I was watching my son and his friend at Howard Park recently and took this quick video of a kickball game.

Kickball, originally called “Kick Baseball”, was invented around 1917 by Nicholas C Seuss; Supervisor of Cincinnati Park Playgrounds in Cincinnati, Ohio.[1] Around 1920–1921 “Kick Ball” was used by physical education teachers in Public Schools to teach young boys and girls the basics of baseball. Around this time, the ball that was used was a soccer ball or volleyball. It was played by ten to thirty players and the field included a “Neutral Zone”: an area not to be entered until the ball has actually been kicked. There was no pitcher as the ball would be kicked from the home area, which was a 3 ft circle. The ball must pass beyond the 5 foot line. Base-runners could only advance one base on an infield ball. Teams would switch sides only after all team members have kicked. Wikipedia reference for Kickball »

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Frank contacted me a few years back about some of O.J. Gude’s billboards he had found around New York (OJ was my great great grandfather). Recently, he invited a number of people who were connected in some way to his project to contribute to his first book: Fading Ads of New York City. I was very honored to be part of it- his book will publish in December 2011. This video tells the story of how his fading ads project got started. The billboard that he discusses for M. Rappoport during his niece’s visit is an O.J. Gude installation and still plays across the masthead of Frank’s Fading Ads Blog. People are amazing and Frank is a great example of that.

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Day 17 of Vlomo11 (barely)

I think this video might be watchable only in the way that traffic accidents are. I’ll leave it to you to decide.

There I was, barely out of day 16 of Vlomo, working past midnight for the xth fucking day in a row, when I just turned my MacKook Air Webcam on and just let it roll. I don’t do this, but I did this.

I sing along embarrassingly to a Phil Collins song from the 80′s, I almost fall asleep in my chair, I rub my head to stay awake,  I lose my temper with MediaTemple web hosting for having beautiful design sensibility paired with some of the most pitiful server speeds known to man, I make analogies to Media Temple being like Steve Jobs with no substance. I look tired, I look really, really tired. I sing again.

I eventually can’t take the slow speed of a simple phpmyadmin mysql dump of a tiny, puny, insignificant sized database that should download in a nanofart and FREAK OUT to the point where Shannon comes to see if I’m about to kill a home invader. I turn the music off to talk with Shannon and then somehow the song starts all over again.

It’s how the days are, it’s how the life is.

It’s a bit much sometimes.

I’m writing this to wind down so I can wake up in about 3.5 hours to get the kids ready for their 7AM violin/cello lessons. Hmmmmm.

Wait, I didn’t mention slavery or hitler in my ditty. There, now this piece is complete.

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Have you ever heard of NaNoWriMo? It’s the inspiration for many November 30 day challenges.

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Shot on my iPhone4 using the 8MM app.

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This woodpecker visited our property this morning and hung out for quite a while. He was probably 50-60 feet up this tree so my video camera was on full zoom. There are two different angles I recorded him from.

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I shot a few scenes of Palm Beach and the Atlantic Ocean on a blustery day and turned around for a look down Worth Avenue at ground level.

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We went camping recently at Jonathan Dickinson State Park which is close by in Hobe Sound (about 25 minutes away from us). Due to our close proximity Shannon’s brother Michael dropped by for a visit and brought our dog Zoe for a little adventure.

In this video Shannon and Zoe are featured but Michael and J&J make appearances as well.

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