The winter has finally arrived in Chicago. This evening I had to drive through snow. The birds look miserable. As some one who primarily spent his first quarter of a century of his life in the heat of Southern Louisiana and Texas, I look forward to this extreme cold every year. Chicago never disappoints.

This is the montage of great hair/Fall visitors

The Thanksgiving champagne was sort of challenging to open...
but check out this shot Mary got.
This is the cork bouncing off the wall, and it is backlit by the flash...just sort of fascinating.

Eight sacks! OK, I'm getting the fever... Go Bears! It helps that I am going to my first Bears game on Dec 18th at Soldier Field. I need my heart to be in it, because my lower extremities will be numb.

Thank you John Gress of Reuters for this great picture. Poor Jake, he has no idea.

I love this picture. Not only because my wife is an incredible cat magnet... but the eyes. Hers are glowing red. Dixie's are glowing blue. And Trixie's are yellow. The primary colors. I am sure there is something interesting and scientific about it ... I just think it is freaky.

So, I was exploring MotiveQuest’s site and there was a section on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. It brought me back to my psychology classes in grad school. And I immediately thought about me and my coat. Here is a picture of me in the coat.

No it is not THAT cold and snowy yet. This picture is from last winter (or it could be from the one before). That is the whole point. I first moved to Chicago in mid-March of 2002. I came from Dallas and had lived in Texas and Louisiana my whole life. Needless to say my winter wardrobe was lacking. Well, that year I worked the Breeder’s Cup horserace in October. Part of the compensation included this great coat. It is amazing! Wonderfully warm and weather-preventative (wind, rain, snow). I love it. It is easy to wash, just throw it in the washer.

But, here is the deal. Every winter, I consider whether to wear it again, or go get a new one. Why? It totally meets my safety needs. It exceeds them in fact. I could not imagine a coat that better fulfilled my needs for warmth and protection. (Well, the zipper gets stuck occasionally… but that’s it).

However, I am bugged by the fact that it has a large Breeder’s Cup 2002 logo on it. It dates the coat. And it does not define me very well … I know next to nothing about horse racing. And then, there is the matter of the Levy Restaurant logo on the arm. I don’t work for this company anymore. This coat is not my brand. Every year I consider switching it out for this reason. Taking the chance on a coat that may not meet my safety needs to fulfill my style needs. This year I have decided to hold onto the coat again. Eventually it will be cool retro, right? By then the lining will be worn and I’ll be freezing in the darn thing.

sitting in Washington square...

One of the things I love about our place is our gigantic painted map hanging in the living room. We went to Sam's school during family art night or something like that... Anyway, they had a silent auction for various props from the production of The King and I. Mary bid on this map, the "ugly" one. While the pretty one was going around $100 or something absurd like that, we got the secondary map for like $10 or $15. It is just about the first thing you notice when you walk into our home ... this crazy map. We also got two pretty good bamboo poles out of the deal. Perfect for Sam's ninja training. (and mine.)

My buddy Adam King has some pretty evoking images.

Check them out here.

Whatcha doin'?

"Picking up leaves with my legs and jumping."

cool.

The Power of Charisma…

What is it about Sen. Barack Obama? He is just so incredibly interesting and enjoyable to watch and listen to. Charisma is a powerful thing that is not easily faked (Is there such thing as false charisma?) I am really glad I got to be here in Chicago for his Senatorial race. (Hey, “Senatorial” is really fun to say. Try it.) Anyway, I have been cable-less for the past year+ … getting my info/entertainment mostly from the web and other sources. However, I watched the video and read some articles about Obama’s appearance on “The Daily Show.” I absolutely love this little snippet:

Before the discussion could be weighed down with specifics about a controversial plan to withdrawal troops from Iraq, [Jon] Stewart turned to a lighter topic: Obama's celebrity.

"It is true, I worry about the hype," Obama told Stewart. "The only person more over-hyped than me is you."

Stewart collapsed onto his desk with laughter as the cameras rolled."Well done, sir. Well done!" Stewart replied. "That's about the best answer I think I've ever heard."

Read the full Newsday article here

Speaking of Google Earth … How strange that I go online to show Sam and Mary the Canterbury Rd. swimming pool I played in as a kid or the trees we planted … oh and there is the shipwreck we saw on our honeymoon.

A whole new way to explore the world we live in...

When you wake-up tomorrow morning, consider this … someone can just take your picture as you are walking around the city, minding your own business … and post it on the Internet where millions around the world can see it. Oh and Google Earth has a picture of your house, so you can’t hide there. Might as well get out and love it…

Just some picture thoughts...

“In a recent release from Forrester, compiling information from several reports and a survey of young US and Canadian consumers age 12 to 21, the summary concludes that to reach the youth market, one needs to reach young consumers on their terms and, more importantly, speak a dialect that they understand.”

This is monumentally stupid. I read things like this article and hate the industry. Is this really enlightening people out there? How many adjectives could you replace the words youth and young with and still have a sustainable statement? No, how many adjectives would not work in this manner? ZERO. Ugh.

Yet, people with C’s in their titles love to put money in this kind of information. Companies invest buckets of money for this insight. “Check! Just what we thought. Great. Confirmed. Move on. Let’s see if Asian lesbians prefer to be ‘reached on their terms and in a dialect they understand.’ Shall we?” These same business individuals will plop down tons of money to put a group of teens in a stale focus group room and ask them about playing video games and eating Cheez-It® Brand Fiesta™ Cheesy Taco Baked Snack Crackers or Quick-Serve Handheld Chicken Value Food Products. However, they are afraid to fund a study of a couple of researchers/observers going into some homes and watching some teens play the games while eating their damn snacks and talking with friends. (“Unless you can prove to me that my competitor has done it, and I’ll need to see the case study.”) How do you do research on early-adopters without early adopter methodology?

Oh, and the agency people are the same way … they are the same people that actually think text link advertising on blogs is a good idea.

Sheesh.