Twins game

This post seems to have been kept as a draft and not actually published. It is rather old -- last September.





This past weekend afforded me the opportunity to see the Twins. A friend from school had purchased tickets for the "last" regular season game in the Dome.

Pictures IV, Camping

The computer is working again! Switching hard drives was the trick, so it likely is some sort of infection in the newer drive. So now I can get the pictures off the camera and publish them online.

A couple weeks ago, a group from church went camping. Following are pictures from a hiking excursion.

One of the islands from the map was called "Leopold No. 1". Initially we were wondering if this was it. It wasn't.

Part of our hiking crew.

There were many of these mini-waterfalls.

This shot is taken from Starved Rock (where a group of Native Americans allegedly were starved to death in a siege). The ledge in the trees is called Lover's Leap. According to legend, a young maiden jumped to her death after her beloved married another woman.

Pictures III, Air and Water Show

Here are more pictures from a blogged-about event.

Look closely and you can see a couple planes.

Look even closer to find parachutes.

Why waste an advertising opportunity?

One of the few planes which is big and slow enough to be photographed, a C-17.

Pictures II, Architectural Tour

Perhaps you read the post about one of the lake/river tours. Here are some pictures from another, similar tour.

My sister is the best.

Now it's called the Willis Tower.

Here is an example of some contemporary architecture. Part of the beauty of this building is that it fits well with those around it. (Good fit not captured here.)

Fun along the Chicago River.

The four domes on each corner are composed of a flammable material and filled with water. Chicago fire safety anyone?

I love this view.

Home, sweet home.

Pictures I, Lakeside Events

Park's annual baptism service is held on a Sunday morning at the lake. Despite the early start, there was quite a nice turnout.


A couple weeks later was Venetian night. Many pictures could have been taken; unfortunately I temporarily misplaced my camera.

Podcast of the [insert time period here]

If you live in Chicago, you will become quite familiar with the public transit system. It is quite a nice set of trains and buses, and one of the reasons I don't have a car (the other reason is because of the crazy parking, but parking is outside the scope of this post). While the public transit does take a bit more time, it has a couple significant benefits:
1. Less stress. Yeah, driving through the streets of Chicago isn't necessarily the mostr relaxing activity on the planet. But driving is also outside this topic's scope.
2. More free time. While travelling, one doesn't have to give one's attention to the streets. (Sometimes this can be taken too far and causing the missing of a stop, but of course that hasn't happened to me...right?)

Having this free time has opened me up to the world of podcasts. Previously, I would listen to about one podcast ever month, for instance in the rare event of having a long and solo drive. Now, I probably average at least an hour a day of podcasts. The beauty of this technology is it transforms tasks which would be wearisome to being quite mentally stimulating and educational.

Throughout the course of blogging, I hope to cover my favorite podcasts. When that reservoir of blog-material has emptied, you might hear about favorite individual episodes.

Podcast #1: EconTalk
This is far and away my favorite. Russ Roberts, professor at George Mason University, brings in a guest every week to interview. The fellows range from another econ professor to a CEO of a hospital to authors to Nobel prize winners. Topics vary widely, but largely relate principals of economics to everyday life of which you and I are familiar. Two of my favorite episodes are:
Collier on the Bottom Billion (1/28/08) -- an author, whose book has been taking off in sales, is discussing some root problems with poverty around the world and trying to figure out similarities amoung impoverished peoples.
Caplan on the Myth of the Rational Voter (6/25/07) -- another author discusses politics. A large portion of the conversation is centered around the question: "In other disciplines, such as history, people who don't know much about a subject tend to trust the experts. Why is it that in economic situations people don't trust, through their votes, the advice traditional economic experts give?"

What I love about this podcast is that it exposes a facet of economics which most people, whether having studied economics or not, do not appreciate is that economics goes beyond numbers and self-interest. Dr. Roberts does a great job of asking questions to keep the conversation interesting, and hopefully accessible for non-econ folks.
Maybe you are thinking: "Yeah, Ben, that's you. But that wouldn't interest me at all." I beg to differ. Give it a try. If you just listen to one, check out "Roberts on the Price of Everything" (8/25/08). Let me know how it goes.

So here's my question for you readers: Do any of you listen to podcasts? Please share, because there are a lot of hidden gems out there.

My computer

You know how some people hang on to a clunky car past its lifetime? Eventually it just starts breaking and it might be worthwhile just getting a new one, but they hang onto it?
I am starting to get that way with one of my computers. It is about 4 years old -- about the typical lifespan for computers these days. So what do I do early this year? I get a new hard drive and upgrade my ram. Yay! Much better than having to re-install all my old software.
Just a couple weeks ago, my computer wouldn't boot. As in, the operating system won't load.
By God's providence, there is a complete backup of my harddrive back at home. So come September I'll be able to get that. And a friend of mine is good with hardware (sorry to ruin it for you, but unfortunately just because one received a degree in computer science doesn't mean that person knows all there is to know about computers...or even enough to fix his own notebook).

All this to explain why:
1. There haven't been many blog posts as of late
2. The blog posts that have been posted don't have pictures
3. Any written (typed) communication with you has been brief and to the point

Chicago Event: Air and Water Show

"Welcome to the largest free air and water show in America."
Rumor has it, over 2 million people came to the 2-day event. I'm not sure if it was quite that big of a turnout, but the beaches were packed. In fact, the event became an air show for me because I wasn't close to being able to see the water.
If you like planes or noise, this was the time for you. There were classic military jets, bombers, and even refueling planes. Various bi-planes flew around doing stunts. Even some of the military jets had some neat tricks. My favorite was one by biplane pilot Sean Tucker who had quite an arsenal of stunts, and fully narrated too.
My only complaint is that the whole event seemed a bit stretched out -- about 6 hours in total and they could have crammed it in to something closer to 2 hours.
Overall, the time was well spent. Even upon finding my kneecaps painfully pink later.

Activity

The lack of posting lately has been due to the arrival of family and more family. These last couple weeks have been loads of fun. From going to 4 baseball games, to eating more than my share of pizza to a boat tour (mentioned below), we had a great time. They didn't mind sleeping on the "crouton" (futon) or taking it to Caleb and me in a few games of 500. The guests were doing their part to lend a hand, too, as they assisted a biker who had crashed and fallen unconscious.

Chicago Tip: Architecture Tour

One of the activites the Manderfields brought us on was Wendella's architecture boat tour of downtown Chicago. This was a great experience. The day was absolutely beautiful. The views were incredible. So much fascinating information was given to us.
A couple highlights:
The Hancock building is built in such a way that if all the inside walls and other structure were removed, the building would still stand -- and still be structurally sound.
Did you ever notice that tower right by Navy pier that sticks out a bit? There was a zoning agreement in Chicago that towers like that weren't allowed to be on the shoreline in order to keep the shore clean. The reason that it was there is because of a loophole because basically the law was about "real land," and the tower was built on refuse thrown into the lake.

My toughest part of writing
Self critism. One concept which can be one's greatest friend and one's worst enemy at the same time. I tend not to like my writing (specifically blogging and journalling). Not at the start, mind you, or I wouldn't start. Some great idea comes up, and for some reason I decide to sit down and try to put it on paper. Each individual sentence, or phrase, should be perfect -- reflecting precisely the intent it is designed for in a grammatically and spell-proof manner. By the time my great ideas have finally begun to take form, I'm already tired of them. It's too cliche. There isn't anything original here. Everybody already knows this. People won't like this or that. So, true, part of the problem is thinking too much about how other people might react. But that doesn't seem to be my biggest catch. I'm even too picky about my own journalling.
So what's going on with this? Part of it is probably that I don't have as much interesting material as I once thought, that my ideas weren't quite as interesting. hat's known as the "overconfidence" bias. Putting them on paper just brings me back to reality.
Perhaps this isn't all negative, though. Writing forces me to hammer down my thoughts, fine-tuning the details. Perhaps wrestling with the ideas is the fun part, then the actual truth isn't that interesting, or perhaps not as original as I first believed. Then, being frustrated with my writing could be more of a sign that I have really thought through an issue.
Regardless of why writing becomes discouraging, it doesn't seem to be a good thing, at least not with regards to me putting my thoughts on paper (or on one's and zero's as it were), because it is absolutely the #1 reason why I don't blog/journal more frequently.
For any of you who write at all, do you have this problem? How do you deal with it?

The cost of options

In the financial world, one can obtain options -- an opportunity (but not an obligation) to purchase (or sell) an individual stock at a set price. These options, while beneficial, do cost something -- an instance of a popular slogan "There is no such thing as a free lunch."

The more I've thought about Chicago, especially compared to less densely populated areas, the more many of the differences between big-city USA and rural America seem like a bunch of options. Below are some examples.

Option Value	Option Cost
Being able to talk to people having a vast array of personalities and coming from completely different backgrounds	Seeing the impoverished lives of beggars every day
Taste of Chicago, with dozens of great restaurants to sample	Taste of Chicago with tens of thousands of people
A wide array of parks and events around the city	Sales Taxes
Restaurants galore for breakfast, lunch, and supper	Each individual restaurant costs more

Some similarities and differences arise with the financial industry comparison. Similarities are that each option has a value and a cost, at least apparently to me. Differences include the fact that each individual option has different value to different people, because different people have different tastes (in the stock market, option values are typically about the same for most everybody because everyone has the same goal). Also, these options cannot be "purchased" individually -- one can either live in the city or not in the city, though those in the suberbs might have a case otherwise.

So what do you think? Am I totally off base? Is this same-old same old? What differences cannot be described with this options analogy? What options go the other way?

The great global pastime

Those of you who know me to much any extent at all know that I am a big fan of the sport known as America's national pastime -- baseball. Unfortunately, baseball's popularity is much less in most places outside America (and Japan and Cuba). Even within America, baseball has lost its monopoly on the national sport.
Of course, the most popular sport in the world is soccer (aka football). I never have really gotten into it much. There are a couple attributes of soccer which frustrate me. First, it seems that while all sports have an aspect of officiating subjectivity, soccer has a stronger element of that. But more importantly, I become frustrated at the seeming meaninglessness of 99% of the game. Players kick the ball back and forth, and once in a blue moon something actually happens (i.e. a score). I didn't sense any strategy in the game -- just some tactics and a lot of quickness (which I don't have).
Well, a couple weeks ago I was at a Settlers of Catan tournament. One of the people mentioned that he was going to the US/Honduras world cup qualifying game at Soldier field. Well, I'm not sure if I'll ever get another opportunity like this...hmm When is the game? Is it sold out? Turns out, he thought there would be some tickets. My friend directed me to the field and there were indeed tickets available.
The soccer game was loads of fun. Honduras fans came in droves and outnumbered us natives. Apparently we were supposed to win fairly easily, but I didn't know that. The game was quite close and tense all the way. It also had a side effect of giving me a lot better feel for the game. From being at the game, to being able to see the whole field, to conversing with knowledgable fans (primarily one in particular who looked about 10 years younger than me) to sensing the excitement to seeing players at such a high level, the game has taken on a whole new depth of meaning.
Now there is no way soccer will replace baseball in the deep dwellings of my heart, but it is in competition with basketball...

Chicago Board Games

Yes, there is an actual online group with that name. They have a bunch of events, and so I decided to check it out. There were 3 different aspects of a group which I really enjoy:
- Environment -- competitive, but fun and laid-back. Playing with people who are always distracted can be quite frustrating, as can be people who throw a fit if, say, you put the robber on them. Now, granted, this does describe me at times. But a good environment has a way of being overall quite beneficial.
- Type of games -- playing fun games. Many people think of games such as Monopoly and Risk when they think of board games. While those are quite enjoyable, there are so many more enjoyable games out there.
- Accessibility -- Chicago has a great CTA system, but it doesn't go everywhere. Plus, I have a job and have other things going on, so a group that I can't play with doesn't do me any good.

The events which I've attended has included the above 3 factors in abundance. It is loads of fun. For those of you worrying if I would have a social life, not to fear -- Chicago Board Games is here! While there is much more important things in life than playing games, I do think it is healthy to have an environment where one can sit down and have fun. Probably as I become more plugged into Chicago activities, such as church events and Bible studies, I won't be attending as many of these gaming events. But that is part of the beauty of a group like this -- you can just come when you want.
My favorite events is one which occasionally meets Mondays after work. Actually, it is quite within walking distance of my apartment. Anyway, what really makes the time is the host. T is always a great host. Not only does he have fun games and food, but he also is very socially savvy and keeps a fun, pleasant environment. Not only that, but he has a claim to fame in that he played a large part in bringing Settlers of Catan to the US, where it has taken off as a popular board game.
Perhaps I'll host an event sometime. Maybe when the many summer activities of Chicago start subsiding...

Take me out to the ballgame

Last week, the Twins were in town. Typically, this would be at U.S. Cellular field. However, for about 1 time in 6 years, they played at Wrigley field. What timing!

Game 1: The Twins won! Unfortunately, I missed the game. If you were a Milton Bradley fan (not the game company), this would have been a painful one.

Game 2: Standing room only ticket, $15. Not bad for Wrigley. Getting in is the big thing. The day started off quite rainy and it was postponed for a few minutes. But, as the weatherpeople predicted, the weather cleared off. It turned into a beautiful day for a great game. I heartily enjoyed the day, though this was another painful one for Cubs fans. I don't know what's worse:
- Being the first team to lose a home series vs. the Twins all year (it's mid-June) OR
- Being shut-out by a pitcher who is subsequently sent to the minors.
- The visiting crowd being louder than the home crowd for most all the game

Game 3: The Cubs get revenge.
Quick side story: For those of you who aren't familiar with baseball in Chicago, getting tickets at a Cubs game is not the easiest task in the world. They are typically sold out. Every day. Ahead of time. There's standing-room only which you can get, which isn't a bad option. So, I'm on my way to the game, without a ticket. Scalpers abound, but they are charging decently high prices (i.e. about twice face value). Typically the best deals are found by seeing someone selling tickets who just has one ticket, rather than someone yelling out with a fistful of tickets. Anyway, I ran into such a person. Bleacher seat for face value. Yes! The guy behind me, who tried to get in on it, was envious. "Those are going for $100 today." So, I'm standing in line for the bleachers (which are general admission). Deciding to look at my ticket, it reads: "Cubs vs. Indians." What!? Fortunately, it wasn't a complete dud as that was a game next Sunday. So, I get in line to by a ticket from the box office. There were actually seats available. All in all, it ended up being a spendy day. But both were pretty good deals. There's worse things that can happen than going to an extra Cubs game. (By the way, the Cubs/Indians game was this past Sunday, and it turned out to be beautiful weather for getting a sunburn, but also a great game.)
So, I'm sitting down. Here's my seat:


Not bad for the cheapest seat available ($36), eh? There was a beam in the way, but it wasn't very obstructive. The man in the picture right behind the hitter is Carlos Gomez. His batting practice was like a home run derby. He was crushing the ball. He ended up having his best game of the year to date, with a HR and a double. Gomez might have contributed all the Twins offense of the game, if my memory serves me correctly.
The game was really quite a thriller. It was a classic pitchers' duel. The conclusion was in the 9th, when both Mauer and Morneau didn't come through with RISP (suppose they are still humans) which could have brought Nathan in to close the 9th. Instead, Theriot came through for the Cubs with a 1 out, bases-loaded single to win it. While I was quite disappointed, seeing the whole Wrigley field erupt is quite a sight to see.

Park

The second question, have you found a church, is in the process of being answered. There are about half a dozen churches in the area which I hope to visit. Unfortunately, that means it will take 6 weeks to visit them all.
The first one on the list was Park Community Church. It was started by some people by Moody and is geared towards the younger crowd. I went to the 11 AM service and really enjoyed both the music and the sermon. The pastor had a very challenging text (1 Cor 14) in his pass-through of 1 Corinthians. He handled it very well: sticking to solid teachings, gearing it toward a more contemporary audience, being energetic (especially for this being the 2nd service of the day), and having some solid applications. In talking with some people, there were some activities for "new people" after the 5:30 service. It is this service which the younger crowd tends to attend, anyway (the 11 AM service was more 30-somethings, if that gives you an indication of the youth).
So I eagerly trekked to the 5:30 service. Knowing the sermon and music would be the same, I expected to be a bit bored, but ready to see how this service was different (and expectant towards the newcomers get-together). The music was even better this time, perhaps because I started learning the songs. As for the message, I was asking myself during this sermon "Did I already hear this?" in a truly questioning tone. So there must be some combination of:
- Me not being a good churchmember and not paying attention during the first service
- There being a lot to the sermon, with the first time me missing the trees for the forest, so to speak
- The pastor being engaging enough so as to keep me interested
- The pastor doing a great job in knowing his audience, in that even though the main content was the same, being with a different audience felt completely fresh

So Park has been going quite well. I returned yesterday and had another good experience. The aspect of an evening service works great as well, because I can still attend Park while visiting other churches. Hopefully this does not make me a traitor.

A random welcome to Chicago

The 2 questions people from Iowa ask me the most frequently are:
1. Where do you live?
2. Have you found a church

I live downtown. You can see pictures on Facebook. But to truly get the experience, you should stop by sometime. Just let me know in advance so I'll be sure to be around.

The second question will be addressed in a future post.

If you want to get in contact with me, be patient. I'm still learning about ways to stay in touch. Generally, phone is best, then G-mail.

Hopefully there will be interesting enough information for this blog to be updated weekly. I already have a backlog of tidbits to share, so it might work for a while.