Robotic Tom

I pulled up to my local Bank of America location, last night, to use the ATM. Parking lot is empty and it is dark. Being the semi-street wise person I am, I like to take note of my surroundings whenever I’m in a poorly lit place and about to take out money. Imagine my surprise when I round the corner and come eye to eye with a life size cut out of a person in the lobby of the bank. Except it took a second for me to realize it was a cardboard cutout and not a person. Scared the hell out of me.

Perhaps this isn’t the smartest piece of marketing material to put in a bank lobby:

My favorite holiday tradition, that my fiancee and I have, involves going to Red bank to eat at my favorite Mexican restaurant, Juanito’s and then seeing the Fourth of July fireworks. It is always a fun night for us and after all these years, I am still a sucker for good fireworks (and the quesadilla at dinner at dinner helps).

Jon set up a camera in the office to record a time lapse video of the fireworks overheard. It turned out very cool. He’s got the video over on his site.

Here’s a video, that I took, of the finale of the 2008 Red Bank fireworks:

About a month ago, 15-20 dolphins entered the Navesink River near Sandy Hook, between Sea Bright and Middletown, NJ. It has become quite the local media story, as they have made their home in a semi-narrow waterway that is populated with speed and fishing boats. Federal officials have been involved in discussions on what to do with the dolphins, but the latest decision is to leave them be as they have plenty of food and are in no immediate danger.

This has become a big local media story, with all of the New York City news stations having near-daily updates, during the 11 o’clock news, on the status of their dolphins. Even the Today Show and CNN have ran stories about it.

I took a ride to Sea Bright to check it out for myself and was amazed at how many people are lining the River to get a look at the dolphins. McLoone’s in Sea Bright has become the hub for all things dolphin-watching. They’ve opened up their parking lot to people who want to see the dolphins and yesterday, there was at least 50 people there and an NBC News truck. The dolphins weren’t even in the area - they were at least a mile up river. Everyone just wants to see the dolphins up close.

I was able to find a side street, in the northern end of town, that allowed us a great view of the dolphins and it really was an interesting sight to see up close. There are a lot of boaters in the area, but the State Police also has a heavy marine presence there. With the upcoming busy holiday season, I hope boaters do the right thing and keep their distance.

I won’t be winning any awards for cinematography, but here’s a quick video I shot of the dolphins about 75 feet in front of me:

Today in Red Bank, Hamilton Jewelers hosted a fund raiser for the National Transplant Assistance Fund. As part of this fund raiser, more than 75 Ferrari owners converged on downtown Red Bank and it was quite the sight to see.

Knowing that I will never have the opportunity to own a Ferrari myself, I decided to catch this event. My second floor office, over Broad Street, provided a unique vantage point for the arrival of the Ferraris.

Below are two videos that I took of the cars arriving. I was most amazed by the sound of all of these cars arriving at the same time. They are quite loud, powerful, and you can hear them from a distance.

I also have photos on my Flickr page