August 2008 Archives

Frankfort Fall Festival - Waterballoon War

August 30, 2008

My absolute favorite part of the entire Frankfort Fall Festival: the Waterballoon War. Darryl had never been before, so he, Liz and I all went over to the perimeter, near the official "end" of the parade. In talking to various folks nearnby, we got conflicting reports. Some said the... (read more)

Frankfort Fall Festival - Parade

Prior to the start, Tricia and Darryl got dressed to the nines (they were going to be marching with the other veterans, at the head of the parade). Another photo session (they're standing next to the tree that was planted for Audrey. Veterans, leading the front of the parade.... (read more)

Friday Collective Mixtape - Labor

August 29, 2008

The most recent Friday Collective Mixtape is up and available for download. This week's theme, in honor of Labor Day is... you guessed it: Labor.... (read more)

Happy Birthday, Deb!

Continuing our tradition of surprising Deb on her birthday, all of us at work snuck into the kitchen to sing "Happy Birthday." Deb, making a wish (and feeling well enough that she doesn't need a proxy). Each year, it gets a little harder to find room for everyone. Our little... (read more)

Playing Pictionary for Prizes

August 28, 2008

Liz and I went over to Allison's place yesterday, for a few rounds of Pictionary. Little did we know that, in addition to the games, there was also a large "Prize Bag" for all the winners. For example: A "Officially Licensed" Tupac shot glass. As one of my prizes,... (read more)

Imaginary Captions: Funny CTA Ad

August 27, 2008

Saw this on the way in to work the other day, and it had me chuckling nonstop. I kept on creating imaginary captions the whole ride in. Here are a few I came up with: "Just because it fits... it doesn't mean it's right." "What were those dimensions again?"... (read more)

Al Dente: Delightful Student Animation

August 26, 2008

Al Dente is a fantastic student graduation project by three incredibly talented gents. Just lovely. [via]... (read more)

Random Thought (to the Detriment of Mankind)

Drug dealers could get homeless people to work as dealers for them. Everyone's used to seeing homeless people accept money, so this wouldn't really raise any eyebrows. Add in a handshake after the money exchange where you could "palm" the goods, and it's a done deal.... (read more)

Random Thought (to the Betterment of Mankind)

Atop all "revolving door" entryways, we should install a device that captures the energy generated each day. Thinking about downtown Chicago alone, the daily motion/energy created would be of some small significance, I have to imagine. While I doubt this would generate enough power to, say, light an entire skyscraper...... (read more)

Reminder: Upcoming Waterballoon War, Frankfort Fall Festival

August 25, 2008

For anyone who might be interested, the Frankfort Fall Festival is this weekend. I realize it's a bit of a trek for those in Chicago (it's about 45 minutes away), but there's a particular event at the Festival that may be of interest to you... particularly you shutterbugs out there.... (read more)

Information Booth Construction: Frankfort Fall Festival

August 24, 2008

Liz and I got a call from her mom on Saturday, asking if we could come down to Frankfort to help paint an "Information Booth" that Bob was building. The booth is slated to be used for the upcoming Frankfort Fall Festival (next weekend). On arriving, we found the driveway... (read more)

Gifts for Baby Audrey: Baby Blanket, Fondant Cake and Cupcakes

August 23, 2008

Today, Liz went to a baby shower for her new niece Audrey. The past few weeks, Liz has been hard at work planning both her gift as well as the cake/treats she was going to make for the event. The gift: a baby blanket. And all hand-made, start to finish.... (read more)

Friday Collective Mixtape: Discovering New Music, Discovering One Another

August 22, 2008

A few weeks ago, I joined the Friday Collective Mixtape at the office. It works like this: each week there's a new theme that gets voted on, and participants all include a song they think matches well to that theme. Part of the goal of the mixtape is to... (read more)

Erik Mongrain: Amazing Guitar Tapping Videos

August 21, 2008

I mentioned Erik Mongrain a while back on here, and last week I was browsing around my library looking for a few instrumental tracks. Since my original post, it looks like he's re-done his site a few times. The old links I have to his videos are all broken, and... (read more)

Paradise: Episode 4 of Doki and Nabi Cat/Bunny Romance, from SamBakZa

August 20, 2008

Another installment of the love story between Doki and Nabi. And TOTALLY not what I was expecting. Visit sambakza.net, then click "English," then click "amalloc." A lot of steps I know, but trust me here... it's so worth it. I first posted about SamBakZa back in 2005, and I'm... (read more)

Um... Wait... What?

August 19, 2008

:|... (read more)

Chris Returns from a Week's Vacation: "The Tent" Prank

August 18, 2008

So Chris has this sweater. A long while back, when we had our office next to Q101 in the Merchandise Mart. One day, Chris was pretty cold in the office... and at the time, Andy was working over in Marketing/Promotions. Andy used to give us lots of neat things, and... (read more)

Lazy Sunday with Fables: The Good Prince

August 17, 2008

This was my Sunday afternoon. A nice, fat comic book, some coffee, and an hour or two sitting in the sun room. Mostly reading, with the occassional nap or two thrown in for good measure. Ahh, Sundays. I've been a big fan of the Fables comic series for some... (read more)

Cheesecake and the Reward System

August 16, 2008

Cheesecake at Buona Terra on California. Here's what you didn't see: preceding this meal was a four hour apartment-cleaning marathon, with me being grumpy at various points throughout. For me, apparently, I need more of a reward system built in to the whole "cleaning" process. And no, a nice,... (read more)

My First (and Hopefully Last) Root Canal

August 15, 2008

About a week ago, I went back to visit Dr. Heath, to determine whether or not I needed a root canal. Turns out I did need one after all, and I've got a few photos to share with you regarding the experience. I was given a list of places by... (read more)

Coign of Vantage Flash Game: Rotate Your Perspective

August 14, 2008

Coign of Vantage is a fun (and remarkably trance-inducing) game where you try to line up a set of floating blocks just right, in order to create a image. Weirdly calming and satisfying. [via]... (read more)

Face Your Manga: Make Your Own Manga-Based Avatar

FaceYourManga: a fun little time-waster, where you can customize your own little avatar. [via]... (read more)

On the Merits of Curiosity and Being a Little Extroverted

August 13, 2008

Two things have happened recently that I wanted to mention: they both involve being curious, and a little more extroversion than I'm accustomed to. On the bus one day, I happened to see a guy sitting with a pretty thick mohawk. The whole ride, I kept wondering: How long does... (read more)

Kevin Kelly: Predicting the Next 5,000 Days of the Web

August 12, 2008

On watching Kevin Kelly's TED talk, I experienced this gradual, growing sense of awe and realization. Whether you're a web designer, developer, someone who works with the web or simply just uses it... this is an absolutely fascinating talk.... (read more)

What Time Do You Wake Up?

August 11, 2008

Most mornings, my alarm is set for 5:30 AM, and I typically roll out of bed after hitting snooze once or twice. On a good day, I can get a bit of surfing in, and a decent blog entry written, prior to hopping in the shower. If I've got a... (read more)

Stunning Images: 2008 Beijing Olympics, Opening Ceremony

August 10, 2008

Wow - I just happened across these photos from the 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony, and my jaw is dropped. I'm kicking myself for missing this. [via]... (read more)

Damn You, Batman

... (read more)

My mySQL Walkthrough

August 9, 2008

Justin spent some time with me today, and walked me through installing mySQL on my Mac. Justin's offered to help me go back and clean up a bunch of old blog entries. Back when I migrated over to MovableType... I did a batch conversion that took all my old... (read more)

Revisiting the Dentist: Do I Need a Root Canal or Not?

Today, I went back to visit Dr. Heath for the large cavity that I've got. It was up in the air whether they could treat the cavity... or whether it would require a root canal. *shudder* During my time in the waiting room, I was trying to figure out what... (read more)

Chris and Leslie: Totally Married

August 8, 2008

A few weeks back, we received this pretty fantastic postcard for Chris and Leslie's wedding. Best_Domain_Name_Ever. Outside of the Prickly Pear in LaGrange. Table settings near the front. A longer wooden table (many of the Emmis Interactive folks would end up grabbing seats together here). One of the cooler... (read more)

Things They Don't Tell You (But Should)

August 7, 2008

Things They Don't Tell You (But Should) [via]... (read more)

Exploring TED Talks: On Motivation, Brain Magic and Collecting Stories

August 6, 2008

Recently, I've taken to watching more TED talks online. It started with a post on Lifehacker about Tony Robbins' talk on Motiviation. From there, I started looking around at others: Keith Barry: Brain Magic, Martin Seligman: What Positive Psychology can Help You Become, Jonathan Harris: The Art of Collecting Stories,... (read more)

My New Office

August 5, 2008

There's been a considerable amount of moving about in the office, ever since we had some new cubes installed. One of the biggest changes for me is that... I now have my own office. I got promoted back in February, and that was a pretty interesting/big shift for me... (read more)

Storm Damage, Logan Square

On the way to work, I stopped to check out a little bit of the damage from last night's storm. There wasn't a ton of stuff near us (I heard Wicker Park and North Ave got it bad). In talking with Liz, she recalled that huge storm from last... (read more)

Tornados and Lightning, Logan Square

August 4, 2008

Tonight, there was a crazy storm that blew through Chicago. And on top of that, there were reports that an honest-to-god tornado was heading through Logan Square itself... which was a bit alarming. Add to the fact that I was sitting on the pot, taking a crap when I found... (read more)

FlickrTwitterThinker Project Updated

It's taken me a few months to notice this sadly, but my FlickrTwitterThinker project was throwing a Flash script error... and totally hanging up. Digging around some, I came across a bit of news: Twitter acquired Summize back in July. I learned of Summize through twistori, and used it to... (read more)

Dim Sum at Shen Yang Restaurant

August 3, 2008

Nothing says "Visiting Family in Indianapolis" like having Dim Sum at the restaurant. Previously: Lazy Susan Cam, 2005... (read more)

Visiting Crown Hill Cemetery

Early Sunday morning everyone who was in town gathered at Crown Hill Cemetery to visit Grandpa Jung and Uncle Jacky, and to pay our respects. It's been over a year since my Uncle Jacky passed away, and today was the first time everyone got back together as a group... (read more)

Happy 97th Birthday, Grandma Jung!

August 2, 2008

To celebrate my grandma's 97th birthday, we all gathered back at... you guessed it - my parents' restaurant, Shen Yang. At every place setting, there was this small poem. Prior to eating we all posed for photos, family by family. David and cousin Ellen, who runs her own blog... (read more)

Visiting the Indianapolis Zoo

Prior to the big birthday party for grandma, Liz and I headed over to the Indianapolis Zoo for the morning. Despite a really frustrating 20+ minutes circling the parking lot looking for a space, the rest of the morning was a ton of fun. I love this rear shot. Liz,... (read more)

Visiting the Coca-Cola Bottling Plant, Indianapolis

August 1, 2008

Liz and I headed to Indy a little later than we expected. This past week has been a little hectic, so we left one day later than we had planned, catching our breath a little before heading home. On arriving in Indy, we met up with my sister and my... (read more)

Off to Indianapolis

Took the day off work today, and going to head back to Indy with Liz to visit the family. Lots of my family are converging to help celebrate my grandma's birthday, so it should be a pretty event-packed weekend. The fast-paced excitement that is I-65 awaits!... (read more)