Sheep Guarding Llama

Quote of the Day is from Rabelais: “Science without conscience is the soul’s perdition.”

I slept in until seven this morning (I didnt’ think that I would ever say that.) This is how you can tell that I am getting older. I spent some time working on homework while Dominica was still sleeping. I have a bit of work that needs to be done today. Dominica has homework to do as well but not as much as I do.

At nine thirty we walked down to the Robert Treat and met dad for breakfast. We decided to just have the breakfast buffet in the hotel. That would be a mistake. No wonder no one can get into the brunch buffet at the Theater Square Grill without reservations – the Robert Treat really does not understand wat hotel dining is supposed to be like. The Robert Treat has Maize which is supposed to be one of the few high end restaurants in town but we haven’t made it there yet so we can’t tell you for sure. But we ate at the hotel breakfast which was hard to find and required cash not credit – in a “luxury” hotel? This was very strange. It was actually an extremely poor and somewhat overpriced breakfast not nearly competing with a diner, IHOP or any other hotel. It was almost bare with just scrambled eggs, potatoes, French toast, sausage (eww), fruit and one type of roll making up pretty much the entire buffet. And the rolls weren’t very good. It was incredibly weak.

After breakfast we headed back to the apartment and just visited for the day. I worked on homework at RIT too as I have a bit that is due today.

We were all pretty tired and dad needs a bit of rest before driving back home so we decided to leave Newark pretty early to get dad back to his hotel in Tannersville, Pennsylvania. It was around four when we left Newark.

The drive out to Tannersville went by quickly. We had dinner at the Tandoor Palace there in Tannersville connected to the hotel where dad is staying. The food was good. We enjoy eating there from time to time. We got past it quite often.

After eating we said goodbye and Dominica, Oreo and I drove back east to Newark. We spent the evening each working on our homework while Oreo slept some more. He is still very tired.

Right when we got back to our apartment I was walking Oreo down the hall and halfway between the elevators and our apartment door as we rounded the bend in the hall I saw something flash across the floor out of the corner of my eye. Oreo almost stepped on it and if Dominica hadn’t been behind me to get a good look at it I would have thought that my eyes were playing tricks on me. But no such luck… we have rats mice living on our floor 🙁 I have never lived in a building with rats before. In fact I have never seen a rat in the wild before if you can believe that! But it is surprising to have them so high up in a skyscraper like 1180 Raymond Blvd. But there are big spaces beneath the apartment doors so a rat can travel in and out of apartments with ease and there are empty apartments where they can easily live plus locked electric and mechanical rooms as well as the trash room. Every one of these rooms has plenty of open space beneath the doors so that the rats can run at full speed under them making them nearly impossible to catch. So now our door is blocked by a towel in the hopes of dissuading any would be uninvited guests from prowling around our apartment.

[The exterminators came the next day and told us that Newark has giant mice compared to what we are used to and that that was all that it was.  Although for me there is no difference between mice and rats from a “badness” perspective as both are friendly and cute but both carry the same diseases and are just as dangerous from that perspective.  If it wasn’t for the disease factor I wouldn’t worry about them at all.]

Quote of the Day from herm1t: “Viruses don’t harm, ignorance does. Is ignorance a defense?”

I was up at six this morning and got right into the shower. I got downstairs ready to drive out to Tannersville to get dad but my car wasn’t ready for me so I had to wait a little while for that. The drive out to Pennsylvania went pretty smoothly until I reached the toll booths at the Delaware Water Gap and realized that I had given away my last dollar last night and that Dominica has not yet signed up the BMW with EZPass. So I got off at Exit 1 (read: Last exit before toll) and drove around trying to find an ATM to get cash. No luck. From the map you can see that to the north the exit skirts the mountain. In fact that is a one lane park road with a three minute red light in each direction. Oops. That cost me ten minutes just doing a U-turn. Then to the south the road just loops you back onto the highway. Argh. So I had to drive back to Exit 4 to find an ATM. Altogether I must have lost half an hour just getting through the toll booth. And the ATM was definitely set up for people like me since it charged me a $4 ATM fee! So that toll booth crossing cost $.75 in toll, $4 in ATM fee, about a dozen miles worth of gas which is another $1 or so and half an hour of my time!

I finally managed to pick up dad a little after nine at the Days Inn in Tannersville and we headed back east to Newark. This is dad’s first time traveling through the Delaware Water Gap up here in the read gap. He has crossed the river farther south on Interstate 78 but that isn’t the same. This is “the gap”.

It takes just about an hour to go between Newark and Tannersville. We came in on Interstate 280, the Newark/Jersey City spur off of Interstate 80, all the way in to the McCarter Highway (NJ 21) and around to Commerce Street so that we could pull up to 1180 Raymond Blvd. Dad was quite impressed with the building and the lobby and met our concierge. He had a pretty good idea of the building having looked at it online and having taken a virtual tour that we posted online previously. We went up to the apartment but Dominica wasn’t ready to go yet and we had some things that we had to take care of before we would be able to run to breakfast.

It was only a little bit before noon when we were finally able to walk over to Food for Life to get a late breakfast. Dad was very surprised by Food for Life and really loved it. He loved it so much that he wanted to come back for dinner tonight. While we were there they had a photographer working taking pictures of some of their dishes. The pictures are going to be used in the drive-through of their new Dayton, Ohio location.

Speaking of Ohio, dad and I were talking about Ohio metro areas and I did a little research. Currently, if measured by the meaningless “city center” or “city limit” approach Columbus is by far the largest city in Ohio dwarfing the Cleveland and Cincinnati city centers by as much as almost double. But when measured by metro area Cleveland reigns supreme with a conservative measurement at 2.2 million (and the extended Cleveland metro at just under 3 million – the extended metro includes those areas that have recently become engulfed by the expanding metro district.) Cincinnati is not far behind at 2.1 million. But Columbus falls to a fairly lagging third with 1.7 million. I also learned that Cleveland was originally part of the Connecticut Western Reserve before being separated into the state of Ohio. So Cleveland is one of those rare cities having once been in one state and is now in another.

We went for a walk over on the east side of Military Park and took dad up to the Robert Treat Hotel for him to check in. The check in experience wasn’t very impressive for what claims to be Newark’s luxury hotel. They definitely acted as if it was an inconvenience to have a guest checking in. Like they were doing us a favour. Once we got him checked in we headed back out and noticed that the Robert Treat calls itself the hotel of Presidents and has a plaque on its outside wall with a relief of the four presidents who have stayed there – Wilson, FDR, Truman and Kennedy which are the four presidents to have brought America into major conflicts during the twentieth century. Wilson brought the US into World War I. FDR took us into World War II. Truman into Korea. And Kennedy, of course, into Vietnam. Those were our only significant twentieth century military engagements (there were many others but no others that had any real impact on the nation in general – most other conflicts were fought with little knowledge of the events at home.) So I think that the Robert Treat should be known as the “War Monger” hotel as I believe all four wars were fought unnecessarily and that the United States was, to some degree, an aggressor nation fighting for political power and not national defense (this is a complex argument that involved WWI having been aggressive and WW2 being the result of that action, etc.)

We spent the afternoon just relaxing in the apartment and visiting.  Dad has decided that he won’t be making the long drive down to Newark again and will just fly in the future as the airport is just too handy to pass up.

At five thirty we went back to Food for Life so dad could try out their dinner menu.  He ended up loving that as well.  After dinner we walked him back over to the Robert Treat so that he could get some rest as it has been a long trip down.

We went back home and did some work around the apartment and then watched some WKRP in Cincinnati.  While we watched the show I strung my classical guitar (an M. Harabi Model 35) for the first time since February, 2000 when I last did professional performing.  That was a weird feeling.  I played a borrowed classical guitar in May, 2001 for a single performance at Craig and Emily’s wedding but that was the last time that I have played at all.  I had to use a borrowed guitar then because mine had dried out and the neck and snapped off.  I had it repaired but never played it again.  It took a while to get the strings all on, stretched and somewhat tuned.  I played for about forty-five minutes to an hour.  I am not very good but still able to play.  It was weird playing guitar again after all of these years.  This was the first time that Dominica has ever heard me play!

Anti-American civil liberties opponent Jack Valenti dies today at 85. Valenti was an ardent opponent of the American public striving to promote big business over the good of the nation and its people he was a powerful political figure from Hollywood famous for his corrupt movie rating system but more recently becoming famous for attempting to destroy fair use rights in the US. Valenti was as powerful a force against America as all but a few in Washington. Our founding fathers look down and smile on our country today.

Dad left Pavilion this morning around nine to head down to Pennsylvania where I will be meeting him tomorrow morning to bring him back out to Newark. This is dad’s second ever trip to New Jersey and the first time that he will ever be coming to Newark itself. It has probably been eight months or more since dad last came down.

Today is another day of very heavy rain in New Jersey. Dominica and I woke up last night to the sound of rain and thunder and flashes of lightning shortly after we went to bed. It was a pretty serious storm.

Today was much better than yesterday. I guess the bottom line is that I enjoy going to work quite often more than I enjoy staying at home at 1180 Raymond Blvd. How sad is that? That is a really harsh statement that nothing ever goes so wrong at work as to make up for how wrong it often goes at home!

Dominica got the BMW in for its insurance inspection today. That is two out of three cars done. Now just the challenging Mazda 6. Dealing with everything in New York is so hard.

Tonight we are supposed to receive the paperwork for the sale of our Geneseo home. They were DHL’d up to us last night overnight and I am to sign them and overnight them right back tonight so that they will have them tomorrow morning. I called the front desk at 1180 and they said that the package had arrived so everything is looking good so far. The closing on the house is scheduled for Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. We aren’t holding our collective breath but at least things are moving forward to some degree. This is the most movement since we started the process the last week in December. We will be very happy to see the house finally sell. It has been such a burden the last several months. We are trying to eliminate things like that as much as possible.

I went out to lunch with the guys from work to Houlihan’s on Route 22. They have really good food there and good service and the prices aren’t too bad. Dominica did some shopping on her lunch break and got some luggage that we need for our trip in less than two weeks (can you believe that?) The two week mark was from last night so we are getting close now. We are very excited.

Today is my first day in my new office (read: cube.) I have been sitting in the same seat since I started over a year ago (this weekend will be thirteen months) and finally I have been moved so that I am sitting with my group instead of off by myself.

The RIAA went to a federal judge today asking, in secret, to be given the right to demand subscriber information from Internet Service Providers without a court warrant. The judge turned down the request but this shows just how much power the RIAA assumes that they have – which probably means that it is close to what they actually have. The RIAA is a private company that believes that it has the right, a RIGHT, to private corporate information that is a secret between that company and its customers. Imagine if a credit theft company demanded all private information from any major company. What makes the RIAA any different. I don’t steal anything from the recording industry represented companies. Therefore the RIAA is attempting to invade the privacy of a legal customer. The RIAA is treating you and I like criminals and trying to force vendors that we work with to be forced to comply with anything that the RIAA demands.

Today a major headline in the US is that a Cary-Grove English teacher requested a student write an essay that the teacher then used to have that student arrested. The school is attempting to prosecute for two account of disorderly conduct for the student’s following of directions. The English teacher is clearly criminal in this case and should be investigated thoroughly. This is entrapment and disgusting. Students at Cary-Grove have rallied behind the arrested student posting quotes from the English teacher on walls that encouraged this student to write this paper. The paper did not make threats and was taken completely out of context – obviously what the teacher was attempting to incite according to the reaction of fellow students. The student who was arrested has already been enlisted in the US Marines and is not happy that he is considered fit to die for his country but not to attend school. Teachers like this who are attempting to harm innocent students should be locked up. Teachers receive extensive training on dealing with students and should be help accountable for actions like this. Dealing with students who are forced to take their classes brings a grave responsibility that too many teachers take lightly. Teachers often act like students choose school but they do not – not normally. Students have little choice and by the time that they do have a choice (at age eighteen) they have been forced to invest so many years into the program that it is not reasonable to act as though they actually have a choice to stay or go at that point.

Dad arrived in Tannersville, Pennsylvania at a quarter after four this afternoon. He is tired from his drive but he has all evening and all night to relax and then I will be driving him from Tannersville back to Newark first thing tomorrow morning.

I paid our month end bills this afternoon. I hate paying bills. There must be a more straightforward way than most of these places use for online bill paying. None of the sites are similar. Some are so obtuse that from month to month I can’t remember how to navigate through them. Some show totals incorrectly, or not at all. One shows two separate accounts on one screen but only one can get paid online and the other can only be paid over the phone. And none of them, ever, save my login information even though each of them have a checkbox option for that that doesn’t work.

Dominica stayed late at work tonight.  Her last two weeks have been really busy and she has had almost no time to do anything because work has been so busy.  Unfortunately they don’t give her the option of overtime or else she could but in a little extra time to ease the load.  My Friday nights always run late as it is deployment night.  I got to leave at half past six which isn’t too bad.  Fridays can easily go much later.

Tonight’s plan is cleaning and early to bed as I am scheduled to meet dad between eight and eight thirty tomorrow morning in Tannersville.  So I will have to be up quite early to make that drive.

The City of Newark or some unidentified body attempting to represent the fire department is having another fire alarm prank masked as a fire drill today. Since I spoke to the department of fire safety and confirmed that these fire “drills” were not in anyone interest nor were they authorized nor legal we have had at least four more! The fire department even came to the building and said that this could not continue but another drill happened the next day. So whoever is forcing this is doing so with full knowledge that the fire department department of safety said that they were not okay. I don’t think that anyone can argue that this is being done for safety now. The story that I was told was that there is a renegade person in the city offices who is apparently out to get us and is masquarading as someone authorized by the fire department doing these drills illegally. Whether they are trying to harrass the residents of 1180 or if they are trying to get people killed or if they are trying to sully the name of the Newark fire department, I don’t know. But they are definitely making living here not nearly as nice as it should be and the police don’t seem to be taking appropriate action as in any other city, as I have said, this would be considered dangerous and highly illegal.

I called fire safety this morning to let them know that more tests were being done without their approval. They decided to pass me over to the fire chief since there was nothing more that they could do than to just determine that the tests were not allowed to be done. The fire chief was very helpful and is looking into the problem. We will see where things go from here.

Dominica emailed me this morning with the results from Oreo’s blood work that he had done yesterday. All of his levels are back to normal and his blood fat content is actually lower than normal! That means that his new diet is really working. He has trimmed off three ounces as well. Very, very healthy. And also very tired.

Last night my package arrived from Amazon (actually from 47th Street Photo) with the new wide angle adapter and filter set for the Canon Elura 60. It wasn’t expensive at all and now the camera has a lot more range before and should take better pictures in bright sunlight. But the real reason that I got the filters was to protect the camera lense. Remember: Filters are cheap but lenses are expensive. Especially when they are built into the camera itself. The wide angle lense adapter will make shooting video in the car much easier to do. It will help in any tight space. It takes the camera from a fourteen times zoom to a twenty eight with manual intervention.

The weather is amazing today. Warm but not too hot and sunny.

I ended up spending the bulk of the day dealing with the fire alarm issue. It just will never stop. They have set off the fire alarm claiming that they are being told to do so by the city every other week or so since we moved in in September. This is way past inconvenience and into criminal negligence or worse. It is awful. It is like they don’t consider us to be citizens of the city and they couldn’t care less that they are seriously disrupting our home life. Dominica and I are really sick of living in 1180. They don’t treat us like we are important customers but act like they are doing us a favour letting us pay them outrageous amounts of money to live in a tiny little one bedroom apartment where they torture us with loud sounds, refuse to fix things that they guaranteed would be fixed seven months ago with our move in agreement and treating us like squatters.

I tried calling over to the 1180 management offices that are located across the street in 744 Broad and the unintelligible receptionist there claimed that our building’s resident manager didn’t have a boss or report to anyone and that there was no possibility of escalation. I kept arguing that she wasn’t fooling anyone and that obviously he reported to someone and then eventually she gave me a first name but said that he was in a meeting and she would have him call me when he got out. He never called back. But she emailed our resident manager instead to tell him that I had called. Nice run around that they have working there. I called the office in Manhattan and they told me that the guy that Broad Street said was in a meeting wasn’t even in the office today.

After hours of dealing with the fire alarm issue just today and after months of dealing with it in general I finally convinced 1180 to turn over the name of the person that they claim is providing authorization to perform the fire alarm tests. It was late in the day and I couldn’t deal with it. Maybe I will get a chance to deal with it tomorrow. Hopefully. This is really impacting our qualify of life. Today they ran five or six fire alarms and didn’t call us ahead of time so Oreo was in shear panic. He was shacking and had an accident because he was so scared. 1180 Raymond is anything but pet friendly. There are many dogs and probably cats in this building who are home alone being put through bi-weekly torturous fire drills that go on and on sometimes for over an hour. I had checked ahead of time today and we were told that today’s alarm would only last for thirty seconds or so but the test ran on for at least twenty minutes with the alarm going on and off.

I got a chance to do a little cleaning around the house today in preparation for dad coming down this weekend.  But not nearly as much as I would have hoped.  I really didn’t manage to get much of anything done today.  It was just a crappy day.  Nothing went right at all.  This is why I want to move out of 1180.  I should never lose an entire day to my “luxury” apartment making my life suck.  Paying over two grand a month to live here seems a bit much for Newark and being treated like this.  It isn’t like either Min or I even work in Newark.  This is totally not worth it.  We could live anywhere for these prices.  Anywhere except Manhattan and we absolutely would never have this kind of thing happen in NYC.  Ever.  Not after 9/11.  This is like a project to make attacks easier for terrorist.  Prepping everyone to not even consider the possibility that the alarm might actually be real.

Dominica got her hair done before coming home tonight.  She got home and we went over to Food for Life for dinner.