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Please, Put Crappy Writing Here

This sign, above this trashcan, is located in the Compton-Goethals hall at City College of New York. I’m not sure who put it up, but it’s a good reminder that if you’re not going to write well, you shouldn’t even bother to turn your paper in. With the end of the semester upon us, and many papers due, this sign has a lot more meaning than usual. I’m doing pretty good. I only have one more to write and then I can completely focus on studying for finals.

My wife tells me all the time that I write well. I figure she’s biased, but I did always get good grades on writing assignments in high school and in the college level courses I took online. Now that I’m physically attending classes, I thought maybe the ‘truth’ about my writing ability would come out. I guess I just underestimate myself, because the papers I turn in always come back with good grades.

I’ll try to not let my ego blow up too big, but I’ve even had people come to me for help with their papers, and after guiding them through revisions I’ve been thanked profusely. I was even told I should be a teacher. That’s kind of funny, because another guy at the school mistook me for a teacher. That could just be because I’m older than most students and have a beard though. Ha! If you’re wondering, I was in the Army for nearly a decade and now I’m using the Post 9/11 GI Bill to complete my tertiary education. That bill is a godsend. I’m really enjoying the whole college experience, and it’s only possible because of that bill.

Anyhow, summer’s coming. I thought about taking a break, but I just don’t think I want one, so I signed up for summer courses. For the first session, I’m just going to fill a graduation requirement, Speech Foundations. I hear it’s a fun and worthwhile class, though. For the second session I’m going to take World Civilizations: Pre-History to 1500 AD. I’m pretty sure I’m going to wind up majoring in History, so that should help me out. I haven’t officially matriculated yet, so I don’t know exactly what the degree requirements are. I’ll find out when Fall semester starts.

May 15, 2011
Fight Spills Into 14th Street, Causes Traffic Jam

Yesterday, I was coming back into the city from New Jersey on the PATH train and got off at 14th street. My plan was to hop on the bus and then go back into the subway at Union Square to head uptown to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I wound up having to get back off the bus and walk, though, because punks don’t know how to behave in public. One kid jumped another kid and the result was a big traffic disaster on 14th street between 6th and 5th avenues.

As soon as I got seated on the bus I started seeing flashing lights and the bus just sat there, so I took a look out the window and saw that the street was jammed with police cars. There was a tour bus going the opposite way, but stopped in the road with all the tourists on the open upper deck leaning over the rail and gawking. I saw a black guy being led away in cuffs. I waited a while and then got off the bus to take a few pictures and then walk to Union Square.

While I was standing there taking photos, I heard what happened from a woman that had been handing out sales fliers. Apparently, a bunch of kids from a nearby school had just left class and one kid jumped on another kid and busted the side of his face up. The kid that got attacked took off into the subway station I had just left. The guy I saw being handcuffed was the one that did the attacking. While she was telling me this, the police were yelling at the crowd of kids, which I assume were classmates of the kids that were fighting, telling them to go home or at least leave the area.

When I was walking away, a girl (brown coat in the above picture, surrounded by friends) started crying, saying it was “[her] man’s birthday.” I can only assume that the guy that got arrested is, or was, her “man”, and they weren’t going to be doing much partying that night. He must not have wanted to celebrate his birthday anyway or he wouldn’t have done something illegal in the middle of a crowded street. People just don’t think anymore, do they?

On the left, you can see the M14A Crosstown I got on, then got off, stuck on the side of the road because of all the police vehicles.

The only redeeming factor in this whole fiasco, besides giving me something to blog about, is that I got to see an undercover NYC police car that looks like a taxi cab. In the photo above, the foremost taxi (facing right, just behind the cop car) is an undercover vehicle. You can see the red strobe light in the center of the dashboard.

May 15, 2011
Boka: Bon Chon on St. Mark’s

Last Sunday was Mother’s Day. It’s been years since I’ve lived near my mom on Mother’s Day, so I wanted to take her somewhere to get a nice lunch. My mom has lived in the city for years, so I wasn’t sure what would be appropriate (some place she hasn’t eaten at quite a bit already), but I settled on a place called Boka: Bon Chon. It turned out to be a good thing too. Boka is a Korean food place and my mom had never had Korean food before, so besides lunch she got the gift of a new experience for Mother’s Day this year.

As for the restaurant itself, I was a little skeptical at first, because when you first walk up to it, it looks more like a bar than a place you’d go for a good meal. From the outside, it’s pretty unassuming. You would hardly know it’s there. There’s no large sign or store front to speak of. It occupies just the bottom level of the building seen above. There’s a karaoke bar above it, a Japanese noodle place to the right and another restaurant that I didn’t really pay much attention to on the left.

The interior was a surprise. It’s really nice and really clean and the décor was classy, if not something I’d think of when I think ‘Korean’. The place gives more of an English pub impression, to me at least.

We got there at around 2 PM, between lunch and dinner, so the place was empty. By the time we left, it was starting to fill up. It looked like the crowd was mostly younger people, which makes sense since NYU has dorms in the area.

I chose the pork bibimbap.

I helped my mom pick something from the menu, since she wasn’t familiar with the food choices. She got beef bulgogi, which is pretty tame and a good first taste of Korean. I think that’s what I had, the first time I ate at a Korean place.

The lady that served us seemed to be the only server working at the time, but it wasn’t busy. She seemed a little unsure of herself and I got the impression that English was still a bit of a struggle for her, but she was very friendly. Our food and drinks came to the table quickly, though she seemed a bit surprised that we just wanted water and Coke, rather than soju, sake, or beer.

Overall, the place is pretty cool. The atmosphere is comfortable, the food is good, the prices are reasonable and the service was good. I’m looking forward to visiting again. I think next time I’ll try the Korean style fried chicken. I saw a tip on Foursquare, after we’d ordered of course, that the Korean style fried chicken there kicks ass.

May 13, 2011
A Celebration of Buddha and Asian Culture

Last Sunday, on my way to the Barnes & Noble by Union Square, I was passing through the park and saw an event celebrating Buddhism called The Lotus Lantern Festival.

I’m not really clear on the significance of the above statue, but people would step up to it, bow, and then use the dipper (you can just see the handle protruding from the bowl above the elephant) to scoop water from the bowl and pour it over the head of what I assume, by the lotus he’s standing on and the extended earlobes, to be a representation of Buddha.

When I first walked up, a woman was singing. I don’t know what it was, or what it was about, because I missed the intro, but it sounded interesting, so I hung around for a while to see what else might happen. After she sang, there was a demonstration of a traditional Korean dance. I forget exactly what was said about it, but it was a celebratory dance related to successful agriculture, I think.

After I watched that, I walked through the park and just as I was getting to the other side, I started to hear Japanese pop music. When I turned the corner, I saw there was a stage, with a live performance by a girl named Reni.

On one side of the park was the solemnity of Buddhism, and on the other side of the park was Japanese pop culture, complete with cosplay and peace signs. Weird combination. Anyhow, I recorded one of her songs…

And then moved on past her booth…

…and happened to catch the tail end of a Chinese dragon dance and a martial arts display.

I think it was called Wishun but I could be mistaken.

I’m already looking forward to what I might see at the park this coming weekend.

May 11, 2011
Broadway Street Fair, 14th Street to 8th Street

Today, Broadway was closed down from 14th Street, where Union Square is, down to 8th Street for a street fair. The road was lined on both sides with stalls selling everything from costume jewelry to barbecue pulled pork. There were even stalls set up by The New York Times, trying to get people to buy subscriptions, and a booth promoting Islam. This is a story best told with pictures:

This costume jewelry was laid out in a huge pile across a few tables. It was on sale. A closeout sale in fact. Only $3.00 apiece. Doesn’t seem like much of a sale to me. I’m sure if you looked hard enough you could find this stuff for a dollar apiece. It’s pretty to look at though, especially when it’s laid out together like it was.

Some $9.00 bags of kettle corn. If you’ve never had kettle corn, it’s sweet. It tastes awesome and smells great.

I stopped by this booth to look at what they had to offer. The sign on the front of the table says that everything on the table is free. The guy in the blue jacket on the right spoke fluent English and Spanish, and the Korans he’s putting down are translated into Spanish. The Lower East Side has a lot of Hispanic families, so maybe that’s the demographic they were mostly prepared for. I took a few of the flyers. I’m sure they’ll make great reading material for the train. The guy in the blue jacket seemed encouraged by my interest in the flyers and asked me what I know about Islam, so I started talking about dates, like Mohammad’s birth, death, the first revelation, etc. I know these things, since I just learned about it in an Art History course and I’m taking a test over it tomorrow. He asked me if I wanted to spend a few minutes learning about the basics of the Islamic faith. I thanked him, but said no. It’s not that it wouldn’t be interesting, but given recent events, I don’t want to hang around anything promoting Islam. Some nutball might show up and do something violent. Besides, I have a feeling he was going to tell me about the 5 pillars of the Islamic faith: Attestation (“There is no god but God, and Mohammad is his prophet.”), Alms, Prayer (5 times a day), the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca), and fasting during Ramadan.

There were even Moroccan rugs!

And funnel cakes! I love funnel cakes. I didn’t get one though, because I was on my way to meet my mom for lunch. It was Mother’s Day, and I didn’t want to spoil my appetite.

I saw a LOT more than just this street fair today, including some Asian cultural festivities, but I’ll save that for a post tomorrow, or the day after. I hope you enjoyed the photos!

May 9, 2011
Man Jumps Over Six Women in Union Square, Manhattan

I went up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art again today. I’ll blog about that later. For now, I want to show you what was going on at Union Square that cost me some of my museum time. Like I keep saying, there’s always something going on there and when I was passing through, I saw a huge crowd gathered by the entrance to the subway, so I stopped to check it out.

This colorfully dressed guy had just jumped over the girl that’s standing behind him there, in the center of the open area. I took this photo right as he was landing, though I meant for it to be him in the air over her. This wasn’t impressive enough, so he decided to give us an even bigger show, which I recorded:

I was impressed. I half expected him to land on the last girl, turning this otherwise exciting performance into a tragedy. There are very few places in New York City that you can go without seeing some sort of live performance by a regular person looking to make some extra cash. Some are bad, but some, like this one, are pretty damn good and worth the time to watch. I try to keep some change in my pocket for when I see stuff like this, or when someone is playing music (on an instrument, not from a boombox) in the subway and it sounds good.

May 8, 2011
Union Square Park (Photos)

I haven’t tried to keep up with what days each market is held on, but there was an art market yesterday. This is a photo of the cobbled area along the west side of the park where the stalls were set up, with people selling homemade artwork including oil on canvass, photography, sketches, etc. in various styles. One day I might even buy something from here to decorate my apartment wall. Maybe. I remember hearing people haggling over a price for something that looked like it was about a foot square. The starting price was 500. Ouch.

I’m not sure what the interview was about, but the guy to the right in the photo was pretty animated while speaking. Maybe this was part of a project being done by students at the New York Film Academy, which borders Union Square.

A group of interesting looking folks, sitting on the edge of a fountain in the southwest corner of Union Square. On warm days, Union Square is packed with people who are just hanging out and enjoying the good weather, at least so far. I wonder if that will change when the weather turns from warm and pleasant to hot and scorching, and the cement gets hot enough to sear your ass like a burger on a grill.

There was a group of people working on this painting. I think it had something to do with a project sponsored by Keds shoes. The old man there was taking a photo, like I was doing, and then went right into the middle of things to ask what it was all about, or at least I assume that’s what he was doing. That’s one of the good things about being old. People are more forgiving when you do stuff like that.

Union Square is even more crowded on weekends. This was a Thursday afternoon, around 5 PM.

May 6, 2011
Do You Have Your Life Vests And Boats Ready For May 21st?

This lady, or someone like her, has been in the Union Square train station fairly regularly over the last week or so. When I first tried to take her picture, she was leaning against the side of the pole to the right. She moved, so I moved too. I wonder if it’s because she has some doubts about what she’s promoting and is concerned about potential embarrassment when she wakes up on the morning of the 22nd to see clear skies and just another Sunday?

I say clear skies because the reasoning behind this theory that the world will end on May 21st, 2011 is that God said that “Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made” (Genesis 7:4) and He also said “that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8). Apparently, May 21st, 2011 is the day God was talking about, and never mind that whole story that follows Genesis 7:4 about Noah in the ark. That was just a prequel for the real event. Or so they would have us believe, I guess. There’s also some special numerology that they’re using to explain why they fixed on exactly May 21st that involves numbers with traditional symbolism and the number of days between the Crucifixion and that day.

I’m not going to hold my breath. Like every other end-of-the-world theory that’s come before this one, this will end in disappointment and tears, and maybe even some embarrassment. But, on the off chance that the world actually is flooded on the 21st, at least I won’t have to do finals for this semester.

May 6, 2011
Osama bin Laden’s Dead? So What?

As much as I try, I just can’t seem to make the moment I saw the news about bin Laden being dead feel the same way it did when I saw the WTC collapsing on September 11th, back in 2001. I think the reason is that it just doesn’t mean as much. The collapse of the World Trade Centers and the resulting deaths, the toll of which is still climbing from inhalation of toxic materials by workers, was a momentous event that launched this country into what has become a decade of constant warfare, draining our economy and polarizing world opinions of Muslims and Americans. What has Osama’s death accomplished now, so many years after the fact? Just about nothing.

You see, it’s too late. The damage has already been done. I saw a quote on a news site saying that killing Osama is like cutting the head off of a snake, but Al Qaeda isn’t a snake. It’s a world-wide network of terrorist groups, like minded individuals in groups that can work independently of any leadership. The death of Osama bin Laden is only a fire that will cause their feelings of hatred toward the United States, and other Western countries, burn that much brighter. I don’t think they were doing what they’re doing just to get a pat on the back from big brother Osama after all. This is a war of ideologies that won’t end until everyone who believes in radical Islam is killed. I don’t think that’s likely to happen any time soon. You might say that Osama was financially backing the terrorists, or at least some of them, but how expensive is a home made pipe bomb to make? Not very. How expensive is it to purchase a firearm and then shoot up a military base like that knucklehead at Fort Hood? Not very.

Without going down the road of questioning whether or not the story itself is even real, I just don’t see the point. People are getting excited about Osama’s death, and I guess there is some relief or sense of justice for people who have had family members die in acts of terrorism that he claimed responsibility for, but in the grander scheme of things, this changes nothing. Radical Islam still has a mission, and that mission is the destruction of Western Society, by any means necessary, to establish a global caliphate under Islamic rule. Rather than going out and celebrating, we should be buckling down to make sure we’re ready for any backlash that this event may cause, especially now that we (the US) has further soured relations with Pakistan by operating behind the government’s back. They are a nuclear power after all.

May 3, 2011
Singapore Ez-link Card Stickers

My wife and I were looking through some of our old photos together and we happened to see these:

Singapore ez-link card with a Papa Smurf sticker on it.

Singapore ez-link card with a Garfield sticker on it.

They’re not just cards with pictures. I know in the US you can get something like that as a sort of collectible, but these are actually stickers on top of ez-link cards from Singapore. You see, in Singapore, they use a transit card that’s like a contactless debit card. You just tap it against a reader and enter the train station or bus. You don’t even have to take it out of your wallet or purse if you don’t want to, and, because there’s no strip to worry about and they’re not disposable, you can decorate them. They’re simple and usually don’t expire, as far as I remember. We wound up turning these in for new ones, when they upgraded their system so that ez-link cards could be used to pay tolls on toll roads in cars as well. In fact, that might have been when we took these photos, just so we could remember our stickers.

I miss these things, and how much easier they were to use than the MetroCards we get in New York City. MetroCards seem like a waste to me, because you get one, use it for a while and then it has to be thrown away. Wouldn’t it be better to just use the same card until you wear it out? It would definitely be more cost effective. Of course, switching to a card like this would create a loss of work for whoever makes the current MetroCards. That’s probably the reason they won’t upgrade. I understand that it’s important for people to have jobs, but I just get tired of seeing it used as an excuse to halt progress, especially when the upgrade could make life easier and is better for the environment at the same time.

May 2, 2011

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