Sachin Agarwal: February 2006

When I moved to New York, I joined a pretty fancy gym. I wanted to make sure it was nice so I would go a lot, and this gym is so close to me I can actually see it from my apartment door.

Yesterday I had my free personal training session for joining and about half way through the trainer asks, "So are you familiar with Nora Jones's music?" and there she was, working out with her personal trainer! I guess she lives right around the corner from me.

I *definitely* couldn't pull out my camera (even if i had it on me) to get a picture of her at the gym.

I don't understand why people complain about the weather here. Ok, it is all new and fun for me and maybe I'll be sick of it after a while, but so far I'm not minding it at all (and actually enjoying it!) This past weekend was a record for New York. We got almost 30 inches of snow, the most since they started keeping records.

On Saturday night I had some plans to go out with various people, but everyone backed out because of news of the oncoming storm. "I'm still going out" I said. And I did. As the snow started falling on Saturday afternoon I met Gary and friends at the Bodies exhibition.

We went out Saturday night and I trekked home from Joe's house (Wall Street) in the snow at 5am right in the middle of the blizzard (getting a taxi was impossible). I slept through most of Sunday as the snow kept coming down. But that evening we went out again, snow or no snow. The hardest part for me was walking through the slushy mess. It's actually quite difficult to tell what parts of the snow are solid, what's an inch of slush, and what parts will come up to your ankles.

Later Sunday we walked through Central Park, which was covered in almost 30 inches of snow! It was gorgeous. We made snow angels, and had a snow ball fight. I tried to get some pictures but it was way too dark. I'm going to try to go back to the park before all the snow melts.

I've never really been a big fan of hybrids. This is mostly because I'm a car guy and I won't sacrifice performance for fuel economy (or safety, for that matter). But besides that, I wasn't fan because they aren't even economical. You usually pay a premium for the hybrid that you won't make up for several years (unless your company gives you a discount).

Today in the Times I read an interesting article about the Corporate Average Fuel Economy. I had read about this a lot in Car and Driver but something obvious never clicked to me before: car companies have to meet a minimum fuel economy for every car sold. So for every Prius Toyota sells, they are able to sell a gaz guzzler to balance it out.

By buying a hybrid, you think you are helping the environment and spewing less emissions into the air (and you are) but on the flip side someone else is out there balancing you out to zero net gain (I don't know this for a fact, but in theory). It's an interesting point that makes buying a hybrid (and in my opinion sacrificing your joy in driving) even less worthwhile.

Update: I guess I wasn't entirely clear here. I'm not saying "why buy a hybrid since someone else will buy a hummer and balance you out?" What I am saying, is the regulations for car manufacturers are pretty stupid in that Toyota is allowed to make more high polluting cars because they are able to sell many hybrids to people who care. The correct regulations would be "every car you manufacture has to get 30mpg or more" in which case buying a hybrid that gets 50mpg is helping the world.

Evan also pointed out to me that Toyota is beating the CAFE standards for their passenger cars (which is great!) so this isn't an issue with the Prius, but with the new hybrid SUVs (since they have different CAFE standards and classes)

Here's the original article

Jason Ahmad is an interesting character. I've been in New York for over a month now, and last night was the second time I had seen him. But wow, it was an incredible night.

Somehow this guy got Gary and me into a Fashion Show Week party at Embassy in Chelsea. It was open bar so Gary and I were having Grey Goose and Red Bulls for free. It didn't feel real. It was like something out of Sex and the City, a nice break from New York draining my wallet :)

Before that Gary and I had dinner at Hip Hop Chow in East Village. It's a fusion of Chinese and soul food. We got there and ordered beer, and we were told it was BYOB. So we ordered food and went across the street to buy drinks. Cheap alcohol, great food, highly recommended.

Overall one of the best (and cheapest!) nights in New York so far.

Back at Stanford Grant had a great quotes webpage where he had hilarious conversations, mostly between him and Geoff. During the month I stayed with Grant (thanks Grant!) we had many hilarious conversations, so I had to set up a webpage for him.

I give you Grant's Rants

I finally moved into my own apartment! It's great to finally unpack my bags. After two whole months I can finally sleep on a real mattress. My back was hurting!

Friday night the usual crew went out again, and we found ourselves at the same Korean club we usually do. This night was particularly drunk fun. Gary and I left at about 4 and I went home to my new place. At around 5 my buzzer went crazy and wouldn't stop ringing. I eventually let them in, and it turned out to be Grant and Joe. They sat for a while and had some water. And then somehow they both ended up falling on my bed and going to sleep! I couldn't get them up so I had to sleep on my sofa :(

Saturday I explored the city with a bunch of people. That night we went to some random bar to grab a quick bite. The place was completly empty. Then about 10 minutes later Rob Corddry from the Daily Show comes in with a huge group of people. 10 minutes after that, Ed Helms and Nathan Corddry. I'm guessing it was the whole Daily Show cast and crew (minus Jon Stewart)

Sunday was a bunch of New York specialties. We went to Magnolia's to have some of their famous cupcakes. Then I went shopping in the West Village and found some great deals. And finally that night Paul, Helena and I saw Avenue Q. It was a great show, I highly recommend it.