My Stuff

There's stuff and then there's STUFF.

Lots of stuff comes from the things that 'make you.' I grew up in Brooklyn on the Grand Army Plaza and I lived in what I still believe is an enchanted place.

Brooklyn Museum of Art

Within walking distance from where I grew up is the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the second largest in the city with a collection of 1.5 million pieces of artwork and a world reknown collection of Egyptian Art. I was less than a year old when I paid my first visit and when I was around 4 when I learned how to say Tutankamen. Recently, the entire Egyptian Collection was reinstalled. Divided chronologically into 3 rooms, there are computers with interactive programs running so that visitors can find out more about different aspects of the installations. The New York Times gave Brooklyn really high marks for this work. You can read their Review of the Egyptian Collection entitled "Fit for a Pharoah." The first Saturday of every month from 5 to 10 PM, the museum is open with no admission charge. I go several times a year. Brooklyn mounts exhibits that are as compelling as they are controversial. In the entrance of one exhibit hall is a history of the museum. Sitting on the original board of what began as the Brooklyn Institute was Booker T. Washington. The Brooklyn Museum was the first in America to display African objects as art. On the left is a male Papua figure and on the right the museum's fabulous Rotunda. I pulled both of these from the museum website.

The Japanese Cherry trees in Washington DC are truly beautiful...but here comes the Brooklyn Botanic Garden right next door to the museum.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden

The picture on the left is as up close and personal as I can get to a cherry blossom in May. Pale pink with tissue paper thin petals, Brooklyn has 80 cherry trees arranged in two rows of 40 trees each called Cherry Walk. When the blossoms start falling off the trees, it looks like you are walking in piles of 'pink.' To reach the Garden and see what is blooming when click Brooklyn Botanic Garden

The Gardens are open free on Tuesdays all day and on Saturdays from 10 to 12.

Web Photo Album

Click here to view my photos of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. Click on the first thumbnail to begin the show. Then close the window to return to this page.

Leave the Garden walk one block to the central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, and across the street to Prospect Park and the Zoo. I told you this is an enchanted place.

Prospect Park Zoo

I took this photo on the right in the Prospect Park Zoo very early in the morning during a citywide bike tour in October. This is where the seals live and if you look carefully you can see one of them in the center.

The photo below was taken on the same day at the entrance to the zoo.

After moving to the suburbs, I joyfully returned to New York City and graduated from New York University. I believe it was a Bruce Springsteen song that has the lines "I went out for a ride and I never looked back." I am still riding... As an alumnus, I am active in the NYU Sports Centers - Jerome S. Coles and the Palladium. By me, swimming is like a religion.

My Software

I own more software than should be legally allowed.

Thing is once I own software, I go out and learn it. Usually I poke around for awhile and then I go out and take courses. The best place I have found to learn software is the New School University. I work very hard at graphics packages, the palettes are overwhelming to me and I always seem to sit next to someone who takes two mouse clicks and re-creates Rembrandt.

Fun with Graphics

For graphics, Adobe rules, it is that simple. If you are a photographer and can't afford Photoshop, that's fine. Photoshop Elements has about 60% of full blown Photoshop and yes the learning curve is there, but it is nowhere as steep as Photoshop and the pricetag is less than $100. Photoshop Album organizes photos hundreds, thousands or however many you have. There are creation templates that are intuitive enough for a rank amateur and it is just plain FUN. Adobe consistently beats out every competitor at every price with every product. I made this card and started a calendar with photos from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and a couple of mouse clicks.

PIM - Personal Information Manager

Everybody in the world turns ghost white and tells me I'm a lunatic - I use Microsoft Outlook as my PIM and nothing beats it. Unlike Yahoo or Hotmail, I enter data into Outlook without being online. I synch it seamlessly with my Palm and have all my appointments, contacts, and notes in the same place. Because Outlook is the corporate email package of choice, every virus writer in the world tries to take out Outlook - pardon the pun. I just keep my virus signatures up to date and I watch reliable sources for virus outbreaks.

Protect Yourself

An all-in-one package I really love is System Suite from V-Comm. Its excellent virus protection is easier to use than both McAffee and Symantec's plus its firewall works very well. What I really like is the cleanup, uninstall, and maintenance tools. The interface is simple and the cleanup tools safely scrub the hard drive clean. Tremendous tool for newbies to power users.

I don't base all my opinions on hearsay or what my clients or friends or other geeks tell me. The links listed below are publications that I follow religiously either online or in print to investigate any product before I buy it. Making mistakes is just so costly - not only in terms of dollars but productivity as well.

Cnet

PC World

PC Magazine

My Computers

I own a Gateway desktop and a Gateway laptop. What I like about buying a Gateway is I can shop at the Union Square Country Store. Planning my machines takes time and I really like to think about the purpose for each machine. Should the laptop be a mirror image of the desktop or be a 'little sis' to the desktop? Which programs are best suited for each and what will I actually use as opposed to being 'nice' to have. It is 'normal' for me to run up a half a dozen configurations before I decide what to buy.

Click the logo to visit Gateway

I also try and figure out what I am going to learn or accomplish during the lifetime of the machine. That made the desktop really difficult. I ended up doing a 'Burger King' on it - everything customized from the video card, to the speakers, to the monitor. Operating system was a big issue for me...I was not going to have any 'home' OS or 98 on the machine. I paid for it but Windows NT was the right choice. When the time came, I wiped the drive, then split it into two drives and installed Windows 2000. I used PowerQuest Drive Image to create a base image of the C drive to store on the D drive. Then I burned CDs of the image as a backup. If anything ever happens, I can restore the entire machine myself. Now, I really don't want to do this...the desktop has around 40 programs on it and reinstalling all that stuff, reestablishing the internet connection, restoring the Outlook files - I am an email junkie - will take about a week. Full time. I cringe at the thought.

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