of the same name.


Next is the previously mentioned, Untouched


And finally, their latest video, This Love

NOTE: Once YouTube user ThEvErOnIcAs (The official YouTube account for The Veronicas) has this video posted under their account, I'll replace the above video with that one. The other two videos have been posted under that account.

Anyway, that's enough of my rant. I'll get back to listening to Moby… or The Veronicas… or somebody. Just watch the Last.FM ticker on the right.

Some Thoughts on the Fare Increase

With the fare hike coming up on Sunday, I thought I would share some thoughts about it.

First, for Unlimited ride MetroCards. Nowhere on the MTA web site did it say anything about cards purchased before the fare increase. I sent off an e-mail the other day to the MTA to ask about MetroCards purchased before March 2, and I finally got a response this morning.

Thank you for your email concerning information on how the MetroCard fare increase will impact you.

Unlimited Ride MetroCards currently being used for travel purchased prior to March 2nd will be valid for the full 7 or 30 days, even if some of those days are after the fare change. In addition, customers who purchase an Unlimited Ride MetroCard prior to the fare change can take advantage of a “grace period”, allowing these cards to be used after March 2nd.

MTA New York City Transit will monitor the number of cards in circulation and will announce at a later date the exact duration of the grace period. The MTA and MTA New York City Transit assures its customers that, at a minimum, cards bought for normal, personal use will be valid for their full duration (1, 7 or 30days) as long as the first day of travel is March 10 or earlier.

Sincerely,

Douglas R. Sussman
Director
Community Affairs

That means I can buy next month's MetroCard tomorrow and not have to worry about losing anything extra.

Now, for the pay-per-ride MetroCards. A 15% bonus kicks in starting at $7, which means that if you buy a $7 MetroCard, you get one with $8.05. That's good for four rides, but what about that extra nickel? Don't worry. I know just the place that can help you. The MetroCard Bonus Calculator can help. Just enter the current balance on your card, and the maximum amount you want to add. It spits out every possible combination between zero and your maximum, which results in a whole number of exact fares.

If you want to spare the trip, remember the following amounts:

$15.65 (9 rides)
$24.35 (14 rides)
$31.30 (18 rides)
$40.00 (23 rides)
$55.65 (32 rides)
$64.35 (37 rides)
$71.30 (41 rides)
$80.00 (46 rides)

These amounts will yield a total balance that's a multiple of $2, for the number of rides indicated, given that the card you're adding value to already has a balance that's evenly divisible by $2.

Here's how you do it.

1. Follow the normal steps to add value to a MetroCard or get a new Pay-Per-Ride MetroCard.
2. When you reach the screen where it asks how much you want (to add), touch the Other Amounts button.
3. You are then presented with a keypad where you may enter the desired amount.
4. Proceed as usual.

They will also be selling cards for $17.39 and $52.17 at merchants, which yield $20 and $60, respectively.

It'll be fine as long as you remember the above list and the MetroCard Bonus Calculator link. I suggest you bookmark it for future reference.

Then again, If your MetroCard's balance has $1.75 after using all the rides, you could take a ride on PATH.

Two New iPod Games… It's Strange…

The other day, I was playing chess on my Palm Pilot, and I think to myself, "Wouldn't it be cool if they make a chess game for the iPod?"

A moment later, I think, "You know what, I haven't played Backgammon in a while."

Tuesday morning, I check out the iTunes Store, where lo and behold, there's a new iPod game: Chess & Backgammon Classics. This was like wishful thinking realized. I instantly bought and downloaded it. The controls are a bit weird on the iPod, but given the limitations of the iPod's click wheel, they try to make moving the chess and backgammon pieces as simple as possible by limiting your actions to legal moves. That can be said for both games.

The other game that was released is called Naval Battle: Mission Commander. It's like Milton Bradley's Battleship, but different.

Chess and Backgammon for iPod. They must have been reading my mind.

Speaking of which, sometimes, it seems like you can influence your iPod to play a certain song while shuffling so that it plays sooner than it would otherwise play. Here's what I did.

1. Began playing a song from a playlist, making sure that under Settings, Shuffle Songs was selected.
2. Go back to the playlist that's playing and highlight another song in the playlist.
3. Set the hold switch.

After one other song, the iPod played the highlighted song.

Then again, I tried this again with no success.

Either it only works some of the time, or I have such an intimate knowledge of my iPod that I know what it will play before it plays it.

Winter Break 2008: A Video

Enjoy.