Would you like coffee with your subway?
On Monday the MTA put into effect new rules for subway riders like not allowing feet or bags on empty seats. Yet their proposed rule in September that forbid people to drink coffee on the subway trains was overturned after riders complained. Although I don't bring a cup on my commute, I originally felt bad for those who do when the rule was first issued.

Until today that is when a coffee holding woman dropped her full cup of coffee all over the surprisingly clean floor. She didn't even apologize for getting splashes on my expensive black holiday work pants and on other people's clothes or get upset over the thought that someone had to clean her mess up later and of all the clean shoes that would have to step in her puddle. I would have felt bad for her if she looked at all remorsefully or if she didn't huff and puff over the fact that I had to grab the bar closest to her to keep myself from falling during the bumpy ride this morning.

News: Brake on drink & ride ban

1 day to my birthday
2 days to birthday open bar party

iPod on Random
When I listen to my iPod I don't use the playlists feature or listen to one particular artist or theme at a time. Instead, I listen to my complete hodge podge of songs on random. It makes things interesting really.

I even try to add in some random stuff to make me smile when they come on. Mostly TV theme songs like Reading Rainbow, Fraggle Rock, Golden Girls, Mary Tyler Moore and Facts of Life. Seriously, try keeping a straight face when walking to work while muppets are singing "Dance your cares away, worries for another day." It always makes me wonder if anyone could ever guess what I was listening to right then as I walk past them with my white earphones in. I'm sure they are frightened by my goofy smile and under the surface laughter. Just the other day, I was riding in a crowded elevator and Olivia Newton John's "Let's Get Physical" started playing on my pod, sharply contrasting with the tense atmosphere. It was too funny, but I guess you had to be there.

But I love things like that. Like when "Midnight Train to Georgia" or "My Baby Takes the Morning Train" comes on when I'm actually on a subway train. Or "Downtown" plays when I'm in fact downtown, etc.

I have the old school 15G iPod, not the shuffle. I want the new video one, but the idea of reloading all my songs is too exhausting to me, lol. I'm currently loading stuff on my mother's.

Link: You can download TV theme songs for free HERE.

News: Blogging as 'intellectual hydroplaning'?

Dashing through the snow
over to SoHo I go, to take photos of doors for a photo essay I'm working on.

But first I went for a walk on the West Side Highway's Hudson River Walk. There were only a handful of people on the whole path, it was very relaxing in an isolation type way. I had snow falling on my face and my camera clicking away. While walking I met a man building an impressive little snow eagle. Being from Bangladesh it was his first time seeing snow and I never even seen a kid or a dog as happy as he was. He kept putting his face up towards the sky and falling snow and clapping then gathering snow for his fort and snow eagle. I took a photo of him with his work as well as the real apple sculpture on the path. Take a peak of Manhattan in the snow:



NY Times: Snow in New York, Not Big, but Early

Like a bull in a comic bookstore
Awhile ago I wrote a post about how there's this 70's cartoon called "Tara and the Dark Continent." I had found the comic on eBay last year only to discover the super heroine is more like a porn star saving the jungle in pasties, lol. Anyway, it's still a cool cover and I keep meaning to get it framed for my apartment but it's not a typical slim comic book size but more like a magazine. It's too large for the 8x10 frames that they sell so I figured maybe a comic bookstore could help me out.

There's one above a 99 cent store on 14th Street near the subway I take. You have to ring a bell to be let in and then walk up a flight of stairs. As soon as I entered the store I never felt more out of place. The guy behind the counter gave me an angry look and the little boys flipping through the racks of comics stopped and stared as if I was infiltrating a private club. If they only knew I am a Star Wars and Superman buff, but that's neither here nor there. Unfortunately the employee said they do not sell the size frame that I was looking for and he pretty much made me feel stupid for even asking, it was amusing actually. He did recommend me buying a large frame and cut the matting myself since he said my comic wouldn't be worth framing. So, my hunt continues.

Do you believe it's December already?

Cell phone dependency
While walking the streets (in the non-prostitution sense) I Can't help but notice how many people are talking on their cell phones as they hurry past. I'm not one of those technology haters who believe in boycotting cell phones, since I doubt I would survive without mine. I left mine at work the other day and I felt practically naked without a phone, especially since I don't have a land line in my apartment. Anyway, not the point, I digress.

It just seems that there are more and more people talking and walking. Besides noticing the incredible talent this takes on busy streets, it's made me wonder if people are really talking into their mobile phones for conversational purposes or if they are only clasping the metal pieces for protection purposes. In a city where eye contact is minimal, I can't help but wonder if cell phones have become to mad sidewalk dashers what earphones are to subway riders and books are to table-for-ones.

Do we chat because it is the only time we can talk to someone, or are people scared to walk alone? Maybe cell phones are like cigarettes for the non-smokers, something to hold onto in a crowd.

I know when I am standing awkwardly outside of a restaurant, waiting for a friend to arrive, I'll whip mine out in public and dial away ;). Even when I have nothing really important to say, I just don't want to stand there with nothing to do. I especially noticed that I call more when I'm feeling uncomfortable or well, bored.

I know it's the bored factor in my mother's case, since she calls me whenever she is alone and has a cell phone nearby. In the car, leaving work, she will call me or another friend just because she cannot stand not talking for those five minutes. I tease her by saying that I am not her "phone whore."

Now that I am more conscious of the possible psychological reasons behind my cell phone dialing, each time I grab for my flip phone in public, I have to ask myself, do you really want to talk or are you wimping out and using it as a social crutch?

Fusion TechForum takes my cell phone usuage idea a step further.

PS: I have a new weekly blog renter: Thoughts Outside My Head, by a thirty-something from the Midwest whose writing her own novel. Be sure and click on the screen capture of her blog, it's on my left side column.