White Sox game from May

I meant to post these a long time ago. My friend Erin's aunt works for the White Sox. She's a very good person to know. The seats we got to this game were on the front row, right next to the Twins' dugout. It was awesome!!!

Is Google Making Us Stoopid?

Atlantic Magazine poses an interesting question this issue. Is Google making us stupid?
I've often thought how different my life would be if I didn't have the internet close at hand. I use it to read the news, communicate, check my bank account, shop, find phone numbers, restaurant reviews, etc., etc. I don't really feel the need to remember anything because I can just quickly look up anything I need.

Ironically, the internet went down in my office this morning. I couldn't do anything! I had to call a money management firm and couldn't find its number. I didn't even know where to look -- we don't have phone books anymore! Basically, I sat around and waited for the internet to come back up. The Atlantic article argues (in part) that the internet has made it much more difficult for us to focus for long periods of time on a singular text. We want to jump around all the time. The Wikipedia of the brain, so to say. I definitely find myself having difficulty focusing on a long article (such as the Google article.) This isn't too far off what Neil Postman argued in Amusing Oursevles to Death.

Wrigley tour

I went on a tour of Wrigley Field with the KU Alumni Association yesterday. It was really interesting. There's so much history at Wrigley. It's a rare thing to see. And the other great thing about Wrigley is that it's in the middle of a neighborhood, not surrounded by parking and highways. It just feels so accessible. A treat for sure!

The Cubs' locker room

Carlos Zambrano's locker

Going into the locker room

My friend Scott hanging out by Tom Glavine's locker

Look at how much stuff they have in the visitor's locker room bathroom!

In the press room

Kaitlin and Scott out on the field.

It's been some time

So, I got an e-mail offering me $50 for this address since I hadn't updated it in eons. It could have been a scam, but I needed it to get my butt motivated to blog again! I was like, oh no dude, Jbyrdie's Nest is mine!! I stopped blogging for a long time because my old computer was moving so slow. But now that I have a new one and have actually settled down in a place to live, I'm out of excuses.

Well, very sad news today. Tim Russert died. I used to love watching Meet the Press. I kind of stopped for a while when I got disenchanted with politics but I always thought Tim was great. Of course the first thing that came to my mind when I heard the news was that his death was probably a heart attack and must have had something to do with the stress of the news business. One of my friends pointed out that it also probably had a lot to do with all the medium rare steaks! Everyone has stress in their jobs. It's just so important to let it not be all consuming. But at least Tim seemed to LOVE what he did. So, RIP, Tim Russert.

Ruby and Slash

My brother's cats Slash and Ruby. Aren't they cute?

A mess.

Chicago is a mess with the snow and all. I'm glad I take public transporation everywhere. Cars are stalling, swerving and ending up in ditches. But the Trib had this really cute picture of a dog today :-)

Move to Chicago

I just moved to Chicago. So far, so good. I'm renting a condo in the South Loop. It's a pretty good location that's seen a lot of changes over the past few years. Chicago Magazine had some good stories on the area in June. I'm about four blocks east of Lake Michigan and the museum campus (see map.) Oh, and Soldier Field is super close, so maybe I can go see a game when it's not freezing!

Here are some pics of my new place:

The balcony.

The view from my balcony. You can kind of see the Lake (but it's kind of hard to see.)

Little Rock

My friend Emily and I took a trip down south this weekend to Little Rock, Ark. We visited the Clinton Library and other notable places. Here are some pictures from the trip:
A Chihuly Christmas tree made for the Clintons during their time in the White House. The museum wouldn't allow flash photography, so some of my photos are kind of blurry.

There's an apartment at the top of the library where the Clintons stay when they're in Little Rock. The tour guide said Bill comes usually at least once a month. Who knew?

Das Capital.

Cotham's Mercantile. A run-down general store in Scott that happens to be famous for its fabulous food. I don't think I would have stopped if someone hadn't brought me. Yummy, yummy southern cookin'This is the back of Cotham's. The brick legs are the only things keeping the building from falling into a swamp. :-(

The Big Dam Bridge. The longest pedestrian-only bridge built for that purpose in North America.

Little Rock Central High School. This September will be the 50th anniversary of the Little Rock nine.

My new digs

I'm staying at one of my parents' duplexes in Springfield while I try to decide what to do with the rest of my life. $700/month for a three bedroom, two bathroom place. Springfield is so cheap!!

My new 42" Sharp Aquos LCD. It's fabulous. I've been spending a lot of time staring at it.

The backyard.

Chi-town

I went to Chicago last weekend to help my brother move apartments. Here's the view from his apartment--it's pretty awesome.

Slash!

The apartment--with a bunch of boxes

Mike and Shannon on the couch

Slash again!

Ruby--she can be kind of shy.

Ruby--could probably lose a little weight :-)