Bradley's Old Fashioned Weblog

Category: General Updates

Commentary on people, places, things, the news, current events, etc.

  • Background Noise

    A few days ago I was standing on the train, looking around. Sometimes I like to just look at the other people on the subway and wonder what their lives are like, what they do, think, or believe in. How do they view reality?  It makes me think about the way that I view and interact with other people. In a place like New York City, there are just so many people that invariably some of them fade into the background and just become noise or static at the edge of the story of my life.

    That’s sort of sad to think about. Some people are a brief hello, or a shape in the hallway, or a flash of color against the snow. But it isn’t really possible to form longterm and meaningful relationships with everyone we meet. I read a study one time that said it’s only possible for people to have about 250 relationships in total. By that, the report meant meaningful relationships where we actually know about other people and keep up with them. After that, our minds just can’t keep the story straight anymore. That’s probably pushing it too. I’ve always been a bit of a loner, because I move so often, but I don’t know that I’d be able to, or even want to have, more than two dozen people at a maximum that I keep up with regularly, outside of family. Maybe it’s laziness, or maybe I’m just interested in developing a few relationships that matter, instead of a lot of relationships that don’t.

    Anyway, I like to try to put myself in the shoes of the people around me, or to imagine the world the way they might be seeing it. Sometimes it helps me to remember to be a better person, in terms of common courtesy, and it helps me to remember that the world doesn’t revolve around my life. There are other people with needs and concerns just as real and crucial as my own. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that, and easy to forget to be good to the people around me. But that doesn’t mean I’ll stop trying to improve myself.

  • Are We There Yet? When is Spring Coming?

    Are We There Yet? When is Spring Coming?

    This winter has been really long and unpleasant. Every time the snow on the ground is about to melt, we get hit with another snowstorm. This morning, I was excited that the weather was warming up. Today it got up to 54 (a heat wave!) and tomorrow it will be 53, but then I saw that next week the temperature is going to drop down close to freezing again.

    http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=140556

    I just wish we could get a good solid rainstorm to get rid of the snow and all the filth that’s covering everything. On all of the exposed concrete there is a layer of grime that looks almost like dirty, blended newspapers and mud. It’s most noticeable on the stairs leading down into the subway stations. It gets on everything.

    If it has to be cold, can’t it at least be clean? Snow is only pretty for a few minutes in New York City.

  • Obsessive Compulsive About Blog Organization

    I was just looking through some old posts and I realized that I moved this blog from Google’s Blogger to self-hosted WordPress more than a year ago. During that process, a lot of the images didn’t transfer properly. There are just broken image placeholders in a lot of the posts, which is really a shame since most of my older posts were about visiting places in Asia and the photos are fantastic. Well, they’re fantastic and the posts don’t make sense without them.

    I’ve been trying to get around to fixing these broken images, but it seems like things just keep coming up that I have to get done. I suppose I’ll get them fixed eventually. Maybe this summer? Maybe if I just start doing one or two each day they’ll all be fixed before I realize it. I certainly can’t just put off classwork to fix broken links.

    I really need to get this done. Self-hosted WordPress is fun but expensive. If I ever decide not to stick with it, I need my blog data to be all put together so I can export it to some other platform. I’d rather not do that, but I want to be prepared.

    I spend so much time trying to put this blog together or get it organized the way I want that I haven’t put much effort into actually writing posts over the past year or so. That is partly because I’ve been busy with school, but also because every time I open the post editor I think of how the blog isn’t the way I want it to be, the posts aren’t fixed, images are broken, my blog keeps going down because some script is eating up too much RAM on the server, categories need to be rearranged, etc.

    I’m too much of a perfectionist. Maybe if I just find a really nice, minimalist theme that has nice color accents and incorporates the newest features of WordPress, I’ll be happy with it and just stick with it for a change. I suppose I’m not particularly happy with how 2014 looks and besides having those broken images, I’m dreading the amount of time it’s going to take me to find a theme that I like that suits a personal blog with a bit of personality but isn’t completely dumbed down.

  • Stolen Package Drama

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    Somehow I’m not surprised, both at the UPS person’s incompetence and the theft.

  • Happy New Year!

    I hope everyone is having a great New Year’s Eve!

    My wife and I are staying home. We had a nice meal, we’re watching the live stream Chromecasted to our television and we’re going to enjoy a nice bottle of wine. Most importantly, we’re staying warm. It is extremely cold outside, and I can’t imagine standing in Times Square for hours waiting on a ball to drop in this weather. People usually start showing up to claim spots around noon.

    Speaking of the live stream, so much of the show is in Spanish it’s almost not worth watching. I was also disappointed when the old guy that was on stage with his daughter turned the event into a political platform by demanding the legalization of the status of illegal immigrants in the United States.  The United States is the land of freedom and opportunity, but that doesn’t mean you can just sneak across the border, show up at a government office and demand a portion of the American Dream. You have to get it legally. Every country has laws. This one does too. Immigrate legally. If a person can’t respect the most basic law of a country, then why should they be rewarded? I feel like the only reason some politicians are pushing for legalization of illegals is so they can increase the number of taxpayers and further fatten the government’s already over-bloated coffers.

    Anyway, the way things are going, I might as well just learn Spanish. This will be a majority Spanish-speaking country before the end of my life. Most jobs in New York City already require a person to be fluent in Spanish. I imagine the same applies for most cities in southern California and the southwest, though that makes more sense since that area is closer to Mexico.

    It’s sort of ironic, really. My great-grandmother immigrated to this country (legally) and only spoke only Spanish. My family acculturated and I speak only English. Now I’m going to have to learn Spanish to keep my economic options open.

    Anyhow, there is less than an hour to go until midnight. Time to stop ranting about politics and start enjoying the evening.

    Happy New Year!

  • Wine, Cheesecake and Winter Break

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    Today, my wife and I had a relaxing dinner at home followed by cheesecake and wine. The cheesecake is from Veniero’s Italian Pasticceria downtown on 11th Street and 1st Ave. The place is pretty famous and attracts a lot of tourists. It’s been there since 1874 and it lives up to its reputation. We used to eat at there all the time when we lived downtown. Maybe it’s a good thing we’re not close by anymore, though. It’s hard to meet fitness goals with this big a temptation right around the corner. I could eat their desserts every day!

    A week ago, I was rushing to finish a paper at the last minute for a class I had this past Fall semester. I was rushing, doing classwork up until the last minute. No matter how often I tell myself I’m not going to get bogged down by class-work during the last week or two of the semester, it never works.

    Oddly enough, now that I should have time to relax, I’m even busier than I was during the semester. I’ve been out all day, every day, trying to take care of errands and chores that I’ve been putting off for four months so I could focus on school. It’s a lot to get done, but it’s getting there. I have new glasses and I’ve done some much needed shopping. I still need to get some winter boots.

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    One of the things I’m most excited about is that I have time to go back to the gym now. I’m hoping that’s a trend that will last into next year and next semester. I’m taking it easy for now, and trying to build up my distance walking first. I kinda miss when I was running 6 miles in an hour.

    Anyway, I’m hoping my rushing around now pays off and I get to spend at least two weeks just sitting around doing nothing (except going to the gym) before I start preparing for next semester.

    I’ll still be an officer in the CCNY History Society, but I’ll be taking it easy, relatively. Last semester I took Arabic 3, Hebrew 1, Jesus the Jew, a graduate Historiography & Historical Methods, and an Independent Study. In the Spring, I’ll only be taking four courses: Hebrew 2, Sacred Objects, Art of Jerusalem, and a graduate history course on the Arab-Israeli Conflict. They all sort of tie into each other, and I’ll be spending a week in Jerusalem as part of my course of study, so it should be a very cool and very fun four months.

  • The Encyclopaedia Judaica Dustica – Physical Copy

    Last week, I had to do some research in a group for the last assignment for a course I’m taking this semester called “Jesus the Jew.” We spent the semester studying Jesus in the Jewish context he was born in, including society, government, religion, and politics. We also looked at the gospel narratives and examined what they said about Jesus, who the authors were, how they differed in their views of Jesus and talked about what that means in terms of early Christianity. It was all very fascinating and I’ll probably post some of my research here later, but for now I wanted to share this picture:

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    This is a photo of a few volumes of the Encylopaedia Judaica from the City College of New York library. The dust on top was at least a quarter-inch thick. I can’t imagine anyone has opened these things in at least 10 years. The E.J. is available online in full as a free resource because it was originally published around 1916 (I think). The only reason we got physical copies was because we couldn’t connect to the school’s wifi. Not surprising. The school has been getting its internet system upgraded but I’ll probably get my MA before they finish that project.

  • End of the Semester

    Every time the end of the semester starts coming up, I say to myself that I’m going to try to get ahead of things and not get bogged down with work during the last week or two and every time I seem to fail. I have two language finals next week; one on Monday and one on Wednesday. Then I have a 15 page paper due on the following Monday that requires me to read four books. Let’s just say that I’m not on schedule with the reading. Going to be a lot of long days this week.

  • Keeping Busy This Semester

    A page from Al-Kitaab, Part One, Lesson 6
    A page from Al-Kitaab, Part One, Lesson 6

    Fall Semester started and, as expected, the amount of free time I have available has dropped to next to nothing. Of course, that’s partly expected, and partly because I’m taking five classes again to get the most bang for my GI Bill buck.

    This semester I’m taking:

    1. Arabic 3
    2. Hebrew 1
    3. Jesus the Jew: a course that looks at the historical situation surrounding the time of Jesus in first century Palestine.
    4. Historiography and Historical Methods: a graduate history course on how to examine and understand historical writing.
    5. Jewish Studies: Independent Study

    So far, the classes are pretty good. Arabic 3 is difficult, but not impossible. Hebrew 1 is easy, because basic Hebrew is similar to basic Arabic. Jesus and first century Palestine are fascinating to me, so that’s probably my favorite class this semester. The independent study is just that, so the freedom to choose what to research and write about is outstanding.

    The only class that’s not rocking my world this Fall is the graduate history course, and it’s not because the course is bad in any way. I just don’t know anything about American history beyond the rubbish I learned in highschool, so I feel like a fish out of water in the discussions. All of my studies have focused on Middle Eastern and South Asian history, with few exceptions. Nothing wrong with broadening one’s horizons though, and the professor is definitely excellent.

  • A page from Maus showing a Jewish “bunker”

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    I’m reading Maus as a launching point for a paper I’m going to write.