New Year

Well, that's the last of a very eventful 2008. Although 2009 is already shaping up to be quite the adventure...my anticipation abounds. Also, this means the blog has been around for a full year now. I hope you've enjoyed it, despite it lacking a bit in actual substantive material.

Good times.


Here's to the balancing act we call life. Have a healthy and happy New Year everyone.

And of course, no event is complete without balancing something on my dog's head:


What a great guy. I'll never get tired of putting random crap on his head.

Happy Holidays

Have fun. Be safe. Stay warm.


Cathy actually put up decorations and the tree about a month ago when my parents were in town...


My mom lent a hand with the decorations...


Ornaments were strategically placed on the tree...


Lots of ornaments...


Finished product.

Oh, and if you haven't seen it yet:


I think Q looks like a bug.

Ring Flash

Ring flash. A ring flash is basically a circular flash around the lens. It's a one or two trick pony in my opinion so I didn't want to buy one. Instead, I made a rudimentary one this weekend using a hotshoe flash, cardboard, a garbage bag, tinfoil, duct tape, and a glue stick. For being so low tech and looking like some sort of abstract art piece gone wrong, it works pretty well:


My better half.

Winter Solstice

Not quite, but it sure feels like it with the 6 inches of snow on the ground.

I'm not sure if it's really the way I am or if it's because I'm making excuses for living in Chicago, but I need my seasons. In theory, I think I'd love to live in a mild climate. It would be ideal in so many ways. Yet at the same time, my life has a rhythm with the distinct seasons. Without them, my year would be a song with no discernable beginning or end, no ups and downs, no build up, no catharsis.

Then again, there is something to be said about being able to wear sandals 365 days in a row. I suppose that's like a year long face-melting guitar solo set on repeat.


Q. Snow. Stick.

(blank)

Taken

Garbage In, Garbage Out

You know what I've noticed? Chicago doesn't give a shit about recycling.

No real city-wide residential recycling program. Once upon a time, recycling at home consisted of placing recyclables into a blue bag and then putting said bag into your normal garbage bin. I don't even know that could be theoretically successful and needless to say, it was an utter failure from the beginning. A bin system has been recently introduced, but for some silly reason it's only in a handful of neighborhoods.


City recycling drop-off centers are scattered, hard to find, and poorly maintained. It's full because it never gets emptied, not because people are recycling a lot. Most people here just throw bottles, cans, and paper right into the trash without hesitation. I'm pulling this number soley from personal experience (i.e., my ass), but I'd say, conservatively, that 2/3 of a person's trash is either recyclable or even avoidable.

At least the park districts have recycling bins (so says the optimist in me). Still, it just seems that people around here are inescapably materialistic, yet only a minority care about conserving the resources for those materials.

Oh well.

Staaaay...

Another installment of my inspirational series, "Toy on a Labrador's Head":


Toy on Head.

lol

Plundered

Cathy's mountain bike got stolen, straight out of our garage. Fuckin thieves. I blame it on bad garage security, a cheap cable lock, and my own idiocy (I had a perfectly decent krypto I could have slapped on but I got lazy). Looks like they just cut the cable and walked away with it. So the moral of the story is people suck so keep your shit locked up.


Lioness at Lincoln Park Zoo. Shoulda had her guarding the bike.

(blank)

Dash

Post-Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was good here in Chicago. Lots of family, a couple naps, and loads of food. I mean insane amounts of it. Fun times had by all.

Btw, the first day of December and we get our first snow. Seems appropriate. Already the doors to my car are frozen shut and the windshield has a nice sheet of ice on it. I love the midwest, lol.


A couple of Cathy's desserts.


Pumpkin cheesecake pie.


Dad and dogs.