Garden Variety New Yorker

Redirect Again?

2009-02-06T16:41:00.001-05:00

Wow..I don't seem to post here enough. Been working on the other blogs.

Right now, I'm working on starting to write a book, as well as uploading my sports articles to my new domain.

Ceetar.com

As a result, I'm having blogger redirect my blogs to my domain, but I'm working on setting them up as I like, and putting them in a wrapper. I think I need to redirect again, to ceetar.com/gvny/ instead. but I'm still figuring this stuff out.

O Christmas Tree

2008-12-23T08:57:00.003-05:00

I bought my first Christmas tree on my own, and my first in New Jersey. I’ve participated in this process many times on Long Island, and found it soundly different. In most places I would go to, you’d be faced with piles of trees lumped together against walls and barricades, and you’d slowly sift through them, pulling out trees and holding t

hem up to see if they looked nice. I’d do things like rotate the tree, and lift it up and drop it on it’s trunk to see if the bristles held up, or were dry and fell off.

In all the places in Bergen County that I looked at, except for Home Depot which was a disaster, they had the trees all set up on spokes so that they looked like trees. This was nice; it was easier to notice things like gaps in the branches, and dead areas. The trees themselves, at least where we got one, were also trimmed to fit the typical Christmas tree shape. My tree this year is easily one of my favorite trees I’ve had.

Celebrate Freedom!

2008-12-04T08:31:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow is Repeal Day. It's arguably the best American Drinking Holiday. It's only recently started to gain fame as a holiday, and I think it should only grow. It celebrates our rights as Americans, and the repeal of the amendment that tried to take them from us. 75 years ago tomorrow, the 21st Amendment to the constitution was ratified, lifting the ban on alcohol and allowing everyone to drink legally again..provided you weren't or aren't in a county where they decided to continue to ban it.

I like it better than St. Patricks Day, which is very gimmicky and Irish. The night before Thanksgiving is typically a drinking day, but who wants to drink the night before they have to cook or travel or get up and host guests? New Years is a good one, but that's more a family friendly celebrating of the passing of the year than it is about drinking. Repeal Day is about America, about our freedoms and rights, and specifically about Alcohol.

Beer and alcohol have long held valued places in society, way back to the origins of civilization. It shouldn't be treated with the kind of taboo that America treats it with, and this holiday celebrates that right. I encourage everyone to have a drink, toast freedom, and of course, be safe.

Gassing Up in New Jersey

2008-11-21T08:50:00.001-05:00

Gas! How could you not love gas prices in New Jersey? It's on an average 25-30 cents cheaper here than it is back on Long Island. Closer to 40 if you go a little further south or buy no-name gas. This isn't really a big deal of course, it adds up to a couple of bucks a month, but hardly life-changing.

A bigger difference is that in New Jersey, they don't trust you to touch the gas pumps. The first time I filled up as a resident I went to go get out of the car and was initally confused why the attendent was talking to me. Then I had a "Oh right, this is Jersey" moment and got back in the car. It's nice sometimes, particularly when it's freezing out, but I really prefer to pump my own gas, not have to wait around on the attendent to come and go, and just be my general anti-social self. Oh well.

It seems gas is going down in price again. This is obviously good, I'm surprised it's ever gotten as low as it has now. Personally, since gas prices are based on speculation or whatever, I don't know how they ever let it get this low, but that they did I'm glad. Will it go down further? Only time will tell...however, if it shoots back up again come summer, it's just going to hurt that much more.

Election Process

2008-11-07T07:55:00.000-05:00

Voting is the same in New York and New Jersey for me. Basically, both states are strongly democrat, and my vote didn’t really matter. I’m happy with the outcome of the election, but the process still leaves much to be desired.

For one, I don't understand why Election Day wasn't Super Tuesday. Let us all go in, and pick from at least the 6-7 legitimate candidates running around at the time. This isn't a tournament bracket where you slowly eliminate people until it's only two.

My biggest issue is with the process. Why are any states still using scantron style sheets? New York, at least on Long Island, usually votes with levers. In New Jersey, there were buttons to push that lit up little green x’s, and then we pressed the vote button and the machine reset. If I can get through the massive lines at Starbucks in Penn Station and place a complicated drink order while securely transferring information (money in this case, but could be a encrypted vote packet) digitally to a bank after authenticating my account through a swipe of a piece of plastic, why can't I vote that way?

Quieter

2008-10-31T08:11:00.000-04:00

Quieter:

It's just quieter here. Sure, Long Island is certainly not loud, but people still have more of a city attitude to them. At least in Nassau County. The majority of Long Islanders have been to Manhattan, even frequently, and have a more fast-paced, upbeat frame of mind. Things are expected to be open late, to be available. We know where the good restaurants are, and there are a lot of reviews and information.

Here in Jersey, it's not so easy. Things tend to close earlier, and certain parts of Bergen County close completely on Sunday. Beyond the rediculousness of closing down entire malls on Sundays, it's not as easy to run out and get something at 9pm at night. Bagel stores close early, and I have yet to find one that's open 24 hours like good old A&S on Long Island. (I just found one now, but haven't had a chance to check it out) Normal stores and restaurants seem to wind down earlier here too. There are still things going on late, but it's they're fewer and far between.

There are less street lights, less cars on the road, particularly at night, and just less people in general. Maybe I'm just not going to the right places.

New Jersey Giants

2008-10-15T09:03:00.002-04:00

Why I'd make a good Giants Fan.

I'm not a big football fan, although I'm a sports fan in general and I do enjoy watching football occasionally, I just don't have a network of friends nearby to go watch football with on Sundays. It's much more of a social spectator sport than baseball. So I don't 'have' a team yet. I'm a Mets fan first, an Islanders fan second, but that's really where it ends. I dislike the Dolphins, and the Eagles(In fact, I'm beginning to despise all sports related Philadelphia events.). I kind of like Roethisburger and Peyton Manning, but not necessarily a big fan of their teams. I dislike the Cowboys when they try to play as 'America's Team'. I went to school in Buffalo, so I do sorta like the Bills, and prior to moving out of New York, I was one of the fans that used to joke about them being New York's only team.

Now that I live in New Jersey, I can take the same approach. The Jets and the Giants both play here, despite the 'New York' title. I take the train past Giant Stadium on my way to work. I can't see myself rooting for the Jets, despite their Mets ties, them previously playing at Shea, or being named for the planes at Laguardia airport. Could I be a Giants fan? It's possible, I was definitely rooting for them in the Super Bowl, despite half-wishing that the Patriots _would_ go undefeated and the Dolphins who get whiny whenever anyone comes close could be silenced. I don't envision me going to any Giants games this year, and I've been listening to WFAN a little less so I'm not even fully entrenched in the week to week Giants banter and storylines. Still, I do kind of like the team, and I like Eli Manning. It'd be nice to be rooting for a team with a legitimate shot, and defending champs at that. Sure would be different than watching the Mets choke success away, or the Islanders continue to be pathetic. The most exciting thing about the Islanders is that Howie Rose calls the games, and that reminds me of the Mets, and baseball.

I don't follow basketball, so I don't have any delusions about being 'converted' to being a Nets fan. Besides, they're moving to Brooklyn. Maybe anyway.

Excitement in the Little Things

2008-10-04T09:13:00.003-04:00

I'm also a big fan of variety. I was feeling stuck and bored with Long Island in general, having grown up there, and spent most of my life there except for the three years in Buffalo for college. Even though I've only moved to the other side of the city, a mere 35-40 minutes away, the differences make me feel good.

It's the little things, going to a different mall, trying out the different local pizza places, not knowing my town well enough to walk through with my eyes closed. It can be fun just driving around, getting a feel for the neighborhood, and the surrounding area. Yesterday I was driving and was in nearby Ridgewood when I suddenly realized how and where two streets connected, and it was like a whole area of the map in my head unclouded. Sort of like how when you explore the map in games like Warcraft or Civilizations, you gradually get to see more and more of the map as you go to new areas. Whereas back home, even trying to get lost or go for a drive, I'd think to myself,

“Oh, It's Old Country Road again. How boring.”

I knew how to get places, I knew what was at those places, and It ceased to be exciting. Even things like “Wow, it's dark here.”, or “Hey, look at that cool house.” are new and interesting, because I haven't seen them before. Even if they're similar, it's the variety that excites me.

Eating out has gotten easier too. We've got a whole list of places that we want to try. The Gotham Diner, that diner that's in a barn, that sub shop around the corner.. the list goes on as we discover new places. On Long Island, we'd eaten at so many places that it'd lost it's excitement.

“Hibachi place? Nah, we were just there.”,

“Fridays?...nah, too long a line.”,

“Diner? Eh..”

It's even nice to have a different view out of the windows in our apartment.

Taylor Ham

2008-09-23T13:05:00.000-04:00

Variety.

Even if most people are content to get into a daily rhythm with vary little change, everyone still usually enjoys a little difference. They don't say "Variety is the spice of life" for nothing. It's the reason we can be content visiting cities or towns that are much like the cities and towns we are used to, with a few minor changes. Maybe they have different climates, different trees, or different fast food chains. It's why we desire to go to France and other countries that are actually very similar to ours. This discussion came up once in college in a class I took on UFOs.

The professor asked us a question. “What do we/can we really get out of finding life on other planets?” This is hard to say; maybe we’re hoping the aliens will be close enough to us that it’ll be like going to France. But more likely they would be so different that we wouldn’t be able to relate or even communicate at all. This class was actually about U.F.Os, not aliens. Most people think they’re related, but not this professor. The class was very interesting, and way to complex to go into now.

This brings me to Taylor Ham. Taylor ham, also known as pork roll, is merely a sausage like pork product created in Trenton, NJ. I see it as an option in a lot of deli and meat counters around New Jersey, but had never heard about it in New York. I don’t like ham or pork, so there will be no taste test type comparisons here. It’s merely an observation. Another one being Black Russian bagels. Apparently New Jersey is too good for plain old pumpernickel bagels. They have to add sesame seeds to them to make them black Russians. These I have tried and they taste exactly like you’d expect. A pumpernickel bagel with sesame seeds. (I know, you’re shocked.)

Garden Variety New Yorker

2008-09-15T12:27:00.000-04:00

Living in New Jersey is very different than living on Long Island. Even though both are basically suburbs of the city, and I’m virtually the same distance away from Manhattan, it’s a lot more rural on the mainland. New Jersey Transit doesn’t run as smoothly, as often, or as overnight as the Long Island Rail Road.

It’s a little quieter at night, but not noticeably. In general though, things don’t stay open as late in New Jersey. In the Paramus/Fair Lawn area, most stores are even closed on Sundays, which means everyone has to either rush around on Saturday to get weekend errands done, or drive to further away towns to do things. Luckily grocery stores are still open. And you can get your liquor and beer in the same store, which cuts down on trips.

I still think of myself as a New Yorker, despite now living in New Jersey. I hope never to lose that, wherever I may live.