an awkward morning beats a boring night

Fucking great (greatly fucked), I don't know what's gotten into me, but lately I've been feeling guilty that I'm not acing my classes like people from previous batches. They've been getting A+s all the way and the rebellious part of me has, for the past year, rejected any form of grade consciousness. I haven't studied as much as I should have, I refused to discuss exam questions after the exam (unless they were fucking impossible), I never asked for more marks, I never calculated the percentages of every quiz and homework nor referred to seniors' work to glean off the good stuff (unless the lab report was too hard to do). But, maybe I should have done all that.

I guess deep down, I know I wouldn't want to be normal and average, as much as I try to think otherwise. I want everything, really..(1) a life outside school work, more (hot) friends (cuz I'm fucking lonely), a sense of accomplishment (2), among others (3).

[ The Tate Modern gets an expansion. Hmm I don't know what to think of it. ]
[ Watch the whole Madonna concert on youtube. Great quality stuff. ]

(1) You know me.
(2) Like today, I got 10 dollars just by doing surveys for the business school.
(3) Such as a cuddle party. Let me know if you're interested.

i'm a brat

Crap, I broke the cycle. I didn't run tonight.
Here are my various excuses.
I wasted too much time over the weekend. I did had wonderful msn conversations that seemed to last for days, interrupted only by sleep.. XY: Are u guys high-life talking again? If u are i'm out of the conversation..
There's also nothing like pre-midterm panic that made me finish reading one chapter of the textbook and one whole problem set in one hour, while it took me two days to read the other four chapters.
I am caught in the middle of a 3 part Battlestar Galactica episode, and I can't wait till tomorrow to finish it.
So much for a healthy lifestyle campaign; I ate tons of gourmet food this weekend, such as truffles and chicken pie, I went to a creamery and ate a huge ice cream cone, I ate other alcohol drenched desserts as well.

[ The Fountain's new trailer is out ]
[ Hear hear, NBC will be broadcasting Madonna's concert in November. I'm so going to be in front of the telly ]

I don't think I can write a really personal (read: whiny) post.
Truth is, I just can't take the stress of eating dinner with 7 other people who are all attached.

And that is why I never enjoy dinner, despite the food.

in bloom

What did I tell you? The Lady in the Water is M Night Shyamalan's worst reviewed movie to date. Its ratings rank among the likes of Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties.

Anyway, our resident chef Junchen cooked the most out of this world dinner yesterday. There was chrysanthemun tea, pork ribs with espresso sauce, egg noodles, two different types of steamed fish, drunken chicken and my favorite dessert of all time.. fuzhok yimai.


Elsewhere, ingenious art of the day: Internet paintings. It's self explanatory; the guy paints what he sees on the screen.
Under the waters of the San Francisco bay lies some of the largest sand dunes in the world, all but hidden from view.
You might have seen the plans for Sands Marina Bay, but have you seen Zaha Hadid's rejected proposal for a Guggenheim Musuem at the same spot? Actually you can't see much and it doesn't look that great anyway.
Overplot combines Overheard in New York and Google Maps to form a potent database of heard-on-the-street quotes. The things people say.
This Samarost game has pretty graphics and is a really good way to while 20 minutes away.
Is Lily Allen the it girl of this summer? She already has a UK no. 1 and a 50 cent inspired spoof song 'Nan you're a window shopper'. Myspace has been swallowed by the News Corp behemoth.
At the ripe age of 49, Kim Cattrall is still vamping it up.

heat wave

There are only a few ways to combat a deadly hot day such as the one we had yesterday.

1. Head to the nearest waterfall/creek to soak in the water. Nevermind I had to swim around with a few other dogs, the jacuzzi like experience under the waterfall was worth it. Actually, it wasn't that great; the rocks under the opaque water were of different heights and you wouldn't dare kick around so much.

2. Drink tons of coke and totally gain back the sugars burnt off the day before.

3. Walk around half naked all day.

4. I didn't try this, but some people had a midnight car wash. To hose themselves more than the car.

5. Oh, we also entertained thoughts of the kind of reaction we'll get if one of us took off his shirt during class. Then another person could say aloud, 'You think this is Singapore?'

---

Oh I forgot to mention that movies from all my favorite auteurs are coming out real sooooon. Of course, not all will live up to their promise. About half will be fawned over by critics. One will win Best Picture next year. [Other things: I need to watch The Prairie Home Companion.. and the Devil Wears Prada.. Meryl Streep double whammy. And A Scanner Darkly. And I don't get the deal with Pirates 2. I boycotted it. I don't remember enjoying the first one a real lot-- besides Johnny Depp, it didn't have much going for it... Also, Lady in the Water. Everyone oohs and ahhs at M Night Shyamalan's brand name, but isn't his last good movie The 6th Sense? An article I read talks about his egomania, and how everyone in hollywood is hoping for this movie to sink. I'll see.]

Anyway, the film experience has a list of the most anticipated movies of 2006. There's some power casting in here. Get excited. Yeah, the more exclamation marks you see, the more psyched I am.

• Clint Eastwood - Flags of Our Fathers. WW2 film. (Jamie Bell)
• Woody Allen - Scoop. It seems to be a comedy. Scarlett is hotness personified. ( Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, Ian McShane)
• Todd Haynes of Far From Heaven - I'm Not There, a Bob Dylan film (Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams. Julianne Moore!)
• Sofia Coppola! - Marie-Antoinette (already booed at Cannes though. And Kirsten Dunst is urghly)
• Brian DePalma of MI:1- The Black Dahlia (Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Hilary Swank! Aaron Eckhart)
• Mel Gibson - Apocalypto
• Danny Boyle of 28 Days Later - Sunshine (Cillian Murphy! Michelle Yeoh, Chris Evans)
• Steven Soderbergh - The Good German (George Clooney, Cate Blanchett!! I love Cate. Tobey Maguire)
• David Fincher of Fight Club/Se7en - Zodiac (Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey, Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Gary Oldman, Chloe Sevigny)
  
• Todd Field of In the Bedroom - Little Children (Jennifer Connelly! Kate Winslet!)
  
• Christopher Nolan!!! - The Prestige. Nolan hasn't made any movie that is less than good, has he? The trailer looks incredible; the cast, impeccable. (Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson, David Bowie)
• Darren Aronofsky of Pi/Requiem for a Dream - The Fountain. Trailer hints at its ambition. (Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz, Ellen Burstyn)
• Richard Kelly of Donnie Darko!!! - Southland Tales. Weird cast, this one. But there's SMG! (The Rock, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Seann William Scott, Mandy Moore, Kevin Smith, Bai Ling?? Christopher Lambert)
• Pedro Almodóvar of Bad Education - Volver. One of my favorite directors ever. Trailer. (Penelope Cruz)
• David Lynch of Mulholland Drive- Inland Empire. I will probably not understand this movie. (Laura Dern, Justin Theroux, Jeremy Irons)
• Christopher Guest - For Your Consideration. This is about the Oscars and it has major buzz surrounding it. (Ricky Gervais, Parkey Posey, Christopher Guest)
• Alejandro González of 21 Grams - Babel (Cate Blanchett, Brad Pitt, Gael García Bernal!)
• Michel Gondry of Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind - The Science of Sleep. Expect the usual Gondryesque visual inventiveness. Trailer. (Gael Garcia Bernal)
• Steven Shainberg of Secretary - Fur (Nicole Kidman, Robert Downey Jr)
• Bill Condon of Kinsey - Dreamgirls. Trailer. (Jamie Foxx, Beyonce, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Hudson)
• Douglas McGrath of Emma - Infamous. What, Capote redux? Comparisons are bound to arise. (Toby Jones, Sandra Bullock, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sigourney Weaver, Jeff Daniels, Daniel Craig, Isabella Rossellini)
  
• Alfonso Cuaron!!! - Children of Men (Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Chiwetel Ejiofor <- that Serenity bad ass)
• Marc Foster of Finding Neverland - Stranger than Fiction (Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah, Emma Thompson)
  
• Robert DeNiro - The Good Shepherd (Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, William Hurt, Billy Crudup)
  
• Ryan Murphy of Nip/Tuck - Running with Scissors (Annette Bening, Brian Cox, Evan Rachel Wood, Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow)
  
• Martin Scorscese - The Departed, or Infernal Affairs (Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin)
• Steve Zaillian - All the King's Men. Hot cast. (Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins, James Gandolfini, Patricia Clarkson, Mark Ruffalo)
  

ok the list goes on.. But isn't this drool worthy? Even my favorite actors have been particularly hardworking. Like Julianne Moore, Kate Winslet, Scarlett Johansson, Matt Damon, Gael Garcia Bernal, Cate Blanchett, Hugh Jackson.. I hope most of these movies turn out to be really awesome.

in addition,

it's been a hot day.

I have been playing a lot of dance music lately because a) I haven't been to a club since last year and b) I fantasize about being a disc jockey. I'm dying to get two remixes in particular: Timo Maas' remix of Tori Amos' Don't Make Me Come to Vegas and Jacques lu Cont's remix of Missy Elliott's Lose Control. Jacques lu Cont can do no wrong; he's got the midas touch I think.
This website has a whole bunch of good free remixes as well as mixes. Do check out his remix of Amerie's 1 thing.

This website makes you an instant artist a la Pollock. Really fun and addictive.

And also I thought I had better read more news and less gossip, since I didn't really know about the Isreal and Lebanon thing until one day later.


Star wars figurines superimposed onto Parisian landscapes, here. I'm such a scifi geek at heart.

Best summer song so far: Nelly Furtado and Timbaland's Promiscuous. Hear also:
Shakira - Hips Don't Lie
Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
Beyonce - Deja vu (or Crazy in Love redux)
and I hate to say it but,
Fergie - London Bridge
Paris Hilton, Anti hero.

How to trade a paper clip for a house. Yes, Luke.

I'm craving for NYC again. Big city, bright lights!

My voyeuristic tendencies were re-sparked when I discovered a huge Cornell blog ring on Xanga.

My american accent sucks like shit.

another weekend, another festival

What better way to spend a weekend than to visit the Finger Lakes wine festival?


It was a good deal, considering that you get free flow of alcohol for 30 dollars. The downside was that it was a 45 minute drive away, and we had to decide who was sober enough to drive us back. We thought that the police would get every car's driver to take a breathalyser test on the way out, but that didn't happen. Someone had to hide in the boot too, because there were six of us in one car.


So there were tons of people, just like last weekend, and some were high. Intermittently, people would start cheering, especially if they hear someone drop his wine glass.
It was held beside a NASCAR race track, fyi.


The best part was that I got to try many types of wine and could see what I liked or disliked. So I liked the whites, especially the Riesling, which was always refreshing. Chardonnay was ok but dry, the Gewurztraminer is interesting, because the one I tried had hints of white pepper and pineapple. The dessert wines were all sweet and tasty. As for the reds, I definitely did not like Pinot Noir, even though Sideways championed it. I had a couple of Merlots, as well as mixes like Cabernet Merlot. I didn't try Cabernet Sauvignon cuz I didn't make an attempt to pronounce Sauvignon (it's just too long). There was a ginseng wine that absolutely sucked, and a chocolate one was ok. I didn't enjoy Ice wine as much as I thought I would. The fruit wines were all great. Rasberry, strawberry, cranberry. The honey wine (mead) was also sweet. Yeah, I guess I have a sweet tooth. I left out a lot in the end, since we only had four hours, and there's only so much wine you can take before they all start to taste the same.


Besides the innumerable stalls peddling wine, there were also a few stalls giving free samples of food, and we promptly took advantage of that. The garlic butter dip was fantastic with bread, and Mammamia curd was my favorite cheese there. I liked blue cheese too.


But all this just makes my expediture sky rocket. Lastest news: the dentist is charging me another 1000 bucks. I have half a mind not to continue the treatment.. but I know I should.
Later.

a degustation of sexy voices

I dig female singers most of all. The very best of them aren't mortals; they are goddesses. You don't even have to take my word for it-- youtube users shall provide the commentary.


Tori Amos - The Waitress
"yet another orgasmic performance! :)"
"nice. I didn't realize this was the 'eat my pussy' incident."
"I have goosebumps... oh my god! Tori is a goddess!"


Garbage vs Peaches - a very nice mashup of 'Push It' and 'Fuck the Pain Away'. Peaches doesn't come close to Shirley Manson's hotness.
"peaches is a man..."
"I have to watch this daily.. it's that good."
"Shirley and Peaches together!!! could they be any cooler!!!"
"JESUS christ woman put from frigging clothes on"
"SHIRLEY IS SO...HOT!!!!!!!!!!!"


Donna Summer - lots of NSFW bedroom noises on Love to Love You Baby
"Beyonce has nothing on Donna Summer."
"very sexy song.. and sexy performance."
"After Donna nobody sounded so convincingly erotic."


Portishead - Glory Box
"Beth Gibbons singing and smoking in perfect harmony"
I guess that's where she got her smoky voice.
"its very surreal, and overwhelming."
"Beth's voice is AMAZING..."


Feist - Secret Heart
"HOly Moly--this is fantastic--gawd--I love her music!"
"what a ..... !! o_o great guitar sound and great play"
"shit hot!"
I would add this-- absolutely heartbreaking.


Bjork for Alexander McQueen - Bachelorette
"only bjork can pull off such a strange and great performance like that"
"love them both, it was the great collobration i guess in fashion and music, amazing!!"
"I just came."
I just love the diamonds covering her face.


Neko Case - Hold On, Hold On
"The antithesis of the modern pop tart! Her songs, lyrics and vocal delivery willcharm, uplift and haunt you simultaneously."
"Just heard this song yesterday on WFPL in Louisville and was so knocked out, I had to pull over the car."
"I had just about given up on music and then she comes along."
"Yah by far my (favorite) singer songwriter in the past 10 years."
"Wonderful lyrics, some of the best I've heard in a while."

I'm gonna puke turkey

Best worst idea: A $1.5 million magnetic bed. Imagine what it does to your body piercings.

Here's this week's report from I-town, y'all.

- I am absolutely bored with school, but physics lab is rather simple (um, standing waves are so cool) and we don't have to submit any lab report. Woowee.

- The 5hr driving prelicensing course was intense. We had to sit on our wooden chairs for that duration, listen to an instructor talk in rapid fire mode and watch many videos, out of which only one was remotely funny. It basically instills in people a fear of not buckling seat belts.

- 4th of July just reminded me of the Aimee Mann song: 'Today's the fourth of july / Another June has gone by / And when they light up our town I just think / What a waste of gunpowder and sky'. Most poetic four lines to ever begin a song.
Even though we knew that Boston had the best firework display, none of us went, choosing instead to see the ones put up by Ithaca college. We were duly disappointed. The main problem, is that they only shoot one up at a time. They should really compress all the shells into 5 mins instead of dragging it out to 30. I enjoyed XXXXXXXXX's eagerness to see a 'golden shower'.

- Kings is a fun drinking game. I'll teach ya one day.

- Settlers is not a fun game.

- I'm also hooked onto Battlestar Galatica. I've never seen a more gripping 2 part episode since Prison Break's rioting saga. It's like firefly, but more serious. You should watch it. Anyway, any show that has a former Victoria's Secret model playing a human-like robot makes my list.

==========

We went to the Renaissance Festival in Sterling for some good old medieval fun today. It's like a theme park slash carnival, pretty big actually. There were actors in costumes and acting in character (God save the Queen!) for the entire day, fire jugglers, a sword eater, human chess matches, tons of arts and crafts and..


PIRATES!


I didn't watch Pirates 2 after I read the bad reviews. I do want to download The Devil Wears Prada to see Meryl Streep chew the screen up.


The jousting match was also entertaining. Everyone had to shout 'Ay!', 'Boo!', 'Kazza!' every now and then. The match turned into something like a hilarious wrestling match soon after-- knight jumped from a horse etc.

However, today will forever be remembered as the day we felt like throwing up our lunch and dinner. We were quite hungry in the afternoon and the huge ass turkey legs looked so incredibly appetizing.


Those were happier times. Twenty minutes later, after struggling with the skin, the splinters in the bone, the ligaments and 5 chicken wings' worth of meat, I had to call time out. Only Jeremy, who took that picture, could clean out the turkey leg.


Dinner was history repeating. Not heeding advice, five of us ordered this dish that is just a mountain of sashimi, spicy mayo, sushi rolls and other stuff. I shudder to think of it. In fact, I think I'm ready to puke now if I see this picture again. To be fair, it looked and tasted really good at first, just like the turkey leg.. I can't eat Japanese for the rest of the month, at least.

==========

- Movies:
I'm Going to Tell You a Secret is a must watch for diva wannabes.
Heart of Gold made me a Neil Young fan.
Before Sunrise is so romantic it hurts.
Match Point shows why Scarlett Johansson is the hottest.
Portishead NYC is an incredible concert film too.

- It's tori phase again. I have to get hold of Timo Maas' remixes of "Don't Make Me Come to Vegas", because that I felt that the song had a lot of potential that wasn't fulfilled on the album version. I don't know where I can find it though, since it was only released to DJs on vinyl. The other thing that re-piqued my interest was a recording of her covering Karma Police. Well, I got goosebumps.
But the exciting news is her upcoming box set of rarities and hits. A track list:

Disc 1:
"Leather" (Alternate Mix) "Precious Things" (Alternate Mix) "Silent All These Years" "Upside Down" "Crucify" (Unedited Single Version) "Happy Phantom" "Me and a Gun" "Flying Dutchman" (Alternate Mix) "Girl" "Winter" "Take to the Sky (Russia)" "Tear in Your Hand" "China" "Sweet Dreams" "Mother" (Alternate Mix) "Little Earthquakes"

Disc 2:
"Cornflake Girl" "Honey" "Take Me With You" "Baker Baker" (Alternate Mix) "The Waitress" (Alternate Mix) "Pretty Good Year" "God" "Cloud on My Tongue" "Past the Mission" (Alternate Mix) "Bells For Her" "Yes, Anastasia" (Alternate Mix) "Blood Roses" "Mr Zebra" "Caught a Lite Sneeze" (Alternate Mix) "Professional Widow" (Merry Widow Version - Live) "Beauty Queen/Horses" "Father Lucifer" "Marianne"

Disc 3:
"Walk to Dublin" (Sucker Reprise) "Hey Jupiter" (Dakota Version) "Professional Widow" (Armand"s Star Trunk Funkin" Mix) "Putting the Damage On" "Bliss" (Remixed Version) "Suede" "Glory of the 80's" "1000 Oceans" "Concertina" (Single Remix Version) "Lust"
"Datura" "Sugar" (Soundcheck) "The Waitress" (Live) "Snow Cherries From France" "Doughnut Song" (Remixed Version)

Disc 4:
"A Sorta Fairytale" "Not David Bowie" "Amber Waves" "Iieee" (Remixed Version) "Playboy Mommy" (Remixed Version) "The Beekeeper" "Jackie's Strength" "Zero Point" "Sweet the Sting" "Ode to My Clothes" "Spark" "Intro Jam"/"Marys of the Sea" "Cruel" (Remixed Version) "Dolphin Song" "Gold Dust"

Disc 5:
"The Pool" "Never Seen Blue" "Daisy Dead Petals" "Beulah Land" "Sugar" "Cooling" "Bachelorette" "Black Swan" "Mary" (Tales Version) "Peeping Tommi" "Toodles Mr. Jim"
Demo Medley: "Fire-Eater's Wife/Beauty Queen" (Demo) "Playboy Mommy" (Demo) "A Sorta Fairytale" (Demo) "This Old Man" "Purple People" "Here. In My Head" "Hungarian Wedding Song" "Merman" "Sister Janet" "Home on the Range" (Cherokee Edition) "Frog on my Toe"

- But of course, my true love still is and always will be her.

in the evidence of its brilliance

If Madonna ever tours again, I would pay 350 bucks for the front row seat and drag the biggest cynic down with me. For that woman really knows how to put on a show. In summary, I had uh hrm, a very choice seat (see pic) and could therefore not see anything on the gigantic screen on stage. Her back was facing my side most of the time. Even the OHP screen way up is inverted. But there isn't really a perfect seat, for if you sit right down there, you'll miss the dancers who are everywhere, and the pulsing lights and screens on the stage floor. There really are too many things to look at. The techinal setup was brilliant-- trapdoors everywhere, the band on movable floats, a huge curtain screen that rises and falls, disco balls in the rafters, a gigantic hydraulic turntable, great lighting. She made it a disco for 2 hours. She didn't talk that much throughout; about 20 sentences tops. Trent was there; I wish I had spotted him. End of summary, but I know you want a blow by blow account..

1140: The art of leaving a class. It's hard to decide the right time to leave a lecture, especially one where there are only 20 people altogether. Not too soon, and not too fast, just inconspicuous enough to look like you're going to the bathroom.

Nah, actually most lecturers don't really care.

1215: Another long bus ride to new york. Gawd. I wish I were studying there. Or even in berkeley.

1915: The Penn station is a huge mess. I'm trying to figure out the way to madison square garden. It's good to know that they are buiding a new station on the next block. [Actually they are going to move the garden too. Which just doesn't make sense, considering how the current one destroyed the formerly great penn station, and now they want to repeat history? yadayadayada you don't really want to hear about all that..]

2000: Only about half the arena is filled, maybe because of the rain outside, or maybe because everyone knows she's going to show up late. People below me said she came on at 930pm the previous night. I'm so going to miss the bus at 11. Dang the people beside me look like skanks.

2030: The crowd is clapping and cheering for no reason.

2045: Sometime after, the lights dimmed, the show started. Future Lovers is worth the ticket price alone. The protracted wait after the disco ball descends, the roar of the audience when it splits open like an atom, the dancers prancing around like horses, her hot equestrian costume, her slamming her whips on the floor, pulling the harness of her dancer, the sample of 'I feel love', the smug look on her face when she sits down..


The setlist:
Future Lovers/I Feel Love
Get Together - Nice. "Ladies and gentlemen, and I use those terms loosely.."
Like A Virgin - She mounts a saddle on the furthest side of the stage. She's totally neglectin' my side.
Jump - This is when lots of gymnastic looking bars come down and all the dancers do their best impressions of cirque du soleil.
Interlude: Dancer Confessions - The interludes were all pretty entertaining.
Live to Tell - ARGH. The cross is blocking her entirely. I can only imagine what it looks like from the front.
Forbidden Love - Nice. But again, not much to see from the back.
Isaac - Better than on the album. A surprising dance at the end. She's at her best when she dances.
Sorry - Everyone sings along. There's a cage on stage. If I were a singer, I would have such a huge ego if I had 17000 people worship me and sing along to me every night.
Like It Or Not - The weakest song. Maybe it's the acoustics, but I can't really hear her lower register. She should have performed just half the confessions album and give us her old hits.
Interlude: Sorry remix
I Love New York - The perfect place for the song. She does all the reverb and extended guitar thing at the end. She's pretty good at being a rock star.
Ray of Light - Awesome. Dancers do some kylie-ish robot dance. She makes everyone jump up and down. It's a sight to behold.
Let It Will Be - Not as good as I hoped for.
Drowned World/Substitute For Love - This is where most people sit down for the first time. She sounds really good.
Paradise (Not For Me) - Ditto.
Interlude: Music/Disco Inferno
Music - Absolutely the best part of the concert. She's in a Travolta suit, the dancers are on roller skates, the beat is downright nasty, and she does all the 70s style dance moves. The crowd eats it all up.

You Thrill Me/Erotica - Erotic? Not at all. I want more old songs.
La Isla Bonita - It's sped up a lot. Very cool abba unitard. She should inspire more obese americans to exercise. I feel for the women who attend her concerts-- they must feel really bad about their bodies after the show.
Lucky Star - Kinda bah. She has on a stupid looking glow-in-the-dark cape that says "dancing queen".
Hung Up - Yea she did the same old routine, but added a part where she humps a boombox. Balloons everywhere. She gets people to sing along to the refrain.

2300: ok I missed the bus. I still ran though, in case the bus left late.

2317: No luck. Luke suggests I go watch porn and buy some back for him.

0100: I eat Yoshinoya's. I look at movie listings. Cars? A Prairie Home Companion? I decided against both eventually.

0230: I'm at Mcdonalds' reading the Grapes of Wrath. It's raining again.

0300: I'm at the Port Authority. I know it's sketchy, but I've done it before in springbreak.

0330: I get sexually harrassed by this black guy sitting beside me. First he's brushing his arms against me, then he's making the tsp tsp sound with his lips. He reaches for me again. I walk away but am secretly pleased.

0500: I spend the rest of the time reading magazines in Hudson News.

That sums up my last great venturing.
I'm kinda bugged by the past/present tense confusion in the post.