Bradley's Old Fashioned Weblog

Crazy People on NYC Trains

November 21, 2010 Bradley Farless9 Comments

Since I returned to NYC, I haven’t had the distinct pleasure of encountering any crazy people on the trains yet, but I haven’t given up hope. It’s wildly entertaining, as long as they don’t turn violent, and there’s definitely no short supply of weirdos here.

In case you weren’t aware just how crazy they can get, I’ve pulled a few samples from YouTube, for your viewing pleasure:

(Warning: It’s not likely that any of these are suitable to be watched at work or around small children.)

On an early Sunday morning. The girl taking the video was on her way home from the club. At one point, she calls the girl taking the video a whore.

This woman sings a little song about lesbians and “batty boys”.

I think the caption on the video itself says it all.

Sounds like she really doesn’t like her mother, especially her breasts and her ass.

Crazy guy just acting weird.

Guy talking to himself, almost gets hit by the train as it enters the station.

Yup. It seems like this sort of craziness is part of the daily commute. I’ve seen some weirdos, but not on the train yet. My favorite was a meth head that was standing still and kept leaning forward until she almost fell over, then jerking back upright, over and over in the middle of the sidewalk near Union Square. I can’t wait til I have a chance to upload some videos of my own to share!

Unveiling Christmas Window Displays (Bloomingdales)

November 19, 2010 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

Rolling out the red carpet at Bloomingdales.

I happened to be up by Bloomingdales today and they were literally rolling out the red carpet.

They also had red curtains covering the windows.

I remembered hearing something on the news about Christmas displays being revealed at another store and they made it come across as a big deal. I’m surprised that in a city like New York, something as trivial as the unveiling of Christmas window displays is newsworthy. Of course, since it is such a big deal, I’m curious to know what’s behind those curtains myself. I suppose I’ll see the next time I pass through.

Some people aren’t quite as patient as I am though. There was some guy walking back and forth. I thought he was talking to himself at first but then I realized he was holding what looked like one of those Flip video cameras. Maybe he was using UStream or something, or just recording. I don’t know. Anyway, he tried to get in behind the curtain and got shooed away. He was laughing about it into the camera, saying he got busted trying to peek in. Later, I swear I saw the same guy on the TMZ segment on Fox 5. The guy I saw on the street looked just like the chubby white guy on the show. Could be coincidence. Who knows?

Sometimes It Pays To Dig In The Trash

November 18, 2010 Bradley Farless6 Comments

Three books from on the side of the road, put out as trash.

Just yesterday I saw a copy of Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson lying on the street in East Harlem. I’d have picked it up if it weren’t wet from the rain. That’s a damn good book. I gave a copy to my wife as a gift one time. If you haven’t read it, it’s worth it, and it’s a short read so you don’t have to spend a lot of time with it, just a lot of time thinking about what it says!

So, what’s today’s book find? Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, as Told By Its Stars, Writers and Guests; Is America Breaking Apart?; and Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination. The last one will probably be the most interesting of the three, to me anyway. It covers interesting topics like “From Ashes to Cyborgs: The Era of Reconstruction (1945 – 1960)” and “”Gotta Catch ‘Em All”: The Pokemonization of America”. Is America breaking apart? is a discussion about American society and how it adapts to overcome social problems. That should be an interesting read.

Anyhow, that’s $67.75 worth of books (before taxes) that was just sitting on the street, heading for the city landfill if no one claimed them, and those are just the ones that we picked up. Thinking about it, I should’ve taken them all and put the rest on eBay. Not everything that’s sitting on the curb is really garbage, especially when it’s a book.

Of course, a book is about the only thing I’ll take from the curb. I’m not about to wear clothes from off the curb. That’s just gross. Now, let’s just hope these books didn’t have any bed bugs in them. If you haven’t heard, there’s a huge infestation of bed bugs in New York City right now, everywhere from private homes to public schools to 5 star hotels.

Disclaimer: Clicking the links in this post will take you to Amazon.com shopping pages. The links are affiliated, meaning I get a cut if you buy them from Amazon.

A Simple Solution To Avoid Having To Repeat Yourself

November 14, 2010 Bradley Farless5 Comments

A solution to avoid having to repeat yourself.

My mother’s apartment building has a security desk at the door, which is manned 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, rain or shine, etc., etc. Since there’s always a guard sitting there, rather than taking the time to check their mail by finding their key and opening the box, people constantly asked if the mailman had come by yet. This building houses (rough guess) at least 300 people. Now imagine if, say, 50 of those people asked you every day if the mailman had come by yet. Irritating, right?

So, one of the guards came up with this simple solution. She wrote the question on a piece of paper, tacked it on the wall, and then created a reversible Yes/No sign to hang on the wall.

The only thing that reduces the effectiveness of this solution is that this building houses a group of people who are blind, and I don’t see any braille on that paper.

The LEGO Store at Rockefeller Center, New York City

November 14, 2010 Bradley Farless6 Comments

The LEGO store at Rockefeller Center in New York City.

Last weekend I looked around in the LEGO store at Rockefeller Center after going to church with my mom. The place is pretty cool so I thought I’d share some pictures so you can see some of what you might find if you go there.

LEGO mosaics on the walls of the store.

Rockefeller Center built with LEGOs.

Scattered throughout the store are recreations of landmarks, made completely with LEGOs. This is one of the bigger ones, though there were smaller ones too, in little enclosed boxes to prevent damage. You view them by peering in through bubble dome covers.

A Chinese dragon built from LEGOs.

This Chinese dragon is made completely from LEGOs and you can see different portions of it going throughout the store. You can see its tail in the store’s entrance windows, which you can see in the first picture of this post.

A wall of LEGOs that you buy by weight.

Just like the M&M store at Times Square has a wall of different flavored M&Ms, there is a wall with a huge selection of various types of LEGOs, from heads to antennae to the little round caps that go over one ‘peg’ on a LEGO brick. I don’t know what the interlocking raised parts of the LEGOs are called!

2010-11-07 12.51.09

I know these aren’t intended to be FarmVille related LEGOs, not officially, but that’s what these sets reminded me of.

If I had to make a choice between going to the M&M Store and going to this store, I think my love of LEGOs would overpower my love of chocolate. There’s something about LEGOs that just makes me want to buy them all and spend hours building things! I could go broke in this store if I wasn’t careful.

Veteran’s Day Free Food and Somewhat Free Food Adventure

November 12, 2010 Bradley Farless7 Comments

Veterans Day is a day for honoring veterans of the armed forces in the US. This morning, there was a parade to honor the federal holiday. Unfortunately, I didn’t know about it or I’d have been there taking photos. I guess I’ll have to make sure to go there next year to check it out.

For those of you that don’t know, I’m a veteran myself. I served in the US Army for 8 years, and I’ll take this opportunity to brag about some of my achievements. I served in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. I was part of the initial force that moved into Iraq, right after the Iraqi Republican Guard was bombed on the border. I was deployed again in 2007 for an Air Defense Artillery operation. While I was in, I racked up a stack of certificates of appreciation and certificates of achievement, as well as more notable awards like 3 Army Achievement Medals and a Good Conduct Medal. I also had the opportunity to participate in a German weapons qualification range and scored a Silver. I missed Gold by 1 round from a 9mm. There’s plenty more that I did, including community service projects like assisting kindergarten teachers with classes in El Paso, but you get the point. I did service to the country, and today was a day to celebrate that service, and get some free food!

Quite a few food chains had specials today, offering free or discounted meals to veterans, and I took the opportunity to meet up with a guy I served with in Kuwait at Applebee’s on 50th Street, near Times Square. It was the first time we’d seen each other since we left Kuwait in early 2008. We were greeted warmly, treated well, and the food was good. I had to pay for my drink, but with the dish being free, I couldn’t complain. It was interesting seeing veterans and active duty members of various branches of the service in the Applebee’s. Some showed up in uniform, some didn’t, but you could almost always tell who was military or a veteran at a glance. I guess something of the culture stays with you.

After my friend and I left Applebee’s we decided to avail ourselves of another offer we’d seen posted around the Internet: the free six inch sub from Subway. So, I pulled out my phone, looked up Subway on Google Maps, and away we went. We walked into the Subway at 136 W 44th Street and asked about the offer. We were told that Subway didn’t have any offer like that, and they couldn’t do anything for us. So, we walked out and we decided we’d try a different location. First, I looked up Subway again on Google Maps and then decided to call ahead, before we wasted a bunch of time walking all over the city. I decided to call the 126 West 41st Street location, since it was the next closest, and the woman that answered said she’d never heard of what I was talking about either. However, she said she would make an exception and honor the deal we told her was posted all over the Internet, but we’d have to buy a drink along with the free sandwiches. It was better than nothing, so we went ahead and took her up on it. While we were there, other veterans came through the door asking about the deal. According to them, they’d tried to avail of the offer earlier at a Subway near Port Authority but had been turned down there as well.

Later, when I got home, I looked up the offer online and saw that it was marked specifically as being at only certain locations, but based on my experience and hearing from those other vets, I get the feeling that none of the Subways in New York City were honoring the Veterans Day deal, except the one where I talked the girl into partially fulfilling it. Maybe we’d all just had bad luck in which locations we’d walked into though.

I think it’s a shame that any Subway wouldn’t fully honor the agreement as advertised. It is Veterans Day after all! One day a year to say thank you to the people who make sure that places like Subway can remain operating in a free country. One day a year to give out a sandwich to say thanks. Oh well. I’ll just remember that for next year.

Overall, it was a great evening, catching up with an old buddy, getting a free meal, and walking around Times Square. I’m looking forward to doing the same again next year. Maybe more people I used to serve with will be in the area and we can arrange to meet up!

Liberty Has Big Breasts

November 10, 2010 Bradley Farless2 Comments

When I walked out of church last Sunday, there was a van parked along the curb almost directly in front of the doors. I’m sure that was done on purpose, meant to catch the attention of people exiting the building. The van had either Nevada or Colorado plates, I can’t remember which for sure, because what caught my attention the most was just how big and… droopy… Lady Liberty’s boobs were depicted in the paint job.

Lady Liberty has big boobs.

Apparently, you can write ancient prophecy in forgotten languages using a keyboard.

If you look at the coin in the first image, the one with those large and droopy boobs on it, you’ll notice that instead of saying “In God We Trust”, it says “In _ _ _ We Trust”. I figured that meant this guy’s message was that he had some issue with religion, though I couldn’t quite figure out how dogs, keyboards and Lady Liberty’s boobs fit in with that. Maybe the thing with the coins is meant to say that people are replacing God with money?

I decided to take some photos and when I got home I looked up the web address on the side of the van. It leads to a long, rambling web page that starts out like this:

It quickly degenerates into something even less readable, packed with random text colors and highlighting and multiple paragraphs to express an idea that really only needed one sentence. I got about halfway through it before I literally fell asleep sitting up. It turns into an argument about how Jesus must be real based on Old Testament Prophecies, and how the politically correct idea of there being good in all religions is the work of Satan. You know that idea right? That we’re all worshipping the same God, just in our own ways and we’ll all wind up in the same place?

Like I said, I fell asleep reading it and have no desire to try getting through it again, so I might have missed some screwball ideas in there, but it reminded me of something great about the US. Most of the time, we can enjoy our Constitutional right to Free Speech, even if no one agrees with us or wants to hear it.

New York City Graffiti and Wall Murals – Part 1

November 7, 2010 Bradley Farless4 Comments

This is a topic I could make many, many posts about, so I’ll just label them all “New York city Graffiti” with a different part number. Unlike some other places I’ve lived, including other places here in the US, graffiti and murals are prolific here in the city. In fact, you could almost say it’s encouraged as a method of self-expression. Some people become so good at painting them that they make a name for themselves. I can’t think of any offhand, since I just moved back after being gone for quite a long time, but my mom sometimes sees artist ‘tags’ (their signatures on the graffiti) and recognizes them.

Here are two examples of graffiti:

This one is obviously political in nature and is on Avenue C around 5th or 6th Street. I should have taken another photo of the long message to the left of the main slogan. Maybe next time. Click the image to see a larger version where you might be able to make it out.

This one is a mural for a business: Urban Vets Animal Hospital. It’s really nice looking and it’s the cat to the left that caught my eye. I thought my wife would appreciate seeing this. Unfortunately, the veterinary hospital itself has something of a bad reputation so I’ll probably never go in.

Is It Worth It To Get A Kindle 3? Why, Yes. Yes It Is!

November 4, 2010September 4, 2021 Bradley Farless2 Comments

A backyard ready for raking!

A few weeks ago I was just arriving in Georgia to visit family and when I got there, my aunt made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. A Kindle 3 in exchange for yard work. I didn’t have to think about it hard, or for too long. Her back yard is pretty big, and it wound up being a good bit of work, but I think it was a more than fair deal. I’ve loved reading ever since my dad put my first Hardy Boys book in my hands as a kid. My taste in books has changed a lot since then, but I’ve wanted a Kindle since I first heard about them. Now I finally have one and I’ve been using it for a month, so I decided I’d share my thoughts about it and how it stacks up to the traditional reading experience.

Amazon Kindle in the box. That's not a paper. That's really the screen displaying a 'page'.

The Kindle 3 itself is a very elegant looking device. I like the dark graphite coloring of the sturdy plastic shell. It in no way feels cheaply built. The buttons to turn the ‘pages’ are located on either side to accommodate right and left handed readers, as well as various ways of holding the device. The keyboard buttons under the screen are slightly raised and feel good when you push them. I know that sounds weird, but they’re sturdy and the texture is very comfortable. I went ahead and got one of the leather cases that Amazon made and sells specifically for the Kindle 3. It’s a perfect match and connects to the Kindle 3 using little slots built into the left side of the device. There are no bands and no adhesive to cause damage to your device. Together, the Kindle 3 and the leather case have a very professional, classy look that I very much enjoy. The leather case also has a band to hold it closed with a tab on one end so you always know which way is up when you’re opening it. Nothing about the way the device is designed disappoints me. It’s stylish and functional.

The reading experience itself is exceptional. I thought that reading on the Kindle would be a second best experience, and wouldn’t stack up to reading a real book. I’ll always remember curling up on a couch or bed with a paper book in my hands fondly, but this is a better way to do it. The Kindle 3 is a lot lighter than most any book I’ve ever held, meaning I can hold it longer without having to rest it on my legs or a table. The shape and size is easier to manage, and it’s nice to not have to hold back pages, like you do on a new book with a fresh spine. If something happens and you have to set the Kindle down suddenly, you won’t lose your page like you would with a real book. You also won’t have to worry about any bookmarks slipping out. When you’re done reading, you just slide the power switch to the right and one of a set of inspiring screensavers pops up, showing classic authors and scenes related to reading or book printing. The e-ink screen is everything it’s made out to be. When I first saw the device I thought I was looking at a paper card stuck in the screen as an example of how it would look, but it actually was the screen itself. I’ve read for hours straight on the Kindle 3 without any sign of eye fatigue.

The Kindle 3 in Amazon's official leather cover, showing a standby screen.

The one thing about the Kindle that’s a bit disappointing is the availability and pricing of titles. When the Kindle first came out, book titles were locked down to about 9.99, which is reasonable if not as low as they could be. E-books don’t require paper, printing, physical distribution or any of the costs associated with those things, so they should really cost a fraction of what a physical book does. Lately, though, it’s not uncommon to find e-books priced the same as the physical version, and in a few cases even higher. The reasoning behind it is that we’re paying extra for the convenience of having a digital version instead of a heavy paper version. I say we should get a discount for the convenience of not costing the publishing company all of those extra fees that come along with printing paper books. We should also get a discount for not being able to lend (in some cases), give away or sell the book that we bought. With e-books, they say we’re just buying a license to read the book, and not actually buying the book itself. That’s just crap. The digital book I buy, the file, should be mine to do whatever I legally want to do with it, the same way a paper book is mine to do whatever I want to with.

Overall, though, the Kindle is an incredibly worthwhile purchase for anyone thinking about getting one. I’m glad I have mine!

*Note: This post is not sponsored in any way by Amazon.com, and I was not paid by anyone to write it. These are legitimately my opinions on the device. The links in the post will, however, take you to Amazon product pages.