i keep a diary

December, 2015

The December Roundup

Here's all the photos I took in December 2015 that didn't end up in their own entry

Saturday, December 5th

Not really feeling my new living room rug. I like that it's bigger than my last rug, but the pattern is so crazy and complex that it's hard to find anything I put down on the floor. Haha. On Saturday I tried watching some Wolf Hall on Netflix.
laptop ˆ sandwich ˆ tv
Couldn't decide between two Organic Grill options for dinner...
food ˆ sandwich
...so I GOT BOTH!
food ˆ mexican
vin
Later that night, I met up with Vin and we went to a house party at John's loft.
house party ˆ loft ˆ vin
vin
Excellent place for a party!
house party ˆ loft ˆ vin
john roche
Talking politics, eating chips.
house party ˆ john roche
john roche
I met his new ladyfriend Julia and John made us all tropical blender drinks.
girly drinks ˆ house party ˆ john roche
Turntable selection.
loft ˆ record
When dogs look this pathetic...
chair ˆ dogs
...you gotta buddy-up with them.
dogs
books
Left John's with a bunch of excellent books on sacred geometry and a pair of maracas for adding some percussion to my Garageband recordings.
book ˆ books
Came home and was reading but got talked into a late night OKCupid date in the neighborhood (with a girl who turned out to be from my hometown!).
couch ˆ phone

Monday, December 7th

vin
Got together Monday morning with Vin and talked about helping him create comic book with a bunch of funny stories from his high school past.
e9th apt ˆ vin

Thursday, December 10th

On Thursday, I decided to get my gamble on. After over two years of watching the price of Bitcoin, I had a hunch that it would continue to exhibit fractal growth-patterns (self-repeating at different scale).
bitcoin ˆ fractal ˆ photoshop
I used photoshop to superimpose the previous price-history of Bitcoin over ITSELF...
bitcoin ˆ fractal ˆ photoshop
...and then drew lines into the future trying to guess when the next big price spike would happen and how high the price would go. The price of Bitcoin in December 2015 was $325 and I based on my stupid photoshop comps I predicted that Bitcoin would hit $3,000 by Dec 25th, 2016.

I showed this to a few of my quant-programmer friends who shrugged and told me told me I probably had no idea what I was doing. Hahah. Much to my own surprise, my prediction ended up being pretty close! The price didn't spike until June of 2017, so it took 18 months instead of 12, but the price did go up 8x to $2,800!
bitcoin ˆ fractal ˆ photoshop

Friday, December 11th

On Friday I went to see the eye doctor and she dilated my eyes so hard.
My pupils are already pretty big...
me
...but those drops really make me look CRAZY. (Trying to see into the BITCOIN FUTURE.)
crazy ˆ dilated ˆ eyes ˆ me
With my eyes still all giant and weird, I squintily made my way over to Bowery Ballroom for...
brandon
...Nightmare of You's 10-year anniversary show!
band ˆ bowery ballroom ˆ nightmare of you ˆ brandon
brandon, joe
So awesome to see them play their whole debut album from start to finish.
band ˆ bowery ballroom ˆ nightmare of you ˆ brandon ˆ joe
brandon, joe
Gave me the 2005 feels so hard.
band ˆ bowery ballroom ˆ nightmare of you ˆ brandon ˆ joe
Hung around after the show to say hi to the fellas.
bowery ballroom
chris black, sarah
And caught up with Chris & Sarah!
bowery ballroom ˆ thumbs up ˆ chris black ˆ sarah

Saturday, December 12th

chris a, frank, leah
On Saturday I went out to Frank & Liz's apartment for the TENTH installment of my favorite holiday party of the season: A Very Picarazzi Christmas! (Here's a link to the very first one back in 2005!)
house party ˆ party ˆ xmas ˆ chris a ˆ frank ˆ leah
With a rapt audience awaiting...
...it was time to strap on and ROKK some holiday tunes.
The evening usually starts out with a semi-prepared setlist...
...of holiday tunes.
amanda, fatty, frank, grant
But quickly devolves into karaoke where you can just name a song and the band will look up the chords (or Frank probably already knows them and will just shout out the changes!)
band ˆ xmas ˆ amanda ˆ fatty ˆ frank ˆ grant
amanda, grant, jane anne, paula t
All dressed up for the holidays!
amanda ˆ grant ˆ jane anne ˆ paula t
chris a, fatty, frank
So much fun! I still think this should be turned into at least a quarterly party!
band ˆ xmas tree ˆ chris a ˆ fatty ˆ frank
I edited together this montage of some choice cuts of the hits from the evening. (My favorite moment is Fatty's expression at 3:20) Enjoy! Track listing:
1. Christmas Wrapping
2. I Can't Go for That
3. Christmas Wrapping (part 2)
4. Head Over Heels
5. Plush
6. Peace on Earth / Ziggy Stardust
7. Let's Go
8. Fairytale Of New York
9. Creep
10. Don't You Want Me
11. Do They Know It's Christmas?
band ˆ best ˆ house party ˆ karaoke ˆ party ˆ video ˆ xmas ˆ amanda ˆ chris a ˆ fatty ˆ frank ˆ grant ˆ jane anne ˆ leah ˆ me ˆ mike blancaflor ˆ paula t

Monday, December 14th

On Monday I drove out to Pennsylvania with LeagueApps' senior leadership team for a strategy off-site!
flux capacity ˆ leagueapps ˆ work
brian l
I feel so lucky that I get to help startups make plans for how to do things differently as they grow!
flux capacity ˆ leagueapps ˆ work ˆ brian l
litty
Brian kicked things off...
flux capacity ˆ leagueapps ˆ work ˆ litty
steve p
And then each department head took everyone else through their plan for the next upcoming two quarters. Steve talking about Tech.
flux capacity ˆ leagueapps ˆ work ˆ steve p
asaf
Asaf talking about Customer Success.
flux capacity ˆ leagueapps ˆ work ˆ asaf
ammad, gautam, jeremy g, steve p
We had a very cool art studio on a farm!
flux capacity ˆ leagueapps ˆ work ˆ ammad ˆ gautam ˆ jeremy g ˆ steve p
ammad
By the time we got to Ammad with the marketing plan, it was getting dark!
flux capacity ˆ leagueapps ˆ work ˆ ammad
asaf, maddy
We stayed over on the farm so I brought Maddy along!
flux capacity ˆ leagueapps ˆ work ˆ asaf ˆ maddy

Saturday, December 19th

I was tired of buying so many gallon jugs of distilled water so I decided to buy a water distiller!
distilled
I also bought this water purity testing device that measures TDS (total disolved solids) in parts-per-million.
water
New York City tap water measures around 38 parts-per-million of disolved solids in the water, but after distilling it in my distiller, it was 000, perfectly pure! Nothing but H 2 and 0.
distilled ˆ water
krystyna
On Saturday night, Gurj & Jared invited me to see Krystyna & Wendy's monthly comedy show in the West Village.
comedy ˆ krystyna
Nothing makes me laugh harder than Wendy...
comedy
jared
...making Jared laugh.
comedy ˆ laugh ˆ jared
After this guy finished his set...
...an older woman in a raincoat took the stage.
Turns out she was an elderly contortionist. She started out with some dance moves...
comedy
...but things escalated...
comedy ˆ wtf ˆ yoga
...pretty quickly.
comedy ˆ wtf ˆ yoga
krystyna
She was so thankful to Krystyna for letting her show off her skills.
comedy ˆ krystyna
krystyna
Krystyna was so proud of her. Hahah.
comedy ˆ krystyna
This poor guy had to follow an eighty-something year-old contortionist! Tough!
comedy

Sunday, December 19th

Sunday evening chilling...
maddy
...with my big-nose buddy before a long night out.
dogs ˆ maddy
sarah
Went over to Sarah's for dinner and she made vegetarian sushi with watermelon instead of tuna.
apt 3a ˆ cooking ˆ kitchen ˆ sushi ˆ sarah
sarah
Not only did it look just like real sushi, it was absolutely delicious!
cooking ˆ sushi ˆ sarah
sarah
Wrap it up!
cooking ˆ sushi ˆ sarah
We went to Freeman's to meet up with Mandy and some of her friends.
And then a little after midnight we headed crosstown...
...to the old McGovern's Bar...
sign ˆ sway
...which is really called Sway Lounge...
sign ˆ sway
xiomara
...for one of the last Sunday Smiths Nights. (I used to go this all the time 10 years ago!)
crowd ˆ party ˆ sway ˆ xiomara
mandy, me
Me and Mandy.
mandy ˆ me
omri, sarah
It was so crowded you couldn't even really dance. Stayed until a little after three...
sway ˆ omri ˆ sarah
omri, sarah
...then split a cab back east-side with these two!
taxi ˆ omri ˆ sarah

Monday, December 21st

On Monday night I went to LeagueApps holiday party at Ace Bar!
flux capacity ˆ leagueapps ˆ party ˆ work ˆ xmas ˆ xmas lights
jane anne
Jane Anne came at the end to get in on the sweet garlic knot action.
jane anne
Spotted this sweet Sex Money Weed shirt on the walk home
clothes ˆ strangers

Wednesday, December 30th

On Wednesday afternoon, Vin and I went to see the new Star Wars in 3d.
movie
me, vin
We were the only two people in the theater! Happy December 2015!
3D ˆ movie ˆ me ˆ vin