Author Archives: admin

today’s reasons why the bush family makes me angry

{23 June 2007}

two quotes:

first, president bush on why he vetoed legislation for embryonic stem cell research:

BUSH: Destroying human life in the hopes of saving human life is not ethical.

excuse me, what? it’s all well and good to moralize about that when we’re talking about frozen embryos, but isn’t that exactly what we’re doing in iraq? our foreign policy, all foreign policy, perhaps, is centered around the notion that american lives somehow have a higher intrinsic value than the lives of other people. that’s why when the white house or the military reports deaths in iraq, it’s always framed as, “12 US soldiers were killed….” and then tacked on to the end of the story, like a footnote, is “oh yeah, and also 243 iraqi civilians died too,” or whatever. the news has made a big deal as we passed each milestone stone of the number of US soldiers who have died in Iraq, 2000, 2500, and so forth. i sure haven’t seen any news blurbs about milestones of total civilian casualties.

so in war, it’s okay to take an iraqi life to save an american life, but it’s not okay to take an embryo that was never going to become a human anyway and use it to find a cure for diseases that people already living are suffering from? how much more arrogant that we create hundreds of human embryos in the pursuit of invitro, and then throw them away when we don’t need them any more. (why doesn’t anyone ever talk about that part?!?) better to use those embryos for essential, life-saving research. bush, you huge, walk-the-party-line hypocrite. under pressure from your conservative base you pull support for embryonic stem cell research (calling it unethical), but you don’t have the political balls to stick with your moral position and oppose all forms of invitro, and for that matter, contraception, because that would alienate the moderates.

the second sound bite that made cartoon steam come out my ears this week was the first lady speaking with michele norris about

LAURA BUSH: In countries where there are “gender issues” and where girls feel like they have to comply with the wishes of men, I think abstinence [and abstinence education] become even more important. We need to get the message to girls everywhere, not just in Africa, that they have a choice, that they can be abstinent and make choices for themselves that keep themselves safe. (quotes mine)

what? did she get lost mid-sentence and miss her point entirely? i’m going to assume that what she delicately referred to as counties with “gender issues” in fact refers to countries with a predominant patriarchy. and in a culture where women are so devalued, they often DON’T have a choice about when they have sex or with whom. there are cultures where women are still sold by their parents as child brides. they are denied access to education and employment. they are raped until they become pregnant and then have no choice but to stay with the husband who literally purchased them. don’t talk to me about how these women need to know they have a choice. in their lives, they have very few choices. what they need is education about the ways that HIV is transmitted, access to testing and condoms and antiretroviral drugs to help prevent the transmission of the disease to their unborn children. i can’t think of anything more condescending than laura bush sitting in her ivory tower talking about how abstinence eduction can empower women to protect themselves from HIV.

more mechanical triumph

{19 June 2007}

I’ve grown quickly addicted to having my bicycle as an alternate mode of transportation. It’s a learning process right now; each mechanical error results in a half hour of learning for a fix that, in the future, will take minutes. As a result of wednesday’s tire, I learned how to operate the quick-release feature and took the wheel (much easier to fit into the truck of my car sans bike) past a bike shop on my way in to work. $10.45 and 5 minutes later, the flat was fixed. It took me 3 days, however, to figure out how to put the rear wheel back ON to the bike. (it was clear that something need to happen to move the brakes out of the way to fit the tire thru, but it took hauling my Mech-E friend over to look at the bike to figure out how to disconnect the brakes. Yay, bike fixed! When the SECOND flat occurred two days later, I decided it was time to learn how to fix a flat myself. I bought a patch kit, I had instructions (thank you dear internets), took the wheel off, figured out how to get the tube out. Used the bathtub trick to find the surprisingly elusive leak, then patched the tube. Scanning the tire surface carefully before reassembly revealed a teeny tiny thorn deeply embedded between treads, which matched the location of the hole in the inner tube. Gotcha! Mystery solved. It’s true that the bike shop fixed my flat in 3 minutes, compared to the 60 it took me from start to finish, but they didn’t bother to look for the thorn, which would have continued to cause me flats every third day.

jesus save us from the 80’s

{15 June 2007}

i’m being snide, but actually, this 80’s cover band was pretty fun and their lead singer was pretty ridiculously cute. i couldn’t resist framing the shot of the bass player around the Jesus Saves sign on Clark st. at 10 o’clock on sunday night, the Midsommer Fest crowd was pretty good and drunk, and the 80’s pop hits meant that it was a “i love everybody!” sort of drunk. the “i could kick your ass if i wanted to” drunks were at the other stage where the 80’s hairband was holding court.

i heart summer in chicago.

just post SOMETHING.

{14 June 2007}

is she moving to salt lake city?

i can’t answer that yet.

in the mean time, something for the comment box:

if you had the option to double your IQ, but at the cost of making your ass twice as big also, what would you choose? according to late night television’s survey, 100 out of 100 women opted to stay with the IQ and arse they already have. with men it was about 20/80 as to who would take the bigger brain.

discuss.

computer cat

{28 May 2007}

aww, even zeke thinks the hipster guy on the mac commercials is hot.

who knew that there was a flickr photo pool devoted to cute picures of cats and computers? i should have known. now we are part of the club.

cover letter 101

{26 May 2007}

so, badly written cover letters are my pet peeve. this week i’ve been sorting resume and cover letters for a crew position i’m hiring at work. a few of my favorite excerpts from this morning:

“Strong personal skills I possess are, leadership, attention to detail, organization…” (you can’t put a glaring punctuation error in the same sentence in which you tell me your attention to detail is good!)

“I am a graduating student of B— B—, and she has given me your name as a contact for securing a position for either this summer or next season at Victory Gardens” (wrong theatre)

“I am writing after hearing about stage management openings at Timeline Theatre…” (again, wrong theatre)

“…where I was in charge of all the backstage technical elements including props, costumes, the fly system, and bubble machines.” (bubble machines?)

“Selected Accomplishments: Staying within thirteen cents of a $100,000 budget” (I so want to call him in for an interview just to say, ‘so, did you figure out where the missing 13 cents went?’ and watch his head spin around poltergeist-style. Being anal retentive is something I understand, so I’m allowed to mock it in other people)

“I’m a go-for-it guy – the kind of person you need as your next Page.” (I’m hiring a Page? as in a knight’s apprentice? will he bring my horse round for me?)

“Also, I’ve done this exact job before, not in your theatre, but at many other locations. It is one of the few jobs on the planet that I’ve found, doesn’t ever make me tired, or get old.” (wow, we’re hiring for our fountain of youth? the anti-aging job?)

“Buddy was also representative of my quintessential delegation…” (your what?)

“I display: Exquisite paperwork,” (really? what exactly IS exquisite paperwork? will it come dipped in fine chocolate and be something I can eat? at least be illuminated with little pictures of monks and gold dust on the edges?) “…the ability to work with performers and crew on satisfying individual needs,” (okay, now you just asked for that one to sound dirty…) “…special skills, including thorough computer knowledge” (I don’t think that using a computer can be considered a “special” skill any longer).

“I am 22 years old, single, a downtown Chicago resident…If I do not hear back from you in the next few weeks, I will try to reach you by phone to possibly try to set up a meeting.” (ah, don’t call me, and I won’t call you.)

but really, people, learn to proof read your cover letters. would you come into a job interview with a big stain down the front of your shirt?

i can’t claim to know much about the rest of the job market, but as for my biz, i know me some good cover letter writing. here are the guidelines:

1) keep it short – i have not yet encountered any justifiable reason to go over a single page.

2) PROOFREAD! seriously. you are formally introducing yourself on paper. if we met in person you wouldn’t go to shake my hand and, being careless, accidentally grab my ankle, right? you wouldn’t show up at the wrong theatre and expect to hired, yeah?

3) do tell me: 1) what job you’re applying for, 2) who you know, 3) the briefest of biographical info as pertains to the position without simply repeating your resume, and 4) what your availability is with regard to the job and interviewing. that’s all.

4) do not tell me what a stage manager does. would i be allowed to hire a stage manager if i didn’t already have a pretty good idea of the necessary duties and required skill set?

5) do not tell me what qualities i should be looking for in the person that i hire. i have a pretty good idea of what i’m looking for.

6) if you have an unusual skill that might come in handy in this position, you can highlight it. if the most original, or most flattering, details about yourself that you can come up with are that you are: smart, detail-oriented and hard-working, save the paper and ink. i’ll probably be able to figure that out on my own. who makes it this biz who ISN’T smart, detail-oriented and hard-working? dumb lazy careless people don’t go into theatre, and if they do, they don’t last.

that concludes our lesson in cover letters today.

three items:

{25 May 2007}

1. the most expensive gas in the nation is in our own chicago. snapped this morning while i was forking over most of my paycheck for gas:

less driving, more biking!

2. maxim rates lilo as the hottest woman in the world. seriously. seriously? seriously.

3. http://www.randomkittengenerator.com i knew the internet was capable of great things.

addendum

{15 May 2007}

per an anonymous hipster, i mean, tipster:

http://www.tellme.com/ has a competing free SMS directory service.

to be fair, i conducted a test by sending the exact same search to 83556 (TELLM):

university park condo chicago il

and received the following results:

Local Listings: University Park Condominium 773-324-1414 1451 E. 55th St Chicago, 60615

response time was about 10 seconds faster than google. the info returned was exactly the same, other than the fact that the phone number was listed before the address, which put it above the fold (good, in this case, since i was looking for the phone number and didn’t have to scroll down below the address to find it, but ultimately an arbitrary choice).

HOWEVER, tellme.com doesn’t do trivia like google does.

texting:

translate hello to french

to tellme resulted in an error message:

Sorry, no results. Check spelling & location and try again.

while google sent back:

Translation: ‘hello’ in English means ‘bonjour’ in French.

now, i don’t know how often i might need to translate things into french when i’m on the go, but i think for this match the score remains google: 1, tell me: 1.

you need this

{14 May 2007}

continuing the thread of helpful tip posts, is there anyone who doesn’t already know about google’s sms service? for those of us who don’t yet have web-enabled phones (come here, iphone!), this is the best.

just text the thing you’re trying to look up to 46645 (googl), and in about 30 seconds, you’ll get a text back. example: yesterday i need to call the management office of the condo building where my company houses visiting artists, but i was stuck in traffic on the dan ryan. i sent the following message:

university park condo chicago il

and immediately got a reply:

Local Listings: University Park Condominium 1451 E. 55th St Chicago, 60615 773-324-1414

and it does all forms of info lookup, not just directory listings. foreign language translations, weight and measurement conversations, weather, driving directions, and general trivia. if it’s on wikipedia, google can text you a 160 character summary.

i heart google.