Have you heard Linkin Park's new one?

It's Sunday night and like any Sunday night, I messed up my sleep schedule completely from the weekend so I'm having trouble sleeping. A little music always helps and I am putting on Linkin Park's latest. Have you heard it? It's good.

Hooked on "Guitar Hero II"

Last Sunday, after visiting a friend of a friend's apartment, I got to try out "Guitar Hero II" on the XBOX360. I used to think, "What's the point?" Turns out that it's one of the most fun games I've ever played.

I learned that the game isn't limited to just a select few or music lovers and/or non-lovers; everyone wants to get involved. Even friends of mine who play the guitar legitimately find themselves having fun with it.

After a week, I've gotten through all the songs that are available on "Easy" and I'm done with all the songs EXCEPT one for the "Medium" difficulty; I can't get past "Free Bird." It's the last song and supposedly the hardest song and that long-ass guitar solo has me stuck.

The songs I seem to be the best at are "Possum Kingdom" by the Toadies (one of my all-time favorite alternative songs from the '90s), "Sweet Child of Mine" by Guns N Roses and "Message in a Bottle" by the Police.

A tourist by night

Over the years, I've gotten a lot of comments from you guys about my apartment location and how weird and bizarre it is. I'm telling you: I like where I live. I like being near Times Square, near all the theaters and most importantly, being near work.

The other night, it grew uncomfortably warm in my apartment, as I won't have air conditioning until early May I'm told. So I decided to walk around my area for a bit and below was a rough timeline:

8:15 p.m. - Left my apartment after napping and waking up drenched in sweat.

8:20 p.m. - I walked into the Whole Foods Market at the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle hoping to get food there but as always, the line to check stuff out is incredibly long and I was incredibly hungry.

8:25 p.m. - Walked across street to the Subway there and got a Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sandwich. All the tables were taken and since it was a nice night out, I decided to eat underneath that statue of Christopher Columbus overlooking Central Park.

8:35 p.m. - Anderson Cooper walks by Central Park, looked to be in a hurry to get somewhere.

8:45 p.m. - Still not wanting to go back to my apartment, I decided to hit up Times Square to see what's going on.

8:50 p.m. - In Times Square, a nice European couple (couldn't make out their accents) ask if I would help them take a photo of them in front of a Microsoft billboard. I help them.

8:52 p.m. - I walk into the Virgin megastore after hearing Linkin Park's new single blasting on the intercom. Inside, I check out the video games, the comedy CDs section and theDVD section. Of particular interest to me were the cult horror grindhouse DVDs that I never knew existed. After watching "Grind House," I've become fascinated with the smut-ridden, guilty pleasure exploitation films of the '70s that once polluted Times Square and 8th avenue where I lived. I check out DVDs with such titles as "Blood Feast," "The Gore Gore Girls," "I Spit On Your Grave" and "Zombies of Erotic Islands." Just weird, weird stuff.

9:10 p.m. - After leaving the Virgin Megastore, I go next door to Toys R' Us which I used to hit up everytime I was in the area and bored. This tradition has gone way back to 2002, when I first discovered the place when I was forced to work there for a Care Bears PR event for a summer internship. It's one of the few places in NYC that you can browse around, not buy anything, and not feel guilty about it. Anyway, I hit up the video games section and there, to my surprise, they had piles of Wiis and PS3s to sell.

9:35 p.m. - I leave Toys 'R Us and decide to pay $3 for an overprice ice cream cone from the Mr. Softie (or whatever it's called) truck. For some reason, I like the vanilla ice cream cone with rainbow sprinkles.

9:37 p.m. - On my way back home, not one or two but three scientologists harass me with flyers.

Anyway, the point of this whole post is that while nothing particularly interesting or extraordinary happened, there are people that spend weeks or months planning a vacation surrounding what is pretty much my backyard and neighborhood.

I just love how dynamic my area is. Those of you who know me well know how easily I fall into boredom and Midtown West, Hell's Kitchen, Times Square - whatever you want to classify my neighborhood - it's just an ever constant motion of new people and new people excited to be where they are and every now and then, I get to share in that just by seeing it on their faces.

And that's what gets me about it.

Later,

~ T.C.

I'm wishy-washy

After deciding to create a blog on MySpace, I have decided to change my mind after less than a week and create my personal blog on BlogSpot. It's a great tool for anyone who's looking to get into this sort of thing. Anyone with a GMail or Google account can do it.

So...expect to hear my ramblings here instead.

Later,
T.C.