Month: July 2011

I heard the “real feel” was going to go up to 109! God help us.

Here are some pictures from my recent trip down the mighty Nissequogue River, taken with a cheap, disposable underwater camera. I mostly tried to take pictures of birds, but this is my friend Kevin, who is human.

A bird.

Bird houses.

And me! I really love kayaking, I have to say. I’m ready to try more rivers. But I am slow slow slow. I entered a kayak race on the Hudson River shortly after I learned, and I not only came in dead last, I was something like ten minutes behind the person who came in second to last.

Come up With a Reason Why Should They Help You

Most of my tips are geared towards asking someone for something. But Tip 1 has good general advice, and the next one, the last one, will too. Back to the tip …

Come up with a reason why the person should do whatever it is you’re asking of them. This tip is tricky for two reasons. One, it isn’t always necessary. You don’t need to give a friend a reason to help you. People who are asking me for help with friends or relatives who were murdered don’t need to give me a reason (but they would do well to follow the other tips). You’ll have to decide. I sometimes do this if I’m emailing someone who is a total stranger and if I think they won’t be inclined to help me.

Two, if you do it in a clumsy or ham-fisted way it will backfire. Don’t overstate it. Don’t say anything like “You’ll get rich!” or anything else you can’t convincingly prove. Don’t be pompous, like, “you’ll be making the world a better place.” Saying something really, genuinely honest is usually the way I go. If it sounds self-serving that’s not good, but it’s almost unavoidable sometimes, so if I’m being self-serving I acknowledge that in some way.

But if you can’t come up with a reason why they should help you, imagine what they’re thinking.

Tip 1a. Get to the point.
Tip 1b. Be Honest About What You Want
Tip 2. Give them What They Need to Give You What You Need
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Finney checking out Buddy eating and wondering “what does he have?” Buddy invariably has something better because I’m trying to fatten him up, and Finney, unfortunately needs to lose weight.

Some of you may remember my posting about dancing with Where the Hell is Matt. This is me and Matt dancing for a few seconds after they recorded him dancing with everyone. The final video with all countries is here. It’s worth watching, it’s very moving. I still tear up.

New Yorkers will have another opportunity to dance with Matt THIS SATURDAY, July 23rd, at 4pm, the full details are here. They’re asking people to RSVP so they know how many to expect.

It’s a lot of fun, I highly recommend going. It doesn’t matter if you can dance or not, I can’t dance as you can see. They’re going to be teaching us a dance this time, and if I make the final cut you will see me struggling and failing to learn whatever they’re trying to teach us.

I’ve been learning the Mary Murphy salsa routine for National Dance Day, (National Dance Day was started by Congressman Eleanor Holmes Norton and it’s being promoted by the So You Think You Can Dance people). Last year they had only one routine for people to learn, a hip hop routine, and I tried and tried and couldn’t do it.

I must not have been the only one because this year they have three routines, an advanced hip hop, an intermediate hip hop, and Mary’s salsa routine which is so beginner a six year old can do it they say. I wish there was a beginner a hip hop routine to learn, but the salsa is fun too. Except I have to stop the video on every step and work on it for a while in order to do it, and I still can’t do the botafogo step at 5:11 in the video.

People lazing out in Bryant Park behind the New York Public Library. I remember when you didn’t want to go into Bryant Park, it wasn’t safe, it was filled with drug dealers, etc. Then it was restored in the 80’s by Dan Biederman (the son of a friend of my mother’s) and Andrew Heiskell, who had formed the Bryant Park Corporation. What a feat that was. How did they even get permission to begin? You can get some on the story in the Wikipedia entry which is fascinating, but it doesn’t tell how they sold the city on letting them try. What a triumph though. This isn’t really showing the prettiest parts or anything, I just liked the expanse of this shot.

I’ve posted before about a video I watched that suggested doing five things every day for 21 days and you’d be happier. It worked for me and I continue to do the five things to this day, except for me it was four. I messed up writing them down and ended up combing two things into one.

I’ve tried many times to find the video again, but I was never successful until yesterday. Here it is. And these are the five things.

– Write down three new things you are grateful for each day.
– Journal (his word not mine) about one positive experience you’ve had that day.
– Exercise.
– Meditate.
– Do one random act of kindness.

Here’s what I did. You can see how my first thing is a mash-up of his first two. But it worked, probably because it’s so close.

– Write down three new things that made you happy that day.
– Exercise.
– Meditate.
– Do one random act of kindness.

I know you’re looking at those first two things on his list and thinking “gag me,” but watch the video and listen to his explanation for suggesting them.

A garden at the end of an alley. Where I’d be having my coffee if this were my courtyard.