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...

Read More......

hahahaha....

it had to happen sooner or later.

Read More......

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...

Read More......

(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.

Read More......

Random Picture of the Moment: look - they managed to forecast snow!

Read More......

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.

Read More......

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...

Read More......

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...

Read More......

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?

Read More......

Random Picutre of the day: The first Nor'Easter of the 2005-2006 Winter Season

Read More......

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.

Read More......

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.

Read More......

WOO HOO!

WOO HOO!.

beer! beer! beer!

coffee! coffee!

beer! beer! beer!

coffee! coffee!

Read More......

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.)

Read More......

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

Read More......