After a very productive but long week in Chicago, I’m back at home. It’s funny how in less than two weeks, I went from never having been there to practically living there. By there, of course, I mean the McCormick Place Hyatt and office…nowhere else.
I didn’t get too much of a feel for the city, but we had a great view and some good food (Moon Palace Chinese, and an excellent but name-escaping Thai place).
View from my hotel (Lake on the left)
Chicago from above
We are launching a new health care company with a hospital system in Chicago so I’m sure I’ll be back again and have more time to explore.
Having traveled a decent amount in the last five years, I always find it interesting how comforting the idea of “home” can be. When you travel, you rush to the airport, and within a few hours can be halfway across the country. It gives you such an appreciation of how big the country (and world is). Even so, people take comfort in the idea that somewhere, there is a small patch of land with a building on it, filled with all your stuff.
The weather in Chicago (especially earlier in the week) was freezing, so it was nice coming home to NY at 45 degrees and a crazy sunset. This is what I saw when I stepped outside (Note: Reality was not this blurry…I was dodging oncoming cars):
After sleeping 13 hours last night, I’m looking forward to just relaxing this weekend. One thing I did get to do today was watch Conan’s goodbye speech. It was pure class. I hope he gets another gig soon.
As a guy, I have never worried too much about bathroom noises. In fact, I support them.
Women, however, are another story. Before using the bathroom, my girlfriend often turns on the sink and shower while blasting Pavarotti. The only way to block out more noise would be to form a black hole somewhere near the hand towels.
Leave it to Japan, then, to solve a problem that no man has. Enter the Pee Without Noise Stool!
This one-of-a-kind product eliminates the “sit or stand” debate by presenting an awkward middle option – the halfway kneel. I guess the theory is that by dropping “Godzilla” very close to the water line, there is less distance to travel and thus a quieter splash. Fascinating.
My favorite part of the website is where they actually show this in practice. As you can see, everyone’s urinary tract is a teapot. Standing up causes a big splash, and sitting causes you to aim right and pee on the seat while displaying oddly Hebrew-like characters. Only the Pee Without Stool enables the silent stream. Happy Friday!
The recent earthquake in Haiti has caused untold destruction, magnified by the poor conditions that surround much of Port-au-Prince. Casualty estimates have ranged from 40,000 to as high as 500,000.
The NY Times highlighted a huge surge in cell phone giving – $2 million has been raised via text message as of early this morning.
The easiest way is to text “HAITI” (presumably without quotes) to the number 90999. This will add $10 to your cell phone bill, which is aggregated and sent to the Red Cross. None of the money goes to the phone company, so you don’t have to worry about AT&T using an earthquake to build up their 3G networks.
More information can be found on the White House or Red Cross websites. If you’re reading this and you can spare $10 and a few seconds, it’s definitely worth a donation. Via Consumerist:
Here is a stirring report on the devastation and how the lack of infrastructure is hampering recovery.
On Twitter, you can follow developments by searching for #Haiti. While doing so, I saw the following:
Pope Benedict activates the Catholic Church’s extensive worldwide charity network to help the victims #Haiti quake – Reuters
This made me wonder…how do you “activate” a charity network? Is this an email, a phone tree, or what? In my mind, Benedict hit a giant red button on the Pope-desk, and missiles full of supplies came shooting out of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil, although that may not be completely accurate.
As you may have heard, recent research from King’s College in London has suggested that the G-spot is a myth. According to the report:
The study suggests that there is no genetic basis for the G-spot and that environmental or psychological factors may contribute to whether a woman believes that she has a G-spot. The new study is published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.
This has been getting a lot of news play (no pun intended), even within traditional news sources like the Clitoral News Network. Since there are far more pressing things going on in the world, I thought this was best left to the always excellent web comic xkcd.
I can’t believe you…you just moved in with your girlfriend and yet you spend all weekend trying to get with me?? You know we can never be together again. I appreciate that you want me to meet you at your hotel in Chicago, but you can’t expect that I would risk ruining your job AND your relationship.
Things have been tough since you left your first apartment in Astoria. You had that tiny room that got no light…we would spend hours together in the dark and no one would know what we were doing. People laughed about you living in the basement but in my eyes, that just made it easier for us to spend all night together…and all morning.
I suppose things were destined to fall apart after college. I’ll never forget the passion you had when we first met. It was the end of the semester, and in the middle of Professor Conway’s classroom, you took me, right there on the desk. I couldn’t believe this was happening in a campus building but I guess when you need something that badly you have no choice. Just thinking about it now excites me.
That said, you know this can never work. Your job keeps you away from me too much. I don’t know how you expect to have time for “after hours activities” when you’re working until midnight so often.
Even if that weren’t an issue, there’s no way we could get away with a rendezvous in your current apartment. Between the lack of curtains and Lauren waking up at a different time every day, I’m sure someone would catch us before we got too into things. I miss you as much as you miss me but I think we both need to admit that our time has passed and we can never go back.
I know that you think about me every night no matter what’s going on in your life, but it’s time that you learn to live without me. It will be hard at first, but just think – we’ll always have Oneonta.
Sometime in November, work got crazy, I was planning a move, and caught what may or may not have been bacon flu. But I (along with Three Word Chant and its tireless contributors) am back!
It’s 2010! Some things have stayed the same (troubling economy, two wars abroad, prominence of Lady Gaga), while others are vastly different (Umar Abdul Mutallab is definitely getting less action than he did at this time last year).
Over the next several weeks I will be ramping things back up, along with dishing out some long-saved posts and links. In the meantime, some key highlights since I last blogged:
I Have Been Domesticated: After four years of living with a good friend and 26 years of leaving the seat up, I moved in with my girlfriend Lauren a few weeks ago. We have a great new place (still in Astoria) and we are almost done unpacking. I have an actual living room and have cooked every night so far – both things that I’ve always wanted to do. I don’t want to say that moving is expensive, but my first child is almost certainly going to Bed Bath & Beyond University.
A New Blog Is Up: My friend Dave is a Van Buren Boy by night, but highly decorated Philly sportswriter by day. He has started up a blog with the Penn Gazette and is covering University of Pennsylvania sports regularly. He is a long-time contributor to Three Word Chant so go check his site out: http://penngazettesports.com/.
I Worked On Several Items On My 101 in 1001 List:
90. Do something charitable every Thanksgiving: I participated in a November cancer walk at Yankee Stadium with Lauren and my cousins. I probably got too much enjoyment out of it to call it charity. Some Yankee Stadium outfield dirt may or may not permanently reside on my desk.
45. Talk to a Celebrity: On December 27th, I went back to see Alvin Ailey, the ballet that Lauren’s family helps sponsor. As luck would have it, we sat directly in front of Alicia Keys. She was with a few young girls (they looked like they might be cousins/nieces) and was extremely friendly. We asked her about growing up in NY, and it turns out that she went to the rival high school of Lauren’s sister. I know all of this because I spent most of the time staring and humming Empire State of Mind rather than speaking. I wondered why I wasn’t awkward meeting Bill Clinton but I was with her. Then I realized that Bill Clinton isn’t hot. Anyway, it was a pretty cool surprise to meet her, and I would have taken a photo but her bodyguard was larger than me by a factor of Jupiter.
97. Send 20 Letters Through The Mail: I sent my first one today. My aunt and uncle got me a copy of Outliers when I mentioned I hadn’t read it so I sent along a thank you. In retrospect, this bullet point is a huge letdown after all of the name dropping in the last one.
Other than all that, I spent a lot of the holiday doing family things, purchasing unnecessary cooking tools, and celebrating New Years with a few friends. I will close with a sequence of events that took place that night while playing Taboo:
Bryan: He’s a guy..lots of women around. He gets a lot of ass!
Erica: The Pope?
Bryan: Hugh Hefner.
First off..back to blogging. Now that Lauren and I have a new apartment and I am no longer dying of bubonic plague that should be easier.
In the late night comedy world, Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon typically battle each other for the lowest common denominator. Leno is painfully unfunny, and Fallon is a giant mess who is too busy laughing at his own jokes to put together a set. Well, for the first time, at least Fallon has done something funny.
Here is him as Neil Young covering one of the classics of the 90’s:
This handy flowchart from Eating the Road is an ingenious guide for determining which fast food to eat. I’ve only been to San Fran once, but I think all lines should point to In-N-Out burger.
Playoff baseball + no sleep + outside in rain = flu.
Spent much of the last two weeks in bed. Less cool than it sounds.
In the meantime, Lauren and I celebrated our first anniversary (I got a great girlfriend and a Wii out of this…what a deal). Also, yesterday we did a 5K within Yankee Stadium for a cancer charity.
I got to stand on the field (a lifelong dream) and we had a great time. Working on reentering society now. While working on that, I was impressed with this insane juggling video. Thanks to Golding for finding it.
Still trying to recover from last night…and the last month of playoff baseball really. Incredible night that I will never forget. I did manage to get some video and a few grainy photos..I will upload by sometime tomorrow.
In the meantime, I saw this terrific post on Gizmodo. NYC Is finally joining the 21st century. Starting with the L train, they are installing LCD screens that show where every train on the line is so you can know exactly how long the wait will be. This will cause an immediate increase in convenience and decrease in the annoying people that lean over to check on the empty subway tunnel every five seconds.
Depressing sign: when you recognize other commuters. On an airplane. 1 day ago
@lehrblogger Cool article! Havent played in awhile so I need to brush up this weekend as to avoid sheep theft. Lets play online sometime too 1 week ago
Company launches today. Sleep launches tomorrow? 1 week ago
Just saw 9 fire trucks fly by in 5 minutes and a 30 block area smells like smoke. What is up in #Chicago? 1 week ago
@lehrblogger didn't know anyone else who loved settlers. Found it online a year ago and went through an obsession..we should play 1 week ago
As a guy, I have never worried too much about bathroom noises. In fact, I support them.
Sometime in November, work got crazy, I was planning a move, and caught what may or may not have been bacon flu. But I (along with Three Word Chant and its tireless contributors) am back!
Some things have stayed the same (troubling economy, two wars abroad, prominence of Lady Gaga), while others are vastly different (Umar Abdul Mutallab is definitely getting less action than he did at this time last year).
