Geographic Word Links?

A niece of mine, who we shall call JC, likes to play with me a version of what I described in the last post as Word Links. Instead of regular words, however, we would use names geographic locations. Continents, nations, cities, mountains, rivers, and so on. It is nice that a kid actually likes geography, what with so many adults, not just kids, in the U.S.A. so ignorant of world geography. I am a tad above average myself with geography so I can use a lesson or two on the topic. It is not enough to utter the geographic words but also say something about them, how the places are important enough to be known. Hey, a little history is good to know, too.

Like the regular Word Links games, certain letters appear often at the end of these "words". I think most annoying is the letter "A". You have ASIA, AUSTRALIA, AFRICA, AMERICA, ANGOLA, and so on. You can spend the whole game using only words that end and start with the letter "A" - no fun at all. The letter "Y" also comes up often at the end of word, although there are not that many geo-words that start with it. "K" is another letter that behaves like "Y". If my memory serves me right, "E" and "N" geo-words are hard to come by, too.

In the spirit of making the Geo Word Links game better, I've created the following list of words with some info about them. Most info comes from Wikipedia, others from an ancient (1982) Compton's Encyclopedia I rescued off the street some years ago, and some just whatever came to my head, including attempts at humor. Feel free to chime in with suggestions or correction of facts. Enjoy!

Name Remark Amsterdam Capital city of the Netherlands. Anchorage The largest city in Alaska. Annapolis Capital city of Maryland. Antietam Part of Virginia, site of the bloodiest, single-day battle of the American Civil War. Arlington Part of Virginia, best known for the Arlington National Cemetery. Edinburgh Capital city of Scotland. Egypt A country in north Africa, home to the Sphinx and Pyramids. Elizabeth Port city of New Jersey, home to Ikea and Jersey Garden Mall. Estonia A country in Northern Europe. At the end of World War II, as the Russian Army advanced toward Germany, it took over Estonia and nearby countries. It was not until 1991 that Estonia became an independent country again. Ethiopia A country in Africa. In the 1980s, Ethiopia was the victim of famines. The Supergroup USA for Africa raised money for Ethiopia and similar victims with its song "We Are the World". Everglades A vast area of land and water in southern Florida, by now (2010) probably taken over by golf courses and time-share condos. Kathmandu Capital city of Nepal. Keyna A nation in Africa popularly known for having top winners in the New York City Marathon. Khe Sanh A city in the former South Viet Nam. The U.S. had an army base there and, as a show of force, the North Vietnamese Army laid siege to the base, but was unsuccessful at capturing it. Kilimanjaro The highest mountain in Africa. Knoxville The third largest city of Tennessee (U.S. state) Komodo An island in Indonesia once used as an exile prison, now best known for its komodo dragon, a large, ferocious lizard. Kosovo A region in Serbia that has been trying to gain independence from Serbia. Kyoto A city in Japan where the Kyoto Protocol was adopted. The Protocol's aim was to fight global warming. The Protocol was ratified by many nations in the world, with the U.S. the sole country with no plan in accepting it.

Nairobi Capital city of Kenya. Nepal A small country between India and China, home to Mount Everest and The Himalayas. Nevada U.S. state perhaps best known for its Las Vegas city. New Brunswick A province in Canada, home to the Bay of Fundy and other natural wonders. Niger A landlocked country in Eastern Africa, not to be confused with Nigeria. Norway A country in Northern Europe, home of the Vikings. Nuremberg German city known for the trial of Nazi leaders charged with crimes against humanity. Yonkers The fourth most populous city in New York State. Just north of New York City, Yonkers is so confusing to New Yorkers that a play called "Lost in Yonkers" was written about the experience. Wink, wink. Yorktown Village in Virginia (U.S. state) that is best known as the site of the last battle of the U.S. Revolutionary War. Ypres A city in Belgium that was fought over by the two sides of World War I. All together there were three Battles of Ypres. During the Second Battle of Ypres, poison gas was used by the Germans, for the first time on the Western Front. Yucatan A peninsula in Mexico. Yugoslavia A former country in Eastern Europe that was made up of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, and other countries.

Word Links?

Years ago when we first settled down in the U.S. of A., there was a word game my sister CH and I used to play. We had one year of English private school before leaving Viet Nam as boat people and that helped but there was so much more to learn. The word game was supposed to help us increase our vocabularies. I am not sure if CH invented it or learned it from someone. Heck, maybe TOTA taught CH, for all I know.

Start the game by uttering a word. Almost any word, but not people's names or places. The other person would then have to reply with a word that starts with a letter that is the last letter of the previous word. For example, if the first word is BLOG then the second word can be GORILLA, then APPLE, which would be followed by EXQUISITE, and so on. I discovered that many words end in E, K, and Y and would focus on learning words that start with those letters. Thus I picked up K words like KITH, KIN, and KNOLL, or Y words like YOUTH, YODEL, and YOKE. I am sure playing the game helped me somewhat with my vocabulary.

I am really curious if CH and I, maybe TOTA too, are the only people who know about this game. I arbitrarily named this game Word Links, as in the post title, but maybe it has a real name. Maybe it's a common game used by English teachers? Let me know!

Life, Out Of Touch

My iPod touch is dead. About a year into my ownership of the thing, the battery started to deplete rather faster than usual. If left on overnight, it would be totally dead the next morning. I think the normal thing would be for it to go into sleep mode and be usable the next day. Not so with this iTouch of mine. I made do with charging it often and brought the charger with me to work so that I would have something to use on the commute home. The strategy worked for a while, until the battery wouldn't charge any more. Connecting the Touch to the computer normally would also charge it as well as sync its content, but no such luck. My iPod touch really bit the dust.

The natural thing to do is shop around and buy a new one. I still can afford one, but there are two problems. One is that I was hoping that Apple would finally give the Touch a still camera. Many times I had the Touch with me and wanted to take a photo but didn't have a camera. My cell phone has a camera but getting photos out of it is such a hassle. A Touch with camera would be handy to have and not a hassle at all with syncing.

The other reason, a loftier one, is that as a self-proclaimed environmentalist, I should not be so quick to buy new things and immediately discard things as they become defective. Better to make use of existing things and repair the broken stuff. With that in mind, I took my second-generation, 10-gig iPod out of retirement and use it for what it's best at - music and podcasts. There are no useful apps like the American Heritage Dictionary or fun game like Trivia Pursuit, but it helps me keep up with This American Life and other podcasts. I even added The Brothers Karamazov audiobook, free from http://librivox.org , to the old iPod. I get an extra point, too, for re-using the 2G iPod in that it can only sync via FireWire 400, which is not available on my Mac Pro so that I have to also get the PowerBook G4 out of mothball whenever I need to sync the old iPod.

I do miss the dictionary on the Touch as it helped me many times when I play crossword puzzles. It is time to make more use of the Abest Chinese PDA. I bought it years ago primarily to use as an electronic Chinese dictionary but it also has the Oxford English dictionary. The lack of backlighting is painful, but again I just need to learn to make do. I even thought about getting the Handspring Deluxe out of retirement to use its address book, calendar, and notes.

One iTouch function I cannot replace is its photo storage. It was nice while it lasted to carry around my entire photo collection. A short while before the Touch expired, it could no longer store all the photos, music, and apps, so I had to cut back to just the last twelve months of photos.

I plan to make do with the old iPod, the Abest PDA, maybe even the old Handspring PDA, for a few more weeks. In the mean time, I plan a visit to Brooklyn's First Apple Authorized Repair Shop, the Mac Support Store, in the Gowanus area, to get the battery replaced. However long that takes I don't mind. Once the Touch is all good again, then I'll be able to carry around twelve months of photos again, and more.

Reuse

Is it not true that sometimes the news is always bad? That when good news happen nobody reports it? I am going to change that view now.

With the recent arrival of Lunar New Year, I had cousins on my side and wife's side visited on different days of the long weekend. They are all receptive in taking used toys and such and I was happy to pass along some of my worldly possessions that have outlived their usefulness. Some I have fond memories of but it was time to part with them. It is still good news to part with them by passing them on to someone who can use them.

• A Woody doll from Toys Story, complete with pull-string and cowboy hat. I bought it back when I was still working in Jersey City near the Newport Mall. Back then my son still liked Toys Story. He watched the Toys Story 2 so many times the VHS tape showed sign of breaking up when viewed.
• My son's kiddie bike. Altogether he had 3 bikes, one when he was really little, with no chain. Uncle Robert got him a better one and he used it for a while until the chain broke and I couldn't find the time to fix it. Finally, we got him one appropriate for his age and size. I had high hopes that he would learn how to ride with just two wheels but it never happened. I will try to get his cousin to resume riding bike first, then perhaps out of being competitive my son will take to the bike. This past weekend the latest bike, now too small for my son, went Cousin N. BTW, the other 2 bikes also found good homes years ago when I got rid of them.
• Various Thomas the Tank Engine toys set and books, plus other train-related toys. Like most boys, J loved trains. I don't recall being so crazy about trains, perhaps because I never saw one, whether in person or on TV, when I was young. Long ago when my son still fitted in a stroller, we visited the MTA Train Museum. We left with my son's first train set, a set of wooden tracks and a few train cars, connected via magnets at the ends. I still remember my son fell asleep as we made our way from the museum to the Pacific Street station of the B train - maybe it was the W train, who knows. It was a hot summer day and I enjoyed a can of Coke bought from a pizza store while my son slept. Aaaaah, those stolen moment when the child slept and the parent had a break.

These days my son is into green toy soldiers along with battle sets (tanks, helicopter, etc) and Bakugan. And of course computer games. Who knows how long it will last, just cherish the moment.

Audible Alternatives?

I am very tempted to cough up some dough and sign up with Audible.com. The thing that holds me back is I feel that it seems wasteful to spend money on something that will not be enjoyed over and over. There are songs that I listened to over and over yet not get tired, but movies and books are only used once. At least with movies they sometimes get loaned to friends. With digital audiobooks, I may have to loan the player as well, or burn the book onto CD and convert the CD back to MP3 format... too much work and the reading experience won't be the same.

There are some Audible alternatives out there. Note that I include a question mark in the title of this blog post. I admit that the experience of using these "alternatives" is certainly not exactly the same as using a paid service like Audible. You get to have someone read to you, alright, but the process of getting the content to your device, plus other steps, won't be the same.

For me, the most obvious alternative is the public library. One great thing about living and working in New York City is convenient access to its public libraries. I live near a branch of the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) and work near one in the New York Public Library (NYPL) system. Both library systems offer at least audiobooks as sets of CDs. I think the BPL even offers audiocassettes audiobooks. My audiobook experience did start out with the Queens Public Library, with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, Without Remorse by Tom Clancy, and some others. Yes, many times I fell asleep while listening to the audiotapes and had to painfully rewind the tapes back to some recognizable place, but I did finish a few books, for free.

If dealing with physical media like audiotapes and CDs is too cumbersome for you, the library systems can also let you borrow digital content. It seems only public domain materials can be used readily on both Macs and PeeCees. More current materials requires installing additional software like OverDrive. Last time I gave OverDrive a try, it was with using movies from the NYPL. I had to use Windoze emulator to be able to use the material on my Mac. There was much troubles, not worth the hassle. OverDrive does have Mac software now. I'll give it another chance and see how convenient it is.

Perhaps getting a library card is too much of a hassle to you. Or you don't live or work near a public library. If you don't mind being limited to classic books only, LibriVox.org is the place for you. LV's books are already in the public domain, i.e. their copyrights have expired. LV makes use of volunteers to do the reading in order to be able to provide the service free of charge. You don't have to register with LV in order to get audiobooks from them. Unlike Audible, where the books are broken down into one or two big files, LV's offerings come in many small chapters. You can listen to them right in the web browser, although for me I prefer to open them in iTunes for later syncing to the iPod. I do have to make sure the files are marked as audiobooks and that playback positions are remembered. It takes a little, just a very small little, extra work when dealing with LV. I already downloaded Chapters 1 through 5 of Book 1 of The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Should you like LV's service so much and want to volunteer then you would need to open a free account with them.

Lastly, I cannot help but think back to the time a long time ago when I accidentally came across a reading of the book Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam on the radio. I think it was some time after 1985, when I started college, because I do remember that I listened to the reading in the afternoon on a weekday. During high school I wouldn't be home at that time of the day during that time of the week. I managed to remember the station and listened to it a few times but now of course I have no other recollection of the station. My guess is that it was some NPR station, maybe even WNYC. I wonder if the program is still around. Anyone with more info please post a comment.

Do You Read Me?

With the announcement of the iPad, the world now has yet another e-reader. Maybe not just another e-reader, but still an e-reader nonetheless. Still, for me, as long as I live near a public library, I don't see myself getting into the e-reading business. For me, books are somewhat like movies in that you read a book once then it spends the rest of its life on the shelf, taking space and collecting dust. At least with movies you may pull them off the shelf to fast forward to a particular scene to settle a bet. Well, in this Internet Age, that may not even be necessary. From my point of view, books are best read as borrowed items from the public library. I don't read the latest and greatest books anyway so I can renew over and over if needed. I know, the booksellers of the world won't be sending me any huge checks any time soon.

By the same logic, much as I enjoy the convenience of Audible.com, I don't see myself signing up with it any time soon. It does not help that the typical e-book costs around $20. Audible does have a few monthly plans, with one that come out to about $15 per book or per month, but it still seems wasteful to spend that much money for something that would be enjoyed for a few hours or a few days. I do have plenty of free podcasts to keep me company during the daily commute and other times. During a good week, when I remember to keep the iPod touch properly charged every morning, I would sail through Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, This Week In Tech, This American Life, and perhaps even a Mac-centric podcast. Still, having taken advantage of Audible's free A Confederacy of Dunces, I felt the allure of digital audiobooks. In the past, listening to audiobooks meant occasionally flipping tapes or rewinding them. With today's digital versions, there is nothing to flip and rewinding is relatively easy. There is no risk of rewinding too much and having fast forward to make up. Having the books sync'd effortlessly to iTunes gives me peace of mind, that should the iPod gets lost, I still have a copy on the computer.

Audible wisely sponsors many podcasts so I'm constantly reminded of their great service. Who knows, someday I may get tired of the free podcasts and may spring for the convenience of Audible.

Cheap Shot at the Pad

Five Boro Bike Tour

I have decided to sign up for the Five Boro Bike Tour (FBBT) this year. The event will take place on Sunday, May 2 and registration will be accepted 10 A.M. February 1. Blasted, I thought it would be 12 midnight so that, as a nighthawk, I can easily stay up another hour and be the first few to sign up as the new day rolls in. According to Bike New York's web site, it is a popular event and the 30,000+ spots get filled up quickly. I will just have to take my chance...

The ride is 40+ miles, which I think I can handle. The trip to Brooklyn Bridge, over the Bridge, then back home, that I did last weekend totaled about 24 miles. I suppose another 16 miles or so won't hurt. I don't recall being very tired, especially in the legs, after the Bridge trek, so the FBBT should not be a big deal.

I look forward to taking part in a traffic jam and enjoying it. My past two encounters with the FBBT were not pleasant at all. The first one, even if I am not that sure if it was the FBBT, was when I got stuck on the BQE around Flushing Avenue. I was near an entrance ramp and saw people backing off it, slowly, to get out of the jam. Some MTA van did the same so I thought it would be safe to imitate. No such luck, at the ramp entrance, a few NYPD patrol cars were waiting to direct us all to pull over to help them fill their quota for the day. Some Hasidic Jews on the sidewalk were trying to tell us not to come down, but I think by the time we saw them it was too late. Sure it was wrong to go backward into an On ramp, but when a whole bunch of people were already doing it, and the highway is packed with cars, I think the proper thing for the NYPD to do would be to be there to direct traffic to safely get out of the jam. Instead, they decided to shoot the fish in the barrel. What they did was akin to going to a disaster site to ticket damaged cars at the site. While they were at it, perhaps they could go onto the highway and ticket all the idle cars for having idle engine for more than x minutes. It disgusts me when the government treat its citizens as cash cows.

My second encounter with the FBBT was not as bad, but again it involved a traffic jam. It was Mother's Day and I was with a group of cars trying to get into Fort Hamilton to celebrate the occasion with a picnic. Big mistake! I knew that the NYC Marathon begins in Staten Island so that in the afternoon the Brooklyn side of the Verrazano Bridge would be back to normal. What I didn't know was that the FBBT ends in Staten Island, with the thousands of riders using the Verrazano to get there. It took me about two hours to finally get to the picnic.

I worried that this year's FBBT would coincide with Mother's Day, but luckily it will be a week before the event. Have bike, have good health, still can afford the $60 registration fee, I have no reason not to participate in the event!

Whirlwind Wednesday

It turned out today is a big day. Around noon EST we will find out what magical gadget Apple will offer to the world. I personally do not care for a tablet because I believe I use my eyes too much already. I listen to podcasts and such, so a tablet won't do what I can already do with an iPod.

Around dinner time, President Obama will deliver his first State of the Union. Politics as it is, he probably will say that our nation is strong but there are challenges ahead. What bombshells can he possibly drop?

Last but not least, and closer to my heart, is the meeting, perhaps at Newtown High School itself, at which the school will be considered for closing. Supposedly students there are not doing well enough on standardized test or there are too many dropping out. I doubt closing the school will accomplish anything, but I heard these kinds of things before. If you are an alum of Newtown High School in Elmhurst, Queens, NY, and do not want the school closed, sign the petition here:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-newtown-petition-now

Law-Abiding Cyclists?

Yesterday I made the trip from home to the Brooklyn Bridge, AND back. It was not the first time I rode to the Bridge, but it was a first to get there and back both by cycling. The trip took over four hours but it was not because I was a slacker. Along the Belt Parkway waterfront it was nice and free of traffic but beyond that I had to slow down to watch out for traffic. Even when part of the trip was along Second Avenue, which was quiet for a weekend day. Once I crossed the Gowanus Canal, it was all slow-going. Some streets still had bike lanes but the streets were narrower, too. Some street had no room at all for a bike and a car to share the road and I had to hurry up to get through it. Somewhere along the line I even had to ride on the sidewalk. That's the case with New York City. It is simply not possible to obey the law 100% of the time. You are on a bike lane then all of a sudden it ends and you are faced with a narrow street or a busy one with lots of traffic. You either ride on the sidewalk, go against traffic, or bite the bullet and go with the flow.

On the way back, I faced a similar scenario at the intersection of Third Avenue and Prospect Avenue. I could risk going with the car through the narrow passage below the Prospect Expressway, or go the wrong way on Third Avenue, on the sidewalk.

I hope whoever planning the roads for NYC take cyclists into considerations. On that note, it seems Bike New York is a good organization to promote cycling. I will start getting involved with it through its Bike New York Tour, a 42-mile trek through the five boroughs of New York City, then follow up later with other activities.

Facebook Death

I recently found out a Facebook friend of mine died. I used to play Wordscraper with him. It was probably Scrabulous, which was the forerunner of Wordscraper before the Agarwalla brothers got sued by Hasbro. Not that it really matters to this story.

One reason I remember "Mr. B" well is that most Wordscraper players, in my own experience, are Canadian women. He was one of the few non-Canadian male players. Together we wasted some time playing the word games, chatted from time to time about the game at hand or other topics that happened to come up. I now recall that he had a pizzeria business and had an iBook. The last remark he made was when I played the word REBAR. He joked that he did not know that I was in the construction business.

Oddly enough, for some reason I thought he unfriended me, since he no longer appeared on my friends list. Maybe I forgot what his last name was and could not find him in my friends list. No harm, I myself unfriended people from time to time, whether for lack of activity or some offending status update by the person. Recently I decided to visit his profile and saw that someone had written "Rest in peace" on his Wall. Probably someone who knew him outside of Facebook. That explained the lack of activity. I think I started some games with him only to delete them because he would not play his turn. Re-visiting his profile, I found a few keywords that allowed me to Google for more info about him. It turned out he passed away a little more than a year ago. Time flies and Life is fragile. Rest in peace, indeed, Mr. B, though I hardly knew you.

Places That I Have Never Visited

I admit that I am not much of a world traveler. Not much of a traveler, period. The places that I have never visited are really commercial buildings that I was physically near but never once, as far as I remember, stepped inside. The proverb "You can take a horse to the water but you cannot make it drink" would describe the stories well.

I went to JHS 73 (now IS 73) in Maspeth, Queens for two years but I do not recall of ever buying from a store near the school called Cowboy Pat. It is possible that I went in there before but the memory is lost on me some 25+ years later. I only learn of the store's former existence from recent postings on Facebook. Supposedly it was a popular hangout place for the students. That would explain why I never go there. I was the studious type who would go straight home after school, whether via the overcrowded B58 or by walking. "Popular hangout places" in my mind are trouble spots, where a scrawny and nerdy guy like me would be picked on. Kids are cruel sometimes, even those in the 8th and 9th grades. Another factor to consider, which may be shocking for some growing up in the U.S., is that I didn't have any money to spend during JHS, other than bus fare. Well, it was possible that I had some coins to make phone calls in case of emergency, but definitely not much money to spend on snacks. The school provides lunch, the bus money takes me home, so to my parents it was not necessary for me to carry money around.

After JHS 73 I spent three years in Newtown High School. The popular hangout place there was the pizzeria at the corner of 90th Street and 50th Avenue. High school kids are worse than JHS ones, so again I do not recall spending any time there. After school I would at most spend time with my study group at the Elmhurst Branch of the Queensborough Public Library. At most we would walk around Queens Center, which back then had only the one building on the same block with A&S (now Macy's). My money situation did not change much any way. I think I had a few summer jobs but the money was saved in some bank account. I probably had a few more dollars to buy things occasionally, but definitely not enough to hang out at the pizzeria everyday. While we are on the topic of kids with money, the idea of spending x dollars on tuxedo rental, limo ride, etc. on prom night was totally foreign to me. Where would the money come from? I guess children of the first generation of any ethnic groups in America would not have it easy. In a way, it is better to be somewhat deprived early in life and have more later on.

The last place I have in mind is the McSorley Pub near the Cooper Union. All the years I went to Cooper, I never stepped inside the place. Sure, Peter Cooper himself had a drink or two there and most of the guys, and gals, who went to Cooper probably patronized the place at least every week. It was/is the place to be after school, so I heard. Just not for me. I just do not drink, period. Not something that I enjoy doing, anyway. At major events or social functions I might have a beer, but one is enough to get me all red in the face, so best not to drink at all. I do not get what is all the fuss about. Drink to relax, some people say, but many mistakes in history were made by drunks, too. I can make mistakes while not drunk, why increase the chance by being drunk. Maybe some wine associations will send me hate letters, but that's just the fact, alcoholic drinks are just, uh, not my cup of tea.

The Down Side of Cycling

It has been over 3 weeks since I last went jogging. The right foot still hurts even though I have been doing bicycling only. No impact there but then again it does not hurt as much as before. I probably have to go see a podiatrist.

Substituting jogging with bicycling allows me to go farther from the house and explore the destination's neighboring areas. On foot, I would never visit the Fuhgeddaboutit sign on the border of Brooklyn and Queens on the Belt Parkway. Sure I could drive there but then I would have to find some place to park and walk some distance to the site to take a picture of it. A waste of gasoline, fuhgeddaboutit!

The down side of cycling is that to get to the bike trail I have to go on the road, along side with motorists. In my mind, most motorists are jerks, to put it lightly. A perfectly nice person outside the car can easily turn into a monster behind the steering wheel. Motorists' general attitude is "get out of my way or I'll ram you." I drive a minivan mostly on weekends and the experience usually leaves me exhausted. Being on a bike only makes it worse. I have to be extra alerted about cars traveling parallel to me that are about to turn right into my path. Assuming people use turn signals, that is.

When I drive, I have the radio on or listen to podcasts on the iPod, but not loud enough to drown out the sounds from outside. I need to focus on the road and be aware of the surrounding. When cycling, I don't listen to anything at all while sharing the road with motorists. I cannot afford to. Even with the helmet mirror and the mirror in the handlebar, I still need to turn around when shifting lane or going through intersection. Cars mirrors have blind spots and those on the bike cannot be any better. Once I get to the bike trail, where there are only pedestrians and cyclists, then I can relax with the iPod, but before that, 100% alert!

I used to hate the "new" bike lanes in Manhattan, such as those along Grand Street in Chinatown. The older lanes run along the left side of the parking lane. The newer ones take place of the parking lane and usually reduce the street to just one lane as the parking lane is pushed further into the street. Tough luck for the motorists with the narrower streets but it is great for cyclists. With the old bike lanes, there is a good chance some careless driver, after parking, opening the driver-side door straight into the path of a cyclist. There is also the not-too-unfounded fear of being fatally squeezed between a car on the road and a parked car. Lastly, with the new lane it is impossible to double-park so cyclists do not have to put up with double-parkers. One moment a cyclist can be happily moving along an old bike lane, the next moment he would have to shift into traffic to go around a double-parking car. I love the new bike lanes and hope to someday make use of them if they come to my area.

Let Us Accessorize!

Popcorn and soda to go with the movie. Case and headset to go with the cell phone. Flash drives and USB hub to go with the laptop. Accessories. You do not absolutely need them, but they enhance the experience many times. Since resuming bicycling a few weeks ago, I have rummaged around the house to find the various accessories I got for the bike but for one reason or another did not put them to use.

When I first took the bike out of mothballs, figuratively speaking, the one accessory I got to work was the bottle-holder. Adding an extra clamp made all the difference, I do not know how I lived with the twistie wire. Funny thing is the one time I needed a drink while bicycling the water inside had frozen. I am sure it will not be the same in the summer.

Mounted on the handle bar and is more useful is the simple bell. I do not go fast but it is still necessary sometimes to alert joggers or walkers when I need to pass them. Also on the handle bar is the headlight. I do not know why but the light assembly was not on the bar. Luckily I was able to find it in the mess in my room. Strange how the mind works. I just knew that the light was in a particular place. Good thing I was correct. Alas the battery drained some time ago. It seemed obvious to me that there was no way to replace the battery. Luckily this time I was wrong. A colleague pointed out a slot where a strategically placed coin would easily pry the assembly apart. Last hurdle was to find the replacement batteries. Up to today I did not know that N batteries exist - just plain N. Whatever happened to E though M?

The last accessory to be put on was a rearview mirror, a Third Eye bar end mirror. Again I had no trouble finding it but then I had plenty of troubles figuring out how to install it. Adding insult to injury, almost everybody on Amazon wrote that the thing was easy to install! There is already a small hole in the end of the handle bar, the screw goes into it but there is nothing to hold the screw in place. I gave up and took it my local bike shop. The person at the store proceeded to use a razor blade to cut away a portion of the rubber grip that covers the handle bar. In went the mirror end, now padded with two of the four rubber rolls that came with the mirror. So that's how it works, doh!

A Vietnamese's Impression of America

Before settling down in America, my impression of it was whatever the adults told me from the TV shows. Television was a rare commodity that not everyone can afford, but we knew about Mission: Impossible, Bonanza, Star Trek, etc. I do not recall ever watching an entire episode or what language the shows were presented in. Probably in English and not translated into Vietnamese. We referred to the characters of the various show in our own way, such as "The Man With Silvery Hair" or "Donkey Ears". We believed that the cowboys were good guys and that the red-skinned savages were bad. We probably learned the "red" part from somewhere else because back then TVs were black-and-white only. We thought everyone in America was rich, probably from M:I. Everyone wore suits and other nice clothes. We knew that people didn't dress like cowboys and of course Star Trek was futuristic stuff. Possibly also from M:I we thought that there were only two kinds of people in America, black and white. When we moved to our apartment in the Bronx, we were surprised to meet Hispanic and Mexicans, even though there were not that many of them at the time. At John Peter Tertard JHS, I was surprised to meet Greeks, Koreans, Russians, and others. Of course, later on when I learned American history it all made sense. Without that knowledge, I even thought that American speak "American" language. From the TV shows, I also thought that people wore shoes into the house and left them on, even while sleeping, probably from some episode in which a character stayed at a hotel.

What was/is your impression of the United States of America?

Thirty Years On American Soil

Thirty years ago today I stepped onto U.S. soil for the first time. To be exact, it was U.S. tarmac, but you get the idea. Before that I spent a few weeks in Singapore and prior to that a few months in Indonesia. It was a long way from Viet Nam. Some day I will drill into more details about my experience as a boat person, but today the story is what I remember of that first few days in a new land.

• I don't recall ever having motion sickness before, not even on the indirect plane ride from Singapore to the U.S. However, when Uncle Ping drove our family from JFK airport to his home in Sheepshead Bay, sitting in the front passenger seat, I felt dizzy.
• The first time ever taking a bath in a tub, I spent a long time in it. I filled the tub with water and played with Cousin E's toy ship, I think it was an aircraft carrier of sort. It was not until Auntie knocked on the door that I finished up. Eek, I was a bad guest!
• The first pie of pizza was not very welcomed. We probably never had cheese before in our life.
• I may be wrong but in offering soda to us Uncle Ping referred to the drink as "leung tsa" (凉茶) or "cooling tea". To me, that was the bitter or tasteless stuff that my father used to make us drink to negate the effect of fried food and other bad stuff. The whitish soda, probably a Sprite, was not bitter or tasteless at all.
• Uncle Ping probably thought that we were going to stay in the area for a while. He took me to some school to register for class. I do not remember learning anything that one day. I think I did not even spend the whole day there.

Good grief, that is all I can remember of the momentous day. Not until high school that the idea of keeping a journal or diary came to me, so all I remember of the day is what little I myself can recall and whatever my siblings and parents, or maybe Uncle Ping's family, can recall.

Coney Island Boardwalk

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The nice thing with bicycling, versus jogging, is that theoretically I can go farther to carry out the exercise. With jogging, I would walk from home to Caesar's Bay shopping area and start jogging from there. With bicycling, instead of slowly pushing the bicycle, I would ride it to the destination. Bicycling should be faster than walking, so the time saved can be put into covering a longer distance, say, to get to a destination further away. Today, that destination was Coney Island. I just found out that Coney Island is about 2.6K from where I live, whereas Caesar's Bay is 1.6K away. That translates to 2K for a round trip.

It was not the first time I visited Coney Island, but rather the first time I was there unaccompanied. I was free to snap photos here and there without being slowed down or slowing down any company I would be with. A big group may be fun to be with sometimes but most of the time I prefer to be on my own, to do what I please.

I started around the Wonder Wheel then went east to the very end of the boardwalk. I totally forgot what this end of the boardwalk looks like. I was there a few years back with two nephews. We did not stop there but went on to the street and all the way to Manhattan Beach before heading back. For me, the goal today was just to reach one end then the other end and back to the starting point. Just my luck, I did not bring a real camera and my cell phone's battery died by the time I reached the western end of the boardwalk, so no photo for that end.

The distance I traveled today was about 8K, again 1K less than the maximum distance I reached with jogging. Oh well, something to do to burn the fat while the right foot recovers...

JHS 73 Class of 1985 Yearbook - Administrators

Page 8 of the JHS 73 Class of 1982 yearbook. The theme of Our Place really gets drilled into our heads in the descriptions of the School Administrators. I do not recall any of them, except Mr. Gotkin. For those who may have missed my mention of the two incidents I had with Mr. Gotkin, here goes.

The first incident was unpleasant. I rarely use curse words but it was just my luck that one day while going from one class to another, someone made fun of me or did something bad to me and I shouted some obscenity at him. Just my luck, Mr. Gotkin was nearby and took me to his office for that violation. I spent the whole period there with nothing to do and then was let go. I suppose I curse even less, or never again for a long time, after that. The man looked menacing to kids, I must admit.

The second, more pleasant, event was when I went to school one evening to attend some Junior Arista ceremony. I did not know what the event was for and did not come to school with a formal jacket. I did not have one anyway. When it was my turn to go on the stage to accept my Arista certificate, Mr. Gotkin let me wear his jacket. It was some sort of a tweed jacket, if my feeble memory is correct.

I referred to the events as first and second but they did not necessarily happen in that order. Of course, it would be better to be a bad kid then get accepted into Arista instead of the other way around.

Re the Guidance Counselors, I did not know they existed. In Newtown High School, I visited Ms. Touhy often for information on colleges and such, but in JHS, I think I just went to whatever school kids in my district were supposed to attend. I suppose if a kid excelled in school, he could have applied to some better school instead of the one in his district. I was relatively fresh off the boat, having arrived in the U.S. about two years earlier. It was good enough to break of ESL, so never mind better high school and extra curricular activities.

JHS 73 Class of 1985 Yearbook - Intro

In Asian culture, teachers are held in high regards. With that in mind, coupled with the responses I got about my JHS 73 entry about a year ago ( http://www.qaptainqwerty.com/2009/03/william-cowper-jhs-73-maspeth-queens-ny.html ) I am going to post some more photos of the teachers of JHS 73. I already used the ones I have from my graduation, so these "new" ones will be from my 1982 yearbook. I am starting the series with Ms. Patricia M Ruddy, the Principal. This is the only photo of her in the whole yearbook, AFAIK. I do not recall having any personal interaction with her, although I was somewhere on the stage in that photo as she gave a speech at the Junior Arista ceremony. I even saw the program pamphlet for the event in my messy room recently.

How To Wake Up at the Time You Want To Wake Up at

At one time or another, my web-surfing landed me at one of those how-to sites, like eHow.com. While some entries provide useful, step-by-step instruction for some complicated process, others are just outright comical. In the attempt to cover every possible scenarios, the entries would spell everything out, from the subtle to the ridiculously obvious that any sane person should already know. Here's my own concoction on the topic of How To Wake Up at the Time You Want to Wake Up at.

• Use an alarm device. This can be a regular desk alarm clock, a clock-radio, or common these days are cell phones or smartphones.
• The louder noise the device can make the better. I no longer have trouble getting my son out of bed for school ever since he started to use the train locomotive clock his aunt sent him. It can wake the dead, supposedly.
• If you use a cell phone, be sure it is not set to Vibrate mode.
• Make sure the alarm device is properly charged or has reliable batteries.
• It helps that the alarm device is out of reach so that you have to get out of bed to shut it off.
• Sometimes we just ignore the alarm and instead want to know what time it is. In this case, it helps to have a time device nearby.
• If you are nearsighted like me, wear a watch to bed so just a flip of the hand and you know the time.
• If you normally share the bed with a spouse/partner, if the thing you want to do in the morning is important enough, consider sleeping separately just that night. If not, it might happen that neither of you have a headache that night, one thing leads to another and you end up staying up late.
• It definitely helps to go to sleep early if you want to get up early the next day.
• Do not drink coffee, tea, or energy drink before going to bed.
• Do not be On Call at work - you might be dragged out of bed any minute of the night.
• Read a book, newspaper, or magazine. Traditional, wood-based kinds, that is.
• At the time you are supposed to sleep, do not log into Facebook etc. One game, one email, one status update... they all can translate to many hours into the night.

There you have it! Now it's time for me to sleep...

Impossible Resolutions 2009

Misadventures in Bicycling

It was a cold and windy morning so I did not cover much grounds with the bicycle. Along the waterfront the wind was blowing against me and I had to strain my leg muscles with every cycle. I went along the waterfront for a short distance and took the first footbridge to get away from it. I made a big loop around a golf course and its adjacent public park then back to the waterfront, this time with the wind behind me, although I didn't feel any noticeable push, just that it was easier to pedal like normal. All together it was only 8.3K, even less than the 9K I normally would cover on foot.

Up to now, my use of the bicycle was for entertainment, something to do for fun on vacation, to be outside on a nice day. Not as an exercise device or as a mode of transportation. When my nephews, on the wife side, were younger I would take them, along with my son, first in a bucket seat then in a trailer, to go riding along the waterfront. One time I ran into a major pothole and got a flat tire. We were almost at the end of the 4-mile trail so we completed the trail and then headed back. Even with a flat tire, I was still able to pedal the bike although eventually it became impossible to pedal. I think it cost me something like $25 to replace whatever parts it was that needed replacing.

Another more recent misadventure was a few years ago when we went on vacation in the Poconos. We were told the trail was a gentle slope all downhill. There were two options - a 10-mile trail or a 25-mile trail. The shorter trail was really just part of the longer one - if you want the longer trail, you are driven further up the path. The trails end at the same place. I figured the 15-mile difference shouldn't matter that much, it's the same price, might as well get the most bang for my bucks. Bad choice! The key word was "gentle", not downhill. I had to exert force to get the bike moving, the bike would not roll on its own, as the slope was not that noticeable. It didn't help that I had my then 100-pound son in the trailer behind me. I was completely exhausted at the end of the trip. It was the first time I needed to spend time in a bathtub full of hot water to provide some relief for the aching muscles. Getting old + being a weekend warrior = bad.

Perhaps some day when I bike more regularly and don't get so tired easily I'll try a 25-mile trail somewhere. For the time being, putting in a few excursions on the weekends will have to do.

Have Bike, Will Travel

I did it! Got up 7ish, took the bicycle to the local gas station, 75¢ at the air machine did wonder. My bicycle is wholesome again!

I went along the same route that I normally go jogging, Belt Parkway Green Way, only of course the distance is longer. Instead of 4.5K out and back, for a total of 9K, I went 7K out, all the way to Owl's Head Pollution Control Center and the Bay Ridge Pier, and back. The total distance is 14K.

I don't get the same sense of accomplishment as when I go jogging. With jogging, I would sweat profusely, with the innermost layer of clothes soaked. I would actually feel warm from the heat I generated. It was a windless morning and I didn't feel a single drop of sweat formed. The inner T-shirt got somewhat wet on the back, but that was it. My legs did feel wobbly when I first stopped pedaling and resumed walking. They feel tired now, so I guess I did get some exercise out of the whole thing.

Let's Get Physical - Plan B

I thought with my exercise program my weight would drop below 200 pounds but alas here I am on the last day of the year and I am still right on 200 pounds. It does not help that as of last Saturday the arch on my right foot got really hurt. The left foot got some boil but that's skin level. For the right foot, I think some muscle or tendon, or whatever, is really banged up from all that pounding of the pavement. I also need a new pair of sneakers, as the one I'm using really wore away much at the heels. This Saturday will be exactly one week of rest, I cannot rest any more. Time for Plan B.

With the injured foot, I think I still can pedal. No pounding of the pavement there, so hopefully it should be OK. Of course, bicycling goes against my idea of simplicity in execution. Whereas with jogging I just need to put on some clothes, extra layers for the cold weather, a pair of shoes, perhaps even an iPod, bicycling will be more involved. Getting the bike out the door is one extra step. Helmet is needed - Step #2 right there. Air does leak from time to time, so I may lose some more time pumping the tires.

I actually spent some time this evening getting the bicycle into usable shape. The last time I used it was to attend my son's Field Day, back in May. On the way back, the left pedal fell off and I had to push the thing back. Even since then the bike just stood in the vestibule, taking up space and collecting dust. With Plan B in motion, I managed to put the pedal back on - the task is so much easier with the wrench of the proper width. Next I tried to pump the tires but I think I actually let the air out. The foot- and hand-pumps I have didn't work. Some Mechanical Engineer I am, cannot even get the tires of the bicycle pumped. Maybe the pumps are defective. I'll splurge tomorrow morning and spend the 75¢ at my local gas station. Rain or shine, I will be biking tomorrow!

New Year Resolutions

Here are two of my New Year Resolutions, without words, can you guess what they are?

500

Guess the Famous Movie Scene

Growing up in Viet Nam, even though my family was considered middle-class, I was taught to be frugal and make the most of what we had. I had enough toys to play with but I also made use of found objects. A neighbor gave me some wood blocks, probably leftover pieces from a carpentry task, and I played with them for so long the blocks became smooth. I also had small paper boxes for use as furniture and buildings. I don't recall ever throwing away toys or ignoring them after a few days of playing.

It pains me these days to see my son lose interest in his playthings so quickly. One week it is little green plastic soldiers, the next week it is building paper structures like Capitol Hill and Statue of Liberty. This week it's Thumb Wrestling Federation and its associated papery toys - masks, decals, belts, even a wrestling ring - but who knows what next week's favorite toy be. What to do with all the forgotten toys?

I don't watch too many movies but I try to catch a classic one every now and then. Or at least those that are cultural phenomenon or cult classic. In the photo above, I tried to re-create a famous ending scene. A shirtless man on his hands and knees pounding the floor. A woman sit on an animal that can pass for a horse. (I am not sure if the actual scene has the woman sitting on the "horse" or standing near the animal.) In the background, we have a famous statue somewhat titled to one side, somewhat hidden behind a mountain. Name the movie!

Footbridge

Besides the idea of recycling, my other reason to like the High Line Park is that it is basically a footbridge. One can walk on the High Line from around 14th Street up to 20th Street totally unobstructed by traffic lights and vehicles. Footbridges are perfect for separating pedestrians and vehicular traffic. You go your way, drivers, and I will just go right over you. The above photograph is from my trip to Hong Kong in 2007. On a small island like Hong Kong, it is necessary to have footbridges otherwise traffic would be even worse. What I love about the Hong Kong footbridges is that they do not just cross over highways and roads, but connects to pedestrian plazas that extend from the buildings. You can walk a long distance on these pedestrian plazas, going from building to building and not having no chance of being run over by a car. The closest I see to these footbridge and ped plaza combo was the Winter Garden in Battery Park City and the former World Trade Center Plaza. The footbridge in that case would be the bridge crossing over the West Side Highway. With the bad traffic condition that New York City has, I think we can use many more footbridges, even pedestrian plazas, too.

High Line Park

The High Line. An abandoned elevated railway converted to an elevated garden. It is a great example of recycling. When the High Line was first opened in June 2009, I wanted to visit it but the plan simply did not work out. The first time, as I walked west along 14th Street toward the park, I got a call from home about some fuse blow-out. I had to rush home to flip the switch back. The second time I had this idea that if the High Line intersects 14th Street then if I go west along 11th Street I would bump into the structure eventually. Not so. I hit the West Side Highway instead and walking east along some street north of 11th Street, a Bank Street, I believe, which eventually connected to 12th Street, did not do the job either. The sun already went down by the time I made the trip back so even though I was mere blocks from the High Line I could not see it. Unlike the rectangular grids of Midtown Manhattan, the streets of the Greenwich Villages do not necessarily run parallel to each other. Instead, they just turn and twist to fit into the triangular shape of the tip of Manhattan Island. For example, instead of running east-west, 4th Street at one point run north and intersect West 12th Street and others.

Finally, on a windy and cold day, -5 °C to be exact, I made it. Certainly not a day to be high up above the street. Thanks to the cold weather though, there were few people on the High Line. There was a wedding party, not surprisingly. Supposedly a few publicized proposal happened on the Line, so why not get photographed there too in wedding gown and all. I love the large benches but it was too cold to lay down on them. I especially love the supposedly movable benches. They have wheels that run on the remaining exposed tracks. For safety, they were immovable. I can easily envision a couple of friends clowning around these benches and eventually one get his fingers crushed between two benches.

The Line only goes up to 20th Street. There is much more to do, but funding is always in question, especially in a down economy like now. Do go check out the High Line and if you like it please donate money to the cause. It is easiest to go along 14th Street toward the West Side Highway. You can even stop by the Apple Store at 9th Avenue to check your email or update your status in your social network, free of charge.

The "poster" above was made with Posterino. Click on it to see the bigger version. I just threw the photos together randomly. Enjoy!

When I Was Your Age...