travelin’

I’m ‘out to lunch’.
I’ll be traveling for the holidays - from the frigid and snowy Chicago, to the frigid and snowy East Coast, and onward to the even more frigid and snowy land of the trolls. Merry Christmas!

upcoming... Bill Nye the Science Guy goes green, DIY, and more thoughts on Chicago.

(If you get bored, the picture is actually a maze.)

this is how I roll

Our God must be crazy. As I reflect on the birth-narratives of Jesus I can’t help but wonder what God was thinking. Seriously though –what? God, a holy infinite being, willingly becomes a finite human – something God created Himself. I’m not sure there are any great analogies for this, much like there are no great analogies for explaining the trinity, but I’ll try anyway. A humanly example for me of God becoming finite is the thought of the richest person in the world choosing to give up all of his or her money and living impoverished in a third world country and then somehow out of that making everyone in the world rich. (I know this is not the best example. Especially since money does not bring happiness, but I think from a human standpoint it proves well.)

I’m not sure after sending a bunch of prophets to tell the people of Israel that they need to get things right, that my next idea would be to send a baby boy into the world. But, this is how God rolls. How risky is a human baby? Well, it needs more nurturing than any other animal on the earth before it is able to act on its own.

Jesus’ birth is no normal story either. Actually, it seems like one of those stories you tell where everything that happens in the story goes wrong. The fluffy nativity scenes and our grandiose pictures of Christmas really diminish the craziness of all that was going on. Let’s see: a baby out of wedlock (which was far more promiscuous than it is in today’s society –even to the point of stoning to death), a long journey to another town: Bethlehem (because of a census), they travel to Bethlehem unmarried and expecting, a baby born in the barn out back, a bunch of scandalous shepherds bringing great news to the masses, murder of children, an escape to another country, and after the death of Herod finally return to their home town. Before Jesus can really act on his own, his life is full of scandal, danger, and excitement.

Jesus’ birth narratives really capture the essence of God and the hope that is. During this advent season I wait for the one called Emmanuel.

website review: walkscore.com

Apparently, where I live it is a very walkable place. I came across the site http://www.walkscore.com/ on the New York Times website. Walkscore.com’s motto is for you to find “a walkable place to live,” or at least see how walkable where you live is. The website is interesting and draws awareness to car-dependency, but the website may not be as good as it seems at first glance.

The niche group for this site has to be people on the move (who like to walk or want to use their car less) looking for a great place to live. Because really, I’m not going to look at this site, find a great place to move, and move there. And the site really isn’t for showing people how walkable the area around their home is. Really?! For example: my parents. They live in the middle of nowhere. They aren’t going to go to this site, put in their address, and then say, “Oh, we never knew our house was so car dependent.” And they also aren’t thinking, “Hey, I saw that home for sale downtown (you know, the house that is closer to all the shops) let’s go to walkscore.com and see if it is more walkable than our house.” Of course they are not going to do that – it just is. So, it is clearly for people trying to move to a new place.

One slight, huge, problem with the website; the information it gives – sucks. For example: me. Where does it tell me to do my grocery shopping? Well of course the local 7-Eleven. Where else do you go, right? Eventually it does list an actual grocery store. Too bad as a local resident I know not to shop at that particular grocery store. It doesn’t list or have an option to list the grocery store I would shop at or prefer to shop at. This is key for someone that doesn’t know the area. My place may seem walkable with all the local 7-elevens around, but in reality is not. So, if someone does spot this mistake they still can’t fix it, because they can’t search where they would shop or prefer to shop.

Let’s keeping going with this example: movie theatres. For this, the closest listing is actually not a movie theatre, but a modeling agency and probably not one that the kids should be going to. This also goes with clothing and music – well unless I want to shop at the local Italian of Fashion for all my clothing needs.

So, what does the website do well? So, the website didn’t find me any good grocery stores or restaurants. It does show where the local schools, parks, libraries, and coffee shops are. In reality I am not in a walkable distance to a good grocery store, but I should have the option to find one and then have the ability to recalculate my walkability.

In all, the website is fun to look at although it does need some improvements in terms of the listings, and the ability to change the walkability factor. The website also can be good to find local places that you may have not known existed that might be right next door, literally.

give cinderella a chance

It’s almost that time of year again – college football bowl season. This year Florida will play Oklahoma for the national championship. The game has caused some controversy. The controversy is because during the regular season Texas beat Oklahoma, Texas Tech then beat Texas, and Oklahoma beat Texas Tech. Oklahoma finished number two in the polls while Texas who beat Oklahoma finished number three. We can thank the BCS standings for this. Texas will never know if they are good enough to be the national champion.

As usual though, ESPN and the like are talking like crazy for a football tournament. Ironically, the lower football divisions all have tournaments for the championship in their division. In high school, football teams play in tournaments to see which team is the state champion. And of course the NFL plays a tournament. So, why do the top college students have to play in bowl games that are based on conference bias, television ratings, and money revenue? College basketball holds a tournament to see which team is the basketball nation champion. It is also the most popular tournament of all sports. It brings about great matchups among great teams. It also allows for Cinderella teams to have a chance to compete. After the tournament there are always great games, along with knowing who truly is the best in the end. There is no argument after the game.

Again like last year I have created my own college football tournament. There are two tournaments. The two tournaments cover 64 teams, the same amount of teams as the bowls. The first tournament would crown the national champion, the second would crown a minor national champion, much like the NIT does in college basketball. The great thing about the tournament is that is creates great matchups including a possible Oklahoma verse Texas matchup. Even if the bowl games had better matchup, which is also listed below, they don’t compare to the possible games from the tournament. In all, the tournament creates better games for the athletes and fans a like.

i love you, no i hate you, no i...

Do you have any love/hate relationships? One of those truly mind-blowing “I hate you, but I also love you” type things. Until recently I didn’t. I always thought I knew what people were talking about. In the end after reflection though I could always say, “Oh, I don’t really hate that” or “You know what? I just don’t like them.” Well, I can finally say I have found a relationship with so much push and tug, love and hate that I can call it an official one of love/hate.

Of course it is not just one person. It’s 2.8 million (9.5 metro area) people. It’s the city (and metro area) of Chicago. There are so many things that I love about the city and so many things that I hate that I struggle with how I feel about the place. It’s a place I long for, yet long to get away. A place I have hope for, yet sometimes seem hopeless towards. A place where good truly reigns, yet destruction and evil lurk. A place of great diversity, yet a place that is segregated. It is a place that can make me very happy and also very mad. It is my relationship with Chicago.

40 great things about winter and the holiday season (in pictures).

Snow. Skiing. Being air born. Tree farms. The perfect tree. Christmas carols. Surprises. Sledding. Receiving a package in the mail. Parades. Christmas in the city. Christmas lights. Things that can really be done with snow and a giant stadium. Consumerism. Christmas movies. Snowball fights. Laughing at the misfortunate. Going AWOL when it is you. Second best sled to the… Toboggan. What is the Christmas season. Sleigh rides. Defying gravity. Gravity defying you. The way things look in the snow. Snowshoeing. Snowy peaks. Sweet ice carvings. Santa Claus and crying kids. Ice skating. Being the sheep in the churches Christmas play. Gold stars and little angles. Family. Advent. Christmas decorations. Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve service. Christmas day. The reason for the season.

november round-up

Holy freak Batman where did November go? I don’t know Robin, but it sure isn’t November any more. I’m not sure where November went either, but boy did it go fast. And now we are already one week into December.

So, what happened in November? Well – an African American was voted president – of the United States – for the first time – ever! And on election night, I was there – to witness it all. Besides that though it has been a pretty low key month with time spent with family and friends. Also, even though it didn’t “technically” happen in November it happened over Thanksgiving weekend – I had the worst road trip back from Michigan to Chicago. Although it is a funny story now that it is over, it matches up with me flipping out once while driving across the five mile Mackinaw Bridge in a snow storm.

Interesting enough: I got to go to my favorite restaurant twice this month, Tre Kronor, and in some genealogy research I found an additional three-hundred years of family lineage.

pollution is bad - here's proof

Hi!

So, last week I posted this photo from the new Google archive of pictures from Life magazine. It’s a great photo for many reasons. I’m not quite sure why there are a bunch of cars in the water, and the picture gives no explanation other than to indicate where the photo was taken. Is the river a graveyard for gutted cars? Here is a similar photo of the cars in the water. Although the photo says it was also taken in May of ‘68 it was certainly not. When you compare the foliage of the trees they are clearly taken at two different seasons of the year. There are no leaves on the branches compared to the first photo where there is full foliage. It sure would be interesting to know what river the cars are in and to do a comparison of the area today.

The car graveyard surely isn’t the only pollution that was documented in Life 1968. Here is a dumping ground into a lake.

Some pollution stays the same. In the photo you can see the build-up of oil, algae, and random beer cans and worm containers (for fishing). In many of the recreational lakes in Michigan you can still find the same build up of trash.

I wonder what is in the water that is pouring out of that pipe? And what is up with the tires and other random trash?

When cars took over the world, trains were just abandoned, literally. I’m sure these trains are no longer here. Michigan has been converting rails into trails for years.

One take at this picture and you know it isn’t natural.

Its proof that the cartoon movie Wall-e could actually happen.

And that’s not snow flowing down the river.

This is a really neat photo. Until you notice all the pollution pouring into the canal.

Here a few others: This cover of Life is a little scary, but when you compare it with this photo it is even scarier. Please, please don’t eat the fish? Ralph – that’s what the river is doing.