Goes to Twelve

Video: Grand Army Jazz

Mark — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 00:02:14 +0000

Now that I’ve got one of those fancy new iPhones, I find myself using the video recording feature almost daily. Finally I’m able to capture all of those random moments that define the New York experience. Here’s the first of many: jazz and dancing in Grand Army Plaza, right outside the Brooklyn Public Library:

Let Freedom Ring (from the Seoul 2004 Weblog Vaults)

Mark — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 20:33:50 +0000

Washington, DC - July 4, 2009

Happy Independence Day, friends. While thinking about this holiday and what it means to me, personally, I remembered the post I wrote on this day in 2004, when I was living in Seoul and missing home a lot. At the time, we were pretty worried about where our country was headed–and that was without a horrible economic downturn. Today, as we are still mired in war, recession, and political bickering, I found that these words that I wrote six years ago still ring true.

I hope this give you some food for thought–and some inspiration to stay in the fight to save our country.

On behalf of all the expats here, I’d like to wish everyone at home a happy Independence Day. Allow me to take this opportunity to share my thoughts on our great nation.

America is a great country. Not because our people are more industrious, more talented, nicer, or better than everyone else; not because God decided to bless America more than any other country. No, America is a great country simply because for me (and for the majority of my readers) it is home.

America is where I was born, where I grew up, and where I will grow old. It is where my family and my friends live. It is where my sons and daughters will live. And no matter how acclimated I will get to Korean culture and the Korean language, I know will never be able to feel as comfortable here, or anywhere else for that matter, as I would in America.

I am an American. I love baseball, rock and roll, college football, cheap beer, and hamburgers. So do a lot of other Americans. This may sound superficial, or at least heinously obvious, but I really like being around people that I have a lot in common with. In other words, I like being around Americans.

That being said, I am certainly enjoying this cross-cultural experience, and I feel like I will be the better person for it after I’m done. But I will also certainly come to appreciate the things back home that most of us take for granted. The diversity, for example. Jews, Italians, Asians, Blacks, Hispanics–they’re everywhere in the states (or at least where I went to school). Here, there are…Koreans. A lot of them. Okay, I live with a lot of Japanese people, but the diversity that one experiences in America is truly unique and certainly something that I miss.

I know a lot of things are wrong with America right now–Americans make headlines these days for being obese on a horrifying scale, performing poorly in school, and abusing prisoners in Iraq. The country is about to split itself in two during the upcoming Presidential election in what promises to be a bitter, polarized campaign.

Still, it is home. It’s the only one I have, and I love it for all its good and bad. My fellow Americans (whoo, there’s a doozy! I sound like a politician. But I know not all of my readers are U.S. citizens. But I digress), on this day, our nation’s birthday, I hope you find it in yourself to love your country, if for no other reason than because it is your home too, and it needs your help now more than ever.

They say you can’t go home again. I hope they’re wrong.

Happy Fourth of July. God bless America.

Photo: Bike on the Docks

Mark — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 23:42:09 +0000

I took this picture today in Red Hook. There’s this great park next to the Ikea on the water that repurposes old docks as public space. That’s my bike beneath the steel behemoth:

Nationalism is a funny thing.

Mark — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 04:19:33 +0000

Say what you will about Koreans and their parochialism; they sure know how to come together as a country:

Korean soccer fans in Seoul, South Korea. Source: New York Times World Cup Coverage

Tour de Brooklyn – June 6, 2010

Mark — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 03:12:55 +0000

Last week I had the pleasure of participating in the second annual “Tour de Brooklyn.” It’s not a bike race; it’s a group ride sponsored by Transportation Alternatives, a nonprofit that advocates for bike/pedestrian/transit friendly policy.

And by “group ride,” I mean about 2,500 bike riders:

Bikes as far as the eye can see! It was pretty intense riding with such a large group, both due to congestion but also due to the angry motorists who crossed paths with the Tour. We had partial police escort, which drivers obviously respected, but they were less keen on respecting the authority of the volunteer marshalls who had to do a bulk of the traffic enforcement. It was certainly an interesting case study in human behavior towards authority and New Yorkers’ behavior towards anything that slows them down by even a little bit.

As you can see by this map, the tour went through many busy Brooklyn neighborhoods:

I emerged unscathed at the end of the 18 mile ride and scored a snazzy t-shirt:

Cyclists: if you ever get the chance to do something like this, I highly encourage it.

Photos: Prospect Park, Brownstones at Sunset

Mark — Sun, 16 May 2010 05:34:12 +0000

May 16, 2010, was a lovely spring day in Park Slope, Brooklyn:

Baseball in Prospect Park. The game as God meant it to be played: under a gorgeous blue sky, on crisp green grass, flanked by majestic leafy trees. Love it.

Prospect Park Lake. I live a 15 minute walk away from this beauty. I’m a lucky guy.

Looking west down 9th Street from Prospect Park West. I love how the last sunlight of the day kisses the architectural accents on top of the row houses.

The soft light of sunset lights up the brownstones on 9th Street between 7th and 8th Avenue. I see almost this every non-cloudy day, and it never gets old.

One last look at brownstones at sunset on 9th Street.

Recently, statistician Nate Sliver devised a complex methodology for ranking quality of life in New York City neighborhoods, and Park Slope, Brooklyn, came out on top. Which is all fine and good, but I think these pictures say far more about what it’s like to live here than any dataset possibly could.

Brooklyn Bridge Park – From Above and Within

Mark — Tue, 11 May 2010 04:53:19 +0000

Two different views of the new Brooklyn Bridge Park:

The first is from the lawn, looking at the Bridge…

…and the second is from the bridge itself, looking down upon the lawn:

It’s a curious yet wonderful oasis of green amidst the stone, concrete, and water. It’s so rare that we get a brand new public space like this here in NYC that it’s quite the experience to step into the lawn for the first time and take in a view that didn’t exist until a few weeks ago.

Macbook Pro: 4+ years, still ticking

Mark — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 00:17:08 +0000

A few months ago, I noted how unusual it was that my current computer, a 2006 Macbook Pro, was already 3.5 years old. Prior to this one, I’d become so accustomed to replacing computers every other year due to obsolescence, hardware failure, some combination of both.

On April 6, 2010, the Macbook Pro officially reached the 4 year mark. And though it’s received two significant upgrades since then, for the most part, it handles everything I can throw at it. That includes Photoshop, some occasional video editing in Final Cut Pro and sound recording in Logic Express. Sure, a newer machine could do all of these things faster, but at least my machine can do them.

All of this is to say that I’m impressed that a 4 year old computer isn’t a totally obsolete piece of junk. It helps that I bought something fairly top of the line at the time, but I think most of the credit goes to Apple and the solid platform it’s created with its Intel Macs and Mac OS X.

Upon further reflection, I’m also frankly amazed that I’ve managed not to spill anything on it or lose it over those 4 years.

Here are the specs, for those interested in that sort of thing:

Processor: Intel Core Duo, 1.83 GHz
Memory: 1 GB RAM, upgraded to 2 GB
Graphics: ATI Radeon X1600, 128 MB VRAM
Storage: 80 GB hard drive, upgraded to 500 GB

The DVD burner was DOA, and I’ve had two batteries fail on me, but other than that, I haven’t had any significant issues with it.

So thanks, Macbook Pro, for 4 awesome years of computing. I hope there’s at least one or two more years left in the tank.

Photo Album: Family in Golden, CO

Mark — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 19:22:45 +0000

I was in Golden, CO, in mid-March for my niece Maren Wall’s baptism. I’m happy to report that Maren and her parents are doing great!

These pictures are from Golden, CO, and nearby Boulder, CO.

New Music: Ke$ha Sings the Blues

Mark — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 03:59:39 +0000

This track dropped a few weeks ago on Overthinking It, but I wanted to make sure it got proper coverage on my blog as well.

Put simply, it’s the unholy love child of throw-away pop star Ke$ha and blues legend Muddy Waters:

Listen to it here:

“Tik Tok (Blues Version)”

Full disclosure: all instrumental sounds came from a prepackaged GarageBand backing track. But I take full credit/blame for the singing.