Man it was such a beautiful night tonight. I wish that I would have been able to spend a little time outside. It was super clear and the perfect temperature. As I was rigding home tonight, I had the window down. It was the first time that I really had a good view of the waterfalls that have been installed along the East River. The falls are a creation of the artist Olafur Eliasson. When I first saw them going up, I was kind of opposed to them. Especially since was was going directly under the Brooklyn Bridge. It seemed to me, almost like it would deface the bridge, or something. I was actually mystified by the fact that the historical landmark people allowed the falls to go up. Anyway, I have changed my mind. They are pretty cool. I wish that I could have taken a picture from the vantage point I had on the FDR tonight, instead of pilfering these shots from some guy on Flickr. I kind of want to go check them out up close, now.

Over the weekend, I was exposed to one of the most aggravatingly dumb things I have ever seen. It is a Parker Brother’s game called Gnip Gnop. No, the “G”s are not silent. Yes, it is ping pong spelled backwards. For only $20 you can own this game. It is made of flimsy plastic and can be seen in action here. Can you believe that some guy, somewhere is raking in money for this idea? Its like Hugh Grant’s character on About a boy. Only in this case, instead of a song, the guy designs one crap game that turns out to be a massive hit. Are you kidding me? Look at that thing? If I would have known that you could make $20 a pop from one, sub-mediocre idea, I would have gone into game-inventing. In fact, I think that I still might. I’m going to make a game called biud boud, which is a rough spelling of ping pong, upside down. Now that I have the name, all I need to do is pick up some cheap plastic and work out the details.

How do I have so much time to write, you ask? Because I’m sitting around waiting for a bloody wire to hit so that I can make traxxxxxx out o’ here. To the point; I read a semi-intriguing article on the train today. It was in this month’s Esquire by A.J. Jacobs. The article is basically a rebuttal to the argument that younger generations are less intelligent. Jacobs cites upward trends in IQs, basic problem solving, etc. I tend to agree with Jacobs. Even though work ethic and grades in public schools are slipping, I think that someone would be hard pressed to prove a nexus between these issues and actual intelect. I’m sure that there are some kids out there that are stupid. We all knew a few in college that we were amazed to see graduate. But overall, at least from my perspective (which is reputable, hahahah), the younger generation is not only super intelligent, but they are leaps and bounds ahead of where I was at a young age, because of the tools they now possess. In my opinion, we are getting smarter because we don’t have to waste mental energy on the menial crap that we used to. For example, when is the last time you had to memorize a phone number? When I was growing up, I had a small phonebook committed to memory. Now, I sometimes fumble when I am trying to recite my own number from memory. The advent of the outlook calendar and now Google calendar, changed my life forever. I don’t have to remember anything anymore. If I can’t remember a fact, I look it up. I get a little reminder when ever I’m supposed to do something. So these days, instead of wasting my brain trying to remember to put my new metro card in my wallet when I wake up, I can use it on important things instead. Like, bleeding from the mouth about pointless theories that I developed after reading articles in men’s magazines.

I boarded the A at 168th today, since I was leaving from the hospital, instead of home. As a result, there were already more people on the train, than when I normally get on. There was, however, one seat between a kind of nerdy looking guy and a big dude. They were both sitting there reading. The big dude has his legs all spread and was holding a backpack on his legs. His position, coupled with his size, was taking up one and a half seats. I was hoping that if I sat down, he would adjust his position a bit, so that I wouldn’t have to sit halfway on the other guy’s lap. I thought wrong. What a jerk. It got worse. I noticed right away after I squeezed into the seat, that this guy smelled like old gym locker. Whatever. I had a seat, I had my magazine and my de jpod. I could tough it out for 30 mins until Chambers Street. I got off the train, made my way into my office, logged in, blah blah blah. I was thinking, that guy was really nasty smelling. That mildewbongresiduedirtydiaper smell is still stuck in my sinuses. Wait a minute. I smelled my shoulder and to my dismay discovered that this seat hogging jerk and marked his territory on my sleeve. I should have known that after 30 minutes of being smashed up against his pungent mass, some of it was going to transfer. Anyway, I have fan set to “hi” today.

I know that it is getting close to the fourth of July when I hear an increase in the frequency of firecrackers going off at night. Having so many Dominican neighbors, we are used to hearing them pretty much year round. They don’t really need a special occasion to stay up all Monday night pounding booze and playing with explosives. But toward the end of June and beginning of July, the fireworks and malt liquor flow like wine. Even though most of my neighbors probably aren’t citizens, don’t speak English, and probably have no idea what is being celebrated on the fourth of July, the language of pyrotechnics is universal. They know that it is a holiday when fireworks can be purchased a mere 2 states away. Who wouldn’t want to celebrate that? Fireworks are illegal in NYC, which I thought was lame at first. I have always been a fan of blowing stuff up and lighting stuff on fire. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. When you have 2 million people all living on top of each other, some of them with sub 50 IQs, it can be a recipe for trouble when you mix in explosives. Just the same, it doesn’t stop our neighbors from loading up on them and smuggling them in every summer when they go on sale in PA. I mean, if they can smuggle themselves into the country, how hard can it be for them to get a couple of mini-vans full of bottle rockets across the GW? It is times like this that I become very thankful for window A/C units and the white noise that they generate.