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A week from Sunday is my 24th birthday, a most unremarkable birthday year. At least at 25 I’ll be able to rent a car, although I can’t see myself even needing that privilege.
You may be thinking, “Oh shit, I should get him a gift!”, at which point I will put a gentle hand on your shoulder, thank you politely, and explain what a retard I am. See, I have this unfortunately habit where I’ll see something I want, and then I black out. Then, five minutes later, I come to while I’m walking out the door with a bag in my hand and my bank account being lightened. I really should seek medical treatment. In any case, I have tried repeatedly to throw together lists of things I want, and I’ve failed miserably to come up with a list of more than two things across multiple attempts. So let’s just skip the gift thing.
However, there are various opportunities of things going on this week that you *could* join in on.
Tuesday we *may* be going to the David Sedaris reading at Barnes & Noble Union Square. Knowing our track records with readings, we may just say screw it at some point on Tuesday, but just think – you can still be enriched and entertained, even without us!
Friday, we will be attending what I am going to dub “HOLYCRAPFEST 2004”. The endless mirth of They Might Be Giants. The raw, unbridled comedic yuckery of David Cross. The moderately cooked, bridled comedic digressions of Todd Barry. The amalgamated goodness of People Are Wrong. The little, yellow, different-ness of Sarah Vowell. And all of this being done for charity? And there’s a party afterwards? Don’t miss it.
Saturday, the tentative plan is that I will be trekking to the epic Tri-County Fair for some epic 9th Style action. It will be my first trip back to TCF in about 3 months. Details will be forthcoming.
In the evening, I’ve been told something is being planned, but I don’t know what. It would be in your best interest to discuss with Katie if you are interested in doing nameless things.
And for Sunday the 6th, my actual birthday…who knows.
(10 points to whoever gets the reference in the title.)

I think I’ve officially hit the point of having played the hell out of Beatmania IIDX 7th Style, so here’s my current top 20 most played. #1 is almost entirely due to Katie.
1) Glorious Days
2) General Relativity
3) Bad Routine
4) Stoic
5) Murmur Twins
6) Burning Heat
7) Sync
8) Ave De Rapina
9) 2002
10) Traces
11) Cheer Train
12) A
13) Love Me Do
14) Max 300
15) Gravity
16) I Was The One
17) Bad Boy
18) Cloudy Music
19) The Sound Of Goodbye
20) Burning Up For You
I swear, I need to get Cloudy Music off that list.

My path from work to the bank is very simple – from the office to 9th Ave, down to 23rd St., and then east sequentially to 8th Ave, 7th Ave, and then 6th Ave, where the Washington Mutual branch can be found. While 23rd St. is a little unique in being four lanes (two in each direction, mostly unheard of in the middle parts of the city), the traffic is usually fairly heavy but with the usual bit of gridlock and people running lights.

But today on the way, I found myself at the corner of 23rd and 7th, and I noticed that the stoplight was completely out, as were the walk signals. There was no cop to be seen, and this worried me, as I did have to cross the street without being hit by a car.
And suddenly, I realized that the drivers had sorted this out for themselves. As the east-west traffic slowed, the southbound drivers all honked cautiously as they entered the intersection. The pedestrians going north-south crossed, and no one tried to cut across east-west. When the traffic slowed on 7th, 23rd St. resumed, and those of us walking east-west crossed as though we had a walk symbol.
It just strikes me as very odd that the lack of a traffic light leads to better traffic patterns than when there IS a traffic light.