Mike’s Blog: What’s Not To Like?

You are reading the first blog I had ever launched. This was an experiment for me to dive in and see what blogging is all about. I have never been a writer but like anyone, I have plenty to say.

Lessons Learned

Shortly after launching my personal blog I quickly realized a few things. One is the hosted WordPress platform graciously provided by my hosting company is far more limited than I like. After just a few weeks, I felt compelled to download, install, and customize WordPress to use for my Cubs fan site blog. I’ve since learned to tweak and customize WordPress to a great degree. I now have many WP installs that I maintain for sites I run or contribute to. The creative flexibility of a custom WP install makes it harder and harder to return to this blog with it’s rudimentary design and features.

Another lesson learned is there are only so many hours in a day. With the many websites I am involved in, frankly not much time remains for writing on this site. Seems odd that my own personal site suffers from the attention I pay to others.  If you know me, this might not be much of a surprise after all. But the fact remains my personal blog is languishing. So in 2010 I plan to change out this blog to a custom WP install and try to make more time for posting. A guy must have his dreams…

There is a new super-mega resort on the Las Vegas Strip that is finally ready to open - some of it, anyway. If you’ve been to Vegas in the past couple years you may have noticed the giant construction project on Las Vegas Blvd between Bellagio and Monte Carlo.  That pit has risen to become the new CityCenter complex. I can’t figure out why MGM-Mirage would pour more than 8 Billion Dollars into a new resort and name it with such a bland, meaningless name. It inspires no vision, no imgaination, and for those of us who already live in cities, why would anyone long to vacation in a “city center” resort? Names like Caesars Palace, Rio, Bellagio, even Wynn all conjure images consistent with an experience that is out of the ordinary. But CityCenter sounds like Wall Street or some giant convention complex.  Not even a whiff of experience - whether luxury, exotic, or even party. 

Anyway, it is finally opening several of its core buildings including Aria (better name than CityCenter!), Crystals shopping, Vdara and Marndarin Oriental hotels.  MGM issued a press release video extolling the virtues of CityCenter:

The complete press release with detail on each  can be found at PRnewswire, and as follows:

Read the rest of this entry »

I was talking with an old friend recently about a memorable show the Slugs played in July 1988. We opened for John Entwistle, bass player for The Who.  The Slugs most prominent musical inspiration at the time was The Who and getting this gig was a very big deal to us.

We played the Riviera in Chicago, an old movie palace that is now owned by Jam productions, the leading concert promoter in the Midwest. Aside from meeting our hero Entwistle, is was also memorable to meet the Who’s sound engineer since 1968, Bobby Pridden.

Fifteen years later or so, Dag, Gregg and I were joined by guest vocalist Michael Dorff to pay homage to the Who during a Halloween show at Tommy Nevin’s in Evanston. We played about 5 or 6 Who songs with all the loving cacophony we could muster.  Here is an MP3 The Real Me from that show:  The Real Me

About this time every year, I feel the tug to visit my old friend Las Vegas.  Somehow, the folks at Harrah’s recognize this impulse in me and send me incentives just about every day to visit Vegas on them. Tempting doesn’t begin to describe it. But for now, I guy must have his dreams…

Yes, I was skeptical, even mocking of the idea that anyone can produce a decent cup of instant coffee. Really, Folgers Crystals is a freakin punch line!  But I have to report, trying a free sample of Starbucks Via instant coffee, it’s pretty acceptable. Even a good substitute when the real deal is not available.  I know some folks that swear by Via as the *perfect* ingredient for their iced coffee - just get a cup with water & ice and add a packet of Via, shake and you have great iced coffee.  Who’da thunk?

Don’t get me wrong, I cannot imagine actually choosing Via over a quality brewed coffee. But for some circumstances, Via is a good fit. 

Following is another in a series of reports on the US economy. My Report on Local Economic Indicators (RLEI) is not scientific at all. Purely anecdotal, with really no fact at all to back it up. Culled from the personal powers of observation, deduction and reasoning of, well, me. This brand of shoddy reporting is a cornerstone of web blogging in 2009, isn’t it?  But I digress.

In our own way, my wife Kristin and I are trying to stimulate the local economy of suburban Chicago by pumping literally hundreds of dollars into local home improvement retailers such as Lowes, Home Depot, Menards, and a hardware store once known as Ace, now under the name of Bill’s. We are leveraging the current availability of short lines at the checkout, huge sales and discounting, and generally favorable market conditions to gut and remodel our kitchen.

We hired an under-employed neighbor who does excellent work (call me if you want a referral) for the heavy stuff of taking down two kitchen walls to half height, breaking up our tile floor, re-routing some plumbing and electric, drywall installation and shoring up the once load bearing walls that are now empty space. Kristin has done all of the skim coating, sanding, priming and painting with the exception of one ceiling which I bravely and confidently rolled out! Ok, before I am judged for the workload imbalance, consider I work full time and Kristin stays at home working full time as a mom but having more flexibility of schedule to do these kinds of things. Plus I am verrry deliberate in how I work so frankly her output is about twice my capacity anyway. Also, I get overwhelmed easily when it comes to “handy work”. Another digression.

Back to my Report on Local Economic Indicators (RLEI). The solid cherry-wood cabinets have been ordered (by Kristin, natch) so we went to Home Depot and Lowes over the weekend to zero in on counter tops. We are going with solid surface acrylic by LG called Hi-Macs.  Nice stuff.  What I observe though, is hundreds of thousands of square feet of no customers in either store. Seriously, at both Lowes and Home Depot, employees outnumbered shoppers!  To my mind, neither of these retailers are normally staffed very heavy; there always seems to be two or three lined up to question a clerk that may have been cornered by a in-need customer. Not this past weekend. It was kind of spooky to have the stores basically to ourselves at these large major retailers on a weekend. Not a good sign.

Yes, I saw the headline this morning that insurance behemoth AIG lost 61.7 billion last quarter.  I did the math - that is $685 MILLION per day for three months, an astonishing number, almost incomprehensible. But what I saw or in this case didn’t see at Home Depot and Lowes over the weekend is equally disturbing. C’mon people, spread some money around!  The government can’t spin this downward spiral around all by itself.

I love a lot of things here. I love that the President of the Untied States embraces technology and posts his weekyl address on YouTube. I love that within this weeks address, he says “hold my administration accountable” for his plans. And I love there is a PDF download right under the video, outlining in more detail the plans proposed and benchmarks with which to measure success.

My beautiful and brilliant 9yr old niece Kayla had her story published today in the Daily Herald. She met him at his Chicago campaign headquarters over the summer, and the Daily Herald asked today for her story…

We asked you to tell us what Barack Obama’s inauguration as president means to you, and you responded with eloquent essays, poems and even paintings commemorating this moment in history.

‘Even when you’re important, you’re still like everybody else’

By Kayla Cook

When I met Barack Obama, he told me to work hard in school and dream big dreams.

I got to meet him because my Uncle Pete Dagher was running the Chicago Obama headquarters.

Me, my mom and my dad went there one night. I was really excited because he was a United States senator running for president.

That day at camp, we had an activity. We made bracelets out of a red, white or blue pipe cleaners and red, white and blue beads for the Fourth of July. I chose blue. And I did a pattern of blue, red and white beads.

We also made posters. Mine said, “Obama Rocks!” because I knew I was going to go to the headquarters.

When we went there that night, I was sitting comfortably in an orange chair. And then I heard his footsteps. Then I had to stand up. He walked in. I was standing between my mom and dad. He walked right past my mom, who was on my left, and he went straight to me.

All I could see was the bottom of his chin because he’s so tall.

I said, “Hi, I’m Kayla.” He shook my hand and said, “Hello, Kayla.” Then he shook my mom and dad’s hands.

I nervously gave him the bracelet and poster that I made. I wondered if he liked them. He studied them and held onto them.

Then he walked over to a desk, asked for a piece of scratch paper and a pen, and he wrote me a thank-you letter.

This taught me that, even when you’re important, you’re still like everybody else. It’s important to say, “thank you.”

My mom and dad couldn’t believe what they were seeing. My mom was totally caught up in the moment.

Then Sen. Obama said, “Kayla, I’m sure your mom would like to take a picture.” It was like he was cueing her for her lines in a play. My mom took out her camera and took one picture.

I am not surprised that he is going to be president because he was so kind and caring.

On the night of the election, when Barack Obama was proclaimed the new president, my dad told me that it’s an executive order - I have to work hard in school or I’m breaking the law.

• Kayla Cook, 9, is a third-grader at Madison Elementary School in Lombard and the daughter of Daily Herald Opinion Page Editor Anne Halston.

Shortly after the inauguration of President Barack Obama I visited the official White House website.  It sure didn’t take long for them to transition here…