Controlled Chaos

Today, I cleaned my cheriies and lychees, and mixed them with orange juice and ice to make a delicious fruit smoothie.

On my mom’s last day in town, we slept in a bit, then headed to Central Park.  We walked down, and around the lake, and through a garden to a fountain.  Then, we headed back around the lake, and checked out the pool.  After that, we went home, got her baggage, and went to Settepani, at 120th and Lenox.  My mom got french toast, and I got an omelette.  Her french toast was amazing, and it’s what I’ll get next time.  From there, we caught the M60 to the airplane, where we said our goodbyes.

From there, I went to Kanter’s house, to help set up the new Mac I was instrumental in getting her to purchase.  I decked it out hardcore, and also set up all of her sister’s email accounts.   We were supposed to try to save data from her old computer, but that computer is VERY sick, so we’re going to try again at a later date.  Throughout the fixing period, I intermittently played a fun video game where I shot at humans being who had endured radiation or something.

Then, I realized it was 9, and I was two hours late for heading to Mazur’s .  So I went out to the bus stop, and…waited for 42 minutes.  Then I took the 34 minute trip to his apt.

He’s been working on decking out the balcony at his new apartment.  There were plants, chairs, a great view, a McDonalds arch at your feet, and…a hookah!  A hookah and a couple beers later, it was 4am, and time for me to leave…

The next day was a busy one. We started by going to the Brooklyn botanical gardens. Instead of uploaded all the pictures from that trip, I’ll just link to them. They’re beautiful enough to warrant your click-through:

flowerbucket!

After that, we headed, through a series of mass-transit options, to the Ronald McDonald house on the East side, so my mom could meet up with a woman she regularly talked to on cancer list servs. I won’t mention names, but the young man I met, who has terminal cancer, was a pretty cool, humble and normal guy. Simultaneous, he is likely to become the face of pediatric cancer, and is either a trailblazer or guinea pig, depending on when you ask him. My mom and his mom got along very well, and I enjoyed the conversation a lot.

From there, we headed west, to the theater district, so we could sign up for the Wicked and Spelling Bee lotteries. We lost Wicked and found out Spelling Bee was canceled. So instead, we explored Times Square for a bit, then went home and ate pizza.

The next morning, we got up, I made eggs (with cumin!), and we headed to the Southern tip of Manhattan to catch a ferry to see this thing:

We got our tickets ($11.50/adult), got in line, and waited.  While waiting, we saw a guy playing steel drums, and another doing some incredible gymnastics.  After we’d gone through metal detectors, we were able to board our ship.  We sat on the top, and snapped the following pictures:

We got off on “Liberty Island” first.  There were a lot of informative signs, and we even got iced tea for $2 (I’m amazed we didn’t get bilked).  There was a great view of Manhattan from here and an OK view of the Statue - you’re so close.  I learned that the lady of liberty’s feet are surrounded by broken shackles, to show her escaping the bonds of tyranny.  And I’d already know, but found it nonetheless interesting, that she was originally copper-colored, and only appears green due to patination.   Check her out up close:

I also somehow nabbed this photo, which PROVES the war on terror isn’t working.  =P  (the pic of me earlier evidenced this as well, actually)

When we’d mad a circle of Liberty Island, we got back on the fairy, and headed to Ellis Island.  On Ellis, there is a big museum documenting the first experience of immigrants to this country.   I took a lot of pictures, and highly recommend this museu.  I’m just included the two below…

…which shows that the immigration argument really hasn’t changed much since then.  (And everything did work out for us in the past, pretty well even).

After we finished with the museum (or, should I say, it finished with us - we were hungry and tired!), we headed back to Manhattan.  From there, we walked up through the financial district.  The bull was one of the first things we came upon, and I couldn’t help but bust capitalism’s balls, given that I do it so often figuratively anyway:

So anyway, we made our way uptown from here to the World Trade Center hole.  It’s a monument to how scared we hope to stay forever.  I took no pictures, as the FBI was probably watching.

Then we headed to McSorley’s, an old ale pub that had come highly recommended to my mom.  We didn’t really dig it, though, so we headed around the corner and got some real New York style piza - I got a slice of ziti, and one of Spinach.  My mom got meat-something.  When we finished there, we walked to and through Washington Square park.  My mom later read and informed me that it used to be a dump, a dueling ground, and a hanging square in the past, and that a stream actually runs right under it.  Who would ever have guessed…?

That night, we met up with a friend my mom knew from StL and went to the Lenox Lounge.  He was awesome, and so was my blackberry mojito.  The music in the back was rocking, as well.

Then we went home and went to sleep.

I woke this morning, showered, and headed out quickly.  My friend Eli, who lived in the same dorm as me my freshman year, had come up the night before, along with his girlfriend Alisha.  My friends Ben and Tanupreet were with us as well, for the block party.

Before leaving, he had mentioned his plans to go to the International Center for Photography, and invited me to join along.  This I did, and was glad about it afterward.  The exhibit upstairs featured portraits of movement figures in the civil rights movement.  I loved seeing people I’d heard about, and also reading about their interconnectedness.  I saw how it was more of a collective effort as I glanced at the photos.

Downstairs were pictures taken by a man who traveled from the lower east side across America three times, carefully documenting the drab existence of it.  He would photograph his hotel rooms, and diners, etc.  He would even make prints of some of his pictures, and sneak them onto racks of postcards, which I found humorous.

The other exhibit was of photos taken by a man during the World Wars not of the battle lines, but of the effect war had on children behind those lines.  Many pictures were gripping, but the most provacative to me was one of a blind boy who’d lost his arms, and had learned to read braille with his lips.

We then left this exhibit, and went to 2nd ave and 3rd street, where Eli was staying the night.  After a bit, we left to a corner store to get what cab drivers claim are the best somosas in NYC.  They were pretty good.  Across the street, we ran into Phillip Glass, brother of Ira Glass of NPR fame.  Then we walked to China town, where we bought fresh lychees and walked around.  Eventually, we parted ways, so they could go to the car, and drive back to Baltimore, where I’ve now an open invitation to visit.

I walked from there down to Fulton along the East River, and met my friends Ben and Srijan downtown.  We went back to their dorm at Pace, watched the end of the Indycar race, then Ben and I walked west to the coast and looked over to Jersey City.

Now I’m back home, and my friend Lindsey may stop by in a bit.  My mom comes tomorrow, and I’m quite excited to explore more of the city with her.

Took a trip to Seacliff, NY last night to meet my friends family. It was an amazing change of pace and I’ve an open invite to return at my lesiure.

Now I’m headed to the seaport to meet friends and watch things burst into fiery, bright colours!

Dear All:
I recently came across the prompt below.  Further below, see my entry.  Just thought you’d care to read.

bests,
Jonthon

Win $200,000 in Technology for Your School
Students, parents, teachers, and administrators can enter the Hope for Education contest by submitting a 100-word essay answering the question, “What is the single most significant benefit that technology can provide in the classroom?” Winning schools will receive either the grand prize of $200,000 in Samsung technology and Microsoft software or one of 30 first prizes of $60,000. Deadline July 22.

My response:
An interesting divide exists between students and their teachers today. Teachers witnessed the computer’s advent, whereas students don’t know a world without them. Today’s student, with respect to computers and electronics, is just as likely to be the teacher as the learner. As a first year teacher and technophile myself, I suggest that the most significant benefit of technology in the classroom is to provide ample opportunity for the student to be the teacher. It is in this collaborative and empowering enviornment that shy students express themselves silently, kinesthetic learners engage actively, and the digital divide is bridged.

Squirrel suicides driving utilities nuts

Squirrels cause a lot of power outages, and the frequency of such events is increasing exponentially.  Fun and sad at the same time.

Dear BCSMers (and not):
I posted some pics on another social network (Facebook) that my friend Justin took last Wednesday. You can view them here.

enjoy!
Mr. C