FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!!!!!

I was riding on the T yesterday and these two jerk guys insisted on trying to cram into a full green line train. As the door was hitting one guy and people were telling him to get out, I gave him a little shove and he got out - at which point he came back up and said, "let's go!" To which I stupidly replied, "I'm not getting off, you get off." Only realizing later that he was challenging me to a fight.
So that guy got out, the doors closed and his buddy got in a shouting match with another guy on the T that was telling them to stop blocking the doors. This is where it gets interesting...
I zoned out and then the jerk hits the other guy he was yelling at! They started fighting right on the T. I pulled back the jerk and someone else pulled back the other guy at which point someone yelled, "Come on, it's Christmas!" After that the whole train was yelling at the jerk and I told him he doesn't deserve to ride the T and he was human garbage... At the next the entire car was telling him to get out and he bowed to that pressure. What an ass, but what an exciting commute!

Ye Olde HD Yule Log

You may have seen the Yule Log program on your local cable access channel - usually seen while flipping through that block of crappy channels. This old Yule Log sucked - it was a crappy camera trained on a little fire. Occasional a dembodied hand with a fire poker stirs the fire in a most unitentionally comical way. However, instead of flying cars and robots, the future has brought us someting truly awesome - the HD Yule Log. If you love Christmas (as I do), you'll love the HD Yule Log. Not only is it in HD accompanied with Classical Christmas music and fireplace noises, but it is on demand! Just like Starbucks Holiday Lattes this is a sign of Christmas for me. Check it out if you have HD and Comast!

Is it because you're ugly?

I just updated my Facebook page with some pictures of me - so I don't have the big "?" anymore. But as I did that, I added my highschool and looked up old classmates. Lots of them have the big "?" and now that I don't have one, I turned against them in a judgemental tirade you are now reading. Do you do that because you're ugly, or just lazy, or maybe you don't have any good pictures? Well, either way this is 2007 and you're not "The Blank" from Dick Tracy, so put your picture up there! There is no excuse, it is easy and fast, and you can even download free photoediting software to erase that horrible rash.

So, you think you're a foodie?

I'm a huge foodie - this is one of the areas in my portfolio of interests where I am an actual do-er and not just a fan or hanger-on. I love to cook and do it well and often. While riding the T, I read books - book on food from time to time. I read this book that changed the way I saw our whole food production process and what we eat. It is called The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollen. Anyone who is into food and cooking should read this. It starts of by examining Corn, just corn. And Pollen goes on to show how government policy, the rise of huge agribusinesses, and the fall of the individual farmer have lead to a corn-dominated processed food chain. The amount of products and food additives that come from corn is staggering and you'll really start to look at labels even more.
Although I already buy a lot of whole foods and do most of the prep work myself, I took a look at the "Mrs. Richardson's Hot Fudge" we had in our fridge (it is real good!) and was surprised by two things:
1) It had more than 3 ingredients

2) It had at least 4 corn-derivitives as ingredients

I think I'll just make my own genache from now on!

Pollen's real point is that we need to reconnect with our food and really examine what it is we are eating. There is too much to get into here, but it is a great read for anyone who loves to eat and wants to know a little more about the system behind all our food.

New Year's Eve

Again, the cunundrum - what to do on New Year's Eve? For me and mine, our first impetus was to go out to a great dinner - someplace like L'Espalier or T.W. Food. My next thought, was, "Damn that is expensive!" Moreso then regular! Why is it that NYE has become accepted as a time when we should spend so much for dinner, or a club, or a champagne toast? It would seem the goodly American consumer derserves a break after the Xmas shopping spree, but no - we endure to ring in the new year.
When I was 21ish, I loved NYE - another reason to get drunk! Now, as I age, I care about it less. Although I still love a reason to pop the bubbly, NYE has moved to the bottom of the list on my Favorit Holiday list - right above Arbor Day. What has moved up you ask? Halloween, it rules. So I say, the new National Party Day is Halloween, and as such we should get Nov 1 off as a national day of recovery and costume-putting-away.

Moon Boots

Ok - I saw these on a girl today and I almost punched her in the face because of her boots. I looked them up on the internet - Moon Boots by ski boot manufacturer Technica. Oh my god, these are stupid. And yes, I know they are comfortable, but the only fashion statement is, "I'm a complete whore to trends, no matter how stupid I look!"

Noticed this lately

So I noticed this picture in the window of Tiffany's pearl concept Iridesse the other day. It got me thinking... People complain about what is the ideal what is being sold to people these days, the beautiful cover girl, the ideal of thin, our society's obsession with youth. Now, I'm a guy so I'm usually down with that pressure (to a point), but I noticed this picture and thought it is a new step in the selling of the ideal... First off, I've also seen this style before at other places which (of course) I can't remember now. To me this style looks similar to a fashion designers sketch and it sells the ideal of a youthful, skinny, curvy, and rich woman without having an actual person behind it. Interesting I thought, since there is no person they can basically use an model that is not based in reality and doesn't age! I found this interesting - of course, I could be looking to far into the sociological impacts of this picture.

Are you a dilettante?

You may be asking, "Am I a dilettante?" I know I certainly am one. I noticed this more and more as I have gotten older. A friend of mine in college who is now a real estate analyst once referred to me as a "Modern-day Renaissance man." Renaissance men were ground-breakers in their many fields, but a dilettante is most certainly not that. Here is a quick rundown of my many areas of passing expertise...
A/V Home theater
Video Games
Interior Design
Financial Markets/Stock Picking
Clothes and fashion
Computers, networking (this blogging thing is new to me)
Photography
Ladies' fashions
Buddhism
Cars
Beer
Food and cooking
Fine watches
music, and hip hop production
and the list goes on....

Basically what goes on is like this - I can talk to anyone who is a specialist in any field, or example, a coworker may be better than me in our shared responsibilities, but I guarantee they don't know more than me in another subject - like cooking... I'm positive I'm a better cook than any of my coworkers. However, I'm not a better cook than Bobby Flay, but I do know more about Hip Hop and financial markets then he does.
You may be saying, "Who cares if you know more about something than someone else. Isn't that just a cop out to make yourself feel better for your own shortcomings and being less successful?" Which brings me to my next point - and the kernel of the curse - which I'll address sometime - sometime soon - but who knows!

First time

Hello one and all - I've made this blog to explore the phenomenon of the modern Dilettante. First, you may be asking, "What is a Dilettante, and who is this weirdo writing about it?" Well, let me tell you - a dilettante is a dabbler, a person who has a "superficial" interest in a great many subjects. Next you might ask, "What is this Dilettante's curse this guy is talking about?" I say curse because I feel it is a curse to be a dilettante (I consider myself to be one) - Generally speaking people of consequence tend to be specialists - people with passion in one area. People in my industry - financial services - tend to be this way. Passion for securities trading/analysis and nothing else. They can dedicate themselves to this completely and not bat an eye. I cannot, and I suspect no other dilettantes can either! Hence, this blog to explore this issue and also to show you the stream of conciousness that is the Dilettante's mind!