As I walked past Washington Square Garden, Tariq invited to play a game of chess with me. It was a little stressful because I haven't played in a long time. Anyway, Tariq gave me a chess lesson on covering the king, and the four important squares of chess. He beat me anyway, but it was an informative game.

Tariq also told me that Bobby Fisher used to play chess in that park. It costs only $3.00 to play a game. If you're good, challenge Tariq. He could be contacted at tariq_211@hotmail.com. If you're not good, sign up for a lesson.

These photos are dedicated to my political activist friend Gregory Lowe. He gave me an NRDC (National Resources Defense Council) bag that promotes saving whales. Anyway, I think he would really fit here in New York. Supposedly there's a protest at Union Square every weekend.

Justin and Lainie are from L.A. (Pasadena and "The Brewery"). They're here for a visit. Here are some photos of Justin hailing a cab, and being pure goofy. They work at Jungle 8.

Jimmy Falon and Parker Posey were in Greenwich Village today shooting a Pepsi commercial. This was my first celebrity sighting. Jimmy Falon was pretty cool. He posed for me, and then did the Electric Slide.

If anyone watches this commercial, let me know what channel it's on... or when for that matter.

I was on my way to Fellissimo for the 3-D Authorship show. They were closed so instead I went to a parade on Fifth. Beautiful costumes.

Gold Bars
The Apprentice Game
Trump Business Card Holders

How much bling is too much BLING?

I just liked these photos.

We had lunch at the "Burger Joint" located in Le Parker Meridian on 56th Street, and walked to this gallery on 57th. Pretty Cool.

I was riding the subway and saw 4 kids, probably ages ranging from 11-17. One of the kids had a poster carrier, and within 5 minutes, he took the sports ad from one of the walls. He then contemplated to take the NYU ad, but after careful deliberation, he said "Nah, it's not worth it, since it would mean that he would have to break the Plexiglas. Then he wanted the whole line of the sports. He wanted this collection, but he seemed to scared to steal those because now the car was crowded. To seem a little "bad ass" he starts picking on his brother, saying how he had a chance to go out with a college girl. It's his younger brother because they were wearing the same exact polo hooded jerseys, that perhaps they received for Christmas. When they got off on 4th Avenue, I took a photo of them, and that dude flipped me off. He probably thought I was a narc or something.

Nick and I went to the Bernstein and Gershwin concert at Town Hall, and at the end of the concert, the conductor proposed to his fiance.

This is a social game created by Summer Bedhard at ITP at NYU and her group for game design. I couldn't resist taking a photo. It looks fun and funny. Btw, Steve Jackson smells fresh, like pecans, denoted by his name "Pecan Jackson."

This is not a Halloween costume...

He is the "moustache man" that works at the Java Lava Cafe. If you're tired of Starbucks, mosey to Waverly and Mercer Streets (293 Mercer), which is behind the Tisch building. Cheap coffee with NYU discounts.

Important Update for OJ lovers:

A small carton of Tropicana orange juice costs $2.00 at All About Food, but it costs only $1.25...go figure

In August, Dell Computers hit the cover of Businessweek with the title "Dark Days at Dell," and judging by the comments below the article, most of them expressed Dell's incompetence.

This past Wednesday, President George W. Bush made a reference to Dell Computers in his press conference (click here to see this video). I don't know if you see a pattern or formula here, Dell + Bush = Incompetence.

I felt bad for my co-worker when he was on the phone for a very long time with Dell's Customer Support after just recently purchasing a Dell monitor, and judging by his conversation, this was not his first time calling Dell regarding this same matter.

This is what really bothered me about X-Men: The Last Stand. The movie had a great story, but I was extremely disappointed that the producers and directors of this movie chose Dell computers to represent "high-tech progression" and "competence." The idea of Professor Charles Xavier using Dell computers to revive Jean Grey/Phoenix, is not credible. I don't think I was actively looking a product placement, but it stuck out like a sore thumb. In this scene, Jean-Grey was in a sterile white room, and had tiny electrodes stuck to her forehead that measured her neural behavior, which was displayed on a Dell monitor.

Anyway, this is a pattern that I keep seeing in both movies and television. Although, in movies, I believe it's more effective in brainwashing, since the product placement is more subversive. Recently, I was watching Google's interactive cable channel, which is suppose to be "VCC" (Viewer Created Content), and I was really disappointed in their direction of using product placement in their banner ad (or is it called "anchor?"). Last May, I was able to watch an engaging story about poetry. Last month, I saw a "Pop Secret popcorn ad" endorsing The Grudge 2 movie. It was really obvious and cheesy (animated popcorn coming out of movie bucket). I guess that's what really bothers me about Google's purchase of YouTube (sorry, the pres. video above was the only one I could find).

Anyway, if you're really tired of product placement, get up, and walk to your local park, meditate, try a new restaurant (not a chain one), or read a book. Free your mind.

He's got other stories:
The $10 million Spit, a true story
Guppy ice-cubes
and more...

My ex-co-worker, Riadh, started this trend of bringing us Harlequin and various romance novels. We heard that Ziggy, Cliff's wife likes to read them, so Cliff designed this cover with their faces on it.

p.s.

Cliff and Ziggy are married.

This is Ivanka Trump at the LAX airport Tuesday, January 16, 2007, waiting in the security line at approximatelt 7:30 am. I am happy to report that she didn't receive any preferential treatment. She's really tall, and took off her 3-inch stilettos, and gracefully tippy-toed through. Very stylish, wearing a camel coat, and violet alligator bag. She noticed us noticing her, and I even joked, "You're FIRED!" A former graduate at Wharton, she helps her dad host The Apprentice in Los Angeles this season. So far, I've watched two episodes, and the tasks were pretty silly. I like that the winning project manager can sit in the board room for the elimination. I also like what Ivanka has to offer to the show. Hopefully, the tasks get more challenging, but so far it makes Los Angeles look like the Diva Drama Queen of Soap Operas.

Donald's probably thankful that Ivanka didn't turn out like Paris Hilton.

The other celebrity I saw when I moved to New York about a year and a half ago was James Cameron, the director of the Titanic.

I just found this site, Knover. A site that practices the "Six Degrees" theory. It basically maps and keeps a database of famous people and their affiliations. I believe this site scapes the Internet for articles with the specific names, and compiles it in a database, so you can cross-reference people with people, affiliation with affiliation, or people with affiliation. I just searched for Oprah, and her profile alone, came up with 15 pages of people, and has 973 web associations. Warren Buffet has 63 web associations, Bill Gates has 462 web associations, George Soros has just 213. Wait! I found someone who beat Oprah with 1,798 web associations, Bill Clinton. I'm not counting George Bush (2,149 web associations) because it seems like most of it is related to what he's doing with the war, i.e. his connection with Adolf Hitler? I also like how they have separate categories like business, music, fashion, news and politics.

The pitfalls, don't type someone not famous, or it will crash, and it tracks just the mainstream/popular "notables." Although, a profile came up for John Zorn. A search for Clay Shirky came up with a profile as well, but I couldn't find Red Burns.

How cool is this site? I was just complaining about how printed birthday cards and e-cards are so cheesy. Cliff Hahn, my cool friend (I swear he should start a magazine), recommended this site. This is for the geeks at heart.

GeoGreeting will allow you to send a personal message/e-card, but what is unique about this site is that the font are photos from satellite images of the top of buildings.

Here are some examples:

Production process and first peek of his new Pixel Mirror.

Here's a preview of the ultraORB by James N. Sears and his father Ron Sears. It's a dual-axis rotating display creates color visualizations of models in 3D space, using persistence of vision.

A rotating 320 tri-color LEDs about two axes simultaneously under the control of sixteen microcontrollers, creates a fully volumetric display that can display arbitrary models within the three dimensional volume of an 11" sphere.

It will be at the ITP Spring Show, this Tuesday and Wednesday night at 721 Broadway.

Nick and I just met the sweetest, most down-to-Earth designers and architect. They just won a Webbie for their work Yellowstonepark.com site. We also saw Lonely Girl at the party.

[Nick, me, Joel, Jennifer, and Paul]

Facebook Meetup was organized by Amit Gupta, who wrote the Amazin' Wishlist application, and is founder of the startup Photojojo. Also a special guest showed up at the first NY meetup.

Recognize this face?

Mark Zuckerberg showed up in New York because of his sister's graduation.

I saw a couple of ITPers there. A holler out to Jadie and Cat! Two out of 4 females including myself. More about what I thought at this link: http://nyu.facebook.com/profile.php?id=835967.

I'm very proud of our Kermit Soufflé.

Angelos told me that a lot of graffiti artists use Priority Mail labels as free stickers to promote their craft. Maybe that's why I have to wait in line at the post office twice.

Photo taken close to Plan B bar in East Village.