June 2008 Archives

I like to think that I go through life with a pretty good understanding of what makes people tick, and so surprises like this one can leave me baffled. I first saw a blog post about this in the WSJ, and I couldn't tell if the letter was tongue-in-cheek, or if this bond investor was really recommending we work our way out of the financial slump we're in by being even more fiscally irresponsible... but the full letter didn't really clear me up on that too well. I suppose I understand his economic argument, I just think they're wrong. Maybe it's over my head, or maybe it's just ridiculous.

Dear President Obama by Bill Gross.

The only other thing I have to say is that I just couldn't possibly picture one of the partners at my firm putting this on the company website.

Working on a photo gallery project for The Cubdom. I've always liked this photo, and so I figured I'd post it where I'll see it more often.

I'm an uncle again!

Andreu Rhys Villa was born at 5:55 PM on June 18, 2008. He weights 7 pounds 11 ounces and is 19.5 inches tall.

Please pray for Kyli as she recovers from surgery.

I speak for all Cubs fans: Cubs fans hope this is their year - Roger Mooney

Byron Clarke is a 25-year-old CPA living in Chicago. He is the co-founder of Goat Rides of the Apocalypse, a Web site for Cubs fans. He, too, has the waiting-until-the-other-shoe-drops feeling about this year's team, but he decided a while ago to try to kick that habit.

"It's been 100 years," Clarke said. "We've been afraid of our shadow for the last 30, 40 years. I think it's time to act like big kids."

Clarke thinks the negative vibe contributes to the negative results, that players are victims of the woe-is-us mindset.

"I don't think they can help it," he said. "They are inundated by it."

SNIP

Clarke thinks manager Lou Piniella has the moxie to bring a World Series title to Wrigley Field. Now, if he only had the depth of starting pitchers.

Clarke thinks if anything gets in the way of the Cubs this season, it will be a shaky rotation and not a black cat or the curse placed by the owner of a Billy goat who was kicked out of Wrigley Field during Game 4 of the 1945 World Series.

"I'm cautiously optimistic on the merits of the team," Clarke said.

Chicago Transit Authority officials Wednesday finally conceded that the "superstation" under construction beneath Block 37 in the Loop is way over budget - "in excess of $100 million" - and announced that the half-completed facility will be indefinitely mothballed while they search for a private partner to finance its completion.

SNIP

That means the city, CTA and Joseph Freed & Associates, which is developing a mixed-use project over the superstation basement, will have spent about $250 million on what so far is an unusable, half-finished facility that was supposed to anchor express train service to O'Hare and Midway airports and funnel commuters to retail outlets upstairs.

There are days I'm embarrassed to be a Chicagoan.

I like those nationwide commercials with the has-been celebrities. Life comes at you fast. I saw in the elevator the other day that Sanjaya is going to be starring in one. Anyhow, not two weeks ago I was sitting in Minneapolis listening to a sermon on setting priorities in your life. The pastor brought up a family of three and a half dozen youth group members. The youth group members had two dozen yellow balloons and the family was supposed to keep them all in the air. None of them stayed up for long, but when three red balloons were added and the family was told to keep the red balloons in the air, well it was much easier.

I scoffed a bit as I didn't feel overwhelmed by life, but woe to the scoffer! Life's been a little crazy for the last bit. Mainly it's work. Work has been stressful and busy as we're short handed at the moment. The other contributing factor has been the impending changes at The Cubdom.

A few months ago, I was contacted by an intermediary for one of the Rooftop owners about possibly purchasing my website. Those talks went nowhere, but I met the rooftop owner about two months later and we started talking about partnership opportunities. I was skeptical at first, but after a meeting last week where I felt like I really understood his motives for wanting to do the partnership, well lets just say I'm jazzed. We're meeting again later this week to iron out some more details, and I'm assuming we'll continue to meet a few times per month as we turn The Cubdom into the world's ultimate Cubs fan site.

One of the bad things or at least cautionary things is that I feel like I'm sidelining my desire to find a developmental service opportunity overseas. I'd been praying for and working towards increasing my passive web income so that I could possibly support myself with the website if I chose to go live in Tanzania or something crazy like that... and so this partnership seems to be both a blessing and a curse. Yes, it has the potential to really increase my web income, but it also has the potential to tie me to Chicago for long enough to see this open ended partnership through. I've already sort-of broached the subject with my would-be business partner, but we haven't really addressed the issue yet. Perhaps the time lines aren't as incompatible as I'm fearing... but my experience with the world wide web is that things never happen as quickly as I want them to.

Speaking of which, (Irony Alert) The Cubdom surpassed the Quarter Million Visitor mark two weekends ago when I was in Minnesota... and today was my highest traffic date in the life of The Cubdom. Interesting how things turn out. It wasn't that long ago that I printed out a 9 foot poster of The Cubdom at 10,000 visitors. Hopefully I'll hit a million before year end. (Math Check: It's June 3, 211 days remain in this year... would have to average 3,554 visitors a day. Doable if the partnership gets off the ground, but definitely a stretch.)

In other news, Bible Study was really good tonight. It was just Adam, Jackie, and I, but we had a frank discussion about our expectations for the group, and I'm at peace with the various expectations of everyone, and I think I can mellow out over some of the things that have frustrated me. Also, the Bar Louie hamburgers continued to impress. (Cheeseburger with tomato: $2 on Tuesdays.) Also, we covered the stated topic of the night, something we had generally failed to do on low attendance nights in the past. We're back on some Greg Boyd Sermons, and so I'm happy.

The Cubs have an eight game winning streak and are up 6-3 9-3 in the eighth. (Soriano just homered and the crowd is going crazy... thing is, the games being played in San Diego.)

Sight seen on the elevator today:

Erm... yeah.

Adam and I got to go up to the Wrigley Done Right rooftop last week.

Adam

I rode my new bike everywhere this weekend because the weather was really nice. (I sold the bike I bought last year and bought one a bit better suited for city-riding.) In addition to the grocery store, church, and the Cubs game, I hit the lake front trail. Here's a few pics.

My new bike on the lakefront trail

A picture of the Chicago skyline from approximately 35th street

Update: June 4 @ 12:21 I couldn't get the YouTube upload to work last night. Here's a video I took at Sledding Hill just south of Soldier Field.