Hop's Thoughts

Wednesday I took close to a four hour car ride and a lot of things dawned on me during this trek.  Below are a list of things that I figured out on the way. 1.  Being alone in a car is by far the best time to be alone.  2.  Nobody ever comments on your singing ability while driving...I was singing Saw Red by Sublime w/Gwen Stefani at the top of my lungs.  Followed by Dream Boy/Dream Girl by Cynthia and Johnny O (I think), and finally What's My Age Again by Blink 182.   Which made me wonder.  Is there a better verse in a song than "I called up your mom, said I was the cops, your husbands in jail, the state looks down on sodomy." 3.  State Troopers are lovely human beings.  I passed four on the way.  Doing 72 in a 55, doing 74 in a 55, doing 82 in a 65 and doing 70 in a 55.  Only once did they pull out, but some jackass blew by me and they went after him instead.  Phew! 4.  Old people really like driving.  The...

Well, the tough times have hit in 2011. In 2009, I had my heart broken, probably Karma kicking me in the nuts, but I can't be sure. For me, Karma was always a Spanish girl who couldn't spell Carmen. Looking back, the first girl I ever kissed was named Karma or was it Carmen?  She was four years older than me and much more experienced. Where was I going with this? 2010 sucked for the most part, with the exception of making some wonderful new friends, but 2011 has truly sucked. First off, I quit my main job. Not the smartest decision in this economic environment, but change doesn't happen by itself. Then my car died and the IRS zapped my accounts. I'm not sure what the future holds, but I know the current moment is filled with uncertainty and anxiety. I may go back in a limited capacity, but that is still up in the air. For now, I'm living off a six hour a week (most weeks) job that ends in May. Anyone looking to hire an intelligent, stubborn individual, who is some...

OK, So I danced the night away on NYE/NYD.  Then went out and watched football both Saturday and Sunday.  Had a blast.  The year was starting well.  Then things started slipping away.  You know you're off to a bad start when the first work day of the new year, you have to rent a car, because yours won't go in reverse.  Then I waited and waited for my old car to be towed away. And waited.  I waited almost a week and then called a second company, Then I got sick.  It all started on a Tuesday night.  I had dinner plans, but something wasn't right.  My stomach was bothering me and let's just say, an awkward moment may have taken place had I gone out.  So a night of stomach issues, was followed by a day where I really started to feel bad.  I went home from work a little early an laid in bed.  I could barely eat of drink anything.  The next day and a half were horrible.  Luckily around 2pm Friday I started ...

Last Friday, I lay sick in my bed.  I was watching News 12 and while contemplating my odd adoration for Joe Rao, I found myself wondering about the falling crystals that lay outside my window.  I put on some clothes, walked to the front door and gazed in wonderment.  This is what they closed school for?  Rewind to my childhood.  The plow comes down the snowy Brooklyn street and pushes all the snow between the cars where the hydrant was (somehow this was legal in the 70's).  The neighborhood children ran outside with anything they could find to slide on.  Rarely was it an actually sled. We would use cardboard boxes, plastic bags, whatever.  The mountainous pile of snow eventually had a nice track we could literally slide on our asses should we desire.  We'd climb atop the pile and slide, right into the street.  Someone always kept lookout.  Not so much for safety, but every time a bus came down the street, we'd pepper it with snowb...

I've been slacking on the blogs as of late.  Had planned on buying a new computer, but it wasn't in the cards.  Also been gallivanting most nights and haven't found time to hit the office.  So I was working on some thoughts about 2010.  It went by pretty quickly.  It was pretty uneventful, but it had quite a number of crazy and fun evenings.  So I decided to take a look back and found that not one of my 2010 resolutions was fulfilled. Not one. This is quite depressing when you take into account, my resolutions were not very difficult to accomplish.  I didn't clean my apartment and make it more of a living space as opposed to a lair.  I didn't keep up with friends the way I promised myself.  Some I didn't even speak with in 2010, or if I did, very briefly.  I didn't travel other than a visit to my father's once or twice.  My one vacation was more of a staycation.  I didn't spend more time with my brother.  I don't kn...

Every year, thousands of movies come out.  Some are universally loved, some universally hated, some missed by many, some seen by many and put on a pedestal they don't deserve.  So I started thinking about movies I've seen, which many haven't (most likely), that everyone should.  This list isn't comprised of movies like Legion, which I liked, but I'm sure I'd be laughed out of any serious film discussion for admitting.  This isn't movies that contain an Oscar nominee, but didn't get widely released.  This is a list of movies that most people I know haven't seen, but are actually considered pretty good by those in the know.  So I started thinking about what criteria I would use to comprise this list.  I've rated over 2000 movies on Netflix using their star system.  Now while I believe 0-5 stars is very difficult to use, I needed something.  So here was my criteria.  If I rated the film a 5-star movie, the overall rating had to be under 3...

Last year, I did the full version of Proust's questionnaire, but I'm going to keep this simple.  Since I started this on my damn phone and wasn't going to type that much.  For those of you who don't know, there is a Bravo television show called Inside the Actors Studio, in which the host, James Lipton asks celebrities a set of questions at the end of each show.  Some are telling.  Some are moving.  Some are just plain hilarious.  So here it goes.  Here are mine. 1. What is your favorite word? Thanks.  A simple word, but so seldom spoke with sincerity.  When it is, it's magic. 2. What is your least favorite word? Fag.  The most overused word in society today. 3. What turns you on? Knowledge 4. What turns you off? Ignorance 5. What sound do you love? Children's laughter. 6. What sound do you hate? Car horns. 7. What is your favorite curse word? Bitch.  Because it can be used playfully, but when us...