#15

Back in the summer of 2000 I had an excellent setup with a silly “gopher” job downtown and was generally enjoying myself. One day I got up for work at 7 am and took the CTA downtown listening to some sweet new tunes on my MiniDisc player. I got to the office and did some really menial task in an efficient way meaning I did not have much else to do that day. With the rest of my time at work I finished the book I was reading before leaving the office at 3 (I was only allowed to work 7.5 hours/day). From there I had to kill some time before meeting up with Vargas so I went to the Chicago Cultural Center to check out the art exhibitions they had (some architectural related works). After meeting up with Vargas we grabbed a decent dinner then headed to Grant Park to see the Grant Park Music Festival. While waiting for the show to come on we were just chilling in the park (the weather was perfect) and I started to tell Brian how I thought today was the perfect day: I was productive at work, saw friends, had good food, educated myself with my reading and seeing the art exhibitions, was about to enjoy the Opera before rollerblading home and catching the fireworks at Navy Pier on the way. Vargas acknowledged that it was indeed a pretty good day – then after a moment of reflection he laughed at his own cleverness and put on this shit-eating grin.
“What is it?” I ask him.
“You know what your day is missing?” he says all excited about the punch line.
“What?” I ask.
“Pussy!” he says triumphantly.

#14 - Sundaylicious

The weather was gorgeous today. I had a really nice outdoor brunch with friends at Feast. After brunch we rode to the Art Institute where we looked at the photographic exhibits, Young Chicago (I went to the opening back in November and then saw it again on it's last day) and Cézanne to Picasso. We then had an excellent dinner at Avec.

yay Sunday.

#13

i'm going to my friend's birthday party now, i havent seen him in ten years. should be interesting.

#12

blah blah blah blah blah...

oh, add me in the following social do-hickeys:

linked in
facebook

optional
friendster
myspace
orkut

#11 - company man

At work a rumor was abuzz that someone was leaving for another job but it was unclear who – one of my cube-mates asked me, "is it you Alex? Oh no, you’re a company man." This made me laugh, I never could have predicted that characterization.
The last time I remember anyone using the phrase ‘company man’ was back at Corporation X. One of my cube neighbors at CorpX got an email directing him to do such-and-such and it was clearly for someone else, I jokingly suggested that he never tells the guy giving the orders that it wasn’t being done, he responded indignantly "oh no way, I’m a company man."

#10

My friends at work have made me learn the following new-to-me internet slang:

I put on my robe and my wizard hat

For the win

I've also learned how to juggle four balls and play a very decent game of Bughouse

 1 comments

#9

Recently I’ve developed this theory that people who do not have sufficient challenges in their every day lives create problems for themselves. There are good problems to create for yourself (I’m going to do a triathlon!) and bad problems to create for yourself (see: any soap opera). The obvious corollary to my theory is if you’re finding your energies are not being expended sufficiently it’s probably a good idea to find some constructive output before you invent something.

#8

A family friend recently told me about the Little Three Happiness Forum – ‘the Chicago – based culinary chat site’ which is named after of my favorite Chinatown places growing up. I am looking forward to trying some of the places suggested in "Chicagoland’s Great Neighborhood Restaurants" and on the "Chicago Chow Map".

#7

I enjoyed The Progress Paradox – when the author feels free to deal with existence of the meaning of life thusly

Here are the poles of possibility: If God exists, then surely life has meaning. And if God does not exist, then surely life has meaning. Meaning may be divinely conferred. If not, we can create meaning by living decent and admirable lives. (page 211)

How can you not like it? Cavalier writing like that is able to cover why it is almost everything is better for the average person today than ever before, the negative trends in news media, the ridiculousness of modern consumerism (he quotes The Paradox of Choice, which I read and liked also), trends in happiness, highlights the importance of positive feelings such as gratitude and forgiveness, and has a section about what he sees as the biggest problems currently facing the world in a mere 300 pages. I began the book already agreeing with most of what the book claims so it’s no surprise I like it - even still it's probably worth checking out.

#6

Concerts this summer:
Amon Tobin (5/5) - I have an extra ticket if you'd like to go
LCD Soundsystem (5/6) - I have an extra ticket if you'd like to go
Pitchfork Music Festival (including Girl Talk) (7/14-7/15)

#5

I attended an introductory meeting of the Landmark Forum tonight after a lot of prodding from someone close to me. I’m not gonna lie: sometimes it seemed like the person prodding me had become a rabbit cult member which made me resistant at first. It’s one of those think about your life / empowerment seminars whose graduates seem to take life more by the reigns after their experience. After attending the introductory meeting I am convinced it’s not a cult and has nothing new to say about controlling your own destiny / not considering yourself a victim / usual self empowerment things but the format that it takes seems reasonable and constructive. I may do the full blown thing at some point.

#4

While heading home Monday night I waited to cross at Madison, which is a four lane one way thoroughfare downtown where cars, cabs and buses are just booking it west - I never jaywalk during rush hour because it's too crazy. Across the street is this guy, he’s not wearing headphones or anything, who starts doing this intense air guitar routine while waiting to cross the street. It reminded me that The Us Air Guitar Championships Chicago Regional is happening at the Metro in June (I was thinking about going purely for the WTF factor). He abruptly stops his jam and then runs across the street, which was totally insane on his part given the traffic, with his arms limply at his sides.

#3

My cousin Phil and I were examining the treats available at this café in SF while waiting in line to get some caffeination. I saw these marvelous looking baked something-or-others and got all excited to get one. When we got up to order I pointed back at them and asked for two – since we had looked the available stock had come down to one and the woman behind us sighed in obvious disappointment. I waved off the order and got some cookies and pie instead so she could have it. A few minutes after sitting down the woman came over and introduced herself as a local painter and gave me this marvelously sculpted bird as a token of her appreciation for giving up the delicious baked do-hickey.
SF was pretty cool.

#2

If you’re interested in Test Driven Development but never heard of "Interface Discovery" I think you should read "Mock Roles, Not Objects". The paper presents lots of cool ideas in a very pretentious fashion – I had never read a technical paper and thought "did they really just quote Marx?" before.
This presentation provides the highlights (and copies some diagrams I think).

#1

I had lunch with someone special recently and she prayed before lunch. I shared with her a prayer that I have been playing around with:

May we understand our good fortune
May we use our energies creatively
May we hold each other dear
May we realize someday we’re going to die