MEET-UP AT CASS 124 AVENUE O BROOKLYN NY

For a few years now, for my local Buy Nothing group, I help organize a regularly-scheduled free Swap Meet, or rather Meet-up, a physical event where people meet in the flesh, to give away items or take free items.  The group is fortunate to have the support of the local public library, Ulmer Park Branch of Brooklyn Public Library.  Because most of us work during the week and the library isn't open on Sundays, all the events so far are on Saturdays.  Some members, however, work Saturdays so they could rarely attend the event, unless they take the day off or not feeling well enough to work but can take a break from being out sick.

Through working with staff at Councilman William Colton, I was recently able to find a place that opens on Sunday which agreed to host us.  It's the Chinese American Social Service Center, or CASS, at 124 Avenue O.  It's a smaller place and not local to Bath Beach and Gravesend, but it's not far either.  Hopefully the usual crowd from the Buy Nothing group will attend, especially those who worked Saturdays.  Depends on how things go, maybe we will have it regularly, say, every other month.  We are already doing the library event every other month, CASS can fill in the gap.

Come attend the event!  Donate some portable, clean, unbroken stuff, take some, do both, or do neither, we are flexible.  Even better, come volunteer your time to help sort the donated items, to help keep things tidy, or to load stuff into the St. Mary's Church van that is scheduled for a 3 PMish pickup.

FREE COMPOST ETC

 The best thing in life is free.  Really.  Especially when the free stuff aligns with your belief.  In particular, I am talking about recycling.  New York City recently made a big push to get more organic recycling to happen.  For a brief time, it became mandatory, fine would be issued if houses have no compost bin out for collection.  Sadly, people complained loudly and now there is no fine, I am sure some people just take that as a sign not to bother participating.  I really like that after separating out paper, metal, plastic, and now organic stuff, there is little left of garbage.  The City pays a lot of money for garbage to leave town, on trains destined for some neighboring or faraway states.

Anyway, what's the use of collecting all that organic waste and not making use of the end product?  Free compost!  It's a bit of a challenge to sign up for these events.  You need to check in regularly, the dates are open for registration for like two weeks ahead.  I managed to snatch a ticket for this past Saturday May 31, from the NYC Department of Sanitation depot up in Greenpoint, Brooklyn North.  It's a long drive but for ten 40-pound compost, it's worthwhile.  I like that it was in the morning, traffic was low and I was home by ten or so, still time to do other things.  I plan to share my loot with members of my local Buy Nothing Group, in Bath Beach/Gravesend.

While waiting for the depot to open, I happened to discover the Kingsland Avenue entrance of the Newtown Creek Nature Walk.  I first discovered the Walk's Paidge Avenue entrance but I was in the area for something else and didn't have time to actually visit it.  It was a few years ago, I vaguely recall it was Phase I of the Walk.  It is a great idea.  All these waste treatment plants are already all over the area.  Instead of fighting them, the Walk just meanders alongside them.  Granted there are walls to keep the Walk away from the facilities, some tanks are so huge you cannot avoid seeing them.  Along the Walk, there are trees, bushes, benches, waterside seats, and more.  Look out the water and far away you would see the skyscrapers of Manhattan, plus a few in bustling Long Island City.  I only walked a few steps in from the Kingsland entrance because I didn't want to miss the queue of cars quickly forming outside the DOS Depot.  After I got my freebies, I made a leisurely visit to traverse the entire Walk and back.  The sky looked like it would bust open any minute so I didn't take the chance of making a big loop south to Greenpoint Avenue and back.

Free walk, free compost, wait, it got better!  By chance, in the afternoon, I happened to notice a freebie event at the Latino church near my house.  From far away, I thought it was a fund-raising event for the church, perhaps the items were offered at low price.  No, they were totally free!  Clothes, shoes, some packaged food, some toys, and dear and near to my heart, music CDs!  Call me old school if you must, but I still like to play music from CDs.  I do have a collection on my phone, but it's a nice feeling to just pop a CD into a player, and play the music loudly in the living room.  Or in the car.  I have a portable DVD player that can handle music CDs just fine.  I got a stack of music CDs, mostly from the 80s.  It was a great weekend.

SHARE FAIR AT KING'S BAY LIBRARY

Back in January 2020, my local Buy Nothing's co-administrator came up with the idea of asking the local library to host a swap meet, except everything is free because, Buy Nothing...  The librarian approved the request and the rest was history.  Well, sort of.  Recall that by March 2020, the whole world shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  No library, no swap meet.  Eventually things got back to normal, hard to believe but it happened.  We continued to have monthly event, lots of stuff changed hands, all free, the leftover went to a nearby soup kitchen the next morning.  The event got so popular that these days we need two cars to take the stuff to the soup kitchen.  With the more recent events, I had to drop some stuff by the side of my house and advertise them as Curb Alert.  I live near a train station so there is much traffic, sometimes everything would be gone by the next morning.

Today, I attended a similar event, organized by the Buy Nothing group in the King's Bay area.  The local library is on Nostrand Avenue, between Avenue X and Avenue W.  It was nice to look at the stuff without worrying about people grabbing too many or helping others separate the donations.  I was just an attendee, not running the show.  I did chat a bit with the organizer.  I only visited King's Bay Library once before and didn't know that it has a sort of an art gallery just to the left of the lobby as you enter the building.  It is a spacious room.  The stuff was spread out on tables and clothes racks along the walls of the room and there was a little island in the middle with shelves and more tables.  They plan to drop off the leftover at the Salvation Army on the same block, near the corner of Avenue W and Nostrand Avenue.  I told myself not to take anything but in the end I took a music CD and two books, the books are for my own faux Little Free Library.  It's good to see the Buy Nothing movement going strong and build the community through events like this Share Fair.  Photos in the following Google Album:

Share Fair 2025 March 22 at King's Bay Library

FREE CUSTOM ZOOM BACKGROUND VIDEO

Free is good, right?  I have had my share of receiving free stuff from the Internet, yes they do exist.  Here's my little gift to the Internet in general.

I have a need to show a video with the names of members of my Zoom workout group.  We are not supposed to run together any more, so we meet over Zoom.  We each do our own thing, be it treadmill, running-in-place, exercise bike, elliptical, or even actual running on the street.  I've been using my StravaArt as a static background picture and want to step up my game.  The process is rather involved but here's the offer:  provide me a series of names and for each name I will make a video with the fancy AnimatedFont shown in the second video.  I then connect all the individual videos into one long one that you can use as as virtual background video during Zoom meetings.  Or whatever use you can do with a video, it'll be just an MP4 file.  There is a limited of six AnimatedFonts available, but the way they are written can add a little variety.  Left to right or simultaneously.  Also right to left if you really want to go that far.  Just leave a short list of names, say up to ten, optionally specify the font for each name and the way the name is written.  I'll reply with a link to my Google Drive where you can download the MP4 file.

I'll get into the nitty-gritty details about making the videos in the next post.

MEN WITH HATS

My Vietnamese name, LONG, sounds the same as another Vietnamese word, LÔNG, which means "body hair".  (In the North of Viet Nam, the two words may be pronounced differently, but in the South they are all the same.)  In English, the little mark above the O is called a circumflex.  In Vietnamese, it's thought of as a head gear or hat, or nón, so that a fun name for someone named LONG would be "Long Đội Nón", meaning "the LONG with the HAT", or LÔNG.

I don't consider myself a hat person, but in reviewing my photo collection I noticed that I do have some photos with head gears.  Different head gears serve different purposes.  In these photos, can you tell what occasions the "hats" were for?  

Hint: Battle of Brooklyn 10-Mile/Relay, presented by Jack Rabbit Sports.

The abbreviation does have something to do with Brooklyn.

The T-shirt design may be too much of a hint.

Hint: I think a girl in the background was carrying a plastic pumpkin.

In case anyone is looking forward to the free My Coke Rewards code, here it is:

TMW5XB6 599N075

It's from a Minute Maid bottle, which I believe at this time counts as double, so you are looking at 6 points, not the usual 3 points.

GOING AROUND WALTER WHITE

Google Auto Awesome is awesome but it has limits.  I already made a GIF animation by taking still shots of an object (CubeeCraft Hello Kitty) spinning around.  But what if I want to go around the object instead, like in that flying eagle kick in The Matrix?  On the first try, I had a CubeeCraft Walter White of Breaking Bad fame on a stool in my living room then I moved around it taking photos.  I discovered that doing so the object can appear at different distance from the camera.  Besides, my living room is shown in the background.  So for the second attempt I went to the backyard and have two stools side by side to eliminate the varying distance between Walter and the camera.  I only made eight or nine shots so the "animation" is in no way smooth.  The three-legged stools only butt against each other smoothly at certain angles and there is only so much room on my back porch.  Alas, Auto Awesome can only do animations when the foreground object moves and the background stays, or at least some reference points stay so.  I expected that to be the case but I wanted to confirm it and confirm I did.

To make the animation below, I first downloaded the photos from Google Photos, then upload them to GIFNINJA.COM.  The link to the anim on gifnina is http://gifninja.com/animated-gifs/690633/around-walter-white .  It is far from perfect but it's a start.

In other news, I have a surplus of My Coke Rewards (MCR) points and there is a 120-point cap for the week, so I'll give some away both to clear them out and to attract readers.  Free, come and get it!  Today's code is from a Powerade bottle I found during this morning's run to Coney Island's Riegelmann Boardwalk, where I saw that the Shark Bridge was already gone.  Drum rolls please!

H5F56WV5B0MN9K

It's possible that someone already used the code but it's unlikely.  I am sure some Coke drinkers don't even know that Powerade carry MCR points.  Of course, it's a good chance shortly after this blog post is published someone grabbed the code.  First come first served!  For tracking purpose, I'd appreciate a thank-you note in the Comments if you are the first to use the code.

Thanks go to GIFNinja.com for providing the tool to make the animation.

MYCOKEREWARDS: USE ZERO AND OH INTERCHANGEABLY

At my last job, I once maintained a Lotus Notes database of tips and tricks.  Knowledgebase (KB) was the fancy name I used.  Whenever I came across some computing trick that would save me a minute or an hour I would create an entry in the KB.  Even though computer programs nowadays are powerful, much computer work is still repetitious.  Launch some program, click some button, check off some box, etc.  You end up doing the same sequence over and over.  Some of the tips I found have all these clicks and selections done once the program starts.  Some of my favorite tips are (1) opening certain databases as the Notes Client starts; (2) connect to the various Netware trees and NT domains while logging in via Netware client.  The KB was mostly text and as I created most of the entries, I mostly knew what keyword to search for.  When the transition to SharePoint happened, it was just not the same.  I never got around to getting warmed up to SharePoint.

Recently I discovered a useful tip in entering codes for My Coke Rewards (MCR).  MCR is that loyalty program whereby participants buy Coca Cola products and enter a lengthy code found on the products to accumulate points that can be traded in for merchandise etc.  After many years of collecting I finally "cashed in" for a $50 Nike gift card that shortly went toward a new pair of Nike running shoe.  It's appropriate use of the points, since I get them mostly by picking up bottle caps etc while out running.

I used to enter the codes on a laptop computer via a web browser.  Recently I started to use the iPhone app, just because it takes less time to get the iDevice and the app going.  The codes are automatically converted to uppercase too.  Unfortunately, the series of code involve letters and numbers, which means frequent switching of keyboard screen while using the iPhone app.  One day, after making some typo, I read the possible solutions and discovered that zero ("0") and oh ("O") can be used interchangeably.  For example, if the code is A1B2C4D56EF0HK, where the third number from the end is a zero.  If I was to religiously switch between letter keyboard and number keyboard, after F I would have switch to number, enter the zero, then switch to letter to enter the rest.  Instead, I can save a few nano-seconds by just entering FOHK.  "Oh" would be readily accepted as zero.  Just like all those seconds I saved with having programs opened the way I need them to, using zero and oh interchangeably with MCR does add up.  Or at least cut down on the frustration.

Now let's have some fun!  I am giving away three 10-point codes from fridge packs that I rescued off the street.  I currently have a surplus of codes and there's a 120-point limit per week that I will easily max out, so I'm giving the three 10-point codes.  Probably just a one-time deal.  Who knows?  In future weeks I may not have any codes for my own use.

To get a 10-point code, look up a post from my blog, in the year 2012, for some topic or some fact that is common to you and me.  Enter two comments for that blog entry, one explaining what's the common link between you and me, the second just your email address.  I will approve the first comment but not the second, so I will have your email address to send the code, but will not publish it for the public to see.  Disclaimer:  It is highly unlikely that these codes were used, but it's a possibility.  You've been warned.  Play the game at your own risk.

FREE OUTDOOR MOVIES

For the longest time I wanted to attend one of those free outdoor movie showings.  Chances are the movies are old but it's the experience that matters more.  The viewers are not limited to a particular indoor space, the sky is overhead, sitting may not be most comfortable but that's beside the point.  The free admission helps too.  I believe the very first instance I knew of such showing is that at Bryan Park in Manhattan, behind the New York Public Library's Research Library.  It's been so long I cannot remember why I never attended the movies at Bryan Park.  Maybe it started too late in the evening, such that even though I worked in Manhattan I would have to hang around the city a few hours after work just to wait for the movie to start.  Maybe it always showed on a certain day of the week that I normally scheduled to pick up my girlfriend from college.  Whatever the case, I never went.  Years passed and I learned of more similar showing, in particular the Flicks on the Beach series in Coney Island.  I've lived near Coney about fifteen years now but I finally went to a beach movie this week.  Coney itself I didn't explore until many years after moving into the area.  I recall when I first moved here I heard that it's possible to walk to Coney Island.  Only in recent years when I started to get serious with the sports of outdoor running that I actually visited Coney regularly.  The People's Playground, you have beach, the boardwalk, famous rides, but all these years I didn't visited it.  Better late than never.

The movie was Men in Black 3.  I went with my son and a nephew.  Before the movie we bought dinner from Nathan's.  Also parked the car in a lot for $10.  Nephew and son each spent about $20 at the arcade in Luna Park.  I definitely did my part in supporting the local economy.

It was a beautiful evening, not hot and not cold.  My son's feet felt cold near the end of the evening but I felt fine.  In the car we happened to have two beach towels, courtesy of TD Bank from some event, and they served the three of us just fine.  Some people had beach chairs, others just sat on the sand, then there are others who came complete with blankets and pillows.  By the time I arrived many people already settled down, but there were room to walk about, at least from the middle to the back.  The screen was not as big as I thought it would be but it did the job.  Being inflatable, it introduced curves to the images on the film but after a while you get used to it.  The audio system was good, except, lucky me, I sat near some motormouth woman who yapped constantly during the movie, something about some other woman or man she didn't get along with.  Sheesh, if you want to whine, why not do it in the comfort of your home and not bother the people at a beach movie.  Other annoyances with the setting include wafting cigarette smokes, vendors hawking their wares (snacks, beach seats), and people in the front getting up to leave.  Oh yeah, some idiot briefly shone a laser dot onto the screen.  Just minor annoyances that cannot be helped when a big group of people is involved.  Overall it was orderly, as far as I can tell.  When it was time to leave, it didn't take us too long to get past the boardwalk onto the street and back to the car.

I enjoyed the experience very much.  The movie itself was so-so, time travel and the usual jokes in the Men in Black franchise.  Good screen, good audio, good scenery, although next time I plan to bring a beach chair, plenty of food and drink nearby available for purchase, unless you are too lazy to get up and decide to patronize those vendors who snake their way among the crowd shouting and interrupting the show.  The nearest restroom was that in Luna Park but the relatively new public ones, on columns above the beach, are not far away.  I am thinking of catching Fame in two weeks, but for that I would have to go by myself as I don't know anyone else in the family who would want to watch it.  I just love the music, not care much about the story.  Better yet, I plan to go see Huey Lewis and the News, for a different free series, but also in Coney Island, on August 15.

Flicks on the Beach, with help from Rooftop Films etc.

Beautiful runner's toes, no missing nails, yet!

Happy Daddy!

Wonder Wheel!

STREETCHARGE FOR CONEY

When I first heard about the AT&T StreetCharge stations, I came across a map that included Coney Island, with a scheduled installation date of July 2.  Free charging of cell phones and such thanks to AT&T and the sun.  Solar energy, baby!

July 2 came and I ran to Coney Island to find the StreetCharge station.  By then I already saw the station on Governors Island, but it would still be nice to see one right in my neighborhood.  When I last used Google Direction to find the Coney station, I was directed to the entrance of MCU Stadium's parking lot.  No luck though.  Just to be thorough, I even ran the boardwalk, from Stillwell Avenue to the western end.  It makes no sense to have the station in some place away from the crowd on the boardwalk, but I wanted to see if the western section of the boardwalk was re-opened, so it was no time lost.  There's always a run to get out of these, uh, runs, so it's never time lost.

A chance discovery on Flickr and I learned that Coney got its StreetCharge station around July 12.  I had some plumbing last night and it took most of today's morning and half of the afternoon to get it fixed.  The sight of water swirling down the drain was so beautiful, I should have recorded it.  Anyway, the first chance I got I made a run to Coney Island, even though the weather was not optimal. I had a bottle of water with me and I plan to use the relatively new restroom in Coney Island to cool down mid-run.  Mere steps from the restroom near West 8th Street, what did I see?  A StreetCharge station!  Two blocks west, at West 10th Street, was another.  Alas, the micro-USB connection at both stations did not work for my Galaxy I phone.  A few people stopping by the station also had troubles, so it's not just my phone.  The iPhone 4 connection worked for my iPhone, so that's good.  One USB connection already disappeared though.  Probably ripped off by someone thinking it was fun.  Or someone who enjoy destroying public properties.  I know, I am pessimistic and readily dismissed the idea that the USB connection was not installed in the first place.  I just hope that I'm wrong.  While I'm hoping, I also hope to have one of those SmartTap water stations in Coney some day too.

AT&T StreetCharge, the pole with the three blades at the top to catch sun rays, at West 8th Street and Boardwalk in Coney Island.  In the background, on the beach, is the new restroom, a welcome sight get relieved and refreshed.

AT&T StreetCharge at Boardwalk and West 10th Street, with The Cyclone roller-coaster in the background for reference.

GOVERNORS ISLAND RE-VISITED

Some summer a few years ago I visited Governors Island three times.  The island is closed to the public during most of the year but is open between Memorial Day and Labor Day.  It is basically a big park, with no vehicular traffic other than island staff or from special events.  It is a great place to stroll, run, or bike.  I loved it, but following summers things just didn't work out and I didn't go once.  Today, I used the excuse of volunteering for the Get Outside on Governors Island (GOGI) 10K foot-race to visit the island.  I helped with some cleanup of a little mess the Recess Badminton Game from the day before, then helped direct the runners toward the festival area as they got off the ferry, and finally as course marshal near the Brooklyn Ferry dock.

I cannot remember much from previous visits, but the biggest change is that now the island is mostly inaccessible to the public.  The island's shape looks like an ice cream cone and the cone itself is now off-limit.  Only the ice cream scoop is usable.  No more making a loop of the entire island.  You just have to wait a few years.  From what I've seen in the past on the island, I think it will be worth the wait.  Cone or scoop, just find the time to visit the island.  You will enjoy it!

Supermoon and Lady Liberty.

Here comes the first few hundreds runners from the 7 AM ferry!

Some lead runners charging up the cobble-stone hill.

Turn, turn, turn, there's a season for every reason, or something like that.

AT&T Street Charge, with iPhone 4 plug pulled out.  There's also a micro-USB connector on the other sides.

StreetCharge pole near Clayton Road.  The techs told me there's some other pole on Yankee Drive or something like that.

GOOD TIME TO BE A NEW YORK CYCLIST

It is a good time to be cyclist in New York City.  We will finally have a bike share program, the CitiBike.  I cannot recall when I first heard about it, but I recall hearing from my distant niece in Paris.  Hop on a bike, go to a different part of the city to return, done.  No worry about carrying an extra key for the bike lock, no need to lug the bike around.  Of course, the bike stations may not be close to where you want to be, but I am sure it works in many scenarios.  Even though there are any bike stations near where I live, I ponied up the money for an annual membership just to show my support for the program.  I don't know where my next job will put me so I don't know if I will ever bike to work, but there are some scenarios I can make use of a bike without having to keep it after I'm done biking.  Suppose some day I'm on the subway and the train stopped running for whatever reason.  I can just hop out of the subway, grab a CitiBike and get closer to home then transfer to a working train line.  Ideally I can bike all the way home, or at least close enough to walk home after returning the bike, but just being able to get closer to home is a plus.  A less useful scenario would be for me to satisfy my fancy about doing a triathlon.  I would take the subway to a swimming pool, do some hundreds of meters, then hop on a CitiBike for some distance, and finally run.  If I were to try that now, I would have to lug my own bike along, lock it somewhere during the swim and the run, then hope it will still be there when my personal triathlon is done.

Today I went to get a free bike helmet from the city.  I've been cycling more often lately and my helmet is pretty banged-up.  I know about the city's program and erroneously thought that I could just call 311 and be connected to someone who would take my mailing address and the helmet would arrive in the mail some days later.  No, you have to go to these Free Bike and Fitting Events, where they measure your head and make sure the helmet fits you fine.  You have to sign a waiver, too.  Go to http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.e2d70d4cd03b6dd1d3e3711042289da0 , click Select Category, choose Bike Helmet Fittings, then click Show Events.  I don't know why they don't just call it Helmet Giveaway.  Bike Helmet Fittings sound like you have to bring your own helmet for them to help you adjust.  I went to the event at the Central Library of the Brooklyn Public Library. The line was longish and it moved slowly, but the weather was beautiful and I had a paperback book with me so the wait was not so bad.  Eventually I got my helmet, a blue one, red and grey being the other two color choices.  While I was at the library, I also picked up a few audiobooks.  Ah, free is good.  Thank you, New York City!

Bike rack on Warren Street near City Hall.

SHE ROCKS!

The best things in life are free, or are they?


A few weeks ago I attended a free concert featuring {drum rolls}... Pat Benatar!!!  It was part of a free summer concert series provided by the Fox TV show Fox & Friends.  Free is free, let's not get into politics...


A few years ago I happened to be in Greensboro, NC for some convention of a certain multi-level marketing company whose name I shall not mention.  Downtown Greensboro was far from lively and most businesses closed by 4 PM or so.  I happened to notice that Pat Benatar was scheduled to perform at a concert hall in Downtown.  My schedule for that trip was tight and there was no way I could have attended the show but the experience got me interested.  I signed up with Eventful to build up an audience to bring Pat Benatar to NYC.  I Liked her page on Facebook to stay informed about her concert tours.  Eventful had some useful info and a few times Pat did visit the area, like the House of Blues in Atlantic City.  I hate driving and a long trip to Atlantic City for a concert is not something I look forward to.  What turned me off with Eventful info is that their links all go to scalping sites like stubhub.com.  I absolutely hate the whole idea of paying above, way above, the ticket prices.  It is bad enough ticketmaster slap $5 or more above the ticket prices, these entrepreneurs on stubhub want double or whatever the market can bear.


Ideally, Pat Benatar would come to some arena like Radio City or Citifield and I would be able to go to the box office, perhaps wait a few hours, and get tickets.  Or at most buy tickets online from the venue, without any ridiculous marked-up prices, and print my own tickets to bring to the event.  I am sure it won't be cheap, so it pained me to think that to make things kosher the Wife may want to come along even though she has absolutely no interest in the many great Pat Benatar songs.  Or English music in general, sigh.


Much to my delight, I discovered via the Facebook page that not only Pat Benatar would be in Midtown Manhattan but it would be a free concert.  Even better, the concert took place on a Friday, my day off (for working Saturday).  I planned to take my son swimming that day but he did not care that much about exercise/swimming.  It got better and better.  The audience area was small and I got a place near the front.  Close enough to get an autograph of Pat Benatar and her husband/musical partner Neil Giraldo on the sonobe orb I made just that week!  I also got a few photos and videos of the event to share with the digital world.  It couldn't get better than that.  Well, it could have, if Pat asked me to come up to the stage to take a picture with her.  But I am happy with what I got and am not that greedy.


Pat Benatar is scheduled to appear as guest of Journey at the new Barclay Center right in Brooklyn.  Journey is another of my favorite band, performing in Brooklyn!  


http://www.barclayscenter.com/events/journey/


I am really tempted to attend that concert, perhaps I should make a bucket list and make the concert item #1...


Another concert that I plan to go is Joan Jett's, on Thursday 9 August, part of Brooklyn's Seaside Summer Concerts series, http://www.brooklynconcerts.com/seaside.html .  Free is good, although it'll be held on a work day, I will definitely be late for it, if I'll be working that day.  Hmm.

From what I heard, Pat Benatar usually signs "You  Rock!" followed by her name.  I like to think it was the first time she autographed a sonobe orb.

Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo with Fox & Friends folks.

The Holiday Marathons

In the Vietnamese language, there is a phrase, "Thời Thế Tạo Anh Hùng" which translates to "the situation creates the hero."  In other words, for all scheming and planning, sometimes events just happen and you have to react accordingly.

The weekends before the St. Louis Marathon, there were half-marathons that I wanted to sign up for.  First, there was a half-marathon in Flushing Meadow Park on April 2, then there was the Unite 13.1 run at Rutgers University the week after.  I think the runners community in the tri-state area is big enough to support more than the NYRR and thought of supporting these other organizations.  Still, I figured I better get some good rest before and after the marathon.  The big day came and it was too hot in St. Louis and the race was shortened to a half-marathon.  Only those fast enough to reach the midpoint of the marathon at a certain time were allowed to continue.  It was a big disappointment for me.  No problem, I will just sign up for other races closer to home.  Alas, the Unite 13.1 run was already mostly filled up, with some spots left on race day.  While I somewhat looked forward to the long trip via subway and light-rail to Newark, I would only go there if I have a guaranteed spot in the race.  Scratch that one.  Then there is the Long Island Marathon weekend of May 1.  Again, because of some shuffling of personnel at work, my on-call dooty got moved up a week.  That is right, from May 8 to May 1.  While it is good that I will be able to do something undisturbed (hopefully) on Mother's Day, now my hope for Long Island Marathon is dashed.

But wait, there is a ray of hope!  Coming up this weekend is the Easter Marathons, one in a series of The Holidays Marathons.  Instead of stuffing our faces with food, or, shudder, go shopping, how about running in a race for the holidays?  The Holiday Marathons has races of varying distances - 10K, Half-Marathon, Full-Marathon, etc.  All free and commitment-free!  No registration, just show up on time and run.  Maybe not totally free if you fork over some donation amount, but the suggestion donation amount is still not as much as the typical race that I usually register for.

I plan to run a half-marathon in the Easter Marathon.  It is a trail run and I am not familiar with the area of Van Cordlandt Park so a half will do.  Eventually, I will definitely do a full-marathon.  There will be no medal but I just want to know if I can do it.  Check them out at http://www.theholidaymarathons.com/

Computing Without Piracy, Mac Version

This blog entry is for my colleague The Lone Gunman of Dallas. LG recently became a Mac owner and has been busy with importing videos into his iMac. LG also wants to know if there's any office suite software for the Mac. I already told him about NeoOffice but here goes the whole enchilada, specifically all about free software for the Mac.

• NeoOffice - A competitor to Microsoft Office, NeoOffice gets the job done. I have Office Mac X but it cannot handle Chinese characters so I use NeoOffice for all my writing and spreadsheet needs. Neo can read and write in MS Office file format (doc, xls, maybe even ppt, but I don't do much presentation so I don't know for sure), in addition to its own format. I have a template in NeoOffice Writer for my monthly ATPM review. Writer has the usual spell check and web linking, etc. I am sure it does not have every feature that MS Word does, but so far it met my needs. Likewise, NeoOffice Calc, the Excel counterpart, with support for SUM and other functions, does just fine for me. NeoOffice is updated regularly and you are usually asked to donate a few dollars from the update web site. You do not have to give but it would be nice to do so. Other than that, the whole shebang is totally free. Hooray for Open Source!
• Audacity - Another of my favorite open source software is Audacity. It somewhat works on sound files as Photoshop to images. Let's say you somehow record music and other sound sources into the Mac. With Audacity, you can increase or decrease the volume, make it fade out or in, play faster or slower, etc. With the free LAME library installed, you can export your handiwork to other formats, such as MP3.
• Phoenix Slides - Most likely you have your digital photos collected by iPhoto. Sure you can have fancy slide show from within iPhoto, what with Jesus Joy of Man's Desire as the background music, but what if somebody hands you a CD full of photos. You may not necessarily want to import those photos into your iPhoto library but you do want to see the pictures. Enters Phoenix Slides. As the name implies, Phoenix is little more than a slideshow software. Just point it at some folder with lots of pictures and voila you get a whole bunch of thumbnails to see. You can do some manipulation of the images and file maintenance, like deleting, but showing you what a bunch of photos look like is Phoenix's forte.
• Frozen Bubbles - You have to take a break sometimes from all the hard work. The open source Frozen Bubbles is somewhat a clone of Bust-A-Move, one of those games where you line up 3 or more bubbles of the same color to bust them. The Mac version does not support full-screen game play and is still at version 1.0, but it is still a good way to waste some time.
• MacOSaiX - As the contrived name suggests, the software is used for making mosaic, or photomosaic to be exact. You can use your own photo library or randomly grab photos off Google. This is the software that I used to make the mosaic of my ex-colleague Monika as she left the I.T. industry for the nursing field, http://www.flickr.com/photos/qaptainqwerty/55847224/

These are just a few programs I use regularly, or at least would like to use them more often, like MacOSaiX, that happen to be free. There are certainly a few web sites out there that list hundreds of free Mac programs, free as in free to use forever, not just free to download, but I like to give personal touches whenever possible. A long list can be overwhelming, whereas a short list with more info has some warmth to it.

Most likely whatever you need the Mac to do you can find the software to do it, free or otherwise. It is true that some apps are not available for the Mac platform, but it is a small price to pay. I will probably make a future blog entry called... Things The Mac Can Not Do (and How To Go Around It, If Applicable).