Fantastic time-lapse AND stop-motion video: Across America

jmikola

that's the same homeworld that posts a lot on hoboken411, so it'd make sense :)

jmikola

The cookie monster OD drawing is from this woot shirt by tjolf.

jmikola

Of all the snacks available on the 9th floor, what's your favorite? Also, do any of you guys hoard breakfast cereal in your desk drawers?

jmikola

I'd recommend picking up the Carcassonne Big Box, which includes the original game and about eight expansions, including most of those mentioned in the other comments. I've been using this for the last six months and it's been great only having to carry around one box to play (unlike Catan, which I have scattered between four boxes). Having everything bundled together also makes it easy to mix and match expansions between games.

jmikola

Comcast is rolling out their DNS hijacking service, which redirects requests for invalid domain names to a Yahoo search results page, similar to what Verisign did a few years ago.

http://coreygilmore.com/blog/2009/07/23/opt-out-of-comcasts-dns-helper/

jmikola

If the singer's a boy, he's wearing a woman's shirt.

The vertical strip of fabric running down the front opening is called the placket, and gives a more symmetrical appearance to the joint between the left side, on top, and the right. This left over right order is also seen in waistcoat and coat fastenings, though women's clothing buttons the other way (right over left)

Source: Wikipedia

jmikola

The Abolitionist was a shot I came up with in 2004 after wondering why bars stocked tiny bottles of worcestershire sauce that never seemed to get used. The girlfriend of one of my roommates had left a bottle of Jose Cuervo tequila around and I had plenty of Lea & Perrins on hand (always a great steak marinade) so they were inevitably combined on a boring afternoon. I've gotten a few folks to try this since and one friend will enthusiastically suggest it whenever we see each other at a restaurant/bar.

A year later, I was requested by my housemates to come up with some method of consuming a bottle of mediocre brandy. A happened to have a huge tin of Tang drink mix on hand. The result was The Fidel Castro. The aftermath makes it seem as if this was revolting, but I actually found it rather pleasant. Definitely easier to get down than an Abolitionist.

jmikola

Back in 2004, a friend of mine invited me to tag along as a platonic date for a wedding up in Vermont. Coming from NJ, it was at least a seven-hour trip in her CRV or Rav4 (I forget). About half-way through the journey, we stopped off to swap driving positions.

As I'm cruising along up I-87 through upstate NY, she was sleeping like a log in the passenger seat. Usher's Yeah song came on the radio... the one with the beat to make ya booty go *clap*. As I slowly became entranced by the lyrical stylings of Lil' Jon, Ludacris, and our good man Usher, I became less aware of my increasing speed. As I noticed the needle crack past 110mph, my left hand was firmly placed at the 12-o-clock position on the wheel with my right hand applying a sideways spanking motion as my torso/head bobbed in beat with the music.

I just happen to take a glance in the rear-view mirror and noticed a pair of flashing lights and a frantically blinking spotlight. I have no idea how long I was being followed, but I immediately started making my way over to the right shoulder from the far left lane (this involved a close call and some car horns from other, now-passing motorists).

As I get to the shoulder, my awakened friend groggily asks (a) why we're stopped and (b) why the radio is so loud. I barely stammer a reply before the NY State Trooper is at tapping at her window. Not exactly familiar with the vehicle, it takes about five excruciatingly long seconds to find the window button and then as it's rolling down, I'm smacking all sorts of buttons to shut off the still-playing radio.

"I just clocked you doing 105 in a 65! Son, you must have your head up your ass!"

"S-sorry sir," as I pass over my license and registration.

"And you let him do this?" he asks my friend, who's squinting at him because her eyes still haven't adjusted.

He walks back to his car and I attempt to make some light banter during the next two minutes. In the rear-view, I can see him chatting away on a radio with an unpleasant look on his face. We hear a car door slam and he comes back to her window, drops my paperwork on her lap and briskly says, "If I didn't need to be somewhere right now I'd..." (neither of us processed anything he said after that). He quickly gets back in his car and peels out down the highway with his lights/siren on.

I drove 64mph in the middle lane the rest of the way to Vermont.

jmikola

This was taken at the 2009 Big Apple BBQ in Madison Square Park, about two weeks before Billy Mays passed away. I'm second from the right, next to jeanlucpikachu.

jmikola

Immediately thought of Shredder's drilling vehicle from Ninja Turtles.

jmikola

Do I smell a crossover with the The Man Your Man Could Smell Like Old Spice commercials?

jmikola

I'm certain that Tiger was there regularly between 2006 and 2008. The last time I saw them might have been winter of 2009.

I often deferred to 53rd and 6th when bringing along friends that were trying carts out for the first time. The food quality, while not my favorite, is extremely consistent. Part of the fun is certainly the experience of waiting in line and hanging out on that corner at 1am.

Nowadays, if I'm visiting 53rd, I'll walk across 6th ave to the southeast corner. In the late shift, you'll find 1-2 more carts set up there, which functions to keep the landmark cart on the southwestern corner stocked (you can actually watch them ferry food across the street). They also cater to line customers. When the southwest cart's line was 90+ people deep, I've been able to grab food from the backup cart in under five minutes.

I can't suggest too many lunch locations, as I have never worked near midtown - all of my experience is cart adventures between 7pm and 5am :)

Check out Midtown Lunch if you haven't already, though. I haven't tried these, but I was terribly interested in the story behind the Blimpie that was also serving Latin food in the back of its store. They shut down, but the spirit was reincarnated in the newsstand next door, which serves pizza, Latin and Indian food. Another write-up is here. If you're willing to take a risk with the DOH violations, it should make for an exciting trip :)

jmikola

I've only visited 4th and 6th a few times this year, but between 2007 and 2008 I was driving in with friends from Hoboken 2-4 times a week for the stuff. We actually got to know the cook on the evening shift and would call him in advance if we had a big order :)

I haven't seen him since mid-09, so I believe he moved back to Morocco to be with his wife. The new guy is equally friendly, though.

jmikola

The Greenwich Village location for Sammy's Halal, parked on the corner of 4th St and 6th Ave. Same lamb/gyro product, but it's cooked in inch-thick patties on a griddle (served chopped into cubes) instead of the rotating broiler like most other carts. Gives the lamb a nice crispness on the outside than the thin slices from other carts. They also carry a cilantro-based green sauce that augments the traditional red/white quite well. Sandwiches and platters are still $3 and $5, unlike some other carts that have raised prices.

Recently tried Bistro Truck last week on 17th St and 5th Ave. The quality of ingredients is a step up from most other carts I've tried, and I really enjoyed the merguez (lamb sausage) sandwich and iced mint tea.

Some others I've tried over the years:

Tony Dragonas - similar to halal carts, but with a Greek-style white sauce
Kwik Meal - love the fact that the lamb is real meat, not processed with fillers. Very fresh white sauce and little touches like homemade dressing for the salad is appreciated
Tiger Halal near 49th and 6th Ave - haven't seen these guys in a while (some impostors have taken over the corner), but friends and I used to go all the time instead of 53rd. For the same price as 53rd, a platter included sautéed veggies (carrots, broccoli, onions) and falafel. Hot cherry pepper slices were available as a condiment in addition to the usual sauces.
Biryani Cart, as mentioned below. Kati rolls are great, but the ones I've sampled directly from their cart on 46th and 6th Ave seem less tasty than when I first tried them at the 2009 Vendy's.

jmikola

The people who told us about sun block were the same people who told us, when I was a kid, that eggs were good. So I ate a lot of eggs. Ten years later they said they were bad. I went, "Well, I just ate the eggs!" So I stopped eating eggs, and ten years later they said they were good again! Well, then I ate twice as many, and then they said they were bad. Well, now I'm really fucked! Then they said they're good, they're bad, they're good, the whites are good, th-the yellows - make up your mind! It's breakfast I've gotta eat!

-- Lewis Black

jmikola

If you end up using Paypal for this, I would ensure that his payment clears as well as the withdrawal of funds to your checking account, before actually completing the sale with him and handing over admin access.

If you're concerned about being scammed, you'll want to guard against the possibility of him disputing the payment and having Paypal lock up the funds.

jmikola

r/opendirectories - it's like buying a bag of crap from Woot.com every day, but for your reddit homepage.

jmikola

JPG: When you really need to display a 525x850, three-color image at 20% of the original size.

jmikola

$182.

jmikola

Word on the street is that he buries victims in clay pots under their own backyard until they ferment to death. Authorities have yet to find any evidence but I heard it's delicious.

jmikola

I've heard good things about Hoboken Eddie's. They also carry a sampler set if you'd rather not drop $8 on a random flavor you might not like.

jmikola

FYI: his comments are still visible via the profile page, since they were merely banned from this subreddit and not deleted. You'll just have to make sense of where they fit in with your own responses.

jmikola

On the off chance anyone is considering using this for anything beyond novelty, please give libxml a look.

jmikola

That was a pretty lousy job concealing the guy's name. On the plus side, it looks like the exchange in the screenshot was legit.

jmikola

TROPHY CASE

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