Thursday, June 28, 2007, 14:40 - General
Petter just sent me this. Heh. Pretty much sums up how I feel about top 40 crap.[ 1 comment ] ( 34 views ) | permalink |
( 2.9 / 32 )Tuesday, June 26, 2007, 18:06 - Blurbs
I see rats almost every day running around on the subway tracks.[ 1 comment ] ( 34 views ) | permalink |
( 2.9 / 35 )Sunday, June 24, 2007, 17:05 - General
So for one, a bit more on my to-be apartment. I'm actually not sure Lewis knows this, but it's a railroad. We'd been avoiding these, but this place seemed nice enough, was really cheap, and I was just sick of looking. If I'd just realized earlier that rental agencies didn't want to hear about me being a student but didn't mind hearing about me working at Google, things would have gone a lot more smoothly I imagine. In any case, a railroad is an apartment where all the rooms are in one long line, and usually this means that the entrance comes into the living room whereas the two bedrooms are one after the other, forcing you to walk through one to get to the other. However, the rear bedroom in this place has a very convenient extra entrance door, so whatever. It will work for one year at least. We'll have to buy something to separate the living room from the first bedroom, but that shouldn't be too expensive. Might be a pain though. The neighborhood's really nice, still very Polish too. It's amazing just how Polish the area is actually, because I can't imagine there have been too many recent immigrants coming in so all the Polish signs and newspapers and street talk have to have been established for quite a while. Very cool.I walked to the place as taking the train one stop would still have meant at least a 15 minute walk and likely wouldn't have saved me any time. I thought it was great right away, so I asked what I had to do to secure it and he said I could put a deposit down right then if I wanted. However, I'd forgotten all the cash that Lewis had left for such purposes (I'm still flat broke, but more on that later) back at home so I made up that I had another appointment to attend to as I didn't want the guy to get the impression that I was broke. Thus I walked all the way back home again (maybe 30 minutes or so), got the money, and walked back. I didn't ride the bike Julie'd lent me cuz I still don't have any money to buy a helmet or a lock. Thus I put $50 down that we'd get back in case we weren't approved. By now it was 2:15, and I'd been doing nothing but apartment searching all day since 8:30 or so. I walked over to the Lorimer L stop and caught that to the end of the line, then switched to the A train to head up to the southwest corner of Central Park. It was the first time I'd been uptown, and the first time I'd been on a north-south train for any distance, and it was immediately a change from riding the L. The train was smaller and darker, and much more cramped. It really felt more urban just being on a different line. The highlight was a group of three young German girls gabbing away and me trying to follow along. I got out at Columbus Circle and then took a couple wrong turns before finding the building in which the rental agency was located. I took the elevator up to the 7th floor (with a nice doorman operating the lift for me) but when he mentioned how crazy it was up there I didn't realize how right he was. The office took up the whole floor and it was a madhouse of papers and people and phones and running and yelling. I had to fill out a form with details about my job and price range, etc., and I noticed that the broker's fee was 15% of the year's rent or about $3000. I knew right away that I wasn't going to take anything with these guys, cuz that kind of fee is just not worth it for me at this stage. If I was going to get something really nice and long-term, maybe. But not now. I however thought it was kind of interesting to be there so I filled it out anyway and met with this woman Patti who wondered audibly why Lewis and I were shooting for such a cheap place when our amazing Google-driven income qualified us for at least a $3000/mo apartment. I made up some story about us wanting to pay off our student loans, and we went along with her trying to pitch too-expensive apartments to me which were way up in Harlem. After a little while, I told her to call me on Monday and was off...
...toward the next appointment. I walked up Central Park West (my first sight of Central Park and it looked amazing) to West 72nd street where the next rental agency was located. This one was similar in style to the other, just on a lower scale. I was told about the apartment which was on E 109th (apparently Spanish Harlem is a part of the Upper East Side, or I wouldn't have come there in the first place) and this new guy took me via the subway up to the place. It was my first glimpse of Harlem, and it looked pretty ok. Definitely nicer than the areas of central Brooklyn I'd seen last week. The guy did go on about how I'd need to buy window guards to prevent break-ins (yay) and told me both about this sketchy tunnel separating the 4,5,6 trains from the apartment and the housing project right near there. I just wasn't sold on the place after those things. Again, maybe I'm a small-towner. I dunno.
I parted ways with the guy and took the subways over to 21st street in Long Island City (Queens) from where I walked the mile over the Pulaski bridge back home. I was exhausted and it had been really hot all day long. I was hoping to do some work on my thesis, but I just couldn't muster the energy for it. Then I got a phone call from the guy about the first place - I alone had been approved for the whole place, even without Lewis! I mean, what the hell was the other place's problem which rejected the pair of us for me being "financially unstable" when I can get a whole place for the same price myself a few blocks away? Ugh. Whatever, I was like "we'll take it" and he told me to be at the office with the security deposit in 45 minutes. I pulled out Lewis's wad and counted it and realized - we were $60 short. Fuck. What was I to do? I called Lewis but he didn't pick up his phone (he was in Boston this weekend at an ultimate Frisbee tournament). I called my parents who are in Monterey on vacation and asked them what they could do for me but there wasn't much they could do either. I have a checkbook, but it's with a Midwest-local bank and so I have no way of putting money into it without their help but they're not there. So I called my sister and asked her whether she could float me $50 or so for a week but she wasn't too keen on that idea. It's just so frustrating because I'm getting like a bazillion dollar check mailed to me on Friday but until then I have to suffer through all the nuisances of being a broke bastard. I decided I'd go down there with all the cash and write a check for the $60 difference. I'll likely just overdraft my account, but hopefully I can come up with some way to wire my sister money so that she can put it into the account. God, does it have to be this complicated? I drove down in Lewis's beat up Ford Probe along McGuinness and was talking to my sis while I drove and it felt pretty cool. I admit that I love driving, but I still don't especially want a car. The guy was a bit freaked out by all the cash and locked the door while we counted it out, and I made sure to get receipts, but basically we just need to come in on Monday and provide the proof of employment (I think) and sign the lease and that's that. So glad to be done with that.
After that I went out and bought a huge pizza and a beer and watched Eraserhead for the first time. It was pretty cool, but not my favorite Lynch ever. That baby thing is really creepy.
Just need to make it through this week. When my check comes, that should signal the last time in my life I'll ever be flat broke again! At least, that's my hope. Being a student does have its downsides. I mean I'm 26.
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( 2.9 / 27 )Saturday, June 23, 2007, 19:13 - General
Ugh, what a pain in the butt it is finding an apartment in New York. Unbelievably so. I'd been warned, but I didn't believe people that it would be that bad. It was.However, after a looong day involving spending 2-3 hours looking up and calling places, walking 5 miles to and back home and to again this place in Greenpoint, take the subway up to W 57th street and then walking up Central Park West to 72nd street and then taking the subway to Spanish Harlem and then taking the subway to Long Island City and then walking home over the Pulaski Bridge and then freaking out about not having enough cash on hand and then taking Lewis's car over to the rental agency in Greenpoint, we finally have a place locked in. Security deposit is paid, we're approved, we just have to supply the supporting documents (i.e. proof of employment) and then sign the lease on Monday. Awesome.
My and Lewis's new address for the summer (after which Can will be taking his spot) is:
570 Morgan Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11222
Thank God it's over.
Much more to say, but I need to take a nap.
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( 2.8 / 23 )Thursday, June 21, 2007, 21:04 - Announcements
Yes, finally.[ add comment ] | permalink |
( 3 / 42 )Thursday, June 21, 2007, 07:52 - General
And Qi-Qi's trying out today for a spot as a model in a catalog. Good luck![ add comment ] | permalink |
( 2.8 / 18 )Wednesday, June 20, 2007, 22:28 - General
I'm almost finally done with the coding theory paper. Check out the current draft.I had to do laundry tonight and I found myself loving dryers. Who knew something so simple could be so great.
We were offered the apartment in Greenpoint, but due to sketchiness (i.e. no lease but rather month-to-month living but having to pay a $1400 broker's fee) we might not take it. Would be a shame too as it's really nice.
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( 3 / 17 )Tuesday, June 19, 2007, 21:33 - General
Lewis showed up Sunday night and has been crashing here the last couple days. The first night we ate out at an Italian pizza place which was kind of a bummer cuz my plan with wanting pizza was that I was pining for American style pizza, not Italian, as I could get the latter any time in Amsterdam. But it was ok nonetheless. I also rather pointlessly got a membership at this cool video store with all sorts of foreign and avant-garde films and we rented A Straight Story on DVD, only to find out the TV in the living room doesn't have RCA inputs so as to accept the signal from the DVD player. In fact, the TV is blank and white and reminds me of the TV on which I used to play Atari back in the day. They have Ataris at Google by the way. For you to play on.The next day we found out that there is another TV that does have newfangled connections so we used that to watch the movie after I got back from work. I tried to exchange my driver's license for a New York one (hah, I'm gonna be cool and have a New York DL) but you need both your passport (check) and your social security card (in MN). Thus my parents are sending me the latter per post.
Lewis and I also spent some more time looking for places, and we've applied to sign the lease on one at 113 Diamond St. What's annoying though is that since I don't have any money in my bank account nor any paystubs, nor actually a letter proving my employment yet, I need my parents to cosign on the lease which involves lots of faxing. Annoying and costly for me, annoying for them, but man I hope we get the place cuz it's only $1450/month (great price) and in an amazingly nice part of southern Greenpoint within walking distance to the L and very near the Nassau G stop. Like I said, I hope we get it. I also took Lewis up to see the office for a bit today, and we ate M&M's and played pool and guitar hero.
Also, I chatted a bit with Gordon and he told me some heavy news. He moved out to Seattle to live with his best friend from high school and that guy's girlfriend, and last month she collapsed due to cardiac arrest due to complications from the intoxicants she was on at a party. I just can't imagine dealing with a girlfriend you'd lived with for over 5 years just dying like that at such a young age. I feel terrible and I hardly knew them.
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