Month: May 2014

Champagne: Breakfast of Champions

Him: Hey, could you do me a big favor and order me some sandwiches? Like 10?
Me: Yup.

Woke up the next morning to an email asking if someone could pick up food for the bridesmaids that had been there since 9AM – the fellas didn’t have to be there until noon.

Women get the short end of the stick in weddings.

So I dashed out and ran around to a few different places.

Me: Do you have any sandwiches right now?
Him: Sandwiches? None fresh, we’ll have to make them. How many you need?
Me: A dozen?
Him: A dozen?! Now?! We’re still serving breakfast!

Eventually, ended up finding a place that could do it, grabbed them, and met up with the groom. We had to catch a ferry so we had to run to make it. And with me hauling alla those grinders.

Me: (breathlessly) I didn’t know there would be an athletic component to your wedding.
Him: Me neither.

The reason why we had to get there so early was because there were hours of pictures that needed to be taken, none of which I have here.

Once we got there, my predecessor served the breakfast of champions: champagne.

After that, it was just hours of picture taking. As an odd coincidence, one of the bridesmaids was the daughter of my dentist, whom I’d known since she was a baby.

Her: Let me show you a picture of my baby!
Me: You’re a mom? Get outta here!

The world is so small and I am so old.

Another Bridesmaid: You’re not really 41, are you?
Me: I’m as surprised as you are.

We all got around to prepping our gifts for the couple; the best man accidentally bought an anniversary card for them.

Him: (laughing) I’m just going to cross it out and write, Congratulations.

After the ceremony, it was finally time for the wedding. Because of rain, the wedding had to move inside.

A shame but still very nice.

Don't take my bourbon!

My friend Katie was at the table and fixated on one thing: drinks. Unfortunately, her first glass of bourbon was taken away so she resorted to leaving notes for the waitstaff.

My other friends were more fixated on the cake and dessert tray.

There was even a candy station where we could get our fill of candy. Too bad there wasn’t a gyro station. That woulda been sweet.

Speaking of sweet, after the cake finally came out, dashed out with my brother and our friend Tina – caught the ferry home with two minutes to spare.

The next day, woke up bright and early to see the wife in New Jersey. where I wrote this on the train ride over.

That’s a whole different story and one only of interest to me I suppose.

But I’ll tell you all about it someday.

Wife: How was it?
Me: Good. Tiring. Glad it’s done. I’m sure they are too.
Her: Did you get any sleep?
Me: Some. Not enough. What’s new?

Location: The rents. I’m all over the damn place
Mood: awake
Music: Round and around and around and around we go
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Tags conversations, dialogue, friends, overheard in ny, random meetings

personal

Friends and Sri Lanken food

The past few days have been a flurry of activity as my buddy Paolo just got hitched and I was a groomsman.

Him: Remember to wear a dark, black, suit.
Me: Light blue suit, got it.

This meant that we had to be in Staten Island for a rehearsal and, early on Friday, we were off.

It was pretty busy so I don’t have many pics of the actual rehearsal, sorry.

Now, most of the other groomsmen I’d met before but one I had not.

The groom and I became friends about seven years ago. Prior to that, he was good friends with another Chinese attorney friend that wrassled and had an artistic bent.

Me: Did he ever tell you that he thinks of me as your replacement?
Him (laughing): Yeah, we talked about that before.

After that guy moved to China, Paolo and I started hanging out and that was the running joke. The guy I replaced and I are also both overly fixated on food.

Me: How’s the pizza in Beijing?
Him: Not bad. There’s one place that has pizza as good as NYC’s.
Me: You shut your dirty lying mouth!

Like I said, lots of similarities. Oh, except he’s a professional UFC fighter and runs a successful movie production company.

But beside that…

Speaking of food, afterward, we all made our way over to a Sri Lanken restaurant named Lakruwana to get some food.

Interestingly, it looked like a dump on the outside but the inside was amazing as it was decked out with huge statues and traditional Sri Lanken furnishings.

They also had the biggest (physically) menus I’d ever seen, printed on the back of some wooden statues.

Me: Does anyone want to try some of the goat dishes with me?
Bridesmaid: Oh, I do! Is there any one you want?
Me: Is there any one I don’t want?

After having my fill of goat, mutton, and other assorted non-chicken deliciousness, headed home in the pouring rain, only to wake up the next day to get to the wedding venue even earlier.

From the Archives: Your Theme Song and Staying Gold

Post author By Logan Lo
Post date 2014/05/21
No Comments on From the Archives: Your Theme Song and Staying Gold

If you could choose a theme song, what would it be?

Late posting because it was a long, long, day.

Despite summer usually being my slow season, I’m up to my neck in work. Part of that is because my buddy from the entry below is getting married.

It’s always interesting to see your friends moving from one stage of life to another.

Stay Gold
Went downtown with a pal to see Jaymay in a small concert venue. She gave me an autograph, which I don’t normally collect:

Workmen fixing an escalator in a metro station in Washington DC

Theme Song
If you had a theme song to your life, what would it be? This would be mine:

Back to the usual nuthin next week.

Location: running out the door for meetings after meetings
Mood: busy
Music: I can’t get to sleep
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Tags concerts, friends

personal

Why it’s so hard to get from Brooklyn to Queens

Post author By Logan Lo
Post date 2014/05/19
1 Comment on Why it’s so hard to get from Brooklyn to Queens

Frankie, Sofie, and the trolleys

Had to work over the weekend so I found myself in the middle of Brooklyn early Saturday morning. The nature of mass transit here in NYC is that: (a) there’s a lot of track work over the weekends and (b) it’s nearly impossible to go from Brooklyn to Queens without first going into Manhattan.

The former means that trips that usually take an hour take twice as long.

The latter is just a constant annoyance because that initial trip shouldn’t take an hour in the first place.

There was a great article written about this time last year called A Very Brief History of Why It’s So Hard to Get From Brooklyn to Queens that says that we used to have a really extensive trolley system here in NYC but these were destroyed by corporations that wanted to create a bus system instead.

The short-term greed of a handful of men has resulted in decades of wasted time and money for millions.

That’s probably why I enjoy history so much, because so much of the past still affects our lives to this day, we just don’t know it.

Right now I’m reading about Franz and Sophie Ferdinand and I am amazed how one couple’s death changed the world so profoundly.

In any case, made it home in time drive my dad to the supermarket, pick my brother up from the airport, and see my sister and her kid. Pretty full family weekend.

Right now, I’m back in Manhattan but I have to go to midtown to argue with someone over a bill, then the gym, then out to Long Island for some more work.

I’m traveling a lot. Just don’t know if I’m going anywhere.

Location: midtown
Mood: irritated
Music: been traveling a hard road Had been looking for someone
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Tags interesting facts, social commentary

personal

There’s a vast difference between possibility and probability

Post author By Logan Lo
Post date 2014/05/14
1 Comment on There’s a vast difference between possibility and probability

The Norden Bombsight and the Death Touch

There’s a debate that we’ve been having in my fencing class about the existence of dim mak, also known as the death touch.

The idea is that one could train for years to acquire the knowledge necessary to hit a mythical area on the body to cause death or paralysis of the body immediately or days later.

I don’t think such points exists but I’ve been wrong before about things.

Advertisement for Count Dante's 1968 World's D... — (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

But even if they did exist, it’s irrelevant, because there’s a vast difference between possibility and probability.

It is entirely possible that there’s a magical spot on my body; it’s improbable someone could hit it in the heat of battle, especially if I’m armed.

Moreover the training required to hit this spot would require years of practice – years that could be spent training for other, more probable issues, such as a guy trying to throw a haymaker at you.

After all, repetition is the mother of skill.

The Norden Bombsight was a project to build a bombing mechanism that would allow one to “drop a bomb into a pickle barrel.” In practice, it worked flawlessly and the army spent $1.5 billion on it – in 1940s money!

Here, the thing: for it to work flawlessly, the plane had to travel at low speeds, in clear daylight.

And when bombers fly at low speeds in clear daylight, they get shot down.

For all intents and purposes it did not work for it’s stated purposes. And that’s my problem with things like dim mak and the like, they may work in theory – and I have serious reservations about that – but in practical usage, the return on time investment just doesn’t justify it.

And we only have about 27,000 days to invest. Personally, I’d rather invest it in the probable than the merely possible. But that’s just me.

Location: waiting for some workmen
Mood: irritated
Music: Not enough time for all That I want for you
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personal

What did you order now?

Powering our way through life

Wife: What did you order now?
Me: Drill bits.
Wife: What are they for?
Me: What aren’t they for?!

Dropped off the wife at her parents over the weekend so I spent the day out in the burbs. Getting away from the city every once in a while is good.

Didn’t get a chance to see my mom for Mother’s Day because of her schedule and mine but I’m stopping by later on this week.

Meanwhile, got the place to myself for a spell and I’m also armed with a new set of power tools so I’ve got a short list of tasks that I want to work on.

The problem with these short home maintenance lists is that something often happens to make them longer.

But that’s pretty much how my life is in general.

Location: a conference room in midtown
Mood: sneezy
Music: Cause if it’s trouble that you’re looking for
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Tags conversations, dialogue, overheard in ny

personal

Logan’s Chinese Food, Gyro, and Chili Extravaganza

Post author By Logan Lo
Post date 2014/05/07
10 Comments on Logan’s Chinese Food, Gyro, and Chili Extravaganza

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles

Wife: You can’t have 19 Big Macs in a row!
Me: Technically, I could.

They’re having this deal where you get two burgers for one and I look for any excuse to stuff my fat face.

Which reminds me of a discussion I had regarding Jennifer 8. Lee’s book, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, where she said that Chinese restaurants in America outnumber McDonalds, Burger Kings, and Wendy’s combined.

The thing is that there’s no one single large Chinese food chain, like Logan’s Chinese Food, Gyro, and Chili Extravaganza.

The reason why, I think, is because of the sheer number of items that a Chinese restaurant carries. There’re too many dishes, recipes, and ingredients in most restaurants to be consistently good at all of them.

This is versus McDonalds, which only has a few dozen different items – in fact, one guy just wrote about How to Hack a Big Mac from other dishes.

Relate it to my own life because I find so many things intellectually stimulating but I gotta force myself not to concentrate on the things I actually really care about.

Speaking of things I really care about: The wife is heading to her parents for a spell for a little break while I get some work done around the house. So we’re trying to cram in together time while we can.

In our own special fashion.

Her: (hugging me) I’m gonna miss that face…
Me: Aw, thanks…
Wife: …and your giant, giant, head.

Location: back to wrasslin in just a bit
Mood: sore
Music: Does it almost feel like nothing changed at all?
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Sometimes Life Gets In The Way

Tags conversations, dialogue, interesting facts, observations, opinion, overheard in ny

personal

The people that make NYC miserable

Post author By Logan Lo
Post date 2014/05/05
4 Comments on The people that make NYC miserable

Demolished a room and got hit by a car

Had an interesting weekend.

Walking out of my gym in midtown, met a young guy who worked at a masonry shop a few doors down.

Yes, it’s odd that there’s a masonry in the middle of Manhattan but where we are, there’s still a lot of old NY there.

After a little chatting, mentioned that I was thinking of fixing up part of my apartment and exchanged info. Got a call later on that week that he was in the neighborhood. Within ninety minutes of that call, cabinets and appliance were ripped out and hauled away.

Sometimes, things just move quickly.

Which is the opposite of what was happening on the street in front of my apartment on Saturday morning because of the garbage truck you see in the picture above.

This was enough to cause some jerk sit on his horn and wake up everyone in the hood.

When I came out to take a picture of him, he proceeded to bump me with his car.

Again: He hit me with his car even though he could not move because of the garbage truck in front of him.

I was unhurt – although it’s my ACL leg so it’s a little sore. Shoulda called the police but I had my usual bout of insomnia the night before and didn’t think it through.

Ended up calling the cops afterward, but by then, figured it wasn’t worth it. Interestingly, the cop that came was actually another student from my old gym and we chatted about my current wrasslin partner, whom everyone in NYC seems to know cause he’s such a nice guy.

The opposite of this guy here, who’s the type of self-important NYC douchebag that make life miserable for everyone else.

He drives a fine German automobile and wears a button-down shirt but was clearly raised by wolves.

Like I said, young broken people grow up to be old broken people.

And now, a new week. Let’s see what happens.

Location: back to wrasslin in just a bit
Mood: sore
Music: you know it don’t matter anyway. You can rely on the old man’s money
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Tags discussion, human condition, rant

Champagne: Breakfast of Champions

Friends and Sri Lanken food

If you could choose a theme song, what would it be?

Frankie, Sofie, and the trolleys

Related articles

The Norden Bombsight and the Death Touch

Powering our way through life

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles

Related articles

Demolished a room and got hit by a car