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Sat, 29 Nov 2008
AcktiveTrans
At the time I was somewhere between crestfallen and dumbfounded, but I figured that I should give the change some time to sink in. Perhaps I'd get used to it. Almost three weeks have gone by and I've moved from crestfallen to livid. The name is horrible. Even worse than the vague name is the cold and corporate logo. Pedestrians, transit users and bicyclists certainly have a lot of overlapping interests. I commute to work on a bike almost every day of the year. I do most of my shopping on a bike and do as much riding to social and entertainment events as possible on a bike. But it is great to walk once in a while also. One sees far more stuff at walking speed and when one only needs to watch out for motor vehicles when crossing streets. I also use public transit once in a while - sometimes in conjuction with a bike trip and sometimes not. I'm grateful for the work that the CBF has done to get the Metra and the CTA to be more accomodating of bikes. As a user of all these modes of "active transportation" it is obvious that improving transit and conditions for walking will make Chicago not just a better place to bike, but a better place to live. I don't have a problem with an expanded mission as long as the historical mission of bicycle advocacy does not get neglected. But I joined the CBF because it was the local bicycling organization. It did more than advocacy, it - and at the time I could say "we" - celebrated biking and recognized that biking was more than just a way to get from point A to point B. Bicycling is more than just a mode of transportation. As often as I can, I go for aimless rides because it is a fun and glorious thing to do. I get some exercise and I don't pollute or need to send funds out of the country to fill my tank, but I don't do it for those reasons. I do it for the sheer joy of motion, feeling the wind on my face, seeing a new neighborhood or seeing an old neighborhood in a new light, from a particularly flexible vantage point on a finely tuned, but simple and inexpensive old American machine that allows my body to propel us along with amazing efficiency and impressive control. One is never more engaged in motion than when one is having a great bike ride. If it was about transportation than why would all of my best rides be big circles? The best of biking is not about getting from point A to point B, but about getting from point A and back to point A again with the greatest possible amount of fun. That is not transportation. That is riding. By removing any reference to bicycles from the name, the organization has exorcised its very soul. The most appalling aspect of the change is that they did this without consulting their membership. It seems that they (over)paid consultants to run this crap past some focus groups, but the members, people who allegedly drive the organization were not consulted. Institutions are generally soul-less, so this should have come as no surprise. But the CBF seemed different. It probably _was_ different. I will give it a bit more time, but my current plan is to request a refund of this year's membership dues and will not renew my membership next year. Tue, 25 Nov 2008
End the War on Terror - Gary Kamiya at Salon
Stuff like this gives me a shred of hope. Wed, 22 Oct 2008
I will spend
Well based on an average of my last three months spending on clothing, aproximmately $15 a month, I could EASILY get up to $150k in my lifetime. I would only have to live for ~833 years. Mon, 20 Oct 2008
So much for iGoogle
It is bad enough that this change is imposed on us without giving us any option to turn it off, but the dealbreaker for me was that this wretched waste of screen real estate was imposed on us silently. One day the screen is just 80% less useful - 20% full of nothing but two links which formerly stayed on top of the display area out of the way. I'm sure there is a plan up someone's sleeve to add more tabs in that column - or perhaps I failed to add them myself? But my experience right now is that iGoogle has outfeatured its usefulness. I'm switching back to netvibes. *actually my browsers tend to start with a set of four or five tabs including ssome kind of widgety portal thingy such as iGoogle or netvibes. Fri, 17 Oct 2008
a route and a test of schmoogle map embedding
Live Music Four Nights in a Row
Friday Sept 26 Coctails, Anteitam and KatJon at the Hideout. Pretty amazing show. Saturday Sept 27 Handsome Family, Megan Reilly backed by Anteitam!) and Speck Mountain at the Hideout. I cannot even begin to describe how great this show was. Friday and Saturday night's shows were the Carrot Top Records Sweet 16 Party the proceeds of which were directed to the Accelerated Cure Project. Sun Sept 28 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds at the Riv - this was one of those "I glad I can say that I saw him live" musicians who you then realize that he is one of those rare acts who despite putting on a heck of a show, might be better enjoyed via their recordings. Sat, 27 Sep 2008
Cowhorn Project
I had been accumulating the parts for a few weeks and figured that I might get around to it later in the Autumn (Glorius Autumn!). But having new cables laying around already rendered doing the new bars an obvious solution to the busted cable problem since routing the cables was gonna be the hardest part of the project. Or so I thought. The picture shows the aero bar brake handles installed upside down. That was not my plan, but after I'd sawed up the new drop bars (thanks Ross!) and removed the old stock drop bars and was in the process of mounting the brakes I realized that the aero bars had a slot for routing the cable out, but it was only on one side - the top. It still makes no sense to me, but there I was with only a couple of choices: either fly the cables out of the top, which would look sloppy and diminish the value of a simpler kit, or, drill some kind of new escape route for the cable, which given my set of skills would be some combination of dangerous and impossible. Who saves the day but the above mentioned Ross, who gave me the wide drop bars for the project in the first place, "How about mounting them upside down?" he asked. So that is what I did. Except for those brake levers themselves, the project is a huge improvement. There can't be that much difference in weight, but the bike feels like it lost ten pounds. The bars are about an inch wider then the stock drop bars they replaced. I'm not sure if I can get used to how wierd they look and feel with the upside down levers, but I'm gonna give it a shot. If I had it all to do over again I'd get some bar end reverse brake levers, some of which have the added advantage of being available in all black.
Customer Service Almost as Bad as Netflix
really? you actually care? First I email to inform the team that the images were not working for me UNLESS I used Internet Explorer. To me, this is just unacceptable. I can't stand using anything from Microsoft, especially their lame ass browser. I get a response asking me to CALL TO RESOLVE MY PROBLEM. I AM NOT THE ONE WITH THE PROBLEM. I was just reporting a problem out of the goodness of my heart. Then I get this response telling me to, wait, this is just the most insane part, telling me to ADJUST MY SETTINGS IN IE. I freaking E. If anyone else even came close to providing the kind of deal i get from VirginMobile I'd be out of here in hot second. Thu, 14 Aug 2008
Bike Insurance?
So that adds up to like, $1450? Since the only time the insurance would have paid off was for the $300 mystery bike. Had I been buying it all these years I'd simply be out $2300 instead of being out $300. Like most insurance, it seems like a pretty bad deal. But wait, it gets worse. Let's imagine that one put that $130 a year into some kind of savings vehicle with an interest rate of 4%. After twenty years that account would be worth $3,871.15. The moral of the story is certainly not an original idea, but like most good ideas it is worth repeating:
Open Source IM Client
I found myself growing weary of the antiquated look of Gaim. It looked like some cheesy Linux app hastily ported over to windows. I finally decided to look around for something better. The hilarous part is that Pidgin turns out to BE Gaim refreshed and renamed after some legal hassles with AOL. (As if we needed any more reasons to hate AOL). It has been out for over a year. It is axiomatic in software circles that people don't bother to upgrade software when their existing stuff gets the job done without causing too much pain. Apparently that is true even for software developers. Wed, 30 Jul 2008
Bad Chain Goes Bankrupt
My most recent adventure provided further data for the "food will be bad" argument. The wyfe and I stopped in at a Bennigan's in Chicago for a beer and a snack on our way to a (yet another bad) play at the Goodman. We somewhat miraculously managed to get some good local beer and an order of chips and salsa. The chips were fine - not great, but edible at least. The salsa however was an embarassment to the name. The flavor and consistency were identical to that of a cheap generic pasta sauce out of a jar. No. Make that a can. It was just about unbeliveable - I mean, they should perhaps get a speck of credit for being creative, but at least carry on the creativity to the menu - call it "Chips and Ragu". With this trauma fresh in mind it therefore came as absolutely no surprise to see that the entire chain has gone bankrupt. Sun, 27 Jul 2008
AMA
I was further encouraged today by the news that Erik Buell was
appointed to the board of the AMA. The Buell But my Buell Ulysses just happens to be a sport bike - albeit without the uncomfortable ergonomics of a typical sport bike. It also happens to be a great touring bike and handles crappy roads, dirt roads and gravel pretty brilliantly. I bought it because I had become convinced that an "Adventure" bike was as close as I'd get to the ideal motorcycle for me. I had been planning on finding an airhead BMW GS or something like that, but a series of catastrophic transmission failures on my 1982 BMW R100RT disillusioned me with that marque. Casting a somewhat wide net, I started looking for a new bike in the spring of 2007 and stumbled onto this engineering marvel. I was hooked. If you would have told me ten years ago that I'd be re-assured to find that the head of a domestic sport bike company was appointed to the board of the AMA, I would have laughed in your face. But we all change and here today I'm greeting that news with a mixture of delight and relief. (It is ok. You can call me a dork.) Wed, 23 Jul 2008
Connect to Server
Upon trying to use the "Connect to Server" feature of Mac OS X, I found that I could not type in the "Server Address" box. Pretty weird. I did the usual diagnosticky stuff, scoured the internet for docs or forum discussions and even resorted to the Microsoft Tuneup (restarting the computer). No luck. So I called AppleCare and after about ten minutes the helpful tech had me move a configuration file out of its expected spot and restart the computer. It worked like a charm. SO just to save you a call should it ever happen to you, here is what fixed the probem.
1. Find this file: "com.apple.finder.plist" in /[Your Home Directory]/Library/Preferences/
Married!
Ad Long Last
In case there was any doubt, it turns out in fact, that I am a complete moron. I set up a Google Adsense account a couple of days ago. Trivial! Then I generated an ad and added the code to my homopage - also trivial. I did not see any ads. The help docs at Schmoogle warn that in some rare cases it may take up to 48 hours for ads to appear on a new site. So I wait. Two days later I'm still not seeing any ads. I pore over the docs again and notice a suggestion in the Troubleshooting section about... you've already guessed? Ad blocking utilities. d'oh As soon as I disabled the ad blocking for my domain I started seeing ads immediately.
PS
Spring 2008
SXSW
So forgive me dear reader, but this is one of those Notes to Myself about catching up on the life story backlog. Wed, 02 Jan 2008
Miles
The best ideas are always worth stealing. I don't have a cyclometer installed so I will have to guesstimate. My commute is 80 miles a week. Social, recreational and errands account for at least another 20 miles a week on average. (A lot more during the summer, but a lot less during the winter.) My average is probably more than 100 miles a week, but it is is probably somewhere around there and one hundred is such a nice even figure I think I'll stick with it. So - 5200 miles a year on the bicycle - the equivalent of a round trip to Ketchikan, Alaska. At 25 MPG, that works out to a savings of 208 gallons. Not spewing all that pollution into the air is a good enough reason to ride, but there are of course more immediately selfish benefits as well such as the ~$645 those gallons would have cost at $3.10 per. (I am not perfect of course. I did put about 3k on my motorcycle ~45 MPG). Wed, 28 Nov 2007
After (new kitchen faucet)
The amazing thing to me is the tremendous amount of satisfaction I get from looking at the thing - or even using it - and then realizing that I am just now up to the normal baseline of most people's kitchen faucet experience. But for me, it is an occasion for immense gratitude. Thu, 11 Oct 2007
New Server (again)
Florence - Rome
5 Marzo, 2006 Now I'm not gonna name any names, but a dear friend of mine chastized me up one side and down the other a year or so ago for using a rolling pin on my pizza crusts. It seemed like the obvious way to go. However, in the USA it is simply not done. Observation of a few pizza chefs in action here confirmed it. After my chastizement and my abandonment of the pin my crusts DID improve dramatically. But I was never aiming for anything as thin as the La Routa crust. So there you have it.
Slices or Squares? to be continued Fri, 16 Dec 2005
From: viewer@pbs.org Dear Mr. Adams: Thank you for writing to PBS. We apologize for the frustration you have experienced checking the schedules of the two PBS stations you receive. We have forwarded your comments to our Interactive department for their review and consideration. Feedback from our viewers is important when we are making our decisions, so thank you for writing. We hope you continue to enjoy the wide variety of programming available on your local PBS stations.
Sincerely, At 04:39 PM 12/15/2005 -0800, you wrote:
----- Original Message ----- I don't prefer either one of Chicago's PBS stations. I simply want to know when the program will be on. It may be more convenient for me to watch the program on either one of Chicago's PBS stations. By forcing me to choose one or the other, I have to go back and go through the whole thing again to see if the broadcast on whichever station I didn't choose the first time works better with my schedule. Please consider adjusting your UI. Thanks and keep up the (otherwise) great work, Tony Mon, 21 Nov 2005
The 30th anniversary of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald was last week. NPR did a largish piece on it. Of course they played bits of the song throughout the piece.
Taste of Polonia
So anyway, the beer situation. It looked mighty bleak initially. There was only one beer tent in the big main area of the fest and it was only selling Okocim. Okocim is not bad, but like most european beers, I find it boring. I get one for $4.50 and wander around listening to music and ogling the dames, of which there were gajillions. Then, over toward the polka stage (the west end of the fest) I find another beer tent - more of a hut. They have the regular Okocim on tap near the hut, but the hut is selling cans of different kind of Okocim. I ask one of the hombres what the deal is with the cans. He tells me that it is "Moscne" which is Polsku for "strong". He claimed it was 7% as opposed to the regular stuff which is around five percent alcohol. It costs a dollar more, but the math suggests that it is the better deal, assuming a goal of most alcohol for my drunken dollar. The moscne is MUCH yummier in addition to packing a bigger whallop. It is slightly darker, not quite amber. I wander around more. I listen to a U2 cover band for about a minute. They did an adequate job. The interesting part was the singer. He looked a LOT like Bono - kind of like a younger version of what Bono looks like now rather than the Bono of 1985. He also had the swagger down pat. But it was way non-compel. I spent most of that part of the evening enjoying the Ampol Aires. I did watch Hetman for a while also. Hetman was fine. Nothing eighties about them unless there was a style of metal in the eighties that I was not aware of. They were also 100% non-compel. I did like the fact that they sang in Polish and yammered entirely in Polish. Makes for a more "authentic" experience. I went back for more Polka and another Moscne. Flush with drunken pride, I ask for a moscne with as much care as possible to pronounce it the way the initial hombre taught me. The volunteer tried to explain that he did not speak polish and had no idea what I wanted. He had just started his shift. I dunno why, (well, i guess I was drunck already) but I had to go along with the misconception. I yelped "beer" in my best fake eastern european accent. He reached into the icy tub, grabbed a bottle and pointed at it. I just assumed that they had bottles and cans of the moscne, (it was the only beer on the menu as far as I could tell) so I nodded. Well it turns out that the bottles were Okocim Porter. 8%! and even yummier than the moscne. Like most porters it was rich and dark and a bit too sweet. Nice. Unfortunately they had a very limited supply of the porters. By the time I finished it and returned for another they had run out. Then around eight thirty the Ampol Aires made an announcement. The next act that was scheduled to perform on the polka stage was stuck in traffic or something so they would play "a little longer". They played two more sets, like two more hours closing down the festival. The next act never showed up. Or perhaps they did show up and the awesomeness of the Ampol Aires intimidated them to death or something. Around this time I'm wandering past the stage where the U2 band had been playing and I hear an announcement about clearing space in front of the stage. A pretty big crowd was gathered so I walk over to investigate. Canned music starts playing from the PA. It sounded like Strauss, but I dunno what it was. Then a large group of dancers in (what I'm assuming was) traditional Polish garb start spinning and twirling and well, you know, dancing in front of the stage. Now, being a male and all that I'm not very interested in dance, especially as a spectator sport. But these kids were really really good and the costumes were awesome. The young women were mostly all mostly beautiful. I was transfixed. Sure, I was drunck by then, but it was almost moving if you'll pardon the expression. I think they did four pieces, each one with a costume change. There were at least two "squads" who changed costumes while the other group was doing their bit. It was entirely great. Even now in the clear light of my hangover I STILL want some of those cossacky boots and trousers. The Funky Polak was 100% boring. Poland's answer to Eminem. Did I mention that he was boring? I suppose rap in a language that one does not understand has a pretty big handicap right off the bat. Think Floyd followed Hetman on the main stage. Now, again, I was well drunk by then so YMMV but I loved them. They had three women backup singers so they could actually sort of pull off Dark Side of the Moon and stuff like that. The main singer dude did a fine job of singing. I fergit which song it was, the lead guitar player sang lead vocals on one song and not quite adequately, but given the enormity of the task (imitating Pink Floyd!) I must say that they managed it pretty well. I've been to a lot of festivals. This was the only one where the bands all stop playing for a brief break at last call so that everyone can go get one more beer without missing any of the action. Awesome people those Poles. Bravo. The admission charge is a whopping $7. Either it is higher this year or I forgot how much it was. That was bit of a surprise. The festival is held on private property so unlike the usual Chicago street faire, the admission charge probably isn't optional. Also, the food and beer tickets are only sold in $5 sheets so it is quite possible to end up with a few unused tickets, effectively raising your admission. This is a minor issue though, and not one that can't be solved by applying funnel cake. I was tired when I headed over to the fest, but the combo of all that great music and beer or something gave me a huge second wind. After the fest I rode down to The Mutiny where I drank a lot more beer and watched a band from Rockford, whose name I've already forgot and the Venom Lords, who were good, but have a new less cute, less female bass player. Wah. Then I got a beer and a slice at Santullos who restoreth my faith in pizza. (Ever love a place so much that you wish you didn't? I'll be crushed if they ever close.) And now I wonder why I'm hung over? Oh and I almost forgot the funniest moment of the night. I'm riding down Milwaukee on my way down to The Mutiny. A car load of young latino men yell something at me as they pass. I honestly didn't hear it well enough to understand what they said. I just assume in these cases that it was something unpleasant. I catch up with them at a red light at Irving Park and, being very drunck and stupid I approach the car and ask them what is up. The guy in the passenger seat looks at me, smiles and ROLLS UP THE WINDOW! I was SO dissed, but it was just entirely hilarious. I nearly fall off my bike laughing and I see that in the car they all appear to be laughing also. Thu, 23 Jun 2005
50 Mile Commute
I'm pretty tired now. I love how riding in direction one all the time, you can just totally miss stuff. Like a trail I discovered this morning through a little section of forest on the Des Plaines from Thatcher in River Forest over to Madison at the River. Coming from the west it is not at all obvious. I might have never seen it if I always took the bike on the train every morning. The trail replaces a few blocks of nasty riding on Madison. The forest there was refreshing. It seemed so much healthier and free of beer cans and crap compared to the river trails north of belmont. Then, on the way home, with less of a schedule to worry about, instead of following the east/west trail I traveled in the morning, I kept going north along the river (sort of). It remained beautiful, but the best part was yet to come. After crossing Washington I stumble upon the Thatcher Woods Savanna. it was quite different than most of the cook county forest preserve woods, which are nice enough, but don't seem particularly healthy or "natural". This joint was really nice. And then, as if the savanna was not cool enough, at the northern end of it, some actual topography. There are some fairly serious ravines. I keep going and I stumble out onto the Union Pacific West line tracks, onto a road that I've seen many many times from the train. Sat, 11 Jun 2005
My Bike on Metra
The conductors have been entirely cooperative and helpful. Given Metra's long opposition to bikes on the trains, I wasn't sure what to expect. Tying up the bike with a bungee has been the only even remotely difficult part of the process. One of the conductors told me that they were "trained to make sure that bikers secured their bikes with a bungee, but we were not told how." There is a bar underneath the row of folding seats in the bike area. I've been attaching my bike to that. It seems suboptimal for securing a bike since it is pretty close to the floor. (perhaps 8 inches?) Fortunately there is very little lateral motion, the train does not whip around any curves at high speed, so perhaps all that is really necessary is to secure the bike from rolling front-ward or backward. I lean the bike a bit to help stabilize it laterally. Before last week, I'd ride my bike to the Oak Park station (about 7.5 miles) and leave the bike locked up there. By taking my bike on the train in the morning, I'm now able to ride all the way home from Wheaton - a great 25 or 30 mile ride, much of it along the Prairie Path. a Except for Thursday. You probably already know this, but no bikes are allowed on the trains during any of the days of a major downtown festival such as Bluesfest (this weekend) and the Taste. Even though the festival had not started yet Thursday morning, the ban is an all day thing. I was not allowed on the train. As a result, I was an hour later than usual arriving at work. There was an announcement over the station PA about the bike ban given with plenty of time for me to take my bike down the stairs and lock it up. I was in a gambling mood and thought I'd take a chance that the conductors might listen to reason, that they might be allowed a bit of discretion. No such luck. The conductor who had the awkward task of refusing me, was about as sympathetic as one could get, short of letting me on anyway. I understand that they are in a crappy position and while I was slightly pushy, I remained polite and understanding about it. The new train schedules state that eight bikes are allowed on that particular train. I dunno what will happen if the program gets more popular. Now, at Oak Park and Wheaton anyway, the doors only open on two cars. Practically, that means four bikes. Getting a bike from one car to another is possible of course, but it would not be easy. And what about the day when there are already eight bikes on the train? It is early yet, but that day may come. Users of the system should be prepared for such an event. Overall it has been a very positive experience. I even made a few new acquaintances as a result of the spectacle of something new and encouraging on the train. Sat, 04 Jun 2005
club €uro
Last night whilst riding on the Irving Park sidewalk east from St. Pascal's I have to stop when I get to Club €uro. Their empty sidewalk beer garden and a large row of motorcycles were blocking all but about six inches of the sidewalk. Slightly drunk, I raised the issue with the doorman in a polite, but still somewhat obnoxious manner. He said I could "go around" all the obstacles. Technically of course, this was true. I'm just glad I was not in a wheelchair. Instead of raising a fuss about it I locked up my bike and went in. I was intrigued by the motorcycles anyway. There was a beautiful Indian and a really cool rat bike with a steel mesh seat. Most of the bikes appeared to be customized metric cruisers. Not stupid choppers, but tasteful and functional bikes. The interior decor was surprisingly cool. It was a bit busy, but there was nothing gaudy about it. The loud euro dance videos were also surprisingly non-suck. (I did have the beerphones on by then of course so YMMV.) I still don't know if they have any good beer. The fifteen or so people who were at the bar were all drinking Becks and Corona (yuk). I asked about cheap beer and after a bit of back and forth the bartender suggested the Becks on tap. A half liter mug of that was only $3! So a bit after 10 pm I'm sitting there nursing the half liter and I see a couple of guys move a keg out the entryway. Did I mention the keg? No? That was a bit odd. There was a keg with a tap and air pump sitting in a tub of ice by the door. I didn't ask. So anyway I see these guys moving the keg and then immediately thereafter four people on motorcycles ride *in through the front door* of the club. They swing around the bar and park their bikes on the dance floor. It was truly awesome. No one acted like this was anything unusual.
Carne There was one exceptionally thoughtful moment. Three children - very young - like between 2 and 6 years old plopped down right in front of one of the PA stacks. The bass player noticed this and convinced them to move somewhere safer for their little ears. Sun, 17 Apr 2005
Seven Shows in Four Days
friday:
saturday:
tonight: Seven shows in four days. It is time to give mr liver and mr and mrs eardrum a break. Wed, 13 Apr 2005 Thu, 17 Feb 2005
Left Luggage
[Bloggy Note: My intention was to focus this blog on my production of art (or whatever) rather than consumption or criticism of it, but this year, I've decided to expand that, partially to share my humble brilliance with my huge audience, but also to perhaps serve as a art log so that I won't accidentally get a film or a book from the library (or whatever) which I had already consumed.] Tue, 08 Feb 2005
RSS Feed - Available All Along
In the course of helping him debug some little issue he was having with his blog, he mentioned something about my RSS feed. "What RSS feed?" I asked him. Then he pointed to the little RSS icon which shows up in FIrefox when one loads up the humble monax. Wow. Who knew? For those of who need a manual link to the feed, I think it is http://www.atoms.net/blog/index.rss Fri, 28 Jan 2005
Wheaton Public Library Great thing #3 is that, like Evanston, they will affix a sticker to one's CPL card and extend all privileges (except use of the internet terminals, but who needs that?). So with my jewelbox for "Raising Victor Vargas" in hand, I approach the circulation desk to apply for the sticker. I fork over my CPL card to the nice eastern european librarian. She calls the CPL to see if I am worthy. At this point, I need to interrupt to make sure that you have the accent correct. She might have been of Russian origin, but it is hard to tell. Just think of the voice of Natasha Fatale from the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. You know how some native eastern european speakers will leave out articles when speaking in english? "Boris! Take squirrel to meat slicer and..." So after her conversation with the CPL she tells me straight up: "You are delinquent." It was all I could do to not crack up on the spot. My friend Jamie, a CPL librarian pointed out that the sentence is correct. I know that, but in my mind, I mentally add the articles when I hear that kind of accent. So it sounded to me, or I thought it sounded to me like she was saying that I was *A* delinquent. Wed, 19 Jan 2005
oughtFour
There is so much I neglected to blog on about last year. In the light of hindsight here are a few highlights.
- My world got bigger.
c u l t u r a l l y This post is massively not finished, but I accidentally published it and then I thought that if I left it up here, I might actually be shamed into finishing it. We will see...
For a long time now I've been thinking that I'd blown a speaker. I was
Art Department
This week we've been shooting up at Waukeegan High School, so in order to dress the sets for a film set in 1977, we have to first remove anything that would be anachronistic - the phones, computers, fax machines, much of the lighting and other fixtures. Then we replace all that stuff with vintage stuff, or with nothing at all in the case of most of the computers. Perhaps all films work this way, but I'm really impressed with the way that everyone's opinion in the Art Department is considered and valued. We are often not just told what to do, but rather, what needs to get done and the details are up to us. As someone who was actually alive in 1977, my opinions seem to be especially valued. It is pretty cool to be more or less the lowest people in the pecking order, and yet we are still making artistic contributions to the project - not just hauling stuff around and following orders. (of course we do a lot of that also :) ) It has been a great deal of fun - mostly. The most fun I've had so far has been running a smoke machine for a School Is On Fire shot. In a big budget film a task like might have been done by some kind of specialist? I dunno. Fri, 17 Sep 2004
Forty Five Mile Commute
For my first impression, I thought it would be fun to arrive a totally sweaty mess, so I rode my bicycle somewhere between forty and fifty miles to get to the production office in Wadsworth, Illinois. It was a blast. I only got lost a few times. Much of my route in each direction was off-road on bike paths, the Skokie Trail on my way up, and the Des Plaines River Trail (DPRT) on my way back home. It made no sense to me why the trail up north was in such (relatively) great shape, while the same trail on the same river west of Chicago is just unmaintained dirt until today when I went looking for an url. The nice sections are in Lake County, while the crappy sections are in the County of Cook. The trip up there took three and a half hours. The return trip took FOUR and a half hours. The return trip looked a lot more direct on the map, but the DPRT wound around a lot which probably added to the miles. Also, it got dark about half way home, so I rode much much slower. I have a light, but it is really more for making myself more visible to cars than for illuminating the road. At any decent speed it does not light up the road or trail surface far enough ahead to do much good. It was an interesting ride, and much of it was quite beautiful, but it is just not practical to commute that way. Next time I plan to take the motorcycle. Fri, 20 Aug 2004
Elotes In A Cup - DIY
six week round up
To my loyal readers I apologize. I will try to summarize the highlights of those six weeks as soon as I detrmine whether or not this thing is even working. Ok and hooray, she is finally working. It has been a bit of a chore straightening all this out, so your summary will have to wait. ciao! Fri, 14 May 2004
BMW R100RT
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