jury duty

Hi from the apple store on michigan ave :) So today was the big day down at 26th and california for jury duty. It turned out to be not such a bad neighborhood like everyone was saying. I'd totally take the el/bus down there if I had to go again!! As it turns out I was in the first group to get called to a courtroom today. 60 of us for a 14 person jury. And I spent the day waiting while they went through 58 people before me (I think it's my lucky day)! And right before it go to me, they had their 14 and I could go home! Yay!!

Interesting observations: Out of the 58 people, 54 had lived in chicago their whole lives! Three had been here over 15 years. Most of the people had been with their jobs for 20+ years. And almost everyone knew someone who had been involved either as a victim or perpetrator of a violent crime. What a city this is ;)

Walking down Michigan Ave a few minutes ago all my "I love chicago" thoughts came back. Awesome people, fun buildings and architecture...I could totally live and work down here :) Too bad I'm out in schaumburg!

Oh well, all in all a good day, and I finished a book! yay!

work part II and TIVO!!!

So to finish the post this morning...I had a meeting with my manager too yesterday where we talked about what I I've done this year. And as many of you know I feel like I haven't done a thing since getting back from Mountain View earlier this year, but as we went through my goals and what I've done, there really is a lot in there!! Not that I feel a lot of it was very challenging or what I'd like to be doing, but there was a lot in there. So that made me feel somewhat better :)

Now...I will go on and on about my new toy. So today I picked up a Tivo. And man, after using it for an evening, I don't even care if it can record TV! So let's start with the coolest things. This thing is TOTALLY mac friendly. It integrates completly with iTunes and iPhoto and provides full metadata searches (with a view like a file system) to all of your iTunes content just like you're browsing on an iPod. It even automatically imports all of your playlists. The iPhoto integration works the same way and you can browse all of your albums from iPhoto and sort by date or title as well as do slideshows right on your TV of albums from iPhoto on your mac - and it's all wireless! I don't think I'll ever play music or view pictures on my laptop again :)

Next cool feature. With your $12/month Tivo subscription you get access to on demand streaming music from best buy. Basically top 40 songs in a bunch of genres, but all free and all on demand! In that same iTunes interface!!

Then there's the program guide, which means no more going to tvguide.com to figure out what's on. It lets you browse by channel as well as showing summaries of the programs as you change channels! (no time grid...damn Gemstar patent!)

So I'm not a big TV watcher, but this thing is amazing! Oh, and you can also schedule recordings through the web! So if I'm at work late, I can tell it to "tape" the daily show for me :)

Enough going on and on about the tivo :) I hope everyone is having a great weekend!!! :) :)

bose suspension system

So all of you who I have gone on and on with about my class with Dr. Bose at MIT know all about this, but for everyone else, Bose just unveiled his suspension system the other day at Bose Mountain. Yes, Bose Mountain. He built his headquarters up on this big hill in franmigham right off of I-90 and he calls it Bose Mountain. Anyway, for those of you who don't know, at the end of Bose's class at MIT instead of having a final exam, he takes all of his students on a trip to Bose Mountain and gives them a tour of his research facilities and talks about all of the new research that he's doing - and how what we did in his class related to all of that research. For the past 20 years, they have been trying to make a car suspension system out of speaker-like things. Yes, speakers. It's not so far fetched. What do you want a suspension to do...move to an exact point really really fast. What do speakers, or better, electromagents, do...exactly that! So they had this mounted on a lexus a few years ago when I went out there and we got to ride in one...it was very cool! And now he just announced it! There's also a story here. Watch the videos on the bose site...it's pretty sweet :)

work...

Yes...so some of you have been hearing about the adventures at work lately. And oh do they continue :) Had a long discussion with our VP about why no one trusts the leadership team of our lab. Three more people quit this week and they are starting to get worried! Well, rightfully so! :) I just hope that they are able to hire a consultant for organizational development that can come in and make them talk about some of the harder things like the culture of not challenging ideas and having managers who cannot assess the work of their empolyees because they don't have a skill set even remotely close to what their employees are working on. If it's the management's job to make sure no two groups are working on the same thing, and if that happens, resolve which group has a better design, it would help if they could evaluate designs :) It could also help if the employees knew about software design when they were designing things...but that's another story for another day :)

Anyway, some days I am more optimistic than others that this will all work out...but no matter what *some* changes will be made and after my little talk yesterday it seems like some positive changes came out of that. So we shall see. But due to the sheer number of significant issues there are, I have little hope in seeing significant changes that will truly make it a functional work environment. It would just require firing too many people!!

More GRE studying this afternoon though!! yay for the gre :)

bartman and volleyball

So I'm watching the olympics and volleyball is on. And the US team apparantly just won because some guy in the stands was blowing a whistle and the other team stopped playing and then the US scored. So what does the announcer have to say? "He may just be the Steve Bartman of these games" I wonder how many people got that reference??

outfoxed!

outfoxed was good! thanks lauraf for coming along!!! fun fun :) It just amazes me how a network can honestly call themselves "fair and balanced" and say things like "it's 204 days until president bush is reelected" and "shut up" to anyone who has an opposing (anti-republican) viewpoint. True, no media source is unbiased, but even the super liberal Daily Show invites on republicans on the show and has real discussions with them. Boo fox news.

the part of town where the theater was is really cool too! just west of the hancock at oak and rush. fun little neighborhood that reminded me a lot of boston. ah....boston....

cubbies/tribune v. mayor daley...

In a statement on Monday after Wrigley had been cleared to host fans, Cubs President Andy MacPhail said that the city "has conducted enough inspections of Wrigley Field by now that they should be satisfied we are not printing a newspaper here."

-thanks diana :)

Old Style and Great America

So my new favorite Old Style radio ad....there's this dad playing catch with his son. His son hits him with a ball and he has to go to the hospital. The doctors are all confused because instead of bleeding red blood, he's BLEEDING CUBBIE BLUE :) :)

Great America with people from my lab yesterday was awesome! So much fun!!! We got on all the rides and on Superman and Raging Bull twice. And Wicked Twister (aka V^2) three times :) :) Such a great time and such a beautiful day to be up there. Back to work today though and that's what I'm off to now.

Have a great week everyone!! :)

MIT event and work party!

Work party yesterday was a good time! If any of you have never had a "margarita watermelon" you should totally make one. Just pretend you're making a margarita on top of an open watermelon and let it soak in for a while :) Mmmmm. Tasty :) And then we all decided that it would be a great idea to go see Harold and Kumar go to White Castle! Which actually was pretty funny. I think mainly just cause I know people JUST like harold and kumar :)

Today's MIT BBQ was really nice. I don't know how many freshmen there actually were there, but we had a bunch of alums so that was nice! I met a bunch of new people from '01 and '02 which was cool! There are a bunch of AXO people in chicago now, which is interesting. I actually met a girl I always thought was really cute when I was back at MIT but never actually talked to...so it was cool to finally say hi and talk to her :) It's always fun to see MIT people, talk the MIT language, and be reminded that indeed there are other people like me out there and that there are some really great and really smart people in Chicago :)

small world stories

So apparantly I'm the "king of small world stories" as yet again I found an odd connection to the Twomeys :) So Susan's roommate when she lived in wrigleyville was a friend of mine from high school. How bizarre!? Last night I was at Susan's going away night in Chicago at sheffields and I walk over and there's Anna. How bizarre? Anyway, a fun night...good veggie food from Leona's brought over to Sheffields and lots of beer, including Hamm's - the "Bad Beer of the Month" this month :)

Sad that Susan is leaving :(

1) Great America monday...who wants to come?
2) Grant Park movie, Guys and Dolls, tuesday night...again, who wants to come??
3) Thursday for seeing Outfoxed in the city..it's on the BIG screen now!! Does that work for people?

OK...off to the bank and a work party today!

Ted, GRE, and more about the cubbies!

So apparantly Ted Kennedy is on a government no-fly list :) Hmm... Kinda makes it hard to be a senator, no?

More GRE studying fun tonight!! :) And guess what??? We actually studied and did a practice exam! Or at least the verbal part of it! yay for being productive!! and yay for both me and larua being total slackers and not doing the test ahead of time :)

And yes! The cubbies game was awesome last night!! Clement had 13 strikeouts (including his 1000th!) and nomar was 4/5 with two RBI doubles. What an awesome game :) :)

Not much else new around here...getting ready for a fun weekend of going out, going to a work party, and going to an MIT new student party for all of our new admits downtown! Busyness, but fun awaits! :)

go cubbies!!

Miller tour and cubbies game last night were awesome! :) Yay for seeing the cubbies for $1 and still getting an awesome seat in the outfield right against the railing! :)

More later...

james taylor is back :)

So I woke up this morning, took a shower, and starting singing a James Taylor song. For those in the know, James Taylor music has not been kind to me in the past year. I think I'm *finally* getting close to being over laurap. Finally...

You can play the game and you can act out the part
Though you know it wasn’t written for you
But tell me, how can you stand there with your broken heart
Ashamed of playing the fool
One thing can lead to another; it doesn’t take any sacrifice
Oh, father and mother, sister and brother
If it feels nice, don’t think twice

Just shower the people you love with love
Show them the way that you feel
Things are gonna work out fine if you only will
Shower the people you love with love
Show them the way you feel
Things are gonna be much better if you only will

You can run but you cannot hide
This is widely known
And what you plan to do with your foolish pride
When you’re all by yourself alone
Once you tell somebody the way that you feel
You can feel it beginning to ease
I think it’s true what they say about the squeaky wheel
Always getting the grease.

Better to shower the people you love with love
Show them the way that you feel
Things are gonna be just fine if you only will
Shower the people you love with love
Show them the way that you feel
Things are gonna be much better if you only will

Shower the people you love with love
Show them the way that you feel

You’ll feel better right away
Don’t take much to do
Sell you pride
They say in every life
They say the rain must fall
Just like pouring rain
Make it rain
Make it rain
Love, love, love is sunshine.
Oh yes
Make it rain
Love, love, love is sunshine
Yeah, all right
Everybody, everybody
Shower the people you love with love

good days!

It's been a fun few days here! Had fun with Susan and her friends celebrating a beer from PA along with Susan's last day of work. And "the guide" was unveiled :) Thanks to all who contributed suggestions or pictures or vocab :)

And tonight I had a great dinner with stacie...talked about oh so many things as we always do. And the hostess at PF Chang's remembered us :) It's all good though. We're "regulars" now and that's kinda cool :) Just like it's always cool to talk to stacie :)

Cubbies game wednesday!! I'm psyched!! :)

done!

Done with what? Some of you know :) Some of you will find out soon :) It came out really nice I think!!!

interesting quiz...

horrid commentary...

Wow...so I'm watching the open ceremonies for the olympics on tv. And this commentary is just insane...I really wish they'd just be quiet and let us enjoy and interpret the show ourselves. Especially when they say things like (the model of) the parthanon looks like "the wicked witch's house the way it's spinning around" and "these were the the all-stars of mathematics" (Pythagoras, et al.) All that talk just makes things so unenjoyable when all interpreataion is taken away from the viewers. Sad.

At least I get to look at another pretty building by Calatrava

Yay for fun nights :)

Such a fun night! Lauraf came over, we figured out more GRE studying plans, cooked and ate really yummy veggie food, and talked about lots of fun interesting things. I need to cook more often! It's fun :) And tastes so much better than anything you heat in the microwave :) :) And now I have leftovers!! mmmm

So the more I'm thinking, the more I think the MIT Media Lab is where I really want to go. It's just such an awesome place...an awesome combination of design, interaction, communication, and media. Just a place like no other. And all things I want to do! And it's part of the school of architecture which I think is really cool! And yes lauraf, it's in Boston!! But I always said I was going to San Francisco or Boston someday :) Both totally awesome cities!! But only one has the media lab! :) So that makes choosing easy!

The cubbies are winning 5-1!! Go cubbies!! :) And go Moto CTO for being a cubs fan and for her wanting a seamless Cubbies experience :) (watch the moto analysts meeting for full context)

Not much else new around here. We have another interview candidate coming into work tomorrow...we'll see how he did on my little programming assignment! Fun fun! :)

Oh, and if anyone wants to come to a cubbies game in milwaukee on the 18th, let me know!! I'm getting $1 seats (which means getting in line around 3:00 and getting tickets at 5) Come on, it'll be fun!!!!! :) :)

go clinton!!

Best quote ever - "As a democrat, we win when people think" (Bill Clinton on the daily show) :)

more from the wedding! :)

So here's more explanation from the wedding...

1) Loving MN! So how does MN exist where it does?? It's like this super crazy liberal state in the middle of the midwest! I love it!!! So at the wedding I met one person who was a sustainable organic farmer, another girl who was working in northern mn to give healthy food to people with diabetes, and met brendan's parents who have a "mission not accomplished" bumper sticker on their car! What a contrast from last weekend's wedding in Indiana!!! (more of that below!)

2) The wedding itself! So the pastor starts out the wedding with the creation story from a small african tribe. It was an awesome story of how woman and man were created together, put onto earth, looked at each other, laughed, smiled at each other, and walked down a path together. How cool is that! Especially after last weekend's wedding where they started off reading the christian story from genesis where women were created to be "men's helpers" :) The pastor then went on to tell jokes and sing good hymns and just had a really nice small ceremony. So much fun!!

3) Clear Channel is evil. So this whole idea of having one company control like every radio station in the country is SO not a good idea! Everywhere I went on my drive back (cause my ipod battery died!) I put on the classic rock/80s station...and I must have heard that song Little Red Corvette like 6 times! Every station in the country has their little list of 40 songs, and that's all they can play...and it's all dictacted by the "parent" company...usually clear channel. It's sad because although it might be nice to find your "hometown" radio station no matter where you go in terms of the music they play, it's sad to not have that regional variation in the music and also sad to listen to the same 40 songs for 7 hours on the drive back insead of the 1000+ on my ipod on the way out!!!

4) Speaking of iPods, I think mine is possessed. Or at least has some super-sophisticated contextual system in it ;) But yeah, so I'm driving past Winona, MN and it plays "Unanswered Prayers" - a garth brooks song about being glad things didn't work out with an old high school love. Then I drive past Albert Lea and hear "The Engineer's Drinking Song" - the MIT song :) And this girl Amber who lived in my dorm freshman year was from there! There were a few other examples I don't remember right now, but it was freaky. :)

And an interesting thing to think about...I was just watching a Full House rerun and there was a Simpson's reference. It's amazing to think that that show has been on for SO long and it's still new and awesome!! :)

Brendan's wedding!

Brendan's wedding was awesome!!! :) :) But I'm totally exhausted now!

Some observations that I'll expand on in the morning:
1) I love MN and people from MN
2) Telling another religion's creation story in a marriage ceremony rocks! Especially when it's one where man and woman were created together
3) Clear Channel is evil...I heard Little Red Corvette about 6 times today
4) My iPod is possessed and plays music related to the places where I go :)

OK...I'll make sense of this nonsense in the morning :)

Wrigley tour!!!!!

The wrigley tour was awesome!!!!!!!!! SO much fun!! Thanks SO much susan for inviting me! :) I had a blast!! We got to go in the press box, dugout, bleachers, security office, and hear a lot of cubbies and wrigley history!! So fun! :) Totally weird to see wrigley empty! Susan, I'm gonna miss you when you move!!

Then we went to my favorite wrigleyville restaurant! Pick Me Up. I had a great vegan chocolate milkshake and some awesome vegan french toast! mmmmmm So good! And then got a copy of The Onion to read on the train back.

It's been a good day! :)

bartman

I feel better about Bartman after reading this. Anyone who would donate all the stuff he got to JDRF is a true cubbies fan.

1) it's cool that bartman has an entry in the wikipedia
2) he still should have thought to see alou coming :)

I was thinking of adding a "little known fact" to the Alou page about...well...that thing he does with his hands before the game. But decided not to :) That's still SO GROSS!!!

this old cub

This Old Cub will be available on DVD to the general public on Sept 28!!! :) Yay! And to those of you in San Francisco (that's you Eliza-Beth and Sarah!) the movie This Old Cub is coming to theaters there next week!!! :) You should go see it!!!

Boston reacts + bush

Boston reacts to the Nomar trade. (Thanks Em!) People are, let's just say, pissed off!! Makes sense though, Nomar was great and a lot about what Boston baseball was about for a long time!

Bush's quote that deserves no commentary: "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we," Bush said. "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

Full House

So I was flipping channels tonight and ran across Full House. And was like, cool! Full House is on!!! And then I realized what channel it was on...Nick at Nite!!! And I was like NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I remember watching Full House all the time growing up and it's crazy to think that that was like 14 years ago! We're getting old!! :) But what a cute old show! I really want someone to put Perfect Strangers on TV again...I don't remember much of the show but remember I really liked it when I was like 12...and it's got Wrigley Field in the opening credits :)

Bush loyalty oath...

No lack of good news stories today....fresh from the daily show...

Everyone who went to bush's talk in new mexico had to sign a loyalty oath before getting into the hall...

"I, (full name) ... do herby (sic) endorse George W. Bush for reelection of the United States. (again sic)" The form further warns that signers "are consenting to use and release of your name by Bush-Cheney as an endorser of President Bush."

W Ketchup

OK...one more post this morning that makes me sad...and kinda laugh at the same time. Have you heard of W Ketchup???

Cnn says..

"Some GOP supporters, that would be Republicans, have created an alternative to Heinz ketchup. Company founder Bill Zachary says he and his buddies realized at a barbecue recently every time they brought out the famous ketchup, they were supporting Teresa Heinz Kerry to some extent.

So W ketchup was born. It features the likeness of George Washington. It costs $12 for four bottles of this stuff.

Zachary says he used the first president's image to avoid accusations that his product was an overt campaign ad. Well, it didn't work."

WTF??? Note on the FAQ that it is their "official" position that the W stands for Washington.

Another reason to hate MO

As if the Cardinals weren't enough of a reason to hate the state of Missouri, 71 PERCENT of Missouri decided to formally ban same-sex marriages...CNN.com - Missouri approves same-sex marriage ban - Aug 4, 2004. 71 percent!!!

Fry's and Chicago

So my clock radio broke the other day. Broke such that it's stuck on and on WGN :) So that is now my living room radio for cubbies games :) :) But I had to get another one, and guess what?? There's a Fry's in Chicago now!! Well, actually downer's grove. For those not from california, Fry's is like a walmart for electronics stuff...picture Best Buy + CompUSA/MicroCenter + Radio Shack all in one place! Very cool :)

On my way back I was daydreaming of Boston and ended up missing the exit to get on 94 north, so I ended up going to Lake Shore Drive...passing Buckingham Fountain, movies in the park, millenium park, the beautiful lakeshore, north avenue beach... And reminded myself that Chicago sure is beautiful in the summer. Boston is too though :) :)

OK...back to watching the cubbies game :) :)

Yahoo! News - Pentagon Looks to Directed-Energy Weapons

Possibly the most disturbing thing I've read all year. And I've read a lot of distubring things... Yahoo! News - Pentagon Looks to Directed-Energy Weapons (stolen from lauraf)

purge...

Lauraf has informed me that I need to complete a proper "purge" of my apartment. So yeah, does anyone want to have a fire or something?? :)

In semi-related news Laurap asked that I never talk to her again. Which is really really sad, and also the first significant ex that I'm not going to be in touch with anymore. Which is sad...I mean over all that time you really start to care about someone and at least for me, it's hard not to wonder what they're up to or talk to them or help them move or whatever, you know? Maybe I'm just weird...while some of my friends are still really great friends with people they have dated, others just totally forget about them. I think I just grow to be too good of a friend that I can't not care anymore. no matter how things ended.

iTMS and DNC!

Hey! iTunes is offering free download of all the speeches from all the days of the Democratic Convention in Boston!!! That's right...free :) So if anyone missed some of it, like I did cause I was watching the cubbies, just download it for free!!! :)

more nomar...

As happy as we are to get nomar, here is the other side of the story... poor bostonians :(

nomar, wedding, cubbies...

The announcer on sports center said it best "No more Nomahhh in Bahston, now it's time for Nomaaaaar in Chicaaaago" Aw yeah!! Go Nomahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!! :) What a trade, and we didn't even have to give up clement! And Boston paid us money?? What?? So crazy good for the cubbies!

I was down at Zack's wedding in Indiana last night. It's so crazy that so many of my old friends have been getting married lately! One of my MIT roommates is getting married next weekend too! Crazy! It just seems like we're all still so young, still so unsure of who we all are and what we want to do with our lives. It's amazing to think that a year and a half ago Laura and I were thinking about getting engaged. What a difference a year makes! The past year has been really good for me though and I feel like I've grown up so much more than in any other part of my life and really started to get an idea of what's really important and more about the type of person I'd like to be with someday.

And I tried to get SRO tickets to today's cubs game...got down there all nice and early. But WOAH, the line went from Clark and Addison to Sheffield and Waveland 5 hours before the game! Needless to say that when tickets went on sale, we moved up about 100 feet and then heard the announcement that all SRO tickets were sold. I stuck around for a little bit to see what I could buy on the street, but SRO was going for $125 and that was so not worth it...even to see Nomar and Maddux's 300. Oh well...gotta go back up to Milwaukee later this month for $1 seats!!!