Today I begin the third phase in my improvisational education. I'm a little nervous, but mostly excited. My level three class at UCB (Classes) is being taught by Michael Delaney of the Swarm. From what I've been told, and from the student feedback on their site, Delaney is going to be a stern taskmaster. I'm sure he's a good guy and is a lot of fun, but I also know that he tells it to you straight after a scene. He'll rip into you. Thankfully, this will be helpful and make me a better performer. I just hope I'll make it through the class without a shattered ego.*

I will also have you know that level three classes result in two performances. They will take place on September 30th and October 21st. Both days are Tuesdays and both shows start at 6:30pm. I hope to see some of you there. I promise to bring the funny.

*Thankfully my ego is relatively small and therefore difficult to shatter.

I just finished reading Moneyball, which is the story of how Billy Beane, the GM of the Oakland A's, has turned his team into the most fiscally-productive teams in the league (if you look at wins in relation to payroll). The A's have a payroll of $56,596,691, which is the 5th lowest in the league, but they are once again competing for a playoff spot. The Yankees are also competing, but their payroll is $180,322,403 (complete list). The book looks at how two teams with starkly different payrolls can compete on similar levels.

The simple answer is sabermetrics. ¹ The link will give you a full explanation, but it is essentially a "mathematical and statistical analysis of baseball records." It suggests that the current method of measuring baseball statistics are flawed. Batting average should not be the best measure of a player's ability to hit. Believers in sabermetrics put their money behind on-base and slugging percentage.²

Essentially, sabermetrics looks at baseball in a rational way. One of the early sections of the book talks about how scouts look for players with "the right face," which to an outsider seems completely absurd. As they did this, Billy Beane and his partner in crime, Paul DePodesta, scoured statistics of college and high school players looking for the right combination. It seems odd that it took about 100 years before someone in baseball decided to look at players rationally.

A good example of putting this theory to work is when the A's lost Jason Giambi to free agency. They knew that replacing him with one player who could produce runs at the same rate would be too expensive, so they looked to find three players who could do the same thing, even if they had other weaknesses (fielding mostly). The A's were able to do this successfully and were able to finish with a better record the next year, despite the loss of their best offensive player.

The book is terribly interesting for people who love sports, baseball, or looking at an irrational market in a totally rational manner. Two bloggers who will love this book are the purveyors of Kottke.org and RBI. Of course, they both probably know about this book already.

I have a question for those who are into sabermetrics: Is a similar approach ever used for other sports or do people believe that the other major sports do a good job of looking at stats?

¹ The definitive website on sabermetrics is Baseball Prospectus.

² For a look at more sabermetric stats, head to ESPN. Definitions are available at the bottom of the page.

I just received two CDs from Europe.

Elbow - Cost of Thousands
The Coral - Magic and Medicine

Now I cook food and listen. Wheeeee!!!!!1!

Update: The new Coral album is amazing. Much more mature but still retaining the fun attitude of the first record. Initial review: Album of the year. For real.

Again: On second thought, album of the year might be a bit much, but there are some stellar songs. I'll change my tune again tomorrow. This could end up being the longest post of all time.

Last night I went to "see" Ben Folds at the Central Park SummerStage. The "see" is in quotes as I never actually laid my eyes on Mr. Folds. This is because I did as hundreds do every night there is a show here: I went around back and listened to the show for free. I didn't have $40 to drop to see Ben and Aimee Mann play so I sat on the ground chatting with other fans as I listened.

This is one of my favorite tricks here in NYC -- one which I have not implemented enough. Too bad the only show remaining in the season is Paul van Dyk. Not really a fan.

If you know of any other cool NYC freebies let me know. I'd love to try them out.

First, whoever can tell me what song the title is referencing will get a prize of some kind. On to the guts of the post.

So after months of saga I finally have a cell phone. I decided on my dream phone, the Sony-Ericcson T616 (or T610 for non-Cingular customers). I was put off by claims of poor Cingular GSM service in New York and an unreadable screen, but I've found that both problems are not nearly as bad as I had feared.

I won't go through an extensive review as there are many others already reviewing, but I will say that I love this phone. My only complaint is with the content management system. I feel that is a little difficult to quickly call up someone's number. It's certainly much slower than using my old Nokia 3360. Then again, I can now sync my contacts with Apple's Address Book, which is a Godsend. I can also take photos and send them to myself.*

The bottomline is the phone is both fun and very useable. I am really enjoying all of the features and it's small size. I like a phone I can slip in my pocket without having a huge bulge (no, I am not happy to see you). I highly recommend this phone to people looking for a nice camera phone, especially for Cingular customers. This might be the best phone they're offering right now.

*A moblog is on its way. I am still in the process of setting it up.

A couple weeks ago RollingStone.com released XML feeds (towards the bottom of the page) for a reviews, news, photos and videos. Immediately I thought, "yes." This is what I had been waiting for. Tonight, they introduced an XML artist search that allows you to create an XML feed for any of the artists they have in their database.* It is awesome. I already have six in NetNewsWire and I think that every news site should have something like this.

Aside from these features Rolling Stone has a very robust site with a lot of original content. I would definitely frequent it more if I listened to a lot of mainstream music. Already I'm tempting to go there more often solely because of this great service, but I digress. Compare and contrast this to the site of my former employer, Spin (I was an intern). Aside from the site having an ugly, cookie-cutter design and being user-mean (not user-friendly), it offers up only a few things that are interesting. It is the perfect example of a company feeling forced to have a website. I don't mean any disrespect to Spin people as I think they write well, work hard and I still enjoy the magazine, but the site is crap.

In order for get me to come back to your site I want to have something that is useful and I don't feel that Spin is providing that to me. Rolling Stone is. On the other hand, I subscribe to Spin and I haven't bought a copy of RS in months. But, that is because of the content of the magazines and not their websites. So, if the purpose of the website is to promote the magazine then I think Rolling Stone is blowing Spin out of the water.

*Link via the Shifted Librarian

A new article at ESPN Gamer explains how a professional athelete should never, ever, appear on the cover of a video game, especially the Madden series.

The latest victim was Michael Vick, who broke his leg during an exhibition game this weekend. Vick is on the cover of Madden 2004, which was released at the beginning of the week. The jinx was clearly in effect.

My favorite one was the last one they listed:

NCAA Football 2004

Coverboy: USC quarterback Carson Palmer
Pre-Cover: Won Heisman Trophy; helped restore USC's faded football glory.
Post-Cover: Selected No. 1 in the NFL Draft. By the Cincinnati Bengals.

Over the last few days I had four great musical experiences. Here they are in chronological order (to show they all had a unique significance):

1. On Wednesday I purchased a number of CDs at Virgin Records' $10 sale. The last two were purchased later on at an independent record store in Brooklyn. They are as follows...

• AC/DC - Back in Black
• The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
• Guns N' Roses - Apetite for Destruction
• Ben Lee - Hey You. Yes You.
• Matthew Sweet - 100% Fun
• John Linnell - State Songs

Two of these albums were influenced by Fargo Rock City. If you've read the book you'll know which ones. In fact, astute readers could probably guess without reading it (a study shows that 87% of my readers have completed at least one PHD program).

2. On Friday night I saw The Polyphonic Spree at Warsaw in Brooklyn. I have to say, it was the best concert I've seen since the last Ben Folds Five show I was at. Truly, it was amazing. I danced my pants off (not literally, but when I got home I did put shorts on) and am amazed at how good the live show was. What put me over the top was a song in the encore. They played "Wig in a Box" from Hedwig and the Angry Inch. That would be enough on its own, but John Cameron Mitchell got on stage. I almost cried (I may have cried but I was sweating a lot). Incidentally, I reminded myself about the high of working out. I like getting sweaty now and again.

3. I ordered JBL Creature Speakers (in silver, to match the laptop) and I have no idea how I lived with my built-in speakers for so long. I am listening to albums much more frequently now because I can actually hear them. I love good speakers. I especially love good, sexy, small speakers.

4. Tonight I went to see Guster at Radio City Music Hall. As always, it was a wonderful show. They rocked the house and the crowd was really into it. Tonight I was able to accept that the fans aren't getting younger, I'm just getting older. Also, as much as I love love love Guster, I was more excited to see Moria and Lizzie. Good peoples. Finally, I will note that a young man named Albert who happens to be in the show was found both in the audience and backstage. He was with his friend Adam Green of the Moldy Peaches. They seemed to be hanging with Ben Kweller, who made a guest appearance during the encore. Woh, rock stars. The only impressive part was when one of Ryan's high school friends asked Albert for his autograph saying, "I hear you're in that Strokes band." Priceless.

There was a blackout in NYC! You heard it here first! Okay, maybe not but I do have photos. I'll also give you a rundown of my day.

At 4pm the power went out in our building. Sunday there was a water main break on the floor above so we just assumed that someone blew a fuse with all the cleaning equiptment. Soon enough we learned that the power outage was throughout Manhattan and the boroughs as well as other major cities. I had been hesitant to leave since I work on the 43rd floor and there was no elevator. And if I got down I work on 50th and Broaway, which is a good seven miles from my apartment.

Eventually I had to go downstairs and I started walking down Broadway. There were tons of people walking and buses packed to the gills. It was completely odd to see Times Square without electricity. As you'll see in the pictures, there were people selling scooters, selling shoes (to girls in heels), selling ice cream for $1 or just hanging out and listening to radios. It was quite a scene. You also noticed a lot of business owners shutting down with the fear of looting.

Around 23rd Street I decided to get a Choco Taco at a Tastee Freeze truck. While in line and chatting with people I met Margaret. We were both on our way to Brooklyn so we teamed up for the walk home. The Buddy System is key. We kept walking down Broadway all the way to Chambers Street on our way to the Brooklyn Bridge. When we arrived the bridge was overflowing with people and one side of the bridge had become pedestrian only. We eventually made it back to my place, with two more friends in tow, and I drove the three of them home as they lived many miles further into Brooklyn.

I got home to my roommate and we talked for a while and then went to my car to watch a movie on my laptop in the AC. It was very nice. I came back, went to sleep and woke up at 8am to see the power come back on. Good timing. Now I am going to eat breakfast.

Enjoy the photos.

More Blog coverage:
Gothamist
ftrain
John Weir
Cheesedip
Camworld
Zeldman
Andrew Raff

Recently, McDonald's announced they are bringing WiFi to their restaurants. This is a good thing. When they first announced the plan in March they were giving you a free hour of wireless with the purchase of an extra-value meal. Currently, at least at the one around the corner from me, it costs $2.99 for a day's worth of internet. Not too shabby. Then again, how often are you going to need to surf while at McDonald's?

I have been reading in a few blogs and magazines about the decision to charge for wireless or to give it away. Pretty much everyone agrees it is better, and cheaper, to give it away. I can't remember numbers right now -- nor can I remember the places I read this -- but I know that it would be very cheap to give it away. Let's say it's $50/month for high-speed access and $100 for a wireless router. This means it would probably cost you a few bucks a day to run the service. Even if you have to get a business account it wouldn't cost you more than $5 a day, which is definitely worth it.

On the other hand, if you were to charge for service you would have to pay for the software as well as the customer support, which would greatly increase your daily cost. Granted, money would be coming in, but I think that shelling out $5 a day to drive in more customers is worth every penny. If your employees didn't give away one double mocha venti cappucino then your daily costs would be covered.

In other news, the name of my wireless network is "Free Internet!"

Today, ESPN launched ESPN Gamer, a mini-site devoted to sports video games. According to their introductory letter they plan to offer all of the usual stuff you expect from a video game site: reviews, screenshots, trips, features, etc. This begs the question, why does ESPN need to do this? There are sites and magazines devoted to video games that do a very good job. It makes me wonder how much money the game developers are throwing at them.

I explored the site a bit to decipher their motives. The reviews they offer are relatively crappy. It's broken down into six sections (graphics, gameplay, etc.), which doesn't leave much room for the writer to discuss what it's like to play the game. It's too rigid. If this is all they offered I would write off this site immediately. Thankfully, they have two well-written columns -- one of which is quite refreshing.

The first is an interview and showdown with Michael Vick (the coverboy for Madden 2004). The writing is good but the content is the same as every other magazine who was there on that press day.

The second is an article on Sega's newest football offering, discussing the first-person view. What's nice about this article is that the writer's knowledge of football is put to good use here. Video game magazines know video games, not sports, which means they miss some nuances of the game. ESPN will be able to pick up the slack here as they are (or at least should be) sports gurus.

That is the what the draw of this site should be. ESPN is able to offer a perspective on video games that will look at whether or not they are accurate or relevant to the world of sports. They can, and should, leave all of the technical stuff to EGM or Edge. This is why I'll be returning to this site. It's likely that they are trying to sell the new line of Sega games they're sponsoring, but if it means the potential for good content and a new perspective then I have no complaints.

Note: There are definitely other columns on this site that are quite good and some other content on its way, but I didn't want this to become a detailed review of the entire site.

As of today, you can now see everything I ever think about doing in New York. Well, at least in terms of artistic entertainment. The new Events Calendar is as much for me as it is for you though. I'm always forgetting about shows and either letting them get sold out or missing them all together. Hence this list. The area is pretty much finished but you can expect some RSS stuff to make browsing easy and whatever else seems interesting.

I teamed up with Emceebard to bring this new feature to life. This means double the events for you. You know you love it.

If you have any suggestions you can always email me* and tell me what to do. I like that.

*email is in the "essentials" section on the right side.

[If you've been trying to call me, skip to the bottom]

In the past I have told you about the impending death of my cell phone. Well, it is on life support. Two nights ago I tried to receive a phone call and when I pressed the connect button the screen froze up and then the phone turned off ten seconds later. This problem continued throughout the night.

I went to the Cingular store at lunch yesterday and was told that I had an out of market, out of warranty phone. If I wanted it fixed I had to send it back to Chicago. I wasn't going to do this for a $50 phone. Essentially, bye bye phone.

All of this means that I need a new phone. And, as I've discussed before, I want to keep my existing Chicago number as I plan to move back there in a year or so. So I called my phone dealer in Chicago and bought a new t616 and am having it shipped here. It's not exactly the best option but I need a phone and that one is hott, so it works out in the end.

Now, if you are trying to call me during this week you are likely to run into a problem as my voicemail is now turned off (not sure why). So, shoot me an email and I'll give you my work/home numbers for contact. In the meantime, I am going to go out and buy a bluetooth usb adapter for my laptop.

Update: My voicemail is working once again.

The Rules
1. leave a comment, saying you want to be interviewed.
2. i will respond; i'll ask you five questions.
3. you'll update your website with my five questions, and your five answers.
4. you'll include this explanation.
5. you'll ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed.

I have granted an interview with Heather. These are her five questions and my five responses:

1. Where would your rather be, right now?
Right now, I would rather be in Colorado, skiing. Unfortunately this is an impossibily due to a lack of snow. Thankfully this is an interview and I am allowed to live in a world that ignores reality. Next Question.

2. Coffee or tea?
It is a well-publicized fact that caffeine has no effect on me whatsoever. This means I have no obligation to coffee, the more highly caffeinated beverage. That being said, I'm going to go with hot tea and cold coffee. There is nothing like a good hot tea on a cold day to warm you up. Likewise, there is nothing like a Frappuccino on a hot day to cool you down. Both are tasty and practical.

3. If you could change your name, would you? If so, what would you change it to?
No, I wouldn't. I like my name. I would consider changing it when I get married though. Something I find interesting is that if a man and a woman get married then the woman is able to change her name for free. If the man wants to hyphenate his last name or take on his wife-to-be's then he must pay to make that change. It is a minor grievance but indicative of the old world thinking in regards to marriage.

4. What is your favourite movie?
Ooh. There is a "u" in favourite. Does that mean it should be Canadian or British? If that is the case, then I would choose Ginger Snaps, a Canadian horror film that seems to have gotten mediocre reviews from my friends. For me there is a magic surrounding the film as I saw it on the last night of a two month stay in London, by myself. It was a wonderful movie-going experience and helped bring this movie up in my list, but it was wonderful without this. I enjoyed how the characters are outside of the norm for modern horror films. Aside from being female, they deal with issues that seem completely obvious but at the same time incredibly interesting, given their context. So, that is my "favourite" film. My "favorite" film is Rushmore.

5. If you would right one wrong, what would it be?
I think I would have everyone be a little more optomistic and a little more jovial. I don't expect, or want, constant optimism but I think that a little more from everyone would go a long way. People often say that your life is defined by your outlook and I think that is completely accurate. If you are determined to have a good day, worry less and enjoy yourself then you will be a much happier person. That is guaranteed.

Questions for Joseph J Finn:
1. If you were running for governor of California, what would your platform be?
2. While eating Lucky Charms, do you save the marshmallows for the end or try and keep an even ratio of marshmallows and oat shapes in each bite?
3. What are some of your favorite magazines? What draws you to them?
4. When you walk up stairs do you take one or two steps at a time? Is this somehow a metaphor for the way you live?
5. Tell me about your relationship with Chicago. Is it love/hate? love/love? hate/hate?

Questions for Jeremy Brown [Answers]
1. What makes a good vacation? The actual location is irrelevant, I just want to know what you look for in an amazing trip.
2. What household duties do you enjoy?
3. Do you have any hobbies or collections that either your friends don't about or is particularly unusual?
4. If I were to give you $1500, what would you spend it on?
5. During high school, were you easily classifiable (jock, bookworm, outcast, etc.)? Do you think you were mislabeled? If so, how would you have labeled yourself?

Questions for DJ SUbg [Answers]
1. Tell me about a recent aberration in your morning routine. This includes the time from when you first open your eyes to when you begin work.
2. When it comes to bagels, do you prefer the Jew kind (doughy center, crispy outside, traditional flavors, i.e. sesame seed bagel from H&H) or the non-Jew kind (roll-like, crrrrazy flavors, very puffy, i.e cinamon raisin swirl from Einstein's Bros.)?
3. Is there any law you'd like to see eradicated? What about it is egregious?
4. Do you have any albums that you only play at certain times of the day? Week? Month? Holiday?
5. Do you prefer to use cash or plastic?

Questions for Alex [Answers]
1. What makes you tick? I mean, what makes you get up in the morning?
2. In a perfect job interview, what kind of questions would the potential employer ask? Give specific examples or a general attitude of the meeting.
3. When you go shopping, do you mull over your decisions or buy first and think later?
4. What was the first concert you ever attended? What was it an earth-shattering experience?
5. Rate these in order of priority in your daily routine and explain why: sleep, work, friends, eating.

Questions for Lizzie
1. I am going to give you enough money to start your own business (I am fabulously rich, money is no object). The only catch is that it must somehow better society. What would you do?
2. Tell me a book you think everyone should read, a movie that no one should see, and a song that has made you cry.
3. Do you still keep in touch with any of your high school teachers? If so, would you say you're friends? If not, does this upset you?
4. (This is soooo a job interview question, but...) Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Or, if you hate those questions, how far in advance do you usually plan your life? Or both.
5. What goes best with peanut butter? Please, explain why.

Wow. I was just reading the recap of tonight's preseason Bear game and I noticed something amazing. One of the rookie wide receivers for Indianapolis, Aaron Moorehead scored a touchdown during the game. Normally, this wouldn't be amazing but I went to high school with him. I knew he was a good athelete but I never imagined he'd go pro.*

This is the first time I've heard of a fellow high-schooler succeeding in the public arena. It was very odd to read his name and then do a quick google search to make sure it's the right person. Now that I'm over the shock a bit I think it's awesome, even if he doesn't make the team. Go Aaron.

I know this will not effect most of you but I figured the few Deerfield people who read this will be thankful. Crazy.

*Granted, there is a good chance he could be dropped from the team but it's still impressive.

I'm nearly done with Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs and it is excellent. I am really enjoying it. For me, it was a step up from Fargo Rock City. But that's not why I'm writing this post.

I just noticed an incoming link to my blog through All Consuming. I headed to the site and looked at the linked page. I noticed a site by someone named Eric Nuzum and wondered why it sounded familiar. I went to his blog and realized that he is a friend of Chuck's and referenced in the chapter I just finished.*

Usually when I read a book and people are referenced I put them in the back of my mind. I keep a reference of what they're like to help me contextuallize their additions to the story, but I don't think of them as actual people. This certainly changed that. It probably won't effect the way I read or think but I'm still amused by the whole thing.

*Eric had a similar experience as me, in that a favorite band of his released an album without him knowing (for him it was Killing Joke, for me it was Ben Folds). Also, he has a really interesting Banned Music page, which looks like a more-than-a-companion-site for his book, Parental Advisory: Music Censorship in America.

A few weeks back I sung the praises of MLB.com's Gameday app. It is a wonderfully designed application that gives me everything I need. No major complaints. When I decided that I wanted to buy tickets for a Mets game through their website, I ran into problems. I should note that these problems had nothing to do with the look and the feel of the site, but with the general usability of the functionality.* In the spirit of 37 Signals' Design Not Found, I will dissect the problem.

I open up the window to purchase tickets and select the $14 Loge Reserved Back Rows and click submit. The name is horrible, but that's not the problem. I receive an error stating that I must select at least one ticket (fig. 1). I notice that there was a box to enter in the number of tickets and it is set to zero (fig. 2). It would make much more sense to set this to one and then allow people to change that number. Based on the next step I could understand starting with zero, but after I receive the error it should automatically be set to one (or even two, since this is most likely the most popular amount).

fig. 1

fig. 2

I enter in "2" and reselect the $14 option. At this point I am offered two different pairs of tickets. I like having options, but not these. The price level I selected was sold out (fig. 3), so they gave me two seats in either the $48 or $36 section (fig. 4). This seems to make absolutely no sense to me. It is one thing if these are the only remaining seats, but I tried again with the $9 price level and found two seats. If your price range is sold out, they should offer one level up and one level down because I'm not ready to spend an additional $34, especially since I'm a Cubs fan.

fig. 3

fig. 4

I haven't finished the entire process yet, but I will tell you what was good. Everything was easy to find as the layout was excellent. I especially liked the seating chart (fig. 5) as well as the two ticket options. For my $9 seats I was offered one pair of tickets near the first base line and one on the other side. This is an awesome feature. I also includedthe entire window so you can get the big picture (fig. 6).

fig. 5

fig. 6

These two problems won't stop me from buying tickets online all together, but I will not hesitate to pick up my phone and call if I keep getting offered the best possible tickets when I ask for the second cheapest.

*I totally sound like Jesse Jackson there.

It's official. Ah-nold is running for Governor of California. This alone is completely ridiculous to me. Does he not realize we were laughing at him in Kindergarten Cop? He reminds of Hagrid or the Big Friendly Giant -- you just want to hug him. I'm fairly positive this isn't something I'm looking for in a political candidate of any sort (although I admit that it isn't so bad either).

I could end this post right here, but the whole thing just gets crazier. It seems as though both Gary Coleman and Larry Flynt are also running for governor. Coleman has said that he is not going to be campaigning now that the Terminator is in the race. Good thing for Arnold as that could have brought things down to the wire. Flynt is going to run full-force and hopes to shake things up.

The icing on the cake is something I heard on the Daily Show. Gov. Davis is looking for a way to enter the re-election race. He wants to replace himself. That is just too ridiculous. I was almost able to handle the concept of Porn vs. Muscle vs. Kinda-Scary, but this is just too much. This whole thing has to stop. Do people understand that this is the future of 54 million people? I honestly don't know if any of these people are capable candidates, but does it really matter?

Forgive the ranting, but I just think this is a prime example of what our government has become. It is a dog and pony show. Nothing really happens there, it is a way to placate the populus and build up your ego. Arnold has no more to do in the film world so he has to find a higher exposure job. That's it I think. It is incredibly frustrating.

As long as this merry band of characters are running for governor, who would you like to see run? It only takes 65 signatures to get on the ballot. I think I'd like to see my grandpa run. He knows a lot of good jokes and watches cable news a lot. That should be enough, right?

The Cubs brought back Mark Prior in a grand way, winning 3-0 against the Padres and giving up just three hits. Prior had been out for nearly a month due to a shoulder injury from a collision. He came back and allowed only two hits, struck six out and walked just one. On top of that, he broke a 6-game winless streak. He needed that one for his confidence and for the team.

If the Cubs can keep up their recent performance then they will definitely have a good shot at taking the division, even with Grudzy out for 2-4 weeks. I'm just concerned that this will interfere with my football time. I think I'll be able to survive.

I just starting reading Chuck Klosterman's new book, Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, and already I have a passage you need to read. Here:

Amazing. These are thoughts I never realized I had. Read the entire first chapter, which this excerpt is from, if you're interested.

Unless it's raining at the moment I intend to leave, I will be riding my bike to work tomorrow morning. I was debating whether or not to do it, but after reading testimonials from commuters at Transportation Alternatives I decided to give it a go.

I did a little research today to figure out the best way to make my ride and I feel I'm nearly prepared. First, I checked out Bike Routes provided by the city to see which path I would take. The maps show roads with bike paths, wider routes suitable for riding, and bike only paths throughout the five boroughs (the maps also helped me to find out that there is a bike only path from Prospect Park down to Coney Island). I decided that I will cross over on the Brooklyn Bridge, head over to the Hudson River Greenway and shoot all the way up to work. On the way home I may go on Broadway, but I haven't decided if I'm up to it. Also, it's not as nice of a ride.

Then I figured I should head over to Brooklyn Heights Bike Shop and pick up a helmet before I leave. It's one thing to ride in the park without a helmet, but I don't want to ride Manhattan streets without any protection.

The other crucial piece I had already taken care of: the New York Chain by Kryptonite. I do not want my bike to be stolen and this should do the trick. The thing is a monster.

After I do the ride I'll make some notes and take some pictures. We'll see how things work out.