Food Groups

Tacos, a food that may in fact be the pinnacle of cheap to-go food. I am a self-diagnosed "taco-fiend" and will actively search out tacos and any Mexican food for that matter.  I enjoy the hunt almost as much as I love eating what I find. I've dragged both my boss and wife to a hut under an overpass in CA because I assumed that the hut would have fantastic food, which it did, and I spent many a lunch hour wandering around the city to find the ever elusive taco trucks south of Midtown and north of Brooklyn. I'm telling you all of this because last night I found a taco, a good taco,  in the most unlikely place.

My boss was in town last week and when he's here we typically try to have dinner at least once. Tuesday night he wanted to stay close to his hotel so he suggested the Beer Authority on 40th. Now I've been eyeing this place for months now, so of course I was up for it. After putting in our drink orders, I began scouring the menu for something semi-healthy.  That's when my eyes fell upon the slow roasted pork taco appetizer. It took a millisecond before my mind and stomach said, "You are getting these even if they are 'bar tacos', " so I ordered.

A little while later a plate of three heaping tacos appeared and I found myself eating one of the better tacos I've had in the last few months. Everything about them was so fantasticly tasty and satisfying, which surprised me since I'm not used to finding great tacos at a place not specializing in Mexican food.

While this is not enough to change my search pattern when trying to get my taco fix, it has made me more willing to try bar tacos, which could either be a good or bad thing.

Yesterday waiting for the bus

I had this idea a while back about doing a nature documentary on the stesterotypes that you find in NJ. Like many of my ideas, I lost motivation and moved on. However, today you can get a glimpse of what it would have looked like had I actually done it.

                              ***

This a.m., I found myself at one of the last stops on the bus route before the bus hits the highway. I was here because as I was approaching my typical stop, the bus flew by.  So, I raced it, and beat it (take that traffic laws).

Anyway, once I arrived at the stop I was greeted by a sight I could have only ever  dreamed of seeing. Sitting at the stop was a 100% Jersey girl going to work. I felt like I won the jackpot here, as never in my life had I seen this creature in anything other than on line for faux posh club in Hoboken.

As I observed this marvel of nature smoking her cigarette and guzzling her red bull, her lime green inch long nails clicking on the can, I couldn't help but think myself lucky for never having to wake up anywhere near this.

Unfortunately she got on the bus ahead of me, so my study of this majestic and elusive creature -- the elusive working Jersey Girl, was at an end.

That special feeling

I was a little intoxicated last night, as I find Community even funnier with alcohol coursing through my veins, when TW showed me the picture that I have attached to this post.

In the last years I'm sure that my friends and readers (read: parents) have had the misfortune of hearing me prattle on about how after Episode One, Star Wars was ruined and how my life sucked because my favorite movie from childhood was now something completely bastardized. If anyone of you know a Star Wars fan I'm sure you've heard something similar.

However, seeing this picture -- seeing Luke, Han, Leia, and Lando (that's the first time I realized the amount of 'L' names we got going on there) struck something in me last night. I don't know if it was the alcohol, though I swear to TW I would have reacted the same way, but I actually got excited and hopeful -- something I've not felt in regards to Star Wars in a long time. The thought that the heroes from my childhood are together again to take me back to a galaxy far away, has brought back memories of me pretending my backyard was Dagobah, or the cardboard box our fridge came in was the cockpit of an X-wing.

This one picture brought me back to when I was five years old, and for once I feel that the new films might do the same.

The morning after

It's always interesting to see the aftermath that a holiday leaves in its wake, especially when that holiday is Saint Patrick's Day, and happens to fall on a Sunday.

I myself did only a marginal amount of drinking, since I need most of my wits about me to install a new phone router at work. However, some people I know didn't fair as well.  For instance, TW and I found my father sleeping on the floor of my parents den when we came over to visit at 7pm and looking around the bus I see and all to familiar look of shame and pain that has plagued me on and off for years. What's really unique about this situation, or what I think is unique, is that I'm not the one in a semi-conscious (read: unconscious) state from partying too hard -- I'm just sleep deprived.

Its great to see these guys in a suit and tie look like death warmed over as they all try to keep the nausea from winning the uphill battle of their commute, or the woman who usually doesn't have a hair out of place and her makeup done perfectly, sitting next to me snoring with her head on the window.

People seem to forget the rules of drinking as they get older: don't mix liquor, the beer before liquor rhyme, stick to one brand beer, if you start with a dark ale, don't switch to a pilsener. These are principles which every man of every faith can embrace. These are not polite suggestions. These are codes of behavior and those of you that ignore them will pay the dearest cost.

TW and I did our drinking on Saturday, from 3pm till around 9 or 10, most of which was done at the only good Irish pub in a three town radius. It's an Irish pub proper, as it sticks to the proper principle's that a "PUB"  should stick to.  Also, at any given time there are like 10 guys named Murphy at the bar. This pub has been a hangout for TW and I over the years and we make sure to go there every St Patrick's day, it's a tradition, and there's always something fun going on. This year was no exception, as we were treated to the 2012 step dancing champions from Belfast. These girls ranged between 8 and 15 (maybe) danced the shit out of several Irish tunes, it was so impressive that my wife bought green plastic beads from them for a dollar.

Over all the weekend of drinking was well spent.

Dear Man sitting in front of me on the bus

Hi, you might not know this but I'm the passenger sitting behind you right now. You just got on the bus like two stops ago. You looked directly at me and saw I was working on my laptop and decided to sit in front of me rather than next to me. I thank you for that.

However, you did choose to sit right in front of me, and recline your seat -- making it impossible for me to continue working.

I'm aware your comfort for a 45-minute bus ride is of the utmost importance, and I should understand that your total lack of common human decency is likely attributed to the high stress job you must have. I should understand that your suit and tie make you better than me, in my jeans and T-shirt and skull cap, and you deserve your reclined bus seat. I should understand and accept all of this.

Unfortunately, I don't accept this, I don't care that your mattress is hard, or that your suit is expensive, or even that this is the only time you get to relax during the day, because of all the important things you do. Because you see, this is also the only free time I get, and I choose to spend it working on personal projects that I otherwise could not work on. So for the duration of the ride I am going to jam my knees into the back of your seat, because I care as much for your comfort as you care for mine.

Nathan

What marriage really means

TW has started her own business. This is wonderful, I'm glad she's doing what she loves and making difference in other peoples lives. I extremely proud that she's able to do this.

The company offers services for children with autism, so a lot of TW's schedule is set up due to the availability of the families that her company is working with. These times just so happen to be the evening hours, putting me home alone form 530/6 till about 830/9. Not too bad, that's not to say I wouldn't like her around, but I'm not a helpless child, I can manage, 3 1/2 hours on my own, I was single at one point.

So I went about preparing my dinner, which consisted of Gorton's Breaded fish fillets frozen peas, and a can of sliced potatoes (IMG below). I looked at this meal and I I felt dirty.

You see, I use to cook a lot in out house, because I got home ahead of TW on a pretty regular basis, and if I do say myself I was pretty damn good at cooking, creating delicious meals for the both of us. Looking at the plate I had just pretty much heated made me feel, I don't know like a hillbilly or someone not capable of using basic cooking techniques. It was then I realized that this being on my own during dinner time was going to be awful, and not because I need TW to cook for me, but because I need to cook for TW.

You see that's what I realized marriage is last night while eating my shitty dinner, its wanting to have someone around not because you need them there, but because you want them there. Their being around, helps you push yourself to be better, like not microwave your dinner.

Monday funday

This weekend, (just Saturday really) was exhausting, and not because I actually did anything that could be considered exhausting, unless one considers sitting around to be exhausting.

The wife and I got our windows replaced in the house in as part of our plan, "make the shit hole attractive to buyers" this is like an eight fold plan as the house (read: shit hole) needs lots of work. You see, the wife and I plan to move out of the town we live in because as I'm sure I may have mentioned before it sucks in a way nothing else could suck.

Anyway, the windows, so the contractors arrive around 1030am and begin the process of tearing out our old windows, something we were told was going to be 100% done from outside the house. This was not the case, however unlike A. Pizza contracting (read: fuckwads) a contractor we've previously  used, these guys used drop cloths over everything, spoke English and were respectful of our things. They worked through the house quickly, and cleaned up after themselves, and were finished at about 4, leaving only a little clean up for TW and I. All and all a positive experience.

So why was this weekend so exhausting? Well when the contractors got there The Dog went ape shit and proceeded to break, not aggressively, at the guys working in the house. Meanwhile Cat 1&2 thought the large gaping holes where the windows used to be were worth investigating, and needed to be monitored and corralled back I to the one room where TW and I were hanging out.

After all is was said and done, we have fancy new windows that actually keep the cold air out of the house. The next part of the plan is carpeting and some new floor for the kitchen.

-n-

Technologies

This morning I was checking my email when the bus pulled up. I got on like I typically do and made my way to a seat, as I did this phone in my hand the driver slammed on the gas causing me to try to keep my balance and subsequently dropping the phone. If you know me you knew that I flew into a rage (though in this case it was kept in semi check)

The rest of my bus trip consisted of trying to figure out what I could get as my new phone, and I believe I am more confused now then I was before. Seems the phone I want, the Google Nexus 4 is only 3G and the Galaxy line from Samsung doesn't have any information about the bloatware that I'm sure is loaded on it. I've toyed with the idea of a windows phone but I think I need windows 8 to make it worth while, and I'm not getting an Iphone, cause fuck Apple.

So what to do, what to do. Since the crack is not awful, I'll deal with it for the time being, while researching phones. I'd like to get something similar to what I have but would rather not deal with a bunch of useless programs that I don't need. The Nexus 4 looked great but I'm not willing to downgrade to 3G, and that sucks, since that was one of the factors that WS keeping me from the windows phone....the other is that nothing I have will work on the windows phone.

Mutual of NJ

Well, its finally starting to feel like winter, and I have to say its bittersweet. I mean not having a driveway really makes the act of defending your spot against the masses of lazy non-shovelers into something of an suburbanized struggle for survival. Goddamed scavengers are always there just waiting to swoop in and pick off your freshly cleaned spot, but this is nothing new, the battle for parking spots is one I have waged for like ten plus years now.

Everyone has developed their own strategy for defending their spot; some go the easy way and put chairs up to block it off, while others offer a more elaborate set up that can include caution tape and cones making the spot appear to be a crime scene.

I used to forgo all that nonsense and just floor my car out of whatever snowbank it happened to be caught it, this worked out very nicely since no one could get back into the spot except someone with four wheel drive. As I said this worked out until I moved into my current residents, where everyone on the street has a pickup or large SUV, and can easily get into my spot the same way I got out. So as most animals my tactics changed, an I began to dig out only enough to room to allow TW's and my car to escape their snowy tomb. Eventually I changed tactics again, because sometimes its better to be an opportunist when it comes to protecting ones land.  I no longer fear having my spot taken, since I can just as well take someone else's spot. It is by this act that I continue the battle for years and years, all because one person couldn't be bothered to shovel out their spot.

Nathan

A pome

I wait to get my ass home
Because there are snowy roads
And my company it closed early

In anything but sun
Its as if you don't run
Cause I never see you on time

These line are to much to bare
With all these people here
Especially this couple feeding one another

I wish that I was home
But instead I write this pole
Cause I have been waiting here for hours

Super Monday

Watched the Superbowl last night as I'm solo an additional 7 million Americans did, and god knows how many people world wide.

Not being a football fan, I typically watch for the commercials and other not football related in the game, like people getting punched, of massive power outages. I was lucky last night and both of theses things happened.

Some time in the first half one of the larger men on the purple team was tackled by and equally large man on the second team. I'm not sure if this was the murderer and the homophob, but for the sake of this blog we will assume it was, because what transpired after was kick ass.

After the large murder was tackled by the homophob and his teammates the murder's teammates began fighting with the homophob's teammates. Now there's And instant replay of the tackle, in which you can clearly see the homophob punching the ever living what out of the murderer's stomach. I had honestly wished that this had continued for the duration of the game, which would have made the first quarter much better. But alas it did not, something better happened.

After a lip syncing hussy took the stage and pranced around in 6in stilettos (which is no where near as impressive as the unic high wire guy from last year)  the second half began...and then stopped. Apparently the lip syncing hussy's stage show used up all the power in part of the stadium, which postponed the game for 15 minutes, which was over the course of 38 minutes.

This gave us a chance to hear the lovely commentary by the announcers, spent the whole time speculating if the power outage was going to cause a shift in the momentum the purple team had through the first half and into the start of the second half. This same question was asked in about 26 different waste over the 38 minutes, in addition to showing a highlight real 3 times from the first half, which showed the purple team trouncing the red team.

Overall the game was marginally  exciting on account of the punching and power outage, though I wished the murderer had actually murdered one of the homophobs. One the other hand the commercials with the exception of three sucked. Doritos impressed as always, the goat in particular, and the axe commercial which has now coined the phrase "nothing beats an astronaut" which I'm sure will became a mem involving cats in a matter of seconds after it aired.

I hope next year something really cool happens or I'll care even less.

Fuck the police

A lovely statement brought to you in the early 80's by NWA Also the way I'm feeling this morning.

So last week it snowed, I think that was on Friday. I drove to the bus stop caught the bus and went to work. Then, like a moron on the way home I got off at the wrong stop, (6 blocks away from my car) so I said fuck it I'm not walking there in the snow, plus TW and I are meeting friends for dinner. All of this is OK because the car has both an overnight parking sticker and can be parked on where it was till 9am Monday, the day o intended to move it.

So here it is Monday and I have a fucking ticket, which looks yo be dated last Monday which is impossible, since that would mean that I has been driving with a parking ticket for a week. What I'm sure happened is that some cock bag small town cop with a superiority complex ticketed me bacuse he knew no one could prove the car wasn't there on the 21st.

So NWA had the right idea, fuck the police.

Also I just saw an old dude with a pipe and a deer stalker in the subway and I wholeheartedly I believe I just saw Sherlock Holmes, based solely on the hat and pipe.

This weekend was an interesting/stupidly busy one. We had friendly social events, going away parties,and a funeral. All of which are sad in their own way, though some more then others for obvious reasons. Its ala out missing people, the friends you realize you don't see enough, the person taking away you realize you won't likely see again, and the funeral is the final realization that you will not talk to this person anymore. It strange, when that notion actually hits you, you realize that we spend a majority of out lives staying good bye.

BTW we'll make our way back to the list format soon.

Getting started

Late start today, kinda makes me crazy when that happens, though it is my fault for drinking coffee before going to bed last night.

So have you heard this shit about Beyonce, and her apparent lip syncing of the National Anthem? This makes me angry on two levels. First goddamned bubble gum pop singers have been doing it for years, so I'm not surprised. Secondly, do we not have anything else to report on that's worth while?

I understand its the National Anthem, and it was "sung" during the presidential inauguration, but seriously after Christina botched the words during the Superbowl can you blame any artist for wanting to do it to a track?

Besides this isn't news. News is something that has some importance like a school finally reopening after Sandy, or how the fiscal cliff has been avoided (hasn't). I know I sound like  tires record, but fuck it I am a tires record.

-n-

What did I do this weekend

Today we join our protagonist for another installment of "What did he do this weekend" well aside from my typical attempt to grasp football, which I think I now understand thanks to Penny Arcade.  Well, I spend most of Saturday night learning how to edit the registry in Windows, thanks to the stability of Vista.

This 7pm-3am fiasco ended up OK and sparked a renewed interest in building the infrastructure in my home to be more then a 3 laptops, router, printed, and switch. So I'm embarking on an adventure to build my own home network with NAS (network attached storage) so all the computers and the Mac, we're likely to get in the near future, have all their data backed up. This was an overnight process, and took up a majority of the day on Sunday, before I termed it up to my in laws.

I also spent a lot of time reading the news about the inaugural balls/parties going on. What struck me as odd was the fact that there were any in Texas. I know I'm stereotyping but I was really under the impression that everyone down there love assault weapons and hate immigrants too much to want to celebrate my president winning a second term. I'm refreshed to be a wrong.

A race to NYC

This morning started off differently then many of my other mornings. Mainly because I had to race three buses across two towns in N effort to make sure I got on the least full one. That plan did not work and as I sit here typing this I'm being serenaded by the sound of early morning businesses calls, and music from other people's head phones.

My boss has been in town this week, it's his monthly visit from Chicago, and its also the first time I've joined him for dinner. He introduced me to two things last night, one was a fantastic German beer hall, and the second was a writer from Inked Magazine. The night quickly evolved from talking about computer programs and the evolution of the internet, to how awesome the the fireside was before the renovation, and how Chuck Regan is a really great dude to talk to, and how I'm scared to talk to Matt Skiba.

It was only on my way home that I realized, I really miss being involved in music, in some way shape or form, let it be interviewing musicians, or playing, I genuinely miss doing it. That being said, I've decided that this year I'm going to do something about it; I'm going to records and album.

If got more then enough songs, completed, and have enough friends that I could easily get backing musicians if I needed them, and I know people with studios where I can record for free. This will be good for me, and will get me back to doing something I love.

Very happy in spite of the bus situation.

-n-

But I do it everyday

Waiting for the bus today I have realized how two things,

1) I hate NJ transit
2) I really need to find something I like to do, that I can get paid for.

The whole thing with NJ transit is self explanatory I think, they suck and can't show up on time to save their fucking lives.

The second things is warrants an explanation, for example how did I come to this realization waiting for the bus? Well at about 7am after being at the bus stop for 20 minutes with no bus in sight, I realized that I didn't want to be doing this. Now its not so much the getting up and working aspect, its more enjoying what you are doing, and I haven't done that on some time.

I'm sure you're asking, in concerned voice, "Nathan, why would you choose a career that you don't enjoy?"

Well, imaginary readers, it baceause I was under the mistaken impression that I was going to be a rock star and didn't need an education, making learning anything except how to be awesome pointless (granted I learned how to do that half assed)

So, when the whole rock star thing disn't pan out, I got a job, and then another, and another, and so on, all the while looking for something I really felt fulfilled doing. I found it once, but I'm starting starting to wonder if I liked the job, or the people I was working with? I'm thinking I must have liked both cause I like the people here, but they aren't enough to make standing in the rain waiting for a bus bearable.

Once I find something like that, I'll know I've found my dream job.

-n-

Nerds, takes one to know one.

I got home from work yesterday, and when about my normal routine after eating dinner, which involves sitting my lazy ass on the couch and listening to the TV as I work on my D&D campaign.

I began to bellyache about the complexity of the program I'm working in to design the interface that the players use. My wife, who was sitting on the other couch suddenly asked me if I had read bad sandwich chronicles yesterday. I had not so I was treated to an post that I think everyone would enjoy.

For those of you that don't know www.badsandwhichchronicles.net is a blog run by Brendan Kelly, a musician that I really dig, its totally worth checking out.

Anyway so yesterdays post tailed about the co-opting of nerd culture, and I have to say it hit home. Being a nerd myself I have become a little upset that there are a assload of people that I feel have no right knowing about middle earth knowing about it. However he points out that since its now cool to be the nerd the hot girls that never wanted anything to do with people like me in highschool would now think I was the shit...this theory is proven true by the fact that I married a super hot girl.

The main thing I took from the post is that society has finally caught up with our the advice mothers of nerds have been telling them all along, "She'll be looking for someone like you when she's older and realizes there's more to life then dating the football captain."

What's shocking about this is that a lot of nerds are, upset, like I was, that this is what's going on. Seriously. If I wasn't married I'm pretty sure I would be able to pick up chicks in a bar by showing my D&D players hand book the I have on my phone, and they wouldn't just talk to be because I'm devastatingly handsome, but cause they think Dungeons and Dragons is cool now.

What I'm saying is that its the time for nerds to shine, to be the rock stars we always knew we were. So get you asses out of the basement, and show off your gundam collection, explain to a girl why a 2d8 does more damage then 1d12, and for the love of got stop bitching for something we've always wanted and enjoy it.

-n-

Make sure to check out Brendan Kelly's blog,
www.badsandwichchronicles.net

Insight into the mind of Nathan

I like to write, its one of the reasons I maintain this blog, in addition to building a d&d campaign from scratch, writing songs, working on a novel, and keeping a story driven twitter account going. It let's me stretch a creative muscle that I don't use nearly enough anymore.

With work being what it is, and life at home having to focus on the process of IVF, I've find myself retreating I to the my writing a lot not, but more out of necessity then of desire to do so, and I think it shows. Its the problem one faces when they are doing a lot of projects at once, and their energy is being poured into other things. You don't write with anything behind it, you just write, and churn out things just so you can have written something. Doesn't mean they're ground breaking or insightful or even funny, because likely they are not.

So, I want to apologize it things haven't been up to my typically high standards. I read somewhere that as a writer you should keep writing, always no matter how much you think it sucks write, and that's what I'm doing.

-n-

Monday Mornin' Comin' Down

So I was on hiatus, from writing through pretty much all December (and most of November I think) and some stuff happens during that time, many of which revolved around the infertility issue that I may or may not have brought up before, so let's just say they sucked cause they did.

In addition to that I also had a lovely experience with cold meds, by inadvertently taking too much theraflu, liquid Tylenol, and decongestant, my walk from the office to the subway was fantastic to say the least. However I did spend the rest of the night worrying I was jaundice, I kept checking to see if I was yellowing, through out the night, which I assume made the cold worse because of lack of sleep.

I got some socks for Xmas too, and a gasmask.

So now to present events...

The weekend is over, and over spent much of my ride into the city, wondering where it went exactly. I had hoped to spend this weekend working on getting my "new" computer up and running. The computer is actually only new to me since it is in fact a little over 5 years old, and still running VISTA. Its not so bad though, it actually works awesome for what I need, which is a computer with over 2gb of ram (this puppy has 4 which also happens to be its max available) but that's just me, I'm a tech hound that willingly takes hand me downs to serve his needs. Shameful I know, but it gets the job done.

I remember when I was younger that weekends seemed to last forever, now they are gone I a flash. Its upsetting when you start to think about it, because your perception of time gets warped, and things that are fun speed by cause they just break up the mundane of your unfun job. Just an observation.

My regular readers might be aware that I am running a dungeon's and dragon's game for a few buddies of mine (including my future brother-in-law). Well he had I had been chatting, and decided that it might be fun to do one for my family (my sister, my wife, mom and dad, and our exchange student). Having agreed on some little things we attempted to explain the overview of the game last night. This proved to be a very difficult task, since my father had too much wine at dinner and was now happily singing along to every song that came on the steel, my mother was shooting my father looks, my sister was translating the various classes to the exchange student, (this was after I described a barbarian as a Norwegian) and my wife sat there explaining how she was only willing to play if she could be bad ass. This prompted the rule that my father is not allowed to drink during the game, and I gave my wife the class of a rouge, so she could stab things, over all this should prove to be interesting.

-n-