J Larsen

I saw the first tower fall from 4th and BWay. It didn't seem real to me. My mind couldn't process it. I stared at where the tower once stood for a long time, thinking that what I saw happen really didn't happen, that my mind had played some sort of trick on me (I had the same feeling earlier this week, for those who read that other thread). I still almost half expect to see the towers still standing there when I look south down Mercer on the way to my office. My girlfriend's aunt was on the 86th floor, and managed to escape. My company, however, lost 269 people that day. I expect the city to get hit again (which is ironic; the terrorists must not understand how little NYC represents America). I think they'll likely go after the subway system next time, which, in addition to causing massive loss of life, would really shut the whole city down. It's frustrating, scary and sad, but what can you do? That's life these days.

My hair is SO much thicker than that! (And I don't wear glasses - 20/15 vision.)

OK... it's time to post a picture. I have a picture I'll try to find from when I was 16 and had a sense of humor about my hair. I grew it out about five or six inches long. It was almost as thick as its length! I looked like a mushroom! I then shaved off the sides, while leaving the hair on top. It was still at least two inches from the surface of my hair to my head! Every haircutter I've ever been to has said I have the thickest hair they've ever seen. The guy I go to now has a method of cutting most of the hair very short, while leaving a portion of it the length I actually want. It ends up looking very natural. The only drag is that it is high maintenance; I have to go in once a month.

I pay $100 and tip $25, but that's only because I have *absurdly* thick hair, and if I don't go to someone really top-notch I look absolutely ridiculous.

That's not so outrageous for a power player. What makes you say Serena had no intention of going to Athens? Her injury status was up in the air.

I figure the chances of any large object falling from the sky and landing in my general vicinity again in my lifetime have to be pretty damn low.

That was just in the last set. Serena would have broken in the second set if it hadn't been for a SCORING ERROR (!!!!) by the totally incompetent chair. Serena hit a winner that was clearly in, and the line judge called it in, but the chair just effed up and gave the point to Crapiati, who proceeded to celebrate the error! It was totally unbelievable! An analogy would be you're at a ballgame where the home team hits a homerun, but the ump gives the point to the visitors! The &$#(# chair then refused to correct her obvious error!

That was absolutely THE worst officiated tennis match I have ever seen. I've seen similar numbers of blown calls once or twice before, but NEVER all against the same player and NEVER in a grand slam. Normally they come close to balancing out. Last night's match was an absolute disgrace. That chair ump should be fired immediately and banned from the sport. She had the chair at the matches I attended last week and was somewhat less than professional then, but nothing even close to last night. None of those calls were even close, by tennis standards.

Want me to throw a little humidity your way?

Frankly, Berigan, I am incapable of caring about someone who doesn't care about themselves enough to stay alive. I am especially incapable of caring about someone who is narcissistic enough to kill themselves so publicly. I didn't need to see that shit, nor did the firefighters who scrapped him off the sidewalk. Take some fucking pills if you're going to do that. And here everyone thought *I* was the bleeding heart type... You never, ever can know what is truly going on in someone's head. I had a good friend end her life like this a few years back. And yet, her last emails to me were the most positive she had ever written. I later found out that when she moved back to France, the doctors there thought the American doctors were over-medicating her, and cut her anti-depressants way back. Her sister said she was having strange visions before she died. Have no knowledge as to what was going on in this woman's mind, but whether her death was to be public or not might not have been a thought she was capable of at the time. I imagine her parents and friends are going through hell right now.....6th NYU student to kill themselves this year! http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-...p-regional-wire This is a fair point. Suffice to say that I get a little pissed off whenever someone nearly kills me. I also have my own attitudes based on my personal experiences with suicide, etc.

I'm just kind of surprised you didn't call the cops or something. Or is this common place in NY? Read what you quoted...

It was ruled a suicide this afternoon.

Are there any differences between these two editions besides the packaging? Thanks.

It sounds to me like an iMac would serve you well. I expect a new line of iMac laptops by the end of the year. Normally the old line drops in price around the time the new line comes out, so that may be a good way to go. You can always connect a larger screen if you want. I love the new(-ish) Apple cinema displays. The 17" model is good, but the 20" and 23" have greater dpi and are really amazing. You really have to see them in person. I don't know what your budget is, but the displays are damned expensive. FWIW, I use Macs, PCs and workstations regularly. PCs are perfectly fine for most users. I do prefer Macs, though. I love that they are built on UNIX instead of DOS. I love that I can open a terminal window and essentially have a workstation. I love that computers running OSX virtually never crash or freeze. I also love the processing power of the higher-end models. However, I understand that many of these things are unimportant to most users, and that the benefits don't justify the extra cost for a lot of people.

That's (part of) what I'm saying. Hence my comment in my original post.

Frankly, Berigan, I am incapable of caring about someone who doesn't care about themselves enough to stay alive. I am especially incapable of caring about someone who is narcissistic enough to kill themselves so publicly. I didn't need to see that shit, nor did the firefighters who scrapped him off the sidewalk. Take some fucking pills if you're going to do that. And here everyone thought *I* was the bleeding heart type...

Good point, Chaney; I guess I should watch what I say!

About an hour ago I was walking on Mercer between Washington Place and Waverly towards Oren's Daily Roast (damn good coffee shop), when I hear a sreaming voice above my head. I look up, see a naked person falling through the air, and stop dead in my tracks as it lands head first, bounces off the pavement with a sickly thud and come to rest with its ass facing me. He (or she, I didn't step around to find out) landed about five to ten feet in front of me. I came back to my dept. to tell my coworkers what happened. They asked if the person was dead. I said if the fall hadn't killed him, I would have. I notified the police immediately, of course. To my surprise, they had almost no questions whatsoever. The body was collected within five minutes.

Very good question.

I think I stick with the sinus trouble and grey hair, thanks. BTW, are we talking about drinking one's own urine here or someone else's?

And here I always thought that phrase had a favorable connotation.

Anyone watching this Jenkins kid? 17 years old, and, as luck would have it, his first ever ATP match is against Roddick! Roddick just got back-to-back aces on serves of 151MPH and 152MPH (1 MPH short of the world record). Poor kid.

The first thing I thought when I saw this was: "G5 laptops are not far away". This isn't all that much bigger than a powerbook, so they've almost got the heat issues under control. I'm sure they had to slow the chip down to get where they are, though. I'm betting by the end of '05 we'll have G5 books.

Love the sinner, hate the sin?

I went yesterday. I saw Mauresmo, Federer and Capriati. Fairly good, if predictable, matches. Federer didn't look like he was in top form; Roddick may have a chance. Mauresmo was quite good, but is no match for Serena. Capriati struggled against an opponent (Chlakova) with a miserable serve (in all seriousness, Chlakova's second serve looked very much like a good recreational player's first serve). I don't think Crapiati has it in her. I guess I'll go out on a short limb and predict Serena and Roddick as this year's champs.