Another memory of my New Brunswick Days

About two years ago I posted about my days living in New Brunswick, NJ from 1974-76. Today on Facebook Trevor Dawes, a librarian at Princeton University, posted this article from the New York Times about the Delaware and Raritan Canal. Back then I lived at the Colony House right by the Landing Lane Bridge. The Delaware and Raritan Canal passd right by the building. I would drive to differents points on the canal and hiked for hours at a time. I often met my chemist friend Irv Rabinowitz for hikes. All those years ago we both worked at Rhodia. I last saw Irv at an American Chemical Society meeting in 1981.

Bob Dylan Bootleg Series #9 to be released in October

Rolling Stone magazine reports Bob Dylan will release the latest edition of his bootleg series plus a massive collection of reissues of his earliest albums. The 47 track set will feature Witmark and Leeds demos.

The Met Bats finally come alive - Beat Cards 8-2

Last night's game was part of our 6-pack. The Mets came off a dreadful 2-9 west coast trip, but it seemed like the friendly confines of Citifield did the Mets some good. The hitting attack featured a 3 run home run by Jeff Francoeur and a two run homer by Jose Reyes. Jonathan Niese was the winning pitcher.

Box Score

The Web Means the End of Forgetting by Jeffrey Rosen

Instead of reading the magazine section of the Sunday New York Times on the train to work, I read it in Alley Pond Park today since I am on staycation. The cover article titled The Web Means the End of Forgetting really piqued my interest. It is written by Jeffrey Rosen, a law professor at George Washington University. The articles discusses the fact the posts on Facebook, Twitter, and personal blogs may be impossible to erase and what is written there may adversely effect someone for years to come. I must admit that I have been guilty of a few minor indiscretions in what I have posted. I try to be careful, but I do make mistakes. I would like to discuss a few specific points made in this article.

Below is the first paragraph of the article:

"Four years ago, Stacy Snyder, then a 25-year-old teacher in training at Conestoga Valley High School in Lancaster, Pa., posted a photo on her MySpace page that showed her at a party wearing a pirate hat and drinking from a plastic cup, with the caption “Drunken Pirate.” After discovering the page, her supervisor at the high school told her the photo was “unprofessional,” and the dean of Millersville University School of Education, where Snyder was enrolled, said she was promoting drinking in virtual view of her under-age students. As a result, days before Snyder’s scheduled graduation, the university denied her a teaching degree. Snyder sued, arguing that the university had violated her First Amendment rights by penalizing her for her (perfectly legal) after-hours behavior. But in 2008, a federal district judge rejected the claim, saying that because Snyder was a public employee whose photo didn’t relate to matters of public concern, her “Drunken Pirate” post was not protected speech. "

Thus anyone who is actively looking for a job must be especially about what he/she puts on the web. People like myself with a unique name can be very easily "Googled". I do understand that people do have a life outside of work and some silliness reported on the web is acceptable. Someone may see this journal and strike up a conversation with me about Bob Dylan. I am now very careful about my privacy settings on Facebook. Everything can only be seen by my Friends. I really should cull my friends list and delete people that I don't really know.

I will just copy one more paragraph and comment:

But if we can’t control what others think or say or view about us, we can control our own reaction to photos, videos, blogs and Twitter posts that we feel unfairly represent us. A recent study suggests that people on Facebook and other social-networking sites express their real personalities, despite the widely held assumption that people try online to express an enhanced or idealized impression of themselves. Samuel Gosling, the University of Texas, Austin, psychology professor who conducted the study, told the Facebook blog, “We found that judgments of people based on nothing but their Facebook profiles correlate pretty strongly with our measure of what that person is really like, and that measure consists of both how the profile owner sees him or herself and how that profile owner’s friends see the profile owner.”

I have been on the Internet since 1992 and strongly believe that you don't know a person until you have met face to face. I have known people who have sent nasty and crude e-mails, but in person are quite timid. The opposite is likely true at times. When you see a complete profile, you can view what a person does and even see many pictures of the person in action. But that is still not the full story about the person. There have been many misunderstandings through electronic only communication.

I highly recommend that readers of Bruce's Journal see this entire article from the New York Times.

Another Sunday Afternoon at Flushing Town Hall

Today Adichie and The Afro Jungle Jazz Band and Dancers was the featured artist at Flushing Town Hall . I never heard African Jazz before, so this performance was something new for me. Before the concert there were dance lessons. I was never much of a dancer so I took a pass. From there were took a drive over to Applebees in Bayside for dinner.

These are certainly bad days for the New York Mets. The just completed a road trip where they lost 9 out of 11 on the west coast. They were shut out in 4 of those games. Hopefully, the trip back home will do them some good.

Thoughts on a Very Hot Saturday

I went out with Lee to Cunningham Park at 8 AM to play basketball before it got too hot. When we got home we decided to see Inception with Leonardo DiCaprio. He is an excellent actor, but the film was somewhat confusing. We were thinking about attending a rally by the Mitchell-Linden Civic Association which was against overdevelopment in downtown Flushing. I would have liked to have gone, but it was just too hot. We got home to see the end of the Yankee game as they lost 7-4. Alex Rodriguez did not get his 600th career home run. I didn't turn on the Met game until 5 PM, but it was a big oy vey as they lost to the Dodgers 3-2 in the 13th inning. James Loney had a walk off home run off Oliver Perez. How could the Mets pay this guy $36 million over 3 years. He is bad news. I think they should get rid of him and eat the contract.

There should be Free Parking at State Parks

For the first time in over two years I drove out to Hempstead Lake State Park in Nassau County to do my regular Friday summer hike. I pulled my usual "stunt" and parked on a side street about 1/4 mile away. This summer the parking rate for New York State Parks went up to $8. Regular park users can buy a seasonal pass. I could see paying that if I was going to be in the park for several hours for a family picnic. It is just not worth it for just me to walk around for 2 hours.

When I arrived at 9:30 AM the tennis courts were full. I assume many of them were season pass holders. When I left the park about 11:30, the park was almost empty. There are usually school buses with day campers at that time. If a passenger car must pay $8, how much does a school bus have to pay? Does the high cost of parking keep people away from parks?