Author: Jake
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.
Author: Jake
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.
Author: Jake
I normally just try to refrain from writing anything, if it is just going to be complaining. But, today, I couldn’t help myself. In fact the title of this post is quite dramatic. But, I am feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment. Piper is fine. I’m still employed. Reagan is fine. But… I am sick again. To be entirely honest, I don’t feel like I every fully recovered from when I was sick two weeks ago. But at least before, I could still run, because I could still breathe. I haven’t been able to run since last Wednesday. I missed the New York Road Runner team championships on Saturday. Today, I still can’t really breathe right. Which means, no Piper visit and no running. It is driving me insane.
To add insult to injury, the hosting plan that I mentioned in my last post, didn’t exactly workout. So, I am trying out a new hosting plan, with my blog as the guinea pig. The tech support guys are really nice, but it is an operation that is pretty new, and from what I gather, it is a pretty small shop. As a result, my request to modify the PHP build running on the server, has still not been addressed. Because of that, I have no GD or FreeType libraries, which half of my plugins require (if you have perused it in the past couple of days, you may have noticed that it has just been displaying the header and a php generated error message). That is why shortcode is appearing where all of the images should be, when a page loads up. The only reason that anything besides error messages is displaying, is because I finally broke down and disabled all of my image handler plugins. It’s like driving a car with no brakes.
As if that weren’t enough, all of the MySQL databases on our old server (i.e. the one where Reagan’s blob, and all of our other sites, including some paying clients are currently hosted), have been infected with a malicious script that is redirecting all of those urls, to spam sites. Awesome. The tech support guys are working on it. But, as of Sunday morning, things still aren’t resolved. To top things off, my (home) office looks like a tornado hit. At least I can control that one. So, as soon as this post is published, things are going to start looking up. Wish me luck on resolving the rest of the crap on the list. I hope that everyone else had a less stressful weekend.
Author: Jake
(above: Jake and Reagan Playing Horseshoes in Charleston by: Kat)
I have been up to my neck in nerdy stuff, the past few days. A year ago, my brother-in-law and I went into a joint venture on web hosting. Recently it became pretty clear that our current setup would no longer support what we are trying to accomplish. So we upgraded. Unfortunately it has been a pretty laborious process, and we are really just getting started. Anyway, my personal sites have been the guinea pigs, as far as migrating. If there were any glitches, I wanted them to be on stuff that didn’t really matter. And there have been plenty of glitches, hehe. Anyway, if I’m a bit silent over the next few weeks, you will know why. I feel like I’m driving one of those remote control robots trying to cap an oil spill.
Author: Jake
I have been using the same ghetto “fogless” shaving mirror, basically since I started shaving as a tween. That mirror and I have been through a lot together. But these days, it is so covered in hard water deposits and scratches, that it barely reflects anymore. The fogless mirror is a pretty amazing invention. Who would have thought that it could be improved upon? I was pretty excited when I saw the “Reflect” mirror+showerhead combo yesterday. Apparently they won’t be available until later this month. But, man, they are pretty awesome looking. I want one pretty bad.
[via]
Author: Jake
Warning: this post contains nothing interesting (not that any of them do, hahahah). But, some good things have happened this week, already, and I just thought that I would feel like an ingrate if I didn’t share them. Here we go with the lists, again.
First– I recently sweated my iPod Shuffle to death. So I purchased a new one on Friday. It is a third generation. I have to say that I’m not really a fan of the design. Apparently, neither is my sweat. It died half way through my run Saturday morning. I purchased it at J&R, in the Financial District. Monday, I took in recently purchased pod that had died on its maiden voyage, and they traded it for a new one. No hassles, or anything. Today I ran with my new-new pod wrapped in cling wrap, hahahaha.
Next– on my way back from J&R, I passed a salon, that happened to carry a hair product that I’m perpetually out of. So I ducked in, grabbed two bottles and took them to the register. The lady told me in broken English, to take one more, because they were on sale– buy two, get one free. Bonus!
Finally– I slept in Tuesday morning and missed my scheduled run. I was pretty worried about running in the heat, since I would have to make it up in the afternoon. As it turns out, Tuesday evening was cooler than it had been Monday morning at 6:30 when I had done my previous run. Bonus, again. Maybe it does payoff to be lazy/procrastinate. Hahahah
The photo: I shot it last week. I thought that the cloud looked like one from a painting.
Also, where did June go?
Author: Jake
I’m thinking about having this image tattooed on my chest and back. That way maybe it will be easier for illiterate people to figure out why I’m vibing them so hard when I pass them on the bridge. I’m also thinking about starting to lobby for a the GW to adopt the approach that has been taken by the Williamsburg Bridge. Ok, in reality, I probably won’t get any tattoos or do any lobbying. But it was nice to vent for a minute.
Author: Jake
(above: self portrait)
I have been so freaking busy this week. It has seriously been the longest “short week,” ever. I haven’t had time to write anything interesting, or even think anything interesting. I have shot some really good stuff this week, though. It has also been really nice to have such an uptick in movement at my real job. Tonight I finally had a bit of a break, to just do… whatever. Reagan cut my hair, then I watched the BP cam (again), while doing other less important things (like setting up the above shot [which, btw, totally reminds me of this shot]).
The engineers have been able to place the cap onto the severed riser, now. But from what I can see, there is still a ton of oil coming out of every direction, not just the opening at the top of the cap. Several little robot hands are still furiously working on things. Hopefully the degree of spillage will be mitigated to a degree, once it is all bolted on snugly? I’m not really getting my hopes up, anymore. In fact at this rate, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if we find out in August that the relief wells have also failed. If you have the nerve for it, be sure to check out the June 3 “big picture.”
On a much, much lighter note, The New York Stock Exchange finally got their own Starbucks, right on the trading floor.
New York , June 2, 2010 – Starbucks premier coffee, specialty beverages, and select food offerings are now available on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. A first at the NYSE, the Starbucks kiosk will serve the Exchange’s trader and employee community from 8:00am through the 4:00pm NYSE market close.
Awesome. Now if they could just outfit all of the traders with colostomy bags, they would be totally set.
(above: Peter P. Costa, Empire Executions, Inc. visits the opening of Starbucks on NYSE trading floor [courtesy NYSE])
Author: Jake
This is my weekly running evaluation, that should have actually been posted yesterday. But, we have family in town. So, you know… Anyway, I have decided that it will be easier to follow the normal Sunday to Saturday week, since that way Nike adds my totals for me. I may post it on Saturday, maybe Sunday (I know that people are super worried about it) Hahahahaha.
I have climbed out of the F- grade, with a couple of pretty decent outings last week. I only got out three times. But one of them was a 10+ miler. So that counts for a few extra points. My new shoes have still been giving me blister grief, to a degree, and we have family in town. So, given all of those factors, I earned a C+, this week. We have the Healthy Kidney 10k coming up on the 15th, and the Brooklyn Half Marathon, the following weekend. My goals for both: HK10k: 40 mins, or faster; Bk Half: 1:30 or better.
Author: Jake
I spent Tuesday morning at the SoHo Burton showroom, getting the lowdown on their gear for the 2011 line. I can’t wait to spill the beans over on SoJones.
Burton is also throwing a Cinco de Mayo party Wednesday night. I really wish that I could attend. I have been to a few of their other parties, and they totally rock.
But, I’m even more excited about the reason that is preventing me from stopping by the party. My youngest sister Melinda will be landing tomorrow night. She and her sister-in-law will be staying with Reagan and I through the weekend. It will be Melinda’s first time meeting Piper. Get amped.
