Skwerl Chronicles

RSS Chicklet

noreply@blogger.com (skwerl) — Mon, 02 Jun 2014 23:17:00 +0000

Like being at the bottom of a well

noreply@blogger.com (skwerl) — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 15:18:00 +0000

I'm usually not one to mix metaphor and similie, but sometimes life feels like you're at the bottom of a well. Maybe it's filled with depression, fear, sorrow, or hate. Whatever it is, you're submerged in it, unable to escape.
You need a lifevest, a ladder, a rope or a helping hand to get you out. Something to start the motion and get momentum rolling.
You can feel it building as you start to rise, and even tho you're still in the depths, the sensation of moving starts to make you feel better. It accelerates as the pressure diminishes and you feel your velocity increasing.
Eventually you crash through the surface, gasping for air like you've never breathed before, and settle back to the surface.
Of course, if something can drag you down to the bottom, wouldn't that mean that it's opposite could cause you to float, weightless, up into the sky?
Perhaps love, religion, purpose or beauty are what drive you to escape the bonds holding you in equilibrium, or maybe you just need to climb out of that damn well.

Be Amazed...

noreply@blogger.com (skwerl) — Mon, 13 Dec 2004 15:49:00 +0000

Don't be jaded.
I can't stand it when I meet some young punk who is so world weary, they don't get excited about anything because they act like they have seen it all.
Now don't get me wrong, there are some people out there who have earned this perspective. But unless you were a street hooker at age 12, a full-blown heroin addict at 14, owner of your own business at 16 and raising a family by 18, don't gimme that 'nothing's shocking' act.
For these rare people who survive their delicate teens after a life like that, you have earned the right to snort derisively at my wonder, but just because you smoked a pound of weed, went to some raves and 'explored your sexuality' that night on E doesn't mean you've seen it all.
There was an art exhibit in the lobby of the building where I work. I stopped to look at it on my way home one day and these two fools started laughing at me on their way out. Stupid fucks don't appreciate anything, like they are scared of having any sort of emotional response. Man I hate that, but I guess it's just part of life in the big city.

Timelapser.com - Industrial Timelapse Solutions!

noreply@blogger.com (skwerl) — Mon, 06 Dec 2004 19:04:00 +0000

well i finally got my act together and got my own URL. you can find some timelapse video clips of the construction site here as well as some other personal info, but that's private so don't look there.
so the plan is to start my own company which make timelapse films of construction sites, check it out here!
http://www.timelapser.com/

flash evolution

noreply@blogger.com (skwerl) — Thu, 14 Oct 2004 19:48:00 +0000

it began with the feel good dance jam of Peanut Butter Jelly Time and suddenly jumped to the similarly repeptetive yet more melodious sounds of Badger Badger Badger Badger. this inspired the likewise inspired Banana Phone which was in turn prompted by the children's musician Raffi and his eponymous song. the final step, in my estimation, is this flash movie which is just well made all around.

the destruction continues

noreply@blogger.com (skwerl) — Wed, 21 Jul 2004 20:43:00 +0000

my god those machines will destroy anything!
i love the name: BREEZE
pretty sweet for a t-rex of a beast designed to knock shit over.

ze's page

noreply@blogger.com (skwerl) — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 21:32:00 +0000

ze's page i just too much fun not to pass around...

bob the builder

noreply@blogger.com (skwerl) — Tue, 08 Jun 2004 13:58:00 +0000

construction is fun! although i hate walking past a site and breathing in that cement smelling air, i always imagine that there are mold spores hundreds of years old that will be inhaled and launch a new plague...
or something like that.
anyway i've got some pretty cool timelapse photography from the construction site next door, currently they are just knocking down, not building up, but cool none-the-less.
i'll try and post a good one here shortly...

off to the motherland...

noreply@blogger.com (skwerl) — Wed, 12 May 2004 18:16:00 +0000

wee! excitemnt! joy!
so i'm off to the motherland, good ol GB. it's been 8 years since my last visit, so i'm pretty excited for this one.
i hope to come back with some great pictures, as long as we don't get rained on the whole time. either way it's going to be a blast!
it is also my girl's birthday today, happy birthday my love!
oh and one more thing, we just signed a lease together! yay, so we are moving in together june 1st.
lot's of stuff happening right now, no time to blog! haha

sad news regarding the Bryant Park webcam...

noreply@blogger.com (skwerl) — Wed, 05 May 2004 18:47:00 +0000

not only have i foundout that i will be moving to the other side of the office (next week? next month?) but ultimately our whole floor is moving to a new building, 3rd ave between 46th and 47th.
what a pain in the ass! who knows if i will even get a window, much less something worth looking at. well we still got 6 months before we move so if i'm not a total bum i can still get a decent webcam going.
oh and i still gotta find a place to live. and plan this trip to england. and do my job at some point as well. no problem!

bryant park webcam, sort of

noreply@blogger.com (skwerl) — Wed, 28 Apr 2004 23:09:00 +0000

success! it's alive i tell you!
heehee well it's not exactly overlooking bryant park just yet but you can see a small view of the grace building out the window.
anyway yeah it's pointing at me but i just couldn't resist.
skwerl cam!

can you live on mucous?

noreply@blogger.com (skwerl) — Tue, 20 Apr 2004 16:18:00 +0000

cause i gotta tell ya, when you have a cold and are coughing and sniffing all the time, sadly you don't get too many opportunities to spit when you would like. hence a stomach full of mucous.
pretty disgusting, i know. but the human stomach already has a healthy lining of mucous to protect it from the digestive juices there, so a little extra from up top is not that gross, technically.
anyway i wonder if the excess mucous in your stomach creates too thick a lining for the chemical signals that indicate hunger to break through successfully enough to induce feeding. and maybe when you actually do eat there is too much mucous to completely digest the meal, leading to a spiraling vortex of starvation!
heh anyway it is true that i don't have as much hunger when i've got a cold but there could be thousands of technical reasons for that, even outside of the mucous realm.

the Minibosses

noreply@blogger.com (skwerl) — Sat, 17 Apr 2004 20:07:00 +0000

if you don't yet know them, get on board, they rock:
http://minibosses.com/

setting up a webcam for a Mac is hard...

noreply@blogger.com (skwerl) — Thu, 08 Apr 2004 18:16:00 +0000

i mean first the isight is 150 bucks, then i'm looking for a cheaper alternative but all the USB ones i could find are only compatable with OSX, which i don't have!
anyways i just want to hook one up out my office window, i have a quite decent view over bryant park and they are also in the process of tearing down the whole block to build a new skyscraper or office building or something, so i would love to chronicle that.
check out the view yo!:

go rutgers

noreply@blogger.com (skwerl) — Wed, 31 Mar 2004 22:26:00 +0000

yeah so the NIT tournament is coming to an end, and somehow or another we actually made it to the championship game! amazing.
the semi finals were last night and man, i can barely think straight today...
anyway it was good to finally see us chalk up a win although i fear the game tomorrow will be a blowout.
nonetheless, i shall purchase a ticket and participate because damn it, it's the garden and i like it there.

falling asleep in meetings

noreply@blogger.com (skwerl) — Tue, 23 Mar 2004 18:52:00 +0000

is it really so bad?
i mean, sure, your boss loses all respect for you as an employee and is personally offended, but really, how long are you supposed to sit there and listen to charisma-less imbeciles drone and stutter through their personal opinions of office policy and the path to the future?
if i'm not actually at my desk and working then at least let me grab a much needed 40 winks while your stroke your ego by talking longer than anyone else...

Chashama rooftop pics

noreply@blogger.com (skwerl) — Tue, 16 Mar 2004 21:52:00 +0000

whats really intersting about this work is that it is literally steps from Times Square, yet i'm pretty confident that only some of the people in my building are even aware of it, not to mention the thousands that pass by on the street every day.
please bear in mind that this was all done overnight, this is not a compilation of years' work.

wideclosearcs

subway secrets

noreply@blogger.com (skwerl) — Fri, 12 Mar 2004 15:22:00 +0000

ok i know i shouldn't be giving this away, but i don't think anyone is actually reading this blog anyway... ;-)
so every day when i'm riding the subway i see people sticking their heads out onto the track to see if a train is coming or not. i mean they really cran their necks to get a good look, like it's gonna make the train come faster or something. now i have many pet peeves, but this ranks right up there with people who stop at the top of the escalator because they don't know which way to go...
in the hopes of helping to alleviate this problem, here is my subway trick:
(caveat: these are for NYC lines only, i don't know if other cities have the same equipment)

don't look where the train is coming from, look in the direction it is going.

-two trains will never occupy one platform at the same time. until the previous train has entirely cleared the station the next train is not allowed to arrive. how can you tell when a train is clear? look for the traffic lights which face an oncoming train. they work just like regular traffic lights (red yellow green) and a train is not allowed to cross a red light.
when you see the light turn to yellow, then green, you know the next train can now arrive.
this also works to determine when a train is leaving the station. i always see folk sprinting to get on a train which is waiting at the station, while a quick glance at the signal light at the front of the train will tell you if it is ready to leave or not.
i usually travel during morning and afternoon rush hours through times square where there are tons of trains and tons of people jockeying to get on. this advice will probably not make a difference if you are waiting at a slow station at a slow time. but for those rush hour main lines, it can make the difference between looking like a fool and keeping your cool.

mental rental

noreply@blogger.com (skwerl) — Tue, 09 Mar 2004 19:45:00 +0000

what the hell is it about moving that drives folk insane?
i took one of those magazine quizes once, 'determine your life expectancy' and it instructed me to deduct one year for every time i had moved.
by my reckoning i should have been dead 6 years ago but hey who's counting...

Dancing Stan

noreply@blogger.com (skwerl) — Mon, 08 Mar 2004 18:31:00 +0000

i'm going to do a couple of follow ups on the Chashama events until there is enough sun for me to take decent pictures out of my window.
see, as the good folks at Chashama were leaving, they made their way up to the rooftops and created quite an elaborate display with what i'm assuming is leftover paint.
it must have went on all night because from the time i left work around 6:30 until the next morning, there was quite a significant amount of additional 'work' that went on there.
anyway it is foolish to talk about it without the pictures to describe it, so suffice it to say they were quite active.

the end of an era [chashama]

noreply@blogger.com (skwerl) — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 19:35:00 +0000

so i've been working here in times square for a couple of years, and next door to our 48 story sparkling skyscraper at
4x² is a series of smaller older buildings, including chashama.
now it appears that the entire block has been purchased and all the buildings have been comdemned. sadly, i never followed through with my desire to go in and check out the artistic 'happenings' that went on there, now that they have closed.

check out your building

noreply@blogger.com (skwerl) — Fri, 05 Mar 2004 19:24:00 +0000

looking for an apt, i just found a wicked tool which allows you get all the pertinent stats on any bldg in the 5 boroughs.
i couldn't believe when i typed in my address and my landlady's name came up! it's kind of slow but it's all there: http://www.myciti.org/

*update*
i also learned that if you have the original bathroom, you can look under the lid covering the watertank on your toilet and find the date the house was built, at least sometimes...