Random Stuff I Think About!

I've realised that at some point I probably will leave this city.  Truth is, as much as I love Chicago, I am tired of it, and have also fallen in love with new places in the world (even if I have compared those new places to Rockford at times.)  So I've kind of got a "bucket list" of things I need to do before I flee this town.  Most of it is exploring related.  I am an explorer.  I explore.  It's what I was meant to do, and unfortunately most of the earth seems to have been explored already.  And I have a fear of deep sea creatures, so while we know less about earth's oceans than we do the moon, I'm totally not going there.  Ever.  Sorry.  All I can do is see things in the world that are new to me.  So as long as I'm stuck here, I'd like to do that.

I really want to go to Gary and East Chicago especially.  These cities were once industrial giants and are now fully incorporated into the rust belt.  Apparently there's a lot just sitting empty in that area, and also still big industries, like the Whiting Oil Refinery and a few power plants, nearby.

There are also a lot of abandoned hospitals in the Chicago area.  Probably more than I can even count on both hands.  I have a thing about abandoned buildings.  They're quiet.  People were there once, and then they vanished for whatever reason.  And when they're hospitals, it's scary sometimes to think what went on in them.  One hospital (Prentice) might be meeting up with the wrecking ball soon.  It would be an architectural gem if only people could see the nice looking parts of it, the cloverleaf design it's supposed to be known for, was visible from the street.  But it's really not.  The only time I've really seen the top floors of Prentice, and not just the boxy structure on the bottom, was when I was stuck in traffic on Lake Shore Drive.  It's probably first on my list to get a picture of, because it'll probably be the first to go.  And I've already got a billion pictures of Edgewater already.  I regret focusing so heavily on Edgewater when Michael Reese Hospital was on the chopping block a few years ago, and don't want to lose another chance at photographing a creepy old building to "progress".

I'd love to see the Prairie Avenue Historic District, and contrast it to the megamansions that popped up in Lincoln Park about a decade ago and caused controversy.

And I'd love to visit the historic cemeteries in the city again.  I've been to Graceland a few times, and Bohemian pretty often (Bohemian was right next door to my school.)  Some of these places do historic tours on the weekends when the weather gets warm.  I should look into that.

The town of Weston, Illinois.  It technically does not exist anymore.  Fermilab occupies its space.  I'm not sure if I can go visit, but I would like to find out more about it.

All of Lake Calumet is apparently a Superfund site now.  I'd like to go see that, how it got that way, and see what they're doing about it.  Well it's not completely a Superfund site.  But it's listed on the EPA's website as such.

I understand that a few of the things I wish to do are dangerous, and this may turn into an actual bucket list, and not just a leaving town one, but I'd still like to try.  I'm trying to think if there are any other ridiculously touristy things in the city that I'd like to do before I leave, but everything I think of I've already done, or hopefully I can do with someone visiting.  Things like museums, Navy Pier, skating in the parks, and the like I should probably wait until I have an out of town visitor.  Well, skating in the parks may not last that long, because it depends on weather, and even though winter seems to last forever here, it will probably go away eventually. 

But I'll go away eventually too, so I'd better see whatever I can while I'm still here.

Abandonment of blog!

I'm horrible at keeping up with these.

But... I've been travelling, so... I'll try to post more about that later.

I'm starting a separate blog for girlstuff, so I should be on here more often anyway.

Missing a Motorcade!

A few hours ago, I was sitting down, watching the news, and eating the chili cheese dog I had picked up from Dairy Queen.

NEWS BULLETIN: PRESIDENT OBAMA IS IN CHICAGO NOW

So I finished the last two bites of my food, probably too fast, transferred essential things like my bike pump, water bottle, and keys into a more conducive bag for cycling, and raced to the expressway on my bicycle.

Nothing was there.

I decided to get off my bicycle and walk across the overpass.  It's been a while since I've seen the expressway not completely backed up, and it would have been exciting to see it empty for once.  And I would have liked to have a big "Welcome to Chicago" sign to hold out for all the foreign dignitaries to see as they come into the city, to let them know that this is the friendliest city to have ever existed.

Riding in the city at night is always one of my favourite things to do, so I thought I would check overpasses further up the expressway.  I rode from Montrose and Milwaukee north, ringing my bell at other cyclists and firefighters on their break (who said "HI!" in response).  I rode past the bus station and under rail overpasses that look to be falling apart.  There was another bridge over the expressway there, so I looked again.  Still nothing exciting.  Time to go home.

As I hadn't planned a long trip, I didn't bring music this time.  This made for a nice quiet ride, through the orange streetlights, through the park, the alleyways, the usually congested streets, under a quiet sky that is usually very noisy with airplanes.

NATO/Deserted Downtown (round 1)!

(this is where i'm headed RIGHT NOW.  also this is another placeholder.  helps for me to remember what i am to write later AND SUCH.  wish me luck and that i don't get killed tonight.)
(or i could just stay home and play zelda instead, since most of the protesting seems to have died down for tonight.  TOMORROW: MOTORCADES)

Anime Convention!

ACen 2012: maybe the best way to spend a cold, rainy weekend in April.  Unless you're one of the poor coslayers who is stuck doing your photoshoot outside. 

This was the first anime convention I've been to, but I had been to a furry convention in the same hotel back in November with a friend.  That convention was much smaller than ACen.  I got to the main hotel around 3pm, was directed through the walkways above to the convention center, and waited in hour in line for a badge (which was apparently a very short time to wait in line.)  In front of me was a chatty young high school girl cosplaying as Homestuck, and behind us a couple rows were a group of scary clowns.  There was also a friend from my school a couple rows in front of me in line for a badge, but we kept losing one another throughout the day.

When I finally got my badge, I realised that I would be late for the panel that I wanted to go to, so I just browsed the dealer room and artist's alley instead.  I only picked up a few things in artist's alley, but one of them was a totally awesome custom pin that I got one of the artists to draw for me.  And also a Metroid hat.  Everyone should have a Metroid hat.  It's much better than having actual Metroids on your head.

One of the "memes" of ACen is "Got Soap?" and I really wish more people would actually pay attention to that.  For the most part, the smell was fine, but I could walk maybe ten steps, and the BAM! the smell of armpit would hit me.  I spoke with my dad about this later, since when he asked me how the anime convention went, I just said "it was smelly...", and he thought it was from people wearing heavy costumes, but no, the cosplayers were usually the better smelling of the bunch.  Unless they were cosplaying as ponies, but at this point I just expect bronies to have an odor and brace myself for it.  I also noticed a lot of airline employees with a definite "damn kids" expression on their faces as they were trying to get out of the hotel as quickly as possible.  That was pretty funny, but made me wonder how the kids at ACen are behaving.

I managed to avoid bronies, got to hang out with Bill Nye the Science Guy (well, a kid dressed like him), and while I was waiting in line for a Lolita Fashion Show, managed to find my college friend to talk to her for a while.  The room for fashion show was full up by the time I could get in, but that's okay.  I walked around, trying to find college friend, and trying to find another panel to attend, and ended up in another hotel going through the weird above-ground walkways (that on a cold April day I was thankful for.)  I decided I didn't want to go to the "Lolita Fashion and Lifestyle" panel in that other hotel, because anything I could learn there I could learn on the internet, and walked back to the main hotel, only to see a crowd in the walkway overlooking the main hotel's entrance, and an even bigger crowd gathered on the sidewalk and street below.  And also firetrucks and police cars.  Someone pulled the fire alarm probably.  People on the street seemed to be trying to rush through the police and hotel staff to get back into the hotel sooner.  Had there been a real fire, they probably would have burned, but hey... NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN ANIME.

We were let back into the main hotel just in time for the Pokemon panel, which was awesome, and was actually in a room that could seat all of us, and the guy running the panel showed us an untranslated Pikachuu short and answered our questions.  My question was about Ash's father, because that's a mystery I've always wanted to know (except I think it's Professor Oak), but the panelist said it was probably Giovanni.  I still disagree for... reasons.

There was another panel I wanted to go to about occult anime, but I was kidnapped instead.  It wasn't anything serious thankfully, and just some other conventiongoers that wanted me to speak on their improvised panel that they were holding in place of a cancelled one.  It's okay.  The occult panel got cancelled too.  But public speaking makes me nervous.  However, since I was KAWAII AS FUCK that day, people wanted hugs, and I generally don't mind giving hugs to people who ask nicely for them.  So I guess that made up for my not talking.

The two girls I hung out with after we got kicked out of that panel room were really sweet, and we went and got snacks, tried to play some card game in the tabletop gaming room, and went to a parody panel (this is where some really awesome talented funny person redoes the voiceovers for an anime to make it hilarious.)  Around 1am I finally decided it was time to head home.  There was a rave going on in the hotel ballroom at that time, and I saw at least two ambulances pull into the hotel as I was walking to the L station.  The Village of Rosemont's emergency services department must be absolutely THRILLED with ACen already.

Yo Dawg

This is totally not an old blog that I've just recycled.  Not at all.
The name chicagogeo implies geography of Chicago, but eventually it won't just be Chicago-specific, and for now, there are adventures. 
Like the one I'm going to go on tonight (plus another I forgot to write about.)
kthxbai