I am published! I got another article posted on Fark! You can see it here. That makes three articles approved, out of dozens submitted.
Category Archives: All Posts
https://ammonbrown.com/2003/09/dmb-and-dmv-could-it-be-true-that-dave/
DMB and DMV Could it be true, that the Dave Matthews Band will be playing a FREE concert three blocks from my new apartment?? And I am just today finding out about it? I should not have let my Warehouse membership drop. I was in early back in the day and had priority on all you fools! Dagnabbit. Oh, well, I’m sure I will be able to hear his set from my apartment. Won’t that be cool! I am so out of it. Am I too old for this? Or has DMB been co-opted by a bunch of young ruffians who won’t stay off my lawn? Regardless, I have 26 DMB CDs and about 1000 MP3s, so I should go regardless. Plus it is free and/or charitable, and Dave Matthews is putting out a new Solo album as a birthday present for Christine. Speaking of which, we are buying a new Toyota Matrix. I am man enough to admit that I made a mistake buying her the little Civic we got recently, so now we are opting for something 4 wheel drive and brand new. Hopefully worry free.
Today is also September 11th. I have been reliving that day in NYC two years ago in my mind all day today and it is very distracting. None too pleasant. I walked past the Union Square police station as I do every morning, and they were having a big ceremony around their permanent memorial. They lost more than just a few guys. Quite a poignant way to start your day. I have never been much of a flag waver or blindly jingoistic, but it makes you feel kind of good to see such respect being paid. I don’t know. I’m sure Blogger’s servers are close to crashing with everyone weighing in on this. Had to get my two cents in.
https://ammonbrown.com/2003/08/if-you-can-read-this-then-your-dns-has/
If you can read this, then your DNS has propogated. See your doctor immediately. My webhost has moved the site to a new server and it had some technical difficulties, so I am sorry if you felt a deep void in your life for the last week or two. I promise to keep my adoring fans abreast of the scintillating details of my life more reliably henceforth. Blah. So all I do is work. Work and work some more. I have been putting in a few 12 hour days recently, as there are lots of changes afoot on the old ranch. The highlight of my week is when I get to go see Christine in Ithaca every weekend. 10 hours on the bus every weekend had better be worth it, but I just got new batteries for my laptop so I can watch DVDs all the way up there. So hooray for technology. I also signed on a new apartment at 85th and Park Avenue in NYC, so I will be moving to my little studio this weekend. Not that I really have any free time to pack and coordinate moving. Too few hours!
Another interesting phenomenon. Having a fairly unusual name such as Ammon can sometimes create surreal circumstances. Like people I have not seen in 12 years randomly finding me on Friendster (which is the bestest site in the whole wide world). This has happened to me no fewer than four times in the last 2-3 months. Are people actively looking for me? Do I owe them money? Is there a hit out on me by certain mafioso I have crossed? Regardless of the motivations, it is fascinating to meet up with people from days of yore and see how people have changed and whether they fulfilled my lofty expectations of them. You know who you are, Cory, Sara, Airra, and Yuko. By the way, Cory, sorry about no invite to the wedding. As I said, the bike messenger collapsed somewhere in the rockies on his way to you with your invitation. And this was right after he was forced to eat his backup carrier pigeon. If it is of any recompense, there are pictures posted somewhere around here. And by the way, if someone has some better ideas for photo album software, please give it up. Mine is a hackneyed mishmash of a crummy program and my own ham-fisted rudimentary programming 5k177z. OK, signing off now. I’s gots stuff to do and excuses to make for not doing it!
https://ammonbrown.com/2003/08/one-of-those-weeks-wow/
One of those weeks Wow. Where to begin? I am writing this from an internet cafe in Brooklyn. Why you might ask? Because the power has been out on the east coast and my internet connection is still down. Woohoo. NYC is pretty surreal during a crisis such as yesterday’s power outage. I was looking at an apartment on the upper east side when the power went out. I asked the guy if that happens a lot. As I left, I realized that the whole city was out, so rather than get in the subway, I hopped on the first bus I saw. I made it back to work, then took off with some coworkers to a restaurant that still had ice and their gas stove going. I then walked across the Manhattan Bridge back to Brooklyn, a long hike if you know NYC. According to Mapquest, it is about 4.5 miles. Who knew? So the power went out at 4 PM and I finally got home at about 9:30. It was actually rather pleasant. I had called Christine from the bus, so I knew the power was out in Ithaca, too. Good segue…
On Tuesday we moved Christine up to Ithaca NY to start her first year of Law school at Cornell. That was an experience. We had a uhaul full of our stuff, which I drove up there on zero sleep and 10 red bulls while she followed in her new Civic. When we got there, it was only us to unload, but while she was gewtting the keys to her new apartment, some guy wandered by and offered to help. How nice. He only wanted a few dollars for a repair to his flat tire. We got her moved in and then I took a 1 AM bus back to NYC, barely sleeping and then getting to work that morning a wreck, depressed that Christine was gone and more tired than I can ever remember being. Yow.
So this week at work has consisted of 1 and a half days for me. Monday and yesterday before the power went out. I am not in today as the Subways are still out, I was moving Christine to Ithaca on Tuesday, and I was worthless on Wednesday. And I get paid for this?? OK, you are up to date. Do post questions in the comments, if not just to let me know that people actually read this crap.
https://ammonbrown.com/2003/08/priorities-do-you-ever-feel-like-you/
Priorities Do you ever feel like you have too many top priorities? I am fully capable of organizing my time and my tasks into a neat hierarchy of varying degrees of necessity. However, lately everything seems to want to come front and center all at once. Work is taking ridiculous amounts of time and energy, moving is placing similar demands on me, and my GMAT class is begging for a little attention. Not to mention that C is leaving next week and I find that I have no time to spend. I like my job, and I want to keep my job. So as it gets more demanding I am forced to keep up or get out of the way. This hampers my ability to ration time for other things that are equally important: find a place to live, spend time with C, study for the GMAT, pack my crap up. And why do I feel like I have not had a day to be lazy in months? Every weekend has to be action packed and full of activities and friends. Why? Can I have a moment for me? Alone with my hummy and no one else? Even for a day? And why do we always complain of being too busy and then continue to pile things to do on ourselves? Do we feel guilty about laziness? What the hell is so wrong with being lazy once in a while? It is necessary to recharge the batteries so we do not become quivering piles of neuroses. Back to the main point. I cannot prioritize things, and I do not have the time or the energy to deal with everything all at once. Why must everything be so demanding on me? Do I need a vacation? NO! Those are too stressful. Give me the Tivo remote, a Subway Club sandwich, and the air conditioner and let me alone for a day! Is that so much to ask of life?
https://ammonbrown.com/2003/07/and-silence-was-deafening/
And the Silence was Deafening. Has it really been almost two weeks since I updated my blog?? Gee, Ammon, why have you not updated your blog? And why have Jared and Christine not updated their blogs? Well, we decided to venture out of cyberspace and try our hand at some real face to face interaction. Jared was visiting us from LA. I think he may have been on the lam from some sort of chemical weapons protection ponzi scheme, but I cannot verify this. Christine and I showed him and his lovely wife around New York City. They got to see the miles and miles of scaffolding at all of the construction sites that seem to keep popping up around our house in Brooklyn. We even got to see the aftermath of a bank robbery! We were on the upper west side and saw a police line with caution tape around a duffel bag in the street. There were also large sums of cash laying in the street that were dyed pink. Apparently someone had robbed the bank there and then gotten a pink surprise when the dye pack went off in their bag of loot. I have never seen anything like that since I always tell the tellers I rob* to leave the exploding dye pack out of the bag. Anyway, we had a good time introducing Jared and Tosha to Indian food, Ethiopian food, New York pizza, Egg Cream sodas, Broadway Theater, and the pleasant reek of urine, body odor and vomit that only someone who has slept on the 4 train for three days can emanate. We had a blast and all of them are welcome back any time!
*Dear Mr. FBI man: This is a joke. I do not, nor have I ever robbed a bank. I did once take a ten out of my Mom’s wallet when I was eleven years old, so arrest me if you must.
https://ammonbrown.com/2003/07/slacker/
Slacker. Never posts. Lots going on. At work now. More later. Me Tarzan.
https://ammonbrown.com/2003/07/stress-job-work-moving-class/
Stress Job, work, moving, class, obligations… and all that jazz! I actually felt stressed out at work today. For those of you who know me (both of you), this is not normal for me. And how do I deal with it? I sit on my buns and watch silly movies with Christine. Oh, well.
On another note, Jared is no longer gainfully employed. He finally drove iNetNow into the ground. Actually, that company was screwed from day one. Believe me, they had an excellent service. I used their trial period early on and loved it. But they did not effectively market themselves. I tried to get them to advertise a few years ago and they were too scared. Stingy, one might say. But hey, you gotta spend money to make money. Just believe that what you have will keep ’em coming back. And it would have. iNetNow, I salute you for what you attempted, and I commend you for what you accomplished. You will be missed by the 50 people who knew about you, because you WOULDN’T ADVERTISE!! Rant over. Good day.
https://ammonbrown.com/2003/07/oh-yeah/
Oh, yeah… the Fourth. I had a great July 4th. Thanks, Sanda! We barbecued massive hamburgers at Sanda’s place and then proceeded to burn off all of the fat and more. I redeemed myself at basketball, utterly dominating those who spoke ill of me last time. They shall bite their tongues before speaking ill of the skill from now on! We also played ultimate frisbee and football. Sadly, this was more exercise than I have had in months, and I am still paying for it with depleted muscles. I nearly ended our football game prematurely by running over JD on a failed end-around gambit. He thought he could turn the corner on the mighty Ammon but I had the play read like a fortune cookie from the hike of the ball. He shook it off and we played on. Didn’t see any fireworks, as we were in Manhasset and the fear of traffic overrode any desire to see pretty sparkly things. We spent the evening watching movies and hanging out. Heck of a day, if I do say so in my own little PG way! The rest of the weekend was spent recuperating from Friday by watching a ten hour marathon of Band of Brothers. The other highlight of my weekend was setting a Tivo request for Carson Daly’s Bash on MTV. No, I am not an MTV fan. Jared will be dancing with a bunch of Carson Daly lookalikes, and I just can’t miss that!!! Kudos, Jared. You are going to be one famous burrito sucking Canexican! Speaking of Jared… He will be here on the 24th – 27thish of July. I expect we will be making plans to sit upon our broad backsides for the weekend. All are welcome to join. Except coal miners, who are lesser humans.
https://ammonbrown.com/2003/07/should-i-be-frightened-i-am-now-number/
Should I be frightened? I am now the number one listing when someone searches Google for my name. Now people from my past, people from my present, and any random person will come across this site when they “Google” me. I am not quite sure how I feel about that. I guess it is a natural effect of blogging and being in their index. Still, I am now officially revealed to indices of many different search engines. I now find myself thinking back over everything I have blogged and archived here, fretting that there are some damning statements buried deep in my archives like landmines, waiting to scuttle my chances for some future professional relationship. If you found me through Google, welcome. If you find something you don’t like in my archives, sorry. If you are someone from deep in my past, feel free to contact me. Just watch out for landmines.