Procrastiblog

September 14, 2006

NYU Sandwiches

Filed under: Food, Not Tech — Chris @ 2:16 pm

After my cry for help last week, I’ve visited three new (to me) sandwich places in the NYU area.

  • bite is in that weird flattish building at Lafayette and Bleeker (the one that used to be a clothing store of some kind, I think, but I’m showing my age, because apparently it’s been bite for several years now). It is a good replacement for Pamela’s: it has the same kind of up-scale fancy cheese, fancy meat sandwiches, some of which are pressed and toasted. I had the fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, and sun-dried tomato panini and I had no complaints. It’s a little pricey though: $7 for the sandwich and a lemonade, plus I went halvsies on a $2 brownie.
  • BB Sandwich Bar (W 3rd between MacDougal and 6th) serves exactly one thing: a cheese steak sandwich. It comes on a kaiser roll, with white American cheese, onions, and some kind of ketchup/chili sauce. It is $4.50 for regular people and $2.75 for NYU people. It is very yummy. (They also have cupcakes, which I didn’t try and which Ittai said he had never tried because he, “doesn’t like cupcakes.” Jackass.)
  • ‘wichcraft (8th Street between Mercer and Broadway) is Top Chef Tom Colicchio’s foray into “fast food.” I got turned onto this place by the NYU paper, which adorably thinks the “East Village” is between 5th Avenue and Broadway. I had the bacon, lettuce, and heirloom tomato sandwich, which cost an absurd $10 (it comes with aioli, not mayo, you cretins). Honestly, it was about as good as a BLT is going to get outside of a fine dining restaurant. But, even so, the tomato was a little mushy. Come on, guys, for ten bucks you can toss out a few mushy tomatoes! The “cheap” side of the menu is a $5 PB&J and grilled gruyere for $5.50. You can also get oatmeal, granola, or grits for $4.

September 13, 2006

It’s Like 9/11 All Over Again

Filed under: Not Tech — Chris @ 3:21 am

LonelyGirl15 is totally fake. Via Ms. Heffernen.

It’s odd: in the last week, as the noose tightened, the videos got much more plot-ty and contrived. The first roughly 15 videos had only the barest whiff of plot, which is what made them so intriguing. I think they were trying to seriously advance the story before the Internets tracked them down…

September 12, 2006

Big Apple Takedown: A WWE Novel

Filed under: Not Tech — Chris @ 1:57 pm

Nice.

September 11, 2006

I Was Out Ahead on George Allen

Filed under: Politics — Chris @ 4:06 pm

Searching for “soccer” in my previous posts turns up this post, pre-macaca, describing George Allen as “deeply odd and odious.” I am so fucking smart!

BTW, see here for why Mr. Allen totally knew what he was saying was racist (though his audience probably didn’t). Hint: He’s part French!

Quesadilla, Red Hook style

Filed under: Food — Chris @ 5:06 am


Quesadilla, Red Hook style
Originally uploaded by C+H.

Let’s keep it a secret between you and me and the readers of the New York Times, there’s some really great cheap Latin food available down by the Red Hook soccer fields. Tacos, pupusas, quesadillas so big they’ll break off your arm. Last year when we went, we were the only white people around. Now, there’s white people everywhere… If you’ve got a Fairway and some nice pupusas, you’ve got yourself a neighborhood.

[UPDATE 9/11/2006] Food is available every Saturday and Sunday during soccer season. You should go soon, because the season ends in a few weeks.

September 9, 2006

ATM: Success

Filed under: India — Chris @ 8:04 pm

My Indian Citibank ATM card worked at the local Citibank branch. It did not work at the deli ATM or at some other random bank (Commerce Bank, I think). This is good because, without my knowledge (due to the closure of my company email account), I got a final payroll deposit of several hundred dollars.

September 8, 2006

N.Y. Dosas

Filed under: Food, India, Not Tech — Chris @ 11:07 pm

I had my first post-India dosa today and… it met expectations. Which expectations were to be disappointed.

You may ask yourself: why would someone just two weeks back from India buy a dosa in New York anyway? And I would answer: because the dosa guy is one of the only interesting places to get a “fast” lunch near NYU.* The other top contenders are Two Boots and Mamoun’s.** (Now that I think about it, I haven’t been to Two Boots or Mamoun’s yet. Somehow today I had the overpowering urge for a dosa. (Damn you, id!))

On the upside, I noticed that the dosa guy also offers uttapam and puttu, which I know I like, but have not had often enough to be a snob about (yet).

People of the world: NYU lunch joints. Recommend. A satisfying lunch has to be purchasable for $5 or less*** and it has to be fast take-out.**** Within five minutes of Warren Weaver Hall is preferred. (Joe’s and Two Boots have me covered for pizza slices. Falafel, schwarma, and South Indian are also covered. (Duh.) If I start going to Chipotle on a regular basis, Hilleary will divorce me.)

* This will seem absurd to some. Having haunted the NYU area for 11 years, I am ridiculously jaded.

** Pamela’s merits an honorable mention (primarily and inexplicably for the peanut butter and apple butter sandwich), but they closed over the summer…

*** Private to Tobi: that’s like five billion Rupees.

**** Fellow NYU grad students seem to think sitting down for an hour at lunch is reasonable. They are wrong.

September 7, 2006

Invitation to Waste an Hour (Or More)

Filed under: YouTube — Chris @ 5:22 pm

Is lonelygirl15 real? Is she suspiciously attractive, entertaining, and well lit? You decide! Watch her videos. Watch her boyfriend’s videos. Wonder and marvel! The New York Times summarizes the case, for and against.

[UPDATE] The New York Times’ Virginia Hefferman is completely and totally obsessed to to the point where she’s starting to freak me out. Sort of a lot, actually.

[UPDATE 2] Freak out!

One of the interesting side stories here—besides the well known rip-remix-burn subculture on YouTube (e.g., the Monkey press conference, I am the very model…)—is the idea of “response videos” which work like blog trackbacks. You’ve got gohepcat, The Mirrored Cowboy; guys trying to hit on her; girls trying to hit on him; and people who just want to help. It’s a scene, man.

[UPDATE 9/12/2006] Aw, man.

September 6, 2006

Laundering Money

Filed under: India — Chris @ 8:40 pm

For the benefit of future foreign MSRI employees and other Americans in possession of a Citibank Suvidha account:

1) It is possible to transfer your Rupees to a US bank, see below.
2) I have not been able to use my Citibank India ATM card in the US, but I haven’t actually tried very hard. It is not a PIN issue, as I can check my balance—it just won’t let me take out cash.

To transfer your money to the US, you need to:

a) Have your passport, visa, and pay slips that have been signed and sealed by the company. In my case, I brought every single pay slip and they were stamped and signed by HR.

a) Go to the Citibank Suvidha office in the Prestige Meridien building on MG Road. This is not the regular Citibank branch office out front, but a special office which is reached by walking around the building to the left, up a staircase, and past a Cafe Coffee Day. You will be asked to sign in. You need to talk to, IIRC, Shamila at the second desk on the left.

b) Fill out a form requesting “Remission for the Maintenence of Family”. Do not ask to close your account. This will cause a controversy. For the amount you will write something like “X Rupees in USD” to signify the conversion of your Rupee balance to US dollars. I believe there is a fee of Rs 1200 for the transfer.

c) Be careful when you sign the forms. The most commonly heard phrase in the Suvidha office is “signature mismatch”. (Do you actually know how to sign your own name? You’ll get to find out!)

D) Et voila. Your money will appear in your US bank account within a week.

[UPDATE 9/9/2006] ATM card works in U.S. Citibank ATMs. Has not worked as yet in non-Citibank ATMs.

September 4, 2006

The Thrilling Conclusion to the Mystery of the Stolen Whiskey!

Filed under: India — Chris @ 8:24 pm

On August 21, 2006, the company purchased me a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red Label* which I promptly turned over to Jonathan, who had gifted me the stolen whiskey. By some twisted Indian logic, this event was precipitated by my mentor’s threat to buy me a bottle of whiskey himself by the end of the day if the company wouldn’t. Thus endeth the Story of the Whiskey.

* Let’s ignore the difference between Tennessee and Scotland and call it even.

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