After the blizzard from this morning blew over, it ended up being kind of a beautiful sunny day. I loved the way that the sunset was lighting up the clouds, and decided to get a couple of shots, since I had my cam with me. I decided to take a stroll down to the promenade and get some shots from water-level, since the last few sunset pics that I have taken, have been through dirty windows. I thought that it would be a good chance to get some sharp images. But, since wind was blowing about 1 million miles per hour, sea spray was blowing up all over the front of the lens. Oh well, I was pretty happy about the way these shots came out.

This was a super fun race. Reagan and I both loved it. The finish line was right outside the entrance to my building. So it was super convenient for us. Our friend Jared came down and ran it with us too. He and Reagan actually finished together. Reagan’s goal was 23 minutes. Mine was 20 minutes. Reagan made her goal by 8 seconds. I was 22 seconds slower than I was hoping. I was happy about having a pace that was well under 7 minutes, though. I also was happy with my Nike Plus band. I re-calibrated it, using the 10K last Saturday. It recorded 2.93 miles today. Only .07 off. I can live with that. I always forget to stop recording after I finish the race though, which kills the pace stat. I guess that I can only blame myself for the human-error factor. Hahaha.

The problem with this race (and all races that are predominantly desk jockeys) is that like the JPM Corporate challenge, there are no assigned starting chutes. So you get speed walkers lining up in the 6 min/mile chute. So unless you are on the front row for the gun, you spend the first half of the race weaving traffic. This is especially difficult on a course that winds around the narrow canyons of the financial district and bottle necks in multiple locations. All things considered, it was a really cool race. The AHA raised over 2 million dollars. There were a bunch of sponsors handing out swag in the north cove marina afterwards, and the weather could not have been more ideal.

FYI, I did not take this photo. I borrowed it from the NYRR site.

I know that I have complained about this before, but dude, it never ceases to blow my mind/annoy the ever-living crap out of me. It is bad enough trying to maneuver the sidewalks in the rain when everyone is wielding their umbrellas like weapons, so why continue to have them open while walking on covered bridge? Today I finally snapped a shot. You can probably tell from the image quality that it was an over-the-shoulder shot with a camera phone. But, at least you can see what I’m talking about. Come to think of it, that guy looks a lot like Ted Swenson. I wonder if he took a position with AMEX or Merrill Lynch. Hmmmm. Anyway, Ted and the guy behind him, both left their gargantuan umbrellas open over the entire (enclosed) Vessey St. foot bridge. It was especially pleasant trying to navigate around them on the stairs. Why is it always the guys with the freaking gargantuan portable tents, that are the biggest offenders? Well, my homey Collin, one of the most prominent minds in advertising on the East Coast, has a theory about that.

Growing up, skateboarding in the streets of SLC, being yelled at and chased by security guards and 5-0 was part of the sport. It was a part of the sport that was totally lame. Even worse than the perma-scabbed knees and elbows. It has been awesome to see how over the years, society’s perception of skateboarding has shifted so radically. The stigma placed on skateboarders has gone from street-thug-vandal, to talented athlete. Skating around in more youthful days, we assumed that every little plaza, set of stairs, hand-rail etc. was illegal to be skating, unless marked otherwise. The one exception to this was the University of Utah campus, which was a free-for-all. I would be lying if I said that this policy did not heavily influenced my decision to attend the institution for my undergraduate career. Ok, maybe not heavily influence. But it was something that I definitely took into consideration.

In current times, assumptions on whether or not it is safe to skate, have completely reversed. One can safely assume that it is ok to skate, unless marked otherwise. These signs in the plaza bordering the WFC yacht harbor are examples. Even if one errs in assumption, the worst that is likely to occur is a friendly notice by a rent-a-cop. It’s good to live in the 2000′s.

I guess that I’m using the term “weekend” loosely, here. These shots were all taken on my way from my office to the train on Friday evening. I suppose that being able to take some pics on the way out on Friday  is one of the perks of having daylight until almost 6:30 these days.

I was invited for a small lunch event yesterday, put on by one of the buildings I’m advertising units in. I snapped a couple of shots while I was to and from.

I really like the way that the above shot of Trinity Church came out. The grass is even starting to turn green.

In the shot above, I liked the way that those pigeons were just chilling out on the Federal Building.

This door goes into the back of the firehouse one Liberty Street.

One of the blogs that I keep tabs on is called Public Ad Campaign. Before I started reading it, I had no idea how heavily regulated sign placement was. Jordan, the author, is very opinionated about advertising being visual pollution, etc. I don’t necessarily subscribe to his views in every instance. One thing that has come of it, however, is that I have become more acutely aware of signage. It is amazing how much of it can be found, while looking in any direction, on the streets of Manhattan. I have decided to start sharing some of the stuff that I see, as I have time to shoot it and post it. The shot above is on the corner of Liberty Street and Greenwich, on the south end of the WTC construction site.  It is also right on the corner of the embattled Deutsche Bank Building, which has become a huge blight on the FiDi. I think that it’s great that I could get 6 or 7 signs framed into one shot without even really trying. There are even signs, about not putting up signs, like the one below. These are just a few that I took this afternoon, when I was on my way to fight some parking tickets. More to come.