spiderman!

Midnight show of Spiderman II was awesome!!! Such a great movie, and even better in the big theater of Barrington 30 :) Good plot, good acting, good effects! I was impressed and pleasantly surprised :) Now I have to get to work though!! Who wants to go to the taste on Friday?

scary logan airport...

"Massachusetts State Police stationed at Logan Airport will soon have access (via Blackberry handhelds) to "7 billion records" containing information on "nearly 98 percent of the U.S. population, including, for example, a person’s prior residence and with whom he or she lived, criminal information, court filings, vehicles owned, and even restricted government data."

More here.

summerfest: part II

Summerfest again today!! Things that rock: Seeing Lewis Black in the second row! Leinie's beer! Lots of music playing all over! Hanging out with my awesome friend susan! The Milwaukee Art Museum! MIlwaukee on a nice warm summer night!

So yes, summerfest rocked tonight. And Lewis Black, as always was totally hilarious :)

And last night we had an earthquake in chicago!! I work up at like 1:11 and was like, hmm, odd that I woke up right now. Felt a little odd, but was like, whatever, and went back to bed. Then I get up and learn about the quake. How bizarre! Only a 4.5 and about 70 miles away from here, but still, bizarre!

OK...to bed now! Hope you're all having a great week so far!! Who wants to see counting crows at the taste on the 4th???

Yay for running!!

Race to the Taste this morning!! Awesomeness!! Tons of happy people, a fun run along Michigan Ave, the lakefront, and grant park! What a beautiful Sunday morning!!! :) I had a blast, was just running for fun and still finished in just under 28, which is ok for my very first 5K. I want to get it down to 26 by the next one I run though, and I think it's totally possible since I had a ton left in me at the end of it all! And I even got a "yeah mit!!" from the sidelines...not sure who it was, but very cool :) (I was running with an MIT shirt on)

And the taste itself!! Yay for vegan friendly food (unlike that little festival to the north ;) ) Veggie ribs, veggie dogs, veggie indian food, corn, fruit, mmmm. Oh so delicious! :)

So I'm up to the MIT chapters of A Beautiful Mind now. I was reading it on the el (woah, almost said T) ride back from the taste today. All the talk of living in boston, walking across the bridge to MIT, building 2, professors like Mattuck being quoted (how LONG has that guy been there??), talk of professors who go on random tangents and don't ever get to the point (reminds me of crazy 18.03 recitation instructor...mr excuse me while I go snort something and come back and teach you...yeah, him) Good memories :) I was smiling and this girl next to me on the el was like "fond memories" I was like, totally! :) It's funny how a place basically doesn't change in 50 years while so much in the world is so different. MIT still had a gazillion kids from Sty, still has the same old buildings and offices and common rooms, still has a lot of the professors that were there in the 50s, and for the most part teaches all the same classes! Kinda cool when you think about it :)

OK...off to watch movies this afternoon (Roger and Me! And I don't even have to drive through the snow to get it this time!)! Go Michael Moore!! :) Summerfest again tomorrow...Lewis Black! Who is in???

Summerfest!!

So yesterday was quite the day! :) After learning that all my friends are procrastinators (hmm...I knew that already) and didn't get tickets for the evanston show of Fahernheit 9/11 before they sold out, I was suddenly faced with options!! And being me, I decided to find a way to combine *all* the options :) Yay! So F9/11 was an awesome movie! Go Michael Moore! My dad even wants to see it!! Imagine that!! So yes, very cool...maybe some people out there that have "I love Bush" blinders on will start to at least question some of his actions/motivations/lies. :) That would be good. Too many people in this country just blindly go on and "love" america and support without question the decisions our leaders make...it's good to see a movie that questions those actions and makes people really think about the way our country is being run!

So after the movie (we went to an early show in the afternoon!!), I decided to head up to summerfest!! Susan is always raving about it, and well, I had to go!! And it's always wonderful to hang out with Susan!!! We walked down to the fairgrounds from her place, walked around, ate corn on the cob (without butter for me!!), drank a lot of miller products and saw Guster play for about an hour and a half straight :) SO much fun!!! I'm gonna do it all again on monday for lewis black!! who wants to come along???

Maybe sometime I'll post a little rant about why I dislike my old church. Went to a little ice cream social thing there with my parents today and was ridiculed by just about everyone for being skinny, vegan, and not seeing anyone right now. Anyway, long story that's way more complicated than that and involves most organized religion I've seen in the midwest will be coming soon...

Lewis Black Monday!! Seriously! Who is in???

rainbows

So I saw this really awesome rainbow over the lake on my run today! It was sunny outside, but somehow drizzling a little bit and as I came around the corner of the lakefill, I saw the most amazing rainbow stretching from the city down in the distance back up to just north of the lakefill. Very awesome and very happy :) Yay for running! Less than 4 days now until the Race to the Taste!! :) I'm so excited!!! :) :)

Not much else new here. I'm loving chicago more and more and more every day. Seeing the skyline while I was running today, hearing "We're all Crazy in Chicago" just as the skyline came into view playing randomly on my iPod...it was great :)

friends rock

All I want to say tonight is yay for good friends, cubbies winning, opening wine bottles the MIT way (picture hammers and screwdrivers), and irrational crushes on people who you shouldn't be having a crush on :) There's only one person who will understand all that, but that's ok :) :)

cedar point!

So you know how you never really realize how much you miss people until you see them? Today was such an incredible day hanging out with old housemates from student house at cedar point in ohio! It was so great to get to see everyone again, share old stories, be geeky and MIT-like, talk about important issues, and just plain have fun in the best amusement park in the world :) such a great time!!! I miss all of you student house people!!!

pictures here

now, off to bed after 10 hours of driving and 13 hours of roller coasters in the past 23 hours!!

No more VCR's, TiVo's, etc... ??

Antipiracy bill targets technology | CNET News.com

More fun quizzes :)

Take the quiz: "Which Random Irish Gaelic Phrase Are You? "

Ta mo bhriste tri thine
Ta mo bhriste tri thine - 'My trousers are on fire.'You're a few bricks short of a load, aren't you? You're probably not allowed to use sharp objects and you should be locked in a rubber room. With Rubber rats. Rubber rats? I hate rubber rats. They drive me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once. They put me in a rubber room. With rubber rats. Rubber rats? I hate rubber rats...


Um...yeah. That's what the quiz said :)

be my guest?

Hey! So my friend Zack is getting married July 31st in Indiana! Does anyone want to be my "guest"?? Come on! It'll be fun!! :)

t minus three days!

In three short days I'll be at cedar point with a bunch of old student house friends!!! yay!!! :) I am super excited to see everyone again, and ride a roller coaster that goes 120 MPH! :) It should be an awesome time!

Other than that, not much new. Enjoying the nice weather! Hanging out with old friends and getting in my daily summer workout :) Had a nice dinner with a good old high school friend yesterday before she heads off to europe for the summer, so that was fun!

OK...gotta go make me some dinner! Oh, and go cubbies!!! :)

sunny monday :)

happy monday everyone! :) it's *beautiful* in chicago!! Seriously, I went for a run tonight and the view of the city was just so clear, and the sun was setting and the clouds up over the lake were all lit up in all sorts of oranges and pinks. I wish I would have had my camera, but I was running, and well, you just can't have your camera or camera phone with you *all* the time!

last night was a ton of fun too! we all went over to a co-worker's house for a BBQ for the NBA finals. And although the lakers lost (sorry helen! :( ) it was a great time and we had *tons* of great food!! good times :)

and I'll end this very random post with an article I found about the sad state of reading/writing education in the world today. don't even remember where I found this link...

http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,5500,1052077,00.html

It's just so sad in this era of "teaching for the test" to see kids growing up without a thirst for reading and a creative passion for writing. Great writing has nothing to do with following totally set patterns and has way more to do with content than format, but all everyone is getting graded on nowadays is just format. Did you know that in Indiana, they grade essays by computer using some (probably really bad) AI algorithms. There's *no* way that thing is going to understand anything great and creative!

yay for friends :)

I just want to say a big thanks to all my friends for a wonderful day today!! Stacie, it was wonderful to see you for dinner...the lettuce wraps were so tasty, and that kid with the laser pointer was hilarious :) And LauraF, thanks so much for inviting me to your party...such a good time!! :) It was so great to see you Susan (as always), but next time you have to drag Diana along!!

Kurt Vonnegut on a lot of stuff...

Kurt Vonnegut's rant on a lot of stuff...

friends for ages...

So I just got back from hanging out with some of my oldest friends in the entire world down at Bar Chicago. Which, by the way, is a pretty crazy place if you've never been :) Anyway, my friend Gina had a free drink special going from 8:30-10:30, so that was pretty sweet and I got to hang out with her and Joe and Jimmy and Ean and John and Katy and Christine and a bunch of other people from various eras of my life from preschool through to high shcool! How fun is that!? It's like a total high school reunion :) Or at least an AP Calc/debate reunion :) Fun times for sure, but now I must go to bed! It's been a super-long day!!

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

drinking and writing...

Hey! I just got back from this awesome show called Drinking and Writing put on by a few of the neofuturists down at Rock Bottom! It was a great show about prohibition era writers and their uses of alcohol in relation to their writing. And as all neofuturist shows have, it had the own actor's personal viewpoints and experiences with "drinking and writing" :)

Oh, it brings back good old memories of creative writing classes at MIT. Especially a story I love to share about a professor that will go nameless for right now. He has an interesting story....in that he used to be a porn star. Well, just for a brief period of time, until he got invited to portugal to write a biography, but he really just went there to smoke free pot. Anyway, my story is digressing...he used to have *big* parties for his final exams where he'd bring in a keg and some pot and everyone would have a good old time well, "drinking and writing." But one day this really old math professor who was proctoring an exam in the room next door comes over and was like "what the hell is going on in here!" And well, good old writing professor says "we're having a final exam, can't you see!?" :)

Ahh, MIT :) And ahh, writing. I miss it, I have to do more of it. Maybe look for some of it posted here someday. We shall see...

Then I met two awesome people on the el on the way home. Just randomly started talking to one, and then the other was talking to me on the purple line. Fun times and fun people. Chicagoans can be so friendly :) At least students in chicago :) I love the el...riding though interesting neighborhoods with so many little details that you can never see them all. Like the "Bag and Wig" shop or the pre-recorded birk squawking that plays at Howard, or the voice that whispers "This is Grand" when you get to Grand Ave. Yes, it's a great city :)

But for now, I must go to bed. Goodnight everyone!!

work...

So interesting news today at work! We have a new project lead for our project!! This guy Vivek who is a great engineer and a great guy is now our project lead effective like now!! Which is really awesome! We're gonna get a lot done this year for sure! And I have someone to code with!!! But yet it's sad cause it would have been awesome to code with lauraf. Laura, I wish things could have worked out, but I'm certain that you'll find an awesome job soon!!!! Let me know if I can help in any way :)

Not much else new around here! It's totally summertime in chicago! And my summer workout schedule has begun! Running along the lake on MWF and weights at Moto on TR! Yay! I'm excited!! :) And I'm going to run in Race to the Taste...so come run with me!!!!

cubbies sadness

This is sadness. Come on cubbies fans!!!

And oh, CUBS WIN, CUBS WIN!!! :) (not that I wouldn't be ok if they didn't) ;)

2 comments...

1) Having the building engineer out last week to make sure all the windows open was a good idea on the part of Parliament Enterprises :) Having the painters out this week, however was not. I am back to 2 functional windows this morning ;)
2) Banana nut muffins from Chicago Diner are yummy

Off to work!

as promised...

So as promised, here's my litte rant on dating and relationships. I guess I'm just going to make a few (hopefully insightful) comments about things I've been thinking about lately. The biggest conclusion that I've come to is that "dating" in the traditional sense is really not the way I've ever started a "successful" relationship and that it's probably not the best way to start one in the future. You know, I've always just become really good friends with someone and taken things from there. It's like, how do you know if you'd really like someone until you know them for a while, are around them in different circumstances, and really get to see what it is that makes them tick and makes them special? The normal "dating" way of doing things just really gives a totally rosy picture of things and doesn't usually let you into really seeing who someone is. And makes people get emotionally involved which can keep them in a relationship they just really shouldn't be in. It's not like I need to be dating people to be happy. It's my friends that totally make me happy anyways :) Obviously, when I do find that right person someday, I totally want them to be my best friend, so it makes sense to me at least for things to start as good friends too.

Another thing I've been thinking about a lot lately is what makes a successful relationship. You know, what really makes something that will last. My biggest conclusions on that front is again, that it takes a total trusting friendship and understanding. Both people have to be willing to go above and beyond to be there for each other...to understand and talk through things that come up...or to just be there to hold each other when there are no words suitable for explanation. That's something that's been missing in a lot of my former relationships. And seems so basic to me...it's what love is all about, yet so many people just don't seem to get what it takes to make something last.

So I don't really know the "point" of all this writing, but it feels good to write down what's been going on in my head :) And if any of you know cool people who have a little engineer/scientist and a little artist/writer/musician in them, are smart and inventive, love to smile, are totally random and love doing all sorts of interesting things, have a super-big heart, and most importantly are single, I'd love to meet them and make a new friend. And who knows, maybe someday something will work out, but in the mean time, nothings beats some new awesome friends :) I'm not actively trying anymore to do the "dating" thing. It's just not what I want or what I think leads to something successful. And who knows, maybe one day one of these friends will become someone special. From what I've been told though, my standard of special is pretty high...not that there's anything wrong with that :)

I'll end with a little poem by one of my favorite neo-futurists who is now shooting Ocean's 12 in europe!

Love is...giving hugs.
Love is...forgiving.
Love is...pure, uninhibited laughter.
Love just is...and it's wonderful, isn't it?

Race to the taste!

Who wants to Race to the Taste with me? Come on, it's only 5K!

good old music

so today my ipod played me some old green day music (like *old* from 1991 when they were on an independent label from berkeley) and I was happy. I miss that good old punk music from the early 90s! Time to go find some more like that! Maybe tie that in with local band listening-to this summer cause the sound is still around here. Anyway, random thought.

I went to a steakhouse for the first time in three years today for my dad's b-day! but don't worry...they had a veggie burger on the menu, and it was actually really good! yay for veggie food infiltrating the midwest!! and for my dad turning 64!!

Not much else new around here. Be looking for a rant on relationships and dating coming soon (like maybe tomorrow). And thanks to everyone for some conversations the last few days on the topic!

As a final note, no word back from the friday night date girl. Sad, but as you might see in my post tomorrow, maybe not all that bad.

printer's row!

Yay for Lauraf telling me about printer's row today! It was a great time and there were just *so* many books there!!! And cheap too...now I have a backlog of books to read including A Beautiful Mind, New Ideas About New Ideas, Problems of Knowledge and Freedom, For Love of Country, Innocent Eréndira and Other Stories by GG-M, Don Quixote, and a new vegan cookbook! And all for under $35! Yay! And we got to hear a talk by Dave Eggers which was entertaining too! And there was a group doing skits from Schoolhouse Rock! I'm just a bill, yes I'm only a bill... :) To sum up, all in all a very fun saturday! :)

Who wants to cook yummy vegan things with me out of my new cookbook??

yay for nice weather!

Today was wonderful! And it was wonderful weather outside! :) A friend interviewed for a job in our lab, and that was fun :) I got to have lunch with the CTO, which was pretty cool. And I had a nice dinner at Blind Faith followed by a nice walk along the lake and a good movie at the Evanston theater. That last part sounds like a date, you might be thinking :) It was...it was cool. I think there will be a second date. Yay! :)

Maybe heading down to printer's row tomorrow...maybe random beer garden afterwards. Who's with me??? You know you want to!

harry potter

yay for harry potter at midnight!!! goodnight everyone! and go see it!! it's good!!! :)

some people need help...

So today I found out that Ethel and Eric just picked out a ring together. It's like, woah, you have to be kidding me! It's like what, two months ago not even that she was thinking of breaking up with him and John and only seeing me, and now she's marrying the guy? I just don't get it. At all... Speechless...

But in happy news work is going super-great and I am SO excited about what we'll be working on for the next year!! Yay!!! :)

what do you say and where do you live...

So a friend brings back up the pop vs soda vs coke debate. I still remember coming to MIT and having a kid from texas hold out a mountain dew and ask me if I wanted a "coke" I was like...um...sure! And he handed me the mt. dew :) And I was a confused midwestern boy :)

http://www.popvssoda.com/countystats/total-county.html

And more fun with regional words...

http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~golder/dialect/maps.php

It's pretty amazing how with the spread of mass media, internet, tv, magazines, and with people moving so much recently there is still such rigid segregation in these words!

bizarreness

You know in Amelie where she goes into the grocer's apartment and moves his doorknob and changes out his shoes and resets his clock and.. Yeah, I'm sure you guys know. So I get home tonight and come in my back door, go to take off my shoes and put them on my little mat like I usually do, but it's not where it should be. I think, odd, must have slid when I left this morning. So I go to the bathroom, and my window is closed, and I always leave it open when the weather is nice. I go to wash my hands and reach for the soap, but it's not where it's supposed to be either. Then I go to sit in my chair, and it's moved a little too! It just felt really bizarre especially since I just watched Amelie again last night (It's such a feel good movie). So anyway, to make a long story short, my landlord came in today to make sure all my windows opened up (which they didn't and now they do!) . So I'm happy about that!

Hope you all had super-wonderful days!! :)