Brenda's blog

Last week I was chosen as one of three finalists in the Apartments.com Possession Obsession video contest, for my video about my extensive and alluring pin-up collection!  Which means I have a chance of winning $20,000!!!

Here's where you come in:

1. Go to the contest site, register with your email address.  It's quick, painless and they won't do anything untoward with your address, I promise. Then... VOTE! You can watch my video too, but that's not a requirement for voting. But really, you should, it's cute.


2. Today and every day from now through October 19th, go to my video page, log in, and VOTE VOTE VOTE!  Yes, you can actually vote multiple times (this is Chicago, after all), limited to once a day.


3. Subscribe to the RSS feed for my personal site for a daily reminder to vote. As a special thanks, I'll post a different pinup from my collection every day, one that didn't appear in the video!


4. Forward my personal site's URL or my video page URL to your friends and ask them to vote for me. Everybody loves sexy babes, your friends will thank you.  Ask them to forward it to their friends, and so on, and so on...


5. If you have a blog, I would be ever so grateful if you would write a post about my video. I'm counting on my blogerati friends to help get me to first place. So go to it! (Did I mention I could win $20,000????!!!!)


6. Dust off your party hat, because when I win the $20,000 grand prize, there will be merriment! And you're invited.

Thanks for your help! I couldn't spell pin-up without "U"!

I entered a video contest run by apartments.com called "Possession Obession". Right now the videos are on display, but next week the judges pick 3 finalists, and for about a month after that people vote for the winner. You can vote once a day then -- can you tell this company is in Chicago???

Go look at my video and leave me a juicy rating and flattering comment.  It doesn't have any bearing on the final results, but it sure will make me feel good :)   (the login is painless, I promise)

Opener_3

this is what happens when Richard Branson is allowed to design a "spaceport":

Virgingalactic-spaceport

Target stole my design, the one I did for the first Stitch 'n' Bitch book.  Harrumph.

Catbed

I could write a long post about this amazing show Phineas and I saw on Friday... how it was an early show at Schuba's and that was the perfect timing for it.  How the room was filled to capacity with geeks just like us.  How the opening act was just as fun and enjoyable as we knew the main act would be.  And how everyone in the room knew every word to almost every song -- and sang them with gusto (present company included).

I couldn't possibly do the experience justice.  So instead I'm going to point you to this honest and fascinating blog post talking about how he got where he is right now.  I'm going to point you to his songs... listen early, download often.

And because he is a total geek, and no doubt follows his technorati hits religiously, I'm going to say: What a cutie he is without that coonskin cap on his head!  He's married with kid and all, and I have a pretty special Code Monkey of my own, but I have to say... if I ever become a Millionaire, I'm going looking for him on the First of May. Once I finally find him I’ll get permission from the boy and we will all live in our castle high, my beloved, my code monkey, and I. Surrounded by Ikea furniture. On Skullcrusher Mountain.

Those geeky smart creative boys get me every time.

1. A few years ago a tapas restaurant moved in on Montrose and promptly took over the entire sidewalk with their outside tables. It made it very difficult to walk to the el, especially because they were 2 doors away from the station.  You had to walk around their tables, around their patrons, around the trees and sometimes on the street  just to get to the train. So, I called Gene Schulter's Ward 47 office, complained about the sidewalk obstruction, and got a response back from them the same day saying they'd look into it.  A few days later... voila! The restaurant still had tables out, but they pushed them to the street edge of the sidewalk so pedestrians could walk to the el without running an obstacle course.
   
   
2. Last summer I decided to replace an old, elephantine dresser (okay, dining room buffet I was using as a dresser) with a couple more practical Ikea dressers.  But what to do with the old dresser?  I hate just dumping big things in the alley when I know the garbage trucks won't pick them up.  There's always a chance the junk scavengers will pick them up, but you never know.  So... I called Ward 47 to ask them what I should do. They asked what kind of garbage service I had... I had no idea. Not my building, not my service.  But she said she'd look into it anyway.  The same afternoon I got a call, at my home number, from a manager at the city's Dept of Sanitation!  He said they'd have a truck by the next day to pick up the dresser.  As it turns out, I don't think the city even services my address normally, but they came by anyway.  Problem solved.
   
   
3. A few days ago I noticed that the street sign hanging at the Montrose and Wolcott intersection says "Wolcott ST" instead of "Wolcott AV".  I can't believe it's taken 5+ years for me to notice the error, but there it is.  I emailed the Ward 47 office saying "I know this is a minor thing, I don't expect anything to be done about it, but...".  Yesterday, I got an email from them saying they put in a request with the city to have the signs corrected.
   
   
4. Gene Schulter has worked with I-Go over the years to get 5 more cars installed in my neighborhood (aka, his ward) in the past 2 years.  We love that.  I like to think it had something to do with a conversation I had with him about I-Go at the Grass Roots Festival a couple years ago where I told him we needed more cars in the neighborhood.
   
   
5. Gene Schulter has also been one of the most vocal opponents to the CTA shutting down stations during brown line construction.  He fought it 'til the end, and then got what compensation he could out of them for the businesses.  During the time period the opposition was making the papers, and Gene was being interviewed on the subject, one of the articles I read contained a retelling of an email I had sent to Ward 47 on the subject, some of it verbatim. So, hey, I know they got my email and I know Gene read it.

So... as dysfunctional as Chicago city government can be, it's actually working fairly well in the 47th ward.  I don't know always know what Schulter's personal agenda is, I don't know that he is never self-interested in his actions, but I don't really care.  The man knows how to work the system, and he occasionally works it for me.  He's got my vote as long as he wants it.

I love it when I find logos that... erm... resemble each other.

Exhibit A: Ocean Tomo (an IP company)

Ot_logo

Exhibit B: Barack Obama campaign

08_logo2

Exhibit A: Esurance.com

EsuranceLogo

Exhibit B: My company's new product

Mlas_logo