mad seagull

I don't live in Monmouth County anymore, but my parents do, and I visit them, and sometimes there are nifty things around here to photograph. So I'm going to add a couple unofficial not-updates (since OTDP is very clearly "no longer updating"). :)

After my last post (August 17, 2008), I moved to Chicago for two years, and then back to north Jersey. I'm still there, and I've been running New Providence Daily Photo for a year and a half (welllll... a little over a year). It's sort of the bastard stepsister of Monmouth County Daily Photo.

There's nothing like NOT living on the shore to make you appreciate it!

Is OTDP still on your RSS feed? Do you still even have an RSS feed? If so, how are you doing?

(FYI, I will probably not continue updates for this clone of the blog; for Jersey shore photo updates, check Monmouth County Daily Photo [on Wordpress] or New Jersey in Photos [on Tumblr].)

an ending

1. If you found this photoblog through a search engine, and you're looking for a particular search term or image, try typing those keywords into the search box up on the left-hand side of the menubar (technically, "navbar") at the very top of this blog, above where it says "Ocean Township Daily Photo." (up there ^ )

2. If you're looking for newer photos from JosyC, check out Snapshot Optimism.

3. If you're wondering about this post, my mother and I are driving to Chicago tomorrow. I will not be returning to New Jersey for the forseeable future. (See yesterday's post for details.)

Tschüss!

so here we are...

On Monday, I will be leaving New Jersey and starting a new chapter of my life in Chicago. I'll be going to graduate school there for biomedical visualization (which is a fancy way of saying "medical illustration," which is, y'know, drawing kidneys and stuff). I will be ceasing my daily photo activities. You will, however, still be able to find me on Snapshot Optimism, an occasional photoblog that I'll be keeping up, as well as JosyDoodle, where I'll show off my kidney drawings and stuff.

I am prone to enthusiastically starting projects, followed by enthusiastically forgetting about them two or six weeks later. But here, I wanted to prove that I could keep the ball rolling on something (that wasn't immediately crucial to my life, like work or school). With the exception of a few short out-of-town excursions, I've posted every single day since December 14, 2006--which, including today, makes a total of 606 posts on MCDP and 475 here on OTDP (which only started 4/30/07). I've loved it, I've hated it, I've been super-involved, and I've cared less, but I did it. I think I've accomplished what I set out to do here; I can only hope you've enjoyed the ride and maybe even learned something about Monmouth County, NJ. :)

Tomorrow will be my last (and 607th/476th) post.

I'll miss these blogs.

entertainment

For those who have found this blog by Googling "Things to do in Monmouth County:" I am as clueless as you are. My main source of entertainment 'round here is wandering around with a camera, looking for interesting things to photograph.

Here are some things I have done:

1. Bowling. (Often with bumpers for the second game, because I am just that spectacular.) I usually go to The Lanes at Sea Girt, but I've been to Memory Lanes in Shrewsbury, Shore Lanes in Neptune (which is on the Asbury Circle, which is not a fun circle to navigate), and Brunswick Bradley Beach Bowl (maybe that link will work if you have the latest version of Flash, which I don't).

2. Bars (and/or restaurants, grills, etc. that serve liquor). Not so much fun here in suburbia 'cos you have to drive home afterwards, so you really need to (ought to) watch yourself. Unless you have a designated driver, which no one wants to be. (The above photo was taken in the Brickwall Tavern, Asbury Park.)

3. Coffee. Only really works if there's only a small group of you, though.

4. Movies. Hey, it's something.

5. The Datebook. Go find your local print copy of the Asbury Park Press and leaf through it until you find the Datebook, which takes up the bottom half of a page and is usually printed in red or blue ink. A lot of the stuff is craft sales and "square dancing for 'kids' 55 and over," but it's worth a look. I have been unable to locate the Datebook online; you do need an actual physical copy of the APP.

6. Go biking. All right, maybe it's not a 'Saturday night with the gang' sort of activity, but it's healthy. Bob Lucky reviews and photographs several Monmouth County bike paths, and many of the Monmouth County Parks are set up for that sort of thing.

7. Walk around. This sounds monumentally stupid, but if you have nothing better to do, give it a shot. Red Bank, Asbury Park, local parks, and anywhere with a boardwalk can be fun places to do this.

Speaking of Red Bank and Asbury Park, here are some official lists of what's going on in various towns:
Asbury Park

Red Bank (see also the Count Basie Theater, Two River Theater Company, Improv Comedy Jam, and Red Bank Art Cinemas)

Also see Go Kids NJ, which sounds stupid, but you're never too old to enjoy a boardwalk or a festival or an aquarium. You can search for specific towns.

down the shore

A big trend nowadays on the Jersey Shore is using your car to proclaim that you're a local (and not, heaven forbid, a benny) AND what town you're from (in the manner long practiced by European countries). They make stickers like these for all of the shore towns, but these were the only ones I saw A) on parked cars B) while I had a camera handy.

beautiful alley

I remember when this little balcony didn't used to be fenced off.

It's part of the Asbury Park Casino/ Boiler House/ Carousel complex, on the Ocean Grove side.

beach finds 2

It's a little long to have come from an Eastern Goldfinch; I'm not quite sure what sort of bird this feather comes from.

manholes of monmouth

What's with all the manholes?!

Back in January 2007, I posted a photo of an Ocean Township gutter. Someone said, "You can learn a lot about a community from its manhole covers." Fine. I posted some manhole covers. Someone else suggested that I make a typology out of it. I was compelled.

And THAT is how all this madness started. (They're all from Monmouth County, by the way.)

The manholes are for you to EXPLORE. C'mon. There's almost 50 photos here. Do you know where they were all taken? Did I REPEAT any patterns? Clicky clicky! Find out!

I'm posting this in honor of the City Daily Photo "metal" theme. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants!