Crunchin’ the numbers

By Justin | August 17, 2008

Summer is usually my time to make up for all the money I spent over the course of the school year, and to make money to pay my part of the tuition for the coming year. Well, it didn’t really work out that way this summer.

I crunched some numbers and discovered that I made only around $400 this summer, after subtracting my expenses (about $1,800). This isn’t close to what Wesleyan expects me to contribute to my education this year; it isn’t even enough to cover what I spent over the 2007-08 school year.

The big expenses this summer were transportation, car insurance, and my trip to New Orleans. The New Orleans trip set me back a bit over $400—which isn’t bad, considering that I was down there for an entire month. My parents ended up contributing around $130 to the trip, in the form of prepaid minutes for the T-Mobile phone, $50 in cash from my mom, and sunscreen and bug spray and stuff like that.

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Posted in Money, Summer | 3 Comments

After seven years, a new bike

By Justin | August 12, 2008

It’s the end of an era. After seven years of riding my trusty and much-loved—yet increasingly decrepit—’01 Haro Revo, I now have a nifty ‘08 Haro F1 in Gloss Black (not the gaudy red pictured here).

It’s nice to have tires with tread, and brakes that actually slow me down, and a sprocket that doesn’t jam the chain, and a seat cushion whose insides stay, well, inside.

But I’m gonna miss my Revo. I remember riding that thing everywhere—to the beach, through the park, around the South Shore, and even to the after-school baseball games near Beaver Brook, in junior high school. It was ogled and derided by Middletown kids. It lost a handlebar grip to a chain-link fence at the Night Before the Fourth. It got me home in the freezing cold, in the searing heat, and in the driving rain. It took me to Regal with Rob Howlett (proof of how long I’ve been riding it) more times than I can remember. It made me late to school at least a dozen times throughout senior year. And it was responsible for a girlfriend falling and hitting her head on the sidewalk.

Oh, man. The memories. I’ll miss you, my Revo.

Posted in Exercise | Tagged , | 4 Comments

The Pride Podcast’s hilarious imagery

By Justin | August 11, 2008

I came across a hilarious image today on the CBC Radio 3 site. It’s an advertisement for their new Pride Podcast, a special edition podcast featuring queer Canadian indie artists.

I haven’t listened to the podcast and so can’t vote it up or down, but I can suggest you check out the imagery they used, which for some reason (probably Lana Gay riding on the back of some oversized Canadian animal I don’t recognize what I think is a white-tailed deer) made me instantly crack up laughing. Check it out:


By the way, if you’re in the mood to try some new music, you can hear what a little sliver of the last year or two of my life have been like, by checking out my CBC Radio 3 online playlist.

Posted in Humor, Interweb, Music | Leave a comment

Running routes for the coming school year

By Justin |

New Balance 790sSince 35 Home Ave. (where I’m living this year) is pretty much as far across campus as one can get from 324 Washington St. (where I was living last year), I had to make some tough choices: running choices.

Where am I to run this year? Well, I thought about it. I checked out Google Maps. I checked out the topographical maps. I added up the mileage. And I came up with some conclusions—three conclusions, to be exact.

Last year, I was running 3.67 miles over the Arrigoni Bridge, into Portland, and back. It was pretty sweet; it allowed me a long and gradual downhill, followed by a flat straightaway down Main Street, a decent uphill onto the bridge and back, and then a tough but manageable, long uphill on the way up Washington Street.

Anyone who knows me, knows that it’s not difficult for me to find beauty in the world around me. And so it was, that climbing the incline onto the bridge, seeing the morning commuters zip along Route 9 under me, as the water in the river caught the light of the rising morning sun, was an immensely pleasurable experience. Plus, there’s a triumphant, Rocky-like feeling that comes from being at the top of the world—or, uh, at the top of the bridge.

I wanted to preserve that Rocky-like feeling, and so I knew that I needed to keep running over the river. I came up with a nifty 4.95-mile route that takes me from 35 Home, down South Main Street, through the entire length of Main Street, and over the bridge into the center of Portland. On the way back, I’ll do the ol’ uphill on Route 66, then cross that street at the corner of High, go down Wyllys and between Usdan and the old squash courts… all the way out to Church Street, under the trees next to the labs, then up Lawn and down Home… until, well, home.

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Posted in Middletown, Running | 2 Comments

“She Thinks She’s Fat” by Furnaceface

By Justin | August 10, 2008

Let’s take a look at your love life. Whoever originated the phrase, The way to a man’s heart is through the stomach, must have been referring to the Cancer girl. You really know how to dine a man, and seduce him, with all sorts of tempting and exotic dishes, don’t you? This is fine, but just make sure you don’t get nervous, and start nibbling too much during the preparation of all this delectable food, because you tend to put on weight easily. Then you may find that the romantic atmosphere of the candlelight dinner you’ve taken such pains to prepare, is not quite so effective.

My girlfriend thinks she’s fat, she doesn’t look fat to me
Girls always they’re fat, I think they read too many magazines
I take her out to dinner, she hardly eats a thing
She calls herself a cow, and I say…
How ’bout a little… a little bestiality?

My girlfriend thinks she’s fat, she doesn’t look fat to me
Girls always they’re fat, I think they read too many magazines
I take her to a movie, she doesn’t like what she sees
But she eats ten buttered popcorn, and then she throws up…
I said, then she throws up… she throws up in the sink

My girlfriend thinks she’s fat, she doesn’t look fat to me
Girls always they’re fat, I think they read too many magazines
She’s always on a diet, I hear about it everyday
She says none of her clothes fit, but you know what?
I like her better without them, anyway

My girlfriend thinks she’s fat, she doesn’t look fat to me
Girls always they’re fat, I think they read too many magazines

Now, I don’t know why you think you’re fat, baby… You make me feel so bad when you say, Tom, am I fat? I don’t know what to say. You make me feel so bad because, I mean, even if you were fat, I would still love you. I want you to know that…

Posted in Lyrics | 4 Comments

Safety, symbolism, or both?

By Justin | August 5, 2008
A cyclist from the U.S. team arrived wearing a mask at the Beijing airport on Tuesday ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

A cyclist from the U.S. team arrived wearing a mask at the Beijing airport on Tuesday ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Donning protective masks the second the American cyclists arrive in China… how symbolically pleasing for someone concerned with China’s rampant human rights abuses. Photo from the New York Times.

Posted in Politics, Sports | Tagged , | Leave a comment

WordPress 2.6 and a new theme

By Justin | August 3, 2008

Another Sunny Day has been updated to WordPress 2.6, which adds some nifty new features on the back-end. The new appearance you’re seeing is due to another update, to a theme called Thematic.

If you experience any problems, let me know.

Posted in Another Sunny Day | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jason Collett’s “I’ll Bring the Sun”

By Justin |

You took hold of my affections with your Bible and your sword
Your celebrity connections, I was not used to keeping score
From your fine-gilded chalice I drank all your cheap red wine
It was a good place to be Judas, hiding pearls from the swine

I’ll bring the sun, I’ll bring the sun
I’ll bring the sun, I’ll bring the sun
I’ll bring the sun, I’ll bring the sun to you when I come

I’ll bring the sun, I’ll bring the sun
I’ll bring the sun, I’ll bring the sun
I’ll bring the sun, I’ll bring the sun to you when I come

You won me just as I failed you; fist full of cake, who could refuse?
All of my love got stuck in traffic two thousand miles away from you
Bleeding on into the telephone on a reupholstered bed of nails
I’m a long, long way from home… I hope my jet-lagged heart don’t fail

I’ll bring the sun, I’ll bring the sun
I’ll bring the sun, I’ll bring the sun
I’ll bring the sun, I’ll bring the sun to you when I come

I’ll bring the sun, I’ll bring the sun
I’ll bring the sun, I’ll bring the sun
I’ll bring the sun, I’ll bring the sun to you when I come

Posted in Lyrics | Leave a comment

Waving NOLA goodbye

By Justin | July 30, 2008

I’m home.

Posted in Home, New Orleans | 3 Comments

A breakthrough kinda day

By Justin | July 9, 2008

Today was one of those dreaded days that makes me think it might be cool to skip out on coming home at the end of the month and forgo finishing school for a few years, to stay down here and continue working. Highly unlikely, yes, but it was the kind of day that makes me think it.

We had a bunch of Swiss kids come in this morning, along with Fox 8 news to interview them, and then I headed over to the 800s-block of Jourdan to mow someone’s lawn–with a machete. We don’t have working lawnmowers, so we just had at it with the blades. The Swiss girls were pretty hot, but couldn’t swing a machete too well. They ended up in their bras laying on the street in the shade of a tree. I did most of the work myself, which was cool, because I got help.

A local kid, Jeremiah, came over and we struck up a conversation. I got to use his father’s lawnmower and weed whacker, which was sweet. I was tremendously thankful for their help and offered to pay for the gas for the equipment, but instead he suggested that I buy them a six pack, so I did, and I sat on the front porch with two old black guys, drinking beer, talking about grass and flat-screen TVs and pussy. It was grand. No pretension, no restrictions… the people down here get right up in your face, tell you their life’s story, and are totally cool with just sitting on a porch and drinking beer with you for an hour. It’s really a lovely place.

So, my day was spent away from the plaster work I’ve been doing for the past week, and I was out in the fields chopping down grass and weeds from 8:00 until 5:00. I got bit by a lot of fire ants–they sting like mofos–and now I’ve got these great yellow welts all over my arms and feet, in addition to the mosquito bites. Yum!

Dinner was great, the social interactions today were great, I flew a kite, I flirted with a 30-something black woman, I made even more new friends, and I walked through the city and into a convenience store wielding a machete. It was kind of a surreal day, in some ways, but it was also really rewarding. All that sanding and plastering kept me around the AmeriCorps kids and the people I’m working with, but I came into contact with few locals.

Today, I saw the results of my work by the fact that the lots were clear and the owners of those lots could go another week without getting fined $300 a day for having tall grass on their lots. I interacted with the locals and got an introduction to the southern way of life, the southern porch culture. And I brushed Chopper and he actually looked happy for once, not just lethargic and bored.

Overall, a good day. These abbreviated (trust me, they’re abbreviated) remarks will have to do. It’s time for a cold shower, then the sleep that I so desperately need.

Posted in New Orleans | 4 Comments