Due to unforeseen circumstances the blog will be on a short break. I hope to be back to posting tomorrow.
You think 24 Hours of Le Mans is tough? What about 25 hours of fasting? How about we kick it up a notch and go 32 hours!
Yesterday was a Jewish Fast Day, one of the bigger ones, spanning 25 hours, from sundown Saturday night through sundown Sunday night, with no water or food allowed.
But with my work schedule, I felt it wouldn’t make sense to stay up all the way through…if I had, I’d have eaten after 9PM last night, and then need to shower and go to sleep, all to be back up again at 3AM…it just didn’t seem feasible or practical.
So instead I went to sleep in the 7PM hour, and woke up a little earlier this morning to shower/shave/eat…except I wasn’t really hungry, so I finally got some water in me, and ate breakfast when I got to work at 4AM.
So forget about 25 hours of fasting, or 24 Hours of Le Mans for an endurance test…just try out the 32 hour fast, and on a side note, it’ll be your new favorite diet technique!
My now annual shameless self-promotion post, pushing my wish list on Amazon for my birthday ideas 🙂
My birthday is two weeks off from tomorrow, and while I buy everything I need when I need it, I’ve kept this list with a few things on it that are either in the future or things I am just unsure of. It’s a little empty, but the gift card in any amount can be used on literally anything!
Don’t forget to use Amazon Smile on checkout, and use Hillel as your charity 😉
Thanks in advance!
Android and iOS both offer you “Silent” options, which are great for when you sleep. This eliminates others from waking you with their texts and group messages.
iOS allows you to “Silence” everything using the side button (if it isn’t assigned to screen lock), and this will keep your phone from ringing on phone calls and texts, but if you are using the Clock App that comes with iOS your alarms will still ring, making sure you wake up in the morning.
Android is a different story, as everyone has different versions of it, but I’ll stick here to the current version of Lollipop. The phone has three options for it’s ringer: All, Priority, None.
ALLÂ – Has the options of ring or vibrate for all calls that come through. ALARMS WORK.
PRIORITYÂ – Only Priority Contacts will ring or vibrate. Priority contacts are designated with a star in your address book. All other notifications are muted. ALARMS STILL WORK.
NONEÂ – No noise shall emit from your phone. Not calls. Not texts. Not notifications. NO ALARMS.
Regardless what device you are using these days, there is no excuse to be woken up by your phone when you are trying to sleep. If your phone doesn’t have a silence feature, simply turn it off, and use an old fashioned battery alarm clock 🙂
It’s been the cover story of the NY Post for the last two mornings and I figured I’d bring it up.
Faigy Mayer ventured through Brooklyn College at the same time as me, on her Graduate path while I went for Undergrad, and she went on to write apps and was working on a project in recent months.
This wasn’t an accident, but rather a means to an end after years of being troubled and tormented by her past and the way the present was playing out. She knew exactly what she was doing.
Her family is sitting shiva for her, but they wouldn’t comment on her, simply saying:
‘I don’t want to say anything. What am I supposed to say: That she’s a wonderful person? No, we don’t want to comment.’
(LINK)
But what exactly are they supposed to say? I’m not telling them to be okay with her decision. When they put the energy and effort into raising a child, they want them to grow up a certain way. Nothing wrong with them showing disappointment.
It’s almost a year since depression and the likes was thrust more into the spotlight with the death of Robin Williams and it is just as relevant to talk about every day.
The reality is, you can tell people to talk out their issues as much as you’d like, but it is up to each individual to figure out their life and what works best for them. It’s a real shame that she choose this path, and I hope more people don’t go down the same road.
Starting a new series today, called #FixNYC, in which I talk about ideas on how to fix New York City.
I am starting with a few simple DOT (Department of Transportation) issues that can help clear up multiple choke points in lower Manhattan.
ISSUE #1
On the FDR Drive South, just after Exit 3 (South Street/Manhattan Bridge) the highway leads to Exit 2 (Brooklyn Bridge/Manhattan Civic Center), in which the two right lanes are “Exit Only” and the left lane continues on through.
The problem is until the final sign for the exit, it is legal to switch between these three lanes, and even after the lane line solidifies, plenty of people still switch over, since why wouldn’t they. This causes the left through lane to clog up, and causes unnecessary traffic to the cars that want to continue on to Exit 1 and the end of the Drive.
What if 1-Mile earlier, at Exit 3, they added a median, separating the through lane from the exit lanes. This would cause people to make their decision earlier, but once they get past that decision, you now have 1-mile of the Drive to clear the traffic up, instead of an immediate turn onto an already busy bridge.
Bridge traffic and overflow would no longer affect the driving on the FDR drive.
ISSUE #2
Further down this same stretch, when you approach the Battery Park Underpass (BPU). Exit 1 takes you to Battery Park and the Staten Island Ferry, while two lanes finish off the FDR drive heading under the lower tip of Manhattan.
The lanes are clearly labeled, with one of them for “West St. Only” and the other going to West Street and the Hugh L Carey (HLC) Tunnel (formerly the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel). Once again their is no median or enforcement of this, except for a solid white line drawn on the ground. But the sign is definitely there.
The problem is that when you come out the other end of the Underpass, cars cut over all the time from the left lane, to enter the tunnel (which is the subject of Issue #3 later on). This is another case where a simple median, in this case the rubber flippers that they already use in the HLC Tunnel, would let traffic flow on the other end proceed smoothly.
ISSUE #3
On the end of the BPU is a merge of 4 lanes in which the two right lanes generally want to go left, while the left lanes want to go right…normally that wouldn’t be an issue on a long stretch of road, but here you only have half a block to do it.
The two lanes coming out of the Battery Park Underpass try to cut across to the HLC Tunnel, while that side street is aiming for the West Side Highway.
NOTE: There is a traffic light on the Morris St. corner.
Most days an NYPD officer is standing on the corner, holding cars on the side street while the BPU unloads, and then he’ll let through traffic from the side street.
What if they just segregated those four Northbound lanes, and had two sets of lights. One for the BPU, and one for the Side Street, alternating greens, or rather giving a (BPU/Side Street) Green/Yield at times, and a Green/Red at other times.
This would free up an officer to do other things, and help keep the traffic flowing.
Yes, these are all just ideas, and I’m sure they’ll never be seen by anyone that really matters, but you gotta voice your opinions or else you’ll never be heard!
Over the weekend I finished reading An Abundance of Katherines by John Green, and found it to be another stellar book by the author.
The story is about Colin, a child prodigy, who has a tendency to only date girls named Katherine, and spends the book working on his Theorem that shows the bell curve of a relationship from start to finish.
His theorem works on factors such as Popularity, Attractiveness, Age, Dumper vs. Dumpee, and Introvert vs Extrovert.
You can actually test the formula here.
The book itself gets an 8.5 out of 10.
As for the life lesson:
The book focuses on the factor of Dumper vs Dumpee, and one thing that I’ve thought about while reading it is how the “Dumper” shouldn’t get the same luxuries and privileges as the “Dumpee”.
While the pain may feel equal on both sides of the dumping (yeah, weird word to use…but I’m sticking with it) the Dumper should lose their rights to certain functions of the breakup.
One of those things that they should lose privilege of is the typical breakup songs, in particular the top one these days, Rachel Platten’s “Fight Song”.
Ultimately, if you are the one causing the pain, you don’t get to “Prove I’m alright”…you were the one who said something so you don’t get “All those things I didn’t say, wrecking balls inside my brain”, because let’s be real, you said what you wanted to say, and it led to where you are now.
Join the bell curve, and don’t be a dumper.
Yesterday the Academy announced the nominations for the Emmy’s and I am gonna give my personal winners from these categories…not all categories, but only ones that I’ve seen enough of the nominees to make a decision.
Outstanding Comedy Series – Parks and Recreation — The final season brought the show to a wonderful finale. Runner Ups: Transparent and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Outstanding Drama Series – Orange is the New Black — Possibly miscategorized, it’ll narrowly beat out a straight sweep by… Runner Up: House of Cards
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or a Movie – Ricky Gervais <Derek Special>
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series – Jeffrey Tambor <Transparent> — The first of many Internet wins that I have slated, shows online are just so strong these days, that it’s hard to beat them. Runner Up: Louis C.K. <Louie>
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series – Amy Poehler <Parks And Recreation> — One final hurrah for a great sitcom. Runner Up: Amy Schumer <Inside Amy Schumer> — Easily one of the more underrated shows on cable.
Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series – Andre Braugher <Brooklyn Nine-Nine> — Runner Up: Tituss Burgess <Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt>
Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series – Mayim Bialik <The Big Bang Theory>
Guest Actor in a Comedy Series – Bradley Whitford <Transparent> — His role on the show was another level of acting. Runner Up: Paul Giamatti <Inside Amy Schumer> — His role in the 12 Angry Men episode was great.
Guest Actress in a Comedy Series – Christine Baranski <The Big Bang Theory>
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series – Kevin Spacey <House of Cards> — President Underwood rules the day. Runner Ups: Bob Odenkirk <Better Call Saul> — This show is a Breaking Bad spinoff, and shouldn’t have gained the ground it did ~~~ Kyle Chandler <Bloodline> — An amazing lead, but overshadowed by the supporting cast.
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series – Robin Wright <House of Cards> — HoC will sweep the drama, as Claire Underwood’s strongness lead season 3 of the show. Runner Up: Taraji P. Henson <Empire> — Because everyone loves her, now that she’s not on Person of Interest anymore…
Supporting Actor in a Drama Series – Ben Mendelsohn <Bloodline> — His performance shone, and made this show stand out from other dramas. Runner Up: Peter Dinklage <Game of Thrones>
Supporting Actress in a Drama Series – Uzo Aduba <Orange is the New Black>
Guest Actor in a Drama Series – Pablo Schreiber <Orange is the New Black>
Guest Actress in a Drama Series – Rachel Brosnahan <House of Cards>
Variety Talk Show – Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Variety Sketch Series – Inside Amy Schumer — Runner Up: Key & Peele
Reality Competition – The Amazing Race
Reality Host – Jane Lynch <Hollywood Game Night>
Animated Program – Bob’s Burgers — Runner Up: South Park
A little while ago I spoke about my tiptoeing into the stocks, and since then have played a bit with Apple (AAPL), Michael Kors (KORS), and Lands End (LE).
With the 7-to-1 split yesterday of Netflix (NFLX), it made it a prime time to get in with Netflix.
Instead of laying out $700 for a share of Netflix, I was able to put down just a few hundred dollars and get my foot in on Netflix.
Thankfully it is up 10% at the open today, making back a little from my current losses on KORS, but that is all half the fun of playing the markets!
Let’s hope that NFLX continues to soar!
The Minions movie came out this past weekend, and my reviews are in.
Storyline – Horrible. Minions – Awesome.
The storyline just wasn’t strong, and some of the side characters were a little weak (such as Sandra Bullock as Scarlett Overkill, and the entire roadtrip family), but when it’s all said and done, this movie was about the Minions. And the Minions shined. I don’t think there is anything a Minion can do that I wouldn’t find funny.
And the story of Stuart, Kevin and Bob is just laugh-out-loud funny without even needing to try, as they go around the world looking for a new Evil Boss to serve.
They shined in Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2, and they shined on their own as well.
Poor storyline and funny minions, leads to a 7.5 out of 10.
Aviously 