SPRING CLEANING TIPS 2013 - PROPER E-WASTE DISPOSAL

Spring is here!  Well, the weather is not spring-like, but spring is here regardless.  With spring we will have spring cleaning.  Faithful followers of this blog know that I already have a head-start with spring cleaning thanks to The Freecycling Network (TFN).  I managed to give away many baby-related items plus old-technology stuff.  Ideally the people who get stuff from TFN or similar networks are individuals actually making use of them.  In my case, I suspect I've been dealing with an eBay Seller, so I am not going to list any more stuff for the time being.  I did have a bunch of old 4-GB, or smaller size, internal hard drives, and some internal burners, mostly CD-R or CD-RW, but there was a DVD burner.  Instead of listing them on TFN, I packed them all up into one heavy backpack and rode on the bike to the E-Waste Warehouse of the Lower East Side Ecology Center (LESEC).  The LESEC regularly holds e-waste events in the five boroughs, whereby people can drop off old electronics for re-use or recycling, or at worst for proper disposal so that the old stuff don't end up contaminating soil or stream. Now things get even better!  The E-Waste Warehouse on President Street in Brooklyn, almost by the Gowanus Canal, is open five days a week (Tuesday through Saturday).  Nothing fancy, just a loading dock where people can drop off stuff.  It's far from the main road, so there are plenty of parking or double-parking space should you come with a truck-load of stuff.  For some kind of tracking, you may be asked from which zip code you come from.

When the E-Waste Warehouse is open for business, this sign is put out on the sidewalk.  The loading dock is just to the right of this photo.  A LESEC person sat on the dock collecting stuff, I didn't want to bother him with photography.

The LESEC E-Waste Warehouse is near a T-intersection.  The Gowanus Canal is behind the photographer and the street where the white van is on is President.

Years ago I would drive van-load of stuff I rescued from the street to LESEC events.  I should also take such items to the E-Waste Warehouse, but I won't be doing that at all.  It's a bit far for me and I hate driving, even when there is plenty of parking.  Instead, I've been taking old electronics to my local Best Buy at Caesar's Bay.  I just walk there with a laundry cart, usually with just one item, but one time I brought three pieces.  I just chalk the walk up as a Charity Miles walk, usually done after a meal.  Right at the entrance, I would ask for a Recycle sticker to affix to each piece, then just drop the stuff off at their Service Desk.  No need to even wait on a queue if there is one, just leave them on the floor out of the way for the service people to get in and out of the area.  All the staff are so friendly, they even thanked me for recycling.  According to this blog post, http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/04/24/how-best-buy-makes-money-recycling-america’s-electronics-and-appliances?page=full , Best Buy makes a little money off the free service and their e-waste handlers meet industry standard.  Still a win-win situation for me.  As long as I don't do any compulsive buying while at Best Buy.

I recently found out that Staples also accept old tech stuff for recycling.  I knew that Staples used to take only Dell stuff but things changed for the better.  The local Staples store is much closer for me than the Best Buy store, but recycling with Staples is a little more involved.  You need to be on queue as if you are buying something, then the clerk has to look up some codes to I.D. the pieces and print you a receipt.  On those days when Staples have $1, or better, sales I wouldn't want to be at Staples.  I suppose I'll take the long walks to Best Buy after all.

LOOK-MA-NO-HANDS CAMERAS

At the recent office-warming party for NYCRuns, the first thing a friend said to me was "Did you bring your camera?"  In some circles, I am known as the guy who usually has the camera to make a record of events.  It's true, I love to take photos.  I am more of a quantity guy than quality.  I don't have any fancy camera, just the usual point-and-shoot type.  Recently I came across two cameras that I fancy someday owning.  They are both hands-free cameras, each with their own advantages.

The first camera that recently piqued my interest is the Memoto Lifelogging Camera.  Hmm, what is Lifelogging?  That's the process whereby a person logs everything about his life.  He captures everything arounds him through audio-recording, video-recording, photographing, etc.  All in the hope of able to go back later and finding out exactly what happened when.  As I once commented at http://www.fastcompany.com/58604/feedback , I am no fan of the process, but the Memoto camera still intrigues me.  It's tiny and light, you wear it and it takes a photo every few seconds.  You'll end up with lots of photos but then there is a piece of software that will do the highlighting for you.  Besides the obvious privacy issues, there's also other unfavorable facets of using the Memoto, like no access to the photos to share them on social media, or the extra fee to store the photos online.  If I have the Memoto, I would use it only for special occasions, definitely not as a life-logging device, i.e. not constantly taking photos 24x7.

The other camera, or more exact, the other video-camera, I like is the GoPro Hero series for sports enthusiasts.  Lately I've seen people at foot-races or on the street wearing these helmet-mounted cameras.  Stick them there, go on your ride or foot-race and everything is recorded.  Or at least "everything" that the flash memory can hold.  Just last week, I came across some photos from a runner of the NYRR NYC Half-Marathon.  Still photos, not videos, and they look great.  The latest version, Hero 3, seems to be unreliable, per the many reviews on Amazon.  Maybe by the time I have some disposable income they will have a more reliable version available.  Maybe too, by then the Memoto will be widely available.  The Memoto's development was funded partly by Kickstarter and the first batches of cameras are going to the Kickstarter investors.  I have heard/read about Kickstarters but this is the first I know of a product that I might want.

NYRR NYC HALF-MARATHON 2013

In 2012, I had some extra money and poured it all into the NYRR 5-boro series.  It was no longer a 5-boro Half-Marathon series, since the Queens race was a 10K and Bronx's was a 10-miler.  Having done the entire series got me guaranteed entry into the NYRR NYC Half-Marathon, which runs through Times Square and down the West Side Highway, but I gave the NYC Half a pass.  For me, a half-marathon should be $50 max for early registration.  Maybe even $60, but $117 is way out of my league.  I suppose there are race amenities to die for in the NYRR NYC Half, but I don't mind not finding out.  I still wanted to get involved and to be caught in the excitement, so I originally signed up as a course volunteer, individually.  Shortly afterward, I found out that the North Brooklyn Runners (NRB) run-group had a water station assigned to them and welcome my club, Prospect Park Track Club (PPTC).  I cancelled my individual gig and joined the group effort.

Volunteering with the group near Mile 12, as opposed to doing it as an individual near the starting line, gave me an extra half hour of sleep.  I still had to try to get to the water station by 6 in the morning.  Much as I love the subway, and cycling, neither options are great if you have to go somewhere in the wee hours of the morning, on a very cold day.

The water station was referred to as near Rector Street and the West Side Highway but it was not that near.  More like one long avenue block south of Rector, on a traffic median outside the exit of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel.  I bumped into a medical table and asked for direction.  I almost went the wrong way to some other station at Canal Street.  I suppose if the sun was out I could have seen better the so-called Rector water station a few blocks away.

The race was to start at 7:30 AM, some 12 miles away, but we had to be prepared for the onslaught of thirsty runners.  Water was run from a huge hose into big plastic bags housed in plastic bins.  Pitchers were made out of used Gatorade powder bottle and used to pour water into individual paper cups.  Have too many empty cups out and the wind would just blow the empty cups away, so I found it best to have the same person pour water and place the partially-filled cups down.  Runners shouldn't drink a whole cup of water, so the cups were only half-filled, or less.  Old signs were used to create tiers to have a total of three levels of water.  We had a lot of time, and many capable hands, so the work was done soon enough.  We were not even supposed to hand the runners water, they just have to snatch the water off the table themselves.  We had to leave some room so that the runners could easily pick up one cup without having to touch the neighboring cups.  Once the three tiers were filled with water, not much left to do but stand back and wait for the runners to arrive.

And arrive they did.  First were the hand-operated recumbent cyclists, just a few of them.  Then the elite runners with their first-name bibs.  Fast runners from local clubs, like Central Park Track Club (CPTC) and West Side Runners (WSX), were not far behind. Since we were not supposed to hand out water, there was not a whole lot to do other than cheer or take photos, and took photos I did.  A fellow PPTC member had some runner-tracking app but it didn't work for me as I missed the fastest PPTC person.  I managed to snap photos of a few others.  I stood on a low wall of the median to see farther down the road but it was not a good angle and I usually had only a few seconds to get ready to shoot.  Once or twice the PPTC runner would wave at the exact second I snapped the photo.  Other times some other runner would get in the way.  Oh well, things happen when many thousands fill the road.

Ideally I should be on the course, just off to the right of the runners, like the pro photographers with their big cameras.  My measly camera won't rapid-fire and capture every single runner but I would at least have a good view of the runners from far away, but with enough time to have second-chance shots.  But being on the course would mean totally abandoning the water station, even if there was not much work to do.  Eventually, the number of runners decreased greatly and we started to rake the discarded cups etc.  Beside getting the big task done piecemeal raking also got the body warm on this cold day.  In the end, most of the nicely stacked three tiers of water was wasted and we had many blue plastic bags of waste.

It was great to be caught up in the excitement.  I definitely going for a long run tomorrow.

Lots of ice-cold water awaiting for the thirsty runners just a tad past Mile 12 of the NYRR NYC Half-Marathon.

Some of my fellow PPTC members at the NBR-sponsored water station.

It was cold enough for icicles to form while the runners were still further up the road.

Elite runners!  At least the ones I managed to snap photos of.

Here comes the elite runners with their first-name bibs!

Fast local runners were not too far behind!

F1, F2, and F3, aka Top Three Female finishers.

PPTC members showed up!  V is for Victory, or Vinny!  I missed the fastest PPTC runner of this race, could really use a spotter like in that snipers duel scene in The Hurt Locker.

Nicole of PPTC ran the rest of the way to the finish line.

Another sub-2 PPTC finisher!  Go David!

There were three tiers of water per table but it was a cold day, look at those ice on the table surface!  Not that many took the water, both because it was a cold day and it was Mile 12 of a 13.1-mile race, but a few people actually poured water on themselves.  I would do that, too, but on a hot summer day, not a cold day like today.  Hope those people had dry clothes waiting for them.

See the complete album at

https://plus.google.com/photos/109153989599275468311/albums/5856394848360301985

NYCRuns Riverside Park 5K and 10K 2013-03-16

Riverside Park was one of those places I heard much about but never got to explore.  It basically runs along the Hudson River and I twice tried to run the entire length of the park but were thwarted both times.  The first time I tried to run from Washington Height but couldn't find the connection to the waterfront portion.  The second time I entered at 72nd Street and didn't have enough time to go north and only discovered some short section that connect to the cruise ship terminal.  Today, with the NYCRuns Riverside Park 5K and 10K races, I finally got to know the park better, at least the portion between 96th Street and 116th Street.  Since I live near the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn, I automatically compare Riverside Park to Shore Road Park.  You have the road high above the park, then the park itself, then the highway.  I totally missed the park when I last ran down from the Washington Bridge.  Today I was busy with moving the NYCRuns vehicles out of the park and other work to support the runners, so I will definitely need to re-visit the park on a leisurely schedule to better explore it, especially the section that runs between the Henry Hudson Highway and the Hudson River.  It's a start, one section at a time, I guess.

As usual, I took some photos of the runners and volunteers, when I had the chance.  If you were in the races, see if you were captured on film, sort of.  I did see someone taking photos with a Polaroid-like device today.  Very interesting.

5K racers were off to the search for their next P.R.

Volunteers at Water Station #1 ready for the throng of thirsty 10K finishers.

10K runners had their turn of running.

The 5K course was out and back, whereas the 10K course involved coming back to the start to make a tight U-turn and repeat the path the runners just covered.

10K first place winner Justin Wood.

Jennifer Busse won the women division of the 10K.

See the complete album at

https://plus.google.com/photos/109153989599275468311/albums/5856054940927646129?authkey=CN2rrJz1mqzAxAE

DRIVE TO THE RESCUE

My son's school, Bay Academy of Brooklyn, is pretty high-tech, in the sense that homework etc are mostly assigned online.  The students would log on when they get home and mostly print out the assignments for the day.  In some instances, they would update the documents electronically before printing them out for handing in the next day.  There are assessment exams that the students can even do totally online, nothing to print from start to end.

It is not perfect, of course.  Certain web pages just could not be printed properly, perhaps because of the use of frames.  Simply copying the relevant text to memory then pasting the result into TextPad or NeoOffice would take care of the problem.  Windoze users probably use WordPad or whatever word-processing app they have.

Ideally, everything to be downloaded or printed should be in a universal format like PDF.  To many people though, Microsoft Office is everything there is to know in the world.  To these people, it's either Word, Excel, Powerpoint, or nothing else.  While most company offices do have MS Office, not all of them have the latest and greatest version.  At home, I think MS Office ownership is even lower.  In the early days of computing, MS Office would be bundled with the computer but these days it has to be bought separately.  Some people make do with open source software like NeoOffice or OpenOffice.  Neo has been working fine for me with handling the various file formats in MS Office, but a recent document my son tried to open kept crashing it.  The file's extension is docx, so it is supposed to be the new Word 2007 document format.  I thought of checking NeoOffice for updates there and then, but my son was logged in with his account, things may get too complicated when I try to update via his account.  Better to have every updating done from my admin account.  What I did was to first download the file.  By default, clicking on the file does download it but the action also tries to open the file with the default associated app, NeoOffice in my case.  Next, I uploaded the file to Google Drive, which is updated a lot more regularly than the NeoOffice app on my hard drive.  From Google Drive, I tried to print it, but what it really did was generate a PDF locally.  Actually printing the document would then be another step away.

Like I said, PDF should be the default format for all documents.  Not everyone has MS Office and the different version of Office file formats can throw people off even if they have Office.  To add insult to injury, the document in my case is actually a PowerPoint slideshow that just happened to be saved with a docx extension.  Just stick to PDF, people.  On the Mac, the ability to generate PDF is built into all apps.  Anything that can be printed is just a quick selection of Save As PDF away to generate a PDF file.  On Windows, people either don't know about their options regarding PDF-creation or don't care.  I am glad I'm technologically-abled to handle these problems my son had and cannot help wonder how the other parents fare.

JACK RABBIT SPORTS ART NIGHT

I sometimes fancy myself an artist.  I have no formal training whatsoever, the closest I got to an art school was when I attended Cooper Union's Engineering school, across the street from the Foundation Building, which housed classes for Arts and Architecture students.  But I can draw pretty well and of late took an interest in modular origami.  Sure I've been making sonobes and giving them to friends etc but I can use more exposure.  When I learned about Jack Rabbit Sports' Art Night at Union Square, I immediately signed up.  There's no fee to enter and there's a prize of $50 gift certificate, plus wine, cheese, and crackers as refreshments.

It was an interesting experience, especially for someone totally new to the "gallery" scene, that is, displaying one's work for others to see.  I mistakenly thought that the artworks would be clustered around the back of the store, perhaps on several tables.  Instead, the different works were scattered in many locations throughout the store, which was a good thing as more than ten people brought in stuff to exhibit.  Some works were put on horizontal surfaces like tabletop or cabinet-top, while others were placed on easels.  There was even a video and it was displayed on a TV screen connected to a laptop.  Each exhibit was assigned a number then customers, friends of exhibitors, etc voted for the winner of the evening.  I happened to have arranged to meet a Freecycler at the store, to give away a LaCie external hard drive.  She voted for me so I at least had two votes, but it was not enough to win, heh heh.

One thing I learned from the exhibit was that you need to have contact info readily available.  A few artists had business cards placed near their work, should anyone want to contact them afterward it would be just a phone call or email message away.  On the days leading up to the event, I spent much time designing the images on the sonobes, but did not once think about having business cards to go with my exhibit.  At the end of the event, a neighbor exhibitor wanted to keep in touch with me, so I wrote my email address on a spare sonobe module for her.  That's it!  Next time I'll have my contact info pre-printed on a bunch of sonobe units, all kept inside a half-finished sonobe, which will look like a bowl.

I walked around a bit in the beginning and took the photos below.

I took this photo at an angle to show that it's a piece of wood with depth.  The picture was burnt onto the wood, no mistake to be made!  Note that the design around the picture was cut through the wood. Note also the business cards on the side.

My PPTC team mate loves bridges and painted a picture of her favorite bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge.

Illustrations by Eileen San Felipe.  I tried vector drawing and never got far.  Why, I didn't get too far with bit-mapped drawing on the computer either.  I still do pencil-and-paper, or of late, white-board and dry- or wet-erase markers.

My very own sonobes!  From right to left, the unfolded papers, 6-unit sonobe (cube, duh!), 12-unit piece, and 30-unit piece.  The larger pieces feature various photos and text related to running.  For brownie points, I also showed the Four Jacks, which shows the address and phone number of the four Jack Rabbit Sports stores in New York City.

See the complete collection of all the works exhibited at

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151485803853713.1073741825.48482283712&type=1

courtesy of Lorena from Jack Rabbit.

GENEROSITY 5K

To Scrabble players "SUQ" and "QAT" are two useful words to know.  Unfortunately, like many Scrabble words, the meanings can be hard to remember and I myself often get the two mixed up.  A suq is a marketplace in the Middle East whereas a qat is a type of evergreen plant.  As I plan to write this blog post, the first phrase that came to my punster mind was "Generosity fills the qat", which can be the headline for a story about runners taking over a marketplace that serves as the starting point of a race.  I know, it is contrive, as is often the case with puns.  Recall that I have trouble assigning the correct meaning to the respect words.  Since qat is an evergreen plant, my catchy phrase is totally meaningless.  Bummer, definitely a first-world problem.

The runners and walkers at the Generosity 5K Brooklyn this past Sunday 4 March 2013 in Prospect Park participated to raise money for more serious issues, like getting injured veterans back into society or helping Coney Island recovers from Hurricane Sandy.  I was stationed at the intersection of West Lake Drive and Well House Drive to direct participants to make the turn into Well House, lest they make a big loop and do more than 5K.  I also snapped a bunch of photos as runners and walkers approached my station.  See if you find yourself below or at the Picasa link.

Nice-looking start chute.

Nice looking finish chute.

I happen to be reading a Star Wars book in which a Lost Tribe of Sith infiltrated the Galactic Government.  In the case of the Generosity 5K, it's Lost Tribes Beverage, not Sith.

For all the photos I took today of the event, visit

https://plus.google.com/photos/109153989599275468311/albums/5851286664483170385

NYCRUNS INAUGURAL CENTRAL PARK MARATHON AND HALF-MARATHON

Inaugural this, inaugural that.  NYCRuns is on a roll, first with the Brooklyn Marathon in 2011, then yesterday (Sunday 24 February 2013) with the Inaugural Central Park Marathon and Half-Marathon.  I ran in the Brooklyn Marathon, but for the Central Park race I played a small role in supporting the runners.  Some photos of the volunteers at the Finishers Village and some special runners.  More photos can be found at

https://plus.google.com/photos/109153989599275468311/albums/5848737966470786689

Bag check, just drop them bags here then pick them up after you cross the finish line, mere meters away and visible on the right in the background.

It was a beautiful day to run, but a cup of hot chocolate still hit the spot.

Amber poured another cup of hot chocolate as Laura looked on.

Flavia handed out a juicy and tempting apple.

Mike kept the park clean.

Tina kept the water flowing.

Bagels of many flavors were to be had, but blueberry was a favorite to many runners.

We aimed to collect every water cup, every Gu packet, anything discarded by the runners.

She was at the PPTC Cherry Tree 10-Miler, the NYRR Empire State Building Run-Up, and now at the NYCRuns Inaugural Central Park Marathon.

Last but not least, #311!

RUNNING AND FREECYCLING

I don't watch much TV so what little I watch I remember well.  One commercial that I remember well is that of Ryan Hall for AT&T cellular network, shown during the recent London Olympics.  Originally I thought it was a commercial for Audible.com, to show that Mr. Hall can go for a long run and have many audiobooks to keep him company, right?  Whatever.

For my run today I decided to give my Bose portable CD player a try.  It was late in the day so even if I wanted to I wouldn't do a long run.  My long run these days are at most 15K anyway, no match for Mr. Hall's cross-country journey.  I just went for a run along the waterfront near Cesar's Bay, along the Belt Parkway.

I sweat a lot and rarely carry earphones because I don't like to get them wet.  I don't need music to keep me motivated either.  But the idea of "reading" books while running is attractive.  I already do that with walking and dish-washing, or even floor-sweeping.  I used to have to use a portable DVD player to listen to audiobooks and the device is cumbersome to carry around.  The battery dies pretty quickly, too.  Thanks to Freecycling, I got myself a portable CD player, Bose brand.  Someone was moving to another state and saw my request.  It just happened that she came across this barely-used CD player.  I met her shortly later and gave her a "Thank-You" sonobe.

Size really matters as far as the CD player is concerned.  It fits smugly in my winter coat's chest pocket, even in my trousers front pocket.  It runs on AA batteries and they go a long way.  Green that I am, I am actually using rechargeable AA batteries, which cost a lot up front but can be reused over and over.  Alas, running and listening to audiobook on the Bose didn't work out.  Even though it clearly says "anti-skip" on the player's cover, it did skip during my run.  It skipped so much before reaching 2 km I decided to run without listening to the book.  I do a lot of walking for Charity Miles, usually a mile a day, so that's when I can make use of the Bose.

My new electronic toy - a Bose portable CD player.  Thanks to its compact size, I was able to sail through "Sharpe's Siege", by Bernard Cornwell, in a short time.  I started listening to "The Keepsake" today, while on the run.  I prefer historical fiction, the older the better, to learn how people deal with the lack of technology.

"Thank You" in various languages, even sign language.

SCENES FROM A RUN: MARINE PARK WEST TRAIL, CHANNEL AVENUE ENTRANCE

When the current school year started, my son was supposed to take public transportation to school.  Somehow the school found the money to cover school bus service for all the grades at his school.  All was well and good until the bus strike happened.  From the few times when wife and I took the subway home from school, we knew that things are pretty chaotic on the subway platform.  Students ran along the platform as if they were at a playground.  The top of the stairs would be clogged with kids who have no consideration for others.  So on the first day of the strike I took the subway with my son and walk with him to school.  I also met him after school and rode the subway home with him.  To save a few bucks and also to maintain my running schedule, I usually ran home after dropping him off at school.  I sometimes also ran to school to meet him in the afternoon.  It worked well, except I ended up with running pretty much the same route day in and day out.  A few weeks into the strike my son was comfortable enough with the subway that I let him go to school by himself.  He would call me when he transferred to the Q train and again when he got to school.  At last I was able to resume running other routes and not have to be at his school.

The first chance I got I went right back to continue exploring the West Trail of Marine Park.  The last time I was there I entered at Allen Avenue.  This time I ventured further south and got onto the trail via Channel Avenue.  Just beyond the perimeter of P.S. 277 there was a big clearing with tire marks to suggest some vehicles recently plowed through the area.  It was too close to the road (Gerritsen Avenue) so I didn't think it was the trail and went further toward the water.  I was wrong.  There was another trail that supposedly ran along the water and the clearing I saw was indeed THE trail.  I took a few photo of the area near the water and went back to the trail, then headed north to trace my way back toward Avenue U.  That's my plan, a small section at a time, so that I always travel over familiar territory.  Like last time, I exited the trail at Whitney Avenue.

Happy Trail!

After a short walk from Gerritsen Avenue and P.S. 277 was the path leading to the trail.

Not much snow was around, just a tiny bit of ice on the path leading to the trail.

I thought this path was too close to Gerritsen Avenue to be the actual trail, but I was wrong.

The trail actually leads back to Avenue U.

Looking left of the clearing, Avenue U would be to the left of the photo.

Looking along the water, which is to the left of the photo, toward Belt Parkway.

PPTC CHERRY TREE 10-MILER AND RELAY 2013

So there are many web sites where green-minded people can post giveaways to humanely get rid of stuff they no longer need.  The one thing it comes down in the end is how "nice" the people are.  There is no telling.  I had a few good weeks of actually giving things away, but this past week I re-acquainted with the down side of freecycling.  In three separate incidents, the recipient was no-show.  I don't mind if something comes up and the person notify me.  I made sure they have my cell phone and they already have my email from our initial contact.  But no phone call, no text message, no email.  Oh well.  I guess some people just have no common decency to alert me if things don't work out.  Or maybe they are just sloppy or busy people who don't keep a neat address book.  Whatever, let's get back to running news.

Today I volunteered at the Prospect Pack Track Club (PPTC) Cherry Tree 10-Miler and Relay.  The day started with me getting at the pre-dawn hour of 5 AM.  The race took place in Prospect Park but we had bib distribution and food service to be setup at Bishop Ford High School.  The school is not near my D train and weekend train transfer is a pain, so I decided early on to run to the school.  My friend Chicken Underwear already told me that it was not a good idea as I would spend the whole day in the cold with sweat-soaked clothes, but I prepared a set of clothes to change into after the run.  I went mostly along the D train itself, along 86th Street then New Utrecht Avenue, then Fort Hamilton Parkway and MacDonald Avenue.  It started out dark and gloomy, cold too, but by the time I hit Greenwood Cemetery the sun came out and the birds were tweeting their status updates.  That's the nice thing about morning run, there's literally light at the end to look forward to.  On the other hand, evening run at sunset can only lead to more darkness as the day wanes.

I once rode a bike to the area and can vividly recall the difficulty of going up the hill once I made the turn from Fort Hamilton into MacDonald, along the cemetery's perimeter.  The hill was still there today but it seemed somewhat easier to climb than being on a bike.  I thought of stopping once, perhaps at some traffic light, but I kept pressing on, just one more block.  Soon enough I was at the corner of Bishop Ford and decided I had enough of a workout.  The trip came out to be 7.88 km, or less than 5 miles, done in 1:00:04.  I missed the chance to help unload the U-Haul van with the fruits and water etc but there was some other work to do.

One funny thing is there happened to be some school trip so many kids showed up with luggages.  At the PPTC Turkey Trot run on Thanksgiving Day 2012, Bishop Ford had a clear presence, with kids running and helping with water stations etc.  I thought today's kids also ran, but what with all the luggages?  Eventually it was time for the kids to get on their buses and we had the cafeteria to ourself.

It was nice and warm inside the school, with food and hot chocolate within reach, but there were many volunteers so when the chance came to get a ride to Prospect Park to help with the setup of finish line and start line, I went on the ride.  It was freezing cold out there!  I already changed into dry clothes and had many layers on but the hands with only one layer of gloves were cold.  Luckily, I was able to grab a pair of bling gloves for the race, thin enough to serve as the inside layer.

I thought I would help with IDing finishers in the top three but that was not the case.  Since the race was both a 10-miler for individuals and a relay for teams of three runners, there was a need to tell the runners where to go to keep running or to get into the transition area to hand over the baton.  For a while I held two signs to direct the runners, but the letters on the signs were too small.  Most runners knew where to run, but for some by the time they were close enough to read the signs they were already steps away down the wrong path.  I gave up on the signs and just shouted out instructions, along with other PPTC volunteers in the area.  Without the signs to occupy my hands, I put the free hands to work to photograph the runners.  There were too many runners so I just focused on taking photos of people sporting PPTC items of clothes.  There was a friend from a recycling group who happens to be a great runner and I looked for her but couldn't find her.  I did see a different friend, from DailyMile.com.  She ran the 10-mile course, or 3 big loops of Prospect Park, so the first time I caught her, the second time she caught me, and the third time I was ready to catch her in action, going hard for the finish line.

The Cherry Tree race is advertised as a race for the hard-core.  I don't consider 10 miles a very long distance, but with the kind of temperature we had today, in the teens (Fahrenheit) it sure is hard-core.  After the race, runners and volunteers went back to Bishop Ford to relax and re-supply the bodies, and there was even free massage.  After standing for hours in the cold, I could use a massage but I was supposed to rush back home to take the boys swimming.  So, I only had cup of soup, an ice cream (Enlighted - the good-for-you ice cream!), and a bagel with cream cheese.

Enjoy some of the photos I took at the event!

The whole Picasa album:

https://plus.google.com/photos/109153989599275468311/albums/5846077348243420289

BROOKLYN FREECYCLE

Let's hear it for Brooklyn Freecycle!  Or FreecyclePlus actually.

Did you visit any of those links I provided in my last post?  Practicing what I preach, I actually posted a few things with Brooklyn Freecycle today.  It's nice that my Offers appeared right away, but it won't do any good if nobody wants the stuff.  I am sure if the site ever gets popular, spammers will ruin it for everyone and new posts will have to be approved, just like with The Freecycling Network.

FreecyclePlus uses a point system in dealing with Offers and Requests.  Supposedly, people can bid with points to have a better chance of getting stuff.  But points are not really required to bid.  Huh?  It reminds me of Whose Line Is It Anyway's point system.  The points don't matter and Drew Carey awarded, the improv geniuses on the show, with abandon.

Anyway, one of the stuff I am offering on Brooklyn Freecycle is these CD tray thingamajig, viewable at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/qaptainqwerty/8467538481/

Do you have any idea how to use these trays?  I only I bought at BJ's Wholesale not really knowing how they are to be used.  Many years later they just sit around not used.  I suspect they are used together with some CD-organizing system, perhaps hooked onto some rod and swing out as needed.  Hope someone will see through and can put them to good use.

BEYOND THE FREECYCLING NETWORK

When I recently got back into freecycling, I thought it was a while since I got involved with the movement, that there would be some other web sites beside The Freecycling Network (TFN).  I didn't look too hard and settled back with TFN.  In these days of Facebook, Twitter, instagrams etc, TFN, at least the Brooklyn and NYC groups that I use, are rather quaint with their Yahoo!Groups interface.  No attachment, a little delay waiting for approval by moderators, message list order sometimes seemingly out of whack.  But I quickly got used to it.  It's actually not bad, just post a message and wait for email responses.  You can even send email to some group address to post offers.  Still, there must be other services out there, and as Allan from AnyGoodToYou wrote in that service's blog, there are.  I checked out the sites Allan mentioned, including the ones found in Wikipedia.  I also happened upon other services.  So there are alternative services to TFN, but none matching TFN's breadth.  Some are limited geographically, others are just alternative interface to the same TFN data, and some are too quiet to be considered active.  For my visits, where applicable I only look for Brooklyn, NY and nearby towns, usually NYC (supposedly the five boroughs of the Big Apple).

http://trashnothing.com - Freecycling Network with a more modern interface

http://www.reusemoose.com - mostly Australia?  I did find a Brooklyn group but it has very little to offer.

http://www.anygoodtoyou.com - UK-based for now

http://freecycleplus.com - relatively new, few listings

http://www.reuseitnetwork.org - Brooklyn and NYC groups are Yahoo!Groups like Freecycle, no interface improvement, new listings in the single digits.

I do recommend you check out these alternatives to TFN.  Competition is good.  Maybe your particular city has a lot of activities.

I would not be surprised if I missed some web sites for freecycling.  Do let me know in the Comments!

NYPD AT WORK

It is the third week of school bus strike in New York City.  Since I have some extra time, I've been accompanying my son on the subway to and from school.  It's a very unpleasant task.  While most kids wait quietly for the train to arrive, there are always some horsing around on the platform as if it's a playground.  Other kids would walk between subway cars as if they are mere escalator.  One even walked between cars while viewing a tablet, perhaps an iPad mini.  I am surprised none has fallen into the tracks yet.  Then there are those so-called students walking around with no book-bags whatsoever.  One day, one such non-student ran into my subway car shouting something to the effect of "It's that kid from yesterday!" and ran into the next car, followed, supposedly by two or three of his accomplices.  At the terminal where I transferred to my train to get home, when son and I were getting into the subway car I saw the same group already inside, with another group of kids standing around in circle, looking about furtively.  Things looked suspicious so we went to the next car.  Sure enough, at the first stop out of the terminal, as the train was pulling into the station I heard over the P.A. someone telling the conductor not to open the doors.  Everyone on the train was trapped inside.  Four police officers were then seen walking the platform, one officer had his arm around a kid, the officer's hand resting on the kid's shoulder, as they went toward the front of the train.  Some of the officers visited my car then quickly exited.  A long time later, the search proved futile, the doors were opened to let people in and out, and the train continued its course.

The next day, while waiting for my son in the subway station, I noticed three men hanging out in the same area.  Plain clothes of blue jeans and jackets, no visible insignia.  When the kid that walked the platform with the officers yesterday came into the station, however, these three men went with him.  The Q train arrived, after the usual awful long wait, the kids rudely fought their way into the train as usual, and the train went to the next stop.  However, again, at Bright Beach station, the conductor was told not to open the doors.  The undercover cops went about their work with the kid, and soon enough the non-student from yesterday with his partners-in-crime were taken off the train with their hands behind their back.  I could not tell if they were handcuffed or restrained with plastic cuffs but they sure were detained.

My guess is that the day before the gang robbed the other kid of his cell phone.  It happens so often these day, it's a safe guess.  I do know one kid who just the week before was robbed of his smartphone, in the same terminal.  I heard he was also hurt a bit, although when I saw him this week he didn't have any obvious sign of injury on the face.  This other kid that was helped by the police, perhaps he knows someone in the police force, or just happened to run into the police and decided to try his luck in getting back his phone.  The local police blotter didn't have any info so my guess is just that, a guess.

I do wonder what happened afterward.  For sure those robber kids went back home after a short detention at the police precinct.  Were they scared enough to refrain from doing what they did?  Or did they think it was an adventure that they want to re-visit?  How about that victim kid?  I wonder how safe it is for him nowadays to ride the subway.