Chicago: A Designers Delight

Being a die hard Cubs fan, you might expect me to love Chicago. But I’m a midwest country boy at heart. I don’t dig the big city lights. I get a special kind of anxiety walking around, trying to avoid the street people that remind me that this world is full of darkness and pain and suffering.

But after being in the city for only a few hours, I’m reminded why Chicago is so much different than any other big city I’ve been to and why I’m in the business I’m in. It is so rich in design—a virtual designers paradise. Even the newspaper dispensers are designed well.

Jason and I walked a few miles to a restaurant tonight and I just soaked up the architecture and design around every corner. My only regret is not having a camera with me. I came here with the intentions of learning more about Flash to help me in my job, but I think I’m going to be more inspired by the visuals that will surround me during my stay.

Note 1: The picture above is the Cloud Gate sculpture at Millennium Park.

Note 2: My company supplied laptop did not come with Photoshop, so to size the above picture I downloaded a sweet (and FREE) Mac photo editing program called ImageWell.

Filed under: Chicago, Design, Inspirational

24: Season 6 (4:00-5:00pm)

Oh the many uses for duct tape.

This hour seemed a little like a filler hour to me. Setting stuff up for some real excitment in the coming weeks. Nothing really happened until the last 3 minutes. Any guesses as to the condition of either Assad or President Palmer? The preview indicated that the VP was going to be running things, at least for right now. My guess is they are both alive.

I did sprain some ligaments in my eye during an unavoidable eye rolling section of the show—when Jack got all lovey dovey and held Marilyn’s face gently and said, “He reminds me of you.” GAG.

Here’s how the Episode Guide on Fox.com puts it: Jack and Marilyn share a compassionate moment.

Filed under: 24, FOX, Reading Too Much Into A TV Show, TV

Good Stuff Overload

I’m really not sure I’ve ever had a better weekend. Here are a few of the highlights…

• Watched E.T. with the family. Tanner loved it.

• Went to lunch at Red Robin with Tonia’s family for her birthday.

• Hung out in Ann Arbor and Brighton with Tonia and Tanner for a few hours and laughed quite a bit.

• Went to dinner at Carino’s with my family for Tonia’s birthday.

• Went to church at Northridge.

• Went to chuch at NewSong, and hugged on some close friends.

• Drove to Fort Wayne with Tonia, Tanner, Jessica, Dan, Tyler and Justin for the Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Louie Giglio worship service.

• Went to Sonic Drive-In and ate well.

Probably the coolest thing I learned was science related. In addition to being reminded by Louie just how HUGE the universe is, we also learned about Laminin. Laminin is a protein in our body that literally holds our skin, organs, and everything else in our body, in place. It was described as the rebar of the human body—it holds us all together. Sound interesting?

Click here for a picture of Laminin

**UPDATE**
Here is video of Louie’s talk

Filed under: Carinos, Chris Tomlin, E.T., Red Robin, Science, Sonic Drive-In, Worship

Friday Five

Success In A Nutshell Edition
Here are the next five of the many ‘Success In A Nutshell’ tidbits littered throughout a book called Nuts! Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success. It’s a book I had to read in Business School, and I would recommend this book to anyone who likes reading success stories, or stories about how to treat people better, or how to love, or humor, or the simple joy of a bag of peanuts.

1. Be gracious. Polish your politeness.

2. Don’t withhold love when you disapprove of others. Don’t view others’ disapproval as holding back love.

3. Show your gratitude to the community for supporting your success.

4. Give more than your money. Give your time, heart, soul.

5. Make serving the community a team-building event for your employees.

(FYI – This will be a running feature until I get through all of the tidbits)

Filed under: Books, Friday Five, Nuts!

Quotations

I really love good quotes. Here are a couple of quotes I saw yesterday and today and really liked. Both of these could be used to describe this here corner of the internets.

Make visible what, without you, might never have been seen.
—Robert Bresson

My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought, cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.
—Hedley Lamarr, Blazing Saddles

Click here for more quotes posted on this blog.

Filed under: Quotes

Switchfoot Thursday

Maybe redemption has stories to tell
Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here

You ever have an album hit you in the right spot at the right time? The perfect words, and the perfect music, at the perfect time, that just speaks to your soul? The Beautiful Letdown by Switchfoot was such an album for me a couple years ago. I could (and did) listen to this album straight through, over, and over, and over…

Enjoy some of these big hitters.

Meant To Live

This Is Your Life

Dare You To Move

Filed under: Lyrics, Switchfoot, YouTube

Michigan Priorities

I nearly ran off the road laughing when I heard this on the radio yesterday. It almost makes me want to take up smoking. How do you suppose they find out who the scofflaws are?

Buying cigarettes out of state?

If Michigan officials find out about it, they’ll try to collect state taxes on the tobacco anyway.

More than 9,000 Michigan residents have been ordered to pay back taxes after buying cigarettes without paying the state’s $2 tobacco tax and 6 percent use tax.

Read More »

Here’s an idea. Find a way to bring more jobs to the state. Shoot, we’d even settle with keeping the jobs we’ve got!

Filed under: Cigarettes, Contraband, Michigan, Taxes

Change Agent Je Suis

Have you ever heard the term Change Agent? Ever wondered what one looked like? Ever wondered what one did? Or why?

Well folks, the Mud Puppy would be one of those people. And I have studied under the original change agent, Jesus of Nazareth. A change agent is someone who sees a crucial need for revival among the church and the way it thinks. Many well-meaning, but very destructive, people have taken the beautiful story of redemption and made it a story of hate and judgement. I’m here to bring it back to what it’s all about… LOVE.

Here’s a example of why I can’t stand idly by and let the name of Christianity suffer any longer. A close friend of mine went away to college for six years and came back with a Masters. I am extremely proud of her accomplishments considering all the obstacles in her path. While she was away, and on her own for the first time in her life, she made a conscious decision to not get involved with a church. Things had happened in her past that left a bad taste in her mouth, so she decided to avoid the mess.

Well, now she’s back and is looking to rediscover the faith she once had. She’s committed to finding the Jesus she knows exists out there. And as a result she has been going to church regularly. Great right? It would be if some very dear people in her life weren’t lecturing her about attending a church that doesn’t have a certain name out front, and happens to do things a little different than they’re used to. She’s been in the wilderness for six years, and is finally on her path home, and you want to introduce this type of garbage? Excuse my french, but… Cela me pissé vraiment de.

Do we as Christians really want to be known for our disagreements? Our bickering? Our gossip? Our power trips? Our hate? Our ‘my-way-is-the-only-way’ jargon?

Join me friends in reclaiming our heritage of love.

Filed under: Change Agent, Love

Loving Life. Loving You.

Another repost from over a year ago, but I was browsing through Mud Puppy v.1 looking for a picture and ran across this classic.

Filed under: Back Street Boys, College Life, Google Video, Houston Rockets, Lip Syncing, Yao Ming

24: Season 6 (3:00-4:00pm)

They really need to train their field agents better. Although Mustache Milo wasn’t too bad in getting away, it would be nice to see him actually hit one guy out of the three from close range. It looked more like an A-Team shoot-out.

I knew Lennox didn’t have the stomach to be a part of killing the President, despite how vicious he looked when he kicked his desk last week during his hissy fit.

Who else thought Morris was going to kill himself? Who else saw him leave his Red Bull chaser on the counter as well?

I’m upset that Marilyn didn’t go back to help Jack after her son was released. That really disappointed me! I mean, she had a gun!

Hey, who left that phone with the message on the roof? And why does everything happen, and everyone live, in Los Angeles?

Filed under: 24, FOX, Reading Too Much Into A TV Show, TV