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drupal 7

2010-02-15T10:36:00.002-06:00

Well, while I figure out what the heck I'm doing with the new Drupal release (which is only in Alpha so it's little more than a playground for the time being), I'll be back here. I lost a good 15 posts from my previous version of airanwright.com that I'll try to repost here. Who knows...maybe I'll just keep this feed and port it over to my site as an aggregate.

Thanks for your patience, my handful of readers. :)

correction attempts

2009-02-18T08:56:00.002-06:00

Here goes my attempts at color correction. It is a little disorienting because I never really saw all this "corrected" while I was diving. It was all very blue to me. I mean, our eyes and the camera lens basically see the same thing, right? So "correcting" it isn't technically accurate. More like "enhancing" in the same way astronomers enhance telescope images in order to bring color back into them.

Anyway:

Original Image

Enhanced Image
(achieved by pushing the red spectrum up and the blue down, adding "vibrance" and desaturating a tiny bit - that's for all you photoshop junkies...you know who you are)

dressel

2009-02-17T11:15:00.001-06:00

By the way, I would be remiss if I didn't thank Ema, Rebeca, Martin, Anton, and everyone else at Dressel Divers in Cozumel for my wonderful experience. They are awesome. Go to the Iberostar down there if you want first class diving instruction.
http://www.dresseldivers.com/en/cozumel.htm

diving

2009-02-17T10:27:00.002-06:00

As promised, more pics from diving. No reds. They go away pretty quick. I'll post again with an attempt at correction to see what my options are for bringing that back into photos. For now though, enjoy!

I had a blast. I'm not done diving, for sure. But for now I have to save my pennies before I can sufficiently afford to brave the Chicago underwater scene. Brrrrr.

we're back!

2009-02-16T11:17:00.004-06:00

Okay. More on this in a bit but it turns out Ikelite, leader in underwater camera enclosures, knows what it is doing. Even at 30 feet depth, there is more than enough light to take a picture without a flash. See below.

I still lost all the red in the photo...but that's the physics of light for you.

last minute

2009-02-07T23:46:00.002-06:00

As usual, flight leaves in 6 hours and I'm still up trying to finish everything before we head out. Pluses = I have my clothes and camera gear packed. Minuses = still loading movies onto the phone to bribe the kiddos and still finishing work.

I toy with the idea of just staying up the whole night. It is such a bad idea...and yet...

underwater

2009-02-06T15:32:00.002-06:00

Well, lesson learned. Point and shoot cameras like the Canon Elph might have a lot of options, but underwater they might have one serious issue. The flash is seated just above and to the right of the lens. In an underwater enclosure such as the one we purchased for our trip to Mexico in 2 days, that puts the flash slightly obscured by the portion of plastic in front of the lens. So for any shot with a flash, you get a big semi-circle of nothingness on the lower left of the photo.

I'm not giving up hope...we'll try to do this sans flash and see how bad the lack of a tripod underwater makes it. But if a flash is necessary and I can't attached one to the camera, I'll be writing a seriously negative review on amazon of this enclosure.

The next vacation I'm pushing for this instead: Ikelite Canon 20D Enclosure
Santa, are you listening???

been awhile

2009-02-04T12:44:00.002-06:00

Well, as usual, here is the "I'm back" post. Not sure when I'll get tired of posting again, but we'll go for a while. I start by saying that we are going to Cozumel on Sunday...and I have two personal goals. 1) dive every morning. 2) take as many pictures as possible.

Work has been such that I haven't had a spare moment to work on writing anything picture related in a while. But in that time, I've started doing a ton of staff photography work for The Morse Theatre. Over the last 4 months, that has been maybe close to 70 music performances worth of shows. I now heavily value, despite the extreme expense, all lenses with a 2.8 speed. So worth it.

More on that later.

happy birthday (belated)

2008-08-03T20:40:00.003-05:00

It's taken 33 years and two 3-year-olds to teach me something: I am very much my father's son.

I love music and count listening to my dad play James Brown tracks featuring early Maceo as a big reason for why I play saxophone today
photography has become a bigger and bigger passion (I still have my dad's original SLR EOS, lenses, filters...fun, fun, fun)
if I find myself in an elementary school parking lot driving a front-wheel drive, Ford LTD boat after a big snow storm I find myself needing to do doughnuts
I love animals (I can't remember how many pets we had growing up)
I've often thought about going back to school for Math...this despite getting so far behind in math at one point in elementary school that it took chicken pox, a week out of school recovering on the couch with a math book and a big pad of paper, and my dad's continued help to get back on track
I like being in control of my situation
I get frustrated
I can grow a beard
I like figuring out puzzles
I play guitar for fun (although I'm in no way as good at it as my dad)
I love good salmon
I worry about my kids

I'm sure I can think of plenty other things...but it all comes down to this. I see myself in my kids and, through them, I see just how much my parents influenced me. I love you, dad. Happy birthday. Sorry this is a day late...I was stuck playing a wedding gig. :)

lens choices: the vast and the miniscule

2008-07-17T08:37:00.016-05:00

We talked a bit about the wide variety of choices with Portrait Photography last week. The other two types subjects I want to delve into are Landscape and Macro Photography. I chose to break up my discussion this way based on an attempt to break down the definition of "subject matter" into it's most base form. I.e. subject matter is what you photograph. So you are going to take a picture of either a person/thing or a place. This means to me that person/thing = Portrait/Macro and place = Landscape. I don't know if you can boil it down to less than that...but please comment if you think its possible.

Because of this distinction between person/thing and place, when you pick up your camera it helps to know what your goal is. This, for me, determines a lot of things regarding lens choices. I think you'll see what I mean.

Landscape Photography

Taking a camera on vacation is pretty normal nowadays. I mean, sure, who doesn't want to remember all the fun things they did and saw. And for the most part, this usually ends one of two ways: a) lots of photos of broad expanses of landscape or b) lots of photos of the person(s) not in charge of the camera. Since we've covered Portraits, we'll ignore that and only concentrate on the broad expansive imagery issue.

The biggest issue facing any photograph of a landscape is how to make it interesting. You can do this in a wide variety of ways, but you should always try to have a point to make or the picture won't be all that interesting when you look at it months after the fact. One way you can do this is by putting something interesting in the foreground to balance the shot. Like, say, a solitary tree overlooking a wide, open valley that you've been hiking through. People see the tree as an interesting point to focus on at first...and then as they look more they start to drift into the valley and realize just how big it is compared to the tree...and thus you've made your point. Nice big valley, beautiful place to hike, etc.

Another way to make the photo interesting is by using different lenses.

Telephoto / Normal:
I'm going to start by showing you a picture of an object taken with a telephoto lens. This could easily be achieved with a normal, standard lens as well. The point is that we clearly see a subject: the steam engine. What we don't see is the landscape. Where is this engine?

Wide Angle:
By using a wide angle to address the same subject, we can now see that the steam engine is sitting dormant in a little town in some mountain range. We've established a place for this subject to live and thus have made it a little bit more interesting for viewing post-vacation. We happened to be in Silverton, Colorado when I took this. Seeing the mountains behind the train reminds me of being surrounded by mountains while walking down the one main street in the town shopping for knick-knacks and eating lunch with my daughters' wonderful grandparents. Just seeing a train would not bring that back to me I think.

One more example of a wonderful use for wide angle lens work is if you ever get the chance to shoot in a narrow valley. This picture is of Ouray, Colorado. Another one of our destinations on our camping trip a few weeks ago. Going back to my tree overlooking a valley example, you can see the same basic idea at work here. We have in the foreground the edges of the valley as we look out over the town. We see that it is a town surrounded by mountains. A river runs down from a waterfall towards the town. All of this serves to remind me, the photographer, and hopefully the rest of my party, where we were and the fun we had in that town. (It is truly an amazing little town and I highly suggest visiting there if you ever get the chance. The huevos rancheros at Buen Tiempo are to die for.)

I'll throw in one more use for wide angle photography before moving on...nightscapes. The universe is vast, so what better way to capture that than with the widest angle possible.

I recommend viewing larger...the thumbnail doesn't really do it justice.
30 second exposure time.

Same viewing recommendation as above.
30 second exposure time.

Now, provided with a tripod/telescope and the appropriate motorized gear, you can get really amazing pictures. At 30 seconds for an exposure you start to get the idea as demonstrated above, but the amount of ambient light at night means a much longer exposure time is really necessary. I can't get into great examples here because I didn't have a tripod with a motor to compensate for the rotation of the earth. You see, the biggest issue is, well, stars move...and kind of fast. So for any exposure over about 30 seconds you start seeing streaks instead of points of light. By example, take a look at this exposure taken with Polaris, the North Star, in frame.
You can see how, at over a minute (I think this was a 90 second exposure time) any star that isn't fixed in frame, i.e. all stars except the Polaris, blur into lines. But on the other hand, the ambient light is much brighter. I wish I could show you amazing nighttime photos here...it really was a treat to see. But c'est la vie. We'll just have to buy more equipment and go back next year.

Next post: Macro Photography
You thought grasshoppers were creepy? Wait until you can see their beady little eyes!

lens choices

2008-07-11T21:41:00.012-05:00

From my experience in the design industry, I've realized a few universal things. Chief among them is what I believe it takes to make something look "professional." The idea of professional to me means boiling down ideas and images people expect to see on TV, billboards, magazines, etc., learning the process/equipment by which the artist/designer /photographer achieved the desired result, and finally emulating the process in my own way. Hopefully what I get in the end is something of high value to myself and/or my client and is something I'm proud to display as my creation.

Which leads me to an interesting topic in my mind: lens choices. Striving to take "professional" looking images means understanding what each kind of lens does and when to use them in order to achieve a specific look/result. There are obviously a wide array of lenses out there, each with a certain value to add to your photos. I will confess that, when it comes to numbers, I'm fairly blasé. I mostly choose a lens for a certain shot because I know through experience what each lens will produce, not because of the numbers printed on the side of the lens or in the viewfinder of the camera. I would love to know more about what each setting really means...but I guess I'll learn along the way. :)

So what do different lenses do for you? Well, from our latest trip out to the western slopes of Colorado I have a bunch of photos to demonstrate with. I'll address three types of photos: Portrait, Landscape, and Macro.

Portrait Photography

Portraits represent the hardest type of picture taking to me. You can either be right up in front of your subject, in their face, and directing them to be "funny" or "contemplative" or "pouting". Or you can stand at a distance and hope to capture a more candid feel. You really have three choices here: standard every day lens (18mm-55mm), wide angle (i.e. fish eye - mine is a 15mm, 1:2.8), or a telephoto (55mm-300mm or higher if you really want). Each of these has pluses and negatives.

Standard:

Standard lens shooting is in the 18mm to 55mm range. This is usually a comfortable distance for capturing relatively close action or giving direction to your subject(s). Pluses? As this is the most common lens configuration, it'll feel the most natural for capturing photos. For DSLRs (digital cameras that feature detachable lenses) this is the closest you'll come to matching what you would get with a small point-and-shoot. Negatives? If you don't feel comfortable giving direction to your subject, then this may feel like an awkward situation. You are close enough to talk without shouting and are expected to place people in the shot as you would like them. You also really have to rely on your subject to produce actions or emotions of interest in order to get something spectacular. Encouraging a subject to act naturally is sometimes a daunting task. And yet, it's hard to call this a negative as you just never know what will happen. There are no tricks here... a good personal relationship between the photographer and subject goes a long, long way.

Wide Angle:

Wide Angle 1

Wide Angle 2

Wide angle lens are an interesting choice in that you can be within a foot of your subject and still get a lot of the surrounding landscape. Pluses? Well, if your subjects aren't shy (as mine aren't), then you get great character placed in a natural environment. It also is great at centering in your action as it does with the first example. You immediately are drawn to Sophia's "funny face" in the center of the image partially because of her emotion, but also because the fish eye distortion places her at the center. Negatives? The downside to any wide angle "fish eye" is the distortion along the edges of the photo. It poses the biggest problem if one of your subjects is way off by the edge as they will distort horribly and leave them looking like a circus funny mirror version of themselves.

Telephoto:

Telephoto 1

Telephoto 2

Shooting with a telephoto lens does two really great things. A) it gets you out of the way of the action and emotion, letting everything happen as naturally as possible. B) it gives wonderful depth of field. As I take more and more photos, I realize that I don't have a natural gift for making people feel at home in front of the camera. Sure, my kids always ham it up making it easy for me to use a closeup lens as well...but they also don't have an issue with modesty or self-confidence and are absolutely fine stripping down naked to go swimming at a friends' birthday party either (yes, this did happen a few days ago). Pluses? Great natural emotion and action. Great depth of field. Notice how both examples tell you you are outside by color of the background and, in the case of the first example, by the fishing pole toward the right hand side? You don't need to have any detail to define that it's outside, the color does it for you. Negatives? Well, you have to wait around and hope that something interesting happens. You can't easily direct a shoot this way. And you may or may not have people walk through your shot as well.

In the next post we'll look at Landscape Photography and/or Macro Photography.

colorado photography

2008-07-10T11:27:00.003-05:00

I will post more in the coming days, but for the time being let me just say that our trip to Colorado was immensely fun and I hope we do it again every year going forward. In the next few posts I will share with you all I learned photography-wise from the trip. I hope you'll find it as fun and interesting as I did.

focus vs. zoom

2008-06-06T15:54:00.011-05:00

Okay, first of all I want to clarify something. I actually am quite fond of bugs. Despite the creepiness factor of the chrysalis, I find insects incredibly fascinating and a huge inspiration for a lot of things. Take for instance, vehicular transportation. Most cars and planes and helicopters and whatnot could take a page from how insects are put together. Let's look at helicopters specifically. A typical helicopter has one main rotor dead center. Look at the "rotor" system on a fly though...four wings that operate in sequence and with incredible accuracy. Imagine if all helicopters followed the design of a fly? I understand there is a mass-to-lift ratio that you can't quite duplicate given how heavy a helicopter is...sure. But just the idea that anything we've done can be equated to and done better in the insect world astounds me.

That dealt with, I want to turn my attention to explaining the biggest issue I've faced with this macro stuff. If you have ever had to deal with the concept of depth of field, then this will be a fairly easy topic to understand. But even if you haven't, then I think you'll get it in a few minutes.

See, this new lens I bought? It doesn't "focus" in the sense that you might be used to when taking pictures. Instead what it does is zoom in and out at a distance of 6 inches down to a millimeter or something. So what you do is set the zoom to a magnification level (1x up to 5x), move the camera in and out in order to find the general distance needed to get into focus, and then fine tune it by adjusting the zoom level at very small increments.

An image at three times normal resolution and at a distance of two inches or so from the lens might look like this: For this shot, I needed to put the camera on a tripod, lie the pencil horizontally parallel to the lens, and then fine tune the zoom over six pictures in order to get it right. And even then, setting the focus is really tricky because of this depth of field business. At such a close range, depth of field means that something in focus at 2 inches will be out of focus at 2.01 inches and much, much worse at 2.02 inches.

By way of example: So in this example, the green plane that bisects the pencil is the "field" that is in focus at any given distance. To make the pencil appear in focus in my picture, I must choose the place that would appear the best when in focus and let the foreground and background fall out of focus exponentially. I chose to set the intersection of the wood grain and the colored lead be my point of interest as it had the most happening in this shot.

And thus I hope you see the problem with taking good insect pictures. As you can expect, insects don't just sit there two inches from the lens and wait for you to zoom, fine tune, and snap off however many shots it takes to get something good. And neither are they a flat pane that can be in focus at every point of the picture. Instead you must choose a point on the insect to get into focus, hope it stays still, and hope the exposure is right and you don't shake the camera at all.

That said, there are plenty of wonderful macro-photography sites and blogs out there with people taking great pics. There have to be some tricks of the trade I just don't know yet. And that, my friends, is the fun part of discovering how to use something new.

creepiness: part deux

2008-06-02T10:27:00.002-05:00

Today we moved our caterpillars from their self-contained food emporium where they lived during shipping and pre-metamorphosis into a mesh enclosure where they will emerge as beautiful butterflies. Mind you, if you know nothing about metamorphosis the cocoons look pretty cool. But the second I learned that pretty much the entire caterpillar dissolves into some sort of amorphic biomass before reassembling into a butterfly (thanks for that comforting thought, David) I returned to thinking of this whole process as very creepy. Yes, it is science...and yes, it is pretty cool...but still darn creepy.

Cocoon.

Cocoon close-up.

rules

2008-05-31T15:48:00.003-05:00

Rule #1 in Macro Photography: insects don't pose for the camera. They actually like to move. And often. And quickly. So I got a mostly in focus insect photo and a decent one of a dandelion. Please enjoy!

turn up the creepy

2008-05-30T09:07:00.004-05:00

New macro lens and flash system to play with. New blog entry in months. Go figure. :)

Our girls' caterpillar-to-butterfly experiment yields interesting photo fodder.
For anyone interested: shutter speed 1/250 sec., lens aperture F/4, focal length 65mm, iso-800

Close up of caterpillar hair? Whiskers?
I don't know what they are quite honestly...
And again: shutter speed 1/250 sec., lens aperture F/4, focal length 65mm, iso-800

breaking out the bedpost

2008-04-24T22:41:00.002-05:00

What am I up to this week? Well, playing with the UIC band as a fill in second bassoonist for starters! It has been years since I've had the chance to play with a large ensemble and I'm quite enjoying it. Never mind the fact that I really haven't practiced bassoon in years (shhhhh...don't tell anybody!)

For those of you who are interested:

First Annual UIC Pops Concert
Conducted by Randy Brion
Sunday, April 27 at 3:00 p.m.
"The UIC Concert Band present a free concert that will feature light classical music, Broadway show tunes, and the music of Boston pops composer and arranger Leroy Anderson."

update: april 08

2008-04-09T10:54:00.005-05:00

For my dedicated reader base of 4 or 5, business is good and life is better...and thus blogging takes a backseat. For those with an interest, I continue to work on themorse.com, a real first class treat of a gig, while launching/revising multiple other sites: poprs.com, andersonvillept.com, and fctc.biz (our site) to name a few. I also have recently become an alpha tester for register.com and their soon to be released server update.

I have occasionally still found myself on the CTA which is much easier to stand when only rarely visited.
My office is as clean as it has been in years.
And I get the rare pleasure in today's go, go, go biz world of being able to have lunch with my little ones every day.
I can't complain. Hope all is well with the lot of you who check this post out.

escape from the rock

2008-03-13T12:33:00.001-05:00

Let me be the first to announce fctc.biz as the new home for Kelly's and my new business From Concept to Completion. There is nothing there currently other than a "coming soon" announcement. For samples we simply point to my portfolio at airanw.com. [insert shameless plug here] If any of you know of anyone in need of editing, print design, web design, or video work let us know! [end shameless plug]

As for why we are doing this? Well, I personally have 4 reasons...two of which are pictured below. Kelly is elusive and won't let me take pictures. And Pepper? Well, she's around here somewhere.

sunrise, sunset

2008-02-18T10:21:00.001-06:00

Nice sunset last night over Little Rock. Enjoy. :)

i'd buy that for a dollar

2008-02-15T15:06:00.000-06:00

Seriously? Little Rock has day parking rates of $6.50? I guess that's what you get when nobody lives in your city. Chicago is like $20 million dollars to park for one hour.

box-o-food

2008-02-13T20:42:00.001-06:00

Well, rent a floor of an office building, fill it with attorneys, paralegals, staff, consultants (me), etc. and prepare food for them 3 meals a day and you end up with a lot of left overs. The very kind and endearing crew from Legal Concierge (Kim and Darren) cook up some pretty great stuff. And whatever doesn't get eaten goes to the soup kitchen every night in a big box that looks like so.

all rise

2008-02-11T23:03:00.000-06:00

One of the more interesting buildings in Little Rock (or at least within the 9 or so blocks I visit every day) is the federal courthouse. It has what looks like two old-school, 4-story structures in back connected by a newer glass arc front. Very open and sunny. And the courtrooms are modern to the n-th degree, with video monitors for each juror and flat panels everywhere. I almost wouldn't be surprised to see Minority Report touch screens in there.

deserted capital

2008-02-09T16:45:00.001-06:00

Week #2: Walked to the capitol building (see above). I don't get it. There is practically nobody around most days and nights. Surely somebody lives in Little Rock, right? I mean, Bill Clinton governed more than just empty buildings, right? This city is a ghost town.

uncaptured sunrise

2008-02-08T14:00:00.001-06:00

Some times a picture just doesn't do reality justice. Try as I might, this is the best I could do in capturing the sunrise this morning. It was actually very beautiful.

a foggy day

2008-02-04T16:55:00.001-06:00

Well, Little Rock has some crazy weather; some natural, some not. Yesterday day it was so foggy I could barely see the next building over from the office I'm working out of. Today it was ungodly muggy. Yesterday we had no air conditioning in the office (weekends the building turns it off). But today it's on and freezing.

Go figure.

what's missing?

2008-02-03T10:47:00.000-06:00

For the next month I am staying at the Peabody Hotel in Little Rock, AR. I take an elevator up 14 floors. Well, I think it's 14 floors...

recipe for a disasterous morning

2008-01-24T12:24:00.001-06:00

1) starting new business = no sleep
2) no sleep = exhaustion
3) exhaustion + no food in body = low blood sugar
4) high cholesterol = need to draw blood regularly
5) low blood sugar + predisposition to faint when blood drawn = fainting when blood drawn
6) fainting when blood drawn + tendency to go into pseudo-seizure state when fainting (i've been assured that there is nothing wrong...and this isn't the first time it has happened either) = lots of concerned doctors and nurses putting cold packs on you, making you drink orange juice for the sugar, and telling you to lie still on the floor for a while since you just woke up with no idea where you are or how you got there

I think it is safe to say that I hate getting my blood drawn.

your task for the day

2008-01-22T12:46:00.001-06:00

I got off the bus today after a painfully slow commute downtown (no surprise there). Next to the bus stop are planters that the city uses to put a spot of nature back into the city. I think they do a pretty nice job in that respect, even if maybe some of that funding could be used to better our schools and roads. But that's besides the point.

The planters all have fresh snow from last night covering them. And so, on a whim, I made a smiley face. It felt good. And not 5 minutes later some random guy holds the elevator for me! Now, I'm not one to believe in karma or what have you, but I do think that a smile does a whole hell of a lot of good.

So I challenge all of you! Go forth and smile at least once today. And if you feel ambitious tell somebody you see to have a good day.

a smile

2008-01-19T13:08:00.001-06:00

Candid #2: "a smile"
It isn't often you see a smile while riding the CTA trains and buses. I think it makes for a better trip, don't you?
I must stress here that I do not sell these images, nor do I condone the use of them by anybody else for any reason. Should you see yourself here and wish for me to remove the image, please let me know and it will be taken care of.

cab home

2008-01-18T22:02:00.001-06:00

Kelly got me an iPhone for xmas. It takes 2 Mb pictures and can do so fairly covertly. This got me thinking. So humor me as we explore mobile phone photography...

happy (long sleepless night filled with much sickness) new year

2008-01-01T14:11:00.001-06:00

Fresh snow to start 2008.

Well, my new year's night/morning consisted of the following:
1:30am - went to bed
3am - Kelly woke up, threw up, came back to bed (this continues through till 8:15am-ish)
5am - Evie woke up, threw up, went back to sleep (this continues through till 8am-ish)
7:30am - last throw up event for Evie, followed by last throw up event for mommy
7:45am - i ask Uncle David to watch the girls while I take Pepper out...he can't do it because he starts feeling sick
8am - David starts throwing up (this continues through, well, it is still happening as of this post)
8:15am - momma wakes up enough to watch baby girls so that I can finally walk Pepper, Evie falls asleep on the floor

The rest of the morning ends up well enough, except for the fact that mommy, Evie, and David were all basically asleep or in various states of recovering from the night. So Sophie and I watched tv and drew with crayons. I am relatively sure we can rule out food poisoning (Sophie and I ate everything everybody else did) and alcohol (1 glass of champagne has never had this kind of effect). So that means a 24 hour tumor or a super bad little flu/cold thing. We suspect this is the same virus that put Sophie out of commission 2 days ago, and she recovered in a matter of hours. Fun times.

local theater

2007-12-17T22:04:00.001-06:00

The local movie establishment. It is only a block a way, and yet somehow we've never been.

grass roots

2007-12-11T07:08:00.000-06:00

On the corner of our street is a mail depo thing...not a mailbox as you can't put anything in it. Tell you the truth, I have no idea what it's function is. Probably stores important mail carrier things or spy stuff. Anyway, Kucinich somehow has appropriated the box to act as a campaign billboard. Not that I mind. He seems a good guy...better than most, if not all, the current candidates.

ornamental

2007-12-04T21:14:00.000-06:00

We got our christmas tree and unpacked the decorations. Just in time too. It snowed like crazy right after we got home.

moon rings

2007-11-28T13:21:00.001-06:00

We were lucky enough to see this phenomenon while on vacation last week in Colorado.

From NASA's "Ask an Astrophysicist" site:
The ring around the Moon is caused by the reflection of Moonlight (which of course is reflected sunlight) from ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. The shape of the ice crystals results in a focusing of the light into a ring. Since the ice crystals typically have the same shape, namely a hexagonal shape, the Moon ring is always the same size.

happiness

2007-11-27T12:12:00.001-06:00

I'm going to let my pictures do the talking for a while so that maybe I will post more often. Hope everybody had a good turkey day.

post-weekend storm followup

2007-08-28T14:00:00.000-05:00

First we had a tornado warning. Then I was abandoned by the CTA to trudge through a torrent of rain (see previous post). And sometime later that night a tree fell just down the block. It probably made a sound...I don't know. I wasn't there to hear it. But for the people living in either house to the east and west of it I'm sure it was loud.

And not only did this tree fall; it fell smack into another tree splitting the second one in half (see picture). Both trees then fell into the street blocking all traffic the next morning.

I hate the CTA

2007-08-24T01:25:00.001-05:00

Caption: my rain-soaked clothes...all of them...

Today my bus got me half way home whereupon the driver's shift ended. So what did he do? He pulled over at the first stop off Lakeshore Dr. and left a full bus of people sitting on an idling bus without a new driver. I waited for 20 minutes before giving up hope of my bus continuing its usual journey home and getting on a different bus that was only going "close" to my house. Close = 8 blocks away. I walked home from there.

Now, this walk I've done plenty of times. It's relatively quick and kind of nice. But today Chicago had a nice big tornado followed by flash flood warnings. So my walk home was through torrential rain that came at me sideways. I arrived home completely soaked. And I mean completely.

I am now so thoroughly pissed off at the CTA for their collective lack of respect for the people that pay them money for their services that I am almost willing to drive to work every day instead. Or at the very least get a scooter to get me to work.

Grrrrr.

the room where you could make the biggest little mistake

2007-08-18T13:31:00.000-05:00

This was my room last Monday and Tuesday night. Submerse yourself in the luxury of Reno...literally. Here is a 360 x 360 degree panoramic of the place. Click and drag around inside to see around for yourself.

Dig the millions of tiny lights that are there in place of a main ceiling light. I wonder if they use less electricity than one light. There are signs all around talking about energy conservation...surely a casino would want to make sure its hotel lighting was as efficient as possible. Right?

the biggest little mistake

2007-08-17T08:59:00.000-05:00

Reno coffee is about as good as any consumable product in Reno. Let me save you the trouble of trying it for yourself. If you want a gambling / casino vacation, go to Vegas. Enjoy the pageantry of it all.

Eh, I guess the people who live in Reno maybe like Reno. But it isn't a place for me. Luckily I was only there for work.

we miss you

2007-06-24T21:01:00.001-05:00

oregon - a procrastinating look at a vacation from 2 weeks ago

2007-06-21T08:58:00.001-05:00

Post Pics of Your Pets Day!

2007-06-01T09:24:00.001-05:00

Although Kelly has covered this already, here is our precious Pepper.

a little bit of a breakdown

2007-05-30T15:56:00.001-05:00

wasting away

2007-05-25T10:11:00.000-05:00

My job affords me a look at many things that I probably would never hunt out by myself. For instance, this week I toured a landfill, taking video and photos for a tutorial on landfill operation...and I have to say, I have a much greater respect for that business than I did before.

Think about it. Americans throw so much away. Every day there is thousands upon thousands of pounds of new trash. Where does it go? Landfills. And how many people actually know what happens there? Not many. And how many people complain about landfills? Anybody who lives near one.

So let me inform you about something. A landfill operates 24/7 to collect and manage waste. Yours and my waste. It is a sophisticated process that works with packaging manufacturers to produce materials that are biodegradable only under specific environments. For instance, did you know that some of the packaging you touch every day will be "stable" until put in a zero-oxygen environment? I.e. buried in a landfill? That my friends is technology at work.

The past was filled with a lot of bad choices for sure. Vinyl chlorides and PCBs are not fun things to play with. But we live in a new world that has forced landfills to catch up, correct past mistakes, and develop new ways to operate. And they have. That doesn't mean all the past issues are fixed, sure. But I feel pretty good knowing that they are being addressed.

Another fun fact: did you know that the methane collected from degrading trash can easily be burned to produce electricity that can power homes?

people pictures

2007-05-21T15:42:00.000-05:00

What makes a good photo? I believe personality first and foremost. It can be the personality of a city, a person, an ice cold beer...whatever. And maybe there is a better word for it (a beer for most people doesn't really have a personality I guess) but the idea is that you capture a photo that tells the viewer something.

I guess that's why I struggle with people. As a subject, a person is the easiest to work with when trying to achieve a lasting image...a story that stands the test of time. But it also requires interaction on the part of the photographer. I struggle with this because I feel that I am inherently not a social butterfly and thus not apt to get people to act naturally. But maybe that's to my advantage? Maybe people see through the whole pro-photographer shtick and just want somebody who isn't playing games to get them to smile?

Anyway, I had the chance to take a few people pics this weekend. First up: Freddy. Great guy. I'd never met him prior to going to my long-time friend Mike's new biz Lake City Realty to take head shots of all the agents. (Mike, for those who don't know is the fearless leader of the B.S. Brass Band, whom I've played gigs with frequently over the years.)

Second up is a couple of shots from later that night. Mike's finance Jenny plays clarinet with Fifth House Ensemble who played at this little bar Danny's. The somewhat incongruous atmosphere (classical music in a bar) was, I have to say, a welcome change. I mean, when do you ever get to hear good live chamber music while drinking beer with friends?

and that makes 4x this month...

2007-05-13T22:53:00.000-05:00

Philadelphia from my hotel room during the day...

...and at night.

indulgence

2007-05-04T14:22:00.000-05:00

Disaronno anybody?

Last night I was drinking Disaronno from the mini bar at the Four Seasons in Philadelphia. Having never tried it before I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Warning though, it is sweet...sugary sweet. So if you want a cognac or something, don't go this route.

And just FYI, but eating, sleeping, or breathing in a Four Seasons is a reality check. It is quite a nice hotel with very accommodating staff...but oh my god is it overly expensive. For instance: $18 for a grilled cheese sandwich. Or $10 for this little bottle. Or $30-$50 for some of the larger alcoholic refreshments in the mini bar. And those are the cheap prices. Average plates of room service food were more like $20-$30, and some specialty stuff was in the $200-$300 range.

Want a Four Seasons monogrammed bathrobe? You can get those! Probably only $500 per! I didn't check.

hallways

2007-05-03T09:08:00.000-05:00

See. I promised more wide angle fun. :)

bicycle sculptures

2007-04-26T14:22:00.000-05:00

Sorry in advance, but you may see a swath of fisheye photos in the near future. I just picked up a nice 15mm Canon fisheye lens that is quite fun.

Anyway, as the title states, today's pic is of a bicycle sculpture. A series of them have cropped up in the last week around town. Can't say this series is my cup of tea, but I do very much like that the city actively supports public art.

And in other art news, for anybody in the Evanston area and who likes Roy Lichtenstein, I implore you to take a trip to the Block Museum. A friend of mine is the senior curator there and she puts together amazing shows.

democracy in action?

2007-04-18T10:58:00.000-05:00

The democratic process is a strange thing sometimes. For instance, I don't get why the clear majority doesn't win in an election if that sum total percentage of votes is still under 50%. Our aldermann run-off yesterday was because of this exact issue. But in the first election, one of the candidates was still clearly ahead of the pack.

Why do I need to vote again? I did...but still. Kelly mentioned a process she read about whereupon you give your first, second, and third choices instead of just choosing one. Doesn't that sound better? Maybe we wouldn't be in a war right now if that had been how we did things around here.

locking up your stuff

2007-04-16T17:35:00.000-05:00

When I think of homelessness I think of shelters, cardboard boxes, food lines...all the stereotypical stuff. That's why this picture is an eye-opener for me. See, it's safe to say that I own a lot of stuff. And I associate that ownership of material goods with having a job...which means, naturally, that I have a home of some sort. (These are all stereotypical assumptions...work with me here.)

Homelessness is usually something people try to avoid thinking about. And thus the perception is that homelessness simply equals a lack of things. A lack of a home, clean clothes, a job. We don't really think about the fact that you can be homeless and yet have a lot of stuff. And like most people these days, even with the homeless the tendency is still to lord over your belongings. To lock them up. Guard them. Like this shopping cart locked to a tree.

a trip to philadelphia

2007-04-12T09:31:00.000-05:00

Some pictures from my 2 day trip to Philadelphia this week. This is the first time I've been there.

breakfast

2007-04-09T21:58:00.000-05:00

I suspect that every blogger starts out by saying "hello everybody and welcome to my humble ramblings...I hope to keep this up forever!" I also suspect that every blogger hits a rut and gives it up for a few days or weeks. Anyhow, so goes...and now to get back into it.

Yesterday we packed up and headed out to spend time with
family for the holiday. The morning started with a coffee stop.

a splash of color

2007-03-14T09:17:00.000-05:00

Not much to say. Plant on stairwell. Another day in the city.

unexplained pause

2007-03-07T09:39:00.000-06:00

First, for all of you interested in who the moose sculptor is, I have struck out. No idea. I could resort to finding the building manager I suppose, but until that time you'll just have to guess at who put that chrome piece together.

And second, a while ago I made mention of the CTA's construction efforts and the increasing travel times that were expected to result from them. Welcome to my morning commute. Today's train went half a block, paused for a few minutes, went half a block, paused for a few minutes, went half a block...I can't wait for summer when this is really supposed to be a problem.

what isn't pictured here

2007-03-05T10:57:00.000-06:00

Here is a chrome moose. He stands in the plaza just east of the Wrigley building. I walk by him every day going to and from work. In and of itself he seems like a decent sculpture...but there's one funny thing about him. He's anatomically correct.

Now I'm all for not restricting artwork or covering up things with fig leaves and what not. I have no problem with this moose's genitalia hanging out there for all to see. But what I find extremely amusing is that tourists take pictures of him all the time and quite frequently take side shots with everything in full view, not from the front as seen here.

The end result is "Our pictures from Chicago" with Mr. and Mrs. X standing in front of a huge moose phalis. Or better yet, little Johnny who only happens to be tall enough to touch the underside of the metal quadruped running around and grabbing at its appendage and perhaps swinging from it. Great for the family vacation photo album.

pingu

2007-03-04T11:26:00.001-06:00

Okay, this isn't really Chicago-related per say. That is unless you want to draw the comparison between where penguins live and the brisk temps today.

Living with little twin girls obsessed with penguins leads to a) learning how to draw penguins fast, and b) watching Pingu on Sprout. They've thoughtfully added pink to this drawing...a color I didn't realize was actually on penguins. Silly daddy.

just a big ball of rock and ice

2007-03-03T07:32:00.000-06:00

The wacky winter weather continues. One day it's 40 degrees; the next day it's 0. The sidewalks are either dry and empty or covered in snow which treacherously covers thin sheets of ice.

Wheee!

the price of support

2007-03-02T14:37:00.000-06:00

Barack Obama spoke at an AIPAC convention today. A friend of mine who supports AIPAC invited me to go along. The event was at the Sheraton pictured here.

I didn't actually make it all the way in. Apparently even the "walk-ins" are required to pay $50 to become a member. Not having the proper funds, I ended up just going back to work.

tastes like

2007-03-01T09:18:00.000-06:00

Seriously, I can think of only two types of people who would need "live poultry." Farmers and witchdoctors.

next stop...fullerton...

2007-02-27T15:18:00.000-06:00

The bus is frequently late in the morning. I usually don't care though unless it's freezing or I'm running late. At those times I ride the train.

It used to be that riding the train into the subway system was like riding into a dark cave filled with trash and vermin. Well, let's not kid ourselves...it still has some of those qualities. But behold! Recently (as in over the last 4 years) the CTA has overhauled a good many of the downtown stations with mosaic ceilings, granite floors, and new benches.

dirty advert

2007-02-26T11:30:00.000-06:00

Tip for the day. If you own a health spa or exercise facility, do not advertise on the side of a bus during the winter season. Why? Well, let's see...

1) When I am walking around in the dead of winter, the last thing I want to see while I'm all bundled up is a naked body...although I guess I have a double standard here in that I probably won't argue if Victoria's Secret continues their fine advertising campaigns year round.

And 2) look at the side of this bus! It's filthy! That dude in the advert is covered in grime and looks anything but attractive.

stereotypes in nyc

2007-02-25T14:37:00.000-06:00

I've never thought of myself as somebody who would be taking weekly trips to New York for work...but here I am. The unfortunate side effect is that I have a lack of time to do stuff like blog. Regardless, dear reader, I shall still try when I can.

And so I give you this. Yet again I find myself in NYC for a day. It's funny, the American flag really is supposed to be something that represents our entire country...and yet I find that it now feels very much like a stereotypical NYC symbol. This despite the fact that 9/11 wasn't just about New York.

snow!

2007-02-14T16:04:00.000-06:00

Well, it kept snowing yesterday...and last night...and somewhat this morning. The end result? See pic.

here comes the snow!

2007-02-12T17:11:00.000-06:00

And finally, when it looked like we wouldn't get a snow storm we get something. A few inches isn't enough to close any of the local schools...but it does make for a nice change of pace from the freezing sub-temps we've had recently.

nyc 2-day trip

2007-02-09T17:08:00.000-06:00

Well, back in New York. I stayed at the Radisson downtown just off of Park. My room was small and had no sheets for some reason. But the thing that I found most odd? I could open the windows. Oh yeah, I stayed on the 22nd floor by the way.

Here is a nice photo of what was outside my window.

mini-conveyor

2007-02-07T17:04:00.000-06:00

Well, the answer to how does a major shopping establishment load their inventory in was answered for me. Who knew that little, mini-conveyor belts leading down into the street existed?

brrrr

2007-02-06T09:13:00.000-06:00

Forgive me. My beautiful wife's blog digressions ate up all of my blogging time yesterday. Not that I had much to say. It is cold here. Everything is frozen. The Chicago river is an ice bath. If this is a mild winter still, I wouldn't know it.

Brrrrrrr.

da bears

2007-02-02T14:04:00.000-06:00

I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention the craziness here in Chicago regarding the SuperBowl. I'm not much of a sports nut, but it is fun to be in a city that is so excited about it. Everybody is all pumped up and ready. Down in front of my work are a bunch of guys all dressed up and standing in the cold all day for some promo tie in with the game.

Me? I watch for the commercials.

As is customary with most tall buildings here, they choose to celebrate holidays by lighting the top 1% with colorful and representative lighting. It should come as no surprise that for this weekend the lights on most buildings (like the Wrigley building pictured here) are orange and blue.

nyc day trip

2007-02-01T10:49:00.000-06:00

Today's helping is not from Chicago. I had the pleasure of a business day trip to Manhattan yesterday.

I always think of Chicago as big city until I venture out into the world. Then it becomes a comfortably-sized city. I've been to L.A. a few times. It's large, sure...but in a sprawling sort of way. And London was big but in an old, buildings don't extend into the heavens for miles sort of way. Again, more sprawling then vertical.

Then there is New York. It is both vertically huge and horizontally massive. Every time I go there I'm truly amazed at the sheer amount of activity happening in one place. Everybody has a destination. Everybody is going all the time. If you aren't confident in where you want to go or what you want to do it can certainly be overwhelming.

Anyway, here is a woman clearly with a destination in mind. I don't know who she is. Maybe she'll see her picture here one day and wonder who I am. But hailing a cab always makes for a good picture, don't you think?

i'm a pc

2007-01-30T11:46:00.000-06:00

I believe that whether you are a PC or a Mac person is of little consequence. The fact is, competition breeds innovation. We need a PC/Mac competition just like we need Ford/Chevy or Sprint/AT&T. Otherwise there is no drive for people to create the next best thing.

I say this on the launch day for Windows Vista which has had a 5-year development cycle (much longer than most software) and already has many critics. On the surface it looks like the same thing with even more glossiness applied than the last iteration. I hope I'm wrong about that though because it would be nice if Apple actually had a little competition again.

Time will tell I guess. And in the meantime I wonder what to expect from the tech world next. Those touch screens in Minority Report were pretty cool...

taste the asphalt

2007-01-29T15:10:00.000-06:00

All the roads are white right now because of the mass amounts of salt distributed to melt snow. Doesn't it look delicious? I learned from watching Alton Brown that salt is the only known consumable rock and that, while many things can cause a sweet or sour sensation in your mouth, only salt can give you saltiness. Interesting tidbit for the day.

the official end of xmas

2007-01-25T11:25:00.000-06:00

So a couple of weeks ago I mentioned that "the tireless grounds dept. goes around ... cutting millions of strands of lights off of the branches of thousands of trees." Well, that actually happened this morning. This is what the carnage looks like.

I have to wonder at some point how much it actually costs to buy all those lights, string up all the trees on the whole length of Michigan Ave. and State St. (and probably other streets too), and then cut them off after the holiday effectively making the lights disposable. I mean, most people keep their lights. And we are talking about a lot of lights here.

gothic towers

2007-01-24T22:20:00.000-06:00

I work next to the Chicago Tribune Tower. It's one of the many examples of Gothic architecture in Chicago. Most of what I learned about Chicago architecture I learned from taking an architectural boat tour. I highly recommend doing this should you be in town and find yourself with a) time and b) a warm enough day. When I went it was dreadfully cold...but still very fun.

Oh, and make sure Dave Matthews Band isn't in town when you go.

thoughts on pizza

2007-01-23T10:46:00.000-06:00

Right around the corner from our condo is a Giordano's. It is one of the multiple Chicago- style pizza shops available around here. It is pretty good...but it isn't Pequod's, a smaller and much better pizza joint. If you like deepdish pizza though, Giordano's is worth stopping in for. I recommend the downtown location if you are visiting.

But if you have the ability to get out of the downtown area, try Pequod's. They "carmalize" their crusts (fancy term for burn to a yummy, super-rich, salty crisp)...which is amazing if you have never tried it. Here's how to get there.

hello dolly

2007-01-22T10:27:00.000-06:00

For those of you with little girls, here is the quintessential stopping place for you. Well, if you want to support high-priced doll production and stereotypical imagery that defines what a little girl plays with that is. American Girl Place is just up Michigan Ave. by Water Tower Place.

I guess I don't have a lot to comment on this subject since my own daughters have not yet realized the never-ending pull of consumerism. But I do know that I would rather they play with Lego Mindstorms if I had a say. Where are the American Girl robotics engineers or oceanographers? Where are the scientists and mathematicians?

I think one of the biggest heroes in modern day biological sciences may have been Rosalind Franklin. But does she show up in American Girl Place's historical figures section?

here fido

2007-01-19T13:14:00.000-06:00

Ah, busy week. Sorry for the delay in posts. :)

The Mag Mile features a lot of things. Stores, musicians, traffic...and weird "artwork." These pieces of art are some of the many street decorations present along Michigan Avenue. They don't seem to relate to the store fronts to which they share close proximity so I must assume that the city put them up. Maybe you can remember the famous cow exhibit a few years ago that graced Chicago? Whereas the cows could claim a number closer to 300,000 as their population, these ball-headed people can only amount to about 5 or 6 total. And here they are in there tiny collective. One "dad" helps his son ride a bike with big balls for tires. This little girl plays fetch. I find them strangely intriguing.

one of seven million

2007-01-16T16:17:00.000-06:00

Okay, so I love video games. And I love Tolkien. That said, it should come as no surprise that I am addicted to WoW (World of Warcraft.) This game is simply one of the best built games I've seen.

Well, WoW has been in release now for a few years with patches and updates being made to the servers that host the game every Tuesday morning. Blizzard, the game's developer, introduces new content every so often; "Christmas" has a Santa that gives presents and during Halloween you can trick or treat at all the inns. But they had yet to really introduce a major expansion until last night. At midnight you could go out to stores and pick up The Burning Crusade, which adds another 50% of new content to the game. I did not go at midnight to buy it...but I did go today during lunch.

I can't wait to go home and spend more time looking at my computer!!! (Sadly, this is a very true statement and not sarcasm.)

morning rush hour

2007-01-15T14:40:00.000-06:00

Chicago, like any big city, has rush hours. And along most major streets in the city there are parking meters. Here's the thing though. The meters are good for all times except rush hour. At that time no cars are allowed to park on the street.

You may think that makes a lot of sense...and it does...until you try parking at 1 am, find a space on a busy street, and realize that in 5 hours you'll have to wake up and go move your car.

Anyway, this is what the parking police drive. Little, boxy, euro-style cars. I like them. I wish I could have one. It would without a doubt be easier to park than a station wagon.

not a lighthouse

2007-01-14T19:10:00.000-06:00

Lake Michigan is lined with these little unmanned lighthouses. I'm not sure if they are operational any more, but they do make out to be a favorite destination for walkers and runners on warmer days.

The closest info I could find on Lake Michigan lighthouses was here: "Lake Michigan Lighthouse Map". So I guess they aren't technically lighthouses based on that list. I guess they don't house anybody inside them and they're pretty small compared to a live-in lighthouse. But if they aren't called lighthouses, then what exactly are they? "Light places?"

cta woes

2007-01-13T08:00:00.000-06:00

Remember what I said about not having a car in the city if you can help it? Well, here is the alternative. Usually when I think of the Chicago Trasit Authority, I either think of "Listen" (a song which a previous band I was in covered) or the CTA of the same name attributed to super-slow service and overly-packed transportation vehicles. I ride the bus pictured here to and from work every day and it is almost always late. And now that is going to get much worse before it gets better.

In an article entitled "Make Other Travel Plans, CTA Says" published in Thursday's RedEye, the Chicago Trib's "hip", free weekly newspaper, the mega-overhaul of the CTA's Belmont station and other projects this summer will mean less cars per train, less running times, and a lot more delays. In some cases four tracks of trains will be routed onto one track during peak travel times! And all those people finding alternate transportation are going to be...you guessed it...riding the bus.

According to Michael Shiffer, CTA vice president of planning and developmen: "Depending on where you live, in an extreme case you should budget up to double the amount of time to get home and 50 percent additional time to get to work in the morning."

Hmmm. Maybe dealing with parking isn't that bad after all.

non-existent parking

2007-01-11T10:45:00.000-06:00

The Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses is just next door to our condo. Every time they open their doors it's packed. This directly translates to no available parking for us...even with their parking lot in full use (as you can see here.) Parking in Chicago generally sucks. Just fyi should you be thinking of living here any time soon. It is much better to ditch your car if you can and go with public transportation. Sure, it has its own issues. But at least you won't have to park.

clouds should be gray, right?

2007-01-10T08:42:00.000-06:00

Just north of Wacker Dr. and the Chicago River in downtown Chicago is the Wrigley Building. You can see it here leaning into the picture on the right. It's really bright because of the banks of lights pointed at it which turn on at dusk and illuminate everything within a 10-block radius. Like most buildings in Chicago, the Wrigley Building is interesting to look at and fun to visit...from the outside. Not much for the out-of-town visitor to see otherwise. But there is a nice little Starbucks just to the north for those with tired feet from the day's shopping excursions.

I'm always fascinated with pictures of cities where clear sky is contrasted with clouds. You really get the sense of what "light polution" is. I mean, those clouds should be gray, right?

mall decorations

2007-01-09T16:18:00.000-06:00

Well, xmas is over. The new year has begun. Decorations are starting to disintegrate around town and the city's tireless grounds dept. goes around collecting big plastic globes and cutting millions of strands of lights off of the branches of thousands of trees.

Downtown Chicago has an abundance of shopping opportunities. One such place is the Nordstrom mall. I think it's technically named something else...but Nordstrom is their anchor so everybody just calls it the Nordstrom mall. The food court is on level four and a giant chasm divides it into a kind of canyon with stores lining the walls of each side. Bridges of cement and steel interconnect them.

And while I'm looking down at the floor stories below I notice that the Nordstrom mall xmas decorations are very tall. They suspend down from the ceiling a floor above me to probably the base of the third floor. That's what...50 feet maybe? Who puts these up? I can only assume elves with a passion for giant banners of snowflake-embroidered pink.

a trio of santas: update

2007-01-09T16:11:00.000-06:00

Well, yesterday's filming was for Fred Claus with Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti, and Kevin Spacey among others. Coming 2007. They had the teaser trailer running this xmas and I dare say it did look pretty funny.

a trio of santas

2007-01-08T13:26:00.000-06:00

Here in Chicago we get a few big budget movies come through. I'm sure you've seen some of them. The Blues Brothers. Ferris Bueller's Day Off. High Fidelity. The Watcher (my one contribution to Hollywood.)

I have no idea which movie was shooting downtown today but it involved three Santas and a big, blue step van with "Repo-a-Go-Go" written on its side. Sounds hilarious already!

i thought it was winter...

2007-01-06T11:44:00.000-06:00

Hmmm. The 40-50 degree December/January days are throwing me. Flowers? Green grass? Where did winter go?

Now admittedly this photo is of berries which you could probably see growing happily in the middle of frozen tundra. But they are pretty...and the color just serves to remind me of the warm t-shirt weather we are experiencing here in the Windy City.

where's the fire?

2007-01-05T10:00:00.000-06:00

On this super warm 50-degree winter morning I took our dog Pepper for a long walk. The way to the beach is blocked by one major street along which buses, emergency vehicles, and a plethora of cars travel every day. Especially in the mornings and at 5pm.

Here is one now.

472 super-luxury ideas

2007-01-04T08:57:00.000-06:00

From my office I have a wonderful view of the Chicago river...and the behemoth building being resurrected right beside it. Behold the site of Trump Chicago. Their lovely brochure points out the absurd hugeness of it: 2.6 million gross square feet. Thus far construction has been in the works for a little over a year with delivery scheduled for 2008. And I've heard that most if not all of the 472 super-luxury condos are already sold. Crazy.

David Sedaris points out in "The Santaland Diaries" while talking of parents ordering pictures of their kids with Santa that they aren't really ordering the picture itself. Rather they are ordering the idea of a picture. The picture won't actually be in their hands for 2 weeks or something. So when somebody buys a Trump condo for a few million are they just buying the idea of a Trump condo? I guess this means that Trump has managed to sell 472 super-luxury ideas.

where i live

2007-01-03T10:23:00.000-06:00

I live in an "up and coming" neighborhood. This is both good and bad. It is good because growth theoretically equals better property value. It is bad because growth also means a flooded market. Now down any street one can see hold over single-family houses that haven't been bought out by developers yearning to do tear-down and rebuild jobs in order to cram four families into the space of one. And some of those houses actually have yards.

Well, had yards. The last house on our block to have a yard to the side of it sold the side lot to a developer about half a year ago. I walk by the construction on my way to the bus in the morning. And thus my picture for today. Lovely, isn't it? I sooo yearn to live in a condo where I can touch both the east and west walls simultaneously.