Chicago MMXII

The only place I've worked that was serious/strict about performance reviews was Food Lion*. If they hadn't completed an employee's review by the day of the deadline, they would pull them off of a cash register during a rush if they had to to complete the review.

I remember at one of my reviews my manager verbally lavished me with praise, with plenty of specific examples. Then she pulled out the paper review form and said, "....but, there is no money for the raise you deserve, and corporate uses reviews to determine raises, so I had to give you 3's and 4's instead of all 5's." She added, "Soz! LOL!" and I got a $.10/hr raise.

* I think now it was because they were fending off union organization, so they tried to mimic stuff organization would bring, like regular evaluations and recognition of merit.

performance, I mean, not merit.

In case anyone's interested a couple of bands fronted by MI friends of mine are playing next Tuesday at the Burlington.

https://www.facebook.com/events/231569646965451/

I had one performance eval in my five years w/ the state. I filled it out and my boss signed it without reading it.

Ww, Hopleaf's delicious for lunch.

OTM: http://slightlyinsultingchicagoposters.tumblr.com/post/32226728228

'specially "Big 10 Bar View," which is the subsection of Lakeview where we currently live. *sigh*

I'm going to get a BB gun and start shooting holes into people's giant plastic college logo beer mugs.

I bought a sweatshirt from Michigan Tech recently, the first piece of apparel from my alma mater I've owned, and happened to be wearing it through Lakeview on a chilly day last week. Even though they are far from a Big 10 school, have a D2 football program and pretty much all the students are complete nerds, I still felt slightly bro-tastic walking around.

Haha, pretty OTM, sadly. I would much rather live RP, Uptown, or Edgewater b/c they feel so much homier, but the commute is just too good to leave. Not that I don't love where I live b/c it's crazy convenient to everything and there is tons of street life, but it's a bit homogenous w/ mostly young whites, cut with a just a dash of familiar panhandlers and derelicts of color.

After the thing re Prince yesterday, I was thinking about the gaps in my knowledge of music and I remembered this

Things I learned today:

- Donna Summer is dead (though I didn't know that she wasn't dead before)
- Donna Summer was African-American. I realized that I have always conflated her with Suzanne Somers!

― Pita Malört (Je55e), Friday, May 18, 2012 5:11 PM (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Jesse you are starting to serve Tuomasian realness all up in here.

― a parker full of poseys (Stevie D(eux)), Friday, May 18, 2012 5:37 PM (4 months ago) Bookmark

Man you guys make me feel shitty for having gone to a Big 10 school. :( I don't go to brodowns at the Illinois bars though.

A few weekends ago I went to an Ohio State bar during the game. It was an amazing experience. I'll never be the same.

I went to the Northwestern-Ohio State game the year NW beat the Buckeyes. That was an experience, since even in Evanston the crowd was 92% Buckeye fans. Walking back to the El surrounded by throngs of silent, dejected Ohio State fans was definitely a life highlight.

There's nothing wrong with having gone to a Big 10 school! One of my dearest friends (known on ILX as Lesbian) is one of those cup toting, Michigan sweatshirt wearing, "GO BLUE" shouting ding dongs. I have a lot of biases in this situation: 1) I HATE college football. I give most major revenue generating college sports the side eye, actually, but I particularly hate college football and the Jock Culture of Supreme Entitlement and the privileging of football above all other things; 2) I hate roving bands of drunken jockbros in my neighborhood with their slurred street harassment and puking and shouting; and 3) I find that type of blind loyalty to schools really puzzling and, when taken to certain extremes, totally gross. I understand having had a good time in college or having had valuable and important experiences (I had those!) and thinking fondly of an alma mater as a result but, and I'm about to go full Tuomas/former-jaymc here, I do not understand being that emotionally beholden to a place where you spent four (to I guess, what 12 or so if you were slow and got a PhD from the same school?) years, which I hope will be a mere fraction of a long and interesting life where you have lots of other positive, valuable, and important experiences.

But it's certainly not the Big 10 part that bugs me.

I get where you are coming from, totally. I enjoy watching Illinois football games now and then, but I'm certainly not one to get really warpped up emotionally in it. As far as the loyalty thing goes, for me it goes deeper than just where I went to college. My grandfather went to Illinois and had some really great experiences there, so I spent a lot of years growing up hearing about it and seeing pictures, his old yearbooks, etc etc. There was a bit of mythology there for growing up. So when I got accepted to architecture school, he was so thrilled because I was the first grankid to go to his alma mater. Anyway, we had plans for him to come visit me down there, but his wife got sick and passed away, then he shortly got really ill with Lou Gehrig's disease and passed away like 8 months later. So the thing I feel for Illinois isn't centered around "rah rah go sports team!" but around a bond with my grandfather and, yeah, my own personal life development that happened during that time of my life. I guess while I don't understand blind loyalty to a football team myself, I can see the appeal for others.

i was thinking last night how weird it is that we pay so much money to attend college, then it's considered ok for them to come to you after graduation and ask you for more money, for which they will give you nothing. just an odd social reality. i have happy memories of college but i am never ever giving them any more money for anything, no matter how rich i become.

since i went to a relatively small school for undergrad, i enjoy the fact that my masters is from illinois. makes me feel like i also went to a big school even though i spent a total of maybe three weeks on campus.

i like football and will watch college football if it's on and i'm not doing anything but i don't have any loyalties or even any perception of who's good and who sucks. i'd rather watch pro football.

i'm a little worried about this white sox game i'm going to tonight. they've lost 7 of their last 8, including 2 of 3 to the indians, who suck, and tonight they're playing the rays, who are a good team and are on a winning streak.

When any of my alma maters call for money, I say N.O.P.E. (Not One Penny Ever - initialism courtesy of Lesbian)

I have given money to my alma mater but earmarked it for the radio station.

Law school asking for money really rankles me since I'll be paying off my loans well past retirement, assuming I am ever able to retire thanks to my law school loans.

xp that makes sense, Dan. I supported my undergrad's radio station with $ every year that I lived within hearing range of it.

ok yes maybe i would give money to the radio station

My favorite call for $$ from my alma mater was the time they called me on Saturday morning, about 6 or 7 months after graduating, on the day my first student loan payment was due. I was like "looooool, fuck no". I did not say that, but was thinking it.

I didn't even think of radio station support since I donated via pledge drives rather than the normal alumni solicitation channels. I loved that radio station. I learned about so much good music from them.

There was a Saturday afternoon show called Hip City that played all 60s soul and I used to record the entire show on cassette bc it was so unerringly good.

Oh shit Hip City still airs! :D

has anyone been to el faro in little village? is that area safe or will i be murdered if i bike down there?

jon i challenged you in songpop, which i just downloaded, and promptly embarrassed myself by being overconfident about my knowledge of modern rap. just fyi. i did really badly.

clouds, i have no idea -- have never been there. would like to say it's safe to ride your bike but i don't like being overconfident about something as precious as your life!

I'm horrible at modern rap too. Basically I'm only ok at 90s alternative.

I'll have to play after work. I'm terrible at modern rap too though. I'm better overall though, now that I have my new phone. The screen on my old HTC was always twitchy on the best of days, so a third of the time I'd go to tap the top option and it would register as the bottom option. There were several rounds when I'd go 0-5.

clouds, i have no idea -- have never been there. would like to say it's safe to ride your bike but i don't like being overconfident about something as precious as your life!

― these albatrosses have no fear of man (La Lechera), Friday, September 28, 2012 9:04 PM (50 minutes ago)

decided not to go :( the area immediately around it is probably fine during the day, but the only real bike route down there from my neighborhood takes you through some really sketchy areas including lawndale, where i was mugged — uh not going there again.

i and the friend i was supposed to meet decided on quesadilla la reyna del sur which looks similar and is supposed to be really good.

on = at

there are tickets for tonight's cubs-astros game on stubhub for 19 cents
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/10/01/cubs-astros-tickets-listed-for-0-19-on-stubhub/

Big derailment on the red line y'all.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/livenow?id=7096082

Dag!

Glad I'm working late or I'd prob end up getting blotto at Clark St. Ale House like I did the night Roy's burned down.

video's gone now so

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-cta-train-derailment-on-north-side-20121001,0,2917836.story

shit, that was what was going on. there was CRAZY commotion.

Holy muff, that is terrible. Here is a direct link to the video, showing the train laying across all the tracks http://abclocal.go.com/wls/video?id=8831424&pid=null

i can't watch the video -- just tell me -- did people die y/n?

N

ok phew
that's all i want to know about this train derailment

HOW ARE YOU GUYS?!

i'm alright. staying on top of things, feeling good about that.

I'm on the train. Going home then going to play a show.

oh is that thing at lincoln hall tonight?! i thought i had missed it! (i am still going to miss it if this is it because i have to get up super duper early but i did want to express wishes of regret for not attending; would have liked to attend)

I am totally psyched about it being October.

It is tonight. Ive been told we play at 9 sharp if that changes your mind.

i REALLY would like to but i am being taken out for a superbelated birthday dinner
this is the show with mark kozelek?

Yeah.i hadn't heard any of his music til last week. Seemed pleasant but kinda samey after a while? I'm hoping to sneak out early

really? huh. i have only listened to him in small amounts but i went through a red house painters phase right when i met dan and a short but emotionally charged solo mark k phase right when we moved to chicago. something about his samey singing makes me feel ~feelings~, which is usually a little overwhelming, but i appreciate the sensation in small amounts.

in sum, i don't want to cry in public so i probably shouldn't go to this show anyway

I just listened to his new live album which is just him and guitar so there were no arrangements to make things sound different, maybe that was part of it.