The Coffee Break

Rhetorical WD-40

noreply@blogger.com (djkibblesnbits) — Fri, 7 Mar 2008 11:02:00 -0500

Gotta get ready to oil up the joints, because The Coffee Break is officially coming back! All will be explained in due time. Just update your RSS feeds and stay tuned. :-D

Okay... So... What the Hell Was I Going to Write About?

noreply@blogger.com (djkibblesnbits) — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 21:01:00 -0500

I'm at a loss for words. Can you believe it? ME?! At a "loss for words?!"

Yes, folks. I have no idea what the hell to write about. Partly because I really don't know where to begin. See, it's been so long since I last posted on here, that a shitload of things have happened since my last entry. (Ironic, considering that the last entry focused in on my being, "Lost...")

Let's start things off on a simple note... Happy Turkey Day, everybody. I hope your Thanksgiving went well, and you were able to stuff yourself with good food. And, even if the food wasn't good, I hope that the very least you were able to cash in on some of these wonderful Black Friday sales. (Man, it's Christmas time already!! Where the hell did the time go?)

Since the last time I wrote on here... let's see...

1) I'm doing alright at work... not as good as I'd hoped I'd be doing, but I'm still confident that things will pan out real soon...

2) I traveled up to Syracuse... and found out that I aged 5 years in a matter of 5 months... (AKA: I now need five days of recovery time for every one day of heavy drinking)

3) I literally aged another year on the 17th... Happy Birthday to meeeee...

4) Season 3 of LOST ended after 6 episodes... Now we gotta wait 15 weeks for another episode...

5) Got the news that my ex is 9-months pregnant... and she wants me to be the Godfather...

Lemme 'splain that last one... For starters, the kid ain't mine. Let's get that one out the way riiiight now....

Apparently, my former high school sweetheart, Evelyn, got pregnant and is expecting a baby girl any day now. The father of the child has been extremely supportive, and looks like he's sticking with Evelyn for the long haul, which is great to hear, especially in this day and age. Eve broke the news to me in an IM convo about two weeks ago, saying that she was not only pregnant, but that she was nine months pregnant. The fact that she had a bun in the oven didn't surprise me, but what did surprise me was how late she was. Now don't get me wrong... I'm not saying that she gets around or anything like that for me to not be surprised by her pregnancy. It's just that I kinda foresaw it happening a while ago now. When she told me that she had to tell me something, the first thing that popped into my head was, "yeah, she's pregnant." Dunno why, but I already knew.

This "Godfather" stuff is rather interesting, though. Eve asked me to be the kid's Godfather, which, I don't mind doing, but I don't know about you, but, if you were her boyfriend, wouldn't you have a slight issue with your girlfriend's ex being directly involved in your newborn's life? I mean, does anyone see a slight conflict of interest (that's a nice way of putting it...) in this situation? Shit, I feel awkward, never mind the dude...

She's due on December 10th, which is right around the corner. I still don't know how I feel about the entire situation, but considering there's absolutely nothing I can do about it, I think I've resigned to accepting it for what it is, and will just be supportive of Eve throughout this whole thing. But shit man... what a whopper of a change! A friggin' kid! WTF?!

On a lighter note, I told Nelson about the news, and he was like, "well, that's one less girl from your past that you have a chance getting back with..."

. . . . . .

Well, I'll be updating over the next couple of days to try and catch up with shit. I have interesting little tidbits coming up... including a botched foursome that's so tragic, it's hilarious. Holla back!

Getting Lost Watching "LOST"

noreply@blogger.com (djkibblesnbits) — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 21:58:00 -0400

Alright, I think the people behind LOST have officially lost their minds.

Never mind what happened during last night's episode, but did anyone see the previews for the next two episodes? Did you actually SEE what was on that video screen of the infamous hatch?!

What the fuck is THAT doing in there?

Last week, I remember telling someone that with the way LOST is this season, the survivors of of Oceanic Flight 801 might as well be on fucking Mars.. I thought I was exagerrating, though...

Little by little, it looks like LOST might be "losing" some viewers, especially with the route the show has taken thus far during this season. Then again, as I realized a couple of months ago when I saw all of Season 2 in one shot when it came out on DVD, maybe we won't really appreciate this season for what it is until we all get to see it at once, as opposed to having to wait three months to have a plot twist fully revealed.

But seriously, Season 3 is even more nuts than the first two seasons combined... and we haven't even gotten deep into it yet!

This Is My Blog On Drugs...Any Questions?

noreply@blogger.com (djkibblesnbits) — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 22:43:00 -0400

I don't know if anyone caught that program, "The World's Most Dangerous Drug" that was on earlier this evening on the National Geographic Channel, but man, that shit was pretty serious. The show, which came on before LOST (seriously, is it me, or is that show getting even moreridiculous?), discussed at length the crystal meth epidemic that's taking over the country at an alarming rate. Now, over the years, I've read various articles and stories about the growing influence of meth on Americans, but this was the first time that I've ever seen the issue discussed at length on a television program. It's fucking crazy just how awful that drug is to people. It makes the crack epidemic of the 80's look like a fucking day at band camp. Let's not even get into the addictive effects of the drug, which is right up there in terms of potency with crack... have you seen what this drug can do to someone, physically, over a period of time? In a period of 9 months of heavy use, you'll see people undergo vast transformations, where they look like they just set foot into a time chamber and aged 20 years, losing their teeth in the process. It's crazy, man.

From my understanding, meth is nothing new out on the West Coast, but here on the East Coast, the drug is beginning to take hold in the impoverished areas of the east and nearby army bases. Washington D.C, for example, is seeing a major spike in use and in production, but yet at the same time, no one out here is even talking about it. Seriously, we need to get on the ball with this shit. Fuck these stupid ass commercials we all see on TV dealing with marijuana (Who could forget the anti-weed commercial that equated buying weed to supporting terrorism.. yeah, right.). Let's get kids talking about meth. Show these kids the pictures of an average meth user's teeth, and I swear, those overly self-conscious kids will never even want to THINK of using that drug ever in their fucking life.

If you have kids, or deal with kids, let 'em know just how bad this stuff is. And for my college people, I swear, if you ever hear someone say, "man, I wanna try meth," do us all a favor and smack the living crap out of them.

This is a Coffee Break PSA.

Training Complete

noreply@blogger.com (djkibblesnbits) — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 20:55:00 -0400

It only took 5 days of actual pitching, but I got my closed my first account today. I popped my cherry!! :-) Now, let's if I can do it again... and again... and again... and again...

As I've gotten more familiar with the firm and the product that I'm selling, I've realized that all the doubts that I initially had about working here when I first started two weeks ago have been completely eradicated. After getting phone calls from satisfied clients and constant support and feedback from the firm's partners and my fellow co-workers, it's finally safe to say that I do not work in the "Boiler Room." Far from it, actually. I now feel a lot better about where I work, and am proud to say that I'm a contributing member of the firm.

And so, with that said, my training/trial period at the firm is now complete. I can now say with conviction that I am a "Marketing Consultant..."

I wonder how well that title's going to go with the ladies... ;-)

Super Case of the Mondays

noreply@blogger.com (djkibblesnbits) — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 09:04:00 -0400

All was good. Here I was, driving around, striking up a casual conversation with the fiance of my dreams, getting ready to hit up the town for some Saturday morning shopping, cracking jokes, stealing quick thigh grabs, and just enjoying life. All was good. I had a Kool-Aid smile from ear to ear...

And then I heard my cell phone alarm. "RIIINNNNNGGGGGGGGG"

Suddenly, I realized I wasn't driving around with my "fiance," nor was it a Saturday morning. Hell, I wasn't even happy. The sad fact that it was Monday smacked me in the face. Fuck that whole "Is It Monday Yet," mantra being spewed out by those NFL Monday Night Football Fanatics. It's more like, "Is It Friday Yet?"

Yes, I have a Case of the Mondays, and man, I must say that now that I'm in the so-called "real world," it sucks ass. See, Mondays sucked before in college, but at the very least, I never felt too far removed from the craziness that was Thursday night. Now, the only thing I have to look forward to on a Thursday night is my bed, especially after working from 9AM to 8PM.

Do I miss college? Maybe, just maybe...

Hopefully I can get a paycheck large enough to get euphoric about the "real world" at some point, but until then...

"Is It Friday Yet?"

So High You Can Touch the Sky, Eh?

noreply@blogger.com (djkibblesnbits) — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 21:24:00 -0400

Now this story is freaking hilarious.

Apparently, Canadian troops in Afghanistan have run into a rather interesting problem during their search for Taliban militants...

WEED.

Yes, folks, the Canadians have a marijuana problem. (So what else is new?) ("Problem? What problem, ey?") According to the folks at CNN and Yahoo News, Canadian troops have encountered vast fields of ganja in Afghanistan, with some plants being as high as 10-ft tall (no pun intended). The vast weed fields provide great cover for Taliban insurgents. The troops tried to burn the fields down, but then they decided to stop when it became apparent that the troops doing the burning enjoyed their duties a little too much, if you know what I mean...

You can check out the story for yourself right here

Sign It Already!!

noreply@blogger.com (djkibblesnbits) — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 20:58:00 -0400

Yesterday, I was finally given the opportunity at work to start making major money. After a week of lead generation over the phone, the firm gave me a chance to start busting out new accounts and getting my commissions up and running. So, how did I do? Well, by the firm's standards, I did incredibly well, but by my own, I fell short. I wanted to be able to walk out the office with money in my pocket as a result of completed contracts, but instead, I was only able to get people just verbally agree to the terms I set for them; I need them to sign faxed-over contracts on their end in order to seal the deal. Today, I got some more contracts sent out to potential customers, but thus far, I haven't gotten a single one to sign. I swear, I just want to fucking slap these people with my phone and be like, "hurry up, bitch and sign this fucking contract!!! Grow some fucking balls!!!!" Man, these guys need to get with the program. I got bills to pay, homie, and I need to get the ball rolling on my whole "debt-free in a year" plan. Grrr.

With everyday that I spend in this place, I feel that I'm changing, little by little. I feel like I'm actually becoming more aggressive, more straight to the point. I remember last week, during one of my little chats with the bosses, I was told that I'd start to notice little changes here and there, like I'd start winning the remote control more and more or I'd tell more people to play "hide and go fuck themself." (hard to imagine me doing that anymore than I already have) Now, I don't know about the whole "remote control" thing, especially considering I've got my own television set to use at my own leisure, but I do notice that I've begun to regard every conversation I have with strangers in the same manner that I would treat a conversation with a potential customer over the phone: like a game. A game of words and delivery, to be exact. It's kind of hard to explain, but let's just say that I can steer conversations to just about anywhere I want them to... certainly a useful skill to have as a single, 20-something male in New York City... ;-)

. . . . .

We had an interesting scare today, though it certainly turned out to be rather tragic. We got word around 2 o'clock in the afternoon that an airplane hit a building in Manhattan... and being that my office is about two blocks away from the hole in the ground we call the World Trade Center, naturally, people assumed the worst. Thankfully, the plane crash wasn't anything even remotely close to anything that happened on 9/11, but it was certainly tragic, nonetheless. Cory Lidle, a Yankee pitcher, was flying a small plane and crashed it into a high-rise condo buidling on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, killing himself and one other person in the process. It really is a horrible tragedy, and something that, in this city obsessed with baseball stats, trades, and championships, really reminds us all about what's really important.

On a lighter note, one of my co-workers was in the middle of a pitch with a customer over the phone, and mentioned to the customer, "man, I'm sitting here, pitching you this product, scared out of my mind, because a plane just crashed into a building in New York, but yet, you know why I'm still here? Because I care about my cusotmers! So, buy our product. You won't be disappointed."

Ah yes. Just another day in the Boiler Room.

Oh, and FYI... the customer didn't buy the BS. I guess New Yorkers used up the "sympathy juice" a long time ago.

Enter, the "Specialist"

noreply@blogger.com (djkibblesnbits) — Mon, 9 Oct 2006 22:45:00 -0400

"Man, it's only been a week?!"

As I made my back home from work on Friday afternoon, I could hardly believe that I had just started working in the "Boiler Room" only four days earlier. I felt (both mentally and physically) so tired, that as soon as I got home, I just collapsed onto my bed and knocked out for a little bit. (Never mind I was supposed to go back out to meet up with friends,,,) Overall, I learned a lot during my first week working on Wall Street, and I got a brief glimpse of what life is like when you work for a firm filled with hotshots dying to make money. Basically, it's a cut-throat business, amd one has to be completely aggressive and incredibly persistent in order to be able to succeed. Thankfully, my bosses have been taking the time to walk me through the entire process, trying to get me from "point A to point X" as quickly as possible. I realized that I learned more in one week than most brokers learn in their first six months. And trust me when I say that after this one week, I certainly felt like I had been doing this job for months instead of days.

I finally nailed down what my official job title is... I'm now a "marketing specialist." How oh so wonderful. I wonder just how many conversations my job title alone is going to be responsible for at family get-togethers...

So, with a full week down, I can see myself doing this for a little while. I've gotten used to the whole phone aspect of this job, and with the kind of encouragement and positive reinforcement that I'm getting from my fellow co-workers and my bosses, I really feel like I can be pretty successful doing this. Now, I don't know about the whole, "pick out your luxury car" business that was mentioned last week, but at the very least, I know I can make a major dent in the college loans would've been otherwise hovering over my head for the next decade or so. If I can make the kind of money that my bosses say I can, I can be completely debt-free in a year. A year. I don't know anyone who went to college under the same circumstances that I did and could even dream of saying that fresh out of graduation. I really hope this pans out, man. I really, really do.

. . . . .

So... this past Saturday, not only did I have the wonderful pleasure of being able to see my dear Zulay for her birthday (she came down from Syracuse for a little while, along with my partner-in-crime, Nelson), but I also had the rather horrible experience of seeing my Yankees lose yet another playoff series in the first round of the playoffs. And I officially blame Zulay for the loss. (Damn you!!!) But seriously, though... we got our asses handed to us on a silver platter. And then, on top of that, we've got these damn Mets fans running around NY acting like shit is sweet. But, whatever, I'm not going to hate on 'em. Let 'em have their day in the sun. Let's just see if the runts from Queens have the will to make it into the World Series and actually win the whole thing. But I swear, bandwagon Met fans beware; you try and rub it in my face, and you're going to get my "marketing specialist" foot up your ass, and trust me, I won't need to make a phone call to do it...

Hmm...

noreply@blogger.com (djkibblesnbits) — Wed, 4 Oct 2006 12:52:00 -0400

Well, two days down, three to go during this lovely trial week in the Boiler Room. I was mildly surprised yesterday when I walked into work (this time, just 2 minutes late, as opposed to 30) and discovered that the two brothers-in-arms that I started with on Monday had been fired. The reasoning?

"They just didn't have what it takes to succeed in this business."

And here I was, thinking that THESE guys had to earn OUR trust, not the other way around.

Basically, I was told that I "passed the test" and that I was now the newest addition to the company. Gee, thanks.

So, whatever, I started doing my thing, making cold calls to businesses. Unfortunately, I was absolutely ravaged the whole day by a slight fever... and I was supposed to work from 9AM - 8PM! After awhile, I started losing confidence in doing this whole thing, and little by little, the enthusiasm in my pitches started declining. My bosses, including Mr. "Fuck 'em Good," took me aside, bought me a coffee, and gave me tips on how to overcome my issue. Next thing I knew, I was practicing my pitches to the bosses, and well, I guess I made them happy, as they were rubbing their hands in anticipation of the money I could make for the company.

"Ray, tonight, go home and build yourself a luxury car online, print it out, and then bring it to work tomorrow. That's going to be your goal; you need to be able to BUY that car, cash money, in one year."

The Wall Street people sure know how to get people off, don't they?

Fuck 'Em Good... In the Boiler Room...

noreply@blogger.com (djkibblesnbits) — Tue, 3 Oct 2006 05:48:00 -0400

These companies are like one of those girls who's only been fucked by one or two guys in their lives, and when they did, it lasted a minute. So, when you come around, they'll think you're Jesus or something. So fuck 'em good!!

In my book, anyone, especially a boss, who can equate selling leads to hooking up with an undersexed girl definitely wins some "cool points."

Today, I was introduced to the post-college, "real world," where your priorities change from "what am I going to do tonight" to "I need to get some sleep." The day itself actually started off on the wrong foot, when I got to work a half hour late on my first day. (Thank you, "4" train) Before I walked into the office, I was brainstorming all these bullshit answers I would have to come up with in order to avoid getting fired from the get-go, but thankfully, I wouldn't need to use my talents. At least, not for my new boss. Instead, the only person I needed to bullshit was myself, as in, "this job could work out for me" when all I felt deep down inside was complete disgust for the job I was being asked to do.

. . . . .

Last week, I went to a career fair that was being held not too far from Madison Square Garden in downtown Manhattan at some hotel. So, here I am, all dressed up in this suit, ready to go get me a job, when I walk in, and after waiting in a line for about 30 minutes (just to get INTO the friggin' fair), I realized that I got all purty for no reason. In other words, the companies that decided to show up sucked balls, for the most part. But whatever, I figured since I made the trip all the way from the Bronx to go to his friggin' thing, it wouldn't hurt just to walk in and perfect my people skills. So, after making my rounds and seeing who was there, I hit up about three or four companies I was legitimately interested in, all while dodging the nearby Army recruiter who had an apparent hard-on to get me to sign my life away. One of the companies I hit up was for pure shits and giggles; apparently the company's representatives thought it would be a great idea to create a 3-page informational "booklet" (read: three standard 8 1/2 by 11 pages stapled together on the top left corner) that was rife with spelling and grammatical errors. So, here I show up and talk to one of the two guys that was there taking resumes, and he gives me this huge run down about how I can make tons of money, and that it's not going to cost me anything, yada, yada. The guy kept on talking for 5 minutes, and at the end of it all, I still didn't know what the hell his company sold. Regardless, however, he told me to show up to an "open house" interview later on in the week and wrote the address to the place on the back of a business card he had.

Now, normally, I wouldn't give anyone the time of day when they couldn't even come up with a relatively typo-free take-away, but in this particular case, I figured, "hey, I need money now, and it's not like I have anything else going for me, so whatever." So, I actually went to the interview a couple of days later. The office building the company was located in was just off Wall Street ("not bad", I thought to myself). But the actual office, though, was kinda... sketchy. Basically, it was a small, one-room office that had a grouping of desks thrown together in the middle, and a partition on the side for the boss. Only three desks in the joint had computers. I remember the guy I spoke to at the fair told me that they had just moved into this office, so the whole time I was waiting to talk to someone, I kept on repeating to myself, "calm down, Ray, this is a new office, this is a new office..." After a little while, I finally got to speak with the dude that I spoke to at the fair, and we sat down for my "interview..."

Yellow flag #1: The guy spent more time selling me the company that he did actually "interviewing."

So, I got the job on the spot, but honestly, I don't think either of us walked out of that room knowing each other any more than we did at the career fair. I still didn't know what the hell they sold. It was something about "mortgages" or whatever, but hey, the only thing I cared about was that I needed a job, and he gave me one. So, that was that. I just knew that I would be getting paid on commission, and that I had the potential to "make more money in (my) first year than a doctor could make right out of med school." Yada, yada.

Curious to know more about what the hell I was getting myself into, I did a Google search on the company. I came up with a rather simple, uninformative, and overall tacky company site, three entries on "Ripoff Report.com" and an annual report from the NASD that stated that my boss was suspended this year for failing to "update information."

Definitely, Yellow Flags #2, 3, and 4.

I saw where this one had the potential of going, and when I told my friend, Anna, about it, her sentiments echoed mine. "This so sounds like something out of 'Boiler Room.'" (Yes, Anna, you said it first)

. . . . .

Regardless of the yellow flags, I still reported to work on the first day, just to see how things would pan out. After being given a script, I sat down at one of the desks in the sketchy office, and started cold calling businesses to gain interest in a "product" I still had no idea about. Now, I hate cold calling. Hell, I hate being on a phone. But here I was, reading off some silly script, trying to get people to do something as simple as giving me an e-mail address and a small sample of information. I'm telling you, that shit was harder than getting blood out of a stone. Between all the animosity that people have towards telemarketers, and the fact that the business managers I was trying to get in contact with apparently don't believe in working, I was lucky to get double-digit hits in a full day of work. The other two people I started with didn't even get past the single digits. It was incredibly ironic, given the fact that here I was, telemarketing some of the very same people that then go turn around and bug the shit out of us consumers at all times of the day to make adjustments to our mortgages or consolidate our loans. At first, I was nervous, and almost felt ashamed to do it, but then, by the end of the day, I realized that I was giving these people a taste of their own medicine. (Cue evil laugh here.)

Throughout the day, my floor manager kept on coming up to us three newbies, giving us pointers and telling us how to get past the "gatekeeper" secretaries in order to talk to the executives at the various firms we were calling. In the end, it was all good information, not only for cold calling, but for corporate communication, in general. Our new co-workers were also helping us out whenever they could, spitting knowledge and encouraging us to stick with it. Interesting cast of characters, they are. We got one who was a rapper, but then started working at this place to make "real money," a former stock broker who got into this because he felt it was easier for him to sustain a "good lifestyle," and this kid from Long Island who spent the whole day talking about how much he spends at nightclubs every weekend on bottles of Grey Goose. They're all cool, and they're also very good at doing what they do. Compared to us, they're like Jedi on these phones, making people say and do whatever the hell they want to. And Mr. "Fuck 'em good?" He's like Yoda of telemarketing. His occasional pointers throughout the day really changed everything for me and made it a bit easier for me to adjust.

So, overall, my first day turned out alright, especially considering just how many doubts I had about it when I first walked in. Will I stick with it? I still don't know, and apparently, neither are the other two guys I started with. For starters, the jury's still out on whether or not the company is legit. But, we're all just giving it a chance, seeing how far we can go with this during our first week, and then we'll evaluate it all this weekend. In the meantime, we're all still looking at other jobs; if someone happens to call with just the right offer, we'd all jump ship in a heartbeat. My bosses argue, in typical Wall Street fashion, that no matter where we decide to go, we're not going to make as much money as we would working at this place in our first year, but the one thing that they fail to understand is that money isn't everything. If I want to finish writing this book I'm working on, and I want to work on movies, I'm not going to have the energy to do it all working at this place. I already see that happening.

And that, my friends, can be THE deciding factor for me after this week.

Ramblings of a Mad Blogger (or... "I'm Baaacckkk")

noreply@blogger.com (djkibblesnbits) — Mon, 2 Oct 2006 00:05:00 -0400

Boy, am I glad to see you!

I don't remember the last time I saw the Blogger interface grace my computer screen, but whenever it was, it sure was a long while ago. I needed to take a break from everything, including blogging, in order to get my life straight, and well, after all this time, I think things are finally getting back to some semblance of "normal." (Ha, things are NEVER normal in my life)

As of tomorrow, I'm a working man. I'm going to start working for this company that basically sells... well, to be honest with you, I have no idea what the hell they do. All I know is that I'm going to be working on Wall Street somewhere, as a "mortgage broker." Not exactly the most exciting job (or the most well-defined), but hey, it's money, and as far as that's concerned, that's all I really need at the moment. I can't wait for the day when I finally have more than 2 bucks to my name. Still, there's something fishy about this company.. and I can't quite put my finger on it... more details when I get home tomorrow.

My new job... straight from Boiler Room?

Remember when I said I was working on a film? Well, that idea hasn't panned out yet. I've been so busy trying to get a job in the past couple of weeks, that I just haven't had enough time to dedicate to writing a proper script that coud be used for a project. But, I was able to at the very least to get the gears moving with the people I was going to work with. We've met up, discussed potential topics and ideas that we could work on, and have some kind of idea of where we want to go. Now, it's just a matter of having time to get together to actually meet up and "git 'er done!"

Since the last time I wrote, a couple of friends and fellow bloggers have decided to give up on the whole blogging thing and just move on with their lives. For awhile, it looked like I had decided to go down that road as well, but it really wasn't anything like that at all. I just needed some "me" time, and well, I think I'm done with that. So, stick around folks. Get them RSS feeds bookmarked. And welcome back to the "Coffee Break." :-)

I'm going to go to bed now. I'm too tired to think clearly.

No Money, No Cry

noreply@blogger.com (djkibblesnbits) — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 11:50:00 -0400

Outside of my car problems, financial issues stemming from a lack post-college income, and the occasional booty call miscommunication (Read: I need to meet new people), generally, I've been having a good summer so far. I've been enjoying my free time about as much as possible, despite my aforementioned lack of funds. (Perhaps another "Poetic Appeal for Money" is needed?)

So, what have I been doing with my time?

Well, for one, I've been writing. A LOT. Between my two blogs, my personal journal, and a script I'm working on, I've been rather productive. I'm having quite a lot of fun putting my thoughts to paper, and it's been incredibly therapeutic. A lot of my friends keep on trying to get me to spill the beans on what my script is about, but the truth is, I'm not quite ready to let the cat out the bag just yet. Everyone keeps asking me what I'm going to do when I'm done with it, but they need to understand that until I get everything down on paper, I'm not gonna bother thinking that far ahead. The hardest part is the actual writing. Everything else is secondary. At least that's what I tell myself.

As far as work is concerned, I am applying to jobs, but I'm still not working on it 100%, because I'm trying to finish my writing before moving onto the next stage of my post-college career. Every once in awhile, I get phone calls and things like that, but either the offers have been complete garbage, or the jobs their offering are completely boring. As in, "grass never looked so entertaining," boring. At this point, I'm tempted to go back to working for the evil Green Coffee Empire again at a location that's about a 20-minute drive north of the Bronx. Why? Well, it requires little effort, will pay enough money for me to get my immediate bills in order, and will allow me to keep on writing. I wouldn't stay there longer than 2-3 months, however. Knowing me, I'll probably take my job search up about 55,000 notches the second I have to make another freaking Crappuccino, but hey, at least I'll have money. And of course, it helps that this particular location has some of the hottest female Baristas I've ever seen. I mean, hey, I DO need to meet new people, eh? ;-)

(Side note: My personal, "Don't fuck co-workers rule," only applies if I intend on being at the workplace in question for longer than 90 days. Just figured I'd explain it right here before I get e-mails, comments, IMs, and phone-calls from people about my being a hypocrite or whatever.)

If my writing wasn't enough, I'm also working on starting a weekly radio show that would eventually be available to download for free on iTunes. Initially, I'm going to set up another Blogger account that's more or less dedicated to the show itself, and would have links that would lead directly to an MP3 file of my show. I don't intend on making money off the show; it's all in good fun. The show itself is going to be a carbon-copy of the show that I used to host back up in Syracuse during my freshman year, which basically was a show where I could say and play anything I wanted. Every night, I walked into the studio with a pre-established musical theme, and rocked out with it for three hours, interjecting every once in awhile with a random 5-7 minute dialogue about whatever came to mind. I'm probably going to tone it down a couple of notches for the new show and just make it the kind of show that you'd want to listen to on your way back home from a stressful day of work. So, if you interested in listening in, be on the look out for it here on the Coffee Break. My first show should be up and running in the next few days...

So, yes, I've been quite the busy little bee with all the writing and other side projects I've been getting myself into. When I'm not doing all that stuff, I hop onto one of the many gaming systems I have and get down on some video games. Yes, not particularly exciting, but fuck it, I enjoy it, and if you don't like them and think less of me for playing them, well, then, TOO F'ING BAD.

Sorry, just had to get that out the way up there. :-) I actually find myself playing more games now that I have the other blog, Press Start to Play up and running. What's sad is that I spend more time writing about video games than actually playing them.

Ain't that a bitch?

Goooo Yankees!

noreply@blogger.com (djkibblesnbits) — Wed, 2 Aug 2006 19:48:00 -0400

Mariano Rivera closes the gates on the White Sox

For the first time in a couple of years, I had the chance to go to a Yankee game a couple of weeks ago when they took on the Chicago White Sox. I went to the first game of the three-game set (which the Yankees swept through), and had a great time while I was there.

For those that have yet to travel to the Stadium, I suggest you go before they tear it down to build the new one in 2008. The new ballpark simply isn't going to have the same kind of charm that the current Yankee Stadium has.

Word of Advice: Don't Drive in NYC

noreply@blogger.com (djkibblesnbits) — Wed, 2 Aug 2006 11:05:00 -0400

I hate driving in New York.

No, I really don't think you understand. I HATE driving in New York.

Between the lack of parking, the boatloads of traffic, the stupid drivers, potholes, exorbitant tolls, and arrogant "yeah, just try and hit me, bitch" pedestrians, city driving sure ain't Sunday driving. Every time you get on the road, it's like "survival mode" in a video game or something, where each time you get to your destination safe and sound and without a major dent in your car is a blessing. (If only I could get the Konami Code to work in real life...)

Now, I love driving. As many mishaps I've gotten into over the years, I still enjoy hopping into my car and driving through an empty stretch of road. (Who doesn't?) It's exhilarating and is great for the soul. But driving in New York is a different type of animal altogether. Unless it's after 10 PM, driving in the city can be a test of courage. You can't relax and drive in New York; you always have to be on the defensive. And unless you want to fall victim to an accident or a bout of road rage, you better damn well be aggressive while you're at it. It's like New York drivers smell blood, and the second they see the fear in your eyes when trying to hop onto a high-speed, high-volume, two-lane highway, they'll make sure to pull some stupid ass stunt trick just to get around you. My motto for driving in New York is, "It's all about ME," because, seriously, that's how New Yorkers drive. They drive as if they are the only f'ing car on the road, despite the fact there's about 3 million other people right next to them that feel the same way.

So, I avoid driving whenever I can. Most of the time, I just take advantage of mass transit to get from place to place. Occasionally, I'll drive during the weekends and on weeknights when there aren't that many cars on the road, but outside of that, you'll never catch me driving around during rush hour in the city. Not unless I'm particularly dying to get a headache that day. Still, even without the traffic, you still have to watch out for peanuthead drivers who seem to forget that there are other vehicles on the road.

Case in point: this past Sunday, I was driving around in the Bronx, dropping off a friend on a block not too far from my house, when, as I'm going down a street, some guy in a Hummer (an H3) decided to pull out of his parking spot without looking over his shoulder, and slammed right into me. Now, thankfully, he was going less than 10 MPH, so it wasn't a serious accident, but he caused enough damage on my left rear door to keep it from opening properly. The collision created a dent deep and wide enough to affect the locking mechanism of the door. Now, I got out the car to see the damage, and the first thing out of the dude's mouth was, "I didn't do THAT!"

I couldn't believe the audacity this dude had. He hits me with his big ass SUV, and then has the nerve to say that his collision didn't cause a dent that was in the perfect shape of the Hummer grill on my rear door. Naturally, I let him have it. After about 10 minutes of going back and forth, arguing over whether or not he was responsible (get this: he actually said that the dent was there BEFORE the collision. As in, he saw the car before he crashed into me. Which left him open to, "well, if you saw my car that well, why the fuck did you decide to crash into me!?"), people from around the neighborhood started weighing in on the event. Some people came out of nowhere to say that "he didn't do that damage to the car," while others said that they saw the whole thing. Eventually, the guy caved in after he saw that I knew my shit and was able to explain, point for point, just how his Hummer damaged my car, and admitted fault. Naturally, he didn't want to involve the cops or the insurance companies, so he offered to pay for the damage out of pocket. I have to meet him this coming weekend to get the car's dents repaired. I have all of his vital information, however, so, if he wants to play hardball, I can do that, too.

Now, this whole situation could've been averted if he had just looked over his shoulder as he was coming out of his parking spot. Instead however, he decided to play the "it's all about ME" card and well, I got hit. Of course, the mofo's Hummer didn't suffer any noticeable damage from the collision. If it had been a smaller car, my car would not have suffered the same kind of damage, especially considering it was a sub-10 MPH collision. But, naturally, there are people in this world that just gotta have the big trucks, and people like me get screwed over.

Until the dents are repaired, I don't even want to drive my car. I'll just keep it chillin' on the street in its parking spot, waiting till the weekend comes when I can get everything good as new again. But no matter what, once again, New York has claimed yet another stupid accident created by yet another of its ignorant drivers.

Grrrrrrrrr...

(By the way... the driver? A bus driver for the MTA. Wonderful thought that the lives of mass transit customers are in his hands.)

Blogger Holdin' Me Back, But I'm Back

noreply@blogger.com (djkibblesnbits) — Wed, 2 Aug 2006 10:52:00 -0400

For the first time in a couple of weeks, Blogger has finally allowed me to log in and make updates to my blog! YESSSSSSSSSSSS! For those of ya'll that thought I just lost the will to blog, it was really more of a technical problem than anything else. Long story short, Blogger kept on saying that my user name wasn't recognized or something. I had to send an e-mail to Blogger customer service for them to fix the whole thing. I'm just happy to be able to post again.

So, look out for new updates starting today and going into tomorrow and until the next time Blogger decides that they want to keep me from bloggin'!

"Me and U?" No, It's Just You

noreply@blogger.com (djkibblesnbits) — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 13:21:00 -0400

Today, I was parking my car from one side to the other, as I have to do almost every day in order to satisfy NYC's ridiculous parking regulations, when out of nowhere, I heard the song, "Me and U" by Cassie. Now, whatever, there's nothing out of the ordinary to hear loud music blasting in New York, but what was odd about this situation was that I had no idea where the hell it was coming from; usually, loud music would come from cars going up and down the block, but there were no cars moving about at that point in time. So, I'm looking around, like, "where the fuck is that coming from," when I identified the source: a friggin' cell phone. Apparently, there was this girl walking around with a phone held slightly away from her ear, strutting down the street with a short skirt, trying to look cute with her boombox cell phone. And it wasn't even a ring tone, but rather, it was the whole song.

First of all, the shit was so loud, I heard it from two blocks away, and the girl had the nerve to have the cell phone about 4 inches from her ear. Like, ummm.. are you deaf? Second, just because you saw some dorks running around with MP3 theme songs in a Verizon commercial, it doesn't mean that you have to go and look like a fool in real life. It didn't matter how much of her ass or breasts were showing; it really wasn't cute.

And then... here's the kicker. By the time she got close to me, the song had ended, so, she stopped, got her phone, pressed a button, and the song played again. Apparently, it was now safe for her to strut again.

I would love to tell you all that this is the first time that I've seen this, but it really isn't. In the past two weeks alone, I've seen six girls walking around in the same way, with the same exact song. ALL of them probably thought that they were unique.

So, in the 80's, we had people walking around, strutting with boomboxes on their shoulders. In the 00's, we got cell phones. It makes you wonder what other technology will come out 20 years from now that will allow peanutheads to contribute to noise pollution with played-out songs...

Do Your Own Headbutting!

noreply@blogger.com (djkibblesnbits) — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 17:54:00 -0400

It doesn't take long for those wonderful folks out there in "internet land" to come up little mini-games for just about anything, and certainly, the World Cup final's infamous highlight didn't escape parody.

Thanks to the folks at Funnymovies, we now have a Zidane headbutting mini-game, where just about anyone can take out their aggressions, Zizou-style, on Materazzi.

Enjoy! (Link to game here)

So Maybe Headers Don't Win World Cups...

noreply@blogger.com (djkibblesnbits) — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 02:07:00 -0400

Now that the World Cup is over, and Italy have been crowned champions of the world, I just wanted to throw it out there that despite the fact that France (the only team that made it out of my 3 favorites) lost, arguably thanks to the infamous Zidane headbutt, it's gotta be said that, well, if France was going to lose in any way, this would be it. We might never have any idea why Zidane decided to hit Materazzi with that big noggin of his, but whatever Materazzi said to him, it must've been something super serious.

Regardless of what was said, someone on Italy needed to be hit with something... I was getting annoyed with the way that team was playing throughout the entire World Cup. Only Portugal surpassed them in terms of playing to the referees, who were more than happy to reward such unsportsmanlike conduct time and time again. Every five seconds, you saw someone from these two teams rolling around in the grass, pretending to be in pain from some phantom hit to the face or something. It was disgusting.

At least Zidane gave Materazzi something to be writhing in pain for. Now that's what I'm talkin' about!

If you have no idea what the hell I'm talking about, at the very least, take a look at this video from YouTube and see what happened, along with some horrible commentary, courtesy of the clueless folks at ABC Sports.

(Here's also a New York Times article regarding Zidane's silence about the incident.) [Registration may be required]

Outside of the diving and the red cards, I thought the World Cup was pretty damn exciting. It certainly got a lot more Americans interested in the sport of soccer than I've ever seen. Everywhere I turned in New York, there was someone talking about the World Cup. For a month, soccer dominated the sports headlines over the Yankees, the Mets, the Knicks, and any other sport you could think of in this city. I doubt the euphoria over soccer will last for long, but hey, at least it happened, right?

Candy is Dandy, But Liquor is Quicker

noreply@blogger.com (djkibblesnbits) — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 23:44:00 -0400

While I certainly don't even come marginally close to drinking as much as I used to drink during my middle years in college, every once in awhile, I get my binge on, knocking back an incredible amount of liquor in a short period of time. Like most people who've gone to college, I certainly have my fair share of stories involving alcohol that I'm sure will be told and retold time and time again for the rest of my life. (Sarah, ahem.)

Since I've been back home, I've avoided the whole drinking scene, partly because I'm broke, and partly because it's just not the same anymore without my college buddies.

However, last Thursday and Friday were two days where I relived my drinking heyday, chilled with old friends, and drank my ass off. Beginning with an afterwork spot in midtown Manhattan, I knocked back a countless amount of cranberry vodkas and tequila sunrises, and then, somehow, made my way to some college bar about 20 blocks north for an even greater number of 50-cent beers. I knocked back so many, that I was beginning to scare some of my old high school friends, who showed up to hang out for old times sake.

"Damn, Ray, another one?! All I remember doing in response was screaming aloud, "Man, this is how we do it up at Syracuse," as I raised my mug of beer to the sky and cheered along with God knows how many SU folk who suddenly invaded this traditional NYU/Columbia University watering hole. Everywhere I turned, someone else had 2 mugs of beer ready for me to drink, and within minutes, I downed them, just to get another two in my hands moments later.

Despite the amount of drinks that I had, within an hour, I was completely sober. And I mean sober. By 4 in the morning, I was sobering up at home, happy with the knowledge that I could still hold my liquor.

While I normally don't binge one day after another, I made an exception the next evening, when, in honor of my mother's birthday, I took one for the team and went out to some overhyped, incredibly expensive club that let us in for free on her behalf and gave us "free" drinks with mandatory tips. Sure, it was an incredibly shady situation, but hell, there's nothing better to keep from getting upset about shady happening than to consume liquor! So, off we went, my momma, her boyfriend, myself, and a few of her friends from work, drinking, drinking, drinking. Of course, because the liquor from the night before had yet to leave my system, the second I tasted liquor on Friday, I got tipsy. But, me being the, "hey, I still got it," dickhead I am, kept on drinking as if I hadn't binged the night before, and before long, I was super drunk. I was spilling drinks, telling people they couldn't dance, and generally trying incredibly hard to keep myself from falling flat on my face. Thankfully, we were ALL drunk, especially my mother, who was even sillier than I was, so with her around, I wasn't drawing attention to myself. Not that she was all over the place, but man, she can certainly talk up a storm. Like, "shaddap, I'm trying to enjoy my drunkedness here!" Somehow, we got home and I knocked out the hell out within moments.

The next morning, I definitely felt it. I was hung over. Hangovers are rare for me, but when they do happen, it's usually pretty bad. Thankfully, I wasn't too bad off, and after a couple of hours, I was able to get up and get some food in my system. By the time I finished eating, I was A-OK, again. I was afraid that I was going to be sick all weekend, but my liver certainly worked some overtime to keep that from happening. So, it all worked out in the end.

I hadn't even settled down from my meal when someone texted me asking me to go out again for more drinking. Man, no thanks. By Saturday afternoon, if I even saw a bottle of liquor, I would get drunk, let alone actually consuming more of it.

"You're getting old," my mother said.

Never mind, I wasn't the one with the birthday the next day.

And on that note, "Happy Birthday," to my mom, and to my abuelo, who I'm sure was up in the sky looking down on me running around making a fool of myself. I'm sure he'd be proud. :-)

Was That a Cow Just Swimming Next to Me?

noreply@blogger.com (djkibblesnbits) — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 23:40:00 -0400

When I drove up to Syracuse two weeks ago, I had the rather unenviable experience of driving through some of the worst flooding to ever hit the Northeast. Now, I had checked the weather before I left the Bronx at 11 AM, and even though there were forecasts for rain here and there, there was nothing that suggested anything close to the kind of rainfall that would eventually fall over the region. Hell, even when the rain was coming down, I never thought that flooding would actually occur as a result of it.

I guess what wound up happening was that there was an incredible amount of rain that fell in a rather short amount of time, which caused many of the small creeks and rivers that run along upstate New York to rise rather quickly. As I kept trucking North, I noticed that some "creeks" had turn into full blown rivers, sweeping over bridges and rising onto farmland. Before long, state troopers had closed off the highway (NYS Rte. 17) I was traveling on, forcing me and several hundred other cars to try to drive through small towns.

It certainly wasn't a good driving experience. For one, half the time, I wasn't even driving. The flooding had happened so quickly, that state troopers were caught off guard, and had no idea how to get drivers off the highways, and onto their destinations. They thought it would be a good idea to stop every single car on the highway, and walk up to each car, one by one, and assist in giving directions to get to another nearby highway, which would wind up being closed, as well. For all their efforts, all this did was create even bigger traffic jams, headaches, and confusion for everyone involved. I didn't understand why, in this day and age, troopers did not have access to up-to-the-minute information about road closings and give updates over local radio stations.

After moving 20 miles over a period of 3 hours, I was finally redirected onto Rte. 17, some 20 miles south of Binghamton, NY. As I approached somewhat normal cruising speeds on my way up to Cuse, I began to think, "man, thank goodness I'm past all that." The thought hadn't even finished crossing through my mind, when I saw flashing lights in front of me, redirecting traffic off the highway again.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" I threw a temper-tantrum in my car, much to the delight of fellow motorists driving nearby. Suddenly, a simple 3 and a half hour trip to Cuse turned into a freaking safari through swampland. After about 25 minutes, I finally made it off the highway (once again, the troopers were stopping every car one by one), and back into some local town. By this time, the flooding had become so bad, that the town itself was overwhelmed by water. I couldn't believe that I was still in New York State; I felt like I was driving through a third-world country with all the flooding that occurred. After about 5 miles of driving through water, I forced to get pulled over to the side of the road by troopers till the water dried up.

Courtesy of New York Times

Unfortunately, it kept raining. And raining. And raining. After two hours had passed, with no news forthcoming from the troopers who were diligently keeping people off the roads, I ran up to them and asked them for an update.

"Well, everyone's just going to have to wait here till the roads dry up. And it looks like that's not going to happen by tonight."

What? They wanted us to stay in the middle of literally nowhere, with no food or shelter nearby, OVERNIGHT? Hell no, that was not acceptable. I asked what roads were still open, and they told me that no road in that area had escaped the flooding. My mind began racing as I tried to find some way of getting up to Cuse, or at the very least, out of the ditch I was currently sitting in.

"What about the Thruway? (I-90) Is that flooded?"

"No, it's not flooded, but, that means you'd have to go practically to New York City to take it. And if that's what you plan on doing, you better get moving now while my back is turned..."

I got the trooper's hint, ran into my car, and raced back south onto Rte. 17. There were barricades all over the place, but I kept moving. With every trooper in New York State paying attention to northbound roads, I was able to drive back some 100 miles in about 70 minutes. Finally, I made it to the I-90 junction, about 65 miles north of NYC, hopped on, and headed back up north to Syracuse.

After 11 hours from my original departure time at 11 AM, I finally made it to the Cuse, at 10 PM on the dot. Because Syracuse is a city that sits at a much higher elevation than places like Binghamton and the other towns that were affected along Rte. 17, they did not feel the effects of the heavy flooding at all. Some of my friends at the Cuse couldn't believe that there was that much flooding in towns and cities that were only about an hour south of Syracuse, but once they turned on their televisions and saw the local news, they saw that I certainly wasn't exaggerating. There were even some parts of highways that were swept away by the rising flood waters.

Definitely some crazy shit. The only good thing about the experience? I met some pretty cool local townspeople, who were all too willing to offer their homes to everyone who was stranded alongside the road. It's good to know that at the very least, if I was stuck, there were plenty of good samaritans around to lend a hand.

Happy 4th of July!

noreply@blogger.com (djkibblesnbits) — Tue, 4 Jul 2006 17:29:00 -0400

Just wishing everyone a Happy 4th of July. Hope some of ya'll can get out there and eat some good bar-b-que, spend some time with the fam, and get a chance to at least watch some fireworks go off (whether you do it, or someone else does it).

Me? I'm just chillin', having a personal little "LOST" and "Band of Brothers" marathon.

Wait till I tell you guys what happened on my way to Syracuse... thankfully, I'm back in NYC...

So Happy Independence Day! And if you don't celebrate it, well, then, have a Happy Tuesday!!!

This Is Why We Have Jails...

noreply@blogger.com (djkibblesnbits) — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 08:36:00 -0400

Here's a little quickie before I leave to Cuse...

Apparently, conservative radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh, was detained at Palm Beach International Airport for carrying a bottle of Viagra without a prescription.

Eww. Screw getting arrested for the Viagra (no pun intended); he should be put away for having sex!

Eww, Eww, Eww, Ewwwwwwwwwww.

And no pun intended on the whole "little quickie" thing. Eww, Eww. Never again will I put Rush and "quickie" together in the same blog entry.

I think I'm going to throw up now. And go join the Church and pledge a life of chastity. Oh wait... never mind that.

Another Day, Another Trip to Syracuse

noreply@blogger.com (djkibblesnbits) — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 08:16:00 -0400

Well, now that I got my room all sorted out, I have to make yet another 5-hour journey to the Cuse. There's some photo stuff that I left behind from the last time I was there, and I need to bring it back to NYC. I also figured to use some of the time that I was up there to head back into the darkroom and get some prints developed.

I really need to get a scanner so I can start posting some of these pictures. But, that ain't gonna happen until I gets me a J-O-B, so, heh, looks like that's going to have to wait.

Hell, I can't even find my digital camera... where the hell did it run off to?

So, for my NYC peeps, ta-ta, till Thursday, when I zoom back to the city just in time to watch the brand-new "Superman" movie on an IMAX screen. Now, THAT should be some hot stuff right there.

Can you believe the tickets were 15 dollars!!!

Sigh. That's what happens when you live in the most expensive city in America.

Trading Spaces

noreply@blogger.com (djkibblesnbits) — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 08:02:00 -0400

It might have taken awhile, but I finally got my room to look like, well, a room. Since I got back from Syracuse, I've been undergoing a massive cleaning effort to rid myself of all the junk that I've collected over the years in order to make room for the new junk that I brought back from 5 years of college. Even though I started the job about three weeks ago, I couldn't come close to finishing it off because I was waiting for furniture to be delivered specifically for my room. So, I've been living in a hovel since I got back, with things tossed all over the place. If you would have seen it, you would have mistook me for my old roommate, Zulay, with her infamous capacity to cover every single open space on her bedroom floor with crap.

But over the weekend, my furniture got here, and after three days of getting it all situated, I must say that I'm pretty freaking impressed. My room actually looks like, gasp, a room!

See, I'm one of those people that can't get anything done if the space that they live in is in a complete mess. When my room was all tossed about, I felt like I was missing order and purpose. I fell behind on my bills, didn't blog as often, lost track with people, and just felt like I was in a bit of a rut. Sure, I've been bumming it since I got back from college, but at the very least, if my room had been organized, I would have had some kind of incentive to at least maintain some semblance of business as usual. Alas, I could not, especially when I was tripping over my old Ninja Turtles from third grade every five seconds.

So, my main computer is back up and running, I can see my floor now, and things are looking up... My room looks like a room now! I'm so happy!!!

:-)