FuturizeMe! -- I had the pleasure of reading Futurize Your Enterprise: Business Strategy in the Age of the E-customer by David Siegel. I forced myself to do it for the sake of a client that actually knows the guy. I found it to be pretty thought provoking. The book is the right kind of book for all of us designers that are reading way too many how to books, and not enough future vision books.

GrandparentFest 2K2 -- We took the boy to Rochester this weekend to visit his grandparents for the first time. There was a lot of spoil-the-baby going on. Aah, Baby Love. By the way, is there a way to stop him from getting any bigger? If any one has a solution that doesn't border on the freakish Michael Jackson cryogenic chamber, please let me know. Side note: 60 degrees and sunny in Rochester - the capital of dreary. Back to Chicago where it is 30 degrees and snowing. What gives?

President's Day Distractionation -- We checked out A Beautiful Mind today at a real movie theater. I'm no film snob. It doesn't need to be "indie". It doesn't need to be artsy, nor French. It just has to be good. Mainstream, least common denominator, watered-down-for-the-ticket-sales good. Russel Crowe is great. Just like my sicko fascination with Tom Cruise and Mel Gibson movies. All this was to distract Tricia and I from the fact that we took our 8 week old to day care today. ugh! Oh yeah we saw Fast and the Furious on DVD too. nice ride!

Automobophobia -- So, Tricia and I ventured out the the 2002 Chicago Autoshow yesterday. Whereas last year, finding the CTA bus back to Union Station (no signs anywhere!) and sprinting after the friendly bus driver were our greatest adventures, this year involved taking our brand new son Mason on the trip. The competent McCormick place staff directed us to 3 different floors for entry into the show. And thinking we were smarter than 1 million other Chicagoans we bought our tickets on the Internet so we could go to the special "Fast Line". You know, the one that ended up having 1 million other Chicagoans in it.

OK, about the cars...You can tell the economy has been horrible by how few concept cars there were. The 2002 Concepts didn't seem to have nearly the imagination as last year's either. I really think the car companies are all played out on the cross-over SUV and were just out of ideas for this year. My favorite trend however is the retro-new vehicles. My favorite is the Chevy SSR. This thing is part truck, part convertible, part hot-rod. It is bad ass! I like that the car companies are digging into the past - a time when people didn't have to please all the demographics to get a car produced. Funny that I found a classic 1950's Chrysler 300 to be best in show.

Momentous...I've now entered the world of blogging. Thanks to my cohorts Walt and Mark, I can now ramble incessently at the touch of a leftmousebutton. sweet.