And Life 2 Go

"If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing" - Benjamin Franklin

Monday, October 31, 2005

Boo.

Check out the wicked wolf pumpkin we carved out over the weekend:

Wolf Pumpkin


Happy Halloween, everyone.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

White Sox... win it

Dear god(s) of baseball:

I hope by acknowledging the White Sox victory today, next year you will bless the Cubs with the same winning season. I offer three sacrifices for this below, two images and my congratulations, so the Cubs can do this next year. Amen.

chicago_soxskyline
The city of Chicago shows their support

sox_win
The Sox team celebrates

Congratulations, White Sox.

Now how cool would it be if Cubs won it next year?

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Bumper sticker

... I saw a bumper sticker on a car in front of me on the way to work today, that I just had to quote:

"My wife says I never listen to her.... er something like that."

As a married man of 2 years now, I thought that was rather funny.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

10 Great Things About Autumn

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

...from "mama" Yano's Ten on Tuesday... here goes!

10 Great Things About Autumn
1. Jumping in piles of leaves (yes, I still do it)
2. The different colors of all the trees
3. The crisp, clean air in the mornings and evenings
4. Football (I only follow NFL, not enough time to follow college)
5. Cubs will be in the World Series during this time of year... eventually
6. Bonfires / firepits in the backyard
7. Barnburners (One shot of Southern Comfort, warm apple cider, cinnamon stick)
8. Halloween
9. My wedding anniversary (got married on October 25)
10. Only about 7 more months until summer!

Friday, October 21, 2005

Mental midget

.. that's what I felt like the past day or so.

I went to UIC (Univ. of Illinois at Chicago, for those out-of-towners) last night and this morning to attend a conference that is in the name of my late father (he was a professor at the university for 20 years).

(By the way, last night we went out to Redlight, a kick-ass restaurant (at least IMHO) off of Randolph street in downtown Chi-town...)

I tell you what, these people are damn smart. Or at least they act like it. The lectures blew me away. I now know more than I probably ever should about gynecology (yes, my dad was a OB/GYN at the university) (And yes, I've heard every joke possible in reference to that).

Actually, I really don't know that much about it. I understood the pictures... which were somewhat disturbing. But the words they were using.. I may as well been attending a conference in Nepal. It also made me realize how smart I ain't. I mean, yea I made it through four years of college, but these people... some of them have been in school for 8 years and are still going! Like Einstein said of most humans, maybe I am only using 10% of my brain? (OK, it's a myth, but still, a good one for motivation...).

I know for a fact I have been quite the procrastinator in keeping up with my IT skills. I do enough and learn enough just to get by. It's partly my fault, and partly the crappy work environment I am in. But going to these lectures opened up my eyes, slightly, to how much smarter I could be if I just applied myself.

So will I apply myself? We'll see. I'm not starting right now... hell, it's 3:48PM on a Friday, I'm really not in the mood to get my learn on, if ya know what I mean. But I did keep the copy of the lectures they gave me, and the cover has my dad's name on it. I think if I keep it here at work as a reminder of how smart my dad was, and how smart these people are, it may be enough to want me to learn more.

Now, y'all have a great weekend, hear?

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Music..makes the people..come together

Yes, a lame reference to Madonna's "Music" song. I swear I don't know how certain songs pop into my head. I'm playing the video in my head right now. . .

Anyhoo.

I cannot find my new Weezer CD. I had it in my 6-CD player in my Jeep, and when I drove to work yesterday I noticed that only 5 were in my player, and Weezer was the one missing. I conducted a full investigation, including intense questioning of my wife (she tends to "borrow" CDs without telling me), with no results. The only thing I can think of, is I drove my Jeep to work on Monday "topless", and a theft occured. If someone so chooses, they can simply waltz over to my car, press "Eject" on my CD player, and choose from 6 CDs to take. I find it strange, however, that they would go through all that trouble and only take one. Why didn't they steal all 6? And, why did they choose Weezer?! That is currently my favorite CD right now. I am none too pleased. If I don't find it within the next day or so I'm going to have to purchase another copy.

Speaking of CDs, I'm thinking of making 3 "blind" purchases (ie, buying a new album based on only one single, or none at all). I heard Depeche Mode's new single, "Precious", and found it quite pleasing to the ear. So I may buy that album, although the last album I bought from them, Ultra, was a big disappointment to me with the exception of the single, "It's No Good".
My second blind purchase will be All-American Rejects. I enjoyed their self-titled previous album, and like the new single, "Dirty Little Secret".
And lastly, I may go ahead and buy Franz Ferdinand's new album. Their first single, "Do You Want To", is fantabulous, and the video is absolutely hilarious. Watch it if you can.

Oh, and if anyone finds my Weezer CD, please let me know. I'll buy you a 99 cent cheeseburger.

Friday, October 14, 2005

Spam-alot

.. OK, so I've been blogging for roughly 2 years now, and never had an issue with spam comments. Now, in the past 2 months, I've been bombarded with annoying, worthless spam comments.

What happened? Did someone learn the secret to spam comments, or was I just lucky the past 18 months?

Anyways, I had to turn on "word verification" on the comments. It seems everyone else has it now, so it shouldn't be too annoying. Hopefully it cuts back on the spamming. I'm getting tired of deleting 10 or so comments a day!

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Bird is the word

... so it's around 9pm tonight, and I go to let my dog out.

I happened to turn on my deck light (which I don't usually do), and notice these 2 little birds sitting on my deck railing.

At first, I thought they were about to fly off at any moment.

But they just sat there. Looking at me.

So, I went into the house, grabbed my handy-dandy Canon Camedia C-750, and took this shot. They never moved. It must be their defense, kinda like "playin possum"?

P1010050


I just checked, they are still there.

Birds are cool, as long as they don't nest in your vents and cause bird mites.

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Sleep, where art thou?

Last night was not a good night of sleeping. I think I may have got a total of 3 very light hours. No real reason for it, just sometimes I can't sleep.

I used to have chronic insomnia. I'd say from about 1995 until around 1998 is when I had it. Several nights a week I'd literally get maybe 1 hour of sleep. I visited my "primary physician" several times for it, and you could tell he had no clue what to do. He'd offer me the simple advice I had already read and heard hundreds of times before: "Go to bed the same time every night. Avoid caffeine after 5. Read a book. Use your bedroom for only sleep and initmacy.." and blah, blah, blah.

He also recommended a psychiatrist because he thought my sleeplessness was due to other factors in my life; stress, depression, you name it. But it wasn't. I simply could not fall asleep. I would get nervous as soon as I put my head down because I wanted so badly to fall asleep. Every night of bad sleep made the next night even harder to sleep.

He eventually prescribed me some drugs. I probably went through about 4 or 5 different kinds, all of which had terrible side effects (Elavil is one I remember; I can't remember the names of the others). The drugs weren't really meant to cure insomnia; they were for other conditions (mostly depression) but the side effects were drowsiness. However I wasn't depressed, I was just friggin tired, so these drugs messed up my mind and barely helped my sleep.

I finally took things into my own hands. With the coaxing of my dad, who worked at University of Illinois at Chicago's Medical campus as a professor, I got a visit with a "sleep specialist". I finally got prescribed a wonderful little drug called Ambien (apparently, which my primary physician never heard of). I would get a good 6-7 hours of sleep, with no side effects in the morning. It was a miracle.

Now, now, I'm not here trying to push some sleeping pills on you. You should only resort to these if all the drug-free methods have failed you. Lots of people can get their sleep back on track simply by exercising, avoiding alcohol and caffiene at night, and scheduled bedtime hours.

Well, after trying the "non-drug" method for about 3 years, I was fairly desperate to say the last. The drug helped me get my sleep back on track. After about a few weeks of a light dose, I was pretty much back to somewhat normal sleeping patterns. Just having the pills in the house itself helped me, because knowing that I had them took away the nervousness of falling asleep, and I'd drift into sleep on my own, drug-free.

But, as last night, I do have my relapses sometimes. I already knew at around 11pm, after lying in bed for 30 minutes, that I wasn't going to sleep much. I avoided taking any drugs, and just watched some late-night TV from about midnight til almost 4am. I went back to bed, got about 3 hours of sleep, and got ready for work.

So anyways, if you or anyone you know has trouble sleeping, feel free to talk with me. I've been through it all. Almost any kind of supposed "treatment" there was, I went through. Basically a little pill called Ambien and some strict bedtime hours got me back on track. I haven't had a bad week of sleep in almost 7 years now.

Friday, October 07, 2005

Make Your Dog Feel Like A Man Again

... I ran across this article on Yahoo! today:

Prosthetic dog testicle creator wins Ig Noble prize

Isn't that great? I wonder if it really gives the dog some pride back. My dog is neutered, but before the operation, those thing looked downright uncomfortable hangin there. I don't know if he'd want them back? I'll have to ask him tonight.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Couldn't .... resist...

A picture of a White Sox fan after Tuesday's game...

Who says Sox fans aren't smart? Just because they can't punctuate a three letter word correctly...

sign

By the way, if you are a Sox fan, you may not notice anything wrong with the picture. It's OK.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

O' Portillo's, how I love thee.

... italian beef, dipped, extra hot peppers, medium fries, medium root beer.

Am I in heaven?

It occured to me while out in Maryland this past weekend, that no one outside of the Chicagoland area gets to visit this wonderful restaurant. I seriously feel sorry for you. True, the east coast gets Chick-Fil-A, the south gets Waffle House, and the west gets In-And-Out Burger, but I'd take Portillos any day.

Now some pure Chicagoans may argue there are better places to get an italian beef (such as Al's Beef on Taylor Street), but I've been to alot of those places and I still dare to say that Portillos has the best. Not to mention, there's one just 10 minutes from my house, with several more within an hours drive.

I don't go there often... I try to limit my visits to once, maybe twice a month. If it's somewhere you went a few times a week, you may as well slap about 20 pounds of fat around your waste. But it's gooood.

I also sometimes go with their Chicago-style hot dog with everything sans tomatoes (sorry, I have to get it without tomatoes. They are gross. I pleasantly refer to them as "ass-matoes".) Get two of them and skip the fries.

There's literally every possible fast food/chain restaurant within about 15 minutes of our house. I'd say, however, that when we decide it's a "eat whatever" night, we goto Portillos 95% of the time.

We went there last night for dinner. I had a craving for it in Maryland, and was quickly horrified when I realized the closest one was a 16 hour drive. So after eating a somewhat heathly dinner on Monday, I took the plunge last night. I devoured the juicy, wet beef and hot peppers with glee. Afterwards I laid on the couch, let out a slight belch, and drifted off to sleep with a smile on my face.

O Portillo's, how I love thee.