Chris and I made Easter eggs. We are cooler than you. Buttercup agrees.

And speaking of eggs, Marmalade Moon has a cute set of bird egg icons up this week.

For no reason, here are places to get free samples of Astroglide, o.b. tampons, daily facials (the Oil of Olay kind, you prevert), and Herbal Essences hair stuff. Here, too, is where to request a free issue of the new Martha Stewart food magazine. I was thinking all of this stuff could be used in conjunction for some nefarious purpose or other, and I suspect I will be having nightmares of lube-covered pages from Martha’s magazine for a while.

1. Today I got a new job that involves a big sexy desk and a dress code so lenient that I pretty much have to just be sure I’m dressed at all, really.

2. Today was maybe the first time in my long and sordid NYU career that my registration date rolled around - that special time at which the planets align and I’m allowed to sign up for next semester - and I didn’t have a single problem getting all of my classes. No leftover tuition payments to be made, no advisors forgetting to clear my schedule, no classes already full, no missing honors access codes: I got everything in one blissful go.

3. Today I got a copy of this Lovecraft book from the one and only Peter Cohen (or at least the very coolest Peter Cohen) of my own native Massachusetts. I think I probably have the best readers ever.

Moby has contributed a bathroomy self-portrait to the Mirror Project. My own mirror picture from last spring is still there as well, and some of their guest galleries are great. I liked Rachel James’s IKEA tribute and Min Jung Kim’s Shoe Fetish collection in particular.

Emma is unavailable for posting today. Instead, please enjoy selected wisdom from the unfathomable depths of xihr:

• SOMETIMES I DON’T POO WHEN I’M SUPPOSED TO
• WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OFF I THINK THERE ARE MONSTERS INSIDE ME
• WHEN IT’S TIME GO TO THE DENTIST SOMETIMES I DON’T WANT TO
• IF I COULD SIT AT HOME AND NOT WORK BUT STILL BUY EVERYTHING I WANT I’D DO THAT
• I’M AFRAID OF THE FUTURE
• I DON’T LIKE POOPING BECAUSE IT’S MESSY AND SMELLS BAD
• WHEN I GET AN EMAIL THAT SAYS MAKE MONEY FAST I DELETE IT
• ONCE TIME I THOUGHT I WAS HAVING A HEART ATTACK BUT IT WAS JUST A BIG MAN STANDING ON ME
• THE TRUTH HURTS PARTICULARLY WHEN IT IS FOLLOWED BY A PUNCH
• SOMETIMES WHEN I RELIVE MEMORIES IN MY MIND I WISHED I’D JUST KILLED EVERYBODY INVOLVED
• THE BEST THING ABOUT JOHN GOODMAN MOVIES IS WHEN YOU FANTASIZE ABOUT KILLING HIM FOR WASTING YOUR TIME AFTERWARDS
• I THINK FILKING SHOULD BE RENAMED TO ‘FOLK SINGING’
• SOMETIMES I’M AT HOME ON A SATURDAY NIGHT BECAUSE MY ‘FRIENDS’ DON’T ‘LIKE ME’ AND ‘DON’T WANT ME ANYWHERE AROUND THEM’
• SOMETIMES I LIKE TO BE REFERRED TO WITH THE HONORIFIC MS.
• POOPING TWICE IN THE SAME DAY IS LIKE A FULL MOON TWICE IN THE SAME MONTH

There’s a great analysis Metrocard prices at World New York today. For the past week or so I’ve found myself half-heartedly doing those same calculations in my head every time I swipe at Union Square and am reminded of the new fare increase that takes effect in a couple of weeks. At $63, I usually go for the unlimited 30-day Metrocard because the last time I figured it out I was saving (if only a little) over what I pay on $15 Metrocards. I hadn’t yet decided whether that would continue to be true when $15/11-ride cards are eliminated, replaced with $20/12-ride cards, and monthly unlimited cards go up to $70. It’s only an issue because all of my classes are (this semester) in four days of the week rather than five - but I’m usually in the city at least one of those other three days. According to that chart, it’s just barely worth it to get an unlimited.

Of course, none of that really applies until sometime in June. A $63 monthly unlimited purchased before 4 May (when the increase takes effect) will work from whenever first used until 12 June, meaning there’s a month there where you can get away with paying the old fare for just a little bit longer. It’s only $7, but when you’re a college student you take what you can get.

I’ve been keeping an eye on the BBG’s Cherrywatch map. The ever-botanical parents gave me a membership after we visited it together during one of their trips to NYC, and I haven’t been back this season. I’m waiting to pounce the moment things start blooming on that Cherry Esplanade, though.

My usual bar’s attendance hasn’t dwindled really that much since the smoking ban took effect, although I have noticed the inevitable cluster of smokers outside in temporary exile. I suspect it won’t be all that big a deal during the spring while the weather is peachy, but will people continue to suffer for their smokes when it gets disgusting and humid and then later really really cold? I suppose places like this are to be expected, and maybe pretty cool in a speakeasy sort of way, but while I enjoy the occasional clove I can’t see myself going to a smoking-specific venue - it’s always just been an incidental thing I do at clubs and bars and at home. I’ve officially finished off that carton I bought, like, last August, and I haven’t yet replaced it - could this be the end of my non-addiction?

I don’t really have anything to say about the sexiest album covers of all time except “Good lord, what a lot of boobies” and “I am afraid of Rod Stewart.”

You know how Saturday mornings you let yourself sleep in because you figure hey, if you were falling asleep in all your early (and even not-so-early) classes during the week, that probably means you need to get some sleep - but then when you wake up at ten thirty or (heavens) eleven thirty on Saturday morning you feel like a slob and drink really quite a lot of coffee figuring that it will allow you to ascend to this like superhuman level of study-focus capacity, and you’ll get just as much done as you would have had you gotten up at seven like you usually do on Saturdays, you freak? Right but then it turns out that all that coffee really just makes you kind of jittery and distractable, because you successfully weaned yourself from your caffeine dependency last year, remember, and with it went your caffeine tolerance so it turns out that drinking a pot of coffee all by yourself isn’t at all advisable, anymore. And so you’re all jittery and distractable and not only do you not have even your normal level of study-focus capacity but in fact rather less than that, your normal level, and you end up not studying but using up most of a roll of paper towels dusting for the first time in weeks or (probably) months. And the thing about dusting is that there is always, always something else that needs to be dusted.

But the good news is I’ve been offered the opportunity to write a senior honors thesis in philosophy next year, and I’ll almost certainly accept it (the offered opportunity), so at least I’ll have an awful lot more work than I do now. Which is something.

ADOP archives feature aerial photos of New York at night in 1995, as well as Hale-Bopp over NYC in 1997 - not once twice!

People keep recommending that City Secrets: NYC book. It’s been sitting on my list for a while, but from what I gather it’s got a lot of contributions from local writers and “other canny New York lovers” (according to the ACR blurb). I suppose I’ll give in and pick up my own copy soon - or at least flip throught it at a bookstore and see if it lives up to its reputation.

There’s a whole bunch of NYC street cams here. It’s interesting for all of maybe five minutes, but for those five minutes: excitement galore.

According to Strange New York, 250 NYC subway cars will soon be dumped off the Jersey shore at existing artificial reefs, to serve as fish habitats. However, there’s widespread concern about the environmental impact of dumping a bunch of old trains into the water - there’s a shocker.

Small Press Center is offering a free “literary map” of New York, if you stop by their building on 44th to pick it up.

Finally, check out this Introduction to Manhattan Timeformations, a project that “uses computer models and interactive animations to depict the dynamic relationship between Manhattan’s skyscrapers and other layers of urban information.”

Thanks to the Yukonian Matthew for sending this sushi book the other day. The Essential Kitchen series is definitely of the pretty pictures school of cookbookery, but the recipes and instructions aren’t bad at all, and it’s not like pretty pictures are a bad thing, either. There’s some good vegetarian stuff I look forward to trying soon, although I have been eating fish once in a while for the past few months. The formidable Crispy and I are fond of this little place off Cooper Square that I couldn’t find on Citysearch - apart from serving easily the largest dragon roll imaginable, their vegetable rolls are really cheap and really good. Maybe after sushi I’ll tackle fondue?