| Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 |
| 7:51 pm |
Pedestrian crossing
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) eric_mathgeek has posted about his trials and tribulations trying to ride his bicycle in the Newton/JP neighborhoods. I have one, of sorts, from a different perspective. Driving on my way home last night, as I was about to make the last major turn, I see a young man on a bicycle trying to cross the street. He was perched on the edge of the pedestrian crossing so I stopped. I was the only one. Traffic honked their horns impatiently behind me and cars in the lane next to me continued on their merry way. Traffic on the other side also flowed effortlessly. Eventually I realized that I'm just holing traffic up and this kid was stuck on his own. Eventually he just beckoned me forward and I shrugged in that "I tried" kind of way. |
| Saturday, November 21st, 2009 |
| 2:04 am |
New England Fan Experience
Just attended the one and only sci-fi convention of the year * for me. Previously known as United Fan Con and held in Springfield, it's now New England Fan Experience and this time held at the Courtyard Marriot in Boston's theater district. I was quickly dismayed at the setup but I know I was spoiled at the Marriott in Springfield. There, most of the convention was held on one floor along a long corridor. First was the dealers room, then panel rooms, then the corridor widened out for club tables leading to the main ballroom. Now, the ballroom is on the first floor while panel and dealers room are on the fifth floor. It wouldn't be so bad being the next floor up but a five floor difference is a bit much. And this fifth floor space is quite cramped. And short. And it just doesn't seem right. There were only three guests of the whole lineup that I was interested in seeing. Leonard Nimoy was one of them but the only way to see him was fork over another couple hundred bucks so that took him off the list just as quickly. Which left Gareth David-Lloyd from Torchwood and a couple members of Ghost Hunters International. They were all good speakers. A highlight was this troupe acting as members of Torchwood including a resurrected Ianto. They put on a bizarre version of "The Dating Game" starring Captain Jack - Sparrow. Not to worry, our Captain Jack was in attendance (though I think their Ianto was cuter (and he likes fellas in leather!)) So it was a good show and we'll see how next year goes! * EDIT: I've been reminded that I attended Boskone at the beginning of the year so NEFE was *not* the only sci-fi convention I went to. Arisia too, for that matter... |
| Thursday, November 5th, 2009 |
| 9:20 pm |
Daylight Savings Oopsie
I was able to change all the clocks (of course the computer and cell phone changed themselves). Except one. I can't change the time in the car. I take a pen and I press the indented H button repeatedly and the hour won't change. Argh. Initially I covered the whole clock with duct tape. Why look at the time if it's wrong? But I realized that I'm usually in the car for less than an hour at a time so I'd still want to look at the minutes. So I just covered the hours with tape. And it will stay that way until the next time change. Or if I get something else. |
| Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 |
| 8:18 pm |
|
| Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 |
| 7:34 pm |
Available Men
Found this great video on YouTube. Put simply: four men meet in a hotel. Two are gay, two are not. Hilarity ensues. Really. Worth it alone for the name of the production company. |
| Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 |
| 10:00 pm |
|
| 4:29 am |
Summertime
Here's an unusual version of Gershwin's "Summertime" |
| Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 |
| 10:39 am |
|
| 9:43 am |
Quiet time
Before much of the day goes by, I'd just like to say that I'm off until Thursday with nothing planned so if anybody local wishes to have a quiet get-together and help this poor boy while away the last of his vacation, I'd be interested. That is all. |
| Friday, October 2nd, 2009 |
| 9:58 am |
But first...
I shall soon be headed out to Provincetown for Mates Leather Weekend (so shouldn't you be packing instead of surfing the Net?). I will likely not be around online (you better not, bitch!) So in the meantime, a little entertainment... |
| Friday, September 18th, 2009 |
| 7:42 pm |
Old friend
I just had an OMG moment as a friend I haven't seen since high school friended me on Facebook. I remember chatting with others over what happened to this person and I'd just assumed he dropped off the face of the earth. Or worse. And here he is! And he's gay. Now, I mostly remember the clique I hung out with in high school. Let's say it was six boys and four girls. Of those six boys, five have turned out to be gay. I wonder if somehow we knew that back then? It seems like an amazing coincidence. |
| Friday, September 4th, 2009 |
| 7:59 am |
Septemger vacation - Day 2
Today's agenda was visiting Washington DC. I had hoped my brother could come along with me but he works nights and he's want to sleep. So I was on my own! Had to figure out the Metro myself, but thanks to my experience with the MBTA, it's all pretty much the same. The first order of business was to visit the Sculpture Garden near the Smithsonian. I got a video of Richtenstein's House which I'll post when I get home. If you like optical illusions... I did stop in an art museum. The art was mostly sculpture and I got a few pictures (which was okay as long as I didn't use the flash) From there I went to the Air and Space museum. Lots of planes (like Wright Brothers flyer) and spaceships (like lunar lander). I pretty much ran through the place clicking everywhere I went; though I do wish I got a shot of Skylab from the inside. Now it was time to make the arduous journey across the Mall to the Washington Monument. It's more impressive during the day. I didn't go inside. From there I found the WWII memorial which is *very* nice! Loud too with all the rushing water. At this point my doggies were srarting to bark but despite that I walked along the lengh of the reflecting pool (should be renamed the Goose Poop Pool) to the Lincoln Memorial. Nice and cool and I got some night shots there. It was at this point that I was WOOFed by a guy on a bicycle. He was cute so I WOOFed back. And then I glowed for the rest of the afternoon. I wanted to see the Korean War memorial but couldn't remember where it was. Naturally towards the end of my sightseing is when I pick up a map. Unfortunately the FDR, Teddy Roosevelt and Jefferson Memorials were all out of reach at this point. But I did see the Korean War memorial (though it's much better at night) Juat one more stop to go - the White House! I had to retrace my steps back to the WWII memorial and then cross the street. Now at this point my feet are getting very sore. But I journey on. Found the place eventually but didn't realize until after I got home that I photographed the wrong side! Argh. I asked a hunky security guard which way to the Metro and he pointed me in the right direction. I wanted a picture of him too. Then it was fighting the crowd and the Metro itself to get on the right line home. The Green Line! Funny that. Lil Bro picked me up and treated us to dinner at Chick-Fil-A. Then it was just surfing the net. Then he went to work and I went to sleep with the pugs. No mean feat, I can assure you. |
| Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 |
| 11:13 pm |
September vacation Day 1
This weekend is Delta! But First Today I headed out to visit my brother (and sister-in-law but she's away on business) in Waldorf, MD. I had told him of my usual drive down MA, CT, and NJ into MD and back up PA to the camp. Well he bristled when he heard NJ and suggested an alternative route. Basically I-84 to its very end in Scranton, PA then down I-81 to I-83 and finally back to I-95 between Baltimore and DC and then taking the Beltway to his house. Which took me nearly 12 hours to do! The usual route would likely have been half that! So I ain't doing *that* again Arrived at Alan's house and was quickly introduced to his thre black pug dogs: Jenny, Kurt, and Carl. And dogs being dopgs were quickly all over me sniffing this and licking that. Unfortunately their owners never gave their dogs commands like "Don't" and "stop" so they became rather unbearable. Alan works nights so he gave me instructions on how to get the dogs into their kennels for the night. Which I did but he said they'd whine a little and settle down. Well right now they're *howling* albeit not too loudly. I"m feeling like a heel right now but I'm under orders. At least I think I am. When lil bro comes back home I'll find out if I messed up somewhere. Tomorrow I'll be exploring DC on my own. I'll be walking the City while Alan sleeps but I hope to return so we can do something fun together. Mini golf? Duckpin bowling? And then he'll have to go to work again leaving me behind with dogs. And then on Friday... well we'll come to that later... |
| Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 |
| 7:28 pm |
Videos!
As I've been traveling these past few weeks, I've been making videos with my digital camera. Boy am i glad I discovered that function! It's a good function but I can only make very small videos because the memory card is quite small. And according to a Best Buy person, that's the biggest card my camera can take. So a slight miscalculation there when selecting cameras... But anyway, let's commence watching videos! ( Videos hidden behind the cut because they may affect bandwidth. Or something ) |
| 6:56 pm |
Endoscopy: the Verdict
I have acid reflux! And I guess I'm on Flovent and Prilosec forever. And I should get another endoscopy if "things change" like get worse, I guess. But that's the cause of all my problems. OK, I didn't sound convinced there so I found a web site about acid reflux and I guess that really is my problem and it sounds like it, like asthma, isn't going away. You can read it hereAnd what it really means is a squirt of chemical down my throat twice a day and a pill first thing every day. Small price to pay for staying out of the emergency room. EDIT: I neglected to mention that there's no sign of infection; nor of the dreaded "C" word. |
| Monday, August 24th, 2009 |
| 7:39 pm |
Spider Gates
There's this cemetery in the middle of woods in Worcester called Spider Gates reputed to be, if not haunted, just a very eerie place to be. It's been rumored that satanists and/or cultists use the space for... whatever they use a space like that for. Around Halloween I peruse paranormal web sites and that one particular place keeps cropping up as a "place of interest." To the point that I'd want to find it if I had a clue. On Saturday I went to a coworker's Hawaiian cookout and while there I overheard the grandfather of all these children say "come on, everybody, who's going to Spider Gates!" I said, "You know where that is?" and he said, "Sure, want to come along?" You bet I do! And here are my pictures of Spider Gates cemetery. As you can see it's not much, but it is a cemetery in the middle of woods. I thought that was a rather odd place to put a cemetery... |
| 11:27 am |
Pictures from the Cape
On Friday I took a day trip to Cape Cod; specifically Provincetown. Just a quick visit in the summer season as I believe my next visit won't be until Mates Weekend in October. On my way I stopped for really cheap miniature golf. It was only two bucks to play and the course reflected the price. But here's a few obstacles: Almost pinball:  Actually got my ball through the hole in the hill. Didn't help me any...  Isn't he cuuuuute?  I stopped at MG Leather where they have this out front:  And then I saw an angel!  I also saw Madame and Randy Price but wasn't quick enough for a picture on either one. My brush with celebrities! |
| Friday, August 21st, 2009 |
| 11:01 am |
More pictures!
From this past weekend, the first batch is from my visit to Mount Greylock, the tallest peak in Massachusetts. I haven't been in years so I look lots of snapshots. Also there's pictures of the the back of the new garage and you see it's all been repaired. So of course my dad's on another project replacing the window frame of a front window. There's also pictures of a very fun miniature golf course (though it was once better) and of Balance Rock, a fondly remember but obviously neglected treasure. Mount GreylockOn my return trip back to Newton, I paused at Quabbin Reservoir. I also hadn't been here in years and took lots of pictures. The sheer magnitude of what was done to create the reservoir still boggles my mind. The very last two pictures are of a small walking bridge I tend to pass by on my way home from work. This time, I had my camera with me! Quabbin Reservoir |
| Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 |
| 11:28 am |
Red Alert
While typing my last post, I had the radio playing quietly in the background. Suddenly the Emergency Broadcast System broke in the middle of a song. This was *not* a test! But the radio was so quiet, I couldn't hear what it had to say! I hope it wasn't *that* important... |
| 11:09 am |
The Quiet Life - for the moment
Let me paint you a picture. I'm sitting with my crap laptop actually sitting on my lap and I'm sitting in a rocking chair. It's in one corner of the living room facing the front door and the picture window. I'm on a secondary road so it gets a bit of traffic. Mostly because it's a straight shorter less-traffic-light way of getting from one part of Route 8 to the other. But it's quiet; much less quieter than at home. Because I don't hear the Mass Pike roaring away just over a block away. Don't get me wrong; it can be a comforting sound but now I notice its absence. That's right; I'm back at my parents' house in Dalton. The garage is completely repaired and the house looks great. Except for a missing window on the front. My dad tried to repair some window frames. A while ago, he got new windows put in that were energy efficient and actually open and close when you want them to. Unfortunately the new windows were put in the old wooden frames and some of them have rotted away. He was able to fix or replace the frame for the window in the garage. Since the garage was practically being redone anyway, it seemed like a good idea. Then he started another window in the house and it's been a nightmare. So now there's a big piece of plywood where a window should be. Not exactly a picturesque look. My dad helped me replace the second headlight yesterday. We tried taking the battery out to get some leverage but the bolt that holds the battery down at the base would have broken off if we tried. So hopefully I won't have to get the battery out any time soon. Instead he thought of taking the light out of the car which worked like a charm! So then by physically holding the headlight assembly in our hands, replacing the bulb was a snap! That's a big reason why I wanted to do the job here because I would never thought of that. I also did all of my laundry yesterday. I went crazy and brought towels and bed sheets and my electric blanket. The kicker with the blanket is that it's not supposed to go into a dryer; it had to dry just hanging around. BUT I noticed the clothesline in the backyard was gone! So Mother suggested I just drape the blanket over a rack in the basement. And now it's nearly completely dry and very likely will be fully dry by the time I head back home. Today's "project" is to look for soccer socks. I've heard they can be a nice replacement for boot socks when I want to wear my tall boots. There's a Dick's where Bradlees used to be so I'll stop by there. And then it's off to Mount Greylock! The highest point in Massachusetts and I haven't been there in years! And now armed with my digital camera, I should get some nice pictures. After that I think I'll take in a game of mini golf and take pictures of that as well. Where I want to go had refurbished the course several years ago and it's not as good as it once was. But it's still nice. If I have time perhaps I'll try other points of interest like the Pittsfield State Forest or even Balance Rock! I wonder if it's still balancing... And then head for home. Either tonight or perhaps wait until tomorrow. I had hoped to get to P'town tomorrow or Friday but the weather forecast doesn't look promising. We'll see. |
