I spent about 12 hours over the Dr. King holiday weekend researching the candidates on my ballot for the Democratic primary election on February 2.  I’ve been meaning to write a post about this, but I have grown weary of this election already.  The candidates are mediocre and I feel like there are some races where no matter who wins, the public loses.  Anyway, I printed out my sample ballot from the Cook County Clerk’s office.  Unfortunately, you have to use Internet Explorer to print the ballot successfully.  I then evaluated each candidate based on personal opinion, what I’ve read in the news over the past few years, the Chicago Tribune editorial board questionnaires, bar association summaries at IllinoisJudges.net, voting records from Project Vote Smart, and the Daily Herald candidate questionnaires.  There was a lot of tedium to sort through; a lot to read.  In many cases, I just went with my gut.  I’ve been a political junky since well before I could vote, so it troubles me to say a lot of the candidates sound the same, are untrustworthy, or just plain suck.  A lot of the people who say politicians are all the same and can’t be trusted are often people who do not follow politics.  Maybe my expectations are too high, but as someone who spent hours researching candidates for a primary election, I am being sincere when I say I am not impressed by the jokers running for office this time around.

So here we go.  Below are my opinions about the candidates.  The candidate(s) I am considering voting for are shown in bold.  I’m shooting from the hip.  Don’t expect a newspaper editorial board-style of candidate evaluation here.  The amount of info available for each candidate, and the number of candidates to read about, were overwhelming.  I think I did more reading about these candidates than I did about the car I bought.  To form your own informed opinion, please consult the links I provide above and throughout the body of this entry.

US Senator

I wrote up my impressions of the ABC7 debate a few weeks ago (got published late due to a WordPress snafu).  It has taken me weeks to decide who I am voting for.  The senate race was the one I had the hardest time deciding.

• Robert Marshall – It’s nice to have a conservative Democrat in the race, but Marshall rubs me the wrong way.  He thinks Federal employees have a Cadillac health care plan.  Being a relative of a Federal employee, I will say they do have good health insurance, but I wouldn’t call it Cadillac and they do pay for it.  They pay more than I pay for my county government-provided health insurance.  Marshall wants to decriminalize marijuana.  I don’t.  Also, he kept spelling it “marihuana.”  Technically correct, but no one spells it that way.  I like that he feels the Federal Reserve Board does not need more power.  Marshall is also correct that if the government owns a large part of a private company, the gov’t should have a lot of say in how the company operates.  Just like how large shareholders in a corporation can throw their weight around with shareholder votes and having seats on boards.
• David Hoffman – Man did he turn me off during the debate.  I want someone who is smooth and cool.  The guy’s hyperspeak and apparent nervousness makes my blood pressure go up.  I need someone who can make calm cogent arguments and communicate with the public effectively.  Hoffman’s debate performance makes me question his ability to do these things.  Seems like a decent candidate who I would vote for in the fall, but I would prefer someone who doesn’t agitate me.  Hoffman’s Daily Herald questionnaire answers were ridiculously long.  Step One of being a public official is communicating effectively with the public.
• Jacob Meister – Meister initially ticked me off by calling my house too many times.  However, he seems sincere and has a good grasp of the issues based on what I have read.  I also think it would be cool to have a gay senator.  Meister’s Tribune responses were long, but his DH responses were more succinct.  During the debate, Meister exhibited an ability to communicate effectively and cooly, while still having some fire in the belly.
• Alexi Giannoulias – OK, vote for anybody but this guy.  Here are my problems.  There are questions about his family’s bank’s ties to Tony Rezko and organized crime.  I also would prefer to have someone representing me who went out and got a job on their own.  Not someone who had the privilege of working at their family’s bank.  Another thing to think about is who got us into this economic mess.  The banks played a big part.  This guy comes from a banking family.  Do we want a banker crafting laws in Washington?  Lastly, this guy keeps bringing up that stupid Hartmarx factory.  He doesn’t understand that the rest of the state could not care less about some suit factory in Chicago.  I didn’t vote for Giannoulias to become treasurer, and I’m not voting for him to become my senator.
• Cheryle Jackson – I was impressed by her performance during the ABC7 debate.  An excellent communicator who refused to get involved in a spat between other candidates.  However, I am still questioning the depth of her policy knowledge.  She gives answers that sound good, but aren’t particularly detailed.  She also gives repetitive answers.  Show us some good analytical skills and creative ideas!

Updated January 31, 2010:  I just found out Jacob Meister has quit the race and is supporting Giannoulias.  What a huge disappointment.  I have edited this section to reflect that I am now voting for Cheryle Jackson.  She is the best of the rest, though I would still like to be reassured that she is more than a good orator.  As I will not vote for Giannoulias and am not real keen on Hoffman or Marshall, that leaves me with Jackson.

Governor

• Pat Quinn – Quinn has been a massive disappointment, and he has only been in charge for a year.  I remember a Pat Quinn who was the consumer’s advocate, someone who stuck up for the little guy.  Where did this Pat Quinn go?  He’s been replaced with someone who wants to raise my income tax (which takes a huge chunk out of my paycheck already), legalized video gambling machines, and apparently made some mistakes with early prisoner releases.  I do give him credit for wanting to move to an income tax where the rich are taxed more than us poor folk.
• Dan Hynes – I think I have voted for Dan Hynes every time he has run for office.  You owe me, dude.  Oops.  Maybe not.  That would be kind of corrupt.  Hynes also wants the wealthy to pay higher taxes.  Those of us who make less than $200k/yr would have no change in our taxes.  Hynes wants to tax luxury items – good.  He wants to eliminate middle management in state government.  Yes, I say there are too many chiefs and not enough indians.  Unfortunately, Hynes appears willing to increase the number of casinos in Illinois.  We have way too many casinos as it is.  Also, Hynes opposes the right to carry concealed weapons, but I support that right.  I’m not sure if I’ll vote Hynes in the general election.  I’m leaning toward the Green Party candidate Rich Whitney once again.

Lieutenant Governor

This is a pretty lackluster field of candidates.  Guys with experience have bad policy positions, leaving us with guys who have no political experience and want to hold the second highest office in the state.  Should something bad happen to the governor, would we want one of these guys in charge?  Would they be ready for the job?

• Arthur Turner – He (or his PR flack) has really poor writing skills, based on the Trib and DH questionnaire responses.  Communication is key, and I expect my public officials to be intelligent and excellent communicators.  Also, I saw a page on Turner’s website saying they were taking to the “airways” instead of the “airwaves.”  Lastly, he voted in favor of video gambling.  No thanks.
• Terry Link – I see he favors adding licenses for casinos, adding slot machines, and adding gambling machines to horse tracks.  I just don’t get a good vibe from this guy.  Seems too political, perhaps because of his leadership position in the state legislature.
• Rickey Hendon – No response to the Tribune questionnaire.  What’s that about?  He did reply to the Daily Herald, though.  I’m too concerned Hendon is tied to the South Side political machine.  I’m not taking any chances.
• Scott Lee Cohen – No elected political experience.  He points to experience running his company and creating jobs.  While I don’t want an old entrenched pol to be Lt Gov, I don’t want a total newbie either.  I’d like the person elected to be #2 in Illinois government to have some firsthand knowledge of how government works.  At least serve on a city council or school board before running for such a high office.  By the way, his Tribune questionnaire responses were really generic.  Several of the questions were longer than Cohen’s answers.  For what it’s worth, Cohen owns a pawn shop.
• Thomas Michael Castillo – Again, no elected political experience.  He supports raising the income tax, but putting a property tax decrease in place.  I don’t own property, so I’ll just get shafted.  He opposes raising taxes on tobacco, liquor, soda and candy.  I would tax the hell out of tobacco and alcohol.  However, he opposes leasing public assets.  Awesome, there are services and assets that are best provided by the government and shouldn’t be leased to make a quick buck.  Taxpayers typically get screwed with higher costs and worse service.  Castillo also would like a 16-year term limit.  Sounds good to me.  I loved his response about how schools should teach toward students’ curiosities instead forcing them to follow a curriculum.  I hope Castillo stays involved in politics and runs for something at the local level.  Over time, he will gain experience and wisdom.  I might vote Castillo for Lieutenant Governor, so I’ll put his name in italics instead of bold.  I’m just worried that he might not be ready for the job.
• Mike Boland – Wants a unicameral legislature.  I’m not so sure about that.  Definitely food for thought, though.  Unfortunately, he wants to put Lotto machines at rest stops and is open to expanding gambling.  He did vote to allow video gambling.  Blech.  I really did like his ideas for pension reform, though, as expressed in his Trib questionnaire response.  Another good point was an emphasis on community colleges.  Community colleges are valuable assets for preparing youth for the university as well as providing job training for youth and those already in the workforce.  His position on taxes, as stated in the DH, seem OK – tax those making over $250k and tax tobacco and luxury  items.  Too bad his position on gambling is out of line for my tastes.

Attorney General

• Lisa Madigan – I haven’t really had much of a beef with Lisa Madigan.  She goes after both Dems and Republicans.  I’m OK with that.  I’m glad she isn’t taking after her father, politically.  One negative – I am concerned about her apparent zeal for getting online retailers to charge Illinois sales tax.

Secretary of State

• Jesse White – Jesse is getting up there in age.  However, I have had good experiences with the Secretary of State’s offices and services.

Comptroller

• David Miller – A dentist and state rep who wants to write the state’s checks.  Hmm.  Not exactly the most traditional path toward this office.  Considers diaper service a luxury that should be taxed.  Yes you could use disposable diapers, but they’re bad for the environment.  Diapers of any type are not a luxury.  Gave long answers to the Trib and I lost interest in reading them.  Promises closer scrutiny of TIF districts and funds, which I applaud.  I don’t like TIFs.  I agree with Miller about moving cemetery responsibility from the comptroller to the Dept of Financial and Professional Regulation.  I was surprised that office didn’t already have responsibility for that kind of thing.  However, Miller thinks the Treasurer and Comptroller’s offices should be kept separate.  I say eliminate the comptroller.
• Raja Krishnamoorthi – He’s from Hoffman Estates, so he’s kinda local.  He’s ethnic, another thing he and I have in common.  Brings lots of experience from the Attorney General and Treasurer’s office.  Agree with his assessment that sales tax is an insufficient revenue generator now that we are in a service economy.  But I have no idea how to tax services fairly so poor to middle income people don’t get screwed.  Hope Raja has good ideas.  He is making a big deal about putting info about contracts online.  Nice that regular people would be able to search this stuff, but it doesn’t particularly excite me.  Raja also supports removing cemeteries from the purview of the comptroller.
• Clinton Krislov – He did not impress me.  Answered a question about income tax by spending more time on COLA and pensions.  His Trib questionnaire answers struck me as acerbic.  Wants to expand O’Hare, build Peotone, and possibly expand Palwaukee.  I say O’Hare yes, and no to the rest.  What does that have to do with the comptroller anyway?  Should stick to his job as an attorney fighting against financial injustice.

Treasurer

• Justin Oberman – His experience is with the US Dept of Transportation, TSA, and Homeland Security.  Besides management experience, not sure how that will help with being treasurer.  It appears he currently works in the financial industry, though.  He made a good move in restricting who he accepts campaign donations from to head off any conflict of interest.  Also gave some good details in his DH questionnaire response about exactly how the Bright Start college fund was mismanaged.  Oberman opposes combining the Comptroller and Treasurer offices.
• Robin Kelly – I do have concern about her role as the current Chief of Staff for the Treasurer’s office.  Does she have the cajones, metaphorically, to explain how she can do a better job than her current boss?  While Oberman has federal experience, Kelly is more experienced at the state and local levels.  Sounds open to a responsible merger of the Treasurer and Comptroller’s offices.  Her questionnaire responses indicate a good understanding of the duties of the Treasurer.  With reservation, I will be voting for Kelly.

US Representative – 6th District

• Benjamin Lowe – I was initially hesitant about voting for a 25-year-old for Congressman.  After all, he is barely of legal age to hold the office.  However, his responses to the Trib questionnaire were well-written.  In fact, better written than  responses from candidates 40 years his senior.  Despite his age, Lowe appears to have maturity and an understanding of the issues facing Americans.  He wants the wealthy to go back to the higher Clinton-era level of taxation.  Good stances on health care, allowing people to keep the insurance they have while offering a gov’t option for those who want or need it.  Lowe has also spent extensive time overseas, which will prove helpful in understanding other cultures.  In this department, Lowe has more experience than the previous President and a recent female Vice Presidential candidate.

Democratic State Central Committeeman – 6th Congressional District

• Joan Brennan – From what I was able to find online, it appears she is a retired teacher, was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 2008 and a previous year (made a typo in my notes), supported Hillary in 2008, was the Elk Grove Township committeeman for 30 years, and is possibly in her 70s.  I think she has had her chance to be involved in the Democratic Party.  Time for someone else to have the opportunity.
• Christine Cegelis – She has run for numerous positions, so she is by no means an outsider.  She is currently the assistant director for the state’s Central Management Services department.  I suppose I will vote for Cegelis since I doubt she has been a committeeman for 30 years.  Still, I would have preferred someone who would bring a fresh energy and perspective, someone who hasn’t been involved in party politics for years.

Democratic State Central Committeeman – 6th Congressional District

• Robert Wagner – From what I could find, he was a precinct committeeman in York Township during the 90s, supported Bill Bradley and John Kerry’s presidential bids, was a Villa Park trustee, a member of a library board, and was president of the DuPage Democratic Club.  I have no position in this unopposed race.

State Senator – 22nd District

• Michael Noland – I have voted for Noland numerous times in the past.  I am not voting for him anymore.  His voting record has failed to impress me.  He voted yes on video gambling.  He voted to require a moment of silence in schools.  He voted in favor of creating a south suburban airport authority.  He voted to increase interstate speed limits for trucks in 2007.  All stuff I oppose.  The yes vote on video gambling particularly frosts me.  I will note that Noland did not answer questionnaires from both the Trib and the Daily Herald.  The Republican candidate, Steve Rauschenberger, did not answer the Trib questionnaire but did answer the DH questionnaire (albeit with ridiculously short answers).

State Representative – 43rd District

• Keith Farnham – His voting record doesn’t look too bad, with the exception of one thing.  He was one of only 27 reps to vote against the texting while driving ban.  However, he did vote against video gambling (thank you).  Both Farnham and Republican Ruth Munson skipped the Trib and DH questionnaires.  I did have a good experience the one time I phoned Rep. Farnham’s office.  I voted for Munson in the previous general election.  I’ll make up my mind about Farnham vs. Munson in the fall.  In the meantime, I am neutral about voting for him in the primary.

Cook County Board President

I posted my opinion about the board president candidates’ debate here.

• Toni Preckwinkle – A long-time Chicago alderman who hasn’t been afraid to buck Mayor Daley.  She has developed an image of being an independent outsider and a policy wonk.  Preckwinkle seems quite intelligent and has a grasp of the issues.  Her debate performance was disappointing, but maybe I set my expectations too high.  I have been waffling back and forth between Preckwinkle and O’Brien for weeks, but I think I will vote for Preckwinkle.  Her most recent commercial was effective and it worked on me.  It portrayed Terrence O’Brien as part of the political machine.  I don’t know if that’s true or not.  It did get me thinking, though.  I would love to see the established political hierarchy in Cook County disrupted and shaken to its core.  I’m tired of the same connected people running everything.  I think Toni Preckwinkle is the person most likely to change the status quo and really shake things up.
• Terrence O’Brien – O’Brien is not a bad candidate.  He seems like a no-nonsense kind of guy who has experience running a large government agency.  I think he is qualified to run Cook County and he would probably do a decent job.  I also think he might be more sympathetic to suburban Cook County than the other candidates.  However, I don’t see him being a game changer who will really rock the boat.  Anyway, I would appreciate it if people would vote for either Preckwinkle or O’Brien.  I want to take as many votes away from Dorothy Brown and Todd Stroger as possible.
• Dorothy Brown – Yuck.  All kinds of allegations of corruption – just google it.  She put ads on the circuit clerk’s website and sees website ads as a viable way to increase revenue for the county.  I don’t think so.  Then we have this whole Jeans Day fund fiasco, which you would think could be run by someone who is an attorney and an accountant.
• Todd Stroger- Seriously, do I need to tell you why not to vote for Todd Stroger?

Cook County Clerk

• David Orr – I don’t have much of an opinion about how David Orr has run his office.  He’s been in politics a really long time.  I’d like someone new to step up.  Since this is an uncontested race, it doesn’t really matter how you vote.  I’ll do more of an analysis of Orr and his Republican challenger in the fall.

Cook County Sheriff

• Thomas Dart – I really don’t like Tom Dart.  I think he is a grandstander who likes to get publicity.  Besides being a prosecutor, I don’t think he had law enforcement experience until he was employed by the sheriff’s department.  He showboats by recording video of seizures and busts and providing the video to the press.  Then there was the whole craigslist prostitution thing that got Dart attention from the national press.  Picking on craigslist was the topic du jour for a while, so Dart got a lot of press by going after naughty ads for prostitutes on the website.  Honestly, I think prostitution should be legalized and regulated.  Dart should have been going after more violent and harmful offenses.  I do approve of Dart’s wish to get rid of the forest preserve police.  I doubt the current FP police have anymore training in conservation law or ecology than sheriff’s deputies.  The FP police should be abolished or somehow merged with the sheriff’s department.
• Sylvester Baker – Didn’t give a response to the Trib questionnaire, which was disappointing and a disqualification in my opinion.  This is a contested race; Baker apparently didn’t care enough about it to answer.  He does have 22 years of experience with the sheriff’s office, based on his DH questionnaire answers.  In the same questionnaire, it looks like Baker didn’t understand the gist of the question about the sheriff’s role in the foreclosure problem.  Baker just recited the statutory duties of the sheriff with respect to foreclosures, instead of explaining how he would tackle this huge burden efficiently.  Seems to have an ax to grind with Devine-era state’s attorneys; Baker wants them all to resign to free up money.  Unless they were incompetent, why would you want only Devine-era attorneys to resign?

I am not supporting anyone in this race.  I did not get much out of the Republican candidate’s Trib response and he had no DH response.  The Green candidate had no DH response, and I think the guy is a ding-a-ling based on his Trib response.  Looks like there won’t be much of a choice in candidates this fall.

Cook County Treasurer

• Maria Pappas – I don’t have any opinion.  I haven’t had to deal with her office, and the only time I hear about her office is when the news reminds us property taxes are due.  I thought I read something about fingerpointing going on between Pappas and Orr with respect to property tax bills going out in a timely manner.

Cook County Assessor

• Robert Shaw – Isn’t he part of the South Side machine?  Also, he is 72 years old.  I’ll admit to having an age bias.  If you’re over 65, it’s time to get out of politics because you don’t represent the population anymore and have had 47 years to run for office.  Gave no response to the Trib.  Did respond to DH, but none of his answers were longer than three brief sentences.
• Joseph Berrios – I’d have to think hard to come up with a worse candidate.  A longtime pol, entrenched in the Chicago machine.  Those of us in the suburbs don’t want that kind of garbage.  Here is a must-read for every voter pulling a Democratic ballot in the primary – Tribune endorsement of Figueroa.  The Trib came up with a five-point bulleted list explaining how corrupt Berrios is.  The guy is a lobbyist who pushed for video gambling, a Stroger Stooge, and has questionable relationships with property tax attorneys.  I implore Cook County voters not to vote for Berrios.
• Raymond Figueroa – As a former judge, I would expect him to have good temperament and a respect for the legal process and fairness.  Figueroa claims experience with finances as an attorney representing clients in matters such as taxes. Figueroa gave good answers to the Trib questionnaire, though I wonder why he thinks the assessor position should be appointed.  If it is an appointed position, how do the people get rid of a bad assessor?  We wouldn’t be able to vote one out.  I can’t vouch that Figueroa will do a good job, but he is by far the best of the three candidates.  We need to make sure he gets every vote possible in order to keep Shaw and Berrios from becoming assessor.
  

Cook County Commissioner – 15th District

• Jim Steven Dasakis – The literature from his opponent in the race to be township committeeman says Dasakis is a Stroger supporter.  A letter to the DH editor says the same thing.  Lastly, there is an article from 2007 in the Sun Times saying he was hired to fill a $61k/yr position in Cook County gov’t that had been vacant for four years.  In the article, Dasakis is quoted as saying his job involves “a bunch of different tasks.”  I know exactly what I do at my job, why doesn’t Dasakis?  Dasakis ran for commissioner before and lost.  With these Stroger ties, he has even less of a chance to win.  Too bad he is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination.  I strongly recommend against voting for Jim Steven Dasakis.
  

Cook County Board of Review – 1st District Commissioner

• Brendan Houlihan – Running unopposed in the primary.  I also wonder if he is related to the outgoing assessor James Houlihan.  Nepotism?  Also, I’m not liking what I saw about Brendan Houlihan in a blog about the assessor’s office.  Time to vote Republican to break up the Democrats’ lock on the Board of Review this fall?

Judicial Races – I see the Daily Herald now has questionnaire responses posted for the judge candidates.  Considering the amount of time I have spent on this project already, I’m not reading them.  DH did put up a good PDF document summarizing the judicial ratings for candidates here.  An excellent table of judicial qualifications from the Alliance of Bar Associations can be found here.  I reached most of my conclusions about the judges by reading comments made by the bar associations as reported on IllinoisJudges.net.  I figure if any particular candidate was egregiously bad, the bar associations would say so.  In fact, there are a few bad candidates.  I think I may have also consulted the Tribune questionnaires and endorsement list in making my decisions.  My remarks about the judges will be more brief than they were about the elected officials.  This is why I have provided you with a plethora of resources for researching judges on your own.

Illinois Appellate Court – 1st District McNulty Vacancy

• Arnette Hubbard – Did not submit a sample of analytical writing to Chicago Council of Lawyers, ability was questioned.
• Ellen Flanagan – A traffic court judge for four years, bar assocs say she doesn’t have enough experience yet.  I agree.
• Jim Ryan – He had a lot of union endorsements (I’m not a fan of unions) but otherwise seemed qualified to me.  Bar assocs said he didn’t have enough experience writing opinions and has temperament issues, though.
• James Epstein – Sounds experienced.
• Kathleen Kennedy – Sounds like a methodical judge.  “Methodical” may have been a word used in one of the reviews.

Illinois Appellate Court – 1st District O’Malley Vacancy

• Thomas Hogan – Answer was too long in the Trib questionnaire.  A judge should be succinct.
• Pamela Hill-Veal – Poor courtroom management and performance, didn’t answer bar assoc questionnaires.  Bad ratings from the bar assocs, but endorsed by Cook County Democratic Party anyway.  That doesn’t smell right to me.
  
• Frank Gardner – Bad ratings, didn’t submit to questioning by Chicago Bar Assoc or Chicago Council of Lawyers.  From Trib answers, sounds like he is just an attorney, ward boss, and water reclamation district commissioner.
  
• Aurelia Marie Pucinski – Does her name sound familiar?  She has been in politics a long time and used to be the circuit clerk.  Her Trib answers sounded OK and she received some praise in the bar assoc evals I looked at, but they said she lacked qualities needed to be appellate judge.
• Don Sampen – An attorney experienced in appellate matters.  Received good bar association marks.  Sounds qualified, though it looks like he has never been a judge.

Illinois Appellate Court – 1st District South Vacancy

• Mary Katherine Rochford – Very experienced in a variety of matters, a long-time judge, received heaps of praise.
• Sebastian Patti – At the time I did my evals, his website was just a blank template.  It now works.
• Kevin Rogers – Did not submit to evaluation by Chicago Council of Lawyers or Chicago Bar Association.  Across-the-board poor marks in the table provided by the Alliance of Bar Associations.
• William O’Neal – Did not submit to evaluation by the Chicago Bar Association.  Chicago Council of Lawyers eval mentions complaints about his temperament and patience as a judge.  They also say he has not demonstrated the writing ability needed to be an appellate judge.
• Anthony Lynn Burrell – Did not submit to evaluation by Chicago Council of Lawyers or Chicago Bar Association.  Across-the-board poor marks in the table provided by the Alliance of Bar Associations.

Cook County Judicial Circuit – Berland Vacancy

• William Hooks – Has bench and jury trial experience at State and Federal level, involved in the community, teaches college classes.  Was a prosecutor and defense attorney.  Highly praised.
• Deidre Baumann – The Chicago Bar Assoc says she has organizational and case management issues.  The Chicago Council of Lawyers says attorneys questioned her level of knowledge in some cases.
• William Raines – Sounded good, but didn’t match Hooks.  Not a bad second choice.

Cook County Judicial Circuit – Bronstein Vacancy

• Terry MacCarthy – Works for the Public Defender’s office, extensive experience, involved in community.  However, he led off with a list of bar assoc recommendations in an answer to the Trib questionnaire.  It came across as bragging, to me.
• Diann Marsalek – Hearing officer for Illinois Secretary of State, worked for Department of Corrections.  Chicago Council of Lawyers was concerned that her litigation experience was from the beginning of her career and was at the federal level.
• Sharon Finegan Patterson – Has experience with complex legal matters, has represented plaintiffs and defendants, was praised by the CCL as “particularly hard-working with good analytical skills.”
• Thomas William Flannigan – Not recommended by the CBA because he “does not possess the requisite depth and breadth of legal experience to serve as a Circuit Court Judge.”

Cook County Judicial Circuit – Dolan Vacancy

• Susan Kennedy Sullivan – A probate and estate attorney, appears focused on health matters.
• Linda Pauel – Attorney for City of Chicago, has a varied legal background.  A varied background is essential to being an effective judge, IMHO.  Active in the community.
• Kevin Murphy – I agree with the bar associations – has narrow insufficient experience to be a judge.  CCL says his trials were in the area of traffic offenses and misdemeanors.
• Ubi O’Neal – Do not vote for Ubi O’Neal.  CBA says “he has had two questionable incidents regarding his integrity and needs to improve his understanding and commitment to the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct.”  CCL says he was censured by the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission in 1999.  Bad typos and grammar in his Trib response.  Not someone we want to be a judge.

Cook County Judicial Circuit – Hayes Vacancy

• Raymond Mitchell – Has trial and appellate experience, has worked on complex cases.
• Bonnie Carol McGrath – Lacks breadth and depth of legal experience (CBA).  No jury trial experience, has not worked on complex legal matters (CCL).  Does pro-bono work, is published, and does community service.
• Carl Boyd – What’s he trying to hide?  He did not participate in the CBA evaluation, and refused to be evaluated by the CCL.  Other candidates merely failed to submit anything to be evaluated.  This guy refused to be evaluated.  He didn’t complete the Trib questionnaire either.  Across the board lack of recommendations by the bar assocs.  Do not vote for Carl Boyd.

Cook County Judicial Circuit – Kelley Vacancy

• John Patrick Callahan, Jr. – Former Assistant State’s Attorney, current judge, described as knowledgeable and having a good temperament.
• Joanne Fehn – Is currently lacking the experience needed to become a judge.  CCL says “she has no jury trial experience and has never acted as lead counsel in bench trials.”

Cook County Judicial Circuit – McCarthy Vacancy

• Daniel Gallagher – Uncontested race, is currently an assistant public defender.  Received praise in CBA and CCL eval findings.

Cook County Judicial Circuit – O’Malley Vacancy

• Thomas Lyons – Uncontested race.  Is experienced in bench and jury criminal trials, worked for the State’s Attorney’s office.

Cook County Judicial Circuit – Riley Vacancy

• Sandra Ramos – Questions were raised about her temperament.  A former Assistant State’s Attorney, has a private practice in criminal law.  Endorsed by Cook County Democratic Party even though she was Not Recommended by CBA.
• Russell William Hartigan – Experienced in civil matters, lots of community involvement.
• James Michael Bailey – Has been an Assistant State’s Attorney his whole career.  Sounds qualified.
• John Patrick Nyhan – Bad marks across the board from the bar assocs.  Refused to be evaluated by the CCL.  Didn’t just fail to submit anything, he refused evaluation.  Didn’t participate in CBA screening.  Did not answer the Trib questionnaire.  Do not vote for John Patrick Nyhan.
• Edmund Paul Michalowski – Bad marks across the board from the bar assocs.  Refused to be evaluated by the CCL.  Didn’t just fail to submit anything, he refused evaluation.  Didn’t participate in CBA screening.  Did not answer the Trib questionnaire.  Do not vote for Edmund Paul Michalowski.
• Marvin Gray – Long career as an attorney.  CBA says he lacks experience to be a judge.  CCL says his experience involved short trials or lower-value personal injury trials, but does have experience with more complex matters.  Worked for the CTA.
• Tracey Stokes – CBA says she is “well respected for her knowledge of the law, legal experience, professionalism, and outstanding temperament.”  CCL says “She is respected by her peers as a good attorney who is knowledgeable and diligent.”  Her Trib response was succinct.  Worked for 22 years at an insurance company, not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing.

Wonder why so many people are running for this particular judicial vacancy.

Democratic Township Committeeman – Hanover Township

• Gertrude “Trudy” Zaja – I have a mixed opinion.  She is associated with a group called HanDI, but their website only has info about that group endorsing her.  Her website and campaign literature show her as being anti-Stroger.  Updated February 1, 2010:  If you scroll down to the comments section for this entry, you will see a member of HanDI stopped by and explain the organization of their websites.
• Jim Steven Dasakis – I wish I found some info about him from sources other than the opposing campaign.  By googling “Jim Steven Dasakis,” I should have found a campaign website.  When I googled “Trudy Zaja,” I found her website right away.  How serious is Dasakis about his campaigns?  Apparently not very.  There is the Sun Times article I mentioned earlier that shows Dasakis in a bad light.  Trudy Zaja’s website brings some disturbing allegations.  Supposedly Dasakis voted for Stroger to get the Cook County Democratic Party’s endorsement for the 2010 Board President primary.  In a second vote held because no candidate received a majority, Dasakis voted “present.”  It would be nice if Dasakis had a website or mailed something out to explain himself.  I therefore recommend you do not vote for Jim Steven Dasakis.  I don’t know if Trudy Zaja will do a good job, but Dasakis has proven less-than-appealing.  Updated February 1, 2010:  I received a Dasakis ad in the mail today, one day before the election.  It was addressed to only the male residents of my household.  Makes me assume Dasakis is ceding the female vote to Zaja.  I will maintain my support for Zaja.

And there it is:  How I am voting in the February 2 primary.  If I haven’t made a recommendation in a race, I either won’t cast a vote or will vote for myself if write-ins are allowed.  Voting for myself would be the same as throwing away a vote, since I am not a declared write-in candidate for anything.

All the reading and research involved with composing this entry has been tedious, but now I can rebut TV commercials and I know the stories behind each candidate.  Hopefully you readers will find my opinions useful in this primary election.

I’m working on a blog post detailing who I am voting for in the Democratic primary and why.  I only managed to get through US Senator, Governor, and Lieutenant Governor.  I write too much.  I will need to be more concise and perhaps forget about writing complete sentences.  Not my style, but I have six pages worth of sample ballot to get through.  Bad thing about voting in Cook County is you have tons of judges to vote for.  I’d love to have this monster blog post done by the weekend, so at least one moderate suburban Democrat has their opinions expressed online before the election.

Note:  I am pissed.  I published this entry waaaaay back on January 13.  I just discovered that WordPress did not publish it.  WordPress is free, so I can’t complain too much.  Anyway, let’s try it again.

I watched the Democratic debate for candidates running for the open US Senate seat in Illinois.  I didn’t take notes tonight.  I watched the initial airing of the debate and wrote this blog entry.  I then watched the rebroadcast of the debate and made minor tweaks and clarifications.

First, I was pleased to find functioning audio for this debate on Channel 7.2.  The Cook County Board President Democratic debate had audio problems and I had to wait for its rebroadcast.  Also, tonight’s debate was closed captioned.  I am not hard of hearing, but I do like to see what I am hearing.  It reinforces what is being said.  Lastly, I liked that this debate was an hour long.  I also liked the arrangement of the questions and answers, particularly the one minute clarification periods offered to the candidates.  There was a ton of sparring back and forth, but imagine how awful it would have been if there was immediate rebuttal time for candidates to alternately rebut each other.

Now for my biases.  I do not like Alexi Giannoulias.  I do not trust him.  There are questions about his family’s bank and potential ties to organized crime.  I also feel like Giannoulias grew up with a silver spoon.  He worked at his family’s bank.  Has he ever had to go out and get a job without the help of friends and family?  I questioned David Hoffman’s anti-corruption claims regarding the Daley administration, but he sounded more legit as time went by, and seemed like the best-prepared candidate for going against Giannoulias.  I was leaning toward Jacob Meister, but his two robocalls in one night turned me off.  I didn’t know much about Cheryle Jackson, but I got the impression that she was the candidate of the South Side ministers, and I was surprised she came in 2nd in a recent poll.  I had never heard of Robert Marshall before tonight’s debate.

Now for the debate!  Meister wasted no time taking the gloves off.  In his opening statement, he accused David Hoffman of trying to keep him out of the debate.  Not sure where this accusation is coming from, but a little background would be nice.  I guess Meister felt like he was so far behind that he had nothing to lose by going negative right away.

The television ads aired by Giannoulias and Hoffman made their debate talking points predictable.  Giannoulias: Blah blah, Hartmarx, blah blah, Bright Start.  Hoffman: Blah blah, corruption, blah blah, Bright Start.  Cheryle Jackson kept talking about “being in the trenches,” suing Governor Blagojevich over poor school quality, and some legislation about equal pay.

Not sure why the candidates were so preoccupied with pimping themselves out to the unemployed.  Do the unemployed/underemployed really think a politician can throw some seeds in the ground and jobs will sprout up?  Politicians can’t do jack for job creation.  There are too many external forces.  Politicians can make a business-friendly environment, but that is no guarantee to create jobs.  Also, creating a good environment for business doesn’t sound as sympathetic as “I feel your pain.  I will help you find a job.”

The tit-for-tat between Giannoulias and Hoffman was tiresome.  I hope nobody votes for those two in the primary.  They seemed more obsessed with each other than with the problems facing Illinois.  Why vote for two guys who would rather get into a pissing contest than do the problem solving that leads to solutions?  Dr. Marshall had it absolutely right when he said (I’m paraphrasing) Illinoisans don’t care about the argument between Giannoulias and Hoffman.  Voters are more interested in what a candidate will do for them, than they are in what a candidate has to say about another candidate.

I think the majority of the candidates are clueless about how to win Downstate voters.  Giannoulias kept mentioning how he helped save Hartmarx.  I think 90% of the people south of I-80 and west of I-39 either don’t know or don’t care about Hartmarx.  I know what Hartmarx is, and I don’t care.  Downstate voters aren’t going to get excited about some suit factory that narrowly avoided closure.  None of the candidates, who are running for a federal statewide office, mentioned anything about specific downstate issues.  We have a bunch of Chicago people running for office who need to acknowledge the rest of the state.  Giannoulias, as state treasurer, has more exposure to statewide goings on.  He needs to show there is more to him than just the Chicago issues and the generic statewide/national issues.

David Hoffman seriously got on my nerves.  He is supposed to be an attorney?  What did he do, drink five pots of coffee before the debate?  He seemed nervous or agitated, and talked really really fast.  Watching and listening to him made my blood pressure go up.  It made me feel agitated and uncomfortable.  It sounded like he was trying to say a lot in a short period of time.  That doesn’t work.  People will pay more attention to how you speak instead of what you are saying.  I can’t imagine speaking fast works in a courtroom with a jury.  The jury will get confused and turned off by the rapid speech and agitation.  I expected an attorney to have better public speaking skills.  Attorneys are supposed to sound more like Jacob Meister.

Jacob Meister did reasonably well once he got past his opening statement tirade.  He was relatively calm, sincere, and well-spoken.  He still got into dust-ups with Hoffman, but he didn’t seem that negative to me during the debate.

Cheryle Jackson was the winner of tonight’s debate by a TKO.  She didn’t really score any big punches, but she stayed above the fray.  She made a few jabs at Giannoulias and Hoffman, but those two guys were so absorbed with each other that they didn’t fight back.  She did a good job fighting back against the question about her employment with the Blagojevich administration.  Ms. Jackson impressed me.  She was calm, well-spoken, and stayed on-message.  She is clearly well-versed in working with small businesses and economic matters.  She made a mention of the war in Afghanistan.  However, I’d like to know more about her knowledge and opinions of things outside of Chicago, jobs, and business.  I need to do some more research about Jackson, but she made a favorable impression and tentatively has my vote.

I am glad Robert Marshall was included in tonight’s debate, even though he has little chance of winning.  While watching the debate, I said he kind of reminded me of Mike Gravel from the presidential debates.  A guy nobody’s really heard of, says some weird things, but occasionally makes more sense than anybody else in the room.  Marshall is definitely on the conservative end of the Democratic Party.  I agreed with some of his more conservative beliefs (like guns and the death penalty), and it surprised me.  I had no idea how conservative I must sound at times.  I think Marshall would play well with downstate voters, with his no-nonsense outsider approach.  The rest of the candidates can learn a thing or two from him.  Liberal Chicagoans aren’t going to get many votes downstate.  Marshall kept things real and didn’t hide his opinion, but I don’t feel confident he can defeat the Republican candidate in November.

After watching the debate a second time, I have to reiterate how stupid this sparring is between Giannoulias and Hoffman.  Please please please, voters of Illinois, do not vote for these guys.  They obviously lack maturity and the ability to focus on the issues at hand.  Jacob Meister got into the fracas, but I think he has a more sincere concern about the voters of Illinois and just wants his voice to be heard.  He’s trying to be heard over all that noise created by Giannoulias and Hoffman.  Cheryle Jackson did a good job reaching out to the viewer.  She scored points by showing more concern for people than for political opponents.  She made a great impression tonight, and I hope I don’t find any skeletons in her closet or policy positions I disagree with.

Here is how I rate the candidates after tonight’s debate:

1. Cheryle Jackson
2. Jacob Meister
3. Robert Marshall
4. Alexi Giannoulias
5. David Hoffman

I saw this article on Yahoo last week.  It’s a list of 10 things not to buy in 2010 because of changing or obsolete technologies.  I disagree with several of the items on this list.  Let’s go in the same order as the article.

1. DVDs.  The article touts Netflix and on-demand services from cable companies and websites.  There is also a mention of Blockbuster’s woes.  I don’t think DVDs are going away anytime soon and people shouldn’t stop buying them.  Netflix is a great service (which uses DVDs!) for someone who watches a lot of movies.  You get to see a lot of films for not a lot of money.  An even better option is going to the local library.  Yes, you can only keep the DVD for a few days, but it doesn’t cost you anything.  There are millions of DVD players in service, and they won’t go away anytime soon.  The on-demand services from cable are expensive, and a lot of people don’t have the internet bandwidth to suck down a movie.  I have DSL, and I have a hard time watching YouTube movies.  My connection (1320kbps) is too slow to do enough buffering right away, so the video keeps stopping to buffer.  I have learned to pause the video right away and let most of it buffer before I start watching.  I don’t have any problems with Hulu, but I still have a problem with downloading gigabytes of data for a movie.  Anyway, DVDs aren’t going away.  If you can get them on sale, buy them.  You’ll have a hard copy of the DVD and you don’t have to worry about DRM bullcrap.  Pop the DVD into any player or computer you want.
2. Home Telephone Service.  According to the CDC (and the article), 22.7% of households during the first half of 2009 had cellphones but no landline.  The article mentions assorted VOIP services and Skype.  I will have a POTS line (landline) as long as one is available.  We have IP phones at work, and while not unreliable, they definitely do not match the 100% reliability of my POTS line at home.  I don’t want to have to run a UPS to keep a cable or DSL modem going during a power outage just so I can use my phones and VOIP.  I know someone who had to dump Vonage because their ISP had a bad quality of service, causing call quality and reliability to suck.  Phone companies are required to have battery backups for equipment at their central office.  So your house may be without electricity, but your phone service will still work.  (This is a reason to keep a corded phone in your house.)  I hate all flavors of VOIP.  I can see going cell-phone-only, but again you are relying on puny batteries.  What do you do when there is a massive long-term power outage?  Better hope your carrier has generators at their towers.  How are you going to charge your cell phone?  I have a power inverter I can use in my car to charge my phone if necessary.  But how many people have power inverters?  I don’t consider Skype a real telephony alternative.  Your computer needs to be on.  What do you do when your computer’s hard drive fails, your internet is down, or your computer gets malware?  Yes, a POTS line is old fashioned, but you cannot beat it for reliabilty.  I work in an IT department full of geeks, and all of us agree on this.
3. External Hard Drives.  Quite possibly the biggest farce of the article.  Don’t buy an external hard drive?  How are you supposed to back up gigabytes of data?  Ohhhh, I see!  The article says I can pay $55 a year to upload my data over the internet and save it on some company’s server.  Someone want to do some math for me?  My upload speed is 320kbps.  I have about 100GB of stuff to backup.  By my math (which could be wrong), it would take me about 711 hours to upload my data.  Damn.  I backup my stuff to portable hard drives (stored at different sites) once a month.  This online storage would also let me backup once a month, but it would take about 29.62 days of that month just to upload the data.  Sorry, but external hard drives are still (and will be) the cheapest, fastest, and most convenient way to backup large amounts of data.
4. Smartphone Also-Rans.  OK, this part of the article makes sense.  The article mentions the market dominance of the BlackBerry and iPhone.  Why waste your time with Windows Mobile, which has been neglected by Microsoft, or Palm, which has been unheard of since their release of the Pre?  Android is making some noise.  It only makes sense to go with the best-supported phones in terms of apps and accessories.  When I bought a new MP3 player last year, I went with an iPod Touch instead of a Zune HD.  As loath as I was to join the Apple cult, I had to admit Apple’s app store was more mature and more likely to have apps I would want.  I didn’t want to sit around and wait for Zune’s app store to develop.
5. Compact Digtal Cameras.  This maybe as stupid as the portable hard drive thing.  So don’t buy a compact digital camera because you can buy an SLR?  As a photographer, I find this advice absurd.  I have two cameras that I carry with me, depending on where I am and what kind of photos I plan to take.  When I am going out with the explicit purpose of taking photos, I bring my large Canon PowerShot S5 with me.  I used to carry it with me during my lunchtime walks, but I found it too cumbersome to whip out and quickly take a snapshot around town.  I wanted something smaller and more inconspicuous.  I went with a Canon PowerShot SD1100 Digital ELPH.  I carry the ELPH all over the place because it is so small, fitting in a coat pocket or on my waist.  I also have an old PowerShot A70.  So yes, SLRs can produce excellent images in the hands of a good photographer, but who wants to drop >$700 and lug a big bag around town just to take snapshots?  Small digital point-and-shoot cameras aren’t going anywhere.  There is no threat from cameraphones either, not in the short-term.  Every cameraphone I have used has taken crappy photos.  They need bright sunlight, but more often than not you are inside or under cloudy skies, right?  The iPhone 3GS can take some nice photos, but I think it is far easier to take a good photo with a compact camera than the 3GS.
6. Newspaper Subscriptions.  I think I am onboard with the article’s author here.  I don’t subscribe to any newspapers, and maybe every other week I will get the Sunday Chicago Tribune.  I read my news online at the newspapers’ websites.  If I want to see something in print, I can always go to the library.  I like being able to hold the newspaper in my hands and read it wherever I am – bathroom, bed, recliner – instead of in front of the computer.  But I am able to make do with reading a computer screen five days a week for my news.  Not sure how much longer printed newspapers will be around.  The Kindle poses a threat, but it is expensive and won’t take a drop on the sidewalk as well as a newspaper.  Honestly, I’d rather read a newspaper in print or online instead of on a Kindle.  I have played with one, and I think I would get tired holding it.  With a printed newspaper or book, your arms and hands move and change positions often.  With the Kindle, you could sit there and never move your arms or hands, just repeatedly hitting the Next Page button.
7. CDs.  MP3, iTunes, music stores closing, blah blah blah.  Buy CDs, people.  When a new CD drops, its price is exactly the same (or cheaper) than buying a digital copy of the album from Amazon or iTunes.  A lot of albums are competitively priced when compared with their download versions.  By buying a CD, you will have a physical hard copy of the CD.  Fewer worries about backing up your music collection.  Just rip the CD (takes less than 5 mins) and boom, you have a digital copy of the album for your MP3 player.  On top of that, you have a ready-made high-quality backup available in the form of the CD.  Nice thing about the CD is you can play it in your car, on your home stereo, or on your computer.  No need for an aux-in jack or MP3 player dock.  Now I do buy individual songs online.  If I don’t care for the rest of an album, I’ll just buy the song I want.  In this case, it makes sense to skip the CD and go for the download.
8. College Textbooks.  I agree with the article.  Try to buy used unless a new copy is absolutely necessary.  I’ll pass along some tips that saved me hundreds of dollars in college.  Go to the campus bookstore first, since they will be the first to get the official book lists from the professors.  Take note of all the books you will need, recording edition numbers, ISBNs, and prices.  Then go to the off-campus bookstore and compare pricing for both new and used.  As dorky as it may sound, make a spreadsheet of the books you need, using the info you got at the bookstores.  Now compare prices online.  Make notes of the prices and book type (new/used) in the spreadsheet.  Remembering to take into account tax and shipping, buy from the place that has the lowest price.  And don’t always assume used is cheaper than new.  At least once I was able to buy a new book cheaper at one store than the used book at another store.  You will burn some gas (or calories) going to the local bookstores, and you will burn half an hour comparing prices online.  But it will be worth it when you save $200 on your books for the semester.
9. Gas Guzzling Cars.  I’m a Prius owner.  Practical, reliable, and roomy car.  Unless you are going to haul a boat or don’t believe in birth control, skip the SUV.  They are expensive and inefficient.  A hatchback, small wagon, compact SUV, or crossover will suit your needs.  When you need to haul a bunch of crap, call a truck-owning friend or rent a truck.  Enterprise is all over the place, and even Home Depot and Menards offer truck and van rental now.
10. Energy Inefficient Homes and Appliances.  Why use incandescent bulbs in table lamps anymore?  We switched to CFLs almost 20 years ago.  I acknowledge fluorescent bulbs don’t everywhere, but why not use them where you can?  They’re not expensive anymore, and sometimes you can get them free.  There are incentives from the government now to make improvements to your home and buy energy efficient appliances.  I’ll admit that I don’t consider energy efficiency when I buy electronics.  I go more for what works best and gives me the best bang for my buck.  You will have to pry my 17″ NEC MultiSync CRT monitor from my cold dead hands.

I watched the debate for Democratic Cook County Board President candidates this morning.  I wanted to watch it when it originally aired a few nights ago, but there were audio problems.  I tuned into Channel 7.2 and there was no audio and no captioning.  I watched its rebroadcast this morning at 10:30.

The participants were Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown, current board president Todd Stroger, Chicago alderman Toni Preckwinkle, and president of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Terrence O’Brien.

I’ll get my biases out of the way.  I do not care for Dorothy Brown.  She has corruption issues.  Todd Stroger is a product of the Chicago machine and is unqualified for the office of board president.  Hell, I even ran against him.  So don’t expect any fair-and-balanced commentary from me.

I took some notes during the debate.

• Dorothy Brown talked about how the Circuit Clerk’s website has ads on it that have helped raise revenue for her office.  I just took a look at her website.  It looks terribly unprofessional and unbefitting for a government website.  There are advertisements  along the right side of the page.  There are disclaimers that the Circuit Clerk does not endorse any of the advertisers, but I think this doesn’t pass the smell test.  It doesn’t smell right when attorney ads are on the webpage of the circuit clerk.  There are ways to vet what kind of ads appear on a page, but I know someday, somewhere, an inappropriate ad will appear if other offices accept advertising.  I question how much money the circuit clerk is making.  Typically website owners only make a few cents per click or impression.  I don’t think website advertising is a viable solution for creating income.
• Todd Stroger seems determined to keep Cook County’s healthcare program as-is.  I do not think the county has any business running hospitals and clinics.  I am not a fan of privatization of government resources, but I think hospitals and clinics should not be government resources.  The county’s hospitals and clinics should be sold.  Let businesses or non-profits deal with Medicare/Medicaid and insurerers.
• Todd Stroger is incapable of putting together a coherent sentence.  I honestly think he is borderline retarded.  He has to stop and think mid-sentence, and when he starts speaking again, the words don’t make any sense.  Stroger does not sound intelligent.  His inability to speak coherently should give voters doubts about his ability to govern and make difficult decisions.
• Dorothy Brown made a good point about how Cook County should be involved in the larger discussion about health care.  Since Cook County is one of the country’s most populous counties with a healthcare system, I think the county’s healthcare system should be on the forefront of getting people insured and finding ways to be more efficient.  I also liked Clerk Brown’s idea for creating an economic development roundtable of Cook County mayors.  This would be a good way to create dialog and work together to spur growth at a regional level instead of having everyone do their own thing.  However, I don’t like her idea about a Cook County version of the Small Business Administration.  I don’t know how useful such an office would be, and I’m concerned a new department would be ripe for cronyism.
• O’Brien said there is a Cook County economic development commission, but it has been ignored by Stroger.  I don’t know if such a commission exists, but Stroger has definitely ignored the parts of Cook County outside Chicago.  Has Stroger even been to Elgin or Streamwood?  Stroger seems content to hang out with South Side reverends.  O’Brien seems more likely to acknowledge the suburbs’ concerns.

At this point, my jaw fell to the floor when Charles Thomas said he was asking the fifth and final question of the debate.  I couldn’t believe it.  The questions were generic and the debate was overly obsessed with the healthcare system in the county.  There was a question about fighting waste and cronyism, and a question about what is good and what is bad about county government.  The candidates talked about the sales tax.  The 30-minute time limit really handicapped this debate.  There was no chance to hear what the candidates had to say about a wide variety of issues.  Five questions are not sufficient for a debate.  There are more than five issues facing the county right now.  There was no discussion of transportation, open space, or green initiatives.

I didn’t write anything in my notes about Toni Preckwinkle.  She was disappointing in this debate.  She was my initial choice for Cook County Board President, but her answers were very plain and didn’t seem particularly insightful.  Not good, not bad, but nothing to get excited about.

Before the election I will review candidate questionnaires from the newspapers, should they become available.  At the moment, I am leaning toward voting for Terrence O’Brien.  The rest of my candidate choices will come out closer to the election in February.

I ran some errands today.  Went to the library to look at some newspapers and pick up a couple of books that came in for me via interlibrary loan.  Then I went to Menards to see if they had any reasonably-priced air compressors I could use to fill car tires.  They were having their green bag sale, where anything that fits into a reusable shopping bag (costs about $1) is 15% off.  I was specifically looking for the Black & Decker Air Station that goes for $50 at most places.  I wanted to see if Menards had it, what would it cost, and if half the box would fit into the bag.  Stuff bigger than the bag was eligible for the discount if half the product package fit in the bag.

I had never been to the Elgin Menards before.  I wandered around the store looking for air compressors.  Hardware stores/home improvement warehouses are sort of foreign territory to me.  I am hardly a handyman, so I feel like I don’t belong.  On the other hand, put me into CompUSA or Fry’s and I am right at home.  Anyway, I was struck by how much weird stuff there was in Menards.  I saw a magazine and book section.  That didn’t surprise me too much, since the Batavia Menards where I bought pipe insulation had a similar section.  Still weird, though.  Who thinks to go to Menard’s when they are looking for books or magazines?  Maybe Mr. Menard realized he could make some money off hunky joe construction workers who suddenly remember it’s their wife’s birthday while shopping at Menards.

It only got weirder as I turned the corner and went down another aisle.  I then saw row after row of food items.  WTF?  I saw Pop Tarts, beef jerky, and other food.  Now I’ve seen snack foods near the checkout at other home centers.  But this goes far beyond that.  Menards had real food.  I think I even saw boxes of cereal!  And it wasn’t just one aisle, it was like 5 aisles.  Then I saw dog food!  How weird is that?  Again, who thinks to go to Menards to buy food?  I have a co-worker who sometimes picks up snacks at Ace Hardware, so I dunno.  Here’s my theory.  Again, I think construction workers are the target customer.  Maybe a guy needs to pick up something for lunch before heading out to a job site.  And maybe a guy might get a call from the wife to pick up some basic groceries on the way home.  Let’s say the construction worker has to pick up supplies or tools at Menards on the way home.  Instead of making a second stop at a grocery, he goes into this food section of Menards and takes care of both tasks in one stop.  By the way, there is a nerd equivalent of this setup.  The last time I went to Fry’s, they had cases of soft drinks for sale in the aisles.

Eventually I found the air compressors.  As expected, they had the big tank ones.  There was a 2- and 3-gallon compressor on the smaller side of things.  Kinda big, more expensive than I wanted to pay, and probably overkill for inflating car and bike tires.  The performance and durability would be good, though.  I asked an employee if they had any smaller ones, and he said no.  So that took care of my trip to Menards.

I then went next door to Meijer.  See, I was smart.  I had planned on picking up some liquid items at Meijer.  I didn’t want them to freeze in the car while I was wandering around Menards, so I saved Meijer for last.

I had to pick up some milk, but I also wanted to see if I could find Throwback Pepsi.  It uses real sugar instead of that high fructose corn syrup.  I could never find Throwback Pepsi when it was in stores last year.  I lucked out.  There was one case left on the shelf at Meijer.  Obviously a popular product.  There were two cases of Throwback Mountain Dew left.  I have read so many rave reviews of Throwback Pepsi.  I also picked up milk.  This time I got 2% milk.  All my life I have been drinking whole milk.  I wanted to try 2% since it has less fat.  I bet I won’t notice any difference.  I like the new lower fat ice creams that are sold now.  They have like 50% less fat and I think they actually taste better than the regular stuff.  I picked up two containers of ice cream.  But back to milk.  I also saw 1% and fat-free milk.  I might give those a whirl if 2% passes my taste test.

Speaking of taste tests, I couldn’t really notice much of a difference between Throwback Pepsi and regular Pepsi.  Granted, I did not do a side-by-side test.  I was just going from my vague memory of Pepsi.  The Throwback stuff tasted a little milder.  It was OK.  I was kind of disappointed, considering how many people said it was soooo good and how some people even buy several cases at a time and hoard it.  It’s not bad, but it’s not super good either.  If I have the choice between regular and Throwback, I’ll choose Throwback simply because it doesn’t have that HFCS garbage.  Pepsi should sell the Throwback stuff year round.

I am kicking myself for forgetting to buy cream cheese.  We had some in the house for the first time in years last week and it was awesome to put on bagels or toast.  Now I have a bunch of bagels but no cream cheese.  I’ll hae to pick some up after work on Monday.

For the past couple of months I have been toying with the idea of changing the license on my Flickr photos from Creative Commons to All Rights Reserved.  Ever since I started using Flickr, I used a CC license.  I simply asked that if my photo is going to be used somewhere, I get attribution, the photo won’t be used commercially, and the photo will not be modified.  Over the years my photos have been used with my permission on some blogs and websites.  I appreciated it when people asked for my permission.  They were true professionals.  Sometimes I’d find my photos posted in web forums.  No biggie.  That is fine with me, as I am happy someone found my photo useful for illustrating something.  Usually a link is given for the photo page on Flickr.

The internet is like the wild west when it comes to protecting content you put online.  I always figured it was pretty much impossible to dictate who used your content and how once it is put online.  It’s out there in the public and there are ways to circumvent technology and copy stuff.

Lately I have been getting ticked off about the usage of my photos.  I take photos and post them so everybody gets to see what I see.  I want to contribute to the global wealth of knowledge.  Not everyone can come to the Geneva Concours d’Elegance car show.  I photographed every car last year to make sure there is at least one public photographic record of every car from the show.  I’m a car guy, I want other car guys (or girls) to have the chance to drool over some of those cars, even if it is only through their computer screen.  However, I want my work to be acknowledged.  I can be a pretty darned good photographer when I want to be.  It is an art, and there is some work and skill involved in taking the photo, noting the location, and writing a description.  I think it is only fair I get acknowledged.

One of the nice things about Flickr is that paid “pro” accounts can see how visitors arrive at their photos.  A photo I took of a mascot was getting a very high number of hits from an ESPN fantasy football website.  I wasn’t able to see the page where my photo was used because a login was required.  I didn’t appreciate getting dozens of hits from a webpage I had no way of seeing, so I made the photo private.  The fantasy football people would either see a broken image or some placeholder image from Flickr saying my pic was no longer available.

Now for the straw that broke the camel’s back.  I was reading a Daily Herald article online about a bison passing away at the Lords Park Zoo.  I appreciate the efforts of those working to protect and preserve the zoo, so I take interest in any article I see about it.  I got a bit of a surprise when I clicked the article and saw the following:

The photo of the bison looked awfully familiar to me.  I decided to log into my Flickr account to look at the photos I had taken of the Lords Park bison in 2008.  Sure enough, the photo was one of mine.  What was disappointing was the photo was credited to the Friends of Lords Park Zoo. I took the photo.  See, I’m signed into my account below:

It would have been nice if the photo was attributed to Flickr, my username, or to be more formal, my real name.  It doesn’t bother me that the friends of the zoo found my photo and used it.  The photo will let people see what the bison were like, without having visited the zoo.  The fact the photo (or its web address) was passed along to the Daily Herald isn’t a big deal either.  My problem is that the attribution for the photo is all wrong.  The Daily Herald has a staff of photographers.  The paper thinks it got a free photo courtesy of the friends of the zoo, when in fact I am the one who took it.  If it weren’t for my photo, they would have had to send a photographer out or ask for a photo from someone.  If the Daily Herald asked for permission to use my photo, I definitely would have said yes.  I mean, what amateur photographer wouldn’t want their photo used by a newspaper, even if it was only on the paper’s website?

I don’t know what happened here.  Did the friends of the zoo not notice the Creative Commons license that required attribution?  Did the friends of the zoo tell the Daily Herald where they got the photo, but the Daily Herald misunderstood?

Ironically, I found my photo being used on another website while writing this post.  Who knows how many sites my photo is living on now.  I was trying to find the link to the DH article and stumbled across an article on WBBM 780’s website.  Here is my photo, again attributed to the Friends of Lords Park Zoo:

I’m glad it was a relatively benign group that found my photo, whose work I approve of.  If it was another group, I would have been contacting the Daily Herald and WBBM to get the photo’s attribution corrected.

Unfortunately, as a result of all this, I am changing the license on my photos to All Rights Reserved.  The cat’s been let out of the bag, and several of my photos are already being used around the internet under the Creative Commons license.  But from here on out, I want it to be obvious to everyone viewing my photos that I expect to receive credit for the photos, or at least a linkback to the original photo or my Flickr account.  If someone asks to use a photo of mine, I will most likely say yes.  I don’t expect money.  You can get lots of photos for free.  Of course, I won’t turn down a few bucks if offered.  If the friends of the zoo used my photo for their own purposes, everything would be fine and dandy.  However, the photo made its way to two news websites with incorrect attribution.  Maybe it wasn’t the fault of the zoo folks, and they probably didn’t mean to pass the photo off as their own.

I am taking the step of subtly restricting who can download my photos and how they can be used.  What you put on the internet is pretty much open for copying, but I want to make it clearer I expect users of my photos to be upfront about where the photos came from.  I’m not going to complain to the Daily Herald, WBBM, or the Friends of Lords Park Zoo.  The photo is out there, what’s done is done.  I just want to make sure this doesn’t happen again with other groups and commercial entities.

I have gotten into a bad habit.  I am constantly looking for stuff to buy for my car.  I think I’m bored, and unfortunately I am spending money to alleviate this boredom.

First I bought new tires for my car.  They have helped me through the snowstorms we have had so far this year, so it was money well-spent.  The OEM tires might have been OK, but I didn’t want to press my luck with the snow.  The car’s snow performance had dropped off quite a bit last year.  I did a lot of research and hopefully these tires will continue to perform well and my fuel economy will not be affected too adversely.  It’s hard to tell how the tires are affecting fuel economy because it is so cold out.  I put Michelin Primacy MXV4 tires on my car, if anyone is wondering.  I am still waiting to get my $70 rebate, which supposedly has been approved.  The rebate offer worked – it got me to buy new tires when I was kind of on the fence.

Even though my windshield wipers were working OK, I went out and bought Bosch ICON wipers.  My old ones worked, but streaked a little.  For about $10 I could have bought refills for the front wipers.  Instead I bought the frameless ICONs for $43.  I sent in the rebate form to get $15 back, bringing the cost down to $28.

I then turned my eyes to a Prius Hybrid Synergy Drive keychain I saw on eBay.  These keychains are rare and were given to early Prius buyers after they placed their orders.  A couple of jokers took the bidding up to $52.  I think the winner chickened out and the keychain got relisted.  I bid on it again, but have been outbid.

I asked the PriusChat forum for info about the HSD badge, thinking I could make my own version of the keychain, but it doesn’t sound like a good idea.  The plastic badge would wear out, plus it is kind of large.

Last week I cleaned out a Wal-Mart store of their Matchbox Toyota Prius diecast.  Before that, I ordered a 1:34 scale Prius and a 1:60 scale Prius on eBay.  The latter is coming from Hong Kong.  There are some gorgeous 1:30 scale models, but they are rather expensive.  I’m not crazy enough to spend $50-130.

Today I set my sights on a good tire pressure gauge and an air compressor.  I’ve been using one of those cheapo gauges that looks like a pen and has the meter stick that drops out of the bottom.  I saw a digital gauge on Amazon last night that interested me.  Only $10, and got good reviews.  But then I read reviews on PriusChat from people who liked the Accu-Gage line of analog pressure gauges.  By the time I was done there, I had spent $45 on a pressure gauge for the car, a valve extender for checking my spare tire, plus another pressure gauge for checking my bike’s tires.

As for the air compressor, it is hard to find one with good reviews.  Some people like the Craftsman 75114 12V model you plug into your car’s cigarette lighter.  I would prefer a 120V model you plug into the wall, for better performance and no risk of screwing up my car.  Black & Decker has their Air Station ASI300 model (Lowe’s has it cheapest now, but I’m not a fan of theirs) that works with both 12V and 120V power.  Nice to have that flexibility, but some people said their compressors pooped out after only a few uses or even one use.  Most of the compressors out there actually have bad reviews and plenty of reports of failures.  Don’t know why it is so hard to find a good compressor for a reasonable price.

I want an air compressor so I can fill my tires in the comfort of my garage.  No more going to a gas station and digging out quarters.  Last time I had to go to a gas station for air, it was two days after I got my new tires.  The low tire pressure warning came on, and I found three of the tires to be five pounds below factory spec.  One was two pounds too low.  I went to a gas station and it took me a while to figure out how their chuck worked.  I believe that is the name of the part you stick on the valve stem.  I ended up running out of time and had to put in more quarters.  I only was able to fill the three tires that were most out of whack.  I’m tired of paying the gas station and messing with the dirty equipment that doesn’t always work.  You need to move as fast as an IndyCar pit crew to inflate all four of your tires in the time the gas station gives you.  I could go to the gas station a bunch of times for the $40 I might spend on a compressor, but you have to figure in convenience.  I’d be able to use the compressor on my parents’ cars too, all from the comfort and warmth of my garage.  I hope to get a good compressor soon, because I’d hate to have to mess around outside at a gas station now that it’s winter.

So what’s next on my list?  A new sunshade for my windshield.  I’ve read some reviews and have a couple of candidates.  My current shade is too small for the Prius’ massive windshield.  It doesn’t reach the bottom of the windshield, instead hanging down and stopping several inches short.  I read about a guy whose too-small sunshield might have reflected some light or trapped some heat in the vicinity of the digital speedometer display.  The display got too hot and somehow warped.  I’d like to avoid that costly repair.  The sunshield I’m looking at only costs $13, so no big deal.  I’ll wait until spring to get it since I have no use for a sunshield right now.

One of the blogs I follow, Food Network Humor, wrote that Cablevision has dropped Food Network and HGTV in their subscriber area.  It’s some sort of dispute between Cablevision and Scripps Networks, the parent of FN and HGTV.  Apparently Scripps wants to charge Cablevision more for the “privilege” of carrying their programming.  Also, Time-Warner Cable and Fox are having issues.  In reading the comments on the blog post, I noticed lots of people complaining about paying for channels they don’t care about but losing channels they want (like FN).  Some folks are paying astronomical rates, over $100.  It seems the cable companies would rank right up there with banks for the title of Most Hated Business in America.

I have an analog cable package that doesn’t seem to be offered by Comcast anymore.  It’s much better than their Basic service, but doesn’t offer as many channels as their Digital Starter service.  We get the local over-the-air channels in HD plus the sub-channels, which is nice.  It’s a good deal for $20-25 (we got in on some deal years ago).  It will suck to have to get those Digital Transport Adapter boxes later this year.  We have four TVs, and you only get three boxes free.  Also, VCRs don’t work right with the DTAs.  Basically, it sounds like all you can do is record one channel.  You set the VCR to record Channel 3 for a certain time, and set the DTA for the channel you want to record, which then kicks out the signal on Channel 3 for the VCR to record.  But if you want to record another channel later on, you need someone to physically change the channel on the DTA box.  Of course, you can always get one of Comcast’s DVRs for a monthly fee.  This is why people hate cable companies.  Instead of things getting easier and cheaper over time, you end up paying more for less convenience.  Though I shouldn’t really complain, considering we pay less for cable than like 75% of the population.

One of the biggest consumer complaints, besides cost, is channel lineup.  Nobody watches every channel on their cable TV service.  There has been talk of a-la-carte pricing for years, but nothing has come of it.  I came up with a novel idea for a new cable TV package.  I call it Subscribers Choice.

It would consist of a package of about 50 channels.  Yes, that is less than some people get now under digital cable, but how many of those 100+ channels do you actually watch?  The Subscribers Choice package would consist only of channels people watch.  And how will it be determined which channels are watched?  The cable company would host a survey on their website.  It would be at the cable company’s discretion over who would participate in the survey.  They could break the subscribers down by state or region, or keep the voting pool national.  Subscribers would then vote for their 50 favorite channels.  The top 50 vote-getting channels would then become part of this Subscribers Choice package.  Since tastes change and new channels are introduced, a new vote could be taken every other year.  Taking a vote annually could result in too much turnover in the channel lineup.

While Subscribers Choice would reduce complaints about paying for channels you don’t watch, what would it do about the cost of cable?  Cable can be very expensive.  I don’t know the economics of paying networks for programming and administering the cable signal to households.  I suppose if the 50-channel Subscribers Choice could be offered for around $30.  I get about 65 channels for $20-25 right now.  I’d pay a little more if more of the channels were good, or at least better than shopping and religious channels.

One could argue that without being a compulsory part of a bundled package, these shopping and religious channels would go out of business.  To that argument, I say “Who cares?”  This is a market economy.  If a channel cannot sustain itself and attract an adequate number of viewers, they should not be broadcasting.

I haven’t touched on HD.  We have had an HDTV for a few months now.  The picture is nice, but when I watch my SDTVs, I don’t feel like I am missing anything.  So my Subscribers Choice package would give everyone HD for their local broadcast channels.  For those wanting HD everything, I guess there could be a Subscribers HD Choice package based on a separate HD vote.

If I were to vote on a Subscribers Choice package in the Chicago area, this is what I would want (in no particular order):

• WBBM (CBS)
• WMAQ (NBC)
• WLS (ABC)
• WPWR (MNTV)
• WCIU
• WGN
• WCPX (ION)
• WTTW (PBS)
• WFLD (FOX)
• WSNS (Telemundo)
• WYCC (PBS)
• WGBO (Univision)
• Nickelodeon
• ESPN
• ESPN2
• Lifetime
• History Channel
• CNN
• The Weather Channel
• Travel Channel
• Food Channel
• Versus
• Discovery Channel
• TBS
• Speed
• Game Show Network

Those are my must-haves.  That’s only 26 channels, excluding the digital broadcast sub-channels.  I currently get all of those channels except Speed and Game Show Network.  There’s a lot of crap I don’t watch, like E!, Comedy Central, Golf Channel, Fox News, MTV, VH1, and Cartoon Network.  I hate that we are stuck with those channels but don’t get Speed or GSN.  Seriously, who watches Golf Channel?

If I include the digital broadcast sub-channels, my choices would likely add up to about 40 channels, leaving me 10 more choices.  I’d probably add (in no particular order):

• TruTV
• MSNBC
• TNT
• SpikeTV
• FX
• TVLand

Basically, I would dump all the shopping and religious channels, plus kid channels and sports channels I am not interested in.  I think my channel choices are in-line with most of America.

I don’t know why cable companies don’t introduce something like this.  It wouldn’t be very difficult to host a web-based survey.  You could use the account number and a PIN to prevent voting fraud.  I’m sure the cable company and networks could still make money on a subscriber-selected channel lineup.  While it wouldn’t prevent a pissing contest between cable operators and networks, it would increase the value of the product to the consumer.  Consumers would make fewer complaints about getting junk in return for their money.  I bet the economics would work out more favorably than a-la-carte as well.  Under my plan, the consumer would get channels for less than $1 each and the cable company wouldn’t be going bananas serving up 30 different a-la-carte packages to a neighborhood.

I think there will be big changes to how we watch TV in the coming years.  With Hulu and Fancast, changes are already taking place.  Then there are the overpriced DVR boxes that have been around for years.  Daniel Lyons of Newsweek discussed cable TV changes last month.

I would welcome changes to cable TV subscriptions, but only if they don’t make watching TV more difficult.  Right now, Comcast’s digital conversion will add considerable complexity to my household’s TV watching.  We’ll have to add different boxes to our TVs (paying for at least one of them) and my VCR won’t work to its fullest anymore.  Since we don’t pay for a digital package and only watch broadcast channels in HD, we are getting nothing but complications from this digital conversion.  We don’t make enough money to buy one of the HD packages or those 100-digital channel packages, so we couldn’t care less about the ability to get hundreds of HD channels.  Before anyone mocks me for complaining about the cost of cable, but buying an HDTV, we got an HDTV because the only SDTVs you can buy these days are hard to find  no-name pieces of junk.

I have been thinking about writing this entry for a few days.  I didn’t steal the idea from elginjessica, honest!

January

I felt ho-hum about Barack Obama’s election and inauguration.  Perhaps it’s because I am young, but I thought it was about damned time we selected a minority President.  I was glad to see an end to the Bush years.  I don’t agree with all of Obama’s policies, but he has the weight of the world on his shoulders and I am sure he is doing the best he can.

We also faced bitter cold in January.  I don’t know exactly how effective grille blocking was on my Prius, but despite much colder temperatures than the year before, my fuel economy was about even with last winter.  This pic is from a morning when the temperature dropped to -18F.

February

I went to the Chicago Auto Show for the second year in a row.  This time I went for free, thanks to a co-worker who scored some complimentary tickets.  I spent all day there and took hundreds of photos.  I won a $5 BP gas card after beating a lady in an efficient driving competition at the Ford exhibit.

I also succeeded in getting ArcView to run on my Samsung NC10.  This was the month I started working part-time on nights and weekends as a GIS technician for a company.  That gig only lasted until June.

March

March was uneventful.  I did come across one of the dirtiest computers I have ever seen.  It belonged to a co-worker who brought it in for us to look at.  The thing was seven years old and had obviously never been opened during that time.  Yuck!

I see I wrote a few blog posts about the ECC referendum.  Even though I am a graduate of a community college and think they are a valuable asset, I still felt ECC could be more efficient.  I don’t even remember if that bond referendum passed or not.

April

This was another ho-hum month.  This was when my iPod lust began.  I was proud of being a Sansa owner and not being an iPod sheep, but the iTunes App Store got to me.  I started reading about and shopping for the iPod touch.  In the course of shopping, I spotted the most absurd security device at a local Best Buy store.  The security widget attached to the display model iPod shuffle was almost as large as the iPod itself.

This month I had the task of photographing an awards banquet.  I used a Canon EOS 20D and a big Speedlite flash that belonged to a co-worker.  I had never spent that much time with an SLR camera before and got some good experience.

May

I went to my second Indy 500, but this year I sat on the infield side of the front straightaway.  I was able to take some nice pics of the pit crews making pre-race preparations.  What I will remember about this 500 was what happened after the race.  I went to the Pagoda area to see if I could get Helio Castroneves’ (the winner) autograph after the press conferences.  Instead, Roger Penske (team owner) and Tim Cindric (team strategist) came out of the press center.  Later on, Helio appeared on a catwalk connecting the Pagoda to another building.  He was doing some interviews up there and would periodically acknowledge the crowd.  At one point he started tossing hats down to us fans who had stuck around well after the race ended.  I caught one of those hats.  From the winner of the Indy 500.  I have lots more pics from the race.

June

In June, I started riding my bicycle again.  I had been wanting to ride my bicycle for a while, but my high cholesterol gave me some more inspiration to find exercise I would enjoy.  My first ride in over a decade was only about eight miles long, but it made me sore.  My next ride was only a couple of days later and I rode nearly 30 miles.  Now that was stupid.

I also made my second trip to Iowa Speedway for their IndyCar race.  It rained during most of the five hour drive to Newton, but the rain ended literally five minutes after I parked my car at the track.  The track was dry and ready for racing at the scheduled time.  Like last year, I bought a Fan Walk pass so I could get close to the pit area and inspection garage before the race.  Great way to get some good candid photos of the race teams going about their business.

The part-time digitizing gig I had for a few months came to an unceremonious end, where a co-worker and I were let go with little notice.  I still had a full-time job, but these part-time jobs over the past three years helped out financially and kept me busy.

July

More racing!  This time I was at my home track, Chicagoland Speedway.  I had the same awesome seat as last year, Row 57 across from the beginning of pit road.  I went to both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup races.  Got to see a car made from chocolate that smelled heavenly, and a B-2 stealth bomber flew overhead during pre-race festivities.  The racing was OK.  I have become even more of an IndyCar guy over the past year, especially after seeing firsthand the great relationships the drivers, announcers, and teams have forged with fans via Twitter.  I went to the NASCAR races since I had the tickets.  I wasn’t particularly excited, and nothing really stuck out in my mind about them.  I’m including a pic of the sunset during the Cup race.  Pretty sunsets two years in a row during the NASCAR weekend.

My first car show of the year was this month in Elburn at the Country Car Show.  This was the first time I went to the Country Car Show and I was impressed by the number of cars being shown.  They even had space for a few dozen more.  Parking was pretty tight for spectators, but I will go back to the show next year.  Click here for my pics from the show.

August

August was a big month for me.  Lots of car stuff.  One of the events I look forward to every year is the Geneva Concours d’Elegance.  It is held on a Sunday in August on the streets of tony Downtown Geneva.  You will see millions of dollars’ worth of impeccable cars from around the country.  There are classics, antiques, and exotics.  The marque for this year was Rolls-Royce.  I had never seen so many Rolls-Royces in one place before.  I probably never will again.  I’m not a big fan of the brand, but I was still impressed.  I also achieved a difficult goal at this show.  I photographed every single car in the show that bore an official 2009 Geneva Concours d’Elegance window sign.  After photographing the first car I came across, I decided to make it my goal to photograph every car at the show.  I don’t know how many cars were officially on display, but in the end I uploaded 402 photos to my 2009 Geneva Concours photoset.  I took over 750 photos.

Then there was the racing.  This time it was the IndyCar Series and Indy Lights races at Chicagoland Speedway.  Yes, the ARCA cars were there again and the Camping World Truck Series ran there for the first time, but I’m not really interested in those series.  I was at the track that Friday mostly to see the IndyCars qualify.

But back to the main IndyCar event.  As usual, the racing was great.  The practice session the day before the race pointed toward some exciting racing.  The Indy Lights race earlier in the day was crazy as well.  As I recall, the racing wasn’t as good as I had expected, but things really heated up at the end.  Everyone was bundled up in cold weather gear.  I had my Bears hoodie on because the temperature was around 50F.  This was the first time the IndyCars had run under the lights at Chicagoland, and because of the unseasonable weather, the crowd in the stands looked like they were attending a Bears game instead of a summertime IndyCar race.  Sitting in the cold was worth it, though.  The race ended with a 0.0077s victory by Ryan Briscoe over Scott Dixon, or the fourth closest victory in IndyCar Series history.  Positions 1-12 were separated only by half a second.

There was a special treat before the race.  The good folks at Vision Racing organized a TweetUp.  Indy Racing League fans and drivers met at one of the hospitality tents for a Q&A session.  On the way to the tent, I think I saw Mario Moraes cruise up on a scooter to drop off some goodies since he couldn’t attend.  Later I saw Sarah Fisher riding off on a scooter after addressing us tweeps.  You would never see a NASCAR driver zipping around among the fans like this.  I wish the IRL success, but one of the nice things about it being smaller than NASCAR is the fans get more attention.  I got to hear from Sarah Fisher, Leilani Münter, Lindy Thackston, and just barely caught the end of Tony Kanaan’s turn at the mike.

Here are my pics from the IndyCar events at Chicagoland Speedway.  It was a record month for me on Flickr, posting 545 photos altogether.  That’s what happens when you go to a bunch of car shows and races.

September

Another month, another car show.  This time it was the 2009 Downtown Elgin Car and AFV Show.  AFV meaning alternative fuel vehicle.  This year’s show wasn’t as good as last year’s.  Not as many Prius or electric vehicles, no biodiesels, and I think there might have been fewer cars overall if you excluded the Impala club that had a coinciding event.  Nonetheless, I still got to see some cool cars and talked to a fellow from the Chicago Prius Group about his 2010 Prius.  One of the nice things about the Elgin show is that all kinds of people show up.  Young, old, black, white, Hispanic, Asian.  We’re all brought together by our interest in the automobile.

Bicycling became my exercise of choice this summer, but it came at the expense of geocaching.  My goal was to get a lot of physical activity.  While there is some hiking involved in geocaching, it just can’t match a 25mi bike ride.  When I found out the founder of geocaching.com and some of the Groundspeak lackeys would be attending an event in Oak Brook, I made sure to attend.  I had skipped the GONIL picnic (conflicted with the Downtown Elgin car show) and hadn’t cached in a while.  It was great to put my new DeLorme PN-30 through its paces and I had a good time geocaching that morning.  Some people thought this event would have some special announcement since cachers came from out of state, in addition to the folks from Groundspeak.  There was no big news.  We all just had fun chatting it up at a good old-fashioned geocaching event.  I was lucky enough to get a 2009 Groundspeak Lackeys geocoin.

I got to meet a bit of a celebrity this month.  The reigning Miss Illinois, Erin O’Connor, stopped by my office.  I had a quick chat with her and she was nice enough to pose for a picture with me.  Moments like this are why I carry a camera with me most of the time.  Hopefully she does well at Miss America in January.

October

While I was on an 18-mile bike ride from Lily Lake to Sycamore on the Great Western Trail, my old Huffy mountain bike disintegrated halfway through the ride.  Just as I arrived at the trail’s end in Sycamore, the left crank on my bike sheared off and could only hang loosely from the bike.  My friend in Sycamore didn’t pick up his phone, so I ended up riding the nine miles back to Lily Lake with a crank that was hanging by a thread and clunked every time I made a pedal stroke.  At least I was able to pedal.  It would have been a long walk back.

I decided that I enjoyed bicycling enough to go out and buy a new somewhat-expensive bicycle even though there were only a few weeks left of good riding weather.  I bought a Trek 7000 hybrid bike.  Since I got this new bike, I have been able to ride even farther than I could before, thanks to its lighter weight and better components.  It made me like bicycling even more.

I made another significant purchase in October.  After being disappointed by Apple’s newest iPod Touch offerings in September – no camera, no processor improvement for the 8GB model – I purchased a refurb 2nd Gen 8GB iPod Touch from Apple.  I had never purchased a refurb anything before, nor had I ever purchased an Apple product.  I had been an iPod hater for years but could no longer resist the web browsing capabilities and apps offered by the Touch.

November

With the announcement of Toyota’s accelerator recall, I started taking more interest in my Prius.  I thought this recall was bunk and did some reading about it.  I found a Prius forum that had a lot of good information.  Now I go there every day to read about all kinds of Prius-related topics.

While out on one of my lunchtime walks, I was fortunate enough to spot two Tesla Roadster electric vehicles parked outside a restaurant in tony Downtown Geneva.  I was able to get up close and ogle the cars.  I actually was salivating.  I later found out the cars were being shown to a prospective customer in the area and the salesperson was having a bite to eat.  Very hot cars.  You never know what you will see or who you will meet, which is why it is important to have a good camera on you.

My last bike ride of the year came in November.  I rode all around Oak Brook, passing through corporate complexes, forest preserves, and wealthy neighborhoods.  I rode 410mi this year, since taking up bike riding in June.

December

There are two minutes left in December as I write this.  I guess food has been the dominant topic for this month.  I took a bunch of photos of the ham I had for Christmas dinner (and several days afterward) and some spring rolls my mom and I made today.  I had some good food at the office holiday party a few weeks ago.  And before that my doctor didn’t seem amused with my increased cholesterol.

Toward the end of this month I went on a spending binge, this time on Prius diecast cars.  I have bought six so far, but I think that will be it.  There are only a few different kinds of Prius diecast.  As for the real full-sized Prius, I put on some new Bosch Icon windshield wipers after using the factory wipers for nearly three years.

There are some things I got bummed out about looking back at the past year.  I had fewer jobs than in the past and my income went down.  No new special ladyfriends.  However, there were some good things.  I had a blast at several car races.  I took a lot of great photos.  I saw all kinds of neat cars from the past and the future.  I found a new healthy hobby.  I’m eager to see how 2010 shakes out.