Bradley's Old Fashioned Weblog

The Tokyo Circus in Lower East Manhattan

February 3, 2011 Bradley Farless6 Comments

Tokyo Circus in Union Square Station, Manhattan, New York City.

On my way home from class tonight, I passed through Union Square station, and I happened to hear some really funky music playing. There was a crowd so I stopped to see what was going on and saw this wildly dressed group of Asian people dancing around and having a good time. I won’t lie. My first thought was, “WTF Asian people. Ha ha ha!” They’re obviously slightly off center from normal, but they were holding signs that say “Be Yourself” and “Your smile is beautiful”. It’s an encouraging, positive message, and I felt it was worth a dollar in the hat they had sitting on the floor.

When I got home, I took a look at the photos I’d taken and noticed a web address on the sign the guy on the right was holding that led to a site that identifies them as “Tokyo Circus”. It has an ad that says they performed at a local bar on the 26th. I guess they’re still hanging around to raise funds. Maybe their performance wasn’t as profitable as they’d hoped. This sort of thing seems a little out there, even for NYC.

After looking at some of the … unusual… videos they have displayed on their site, like the ones below, it makes me wonder just what my dollar is going to support, but at least it’s entertaining!

The Return of Spring, by Jack Beal (2001) Glass Mosaic at Times Square Train Station

January 30, 2011 Bradley Farless4 Comments

The Return of Spring, Glass Mosaic by Jack Beal at Times Square subway station.

I happened to see this glass mosaic when I came up the stairs from the 1, 2, and 3 train platform, heading towards the N, Q, and R train platform. I’m surprised I’ve never seen it before, but the place is usually packed with people, so that’s probably why I overlooked it.

Times Square station is surprisingly drab, with a lot of uninspiring colors and unadorned walls. You’d figure the place would be better decorated, if only to drive more tourism. The plainness of the station really made the bright colors of this mural stand out.

This is the accompanying plaque, which is located on a central pillar in the middle of the hallway the mosaic is in:

Officially a Full Time Student Again For The First Time in Almost 12 Years (And more snow pictures)

January 29, 2011September 4, 2021 Bradley Farless5 Comments

A picture of Townsend Hall at CCNY, prior to all the snowstorms New York City has suffered through over the last month.

Everything went off without a hitch today, other than a lack of sleep due to anxiety. I woke up at 5 AM and couldn’t fall back asleep, after going to bed at 1 AM. I’m starting to feel that now, now that the excitement of the day is winding down.

Getting up to CCNY was surprisingly fast this morning. I had expected there to be delays, due to leftover snow from the snowstorm. Instead, I got there more quickly than usual, even though I walked two blocks to the nearest subway station to get a MetroCard. The commute was only an hour, compared to the hour and 15 to 20 minutes it had been taking me before. I imagine that was partly because I was traveling during the morning rush hour, so there were more trains and buses running. I’ll allot more time when I head up there for class, just to make sure I have the commute time right.

In my last post I said that the only thing I really had to worry about was busting my ass on the hill going up to the school, and maybe I jinxed myself. I didn’t completely fall, but I looked like a flailing idiot more than once, scrambling to catch my balance. Someone I know told me once that Dr. Marten’s are great shoes for jobs where you have to do a lot of standing, but they really don’t have any traction in the snow. She was completely right. I need to get some proper snow boots, but it’s probably too late in the season to worry about it now. I’ll just keep that in mind for next year. I really need to take a photo of that hill too.

I wound up getting to the school at about 8:20 AM. I went over to the Veteran’s Affairs office first, to let them know I was there and to ask where I should be going. Unfortunately, I beat the VA counselors to work, and I stood around in the courtyard for a while scoping out the snow. It was knee deep in places.

The area these photos are taken in is called the “squad”, or so I was told by a girl that worked in the Gateway Advisory office, which I visited a short while later. I asked her why, but she didn’t know. I’m guessing it’s a combination of ‘square’ and ‘quad’ that someone thought was cute, and it just sort of stuck.

After talking to the VA counselor, I got sent over to the Gateway Advisory office. I showed up there at 10 minutes to 9 and then stood around waiting for that office to open. When it finally did open, at 9, I found out the advisors didn’t come in and start advising until 9:30. Not a problem! I had my Kindle with me. I’m reading an interesting historical fiction book by GA Henty called The Cat of Bubastes (link to free download on Amazon). It’s a story about ancient Egypt that’s turning out better than I’d expected.

By about 10 we had discussed the courses still available and I chose the ones that most suit my major and didn’t duplicate something I’ve already taken at another college. I’ll be taking Introduction to Anthropology, American Government and Politics, Introduction to the Visual Arts of the World, and World Humanities 1, a course about literature from the Greeks up to the 1500s.

What took up so much of my time was getting the financial part of things taken care of: standing in line to get my bill, then walking back to the VA office for the VA deferral form, then back to the admissions office to stand in line to get the VA form verified, and then standing in line to get the zero balance verified so I could get my student ID is what took up most of my time, not because the walk was long, but because the lines were long. I was surprised by how many people were there trying to pay their bills. I had a low priority for registering for classes, and was only allowed to register on the last available day, because I’m taking classes as a non-matriculated student this semester. I figured most people would’ve finished this all up by now.

Getting my student ID was an interesting experience, and oddly, my first thought was, ‘I wonder if I can use this to get discounts on stuff?’ While I was there, I saw one guy that looked like he was in his 50s getting a student ID, but most of the people there looked too young to even be in college. Still, it was comforting to know I wasn’t the only ‘older’ person going back to school to get more education.

Anyhow, I’ve got a pretty good schedule. Except for a 9:30 class on Fridays, all of my classes start in the afternoon. That means I can still sleep in! I’m looking forward to kicking things off next week!

Awesome Snow Pictures of Annoying Snow

January 28, 2011 Bradley Farless5 Comments

Yesterday, in the early afternoon, I took some time to go out and see the snow. First, I took some pictures from the balcony, and then I took a few photos while I was out in the street, on my way to Newport Centre Mall in New Jersey. These photos were taken on the 26th, prior to the big snowstorm that night (last night).

A photo of the snow from our balcony.

These are photos I took from the balcony before leaving the house to head to New Jersey.

14th Street, between Avenues B and A, facing towards Avenue A.

This is a photo of the snow in the trees along 14th street between Avenues B and A, facing towards Avenue A. As you can see, early yesterday afternoon, the snow wasn’t sticking to the street. The snow on the ground wasn’t much more than what was there already. The snow hasn’t ever completely melted since that big snowstorm in December.

This is a photo of some snow covered evergreen trees outside the Newport Pavonia PATH station in New Jersey.

Snow in the trees outside the Newport Pavonia PATH station in New Jersey.

I saw these trees just outside the Newport Pavonia PATH station in New Jersey, where you get off the train to walk to the Newport Centre Mall. At the time, the snow was coming down in fat, wet flakes and it wasn’t really sticking to the ground at all, but it did give the trees a sort of Winter Wonderland feel that I thought was really nice. By the time I got home from my shopping trip, the snow had stopped completely.

Later in the evening, the snow started coming down again, a lot heavier than before. The news was saying that it was going to be a pretty bad storm, and it damn sure was. At times, I could barely see the building across the street. I’m still impressed by snowstorms, so I thought it was pretty cool, but I had a feeling it was going to make my day today a lot more annoying than it would have been otherwise.

You see, yesterday was supposed to be my last day of freedom, before going back to school full time. I was supposed to head out to the school today to register for classes, and then start classes tomorrow, depending on my schedule. Things didn’t turn out quite that way, because of the snow.

When I was going to bed, the news reports were predicting school closures today, and it had me on edge, because I’m really anxious to get my class registrations done. I’ve been out of school for over a decade, so going to college full time is a pretty big deal for me. Sure enough, when I got up, there was a message in red on my school’s homepage, saying that the school was closed.

For a while, I worried about how that would affect my registration, but I realized there wasn’t much I could do about it if the school was closed. I figured I’d just deal with it as best I could, and rolled back into bed for a few more hours of sleep. Maybe it’s a holdover from the time I spent in the military, which gave me a lot of exposure to institutional stupidity, but I don’t put a lot of trust in public institutions to make common sense decisions when things don’t go as planned. I half expected the school to just tell me, tough luck, enroll next semester. You see, I enrolled late because I was outside the US still when the deadline for normal registrations came and passed. I also had a few issues with my direct admission since I went to high school in a different state, and I was given last priority to register for classes on the last day of registration.

My fear was thankfully unfounded. Later this morning, the college updated the message on their website, saying registrations would be extended to compensate for the closure today, so now I’ll be heading up to the school tomorrow to take care of that and all I’ll have to worry about is slipping and busting my ass on the long slope heading up to CCNY from the train station.

Friends Don’t Ask Friends To Do MLM

January 26, 2011September 4, 2021 Bradley Farless14 Comments

I’ve always thought that people, in general, were too smart to get involved in MLM schemes, especially given how much information is available about the deceptive nature of the practice. If you’ve heard of MLM, you’ve heard that it’s a scam, and you should be too smart to fall for it. It’s not that hard to spot an MLM scheme. Most of them involve buy-ins. What kind of job requires you to pay your employer? I mean, seriously? How do you get pulled into something like that? Maybe it’s the fault of the economy, that people are getting desperate and trying to find any way they can to make money, but ever since I got back to the US, I’ve been constantly bothered by people I know here about joining MLM schemes.

Guys, I’m not doing it. MLM is a waste of money. I have better things to do with my time, like use my full ride scholarship and living allowance from the VA to get my master’s degree, without having to work at the same time, and then getting a real job to make real money; honest money that wasn’t made by screwing over my friends and past or present colleagues.

The situation is doubly disappointing to me because, for these people to assume that I’d join their MLM scheme, well, it means they think I’m gullible, or stupid, or both. One person even tried to hang something over my head to make me feel emotionally obligated to participate in their MLM. That’s disrespectful to start with, and is a good way to make me want to completely break off contact with a person. These people fell for the sucker punch, and they either want to drag me, and other people down with them, perhaps to make up their losses, or they never really gave a damn about me anyway and want to screw me over to get rich.

Well, I’m not stupid. Perhaps there is money to be made in MLM, but I’m not the kind of guy to go around ruining all of my relationships with people by tricking them, or trying to trick them, into jumping into some MLM scheme. I find it very annoying that anyone would even approach me with this nonsense in the first place, and absolutely rude that, once told that I’m not interested, they would persist in spamming me with messages about it, sometimes attempting to lead into a conversation about it under other pretenses, like needing help, or wanting to meet to celebrate Veteran’s Day.

In a way, I feel bad for these people, because they’re caught, but I’m not going to let myself get pulled in with them. If they can’t take a hint, then the next step will be to completely cut them off, blocking phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and yes, even unfriending them on Facebook.

MLM and me. It’s not happening.

East River Scenery from East River Plaza 3rd Landing

January 24, 2011 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

East River Plaza shopping center in Manhattan on 116th and 117th street.

Sitting right at the end of East 116th and 117th streets in Manhattan, flush against East River Drive, is East River Plaza. It’s a recently built, multi-level shopping complex with stores like, among others, a Target, Best Buy and Petsmart. The Target up there usually puts cat litter and cat food on sale. After you consider how much you spend on the fare to get there and back, and the amount of time it takes to travel, you probably aren’t saving anything at all when you’re going there from 14th Street on public transit, but it is nice to get out of the neighborhood sometimes, if for no other reason than a change of pace and a change of scenery.

Scenery is something this place does well too, though unintentionally. It’s not enclosed, like a mall. To get between stores you have to go to outdoor platforms and use outdoor escalators. The very ends of these platforms overlook the East River and if you lean out a bit you can get a good downtown facing view of Manhattan and even a bit of Queens.

Here are some of the better photos I took:

An old pier in the East River, directly opposite East River Plaza, on the other side of East River Drive.

I imagine this is an old pier that is no longer used due to the construction of the East River Drive.

Icahn Stadium, as seen from East River Plaza.

That’s Icahn Stadium. When I first glanced across and was trying to make out the name, I thought it said ‘I Can Haz Stadium’. I think I’ve been looking at too many lolcats.

A portion of the Triborough Bridge and Hell Gate Bridge.

In the foreground, the lower bridge you can see traffic on is the Triborough Bridge, also known as the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge. The larger looking, raised bridge in the back is the Hell Gate Bridge, named after the stretch of water it covers, and is used for trains. When it was opened in 1919, it was originally painted a reddish color, with seems more fitting, given the name. It was also the longest steel arch bridge in the world at the time. You can read more about it by clicking here.

The East River and Ward's Island Bridge in New York City, seen from 116th Street. — The East River and Ward’s Island Bridge in New York City, seen from 116th Street.

That’s a long shot of the East River, facing downtown. On the right is Manhattan and that’s Astoria in Queens on the left. The bridge in the middle is the Ward’s Island Bridge. The previous two photos are shots of stuff on Ward’s Island.

And that’s about it, for things to see from that vantage point. There’s always something interesting to see, everywhere you go in New York City.

How Many Times Per Ride Do the Cops Need To Check My Papers Just To Ride The Bus?

January 21, 2011 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

Seriously. I feel like I’m trying to enter another country when I’m riding the new, supposedly improved SBS service. If you’re not familiar with these SBS service buses, they’re supposedly a great new way to get around town that will be faster than a normal limited bus. They also supposedly save the city money. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, that’s just bullshit.

These buses use their own, special bus stops. In addition to these new bus stops needing to be built, new machines had to be installed outside, adjacent to these bus stops. You see, even though these new buses are equipped with MetroCard readers, they want you to buy a ‘ticket’ before getting on the bus. That means the city spent extra money on these ‘ticket’ machines as well. It’s not really a ticket. You just get a receipt showing your MetroCard has been debited for the fare required to ride the bus. By the way, that’s more dead trees. Was that really necessary? How is it saving money to have to supply all of these ‘ticket’ machines with paper? Shouldn’t we be moving towards being a paperless society, rather than finding new ways to deforest and kill our planet? Not that I’m an eco-nut, but this just seems like a blatant waste of resources and money, which doesn’t make sense when everyone is screaming about budget cuts. I wonder how many people’s jobs got cut so MTA could afford to print thousands, or tens of thousands, of paper tickets every day?

Now, in addition to the complete waste of resources these ticket machines cause, and the fact that instead of lining up to get on the bus you instead line up to get a ticket, there’s an additional problem. This system creates another opportunity for you to be hassled by the man. Today, I rode one of these SBS buses from 14th street up to 116th street and the bus was stopped twice and left idling while cops searched everyone on the bus for ‘tickets’. Idling. Isn’t that what the new system was supposed to prevent?

Why do they have to do this? Well, the answer is easy. They’re relying on a trust system, that people will pay before boarding, but … seriously? Do they really think this is going to work? What world are they living in? Even on a bus system where people only board at the front, there are people who slip on and try to ride for free, and often pull it off. If you set things up so that people can board at any door and you’re just supposed to trust that they have a ticket, there will always be people trying to sneak on. People were pulled off and ticketed both times our bus was searched, and unless teams of police are set up to stop these buses and search them randomly, all day every day, it will continue. These searches slow down the bus and they’re really not any faster than the regular limited buses they replaced in the first place.

You know what? There’s an easier system than this, and it’s one I learned in Singapore. For a first world country, we sure are doing things real stupid over here in the US. We need to model our transit system off of Singapore’s. Instead of having these flimsy, crap cards we use for our buses and trains, they have cards with chips in them that can be read like the Visa PayWave cards. You don’t even have to take them out of your wallet or purse. You just slide them over a scanner as you enter and exit the bus or train station. That would save time. Not having paper tickets would save time. Not requiring the bus to be stopped and all the passengers to be checked like Nazis searching for Jews would be faster.

And, if you’re going to have cops constantly searching people on the bus, do it smart, not stupid. I mean, really, you want to stop the whole bus and have us sitting there while everyone is checked for tickets? Here’s a better idea. Have cops get on the bus, have the doors close and the bus continue on its route while the cops check tickets. Have the cops get off at the next stop and either get on the following bus, or cross the street and go back the way they came on the next bus. That would allow them to continue writing tickets and providing the city government with this new revenue stream (because that’s what this is all about), and it wouldn’t increase people’s commute times. And hey, since I mentioned Singapore’s system earlier, here’s another spot where it could come in handy. They have people that randomly get on and ride with the bus. These people carry handheld card readers that can read your card and show when you last scanned it. Oh, and they don’t stop the whole bus while they do it. That’s pretty easy, and it’s smart. I wonder why they didn’t think of it?

This whole thing with the tickets was done to supposedly save money on the fuel the buses use while idling at bus stops, and to make things faster and more convenient for riders. The MTA/SBS built a bunch of new bus stops, built new ‘ticket’ machines, are printing paper tickets that aren’t free to produce, and then have the buses idle for police checks, but somehow this is cheaper and faster than just running a normal limited bus. I totally see the logic here.

Would You Leave A Kid on the Side of the Road?

January 19, 2011 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

If I were in Singapore, or the Philippines, the answer would most definitely be no, but the US and other Western countries are gripped by paranoia and fear. Every man is a potential molester, deviant or criminal. Every woman, on the other hand, is safe. Or at least that’s the common belief, despite the fact that there are documented cases of female murderers and molesters.

Earlier today, I was checking Facebook and a relative had posted a link to a Wall Street Journal Article called “Eek! A Male! Treating all men as potential predators doesn’t make our kids safer.” It’s a good article, and one part of it in particular caught my attention.

In England in 2006, BBC News reported the story of a bricklayer who spotted a toddler at the side of the road. As he later testified at a hearing, he didn’t stop to help for fear he’d be accused of trying to abduct her. You know: A man driving around with a little girl in his car? She ended up at a pond and drowned.

At first I was shocked by the guy’s behavior, but after I thought about it a bit, I realized that I don’t really blame him. From the time kids are old enough to talk and understand what they’re being told, they’re told to be wary of strangers, and especially so of strange men. The idea that every man is a prospective child molester is embedded in the national consciousness. We grow up with it the same way we grow up knowing that cereal is a breakfast food. Not that it’s a good thing, but that’s just how it is.

If this guy had been found with the girl in his car, it could have gone badly for him even though he hadn’t done anything. They might have suspected him of being involved in the girl’s disappearance somehow, or at the least have questioned him and landed his name in a police database somewhere. Or, the girl could have decided that she wanted to tell a fun story, partially prompted by the questions the police would invariably ask her, not realizing the consequences, but having heard it on television and having decided it would be exciting. Maybe the guy would have been arrested and tried for something he never even did, all because he stopped to lend a helping hand to a lost kid. Maybe he even would have found himself being jailed over it.

Ridiculous? Well, is it really? How many times do you hear in the news that someone was found to have been innocent of a crime they were convicted of decades ago, and that they’d spent most of their life rotting in prison as an innocent man? Juries aren’t selected based on who’s the smartest. The prosecutor and defender fight to keep people on the jury that are biased in their favor.

So, it all comes down to a question of self preservation. What’s more important? That random kid, or your well being, and if you’re a family man, the well being of your family? If you wind up smeared and/or in jail over accusations of something like child molestation or abduction, it’ll have a lot of repercussions not just on yourself, but on your family as well.

Even if none of that happened, what if the kid twisted his or her ankle, or cut his or her finger while in your care? Everyone’s looking to make a quick buck these days with a lawsuit. If a woman can win a lawsuit for spilling hot coffee on herself and getting burned, and a criminal can win a lawsuit for hurting himself on a knife in the house he broke into, do you really think parents who let their kid wander on the side of a road might not sue you for a twisted ankle or other accidental injury?

And, beyond that, what if it were all a trick to get someone to stop and get out of their vehicle? Something like a kid on the side of the road, looking helpless and in distress, would be particularly good bait to get women into a vulnerable, isolated situation.

My relative asked me if I could live with myself knowing that a kid had died because I didn’t stop to pick him or her up off the side of the road, and the answer is yes, I could. It wouldn’t be a very pleasant thought, but given how stupid and paranoid most people in the US are, and all of the things that could go wrong, I wouldn’t want to risk it. Like I said, if I were in Singapore or the Philippines, I wouldn’t worry about that sort of thing. Not as much anyway, and it certainly wouldn’t worry me enough to stop me from helping some lost kid. Here in the US? I don’t really know. I certainly wouldn’t stop. I wouldn’t let the kid in my car. The safest way would be to call the police from a payphone and then leave. Depending on the situation, I might stop a distance away and call it in on my mobile.

What would you do? Would you pick up a random kid off the street? Would you simply call it in and keep going? Would you call it in and hang around and wait for the police to show?

A Very Clever Snail Mail Marketing Trick

January 16, 2011September 4, 2021 Bradley Farless1 Comment

A few days ago I was looking through the mail and I saw an envelope that was addressed to me. I scanned the return address and I thought to myself, ‘Who do I know in Connecticut?’ I couldn’t think of anyone off the top of my head, but the envelope was shaped like a greeting card so I went ahead and opened it. I thought that perhaps it was a relative I’d forgotten about, that had sent a late Christmas or New Year’s greeting card.

Junk mail disguised as a greeting card.

I was actually a little shocked by what I found inside:

Junk mail that was hidden inside an envelope that looked like a greeting card.

I went back and looked at the envelope again, more closely this time, and I realized that what I mistook for a woman’s well-written handwriting was in fact a font, and the words were actually printed. In fact, they didn’t even spell my name right.

I suppose I should have caught all that right away, but I didn’t expect physical spam mail to catch up with me this fast. I’ve gotten really used to seeing spam online, and I can avoid it with ease, but I suppose I’m out of practice with real junk mail. I’ll have to pay more attention from now on. Not that opening physical junk mail could infect me with a virus, unless someone decides to start mailing weaponized anthrax again. It’s just the principle of the thing.

As for what was in the envelope, I couldn’t say, other than it’s about jewelry. I don’t like being tricked into looking at advertising so I tore it up and threw it away.

A Wall Covered With Names of the Dead in Union Square Station, New York City

January 13, 2011 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

Each tile on this Union Square station wall has the name of a person who died on September 11th, 2001 on it.

You may have never noticed this, but there’s a wall in Union Square station where each tile has the name of a dead person on it. If you enter the station near Food Emporium on the corner of 14th St and 4th Ave, you have to angle off to your right after passing through the turn-styles and then head towards the N, Q, and R trains. As you walk down the long passageway to those train lines, on the left hand side you’ll notice the tiles with the names on them. In the photo above I was heading in the opposite direction, coming from the Q and heading towards the station exit.

Name stickers placed on tiles in Union Square station, each of a person who died on September 11th, 2001.

I somehow doubt this was done by the city, since the names are simply on stickers. Still, it was a great effort on someone’s part to help keep the events of September 11th, 2001 in the public consciousness. Union Square is a major station and sees a lot of foot traffic every day, which could potentially give these stickers a lot of exposure.

One of the stickers on the tiles in Union Square station, showing the name of a person who died on September 11th, 2001.

I have yet to visit the site of the former World Trade Center since I returned to New York City last September. I suppose I should make it a point to head down there and see what sort of progress they’ve made in rebuilding the area. The last time I was there, in May of 2008, it looked like this:

The site of the former World Trade Center, New York City, May of 2008.