Perambulation

mobile blogging.

I'm blogging from my phone. I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner. Hopefully i'll post more often.

Manhattan Sunrise.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

Camera Skills.

so this is what i've got. where you at??

and yes, the picture quality is much better than in the youtube vid. just scroll down and check 'em out!

Bulls being 'dogs.

With nearly a third of November gone and only my third or forth post of the month, it's safe to say that this whole NoBloMo is bust. Oh well, there's always the puppy cam (as recently mentioned on Monday night's countdown as an alternative to obsessing over the Obama's new pooch).

I'm reading a new book: Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. Tres interestante. It's been a little slow though, as I only read on my way to work (usually 35 minutes from door to door) and discussing the domestication of acorns can make a sleepy person even sleepier. 

The big event happens this weekend. Red Bull New York play the Columbus Crew for the MSL cup. I'm pumped. Going to the preeminent soccer pub in the city to watch. Should be a good time. RBNY are the underdogs, but I think they've got a few tricks up their sleeve and are peaking at just the right time. The game is on ABC so check it out.

More exciting stuff coming up for the Thanksgiving holiday. Stay tuned.

Hot, Flat and Completely Making Sense.

Yeah, so about posting every day during NaBloMo... Well, it didn't exactly work as you can see.

Anyways...

I finished Thomas L. Friedman's new book Hot, Flat and Crowded. The structure is similar to his last book The World is Flat: Friedman networks with many different people and weaves those interviews into a convincing argument. He wrote an enlightening chapter on petrodictators. If this chapter alone doesn't convince you why we need to be energy independence, I don't know what will. He provides a very clear picture of the situation in America, China, and rest of the world. Just like TWIF, Friedman dwells at times (making you want to gouge your eye out with a carbon neutral knife). All in all, it was a great book to read. Just before I started this book, I enlisted in the army: T.Boone's army and am on a climate change kick right now. Coming out of this book, I believe that we need a New Deal-esq goverment project for energey independence. It will not only give the middle finger to OPEC and create thousands of jobs to replace those that are lost daily, but will also bring back some of the jobs lost in other industries, as people will once again have money to spend on clothes, food, entertainment, etc.

NYC Marathon

First: My street.

And now for the main event. Today I ventured down to Central Park for the ING New York City Marathon. It was great! The lighting and angles were tricky, as I was going from shooting objects 50 meters away to 5 meters away, but I couldn't give up the great back drop of the shot. Here's what I was dealing with:

 

There was great "dappled" light, as they say, but I was constantly adjusting my f-stops and EV comp just to deal with the rising sunlight. I kept blowing out my pictures (and hey, I'm a little rusty here! Read the last post and you'll mebbe understand. Cut me some slack) and all you could see was white.

  

I snuck onto the course before the closed it down and snapped a few shots. The grandstand in the back is the finish line. As you can see, the early morning runners were getting their fix before the pros rolled on through. Next year I have to remember to bring my boxing gloves and "Eye of the Tiger" mix tape and run up and down the last 400 yards before I'm kicked off to make up for those 364 days of non training I have to endure.

I also snapped this picture of the mounted horse patrol getting ready before the race.

It's fall in NYC. And now onto the race photos. As I mentioned, the light and depth were messing with my mind and I am a little out of practice, so I didn't very good shots of the winners of each category. The following are my favorite pictures from the day (note: I shot nearly 600 frames today and came away with only 12 or so).

 

Those are the wheelchairs and the hand bikes.

Does anyone else besides me see the comedy in the name of the runner in blue? His last name is AWOL and he's running (presumably away from something).

And finally, possibly the best frame I shot all day.

Welcome back Kotter.

Yeah, it's been a while.

It's been a crazy summer where plans were made, changed, remade, and changed again. I was going to work in Ireland, I wasn't, then I was, then I decided not to.

I'm here in New York, kicking like always. I have moved from the Bronx to Manhattan (cue other 1970s sitcom music) to the Washington Heights neighborhood. I'm just north of Harlem at 150th street and I have a great view of Yankee Stadium (old and new) just across the Harlem river. I'm not too far from my original New York roots.

I got a job, but the only downside is the location: New Jersey. I call it purgatory, because you're almost in New York, but not quite, having only a spectacular view reminding you what you're missing out on. That's why I'm living in NYC, so that I can partake in the wonders isle.

So why I'm posting: November is National Blog Posting Month. My fellow blogger Family Phil brought this fact to my attention. You're suppose to blog every day for the entire month of November. I didn't realize that until today, so this post is meant to actually be posted on November 1st. I'm retroactively posting this. So yeah, look for more of me.

You know you're from the country when...

you ask the lady at Duane Reade where the bag balm is located and they have no idea what you're talking about.

You also know you're from the country when you try to start to explain what bag balm is and then give up three words into the first sentence and just ask where the aloe and other anti-itching creams are located.

Setting the record straight.

I know you're all wondering, and so I'd just like to get it out there.

We are in the heart of fois gras country and apparently there's a lot of issues over the whole force feeding and the horrid manner in which theses goosies are raised. (I have never been aware of the issue before this trip.) PETA would have a fit over me saying all of this, but I love the stuff! Bring it on! If there's something on my plate and it tastes delicious, then bring me more! Several stories to highlight my point:

-We passed a farm of geese yesterday and they were all out laying on a dirt patch that I believe was once covered in grass. It was a meager setting and hotter than merde, but nothing too oppresive. It was no Jungle a la Sinclair. We have ranches in the States where cows and chickens are raised and injected with growth hormones. I ask you, what's so different than this? The guys aren't being hurt and you're just maximizing you're return.

-I have to admit that whenever dining at a restaurant or cafe (see: 3 times a day), it's always very interesting because very little English is spoken. When you mix that with the fact that I speak next to nothing of the French language, you make for some very interesting menus selections.
Me: "What's L'entrement?"
Mom: "I don't know"
Me: "Hmm.. I guess we're about to find out."
When I ordered said entrement, I was presented with three patties covered in a mushroom sauce over waffles. WAFFLES!! YAY! I was do distracted by the waffles that I forgot to examine the entrement before consumption. One. Two. Three bites in. Sacre Blu! This is good stuff! I then remembered I had to examine what entrement was. It had a meaty consistency to it, but it was too fine. As I looked closer, I realized it was liver. I was eating liver from a goose! I was completely tricked by the lack of language but delightfully surprised by what I was consuming.

Up to that point, I had only taken down little bits and pieces of the gras of fois, but after these two experiences, I am all about the stuff. Normally I never eat stuff that I know what it is, but thanks to the language barrier, I am eating all sorts of new foods. MM, dericious!!

(And then I start to think about the PETA people. They don't like this stuff. Are they completely against fun too!? Are they the ones who repeatedly try to cancel Christmas and set the record "straight" about the Easter Bunny? I'd like to talk about this some more, but I guess it's an issue for another post.)

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NB: Just back from dinner and had the duck. It wasn't that good. A fluke? Mebbe. Rethinking my stance. Stay tuned.