i keep a diary

April, 2013

The April Roundup

Here are all the photos I took in April 2013.

Wednesday, April 3rd

Getting ready to make my morning juice.
fruit ˆ juicer
My new Adipure Gazelle 2.0 super-light running shoes arrived.
shoes
They are the most comfortable light-weight shoes I've ever worn. (I've almost completely worn them out and they've since stopped making them!)
shoes
Spent Wednesday morning organizing my thoughts for a VC fund that had hired me to put together my thoughts about a market they were considering for investment.
flux capacity ˆ note ˆ work
Grant came by to drop off this amazing 1978 Gibson SG Standard in Tobacco Sunburst.
guitar
It was out of commission due to a cracked-neck!
broken ˆ guitar
Late that afternoon, I headed to meet my clients in midtown to present my thoughts. My job is wonderfully weird. I feel really lucky that I get to rent-out my brain to help people solve problems that are important to them.
flux capacity ˆ work
Later Wednesday night I went to the appropriately-named Cafe Pick Me Up to meet up with my first OkCupid date since being single again. (And remembered just how difficult it is to convey exactly they type of weirdo I am in a personals ad)
tea

Thursday, April 4th

Ahhh, blue skies.
clouds ˆ wtf
maddy
Maddy lazily half-burroughed under blanket after her morning walk. Where is the face?
blanket ˆ dogs ˆ maddy
maddy
Huh?
blanket ˆ dogs ˆ maddy
maddy
What wants? Is sleepy!
blanket ˆ dogs ˆ maddy
Later that afternoon, I had my first appointment at the legendary Richie's Guitar Shop.
guitar ˆ sign
Richie's is a word-of-mouth business that doesn't disclose its phone number or address. You have to be referred over. I was very excited to meet him and see if he could restore the SG to playing condition!
door ˆ guitar

Friday, April 5th

Did some grocery shopping on Friday.
food ˆ refrigerator
Then spent the rest of the afternoon helping a start-up I advise build a model that takes all their assumptions into consideration and helps them understand how the relationship between all the variables in their business and how they related to the return (or lack of return!) generated by their investment. Modeling this all out beforehand helps companies identify what needs to be true in order to be successful. (Nerd stuff!)

Work-plug: If your company employs developers, I'd love to help you create a similar map that you can use to understand how to best invest their time and effort in order to grow the business. (Flux Capacity)
computer ˆ flux capacity ˆ work

Saturday, April 6th

On Saturday morning I decided to juice a bunch of kale that I'd bought.
juice ˆ juicer
me
I think my expression gives you a pretty good idea what kale juice tastes like. Sadness. Terrible, terrible sadness.
gross ˆ juice ˆ me
While walking Maddy, I stopped to gawk at the charred remains of a 3-car fire that had happened on the block the previous night.
car ˆ east village ˆ fire
The Volvo was on fire so severely that it managed to burn the back and front of the two cars parked nearest before the fire department got it under control.
car ˆ east village ˆ fire
maddy
One of my favorite things is watching Maddy settle down into a sunbeam, all squinty-eyed...
dogs ˆ sleepy ˆ squinty ˆ maddy
maddy
...and then watch her try her hardest to stay awake.
dogs ˆ sleepy ˆ squinty ˆ maddy
maddy
Sun is slowly melting my tiny dog brain.
dogs ˆ sleepy ˆ squinty ˆ maddy
Walked over to Two Boots...
beads ˆ restaurant
...and had myself a slice before heading over...
crosswalk ˆ pizza
kai
...to a bar to celebrate Caiti's birthday! Kai played a few songs.
balloons ˆ band ˆ guitar ˆ kai
caiti, meredith
Happy birthday, Caiti!
taxi ˆ caiti ˆ meredith

Sunday, April 7th

me, vin
On Sunday evening I met up with Vin and we went out to Bushwick to go to a house party BBQ at Lauren's house!
house party ˆ mirror ˆ me ˆ vin
me, vin
I've been seeking out side-rooms at parties for quiet man-chats with this dude since 1996! Haha.
close up ˆ mirror ˆ me ˆ vin
On our walk back to the subway, we were treated to a gorgeous sunset.
best ˆ skyline ˆ sunset
vin
I'll take your picture.
sunset ˆ walking ˆ vin
me
You take mine.
sunset ˆ walking ˆ me
Not bad!
nyc ˆ skyline ˆ sunset
amanda, grant, kristina
Ended the weekend with a Sunday night pizza party at Amanda's with Grant and Kristina.
food ˆ pizza ˆ amanda ˆ grant ˆ kristina

Monday, April 8th

Monday was a warm spring day and buds were starting to appear on the trees.
clouds
penelope
On Monday night I met up with Penelope...
beads ˆ penelope
...and we got smashed on nigorizake (cloudy sake)!
sake

Tuesday, April 9th

On Tuesday I went down to SinglePlatform and admired some of the posters created to by their sales teams. "Eat your Greens for Laser Fucking Focus!" "If looks could sell." Hahaha.
flux capacity ˆ singleplatform ˆ work

Tuesday, April 9th

On Tuesday morning, I pumped some iron and then spent the rest of the day...
gun show
...working with METAL! Richie from Richie's Guitar Shop totally fixed the neck like new and spent most of the day refamiliarizing with the fretboard. Bro, do you even shred, bro?
guitar
Bi bim banging day.
food ˆ korean food

Wednesday, April 10th

On Wednesday morning, I cleaned up my office a bit so Fatty could crash later in the evening. Also tried swapping out my office chair for a bouncy-ball. (Stuck with it for a month or so. Eh.)
I took this photo from the stairs while Maddy decided she was no longer interested in going for a walk.
rain
Got a second pair of the Adipure sneakers...
shoes
...this time in black. From a few feet away they look like regular sneakers...
shoes
...and you can't hardly tell that they're basically aqua-socks with laces.
shoes
fatty, grant
We went out to dinner with Fatty...
rain ˆ umbrella ˆ walking ˆ fatty ˆ grant
fatty
...and stopped over to Ray's Candy Store for a soft-serve before heading home.
best ˆ ice cream ˆ fatty

Thursday, April 11th

grant, maddy
Grant came over early on Thursday morning because we'd agreed to help my neighbor Theresa move a bunch of large pieces of art work from her storage unit to her studio.
coffee ˆ e9th apt ˆ green chair ˆ grant ˆ maddy
grant, maddy
Maddy's face. LOL.
awkward ˆ best ˆ excited ˆ green chair ˆ grant ˆ maddy
I'm a huge admirers of flowers.
flower
Of all kinds!
I take strange comfort in the flyers people hang in the neighborhood to give others a chance to pay respects at a wake. I also really like the photo that they chose to commemorate Walter with.
east village ˆ flyer
Later that night I went out to a veggie restaurant by myself and treated myself to a 4-course feast at the delicious (and now sadly closed) Table Verte. Beet salad...
food ˆ salad
Veggie casserole with rice and beans, gratin dauphinois...
book ˆ food
..and pineapple in blueberry compote with vanilla ice cream for dessert. (This whole meal was less than $40!)
dessert ˆ ice cream ˆ pineapple ˆ treats

Friday, April 12th

On Friday morning I went down to Broad Street to meet with some people at Shopkeep.
flux capacity ˆ shopkeep ˆ work
Later that evening, I got an Apogee JAM adapter that lets you jack your guitar's audio signal into your computer. I spent the rest of the night playing around with GarageBand.
computer ˆ guitar ˆ laptop ˆ piano

Saturday, April 13th

Lovely spring Saturday.
clouds ˆ east river
Nice new two-tone color scheme on the fire hydrants.
Took the hound for an early walk.
me
Later that afternoon I got a new camera! First thing I do to get a feel for a new camera is take a picture of my myself!
me
While browsing through the menu options, I found a few cool real-time coloring effects. Like "Make everything black and white except the color you select." Here's the floor selected...
coloring
...the ball selected.
coloring
File cabinet selected. The neat thing about these effects is that they happen in real-time when you take the photo (as opposed to having to download the photos and manipulate them with a different program).
coloring
Then I started playing around with the very cool "color swap" feature. Here's me telling the camera to use the blue color of the ball the replace any instances of the file cabinet's green.
coloring
And vice versa! It needs better shadow-detection and color-gradiation-mapping, but otherwise, pretty neato!
coloring
It did a really nice job converting the pixels underneath my hand!
coloring ˆ hand
It seems to better with less-shiny objects. I turned my blue backpack green.
backpack ˆ coloring
I tried to make myself "invisible" by replacing my skin tone with white. Haha. Didn't work so well...
coloring ˆ hand
...but using it to paint my skin different colors seemed to work pretty well.
coloring ˆ hand
me
Even better on my face. Smurfy!
coloring ˆ smurf ˆ me
me
This was my attempt at Incredible Hulk but came out looking more like Amazing Jaundice.
coloring ˆ wtf ˆ me
Next I tried mapping a dark red to my face with startling results.
coloring
So awesomely upsetting!
coloring
me
Sith Lord needs a toothbrush that does a better job on the gum-line.
coloring ˆ photoshop ˆ scary ˆ wtf ˆ me
Also looked very eerie when I applied the effect to my hands.
coloring ˆ hand
Almost looks like they've been burned in some weird way.
coloring ˆ hand
me
Boo!
coloring ˆ photoshop ˆ scary ˆ wtf ˆ me
grant
Later that evening, Grant came over fresh from the newsstand to show me two of his magazine cover-features that had just come out!
people we know in magazines ˆ grant
The first, was a story about Karl Bushby for Men Journal.
magazine ˆ people we know in magazines
grant
The other was an investigative journalism piece for Penthouse! "The Squirt Meister: There's a masseur in New York City who says he can provoke female ejaculation in any woman. Our lucky reporter took two volunteers to test his claim."
best ˆ excited ˆ magazine ˆ people we know in magazines ˆ grant
The photos and art direction they did to go along with the piece are nothing short of fantastic.
magazine ˆ people we know in magazines
The article's worth a read, but the spoiler is that the Squirt Meister most definitely lived up to his claims!
magazine ˆ people we know in magazines

Sunday, April 14th

maddy
Bought another plant on Sunday afternoon. (Golden Pothos also known as Devil's Ivy). Check out Sunbeam Squinter in the background. Haha.
piano ˆ plant ˆ squinty ˆ maddy
maddy
Follows the afternoon sun as it moves across the couch.
dogs ˆ maddy
maddy
Later that evening, Edie came over to stay for a bit.
dogs ˆ edie ˆ maddy
I tried to make Edie green!
coloring ˆ dogs ˆ edie
maddy
Bookends.
couch ˆ dogs ˆ edie ˆ maddy
amanda, grant, maddy
Later that evening, Grant and Amanda came over for a hang. They brought powder-sugar doughnuts...
couch ˆ e9th apt ˆ living room ˆ amanda ˆ grant ˆ maddy
grant, treat
...that are very difficult to eat if you're wearing dark clothes.
mess ˆ point ˆ grant ˆ treat

Monday, April 15th

Worked from home on Monday.
clouds
maddy
Finished up early enough to take a late-afternoon nap with these two bozos.
couch ˆ dogs ˆ edie ˆ maddy

Tuesday, April 16th

maddy
Woke up Tuesday morning to find these two rough-housing on the couch and making weird goose-honking noises at each other.
blanket ˆ couch ˆ dogs ˆ edie ˆ maddy
maddy
Maddy likes to play this game where she buries her head under a blanket (she can't see anything so she thinks she's invisible?)...
blanket ˆ couch ˆ dogs ˆ edie ˆ maddy
maddy
...and then she pulls her head out and attacks Edie! Repeat times one-hundred.
blanket ˆ couch ˆ dogs ˆ edie ˆ maddy
That afternoon, I biked down to SinglePlatform's offices in the Financial District...
biking
...to help them map their sales process in preparation for moving things over to SalesForce. At Flux Capacity I help companies define, then optimize complicated, costly things. Sometimes it looks like this!
flux capacity ˆ whiteboard ˆ work
grant, theresa
Later that afternoon, I met Grant up with Grant at Theresa Byrne's art studio.
grant ˆ theresa
theresa
We'd helped her move a bunch of large paintings from her storage unit and hang them in her studio.
art ˆ painting ˆ theresa

Wednesday, April 17th

maddy
Walking the ladies.
dogs ˆ edie ˆ maddy
The trees are turning green!
tompkins ˆ tree
This construction barrier has been prohibited from speaking to you!
grant
Late-night meeting of the self-employed club at our auxiliary office (The Bowery Diner).
burger ˆ diner ˆ food ˆ restaurant ˆ grant

Thursday, April 18th

grant
The morning coffee Grant brings me is usually served up with a few AC/DC and/or Iron Maiden songs. Haha. (Bonus points to Edie for having her back-half on Grant's lap and her front-half on a pillow-fortress).
edie ˆ guitar ˆ grant
grant
On Thursday night Grant and I walklled a few blocks over the BULLET SPACE gallery...
art gallery ˆ door ˆ grant
theresa
...to help our friend, neighbor Theresa rehearse for an upcoming performance at the gallery! Theresa uses a motorized-wheelchair to get around, but for her performance asked if Grant and I would be willing to serve as "Lifters" in her performance. What was supposed to take an hour, ended up taking several, but we...
art gallery ˆ ladder ˆ theresa
grant
...soothed our troubles with 1am diner-feast at Odessa.
diner ˆ food ˆ odessa ˆ grant

Friday, April 19th

On Friday night, Grant and I headed over back over to the Bullet Space gallery...
...for the Theresa's performance at the opening of the show.
grant, theresa
Here's Grant and I backstage with Theresa, about to lift her up in a chair and carry her out to the awaiting crowd for her performance piece "CLOTHED".
art ˆ backstage ˆ performance art ˆ grant ˆ theresa
grant, theresa
Backstage after the performance had finished! The piece was totally wild. It started with Theresa in a white-dress and lovely make-up. Her hair was pinned-up in an elaborate "beauty pageant-style" hair-do that concealed a bunch of large ink-filled balloons!

Grant and I emerged from backstage, carrying Theresa in a chair and set her down on a large sheet of paper in front of the audience. After we cleared away, a photographer approached Theresa and started taking a series of close-up portraits of her like they doing a fashion-shoot. She made uncomfortable smiles and posed for his camera. A minute or two into the "shoot," she acted like she was playing with her hair, but she was secretly popping the ink-filled balloons! As she popped each balloon, a gush of jet blank ink seemed to appear from nowhere and would stream over her face and onto the white dress.

The performance ended with the the lights suddenly turning off. Now came the part that we'd spent hours rehearsing! Grant and I had to go out in the darkness...
art ˆ backstage ˆ best ˆ paint ˆ performance art ˆ tongue ˆ grant ˆ theresa
theresa
...strip the ink-soaked dress off of Theresa (without messing up the natural ink-splatters on the dress), hang the dress up on the hanger, then carry Theresa backstage. The goal was to do this as quickly as possible minimizing the amount of the time from the lights going out, to them coming back up to reveal only the paint-spattered paper, and hanging dress and an empty chair.
art ˆ chair ˆ paint ˆ performance art ˆ theresa
me
MIssion accomplished!
art ˆ paint ˆ performance art ˆ me
After the performance, there was a nice afterparty complete with a bonfire in the backyard!
fire
carla, grant
Grant's friend Carla had just moved to NY from Vancouver!
fire ˆ first time i met ˆ carla ˆ grant
theresa
As a thank you, Theresa gave us signed copies...
book ˆ theresa
...of her 1999 biography! Thanks, T!
book

Saturday, April 20th

Sick custom paintjob on this van that's always parked around the corner from me.
van
maddy
Maddy checking out her morning pee-mail. (Peeing on stuff is like Facebook for dogs)
maddy
Ivy coverage.
buildings ˆ ivy
Maddy took me into another nearby community garden on our walk and I admired...
path ˆ skull
...this mosaic skull pathstone.
memento mori ˆ path ˆ skull
Spent the afternoon working on my hot licks.
e9th apt ˆ guitar ˆ living room
Turned all these guys into JUICE!
juicer ˆ kitchen
me
My body seems to be responding well to all the additional nutrients! Because otherwise my diet consists of...
me
...mostly things like this! Gurj came over and we ordered from our favorite Vietnamese sandwich place!
food ˆ sandwich ˆ vietnamese
amanda, ben, david k, grant, katie, kostas, kristina, sarah h, siege
After dinner, she and I walked over to Amanda's apartment for a TV premiere party!
people we know on tv ˆ amanda ˆ ben ˆ david k ˆ grant ˆ katie ˆ kostas ˆ kristina ˆ sarah h ˆ siege
amanda, ben, david k, grant, katie, kostas, kristina, sarah h, siege
Grant had recently done a bunch of talking-head interviews for a new History Channel TV series called "How Sex Changed the World"...
people we know on tv ˆ amanda ˆ ben ˆ david k ˆ grant ˆ katie ˆ kostas ˆ kristina ˆ sarah h ˆ siege
ben, david k, grant, siege
...so we all gathered to see our friend's inaugural series appearance!
ben ˆ david k ˆ grant ˆ siege
grant, jeet, kristina, sarah h, siege
He ended up not being featured in the first episode except for a brief clip promoting a future episode, where he said exactly one word: "Penis!"
grant ˆ jeet ˆ kristina ˆ sarah h ˆ siege

Sunday, April 21st

On Sunday afternoon, I asked the I Ching to elaborate about the outcome of my decision to resign my lease and stay in the same apartment. Then I threw 3 quarters 6 times. After a normal first roll, I ended up throwing all head or all tails for the last 5 rolls. A rare and auspicious roll. (1:8 of all tails or all heads. So if my probability math is correct [and it most likely isn't!] the odds of rolling all-heads OR all-tails five times in a row is 40:1). An interesting reading, indeed. (I throw the coins by hand, then input the rolls into this great website that calculates the hexagrams for you!)
i ching
amanda, grant
Grant and Amanda came over to hang and watch Mad Men and Game of Thrones.
e9th apt ˆ food ˆ living room ˆ treats ˆ amanda ˆ grant
After they left, I watched Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996).
tv
Caught some funny references to other Shakespeare works in the background. Like this ad for Prospero brand Whiskey. Such stuff as dreams are made on! (Taken from my favorite scene in The Tempest!)
meta ˆ movie ˆ poster

Monday, April 22nd

Biked to work through Chinatown. Had a bad day.
biking ˆ chinatown
maddy
Took Maddy for a long walk to walk that shit off.
east river park ˆ fence ˆ maddy
Rails & trails.
clouds ˆ east river park ˆ fence ˆ moon
maddy
There are pigeon-nests hidden in the girders underneath the pedestrian overpass and Maddy is determined to observe them all.
fence ˆ pigeon ˆ maddy
maddy
Yes, hello...
fence ˆ pigeon ˆ maddy
maddy
...PIGEONS!
fence ˆ pigeon ˆ maddy

Wednesday, April 24th

grant, maddy
Showed Grant how to plug the guitar into GarageBand and tried my best to prod him into writing songs again.
computer ˆ couch ˆ guitar ˆ laptop ˆ grant ˆ maddy
Oldie but a goodie! Fiasco's 2004 video for Those Feelings
vin
Went out with Vin for a slamming Korean feast to celebrate his birthday...
bi bim bab ˆ birthday ˆ food ˆ korean food ˆ restaurant ˆ vin
me
...and then adjourned to The Wayland, a new bar in my hood, for a drink. RIP, Banjo Jim's.
flower ˆ me
vin
I like to pretend that he's talking like Tom Hardy's portrayal of BANE in this photo. Happy birthday, bud!
birthday ˆ flower ˆ vin
siege
Walking home, I spotted the newest issue of the Village Voice with Clayton's portrait of Stoya on the cover. Congrats, bud!
newspaper ˆ people we know in magazines ˆ siege

Thursday, April 25th

Admiring the blooming flowers in East River Park.
east river park ˆ flower
maddy
Maddy lifts her paw and points every time she sees a squirrel that she'd like to chase.
east river park ˆ flower ˆ point ˆ maddy
Two days later I spotted the recent Village Voice issue...
newspaper ˆ people we know in magazines
...this time in its more-familiar, natural habitat.
garbage ˆ newspaper ˆ people we know in magazines
My favorite lunch in the world!
bi bim bab ˆ food ˆ korean food
Later Friday night, I took the MetroNorth train up to Norwalk, CT to attend a reunion party for people that used to work at...
crowd ˆ modem media ˆ party
Nice to see so many faces that I hadn't seen in almost 15 years!
modem media
While standing on the platform waiting for the train to arrive to take me home, I instantly remembered why I left suburban Connecticut and moved to NYC. Always nice to be reminded that you made a decision that you're happy with.
train ˆ train station
Got excited for a moment because I thought maybe Larry David was sitting a few seats away...
strangers ˆ train
...but it just turned out to be a guy with a similar-shaped noggin.
bald ˆ doppleganger ˆ strangers ˆ train
maddy
Where have you been?
maddy

Saturday, April 27th

Thank God you're here!
bloom ˆ flower ˆ tree
Check it out: 8-Ball. You got a question? You ask the 8-ball!
jacket ˆ seinfeld ˆ strangers ˆ subway platform

Sunday, April 28th

grant, maddy
Lazy Sunday, just like Monday! Hot Licks Coffee Hour with your hosts Grant Stoddard and Specklesby Elbowsniffer.
guitar ˆ grant ˆ maddy
As part of my spring cleaning, I sprinkled an entire container of sea salt all over the apartment. I let it sit for a while, then vacuum it all up.
salt

Monday, April 29th

Sky waves
clouds
On Monday morning workers showed up to install a rack for New York City's new bike-sharing program.
bike ˆ citibike
Very excited for the bikes to arrive.
bike ˆ citibike
Took Maddy for her morning walk through the garden across the street...
garden ˆ la plaza cultural
...and stopped to smell all the new flowers. Happy April 2013!
flower