NU @ Wrigley

I've missed you all. Not as much as I've missed NU football.

Obviously.

P.S. I turned in my final assignment for this quarter at DePaul, which means I should have more time to post interesting things for you to read. We'll see how that goes over the next few weeks.

'Cats are 4-0!

I had a short and late post this week over at LTP. Check it out here.

Feeling really good about my 'Cats this year. (I mean, I always feel good about my 'Cats, but it's an extra special good feeling right now.) I've been saving up already in anticipation of a post-season bowl game; last year's trip to the Outback was absolutely phenomenal, save the last 3 seconds of the game. Still, what a game, and you could almost see the college football scene start to take notice of the program at that moment. At this point we're just hoping Fitz is here for the long haul.

Next week is Minnesota, and I want to win as much as ever, especially because I want to bring back the "5 and 0" high-five from my senior year. So awesome. Go 'Cats!

Business as Usual

Goofs.

As usual, I rounded off my week -- which included donating blood and NOT fainting, finding out my car is broken and I have to pay for it DESPITE having a warranty (curse you, Sierra Auto), boring things like eye exams and grocery runs, and completely and utterly freaking out re: grad school before realizing it wasn't as bad as I thought -- by talking about NUMB over at Lake the Posts.* Check it out, and have a great weekend!

* How's that for a complex sentence, Professor Mulderig?

God Bless Google

I lose things. Often. It's not that I don't value my possessions, it's that I just can't seem to keep track of anything, which is surprising because I'm an incredibly organized person. One look at my planner will scare any errant agenda into submission.

So I wasn't that surprised when I lost my license last weekend in Nashville. I've come to expect such things. We drove down for a football game, and I took my ID into the stadium with me but left my purse in the car. Somewhere between the stadium and my car, I dropped the ID, meaning I couldn't go out in Nashville to celebrate the win with my friends. Worse, I was the driver, so I trampled all over my friends' fun for an hour while they tried to figure out how they'd get home without me. I felt bad, but again, it felt typical. On Tuesday morning I got a new license ($5 for a duplicate, a small price to pay for negligent stupidity) and went along my merry way. No use getting upset.

This morning I received an email from someone who had found my license. They had apparently Googled my name along with the word "Vanderbilt," come across Lake the Posts and therefore my email address, and figured it was the same person.

Moral of the story: If you do something stupid, make sure your web presence is up to date. From now on I'll be sure to blog incessantly about whatever city I lose my stuff in. Maybe lightening will strike twice.

Or maybe it's time for the government to start putting email addresses on IDs.* Just a thought.

* I checked, and "mclovin (at) gmail (dot) com" is taken. Damn.

It's BAND CAMP

My weekly NUMB post over at Lake the Posts, the venerated Northwestern football blog, was posted today. How many times can I say "post" in a sentence and still have it be legitimate?

Link it up.

Validation!

I am filled with the warm glow of achievement. Granted, that's an unfamiliar emotion for a Monday morning, but I found out over the weekend that an article I wrote while at PC Magazine in 2008 was cited in an academic paper published by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, which appears to have some association with the United Nations. I know, random.

Both my article and the IRBC paper dealt with the virtual firewall the People's Republic of China has set up to regulate Internet use within its borders. The citation probably doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things, but it's super cool for me. At least it seems to indicate that someone read that article. Yay!

Just for giggles and page views, here are some of the other things I wrote while at PC Mag. Eventually I'll have a personal website with a full archive of all my stuff, so consider this a teaser.

10 Futuristic Movie Gadgets Become Reality - This was the first thing I wrote for PC Mag, and it got more than a million hits in just a few days. I joked for the rest of my time there that I peaked in week two.

Laptops for College Grads - This was picked up by the New York, Boston and Philly equivalent of the Chicago Tribune's RedEye (ie, the free paper passed out on the subway). Excitement!

Beyond Guitar Hero - The research for this one was fun. I really want to try the FretLight.

Take Your Tech to the Beach - I think this was the only article I wrote that appeared in the print magazine.

Laptop Orchestra Makes (Sound) Waves - Another fun one to research. I even got press passes to the performance at Carnegie Hall.

Employee Monitoring: It's Not Paranoia - You Really Are Being Watched! - Just to creep you out.

Your Complete Father's Day Gift Guide - Graphic-tastic.

Solio Hybrid 1000 - The one review I wrote.

In other news, today marks my return to Lake the Posts as the official NUMB blogger. My first post of the 2010 season will be up later today; I'll be sure to include a link here.

UPDATE, 4:28 pm: My post went up over at LTP! Check it out here.