Sleeping or dying?

Stained Glass 

Valerie and Lynsie... 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art... 

The Little Vacuum That Could... 

Anarchism, Pleasant Surprises, and Jekyll and Hyde...

The RNC protest was insane...
I've never seen so many cops in my life...it must've been the entire fucking NYPD...
They were herding people like...*ahem*...sheep....

I went with Steve to Union Square...there was lots of protesting there...we met up with some people Lynsie, Night, Matt, Anna, Gordon...
There was a lady dressed up as the Statue of Liberty, a guy dressed up as Bush, and we saw Triumph the Comic Insult Dog...
There was also some hippie lighting up a joint, like 10 feet away from a cop...lol

We split into 2 groups...Lynsie's group stayed for the candlelight vigil and "die-in" where they all layed down in the street to symbolize the killing in Iraq...
I went with the Gallatin people, Matt, Anna, and Gordon...
So far I've mainly been hanging out with Sternies and CAS people...I figured that I'd switch it up for the night...
Very very interesting...because Matt was a proud Republican, tagging along...because he wants to understand different views...I highly respect him for doing that...
Cause a Republican going to a Democratic protest...he could've been killed...
The three were filming an unbiased documentary, trying to understand different perspectives...
Matt got into a debate with an anarchist...she believes that anarchism won't happen overnight, it's a gradual process...she doesn't think we should have a police force...and someway, somehow, people will get organized...people getting organized? Isn't that kinda like government? Without someone watching over and setting boundaries, it'll be chaos...that's just my opinion...I think without social and moral constrictions people will lie, cheat, steal, and kill...well at least SOME people will...and who will hold those people back?

Going a little off topic there...
We joined a protest line...
"Move BUSH! Get out the way, get out the way Bush, get out the way!!"
It was awesome...
There were other Republicans there...I could tell...all the old people giving us dirty looks...they were definitely Republicans, supporting Bush and their precious social security and medicare...
Medicare should be for EVERYONE...everybody deserves health care...not just rich old people...

We walked at Madison Square Garden...barricades...tons of cops...
We got as close a possible, 2-3 blocks away...
We interviewed a couple of Republicans in front of McDonald's, they were volunteering at the convention...they were from Alabama and Missouri...(figures...jk)
Anna did an awesome interview...

We decided to head back around 11...
Stopped for some pizza...
8th was closed off...kinda had some problems getting back...
Got back late, around 12...
My first protest, I had a good time...

Friday..
I did my own laundry!
Yeah, no big deal, laugh at me, but I usually don't do it myself...
I'm so fucking proud...
I was helping Kenny out, cause he was more confused than I was...
He asked me if he should put liquid detergent in the dryer...
I'm like, "NO! That would be very bad"....lol

The dorm vacuum has a big smiley face on it...
The Little Vacuum That Could...

Later that day...
*ring* *ring*
"You have two friends downstairs waiting to see you..."
I go downstairs, the elevator door opens, and I see Mike and JoMo standing there...lol
They just chilled at the dorm for a while...then they split...
Headed over to Central Park with Ryan, Steve, and Kenny...6th train...
Made a right at the dog statue...
Picnic with Valarie, Lynsie, and Kevin...
Bread and cheese...("yuppie food")...that was the first thing I ate all day...

Walked along the east side of the park...to the Metropolitan Museum of Art...
That place is amazing...we stared at Picasso paintings for like 15 minutes...analyzing them...it was fun...
Met up with Eric...
I left around 8 o'clock...alone...subway to Astor place...

Met up with JoMo and Mike again...
We went to Jekyll and Hyde...
"Mediocre food for high prices"...that guy wasn't kidding...
The atmosphere was very cool...
But we pay a dollar for the guy to make fun of us and sing...
Don't buy fries from the appetizer there...and don't ask for soda...
Apparently the fries didn't come with the meal, and every glass of soda is an additional 3 dollars...
So the bill came out to 65 dollars...
Highlight:
Joe: "Do you know 'Wake Me Up Before You Go Go'...?"
Crazy guy: "Yeah, I'm from the village, I HAVE to know that song...[breaks into song]..."

Then we just hung out at Washington Square Park...
Listen to the street band...
They played everything Beatles, U2, Bob Marley...it was great...
JoMo and Mike left and I just listened to the "Washington Square Park Band" until 1am...
Later on they did a "Money" cover and a Maroon 5 cover...lol
Got a phone call from Nunes...headed towards the dorm and met him on Broadway...
Good ole' Nunes, I can't believe he paid 80 bucks to come home...an 8 hour bus ride...it's insane...
Talked...and I went to bed at 2am...

"Whenever I'm alone with you
You make me feel like I am clean again..."
~The Cure, "Love Song"

Move Bush! Get out the way, get out the way Bush, get out the way!!! 

Protesters 

Little old lady: "Young people are spilling their blood in Iraq" 

"WHAT DO WE WANT?!?! JUS-TICE!!" 

Guess who that is? It's Triumph the Comic Insult Dog from the Conan O'Brien show!!! 

Anna, Gordon, Matt, the Gallatin kids I hung out with for the night...the Republican is the one that's smiling... 

A couple of blocks away from Madison Square Garden, I've never seen so many fucking cops in my life... 

I'm the 1-2-3!

Wow, I'm the subway line that I took last night...


You are the heart of the city, yet you never take
the glory for yourself. You work overtime to
get the job done fast and efficiently. You take
pride in knowing the city just wouldnt work if
you were out of service.

Which New York City subway line are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Call me Ishmael Jules...

I wake up every day to the sound of a garbage truck...
Except on Sundays I wake up to church bells from the nearby church...

When we were walking together, my roommates asked if they could give me a nickname...(cause I guess Julian doesn't exactly roll off the tongue so easily)...
They were like, could we call you Jules? So yeah, I don't know why, but that makes me feel more like home...
Other ideas were J, J-Ho (done before)...but they were almost gonna call me J-Spot...lol...that would be too similar to Nunes' nickname...

The Italian Marketplace at Kimmel has good pasta...

Okay, I have to admit, it kinda bothers me that, at random time, hot girls stop by our dorm, asking for Steve, my gay roommate...
What is it with women and gay men?
I think it's because women feel "safer" around gay guys...they won't get all horny and hit on them...they can "just be friends"...
Kari gave me the idea of pretending to be gay...then girls will flock to me...
But that's extremely low...I'd never do that...it's sick, lying like that...who would do that?
Hey, I think it would be a good "break-up line"...like, "sorry sweetie, we can't see each other anymore...I'm seeing another man..."

I think I'm going to the protest outside of Madison Square Garden...
A protest against Bush, a protest against the Republican National Convention, a protest against the fucking Bush administration...
It's gonna be crazy...thousands of people have been arrested so far...
Hope I don't get arrested...
I'll bring my camera...
Bring home a nice picture of a jail cell...

"One of these days
I’m going to cut you into little pieces!!!"
~Pink Floyd, "One of These Days"

Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.

I love how everytime I plan something out...it NEVER works out....
I just love how it works...

Here was my original plan for yesterday:
9:30-Freshman Convocation, I was gonna wake up at 8:30...
12pm -5pm - Bronx Zoo Trip
10pm - Rocky Horror Picture Show at Skirball Theatre

Well, right off the bat, I wake up late at like 9:10...
Steve and I walk to Coles, a little late for the convocation...
It was pretty boring....but hey we got free t-shirts and stuff...
Ryan got 4...he grabbed 2 there, when I when to buy tickets at Silver Center with him, he grabbed one more, then asked the RA for another shirt...
You can never have enough shirts...

The Accordion Crimes discussion was right afterward...
It was led by a lady named "Lala" with a thick accent...
She was cool though, and we talked about immigration, music, and stuff...
Half the people didn't read it...but you didn't have to read the book to be in the discussion...
The book sucked, too long, too many characters, and just as you get to "know" a character, he/she is fucking killed off...the curse of the accordion...

I ran into Julia in the street, she was from orientation...
Had lunch with her, Jessie, and Jessie's roommate, Paige...
I went with them to Stern...we were on a quest for free backpacks...
(CAS kids get shirts, Sternies get backpacks, Tischies get wallets)
Well, as soon as we had entered, I felt out of place...
Everyone is all professional and shit, and dressed in suits...gave us funny looks cause we were in jeans and t-shirts...
We got to the office, then turned around...mission failed...lol

Ryan told me that "Fiddler On the Roof" tickets were on sale for 15 bucks...
Picked them up...then I went to pick up a ticket to the "Mystery Concert"
I couldn't get any info out of the lady...top secret...hush hush....no one knows anything...
2 years ago a band called "Maroon 5" was the mystery band...
So it's actually a well know act...I'm hoping for something a little better than fucking Maroon 5...

Played Chinese poker with the RAs...
Chinese poker....shouldn't I be good at it?
No, I suck...any game with "Chinese" in the title, I suck at...checkers, chess, poker...

Toys R Us at Times Square...I miss being a kid...
Fiddler on the Roof was really good...
First time I was impressed with the scenery of a play...
I've never seen the movie, but I recognized most of the songs from somewhere...dancing was good...
The main character was Dr. Octopus from Spiderman 2 (Alfred Molina)...
Got split up from Ryan...the subway station I wanted was closed....tons of police everywhere with rifles...rode the subway by myself...it was creepy cause it was just me and this old man in one car...

Kate from Rhode Island (she was cute), Kate from Delaware, Alex from Delaware, Mark from Miami, Cassidy from Connecticut...
Goddamn, I meet 50 people a day, I can't remember all the names....shit, I can't even remember faces sometimes...then it's really awkward when I see them again somewhere else...."I KNOW you"....or....they'll say they know me...yeah, I need ginko...

I love Joe's IM messages he leaves me..."at Coles better be a codeword for 'at Mary-Kate and Ashley's apartment' or else I don't wanna hear about it"....
I think my friends wanted me to keep a freakin' log...

Day 5: I have not seen MK & A yet...

Wait, I can tell the future...
Day 135: I have not seen MK & A still...
Who the hell knows? Maybe I'll see them in the street, or maybe I'll never catch a glimpse of them...or maybe I'll do lines of cocaine with MK and impregnate Ashley...who the fuck knows?

"If I were a rich man,
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.
All day long I'd biddy biddy bum."
~Fiddler On The Roof, "If I Were A Rich Man"

GRAPES!........GREEN! SEEDLESS!....

Dammit, I can't believe I've spent like 600 dollars in the past 3 days alone...
I spent $500 on fucking books....
Yeah, I had to buy Campbell's biology book, the green one, same one I had used for AP Bio, yeah I didn't know I'd be seeing THAT again...

The poetry slam last night was AMAZING...
Just people rhyming on stage and having a good time...
It was not what I expected...I imagined it to be beatniks dressed in black with French berets, snapping fingers, screaming "Hey, Daddy-O"...
Nope, not at all...these were really talented people rhyming about racial discrimination, sex, rape, grapes, and Looney Tunes...
Gave me a better appreciation for poetry...
"GRAPES!.....[long pause]........GREEN!........SEEDLESS!"

Walked around randomly with my roommates...
We stopped at Washington Square Diner...I had a BLT wrap...they tried out their IDs...and it worked...the guy only asked for Eddie's ID, assuming that we were all the same age...
Could've but didn't...
I found a beat up record player, I'll have to re-wire/fix it...
West Side Story...lol

"We scratch our eternal itch
A twentieth century bitch..."
~Radiohead, "My Iron Lung"

College Life So Far...

We left the morning of the 28th...
Mom, Dad, Uncle, and Angela (I really should be calling her "aunt" but I've always known her as Angela, and "aunt" wouldn't stick to me)
Got there early and they helped me settle in...
A huge line for the elevator...people bringing everything imaginable...
We took the stairs...seven flights of stairs, that was fun...

My roommates didn't come in yet...but my suitemates did, Kenny and Eddie...both from Staten Island, they were cool....
Steven came in next, then Ryan...
Unpacked everything...then basically I went back home because I needed a new computer...

Somehow Raul and Dan heard that I was back in town so they called me at around 11 to hang out...
Hung out at The Cup...spicy fries, chicken fingers, Radiohead-ish guy...
Then we just talked in front of Raul's house, with his brother and Nicole too, until 2am...
Dad drove me back the next day...
The G.O.P is in town with the Republican National Convention...
I've been seeing protesters all day...with anti-Bush shirts, flags, signs...someone even had a Bush puppet...

Dorming is different....especially with a triple-double suite....5 guys and 1 bathroom...
Gotta learn how to share....tough for me cause I'm an only child...
I'll get used to it...
Every dorm at NYU has a theme...
The theme at Brittany Hall is "old skool"...so every floor is decorated with old skool stuff...
I just realized that I love spelling school that way...skool...skool...god, I'm such a dumbass...
Yeah, so the 7th floor is the Ninja Turtle floor...the doors have Ninja Turtle nametags on them....
I'm Donatello...
I know the 6th Floor is the G.I. Joe floor...don't know about the others...I just wanna go in the elevator and check every floor out...but that would just piss people off...

Meeting new people, being away from parents, and just living in the city...it's great...
No one to tell me what to do....
But I'd say NYU is very impersonal...such a fucking large class...you could meet a nice person one day, and never see her/him again for a few days...
Yeah, I feel lonesome sometimes...I know I live 40 minutes away, but I miss everyone back home...I miss my dogs...I miss my room....I miss my bed....but strangely...I haven't missed my parents....yet....you see, that hasn't kicked in yet...

The RAs, Brian and Roy, are cool...
I like their "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil Policy"
Floor 7! WHOOOO!

Had a talk with the roommates about all sorts of issues...
Just lay everything out on the table right now...
People staying over, privacy, what can/can't be borrowed...
Nothing's set in stone, but we have a good idea...
"I cannot WAIT to use our privacy rules!" ~Kenny

God bless the girls at NYU...I love 'em...why are girls so beautiful?
I probably won't get anywhere anytime soon...cause I just can't talk to girls...it's not my thing...god, I'm such a virgin...
I should've started to hit on girls in 6th grade...no, wait...earlier maybe....a pimpin' 3rd grader...
Then it would be a lot easier now...
Fuck, I'm just going to go for it, cause I got nothing to lose....
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take..." ~Wayne Gretzky

You meet some pretty interesting people here....
I met a self-hating Asian...
He's half Japanese and he can openly admit to hating Asians...
I'm thinking to myself...shit man, have some pride...He asks me "What are you?"
A great question...What ARE you?...yeah...
That question is usually followed by "Where the hell is Burma/Myanmar?"
Told him I was Chinese and Burmese...to which he replied something like, "it's all the same to me"...
How sad...

I'm trying to be involved and go to these welcome week activities...they're all free...
I went to the Coffee House where this crazy Jazz band from Tisch played....they were insane...
Drinking coffee at 11pm was a bad idea...
I still can't believe that I bought a ticket to a Broadway show for $15...going to see "Wicked"...
I went to a hypnotist show...that was awesome....I don't get how hypnotism work...but I'm a believer now...
That thing Joe told me a while ago....while he's driving and he doesn't remember what happened in the past 10 minutes....the hypnotist said that's a pretty common thing...a hypnotic state...
The things he made people do, it was freaky...snakes, seatbelts, MTV dance party...
"MY NAME IS JAH JAH! GET IT RIGHT OR I'M FUCKING GONNA KILL YOU!!!"

Today we tried to go to "Dude, Where's My Class", but no one was there....we walked around finding the buildings ourselves...
Went to a lecture/discussion on college activism...
Bobst library tour...
Possibly the Poetry Slam tonight? I have to check out Coles Sports Center and Palladium later...
I'm probably not going to kayak in the Hudson River...

I think I've learned plenty of things already, and classes haven't even started yet...

Accordion Crimes Progress: Fuck it all (I'm off to a great start already)
(roommates didn't finish it, so I don't feel that guilty)

Things I still need
1. Refrigerator
2. Microwave
3. Easy Mac
4. Headphones
5. Bob Dylan CDs
6. My acoustic guitar
7. A new desklamp, cause mine is a halogen lamp...a fire hazard...

"Yes, they’re sharing a drink they call loneliness
But it’s better than drinkin’ alone"
~Billy Joel, "Piano Man"

My dorm