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That’s right, I have 2 fantastic blog ideas. Unfortunately this is not one of them. Instead I wanted to write a little bit about my recent experiences.

I got a voicemail on Sunday evening letting me know that my landlord needs his apartment back. I have until October 15th to find a new apartment. This is actually a good turn of events because I wanted to get out of my place anyway. I’m getting kind of fed up with having a roommate that isn’t a good friend…or a friend at all, and my place is a bit dumpy.

Inevitably when finding an apartment in New York one turns to Craiglist, the most useful useless internet tool on the planet. I found my last apartment on there and it has worked out in not working out. I figured I’d give it another go because I was so fortunate and so frustrated the first time around¹.

When you look for an apartment in New York, there are often times broker’s fees. For those of you who have the luxury of finding apartments without brokers let me explain how it works: YOU find the apartment on craigslist, YOU meet the broker near the place, the broker shows up, shows you the place, and expects you to immediately take it so he can make his obscenely high fee – usually 13% of a year’s worth of rent. When the apartment turns out to be a piece of garbage, the conversation goes something like this:

Broker: So, what do you think²?

Andy: Well, it’s alright, but not what I’m looking for. It’s a little smaller than I wanted, its pretty dark, the ceilings are pretty low, not enough closet space, and the rent is too high for what it is and the area its in.

Broker: Are you kidding me?! Do you know how hard it is to find what you want in this city? This is a great deal! How many other apartments do you know of for this kind of money in the city? It’s fantastic amazing! Good luck finding something better. You will fail. I hate you now! I hate you for not taking this place immediately! You are stupid! You will never find a place to live! How long have you lived here?! How much is your rent now?

Andy: No, Yes, not it’s not, quite a few, no it isn’t, thanks, no I won’t, I hate you too, I don’t care, I know you are but what am I? Yes I will, about a year, I’m not telling, you’d cry.

Broker: Wait…what?

Andy: I’m gonna leave now…right after I pee on your shoes.

Broker: (sighs) This always happens to me.

And that’s pretty much how it goes. You show up, hate the place, and then they get mad at you. The funniest thing to do is to tell them its too expensive. One time this guy said to me: “$2500³! Isn’t that a great price?” to which I responded: “No, it isn’t.” He was furious and actually stormed out. I couldn’t stop laughing.

¹If you’ve used Craigslist at all, this paragraph should make perfect sense to you.
²This exactly what they have said to me everytime – “what do you think?” What they mean is, “I half-assed my job and am fully expecting you to take this place now.”
³This was for a 1 bdrm that I was going to live in with a friend of mine – we were going to put a wall up which costs like another $800. The broker new this. Granted the location was great, 25th and Park, but it wasn’t THAT nice of a place.

If you’ve talked to me about my blog before, chances are I’ve mentioned that no one reads it or comments or that I don’t even really consider myself a blogger because I don’t talk about “this person did that to me” or “you know what really pisses me off¹?” or “my life is in turmoil and my thighs are too big” or “why doesn’t she love me like I love her?” or “do you know what my favorite kind of peanut butter is?”…alright the peanut butter one I’d probably write about² but you get my drift. My theory is that because my ideas are so typically inane and ridiculous that no one wants to read them because there is no way to identify with them. I am perfectly okay with this.

While looking for other things to do at work besides work and having run out of blogs to read and extricated as much information as I possibly could from sitemeter, I started poking around Technorati. This may be my eventual downfall. The ‘rati is a pretty cool little site and for those of you who don’t know, it gives you a rank and tells you how many other blogs link to your blog, and also how many blogs link to the blogs that link to you.

All the blogs on the right are sites that I read everyday. The list grows as I find myself going to a site more than once every couple of weeks, or if there’s a particularly good post, then I’ll add them out of principal. It’s my way of saying “you wrote a good post, here’s a cookie!” only I don’t give out cookies and I don’t actually talk to indicate respect. I keep the cookies. And eat them. And I wash it down with respect. I’ll also link to anyone who links to me (which is standard practice for pretty much everyone…. except for Alice, who apparently links to no one³. )

As embarrassing as it is I will now share with you my Technorati rating and link number so you can all laugh at me and say “Wow, you really are the only person who thinks you’re funny. The title of your blog is so relevant now! I finally get it! But I still don’t find you relevant…or funny. In fact, this, if anything, has lessened my opinion of you such that if I saw you on the street, I would pound you into it.”

As you can kind of see thanks to this blurry screen shot, my rating is at 246,459 and I am linked by 12 blogs.

You know that weird guy in high school who seemed nice but no one really talked to because he just wasn’t cool enough? That’s the kind of status I feel my Technorati rating gives me. I get invited to limited blogger happy hours due to this low rating and poor link-factor, then when I go, people say “oh, do you have a blog?” and I say “yes, yes I do. It’s ‘Well at least I think I’m funny.'” and they say “oh…that’s nice.” and then quickly look for a more famous blogger to talk to⁴ after a quick pat on my head for encouragement.

The point of all this isn’t to complain or to seek out pity links and comments (though they’re gladly accepted), but more to say that wouldn’t it be funny if people started to take their technorati ratings really seriously and begin basing their lives and the majority of the conversations on this nerdy claim-to-fame:

(It’s happy hour and many famous bloggers have gathered together to drink and socialize)

Famous Blogger: (enters, wearing a shirt that says “Technorati Top 50, bitch.”)
What’s up bitches? Cast your eyes upon my kicky shirt.

Famous Blogger 2: Oh wow. I’m only top 100 (indicating her shirt). Man I’m so jealous!

FB: Yeah I knew you would be. So ladies, who wants to makeout so I can write about it in my blog tomorrow?

Random Hot Girls: OOOHHH!! Please, please, pick me! Pick me!

FB 2: Man, that is sweet. I hope to crack the top 50 someday. I mean, people buy me drinks a lot and I sign a few autographs here and there, but I can’t command the attention in a room that you do…wait a minute…who’s…who’s that?

FB: Who’s who?

FB 2: That, over there – look!

Famous Blogger 3: Hey bitches. Technorati numero uno here. Yeah. That’s right. (FB 3 has gone so far as to tattoo this rating into his forehead) I’ve written more entries about how miserable my life is and how much I hate the idiosynchrosies of others than anyone. And I swear…a lot. Because its hilarious. Tits. See? I just did it. Just then. But I took it kind of easy on you. You’re lucky. I’m so snide, its awesome.

FB: Oh damn. This guy ALWAYS ruins ma nerd-fame style!

FB 2: I hope he doesn’t drop the F bomb! It’s just so gutsy, creative, and powerful.

(several women leave FB and immediately begin carressing FB 3 as he simply stands with his hands out, gazing up into the ceiling – as if somehow he’ll be levitating a few inches off the ground to the tune of an angelic chorus any minute now)

Andy: Hey guys, is this where the blogger happy hour is?

FB: Yes, are you a blogger?

Andy: Well, yeah I am. But I –

FB 3: What’s your technorati rating?

Andy: Oh, well I’ve indicated it here, on my shirt, just like you guys.

(Andy points to the number on his shirt)

FB 2: …

FB: …

FB 3: …really? I thought that was like your sitemeter count or something.

Andy: Yeah. These things are so meaningless. Don’t you guys think?

(The bar gets silent and a tumbleweed rolls across the room. A glass drops to the floor and breaks, a woman screams, and somewhere in South Eastern Asia, an infant child is crying. Andy uncomfortably tugs at his collar.)

Andy: I mean. Important. Don’t you think they’re important? Haha…ha…heh…ahem. Well, I think I’m just going to be leaving now.

(Andy chugs the remainder of his beer, turns around to leave and on his way out someone tapes a sign to his back that says “Kick Me, Gawker links me less than once a week.”)

FB: Finally.

FB 2: I am glad he left. What a trouble-maker. I don’t know anyone who actually jokes about their technorati rating…I mean..honestly!

FB 3: I certainly don’t either. That seems ridiculous. You know what else is ridiculous? Anonymous commenters. There haven’t been enough posts about that, OR riding on the subway. I’m gonna go do six more posts about each of those topics. Then, when someone posts about how New York bloggers suck, I’m totally gonna write a pithy rebuttal in their comments section. BOO YAH!

FB 2: Genius!

FB: That’s why you’ll always be number 1.

Now I’m destined to get a t-shirt that says “Technorati Rating: 246, 459” with a frowny face underneath.

For those of you that have found it in your hearts to link this lowly, un-famous, non-blogger I thank you, and big props to the classy dame at Gawker who occassionally finds me funny^5.

¹Except when I write about Cingular. I hate you Cingular.
²Look for it later.
³thanks a lot, jerk.
⁴These are the most famous bloggers I have met. Except for Alice, but I’m not giving her any more love in this post.
⁵Not sure if you wanted your identity revealed so no link for you! (I’m turning into Alice)

Today I was perusing through the blogs I usually peruse and something struck me. As I was reading I realized there is always a stark contrast between their blogs and mine: a point. Typically when I start writing something it’s because I think of something funny and then I just randomly through something together and it ends up being nonsensical, ridiculous, and pointless. Today I’m going to try to take this to an extreme as I write the longest run-on sentence known to man using word association and see where I end up.

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I started reading Spinachdip’s guest blog this morning on blog soup and then realized that there’s seldom a point to what I write always comes out a little ridiculous because I’ll start off with a good idea about the lightbulb is probably one of the best, and most inspirational due to the amount of failures in life to me are people that don’t really follow their dream about a hamburger eating him is one of the greatest lines in Seinfeld which my friend Erik and I call the golden standard jazz tunes are just not written by anyone anymore and I’m not sure its for lack of trying or just beacause standards are going to be altogether drawn from different sources of light coming from what they call a “light-box” can actually help cure SAD and now there is a cell phone that has a 3.2 megapixel camera is all I really want and stupid Cingular is really pissing me off because I’ve been waiting and waiting for my most recent commission check but (client not to be named) hasn’t paid yet even though they said they sent the check out last week was great but this weekend I really felt the need to get out of the city and into some greener surroundings because as all New Yorkers know you just start to feel cooped up like a chicken in an egg under an incubation lamp in my room doesn’t have a shade over it which makes the room heat up by a noticeable amount of Penn State graduates in the United States is something like one in six hundred more dollars and I am well on my way to buying a sweet new TV which I probably won’t end up getting because I won’t be able to decide what to do with my life even though I think I know a basic direction its hard to pursue a specific direction because there’s so much cool stuff out there I’d like to have but then I realize it won’t make me happy about going home this weekend and may even get to see the very first Penn State game of the season even though it’s supposed to rain doesn’t really bother me that much but it gets old after a few days of consistent practicing I think I’ve finally gotten some of my chops back and now I’m excited because I’m gonna get a (temporarily removed section) going on in New York each week and writing reviews of Franklin Talk are few and far between each episode has been a much longer period of time is going so fast these days I’m really just not able to believe that I might actually get a job and move to Italy within the next year I’d really like to improve my piano playing skill at Ultimate certainly isn’t unsurpassed but I consider myself fairly good at pretty much anything having to do with art though I’m not really particularly honed in any specific skill other than trombone playing is one of the most satisfying things I do or have done and I miss being in a situation where I’m able to play Ultimate when I finally get my shoulder looked at and I’ll most likely need surgery scares me a little bit but honestly the rehabilitation of my shoulder will be the hardest part of something really musically fulfilling all my goals will be tough but fair enough is enough.

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Huh, interesting.