Why is it that women have a better fashion sense and just a better overall sense of style in general than men? Is it because they care more about looking good? Are more into material and physical things? Are just more image conscious? Or are their brains just more wired for that particular subject area?
And also, why is it that men who try to dress well, buy nice clothes, do their hair nicely, etc., are often considered or looked at as gay or metrosexual? Who the hell came up with that term anyway?? I mean, is it so odd or weird or unique that a guy can have a sense of style that he has to be labeled as something? On a similar note, why is it that when a girl has no sense of style at all, she is often just called a tomboy, or just one of the guys?
I have no clue. The fact that we have these terms makes me think that it is some sort of social aspect, and not a biological one. Almost to the point that if a woman says some type of clothing or hair style is stylish or looks good, then it is, just cuz she said it is. Society just accepts that the woman knows what is stylish. Kind of like boys growing up play with GI Joe and girls growing up play with dolls. Its not something that’s really overtly taught per se, but just something that happens in society.
Using myself as an example, I have no clue what looks good on me. I can tell if a girl looks good, but its more her face, body, etc. than whether her outfit makes her look better. I always wear the same colors, and do my hair the same way. My girl friends always tell me I should wear brighter colors and such, but I never know what to buy. If I see a bright red shirt in the store, no way I buy it. If I ever wear anything other than like gray, brown, white, black, etc., its because a girl bought it for me. I just don’t have any style. I recently switched from using gel to some other hair product. Honestly, I don’t notice a huge difference. But, many girls have commented that my hair looks better. So, maybe it really is biological, because for the life of me, I don’t notice a thing most of the time!
The other day I told my friend, who was not born here, that I have been to my friend’s house probably each of the last 3 or 4 Saturdays because he fired up his grill in the backyard and cooked us up some steaks, sausages, Korean Kalbi beef, corn, Italian squash, etc. My dad just bought a grill also and for the last 3 days we have been using it for dinner. My friend? She asked me, what’s up with guys and grills?
And you know what? I don’t know. I guess its just an American guy thing. She told me that when she moved to America, she noticed that all of her guy friends loved firing up the grill in the backyard and just making lunch or dinner. My brother likes to set up bbq’s at the park so that he can grill meat as well.
I’ve never grilled before, and I just suck and have no culinary skills whatsoever. But, I see the fascination in it, and if I buy a place that has a backyard, I think that I will buy a grill too. Learn how to cook with it. To me, I think its the camaraderie that is the most fun. I’d buy the grill, not just because the food cooked on it would taste good, but just to have people over, talk, chat, hang out, etc.
Is that why other guys like to grill so much? My friend said in her country, grilling on a bbq just isn’t really done. Is it strictly American? I can’t say for certain since I’m born and raised here, but I’d speculate that American guys like to grill because it gives them a feeling of being in charge, of the power of man to cook meat like back in the day when they hunted for their meat. A way for guys to show off their manhood. I mean, how many girls do you know who use a grill? None. Cuz its a guy thing, like my friend said.
I get so frustrated sometimes with people who always try to find the short cuts, the easy way, in life. It always ends up biting them in the ass, making things even harder than they should of ever been, and then it just affects everyone else in a negative way. I can’t stand it sometimes. At what point do you get it in your head that always trying to find the easy way out isn’t going to happen?
How many times do you have to listen to someone you barely know tell you something is a deal, when in fact its not. Just because someone tells you something is a good idea doesn’t mean it is. How many stock picks gone bad and money down the drain do you have to go through before you realize its just throwing money away? If a stock pick is such a great deal, then why the hell doesn’t the stock broker just buy it with his own money? Why does he need you to buy it??? If you lose all your money because of these great deals or great tips, and then have to work 3 times as hard just go get back to where you started, how is that the easy route?
Its so damn frustrating when people don’t use common sense. They don’t listen to people they know, but when some freaking stranger gives advice that costs $$, all common sense gets thrown out the window. How many times does all this have to happen before you realize it never works?
To all of you hard working people out there, I wish you all a Happy Labor Day. To all those looking for work in this current economy, I wish you the best of luck and hope that post-Labor Day will bring you the job I know that you are qualified for.
I’m not sure, but this may or may not be my last post for the week. Depending on how much stuff I need to do tomorrow, I am off to New York after work on Wednesday. I have never been there before so am pretty excited. Of course, pictures and posts will follow when I get back. But until then, I wish all of you the best.
I came back last night from my extended weekend trip to New York, my first time ever there. I had a lot of fun, ate a lot of food, and walked a ton. New York is definitely different than OC. More dense, more people, more traffic, more buildings. If you ever wondered what its like to live in a city, then NY is probably the one to visit and try out.
What did I notice while there? In some ways, it reminded me of Chicago in that there are tons of tall buildings, many people use public transportation and walk around, traffic is bad. However, they are not the same. Its hard to explain, but there is a different feel, different vibe to New York. There’s just an energy there that I felt, which I did not in Chicago, or San Diego and Los Angeles for that matter. I don’t know if its the history and culture of the city, or just the people, but there’s just something special about New York.
One other difference I noticed between Chicago and New York is that to me, it seemed like there were a lot more foreigners and immigrants in New York. There are probably as many, if not more than in LA. However, its different in that the immigrants in New York seemed to be more of European descent while that of LA is much more Asian and Mexican. Don’t exactly know why, or if its even true, but I’d suspect that its probably because Europe is closer to New York and Asia is closer to LA?
Getting around in New York is very similar to Chicago, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and other European cities. That is, its very convenient taking the subways. The trains can be very packed, so much so that you are squeezed in with lots of other people, with no chance of a seat. But, these subways go pretty much anywhere you’d want to go in Manhattan. You just have to be willing to walk the extra block or so to get to your actual destination. I would not recommend driving in this city as it is almost impossible to get around because the traffic is terrible.
I actually think I have more I want to say, but I will save that for another post. I will also post my pictures on facebook, and when I do, I will try to include a link to those pictures here. Overall and bottomline. I had a lot of fun in New York. I didn’t spend enough time there as there was so much more that we could of done. But, like I felt in other major cities that I went to, I am not a city person. I grew up in the suburbs, and that is the life I’m used to and quite like. So, these metropolitans are lots of fun to visit for vacation, but I just don’t ever see myself living there.
As I do on every trip that I go on, I ate out multiple times during the day. All my friends knew that I was going to New York, and so I got many, many recommendations from each of them on places I should go to eat. Since I was there for only 4 days, there was no way that I would be able to go to each of the places that were mentioned. And so, here are the places that I do remember going to and what I thought of them. I have pictures of pretty much everything I ate, if you want to take a look at yesterday’s post.
Clinton Street Bakery-This was the first place that we went to, as we got into New York at like 5:30 am and needed some breakfast to start us on our way. I got some egg and biscuit dish with some green salsa type sauce I forget the name of. It came with hash browns as well. There is no meat in this dish, so those who want it should order something else. My friends got the side of bacon here and they thought it was very good. They give you a lot of it too, so you can probably share.
Lombardi’s-Can’t go to New York without trying their pizza huh? We did lunch here on our first day after breakfast, all sharing a pizza with mushrooms and some type of ham that I forget the name of. The crust was thin as expected. The taste was really good and I liked it a lot. The only thing I didn’t like completely was that the crust was a bit on the hard side for my liking. Also, the pizza is pretty expensive here. I don’t know if its because its New York, or this place is popular, or what, but our 2 topping 8 slice pizza was like 20 bucks or so. Good taste, and I’d go again.
Republic-Some Asian upscale place in Union Square I believe it was. It was nothing special, and if I am going to do Asian food, I think I prefer a more run down Asian food place that tastes more like Asian food. It wasn’t bad at all though. Just more a personal preference thing.
Le Magnifique-A little French place that was not on our list. However, the place we were going to was closed for some reason and we found this place near by. I got a chicken dish that was very big! Nothing special tastewise, but not bad. My friend really like her salmon carpaccio though, as well as her escargot. I guess if I ordered more “French” food, I might of liked this place more? The dessert I had was a mango sorbet or something that was good. They gave a lot of that too.
Bereket-A mom and pop Turkish food place we visited after watching our play. I got a shish kabob sandwich. Its very similar to a gyro, except they use a different meat. If you like gyros, you will like this. I like gyros, so really liked it. I was too full, otherwise would of also tried some other side dishes here as well. I liked this place. The cooks were nice and friendly as well.
Prima Colazione-Another French place we visited. I didn’t think this place was anything special, but I just got a sandwich here for lunch and it filled me up.
Le Veau d’Or-And another French place! This one we went to because my friend’s saw it on Anthony Bourdain’s show. We got all dressed up, ordered a bottle of wine, and I got the duck. I thought the wine was good. I think it was a cotes du rhone if I’m reading my pictures correctly. The duck was very tasty too, as was the rice it came on. It was not as good as the duck I got when I was in Paris, which was fabulous, but this was good too. It was cooked differently in that the one in Paris was more like a steak, while this one was more how you might normally see a chicken dish with bones. But, I really liked it. The apple tart with ice cream was nothing to write home about but was not bad. Either this place or the pizza was probably my favorite on the trip.
Cafe Ronda-The farewell brunch. I got an omelette here that was no better or worse than I could get at any place in So Cal. My friend got the French toast which looked yummy, but that can also be made anywhere. I think that this place is ok, but probably not something I would go to if I went back to New York, not because its bad, but because I’ve already been there before and its not special. I’d want to try something different.
So, as I posted here a while back, I got a new GPS unit (Garmin 265WT) and have been using it ever since when going to places unfamiliar. I like it a lot and don’t have to bother my friends when I get lost anymore or consult with google maps or mapquest and such. It turns on and finds satellites very quickly, gets me to where I need to go, and just works great.
Now, I had used my GPS to get to the parking lot I used to leave my car before going to New York. Not wanting to leave it in my car for a few days in a strange lot, I took it with me to New York. And since I had it with me, I decided to try it out while there. And you know what? I was very disappointed. Now, I don’t know if its because the sky was full of clouds the couple days I tried to use it, or the buildings in New York are just too tall and surround you all over, or whatever, but for the life of me I could not get any satellite reception at all and so my GPS was just dead weight.
Has anyone ever tried a GPS in NYC? Was it just me? Or just my unit? Can weather and/or skyscrapers cause you not to be able to locate a satellite? I wasn’t really going to use it all that much since we were taking subways and walking everywhere anyway, but it was still rather disappointing. What made it even worse is that my friend used her blackberry and Google maps and she got perfect reception and it was able to tell her exactly where to go and such. Granted, that uses cell phone receptions while mine uses satellite, and you can bet that a city as big as New York has great cell phone reception. Anyway, I’m back in the spread out suburbs of OC, so don’t really have to worry about it anymore.
9 is an animated movie that takes place after all of humanity has perished. Like in the Terminator movies, there was a huge war between man and machine. Man invented the technology and used it to fight in their wars, only to have that technology turn against them. The movie takes place after pretty much both destroy each other. 9 is a puppet like creature that seems to have a life of its own. He wakes up in a room one day and goes exploring the now desolate city. As he goes exploring, he finds out that there are others like him, and they are each numbered like he is, with him being the highest numeral. Why are these puppets alive? What purpose do they serve? And why, according to 1 must they remain in hiding?
As the movie was moving along, I thought it was entertaining and interesting. A good animated movie that makes you wonder what is going on and where it is headed. However, after the climax was reached, I was wondering what the whole point was. I don’t know if this is a spoiler or not, but just gonna say, that yes 9 saves the day, but if 9 had never come along, wouldn’t there have been no danger to anyone at all? I have no problem with the climax explaining how these puppets are alive, but I do wonder why they really need to be. It was explained, but to me it didn’t really make sense.
Oh well, the movie was pretty fun despite. I think sometimes movies try to be too cool or too insightful or too complicated for their own good. But, it was entertaining. Your kids might like this because its an animated movie, but I think its best left being rented or watching on cable. Oh, and the movie is only maybe 75 minutes long, so you should be able to fit it into your schedule if you wanted to watch it.
Is anyone else sick and tired of hearing from the news or from anywhere for that matter what the latest star, celebrity, athlete posted on twitter? I was sick of it long ago, well before it became “mainstream”. And how said is it that it IS mainstream now? That is what kills me most! Actual media and news outlets report on them as if they are news. Rather than freaking interview these people or call them to get actual quotes, they instead are freaking lazy assess and print what was lost posted on their feed. Are you freaking kidding me!!
It bothers me now to the point that I literally will skip any part of the article that refers to anybody’s twitter post. I don’t know why it bothers me so much, but its just annoying. Maybe I just don’t understand what the freaking fascination is, but twitter is just stupid to me. 95% of all these stupid posts are lame ass crap like, “I’m off to wash my car.” Now, I admit I do the same crap on Facebook on a semi regular basis, but there is so much more to Facebook than posting statuses. Can someone tell me what the hell is the point of Twitter?
The only reason I can see for it ever being useful, and this is for very rare instances, is if something news worthy happened where you are and you want to know instantly what it is that occurred. Say, you look outside and there is a huge crowd in front of such and such. You are like, what’s going on? Unless its a planned event, you won’t be able to find out what is going on. But, if someone posts on their twitter, you can do a search of that location and find out instantly what’s happening. That’s about all I’m giving Twitter credit for.
Other than that, I’d say 95% of anything posted is pointless and mindless drivel. I washed my car. I am eating. Its hot outside. Its raining in my neighborhood. I’m off to Las Vegas. I can’t wait to meet my new teammates. This is the stuff that’s quoted in news articles now!!! Stop the freaking insanity. If you do like me and ignore any and everything from Twitter, maybe it will finally die and go away!
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