Expectations.

A few months ago I was 258 lbs. Right now I'm about 235 lbs. I go to the gym about 3-4 times a week. I've been lazy about tracking my calories lately and I think that's why I'm having a hard time getting below 235. (I've been at this level for 4 weeks). I went on a cruise a few weeks ago, which is pretty much the worst vacation you can take if you're trying to eat healthy. I think I did pretty well. I didn't weight myself for a week after I got back, but the next week I was 235, so I neither gained nor lost anything from the vacation, which I was very proud of myself for accomplishing.

One day at work a few weeks back, someone I work with said, "Nick, I have a questions." She usually has questions about work-related issues, but this time she said, "You've lost a bunch of weight. How are you doing it?"

I was kind of blown away to be asked that question. It made me feel great. I told her what I was doing and what she can do to see improvements. I told her to track her calories, and we even went on my computer at work and set up an account online for her to use to track food and exercise. I told her what I changed about what and how I eat. She goes to the gym and uses the treadmill and ellipticals, so it tells her right on the screen what she's burning. She agreed everything was easy and she was going to start doing it.

A week later, I asked her how it was going.

She said she never went on the site to track anything, and she hasn't changed anything about what or how she eats. "When I told you about it, you said it was all simple. Why aren't you doing it?" I asked her. She didn't have an answer other than, "I just didn't do it."

When I started, I was expecting it to be very difficult to start a workout routine and eat better. I would have to break old habits and make conscious decisions about things that I used to do without even thinking about. I was expecting it to be a lot harder.

Was the person I work with expecting it to be too easy? I know I told her it is easy, but were her expectations set to "Super-No-Problem-I-Don't-Have-To-Worry-About-Anything" Easy? Even if we're doing the exact same things, I was expecting it to be hard, but it was easier. Therefore, it is easy. She was expecting it to be easier, but it was harder. Therefore, it is hard.

Should I have made it sound harder than it really is so when she starts, it will be easier and she'll keep on track?

Did I ruin her life by making it sound too easy?

The Photographer

While walking down 18th Street today, I see a hipster in a red and white striped shirt, skinny jeans and thick black frame horn rimmed glasses. My first impression was, "Hey! I found Waldo!" He was only missing the hat. I'm guessing he was just shy of 30 years old. He was carrying a fancy digital SLR camera. This is a common site because A. it was right down the street from a camera store, and B. it's New York City. People like that are all over the place.

What made this encounter interesting was that his person was walking along side an older woman. She was maybe 45-50. They weren't together, which was obvious. She was on her phone and he was examining the camera in his hand. When I first saw the pair, they were maybe 25 yards ahead, walking towards me. While walking, the hipster slowly got closer and closer to the woman. She was engrossed in her phone conversation that she didn't notice him. When they were only about 5 feet in front of me, the hipster turned his camera towards the woman's face and I heard the familiar *click* of the shutter. He then looked back at the screen on his camera and took a step sideways and I passed between the woman and the hipster. I looked back to see if the woman noticed anything, but she was still talking on the phone and the hipster was still looking at the back of his camera, slowly diverging from his position next to the woman.

My first thought was that this dude is a major creep. What kind of pervert takes pictures of unsuspecting women? Does he do this all the time? He seemed to be comfortable stealing this picture. It was almost second nature. I almost felt used when he sidestepped and went around me. It separated him from the woman so if she suspected anything she wouldn't have noticed the camera, she would have noticed him moving to the side so I could pass.

An instant later, I tried to see what he found so interesting about this woman that he wanted to take a picture. She wasn't what most people would consider attractive, she was talking on the phone in a very complaining type of voice, and it sounded like she's been a smoker for 25 years. Overall, she was average. There was nothing that I noticed that made this woman stand out. Perhaps to the hipster, she was more interesting. Maybe he could hear her conversation or he saw her do something that intrigued him and he just wanted to capture that moment.

My next instinctual reaction, I should add that all these reactions happened in less than 3 seconds, was that he just wanted to capture a candid image of people he encounters on the street. She could have just been in the right place at the right time for him to test how well pictures turn out while walking next to an unsuspecting model. People are fascinating in their own intimate ways. At first, I thought it was kind of weird, but then I realized something...

I'm doing that exact same thing.

The Beginning

Hi. I'm Nick. I live in New York City.

I moved here September, 2008 from Ohio. In July of 2008, I took the nine hour drive to the city to look for an apartment with my girlfriend. We were staying with a friend for an extended weekend to adventure around and look at apartments. It was this day that I decided to keep a record of the interesting people I see in the city.

It is now March, 2010; 19 months since I decided to keep this record. I know there have been certain opportunities that I have missed in not recording my observations. There have been interesting people that I saw, thought about for a little while, and those memories have now evaporated into nothingness. Do these people still exist? I suppose so. Do I remember anything specific about them? No. Do I remember seeing something interesting? Yes.

Why do I remember seeing interesting things? Because interesting things are what you remember. Dull, boring, vapid days are those that go by in the blink of an eye. The interesting things are what stick with us.

The word "interesting" as I'm using it covers anything that is out of the ordinary. Defining "ordinary" is much more difficult. We'll leave that open to interpretation. Things I find interesting might seem lackluster on the surface, but the act of experiencing them is what truly makes them interesting.

I decided to start this record today because of two interesting things:

1. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

2. Zombieland

I'll explain:

Zombieland was a pretty sweet flick. The reason it influenced me to write this is because there is a scene in the movie where they're talking about what happened in 1997. I hear the year 1997, and nothing comes to mind of what happened that year. I have to do the math to figure out how old I was and what grade I was in. Then I try to think of who my teachers were in school, but I can't recall. Of course I remember things from my past, but I never remember when those things occurred. I remember a surprise birthday party my parents had for me, but I don't remember how old I was turning. I guess this part of my brain works differently that other people. Another part of my brain that may work differently is the part used for recall. I'm better with visuals, but basically if I see or hear a fact, I will remember it. I will be able to recall that fact when the time comes. This is what makes me pretty decent at crossword puzzles and general trivia... until it get the question "What movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2007?" I have no idea who won Best Picture in any specific year, but I can recite a list of many Best Picture winners in no particular order. Just for the record, and I had to look it up to get this information, but No Country For Old Men won best picture in 2007, and that is one of my favorite movies. It would have been among the list of Best Picture winners, I just didn't remember what year it was released. This blog will hopefully make me perceive common things as being more interesting, making me remember what happened when.


Blink is about, as the full title clearly states, thinking with thinking. First impressions. Simplicity. Unconscious thought. When I make observations about people, most of the experience happens in the first instant. I unconsciously notice things, as many people do, that influence my thoughts on this person. Some examples of the more obvious things that people unconsciously notice and consciously realize would be what this person is wearing (or not wearing) and/or their confidence level.  Do they have good hygiene? Do they seem intelligent? There are many more interpretations about a person that is made before you realize what's happening. There are many unconscious interpretations that remain unconscious. Certain aspects of personality and character are observed without realize it. This happens with more than 99% of the people that we encounter. We don't have dinner with everyone we see and spend time with them and know their favorite movies, their family history, where they're from and what they've done, we just make observations. These observations are the some most fascinating things that happen between two people. All these people are making the same observations about me, except I'm writing a blog about it.

I guess what I'm saying is that I want to keep a record of people I see and what I think of them and what happens. Everything I write will be 100% honest. I'll try to differentiate between what is actual truth and what I perceive as being true, but that might not always work out.

I hope you find all of this interesting.