Peter’s Blog V2

Hey Yo!  Tasty Chinese Tonight!

I think “ho jaye” translates to “let’s have”.  Found this poster on the window of Patel Brothers, an Indian chain supermarket.

This wouldn’t have been so funny if it weren’t found in Flushing, where the store was surrounded by a whole city of Chinese more real than “Real Chinese”.

Instant noodles taste awesome, but aren’t so healthy.  Since college, I don’t eat them often any more.  But I still get depressed each time my stock runs low.  Then I go for a major restocking trip.

This trip happens about once a year, and every single time the lady at the cash register would frown and scold me about how I need to eat something healthier.

Here’s an amazing artist on the New York Times blog, making abstract representations of NYC with few simple LEGO blocks:

A lot of the stuff is not really NYC specific, but some jokes are probably hard to get if you don’t live in the city.

The guy apparently has tons of good humor, but nothing cracks me up as much as the “worst building” below.  Why?  Because I know exactly what he’s talking about and can’t agree more!

I think the Grace Plaza is a pretty ugly building in NYC but it doesn’t suck nearly as much as the silly white one by the Brooklyn Bridge (1 Brooklyn Bridge Plaza with the Verizon logo).

New York is a city that never sleeps.  Like a person that never sleeps, this city never seems to be in a healthy shape, either.

I commute through the Rockefeller Center Subway station everyday.  As one of the only handicap-accessible stations in the city, there is an elevator that takes you down to the platform.  But don’t bother if you’re in a wheel chair, because it’s out of service.  It’s been under construction since last summer.  Or maybe earlier.  After months of changing warning signs and caution tapes, they now have replaced the exterior glass windows.  The latest flier reads that the construction will be complete at an indefinite date.

I’m no mechanical engineer, but am quite certain that it’s easier to fix a single elevator that goes up and down 20 feet, than to maintain a 24-line Subway system that runs through four boroughs.  If the same people have trouble keeping one of the busiest stations accessible, who are we counting on to transport millions of people around?  Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

On any given day, traverse through a few NYC Subway stations and I can bet you that no more than 2/3 of the escalators are working.  On a weekend, that number is likely to drop below 1/2.  When you look at the amount and variety of crap that falls on, in, and under those escalators, you will automatically become more sympathetic of the idling maintenance workers, who shall need an amputation if they ever come in close contact with it.  Why the crap never gets cleaned up is a separate mystery.

We had no idea what this movie was about before it was half over.  On Thursday, I heard about it for the first time.  On Friday, I heard about it for the second time.  On Saturday, Hong mentioned how she also heard many excellent reviews, so we hit the movie theater, paid for the tickets, and loved it.

It’s not one of those big Hollywood blockbusters, and it doesn’t even have the spontaneous singing/dancing from Bollywood.  But it’ll make you laugh, make you cry, make you cringe, and make you appreciate life just that much more.