We Are Explorers

As the year comes to a close, I've decided that my one and only resolution for 2014 is to travel more. I'm not going to be young forever and these are prime years for exploring and adventuring!

I'm not really sure where I want to go yet. Maybe New Orleans? The Grand Canyon? Yellowstone National Park? Las Vegas? Nova Scotia? Book another cruise? Travel to an island somewhere?

My parents are planning a weeklong trip to Disney World in April with Brad, Christine, and the kids, so of course Andrew and I convinced my parents to let us tag along. I haven't been to Disney World in about 18 years, and it's been a few years since our last family vacation, so I'm really excited. Andrew and I will be roadtrippin' down to Florida so I'm looking forward to the drive as well (most people seem to dislike load roadtrips but I've always enjoyed them).

And although I don't think it's going to happen in 2014, I'd eventually like to travel to Australia and Italy too. One day.

Beginnings

Well, it took sixteen months and legal action before I could live in the city, but I'm finally all moved in! A new apartment calls for a new haiku:

A new beginning

Bitch, I'm in the 212

Adios money.

Give Life Back To Music

As you know, I've made a habit of sharing lists of all the concerts I've attended during a given period of time (see "Music Is Happiness" and "Nightmusic"). In keeping with tradition, here's a complete list of the bands I've seen (or will see) over the current year.

2013:

1/11 - Purity Ring & Young Magic (Webster Hall, New York, NY)
1/13 - DIIV (Brooklyn Bowl, Brooklyn, NY)
1/31 - Hooray For Earth (The Knitting Factory, Brooklyn, NY)
2/19 - Tame Impala (Terminal 5, New York, NY)
3/9 - Archie Pelago (Glasslands Gallery, Brooklyn, NY)
3/20 - Beach Fossils (Brooklyn Bowl, Brooklyn, NY)
5/5 - Body Language (Glasslands Gallery, Brooklyn, NY)
5/14 - Foxygen (The Knitting Factory, Brooklyn, NY)
6/7 - The Governor's Ball (Governor's Island, New York, NY)
6/13 - Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival (Great Stage Park, Manchester, TN)
8/1 - Body Language & AVAN LAVA (Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY)
9/18 - Washed Out & HAERTS (Terminal 5, New York, NY)
9/19 - Deerhunter (Webster Hall, New York, NY)
9/26 - Okkervil River (Terminal 5, New York, NY)
9/27 - Portugal. The Man (Terminal 5, New York, NY)
10/1 - Tame Impala & The Flaming Lips (Terminal 5, New York, NY)
10/2 - Miami Horror (Le Poisson Rouge, New York, NY)
10/4 - Zeds Dead & Paper Diamond (Terminal 5, New York, NY)
11/18 - Washed Out (Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY)
11/22 - Beach Fossils (285 Kent Ave, Brooklyn, NY)

By the end of the year, I will have attended 18 concerts and 2 music festivals. Here's hoping for many more!

And, for no reason, here's a list of the bands I've seen the most over the last few years:

Portugal. The Man (6 times)
Tame Impala (4 times)
Body Language (4 times)
DIIV (4 times)
Deerhunter (3 times)
Washed Out (3 times)
Cut Copy (3 times)
Delorean (3 times)
Empire of the Sun (3 times)
Beach Fossils (3 times)
Yeasayer (3 times)
Flying Lotus (3 times)

City Living

Adios, Brooklyn! It's been real. Or maybe it hasn't.

Despite waiting well over a year to move to Brooklyn, Chris and I decided to give up on our apartment since there's still no certificate of occupancy and there's no telling how much longer it would've taken. We're currently fighting for our broker fee back, but I'm optimistic that we'll get it. After looking at a few other apartments, we ended up applying for a place we liked in Upper East Side.

And with that, I'm happy to announce that I'm officially moving to Manhattan on November 1st! Fucking finally.

Big Mouth

Growing up, I was commonly told how I was such a "nice kid." I was courteous, soft-spoken, and non-confrontational.

Oh how things have changed.

I've noticed myself becoming a generally angrier and more aggressive person since I began spending quality time with the big apple. I’ve been more prone to verbally lashing out at people who provoke me, shoving people who blatantly don’t leave space to exit a subway train, etc.

For instance, just this morning I had a confrontation with some middle-aged man at the subway station. I had just swiped my card to enter the turnstile as another man came from the other direction. We were at a standstill. He told me to get out of the way and insisted he was there first, so I responded saying that obviously wasn't the case or we wouldn't be in this predicament. He started yelling at me saying I need to move, so I began to yell back that I already swiped and needed to get through. Upon the realization that he wasn’t going to budge on his own, I pushed my way through the turnstile, shoving him with me. I then proceeded to shout profanities at him and continued on my travels. I must admit that I found it liberating to stand up for myself, even if I was as much of an asshole as he was.

In another incident a few weeks prior, I ended up riding the subway with a crazy woman who was declaring to the whole train how racist she was. She kept going on and on about how another passenger needed to “go back to his own country,” while the other passengers (including the passenger being ridiculed) simply ignored her. I feel like the unspoken rule of the subway, at least in these types of situations, is to remain unspoken. It’s subway etiquette to avoid confronting or acknowledging a lunatic, a rambling homeless person, anyone who plays an instrument, etc. Well, after trying to ignore her for several minutes, I eventually snapped and broke the etiquette. I looked at her and shouted, “nobody cares what you have to say!” My comment garnered some applause as well as a death stare from the crazy woman, and luckily that’s all that came of it.

I don't think the fact that I’ve become a more aggressive individual is directly related to my current job or the actual city itself (because I really do love both). Honestly, I think its just frustration that results from dealing with people so frequently. The city is crowded and everyone is in a rush and nobody seems to really care about anyone but themselves. Obviously that’s quite a generalization, but I think it holds some weight. Anyone who has set foot in the city knows it is not overflowing with common courtesy; not giving a fuck is the New York way. Considering it is already rubbing off on me now, I wonder how bad it'll be when I actually live there.

"Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard." - Mary Schmich

Personally, I'd amend it to say, “live in New York City once, but leave before you get the shit beaten out of you.”

You're My Excuse To Travel

I've been reading a decent number of books over the last year, which is pretty good considering I don't usually read for pleasure. The fact that I spend almost 20 hours per week commuting explains this recent surge, and it's also helpful that I can download e-books directly to my Nexus 7 tablet.

I finally finished On The Road by Jack Kerouak a few months back after reading it for quite some time, in addition to reading Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer. The last book I completed was The Stranger by Albert Camus, which I absolutely loved, and I'm currently reading Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut.

Hopefully this is a habit forming. Anyone got any book recommendations?

Balance

Remember at the end of April when I challenged myself to severely cut back on frivilous spending for five weeks? Well, it actually was a huge success.

Little did I know that a few days after my month-long challenge was over, I'd end up paying all of the money I saved towards lawyer fees.

Touché, life.

Good Vibrations

A little over a week ago, I randomly decided to give Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys a listen and quickly became obsessed with the album. One thing lead to another and now I've been listening to music from the 60's and 70's pretty much exclusively. In addition to The Beach Boys, I've also been enjoying The Beatles, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Electric Light Orchestra, The Zombies, and even Frank Sinatra.

I used to listen to a decent amount of classic rock and oldies back in the day, but my exposure was limited in the sense that I was only familiar with popular hits. I never listened to any albums in their enterity and didn't know more than a handful of songs per artist, perhaps with the exception of Billy Joel and Foreigner (my mom played the shit out of those bands in her car when I was growing up). Thankfully, this older music trend that I've been in lately has enabled me to explore a bunch of albums in greater depth and develop a rich appreciation for the music of other generations. Does anyone have suggestions for other albums I should be listening to?

Buy Nothing Day

If there's one phrase I hear when I inform someone that I still haven't moved after almost eight months, it's "think of how much money you're saving!" It's a valid point, really.

While I am certaintly saving money by not paying rent, I'm not saving nearly as much as I feel I should be considering that I still live at home. The truth is, I eat out way too often and spend more money on alcohol than I need to. I keep telling myself that I want to cut back on these types of frivilous expenses while I'm living in New Jersey, but not much has changed over the last few months. Hence, I've taking a dramatic and ambitious approach for the month of May. A challenge, if you will.

Beginning immediately for the next five week, I'm placing self-imposed restrictions on my spending habits which forbid the purchase of alcoholic drinks at bars, dining out at restaurants, and all frivolous personal expenses; the only costs I want to incur are my routine travel expenses (gas, monthly metrocard, monthly bus ticket), my monthly car payment, my monthly cell phone bill, and occasional one-off expenses.

Or, in simpler terms, I'm going to be cheap as fuck.

I know this seems exteme, especially considering I'm not at all in any sort of financial distress. But part of me wants to see if I'm capable of enduring such drastic spending cuts, and there's no harm in trying to save a lot more this month. I already purchased tickets to a Foxygen concert and a Yankees game that'll occur during May, so it's not like my life will be completely void of social activities. And I still intend to hang out with friends at bars and restaurants as well, even if it means I'll be severely cheap and buy nothing. By the end of this challenge, I'm hoping to develop greater restraint when it comes to making frivilous purchases... without having to keep my checking account under lockdown, that is.

Infinite Style

I never considered myself to be much of a hardcore gamer. I don't play every day, or even every week; it tends to be sporatic. I suppose the term "casual gamer" would be more appropriate, since I've played on and off for many years, but never to the point that it becomes a long-term addiction. Every once in a while, however, a game will come along and consume my life for a short period of time. This time, Bioshock Infinite is that game.

I bought it two days ago on a whim and I'm already completely blown away from what I've played so far. I'm not even that big of a fan of first-person shooters, but the plot-driven gameplay is so immersive  that it's truly unlike anything I've experienced before.

Holy shit, Bioshock Infinite.

Counting Days

I just want to fucking move already.

I've been waiting for this apartment for six months now, and I'm still not even certain when I'll actually move in. The landlord is allegedly getting closer to obtaining a certificate of occupancy, but I'm cautiously attempting to minimize any excitement because I've only found myself severely dissapointed thus far.

Living in my parents' house was supposed to be temporary, but it is hoenstly feeling more and more permanent as time goes on. Each day that passes brings mixed emotion, whether it be anxiety, anger, excitement, regret, denial, acceptance, or depression (which happens to be the most popular one as of late). I'm trying to tell myself that this is just a minor detour in my new life, albeit a long, emotionally-straining one. Ugh.

Build Voice

Hello blogosphere! I got bored this evening and ended up reading a lot of my older posts on here. And by a lot, I basically mean all of them. All 86 of them.

I feel like some people who blog look back at their old entries and feel somewhat embarrassed by what they wrote in the past. Personally, I don't feel embarrassed or ashamed by any of it. If I were to exclusively publish depressing blog posts, that'd be different. I think there's plenty of variety in what I write, whether it be positive or negative, funny or serious, concrete or abstract. My goal is to write more frequently this year than I did last year, although sometimes I wonder how many people actually read this anymore. But I don't necessarily blog for an audience; it's very much for my own sake.

I'm really glad that I've been keeping up with my blog since June 2009. I'm glad to see others continuing to blog as well. Honestly, I think everyone should blog more. I just want to know what everyone's thinking all the time!

My tumblr blog, on the other hand, has been negletcted for quite a while now. If anything, it's just me reblogging things I like once in a blue moon and I never post any original content on there anymore. But I honestly don't mind. I like to think of my tumblr as a sort of "college time capsule" anyway. If you want to take a walk down memory lane, check it out at http://breakthesame.tumblr.com.

I guess this became a blog post about blogging? That's so meta.