kapgar

Cocked your head to the side and said I'm angry...

It's been a week and a half since I last blogged.

Wow. I'm pretty sure that's the longest I've been neglectful around these parts.

You know it's bad when both your wife and your mom have taken notice of the fact that you haven't blogged in a long time and are actually a little mournful about it.

I know it's a very off-day, but I hope you don't mind some snippets. Given I've missed the last two Snippet Wednesdays -- and even the last two potential Snippet Thursday: The Reckonings -- I don't see it being a big deal that I do it now, right?

Rest
And on the 14th day, they rested.

This past Sunday marked 13 consecutive days of exercise for Katie and me. As you know, we've been working out weekday mornings for quite some time. Well, a couple weekends ago, we started exercising on weekends as well. Two really long walks in a row now that the heat has calmed down a bit and a 20-mile bike ride this past Saturday. That one caused us to be a bit sore, so we took Sunday off. And we're back at it again this week. All five weekdays so far. Not sure what will happen this weekend. We'll have to wait and see.

Camera
I guess it was a good thing I distracted myself with exercise this past weekend. I was feeling a bit naked without my trusty Sony D-SLR. My friend Eric was shooting a wedding and asked if he could borrow it. This is the first time my Sony has not been with me or at least somewhere I knew he should be. I felt a bit "off," if you get my meaning. Nothing was quite right until Monday when I got my camera back -- in perfect working order -- from Eric. Gah!

Beans
But not having my Sony around gave me time to play a bit more with the camera in my new iPhone 4. It's a nice camera. Not perfect by any stretch, but nice... and far more portable. And what's really nice is the automatic geotagging I get in my iPhone photos when they're uploaded to Flickr.

Of course, even this isn't perfect as the geotag of this Jelly Bean photo would indicate. Apparently, I found myself some jelly beans to photograph in "a mysterious place with no name" in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean near the western coast of Africa.

Guess it's a good thing my passport finally came in the mail, eh?

Bloody
Katie and I are tearing through True Blood seasons 1 and 2 on DVD right now. We got free video-on-demand of all episodes of season 1 from Amazon and season 2 came in from the library but is due back soon. Funny thing was a conversation between Katie and I as Bill and Sookie were having sex and he bit her, drawing blood down her neck...

Katie: [jokingly] "Edward would never do that to Bella!"

Me: "That's because Edward is not a real vampire. He has no fangs. He couldn't if he tried."

Heh.

Chiro
Speaking of conversations, this happened at the chiropractor's office the other day. We finally discovered how old he was.

Me: "You're not even in your thirties!?!?"

Him: "You were born in the Seventies!?!?"

I get it, I'm old.

Lamb
The other day, a coworker and I were coming in to work together and she told me about a book she just started reading. She wasn't sure if I'd ever heard of it because it was, to her, a pretty unknown author. Turns out it was Christopher Moore's Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. Only like my favorite book of all time. It took some work to not hug her right on the spot.

Hunger
Speaking of books, on the very strong recommendation of @DownWithPants and @Amanda234, I began reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It's the first in a three-book series and, so far, it reminds me a lot of Takami's Battle Royale (loved the book, hated the movie) and Bachman/King's The Running Man (loved the movie, haven't read the story). And I don't have to wait between books as the final book in the series (Mockingjay) came out this week. I hate waiting. I'm not a patient person at all.

Okay, I'm outta here. Have a great weekend!

Walk like an Egyptian...

Katie and I have been noticing some weird little things regarding nature lately.

For one, there has been a marked increase in the number of dragonflies this year. Evinrude is everywhere! Usually you see a few once in a while around these parts. But, lately, it's hundreds per day. And they're sex starved! You know what I mean. You've seen the "double dragonfly" in flight, haven't you? Horny little buggers. [thanks to the Governor of Maryland for the shot at right]

Crickets have also proven very numerous this summer. Katie says she sees them in some odd places, too. Hopping all over the inside of where she works and the like. She's been working at her current job for eight years and she's never seen it like this. Sure, they can just come in the door when a customer does, but they don't usually do it. Now? Oh yeah, brazen as all get out.

And, finally, there's frogs. I've seen a frog in our front walkway probably one out of every five times I go out there in the last few months. And I don't even use our front walkway that often. So imagine what it might be if I paid regular attention. The other night, Katie and I went for a 45-minute walk and, as we were walking, seven different frogs hopped out of our path. After a while, since the sun was setting, Katie and I were placing bets as to whether or not particular lumps on the ground in front of us would turn out to be frogs.

Something about this feels like it should be the onset of the apocalypse. Dunno why. Just does.

Oh, and I came across a locust carcass yesterday. Coincidence? I think not.

I took a lot of photos this weekend.

Way too many, in fact.

On Saturday, I went with my mom and her group of photographers to the Egyptian Theatre and an old train depot in my former college town of DeKalb. It was a lot of fun, despite being hotter than Hades. And I did manage to nab some shots. Some? More like 250 of them. I have pared it down a bit, but not by much. Here you go...

And, yesterday, Katie and I went with some of my coworkers to the Kane County Cougars (Class A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics) game against the Peoria Chiefs. Sure, the home team Cougars lost 8-4, but it was fun and offered up a few photo ops. Again, here you go...

Off to the gym. Adios.

Go do, you'll know how to...

Just a handful of quick snippets for you today. Sorry it's so rushed.

Vote
Only a month left until CBS2Chicago finalizes the choices for this year's Capture My Chicago book. If you haven't done so already and you have a free moment, can you please check out my profile, create a quick on for yourself, and vote on some of my photos? I hate whoring myself out like this, but I'd appreciate it.

Music
I've been checking out some really great music this week. Stuff from the library and stuff from friends. I've really taken a shine to Hot Chip's albums One Life Stand and The Warning as well as Kelis' Flesh Tone and Jonsi's Go. If you want to check out some new stuff, there you go!

Dune
My buddy Whall Tweeted this earlier today and it cracked me up to no end.

If you don't get it, I'm not even going to try to explain it.

Tweets
Speaking of Tweets, Avitable posed an interesting question today on his blog -- "has Twitter killed blogging?" I've seen this question asked before but finally decided to comment. As I said on his blog, I can't speak for everyone, but it has certainly diminished my desire to blog as much. And I think being able to distill your thoughts into 140 characters or less is a great skill to have. Don't use as many words and save some time. Maybe it's just me. Head on over there and share your thoughts if you're so inclined.

Well, it's time to get ready for a nice dinner with Katie. Talk atcha soon.

Truckin', got my chips cashed in...

Welcome to a special Blogher edition of Snippet Wednesday. Am I at Blogher? No. I just thought it might get the attention of all the people there and actually drive a few readers here. Am I evil for doing this? Yeah, probably. Will it work? I dunno, I'll tell you in a couple days when I check my stats.

40
I don't really know why, but I TiVo'd 40 Days and 40 Nights and just finished watching it now. It really was a pretty bad movie, but, for some reason, I enjoyed watching it. Me and my bad movies.

Plants
This year, Katie and I pared back all the veggies that we planted. Last year, we just tried growing too much stuff and it got a little out of control. Some of it worked while some of it did not. So, this year, we're growing serrano peppers, tomatoes, squash, and zucchini. The peppers? Great! I've picked six so far and have at least 30 more sprouting. Squash and zucchini? Well, not much in terms of fruit yet, but damn if the plants are huge. Tomatoes? As a result of the squash and zucchini, the tomatoes aren't doing so hot. They're being crowded out. And it's the tomatoes that I really want. Check out the stuff that is growing...

 

Keychains
As I told you the other day, while in Chicago, I picked up a couple of those LEGO keychains. One was the alien from Toy Story and the other was a recreation of the original spaceman minifig that debuted in 1978. I was asked for some pictures, so here they are...

My only problem with the spaceman keychain is that he's not an exacting recreation of the original. The difference is minor, but enough to mean something to a purist like me. It's all in the helmet. Check it out...

The original helmet (right) is flush from the forehead down through the chin guard. The revised helmet (left) has a chin guard that sticks out further than the forehead of the helmet. This was done to provide a way for a visor to stop when pulled down over the face and appear flush with the helmet itself. Plus it looks more realistic.

Fine, I'm picky.

Truck
Speaking of LEGO, when Katie and I were at my parents' house, my dad gave me back an old set I had built years ago and that has been sitting on his desk all this time. It is the 5580 Highway Rig and it's apparently somewhat valuable on eBay. It's also gotten a bit grungy from grime, but I plan to disassemble, wash, and rebuild it. Should be fun. It's a pretty intense set. And I got a chance to try out photographing it with a nice background display.

Photos
I've been bad about this whole Photo365 challenge. The other day, I looked at the set and realized I was a month behind in tagging pictures. Well, I'm all caught up. Through today, even! It took a while to find them all, but I'm good again. And I've passed the 200 day mark. This has been anything but easy. I really can't wait for it to end, but I know I'll miss it. Is that weird?

It's time for bed. Yeah, it's only 9:15. I'm pathetic. I admit it.

Just travelin' along, singin' a song, side by side...

This past Saturday, I hopped aboard a Metra line to downtown Chicago to meet up with Dave2! Just kind of a spur of the moment meet-up where we did nothing but really walk around the city, talk, and generally geek out. I think a photo-laden Snippet recap of the affair works quite nicely despite it not being Wednesday (or Thursday, for that matter), so enjoy!

Weather
Chicago and the suburbs have been sweltering for the last couple months so arriving downtown and seeing a thermometer in the Ogilvie Transportation Center read that it was 67 degrees out was refreshing to say the least! And it was already past noon, to boot. But, then, it always feels nicer in the city for some reason. Lucky bastards. However, by 4 p.m., it was back up in the mid-80s. Not terrible, but not nearly as nice as it was earlier. And Chicago is the greatest city on Earth by far, so when you mix it with nice weather and a good friend, how can you go wrong?

Dave
As any of you who have met Dave can attest, he's always a great person to meet up with and one heckuva gracious guest. So getting together with him never winds up in an awkward moment or with a lack of things to talk about or do. That's why it's always so much fun to meet up with him. I think this visit marks about a half dozen times now. Three Davecagos, one Depeche Mode concert, and a couple random visits. And, so long as he is always willing, I will be too.

Dogs
The first thing we decided to do was get some lunch. Neither of us had eaten yet so we were a bit famished. Dave knew of a place nearby called America's Dog. I figured, heck, why not? I love hot dogs. In fact, I've been darn near addicted to them lately. I can't explain it, but anytime I find myself having dinner at home when Katie's working late, I wind up eating a hot dog. Well, for this special occasion, I had my first-ever full-on Chicago-style hot dog. I've come close in the past having eaten one that only lacked pickles, but I went the whole nine yards this time. Actually, I ordered two of them. I really liked them... a lot. That scares me. Dave had the same, but with a veggie dog, which intrigued me. I've never had a tofu-based hot dog before but if it will cut back on the fat and calories and still taste pretty good, I'll give it a shot. Maybe next time.

(This is Dave's photo, BTW)

3
On our way out to Michigan Avenue, we happened across the set of Transformers 3. While it's not a movie that either of us really want to see, it was still cool to see them out there shooting and we each took some photos. One thing that I noticed in a photo of mine is that the guy situated on top of the pile of rubble is none other than Patrick Dempsey. Cool. Sorry, ladies, I didn't get much closer than this.

LEGO
Being the LEGO geeks we are, you bet your sweet bippy we beelined it for the LEGO store on Michigan Avenue next! Some time was spent drooling over the new sets, but, shockingly, neither of us bought anything. Yet. Oh, and speaking of LEGO, yes, Norman was with us.

Apple
And what kind of Apple Whores (tm) would we be if we didn't hit the flagship Apple Store on Michigan Avenue? Bad ones, duh. We played a bit with the Magic Trackpad, which just blew my mind. I love using the trackpad on Katie's MacBook so knowing that a similar device is now available for desktop Macs is way beyond cool.

Disney
We also visited what we believe to be a relatively new Disney Store just a little bit away from the Apple Store. Pretty nice inside and they had a huge selection of crap. Cool crap, mind you.

LEGO
Yes, we made a return trip to the LEGO Store after Dave told me that they did, in fact, have a key chain of the little green alien from Toy Story. I missed it entirely. Sho 'nuff, they had it and I bought it for Katie along with an anniversary edition key chain of the very first white LEGO astronaut. Hadda be done.

Millennium
And what trip to Chicago is complete without a requisite visit to Millennium Park? We went there, snapped some shots and then took the skywalk over to the Modern Art wing of the Art Institute. We didn't really go inside the wing. It was just a means of getting across the street. Oh well. It worked for us.

Gay
While walking around, we happened across a guy on State Street petitioning on behalf of the Human Rights Campaign specifically for gay rights. We stopped to let him explain to us what he was doing. At one point in his speech, he said something along the lines of "these rights we're fighting for would protect all gay people" and there was just something about the way he said it that made us both think he was referring to us. Dave must've caught on to it too because he then said, "ummm, we're not gay." The guy stopped, taken a bit aback, and replied, "oh... really???" I mean, sure, Dave and I make a cute couple, but c'mon, we're totally not each other's type. Psshhh.

More photos are available in a Flickr album.

You never will be mine...

Sadly, the Pitchfork Music Festival has wrapped up for 2010 with a pretty little bow on it.

Granted I only went to a single day of the festival, I still feel compelled to write about it.

I missed out on the earliest act of the day, Sharon Von Etten, because I mistimed the train I was taking to get into the city. Bummer. I was kinda looking forward to hearing her.

As I entered the park, though, I was greeted with the acoustic stylings of The Tallest Man on Earth. I really dug on his sound and am looking forward to checking out more of his music. 

There was a pretty rough transition next from TTMOE to the next act, hip-hopper El-P. I didn't really dig on his first few tracks, but I finally started to get into it after that and enjoy his music.

Next up was one of the bands I was most looking forward to, Liars. However, what I wasn't expecting was how noisy and uneven they sounded. It left me happy that I spent the time wandering the booths instead of sitting in one place and listening to them. It just didn't fit the mood that was set by all the acts up to this point.

The disappointment of Liars was made up for by Robyn. I wasn't sure what to think about a former pop starlet at an indie music festival, but, DAMN, she tore it up. Just a high-paced pop and electronic set which left me wondering how she could've had that much energy considering the heat.

Next up was Broken Social Scene. The only bad thing I can say about them is that the sound system for their stage was a bit wonky. While I've experienced worse, the sound did go in and out a little on a couple of tracks. But I think that's a combination of the stage crew and the heat. Otherwise, Broken Social Scene was fantastic and the end of their show left me wanting to hear a lot more of their music. Good thing my iPod had some.

The final act of the night was Modest Mouse. This was the band I most wanted to see going into the festival and the reason I chose Friday over any of the other nights. The verdict? I was left a bit empty. While the songs that Isaac Brock and company chose to play were decent enough and ones that I recognized, they weren't ones that I truly knew well enough to be able to sing along with. I am not a diehard Mouser like so many other people that were in attendance, and I hate to sound mainstream with this request, but it would've been nice to hear "Float On" or "Ocean Breathes Salty" or even "King Rat." They left after a little more than an hour and came back about 10 minutes later for an encore which lasted a single song. Still nothing of those three tracks.

If I had known that this might have been a possibility, I probably would've opted for Saturday, instead, so I could've seen LCD Soundsystem. The downside of that would've been missing Robyn and Broken Social Scene, of course. But seeing as Modest Mouse was my number one reason for choosing that night, I think Saturday might have made for a better overall evening.

Oh well.

The festival grounds themselves, including the vendors, were great. I had a lot of fun wandering from tent to tent and just perusing what was available. I did buy a few smallish items and loved that Shawnimals was present for me to get a little bit of a Ninjatown fix.

Will I go again next year? Damn right. I'm not sure if it will be one, two, or three days. We'll have to wait and see. But I always seem to have fun at Pitchfork. So why the heck not?

Here are some pictures I took at the festival.

I think it's pretty obvious that I'm a junkie for Pixar animated films. They're always great. However, when it comes to other studios and their digitally animated feature films, I'm a bit more hesitant.

They always seem rushed, unfinished, poorly written, poorly acted... you name it.

So, yes, I was a bit wary of Despicable Me based on the trailers. I just didn't see it being any good save for a few moments of potential levity here and there.

Katie and I went to see it on Sunday and I would like to say, here and now, that I was wholly wrong in my pre-judgment of the film. It was hilarious and heartwarming and thoroughly enjoyable. The voice acting was good, the characters were a lot of fun, and damn if those minions don't steal the movie.

But the biggest surprise was that this was actually a movie where 3D paid off!

Katie and I have been to a few films in 3D since the craze came back full bore. And, honestly, none of them needed it. It was merely a gimmick to make you pay more to see the film and, thus, rake in more bucks and thrust the film higher up the all-time grossing list (I still wonder how Avatar would've really fared if it wasn't in 3D).

Despicable Me, though, used 3D like films that came out in a past era. Items on screen came out at you making you jump or laugh or whatnot. But, unlike old 3D films, it wasn't done intentionally like when an actor is swinging a sword and makes it a point to stick it out at the audience for maximum 3D effect. These scenes fit into the movie and flowed well with everything going on around it. 

All-in-all, I was very pleasantly surprised.

You gotta take if off, baby, for me...

I actually wasn't going to do any snippets this week. I had nothing yesterday. And I was pretty sure I'd come up with zilch today. However, Katie, in an attempt to make her brother feel like he actually has something worthwhile to live for during his day, helped me come up with enough crap to populate a Snippet Thursday entry. Day late, but not a dollar short!

Pitchfork
Yes, tomorrow is my live music day to end all days! The Pitchfork Music Festival is here and I will be there all day long boiling in what is predicted to be high 80s/low 90s temperatures with about 80% humidity. Oh joy. I love music, but that's brutal. The final day of Pitchfork last year found me wearing jeans, and doing so quite comfortably. Help. Me.

But for anyone interested, I will take some photos and upload them over the weekend to my Flickr account and I'm sure I'll be Tweeting throughout the event so long as there is a reliable AT&T connection at Union Park. It was, at best, spotty last year.

Strippers
My brother-in-law and future sister-in-law are going to a sports card show this weekend at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Chicago. Pretty much the same one I went to with them earlier this year. However, this one got pretty interesting in that the Stephens Center will also be hosting an adult entertainment show called Exxxtacy 2010. So, basically what we're talking about here is a bunch of strippers in their red-light best walking around amongst families with children. And I thought Hooters was family friendly.

I'm trying to talk Scott (the BiL) into writing a guest post about this experience complete with photos from Becca (the FSiL). Anybody else want to see him do it? Votes?

Steinbrenner
No, I'm not wearing a black armband in memory of George Steinbrenner. Sure I was a huge Yankees fan back in the day. I worshipped them during the 80s and early 90s, an era that his iron hand ruled over unquestioningly. And he was responsible for bringing in my favorite baseball player of all time, Don Mattingly. And I do respect the hell out of him for many reasons. And, well, considering all that, maybe I should've been wearing a black armband. R.I.P. George.

TV
This has been a great week for TV. Psych is back. White Collar is back. The new Covert Affairs debuted. The Closer is back. Rizzoli & Isles premiered. Geez. Who needs the regular television season when you've got quality fare like this?

Geneva

Katie and I bummed around our hometown of Geneva this past weekend. It was great just doing our own thing the entire day and we discovered a few new things that made it even more fun. Like Steak Sliders at Wildwood. Yummy! And a bike race that is new to our town but, hopefully, will be back next year when I have my good camera on me (I didn't want to carry it that day only to discover this race was going on after it was too late to do anything about it). So I got a couple photos with my Blackberry. Oh well.

I think I'm going to skip the final snippet we came up with. This should be more than enough for you all, right?

Time to head to Predators!

Fool for a lifetime...

Because of the holiday-shortened week, I almost forgot today was Wednesday and, therefore, SNIPPET WEDNESDAY!!!

Faith
Marty nearly blew my mind the other day when he Tweeted about Faith No More playing a gig in NYC the other night. Faith No More? They broke up more than a decade ago! Well, apparently it didn't stick and they got back together last year (minus guitarist Jeff Martin) and have been on tour for a bit and I had no idea. Sure, the U.S. leg of the tour is/was lacking more than just a bit, but how cool would it be to see them play? I loved these guys and never got to see them live back in the day.

Attic
I gave the attic one more shot. Lo and behold, in one container that I thought contained old board games, I found them! My Speed Racer LEGO sets, my robo-monkey, and my Octan Racer. Just some all-around cool stuff. I was stoked. But also in the container were a couple of my old stuffed animals that I loved from back in the day, including...

Opus
I had no idea how old this guy was. This Penguin Lust Opus from Bloom County dates back to 1984! So hard to believe. But he's in pretty darn good shape, don'cha think?

And I also found...

Woody
That kid Andy from the Toy Story movies had his Woody in the form of a Old West sheriff. My Woody was Woody Woodpecker. I have no idea how old I was when I got this, but he's still around. Pretty beat up but I would think that's an indication of the degree to which I loved this guy.

However, being as young as I was, I could not, for the life of me, pronounce "Woody Woodpecker." So I wound up saying — and, yes, this has found a place of prominence in the annals of Apgar history — "ooo-nee cock-er." Well, "woody," "pecker," "cocker"... not that I was too far out in left field with that one.

Cubs
Speaking of funny stuff, I was driving behind a car on the way home today with the license plate "CUBS BY 2." I had to laugh.

Cubs? By 2? What? Lost by two? Only won two in the month of June? Missed being in last place in the NL Central by two?

You become rather cynical as a Cubs fan.

Declare independence...

Happy Fourth of July to all my fellow U.S.ians!

The U.S. Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays second only to Halloween. Katie and I love to sit out and watch the various fireworks displays in the area. On Friday night, we were down in Aurora for one show and tonight we'll be in St. Charles for another with her brother and his fiancee.

I did take some photos on Friday. They didn't necessarily turn out great, though. Due to a little physical instability of the camera, the in-focus ones look like they're double exposed. So I decided to do something a little different and intentionally take a bunch of them with semi- to very-soft focus. I really kinda like the result.

Here you go...

Hope you celebrate safely.

Oh, and while I'm at it, I'd like to offer up a very special Happy Independence Day wish to my friend Marie. This is, after all, her first time celebrating as a naturalized U.S. Citizen.

On an island in the sun...

Happy Snippet Wednesday. It's a late one. Sorry about that. Just been a little busy lately, but I didn't forget ya!

Ke$ha
It has been 19 hours and I still have Ke$ha's "Tik Tok" stuck in my head. It's been there since my iPod Shuffle came across it yesterday morning during my workout. The worst part is that I don't know the song that well so all I've got going back and forth in my skull is her signing the words "Tik Tok" and then the "oh-e-oh-e-oh-oh" part. Painful, I tells ya.

Shutter
Katie and I finally got around to watching Shutter Island last night. I had read the book by Dennis Lehane several years ago and remember liking it, although I don't remember much of what it was about. The movie was interesting. Not Scorsese's or DiCaprio's best by far. It comes off as very convoluted and overwrought. However, I will say that Michelle Williams was fantastic in it. If you need a reason to see it, then do so for her. I'm not a big fan of hers, but this was a career maker for her.

Jaws
Speaking of movies, the library got in a copy of Jaws that I've gotta pick up for Katie and I to watch. This past weekend, I saw a Bio Channel feature on the making of Jaws and it was way cool. Katie didn't watch it as she's never even seen the movie. Oh, she must be introduced to the greatness that is Jaws and STAT!

Capture
Guess what! Capture My Chicago is back and I'm all signed up and have submitted something like 70 photos for potential inclusion in the book. As you know, my photos didn't garner enough votes last year to be included in the printed coffee table book, although they were part of the DVD that came packaged with it. This year, though, I'm planning to submit a ton to increase my chances. The 70 I've already submitted constitute about four or five times my total submissions from last year. So I'm off to what I hope is a good start. Ideally, by sending in more, my name becomes more visible on the site and people click through to see the rest of what I've offered up. If you're willing and able, please check it out and sign up to vote. You don't have to be Chicago residents to vote so far as I know.

Shame
There are times when I naively think that our society cannot possibly be one in which hate groups such as the KKK can ever survive. Then I read stories like this, about a guy who thinks that the Blackhawks and Cubs are giving off the wrong idea by taking part in the Chicago Gay Pride Parade, and realize that some elements of our world truly are still living in the Dark Ages. Just. So. Wrong.

Tat
I now know what my next tattoo will be. Well, Norman anyway, not Boba. No offense, Boba, but I'm a Stormtrooper kinda guy. Yes, I know your father was responsible for their ultimate creation, but still. Do you think Katie would fly with this one?

Okay, now I've gotta go and take care of some stuff around the house. w00t!