KCHS Spanish

I choose the Yankees Baby!!!   Is it baseball season yet?

Like anything of real quality, the longer you have something and the more you use it, the more you learn to enjoy it and appreciate it for all that it is. So far today has been a day of slowing down… today Diana and I are taking a moment to breath and enjoy having each other close to the other because sometimes it doesn’t always happen that way.

Each year I set a number of goals for myself… some come to fruition and some don’t.  This year I have decided that I am going run every day for one year… 365 days of running. Despite all things that may knock me off course, I a determined to make it happen.  I will document each run with one photo from my Blackberry (or hopefully iPhone if Apple/Verizon get their act together) and post it to Jake Runs 365.  And before you ask, yes the photos have been color changed in photoshop.

I have to say, as the site has grown, I think my favorite part is the ARCHIVE PAGE and I am psyched to see what it looks like with 365 different photos.

Check out this video if you are interested in really making your own goals a success.

I was recently going through a file I had on an external hard drive and found a few meaningful photos of my younger brother while he was serving in Iraq.  A journalist had gone on some of the missions with them to document their journeys and captured these two images that I will cherish forever. I pray the next time I feel pressure to get “the shot” that I remember what it’s truly like to be a war-time photographer and all they go through. I wish I could meet the man who captured these of Zack to shake his hand and say thank you.

To those brave men and women who serve our country in the military, THANK YOU! You are not forgotten, nor will you ever.

*DISCLAIMER* — I DID NOT TAKE THE FOLLOWING PHOTOGRAPHS. AN UNKNOWN JOURNALIST DID.

Every morning I get to enjoy my tasty dark roast coffee in a Thaddeus Powers ceramic art coffee mug… overlooking this beautiful view.  Man I love the fall season!

6:15 PM, October 1 – 2009
Amawalk, NY

Straight out of the camera…

There are certain people in this world who inspire you to be a better person… they refocus you and keep you on the life track you want to head in. For me, there is a short list of about five people… and near the top, Dean Karnazes. When asked by his daughter what Ultra meant, he described it as beyond normal. That’s what the Ultra Marathon Man is, pushing beyond what one would expect the normal human being to be able to do. Among his laundry list of INSANE records, 50 marathons in 50 days in 50 states, 350 miles run without rest, a marathon in 40 below zero in the Antarctic, and a 130 mile Ultra Marathon through the badlands of California in 130 degree heat (which he has won).

Thanks to my brother-in-law Chris, I had the opportunity to meet Dean and speak with him before and after his address to a group of fellow admirers in a Yale auditorium sponsored by the North Face.

Four-and-a-half years ago, I was sitting in the gymnasium with my father and stepmother watching 500 of the best soldiers come home from their tour of duty in Iraq. Some had been stationed in Baghdad… others were stationed in a place called Samarra. For 11 months while they were away, I worried. It was the kind of worry that eats at the pit of your stomach. Forget about nerves, they were shot… done, dead, gone. My ears were listening to the speeches, but my eyes were searching among the 500 soldiers to find him. I searched for what seemed like hours as they stood there at attention, but that’s the problem with uniforms. They all look the same… damn!

As the commander released the men, they proudly released a HOOAH which shook the room like a California earthquake… my heart, too. The men scattered to their respective family members, and my brother emerged them… sleek, strong, smiling. It would be the understatement of the century if I told you I sobbed. 11 months of grief poured out in the 2 minutes I held my brother.

Recently I was shooting an engagement/get-to-know-you session with an awesome couple. I knew that the groom-to-be had served in the military, but I was beyond floored when I found out he was in that same group of soldiers coming home New Years Eve four-and-a-half years ago. Small world.

Today is the fourth anniversary since my brother died and I embrace to the good that was my brother. His thirst for adventure, his respect for nature… his sense of humor. I think about my brother every day, and I always will. Peace little brother!

Oh yeah, earmuffs kiddies… F-Bombs beware!!!!