7 Million Displaced Riders

Today was one of those rare days where I feel happy to not be working in New York (yet?). Frankly, I cannot imagine being in the city without the buses and subways running. Ever since my mom would let me go to Mets games on my own, I would just get the 7 train at times square and sit for the half-hour ride on the Main Street, Flushing bound train. I remember taking the N or the R downtown to Ground Zero and Soho (to see my then girlfriend), I can take the 4,5,or 6 down the east side from my cousin's apartment. He said it took him 45 mins to walk less than 40 blocks today ... not bad considering the situation, but it just shouldn't have to be like that. For New Yorkers who always seem to persevere, whether it was 9/11 or even a Yankees loss to the Sox, not having the subways or buses to rely on is an inconvenince, and a large one at that, but more importantly, for the tourists of the city, who bring their money and spend it in New York, especially during the Christmas season, it is intolerable. Upwards of four hundred million dollars lost every day of a strike - unfathomable! I don't care that the TWU-100 will have to pay an extra 6 percent into their pension funds; I don't care that new employees will have to retire at 62 instead of 55; and I don't care that the significant yearly pay-raises aren't enough. Make it so, TWU. I hope your war chest empties quickly, and you see that what you are doing is a disservice not to the MTA, but to the people of the city of New York. Was this worth the shameful glances you will get from riders when this all ends, will it be worth being docked two (or three?) days pay for every one day on strike? Will it be worth it when the next time contract negotiations are at hand, that the MTA may, and frankly I hope they do, kick your ass at the bargainning table. It is already the case that you get paid more than the average teacher does, you get to retire at 55, sooner than most workers in any other industry. Now that a judge has declared your actions illegal and held the union in contempt, I hope that the million dollar per diem fine that will inevitable come out of your members' collective pockets will be worth it. I have a feeling that in the end, someone will come out of this mess with a little pie in the face and it sure as hell is not going to be Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Pataki, or the MTA -- it will be you, TWU management, shame on you.

An SNL Revival?

Hmm .. is it finally possible? After years and mediocrity, only saved by Will Ferrell, and later Jimmy Fallon, both of whom have gone on to Hollywood, to have, well, mediocre film careers, save Old School, natch, SNL might have found a great combination in the form of the two whitest, Jewiest guys on the show. Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg's debut in "Lazy Sunday" a.k.a. The Chronic (What?) 'cles of Narnia. While it has the whole Blogoshpere in arms with lines like "You can call us Aaron Burr from the way we're dropping Hamiltons," referencing a wad of 10s rather than the typcial rapper's stash of Hundys. The Village Voice has even called the song better than a real rap song. Hopefully there will be more of these SNL shorts to come.

The Last Survivor

I realize this is a little late, but I was watching the finale of Survivor on TiVo the other night. I had only seen a few episodes during the season so I wasn't too familiar with the contestants. But to my surprise, the two hottest girls are still at alive at the end. After the tease of voting weeks ago and revealing the winner live on Sunday, they show the two hot girls, and they look terrible. Whoever comprises the makeup staff on CBS is terrible.

From Sunday's last episode Danni(l) and Steph(r):
From Monday's CBS Early Show: Steph(l) and Danni(r)
From the last episode of the show:

How can they screw up a girl looking that hot? I don't understand how she can be butchered like that? She is way hot, super super skinny, but looked terrible on television. A calamity.

Howard Stern

So at my itnernship, I get to listen to my iPod and due to the magic of certain newsgroups, I am able to download the complete Howard Stern Radio Show and listen to it the next day. I get Howard on the regular radio as well, but as you should know by now, he is leaving "terrestrial radio" and jumping to Sirius Satellite. He has been all over the news lately promoting his journey to "eh-eh-eh" (Howard's way of saying Sirius on air since actually uttering the words "Sirius" would cause millions to jump to satellite, at least according to WXRK general manager Tom Chiusano). From the piece on 60 Minutes, which was acutally pretty good to the silliness that was his appearance on The Factor with Bill O'Reilly, to just yesterday on the Daily Show, Howard has tried to get the Sirius name everywhere lately. Not that I mind, being a shareholder, after all (there's your disclaimer). He claims the move will allow him to program his show to the way it was before I was even a listener when his reputation for the outrageous was originally established. With no FCC interference, I can't help but agree. Many are claiming that the FCC serves as his foil and without their oversight that his show will be stale and trite. Only time will tell, but as some of his promos say, you have to listen just to see what he'll say next. It will be outrageous, that is for sure.

Interesting Reads

So this is going to be a quick post because it is getting late and I'm a little tired. I wanted to discuss briefly a few of the sites that I read on daily basis to find out all about the world. The blogger's favorite, especially the satirical blogger will want to read Drudge to read all of the ridicuulousness that he publishes several times during the day. From double sirens to all caps everywhere, he gets some scoops and has some good links. Plus, he was the guy who broke the Lewinsky scandal - hard to top that. Gawkeris one of my favorite blogs to read each day, since I am originally from New Jersey and consider myself an adopted New Yorker, I can relate to the content making news and poking fun at all things New York. That's it for now -- more on this topic some other time.

First Post

So I wanted to get a place where I can write about whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. I doubt more than a few people will ever read this, but hey, you never know. I think it would be a little boring for me to write about myself; frankly, I can count on one hand the people who would care. So instead, I plan on writing my opinions on any number of topics. Things you might end up reading about are: (1) sports - I watch a whole lot, gamble on a little, and love a select few teams, expect a number of thoughts on any and all of those; (2) gossip - yes, its true, I read the Post and People and watch a little Access Hollywood - consider the wide world of celebrities fair game for any posts; and last but certainly not least (3) technology - while my "day job," i.e. the one that pays the bills is interning at a Fortune 100 financial services company, I am also a graduate student in Computer Science, who will be finished in May. I have a lot of opinions on the latest and greatest - some of my viewpoints are a bit cynical, as working at a large firm breeds skepticism about small vendors and the products they are pitching in what seems to be a revival of the dot-com business, slowly but surely. I have a little social business to attend to now, but more later on regarding what I like to read online and off about some of my favorite topics.