Events

You may have noticed that the photos I've posted lately have unusual aspect ratios and sizes. This is because I have been lazy. Usually, I upload photos from my camera or phone to my laptop, process them with Adobe Lightroom, and crop them to a pleasing 2:3 aspect ratio. Lately, though, I've just shot them through Google Hangouts from my phone. I have little understanding of Google's choices but they seem to be around the byte count and not around the dimensions. Here, for example, is a shot of O'Hare...

I missed this a couple days ago. The Sun-Times stopped by during an Apollo Chorus rehearsal just after Thanksgiving and published a feature on us on the 13th: Well, Chicago’s Apollo Chorus is that type of choir. The members can sing old classics, modern classics and even new standards, and have performed with everyone from Josh Groban to Jackie Evancho. And since December is the holiday season, the chorus — Chicago’s oldest, having been founded in 1872, just after the Chicago Fire — is in full swing....

Andrew Sullivan, the most frequent guest during the entire run of the Colbert Report, has kind things to say: This was an unprecedentedly sustained act of character improvisation. I wasn’t crazy to doubt he would pull it off. I just didn’t realize how deeply brilliant and able he is. No one interviewed a politician as freshly as he did, or took down a pretentious author with more finesse. His writers were and are the best on television – deeply read, darkly funny. His professionalism was staggering....

My vacation officially began at 12:20 this afternoon when I turned in my laptop and badge to West Monroe. I have exactly one day of vacation more than required to burn down PTO until the end of the year, plus I have some final Christmas shopping to do, so I have returned to my old remote office for a moment: In reality, I'm not going to do nothing on my vacation. Someday I'll have two weeks off with pay and no responsibilities, but starting a job as CTO isn't like starting other jobs. I'm already...

I stopped in to my new company today and started unpacking boxes. It's coming together:

Just in time for Christmas travel, I got three links from one Daily Parker reader over the last 24 hours: Marissa Mayer isn't Steve Jobs. Yes, the 113th Congress was objectively the worst ever. The Interview isn't the first time Hollywood has caved on censorship. And yes, today is cloudy. Again.

If you live in Chicago, your gloominess may have something to do with the cloudiest December in 39 years: The full month [of December 1975] managed just 19% of its possible sun that year–the same lackluster sunshine allotment on the books in 2014 as we move the final days of December. Failure to boost that pitifully limited tally between now and the month’s close at midnight this coming Wednesday, would put the Chicago area in line for a possible new record. There have been cloudier months. Our veteran...

I've gotten an offer I couldn't refuse. Starting January 5th, I'll be the Chief Technology Officer of Holden International. Holden has a deep technology strategy for 2015 and beyond. As the guy who (with 10th Magnitude) developed a good hunk of their existing technology, they had me as their first choice for this new role. I'm beyond excited to be working with them again. It's kind of weird to be leaving West Monroe Partners after such a short tenure. Really, I can't think of better circumstances for my...

Major announcement coming this afternoon. While prepping for that, however, I have cued up more things to read and one to watch: The Times revisits John Hughes locations in and around Chicago. Surprising no one, a study has found that Chicago's red light cameras don't make us safer. But they do generate revenue for the city. Crain's reviews the biggest Chicago architecture stories of 2014. And I found this classic Margo Guryan tune from 1968 that I can't get out of my head:

The trouble with holiday parties on Wednesday is that you have to function on Thursday. So, to spare my brain from having to do anything other than the work-related things its already got to do, here are things I will read later: Dick Cheney is a monster. Police subterfuge is a security problem, and can have very bad unintended consequences. There are some new improvements in Microsoft Azure automation. Our policy on Cuba, which the president just ended, was colossally stupid. Chicago's winter may not...