To the Past Darkly: Summer 1999

this Summer in NYC is on track to i think be one of the hottest in recorded history (after last year was one of the coolest, wettest). it brings back ugly memories of the summer of 1999 in NYC for me.

me and my roommate in spring had moved out from our apartment that had a roommate that went nuts: started yelling, cursing, crying, i called the cops on her.

• we found a nice place in Astoria Queens, but we found it thru a broker, i was in debt and was penniless. had several jobs: men's room attendant in swanky club, and went into a job that seems perfect for me but was and is a nightmare:
• tour guide job with a company that was eventually kicked out of the city. we had buses that caught on fire, drivers that were parolees that hated me because i didn't get tipped much ( i gave good tours, but didn't push customers to tip), no a.c. of course, , a comp;any that didn't give a shit about anything besides raking in money
• July was the hottest month on record in NYC, may still be, averaged in the high 80s, many days going into 100. almost never rained.
• i was such an environmentalist, and somewhat ignorant,, in that i thought that using a fan was a huge user of electricity, so i would broil in our place with no a.c or fan for most of the time, and the place was brick and we were up stairs.
• it was the last summer of my 20s and i was so busy earning all of $9 an hour, especially on weekends, i never got time off to go to the beach or anything. every chick i met was stuck up (surprise in NYC haha). .
• my roommate's parents came to stay with us for at least a week, maybe 2. no spare bedroom. examples of their annoying habits: the father would fart regularly, . the mother would answer the phone and give it to me when i told her i wasn't available. so 2 weeks, i was broke, and these folks came and lived there for free.

i hate to draw parallels between that summer and this one but at least some has improved. bu the heat, the cost of living for a struggling artist, maybe you can see why i quit a new job as a tour guide. actually the job is even worse in some ways.

What to Do in TIme

one deal i hate about time marching on, is that an obsessive compulsive like me always thinks there's more to be done, "i missed it", i'll never have the chance again, etc.

but in trying to work "with" time i try to stick with the natural time periods (days, seasons, years), not the man made (hours, weeks, Jan to DEC calendar)

• by the day: to reach my goals, become my fullest man etc, there are a few important activities i like to be done daily. not too many, but they take effort: reading up on the news (world and local, and local is New York city, which is a world unto itself), exercise every other day (hard core, some heavy weights, cardio vascular, outdoors in all weather, etc), voice (speaking well, stretching my singing to the limits: pitch, volume, timbre), "career": this blog brilliance haha, trying to advance in the arts is extremely difficult of course etc
• by the season: lots every season, e.g: spring: outdoors, blooms, parks, love (wink) etc; summer: beach, outdoors, friends, family;, fall: foliage, nights, etc; winter: snow, activities, holidays.
• year: more my year (between birthdays) not artificial calendar year: writing, progress, physical achievements (not getting any younger), career etc.

of course this doesn't mention special days, birthdays, holidays etc. hell weeks at job etc. rough weather seasons. sickness.

so lots of pressure i suppose. to get much done in time. have done much but always seems like more of course. and always so many reminders (not even mentioning the man made ones) that time moves on always.

Hate the Hype: My Real Deal

now if u'v been following my tirades, you know that i don't have much of a long fuse for hype (short for hyperbole of course, hence, inappropriate, over-done, gushy, etc).

but from my experience, it's almost unfair to the person being hyped: they may be a totally different person in reality (not reality tv, also bullshit). actually i've met some hyped performers on film sets especially and most of them seem pretty nice, mellow, hard working.

now the ones who are being arrested, going bankrupt, doing too many drugs, etc: you wonder if a big part of their problems is that they believe the hype

so it's all the bullshit that surrounds them that i suppose i hate. all the media attention, idiot fans, people paying hard earned money for these folks. i've always had a short fuse for ignorance as well and i suppose that hype is another ugly form of it. .

Why: June Sunniest, July Hottest

the Solstice happens in June (im talking about the northern hemisphere of course, for southern, reverse the facts). so June is the sunniest month, the one with the most sun light. but on average, July is the hottest in most of the hemisphere.

the reason is that it takes the Earth some time to be heated. so temperatures lag by some time. so we get the most sunlight in June (because the Earth is tilted most towards the Sun at the time), heats up the Earth, then hottest month in July.

as i've mentioned before, the phenomenon can be witnesses daily: high noon is at 12 or 1 (daylight savings), yet again it takes some time for the Earth to heat up, so the hottest time of the day is a couple hours later. happens almost every day, barring storms etc. .

How to Soothe Your Sunburn

now when i was young and ignorant (redundant) i did get some bad sunburns, being fair skinned, etc. so a couple of basic practices took care of it afterwards. i still get them accidentally at times so i do the same, they still go pretty well.

• cool down with a nice cold shower, cold towel etc. give it a good hose down/wipe etc. NO SOAP-- you can get an allergic skin reaction as i got once.
• then apply liberally a nice thick coat of lotion. preferably with aloe in it.
• do that periodically, when you need to, when you feel warm etc.

it'll turn into a nice tan actually, usually. of course i think sun bathing for a tan etc is one of those idiot youth get it while you can when you';re a young hot chick so you can snag a man and be taken care of deals, because there's nothing that ages your skin worse than the Sun.

there' also stuff that you can use that i've read: pat your skin with a tea bag, yogurt, apple cider vinegar etc. but the main point of water and cool, then lotion to keep hydrated, goes very well.

What Chicks Really Want: to Follow

and im not just talking about the stupid fashions many follow, the stupid magazines, big hair in the 80s (want to get a mass amount of women to do what you want? get something to go "in style". it could be lesbianism, thongs, big belt buckles, whatever, and they'll do it as long as it's "IN style".

but another example: usually when i go on my little tourist trips, walk along Central park, etc, i do it alone, which is preferable in many ways because i can do whatever the hell i want. usually everyone avoids me like some weirdo/pedophile/park pervert or something.

today i had a woman come with me on my adventures. and surprise: women came more to me. a blonde Danish foreign exchange student, a girl who i think wanted model shots of herself.

"all the good ones are taken" right? chicks don't want to eat in an empty restaurant right/? the married are more attractive?

Real Deal: Sun Protection

try not to listen to the fear mongering media (redundant?), the medical profession hypochondria, journalists trying to sell magazines (unlike me, im just trying to sell a blog! haha). take the words of some one who is fair skinned (we are always fair or white, never pale or pasty) and who lived in the desert for over a year:

• buy cheapo SPF 15 lotion. that's all i did. from a dollar store. you don't need spf 2000 bullshit
• 
  
• at the beginning of Sun exposure, rub it all over the exposed areas. all of them: ears, cleavage, feet, etc.
• 
  
• unless you're going swimming or something, after which you of course re apply, ur done.

that's it. that's all i did for over 2 years. and i never got sunburn, again living in the middle of the Mojave, no trees, no a/c so we were outside all the time, often sitting and moving in high noon.