Pausing for the Week (3)

(image credit)

This week is my pause from blogging here, in order to focus more on my other work: Theory of Algorithms and The Core Algorithm.

What do you pause for, and how often do you do so?

Pausing for the Week (2)

(image credit)

This week is my pause from blogging here, in order to focus more on my other work: Theory of Algorithms and The Core Algorithm.

What do you pause for, and how often do you do so?

Pausing for the Week (1)

(image credit)

This week is my pause from blogging here, in order to focus more on my other work: Theory of Algorithms and The Core Algorithm.

What do you pause for, and how often do you do so?

Day of the Menacing Locust

We are fortunate to live on land clustered with tall trees and adjacent to a pond.  It's not at all a forest, but small animals - from squirrels and mice, to raccoon and foxes - come calling once in a while.  Birds - from robins and cardinals, to sparrows and finches - are also occasional flybys.  Of course there is a small assortment of insects, too.

One time when we were Lilliputians

During his first voyage, Gulliver is washed ashore after a shipwreck and finds himself a prisoner of a race of tiny people, less than 6 inches tall, who are inhabitants of the island country of Lilliput. After giving assurances of his good behaviour, he is given a residence in Lilliput and becomes a favourite of the court. From there, the book follows Gulliver's observations on the Court of Lilliput. He is also given the permission to roam around the city on a condition that he must not harm their subjects. Gulliver assists the Lilliputians to subdue their neighbours, the Blefuscudians, by stealing their fleet. However, he refuses to reduce the island nation of Blefuscu to a province of Lilliput, displeasing the King and the court. Gulliver is charged with treason for, among other crimes, "making water" (urination) in the capital, though he was putting out a fire and saving countless lives. He is convicted and sentenced to be blinded, but with the assistance of a kind friend, he escapes to Blefuscu. Here he spots and retrieves an abandoned boat and sails out to be rescued by a passing ship, which safely takes him back home. This book of the Travels is a topical political satire.

Reference: Gulliver's Travels.

One time my daughter, her friend and I were Lilliputians.  

Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows

The Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows is a permanent display of 150 stained glass windows housed in an 800-ft.-long series of galleries along the lower level terraces of Festival Hall. Open since February 2000, it is the first museum in the United States dedicated solely to stained glass windows. It showcases both secular and religious windows and is divided by artistic theme into four categories: Victorian, Prairie, Modern and Contemporary. All of the windows were designed by prominent local, national and European studios and most were originally installed in Chicago area residential, commercial and religious buildings.

The windows provide unique insight into Chicago's cultural, ethnic and artistic history. The time period they represent, 1870 to the present, was an era of intense urban revision that featured the development, decline and revitalization of neighborhoods, the development of commercial and cultural institutions, the evolution of artistic styles and the response of various ethnic groups to these changes. The religious windows reveal the national and ethnic styles of Chicago's European immigrants, while the residential windows display the history of architecture and decorative art styles.

Well-known artists' windows on display include Louis Comfort Tiffany and John LaFarge, as well as Chicago artists Ed Paschke and Roger Brown. The museum also presents unique contemporary pieces including stained glass portraits of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Michael Jordan and a window created from soda pop bottles.

Reference: Things to do - Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows.

In September 2012, I took my daughter Eva and her friend Kathy for a trip to downtown Chicago.  We walked around a lot, including Navy Pier, and visited the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows.  It's a dimly lit set of corridors, and it lends an air of solemnity in an otherwise bright afternoon.  

Musings on Chicago Signs and Messages

Somehow I first read "fith ouse" (hmm).  That aside, isn't it a comic irony to juxtapose a fitness center with a doughnut shop?  

Yet one more billboard I'd never see in the Middle East.  There are dating sites for Muslim singles that I've run across online, even while I was in living in Dubai, but no way they'd ever advertise so openly like this.

This display was in a shop near our house in the far northern suburbs, and if I recall correctly it was a card and gift shop.  Anyway I like "WTF Guaranteed."

I found this curious, and curiouser, yet:  signed "Oswald Jenkins."  I believe in the message, though.

A permanent station facility will be planned in the future.  That is, not necessarily constructed in the future.  I've been back home two years now, and this temporary facility is looking pretty permanent to me.

Poo that's fit for the digital age, I guess.

Variations on a Straightup Posture

Plaza Bar Illustrations off Jackson Street

I like these illustrations, in the vicinity of Union Station, just off Jackson Street.  They portray well Happy Hour for professionals and business people in the urban jungle.  It's just a smattering of them, so far, and that lends an air of casual and easy-going.

An Evocative Stroll in Downtown Chicago

I love downtown Chicago.  It was one of the things I missed the most, after traveling and living abroad much of the last decade.  Well before we had our daughter was born, and long before life hit its toughest patch, my wife and I frequented shows, museums and restaurants in the city.  I had the privilege of actually working downtown for many years, so it was easy enough to hang out after work for drinks and chats.

So from ads fit for a green trash compactor, to ones that span parking levels, to a simple glass panel, my little stroll in the vicinity of Union Station was evocative indeed.

It will always be the Sears Tower to me

In the weeks following September 11th 2001, there was such fear among Chicagoans that the venerable Sears Tower would be a next terrorist target.  I had a consulting client that managed the building and had offices there.  For years thereafter, ugly concrete barriers surrounded it, just to pose some defense, even if feeble, against would-be car bomb attackers.  

One pleasant autumn afternoon, 13 years later, the world is at peace, at least according to the unspoken message of a steel globe.  The tower that could very well represent the heavenward conceit of humankind, and therefore recall Babel, sports a new name.

But it will always be the Sears Tower to me.

Stories of Girls and Tigers in Chicago

I had time on my hands, after a lunch meeting in downtown Chicago, so I strolled in the vicinity of Union Station before catching my train home.  With just my trusty iPhone, I photograph things, and my photographs will never win any awards but they speak to things that catch my eyes and capture my imagination.

I love promotionals that also tell a story.  Google reasons that via their TrueView model on YouTube, when people opt to watch a video, it is no longer an ad, but content.  So, no doubt, Debbie is a happy girl.

When I am in a casual conversation, and someone asks what my favorite animal is, here it is: tiger.  That's what drew me to this promotional.  Humankind does not have anywhere near the unique physical prowess that certain animals have, but our predatory mindset and muscle must be unrivaled in nature.

Speaking of stories.