Ladies and Gentlemen of <blankity blank in blank, blank of blank>, your attention please. And everyone else, too, because this pretty much applies to most anyone.
Apple has made a perfectly fine computer (and operating system) in some ways. Nay, they're fine in many ways, even. However, the "Mac" is not perfection. It is not the digital embodiment of the greek god Zeus, or Atlas, or even Apollo, the most handsome of the gods (so says Wikipedia). If anything, the Mac is the mortal, Narcissus. You see, the Mac is, in many ways attractive, some might even say sexy as hell (sorry, I was just listening to Regulators), but it is not a digital savior. The Mac can do some great things, especially in the softer realms of the artistic nature: things like graphic design, video and audio production, and late night Skype chats with your brother so you can get a peek at your 18 month old nephew (cuz it has that handy little camera!).
There are, however, a few things that the Mac is not: - It's not immune to viruses and malware. It's still software, and there's no such thing as bulletproof software. The reason Mac owners aren't plagued by attacks isn't that they're impervious. It's because the bad guys who write the viruses get the idea of cost-benefit analysis. Yes, despite their huge popularity and the amazing "ipod halo effect," Macs still accounted for less than 7% of the computers on the internet in September 2009, at least according to the server logs at w3schools.com. Meanwhile, Windows XP & Vista account for about 83%. "Malware" can be and has been written for Macs, but these guys aren't spending a whole lot of time on it, because there just aren't that many potential victim computers out there to attack.
- It's not a good value. Four years ago, they hardware was kinda hard to compare, since they were all proprietary and didn't run on the same kind of circuitry as PCs. Back then, most all Macs were more expensive than any consumer level PC. Then they switched to using Intel, which means that, as far as circuitry and chips go, there's not much different between a Dell and a Mac. Except the pricetag. Today, the cheapest Mac laptop (cuz who wants a desktop anymore?) starts at $999. The cheapest Dell laptop starts at $399 ($299 if you count those itty-bity netbooks). The extra $600 gets you an attractive design and a glowing apple on the back of the screen.
- It is not crash-proof and it's not bug free. I do actually have a Mac laptop, and I use it quite regularly. And I do sometimes have to hold the power button to get it to power off when it stops responding. I've had it struggle to load a simple web page, I've had it crash while I was in the middle of working on a really cool project and lose 30 minutes of audio editing. I've had it take 5 minutes to start up Dreamweaver. I've seen it do terrible, monsterous, horrible things. Just like every other computer I've owned.
- It is most definitely not ready to take over in a corporate environment. First off, it's not just a matter of replacing all the PCs on all the desks with Macs. The IT staff has to be trained (or replaced) to an appropriate level of expertise. Remote management tools (remote control, inventory/asset management, access control...) all have to be replaced with Mac equivalents... if they exist. In the corporate environment, it's not about what kind of computer the staff would like to use. It's about what makes the best sense to the company. Windows may be devilish at times, but when it comes to business tools, and especially when it comes to mission critical applications, it's "the devil you know."
So, if your computer is acting goofy and you're sick of it, by all means, feel free to start shopping around for a new one. Windows 7 will be out in a few short weeks, and it's going to kick the pants off that piece of crap they called Vista. And if your computer's not all that old, consider just reinstalling Windows. It's a ton cheaper than buying a new laptop (I usually charge about $150 when I do it), you get it back faster than Dell can build you a new one, and it ends up running as fast as it did the day you bought it (sometimes faster, if you leave out all the unnecessary junk programs that IBM/Lenovo/Dell and everyone else throws in). Feel free to consider the Mac, too. Just don't go expecting it to perform miracles. It's still a computer, and computers break. And definitely don't expect to take your new toy to school or work and expect the IT guys there to marvel about how pretty it is and how well it's going to work for you with all of their servers and have you all fixed up and ready in 30 seconds. Thank you for your time.
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| 2009-06-24 19:46 |
| April 28, Day 4 - A Florence Type Thing |
| Public |
| Florence, Italy |
| creative |
| awww cute, basillica, da vinci, duomo, florence, food glorious food, italy, la giostra, marble, mom & dad's anniversary, palace, photosynth, pics, ponte vecchio, travel, uffizi gallery, walking |
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 And now you know where I got the adorable profile picture (Apologies for falling off on the updates, I just really suck at sitting down and getting it done. Please forgive me.) UP AND AT 'EM! I'm pretty sure including breakfast is just an excuse for them to jack up the rates a bit at these hotels, but it's so convenient, and tasty. So first thing in the morning (damn, that's what I get for not providing Dad with any feedback in the planning stage), we walk about 20 minutes, pretty much back to the train station, where we just arrived yesterday. This time, though, we're here to join a 3 hour walking tour. Bonus points, there were only two people on the tour who weren't with our family. Not so bonus: it' 3 freaking hours! Sure, there's plenty to see and learn here, but Erica and I have about the same attention as Parker. Oh look, a bicycle! squirrel! And having Parker around is the biggest distraction of all. So we see all these places whose names I never catch, and now every time I need to refer to one of them, I'll have to ask Mom & Dad which is which! We see the outside of this one church and our guide tells us about the place while I play with Parker. We pass through a bazaar, where there's a ton of leather. I was really tempted to get a jacket, but (fortunately for my wallet) nothing caught my eye. We got to the Duomo (aka Basillica di Santa Maria del Fiore) - this gigantic marble... palace? Maybe more like cathedral, right in the center of town. I mean the entire exterior is marble. It was gorgeous, and yet atrocius in its excess, and I mean that in a beautiful gold and marble way. The guide talked about it a great length.... while I played with Parker (look right). More walking (there is a lot of that on this trip) led us to the Palazzo degli Uffizi (home of the Uffizi Gallery, which we'll see later today), across the Ponte Vecchio over the Arno River, and ended our morning at the Piazza de Pitti, outside the Gallery Palatina. I played with Parker the whole time. The Ponte Vecchio (literally "old bridge") was lined on each side with small shops and offered a few good photo ops. Interesting historical tidbit: as the Germans bailed out in World War II, they destroyed all the bridges along the way... except this one. It's believed Hitler preserved it because he recognized its historical value (so he just had his army destroy every structure near the bridge). See? Hitler wasn't 100% evil. We puttered around a bit before our scheduled time to actually go through the Uffizi, which I have no real pictures of. I did, however, take a lot of pictures outside the Gallery, and was able to put together my first Photosynth, which you should totally check out. Think of it kinda like stitching together a panorama, only the individual photos are all from different positions and angles and you can move through them. Go look at it, I'll wait... Unfortunately, once inside the Gallery, most art focused on religious themes - usually Christian ones. And I can only admire so many paintings of Jesus, Mary, The Saints, and combinations thereof. There was one piece I was somewhat interested in, and that was an incomplete painting by Da Vinci. My inner Nerd (the part of me that likes taking things apart to see how they work) really got into seeing how the painting was "assembled" - layers of sketches, basic paint, more complex portions, and then some areas that were full of detail. Unfortunately all of the sculptures were gone or covered up for some reason, so all we saw were the paintings, and the architecture of the gallery itself. By the time we were finished, we were all pretty tired. This was definitely our most exhausting day yet, but there was still one last thing to be done. This was the night we needed to have a specal dinner (as if any other dinner in Italy isn't special) in honor of Mom and Dad's 40th anniversary. Woohoo!
On the way back to the hotel from the Uffizi, we spotted a "Michelin Rated" ristorante, La Giostra, and thought it looked promising. good. freaking. call! Dinner was fantastic. AGAIN! It felt like a good "proper" Italian meal. We ordered plenty of food, but that didn't stop them from giving us an extra appetizer sampler on the house (to accompany the trhee or four appetizers we did order). It was massive. We had buffalo mozzarela, sauteed things, fried things... So good, and yet this was just the warm up! Some of us had a hard time deciding what to order, but we seemed to have a great rapport with the (very attractive) waitress, so we just pulled the "I like such and such, what should I order" and put our faith in her. She sold me on the Ox. And it was good. There was much rejoicing. Yeah, Ox. Whoda thunk it? It was so good, in fact, that I can't remember at all what the rest of the family had. Gee, bummer. They staff treated us really well, and at the end, they brought out a bottle of Grappa and just left it at the table for us while they ran the bill. (Though it wasn't a huge risk since Dad & I were the only ones who could handle the stuff. If memory serves, it had a really sooth taste, but a strong rubbing alcohol smell.) After this dinner, it was straight back to the hotel and into our respective beds and food comas!
( Some other photos that day... )Edit: Now with spellcheck-y goodness!
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Hey, friends, sorry I've slacked off. I suck, I know. However, I wrote the next update offline already, just need to add the pics and it will post shortly. But I have to jump ahead in time a bit to talk about this weekend. Which was freaking awesome.
In case you're not aware, before I bought my own place, my neighbors in my apartment were members of the band Madahoochi, a rockin' jam band that celebrated 10 years together around the time they moved into my building. My sister and I befriended them, and it took about 30 seconds of seeing the band on stage for me to become an instant fan. Go to that link and listen to a few tracks while you read the rest of this and I think you'll see why. So we've been friends ever since. I've gotten to do some really cool things with these guys, including sit in on a recording session in a very slick studio and getting pulled up on stage at a particularly celebratory show. Last week I added another "dude, how many people get to say this one" thing to the list.
 Click for the full-size and you'll see Shawn is amused by our excitement. When my sister informed me that Madahoochi lined up a gig back in our hometown of Springfield, IL, I was stoked. I hadn't ever gone out of town to see Madahoochi do their thing, so this was a no-brainer. Erica made arrangements with Mom & Dad, and then invited everybody (Joe, Beto, Shawn, and Scott, plus friend & fan Julia) to use their house as home base. Actually, it's possible she invited everyone and then asked Mom & Dad, but no matter. :) So Julia and Erica picked me up from work Thursday and we hightailed it 100 miles to the folks' place to find that Mom & Dad had it set up for royalty. The table was set like a fancy restaurant, they had dinner all prepped and ready to cook, and the house was all set for us. Except for the upstairs A/C apparently had gone out, so it was 80 degrees up there, where 5 of us would be sleeping. No matter, didn't really ruin my good day! When the band showed up, we all sat around and had a great dinner, another one of those Stone Family meals where things get goofy and you occasionally have to get control of your laughter so you can remember to eat. At some point, we were talking about the show time and we realized Mom & Dad were actually planning on coming out, which I thought was just awesome. Sure enough, for the first time in my life, I saw my parents get carded and hand stamped. It totally cracked me up. It was a bit loud for the 'rents, but we gave them a heads up to have earplugs, which probably saved the day, and they seemed to have a good time. The gang put on a great show, Erica and I sold a few of the CDs, and I think Madahoochi now has a few new fans back in old Springfield. Hopefully enough fans to demand a repeat performance! Oh yeah, Erica and I both got the occasional "oh, are you with the band" from folks in the crowd. Yes, yes I am. Post show, it was back to Casa de Stone for a nightcap and soft fluffy beds. Oh, and box fans.
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 OK, the highlight of the whole train ride? PARKER TIME! Can we say weee? (Oh yeah, I also practiced card tricks and technique. I'm gonna need a lot more practice...) This is among my favorite pictures. I get Parker, and Jason, and Parker is happy, and I'm looking good (naturally). It's a bit uncanny how similar Jason & I are in this one. Well, not too uncanny, I mean, he is my brother. Our hotel here in Florence is a building that's about 400 years old, it's the Hotel Monna Lisa. Guess what the theme is. There's a reading room with something like fifty Mona Lisas, all different variations. There's a cubist style (as in Picasso), and one where she's smoking something that might explain the smile, one where she's not quite... dressed. Erica got pictures of some of them. [Editorial note: as I'm lying in bed writing this, my iPod just had one of those really weird "shuffle" moments - it played Jesus Christ by Brand New, followed immediately by Get Behind Me Satan by The White Stripes. Odd. OK, I now return you to my regularly scheduled ranting and rambling.] We vegged at the hotel (Mom & Dad are in an AWESOME room!) for a little bit before heading on to one of the finest meals we've had yet. We all thought Venice was tasty, but dinner tonight at I Ghibellini really raised the bar. I had a pasta, I think it was called Tagliatelle Tartufati (don't hold me to that), it was like fettuccine, with mushrooms and a truffle oil sauce. It was astounding, at first I was disappointed that it wasn't my main course, because I doubted anything could compare! And that wasn't the only great thing we had: Kelli had an amazing porcini and artichoke pizza, Mom had a tuscan soup called ribollita (beans, spinach, bread, veggies... stuff), and the bruschetta pretty much shamed everything I'd ever had back home! It was another one of those meals where we just couldn't get over how good everything was, and it seems like a steal after seeing how much some things were in Venice. Of course, we had to have gelato after dinner, and then we all had to go back to the Monna Lisa and pass out in glorious food comas. God, I'm loving it here!
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Not much time left to be spent in Venice. Erica and I accompanied Mom & Dad to the Jewish Ghetto. Jason & Kelli hung back to have more time to pack. They didn't miss much, other than a nice walk through an area we hadn't seen yet. We went on a tour of a few synagogues, which was interesting... for about 20 minutes... of the hour it lasted... Walked back through Venice to the hotel to find Jason & Kelli for lunch before catching our train, and along the way we run into yesterday's Grand Canal tour guide. What are the odds? After a quick lunch, we grabbed our bags from the hotel and headed for the train station. The day continues when our train pulls in to Florence
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| 2009-06-10 13:34 |
| April 26 - Day 2 |
| Public |
| Venice, Italy |
 happy |
| bell tower, doge's palace, gelato, grand canal, italy, kelli's birthday, parker, pics, st mark's square, venice |
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 OK, Venice is freaking beautiful (canal photo). We started our day by hoofing it to Piazza San Marco (St Mark's Square) and walking around a bit there before taking the "Secret Tour" at the Doge's Palace. [Side note: as we walked around the square before the tour, bells all chimed at the top of the hour. Bells in the Campanile (will get to that in a bit), bells on the other side of the square, bells all across the city, all ringing at once in this fantastic cacophony. Bells surrounded us and lit up our ears in this amazing wall of sound. It definitely got Parker's attention, too, as he tried to find where it was all coming from.] The Secret Tour is one where you get a guided tour through some of the more restricted areas before being set loose on the rest of the place. By restricted, I mean tiny rooms, offices, and even jail cells that can't accommodate the throngs of people that go through the rest of the palace. We saw the cell that Giacomo Casanova almost escaped from... and the cell that he eventually did escape from. I really didn't know anything about him, so I was pretty amused by the stories. The guided portion was just the right amount of guided touristy stuff, though. If it had gone much longer, I probably would have gotten bored. As it was, my feet were starting to get ticked at me for all the standing and walking around. After walking through the rest of the palace on our own, we had lunch at an outdoor café in the square. They had a quartet playing, we had sandwiches... It was very quaint, one of those things you just have to do when you visit Venice, just so you can say you did it. Once again, I took a ton of pictures; guess what's in almost every one of them. Yeah, Parker. Being cute!
 After lunch, Mom, Dad, and Erica went back to the hotel to relax, but Jason, Kelli, and I wanted to stick around and see more of the square with Parker. Our first goal was to go up in the Campanile - the bell tower (photo - with Parker in 'flight mode'). It's one of the most recognizable landmarks of Venice and stands almost 100 meters high. Apparently the entire tower cracked and collapsed one day in 1902, and they started rebuilding it almost immediately. Now, it's cracking again and they've got a huge engineering project to get it under control. We were all set to take turns carrying Parker up the steps to get to the top, but we were spared/spoiled by the availability of an elevator. From the observation deck, we had a great view. I was kinda reminded of Amsterdam, with all the bridges and canals, the walkways, and just the overall size of the city. Though in Amsterdam, there are roads and cars along with the canals. Venice has no vehicles at all, it's all boat or foot traffic, I haven't even seen a bicycle. Of course, from up high, I got... more pictures! (another photo - Jason, Kelli, and Parker)
We still had time once we finished in the bell tower, so we popped into St Mark's Basilica. I didn't really lose myself in it, but it was a beautiful building, and it looks like some folks are fortunate enough that this is where they go to church on a regular basis. It was almost time to meet back up with the family, so we found ourselves some gelato (holy cow freaking yum this will be the first of many on this trip!) to kill the time. Once we all got back together, it was time for a guided water taxi tour of the Grand Canal. Our guide was friendly, pretty cool, and he brought a bottle of Proseco for the tour, which was definitely a nice touch. As we drifted along the canal, he pointed out some of the palaces - there are around 200 of them in the city! The down side is that we had to keep the boat closed up (it had a sliding roof) because it was raining, so we were kinda cooped up, but I was able to get a few pictures... by opening the roof just a bit and sticking my arm outside. (photo - Accademia Bridge over the Grand Canal)
Dinner tonight was a special occasion, and not just because we're in Italy. Tonight, we celebrated Kelli's birthday. It had been a long day, and Parker was getting a little upset with the new schedule we've been keeping, but we didn't let that interfere with our plans for another fantastic dinner. Pasta with lobster sauce, lobster risotto, carpaccio, steak, sea bass... Fantastic! Food is an art & a science for the Italians. Food is just a mess for us Americans. Erica, Jason, and I took turns taking Parker to play outside once in a while, just to try and wind him down, and to give mommy a chance to enjoy her food. I love getting all this time with the little guy, I hardly see him back home :(. You know how in the States, they sing you a birthday tune and bring you a bit of desert on special events? These guys sang and then brought out an entire cake. We had a delightful time, and Kelli really seemed to enjoy it (when Parker let her). It was all so good that Dad was really concerned that he might not tip enough... Judging by the waiter's reaction, I think he did screw it up, but not in a bad way. He kept smiling for us, saying "molto bene," and pretty much fawned over us until we were out the door. Speaking of meals, We kids want to take Mom & Dad out for one meal while we're here, as a thank you for making the trip happen, but we're trying to pick when and where very carefully. We're not sure we can afford any of these restaurants!
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 We did a ton of walking! I have no idea how far we've walked, but we went up and across the largest bridge/market over the Grand Canal after grabbing lunch at a random café. I. Was. EXHAUSTED! Let's see... We went to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (The Guggenheim in NYC is named for her uncle), and it was a pretty good time, once I got a cappuccino in me. We started chatting with some of the American art interns, who were really knowledgeable and had all sorts of stories about the art and the woman who collected it. She had a lot of gossip surrounding her! One intern was telling us that Max Ernst's Attirement of the Bride is actually a painting of her (if I was hearing correctly. Can't find this story on Google, though), and pointed out some of the meanings of the images... Whoever the subject was, the painting was not saying anything kind about her!
The whole time, of course Parker continued to be photogenic. I'm pretty sure this will be a trend from him, he's quite good at this. (That's Aunt Erica holding him). I dunno about the rest of the family, but when we finally got back to the hotel, I took a nice nap before we all headed out for our first Italian Italian dinner. It was this little Tratoria where the chef just kinda kept bringing food out over time. We didn't order anything specific, he just spoke to us for a minute to get an idea what we might like, then started bringing out trays of food every once in a while. We tried monk fish, and cuttlefish (or Snugglefish, as Erica called them; if you've never seen what they do, click that link for video), which was pretty cool. It wasn't an obscene amount of food, but it sure was filling, especially since it was drawn out over a long dinner.
OK, so I'm lying in bed with a full belly writing up my first day, and I've discovered that the late night phone sex ads in this country are just plain pornographic. Topless. Bouncing. Even some pretty intense "action." And these commercial breaks run for a long time, just one sex ad after another. In my first day, I think this is the biggest culture shock! P.S. Erica lost her newly-fixed glasses somewhere. Dad lost his car keys somewhere en route, as well. Oy.
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Today started at about 7am CST on Friday. Here in Venice, Italy, it's Saturday, 11:30am. That's 5:30am for the folks back home. I'm laying down in the hotel room, having just checked in. It's the first time I've laid down in... probably about 24 hours. Flight wasn't as bad as I expected, but that doesn't mean it was good by any means! The puddle jumper to JFK was a breeze, Parker (my nephew, ~15 months old) did just fine. The 6+ hour layover wasn't that bad, either, thanks in part to successfully sneaking in to Delta's frequent flyer lounge! I have two words on that: Free. Drinks. On the flight, the little guy cried just a bit in the first few hours, but then Mommy gave him a hit off the bottle of Baby Benadryl, and you could just see as his eyes turned glossy when it hit him. He was a stoned baby! It took 5 seconds for the smile to slowly spread across his face. Hy.ster.i.cal Personally, I slept in very short bursts, probably about 2 hours if you added it all up. I did not have a comfortable seat. But hey, I'm in Italy! Back on terra firma, we got through customs in no time, and Parker got to take his very first boat ride in the water taxi to the hotel. And now, here I am, 11:40am by location, but more like 5:40am by perception. As comfortable as I am just lying here, it's time to go... somewhere. Ugh. If I stay, I'll nap, and napping will not get my internal clock caught up! The day continues at Day 1 part 2.
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Hehe, I liked the results of this test (The Candy is Dandy but Liquour is Quicker test) The Connoisseur 8% Amateur, 40% Wild, 44% Sassy, 0% Drunk, 58% Sommlier, 60% Classic, 71% Connoisseur and 13% Basic! 
You are The Beer Connoisseur. You know your beer. You love microbrews, IPAs, stouts, lagers, hefewiezens and can open a beer bottle using only the side of a table. You are an allstar beirut champion & spend much of your day either glued to ESPN or listening to indie rock. You're fun loving, thrill-seeking and kind of awesome to hang out with. Everyone loves you, including your dog. Your new favorite drink: Long Trail Hefeweizen
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Here is the letter I sent out to my family last month after a long day with my brother and sister-in-law. This was actually last month, the weekend after I got the big haircut.
As I told Jason & Kelli this weekend, I'm OK with 30. I'm ready for 30, I'm prepared, I've accepted. But last weekend, when I was in Dallas for Danielle's 30th birthday, there was one moment where I shuddered. Before we went out for her birthday dinner, she was telling me about her friends who would be joining us. And that's when she used the phrase "she's about our age, 35 or so..." It was like a punch to the sternum or something! But poor Jason, he's the one who has to contend with his kid brother turning 30! But I digress... As many have pointed out, I'm overdue for waving goodbye to certain things from my younger days - like my wardrobe. So here's the story, before I thank the players:
 Parker was nice enough to take some time out of his day and brought Jason & Kelli over on Sunday morning. He put them to work while he verified the durability of my remote (it was deemed quite durable) and the pile of my carpet (it was deemed soft but well worn). In a scene I would expect to find on TLC's "What Not to Wear" (if I had cable), they picked through nearly every thread of clothing in my home (though I did convince her to trust that I was all set as far as undergarments were concerned). Kelli was generous enough to let me pick out some of my favorites before she and Jason separated everything into piles: "not bad" and "oh dear God, Chip, really?!" OK, I may have had a few "oh, there is hope for you" items, but not many... At the end of this phase, this was the state of my bedroom.
 Parker was not impressed with some of the purchases I've made in the past few years. He had a valid point... if a shirt has a date on it, and that date was eight years ago, well... you need a good excuse if you keep wearing it. So, take a guess which of those piles got put away and which pile will be helping me out next year come tax time. Can you even see the second pile? It is in there, I swear. By the way, Parker can be a bit judgmental at times. Just look at that face, he is not amused by Uncle Chip's closet!
After fueling up at Bread Co (quite probably the least I could do for J & K, given how much time they were about to give me) we went to the Galleria to stimulate the economy as much as I could. And before I forget, if anyone knows how to get this to President Obama, tell him I should get some kind of commendation, and maybe a hug. Or at least a cookie, but not some crunchy oatmeal thing, no, I want a big sugary chocolate chip health-less abomination of a cookie! Wait, where was I? Oh yeah, Macy's.
TO THE MALL!
 I have absolutely no idea how long we spent there, but major thanks to Kelli and Jason for their patience as I tried on 2,713 shirts, 812 polos, 450 khakis, 111 shorts, and a belt. Parker was a trooper, but eventually the long day got him a little cranky for a while. We managed to get through it, though, and we left Macy's with three large and heavy bags and a significantly lighter wallet. We didn't want to show any favoritism, so we also went to the Gap to give them a little love (and finally use the gift card mom gave me for this very purpose for Chanukah. Thanks, Mom & Dad!). After a full day, the end result is pictured here. One brown belt, one blue tie, one pair of jeans (not baggy), two shorts (khaki & blue), three pairs of khakis, one standard white dress shirt, seven assorted button-down shirts, four polos, six solid-color t-shirts, and a diet coke (not pictured). Remaining balance on the Visa gift card: 55 cents. Remaining balance in checking account: remains to be seen... Once again, huge thanks to Kelli and Jason for giving up pretty much their whole day to basically force me to get rid of my college wardrobe and adopt a wardrobe more stylish & age appropriate. Bonus points for bringing Parker along for the ride; every smile I got from him was like a sip of red bull. And again, thanks Mom & Dad for bankrolling the Gap portion of the afternoon. I'll see you all very soon, and when I do, I'll be lookin' goooooood.
Love, A very well dressed Chip
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 Two Winters ago, toward the end of the chilly season, I foolishly decided that growing my hair back out would be just a super idea, with the added bonus that in the next winter, the extra hair would help keep my head warm! If you saw me at all in the past year, you probably know how that turned out. I decided to cut it back quite some time ago, but I wasn't able to immediately. A certain high school classmate had a wedding coming up, and she just loved the idea of seeing me with long hair again, just like in school. Gentleman that I am, I could not deny the soon-to-be-bride's request, and so the hair persisted until April 16th. So I present to you the before and after shot, and I think the sane among you can certainly appreciate the after. Now I put this to you, my friends: should I ever again suggest that I "miss my long hair" or "think maybe I'll grow my hair out again," stop me. Show me these and other pictures. Slap the back of my head if you have to, just don't let me look like this again! But for the record... this was just the beginning. Stay tuned.
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(Alright, been procrastinating too damn long) WOW, what a trip. Alright, so I left Dallas Saturday and headed to Austin. Dave picked me up at the airport and we went straight to his girlfriend's bar. (The last time we got to hang out, he didn't get to town until sometime around 10pm and rolled right back out around 6am, so it was nice to actually get to hang out for a little bit this time.) One cool thing I learned about Austin is that "dive bar" doesn't just refer to a total hole-in-the-wall cheap bar. Dive bars there actually have a different liquor license - all they sell is beer, but you're free to bring your own liquor, and they'll provide the glass, ice, and mixers. Well, this is according to Dave, at least. It sounds too good to be true to me... Dave and I grabbed the groceries (BTW, I meant to give you a few bucks for that when you dropped me off, before I got distracted...) and roommate Jeremiah whipped together a pretty damn good steak. There was Rock Band, there were god-awful viral videos, there was beer. Quite a bit of beer, if memory serves. I introduced them to the joys of the 750ml beers and Tripels. Yes, we had some good times. Dave's got a great place, I can't wait to visit again and stay long enough to hit the pool and take in some sun on the deck.
Day two in Austin was the official catalyst for this trip, Courtney's wedding. I have to say, I was freaking nervous about this part! We were friends back in high school, but hadn't really seen each other since 1998! [Actually, we remembered this weekend, she brought me a picnic in the airport once when I had a 2 hour layover. That was pretty cool.] I was nervous because I didn't know a single one of her friends besides Hannah (maid of honor, another classmate of ours), and hanging out with a bunch of strangers at a wedding can be a bit unnerving. Yeah, that was totally unnecessary, I had a freaking blast. I've never made so many friends at a wedding full of strangers (and I've been to a few). The reception was just the beginning. Afterward, we made our way to this karaoke bar (eventually... there was a minor issue with following someone in an unfamiliar city... and ending up on the wrong side of the road...). I am trying to find the video, but until I do, I'll just say that we had a blast. I may have gotten on stage a few times for the bride and groom.
Oh, and speaking of the groom? Yeah, Galen and I look a little similar. I actually laughed a little bit when I first saw him walk up. See for yourself.
He's like my other brother or something! I stuck around an extra day in Austin, which was pretty cool. New friend Gary was cool enough to come bail me out from my hotel, and he, Steven, and I got the Texas BBQ I had been waiting for the whole trip before heading out to Courtney & Galen's place to hang out with the happy couple. Galen & I clicked right away, he totally has my approval. :) Basically just hungout all night, and then it was back to real life in the morning. Now here I am, home for four days, and still feeling exhausted. Can't get too comfortable, though. I've got a flight to catch next Friday. (P.S. Greetings to any of my new friends that find this: Jaci, Jeremiah, Galen, Pat/Simon, Pat/Pat, Gary, and Steven.. am I forgetting anyone?) Oh, one last thing. On this trip, I spent the night on a couch every night but one, the night of the wedding. The one night I actually had a bed in a hotel room? Got absolutely no sleep. None. Grrrr.
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This day started much better than yesterday ended! Danielle and I met up with her friend Stella and headed out to Cedar Hill Preserve for some hiking. According to Danielle's pedometer* we went a little under 6 miles of mostly moderate hiking. Overall quite fun, though not very scenic trails. Most of the time the trails were surrounded by too many trees to really see anything (and we weren't really at altitude), though we occasionally hit a clearing, and on one occasion there was actually a tower you could climb for a scenic view... of a residential development.
( More pics... )We stopped for a small picnic - some bread, cheese, and fruit. By the way, through some goofy stretch of conversation, we found that it's actually not a bad combination if you throw a small piece of Dill Havarti on a frosted mini wheat. Kerrigold gouda isn't too shabby either. Stella and I decided that the tiny bit of sweet frosting enhances the flavors in the cheese. I'll wait while you get the "ewwww" out of your system. We did a little easy hike after lunch before heading back to veg and bathe. Then we went out to this place Pappadeaux Seafood for Danielle's birthday dinner, which was fantastic. I totally blew my budget, but my dinner was great. Danielle's was great. Three of Danielle's friends let me have a taste of their dinners, and they were great. Just amazing what good seafood is like wen I escape the midwest! The downside to this greatness is I couldn't stop eating it and I'm now feeling engorged. I'm typing this up at 1am, waiting for my stomach to be ready to sleep. The beer isn't helping. Tomorrow noon, I continue on to Austin for the next part of the Grand Texas Tour. Here's hoping the flight is better than my lfight in yesterday!
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* The thought occurred to me today that pedometers and pedophiles have absolutely nothing in common. I think I would expect a pedometer to count the number of little kids you've passed on the trail.
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I did the math, and it's not pretty. In this month alone, with the travel I have scheduled, I will spend approximately 30 hours on board various aircraft, 9 hours in layovers between aircrafts, and 7 hours on trains. On the up-side, in between these flights and trains and layovers, I will get to spend time in Dallas (where I'm writing this), Austin, Venice, Florence, and Rome. Oh yeah, and I was in Springfield, IL for Passover two days ago. (Yippie)
As I mentioned, I'm currently in Dallas, TX, visiting my old high school friend Danielle and helping her celebrate her birthday. I won't say which one, but like my impending celebration, it ends in -ty. The plan was to get in last night in time for a mildly late dinner, but things didn't work out as I'd hoped. Some big honkin' fire out west of Fort Worth was blowing enough smoke toward Dallas that it interfered with the airport. This I cannot fault my airline for. However, they didn't explain this until I approached the desk half an hour after we should have boarded. Then we finally did board (about 70 minutes late), only to be told as we got to our seats that we wouldn't actually be taking off for a while, somewhere between 1-2 hours, probably. So we sat there on the tarmac for over an hour before finally taking off, around 2:30 late. Finally hugged my friend at 9:30pm, just in time to swing by her local grocery store for a sandwich and a 6 pack. Went back to her place and called it a night. This is now a contender for my worst flying experience. The other "worst" was a much longer imprisonment on the tarmac, but that was tempered by the fact that I had no desire to get to my destination!
But it's all good, now! I'm in Dallas, with my friend, and it's going to be a great weekend. Read on...
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Fantastic! We started the day with an amazing breakfast that included these really savory pastries before Casey drove us up the hill to Berkeley so we could see his new office. It was impressive, to say the least. Here's a panoramic view from his office (shot & stitched by Craig), click for a massive fullsize.
 This was just a taste of what was to come. We headed out to Muir Woods and hiked the Sun Trail Ridge for a few hours, it was amazing. We all got pics and posted them in various places, I'll try to consolidate the links to our various albums, we got some pretty good pics. I even got to climb around on a few bouldery spots a few times. At the top of our trail (see the panorama below), we busted out our supplies - bread, cheese, and fruit - and had ourselves a snack. It was one of the best lunches I've ever had, just relaxing up there, laughing at Ned for sitting on an ant hill and at Casey for spilling liquidy peanut butter all over his pants. Too bad I was with those dorks, cuz that would have been a great as a date if, you know, I was with a woman. (Nothing personal, fellas) Oh yeah, Casey put together a cool Photosynth collage since Craig wasn't familiar with the process. If you've never seen what photosynth does, have a peek.  We did a few miles, so I was pretty tired by the time we got back to the car. We drove back on the Golden Gate, which was cool, of course. But I couldn't really get any impressive shots from the backseat. I did get a shot or two from my phone as we drove along the famous Lombard Street, the obscenely steep and windy San Fran road. Hard to tell in my picture here, but this section of Lombard is 1/4 mile long, has 8 switchbacks, and is on about a 27% grade (according to that there Wikipdia article). Friday night wasn't exactly as enjoyable. Dinner was "Taste of Himalayan" and was quite tasty, and quite too much food! But we saved a little room for after dinner beverages down the street at Tripple Rock Brewery. Now, on the up side, they had an extensive selection of beers, and we were highly amused by the Beaver brand mustard they left at the table. I prefer deli style, but Craig seemed to prefer the Sweet Hot Beaver. Not sure why... HOWEVER, I was forced to end my evening wit a big thumbs down for the Tripple Rock. The beer menu had quite a few tasty options, three of which I really wanted to try. Unfortunately, they were out of my first request. And my second. And third. In fact, they were out of all but three of the beers on the list! Note I didn't say out of season. No, the guy said they had run out. This was something like 9pm on a Friday night and they only have three freaking beers to choose from!?!? Fortunately we weren't there too long since we were all quite ready to call it a night andknew that we'd have another chance on Saturday. (PSSST!! That also means "to be continued")
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It's been a while since venturing forth outside the confines of the Midwest, but the travels have returned in the New Year, con fuerzo! Early this year, my friend Casey (aka Frank, aka @MixMastaKooz) started a new job with the University of California Berkeley (or, as Craig called it, the University of Blame America First). At his going away party, the aforementioned Craig (aka @dangdude) suggested a few of us should go visit once he gets settled. "Sure," I said, assuming he was talking out of his ass... Fast forward 6 weeks, and Craig, Ned (oh yeah, he was at the going away party, too), and I are rerouting through Dallas because the Chicago flight got all screwed up. My mad road warrior skillz totally got put to use making that happen (oh yeah, my dad helped, too. he's a road warrior SUPERSTAR)
 We got into San Francisco an hour or two behind schedule, thanks to the airline drama, and start off right with a quick stop at In-n-Out before going straight back to Casey's apartment to pass out. Hey, it was a long flight and our bodies felt like it was two hours later than it really was. Plus we wanted to be well rested come Friday... (PSSST!! That means "to be continued")
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 Well, it's been almost a year here on Yale, and my paranoid worry bore fruit. This is the doorknob on the back door. Yes,tonight someone broke in... Me. For a year I've been paranoid about locking myself out or losing the keys. I've been meaning to replace the locks (and in the process give spares to 'key' people... Bad pun intended), I even bought one this weekend, and it's sitting in my living room. D'oh! I called up Leslie and she let me borrow a hammer and a screwdriver (thank you SO much) and in minutes, I managed to remove the lock from the equation. In fact, it's scary how easy that was, so remember to use your deadbolts, my friends (unless you plan on locking yourself out)! Oh, and the whole time IT WAS FREAKING COLD OUTSIDE!
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Wow, just WOW. It's been almost a year now since I closed on the new home, and I can't believe how fast some parts of it went. In all that speed, it seems I dropped one ball. You see, when my bank inspected the home, they noticed the partial knob & tube wiring, and since my bank and my insurance company are the same, they shared this info. The insurance folks called early on and told me they'd insure the house for 12 months, but that I needed to have all the knob & tube replaced. (Also, they didn't expressly 'demand' that I hire an electrician, but they didn't really like it when I said I might not have a receipt to give them to prove that it's done.) Well, that was about 11 months ago. They called again two weeks ago t ask if the electrical work was done, and all I could say was that the first floor has been taken care of ("oh, no sorry, I don't think I have any receipts for that..." see the postings from mid march this year for that nightmare) but that the second floor was untouched. Two light fixtures and 4 receptacles in this whole house are on the old wiring. Guess how that went. Yeah, they didn't like it. So I called an electrician and I got a quote and he said it would be about $800 (plus whatever it costs for a drywaller to come patch any holes they make). It didn't take me long to do the math... as long as I can find an insurance company to cover me for less than $1400/yr, I'm better off switching instead of fixing. And I told the guy that before I hung up on him. Eventually, I do plan on fixing the wire, because I do want to add outlets around the bedrooms, but I'm not going to rush it (and I'm not going to blow $800!). Ah, the pitfalls of ownership. Anyone want to rent a nice little place in Maplewood...?
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I'm still riding high on the sheer joy of last night's results. It's all been said a hundred times over. A new leaf, history was made, change has come... I was at The Royale (a bar popular among dems), and I remember when the numbers first passed 270, my first comment once the dust settled was "not good enough! I want big numbers. I want way over 300, so noone can challenge. I want a mandate for Obama!" And we got it! As I write this, Obama has 349 electoral votes, and leads McCain by over 7.6 million in the popular vote. I feel like it's a pretty clear message: the citizens of this country want this man to run the show. So why am I upset? Because some people are still spewing hate.
NPR today played a few clips from todays talk shows, including one from Rush Limbaugh. I get it, there are very loud and outspoken radio hosts out there who did not want this. I respect that, it is everyone's right to have an opinion in this country, and to speak their opinion. But now the election is over. No amount of namecalling, mudslinging, or punditry will change that. Come January, this country will be led by President Obama, and that's the way democracy works. Folks who don't like him can vote again in 2012. Till then, what do you hope to accomplish by badmouthing him? Even worse, what do hope to acomplish with division at this point? In their segment, they included this quote from Limbaugh:
"(mocking McCain's concession) ...my friends, I want us to come together tonight in unity with Senator & President-elect Bbama. I do not want unity with President-elect Obama! Let me count my numbers here, what do we have? 57 million americans will have voted no on this stuff." By 'this stuff' you mean the leader of the free world? Yeah, it was landslide, and he got the popular vote, but noone's ever won 100% of the vote, so there's always someone on Nov 5th who wishes it was "the other guy." So I'm sorry to you 56.5 million McCain voters, but 64 million people outvoted you. It will be a lot easier to get this country back where it belongs if we can get a little cohesiveness. And for those of you worried that he's going to break with his promises & raise taxes or some other stuff... well, why don't you wait and see if he sticks to his word. If he doesn't, then you can hold his feet to the fire in 4 years. Till then, will Rush & his ilk please just try not to be so divisive? Let the guy get inaugurated and make his first move before you espouse his failings. If you read this far, thanks for sticking with me this long!
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I'm gonna take a step back from the usual home & travel discussion, but don't worry, I'll be back. (Planning to do some electrical work next week, so prepare for me to be on here tearing my hair out again real soon!)
Tomorrow is the first day of Movember (the month formerly known as November), and I'm going to grow a Moustache. That's right, I'm bringing the Mo back, along with friends all across the nation, because I'm a man, and I care about men's health issues. Specifically, prostate cancer. Because I love my prostate, and cancer sucks! So, I'm shamelessly asking friends, family, and everyone on the internet to show me, my prostate, and men's prostates around this globe some love. Yeah, this is a fundraiser. Sure, the economy may suck, but as Senator Obama has shown, a lot of people making small donations en masse can go a long way. Here's how you can help: - Go to my Movember profile page and click on "DONATE TO ME." You can donate there with a credit card or through PayPal. Or if you're not a fan of online payment...
- Pull out the checkbook, write one out to the 'Prostate Cancer Foundation,' and throw my registration number, 1782156, in the memo so they'll know I sent you. Then mail it to:
Prostate Cancer Foundation
Attn: Movember
1250 Fourth St
Santa Monica, CA 90401 Donations go directly to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, which will use the funds for research that will help find better treatments, and some day a cure for prostate cancer. Thanks for reading through this and Happy Halloween. For those who can make a donation, big or small, my Mo and I thank you! And if you want to know more about Movember (or join in), check out movember.comDid you know: - Prostate cancer is the most common non-skin cancer in the US with one in six American men developing the disease and more than 28,000 men dying of the disease every year.
- African American men and those with a family history of prostate cancer are twice as likely to develop the disease and should have regular annual testing starting at 45. All other men should commence testing at 50.
- Prostate cancer is 90% curable if detected and treated early.
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exhausted
tired
