avoision

Chicago Postal Service, Mail Tampering Revisited

2009-07-09T12:43:29Z

Believe it or not, I received this ripped envelope the day after I called to complain about ripped mail.

To the credit of the USPS though, their customer service folks were good - they took down my info, and I even got callbacks from the Post Office wanting to follow up with me about my complaint.

The callbacks happened the day after, and were persistent. The same woman called me back four times (I was in a lot of meetings during the day), and we finally talked about my ripped mail.

The explanation I received was that the automated mail sorter is old, and oftentimes rips envelopes. Technically, the local post office branch should be marking envelopes with some kind of stamp that indicates that they received the letter in this manner.

Plausible, I guess. And the tear indicated in this letter (above) looks like it could be machine made. I don't know that I can tell, exactly, whether it's man made or machine made. The woman who called me back said it was "probably" the machine, which feels like both an explanation and a blow-off at the same time.

Now that I'm comparing the two letters side by side (Rip 1 | Rip 2), I guess they do look a little similar.

Still though, it's hard for me to know whether it's man or machine made. I told the woman on the phone this, and said I'd still call in every ripped envelope, because to me... it looks like someone's messing with my mail.

The woman promised to get the local branch to start stamping my envlopes if they received them ripped, and that my continued reporting would help trace the issue back to whatever problematic mail sorter was downtown.

I guess the one thing that's odd to me (and I noted this) was that it's not my junk mail getting ripped. The last one I reported was from my health insurance provider, and this one was from my bank.

Man or machine? Hard to say. Given the poor level of customer service I've seen/received at local branches, and how frustrating that experience typically is... it's hard for me to give the USPS the benefit of the doubt.

Fireworks, Illinois Work Zone Fines and $375 Sparklers (Maybe)

2009-07-08T12:05:13Z

After work today, Liz was out running errands... in Indiana. For part of our wedding reception, we wanted to incorporate sparklers. Liz had searched locally for some, prior to the fourth, but had no luck. While I heard that you could buy them legally here in Chicago, Liz found info to the contrary. I'm still a bit confused, honestly, as to whether sparklers are legal or not here in Chicago.

At any rate, while she was in Indiana she decided to stop by Krazy Kaplans and pick up some sparklers on the cheap.

A few odd things happened on the way home. First, as she was leaving the lot, she called me and said that there was a lot of noise coming from the car. After a moment, she realized that someone had put fireworks in her tailpipe - bottle rockets or something like that.

As she drove off, I guess the tailpipe heated up and set them off.

On looking back, she remembered someone sitting in a van in the parking lot, and assumed the person who did this worked for Krazy Kaplans.

While driving back, she also noticed a very odd flash of light. It was a green flash, and seemed to come from a van on the side of the road. When we talked, we determined it happened in a "work zone," and we're now thinking that she may have gotten a ticket.

But not just any ticket, a $350 ticket.

Liz's sister Katie sent out a warning about this a few weeks back, and both Liz and I totally forgot about this warning. So I'm posting this here as a general "keep an eye out," so that you might save yourself $375.

The law states that first-time work zone speeders, including those caught on camera, will be hit with a fine of $375, with $125 of that sum going to pay off-duty State Troopers to provide added enforcement in construction or maintenance zones. Two-time offenders are subject to a $1,000 fine, including a $250 surcharge to hire Troopers, and the loss of their license for 90 days. Tickets received in a work zone require a mandatory court appearance.

That's right - first ticket is $375, and the second ticket is $1,000. And a 90 day suspension of your license. Seems incredibly harsh to me. And the more I think about it, the more puzzled I am.

I understand and agree that work zone safety is important, and work zone fatalities are definitely things that can be avoided with just a little more precaution. But according to the IDOT Press Release, the numbers of work zone traffic related fatalities have gone down since 2003. In 2007, we saw 21 traffic related work zone fatalities with 2 workers killed.

Given the numbers, the new work zone speed cameras seem like a blatant money-making scheme. I sound like a vulture for thinking this, but when I saw that there were only 21 fatalities (as though any fatality were "acceptable"), I thought "well that doesn't seem that bad." I could be wrong though, in thinking annual driving fatalities are higher than they actually are.

It seems that there's been a (steady?) decrease in fatalities since the work zone safety laws were put into place. So the question I have is - why add all these extra measure to up the enforcement now? If the fines were in place but weren't that enforced, why the big push now?

Surely things like drunk driving or talking on your cellphone while driving are the cause of more accidents/fatalities? I'd be curious to know how much those offenses cost you?

Did some quick Google searching. First DUI conviction will fine you $1,000, loss of license for 1 year, and a possible 1 year jail term. Talking on your cell phone is technically illegal in Chicago, but not enforced very much to be effective. In 2009, fines increased from $25 to $100 and they go up to $500 if you cause an accident while on your phone.

For my money, I'd be down with upping the cellphone fine. Make it $375 for a first offense, and $1,000 for the second. I've had way too many close calls with other people on cellphones. It's always the ones who can't multi-task who think they can multi-task.

I guess the good news is that, while Liz was driving, there was someone in front of her. It's possible (cross your fingers here) that the person in front got the ticket and/or blocked the info from our vehicle. I guess we'll find out.

For those of you driving around in Illinois this summer - watch out for work zones. You have 375 very good reasons to keep your foot off the pedal.

Here's a shot of the sparklers Liz picked up.

We went outside to test them out, just to... you know, make sure they worked.

I was able to futz around with my camera and figure out how to do an extended exposure. We had fun playing around a bit, doing some drawing.

This is my half smiley face. Guess I should set the exposure for a little longer next time. Heh.

I'm honestly not sure what I was trying to draw here. Some kind of nacho shaped angel with one wing? Perhaps I shouldn't have ended the photo series with this image.

If you really want to see folks who know what they're doing with light and photography, check out the Light Drawing Flickr Pool or this post about Light Art Performance Photography.

Eternal Moonwalk: Random Videos of People Doing Michael Jackon's "Moonwalk"

2009-07-07T12:25:51Z

Eternal Moonwalk is a jaw-droppingly fantastic idea, and is one of those reasons why I absolutely love the Internet.

On seeing it for the first time, I uttered "Holy crap that's awesome." I suspect most everyone does this, on seeing the site for the first time.

Users are invited to submit a video of themsemves (up to 10 seconds in length) performing Michael Jackson's classic moonwalk, from the right of the screen to the left. These videos are randomly stitched together, to make the appearance that one person moonwalks/morphs into the video following. To top things off, there's a small counter at the top that follows each video, letting you know the total distance that's been moonwalked during your view.

It's a great concept, and incredibly well executed. It's both playful, and a fitting tribute - and pulls off both really quite well.

[via MetaFilter]

The Space Game: Fun and Complex Tower Defense Game

2009-07-06T12:22:33Z

I'm not usually a fan of Tower Defense type games, but The Space Game was actually pretty compelling. Instead of just slowly fortifying yourself against an ever-increasing wave of attackers, there was an extra level of asset management that made things a little more complex.

When I first saw the screenshot of this game, I figured it would be immediately too hard. But after playing around a bit, I actually was able to pick up the game quite easily.

Each "round" actually takes a while, if you keep the game at regular speed (in some cases, up to about 10 minutes). I say this as a good thing, as the re-playability of the game is pretty high.

All in all, a pretty fun and enjoyable game (despite the horrible name). It's easy to pick up, but gets much harder to finish, particularly at the later levels.

I lost a fair amount of time here, which is always a good indicator for me. Worth noting: The Space Game was created by David Scott, the guy who originally created Flash Element TD, one of the very first Tower Defense games.

[via Twelvestone and mclarkson]

Hoppily Ever After: Liz and Felix's Handmade Wedding Invitations

2009-07-06T04:48:14Z

For the past week or so, Liz and I have been ironing out the details for our wedding invitations. Over the weekend (and the days leading up to it), we got into production mode and were in the process of printing things out and putting things together.

With the exception of paper from Paper Source and some stock vectors from iStockPhoto... everything was made by me or Liz.

For the most part, I did the designs while Liz did all the assembly and construction. We had things timed out pretty well, where Liz had enough things to do while I was designing the next thing to be printed.

Paper Materials:
A7 Envelope
Baby Envelope
A7 Tri-Fold Pocket Enclosure (5" x 7")
Blank A7 Card
Blank Postcards (note: ours weren't A6, and more like 4.25" x 6")
Blank Business Cards
Blank 8.5x11 Paper

Stock Images:
Scooter Image
Rabbit Image

Fonts:
Feel Script
Avenir

The invitation itself. This took the longest, as we went through several rounds of designs and several different approaches. I'm not really a designer, and so I struggled a lot with making something look pretty.

I spent a lot of time in Illustrator (way more than I ever have before), and got some serious practice in. Ultimately, I ended up going with a more text-based approach. Liz wanted something scripty, and I came across Feel Script... which had a formal feel, but didn't look like all the other horrible scripty fonts I'd seen around.

I spent a lot of time playing with the ligatures, which was actually incredibly fun. For whatever "design" is here, I basically let the font do most of the work.

The postcard/reply card.

Printing things was actually a bit tricky. A fair amount of trial and error, but not as much as I had feared at the start.

This was one of Liz's ideas - to construct a ribbon/enclosure that wrapped around the entire invitation. To achieve this effect, we had to create/print two different elements: the band itself, and a circular emblem that would go on the front.

One of the trickier things was getting the color that was printed out to match with the colors of the envelopes and paper. While I'm fairly sure I had the right values for the computer screen, the actual output color of the printer was harder to match. There was a lot of fiddling around with printing test color squares, as what was on the screen didn't correlate with what was coming out on the page.

Closeup of the emblem - "Hoppily Ever After."

These guys came in a little under 1.75". Liz actually used a 1.75" hand punch to cut these circles out, but I printed them out each at around 1.73", with a very faint grey stroke to designate where to cut.

Liz, working on a batch of the emblems and testing out cutting out the bands.

Here was my setup for most of the weekend. Kind of a boring photo, as I'm working on the design for the bands (which aren't all that involved).

Another boring shot, but worth documenting. These are 8.5x11 pieces of paper, with dotted lines running down the full height of the pages. I spaced out about 5 per page, and Liz cut these out with a paper cutter to make the bands.

Prior to cutting out each strip, she scored each page and also marked (in pencil) where to cut the slits for the flaps. Each band would wrap around the back, and basically attach to itself via the slits.

The actual response card. I was delighted to find out that Liz's Canon iP4300 color printer actually printed on these small 2" x 3.5" business cards.

Our original thought was that Liz would end up using her Gocco to print these out. Having the Canon do this work saved us a TON of time.

I'm quite impressed with this little Canon color printer. Not sure if they still make them, but consider this an endorsement!

Note: I got Liz a Gocco last Christmas, but never got around to documenting that machine or the process. More on this soon.

On Saturday evening, Jake swung by to hang out for a bit. We ordered out for some Thai food, had some drinks, and put him to work.

Liz and I relocated into the dining room and set up our own little production line. While she and Jake cut things out and folded and put postage on the postcards... I was futzing around a bit with our wedding website (not quite ready to go live yet).

This was circa Sunday afternoon. The pieces are all together, and the assembly is about to begin.

Liz used this fancy glue stick thingy, that was incredibly adhesive. She bought a TON of the refills, as this approach provided the strongest adhesive without actually warping the paper (like other glues did).

Liz, working with the bands.

More bands. I was actually surprised at how quickly Liz got through this process. I was convinced it would have taken her way more time than it did.

Close to being done - cards all assembled and stuffed into envelopes.

Here are some nicer shots of the invites. This is the actual invitation itself, complete with the band and emblem.

Envelope and invitation.

The back of the envelope. Our addresses were actually printed out using Liz's Gocco.

Interior of the invitation, opened up. The tri-fold has a nice pocket area, where we put in our postcard/reply card.

Not quite straight, but this is a shot of our actual invitation itself.

Detailed view of the invitation.

This is the front of our postcard/reply card. I bought a set of stock vector images, and enlarged the scooter icon.

The back of the postcard. The small envelope is affixed pretty securely to the postcard itself. The actual RSVP card is held in place by a small gummy dot, something we purchased at Office Max to help hold the card in place.

Our guests simply fill out the RSVP card, tuck it into the envelope, and drop the whole postcard in the mail.

Detail view of the band and emblem.

I'm rushing early in the AM to finish up this post. Time permitting, I may come back and add links to the source/Illustrator files here, and make them available for download.

// UPDATE: Here are the Illustrator CS files I used to create all the invitation pieces. Feel free to download these and peek through them, if you want to see how we went about printing/making everything.

Right-click and Save as, or grab the .zip for all the files at once.

Address - Back of Envelope
Enclosure - Emblem
Enclosure - Strips/Bands
Wedding Invitation
Postcard/Reply - Front
Postcard/Reply - Back
RSVP card

Download all files (3.6 MB)

Dipping Into the Fireworks Archive

2009-07-05T01:55:58Z

Sadly, Liz and I didn't do much celebrating this Fourth of July. Most of our weekend was spent working on our wedding invitations, so our heads were down and our hands busy at work.

That said though, let me point you back to one of my absolutely favorite firework displays/celebrations: Shane's amazing fireworks display from 2007.

Let me assure you, this was no mere Sparkler and Crazy Jacks display. There was some substantial firepower involved, as evidenced here by this massive board of fireworks. I'm not sure how heavy it was, but I do know that it took four people to light the thing, and that it was designed to be lit simultaneously.

As an FYI, this day made my Ten Best Days list (for 2007).

Happy Birthday, America! I'm sorry we didn't attend or throw a party for you, but we got pretty busy getting our wedding stuff together. I hope you had a good night.

Awesome Music Video Created by Fans and Webcams: "Hibi no Neiro" by Sour

2009-07-03T16:35:50Z

This is a music video for a song called Hibi no Neiro (Tone of Everday) by a band called Sour.

What's awesome about the video is that the participants were all part of the band's fan base, and everything was shot using webcams.

If you watch this, make sure to get to at least a minute in. There's some incredibly well-coordinated stuff happening, and I uttered the word "wow" at least two or three times out loud. So, so good.

The Music Video directors were Masashi Kawamura, Hal Kirkland, Magico Nakamura and Masayoshi Nakamura. [via MetaFilter]

Chicago Postal Service: Stop Tampering with My Mail

2009-07-02T12:18:47Z

I'm used to having my mail ripped open at the edges. It's Chicago, and in some ways... it's the price you pay for living here.

Over the holiday season (or with birthday cards), oftentimes you'll see a little rip in the corner. It's typically something small where someone could stick a finger in and open up the card within the envelope... and to see if there's any money inside.

Usually when I see something done to my envelopes I shrug, I think "What can you do?" and move on. I get a little angry, but that's about it. On average, I'd say I see a ripped envelope maybe once every three or four weeks.

This was in my mailbox yesterday.

It's not a huge deal, as the letter was a bill from Blue Cross, Blue Shield. Thankfully it wasn't a bank or credit card statement. But still - regardless of the contents, I think I have a right to expect my mail will arrive clean and untampered with. Seeing this blatant rip (more blatant than usual, I guess) got me pretty upset.

What makes it worse is that, most times, my visits to the post office have been highly unpleasant. They typically involve encounters with rude or bored employees, who have little to no patience/empathy for the folks on the other side of the counter.

Don't get me wrong - I've had a few great experiences. But on the whole, I'd say those good moments were rarities. Most folks I know HATE going to the post office.

My guess is companies like UPS and FedEx started because they staffed folks who weren't gigantic jerks. Or maybe those companies took off because they didn't root through everyone's mail.

Wow, I'm finding myself getting more worked up writing this, than I was last night seeing that letter. I ended up calling the USPS and lodging a formal complaint. They took my info down, and at best... I'll just keep calling everytime I see a letter that's ripped.

Due to how many stops a letter makes, and all the waystations and different people in between... I'm sure it's pretty difficult to pin the blame on, or catch, an individual. Still though - I'd love to hear how they go about dealing with this sort of thing, or if there's just some large list somewhere that just keeps getting added to.

My grandma, whenever she sends a birthday or Christmas card, literally covers the back flap with stickers to prevent folks from peeking inside. At first I used to laugh when I received her letters, but now... it's not so crazy a notion.

And sometimes, even those extra stickers don't prevent someone from just ripping them off.

Happy 7th Birthday, Blog!

2009-07-01T11:55:23Z

After seeing this post, I was reminded that today marks a full seven years that I've been running and updating this blog.

Good lord, that's a long time. I would have done something a little more, had I remembered.

Now seems like a pretty good time to mention the Ten Best Days section, if you haven't seen it. The section lists my favorite ten days of each year, and includes some of my favorite people/events that have made their way onto this blog.

Happy Birthday, blog! Seven years is a long time, particularly when you're talking about the Internet.

Asking a Stranger About Their Amazon Kindle

2009-07-01T11:50:29Z

On the train yesterday morning, the woman sitting in front of me was reading a book using an Amazon Kindle.

I was peeking over her shoulder a bit, and finally decided to be rude and interrupt her reading. I apologized for the interruption, and proceeded to pepper her with a bunch of questions. Based on her demeanor, it seemed like this sort of thing happens to her all the time.

How do you like reading books on the Kindle: I absolutely love it.

How much did the Kindle cost: Around $350.

Did you buy it yourself, or was it a gift: It was a gift.

Looking back, would you buy one yourself: Definitely.

What are you reading: Weapons of Choice (Science Fiction).

I wanted to ask more, but felt like I already had disturbed the woman enough... and thanked her for her time. One of the biggest questions that I should have asked (but didn't think to until it was too late) was whether or not she missed the sensation of books.

Did she miss the feel of the spine, the texture of the pages? Did she miss the actual satisfaction of turning a page? Or was that replaced by a different satisfaction in the clicking of the button, and the visual "flip" of the page?

While this entry isn't an actual ad, I'm sorta breaking my own rules here by using an Amazon link for an item I don't own. Still though, it seemed like an apprporpiate time to link to the Kindle, in the off chance that someone reading this decides to have a $350 impulse purchase.

I really love reading, and find myself going through phases: some droughts, and sometimes I've got more books than I know what to do with. I like the physical accrual of books, and I like the fact that I have bookshelves.

I like music too, and I can't tell you the last time I handled a CD. I digitized my collection ages ago, and it felt like a right, a natural thing to do. My enjoyment of music hasn't lessened, and the transition from CD to MP3 seemed organic. Who cares what the physical format is, so long as the thing itself is the same?

I'm definitely intrigued by the Kindle, but for now I'm someone who's looking in from a distance. I would love to try one out, but $350 is a pretty big leap of faith. I can see loving how light and sleek the thing is... but I can also see missing the heft and weight of a real book. Tough call.

Back in Chicago

2009-06-30T11:42:29Z

Whew! Liz and I have been in California since Friday, and we just got back into town last night. Our friends Kevin and Molly got married, and I've got tons of photos from the weekend.

I've had limited access to the web since we left, and it's been ages since I've left the blog unattended for so many days. I'll get back into updating from the trip soon. For now, I've just been catching up on sleep as yesterday was a full travel day, just to get back to Chicago.

Why is travelling (ie sitting in a chair) so tiring? I didn't really do anything, except sit.

Anyhow - more updates later on in the week. I hate sounding like every other blogger out there, but I'm still feeling too much like a zombie to get much of anything done this AM.

Back in Chicago, and trying to get back into the swing of things. I've got Inboxes and RSS feeds with numbers that look like odometers. Thankfully... it's a short week.

Looping Michael Jackson

2009-06-26T18:28:24Z

Like everyone else, we were caught by surprise when hearing about Michael Jackson's death.

Today, Derry brought in a bunch of DVDs of MJ - tons and tons of videos. He set up things in the kitchen flatscreen, looping a lot of Jackson's videos throughout the day.

At first, I figured it would be a silly thing, something that would cause people to stop and laugh, looking back at things like Captain EO.

But as it turns out, people paused from the hustle and bustle of their day. And small groups of two or three would linger a little while, trading stories and memories. It was quite nice, actually, and seemed a nice memorial to the man.

In Thriller, I had forgotten than Jackson ended up appearing as both a werewolf and a zombie. It took a lot of discussion with folks (and re-watching the video) to figure out exactly how all that worked itself out.

In particular, it was interesting to find out how many other people were (like me) genuinely scared of the zombies. Watching this on TV, we all remarked how well the makeup held up, over the years.

There were several moments where someone would say "Oh THAT guy, he was so scary" or "That zombie really creeped me out as a kid." It was interesting to see how influential this one video was. And how familiar some of the dance moves looked, even after all these years.

I was also reminded of a fantastic project called The White Glove Tracking Project - an open source project that offers up data from Jackson's famous performance of "Billie Jean."

One of my favorite videos from that project is here.

Zubbles: Colored Bubbles Now Available for Pre-Order

2009-06-25T19:49:17Z

Hard to believe but I posted about Zubbles over four years ago, way back in 2005. Imagine my delight and surprise when I saw an email come in this morning - announcing that their bubbles were officially available for pre-order!

I'm happy to say that within 10 minutes of getting the email, I ordered me up some. Bubbles with color! How cool is that? Seriously!

Deep down, I'm a five year old. Totally excited, and can't wait to get these in the mail. I've been waiting for this stuff since 2005, after all.

But then again the creator, Tim Kehoe, has been waiting far longer than me.

Fighting the impulse to go check the mail, to see if it's arrived yet...

Check out zubbles.com for more info (and to order your own).

Me, a Couch, and a Bunny

2009-06-24T12:22:43Z

My ass had a very important meeting with the couch this past weekend. I'm happy to report that meeting went very well.

This is Baxter, hanging out under the table. Me? I'm ~~taking a nap~~ working out camera angles for that screenplay I'm writing, in my head.

One of the problems with having a camera around at all times is that sometimes, it gets turned on you.

Lunch with Liz, Fountain at the Art Institute

2009-06-23T11:49:40Z

Yesterday, Liz and I went out for a lunch near the fountain by the Art Institute. We were able to sit in the same area where I proposed marriage, which is always nice.

I like these lunches, as I always tend to follow the same pattern. I get nervous and worried about time, when we first set off. I normally eat lunch at my desk, and taking an actual full lunch feels a little odd to me.

But when we arrive at the fountain and we settle in, I forget about the workday and all its demands. I relax a bit, and the trees and the water take over.

I've said it before: this is a great little spot, and I'm always surprised there aren't more people here during lunch hours. Come by and have a sandwich, read a book, or just people watch for a bit.