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Again, A Look Back
12.30.2007 2:14PM
Well another year has come and gone, so its time for me to jar the memory and see what I can recall from 2007. I rarely remember the important stuff, so lets see what inconsequential stuff I can remember.February 13- Survived a mid-February blizzard that shut down the University of Illinois for 2 days and left snow drifts of over 6 feet. Of course I ventured outside to check it all out.February 18- Watched my last performance of Chief Illiniwek at the Illinois basketball game against Northwestern.March 2- Celebrated Unofficial St. Patrick's Day like anyone of Irish descent should...drinking from sun up to sun down. Without pictures there would be no recollection of this day.April 21- Realized bicycle racing can be exciting just like NASCAR can be exciting after watching the Little 500 at IU.May 6- Had all my friends over for "Bags and Beer" and one final shindig before graduation. A drunken highlight like all the other times before and the times to come.May 13- Addressed the architecture graduating class of 2007 and received my diploma. Talk about surprising.June-December- Spent seven months living in Chicago and working a real job to fulfill my internship requirement for Ball State. Highlights of this stint included:- Catching 10,000 Maniacs in concert- Seeing the architecture of Chicago from the Chicago River during the architecture cruise- Checking out the works of Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak Park- Traveling to Bethany Beach, DE; San Diego, CA; and Louisville, KY for workOctober 6- Witnessed what was, at the time, Illinois' biggest football victory, a win over #5 ranked Wisconsin at Memorial Stadium.October 27- Headed back to Champaign for Homecoming to hang out with the friends and tailgate the Illini's victory over Ball State.December 15- Went to the City by the Bay for a mini vacation.Well thats 2007 from my perspective. In a week I'll be in Muncie, IN starting what should be the beginning of the end of my life in academia. I have 3 semesters of work before I can graduate with my Master of Architecture. And with that, I'll leave you with the song for 2008, "Cuyahoga"- REM. It's a presidential election year so remember, "Rewrite the book and rule the pages, saving face, secured in faith. Bury, burn the waste behind you". Enjoy 2008.
Holiday Booty
12.27.2007 2:50PM
Get your heads out of the gutter folks, I'm not talking about that type of booty. Another Christmas has come and gone and per usual the take was quite impressive. Santa and company managed to produce most of the items I requested along with a few surprises. The gifts range from practical to silly but as a kid at heart it really doesn't matter. So what did I find under the Christmas tree:Biggest Surprise: Hot Wheels Four Lane Raceway- This is not the expected gift for 25, 22, and 19 year old brothers. Definitely the gift for 10, 7, and 4 year old brothers, and that's exactly why Mom got it. At those ages we spent hours racing all our Hot Wheels on a two lane raceway to determine the fastest car and since she hadn't seen the track since she picked it up the first chance she could.Least Progressive: Turntable- You can have your iPods and iPhones, and I'll take my vinyls. After realizing, over Thanksgiving, the needle was broke on the existing turntable, Mom grabbed a 3-in-1 turntable, CD player, and AM/FM tuner. Now I have something to play Dad's records of yesteryear, along with starting my own collection, which I did last night with the purchase of a used "Bookends" by Simon and Garfunkel for $4.Miscellaneous: Gifts That Will Be Used A Lot- Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for Wii, Link's Crossbow Training for Wii, The Office: Season 1, Mini George Foreman Grill, Assorted Tools, Pin-Striped Charcoal Blazer.I probably got a lot more than I deserved, but thats Christmas for you. Now I have to think of some things to put on the birthday list considering its less than a month away. I know I'm getting a new Raiders hoodie, but beyond that I need to think of a few things. I'm sure I can manage, and then I'll be set for quite some time.
San Francisco: The Stories
12.18.2007 7:42PM
Well I had just recently completed the tales of my getaway in the City by the Bay, only to have an "internal error" occur during publishing that erased the hour of work I put into the stories. I thought it was a pretty entertaining way of presenting the tales, but now that I've encountered this issue I've decide that the best way to tell a story is orally. So with that in mind I am going to record a series of podcasts recounting my three days in San Francisco. Along with the podcast I'll provide the "cream of the crop" photos in 960x720 resolution in pop up windows you can peruse while listening to my account. Furthermore you can check out the map below which highlights all my stops in San Francisco. You can click any place marker or line and get a brief description I wrote. Also the rest of the photos will be linked back to this map once I upload them to a Picasa online album. The map, podcasts, and pictures are below. Do enjoy. View Larger Map Ramble On 12.13.2007 6:04PM Hot! Hot! Hot!- There was a 3-alarm fire today at 810 W. Grace, also known as Gill Park Cooperative, which is the project I've spent the majority of my internship working on. I've been to it multiple times for site visits. Check it out right here. That site has both video and photographs. The building is to undergo a complete renovation in 2008, with RRJ's main portion of work on the window wall. Quite frankly today's fire is the most exciting thing to happen with the project yet.Money in the Bank- Or there was. I just got my statement from BSU for spring tuition and I'll be joining the ranks of the poverty-stricken college students real soon. At this point in my life you'd think I had once taken a vow of poverty. Going from working for pay to paying for "work", thats a 180 degree shift. I'm used to it at this point and at least its not another loan.I Need My Nation- Kid Nation of course. I can't believe Kid Nation has already concluded. I feel like I was just getting to know the kids of Bonanza City and now its gone. That was too quick. What am I supposed to do on Wednesday's without Greg, Sophia, DK and most importantly Jared? There must be a Kid Nation 2.Look-a-Like- I know there is at least one person who will appreciate this. I went out with a few guys from work last night and the bartender was a Sarah Silverman- my favorite Jewish crush- clone (maybe a little better). Oh yeah!Well thats all I got this time. The next time you hear from me will be with stories from my adventures in the Bay Area. Oddly enough my first visit to the Black Hole will be Peyton Manning's first visit. Just thought I'd let you know. Ramblings 12.08.2007 9:33PM Writer's Strike- I'm glad I only watch one sitcom, because this writer's strike is absurd. After back to back rerun episodes of "The Office", I can't take it anymore. Writer's aren't supposed to strike. Blue collar workers that don't effect my every day life are supposed to strike. Why do I care if a car manufacturer strikes? Why do I care an appliance manufacturer strikes? I don't. It's not like I need a new car or new washer every week, but I damn it, I need new "Office" episodes. Get back to work being creative. Overtime- Just when you thought there was nothing more absurd than college football overtime, along comes KHSAA football overtime. The hated rivals of St. X and Trinity battled it out to a 28-28 tie after 4 quarters for the inaugural 6A football championship, only to see it decided in the least exciting way possible.Like college football, it's not sudden death, but rather than starting the offenses at the 25 yard line, the offenses line up at the 10 yard line. It's college overtime for retards. After the Tigers were intercepted on a tipped pass, all the Shamrocks had to do was punch it in from 10 yards out. At least Trinity didn't kick a field goal on first down, but rather ran to the goal line on 1st down, before gaining the inches needed for victory on 2nd down. A classic game destroyed by the ridiculous rules.Hockey Stick- Here's a classic for the holiday season. All she has to say is Hark!. Enjoy Fancy Eats 12.02.2007 3:48PM Last night I attended the RRJ winter outing. It was much like the summer outing to the Kane County Cougars, except it was much more classy. Despite the nasty weather (icy/snowy roads with a wintry mix precipitation), most of those who RSVPed made it out. It was held at the masterfully restored Willoway Mansion and Meson Sabika restaurant. The night involved great fancy food and a murder mystery performance.Early on everybody milled around enjoying drinks and hor dourves, which included:- chilled marinated tiger shrimp with brandy cumin dipping sauce- marinated pork with chipotle dipping sauce- bruschetta with melted cheese.Then as the murder mystery began we sat down for an assortment of tapas. There were two cold tapas and two hot tapas. These were:- Serrano ham and tomato on garlic toast- potato and onion Spanish omelet- stuffed mushroom caps- penne pasta topped with grilled chicken, asparagus, green peas and goat cheese. While everyone enjoyed their tapas the actors acted out the muder mystery which involved the death of a gentleman retiring from a company who was about to publish a tell all book. Then during the intermission we enjoyed the entree.Obviously I avoided the salmon entree and went with the grilled filet mignon. It was cooked to a perfect medium and served with grilled asparagus and garlic potatoes with red wine shallot sauce. The actors returned to perform the rest of the murder mystery, and the details of why each suspect may have wanted to keep the book from being published were revealed. One character had at times used the dead man's identity. Another character was a sleep deprived coffee fiend who had uncontrollable hallucinations with a criminal record. The third suspect was a born on the moon part of an alien experimentation and finally the last suspect had steroid injected mutant chickens on the loose. Yes, this was quite far-fetched fiction.Then it was time for desert and pinning a suspect to the murder. For desert I choice a delectable chocolate terrine. It was quite heavenly. Over desert my table decided that the coffee fiend was the murderer. At that point it was time to reveal the murderer. Of the seven or so tables, we all picked the coffee fiend as the murderer. We were all wrong. It was the alien from the moon. The actor portraying this character was black and as the murder mystery began somebody at my table said "it's always the black guy." We should have listened.So all in all it was a great night of food and entertainment. Not to mention some scoreboard watching considering the outcome of both the Oklahoma/Missouri and Pitt/WVU played a major role in the Illini's bowl destination. Check out Last Month 12.01.2007 9:34PM Check out last month at Beavers and Ducks, while you wait for a new post for November. November 2007 |
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