
I saw this mysterious fairy door next to a normal sized door in Brooklyn awhile back.

I saw this mysterious fairy door next to a normal sized door in Brooklyn awhile back.

Y and I go for evening walks after dinner. I took the photo above on one such walk during June of 2020. The city was relatively quiet during the day, but it was even more so at night. This is a one-way side street between Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill. Residences–some might have once been stables–are on the right side and the back of neighboring residences are on the left. In the background on the left side is a small park.

Despite being scrawled with a paint marker by an anonymous tagger on a filthy concrete support column in the Home Depot parking lot on 3rd Avenue in Brooklyn, NY, I paused to ruminate on its written message, “Stop Being Afraid Ⓐ.” Perhaps contemplating this message will be beneficial to you, too.
I had a fun and productive time during this year’s Spring Recess in our new home of Brooklyn. I read three brain-related books: Maryanne Wolf’s Proust and the Squid, Michael Moskowitz’s Reading Minds, and Antonio Damasio’s Looking for Spinoza. I took the subway to Manhattan twice with Y and Little My to visit Kinokuniya Bookstore, Sun Rise Market, Uncle Sam’s Army Surplus, the New York Public Library, and Washington Square. I picked up an M65 field jacket and put together an EDC kit. I walked to Microcenter twice–each time scoring a free 16GB flash drive thanks to a new coupon promotion. To cap the week off, I completed a draft of my PARSE documentation for advancement at City Tech and posted assignments for tomorrow’s classes on OpenLab. Now, I feel ready to see this semester through to the end.
A question for my students: how did was your week away from the college? Are you ready to see things through?