Recently in Life Category

I saw a fairly large fire on my way to see the fireworks tonight. It was in an industrial building at the corner of North 9th Street and Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg.

I saw the first smoke around 9:15 while walking on Berry Street along McCarren Park. I quickly walked down to North 10th Street, and that's when I first saw the flames.

I've uploaded several more photos after the jump.

I created a Fast Food in New York City blog to host all my entries on dining in New York City. Now I only need to return to posting content on this blog in the spirit of the old days!

While the newkai.com domain will be sticking around, I killed the over-eight-year-old "The New Kai" concept of this website. Not only was it horribly out of date content and design-wise, much of it was broken!

"The New Kai" concept was based on fifteen-to-eighteen-year-old me and simply had to be discarded of. I now work about fifty hours a week, spend six-plus hours in the gym, enjoy nightlife, and sleep most of the weekend to recuperate from the previous three. It was time for me to upgrade to a much simpler content management system.

Any of the worthy content from the old site will be carried over here eventually. You'll already find a link to my two photo sites in the "pages" section of the main page. I might even bring back the KaiCams sometime, although I think they'll be a little more outdoors oriented this time! They certainly did a lot for the uniqueness of this site.

Even maintaining a website in this age of Facebook is a struggle. See my post about this last year.

Here are images I dug up of newkai.com versions 1 & 2:

I'm finally freeing myself of frames on newkai.com. While they improved the site's appearance back in the day, there's no use for them in 2008. And last but not least, there's no more 18-year-old me frozen all over the screen!

One of the first things you learn upon arriving in New York City is that Starbucks contain the quasi-public bathrooms of this epicenter of Western civilization. There are two major reason for this:

1. The city only provides one. (There are also about a dozen in the subway system, but they're not recommended)
2. There is a Starbucks on virtually every corner and they do not post "restrooms are for customers only" signs.

The "Starbucks law" will help you out a lot. However, if you find yourself in a pedestrian-heavy areas, you might find yourself in a ridiculously long line several times longer than the coffee line.

That's where the New York City Public Toilet Map comes in... The preview on the site doesn't show you too many examples, but it does mention the SoHo Apple Store. I've been in there at least a dozen times and never even realized it had a public bathroom.

I don't own this map (yet), but happened to find myself in SoHo on Saturday, when it was packed by European tourists spending the formerly valuable currency known as the dollar. There was a line of about 20 at Starbucks on Spring Street by Lafayette Street. Fortunately I remembered that there's a Bloomingdales around the corner with three sets of bathrooms. There was no line.

More background on the map

Whenever I take the L-Train in the morning, I expect claustrophobic conditions such as those in the picture to the right. However, whenever the cab drivers strike, the packing extends to the last part of "Option A" for my commute, the E-Train.

Drivers were protesting plans put in motion by Mayor Michael Bloomberg under which all drivers must equip their cars with global satellite positioning systems and machines to take credit cards, partially at their own cost.

The satellite system includes a monitor for passengers to follow their route, check news and weather, view advertisements, and pay their fare by bank card.
&ndashNew York taxi drivers 'regroup' after lackluster strike

There are many things I don't understand about the changes that are being required that have the cab drivers in an uproar:

1. Why GPS for the passenger but not for the driver? How come I still have to inform the driver of every single turn once we enter the fine borough of Brooklyn? Besides, the system is so lagged that one night the driver found the correct turn before I did as a result of the fact that I was navigating by the screen, which was five blocks behind.
2. Probably half of the cabs I've ridden in since I moved here in March already had some kind of cheap-looking credit card reader on the back of the separation glass. Were those fee-free for the driver?
3. The union(s) are claiming that the changes are also disadvantageous to the passenger. I don't see that at all. I have ridden in the newly retrofitted cabs on several occasions already, and while hearing Jim Cramer scream at me about the stock market was a little annoying at three in the morning, I do remember there being an "off" button, which contradicts what I heard in an interview with a cab driver yesterday. And the credit card thing? That'll make me more likely to actually take a cab, which should offset any fractional losses. Come on, it's 2007... I pay for $2 coffees with a card. Why shouldn't I be able to do so for a $20 cab ride?

As for this soon-approaching morning? I am seriously contemplating "Option B" again: "G to the C."

Photo Credit:

1. Getty Images via "Too Many Hipsters Bring Down L Train Grades" - New York Magazine
2. "NY Taxis want no GPS" - NaviGadget

Not much has changed. The weather is still great, the job is going great, and the weekends are going great.

I spent over an hour last Saturday in line at the only Time Warner Cable customer service establishment in Brooklyn. There is one establishment with two customer service windows for 2.6 million people.

Subsequently I received a parking ticket in Brooklyn Heights for returning to my car twenty seconds after the meter expired. I know it was twenty seconds because the meter maid told me that she “just saw it expire twenty seconds ago.” Subsequently she had to nerve to have me wait while she finished typing in the info into her machine.

Thursday I got up early and took a trip to the Austrian Consulate to apply for a new passport. Well, first I had to have photos taken. I had these taken at eight at the consulate’s recommended photographer on 42nd Street (the consulate is on 69th).

It turns out the photos were not up to specs, and I had to travel back down to the photographer and have them retaken. Apparently my eyes were slightly too low and the color was bad. At least the representative at the consulate called the photographer so I could have them retaken for free.

So yeah… That’s what’s new.

Months have past since I updated this weblog (which turns seven years old at the end of the year) with some details about what I'm personally up to.

As you might know, I worked in financial consulting in Vienna last summer, from July to October. Since I didn't like the way that was going, I decided to move back to the United States. I spent several months looking for a job, but never received any interview requests. It wasn't until March that these started coming about, and by the 17th of that month I had committed to a job at TheLadders.com in New York City.

My starting date was April 2, and I moved in with my friend Nick Harisis a couple days before. I slept on a couch dubbed "Old Faithful" for an entire two months.

My job is pretty cool. The people are great, the material is for the most part interesting, and the company in general is amazing. It was recently featured in The New York Times:

Listing Top Jobs but Charging Candidates to Seek Them

Back to my living situation: About three weeks into "living on the couch," Mike (remember him from college) and I basically locked ourselves into living in a great place on Park Avenue South in Manhattan after only looking at a total of three places in Brooklyn.

Just as we were supposed to move in, however, two major issues arose that have caused us to be looking for a new place, this time with three bedrooms.

I don't want to dwell on the housing saga... It is what it is. For now I'm living in the Park Avenue South place on a double-height air mattress which keeps deflating at night after it randomly sprung a hole after its fourth night in operation.

The thing cost me $40 plus a $20 pump at Target in Brooklyn. I pondered the possibility of returning it, but there was no way to fit that into my schedule. A sheet in the box proclaimed "Do not return to the place of purchase," instead suggesting that I send it back to the manufacturer. That wouldn't leave me with an object to sleep on, however.

Saturday morning, on the way to picking my mom up from the bus station, I stopped by a K-Mart to see of they had any vinyl repair kits. They suggested I check out Modell's (a regional sporting goods chain) around the corner. They told me to try K-Mart... Yeah... Just in case, I had picked up a roll of flexible tubing tape at K-Mart.

The tubing tape turned out to be ineffective, and on Monday I purchased some duct tape, after unsuccessfully searching the internet for a swimming pool store in Manhattan. Somehow pools and Manhattan don't fit well, I suppose, unless they're at the top of a luxury high-rise.

The duct tape works pretty well. I can currently lie down on a fully inflated mattress at midnight, and my back won't hit the floor until around six in the morning... Almost long enough for my usual night's sleep!

I am still determined to find a pool dealer in Manhattan though. Today at work I looked up "swimming pool dealers" on yellowpages.com and found one in the East Village. Unfortunately I remembered the number wrong and apparently walked right by the place. I'm pretty sure it's a wrong listing though.

There's no other furniture in my bedroom except for a bar stool and a plastic dresser tower thing (left by the previous tenant) that I have used as an "office" for the past couple days. Not trusting my air mattress as a reliable and halfway comfortable place to sit, I ventured out to the neighborhood drug store at 10 p.m. this evening to buy a $12.95 lawn chair. I might need it this summer anyway... It's not bad to sit on with my laptop in my lap.

So maybe I'll give you some more updates over the next couple weeks, but my week, especially Monday through Friday is so ridiculously filled. Here's my average Monday-Wednesday:

6:00am: Wake up because my air mattress has deflated, somehow manage to go back to sleep
7:15am or 7:30am: Wake up, shower
8:20am: Head out and get on the subway
8:45am: Arrive at work
Sometime between 6:30pm and 7:30pm: Leave work, take care of task (eg. buying a lamp, searching for pool store, etc.)
Sometime between 8:00pm and 8:30pm: Arrive at home
8:40pm: Get on the subway to head to gym
9:00pm: Arrive at gym
10:30pm: Leave gym, eat at Subway (as in the restaurant) around the corner
11:15pm or so: Get home
Midnight: Go to sleep

Thursday is the same except I usually head out to an after-work bar night around 6:30 and stay out until midnight or so.

Friday is also the same except I have some time off from around 6:30 until around 10, when I usually head out.

The weekend usually flies by way too quickly, especially when much of it is spent traveling (Vestal, Syracuse, etc.) or I'm somehow otherwise occupied.

I think it'll all somewhat improve when the living situation is settled. I'm looking forward to this summer, although it will be the first time in five years that I'll not be spending it in Vienna.

Here's my receipt from Wal-Mart this past day. 14 protein bars for $1.40... That's 10 cents each! Insane! They were hidden in some clearance corner by the pharmacy and didn't have any kind of price listing.

I've been throwing a bunch of dates around as to when I'll be in Vienna. I finally decided to check my tickets, so I can now officially announce I'll be in Vienna from December 29 to January 16. And I also can announce I've never been more excited to travel anywhere my entire life. That's probably due to the fact that I'm currently stuck in Vestal, New York by myself.

I had a great two days/nights in Syracuse Thursday through Saturday, thanks to Chris's invitation. As a fresh alumni it's pretty awesome to go back to your alma mater and live it up a little. Especially if you are otherwise stuck in a town with no friends. I did of course choose a great weekend, Halloween weekend, to head back up to the 'Cuse, but nevertheless. Thursday night took place at Faegans, like in the old days, and the weather played along as well. Friday was kind of a lazy day, really only kicking into gear with a visit to the Middle Ages Brewery in Syracuse's Westside neighborhood. Afterwords there was a visit to Pavone's Pizza (pronunciation still a point of contention) in Little Italy. The night was all about the infamous three-dollars-a-pitcher happy hour at Chuck's. And finally there was "the buffet" on Saturday afternoon, which cannot be described by words. It's great to know that if I want to pretend that I'm still a college student, the opportunity is only 90 minutes away!