well, i just got back from voting, and suffice to say obama just got one more in IL! here's hoping the rest of the state (and country) feels the same way.
the process was pretty straightforward as usual, although this time around there was some confusion amongst the poll workers. one woman told me i needed my voter's ID card, which isn't true... since i didn't have it, she tried to look up my name in her book, and i was nowhere to be found. turns out she was looking in the wrong precinct, so once that got sorted out i was all set.
guess it had to happen at some point... it's not the first snow of the season, but this one looks to be the first "real" accumulation we've had, with about 2-5 inches forecast. it's only been falling for a few hours, and it looks like there's already a couple inches out on my deck.
at least it gives me a chance to catch up on tivo, and maybe watch the "highlights" of the victoria's secret show: you know, the ridiculous costumes and huge production value sets... in other words no seal, no spice girls, no stupid interviews, and most importantly no fake "behind-the-scenes" drama. that should boil it down to about 15 minutes of actual content!
i staged a small photo shoot tonight, using a toy car and a wine bottle as my models. pretty minimal on the equipment front (just the D200, SB-800, SB-600, and a small reflector) but that was part of the challenge, and i think the results are pretty decent... either way, i really like the nikon "creative lighting system" since it lets me just concentrate on the look i want to achieve. of course, i'll be ordering an umbrella and various other accessories (larger reflectors, clamps, and some small tripods) to give me some more flexibility, so naturally i'll be posting more pics.
read on for some details on the photos i made tonight...
i'm sorry that this needs to be done again, but the destruction that hurricane katrina has caused is simply horrific. i'm sure you've all be watching CNN and the other news sources, so you know that any donation you give will be greatly appreciated.
amazon has again setup a page to make it easy to give. the american red cross is also accepting donations, just make sure to select "2005 hurricane relief" on the form.
as always, feel free to steal this badge for your site.
although the shot night machine reached new heights with SN4, we knew that we had to break even more new ground with SN5. and so not only did we plan "an international affair" this time, we did a little bit more: we registered shotnight.com and built a whole freaking web app. geektastic, i know, but would you expect anything less?!?! before i show you the screnshots of the scoring app, though, here's the recap.
first, let me say that everyone puled their weight. if it hadn't been for our new DQ rule (i.e. "puke and you're done") the results would've turned out completely differently. the top 3 finishers, sarah (14), brian (12), and elena (11) all wound up losing... if you know what i mean... so a big congrats goes to brad, aka "silent stalker" who held his 11 shots down (without any problem) to win. matt, our previous winner, took 2nd place with 10 shots, and jeff and i rounded out the top 3 with 9.
as always, photos are available. now, on to the screenshots.
amazon has made it easy to donate towards the relief effort underway in east africa and south asia following the horrible tsunamis on december 26th. an absolutely staggering 116,000 people are estimated to have lost their lives, and that's just as of this posting... please take a moment, find something you can do without buying in upcoming weeks (a fancy dinner, a round of drinks, a video game, your morning latte) and make your way over there to contribute. feel free to use these badges to help spread awareness, which is oh so difficult during the holidays. thanks for your time.
jerry orbach died today of prostate cancer, which he'd been battling since earlier this year. orbach, as lennie briscoe, was an amazing fixture (so much more than an actor) on law & order, one of my favorite shows (as many of you know). gothamist has an excellent post, so i'll just send you over there instead of copying the links... and if you haven't had a chance to watch him in action, flip on TNT for syndicated episodes -- they're on every night.
on SNL tonight the tv funhouse was a spoof on rudolph, and i'm honestly still laughing... rudolph was doing his thing, yelling "merry christmas delaware! next stop virginia and north carolina!" but santa said "no rudolph, we're skipping them this year! screw the red states, voting for that dumbass president just because of that moral values crap. i don't want any part of them!" then he wipped out a map of the us, which had the blue states labled "america" and the big red blob of bullshit labled "dumbf***istan." they even changed rudolph's nose to blue, and santa met up with natalie merchant, moby, al franken, and margaret cho. all i can say is i'm glad santa is stopping up here at least! :)
update 12/20/2004: the skit was done by bent image lab -- thanks to melissa for posting that before i could get home! as for the episode name, i couldn't find one...
update 12/22/2004: bent image lab has posted the skit on their site, just look for SNL. thanks to everyone that has stopped by, and enjoy!
so my voting experience today was completely painless. no long waits, no confusing instructions, no badgering outside the polling place... then again, all i had to do was walk downstairs and across the street to the fire station and get my vote on. everyone was nice and efficient, although it was kinda funny when a fire truck backed into the station beeping... apart from the stupid punch machine (come on fool-proof electronic voting) i'd say it was a nice way to spend a tuesday evening. how'd you all fare? any horror stories?
oh, and btw, nice to see things go the dems way in illinois this evening. in case you didn't know which way i was leaning, now you do. ha. i'll be keeping my fingers crossed the rest of the night, too -- and probably for the next few days at least...
i heard about this monday morning while on the way to the airport in palm beach, and it's making its way across the news wires. hard to believe this sort of thing can happen at all, let alone in a state so under-the-microscope as florida is this election. way to go teresa lepore (who "gained notoriety as the creator of the infamous butterfly ballot that confused thousands of voters in the chaotic and controversial 2000 election") -- another brilliant way to get yourself some attention. read the full story here and prepare to be disgusted.
WEST PALM BEACH (ABC News Online) - A sheriff's deputy has tackled, punched and arrested a US journalist for taking pictures of people waiting in line to cast early ballots in West Palm Beach, local media has reported.A sheriff's spokesman said later the deputy was enforcing a new county rule prohibiting reporters from interviewing or photographing voters lined up outside the polls, The Palm Beach Post said.
The incident happened on Sunday and the deputy tried to grab the camera of James Henry, a freelance journalist who has written for The New York Times and The Washington Post.
now, why would i say something crazy like that?!?! because green bay beat the washington redskins this fine sunday, thereby prophetizing kerry's win on tuesday. i wasn't expecting such a huge turnout in the press, but i guess i didn't think they'd blow something completely out of proportion. oh wait.... :) so, as proof, here's the article from reuters, published a couple hours ago:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Washington Redskins lost their final home football game before the U.S. presidential election on Sunday -- and that's great news for Democratic Sen. John Kerry and bad news for President Bush.In every presidential election since 1936, the Redskins' last home game has accurately predicted the winner. If they win, the incumbent president's party wins. If they lose, the challenger wins.
The Redskins lost to Green Bay 28-14 and Kerry quickly celebrated.
"I couldn't be more thrilled with the Packers win today," Kerry said in a statement. "The Packers have done their part, this Tuesday I'll do mine."
The loss by the Redskins was made sweeter since it came to the Green Bay Packers of Green Bay, Wisconsin -- a swing state where Packer football is akin to religion and one Kerry might need to defeat Bush in Tuesday's voting.
shot night 4 was in full effect this weekend, and broke all previous attendance records... there were a lot of fresh new faces, not to mention DDR (ok, stepmania, whatever). by all accounts, things went pretty smoothly, especially in the "puke in andrew's kitchen sink and/or bathroom" department!
mad love to matt, who made it all the way up from bloomington to capture the SN crown with 16 shots. hopefully we'll follow through with the trophy idea and get him something to defend next time... elena managed to hold down 2nd place with a strong score of 14, showing what can happen when you arrive on time.
if you're interested, photos are posted here and i'll have the detailed scorecard posted soon.
wow, stephen colbert really laid into the RNC on the daily show tonight. because i'm incredibly dorky, here's the transcription (J is jon stewart and S is stephen)...
J: what'd you make of last night's focus on 9/11?
S: well, remember john, 9/11 and it's aftermath bring to mind a time of unprecedented national unity, when from the crucible of an unthinkable tragedy, there arose a steely patriotism, transcending ideology and partisanship. that stuff kills in the swing states. those nascar dads suck it down in a feeding tube.
J: so you had no problem with it?
S: john, i found it crass-tastic. the message was delivered by republican's most popular figures, john mccain and rudolph giuliani, two men of bravery and leadership, qualities the president would very much like associated with him.
J: what is tonight's theme?
S: tonight, they took last night's theme ("a bush victory would bring closure to the 9/11 families") and built on it with a theme of compassion. we heard from widows, orphans, the enfeebled, the limb-less, all raising their voices in support of the president, whose compassion, like the olympics, triumphantly springs forth every 4 years. you see, it all goes with the overall theme for this convention: "a time of unmitigated gall."
J: but stephen, to be fair, aren't all political conventions manipulative?
S: no. john, to call this convention manipulative would be to call marcel marceau a little quiet. these people are artists, operating at the peak of their abilities. take for example thursday night's theme: "fuck you, what are you going to do about it?"
J: that can't be right, stephen, that sounds absolutely awful!
S: yeah, but... ya know, fuck us, what are we going to do about it?
with all the recent press about dave matthew's band's tour bus dumping waste from the kinzie street bridge, this photo has been getting me a ton of traffic. mostly from bastards linking to it from bulletin boards like this across the web... a google search for "kinzie street bridge" does yield me as the top hit, for some crazy reason.
way to go, all you peeps taking credit for my photo. keep up the great work. :)
update: on a related note my walsh and may stand ready photo is currently #4 in a google images search. booya.
this online movie was made for america coming together, and features will ferrell's classic gee-dubya impersonation... "straight talk! from white house west in crawford, texas." there are some other interesting shorts there (like an american voice) so be sure to stop on by. oh, and remember to vote. :)
here's to tim and jenn, on both their wedding (mucho belated) and their reception! if you didn't know, they got married last january at the garfield park conservatory, and then had their reception this weekend in bloomington at central station. eating, drinking, dancing... all the good stuff you'd expect but with a unique mills' twist including some quality dinner music (post that playlist, punk). there was also, thanks to tim, a strong aversion to common reception muzak. even still, the DJ managed to squeeze in YMCA and the chicken dance, ha!
for more info swing by the wedding site. if you don't care about tim's awesomeness (the site rocks) you should at least stop by for some of my photos. and bug tim about the dinner music playlist, would you?
last weekend, on the 4th, i was having lunch in greektown when greece won euro cup 2004. talk about a crazy street party, damn! everyone spilled out from 9 muses after the game ended and within minutes halsted was shut down. there were some idiots that insisted on throwing fireworks around, but for the most part everyone was just interested in having a good time -- including the one dude that got up on a cta bus...
for some reason, no tv crews showed up, and i didn't see any photographers. on that note, if anyone wants to purchase some pics (starting here) for your paper, drop me a line... the cops took an hour to officially close down the street, and even then they didn't venture into the crowd. finally they started mingling, and a couple looked like they were having a great time. maybe they figured it was better than looking around for illegal fireworks parties and underage drinking...
i was all excited for tonight's premiere of fox's north shore -- probably too excited. i mean, it is hawaii, and it is fox. and of course don't forget that brooke burns is on... but even though everyone was crazy hot, the acting was seriously some of the worst i've ever seen on tv. of course, there were some super skanky lines, like "you wanna do it or what?!?!" (from a 15 year-old) and "it isn't safe to swim alone..." (from a tennis star) but other than those gems, the show sucked.
so here's my challenge to fox: send me to hawaii and put me in a show where all i do is hang out on the beach and chat up hot surfrer girls. i'll rock. no joke. but seriously, all this makes me want to go back to oahu. damn, just back from one vacation and i already want to go on another. could i be any more spoiled?!?!?!
damn! will ferrell is hilarious. nice to see him breaking into a new discipline, too... check him out in "afternoon delight" on mtv.com... oh, and "if you don't think this song is the greatest song ever, i will fight you. that's no lie."
stay classy.
ok, i don't know how it works out in terms of people but "pop" looks to hold the surface area crown, at least according to this map right here. why does the silly south insist on using "coke" when "pop" and "soda" make waaaaay more sense?!?!?! thank gawd the midwest holds it down for pop...
ok, so it's wisconsin and not cali... but still, rachel bilson was on that 70's show tonight. fez is my new hero. awesome. oh, and if you haven't figured it out yet, this post was a complete waste of time -- i'm just taking a cooking break and had to share.
now go do something useful until the season finale of the OC is on, aiiight?
jesus, you know catchphrases have reached their peak when they show up on south park... in tonight's episode the boys are playing in the parking lot when some punk kids come up to them with a boombox and get their dance on. needless to say, the boys get served! when stan's dad finds out, he's all concerned:
stanley, when someone challenges you to dance, you have to dance back at them, or else they'll think you're weak. [so] it's about time you learned. put on some loose-fitting clothes and meet me in the garage."
it was funny on SNL when they did the sketch w/ christina, but it was even better seing animated kids breakdancing. and SNL certainly didn't give me the life lesson of "if you get served, and serve it back, then it's on!"
all that said, though, i'm left with one question: why haven't i been served?!?!
the anime sequences in the new south park are pretty cool... there's even a whole action montage! hilarious to hear the boys' normal conversations but have their anime counterparts act things out. especially when professor chaos decided to make an appearance! if you haven't seen it yet, i won't spoil it, but let's just say there's some blood thanks to a ninja star. "soooo woozy...."
caught a great episode of curb your enthusiasm tonight... larry and cheryl were renewing their wedding vows, and cheryl was practicing hers in front of larry. she yada-yada'd about loving larry for "all eternity" and he stopped her.
Larry: wait... you mean this is, continuing into the afterlife?Cheryl: yeah, that's the idea... do you have a problem with that?
L: i thought this was over at death... i didn't know we went into eternity together... isn't that what it said, 'till death do us part?'
C: do you have a problem with eternity? we finally found each other, and we're celebrating this for all eternity
L: i just, i guess i had a different plan for eternity... i thought i'd be single, or something...
classic. later, during the actual ceremony (where he forgot his vows and made up "it's going really really really good" off the top of his head) cheryl somehow got him to agree. "all right, eternity." oh, and i can't forget to mention gina gershon playing the hot wife of larry's cleaner, complete with the mad crush on larry.
the season finale should be awesome next week. 1hr, with a ton of guest stars: david schwimmer, mel brooks, nathan lane... sunday 3/14 @ 10pm/9c. you go tivo.
our friends over at ikea uk have rolled out a sweet little site. it's called design and dine and shows some dinner ideas, complete with dinner, place setting, and "party" ideas. arriba fajita, cheesy cheese and wine, no worry curry, and noodle doodle, just to name half of them. they even have a smooth interface to assemble your kitchenware on the table.
too bad ikea usa doesn't do this kinda stuff, or else i'd visit the site every day. i did notice that they have an online store finally, though. how long has that been available? this could prove to be dangerous, since it looks too easy to order something @ 2am. just when i've managed to avoid hitting up the brick n' mortar version weekly, they have to go and do something like this!
saw this in network world... hilarious (to you fellow geeks) take off on your typical help desk email, complaining about the Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 upgrade. perfect for v-day!
Dear TechSupport:Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in the overall performance, particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.
In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5 and then installed undesirable programs such as: NFL 5.0, NHL 4.3, MLB 3.0, and NBA3.6. Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, it simply crashes the system.
I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, to no avail. What can I do?
Signed, Desperate
check out the help desk's answer @ the lost olive.
shot night reared it's ugly head again this weekend... and once again it didn't take any prisoners. actually, it left quite a few participants curled up throughout my condo... 
first things first: there were some key differences this time around. in shot night part deux, all shots (save for the jabulls) were real. you'll notice that in shot night 1, there were a lot of "mixed" shots, like vodka and livewire, etc. this time, 1 shot = 1.5oz of alcohol. werd. that makes the numbers even more impressive... it also explains the other key difference: we didn't go out afterwards. :)
the early predictions (read trash talking) were dead on, with andreas reprezentin' true-to-form for norway and sarah trying to defend her crown. however, a repeat wasn't in the cards for the shot night queen, as andreas came away with the victory and the "best performance by a newcomer" title. the award for "best display of total and utter reckless abandon," though, clearly goes to feakins. kudos, my man, kudos. ok, enough of my commentary, here are the stats:
the shots
jabull: 17
jager: 17
aquavit: 11
citron: 10
baileys: 6
peppermint schnapps: 4
tequila: 4
vodka: 4
screwdriver: 3
midori: 3
malibu: 2
individual scores
andreas: 15
aaron: 14
andrew: 12
sarah: 11
jeff: 11
lisa: 7
dave: 6 (+1 for a liquor run)
joe: 5
total shots done: 81
great article over at the morning news about the "five trecharous worlds of IKEA," told in a perfect adventure game strategy/survival guide style. awesome. here's a sample:
IKEA is a fully immersive, 3D environmental adventure that allows you to role-play the character of someone who gives a shit about home furnishings. In traversing IKEA, you will experience a meticulously detailed alternate reality filled with garish colors, clear-lacquered birch veneer, and a host of NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS (NPCs) with the glazed looks of the recently anesthetized.Your goal is to successfully traverse the five awesome worlds of IKEA before your patience runs out. On your first few tries this may seem like an impossible task, but with practice (and this IKEA Walkthrough!) you will soon be able to muster the sense of numb resignation necessary for victory.
check out the full article, and good luck beating IKEA!
figured i'd put this link here so i could find it again. and, of course, so i could share with you all. it's the classic "old glory robot insurance" skit from SNL, starring sam waterson ("of the popular tv series law and order")...
staying home sick, especially w/out cable, is just torture. i did it once monday, and unfortunately had to do it again today... today has been better, both in terms of my health and in terms of what's on tv...
on monday i was flipping through channels, and came across good day live on fox. there's nothing like watching three completly self-involved idiots (including henry winkler and that chick from extreme dating) putting their own personal spin on biggest news story of the past year:
"when i first saw the saddam video, i thought 'why are they checking fidel castro for lice?!?!' my son thought it was santa....... and did you know that time magazine was going to run a cover of jesus christ, but replaced it with saddam. from one bearded middle-eastern guy to another!"
and just to give you some idea of the REST of the 5 minutes i watched... the next "story" was a wonderfully setup clip of henry winkler on "arrested development:"
"so, this weekend, what'd you do henry?" "well, i actually had a great weekend, i was on arrested development."
and then, one of them had the nerve to stop the producers from going to commercial with: "no no, don't run the music. i have one more thing before commercial." huh? they can do that? must be a living hell to work on that show.
you remember her, right? fez's insanely posessive girlfriend that holds her breath while they're separated? she's the reason i watch what i like about you. i swear. :) while it totally is a cheesy cheesy cheesy show, it's actually not a horrible way to waste half an hour. i mean, you've got amanda bynes, jennie garth, leslie grosseman, and (of course) allison munn. this week they almost went on a ski trip. i say almost because we never got to the actual skiing, since they got all confused about boys. duh. oh well, maybe next week they'll do something interesting. if not, there's always one tree hill...
while it's certainly better than joe millionaire 2: euroslut, average joe hasn't exactly been a "must see" blockbuster... but tonight, all that changed! for those of you not in the loop, average joe takes a hot ex nfl cheerleader and sticks her with 12 average joes. that means they're dorky geeks who would, if not for the show, have zero chance with the cheerleaders of the world. the whole theory is that since the girl says she wants a guy with a personality, she gets her wish. personality, but no looks. how you doin.
like any other reality dating show, over the course of the episodes guys get dismissed... tonight she knocked it down to 3, and things started to get interesting. just as everyone was getting ready to wrap things up, the show introduced three brand new guys that are, for all intensive purposes, hot. can't say if they have personalities, but either way it looks like someone is going to have a tough choice to make... why can't i have a tivo that can record future shows and play them back?!?!?!?
it's almost like mtv has been waiting for me to tune in. i flip on mtv hits/jams, and what do i see but one sweet video after another?!?! first there's rachel hunter in "stacy's mom" by fountains of wayne. mmm. yeeeeah, i'd be in love with stacy's mom if she looked like that... then there's some mischa barton in enrique's "addicted." hard to believe she's 17, and that she's gyrating around topless in front of enrique. then i get some frontin' from pharrell, niiiiice. and just when you think it can't get any better: boom! they drop sean paul and sasha with "i'm still in love with you." dutty-tastic. talk about some dancin. wow. how come we don't know anyone who can do that hip stuff?!?!?!
if you get a chance, swing by mtv.com and get your watch on!
just when i thought i'd gotten away from DC and all the politics, i made the mistake of reading CNN on the train... looks like politicians really do think they know more than doctors, and of course the bush brothers are right in the thick of it all...
first, jeb orders a comatose woman's feeding tube to be reinserted, overruling a court order that she be allowed to die. the woman has been in a "persistent vegetative state since suffering heart failure in 1990" and the feeding tube was removed 6 days ago at the request of her husband. her doctors say she is "responsive but shows no significant cognitive ability" and that she likely won't ever recover. so, why keep her alive? her parents think that her husband wants to take the insurance money and run off with another woman. crazy.
then, the senate votes to ban "partial birth" abortions, imposing the "most far-reaching limits on abortion" sine roe v. wade. the arguments on both sides couldn't be more polarized, check it out:
"we can only pray that when that young man goes to work tomorrow, when he goes home to his family tonight, that people will understand the position he was in. anyone would have done the same thing..."
oh, give me a break. those silly announcers kept stressing the need to be cool and not kick mr. interference's ass -- as if it would make any difference... the position he was in?!?! the position of not putting his hand into alou's glove and knocking the ball away?!?!? he deservers whatever he got, fo sho. you know, that poor dude probably got killed as soon as he left wrigley! if the security entourage leading him out of the ballpark and his face being plastered all over the tv wasn't enough to draw attention, i'm sure the swarm of finger-pointing hooligans did the trick... good luck, man. good luck.
omg. i've totally been wasting my potential at work. i could be stealth disco-ing. make sure you check out the best of stealth disco while you're there! hopefully everyone will start this to some degree, we need more disco in the work environment...
"you know, we haven't done shots in a really long time." "hey, you know who loves shots? jeff and lisa." that was the conversation that gave birth to pure genius: shot night.
so what exactly is shot night? you see the post-its here on jeff and lisa's cabinet? each post-it stands for a shot. the ones on the left were done by joe, jeff, and me. the ones on the right were done by lisa and sarah. consider each row a round, and when there's a "branch" on the shot tree, that's an individual player's shot. that's shot night. if you're lucky, you'll even name a new shot. jabull (pronounced "yay-bull"): jager + red bull. mmm...
allright, time for the stats:
the shots (and total number of each) 
jabull: 17.5
red bull + vodka: 8
irish car bombs: 6 (more than a shot, duh)
jager: 5
belve: 5
lemondrop: 5
vodka + livewire: 5
vodka + dew: 3
baby guinness: 2
baileys on the rocks: 2 (ok, it's not a shot)
goldie: 2
individual scores
joe: 13.5
sarah: 13.5
andrew: 12.5
jeff: 12.5
lisa: 9.5
matt: 2 (he had wine, too, don't worry)
total shots done: 63.5
and then we went out. yeah, that's shot night. that's badass.
first, hella mad props to najim for this. and then a quick but sincere WTF to everyone else for not bringing this to my attention sooner. i mean, honestly... what did you think you were accomplishing by hiding this from me?!?!? no good can come from deceit, people. no good.
if you're still in the dark despite these freeze frames here, i suppose i feel more sorry than anything else. check out benny benassi's video: satisfaction. (just select your connection speed and be patient.) make sure you're in a secluded environment, though, since the video features a bunch of models using power tools. really, that's basically it. of course, they're all hot, and have basically nothing on, so what more do you need? ... ... ... ... ... ... ...sorry i had to go watch it again. and speaking of which, why are you still reading this?!?! the video awaits!!! go go go!!!!!!!
saw this note tacked to a tree yesterday, and i couldn't help but laugh. not at the subject of the note, of course, but just at the note itself. since i immediately felt really really bad after i chuckled, i decided to make up for it by posting the note here for all to see. here goes:
I FOUND A LOST DOG MAYBE IS: Labrador-shepaar mix or Rodsian ridgebach color blond but don't have Back line, in the area Argyle & Brodway. My fhone is: (xxx) xxx-xxxx. The dog I very friendly and young maybe is 1yr. Old. Call any time only Sunday & Thursday 8:00 to 9:00 AM. 8:00 to 10:00PM. The color dog is: Blond.
so if you lost this dog, let me know and i'll send you this guy's phone #. there, good deed done for the week. :)
i rode down to the lake today for the 45th annual chicago air and water show... packed as usual, but as always it was worth fighting the crowds! i took chicago ave down (turned out not to be too crowded), crossed under lake shore drive, and then made my way north to oak street beach, snapping a few pics along the way.
the real goal of today was to get some more "people" shots, though, not to check out the planes. that's my weak area (ok, one of my many weak areas) when it comes to photography, mainly because i always feel weird taking someone's picture in public. so i wanted to practice. having the 80-200 helped for sure, since i was able to get in on the action from a distance. (it also helped me get a couple nice plane shots, too) of course, i had to carry it, but the payoff is worth the added weight.
hopefully the weather will be as gorgeous tomorrow as it was today!
yesterday afternoon joe and i went to the futures game and the celebrity softball game, both part of all-star festivities here in chicago... there were some nice plays in both games, but the best part of the day was getting to drool over shannon elizabeth and sarah silverman. we didn't win the "sit-your-ass-in-the-dugout" prize, but it was great to stare from afar. sure, i didn't get to impress either of them with my onion-pepper-mustard-brat-breath (which most certainly would've sealed the deal) but i'm betting they'll be calling this week...
anyway, i got some stadium shots (1 | 2) and a couple of the fans (1 | 2)... enjoy!
this weather is crazy. 90 degrees, humid, and no breeze to speak of. perfect for billions of people to flock downtown and experience the taste of chicago! at least today @ north ave beach, there was a breeze and things were livable for a few minutes... as difficult as it is just to walk to the car, though, the weather makes for some great photos! i've been able to grab a few in the past couple days, including these (1 | 2) of a hydrant-become-sprinkler in wicker park and this of a girl in old town. as soon as i get up the nerve to venture outside again, i'll be sure to bring the camera with.
no really, this is serious. what would he drive? i think he would be pimpin an f'ing ferrari or something. maybe a mini, if he's feeling frisky. i mean, if you're jesus, would you really want to be caught dead (or perhaps resurrected) in an escort? but there's no sense in having a debate about it here, let's turn to the experts.
if you're wondering where this all is coming from, look no further than tonight's episode of tough crowd w/ colin quinn. colin's got stephen colbert (you might remember him from such hilarious cc shows as the daily show) in addition to regulars jim norton ("i'd love some tv advertising that was actually targeted at me -- that way i wouldn't have to watch freakin tampon and yeast infection commercials all day!") and greg giraldo ("it seems like only yesterday i was your age, pulling out and praying every month...").
colbert was great as usual, countering colin's stammering with such classics as "sure the 'what would jesus drive' commercial is representative of everyone's religion -- when they say 'in god we trust' what god do you think they mean? you don't see people clamoring to put zoroaster on the dollar bill!" and "to help bridge the transition between college and the real world, let me suggest a discrete and passionate affair with a man in his late 30's... let me stress the discrete part: this man has a family and he loves them very much. let me also stress the passionate part: the sex should be crazy. ya know, the stuff that can get you kicked out of thailand."
that is crazy.
surfing rules, and big props to boarding house for bringing this midwesterner some north shore action! the beach, the sun, the waves, it all brings back the memories of my trips to hawaii. but it's so much more than just the elements -- it's the surfer chicks that really do it for me! duh. holly beck and vk -- you can't go wrong with these two. sure they're no kate bosworths, but hey, whaddya gonna do. i'm just pissed the show is on the wb, what we need is a surf chick show on e! or maybe even showtime... that'd do it.