Pre-race prep!

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Us!

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Always feels good to give. At a charity event for children with cancer. #calsangels

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@esvbak looking all "official" with the white coat and @szymon_bak_14 could think of a million other places he would rather be.

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Dinner with my mom and sister Christina . One of the many highlights when ever I make my way east....

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Snowy Saturday lunch.l

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The "Great Debate" has ended

I can't believe it's been over 3 years since first moving to Illinois. How time flies by! Well, lots has changed since that decision, but one thing has been a constant. That is the fact that although the previous owners of the home I purchased kindly left their kitchen appliances behind, I really was never a fan. Especially of the refrigerator. After all, it NEVER made ice!! That was a "feature" that was broke from day one. Who knows, it's probably why they deserted it. They likely realized, as I now have, with what has been spent on purchased ice, we could have bought a decent replacement.

out of place

After spending an evening in the city last Friday night, i woke up early and went for a walk down Indiana St to venture the few blocks to Dunkin Donuts for my morning ritual, coffee. Despite the fact that I was going to run 10 miles and probably should really be consuming water , I just have to have my caffeine in the morning.

Well, on the return, I passed by a building that had a few carve-outs along the front and in one was placed a pay phone. What I found so odd about it, is that it actually is still here. After all, almost every where I go, I see all kinds of attempts made to cover up the spots where these things used to exist. Yet, here, on this very busy street in Chicago, in fact in a pretty upscale neighborhood, this lone pay phone still stands.

I surely expect that this thing is not functional. And even if it was, who carries actual change anymore to even deposit? Come to think about it, when I was younger, and the day of the cell phone had not yet dawned, I never was all that keen on using these things anyway. I guess it's because I pretty much always had put these things in the same category as restroom doors. You really want to avoid touching at all cost, and if you must, make sure you have a paper-towel handy.

Oh, and that just reminded me of the kids I grew up with and how they got a kick out of sticking gum and other very gross stuff on the ear portion of the handset....

ya, gross, i know.

 

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just how fast..

 

i wonder how long it takes to post a few sentences along with a photo from 30k in the air, all on a iPad running Blogsy?

 

45 seconds..

 

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Chicago Soldier Field 10 Miler

Bib

As usual, I tend to be very conservative in my estimates of how well i'll due in an upcoming race. For the last several days i've pretty much outlined all the reason's that I WON'T do well. Then in the end, it actually all works out ok. This year I finished in 1hr 24min. A 8:23 pace.

Of course, with the great support of Edyta and friends like Kevin, Carm & Phil, it's just made the entire even all that more enjoyable. From a great Mexican meal the night before and an excellent post breakfast, the whole day was more like a vacation than exercise.

 

Big "THANKS" to Kevin for his hospitality. Pretty convenient that he lives just blocks away from the stadium.

Oh, normally i'll take a small camera out on the run with me. This time I did not.. but between all of us, we have a few.

 

 

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City Bound

Back in December I registered for yet another race. After the 2012 Chicago Marathon, I pretty much swore I would not do anything more than a 1/2. This was due to the fact that I injured my foot so bad, it literally took 3 months to recover.

So, 6 months later, the day has finally come to run.

This race is a bit special, it's the 10th Anniversary race. Both the shirt & medal are the coolest I've seen given out at any race i've run thus far.

I have to say, i remember very clearly how dramatic this race is. First, it's not all that many times when one gets to step on the field of this stadium. Running through through the tunnel and on the field was pretty awesome...

Well, we will see how I do this year.. with a 8:05 pace last year and a lot of training under my belt and basically NONE this year, I won't even come close...

Good luck to all running this one!

 

 

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One Upon an Evernote

Some people make New Years resolutions, well I made a 5/20 one. After constantly struggling to keep my office organized, I finally decided to STOP shuffling stuff around and make decisions on the spot if something needs to be kept or discarded.

I purchased a book with the title "Getting Things Done", better known to it's cult following of GTD. The basic premise is of bringing order to your life in all things. For me, the immediate need to omit the clutter. How did I start?

Well, 1st step was getting rid of of every single piece of paper on my desk, floor, cabinet and the pile found in what is known as "the basket". I litterally scanned and uploaded every single document to Evernote (more on this later), THEN, and this was the hard part, SHREDDED IT.

 

Take that, my office is now clean.......

 

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One Down

The last couple of months I've been spending some time fixing up the house. Nothing crazy really, just small things, at least in the beginning. Then all of a sudden I had an  idea to do things, most of which I'd  never dabbled in before... Like for instance, electricity, and plumbing.

You see, my house was  built in the mid 90's, and lets just say, it's a "stock house". In other words, ZERO upgrades.. Everything, and I mean everything, was contractor grade. From lighting, to plumbing. right down to the knobs on the closet doors.

Although we did a couple of upgrade type things, like put knobs on the cabinets (which made a HUGE difference), the reality was, it was still the same crappy oak stained finish.  Worse where the hideous faucets which I swear, not a one of them worked correctly. If it didn't leak from the knob, the sink was missing the drain stopper. And of course, after having spent a ton to get into the house, having a plumber come in and correct all that, well, that was out of the question.

My one regret though, was not taking advantage of the power of YouTube two years ago. You see, after watching a few of the DIY (do it yourself) videos on plumbing, I realized, "I CAN do that!!"...  So, with my new found confidence, I went out and and purchased new faucets and all the new cool tools that are needed to make the job as easy as possible.

Now, here is the lesson learned, well, actually there were much more than one, but it's the one I'll stress. You see, I took on the plumbing job AFTER I had already took on the project to redo the cabinet. And let me say, that is the wrong order of things.  After having to climb under the sing 2 dozen times with a wrench the size of a broom, i pretty much had to redo the cabinet all over again...

So, here is the first bathroom in it's finished state.. complete with a new light and all. That would be Electricity, which is another blog entry in itself.

Cost of project:  $95.00
Faucet-$35
Tubing-$12
Paint: $5
Tools: $10
Rug: $13
Lighting: $20

Boston

Having lived in several different places the last five years, Boston still is "home".

Rock Candy

Rock Candy
Originally uploaded by -shawn-

Chicago is blessed with many things. Food, Art and great sports teams. Add to that countless local musical talent such as Rock Candy. Literally every weekend you could have a lineup of musical options at some wonderful different venues both downtown and in the suburbs.

Check some this scene out!

Business Casual

Business casual
Originally uploaded by -shawn-

I very rarely every get overly excited about a car. After all, it's just transportation. Something that gets you from point A to point B. My theory has always been that money would be much better spent on things you actually spend more time in, if not at least move around in..

But, after picking up my last rental while in Boston, my thought changed a bit. Perhaps it's that I'm getting a little older. Maybe because I'm realizing I don't really spend all that much money on myself because I don't find that there are all that many things I actually need to keep me happy.

Well, thanks to the fact that National Rental, my absolute favorite rental car company, I was able to pick out the Infinity G37.

Man, this is the car I want to own!

2011-HP Hood Cook-Off

Well, despite best intentions, this blog has been incredibly neglected. Not due to lack of coming up with content, after all, it's about photography, and I take a camera everywhere I go. So, i've decided to re-commit to writing my thoughts down again with the hope that it is at least a bit more regular.

Right now I'm flying high, probably about 35,000 ft on a return trip from Boston. In the last couple months, this has been a routine and much of it has been due to the fact that there have been special events for me to shoot in New England. One of the more recent, was the 3rd Annual HP Hood Cook-Off that was held in Portland, ME.

This event is probably one of the most enjoyable for me. Why wouldn't it be? Portland is a beautiful city, especially in the fall and the theme of the event is food. Yet another great topic.

In addition to the event itself, there is never a shortage of overall good fun with those who both host and attend this event. Both before and after, we had a chance to check out so of the locale establishments, courtesy of the natives. :)

If you would like to check more pictures taken at this event feel free to Click Here.

Mile 8- Chicago Marathon

Mile 8- Chicago Marathon
Originally uploaded by -shawn-

This weekend was the 33rd running of the Chicago Marathon. Personally, I am not a runner, but as of this year, there are many people I know who are. Both those I work with and Maribel and her family.

Although I have not subscribed to this, yet, I have to say, the excitement surrounding the event is amazing. For all the years I lived in Boston, I trekked down to Copley Square but a handful of times to take in the final moments of that great cities race. But the reality is, I didn't know a single person who ran it. Thus, there really wasn't all that much excitment for me beyond that fact of that which came from the free packs of gum or new sport drinks that where being handed out as samples.

This year I attended the 33rd Annual Chicago Marathon. This Marathon is VERY different from that of Boston. First, of all, it's smaller, though not by much. Second, the race itself is confined to a very small area. There's no running 26.2 miles in almost a perfectly straight line. What that translates too is a city filled with excited spectators all during the race. Heck, you can go to Mile 8, see your favorite runner, then jump on the L and head over to mile 16 and see them again.

How cool is that?

Besides all the excitement from the race, for a photographer who likes to shoot people, its like porn. There are people EVERYWHERE doing everything.

Surprisingly, even to myself, I didn't take all that many pictures this weekend. Perhaps it's because I dabbled with video abit using Maribel's little HD Flip... Guess I better go check that out now and see what I got!

Blogpress

I wouldn't exactly call myself a hardcore blogger, but every once in a while I do like to post about photography related subjects. Even better than sitting down in front of a computer at home when I could be doing something relaxing, like say, mowing the lawn,  is the ability to be able to write and post remotely with my brand new shiny iPad.

Now i'll be the first to admit, typing with a on-screen keyboard, no matter the size, is not not normal. After all, how long would you tap your fingers on glass while focusing on a spec of dust? Because that's what it's like. Your staring, near cross-eyed, trying not to miss typing whole word (forget about typo's) while glaring at little black spec of letters. But hey, the fact that you CAN do it is worth something, right?

Oh, and what does this shot have to do with this post? Absolutely nothing! Why? Because I can!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:,Aurora,United States

Walking the Beat

Corner View
Originally uploaded by -shawn-
Maribel and I were talking the other day and she made a comment about how we don't go out and about with our camera's as much as we used too. Even though I do find myself routinely taking pictures, Maribel had a point.

On the particular weekend that this shot was taken though, we did put aside a couple of hours to enjoy the sites in downtown Naperville. Although this downtown lacks the head-turning sight of downtown Chicago, there surely is still enough to take in.

For instance, this shot here. Not only did I get a shot I really liked, but I also met the owner, who I friended on FaceBook and tagged in the picture. Not to mention, the owner happened to be a manager of Jersy Mikes, a Subways like sandwich shop. He provided me with a couple of discount coupons on my next visit.

Well that really made my day!