Sorry, this blog just needed some pictures....

"So, You've Decided to Steal Wireless Internet!"

My Girlfriend bought a laptop last week. We were pretty excited about actually having our own laptop in the house. Also, since we live in a condo, we figured there had to be someone in the building who had a wireless internet connection we could mooch off of. We were in luck when we realized that there were two wireless connections in our building! The only problem is that they are both password protected! Our joy quickly crashed into sorrow.

Then again, how mad could we really be. It's like, "Damn! It's so unfair that we can't steal internet!"

Now we have to take the plunge into the world of internet service providers. I have no idea where to start. I'm letting Clare take care of that one.

After all, I've been fighting ComEd over our electric bill from our last apartment. Basically, the meter in the basement of our old apartment building was miss-labeled. For a year, we had been paying our upstairs neighbor's electric bill and he had been paying ours. We didn't notice until last summer started and he bought four air conditioners and added a second refrigerator . Actually, I don't know what he did. All I know is that we did nothing and our bills tripled in a month.

The battle with ComEd was long and drawn out, but I'll spare you the details. There were a lot of phone calls, missed appointments, collection agencies, and general aggravation.

But dear readers, to aid you in your struggles against unregulated monopolies, I will Provide you with this translation guide:

If ComEd says... - It means.....
"Our technician will be there." -"Our technician may or may not be there."

"I see there's a problem on your account"- "You have fallen thought the cracks."

"Let me talk to a supervisor and call you back." -"I don't want to talk to you anymore."

"We'll put that in the mail today." -See above

"I'm really sorry this has been a problem."- "It's not my fault. Please don't report me to my supervisor."



After all the trouble I've had with the electric company, I'm dreading the idea of having another utility that could potentially go very, very bad. Now if I could just steal internet.....

Summary Judgment Hell

I had a pretty exciting weekend and have a lot to write about, but unfortunately, I'm super busy with work and don't have a lot of time to write about it in the depth that I would like.

Here is a quick version:
My girlfriend and I took the Metra up to Kenosha, WI on Saturday night (No, we did not go to the outlet mall). Clare got a great deal on a hotel room in a hotel right on Lake Michigan. On Sunday morning we rode our bikes back to Chicago. There are several bike paths that go from Kenosha to Chicago, so we were, for the most part, able to avoid the rather in-hospitable suburb roads.

This was my first winter bike touring experience, and I have to say that it was a lot tougher than I expected. The first problem being that the first trail we got on was crushed limestone. This usually is not a problem. Let me also say that I was very skeptical about crushed limestone until we took the I & M Canal trail a couple of years ago. It's actually a lot better than I thought. The problem with this limestone path, however was that it was wet. I was actually surprised by this. It's been unseasonably warm, and there hadn't been any rain for a few days. After a couple of miles we were covered with white limestone mud. Not to mention that there were still some frozen patches. Wet, partial frozen limestone under your road bike tires does not a pleasant trip make.

Anyway, there will be more on this when I'm not working late on pulling exhibits and copying documents....

Post Number 2

I read somewhere that 80% of Blogs don't get past the first post. Judging from what I've seen on this site, that's true. I wasn't feeling particularity inspired today, but I wanted to get the pressure off and post my second entry. So here it is...

So...

It's sunny in Chicago today. That's nice.


Whoo Hoo!! Post number two, post number two!!!

Writing about writing really sucks

Inspired by my friend Chris's blog No Pity, earlier this week I decided to start a blog of my own. I've resisted blogging for a long time, because it just seemed a little narcissistic and self indulgent. Chris's advice on this was that after you get over this, it's quite fun (Actually, I believe this advice came from his friend Amy). Also, it's good writing practice.

I noticed that the most popular Blogs always have strong and consistent themes. Blogs about nothing (or worst, just ranting) have the potential to get boring quick. I decided that if I was going to have my own blog, it would have to have a good theme.

Two themes came forward in my mind: One, miniature war gaming (one of my favorite hobbies), and two, Fiction writing. Miniature war gaming is a slightly obscure and uber geeky, so I decided to quarantine it off to its own blog. Fiction writing, on the other hand, seemed like a brilliant blog topic. I could post pieces I'm working on, write about the art and process of writing, etc...

Since college, I haven't been writing much or hardly at all. I had a few assignments as a correspondent at several small community newspapers. Other than that, my fiction writing has mostly died. I really could spend several blog entries explaining how this happened, but I doubt that would be productive. Maybe writing about writing in this blog would motivate me to write more.

Then, fate intervened. My girlfriend and I were at restaurant on Monday night that hangs the work of local artists on its walls. On the wall above my girlfriend's head, hung a series of small sketches seemingly ripped from some artist's notebook. Most were very rough - nothing more than studies, really. One that caught my eye had a phrase delicately stenciled on it. It said "art about art really sucks, no seriously." I pointed this out to my girlfriend and we both agreed that yes, art about art really sucks.

So I guess that means that writing about writing probably sucks too. I read a part of "Writing Down the Bones" in college and it didn't seem that bad.

OK, so what now? Well, it looks like I've turned writing about writing into blogging about blogging, so all bets are off. All I ask is that you watch this space and hopefully, it won't bore you to tears.