SCENES FROM A RUN: DON'T HIT ME, WAZE!

The destination for my run this morning was the home of an old compatriot from Viet Nam.  He used to live in the same village as my maternal grandparents.  My mother recently found out that he lives just a few stops away on the D subway line.  I drove Mother to visit him and near the end of the visit I took a photo of the elderly people.  Last night I dragged out the old HP Photosmart 375 to print a couple of photos for Mother and the old neighbor.  It was quite a pain to print photos.  The printer at first didn't even turn on but eventually did wake up and I had two photos to deliver the next morning.  Yup, I made his home part of my run.  I just needed to drop off the photos, either in his mailbox or the mail slot on the door.  Along the way, I also checked in with a few mPlaces and earned a few nano-pennies.  More on that another day.

On the way back, I made my first useful contribution to the Waze network of traffic reporters.  Driving is a pain but I believe tools like Waze can lessen the pain.  Driving and saw an accident?  Open the smartphone app and report it so others can avoid the route, if it's that bad.  Include photos and a little text, too.  Ideally, you have a co-pilot to do the reporting for you.  Or do so from the shoulder of the road, not while driving please!  My contribution in this case was for the closure of Bay Parkway between 84th and 83rd Streets, for potholes repair.  It was a rough winter and all the nice work the NY DOS do with shoveling has the undesirable side effect of creating lots of potholes.  Too bad I couldn't find the photo I took of the closure, but I saw that I got 6 points.  Just a little "game" to make traffic problems more palatable.

When I was near home, I wanted to do another kilometer so I ran a little past my home and back.  At the turnaround point, I saw the following vanity plate.

At first I thought it says "Done My Time", you know, maybe the vehicle owner did something bad and paid for it with jail time.  On second look, it's actually "DUNHITME", or "Don't Hit Me".  What drew my attention also was that the plate was not in the center of the front bumper.  Whatever, I won't hit you!

NYCRUNS FROZEN PENGUIN HALF-MARATHON 2014

When I ran the NYCRUNS Central Park Marathon last Sunday, I made the most of the time limit of 5 hours and 15 minutes.  I appreciated the staff and volunteers for being out so long for slower runners like me.  I thought of returning the favor by volunteering at an NYCRUNS race this weekend, but it didn't work out.  I thought the Frozen Penguin Half-Marathon was to take place on Sunday, but it was Saturday.  The timing just didn't work for me to volunteer, which usually involves being at the race 7 AM to 1 PM.  I live nearby and had an errand to attend to, which placed me even closer to the route.  I was able to be at the race to cheer and take photos.  Some photos, in no particular order, are below.

I like eye-rhyme as well as ear-rhyme, at the expense of correct spelling.

Penguin hat!

The rest of the photos can be found here:

https://plus.google.com/photos/109153989599275468311/albums/5986413635125513793

FACEBOOK SEARCH IN GROUPS

I help administer the Facebook group "Newtown High School Elmhurst, New York Alumni". Every now and then someone new would ask, "I am from Class of xxxx, are there anyone else from my year?", where xxxx would be some year, e.g. 1985 or 1967.  Being the vigilant admin that I am, I would use the search function to find messages in the group containing that year number.  I periodically ask new members to announce themselves, such as stating their names and years.  Subsequent searches would easily find people of the same year.  I tried to create a spreadsheet but that takes forever.

The Search gadget is not too hard to find on a laptop or desktop computer.  It's the magnifying glass in the upper right corner of the group's main page.  But on a mobile device, such as the iPhone, with the mobile Facebook site or in the Facebook app, that is not the case.

On a desktop or laptop computer, the Search gadget is invoked by clicking the magnifying glass in the upper right of the group's main page, highlighted by the red oval above.

A sample search for "1993" yielded many hits.  Some hits are obvious, others you need to click on to see comments related to the entry.

As far as I know, there is no way to carry out a search using the Facebook app.  You can do some administration of the group, but no way can you find a certain phrase or word in the group.  The one search function the app has applies to the whole Facebook universe.

That leaves the mobile Facebook web page.  I specified "mobile" because for better use of limited screen real estate, when you put www.facebook.com into Safari (or some browser) you don't see the Facebook presented to a desktop user.  (From this point on, "desktop" implies "laptop" as well.)  You see some essential stuff, but things are reformatted so you don't have to zoom around. When you get to a group, the admin options are just as limited as the app.  But there is hope!

Perhaps you already know that at the top of the screen, on the left, there is this gadget consisting of three horizontal bars.  Click on it and you can get to your Groups, your Pages, very much what you would find on the left side of a Facebook screen on a desktop.  Scroll all the way to the bottom and you have the "Desktop Site" link.  Choose that and you no longer have to deal with the re-formatted Facebook view.  Of course, things look smaller, but that's the price you pay.  Just zoom in on the area surrounding the gadget and search away!

Click the gadget to get to Groups etc.

Desktop Site is what you would click to see the whole Facebook page, not the re-formatted version.

Hard to see, but there it is on the right near the top.

Just zoom in to enter what you need to search for.

NYCRUNS CENTRAL PARK MARATHON 2014

I know someone who has info from all her foot races in a neat little spreadsheet.  In this age, it may seems odd, what with Athlinks.com supposedly having every little bits of info about all runners, but it is good to have your own.  I did discover that untimed races like the NYRR Emerald Nuts Midnight Run or those supposedly unsanctioned races once organized by the Holiday Marathons folks are not listed anywhere.  You just have to make your own little list.  I am not done but the disturbing trend I found out is that my marathon finish time just got worse as time goes by.  For my most recent marathon race, the NYCRUNS Central Park Marathon, my finish time is 5:13:43.  I had two marathons completed in the 90s before chip time and those were about 6 hours.  My best marathon time was in 2011, at the Brooklyn Marathon, then each race after that just went down a few minutes, to this year's worst record. I do have a reason for the lousy performance but it is still upsetting.

It was a rough winter.  It snowed a lot and the weather was freezing cold.  I did not run as much as I'd like to.  As a matter of fact, I didn't have any 20-mile run as recommended by many training plans.  Many days I had to take time out to shovel or break the ice.  I didn't want to risk injury so I didn't run outdoor when it was slippery.  I suppose it would help if I have a gym membership and resorted to treadmills.  Even though I was unemployed, many things came up and I just couldn't find a block of 4 hours to carry out the long runs.  The most I ever did was a 15-mile run with a friend from PPTC.  Another time I was 10 miles into a supposed 20-mile run but I had to head back to pick up some medicines from the local pharmacy before it closed at 6.  Yeah, it is probably a first-world problem, but it's a problem nonetheless.

It was a beautiful day to be out running.  No rain, temperature just right for runners, and the roads in Central Park was mostly free of nasty ice.  I usually don't use bag check because of the delay in dropping off the bag and later retrieving it, but with NYCRUNS races there are not that many people so I brought a bag.  Just something to hold an outer layer of clothes.  The marathon was scheduled for 8:30, with the half-mary started at 8, so I had some time to get to the race.  It was nice to see daylight as I traveled to Central Park by subway.  As I entered the park, the half-mary people already started, which was a good thing because I didn't have to wait at all to use the john and to drop off my bag.  I worked with NYCRUNS before so it was nice to be greeted by many people.  The start of the marathon was about half a mile away but I got there in time for a short stretch, to bow for the national anthem, then off we went.  There was almost a thousand half-mary runners, but only about 350 in the marathon.  It took very little time to run past the start mat.

The marathon course consisted of five counter-clock loops of the park, the top portion being 102nd Transverse.  No Harlem Hill, just Cat Hill five times.  Much easier to remember compared to the course for the half-mary, which included a pass through 72nd Street and once up to the northern edge of the park.

Each loop had four water stations: in the 90s Street on the west side, at 68th Street on the west side, then around 72nd Street on the east side, and finally at 89th Street, near the Fred Lebow statue and NYRR office.  Years ago when I volunteered with Central Park Conservancy, I learned that the light poles in the park have street numbers assigned to them.  I don't know if that helped or hurt my run.  I should just plow ahead and not pay attention to where I was.  Five loops, it shouldn't matter what street I was at.  Besides, the course is not straight like the city streets, so for example one may be in the 70s and the next goal is in the 90s, it's not 20 blocks or 1 mile away, but rather whatever the curvy course is.  I tried to hug the curves but clockwise runners had the inner run lane so that strategy only worked sometimes.

The nice thing about a race with loops in Central Park, as opposed to one that covers a whole city, is that for slow runners like me I was never alone.  There were many other people out there enjoying the nicer weather.  At some point, I started to overlap the half-marathon runners, but eventually they all finished.  Just to keep my spirit up, I started to look for other racers like me and got to know three, Tory from Ashville, North Carolina, John from Annapolis, and Jeannie from San Francisco, some time during Loop 3 and afterward.  It helped to have a little competition with runners of similar capability.  We took turns leapfrogging each other, with walk breaks or time-out for Gu and water.  I worried about getting cramps and should have brought some salt, luckily nothing happened.

I brought 6 gel packs, thinking of having one before the race then one for each loop as I finished the loop.  The plan was flawed since by the time I finish the 5 loop there would be no need to have gel.  I would need the gel for the boost to keep going.  I had breakfast on the subway and didn't feel that I needed a gel pack before the race.  One pack per loop I did have, so by the time I finished the fourth loop, I had two left.  I used one for the water station at 68th Street on the west side, then another at the station near 72nd Street, then it was a slow walk up Cat Hill, and finally I actually reached Mile 25.  I passed by it a few times before, but only on the last loop would it really mean one more mile to go.  I took one last drink at the 89th Street aid station, asking for "rocket fuel" and was handed a double-dose of Gatorade, briefly and shortly hummed the theme music from the first Rocky movie, and somehow found the energy to run the rest of the way.  The time limit for the race was 5:15:00 and I made it in at 5:13:43.  It was not that they would instantly collapse everything, as other people past 5:15 also had their time recorded.  Not a bad time given the fact that I under-trained.

Thank you NYCRUNS staff and volunteers!

Thanks go to Patty CT for this photo of me early in the race.

The tech cap helped keep my vision clear, but near the end I took it off for the camera.

Thanks go to Nicole I. for this photo shortly after the finish.

The hard-fought finisher medal.  There was supposed to be a finisher shirt, too, but when I finished there were only ladies sizes left.

THROWBACK THURSDAY: MY MEAGER COIN COLLECTION

It's Throwback Thursday, when we look back at something old which may bring a smile to our faces.  At least that's what I think it is.

I don't remember when I started it, but I have a decent coins collection.  I don't travel that much but when after a visit to a country, whether for business or on vacation, I would save a few of the coins.  Sometimes even the bills.  Also, since I live in New York City, people from all over the world somehow cross my path, or more exactly, their coins got dropped and I found them.  Sometimes I think the foreign coins were mistakenly used, or maybe even intentionally used, such as the case when the coin has lower value compared to the U.S. currency.  I have a few coins that look like the dime, both in shape and color.

I also save coins related to public transportation, mostly subways and metro trains.  Last but not least, I collect coins from arcade or similar businesses.  Without much further ado, check out part of my coins collection below!

Mostly tokens for the New York City subway system (NYC Metropolitan Transit Authority), but there are tokens for Boston, Chicago, and Dade Country, which I cannot recall of what city or state.  After a few design changes, the NYC MTA tokens of course got replaced by the MetroCard.  Likewise, the Roosevelt Island Tram used to have its own tokens.  Last but not least, check out the slug in the upper left!  It has a magnetic center just like the NYC MTA token, same round shape, same diameter, but probably cost much less to produce.  It was successfully used and found its way into a token ten-pack that I paid for.  I could have gotten a replacement but decided to keep it as a souvenir.

Here I have coins from Fun Time USA, Six Flag Great Adventure, Chuck E Cheese, Museum of Moving Image, Crayola Museum, Strasburg Railroad Museum, as well as those pennies that got squeezed through some machine.

I once visited Chennai, India (aka Madras, India) on business.  It was an interesting trip, diarrhea and all. 

I separate the coins into their own containers.  One container has U.S. coins, another British coins, then French, Mexican, Hong Kong, etc, but here I have a collection of coins from all over.  The Philippines, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Italy, Israel, Australia, Jamaica, Japan, The Netherlands, even some tokens for bridges and tunnels within New York City.  I am pretty sure the majority of these coins were found on the street or mistakenly used as U.S. dimes and nickels.

I visited Hong Kong twice.  I love the coins with the wavy edges.

Whenever I think about coins, I recall clearly the one time I saw a Vietnamese dong disassembled.  It was some time after the Communist takeover in 1975, the government didn't have enough money to make quality coins.  Someone showed me how a Viet coin, after some time underwater, had its tin foil layer removed to reveal a cardboard core.  Or some material equally inferior.  The demonstration simply stayed with me all these years.

FRIDAY FUNNIES: WINTER OUTDOOR RUNNING

Yes, I was inspired by Al Jaffe of MAD Magazine.  He may be turning over in his grave.  I know, he's not dead, fortunately, but I imagine that's something the writers at MAD would say.

While I enjoyed coming up with contrived words and pictures to fit the art of fold-in cartoon, I wish I could have done better with the left half of the big face.  And maybe not use "Hot Pockets" since it rhymes with the "hidden" phrase.

TGIF!  (Everyday is TGIF for me while I am unemployed, but you working stiffs know what I mean.)

GPS Art FAQ

Double-dipping, the practice of taking from the food tray more than once while other people haven't had their turn, is something frowned upon.  Especially at a party or some public event.  In some cases though, thanks to cut-and-paste technology, it's OK, at least I think so.  I'm thinking of course about both updating my blog and having something to hand out at tonight's Art Night at Jack Rabbit Sports in Union Square, https://www.facebook.com/events/618021894935571

Jack Rabbit Sports is a chain of stores in the NYC that fills the needs of runners and other fitness-minded people.  It regularly hosts events about the various sports and related services, but last year saw the first Art Night, where runners etc with artistic talents get to showcase their work.  I participated with my running-themed sonobes, one with 30 units showing various photos and words about running.  A few participants showed photographs, one had a video of trail running, some wood-printing, some sort of knitting, and vector-drawing.  See the photos at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151485803853713.1073741825.48482283712&type=3 .

There was some interests in my sonobes but I didn't win.  The honor went to a photographer.  I'm entering the contest this year with something a lot more related to running and quite artistic, IMHO.  I'm talking of course GPS art.  From the interactions I have with people on Facebook etc I know a few questions that are regularly asked about my GPS art.  Maybe knowing how the work is done will give me more votes to win the $50 gift card...

Here it is, Qaptain Qwerty's Frequently Asked Questions on GPS Art, as done by me and my Garmin watch:

1. How do you make it?  With a Garmin GPS watch and my pair of legs.  Back from the run, I sync the route to Garmin Connect then take a screenshot from the Player view, such as http://connect.garmin.com/jsPlayer/386410198 .  While the path can be traced out while walking or cycling, running gives that intermediate speed.  Walking is too slow and cycling would sometimes requiring going against traffic, something a law-abiding citizen like me doesn't like to do.
2. Did you actually run all that distance?  Most of the time, yes.  In the "Claudia" example below, I actually ran all that red route.  Note that for some letter, like C and u, I had to run the route twice, up to the top then back down.
3. Do you have the path traced out on paper etc?  No, while I look at a map before the run I don't have it traced out, on paper or otherwise.  I occasionally use Google Map on my iPhone to check my progress, but I never use any visual aide that shows the completed path.
4. How long does it take?  Between one hour and two, depending on the letters.  Some letters are easy to complete, like n or r, since they require only one pass, but others like u or l requires going up and down the same block more than once.  "Al Goldstein", which refers to the ex-President of Prospect Park Track Club, not that other screwy guy, took over two hours, and I even got e before i .
5. How did you make the "e"?  It looks like you cut through a city block!  I didn't trespass any properties, trust me.  It's a trick I discovered with the Garmin watch.  When you pause the watch it knows where you were.  When you get to another place and unpause, it simply draws a straight line between where you were and your new location.  It can be considered cheating, but as far as exercising I wouldn't cheat myself in any way since I end up running a longer distance in reality.
6. You use city streets a lot, why don't you use a big open field?  The rectangular city grid provides an easy reference, especially the numbered streets.  In a big open field, I find it hard to track the distance and one tree that earlier looked unique would later on look just like other trees.  Also, a field may look big in person can turn out to lack enough "height" for the letters.
7. How do you know what to write?  Whatever happening that day.  Someone's birthday, some holiday, or whatever puns I think of.  Or if someone would offer me a lot of money, I suppose I can sell my soles.

SCENES FROM A RUN: UNPLOWED SNOW UNDER THE BRIDGE

I live near what I call the Belt Parkway waterfront.  To be exact, it's that waterfront path between Caesar's Bay and Owl's Head, primarily for pedestrians and cyclists.  "Near" is a relative term.  It's probably about 2 km but for us distance-runner that's near enough.  It's a great place to jog as it is devoid of car traffic, except the occasional maintenance vehicles from the Parks Department or those belonging to NYPD.  It's not so great when it snows, as the place is not plowed, or at least not completely.  Some time ago I went there after a snowfall, with steel-toed boots, to find out how accessible it was for runners.  It was not.  Here and there there were shoveled spots but around 17th Avenue toward the Verrazano Bridge the snow was intact.  Some brave souls may have walked through the snow but it's still not much of a path, with snow up to the ankle or worse.  Since that exploratory trip, I know better not to go running by the Belt Parkway waterfront.  I just don't like slogging through snow.

Yesteday when my running partner J said we should run on the Belt Parkway waterfront, mere days after that big 12" snowstorm plus yesterday's 1" of fresh snow, I should have thought better and not agree.  J mistakenly thought that NYCRUNS just had a race there yesterday.  How bad could it be if a few hundred people just went through the same area?  They wouldn't have the race if the road was not clean, right?  NYCRUNS did have a race yesterday, but that was in Prospect Park, which has car traffic so surely it was plowed nice and clear.

I decided to run from home to Caesar's Bay, as opposed to driving.  I thought if I drove, I would use the lame excuse that it was nice and warm in the car and would end up staying in the car too long.  So I ran, along the elevated tracks of the D train to Bay Parkway then turned left for the bay.  I thought the roads would be clean to run on, but it was not that clean.  The sun didn't yet rise when I got to Caesar's Bay.  I saw J's car, I did tell him to go ahead and I would catch up to him.  We run at the same turtle speed but I fancied I would switch to turbo mode somehow and overtake him, wishful thinking.  Just a K or so in I knew this was a mistake.  It was cold, dark because the sun hadn't come out, and there was a lot of semi-hard snow on the ground.  I had a bandana mask on but it didn't stay up, very annoying.  I usually take a few photos on runs like this but it was too cold I didn't want to take off the gloves to take photos.  Such is one disadvantage with smartphone cameras.  With the typical digital camera, you know, the one that not too long ago displaced the trusty 35mm camera, you can control the camera if you gloves fit snugly.

Still, I pressed on, at times just walked it since there was little difference between trying to run and walking.  My worse fear was that I would twist an ankle but luckily nothing that bad happened.  A few times I thought of taking some overhead bridges over the Belt Parkway to run on Cropsey Avenue or some civilized street that should be plowed already.  But I promised J I would meet him on the waterfront so I soldiered on.  By the second footbridge after the Verrazano, the path was perfectly straight all the way to Owl's Head Pier.  I decided that if J was not heading back by then, I would just go back the 4th Avenue exit of the Belt and snuggle up with a nice hot cup of coffee.  Probably even a full breakfast and walk my way back.  J did show up, I met him halfway and we went back together, unplowed snow and all.  It actually warmed up a bit, enough for me to remove gloves to take the second photo, of icicles on the guard rail.

Now that it was over, with no damage from the cold and the slipper snow, it was a good run.  By myself I would not have done it.  Still, as long as I remember it, I won't do it again.

The bike path is completely covered with snow.  Cyclists sometimes get testy when us runners invade their lanes, but in this condition no bike would make it.  The Verrazano Bridge is in the background.

I love to see water freezes as it tries to fall to the ground.  I imagine some wave splashed onto these rails but didn't move fast enough and got frozen.  That's my crazy running partner on the left in the distance.  Way back in the center of the background is the Parachute Jump in Coney Island.

THORWBACK THURSDAY: METROCARDS

It's Throwback Thursday!  I know, by the time most people read this it would be Friday already.

So the news say the NYC MetroCard is supposed to be retired in the not-so-distant future.  I hope its replacement won't be something that only works on smartphones.  Much as I love smartphones, I don't want rely on it for my commute.  I would not mind one of those things that get sucked into the turnstile and spit out on the inside.  On some bad days, the stupid MetroCard wouldn't work no matter how fast or how slow I swipe it.  It sucks because the turnstile does not suck, that's all I have to say.

As a pack rat and collector of many things, I did collect MetroCards when it first came out, especially when it started to carry ads or some promotional pictures on the back.  Until a few hours ago, I had no idea I had the collection below.  I know I have a pack of old MetroCards in my attic, but the particular designs eluded me.  I know I have a blue one, which on eBay may fetch me $20, alas I only have one, so selling it is not an attractive option.  The rest I totally forgot that I have.  Like the series from New York Mets and its ethnic nights (Jewish, Hispanic, Asian).  I am no sports fan but I thought maybe the baseball fans may get a kick out of the Yankees (Modell's actually) and Mets cards.  I can almost swear I have a NY Rangers card but I didn't see it.

I used to ride the Q58 bus to back and forth from JHS 73 in Maspeth, Queens.  I used to keep all the monthly cards in a clear plastic thingy.  Of course I either threw the whole thing away or can not find it.  Maybe to make up for that I collected the student MetroCards.  At first I thought the cards I have were picked up randomly after some students threw them away.  It turned out the names on the student cards are possibly someone I know.  Alas, I have zero collection of asking for them from those "kids" (The MetroCard turned 20 years old recently, so those kids are not kids any more.)

CUSTOM GOOGLE MAPS WITH PHOTOS

I love Google, I love maps, and I love Google Maps.  I especially love Google Maps with the Photos Overlay.  You have a Google Map then with a layer selected, you can see certain places that have photos associated with them, usually via Panoramio.  In the screenshot below, note that Photos and Labels are selected on the right.  Also Map is shown since we are already in Satellite mode.  Clicking on Map would remove the fancy view, no greenery, no actual road, etc, just a plain map with symbols and such, no photos-quality view.

It is easy to make your own maps based on Google Maps then add your own info.  Just find the place you are interested, such as Calvert Vaux Park in the screenshot below.  I found it, I clicked Save To Map, and I already have Calvert Vaux Park as one of my maps, otherwise I would select Create A New Map.

Last night I could almost swear that I once had a custom map with fancy photos that I easily added to.  It was not the case.  As you may recall from past blog posts I have, Calvert Vaux Park is now half-developed and is nowhere like what the Satellite view of Google Maps show.  I very much want to have my own map with my own photos.  It can be done, but it is nowhere as simple as clicking on some button in the map program and browsing to your photo of choice.  What you actually need to do is to go to the photo first, then right-click on the photo and select Open Image In New Tab.  (Open Image In New Window works too, Tab just happens to be my preferred choice of web viewing.)  Go to the new tab, highlight the entire URL (address bar) and press Apple-C (Ctrl-C on Windoze) to copy.

Next, go to your saved map, click Edit, choose the blue pin-drop and place it where you want to add the photo.  Give the pin-drop a title, click Rich Text, then Insert Image icon (which is right-most), and finally Apple-V (Ctrl-V on Windoze) to paste the link you copied earlier.

In the beginning, I used the very first URL when the photo was opened, whether in the album or not.  It didn't work.  There would be an icon but no photo.  First open the photo in a new tab or new window then you will be good.

It's a work-in-progress and below is the latest map I have so far of Calvert Vaux Park.  I really want to add some photos to highlight the wilder side of the park but it takes forever to find them in Google Photos, since the photos were taken some time ago and scrolling back in time is pretty hard.  Play around with zooming and panning, then click on each pin-drop to see the park at that location.

View Calvert Vaux Park in a larger map

NOT AWESOME

Last year, I discovered the joy of Google Auto Awesome, http://www.qaptainqwerty.com/2013/07/google-auto-awesome-is-awesome.html .  The idea is simple enough.  Take a series of photos of a scene and Goolge Photo intelligently recognizes the moving elements and the still background to cobble together a nifty animated GIF, or a mini movie.  As the name suggests, the work is done automatically.  It seemed to be a great idea and I made a few such "animations" but my latest attempt failed.  The animGIF below was not made by Google Auto Awesome but instead was done on my Mac laptop using GIFfun.  I took a series of photos, which I think show my mini-me, in CubeeCraft form, running in a circle.  Admittedly the background is not constant, but it looks pretty much the same from frame to frame.  Only to me, as it turned out, and not to Auto Awesome.  Awesome takes its sweet time to make the anim so at first I thought it would be just a matter of time.  Maybe I have too many photos and it takes time to scan them and auto-detect the animation.  I took the photos one night before going to bed.  The next morning, still no anim from the photos.  I waited a few hours then gave up and made the animGIF with GIFfun, which I got for free off the Stone Design web site, http://www.stone.com/GIFfun/ .  Thank you, Stone!

I think the uniform color of the floor may have confused Auto Awesome.  I plan to take another shot at it, this time with some other objects in the foreground, colorful objects that make them look different from the floor.  Stay tuned!

NEW YEAR WORKOUT STREAK

The last time I hosted a workout streak on Facebook, the turnout was pretty low but it does not cost any money, just some time promoting it so I'm doing it again!  Why not, right?

I am almost done with the Runner's World Holiday Challenge, which runs (pun intended) from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day.  Some people missed a day or two and expressed interests in having another streak to participate in.  Here's a little poem I conjured during the subway ride home, for these streak-breakers:

So you broke the streak
It ain't no heartbreak
Just walk your cyber-legs here
It's virtual, you can do it anywhere

(I love eye-rhymes, which are rhyming to the eyes only and do not really rhyme when said out loud.)

SCENE FROM A RUN: FUHGEDDABOUTIT!

I love that sign on the border of Queens and Brooklyn on the Belt Parkway.  It says "Leaving Brooklyn, Fuhgeddaboutit".  There is another sign just like it on the Belt Parkway on the ramp to the Verrazano Bridge, but it is not accessible to pedestrian, or anyone for that matter.  You just drive by that one as you head for Staten Island, unless you want to drive onto the grass and attract unwanted attention from any nearby police cruiser.  The one near Queens, on the other hand, is easily reached if you don't mind the trip on bike or on foot.  I visited it some time ago on bike and took some selfies with a camera, not with a smartphone as I didn't have one back then.  The result was not too satisfactory.  This past summer I tried to run there but it got too hot I had to stop at Canarsie Pier to get drinks and then headed back.  I didn't even run all the way back, but rather get to Avenue U to get another cold drink then climbed onto a bus to get home. I don't like to spend money or gasoline while on runs, but that day I made the exception.

Recently I also made exception for really early morning runs with my running partner.  J needs to put in some long miles for his marathon in February and like me he has family duties to attend to so we agree to run really early, like 6 AM.  We normally meet in Marine Park or Sheepshead Bay and neither place is easily accessible by public transit.  And I don't want to run there since I want to save the energy for the long run.  So I drove.  

For today's run, our goal was to log 15 miles total.  I did mention running to the Fuhgeddaboutit sign at the Queens border, but it would overdo the goal.  So we agreed to go 7.5 miles out along the Belt Parkway, which for sure would put us short of the sign, then 7.5 miles back to our cars.  Still, when we got 7.5 miles done, the sign was not that far away.  J was a good sport and agreed to go there anyway, we would just walk part of the way back.  We lost a few minutes posing with the sign, J with a scowling face supposedly as a Brooklyn 'tude, while I had him take a few shots of me throwing my arms forward, for Google Awesome to auto-convert into an animated GIF.  It was supposed to be as if I was saying "Fuhgeddaboutit" but it looks more like I was imitating swimming.  I love it nonetheless and hope you do too!

HAPPY NEW

"HAPPY NEW..."  Well, it's that time of the year.  You know what word should come next, but it was not supposed to be this way.

I am a morning runner but this morning when I woke up at 5:15 I had a stuffy nose.  Maybe it was because I didn't sleep early enough last night.  It was possible that had I went ahead with the regular morning run, the stuffy nose would get worse and I would be sniffing the rest of the day and be miserable.  So I went back to sleep until 8:30ish.  No more stuffy nose, the whole day.

In the afternoon I had some "me" time for a run.  A longish run, somewhere far away from my immediate neighborhood.  But I also wanted to "draw" something for the Runner's World Holiday Streak.  It's been a while since I did any gwriting and the recent news articles about Simon Beck and his snow art got me itchy.  What better phrase to write around this time of the year than "Happy New Year"?

It turned out I could only write "Happy New". The first possible hurdle was that my Garmin was low on battery.  When I was done with "Happy" there was two bars of power left.  I pressed on anyway and when "New" was done there was another bar left.  Still, I started the run when the sun was out, when "w" was done it was dark and colder.  That's the thing with running pre-dawn.  As the run spans into hours, the sun comes up, it's warmer, you feel energized by the new day.  Not so with afternoon or evening run.  It gets dark and depressing just when you start to get tired.  Still, I could have pressed on and write "Year" but then I have a scheduled run with a friend tomorrow, some 15 miles covering part of Brooklyn and Queens.  Fuhgeddaboutit!  Even though I could finish "Happy New Year" today, I will be too exhausted Sunday morning for the 15-mile run.  Most likely I won't have a job in 2014, I'll spell the whole three-word phrase some time early in the year then.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/420903491

WNYC PHOTOBOMB CONTEST

Ah, the wonder of technology.  WNYC radio station is having a photobomb contest involving the British actors Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart.  The radio station conveniently provided photos of the actors with the background removed.  You would save the photo, select the white background then invert the selection, and finally copy and paste the new selection, which is just the two actors, into any photo you wish.  Not too long ago I had some free time and took many photos at foot races.  For the contest, I used one from the PPTC Cherry Tree 10-Miler on President's Day weekend 2013.  Appropriate enough because the race took place in Prospect Park and Mr. Stewart himself supposedly lives somewhere in Park Slope.

Check out other cool photobombs at

http://www.wnyc.org/story/photoshop-contest-ian-mckellan-and-patrick-stewart-and-you-are-homies-forever/

POETRY IN MOTION

I am in another running streak challenge, hosted by Runner's World magazine on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/events/545028802257323/?source=1) and elsewhere.  Between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, inclusively, participants are supposed to run at least one mile per day.  Or 1.6 km a day for those few, like me, who use the metric system.  People would run and then post their distance and time etc, sometimes a long-winded conversation would follow, or new friends made.  I'm doing pretty well at it, despite the difficulty of getting up at 4:45 AM to run between 5:20ish to 6ish.  To make things more interesting, instead of just posting my distance and time, on a few occasions I threw in a poem.  Or at least a few lines of text that rhyme or follow a certain structure.  Just for fun!

Pre-dawn, before work
Short run in asphalt jungle
No photos to share

(The past few run challenges I participated I had the luxury of running far away and take photos of the various places to share.  These days I only run short distance before going to work, before the sun comes out, nothing nice to take pictures of.  In haiku format, which in English is roughly 5 syllables first sentence, 7 syllables next, then back to 5 syllable.)


D-tags are red, DNF'ers are blue
I see you are streaking
Will you be my boo?

(For those who are looking more than a running partner.  The standard lines are "Roses are red, violets are blue".  While I quickly found something running-related that is red, I couldn't think of anything that's blue.  I used "blue" as in sad, with DNF'ers meaning people who "did not finish" a race, usually  because they no longer could take the punishment, but also apply to when a race was interrupted.  A D-tag, by the way, is the longish piece of paper embedded with a computer chip to register the runner's position as he crosses the finish mat or similar locations.  D-tags are widely used by the New York Road Runners.)


There is a streaker named Lex
Creative muscles he likes to flex
Fancy routes made with his Garmin
Got him to start wonderin'
Can the same be done with a Timex?

(I've been doing GPS art with my Garmin watch.  Recently, Timex Ironman became a sponsor for the smartphone app Charity Miles, which I use a lot, so I made the word "TIMEX" as a gesture of appreciation.  I would appreciate it even more if they send me a watch to try to do GPS art with LOL. The poetic structure here is a limerick, which I keep clean as limericks are usually lewd.)


I run each morning from 5 A.M. to six
Loud on my iPod is that song by Styx
Dressed in black, didn't see that truck comin'
Now all I hear is that song by Led Zeppelin

(I quickly ran out of poetry format to try to write.  There are many others of course, just none that interested me.  Luckily, I am a big fan of Whose Line Is It Anyway improv show on TV and one of the games they play on the show is a hoedown.  Unlike the genius comedians on the show, I didn't do this spontaneously and had to think long and hard to come up with the four lines.)


I am in this challenge
To run one mile a day
It's called streaking
But keep your clothes on to play

Start from Thanksgiving
Keep logging the miles
To January the first
And don't forget to smile

However you do it
Roadway or dreadmill
Keep plugging along
At the end stuff yourself to the gills.

(Another favorite game of mine on WLIIA is Irish drinking song, where the comedians sing one line of a song, made up on the spot of course, on some topic.  Again, it took me some time during my work commute to come up with the little poem about streaking itself.  Yup, many of us run just so we can eat what we want.)

THROWBACK THURSDAY: TURN TURN TURN

It's time for another Throwback Thursday photo!  I cannot recall what year this was but as a gauge, let it be known that my niece, the little girl working with me to turn the Archimedes' screw, is now married and has a four-year-old son.  Also, the shirt I was wearing is a Chemical Bank Corporate Challenge shirt, so this must be in the 1995s or thereabout.  No, my eyes are not sharp enough to see the details on the T-shirt, I gathered the info from another photo from the same roll of film.  Bonus question:  With the background building, can you tell where I was?

GPS Art Gallery December 2013

Work has been demanding so lately I can only squeeze in a 5K run in the morning.  Only on the weekends that I get to run longer distance, sometimes with fancy GPS arts involved.  Unless I work on Saturday as well, that is.

"Melanie" was done in one run but the others took more time and was made on two runs.  I am not 100% sure why I made it but it's possible someone named Melanie made a first post in some run challenge I hosted on Facebook.  Bleah, senior moment.

Back when I first dabbled in GPS art, or gwriting, "Charity Miles", or "CHARITY MILES" rather, was among the first phrases I wrote.  I made it in uppercase and it took a long time to make.  Each letter typically stands two blocks tall and to balance things out was two blocks wide, or maybe more.  As I got better, thanks to iTrespass, I itched to re-visit "Charity Miles".  Note the lowercases.  It now looks a lot better than before.

"Runner's World" was freshly made this weekend.  "Runner" was made on Saturday then the rest was made Sunday.  I was going to make "Runner s", note the lack of the apostrophe, but then there would be fewer letters to make the next day.  The apostrophe was tricky to make since it's supposed to be a short dash between "r" and "s".  Originally I thought of making a third run, really short, just short enough to make the apostrophe.  I was going to combine two routes via Photoshop anyway, combining three makes little difference, no?  In the end, I decided to make an overhang with W and digitally erase enough of it to make the apostrophe.  Original routes included for comparison. 

I made "Runner's World" for the magazine's 2013 Holiday Running Streak, for fun and fame.  Join the challenge at https://www.facebook.com/events/545028802257323/?source=1

"Runner's World", actually made from four screenshots, some tweaking in Photoshop.

"Runner"

"s World", weird-looking but after some Photoshopping and combined with "Runner", it all makes sense.

"Charity Miles", lowercase and with iTrespass employed, much better.

Ye ole "CHARITY MILES" from some time back, not as great.

I'm thinking about the "Weird" Al song.