After the Aftermath

Mon 17 Sep 200101:10 AM

Tomorrow it’s Monday, and hopefully the nation will have finally crawled out from under the misery-fueled lethargy of the past week. The mandate now is to return to normalcy, because anything else would be tantamount to an acquiescence to terror. It remains to be seen whether, as a society, we know how to do that yet, whether we know how to leave behind the truly disorienting aftermath that gripped us for days. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to forget it. I don’t mean just the two crashes that felled the World Trade Center towers — that goes without saying. What I mean is, I’m not sure I’ll be able to leave behind the stupor, the silent confusion that followed it. Or at the very least, I’ll never be able to forget the site of Manhattan’s normally bustling First Avenue on the day immediately after the terror, when it was six lanes abandoned to nothingness.

Can’t Can Not

Thu 13 Sep 200108:31 PM

I can’t stop watching the news.

A Three-Hour Tour

Fri 7 Sep 200112:16 AM

My dad is visiting from California for a few days. To keep him entertained, we took a cruise completely around Manhattan. It was actually and for real a three-hour tour, and it was a beautiful day to do it today too. I found out about it through Citysearch (which also, apparently just this minute, launched a redesigned interface), and at first I was a little wary of the overtly tourist-oriented air of the cruise’s operator, Circle Lines. While the guide on the boat was remarkably cheesy, he was also remarkably well-informed, and I found out a lot of things about Manhattan that I had never known before. Next time I find myself in a position of trying to entertain out-of-town guests, I’d happily take this cruise again.

Post-Employment Life Is Groovey

Wed 5 Sep 200104:02 PM

Nearly two weeks ago my job came to an end, for incredibly stupid reasons — not the least of which is the company had been mismanaged and downsized to near liflessness. Suffice it to say that I’m trying to put it all behind me, and my main focus now is the next stage of my life. I’ve been collaborating with some friends on a side project in the meantime, and in the course of it we’ve tried out Groove, a peer-to-peer collaborative platform geared towards businesses but available free to consumers. It’s amazingly robust and, aside from a few issues with speed, a pleasure to use.

And Then I Snapped Out of It

Wed 18 Jul 200109:25 PM

For months and months, it seemed like I was unable to get motivated to do any substantial work on my own, personal projects. It was awful, like a haze, like a cloud of befuddlement. Every time I sat down to try and do some sort of work, I felt lost. I can’t cite a specific cause, but it looks like I’ve been able to snap out of that funk over the past few days, and it’s been invigorating. I’m cooking up something I hope to post here soon.

Shelved

Sun 17 Jun 200101:27 AM

The shelves are done. I spent all day unpacking my remaining boxes, originally packed way back when I left Singapore. It felt great to toss them out and free my apartment from the clutter.

Shelf Life

Fri 15 Jun 200102:10 AM

Much Later

Sat 26 May 200111:40 PM

Dammit, I’ve got to get off my ass and back to blogging. In spite of the amazing paucity of Web gigs out there, what little work we have at the office is keeping me feverishly busy. What’s more, my girlfriend has just moved into a new house, which is a thirty-minute train ride outside of the city. Balance is a process.

A Mean Town

Thu 19 Apr 200104:46 AM

I was sitting in my apartment working on my computer at two in the morning when I smelled smoke. When I went to trace its source, I discovered that some asshole had lit the trash can out in front of my building on fire. Here’s a picture that I snapped quickly. I swear, sometimes I have to really wonder why I live in New York City.