I thought I would start this post with a photo of my desk. It’s a complete mess right now. I have been sitting here for a while, building some videos for Reagan’s hair blog. While doing so, I have realized a few things. First, Reagan has a serious aptitude for doing hair. She talks herself down to me all the time. She says stuff like “I don’t know. I’m just not really sure she liked it. And I feel bad because I talked her into the bangs.” After spending some hours watching her in action on video, it is pretty apparent to me that she is better at doing hair, than I will probably ever be at doing anything. I’m one of those people who can do a lot of stuff pretty well (besides shoot and edit video, apparently), but is not the best, or even REALLY good at doing anything (except for superfluous punctuation and parentheticals). Hehehe. Anyway, I’m really proud of how hard Reagan works, and I’m glad that one of us has the ability to really excel at something meaningful.

Now, let’s move onto the old–

I was browsing Facebook (I still haven’t summoned up the gumption to quit that site) and saw a pretty awesome photo of my brother. Here is a shot of Sam wearing a grill that he bought on eBay, while working at eBay. Ladies: he is single.

Hahahahahahaha. When I saw the shot above, it reminded me of a photo that was probably taken the same night as the mustache photo from the previous post.

Wifebeater: Shopko (possibly Fred Meyer)

Fedora: Vintage (Grunts and Postures [probably])

Why do all thrift stores have that same smell?

Front Teeth: Sharpie broad tip

Two left-handed boxing gloves: Tijuana street vendor

Duct Tape: Anderson Lumber

Nirvana Poster: Grey Whale

Ceiling Lamp made from Table Lamp: Custom Fabricator

Wallpaper: Transworld Snowboarding

This photo is for reference, only. I had to dig it out of the archives to help with the visual. I was probably 18 in that photo, taken by my brother Sam in our parents’ basement. It was one of those nights where we were making fun of SJ cowboys and documenting it.

Flash forward to yesterday. I had about a week and a half of facial hair going, mostly out of sheer laziness. It was time to get rid of it, so I shaved it into a handlebar mustache just like in the photo above, before hopping in the shower after my run. The only purpose was to make Reagan laugh, which she did (nervously). I had intentions of shaving completely before work this morning. I was able to carry out that plan, but not before taking a run down the west side path.

I woke up totally forgetting about the trucker ‘stache and hit the trails. Along the way, I came across a couple of friends who started laughing when they saw me. I was confused for a sec, until they complimented my handlebars. Hahahah.

About 10 minutes later, I caught up to this dude running in moccasins with duct tape on the bottom, who had stopped to be a good Samaritan and remove a dead rat from the path. To myself, I was like “oh man, I have to talk to this guy.” So I struck up a conversation with him, and we ended up running about 6 miles together. I learned that he is almost 50 and lives in my neighborhood, that his name is Barry and he grew up inspired by Prefontaine, but had only started running again recently after adopting the minimalist approach to footwear.

Barry is awesome, I wish that I could have kept going with him. When it came time for me to turn around and head back up town, I thanked him for the chat and said that I hoped to run into him again. Almost immediately afterward, I remembered about my mustache. Hahahahah. He probably just thought that I too, was inspired by Prefontaine.

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.