My bus shots around Midwood, Brooklyn

Just a few weeks ago, I saw some buses lying around, with no one to run them. Just for fun I decided to go shoot some shots!

RTS-06 on the B6



The C40LF on the B11
And some more from the other side!





The Orion V CNG belonging to Spring Creek depot of MTA Bus

And the Orion VII NG Hybrid with no name on it!





And a RTS 06 bus also with no name on it!



I hope you enjoyed!

Jennie Finch documentary and her friends

Jennie Finch of the NPF's Chicago Bandits (pitcher/first baseman) and a member of Team USA will have a documentary coming out soon, which is produced by MTV. So far this is an ongoing project that is currently rolling. No release date has been announced yet. However here is my scouting report on her best friends that will be featured on this documentary.

1. Brianna Glenn- Brianna is a track and fiend runner who specializes in the long jump. She has failed to make the 2008 US Olympic team, due to injury. She is currently traveling around the world. She will try to make the summer Olympic team again in 2012.
   
2. Bianca Juarez- Bianca is a teacher a preacher who believes in God and will do nothing but spread the word out. She generally makes speaking arrangements to give faith and to guide others in need.
3. Jasmine Star- A twin sister of Bianca, she is a professional photographer who specializes in photographing weddings. She is amongst the most popular photographers based out of California. Wedding photography is her profession.
   

I believe the documentary will focus on a variety of topics

1. High School in La Miranda California
2. Her softball career in the University of Arizona. Jennie does have 50 home runs in her career and has amassed over 1,000 strike outs, and 100 career victories in her tenure at Arizona. Her number 27 has been retired by that University
3. Her USA Softball team career. She has won two Olympic Medals one gold in 2004 in the victory against Austrailia, and a Silver medal win against Japan in 2008.
4. The attempt to bring back softball back in the Olympic Program, it has been knocked out of the 2016 games in Rio.

If you are looking for more information, I suggest you go read their blogs, and check out their blogs too while you are at it.


My So Called Fabulous Life by Brianna Glenn

In the Name of Love by Bianca Juarez

Jasmine Star Blog

If you are reading this from facebook.com, I can give you facebook fan pages for the corresponding blogs. These pros are looking for new feedback and new readers!


In the Name of Love

Jasmine Star

Jennie Finch has a fan page too:


Jennie Finch

Again, be on the lookout!

Thanks for reading, I write this because I find these bloggers and friends rather interesting, Trust me you might learn a thing or two from these blog writers. They really write blog entries that are worth reading!

Dancing with the stars!

I am glad ABC is back in Cablevison. I am watching the Academy awards right now, In the meantime here are the "Dancing with the Stars" lineup for the 2010 season. It was just revealed today!

1. Pamela Anderson (actress)
2. Nicole Sherzinger (Pussycat Dolls)
3. Kate Gosselin (Jon and Kate Plus Eight)
4. Chad Johnson OchoCinco (NFL Cincinnati Bengals)
5. Shannen Doherty (Beverly Hills 90210)
6. Erin Andrews (ESPN)
7. Aiden Turner (All My Children)
8. Niecy Nash (Reno 911)
9. Jake Pavelka (The Bachelor)
   

I got this courtesy of MTV.com

This show looks interesting!

Cablevision vs ABC, Look at this!

By ABC:

There's a secret Cablevision does not want you to know. You pay more than 500 million dollars a year for access to ABC7. Cablevision has been pocketing that money! But now rather than reaching a fair deal, Cablevision is letting subscribers lose ABC7 this weekend.

You Have Choices! Call Cablevision NOW and tell them LOSE MY SHOWS, LOSE MY BUSINESS!

March 3, 2010

In response to Cablevision’s ongoing campaign to mislead their consumers rather than focusing on reaching a fair agreement with ABC7 for retransmission consent, Rebecca S. Campbell, president and general manager, WABC-TV, has released the following statement:

It's time for Cablevision to stop spinning this issue and get serious about doing right by their customers. The fact is that, over and over again, Cablevision picks fights with programmers, and it is Cablevision subscribers who suffer the loss. The inconvenient truth about Cablevision is that it pockets hundreds of millions of dollars in subscriber fees each year by carrying ABC7. Dropping our station would be the latest insult. Their customers should know they have choices: They can switch service now and take their business to a provider that values them and isn't threatening them with the loss of programming every few months, or get us free-over-the-air.

ABC7 urges concerned Cablevision viewers to tell Cablevision Lose my Shows, Lose my Business by calling 1-877-990-ABC7 or visiting www.saveABC7.com

Cablevision claims they want to resolve this issue and not subject their customers to the loss of ABC7. However all of their offers have been designed to be rejected. For two years WABC has been working in good faith to try and reach an agreement that acknowledges the station's value financially and as a key resource to the community. This is value Cablevision already charges their customers up to $18 each month for access to. It is value they further recognize in their own channels such as Sundance, which they charge other cable and satellite operators to carry. It is patently unfair and unsustainable for Cablevision to pay fees to less popular channels and to pay fees to its own channels, while refusing to pay reasonable value to the most watched and most community-involved channel in New York.

About WABC
WABC-TV, Channel 7, the most watched local television station in the United States, serves more than 7.4 million television households in 29 counties covering New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. For more than 60 years, ABC7 has consistently been the leader in local news and local and national entertainment programming.

-- ABC --

And this is Cablevision's version of this dispute:

• ABC's parent company has pulled the plug on WABC-7 and is demanding that Cablevision and its customers pay millions of dollars in new fees. Cablevision has asked ABC to continue delivering WABC-7 while we negotiate, but instead ABC is holding Cablevision customers hostage by pulling its programming.
• It is wrong that ABC pulled the plug on WABC-7 as a negotiating tactic, and we are not alone in this point of view. Over 70 elected officials at the local, state and federal level, including U.S. Senator John Kerry, have urged ABC to return WABC-7 to our viewers while we negotiate a fair agreement.
• Cablevision already pays ABC's parent company more than $200 million per year for its cable channels, including ESPN and ABC Family. Now ABC wants $40 million more in fees for WABC-7, a 20 percent fee increase for exactly the same programming.
• In these difficult and challenging economic times, it is not fair for ABC to force Cablevision and its customers to pay tens of millions of dollars in new fees, what amounts to a new TV tax, for the same programming that is available today for free over the air and on the Internet.
• It is wrong for ABC to demand $40 million in new fees, which is nothing more than a new TV tax, to help pay the salaries and bonuses for top ABC executives.
• We have been able to reach agreements with every other broadcast network, including CBS, NBC, Fox and Univision. We have offered to pay ABC as much, or more than, what we pay these networks. ABC has rejected this offer and every offer we've made thus far.
• While we work to return WABC-7 to the lineup, you can watch WABC-7 free over the air by obtaining a digital TV antenna from your local consumer electronics store.
• Or, you can watch almost all of ABC's prime time programming free on the Internet at hulu.com or abc.com.

Who's side are you on, I think ABC sucks! Seriously I am a cable customer and I really dislike this back and forth bickering between tv companies and broadcasters. We viewers are being held hostage by this situation. Looks like I won't be watching the Academy awards tonight. I can care less. I don't really have any favorite movies from this past year anyways!

Adventures and school

I would like to talk about school, and the importance of getting the highest grade possible towards your degree. That is what I'm doing right now.

So here are a few things that are on my mind:

If you are currently enrolled in school, that earns you a degree, keep up the good grades, having bad ones can mean dire consequences, and expulsion can happen.

I feel like those academically struggling can use a little help but I think this is more of a self-motivating thing to do well academically.

What's so different from grade school (elementary-high) is that there's more freedom, however time management is so crucial between success and failure in school.

There is this term Academic probation and students land on it if their grade point average falls below retention standards, (senior schools, it's 2.0, usually lower for community schools) Students who don't improve their academic status will eventually face expulsion.

I know keeping up the good grades is more of a common sense thing, however circumstances may prevent one from doing well in classes.

Study habits are important too, it can make a big difference between passing and failing. For example, when you have material coming from lectures and discussion courses, it's best to study them now, rather than cram it just a few days before the exam. I had the habit of cramming for exams and it killed me academically. I hope you don't make the same mistake as I did.

Reading the textbook. Don't just skim it, or look for short versions like "Cliff Notes". Those won't help you here. You must try to read the textbooks thoroughly and carefully. Take notes of the most important points. It will help you in the long run. Making outlines for your readings will help you too.

Here is my short list for doing well and getting the highest grades you can achieve

1. Attend every class: Too many absences can result in failure. If you don't attend, you can't participate, you can't take notes, and the instructor will have to mark you absent. Absences are the reasons people fail.
2. Be organized: Papers, pens, books, folders are helpful in organization. Use one notebook for each class or use dividers to separate notes for your three ring binder. Take some phone numbers from your classmates in case you need help or if you miss an important part of the lesson.
   
3. Time management: Study time, recreation, work, etc, time for all those must be balanced. This plays an important role in preparing for exams and projects.
   
4. Take good notes: Good note-taking, especially in lectures will help you do well, and these can be helpful for studying for exams.
   
5. Read a textbook effectively: Take notes to jot down the most important points of the textbook, most likely the terms will be reviewed.
   
6. Prepare for exams: Do not just start studying just a few days before the exam starts (that's cramming) In fact, when your first lesson begins, study it carefully and do the same for each upcoming lesson or lecture, and go over it daily. This helps you retain more information.
   
7. Help centers: If you having trouble with class, go to your instructor, a tutor, or a academic adviser for help in classes. They really know their material very well.
8. Study effectively: Find a quiet room to spend roughly two hours studying your material. For every three hours on one class, two of them are usually spent studying on your own. You probably didn't do this in high school!
   
9. Keep pace: If you start having those grades drop, go seek help or change your study habits. If your grades are high, keep them there, if they are low, make them higher in the next exam, assignment, and or project.
10. Exams: Exams play a huge role in determination of grades, do well and you'll be fine, do bad and watch your grade suffer.

Some things to point out during school life:

1. Classes may very in size, you may have from 15 students to as much as 100 in one classroom.
   
2. Critical thinking skills are required to do good in classes. When you read, you must be able to recall important points.
3. While Exams make up the big portion on your grade, homework does make very little, but they prepare you for exams.
4. Low grades can lead to a loss in financial aid, probationary status, disciplinary action and expulsion.
5. Most of the learning (I specified this earlier) is mostly done on your own, you should expect to spend hours reading, doing assignments and studying the material.
6. If you have computer work, save it on a disk. I highly recommend memory flash drive sticks because they can store as much as 2-8g of memory.
   
7. Returned papers, quizzes, and exams can be your help in studying for other exams and projects, it's best to keep them safe, even if the grades are low.
8. Phone numbers and e-mail addresses from classmates are a great way to keep in touch with others, so you can keep tabs on work.
9. Neat and organized space, prepare to study in a desk or table, when doing assignments.
   
10. Plan ahead for upcoming schoolwork, that way you don't have to stress when time is running short.
    
11. Adapt to different instructors, there are different teaching styles, get used to them quickly.
12. Prepare for each class by doing readings, assignments, and research beforehand. If you don't you'll be lost.
13. Communicate with your instructors, they can be your friends too, you know. They find their jobs enjoyable if students are more engaging.
14. Be on time. If your are late too much, your grade drops.
15. Participate, it helps, spread the word out.
    
16. If you work in groups, be active and take an role. If you are doing nothing, the group suffers too, not just you!
17. Take notes and recognize important information: Instructors place a big emphasis on them.
18. Read, read, and read some more. You may not understand the readings the first time, go read it again and take notes of the topics that you may not have looked thoroughly the first time.
19. Memorize important information! This is helpful especially if you have to memorize formulas in mathematics, or terms in history class. Use flash cards with the formula and answers in each side.
20. When writing paper assignments, be clear and concise. Proofread your paper or have someone do it for you, just don't have your helper write the paper for you.
21. Answering essay questions require that you address all aspects: Brainstorming helps too.
    
22. For every math question that you bump into solve the problem and check. Do not spend too much time on one problem. You must show all work in math problems, just the answer alone won't give you full credit. Partial credit for wrong answers is given out too.
23. Open Book tests give you the advantage of looking through your notes, however they require you to look at information quickly.
    
24. Test anxiety: Study early, often and relax. Don't beat yourself up if you didn't do good in the previous exams, maintain your self-esteem.

One thing to stress: Plagiarism! Do not be tempted to do it. If you cheat in exams and papers, there are disciplinary actions that can be taken against you and you'll eventually face expulsion! Do your own work instead!

That's it for this post!

ABC off the air for Cablevision!?

This is one of those he said she said moments on cable TV. ABC, ESPN, Disney Channel, and all the other ABC/ESPN network channels will be cut off the air on March 7, unless a deal is reached. Apparently ABC is demanding a $40,000,000 increase so they can carry the channels while Cablevision refuses to add this "tax" to their subscribers. I watch ESPN more often than ABC, however, this is getting ridiculous. If you are a cablevision subscriber, then you are being affected by this change:

Here's more info taken from cablevision.com/abc

• ABC is threatening to pull the plug on WABC-7 unless Cablevision and its customers agree to pay millions of dollars in new fees. Cablevision has asked ABC to continue delivering WABC-7, but instead ABC is holding Cablevision customers hostage by threatening to pull its programming.
• In these difficult and challenging economic times, it is not fair for ABC to force Cablevision and its customers to pay what amounts to a new TV tax for the same programming that is available today for free over the air and on the Internet.
• Cablevision already pays ABC's parent company more than $200 million per year to carry its channels; now ABC wants a 20 percent fee increase for exactly the same programming.
• It is wrong for ABC to demand $40 million in new fees to help pay the salaries and bonuses for top ABC executives.
• Cablevision has tried in good faith to reach a fair agreement with ABC. In fact, top Cablevision executives traveled to ABC offices in California earlier this month, and had lengthy face-to-face meetings this week in Bethpage and New York City. We have made numerous proposals, all of which have been rejected.
• Programs you won't be watching include:NBA Basketball, MLB Baseball, Dancing with the Stars, etc.

This isn't fun, really, but what can we do about it?

Send this message:
Dear ABC:
Now is not the time to demand a $40 million annual rate increase!

Tell ABC not to take their channel off Cablevision and negotiate a deal that is fair for everyone!

That is all.

Happy March and another blizzard recap.

Hello, everyone.

Today is the first day of March, and it's on a Monday. Spring is right around the corner so we don't have to be wearing such heavy coats and knit caps anymore, (if you have been living in the cold days). Unfortunately for the residents of the east coast, there has been another storm that has blanketed cities for as much as one foot of snow, and some slush. The weather has been up and down in New York.

I have some photos from the 2nd blizzard to hit Brooklyn in the last month of February.


I'm actually standing in the middle of the street, luckily no cars came my way.
The buses still run.




...and so do the subways.
The snow plow.
That's me with the camera looking at a mirror glass wall.
The snowmen are at the boardwalk.


Here are more shots of them.




Believe it or not, the sun still shines.

Let's hope there is more sunshine along the way.