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01.06.10 Well, it only took me 3 and a half years to write a new post to this site. Actually, I've taken to using [ Facebook ] for that purpose. It's what all the cool kids are doing these days. 07.16.06 There are lots of things that can go wrong when dealing with real estate in NYC: Construction delays, city bureaucracy, contractors getting injured or dying during construction, and the resulting lawsuits and walkouts by the contractors. But that's only a sample of the misery that was my existence from the summer of 2004 to February 2006. Anyhow, after over half a year into the new condo (throughout which I had to deal with shifty movers, leaky leaks, and a shady shade company), I am finally settling in. The space is great (over 1000 sqft) and the neighbors are pretty cool. Plus, now I get to be part of the [ gentrification ] controversy in Brooklyn - yay! In other news, I've been playing it low-key for a while on my poker games while I make sure I'm able to deal with my new financial obligations (scared money don't make none). But now I'm finding that I really miss the Friday trips to AC; the thrill of outwitting my opponents, the colorful cast of characters... the "winning". Also having a hobby that actually generates income is nice. So, I'm going to make an effort to pick up where I left off last year and make it part of my routine again. And no, Darren and Keath, I don't have a problem (yet). See you in Vegas. 12.30.05 Well... over a year after I put down my initial deposit for a condo in Clinton Hill, I am finally closed. It was interesting sitting in a board-room full of lawyers watching them do their lawyer thing (shuffling through papers, talking the talk, making me sign a hundred copies of everything, etc.). So, I am now officially a home-owner... not to mention officially broke. If my condo's renovation/fix-up goes as smoothly as today, I will be sitting in my new home by the end of January. 12.21.05 It's pretty amazing how new yorkers have been pulling together during the MTA strike -- even opening thier passenger seats to strangers. Just as I set out for my hour trek to work early this morning, a car pulled up beside me offering me a ride to the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge (of course it helped that they needed a fourth passenger to meet the 4-person minimum vehicle occupancy limit for crossing into lower Manhattan). Even after work, as I was trying to figure out how I would get back home, an entrepreneuring stretched limo driver pulled up offering nearby pedestrians a ride back over the Brooklyn bridge for $5. About 10 of us happily obliged. Just another example of New Yorkers making the best of a tough situation. 05.28.05 BUSTED! My favorite card room in NYC, playstation, was raided by police Wednesday night. It was one of my worst nightmares to be caught there during a raid. From what I hear, players were cuffed, women were crying, and management was fuming. Perhaps the worst of it was that all the chips in play were now worthless plastic. Someone I know had $1500 in play - all gone. Apparently, the cops simultaneously raided another popular card room in the upper west side. So, now that NYC card rooms are under fire, Toliver and I decided to take an after-work trip down to AC for some legalized gambling for a change. I have to say that I was very unlucky to get seated at some of the toughest tables I've seen yet but very fortunate to come out on top after 6 hours of play. At one point, I was afraid I was going to get "bottled" by some guy that went on tilt after I took most of his stack on a slow-play. As always, most of the players were degenerates. Characters appearing on this outting: The naive frat boy making donations all night, the slick NYC asian (at least 3 of 'em), the professional with the french accent, the gangsta slowly going on tilt as his chips dwindled, and of course, the loud and boisterous 40-something jersey native - cracking jokes and pocket rockets at every turn with his towering chip stack. 05.22.05 Vegas part deux went down last weekend and it was nothing but red meat and poker from Friday night to Wednesday morning. So we kicked off the gambling festivities by sitting down to our first session at the Flamingo Saturday at 2am LV time (finishing at around 11am). I was up for a personal record 34+ hours before I started crashing -- kinda risky considering I chose to play a no-limit cash game. Needless to say, I wasn't that sharp the first session and ended up giving away some money to an old guy playing on his retirement pension. There are all sorts of memorable characters you meet at the tables these days -- everything from the old retirees gambling away their pensions to the young 20-something hot shots sporting the requisite sunglasses and iPods (dreams of WSOP glory in tow). But the most memorable character for me this trip was the young Bostonian on parole who went on-tilt -- threatening to "bottle" the "miserable old prick" sitting to my left because he made one too many wise-ass remarks. That's Vegas for ya. Anyhow, the trip turned out fine. I ended up going on enough of a rush to pay off the trip, I have a lot more no-limit experience under the belt AND a lot more undigested red meat too. I'm thinking I can't afford NOT to make another trip this fall. Keath? Toliver? Darren? Are you all in? 11.15.04 It seems my updates are getting few and far in between (blogs are so 2K2) so there are a few updates to mention. First, congratulations to my friends Keath and Cathy on their wedding last month. The reception was quite a spectacle. But then, so was the Bachelor's party in Vegas... but we won't go there [ insert frantz-sama pic here ]. Somebody else better get married soon because we're having another party in vegas in '05 -- bachelor or no bachelor. Second, I'm buying an apartment - actually, a loft in Brooklyn's Clinton Hill area. It's being converted from an old underwear factory right now so I won't be moving in until late spring 2005... but here are some [ photos of my unit ]. Third, my parents are finally online. So, now instead of fielding questions like: "Hey, Eddy, how do I buy Internet?"... I'll be answering questions like: "Hey, Eddy, what is your double-u double-u double-u?"... ~sigh. Next update: 2005... maybe. 06.05.04 It looks like my favorite neighborhood card game is getting a little publicity these days. It's kinda cool, but I don't know how wise it is to advertise an "underground" poker game. And with our names and stats recorded on the computers now, it might be just a matter of time before the patty wagons come get us all. Ah well. 11.27.03 Today is Thanksgiving and what am I doing? work. Apparently, Canadians don't get Thanksgiving off down here and have to slave in front of a monitor while the capitalists dine on turkey and pumpkin pie. Happy American Thanksgiving indeed. In other news, I'm happy to report that I am once again gambling away my life savings at the speed of e-business on casinos and weekly poker games. Last stop was AC (aka ghetto LV) where a past-her-prime cougar in a ratty fur coat was preying on cute asian boys at the black jack tables. I need a little more class while I lose my money... next stop: Foxwoods. Double-down! 09.18.03 You really have to be careful when you're surfing the web these days. The other day at work, I wanted to look up something on Craigslist but instead of typing in "Craigslist" I typed in "Craiglist". Almost immediately, my desktop was completely taken over by porn websites poping up every which way (not a good image to portray at work). After about 30 frantic seconds of trying to close all the porn sites, I had to resort to pulling the plug. Anyhow, here is one of the funniest things I've ever seen online: Happytreefriends. 08.15.03 Power outages are so much [ fun ]. Thursday 4:15pm - Power goes out in the office. This is not helping me make a deadline. We look out the window and realize the whole block is out. 4:20pm: Someone on the P.A. announces that the whole "area" is out. I'm still wondering when the power is coming back on. 4:30pm: P.A. guy announces that the whole city and suburbs are out. Immediately everyone thinks: Terrorist Attack. Where are my potassium-iodide tablets? 4:40pm: People start thinking that it's time to get outta dodge. Rumors run rampant that the whole east-coast is out. One person mentions that Toronto is out too. That's just a joke right? I call my parents in Toronto who still have an old-fashioned rotary phone. Toronto is out. 4:50pm: We start making our way out of the building. A group of us starts heading for the bridges for the mass Exodus (stopping for free ice-cream, of course). So, I ended up arriving in Brooklyn by foot about an hour later (starting from NoHo). I spent the rest of the night hanging out in huddled masses in front of radios trying to find out what happened. Power was restored in my neighborhood this morning and it still seems like nobody knows how this happened. 05.27.03 My neighborhood has been re-branded. Apparently, I now live in a new "cool-hip-trendy" district called "BoCoCa" (Boerum hill + Cobble Hill + Carroll Gardens). There's even a new "cool-hip-trendy" website to go along with it. Of course, this is probably just a plot to raise the rent. And I don't recall when bums going through my garbage and punks getting into loud cussing fights at 4am was cool, hip, or trendy. 03.02.03 So I finally gave into the pressure and got a cellular. I've been going cold-turkey on cellulars for the past few years. I've also been going cold-turkey on smoking, but alas, that streak is gone now too. Anyways, my provider emailed my new number to me a few days ago. To my horror, it was a 347 number. What the hell is that? I called their customer support to try to change it to the more standard 917 number but to no avail. They even tried to push some 516 crap on me. Finally, the customer service rep relented and found me their last 646 number (which still sucks.. but much better than 347). Too many people in NYC with cell phones I guess. If you want, you can text me at: eddykim@tmomail.net. 01.07.03 Well, I'm back from an extended vacation in Canada courtesy of the INS. I was initially denied my TN-Visa renewal pending a satisfactory explanation from my employer of my job. Long story short, I had the pleasure of being interrogated by an INS officer for an hour the following day in order to earn my work visa. Anyhow, aside from the problems at the border, it's been a real hassle researching how to write an appropriate TN-Petition letter (most sources of this information are not free) so I'm providing one for the do-it-yourselfers who don't want to pay for expensive immigration lawyers. You can find it here: [ TN Visa Template >> ] 09.01.02 People in the city live in squalor I tell you. I've been trying to find a reasonable 1-BR or studio in Grammercy and all I've seen were dirty, over-priced cages. So I'm staying put in Brooklyn for another year... all of a sudden I feel like I have it good here. On a sadder note, as I was coming back home on the subway from a night out, a woman sitting with her 2 children had her purse snatched. Just as the doors were closing, the purse snatcher darted out the train and up the stairs. She couldn't stop crying as her children tried to console her. It was really terrible. 08.11.02 Well, it's all downhill from here. I just turned 26. I guess this means that I should start being more serious about stuff. To add to the insult, I think I'm even beginning to get back aches. Let's all mourn the death of fun-loving, irresponsible Ed. 05.12.02 So I'll be off in Washington D.C. this week doing some project work and maybe annoying my American co-workers. So... D.C. is like.. a state right? Or, is Washington the state? Maybe D.C. is like a territory? Like how N.W.T. is a territory back in Canada? Anyways, that's where your prime-minister lives right? 04.15.02 Brent's birthday bash, by all accounts, was an overwhelming success... [ see the pics! ] eminix: he was passed out in the bathroom and i asked brent "is keith ok?" and brent goes "yeah, he's happy." and i was like what do you mean he's happy? he's sick? and brent was like yeah but he looks happy. so i went to have a look and sure enough he was on the floor in the fetal position smiling. so i said damn you are happy and shut the door. like 20 minutes later keith comes running out naked screaming "i'm happy ... i'm happy" 03.01.02 Why am I so freakin tired all the time? I'm constantly passing out on the train every morning and it's a struggle to stay up past 10pm these days. I'm begining to wonder if the noisy traffic on my street is disturbing my sleep. I saw this documentary on how even the slightest noises can wake you up 4 or 5 times a night without you even realizing it. Anyways, what's alarming is that these research scientists showed how dibilitating this problem can be to your brain's.. uh.. smartness... and stuff. Lucky for me it doesn't seem to have.. uh... ummm... 01.29.02 A fairly common misconception Americans have of Canadians is that Canadians pronounce the word "about" as "aboot". This has come up at least a dozen times in conversations since I came down here and I have no idea where this myth came from nor why it's so prevalent down here. The worst misconception I've heard so far is that Canada is a social democracy. Okay, get it right Americans: Canada is a Kingdom — ruled by the iron hand of King Chretien. In other news: It is almost February. It is also 21°C (69°F) here in NYC —God bless global warming. I even busted out my A/C today. 12.18.01 I'll be gone for the holidays and won't be back till the 5th. If you need to contact me before then, you can always drop me an [ email ]. Happy Holidays! 11.01.01 They finally re-opened the N-R subway line which is good news for me because it's my life-line into lower manhattan. It's still not making the stop at Cortlandt station of course (as the station exits into the ground level of what used to be the WTC). I have to admit though, I didn't expect nor was I really prepared for the chill I got as we pulled through Cortlandt. The ceilings are now reinforced by a dozen or so wooden beams and through the length of the platform, the words "DO NOT STOP" are hastily spray-painted along the walls. Everyone fell silent as the train slowly passed through. All you could hear was the bits of rubble scraping against the metal wheels of the subway. It was very eery. 10.12.01 So I went to today's taping of the Conan O'Brian show and I must say that it was a much better experience than I had seeing a taping of the Letterman show earlier this year. The problem with the Letterman show is that it's a lot more institutionalized and artificial than TV would lead you to believe (he doesn't even speak with the guests during the commercial breaks). Conan on the other hand is as funny in person as he is on TV ... and he appears to be a genuinely friendly guy (he even spoke with that goof Lance from N'Sync during the commercials!). Overall, I give Conan an A+ ...poor Dave only gets a D. Not that he cares. 09.11.01 What is this world coming to? My aunt wakes me up this morning to see if I'm alright. Why wouldn't I be alright? I turn on the News. WTC was attacked... and apparently destroyed. I can see the smoke down the street right now. It's very upsetting... 09.03.01 I was peacefully watching the US Open coverage on TV when I hear a huge explosion out on the street. So I take a look outside my window and I see a parked car going up in flames. Apparently one of the local punks set off a bomb in the hood of a parked car right in front of my apartment. Now tell me that's not messed up!! Anyways, for some reason, I couldn't resist taking a nice photo of the incident, which I'll post up soon. (update: [ here ] it is!) 08.15.01 Goin back to my hometown for some home-cooking. If you need to contact me, you won't be able to... sorry. I'll be back in business next Tuesday or Wednesday assuming Mr. Border Patrol doesn't catch me. 08.10.01 As of 2 days ago, I am officially a quarter of a century years old. Do I feel old? Well, I didn't until I was asked: "So how does it feel to be a quarter of a century years old?" Thanks bri... you're out of the will. 07.29.01 If anyone knows of any good deals, I'm in the market for a 1980-1986 Porsche 928/928s. Some of my friends scoff at the idea no doubt: bleffewDSN: yeah... good time to buy a car ed... bleffewDSN: you live in the city AND are unemployed... This isn't just ANY car though. It's truly a work of art and I've wanted one since my childhood. I just hope that maintenance costs don't end up breaking my bank. Here's a nice one that is selling on [ eBay ]. 06.26.01 I burnt my eggs today... (No, not figuratively... whatever that means). I literally burnt my eggs to a crisp and they are now stuck to the bottom of my frying pan. That was my dinner man! :( gasp... stomach: grumbling... vision: fading... difficult to move under own.. power.. ugh! Ah well, Take-out anybody? =) 06.23.01 So I finally decided to get off my can and clean up around the apartment. Here's a tip: When vigorously scrubbing the inside of toilet bowl with toilet brush, always keep mouth closed. Anyways, as I was cleaning the grout in my bathroom tiles, I couldn't help but wonder why they couldn't just invent groutless bathroom tiles. Well, you know what they say: laziness is the mother of invention... or maybe that's just what I say. 05.31.01 What a great day today was. My land-lord was kind enough to drop by this morning to notify me of a rent increase. Wohoo! I feel like the CEO of a dot-com that's burning through their dwindling cash reserves. I guess this means I have to turn the job search efforts up a notch or two. On the brighter side, it looks like I can claim Unemployment benefits while I'm sitting on the sidelines. The lady from the Unemployment Office could really use a lesson in courtesy though--Sheesh! I guess I would be cranky too if I had to deal with all the riff-raff lookin for hand-outs... (Hey... that be me!) 05.19.01 Guess who just became another dot-com statistic? Well, I guess I should've seen this one coming as soon as I saw all those [ aeron chairs ]. Anyways, I guess we were long over-due for another round of layoffs... at least it's a paid summer holiday (god bless severence). The only thing I have to worry about is locating satisfactory employment before the INS ships me back to Canada! 05.15.01 Practically everyone who's anyone has a dot-com these days... so not to be left behind, I present EddyKim.com: creating massive share-holder value at the speed of e-business yadda yadda... Well, truthfully, this is just a replacement for my old site which was seriously outdated. It's also an easy way for my friends to find and/or keep in touch with me. I'll be filling this site up with some good content in the weeks and months to come so stay tuned. Older Entries... |