A Pound of Ro-Flesh...

Rohit Khare (khare@mci.net)
Tue, 30 Sep 1997 02:12:57 -0700


... is worth about $10, I learned today. Well, actually, $10 + three hours
of Ro-labor, fwiw. I continued settling in today by wandering around campus
for lunch, taking care of administrivial chores, and signing up at the gym
down the block from my new digs.

"24 Hour Fitness"

I love this country, man! Just think: all the equipment you can sweat, from
five AM Monday to eleven PM Friday ('til 8 on weekends, but it's an
imperfect world). No more bored 3AM excuses.

The chilling part is the signup term. It's like a high-pressure timeshare
sale, except you have to promise to use this resort *every single day*. In
fact, today was the last day of a sale. Instead of the usual 2 yrs for $598
deal, they were offering three years for $481. That's about 75% cheaper per
month than in Boston, but it just seems like such a massive committment. I
mean, *three years*? I could quit out of the PhD program by then! (though
certainly not emerge under my own power, another orientation discussion
today).=20

But I thought about it: $400 or so in Boston bought me -40 lbs, at $10/lb
of flesh. If I come close to my long-term objective of 220, then this is
another $10/lb investment. Plus untold hours of undervalued labor time, but
that pales beside the deal clincher: Four free Disney tickets

Part of the sale is that the whole dadburned 100-odd center chain is
renting out Disneyland on October 23 from 8:30pm-1:30am. Michelle, Adam,
Rajit, I'm expecting you to join me that Thursday; anyone else want to make
it an LA FoRKcon at $25/head for add'l tickets?

Truly a nifty new service. Their URL, I believe, is
http://www.24hourfitness.com/ but I may be wrong. They've been buying out
gyms to carpet SoCal and NoCal in outlets while selling chainwide portable
memberships. This isn't so new, but the density of outlets makes it
qualitatively worthwhile.

Unfortunately, Denny's and gym are the only 24 hour places in Irvine, it
seems (an d they're across the street from each other; how ept izzat?). I
got out of the gym after an evening of chair-shopping at 11:08 and
proceeded to hit the road to find some chow. Nothing in Irvine or Newport
Beach except a late chain franchisee or two. Kept getting snubbed by places
with OPEN signs that claimed to be shut upon inquiry.

I did a double-take, though, at Higher Grounds at the 55 and 1. A tiny
shack by the overpass, HG is open until 3 AM every night. Loud jukebox,
free pool tables, pinball machines, club kidz, good lighting and comfy
couches, and decadent cocoa. I think I'll be spending a LOT of time here. I
hope it don't fall into the sea, like Liberty, though.

The downside is that every last BP here is smoking (and well-pierced,on
average :-) I'd be miffed, but even I have to admit, cigarettes are cool
enough at providing *something* to do while standing around lookin' cool.
Especially when there are no martinis nearby. Cigarettes ARE cool, dammit,
and I'm strong enough to admit this AND swear off them =96 but not by
demonizing a personal decision to reduce society's life-insurance premiums.

LA FoRKcon ho!,
Rohit

---
Rohit Khare /// ex-MCI Internet Architecture (BOS) /// khare@mci.net
Voice+Pager: (617) 960-5131  VNet: 370-5131   Fax: (617) 960-1009

(the above contact info still works)