RIDGEWOOD RESERVOIR, FUR REAL!

This weekend, I finally visited the Exercise Path around the former Ridgewood Reservoir!  I was in the area before, mostly for NYRR OpenRun in the part of Highland Park that is adjacent to Jamaica Avenue, near Elton Street.  At some point, I read about how great the restoration of the area around the former Ridgewood Reservoir was.  A few times I actually parked my car in the big lot on Vermont Place, the Path is just across Vermont but I never had the chance to explore.  Yes, one time I walked around hitting easy 2- or 3-node streets for CityStrides.  But this weekend, having about an hour free before I had to be in Applebee's Queens Center for a meetup with alums from Newtown High School, I decided to give it a go.

At first, I thought I would just go up the set of stairs on Highland Boulevard, by the ballfields.  Then I said "Let's just go counter-clockwise to the next set of stairs leading down".  One thing led to another, in the end I made a loop, a slow, leisurely loop during which I took some photos shown in the slideshow link below.

One reason for my reluctance to visit the Path was that the area maybe desolate.  I don't want to be a victim of a crime of opportunity.  My walk dispelled that fear, at least for the hours around 9 A.M. and 11 A.M.  There were other people walking, running, rollerblading, and even a cyclist or two.  The loop is only a little over a mile, I think the cyclists only passed through the area and didn't go around the reservoir.  The pave path has plenty of room for people to go clockwise or counter-clockwise.

My original vision of the reservoir is that it's similar to the big one in Manhattan's Central Park.  Huge, somewhat circular in shape, plenty of water, I thought.  Recall that the Ridgewood Reservoir was retired some years ago.  There were three basins laid side by side, only the middle one still has water.  As explained in one of the info boards I photographed, over many years, the two side basins went from barren, to having low-grow plants, to shrubs, to small trees, and finally tall trees.  A forest was born.  Together the three basins, former and whatnot, form a little rectangle, with the black metal fence keeping the undesirables out.

I look forward to re-visiting the Reservoir but this time exploring the exits from it, to better explore the nearby streets.

Visit to Ridgewood Reservoir Exercise Path

KAMAL CHAOS

From time to time, when I go for a run I try to spell out a word or two.  Or even a small picture.  It is called Route Art.  Other runners do it too, some do epic work that take days and require marathon distance; others, not so.  I specialize in words and my latest effort was supposed to be Kamal, for a fan of my cartoon drawings.  Some years ago he and I worked for the same corporation.  I usually use the Strava app on my smartphone but have to switch to Runkeeper because of the First-World Problem detailed below*.  It's not quite the same using Runkeeper to "write" the word.  I use this trick to cut through a city block, by making use of the Pause and Resume function.  With Strava, when I press Pause the app simply stays so, the Resume button is right whenever I needed it.  With Runkeeper, once the activity is paused, the app seems to go haywire.  There is no Resume button to press!  I would have to "kill" the app by scrolling through the list of active apps and swipe up on Runkeeper.  A very scary feeling!  Like when a certain app in Windows freezes and you have to go to Task Manager to kill the process.  With Windows, that means losing whatever work you were doing.  Luckily, that's not the case with Runkeeper, as I can resume the run once the app is re-launched.  But it shouldn't be that way.

Perhaps because of the awkward way Runkeeper works, or NOT work with my artsy way of running, I miscalculated and ran a block long for the letter K in Kamal.  From the corner of Bath and Bay 35th, I should have run to Benson and Bay 32nd, not Bay 31st.  I also realized shortly afterward that I also forgot to write the bottom of the letter a, the one right after K.  I usually go back and correct one mistake, but two mistakes is too much for me.  I'll just try the run another day.

*When it comes to workout tracking app, Strava is the king of the hill.  It is so popular with runners and cyclists that the phrase Strava or it didn't happen came into being.  In other words, if you cannot show your activity as recorded in Strava, then people may not believe that you actually did it.  There is another app/web site called Relive that makes a little movie out of Strava activities.  It's especially satisfying to watch when the run spells out a word or draws a picture.  Unfortunately, there is some disagreement between Strava and Relive over the use of user data and Strava stopped allowing Relive from pulling data from Strava's users.  Other apps, such as Runkeeper, still work with Relive but it's just not the same.  I told you it's a First-World Problem.

LOST: CAPTAIN AMERICA; FOUND: GREEN BLOB

Many years ago, I saw the movie The Pursuit of Happyness, starring Will Smith, on an airplane.  I think it was a return trip from Asia, so many hours on the plane, I could only sleep so much and eventually decided to watch a movie to pass the time.  I didn't see the whole movie, probably started watching a quarter of the way in.  I knew that Will Smith's character was homeless and got stuck with a son, tried to go to job interview, slept in homeless shelter etc.  I didn't catch the ending either but there was a scene that made me sad.

Supposedly Smith's character, Chris Gardner, was trying to get to a homeless shelter in time for something, maybe dinner, maybe curfew, but he was in a rush.  He dragged his son along and when they were hurriedly crossing the street the little boy dropped an action figure of Captain America in the middle of the road.  There was no time to turn back, they had to move along so the kid was crying the whole time.  Or at least that's what I recall, I haven't seen the movie again since then.  The toy meant a world to the little boy and it was gone.

Yesterday, as I was out CityStriding, near the end I crossed Flatbush Avenue Extension near Dekalb Market, from the L.I.U. side to City Point.  Coming from the other side of the street, there was a group of women each with a kid or two.  Some kids were in strollers, others were held by the hand by the, supposedly, mothers.  One of the walking kid dropped a green blob toy, probably one of those that you can get from a toy vending machine.  For 50 cents, or maybe $1 now, you get this toy that comes in a half-dome, maybe with a folded paper teaching you how to play it, or not to eat it.  The kid immediately shouted but the mother just went on crossing the street with the group, pulling the boy along.  I quickly scooped up the toy and made a U-turn to give the toy to one of the woman in the group, then turned again to continue my trip.  I think the boy was happy to get his toy back.  He may have a lot of other toys at home but at that time, that little green blob was his favorite.

GET RICH QUICK... NOT!!!

In this day and age, the typical scene in a subway station, before the train arrives, consists of many people, if not all, with the nose glued to the screen of their cell phone.  Same thing while the train is in motion.  Many people are probably playing some connect-three games, the more annoying ones are watching movies or video clips without a headphone so that everyone nearby has to here the clips too, and the others perhaps do Facebooking or what-not.  Maybe, just maybe, some are making beer money with the down time.  You don't necessarily have to be a beer-drinker to make beer money.  It's just a phrase to refer to some minimal amount of money one can make on the side.  You have the gig economy like Fiver and Uber then you have a whole cottage industry for people with smartphones to make nano-pennies on their "free time".

• I'll get straight to the best one, in my opinion.  None of that "watch to the end" or "you won't believe it" click-baiting...  So there is this king-of-the-hill search engine called Google and Microsoft wants to get into the game.  MS came up with its own search web site, Bing, supposedly short for Bing is not Google.  To attract users, MS, with its deep pocket, offers Bing users rewards points for using the new search engine.  Bing is not new any more but the battle between the two titans still rage on and you can get Amazon gift cards, albeit slowly or however quickly you use Bing, just by using Bing, either via the web site, the smartphone app, or even the Edge browser.  You don't necessarily have to use it as a search engine.  Read the news, take quiz of the day, it's actually pretty useful.
• Next we have the Shopkick app.  As the name implies, you are supposed to go shopping via the app.  There are different categories of stuff to shop for, or just window-shopping, and sprinkled here and there are "surprise" buttons you can click to earn a point.  There are also video clips you can watch to earn three or more points each.  If you happen to walk by a sponsor store, you can get even more by just walking into the store (with the app enabled), by scanning particular items as instructed by the app, or by buying certain things as the apps dictated.  Not a good app to have if you are a shopaholic, but it's always a battle out there.
• Last, and least, is Swagbucks.  It is a combination of both of the above, and more.  You can search with it, via the app or the web site, but it's throw of a dice if you'll get any points with the search.  You can watch video clips but it takes much work to get a few points.  Not only you have to watch the clips, you have to interact with the text articles dispersed among the clips.  There are different categories of video clips but they are not useful at all.  For example, the News category should really be called Historical as the news shown is nowhere current.  The Music category has just Country Music, if that's what you like more power to you.  The only thing that I use Swagbucks for is the Daily Poll.  Just one question with multiple choice answer, you can get a quick buck with the Poll.  I am sure they can build a profile of me over the many days I answer the Poll, but it's less harmful than those surveys that promise to take only 15 minutes or so.

LONG ISLAND MOTORING

Up until recently, I was working as a field technician, with the majority of the time driving to many places in Long Island, or to be exact, Nassau County and Suffolk County.  Occasionally, the job also involves driving up north, as far as Sleepy Hollow.  It was a big change for me, as before that I mostly commuted by subway.  I used to think traffic woes only existed in busy commercial areas like Manhattan or certain parts of Brooklyn or Queens but was I wrong.  I thought parking shouldn't be a problem out in Long Island, but like those huge mall parking lots being full during the holiday season, some lots in Long Island area just not big enough.  It was a painful, but I also learned something useful, and lest my mind forget I better make a note or two here:

• Most office buildings offer a place for the general public to buy food.  In my book, skipping lunch is a sin.  Someone fought hard for that right, I shouldn't squander it away.  I always try to find time for lunch, but in some remote office park in Long Island, the answer may not be so apparent.  Lots of time just asking around is enough.  I enjoy walking around so if the building I work in doesn't offer a food place, the building across the street may.  Of course, if you are a picky eater then this won't help you.
• Along with the food place usually there's a restroom.  It's not just for relieving oneself, but also for washing the face to feel refreshed, like during those hot summer days.
• While parking is not as easy as I thought it is, there usually is some places to park, if you don't mind walking a little bit.  As a long distance runner, a few blocks of walking is almost nothing for me, but I can see how insurmountable the task is for the typical couch potatoes.
• Some local communities work with their town officials to prevent people parking on their blocks.  Everyone on the block have their own garage so it's not because of lack of parking space on the street.  I suppose an outsider once or twice did something bad, maybe a loiterer or whatever, to those communities. So these communities have local regulations that say No Parking from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M., to force people to park elsewhere.  It's just one of those things that make me think, "That's why we cannot have nice things."

ON MANHATTAN BRIDGE, CYCLISTS BELONG ON THE NORTH SIDE

We New Yorkers like to complain a lot and here's my current beef.  After work yesterday, I walked from Brooklyn to Manhattan via the Manhattan Bridge.  The Brooklyn Bridge was closer for me but I didn't want to mingle with the many tourists there.  Besides, there isn't anything to separate the cyclists from the pedestrians.  It amazes me that accidents between cyclists and pedestrians don't happen everyday on the Brooklyn Bridge.  On the Manhattan Bridge, cyclists have their path on the north side of the bridge, while pedestrians are to walk on the south side.  It's a perfect arrangement, isn't it?  I do my walking here, you do your riding there, separated by a few subway tracks and lanes of vehicular traffic.  Or so I thought.

During my walk I witnessed at least five bicycles on the pedestrian lane.  There was a guy rollerblading too, although I am not sure which lane he belongs.  I think since he traveled at speed higher than most walkers, he should be in the bike lane, too. Back to our two-wheeled annoyances, are those cyclists ignorant of the two separate paths?  Or they are just too lazy to enter the bridge at the proper places?  Human nature usually disappoints me, I'll assume the worst that people just do whatever convenient for them, rules be damned.  But just in case there are those out there who somehow don't know the rules and come across this post, and then start to ride on the proper lane, then my job is done.  For now anyway.

I'M WALKIN' HERE! I'M WALKIN' HERE!

And I sure walked a lot.  New York City is a pedestrian paradise, in some ways.  Yes, there are many rude, or even evil, car-drivers and then there are also many lawless cyclists ready to knock down pedestrians.  In general, the great thing is one can walk almost everywhere.  Or run, for that matter.  I used to be an avid runner, got up early in the morning to run a few miles, wash off the dirt, then go to work.  Then I started working at a job that required a car commute, a commute that would be so much worse if I didn't leave the house by a certain hour in the morning.  That meant no more running in the morning before going to work.  I was able to walk a lot, before work or after, or during lunch breaks.   I still ran on the weekends, or during the week on those rare days when I finished work early.

Wouldn't it be nice to visualize all that walking and running on one map?  Yes, and that's exactly what the web site CityStrides offer.  It is free to use, with some extra features if you pay for a subscription.  There are a few subscription tiers, I think anyone with a job should be able to afford the fee, just to support the work of the one man who runs the whole thing.

Below is my map of New York City, i.e. the five boroughs (The Bronx, Manhattan, Brook, Queens, and Staten Island) combined.  My activities only cover about 25% of the entire NYC so there is much work left to be done.  There is no fame or fortune to claim, just bragging rights among friends or friendly competitors.  A few people already covered the entire city, measured by some other means. The movie The World Before Your Feet chronicles one such feat.  The guy in that movie didn't have a full-time job and achieved the goal in about six years.  I have other obligations to satisfy so for now I am happy with my slow progress.

MADE-TO-ORDER OUTLOOK

With the new job comes a new laptop that needs to be configured my way.  My usual customization include:

• Create a folder in Outlook called something like Addressed To Me.  I read it somewhere for the idea, to avoid wading through the many email messages that do not mention me specifically but rather address some distribution list(s) that I belong to.  Recent versions of Outlook has this option as a filter, or Focus, but I like the actual folder to hold messages addressed to me personally.
• Having the Addressed To Me folder is more useful when it is coupled with a rule that move messages there when the criteria is met, i.e. I am addressed directly.
• Even better, there is an option to open the Addressed To Me folder when Outlook is launched.  By default, Outlook focuses on the Inbox when it is launched.  I think because of this option, the Focus alone won't do what I need.
• I always read my email when I first turn on the computer.  To get Outlook started at login time, I place a shortcut to Outlook in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup .  Note that ProgramData is a Hidden folder, to see it you would need to enable seeing of Hidden folders.
• One new "feature" with the more recent versions of Outlook is NOT opening a new email in its own window.  I find that annoying.  To open the new email in its own window, you would need to click on some button to pop-out the message.    Too much work!  So one additional customization I have to do is to check Open replies and forwards in a new window, in Outlook Options, Mail, as shown below.

NEWTOWN HIGH SCHOOL (ELMHURST) AUTUMN ASSEMBLY

Hello again, Blogosphere!  I recently changed job and won't be spending many hours stuck in traffic any more.  The new job will involve subway commute, even as bad as it can be sometimes, at least I won't have to fight for parking spots, watch out for crazy drivers, etc.  In theory I should have more free time, so I think it's a good time to re-visit blogging.  I like to write, to produce original content, and the nano-pennies I make with Google Ads won't hurt.

I've been active in helping run a Facebook group for alumni of my high school, Newtown High School in Elmhurst.  The group has over 2,500 members and every now and then I host a meetup to meet people in person, outside of Facebook.  The next one will be:

Saturday September 28, 2019
Applebee's Queens Center
90-15 Queens Boulevard
Elmhurst, NY
noon to 2 P.M.

Link to Facebook event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/942908752727240/

If you prefer to have nothing to do with Facebook, use the Google Calendar button below: