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270 PostsSolving The Food Shortage Problem
What an amazing challenge that is clearly achievable. I’ve seen on TV some groups in San Francisco that take still fresh produce tossed away by restaurants and create meals for the homeless and poor. While slightly rogue, that level of reuse is needed if we’re ever going to make this a reality. I hope I can work towards something meaningful like this in the future.
Currently Reading: Elements of User Experience
Really been getting into user experience lately, so I thought I’d read what people consider the bible on user experience. I’ve gotten about halfway through so far, and while I’ll say that it’s certainly got some good information here, it’s a bit basic. I’ll finish it up and move on to some more in-depth stuff. I’ve found some great articles on Smashing Magazine, so I’ll keep looking for more like those.
We’ll Miss You, Howie
My fiance’s family dog, Howie, was put to sleep late last night. Though I knew him for roughly six years, I never got to see him during his prime as a champion agility dog. He was the classic yellow lab family dog that was full of love, great with kids and anyone else that was visiting. His age and health limited his interactions with our dog Jack, which was really too bad. Jack sure could have learned some lessons from Howie, and I can only hope that Jack will become the kind of dog that Howie was.
Update: I saw this post from Beth’s sister Abby, and although it’s a Harry Potter quote, it is quite fitting for Howie:
“To call him a dog hardly seems to do him justice; though inasmuch he had four legs, a tail, and barked, I admit he was, to all outward appearances. But to those who knew him well, he was a perfect gentleman.” –Hermoine Gingold
Great smile. Great dog.
Update 2: Thanks to commenter Nate, who pointed out that I had mistaken the quote as being from a Harry Potter character, which is not the case. I’ll just slink away now… Oh, I also found a few more photos of Howie.
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- Here’s Howie meeting our dog Jack for the first time, with Beth’s dad, Kerry.
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- Handsome Howie
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- Howie and Jack checking each other out
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- Great smile. Great dog.
We’re Engaged!
Yep. Took me almost six and a half years to finally make it happen, though I knew from the first time I saw her this would happen. Just like the proposal, I won’t ruin this with a bunch of talk. Here’s a few photos from our special weekend. The rest are on Facebook.
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- View from the balcony, where I proposed
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- What all the girls care about – the ring.
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- Our dinner at Spiaggia
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- Our room at the Waldorf Astoria Chicago
Being a “Man”
I’m an avid participant in FWD:, a gathering of Chicago-based guys that believe men are more than what the media portrays them as (that’s a very loose and completely incomplete description of what the group is all about, but it’s one aspect). I firmly believe that most men aren’t the completely moronic, insensitive and close minded group that the media-and others- would have you believe we are.
That said, sometimes it’s nice to engage in some traditional ‘man activities’. A couple of weekends ago, I went on a long weekend trip to Traverse City, Michigan with my future father-in-law, and my girlfriend’s sister’s husbands. So what does a group of men do in a cabin in the woods, away from home, away from women? We lived, of course. We ate extremely well (or poorly, if you’re into health foods and such), we drank, we played poker and spades, went to the casino twice, smoked stogies at a cigar bar, went 70mph on snowmobiles, and we even found time to go skiing. Aside from illegal drugs, women, and perhaps hunting, we let our man flag fly pretty high that weekend. And now, a few of my favorite photos from this manly trip below.
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- Our awesome cabin in the woods
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- Cooking red meat in the kitchen
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- Our 70mph snowmobiles
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- Enjoying a beer by the fire, post-snowmobiling
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- Smoking a stogie
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- My poker tournament winnings
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- View off our back deck onto a lake
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- Yours truly on top of a ski hill
First Snow of the Winter
It’s January 12th and it finally snowed here in Chicago! Technically, it’s snowed a few times before, but it barely stuck, so I don’t count it. But today, we got real snow. 4-6 inches! I wouldn’t normally welcome snowfall, but I’ve got a snowmobile trip next weekend and we really needed some snow in the Midwest.
Anyways, here’s a few pics I snapped of the first Chicago snowfall of 2012.
My Birthday in Images
A handful of photos from my birthday today.
Even Google knew it was my birthday.
Templeton Rye Old Fashioned
Bacon-wrapped meatloaf from Uncommon Ground
Beth got me some Molly's Cupcakes
Beth also got me some new watch straps
Testing Google + Indexing Speed
I saw a comment on Facebook that this guy was using Google + to get pages indexed “in four minutes”. So, I want to test this. As soon as this post goes live, I’ll be sharing it via my Google + page. At that point, I’ll be checking Google for the post URL once a minute until I see it’s indexed. I’ll report back with the result!
UPDATE: Sure enough, right around four minutes later the post got indexed.
