Ten (and a half) years wasn’t that long ago

Published
by
Mark
on Saturday 3rd January 2009
in General
. 1 Comment

Note: This was supposed to be posted originally on November 16, 2008. Obviously there has been a slight delay. I hope it reads OK, but in case it doesn’t, now you know why. Oh, by the way, Happy New Year!

Just over ten and a half years ago I graduated from high school. Saturday, November 15, was my ten year high school reunion. First, Chris and I found it quite humorous when we signed in and received our name badges, complete with our senior pictures. Chris later recalled to me the episode of Psych where Shawn and Gus go to their reunion, and Gus is ridiculed throughout the evening for making the name badges with their pictures on them. It was so totally cliché, but there was at least one time it did come in handy (not that I recall talking to the person whose badge I needed to read to remember her name).

It was great to see people like Sam, Ilyse, Jenny, Tina, Melissa, Katie, Briony, Lindsey, Shilpa, Ami, Dennis, Grant, Chris (the other one), Al*, and I am sure there are others I am forgetting (or I had a fairly anti-social night limiting myself to talking to a dozen or so people). It was great to get a chance to talk to you all. There were many people I had not seen since graduation or prom, and Facebook stalking can do only so much as compared to meeting face to face.

To Laura, Robyn, Shilpa and Lindsey, you put on a good party. Thanks for taking care of it all. I just wish I could have stayed a little while longer, but it had been a long day, starting with 8 hours of graduate school.

Overall, I can say I enjoyed myself at the reunion. Do I feel like I am old enough to be attending reunions? Not really. Am I looking forward to future reunions? More so than I looked forward to this one.

Just last week, we missed the unofficial Reunion II at Easy Street Pub, just a brisk walk from our house. We had to miss it because of our own annual holiday party. I hear it was good times for all, and I do wish I could have been there. I guess I’ll have to wait for Reunion III to catch up with people again.

* Al was not in our class, but she knew just as many, if not more, people than Grant, Chris and I. That was one of the best parts of the night for me.

119

Published
by
Mark
on Wednesday 24th December 2008
in Entertainment, General and Movies
. 1 Comment

This was originally posted (registration and friending may be required) on Facebook. So many comments were made there that I thought it appropriate to post it here on my blog, too. Of course, feel free to continue commenting here or there.

SUPPOSEDLY if you’ve seen over 85 movies, you have no life. Mark the ones you’ve seen. There are 219 movies on this list. Copy this list, go to your own facebook account, paste this as a note. Then, put x’s next to the movies you’ve seen, add them up, change the header adding your number, and click publish at the side.

Continue reading ‘119′

How Facebook and Twitter are killing my blog

Published
by
Mark
on Friday 19th December 2008
in General
. 1 Comment

There once was a time that I posted multiple entries in a day on my blog, and on a regular basis. My most active month on the blog resulted in 30 posts. That was December 2005, the end of my most active year on my blog, averaging almost 19 posts per month (ppm). I slowed down a bit in 2006, averaging just over 11 ppm, and I averaged 14 ppm in 2007. So far in 2008, I have averaged just under 9 ppm. Since may, I have not had more than 7 posts in a single month. December is almost over, I’ve averaged only 2.5 posts per month since September, and that includes this post! I have managed to always have at least 2 ppm since my first post on February 28, 2003.

Then came October of last year. All of a sudden my wife is on Facebook trying to communicate with current and former students. I decided that if my wife had finally bit the bullet on this, I might as well, too. Pretty quickly after setting up my profile on Facebook, I jumped onto Twitter. Between being able to tweet from my cell phone and getting Twitter to update my Facebook status, I had quick access to microblog on-the-go. Unfortunately for my blog, that meant not sitting down and hammering out posts.

This post is itself an example of this. I originally started writing this post in September, but it had sat untouched as a draft since September 25th. Why? Because it was much more convenient to microblog on Twitter, Facebook, Yammer, BrightKite and TwitPic, than it was to open up my WordPress admin page and finish the post. I even found it easier to just share the interesting things I had read in Google Reader, or post links to other cool things using delicious.

Of course, it didn’t help that I was spending eight hours in class every Saturday and an additional five to ten hours per week on homework. So, I guess in addition to Facebook and Twitter, I can blame my lack of blog activity on grad school, too.

We’ll see if I can bring the activity up a little bit during my short break (only to see the activity plummet again in mid-January as the new quarter starts). We’ll see how that goes.

Joining the HDTV revolution

Published
by
Mark
on Friday 19th December 2008
in Entertainment, Hardware and TV
. 0 Comments

It has taken me more than two years, but I have finally taken the leap and purchased an HDTV. Sunday, I was trying to catch up on my RSS feeds (124 and counting in Google Reader) when I came across a post on SlickDeals.net that featured a Sony Bravia 46-inch HDTV and 5.1 DVD home theater combo for $1,500. The Bravia Z-series 46-inch TV retails for almost $1,800 on SonyStyle.com. When you toss on the home theater system, this was a steal.

Here are the specs on this TV that are important to me:

  • 1080p
  • 4 HDMI inputs
  • VGA input
  • 120 Hz refresh
  • 24 fps cinema mode

I was hoping to have everything delivered today, but Circuit City is booked with home deliveries until Sunday. Sometime tomorrow night I should receive a call to give me a 2-hour window when they will deliver everything, but I’ll be adding at least an hour to either side of that window just in case.

As soon as it’s all setup, I’ll post pics.

Gov. Blagojevich taken into custody

Published
by
Mark
on Tuesday 9th December 2008
in News
. 0 Comments

In recent years I have started following major political news. I just read that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was taken into custody this morning by federal authorities. According to both the Chicago Tribune and WLS ABC-7 Chicago, the arrest of Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris comes from a probe involving pay-to-play politics surrounding the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

From the ABC-7 report:

The affidavit was unsealed around 8:30 a.m. That affidavit accused Gov. Blagojevich of, among other things, trying to obtain campaign contributions up front in consideration of an appointment to the Senate seat left open by Pres.- Elect Barack Obama. From the affidavit:

Later on November 3, 2008, ROD BLAGOJEVICH spoke with Advisor A.

By this time, media reports indicated that Senate Candidate 1, an advisor to the President-elect, was interested in the Senate seat if it became vacant, and was likely to be supported by the President-elect. During the call, ROD BLAGOJEVICH stated, "unless I get something real good for [Senate Candidate 1], shit, I’ll just send myself, you know what I’m saying." ROD BLAGOJEVICH later stated, "I’m going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain. You hear what I’m saying. And if I don’t get what I want and I’m not satisfied with it, then I’ll just take the Senate seat myself." Later, ROD BLAGOJEVICH stated that the Senate seat "is a f-ing valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing."

This is the culmination of a three-year probe in Illinois regarding the hiring for state jobs. I’m not sure what all this means for the state government and how it will be conducting business in the near future, but I am sure that Rich and/or Brad might have something to say about that later today.

Home repair FAIL

Published
by
Mark
on Sunday 23rd November 2008
in General
. 0 Comments

I have had mega home repair FAIL so far this weekend, and not just once, but three times! There is an update below, from after Jeff came to help Tim and me.

Continue reading ‘Home repair FAIL’

Normal Moments and Martha Stewart

Published
by
Mark
on Sunday 9th November 2008
in General
. 0 Comments

Normal Moments and its founder Tricia Fragen have been chosen as one of the eleven finalists for Martha Stewart’s Dreamers into Doers Award. Through Martha Stewart, Normal Moments has received so much national publicity, and that has been great for us. Recently we have heard from people outside of the Chicago area who would like to help Normal Moments and its cause. That is so awesome!

We are currently running neck-and-neck in the People’s Choice Award with Kathy Tolleson and ROAR Motorcycles for Women. Please help Normal Moments win the People’s Choice Award and register to vote once every 24 hours at the Dreamers into Doers Award website. The voting runs through November 18, so there isn’t much time! Hurry over to the site and vote now! Then, spread the word to your friends and family, post about it on your blog, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Pownce, on Ning, and anywhere else you can get the word out! Help us help the critically ill children and their families now!

If you’ve voted, leave a comment below to let me know. Then I can let you know how awesome you are!