WhistlinDixie

Chicago, Part II

Know how I said that I was going to visit Shedd Aquarium and the Museum of Science and Industry yesterday? Well, things didn’t go exactly as planned. When I was watching SportsCenter on Saturday morning, they mentioned that there was going to be a soccer game between the US and England at Soldier Field. It just so happens that on big event days at Soldier Field, all of the museum parking is reserved for the stadium, so to visit, you have to take public transportation to get there. After a quick check on bus schedules, I discovered that to get from MSI to Shedd, it would take half and hour and require me to change buses twice. All of this to go five miles up the road! I decided to cut Shedd off of my plans for the day. Also, just out of curiosity, I checked the ticket prices for the soccer game. For the seat that I had for the Fire game last week that I paid $30 for, you would have been out $95! I guess that I got a pretty good deal.

Anyway, since I was going to spend the entire day at MSI, I decided to splurge a little and get a ticket for one of their "Omnimax" shows. I’ll tell you what, Omnimax is amazing. Beats the crap out of IMAX. The movie is projected on a slightly spherical screen and you are in very steeply elevated stadium seats. The image fills your vision entirely, and, due to the curvature of the screen, objects at the periphery of your vision don’t distort and seem odd like they do in IMAX. When the movie does a flyby in a small plane, you feel like you are banking right along with the plane as if you are the passenger.

My one beef with MSI is that they have some exhibits that you have to pay extra to see. I actually did one of these since it was part of a student discount package. It was called Body Worlds, and has to be the most awesome exhibit ever. It is not for the squeamish, though. If you watch Discovery Channel, you might have seen this exhibit mentioned in a few different shows. Body Worlds is an exhibition of many "plastinated" bodies and organs, dissected in different ways to display different aspects of the human body. The exhibit was even better for me since I ran into a guy who had to be a doctor or surgeon who really ran a very interesting commentary on some of the displays. If you want to see it at MSI, you’ll have to visit before September 5th, when it moves on to Philadelphia. However, you can see Body Worlds 2 at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland through September 18th.

Oh, BTW, congrats to Danica Patrick, the first woman EVER to lead a lap at the Indy 500.

Frustration

OK, first things first. Ends up that CJ won’t be able to make it up here in a couple of weekends after all. Financial troubles on his end. Sucks, since I already have scheduled half a day off to prepare, but, oh well, I guess that just means that I get a three and a half day work week because of Memorial Day. At least the trip to Mme’s is still on. Right now, it is just CJ and I since Chief most likely will have a job that will prevent him from making the trip. CJ is trying to get Kristen and Chelsea to come up at the same time as us. Sounds like Jordan might make trip too. It’ll be like one big, happy family again. And to think, it’s only a month and a half away.

Now, for my recap of a couple of season finales. First, 24. The show has been great all season, including the first hour of the finale. The second hour is where they screwed up. It was way to easy for them to take down the nuke once they located it. It took the excitement right out of the show. The hit man/Secret Service agent that was sent to pick up Jack was really a minor plot point at best, not something that you spend 40 minutes dwelling on. Then, possibly the most despicable character that I have seen this season, President Logan, goes and brushes off the former President Palmer, I was about ready to go and shoot the guy. After all, LA would be a hot zone right now if Palmer had never set foot in the bunker and taken control of things. Then, having Jack walk off into the distance on his way to Mexico, being a new person, since, to the world (outside of Tony, Michelle, and Chloe), he is dead, is possibly the worst way to end a season finale. It should have been a series finale. the way that they wrapped up every plot line in the story and basically killed the main character.
My grade: first hour: A; second hour: C

Now, for Lost. It ran a similar path to the 24 finale. Great first hour, disappointing second. The first hour was typical Lost, which is a good thing. The second hour was good up until the last commercial break. After that, when the raft was hijacked and Walt taken, I just wanted to scream at the writers of the show. That is how you loose viewers! Do you really want to come back and watch another season? After all, they might just go and kill another character in the most random and meaningless way possible. My theory on the whole abduction is that the people on the boat were "The Others". If you remember, Rousseau said that she header the Others say that they were coming for the boy. She took that to mean Aaron, Claire’s little baby. However, I think that they were talking about Walt, who was on the raft. Then it makes a little sense why the boat was attacked like it was and all the strange people on the boat wanted was the boy. I think that the best part of the second hour was finally getting the background on Hurley. What he is doing walking around with over $1600 in his wallet is a mystery to me. Also, an awesome quote came out of the second hour: "You , uh, got some Artz on you." (Artz was the guy who had just been blown up by an old stick of dynamite; a little bit of him was on Jack’s shoulder.) There will definitely be a second season, but I don’t have a clue where they will go with it. After all, the raft has been destroyed and everyone is running from the Others. We don’t have a clue what is going to happen to the people who were on the raft; the raft has been blown up, the only flare has been used, and it appears that Sawyer has been shot. I am interested to see what happens next season, but I almost hate the show now for the abduction of Walt in the last ten minutes and the destruction of the island’s only hope.
My grade: first hour: A; second hour: B-

Staying Healthy (with Prom pics)

20 Ways To Maintain A Healthy Level of Insanity

1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and Point A Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.
2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don’t Disguise Your Voice.
3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, Ask If They Want Fries with That.
4. Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label It "In."
5. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks. Once Everyone Has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch To Espresso.
6. In The Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write "For Sexual Favors". Do this even for the utility company payments!
7. Finish All Your Sentences With "In Accordance With The Prophecy."
8. Don’t Use Any Punctuation
9. As Often As Possible, Skip Rather Than Walk.
10. Ask People What Sex They Are. Laugh Hysterically After They Answer.
11. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is "To Go."
12. Sing Along At The Opera.
13. Go To A Poetry Recital And Ask Why The Poems Don’t Rhyme
14. Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area And Play Tropical Sounds All Day.
15. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can’t Attend Their Party Because You’re Not In The Mood.
16. Have Your Co-workers Address You By Your Wrestling Name, HOT MAMA
17. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream "I Won!, I Won!"
18. When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking Lot, Yelling "Run For Your Lives, They’re Loose!!"
19. Tell Your Children Over Dinner "Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go".
20. Send This E-mail To Someone To Make Them Smile. Its Called Therapy.

(Ok, so maybe this isn’t an email anymore, but feel free to copy it and reintroduce it to the world of email again.)

As for prom, the Advocate again wasted no time in posting select pictures from the Heath Prom. Number 12 is a awesome. All I have to say is why didn’t the Joe Show make an appearance at our last Prom? Anyway, the pictures are pretty good, especially the bouncers (picture 2). Enjoy.

Fun, Fun, Fun

You know what? It can be fun to get out on the weekends. Today, I visited the Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum and the Field Museum. You probably figured out what kind of stuff that they have at Adler. The Field Museum is mainly natural science. I spent pretty much the entire day at those two museums. The cool thing is that those two museums, plus the Shedd Aquarium, are all on the same campus, within easy walking distance of each other. I greatly enjoyed my time at both museums.

While I was making my drive in to Chicago, I heard on the radio that the Chicago Fire were playing tonight at home at 7:30. I was intrigued. After all, not only are Adler, Shedd, and Field all on the same campus, but it just so happens that Soldier Field, the home of the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Fire, is part of that very same campus. I figured that tickets to a pro soccer game would not be that expensive, and, at the same time, I would get to experience Soldier Field. After I left Field at 4:30, I walked over to Soldier Field and got my ticket to the game: Section 107, Row 2, Seat 15. For all of you who have never been to Soldier Field, that puts me at about the 35 to 40 yard line in the second row from the field level. It was an awesome seat! How could you call it a bad seat when you could hear the sound of the players kicking the ball and cursing at the refs? Unfortunately, I had to use stadium food for dinner. Not cheap.

Next Saturday, I am going to visit the Shedd Aquarium and the Museum of Science and Industry. Then, the next weekend, CJ comes up here! It’s a pity that Chief can’t make it too, but he’s already been here, done that. Can’t wait!

To Much to Sum Up In One Line

First off, I’d like to say goodbye to Reggie Miller of the Indianapolis Pacers. His career ended last night in a loss to the Detroit Pistons. His 27 points were the fifth highest in a player’s last career playoff game. He retires as the twelfth highest scorer in NBA history. He made it to the Finals once and lost. He gave the Chicago Bulls a run for their money a few times in the playoffs in the late nineties. Unfortunately, he ran up against Michael Jordan, possibly the greatest basketball player of all time.

Now, about me. This week has just been a little weird. I had to come in to work half an hour early two days this week. Craig, the guy who previously worked on my project, finally called me after two weeks of playing email tag (he works night shift now). Today, I got volunteered to work in a car wash fund raiser for United Way. Not a problem: I get to stop work an hour early and go wash cars for an hour. Unfortunately, as I get ready to leave, I noticed that I had lost my ID badge. I went back and checked under my desk, under the table where I ate lunch, and in the restroom. It was nowhere to be found. I took a five minute walk over to Security in the mezzanine, only to find out that my badge had not been turned in there. I then took a walk back over to the Outbound 4 office and asked the people there if any one had turned in an ID. Again, no luck. I finally made it up to the car wash half an hour after I was scheduled to start. Even though no one was keeping track, I still stayed an extra half an hour to make up the time. Next week I’ll have to get a temporary ID so I can still get in and out of the facility. If my badge doesn’t show up in four days, I get the privilege of paying five dollars for a new ID.

Chocolate Math

1. Pick the number of times a week that you would like to have chocolate. (more than once but less than 10)
2. Multiply this number by 2 (Just to be bold)
3. Add 5. (for Sunday)
4. Multiply it by 50. I’ll wait while you get the calculator……………..
5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1755…. If you haven’t, add 1754 ……
6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born

You should have a three digit number. The first digit of this was your original number (i.e., how many times you want to have chocolate each week). The next two numbers are ………YOUR AGE! (Oh YES, it is!!!!!)

THIS IS THE ONLY YEAR (2005) IT WILL EVER WORK, SO SPREAD IT AROUND WHILE IT LASTS!

Episode III: Best Sports Movie Ever?

According to Kenny Mayne of ESPN’s SportsCenter, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is the best sports movie ever. Better than Field of Dreams, Hoosiers, any of the Rockys, or Caddyshack, to name a few. His biggest disappointment was over the small number of football scenes. George Lucas, the man behind the Star Wars saga, said that originally they had a lot of football scenes in the movie, but they had to cut them because they were too gruesome for the theater. Now, Kenny only has to convince the original R2-D2 and Chewbacca.

Ok, way OT, but to continue on what I was talking about on Friday, IBM has announced that it will be switching to Firefox internally as the supported browser for the company. I’d just like to say, I’m pretty sure that with IBM’s track record, they can’t be wrong on this.

Changing of the Guard

What great news for this Friday the 13th: IE’s market share slips below 90%! I guess that is what you get when your newest browser is at least four years old. It’s no surprise, really. After all, it sometimes takes Microsoft months, and in a few instances, a year or more, to release critical patches for its browser. On the other hand, last weekend, three new vulnerabilities were discovered in Firefox. By Thursday, they were already pushing the bugfix out to users. Talk about a fast reaction. Microsoft could never turn out a patch in four to five days. Instead, they would have you wait for their monthly update release schedule, and even then, there would be no guarantee that the bug will be fixed. And the best thing to look forward to is that come v1.1 of Firefox, there will be an actual patching system implemented, so you won’t have to make a 4.5+ Mb download to get every bugfix. So, in conclusion, join the browser revolution by choosing the most secure, most extensible, most feature rich solution on the market: Mozilla Firefox. After all, I still have yet to have someone visit my website using Firefox, except me, of course.

Stay Off The Roads!!!

…At least in Heath, anyway. My brother got his permit yesterday. I am told that he pulled a me and gave mom a few gray hairs in his first driving experience. Like with me, that first time came in the Heath Pool parking lot. And, also, just like me, he put the car into neutral by accident and gunned it. Like brother, like brother, I guess. My mom reported only mild whiplash from yesterday, which is, of course, much worse than what she got from me. She might not have made it through the day if Brian was the first one of us to get a license. Just make sure that you heed this warning: Do not, I repeat, DO NOT, drive within the vicinity of our house or Dawes Arboretum. Remember, if you do so, don’t come crying to me that Brian wrecked your car.

Destruction, Total Destruction

Should have known that it would happen sooner or later. I have ruined my first piece of plasticware. That can happen when you microwave one bun’s worth of sloppy joe on high for three minutes. I kind of forgot how little I had in there. I put it in that long since yesterday it was still a little cool, but that was three bun’s worths. Oh well, first time for everything I guess.

Completely off topic, but the funniest thing happened two days ago on TV. I think it was NASCAR driver Rusty Wallace who was a guest on the Tony Danza show. Tony decided to challenge Rusty to a go cart race. As they were coming out of a turn, Rusty tapped Tony’s bumper, causing Tony to spin and actually flip over in his cart. Wallace said that he was thinking, "Oh my gosh, I just killed Tony Danza!" Actually, Tony was just shaken up, without a scratch on him. Bet he’s glad he had a roll bar and was wearing his seatbelt.