very simple

This week, we moved from the technical aspects of photography (shutter speed, aperture, depth of field), and started moving towards the more creative aspects of photography. Our assignment this week:

Find an object (not a person or an animal) that you want to take a picture of. It should be reasonably sized. Shoot it 36 times, with no two compositions being identical. If you can, try to pick an object that is consistent with your final class project.

Since my final project is going to be about bicycles, I decided (obviously) to shoot a bicycle. I was originally going to use my own, but when I got up to the berkshires, I found out that our neighbor friends had ended up with an old-fashioned style bike that had a lot more character, so I went over to their house one morning to get pictures of it. for some reason, it’s got beer branding all over it, but I think that just makes it a little more quirky. I actually took about 70 pics, and narrowed it down to the following 40 (click to enlarge):

I took a ton of photos while in the berkshires this weekend, and only a few of them made it into the 365 project. Here are the others that I thought came out OK (I’ll be posting a separate entry for this week’s homework assignment, which was also done in the country) (click to enlarge).

So general motors went bankrupt today. It’s probably past time for them to reorganize and shed so much of the bloat that has distended the company over the years, but it’s kind of sad that some of the classic brands are on the chopping block (or have already been discontinued).

my first and only car was a GM car. It was a cherry red 1990 pontiac sunbird, that my parents surprised me with after I got my drivers license. Of course, living in the public-transportation-less suburbs at the time, the car was as much a gift from my working full-time parents to themselves, seeing that it was a fucking pain in the ass to get me home from school on most days given my participation in multiple after-school activities. That car took me through high school in rockland county, college in buffalo and law school in philadelphia before I moved to NYC and didn’t need (nor want) the responsibility of a car anymore. Then it passed to my brother for some period of time (his “spirited” driving churned through a few cars in his time), and then a few years ago, my dad traded it to a guy in exchange for a paint job on our barn up in the berkshires. As far as we’re aware, that guy is still driving it around. other than the color, it wasn’t a particularly exciting car, but I loved it all the same. It broke down incredibly infrequently, and (mysteriously) only when I was home from school so that my dad was available to deal with the problem. And said breakdowns usually involved something as simple as the battery dying YEARS after it’s expected life had run out. It was the last year that GM made cars out of steel instead of fiberglass, so driving through the snow in buffalo was a snap. That thing was heavy. Of course, my heavy doors (it was a 2-door) would be frozen shut every morning, so I have some not so fond memories of hurling my entire body against the door in the morning in order to unstick them and get to school. I never did learn that it might be a good idea to keep the defrosting solution somewhere other than inside the car.

Of course, I know why they killed pontiac. in reality, they were the same cars as chevrolets, but with a little less brand cache (except for the classic firebirds and GTOs). In fact, in college, my friend Vic had a chevy cavalier, in the exact same color as my pontiac, and we used to park them next to each other as a joke. because they were identical.

Still. it made me a little sad. Here’s hoping that GM can pull out of this bankruptcy leaner and more efficient. and, of course, that they start making cars that people want to buy again.

I know, it’s more maps.

 Saturday morning, I took the train up to Wassaic. My folks met me at the station and my stepmom and I rode the Harlem Valley Rail Trail from Wassaic to Millerton…

View Larger Map

Nice ride, except for the moment when, riding a borrowed bike, I was attempting to get my foot into the much less flexible metal pedal basket, and didn’t realize until it was too late to swerve that I was about to crash into a wooden pylon in the middle of the trail (designed to prevent cars from driving down the route). As someone else described it, I then turned into a physics experiment, where I went flying face first over my handlebars. While I was able to brace my fall, I did managed to land on my face, banging my chin. So I’m a bit bruised up, but nothing worse.

It could have been worse, and given that my klutzy self was bound to do something like this sooner or later, I ended up walking away pretty unscathed. Although I may have to wear long sleeves for a few days when I get back to work, since I’ve got some nice bruises.

So then, since I had been thinking about it for a while, and my stepmom was thinking about the same thing, we went to the combination hardware store and bike shop, and bought new road bikes that actually fit us. reasonably priced and everything.

This morning was when I decided to attempt my “big” ride. I have a friend who owns a restaurant up in West Stockbridge, where he makes the best pancakes on earth. So I decided to ride up there, figuring a 20-something mile bike ride would serve to counteract the effects of the pancakes.

I was planning on doing this myself, but yesterday my dad decided that he wanted to join me. Nevermind that he hasn’t been on a bike in a few years. He also insisted that we take the “back” (read=Longer) way, because it was “less hilly”. It was about 5 extra miles, and really hilly. Apparently you don’t notice the hills when driving in a car. I’m never letting him plan the route again. I’m telling you…all hills. But the pancakes were really good.

Here’s the route we took (you can see the more direct, and quite frankly, more flat, route through Great Barrington, which we bypassed)…

View Larger Map

I actually felt pretty good at the end, and a bit more confident about my 55 mile ride through NYC that I’m taking next weekend, since the only big hills on that route involve the on ramps on various bridges, which are fairly discrete.

[Update 2015] In an effort to reduce the number of holdover pages on the blog, I am slowly (very slowly) integrating albums into the appropriate historical posts on the blog itself. As such, photos from the ride with my dad are now below.

The NY Times this weekend had an article on my absolutely favorite property class topic ever – adverse possession. 

Essentially, if you take certain steps, you can claim title to someone else’s property without, you know, paying for it:

Under the current law, as articulated by the Court of Appeals in June 2006 in the case of Walling v. Przybylo, a claim of adverse possession can be made if an individual “openly, notoriously and exclusively” uses someone else’s property continuously for 10 years, believing he has the right to do so.

It’s a favorite of law school professors, particularly around exam time, and one of the property professors at my law school (not mine) was actually attempting to adversely possess a neighboring piece of property and would discuss it in class. 

So anyway, why did I love this subject?  Because I actually investigated at one point the possibility of having my dad adversely possess the land across the road from our old house in the Berkshires.  The owner was absentee, the house was an eyesore (including a bright orange tarp instead of a roof), and I figured, if we could spend enough time fixing things up and generally using the property as our own, we could, eventually, lay claim to it outright.  However, as I ALSO learned, you cannot claim adverse possession over property of someone who is in prison.  And yep, the owner was apparently put in jail for arson, when he tried to burn down the house for the insurance money.  It may seem silly now, but the attempt to practically apply this esoteric section of property law to my own life actually helped me understand and remember the concept.  Which came in really handy at exam time.

(by the way, the law actually varies depending on the state – in some, it only takes five years.  In others, you need to also make "substantial improvements" to the property). 

Oh, and the next time you’re walking around New York City, keep an eye out for little plaques embedded in the sidewalk on streetcorners, that say things like "property of…", particularly where buildings, for decorative reasons, don’t extent all the way to the property line.  These are there to give pedestrians "permission" to cross into the space.  Because explicit permission to enter property automatically defeats claims of adverse possession.  After learning this little fact from my professor, I’ve noticed hundreds of these while walking down manhattan streets.

Aside from being sick, labor day weekend was my first opportunity to really get to test out my new Nikon D80. The entire album of decent photos is located [at the bottom of this post – see update], but some highlights (in other words, my favorites), below:

Oliver, the most hyperactive Jack Russell ever (and that’s saying something):

The first time I’ve ever chased a bee around the yard (forgetting all natural instincts to run and hide, because I wanted a cool photo):

And some other cool flower photos (my parents have a very nice garden, 99% of which I’m apparently allergic to):

[Update 2015] In an effort to reduce the number of holdover pages on the blog, I am slowly (very slowly) integrating these albums into the appropriate historical posts on the blog itself. As a result, the entire album is now located directly below.

So, after another weekend in the Berkshires with my family, I have come to the conclusion that I’m simply allergic to nature.  Got up here on Friday night, and by Saturday, I had a full-blown cold/sinus infection/allergy thing.  This morning, instead of going to my favorite restaurant up here for breakfast, I took some Tylenol Flu and crept back into bed until almost noon. My entire head feels like it’s stuffed with a layer of cotton balls between my brain and my skull. 

And the only thing I could bring myself to eat was some toast.

Fun times. 

…because the next two weeks are (I think) going to be out of control.

Let’s start with last week though. I finally had jury duty on Wednesday (which was really convenient given the two deals I had closing on Friday). But it turned out to be quite easy. Apparently none of the judges want to start scheduling big trials and such the week before Labor Day, so there was no need for any juries all day, and they let us go completely after the first day (which is virtually unheard of in Manhattan). So, all in all, it was probably the best timing possible from a “I really don’t have time to actually serve on a criminal trial jury” perspective.

Of course, this still left the partner who was on vacation and the partner who was filling in because the other partner was on vacation dealing with some issues on Wednesday that I was obviously not available for. Oh well. I guess one of the good things about being a lawyer though, is that the bosses are always pretty understanding of the whole jury duty thing.

Now, as is usual, I’m in the Berkshires with my family…my dad’s birthday is the 5th, so I always try to make it up here for this holiday weekend even if I have other stuff going on…

Which, of course, leads me to the next two weeks…

I finally got my start date for Italy, and I booked plane tickets on Friday. I’m leaving on Friday the 15th, so that I can have the weekend to recuperate from jetlag before I start working in Milan on Monday the 18th. of September.

So. That’s, like, 11 days from now.

And I decided that it would be a really brilliant idea to have a going away party next Saturday night. Because apparently I’m a masochist. Maybe nobody will show up (actually, given the number of people I know will still be out of town on extended labor day holidays and such? It’s probably going to end up being more like 5 friends coming over to finally see my apartment).

I did decide to take off starting on Wednesday the 13th, so that, at the very least, I’d have two days of just packing and turning stuff off.

Guys, I’m moving to Italy in 11 days.

I’m totally freaking out!

Everyone that finds out has had the first reaction of “aren’t you totally excited?!” Well yeah, but the initial excitement (back in friggin’ June!) has given way to the overwhelmingly not-done-ness of all the stuff I need to do before I leave.

But I’ve already decided that when I get back? I’m totally getting a swissy.

Well, Thanksgiving is over in my house, after a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit. well, it was rousing for the first fifteen minutes, and then everyone wandered off to get dessert and have side conversations, and the game eventually had to get called due to people having to leave.

In computer related news, we did eventually manage to get my stepmother’s computer working on the wireless network, thanks to some help from my stepmother’s nephew, who actually works in IT for ESPN. It always helps to have someone who knows what they’re doing (as opposed to a lawyer with some technical know-how) around. What he did involved rooting around the DOS menus though, and I’m pretty sure that’s more than what’s expected of the average computer user.

And now I’m already locked in my room, under to covers. Cough still hasn’t gone away, and I’m bordering on antisocial. Tomorrow I’m going to try to take the car and spend a few hours by myself, maybe do some shopping. I still have to get a wedding gift for one of my best friends who got married this summer, and I have in my head the idea of what I want to get, but actually executing the plan involves a little work, as well as compliant antique shops (which are much easier to attack in the Berkshires than in Manhattan). If I can’t find what I want, I’ll have to come up with a Plan B, since I’m sure there’s nothing left on the registry at this point…

Goodnight y’all. I’m going to bury myself under the covers and watch the PBS documentary about Broadway…They’re up to the last 25 years.

I manage to get myself sick. Nothing like a little bit of the flu to make the Turkey taste that much better. Anyway, I’m off to the country house to recuperate (and infect the rest of my family).

Project for the weekend? dragging my dad and stepmom into the 21st century by setting up the wireless network in the weekend house. The last time I tried to talk them through it on the phone, I spent 20 minutes asking questions, only to ask, "ok, now what color is light light on the Airport?" and get the response "oh, you mean that thing has to be plugged in?".

Yeah. They’re not allowed to touch things.

In other news, we did go to see Twelve Angry Men, last night, and it was great. I’ve read it several times, and it’s like an entire evidence class rolled into one 90-minute theatrical exercise. One downer – Philip Bosco was out sick. His understudy was great, but Juror Number Three is the heart of the show, and I just kept imagining Bosco’s utterly distinctive voice saying the same lines. The best part about going to see shows like this on Broadway? realizing that every single one of these actors has credits from Law & Order in their Who’s Who. Ahh, the incredibly tiny New York-based acting community. It was like a room full of male Tovah Feldshuhs.