I started 2008 reading like a maniac. I took down 10 books in the first month and figured making a new years resolution to read 52 books would be a resolution that even I could keep. Then February hit and my reading slowed down exponentially. We are one day away from the end of the month (and that is only because we are graced with a leap year this year) and I have only finished 3 more books. I still think I can make the 52 goal, but I'm going to have to step it up (or get back into graphic novels).
A few weeks ago I asked my internet world for some book recommendations as I was struggling to find something that was capable of wisking me away from the horrendous Chicago winter we are in. Schmidlap came through with Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash - even promised to reimburse me my purchase price if I wasn't hooked in 50 pages. Sounded like a good bet to me - with little to no risk involved.
So I headed down to my local independent book store and was surprised to see half a shelf of Stephenson books (surprised because the Science Fiction and Fantasy are combined into one bookcase so there's not a lot to choose from - damn new release readers taking over my store!) However Snow Crash is not one of the titles available. But because my bookstore rocks I special order it and have it in my hands in 4 days.
In the meantime I was struggling through Murakami's Kafka on the Shore so I put Stephenson to the side for a few days. Sunday (as in 5 days ago) I headed out to a local coffee shop with an almost finished Kafka in my bag - at the last moment I threw in Snow Crash just in case. I was right in doing so since I finished the crazy Japanese story and began my descent into the not so distant future.
Schmidlap said 50 pages was the hook point. 14 pages in I thought I might actually get my $15 back (if I had the nerve to ask for it that is), 28 pages in I was ready to pay him $15. It's now Thursday, I was sick all day Tuesday, and went out drinking all night Wednesday and I am on page 206. It's fucking great. I now have the name for my second dog (the first one will be Atticus) -- Hiro Protagonist. Thanks Schmidlap!
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
A Good Cause
About a month ago, a good friend came to me and declared that she really wanted to do the two day breast cancer walk but was nervous about trying to raise the $2,000 necessary to participate. $2K I said, we can totally raise two thousand, easy. We can build you a webpage and a chip in donation tool with a transferable widget that can virally be passed to all the bloggers we know!!! I declared excitedly (though somewhere around widget I might have totally lost her). But we went through it again and she chimed in that she could make a movie (being as she is the writer/producer/director/creator of the amazing August Birthday video I shared with ya'll last year), and from there the momentum was born.
So now my dear and wonderful internet friends I bring you Lindsay Spectacular's breast cancer awareness walk webpage! Please go check it out, play the video (I haven't seen it yet, it doesn't work on my work computer but I'm sure it's amazing), and most importantly if you can help, please chip in to make this possible. And as an added bonus for all you bloggers out there you can copy the code and share the donation widget with all your readers!
So now my dear and wonderful internet friends I bring you Lindsay Spectacular's breast cancer awareness walk webpage! Please go check it out, play the video (I haven't seen it yet, it doesn't work on my work computer but I'm sure it's amazing), and most importantly if you can help, please chip in to make this possible. And as an added bonus for all you bloggers out there you can copy the code and share the donation widget with all your readers!
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Weekend update
As the weekend comes to a close I have to say that overall it was relatively productive. I managed not to go out of town or do any work related thinking, I had a 16 hour long date, and I got to watch The Good rock out Saturday night. I got to watch a friend who "doesn't dance" spend the majority of the night up next to the speaker jamming away, I've recovered most of my hearing, though it's still a little like living underwater which is unnerving, I finished Kafka on the Shore and began Snow Crash which looks promising, restocked my OJ supply and now am ready to settle in for Oscar night.
The headlines when I open up my Internet window tell me that Nader has thrown his hat in the rat race again for presidency. It's been too good a weekend to even glance at the story so I'm putting off any commentary or even the slightest thought about it until at least Monday.
I found out my brother might be swinging through the windy city in a few weeks, so I finally get to show off my digs to him which promises to be fun. I got a haircut, a new 600 thread count sheet and a curtain rod so I am once again able to bathe my bedroom in darkness.
As of 4:30 this Sunday evening life is good, quiet but good.
The headlines when I open up my Internet window tell me that Nader has thrown his hat in the rat race again for presidency. It's been too good a weekend to even glance at the story so I'm putting off any commentary or even the slightest thought about it until at least Monday.
I found out my brother might be swinging through the windy city in a few weeks, so I finally get to show off my digs to him which promises to be fun. I got a haircut, a new 600 thread count sheet and a curtain rod so I am once again able to bathe my bedroom in darkness.
As of 4:30 this Sunday evening life is good, quiet but good.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Trains (and where they take you)
I moved to Chicago in the summer of 2006 and quickly discovered a host of things that I was newly afraid of that had never crossed my mind before. One was pigeons. They are dirty, scary little rats with wings and if you work in the loop they are like mini, dive bombing airplanes. There seems to be no rhyme or reason behind their flight patterns except to converge directly towards your head in large numbers.
The second thing I found myself newly frightened of was the train. I came from a city with a shabby public transportation system that I hadn't ridden in about a decade. My hometown is a car and bike city so that was my familiar territory, well the car part at least. My only other experience with mass public transpo was in DC - where the Metro is clean, color coordinated and relatively easy to understand after the first ride or two.
So in 2006 I came, dragging everything that I could fit in a four door Ford Taurus and plunked myself right in the heart of Downtown Chicago. I had a sublet that allowed me to walk to work and get the lay of the land while I decided whether or not to call the Windy City my home (and while my job decided whether or not to pay me past August).
My apartment was on the the third floor, which in case you are not familiar with the El system meant I was eye level with the train and all it's noisy, sparking glory. I walked to work under a shower of sparks and amidst the squeals of metal on metal every day. Random water from gods know where dripped randomly on my head whenever I was caught under the tracks at a stoplight. It was loud. It was intimidating. And I never wanted to have to ride it.
Lucky for me I was blessed with a friend that has an amazing heart, an unlimited amount of patience, and a car. For the first few weeks she would drive downtown to pick me up, take me out to neighborhoods that at least had a semblance of silence and then zip back down Lakeshore to take me home. The first few times it wasn't even brought up that there was any other way for me to escape the concrete jungle of the loop. After a while though it started to come up in conversation.... "Well, would it make more sense for me to take the train to you?" I would ask hesitantly..."whatever you are comfortable with" she would reply. I actually admitted the first few times that I was still too afraid to take the train. I had this idea that I would end up going the wrong direction and get horribly lost, never to find my apartment again, and die a miserable quiet death in a back alley somewhere...what can I say I have a writer's imagination.
Finally I worked up the nerve and declared I was taking the train out to her house! For those of you that live in Chicago here comes the fantastic part of this story.....She lives on the Brown line. For those readers unfamiliar with the Chicago El system let me explain. Most El lines run throughout the city with the loop being the mid point. This is where the fear generated that I could end up going the wrong direction and land myself in the middle of nowhere. The brown line on the other hand starts at the loop and runs north. You can not get on the train the wrong way from the loop. And the loop is where I was starting from. It's also somewhat safe to say that out of all the different routes and colors of train lines, the brown line runs along what may be considered the "safer" sections of the city. And to top it off, her house is 3 blocks from the Montrose station. Needless to say, once I did it I felt slightly silly for all the procrastination.
Fast forward - I now ride the train (again the brown line) everyday to and from work. I love my train ride. It's a guaranteed 30 - 45 minutes of wake up time each morning. I'm far enough north that I'm pretty secure in the fact that I will get a seat in the morning and I most definitely never have to watch 3 full trains cruise by until there is spot for me. At night it's a little trickier, but leaving at 4:30 helps me get a seat probably greater than 50% of the time which is okay by me. I love not driving, hell I even plan dates around the train (as I no longer own that trusty four door Ford).
My train at night is the "Brown Line to Kimball" and my stop is three stops before the much mentioned Kimball. I think it's important to know where your public transportation goes so last night as my stop rolled up and the doors opened to the wintry evening I stayed planted in my plastic seat. I rode all the way out to the end of the line, checked out the turnabout (which made me think of a train graveyard...not sure why) and slipped out the doors as the conductor announced end of the line, everybody off. I walked across the platform into the waiting train next to me with the "Loop" sign securely in place and headed back south. Three stops later at my familiar stop I headed out the doors and into the night. How far I've come from those early days....but I'm still completely afraid of pigeons.
The second thing I found myself newly frightened of was the train. I came from a city with a shabby public transportation system that I hadn't ridden in about a decade. My hometown is a car and bike city so that was my familiar territory, well the car part at least. My only other experience with mass public transpo was in DC - where the Metro is clean, color coordinated and relatively easy to understand after the first ride or two.
So in 2006 I came, dragging everything that I could fit in a four door Ford Taurus and plunked myself right in the heart of Downtown Chicago. I had a sublet that allowed me to walk to work and get the lay of the land while I decided whether or not to call the Windy City my home (and while my job decided whether or not to pay me past August).
My apartment was on the the third floor, which in case you are not familiar with the El system meant I was eye level with the train and all it's noisy, sparking glory. I walked to work under a shower of sparks and amidst the squeals of metal on metal every day. Random water from gods know where dripped randomly on my head whenever I was caught under the tracks at a stoplight. It was loud. It was intimidating. And I never wanted to have to ride it.
Lucky for me I was blessed with a friend that has an amazing heart, an unlimited amount of patience, and a car. For the first few weeks she would drive downtown to pick me up, take me out to neighborhoods that at least had a semblance of silence and then zip back down Lakeshore to take me home. The first few times it wasn't even brought up that there was any other way for me to escape the concrete jungle of the loop. After a while though it started to come up in conversation.... "Well, would it make more sense for me to take the train to you?" I would ask hesitantly..."whatever you are comfortable with" she would reply. I actually admitted the first few times that I was still too afraid to take the train. I had this idea that I would end up going the wrong direction and get horribly lost, never to find my apartment again, and die a miserable quiet death in a back alley somewhere...what can I say I have a writer's imagination.
Finally I worked up the nerve and declared I was taking the train out to her house! For those of you that live in Chicago here comes the fantastic part of this story.....She lives on the Brown line. For those readers unfamiliar with the Chicago El system let me explain. Most El lines run throughout the city with the loop being the mid point. This is where the fear generated that I could end up going the wrong direction and land myself in the middle of nowhere. The brown line on the other hand starts at the loop and runs north. You can not get on the train the wrong way from the loop. And the loop is where I was starting from. It's also somewhat safe to say that out of all the different routes and colors of train lines, the brown line runs along what may be considered the "safer" sections of the city. And to top it off, her house is 3 blocks from the Montrose station. Needless to say, once I did it I felt slightly silly for all the procrastination.
Fast forward - I now ride the train (again the brown line) everyday to and from work. I love my train ride. It's a guaranteed 30 - 45 minutes of wake up time each morning. I'm far enough north that I'm pretty secure in the fact that I will get a seat in the morning and I most definitely never have to watch 3 full trains cruise by until there is spot for me. At night it's a little trickier, but leaving at 4:30 helps me get a seat probably greater than 50% of the time which is okay by me. I love not driving, hell I even plan dates around the train (as I no longer own that trusty four door Ford).
My train at night is the "Brown Line to Kimball" and my stop is three stops before the much mentioned Kimball. I think it's important to know where your public transportation goes so last night as my stop rolled up and the doors opened to the wintry evening I stayed planted in my plastic seat. I rode all the way out to the end of the line, checked out the turnabout (which made me think of a train graveyard...not sure why) and slipped out the doors as the conductor announced end of the line, everybody off. I walked across the platform into the waiting train next to me with the "Loop" sign securely in place and headed back south. Three stops later at my familiar stop I headed out the doors and into the night. How far I've come from those early days....but I'm still completely afraid of pigeons.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Not really an update....more like a statement
I understand that making any follow up commentary now to yesterday's blog post is kind of like trying to call the Democratic primary - it's just too damn early. None the less, I have this thought running through my head so I'm putting it down here so I can come back and look at it as proof.
As of yet, no word/reply to my outing email that was sent yesterday, but I have still come to this conclusion. No matter what happens I'm glad I did it. I'm in my 20's and this is the time to do these foolish things, because otherwise I will have nothing to laugh about in my 30's...and that's getting just a little too close for comfort. And I will go back into the store even if nothing comes of this exchange because books will always be more important than boys.
So thanks for all the random support and I promise to keep you updated if anything develops and if nothing else this nerve wracking waiting period gives me a chance to rediscover my love of indie girl rock bands* :)
* For those unfamiliar with the indie girl rock band category it includes (but is never limited to) Ani DiFranco, Dar Williams, Feist, Regina Spektor, Indigo Girls....you get the idea.
As of yet, no word/reply to my outing email that was sent yesterday, but I have still come to this conclusion. No matter what happens I'm glad I did it. I'm in my 20's and this is the time to do these foolish things, because otherwise I will have nothing to laugh about in my 30's...and that's getting just a little too close for comfort. And I will go back into the store even if nothing comes of this exchange because books will always be more important than boys.
So thanks for all the random support and I promise to keep you updated if anything develops and if nothing else this nerve wracking waiting period gives me a chance to rediscover my love of indie girl rock bands* :)
* For those unfamiliar with the indie girl rock band category it includes (but is never limited to) Ani DiFranco, Dar Williams, Feist, Regina Spektor, Indigo Girls....you get the idea.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
One in a ...?
I would love it if someone better at math than me (and don't get me wrong, I'm not too shabby when it comes to the numbers, I just don't have the time to lay this one out) could figure out the odds of this conundrum. In a city of 3 million, what are the odds that a Missed Connection posted on the website Craigslist will be found by the actual intended recipient? Because depending on the results of that math, I just may need to take my ass into a casino and roll with it.
Here's how the story goes....there's this boy (isn't there always?) who has caught my eye on a few occasions and I was interested in knowing more about him. Catch is he works in one of my favorite hang out/relax and unwind places so it made it slightly awkward to approach him as the situation is undoubtedly me=customer, him=working....and who really wants to get hit on while at work? So I decided on some high tech recon by way of the glorious internet. I mean really, what can you not do these days by way of the good old WWW? It's almost as if the internet's main goal was to elevate stalking to a higher grass-stain free plane of existence... but I digress.
So, clever as I thought I was, I posted myself a pretty much 90 percent false missed connection on Craigslist. I find it not even remotely possible that there are readers out there unfamiliar with at least the concept of Craigslist, but if there are check it out here and prepare to have the rest of your day sucked away down the rabbit hole.
The whole idea was to try and flush out information about the kid, so I pretended that I had just recently stopped in the store for the first time and saw him and that said store was not really in my neighborhood. Truth - I'm in there all the damn time, I have been checking him out for awhile now, and it's completely and totally in my hood.
So the hours pass and I actually get a reply from a supportive neighbor who suggests "if hes single you should totally go for it, i live in the area and ive seen him a few times and thought he was totally cute!" (all punctuation and spelling complete from original sender). Not quite what I was looking for, but hey it's good to know strangers got my back.
Then it happens. The email comes in to my inbox like a stealth bomber and knocks me completely for a loop. I get a reply, with all the information I could of ever wanted. I get a reply from him. Complete with last name so now he is Google-able (which may not be a word quite yet, but ya'll know exactly what I mean).
And now I am stuck between a rock and a really embarrassing place. If/when I reply I have to now fess up that the original missed connection was pretty much a recon mission and that in reality he knows perfectly well who I am. As soon as he sees my name on the email he will probably figure it out.
So as I formulate my eventual reply, and I will reply because now I have to see what will happen, I just need someone to do the math for me on the odds of this whole damn thing happening, because if I need to rearrange my schedule to get to an East Chicago riverboat....
Here's how the story goes....there's this boy (isn't there always?) who has caught my eye on a few occasions and I was interested in knowing more about him. Catch is he works in one of my favorite hang out/relax and unwind places so it made it slightly awkward to approach him as the situation is undoubtedly me=customer, him=working....and who really wants to get hit on while at work? So I decided on some high tech recon by way of the glorious internet. I mean really, what can you not do these days by way of the good old WWW? It's almost as if the internet's main goal was to elevate stalking to a higher grass-stain free plane of existence... but I digress.
So, clever as I thought I was, I posted myself a pretty much 90 percent false missed connection on Craigslist. I find it not even remotely possible that there are readers out there unfamiliar with at least the concept of Craigslist, but if there are check it out here and prepare to have the rest of your day sucked away down the rabbit hole.
The whole idea was to try and flush out information about the kid, so I pretended that I had just recently stopped in the store for the first time and saw him and that said store was not really in my neighborhood. Truth - I'm in there all the damn time, I have been checking him out for awhile now, and it's completely and totally in my hood.
So the hours pass and I actually get a reply from a supportive neighbor who suggests "if hes single you should totally go for it, i live in the area and ive seen him a few times and thought he was totally cute!" (all punctuation and spelling complete from original sender). Not quite what I was looking for, but hey it's good to know strangers got my back.
Then it happens. The email comes in to my inbox like a stealth bomber and knocks me completely for a loop. I get a reply, with all the information I could of ever wanted. I get a reply from him. Complete with last name so now he is Google-able (which may not be a word quite yet, but ya'll know exactly what I mean).
And now I am stuck between a rock and a really embarrassing place. If/when I reply I have to now fess up that the original missed connection was pretty much a recon mission and that in reality he knows perfectly well who I am. As soon as he sees my name on the email he will probably figure it out.
So as I formulate my eventual reply, and I will reply because now I have to see what will happen, I just need someone to do the math for me on the odds of this whole damn thing happening, because if I need to rearrange my schedule to get to an East Chicago riverboat....
Monday, February 11, 2008
Where to Reply??
I have a question for my readers and fellow bloggers out there - what is the standard etiquette when it comes to responding to posts on my own blog? See many of you leave great, wonderful comments that inspire me to follow up with you, begin a 2 or 3 part exchange in conversation, but I am unsure what forum to use for this. Do I
A) write you an email?
or
B) post a message back in my own comment section for other readers to view as well?
Most of you are more experienced at this, or at least probably have an opinion on the matter. Please help me out and let me know so that I don't feel like I am abandoning or ingoring readers!
Thanks.
A) write you an email?
or
B) post a message back in my own comment section for other readers to view as well?
Most of you are more experienced at this, or at least probably have an opinion on the matter. Please help me out and let me know so that I don't feel like I am abandoning or ingoring readers!
Thanks.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
The Word of the Day is...
Meh. It was the word of the morning when I had to walk through the raining ice pellets of doom that managed to flip under my umbrella, behind my glasses, and directly into my eyeball. It was the word of the lunch hour when I had to venture out into the now slightly more substantial ice pellets/snowflakes of sogginess to hunt and gather food for sustenance (though to be fair I did get to use the pedway most of the way). And now it's the word of the afternoon where the office is quiet and everyone elses "Mehness" has sucked all the energy out of me.
Hopefully the word "Meh" is transferable from my brain to this page. If not, to clarify, it is the sound of exasperation, the grunt reply when someone asks "How are you?!" in that really chipper voice at 7:30 a.m. when you haven't had any coffee....or sleep. If I had a way to record audio here at work, I'd link you to a voice file.
I should be blogging about something way more interesting, like the fact that Super Tuesday has come and gone and JJ is hanging her head in shame that she didn't vote (never got around to registering, and unlike home...sniff....you can't register day of here). Or that a midwinter storm has effectively shut down the city I live in with thousands of flights cancelled. Maybe I could chat about the superbowl from a completely ignorant perspective since I watched all of 2 and a half games this whole season....but I have to say I kind of wanted the Pats to win it...ah well. I could go on about some personal thing in my life, like how I'm tired of fighting with DC demons but that would take way too much clarification and story telling that I'm just not up to right now.
So I guess I'll just wrap this up...maybe tomorrow I will be more creative and less Mehy
Hopefully the word "Meh" is transferable from my brain to this page. If not, to clarify, it is the sound of exasperation, the grunt reply when someone asks "How are you?!" in that really chipper voice at 7:30 a.m. when you haven't had any coffee....or sleep. If I had a way to record audio here at work, I'd link you to a voice file.
I should be blogging about something way more interesting, like the fact that Super Tuesday has come and gone and JJ is hanging her head in shame that she didn't vote (never got around to registering, and unlike home...sniff....you can't register day of here). Or that a midwinter storm has effectively shut down the city I live in with thousands of flights cancelled. Maybe I could chat about the superbowl from a completely ignorant perspective since I watched all of 2 and a half games this whole season....but I have to say I kind of wanted the Pats to win it...ah well. I could go on about some personal thing in my life, like how I'm tired of fighting with DC demons but that would take way too much clarification and story telling that I'm just not up to right now.
So I guess I'll just wrap this up...maybe tomorrow I will be more creative and less Mehy
Friday, February 1, 2008
Tar-jey
What I went to Target to buy -
What I bought at Target -
- Toilet paper
- Hooks to hang a new painting
What I bought at Target -
- Toilet paper
- Hooks to hang the new painting
- Gladware containers (to take food that I don't have to work for lunch)
- Conditioner (it has free hairspray included!)
- Toothpaste
- Garbage bags
- Sandwich bags
- A new sweater
- One 600 thread count fitted sheet
If I had kids, this is what I'd do
It's been snowing all day in Chicago. It started sometime yesterday and fell pretty continuously for 24 hours. It was gross and a pain in the ass to travel in. But it finally stopped this afternoon and I discovered something. The snow is the one good kind...that is if you are or have kids. Why is it good you ask? Because it's packing snow. That's right, packing. If you're not from a snowglobe world like the midwest then you may be unfamiliar with this novelty. Packing snow is the kind of snow you dream about as a kid. It's the kind that makes the perfect snowball, builds the best forts, and overall is what winter is all about. It's what a perfect snow day is built on.
So those of you with kids when tomorrow dawns and you wake up thinking of all that you have to do I have one request for you. Skip it. Forgo your Saturday chores, leave the floor dirty, put off your taxes for one more day. That pile of work you brought home to finish up? Shove it to the side. Take your kids, bundle them up and get them outside. Build a fort, build a snow family (don't forget the dog!) , grab a sled, do it all. Winter sucks in the midwest, but every once in awhile a day comes along that makes it worth it. If tomorrow is warm enough, it might just be that day. Go for it.
So those of you with kids when tomorrow dawns and you wake up thinking of all that you have to do I have one request for you. Skip it. Forgo your Saturday chores, leave the floor dirty, put off your taxes for one more day. That pile of work you brought home to finish up? Shove it to the side. Take your kids, bundle them up and get them outside. Build a fort, build a snow family (don't forget the dog!) , grab a sled, do it all. Winter sucks in the midwest, but every once in awhile a day comes along that makes it worth it. If tomorrow is warm enough, it might just be that day. Go for it.
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