More web surfin

As you can tell, I'm catching up on a lot of old email....

Here's a video of all flights over the US in a 24 hour period. I love mid-video when the country goes dark and you see all the red-eye's leaving the west, and as soon as they land in the east (in the morning) you see the country 'come alive'

If you want a bigger picture, you can see flights over the entire world. Interesting to watch the flights follow the day/night terminator

Surfin the net

BBC put a video on line, compressing the train trip from London to Glasgow (400mi) into a 5 minute video clip. Isn't this what the internet was made for? :)

Until you drop

Watchign the news this evening. WHy does it seem like every day is the 'biggest shopping day of the year'. Black friday was. then some weekend in december was. Then the day before the ice storm was. Then Friday was. Now today was supposed to be. I bet on tomorrow nights news, after the snow, that sunday was suppose dto be - you guessed it - the bigges shopping day of the year. Until Wednesday, of course.

And what's with these sales? Everyone is reporting on how stores are slashing prices to bring shoppers out. Am I jsut shopping at the wrong stores? I'm not seeing great sales. I'm hardly seeing ANY sales.

sigh.

Snow coming - better panic!

I went to Shaws to get some groceries last night. I usually like to stop in Friday after work, get some fish for dinner and supplies for the weekend. But with snow planned for Friday, people are going to be out shopping in a panic as if the world is going to end the next day. Which explains why the Chip aisle is always bare - because those are a family essential.

But this brings us to Universal Hub blog and their winter French Toast Alert, that you can now see on the right of the blog. This warning will let you know how much food to stock up on given an impending snow storm. :) Hey, someone had to make fun of those people. :)

So Friday's storm has sent us to a High French Toast alert, which means hit the stores now and get your weekend supplies!!

Still too soon?

So I got my first ad/flier for a store's After Christmas sale. sigh. Guess they'll need that shelf space on the 26th to make way for all the valentine's paraphernalia.

Watching the WIldlife

Saw my first 'wild' wolf last night, while getting on 93 South at Stoneham/Montvale Ave. Pretty cool.

Tweeter's abrupt farewell

Audio store Tweeter closed today a week earlier than planned. They were in the process of liquidating after several bankruptcies, and were due to close this Sunday. But the guys running the show decided not to wait, and closed the place immediately, leaving all employees not paid, and customers who paid for sale merchandise SOL with their equipment now locked in stores.

On of the brighter sides is Tweeters web site (at this time) being hacked by disgruntled employees. :)



It's a bat sad to see a once great audio store go down like this. Tweeter used to be the place to go for "Prosumer" audio equipment. But ipods and computers came along, moving audio into the digital world. Then the Best Buys came along, selling "good enough" electronics. Unfortunately, Tweeter didn't jump on either of those bandwagons. They just floundered for a bit. They remodeled all their stores, only to emerge as not much more than a TV store. Then they became a "we will wire your home for you" store. Then they just went out of business...

I love government

see more pwn and owned pictures

The real life of bloggers

Death of a blog?

It's always a bit of a challenge to filter what you really want to blog about. that's one of the reasons a good blog is hard to find. it's also why it's sad to see a good blog fall to the wayside.

I checked in with a blog I hadn't seen updated in a long time - The City Record and Boston Newsletter. It was a cool blog that posted all hinds of Boston historical tidbits and cool maps. Then it just stopped. Anyone have any info? It's sad that such an interesting read is no more...

We put the UG in UGLY

Well, it's official. City Hall Plaza has officially been declared the ugliest building in the world. Or at least so says website VirtualTourist.

Everyone knows it's an eyesore, and we still argue over it's replacement. But I can see back then people thinking the brutalist architecture would provide the city with something interesting and different. My parents thought the same when they put their wood paneling up. :)

But I also reflected on this today while looking at the new W hotel going up in Boston. This thing is ugly. I mean they had the chance to put up a really cool looking building. but the BRA, maybe much like the people when looking at a new city hall plaza, let developers put up yet another dull building. Sometimes I want to drag these people to Chicago and show them what nice buildings look like. Half of the eyesores going up today look like the generic "IBM" buildings that went up in the 70's.

You can see how bad the building looks, now that the skin goes up a significant number of stories (I'll see if I can get a pic).

So I wonder if we're doomed to just have dull architecture here in Boston. Regular building look dull ( can you say Kendall Square). Buildings that go through BRA approval are dull (or made to look dull - that's another long story). is Boston somehow cursed that we can't have nice buildings????

Instant Replay

I finally did it. After hemming and hawing for months, I finally got a DVR from the cable company.

For the non-techies out there, this is a Digital Video Recorder. Effectively it lets you tape programs like a VCR. But since this is integrated into the cable box, it makes picking what to record a lot easier.

Since the VCR is nearing the end of it's life, I've been looking into DVR service for a while. But wondering if it is work the money (extra $9/month) - and if I'd actually watch all the garbage I recorded. I finally gave in after getting tired of actually using the VCR to record - trying to set it up for something that will be on TV days from now. So I bit the bullet and decided to go for it. So tonight I'm playing with the new toy.

Recording stuff is easy, as it's tied to the cable programming guide. You can just go into the future on the grid, find your show, and select "I wanna record this". way cool. I'm actually surprised how much I'm using the "pause live TV" function. grabbing dinner, that annoying phone call, that pit stop. just pause and catch up during a commercial. I even found a way to program a button on the remote to do the "jump 30 seconds" to help me skip those commercials. DVRs now even come with 2 tuners, so I can record something and watch another show - or record two simultaneous shows.

Also happy the player has all this functionality. When DVRs first came out, I loved the "Replay TV" sets - they had all the functionality, and didn't keep track of your viewing habits. Unfortunately tivo won that battle, so I've been staying away from DVRs mainly for my dislike of tivo. Now that I can have a tivo-free DVR, well that made it harder to resist as well.

yah, yah yah - boys in their toys. But this is cooler than I expected (yah, sometimes it doesn't take much :)

Another reason why we hate the T...

Took the Red Line subway home on Monday night. We get to Park street (A busy stop), and of course there are people standing in the doorways while rush hour patrons and trying to get on and off the subway. Unfortunately, this is nothing unusual in Boston. But tonight...

Who was one of the oafs standing in the doorway while everyone was trying to get out? An MBTA Inspector. Yep, a T employee just standing there. avoiding everyone's stares as he refused to move in or out of the car to make way for people. Like we couldn't see the MBTA Inspector badge on his jacket.

The T takes a lot fo flack for stupid moves; but a lot of times it's idiots like this guy who, who put their worst foot forward, that to more harm than a late train would...

Prop 8 continues

Found this video floating around the blog world. MSNBC's Keith Olbermann with an impassioned editorial on why Gay Marriage should continue in California (and everywhere for that matter). Not only is it a moving piece, but comign form a straight guy with 'no interest' in the subject makes it even more powerful.




Here is the Video if the embedded above didn't work

The future is here.

don't blow it....

How to threaten your children

I love Nebraska.

Many states have a "safe haven" law, where people can leave babies at hospitals and 'give them up' with no repercussions. A way for mothers to give away unwanted children without worrying about adoption or other consequences, and to a great extent, to stop very young mothers form 'throwing away' babies after their births.

While most laws are written for infants (some as restrictive as only 3 days old max), in Nebraska their safe haven law you can drop off "Children". So now, parents can stop 'children' up to 18 years old at hospitals. In this evening's news, a 15 year old was abandoned. The big shocker when a man stopped off 9 of his 10 children off after their mother died, because he couldn't take care of them. (insert joke about caring for 10 children probably driving her to her grave...)

Now, strange as this may be, it's gotta be great for Nebraska parents. Wanna get your kids to behave, just tell them that they can still be returned to the hospital if they misbehave. Who could ask for anything better?

Enough is finally enough

Well, it's finally happened. She got caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

My state senator has been indicted for Bribery. I won't bore you with details, you can check the local papers. Or you can read the indictment itself.

Now, Dianne Wilkerson is no stranger to trouble She has been convicted of "minor" crimes in the past - tax evasion, campaign irregularities, being sued for non-payment of fees, and the latest was lying under oath. but through all this, she keeps getting re-elected. It's become very controversial, and very racially charged. Calls of "only a minority can represent a minority district" are often heard. And most elections the 'white' districts, who have "had enough" vote overwhelmingly to get rid of her, while the black districts, who say "she helps all of these low income people" support her enough to get re-elected.

last election, she didn't even qualify to be on the ballot, so she got her supports to put her on as a write-in candidate, and she subsequently won that election. This past election, she lost the primary, yet did not let that dissuade her, and was starting another write-in campaign to get elected.

And then this morning, she was lead off in handcuffs.

The FBI has pictures, audio and video of her accepting bribes, not even big money. Small bribes to get licenses, delay legislation, and other various favors. the latest was just a few weeks ago where she 'demanded' more money from the under cover agent, supposedly this extra money to help her reelection campaign.

Now, all the charges in her past you could almost explain away. (almost). But bribery is another story. You can't explain that away. there is no "but in the end I was helping someone". Putting cash in your pocket is helping only yourself. This is beyond the 'last straw'. This is betrayal. To herself, to those she worked with, and to those she is supposed to be representing. This is going from being a Robin Hood one day to Al Capone the next.

Politics in Massachusetts is a strange beast, but an out and out betrayal of public trust seems to be what it takes before people wake up and smell the coffee... This whole mess is best surmised with a quote from a fellow senator

"This has moved far beyond the sad transgressions of her past," Senate Minority Leader Richard R. Tisei said in a statement. "The latest charges brought against Senator Wilkerson rise to a whole new level, and significantly tarnish the reputation not only of the Massachusetts Senate, but government as a whole."

Trolleys, 1903

Anotehr blog sent me to this youtube video, a 1903 short film taken by Thomas Edison from the front of a trolley. The first part is downtown near Jordan Marsh, and the video ends in Copley Square in front of the library on the Huntington Ave line.

Way cool

Another year

A thanks to all who've sent their birthday wishes. Although I have to ponder the modern era. At 12 midnight last night a half dozen forums and e-retailers had sent me auto birthday greetings. (Adding to the e-coupons I got from some other retailers on the 1st of the month). T'is a new world we live in.

Another low key one this year, although I had a great dinner with a friend on Saturday. Maybe Lester will give me a nice Sox win tonight.

A thanks to all who wished me well. Cash can be sent to....

September Raw

ust a note, one of my photographs made it into the September Globe photography contest. it's a low key contest, but I did make the 'first cut' which is nice... Voting ends this I'll - we'll see where mine ends up. There competition is tough :)

Not yet

No, I'm not running for public office. Not yet at least. :) Although thanks to a friend for passing this on. I'm from CT, which is why they had asked if this person was related (he's not a direct relation).

Love Resurrection

Won tickets today on FNX (woo-hoo) to see Alison Moyet downtown at the Wilbur. I knew she was going to be in town, but not having heard any of her material for a while I was on the edge. Free is a good incentive though.

I ended up really enjoying the show. She played songs form throughout her 6 albums, plus some old Yaz songs. She's fresh of a Yaz (Yazoo) 'reunion' tour, and that got her interested in doing a small solo tour. At close to 50, she can still belt out a tune.

Her voice is just amazing. From pop-dancie tunes (with a band, not a synth), to jazz like standards, she can really belt it out. Some of her new songs were just OK, but more because it just seemed like the wrong material for her. The band brought some interesting arrangements to songs. If your a fan, or just like jazz pop singers, you have to listen to the 'band' version of All Cried out (YouTube link if the embedded video isn't working for you).

The Wilber was actually a great place to see a show. They've removed all the orchestra level seats, as it's used as a comedy club these days. I had GA tickets, so you got to stand where you want - so I had a great view, as it wasn't packed. It seems like it would be a good palce to see a comedy show with the tables in place.

All in all, a great evening out, even though it was to be my only free night this week :) Only bummer is all my friends were booked up and couldn't attend on such short notice.

Sad state of the South End

I keep an eye on some Boston real estate blogs. Interesting to see what the pundits and such have to stay about real estate in the Boston area - something always talked about even when there are not crises at hand... Although it is interesting to read agents blogs, as they put a positive spin on everything.

As most of you know, the South End went form a nice place to playground-for-the-rich in no time at all, and affordable is not a word mentioned around here. This is shown in a recent agent's blog entry:

If you do a search on South End Condos that are under $300,000 in the Boston MLS, five (5) results will be returned. One of the 5 is a parking space, and 3 of them are studio units no larger than 378 square feet.

Wow. maybe I should just buy a parking space and pitch a tent. And for those counting, the 5th condo referred to above is one that is in very rough shape (and only 654 sf, not exactly a palace). The agent brightly says "of course any buyer would want to do a total rehab". Now the condition is such that a rehab is in order. But it is a sad reflection that something that is 'affordable' is is such poor condition that living in it would be difficult and undesirable.

Maybe another few months of a collapsing economy might help...

Technology Failure, part 2

The phone wasn't enough fun, I'm having issues with my TV now, although they're small.

I've been a videophile of a bit for a while. Way back when I had 2 VCRs and a laserdisc player. Trouble is, back then TVs had only one input. So I bought a video switcher. It takes 4 inputs and sends a single signal to the TV. It also has an option to route any input to "input 1", so you can record any device to the VCR, while watching something else. Pretty spiffy for it's day.

But something is acting up. The video signal keeps dropping form the TV. I'll either have to finally remove the switch, or just replace some cables. Not a big deal, but it means disconnecting everything and re-wiring the TV system. I've gotten a new TV since then, so the VCR and DVD can go right into the TV now.


But now might be the time to face the fact the VCR is on it's last legs as well. Maybe it's time to finally break down and get a DVR... I don't record too much, but it would be easier to set up recording with button click rather than standard VCR finagling. As for the VCR - it does still need to hang around - I'm slowly transferring VCR tapes into the computer to re-burn or post or such. So I really don't want the VCR to die before that's done.

Now if I can just find that mysterious 'free time'.

Update - it got annoying enough I couldn't wait until the weekend. Luckily it's just the cable, which I swapped out. but thoughts of a re-wire and DVR are still on my mind...

Phone, take 2

No news on researching cordless phones, but had forgotten how much Verizon stinks. All the cordless phones can use caller ID to display who's calling, and integrate with your address book, etc. Unfortunately, Verizon charges $9/month for caller ID. Are you kidding me?!?!?! It's been so long since I tinkered with the home phone services, I didn't realize they still rake customers over the coals for this stuff, especially with land line phones seemingly 'going out of style'. To get all the features on your land line that you get "for free" on your standard cell phone, it will cost you $41 on top of your regular land line bill. Plus, there are another $50-off in fees features you can also add on your land line.

My land line is pretty much for 'general' calls these days. For people who I don't want bothering me on my cell phone. And it's powered at all times, so if there's an emergency, I can still make calls.

So maybe I'll leaning to the cheap end of things for the time being.... :)

Technology Failure 1 - the Phone

The first failure this week was the old cordless phone. I thought it was just the battery needing replacement after all these years, but a new battery didn't fix the problem. I suppose that is Taps for the phone.

This is something you don't buy often. If I remember I waited to buy this phone as it was one of the first to be a 900 MhHz phone, a new design at the time. Looking at models now, it seems there have been two advances since then, with DECT (digital) being the new standard. Of course, everything is smaller - including thinner handsets and tiny base stations.

One annoyance though, all the phone stations now stand on end. I like a phone to lie down and be nice and flat on a table. now they all stand up and say "Hey, here's a phone!" Does anyone really like this? but that's the only choice these days, so what can you do.

This is also one of those products where all the models look the same, so I have no idea what to look for. Guess I'll surf Amazon for customer reviews. Anyone have one of these with an opinion? The plus side is they all come with answering machines, so I'll probably be able to dump Verizon's Call Answering service and save a bunch of money.

Of course I can't buy a cordless phone ever without thinking of my Mother. I got her a cordless handset phone for her place a while back. Let's just say she's one of those people that often 'doesn't get' technology. She always stood next to the bast station to use the thing. This includes actually putting the cordless phone down to go into the other room and get something. Gotta love it.

What the hell are YOU starin at?

Well, I'm so giddy I'm just beside myself. Finally, after many years of waiting, Duckman has arrived on DVD.

For those not in the know, Duckman is a duck detective, who's a lousy detective, and spends most of his time ranting against society. And when he's not thinking about sex, he's at home with his dysfunctional family or his straight man Cornfed Pig. It was a great series brought to you by the same crew that did Rugrats. Unfortunately, a variety of cable channels and always changing times drove this show into obscurity even though it gained a cult following.

Now, after many years of waiting, Duckman has finally come to DVD. Even though many of the shows have ended up on Youtube, it's still nice to finally own my favourite episodes. now, to find time to watch...

Gahden

OK, So I 'm a little behind in the garden blogging. With a summer of rain, I haven't gotten in there much, and the weeds are gettin' tall... but, the veggies are growing, and I'm continuing to harvest.

Here are some corn and cherry tomatoes that made the dinner plate tonight. Guess all the rain helped the corn grow, as it was especially good this year.

State workers

OK, my highway friend sent me this, and I just had to post it. Any comments Todd?? :-)

When you thought you'd seen it all

OK, which is stranger - the fact the someone maintains a blog of 'bad cakes', or the fact that I've subscribed to it. That's right a a blog about bad cakes Strange designs, over-the-top delights, as well as ordinary goofs. Check it out - you'll enjoy it as well. Maybe you've gotten a cake from the geniuses who actually delivered the pictured cake?? :)

Fenway visit

Well, I haven't been to Fenway park in 20 years, and now twice within the same year. Back in July I went with a group from work to catch a game. This past weekend my friend Todd invited me along to Futures at Fenway, a 'city inspired' program to get some minor league teams in the park and have really cheap seats so kids and families can actually afford to see a ball game.

We had a blast. I keep forgetting how 'small' fenway is, and pretty much every seat is good. Only one or two catches were blocked by a support pole. We had to bend over a little to see the jumbotron. But we were nice and close to the players.. I'll be a big cheeseball and point you to Todd's blog on the event so I don't have to type everything out. hehe.

After two games I think I would definitely try to catch a game or two next year. Of course, Fenway sells out almost instantly, so it won't be a yankees game or anything, but some of the later games still have seats after the initial flurry of buying. Maybe even try for better seats at neat year's Futures, but not sure if it's worth sitting in the sun for 6 hours to be closer to the players. Or maybe it is....

We wish... you were kidding

Yes folks, it's that time of year. Blistering sun, high humidity, veggies ripening on the garden.
The perfect time to think about Christmas. No, no, I'm serious. Today the order form for my Christmas Cards showed up.

I order Christmas cards from the National Railroad Museum. hey, I like trains, they sell cards with trains... But they do have a habit of sending out the order forms early. I'll order now and in September I'll get the pack of cards, And put them on the shelf until I'm running late sometimes in December. Someday I'll get ahead.

So now I have a stack of snowy scenes with pine trees and trains, trying to pick out which card I want to order. Of course, you think I'd remember to keep my sample card from year to year to remember which ones I've gotten, right? uh-huh. For your own train holiday cards visit the ordering web site...

Now, which card to pick...

Drum Corps!

I spent the weekend in Allentown, PA watching the Drum Corps East Coast championships. For those new to this, Drum Corps are brass, drums and color guard performing music and show on a football field. More information and some fun videos can be found on the DCI web site.

My friend Steve invited me to join him & his brothers (and a Nephew) for what they make an annual trip to Allentown to see what is the largest show in the North East. Drum Corps is something that has to been seen to be experienced - and unfortunately there aren't as many Boston area shows as their uses to be. I'm glad I was invited to join their family outing - I haven't seen any Drum Corps since the finals were in Foxboro in 2006. (Yes, they use the stadium for other things aside from football)

Needless to say, I had a great time. Two spectacular nights of drum corps competition. hangin out with some friends that I don't see too much. And Bailey's smoothies at Red Robin :-) And (Sorry Steve), Practice is nice to watch as well. :)

If you've never seen a sow, you're missing out. Some clips can be found on Youtube (one embedded below), but check out the DCI site for better photos and info. The DCI site has some video highlights from the weekend performance. It's something that has to be experienced

Committees are fun

My friend, who works on highway signs, sent me this nice little clip - What if - STOP signs were designed today by committee. loads of fun. Check it out.

Shocker - a positive Comcast comment

So I get a message from Comcast today about upload speeds being upped to 2MB. Now, if we had a little more competition, overall speeds might be better, but I decided to see what I was getting. So around dinner time I ran speakeasy's speed test. (both are Mega bit speeds)

Download: 15.4Mb/s sustained, 16.2 peak
Upload: 2.7Mb/s sustained, 3.2 peak.

Not too shabby. The download is also enhanced by their 'powerboost', where they up your download speed when you download big things. (when you think abotu it, it doesn't make much sense, but it seems to work) Try it yourself, and see what your own home speed is...

Ring, Ring

So my phone bill seemed a bit high this month. Looking at it - I can't believe it's over $9 in government fees and taxes. Good grief. I'm really not sure why I keep my land line around any more - except for the face my cell phone is off most of the time and I don't like giving out that number. Perhaps I should go phoneless...

Come fly me

My friend says I should be blogging more. Now I'm sure you don't want to hear how good breakfast was, or where I went shopping. But there's always the newspapers...

So I read the airlines blame speculators for the high price of gas, which is is of course cutting into their profits. Poor babys.

Not flying has never been the best experience. Our luggage gets treated better. Time is just a vague concept to them. Never mind the misery that 'security' has become. And not the airlines are having a hard time making money. Making money being a vague concept here. The airlines get billions in indirect subsidies, so the cost to fly has never really covered the cost of flying. Add onto this the airlines are constantly playing a game of chicken with one another. It really doesn't cost $99 to get to Florida, but we can't charge $200 because the other guy is charging $99 so we'll have no passengers. Yet they're both losing money, and they continue this until someone goes out of business, then rates go up closer to reality. And we all suffer.

So now fuel prices are going up. We're seeing the prices of everything in the stores go up because it costs money to get products to market. But the airlines aren't raising fares. They're charging us for bags, no more beverages. Even ripping out the bad movie equipment to save money. But the game of Chicken remains. The cost of flying is going up, but the cost of tickets really isn't. They still charge $99 to Florida or $150 to LA. and they're losing even more money. But got forbid they charge what it actually costs to fly. They would make them normal. We keep playing chicken until someone goes out of business. but what happens when no one flinches and they all go out of business?????

So now the airlines are calling for government action to get fuel prices back down. What other industry or service out there would live with raising costs yet not increase prices? Even my slice of pizza costs more. yet the airlines keep giving us dirt cheap flights, and call on the government for more bailout help... A talk show put it best - companies want capitalism when times are good, and socialism when times are bad. SO it costs more to fly people form A to B? Then charge more. I don't like it wither, but they're a heartbeat away form duct taping us to the outside of an airplane, and this nonsense has gone on far enough long enough.

The need for Pride

Ever Pride week/month in Boston there are always those who ask why to have pride. Arguments aside, the latest trouble with Hungarian Pride illustrate how far we have yet to go to gain acceptance. (I'm half Hungarian, hence my interest...)

Garden continues

Well, another vacation day was spend dealing with a demo team. Someone knew someone who could get the work done immediately. We hired them and Thursday morning the shed debris was finally cleared.

We've been covered in several local media so far, including

• The South End News
  
• The Boston Herald
  
• Fox news Boston
  

If you'd like to help us rebuild, you can send a tax-deductible donation to

Berkeley Garden Shed Fund
c/o SELROSLT
P.O. Box 180923
Boston, MA, 02118

Garden fire

Well, my morning began with a 6:30 am phone call with the phrase "the shed is gone". Apparently someone set fire to the shed in our community garden. It's a total loss. Shed and contents came to over $5,000. our guess right now is one of the homeless or drug users that we've been throwing out of the garden and arresting came back and set it, but police are investigating. Right now we're worrying about clean up, then re-acquisition. sigh.

More pics and news updates can be found on the garden web site, www.berkeleygardens.org

Movie night - Wanted

Saw Wanted this weekend. better than expected. A cross between Die hard and The matrix. A zillion plot holes, but stuff you can overlook and just have fun with the movie. McAvoy cute as ever to top it off :) Definitely check it out.

Movie roundup

I'll follow in the footsteps of many of my friends and review some of the movies I've seen/rented. Since I'm catching up on Netflix, I've had a busy week.

Robbie Williams Show - decent concert. lots of high energy stuff. but a bit all over the place for music. B

Band Wagon - Rented this after Cyd Charise's passing. Not enough of her dancing in it though. The best routine can be found on YouTube here. The move is your standard "Lets throw some kind of plot around singing and dancing". "That's Entertainment" and "Triplets" are the famous numbers form the movie. B

Eastern Promises. Reviews and trailer looked good. Move was a little slow for me. nice fight scene in the sauna. B-

Jumper - Better than all the reviewers made it out to be, but yes, it had all the plot holes everyone talked about. Good general entertainment, just don't expect acting. :) B-

Naked Boys Singing. Where to start. It was just OK. after 30 seconds the novelty wears off. Seeing the few 'clothed' numbers, you realize how important clothes are to a stage setting. Imagine watching any play with them naked. You would be constantly think "Naked!" ratehr than enjoying the play itself. For the DVD - watch the 'making of' first. it's interesting and gets you into the 'right' setting. Then watch the show - you'll enjoy it more. C+

fashion run-way

So it's still spring-like here in Boston. Was out by the river yesterday reading and seeing the sights. Some interesting sites as well. I'm a little surprised the 'droopy pants' fashion has hit the running world. Lots of guys running with shorts that look like they're going to fall down the trip up the runners. On some guys you could see ...ummm the top of the palm tree :) and they look like a plumber from behind. Perhaps a bit of fashion I could learn to enjoy watching :)

The devil is in the details

With all the hoopla about the tax rebate, only one news station gives us the real bad news. This 'stimulus' is really an advance on next years (potential) refund. That's right, you're just getting your next years rebate a year earlier, meaning next year your refund will be that much smaller.

Why should I get excited over this???

Apartments and Conglomerates...

I looked at an apartment yesterday. I'm not looking to move or anything. A new mega apartment building opened up, and I've been seeing it under construction for a year or two, so I decided to check it out. best thing to say is "a fool and their money".

This is another building of several recent ones opening in Boston that was built and owned by a large company that builds rental units (name withheld to prevent me from being sued. :-) This building is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. You could cross the highway of death and get to the mall, but that's about it.

So a nice new dull lobby (When did the 70's come back into fashion? And how did I just walk into the Brady bunch house). of course, no one who is working there is actually form THIS building's office, so most of my questions are answered with an "I don't know" And to think I left my cheque book at home.

So I see some very small apartments. I think they include closets and such to get those large square foot numbers. Tiny kitchens with almost no space to put things. the cheapest carper I've ever seen. Washer and dryer in the apartments - but the real cheapo units.

Then we see the two bedrooms. A bit bigger, almost livable. but three guesses what is maybe 5 feet from the windows? The train tracks. That's right. Your view here is of the subway line. I felt like I was in a NYC cold water flat, waiting for the elevated to go by. Well, my prayers are answered The woman says "you can't even hear the subway". As the words leave her lips, a train goes by. The apartment rumbles. We don't have to shout, but the rumble is quite loud. Both the living room and one bedroom face these tracks. On the way home I made sure to look out the subway as we passed the building. yep, you could see in so clearly I could wave and have someone wave back...

They must have been really desperate, to show probably the worst unit in the building as their open house unit. But the best part is yet to come. This two bedroom unit is... $3,000 per month. That's right. You can high five the subway as it rumbles past you for only 3K per month. (plus parking, of course). For an apartment in the middle of nowhere. Oh, and heat is not included.

the sad part, is this building will probably will up. The rental office was full of people who stayed for 'more information'. Well, a fool and their money...

You have a new friend. Now please pay me.

So I received yet another email from reunion.com. This is the service wehre old high school chums and re-connect with each other. "Someone has signed your guest book". So I try to read my new guest book entry. The excitement builds! Whoops - sorry, you're not a real member. oh well...

You see, both Reunion, and other big name Classmates.com are pay services. You can sign on and make a profile, and even do a basic search for free, but to actually contact anyone you need to pay to become a member. And neither is really cheap - $35-40 per year. Now, unless you're like 5 minutes out of high school, connecting with old classmates is more of a curiosity than a driving force in your life. And at 26 years after graduation, I'm amazed that some of these people are still breathing. :)

First off, while I enjoy competition - do we really need tow companies that do the same thing? I mean, after sending a few emails to names you remember, aren't you pretty much done? With so many free sites (like MS) out there, what in the world would I get for $40? And why $40? Why not $10? For $10 I might sign up just to see who is around. But even at $10, you think I'm going to pay you $10 a year for 26 years? And that depends on which service your friends might be on. What if I pay reunion and my buddies are on classmates? Now we're paying $80 a year for both services. So much for competition bringing down prices. Maybe I'll just have to wait for one of them to go out of business and see what the other one does? I mean come on - if XM wants to buy Sirius, why can't one of these reunion services buy out the other. or have MS/FB just take over and we can have a free way to contact old buds.

Until then, my mailbox will continue to fill up with 'somebody searched for you' or 'somebody remembers you' and have to sit and wonder who from my past wants to pay me a visit...

John McLachlan
SHS 1982

This is security?

Hey - testing some new blog posting software here... Let's see what this post looks like.

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So while visiting Charlotte for Christmas, the flights were of course screwed up. 3 of 4 flights were late. And the one that wasn't late lost my luggage. And that's where our story begins...

So when the luggage machine shuts down and my bag wasn't there, O had to go to the CSA. He types into his computer for a few minutes, and cheerfully declares they have no idea where my luggage is.

Now in this day and age of mega security and IDs and constant scanning, they have no idea where my bag is. He things it might be on this other plane. but they don't know.

Well, doesn't that make me feel safe. At least I had the sense to not put my house keys into my luggage (sorry Dave :)

Boom?

OK, why was the oil man smoking a cigarette while delivering oil to the neighbours house the other day? Am I the only one to think this is a bad idea?