i saw an actual fist fight on the street today. Two mid-thirties mexican guys were swinging at each other, at 11:30am, getting bloody and generally creating a ruckus. Since I happened to be in a cab at the time, I had full rubber necking priveleges. Luckily no knives came out and it didn't appear that anyone was seriously hurt, so I was able to enjoy the diversity of being in a business meeting one minute, and seeing spontaneous violence the next. What fun. Also fun: a crazed rat decided he didn't need to be in the subway anymore, and took the normal staircase up to ground level along with all the other commuters. The shrieks that females are capable of emitting when witnessing such things are impressive.   ¶ 9/23/2004 11:02:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

The problem with being a crazy person is that you can never quite know if anyone else is sane. Like being colorblind. Who knows whether your "orange" is anyone else's "orange". They could be seeing a redish hue and calling it orange. In the same way, you could be going about your life secure in the knowledge that you're Abraham Lincoln, and the rest of the world seems completely unable to grasp this terribly obvious fact. What's wrong with these people? Can't they tell you're Abraham Lincoln? Aren't they crazy? I feel this way watching the news sometimes. Does that make me a genius, or an idiot? It's impossible to tell.   ¶ 9/22/2004 11:34:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

went to an interactive advertising conference today, capped with a star-studded awards ceremony for online ad campaigns (a bit like the cleos). they had the audacity to present a lifetime achievement award for internet advertising. The gall. Interestingly, neither adware / spyware / spam nor adult advertising made much of an appearance at the event. Considering the still massive proportion of internet traffic devoted to the sale of naked photos, it's amazing how everyone tries to put a wall up between the "acceptable" internet and the use to which the vast majority of users put it. It's the elephant in the room that no one wants to admit to. but the conference was fine and involved a lot of handshaking, card exchanging, free booze and cocktails. standard con, good general fun.   ¶ 9/21/2004 11:42:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

brian at NYSE. a test  ¶ 9/18/2004 01:50:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

I never used to notice or attend to Jewish holidays in the slightest. Last night, however, New York inexplicably shut down. It took a while to figure out that it's rosh hashan or something similar. Who knew people actually celebrate these things?   ¶ 9/16/2004 10:50:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

this is a really great news compilation: http://www.columbia.edu/~js322/newslink.html   ¶ 9/14/2004 01:51:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

Well, this blogging thing is probably overrated anyway. Today I made my presence felt at the United States Citizen and Immigration Services building. This entailed waking up at 6:30, clutching my precious documents in hand for the 20 minute hike down to the Federal Building (it's really called that), and waiting in long lines. At the conclusion of said lines, I was informed that I couldn't submit the application in-person, and that in fact the only way to submit applications was via mail. Nice! Fortunately, it wasn't a total waste of time. The friendly lady informed me that the checks I'd made out to "Immigration and Naturalization Services" (the INS's old name) would be soundly rejected by the tolerant clerks of today's "USCIS". Their new service-friendly branding apparently does not extend to mistaken uses of their old name.   ¶ 9/13/2004 06:47:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

hmm. six weeks since my last blog. sorry about that. I'm on the 35th floor of my building in midtown New York right now. I've strategically used the republican national convention to seize some better office real estate (due to traffic snarls, everyone's working from home). So now I have a big window overlooking the skyscrapers and the statue of liberty if I strain my neck just right. For this week only, my view also includes the NYPD blimp, between 3-5 helicopters, and little ant-like police officers with machine guns roaming the streets. Apparently the protesters are on 48th street, so no good views of them.   ¶ 9/01/2004 05:46:00 PM 0 comments links to this post