Presque Isle Beginning to Thaw

Presque Isle is Erie's bright spot among the dreariness. College students frequent it's sandy beaches when spring has warmed the earth; runners, bikers, walkers, skaters, all enjoy the paths and dozens of trails designed for their escape into nature; the state's endangered, threatened, and rare species feel safe among the sand, tall grass, ragged trees, and rough waters. A National Natural Landmark and Pennsylvania State Park, Presque Isle welcomes those in search of a new kind of beach away from the urban decay, where, even in the cold, you can come and enjoy the great outdoors.

Coast Guard Station

Fenced in and hard to get a picture of, I had to settle for a picture of the sign. Unwelcoming to guests I chose to explore around the Coast Guard Station instead. What intrigued me the most was the floating houses right next door.
                                                         

                                                          Floating Houses next to Coast Guard Station

Shocked by the sight of such an architectural wonder I felt compelled to stop right away to capture the floating houses on camera. If i could have a i would have stolen one of the canoes on the shore and paddled over to a house to explore how such a phenomena worked. Maybe this isn't so amazing to other people who have witnessed it but it was quite a shock to me.

A Trail Near Beach 11

After the light dusting of snow we received in "Dreary Erie" overnight the trails were all soaking wet and I was glad I wore my boots. Everything was so brown and dry looking that the muddy puddles at eye level was my solution to try and make the trail look interesting.

                     Beach 11

Usually I don't like taking pictures at the beach because I find it difficult to work with just water and sand but this time I felt inspired. Walking into the water, crouching into the sand, climbing giant sand dunes only after realizing there was a sign that read "danger keep off": that was what my day at the beach had me doing in order to take pictures worthy of New Media.

North Pier

Unwilling to walk out to the lighthouse I decided to climb a giant sand pile to get a better view instead. Amidst the trees the pier was seen in a whole other light.

                   Beach 9 

Unable to find a Pine Tree Beach, the icey waters of Beach 9 caught my eye as I drove by. Up to this point I had not seen any frozen water to hint at the harsh winter we had experienced this year.


Lighthouse Gazebo Monument

With the sun out for a change it was necessary to capture the affect it had on the top of the iron gazebo-like structure outside the lighthouse. The sunlight was a beautiful sight to see as it shed some like on the dark iron and dark tree branches which will hopefully be covered in leaves soon.


             Lighthouse

Like the Coast Guard Station the Lighthouse was also fenced off because apparently it is private property. Slightly discouraged I went out onto the beach and found the back way which got me closer to the lighthouse and more able to take somewhat decent pictures. Run down and aged, the lighthouse looked like a cool place to live.

The Yellow Bike Rentals

I saw this sign for a rental store but nothing close by looked like a rental store; perhaps it was just closed down during the winter. When it gets warmer I may have to check that out because if they have one of those bikes like on the sign I would love to try it out.



               Rotary Shelter

The Rotary Shelter looked like a fun place to spend hot summer days, maybe paddle boating on the pond then riding a rental bike and finally taking a dip in the lake. This shelter reminded me of family parties at the pavilions at the beach near my house.



Water Works Ferry Dock

Across the street from the bike rental and rotary shelter was the water works ferry dock where I saw most of the few people I witnessed on my journey around Presque Isle. Two bundled up men and a kid in a wheelchair were fishing off the dock which seemed kind of off because I would expect that the fish would bite better outside of that tiny little L-cove.






                              Ranger Station

The Ranger Station was a pretty uneventful site amidst the natural wonders of Presque Isle. It didn't even look like anyone was inside and there was only one car parked out front. The good part about the Ranger Station was there was a map on which I still could not find anything called Pine Tree Beach.


Frozen Log

This frozen log had me completely captivated. In the slideshow below are two more pictures of nature's handiwork. From the side the icicles looked like giant fangs, from the top like flowers made of ice sprouting from the log, and from the angle to your left the log looks a bit like a dinosaur to me.


                               Beach 6



Unlike Beach 11 or Beach 9, Beach 6 had a ledge of snow/ice that hung over where the water met the sand. Walking onto the ice from the sand was a dramatic change of texture under my feet, which i could feel even through my thick boots. The snow ledge looked like a rock gorge carved out by a river.






Stull Interpretive Center

Finally, I ended my trip to the peninsula with a stop at the Stull Interpretive Center, the first place I had ever been to on Presque Isle for my freshmen orientation service learning project.







Here is a slideshow with some additional pictures I took while at Presque Isle

Social Bookmarking

This is my Delicious bookmark account

Social bookmarking is good if I have a website that I need but I have to use a computer other than my laptop. It also helps if I want to share a website with friends or even strangers. However, I don't find it to be all that exciting. It's a glorified favorites/bookmarks and it seems kind of pointless.

Adirondaks winter weekend

This is a slideshow from my photobucket account of the weekend I spent in the Adirondaks with my dad over Christmas break.
Here at photobucket you can view other photos I have uploaded.

Sharing photos like this can help my social life because if people see my pictures and enjoy them we could strike up a conversation and start chatting about other things. Which is similar to the way that photo sharing could help me in business. If a company were to see my designs on my photobucket they could offer me a job without me having to search them out. It also provides an easier way to create my portfolio, instead of lugging around several pieces of paper or other media I could instead just offer a link to my photobucket so agencies could see and judge my work. In addition, I can see the work of my peers and the competition I am up against or new things that people are working on. Also, my peers can leave comments to critique my work. In the end, sharing photos is just as helpful for social networking as a discussion board.

On the other hand, there are also potential social problems with photo sharing. When pictures are posted of you that are inappropriate (like underage drinking) a parent or boss or coach could see it and could induce serious consequences. A picture like that could ruin your reputation. Cops have even used photos posted of people to charge them with crimes that they otherwise could have gotten away with. In addition, photos not set to private could be seen by sexual predators. As well, people could steal your pictures and use them for profit or a cause that you don't agree with. So for every new technological advancement there is always pros and cons.

Another Limited Rebellion

For this weeks weekly blog I would like to share a very cool site that I found with the graphics majors. It's called Another Limited Rebellion and it's a collection of activist design posters in kind of a blog format. I happened upon this site when researching ideas for designing an activist poster for KEEP (a group against building a tire burning plant in Erie). This is one of the areas of graphic design that I am personally very interested in so I check the website for new designs consistently. My favorite so far is the Unicef Campaign in China. Here's an example:

The sign reads, "Don't ignore me." This was created by the Ogilvy & Mather Shanghai Agency. Other examples of causes the designs are portraying are: Africa and AIDS, Israeli Apartheid, Green Earth, Water in Africa, and Rethinking the Environment. I encourage designers to visit this website, Another Limited Rebellion, for inspiration and design therapy.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0, overall, is a more user friendly view of the web that acts as a platform for networking and sharing ideas, not just a source of information. The term was used first at the O'Reily Media Web 2.0 Conference which described it as a business revolution because of the way the term changed the utilization of the web.

The benefits of web 2.0 are seen most in the business world where suppliers can offer quick and easy service to companies through pay services on the web making business more efficient and cheaper. In addition, with the networking capabilities of web 2.0 a company can start a buzz about their product through discussion boards, as well as, advertisements. Other benefits include being able to collaborate with branches of a company all over the world with the use of wikis. For the everyday person, web 2.0 means faster and better communication with friends or strangers. College and high school students aren't the only ones on facebook anymore, older people are joining and reconnecting with the people they grew up with.

While the benefits are many, there are also some cons to web 2.0. The ease with which you can connect with others allows some unsavory behavior. It is widely known that sex offenders often prowl sites like myspace or facebook to try and catch a young girl or boy in their web. Many parents fear web 2.0 because they don't like how easy it is for their children to meet strangers and they have little way of controlling their child's actions online.

For more clarification on what web 2.0 means here is a short video:

The Dark Side of Erie on a Sunny Day

This past Friday my roomates and I discovered parts of Erie that scared us, but also made us wonder what Erie looked like in the days of the industrial revolution. Most of the decay we witnessed was old factory buildings and automotive garages. Our first stop was on the corner of Parade and East 12th St., where we saw three dilapidated buildings. The first was a place that used to be called Truck Shed:

Tuck Shed, shed, some light on the what kind of decay we were about to experience in erie. Overgrown brown grass shrouding broken windows and boarded up doors. It was sad to see such a bright color red tarnished by the wear and tear of the decades of Erie winters. It was tempting to try and crawl through the broken window but lots of cop cars were continually driving by. In the peak of it's years I'm sure the truck shed was just another automotive garage amongst the many in Erie. And so we went on to the next building just across 12th street. The building didn't have a sign or anything to let us know what it was, just a For Sale sign.

The first of many broken down brick buildings we would see, the for sale building begged the question--what could you do to enhance this worn out building if you purchased it? The building was not near anything remotely appealing to the public so making it into a store would be difficult because many people might be afraid to go to that area of the city. We had some guy yell at us from his car while he was sitting at a red light. The location would probably discourage most people from using the building as a home too. And with the economy today it seems unlikely that anyone will be buying that building anytime soon. Next we went to the building next door which was a restaurant that looked to be closed or shut down, called Big City Tastebuds: Fine Soul Food.

This building really made me wonder wether it was legit or not. The signs seemed legit and there were no windows to look in but the broken windows on the upper floors and the couch and junk that was in the back made it seem like people had recently moved out of the building and shut down the restaurant. I guess I'll never know. Anyway, the next decaying building we came upon was on the courner of the Bayfront Connector and East 12th St. The roof of the building was the best example of the decay so I handed the camera to my roomate Kim to take the picture while we were at a red light. This building was the Erie Mill.

It was fairly evident that this building was not being used anymore. I wonder how much snow accumulated in there during the winter, especially this winter. Seeing buildings like this makes me sad because it seems like such a waste. Why is urban sprawl occurring when we should instead focus on revitalizing the inner urban areas. When the light turned green we were off, continuing down East 12th St. to the Holland Garage. Another automotive garage wasting away.

In this case it wasn't necessarily the garage that was decaying but the cars outside the garage. The garage, while it may have had lots of graffiti, didn't look as bad as the cars outside. Like the decaying buildings the decaying cars were also a sad site to see because of the rusting metal just sitting there with no purpose. Following the garage we drove back down 12th St. back the way we came until we arrived at the Hedlund Glass & Auto Seat Cover on the corner of Holland and East 12th St. This building caught my eye because of the chipping paint and bars on the windows.

Whenever I see bars on windows its like an automatic warning to leave but not this time. It was bright and sunny out and there were lots of cars on the road so we felt safe. Plus lots of cop cars were out and about as well. This building ended up being not that interesting except for the barred windows and chipping paint. It was basically a giant box of yellow brick and i can only imagine how gloomy it was inside. Next we continued down East 12th St. to Plum where we explored outside the Keystone Foundry.

The best part about this building was the empty, rusty oil drums by the shipping/receiving dock. They were decaying and deformed and their colors were dull but the combination made a hauntingly beautiful pattern. In addition to the drums, the sign for the Keystone was also interesting because it looked like something was glued to it briefly but then taken off again. The weirdest part about most of these places was even though some of them were still in use they all seemed abandoned; no one was going in or out which made us feel awkward. Next we drove around the block to Raspberry St. and saw a factory with the windows blown out but no where to park so another picture from the car would have to suffice.

Like the oil drums the broken windows created a great pattern as well. While i didn't get a close up look of the Sawpiano Co. the outside made me wonder what the building must have been used for when it was used. Now and empty building was there a lot of hustle and bustle around this building, did it blow smoke out the top, could you see people working diligently through the windows once? After passing this building we began to head down 12th St towards State St. and stopped in an empty parking lot that was basically an area of gravel with one other car parked. Behind the offices of Real Iron Company, at 645 W 12th St., was a part of the building that was almost completely demolished.

This building was the most interesting to photograph. It looked as if someone started taking it down but ended up just pounding three giant holes in the walls. It even looked like there was a wheel for spinning thread on the upper level. In the one picture of the inside of the building the wall looks like its throwing up bricks. Why was the demolition of this building never completed? Then next to this building was a brown building that looked like it was out of a horror movie. Part of the Erie Works Tool Co. this building was surrounded by barbed wire.

Of all the buildings we saw this was definitely the scariest of them all. When I look at the pictures I picture some evil person torturing people inside or Jason hiding out in there during the day to come out at night. Something about the rotting, dark brown wood. We got out of here when we saw some people walking towards us and were on our way again. Our next stop was at the Metropolitan which looked like it was once called the Daka Paper Co.

If the grime on the windows from this building were combined with the last building that would make the creepiest building i've ever seen. What causes grime like that to accumulate? Overall, this building was kind of boring so we quickly left and kept driving. Our next stop was the Erie Paint Co. on the corner of E 14th St. and State St.

The boarded up windows and feeling of abandonment was starting to get old at this point. I was starting to feel lonely and abandoned like the buildings I was photographing. Why must things fall by the wayside? Also on State St. we explored the back of the restaurant Calamari's.

While Calamari's is pretty well known restaurant in Erie there is considerable urban decay in the back. If I worked there I would be scared to leave at night because it's like a bad dark alley back there. Now it makes sense why action movies always take place in cities, because they offer the perfect set for fear, anxiety, and excitement. And in this particular alley another building intrigued us, the Sanner Office Supply building.

The best part of this building was definitely the rusty fire ladder. As the last building on our tour of downtown Erie we were getting cold and tired. Three hours driving and walking around Erie can be a pretty tiring experience but it was worth it to see the behind the scenes view of the city that i live in for three fourths of the year.

Favorite song

My favorite song by the singer/songwriter who inspired the title for this blog: Jack Johnson.

Spring Break!

Unlike a lot of college students who traveled south for a vacation, I headed back north to my hometown in Rochester, New York and worked over break.  Now most people hear that and they think, "oh how boring," but they don't know what it's like where I work.  You see, I work for the school district that I live in, on the grounds crew.  It's definitely the best job of the three minimum wage jobs I've had so far in my short employment history.  In the summer I am the "grounds gardener" of sorts but as the weather gets colder I get to work more with the guys and deliver packages and food from the schools in the district, we also rake leaves, salt the walkways, shovel, and other minor tasks.  I work with all guys and it's always fun to listen to their inappropriate jokes and anecdotes.  Sometimes they even bicker, whine, and gossip like little girls.

Thus, this past break was by no means boring.  One day at lunch I had to help them with a dispute that was started with one of the mechanics, Robbie, who was trying to explain that humans came out of Africa.  Before I continue it's important to understand that these men live in the sticks and can be very crude at times and make socially unacceptable comments.  Robbie's statement angered another mechanic, Ronnie, who truely believed that his ancestors were vikings and had always been from the north.  Ronnie just kept saying "Are you calling me black?" and "So do I have to go around with my pants down at my knees and saying fo shizzle?"  Eventually, Patrick, another non believer, asked my opinion and I had to tell them that it was true that the oldest human remains came out of Africa and that race is basically an irrelevant socially constructed concept because 99.99% of all human DNA is identical.  Robbie was pleased and continued to gloat the rest of lunch as they played blackjack--not for money of course because that's a "career ender" as Ronnie would put it.  

Another day when I was making deliveries with Patrick and he brought his police scanner that he got from his cousin who works for the state troopers.  All day we listened to the IPD pulling over "violators" and responding to domestic disturbances.  The best was the half hour drama at the the Dollar Tree store.  An officer came over the radio saying that someone reported the store looking as if it were open but the door was locked.  The officers banged on the doors and waited outside for 15 minutes.  At one point an officer who was at the back door came over the radio reporting, "We hear movement inside but no one is answering the door...I don't have a good feeling about this."  Then they banged on the back door so hard that the alarm went off at the store and they had to call all sorts of managers before one was finally reached that could turn off the alarm system.  Sadly, in the end, we missed what happened when the police finally got in the store because we did have to work somewhat. 

Overall, my spring break in the cold Rochester winter was fun even without going south to keep warm and relax.  Instead I got to enjoy the antics of my fellow co-workers who make sure work is never dull or monotonous like so many other minimum wage jobs out there.