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.

Almost exactly one year ago I posted the following:

Baseball 2007 is officially underway and the Mets won their season opener by beating the Cardinals 6-1!

Let’s go Mets!

Fast forward to today… well, technically yesterday as it is 1:44am…

Baseball 2008 is officially underway and the Mets won their season opener by beating the Marlins 7-2!

Let’s go Mets!

And let us hope that, while their season openers are quite alike, their season endings will be quite unalike.

Back to the story of our unashamed geekery. We took the PATH into the City. There’s a certain distinct pungency and oder you encounter while on the PATH that is hard to describe. Certain stations are saturated with the fragrance more than others (do check out the Grove St station for a full-on experience of the assault on your nasal passages). I do suggest you try it at least once in your lifetime. In addition, you meet so many interesting people in your travels.

We got off at the 14th St station and walked the few blocks to the store. It’s a pretty nice place. It’s 3-stories tall. Each floor has ample space and feels very open, as Apple Stores are known to be. The center point of focus, though, is a massive glass spiral staircase, connecting all the levels. It’s really a nice piece of architecture. All the Apple goodies are laid out in the open or your toying with them… Macs on level 1; iPods, iPhones, and Apple TVs on level 2; and the Genius Bar and software on level 3. While in the software section, a man asked me if I worked there. I gather that it had something to do with the fact I was wearing a Google t-shirt, though I don’t see why he’d associate Google with an Apple employee. I told him, “No,” but that I could probably help him anyway. He asked about Final Cut Express as compared to the Final Cut Studio. I shared with him what I knew. He thanked me and we parted ways. We spent some time walking around the store after that and then realized that we were all hungry. I personally had not eaten yet at that point, and it was after 8 in the evening.

We decided, since we were none to far from lower Manhattan, that this would be a perfect chance to get some of the best Chinese food you possibly can consume… Wo Hop. And so we caught a cab for Chinatown. As we flagged the taxi, one jammed his breaks with great force, screeching to a halt and nearly causing a traffic policeman to plough straight into the rear of his car. The officer was none too happy with our cabbie friend. And so we got into our yellow chariot and made for Canal and Mott St. Little did we know that as we were heading into Chinatown, the celebration for Chinese New Year was beginning to wrap up. When we got there, though the parties and parades were through, there were still significantly more people there than normal. And as we made our way to Wo Hop we found a line coming out of the door, up to sidewalk-level, and out into the street. Realizing this line was going nowhere fast and that there’s no point in getting Chinese in Chinatown unless it is, in fact, Wo Hop, we contacted our trusty Google Maps widget on iPhone with built in fake-GPS and located the nearest pizzeria. And so we began our trek to Little Italy.

It was only about 5 or 6 blocks or so. We found ourselves in Puglia’s Restaurant. We chose it because it was the least crowded of the three restaurants on the block. It’s a comfortable little atmosphere. As we entered there was a semi-large group of people towards the rear of the building, apparently having a birthday party (as we found out later in the evening due to a grand chorus of “happy birthday” songs). To the right was a group of three middle-aged men sharing a bottle of wine with their meal, laughing and drinking. Apparently they had already consumed much of the contents of the bottle, and more was on it’s way. It was clear that they were already “feeling good” due to their beverages. We found out, after sitting down, that on weekends they require at least $10 per person spent at dinner. So right off the bat this was going to be more expensive than we planned. We ordered some appetizers, a pitcher of Diet Pepsi, and a sicilian pizza. The food came shortly thereafter and we partook. I will say that it was quite good. The pizzeria is a brick oven. Nice and tasty. Then the entertainment began. We had no idea upon entering, but from our experiences, and from recent YouTube inquires about Puglia, music and singing are big parts of the Puglia experience. A woman in a sequined dress got up to a microphone previously unnoticed by us and began serenading the crowd with a variety of Italian and hits from decades past. The party towards the rear of the building and the group of three friends all partook in the sing-along… loudly. There’s nothing quite like a group of drunken baby boomers raising their glasses and singing and swaying to the hits of the 1970′s. It looked like a scene from Billy Joel’s Piano Man music video. They sang a song we now know to be a Puglia’s favorite.. “Shake Your Napkin.” Dozens of people upright and standing on chairs were waving their napkins above their heads and singing along with much cheer. And then came the conga line. Yes, a conga line formed and encircled the restaurant floor. Young people, middle aged, and the elderly were all dancing around the eatery, celebrating and having fun. It was a sight to see.

I must admit it was a bit strange as we weren’t expecting all this to happen. All we were looking for was a slice of pizza. I did enjoy it though. (Just watch out for those $7 pitchers of soda!) After we left I commented that I don’t know anywhere in New Jersey like that… where people just go to eat and celebrate and sing and dance. This is the New York I love. I can do without the Times Square and touristy areas. I like the little communities and small establishments on the side streets. When my father was in the hospital a few months back in the Upper East Side I had to walk from Cornell down to Times Square to meet some friends. I went through several little neighborhoods before getting on the subway and coming out on 42nd St. I much rather would be in those little neighborhoods than amongst the madness that all the tourists walk into.

At any rate, that was my Saturday evening. It was quite enjoyable and needed as well. I needed a little time to just relax and do something fun. Life is quite hectic and busy as of late. We have less than a month until The Bridge‘s youth retreat is here. So much to do and so little time. It was nice to get away for one night.

I added several pictures from the evening to my Flickr feed.

Yesterday started just like every other Sunday… tiring and early. My church does three gatherings every week and I oversee the tech stuff for all of them. It’s actually pretty rough. I’m looking for people to put in charge of the different services so I don’t always have to be everywhere all the time and can take some time to relax every now and then. Overall, though, while it’s hard work and I’m exhausted by the end of the day, I must say that I do enjoy it.

Anyway, we go through the 3 gatherings, the last starting at 5 and ending between 6:30 and 7… right in the middle of the Superbowl. We kind of expected it, but attendance was a bit low due to the game. Afterward all was said and done and the people had gone home, we cleaned up and closed down the building. Normally we go get something to eat directly after as it’s a long day for everyone and it’s not uncommon for a few of us to go the whole day without food due to sheer busyness. This day was no exception. The only rule that was stated in selecting an eatery was that there must be a TV present as some of our party wanted to see what was happening with the game.

We tried a few places before finding our destination. And so, my evening was spent ’round the bar at Friday’s with Carlos, Jenn, and Sarah and several drunk (and some not so drunk) NY Giants fans with a decent amount of New England Patriots fans (Sarah being one of them). On some level I wanted the Patriots to win since they did have the perfect season and there hasn’t been a complete perfect season since the 1972 Dolphins, 36 years ago. I thought it would be nice. On the other hand there is that loyalty you must feel for the home team. I mean, the Giants play about 20 minutes from my house. As stated earlier though, I’m not much of a football fan, so while I didn’t particularly care who won, the back and forth of the 4th quarter was enough to put anyone on edge. There were constant cheers from both Giants fans and Patriots fans. Each team had a “superfan” present at the bar to keep us entertained with their over-excitement and friendly trash talk. Everyone was on edge, though, right up until Tom Brady was sacked in the final seconds of the game and the Giants’ victory was all but sealed.

I was so tired from the day that there was even less excitement on my behalf for the outcome than there normally would be. I don’t even know if I spoke at all during the night. I was that exhausted. I thought the strength I would need to muster to vocalize anything too high a cost. It was bad. I enjoyed the Friday’s bar though. The fans were super in to the game, but no one got stupid or mean about anything. And while there was rivalry back and forth between the fans, it was all in good fun. Patriots fans shook the hands of Giants fans while uttering, “You got that. You deserve it,” and Giants fans ordered rounds of drinks ’round the bar.

I don’t remember much else from the night. I ended up home and in bed pretty quickly. And I slept good, let me tell you….

In other news, I learned last night that there is a group in Boston who subscribe and listen to The Sanctuary podcast on a weekly basis. I didn’t think there were people outside Elizabeth who even cared about it. It’s pretty cool when you discover that there are people you don’t know who enjoy something you do. Learning this did make me feel a little bad, though, as I missed getting the podcast up last week due to being busy. No worries, though, as I got both last week and this week published tonight. How do I know of these New Englanders who share our conversation every week? A few weeks back I received an email about the podcast in reference to an original song they heard on it from Kevin Becker. I replied to their message, helped them find some things they were looking for, and gave them Kevin’s Bridge email address for further information. Apparently they contacted him and told him and Sarah that they really enjoy the podcast and it’s touched their lives and even brought one of their friends closer to God. Who knew?!? They even came down to this area a week or so ago and met with Kevin and Sarah. It’s stories like this that really make me love the Internet.

And that is all I have to say thus far. I take my leave. Good night, all, and may peace be with you.