Archive for the ‘recap’ Category
two thousand twelve, a year in review »
Friday, January 6th, 2012
Prospectus for twenty twelve? In a word: terrifying. However, who can really sum things up in a word?
Sure, there’s the anxiety associated with owning a residence, or horrific and joyous events, or, obviously, the realization of a prophecy from a long-dead culture woefully ignorant of religious and macroeconomic tendencies. (Whoever forgot to mention “The White Man” should be downsized, amiright?)
Any of those would send a goth up into a tree for days. (more…)
did you hear there was a quake? »
Friday, August 26th, 2011
I heard it first from a close friend (and friend of Chasm) out in DC that there was an earthquake. This isn’t common, so that was noteworthy. (Most of our conversation is fantastic, but not necessarily noteworthy.)
Then Lovely Wife sent a message that a friend of hers (ours, really) in town felt it.
I assume it was all over the news. I know that New York stole it. I know this happened. This literally happened. That’s enough for me. I’m as excited about The End Times as anyone, but does shifting of the Earth’s plates in rapid fashion really need this much coverage? (more…)
my interesting day on a bike »
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011
Saturday, I was tasked with going into work for testing of our new release.* Having spent the winter on trains and holed up in our apartment, I’ve been trying to get back to regular cycling. Conditions were good, so I gave it a go.
First, there were the crowds. According to some research after the fact, I ran smack into Ragnar. I swerved my way gently and attentively through the crowd. It was a total mess.
Organizers failed to mask off any area for other path users. Sure, it’s nine in the morning on a Saturday and who can be bothered to recreation at such an hour, but still. Not two feet for a bike, a jogger, or two? (more…)
moving on up / to the east… »
Thursday, May 13th, 2010
You may or may not know of the move in our very near future. The T.C. staff is off to the northern end of the Windy City. It’s a big change. (Mainly because CHI is considered a city even outside of the regional area.)
The relocation is only part of it.
Girlfriend and I are reducing our television consumption to three hours per week for the summer. What better time to start than after a one-way trip with a sixteen-foot truck?
I’ve gotten into bicycling-as-transportation. (Stifle your applause, hippies; I still shower often.) CHI has more on-street lanes and paths. We’ll also have nearly all of our staples (including ice cream) within two miles.
We’re moving to a residential neighborhood. There won’t be any drunks yelling after midnight. There won’t be the seventeen roaring past every fifteen minutes (or planes every hour, for that matter). I won’t sleep well for a bit.
Tired of all the gradients on this site? Want a splash of one other color? (Do you even read it here?) You’re in luck, because T.C. is getting an overhaul in the near future. (S’bout time, right? ‘Get in your car’ was the 800th post!)
Most importantly, Girlfriend and I will live in a place people actually want to visit. My sunny disposition is adequate but that’s with friends only threatening visits every two years or so.
It’s been awhile since there has been so much flux. I’m excited.
Photo courtesy Mikeyexists on Flickr
so many reasons to hate the suburbs »
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
I get it. We were afraid of brown people, looking for cheap housing and lived in our cars. Why not sprawl, right?
Things are different now and we need to call off this failed social experiment. Its detriment far outweighs its benefit.
The same faux-patriots that hate other cultures, crave war and ignore the poor saturate these once-desirable puddles of white that encircle metropolitan areas. They must be stopped.
I read somewhere that if we all lived with the population density of Brooklyn, the entire nation would fit into New Hampshire. The driving between these vastly separate locations has us dependent on nations we label enemies.
Does that make sense?
Whatever, maybe I’m just fuming over the absurd of yesterday…
HOOOOOOOOOONK!!
At first I think the giant beige (fact: color of evil) SUV is upset because I left the trail for the road after it ended. I’d just come through another intersection, though, so SUV had to hold a grudge.
Stopped at the next light, an interchange with a heavy-traffic local highway, SUV rolled down the window.
She’s about sixty but doesn’t look a day under seventy-two. A thick cake of something meant to conceal them accents her abundant wrinkles. Her eyes —
“Get off the road!” (She doesn’t even let me take in her whole horrifying face before screaming at me.)
It’s a road bike. I’m stunned, so it sounds like a question. Which is stupid because it’s obviously a road bike.
“I don’t care if it’s a road bike! Get off the road!!”
Umm.
I couldn’t do anything but laugh as she sped off to her probably-very-important somethingorother. I sighed, clicked in and went on my way.
… But yeah, that’s maybe why I’m so anti-suburb today. I don’t necessarily feel safe on my bike in Uptown, but I know the people there have seen a bike. Some have maybe even taken a drivers’ test in the last decade and had to answer bicycle-safety questions.
Maybe.
Photo courtesy Streetsblog (also: what the — !?)