Ammon Brown

Settled! I guess I forgot to mention... I settled with the old landlord. She finally relented on her pathetic offer and gave me closer to what I was owed. I still could have gotten more but I really did not want to go through the crap of a full trial, which is what she would have demanded. So that chapter is closed and I have learned a lot about the American Judicial system... it is slow and it sucks. But I am still suing my cat.

The Future? I know what I want for Christmas. Get me a Skycar! Nice weekend. I am a little pissed at the Short Line company. I missed another bus from Ithaca this weekend because the driver left more than five minutes early. Unprofessional. Plus the fact that I was honking and yelling as he pulled out about five feet from me. Jerk.

I am getting a lot of huge accounts at work with minimal effort. Gotta love that. The job is progressing nicely, but I am still working on B-School applications. Just to see what comes of it. I love Mondays.

Crazy Ukranians Ever get a haircut from not one, not two, but three jabbering Ukranians? For $4? I highly recommend it. I was trying to find a place to get my haircut and stumbled across a barber school that was offering student cuts for $4. In I went, only to get the greenest barber they had who was being watched over and helped out by two instructors. The plus of this was that he was really careful. The minus was that it took almost an hour. Why do I blog about such mundane things? Because my life is mundane. Rub it in.

I saw a turtle



I am resizing a bunch of images from St. John's. It is a pain because I lost the album software I used for the rest of my pictures. I'll get them up here soon. Not that you all care.

Enjoying Life and Kissing the Ground Ever been in a plane when it takes a nose dive and then head back to the airport to be greeted by a runway full of emergency vehicles? If you do get the opportunity, I suggest that you either politely decline or get fitted for a colostomy bag. Yes, this happened to me. We were flying to St. John's for some QT on the beach, and our plane had a small issue with not being able to climb over 10,000 feet because the cabin would not pressurize. As a result, the plane automatically dives when you exceed 10,000 feet. What fun! I dislike flying enough without having a real reason to crap myself. The interesting thing is that I felt much safer on the tiny twin prop commuter jet than I did on the AirBus A300. The person who said getting there is half the fun has apparently never flown American Airlines.

Once the fun part was over, we proceeded to have a great time in St. John's. We stayed at the Westin Resort, went snorkeling with sharks (small ones) and turtles (big ones), lazed about on the beach, and rented a jeep to cruise around the Island. I am too lazy to find cool links for you, but I will post some pictures of my pathetic whiteness soon. Stay tuned.

Leave the Guy Alone! I have the greatest, most profound sympathy for that poor Cubs fan who knocked the ball out of Moises Alou's glove. At first I was kind of chuckling and saying "Oh, boy, if that turns out to be the difference..." Now I have so much sympathy for him. And I fear for his life. I saw some vide of him being abused as he was led out of the stadium. That poor guy is in big, big trouble. And all he did was be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He did what all of us would have done in the split second he had to decide. And he will be crucified for it. Poor guy. I am really, really worried for him.

YAY!!! I leave for St. John's tomorrow to hang out on the beach and read a few good books. Maybe some scuba diving, I don't know... I don't know if I'll have enough time. I think I really need this. I need to recharge and refresh without needing to look at my watch and the clock when I wake up in the morning. I don't know if I will have much in the way of access to this blog, so you will have to fill the void I leave this weekend with chocolate. Or grand larceny. Pick any hobby other than reading my drivel, I don't care.

The Blahs I spend too much money. I eat too much crappy food. I watch too much TV. I don't do enough productive work. I never want to change!

Have Car, Will Gamble After a lovely dinner last night, we found ourselves with little to do. We wanted to play a friendly game of poker, as we are wont to do, but no one's house was convenient for us at the time. So what could be more convenient? Simple! Jump in the car and go to Atlantic City! We left New York at 11 PM and arrived in AC at about 2 AM after a few MapQuest misdirections. Marco, Christine, JD, Yoshi, and myself piled into our car and wound up playing poker at the Taj Mahal until 6 AM. It was one of those things that once we all playfully said we'd do it, there was no turning back. Never mind that all of us have obligations today. Never mind that the trip entails four hours of playing and six hours of driving. Never mind that we cannot really afford more lost sleep or lost money. We had resolved to be impulsive, and any naysaying was quickly quelched. The final tally? I can speak for myself here, you will have to look elsewhere for other peeps' totals. I dropped $130 at the poker table, mostly due to getting impatient after too many bad hands and seeing too many flops (read: playing like crap). Really, I could not have played worse if I were blind and incredibly charitable. Don't get me wrong, I took some brilliant pots from some good players, but I played like crap over the long haul. The silver lining is that I then put $40 on a blackjack table and turned it into $100 in about 15 minutes. It really was an incredible run at that table. So here I am, without a lick of sleep last night, blogging about it. And I also realized that I have gone completely crazy when my first thought in AC was "I can't wait to blog this!" We may have to do it again real soon, Poopie-doops.

On another note, and probably improperly out of context, My brother got called to Bulgaria! Big ups to Micah!

BWAHAHAHA!!! Does anyone remember a while back when I posted this to see if I could finally get Jared listed in Google? I had done a few searches for him and could not find anything. Sad really. Well, victory is mine! Number one without quotes. People will look for him and say, Hey, I was not looking for this Ammon character! What the heck! Sorry, Jared, people will be able to find you henceforth. I could make a lot of money doing search engine optimization. Jared, you owe me $50.

Trying My Darndest Keep up the intensity! Pump up the energy level! I have had a marked lack of energy lately and it has been affecting my work. As a result I am unable to compete in the World's Strongest Man Competition. But today I have some energy so I am capitalizing by trying to get a lot done. Speaking of which, I think that Magnus Ver Magnuson and Juha Rasanen are the coolest names for a strongmen. If you were in the competition, what would your name be? I think I would be Olaf Von Schtomper. Any better ideas? OK, back to work for me.

The latest In keeping with the flurry of updates lately, I have a few more. On the right you will see a new link where you can email me. Cool, ain't it??? I just modified some of the PHP forms I used for my ill-fated Paintball Excursion. Don't worry, I won't spam you if you send me your email address. Or will I? Also, for those of you curious about the little lawsuit against my ex-landlord, we are going to mandatory arbitration on the 24th of this month. And it only took three appearances for them to finally tell us that this is how it is always done. The legal system is composed of chumps. Enough ranting. Send me emails through the site so I know it works.

The Hype Builds... Yes, it is a new season of 24, that lovable romp through an impossibly convoluted day. I think my devoted affinity for the show is best summed up by Something Awful's Josh Boruff today. If you have a spare 10 minutes and like the show, it is a worthy and humorous read.

A Farce! So, according to Drudge, Ahnold is poised to win and win big. So of course the outcry will be swift and inevitable. "You idiots! Why did you elect this man??" People will tend to think that California voters are stupid. I disagree. I think that by voting for someone who is clearly a bit of a buffoon with a mishmash of ideas, the masses are expressing their dissatisfaction. It is the equivalent of shopping for underwear, trying on hundreds of pairs, and finally throwing up your hands in frustration and buying the most uncomfortable G-string you can just to spite the frustration you feel. OK, maybe it is not like that at all. But it is a way of saying politics are a joke, politicians are scum, so if you insist on making a farce of this, then here you go: a new court jester. I am among the silent majority who would vote for Mr. T if he ran and chuckle to myself that I gave our corrupted system the finger. Perhaps a lot of Californians are with me. Perhaps they all just think Ahnold is the smartest man alive and will create a utopian society in California. Or they could not read the butterfly ballot. All in all, I am rather disappointed. I would have liked to have seen a really bitter court battle to distract the state even more. Oh, and vote Laurence Tureaud in 2004!!

Derelict in my Duties So I have been blogging quite a bit lately... just not on my own blog. Pathetic, yes? I have been posting all kinds of crap on Jared's Blog but neglecting my own. So what's new you ask? I have been keeping tabs on the Baseball playoffs. Go anyone but the Yankees! I would like to see a Red Sox-Cubs World Series. It would be a huge draw, and we will find out if the Bambino or the Goat is a more powerful curse. And because I hate the Yankees. Bunch of pompous, overpaid chumps in my mind. Nothing else new to report.

Shameless Plugs For those of you who have my old home number in Brooklyn, please update your address book with... the same number. This portability magic trick brought to you by Vonage. They allow me to just plug my phone into any internet connection and keep the same number. I also get free long distance and local for $35 per month and I can listen to my voice mail online. Totally sweet, I recommend it to escape the evil clutches of Verizon or other Bells. Enough of that plug and on to the next one. As many of you know, I recently took the GMAT and scored above even my expectations. Props for this little feat go to Manhattan GMAT. I can't gush enough about how comprehensive and immersive this class was. The instructor was a Harvard student and she stayed in touch with many of us to follow up on our progress. My first diagnostic test was a 670, and 10 weeks later I scored a 760, a 90 point increase. Of course, I was a genius to begin with, but I have to give credit where it is due. Enough for that plug.
One interesting thing that this brought up recently is how that makes me feel. I kind of feel bad that I scored so well. I did not do all of the work I should have done for the class or in preparation, and I still scored in the 99th percentile. Should I apologize to the people who work hard? Should I feel guilty or lucky? Because I do. I want to think it was pure ability, but I feel that it was somehow undeserved. Over the years I have scored well on tests, scored primo jobs and internships, and found a great wife. Am I blessed? People think so, and I resent that. I feel like I work hard and use whatever few talents I have to get what I need. And I feel like a cocky jerk saying all of this on my blog, but darnit, I do feel like I worked hard to get where I am, and the insinuation of luck offends me. But it also creates doubts, and I do not like to doubt myself. So please, when you see me, tell me I am great, not lucky. It will bolster my self worth. Actually, reading back through this post it would not seem to need much bolstering. But you know what I am trying to say, right? Everyone has self doubt, I just try to suppress it. And I think that air of confidence has served me well. Call it luck if you must.

Nomenclature My namesake ruled. Literally. Take a look.

Doors opened I will be interested to see what doors have been opened to me. I did not think that a 760 on the GMAT was a fantastic score, but apparently it is. It is in the high range of most top schools. Too bad I am such a chump in interviews or I might have a shot at them. I don't know. I feel like the direction of my life will be decided over the next year. At least my horoscope said so. Should I stay or should I go? This distance thing with Christine is not getting any easier, although we did get our webcams working last night. It basically amounts to free phone calls and choppy images of each other. We are using Eyeball Chat for now, if anyone has a better idea, let me know.