Fri Apr 01 17:34:16 QAS vs. the bathroom stall doors in Caroline Hall:

This is a strange matchup today folks, but here it is anyway. Blame it on the rain.

I will miss Queen of All Saints Basilica. It is a beautiful basilica on the very northern edge of the city (near Cicero and Devon) in the Sauganash neighborhood. North Park used to have an annual Christmas concert there (a festival of lessons and carols) that was always really special, and baccalaureate has been held there ever since I've been around.

I sang there for three years as a paid musician, which was really good for me in so many ways.

First of all, I met a lot of amazing people. Secondly, I had never actually been to a mass until I started singing them at QAS. It was really a great experience for me to spend such a long time inside the Catholic church. As an "evangelical Protestant," it's easy to be really ignorant of the people, worship and theology of the Catholic Church, and I really valued and appreciated being a part of that community for such a long time. I didn't convert, but I definitely grew to a have a better understanding, appreciation, and respect for the Catholic church. My roommate at the time independently converted to Catholicism, and since we had been talking theology for many years by that time, my having a place inside the Catholic Church helped our conversations (for me at least) and definitely opened and influenced some of the spiritual questions I still find myself grappling with.

It also helped keep my singing and guitar chops in shape!

I will always think of that place, those people, and my experiences there very fondly.

I won't miss the men's room on the 3rd floor of Caroline Hall (where I work). The building was originally a women's dorm and the bathroom used to be twice as big, but one part was cut in half and turned into a kitchen. The space became cramped and so the stalls are so terribly ill-designed that you literally have to slide in next to the toilet to close the door. And the stalls are so old that you have to slam one of them to even get it closed enough to lock. (Naturally, the other door is really loose.)

One plus from the experience is that airplane restrooms now seem genuinely spacious to me.

Mon Apr 04 13:45:49 hanson hall versus my air conditioner:

I will really miss Hanson Hall at NPU. I had so many good memories, wrote so many songs in the practice rooms, etc. I also broke into that building late at night many times to play piano in the chapel. It's something I would never do now, but at the time it seemed like no big deal and some of my most enduring college memories entail playing those grand pianos the darkened chapel, with the lights from Foster Ave. rolling by.

It's also the site of some of my biggest college failures (freshman spring keyboard skills jury, anyone?). Basically, the most significant place on campus for me.

I won't miss the airconditioner in my office. It's about 20x30 inches and sounds like a refridgerator truck. We can't change the settings on it very well, so it's basically off or on. Plus, it's on my side of the divider, so my office gets to be freezing while Ken bakes on the other side (what does he bake, you ask? Cookies!) Ken rigged up an IBM server box as a little AC conduit. It looks ridiculous, but it works and that means that I freeze just a little less. It's terrible.

Tue Apr 05 15:07:33 more NPU memories:

I will miss my office -- I've really had a lot of leeway to put up pictures and have piles of weird equipment around which has been fun (hmm, maybe that's why I'm back in the corner of the storage room...) but seriously, it's been a pretty central hub of my life for the last six years. Looking around at the walls, the redvinegar posters, pictures of alh, memories. It's been nice to have a "space" that was my own. When I first started working here I didn't really think about why that was cool. But the older I've gotten and the more I've understood what other people's work environments are like, the more I've come to appreciate it. On the other hand, I've probably gone a little too crazy and filled it up with too much junk -- it's perpetually a disaster which does, as much as I hate to admit it, cut down on productivity and increase distractions.

Another thing about my office that I hate (and won't miss) is the terrible carpet in here. It is flat and gray and torn and dusty. It is so incredibly worn out it's really almost not there. I think the main reason we haven't repaced it is that it would just be such a huge pain in the butt... but seriously, it's awful. I realize that's not such a big thing to not miss, but I'm not feeling very creative today.

(1) Wed Apr 06 11:41:22 i'm on an NPU kick, sosumi[1].:

I am totally going to miss being on campus in the early morning. When I was an undergrad, I used to stay up until 4 AM pretty regularly... in fact, 4AM was kind of my defacto bedtime for about a decade. Anyway, back then it was playing Quake, or surfing the web, or who knows what; nothing all that productive, I'm sad to say. When I started working at NPU I pretty often spent all night long in the office working on some project or another. A little more productive, but I should have gotten a hold of myself the first time I considered putting a camping mat and pillow under my desk.

Anyway, I will always (hopefully) remember the early morning city sunrises with their purples and pinks and the birds starting to sing before the sun rose. Cool, early morning cities also smell surprisingly good. The birds starting to sing was always my signal that I had better get into bed or else. (Birdsong has never been so depressing.) This morning I was on campus around 5:45 to do some network upgrades, and it was just like one of those mornings, except the birds singing were encouraging. (alh complained this morning that a bird outside our window was "The loudest robin on the planet!" I had some kind of witty rejoinder but I can't remember it.)

[Haha... oh yeah. Our next door neighbor is a professional singer and she wakes us up pretty regularly with her warmups. I've had dreams where her warmups appear, specifically as a heckler in a crowd while I'm playing a show who won't stop making weird oohing noises. This morning I imitated a robin doing vocal exercises. Rimshot!]

I'm also going to miss being on campus when nobody else is around. I used to stay over many holidays as an RA because home was so far away. I used to love being the only person in the big, empty dorm, or wandering across campus not seeing another single person; especially during those Thanksgiving vacations. It was so crisp, and just for me.

I imagine that down the road whenever I come and visit, it will be when lots of people are around; who knows when or if I'll get to live those quiet Chicago mornings again?

Something I won't miss: bad city smells. I guess part of the reason I won't miss them is because I'll certainly experience them in LA. But as long as I'm talking, I just hate it when you're walking along and something smells rotten, or burning, or ozoney, or whatever. In the country, bad smells are usually just that -- bad smells. In the city, bad smells usually mean carcinogens or destruction, which makes me hold my breath as long as I can, but of course, you can't hold it forever. So then you start breathing it in, and at some point you think (or I think, anyway), who cares, I'm breathing this stuff all the time anyway. This just adds to my already developed sense of fatalism -- "I have to breathe, right? I might as well stroll out on to Foster Avenue in front of this oncoming car."

Coming up: Crossing Foster Avenue -- will I miss it, or won't I?

[1] http://www.boingboing.net/2005/03/24/early_apple_sound_de.html

Finally, did you know that the Red-breasted Robin's latin name is "turdus migratorius"? I hate to think of the teasing they have to endure at Bird School. So the next time a robin wakes you up at 5:45, cut him a little slack.

Thu Apr 07 13:22:46 lake michigan / k-mart at lincoln and mccormick:

I won't miss the old Kmart that used to be at Lincoln and McCormick in Chicago (right by Lincolnwood). It was, bar none, the worst retail experience I have ever had -- in fact, it's probably 3 of the top 5 worst retail experiences I've ever had. I hated that store, but yet I always gave in to the potential convenience of it's location and went there when I needed something "really quick." Except nothing there ever happened really quick... nothing except me getting furious, that is.

Once when alh and I were there (shortly after they opened the BigK Grocery part of the Kmart) we were picking up some groceries because it was close, or we needed something else, I can't remember. Anyway, while we were walking up and down the warehouse-like aisles we passed the cooler and there was a kid standing in front of several opened cartons of eggs. Many had their tops smashed in and he was dipping his fingers in the eggs and licking them.

Then there was the time I was looking at picture frames and there, next to the shadowboxes, was a loaded baby diaper all taped up and left on the shelf.

I could never figure out the layout of the store, which was exacerbated by the fact that they always had the aisles full of pallets of merchandise. I think it was supposed to be tempting but it was only annoying. The merchandise on the shelves was another story -- no organization, stuff on the floors, cats and dogs living together... seriously, it was so bad.

To top it off, the lines were always super long and the help always seemed like it was their first day, which honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it was. Basically the store was a total disaster. They should have made tons of money -- the location was perfect... but whoever managed the store didn't do a very good job. And then Kmart filed for bankruptcy.

I hated it, yet I always seemed to give in... "this time, it will be fine," I'd tell myself. "I'll just get in and out real quick." Never again. Not only will I be living 2000 miles away, but now there's a Home Depot there instead.

I will miss Lake Michigan. It's no Lake Superior, don't get me wrong. But it's pretty cool. I know that the Pacific Ocean is vastly larger and the cradle of life and blah blah, but the great lakes are pretty... great. I have lots of great memories of running and walking and hanging out down by the lake. I used to dislike (as being too oceany) but now have even really have grown to love the blue-green color of the water. I prefer the stark blue clarity of Lake Superior (of course), but the horizontality of Michigan always reminded me of home. (Except that at home the lake is always north... here it's always east.)

I like using the slang "glass of Michigan" instead of water; it makes me feel cool. (It doesn't take much.)

I also like the "third coast" idiom -- that there's the East and West Coasts, but then we're on the Third Coast... kind of like the Second^H^H^H^H Third City thing. Actually, I guess those "ranking the cities" thing is kind of like an overgrown small-town Rhubarb Capital Of The World kind of thing, but if you take it more in an endearing sense and less as a posturing thing it's nicer. Anyway.

Fri Apr 08 18:32:51 the hump / crossing foster:

You guessed it. I'm not going to miss crossing Foster Ave.

I am however going to miss long afternoons in the sun on the hump. There's such a good vibe on campus when people finally come out of their winter shells.

Sun Apr 10 01:15:49 the skinny on asparagus pee:

methanethiol

Mon Apr 11 19:27:35 magnolia trees / meigs field:

I will miss the magnolia trees blooming in the springtime; I'll miss spring in Chicago in general -- it's a welcome and wonderful change after the usual obnoxious winters.

I won't miss Meigs Field. I've never flew from there and I like the idea of it as a city park. As many of you know, Mayor (Generalissimo) Daley closed it in the middle of the night by executive order after a long and protracted battle over it. He wanted a city park. The proprietors wanted to keep the ritsy, wealthy-only downtown airstrip. Daley cited possible terrorist action and sent in backhoes and dug big Xs in the tarmac -- in the middle of the night -- and that pretty much put the kabosh on discussion. As you know, I've already mentioned that I will miss Mayor Daley, even though philosophically I appreciate democracy.

Tue Apr 12 11:20:56 i love chicago, i love chicago not:

I will miss the Lincoln Recreation Center, a.k.a. Lincoln Lanes, a.k.a The Bowling Alley Above The Ace Hardware. Yeah, you heard me right. In Lincoln Square, there's a bolwing alley above the Ace Hardware. It's totally retro and kind of threadbare, but totally cool nonetheless. The above review says, "Be prepared to dodge the locals." Yeah buddy, that's me.

I won't miss Guitar Center in Chicago. It's another one of those things that I don't have to miss because I'll have it in LA, but still, I won't miss it. I'm not sure what it means that I'm a musician but I hate most music stores. Mom and Pop ones are almost always better than Guitar Center obviously... but I usually don't really like them, either.

Wed Apr 13 13:45:18 band posters on campus:

I will really miss seeing our band posters up around campus. I haven't written much about redvinegar here because I am not sure what to say... there is so much to be said... but it's also sort of it's own thing independent of Chicago. One thing I have always been really proud of in this band is the artwork and graphics that we've put together, which have (mostly) been a joint effort between myself and Phil (with Phil taking the considerably larger part). This includes the website and the record artwork. Anyway, we have made some great posters over the years, and it's usually been my job to put them up around campus.... and I won't miss that job.

I'm not sure why I don't like it. I have some strange personality quirks. On the one hand, I love being distracted -- I practically majored in procrastination and work's major struggle for me is staying on task. On the other hand, I hate interruptions and things which are not necessarily that big of a deal take on these huge weights in my mind. Getting up and walking all over campus taping up posters is one of those things that always feels like an interruption to me, and always takes longer than you think. And so time flies on.

Along with that, I always feel like I'm doing something wrong. And in reality, I am. Our posters are never approved, because we're not an official campus organization (or sponsored by one). So while I put them up, I also realize that anyone can (and probably will) take them down. Plus, I'm 10 years older than some of the students on campus -- I'm this old guy wandering around taping up posters... when I was a college freshman, I didn't get what it meant to be in a band, and seeing some almost-30 year old guy wandering around putting up posters for his band would have made me immediately skeptical, as though that guy should get a life, or something. I don't know. I'm not saying I'm proud of that -- but it's true. Maybe I wouldn't have though that a 28 year old was that old... I don't know. Captain was 24 and he seemed very old, comparatively. On top of all that, I'm an employee of the university. That makes things more ok in some ways; I'm a part of the community. But the older I get and the more serious about my job I get, the less I like blurring those boundaries.

But what I *am* going to miss is seeing the posters up around campus. There's something about seeing your poster up there with everything else, or peeking out from the side of a lamp post, or stuck on a window 2 weeks after the show is over. I'm especially proud of the current poster, which draws on some artwork I did for a conceived webcomic called New Federalia. Phil always really liked the artwork I did, and we got some help from our friend mikeo' with the layout for the poster version. (Incidentally, mikeo' did the custom artwork for the final show poster.) I really like it.

Anyway, walking around, seeing those posters up makes me feel like I'm really doing something, producing something in life, even if it is something small and appreciated by a small amount of people. I have a big complex about doing something "important" in life, which generally translates in my mind into "something that a lot of people really like," which ultimately is a really selfish way about evaluating the importance or relative value of your life... yet I do it. I am a sucker for approval and praise. Seeing posters up, no matter how "small change" or "big fish in a small pond" it may be, still rubs that phrenological spot on my brain. I'll miss that.

I'll probably miss it because I won't have time (or a band for) to put up posters, but hopefully I'll miss that because I'll get over the idea that to live an important life you have to do something heroic or widely appreciated.

Thu Apr 14 15:41:21 driving home / legacy:

I will really miss driving home from Chicago. It was just the right distance to be a real trip, but not so far that I couldn't do it very often. Plus, I think it's a beautiful drive that grows more rural and more familiar to me the closer I get to home. Once I get past Eau Claire and I'm sailing through those woods alone, at night, it really is a sort of magnetic feeling. LA is a little too far away for that to work, and flying into Duluth is expensive. Getting home will become something much longed for and probably not that often attained. That bothers me, especially as my family only grows older.

One thing I won't miss around here is the legacy I've left behind. I don't mean about being in a band or plays or personal relationships or whatever other footprint you leave behind as a visible person on a small college campus; I mean the trainwrecks and failures. Last night and today I spent a substantial amount of time organizing my files and personal stuff as I prepare to leave, and let me just say that the vast majority of my academic work in college was embarassing. Sometimes just because I was an undergrad student who was hasty, but more than that... it was really embarassingly bad and neglected. I did my homework as fast as possible so I could get to all those other things, being in a band, writing songs, making web pages, whatever. "Jack of all trades, master of none," as my piano teacher once said.

Nowadays I find myself really trying to pare things down to the minimum; the things that I really want to work on. In my class (Calculus II) I am really trying to put in the time that I need to, but that pushes everything else aside. "Ah ha," I think... so this is how I had all the time to do other things when I was a student before. Well, I can't handle that anymore. If you're going to do something, you might as well do it well.

I couldn't bring myself to delete the files; but I won't miss the way reading them made me feel.

(1) Fri Apr 15 12:13:19 special viking cafe issue:

I won't miss the old viking cafe (our staff/commuter foodservice cafe) -- the new one is superior in practically all ways. The prices are worse, but I guess that's to be expected. It's kind of like a Panerabucks (part Panera, park Starbucks). Anyway, they have these great panini sandwiches and stuff, which beats the old "hot lunch" type meals they used to sell, and they still have the "perpetual pot of chili" which is old taco "meat" and spaghetti sauce and expired ketchup and who knows what, but it's good. A whole sandwhich is $4.29 -- BUT -- half a sandwich and a cup of soup or chili is $3.29! What a deal! And I get my mystery chili. I'm going to miss that.

I'm not going to miss the half warmed over canned vegetables they used to serve with the hot lunch. Vegetables out of a metal can are almost always a bad idea.

Sun Apr 17 15:27:23 redvinegar on 93 WXRT:

Tonight redvinegar will be on Local Anesthetic on 93.1 WXRT. For those of you who don't know, Local Anesthetic is a short local rock show on (what I think is) the coolest station in Chicago. They've chosen to play something from our record. Tune in -- on the air or on the web. Thanks to Richard Milne and XRT for playing us.

(1) Mon Apr 18 13:49:14 my old laptop vs. ann sather cinnamon rolls:

I will really miss going to Ann Sather for cinnamon rolls and coffee on Saturday moning. Their cinnamon rolls are really one of the greatest foodstuffs on the planet, imho. Two big hot cinnamon rolls with tasty frosting slathered on top. There's not much to say other than it's an incredible edible. If you live in Chicago and you have never had Ann Sather's cinnamon rolls, now is the time. (With locations in Andersonville and on Belmont.)

I won't miss my old work laptop. I had a Dell D600 through work that is totally nice, but lacking in a few regards, specifically it just doesn't seem that well constructed (the hard drive also makes odd, repeptive clicking noises), and there is no support in Linux for the Broadcom wireless chipset because Broadcom won't release the specs.

Dell, Broadcom: I specifically *did not even CONSIDER* buying your product because of a lack of support in Linux (and the construction issues, Dell). It is time to wake up and smell the coffee. Instead, I bought an IBM T-43 with Intel wireless built in, which has Linux support, and a nicer screen and video than the D600, and it seems to be put together very well. If you're considering buying an IBM laptop, I have a good sales rep to send you to.

Update: The IBM T-43 has a Broadcom 10/100/1000 NIC (NetXTreme) which is disappointing. It may be possible to get a different one; I'm not sure if it's built in, or if it's Mini-PCI or something. Either way, there is Linux support for it, and it appears to be source-based (not a binary driver from Broadcom). If anyone knows more about this I'm interested.

Tue Apr 19 17:32:08 macdo / mavis staples:

I will miss, literally, a concert that is being put together in the fall at NPU with Mavis Staples; it's part of the theme for North Park's year (I'm not sure what it is, but for example this year's theme was, "What is Justice?") and the concert's title is something about Singing the Gospel in a Foreign Land. I'm not sure if it's literally about singing overseas (or here, since this land is "foreign" to the Biblical Gospels), or if it is (as I suspect) about singing Gospel music in the "secular" world. Sounds pretty cool to me. Lately I can't stop listening to The Weight with the Band and the Staples Singers from their final concert (the movie of which is called The Last Waltz).

I won't miss the McDonald's at Foster and Kedzie... I haven't compared it to many in the city, but it is consistently worse than the ones I grew up going to. I feel like the best McDonald's are in the towns where they are just large enough to have one, but no larger. Big city McDonald's just seem to get dragged down into mediocrity, wheras I think in a smaller town, they still feel like it's kind of a big deal to have a McDonald's, and there's actually some quality and pride that goes into the process... at least where there is any room in the process for quality and pride, that is.

Just for the record, it's been months since I've eaten in any McD's, not just the one in my neighborhood.

Wed Apr 20 16:57:17 my bosses:

I will really miss working with and for my bosses. They are both really great guys. Today I had a project to work on with S.C., and it made me remember what a great guy he is, and it made me think of the "early days" when we would work more directly with each other. My other boss, J.L., is also really great -- much more a friend than a boss -- but that is really the attitude in this office. Sometimes it is abused, I think, and as much as I hate to admit it, I am someone who responds well to deadlines and pressure, and is sometimes too relaxed when those things are absent. But typically everyone here started young and grew through their unmotivated phase and grew into being integral parts of the team. I'll really miss them.

I can't think of anything today that I won't miss. I could force something out, but that's not the point of this.

Thu Apr 21 15:23:58 random journeys around campus / spyware:

I'm going to miss random journeys around campus to work on tickets. It's great to have a job where you're not trapped in a cubicle all day. In fact, right now I'm in the back room of NPU's Postal Center, because they have a Pitney Bowes computer that is loaded with Spyware (That's not Pitney Bowes fault, but they don't do anything to help, either). I brought my laptop to do research on which processes are spyware, etc., and now I'm making my post for the day.

I'm not going to miss cleaning Spyware off computers. I don't really have to do it that often anymore, so it's actually a good refresher in Windows, but seriously, if I never had to do it again, I would rejoice.

(1) Fri Apr 22 11:39:01 april showers, may flowers / I-90:

I'm gonna miss spring in Chicago, specifically the April showers. It rains here a lot in April, which usually means that the North Branch almost floods. It was one of those markings of the passage of time every year when the North Branch would push it's banks; you knew that soon you too, would overflow the banks of NPU and go somewhere else for a while. (That last sentence was a perfect example of the wordy crap I wrote for several years in the paper here.)

That, in combination with the nice spring weather, the magnolia trees, girls wearing tank tops, etc. has often inspired people to new feats of lunacy with regards to the North Branch. My freshman year, a guy named Andy something (I can't remember his last name... sorry man!) from Park Falls was given something like $25 which was collected from a number of "investors" to do the "Nestea Plunge" off the high railing of the bridge into the North Branch. He went straight to the bottom like a rock and came out of the river about a block downstream, quite a bit worse for wear, but thankfully, not dead.

This is what spring does to the heart of a man.

I'm starting to struggle to come up with obvious things that I actively dislike about Chicago, so this may seem like a stretch, but I'm not going to miss I-90. I'm an I-94 driver myself; I-90 is always full of traffic and (it seems) construction; you always have to go by O'Hare which is usually backed up, and there's something like 7 tolls instead of 2 on 94 (although it is not cheaper either way). I-90 is technically about 20 miles shorter if you're going to Madison, but I hate it so much I never drive it unless I absolutely have to.

Mon Apr 25 13:30:52 amvets / fresh air:

I'm going to miss Amvets (now known as Village Discount Shopping Centers) -- one of the best thrift store chains ever. I'm also going to miss the Brown Elephant and the Right Place in Andersonville... thrift stores are great. I've recently become especially enamored with how cheaply you can get vinyl records at thrift stores -- usually only $1.00 a disk. If you already have a record player, that's an awfully cheap way to get a lot of good music.

I won't miss the lack of truly fresh air here... I won't miss it in LA either. But I'm really looking forward to some good northern air this summer.

Tue Apr 26 15:32:03 sick today:

I'm going to miss the times that Wm. and I were both sick... the TheraFlu flowed like wine.

I'm not going to miss this cold. I had better be healthy by saturday!

Wed Apr 27 09:57:45 still sick; theraflu ineffective:

I'll miss taking the afternoon off and going to Cubs games.

I still won't miss this cold.

Thu Apr 28 13:44:32 foster ave. / jerk drivers:

I'll miss driving on Foster avenue... after 11 years it is quite the beaten path in my mind. It deserves a real writeup, but things are too busy right now with the show coming up.

I won't miss drivers who drive up in the parking lane and get blocked by a park car, and then weasel in to the line and look at you as though you'd be doing them a big favor to let them in. Ususally I just let them go, but what I'd really like to do is give them a fat thumbs-down and not let them in. I don't need to flip them the bird, but I think maybe the thumbs-down sends the appropriate message. Who am I kidding, that's not my style.

Anyway, back to work. Still healing from the cold. Head full of snot.

Fri Apr 29 11:10:08 redvinegar:

I'm going to miss redvinegar. Come see our last show tomorrow.

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