OMG, the second to last episode of season five of the Sopranos was brilliant. One of the best episodes of the show ever. Everything that I thought was going to happen in the season finale happened in this episode. That had me worried about whether the finale would be any good but I wasn't let down with that episode either. Such a good show and now I have to wait until March to see a new episode...

I watched another installment of the UP series. Lee and I watched 28 Up yesterday and 35 Up and 42 Up should arrive soon. The series just continues to amaze. 28 Up was both exciting and scary to watch since the last time I had seen anything about the subjects was when they were my age! Almost all of them were now married with multiple kids and had real jobs... I guess they're a product of a different generation (one that married and settled down earlier) but it's scary! Almost being 22 and expecting to attend the wedding of two of my friends next summer isn't helping any either...

Finally went to Yankee stadium. It was one of the things I wanted to do most when I was first coming to New York and it took three years to get around to it. Wtf? The stadium is pretty magical and the game was a mixed bag of emotions. Seeing Luis Sojo, Derek Jeter, Arthur Rhodes, and Randy Johnson was pretty sweet. A-Rod and Jason Giambi also being there was upsetting but not so upsetting that I couldn't enjoy the game.

So far having a full time job isn't so bad. Eight hour days feel more like four and I get paid by the week instead of by the hour which is neat. The one problem is that I don't get my first paycheck until the 22nd and since my Pfizer stint ended awhile ago I'm temporarily in a financial squeeze. But thing could be way worse than they are since I really have very little to complain about. My first summer in the city has been enjoyable.

Even the weather is nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be although I've decided that the weather in New York is worse than Seattle and it has nothing to do with heat, it actually has to do with precipitation. The thing Seattle has against it is that it has more days of rain than New York. Otherwise, the winters in New York are miserable, New York has warm rain (one of my top ten least favorite things), it rains more in New York in terms of YTD totals, and when it rains in New York it's the really heavy coming in sideways and getting the lower half of your pants wet when you use an umbrella kind.

I prefer the air smelling fresh and cool after a rainstorm instead of feeling like you're in a disgusting sauna full of evaporating rain, dog pee, and mysterious sewer steam. On the other hand, I'm coming to terms with the sun. I still hate its brightness but I'm beginning to find comfort in its warmth. Today was really nice and fireflies are still pretty magical. Yankee stadium full of fireflies would've been hella sweet.

Posted by Ben at 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Aside from spending lots of quality time with Lee I watched two episodes of the Sopranos, Batman Begins, 7 Up, 7 Plus Seven, 21 Up, and a Mets game.

I'll start from the beginning.

The Sopranos is a brilliant show. I went through a period where I thought Twin Peaks was the best show ever, but everytime I watch the Sopranos I'm just more and more amazed. It's like a 50 hour long movie that I don't want to end. The writing is original, the characters are all well developed and interesting and it's just such an intelligent show. It's nice not being treated like an idiot when watching T.V. The last season begins March 2006 and I'm very very excited.

Batman Begins was very entertaining and I liked it a lot. Unfortunately, it was very obviously not Christopher Nolan's film but a franchise that Warner Brothers is very carefully protecting and were kind enough to let Christopher Nolan attach his name to. The fast cutting and rushed ending were disappointing but the dark bladerunneresque atmosphere was great. Christian Bale is a great Batman, Michael Caine was great as Alfred, and I really really really liked the guy who played Bruce Wayne's dad. I don't know why... I just did.

Katie Holmes didn't ruin the movie although her inane profundities grew tiresome after awhile. Actually, they were tired from the beginning. Also, Gary Oldman was fine as Commisioner Gordon but I'm so used to him in The Professional and Die Hard that I keep expecting him to shoot Batman in the back of the head.

Liam Neeson is so cool. The same goes for ninjas.

The Up series is a series of TV specials that tracked the lives of various children in the UK starting at the age of seven and revisiting them in seven year intervals. A lot of them are annoying but it's surprising to see the way kids change and even more suprising to see just how little they change. The series is up to 42 up now and 49 up is due next year. Maybe I'll write more once I've seen the whole series.

On Saturday I went to the Mets game where we had great seats thanks to Lee's dad. More importantly, it was Carlos Beltran bobblehead day and Kobayashi, the world's competitive eating champion, threw out the first pitch. You guys might recognize him from the food network or his recent succesful defense of his title on ESPN2. I merely recognize him as the world's greatest living athlete.

I recently saw fireflies for the first time in my life. It was in City Hall Park where they have lots of art installations and I thought the lights were an art installation. A brilliant one at that. I stared for awhile trying to figure out how the artist had done it and being really excited because it was so beautiful. Then, I took a closer look and realized they were insects! That made it even more exciting and gave me fuzzy feelings toward nature that I suspect Leonard would have been proud of.

Last night I ate four brownies, a slice of peach pie, two or three cookies, and some ice cream. I went to bed feeling satisfied with what felt like my imminent sugar induced death.

Tempurpedic pillows are amazing.

Work is going well. James' sister looks exactly like him for anybody wondering.

Speaking of work, I need to update my resume now.

Posted by Ben at 11:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)