March 2007 Archives

March 31, 2007

I've been listening to a few songs over and over lately. It should be no surprise to many of you that I tend to get obsessive about tracks, and if I find one I like... I'll play it literally nonstop, into the ground. Of late, three songs that have been... (read more)

Goodbye, Justin

March 30, 2007

I put a lot of things on this blog, but not everything. One of the bigger bits of news that I've kept off of here is the fact that Justin, after some 6+ years, is going to be leaving Emmis Interactive. This is not an easy decision for him to... (read more)

What? Why? How? And Yet...

March 29, 2007

I'm not sure what to think of this promotion. Much like R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet," this is either one of the most ill-conceived projects... or a brilliant one. It's difficult to tell. Reading over some of the copy on the page, and listening to Vanilla Ice talk... (read more)

Dear Jackass Who Apparently Is Taking a Hustler Into the Men's Bathroom...

March 28, 2007

I'm betting you're the same guy who takes a crap in there, and then decides not to flush. For god's sake man, was it really THAT urgent? I'd say more, but I think it's been summed up pretty well already. And yes, there is a Previously.... (read more)

Best Friends Forever!

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Bursts of Color: Artist Jen Stark

Check out the amazing sculptures by artist Jen Stark.... (read more)

Hacking John McCain

Yet another reason why stealing code is bad news. Zing!... (read more)

Three Gifted Singers

March 27, 2007

I meant to post this closer to St. Patrick's Day, but forgot. But even now, even late, this video is pure gold. Thanks, Phil!... (read more)

Artful Progress

Check out some of Ben's recent work, over at his music blog, Cigit. He's posted some cool time-lapse videos, as well as a good number of tunes for you to download.... (read more)

You'll Never Read Again

The Onion goes all fancy, what with the moving images and stuff. Check out The Onion News Network. Class!... (read more)

My Coworkers, Exhibiting Their Standard Brand of Professionalism

March 26, 2007

Jane proposed that she could spit out her gum and make it stick to the mural; Chris proposed he could block the gum with his foot. I love my coworkers.... (read more)

Filterless

March 25, 2007

I never imagined I'd be seeing the end of Filter. It's a great spot, and it's been a staple of Wicker Park for coming on 5 years now. But, it turns out the onwer of the building has decided to lease the space to Bank of America instead. Which... (read more)

Wandering Around

March 24, 2007

Organized disposal, Logan Square. Single-File Escalator. Liz, ascending.... (read more)

The First Annual Putt-Putt Green Design Competition

March 23, 2007

Check out the upcoming mini-golf course from Material Exchange and Experimental Station. It's called The First Annual Putt-Putt Green Design Competition, and course designers have to use reclaimed materials, as well as provide a future use for the course... once the putt-putt is over. I wasn't 100% sure about... (read more)

Dave Fischoff: Video for Small Drifts

March 22, 2007

Dave just recently got a video made of one of his songs, Small Drifts, from his recent album The Crawl. Dave's a friend of mine, and I'm a huge fan of his work. If you haven't yet heard his stuff, check out his MySpace page or, better yet, his personal... (read more)

Feed Me, Seymour

Today at work, Ben and I were looking over some specs we drew up for an upcoming internal blog app tool. The topic of RSS feeds came up, and we both realized that... while we were familiar with the concept, neither of us really used feeds in any way.... (read more)

Crunch, Continued

The ginormous Nestle Crunch bar I received on my birthday continues to diminish with frightening speed. I don't know whether to be scared of my coworkers... or proud. Not too shabby for six days of work.... (read more)

Comics++

I just got Jim and Sally's birthday gift a day or so ago in the mail. Not one, but two great books about comics. I've heard a great deal about Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics," and even recall seeing it listed on a few college courses. I'm just a little... (read more)

Proposed Productivity (Possibly)

March 21, 2007

Last week, I saw a thread on Twelvestone about Essential Mac Software. A few programs I was familiar with, a few I had heard about, tangentially. One app that stood out was Quicksilver. I remember a few folks talking about this before, and speaking very highly of it. Off... (read more)

This American Life: Chris Ware Animation

March 20, 2007

This is the default player used to display virally syndicated titles via the Get the Code button. http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid271557392http://www.brightcove.com/channel.jsp?channel=78144477 // By use of this code snippet, I agree to the Brightcove Publisher T and C // found at http://www.brightcove.com/publishertermsandconditions.html. var config = new Array(); /* * feel free to edit... (read more)

Ben's Blog Back!

March 19, 2007

I'm pretty tardy with this news but... better late than never. After a bit of a hiatus, Ben has brought back his mp3 blog (CIGIT 2.0). More than once, Ben has been someone who passes me an mp3 that gets stuck in my brain... and I end up looping... (read more)

Note to Self: Thoughts on Sequence and Causality

Pausing by the meeting table to slice off a little chocolate? Not a problem. Slicing off a larger-than-normal chunk of chocolate? Not a problem. Popping that entire chunk of chocolate into your mouth? Again, not a problem. The thing of it is? You were originally heading to the bathroom, before... (read more)

Gateway

March 18, 2007

I haven't gotten terribly far with this game, but it's pretty fantastic so far. Remarkably intuitive, and I catch myself wanting to pull back from "playing" the game to studying it for the way in which it illicits user interaction. At times spooky and a little unsettling, this game... (read more)

More Movable Type

March 17, 2007

Spent today working on building out a site for Gretchen and Genie. It's called Literago, and is a bit of an amalgam of the words "Literate Chicago." The idea for the site is one that combines multiple threads: it's a calendar of literary events, an ongoing collection of essays about... (read more)

Drinks @ Rodan

March 16, 2007

Justin and I stopped in at Rodan for a few drinks after work on Friday. I forget the bartender's name, but Justin knew him - and we got taken care of pretty well. We had some scotch, and moved in to sake (we both seem to be liking sake,... (read more)

Goodbye Andrea

I found out yesterday that today is Andrea's last day at Artisan. She's been a friendly face in the mornings, where we all to get our coffee before the day starts. It's sad to see her leave, but she's off to another job where it sounds like she'll be... (read more)

Crunch!

Well, we cracked it open today... but I don't know how much of a dent we made.... (read more)

Death Race 2007

March 15, 2007

Each year thousands of people pay between $100 - $500 to enter the annual Tough Guy race, a course that includes all manner of paramilitary obstacles designed to test strength and endurance. Oh, and they all sign Death Warrants too, which include the following: "I confirm that if I... (read more)

Grindhouse

Via mclarkson.... (read more)

Happy Pi Day!

March 14, 2007

Happy Pi Day, everybody. Usually around this time, I get a good deal of traffic from new visitors (mostly folks who swing by to see the pi10k experiment I made, a few years back). It's kind of funny. I created that thing trying to learn a bit more about... (read more)

Lunch with Liz

March 13, 2007

Over IM today, Liz asked if I wanted to grab a quick lunch outside. The day was quite warm, and we were up in the 60's I think - a tantilizing first glimpses of spring. I said yes, and hopped onto the Brown Line to meet her at the fountain... (read more)

A Quick Recap

March 12, 2007

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Whirlyball Extravaganza

March 11, 2007

To celebrate my birthday, I decided that a return to Whirlyball was in order. We were here two years ago, but only for an hour (an hour that went by mighty fast). So this time around, more people - and more court time. I reserved two hours for us... (read more)

Birthday, On Ice

March 10, 2007

Up until mid-week, Liz had thought my birthday was today (Saturday). And so - she had planned a ton of stuff for us to do. Bonus for me, as I get to now extend my birthday day over two days. Three, technically, since tomorrow... I get to do the... (read more)

Brunch @ Fiddlehead

Liz and I met up with Dustin and Sherie for a bit of brunch today, at a place called Fiddlehead. The timing was a bit off, as we had a bit of distance to travel (and Ric, Jon and Andrea had tickets for a noon game). After they said goodbye,... (read more)

Birthday Dinner

March 9, 2007

I was to meet Liz tonight for dinner at her place. Though I'm having my birtday party on Sunday the 11th - my actual birthday is today. There wasn't anything official done at work, as we've grown to a point where we do multiple birthdays once a month (but for... (read more)

Sushi Cake Surprise

Ok. First, a little backstory. Rey's birthday was yesterday. But he's been out of town for the Manager's Meeting, and while we expected him in the office yesterday... he didn't make it in unti today. Last year, we got him a surprise ice cream cake. This year, we decided to... (read more)

Sprout

March 8, 2007

Sprout is beautiful little game by Jeff Nusz. Not only is the gameplay interesting, but the whole visual style of the thing is something I've never really encountered before. I'm definitely reminded of the Grow games, where one decision impacts the next (and can even alter the physical surroundings... (read more)

... in 5 Seconds

YouTube user guywiththeglasses has some pretty great videos posted, many of which compress entire movies down to about 5 seconds. I've posted by favorites below, but definitely check out his video page for more condensed storylines.... (read more)

DisOrDat

Some great Flash work by the folks at Jellyvision. The interface is slick, the audio is superb, and the timing is impeccable. This whole thing is just *tight*! And to top it off, it's funny and pretty entertaining to boot. Check out this sample quiz, where you have to... (read more)

Matt and Melissa @ Apartment Therapy

Random friend-of-a-friend moment: today at work, Chris was looking at apartmenttherapy.com, and saw that my friends Matt and Melissa had their apartment featured! Photos and everything! Check out all the slick, design-y goodness by reading the article, or checking out the photos. Hmm. Some of that furniture seems familiar.... (read more)

Hello world!

Well, it's been an interesting few weeks. I've finally gotten everything moved over into Movable Type, and I'm happy to say that as of today - I'm ditching the old blog format. I have a ton of technical details about the process, but I'll save those for later. For... (read more)

Almost!

March 6, 2007

I might be a day away from launching the new version of the blog. I think I can I think I can I think I can.... (read more)

Alpha Cat vs. New Puppy

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Chiditarod Pics

March 5, 2007

I realized - this is a boring entry day, as I've given you nothing to look at. Pics and starting to come in from this year's Chiditarod. You can view more on the official Chiditarod site and, of course, Flickr.... (read more)

Close, So Close

Spent some time tonight mucking more with Movable Type. It's mostly the calendar setup which has been so time-consuming lately. I'm loathe to get rid of it, as that's the primary way people are used to navigating this thing. Maybe I'll ditch it in the future, but for now -... (read more)

%&@)*@#!#^$ Movable Type

March 4, 2007

*sigh*... (read more)

Updates!

03/01/2007 03/02/2007 03/03/2007... (read more)

Peabe - Impaired Visions

March 3, 2007

Swung over to District 13 Gallery this evening, to see Bryan and some of his work. I originally thought that he had some of his solo stuff up - but turns out, it was more of a collaborative thing. He and 18 other artists all did collaborative pieces, and had... (read more)

Fast Forward

After a few stops at various stores, we head back down Elston to swing by Stanley's for some veggies. Lo and behold - what do we see but a bunch of people running down the street with shopping carts? We had heard that the next stops after Phyllis' were to... (read more)

And out of nowhere...

Liz and I had a late lunch today, over at Mac's. While we were eating, we were talking about the various errands we would run, going over the stores we would hit during the afternoon. First, Liz noticed someone walking around with a rather strange hat on. We weren't quite... (read more)

Lottery Results

dammit.... (read more)

Lottery

March 2, 2007

At work, Phil got a bunch of folks to do a big group-buy for the lottery. Jackpot is somewhere around $275M, and roughly 60-some folks chipped in $2 each. All told, I think there was someting like 126 tickets. I'm not one to play often, but on rare occasions... (read more)

Curiosity and the Rabbit

March 1, 2007

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A One, and a Two, and a Three...

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On the way to work

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