This is the point in the residency when I see how much work I have to do by Saturday afternoon and wonder if I should have taken the bar exam instead.
And as much as I love Chinese and Indian food, I'm ready for a Whole Foods salad about now.
Before resuming my Strategy reading, I'd like to draw the reader's attention to this front-page story in the Shanghai Daily News:
Dense fog affected Shanghai yesterday, blocking dozens of ships and ferry boats and delaying at least 150 flights.
At least 400 ships changed their sailing schedules and the 180 commuter ferries for Chongming Island and on the Huangpu River in the city's suburban areas stopped running in the morning, said the Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration.
Other front-page stories included a test run at the Expo site and the announcement of an official day of mourning tomorrow in remembrance of the Qinghai earthquake victims.
I contrast this with the front page of the New York Times, which included stories about the $3.6bn Goldman Sachs bonus payments, the mislaid iPod prototype, and back in Chicago, the shocking, didn't-see-that-one-coming, whocodanode news that Rahm Emanuel wants to be mayor.
It's a slow news day everywhere, but somehow, the Shanghai paper just didn't feel like a paper. More to think about; possibly a cultural disconnect.
A 7.2-magnitude earthquake rumbled through Baja California yesterday afternoon, killing one person directly and another indirectly:
The quake struck about 6 miles below the earth's surface at 3:40 p.m. PT Sunday, about 110 miles east-southeast of Tijuana, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
After examining data, seismologists upgraded the size of Sunday's 25-second quake from a magnitude 6.9 to 7.2, according to Dr. Lucy Jones of Caltech.
"This is the largest earthquake since the [7.3 magnitude] Landers earthquake of 1992," Jones said, "A 7.2 is going to happen over a pretty long fault, probably close to 50 miles long."
... According to reports, the force from Sunday's temblor caused high-rise buildings in San Diego to sway back and forth around 30 seconds before rocking high-rise buildings in downtown Los Angeles.
Caltech officials reported that over 20 million people felt shaking related to the 7.2 magnitude earthquake.
Oddly, none of the national news services I subscribe to have mentioned it.
In Chicago, for example, one of the top stories was Blagojevich getting fired from "Celebrity Apprentice." That has nothing to do with earthquakes, but it's amusing enough to mention.
I've spent the day at the company office in downtown Chicago, 37 flights up a 60-story building. The wind outside is gusting to 67 km/h, so the building is swaying.
While I've visited plenty of tall buildings, I haven't experienced this kind of wind while inside one in many years. The entire structure is creaking.
It's most disconcerting.
Nothing special about the game, but I do love the shot:
That's the code for "frontal passage" on aviation meteorological reports. Apparently yesterday while I was on my way to O'Hare I missed a big one:
While temperatures began dropping across the far northern suburbs as early as mid-afternoon, the city was invaded by 30+ mph gusts late in the evening rush hour, initiating a thermal tailspin. In a single hour's time, readings at the Harrison-Dever Crib, three miles off Chicago's shoreline, dove from 62°F to 42°F—a 20°F pullback—between 6 and 7 p.m. The same period saw readings at Northerly Island on the city's lakefront plunge from 64°F to 47°F. A minute-by-minute temperature analysis off a Weather Bug sensor on the South Side at the Dumas Elementary School indicated readings there plunged 15°F in only 12 minutes—from 62°F at 6:39 p.m. to 47°F at 6:51. By late evening, North Shore readings were uniformly up to 25°F off the 60°F levels of only hours before.
Yikes. Here's the art:
Today's forecast is for sunny skies and 26°C.
Oh, sorry. That's my forecast. Back in Chicago they've got snow and freezing temperatures. Sorry.
I had hoped, as I hoped about Post #1,000, to write something lengthy and truly self-indulgent.
This will disappoint many readers, but I don't have time to do that. Instead, just a quick update: even though Inner Drive Technology still exists (as does all of its software and ongoing maintenance), I'm now working for Avanade, a joint venture between Microsoft and Accenture.
And, in the spirit of the season, on my way to Avanade's Chicago office yesterday, I noticed something...odd...about the Daley Center:
Gotta love Chicago. And tomorrow they dye the river green. Thursday they show up to work late.
The Tribune today has a guide to pub trivia in Chicago.
With my nights free and my dog in another time zone (i.e., no need to rush home and walk him after work), I will try some of them. Any other recommendations?
Answer: Tallinn.
A winter storm off the coast of North Carolina has brought snow to both Chicago and Raleigh:
25 mm of snow had fallen at O'Hare by 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, with snow still coming down hard. That was enough to push the city's official seasonal snow tally above 127 cm for the third consecutive year. There's been only one other string of three consecutive 50+ inch seasons in 125 years of snow measurements here and it occurred between 1976 to 1979.
Lake effect snows occur in especially cold environments which, because of the efficiency of ice crystal formation at low temperatures, frequently produce larger than typical accumulations from the limited amount of water vapor available. This leads to snowflakes which exhibit maximum "fluff". Estimates of Wednesday's snow puts snow/water ratios at 30 to 1---indicating the system's snowflakes had almost three times the volume of those which come down in more typical 10 to 1 ratio snow events. One witness, in describing the rate of snowfall in Evanston, compared the scene to a "snow globe." Another described "pure whiteout conditions with snow coming in horizontally" and still another characterized the snowfall intensity at its height Wednesday evening as "this season's heaviest."
In North Carolina the snow is causing the same kinds of disruptions as in Chicago—slow traffic, nervous parents, confused dogs—but...well, it's not quite as much snow:
But I have to agree with my friend Jamie, who, when I mentioned the comparison, said "you picked a good winter to stay in North Carolina." I'm thinking she's right.
I'm splitting my time between Chicago and Raleigh lately, and it looks like I'll continue to do so for quite a while. This causes one minor inconvenience: my car doesn't fit in the overhead compartment on a CRJ. (For that matter, an anorexic gerbil won't fit in the overhead compartment on one of those things, but that's another issue.)
Chicago, however, is a major city with an extensive public transportation system (no snickering from natives, please). Chicago also has Zipcars, a by-the-hour car-rental cooperative, with six cars stationed less than four blocks from my house. Four blocks—800 m—seems to suburbanites like a very long walk to get a car, but actually, I'm lucky if I get to park my own car that close most days. So this is an improvement.
iGo, which costs a little less and works in partnership with the CTA, is another option. Unfortunately they don't have any cars within 1500 m of my house. Walking around the block to get the Zipcar suddenly seems more attractive. Walking eight blocks to get a car is less so.
Zipcars also has the advantage of national reach. Given how often I travel (especially to San Francisco), this has tremendous appeal.
Now if only Chicago had a puppy-rental service for those times when I miss Parker...