[ news @ sweetgoodness ] Archives - January 2007 // comments for your readability
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[ news @ sg ] currents archives features versions contributors about [news@sg] [ other SG.org ] official; all about SG store; go buy stuff creator; love of your life	if you're referred here and can't find an article, maybe it hasn't been posted yet. wait for the next edition and try again. Monday, January 1, 2007 / 11:55pm Starting With a Blast Greetings, 2007! Glad you could join us! As you've noticed, I'm playing around with adding random other little things like the occasional picture and the like. Isn't it exciting? The 2006 quick summary will be arriving shortly, but until then, let me tell you about the very fine, Sunday, December 31st, 2006. I was up shortly after 6:30am and, with Tim, we arrived at Midway shortly after eight. Our flight was fairly full, taking us to Long Island MacArthur Airport. Our last meal was lunch at the airport A&W; we then hopped aboard a shuttle taking us to the nearby Ronkonkoma Long Island Railroad station for the hour-plus trip to Penn Station. After a fourteen street casual stroll, we joined honey bunches of revelers awaiting entry to the regulated pens of people in Times Square. We arrived at our position shortly before four, which meant we would eventually be standing (or on our feet or walking) for a period in excess of nine consecutive hours! While waiting for the big midnight countdown, the crowd also welcomed the start of each hour with its own ten-to-one. All of the evening's rockin' eve performers were enjoyed twice: we sat (okay, stood) through the rehearsal run-throughs earlier in the evening before the world watched the "real" performance. The whole experience was fun, and I'd do it again. I'll go if you go... just not next year. The first meal of the year (and the first food since lunch on the 31st) was shortly after 1:00am: Nathan's Hot Dogs from Penn Station. The rain slowly started coming in and was in medium force upon our arrival back in Ronkonkoma at 4:20am. And, here's a nice, little twist: while waiting for the shuttle to the airport, a limo drove by and asked if we were waiting for the shuttle. Well, he said he'd match the $5/person shuttle price and take us, so that's what we did. Us and three other airport-bound people at the station. So, that's how my first car ride of the year went. In luxury. For five dollars. We were amongst the first few people past airport security, so it was scarily quiet... until an airport employee accidentally set off an alarm for a secure door. Other than that, the trip was without incident. I finally managed to get to sleep around 12:30pm; I hit my Nth wind just as I got into bed at 9:00am. (Technically, I did have a few 45 minute naps throughout the trip, so whatever.) During the main countdown, I called back to Champaign to say hello... and during one of the earlier countdowns, I actually called myself (82.0K wav) to record the experience. I'm a dork. So, yeah. Happy New Year! Monday, January 8, 2007 / 5:50pm Eighth Grade Review In case you forgot, the terms of office for the Constitutional Officers of Illinois are four years. Earlier today, I was at the Prairie Capital Convention Center in Springfield for the festivities. Two days after Christmas, tickets to the ceremony became available at in-store Ticketmaster locations, so I took a little field trip from Hillside to downtown Chicago to get them. The tickets were free (well, plus $1 per ticket convenience charge), so I figured, well, why not? It was really cool to be a part of the pageantry and tradition. For the most part, the ceremony was invitation only, with limited general seating available to the public in the upper balcony. Out seats were very high up, and, to my surprise, there weren't very many "ordinary" people there. Just before the event began, an usher invited everyone in the upper balcony to the next level down. I don't follow politics closely (if at all), so it was somewhat interesting and a little entertaining to hear the various addresses given by today's inaugurated officers. You can tell when they're playing to their past successes and offering their promises for the future. The crowd was very receptive, though; I assume, if you weren't really interested, you probably wouldn't have been there. I enjoyed the atmosphere, despite hearing the same musical loop multiple times as the convention hall filled. I couldn't help but wonder if the event was something people could've gone to before; I knew tickets were available because I receive Governor's Office Press Release messages by email. It makes you wonder if people were less in the loop in the past. (I also glanced down at the media area and thought about how differently the space would look if reporters were equipped with just paper and pen, as opposed to laptops and cell phones.) Well, it was a good time and was also yet another unique experience. (I also ran into a high school classmate, or rather he ran into me at the ceremony. I didn't think I was going to see anyone I knew. Alas...) Perhaps I'll be able to score a closer seat, maybe down on the floor, next time. Wednesday, January 10, 2007 / 11:38am "the list" E4 Thursday, January 11, 2007 / 1:48am It Was One Moment In Time I should have games where people try to find all the references I make. My posts usually have at least one, maybe three, or upwards of zero. Or three. But for me to keep track of all of that would mean I'd have to care. More. No, seriously, you know that I'm a tracker of things. There was a time when I logged my finances down to the penny, and I would spend hours a week trying to figure out what math mistake I made in the previous week. I'm not that crazy about finances anymore, as I actually allow myself to live life once in a while, instead of documenting it. How do you document real life when my real life's more like fiction each day? Right, right, while I don't track pennies, I still like to know what's going on in my world. Doing that, however, means combining the structured planner that I am with the split-second problem solver and/or free spirit. And, that, my friends, is not always easy. Right now, I'm in Hillside, awaiting a dentist appointment in a little over eleven hours. I arrived by train, leaving Champaign at 6:49pm. Today's Wednesday, and that means I have a weekly lunch gathering at noon. On evening travel days, I eat more at lunch because I know I'll get food when I arrive in the Chicago area. For the most part, my day is quite structured, with few bits of flexibility. In the hour-plus of time between work and travel, I'd originally planned on a casual stroll from the Museum to the train station. As the late afternoon progressed, I found myself squeezing in dinner plans. Hmmm, now that I think about it, I don't think I'm explaining what I want to say as well as I'd like. I mean, everyone does it. Schedules bits of life and "hand waves" the gaps into place, that is. And for me, I'm very much very minute-by-minute and I'm very "eh, whatever happens". It's maddening when I, through circumstance, have to operate one way and have to deal with the other. Not that it happened today in a negative way, I'm just rambling. In other news, the Hillside house has a new cordless phone/answering machine system in place. It was a present from the holiday season. Of course, I was tasked with plugging whatever in and setting it up. It's no big deal, except it meant that the other answering machine was being decommissioned. And that, my friends, is sad news. The greeting on that digital answering machine was actually recorded on the even older tape answering machine. "Hello! We can't come to the phone right now, so leave a message!" (204K wav) exclaimed a pre-voice-changed Brian. It must've been from somewhere around 1993-1995. In case the world ends, as you see, I've now recorded it for posterity, so you'll always be able to hear a young Brian. After the new machine was in place, it was decided to keep the legacy greeting, so, just several years ago (maybe five-ish?), two answering machines were laid next to each other for a ceremonial "passing of the greeting". Oh, in other news, earlier on Wednesday, I discovered once again that I was unceremoniously unfriended on facebook. So, you don't want to be my friend. That's cool, I won't be upset. Just don't be fooled into thinking I won't notice. Because that's just what I do. I cried on the inside for about half a second, and that was it. Also, I'm assuming that most of you out there know about the SNL special Christmas gift in a box. At Wednesday lunch, I found out that someone made a special box of their own. Just thought I'd share. These are moments, um, I mean, memories frozen in time, people! Monday, January 29, 2007 / 4:48pm A Different Capture I feel like a dork saying something like this, but I've a major announcement to make tomorrow. Okay, seriously, it's not that major. I am not getting married; I am not having a baby. So, no, not those things. I feel like I'm at a radio station. "A major concert announcement will be made, and I can't say anything about it until I'm allowed to." Something like that. Except it's not a concert announcement. In other news, Go Bears! I've made it a point to listen to the Super Bowl Shuffle daily since the last football game and will continue to do so until the Super Bowl. (If anyone wants to borrow the Super Bowl Shuffle DVD, I have that, too.) I'm taking suggestions as to where I should be when the game's on this Sunday. After several days of debate and a formal feasibility study, I have officially ruled out going to Miami to hang out there for the festivities. As fun as it would be to take two days off work and not sleep much, I decided I kinda want to be somewhere where I can actually watch the game, considering I don't actually have any tickets to the main event. (I did price the travel portion of the trip down to a mere $164.80, though.) As always, I'm open to random travels, so let me know if you want to go somewhere, and I'll see what I can do. And if I can go with. Wednesday, January 31, 2007 / 4:53pm "the list" four
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