Can't get enough of that strikethrough thing

Well, I didn't get much any reading done today, but I did manage to fill out a bunch of grant forms.

"I've produced nothing, give me more money." Harharhahrarhahrhahr.

I went to the Museum of Natural History yesterday, though. Tick.

There was more to this post. I was going to do a Baconian table of presences and absences to determine whether, after six months, I'm a New Yorker (gym membership, Duane Reade fob, therapist, favourite vitaminWater flavour). But I don't know how to do tables in html. Also: not that funny.

For driving buying cigarettes, fitting in

How cool is this?

Also, pace a decade's worth of stand-up jokes, the DMV is a much smoother bureaucracy than the New School or my stupid, stupid bank, or t-mobile. See, when I say I hate bureaucracy, what I really mean is that I am a bureaucracy conoisseur. It's an anarchist thing (read: organized, just not hierarchical).

So Long, annoying party-goers

Went to a friend's birthday drink in Chinatown tonight. It was at some dive on Orchard St with a blank awning and no heat and a lone 20-something bartender playing tunes from his iPod. But okay, decidedly cosy when fat snowflakes are falling outside and So Long, Marianne comes on and I am eating the spare ribs and dumplings I just had delivered and talking with Friend (capital F) about that girl thing of needing to be good and needing to be kind and what ensues from that.

And then something happened that doesn't often anymore: we all came back to mine. Well, not my own dorm room but another in the building, with the very same floor plan but whose occupants were masochistic and charitable enough to mash the two beds into a corner and make one wing of the ell into a very congenial living room. Partying at home can of course turn a sober boredom into a willingness to socialize into the wee hours, except that friend and friend got into a REALLY ANNOYING whiny is your half bigger than mine? logistical dispute about drug and I and went to bed.

Give me an unlimited food allowance, I may never leave

Now, readers of this blog, you only score minimal NY-savoir points if you know that you can order all of your groceries online from Fresh Direct and have them delivered to your house at a time that is convenient for you. But guess what else? Oh my god, I can hardly say it, it's so cool. You can go to their site, browse recipes - including vegan, or kosher, or home-schooled-Park-Slope-celiac-child-friendly recipes - and then, like, click "buy", and it has already put all of the ingredients in your virtual shopping cart, except that it's so smart that it didn't put "olive oil" or "salt" in there because it figures you already have those things in your house, but they're also listed right there at the bottom of the page in case you are out, such that all you have to do is tick them off.

So last night I took advantage of all this and cooked dinner at a friend's house, who has a blender and a stove and a food processor what I don't have. Lamb and Lentil soup with Walnut and Rocquefort Butter. Says friend: "You know the recipe's fancy when it's asking for the outside of the lemon." Hee.

Blogxistentialism

You know, you bring a blog into this world, and you love it and care for it and nurture it, and worry about whether it's getting enough pictures and how it's doing in the internet, and then one day you realize that it's not really yours anymore. It has its very own personality and independence, and you can no longer control it, and you just have to step back and allow it to be free. There will be surprises - things you never expected it to do or say or become. Some of these will be bad, others good. But the bottom line is, you have to allow it to find its own way.

That is the difference between "it's" and "its".

Still Big in China

Shout out to Shuangyashan!
Shout out to Harbin!
Shout out to Caijia!
Shout out to Shenyang!
Shout out to Zhangye!
Shout out to Beijing!
Shout out to Jimo!
Shout out to Xiaozhaozhuang!
Shout out to Quzhou!
Shout out to Ningbo!
Shout out to Wenzhou!
Shout out to Shandong!

131 Rivington

K: This place sort of reminds me of a prison.

M: Yeah, I can see that: white tile, iron bars...

K: ..fluorescent lighting. It's really nice. I can see how a lot of prison romances get started.