Miscommunication, View, Mingle, Dinner, Taxi!

So today it was dinner for the Daley Scholarship winner, and that means one thing. I get to meet the mayor! (and his family amongst other guest)

I got to the Chase Tower via EVO (thanks to an old friend, Michael). Anyways, when I got there I had to check in, since is a high rise, it's in downtown, and the mayor is going to be there. I got to the front desk, said my name and gave her my ID, No problemo. The lady at the desk was more than nice and enough to guide me through. Til, I got to the elevator, and the elevator guy had no idea, what was going on even though I mentioned it was a scholarship dinner (should have mentioned Daley Scholarship dinner). Anyways, got "kicked out" of the elevator hall, and the lady in the desk was nice enough to clarify everything for me, and I was on my way up to the 57th floor.

I was one of the first to be there, and the first of the scholarship winners to be up there. The view from the 57th floor was magnificent and just seeing the entire south side (or what I can make of it through the mist and fog). Greatest view of the city I have ever seen. I was going to take a picture, but I feared that no pictures were allowed cause I didn't see anyone else with a camera. I found out in the end it was cool. Shucks, next year it'll happen.

So, the evening started with cocktails being served along with an unease of being the new guy there, and mingling with a bunch of higher ups seemed out of my league. As me and the other recipients, Jessica, Kevin, Aaron, and I think her name was Patricia just stood in our own circle. I was new to this whole formal thing, and I know it isn't my thing that's for sure. Til the mayor's brother, William kind of took the initiative and divided us into the crowd to mingle. I met most of the Daley's and heard much about Eleanor Daley and her love for education, and it was nice to know that I've been honored with this scholarship.

Next was dinner, I was seated with a mayor from Morocco, and some other mayor's who weren't introduced to us. Along with them, I think it was the mayor's niece, and some lady and her husband from some organization with the words CEO in it, I wish I did a better job at remembering things, I really do. They were nice people, but I really felt detached in their politics, I wonder if I made a good impression, and had good table manners. The meal was less than filling, I can sure eat a lot more than what they served, probably 3 plates more.

Afterwards, I got a chance to take a picture with the man himself, the mayor. Hopefully, I get the pictures, in the mail or email that'll be awesome. He was a very chill guy, really took the pressure off.

Afterwards, we took a cab back. The total was 14.45 after dropping us off at 4 different locale. All I have to say was the driver was definitely trying to rip me off, I handed him a 20, and he took his time with that twenty before I asked for a 5 back, and gave him 3 bucks. I tipped him a cool 24%, and I asked for a receipt to get reimbursed, but all he did was handed me a blank one. Now, I'm not even sure if I'll get reimburse for an unsigned receipt with no info on the taxi cab. I won't know til Jill replies back to me. I can see why I hate taxi drivers.

-David M.

***Hopefully, I get the pictures to post.

Giant Robot and the Final Hurdles

Today was the Giant Robot talk at UIC, and I was able to meet with the founders of Giant Robot Martin Wong, and Eric Nakamura along with their friend Tim. Two very cool and down to Earth guys, and they gave a great talk about how they started their magazine, and what they thought they contributed to groups and communities with the magazines. Also, giving away issue 51 of Giant Robot. Afterwards, the staff had dinner with Eric, Martin, Tim, and Tim's guest which was awesome to actually hear from these guys. Wished I got a chance to talk more, but hey I'll be in LA in August and hopefully I'll get a chance to visit Giant Robot.


With the last AAA month event out of the way, now is back to the grind. In 14 hours I'll have a quiz in my sociology in which I have very minimal confidence of on, but hey you'll never know. Also, need to finish my final for Computer Graphics, which seems to be coming along, but not as I imagined, but it'll get done. Which leads me to a series of thoughts lately that I seriously doubt myself a lot of times, and I wonder if is a mechanism I set for myself in order for me to push much harder. Sometimes I know this is as much I can do as an individual, but somehow is not enough for me at all. Hopefully, I can finish this semester unscathed because I feel like I'm cutting it really close somehow. Anyways, that's my rant to the empty burrows of the internet.

Til next time,
-DMEI

Breaking Even

When you go from Happy to Sad, you've been had.
When you go from Sad to Happy, you're just a sap.

Yes, I know that didn't make any sense, but I just need to put that somewhere.

Anyways, recollecting events that happen this week which led from uneventful to just plain crap. Yes, I know people have bigger issues, but a man can rant can't he?

I'll start with Tuesday after getting onto campus from downtown somewhere along the way I lost my upass (oh noes). So, the following day I biked all the way to the cta office to pay for a replacement upass which cost $35 (I'll break even with that in 2 weeks), but having to wait for the stupid upass to arrive in SSB is a 5 day process so I spent the last couple days paying for public transportation. Fine, no big deal I can manage. Then the weekend rolled along.

Friday, I manage to stay on task with my work, so, is not so bad at all. Then the power went out due to rain late at night. Fantastic! At the time I thought, oh well the lights will come back on in the morning and I can go back to slaving away at that stupid art history paper. Apparently the blackout caused the transformer in our heating unit to blow, so, we had to spend the whole Saturday without heat, and it also burned out the motor of the bath fan at home. No biggy, there's still power at home, gotta get back to work and write that paper. Given the amount of time I spent goofing off and breaks I managed to finish before the night was over. Then there was a partial power outage in the house, lucky me I just finished my work.

So, after 3-4 technicians come strolling by the issue was still unresolved. Till we found out that the black out burned out more items in the house. My surge protector is now what I like to call a circuit breaker bomb, meaning I plug it in any outlet and turn it on, I guarantee you I will shut down that part of the room until the circuit breaker is reset. Along, with other electronics in the house. Given the circumstances I spent Sunday replacing blown parts of the house, having to fork over 80 bucks on my stuff so far.

Despite the negativity that occurred this weekend I manage to have some uplifting things to happen this weekend. For instance, I got accepted into SIGGRAPH! which is the Special Interest Group on GRAPHics and Interactive Techniques for people who didn't know. Also, I got awarded housing, so, all I need to do is buy the ticket to LA. Hopefully this experience will be enlightening to my major, which I'm excited about. Though, it won't be till August 10th.

At least today my wallet was able to recover thanks to the WebUse Project and I got paid $55 to participate.

Given some of the circumstances I've experienced lately, I really hope my life is able to break even somewhere along the way. This is just a little mile stone.