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May peace be with you.

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I feel so out of the loop. I’ve been so busy these past few weeks that I can say that I’ve been out running around different places more often than I’ve been home. A bit of what I’ve been up to. This will be long, as it covers the past two to three weeks. Don’t feel the need to consume it all in one sitting:

1. The Equip Conference is less than two weeks away and there is still a lot to do. There’s a whole write-up about it here. The past few weeks we’ve been finalizing schedules, planning the different finite details, etc. I had to make a promo card and send it to print rather quickly so that we could get it out in time. I had to get a website up and running just to have a place to put information. I would link to it, but I had to do it in such haste that it really is a hideous eyesore and so I shall refrain. If you think hard enough and put a little effort into it, you should be able to find it on your own. But yeah, those were just some of the tasks that needed completion. It was a lot to do. Still lots more to do.

2. Bachelor party. We had a bachelor party for my brother a few weeks back. We went to New York to Caroline’s on Broadway to see Judah Friedlander perform. We took the PATH to the World Trade Center and walked about 20 blocks north until we finally decided to take public transportation. We split, half taking a cab, the other half - my half - trying to take a cab but failing and ending up in the Houston St subway station. We beat our cab-riding friends to Times Square by a good 20 minutes. Can I just take the time to say that I hate Times Square? I like New York, but Times Square is just too out of control. Way too many people and commotion. It takes forever to get a single block. And there’s way too many tourists. Anyway, the comedy show was good. We sad about 1/2′ from the stage. Literally. AJ and Michael were picked on the whole evening, since they were so close to Judah that they could probably smell his breath. It was a good time. Afterwards we went to the Apple Store (of course) on 5th Ave and browsed for a bit. I bought a pair of headphones. We bought Jimmy an Apple TV for the wedding. Afterwards we went to Wo Hop… pretty much the best Chinese food in the City. They’re open 24 hours a day. You simply must go. It’s the one underground. 17 Mott St. The above-ground one next door, 15 Mott, is a copy and not as good.

3. Softball games. I recently told a friend, who is the assistant coach for Elizabeth High School’s softball team, that I would help her out by taking pictures of her team so she can give them out to the player at the end of the year. We took pictures over a few games and now I have to finish editing them a bit and putting the players names on them so we can print them out. I think I’m past due on them, so I have to get a move on it. What’s nice is that there’s a girl on the team who was a part of our youth program a few years back but I haven’t really seen much of since then. It was great to get to see her play and to catch up a bit with her. I do have to say that I really enjoy going to see the games. There’s not much else quite like sitting on a bleacher on a nice sunny day watching a baseball or softball game. It reminds me that I do have to make my way out to Shea at least one more time this season before they tear it down and move to Citi Field next year.

4. The Wedding. So my brother got married. I was the “best man” as it is called. The ceremony was nice. It was held in the Lakewood Country Club in Lakewood, NJ. Normally a wedding day is hectic and stressful, from what I hear. Not this one. At least not for the guys. Most people stayed at my brother’s house the night before. I had a meeting that ran to midnight and so I did not want to drive 45 minutes to his house that late. Instead I slept at home… until 11:30 in the afternoon. Those at his house did the same. Then woke and went to Famous Dave’s for some barbecue for lunch. I had a sandwich from 7-Eleven and bought some tape for the video recording on my way to his house. I arrived shortly before they came home. Upon their return there was a great amount of Guitar Hero play and relaxation. Around 3 we decided it was time to leave and we headed out, making a quick stop at a CVS for some socks as I forgot to bring some. Inside the store there was a great debate, lasting several minutes, between the clerk and a customer about whether or not Dr Pepper was a Coca-Cola product. And when I say “several minutes” I mean about 10… in which we had to wait. Alas, we finally made it back on the road and arrived at out destination.

It was an outside wedding, and the reception was help in the adjacent building. It was not an overly large nor a small wedding but rather a decently sized one. I took many photographs of the occasion, though I was not the wedding photographer. On a side note, my regular Canon SD900 seems to have broken on transit to the wedding, and that is why the wedding photos are in a full-resolution scale rather then widescreen as I normally take them. I had to use my backup. I took photos, in addition to the fact that I pretend to be a professional photographer, because my grandmother who is in the hospital was not able to come to the celebration and wanted to see pictures right away. The real photographer’s photos will not be ready for some time, and so we needed some instant pics. And so I took, with some help when I actually had to be in the ceremony, 420 shots throughout the evening. Anyway, we got changed (yes, I wore a tuxedo, though I tried as much as I reasonably could to avoid it). The ceremony lasted about a half hour and we moved inside to the reception party. This lasted much longer as the DJ seemed to not want to stop playing music until well after 12:30am. There was much dancing and talking and laughing. A few videos are posted on my Viddler account of the reception.

It seemed people were a bit nervous about me doing the toast. They seem to be uneasy as I never plan, when I have to speak in front of people, the exact details of what I have to say. Instead I plan three or four points, think about them a bit, and talk “off the cuff” on those topics. They said the toast went well. I’m glad for that. I can’t remember exactly what I said, but I’m glad the others enjoyed it.

5. Ninja! Romulo’s birthday was this past Friday. Apparently he was of mind to have a weekend-long celebration in his own honor. And so he called and said that Sunday after church and after the class I teach to come to NY and we would go to a Japanese restaurant. The restaurant he chose was Ninja New York. And so, after a full day of church services a group departed for the City. I had to stay behind to teach my computer class at 7:30. I ended promptly at 8:30 (and I really sped through the information) and made my way, by bike, to the Elizabeth train station. I purchased my ticket and boarded the Northeast Corridor to Newark Penn Station. Upon entering the train I had to find a convenient, non-fire-hazard place to stand with my bike, and so I found one. The conductor came by and collected the tickets. She said that I paid too much because I selected Newark Airport (code 101) instead of Newark Penn Station (code 100). Oops. Well, I made it to Penn and made my way (quickly) to the PATH platform, hoisted my bike above my head, and went through the turnstile. I got on the PATH and it quickly filled. A man was there with a folded little scooter telling me to be careful because the PATH conductor had just come by and yelled at a guy who had a bike because it was a particularly busy Sunday night. I told him that the website said I could bring a bike on at this time, so let the conductor be mad if they so please. I had more conversation with the scooterman on the PATH as he was on his way to visit his girlfriend in Journal Square and my stop, (World Trade Center, NY) was beyond this. He works for Princeton University in the Office of Public Affairs. He noticed my “Join Me in the Fight Against Poverty” button from Compassion that I was wearing and asked about it. It seems he hooks up with organizations like that and connects them with students at the University. He said to contact him and gave me a business card. It is sitting in front of me as I type this. Anyway, I got to the World Trade Center and walked to Church St, mounted my bike and made my way to 25 Hudson St.. to Ninja.

It was an incredible atmosphere. There is a very small greeting area and then they call downstairs to prepare for your arrival. They place you alone in an elevator whose lights dim as it descends. A ninja greets you downstairs and asks if you want the shortcut or the secret ninja path. I chose the shortcut as my friends were already waiting for me. As you walk through the maze they have setup, ninja jump from all corners, yelling and startling you. It is decorated as a medieval Japanese ninja castle, with stone walls and torches and little rivers. The dining quarters are private rooms, accommodating the various party sizes. Ninjas take your order, serve you, and spy on you as you eat. I must say that I’ve never been to a restaurant quite like this. It was pretty amazing. The food was very good. We got a steak and crab combo. There was some potato meal with it, and of course I got some rice. I will say that it is very expensive. Very very expensive. More that I was really ready for. Nevertheless, the whole experience was amazing. They do have one other Ninja restaurant in Tokyo. If you have some extra money to burn and want a great experience with great food, definitely check out Ninja New York. Afterwards, we made our way back to the PATH and finally ended up home.

Ninja logo photo by Mil

It has been a long past few weeks. The next two weeks seem like they will be equally busy. Hopefully I will be able to post more frequently in the upcoming days as to not have another massively long post. Until then, peace be with you.

I’ve uploaded several dozens of photos to Flickr from the past few weeks. Be sure to check out all the new galleries.

sharing a cell with a twitter addict.

digg story

I found this article while going through my Google Reader feeds this morning, and it really made me laugh… especially the noob and RIAA parts. It was originally posted by Mikebert on Everything2. And so now I present to you the L337 Lord’s Prayer:

0?r $¥$@dM!n, \/\/|-|0 ©|-|!££$ !n |-|34\/3|\|
ph34r3d ?3 7|-|¥ |\|@m3
†|-|ÿ p\/\/n@g3 ©0|\/|3, †|-|ÿ $©r!p7$ b3 d0|\|3 !n /earth @$ i7 !$ i|\| /heaven.
$33|) u$ 7h!5 |)@ÿ o?R d@!£ÿ R0|\/|$.
f0rG!\/3 u$ 0?r n00b 3xP£017$ @$ \/\/3 f0rG!\/3 $©r!P7 |<!dd!3$ 7|-|@7 h@x0r @Ga!|\|$7 u$. R3\/34£ t0 u$ |\|07 ?3R0 |)@ÿ \/u£|\|$, ?u7 $A\/3 u$ fR0|\/| t3h RIAA.
f0r 7|-|!|\|3 i$ t3h |\|37\/\/0R|<, @|\|d t3h rm -rf*, @|\|d @££ 0?R ?@$3 @r3 ?3£0|\|G t0 j00, f0R3\/3R @|\|d 3\/3R.
4|\/|3|\|.

Translated into English:

Our sysadmin, who chills in Heaven,
feared be thy name.
Thy pwnage come, thy scripts be done in /earth as it is in /heaven.
Seed us this day our daily ROMs.
Forgive us our n00b exploits as we forgive script kiddies that hax0r against us.
Reveal to us not 0 day vulns, but save us from RIAA.
For thine is the network, and the rm -rf /, and all our base are belong to you, forever and ever.
Amen.

I haven’t abandoned you, oh blog of mine. I actually have a good four or five things I’d like to write about, but life has been quite hectic as of late. Perhaps I will get to it sometime this weekend.

Until then…

As heard in an IM conversation with my brother:

William Hartz: I think we should switch back to a bartering system
James Hartz: what if you run out of stuff?
William Hartz: you make good deals and get much and then barter it away piece by piece
William Hartz: or plant a radish patch and barter the radishes
James Hartz: I could see the radish thing working

I know, I know… it’s been forever since I’ve really updated the good ol’ blog. I apologize. The past few weeks have been really stressful and busy, what with the Retreat last weekend and everything. I did, and still do, want to do a write up about the Retreat, but it shall have to wait until the morrow… Too much to do tonight.

But let us not forget the great celebratories of today! Happy Pi Day everyone! May you all remember and embrace our friend from high school math class in all of its spendor! And may you consume much pi(e) in honor of this annual festival of math and numerical goodness.

And for you, on this 3.14/2008, I give you Pi to one million decimal points. Enjoy.

Happy new year, all! I hope you had good and safe fun during last night’s festivities!

I was on the road at 12:10am last night. For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you probably saw a tweet about this. I was leaving the Liberty right after midnight and was on Elizabeth Ave crossing Broad Street towards the courthouse. I saw, out of the left corner of my eye, two engines pull out of the Broad St firehouse, lights ablazin’ and sirens blaring. They came toward my direction with great acceleration as I pulled over and let them pass. I remembered then that, while walking to my car, I heard the distant crackling of a large amount of fireworks, mostly illegal I supposed. I would assume that someone rang in the new year by setting their home afire within 10 minutes of the ball dropping. Nice! I couldn’t help but chuckle a little while still feeling a little sad for the situation.

Anyway, I went to my church’s New Year’s gathering last night before the fire incident. I wasn’t aware I was supposed to be running sound for the night, so I planned on showing up “fashionably late.” Alas, I received a call about 15 minutes before the start asking if I was coming becuase they needed a tech there. So I geared up with haste and made my way to the Liberty Center. I walked in the door as they were starting to play the first song. There was a guy there who I’ve been training that got the stuff turned on and running, but quickly passed it to me when I arrived. It was a night of prayer and worship. Pretty good. A lot of people showed up… a lot more than I expected to. I think we had about 300 or so. I added a few photos from the night here, on Flickr.

I don’t have much scheduled for today. I’m trying to find something to do. I don’t think any stores will be open, and I’m having a hard time find people with which to do something. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll just go shower and then head out and see what becomes of things.

Anyway, I hope you all have a great New Year’s holiday! Peace be with you.

A good friend of mine, Samantha, has started up a blog which I’m sure will be a hoot. You must make your way over there and check out what she has to say. It will be very nice of you and I know she will appreciate it.

To view the site, visit: samanthacostanza.com
To subscribe to her blog, visit: http://samanthacostanza.wordpress.com/feed