Freezing Rain

Chicago gets cold this time of year. What a surprise, right? Truth be told, there have only been a few days when it was REALLY cold so far, but we haven't gotten much above 35 degrees in a while. The most miserable weather produced some fun pictures, though. These are taken in an around Loyola Park, which is nearby our apartment.

What's Your Score?

We are addicted. I'm not sure how often we actually play, but if the game kept a log we'd definitely be in the thousands. The first image is my high score from 2005. Not too bad right? Well, it lasted about two years until Rebecca's great score last month! 605 is the highest I'd heard of, but I went online to see how it stacked up next to scores worldwide. I'm not sure there is an official high score list online, but this one seemed pretty competitive. Rebecca's score puts her at ninth on this list. So now, she likes to say she's the ninth best Yahtzee player in the world. Don't worry, I'm playing way too much as it is; her score won't hold up for long!

We're so excited...

...and we just can't hide it:

The IKEA experience.

I remember a few times in college when my friends and I got hooked on IKEA. (It's kind of embarrassing looking back...) I had built a super-sweet "L-loft" for our room and we needed some accessories to make everything super-stylish. The following is a list of zany, little things that no one on earth really needs but that we knew we couldn't live without. A whole assortment of lights: these for under the loft, these for reading in bed, these to replace the large dorm lights, and of course we had to have a fade switch on each of these so we could set the mood. Then there were other silly things like a bag of 100 tea lights, slippers, or the completely wacky rug which were all the kinds of things you wondered why you actually paid for them by the time you got home.

My most recent trip to IKEA was actually last summer when we were in Budapest. The store we went to was exactly like every other store I've ever been to. We must have spent about four hours there. We ate at the food court and then started our journey through the maze. I can't remember that anyone actually needed to buy anything, but through we went. Rebecca and I ended up with a very nice cheese grater that we brought all the way back to America. We had three little girls with us (one six mos. and one newborn!), so this of course made for a most interesting adventure. And the last thing I remember about that trip was this little Hungarian girl who must have been in and out of every one of these lockers.

And if you wondered what sparked this post on IKEA, this is the hilarious article that got me thinking - mostly because I'm just geeky enough to see how an IKEA visit could be a video game.

Me & MIT

I thought these pictures were amusing, especially since we were in Boston not too long ago. If you look at the three black and white pictures, you can't help but notice the crazy building. That's the MIT Stata Center. Here's a picture some guy took. And here's mine. (OK, so we didn't actually get off the trolley to go see it.) Perhaps subconsciously, I didn't want to go see the building up-close because MIT is SO different than any school I have ever attended. I know at least one guy who is smart enough to go there, but he decided to stay out west where the sun shines more. Oh well, I'll stick with English and the not-so-fancy-pants kinds of schools.

Our Neighborhood

Last night, I took the dog for a walk at dusk. The afternoon thunderstorm was finished tearing through the neighborhood, and the sunset made for beautiful pictures. We are lucky to live where we do; Rogers Park is a diverse and ever-changing neighborhood. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to get a taste of city life on the lake.

Here's a few more: the skyline and Spencer the ghost.

Due to high critical acclaim...

...here's another video of Elayna.

Summertime for an academic

The beach is nice in the morning. We can get out there to get sandy and sweaty before the crowds come. Today, Elayna threw sand in her mouth and waded into the lake. She loves it - both the taste of sand and the lake. Summer offers a nice chance to play outside; it's nice because Chicago winters are so dang cold and we have to play inside with the same toys over and over again.

I ran across this pertinent tidbit of information via ALD:

"In the popular imagination, humanities professors don’t have anything to be ambitious about. No one really knows what they do, and to the extent that people do know, they don’t think it’s worth doing — which is why, when the subject of humanistic study is exposed to public view, it is often ridiculed as trivial, arcane, or pointless."

This is where I stumble on to the stage looking a little confused. Someone from the back asks, "Did you really choose a job that is not only pointless, but also low-paying?" I shade my eyes from the white-hot spotlight that is centered on my face and answer, "Um...yeah." To be sure, I don't think of my career choice (English Instructor) as pointless, nor do I think many of you do either. But it seems that there exists a phenomenom in our culture which situates academics somewhere between vagrants and savants. The article in question, describes recent portrayals of male professors in movies - a portrayel that is less than complimentary. It is true, as the article notes, that the perception of professors is changing (as is the field of academics in general). What was once a group of white guys wearing tweed jackets and smoking pipes, has become a scrambling bunch of geeky, young grad students hoping to score even the most menial jobs in hopes of securing tenure. Is it too much to ask to earn an honest living by teaching English? I sure hope not, otherwise, I'll have to look into becoming a professional reader or something.

iWanna iPhone

Well, I'll take one from you if you're giving it away. I'm certainly not gonna fork out the $500 to $600 dollars they cost - let alone the 2 year contract required. (We usually get the cheapest possible cell plan, you know...the one with a free phone.) Anyhow, today's Rocketboom got me interested in the arrival of Apple's iPhone. They go on sale tomorrow night at 6 PM, and people in NY have been in line since Monday. Just plain crazy. Anyhow, it got me wondering what was going on here in Chicago. Apparently, there was no line at the Michigan Ave. store this morning. There are five locations within about half an hour of our apartment in Rogers Park, so it seems that no one felt the need to start standing in line on Monday. Even so, according to one forum over at MacRumors, there are people planning to wait in line tonight, whether there's a need for it or not (at the time of this posting, there were 72 messages in the thread and at least 2 people staying out overnight). There are even moms offering to stand in line for those of us who actually have to go to work during the day. But whatever ends up happening in the next 29 hours, one thing is certain: Apple knows how to create a marketing frenzy.

And on a completely different note, here's an article by literary theorist Terry Eagleton on how Mikhail Bakhtin liked to - among other things - use his theoretical manuscripts to roll cigarettes.

In other news...

How do you stay informed? To begin with, I'd like to say that I'm not particularly well informed. Unless you're talking about ninjas. Or very small newts. Or perhaps about the people outside my window who are playing their acoustic guitar and yelling impromtu song lyrics. Other than those things, I'm pretty uninformed, but I thought I might pass along a few news pages that I've come across lately. I generally don't check in on CNN or FOXNEWS or whatever other big news pages people read. They seems a little depressing...or maybe it's sterile. I like to hear human responses to what's going on...usually humorous human responses. So, I came across The Morning News about five years ago. They have the daily headlines on the right-hand side of the page, and they often make me chuckle. They're on vacation or something right now, though. So the news is old and dry. I came across another interesting page a few weeks ago. It's called Arts & Letters Daily. It's put out by some academic types, but the links are on diverse topics. Also, they have a whole slew of interesting links to check out. I also subscribe to flavorpill. They send out emails once a week with current happenings and whatever. But since I scoff at the idea of staying out later than about 9:30 at night, I tend not to go to the events they talk about. Yet, they do have a weekly world news page that is interesting. It's called Activate, and it hits the high points of what's going on. Finally, here's a few other pages I'm still not sure will make it into my daily surfing or not: Rocketboom and First Things. And now you've read about a few places I like...so what am I missing? What do you read?

Edvard [2]

He doesn't sell many movie posters; it just doesn't seem possible to generate sales without customers. We've all seen the mobster movie where Al Capone launders money through some dry cleaning business. Why not a poster shop? The other night as I walked by, the door to the back room was left open, allowing a heavy, yellow light to make its way into the store. Our shopkeeper was asleep at his desk, take-out box left open. Pausing long enough to take in a scene from the back room, I noticed two men sitting at a green, '70s-style card table. They were smoking. One man was leaning forward with his palm on his forehead, cigarette dangling. The other was leaning back, arms folded across his chest. You can only imagine their dilemma: "I don't think ol' Edvard is gonna' keep us underground for long, Lukas. His hearse, those glasses, everything about 'im is too obvious." Casson was sitting up straight now, gesturing expansively with his meaty left hand, cigarette still dangling. "We all know that by now, Cass. It's only a matter of time. Our man Edvard has a lot of history in the company, but his history lessons 'bout movies or old friends don't get us anywhere now. Everything's changed."

Time slows down in Rogers Park

School's done, and free time is now easier to be had. As ambivalent as the spring weather is in Chicago, days seem to be warming up, and walks with the dog are much more enjoyable. As you can see from this picture, trees are starting to sprout leaves, and we have some flowers outside our front window. Unfortunately, the cold April weather and terrible wind killed a couple of our plants, but for the most part, they are still holding on to life. We are pretty much professional gardners if you didn't know. (Actually, in case you were taken in by the last comment, watering a living thing other than Elayna or the dog borders on the impossible for us.) Summer school starts next week (one class is enough for me), and we're going on a few trips (SoCal for Memorial Day for starters).

Tracking life through webcams

I grew up in the Sierra Nevadas, in a small town called Portola (a place that fancies trains). When I moved out of the house, I headed south to La Mirada where I attended Biola University. After spending a few years there, I spent a couple of summers in Alaska (a view of Fredrick Sound from Petersburg, where we did our first seine set). When I got tired of fishing summers, I got married and we settled in Moses Lake for a while (does this webcam work?). Later, we moved to Spokane, where we went to EWU (Rebecca at the joint EWU/WSU Riverfront campus downtown and me out in Cheney). We liked Spokane but decided there's never enough school, so we moved to Chicago, where I now attend Loyola University (the English department is in the same building as this camera).

Edvard and his take-out [1]

The first thing I noticed was a flickering, blue - a flash - then a steady black and white. The large, brown-rimmed bifocals reflected the television set, his head tilted to look up at the small screen, his lap holding the square styrofoam take-out box. I only get quick glimpses of him as I walk by his I guess I should call it store. Usually, the crusty brown door is closed fast, with a cast-iron gate locked over the top of it - as if the door wasn't enough to keep people from stealing what amounts to a collection of old junk. The faded sign outside the door says "Original Vintage Movie Posters," thus explaing the forest of rolled up posters that surround him as he eats. I've only seen him on the street once; he was parallel parking his curtain-windowed, silver hearse.

Pictures from Boston

So we had a great time in Boston. The conference went well, and the presentation done. I guess I don't have much to say about my paper, but instead, I'll tell you about our trip. We arrived on Wednesday and left on Saturday, so we tried to pack in as much as possible. We took a trolley tour of the city that was interesting. There are a couple of things that you hear over and over on the tour. First, most of Boston used to be swamp or water and that they filled it in by moving various hills into the sea. Also, many of the buildings are either built on pilings (which you can't see) or are built on top of very large pieces of wood stuck vertically into the soft ground. We also went to Fenway on Friday morning, and enjoyed a cold, but informative tour. We were on the first tour of the morning and luckily there were only about five of us there. The next tour had about 30 people; most of them looked like obnoxious high schoolers. Then on Friday we went to Harvard and took the student-led Hahvahd Tour of campus. These guys recently started their own tour service, and we happened to get off the train right when they were starting their tour. They did a good job, and fun tidbits like what dorm Matt Damon or the Unabomber lived in were especially interesting. Anyways, Boston is great. Here's a few pics for you:

Beantown

We are getting ready to head out to Boston on Wednesday. I'm presenting at the Popular Culture Conference there, so we decided to try and see some sights as a family while we're there. Our family loves baseball, so I'm sure we'll tour Fenway. We'll also try to see some historic places...you know like the bar for Cheers. Btw, we lived in Moses Lake, WA for a few years, which is on Interstate 90. This highway runs from Seattle to Boston, and I drove much of it on my way out to Chicago in August. We're flying, so we won't be seeing the rest of the road...just the end of it.

Anyway, I'm writing a paper on college students and Facebook. I'll let you know how it goes.

March in Chicago

Dang, isn't it spring yet? As you can see, the weather can't decide. Spencer the dog is enjoying some beautiful sunshine, but the ice floes are a reminder of the cold, cold, cold winter we've enjoyed. To give you a little context on where this picture was taken, we are on the pier in Loyola Park. The buildings on the horizon are partially Loyola University Chicago (where I attend) and a few high-rise condos on the lake. If it were a clearer day, downtown Chicago would be visible to the left of the picture. The John Hancock Building looks like the tallest one on the skyline from Rogers Park, but as you all know the Sears Tower is the tallest building in Chicago by about 500 feet. On a clear day, the Sears Tower can also be seen from this vantage point, but it is way off in the distance, west of downtown. Later this spring I'll take some pictures to show the skyline from our neighborhood.

Need a mindless distraction?

Then check out my old friend in the lab coat at willitblend.com. I've only seen a couple of these, but that blender can do some damage. You can also track down these videos on YouTube. I especially like the iPod, the glow sticks, and the plunger, but then again, I haven't seen them all. Which ones make you wanna blend?

Hip hop anyone?

So, it is hard to explain to some, but I'm a hip hop scholar (or at least I aspire to be). I wrote a paper on 50 Cent last year, and even my closest friends pause and say, "um, why?" The reason isn't that I love gangsta rap or think Fiddy (as my wife insists I refer to him) is some kind of musical genius. Rather, his life story and rise to stardom are not only hard to believe, but they also say something about the culture we live in. 50 Cent exemplifies cultural relevancy, and it is better to try to understand his rise as a phenomenon unto itself rather than simply trying to censor or ignore him. (If anyone's interested in the topic, I can post my paper later.)

All of this to segue into my current hip hop research project: Chicago hip hop. Since I moved to Chicago in August, I've been thinking about how I need to understand this area and its hip hop history. So I'm now researching another topic in hip hop studies. One place I've found good information is in Jeff Chang's History of the Hip Hop Generation. I'm still plowing through this one, but it documents the rise of hip hop in New York. I'm trying to document the rise of hip hop in Chicago...which came a bit later. Perhaps you've heard of Common, Twista, Rhymefest, or Kanye, but you may not have heard of other artists like Juice, Crucial Conflict, Lupe Fiasco, Verbal Kent, Ric Jilla, or the Grind Family. And this is just the tip of the hip hop iceberg in Chicagoland. I'm hoping to show that the flavor of hip hop in Chicago is a bit more about social consciousness than gangsterism. We'll see.

Online Worlds

Today I put a nice lady into an uncomfortable situation. I was doing a presentation on Internet Technology, focusing on social networking sites and virtual worlds. I asked for a volunteer to take over on the computer so she could chat in a virtual space for the rest of us to watch. She gingerly sat down at the computer, and hesitantly touched the keyboard as if it had just been sprayed with a squirt bottle full of germ water. She typed "hello," and after that was off and running (literally, well, literally in the virtual sense). I know how she felt, though. Trying a new technology in an atmosphere where there are a lot of people who know how to use it is hard (the rest of us weren't experts, just the 400,000 or so other people who use the virtual world - in this case, There.com). I wonder some day if traditional online courses will be supplemented with "in world" classrooms where we all login as our avatar and take our seats in a virtual desk (this video is LONG...I only listened to about a minute of it before I wanted to make the narrator stop talking).

Also, my presentation's main focus was how Social Justice relates to online experiences. I had some of my students login to virtual worlds as people of different genders and races, and it offered them the opportunity to experience - in some real sense - a few moments under a different identity than their own. From the responses that they wrote, it seems like it really affected some of them.

me and the bus

So, nothing interesting happened today. Not really. It's still cold, but that's old news. I did miss the CTA bus a few times lately, though. I generally only ride the bus when it's cold enough to freeze jet fuel, mostly because it's only eight or nine blocks that I have to walk. But here's what normally happens...I come around the corner to see the bus pulling away. Or, I stand in the cold for fifteen minutes waiting for a bus that was supposed to come every twelve minutes, leaving me to start walking and not see the bus I was waiting for until I'm almost home. Or, I get on the wrong bus. Or I sit next to a man who likes to yell things like, "Smile, everybody! It's Friday. Hoo-Hah!" (Actually that story comes third-hand from my friend's friend.) Whatever the case, public transportation is a part of my life that I love, if only in small doses.

And here's a whole blog devoted to those transported by public transport.

technology and social connection

So if you're super cool like me and spend a lot of time thinking about how crazy and convoluted our media world is getting, then you've probably heard of a guy named Henry Jenkins. If you haven't heard of him, then pinch yourself...you're still normal. (All pinching aside, I've reached the point where i have no choice but to embrace my inner geek.) One of the terms that Henry Jenkins coined, and the way I got interested in him originally, is "transmedia storytelling," but this is a topic for another day.

A topic that I'd like to mention briefly here, is what Jenkins calls "tele-cocooning." He mentions the example of Japanese youth who stay connected with wireless devices ALL THE TIME. In the academic article (everyone's favorite genre) Jenkins uses, the authors illustrate how students actually become closer to one another as a result of the technology, even though technology often seems more like a buffer between traditional face-to-face interaction. All of this to say: hey kids! tell your parents that text messages actually help you foster lasting relationships with your friends. If they scoff, print the stuffy article I've linked to, put it under their pillows, and write in small, humble letters: "this is just a little something I ran across the other day."

our little personality

This has to be my new all-time favorite picture.

She's saying something like: "hey, watch out you, i'm the one in control here you know, and i'm cute so there's nothing you can do about, oh yeah, and watch out for when i grow up and can talk, i'll be able to argue my way out of anything."


I can't wait for her to argue me into a corner.

cold weather pic

Yes, it's cold in Chicago. This was taken at the Lincoln Park Zoo before Christmas, but we always have to bundle up when we go out. It was -10 last week (-30 with the windchill). Lucky for me, I get to walk the dog three times a day.

Social Networking Sites

Are you on MySpace? Do you have Facebook? Perhaps your like to share photos on Flickr. I know some people who are on Friendster, but I haven't heard much buzz about it. Also, there's the ubiquitous Classmates page that everyone's seen the ads for. What's your fancy?

Perhaps you haven't heard of any of these (in which case you should try hooking your TV up again because MySpace has been featured in news stories time and again, if only to scare parents of teenagers into screening their kids' internet use). But, I wouldn't worry if you've only heard of MySpace and Classmates, say. Even so, Internet savvy people should have at least a passing familiarity with the name of these webpages: "social networking sites."

I'm currently in the process of writing a few papers on the topic, with the specific purpose of seeing how the use of social networking sites can be helpful/detrimental to (roughly) college age students. At any rate, I'll post on issues about Internet Society from time to time. Check back if you're interested.

Back to blogging

It's been a long time since I've blogged. (It's hard to imagine that I first started using Blogger in 2002!) I remember making my own blog pages in Macromedia Dreamweaver and having to constantly move each post down manually as I updated. I got wise, switched to the now defunct BloggerPro, and got a sweatshirt. Much has changed. I'm amazed at how fancy and easy Blogger has become. I'll probably be able to transfer some old posts to this blog with the click of a button. Anyways, enough nostalgia over my blogging past.

I live in north Chicago now, and I'm in slowly beginning to go crazy. I'm hoping that blogging from time to time will relax me (you see, my shoulders get sore when I'm stressed). I'm also hoping that this page will be a good place to test out some of the ideas I'm working over in my frizzazled brain.

Ashland Bear:


Happy Birthday, Nana! I love you!


Hi Nana Cheryl! I hope you feel all better!