Bird's Eye View

I realized the other day that within the space of two months, I was in two of the tallest buildings in the world. One was the Jin Mao tower in Shanghai, China, and the other was the good old Sears Tower in Chicago. So here's a little "contrast" of the two buildings and their views.

From my brief research on the internet, it appears as though Shanghai (the urban area) has a population of about 14. 5 million people and is one of the 10 largest cities in the world. Chicago (the urban area) has somewhere between 7 and 9 million people and is somewhere between #25-#30 in world city populations. Enjoy the view....

Shanghai, China







































Chicago, IL, USA

It's All In the Eye of the Beholder....

....Or at least the marketing person. I saw this a long time ago and finally remembered to post it. Sometimes it's a good thing, right? That's how we got post-it notes, which is one of the greatest inventions ever.

Travels of Recent Weeks

Let's see.....in the last couple couple of weeks I went to Mexico, flew in and out of Chicago twice (this included some flight rerouting due to the AA flight cancellations), went to ND/MN, and took a day trip to Chicago with some people from work. That's pretty much what kept me busy and why there was a gap in my blogging that Melanaway scolded me for promptly. ;-) I applaud her for helping me to keep up to my own blogging standards.

My trip to Mexico was a whirlwind one. Although it was 99 degrees there during the day, there was no suntanning involved unless you count the fluorescent one I got in the manufacturing plant. The only interesting picture I took while I was there (that's G rated and/or not company confidential of course) was this one. I didn't know sharks had started to evolve enough that they come on land and disguise themselves as buses, but apparently they have.


My picture taking ability wasn't much better in MN. I didn't even get a picture of my newly engaged sister and her fiance. How stupid is that? Congratulations to them by the way. This is one of the few good pictures I took. I didn't know you could go down to the local market and pick up cute little kids like that. I bet Jess sand Lana wish they would have known that before they went the traditional route. Or maybe only 3 year olds have access to that special market?


Here's a few pictures from the day trip to Chicago.

John (the guy whose quote I have posted right now) - walking on water. At least he has a good name already for doing that kind of thing.


We visited "the bean" - for fun, or if you're bored, you could count the number of times you can find Mel in this picture. Here's a hint: Mel is wearing a bright yellow coat, she is not wearing a white and red striped shirt.


I've heard a lot about Jim Jardine, but I didn't know Chicago had named a water treatment plant after him....


In case of fire, climb 25 flights of metal stairs down to the ground.


I'm not sure if this was related to the wiring inspection flight cancellations, but it was interesting anyway. This was right before they walked into the NBC studio in Chicago.


It's always helpful when people label stuff for you. Just to be clear we did NOT find the chief corner stone here though.

Earthshaking

Early yesterday morning there was a 5.2 earthquake in southern Illinois. Some of the people at work were awakened by the small tremors from it way up here and actually felt them. Apparently I sleep more soundly than that because I didn't feel anything. However, many of the people I work with live in southern Indiana, so they were only 45 miles from the epicenter and definitely felt it. Part of our conference call with them yesterday was spent looking at the USGS Google Earth plug-in. Luckily no tsunamis resulted here on the lake. Then I would have been in big trouble.

Video of a local Indiana TV station that was on the air when the earthquake happened

Newspaper article

Random Thoughts (Again)

Whew, it's been awhile. Since I last posted I've traveled this country and another country too. I took a few pictures but haven't had time to download them yet. So, until tomorrow when I can do something more substantial, here's few random thoughts from my travels.

1. There are few things that make you feel more alone than to eat at a fancy restaurant alone in a foreign country.
2. There are few things that can warm your heart more than to have your two nieces come running out of the house excited to see you when you come to visit.
3. Arrachera, flaming cheese, and salsa - what could be better?

I know I had some other random (and profound) thoughts, but they escape me now. More later if they come to mind again.....

Paintball Perils

That's gonna leave a mark.....and to think I paid good money to be abused like this.