Wednesday, September 29, 2010

ESB

ESB 2

Sukkot at the Green Market

Sukkot at the Green Market

ESB

ESB 1

There is no god

There is no god.
There is only science.
Have faith in fellow humans,
To do the right thing.

Monday, September 27, 2010

If We All Work Together We All Win

Last week I jumped off the bus onto the sidewalk on my way to meet some friends for dinner. A man came running towards me through the crowd on the sidewalk and I heard a woman yelling, "Stop him!" The woman and another man were chasing him.

I thought he had grabbed her purse. I briefly thought about tripping him but thought that might end up backfiring and screwing up my "good" knee. So I stepped in front of him and countered his moves back and forth once or twice, figuring that the people chasing him might catch up with him. He juked right to lose me and sort of pushed me out of his way in the process. I turned around and a quick thinking pedestrian stuck out his umbrella and tripped the guy, tackling him down to the ground.

The hero pedestrian layed on top of him while the victim woman ran up and grabbed her cell phone out of his hand. I heard the hero pedestrian say a couple of times, "Lay still and you won't get hurt," which my coworker tells me is what cops are trained to say. Maybe the hero pedestrian was an off-duty cop or a former cop. Anyway, his quick thinking got that woman's phone back (note to self - don't walk in public with your phone exposed). The woman used that very phone to call the police and it wasn't long before two cruisers pulled up and took him away.

We all had one of those "Not on MY Watch" crime-fighting moments where the bad guy was subdued through the combined efforts of the good citizens. Of course, when I realized that it was just a phone I thought, "Whatever, it's just a phone." Then I realized that if I lost my phone I would lose a lot of contacts and pictures that might never be recovered (note to self - back up your contacts and download your pictures). Recovering lost contacts can take a significant amount of time and money and smart phones can contain passwords, etc. That guy could have caused her a lot of grief and it's unlikely the police would do much about a stolen cellphone, so good for her.

I realized that if that guy had had a knife he likely would have stabbed me for getting in his way. I'm glad I didn't try to trip him, although if he were attacking somebody, especially a woman, I'd like to think I would try to intervene. I'm not sure a cellphone is worth risking my life over but a woman being attacked...I would hope that I would do the right thing, whatever that is.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Harvest Moon

Harvest Moon 6

Harvest Moon

Harvest Moon 5

Harvest Moon

I found out last night that the full moon would be today. I figured I'd take some shots from the roof when I got home. I stopped by the grocery store and as I was walking across the street to my building I saw a lightening strike. I looked at the sky and it still looked mostly clear.  I thought I'd have plenty of time to get up there and get a quick shot of the moon.

By the time I got into my apartment, put away the couple of groceries that I'd bought, grabbed my camera and went up to the roof, we were in the midst of another microburst storm. It was so windy on the 10th floor that it sounded like we were in another tornado. I thought I would at least be able to get a couple of lightning shots before it got close but that storm moved so quickly that there was no way I could get a photo.

Later I went back up and this is what I got.


Harvest Moon 1

So I took a look around and this is what else I saw. There was so much light up there.

Harvest Moon 2

Harvest Moon 3

Harvest Moon 4

Friday, September 17, 2010

Salon Open Call Post - Meating in the Middle

I started a blog on Salon to respond to a post about eating meat. Check it out if you can.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Fountain

Fountain

Fire Drill

Fire Engine at Columbus Circle

Change of Address

Change of Address
Had to fill out an affidavit ballot to vote in my primary the other night. They didn't have my address change info that I'm pretty sure I filed in April. Hmmm...

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Friday, September 10, 2010