Bikes in NYC

I can't even type the slew of words that come to mind when I watched this video. Makes me really sick and boiled up inside. I moved here about 6 years ago... no one rode a bike except the crazy bike messengers and the delivery dudes. Just this morning I saw 6 go by at 1(!) intersection. They were all people going to work. When I head out to the subway in Brooklyn there are at least 10 commuters on bikes headed to work.

The city has done such a great job putting in new and more bike lanes. Why not embrace Critical Mass? Let night parades be the new thing. Let it be a god-damned tourist attraction if you must. But don't be afraid of getting sued or what not. Cause the way the city is treating this organization has only put fuel to the fire. And guess what... this poor cyclist will sue the pants off the city and NYPD. AND he is gonna win.

Now my question is... this was videoed by a tourist in Times Square. What about the cameras posted all over Times Square... private and public? Anything on those? My only worry about cameras being put in all over the city is that they will be used to cover up these types of incidents. The cop in this video reportedly said that the cyclist rode into him. The truth is seen in the video. I bet there are like 20 other angles on that same strip of road to prove the point more. :)

By the way, I watched Brazil over the weekend. Fairly screwy movie. But it proves the point, the system will fail and more paperwork will clog advancement. As quoted from Empire Records, "Damn the man!"

TNR work is never done

Last night the girls and I went out for a feral cat trapping hunt. We started on Dean Street. When we pulled up, there was one cat just kind of laying out. I think he was trying to cool off by stretching out on the sidewalk. We put out the trap and he went in, like a good boy. But the trigger didn't go off and we had to watch with baited breath. He caught sight of us and actually shifted weight to go back to eating. Then bam, the trap closed. His face was like "What the hell was that? Oh, damn I'm trapped in here!" I've never actually seen them get trapped like that before. We usually have more than one trap out and need to just let them "soak" (as they say on Deadliest Catch). Anyway, we set out like 4 more, but only got 2 out of that.

Then we moved to Pacific and put down 3 traps. There was a tom boy and possibly a female, and then a little kitty came out (maybe like 3 months). Also the neighbors came out to ask what we were doing. I can only imagine what it looks like for 3 girls to be out at like 9 PM riding around in a Volvo (borrowed from a fellow cat lady) with steel traps and cans of tuna. I always love the question, "What are you going to do with the trapped cats?" I want to say "eat them in a stew with carrots", but that might be too sarcastic. At least they care. So one neighbor lady led us to a cat in their front stoop area. That kitty was easy, pick up and put in trap. All skin and bones. She'll be living large for a few days at least.

We were able to trap the 2 cats, but not the little kitty. That will be an early quick trap today. As we drove towards home, heading back on Dean, there was another black/white cat laying out on the sidewalk. We slowed down, made a plan and set the trap. He wasn't thrilled about the steel trap, so we had to do the drop trap. Took a little time, but he went in and started to chow down. In the end we got 7 cats in 1 night. The cat-girl doing this project got a total of 19 cats in like 3-4 days. That is totally insane! And can you believe we still saw cats hanging out on the sidewalk as we finally drove home (it was getting late and there is only so much you can do in one night).

Hope they all do well for surgery on Friday.

spirit from iaido

Where do I find my spirit? How do I grasp it and use it to my advantage? How do I get all the other crap in my head out and let my spirit take over? What really drives me? I've been thinking lately. I certainly had a calm mind last month. This month it's all over the place. I can't even list all of things I'm trying to do at once, or at least so it seems. Cause when it all comes down to it, I'm still just trying to figure it out. You know, understand the why, the what, the when. I've read about people finding their spirit from meditation ("Eat, Pray, Love"). Heard it through songs, some of those songs do invoke my spirit. Maybe even watched a few movies that moved my spirit. But I haven't done it myself. Not yet. It's coming though. Tonight I focused my eyes on a point, and it now blurs up that I don't even see anymore. I just move. I try to keep everything level, but what I see in the mirror is really like seeing out of the corner of my eye. Its not clear, only cause I'm focused so hard on that spot. It worked well at times. My problems still left to solve -- breathing needs to continue and I need to slow down. Not weaken, but slow it down. Make it strong. Make it powerful. And make it mean something when I do move. Tonight I actually got a bit pumped up by the end of class. I know when Hanshi Rico is not there I feel less nervous. Sometimes that helps me, sometimes it makes me a little lazy at points. Still I want to find my spirit. And find out what I am really capable of.

helvetica

Just finished watching the documentary movie about the typeface helvetica. It was actually pretty interesting. They had old dudes explain the history of it. And the new guys who were all for using the typeface on everything. And then the rebels who totally screwed with it. They interviewed the guy who did the Ray Gun magazine from the 90s. I forgot about that mag. It rocked back in the day. So he explained how an article written was really boring and he decided to use the wingdings font. It was too boring for others to have to read it. That's awesome. I will now be finding helvetica signs all over the city.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0847817/

July 5th

Looks like more rain today. Really sucks. Three-day weekends are not to be rainy. Unless it's cold or something, then who cares. I would like some sun please! Oh well... going to the city in a bit for Iaido class. Then going to Coney Island for the baseball game. Of course if it's pouring rain and/or lightning, no point going out that way.

Marley is doing well with this new diet. We have to keep all food tucked away. He attacked a loaf of bread the other day. Looked like a giant rat got it. Silly cat.

Happy 4th of July!

kitty care

This is totally going overboard, but it seems my little Marley has an allergy. Probably a food thing or something. The vet can only do so much and they have limited experience with dealing with nutrition for cats. So, I went to a Manhattan pet store called Whiskers that has a nutritionist dude there. I have to say, he was really nice and answered all of my questions (I asked a lot of them). He recommened what to cut out of his diet (dry food, fish, grains) and supplements to help boost his immune system. I'm using some medicated ear drops to clear up his ears for the next 10 days. He really hates the drops, but at least he doesn't run away while I put them in. Anyway, he also told me to take up the food after 1/2 hour, don't let it sit out. Which is a real good idea. On Monday he, Marley that is, was throwing up at like 4 AM. Seems he didn't eat all of his wet food and decided to eat some. Yuck! We shall see how it goes.

commitment

It seems that all of my friends are moving in with their significant others and enjoying the coffee/breakfast Sunday morning in bed deal. Mind you, I'm totally happy for them all. Best of luck to them, I hope to be invited to the wedding. But upon reflection of myself, been over thinking that situation. If I were to take a relationship to the step of living together, it would have to be with a real sense of commitment. I don't like my stuff mixing with other people's stuff. For example, I don't want to go through the process of my CDs mixing with my bf. I know that totally makes me a consumer and materialistic. That's how I grew up in this world, and kind of hard to break that habit. This is all assuming I have a bf to have a commitment with and then get a place together to enjoy breakfast in bed on a Sunday morning, will I actually have to deal with those issues of mine.

By the way, this is post 100. Yippie!

Res Firma Mitescere Nescit

Tomorrow is the 66-mile bike ride to LI. Wish me luck!

ShutterCal

Just took a trip to Boston. Good times. Signed up for a new site: http://shuttercal.com/calendar/poppy13/

Got back to work today and iTunes crashed on me. Rebuilding the library and iPod now. Sucks.

Wish I was still in bed.

Got to read for class tonight.

Finished season 2 of NCIS. Can't wait for the next DVDs to come in the mail. Love Netflix.

Having a difficult time deciding between a new bb or iPhone. Wish that the google fone was out.

Bought the new NERD album... but can't listen to it till iTunes is fixed.

Got myself a "kickball" t-shirt. It's sweet!

Long bike ride on Saturday. Let's pray for good weather. Not too hot. Not rainy. Perfect ride weather. Please.

Marley is still the best cat ever. He came into my bed this morning, laid on his back and put his paws in my face. Believe me, a nice way to wake me up, instead of his normal NOISY antics.

I miss my girl who is in Japan now, but moving to SanFran in a week. Makes me sad.

Work is kinda slow - can't complain though.

Mac vs Windows

Long ago I had a boyfriend who did a whole paper about user interfaces (GUI) for a college class. It was really well done - explaining things like how in German cars the reverse gear is next to the 1st gear. Which makes more sense than how the Japanese and American cars do it. Since then I kind of look for these things.

Today I put Dreamweaver on my Mac at work to kind of learn it in the different way that Mac would be versus Windows. The first thing I noticed is that the files and folder are listed alphabetically. In Windows land, the folders are listed alpha and then the files in alpha. On Mac, they are all together and in alpha. Which makes more sense when you are doing a web site. In fact it starts to make more sense all together. It's logical to list everything. My brain of course naturally thinks folder or file, then look for it in alphabetical order. People don't normally think that way. Kind of fun learning these significant differences.

Next I have to learn to control the windows more like a Mac user. In Windows I minimize everything as I go along. Things are alien to me still on the Mac side.

110 degrees in the shade

It's pretty damn hot. "No pleasure, no rapture, no exquisite sin greater... than central air." (Dogma) Tried to get around the park on Sunday on the bike. Didn't do so well. Partly cause of the heat, but also cause I got pinch in my right shoulder. Probably from sleeping wrong and leaning when using the mouse. I'm literally on the computer like 10-12 hours a day. It's rare for me not to be on the computer if I'm awake. Someday I'll just throw the thing out the window and give up on computers forever. :)

blagoonga

Got around Prospect Park 3 times on Sunday (that's 10 miles). I was oh so proud of myself. Of course now I need those nifty bike shoes to snap into the pedals. Already I look very "Tour de France" with my padded shorts. Haha. The shoes will be the perfect finish to that. :)

Blur

Playing Blur "Parklife" on the iPod went perfectly well with the morning rush. Wants to move quickly, but just can't because of the forces of nature.

DWG

Went out to the Delaware Water Gap to visit my friend. Got to have the greasyest breakfast every, but it was damn good. Then hit up a flea market - bought buttered nuts, beef jerky, shoo-fly pie, and a grapefruit spoon (to use for getting wet cat food out of the can). After that we went for a little hike on the Appalachian trail. Got some really nice pictures out of that.

Tomorrow I'll go for a nice bike ride. Have to get the 2 flat tires fixed first. Oh joy! Thankfully I got a buddy who loves to touch my bike and keep it running good. :)

So glad that warm spring is here.