3- 2010 Chicago Auto Show. Cars. Sweet.

Last year I had some cousins to hang out with at the Chicago Auto Show, which always a good time. If you like cars. Its been getting smaller each year because of the economy and such, but its still pretty awesome- especially since you can touch and sit in lots of great cars. Some people apparently actually use it as a way to shop for cars, though I'd rather go to the dealer where I could take a test drive anyway...

Toyota's new Sienna minivan had new recliner-type seats. They look awesome. And people were actually napping in them. Uhhhh, that's weird.

THIS was a Scion (offshoot of Toyota, those weird boxy toaster-cars). This fun thing was a party car, where the sides flipped down and had speakers in them, and up in the middle of the room, there is a DJ mixing board so a DJ could stand IN the car and mix songs. Redickulous.

This one opened into a grill, with TVs up top, a sink to the right, fridge to the left, and taillights that popped out into holders for condiments and silverware and stuff. Party car.

This car just had no roof, and super-low-riding seats.

One of my personal favorites, because its actually being sold in the US now (though it was supposed to be this past fall). The Fiat 500 (Cinquecento). A tiny little car like a Mini Cooper. I saw them all over Italy and thought they were great, and I love that the dashboard is the same color as the body. And they look great with red or white leather inside. And they're making electric versions!

Gaudy Dodge Challenger. Raspberry colored. Like a giant Jolly Rancher.

Every year Jeep makes super-extreme-off-roading cars.

THIS year, Dodge decided to prove how stiff and strong their truck frame was. And apparently how strong they could make a steel arch attached to the truck frame. THIS WAS AWESOME to see.

They even let you walk right under it!! How long did it take to get THAT legally approved by someone...

The new Lexus coupe with retractable hardtop and optional margarita-green paint job.

Some tiny electric Mitsubishi.

The other major player in the electric car game- Fisker. The guy who started this company supposedly stole ideas from Tesla. He also designed cars for Aston Martin, so he knows how to make a cool looking car. While Tesla's eventual Model S sedan is gonna be 50 grand, this one is gonna be like$80,000. But its damn fast, damn fine, and the hardtop even has a big solar cell array in the roof for extra energy :)

Pretty mean lookin car.

The solar cells.

Here's Iron Man's car updated with a convertible top (which he drives in Iron Man 2). Dunno where they got this copper color though...I mean yeah its different and cool I guess, but also weird. The Audi RS8. A badass car.

Concept cars. They're always so spacious...

...and gadgety. That's why I like them. Steering wheel looks like the Predator.

Hyundai electric car. Neato.

This car is meant for the beach. It has strappy seats kinda like the old pool-deck chairs, and two surfboards for a roof. Oh, and the whole thing is bright orange, of course.

Some GMC concept car, a big trucky thing.

The Transformers Camero. With the Transformers logo on it. But I don't think it actually turns into a robot. Lame.

The Chevy Volt. Hopefully not an eventual bust, since its subsidized by the government and seems like Chevy's last hope at avoiding bankruptcy. Its a hybrid, due out any day now. Under 30 miles (I think) per trip it'll run totally on the electric engine.

Keep in mind this is only a fraction of my photos. I spent like four hours perusing cars. Pretty awesome. I love design! Shapes, colors, interior materials- touching, sitting, etc. A great time.

2- Random Stuff

Here's something pretty sweet. Tesla. They make electric cars. And they're actually being produced and sold. They announced a dealership opening in Chicago, one of the few in the US- so I went. Got to see the Tesla Roadsters, like that red one sitting out there, which is virtually the fastest production car in the world, and gets 80 miles per gallon (I think). That's equivalent energy measurement, since it doesn't actually use ANY gas, of course. I got a ride in that car. Holy CRAP it was fast. INSTANT acceleration. Sounded like a DeLorean. Amazing.

Something else kinda uh...sweet, not sweet that this giant Greek restaurant, in Greektown near my school, burned down- but sweet that the trees all froze covered with water from the fire department. The building was just a burned out shell. Nasty fire.

Something else sweet- I was making good on seeing a lot of concerts in 2010 by seeing Switchfoot, one of the best live bands I've seen, at The House of Blues. Their lead singer, Jon Foreman, always comes out into the crowd.

Like WAY out into the crowd. He was standing on a bar. He walked right by me to climb up there, after he came down from the stage, which is to the right. He sang a whole song up there.

1- Christmas 09

This is the first real post about post-Europe. Like "the first day of the rest my life" as they say. Its about time. I'm still trying to catch up to present life, and now that its 2011, I gotta get caught up cause 2011 is gonna have a lot to talk about. I hope :) So in 30 posts, I'm basically gonna cover all of 2010. 30 quick posts. Mostly photos. Hopefully. Though I guess there might be a fare amount of reflection in there, since I've spent 7 months looking for jobs and thinking about the future.

This was just hours after I landed in the US for the first time in four months- Tiffany and I went to have pizza with Josh and our friend Matt who was in town from Japan for just a couple days with his girlfriend (now wife) Shuko- it was his first time home since he'd left (I think?) and our first time to meet Shuko. Momentous occasion. They got engaged a month later, and married shortly after that because it was easier to get her Green Card that way. Crazy :)

Last Christmas. Just two Mac owners doing some computing.

Also around Christmas time- TV Mass, with Chris and his beard doing the altar-serving, because Uncle Neil was saying the mass that week.

Max, when we started realizing last year that he was probably going senile. He started sitting out in the freezing snow, for hours. Just contemplating life. Or maybe talking to his hallucinations. He sat behind this snow, on the concrete, like he was stuck, until someone went and got him. Unreal.

This is Jenny's homemade anti-Max defense- to keep him from scratching at her door at night. For some reason he really wants to join her in her room when she's at home and asleep- and yet if she lets him in, and closes the door, he wants out, and scratches again. Thankfully he hates the sound of plastic bags, and all other similar things (like tin foil or newspaper) so this keeps him away from the door because he won't walk on it. What an idiot :)

These were all the packages that were at home to greet me when I arrived. I had ordered things for people for Christmas and stuff. It was fun getting this many packages before Christmas even started!

And here was a hand-decorated Christmas ornament that made it home safely from Italy, for my mom...it had to go through 5 countries on its way to the US!

Christmas Eve at Nana's as we do every year. Nathan wearing pink, Jenny wearing gold. Tiffany and I taking a nice snooze on the carpet in front of the warm fireplace. We'd been home for about 24 hours from Ireland. She's wearing my Puma socks...

The day AFTER Christmas, we had an extended family Christmas party, got to go to my uncle and aunt's new(-ish) house that they'd built- they had this big medallion inlaid in the floor in the foyer- pretty cool. Those are Tiffany's feet. I think.

And here was the family photo we took. I made a stop-motion video of everyone assembling, from the balcony up above...

Another angle. Nice big room!

After that we had a White Elephant gift exchange, and my dad got this old weird creepy doll head, and at the end my uncle was taking pictures of people and their gifts. Cute.

0- My Europe Beard

Time for some new posts. First- I decided well before I went abroad that it'd be a good time to grow a beard- my only chance, maybe, when I wouldn't care about what I looked for the sake of my girlfriend, or other people, or a job, or whatever. So I could screw around and look ridiculous for awhile, and see if I did in fact look ridiculous. Done and done.

I got going from day 1- just started not shaving. After a few days and a neck trim, and a long night in Amsterdam, this is what I looked like.

I actually was trying to take daily photos for quite a while so I could try and make a time-lapse movie of me growing a beard. Still haven't done that. Not sure it'll work but I'll try :)

Here's once the beard got going enough to look like a beard. By this time I was in Barcelona.

It was time for a shave (and a head shave). I decided to have a little fun. Look ma, no sideburns!

Fully bald, still bearded. A few weeks into the beard.

Wow!! And suddenly, a few more weeks in, the beard really started kicking in. It was THICK, on my chin and my neck. Crazy.

The peak of the beard, after like 3 months, after I saw Chris who was also bearded, and before finals, before Thanksgiving. It was time to shave soon... Look at that gross neck. It was itcy for at least a month of me growing it.

First the head and the sideburns.

Then it was time for a wrestler beard. Aaaaaall the way down the neck...

I guess this is my French artist mustache, or something.

A good old mustache, that I kept for a day, and put hair gel in to keep it nice and twisted. Funny thing is how long it took people to notice and react to it. Some didn't notice it at all, maybe due to the fact that it was finals week...

This was my best Joe-Sergio impression, trying to smile like him to see if I'd look extra-like-my-dad with a mustache like his. Did I succeed?

And my dirty Dago stache. Sexy. You can touch it if you want.