Friday, December 26, 2014

While The House Slept...

 Since I'm usually the first one up in the household, I took the opportunity to record what the house looked like on Christmas morning, bright and early.
 Well, well, well.  Santa has been here!
 A bike and workbench for Troy.
 A car ramp and bike for Teo.
 Holiday cards on the bar.


Presents under the tree.



 Stockings hung on the fireplace, guarded by ninjas.

 Zander, do you remember giving us this?  It is still on our fridge.
And now,  time for the house to awake...

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

GSV World Glimpse: San Diego Skaterz

 I was looking at Google Street View to research airport parking (it changes often) when I came across these frames of a group of teen skaters coming down the hill.
 It was an interesting glimpse into their world, the way they dress, the packs they run in.
 It basically is a way for young teen males to rebel.



 This guy has the rebel look down.  Backwards cap, cigarette, ripped jeans, long hair.










GSV World Glimpses - First Posting

 Sometimes when a world event happens, I will hop on Google Street View to examine the circumstances, or at least the landscape, around that event.  Today, I've decided to start sharing what I find on my blog.  This is the first of what may become a regular posting:  GSV World Glimpses.

Today's topic:  the murder of NYC officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu.  On the surface, this appears to be caused by the police/black youth deaths making headlines, but closer examination shows it really was just the work of a mentally unstable person who used that as cover.

To those of us not from the area where the event took place, it is easy to conjure up dark pictures in our mind of the neighborhood.  I won't pass judgement on whether or not the neighborhood is desireable, but will show a few glimpses into it.
 Here is the corner where the officers were murdered.  The Durango behind the red SUV is the rough location where the police car sat.
 A close shot of that same location.
 A typical street scene about two blocks away.

It should be noted that virtually everyone - including residents in this neighborhood - where shocked and condemn the actions of the mentally unstable gunman.
 Also about two blocks away, local kids playing in water on a hot summer day.   This must be a fairly typical occurrence in NYC because I've run across scenes like this in NYC with GSV though I don't look at NYC that often.
 Also about two blocks away.  A father holding the hand of his son while checking traffic to cross the street mid-block.  Families in urban areas are no different that families in rural or suburban areas.
 A closer look.  Note the store in the background.  Many signs in the windows say "I heart big cans.".   Classy.
 In the other direction about a block from the original corner.  The shiny metal fence drew my attention.  Why was it placed there?  Across the street to the right is a housing project.  Could the owner have grown tired of loiterers?
 Man is that fence shiny and ornate!
 Another view yields a potential other explanation.  Note that is neighbor to the left may use the curb drop in front of the rightmost home to drive up to their unit, since there is not a curb drop in front of their house.  Perhaps the rightmost unit grew tired of cars angled over onto their property.  Just a guess.
 Another interesting thing: the far left unit appears to be in progress building their own fence!
 Up it goes!
 Could it be a similar situation?  The curb drop is in front of his house, possibly used by his neighbor and causing cars to angle into his area?  Or perhaps that basketball goal was drifting onto his property?
 Working away.
Turning the camera to the left and looking up the street.  The building on the left side of this shot is a school.

Again, I'm not making any judgements good or bad about the area.  Just giving the rest of America a glimpse into the spot where a major event took place.

Monday, December 1, 2014