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Some Thoughts and Pictures from My Recent Trip to Chicago, Illinois

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As you all know, last week I spent some time in Chicago at the National Charter Schools Conference. The conference was great, but from a personal perspective one of my challenges was to see if I could stomach returning to Chicago – a city where I didn’t have the best of experiences a few years back. Even thinking about how ridiculous that bad experience was pisses me off again!

However, last week my time in Chicago was great! I was absolutely stunned at how fun and active downtown Chicago was while I was there. I stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel, which was a first for me, and it was a pretty cool place. It didn’t have any major “rock and roll” stuff going on while I was there, but it is located in the old Carbon and Carbide building which has this amazing art deco vibe throughout. It was pretty cool.

On Sunday evening I walked a few blocks from the hotel down to Millennium Park. This park was really the only “sightseeing” that I wanted to do while I was at the conference because when I was in Chicago in 2004 my group kept driving by the park without actually stopping at it to see what was up. It’s really a nice place and there was a ton of activity for a Sunday night. On Monday, I had a separate conference to attend that was about a mile from my hotel so I walked downtown (over the North Michigan bridge) to get to the conference place and it was fun. It’s been a long time since I walked around a city on a consistent basis and I forgot how much I liked it.

Anyway, I was really pleased with my trip to Chicago and my opinion of the place has changed. The city is clean, vibrant, and has amazing architecture. I’d definitely go back again – and soon! Here are some pictures from my walking and driving around Chicago:

You Really Should Stand Up as You Read This Entry

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Today I’m switching gears from the charter school advocacy and education reform entries that I’ve been posting all week. Instead, today we take a quick look at the office and see where we can improve the aura of the workplace. A few months ago the New York Times posted an entry on one of its blogs that talked about why you should stand up when you work. What did the blog entry argue as the main reason to get up while working?

So part of the problem with sitting a lot is that you don’t use as much energy as those who spend more time on their feet. This makes it easier to gain weight, and makes you more prone to the health problems that fatness often brings.

But it looks as though there’s a more sinister aspect to sitting, too. Several strands of evidence suggest that there’s a “physiology of inactivity”: that when you spend long periods sitting, your body actually does things that are bad for you.

As an example, consider lipoprotein lipase. This is a molecule that plays a central role in how the body processes fats; it’s produced by many tissues, including muscles. Low levels of lipoprotein lipase are associated with a variety of health problems, including heart disease. Studies in rats show that leg muscles only produce this molecule when they are actively being flexed (for example, when the animal is standing up and ambling about). The implication is that when you sit, a crucial part of your metabolism slows down.

Pretty bad stuff, huh? But wait, the blog entry goes on to talk about how reducing physical activity actually hurts people who are already physically fit. Take a look at this research:

Nor is lipoprotein lipase the only molecule affected by muscular inactivity. Actively contracting muscles produce a whole suite of substances that have a beneficial effect on how the body uses and stores sugars and fats.

Which might explain the following result. Men who normally walk a lot (about 10,000 steps per day, as measured by a pedometer) were asked to cut back (to about 1,350 steps per day) for two weeks, by using elevators instead of stairs, driving to work instead of walking and so on. By the end of the two weeks, all of them had became worse at metabolizing sugars and fats. Their distribution of body fat had also altered — they had become fatter around the middle. Such changes are among the first steps on the road to diabetes.

Certainly not good news by any stretch of the imagination. Part of me believes that the reason why I’ve been hit with an onset of Type 2 Diabetes is because of the dramatic change in lifestyle that I underwent during the latter part of 2006. It was at that time when I graduated from graduate school and began working full-time. Working full-time forced me into a two-hour daily commute (which used to be the two hours I would spend in the gym) as well as to sit behind a computer for the vast majority of my day. Not a good change for a person who is prone to gaining weight, you know?

If you have a chance, click on the link to the article that’s posted above. I think you’ll enjoy reading it.

Heading to Chicago for Most of the Coming Week

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Later today I’ll be getting aboard my flight and heading to Chicago, Illinois for most of this week. My flight out of Chicago is late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning so I expect to be back in Tinton Falls, New Jersey by the wee morning hours of this Thursday. I have mixed feelings about going back to Chicago. For some of the long, long-time readers of this blog – you may remember nearly 6 years ago when I went out there and was treated like shit by a nearly-illiterate bouncer at a bar and one of the worst, poorly-performing, disgrace to the uniform police officers in the country.

If I had my way, I’d carve out some time to go back to that shit hole of a bar and do something to “get them” six years after the fact. Bunch of sleazeball scumbags…

Anyway, I’m heading to Chicago for the tenth annual National Alliance for Public Charter Schools conference. On a personal level, I’m a big believer in the ability for charter schools to change the educational dynamic in highly educationally distressed areas of New Jersey and the United States. Professionally, I manage my company’s charter school programs so I’m obviously going to go to the national conference.

I went to this conference last year when it was in Washington, DC and it was pretty good. There are usually thousands of people at the conference so I’m looking forward to seeing some folks that I haven’t seen in a while. Also, the keynote speaker this year is Bill Gates so I’m hoping to catch up with him and hopefully get a picture (unlikely since there is usually a mob of people around the keynote speaker).

This will also be the first time that I am traveling by air with my laptop so I’m not sure what to expect, but I’m hoping that it will be easy going. No worries here, folks. I have some posts already lined up for the next few days and they should automatically appear on the site without any work on my part. Enjoy and I’ll be back next weekend!

Unnecessary Complications: An Uneven Heating and Cooling System

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This will be a short, quick “unnecessary complications” entry. What’s bothering me today is the fact that the townhouse where I rent is controlled by a one zone heating/cooling system. What does that mean or why is it a problem, you ask? In short, it means that the heating and cooling system in this townhouse is controlled by one thermostat panel. That panel is located on the first floor of the townhouse near the rear of the unit – which happens to be near the heating and cooling device. In other words, the cool air tends to stay downstairs telling the thermostat that it’s cooler throughout the entire townhouse than it really is – especially upstairs!

Very frustrating and very annoying. This place needs a lot of things (much better weatherproofing leads the pack), but right now it needs a dual zone heating and cooling system so that we can keep the temperature downstairs at around 75 degrees while we decrease the temperature upstairs to make this place more comfortable.

And while this may not be the type of “unnecessary complications” entry that you’re used to, I’m pissed off that it’s warm in my bedroom. I just took a shower and I’m sweating again already, damn it!