Sorry, just won’t call it the Willis Tower!  This is looking north from the 66th floor.

I’m devastated. Nick’s Fish Market loop location has shut down.

This was one of my favorite lunch time locations, and while it was a “fish market” they had one of the best kobe beef burgers and fries in Chicago. If you had a private room one could get virtually anything on or off the menu and the service was top shelf.

I have roughly 15 years of outstanding memories at Nick’s Fish Market with both family and friends; however, the closing of this location is yet another chapter that has come to end in my life.

Why did this close down? Revenue dropped 30% year over year and the bank, J. P. Morgan Chase & Co, was unwilling to work with management to restructure the lease.

Sad.

While the Rosemont location will remain open it will not be the same.

This is very scary - a missing laptop from the BlueCross BlueShield Association contains data on 800,000 doctors:

The Chicago Tribune reports that some 800,000 doctors are being warned about a laptop holding their personal data that has turned up missing from the Chicago-based Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

Nearly every practicing physician in the country is being cautioned as a result of the theft of the laptop from an employee’s car. At risk are the doctors’ business and personal information including Social Security numbers, addresses and certain identification numbers.

Stealing laptops is asimple way data thieves can tap into porous corporate networks. The granddaddy of all data breaches attributed to a lost laptop involved the Department of Veterans Affairs. The agency lost records for 26.5 million active duty troops and veterans stored on a laptop and external drive, which disappeared during a burglary of the home of a VA data analyst in 2006.

Laptop theft appears to be on the rise, says Jim Alves, executive vice president at Kaseya, which supplies programs that help corporations keep track of their tech gear. Kaseya has helped several customers in recent months recover stolen laptops, he says.

“Laptops and other portable devices are frequently lost or stolen, resulting in rampant data loss,” says Alves. “Users of personal devices do not often think about losing the item or having it stolen.

Suspicious.

There was a time, way back when, hearing about an Orb show would have gotten me all hot and bothered.  I am still a HUGE fan of their work, but I fear nothing can live up to the lives shows of the past.  I recall seeing them play with Sun Electric years back… it was pure magic.

Well, The Orb is playing on a Wednesday evening (6/24) at a decent sized venue call the Bottom Lounge, but the place is more of a… um… hybrid club/bar/restaurant…  For example, when they played at the Metro or at The Riv the venue “fit”.  They places were dark, large enough for roughly 1000 people and seemed to be appropriate for the music.  Bottom Lounge seems more…  yuppie.

Don’t get me wrong, the place is really nice but I don’t know if it is the right location for the show. The cost isn’t an issue… or may it’s just that I am getting old, longing for the rave days of past…  who knows.

Let me tell you, this has been one long ass week.  Maybe it’s the whole “going back to work” thing, kind of a post holiday hangover, but days seem to drag on and on.

I held off on any major posting the last 24 hours simply to decompress a bit, just felt as if I needed to.  What really shocked me was that I had almost 700 unread items in my RSS reader… over a 24 hour period… yea… so I simply ended up “marking all as read” and just started this morning as a new day.

There are a number of things that happened in the last day that I’ve wanted to comment on, covering a range of topics, so here you go:

Snow again!

I was a bit surprised that Chicago got hit with snow once again.  Yea, its winter and all, but it seems that it came out of nowhere.  While not snowing now forecasters are expecting another 4 to 6 inches overnight.  Unlike most, however, I love the snow!

While driving in I took a picture of downtown but I cannot seem to get my iPhone to send email, so it will have to wait.

Frost/Nixon

I plan on seeing Frost/Nixon this evening with the little lady. Looking forward to that, especially since Oliver Platt has a supporting role.  Since this is a Ron Howard film you know his brother will show up…

The Stock Market goes down

As I had expected, the stock market headed back toward 8600.   The Santa rally that took place over the holiday was provided too much upside too quickly.  There was no data to support such a positive move, and once the retail numbers and unemployment data hit, it was only bound to go down.

In a number of ways I think traders expected this information as the Volatility Index, while up over the past three days, in no way reflects the extreme movement we experienced late last fall.

Next week will be interesting as earning seasons will be kicking off on Monday.  The first big player, Alcoa, is expected to report and may set the market mentality for the week.

Obama on the economy

The President elect is showing America how he plans on governing – by public opinion.  Why do you think he is continuously talking about the economy and stimulus plan that will be needed?  He wants to gauge how the public is going to react, as well as determine future resistance from political opponents.

You have to give President elect Obama credit for communicating but I fear this practice may lead to governing by popularity, not by what is best for the community.

Obama on the economy (part 2)

How does the United States expect provide stimulus for the economy?  It’s broken down into two categories – public spending (highways, infrastructure, and schools) and money back to citizens.  While in theory, I have two problems with this.

1. Funding provided for public spending will not provide an immediate impact on the economy.  It may actually take years.  The planning and execution of such programs usually take time to get moving.  Even if $250B was provided to states today in order to initiate such projects, you are looking a 6 to 9 month lag before the money is utilized in any meaningful way, let alone impact the economy.

   I question is this is the best short term stimulus – long term, it make sense…short term no so much.

2. $200B is expected to be given back to roughly 95% of the United State population as a refundable tax credit.  The problem is this; the top 1% of earners pays roughly 40% of all federal income tax. The top 25% pay about 85% of the federal income tax! If you falling the top 25% your credit would be insignificant, while the majority of the funding will go to the bottom 50% of income tax payers.

   Essentially the haves are paying for the have nots and the only way this will be supported is finding another way to generate revenue (or taxes).  You can almost count on corporations having a higher tax rate, which will only prolong the recession

I know there is no easy answer, but this is a very dangerous game the politicians are playing.

Jimmy Johns

I enjoy Jimmy Johns sandwiches – you know, the “subs so fast you’ll freak” – as a nice alternative to Subway.  Today I tried something different from JJ… the Lettuce Wrap.  They took the meats they would normally use in the sandwich and used lettuce as a replacement for the bread.  It was very, very good!

Meditation

Yesterday was the first time I did meditation in roughly 2 years…maybe 3.  Previously I had a meditation routine that I practiced almost daily but my mind ended up simply getting the better of me as I found very little return after a significant amount of time and effort was put into the practice…

My attempt yesterday was through a guided CD and was interesting, one I will be practicing more.  I can see a solid benefit if I can manage to keep my focus.

Site Development

I have been working on the next template for the site quite a bit, despite a few delays.  I had expected to release the beta a few days ago but I ran into a few formatting issues in Internet Explorer… so that is still coming.

I’ve also decided to write a basic health tracker for my personal use, as well as an SMS web interface that would allow the communication with a number of people at one time…

So there you go, there are the thoughts that have been on my mind the last few days…  I hope to have a relaxing weekend that will allow me to focus on programming… And maybe make dinner in there as well.

Enjoy the day!

Chicago, the Chicago-land area, is my home town. I have yet to find another area that I can truly call my home… maybe one day, but not yet.  

So, with that in mind, I would like to know how it is that the murder rate in Chicago is so high – higher than the U.S. death rate in all of Iraq for 2008 – yet no one in the press really seems to notice or care?

Chicago had 509 homicides in 2008

Chicago closed out the year with 509 homicides, an increase of about 15 percent over 2007, but still among the lowest numbers in decades, according to preliminary data released by the department Thursday.

US deaths down in Iraq in 2008

According to a tally by The Associated Press, at least 314 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq in 2008, down from 904 in the previous year.

So, the United States can decrease the number of deaths in a country that is hostile towards the U.S. but it cannot even manage to keep murders down in it’s 3rd largest city?

To me that is just… sad… what is even more disturbing is the fact that the press continues to call Iraq a failure when the City of Chicago has failed at protecting those that live within the City Limits.

Misplaced priorities if you ask me.

Since just touching on poor retail sales and the potential impact on retail real estate investment trusts, take a look at what is going on in the Hotel industry.  

Downtown Chicago hotels saw a 13.1 percent dive in the average occupancy rate, to 69 percent last month from a year earlier, according to Smith Travel Research. Nationwide, occupancy dropped 10.6 percent, to a 51.9 percent rate.

 

Pricing dropped as well, leading to double-digit declines in revenue per available room, a key measure of profitability. In downtown Chicago, the decline was 20.6 percent; nationally, it was 12.9 percent. 

Occupancy rates are, obviously, directly tied to cash flow for Hotel chains.  Unless those in the occupied rooms are purchasing a lot of extras (over priced nuts, little bottles of liquor, “room” service – you know, the normal things) the hotels are not pulling in the cash.  

As we saw with retail, that means travel REITs will potentially have a hard time servicing debt…

I mean, really… The Chicago Cubs had the best record the National League and their “magical” season ended in three suck-ass games with the final being a 3-1 loss in L.A.

This is quite sad….

The United States of America is a stunningly beautiful country. Be it visiting a national park, going to this nation’s capital, stopping over in a city like Chicago, or simply driving through the countryside, visitor and citizens alike are surrounded by beauty.

Yes, the United States lacks the 1000 year history, and the sights that go alone with such a history, but there is so much beauty to experience regardless of that fact one could easily get lost in what America has to offer.

As I was eating lunch I did a bit of “people watching”. Business folk, students and travelers alike scurried around downtown. Some strictly focused on their next destination, others enjoying what the city had to offer. What disturbed me, however, was the fact that tourists mainly flocked to this…

Cameras were snapping away around this bronze-esque Ronald McDonald statue at the Rock n’ Roll McDonalds so quickly one would have thought the makeuped, hamburger slinging, man was there himself.

Is this what the American legacy will be? Are we relegated to being remembered for our crappy pop culture and fast food? Some part of me wanted to go up to the tourists and say something, anything, simply to have them go experience the true cultural experience the city has to offer.

That said, who am I to say anything about how individuals enjoy themselves – I am no one. Make no mistake about, they were enjoying the experience, and they could be / could have visited the wonderful sights of this city and nation, but I found it rather disturbing to think the United States maybe viewed as a cheesy wonderland where all we have to offer is fast food icons and disposable memories when this land has so much more to offer.

With a 93 and 60 record, the Cubs just beat the St. Louis Cardinals to clinch a post-season spot.  This is the first time in a century the Cubs have back to back play off seasons.

Is the World Series next?

Update: Game Recap