New desktop series…

Published on 22 July, 2008 in design and wallpapers. 4 Comments

I’ll probably add some more to these as they get created, but I’ve recently just been having oodles of fun creating these images. So, as promised, here they are for all of you to download. I’m curious as to whether anyone is actually interested in them at all, so if you could be so kind as to call, text, email or comment and let me know which ones you downloaded, I’d love you forever. I may even kiss you. That’s up to you. But here they are:

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Go Outside!1024×768 1280×1024 1600×1200

When Dreams Take Flight1024×768 1280×1024 1600×1200

Depths of Dreams1024×768 1280×1024 1600×1200

Creation1024×768 1280×1024 1600×1200

For those of you new-age hipster types with widescreen monitors, just email me your screen resolution and I’ll whip one up. And, for those of you with those ginormous monitors, I can accommodate you as well. All of these graphics were created using hi-res photos, so they’re all pretty big to begin with.

Again, keep checking back as I’ll be adding more here and there and let me know which ones you downloaded. I hope you guys enjoy these as much as I do, but, chances are, you probably won’t. Until next time, folks. Enjoy.

Come on people! Pay attention!

Published on 9 July, 2008 in stupidity. 0 Comments

So I was just checking my facebook, and noticed this ad that was posted as something I might be interested in. The ad read as follows:

Join the Shedd Aquarium Auxiliary Society for Blu, a party to raise money for the conversation of our Great Lakes.

So did any of you catch that? The conversation of our Great Lakes.  Now, I think it’s pretty obvious, at least to those of us with some sort of grasp on the English language, that this is supposed to say the conservation of our Great Lakes. I mean, if you really think about it, conserving our Great Lakes makes a lot more sense than Conversing our Great Lakes, right?

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve been known to make a spelling mistake or two in my time. In fact, one time in particular comes to mind, when I was writing to Becca about how awesome I am at never misspelling anything, and my message had about a billion spelling errors in it. To my defense though, it was late and I was tired. But the bigger difference is that my message to Becca wasn’t an ad for the 3rd largest aquarium in the United States. Nor was it going to be potentially seen by millions of people.

And, yes, I live in modern society. I understand full well that butchering grammar and bastardizing a half way decent language seems to be the trend these days. But for the love of God, people, can we please pay a little more attention when writing something that important? I mean, there’s a huge difference between a conversation and the act of conservation. One involves a couple of friends, a bottle of wine, a comfortable chair and a relaxed atmosphere. The other is a huge undertaking involving a lot of education, research, sustainability, patience and a lot of hard work. One takes place in a room. The other takes place through out countless gallons of fresh water that feed the very rivers and streams that flow through our cities.

So, next time, whether you’re writing to me, your mom, your dog, your secret lover or you’re creating an advertisement for the masses, pay a little more attention to what it is you’re trying to say. One wrong word can do a lot to ruin your message.

Houston to home again

Published on 2 July, 2008 in friends and vacation. 0 Comments

There isn’t really much I can say about Houston. I was only there for about a dozen waking hours, but still had a good time none the less. Like I said in the last blog, I left Austin feeling sad. Sad to leave such a beautiful city, filled with amazing and unforgettable people and characters of all sorts. But, all in all, I was excited to get to Houston to see a dear friend and her baby girl.

I got to Houston just in time for rush hour. But, turns out, I wasn’t going far so that worked out okay. Houston is the fourth largest city in the U.S. A fact I wasn’t really aware of at the time, but figured out rather quickly upon entering this enormous metropolis. I got to Rae’s house, played with the dog for a moment and then we all went on our merry way to this great little Mexican place for some delicious food. That basically concluded the evening. We got back to the apartment, put Tinsley to bed and then began a couple hours of catching up from our long hiatus from face to face conversations before falling asleep.

Sunday morning I woke up with a sense of stale excitement. While I was really looking forward to our afternoon adventure, I had finally reached the end of my time in Texas. It’s like I had reached the finish line where everything just ends. But I brushed all the sadness aside and enjoyed my day. We drove our busy little selves over to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. They have this really amazing thing called the Cockrell Butterfly Exhibit. I know, butterflies, I sound ridiculous, but trust me when I say it was a great time. It’s not like a bunch of dead butterflies all pinned to a board like a science experiment. Not even close. They have this, indoor atrium, about 3 stories high, that basically stands as a giant arboretum. It’s humid as can be. Think oversized greenhouse kind of humid. But it’s filled with tons of tropical plants, trees and flowers and inside the arboretum, are thousands of live butterflies. Hundreds of species just flying around in their pseudo-natural habitat, landing on people and doing whatever it is that butterflies do. It was amazing.

But, much to my dismay, after the tour of the museum and a dinner that seemed more like procrastinating than anything else, I said my goodbyes and headed to home. By this time it was going on 7pm. It’s a 15 hour drive back from Houston, and that’s if you speed. That would get me home somewhere around 10am the next day, driving straight through with absolutely no sleep whatsoever. But on top of it, I got stuck in traffic just outside of Houston. It was raining so hard it was nearly impossible to see and traffic was crawling along the interstate at such a slow pace that I could’ve pushed my car, uphill, faster than we were driving down the road. So, in an attempt to drag my feet just a little bit longer, I skipped my exit and headed straight back to Dallas. It wouldn’t be much, but the 5 hour drive to Dallas, combined with sleep and great company from my Starbucks friends, sounded much more appealing than driving 15 hours through the night.

By the time I arrived in Dallas, the sky was black, but clear. The rain had stayed South, but the effects of it meant that it was a perfectly cool evening in Dallas. I got into town, made a stop at Starbucks to get a drink and surprise my new friends with a final visit, and then headed to my sisters for one last hoorah in the state that stole my heart. Come morning, the sun was up, warming my face as I stepped out onto the mezzanine. I brushed my teeth, stretched my muscles, yawned and took my sweet time before saying my actual final goodbyes. I hugged the family, grabbed my stuff and began the sorrow filled drive home. For the record, driving through Oklahoma is equally as scary in the daytime as it is at night. Even though the sun was up, I still felt like I might get murdered. And all the signs that said “Don’t drive in smoke” made a lot more sense when I saw 4 fires on the side of the road on my way home. Oklahoma sucks. But I’d drive through it every day if it meant I got to go to Texas.

Austin…not brief at all

Published on 30 June, 2008 in friends and vacation. 0 Comments

Oh my God! That’s really all I need to say and this blog will have served its purpose. There’s nothing else that can really be said to explain the sense of finally finding your place in the world than “Oh my God.” By far, of all the places I’ve been in my life, Austin seems like home. Bobbi had warned me for a good year and a half now that if I go, I won’t want to leave. Mostly I just thought this was because Bobbi was there and, thus, I’d want to be there too, but turns out she’s not the only amazing thing about Austin!

I don’t really know where to begin. I don’t want to sit here and chronicle every day of my trip, but I don’t think there was really a dull moment. I spent 4 days in Austin, I saw some beautiful places, I did so many fun things, managed to acquire one of the worst sunburns I’ve ever had and I met some of the most amazing, no-way-I’ll-ever-forget-you, hope-we-stay-friends-forever kind of people. Running in Austin is like a gift from God. There was ice cold water all along a beautiful running trail, which winds through a park, which extended along a beautiful river in the heart of downtown Austin. The people were out in full force, surprising for a Tuesday. Surprising in general really. How often do you see a ton of people exercising in Illinois anyway? Well, Austin is full of people who care about taking care of themselves. And I couldn’t stop smiling.

Most importantly, I have to mention the real reason I went to Dallas. The whole reason I went to the state of Texas really! My friend Bobbi. Most of you don’t know her. In fact, I’m not sure how many of you that read this blog know her at all. But either way, you’re missing out. She is, by far, one of my favorite people in the world and made my trip all the more worth it. I could go on and on about why I love Bobbi so much, but no one really needs to hear that. I will say that she’s beautiful, intelligent and a huge bundle of fun and more than likely the person I talk to most on a day-to-day basis. And no, I’m not in love with Bobbi…at least that’s what I tell myself.

To save you all the plethora of details and intricacies about my week, I’ll just spout off some of the highlights from my time in Austin. First and foremost, because it’s me and I love people, I’ll start there. I know I said it once already, but I met so many great people in Austin. But there were a handful of people that left a more than lasting impression on me. First there’s Priscilla. She’s Bobbi’s crazy friend, but fun-crazy, not crazy-crazy. This girl is a firecracker and kept me laughing the entire time she was around. She’s definitely someone that most people will never forget, but in all the best ways. I met a guy named Michael, but everyone calls him Cheech. We floated the river together, and I’ll talk more on that in a minute. Cheech is a cool guy, that I’m rather envious of for the fact that he doesn’t have a job right now. Not that he’s lazy, he just worked hard for a long time so that he could afford to take some time off. It sounds like a great thing to me. I met Justin and Morgan. Justin being a Landscape architect and all around good southern boy. We had a great time and he was my tour guide for the burlesque show. Morgan is this feisty little rock star of a girl, with a daughter whose personality far outweighs her little kid size. I don’t think I ever stopped smiling that night they were around.

Next, I met Raul, Bobbi’s roommate. In a lot of ways, he’s kind of like the Mexican equivalent of me. Super nice guy, incredibly thoughtful and easy to get along with. He’s from Monterey, a medium-sized city in the heart of Mexico. I’ll be going to Monterey next time I go to Texas I hope. Mostly just to say that I went there. I heard all about Monterey from both Raul and my new second favorite person in Texas, Alondra. Oh God, am I fascinated with Alondra. I’m going to save you all the overly amorous details of why I think Alondra is so great, but let’s just say that I’ve never been so love struck by a first impression in my life. And the second and third impressions were quite fantastic as well. I was almost as sad to say bye to her as I was to say bye to Bobbi…almost.

But to avoid getting started on that subject, I’m going to move on to when we floated the river. When I first heard about it, my initial thought was “Okay, so we just float? On a river? Really?” But I wanted to do what people in Austin do, and I had heard it was a lot of fun. Turns out they were right. Floating the river was a blast. Relaxing in all the right ways, you basically get on your tube, tie yourself to the people around you, kick back and just relax with your beer (or water in my case). It was just Bobbi, Cheech and myself, and our cooler if you count that. Besides us, everyone else on the water had this sort of white trash appeal to them that made us all the more happy that we just kind of stuck to ourselves. But to see Bobbi carry on a conversation with people that I knew she didn’t want to talk to was rather endearing. The relaxing 5-hour tour down stream is interrupted with short bursts of tiny rapids that are just enough to keep you on your toes, but not enough to drown you if, like me, you can’t swim.

But there are two things that make this little moment in time worth mentioning. The first being my lobster-red sunburn that I acquired during my float. I even wore sunscreen too. You have to see it. It’s ridiculous. The second noteworthy event came at the end of our time on the water. We docked our innertubes just in time to catch what basically looked like an unsanctioned amateur UFC championship. Some ignorant, drunk hillbilly decided that he should let his fist do the talking and seriously knocked some guy out. But here’s what makes it extra white trash: his whole family was there. So not only did he start assaulting a guy in front of his kids, but the guy he knocked out had his family there too. Kids, nieces, nephews and a whole lot of people that just had their whole day ruined. So the story continues like this: Drunk punching guy decides that he needs to leave before the cops get there. Just what any self-respecting person would do in that situation, right? So Bobbi and I, being a couple of vigilant 20-somethings, decide that there’s no way this guy should get away for what he just did, so we start stalking after him. At the least, we can get his license plate number to give to the police.

Nevermind the fact that this guy just assaulted, and knocked out, someone bigger than Bobbi and I put together. None of that mattered. We were on a mission. Now that I’ve built this up, I’ll end it by saying that neither of us got hurt at all. Bobbi went one way to flag down the police and I followed the guy to his car where said police met up with him. If you’ve ever seen the show Cops, when white trash people get arrested, then you know what the following scene looked like. A bunch of drunk people saying that nothing happened and no one did anything at all and running their mouths like it was the last day they were able to talk. It was kind of funny, but a little bit sad too. I hope the other guy is okay.

The rest of the week was mostly filled with good food, good drinks, fun times and great people. It was low-key, but that’s exactly how I like it. I left on Saturday and, I have to say, I’ve never felt like this before when I’ve left a place. I’ve been to places that I loved, but it was always nice to come back home. But, when I left Austin, I felt physically sad and upset. Like I had fallen in love and now it was gone. I found a city that felt more like home than any place I’ve ever been before and now it’s gone. I’ve already made plans to go back in a few months. I’m already counting down the days and looking forward to that time. But I want to start working on more permanent plans. I want to move to Austin. I know it will be a major change, and there’s a lot that weighs into that decision, but I feel a strong draw to that city that I’ve never felt before. Whether I move or not, my heart will break. I already know this. But I still think the move will be worth it. I just have a lot to figure out before that will happen.

Dallas, in brief…well, maybe not brief

Published on 30 June, 2008 in friends and vacation. 1 Comment

It took me 14 hours to drive to Dallas. The same trip which only took me 11 to get home.

I left Friday the 20th, about 2 hours late per usual, but this is my vacation and I didn’t want to do anything based on a schedule. It’s just not me. I’m a fly off the cuff, hyper ball of spontaneity. I leave when I feel like leaving and I drive however fast I feel like driving. The trip down, I made a lot of stops. Most of them consisted of lengthy pauses in the middle of the interstate along with about a thousand other cars. I think I hit traffic in almost every major city I drove through, no matter what time of day it actually was, there seemed to be a couple gross of people all with someplace to be, but with no haste to actually arrive. The only boring part of my trip was driving through Oklahoma. I think the only reason the US wanted Oklahoma is so there wouldn’t be a hole in the middle of our country. Because, other than that, Oklahoma seems kind of pointless. And dangerous! I felt like I was going to get murdered the whole time I was in the state. Needless to say, I arrived in Dallas and then fell immediately to sleep. But my adventure started bright and early the next morning.

Saturday morning, kids and all, I woke up somewhat early for a guy on vacation. But I had a mission: run. I arose, I dressed, I stretched and said my goodbyes and then headed out the door. I walked out into a heat that reminded me of Illinois, just better. It wasn’t the kind of heat that makes you go, “Damn, why am I outside today?!” Not at all. I walked out, the sun shone down and lit the path in front of me and I realized at that moment that this would be a hard place to leave. I fell in love with Dallas…and the day had just begun.

My run was amazing. I didn’t know where to go, seeing as though I’d never been there before, so I just aimed myself at the tall buildings in the neighboring downtown and started to go. The first place I found was a sculpture garden that served as more of a door way to the entire Dallas Arts District. This beautiful district, bustling with activity and full of life, yet clean, which was a big change from the dirt and grime of any Chicago street. I ran all over downtown, about twelve miles in all. Passed the zoo, the Dallas Maverick’s stadium. Passed the confederate museum, complete with soldiers clad in Civil War uniforms waving flags outside the building, posing with tourists and their point-and-shoot cameras. I found a Farmer’s Market where they just hand out pieces of fresh fruit, which stood next to a floral market that basically put me into gay-straight-man heaven.

After my morning exploration,  I had lunch with the family at a great little local joint. The food was great, the atmosphere was relaxing and it reminded me that I was on vacation and that life was good. Lunch was followed almost immediately by my second favorite activity: shopping. I found this mall about 25 minutes away. Nothing fancy, but for some reason I loved it. This mall would turn out to be my favorite Dallas hang out, complete with bad ass new friends. While shopping, I decided to head into the Starbucks to get myself a tasty beverage (ie: water). This is where I met Carla, a sassy Puerto Rican who immediately starts harassing me for ordering water at a coffee shop. We were instant friends. This is also where I met Jess, a 26 year old runner with a great sense of humor and take-it-or-leave-it bluntness when she spoke that made me anxious to get to Austin and see Bobbi. We chatted for a bit, made some plans for that night and then I headed out to dinner with the family before going back to spend some time with my new Southern friends (neither of which said “y’all”, thank God).

Sunday was rather uneventful. Church in the morning, which was a lot like a small Riverside, and a slew of family time and relaxing by the pool. Monday morning, I woke up, took some pictures with the family and said my goodbyes. I stopped at Mockingbird Station on my way out of town to say my farewell’s to Jess and Carla and then headed to see the love of my life (and I’m not referring to Bobbi…mostly).

10 things I learned working at Cat

Published on 5 June, 2008 in pointless lists and work. 0 Comments

So, about three months ago, I get this job at cat. It’s not a bad gig, just not exactly a creative position. Luckily though, there are 8 cool people out of the 1,400 in the building and they all work with me! So I can’t really complain that much. But you don’t become one of the biggest multi-national corporations in the world without being able to instill some knowledge into the hearts and minds of your employees.

So, in light of all the wisdom one can learn from working at Cat, here are ten things I’ve learned thus far:

  1. If you really want to fit in, you have to dress as ordinary as possible and walk around staring at your shoes like they’re about to do something incredible.
  2. At Cat, you’re encouraged to talk to people, network, make friends and enjoy your job. However, you are NOT encouraged to talk to people, network, make friends or find any joy whatsoever in any aspect of what you do. I know it’s a paradox, but you’ll just have to deal with it.
  3. There are attractive girls that work at Cat, however, not a single one of them works in your building. I don’t care what building you’re in, all the hot girls are in a different building. The only people in your building are jaded, hairy, overweight men. It’s just how it has to be. Deal with it.
  4. You know the saying, “It takes all kinds.” Well that’s crap. There are all kinds, but it certainly doesn’t take all kinds. We could all get by a lot better without most of them.
  5. If you’re ever needing to hear the most pointless, self-indulgent talk and flat out bold faced lies, hang out in the men’s bathroom. You’ll hear some pretty ridiculous crap at any given minute of the day.
  6. At Cat, they care about you and your family. They care about you and your health. They care about the wellbeing of their employees. Oh wait, that’s just corporate rhetoric. They only care about dollars and cents.
  7. Whenever you’re walking around your building, try not to say hi or make any sort of noise to the people you pass in the corridor. Apparently it scares them and they’re not sure how to react to a social situation.
  8. Apparently, the best way to announce your commitment to going “green” is to make a public statement about your concerns for the environment, and then turn around and cut down 68 trees the same day just so you can mulch them. It really screams “environmentally friendly” to anyone paying attention.
  9. You can really miss a lot of work. No one really seems to notice. I guess their robot brains weren’t really programmed to pay attention to the people around them and calling in several times a month really just goes unnoticed. It’s kind of great.
  10. Professionalism? What’s that? In all honesty, the less professional you are, the more personality you have and people will notice that. Plus, the better you are at proving that you can do a little work, but B.S. your way through the rest of your day, the more likely you are to be deemed management material anyway. So get to it.

So that’s my list. I’m sure I could go on for days about this crap, but I’ll just stop there and leave my ranting and raving for another time.

My furtive little competitive streak…

Published on 4 June, 2008 in running. 0 Comments

So here’s a little story for all of you fine folks. There’s this girl I know. Let’s say her name is Becca for the sake of argument. I haven’t talked to this girl in like a year, but it’s not like we were eternal confidants to begin with, more just passing acquaintances. But that’s beside the point. Anyway, about a week ago I run into her at the grocery store, as jovial as always and looking ridiculously fabulous.

Turns out, in our absences from each others lives, we both took up running. On top of that, we both blew out a knee (but she never got hit by a car, which makes me have better stories). We start bonding over our pair of interests and all of a sudden, this petite blonde girl decides to challenge me to a race; the 4-mile trek through downtown known locally as the Steamboat Classic. I’m a little taken back by the crassness of her statement which, I believe went something like, “I’ll be waiting for you at the finish line!! OOOOOHHHH!!!” And so began our congenial little demonstration of competition at it’s ugliest. Okay, maybe not it’s ugliest because we’re really just having some fun dishing out the insults, but it’s certainly not best friend territory just yet. But whatever, she challenged me to the race.

Pff…like I care, right? I’m me. Sam. That witty, half retarded guy everyone likes to keep around for humors sake. I’m not competitive at all. If you’re better than me at something, which you probably are, I’ll just high five you and more than likely give you a hug and tell you how much you rock. I just don’t care if I’m better than anyone because I have far more important stuff to worry about. That describes me in a hundred words or less, right?

Well, apparently not. As I come to find out, I have this furtive competitive streak that just appeared out of nowhere. All of a sudden I’ve fallen into the category of “that guy” and have started making ridiculous comments to Becca. Which, considering I’ve never seen her run, could turn pretty ugly when she smokes me in the race! I hate to think I’m competitive though, so I’m just going to pretend that Becca and I are just flirting with each other. But if you know her, that would be really stupid of me to think, for really obvious reasons. But, for now, just let me humor myself because it gives me an excuse when I have to eat my words as I cross the finish line behind her sweat-soaked, panting and crying.

Let’s try this again

Published on 1 June, 2008 in stupidity. 0 Comments

Yes, I am aware that this is the second time I’ve lost everything on this blog. Will I learn my lesson and start backing this stuff up like I’m supposed to? Probably not, but one can certainly dream right?

Anyway, I’ll make it a point to start plugging stuff in here no matter how inane and ridiculous it might be, in a scrambling attempt to fill space and not have the most boring and unread blog on the internet. But, in the mean time, go read something else until I get some crap stuffed in here. Check out some of my friends in the blogroll, go some place else you usually go and check back in about a week and see what kind of ramblings I’ve managed to ponder up. So, for now, I love you all and thanks for having patience with my insanity. Smiles, friends.