So this Monday I started the book “On Writing Well.” It is…amazing. I love it! I feel this extremely strong urge to write and rewrite old things I’ve written. I see beautiful writing everywhere, and sloppy writing where I didn’t notice it before. My word choice has improved from just reading this book. Priority #1 as of now: write in active voice.

Unfortunately this makes blogging every day more of a chore, now that I’m reading and re-reading everything I write.

Work has been the same as always. I went in late twice this week already though, because I overslept both Tuesday and today thanks to the Monday long run and the run yesterday. Monday we did 75 minutes in the nature trails. Yesterday was a breezy 45 minute run through the open woods in Thompson and a little bit of the reservoir trail. All in all, sore-fying, if thats a word.

Okay so maybe my word choice hasn’t improved all that much. But I’ll learn, you’ll see.

I do agree with Zinsser that exclamation marks are not to be used cheaply. Freaking typetards.

I end work next Friday. It has been an interesting experience so far. My coworker’s cousin is one of the only Gold medalists for Israel right now though (Power sailing). Its been fun, mostly. The best part though, is how I have cash for gas to drive the car this year Oh and my laptop will be here any day now.

Ugh, train rides are still boring as hell though. I usually talk to someone on NJ Transit and then end up sleeping while I stand on PATH except that one day I met Jean Ren (Esther’s friend). Every day since then I’ve gone to Starbucks and picked up a Frappuchino before work. Its really weird trying to work right after waking up. And standing while you sleep isn’t that comfortable; I hit my head against the center bar of the train once. Ouch.

So as for running, I did a 50 minute run with Kev and Aaron. It felt good yesterday doing 2 courses, a loughran, and back. (About 70 minutes.) My entire group died though.

Sometimes I think I’m always over-pacing group 2, but I’m also way slower than group 1. The gap is too big!

Senior pictures today, so I couldn’t go to work. Uhgh. I ended up working from home (1:20pm-7:20pm). I seem to be more productive at home. I guess its cause I use 2 computers at once (and I’ve just discovered that dreamweaver isn’t as bad as I’ve been brainwashed by myself to feel about it…ever since I stopped using windows, that is).

Maybe I’ll install it on my linux.

Brooks Ghost came today, blue colorway cause the other one is gay. I haven’t given them a test run yet cause I had to work until 7:20 but I will break them in by walking them tomorrow in NYC. I just hope they don’t get all black and ugly from NYC cause the place is FILTHY. Uhgh.

Oh and I get paid for travel tomorrow. Since I already used my paychecks to pay back Esther/Mom, this money will go to that laptop I bought (with an advance from my mom’s credit card haha) and I’ll pay back Esther $200 more. that leaves mom to pay back Esther another $220 that she owes her and we can call it even…of course, I still have to stop by at the bank to pick up the cash that was wired in from the tipjar.

I’m currently on lunch break. But this week is going to be bad. I can feel it in my bones..and hips. My hips don’t lie. Yesterday was a very fail workout and I’m inflamed like you won’t believe. Its brutal…I can barely walk right now

uhgh

So. Today. Sucked. Balls.

I took the stupid 7:34 train which is always crowded and went to Newark which I nearly overslept and literally leaped out the door from as it was closing. Then I went to PATH for the first time and got off at Exchange Place…which wasn’t really Exchange Place the street, but Exchange Place the Plaza….across the fricking river from where I work. I wandered looking for the elusive Broadway for 30 minutes before spending another $1.75 on my metro card to get to WTC PATH. Then I got out and wandered in the wrong direction (West Broadway isn’t Broadway? What moron named the streets in NY?) Oh and finally walked from 202 Broadway to 42 Broadway where I work.

So. Then I worked 5 1/2 hours, leaving work a half hour early at 3:30 to find my way home. Got to WTC PATH easily enough, but when I took it I fell asleep and the last people leaving the car had to wake me up. Hahah. Then I went to Newark Penn, found Track 2 where my Bayhead Train was coming, and got on. Then I overslept Hazlet and when I woke up I the train was leaving. So then the conductor came and I was like uh oh this was Hazlet? He’s like yeah. Uh oh is right. I’m annoyed cause I have to meet George/people at Thompson to run at 6:30 and now I wont get time to hydrate and relax.

Finally get home, its 6:20, rush off to running. It sucks balls too. I fall off after about 25 minutes because my legs are so tight cause I didn’t stretch. I stop to stretch, then do like 30-40 more minutes. Meet Sourav and Terry. Talk, go home.

This week for running has been really fail. My shins feel like they’re falling apart. I need new shoes.

My only solace besides my trusty summer reading is the fact that tomorrow is PAY DAY. =D

Yeah so today I worked till like 12pm, and then we had to move to our new office on 42 broadway (as opposed to 1501 broadway…) so we got all the computers/stuff, dragged it to a moving van, and my boss & head developer CJ drove off to our new office. Me and my friend Jesse took the subway to the new office and then we set up until like 2pm and I finished some REALLY NICE JAVASCRIPT that make these windows fly and stuff. I feel accomplished, learning to use javascript and all. I can’t really write that much, but its enough to use like frameworks (moo tools, script.aculo) — I like script.aculo better for some reason. Its easier to use. I love Effects.Morph! So awesome.

Okay so then I tried to get home. Oh boy. I accidentally took the 4 train, and then had to transfer to 7 and then 1 to get to penn station to catch the stupid 5:51pm nj transit home…that was a pain. Then there was RAIL WORK and so I didnt get home till 7:40pm. Which sucked…ass. 2 hours on a frickin train.

Ah and I found out Esther’s friend Jean Ren takes PATH to the WTC and so I have to find out how she does it cause I might end up doing that for August. Cause taking the Subway…is too long. Yeah.

As you see, work eats up my day! Though Esther says work is always worth it when you see your paycheck.

I enjoy the stuff I do, its just physically taxing (my eyes & cramped legs usually) and I just don’t enjoy the commute. Its boring and long. And you don’t get paid for it either haha. And I would take out my computer and do stuff but my eyes are so tired from work. So I end up…reading. Or sleeping. Reading isn’t much better for the eyes of course. But at least I don’t get as much of a stiff neck like sleeping gives.

Damn. This summer has been more of a drag than I expected. Then again, I never expected to have a job in NY and have to commute…it basically eats my entire day. Everything after…is running. And anything after that…is dinner. And sleep. Hmm. That leaves the weekends for hanging out with friends but I’ve mostly been unable to do that cause my dad is in bed for the next 6 months and there always has to be people home because hes allowed to walk around and stuff but we’re afraid he’ll fall and nobody will be there to help him up and stuff. Plus he needs things and we need to help him get water/food, go to the bathroom etc. I enjoy being at home with dad though cause I like talking to him. He has a lot of wisdom.

Maybe thats what makes me a happier person overall. Unlike many people, I don’t have father-son issues to angst about. We’re just really chill with each other.

But I still wish I had more time to hang out with people. We only have a year left…

I guess the reason I haven’t blogged in the past 3 days was because there was really nothing to blog about except work. And work…is work. Its not “hard,” its just physically taxing to stare at a screen for like 6-7 hours (I actually did it straight once or twice because I was too busy to take a lunch break…or maybe it was because I’m too stingy to spend 8 bucks on a sandwich in lower manhattan…) At any rate, making money isn’t very easy.

But I have picked up on some good tips from the head-developer (sort of like my boss but not really, he just tells me what to do. my real boss is the guy in charge of money). Basically when I find time, I’m gonna look at mu-tools. And AJAX. And maybe learn some ASP/.NET stuff.

Learning how MVC worked by reading about rails and using CakePHP in the past have really helped though. *Hattip to paul shen for introducing me to it all* — this one project used CodeIgnitor and it uses an MVC model. Hell if I had to learn MVC at that point, I’d be shot to hell. Its hard enough even knowing where everything goes. The programmer who used CodeIgnitor to write for us was not very neat about it though, or well-documented. I had trouble setting things up as a codeignitor nub…

This week has been pretty brutal. I’m getting more used to the rhythm of work but its very difficult and tiring to code for such long stretches. What does help, surprisingly, is loud Linkin Park. I’m liking Minutes to Midnight a lot. Its better than the Hybrid Theory EP that I used to listen to like in 6th grade…full of depressing songs. They’re still a sort of negative band. But whatever, it helps me code for some reason.

Today was the first day I went to the balcony at where I work. I looked down…and realized how frickin high up we are. 20 stories…looking down into Times Square….insane. For the record, I hate heights. But looking at all the moving people, busy streets, other parts of NY, all the tall buildings…exhilarating.

I’m currently….very very sick of XHTML/CSS. I spent my entire day (woke at 6:40 to catch the train, got to work at 9, left at 3 to get home by 5 to go to running practice at 6…) porting a layout from XHTML to Wordpress XHTML/PHP. Its…laborious and tedious to say the least. But I did it, and now all thats left is really some beautification and adjustments made by our company’s clients. Yay. No doubt I’ll be set up with yet another project to finish tomorrow…

So having worked 3 days this week and tomorrow a 4th, I can officially say: commuting is tiring.

But its ok because its NYC, Lower Manhattan, Times Square…its where the action’s at!