Living in a Conex

Living in a conex is better than you might imagine. Conex: container express. A military word. A metal box eight feet wide, twenty feet deep, and nine feet high. Somebody built four walls, a floor, and a door out of wood. There are two bunk beds, a shelf with four roomy spaces, and a table. It’s better than you might imagine, I say, because there is also an air conditioning unit. I keep it set at twenty degrees Celcius. I still haven’t converted that to Fahrenheit; I would guess sixty-ish. It’s better than you might imagine, also, because I have electricity and internet access. I can blog from my conex. I can watch movies in my conex. I can electric shave in my conex. It’s better than you might imagine, thirdly, because it’s just me. There’s nobody else breathing down my neck or snoring or listening to stand-up comedy on their iPod and laughing at random times and scaring bojangles out of me. This brings me to my fourth and final point. It’s better than you might imagine because I’m not packed in here with twenty or fifty other people. I’ve heard stories about people trying to sneak into America by way of conex. They’re sometimes packed into these conex storage units for months at a time. Some people die. Some people get arrested. Me? I stream Youtube videos in delightfully frigid solitude. Living in a conex is better than you might imagine.

Adrift

Hey all,

Here's a little update. I can't go much into specifics, but let me give you a rundown of my past 6 days. I have been to 5 different Military bases and am about to go to a 6th, and I have been to 4 different countries. I am carrying 4 different computers in my computer bag, which is only meant to hold 2. I have had 2 sleepless nights and slept through the day once. I have had 1 haircut from 1 Iraqi barber. I have flown first class on 1 international charter flight, been stuffed into the back of 1 C-130 and am about to be stuffed into the back of 1 Chinook. Between Iraq and Kuwait, I have seen 1 McDonalds, 1 Burger King, 1 Pizza Hut, 2 Subways, 1 Taco Bell, and 1 Starbucks, and I have eaten at exactly 0 of them. I tried to plug 1 1250v printer into one 100v converter and I fried exactly 1 100v converter. Good times. Stay posted. I may even put up some very non-descript pictures. Later!

Checks Off My List

So I didn't get around to everything...and I got around to some things in roundabout ways. And there were some other things that I never thought I would do. Here's the rundown:
I didn't get around to -

- Getting to the Statue of Liberty - It's booked until Christmas.. but I was it from afar
- Eat in Chinatown or Little Italy - yes, unfortunate, but I did eat lots of NY style pizza
- See Springsteen in concert - but I did see some bands that I have never heard of - amazing baby? they were aight.
- Get in the background of Good Morning America - it's ok, diane sawyer is a ho.
- Grand central station - I hear I didn't miss much.

Things I got around to -

- The top of the Empire State Building - the 86th floor and then the 102nd. Both were grand.
- Ground zero - it's hard to believe there were two gigantic buildings there.
- Central park - It is very big. And there are alot of people. I people watched.
- Broadway musical - I hesitate to say...I saw Mary Poppins. At the New Amsterdam. I got the same.
- I saw the Rangers play the Senators. Bought tickets from some sketchy dude outside Madison square garden. The whole ordeal was sketch. But I saw matt gilroy play, which was pretty awesome. He's been stealing my google hits for the past five years. Funny, he's a ranger and I'm not. Sad, actually.
- Went to the Seinfeld restaurant - had my dish of choice - the bacon cheeseburger with a side of fries. Got a picture of the kramer.

Things I did that I didn't expect to do -

- On a whim, I saw watched a french movie called hadewijch at the new york film festival. About religion and war - two topics that interest me. One topic that doesn't interest me - reading...subtitles.
- Ate at a Pakistani restaurant at 1 am. I thought for sure I was going to get stabbed. I recommend the duck.
- Watched a parade while standing in front of Macy's. Unfortunately, it was just the Korean Day Parade. Ha, they didn't even stop traffic for it.
- Kicked a chihuahua in the face on a crouded street. And just kept walking.
- Went to a Bono concert...also on a whim. At Carnegie Hall. Bought another scalped ticked. Got there a half hour into the show and I didn't want to disturb anybody, so I basically just wandered around the carnegie hallways for a good half hour. I wanted to get back stage, but the ushers kept telling me to go sit down. It was an aids benefit. Everyone was wearing suits and dresses. Was underdressed...in shorts and a tshirt and sunglasses. Lots of good cameos - rufus wainwright and scarlett johansson. Some not so good - Courtney Love and Lady Gaga (a great singer and pianist, but completely insane). Got onto the lowest balcony and and watched from there.
- Ate an excellent steak at columbus circle.
- Slept on the subway for a night. I couldn't remember the address for the place I was staying in Jersey City, and my friend had turned his phone off. So I rode the path subway back and forth from 33rd in nyc to journal square in jersey..until I got kicked off the train by the operator. I thought I was going to get mugged. Then I just wandered around broadway in shorts and a tshirt..and sunglasses..until a starbucks opened. Drank coffee and did a crossword in warmth.

There were surprisingly not as many street musicians as I thought there would be. When I did see them, I didn't have cash, and when I had cash, they seemed to disappear. This was the biggest disappointment of my trip. But all in all, it was a good trip. Baghdad is next. Then Sydney.

Lists Allow Me to Function

I make lists. I have alot of things to do at work lately, and if I don't make lists, I end up forgetting about things and eventually getting blindsided. Not good. I'm going to New York City this weekend. Here is a list:

- Top of the Empire State Building
- Ground Zero
- Crown of the Statue of Liberty
- Central Park
- Times Square
- Grand Central Station
- Eat in Chinatown
- Eat in Little Italy
- Eat some New York Pizza
- Broadway musical
- New York Rangers game
- Bruce Springsteen concert
- Get in the background of Good Morning America
- Find the Seinfeld restaurant
- Tip a street musician

These are just a few goals. Some are much loftier than others. I am open to suggestions. Peace!