Week in Review

I'm getting behind on blog posts. So I'll play catch up with this one. Last Sunday I took my sister Lauren to go see Wicked. I have some connections in the city, which is a good thing otherwise we'd never have managed to get tickets. It was a good show and we had some great orchestra seats. I still like the book better and the ending to the broadway version was not so great, but I guess broadway is a little like Disney, they just can't help but give you a happy sappy ending. The guy next to me too a hundred dollar nap, which seems a little ridiculous. I guess some people just have money to throw away. At the end of the show they asked for donations for the broadway charity drive that they do every year benefitting something like kids with aids or cancer. The lady behind us made some snarky remark about having to listen to such a thing.

On Wednesday a co-worker of mine offered me a ticket to a show at Carnagie Hall. It's funny what you get used to being around. When I really think about it, casually going to Carnagie Hall isn't something most people can do. It was an interesting show with three guys who were jazz musicians but tended to do more of a musical noise routine. The vocalist just played around making different noises and at one point the show devolved into them throwing drumsticks around the stage.

Friday we had a softball game where I actually managed to make it home and caught a pop fly. I was proud. The quote of the day came from a new girl on the team who hit the ball and ran to first but didn't make it before the ball did so she was out. She turned around and said "All that running for nothing?" Haha, I guess the game is kind of new to her. We were pretty far behind, but in the last inning we managed to make a good rally and ended up only losing by three runs. I think the score was 18-21.

Here's a sneak peek at pictures from this weekend. I'll blog about them and post more later.

Perspective on Perfection

Just a quick update, I had class Monday night which went ok. The professor didn’t care for anyone in class’s disposable camera shots. Oh well, I tried. He also didn’t like my picture of sleeping in public with the guy lying in the train. He said it should be cropped closer. I argued that I liked being able to see that it was outside the train looking in and he said to get more train in the shot if that’s what I was going for. Oh well, he keeps saying we’re not “looking” and “seeing” I’m trying my darndest, but I guess I have to look harder. I must admit that I do occasionally make the mistake of centering my subject, which I should know better than to do. Of course he showed us a whole bunch of shots where his subject was in the center, and when I asked he said that we could do that when it looked right. Hah, it’s all so subjective anyway sometimes it’s hard to know when it’s a point where it’s a matter of perception and a matter of just plain needs to be better. With the guy on the train I can definitely see what he’s saying, and I’ll try more next time. I get to the point where I’m ready to just go take flower and tree pictures since he seems to like those, but it seems too easy. I know I can get a shot of something that just sits there. I want to try and perfect something more challenging. Maybe I should just throw in a few flower pics so he can see that I’m trying to move past them. He did like this shot,

From 11.3.07

which I knew he would, but I don’t really care for it that much. It’s tough when I’m editing my pictures to decide between looking with what I know is more to his taste or mine. Maybe I’ll try to stop being so stubborn and do things his way for awhile. I don’t want my “taste” to get in the way of learning.
Tonight we had a volleyball game, on the way there we saw a bake sale on the street by a school so myself and two teammates bought a pumpkin pie and ate it before the game. It must have worked as good fuel since we actually won all three sets! I wasn't at the top of my game, but it turned out all right, ending in a nail biter at the last set as the serve kept getting turned over at 14-14 (games go to 15). Phew, I tried taking a few shots but nothing turned out, I wasn't really concentrating on pictures as much as the game.

New York City Marathon

I went to NYC today to send an e-mail that I'd forgotten to send out on Friday, then while I was in the area, I decided to walk over to the bottom of Central Park in order to see some of the runners from The New York City Marathon. I was happy at the way some of the shots I took turned out today. I didn't think there'd be that many good shots to get, but it was a really good place to practice my technique. The same thing happened over and over, so I could just stand there and practice. It was nice that there was still something different about each runner. Looking back through the shots was neat. I was standing at about the 23/24th mile out of 25. It was interesting to see how people who had all run the same race and were at the same place, were still so individual. Some people were bounding, some were limping, some were smiling some were grimacing some people ran with stiff arms some people swung their arms back and forth etc.

From NYC Marathon

There were hundreds of people there lined up to cheer the runners on. These weren't people they knew, but people who just wanted to be supportive. Some people had their names written on their shirt so you could call out encouragement to them specifically. It was kind of a rush to see people at the end of their endurance and to shout out postive encouragement with the crowd. Some people even had phrases written that they wanted you to yell at them, and everyone did. it was a lot neater than I thought it would be. I'm glad I went.

From NYC Marathon

I also tried to take a picture from the platform of a bag lady who was surrounded by bags, gathering them up in an empty subway car. So as I had my back to her to set up the shot and turn around to take it, I saw a guy sleeping. Unfortunately he was waking up and the train was about to leave so I got a little flustered and it came out blurry, but it's definitely one of my favorite sleeping in public shots so far except for the blurriness. I was proud of the composition, I didn't have to crop it at all in the computer, at least I got that right.

From Sleeping in P...

Volley Bug

It's the start of volleyball season and we played our first regular season game. It doesn't look like we're headed for the championship just yet, but you never know, we may gain some momentum as the season goes on. Scott came and spectated and walked me home. He's our biggest fan. When we got home there was a very large Praying Mantis on the door. Probably almost as big as my hand. I used to love bugs like these when I was a kid. Though in New Mexico they didn't grow nearly as large. I see bugs like this that make me think of my high school biology mandatory bug collection. If I'd had an East Coast relative I could have scored extra points for extra big bugs. Instead our freezer was just full of little bugs. Haha I wasn't the best at killing them though, I wouldn't do the cotton ball with alcohol because they always got stuck to the cotton. I'd just stick them in the freezer. Once I caught a bumble bee and put it in the freezer. When I took it out again it came back to life! Who knew hibernation worked so well?

Trivia for the day: Honey was early man's first sweetener and it was so valued that it could be used to pay taxes in some cultures. (But honeybees don't hibernate, they just stick close together for warmth.)

Lazy Weekend

Hmm not much action in this corner. Friday I went out with the softball team to celebrate our season ending. Volleyball will be starting up soon, so stay tuned for exciting game results there. At least we have a volleyball championship under our belt and we don't have to count total wins in all of the years we've played to come up with a decent number like we do for softball. I'm loving Hannah's baby pictures on her blog, especially now that her computer virus is gone. Lucky she has tech man Ryan there. My computer would probably just crash and burn, which makes me realize that I really should back up my files before all my precious pictures get eaten by a worm some day. How is that done again? Don't you have to have a disk or thumb drive of some kind. I guess I could burn it to a CD. I'm just being lazy. I also have most of the thank you cards from the wedding written, with Scott's help. Actually they've been written for a long time now. But I have some mental block against actually putting things in the mail. I have a lot of stuff in my house that is for a lot of other people, it just never gets to them until they come to me. Maybe it's a sneaky strategy. Anyway, your trivia question for the day is this. What major motion picture's title uses the same font as Sony's Play Station 3? The winner gets some great prize that I'll put in the mail....

Everyday

So I figured you all needed a peek into the small things in Adrienne's life. Things like strawberries strewn in the street. I think that's one of my favorite thing about the city, about any city really. I just like to go around noticing things that not everyone takes the time to notice. I once saw an episode of 60 Minutes or Dateline or some such show, and it was about a class at Harvard or Stanford or some such school. The point is that the show was about a class that a professor gave in noticing things. I think maybe it was supposed to be critical thinking skills. But it really emphasized noticing things, such as the arrow in the white space on the Fed Ex logo. Something that's always there, but until you take the time to look and or wonder, you never see it. Ever since I saw that show I've made it a point to walk around seeing things. I couldn't believe I'd never seen that stupid arrow. I figure if I walk around seeing things I might as well share. When I've got a camera around I tend to take pictures of these things and people of course give me strange looks, with good reason. It also makes them look at what I'm looking at, but I think it stays a mystery to them. It's like that time in the movie Blast From the Past, and Brendan Frasier is looking up and smiling, and the people ask him "What is it!?" He says "The Sky!" The adults just look at him funny and the kid says "I see it Mommy." It makes me laugh at apparently nothing a lot too. Maybe if I show you my world, you'll understand my Adrienne-ness.
I love kids. I love the way they see the world. It's so simple. Not simple in the Match.com "I'm a simple kind of guy" way or the simple like Forrest Gump way, just simple as in they title their claymations "The Wonderful Boat of Things." It makes me smile. Especially since their wonderful boat is a paper origami boat, and the wonderful things are cookie cutter shapes made out of clay. Nothing I'd label wonderful, but perhaps they were being more smooth and recognized that they were in the Sony Wonder Technology Lab.
I have a bad habit of laughing at things that seem quirky to me. Thing like three people sitting in a row. Nothing so funny about that, but along with all the cluttered space filled with things like old ribbons from presents past, a museum exhibit chair filled with Elmo DVDs, half a dozen speakers scattered about, some dish washing soap, you get the picture, literally :)
Enough with the philosophizing. The real reason I carried my camera to work was to take pictures of softball. Not only did I not manage to get a single softball picture, but the last two games were so depressing that they wouldn't be worth posting/mentioning if I did. Let's all just hope for a nice fat win for our last game this Thursday.

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this blog will never be the same now that i have co-post privileges...

--Sarah

My Everyday Details Pictures, most of which are not really details but funny things I saw and decided to take pictures of:

How does one get into this line of work? Can you get a degree in it? Vocational school training? We owned a turtle once. It was a gift for my dad's birthday, and he named it Speed Bump. He was constantly shedding and smelled awful, but was sort of endearing in a pathetic way. One day my mom got tired of cleaning his cage and decided to release him at Potter's Marsh. In Alaska.





I ordered lemonbutter crepes at IHOP. Apparently they are incredibly literal in their definition, because I got lemon on one half, and butter on the other. Still yummy though.




I love skywriting. I saw this in Australia and it cracked me up. One time in Arizona my office noticed that something was being written above Tempe Town Lake, but we could only make out part of it. So I played super sleuth and called a friend who worked in the direction of the part we couldn't see, and voila! We had a complete skywriting message. This story would be a lot more entertaining if I could remember the message, but all I know is that it was a happy birthday to Muhammad Ali.





Old people are awesome. Especially when they fall asleep in funny places, like at Goodwill. I hope I'm that cool when I'm his age.







p.s. Go Adrienne's softball team!!!

Reach for the Top

Here are some pictures from this weekend. Mostly climbing, with a random assortment of things I saw or noticed.

This was a nice weekend. Friday, Scott and I went out with friends from his lab namely Kenway, Maggie and Eric De Witt (not to be confused with Eric Bryant) for Pizza. I happened to have a bottle of wine with me from an event that I worked earlier in the week, so we enjoyed that as we watched a crazy squirrel steal a huge slice from the trashcan. This particular pizza joint had a back garden where we sat and watched the squirrel try to keep the slice which was bigger than him, away from the competing pigeons. I think he also may have been frightened by the various camera wielders coming at him from every direction. Sorry to say the best shot I could get to share with you all is the tip of his tail as he runs away with the pizza. Perhaps Eric got a better picture. After that we went out to a few other places and eventually made our way over to Sky and Anna's new apartment, which was fantastic. I'm very excited for them to have a little more space in the new place. They also generously gave us their leather couch and large Sony TV, so we've upgraded our furniture a little and I no longer have to explain to people that I can't afford a Sony TV even if I work there. I'm still not sure if our house has room for the couch. But it may get to stay for a little longer.

Saturday we met up with Brian and Kenway to go climbing at a rock gym. I'd gone before with my roommate at the time Valerie, but only once or twice. Kenway was a great teacher, very patient and thorough. You could tell he put safety first, which I would guess anyone would appreciate in a climbing partner. You don't want to slip and find at the last moment that someone didn't tighten a strap or double back on a halter. He also belayed for us all, which was good since I didn't feel confident enough to do any belaying, and I didn't really want to take the time to get "certified." If I go again I probably will, but I hear they're closing for renovations soon so it may be awhile. If I ever get good enough it would be fun to go climbing out in the wilderness. I climbed some easy routes, and almost make it to the top on others. Scott seemed to have a slight (read huge) advantage with his massive reach. Maybe someday I'll grow up and have long arms too. It was a lot of fun though my forearms are sore today and I'm minus a decent sized chunk of skin. I now sport evidence of having played softball and gone climbing, perhaps if I get a paper cut tomorrow anyone looking at me can determine every activity I've done for the week by my small injuries. I think if I were slightly more graceful I would have fewer injuries. But I can honestly say no one has ever suggested I change my middle name to anything remotely resembling Grace.

Highlights (not the magazine)

Not a whole lot going on around here. I had lunch in the Sony Club on Monday with my boss's boss. That was great! The Sony Club was rated #1 of the corporate dining rooms in NYC, or something like that. It's where the big execs and VIPs eat when they're around. The sushi there is absolutely the best there is, with the sushi chef occasionally in town from Japan. He happened to be in town on Monday so I got to eat some Toro - which is the very very best quality of Tuna, it almost tastes like butter and just melts in your mouth. Enough bragging though. I had a softball game on Monday night. We were playing the #1 team and held our own pretty well. We were only down by 1 in the 4th inning, then we really fell apart and they scored 9 runs. The game ended something like 9-15. Blech. But we did play on an interesting field. It was directly under the Queensboro bridge. I mean directly under, as in our foul balls went up onto the bridge in rush hour. Seems a little risky, but that's alright. It was like playing volleyball in a low cielinged gym. You just had to keep the ball a little lower. One of these days I'll take the camera out ot softball and add pictures. I've always got so much other equipment the camera doesn't make the cut. Another game tomorrow!

p.s. I was trying to come up with a title for this post, and "highlights" came to mind. Did any of you get/read that magazine when you were a little kid? I remember learning to read by using the stories that had words mixed in with pictures. You remember?

All Star Game 7/10/07

It was a night for an all star lineup, on the other side of the country MLB allstars were lining up while in the City, the hot muggy weather may have been a deterrent to some, but for the all stars of the Sony Wonders nothing could keep them away from the Central Park ball field. This rough and tumble team has had a rocky season, with at least 4 games cancelled due to rain, heat or pesticide. They were raring and ready to go. Thankfully one of their best players was back from an extended time-out in Vietnam and the team was ready to bring home a big "W." Adrienne slugger Schafer stopped every ball that came her way in short field, a new position replacing her regular position at second base. With two mean arms backing her up in the outfield the Wonders were on their way to certain victory at the top of the 7th with 2 outs and up by 4 runs at with a lead of 9-5 over The Headliners. Suddenly a long ball was hit deep into far left field. Cries of "foul" "foul ball!" echoed across the field, as the outfielder aka Big Mike T. drifted back back back but not far enough in time to catch the long ball. Sadly, Big Mike T. had somehow hit a sour note with the ump, and with a gleam in his eye he stared down the invisible hilly and tree obstructed line to call the ball fair. This is a man who shook his head when Big Mike T. was up at bat and was forced to call a crazy wide ball as a ball, and gloated at the chance to call a strike at something that no sane man would have swung at. He had it in for our outfielder, so we had no chance when the other team's man rounded the bases for home. Bases were loaded and all we needed was one more out to cinch the game, but yet another wide left ball heads to the outfield. We know we have no chance, but struggle valiantly to get the ball home. One last run manages to make it home before we can get the third out. The score is 9-11 at the bottom of the 7th inning. All the Sony Wonders need is a couple of run to send the game into overtime. The Sony Wonders managed to send one man running home with the score at 10-11, you could feel the tension in the air. Adrienne Slugger Schafer stepped up to bat. Ball 1... Ball 2... Strike 1... It's a hit out towards the second baseman. Schafer sprinted towards first knowing that she didn't want to become the second out for the team. The ball sped towards first base and Schafer saw it hit the glove of the first baseman a second before she could get there. But she didn't give up and ran through the base anyway, as the first baseman fumbled the ball. She was safe at first! With every toss the pitcher made Schafer ran halfway to second base, ball one.. strike 1.... ball 2.... distracted for half a second, Schafer realized the ball has been hit and she isn't halfway to second. Desperate to make it she slides like a pro, but doesn't make it in time. She's out for the game, and with a man on third waiting to come home the final out is made at the plate. The Wonders suffered an excruciating 10-11 defeat.

Yankees Game 7/2/07

A friend from work, Derek Costas, is getting married in September. He also works like crazy and stays late a lot. This means that his free time is very limited so he graciously offered Scott and I Yankees tickets that he had but couldn't use. So Monday evening Scott and I grabbed dinner and hopped on the train to Yankee's stadium. I'm not a Yankee's fan or a Yankee's hater. I'm not even that big of a baseball fan really. I just enjoy going to games and watching the people and the experience of it all. I actually do like baseball when it's live. Scott and I got some snacks to carry into the game and had them hidden in both our bags, but we got stopped entering the stadium. Apparently men aren't allowed to carry bags in. Only women are. Talk about inequality eh? We were told we'd have to go across the street to the bowling lanes and rent a locker for his bag. So we walked away, acting as if we were being obedient, and then went behind a planter where we promptly stuffed Scott's bag into mine. It was a tight fit, but since I just came from work, I have my big black, I don't drive a car so I carry this bag around, bag. It worked out just fine, we walked in with a bag of bags, snacks and all. Scott was surprised at how clever his wife could be. I'm really just good at being sneaky, don't tell :) So we got some hot dogs, since that's something you have to do, and shelled peanuts too. Our seats were at the very last top row, row X, so we got some good exercise. Baseball stadium stairs always make me feel like I'm going to fall down them. They're just so steep. It was actually a decent game since it was tied for awhile and A-Rod ran into the first baseman and injured himself, making everyone oh so concerned that he couldn't make it for the All-Star game. Is it wrong that I like to watch sports injuries happen? The Yankees won, which was a surprise since they hadn't been doing too well. I dedicated the game to my Monica, our friend from Hong Kong, from Minnesota since that's who the Yankees played against. We got on the train and went home with no further excitement. I took a picture with my cell phone since I didn't have a real camera with me, so that's why it's all pixelated.