Thanks for Coming

I found this comic on BoingBoing, and I think it's an interesting take on today's holiday, it's history, terrorism, and let's throw in illegal immigration (why not).

The Day Before Thanksgiving

I was originally going to post about a study that came out recently claiming the "Internet could run out of capacity in two years", then thought about ranting on about how the recently released first two seasons of Sesame Street DVDs are labeled adult-only...I even thought about writing up a review for another disappointing movie TLM and I saw this week called "In the Land of Women". Then the magnitude of today happened and I realized:

I hate the day before Thanksgiving.

I'm not sure if it's a consequence of getting older, and it certainly has nothing to do with what the holiday is supposed to represent. It's everything else about it that makes me crazy. The people in the stores, the pressure to plan out tomorrow making sure to be as inclusive of everyone as you can, and of course then there's the actual family members. As far as I can tell, any plans you make with them prior to the day before Thanksgiving should always be disregarded; they always seem to change at the last minute.

Ah, how I miss the days of my childhood, never having to worry about where or when I had to be somewhere for a family event.

Damn adulthood...
 

Walk Score

I found this on Joel Spolsky's "Joel on Software" blog...and it's pretty fresh. It's a Google Maps mashup called Walk Score, which, once you supply an address, gives you a list of stores, bars, restaurants, and parks in the area. and, as it's name implies, a "walk score". They are pretty big on getting people to walk places, and identify themselves primarily as a tool to "help homebuyers, renters, and real estate agents find houses and apartments in great neighborhoods."

Our place only got a 58 out of 100 (I believe that's just failing), not surprising since we now live in a suburb. My last place in Eastie got a 75, which leads me to believe whatever algorithm they use to calculate this score doesn't take into account personal safety while walking.

Lowell is Back!

Bust out the Black Sabbath clips - Mike Lowell appears to have come to an agreement with the Red Sox for 3 years. Excellent. Things couldn't have worked out better.

Happy Birthday Al! Sorry the Celtics lost, but the Pats are still undefeated, A-Stupid stayed with the Yankees, and now Mike Lowell gave us some good news today.
 

Our Kitchen - Redux

We decided it was time to give our facelift, and so last weekend we went out, got some paint and some tiles and went to task. Who knew vinal tiling was this easy?


TLM even found a nice replacement for the whiteboard. Note the coat hooks, er, mega key rack on the bottom.

Time Waster: Maukie the Cat

Thanks, WidgetBox. Now we have 3 cats.

A-Rod Still A Yankee - Luckily

So it looks like A-Fraud will remain a Yankee after all, and the deal was done without superstar sports agent Scott Boras (haha). Good...he can hit all the home runs he wants, but as long as he's on the Yankees, they will never win a postseason series.

"I like to keep all the people I hate together, so I don't feel conflicted." -TLM on A-Rod staying with the Yankees

I agree. Needless to say many others called up sports radio today and shared the same sentiment. My big question is, why the rush? Wouldn't it have made more sense business wise for A-Broad to hold out until January, like Johnny Damon did? At least another month of shopping himself around was, I think, expected.

Some say he came crawling back because he always wanted to stay with the Yankers (maybe)...that it was his agent who caused all the friction (highly likely). Others will point out that not that many other teams would have been able to afford his hefty price tag (probably true). Still others will claim that he just wants to be on a winning team, a claim to which I respond "...so why is going back to play for the Yankees?".

I think something else is going on here. The Mitchell report is coming out within the next couple of months, and we already know that there are going to be some "big names" on the list, including over 10 current free agents. We also know that those free agents know who they are. Could it be that the big rush to sign a guaranteed contract with a team was, dare I say it, an act of desperation by a man who knows his value is about to go down? Is there a clause somewhere that will let the Yankees opt out of his contract if that's the case? Are purple lips a side-effect of using too many steroids?

Let him play on the Bronx so he can hold them back...while he is still allowed to play.

Uh-Oh, Barry

This looks like the beginning of the end for the home run king* (and Greg Anderson's prison sentence too, I'll bet).

Aquatron

How cool is that title? "Aquatron" - is it some kind of underwater computer? Might it be an 80's game where you race fish? Perhaps it's a color most men have never heard of.

In fact, the Aquatron was a "Space Age" 8-track stereo put out by Brother in the late 60's / early 70s. I ran into one today when I went over to see Jaz's new place (finally, seeing as how he's been there a year).

The place was nice, and definitely lived up to the description he gave me, including lots of homemade art on the walls, a dance room, and an impressive ready-to-record music room. There was even an office (work is done between painting, dancing and playing music), complete with at least three Macs in sight - laptops and desktops - and it was in this room I saw the Aquatron sitting innocuously on the corner of a table.

It didn't really stand out at first, as there were lots of other interesting objects to look at in the room, but shortly after Jaz pointed out its suction-cup base and hide-away handle, he casually mentioned what I think is its coolest feature (and the reason I'm even posting about it): they have the Aquatron hooked up to play music through Airtunes.

That's right; one can port any music they want to hear directly to this stereo, (thus completely removing the need for 8-track tapes!). In a house where, and I quote, they "don't have cable, man", I find this to be the best use of Airtunes I've seen yet. Nice.

Oh, and Jaz, get cable.

Time Waster: Pac-Man

One of the classics is still the best, and is even available as a widget, though I decided to make it a post rather than a permanent part of the site in the name of productivity. Don't waste too much time, you have work to do!

I Can Has Cheezburger

I thought a little levity was in order today. TLM showed me a site a few days ago called icanhascheezburger.com, and I agree with how she described it to me: you may think it's stupid at first, but then you keep looking and you eventually find something hilarious. This is my recent favorite:

Make the Time

I lost a family member today. He'd been sick for a long time and he passed away early this morning in his home. He wasn't a brother or a grandfather, but I knew him, and he knew me.

Most of my memories of him come from my childhood. He and his wife would always be at family gatherings, and they would even host a Christmas party every year that seemingly everyone went to. I also remember my mother taking me on many, many summer trips out to a house he owned with his brother on a lake, where I learned how to swim.

I would never have to refer to an aunt or my mother and ask "What's his name again?", and I had heard many stories from my parents and others about him, though I never really got a chance to have a good conversation with him in my adult life.

I would see his wife, my 2nd cousin, at weddings and milestone birthday parties, but he was always not well enough to be there in person. I would ask about him and she would give me honest answers, then I'd say something like "Tell him I said hello."

More recently she'd suggest I come over for a visit, and though I always meant to, I never did. Never, that is, until two days ago when I went with my mother and my aunt and saw him nearing the end of his life.

He was mostly in a daze and wasn't able to talk much. All we could really do was talk to him, hold his hand, and ultimately say goodbye.

...

While we were there I saw lots of the things he had crafted around the house. This was his hobby and a big part of his life, and I never knew this about him. He had hand-made decorations everywhere, and I was even shown his workshop. It made me realize I could've known him a lot more, and likewise he could've known me a lot more too. I could've told him about how I met my fiancée, or how I play in a baseball league, or even just how I have my own blog.

I never had the chance to get to know him better, to know him as more than a figure from my childhood or a character in a family story. I never made the time to go and see him, and I should have.

It may sound cliché, but it should never be the case that you "don't have time". If there is something you mean to do, something you want to do, you make the time.

I wish I had.

Rest in peace Billy.
 

Meebo - All in one IM

I can remember the first time I signed into Yahoo messenger all those years ago. I encouraged many of my friends to sign up for a Yahoo account just so they could use this wonderful new technology with me. In fact, I remember seeing recently a TXT somewhere on a backup disc that contained a transcript of a chat with AL-9000 (yeah, I was geeky then, too).

Then along came AIM. "Meh, who needs more than one of these things anyway?" I thought to myself, "Besides, all my friends are on Yahoo".

Such was not the case for too long, especially after the introduction of iChat. Even I, an ardent AOL hater, signed up for a free AIM account just so I could use this new IM client. Eventually, a dilemma evolved: how do I monitor all of my Buddy Lists at once? A better question: is there an easier way to monitor them all without having to open up all of these programs.

In fact, many people wondered the same thing, and consequently many solutions have sprung up over the years. My new personal discovery: Meebo. Not only do they allow for AIM, Yahoo, MSN, GoogleTalk, ICQ, and Jabber accounts, but they also have a nifty feature called MeeboMe that lets you put a "live chat" box (or whatever you want to call it) right on your blog (um, take a look to the right). Any visitor who wants to drop a line or chat love can do so through the Meebo widget, and it's as if they were on your buddy list.

You don't download Meebo; it's web-based and you let it stay open somewhere on your screen. Besides that the only downside I can see so far is no audio/video chat, but that's not uncommon. Oh, and let's hope you don't get MeeboMe'd to death from randoms who want to tell you how awesome your blog is....we do have actual jobs and work to do, after all.

:)

No Google Phone - Joy of Tech

In light of Google's announcement that there won't be an actual, tangible Google phone (as well as what's coming soon in the mail for a certain fiancée of mine) I point you to this comic, which is one whose feed I subscribe to called "The Joy of Tech". Yay Google!

BustedTees - Should I Regress?

So I stumble upon this site called BustedTees and almost immediately my inner adolescent manifests itself and I'm thinking not only about which of these I'd wear, but also of all those shirts I used to own. I had quite a collection, albeit in high school. Among those I can remember were a black Huckleberry Hound shirt, a "Don't Have a Cow, Man" Bart Simpson tee, a Speedy Gonzales shirt...I even had an original black Phillie's Blunt shirt (that wasn't telegraphing anything to the police, noooooo).


As I'm about to add to my cart a red shirt featuring a chimp in a beret with the words "Viva La Evolution", TLM walks in. I think to myself, "Great"...who better to enjoy a little online shopping with me? Instead, I'm told "I would rather you get something more age-appropriate. You can quote me on that." (see below!). Well, all it took was another look at their online catalog until we found something she thought was worth buying: a tee that read "Jesse and the Rippers", a reference (obviously) to the band John Stamos fronted in the TV show "Full House".

"I would rather you get something more age-appropriate." -TLM

So, is TLM right? Are these shirts meant to be worn only by high-schoolers and people born in the 90's? There were definitely some that I would guess people that young wouldn't understand, yet still there does seem something weird about wearing something that said "Leave Lindsay a-Lohan" or had a picture of William Shakespeare and the phrase "Prose before Hos". Should I live with reckless abandon and buy a few?

Hmmmm....maybe I'll just buy a few as "Christmas presents"...