Friday, November 29, 2002
1. Chugging along within a reasonable distance of the speed limit, I was passed up twice by SUVs who seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere. It was a good feeling when, mere moments after they passed, I saw highway patrolmen, lights ablaze, chase them down and ticket them.
2. I took the Skyway just in case I-80-94 was sucking terribly… probably a good choice, but I have no way of confirming that. Anyway, I decided to take the Stony Island exit instead of rejoining the Dan Ryan. Headed up north on Stony Island (I had no idea we had such wide avenues in Chicago!) through Jackson Park, around the Museum of Science and Industry and onto SLSD northbound. Seriously: is it a given that some part of Chicago has to be under construction at any given time? The southbound lanes were jam-packed.
3. My parallel parking skills have greatly deteriorated.
4. They installed new doohickeys in the elevators at home so now they’re all fancy-schmancy and they make bleeping noises. Sad, in a way: home is so different. It is disturbing.
5. A lot of the neighborhoods that used to be more…gritty have become pretty gentrified. Gap stores, California Pizza Kitchens… you name it. Again, sad and disturbing.
6. I can’t stand sales drones.
7. Sam’s Wine and Liquor selling 12-packs of Captain Morgan Gold for 99 cents seems pretty…skeevy. I never really went for the taste of rum and coke to begin with, but I guess you can’t argue with the price. The cashiers couldn’t believe it, either…hehehe.
8. Why must the Glendronach 15 be $60? Nyargh.
Wednesday, November 27, 2002
It’s the day before thanksgiving. I should be in an old Irish saloon on East 7th Street today, having lunch with old friends and drinking good beer, but it’s not worth the additional 14 hours it would tack onto my drive home. The snow was beautiful to look at; there’s not much left on the ground, though. Let’s hope that the plows and salt trucks did their job well. See you by dinner time.
Sunday, November 24, 2002
I could not find the photo that prompted me to go digging through my old print photos, but I did pick out ones to scan and add to my online photo album:
New Starved Rock photos. Photos from IMSA ’96-’97, and a few new photos from ’97-’98. Also two views from my old dorm room. And, unsorted photos.
Saturday, November 23, 2002
It’s 3am, and I’ve told myself that this weekend is the time for me to get my rhythms realigned. So far, it’s failing. If I were successful, I wouldn’t be up at three o’clock like this, posting.
The last post made me go over my old posts on my “elljay” (tm ra ra) (sorry, no, I won’t post the link here, though maybe I’d email it to you if I trusted you)… I remember one night, going home catching an uptown N/R at Union Square, and there was yet another of the New York City Underground Musicians (you know what I’m talking about) playing guitar and singing on the platform. He was good. I think he lacked…refinement; it was a raw song and the lyrics were a little jarring insofar as the expected structure of the verse, but the words appealed to me. The song was mellow, soulful.
I would have passed up the arriving train for another one if it weren’t already getting late.
But I left him some money, and I picked up an informational card he had in his guitar case. His name was Theo Eastwind, and he had enough savvy to have his own web site which, when I first saw it, was pretty impressive for a guy you heard in the subway. (I revisited the site just now, and it’s been revamped. It’s pretty slick now.) He had some teaser mp3s encoded at suboptimal quality to get you to buy a CD–which honestly I’m always tempted to pick up but I forget to follow through.
So one of the songs of the day according to a livejournal entry I wrote was a Theo Eastwind song. “Will I be the one to hold you tight, when no one else has hope to give…”
And it’s snowing outside. It’s a light snow; it melts when it reaches the ground but it’s forming a noticeable layer on the cars parked outside my apartment.
It is cold. And quiet.
Saturday, November 23, 2002
In the vein of the geek code, the blogger code (via swansong):
B2 d t+ k s++ u- f i+ o++ x e l- c+
(actually I had kept a livejournal since June 2001 but decided to use this summer as a reference point instead)
Friday, November 22, 2002
I’m hoping to resurrect N9TAN… I’ve got a 2m/440 rig in the car that I bought, mostly for emergencies since it’s rather difficult to work the mike and shift at the same time (unless I got a VOX mike) but I hardly use it much (remind me that I should compile a list of repeaters that I hit between here and Chicago). So I’m looking for an HT. Scott‘s VX-5R is soooo tempting, and it’s $230 at HRO and AES. I wonder if–ooh, the Amateur Radio Toy Store in Wheaton has a web site. Maybe I should hit it up when I’m in town next… or maybe visit AES up in Milwaukee. Though I might rather want to pick up a TiBook or an iBook instead, this would be much more practical and has vital benefits. I’ll also need to start investigating the 2m scene out here by doing a lot of listening…esp. since I really can’t stand to read most of the web pages of local clubs: they look like they were last updated in like 1995 or something, seriously. I’m really surprised that there isn’t more of a convergence between hams and computer geeks, but maybe that’s a symptom indicating that the hobby needs to draw in more young people. We already have to defend our bandwidth, especially in the way-high frequencies where spectrum is a hot commodity… if our ranks diminish then our claim diminishes. Perhaps if I get involved more I’ll volunteer my time to help webmaster a site and bring it into the 21st century–these places could use it, I think.
73 de N9TAN
Thursday, November 21, 2002
The Abstract, it is finished. Submitted. Done. w00t say I.
So, to my two cohorts in ‘craft, as it is said: “Work complete.” “Job’s done.” Back to the usual schedule.
It was also brought to my attention that Eat ‘n’ Park is open 24 hours. Bossman and I had a good time, eating a well-deserved breakfast at two in the morning and talking about motivation, taking risks, lust for life and joie de vivre, and the great feeling of being involved in the creative thinking process, seeing it through to the end, and reaping its rewards. Pursuit of knowledge, making the most of opportunity, and critical thinking are their own rewards.
Just look at what was accomplished in a matter of days by putting our heads together, realizing the solutions were staring right at our faces all this time just waiting for us to notice, and working tirelessly to see it through. He said, “if it had only happened a year earlier, you could have gotten a paper out of it!”
Tuesday, November 19, 2002
HELP I’M A PRISONER IN A MAGNETIC RESONANCE RESEARCH FACILITY
Sunday, November 17, 2002
Thus marketh the one hundredth post.
Quote of the day: “All the networks dropped us. They said we make going to the moon about as exciting as a trip to Pittsburgh.” –Xander Berkeley (that guy we love to hate) as Henry Hurt in Apollo 13
Saturday, November 16, 2002
There was a surprise waiting for me when I got home today.
Also acquired: a new case and stylus for my Clie.
