2011 Chicago Air and Water Show

It’s the second largest festival in Chicago where different aircrafts perform stunts along the Lake Michigan shore. Admission is free so all you need to do is go to the beach and look up. There are also boats and other watercrafts really, who cares?

Jaye and I camped underneath the Grant Statue in Lincoln Park with my camera, a couple cans of Coke and some Ding Dongs. I know the event is held a half-mile away on the North Avenue beach but the statue has plenty of shade, it’s not crowded and it has a good unobstructed view from the side.

Before anything though, have this song playing on the background… you know, for effect.

First up was the Aeroshell Aerobatic Team on their North American T-6 Texan planes from the WWII era. They’re a fun group to watch as they twirled and looped around the sky.

By the way, I’m using a telephoto lens completely zoomed in so I often lose track on where the planes are (too fast, too much smoke). When that happens, I zoom out, adjust the focus then zoom back in however most of the time, I get pictures of birds flying by instead of planes. They look cool anyway so I posted them with the planes.

Next was a yellow plane from Matt Chapman Aerobatics who was probably drunk the way he was flying his plane.

Then came this red helicopter who dropped someone into the lake. It was hovering just on the top of trees from where we were so it looked like a big red bee.

Then came a huge refueling plane from the air force. I wasn’t happy with it. I played the “Top Gun” game from the family computer and they have this part where you need to refuel your jet through this refueling plane and I never got it right. I ended up running out of fuel and Maverick needs to crash into the ocean, game over. I hated that game (and yet I want to play it again now).

Next came a black plane which basically did the same things they yellow plane did earlier. Yeah, yeah, I know, I was expecting too much but I guess after watching Transformers, I was expecting either (1) one plane to transform and land on North Avenue beach, (2) guys flying down on wingsuits or (3) Victoria Secret models.

Maybe #3 was not as far fetched as I thought. There was a group of ladies from GoTopless protesting on top of the North Avenue bridge and their aim is to seek equality for women to go topless like men do in public places. I didn’t see them though… uh… I heard it from a friend who… er… uh…

Oh look! Navy SEALs!

Then came a short break which gave me time to reload a new battery pack, delete blurry pictures and reset my settings. While fiddling through my camera (and not using my zoom lens to view the North Ave bridge), a black dot whizzed through the sky followed by a sonic boom. That thing was fast. I could barely keep it in my view.

The red Oracle plane, the Oracle Challenger III came out and immediately wowed everyone with even more complex maneuvers. I’m guessing the pilot (Sean Tucker?) is flying the plane using command lines that he types while inside the aircraft. Well, at least it’s stable. The Microsoft plane would have hanged and ended up somewhere in space.

Oh, it drew this. Jaye asked me what it was. I said it was an arrow pointing to the heavens. She didn’t believe me.

It also drew a duck.

Next came the Golden Knights. Wasn’t Vince Vaughn part of this flying team?

Finally came the main course, the US Thunderbirds! You can miss everything else on the show just don’t skip this one. They came out from the west side which surprised everyone then performed several stunts drawing oohs and aahs from the crowd.

There’s one where they flew really close to each other.

There’s also the upside down trick.

They flew in synch with each other and looked like one big single aircraft from afar. It reminds me of that school of fish that Dory and Marlin met in Finding Nemo.

After the last Thunderbirds stunt, everyone started to make their way out of the North Avenue beach. Finally, the event is done and Jaye and I couldn’t be happier. They held their practices on the same spot a few days earlier and it was sonic boom after sonic boom… it was disturbing Jaye at work and me while playing NBA 2K11.

I still wished that one plane transformed into Starscream while in mid air or something… oh well.

Bye Bye Borders

I was walking home the other day when I passed by the Borders store on the corner of State and Randolph. I went inside and there are signs everywhere that says the store was closing, that everything had a 25%-50% discount and that everything must go. When they say everything, they really mean EVERY THING… as in books, the shelves, the chairs, the lights… everything.

I went to the nearest Borders employee I could find and asked if they really did sell everything on the store.

“Yup! We need to get rid of all these.”

“Can I buy the EVERYTHING MUST GO sign?”, I asked.

“No.”

“Can I buy the escalator?”

“No.”

Then he gave me a frozen look that tells me he was not amused. I guess someone already bought his sense of humor.

I love Borders. It’s a special place for me. It’s a place where I can browse through a couple of books and gain ideas, insights and future projects. Whenever I run out of photo ideas, writing topics or if I just feel that life is not running at the same pace as it used to be, I get my jacket, go to Borders and set camp for a couple of hours and I always walk out of the store inspired, happy and enlightened.

With the whole bankruptcy thing, that atmosphere is gone. Now it’s just a plain store with old books. The chairs are no longer there. The books are all over the place. The shelves are no longer sorted. The café is closed. It was just sad.

Borders filed for bankruptcy back in February. They were deep in debt and they couldn’t find a willing investor who can save the company so they need to liquidate everything. So why did Borders fail?

1) They let Amazon run their online bookstore.

That’s like Shakey’s telling Pizza Hut that Pizza Hut can deliver all food orders to Shakey’s on their behalf. Sadly, I’m guilty of contributing to this problem (To Borders ha, not Shakey’s). When I shop at Borders, I browse the books and list the ones that I like. I go home, go to Amazon.com, read the book reviews and purchase the books I want online. I’ll get a more updated edition of the book, it will be brand new plus the prices are lower at Amazon. Apparently, there are millions like me and this had a devastating effect to Borders’ sales.

2) The third floor.
Go to Borders and you’ll find the bestsellers on the first floor. Go to the second floor and you find the tech, philosophy, arts, religion and other specialty books. Go to the third floor and you’ll find an area dedicated to CD’s and DVD’s. Who still buys these things?! Everything has gone digital – books, music and movies and I can have it on my iPod in less than a minute for a lower price.

(By the way, I’m not sure if other Borders store outside Chicago has a different floor setup. If it’s different, well, you get the idea).

3) The Kobo.

The what?! It appeared on the market 3 years after the Kindle and 2 years after the Nook. It was Borders’ eBook reader, which came out too late and too dull. It was nowhere in the class of the Kindle or the Nook and its so-so reviews basically doomed Borders.

Basically, Borders was killed by the competition because they didn’t adapt to the changing market fast enough. I guess that’s the business world for you.

I left the store without any purchase and no new ideas. I know Borders will remain open probably until the end of the month but as far as I’m concerned, it’s already long gone.

*sniff*

The Chicago Bike

I’ve always wanted a bike in Chicago. The Windy City is one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the US. They have the Lakefront Trail, which is 18 miles of road along Lake Michigan that’s dedicated for cyclists, runners and whatever you call those guys on blades (bladers?). They have bike racks in major commercial areas (and in every corner downtown) where you can park and lock your bike to. They also have bike lanes but more importantly, cyclists have traffic rights on the road, which means they can have the right of way and basically, unlike San Andreas, cars can’t just run them over.

With summer peaking and me not cleared to do any running yet, it made sense for me to start looking for a bike. The bike search started horribly (most bikes were too pricey or had too many bad reviews) but thanks to tips from Gwen and Tito, I learned that Wal-Mart carried cheap but decent bikes. I hopped on a bus one afternoon and headed West of Chicago to the nearest Wal-Mart. They had one that matched all my requirements:

1) Must be below 80 dollars.
This is almost close to impossible considering the next cheapest thing is a half rusted fourth hand bike with no brakes that “Mike B.” from Naperville is selling on Craigslist for 70 dollars. There’s also another bike that went for 65 dollars from a guy named "Shark" from Elk Grove but, who wants to buy a bike from someone named "Shark"?

2) Must have Shimano gears
So I could say “well, at least it has Shimano gears!”.

3) Must have a very low frame.
It’s actually Jaye’s requirement because she cannot ride a bike where she cannot stand up while sitting on the seat. I hope it doesn't apply for cars.

4) Must not look too flashy.
Our Tagalog term for it? “Pampalengke”. I don’t want it to be flashy so it won’t be the target of thieves and so I can park it anywhere. If you get a scratch on it, who cares? If it gets toppled over by the wind and the paint gets chipped, who would notice?

5) Must pass the “Amazon Test”.
The online reviews must be decent. It doesn’t have to be five stars but as long as there are no stories like “I was riding this bike when the wheels fell off and I dove into a big pile of horse poo”, I’m ok with it.

I can live with the quick cons I noticed about the bike:

- It only had 24 inch wheels. An adult sized bike has 26 inch wheels. That’s ok, I don’t think I’ve reached adulthood yet.
- It was as heavy as a tank.
- It only had front suspensions (no frame suspensions).
- The rear brakes need adjustment.
- The seat was as hard as a rock.



Now for the next step, riding the bike home. This is a huge challenge because it was a couple of miles away from home, it was really really hot and I was in a very scary neighborhood. In every other block, there’s a group of young people smoking and hanging out on the street. They hear you as you pedal by them, they all look at you at the same time, and the only thing I can do is put my head down and pray I don’t get cramps.

Eventually I was out of that scary neighborhood and my legs started to feel like rubber. That wasn’t the worst part though, because the seat was extremely hard and I had no tools to adjust the angle, I had a bad case of the “saddle sore”. I arrived at our place all red and sweaty and I smelled like I crawled home through a sewer. My hair looked like I stuck my finger through an outlet and I was walking around like a penguin.



Why did I go out to buy a bike again?!

The Wonderful World of IKEA

It’s a big blue building with a yellow sign. It’s just an oversized furniture store… big deal.

Apparently, it really is.

Last weekend, with the rain falling hard and zero visibility on the freeway, we zoomed towards this store called “IKEA”. I’ve never been there before but Jaye and the others were so excited that they didn’t even notice the nasty weather outside. After parking our SUV, I plopped out and checked my stuff. Jaye’s door opened and I shouted “Teka hon! Umuulan pa! Hanapan kita ng payo…”.

She was already on her way to the store entrance.

I looked up and saw the big blue building with accents of yellow for the pillars, the entrance and their signs. IKEA was founded in Sweden and the Swedish flag has a blue background and a yellow cross so I guess that explains a lot. Does that mean Wolverine is actually Swedish?

IKEA offers a unique shopping experience.

The first thing you do is grab a shopping card and a pencil. For each big item you would like to buy, you list the description, the aisle number and the bin number. Once you’re done shopping, you go to the warehouse section and pick up your boxed furniture. For the smaller items, just place them on your cart just like a regular store.

They also provide you with these paper rulers.

The store has a one-way trail to ensure that shoppers visit all areas. This is a big help especially during busy weekends because even if there are a lot of shoppers, everyone was going the same way. I don’t think this is a new concept though… in Greenhills during Christmas shopping season, we already have this one-way flow in effect. In fact, the crowd is so dense that you have no choice but to go with the flow (even if the place you want to go to is in the opposite direction).

They have showrooms where they exhibit how well their items go together. I’m guessing IKEA wants to bundle certain items so you end up buying an item and all the other items that goes with it.

I don’t understand the laptops they’re selling. It’s made of cardboard and it only goes to a static IKEA site. Weird.

I like the naming convention they used. Each particular product is assigned a unique Swedish name. Instead of saying “that navy blue two-seater sofa with short legs, soft upholstery and square arm rests”, you just say the “Klippan”. With so many items on the same category to choose from, this simplified naming process eases up shopping and browsing.

The names they use aren’t just random Swedish words. They assign a set of words to a particular type of furniture. Chairs and desks are assigned men’s names. Fabrics and curtains are assigned women’s names. TV’s and major appliances are assigned Sweden’s significant military operations during World War 2.

“But IKEA does not sell TV’s or any major appliances!!!”

Yup, they didn’t have significant military operations during WWII either.

They have a restaurant on the top floor and when lunch came around, I already knew what to order – a plate of their famous Swedish meatballs (I say famous because they have posters all around the store about their cheap and yummy meatballs). Honestly, I had no idea how they tasted but I was ready to roll the dice on this one.

The meatballs were moist, flavorful and dense – it was like eating a fishball but made of meat. It was served with creamy gravy, mashed potatoes and lingonberry jam which is like cranberry sauce only… uh, Swedish… I guess.

I was really enjoying the whole IKEA thing. There were lots of people in the store but it never felt crowded. The whole shopping process was designed to make it efficient for both the shopper and for the store (since they don’t have to end up hiring too many sales associates who will assist each customer). It was until we were going to pick up a bookshelf and a chair from the basement when we noticed a fatal flaw. After hours of walking and shopping (and comparing and debating and computing and designing etc etc), we went to the basement only to find out that the bookshelf and the chair that we wanted to get were out of stock!

Why didn’t they post a notice upstairs to tell customers that these items were out of stock?!

So after all that, we came away disappointed. We didn’t have the energy to go back up and check their merchandises again. We did however came up with other small items like frames, a lamp, vases and a wine cork but we really wished we could have gotten that chair and bookshelf. Crap.

In the end, I guess it was a blessing in disguise that we did not get the bookshelf and the chair because the SUV’s storage area was already full. Bobby and I had to play car trunk Tetris to ensure that the items all fit and that nothing gets squished.

Not counting the out of stock incident, IKEA is a wonderful place to shop and get ideas from (and eat meatballs at). I forgot to pick up a 2011 IKEA catalog but they offer it free online so I guess we’ll be seeing this big blue building again soon.

And next time, we’ll bring a bigger truck.