Thursday, March 31, 2011

Day 90: Stained Glass

And just like that, a quarter of the year has passed by.

Life is complicated lately. That's mostly good.

I've got a vacation coming up in a week. In a week I'll be in a plane flying to Surpriseland. I hope I feel a bit less sad and a lot less scattered by the time I get there.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Day 89: We Are One

Not really my best shot of the day (there were 300) but emblematic of the kinds of photography I often do for work when we have major events. This one was for a huge, huge, huge march and rally in downtown New Haven. It felt like old times (ca. 2003).

And I definitely started to cry when I saw that GESO's drum section is basically the German Department.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Day 86: City Photo Sundays

Roaming the city and taking pictures has become something of a post-brunch ritual for Matt and me. He tends to shoot a lot more than I do and we have very different perspectives as photographers, so there's lots to learn from the experience. Today we walked from the East Village down to Battery Park along the river, enjoying the sunlight.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Day 85: Hoboken

Went over to Hoboken to visit Nathan. New Jersey is a different country.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Day 84: Hit the Wall

A nice detour through the park lets me avoid the gang warfare zone on 127 St.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Day 83: Looking Up

On the mend, skipped practice, though that was due to having lots of work. I feel back in the saddle again, working on a video project. And spring draws ever closer, last night's snow aside.

Two weeks to Surpriseland! Called today to set meal preferences.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Day 82: Body of Illness

So, I'm sick. I tried to do the long practice at JJC today despite that fact, and that ended in, well, not tears, but wheezing and me crapping out in the start of the main set. Then I came home and took a nap and forgot to get a photo, so this is me playing with the self-timer after I got up from my nap.

I'm going to take the next two days to rest and heal up and hopefully swim okay on Saturday. I don't like dropping out of practices and dislike even more when I miss them entirely.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Day 81: Abstract / Distract

Down on the Hudson on my new favorite 'go get it together' walk route.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Day 80: Mechanisms

Close-up on my bass clarinet (which is in need of maintenance and cleaning).

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Day 78: Supermoon

Supermoon ended up being really cool to photograph (and challenging). Also, it was freezing.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Day 77: Pre-Supermoon

Apparently the real supermoon is tomorrow, though if it's significantly larger tomorrow than today I will be astonished. In any case, there will be tripod tomorrow so the shot should be better, this is me laying in bed looking out the window.

The weekend is here so of course I feel illness coming on just in time, must be spring pollens since I'm short of breath. Whee!



Also, this is the original of yesterday's photo, for Kaytee:





Thursday, March 17, 2011

Day 76: Raw Deal

So I finally switched to shooting in RAW, and am now glad that I did. Why? Because I was able to remove most of the signs that this view of the Philadelphia skyline was shot from a moving train.

I was in Baltimore today briefly (5 hours). I am up to my neck in work. Thank god tomorrow is Friday.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Day 75: Triangle

This is a work photo. We have a display up in the lobby of our building to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Fire (UNITE HERE is a successor union of the ILGWU). Several of my very talented colleagues put in a lot of effort to produce this and it's just fantastic.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Day 74: Red Red Wine

Things you find on the streets of Manhattan.

Also, I am so mad at my silly autofocus right now. Guess I should have taken more of this.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Day 73: Knights of Columbus

The big day in New Haven went well. Came back to the city and saw Radiolab Live with Nathan and really enjoyed it, it was entertaining, provocative, and I learned all sorts of new things.

And then I saw a certain man from my past that I had just been thinking about last night, and had said to myself, you know, I'm certain to run into him now that I live in New York, I wonder how soon? He was with his parents so I didn't go up to him, mostly just hoped he saw and recognized me. Probably not. 2003 was a long time ago.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Day 72: Medals

Here are the silly medals they were giving out at the meet (New York State Short-Course Yards Championships - which is not to suggest that all masters' swimming in NYS was represented).

My results:
200 Free: 2:07, 6th place
50 Free: 24.05, 2nd place
100 Free: 54.4, 4th place
200 Medley Relay: 24.3 split, 1st place
200 Free Relay: 23.5 split, 1st place

Winning the relays was a great high point to the weekend, and I am really happy about my results overall. They're on par with 11th grade, which makes sense since I'm training about as hard right now as I did then. If I want to be hitting 21.9/49.7/1:53 obviously I'll need to be in the water something like 14 hours a week and lifting.

I had so much fun with my team the past two days and just feel incredibly happy right now.

Big day in New Haven tomorrow.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Day 71: Back in the Saddle

Here's Charles, our superstar, setting a new meet record in the 18-24 200 fly.

Today I was out on Long Island for my first swim meet since NCAC Championships back in February 2001. First swim in the 200 free was pretty terrible (2:07) but that's an event I've always done inconsistently, and have also always disliked.

My 50 went really well though (:24.0); last I swam it was in 2006 in 23.8, and before that had a shaved 22.8 in college. I'm really happy to know that my sprint is still in the same league as it was when I was 21.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Day 70: iPad 2

Sure it probably counts as cheating. The main thing I accomplished today was getting a new iPad. I didn't initially miss my old one when I sold it for a 11" MacBook Air, but after a few weeks I found myself wishing I had the iPad instead. Once my WoW days were over, I no longer had a reason to "need" a personal laptop, with my mobile production needs covered by my work machine, so I was once again interested in a couch-top device to keep me away from my desk.

This device is really incredible. Very happy so far, but need someone to test out Facetime with.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Day 69: At Least It's Dry

.. or not. The subway system, of course, is not spared tonight's noachian deluge.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Day 68: Synthesis

Synthesis of Day 65 and Day 67. This is over at the West Harlem Piers, next to my new supermarket of choice.

Are you tired of night shots? I am. In a few short weeks it will be light out during my free time. Hooray!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Day 67: Not Marx

That's Fredrick Douglass (not Karl Marx) in mosaic in the 110th St BC subway station, being right below an avenue named for him and all.

I'm willing to bet you could count public representations of Karl Marx in the US on one hand - anyone know of any?

Monday, March 7, 2011

Day 66: Sleep No More

I saw the most incredible theater / dance 'happening' or whatever we're supposed to call it tonight, Punchdrunk's Sleep No More.

I spent three hours wandering the space and still didn't see all the rooms I think; I know I missed out on a milk dance, an orgy, and any number of other impressive scenes; I did however get to see one cast member throw himself down four flights of stairs, and an incredible scene in an interrogation room with a lamp being thrown back and forth. You MUST go see this show.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Day 65: Abstraction

I didn't take photos on my donut safari to Brooklyn this morning, since the conversation was engrossing and then came the rain; the rain kept me indoors the rest of the day and then boom, it was 11pm and I had no photo.

So I said, okay, go shoot 10 minutes or so of raindrops on your windows and see if you can get them to look really cool. Did I succeed?

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Day 64: Eastside

Did a high-end retail tour of the Ostzone with Brent. "All of your class issues will explode and light your hair on fire," he said (referring to Ralph Lauren).

My hair survived. But of course my photo is of inelegance.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Day 63: (Re)construction

Tough day. Lots to think through, lots to fix, lots to put together again.

Weekend!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Day 62: Anesthetics

I promised my family I would do this photo at some point.

What our freezers must say about us as people.

I was planning to go do some nice nighttime stuff in the freezing cold, like, go back down to the river and play with the lights of New Jersey, but practice was hard. Extremely hard. So much so that I can't really move. Fortunately I had both my favorite painkillers in stock.

400 warmup
6x100 1:25
12x100 rolling 25 stroke 1:25
4x200 rolling 50 kick 3:10
8x50 20-40

Ow.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Day 61: De Profundis

Some Psalm 130 in the construction site across the street.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011