Posted by mac on Mar 31, 2009 in
Tech Tuesdays Watching the above video brings back fond memories of a computer game I used to play in elementary school called “The Incredible Machine.” In those days, it represented the best of consumer-class computer physics simulations. I didn’t have this game for my 286 IBM Compatible at home. Instead, my experiences with it were confined to those all too infrequent moments at school when I had a chance to use our classroom’s one computer workstation–a cutting-edge Macintosh LC.
So cool.
To put all things in perspective a bit here, we’re talking about a machine that’s running at about 1/40 the processing power of the cellphone in your pocket, and yet the Macintosh LC represented the pinnacle of computer hardware in my life at that time. Of course, I was running at about 2/5 the life experience of what I have today. All that to say, “The Incredible Machine” instantly became the highlight of my day whenever I was allowed to play it. Ahh, those were the days…
While waxing nostalgic, I decided to see if there was perhaps a way to relive some of that childhood magic — a quick googling of “The Incredible Machine” seemed to present only false hope as I discovered a 2007 remake of the game in one click and learned of it’s mid-development cancellation in the next. Bummer.
Not being one to give up after a single googling, I persisted …a virtue that, for me, hasn’t been very rewarding lately (without getting too far off topic, it should suffice to say, I’ve spent far too much time stuck in the infinite regress of our natural gas companies arcane automated telephone system lately). Of course, this being such a trivial endeavor, I met with success! I’m pleased to be able to share with you, that the original “The Incredible Machine” game is indeed going to be re-released after all! … as a cellphone game!
I wonder if it will run 40 times faster….
Tags: gadgets, nostalgia, technology, video, wikipedia THIS
Posted by shana on Mar 30, 2009 in
Monday Product Endorsement Today I was going to endorse the Chicago Art Institute’s current special exhibit, “Becoming Edvard Munch,” and particularly, I was going to endorse going to see it with a buddy you haven’t hung out with in a while, as I did on Friday.
Munch, one of Oslo’s most renowned artists from the turn of the last century (bonus points to anyone who can name another without wikipedia-ing it), is best known for his famous “The Scream,” a really depressing but really striking representation of, well, existence, I guess. Anyway, I went to the museum dedicated to his work when I was in Oslo a couple summers ago (because besides eating fish and buying little troll figurines, there’s not a lot else to do in that town…), and I was surprised by how much I liked a lot of his stuff. So I was glad when this exhibit came to my new town.
The exhibit featured stunning works by Munch and a few by his contemporaries (Monet, Gaugin, you may have heard of some of them?) and is all about his development as an artist throughout his life. I was disappointed to learn about his unfortunate femme-fatale obsession, like so many of those hopeless late 19th century artists, novelists, poets, etc (Baudelaire, anyone?). Seriously, guys, get over it. But other than that, I was quite pleased with the exhibit and glad I went.
I was further going to endorse getting you butt down to the Art Institute anyway, before they raise their entrance fees again. Ouch. Tough to move anywhere from DC, the city of a million great free museums, but still, tacking on another 50% seems like a lot…
Anyway, all of this was in my head, including that picture of the ad I took downtown so I’d have something visual on the blog (no photography allowed in the exhibit, bummer), when I heard a song coming out of Mac’s office. And then I heard it again. And again…
Apparently, it’s been in his head for weeks, and he apparently does this every now and then – play it over and over – it’s just that this is the first time I’ve been home for it.
The song is: Forever Young
He listens to the (original) Alphaville version, even though it’s Rod Stewart whom you’re most likely to hear singing it on your favorite local light rock station, of course, among many others who’ve covered it as well. Who’s ever heard of Alphaville?
So I decided, what better case for endorsement is there than Mac happily bopping his head and singing along at work all day? And there you have it: Forever Young it is. Happy Monday.
Tags: art, Chicago, music, wikipedia THIS
Posted by shana on Mar 26, 2009 in
Chicago Thursday Big news in Chicago this week: apparently, we’re not very manly.
It was actually reported a couple weeks ago, by Combos (yep, those weird stuffed hard pretzel things, and no, I’m not sure why), but apparently it’s taken the RedEye, the Chicago Tribune’s free daily paper, until now to dig it up. And here it is:
We’re ranked 47 out of 50 cities across the country, behind Dayton, behind Milwaukee, behind Buffalo, just barely behind DC, and ahead of NYC, LA, SF, and Portland, Oregon. The article itself is not really worth reading, unless your bus is stuck in traffic and your forgot your book at home… and you’ve already read all the other things there are to read on your phone and checked the weather twice…
Somewhat interesting, however, are the little factoids of information you can gather from the “man-o-meter” rankings… yeah, there was a man-o-meter. Things that worked in our favor? There are obvious ones, like the Sears Tower (though I think we lost some points for the recent “Willis” development) and all of our sports teams… but did you also know that it is a Chicagoan who holds the International Federation of Competitive Eating’s record for hands-free blueberry pie? 9.17 pies in 8 minutes! (Just so we’re clear though, as impressive as this surely is, if I ever bake you a blueberry pie and you consume it in its entirety in less than a minute, “impressed” is not what I’ll be feeling.) The same guy apparently also holds the record for chocolate hearts, corned beef and cabbage, grits, and more… I’d imagine some of the blueberry pie skills cross over to other food types. We also eat a lot of hot dogs – about 100 million Vienna beefs alone are produced and sold in Chicago each year. Apparently – this was one of my favorite tidbits -
“travelers at O’Hare consume six times more hot dogs than Los Angeles International Airport and New York’s LaGuardia Airport combined.”
Thankfully, all of this bodes well for our manliness ratings. All you aspiring manly men, eat up!
Things that ranked against us, however, were our Starbucks-saturation levels (114 in the city), our low numbers of fishing licenses, Hummers, and Harley Davidsons per capita, and our smoking ban.
Of course there are things to be said about gender stereotypes and the impact these have on the health and well being of not only the readers of the RedEye, but the overall subconscious of society and its institutions… honestly though, I would’ve guessed there were more than 114 Starbucks in Chicago. Maybe that’s the really disturbing part…
And just so you all know, Mac totally instantly recognized Mike Ditka in that picture from the RedEye, I definitely didn’t have to explain to him who it was. ;)
Tags: Chicago, wikipedia THIS
Posted by shana on Mar 15, 2009 in
keeping you in the know While watching “Top Ten Natural Wonders of the World” on the Travel Channel tonight (though I’ve seen it so many times it’s almost not interesting… Everest is still getting taller, you can see the Great Barrier Reef from space, Lake Baikal contains 1/5 of all the world’s fresh water, blah blah blah), I was also flipping through the latest informational magazine from our insurance company… I know, right? Because God forbid I not multi-task…
Anyway, among articles like “What’s New in Colorectal Cancer Research?” and “Chlamydia on the Rise,” one article in particular caught my eye: “Older Adults Have Found the Fountain of Youth.” It’s an article about a recent study done of 100 centenarians in the US. When asked about factors that contributed to their longevity, many of these 100-plus-ers cited, not too surprisingly, things like staying close to family, keeping mentally active, and having a good sense of humor. More interestingly, researchers also found out that those in the 100+ crowd are actually pretty up on technology… not only do 12% generically “surf the web,” but 3% use online dating services… yeah, so if there are 84,000 centenarians in the US, and this study (however limited) reveals 3% of them to be using online dating services, that would mean there are about 2,520 people over they age of 100 using online dating services. Hey, if it’s ok to look, it’s ok to look.
I find this fascinating, and it made me wonder: do you think there are any centenarian bloggers out there? Any centenarian bloggers that blog about their online dating experiences? That would be an interesting read!
Tags: wikipedia THIS, words to live by
Posted by shana on Mar 12, 2009 in
Chicago Thursday I’m just going to hit you with it, this morning’s top headline:
sinking in yet?
no?
Built in 1973, Chicago’s iconic Sear’s Tower stood as the tallest building in the world until 1998 (damn you, Petronas Towers!) – that’s a run of twenty-five years, an admirably long time, considering that the six taller buildings in the world have each only held their titles for a couple years. The poor Shanghai World Financial Center was tallest for only a few months in 2008. Bummer. To this day, at 36 years old, the Sears Tower remains the tallest sky scraper in the entire western hemisphere.
Here’s a look, by the way, at the most recent and impressive action in skyscrapers lately:
The red buildings are the ones currently under construction – at this point, the Russia Tower is barely getting started and the Chicago Spire, as I understand it, is mostly just a twinkle in the eye of a newly bankrupt developer… the Burj Dubai actually is that tall, and was scheduled to be done in November 2008 but now they’re shooting for July. You can watch a (pretty creepy, actually) video of it here. It’s the music, really, and also, there’s no way the UAE has that much green space… Also, as you can see, the Sears Tower’s antennas remain the tallest of existing, completed skyscrapers, though the Burj kind of blows everything out of the water. Thirty-six years though…
I’ve been pretty obsessed with skyscrapers, particularly this recent rush of supertalls, like the Burj Dubai and the Chicago Twinkle – I mean, Spire. It all started back when I was just a little kid, and my dad took my sisters and I to climb to the top of the Sears Tower. Never had I seen such a structure, neither in my suburban Milwaukee hometown, nor in our frequent trips to upper Michigan. Never had I been so high up in the air. Never had I felt so close to the heavens. It captured my imagination for years to come – thereafter, any drawing I did of a city skyline (and there were many) included a building that looked roughly like this:
actually drew this one just now.
I haven’t been to the top of the Sears Tower since then, but for the rest of my growing up years and through college, any time we drove through Chicago, I’d always take a moment on the end of the Kennedy Expressway to stare out the window with reverence and awe. The Sears Tower.
Of course, as much as no one saw this coming (just last week they were talking about painting the Sears Tower silver! forget that!), there’s also nothing we can do about it. The real question is, how will these Willis folks train Chicagoans (and, indeed, the world) to start using the new name? Flashing signs? Ads on el trains? Millions of tiny implants around the city that deliver a small electric shock to anyone who uses the word “Sears” in conjunction with the word “Tower”? Cash prizes to those who do it right?
Thus far, Chicagoans (at least, Chicago Tribune readers) are adamantly against it, not at all surprisingly:
It will be interesting. This beacon of innovation in America’s heartland, source of identity and pride as the tallest building in the tallest city in the world, bought and renamed by some guys from London. We’ll see how it goes…
This would happen on a Thursday.
PS…
Shana: Can you believe they’re going to change the name of the Sears Tower?
Mac: Well, Sears hasn’t actually been there since 1992, and they gave up their naming rights in 2003, it was only a matter of time.
Shana: Yeah, but that’s not the point. I mean, you wouldn’t rename the Empire State Building, would you?
Mac: Is Empire still in the building?
Shana: But you wouldn’t rename the Burj Dubai!
Mac: Well that’s brand new.
Shana: Yeah but I’m sayin’…
Mac: (quiet, then…) I miss the Chicago Spire.
Tags: Chicago, skyscrapers, wikipedia THIS
