week four

Well, it's been a slow week at Chez Monica & Sean. The house hunt continues, and work every day. In between, though, we've been enjoying one of our Christmas gifts: xbox! Even though we've never been big gamers, we're pretty hooked.


dueling controllers

Our current fave is Lego Indiana Jones. It's an adventure and problem-solving game that follows the story of the Indiana Jones trilogy in Lego form. It's great for co-op play, meaning Sean and I can play together. So far, we have completed all stages of the first movie (Raiders of the Lost Ark) once through and have gone through a second time to pick up some of the items you can't get the first time. We've improved a lot already. At first we couldn't figure out how to jump! Ha. Now we actually find we prefer playing xbox to watching random crap on tv.






lego indy!

Since it's a work-together type of game, I've noticed a few interesting things about how we work together, at least when playing this game. First, Sean will always pick Indy, leaving me with the secondary character from the movie (frequently a woman or child -- Marion, Willie, Short Round, etc). He says it's a man thing. I think it's also a former archaeologist thing.

Second, Sean and I have very different approaches to problem-solving. I look for clues and try to make a round of the whole area before deciding what to do. Sean, uh, doesn't. ;)

Third, we get frustrated by different things. Sean gets frustrated when we can't figure out what to do. (Well, we both do, but he usually gets frustrated first.) I get frustrated when he takes over and won't let me do stuff, or when he doesn't listen to my suggestions, or won't come over to help me figure things me out in the game. We both get frustrated when we get blasted repeatedly by random soldiers when trying to complete the missions. Or when there's a part of the stage that we can't complete yet. (As you go through the levels, you earn more characters. Each character has different abilities, and you need lots of different ones to complete every single piece of each stage.)

Fourth, this game really works your ability to work together. We have to communicate with each other, when half the time we don't even know what we are talking about. "Move that thing to the other thing." "No, the thing, not that thing!" "Move, let me do it."

We're getting better though, both at playing the game and at playing together.

week three

The previously promised Jury Duty edition! But first, let me wish you all a Happy Inauguration Day!


Supreme and Family Court - State of New York

I headed to the Kings County Supreme Court bright and early Wednesday morning. Turns out, you are not allowed to bring cameras into the building. So after passing through security, I surrendered my Canon to an officer at the personal property desk in exchange for a yellow slip of paper. I found it somewhat puzzling that they confiscated my camera but let me keep my cell phone and laptop, both of which have cameras of their own. But whatever, I wasn't about to speak up and lose my phone and Macbook. I abided by the spirit of the law, if not the letter, by not using any of the cameras inside the building. Most of the people in the court didn't seem to have brought their senses of humor with them, so I figured I should behave myself as much as possible. The upshot is that I don't really have any jury duty-related photos to share!

After sitting around in a large waiting room for an hour or so, we got to watch a riveting video about jury duty, emcee'd by Ed Bradley and Diane Sawyer! w00t! Then we waited some more. An exasperated court employee (clerk, I think?) talked us through the process of filling out our jury summonses. Then we waited some more. But hey! Free wireless! Could have been a lot worse. Bunches of people got called behind the closed doors, presumably to be questioned for inclusion on a trial. I was not one of them. Then we got dismissed for lunch. I got my camera out of hock and headed outside.

Since the court is located in downtown Brooklyn, an area I haven't spent much time in, I took a stroll at lunchtime to see what I could see, despite the sub-freezing temps. First off, I found a bodega and bought some Excedrin (R) for my aching head. I was intrigued by the claim on the packaging that a drinking cup was included. How can this be, I wondered.


DRINKING CUP INCLUDED

I opened the package and found not a drinking cup, but a small white paper envelope. Maybe the drinking cup is in here, I thought. But no, it was empty. Then I turned the envelope over, and lo and behold! the envelope WAS the drinking cup! Courtesy of Convenience Valet, evidently! Because they were thinking of ME!


thinking of YOU

Awesome, and so useful. Note to Convenience Valet: just because it can hold water for 2 seconds without leaking, it is NOT in fact a drinking cup.

Anyway, I set off sightseeing and saw some lovely buildings, amid quite a lot of decay.


Joseph J. Jacobs Building



this one looks like a castle!


not sure who this golden lady is


such pretty details


specials - delicious


dilapidated roof


1890 - Offerman Building - 1891


nice turret



Old Brooklyn Fire Headquarters

What I did not see was a wealth of food-supplying establishments for my prandial requirements. Stopped at Starbucks for a coffee, then after some more fruitless wandering, ended up joining the construction workers and traffic cops at Mickey D's.


value meal #3 with a Dr. Pepper

Then back to court, for more waiting. A few more people got called in, but still not I. Just before 4pm, another clerk turned up and told us we were going to be dismissed, after they handed us back some paperwork. This clerk was also quite rude, even calling us "a bunch of idiots" at one point. Unprofessional as well as unnecessary. The clerks' attitudes were easily the worst part of the day, at least for me. Anyway, in the words of the Indigo Girls, I got my paper and I was free! I was home by 430pm and am now off the hook for 8 years. Not a bad deal. Aside from the clerks' rudeness, my headache and some post-McD's queasiness, the whole shebang was pretty painless and quick to boot. Really can't complain!

week two

Our local weatherpeople promised us a "plow-worthy" snow storm last weekend, so I figured that might make for some great shots for my project here. But of course, the reports of snow were greatly exaggerated, and in fact we only got about an inch or two, followed quickly by lots of rain. YUCK. Here are the best pics I got, anyway -- they'll just have to do!


our stair railing


not quite a snowman, more a snow-mound, that the kids next door made. kinda reminds me of jabba the hut, but jauntier.


melt, freeze, melt, freeze...

Stay tuned for next week, when Monica goes to Jury Duty and will almost certainly have something to say/show for that!

week one

Maybe it's not quite fitting to start this new project with the aftermath and cleanup from another big event, or maybe it's entirely appropriate to begin with a transition. Glass half-full or half-empty type of thing? In either case, the big news around here this week is putting away the Christmas decorations. I am torn, because while I love Christmas and all my holiday items, they take up visual space, cluttering and cramping our already-too-small apartment. So it's time to put them back in their boxes til the end of the year. In putting them away, though, I am put in mind of reflecting on 2008 and realizing a few things I'd like to do better in 2009.


stack of holiday cards we received

Keep in close touch with family and friends. Holiday cards are great but not enough.


munched-up drumsticks

We use these to hold finger puppets in our stockings, thusly:


stockings

Go see more music. It's one of the reasons we live in NYC after all.


Christmas dining table


winter dining table

Eat dinner at the dinner table. Lately we've been eating on the couch in front of the tv. Maybe if we eat at the table like grown-ups, I'll actually use all my pretty dishes, etc. Plus it'll encourage me to keep fresh flowers around too (once the weather gets a little warmer). And if we get really crazy, we could even invite other people to come over to have dinner with us!

Finally, thinking about our small apartment, it seems appropriate to mention here that I hope, come the end of this year when I start getting the Christmas stuff back out again, it will be in our very own house!

lumper or splitter?

this is basically a programming note of sorts.

you may (or may not) recall that i had three different blogs last year: a run-of-the-mill blog, a photo blog, and a blog dedicated to my various craft projects. this is because i like to have a place for everything and everything in its place, so i figured i should have different blog places for each of my blog interests. recently, though, i realized there is no reason why my blog interests can't all share the same blog place. so, i've decided to reverse my split decision and lump everything together here. i already imported my former craft-blog posts here, and soon i will be adding my journal-blog posts as well.

lumping and splitting are two different approaches to ecological taxonomy. taxonomy is, in one sense, the grouping of organisms according to their relatedness. relatedness is a continuous variable rather than a discrete variable, however, and there is not always a clear relatedness threshold for demarcating groups of organisms as different or the same. in this sense, taxonomy is somewhat subjective. some ecologists tend to allow a relatively high degree of variation within a taxonomic group, effectively 'lumping' organisms into fewer groups. others draw the group lines more finely, 'splitting' organisms into more groups.

i find the concepts of lumping vs splitting to be applicable to many types of organization, not just taxonomy. not surprisingly, i walk the line between lumping and splitting, as evidenced by my change of heart regarding my blog organization. what about you: are you a lumper or a splitter?