(Yeah, I’ve basically replaced my regular camera with Hipstamatic.)
I’m so happy that it’s baseball season again.
Last night, I went to a Yankees game against the Angels as part of their Home Opening Series. When we got there, it was t-shirt weather, but by the time we left it was 12-layer winter weather & pouring rain. I guess we were lucky that we got the tickets through NYU and were given the worst seats in the house because we were so far back that we were covered and didn’t get rained on.
None the less, saw my second in-person Jeter home run and the Yankees won 6-2.
Here’s a video of the fans in the Grandstands trying to get a wave to go around the entire stadium:
I’ve previously discussed my disapproval of Leno stealing The Tonight Show back from Conan, so I havent been watching it anymore, but recently The Tonight Show partnered with NYU for Jay Leno’s Short Film contest. It basically involved making a 90 second or less short film in an extremely short period of time with some crappy little Flip camera. No professional equipment.
I didn’t actually know about this contest and therefore didn’t enter, but other kids did (apparently) and the top 3 films were not only shown on The Tonight Show last Wednesday (been meaning to post this for like a week…), but their creators were flown to LA so that they could be on the show.
APRIL FOOLS was on Thursday and while I don’t generally get too into it (or into it at all), I feel like there were a lot of good jokes this year. Here are my favorite three from the internet…
Friends of mine know all about Gramercy since I’ve blogged about it before and talk (brag) about it all the time now, but I wanted to write a post specifically talking about the pros and cons of Gramercy since it’s the time of year that everyone is checking out dorms for next year, and when I was trying to find info about Gramercy last year online, there wasn’t any.
My posts generally show up pretty high in Google searches, so if you’re an NYU student who came across this page through Google, here are some deetz that you won’t find on the NYU Housing site and a video tour to go along with it.
Gramercy Green is a dorm for sophomores. It’s technically for “upperclassmen,” but since it’s the most popular dorm on campus, you’re chances of getting it if you’re not a sophomore are slim to none. It was originally built as a luxury apartment building, so it has styles of all kinds, but every apartment will have:
-Hardwood floors
-A huge kitchen with stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, and a touch screen microwave.
-An all-marble bathroom with ridic water pressure in the shower.
-Floor to ceiling or almost floor to ceiling windows (depending on the style).
Gramercy has rooms for 2-6 people. I live in a studio, so it’s just me and my roommate, and I would definitely recommend the studio option because it’s a HUGE space for just two people. It’s more space than my bedroom & common room combined last year at U-Hall and the kitchen and bathroom are only shared by 2 people. They also have two-bedroom suites for 4 people, three-bedroom suites for 5 people, and three-bedroom suites for 6 people. (Rooms with 4+ people have two bathrooms so that’s another plus.) There might also be an option for 3 people too but I’m not actually sure.
Here are some pros & cons.
PROS:
-Amenities. Kitchen, bathroom, wood floors and everything else I just mentioned.
-More space than you’ll get at most other dorms.
-EVERYTHING is new. The building is less than 2 years old, not some historic 200 year old landmark that hasn’t been renovated in 87 years.
-The Sub-Cellar has TV lounges, a game room, private & group study rooms, a gym, and more crazyness.
-There are laundry rooms on the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 11th, 14th, 16th, 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st floor as well as a big one in the cellar. I KNOW RIGHT!? It’s amazing.
-The neighborhood is awesome. 3 blocks from Madison Square Park (and Shake Shack!) which is one of my favorite parks in NYC. The streets around the building aren’t always crowded like they are in Union Square.
-Duane Reade on the ground floor.
CONS:
-It’s far from campus. The walk is about 20-25 depending on the lights & how fast you walk. There is a bus, but it’s often unreliable and ALWAYS crowded. Trying to take the bus to get to 9:30 class is a deathwish. I don’t mind the walk if it’s nice out, but it can be tough in the winter.
-It’s nowhere near NYU Dining. The closest dining hall is Palladium, which is still 9 blocks away.
-The elevators are ALWAYS a problem. We only have 3 elevators here, and the building is like 22 stories or something. They are always crowded and always require a pretty significant wait. The views are great on the upper floors (I live on 17) but it would definitely be to your benefit to get something lower so you can use the stairs.
-The fire alarm goes off…. A LOT. And when I mean a lot, I don’t mean like once a month or something. It goes off every single week. Sometimes multiple times during the week. We’ve had three 2AM evacuations so far this year. The smoke detectors are extremely sensitive so when idiot kids fail at cooking or light up in their rooms, the whole building will be evacuated… and like I said, elevators are always a problem. It’s not fun trying to get back in.
-The soundproofing between rooms is great because I never hear my neighbors, but the sound proofing between your room and the hallway is nonexistent. In fact, I hear people screaming out there as I type these words. And a dog barking. Sweet.
-It’s more of a residential area so there are less stores and restaurants that are open 24/7 than there are in the Union Square area.
Here is a video I made at the beginning of the year. I made it for Facebook, that’s why it feels like I’m talking to specific people, but hopefully it can help you guys out, too.
Despite the cons, I definitely still recommend Gramercy for your sophomore year.
If you have any questions, post them down in the comments and I’ll try to help you out.
I’ve never been that into YouTube. Sure, I appreciate a good fight or fail now and then, but I’m not the kind of person who can sit around on YouTube all day.
If there is one thing I love about YouTube, however, it’s the acoustic covers of songs that regular people from all around the country sing better than the actual songs themselves.
Everything from simple, singing a popular song into a webcam like this:
to rewritten songs with some serious production value like this:
Those are just two that I came across yesterday, but if you ever see an awesome YouTube cover, send it to me, or post it in the comments!
The first video is by 20-year-old Alyssa Bernal from San Antonio, Texas. Her channel is youtube.com/hchsknights08, has over 250,000 subscribers and seriously posts some of the best webcam covers I’ve seen on YouTube. She even has her first album coming out thanks to her YouTube success sometime this year (I think?).
The second is by 17-year-old Tiffany Alvord from California. Her channel is youtube.com/TiffanyAlvord but this video was actually shot here in New York in collaboration with Kurt Schneider for his channel, youtube.com/KurtHugoSchneider. T-Sling actually showed me Kurt’s channel and he posts professionally produced videos of everything from song covers, to musicals, to medleys like this one with his friends at Yale University.
I don’t actually know these people like I’m pretending to right now, but their music is amazing.
Granted the attractiveness of these girls might be swaying my opinion slightly, but a combined 380,000 subscribers plus another 125,000 for Kurt doesn’t lie ;)
That is a cow. Right before he trampled me and broke my camera.
Okay, no. (It looks like he’s going to though doesn’t it?)
I took that picture this morning in my neighbor’s front yard, when these four random cows came strolling down the street. I’m still not sure how they got out or where they came from, but when I filmed them and sent the video to channel 7, they aired it! (Must have been a slow news day…)
Last month I started a new recurring blog post called “SHARE YO MUSIC.” Just like the title, the first post was a pretty ghetto song (Ridin’ Solo by Jason Derulo), but for vol. 2, I’m switching it up entirely. Who Says by John Mayer isn’t really a new song, but I don’t really keep up with John Mayer so it’s new to me. If you haven’t heard it, listen to (/watch) it below:
Good right?
If you’re new to deandagati.com or don’t remember what Share Yo Music is all about, here’s a refresher. Every once in a while I’ll post a particularly awesome song to my blog, then in the comments, you guys can post particularly awesome songs that you’re listening to right now.
If you disapprove of this song and/or John Mayer, post something better! Any genre, any artist, any song. Feel free to use a fake name if you don’t want the world to know about your Justin Bieber obsession.
Today I did something new. For the first time since I’ve lived in New York, I actually left the state of New York (other than to go to Florida, of course). Today I went to… NEW JERSEY.
Now, as a New Yorker, I’m pretty much, as Lily from How I Met Your Mother so beautifully describes, “programmed to despise and loath New Jersey and all that it stands for.” See this clip:
…but if you’ve seen that whole episode, you know that Marshall really comes to love New Jersey. See this clip:
I hate to say it but, I actually had a little bit of a Marshall moment today. I don’t by any means hate New York (I mean, come on) but Newport, New Jersey has stuff that Manhattan doesn’t! Like TARGET. I love Target, but what do we have here? K-Mart. Who shops at K-Mart?
And everything is so much cheaper! I got 10 pairs of socks for $10 and sales tax is only 3.5%!! It’s 6% in the FtL, 7% in Miami, and 8.875% in NYC!
There was also this ridiculous mall called Newport Centre that was big and spacious. Just ask Marshall, big and spacious doesn’t exist in Manhattan.
But hey, just because Jersey City (Newport) is nice doesn’t mean I can’t hate the rest of the state. You won’t find me in Newark anytime soon. NYC ALL THE WAY ;)
Check out some more pics below. Click for full size.
