Tidal Wetlands

The tidal wetlands act of 1973 was put through by the DEC (Dept of Environmental Conservation), and was meant to protect them from landscaping, or any building along those shorelines.

They run around the southern tip of Staten Island, the entire coast of Long Island, which includes Shelter and Gardiner's Island, the lower Hudson River, all the way up to Troy Dam.

Shelter's, and Gardiner's Island are at the end of Long Island, in between there and Rhode Island.

Staten Island is in between New Jersey and Brooklyn.

Lower Hudson starts between those three, and Troy Dam is in Albany.

Permits are required by the Tidal Wetlands Permit Program, which regulates any activities between these areas.

12 Tidal Wetlands include:

Old Place Creek - Northern Staten Island, 20+ miles away from me, 2 hrs by mta.

Lemon Creek - Southern Staten Island, 30+ miles away from me, 2 hrs by mta.

Titus Mill Pond State - New Rochelle, near Mt Vernon and Yonkers,  20+ miles from me, around 2 hrs by mta.

Inwood Bay - Inwood, near John F. Kennedy Airport, closest to me probably, 2 hrs by mta.

Piermont Marsh - Orange Town, NY, like 40+ miles away from me, 2 hrs by mta.

Petteanger Island State - Is near Jones Beach Island, 40 miles away from me, no mta.

Ludlows Creek State - Oakdale, way in Long Island, hella like 50+ miles away from me, 2 hrs by mta.

Babylon Marsh State - Babylon, near Jones Beach Island, between Hempstead and Bayshore, 35+ miles away from me, no mta.

Stillman Creek - Bluepoint, 50+ miles away from me, no mta.

Baiting Hollow - Baiting Hollow, near the Wildwood State Park in Long Island, 70+ miles away from me, no mta.

Fireplace Neck - Brookhaven, next to the Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge in Long Island, 60+ miles away from me, no mta.

Mount Sinai - Mt Sinai, in Long Island, 60+ miles away from me, no mta.

Long Island encompasses two counties and two boroughs; boroughs include queens and kings, and counties include suffolk and nassau.

Boroughs are technically Long Island but they're more so their own thing, while the counties are more encompassed by Long Island's geography.

Nassau is more established than Suffolk.

Nassau is to Suffolk what Livermore is to Castro Valley, in the East Bay.

And Nassau and Suffolk is to Queens and Kings what like Oakland and Hayward is to the Central Valley, essentially what the East Bay is to the Central Valley.

You might disagree, but that's the best I could come up w, being from Hayward and Oakland. 

Bc like the Central Valley isn't like branching off into a peninsula the same way. 

I just realized I live on an island, technically.

Brooklyn is a part of the ninth region 

Essay Thing on One Change I Made to My Cover Letter

1. This is proof of how much attention I pay to form, and structure when it comes to any piece of writing I do. This is where I am now with my cover letter to a newsroom:

2. 9 paragraphs total, a lot of changes were made before I got to this point, but let me start by showing you where I am now by showing you exactly what I'm looking at whenever I look at this, which is just paragraphs 2-6:

3. I may, or may not go over all the changes it took to get through, and to this, but w these five paragraphs alone, I can already see a beginning, middle, and end.

The sentence in between the first, and last two is the middle. That's all I want, and need in between the initial address of my reader, and the thank you for reading the rest. However, there's one thing standing in my way, and that's paragraph 7.

Check it out w paragraph seven; 2-7:

4. Paragraph seven is the last thing you read before paragraph eight, and I guess I'm pairing the thank you for reading the rest w the paragraph before that starting w until then, making it eight paragraphs total.

Nine if we're splitting that last pair up, which again, we're not, but the point is before I make this anymore confusing for you, and myself is that I need to get rid of the seventh paragraph, bc w that we have three paragraphs after the third, which I wanted to be the middle, and in order for it to stay that way, it has to have the same number on both sides, which is two.

Plus I already said please in the last paragraph before that, so now you're just asking them for another thing, which should be a given anyways, after the confusing instructions you've given them to your least to most relevant samples.

Why are you even asking them to accept those things, after you've sounded this confident throughout? Hell yeah, they're gonna accept this cover letter, along w your references, which you still need to get. 

Just close it out after those confusing instructions you give to your samples:

5. See w that change, we went from 9 to 8 paragraphs total, 7 if we're going by my idea of combining the final thank you for reading w the paragraph before then, which we are, so 7 total.

Then from 229 to 210 wds. Granted the changes I didn't tell you I made to paragraphs 5-6, which was basically cause I completely rewrote them altogether, I hope this piece showed you how my attention to overall form, and structure led to my informed decision to cut the eighth paragraph altogether.

Please lmk what you think my chances of getting hired are w this cover letter in the comments, and would you look at that now? W this additional conclusion, in addition to the final drafted example of my cover letter, I have nine parts total to this piece here, if you include every example of my cover letter, which got me to this conclusion.

I thought I could leave it out, but then I couldn't w all of what I said, or didn't say about the changes I made before that in the beginning of the third part, and w that said I just blew my own mind w this, so I can only imagine what you're thinking.

I mean I just went over all this to tell you how I made one change to a cover letter I haven't even sent yet. I should just send this to the company I wanted to submit the cover letter to. They'd just read it, and be like na, this is way more than we asked for.

He's an overachiever, and there aren't enough of those, get him outta here. Or send it under a fake name, like demetri. And then they'll be all like damn demetri, you just wanna watch the world burn, huh.

Hella Warriors Poetry VII

Never realized how much I liked the warriors until I found myself standing up for them that night.

My friend was talking shit, so I guess I was up and arms. I wasn’t even drunk. I didn't even realize until he was like damn. 

I had no idea either. I think I just got hella pissed when he tried to say we’re like the Knicks now, bc fuck that. Hell no, don't you ever say such a thing. We been down that road for so many years. We're never going back.

Sorry, no offense, but Knicks are alone there, except for Randle and probably Rose. Idk enough about him to say. But Randle is nice though. 

Randle averages a double double every game, like a thirty point double double. He should be an all star, but he probably won’t be, bc he’s on the Knicks. 

Knickerbockers are like the pants jockeys wear. 

Curry came out in his shoes that night, they were like mids. He's released like five pairs in the last month. I wouldn't fuck w em, but I would fuck w those heat jerseys, tucked into some blue jeans.

Jimmy Butler's story is hella crazy, how like no one wanted him in the NBA. His mom kicked him out at 14, she fucked up. My friends think he's gonna be hella interesting in his post career, wild dude.

It was currys worst first quarter ever, but he came through in the fourth. Must’ve been tired from all those other games. Either way, that was like a really clutch performance from all three, Wiggins, Bazemore, and Curry.

With 26 points, eight rebounds, and three assists, Bazemore was player of the game. The combined efforts of his, along w back to back threes from Curry and Wiggins are what sealed the deal in OT. 

They literally won after my roommates went to bed. That's right, I watched it all by myself. It was hella crazy, and like that’s the biggest fourth quarter comeback they’ve ever had from 14 points, making it the worst upset for the heat. 

Comebacks like this are what got me into covering the warriors in the first place, when they did the same thing to the lakers, and the clippers around a month ago.

That's what makes this so full circle to me. I started covering the warriors on the twentieth of january, and tomorrow marks the twentieth of this month, so this feels like a good place to conclude this campaign, or change it up. 

I mean I plan to continue my coverage of the warriors throughout the rest of this season, but I don't plan to go in as much as I've been. These honestly got up to like 700 words, and I can't do that all season. 

But I know I gotta do something, so I guess all I gotta say for now is stay tuned.

The warriors played 17 games since I started covering every win. They won 10/17. This post here marks 7/10 I covered. 

Hella Warriors Poetry VI

Do you think warriors got heat?

I know they went to the finals last year, but they’re not all that good now, so Idk what they're up to. All I know is Jimmy Butler's hella tight. 

That's right, outside of the warriors, Jimmy butler and Dame Lillard are like my favorite players. Idk why. It's just like their energy. 

Like remember when Jimmy Butler couldn't find a good cup of coffee at Disney World, so he opened up his own stand, and started selling cups of his own at 20.00 a pop.

You could say basketball is art. It is; I saw this documentary on Juan toscano over the weekend and I hella liked it. He almost didn’t play. He lost interest and had to play in Mexico to get back into it. 

Then he came back and won a fight for a spot in the g-league, and played for them until he played his first game w the warriors against the lakers. Now he's in something like a dual contract.

Confirmed that his number 95 is meant to commemorate what street in Oakland he lived on. Got me, I thought it was for what year his parents moved here, or what year he was born.

The documentary was like six minutes on ig and I loved it. I found it hella inspiring and I highly recommend.

Toscano scored like eight points last saturday against the magic. Robert told me to stop calling them the Magics, bc it’s just Magic. I was like that doesn’t make any sense, without the s, if there’s more than one. 

But I guess magic can be either, out of singular or plural. He said it's both bc it’s just magic. I think there should be a team named after a bug. Like I know there's the hornets, but I mean like lice. Something like the louisianna lice.

Curry was dominant the other night against the cavs, and then what’s his name, Wiggins. But then again curry had him, and every other player on the team by like 20 points, or so, like he’s doing everything right now. Like he’s - I can't remember how everyone else did.  

I know draymond had his career best w like 6 points, 8 rebounds, and 16 assists, and he was hella pissed to see cavs center Andre Drummond seated throughout. Buyouts are usually bad right? Like when it comes to trading players, like if you’re passed the trade deadline, so they just buy you outta your contract?

That's just like saying we don’t want you anymore so much we’ll pay you for nothing, to go away almost, we don't care where, just go. I guess Drummond was gonna go to the nets, when the cavs going w Jarrett Allen fucked that up somehow, so now he doesn’t know what he’s gonna do. And it doesn't seem like the cavs do, or care either.

Their loss, I mean Drummond was their second leading scorer, his replacement Allen cursed out Sexton at the end of the second half over a missed foul call from one of the officials, and they lost the entire game by something like 30 points.

Kevin Durant is taking a couple of games off due to a pulled left hamstring. Wondering which teams have been most affected by covid restrictions and regulations, Nets have had 17 different starting lineups this season, tied w the wizards. 

I remember Gobert of the Utah Jazz giving everyone covid last year, when he gave everyone wet willies, trying to make a point, crazy ass. They've won something like 16 of their last 20 games, they're hella raw right now. W 23-5, they probably have the best record in the league.

Hella pics of my first handwriting in months

Hella insights on how I got through these two shortlists for best foreign film

I don’t really circulate these much among my peers for proofs and edits, or feedback bc you can’t really criticize them.

It’s just like an archive, a bibliography, a works cited list. And you know how hard those are to put together? 

It’s just like busy work that you don’t have to do, bc I did it for you, so if you have anything against that then Idk what to say. 

Here we have two lists of foreign films that made Indiewire's shortlist for what they expected to be nominated for this years oscars, and then the revised official shortlist of foreign films from the academy itself. And from the outset, every list after Indiewire's shortlist is modified according to what I saw, what I couldn't find and couldn't see, what didn't make the official oscars shortlist, what I saw out of what did, what I saw out of what was added, and then finally the total seen out of that list.

Under every variation of each list, in which there are seven total, is information like where you can stream them for free, or rent. If I couldn’t find them streaming anywhere, I found what else you can stream by that director. Then if I couldn’t find either, I just said that without any further research. 

What made this difficult was when the official shortlist for this years best foreign film actually came out as I was working on the shortlist of predictions for that released by Indiewire. As a consequence, this went through several drafts, all while trying to figure out what my reasoning behind making this actually was, which I don't think I ever got, bc I don't think there was any. 

So in any case, let's just begin here w Indiewire's shortlist of predictions: 

Another Round (Prime rental 6.99)
Apples
Beginning (Mubi)
Charlatan
Collective (Early Access 6.99)
Dear Comrades (Hulu)
Hope
I’m No Longer Here (Netflix)
La Llorona (Shudder)
The Mole Agent (Hulu)
My Little Sister
Never Gonna Snow Again 
Notturno (Prime rental 4.99)
A Sun (Netflix)
Vitalena Varela (Prime rental 4.99)

Saw 10/15:

Vitalena Varela (Prime rental 4.99)
A Sun (Netflix)
Notturno (Prime rental 4.99)
The Mole Agent (Hulu)
La Llorona (Shudder)
I’m No Longer Here (Netflix)
Dear Comrades (Hulu)
Collective (Early Access 6.99)
Beginning (Mubi)
Another Round (Prime rental 6.99)

Takeaways:

I spent a total of 24.00 on this round of films. 

Another Round, and Vitalena Varela were in each of the last two essays I wrote about Indiewire's 50 best of 2020 list. Another Round was in the first one about movies I had seen. Vitalena Varela was in that one too, but I hadn't watched. I said I was gonna at the end, and then I think did that same night, as promised, and I wasn't crazy about it. 

Collective was also mentioned in the second article, but I didn't watch it until I saw it on this list. W this in mind, you can subtract 12.00 from the list of movies I rented making the only ones I rented Notturno, and Collective for a total of 12.00, which I could've saved another five from, had I waited for Notturno to come to Hulu. 

I almost spent more, and I would've if I hadn't found the The Mole Agent, and Dear Comrades was on Hulu. And again, I could've saved 5.00 if I would've waited for Notturno to come to Hulu. 

I watched I'm No Longer Here long before I saw any of these lists, and I was excited to see A Sun on Netflix, as well. And as another note on that, I gotta say they're 3/3 w movies that are 2 1/2 hrs long. I mean The Devil All the Time, Da 5 Bloods, and now this? Where I would say those were better, this one holds up. 

Didn’t see 5/15:

My Little Sister
Never Gonna Snow Again
Apples
Charlatan
Hope

Takeaways:

You can't find Hope, or anything by director Maria Sodahl. 

Charlatan is by Agnieska Holland, and you can find a lot of her movies on Amazon Prime. All I know of is the Secret Garden. I wasn't interested in watching any of them, but Mr Jones, and it's streaming for free on Hulu.

Can't find anything by the director of Apples, Christos Nikou. This is like his third movie, but I'm interested. Sounds like a protege of Yorgos Lanthimos.

This is awkward, bc My Little Sister wasn't available three weeks ago when I started drafting, but it is now on Prime and Vudu for 3.99, or one dollar more. I watched The Little Bedroom, which was all I could find by Stephanie Chuat and Veronique Reymond. I think this is their second movie.

You can't find Never Gonna Snow Again anywhere other than through maybe virtual cinema, but you can find Body, Elles, and The Other Lamb on Prime. Body was meh. The Other Lamb looks good. I didn't see that before. Body is free through Mubi, and The Other Lamb is on Hulu. 

6/15 didn’t make it:

My Little Sister (Prime rental 3.99)
Never Gonna Snow Again
Apples
Vitalena Varela (Prime rental 4.99)
Notturno (Prime rental 4.99)(Hulu)
Beginning (Mubi)

Takeaways:

I didn't wanna talk about these movies, and I can't talk about the first three either way, but I can see why the last three didn't make it. 

Beginning, and Notturno probably had the best chance, but that's still hella wishful thinking, especially for the former. 

Saw 7/9 that did make it:

Hope
Charlatan
Another Round (Prime rental 6.99)
Collective (Early Access 6.99)
Dear Comrades (Hulu)
The Mole Agent (Hulu)
I’m No Longer Here (Netflix)
A Sun (Netflix)
La Llorona (Shudder)

Takeaways:

I talked about every one of these in someway, but La Llorona, and all I can say about that is it's good, but Idk if it's worth starting a trial for, but I would assume so if it's the only way I have of seeing it. 

Saw 2/6 added to that list of 9: 

Better Days (Prime rental 3.99)
Two of Us (Prime rental 6.99)
Quo Vadis, Aida?
Sun Children
The Man Who Sold his Skin
Night of the Kings 

Takeaways:

The two films added to this brought my rental total up to 35.00. 

The screening of the last one brings it to 42.00, but it's not worth listing where I saw it, bc it will probably be gone by the time you read this. It was a one week though, at the film forum.

The Miami Film Festival is also gonna be running a virtual screening of Sun Children on 3/9 if you wanna order tickets; looks good.

So I saw 10/15 from this official oscars shortlist for this year’s best international foreign film:

Dear Comrades (Hulu)
The Mole Agent (Hulu)
Two of Us (Prime rental 6.99)
Better Days (Prime rental 3.99)
A Sun (Netflix)
I’m No Longer Here (Netflix)
La Llorona (Shudder)
Collective (Early Access 6.99)
Another Round (Prime rental 6.99)
Night of the Kings

Takeaways:

This list isn't ranked for anything, other than the order I saw them in.

I don't think I can rank them. But I can say the most worthwhile rentals to me were probably the Collective, and Another Round. And the most rewatchable were probably Dear Comrades, The Mole Agent, and I'm No Longer Here.

Notice I don't mention any names of the directors of films I watched, or how I felt about them, and I think that's bc that, nor how I felt about it was as important to me as telling you how I got ahold of it, period.

And I think after this final revision, the purpose of this as a whole was to show you how I got through both lists, period.

So again, I hope if anything, this did just that. 

Hella Warriors Poetry V

Before I get into it, I wanna start by saying I finally released a Super Bowl joke today. 

That's right, it’s hella ridiculous. I was telling Robert and my dad Tom I’m about to get you good, watch, for like five hundred wds.

Hella topical and relevant, it’s a timely piece. I was gonna publish it w another journal, but they do like a pdf, and they dk when it’s coming out, so I had to hit another editor to see if he could get it up by Thursday. 

I was gonna say if he couldn’t I would’ve had to post it here, but he said he could have it up sooner than that, and by that he meant today, so here it is. 

Stop calling Tom Brady the goat on expat lit. 

Also shoutouts to manny for putting this one out there just in the nick of time, thanks again. 

Anyway, I keep thinking what if I interviewed marshawn Lynch about Stephen Curry on my blog? That would be sick, right? That would be tight af.

Curry's still running around, you know? I was gonna say he doesn't care anymore after seeing him score 57 points in their loss to the mavs, but then after seeing them lose to the spurs on Monday I was like nvm, he's pissed. Did you see him kick the air? And who can blame him?

I mean what was Draymond thinking, right? He must've been thinking like I'm gonna save the day. He must've thought someone would try to get him to the line, but no one contested it. No, no one was gonna. Why would they? It's not like it's Curry. It's not like who it was supposed to be.

Different story last night though, w Curry's 32 points, they must've won by something like 20-30. As the oldest living coach in the NBA at 72, Gregg Popavich was popapissed. 

You know Texas has hella basketball teams though; Spurs, Rockets and mavs. But Texas is also hella big. All those places are all like three to four hrs a part. Noticed the spurs must not be in as much high demand as the mavs too, bc their game against the warriors wasn't nationally televised. The mavs made tnt, and abc. Probably cause of that fool Luka. Everyone hella fucks w Luka. 

I was thinking the other day I don’t think doncic drinks, but he probably does shit w weed you couldn’t ever possibly even get your head around. All of them do, right? All athletes, Kansas City Chiefs Safety Tyrann Mathieu showed up to his first practice at LSU in a hotbox, and it wasn't chill. He did time for it. He was doing time when he was drafted.

Speaking of which, Quarterback Patrick Mahommes better get checked out after that game. CTE is so real, and it's even worse for boxers. How do you think Muhammad Ali got parkinsons? As he got older he'd just let opponents beat the shit out of him until they got tired.

I didn't know that. I had no idea until Ladson told me at the superbowl. He also told me shaggy was in the marines. That's right, Mr. Bombastic was in the gulf war. He wrote it wasn't me in a foxhole. 

Watching the nuggets last night, I was like what's the mile high club, and Robert was like it's when you have sex on an airplane, and I was like oh, bc it says mile high on the nuggets jerseys. He was like oh no, that's for the city, mile high city in Denver. That would be a crazy thing to have on your jersey, and I was like yeah, they'd be like I'm sorry but you guys can't name your city after that slogan.