davidmeade.com has a adopted a new logo!! Today is the first day that davidmeade.com is sporting an upgraded look with the addition of a logo, designed by Doug Meade.

I’ve tweaked the logo for use on the new davidmeade.com splash page so if you haven’t seen that, be sure to go there and shift-refresh until you do!

I’ve also tweaked the logo into a bullet image as you can see in the “What’s New” list on the main page.

I’ll be using the new logo for some really cool things in the very near future, so check back often!

Be sure to let me know what you think of the new logo. More tweaking can be done and I value your input!

THANKS DOUG!

You ever leave the house without your watch? You know how you keep looking at your naked wrist over and over again as if somehow your arm may have grown a Timex^(tm) out of desperation? Well if there is one techno gadget that is even worse to be without than a watch, it’s the cell phone.

I forgot my cell phone this morning. It’s at home — charging. So I’m sitting here wondering who might be calling, and who I might be calling if only I had my phone. The fact that I have phone on my desk is of little value because 1) It does not contain the numbers of all of my friends 2) my friends do not know it’s number 3) it does not fit in my pocket nor does it play “Hail Purdue” when it rings.

I find myself looking to my wrist watch in hopes that it might out of pity ring….but so far it’s apparently unaware of the problem.

I discovered I’d forgotten my phone this morning just before I walked into the office building. I discovered I’d forgotten it because I was desperately searching every pocket for…my building ID…which I’d also forgotten.

I was standing at the front desk for a while trying to remember the phone extension of someone I know who could come down and sign me in. Thankfully a few minutes later, a co-worker was walking in. Unfortunately co-workers who are walking in aren’t allowed to sign you in. It has to be a co-worker who isn’t walking in. Basically this guy had to walk upstairs put his coat away and then walk back down to get me. (Thanks Orlando).

When I finally made it to my desk — without the aid of a cell phone (which would have been handy to call someone to come sign me in) — I found my building ID. So the good news is I can go to lunch. Maybe I can convince everyone to have lunch at my place and I can pick up my phone.

Today is your big chance at fame!

Go to DOUGMEADE.com and read today’s blog to find out how you can get your own blog published today!

You know sometimes the internet is useful … and then sometimes it’s just really cool.

Last night it was both. I found a long lost friend online last night. Well actually he found a mutual friend of ours and she got us all together in the same chat window. If that’s not a great use for the internet then what is?

Also, it made me appreciate how far things have come on the net in the 10 or so years that I’ve been using it. I remember when Usenet and Gopher were the killer apps. I remember when the first voice chat applications hit the net…and MAN did they suck! But today with modern instant messengers you can — inside of a few seconds — have a very clear voice conversation with your long lost best friend accross the country.

I mean you would think that with davidmeade.com I’d be the hardest person in the world to lose track of…but it happens. But now-a-day’s, thankfully, the internet can facilitate reunions that otherwise wouldn’t have happened. Ah…progress.

I got new eye glasses today. I hate glasses, but I need to wear them more often. Even given my hatred of glasses, the real reason I’d worn them so little lately is that mine were broken.

But, I’ve been warned over and over again from several Doctors…well ok…ALL DOCTORS (that have examined my eyes) that my eyes don’t do well in contact lenses. So today I went to get a pair of glasses in order to make sure I could take a break from them every now and then.

The doctor told me today that despite the precautions I (thought I) had been taking, the damage to my eyes had not repaired itself, and in fact it seemed to be continuing. I won’t go into the details, but lets just say “Lasik here I come”. The problem is, she also told me that although health, prescription, and age wise I’m a good candidate for Lasik — “no competent surgeon” is going to “cut into an eye” with the sort of damage my contacts have inflicted upon me.

Now she has assured me that my eyes will repair themselves with a little effort on my part — which of course I’ll provide in even greater amount now — so don’t worry.

Anyway, while I try to get myself into lasik shape…you’ll probably be seeing me in my (new spiffy) glasses alot more often. Feel free to make fun of me…I will gladly kick you “skwa in the nutts”.

Also today during my exam the doctor gave me these eye drops to dilate my eyes. This is a bizarre experience. Things are blurry, I got kinda dizzy, and MAN I don’t think the sun has EVER been that bright.

I found it odd, however, that they would choose to take a picture of my retina AFTER dilating my eyes…since this photo requires them to shine a light (which is approximately as bright as the sun on Mercury at high noon) directly into the eye. And it’s not just that my eyes were dilated that made me think this… they did one eye before and one after. Even with the first eye (before the dilating) the beam of light blinded me (in one eye) for a good five seconds and nearly knocked me out of my chair.

So while I waited the hour to get my glasses (Lens Crafters) I walked down the street to the McDonald’s. But with my dilated eyes I was walking down the street with my eyes squinted nearly closed, looking down at my feet, and my arm over eyes. I was one muttered oddity away from being one of the crazy people you see on the streets. “….Turn back.”

All for a pair of glasses I don’t REALLY want anyway.

The main page of davidmeade.com now correctly lists a random quote from the quoteboard!

Click on “new quote” to refresh the page and see a new random quote, or check out the scoreboard to see your current ranking! Remember to rat out your friends and loved ones using the submit quote feature!

More Quoteboard updates:

Gina Gil’s name has been updated to Gina Seeley.

Newest quotes are now listed first.

Well I think I may have passed 2 or 3 of the “You’ve lived in the city too long when…” tests.

You know you’ve lived in the city too long when you ignore the foreboding warning of personal doom.

Living in Chicago you get used to crazy people. But the other day when I was walking from the L to the office I met one that was rather unique. On a nice clear morning along a nice, well traveled sidewalk I pass the crazy, and I swear I hear him pleadingly squeak (in the creepiest voice ever) “…turn back.”

Now like I said I’m pretty used to crazy people…they don’t usually bother anyone. But no matter how bright the morning, or familiar the street, and no matter how common place the crazies have become… I’m not sure if I can describe how very eerie it is to have one of them warn you to “turn back”.

But I ignored him and went on my way. Thankfully, nothing more terrible than an unpleasant desert experience at lunch happened that day — though that is a story for another time…like after I’m dead and gone. But the point here is I ignored the warning completely - trusting in his craziness. Evidence, perhaps, of my having lived in a big city for too long.

You know you’ve lived in the city too long when you laugh in the face of pigeons.

For those of you who don’t live in a city swarming with pigeons, let me explain something to you… pigeons are simply rats with wings.

I think I first discovered this with “The Crack Pigeon” incident on my first day working in the city. Ever since I’ve had a hate-hate relationship the little winged beasts.

Today while walking from the L to the office I was text paging a friend when from out of nowhere a pigeon flies up at me from the ground! Having survived one pigeon attack already in life — which was on the scale of Hitchcock’s “The Birds” — I think I was relatively numb to this single, albeit filthy, attacker.

However I may have underestimated this bird. It flew up to me and just kind of…hovered…right in front of my face. (Who knew pigeons can hover?! Clearly this was some super-space-mutant-pigeon here to finish off what it’s minions had failed to do the last time.) I didn’t even flinch. I mean, in the past I would have dived out of the way…maybe even yelled. But, I just stood there and sent it the best “You do NOT want to fuck with me” vibe I could. Now the absurdity of trusting in a dolittle-like telepathy aside…it worked. The flying rodent hovered itself backward and then away from me. Fearless hatred for pigeons…another sign that you’ve been in the city for too long.

You know you’ve lived in the city too long when you pass Charo in Little Korea.

You know…she’s shorter than I had expected.

There is a bug somewhere that is making my random quote…somewhat less than random.

I’m working on this…but I have NO idea why its no longer working correctly so don’t hold your breath.

In the meantime, check out the scoreboard and the new quote notifications.

You know you are in for an interesting day when you sit down in the morning to blog and you title it “Blood soaked special offer and Another time round the mulberry bush”. What’s really scary is that I chose this title above the other possible titles: “Blue tile avalanche”, “Spritzing the sewage”, “Excuse me could you button my pants?”, “Buried Alive”, and “Damn the torpedoes”.

I’m not even sure where to begin…

I guess some back story is in order. My bathroom has this long shelf along one wall. It’s not really supposed to be there. I mean its nice, but I can tell that the previous tenant added this herself. (I say herself because I know for a fact it was a woman). The problem is…she — apparently — isn’t terribly “handy”. So despite her drilling into the tile wall and attaching the shelf supports … said supports aren’t exactly sturdy. And despite copious amounts of some brown, paste-like adhesive atop each of the thin metal supports … the shelf isn’t really attached them. Now, I would fix this on my own, but as it turns out I’m not terribly handy myself. My solution to date has been to slide the (tilting) shelf back onto the supports and — estimating the rate at which it slides off the supports — try to get back to it in time to adjust it again before it crashes to the floor.

This morning while brushing my teeth I knocked this precarious shelf with my elbow. And — unfortunately — I did this just after having flushed a Kleenex. So imagine if you will… I walk over, hit the flush lever, turn to walk back to the sink, hit the shelf. Now at this point I turn back just in time to see a small travel-sized spray bottle fall off of the wobbling shelf toward the whirlpool below it. Now one hand is trying to catch the shelf…the other has a tooth brush in it….I have a choice to make.

Having just witnessed the most pathetic Boilermaker basketball game in history - and thusly quite used to things bouncing off the rim and missing - I decide to let the little spritzer bottle fend for itself, abandon the tooth brush, and save the shelf. I mean after all…even if it DID fall into the flushing toilet it couldn’t possibly get sucked down - it’s too large - and it was a clean water flush…I can rescue it later.

As it turns out, however, the spray bottle was not too large after all to get sucked down the plumbing.

I spent the next 5 to 10 minutes stupefied, standing over my toilet wondering how far it could have really gone, was there any hope of retrieving it, and whether or not I am going to have a minor disaster the next time I, or anyone on the 7th floor, try to flush.

As far as I can tell the little spray bottle got swept clean away. Time will tell, I suppose, if that’s true but until then … there’s nothing to be done. So on with getting to work.

So on my why out to the street I decide to get my mail. I hadn’t checked in a day or two and having finished my book, I could use something to read on the train. I was shocked to see how much mail I had, and reaching in to grab the 37 credit card special offers and AOL disk I got what I thought was a paper cut on my thumb. All I know is that something in the mailbox attacked me. So after the instinctive withdraw, cursing, and thumb sucking…I went to get the mail out for a second time. As I thumbed thru the mail deciding what I could just toss right then and there I stopped on a piece of mail from my former employer (which no doubt was the piece of mail that attacked me). As I started to put the mail in my bag for review on the train I see that the rest of my mail is covered in blood. Bleeding with great efficiency, I stand there wondering what the most discrete way to get back upstairs would be. I really didn’t want to walk past the door man with a fist full of bloody mail. But then I couldn’t really fight with the keys and locks on the back door without leaving blood all over the door.

Now… how is it such a small wound can bleed so profusely?! Anyway I have to go back up to the apartment, stop the bleeding as best I can, and get a bandage.

After I’d left, I realized about a block from my apartment that I had forgotten my camera. But, running late already I decide against going back for it.

Now, there are three blogs worth of stories that I’m going to skip here for the sake of brevity…but lets just say that I was relieved to finally get to the L.

That is until the L stopped dead on the tracks somewhere between Chicago and North/Clybourn. This sort of thing happens all the time so I wasn’t too upset…for the first 10 minutes. At some point the conductor tells us there is train in front of us and we’ll be on our way shortly. Five minutes later or so she tells us they are replacing the tracks ahead. (Which, to me doesn’t sound like a job that can be completed quickly.) We had to have been stopped total for 20-30 minutes. Eventually we did of course start moving again. Which is good because I was about to go postal. I think however the conductor may have just lost it. We started moving…fast…when we heard over the speakers “*beep beep beep* We are being delayed because there are workers on the tracks ahead, we expect to be moving shortly”. We WERE moving…fast. Oh well…kinda funny. Then it was repeated. Suddenly I’m having visions of CTA workers diving out of the way of a red line train commanded by a conductor who was just tired of waiting “for signals ahead”. Then we slowed way down…and as we passed what was obviously the work zone I heard CTA people outside shouting something.

But, screw them…I’m REALLY late now - drive on Ms. L conductor….drive on.

Anyhow if you’ve been following along you are no doubt wondering “where does the mulberry bush come in?”

Trust me on this one… don’t ask.

After a week of not blogging, you’d think that I would have some great blog just waiting to be … blogged…but alas I do not. But I I’ll bring you up to date and promise to blog again very soon.

So I was sittin’ in my living room on Sunday watching Alias (which may be the best TV show ever) when I realized… my Christmas tree was still up!

Now, I’m notorious for leaving the Christmas tree up well past Christmas. But, this may be a record even for me. I plan to take it down tomorrow night…but you have to wonder if I’ll actually get it accomplished or if the tree will survive another month.

Meanwhile, I decided the other day to look up the proper grammar usage for the dash — a punctuation that I use far too often really. As it turns out I was in fact using it correctly if not a tad too frequently. But it’s just such a useful punctuation, don’t you think? Anyway… one of the descriptions I found which I liked was that the dash was a “super comma”. The world needs more super-things.

And as a last little tid-bit of information for this evening: I’ve just registered a PGP license for my home PC. Yes, I actually paid for PGP — the application that I grew to despise many many times over not so very long ago. But the new version is pretty good — it even allows for HTML formatted encrypted email. That and the ability to encrypt files, create “PGP disks”, and secure deletes all made me decide it was worth it. So for all of you who use PGP, you can encrypt your messages to me if you want to! My keys are located on ldap://keyserver.pgp.com and my keyID is: 0×07D211FF.