Notebook

while chatting with a friend about myspace tonight, he said this (after being contacted by someone on myspace): "guess he was at OUR HIGHSCHOOL a couple years i was but thats no reason to be shirtless in myspace"

:)

Posted by at 9:58 PM | Permalink

Juliana loves music. Unfortunately she also loves some bad music that i won't get into here.

On the ride to rockford this afternoon, she was humming along to the melody for half of the songs on the new Death Cab for Cutie album.

before bedtime tonight, i fired up itunes and played a couple of tracks for her, to see what she thought. She ended up liking them both, so i burned them on cd for her. The first song i played was the Miles Davis version of "Some Day My Prince Will Come" which i picked because she loves old disney films. The second song was the first track from Brian Eno's Ambient 1 - Music for Airports. The Eno disc was spinning when i tucked her in tonight.

Who knows how long this will last, but i can try. I plan on letting her troll through our iTunes library and burning discs fairly regularly. I can't make her like good music, but i can make sure she knows it is out there.

Posted by at 10:31 PM | Permalink

I know that Valentine's day is a Hallmark holiday and all, but seeing Juliana diligently cutting out dozens of hand colored paper heart cards for her classmates warmed even my cold, cold heart.

So on this day of Valentine's, where coworkers are attempting to buy wondrous gifts for ridiculously underwhelming budgets, and friends are spending extreme amounts on "this special night" i have a very simple statement.

To my girls (all three of them) i send these words of love: Thank you all for being here with me. Thank you for making me laugh at 3:30 in the morning when you can't sleep because you are so excited about a field trip the next morning. Thank you for asking me to sing the theme song to "My Neighbor Totoro" when I tuck you into bed. Thank you for wrapping your arms around me when i walk in the door from work. Thank you for letting me teach you about art and music, and teaching me how to do beautiful things in return. That you for learning to love comic books. Thanks for being a nerd (secretly. your secret is safe with me). Thank you for dancing and coyly waving for company.

In conclusion, thank you for loving me in return (especially you, Tracey. It is easier for the girls to love me. :) ). Smooch!

Hey, it isn't thanksgiving? What gives with this message? Someone should teach me how to respect the holidays.

Posted by at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A slight correction to tracey's post on our crap's collective weight. The weight of our belongings, excluding my main photo, video and computer gear, our persons, our cats and our cars was exactly 10,680 pounds.

Just a public service announcement to all our faithful readers. :)

Posted by at 11:14 AM | Permalink

2005 was a good year for me. Juliana started Kindergarten, Ava started talking in FULL FORCE and Tracey and I moved back to a city. I am posting this from the first floor stairwell of our new house in the Bayview neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI. Go WI!!!!!!

I am taking a break from ripping out the carpet from our first floor (in preparation for the refinishing that will start on monday). Ripping out carpet starts off nice and easy. Then you have to get the tacks up. Then you have to get all the staples up. Then you have to keep reaching for the tissue box to blow your nose since the dust is getting to you. Fun!

I will be posting up before, middle and after pictures of the floor process when i get some time tomorrow. At least I will be able to get the before and middle pictures. :) We have uncovered a pretty nice floor, but one that definitely needs to be sanded and refinished. Wish us luck with the rest of the floors!!!

Anyway, back to the work. To everyone I spent time with in 2005, here's to another year. To everyone i lost contact with or neglected to get back to, i hope to do better next year!

Posted by at 11:23 PM | Permalink

Every year for Juliana and Ava's birthdays we put together a little video to show at the birthday party. I want to put up the intros that we have made for each one here. For now, I have one ready.

View the introduction to Juliana's 4th Birthday video (1.7 megabyte MP4 file).

Posted by at 12:26 AM | Permalink

Tracey quipped today that it is funny how the thought of selling our place has motivated us to do a bunch of improvements lately:

• Patching up nail holes in the trim
• Touching up the paint where the new berber carpet is lower than our old plush stuff.
• Installing a new light fixture in the kitchen (let there be light!)
• Taking out the old table in the basement.
• Organizing the basement and throwing out a tooooon of junk.
• Patch up lots of little drywall dings and touch up a bunch of paint.

Note: Most of that list was done by the lovely tracey. :)

Posted by at 9:26 PM | Permalink

Rocking At Cannova's,
originally uploaded by plural.

Posted by at 7:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Tracey and I went to see Sin City last night, since michelle watched the girls for us.

The film was great. It was also one of the most twisted and violent things i have ever seen. I heartily recommend it to anyone with a strong stomach.

When the credits started rolling and we started to make for the bathroom, i saw a young boy walking down the stairs in front of me. He must have been 8 or 10 years old. His mother was right in front of me when i started walking down the stairs. "Excellent film to take your kid to see." Admittedly, this is a pretty jerky thing to say to a total stranger, but you have got to be kidding me. Taking your little kid to see that film is hardly responsible parenting. As Tracey said in the car ride after the movie, "There are R rated movies. And then there was that." Language is one thing. For instance, the language that this lovely mother used in front of her kid and to her husband while responding to me.

Ah no. I know you didn't just say that. What the fuck did you just say to me? You have no fucking right. It is none of your fucking business.

She then tried to get her husband to do something about me. "Yeah. That motherfucker right there. Do you know what he had the nerve to say to me?" Now, I am a wimpy guy, so i really didn't want this guy to come over and try to fight me. It would have ended badly. For me. The guy took a look at me. Then looked sheepishly back at his wife, who immediately started bitching him out for not going over to kick my ass.

:)

Posted by at 8:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Scene: Juliana and i are looking for pictures of jellyfish on the wikipedia.

Me: Can you say wikipedia?
Juliana: Wiki. Wikipie.

:)

Posted by at 7:52 PM | Permalink

seriously, dood.

seriously.

Posted by at 9:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

You know it is a fun party when there is a monkey involved.

Posted by at 1:53 PM | Permalink

can a clumsy man and his four-year old daughter make a boat seaworthy enough for the pond out back? The verdict? I will let Juliana tell you...

Continue reading "Trying to answer the eternal question..." »

Posted by at 11:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

so. a recap is in order, but will not be forthcoming. I have a half dozen posts queued up that will be trickling out in the next coupla days. They will not be terribly comprehensive, but should have some fun stuff, including video of the, umm, enthusiastic Travis Morrison live. :)

In the meantime, i am sitting in a coffee shop in Lincoln Park waiting to head over to the DePaul University student center to see Neil Gaiman interview Gene Wolfe and then to read from his upcoming work. Very exciting. :) If they have wifi at the spot i will take notes here. If not, i will post my notes this evening.

Yay fun!

Posted by at 6:24 PM | Permalink

Update: To fix my recent images stuff, i have converted this entry away from Markdown.

Aside from being woken up MUCH too early today, i was greeted by a beautiful mist over the back yard. Juliana and I were very impressed.

Posted by at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

life is good.

80 degrees, sunny, sitting in the shade at daley plaza in downtown chicago after having lunch with some friends. Oh, and the free wi-fi helps, too. :)

Posted by at 1:51 PM | Permalink

We are very excited to inform you that your monthly phone bill is going DOWN! Our price on the Residential Premium Unlimited Plan has been dropped AGAIN!
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Again, thank you for your continued support and loyalty. Without you, we would not have been able to pass this significant savings along. If you have any questions, please email us at customerresponse@vonage.com with the words "Price Change" in the subject line.

Posted by at 8:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

While tracey and I were out in vegas last weekend, I made a new friend at the venetian.

Continue reading "i made a new friend in las vegas" »

Posted by at 9:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I often see some funny searches coming into the site from places i used to work or people i used to know (i can tell by the IP addresses).

As has always been the case here, i do not post work-related topics, just general art, coding, reading, random stuff.

I will not be writing about people that I am not 100% sure that they are ok with a link or a mention. Nor will i be writing about former employers. Sorry folks. No need to bore people any more than normal. Everyone has jobs. Everyone has work stories. They are all pretty much the same. oh well.

:)

Posted by at 11:25 PM | Permalink

its not in short supply around here right now. Here is my current recipe:

• one show corporate crime trial


• countless major corporate crooks not going to jail


• 1 unneccessary war devolving into a civil war


• a possible US sponsored coup of a democraticly (sp?) elected (albeit kinda shady) leader


• New FCC guidelines on obscenity and what I should or should not be allowed to see/hear/read/think


• re-watching "The Insider" and despairing over the sorry state of journalistic integrity in 2004


• reading 70s sci-fi/psychedelic conspiracy theorists.

All i want is for people to take responsibility for their own actions, not be offended by crude humor, and for really harmful crooks to go to jail. grrrr

Posted by at 12:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

phil came back to town for a few days and he and bill came out and we grabbed some burritos and spent the evening at the ranch (local country bar/hip hop bar). ;)

Posted by at 9:42 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

our 2nd daughter, Ava Elisabeth was born last wednesday night. I am finally getting around to posting some pictures. Not that we don't have hundreds so far, but I am just now taking the time to post some. ;)
Enjoy and Rejoice!

Posted by at 10:53 PM | Permalink

I like stuff. Books. Music. Movies. Comic Books.
To deal with it, I was pointed at Koha, by Ed from the local Perl mongers. Koha is a perl-based, open source (GPL) library software. It is young, though, and I am no librarian, so I am not sure exactly how much it will help me. I have installed it on my laptop though, so I will check it out. As long as it can help me keep track of my stuff, then I will be happy. I mean all my stuff, though. ;)

Posted by at 9:16 PM | Permalink

Finally!
We have pulled the trigger and had a new tile floor installed on the first floor. Lookin good, despite the fact that I am a lazy photographer any more. ;)

Check out our new tile.

Posted by at 9:39 PM | Permalink

note to self: Gordon's vodka is NEVER a good idea. Even if there is just a little left and you really just want to get rid of it.

ugh

Posted by at 7:20 AM | Permalink

riding the metra in to the city this morning, I listened to a guy from a printing company talk about his trip to Tokyo. He talked about the cost of 2 BLT's at the Hard Rock Cafe ($70), the cost of 2 Kobe Beef dinners ($305) and how cool the bullet trains are.
He also had many nice things to say about how respectful the japanese are. Weird coincidence since Chuck takes off from O'Hare for Tokyo in an hour and a half.

Posted by at 9:20 AM | Permalink

I had a bbq friday night. It was fun.
This guy was not there. This guy was, though. What a prettyboy. ;)
Also, mike helped me scan a bunch of pretty balloon slides for my new piece, so hopefully it will shape up better than the previous sketch.

Posted by at 6:57 PM | Permalink

Poor Juliana. One of the kitties ate the hands off her doll. When I saw it I started cracking up but she started bawling!!! Tonight we found another one done in. Not quite as bad, but Juliana was quite upset about the whole thing.

Posted by at 9:21 PM | Permalink

Posted by at 4:00 PM | Permalink

And here I was worried that one of the largest commuter rail systems in the country wasn't looking out for me.

I found this pamphlet in the Western Ave. train station late last night while waiting to come home from seeing Cowboy Bebop @ the Music Box (more later).

Read the pamphlet here:

Posted by at 3:48 PM | Permalink