Best commute ever today. Walked to the Brooklyn Bridge. As I was waiting for the light to change to cross the street to get onto the bridge, some random woman pulled up in her car and said "I need three people to get across the bridge!" Me and three other people standing at the corner just looked at each other and said "...OK!"

I got dropped off two blocks from work, made it in on time. Today is a good day.

Here is a list of things that I hate:

-Those little plastic pulltabs on orange juice and soy milk containers that you have to pull off when you first open them.
-The Who.
-Scenes in movies where all of a sudden the computer has all the answers. One character will sit in front of the computer and take charge, which means typing frantically on the keyboard, while at least two others watch over his shoulder with baited breath. The viewer is supposed to believe, then, that this individual can navigate through sophisticated menus filled with vector graphics right out of Tron to come across the answer, like where the bomb is or where the nuclear missile is about to detonate, without touching a mouse once. According to Hollywood, q-w-e-r-t-y can solve all the world's problems.
-People that make a statement, and then say "Why?" and then go on to answer their own question, but we've covered this already.
-Having to shake a beverage before drinking it (also, see #1).
-Turnips.
-WALKING A MILE TO THE BROOKLYN LIRR STATION IN THE FREEZING COLD, TO BE GREEETED BY A 45 MINUTE LINE TO BUY TICKETS FOR THE TRAIN, TO TAKE THE TRAIN TO JAMAICA QUEENS, TO THEN HAVE TO BE ROUTED OUT OF THE TRAIN STATION TO THE STREET BELOW, TO STAND IN THE FREEZING COLD FOR TWO AND A HALF HOURS, TO FINALLY GET A TRAIN INTO PENN STATION... TO GO TO WORK.

I was able to really test out the Rhapsody service this weekend as I churned out spreadsheet after spreadsheet. Side note - did I mention next week is my last week for school? Anyway, I'm in heaven. Any service that lets you stream the entire Depeche Mode discography (every mini-e.p. and single ever released is on there) one second and then stream the all 16 glorious minutes of the original 12" version of Donna Summer's "Love to Love you Baby" next gets seventeen thumbs up in my book.

I got to check out the entire catalog of two artists I've been meaning to check out for a while - Sergio Mendes and Vince Guaraldi. Sergio Mendez is the bossa nova king, and after a couple of his albums I felt at peace with the earth and I was dying for a good martini. Vince Guaraldi is perhaps best known for providing the music for the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. His stuff is amazing as well.

The service is not without its snags, though. The house and techno offerings are severely limited. There's hardly anything there (e.g. not even Richie Hawtin), and although Orbital's catalog is on there for some reason the original version of "Chime" is absent. Also, the service completely crashed Firefox twice (which, knowing Firefox, may not be Rhapsody's fault).

The next step is dedicating a computer for the living room to stream this stuff through the stereo.

It's great to see something you are witness to every morning immortalized in the Times : the G Line Sprint. Now, do you think they could use the left over conductors to run some more F trains? My commute always seems to quadruple in hellishness once winter hits.

OK, so after hearing some glowing reviews, I've just subscribed to Rhapsody. Basically, you pay 10 bucks a month for the ability to stream 1.3 million songs a month. No downloading of files- you are basically renting access to their library. It's kind of an odd concept to get used to, but the first hour you're on board you're like a kid in a candy store. The selection is impressive. For example, the following artist seem to be very well represented:

-Tom Waits
-John Coltrane
-Miles Davis
-Fela Kuti
-Pavement
-Kraftwerk
-Ibrahim Ferrer
-Pet Shop Boys
-Neutral Milk Hotel
-Franz Ferdinand
-Cocteau Twins

So, there's a lot to explore beyond the usual chart-toppers. I didn't delve into the hip-hop selection too much yet, and as expected the house and techno offerings were mainly limited to the larger labels such as Astralwerks, V2 and FFRR (are they still around?). Still, it's amazing to be able to hear almost anything you want instantly, I'll be able to check out artists I've been meaning to try for years, and it works on my PC at work so I am no longer dependant on the radio. Now, let's see how long this service lasts.

Man, is today gruelling. So much to do but so little drive to actually do it, and I can't seem to drink enough coffee. Here is a list of things that I would rather do than be at work today:

-Take a nap
-Go Christmas shopping
-Iron my shirts
-Consolidate some student loans
-Dust
-Defrag my hard drive
-Become addicted to crack cocaine

Today's hangover helper: A collection of West Village photographs from the 60's. It's amazing how some parts look almost exactly the same today, while other areas seem like a completely different world.