Got my first BlackBerry

Got my first BlackBerry Pearl on Friday. Don't quite have it fully working yet, as I have to wait for the work email server to get upgraded. But in the meantime I guess I will have to Accessorize! Including a 1gb MicroSD Card, some Screen Guards, and a Case

Goodbye Bell's - How we loved thee

It is a sad day in Chicago and all of Illinois really. Bell's Brewery, after a falling out between the brewery and distributors, is pulling out of the Illinois market. I have often chosen a fine Bell's draft over many macro-brews simply because they taste good and I enjoy drinking them. Oberon, one of the most beloved summer choices, will now just be a faint memory. The choices expected to fill the void, Two Brothers, Three Floyds and Dogfish Head are decent alternatives, but nothing really compared to Bell's. I guess my next favorite would be Three Floyds, then Dogfish. I don't really care for Two brothers, as I think most of their beers taste too "homebrewed" and they generally lack character.

The real tragedy is the state of distributorship's in Illinois and the laws that enable their monopolistic ways. The laws are anti-competitive and need serious attention. People should be allowed to sell their products to whomever they wish.

Here's to Bell's. May your return to Chicago be just a sip away. Salud!

A big fuck you to Cnn.com's videos

I have a big problem with Cnn.com's streaming news videos. They always play a 15-30 second commercial before the news clip, which is annoying itself. Honestly I don't want to be forced to watch a stupid commercial for a 1.5 minute long news clip.
Though the commercial itself is not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is that often the commercial loads and plays fine, then when you get to the video, it craps out, fails to load, is jerky or otherwise doesn't play. This is unacceptable. In fact I have decided right now that I will no longer visit cnn.com. They suck in general. Their news coverage is always sensationalistic and they takeup way too much space on their site with entertainment news. I don't give a fuck what katie holmes is doing, but i do kind of care about wars, economics etc...
I will take the bbc news over cnn anyday!

1st time with Critical Mass

I rode with Critical Mass for the first time on Friday. I joined Fred, as he has gone several times and is much more hardcore of a biker than I. I thought of this first time as an experiment more than anything else. I might do it again, but this time was just to see what it was all about.

The wikipedia article on critical mass is good and fairly accurate from my knowledge of the event.

I was once stopped by the mass, (2-3 years ago) while in a cab going someplace. The mass had entered the polish triangle area (division/ashland/milwaukee) and had decided to ride around the triangle. We were 2 cars back from the edge of the intersection and Alyssa decided to jump out of the cab and go talk/yell at somebody and find out wtf they were doing. The guy that she talked to was obviously not a spokesman for the group and his answer is basically bikes are trafic too. I was somewhat amused by the situation, though I guess i would be slightly pissed off if I was held up while going somewhere important. Then again the point made in the wikipedia article about motorists causing most traffic jams is probably the greater truth.

So I rode with the group on Friday. There was probably around 1500 people i would guess, though i often over estimate...but i tried sampling sections and then estimating...1500 is probably a good guess. About 2/3 had some kind of halloween costume on, which was kinda fun. Generally throughout the route I observed the following:

-The majority of the participants are good willed and pretty much just there to participate. They shout things like "happy friday" or "happy halloween" to people in cars, bars/restaurants, on the sidewalk, etc...

-There are a handful of jerks throughout the group, who think everyone in the LP neighborhoods are stupid rich fucks etc...

-A good bit of drinking goes on.

-A handful of riders have some form of music playing, ranging from a handcarried boombox, to a full stero system with a large woofer on a bike trailer.

-A lot of people in cars are more or less content to wait the extra 5-10 minutes while the group passes. Most bus drivers (and other city workers) are in full support of the group, honking their horn in celebration and waving as the mass passes.

-There were a handful of bike cops present for a majority of the ride. They were slightly dickish, but generally attempted to prevent scuffles between the bikers and motorists.

-Occassionally, someone, usually a woman or young lady, will roll down their window to yell and scream at the bikers...this usually only serves to make more bikers stop and surround the car until a majority of the mass passes...the both the bikers and driver are left to go on their way.

-There was one major incident, which basically caused the entire mass to surround a single car. I was about 20 feet away from this car when i saw this blonde chick jump out of the passenger side of a car and confront/attack a girl who was "corking". I stayed right at the front of that car for most of the duration of the incident...pretty much because i couldn't move my bike through the mass that was surrounding the car. Eventually the blonde chick pushed the corker away which caused the corker girl to push back, which caused the dodge neon guy to get out of the car. Once the guy got out of the car, he started randomly going off on people...throwing punches, though i didnt see any land. Anyway it went on for a while and I would assume the mass eventually passed through as they got tired of watching the guy be an asshole....
The incident was documented in these flickr photos:
http://flickr.com/photos/jessipervola/281704229/in/photostream/
http://flickr.com/photos/jessipervola/281704254/in/photostream/

-Overall impression: A big party on bikes that happens to frustrate a few drivers for a few minutes. Eh, you got time....slow down, relax, wait for the group to pass and then go on your way.

DRM is bad for you

These are some of the best anti-DRM stuff I have ever seen.

http://freeculture.org/blog/2006/10/13/contestwinners/

Crazy Ray Lamontagne

You probably heard the anthem of the summer of 2006, Crazy, by Gnarls Barkley (Cee-Lo/Danger Mouse). British musician Ray LaMontagne recorded a much better version.

Courtesy of Village Indian you can download the MP3 of Crazy

I also scooped up Ray's album Till The Sun Turns Black

The last 8 years in 155 words

Lets see, last 8 years recap:

-Attended and graduated from UIUC with a degree in Theatre Lighting +/- lots of beer and general shenanigans.

-Worked on probably 25-30 or so shows during college.

-Worked professionally in Chicago on about 6 shows with 2 different companies.

-Met Alyssa in 2000 and married in 05 (she is now in her 2nd year at University of Chicago studying Diabetes)

-Met a guy who started a company, I was his first employee, I still work for him. 6+ years

-Moved to Chicago in 2002, moved in with Alyssa in 2003, and we just bought a place in Chicago's South Loop neighborhood a few weeks ago.

-Traveled to Australia, Costa Rica, California twice, Vegas twice, Colorado twice, Kansas, Philly, all around the Midwest.

-Went skydiving 7 times (it got expensive and i more or less stopped)

-Got into website design and consult with a handful of companies now on that.

Air travel and your luggage

Bruce Schnider writes about a way to better ensure your luggage is not lost during air travel. He says to simply pack a starter pistol along with your luggage, declare it, show it and then tsa/airline will better hold on to your bag so as to not LOSE a GUN. I think this is a fantastic idea, people always say, i have flown tons of times and they never lose my bag. etc etc...well the fact is that bags are lost all the time by everyone.

lets count my experiences and those of my immediate family and friends.

1) Lost my bag on a weekend trip to Vegas, delivered to my hotel room around 2am.

2) Sister lost her bag while traveling to italy with my family.

3) Grandma also lost her bag on the same trip, cept on the return flight.

4) While living down at school, a neighbor returned from a school break and apparently had lost his bag. Sometime late at night a courrier, having driven several hours from Chicago, knocks on our door and asks to leave this heavy-ass bag with us, as our neighbor is not currently at home. Ummm sure?

5) I will bet $20, $50 or $100 that at least 50% of the people in my office will have a similar story or related experience. This is wayyyyyy too much lost luggage and just a terrible way to do business for the airlines.

Things learned while buying a condo

I recently bought a condo and I have completed moving. I have learned a few things through the process.

*Clothing inside the washer does not mean that the washer works. Remove clothes and test.

*Always look behind furniture during inspection.

*Aim high when asking for credits for repairs, painting, etc...

*Retention of a good lawyer is awesome.

*Movers want to be tipped, but it is hard to tip them if they break something.

*Empire Carpet (588-2300) is a decent place to get carpet, but probably not the cheapest.

More to come if I think of any.

Jansport To The Rescue

Jansport doesn't make the nicest or best quality backpacks in the world, but at least they stand by their lifetime guarantee. They promise to repair or replace any pack or part of a bag or pack that has failed before the bag had generally worn out from use.

Well I had a backpack that I got back in highschool - probably around 1994 or 1995. It served me well for a few years but eventually the zipper got stuck a few too many times and eventually would not stay zipped. So I kicked the bag under my bed for a few years, and moved it around a few times mixed in with other various bags and packs. Then finally I was going to throw it out in conjunction with my current move, but I decided to investigate Jansport's guarantee which I had heard about. Their website says to send it in to an address where they will repair or replace it for free if they deem it to be broken to their standards. I concluded that the bag was still in fairly good condition except for the zipper and that it would be worth $1 of company postage to see if I could get a working bag or perhaps even a brand new bag. (I was really hoping for a brand new bag.)

So I sent it off and about 3 weeks or so later I got it back int he mail, they replaced the zipper...and the bag is back in working order. So Jansport makes good on its promise, and I might consider buying another Jansport backpack or luggage if I am so inclined again in the future.


(I was really hoping they would send me a new bag or like a certificate for a new one or something as i don't particularly like the one I had. The main zipper goes all they way down about 80% of each side making it somewhat difficult to get something out without spilling the entire contents of the bag. Oh well)

buba69 8 out of 10 on google

Google is showing 8 out of 10 of the top results to be my own for searches for buba69. Good news I guess in that someone is not parading around the internet as me. Though this does not bode well for any of the places I that I try to use buba69 anonymously.

F U Joe Liberman

What the fuck happened to this guy. Joe Liberman saying his oppents call for phased withdraw from Iraq gives the edge to the terrorists!!!!! WTF? I thought you were a democrat Joe. I thought you were generally against the war? Yes i know that since we are there we have to ensure stability, but that doesnt mean that pulling out gives the terrorists the win. This is going to make it very hard for you Joe, siding with Cheney is never the right thing to do.

Get your Messerschmitt T-shirt!

Buy My t-shirt!

I created this t-shirt on zazzle.com. Zazzle is a website where you can design custom t-shirts. You can even take your designs and let other people purchase them. If someone buys your design, they pay you a small amount. They also have an affiliate program so you can get paid even more.

I found this logo while running through pages on wikipedia and I thought that this logo would make a good t-shirt. It turned out ok, but I think if i were to do it again I would take the logo and re-do it in photoshop or something. Clean up the hard edges and then take some kind to noise filter to it to make it look "fake" old.

Buy My t-shirt!

Liquids, gels, etc...banned on airplanes

God fucking damnit. Just when it couldn't get any worse for air travel, some fucking asstards decided to blow up water bottles filled with alcohol or something... and because of a handful of terrorist assholes, the rest of the world, the millions of people who fly every day, will have to deal with an even more unpleasant experience. Flying already sucks...so what if you can get across the entire country in 6 hours...I am not willing to pay a dime more than it actually costs. Now the airlines, TSA and all the rest of the assholes inbetween are totally free to lose my luggage and I am totally fucked...totally. I can't bring toothpaste, contact solution, a bottle of water, diet pepsi, probably even spreadable cheese...all of this will probably now be banned forever!!

I refuse to believe that inconveniencing everyone in the name of security or with the goal of screening out a handful of terrorists is WRONG. I would rather drink my diet pepsi on the plane, the one that I brought with me in a bottle, instead of drinking a small can of diet coke or whatever crap they happen to have left over. If some asshole wants to blow me up, well go ahead and blow.

WE CANNOT LIVE IN FEAR!!! Why should we fear them? Why can't we just go on about our business. If we ignore them, pay no attention to them, stop fighting them on all fronts, then they will have nothing to fight against....then perhaps they will just go home.

Gifts from abroad

A few years back Alyssa found a website called Novica. It is sponsored by National Geographic and is a great place to find one of a kind gifts. The company finds artists from around the world, usually those that could not get exposure on their own, and sells their artwork through the website. You see who the artist is and often the artwork listed on the site is one of a kind...AND most of the money goes directly to the artist instead of middlemen as the products are shipped directly from the artist. It is really a neat idea.

Alyssa bought me a necklace from the site a while back, and also bought something for her sister or mother or something.

from the site
"In association with National Geographic, Novica today serves as an online arts agent for more than 1,700 artists in countries around the world. Visitors to the Novica Web site can read about the artists, explore their cultures, view photographs of their work and select from more than 8,500 handcrafted works. Novica arts and technology teams (staffing Novica offices in El Salvador, Brazil, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Thailand, Venezuela and Zimbabwe) interview each artist, photograph their artwork, post the interviews and photographs online, and handle all packing and shipping on behalf of the artist. International couriers deliver the artwork directly to customers, eliminating numerous middlemen and transferring the savings to creator and customer alike."

Read more

Follow up to original ideas

It would seem that at least several people liked the shirt design that I came up with. I would suspect that much of the reason they liked it was due to the good illustration, by Holly Gindlesperger The original idea is shown first The final version is second.

Customer service calling me!

Just got off the phone with American Express. Some lady calling me, the administrator of our corporate account, to ask how our "Amex Experience" is going (paraphrasing). I told her that we are getting along just fine, with one exception. As the administrator of the account I have no power to actually pay the bill. If i call and say I am me, then they refuse to let me make a payment, even though I can verify every single bit of information associated with the account or any of the cardholders. So I tell them that I will just call back and say I am one of the cardholders and then make the payment. They don't seem to care, so that I what I proceed to do. Granted I have not done this process in several months, wishing not to waste anymore of my time than is needed. I tell the lady all of this and she tells me that she shakes her head at these types of things.

Hopefully she will call me back to say she has resolved the issue...but I doubt it.

Google maps, a setp backwards

Google updated their pictures of downtown Chicago sometime in the last few days. The previous versions were more than a few years old, lacking the 'improvements' to Solider Field, the area on the corner of Wacker and LSD was a golf course, Millenium Park was under major construction etc...

So now they have newer pictures, taken Fall of 2005 or so I would suspect judging from the progress on the Trump Tower site, lack of boats in the harbor, sand humps on the beaches...

Google maps used to have a pretty good view of the new condo as it was a shot from the southeast, instead of the current southwest view. You could clearly see our balcony and our whole side of the building, now...nothing. Perhaps google will come out with some kind of mapping revision thingy where you can see how places looked every few years...yeah that would be cool. (btw, original thought of the day...).

One of the biggest problems with this update is that the images are of a somewhat lower quality, perhaps taken with a different satalite than the previous pictures. Which is unfortunate because they sacrificed quality for the more up to date pictures.

Also the old apartment has lost its good southern shot favoring a more northern view. Naperville was not updated and there is still no closer images of Freeport.

Original Ideas

I have had very few original ideas in recent months, but lately things have just been coming to me. I am now on a streak of...two. Two original thoughts in as many weeks.

1) A t-shirt design for a trade show. Idea just popped into my head, didn't see it anywhere or try very hard to come up with the idea. Just needed an idea and I thought of one.

2) An idea for a certain type of insurance/add-on service. This one is also original. In the never ending quest to get people to pay for things they will never need or receive this insurance idea really takes the cake. Too bad we will never be able to get the people who could really benefit from the insurance, the fucktards, to signup. We would only get people to signup who have a very low chance of ever needing the service.

More ideas as they come...but breath should not be held...

Google Ranking, Me = Success!!111!!!

So my quest to unseat the dude who was always listed above me on google searches for my name is a total success. Through a combination of cross-linking to my own personal websites (my main site, my lighting portfolio, this blog, etc), work press releases and main page, theatre events and web pages, I was able to get searches for my name - IN ALL VARIATIONS - to the top several places on google. So now if you search for any of the following you get links to me or to my sites:

Matthew Arata
Matt Arata
"Matt Arata"
"Matthew Arata"

Searches for just Arata come up with a lot of other crap that is not me, but I guess that is too much to hope for.

Two other arata's are currently near the top, which people may mistake as being me, but they are not. I will have to do some additional work to have more sites that I control link back to my stuff.