Sunny Saturdays [w/ video]

Sunny Saturdays are not my cup of tea. Too ... wide open and relentlessly ... upbeat. I know the burden's on me to fill up that time, to breathe and explore and for god's sake get some fresh air and sunlight. Well. I'd prefer a rainy, windswept day with a book any time.

Anyway, I DID have plenty to do, starting with getting up to 59th and Lex before 10 am to volunteer at Lighthouse International, the leading nonprofit resource organization for the visually impaired. I love the place... it oozes goodness, somehow, proximity to Bloomingdale's notwithstanding. Light, modern, airy, the building welcomed me back after a long hiatus.

Obviously, any volunteer work will provide a sense of having done something right and good. I lucked out, though, and also got to meet a cool guy and learn some stuff about Internet protocols. Two hours of reading a textbook on all things Internet just flew by. Today we focused on SMTP, POP3 and IMAP, syntax over Telnet, getting into P2P file-sharing (Napster through Gnutella only). The guy, W., is a very bright, relatively young African American grad student at Brooklyn Polytech. He has some sight but not enough for reading. He's been essentially blind since age 10. He lives in Brooklyn and has a really long commute to the Lighthouse. He's not sure what he's going to do with his graduate degree. He may teach but thinks that might have its own challenges and annoyances. He has beautiful eyes.

Later, I got my hair cut.

Below, a slice of what seemed like possibly tens or hundreds of skateboarders zipping down Broadway. In traffic.