Andrew from New York writes:

when i was home last, i made a visit to Ptown to visit my sister alycia.
she took me to this cool coffee shop called bipartisan.
i loved the contrasting colors of the dumpster and scenery behind the building and took a shot.

your orange dumpster reminded me of it.

I liked the light and the contrast between the green tree and gray sky with the orange dumpster. Travis and I were skating around a Cash & Carry parking lot in The Pearl District, Portland.

Inside the dumpster was rotting food. Some of it still looked edible. Thirty minutes into skating around the parking lot a maroon van drives by, circles the block, and pulls up next to the dumpster. The driver gets out to inspect the contents. The van sat idling. The passenger looked toward the dumpster.

Ten or fifteen seconds later the driver got back into the van and drove off. I wondered, ‘How many people frequent this dumpster?’ as I skated back toward Travis who was trying to master a ledge.

-by Andrew Sundberg—Written after staying up way to late on a work night.

Rolling out of bed, groggy and pissed
“One more snooze baby?”
Eyes lazy and resisting opening with all their might
One pant leg on
mouthwash
coffee percolating
lunch in bag – now in backpack
wash my hair
find my wallet – unplug the cell
socks now – argyle, one at a time
shoes laced
tie cinched
check hair
adjust hair
“I need a haircut”
check hair again
Gear up the iPod
stumble down stairs
Strolling into darkness
“I’ll try the 6 to the 5 train this morning – something new”
Spill my coffee in the middle of commuters’ sleeping feet
Pulling into the next station, I watch it trickle maliciously toward another army of shoes and bags
two napkins seem futile.
turnstile hits my thigh, up stairs to the dingy sprawl of the Bronx
“Damn.”
The BX-19 floats mockingly by.
a good excuse for a morning stroll I suppose
60 feet above the East River, I am in love
in love with this city – its people
a Pez dispenser head nod comes from Xavier and Alyn on the next bus – smiling ridiculously through the smudged window.
“Wake up, wake up” pours through my headphones and I heed its advice
a mob of pigeons float upward eclipsing the brick high rises towering in the distance
morning air swallows me whole
perfect morning

New York City correspondent, Andrew Sundberg, submitted some photos from his adventures in his foster city. In June Sundberg and his wife Ainsley moved to New York so he could teach at Harlem Village Academies.

See more of Andrew’s photos here.

I stumbled upon the MSN WiFi Hotspot Locator today while doing a project at work. Pretty nifty. The results look good too. You can see on a map where all the locations exist and in the upper left there is a box with the names of the locations and contact info.

I could’ve used this the other night when I was out searching for a cafe in my neighborhood that had free WiFi. I eventually settled on Uptown Espresso.

Check out the MSN WiFi Hotspot Locator and happy internetting in public.

While I was in NYC my friend Sundberg passed me his iPod Touch with a video queued up. He told me to press play, which I did. When the beat dropped I was hooked like a sea bass. All the kids in his class were doing the dance. Check out the video below and then the instructional video:

Crank That Video

Instructional Video

Yesterday my wife, Faith, and I flew into New York City on a red eye flight from Seattle. I didn’t sleep.

We stepped out of the airport to wait for our taxi in the bright sunlight. The wind picked up and chilled all of us waiting in line for a taxi.

The taxi ride was an adventure. We loaded our bags and got in the back seat. The drive said, “Where are we going?” I told him from some directions I got from the woman who is letting us stay in her apartment for a couple days. We were off.

Most of the ride was uneventful exept for the last stretch where we were all looking for the apartment. The cab driver turned off the meter so we could figure out some directions and call Bridget. It was 6 a.m. in Seattle, 9 a.m. in New York. We knew were going to wake her, hopefully sleeping safely, in our condo on lower Queen Anne. After a couple tries so answered. Then she helped us get back on track and arrive at her front door.

While on a recent camping trip with family we stopped through Leavenworth, WA for Oktoberfest. The streets were littered with tourists and outdoor tents popped up all over empty lots. One of these tents was selling used books and as I walked by the book pictured above caught my attention for two reasons: 1) The typography and color, 2) The title is wonderful. It could be for a novel or gritty short story or even a quality film. At first, I didn’t want to take a picture because we were moving pretty fast looking for food, but I sucked it up and went back to snap the photo. Who doesn’t want to know how to stay off of dead-end streets?

This afternoon I took the 74 from Fremont to Queen Anne and I over heard a conversation between four high school-aged girls talking excitedly about ditching school. An older lady, probably in her fifties, looked on in disbelief. Her facial expressions were not hard to decipher. She was even leaning forward to hear more about what these girls were saying. I kept thinking, ‘How come none of these girls care if anyone overhears their conversion?’

The girls were conspiring to commit identity fraud by having one bold girl call their school posing as another girl’s mother or friend of the family. One girl actually called the school and when she hung up the phone, in victory, another girl said, “Ok call for me now.”

This morning I was tipped off to Powder.com where I saw a big picture of my friend and evo owner Bryce Phillips on the homepage.

Typically, I visit these sites and feel emotionally removed from the models, public figures, athletes, but that changes when you actually know the person in the photo and have worked with them closely for the past couple of years.

It’s very rewarding to see the right people getting coverage. Kudos to Powder for promoting such a solid person and athlete. Oh, by the way, Bryce skis for K2. Usually, I see him putting together business deals, but many of you have probably seen photos of him launching off a huge cliff. If the photo is zoomed in enough you can even see a smile on his face.