no, i'm not going to jail nor have i found myself on the wrong end of some nefarious crime syndicate and must now go into hiding. no, i'm going to NYC for a little bit, that's all. nothing crazy, just wanted to see some museums, my brain hungry for more culture.
so after seeing a bit of colin powell presenting his overwhelming evidence of iraqi chicanery (secretly taped calls! satellite photos! oh what a scandal!), i left my house for chinatown, where i had to buy my chinatown bus ticket. 
first order of business when i got off at south station was to deliver some OS X cd's to adam at squid country safari. unfortunately he wasn't in (at home sick), so i left the cd's with katrinka. i then got my ticket, $15 for a one way leaving tomorrow morning at 7am. that means i'm going to have less than 3 hours to sleep before i wake up again to go back out (why even bother sleeping?). i went to downtown crossing, where i bumped into my mother's friend, who cornered me inside the foyer of an office building asking me to take her just graduated college age son under my wings, let him intern for me, get some experience, i wouldn't have to pay. what am i, tony yang incorporated? i can barely sustain myself, let alone have someone work for me. she kept switching into english from chinese, interpreting the confused expression on my face as one of misunderstanding, like i didn't know what she was saying to me. i finally told her, "no promises, but i'll see what i can do," and we went our separate ways. forgive me for saying this, but a 22 year old should find his own damn job and not have his mother be his personal recruiter.
at dtx i visited the two bookstores there, on the lookout for bargains. at barnes & noble i bought an eyewitness series book about money. i personally wish i had an entire set of those books. i know they're sort of geared for kids, but its so full of interesting detailed photos and tibits of info, they make good browsing books. there was nothing good at borders, and it seems like they've greatly reduced their discount books section. 
for lunch i've been dreaming about a chacarero sandwich, which is exactly what i bought, a small beef. i noticed they got a bigger sign, all neon and nice. the trick is to keep the sandwich hot from dtx all the way back to porter square, 
but unfortunately i forgot i had to buy some groceries from chinatown so i had to go back, holding my sandwich in my hand. at ming's market i got a few cans of coconut milk, some thai red curry mixture (a different brand, came in a little can), and some lemongrass - all ingredients for the red curry i'll be making on a nightly basis all next week. after that, i was finally able to go back to cambridge, my sandwich already cold by the time i got back home.
while eating my sandwich, i talked with julie over aim over colin powell's presentation to the UN. "the rage" was fearful that her parents would vote for bush again and was willing to cause discord within her family by forbidding her parents to vote republican. i told her good luck with that. being that it was wednesday, i was also supposed to go running, but by the time i ate lunch, it was already getting late, and i didn't want to injure myself so i wouldn't be able to walk the next few days. so i dwindled away the rest of my daylight hours with some tv on the couch, falling asleep briefly, only to be woken up by my sister who called to say she was coming over to drop off her Met membership card so i could get in for free.
dinner was just beef soup from a can with two fruit elixirs (two because i was overzealous with the ingredients). i left my house at 9pm and went back into boston, to park street this time, to meet up with dan, cymara, and elias to see gangs of new york. when i got to the theatre, elias was already there. we bought tickets (i finally cashed in my redemption coupon for a free ticket), then went upstairs to the concession stands when it seemed like dan & cymara would be late. waiting in line i tried calling them again and was able to get them - they had just arrived, buying tickets downstairs. i scared the crap out of some girls waiting in front of us in line though with my loud "hello? hello?" over the phone. i've become what i hate the most!
my initial reaction to gangs of new york is that i didn't like it very much. the world that it creates is interesting, but the only real good thing in that film is bill the butcher, as played by daniel day-lewis. 
it was a really violent movie, and perhaps at that time it really was just as violent as the film describes it to be, but filmed with 21st century cinematography and colors, the violence is gruesomely kaleidoscopic. i don't think it's scorsese's best work. if he's winning awards, it's because out of some collective guilt of the voting members that a brilliant filmmaker like scorsese has never won the big prize, the academy award. when we see all the different gangs with their gang names and gang outfits (some of them quite funny), it reminded me a lot of the warriors (1979), this other surreal movie based in new york city about gang tribes. i'm confused about the ending: spoiler the military is called in to quell the new york city riot, and suddenly rival gangs are no longer rivals since they now have a common enemy. but what's the message here? "the enemy of america is america"? that's what it seems like. i thought cameron diaz's appearance in the movie was wasted, and her character could've been written out without changing the main plot. leonardo dicaprio was okay, but he had no where the same level as intensity as daniel day-lewis. spoiler and that beating dicaprio gets from bill the butcher? no where near as severe enough! he came back smarter and seemed just as strong as before. if you want to disfigure or maim somebody, please do it right! the movie is long too, almost three hours, like two movies in one. i wish they'd bring back intermissions, let people have a breather and discuss the movie a little bit with friends, before seeing the second half.
after the movie, dan & cymara grabbed the green line while elias and i took the red. it was late enough (close to 1am) that we had to wait for the last train to make its way up the stations. 
elias and i were talking about the age old problem of being unemployed and having a lot of time to go wherever but can't because you don't have money versus working and making money but not having time to go anywhere. so what does it mean that i'm going to NYC this extended weekend? i'm actually disappointed i haven't been doing it more often during my hiatus. 
i totally have "get up and go" in my heart. i'll buy a ticket to europe or mexico without blinking an eye, if i had that kind of disposable income that is (which i once had, but i never anything that impetuous with my money, just kept it underneath my mattress). when our train finally arrived, there was a brief period when both inbound and outbound trains were at the station, 
which meant that i could've walked from one side of park street (red line) to the other. i didn't dare risk it, i didn't want to be trapped on the other side just as soon as the last train was pulling away. it was a good idea that i didn't, because soon afterwards the doors closed and we were on our way. elias got off at central square, i rode it a few more stops (the cabin completely empty) to porter square.