Vivitar 3815

Believe it or not, this is the camera I use to take most of my photographs nowadays. I got this as a gift from my dad a few years back. While this camera takes decent photos in sunlight, it does a sub-par job when it comes to other settings like taking underground shots of the subways. As you can see in this blog, most of my photographs come from this camera. I am thinking about purchasing a new camera (kinda wished I had a new camera when my birthday rolled around this month but that wasn't the case, but I'm okay with that)

My budget doesn't call for a new digital camera anytime soon, but I did use my sister's Canon Powershot.

This was the camera I was borrowing from my older sister for a few instances last year. It's a great camera, except that the one I was borrowing had a lot of fogging issues. It was even more noticeable when I was taking photos of the underground subways last summer and winter. I would like to get myself this camera, but for now my budget doesn't call for it this year. I would like a camera that would perform better than this Vivitar that I currently have but as of right now this Vivitar camera has enough memory to hold

1. 30 photographs (1600X1400 pixels)
2. 101 photographs (600 x 400 pixels)

When I was using the camera, I was made fun of by other people because they thought I had a $2 camera or something like that. To me it was better than nothing. Whatever I have I'll use it for now. I'm not really desperate for a new digital camera but I really need to improve my photographs and while I might be made fun of at times, I'm not going to let that stop me from snapping away.

My Baseball cap collection as of today.

Today, I have some baseball caps that I will display, but first here's a list of the caps that I have from each team (not just baseball)

1. Atlanta Braves
2. Boston Red Sox
3. Chicago Cubs (2)
4. Chicago White Sox (2)
5. Colorado Rockies (2)
6. Cincinnati Reds (2)
7. Florida Marlins
8. Houston Astros
9. L.A.Dodgers
10. Minnesota Twins (2)
11. Milwaukee Brewers (2)
12. New York Mets (2)
13. New York Yankees (3)
14. Oakland Athletics (3)
15. Pittsburgh Pirates (2)
16. St Louis Cardinals
17. Toronto Blue Jays
18. Washington Nationals
19. New York Giants
20. New York Knickerbockers

Here are some photos of them (some aren't that great in quality)

Baseball caps: The trend

The cost of a good-shaped baseball cap these days are going up. For New Era's popular Baseball caps, the current recommended price has gone up to $34.99 just for one now. I have not purchased a baseball cap since March of this year. When I first started collecting baseball caps in 2004, the same ones (which were made of wool back then, now made of polyester) were only $25 a piece.

Here's a sample list of the average recommended prices for baseball caps

1. 2004 Fitted caps: $24.99. Adjustable caps: $16.99
2. 2007 Fitted caps: $29.99. Adjustable caps: $18.00
3. 2009 Fitted caps $31.00. Adjustable caps: $20
4. 2010 Fitted caps: $31.99. Adjustable caps: $21
5. 2011 Fitted caps: $34.99. Adjustable caps: $24

Now I'm not complaining about the rising prices of baseball caps, but I have seen the trend in which baseball caps have taken in the past few years since the years I have collected them. Back then the fitted caps were and still popular today, however, the prices have gone up, due to the material being used, from the switch from wool to polyester for Major League Baseball players.Here's another thing to watch out when purchasing baseball caps: Try to purchase them at stores, and make sure the caps are the real ones. Do not settle for fake caps, that sell for like $5-10 dollars. You'll know when the baseball cap is fake when:

1. The logo looks distorted, such as the MLB logo or team logo.
2. The Authentic sports sticker is not on the cap
3. The price looks too good to be true.

The real baseball caps can be purchased at:

1. Modell's
2. Dick's sporting goods
3. Foot Locker
4. New Era Flagship stores
5. General sports and clothing stores

Anyways, hope this helps.

Brighton/Coney Island Boardwalk surface change

If anyone has noticed walking along the Brighton Beach/Coney Island boardwalk, there are some changes to some parts of the surface. I took these photographs of the asphalt surfaces along the boardwalk last November. Isn't boardwalk surfaces supposed to be made of wood and nothing else? In my opinion I think it might help a little bit. The wooden planks were falling apart in some areas so repairing the boardwalk was a very good decision by the city's part. The asphalt surfaces will only be on small portions of the boardwalk in the southern tip of Brooklyn.

Anyways I'll get to the photographs now...

Note the surface differences.



Again, I have taken these photos last November, right now the construction work along this area has been completed.

World Trade Center site as of September 2011

The World Trade Center site has undergone some rebuilding during the 10 years after the attacks on the Two Buildings 10 years earlier. I took a visit to that site early this month. Here are some of the images taken from my digital camera. (I think I need a new one soon, but anyways enjoy these for now).

The Freedom tower (One World Trade Center) in the ongoing construction of the complex will be the tallest building when completed and memorials of where the original one and two World Trade Center buildings stood will be placed at the footprints of the towers.

As of this posting, the Freedom tower looks more than halfway done.

And here is the World Financial Center. The buildings visible are Two World Financial Center (round top) and Three World Financial Center (triangular top)

That's all for now.

long hiatus

Sorry for the long hiatus on this blog, I have been very busy with plenty of things this year. I'll get you up to date on what has gone on this year.

1. New York City has had a 13 day heat wave (I think it was that long)
2. Some parts of the city had to evacuate due to a Hurricane in late August, (flooding did happen in some parts of the city.

Anyways, I do apologize again, short entry, but at least it's better than nothing.

Buddy Operator Continued.

Your commute just becomes more fun when you have a friend behind the controls operating a train or bus, or at least a friend conducting the train movements. For me it is fun. You learn a lot from the transportation employees that you "hang out" with.

Last year I made over 30 friends working in the NYC Subway, and 20 people who operate buses in New York City. I feel like it's more than just to commute but in order to learn about the city and life around it, conversing with these workers would simply be the best option. Greeting your bus operator, train operator or conductor every time you board their train or bus with a simple hello would be a good way to start. That is how I started making friends with the workers. I don't get to do this all the time though because the bus/train operators may be busy helping with the other customers/commuters, or what ever you call them, movers.

The MTA of New York employees over 33,000 workers in New York City. Of course I can't be friends with all of them. That's a lot of employees. I don't expect my buddy operators to know all of them either, they can be anywhere in the five boroughs of New York City.

Buddy Operator

I have not written a blog entry here since August of last year.

2010 has been quite interesting for me in my travels. While I have been riding some buses and subways for fun, I have noticed a trend early in the year where some "commuters" were riding the bus or train with the same operator/conductor. I thought that was rather interesting. My first train operator buddy was a guy named Miguel who I met three years ago on the ravo line. He was operating a R-40 slant at the time from 145th Street to Brighton Beach. He kept his cab open as I watched him at the controls. That was a lot of fun.

December of last year, I had a B/O friend named Dominick who worked the bus route. I later bumped into him while taking the from school and he invited me on his (X29) bus to Manhattan.

Before this year, I had three T/Os and two B/Os as friends. This year I have about 30 RTO personnel as friends, with 20 of them working as train crew members, (15 of them as T/Os) I also have 10 bus operator friends who I tag along from time to time, mostly working on the express bus routes.

My train operator and train conductor friends that I have now work the and lines. While I live near the Brighton Beach Subway station, I also live around 15 minutes away from the Neptune Avenue station along the Culver Line and 20 minutes from the Coney Island Stillwell Avenue and station.

This year I have averaged at least one "tagging" trip per week with one train/bus operator friend, usually on the and lines, since they come by my area of residence, but I have also tagged along on the and the now defunct lines, as well as over 15 different bus routes in Manhattan and Brooklyn. In the summer, the most tagging trips per week was five in which some people criticized me as doing it "too excessively" in which they were right.

While tagging along with what I call them "buddy operators" or "buddy conductors" is fun and exciting, it's best not to do it too much because these "buddies" aren't going to be in a good mood all the time. Lots of things can stress them out such as traffic problems. I have seen them become agitated sometimes too.

Having these "buddy operators" brings in many advantages. They know you personally and they can assist you in many ways, not always in transit but in other areas of life like school, sports, family, etc. While this isn't my first year in having buddy ops, I'll say this is the best year since I made plenty of them.

Nothing makes commuting more exciting and fun than having a friend behind the controls of a train or bus. It has been for me throughout the year.