The Great Recession is stopping me and millions of people from finding a job. We’ve all seen the unemployment numbers, and they aren’t good. But this doesn’t seem to be keeping entrepreneurial types from opening stores in Jackson Heights. Every time one closes – which seems to be often – another pops up within a [...]
Category Archives: Jackson Heights
A place where the unemployed blogger people run free
Saturday, June 20, 2009
I need a new place to go blog and be unemployed during the day with my computer… ok, with wifey’s computer. My requirements are simple. It has to be reasonably close to home, or at least in NYC. It has to be cheap (by which I mean free) and near food and a bathroom. It [...]
A man and his cookie – a dream comes true… a Lifetime original movie, presented by Nabisco
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Jackson Heights is known for great food, and much of it inexpensive. Four of New York Magazine’s top five food carts set up near my apartment. Some of the city’s best Thai food is within walking distance. And Pio Pio, what the food Gods envisioned when they made chicken edible, is also just a jaunt [...]
The grouch man cometh
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
The subway station wasn’t crowded, particularly for morning rush hour in Jackson Heights. The main section is wide open besides, to accommodate the swarms of commuters who weren’t there. I swiped my fare card and moved toward the stairs. An old man – probably in his 80s, but probably not Wilfred Brimley – approached the [...]
Still gay for the Pet Shop Boys after all these years
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
My music taste is all over the map. It has been ever since Dad brought home a U2 album way back in 1984, forcing me to realize that everything else I liked sucked. Much of my collection falls in one of the following categories… depressing, suicide-inducing, singer-songwriter stuff droney, feedback-laden guitar rock poppy poppiness with [...]
The iPhone killer is here… meet the i-wood
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Apple makes some great products. I have a Mac, and hope to buy another one when it explodes, spreading blog and job search shrapnel throughout the greater Jackson Heights area. The iPhones I see and hear on the subway, in the grocery store, at the gym and everywhere else that isn’t my apartment look just [...]
The cycle of feeling sorry for myself
Monday, April 20, 2009
Every so often a funk grabs a hold of me, for no good reason. And not the sequined Rick James funk of awesomeness either. I feel sorry for myself. I lament my unemployment and the general state of my life. I start to envy all the things everyone else has and I don’t – big [...]
Layoff and the apartment that never was
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Wifey told me one evening last week that someone bought our apartment. She was scrolling through a real estate agent’s website while awaiting her next turn at Lexulous. I was sitting at the dining room table a few feet away, probably screwing around with Twitter. I asked what she was talking about, as I am [...]
Unemployed and exiled from the local cafe
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Jackson Heights is gentrifying, at least it was until the economy got all spooked and pulled the covers over its head. As part of the minority here, my wife and I have limited places to hang out. The varied ethnic restaurants are great, but don’t lend themselves to leisurely meals. The bars don’t cater to [...]
Snow day!
Monday, March 2, 2009
Last night while lying in bed, I tuned my old clock radio to the only news station it picks up. A commercial came on for something forgettable and far away – a car service or business software maybe. But the weather report was on its way, on the eight, right after the break. I knew [...]