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It’s Story Time

This kind of reminded me of an incident from my years of work in the service industry. I used to work in a clam bar of Nathan’s Famous at Coney Island. I never sold hot dogs, opening clams was my specialty.

Anyway, this really drunk guy gets upset over the cost of a half dozen of clams (something to the tune of 12 bucks). But he still wants them. And here’s the twist – he wants them unopened. After asking the manager if it’s ok, I hand over six closed clams. The dude takes a huge Bowie knife and proceeds to try to open them. Of course, he fails at opening even a single one. He puts the knife back in his pocket and lets me open the damn clams for him.

Another time I learned why pint jars with condiments were to be kept behind the counter. I, seeking to improve usability, put them on the counter during my shift, so that the patrons would not have to ask for them. When I looked away, two bums got into an argument and one of them proceeded to throw a jar full of horseradish sauce and a jar full of cocktail sauce at the other.

Now here’s another one from my years as a doorman/porter in a Manhattan building. During one of my night shifts somebody stole a huge (probably two meters tall) potted pine. The pine in question was in a heavy bucket that was chained to the wall. That asshole uprooted the whole thing and dragged the tree for at least ten blocks leaving a trail of dirt. The pine was not recovered. I locked the door and was cleaning the lobby at the time, so nobody really blamed me.

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Vomitorium

I encounter many lj-users whose posts make me want to vomit in horror. Some just annoy me. Some annoy or horrify me enough to get into a discussion. My belief is that such arguments will better my reasoning skills

I noticed that , , and read certain journals just for this annoyance or horrification factor. And sometimes their posts bait me into getting involved in pointless debates with other lj users.

I think I know how to get a bit better at this loosely sport of arguing. A very intelligent friend of mine recommended this book called “Attacking Faulty Reasoning“. It seems very promising.

Circular reasoning, semantical ambiguity, missing the point, appeal to the gallery, appeal to force or threat, appeal to tradition, distortion, attacking a straw, resort to humor or ridicule. These are just some of the chapters in the book, and I’ve seen most of those in livejournal arguments. Heck, in fact, I am guilty of most of them!

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The One True Way of Making Tea

I think that I know 95% of all there is to know about making an ideal espresso. I even know the only half-, nay, quarter-acceptable drink in Starbucks. “Cafe Americano” – espresso diluted with water. But I know next to nothing about making a good cup of tea.

I remember something I’ve read in Bros. Strugatskie’s novel about some really Zen way of boiling water for making tea, but I could not find any good references on the web. I did find two interesting links though:

A Nice Cup of Tea by George Orwell
and
Rec.food.drink.tea FAQ

Hmm. In Russia, a common method of making tea is to make a concentrated tea infusion in a small teapot and then dilute it with water. I still do this sometimes. But I think a better method is to take a big teapot and make tea of drinking concentration in it. I guess I’ll get a big teapot and try that.

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Well Hung

One thing that always frustrates me is the collection of crappy clothing hangers in my closet. I hate flimsy plastic ones. I absolutely abhor wire hangers. And the rest – they are not very good either.

So the idea that I have is this – why not try to replace all of them with top of the line hangers. It’s the kind of one time investment that will make my life a bit easier.

So, what are the most usable, most ergonomic, best looking , dandiest hangers around? I don’t know.

I quickly looked on eBay and found out that there is a whole collecting category — vintage hangers with advertising on them. Turns out that it was a common form of advertising some time ago. Huh.

Well, even though those are cool, they are not what I want. I want something that’s very well designed. And I think You Know Who dropped the ball on that one. They are vaporware in any case.

Yellow Submarine clothing hangers?

Nah.

Hell no.

Dammit.

Now, this is weird.

Any ideas?

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Bang! Zoom! To the Moon, Alice!

There is a big map of the Moon hanging above my bed. I bought it in Lowell Observatory’s gift shop. It hangs mostly as a decoration, I never spent much time studying it. My knowledge of Selenology is limited to being able to identify sea of Tranquility , sea of Crisis and craters Tycho and Copernicus. I suck.

Yesterday I was looking at the map. And here’s what I learned: right below Sea of Crises are seas of Waves (Undarum), Foam (Spumans) and Fertility (Fecunditatis). On most maps Fecunditatis is translated as “Fecundity“. One more SAT word.

And now – a Rorschach test.

I am planning on reviving Brooklyn College’s observatory. Unfortunately it has been closed for many years. When I asked to see it, I was told that inside everything is covered with pigeon poop and that it’s a health hazard. I never had the time to be more persistent in gaining access there, but maybe this year I’ll find some time. Supposedly there is a 7 inch planetary refractor there. I’ll have to spend some money and time, but it will be less than the price of such a scope, not even counting the fact that it’s in a rotating dome.

I think I’ll spend some time looking for TLPs, even though such research is poo-poohed by most astronomers.

One thing is for sure – I am going to invest in a nice lunar atlas. There are no good Moon maps on the Net.

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Mind Like Water

Amazon suggested the following book to me : “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity“.

Who wouldn’t want to get organized? But let’s see some reviews first:


Freedom of a “mind like water”, January 2, 2003
Reviewer: Maxim Masiutin (see more about me) from Chisinau, Republic of Moldova
Five Stars
“Getting Things Done” is a road map to achieve the positive, relaxed focus that characterizes your most productive state. It will help you to get everything done with the freedom of a “mind like water”.
…

Side note: in Soviet jokes Moldovans played a role similar to that of Polacks in American jokes.


Who writes these 5 star reviews??, December 8, 2002
One Star
Reviewer: A reader from Wheeling, WV United States
The author is likeable and the book is an easy read. It confirmed what I already knew – get all of your to do’s consolidated into one list so you can prioritize. Beyond that it didn’t really add much value to my life or work.

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Wartime Booty

There are two WWII trophies in my family. One is a polishing cloth. Another is a fork.

I used the polishing cloth for many years without knowing what it was. Recently, I learned it’s origin. When my grandfather entered Budapest with the Red Army, the city was in ruins. The beautiful Parliament building was not that badly bombed, but all the windows were broken and shockwave scattered much of the furniture around it. So the polishing cloth came from a broken Budapest Parliament chair.
The Parliament

The Cloth

On the Net I found the following reference:
Inside the acoustically superb council chamber are 438 specially
designed leather chairs for the deputies, while the velvet-upholstered
seats in the inner circle are reserved for the ministers of the government.

So I’ve been polishing my boots with a piece of velvet from a Hungarian government minister’s chair.

The second piece of Gramps’ wartime spoils is a German fork. It’s a regular fork with no markings, except that it’s extremely heavy and a bit bigger than regular forks. It’s the most ergonomic fork that I’ve ever ate with. It’s my dad’s favorite fork.

This fork gave me an idea. Why do I keep eating with crappy modern utensils, when I can buy cool stuff on eBay. I’ve decided to replace all of my utensils with WWII era military ones.
Here’s the first arrival: the seller claims that it’s a British paratrooper’s fork.

I don’t understand what GR or SR stands for.


I also can’t identify the metal it’s made out of. It’s too light to be silver, but heavier than aluminum. Maybe some alloy..

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NYYC part II

Remember I wrote about New York Yacht Club building? Well, I could not find any decent photos of the building, so I decided to take some myself. I cant’ say I am very pleased with the results, but what the hey.


In a sea of taxicabs.

Baron Harkonnen would have liked this

Just a regular vomiting fish. They seem to be pretty common.

I would really like to take a look inside. Maybe if I rise high enough in corporate ranks Rupert Murdoch will take me there. :)

Unfortunately I haven’t read the Commodore’s biography yet. I think his yacht was a lot like him – ugly, but impressive.