The time, it has vanished. I look up and it’s the holidays again. Happily, the local CVS drug store started selling gift cards for other stores. I bought a shitload of Barnes and Nobles giftcards because, with my family, the deafult “I don’t know what to get you but I know you’ll like and use this” gift is the Barnes and Noble giftcard. And given that my family is just as bad at giving gift ideas as I am, this ability to get everyone the same gift card is an excellent out. Being able to dodge the malls and strip-malls in favor of the CVS down the street from my office is a giant bonus as well. All other presents were online, so ever better. | Read the rest of this entry …

Let me preface this little rant by stating that I know that I’m not the best driver in the world. I’ve had my share of dumb-ass moves and been in more than my share of accidents (I’d like to point out that 90% of these accidents were the fault of the other motorist(s), including the policemen with whose cars I collided, which is why my insurance is still low), and will certainly not claim to be holier than the unwashed masses. However, what I experience on a daily basis in this state boggles my mind. I just don’t understand what other people on the road are thinking and can only assume by their idiotic actions that they are, in fact, not. I assume it has to be like this in other states as well, but one thing that the Northeast has is a high density of cars on some outmoded roads. This means that our assclowns are worse than your assclowns only because they have much less space in which to perform their fuckery. What inspired me to tap out this little missive is the fact that my heart rate hit triple digits this morning on my commute into the office. Mind you, due to my recent heart issues I’m on drugs that keep my heart rate down so when I come close to my target exercise heart rate without actually moving, something’s amiss. | Read the rest of this entry …

It’s obvious to anyone who reads anything I write or who has spoken with me for more than a few minutes: I’m a nerd. I’m just fine with that. Part of my nerdish nature revolves around horror, fantasy and sci-fi books and movies. With that in mind, try to imagine my horror when I first saw the trailer for the upcoming Will Smith vehicle, “I Am Legend.” “I Am Legend” is a book published in 1954 by Richard Matheson. When I first heard about the book back in the late Nineties, I had tracked down a copy on a fledgling Amazon.com (back when they still sold only books) and, after reading it, added it to my list of all-time-great horror stories. I won’t rehash the plot here (you can read it yourself), but suffice it to say that the idea of Will Smith in the lead role, having it set in a major city, and the fact that it’s directed by a guy who used to direct a lot of music videos for pop stars bodes ill for this project. I know Will Smith can, on occasion, expand his acting abilities beyond snappy one-lines in over-hyped, under-written action films, but the trailers for this adaptation lead me to believe that the studio is approaching this with less than reverence for the source material and more for the CG department. | Read the rest of this entry …

After getting a bite to eat, I decided to head to my regular bar to catch the Red Sox game. The place was packed, which was expected as tonight was game four of the World Series and a chance for the Red Sox to sweep the Rockies. I sat outside for a bit watching the game on an LCD screen near a large gas heater (a bit chilly tonight). Then I headed to the main bar and snagged a standing-room-only spot at the edge of the bar near the wait staff serving area. I spoke to the owner for a bit as well as several of the staff whom I’ve come to know over the several months I’ve been hanging out there. The owner was nice enough to buy me a beer and I got to enjoy a real pint glass (when it gets crowded they often switch to plastic to keep up with demand and to avoid potential breakage), which always makes the Magic Hat #9 taste better. Then as Papelbon struck out the last Rockies batter, the owner busted out a whole slew of champagne bottles and started spraying. I got drenched in champagne (managed to get my PDA phone into my pocket before it got hit too much), and I have to say it was a first for me. Bar staff then poured the rest of the champagne and handed cups to as many people as they could - many toasts were raised and the bar owner worked the crowd as rowdy as any fan. In a town where I know very few people and where most of my friends are far enough away that I rarely see them, it’s nice to have a place to go where, even though you know it’s business, you’re welcomed and made to feel at home. And tonight, it was good to share the experience of the Red Sox winning their second World Series in four years with a group of excited fans. Yeah, almost as cheesy as the theme music to “Cheers”, but the sentiment is legit.

I was catching up on the local news today and noticed that there is some grumbling about Deval Patrick’s foreclosure program. This got me thinking about the so-called “crisis” in the housing market where those people who took advantage of subprime loans and ARMs are discovering that they vastly overextended themselves and can no longer afford their mortgage after the rate adjusts. This is happening everywhere because the housing market was pretty hot a few years back, and Massachusetts (which has had an overpriced housing market for years before the housing boom) was right at the head of the pack. Now that the housing market has cooled and the realities of ARMs are hitting home for those who should never have bought a house in the first place, suddenly it’s a crisis. What’s more amazing to me is that both Federal and State governments are trying to find ways to bailout homeowners who can’t meet their financial responsibilities. Whatever happened to people taking responsibility for their own actions? | Read the rest of this entry …

Having recently had a heart attack that required a week in the hospital, two catheterization procedures for both investigation and the placing of stents, and a need for prescription drugs for the rest of my life, I’ve discovered that I have a stronger interest in the health care system here in the United States. One of the concepts that keeps getting pushed out there by politicians is the concept of Socialized Health Care, or Universal Health Care. This would be an attempt to mimic the health care systems of countries like Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Cuba and so forth. I’ve been doing a little bit of research and while I agree that our system of health care has a lot of issues that need to be addressed, moving to Socialized Health Care seems like a giant step in the wrong direction. | Read the rest of this entry …

I done busted it but good. Yep, I had me a heart attack about two weeks ago or so. As many others have done before me and many others will do after me, I ignored the symptoms with what my mother has been overheard terming “Yankee stoicism” and went about my business…for about five days. This including riding my motorcycle North to visit family. It was there that I discovered that I couldn’t really walk more than five steps or so before I would become short-of-breath and my chest would start burning. By the way: if anyone out there has some strange chest constrictions in conjunction with an aching jaw and/or aching teeth (as I did), go to the hospital. I had no idea that jaw and teeth aches were heart-attack-related symptoms, but they are. | Read the rest of this entry …

A while back, I signed an online petition organized by a then-fledgling group called MoveOn.Org. The petition was in protest of abuses by the FCC. MoveOn.Org provided another outlet for me to express my frustration with the direction of the FCC, the other being the EFF. By signing this petition, I became a “member” of MoveOn, apparently. This was entertaining for me because my political views fall way outside MoveOn’s general spectrum. I’ve never donated money to any of their causes or ads, but I have signed the occasional petition for actions I believe to be legitimate and in the best interest of our country. I don’t support most of their actions, but neither will I decry their efforts as I find their passion to be inspiring. I may not agree with them all the time, but I wholeheartedly support their effort to involve the regular folks who often feel so disenfranchised. MoveOn.Org recently ran an ad that attacked General Petraeus’ report to Congress about the effectiveness of the troop surge in Iraq. They basically claimed that Petraeus was “cherry-picking” his facts to make the surge look effective when multiple reports from other sources indicated that the surge was not effective. As part of their ad they called him “General Betray Us”. Needless to say, some were not amused. | Read the rest of this entry …

I realized last night that I couldn’t work on “The Daily Show“. Assuming, of course, that I even had the talent to write for this show, I don’t think I could handle the work. I enjoy the show and I enjoy the way they skewer politics/politicians, but I would lose my mind. They spend hours and hours watching the news, reading the wire services and reviewing speeches. Then they condense all the idiocy into a few minutes of on-topic comedy. I imagine that I would soon cease to find the comedy and just get angrier and angrier. Listening to those self-serving “public servants” spew their bullshit day after day would just drive me nuts. I couldn’t write comedy, I could only write anger. That’s why I have a ton of respect for the staffers on “The Daily Show”. I may not agree with all their political viewpoints, but I admire their ability to point out the ridiculous in our political process. They somehow manage to find the comedic center of all the idiocy in which they immerse themselves. That’s hard work.

The other night, Bob Weir and RatDog performed at Boarding House Park, home of the Lowell Summer Music series. As expected, the place was packed (over-packed, really) with a crowd made up primarily of that group loosely defined as “hippies”. Now, I don’t know what happened to the romantic vision of hippies that once flourished in the youth of the baby boomer generation, but the last thing I experienced from this large crowd was peace and love. | Read the rest of this entry …