life Archives - Page 11 of 23

Special Olympics

Erin asked me about two weeks ago if I wanted to volunteer for the Special Olympics. Now, honestly, I didn’t really want to, but I said yes anyways. Two days ago was the day, and even before hand, I really wasn’t all the excited.

So we get up and head over to Thornwood High School at 9 AM on Saturday. And then we got there, and it was complete Chaos (yes, with a capital “C”). We didn’t know where we were going, or what we were doing or anything. In fact, Erin’s parents who had signed up were initially rejected when they came to the sign-in booth because they didn’t have their IDs. Both Erin and I thought this was quite strange, seeing as how we weren’t asked for our IDs.

However, everything was worked out by one of the ladies that Erin has been working with at her clinicals for the past 10 weeks. Apparently she’s been doing this for quite a few years and everyone knows who she is. We then watch the opening ceremonies and then head over to the softball throw, which we were helping with. There are basically 4 areas:

Check-in—Calls out the heat numbers and people in the heats
Escorts #1—Take the athletes from the Check-in area to queueing seats for the heats and put them in the correct order for their heat
Escorts #2—Escorts the athletes from the seats to the actual throwing area and then from there to the awards area
Recorder—Records the distances for each thrower, and then figures out the place standings for the heat
Grunts—The people chasing after the thrown balls

Erin was a Recorder, because she’s responsible and stuff (and the person handing out jobs was one of her coworkers) and I was an Escort #1 with Erin’s Dad.

We all had a blast. Even with the crappy weather, it was crazy fun. We were all running all over the place and the athletes were great. I would definitely recommend volunteering at an event like this to anyone.

Photography Shops

The first day of the photography class the instructor mentioned that the best places to get your camera and supplies (if you already didn’t have one) was at B&H Photo or Adorama, both of which are internet shops located in New York. At the time, I didn’t much think about it because I had used the same logic when I purchased my camera: cheapest reputible dealer (watch out for NY camera shops, you have to be very careful).

However, the second week, one of the students in the film class mentioned that he had a hard time finding the tryex (know idea on the spelling) film. Our teacher then stated how there used to be so many Mom & Pop photography stores, but that they’d all disappeared.

Huh, I wonder why? Maybe it’s because people are told to not use them by their photography teachers. I mean, come on, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. You either support the local shops or you don’t and they go out of business. Is basic economics really that complicated?

Oh, by-the-way, the Central Camera store on Wabash in Chicago is only bested in chaos by Portillo’s during lunch or dinner rush.

Pharmaceuticals

And my Dad thought that I wasn’t living in the real world because I was in IT; welcome to the world of pharmaceuticals.

Last night, Erin and I went to a dinner about Spiriva. This was both of our first adventures into this sort of setting.

Erin made it downtown a little bit early for the drinks & appetizers part of the evening (6:30 PM), so we started out at Petterino’s. I love that place. Ed is by far the best bartender, ever, but I could be biased, because he knows who I am. Anyways, after a Goose Island there, we headed over to Nick’s Fish Market. Yup, that is where the Spiriva Dinner was hosted.

Anyways, we walk in to Nick’s and they have the whole main dining room downstairs booked for the drug dinner. They have us sign in and specify if we’re physicians or just in the healthcare profession. I was tempted to check physician, but then they’d probably try to hunt me down to push their drug on me later. The representative at the table made some small talk with us and then we headed into the dining room. The main dining room encompased around 12 tables with 14-16 people per table. We sat down and immediately a waiter was over asking if we wanted wine or anything else to drink. We both had a glass of wine and waited for Erin’s friend from PT school.

Appetizers were served, the assorted platter, three to a table. However, there were only 5 people at our table, so we gourged on the yummy bites. Overall, the tables were about 75% full. Not a bad turn out, but quite a few short of what the apparently expected. We were asked what we would like for our main course at this time, Chilean Sea Bass or Filet Mignon.

By this time, I think I was on my second glass of wine, and one of the representatives grabbed the mic and introduced the presenter Dr. Nicholas J Gross from Loyola. He started into his speach and informed us that he was being paid by the pharmaceutical companies behind Spiriva to give the talk. During this time the second course was served: Manhattan Clam Chowder.

Dr. Gross (man, that’s an awesome name) gave his speech about COPD and how, basically, Spiriva is a miracle drug. All in all, his presentation lasted about 15-20 minutes. Needless to say, I didn’t know what he was talking about a fair amount of the time, but I had Erin there to translate for me. Not like it mattered though, it was purely marketing propaganda. Nowhere were we told what the drug physically does in the body, or how it increases the FEV1 of patients, just that it does. I was tempted to ask questions along those lines, but the food was too good. Anyways, nearing the end of his presentation course three was delivered: Ceasar Salad.

I think I was on my third or fourth glass of wine by now. It’s hard to tell because the waiters didn’t actually let you finish a glass before refilling. Talk about service. Our fourth course came out, and I had picked the Chilean Sea Bass, while Erin had the Filet Mignon. Talk about delicious.

Things started to wind down and Erin’s friend left, but we stuck it out for course #5: banana chocolate cheescake and coffee. By this time we were both more than stuffed, but it was so good we couldn’t say no.

It was around 9:00 PM so we headed home after we had both finished our entire piece of cheesecake. We stopped back by my office to grab my bag and then proceeded to walk home to try and burn off some of the food. Man was it good though.

Afterwards I told Erin, that whenever she gets an invite to one of these dinners again, we definitely need to go. Granted, I was just along for the food, but she actually wanted to go for the information. However, she was a little disappointed with the information in the end. It was quite funny to see the different types of people there though. The people that they were actually pitching the drug to were easy to spot. They were the nicely dressed doctors. Then there was everyone else, which mainly consisted of nurses, some of which were still wearing their scrubs.

It was definitely a learning experience, and you figure that if only one doctor prescribes this drug to his patients, the whole evening is probably paid for. I’m just hoping there’s some sort of mailing list that I can get on for other upcoming events.

Chicago Protesters, An Open Letter

Dear Chicago Protesters,

If you wish for people to rally behind your cause, we really need to know what your cause is. Parading around with plackards that say nothing does not help this cause. When I have to sit and watch you dance around in a circle for more than 10 seconds, chanting the same things as every other protest group, I’m not going to feel sympathetic. Your cause is even further hindered when you completely block the sidewalk which prevents me from ingesting delicious food.

Do us all a favor and

Don’t take up the whole sidewalk
Make it easy for us to figure out what you’re complaining about

Thankyou,
Your rebelpeon.com friends

Eww

The tea made at Argo Tea on Randolph (between State and Dearborn) has just been described to me as having a taste that lingers in the back of your mouth akin to chewing on a cigarette.

Yum!

Photography

I’ve finally got a camera. I’ve been wanting to get one for a long time, but I never seemed to have the motivation to spend the money. However, after taking all that time to clean up the scanned in analog photos, I couldn’t take it anymore. Plus, a coworker wanted to take a photography class with me, so it’s a no-brainer.

Anyways, I bought the Nikon d70s kit which comes with the body and a 18-70mm lens. In addition, I purchased a 50mm f/1.8 lens. So far I’m very happy with it, but I may get the 50mm f/1.4 instead later. The 1.8 doesn’t let in a lot of light, and the flash keeps trying to be used even in good lighting areas.

I’ve also got my hands on my Dad’s old Nikon F with FTN viewfinder along with 3 lenses: nikkor 50mm f/1.4, nikkor 135mm f/3.5, and sigma 80-200 f/3.5-4. Unfortunately, all of the lenses are old enough to warrant needing an AI conversion, which they haven’t had, so I can’t use them on my new body. Unfortunately, for my camera, I don’t know if it’s even worth having it done. My Dad said I could throw them up on eBay, but I don’t if I want to do that either. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Well, with all of this going on, there will definitely be an influx of pictures in the gallery. Speaking of which, I need to get a link up on the sidebar for that.

Update 4/18/2006 11:14 PM
Just got out of the photography class. I definitely think I’ll be paying them for the other 7 weeks. Also, after talking with a few of the people there, I’ll probably be selling the Nikon F and lenses. Basically, manually focusing with such a small viewfinder (smaller than 35mm) will be next to impossible. Be sure to keep an eye out for them on craigslist if you’re interested.

Oh, and there’s a “Pictures” link in the sidebar now, yay!

Weekend Wrapup

Wow, talk about a beautiful Friday and Saturday (and Sunday started out great). Friday evening started out with appetizers out on the patio with Erin, my parents and my brother (Jason), who came down for the weekend. It was too gorgeous not to be outside, and well the apartment was a little warm. We all headed across the street for dinner at May Street Market.

Dinner was quite appetizing, and the atmosphere was nice and modern. It appears to be a completely different restaurant than the Italian place it used to be, but that’s only from observing externally as I never actually ate there. The market also has a large lounge area where the full menu is also served. I can see going back there just for drinks and desserts sometime, especially since it’s so close.

Post diner, we headed back out on the patio with some wine. The evening was just too enjoyable not to be outside. Around 11 I brought my parents to their hotel, and Jason, Binford, and I played some guitar hero. Jason played until I told him to stop at around 3am. I think he was addicted. Maybe it was all the rockin’ out?

The next day the fam, Erin, and I strolled around Millennium and Grant park. I showed them the bean, it was a glorious day. We then hit up Portillo’s for some Big Beefs and Chicago Style hotdogs, something you can never go wrong with. The family then headed back home to Detroit, and Erin and I took a much needed nap.

The night concluded with a trip to the movies to see Thank You For Smoking. Hilarity ensued. Talk about a great movie. By far the best part is the very end, when Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) talks about how the population already knows that smoking is bad for them and that a picture isn’t going to help. Also, at the same point he alludes to the fact that education should fall into the parents responsibility range, and not the governments. And for those that have seen it, “Jeff, when do you sleep?!” “Sunday.” Hilarious.

The weekend concluded with a trip to Vertical Endeavor on Sunday, and then heading over to Erin’s parents place for Easter Dinner. Except for the horrible thunderstorms that hit while we were there, it was another excellent day.

Now I just need to recover from the weekend with another weekend.

Taxes

Unfortunately, this year I owed taxes. It was nothing too horrendous, but it’s still not fun to have to pay. Plus, while I was doing my taxes it fluctuated a lot. I put in my earnings for the University, and then for when I was a contractor, and it was telling me I was going to get $1200 back. Then I put in for my new job, and all the sudden I owe $400. Boo!

Oh well, next year should be better since I won’t be changing jobs midway through.

But anyways, why I’m writing about this is because I thought I forgot to date the check I sent in (along with date the 1040 form). This was because I had it all ready to go, and was waiting around for the 7th (payday), before sending it in. Turns out I either dated both, which I’m almost 100% sure I didn’t, or the government just doesn’t care, since the check just cleared.

And isn’t it funny how quickly they’ll cash your check, but how long it takes for you to receive your refund? Hmmm…

Update 4/14
Looking at the scanned in check, I definitely didn’t date it, which means I definitely didn’t date my tax return either. Oh well, doesn’t look like it matters.

Lottery!

Yeah to winning $150!

Expensive Advertising

While some software loads, I thought I’d share my thoughts on some advertising I received in the mail today. On the outside, it looked like a magazine offer for Urban Trends magazine. I’ve been keeping up on some design stuff lately, so I thought I’d open it up and give it a look. Opening up the sample magazine (~6 pages), gave me nothing but Mercury Milan ads. Then I found the DVD.

Yes, it came with a DVD. It was also plastered with Milan ads on it. Oh great, they got me to open up there junk mail, basically because they lied to me, and now they expect me to actually consider this car?! In addition to the magazine and DVD there was a letter, a piece of paper in the shape of sunglasses proclaiming their website, and a comment card.

The upside, on the letter, there’s a “rebate” for a $50 american express card, but you have to test drive the car. I don’t want to test drive the car, I have no desire (but the $50 may get me if I have extra time). The only thing I think of when I hear Mercury is cars that are identical to Ford’s (because they are, the Milan is a Fusion), and that HORRIBLE actress they have for their SUV ads. In no way shape or form would you find me in a Milan, unless I was renting a car.

And wasting who knows how much money on this advertisement to make Mercury appear “hip” to the “urban crowd” is definitely not well spent money.