Josh Reynolds

The hot alcoholic drink was a mad success. It was a pretty easy recipe which consisted of taking hot cider and mixing it with spiced rum. No muss, no fuss. It tasted great. I wasn't sure about this whole project because I kept looking at hot drink recipies for parties on the internet and they all required more effort than I was really willing to give it. That effort being pour two things in a pot and heat. So when I stumbled on this gem I was stoked. The next stumbling block was actually at the liquor store. Now, have you ever been to a liquor store that didn't sell tequila? No, neither had I until I went to Myrtle Liquors. I went up there a few weeks ago to get some tequila and they looked at me like I was crazy. It seems odd that they wouldn't carry one of the major kinds of liquor at a liquor store. So, spiced rum was a crapshoot. No Capt. Morgans, but they did have some sort of Puerto Rican rum they said was good. I didn't really have a choice so I got it and joked around with the clerk that I was just going to have to trust him. He looked at me and said "Trust yourself buddy. Couple drinks of this and you're gonna be lit up." This exchange led me to wonder if I'd purchased some sort of Puerto Rican moonshine, but thank goodness all was good. I swear the liquor store bought some liquor at some point and is now just selling what they have without ever replenishing it's stock.

PS Hello to Felicia's co workers.

Happy Thanksgiving. The turkey hasn't even gone on the grill yet and it is 3pm already. We got a veritable shitload of food. We got a turkey, two chickens, a side of pork that Gorman is going to fill with sausage, and finally clams to make clam chowder. Holy mother of God right? Gorman and I(well, mostly Gorman) built a table next door for us to use. It's a tad tweaker, but with the Taaffe St. Players what else can you expect. I need to go to the grocery store so I can get started on my hot alcoholic drink.

Crazy people totally love the library. They are all over the place here. I came in to use the computer here since I am taking the week off work and felt the need to continue my online Scrabble games and also to blog. As I'm walking to my computer station a woman who is looking at the library catalog with a special intensity looks at me and the book I have picked to read "Hardcase" by Dan Simmons.

"Have you read that book yet?" she said pretty loudly.

"No."

Now, I'm thinking she's going to say something like "Oh you're going to just love it, honey." or some such but instead she yells out "That's what I am! A hardcase!". So I smile weakly and sit down and hope that she doesn't feel that we've achieved any special bond.

UPDATE: Now she is wearing headphones and singing while she looks at the Brooklyn Public Library Catalog. Then this "Ooops! I really messed up! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" which is in this totally gravelly voice.

I need votes on the new template. I did it so it would be easier to add links but I'm unsure now. Email me with your opinion. I care!

Bloggers everywhere! Kill it and kill it now! The "Moments of Zen" have got to go. This is getting out of hand. Here and here and god knows where else. I see it too much. Let it end! Please God let it end.

Most likely no blogging until the Monday after next as I am taking a vacation next week and won't have such ready access to a cumputer. I might prevail on a roommate or neighbor to let me use their computers, but I don't know what's going to happen.

I am psyched about Thanksgiving. Natalie has informed me that wrestling shows usually have women wrestling in gravy on Thanksgiving which is a sure crowd pleaser. This seems to raise a rather high "EWWW!" factor in others so perhaps I'll take my brother's advice and watch a nice parade instead. Gorman is sure to cook up some amazing food as he does every year and those of us who can't cook a lick will be bringing liquor. Thus, happy times will be had by foodie and alkie alike.

Via allrockitty.com

Britney Spears interview in Newsweek. Highlight:

When Spears talks about the South Asian musical influences on "In the Zone," she says she’s "been into a lot of Indian spiritual religions." When asked if one of them is Hinduism, she says, "What’s that? Is it like kabbalah?"

I had a job interview yesterday doing office work for a place called Miracle Maids in Park Slope. I left work early to get to my interview at 5 because I had to go home and get my nice clothes and also iron them. I don't remember the last time I ironed something and it may have been never. In true bachelor style(there's alot of bachelor going on at Taaffe, such as Nic attempting to make milk by adding water to half and half. Draw your own conclusions)we have an iron but not an ironing board

"I had an ironing board, but I lost it." roomate Gorman said. Roomate Justin rightly responded "How in the hell do you lose an ironing board?" This mystery remains unsolved.

I had to use cardboard on the kitchen table as a base to iron. Now, this is probably not a surprise to you clotheshorses out there, but cardboard is not all that effective in the ironing game. I ironed one of my shirts and put it on and Justin told me it still looked pretty wrinkly so I took it off and ironed it on the cardboard again and it was STILL wrinkly so finally I just said to hell with it and put it on. I put myself together alright with the tie and such and went on out to get my interview on.

When I walked into the place the heavily tattooed woman that was interviewing me said "You really overdressed." I figured the having trouble with ironing story would be charming and related it getting chuckles in all the right places. The interview went well and I could tell the woman who was interviewing me was more nervous about it then I was which is kind of nice in those situations where the dynamic is ususally so much more in their favor. She said that she wanted to hire me but that her boss was the one who made the final descision and that she was out of town in Alabama, but did I want to talk to her on the phone? Sure. I get on the phone with this woman who asks all these questions about what brought me to New York, my religious leanings, my sexual orientation ("Women really feel threatened talking to a gruff man about their cleaning problems. You have a nice voice though.") and so on. She liked me and they offered me the job but I think I'm going to decline. The money wasn't that much better and I'm coming up on bonus time here at CEOcast so it behooves me to stay. If it were the beginning of the year I would be out of CEOcast immediately. Alas.

Tony's Tales is a new favorite of mine.

2:30-- 4:00

I just recorded two more interviews, played more scrabble and then realized I needed some new blood in these blog posts. I keep doing the same thing over an over again. Boss #1 is singing again. He sings all day everyday usually about the other employees. He has nicknames for all of them. There's Gary "Cash" Nash(clever huh?), Steady Eddie, The Genius,
The Champ, and then Boss #2 who is always "Wealth" or "Dough". Boss #1 keeps up a steady stream of singing away about all the employees he can see. Thank god he can't see me and I am spared this although he does call me Josher. I've been thinking about starting to call him "Boss", but I'm not sure how that's going to go over.

12:00-2:30 I recorded two interviews and then processed them using the recording software. The processing is not that involved. I turn the volume up. Then I save the file use the FTP and then put the interview on the site. This takes all of 5 minutes. During this time I also I had lunch at this godawful place next door. It's one of those pay by the pound places and I eat there every once in awhile out of some vain hope that it will have improved but it never does. This poor decision making led to buying some tums from the Hungarian man that runs the little store downstairs who gives you dirty looks if you buy coffee somewhere else. Gus is usually half in the bag by this time of the day so you want to avoid eye contact and make your purchase lest you be drawn into one of his rants.

I also spent some time in the risky prospect of office chatter talking about the latest Michael Jackson scandal. The police are all over Neverland Ranch because some 12 year old is claiming Wacko Jackon abused him. Oh boy.

11:30-12 Not much. Read Gawker and Gothamist.

12:00- The first interview of the day. Mike knocks from the other studio signaling his need for my presence. I press record on the tape deck. I go back to my office to read about Rush Limbaugh.

10:40-11:30 Read blogs. Exchange emails with Jessie. Play more online Scrabble with Shara and Jessie.

11:30- Uh oh. Work time. Here comes Boss #2 with a sheaf of papers. I ready SoundForge and the tapedeck. Dan (the booker who arranged in the interview) rushes in. "That's it. We lost him. He's in another meeting." Ken gets up and leaves my office. Josh's work done. Interview is cancelled. Today's only work so far: Crossing the interview of the white board using the red marker. Correct marker use is important to Boss #2 and we've had some heated exchanges because of it. This is because correct marker use matters very little to Audio Tech #1.

Earlier I was wandering around the office considering eating some of the candy on the receptionist's desk when I noticed that someone was using a phone on an unmanned desk in the office and this was the third time today that they had done that. Very audibly I asked "Why are people using Mike Seiden's old phone instead of their own?" Just curious, mind you. Not accusatory, because I could not care less. This query is met with silence. So I say it again. Nothing. So I say "Why is no one paying attention to my question?" Silence. "Why am I suddenly mute?" No response. Finally, I just give up and go back to my full time blog reading and scrabble playing. What the hell is wrong with these people?

CNN.com - Jerry Lewis in rehab over steroids - Nov. 18, 2003

Holy Shit about Jerry Lewis! I had no idea that he had gotten so large.

Psyched about this blog

10:15-10:40- Surf around on internet looking at all sorts of things, nothing worth going into here. Get more coffee and notice that there is an interview scheduled for 11:30. This will mark the first work I will have to do today. It's creeping up.

10:40- Start thinking about my godawful kareoke performance last night. Cheer up by thinking of Christy's near genius rendition of "Puff the Magic Dragon" and how it almost moved me to tears.
Realize that being moved to tears by kareoke is probably indicative of some sort of undesirable mental state.

An eventful minute.

10:00-10:05- Play online Scrabble with Shara.

10:05-10:10- Read Slate

10:10-10:15 Read Craigslist

9:38-9:45- Write jokey email to Natalie where we have an ongoing discussion of things written in our blogs. There are mentions of X2 and Bennifer. I have yet to read the Spiderman comic strip today so that will have to wait until a later email.

945-959- AIM with Shara. Check email again.

People often ask me: "Josh, what do you do for a living?"

Well, today I will give you a blow by blow account of just what it is I do here at CEOcast for their biweekly paycheck.

9:00-9:01- Check email. Get angry because the only email I got was work related.

9:01-9:31- Read blogs

9:31- Boss #2 comes in to my "office". Very cryptically he says, "You get the grains. I'll get the water." Very uncryptically I say, "What?" He repeats himself and finally I realize he wants me to help him make the coffee. While I don't think that this is necessarily a two person job, he's the boss so I dutifully help him out.

9:33--9:36- Read blogs

9:37- The day's first disaster. Boss #2 comes in, "There's been an accident at the coffeemaker." This is not unheard of with our Mr.Coffee. He's a fickle little appliance and you have to put that carafe in there just right or he'll just not drop any of that water into it and then there is an overflow . So I am sent to the bathroom for more paper towels and then to make the coffee again solo.

9:38- Write blog.

The day has only begun!!!

Arnold Schwarzenegger is sworn in as California governor. Details soon

From the CNN.com website. I suppose details could involve all sorts of things.

Californians finally come to terms with the fact that this is real

I have a confession to make. Every thursday night I watch WWE Smackdown with my friends. Vince McMahon should win an Emmy. He is indeed the best heel the wrestling world has ever known and his overacting is out of this world. Yesterday, presumably afraid of his "Buried Alive Match" with the Undertaker where the loser is buried alive by the winner, Vince goes into this Edgar Allen Poe like soliliquy about graves and maggots and his mortality. Very gothic and over the top. Not only is the writing amazing, but his vaudevilliean handling of the material is masterful. Viva Vince.

For the most part I don't usually cop to watching wrestling as it stands a little above admitting that you play D & D regularly in most people's eyes. Sometimes it just has to get passed off as "Oh, I'm sorry. Thursday is a bad night for me. Can we do it some other time?". However, on the upside, I know exactly what I am getting my Smackdown watching friends for Christmas. What a silver lining, no?

This must be seen to be believed.

How exciting to learn that two more people I know are looking at my blog. Hello Eunice and Nat. Now that I've got my audience of 9 perhaps I start posting more knowing that the wolves are baying at the door.

While I'm here I want to mention that I never want to see "prolly" for "probably" ever written again. If you send me an email with this offensive word I will seriously consider never speaking to you again.

Thank you.

Also Weird Links is back!

Hep. A outbreak hits at least 300

As some of you know I had Hepatitis A in 1999. This was absolutely no fun at all. I was sick for two weeks, turned yellow, had a fever, and lost about 10 pounds from hardly eating at all. It was the kind of sickness where you wake up 10 days in and say to yourself "I can't believe I'm still sick." There is no cure for Hepatitis A. You just have to soldier through it. Get a shot now. Really.

It's been a few days since I posted and I'm back in the mood. I have really been getting into listening to Fleetwood Mac's "Rumors" album. This all part of the past 3 or 4 years process of starting to get into all the music I denied myself for years. This includes Fleetwood Mac and also Pink Floyd, Deep Purple etc...The list goes on and on. Side note here: It is "etc" and in the Latin "Et Cetera". It is not "ect" as in "Exceterea". This drives me crazy. I was talking to my mother the other day and she was reading the new book by David Guterson who wrote Snow Falling on Cedarsand is from Bainbridge Island WA. Some friends of mine had him as a teacher once and said he was a grade A dickhead, but that's neither here nor there. Anyway, Mom loves David Guterson's books and one of the things she really likes is the fact that there are no quotation marks around the passages when people are speaking. Cormac McCarthy also does this and it drives me banannas. Not only do I have a hard time keeping track of which character is speaking, but not seeing the quotation marks is like noticing a mispelled word constantly. I can hardly read things with a lot of mispellings because I have to mentally note it and respell it in my mind when I see it. It's the same way with punctuation so everytime I read something that uses the no quotation marks form it's a very halting process. I can't get lost in the book.

CEOcast, CEOcast, CEOcast. This week has been one for the record books. Yesterday I had to sit through what can only be described as a fairly sickening conversation about Rio De Janerio and the women there including one co worker's friend who loves it there because "he likes them young". He did mention that he got in a fistfight with the dude over this which I guess is good, but FUCKING A.

Today another co worker comes in my office and starts asking me about LOL and what that means and how you would use it on msg boards and in email. So I found myself discussing the modifiers and contextual nuances of using LOL and as you can probably imagine that this was not a nobel prize level conversation. Thanks mom and dad for the college education so I can intellectualize chatroom speak. God forbid I have to explain j/k or ROTFLMAO.

Yesterday, Jim said "Josh is smart. And he's even shaped like the Buddha!" Go flush yourself down a toilet Jim.

I saw Mystic River last night. I tried to read the book about 2 years ago and it was so depressing that by the 85th page I had to put it down. So in true masochistic fashion I thought it would be a good idea to go see the movie. Unsurprisingly, it was a downer. A real downer. I must say that all of the lead actors were great, but the supporting cast left something to be desired especially in the first section with child actors who were wooden.


On a lighter note, next week will bring my first viewing of Finding Nemo, and that's pretty exciting and likely to bring a few more good feelings than watching a story of someone coping with childhood rape and having a daughter killed. Jesus, what was I thinking?

Kim Du Toit's idiotic ramblings can be found here.

I don't feel it necessary to really analyze this piece of garbage since everyone who reads this blog (Helena, Natalie, Drew, Jess, tell me if I missed someone) is plenty smart all on their own.

The cheerios part kills me though. Interestingly enough, I was looking at other sites to see what people had to say and one guy had this post about some Saturn commercial that insulted men and how if Saturn wanted to be the car that catered to man haters than that was ok with him, because he was boycotting Saturn for that lousy commercial. What an imbecile.

Why is figuring out what you want to do with your life so incredibly difficult? Or rather, why is it so difficult for me? As a kid up into my 20's I kept hearing that it was OK that I didn't know what to do with my life, and that it would become clear later. Well, it's later and I'm not really all that much closer to knowing.

Much of the time I think that it would be a good idea to go back to school and get and advanced degree and somehow find financial and mental satisfaction through that. In theory this sounds great, but when I went to school for a few days earlier this year at Hunter I HATED IT. Well, that's not a good omen for future success at scholastic endeavors.

Sooooooooo.....I'm still lost.