Ain’t it just?

It’s teeming rain out there and the sky is dark. Resolutely unsunny. The still green leaves on the tree in front of our living room window adds just the right amount of color. Nobody is awake and I’ve got my coffee and my computer.

It’s a perfect day to do nothing and feel completely justified in it.

It’s also a perfect day to mull, write, bake cookies, clean a closet, read a book, play the guitar. do sit ups…

But whatever you do don’t go out. And if you do, put on your green wellies and a really good raincoat.

Don’t forget to take an umbrella.

Get over to Eat, Drink, Memory. She’s feeling scanda-liciously cookie-ish. And there’s an oatmeal cookie recipe.

Save one for me, Saucy Tart (aka Mrs. Cleavage).

This from NY1:

Swimmers at a Brooklyn YMCA will soon get a brand new place to practice their strokes.

A groundbreaking was held today for the new Aquatics Center at the Prospect Park YMCA. The nearly $6 million pool is being built to replace the current pool which opened in 1927.

The new pool will feature more lanes and increased accommodations for members with special needs.

“We definitely have a huge demand in this community for more aquatics programs,” said YMCA Vice President of Operations Sean Andrews. “We’re going to be able to serve over a thousand local school children with free swimming lessons as a result of the pool and really expand its capacity.”

The new pool is slated to be complete by 2009.

Where else?

I did NANOWRIMO a few years back. It’s the basis of the novel I am now revising. It’s called “The Last Sublet” and if you’re interested in taking a look let me know.

There will be BROOKLYN Meetups and Write-Ins Once a week:

Tuesday’s at the Union Street Tea Lounge from 7 pm until late.

Thursdays (starting 11/8) will be in Williamsburg at the Alligator Lounge on Metropolitan Avenue (free brick oven pizza with every drink!) from 7-ish to late.

NANO WRIMO IS (here’s the blurb):

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

In 2006, we had over 79,000 participants. Nearly 13,000 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.

So, to recap:

What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month’s time.

Who: You! We can’t do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let’s write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.

Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era’s most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.

When: Sign-ups begin October 1, 2007. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.

Still confused? Just visit the How NaNoWriMo Works page!

So how often did you laugh? Or did you just ignore Clever Doc’s first question? Clever Doc says that laughing, chuckling or smiling is good for you. Losing that ability is a danger sign. 

Here’s another post from from Clever Doc, also known as Linda Hawes Clever, friend of OTBKB and the founder of Renew.

A super-achiever with a streak of the Type-A, she’s a medical doctor and an occupational health specialist with a national reputation for activism and for professional and community service. In her work with Renew, she’s helping people battle the spiritual and physical exhaustion that zaps energy and the ability to live in the moment.

Just look around you on the subway, in the office, at school? Doesn’t everyone look hap hap happy?

MOST CHILDREN LAUGH 60 or more times a day. What happened to us? Our responsibilities grew; our simple pleasures diminished. We may be scattered or pressed. The first renewing question, “How many times did you really laugh yesterday?” checks out our sense of humor and fun.

Laughing, chuckling, or smiling is good for us; losing the ability is a danger signal.

Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist who survived the Holocaust although his family was killed, is the author of a short, must-read book called, "Man’s Search for Meaning." In it he describes his efforts to conduct sense-of-humor workshops for fellow concentration camp inmates. 

Even in the midst of unimaginable horrors, Frankl discovered, laughing breaks a downward spiral and lifts us out of the muck. Even for a moment, life changes for the better.

On a more personal note, I have a colleague who avoids human downers and seeks out people who make her laugh. Laughing buoys her in the moment and also leaves good memories.

Now, let’s talk about learning. Learning helps us refresh, do better at work or home; expand horizons and, therefore, enhance freedom and choices.

Learning provides the savory pleasure of understanding our world, our neighborhood, maybe ourselves.

HERE is the Second Question:

2. How would you describe your recent learning?

–Haven’t learned a new subject in the last year (0 points)

–I’m focused exclusively on what I know (1 point)

–I read or search widely beyond my basics (2 points)

–I take courses outside my basics (3 points)

–I teach others (4 points)

Pastor Daniel Meeter wants to thank the community for their interest and participation in the conversation about the homeless men wh live on the steps of Old First Church.

A large number of people saw his original post on the Old First Blog, on the New York Times’s blog, City Room, and on OTBKB. At next week’s Park Slope Civic Council meeting there will be a discussion of this matter.

It is all very gratifying to Pastor Meeter who believes that the community can work together to find a solution to this vexing problem.

On his blog, there’s a update on this developing story.

There are some new facts on the ground. On Sunday afternoon, the cops were called in twice by neighbors. I have to say the cops were great.

As I left the church on Sunday evening, I found a steel bar the guys were keeping as a weapon. On Monday morning I learned that the men had been urinating in front of nursery school children and into their play-yard. On Monday evening a deacon confirmed to me that the men had exposed themselves in front of children while urinating.

Yesterday Frank showed me his face, very badly bruised. He told me had fallen, but I don’t believe him. His face tells a different story. This morning I removed a blanket with blood stains on it.

“It’s come to this, oh yes, it’s come to this.” (I guess I always expected it would come to this.)

I have been denying them permission to sleep on our grounds since last July, but I found it impossible to enforce. As of this morning, the Commander of Precinct 78 agreed with me that the police would enforce it…

READ THE REST ON PASTOR MEETER’S BLOG.

This from New York 1:

A 12-year-old student at I.S. 2-11 in Canarsie died October 14th. By this past Monday, city health officials had lab information confirming the death was due to an antibiotic-resistant staph infection.

The Department of Health says parents at the school were notified Thursday, but they are assuring them this was an isolated incident. DOH also does not believe the infection has been passed on to any other students.

Health officials say they have no definitive data at this point on just how the Brooklyn student contracted MRSA.

The Heath Department is reminding everyone that most staph infections are treatable and fatal cases are rare. It has also advised schools on how to prevent and reduce the risk of infection.

Rabbi Bachman responds eloquently to Pastor Meeter’s post and proposes a Community Clean-Up Crew. Here’s an excerpt from his blog, Notes.

"Old First is in the middle of Seventh Avenue–not an easy place for a House of Worship. It’s across the street from Key Food and next door to La Bagel Delight. Nearby are boutiques, jewelry stores, video/dvd shops, hair salons, and restaurants. Opposite its stoop are two of the most successful real estate agencies in Park Slope, where real estate prices increased 11% in the last year alone. That there are homeless people eating and sleeping and relieving themselves in the shadows of such economic growth and expression seems to be calling us to some kind of action, no?

So in the spirit of Nachum of Chernobyl, I propose a Community Clean-Up Crew. Different neighbors volunteer to take a day of the week and help Old First fulfill the mitzvah of hospitality. Do we need a public toilet? Do we need a warm meal program? Do we need a shelter? It seems to be the fair thing to offer. Those of us who don’t worship there walk past, drop a coin, smile, and move on–the systemic issue is on someone else’s stoop, so to speak.

But is that right? Seventh Avenue is a public stoop. And when you happen to be the House of God on Seventh Avenue, everyone is watching to make sure that the “right thing” is done, though everyone that’s watching may not be rolling up their sleeves to help.

So Rev. Meeter, consider yourself having a acquired a partner in this problem.

In the spirit of Abraham our Forefather, we are all sleeping on the stoop of Old First. We are all asking for money. We are all in need of a little human dignity.

Give us a day and we’ll help.

We will share your pain and share the blessing of what it is to serve."

READ THE REST ON ANDY’S BLOG.

Here’s a whole lot of information about Halloween in Brooklyn. There’s stuff happening all over the place. Thanks to the folks at A Child Grows in Brooklyn.

Guest blogger, Jill Di Donato, believes that anxiety can get in the way of a child’s success in school. To help remedy this, she runs a private practice in Brooklyn Heights
that caters to Brooklyn families looking to enrich their children’s
education and overall approach to learning.

With subject tutoring, test prep, writing workshops and academic advocacy, Jill works closely with teachers,
therapists, and school administrators. Interestingly, her approach incorporates not just academics but creative arts, and a mind-body connection.

Tune in to OTBKB for a continuing discussion by Jill of school anxiety in the digital
age, plus tips on how to effectively manage the challenges of schooling
in the city. 

NYC is home to some of the most progressive private schools and world-renown public schools, those in the know call, “magnets.” Competition is thick, as thousands of kids vie for a handful of coveted spots.

This weekend, scores of students will take the Specialized High School Exam. As parents, teachers, and educators, how can we build skills in our kids without bombarding them with demands?

When does ambition turn into anxiety, and when does it become a problem?

Given the climate of our fast-paced world, the term anxiety is thrown around a lot, especially when it comes to kids and the classroom. Do our high-tech advances add to the pressure?

Today’s students are flooded with sensory overload. Between the Myspace profiles, IM’s, and PSP’s, kids are carving out identities that are digitally heightened and amplified online. Such a saturation of stimuli might be especially distracting to kids already prone to anxiety. How can innovative technology enhance, not detract from the learning process?

For more information or to schedule an appointment with Jill you can reach her at academicadvocate(at)gmail.(dotcom)

A photographer working on a project called Out My Window contacted OTBKB in the hopes of finding more great places to take her photos.

This project is a series of
portraits in private spaces set against the view which reveals the
transformation of New York’s landscape.  The photographs will look at
how the landscape of 2007 is vastly different than the landscape that
preceded it, and how different that landscape will become.

The series will take me throughout New York’s five boroughs, to New
Jersey, and even to houseboats on the Hudson in order to photograph a
diverse set of people who live with the most interesting views of New
York. By "interesting," I do not mean to limit my search to the
classically beautiful view, although those could very well be included.

My photographs will include views made interesting by imposing
implementations of change—views obstructed by construction or
transformed by September 11th or interrupted by repurposing projects
(such as Columbia University’s migration into West Harlem.)

Please take a look at the project’s blog: 
http://outmywindownyc.blogspot.com/
I am hoping you will help me spread the word about this project so as
to find people who have interesting views.  Will you consider writing a
post about this project and/or adding the project’s blog to you links
section?  Any press would be greatly appreciated! 

Today would have been artist Jamie Livingston’s 50th birthday. It is also the 10th anniversary of his death. The following was written by his friend Risa Mickenberg in 1997. An exhibit of Jamie’s 6.600 Photos-of-the-Day is on view at Bard College through October 27th, 2007. A web site of all the photo’s will be rolled out shortly.

It’s
strange for someone to leave behind a record of every day of their
life. Or to obsessively follow a project whose only perfect completion
ends with their death.

Our work is always ahead of us. It
starts when we are born and it ends when we die – this work of seeing,
touching and affecting the world.

Jamie spread this collection out every year and examined it – reviewed it.

Our
lives are a flood of images and we are collectors who keep a strange
assortment of images: moments of extreme emotion, pain, beauty, and
fear stand out. Events we’re taught to remember: weddings, graduations,
births, deaths.

Then there are the millions of images that we
can’t shake out of our heads, that come to us at strange times – things
we can’t remember why we remember: the gold threads in an old stereo
speaker, the way the light hit a thousand cars in a parking lot by the
water, the face of a stranger in a restaurant, a friend standing in a
pool – you can’t remember where, slapping the water with the flat of
her hand.

Memory is a sieve that holds curious things. A life is a trail of strange, colorful memories.

Jamie’s
Photo-of-the-Day works like a life. A still moment from every day for
years. Remains of the day, immortalized. It is a selection: what we
choose to remember, what we add to our collection of days.

There was no set time of day.  It was when the mood struck: this is what I will take.

It’s an accumulation, a collection, a life’s work.

Risa Mickenberg wrote this soon after Jamie’s death in 1997. She is a writer and a member of the band,  Jesus H Christ & The 4 Hornsmen of the Apocalypse.

The Park Slope Halloween Parade, sponsored by the Park Slope Civic Council, is still the wonderful event it has always been.

On Wednesday, October 31, the parade starts at 6:30 pm at 7th Avenue
and 12th Street and proceeds  to Union Street.

Participants may join
the parade at any point along the route. The usual Parade bands –
Paprika and The Eternal Buzz Brass Band will be on hand.