I was able to kick off the week shooting the second phase of this really cool installation at the roof garden of the Met, for Curatedmag. It was really cool to A. be in the Met when it is not open, and B. have that exclusive view from 40 above the deck of the roof garden. More, over here.

Now, we turn to overcomma-fication. A while back (over a year ago), I decided that I was going to start using less commas. Yes, I feel like legal writing has pretty much tainted my writing style forever. I know that I destroy all of my sentences with the way that I punctuate the crap out of them. But the funny part is that I was apparently anonymously called out on it, yesterday. Reagan had this bright idea of putting an anonymous submission form on her blob. She had it posted for like 20 seconds, and one of the first questions she received included this: “can you please teach jake how to use commas? his blog would be so good, but he is comma happy.”

Hahahahah. Sorry, anon. If it is any consolation, I haven’t been able to stop saying “awesome” either (which was another item of things to correct, in the list that I linked to above). Here is an (redacted) example of the insanely long run-on sentences that I have to deal with on a daily basis:

MEZZANINE C CASH MANAGEMENT AGREEMENT (this “Agreement”), dated as of June XXXXXXXX, among XXXXXXX, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (“Borrower”), having an address at XXXXX Street, XXXXX, Maui, Hawaii XXXXX; XXXXXXX BANK, N.A., a national banking association, having an address at XXXXXXX Road, Suite XXXX, XXXXXXX, California [zip] (“Agent”); and XXXXXXXXXX INC., a Delaware corporation, having an address at XXXXXXXXXXX, New York, New York [zip] (“Lender”).

You get the idea. After seeing that many commas in every sentence that I read at work, I must subconsciously feel like I’m not using enough of them, or something. I have pretty much been ruined. I think that part of it is the way that I haphazardly string my sentences together. It’s not that I don’t know what normal punctuation looks like, either. I read massive amounts of newspapers and magazines. What’s worse, is that when I’m proofreading a post, I will go through removing commas and it still ends up with way too many. I’m am so obsessed about it, that at one point I actually dug up some of my old articles from college, to see if I had the same issue back then. I didn’t. It really is something that has only started to plague me since law school.

So, anon, there, you, have, it. I don’t blame you if you can’t get past the commas, the “hahaha”s and the “awesome”s. But, at least you know I’m working on it, right? Hehe

Photo: DJ Shadow by Zach Dilgard

I first discovered DJ Shadow on one of my downtempo Pandora stations. He is probably most famous for the track “Organ Donor.” I feel like most people know that track when they hear it, even if they don’t know DJ Shadow. Anyway, he has some really good mixes, and a pretty broad range of sound. The track that I’m sharing today is called “My Way.” It is from the “Outsider” album. Give it a spin.

^—closely studying her favorite monkey birthday card.

^—-being tickled

^—-goofing off outside. She enjoyed it much more today, since it was overcast, and she didn’t have sunscreen in her eyes.

Click through here, for a few more.

Alright this evaluation is a day late, and the one below is a week and one day late. But here goes. Last week, I earned and “I,” for “incomplete.” That is nicer than an F, right? Plus, I really was sick, and I went from zero miles for 10 days, straight to a 14 mile run. So, I couldn’t just give myself an F. Total Miles last week=14.27. So, whatev. I’m already on track for a perfect score, this week.

As for the weekend ending on August 7th. I tried to tough it out, at the beginning of the week, even though I was getting sicker as the week progressed. I managed to fire off just shy of 35 miles before making the decision to lay low. But I do feel like a complete dud for missing my 18 mile run that was scheduled for that Saturday. All factors considered, I’m going to score that week with a C+. Definitely not my best, but certainly not the worst.

Here’s to being able to breathe!

Reagan picked up a little hat for Piper, in hopes that it would help her deal better with the bright conditions, when we take her outside. So when we arrived at Piper’s house on Saturday, we slathered her all up with sunscreen and put her little hat on, and started to walk her outside. The walking went great! It was a little bit dark in the halls, because apparently they were testing some new generators, or something. This made the light/dark contrast even more drastic, when we finally got outside. Piper’s reaction was not the best, hehehe.

Poor little thing. She was rubbing her eyes like crazy. Which was really bad, because then they got sunscreen in them. I don’t think that she enjoyed her trip outside today. But she sure looked cute.

There are a few more shots from our Saturday visit, over here.

And to cap things off, here is a short poorly lit, poorly focused video of Piper walking.

In June, I saw this crazy thing called a burgermelt (a Friendly’s invention, consisting of a burger between two grilled cheese sandwiches) on the internet, and asked Reagan to make it for me. She totally did it.  So, last weekend, when I saw this thing called a Fried Cheese Melt, which is apparently a new addition to the menu at Denny’s (it is a grilled cheese sandwich with fried mozzarella sticks in the middle),  I once again forwarded the link to Reagan, asking her if she could make it. Friday night, when I arrived at my house, Reagan had already purchased all of the stuff to make it. She even fried her own mozzarella sticks!

The finished product came out better that it looked in the Denny’s photo (and I’m sure tasted better, too).

So good.

Don’t you love those weeks where you are so busy that they just fly past and before you even realize it, they are over? I love those weeks (but I hate when that happens on vacation). I have been too busy to even shave (see above). The shot above is perfect evidence of why I should spend my time behind the camera, not in front of it, hahaha. A guy that I was working at an event with, on Wednesday night, grabbed my camera and snapped one of me. I have seriously never felt less attractive, than I have in the couple of weeks. My tan is faded, I need a haircut, my skin is breaking out and I have bags under my eyes. Not a great combo.

Jessica White (below), on the other hand, was looking fabulous, that night. Ms. White was hosting the runway show Wednesday night. Can you believe that everyone is already starting to ramp up for fall fashion week? It is kind of exciting, because I love fashion week. But, it is kind of depressing, since that means that summer is basically done.

I dropped by PS11, again today, for Highsnob and had another great chat with my favorite Brazilian artists. Below is a shot of the finished piece, with Otavio shooting hoops in the foreground.

Thursday night, it was raining, so I didn’t run. No running today either. 14 miles tomorrow, it should be interesting, after so much time off.

I’m definitely looking forward to spending some time with Piper this weekend. Reagan and I have some pretty fun stuff planned, too.

To wrap things up– Ang tipped me off to an error that was happening in IE browsers when she was trying to comment. So, thanks for helping me troubleshoot, Ang. Also, my apologies to the other thousands, actually probably millions (hahahahaha) of people who have been experiencing the same frustrating problem while attempting to comment.

I hope that everyone has a fantastic weekend.

Tuesday, I dropped back by the piece that Os Gemeos are working on. This time, I was able to chat with Gustavo (above) for a while in Portuguese. I can’t tel you how great it was to chat with a Brazilian that has a proper Paulista accent (not to mention that it was cool to chat with him regardless dialect). He said that they are going to try to wrap this piece up by the end of the week. So, I’ll be back by there, probably tomorrow to shoot the finished product. The image below shows the progress, as of Tuesday afternoon (Moody Blues, anyone?).

I’m still not feeling 100%, but I can’t really take much more of a break from running, and expect to stay sane. If it isn’t raining tonight, I plan to resume with the training sched.. I’m a bit nervous, after taking a full week off. Thankfully my long run, slated for Saturday is only 14 miles. I will have a week to get back into the groove (Madonna, anyone?), before my 20 mile run next weekend.

The part that I’m really looking forward to, about the next two long runs, is that Summer Streets is currently in full effect. So, instead of doing my usual out-and-back down the Hudson River path, I can do Park Avenue, instead. Should be a blast, and a much welcomed change of scenery.

But, the biggest thing on my mind/load off of my mind, is that all of the nerd-stuff that I have been chipping away at for the last week and a half is finally resolved. Everything is now back in a relatively maintenance free stasis (fingers-crossed). I feel like I can finally get back to real life, and it isn’t a day too soon, because I am super behind on EVERYTHING.

Will Holland, a.k.a Quantic, is a man of man sounds. If you are a fan of music, then you will be a fan of something that he has done. I first started jamming to Quantic a few years ago, when “Pushin’ on” was released. I can’t really describe the flavor of that album, but it is hot. I strongly suggest that you check it out, if you don’t own it. Needless to say, I was pretty stoked, a few months ago, when I discovered that he had some new work coming out. His 2010 release is called “Quantic Presenta: Flowering Inferno, Dog With A Rope.” Keep in mind, this dude is British. Make sure that you have 6 minutes and 17 seconds to spare. Vocals don’t start until 3:14. Ok, now hear the track.. “Cumbia Sobre El Mar”

Photo: I don’t know who to credit, but I love it.

Bonus: Kelvis, I tagged this post with “Burritos” just for you.

After pulling out several hands full of hair (my own, hehe), and consulting with some of the most knowledgeable programmers I know (maximum thanks going out to Andre and Jansen), I was finally able to get the php garbage all resolved and running correctly. As a double bonus, I was able to eliminate all of the malicious scripts from the MySQL db’s. To top it off, I woke up today feeling quite a bit better. I’m going to hold off with running until Wed., just to play it safe. Things are looking up. Speaking of looking up, check out the image above, of the latest work by Os Gemeos (my favorite Brazilian street art duo), going up in Chelsea. I shot it Monday afternoon. It looks like they will probably be finished with it in another day or two.

Below is a sneak peak of some other stuff that I have shot recently. I was able to spend some time in the diamond district documenting some of the work that goes on there. I really enjoyed shooting it, especially since I have jewelers in my blood line. Props to my great granddad MJ. I’m sure that he could have given a lesson or two. If you enlarge the shot, you can see that the dude has tiny diamonds stuck to his hand with Vasoline. That is how they manipulate the diamonds without dropping them on the floor, when they are positioning them, setting them, etc..

Anyway, much love to everyone who has helped me out with this massive debacle, the last several days.