i found this on a site i keep an eye on, and for some inexplicable reason, the post that had the link was pulled, which for the person who posted it originally, is extremely ODD. (he's high on the list of Dumbass pointer-outer-of-mistakers-to-us-idiot-masses)
now, i can't say that univision is a bastion of journalistic integrity, but it is certainly interesting. and rather believable as i can see Dumbass thinking this way. bablefish 
it will be interesting to see if it is true, but as i haven't seen it posted anywhere else, i'll wait until i see confirmation of this before laughing too hard. i wonder if this kid/jackass wandered around the property in question...
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
a quiet footnote in history
fred the baker has died. i certainly remember the commercials, but i actually have a little story about him, so i figure this is a proper forum for it.
years ago, he used to live down in stockbridge (prolly best known for the Normon Rockwell Museum), and i had a friend who's mother had a little bakery (specialized in muffins) in lenox, so when SS was working there (cheap, child labor type situation), mr. vale would stop in from time to time for some muffins and would chat with him and his mom. apparently, he had a low opinion of the donuts that dunkin' was making, so i always found added humor in the commercials after hearing that.
time to make the donuts indeed...
quick update
i figure i should put something up here so that those very few of you who actually manage to waste your time reading my drivel can have a brief sense of what is going on in my relatively lowly and pathetic life.
item: my vpn connection to work is really screwed up right now and i don't know why. i can make it work, but the hoops i have to jump thru to make it work are irritating. but then i'm sposed to be on vaca, so why am i bothering to care? good question.
item: RB had to call me twice about the phones. someone decided that the receptionist could go home early on xmas, so she wanted the phone forwarded to the answering service. in the past before we got the new phones, it wasn't an issue. now that we have new phones, it's an issue and RB was stuck, so he called me and i helped him sift thru things, but in the end, RB was able to find the solution, so he gets an extra chocolate chip cookie with his milk. then there were issues the following day with our Wells office not forwarding to the answering service, but the main office. after fussing with things (and this is when i discovered the vpn issues), again, RB was able to come to the rescue, so he gets an extra cookie for the next 2 days.
item: the entire family was together for the first time for xmas in several years. it's been at least 4 years since we were all together for xmas, so mom was pleased as hell. me, i felt like my brother was an intruder and that he shouldn't be here. dog was dog, and discovered that he likes the real egg nog (cream, sugar, eggs, rum, none of this cooked stuff). he tends to be underfoot and mom spilled a little accidentally. she cleaned up most, but there were a few spots she missed and he found. he went from being attentive to full bore attentive with ears in full "oh boy do i like that!" perk very quickly.
item: found out a little more about mom's side of the family. insanity really does run in the family, so that may help explain why i can be so fucked up at times. heard a few funny stories about my uncle (whom i have not spoken to/with since 1988) when he was a kid. learned a little more about my grandfather who died when i was 2. found out that i made my great aunt very sick when i visited her for the first and last time.
item: xmas presents were fairly laid back, a few useful things, a few whimsical things, nothing overly exciting. i can stuff them all into my new tool box which is useful (as my current one is having issues).
well, time for bed. i can't sleep in today as i have stuff i need to do in the morning. i'll see about filling in some of the details after i get home tomorrow.
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
hahahaha....
by pure random chance (i swear):
In the year 2006 I resolve to: |
Saturday, December 24, 2005
fucking jackass
i still remember him as a halfass monkey boy anchor for fox 5 news in NYC. he sucked them, he sucks even more now.
merry xmas you fucking wingnut.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
what a fucking nutjob.
if by some chance this is made permanent, i suggest to Mr. Letterman that CBS blackout his show down in Santa Fe.
maybe he should start doing that now....
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
damn that's fucking funny. kudos! (and congrats to the happy couple)
now that was pretty fucking cool too. made a pilgrimage to the land of newbury because i needed to pick up the afore mentioned items by Tool. just listened to both of the Lustmord mixes of Schism (20 min) and Parabol (11 min, no Parabola mix) and both are very cool and different, taking elements of the song, but more in a secondary way. Schism actually takes nearly 10 minutes before we get the first real hints of the song.
didn't listen to the comentary for Schism (David Yow i think), but Jello is pretty funny. both songs have a dual commentary thing where one commentary is on the left channel, and another on the right channel. Jello was his always entertaining self, and for part of it, his commentary is nearly in sync, talking about record labels and how he interpreting the imagery. pretty funny stuff.
and the best news was on the packaging, where it says that there will be a new album in Spring 2006. WOO HOO! finally. but when i saw that, i started thinking that when Salival (to quote Maynard - JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!) came out, it was almost exactly 5 years ago to the day (5 years 8 days). that certainly bodes well for a spring release of
happy happy joy joy.
Monday, December 19, 2005
holy shit!
it took a LOOOOOOONG time, but it's finally here. and if that wasn't enuff (because it never is), this is coming at the same time.
WOO HOO!
i love this band.
holiday spam
To One and all of my Good E-mail buds:
As the holidays approach, my heartfelt appreciation goes out to all of you who have taken the time and trouble to send me forwards over the past 12 months. Thank you for making me feel safe, secure, blessed, and wealthy.
- Extra thanks to whoever sent me the one about rat crap in the glue on envelopes 'cause I now have to go get a wet towel every time I need to seal an envelope.
- Also, I scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason. Because of your concern I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains.
- I no longer drink Pepsi or Dr Pepper since the people who make these products are atheists who refuse to put "Under God" on their cans.
- I no longer use Saran wrap in the microwave because it causes cancer.
- I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS.
- I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.
- I no longer go to shopping malls because someone might drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.
- I no longer receive packages from nor send packages by UPS or Fed Ex since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise.
- I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica, Uganda, Singapore, and Uzbekistan.
- I no longer eat KFC because their "chickens" are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers.
- I no longer have any sneakers -- but that will change once I receive my free replacement pair from Nike.
- I no longer have to buy expensive cookies from Neiman Marcus since I now have their recipe.
- I no longer worry about my soul because at last count I have 363,214 angels looking out for me.
- Thanks to you, I have learned that God only answers my prayers if I forward an e-mail to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.
- I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl who is about to die in the hospital (for the 1,387,258th time)
- I no longer have any money at all - but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special email tracking program.
- Yes, I want to thank you so much for looking out for me that I will now return the favor! If you don't send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 7 minutes, a large pigeon with a wicked case of diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 PM (CDT) this afternoon. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next-door neighbor's ex-mother-in-law's second husband's cousin's beautician....
Sunday, December 18, 2005
today was fun
after a nutso opening, 2 friday day off storms (snow and snow/sleet/ice), i have finally experienced Ikea. i've seen the catalog (which i forgot to grab on the way out, oh well, i'll be back) but never actually been to Ikea before, and i didn't know quite what to expect. all i've heard is that they are always busy, and most of the stuff isn't bad.
so bright and early, M picked me up and we headed south to pick up F and the 3 of us were headed go Ikea. the first order of business was to get something to eat, and as it happens, Ikea has a restaurant. cafeteria style, but for $0.99, you get scrambled eggs, home fries and bacon. and it's pretty good, and rather filling. so, for short money, we had a full bfast w/coffee and juice (lingonberry, i liked it). a quick pit stop and off we went. it's a VERY big store with LOTS AND LOTS of stuff to look at. some of it quite nice, some, less nice, some a little overly country (but if you like that look, i'm sure it's very nice), some of it nifty, and all in all, a lot of it very affordable. and i even managed to get some presents for mom.
i'm not sure quite how to describe it, other than it's quite an experience the first time you go to ikea. there's a ton of stuff to take in, and for the most part, it's actually pretty nice. i liked some of the kitchens they had set up. picked up a new paper towel thing (we'll see how long it takes me not to cut myself), some roman shades for the bedroom ($7 each!), and a few other odds and ends. now i need to start looking around and see what i may want to look for.
so after we paid for our stuff, i brought it out to the car, and we headed upstairs for lunch. the swedish meatballs w/gravy and lingonberries was quite tasty. so was the salmon and lox and deserts. so we finally left ikea at ~230. we got there just before 10am. like i said, it's a BIG store. very cool tho. i can certainly see why people like it so much. and i certainly don't mind putting stuff together.
afterwards, we went to see The Chronicles of Narnia. i wasn't sure i wanted to see it or not, but i enjoyed it. i haven't read the book, so i can't say how faithful it is to the book, but it was certainly quite entertaining (in the good way). i liked the gryphons. the battle scene was hard not to compare to Lord of the Rings, and M thought the coronation scene reminded her of Star Wars (w/o the wookie roar). but all of us enjoyed it, and if you get a chance to see it, it's worth seeing. and the beavers were certainly very nicely done. they were funny :)
dinner at bugaboo where we had to endure 2 1/2 birthday claps (2 next to us, 1 on the other side of the restaurant, hence the 1/2) so it wasn't that bad. dinner wasn't bad. steak and baked tater.
and home we went. got a real xmas tree from the landlords (it's a 12" colorado spruce) w/bon bons. it's nice because M&i hadn't gotten around to setting up and decorating my tree, so i'll use this instead. i'll pull a few ornaments out, but this year i'm not going fancy.
and now i'm tired. it's been a long day.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
because he accomplished his goals.
MY ASS.
i have a fairly low opinion of the governor here in massychooshits (certainly doesn't help that he's a mormon republican). but last night (to no one's suprise), he announced that he was not going to run for re-election as governor of mass. it wasn't stated explicitly, but the strong belief is he will now attempt to run for president to succeed The Monkey Fuhrer.
that's fine. i'm glad he isn't going to try and campaign for president while in office, but what pissed me off was how he says that he accomplished everything he set out to do. is that so? how fucking shortsighted are you? if you are going to try and run for president, are you going to only look forward to the next 4 years? and then make an announcement that you've done all you set out to do and call it quits after 1 term? positions like this (or the presidency) require you to take a LONG TERM look ahead.
it has always been my understanding that the chief executive (of anything, state, country, business) that part of your job was to the help secure the future of the country/state/commonwealth/business. that you were responsible to to continue to come up with ideas that help bring success to the country/state/commonwealth/business. short term goals are fine, but what happens afterwards?
i look at even The Monkey Fuhrer (as scary as it sounds) and for all that i really don't like him, he (ok, the puppetmaster cheney) has ideas that he'd like to see us move in long after he is out of office. the president of the organization where i work isn't looking forward to just next year, but she is looking forward to the continued success of our organization 5 and 10 years out. regardless of whether she is there or not 5 or 10 years from now. look at private colleges. look at private schools. the headmaster of my high school isn't looking to just the next year. but 5 and 10 and 20 years down the road. the success of the school years from now depend on decisions and ideas he make now.
it is your responsibility to secure the future of the commonwealth mitt, and you failed. you say you love this job. bullshit. the only long term goal you have succeeded in is using the office of governor to place you into a better position to run for president.
so thanks for leaving us with our pants around our ankles. fuck you very much mitt. and if it came down to it, i'd even consider voting for hillary over you....
now i feel dirty...
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Sunday, December 11, 2005
oy....
i got a copy of the U2 show in Hartford the other night (12/7, excellent recording, thank you DF for getting a great recording of the show), and i am scanning thru it to hear bits and pieces and i reached 'Sunday Bloody Sunday', and of course the moment the drums start, the crowd goes nuts, but then Bono says what i've heard him say a few times now, that the song is no longer an Irish song. it's now America's song so i skipped forward a little bit and they throw in a little bit of 'Rock the Casbah' (the well known chorus mostly) and Bono slows things down to talk about how he saw some grafitti in the mid-west and the image tattooed itself on the back of his eyes. a simple word -
coexist
only the 'c' is a cresent moon, the 'x' the star of david and the 't' a christian cross. if you look around the web, you'll find the image as it's not too hard to find. you may even find a shot of Bono kneeling on the stage with a blindfold with that on. he then went on to point out that Jesus, Jew and Mohammad (his phrasing) are all sons of Abraham, so that it's really nothing more than a family feud. it then sounds like he brings a little kid up on stage (end of the elipse?) who he has scream out 'NO MORE' and then he asks the kid his name, and judging by his reaction, Bono nearly fell over.
the kid he brought up was named Jacob.
'Sunday Bloody Sunday' really is our song now. and for whatever reason, it really hit me that it is our song...
Friday, December 09, 2005
(not so) Random Pictures of the moment
the first picture i posted this morning was taken at 10am.
135pm: the grey spots are melted snow on the window
245pm: the grey blobs are snow on the window. it took a few moments to get my camera to focus on the car and not the blobs. this was at the start of the white out conditions. at its height, i watched a fedex truck go sliding, a plow truck go sliding, and a minivan get stuck with a flat front right tire. i don't think they realized that it was flat as it was off the wheel.
409pm: litterally, just shy of 90 mins later and it was clear. at the time i took this, you could see sunlight on the tops of the trees.
443pm: post car cleaning. 
Thursday, December 08, 2005
no more krispy krack
not that it's much of a suprise, but krispy krack has closed 2 stores in the area. 3rd one since the summer, but no more hot glazed for me. at least not around here anytime soon.
it's been a while since i've gone there, so i certainly wasn't giving them a lot of business (unlike dunkin). the stores they closed are both in pretty crappy locations, and you can only really reach them from one direction, so traffic going in the opposite direction would just turn into a dunkin.
oh well. farewell krispy krack.
random trivia: there are 13 within 5 miles of home, and 45 within 10 miles. i think i'll be able to get my fat pill fix, even if i liked the hot glazed fat pills from krispy krack better.
tired
i keep meaning to comment on this, but by the time i get home/work, i have forgotten about it. but as both M and i had crappy commutes (hers moreso than mine - 2 hours vs my 1+ hour). usually, hers tend to be a little more than 1/2 that time, and i seem to avereage 35-45 mins. but today for some reason, even tho the roads were clear, there were a few accidents and they very quickly turned the major arteries into boston into nothing more than slow rolling parking lots.
so, both of us suffered (again, her more than me today) thru dreadful commutes that if we were lucky, we'd hit a whopping 15mph. anyways, after getting to work, both of us were tired from the commute. i've found thru my own experience, which i highly doubt is unique, that slow commutes are very tiring. usually, it affects me more going home (busy day at work, want to relax), so i've found i know where i start to get tired and my eyes start to lose a little focus.
i think that may be part of the problem - commuting in slow times, you have to actually focus on what is going on around you so you become rather single-minded. but being so focused (particularly after a long day, or lack of sleep) takes a toll on the brain and makes it hard to maintain that needed focus. i know i tend to feel more tired when i get home (but now that bitter cold is here, i get that icy blast of cold air which helps a little), but there are days like today where i feel as tho i have to drag myself out of the car and into the office.
at least now, i can feed myself with coffee which helps bring me back from the undead...
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
oh yeah
my toothbrush has died. i like the current trend of vibrating things. the toothbrush, my m3 power. i know it's trendy these days, but i did feel as tho my toothbrush did help. i'll have to look into a more permanent vibrating toothbrush. w/o the vibrations, it's just not the same.
i guess it's time to get a new powered toothbrush...
random acts of habit
i just had one of those. my nightly routine generally exists of my turning off my tv, checking/turning off the lights in the stairway, locking the door, turning off the light in the living room, brushing my teeth and then crawling into bed.
i may or may not watch a little tv, but that depends on how tired i am.
tonight however, i didn't turn the light in the normal order of things. in fact, i didn't really follow the 'normal' order of things. instead, i checked the stairwell, turned off the LR light and went to brush my teeth, leaving the tv on (Sex and the City). after brushing my teeth, i went to turn the tv off while watching the final moments of the show. it ended and then reached to turn off the LR light.
it was already off because i had turned it off before brushing my teeth. it struck me funny as i started to ponder what other habits i have. i'd offer some, but then i would have to realize that they were habits.
or are they behaviors?
or both?
what about my mannerisms? i never notice those but i wonder what they are. at least the less obvious ones, but then if they were obvious to me, would they still be mannerisms, or would i be playing them up as i saw fit?
hmmm...what other habits, mannerisms, behaviors, etc do i have?
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
heh
for the last few weeks, i've been rather critical of the forecasters on tv. it's seemed as tho for all their efforts, they haven't been able to forecast the weather with much accuracy, particularly with the timing of the various storms that have tried to come thru. they seem to keep missing the mark, timing would be off, how much snow we'd get, whether we'd get snow, temperatures, etc.
for example - the saturday after turkey day, we had snow. NONE of the forecasters in albany (or boston) seemed to mention any possibility of snow, so the headlines that evening were splattered by the volume of accidents as cars crashed due to slick conditions. no one had been prepared for this, so by the time any kind of response could be mounted, it was too little too late.
today, for the first time in a little while, i'm not going to curse the forecasters (even tho they have no control over the weather) and their blunder actually worked in my (and others) favor. we were supposed to get a rare early nor'easter (they seemed to hesitate to use that name, but it really was supposed to be a nor'easter) and what do i see when i get out of work last night at midnight? nothing. (it was supposed to have started snowing yesterday evening)
now, after very groggily waking up this morning, what to my delight do i see?
the first nor'easter of the 2005-2006 winter season.
heh.
there is snow down on the cape (to receive the lion's share of 2-4"), so we are getting snow. fortunately, that's it.
my only suggestion to the forecasters is this: please look at the computer models, and then look at the maps yourself and see if what you are looking at seems to match up with the computer models. then modify your forecast accordingly, as some of it really is a gut feeling. instinct. had you used that, someone might have realized that the front from canada wasn't going to dip as far south as it did and told us that there was a pretty good chance that we may get next to nothing. i realize that you need to cry wolf a bit, but given the accuracy of recent forecasts, maybe crying wolf isn't such a good idea.
but again, thank you for screwing up the forecast. if you are going to screw it up, this is certainly how i would prefer it to happen. here's hoping that the potential snow on friday will be like this one. cry wolf and then nothing but a hiccup.
Monday, December 05, 2005
oh joy...
late thursday afternoon, my boss told me that we needed to do an upgrade on the phone system PDQ, and asked when a good time was, so tonight was decided.
so, at 9pm, i get to take the phone system down. after a late call this afternoon (sposed to be at 2pm, was was closer to 230pm) with the guy who is going to help, we agree that it will happen at 9pm (eastern)/6pm (pacific, where he is) and after a few other questions, we hang up. needless to say, he didn't inspire a great deal of confidence, but we'll hope for the best.
fast forward to 540pm. i'm trying to relax and my phone rings. didn't take much for me to guess that it was the guy who was going to help us to the upgrade.
after saying hello, he asked if we were ready to do the upgrade at 6pm eastern. i quickly correct him pointing out that we weren't scheduled to do it for another 3 hours, gently reminding him that meant 9pm eastern/6pm pacific.
we'll see how this goes. the last time we had a problem with the phone system, it was a bear to deal with.
so, after that call, i'm just thrilled about how much support we'll be getting. he may know the software, but it does help to keep yourself organized...
i know i'm not the most organized person in the world, but for stuff like this, i try to keep things pretty organized.
t-minus 2:55 before we blow things up.
Sunday, December 04, 2005
a few minutes late, but still...
the end.
"We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend, and the deep respect we have for his family, together with the sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were."
-Led Zeppelin, December 4, 1980
25 years ago yesterday, one of the greatest bands came to a sad end. at the time, i wasn't quite old enuff to understand who Led Zeppelin was or were, or how they fit into the musical landscape i have come to care for rather deeply. fortunately, i managed to back myself into the legacy that is Led Zeppelin. these days, i am glad that i have the collection of bootlegs that i do, so that i have the opportunity to hear Led Zeppelin at its most raw. most people get to experience Led Zeppelin through the studio albums (and few live releases), but listening to the bootlegs, you truly get to appreciate just what we now miss. soemthing i'll never have the opportunity to see.
John Paul Jones said something to the effect of how at their best, no one could touch Led Zeppelin, and even on their worst nights, they were still better than most. their worst can be painful to listen to, but his statement holds true. even on those bad nights, they were still good. tight but loose.
listening to them now, Led Zeppelin still stands high above the music of today. there will be very few bands that can be that influential, that timeless, or that powerful. so i'll just end this here and say:
Thank you Robert.
Thank you Jimmy.
Thank you Jonesy (The Coolest Man on Earth (tm))
and Thank you John Henry Bonham.
(and thank you to all of you who braved getting your asses kicked by Peter Grant to tape and share the shows i (and many others) now enjoy.)
Friday, December 02, 2005
FINALLY
found my spud.
thankfully, it's only hasbro that screwed up the pictures, so he doesn't have that stupid grin with his helmet on.
*phew*
good thing there was only 1, otherwise i'd be tempted to get a 2nd so that they could flank my Lord Tater
Saturday, November 26, 2005
this is just plain fucked up
so i leave you with the immortal words, spoken by one Willy Shatner while on SNL:
GET A LIFE!
Thursday, November 24, 2005
turkey
quiet day today. it snowed. that sucked.
had turkey. that good.
it's cold. that sucks
couldn't say what i may be thankful for. maybe that i'm not stupid enuff to drag my ass out of bed at some ungodly hour to stand in line freezing my balls off only to get mugged by some rabid father who wants the box i have in my hands more than he thinks i want it.
so, i'll be thankful for the warm bed i'll be sleeping in.
Monday, November 21, 2005
huh...
who knew i authorized someone to add an address to an account of mine...
and it's not that far from the famed 405. i've been getting phishing emails from time to time for one of my accounts, but this time there was a real address. (i verified that it hadn't been added) (if you click on the hybrid button and zoom in, you get to see the house that addy apparently belongs to. this south central LA?)
i wonder if i should start mailing magazine subscriptions to Heywood Jablome there...
or Olive U. Fuqov.
eh, fuck 'em.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
nice
Pink Floyd was inducted to the UK Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the other day, and part of the introduction had people saying kind things about Pink Floyd. my favorite quote was Rick Wakeman's (of Yes):
"When the first list was being drawn up in the rock 'n' roll book of Genesis, it would have been: In the beginning, God created Pink Floyd."
now there's a bible i'd like to read.
you can read about the induction over at Brain Damage.
hahahahaha...
my crazy neighbor lady apparently had some problems with the plumbing in her apartment (prolly flushed something like a wash cloth down she shouldn't have, similar to what happened in my last apartment). so KO (landlord) tried to see what he could do, and after not fixing it, called the plumber who was going to stop by in the morning.
but, after a little while, KO showed back up and tried a few things and that apparently seems to have resolved the issue. (prolly bought industrial drano) so as he was leaving, the following dialog occurs:
KO: you're not allergic to this, are you?
CNL: what's that?
KO: it's just a little air freshener.
and he starts spraying.
and spraying.
and as he walks down the stairs, he continues spraying.
all i can say, and as i've said in the past, my crazy neighbor lady has got the funk. some serious funk. she's got the funk, a lot of funk....
i didn't appreciate that
this afternoon i decided to head out and look for a few things, and after picking up the paper, i headed out towards danvers to check a few things. silly me missed the ramp to get onto rte93, but i didn't care too much as it just meant i went a more direct (albeit a little slower) route to get over to 128.
i'm driving along, a mother with child pulls out in front of me (plenty of room, i wasn't going that fast, no arguement from me here) and after going a block, she goes to take a left. i'm fine with that (actually, the turn i usually take to go home). only this time, i'm watching oncoming traffic and out of the corner of my eye, i see in my mirror a large grille coming at me (trust me, it's a LOT bigger in person than it is in that picture). fast. the first thing that goes thru my mind is "don't you fucking think about it. i just paid off my loan, i don't want another one." then i think about the kid in the backseat of the car in front of me because while i'm not close, and both of us are at a stop, the odds are pretty good at the rate she was going, i would have hit the back end of the car in frotn of me.
fortunately, the bitch driving the fucking behemoth of a car hits the brakes and swerves to the left.
as she's doing that, i'm thinking again "oh fuck, she's going to hit me in the back left of my just paid off car and i haven't received my title yet."
FINALLY, she comes to a stop, and the car that was ONcoming has to slow down and swerve to miss getting nailed by her too. i'm watching all of this in my mirrors, and i can see the outline of heads in the back seat of HER car.
so i could have hit a car with a kid in it.
she had kids in her car.
this could have been one hell of a clusterfuck. and i would have been livid, not just because she would have creamed my newly paid off car, but that she endangered several kids (hers included) in the whole mess.
thankfully, nothing happened. the final thought i had in those few seconds was that i was about to become a statistic of being involved in some sort of car accident within a 5 mile radius of home.
i deliberately kept my pace slow once we started going and when she tried to swing wide around me at a rotary, i drifted a little more left to keep her from swinging around me (again, another safety issue) and on 128, i moved to keep myself away from her. at one point she did pass me (on the right, again, a no-no) and we both looked at each other and i had a hard time keeping from gesturing at her. but i figured i'd be the bigger man.
fucking bitch.
then, as i'm just past the 95 split, on the southbound side i see a pair of 18-wheelers, one of which has a crane or something holding the trailer up, and a lot of the contents are stacked up on the side of the road.
and THEN, right before the exit for peabody, there was a 3 car accident (pick up rear ended, sedan crushed, 3rd car off to the side, front crunched). as we were waiting for the merge to single file, a guy in a jeep cherokee went blowing by, apparently the husband of the woman whose car was crushed. it looked as tho there were no injuries, but i couldn't help but think that things are pretty fucked up today if i'm nearly involved in an accident, an 18-wheeler needing assistance (i was guessing the crane was there to right the truck after rolling) and then the 3 car accident.
i'd just like to say this - SLOW DOWN and be mindful of the drivers around you.
if you need to yell at your kids while driving, pull over. don't do it while driving too fast and are about to crash into me. think when you drive. use your head. remember, when you don't, you not only endanger yourself, but EVERYONE around you, including anyone in your car.
Saturday, November 19, 2005
while i'm at it, Uncle Sammy Black Lager is pretty tasty. i hadn't had it before so i figured i'd try it. i like it.
Read More......nitwits...
normally, i don't give a rats ass about college football. i find it distasteful. i think it stems more from how there seem to be all of these different divisions, and you have colleges that play in this or that division. and then to confuse matters, colleges are part of a different division that goes 1, 2, 3. and depending on which division your school is in, determines how much (or little) recruiting the school can do for their teams. i went to a D3 school, but just north of us was a D1 school. yet neither school would ever play itself because of this whole different division thing.
anyways, fuck them all. that's not what i'm complaining about. the news showed 2 highlights (harvard/yale, BC/Maryland) and in BOTH games, someone caught an interception in the end zone, and what did they do? they RAN. and were promptly tackled just outside the end zone. had they just dropped to a knee in the end zone, their offence would have started at the 20 yard line.
instead, they start with crappy field position.
even in pro football, they do it. that whole 'glory' thing. why cripple your offense if you can get them better field position by going down? don't they drill this whole "there is no 'I' in team" thing?
nitwits...
this seems rather silly
one of the top stories on the news tonight was how Shaws tattled on Whole Foods and how they were planning on opening on turkey day.
apparently, according to the massychooshits blue(balls) laws, the only stores allowed to open on turkey day are gas stations and convienience stores.
so, i decided to see if i could find out what they said. i don't see anything that states explicitly that they can't, but as veteran's day was last week, i started wondering if all of those stores (like Macy's, Sears, malls) that opened early for veteran's day sales could actually be fined for opening before 1pm.
hmmmm....
still no spud trooper. altho looking at that picture, with the stupid grin under the helmet is kinda disturbing...
a funny
had a funny moment at CVS this afternoon. while waiting to pay, one of the cashiers apparently knew the customer she was waiting on, and she reached over for the current issue of men's fitness magazine, and with her hand, covered the head of the guy on the cover. (fit, typical 6-pack abs)
she asked the customer if she thought this guy was attractive, and after a non-committal answer, she moved her hand to reveal a guy who wasn't overly attractive (i thought he looked like adrian brody) and then asked if she ever listened to howard stern, and then proceded to explain the concept of 'butterface'
knowing the term, i had to stop myself from laughing. thank you fark for educating me.
Friday, November 18, 2005
i can't help it
i think this is funny. it's ultimately tragic, as the death of someone isn't particularly funny, but all i can say is this:
pat robertson is a FUCKING IDIOT.
i know most people who think like i do (eg: using a brain) prolly agree, but i don't see him ever realizing that the moment he opens his mouth, he speaks nothing but rancid garbage.
sure, installing a metal detector will do WONDERS...
quite productive today
today was my first day off in i don't know how long, but i suppose labor day would technically count.
kinda weird not having to worry about going into work, but it was nice to wake up at 8am and think about how i wasn't going to be stuck in traffic.
made it to the gym and had a pretty good workout. i like having a bit more time to do things, as well as go thru my little routine at a more leisurely pace. came back, showered and started planning for the afternoon.
mailed my brother's bday present (a little late), got my oil changed, picked up a bottle of wine i wanted to try (and will), adjusted my auto-payment for my credit card, called and had them fix my interest rate which i hadn't been paying attention to (bad me, but apparently if you put a large purchase on your credit card, they screw you in the ass with a pressure treated 4x4 decking post for shits and giggles. i so want to buy something of significant value with my credit card now, don't you?). and now i sit here semi-relishing in the idea that i did nothing work related (except for 1 email to provide an update to a loaner in question) all day.
i almost replied to mosquito asking why she couldn't send a clinician an email, but to try and explain that the per-visit clinicians don't get email would take more time than it was worth. i'll let CL deal with it on monday.
so all in all, i've had a really good week. work was busy, but it usually is. paid off my car. got a haircut. went to dinner and theater with friends. saw Saw II. did what i did today, i must say, i've had a halfway decent week for a change. the only thing that really sucks is that i should be in SC at a wedding (with a side-jaunt to Chas?) but i'll keep my mouth shut for the moment.
now i need to head out and see about getting something for my rens. so today could be even more productive...
Thursday, November 17, 2005
stunning
i listened to this story narrated by Howard Dully and how he underwent a transorbital lobotomy at 12 years old as i drove home yesterday.
please take 23 minutes to listen to this story.
you will be amazed. you will be horrified.
there are very frank descriptions of the procedure.
and thru it all, Mr. Dully narrates the story with an almost unnerving calm.
all i can say is this:
Thank you Mr. Dully for sharing your incredible and terrifying story.
there is a second story here, which looks like the source for the NPR story (don't have real player codec installed, so i can't listen to it right now). it also looks to have some more links that NPR didn't seem to have.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
lesse....
had an ok weekend last weekend. actually, strike that, i had a pretty good weekend.
i paid off my car loan, so i now own my car (as i have already posted) so that was a great way to start the day. got my hair cut, which didn't take long which was good cuz we got there late. (my fault - i forgot our tickets for the evening entertainment so M had to drive us back for me to grab them) drove to F's to pick her up and headed into boston for dinner and entertainment with TK and K. note to anyone driving into boston going 93N (from the braintree split) - if you are going to chinatown/theater district, the exit you want to take is the South Station exit. which is ~2 miles BEFORE the city. thank you big dig.
had dinner at P.F. Chang's which wasn't bad. K made the comment that it seemed to be a little silly to eat at a chain chinese restaurant when we could walk 2 blocks east and eat in chinatown. (the decision was in part because we wanted something a little on the neutral side, not knowing what everyone's tastes were, but next time we go to the theater (Spamalot?), we'll eat in chinatown. lotsa yummy stuff there.)
afterwards, we headed to the wilbur for the One-Man Star Wars Trilogy. it was pretty good, altho TK and i both thought that for what the tickets cost, an hour long show was a little short....but he did manage to hit most of the important points. some of the aside comments were funny, and some sirens (ambulance type) outside the theater added a little to it as he started, stopped, restarted, stopped, looked towards the direction of the sirens and then commented on it.
he glossed over some things, so for full enjoyment, you need to know the movies pretty well. M&F both enjoyed it, but would get lost as he would bounce from plot point to plot point. (i found the same problem periodically). TK enjoyed it, as did K. so good time had by all. there was some humor with the kids sitting behind us to kept asking their father what 'schwing' meant. (he kept telling them to shush)
afterwards, ice cream at Cold Stone. parted ways and headed home.
saw saw II on sunday. i liked the first one (loved the twist at the end), but i went in aware of the whole sequelitis (you know, that phenomenon where the sequel sucks?). so i wasn't expecting a whole lot. i was pleasantly suprised. it's not as good as the first one, but i enjoyed a great deal. some neat tricks, and this one had a nice twist to it too. definately see the first one first tho. and i guess they are looking to make a 3rd one, and given that this has done pretty much as well as the first one, a 3rd should make money too. (doesn't hurt that the movies didn't cost a whole lot to make, so that ROI thing is making the bean counters happy)
this morning at the gym, one of the guy's in the locker room said that the current marshall's commercial music reminded him of 70's porn music ("where's linda lovelace?"). those of us there laughed. (this is the same guy who said that barbie bush should have had an abortion. i like him. he says funny things.)
talked with M, and she gave me a review of Stealth.
it SUCKED.
in short, don't waste your money. it's not worth watching. on network tv.
oh, TK - here's something for Junior.
hahahaha...
Sunday, November 13, 2005
random bits
Saturday, November 12, 2005
i have done it
it took 58 monthly payments, but i have done it.
i OWN my car.
every piece of it.
every seat. every panel. every screw. every rust covered bolt.
free and clear, I OWN MY OWN CAR!
it is MINE MINE MINE MINE!!!!!
it's not the first car i have owned, that honor goes to my 1988 Jeep Cherokee, but this is the first car i have bought myself, and had to pay for myself. (dad turned the title to the Jeep over to me when i moved out here, so no money changed hands.)
i feel giddy.
Friday, November 11, 2005
i've pondered for some time what i want to do, but when i saw this all i could think of was this:
DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN...
and for the record, i have no intention of ever doing something like that.
but DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN......
that's pretty cool.
reminds me of the comment Clive Barker has with his Books of Blood -
Everybody is a book of blood; wherever we're opened, we're red.
uhhhhhh....NO!
you really do know hollywood is out of ideas if they want to remake a classic like this.
a good example of thinking you are richer than god (but aren't)
a good example of thinking you speak for god (but don't)
what is the lesson we learn today?
Thursday, November 10, 2005
grrrr....
fortunately, it doesn't seem to affect me (yet), but i'm now mildly nervous about buying Sony/BMG cds. recently (last week), it came to light that one of the copy protection schemes they use behaves more like a rootkit (this is bad). i wish i could say 'to their credit' they addressed it pretty quickly once the fit hit the shan, but instead, they posted a fix that apparently when run, blue screens your PC/laptop/whatever.
now, this is WINDOWS ONLY, so you folks using Linux or Mac OS9/X are (a lot smarter than the rest of the windows users?) all set as it is targeting the biggest operating system.
so here are some (rather technical) links to look over:
- the original post by Mark Russinovich
- EFF nutshell of the issue, with links to the original post that brought this to light
- BBC coverage of the initial outcry
- a partial list of affected CDs
- start to repair the damage
- how to disable auto-run
as i mentioned above, it doesn't appear to affect me at the moment, but it certainly doesn't hurt that i tend to shy away from mainstream music, but it still worries me. what's next? by inserting a CD into your PC, they gain exclusive control of all data (personal, private, intimate, finances) and you forfeit any and all legal rights to that information? and your first and second born child too... Read More......
wow
someone actually posted part of my post about how i was glad the Red Sox didn't win (after being swept by the Chicago White Sox). i decided to google myself and ran across a link that pointed to this one.
it an interesting post, but i still stand by my statement. it will be interesting to see what happens now that Theo has left the Red Sox. (personal reason, professional dispute, whatever. i think it's a little of everything, but only Theo really knows. good luck Theo and thanks for what you were able to accomplish for Red Sox Nation.)
didn't think i'd be writing something about the Red Sox until next spring. go figure.
at least it's not stuffed....i had better not say it
someone found my page thru a google search, and it wasn't for something disturbing or freaky.
so i figured i'd look to see where i fell in the list, and i'll be damned - right now, i show up as the 3rd entry in the list. go figure.
at least it wasn't something like these two links (sequentially)
link #1
link #2
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
hmmm...they must have less strict age of consent laws overseas
maybe he should look here first.
note to self:
if ever i should happen to write a program (hahahahahaha!) that does something, i need to make sure that i don't use the word 'windows'.
(via slashdot)
good: the creation of Melanie's law
bad: drinking and driving
funny: i still say it's MEESE
really fucking stupid: drinking and driving, being pulled over with the following conversation -
Officer: You've heard of Melanie's Law?
Drunk: Yeah, I'm her uncle
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
i'm going to be selfish here...
it's my blog and i'll do whatever the hell i like. i picked up the Live8 dvds on the way home today. not so much for what it stands for (which is important) but for simply one reason.
Pink Floyd.
i admit it - i'm greedy for Pink Floyd. and it certainly didn't hurt that the performance (first for all 4 members since June 1981) was phenominal. and fortunately, Pink Floyd is one of the few bands (at least on the US rendition of the DVDs) that has a complete performance. so from the opening heartbeats (they were the only band that had (needed) no introduction) to the smiling band walking off stage, it's all captured. the only change from the original broadcast was when Roger thanks the crowd at the start of Money, is lowered so you barely hear it.
i've been flipping thru the rest of the discs (including the Floyd rehersal footage) and it's interesting. the biggest cut i noticed was with U2's set - between Verigo and One, there was the human rights bit that was cut out, which makes for a painful transition. plus at the end of One, they do a bit of Unchained Melody that is completely snipped, again another awkward edit.
otherwise, it's not bad. very nice transfer, and the 5.1 audio isn't really used for anything other than crowd noise. except for Money which uses it for the cash registers. and speaking of Money, it sounds like they did slow the beginning slightly (the backing tape played a little too quickly, so they had to slow it down when they went into the song). i'll have to compare.
the bass Sting plays is well worn. i liked Annie Lennox's arrangement of Sweet Dreams (altho the keyboards were a little lost in the mix). for you Simon LeBon fans out there, his face got FAT. can't help but laugh at how old Esther looks. i realize that she's in her 40's, but still, the shot that they have of her in the DVD case makes her look OLD. kinda disturbing (in a creepy Skeletor way).
no real idea who the majority of the artists who have a song on the discs, but i'll give credit to Robbie Williams for a very spirited performance. Scissor Sisters (has NSFW boobage, so don't say i didn't warn you) are just plain weird (their cover of Comfy Numb, not played at Live8, is interesting, so points to them for that). i miss the intro for The Who which was pretty funny, they could have at least kept the band intro for it.
so while i bought it strictly for Pink Floyd, you should check out the real reason that the concerts were held.
Live8 website
Make Poverty History
have Stewie do things for you
dance, eat, kill lois are good places to start.
be sure to try things a few times as you may get a different response each time.
Monday, November 07, 2005
return of the molius
after some time off from the blogosphere, the Rev. Molius has returned.
well, at least a little bit. had to attend a funeral this weekend. (details are in previous posts) and aside from feeling as tho i was bullied into going by my uncle (he tends to be on the bullying side anyways), i had a really good time. some of the details may find their way into the blog of molius, but for the moment, they'll stay hidden away (including a fairly large skeleton that i didn't know existed - the intrigue! the wonder! what could it be? what would be so shocking that had molius not been sitting down, he would have fallen over? stay tuned? maybe...)
in any event, after returning to the world w/o my family, i had a really crappy commute into work. highlighted with my hitting the backlog of traffic just as Evil Playground reached the sample that said:
"essentially screwed"
(sorta sounds like it is from Lord of Illusions, which provides many samples in FLAvour of the Weak)
fucking classic.
Monday, October 31, 2005
this is just plain creepy
altho the bathroom shot did give me a laugh. that's about it. otherwise, creepy.
this morning, our behated monkey fuhrer announced his(?) choice to replace retiring supreme court justice, sandra day o'connor, picking Sammy Alito.
regardless of the fact that he is a good or bad judge, listening to NPR (i believe it was Robert Siegel) talking about the impending announcement this morning and he made the comment describing Sammy as "a judge committed to the law". i realize that he probably read what someone dug up, but M had the same reaction i did.
what an empty and pointless statement to say.
shouldn't we all be 'committed to the law' as proper law abiding citizens? and shouldn't judges be especially 'committed to the law'? i certainly hope so.
the other comment that was made by someone (i think it was an interview with someone, but i don't recall who) was that Sammy 'respected prior judgements'.
that too doesn't say a whole lot, now does it?
as a semi-civil person, i may respect your opinion on a subject, but i certainly do not have to AGREE with your decision. i may respect a judge's decision, but i don't have to AGREE with their decision.
just because you respect someone's decision/prior judgement, does not mean you are required to agree with them.
so where does that leave us? pretty much where we started, only knowing what little we know about Sammy to begin with. nothing is advanced other than the waste of our time. (which you have just done if you read all the way thru this)
and for shits and giggles, i listened to a few minutes of the monkey fuhrer do the announcement, and it was nothing short of a reading from the A volume of Encyclopedia Britannica with a half-assed joke about how Sammy and monkey fuhrer are both married to librarians.
thank goodness for Residential goodness....
Sunday, October 30, 2005
I
M&i headed out today to enjoy some of the nice weather we had today (compared to yesterdays white shit) and during our travels, we stopped by the mall to meander thru, and i spotted something (i forget what) that was an iSomething, so i wondered aloud "What does 'i' mean?"
it seems as tho everything is an 'i' thing.
iMac (which is probably the first instance of an 'i' thing)
iPod (which popularized 'i' things)
iShower
iCheerio
iCar
iShoe
what's next, the iDiaper? (available in both iNfant and iNcontinent versions)
in searching, i did find one place where someone asked this very question, and someone said that it stood for 'internet'.
i suppose that makes sense, but what if it stands for something else?
idiot
imbecile
inigo
information
indigo
innocent
but then, i guess this was somewhat rhetorical if i'm asking this when i have an answer. but who knows. maybe someone else out there is wondering.
Saturday, October 29, 2005
in honor of Halloween, here's what the Boston.com (w/soulsucking registration wanted - use BugMeNot (may or may not work, but i usually have good luck)) thinks are the 50 Scariest Movies of all time.
i'll say it's a list of the 50 Scariest Movies of the moment. some of them will never come off the list (Exorcist, Alien (which has a picture of an alien from Aliens, not Alien), Halloween) and a few suprises, like their #1 choice. (certainly high on my list of creepy/scary movies)
it is interesting to see that they don't just pick movies that are just bloody or gory, but some that are more of the psychological fuck with your head type movies.
here's Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments, which is more scariest movies and not moments.
and finally, RetroCrush has a few lists as well. this years is 100 Greatest Horror Movie Performances. in past years, we've had 100 Scariest Movie Scenes, Top 100 Monsters.
and FINALLY, i found a Channel4 list of the(ir) 100 Greatest Scary Moments which should prove interesting.
Friday, October 28, 2005
normally, i wouldn't post something like this because i don't care about a person's sexuality. but i couldn't help but laugh at the comment on Best Week Ever's blog regarding Sulu coming out (of what? the toaster? the car? enterprise? a local bar?).
as i've now been infected by the comment, i figured it was my duty to infect the rest of you. you'll never see it the same way again...
live long and prosper.
heh
"you can't swing a dead cat in Washington (DC) without hitting a republican under inditement"
- MA Rep Steven Lynch (D)
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
question of the day
fox25 news at 5pm has a question of the day. it's not my question of the day, but i figure i'll answer it here as i'm sure if i took the trouble to email my answer to them, it'd never make it on air.
q: what don't you like about driving in bad weather?
a: stupid drivers.
granted, i think the majority of the drivers on the road are fucking idiots, but for some reason, when the weather is bad, the stupid gene seems to kick in. lane changes are haphazard (with an emphasis on hazard). driving 15mph in a 65mph zone with additional stop and starts. i'm all for slowing down when road conditions are less than favorable, but i have my limits on how much i'm willing to slow down. i like to get to where i'm going, just like the next person, but c'mon people, drive like you actually want to get where you are going.
keep out of the right lane so that people who are trying to get on or off the road can do so w/o having to come to a complete stop and wait to merge.
know the road you are driving. if you are going all the way from the NH border into boston, then keep in the left lanes where there should be less merging and traffic moves a little more freely. weaving in and out of traffic isn't going to get you there any sooner. i couldn't tell you how many times i've watched a car go past me, weaving in and out of traffic only to be stuck behind me 5 miles down the road because they get stuck in a lane that doesn't let them move back into a faster lane.
i could go on, but i'd only make myself upset.
just what i wanted to wake up to
tomorrow, my rens embark on a very cool trip to China for 2 weeks, and i hope they have a good time and get to see and experience all kinds of things while there. so this morning i wake up to NPR talking about how LAX is working with the CDC (which is working with other airports, but LAX was the one of choice for the article) one how to deal with the possible flu pandemic if someone starts showing symptoms on the flight from asia. they'd basically take the sick people off and quarantine them in a negative pressure chamber (really? i was picturing something like this) and everyone on the plane would be taken and isolated for the 24-48 hours it takes to confirm the illness.
now, if they people removed really are sick, then the rest of the passengers are quarantined for 7-10 days to see if anyone else is going to get sick. if not, then they are released. and i imagine, if some more people start showing symptoms, that would extend the passenger quarantine.
so that's making me feel REALLY good about my rens trip.
Monday, October 24, 2005
oh well. it looks as tho i get to attend a funeral on 11/5. time TBD. my great aunt passed away yesterday, rather peacefully i understand. her health has been declining for some time now, and apparently at her last doctor visit, he suggested getting hospice care which is generally a bad sign.
to her credit, she was a full-blooded W, which suggests i have a chance at living a long time (she was in her mid-90's, my grandfather died in his mid-90's, it seems to be a trend in the family) chatting quite happily with the nurses when she just faded out and passed away ~30 mins later.
according to mom, she has already been cremated, with a wooden bust of a viola teacher (her's i believe, that may help explain the excentricities in my head).
i wouldn't have to go, but unfortunately, with my rens flying to China in 2 days, flying back 2 days after the funeral, and a brother out west who seems to think a random call while waiting in line for Episode III constitutes communication, probably won't make it east bound. so, that leaves me to try and put in an appearance for this side of the family. oh. joy.
time to plan....
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Doom
saw Doom this afternoon with JJ. it was ok. nothing special, and a few minor plot twists, but all in all, it was fun. low quality popcorn movie. not quite grade-z. grade-x i guess.
fairly straight forward movie. scientists fuck with nature. nature fucks with them back. fairly basic one-liner dialog. no one overly lovable. your hero has a personal demon. he faces it. he blows it up with a grenade.
the first person shooter scene was pretty cool, and very much like you'd expect in Doom/Doom3/Quake/Quake2/Quake3/Quake4.
and TK, you'll be glad to know that it took time for them to zombify.
for anyone unsure if you want to see it, it's certainly worth a rental/netflix.
a follow up
the other day i wrote about how i had bad news and good news about losing/replacing the removed battery and charger for my drill. i figured i'd stop by the home depot on the way home from work on friday to see what it would cost to get a replacement cordless drill, as at that time, having not found any reference to a 14.4v battery/charger on the ryobi website, figuring i'd just have to replace it outright.
well, as i was parking, i could see a paddy wagon (i didn't even know we used them in sommerville) and sure enuff, there were the police, leading a (seemingly at the time) well behaved person from inside home depot into the back of the paddy wagon. i couldn't help but chuckle and wonder what he had done to get himself arrested. all i could picture at the time was that he had been arrested for shoplifting something small like a few screws, as i can't really picture someone trying to shoplift a sheet of plywood, or stuff a cordless drill down his pants.
so, i head into the store chuckling and head towards tools. i'm quick to find the 5 piece set (18v Combo II) they have for $169 and i think that's a little steep for what i'm looking to replace. so i look around and finally find a drill/flashlight combo which is a little more reasonable at $100, but it's still the 18v set. then i find the replacement batteries and charger for the 18v and i start getting a glimmer of hope that maybe i can find a replacement battery and charger (those were $25 and $20 respectively, so $45 is even better). so i start scanning everything and then i see what looks to be a near holy grail - the updated version of my drill. and for $80, i can get the new version of my drill, 2 batteries and the flashlight with charger.
that fills me with hope that i can get a new charger and battery again and i start looking harder. the good news is i found the battery ($24). i didn't find the charger. DOH! right now, i need the charger more than i need the battery, so that didn't do me a whole lot of good.
so i headed home, but i don't feel quite as bad about getting a replacement now. i checked the home depot down the street from me, and they had the same inventory (battery, no charger) so for the moment i'm in a holding pattern, but i got part numbers this time.
i looked it up online, and it appears as tho i can get a replacement charger from some place that sells replacement parts for ryobi (and other companies) for $35. the batteries are $30, so having seen the $20 18v charger at home depot, something tells me i may have to pay a premium for the replacement.
OR as i started thinking about it, if i go that route:
$35 charger (online)
$24 battery (home depot)
that's $59. (wow, i can do simple math) but that doesn't include shipping on the charger, and so i should expect up to $10 just for the charger which puts me in the $70 range.
didn't i say earlier that to buy the updated version of my drill, it would cost $80? and that comes with drill, flashlight, charger and TWO batteries?
hmmm....
when i got home, i talked to KO to let him know what i had found (no word from assclown window contractor) and he said i should buy the replacement and if i get the charger/battery back, i should just keep them, giving me an extra battery/charger.
decisions decisions decisions....i'm not going to go out and buy things today, as i'd like to hope they assclown window contractors have realized that mine is 14.4v and they are using 18v ones and they don't work well together (maybe?) and have set them aside and aren't using them for the moment.
so, the saga continues...
(btw - i wanted to put links to the various bits, but the home depot site for some reason seems to be uncooperative and the links i'd copy would go somewhere else.)
well, i have a backlog of blog entries i need to get typed out, so i'll try and slog thru them in the coming days. i seem to recall saying something like this the other week, but i'm not going to say "this time i mean it, really!"
i'll try, that's about all i can do. right now tho i'm up a lot later than i prolly should be, but had i not been up, i wouldn't have this entry to my "oh, that's pretty cool to me" moment that most people prolly wouldn't care a great deal about.
a few minutes ago i heard an interesting sound of thunder. not your traditional sound of thunder, but one that reminded me of the space mines Jango Fett used in the asteroid field against Obi-wan. it was that loud minor chord on an electric stringed instrument. the only difference was that it wasn't quite as sharp sounding (going from silence to *TWANG*), rather it went *twang* and faded out in a more linear fashion, rather than a fast decay in the movie. it was pretty cool.
i wonder if that means something struck the watertower near here? prolly not as i'm sure i would have seen the flash and it would have been a LOT louder...still, pretty cool.
Friday, October 21, 2005
keyboards of the PC kind
i had an interesting experience yesterday with a users keyboard. MED for some reason or other has one of the old IBM buckling spring-clicky keyboard, and it reminded me of just how much i used to love using those keyboards. the only thing i didn't like about them was that they weigh a ton (nearly as much/more as my laptop). but i always loved the feel, and would love to get one for the PC on my desk. and it seems as tho you can still get them, or at the very least, the same style/feel as the IBM ones. for some odd reason, i was thinking about them the other day, so when i was doing some work on MED's PC, i was suprised to see the keyboard in there. missing the F12. classic.
i've used a lot of different keyboards over the 20+ years i've used computers, but the old IBM's (88 keys, not 101 keys) were among the first i used, and the whole feel has stayed with me thru the years. i guess it's semi-comparable to that 'you never forget your first love' thing. and fortunately, i'm not alone...
bad news good news
well, the construction on the house is coming to an end, but as KO said to me this morning, the last 20% of the work is taking 80% of the time. he's waiting on the shutters, finish a few windows (including 2 of mine) and eventually, this phase of the project will be done. he mentioned to me the other week that he wanted to redo the walls/carpet on the stairs to the apartments, but i suggested that might be better off done in the spring. why ruin brand new carpeting as people tromp in and out with slushy snow covered boots this winter? he seemed receptive to the idea of waiting.
anyways, a few years ago, the rens bought me a nice Ryobi 14.4v drill that had a second battery. i've liked it a lot - the 14.4v provides enuff power to do what (little) i do (mostly putting screws in and out of things). but it also wasn't so unbalanced that it was awkward to use. (dad and i had a discussion about this when it was given to me - he has an 18v drill and didn't like it as much as he liked the 14.4v he has (couldn't tell you how many he has, but it's more than a few me thinks) as the battery on the larger one is just that, larger, so the balance is off on it. i agree, the 14.4v was nicely balanced). so knowing that people would be in my apartment during window replacement, i moved it around, but always kept it in a few locations. so i moved it out of the way (by my closet) when the first few windows were done and didn't think too much about it. then i remember putting it back so i could charge the battery, but that meant putting it back where i normally kept it.
well, the windows were finished and then the other weekend, i decided it was time to rehang some of my blinds, so i grab my drill and discover that the battery is dead. i look around for the charger and can't find it, but don't think too much about it at the time. prolly a saturday morning, close to M's arrival so i was distracted. a few days later (prolly our Wed. dinner night) M asked me about hanging the blinds (which were on the floor at the time) and i start to look for the charger again. but dinner is ready, so i make a mental note to look for it again later. promptly forget and then last weekend, she reminds me about the blinds. i start looking again, but still can't find it. at this point, i'm beginning to wonder if it's walked. we head out and on wednesday night, i decide it's time to start really look for it. i start looking everywhere, in boxes, under my couch, under my bed, in the closet, and it's nowhere to be found.
so yesterday morning, i resign myself to the fact that it has probably walked, and i'd like to believe that it was picked up accidentally when the windows were installed. frustration is setting in, in part because i didn't notice this sooner, but more because it was a gift, and at this moment in time, i have no way to charge the 1 remaining battery i do have. (the little 7.2v one has an adapter that plugs into the battery directly, no charging station. if i could do that, i'd grab my multi-DC adapter thing and use that) so what i'm left with is a gift, that has sentimental value that is currently useless. and to make matters worse, when i looked online, Ryobi no longer makes the 14.4v products. i couldn't find it listed anywhere on their website. (which didn't make me feel any better)
this morning, i finally get a chance to talk with KO about it and he mentions that they were using Ryobi stuff as they would leave them in his garage, so his belief is like mine, during clean-up, someone picked it up w/o realizing that it didn't belong to them. so he offered to pay for a replacement charger and battery, but i mentioned that they didn't seem to make them anymore. he then offered to pay for a replacement drill set, but i balked a little and explained that it was a gift, tugging at the heartstrings. he said he'd call them to see if they had an extra they didn't remember having, but if not, he'll pay for the replacement.
it's still frustrating as i'd like my stuff back, but at least i can get a replacement so he'll let me know if i will get it back or not. it's not critical right now, so i'll prolly wait a little while (next weekend) to pick up a replacement.
i wonder if i can get just a drill and battery set, or if i can only get the combo set that has all kinds of bits that go with it. i'll have to check...
so that's the bad news - i had my drill battery and charger swiped. the good news, KO is really cool and offered to pay for a replacement.
i like my landlords.
hadn't seen that one before
driving into work this morning (best commute i've had all week) i saw a panel truck that had rolling billboards on each flat surface. having your standard billboard that rolls to the next advertisement every 20 seconds (generally a set of 3 as the roller things are generally triangular) or so isn't anything new. i remember seeing the one on 128 for the first time some years ago and thinking that it was an interesting idea, and now they seem to be slowly replacing the traditional 1 panel billboard.
as advertising as become more important to our society, the next logical step was the billboard trucks that are basically nothing more than rolling billboards. you pay, and someone just drives around wherever you want the ad to be shown. (generally in cities, adding to the usual city traffic congestion)
now, someone came up with taking the idea one step further with the rolling billboard on the panel truck. it was for some IT service thing, and only scrolled back and forth between 2 panels (front above the cab, side and back were all different, so at least 8 sets of ads), but i thought it was an interesting idea. the panels stick out ~3-4" from each side, so the truck looks slightly larger. something different. i expect we'll start to see it more often, but it's the first i've seen around here.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
today turned into one of those days....
today was a laptop day for me. it's all i really worked on much to my irritation. i like this not having to deal with them fulltime thing, but when i walked in and DM (who really REALLY needs to wear a bra more often than she does) pestered me about the lack of loaner laptops. (combo of broken laptops and people keeping them longer than they should be, more that than broken ones)
DH asked me what was going on and i told him what i knew, and mentioned that the managers seem to have this fetish for signing them out and then not returning them. (i think it's a status thing.) then there is a nurse who had a laptop, but she wasn't working enuff, so it was taken away. so she just signs the LT out and never returns it. brings it in for updates and then signs out another one.
anyways, i said that i'd see about getting some ready and set to my task. CC calls to let me know his car won't start and may not make it into work (DH doesn't take to that news particularly well). as he was sposed to be in SW, it didn't affect me a whole lot and i begin the process. then shortly before 2pm, i'm informed that someone has to bring the LTs to SW. a few mins later, i'm informed that i have to bring them to SW. my mood goes from frustrated to irritated anger, and from that point on, i was pretty pissed. and it didn't help that the laptops were still an hour away from being ready to go.
so, as things finished, i stewed in my anger, and rushed to get them done, hoping that i wouldn't fuck things up, because right now, things are really easy to fuck up. when they were done, i rushed to get things put together for them, grabbed my stuff and pretty much stormed out of the office. didn't say bye to anyone, other than to remind CC (who made it in at lunchtime) to make sure things were locked up when he left.
my biggest concern about getting to SW was the traffic. heading over there in the late afternoon is never good, but i managed to get the tail end of halfway decent traffic. i left around 320 and got there pretty much at 4pm. the only real slow spot is a really shitty few turns, but other than that, i beat traffic. i went flying into the office, dropped the laptops off and brought the black box (used to transport laptops between the offices) to KM (the SW receptionist, see previous entry, very cool person) who was getting ready to leave and asked what she wanted me to do with the case. she took it from me, and i flew out of the office. on my way back, going into boston was ok, but had i been heading to the office any later than i had, i would have been screwed and i would have been really pissed.
fortunately, going against the major flow of traffic worked in my favor and i was able to get onto 93 at pretty much the time i would have had i not been screwed into going to SW. it was heavy in spots, but about what i've come to expect for 430 in the afternoon.
i'm doing better now, but my bloodpressure is still elevated, but it's at least less than it was this afternoon. hopefully a good workout tomorrow morning will reallign my chakras and i'll be my normal pissy self.
forgot to pick up gatorade so i headed to wallyworld and bought a large vat of the mix (for twice the price of the 2 gallon size, i get the 6 gallon size, good deal i thought). when i got back to my car, some asshole in a van parked a little too close to me, so it was hard to get into my car. usual case of some fuckwad parking their big ass fucking van (or hummer/expedition/suburban) in a parking space that is way to small for them. i really wish i had those mickey cards printed out....
the only GOOD thing about the day was i got to listen to some classic (if one can call it that) IDM which i hadn't listened to in a while. it was quite nice. started with a little Decoder, followed by some Tyranny (For You), and finally, a little Tactical Neural Implant. i'll have to see what else i can listen to, but it was really nice to give those a spin. it's been a while since i've listened to some of it, and both Tyranny (especially) and TNI are near the core of my musical schism in 1990.
as if anyone cares, these 5 (no particular order) are probably the ultimate core of the schism:
- Front 242 - Tyranny (For You)
- Ministry - A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste
- Erasure - Wild!
- Depeche Mode - People Are People
- Nitzer Ebb - Showtime
it's well past my bedtime. so i'll end with a quote:
"thank you, thank you, thank you and FUCK YOU!"
-denis leary Read More......
receptionists...
we are lucky here at work as we have a pair of VERY cool receptionists, and i am fortunate that i am in both of their good graces. this has worked well for me as i was overhead paged by LP (our MN receptionist) and when i called her, she informed that trainwreck wanted to speak to me. i groaned, she laughed and i replied that i'm kinda busy.
so she asked me if i wanted her to tell trainwreck that i was in a meeting. sure i reply. okbye.
as i'm walking back to my desk, i hear my phone ringing and see the caller ID and push the 'To VM' button.
i now have a 42 second message from trainwreck i have no intention of listening to in the next few minutes, but all i can say is this -
our receptionists rule.
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Cloudless everyday you fall upon my waking eyes
Inviting and inciting me to rise
And through the window in the wall
Comes streaming in on sunlight wings
A million bright ambassadors of morning
Saturday, October 15, 2005
breakin' for the pontif
coming home this afternoon, NPR mentioned something about breakdancing, and i commented to M that whenever i hear the word/term 'breakdancing', all i can think of is the breakdancers showing their wares to pope john paul
M then commented that she doesn't particularly like pope benedict (wow, that's an evil looking picture). she then tried to find the reason and i offered that he's not cuddly. YES! pope john paul had a grandfatherly quality to him that pope benny doesn't have. he looks like he is always stern and cross with people, which certainly doesn't make him look lovable and cuddly.
maybe i'll just start calling him pope evil.
popevil?
popeil?
hmmm...ronco running the catholic church...no more church socials, and only if the food is made in a ronco product. flavor injected by the solid favor injector. roasted in the showtime rotisserie. pasta in the popeil pasta maker. fish cause by the pocket fisherman (give a man a fish, he eats for a day. teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime).
that has to be it - pope benny is a schill for ronco! catholics are now under the control of ronco!
Friday, October 14, 2005
where's my fucking gun?
nowadays, you need a gun, all the time. fucking bunch of shit.
-Lemmy, the Taxi Driver (Hardware)
this lack of sun thing
this lack of sun thing
for more than a week now, the entire new england region has not seen the sun. our dear friend Sol. it's been nothing but grey and rainy and it is nothing short of depressing. the only thing that is anywhere remotely positive about this is that it hasn't been snow. i wonder what the ratio of snow to rainfall is.
(ah, weather - hmmm...woostah has had 7.02" of rain so far, making it the 8th rainiest for them.
sun?
SUN.
SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
we may actually see some of Sol on saturday or sunday...
hole. E. shit)
anyways, you know it's bad when even your dreams are feeling heavy and depressed. i very rarely remember anything about my dreams, but i'll remember feelings or senses, and when i woke up, the feeling was very heavy and dragging. of course, i open my curtains and it's still dark out.
and grey.
Thursday, October 13, 2005
ugh...
today was a rough (sandpaper) day. it started out ok. made it into the gym (what's a gime?), had a decent workout (not as good as the one i had the other day, but still good) and even after leaving for work a little later than planned, the commute in was ok.
then hell broke loose (doh). i didn't have my laptop set up when DH logged me into (bastard!) the help desk (managerial disression, but please, let take a few mins to get settled (who the fuck do you think you are????)). from that point on, the phone pretty much didn't stop ringing (*ring*ring*ring*). and when it did stop (no, go!), network issues started cropping (corn is a crop) up and rather than working on fixing a problem with the new laptop image (kodak), i spent just about the entire afternoon rebooting (kick/kill/kill/kill, YOU WILL NOT KILL! i want peace. you want peace. i can't hear you! aaaaaaahhhhh fuck) servers. including one that took the entire network down (the rabbit hole) (that was deliberate because BK looked at an error a (L)user got and the first words out of his mouth were we had to re(hiking)boot our primary S(imple)Q(uery)L(izard) server. down goes the network. HA!)
we ended the day with me staying an hour later (jackass) than planned (doing some clean up to deal with license issues) and me mildly nervous that a service was restarted on a server that is rather unstable (down down down down, i could not lose it, i could not lose it, i coulda gone no where, down down down down! name that tune!) with the service running. but the day was pretty much done so if things (take a) dump, oh well. (HA!)
needle(syringe)ss to say, it's been a very long we(a)ek. not too much good i suppose either.
TK loaned me (dude) some more Rez which made me happy. unhappy that i was nearly able to listen to The King and Eye from start to finish (19 of 21 tracks). i spose it was better than the day it took me 85 mins to get to work followed the next day where it took me 75 mins. the commute lately has pretty much suck(sucksucksuck)ed, altho today was much better (ez-cheeze) than normal. even the drive home was pretty good with the usual slowdowns, but all in all, it's been the best non-holiday commute i've had in a while. (monday had no traffic which rocked)
so here i sit (so broken hearted, came to shit and only farted) tired looking forward to going to (4 poster) bed. waiting for a file to decompress so i can see about cutting (with razors) into pieces. me like killing joke.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Monday, October 10, 2005
columbus day...
doug the traffic guy for fox25 asked the cast and crew if they knew who signed the bill that made columbus day for october 12th. no one knew (turned out it is FDR) and then he asked who changed it from the 12th (as today is the 10th) which will be the question for the next traffic update.
so i look it up and one of the first links i find on the subject has the following:
Second Monday in October
1792 a ceremony organized by the Society of St. Tammany, or Colombian Order was held in New York City honoring Columbus and the 300th anniversary of the landing.
Oct. 12 1866 out of the pride for their native son, the Italian population of New York organized the first celebration of the discovery of America.
1869 when Italians in San Francisco celebrated Oct. 12 they called it Columbus Day.
1892 President Benjamin Harrison proclaimed the 400th anniversary of the event.
1905 Colorado became the first state to observe a Columbus Day.
Since 1920 the day has been celebrated annually.
1937 President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed every Oct. 12 as Columbus Day.
1968 President Johnson declared it a federal public holiday on the 2nd Mon. in Oct.
Historically, Columbus was not the first to discover America, nor was he the first European to land at America. He was the first to exploit, kill, and enslave the Arawak Indians of Haiti.
The myth of Christopher Columbus and the discovery of America is due to Washington Irving. His "biography" of Columbus was popularized in a dramatic and embellished account.
In recent years, the holiday has been rejected by many people who view it as a celebration of conquest and genocide. In its place, Indigenous Peoples Day is celebrated.
aren't we so proud?
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