For better or worse I'm in the habit of looking at the histogram on my camera after almost every shot and changing the exposure comp as desired. It's a fast process on my D40X. I'll likely keep that habit until I'm good at eyeballing the preview photo.

you are the media you consume.

That's three different pictures, all telling a different story. The first one shows much more of the context, your two don't have that. On the other hand, the wider shot doesn't necessarily show either element to full advantage.

Yes, I realize what you hoped to do as a composition but it doesn't turn out too well. The part to the right is the kind of tending-to-the-abstract shot of materials you like (the boardwalk trending off to infinity) (not infinity in the photo tech sense), the part to the left colourful historical-human inetrest. They probably called for separate treatment - unless you had the right kind of humans in the right places.

Call it something like "self portrait with seaside" and it would be art. ;-)

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.