Prangster in Chicago

Then I went to Albany

A couple of days after the work trip to Indiana, I found out I'd be heading to Albany in upstate New York to the client's research headquarters for an event about batteries. Yes, batteries. So hot! Myself and a couple of coworkers flew out on Tuesday afternoon and we got back Friday morning. The photo above is the desk of Thomas Edison, which they keep in the lobby of the research center in front of a huge and hideous potted plant.

The battery event actually turned out to be interesting. A speaker from a company called Better Place really blew my mind. I had no idea fully electric cars were already on the streets in Israel and Denmark! People pay month-by-month for access to "battery stations" where they can swap out for a fresh battery. Apparently it works in a similar way to how yearly mobile phone plans work.

The cool thing is that just this week, Better Place announced it's signed up Australia, which will make it the third country in the world to have an electric car network. It should be running by 2012 and link up Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane with more than 250,000 charging stations. Awesome.

Of course there are some people out there poking holes in the idea, but overall, most people believe it's a big step in the right direction. The model probably wouldn't translate to every American city, but certainly in denser cities like NYC and Chicago where car share companies like Zipcar (which is in over 20 cities) and i-Go (which is non-profit and Chicago based) are popular, I think it could work.

If you wanna read more about Better Place, here's an article from the August issue of Wired.

I went to Indiana, whatever that is

Let me check what state it's in for my international readers. Oh, Indiana is a state. Nevermind. How about I sit with a Year 3 class and actually learn U.S. geography already? It's like when I offered to fly to Chicago for a job interview without even knowing where Chicago actually is.

So yes, I went to a new state. I got back tonight from two days in Indiana. It was a work thing at Notre Dame University, so not particularly thrilling. I went with two coworkers and we stayed overnight at the campus hotel. This means I got to sleep on a bed and watch cable TV until 1:30am. I have to admit, those bits were thrilling.

Above are some cookies from today's catered lunch. We brought them back to Chicago for the team. They look "on brand" but taste terrible. Hugh, help yourself!

Below is the camera our in-house photographer used to cover the event. Between shots he just left it on the floor like so. The body is worth $8,000 and that lens is $1,700...

At the Millers' for Obama v. McCain and homemade lasagna

My camera phone says sorry about the fuzz. Mr. and Mrs. Miller usually look sharp.

I should just go home now

It was already a bad morning. I still have my head cold. I look like hell. And then this:

I saw on a design site a link to a Tumblr blog called "Sad Guys on Trading Floors". Um, doesn't that sound like my site, Cry Baby Traders, which I started months ago?

Yesssss.

So I googled "Sad Guys on Trading Floors" and over 7,000 entries came up for something that was created literally this week.

Literally this week!

New York Times, UK's Telegraph, Boing Boing and countless other sites have already linked to it. New York Magazine even said, "We can't believe we didn't think of this sooner!"

Wow. Now I know how it feels to find out from secondary sources that a skanky slut has stolen your boyfriend. Or something like that.

Wishlist

1. I wish publishers would send me books the way those obsessive, and I guess influential, Amazon book reviewers get sent freebie books to review.

2. I wish there was no such thing as phlegm.

3. I wish I could've tagged along with Jessi when she went to a Colbert Report taping last night. So jealous!

4. I wish I could vote in the election next month. It's not fair that I can't. I pay income tax. I pay Illinois sales tax. I buy from the Gap. I went to DC this year and loved it. I have an iPod now. I spell American. What more do they want?

5. I wish DVD regions were abolished. There's no place for DVD regions in a truly globalized world, I say. Where do the candidates stand on DVD regions? That's what I want to know.

Ah! It's October!

Yes, October. The month before it really starts to get cold here. And to be honest it's making me a little sad because I don't think I'll be excited for this upcoming winter like I was last year. Fool I was last year. Stomping around all happy in my boots with my gloves on. Guys, it's snowing! Guys, I've been wearing the same jacket for four months straight! Guys, brrrrrr!

Man, what a fool.

So before it gets too cold for it, I finally went kayaking on the Chicago River this past Saturday night to watch the Navy Pier fireworks. The group paddled 6 miles total (which converts to around 4,000km) in the dark towards downtown and back. It was fun to be out on the water and see the buildings from that perspective. And it was nice to experience something so unique to Chicago.

But let me be clear about one thing: the paddling was grueling. And kayaks go slow. My arms, which are accustomed to tasks such as maneuvering a mouse during the week and lifting magazines on the weekends, fared pretty well. At least I thought so until after I had showered the Chicago River stink off me and got into bed. It was then that my arms and shoulders started to scream silently and throb and convulse underneath my skin. I had arm seizures the entire night, basically. I wanted to yell at my arms, "shut up! I'm trying to sleep!" but it was no use. My poor tortured arms. They didn't know what hit them.

They're fine now by the way. I took them out to eat Chipotle on Sunday and they feel much better.