So, I must have been out of the news loop or something but on August 8, 2004, Dave Matthews Band just happened to be in Chicago. This is two weeks or so before the nice trip up there I just had. I’m not sure if they were playing there or not–I’m sure just about all of the city right now wishes they hadn’t even heard of DMB. Anyhoo, as they were passing through downtown on one of the bridges over the Chicago River, they chose that very moment to dump all of their tour bus sewage. The slimy, grimy and stinky **** wound up splattering all over a tour boat going down the river. Many passengers were on the top deck of the boat, and were therefore caught in the crap. Chicago definitely now has a rather miffed outlook on that band–and they’ve certainly gone down on my list of reputable bands. Pictures were not only taken of their bus as it passed over the bridge, but there were many witnesses on hand. The band and the driver of the bus continued to insist that the incident never happened and that they were nowhere near the area.

So, that was quite the note to begin my trip on 🙂 Everyone in that town was still ranting about it by the time we got there on the afternoon of the 22nd.

The rest of the trip was quite groovy. I have pictures up on the site. It was quite the relaxing trip.

There wasn’t too much new at the museums. There was a kewl exhibit at the Museum of Science & Industry about film-making. It was a really kewl interactive exhibit that let you star in a movie trailer. I had a minor role, sitting in a cafe as an extra. hehe.

An interesting exhibit at the Field Museum was about the reign of Qianlong in China. I’m certainly no aficionado on Chinese history, but this exhibit was quite interesting–if not a tad bit nationalistic regarding China. Still, the artifacts were quite awesome, along with the history of the emperor.

I hadn’t been to the Adler Planetarium in a while, and it was quite kewl going back. There weren’t really many new exhibits there, but we did get to see a digital omnimax movie about Egyptian constellations. It seems as though just about every polytheistic society in history has their own set. Some of the shapes correspond to each other, too. The Orion constellation, star-for-star was an Egyptian constellation that personified a god known as Sah (known as the glorious soul of Osiris). The Egyptians were not only a society of mathematica exactitude, but also had as interesting a mythology as the Greeks or Romans.

Cubbies lost to the ‘stros on Friday afternoon 🙁 It was quite the schlacking of 15-7. Kerry Wood gave up 8 of those runs and Kyle Farnsworth proved that he is having real issues by giving up 6 runs in the 9th (5.12 ERA now). Still, it was fun being in Wrigley. The Cubs had a few exciting moments and, if the pitchers had been worth anything that day, 7 runs would’ve won it. They’re still in 1st place in the Wild Card Race, in a pretty serious playoff run. They’re 1 game ahead of the SF Giants.

So, that’s pretty much the trip in a nutshell. I’m glad I had a full week off to not worry about anything. Now I can’t frickin wait for D*C later this week 🙂

Nothing much to report from the front. I’m quite excited about going to Chicago, though. It should be quite the hoot. Plenty of pictures will be taken, for sure. I need to wear my new camera out–i mean in, a bit 😀 Anyhoo, they’ll prolly be on my website sometime after I make my triumphant return.

It’s my first vacation and all, as far as work goes. I’ve reached a milestone.. Next thing to come will be family and kids. lol. Well, maybe not for a while yet. It’s just kinda strange, actually going away on a nice lil fun trip and getting paid for all that time off. It really is quite kewl. If you haven’t tried the average Joe (sorry, Joe) life on, then I would definitely recommend it. hehe.

Anyhoo, nothing much going down tonight. Laundry, perhaps a DVD or two, and getting set up for the LAN tomorrow (WOO HOO). Gaming galore. I always like this time of month 🙂

So I’m hosting another LAN at my place this weekend. It looks like there will be at least 6 people, but perhaps a little more. It will most certainly be a glorious Nerdfest, the likes of which hath never been seen. I know I’m so going to pay for it the next morning on the trip up to Chicago. lol.

Could I be a bigger nerd? LAN parties, DragonCon. I’m so proud of me. lol. Nerds rule the world, or so they say.

I was pondering seeing AVP on Friday night. I’ve heard good and bad things about it. The thing is, I just can’t imagine an Alien movie without Ripley. So, I just couldn’t imagine this as being a very good movie. It might be entertaining, though, being a veteran of the Alien vs Predator games.

Nothing much else going on. Just your same ol’ day. It’s quiet around here today, especially since I’m the only code monkey here. It definitely makes the day pass much slower :-\

That’s the sound of my weekend biting the dust. As with so many peoples around here, my weekend went way too fast. It was nice and relaxing, barely did a thing. It’s good to have those weekends here and there. Fortunately, this Monday went by just as quickly as the weekend did.

I’m getting pretty far in Doom 3. It’s so very much like the first game, only with a fairly decent and concrete plot; the first game, to me, was nothing more than trying to fight your way out of hell. Although, admittedly, I just took the game at face-value. Actually, Doom 3 seems less like a sequel game and more like an extension. It’s not re-hash of the first game, but it merely accentuates what the series was.

It’s starting to get warm again :-\ It passed over the 85 degree mark today *sigh* False autumns suck.

I attempted to bring my parents’ cat Molly home last night to see how Penny would react to another cat. Penny did fine, but Molly definitely did not. I heard hissing coming from the living room all night, and i know it wasn’t Penny. lol. I think that she will totally do fine with another cat. I just have to get one 🙂 It’ll probably be after I get back from DragonCon.

Off for a well deserved nap.

I knew that Penny was evil, the instant I met her

All of this false autumn made me realize how quickly summer has passed. It seemed to pass even quicker than when I was in college, although for the last 2.5 years of college I usually did the class thing during the summer. It seems like yesterday te were just crawling out of winter. It’s not that I mind, fall just happens to be my favorite season; winter is just around the corner, the World Series is played, and there’s always Halloween.

I got a new camera, so I could make spiffier pictures when I’m in Chicago–it’s basically 2x the one that I had. But, the amazing part is that it does movies, too 🙂 I’m certainly no expert on digital cameras, so it just plain amazed me that they put that feature into what I would consider just a plain old still-shot camera. Oh, the miracle of 21st century technology. I await the day when just about everyone has a robot made just to feed their cats 🙂 Oh, and not to mention the flying cars.

Well, maybe not that cold, but it is pretty darn cool today–thanks to Charley, of course. It’s brought the grooviest fall-like weather to these parts, and I hope it stays that way for at least a few days. It’s very nice. I wish it could be like this all year round. Still just warm enough to swim..

The Cubs are in a rain delay, so I’m getting to see the last 3 innings of the game–after the delay is over. w00t. The Wild Card race is quite close, and they’re 2 games above the Padres (who they’re playing in-between the rain today).

Today was one of those days that started out kinda blah, but ended with me whistling (so you know it has to be good, if it got even me peppy. haha). Tomorrow is Friday, so that makes things even uber kewler.

I think I might crack open some Chicago Pizza this weekend–I always get them frozen when I’m in Chicago, so I can bring a lil piece of the kewlist town on earth with me. The pizza just happens to be one of the worthier pieces, too. I’m going to get a few pizzas this next time around. If you guys haven’t had Chicago pizza, be sure to do so at least once in your lives. It’s truly an earth-shattering pizza.

This is just one of those days where I can already tell that I’m going to be exhausted by the end of it; one of those days where you wake up tired, as if you hadn’t slept in days. It almost feels like I played the entire World Series all in the span of last night. Gosh, I hope I’m not starting to get old 😉

I’m going to start looking on The Ark’s website today for some kitties. I think I’ve decided that I’m going to get a cat quite close to adult age–definitely not a newborn, but not quite drinking age (in cat years, of course). Penny probably IS bored *sighs in resignation* and I think a daytime bud would definitely help her since I can’t give her 24/7 pettin’ time 🙂

Of course, in the end, I might break down and get a little 6-8 wk old. Those big blue kitten eyes are shifty, that’s for sure–they really know how to reel you in 😛

Well, of to do some napp–working. Um, yeah. That’s it.. Working *ZZZZZZZZZZZ*

So, I’m thinkin’ of getting a little companion for little Penny. I’m gone most of the day, and sleep most of the night, so that leaves only a little time in-between for Penny to have any time that’s not to herself. So, I think she needs a sibbling. I don’t know whether or not I’m going to get a kitten, or one that’s a year old (around fully grown). If I got an adult cat, I wouldn’t have to worry about Penny getting into the kitten food (thereby growing her already chubby self to Godzilla proportions). But, then again, a kitten would be a lot of fun.

In other news, I’m headed up to Chicago in a couple of weeks. Should be quite the hoot; I’m going up to visit family, take in the museums, and even a Cubs game 🙂 I always love going up there; I go every summer, and it never gets old. I wouldn’t mind moving back up there one day, but we’ll see where things might take me. If not, I can always worship the Cubs from afar 🙂

I think my bro is finally over his little wisdom tooth fiasco. Poor guy had them removed last week and hasn’t been able to eat much in the way of solid food. I still have mine, and in fact they are pretty much completely in-place on the left side. I don’t know if the right ones will ever poke through; there’s just not as much room over there. I really don’t like pain, so I really don’t think I like the idea of taking them out. Keith is definitely braver than I 😉

Off to do that Superman thing I do every day.

Just when I thought it was all hopeless, the Cubbies are 2 games up in the wild card race after last night, 2 games ahead of San Diego and 3 ahead of San Francisco. The Cardinals, the most detestful baseball team ever created by mortal man, are 10+ games ahead of the Cubbies.. Soo, I think the division is pretty much locked. But, hey.. The Marlins won the World Series off the wild card last season. Even if it means crying in my beer in the end, I still have uber faith that my Cubbies will go to the dance.

This weekend has been a very relaxing one. It’s been quite sunny, and very fall-like. I’ve been playing a little more Doom 3, without any nightmares. lol. I would say that this game is about as scary as the scariest movie I’ve ever seen.

I’m about to be making some uber upgrades to my website that should be quite awesome-ish. I guess other than that, things have been same-ol’.

Off to go root on the Cubbies 🙂