Tag: Brooklyn

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Alma Mater Is In The News Again

Looks like I’ve got some street cred, yo. I graduated from one of the 12 toughest schools in New York City.

“We are cracking down on the schools with the worst safety records,” said Michael R. Bloomberg. “They will be getting more police officers and a top to bottom review of all safety and disciplinary procedures.” …”
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The Impact Schools are as follows: Evander Childs, Adlai Stevenson and Christopher Columbus High Schools in the Bronx; South Shore, Canarsie, Thomas Jefferson, Sheepshead Bay, Franklin K. Lane High Schools in Brooklyn; Washington Irving High School in Manhattan; and Far Rockaway High School in Queens. Two Bronx middle schools, JHS-22 and IS-222, were also included.
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How I Went Fishing With Michael Pryor

Ok, since I started ranting about fishing, here’s a good story.

I went fishing once with Michael Pryor, whom you might know as the president of Fog Creek Software. We went on the Dorothy B VIII for a half day of fluke fishing.

The trip wasn’t going well. The boat was a bit crowded, there was an obnoxious redneck with a loud kid right next to us. And neither of us were catching anything. Well, actually I caught two really big skates. But skates are not fun to catch. It was still nice to be able to get some fresh air, fish and talk, but I was afraid Michael was regretting taking the train all the way from Manhattan to Sheepshead Bay for that.

Exactly the second the captain announced “lines up, let’s go home” Michael got a bite. And caught the biggest damn fluke on the entire boat, effectively winning the pool for the biggest fish. Fishing on that boat for years, I never caught a fluke that big.

The secret, is of course luck, but in addition, we were both fishing with a special kind of a bucktail called the Atomic Bullet. A bucktail is a sinker with a hook attached to it. I never liked those, but I’ve been hearing that the biggest flukes were caught on that. And it looks like that’s true. I’ll be using those this season.

P.S. If you know of any good fishing blogs, please let me know.

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Brooklyn College Pictures

I had to wake up early today to get to the speech class that is held at the ungodly hour of 9 AM. On Sunday. Sadists. It was raining. Brooklyn streets were foggy and smelled of jasmine tea for some reason. Ok, I did have jasmine tea yesterday, but I could not smell any on myself. The fog definitely smelled of jasmine tea. And sea.

I’ve had some espresso at Michael’s bakery on R and Nostrand and took a bus to Brooklyn College. Some pictures had to be taken.

A Jellyfish From Outer Space or a Manhole Cover? You Decide.

Brooklyn College officials like to spend money on infrastructure. About six years ago, I remember, they purchased these really expensive, but nice ashtrays.

The ashtrays came with these garbage urns. This is Brooklyn College La Guardia tower reflecting in the top of such an urn. Note the uglorific purple color. That’s the official school color. Maybe, some time in this century, I’ll get to wear a robe of that color.

The cupola of the nearby Midwood High School.

Even the storm drains are pretty.

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Need To Move

My rent is up and I am completely fed up with the building where I live. I definitely need to move.

The real-estate market is at it’s peak, and buying now is probably stupid. Still, I am looking.

How about this? Nice, huh? And just 245K.

Seriously though, does anyone know a good realtor (actually it’s Realtor® , but I hate them so much.. ) in Sheepshead Bay?

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View From the “Office” of Deadprogrammer


One thing that I see daily from the scratched window of my mobile “office” is the Clock Tower Building. Basically it’s a building in a neighborhood called DUMBO (a cutesy acronym for “Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass”). Many recently formed New York neighborhoods have cutsy acronym names. Like SoHo copycats NoLita (North of Little Italy) and NoHo (North of Houston). They remind me of dying internet consulting companies Scient, Viant and Sapient and probably already dead members of Politburo Zaikov, Slunkov and Vorotnikov (they were always mentioned together).

Clock Tower or Clocktower building used to be called “Gair Building No. 7” after Robert Gair, inventor of the corrugated cardboard box.

The building has a unique feature – a penthouse apartment with windows in a form of a clock. Which actually shows time.

The view from there is amazing. I think it’s a bargain at 4 million bucks.

I’ve rented my apartment sight unseen after the asshole real-estate agent showed me another apartment in the same building which had an OK view of Brooklyn. What I didn’t realize was that my apartment was facing another building. Yeah, I am a sucker for views.