Kristallnacht

or "Night of Broken Glass" November 9, 1938.

Also December 30th 2006. The night that someone broke my car window and stole my iPod.

All I could do was laugh really. I think I may have made it happen. I have a cradle on my dashboard for my 3rd generation iPod. My favorite generation iPod that was on its 4th replacement from when I bought it in 2003. I am always paranoid about someone stealing it so I take it with me wherever I go or put it in my glovebox. I do this even in my hometown of Northport in an upper middle class area of Long Island. But when I park in an area of Brooklyn that I know is not good, on a street that I know is notorious for broken windows and stolen items, I leave it in the cradle on the dashboard overnight.

I woke up the next day at my friends apartment and suddenly thought to myself , "Where is my iPod? I guess it must be in my car.", and thought nothing more about it. As soon as we walked out of her apartment I knew what happened. I could barely see my car and I knew. I said to Caitlin "My window is broken."

Indeed it was broken, he or she had smashed the drivers side window and taken the cradle, ipod and car charger. They tried to rip out the input converter but couldnt get it out so left the torn cables on my seat. Luckily they did not take the PS2 that was under the backseat, the CDs or the bags of clothes for the salvation army. Also, being the thoughtful souls that they are, they relocked my door for me.

The way I see is that my iPod was probably going to break very soon and I would have no choice but to buy a new one because my Apple care ran out on my last replacement. The thing was barely working and had no battery life as it was so I knew I was going to have to replace it very soon, I actually had been thinking about it constantly.

So someone has my nice old iPod and I bought a new 80gig and thats that. Good times.

Books: Natures Candy

books, originally uploaded by hobnox.

I managed to find all of the books that I had in boxes, bins, bookshelves and nooks all aorund my old basement room and consolodate them into this 'entertainment' center that was filled with sterios and gaming paraphanalia. Now if I could find a place to put that TV I might actually be able to fit the other 2 boxes of books that are still not shelved.

I will throw everything else away except my books. I have read just about everything on there except for a few gift books that i never got around to reading. I love being able to just grab a random book and start reading it knowing that I am going to like it. I am very picky.

So I have not yet organized them, that will be a task for spring break maybe.

Boston

I took off for Boston the day school ended. My friend Coco goes to BU and had another week of finals left so I slept on her floor and wandered around before heading back to Long Island on the 22nd. I have never spent more than a day or two in Boston at any given time and I never had much freedom to wander so it was a new experience for me.



I felt really uncomfortable for the first few days just because it is such a different city than New York. It's also very tiny. After going accross the river to Cambridge I started feeling a lot better about the place though. The overall experience reminded me of my first trip to the United Kingdom. So much was the same but all of the cars were different and this for some reason made me feel really unsettled. In Boston I think it was how every building is really old and beautiful and a lot of the people seem to be very similar.

The first night I was there we went to a craft fair called the Bazaar Bizzare
It was a whole lot of fun but everything seemed a little too expensive for me. That happens when you learn how to silkscreen and stuff though because you always think to yourself...well...I could make that. I never do make it but still, it makes it harder to spend money on crafty things.

I walked around Newbury St. and that whole area which was ok and after also saw two rare book shows at the Public Library which was pretty cool.

My friend Kirby met me in Cambridge one day and we went to the Fogg which had some really great stuff on display. We walked around Harvard a bit and I really liked the entire cambridge area more than the area around BU, it was just cozier and there seemed to be more diversity in the people. I kind of miss it there, I am not sure if I could ever really live there but who knows. I wouldnt put it at the very top of my list but its definitely up there. Lets say in the top 5.

See photos over in the Flicker sidebar.

Throwing away all my memories

So I don't throw things out. ever.

I have pins and programs from the Lip Sync contest from my 5th grade elementary school where i was part of the Tech Crew.

There are two reasons that I have for not throwing things out. The first I have always known about. The second I just found out about today. Here they are:

1. I HATE wasting things. If something can have a second use then I will save it for the day that I need it and make something useful out of it. I love parts and pieces and building new things from them. Unfortunately I never have the time to do that anymore so things have been building up.

2. Whenever I go home and sit in the piles of junk in my room I start remembering things. I will look at a t-shirt and remember that I bought that when I lived in rochester, while I was dating Lauren and it will bring back tons of things that I havnt thought about in years, and probably wouldnt have if it hadn't of been for me seeing that shirt. It's like that with almost everything I own. So its really really hard to throw them away because I feel like I will never remember these little things ever again.

So that sucks.

Also. I just got back from Boston a few days ago. More on this after the break.

Before we play

Here are some tips on how to use the Wii safely brought to us by the Icon Factory.

via Penny Arcade

Amazing Tables

Just saw this on BoingBoing

http://www.dbfletcher.com/capstan/

So its that kind of week...

This is cool...

Cyclopaedia

I dont know

http://www.acc.umu.se/~zqad/cats/1161217116795.b.jpg

now your attached.

You used to be able to just drop the controller if you didnt want to play anymore. Or you could put it down and go get a drink. But with the Wii you are tethered to it. Its simple to slide it off, but that extra step freaks me out a little.

I also just watch the movie eXistenZ so maybe thats why.

Now Wii are.

Walmart, midnight. Thats where I was on tuesday morning waiting for a Wii. After the last time I was not going to take any chances. So it was me and 6 other people till around 3 when a few others came in. At 6 there was a line all the way through the lobby and out the door consisting of around 100 people who actually hoped to get one even though the sign said they only had 5. I was number 5 in line so I was all set. A friend of mine brought Risk at like 3ish so we had a good game and passed the rest of the time by racing in the elevators so it was not a bad wait at all.

Though the really angry parents following us around the store after we had gotten our systems was a little strange.

Wii are not having fun.

Yeah I know it's an obvious post title but whatever. I got up way early to go try and snag a Wii and it was not to be. I wouldnt be so frustrated by the situation if I hadnt already spent $2.50 on parking and now have $2.50 in quarters. But anyway I got to circuit city 2 and a half hours before they opened and it was pretty clear I was not getting a Wii. I waited it out and they gave out 36 vouchers. I do, however, have confirmed shipment dates for 2 other stores this week from some very reliable mothers who were freezing outside with me.

All and All it was not as bad an experience as I thought it would be. The people were nice, the security was organized and they gave the vouchers out pretty early. So I will be meeting up with some parents bright and early this week, hopefully with some friends.

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New poster design for communtiy design.