Saturday, July 23, 2011

We Are Marshall

The medium is the message.  But for a few cents more you can supersize it.  Or something like that.  That's a quote by Marshall McLuhan, aka Big Mac, according to me.

I'm not realy sure what this means.  But remember when Jerry and George had this idea of creating a show about nothing?  They were asked why people would watch it, and they answered, "Because it's on TV."  So I guess that's kind of what it means.

I won't pretend to be an expert about it like this guy:



I am pretty much McClueless about Marshall McLuhan.

But anyway, to ramble on, I happen to be on Twitter.  And some of those tweets go on like this:

"I have 1000 followers.  Help me get to 2000."

"I'm coming up on tweet number 50,000."

And so on.

Um, so what was my point?  I don't know.  I just wanted to blog about something.




Friday, July 22, 2011

Timeout Boy at Brooklyn Bridge

Here is video of us at the Brooklyn Bridge after we went to High Line Park:



We had planned on going all the way to Brooklyn and hanging out at DUMBO (Downtown Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass).  There's a park there under the bridge where we could have sat and relaxed and sang "Under the Bridge" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Well, I totally didn't expect service changes on the MTA Subway.  I don't ride it that much, and I should have known better that it would be out of whack on the weekend.  So we spent a lot of time navigating, trying to find which line goes to which stop, and waiting and waiting for that next train, trying to stand far enough from the edge so the little boy doesn't run off and fall, yet close enough so other passengers don't cut us off.  And stuff like that.

And anyway, we had to go home and do laundry and other chores, so we just bought Italian ice and called it a day.  It cost $3 for the little cup you see in the video, by the way.  Also, you know those guys who stand there all day selling that stuff?  Well, they have to answer nature once in a while, and do you know where they go?  Yes, right there on the bridge.  But I didn't get that on video.




Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Timeout Boy at the High Line

Have you heard about the High Line Park in New York City?  Basically, the city took an old elevated train track and converted it into public space.  It opened a couple of years ago.  I wanted to explore it last year, but we didn't get a chance.  Plus, Timeout Boy was just learning to walk, and I didn't want to push around a big baby cart stroller.

This year, we bought ourselves a lightweight umbrella stroller.  One Saturday morning, we took the PATH Train to 14th Street.  We stopped by Chelsea Bagels and had breakfast.  Then we walked west towards Gansevoort and walked up the stairs easily, since we were able to fold the stroller and carry it up.

It's a nice park.  Here is a video:


It was fun, but it was narrow so we couldn't just let the kid run around and bump into people.  At the other end on 30th Street, there are some food trucks and benches.  However, we decided to walk over to my office and utilize the facilities.  We then ordered from Shorty's and ate at the conference room. 
We then took the Subway downtown and walked over the Brooklyn Bridge before calling it a day.




Monday, July 11, 2011

Timeout Boy at the Turtle Back Zoo

I used to hang out at West Orange all the time, and I never even realized there was a zoo there.  I only heard about Turtle Back Zoo a few months ago, and recently we decided to check it out.  We heard it was a great place for kids, and indeed it was.

It was kind of hard to find.  There's not a lot of signage pointing to the place.  Even when we got to the parking lot, we weren't sure which space to take because we didn't see right away where the main entrance was.  (We like to come early, and there weren't many cars yet.)

The playground was closed that day, but Timeout Boy still seemed to have a lot of fun.  He liked the carousel and the bear house.  He also liked the wolves, and we stayed to watch them for a long while.  The best part is the bird house, where they sell these feed sticks that the kids can use to feed the birds.  Here is a video:



There's also a train that goes by the lake.  The kids there seemed to enjoy it, but Timeout Boy fell asleep during the ride.  He hasn't had his nap all day, and after all that walking and running around all day, he was knocked out.

Afterwards, we drove around West Orange and Essex County.  My wife and her cousin were a little on edge because I didn't tell them I was planning on driving through South Mountain Reservation.  They were thinking of horror movie stuff and didn't want to go walking through the woods.  Well, I didn't force them to, because it was raining anyway.

And then I took them to Eagle Rock Reservation.  LOL.  I was hoping we could see the New York skyline from there but it was foggy.