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We'd wake up before dawn, since the car ride would take eight hours and if any of those hours were sleepy ones, so much the better. My parents were packing my brother, sister and myself into the station wagon (the old gigantic ones, not the modern version) for our annual trip to China Lake, Maine. I would take off my shoes, my toes feeling cold in their socks, since we wouldn't be stopping for several hours. I'm not sure why taking off my shoes in the car was so thrilling but then small things are when you are young. It was a long ride up to Maine, one tempered with treats and toys my Mom had bought in advance to stem our boredom, my Dad stoically behind the wheel crossing 5 states in one day. It wasn't a fun journey but one, like most memories, I look back on fondly. Just another memory.

One of the features or deficits of Maine was a lack of television. My grandparents camp had a TV but it was one that used an antenna which you had to adjust to receive different stations. You would twist a nob on the box on top of the set, a loud chunking sound would ensue. Slowly, NBC would come into focus while PBS became nothing but static. Depending on the year, my parents might rent a place by the coast which didn't have a TV at all which my siblings and I would find unbearable. We could manage two weeks of vacation on PBS shows but two weeks with nothing. That was ridiculous.

Our elementary school once made us pledge to give up TV for a week (or month but let's say a week). Let's assume it was the South Orange public school's attempt to stem the tide of TV takeover, however futile. It was optional although for my Mom, it was mandatory. Already my brother and I were spending too much time watching TV, yours truly especially. That period of voyeuristic fasting was painful.

The Seton Hall Pirates won the collegiate basketball tournament (or something) and the town threw a parade in their honor. Since we couldn't watch it on TV, we went down to South Orange Ave to watch it in person but there was such a mob that we didn't end up seeing anything. Just another memory.

Returning to Maine this past week, I spent five days in my parent's new house on China Lake. TV was lacking but so was Internet service. I found I didn't mind the hiatus on TV but the Internet was my new addiction that bugged me. I could deal with it for the brief time but a long period would get frustrating. The same could be said about TV I suppose but it would take longer for that to become an issue since I had finally grown old enough to appreciate the natural surroundings my parents had always tried to impart to us.

I sat on the deck of the new house, eating a bowl of blueberries with Greek yogurt, honey and wheatgerm, the smell of bacon and coffee to my right, looking out on a cool, sunny morning. The sun glinted off the water, putting all Christmas lights to shame. I finally appreciated it. My life didn't suck. Even without TV.

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It's another year and another year in numbers. Some surprising, some not so. I didn't blog as much here but more on the photography blog.

I "read" a total of 63 books, 40 were paper and 23 were audio. Less plays and shorts stories this year and more long books such as Anathem and Anne Karenina.

Like I said, I wrote mostly on my photography blog this year and most of those posts were more pictures than words. I wrote a total of 9 posts on this blog which amounted to 4,456 words and 47 posts on the photography which amounted to 15,745 words. NaNoWriMo played it's part adding another 50,110 words giving me a grand total of 70,311 words total.

I watched 84 movies this year with 10 or so being the in theaters. I can't even begin to track how many hours or television shows I watched this year.

No idea how many pictures I took this year. 30,000? Maybe. A lot of weddings and a lot of shooting.

I received/bought 117 magazines.

I worked out a total of 142 days (more or less). I now weigh 178 lbs from 175 lbs around the beginning of the year. My low was 174 lbs.

My car has 162,373 miles on it which means I drove about 18,773 miles.

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This right here is awful. I'm not even sure why I'm posting it. I wrote it, god knows how long ago and believe me, it hasn't gotten better with age. It wasn't good when I started and it's certainly good now.

So....enjoy?

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I've been reading along with Alan Sepinwall as he rewatches season 2 of The Wire, in my opinion, an underappreciated season. I've also gotten two coworkers to drink The Wire koolaid so I've been discussing the second season with them as well. As I don't want to plane (a new word I picked up reading Anathem) them and since all this has made think about the second season more. God rewrite this sentence.

Caveat Spoiler!

I don't recall whether when I first watched the second season whether I thought it started slowly. Many people feel this and I can understand why. As I rewatched it though, I appreciate this. As much as I'd like to take the idea as my own, Alan brings up the point that we have to think about this from the view of the characters not as we the viewers who have a much broader idea of what is going on. Sure, we know that the docks are rife with corruption, that Frank Sobotka knows more about the deaths of the girls in the can, etc etc. But Valcheck doesn't. He's just pissed off that the longshoremen got to put up their stained glass window in the church instead of the police union. Sure, the fact that Sobotka is flush is odd but if say Sobotka hadn't gotten the window in first, Valcheck would never have even started the investigation.

I bring this up because in contrast, McNulty in the first season knew that Avon Barksdale was dirty. Beyond dirty. Barksdale and crew were bad mutha fuckas and they represented a clear and present target. The trubadors on the other hand, may be considered guilty of stealing an occasional can once in awhile but given the amount of inspection they are under, the police don't expect as much corruption as they'll find.

So it's a testament to Simon et al that they didn't get up on a wire on Sobotka immediately much in the same way they didn't bring back the entire detail in one shot. How things ended in season one, it would be too Hollywood for things to just pick up in season two with the gang getting back together.

There is an interesting parallel in The Wire regarding the level of intelligence the criminals bring to their enterprise. I don't mean the corner boy who the police automatically think is stupid and who probably is. I mean the management. Stringer Bell tries to raise the level of intelligence in the projects, applying economic theories to the drug game with greater or lesser success. But they aren't in The Greek's\Vondas's league and that's what I find so intriguing and terrifying. It's all just business to the Greek. Drugs, women, guns, whatever. He doesn't lose sleep over any of it. It's a sharp intellect the Greek brings to crime which makes him infinitely more dangerous and interesting than Stringer. Once you begin to think about that, the second season comes into it's own.

And to jump to a future season, Stringer can't bring the projects to Greek level. As Avon says:

"You know the difference between me and you? I bleed red and you bleed green. I look at you these days, String, you know what I see? I see a man without a country. Not hard enough for this right here and maybe, just maybe, not smart enough for them out there."

I guess you could say Stringer is trying to find a way out for himself as D'Angelo was trying to do, if in a greedier way.

The second season shows us criminals more fierce than anyone on the Baltimore corners. And if that's not compelling enough, I don't know what is.

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Yet another post on driving. Will I ever learn? Will drivers ever learn? Neither seems to have a finish line so I guess we will do this dance one more time.

The latest round of debate is banning texting while driving. This is also in the wake of a report claiming that talking at all on a cellphone while driving is dangerous that was shelved for years, presumably by cell phone company lobbying pressure. They can debate that all they want. All I have to say is this.

Duh.

But that news story is just another example. How are we surprised we have poor drivers? We are taught to drive in our teenage years and then that's it. No refresher, no further education. You figure it all out when you're 16 (roughly depending on what state you're from) and then you're good for the rest of your life. I guess the theory is that since you'll be driving every day, you'll just learn as you go. That's all well and good but is it possible that maybe a little more driver education might help?

(The answer isn't no.)

But let's use myself as an example. I got my driver's permit at 16. In order to get this, I took a drivers ed class in high school. Of all my classes, this was given least priority, if any priority at all. Any homework was done before class, often sloppily. As the teacher would only look to see you did it rather than actually have you turn it in, this lead to the amusing day when my friend Kevin wrote "Bippity boppity boo." as the answer for one the questions (probably on how to do a 3 point turn). He wasn't caught. We also watched "Days of Thunder" which prepared us for racing around the Daytona Speedway and perhaps Nicole Kidman falling in love with us because we were such rebels. I've yet to put my car on a racetrack and Nicole Kidman has a restraining order out on me.

All this was in preparation for the final test which would let us get our driver's permit. If you scored 80 or below, you failed. In one of my both educational low and high moments, I had forgotten the test was that day and learned of the test that morning as I rode the bus into school. Frantically, I studied the Drivers Ed pamphlet sized book on the 10, maybe 15 minute ride depending on the traffic lights. Took the test and got an 81. Passed by the skin of my teeth but pass I did.

So now that I had finished the written test, it was time for me to get out on the road. The next step would be to complete 6 hours of driving with an instructor. Mind you, to this point, I had never been behind the wheel of anything beyond a bicycle. The first 2 hour session with the instructor was unnerving but it got my feet wet. By the last session, I drove him to get donuts. He showed me how to do parallel park and other basic stuff which I barely use now. It was a pleasant, if boring, experience.

One which was only too sharp a contrast to lessons with my father. My DMV test was scheduled for my birthday in January. I obtained my permit at the beginning of the summer. So that left a good half a year for my father and I to go out and have him teach me. The less words used to describe those outings the better.

The day finally came for my driver's test. It was to be on my birthday, as near to turning 17 as I could manage it. We went to the East Hanover DMV and apparently got there early enough that I was done with my driving test before my appointment. The driving test was over in just about 10 minutes. It involved driving less distance than it would take to get out of some Walmart parking lots. I actually hit the curb while doing the parallel parking which had my heart in my stomach. But the instructor waived it away saying, that was alright, as long as I didn't hit the cones I was fine. I did a 3 point turn out of there and made it back to the starting line. My only demerit was not turning on my signal at the proper distance. Other than that, as far as the state of New Jersey was concerned, I was as competent as anyone else on the road.

Looking back on it, it's seems criminal to have allowed me a license. It seems criminal that further education and safety is not mandated to the general driving public. Given the throngs of drivers on the road, the billions of dollars in accidents and insurance premiums and the untold loss of life, it seems maniacal that this is allowed.

But it is.

If I was a crackpot conspiracy theorist, I would theorize that the assembly line of Detroit demands a similar assembly line of new drivers to purchase their new autos. That the insurance companies see profits in a larger customer base than a smaller but educated customer base. That the way we build our towns and cities, how we zone businesses and residential areas, forces people to drive, forcing any preventive measures as not being cost effective and detrimental to a person's career.

But it is.

I also know we don't like looking at other countries for comparison but humor me. Take Finland. Yes, not really all that similar to the United States. But the average driver must go through at least 6 hours driving on wet surfaces along with 3 hours driving in the dark. It takes 3 years to get your license. All this according to James May and Top Gear but compelling information nonetheless. Can you imagine what kind of profound effect that would have on our roadways? That we actually prepare people for the situations they will encounter on the road instead of letting them figure it out when it happens?

My return to thoughts on driving was prompted by the debate mentioned above. It reminded me of my own education which I summarized. I consider myself a good driver.

But am I?

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Been doing a lot more blogging on my photo blog than here. Instead of reposting what is there, I'll simply link to them below. Hooray for SEO ranking!

Joe McNally’s Dobbs Ferry Workshop
Fireworks
New York Panoramas
The End Of My 50mm
Gail and Tucker
Project 365 Book
Seurat Sunday

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