Author Archives: Michael

C2E2

Posted on by
Reply

This weekend is C2E2 here in Chicago. For the un-nerdified, that stands for Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo.

Yes, I am going to a comic book convention. And I’m ridiculously excited about it.

If you’re laughing to yourself and picturing the attendees dressed up like Batman, or Captain America, or a zombie; rest assured. They’ll be there. And I’ll be smiling and gawking too. But if you’re getting up on your high horse and looking down on me for wanting to go see the spectacle, well realize this: events like C2E2 are about comics the same way amusement parks are about roller coasters. They may nominally be the reason for existance, but you could spend an entire enjoyable day doing everything else.

My C2E2 weekend will start on Friday after work where I’ll see Patton Oswalt and a few others perform under the Comedy Death Ray banner. (And if you like comedy but don’t know of CDR, google it. You’re welcome.) Saturday I have convinced Emily to come along and we’ll be going to cast-and-crew panel Q&A’s for little shows like The Walking Dead, Chuck, True Blood, etc. And then there will be the show floor with miles of vendors selling funny tshirts, obscure books, DVDs, graphic novels, collectibles, and eveything else the 13 year old boy that drives this train might want.

This, truly, is the age of the nerd. And I’ve never been more comfortable with wearing my nerdiness on my sleeve.

 

This entry really made me crave a cheese steak. You know, for balance.

Posted on by
2

QUESTION FOR PEOPLE WHO RUN BUT WHO ARE NOT “RUNNERS” (And, yes, in my head that distinction does make sense.):

If you run while at the gym, how long do you go? Is 15 minutes a good amount? Too short?

I hate (haaaaaaate) running. But, I like all kinds of things about what it does to me. How easy it is to lose the pounds, how I feel after, how easy it is to see improvements in lung capacity, heart rate, and overall stamina. So I’m going to try to work it back in to my routine. First step is, naturally, establishing a routine. This is tough and I’ll tell you why. It’s because I am a procrastinator with a willpower made out of damp tissue paper.

Here’s what I’m thinking. Get to the gym, 15 minute warm up on some sort of cardio machine, walk on the track for 5, run for 5, fast walk for 5, run for 10, cool down walk for 5, finish up with another cardio machine for 15. That gives me an hour of good heart-pumpin’ workout, a quarter of which is running which usually kicks my ass much harder than any of the other activities.

So, healthy people, what do you think? Good scheme?

 


An Inane Weekend Recap. (That is, the recap is inane. The weekend was just lovely.)

Posted on by
Reply

I knew I had a pretty good weekend, but it was one of those that when a coworker asked me about it I had to take a moment and think, “Now what did I do again?”. Recap follows and (WARNING!) some of it is painfully nerdy.

Friday Night: Met Emily at home after work. Friday is one of the days when she’s not working the second job, so it’s kind of a nice, novel treat to both be at home at the same relatively early hour of 6pm. And I think it’s at that relatively early hour that we started drinking. Not to excess and for no other reason that it was Friday and we could. Watched some TV and then decided a.)it was dinner time and b.)neither of us was willing to saddle up and cook. Because of the afore-mentioned cocktails, driving somewhere was out so we took stock of the walkable options and headed over to Taco Yo, the closest taqueria to our apartment. This is one of the things that Chicago does really well. Most neighborhoods have quality mexican street food carryouts. Love it. Got the food/brought it home/devoured. I am not to proud to admit that I was fading fast and finally fell asleep on the couch before the clock hit ten. A decade ago that would have felt like a failure. Today it feels like… contentment.

Saturday: Emily had a baby shower to go to in Indiana, which left me on my own. We were having company for dinner so I knew there was some cleaning to do. But I also knew that cleaning wouldn’t last all day. So I ate some cereal, cleaned, showered and dressed. Then I had a good chunk of the day left with nothing to do and no desire to stay cooped up inside. <PAINFUL NERDINESS> Since I ride the CTA every day, I decided some time ago that I want to ride the entirety of the ‘L’ system. I’ve already ridden the entirety of the Blue, Orange, and Pink Lines. Saturday I rode the south half of the Red, taking me down to 95th street as well as both branches of the south half of the Green, taking a bus across 63rd street to get me from the end of the Ashland branch to the end of the Cottage Grove branch. It was nerdy railfan fun, but I will say this. I was certainly the minority during my travels. I never felt unsafe, but I definitely felt unwelcome at a couple of points. But I got to see parts of Chicago I don’t see every day and I got to listen to a few podcasts that I’m a fan of. </PAINFUL NERDINESS> After that, it was home to Emily. Her sister and her sister’s boyfriend came over and we headed out to try a new place in the neighborhood. My pork tenderloin sandwich was tasty (if not a little too small) and the beer was good.

Sunday: A typical lazy Sunday morning. Yes, breakfast sandwiches were involved. I think I may have perfected my bacon cooking technique. Lately we’ve been cooking it in the oven, which is all kinds of awesome, but the oven is busted and slow to be fixed – oh, the woes of the renter. Anyway, so this time the bacon was on stove top. In the past, I’ve cooked bacon on high which does the job and does it quick, but can lead to tough, black bacon. Which isn’t my thing. This time I cooked it on medium, flipping each piece three times. Worked out pretty well, ifIdosaysomyself. Didn’t hurt that Emily got the thick cut, so each piece was about a foot and a half thick. Yum. Eventually I got myself showered and put together and headed out to return some shoes that, while they looked awesome, did a pretty good job at destroying my feet. Wore them for eight hours one day last week and was in legitimate pain by the end of the day. Swapped them for some sweet Teva trail shoes and went home happy. Sunday night we watched the Oscars which were pretty boring as far as I’m concerned.

Today, it’s back to work.

This entry has been trite, I admit. But sometimes it’s good just to write.

If any of my regular readers (and hello to both of you) have anyhing you want me to write about, hit me up in the comments.