imagine a different world of grilled cheese.

It seems as though I enjoy doing bulk updates of my A Photo A Day photos, instead of simply uploading one each night. This way, I am able to add my comments and enlighten you as to the stories behind each photo, instead of just giving you the photo. Look for more bulk uploads in the future.

Friday night football between the Strongsville Mustangs and the Solon Comets that took place on a Thursday night. I believe it was on a Thursday not because of a Jewish holiday (I would know, I am Jewish), but because it was the Game of the Week and on TV. Solon won 24-14, knocking Strongsville out of the playoffs and propelling Solon to a final 8-2 record and home field advantage in the first round.

I am a dork. If you didn’t know this you have no idea who I am or you just haven’t been paying attention. On Friday at 6 pm, Apple released their new operating system, Mac OS X Leopard, 10.5, and being an Apple Dork, I had to go over there right at 6 to see all of the festivities. I did this for the iPhone, which was much more hyped and mainstream, and now did it for Leopard.

The minute I heard that free t-shirts would be handed out, I knew I would be there. Unfortunately, I didn’t really get to stand in line because of work, but I did have a stand-in. My mom went over, braved the rain, and other nice Apple dorks, and was able to get me and herself a nice t-shirt. Her’s is opened and most likely washed at this point. Mine is still in the bag and will most likely stay that way until forever. Who knows, down the road I might need some extra cash and now will be able to obtain it by selling that mint-condition Apple Leopard t-shirt.

This picture was actually my mom’s idea, as a last second thought, as we were headed to Bar Louie for a great dinner!

Sometimes you just have to find things, or pets, around the house to take pictures of. This is the family dog, Sammie, as she lyes down on my bed, most likely asleep. Isn’t she adorable? I think so.

At Beachwood Place the Sunday before Halloween it is Trick-Or-Treat day or so I found out. My mom and I were simply going to the mall for lunch and to look for a nice winter jacket. Instead, we were greeted by princes and princesses and many other costumed youngins. Sunday’s A Photo A Day is taken from the second floor the young Halloween goblins were dancing to Radio Disney. Oh and I didn’t find a jacket…yet.

Oh my!

Outside the Cleveland Art Museum after the Member’s Preview Reception.

A lonely pumpkin waiting to be chosen, waiting to be carved for Halloween. I chose a different one, or actually, I choose a couple different ones. Plus…

…a crazy warted  gourd. It is pretty awesome looking.

These leaves are not floating, they are sitting on my windshield at the end of a rainy work day. Not a great photo, but not a bad one.

I took this picture as I was waiting for my mom to get to the club to play racquetball. Unfortunately, her win streak stopped at 1. Too bad for her. Ha.

I have been keeping up with taking the pictures, I just haven’t kept up with writing about them. Here are 6 photos, from the last 6 days…including a photo from Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, pitting the Boston Red Sox against the hometown favorite Cleveland Indians. And oh yeah, I must note that for the first time, last night, I fell in racquetball to my mom. She won, fair and square, and therefore I must give her her dues. Anyways, here are the photos…

For some reason, ever since I have really gotten into photography, I have been against editing my photos in anyway. I believe, that the photos I snap, are the final product, and therefore, shouldn’t be touched. No Photoshop, no nothing. I realize that many other people disagree with me, bringing up the days of the darkroom, but for some reason, this is how I feel.

Photoshop to me, can sometimes be a crutch and overused. The mentality, that I don’t agree with, is, “Oh I didn’t take that great of a photo, I will just use Photoshop to make it great.” Why not perfect your photography skills instead of relying on a program to improve them?

With all that said, today, I was driving by the ponds that are in my development and I saw the stork that has evaded me and my camera for as long as I can remember. There it was, waiting for me to snap its photo. I pull down the street, rush out of the car, and try and get as close as I can. As he (or she), notices me approaching, he takes off into the air. I start snapping away, thanking my lucky stars that the camera was on burst mode. After he vanished into the sky, I look at the photos and noticed they were too dark, all of them. Nothing I could do. Eventually, I found him at the other pond, and this time, as he flew away, into the distance, the photos were too light, and you can’t even see where he is in the photo.

One of these days I will take the perfect photo of this stork, but for now, I must rely on the crutch, Photoshop, to help me out. As the title of this post says, if this was how the photo was actually taken, it would be today’s A Photo A Day, but alas, it is just a bonus photo.

Click for Hi-Res Version.

Today’s A Photo A Day still comes to us from the pond, but instead of the stork as the focus, it is the ducks. Enjoy!

The day after the Cleveland Indians defeated the New York Yankees to advance to the American League Championship series, I noticed this flag across the street from my office. GO TRIBE.

I don’t believe it.

Ever since I wrote Growing Up or Simply Growing Wiser? and How come no one told me this?, I have wanted to write a follow-up, a new post in the series. However, ever since those two posts, a lot of nothing and a lot of something, has happened. My life has changed, yet in a way, it has stayed the same.

Throughout our lives, we are on a search, a hunt, so to speak. We are searching for that one person who we want to spend the rest of our lives with. Some start this search early in their lives, while others begin looking later in their lives. There are early-bloomers, later-bloomers and everyone in between. No matter when this process begins, most everyone in this world tries to complete this task. Most everyone wants to love someone, and to be loved by someone.

During this process, of trying to find Mr. or Ms. Right, we refine our needs and wants, what we like and don’t like. Along the search path, we find plenty of Mr. or Ms. Wrongs, and only eventually, down the road, do we realize that we have actually found Mr. or Ms. Right. Therefore, as we continue on this search, we can make sure not to make the same mistakes as in the past, we can avoid what we don’t like and try to find more of what we do. We can make sure that we do not settle. We can make sure that we never give-up.

On my path, my journey, to find the one I will love for the rest of my life, I have taken the road that is only paved for me. It seems as though my search has fit me to a “T.” I believe myself to be unique, different, and I feel as though my search has followed suit. In my eyes, me, and my search are, essentially, one in the same.

As I said earlier, you date, and go on this journey, to make sure you find the right person, and to insure that you do not settle. I have had a few relationships, and learned a lot. I have kept this in my mind as I have continued on this search, the search that has brought me to a path that I have yet to walk on. A path that involves another. I am in unchartered territory, territory that I have always knew I would enter, but had yet to do so. However, this does not scare me, or frighten me, as it might have in the past. It actually does the exact opposite. It makes me smile, and excites me for the future, for what is to come.

I have gone on this journey for longer than I realize, and it has brought me to where I am today. It has brought me to someone who makes me feel like I have never felt before, no offense to the ladies in my past. I do not know if this path will be long and will take me months or years to walk on, or if it will be short, and end before I know it. I certainly do not know this, and believe that no one has that answer.

However, if anyone believes in feelings, or hunches, as I do, I lean towards long. I do not want to get ahead of myself, I have done that in the past, and has gotten me in trouble, but this is different, very different. I have been using the word “different” and “differently” to describe my relationship with this amazing girl, even before there was a relationship. The fact that this feels different then my past relationships, the ones that ended, that didn’t work, that are no more, says a lot. It tells me that this is something special, something unique, something that will last.

I will end this post, this long rambling post, with an example. Last night, this girl, my girlfriend, came over after not feeling well all day, to watch a movie. We sat on the couch, and did as most couples do when watching a movie at home, we cuddled, and held each other. Although I was watching the movie, I was also focused on my feelings and what I was thinking. I kept saying to myself, I could stay here forever, and almost wanted to. It might sound corny, and well, it might actually be corny, but that is what I was thinking and feeling.

Eventually comes a time, when people must go home, and that was no different last night. However, what was different, was that no longer than 15 minutes after she left, I already missed her. I continued to miss her until I went to bed, this morning and now. Even though I know she needs her rest because she isn’t feeling well, I wish she was coming back over this evening, so I could stop missing her.

My life has changed since those two previous posts. I said I wasn’t ready for a serious relationship, that I was happy with my life. However, if when I wrote that original post, I knew how happy I would be now, I would have never written it. My life is great now, and I can’t wait to continue walking on this path, hand-in-hand, with my girlfriend, Rachel.

A week and a day ago, I went to the Solon High School football game with my dad. I took my camera, hoping to snap that day’s photo. I took a good amount photos, with there being at least one that could be become Friday’s photo. The game was a blow-out, and so dad and I called mom, who had dropped us off and done some errands, to come back and take us home.

That night, I was having some friends from college in from out of town. They were coming in late, so I went to lye down and watch tv. I decided to rest instead of look at tonight’s football pictures. The photos remained on the card, and in the camera. That was a mistake.

The next day, I hung out with my out of town guests, and my girlfriend. It was great for everyone to hang out together, see the city and do some shopping. Yes, even though I am a guy, I really don’t mind shopping! Ha. Anyways, after the shopping we came back to the house to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, that was the “reason” my friends were in from out of town. After getting all situated, we went in the background to decorate the Sukkah with apples, corn husks, fake fruit, and newly designed paper plates.

I took out my camera to take pictures of my friends, and the sukkah. As I normally do on a new photo day, I erased all the old images. At that point, I had no idea what I did, and went on taking pictures. I took more photos that evening, and the next day when my friends and I took a walk to the ponds right down the street. There, we fed the ducks old popcorn and stale bread. The fish loved it, and then eventually the ducks did too.

My friends left in the early afternoon, and I went to shower and just crash. Later that night, I decided I would go through the photos from the weekend, and start choosing each A Photo A Day. I attached the camera to the computer and started importing. Upon completion, I noticed some photos missing. I looked on the camer, same thing. I had then realized what I had done, and started to cry and scream. Up until that point, I had no idea much this project meant to me.

That Saturday afternoon, when I erased the old photos on the camera, I erased all the football photos from Friday night, since I was lazy, and decided not to look at them that night. They were gone, and I had no photo for Friday’s A Photo A Day. I had worked on this project for 5 months, and it almost came crashing down in front of me. I searched the internet high and low for any program that would restore data off a camera card. There were a few, but none of them were truly free.

Sunday, and Monday, I tried out these programs, hoping, praying, that one of them would find just one photo from Friday night; didn’t matter if it was blurry, clear; interesting or boring. I just needed one photo from that night. Monday, since I was working late, and having no luck, I was forced to take a picture on the card I was trying to restore. I told myself I could only take one picture, as to not overwrite any old images, however, I took 2, of my sister’s room. The photos turned out slightly dark, but I still had a photo for Monday. That night, Monday, I stayed up past 1 a.m. trying to find just one program that would bring my old images back to life. It was taxing, and almost left me hopeless.

MediaRecover, the main program I tried and paid $30 for, recovered a ton of photos, old ones and new ones. However, the old ones were corrupt JPEGs. I couldn’t get any image editing program to open them. I started to believe, this project, A Photo A Day, was over. However, I started to search for programs that could un-corrupt corrupt JPEG files. In that search, I found the greatest program known to man, PhotoRescue.

This program gave me hope that one photo, from that Friday night would be found, as it was viewing photos that no other program saw. I used the program to save an image of the card, and then the next day, Tuesday, at work, I scanned it. PhotoRescue found approximately 4-6 images from that Friday night, all of the band. I was hoping for actual football photos, but at this point, beggars couldn’t be choosers. Later that night, after playing tennis with the mom and taking a photo for Tuesday, I spent another $30, and had my photo for Friday, September 28.

A Photo A Day had lived on. The project would not stop at 5 months, but would continue on, for at least a little while longer. I would be the judge of when A Photo A Day would end. The fact that I was so upset when I realized I had deleted photos from that Friday night, says a lot. The fact that I paid $60 for two programs to recover one image says a lot. This is my project, and I love doing it…I just hope everyone loves looking at the photos.

Speaking of photos, onto them. Below are all the photos, including the infamous Friday night image, as well as the bedroom image that had to be taken. A Photo A Day has returned, so look for more regular updates.

Friday, September 28 – The Football Shot

Saturday, September 29

Sunday, September 30

September’s Second Best

Monday, October 1 – The Bedroom Shot

Tuesday, October 2 - Rescheduled Tennis Night

Wednesday, October 3 – Simcha Torah (Sp?)

Thursday, October 4 – Cleveland Indians ROMP New York Yankees in Game of the ALDS

Friday, October 5 – Cleveland Indians come from behind to beat the New York Yankees, 2-1, in BugGate

Thank you for reading, and viewing. I hope you continue to return, A Photo A Day can only get bigger and better.