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[pmcd9]

Also: just now on the street a man got in my face and said "FUCK YOU, YOU F***** N*****." So I think I'm a provisional official New York resident, at least.

And the environmentalist wonder why most of us don't want to crowd into big cities and use public transportation. Yes, I realize I live in a big city, but I'm becoming increasingly unhappy at how big it's become. I think I need to leave this place.

[theinevitable]

well, I think that's kind of a chicken-egg problem. The reason cities got so run down and scary is that everyone left. (because of government policies that encouraged them to leave, but, let's not get too complicated).

I've never had anyone say anything like that to me in any other city, either.

(week-later edit: this was unfair, cities were always pretty dirty and awful, but a lot other rich western countries seem to have done a good job making them clean and nice and not full of people screaming at you)

[theinevitable]

Tonight I went to a board game night at a bar near my house. I played silly board games with nice people. Other than that yelling guy my interactions with people in New York have been mostly pleasant.

Our office's admin assistant has a great Brooklyn accent, despite being my age and Asian. It gives me hope for the future of regional accents.

[Carlos del Vaca]

Hey Inev, that dumpling place was great. Katz's had a line down the block, though, and we had to get to the show. We ended up finding a Mile End, which was on my list anyway.

What with my recent mostly-withdrawal from Facebook, I didn't bother announcing this New York trip to the world. Probably should have. In addition to various NYC peeps such as Inev, turns out two other friends were in New York at the same time. Good time to be anti-social, Carlos.

[theinevitable]

I'm glad you liked the dumplings! That place is my favorite cheap eat I've found so far.

And I figured you were just doing a family trip thing, but if any of y'all are ever up here let me know and we can hang.

Guys, online dating in a city of 8.4 million is uncontrollable. Holy cow.

[theinevitable]

The really cute girl at work invited me to a NYE party. She said something weird like "I think you'd really get along with the people."

...and then later mentioned that it's "all her gay friends." Yikes.

[wombat]

What's wrong with either of those comments?

And are you going to go?

[theinevitable]

I'm going, I just wonder if she invited me because she thinks I am a gay man.

[Carlos del Vaca]

Here is a New York tip for Inev or anyone else. Take the Staten Island Ferry (it's free!) and gawk at the Statue of Liberty out the window. But when you get there, don't just tool around the terminal for a half hour and go back like everyone else. Walk to Pier 76, an Italian place that seriously has the best pizza I've had in a long time. They also serve beers by SI-based Flagship Brewing Company.

I can also recommend the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. We went to Momofuku Milk Bar and it did not live up to the hype; they were pretty much just cookies.

[theinevitable]

I'll check that out! I also really need to go to the Tenement Museum.

I think Milk Bar cookies are pretty good, but are way too expensive. I got my sister their cookbook for her birthday one year, and it belatedly occurs to me that I should just take a picture of the recipe for the ones I like (compost cookies) and make them at home. Their "crack pie" is also delicious, but it's like $5 for a tiny little slice.

I went to my college roommate's parents' party and it was a bunch of guys who went to Wombat's high school, and then a bunch of parents. I did not make it to the other party.

[Carlos del Vaca]

I'll check that out! I also really need to go to the Tenement Museum.

It is not cheap--$25 for a tour, nothing self-guided (though you can look around the museum shop and watch their introductory movie for free). But I'm really glad we went. For our kids, history class is mostly colonization, Revolutionary War, Civil War, and then seemingly nothing happened until World War I. This museum fills some of that gap. And it's highly relevant right now, with Hispanics and Muslims being the latest demonized outsiders. Jews, Italians and other Catholics, Germans, Chinese and other Asians, they all went through that too. But they were willing to do shitty jobs for little money just to have a shot in this country. I think all Americans should understand that, rather than shouting "They took our jerbs!" maybe we should appreciate people who are willing to bust their collective ass to carve out a life.

[wombat]

I went to my college roommate's parents' party and it was a bunch of guys who went to Wombat's high school,

This will never stop sounding like a mistake to me, apparently, all these years later (there were no "guys" when I went there).

[theinevitable]

My boss implied that I can somehow get a free tour because our office helps them research new exhibits. I need to look into that.

[theinevitable]

I find myself doing this task over and over, and can't find a technological solution. Given point A and point B, what subway stop is roughly in the middle/the same travel time from both? If you paired this calculation with bar suggestions you could make a mint, somehow.

It couldn't be that hard, because although there are a lot of subway stops, you could just do the calculation for each pair once and store the answer. When someone put in a query it would just look down the list until it found the matching entry.

Well, OK, there are ~222,000 subway stop combinations. I guess the "local knowledge" solution is that anyone who lives here knows what parts of the city they can get to easily.

[pmcd9]

I'll check that out! I also really need to go to the Tenement Museum.

I don't know if this is related, but Queen have a song called Tenement Funster. It's about learning to become a rock star.