Crystal Ball

So I was reading some select articles in the Chicago sun Times today, and it paints a very bright future for Chicago. First, the Clean Air Act which will rid smoking from bars. Then there was an article that suggested the possiblity that wireless broadband internet could be available by the end of 2006. Probably the greatest thing I have heard today, since my Comcast internet service sucks and I pay for it. Internet should be free as it can empowers people to do what they may not otherwise be able to do. Finally the proposal to have cameras all over the city is both good and bad. Here is another example of the government taking away a little more of their freedom in order of 'national security.' So overall Chicago apparently will be an even better city to live in come 2008.

Movie Reviews

I went to the movies this weekend and saw Annapolis. To my suprise the movie was about boxing. This was certainly not what I was expecting as in the trailer there are a few glimpses of boxing scenes which do certainly do not indicate that the entire movie is about boxing. Also I saw some new very interesting previews. First, the movie 'Stay Alive.' This seem to belong in a Blockbuster in the B movie section. In summary it's a movie about a cursed (or something) videogame where the people who play the game die as they did in the game. 'Don't you see? The game is becoming reality!' Blah! But don't think that I'm being completely negative. The trailer for 'The DaVinci Code' makes the movie look really cool. I must say the casting is excellent with Ian McCullen playing the part of Sir Leigh Teabing. My one criticism that I saw in the movie was Tom Hanks mullet. Most unusual.

The First Grade

I remember when I was in first grade and was learning simple rules of society. You know what I mean: share, play nice with others, clean up after yourself, don't use naughty words, and don't lie. Sitting on the floor of an exchange I can't help but wonder what happened to these rules over the years. They seem like pretty good rules. I mean first grade was generally fun, except when you got caught breaking the rules, then it wasn't that great. But that is what the rule were for...making life good.

Paper Towels

I occured to me today how much paper towels are wasted in public restooms. I saw a guy give the dispenser 7 solid pulls before he dried his hand with only the middle section. Then I wondered how many pulls you needed to actually dry your hands. In my test I got them fairly dry with three pulls (about 8 inches of paper). When I finished the paper was nearly completely wet but my hands where dry. If we could control ourselves we wouldn't need to have the air hand driers.

Air Fare

I am complexed by how airfair works. One day a fares are a certain price, and then the next the fares goes up. I don't really understand how this works. Is there some sort of driving force behind the price changes? I wish I knew so I could save some money.

The Gap Widens

For as long as I can remember I have been interested in the gap between the rich and the poor. In the past several days I have read or hear about the way this gap is growing. First, I picked a Wall Street Journal while riding the train and was drawn to an article on this topic. It explained how the gap isn't really widening as much as the middle class is dissolving away, being replaced by technology. The lower class seems to be sustaining as the demand for janitoiral and secretarial work has not been greatly affected by technology. And on the upper end, the pay scale is sliding towards the rich as companies are valuing the no. 1 and 2 much more than in the past and paying the no. 25 and 26 much less as a result. One scholar suggested that the school systems needed to restructure to teach students to either embrase technology and use it to there advanatage or to learn to settle in jobs that are completely devoid of technology. Sounds like a prescription for a symptom to me.

Today, I found two stories about the gap getting a little wider. First, Ford is planning to cut 30,000 jobs by the year 2012. Undoubted most of these layoffs are the middle class. Ford's stock price is up about 6% today. So that will work out for those fortunate enough to be able to invest in the stock market.

Second, an article in the newspaper explained how the city of Chicago plans to cut 1,000 teachers in the public school system. All they have to do is make the class sizes larger. But this doesn't seem to be too much of a problem as long as the students learn that all they need to do in life is sweep floors and clean toliets.

As I write this I hear about the end of my profession. New technology is moving in and taking my job. Why hire 10 people to run an operation when you can sit at a computer and do all the work yourself? The rich are having a great time on their trapeze over the economy. But where are the trampolines that help everone else catch up?

The Age of the Internet

There has been much debate as to whether the internet has moved our society into a new digital age. This entry is not to argue this point either way, but rather to point out that the internet has gave people access to more pointless general information than every before. More and more people are turning 'to the internet' to find answers to thing that are generally unknown. It makes me wonder what people did before the internet to discover pointless and utterly usless things.

Passion

So this is one of those drunk blogs that I say the first thing that comes to my head. And here it is... don't ever give up on your passion. Everyone has one. Whether you like to paint, write, or brew you should forget whatever you do making a living and focus on your craft. If it doesn't work out then at least you have tried. But if you give up your passion then your life is pretty much over. Don't let the world get you down.

Keep at it!

I Don't Know Anything

So today I was looking at some books on amazon.com and I realized that I really do not know anything. So many different topics exist in the world that I don't even know about. For example, I was flipping through a coworker's "The Heritage of World Civilizations" and found out a most interesting fact. Did you know that during the Columbian exchange Europeans brought small pox malaria, the plague, influenza, typhoid, measles, and diphtheria to the Americas and brought back only syphilis. (That goes to show you that native Americans were not very good traders.) But this is an example of the many things I don't know and probably never will. I guess that's why they say that you learn something new everyday.

Snuffed

Yesterday the city of Chicago passed a Clean Air Act where all smokers are shunned away from public buildings. Some people love it and some people hate it. I love it. One of the smokers main arguements was that smoking is a right. But what about the right to breath clean air if I want to go out to dinner? I love to see smokers huddled around a designated outdoor smoking area in the cold winter air. Maybe that will motivate them to quit and live 8 or so years longer. I'm greatly looking forward to when the ban passes to bars and I can go out without smoking a bunch of cigerettes by just breathing.

Da' Bears

After a hard push the Bear's Super Bowl dreams seem to be over. I was a great season though...I remember back in week 11 when they beat the Panthers and were awarded the Lombardi trophy as presented on the Chicago Sun Times. And then when Rex Grossman (aka the Rex Factor) used his huge advantage of inexperience to lead the Bears into the postseason (after starting only one game this year). But on a good note Rex is not much more experienced now and will be able to play the inexperience card well into next season. It's too bad. One Bear's fan told me that the Colts loss was good for the Bears and then I tried to remind him that the Bears are in the other conference. But where there is a sunset there must also be a sunrise in Chicago sport. And indeed a new day has dawned it is called the Illini. Chicago fans have until the inevitable disappointment in March to have more championship dreams. And to the city I say, "Best of Luck!"

Last Night

So I got home from work last night and I felt that I was forgetting to do something. Then after about an hour of preparing chicken wings I was walking out to the grill and remembered what I wanted to do ... exercise. I didn't know that my subconscious is as lazy as I am.

Today

Here is a summaryof my day:
1) Everything you wanted to know
2) "Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" Ben Franklin

Building Team

How do you build a team? Well first you isolate all the players from each other and hinder their lines of communication. Then you completely hide the performance of you leader and cut off all input that the team members can offer. Finally you don't let the anyone exactly how the team performed overall and limit their knowledge to their own performance. This is the new approach our team is taking. I am going to be interested to see how it works out.

The Birth of a Corporation

Today I have deccided to kick off the Melshire Corporation. To many people's suprise the birth oif a corporation is not nearly exciting as it sounds. It's really just filing a form with the state and paying a fee. But this is the first step you must take to become a mulitnational enterprise (or a local mead dealer).

Presidential Visit

Today the president (of the United States) came to visit our workplace today. I didn't see him. So everything pretty much exactly the same.

Mouse Theory

So I was heading down to my basement to store a chest, when I saw a mouse run along the corner of the floor. My first instinic was to throw the chest at the mouse but my better judgement intervened. So I just watched it crawl up the wall and then through the wall. I looked at the hole that he scampered through and realized that it led right into the storage space in the back of the house. This got me thinking. Perhaps there are no mice that live in our house but rather they come and go from the outside as they please. This is an idea that I previously never considered. Shortly thereafter, I took the insulation foam and sealed off all the cracks under the wall. So this action did one of three things: 1) cut off the mice from using that enterance, or 2) blocked off the mice already in my house from leaving, or 3) nothing at all and my theory sucks. Regardless of what I accomplished, having these mice problems is proving to be quite a battle.

Strange

Today is one of those days in which many strange things are happening; things that just don't make sense but are happening anyway. I do not like it at all as it has been keeping me edgy and confused. I just don't understand why strange events clump together so much. Yesterday seemed pretty normal, but today there have been about ten things that have happened for reasons beyond my understanding. I think I need to go to sleep.

Beantown

My New Years trip to Boston was full of fun, excitement, and beer. We arrived late in the night on Friday. So shortly after arriving, my companion recieved a drink of water which was seconds late all over her lap as she saw a mouse, which turned out to be her shadow. After that tramatic experience, we headed to bed to get an early start on the morning.

Our early start ended up being 11 in the morning. After trying to convince our host to blow off her workout and come drink in the afternoon instead, we left for lunch. The plan was to eat a Durgin Park, an extremely old resturant and then catch the train to the Sam Adams brewery for a tour. After our lunch we were greeted by our host, who got no more exercise than a walk to the train stop. Our New Years Eve was off to a good start. Then came that magical moment in everyone's life when you find your true calling, mine resides at the Sam Adams brewery in Boston. To me this is Disney World. I know what it seems like, that I'm just another one of those jerks who says, "Gee I'd sure like for my job to be drinking all day." But it so much more than that. I'd love to come in everyday and design new exotic brews. After testing the Sam Adams product, we headed off for an early dinner at the Purple Shamrock, which is not as gay as it sounds. There we consumed some more Sam Adams products along with our dinner. Afterward we hit up the liquor stores for a six pack of Sam Adams Winter Lager. Back to the apartment we went preparing for the night ahead. Little did we know that our fellow New Year Evers would take about 3 hours to find the apartment. During this wait we order pizza and went to another store to buy (you guessed it) more Sam Adams. After giving up on waiting for the rest of our party we headed to a local pool pub. It was there that the bartender actually recommended the worst beer in the entire world. I took one smell and one sip and vanquished to the far corner of the table where it endure ridicule for the rest of the night. At this point in the evening I had consumed around a twelve pack and finshed the night by taking approximately 120 pictures on my digital camera, some of which were actually not of cleavage. After about 11 hours of drink, 2005 was over ....

Enter 2006. My first thought this new year was that I hated myself for my own rankness. The ladies with me shared my feeling. Also, my liver hurt, which was not good. I later found out that my host's roomate's boyfriend (and his drinking buddy) likely had alcohol posioning and he spend the first day of his year puking in bed. Along with recovery, this day was designed to explore some of the more culturally notable sights in Boston: the New England Aquarium (and its penguin population), the orginal Cheers resturant, the setting for the children's book 'Make Way for Ducklings,' and Boston Commons.

Then next day with my liver nearly recovered we set on what would be an 8 hour trip back to Chicago and to the place I work, now bittered that I do not work at a place like Sam Adams...yet.