About to nuke the porn mustache.
Say goodbye to Movember
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Central Park in Fall
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click image to see a larger version
This was one of six shots I took with the 5D Mark II while walking through Central Park trying to figure out the best place to meet Heather at the end of the NYC Marathon. I had walked down from 90th-91st & 1st Ave. and figured I’d find the finish line and meet her there. Ha. Stupid. I ended up walking back up to 67th and then 72nd on Central Park West. I walked to the UPS trucks with everybody’s bags. Then I decided that based on the flow of the runners, I should head down 72nd to 9th Avenue. I had what can only be described as a Ralph-Fiennes-in-the-English-Patient-when he realizes he’s absolutely SOL. Most of the 2 million people who lined the marathon route had moved to 72nd and 9th. As I made my way back to the park, Heather called me from a phone belonging to a teammate. I had gone the entirely wrong direction to meet Heather. Horrible. And stupid. Next time, I won’t rely on technology so much. At the beginning of the marathon, I had posted updates from a good wifi spot and my phone had excellent service. The second I got off the subway at 86th & Lexington, the technology was borked. I tried several times to call Heather’s mom to get updates and one of the calls went through. She was able to let me know where Heather was on the course. So 100 year old technology, FTW.
I share all of this to bring up the fact that had I just stood along the marathon course in Central Park, sure, I’d have seen Heather one more time, but I would also have been one of those people yelling at her in the last two miles.
Almost Done with Movember 2011
I’m hoping to be able to shave this thing off very, very, very soon.
If I’m gonna ensure scratchy awfulness, I might as will just grow a full beard is what I’m saying.
Not that there is anything wrong with mustaches or growing mustaches or growing mustaches for charity.
As always, thank you to all those who have donated. Soon I will be adding my contribution, which will match the contributions of all you awesome donors.
p.s. if you still really want to, you can donate:
Still Here
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Finally got image posting from my iOS devices sorted and functioning. It took far too long. Note to self: call your damn host before trying to reengineer the Internet. Within 20 minutes, they found the thing that needed tweaking and tweaked it.
That noise aside, there is a very big part of me that remembers tree leaves turning and falling in early October. It is nearly December and there are still a lot of leaves on trees. Weather cycles? Climate change? 60 miles further south than my childhood? Alien overlords? o
Looking Beyond Election Day
I caught this Robert Reich opinion column during my weekend reading:
Looking Beyond Election Day – NYTimes.com
What seems certain, however, is that continued high unemployment coupled with slow or no growth will create a new political landscape. This will pose a special challenge — and opportunity. If our political leaders don’t manage the new dividing lines effectively they could invite a politics of resentment that scapegoats certain groups while avoiding the hard work of setting priorities and making difficult choices.
Reich looks to the past, using the Depression as an example, of how the economic hardship changed the parties and the politics in the years during and after. Reich also breaks it down into three groups of people who are likely to emerge as the landscape becomes more polarized. He mentions anti-establishment (Tea Party, Occupy), isolationist (recent draconian Republican anti-immigration bills) and generational rifts (higher unemployment rate in people under 25) and the potential for change given the state of the economy against these three potential cultural strains.