You should get a membership to The Chicago Field Museum +0

Reasons to agree: 4

1. The Chicago Field Museum has Sue, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus skeleton currently known.
2. A visit to a museum is not as educational as reading a book, but it is educational enough. 
1. Not as educational as reading a book
1. In order for something to be very educational something has to go into depth. Reading plaques in front of stuffed animals is not very in depth. 
2. ... it is educational enough
1. At a museum you get to brows a bunch of topic. I guess the goal is that you find something that is interesting, and then you can go somewhere else and learn more later.
3. With no guided tour you can do whatever you want. You get out of it, like most life, what you put in. Perhaps instead of rushing from thing to thing, find a few things you are interested in and then really experience that thing. Perhaps bring a sketch pad and draw stuff.
4. The Chicago Field Museum is a short walk from Northerly Island, which offers parking for a dollar an hour, so parking doesn't have to cost very much, if you can walk 3/4 to a 1.5 miles.

Reasons to disagree: 4

1. The idea to have self guided tour through a museum was a bad one.
2. The experience of visiting a museum feels so separate from normal life, that it often has no affect on normal life. 
3. Museums need to make a specific call to action, with good arguments. What is the call to action? To become a biologist? To become a fossil hunter? Archaeological? Gemologist? Museums have a very broad charter but they should set very specific goals, shouldn't they? To facilitate research? Is that done better by looking at books, or visiting a museum. Often visiting a museum can become just walking around and looking at "curiosities". Which is fine enough, I guess. Does Khan Acadamy do more education than the field museum? 
4. You may end up going only to have your kids tell you they are afraid to see the "mommies" (ie mummies) and the Animals, because they remind them of death and give them nightmares.

Score:

# of reasons to agree: +4

# of reasons to disagree: -4

# of reasons to agree with reasons to agree: +0

# of reasons to agree with reasons to disagree: -0

Total Idea Score: +0

Don't like the score? It is easy to change the score. Just post a reason to agree or disagree with the overall idea, or any of the reasons and the score will change.

Websites that agree:

1. Laub Life: "Field Museum of Dreams"
2. http://fieldmuseum.org/

Images that agree: (stolen from Megan's Website)

You should get a Shed Aquarium Membership +3

Reasons to agree: +3

1. Animals are cool. The shed aquarium has lots of animals. They have dolphins, a beluga whale.
2. They let kids dress up as penguins. 
3. They have a spot with strong animals, that they let the kids play with.
4. If you want to have the Chicago Experience, the Shedd is in Chicago, and has a nice view. 

Reasons to disagree: -1

1. The Shed Aquarium is cool and stuff, but they have dolphins at the Brookfield Zoo, and they have other types of animals too, but the parking is included with the cost of the Brookfield Zoo. And the Shedd Aquarium cost about $175, while the Brookfield Zoo is $92. The Brookfield Zoo has Manta ray Bay that lets you touch animals similar to the thing at the Shedd. You have to pay to do it, but still it is less money than the Shed. 

Score:

# of reasons to agree: +4

# of reasons to disagree: -1

# of reasons to agree with reasons to agree: +0

# of reasons to agree with reasons to disagree: -0

Total Idea Score: +3

Webpages that agree:

1. Laub Life, Aquarium Adventure
2. http://www.sheddaquarium.org/

You should go to the Naperville Last Fling +2

Reasons to agree: +4

1. The last fling has petting zoos, pony rides, presentations. 
2. A parade (never watched).
3. Parking is good.
4. Naperville has good free public parking, which is good. 

Reasons to agree:  -2

1. The rides are overpriced. 
2. The food is unhealthy.

Score:

# of reasons to agree: +4

# of reasons to disagree: -2

# of reasons to agree with reasons to agree: +0

# of reasons to agree with reasons to disagree: -0

Total Idea Score: +2

Websites that agree: +3

1. Laub Life: Last Fling-Ding
2. http://www.lastfling.org/

Images that agree:

Chicago has better museums, cultural exhibits, and attractions than Denver

Reasons to agree: +8

1. The Illinois Train Museum in Union IL is a good place to take your kids. Denver doesn't have anything like that+3
2. The Chicago Art Institute is a better Art Museum than the Denver Art Museum. +3
3. The Chicago Shed Aquarium is better than any sort of ocean life exhibit in the Denver area.+3
4. The Chicago Field Museum is better than the Denver Field Museum. +0
5. Chicago has a good Science and Industry museum. Denver doesn't have anything like this. They have a natural science museum that compares to Chicago's Field Museum. 
6. Chicago has a pretty cool planetarium. Denver doesn't have anything like that. 
7. Chicago has way more square footage of museums than Denver. Depth and variety are good ways of measuring museums qualities. This is much easier to achieve with more square footage. 
8. Chicago has a rich history with jazz music, with places that you can still go to. Denver doesn't have anything like that. 
9. More important history and important things happened in Chicago than Denver. Its history is not as rich as Europe, or other places over seas, but it has a pretty good history.

Reasons to agree: +2

1. Denver has better Dinosaur exhibits than Chicago, even though Chicago has Sue (the most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton) and other Dinosaurs. Much of Chicago's rocks from ancient times was scrapped away in the Ice Ages. 
2. Chicago got red of their Elephants at their museum. If you really care about elephants, I guess the Denver zoo is better than the Brookfield and Lincoln zoos. 

Websites that agree:

1. Laub Life: Field Museum of Dreams

Score:

# of reasons to agree: +4

# of reasons to disagree: -

# of reasons to agree with reasons to agree: +(+4+3+3)/2 =  +5

# of reasons to agree with reasons to disagree: -0

Total Idea Score: +9

Don't like the score? It is easy to change the score. Just post a reason to agree or disagree with the overall idea, or any of the reasons and the score will change.

Background Context and Assumptions

The quality of Museums is an important way comparing cities.

Reasons to agree: +7

1. Going to museums is a good ways of learning stuff, and traveling the world without jet lag. 
2. The quality of museums are a way of measuring the education, sophistication, and commitment to the arts. 
3. The people that work at, cultivate, maintain, and visit the museums make each community better educated, and better integrated with the wold's communities. 

The Art Institute of Chicago is Better than the Denver Museum of Art

Best reasons to agree: +1

1. The Art Institute of Chicago is bigger, and bigger museums are better.
1. the second largest art museum in the United States, after the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
2. The Art Institute of Chicago has over 260,000 works of art.
3. You run out of things to see when going to the Denver art museum, because it doesn't change very often.

Best reasons to disagree: -1

1. Its less expensive to stay and park in Denver, in 2012 parking was $28 in Chicago and $4 in Denver. 

Images that agree:

Coffin and Mummy of Paankhenamun, Third Intermediate Period, Dynasty 22 (c. 945–715 B.C.) Cartonnage, gold leaf, pigment; human remains
Ancient Egyptian beliefs in the afterlife gave rise to the complex art and science of mummification. This vividly painted Mummy Case was the innermost of a series of shells that housed the body of a deceased person. The hieroglyphic inscriptions and painted scenes identify this mummy as Paankhenamun, a doorkeeper in the temple of the god Amun. The central scene shows the hawk-headed god Horus presenting Paankhenamun to Osiris, ruler of the afterlife.
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/64339

Knob-Handled Dish, Greek, from Apulia, Italy, The Baltimore Painter ?
330/320 B.C., Earthenware, red-figure technique
Scene: Persephone in a chariot led by Hemes followed by Artemis; above, Hera, Aphrodite, and Eros
For the ancient Greeks, the myth of Persephone accounted for the changing of the seasons. When Persephone was abducted by Hades, king of the underworld, her mother Demeter, the goddess of fertility, cursed the world with barren winter. This scene shows Persephone's triumphant return, bringing the season of spring.
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/102081

Sarcophagus Panel Showing the Abduction of Persephone
Roman, C. A.D. 190-200, Marble

Vincent  Van Gogh Dutch, 1853-1890, Self-Portrait,
1887, Oil on artist's board, mounted on cradled panel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-portraits_by_Vincent_van_Gogh

Chicago Pointillism A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Sunday_Afternoon_on_the_Island_of_La_Grande_Jatte

Pierre-Auguste Renoir
On the Terrace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Auguste_Renoir

Paris Street; Rainy Day is a large 1877 oil painting by the French artist Gustave Caillebotte. The piece depicts the Place de Dublin, an intersection near the Gare Saint-Lazare, a railroad station in north Paris. One of Caillebotte's best known works, it debuted at the Third Impressionist Exhibition of 1877. Art Institute curator Gloria Groom described the piece as "the great picture of urban life in the late 19th century." Caillebotte's interest in photography is evident in the painting. The figures in the foreground appear slightly "out of focus", those in the mid-distance (the carriage and the pedestrians in the middle of the intersection) have sharp edges, and then the background becomes progressively indistinct.

Millennium Park Skating Rink.

Millennium Park Skating Rink.
Its hard to hold the camera still and take a picture of yourself

Pedway--downtown pedestrian walkway system
http://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/cdot/Pedwaymap_2008.pdf

James and Alison infront of the Art Institute. Aug 2010. 

We have also taken James a couple of times, but I can't find those photos right now.

Webpages that agree: 1

1. https://twitter.com/artinstitutechi:

Images that disagree:

You should take young kids to art museums. 

Best reasons to agree: +1

1. You should get out and walk around with kids, even if it is just at Walmart, and their are cooler things to look at at an Art Museum than Walmart.
2. The kids aren't as awful when they aren't together.
3. Even if they don't remember it, if you take pictures of them with great art, it will help them contextualize themselves with regard to history, and the world around them. 

The Chicago Morton arboretum is a good place to take your family

Background: 
July 2009 with Megan's Mom 

The Chicago Botanic Gardens in Glencoe, Illinois are a great place to get family photos. Just let the kids walk around, take photos, and save all the money of going to a studio.

Its fun taking pictures in the same places, and seeing the kids get older.

Images that agree:



Al

September 23rd 2009, When my parents drove out, after Philip was Born.





Phil's tough guy look

Fountains
August 11, 2012

Trains

Chicago has a lot of stuff to do

Reasons to agree:

1. Trips to the zoo are good for kids. Chicago has good zoos. 
2. The Indiana Sand Dunes are cool, and close to Chicago. 
3. Chicago has good opportunities to watch sports.
4. Chicago has good museums. 
5. People watching is entertaining around Chicago.
6. Naperville Last Fling is Fun

Images that agree:
April 2005, with James on the train

Tony and Tina's Wedding, November 2006

2007 Highland games. Very HOT that day.

2008 at the Shedd Aquarium with the baby beluga. James' first animal.

When KC came to visit, I invited myself along for the trip to the city.
We ended up walking, with 3 kids, all the way from the train station, to Millenium Park, and to
The Hancock Tower. We walked back to Navy Pear and caught a water taxi to the train station.

2006 Nextfest

Tastes of Chicago

James on our death march from union station to the Hancock building

Mawage is what bwings us together

Mom and Dad, at the St. George Utah Temple

My mom and her Parents on the left,
and my dad and his parents on the left

I was the ring boy for my sister's
wedding. 

Megan and I

Year 1

You should put photos from your kids birthday on the same page

James came on week 39. They induced Alison and Phil 3 weeks early 37

James
I was at work, at McDonalds. Megan was also at work. She went to the Dr. for her check up and they told her to go to the hospital. We met at home. I think it was raining. I talking about how Condi Rice might run for president. Megan got an epidermal.

Look at that forehead! Me 1977

James, July 2004

And then there were 3. 2004. 

Alison
Alison was 6 lb, 15 oz when she was born. She had blondish-red-ish-brownish hair. 90% length, 75% weight for her age. 3 or 4:35. Snowing during the delivery.

Watched Wayne's World (Based in Aurora Illinois), Best Friend's Wedding, and a little of the Simpsons while we waited.

Our son stayed at a friend's from Church, and I came home and watched him, and brought the dog out of the garage this evening...

Of our 3 kids, Megan says that Alison was the easiest to deliver by far.

Megan high on pain medicine and so happy to have her little girl.

Not sure if I should share this sort of messy photos? 

Philip
Philip was our most difficult baby so far. Megan went into active labor 3 months early. The doctor said that if they were unable to stop the pregnancy, that he would have only a 40% chance of living, and then there would be developmental issues. 

They gave Megan a steroid to help his lungs develop. They kept her in the hospital for 2 weeks while they monitored her contractions. It was very scary for a while. After about 2 weeks they sent her home to be on bed rest. Luckily he was able to make it to full term, and he is very big and tough.

Alison changed when Megan had to stay in the Hospital for 2 weeks,
and was on bed rest for 2-1/2 months. She was going through some major
separation anxiety or something. She was so happy to see Megan. 

2010. James loves his little brother so much, and was happy to bring him home. 

And then there were 5

Laub, boy