Israel!

Went to Israel for a few weeks. Took some photos. Here is BATCH 1. Also – sign up for HUMANITY.TV. Do it. It will blow your socks off.

Mexico!

I recently got married to a pretty lil thang named Elaine. I love her so. To celebrate, we took a honeymoon warm-up trip (the real one is in January) to a little place I like to call Mexico. We visited Mexico City and Puebla, both beautiful towns with lots of great architecture, surrounding mountains, color, and vibrancy. We strongly, strongly recommend Puebla, as it is one of our favorite cities ever. Really beautiful.

Check out some photos of the places I just mentioned in the paragraph above:

Pictures!

Shelblog has been sad lately. Time to change all that with… photos! Of a child!

You Betta Belize It!

I went to Belize. I kicked a shark in the face. I rode a horse to an un-excavated Mayan ruin. I drank a few island drinks with inappropriate names. I drank beer called Belikin. I saw an eagle ray (or 3). I dove to 145 feet and thought my lungs would pop (they didn’t. They felt fine). I watched 10 sunsets. I dodged one hurricane. I fell backwards off a boat 4 times (on purpose). I stood upon a sacrificial plate. I ate really friggin good pizza. I stayed in at a place called Coco Beach. I took 3 naps. I breathed underwater for a total of 5 hours. I did 0 push-ups. I ran 0 miles. I ate a lot of Scooby Snacks. I had the best trip of my life.

PROOF:

Apartment FIRE!

My apartment almost caught fire this afternoon. An auto supply shop burned, baby, burned and I live RIGHT next door. If you see the white building to the right of the auto supply store in the pics, then you are looking at my building. As of now, it seems like my apartment made it out unharmed, though I’m interested to see if all my stuff smells like smoke. PICS:

The Anime Nuts of Sakura

Sakura is the Japanese word for Cherry Blossoms. They are pretty trees and are all over Japan (and Washington DC!). Every year, all Japanese celebrate Cherry Blossom festival by visiting their local Cherry Blossom tree and having picnics and partaking in other cultural events. Here in America, we have adopted this fun-time. In Washington DC, the end of March and beginning of April is a great time to experience the pretty trees surrounding the Tidal Basin and get great shots of the trees there. Unlike last year, Lindsay and I were unable to make it, so instead we went to the Japanese Cherry Blossom festival at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens here in New York. It was fun! Here’s why:

Apparently, the Cherry Blossom festival in New York City is just another way to show your nerdiness and love for all things Japan, and by all things, I mean anime and manga. Look, I like a good over-stylized, animated feature as much as the next guy, but even what I saw on display at a Brooklyn Cherry Blossom festival (remember, a celebration about trees), was a bit mind-blowing. Here are a few snapshots of a few people who took the Japanese in Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival a bit too far:

Motion Shots

Today I went to Prospect Park. There are a lot of bikers there. I like biking. But I wasn’t on my bike. Instead, I was taking pictures of the bikers. I was practicing a photography technique. I put my camera on a very low shutter speed (1/13th of a second) and then as they went by, I moved my camera with them and then took the picture with a nice, fluid follow through. The result should be that the biker is frozen within the frame (which would never happen at 1/13th of a second shutter speed), while the background is very blurry, indicating speed and motion. Check out the results below:

Duathlon 3.0 – aka the birth of a new type of language that engages the reader in order to explain the intricacies of human body movement and the usurping of the body by the evil called FATIGUE and what causes it.

A duathlon is dual in nature. Sometimes, it is running; other times, it is biking. Half the time, it is fun; the other half of the time, it is not fun (in fact, its downright torturous). It is about participating but, more importantly, no matter who tells you differently, it is about winning. I win sometimes, and sometimes (see: all times) I do not win. So that’s how it goes. That’s a duathlon in a nutshell.

Let’s review that very short paragraph. A DUATHLON IS:

1. RUNNING!
2. BIKING!

Now, part 3 is the tricky part. Because, while it is true that a duathlon is both running and biking, it is also a third thing. A DUATHLON ALSO IS:

1. MORE RUNNING!

Indeed. Well put second number (1). If you noticed, number 1 is very similar to the second number 1, insofar that they are both RUNNING!. However, there is a slight difference between the two, despite the fact that the two words I have written down (referring to: RUNNING!) are very similar to one another. The difference is in time, that nonstop, abstract idea that no one has been able to see, manipulate, or hold. In the first RUNNING!, the time is usually shorter than the second RUNNING!, despite the fact that the “distance” is the same. Let’s review the key terms:

1. RUNNING! – This is an activity (something you do, often for fun) that involves moving your legs (hopefully) faster than you normally would when walking.
2. Time – As we discussed in the previous paragraph, “Time” is an abstract (existing only as a thought or idea, not as a concrete object) measuring tool for the passage of our lives. Time is constant and never changes speed, though certain activities seem (appear) to make  “Time” go faster or slower. (for more on this idea, go play video games for an hour followed by an hour of sitting and staring at the wall).
3. Distance – Like the aforementioned “Time”, “Distance” is also a measuring tool, but instead of being abstract, “Distance” is more easily understood as the collection of space between two different objects (for example a tree and another, completely different tree).

Now, back on track. So, a duathlon consists of two different RUNNING! segments, with the second RUNNING! segment being equal to the first in “distance” but unequal to the first in “Time”. There is a perfectly good explanation for this, despite the fact that on the surface, there would seem to be no plausible explanation at all. However, there is. The explanation is two fold:

1. BIKING!
2. FATIGUE!

Biking (often called cycling by true bikers (cyclists)) is an activity that requires a human being to use both of their legs, often at the same time, to pump small pedals that turn a large circular, jagged edge circle with a chain attached to it. This chain then turns a separate, but related, circle with jagged edges, which, when enough force is provided by the human being’s legs onto the pedals, a much larger wheel with a rubber exterior to turn. This propels the bike forward. In case you missed the main idea here, it is that a single human being is responsible for propelling himself forward on a wheeled contraption. An effort that often causes, you guessed it, FATIGUE!.

FATIGUE! is a phenomenon not unlike the feeling you have before bedtime that many people call “The Sleepies”. While “The Sleepies” are often annoying and dangerous, they are different from FATIGUE! and should not be confused with one another. It is possible to have “The Sleepies” and not have FATIGUE!, and vice-versa. However, the similarity between the two is that they make normal body functions more difficult and strenuous. “The Sleepies” often affect the human being’s ability to concentrate on certain tasks, such as reading a book or doing a crossword. As you can see from these examples, “The Sleepies” most often affects the mental capacity of the inflicted. However, FATIGUE! usually affects the physical ability of the inflicted, which often leads to dangerous, and possibly deadly, side effects. (since we have come across the two words now, we shall point out the difference between “effect” and “affect”. Quite simply, “effect” is a noun, and “affect” is a verb. You can’t effect someone, but you can have the wrong effect. In contrast, punching someone in the face may very well affect their beauty, and such side effects could include drowsiness and a runny nose).

Word connection:

• RUNNING! takes a human being through “Distance” and also takes up “Time”, which is often followed by BIKING! which, though fun, causes a serious condition named FATIGUE! and it too takes up “Time” while allowing the human being to cover vast “Distances”. Then the human being, while experiencing FATIGUE!, has to once again partake in the act of RUNNING! where the “Distance” is exactly the same as the first time they went RUNNING! but it tends to take up more “Time” because of the aforementioned FATIGUE!

Get it?

So now you understand why my second RUNNING time is much slower than my first RUNNING time.

Also, I got 2nd in my age group and 16th overall (someone got disqualified). Enjoy! (Head shots by Lindsay)

NYC 2.0

Last summer I lived in New York City. Now, I live in New York City. This is not a coincidence, but a calculated life choice that I hope progresses my life to areas that I want my life to be. I like to type continuously and totally redundantly all the time whenever I get the chance now and currently. I think I have created a new literary device – redundantly redundant. Anywho, back to what I was talking about redundantly before going off on a tangent about how I am talking redundantly, I am currently living in New York City, which we can call NYC (EN-WHY-SEE) for simplicity’s sake.  NYC is an amazing place filled with amazing things, as the worst travel guide of all time would describe it. If you go down one street, you will see one thing. If you go down a different, you may or may not see the same thing, but you also may see something quite different – like a different person or store. Sometimes, you even see different buildings, depending on how far you go before you look around again. For example, if you see one thing, close your eyes, take four steps and look again, you will probably see something similar. However, if you go underground and get inside a metallic worm and burrow your way through dirt, water, rats, and grime for 30-4o minutes or so and then bust your way out of the worm’s belly and resurface to not fresh air and sunshine but haze and shade, you will probably see something very different than what you saw before. NYC is an amazing place like that. To help you understand what I just said with words through pictures, here are some pictures:

Down Under Australia

Here is a neat stop-motion video from my time in Australia. Enjoy!