Running, Sick, Happy Halloween
You heard it here folks…I’m still running. 2 days til I can say it’s been 2 months! ;) It’s October and I’m sick and it’s 36 degrees out and I am still running (big thank you to Melissa G’s playlist because this morning it got me through the cold without giving up.) Today was unusually hard…so I bet I’ll have to take the next couple of days off and drink lots of tea and eat lots of soup. Everybody send me your healthy good energy…send me the good vibes. haha.
Let see, what’s new? It’s winter, I’m running, oh and p.s. Kurt Cruse moved into our basement! Justin flew down to Tampa on Friday and drove back with him and Chloey the cat (who was very unhappy to meet us at first, but I think she might be getting used to us now. ) Kurt and Bobby have both been sick since the beginning of the weekend so I assume that’s where I got it…although it could be my co-workers…everyone is coughing and sneezing around here too. Bring on the Halls and Dayquil…maybe I can wipe this thing out before it gets too much worse.
This weekend – well, actually Thursday – the Halloween parties begin…and I’m not really a costume-dresser-upper…so hopefully I don’t bum people out at these parties. haha. My cousin’s wife Jen is having a costume party for her 30th birthday at Brownstone and then Friday I’m having dinner at Bridget’s place since Linnea is in town, but I’m stopping by another costume party at Chicago Art Department at some point that evening…so I can see the closing show for Night of the Living Artist – Halloween/Closing Party and drop of a piece of art that I’m donating to their annual fund raiser: Growing Up CAD. Should be fun and exhausting weekend!
What’s everybody else doing for Halloween?
Orbitz Go Go Green 5K
So this weekend Bobby, Jess Large, and I got up on Saturday morning and did the Orbitz Go Go Green 5K at the Peggy Notebaert Museum in the freezing cold and rain! It was fun though and I’m glad we went…good cause and some exercise to start the weekend off right. We just got the times back and they were:
68 ROBERT ARGEANTON 337 24:36 7:55
224 JESSICA LARGE 377 31:52 10:16
225 MICHELLE FIOCCA 336 31:52 10:16
This is actually 2 minutes slower than I did the last one but lets face it – it was freezing and raining in our faces! haha. I logged my time on my Nike+ widget though and it showed that Large and I were very consistent throughout the race so I’m glad we stayed at a good pace and didn’t walk at all. Go us! (I did forget to turn off my Nike+ so the down hill spiral at the end is me walking and waiting for the lady to take my chip off and walking to the snack table. haha) Anyway – good times had by all! Next Sunday is the Hot Chocolate 5K/15K that I’m running with Large. Lets see if we can beat our time! I think we might run the 5K and walk the rest. :)
Look its me & Jason Santa Maria!
Hey look! It’s me and Jason Santa Maria! AND Eric Meyer! AND look it’s Robert Hoekman, Jr! Sadly I didn’t get a picture with Andy Clarke, but he did give 
me a sweet pin from Stuff and Nonsense at lunch one day as we chatted about politics and other things…:) It’s crazy because I go to these sites all the the time and read about design things and new projects and I guess I never thought I’d actually meet the people behind them. These are some of the great web standards-designers-css writers-usability experts of their kind!
My friend Cheryl that I met at the conference has been telling me to get these pictures up for like 2 weeks so here they are! Finally!
ALL of the speakers were fantastic and really opened my eyes to a lot of things that I didn’t know and also reaffirmed some things I’d been thinking all
along. It was nice to just get inspired and be in my design element agian.
Sometimes an experience like this is just the thing you need to get back in that zone. Not that I’ve lost interest in design at all – its just tough to be excited every day when you hardly have time to think, when you are just doing doing doing. I hope I can use lots of the things I learned at Orbit and also educate my co-workers that were unable to attend. I took soooo many notes my arm was about to fall off – so I’m covered in terms of information! :)
An Event Apart: Chicago 2008
Tonight we went to pick up my packet for “An Event Apart” Web Design Conference tomorrow! I’m so excited I cannot even express my emotions in word format. *jumps for joy*
Check out the picture to the right – this is the stuff that came in my packet a sweet mini laptop bag(too bad my comp doesn’t fit), memo pad, and a quite nice journal/notebook, and of course my personalized ID badge. :) I’m happy, can you tell?
This is going to be such an inspiration and so eye-opening and refreshing. Starts at 7AM tomorrow at the Sheraton Hotel downtown Chicago and the end of the day there will be a sweet party sponsored by Media Temple. All the people I love in web design are gonna be there: Jeffery Zeldman, Eric Meyer, Jason Santa Maria (who designed the ID badges), Jason Fried, Cameron Moll…the list goes on. I really wish someone was going with me (Kurt would be my first choice since we are literally like web design buddies every day at work.) I’m gonna do my best to relay all this stuff back to you dude! Seriously its not gonna be the same by myself…hopefully I’m not a total loner hanging out in the corner being bashful. Haha! Lets pray I make some friends. LOL.
Ok well I’m gonna go get my bag together and charge all my electronics to take with me: laptop, camera, phone, ipod nano. :)
Press on.
“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination along are omnipotent.”
This is a quote from my boss’s office – embroidered in a little frame. I’ve loved it since the day I started here…just wanted to share.
Playlist Help Requested…
I have tons of music – for which I love and adore but maybe overplayed to the point that it’s not working out for my morning run. Does anyone have a great “power” song that they like to workout to? I am going to try and compile a new playlist that is just super intense and upbeat and inspirational….this is totally doable. I heard Huey Lewis + The News in the car this morning and decided that one is the first one I’m putting on there, “I Need A New Drug” (Watch the YouTube Video)…I know it’s totally, um, Ghost Busters-esque…maybe I’m a sucker for the oldies. ;)
Anyway let me know what you guys suggest! And thanks in advance!
FrankenMeg
Check out this blog – FrankenMeg – I especially love the cooking videos. The girl who is the co-founder of this site is an old friend from high-school + I am assuming the guy is her husband. Of course this is interesting to me because its someone I know, but at the same time I love cooking and I’m totally into it…there’s one video on there for some kick ass BBQ sauce too. Very cool – I am inspired to cook Lobstah! And I am inspired to make more videos! Thanks FrankenMeg!
Lobster Roll: cook, clean and eat this New England favorite from FrankenMeg on Vimeo.
ShopFixture.com
Design show and tell time. :) This is a website design I made for shopfixture.com here at Orbit in the last year. My favorite part about this project is that I love the ShopFixture style – that’s always a bonus when designing a new site. :) Continue Reading →
Bucktown 5K ;)
Today Bobby and I ran in the Bucktown 5K! It was fun and I think we both did good considering our short amount of training or a total lack thereof in Bobby’s case. We both had our Nike+ in our shoes and calibrated them with our ipods yesterday so that we could track our time/miles/calories (the reason my info there says I only ran 4.8K instead of 5 is – I think – because I calibrated it wrong last night. I have to fix it tomorrow or Tuesday morning when I run again.
Also I had a hard time shutting mine off because I didn’t have an armband (I’m not sure Nike has come out with an armband for the new ipod nano – this is the old one) – I was trying to grab it out of a zippered pocket and since it’s the first time I’ve used it I had to fumble with it for a bit…that could be part of my big dip in pace at the end of the race (I had already crossed the finish line and was walking to the food tent)…that is my hypothesis – who knows! ha!.
Anyway long story short – I did the 5K in 30 minutes and Bobby did it in 25 minutes (official times to come later on the website since we had time chips attached to our shoes for this race). We both are happy we did it and know we can do better if we continue to train. This Nike+ thing is super cool because I am able to set up a training schedule for my next 5K and track my progress and goals and calories burnt…its motivation for me, so I’m glad it exists. I am signing up for another race today – The Hot Chocolate 5K – it’s on November 2. Even if I do 30 minutes again I hope I can be more consistent and not struggle as much with my breathing. I want to be stronger.
As an added bonus we saw Sang-woo, Rich, and Mike at the race so we chatted for a bit and decided to walk over to Moonshine and have some breakfast. We walked home a little bit ago and my legs are super sore…ouch!
Adventure Stage @ Vittum Theater
I don’t usually post about my design work so I thought I’d start doing so since Justin inspired me to do so. This is a website I designed for Adventure Stage Chicago a dynamic theatre group in my neighborhood for young audiences. They were built upon imagination, inspiring dialogue and growing a community of families, educators and artists. They have workshops, residencies and resources that offer concrete ways to infuse theatre in the classroom – which I think is a great thing for young people. Continue Reading →
“Getting Back on the Horse”
Today is the 18th day I’ve gone jogging at 6AM for about 3 miles, since Sept 1, 2008. :D Jessica Large has gone with me a lot of these days but this week she has been sick so Mon, Tues, Wed I went all by myself…which I find to be very fundamentally different and motivational for myself personally! I was smiling this morning when I got halfway around the route just thinking wow I never would’ve thought I could get up and do this THIS early, without hitting snooze, without complaining…but I think I like it. No, I really like it. And I CAN do it, and it’s not so bad! It’s actually refreshing and gets me ready for the day…I need everybody’s support to keep it up though, because usually I don’t make it past two months without “falling off the horse” again. If I can make it past that 2 month mark then I’ll be on my way to a healthy happy body. :)
And kudos to my dad who is doing this with me from Ohio – getting up every day and working out on his Schwin Airdyne Bike for 30-40 minutes! Good work dad!
This map is my jogging route (the point on Bell Ave is my house and the point on Wolcott is Large’s house) – and p.s. google maps rocks for having sweet routing capabilities. Wish me luck – I have to do this!