(no subject)

So, it's raining in Chicago today.

When I was walking to work from the train it was mild enough that I didn't bother opening my umbrella; I spent four years in the Pacific Northwest and you can tell the Freshmen and tourists because they're the ones who even bother carrying umbrellas. The rest of us just tolerate getting wet.

Anyway, it was just spitty, but apparently it's got worse since then.

Another fun fact: Coworker Crush walks to work every day, because she lives about two miles away.

So I'm sitting here at the reception desk when she walks in, hair PLASTERED to her head, coat soaking wet and trousers damp from the knee down.

"You look soaked," I said, like an idiot.

"I left my umbrella at home! I walked two miles through the rain!" she snarled.

"Well, um, you're making it work?" said I.

"Don't push it," she told me, and went off, hopefully to find a towel.

The course of true love never did run smooth.

(no subject)

I've been trying to read Guy Kawasaki's "Enchantment" which is kind of about marketing, and how if you enchant someone with your product/attitude it creates a reciprocal loyalty which is beneficial to the consumer and enriching for you. But I can't shake the feeling he thinks I'm an idiot, and I gave him fifty pages and he told me to smile more. So I'm over Guy Kawasaki.

I think maybe I need to move away, a little, from -- I don't even know what to call this genre, the closest I can get is "Corporate Self-Help" -- into more academic studies like Made To Stick was. (This is not a call for reccs. No, seriously, my reading list is long enough, don't recc any books to me.) Also I'm creeped out by how often these books like Enchantment and The 360 Degree Leader are linked into Christian ministries or written by preachers. I try not to be prejudiced against Christianity because I know there are good, thoughtful, compassionate people of every religion out there, but I was raised in four different churches of three separate denominations and I have some serious issues with what I encountered. I don't want to re-encounter it under the guise of business advice, thanks.

Though it's not like I don't need some corporate self-help today, in all honesty; of the three FIVE (two more "incidents" occurred while I was writing this) people I've had extended conversations with, I've managed to be drastically misunderstood by all of them. Mind you, two of them are idiots, but I can't really say the misunderstanding was their fault. Plus I was an idiot to Coworker Crush, though that's really just par for the course.

Early this morning, due to an incident not involving work, I declared this day Awkward Friday. I think I may have cursed myself.

(no subject)

Let's go for something cheerier! Have a little slice of my home, everyone.

Chicago Magazine's staff blog has a post up about the first film footage ever taken of Chicago -- a civic parade of a shit-ton of Chicago cops marching around, which makes me LOL. The third video, a hand-coloured clip of Loie Fuller's "Danse Serpentine", is absolutely gorgeous, as much for the artistic non-realist colouring as for the performance itself.

Talking of film in Chicago, the Trib ran a thoughtful, funny article about Chicago's upcoming destruction in Transformers III. Transformers III and Source Code are really the first films to destroy Chicago, though there have been a couple of simulations for one of those "World Without People" type shows. I found the article unusually intellectual, given the normal output from most newspapers.

It's sort of self-evident that a major blockbuster destroying Chicago brings a bit of prestige to the city, but I was really struck by Joanna Merwood-Salisbury's remark that "The last time Chicago saw itself flattened was the Chicago Fire of 1871." The fire, almost a hundred and fifty years ago, has left weird and lingering scars on the city, so how Chicago interacts with new destruction should be interesting.

I was definitely affected when I saw the Transformers III preview during the Super Bowl, because I have strong feelings about those fuckers blowing up my building.

Anyway. This is my city, the movies are blowing it up this summer. Think of me fondly if you go see Transformers III (because you will need something to think on fondly, if the last two films are anything to go by).

(no subject)

Oh my god, I know a guy. I'm the guy who knows a guy.

Mum and Emmy wanted to come to Chicago for Mother's Day, and from a conversation I had with Lucky, my stepfather, I gather that he's not exactly unhappy with the idea of a whole weekend with the house to himself. Mum's not allowed to make travel arrangements for Chicago anymore since when she does we end up in some other city entirely, so she told me to handle it, but that her budget for hotels was on the thin side.

I said no problem, and made a few calls to some professional acquaintances of mine, and now we're staying here, with about a 60% discount.

Now I just have to find a way to entertain a fifteen year old and my mother simultaneously for three days.