Happy Black Day!

I realize this requires a little explanation...

In South Korea on Valentine's Day girls typically give gifts to their significant others. A month later on March 14th is White Day and that's when the men give gifts in return. April 14th is known as Black Day and it's the day when all the single people who weren't able to give or receive gifts on either Valentine's Day or White Day get together and sulk (or celebrate their singlehood). It's called Black Day because typically you eat jjajangmyeon, a Koreanized version of a Chinese dish of wheat noodles covered in black soybean paste. It usually includes diced meat and vegetables.

So I couldn't help myself from taking a stroll down to K-Town here in NYC today to take part in this culturally deep tradition.

Who am I kidding? I'll take any excuse to visit K-Town and eat Korean food.

Happy Black Day to all my single friends!

The View from the Top

So I have one of those jobs where we sometimes get to go on fun field trips (I was sad when I discovered this isn't the case for most people).

Anyway, this week I went with a group of my coworkers on a trip to the World Trade Center to see the new 9/11 Memorial and see the progress of the rest of the site. We were shown around by the deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is overseeing the massive project of building One World Trade Center.

It was so neat to get a close-up look at a site that will forever be remembered in our nation's history. I knew we were going to have to put on a hard hat, eye protection, and a reflective vest, but I had no idea they were going to take us up to the 85th floor of the still-under-construction building. We had to take two separate construction elevators before stepping out and seeing the amazing view.

The really shocking part came when we were wandering around the 85th floor and we were told it is a tradition that when you visit a skyscraper under construction, you sign it. So they handed out markers and asked, "Would you do us the honor of signing our building?" I was completely blown away.

Before I know it, the building will be completed and no one will ever be able to even see that signature. But whenever I look at One World Trade Center I will always feel this small personal connection to a steel beam on the 85th floor of the North side of the building.

Add this to the long list of moments when I have to stop and think, "How did I end up here?"

Good Night

I may or may not have appeared on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night.


It was actually a lot of fun, even if I had to go all by myself. The lead guest was Matt Lauer so I hung out with him at the Today Show yesterday morning and then I hung out with him on Late Night. Let's just say we're calling yesterday Jake and Matt's Day O' Fun.

The other guests were Mary McCormack (from the West Wing - my all-time favorite TV show), Dana White (the President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship) and musical guest Iron and Wine. Dana White was on the show promoting his new video game that arrived in stores yesterday and so he gave everyone in the audience a free copy of the game. It's a good thing I own some sort of gaming system and I play it nonstop...oh wait.

The greatest part is that I was put in a section of seats where I got to go down on stage when Iron and Wine played and stand behind the band. It was definitely neato.

Good Morning

I may or may not have appeared on NBC's Today Show this morning.


Just in case you were wondering.

I Got the Sun in the Morning

Taking stock of what I have and what I haven't...

I may not have:

• Much money
• A job
• A clue about what I'm doing in New York

But I do have:

• A light rain
• A nice jog through Central Park

And today, that's all I need.

Don't worry, it didn't snow overnight. I just felt like this post needed a picture and sadly, this is the most recent picture I've taken of Central Park (February 2008). Just imagine it with a lot less white and a lot more green.

Harrelson: I mistook photographer for zombie

Okay, I don't normally venture into the world of commenting on entertainment news (in fact, I usually don't even follow it) but I was on CNN.com yesterday and something in the sidebar caught my eye and I just had to click on it:

Woody Harrelson claims he mistook photographer for zombie


You can read the full article about Harrelson attacking a photographer at a New York airport by clicking on the link above, but the best part of the story is the statement from Harrelson:

"I wrapped a movie called 'Zombieland,' in which I was constantly under assault by zombies, then flew to New York, still very much in character," Harrelson said in a statement issued Friday by his publicist. "With my daughter at the airport I was startled by a paparazzo, who I quite understandably mistook for a zombie," he said.

So many comments could be made at this point.

I'm glad he didn't make up some crazy excuse like "I was protecting my daughter" or "he caught me by surprise and I behaved inappropriately as a result." Instead, he did the best thing he could and he used the universal fear of zombies to get the media and the American public on his side.

Give that publicist a raise Woody!

Of course my roommate Zach had the reaction the majority of people probably will have upon reading this. He asked questions such as: Is Woody Harrelson even making movies anymore? Why would any photographer care what Woody Harrelson was doing anyway? Was it just a really slow news day?

Good point Zach. Good point.

An interesting side note to this whole story is Harrelson is already being sued for attacking another photographer outside of a nightclub in June of 2006. You can read all the details about that incident here. The clash took place soon after A Prairie Home Companion came out in theaters so I wonder if he used the “I was still in character” defense then. Of course he was also in the process of filming No Country for Old Men at the time, so maybe he just mistook the photographer for Tommy Lee Jones.

And that's an argument that would win over any jury.

Anyone Want to Join Me?

Since high school I have wanted to get a group of friends together, choreograph and learn a dance, and go to a public place and perform a seemingly spontaneous dance number.

I have yet to fulfill this dream, so in the meantime I just watch videos of other people doing it and I smile.

Elephants on Parade

Last night I stood in front of the Empire State Building and watched ten circus elephants march down the middle of East 34th Street. I know you're expecting the next line to be "and then I woke up" but this was no dream my friends.

The event is usually referred to as the Midnight Elephant Walk. Every year when the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus comes to NYC, their mile long train can’t get to Manhattan so they park the train off the island and march the elephants and horses through the Queens-Midtown Tunnel. The animals and their handlers parade down 34th Street, across the island to Madison Square Garden where the circus is held. They do this around midnight so they don't disrupt traffic too much when they block of the street.

I actually didn’t even know about the event until 11:00 pm last night when I was at a friend’s house and someone mentioned it. No one else wanted to go because it was late and everyone had to get up early to go to work. Being unemployed I didn’t have any problem staying up late so I headed downtown armed with a scarf and my camera.

My camera isn’t the best for taking pictures at night so this is the best picture I came away with. The elephants lumbered by holding each other’s tails in their trunks like a line of kindergarten kids holding hands on their way to lunch.




The event tends to attract a lot of animal rights activists and others protesting the treatment of the elephants and other circus animals so seeing those crowds out in full force was exciting. I’m not going to wade into the pool of controversy surrounding elephants and the circus and I’ll leave the moral questions involved to those who are more educated on the issue.

I also tried to get a good video of the event but again my camera didn’t do very well so my thanks to “BRADbury creme egg” for posting this video on MySpace.

2009 NYC Barnum & Bailey Elephant Walk

In My Own Backyard

Yesterday while enjoying the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Zach and I noticed a laminated paper posted to a street sign saying the block would be closed down to parked cars on Wednesday, March 18 for the filming of “Did You Hear About the Morgans?”

After doing a little research, we discovered it is a romantic comedy scheduled to come out later this year starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Hugh Grant and Elisabeth Moss. According to IMDB, the movie is about “an estranged New York City couple who witness a murder and are relocated to small-town Wyoming as part of a witness-protection program.”

With a movie that has blockbuster written all over it like that, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to wander through the set this afternoon.

Five or six times.

Sadly we did not catch a glimpse of any of the big name stars, but we did see all of the extras hanging around on a street corner all dressed up waiting for something to happen. Some people wandering by on the street would stop and take pictures of the set and the extras lined up outside would smile and pose for the pictures. No one had the heart to tell them they were just taking pictures of the set, not the random/unknown extras. Oh well.

Also, on our way to the set, we unknowingly wandered past the Lenox Hill Hospital where actress Natasha Richardson is on life support after a skiing accident earlier this week in Quebec. She’s a British actress, the wife of Liam Neeson and the daughter of Vanessa Redgrave. There were cameras and reporters lined up and down the block.

It’s crazy what you find in this city when you just take a walk down the street.

A Dispatch from the Edge

My mom recently told me that a friend of hers read Anderson Cooper’s book, Dispatches from the Edge* and thought it was something I would enjoy reading. When my mom told me this, I was in Nowheresville, Pennsylvania and it inspired my own Dispatch from the Edge:

Now that I’m unemployed I’ve been searching for things to do to fill my time. It’s hard going from working 12 or 13 hour days to having nothing to do. It’s like driving 90 miles an hour and slamming on the brakes. But luckily my aunt and uncle were there to help me with the adjustment. My uncle just got a promotion and his job moved him and his family to Pennsylvania from Texas. I’ve never had East Coast family out here with me so I was more than happy to take them up on their offer to go stay with them for a week.

I rode the Amtrak train up to Philadelphia and then out to Lancaster where my aunt and uncle met me at the station. Now before I go any further, let me clear something up. You are going to read Lancaster and want to pronounce it Lan.cas.ter, but you would be mistaken. The correct pronunciation is Langk.i.str. I didn’t want you to get laughed at by the locals because they can be pretty ruthless. Trust me.

Anyway, we left the station and drove out to my aunt and uncle’s new house. They live in a suburb of a very small town, so we were definitely out there. It had snowed a couple of days before so it was nice to be out of the big city and to see rolling hills and open fields covered in snow.

My uncle had work all day and my cousin had school all day so my aunt and I would just stay home and unpack boxes and flatten paper. The moving company they used packed every box with all of this paper and so we had to flatten it, pile it up and bundle it for the recycle bin. Just to give you an idea, this picture shows what we were up against.

This was our finished product:

This aunt and uncle lived in Logan, Utah while I was going to college so it was a lot of fun to catch up with them and spend time with them again.

Since we were so close to Amish country, we went on an adventure with the goal of seeing a horse and buggy. I thought the first step would be to drive further out into the country, but I was thrown off guard when I found out the easiest way to see a horse and buggy is to drive to the local Wal-Mart. Apparently the Amish are nuts about Wal-Mart. Who knew? Wal-Mart even has special horse and buggy parking stalls set up in their parking lot to accommodate any Amish people looking for one-stop shopping.

Other highlights of the trip included:

- Riding the Amtrak like Joe Biden through Wilmington, Delaware
- Finally getting the chance to sleep in
- Rocking out to the hits of the 60s and 70s all day while unpacking boxes
- Going to church and getting a personal invitation to the upcoming unemployment fair. Twice.
- A peaceful drive through Bird-in-Hand and Intercourse, Pennsylvania (insert obligatory joke here)
- My aunt backing up over a stranger’s mailbox

It was a great trip and it made me really excited to finally have some East Coast family. Any West Coast family looking to join the party knows where to find us.

*UPDATE: I read Anderson Cooper's book and loved it! I recommend it to everyone.

So Close to History, and Yet So Far...

A friend of mine was amazing and scored a ticket to Inauguration for me (thanks Molly!), so for the past week I’ve been mentally preparing myself for the long lines, the crowds of people and the hours upon hours of standing in one place. In my mind, I compare it to New Year’s Eve in Times Square: you know you are going to be bored, cold, miserable and crammed in with a ton of other people, but you have to do it so you can tell your kids one day that you were there.

The morning started out well enough. We squished onto the Metro easily and rode into the city. We followed the map to the street where our color-coded gate was and as we turned the corner, we started to realize how the morning was really going to be.

Four blocks straight down the street, we could see a huge banner marking the entrance we were supposed to take, but between us and that sign were thousands of people packed in like sardines between the buildings running down either side of the street. We joined the crowd and started making friends with those around us as we inched our way down the street (that’s not an exaggeration either; it took us an hour and a half to go one block). Of course, I quickly became the tall look out guy that everyone would ask for an update from. It was okay, because I had been prepared for the moment by years of school dances from junior high to high school. I would always get my hopes up when the cute girl made eye contact with me and walked my way, but inevitably it was always, "Hey you tall kid, can you see my friend somewhere over there?"

For the most part, the wait was pretty boring, but there were some highlights:

- Mariah Carey and her husband being whisked past us surrounded by a security detail.

- No less than four ambulances (ambuli?) and two police cars working their way through the crowd, forcing us even closer to each other.

- Standing right next to the cannons as they gave their 21 gun salute to the new president (the woman next to me screamed and started to run away thinking we were under attack).

- Getting all the way to the end of the street, running into a fence and realizing the actual entrance was two blocks to the East (can we get some better signage next time, please?).

Just as I checked the time on my phone right at noon, thinking of how my employment with the Federal Government was officially at an end, I looked up to see the gates closing, literally in my face. From where I was standing, I could reach up and touch the closed gate. If there was a more appropriate metaphor for the moment, I don’t know what it was.

Once the gates were closed, the crowd erupted in chants of “let us in” and “open the gates,” but soon everyone realized that it really was over and their chances of getting in were gone. People quieted down, some crying and some describing the event organizers with words I won’t use here. As the crowd slowly dispersed, one of the many vendors we had encountered throughout the morning came wandering through.

“Get your ‘I was there’ buttons! Get your ‘I was there’ buttons!”

Waiter! Can I get a little more salt for this wound? Or at least a two-by-four I can swing at this guy?


P.S. - Just to offer a little bit of perspective: Yesterday we went into the city and scoped out our spot. This is where I should have been standing for the event:

I would show you a picture of where I actually was for the event, but it was too crowded for me to reach my camera in my pocket and it probably would have taken too long to blur out all of the middle fingers being waved in the air.

Oh well, Happy Inauguration Day!

My New (First Class) Guitar

For Christmas, my Aunt and Uncle bought me a guitar. I’ve never played a guitar before and I had never really considered learning to, but I am now the proud owner of one and so far I’m excited to learn. Let’s just say the three chords I know how to play are sounding great.

Anyway, when I was transporting the guitar from Utah to D.C., I took it with me on the plane as my carry-on luggage. They normally can store large or odd shaped items in a closet near the front of the plane, but my first flight was on a smaller plane and there wasn’t enough room for it. I asked the flight attendant about it and he said there were going to be enough empty seats, so he could just find one and buckle it in.

Later on, he came back to my seat (which happened to be in the last row. You know, the one that doesn’t lean back at all because it’s up against the back wall of the plane) and told me he had found two empty seats in First Class and he had laid the guitar across the seats and buckled it in. At this point I’m imagining what two First Class tickets would cost and of course my first question was if there was anyway I could swap seats with the guitar or at least sit next to it.

Let’s just say while I have never flown First Class, my guitar has.

Sad.

My Old Man Humor

I've always teased my dad about two things:

1. His age
2. His sense of humor

One of the the saddest days of my life was the day I realized I have the same sense of humor (although I like to think mine is slightly more sophisticated and my sense of timing is better). I've had many a friend tell me my jokes sounded just like jokes their dad would tell.

At work today I was getting on the elevator and as the doors were closing a man came around the corner and wanted to get on. I quickly pushed the "Open Door" button and the man slipped on to the elevator. The following conversation ensued:

Elevator Man: "Thank you. You were very quick with that button."
Me: "I've had plenty of practice. I even considered being an elevator operator once."
Elevator Man: "Oh really? What made you change your mind?"
Me: "Too many ups and downs."

Thanks a lot dad.

Happy Internet Day!

This is the story of the day the Internet came streaming back into my life.

My roommates and I have been talking about getting the Internet for a while, but we finally broke down and signed up. The only other obstacle was figuring out that we don't have any phone jacks that work in the house. After an hour or so of following cords, wires and cables from the basement to the attic, we finally found the main box and plugged the router in.

And now my connection to the outside world has been restored.

I haven't had reliable Internet connection since I moved to D.C. (almost a year ago). For the most part, it hasn't been too bad. One day I told my boss I didn't have Internet and I think he was genuinely concerned for my welfare.

I use the Internet at work all day, so I can take care of the necessities but certain things have fallen by the wayside. One being keeping up on the best YouTube videos. But more importantly, this blog has been sorely neglected. I have been horrible about keeping it up to date and now that I have the Internet at my house, I will try to be better about posting updates. I have a list of things I'm going to go back and fill in too.

It's just good to be back.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

What do all of these people have in common?

Condoleezza Rice
Morgan Freeman
Barbara Streisand
Clint Eastwood
Glenn Close
Randy Travis
George Jones
Idina Menzel
Taye Diggs
Michael York
James Brolin
Nancy Pelosi
Barbara Boxer
Patrick Leahy
Bob Schieffer
Roger Daltrey
Pete Townshend
Dave Grohl
Julie Chen
Joss Stone
Twyla Tharp

Let's just say I love my job....

There's Someone I'd Like You to Meet

I haven't stopped laughing yet. It's been three days.

"I'm Sorry, but I Can't Get to the Phone Right Now..."

Answering machine recordings are odd social experiments in themselves.

First of all, what’s funny is I still refer to an “answering machine” even though I haven’t seen one in years. So when I say answering machine, I clearly mean voicemail.

Anyway, I’ve always found it interesting to listen to different people’s recordings they have on their voicemail. I think it can tell you a lot about a person. Sometimes they’re funny. Other times, the person sounds absolutely miserable. You can always tell when one of your friends is looking for a job, because their recording is all of a sudden very professional and they enunciate unusually well.

My favorite phrase that everyone seems to love to use on their recording is, “I’m sorry, but I can’t get to the phone right now…” I love it because it’s such a lie. How can you physically not be able to get to the phone? That sounds ridiculous. Or at least, I thought so until today.

My roommates and I went to Costco tonight to do a little shopping (obviously there’s no such thing as a “little” shopping when you go to Costco, but you know what I mean). On our way out, we saw that all of the carts were stacked in front of the pay phones. I thought it was sad because what if someone really needed to use the pay phone? How would they get to them? Luckily, Robbie was there to figure it out.

So here he is, crawling over shopping carts to try and answer the phone. But by the time he got there, they had hung up. While he was by the phone he did find an old man’s cane though. But no old man.

We tried looking for him among all the carts, but I’m afraid we may have been too late.

The Longest Continuous Escalator in the Western Hemisphere

Just when I thought I had seen everything there is to see in our nation’s capitol, Wikipedia proves me wrong.

Random fact time: the longest continuous escalator in the western hemisphere is located on the Red Line of the D.C. Metro. Wikipedia also informed me that the shortest escalator in the world is in some mall in New Jersey. It has three steps. I have no idea why you would even build an escalator that small. Perhaps to increase tourism. But I digress.

My dear friend Emily Mueller came out to visit me here in the District and I thought it would be a great opportunity to visit such an historic spot. We rode the red line train all the way out to Wheaton station and stared up at this huge escalator. We timed how long it took to get to the top and it was almost three minutes. That doesn’t sound long, I know. But when you’re on an escalator three minutes seems like a long time. We were having fun riding up and then back down the other side and I thought about how it may be fun for us, but it must suck for the people who commute through Wheaton station every day. You’d have to add a whole chunk of time to your commute just for the escalator. And what if it broke down? I couldn’t imagine having to climb all of those steps.



Anyway, I’m glad I finally got the opportunity to ride the longest continuous escalator. Simple pleasures for simple minds you know.

Don't Feed the Animals!

One thing I love about D.C. is all the free stuff there is to do (granted, most of the free stuff is subsidized through tax dollars. So thank you for paying your taxes so I have entertainment on the weekends)

This week we decided to take advantage of the Smithsonian National Zoo. The craziest part about the zoo to me is you’re walking up a busy street with high-rise apartments on both sides and all of a sudden there is this big opening and you walk into a zoo. There’s even a 7-11 across the street. I guess I’m just used to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake where you have to drive up the canyon away from the city before you get to the zoo.

I was also surprised at how big it was and how much there was to see. When we walked in we decided to get a map so we could make sure to see everything we wanted to see. When I asked the lady for a map, she told me they were five dollars. I told her no thank you, to which she replied, “but the money goes to support the zoo.” I of course said, “Yeah, and so do my tax dollars.”

Needless to say we ended up wandering around aimlessly. But we did get to see a lot of cool things. We saw the famous Pandas of course, Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and the baby, Tai Shan. (Random side note: I just searched the Smithsonian site to find the spellings for the names of the Pandas and discovered that you can get Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and Tai Shan ringtones. I don’t know about you, but I believe ringtones have gotten a little ridiculous, but that’s another blog in itself).

We also got to see the birds, reptiles, felines, bears, giraffes, elephants, hippopotami, etc. The hippopotamus even had a huge red rubber ball to play with. I was glad to see the zoo keepers were replicating its natural habitat as accurately as possible.

The highlight for us was the Ape/Orangutan Habitat. There was this one ape that was definitely a crowd pleaser. We walked in and all of these people were gathered around the glass looking into its area. This ape would throw up all over the glass, lick it up, move down a few feet and throw up once more. He was doing this over and over and the people couldn’t get enough. It was disgusting for sure, but we just couldn’t take our eyes off it. Then I looked around his habitat and there were empty pizza boxes everywhere. He must have had a crazy block party the night before and was still recovering. Apparently the pizza man missed the sign that said, “Please don’t feed us, our zoo diets are great.”

So I highly recommend the zoo as a day o’ fun for everyone. Just make sure to take some money so you can pick up a map and whatever you do, don’t feed the animals.

A Little Advice

Word to the wise…



If you leave a can of Pepsi in the freezer for too long, it will explode. My roommate learned this after conducting some fairly scientific experiments.

Just wanted to save you some trouble.