Weekend roundup

Saturday was the 20th anniversary of the Challenger disaster. I remember sitting in my high school class when the principal came by to announce that the shuttle had exploded. What the f. It's been twenty years already?

Yesterday, I went to see the Lock Monsters again with my son, J., and my two brothers-in-law. I felt ill going to and from the game. Not sure if it's reminants of my stomach virus, or the riding in my brother-in-law's Expedition, or whether it was the strange musty odor in the truck, or a combination of all three. J. had fun, although most of the game he had his hands over his ears due to all the noise. He's always been sensitive to loud noises.

On the way home, my wife called and asked for a strange request - to pick up a roast beef sandwich to bring home. Mind you, she hasn't eaten one of those in ages. And, no she's not pregnant! Her monthly friend has visited and she needs the extra iron.

I'm tired of hearing and reading about this sad story of a local double murder of a mother and her 9 month old baby. Someone needs to get the facts from the husband and why the f*cker is seeming to not give a shit about what happened to his wife and kid. It burns me up.

Beware the wrath of The Oprah

Author James Frey looked like a little bug on the Oprah show yesterday from what I saw of the highlights. I wish I had taped it so that I would have watched it. She let him have it and rightfully so. If a book is written as a memoir, it should be truthful and not have blatant mis-truths. Otherwise, make it a novel. His book was still #5 on the Amazon bestsellers yesterday, which is unbelievable and not surprising.

Vengance is Stewie's!

Saw this article linked off of Slashdot.

Stomach viruses suck

Whatever strand of flu/stomach virus is making its rounds in the household. Our son got it on Friday and I was heeving on Saturday in the middle of the night and stayed in bed all day on Sunday feeling like excrement. I still feel like crap but not as bad as yesterday.

I went to the Bruins game on Saturday night with my brother-in-law and was already not feeling myself, but I thought it was due to the cold I was getting over. Luckily for me I didn't get sick until after I got home that night.

We're getting a good 2-4 inches of snow today so hopefully that will kill some of the germs out there. Ugh.

Farking sleepy

I'm slowly getting over a cold this week which has gone through everyone in the house in one form or another. The joys of winter in New England and having two small children, but I'm not complaining. It's inevitable this time of the year. Plus, the up and down temperatures recently does not bode well to kill off any viruses out there.

Did I mention at all this week that there was a house fire one street over from us last Sunday night and I was shitting bricks because

a) the neighborhood was filled with and smelled of burning wood. We could smell it as soon as we would open a window just a crack, or from the furnance room in the basement because of the vents.
b) it was sub-zero wind chills that night
c) wind gusts were high that night, and
d) at times, sparks from the flames came toward our house and neighbor's house because of said high winds

We were worried about anything else catching on fire, but after four hours the firefighters got the thing under control.

Life is like a box of...

I'm hearing bits and pieces about what New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin said the other day about New Orleans needing to be a 'chocolate city'. He was obviously speaking to his audience and has since apologized for the comments. I've heard some good points on the radio about how if this was a white mayor saying that the city needs to be a vanilla or white city that the outrage would be even worse. Perhaps. Perhaps not. All I know is that, historically, New Orleans has always been a multi-cultural city all the way back to the 18th century. They didn't call it the French Quarter for nothing. Maybe in his next speech, Mayor Nagin should switch to mocha.

Uncle Ben and meeting woes

Just saw an article on Slashdot, that today is Benjamin Frankin's 300th birthday.

Also, are meetings bad for you? They could be according to this article in the Guardian. I know I've sat in some meetings in which I thought afterward, "Man, I wish I could have that time back." or "Well, that was useless.".

Passamaquoddy

As I was putting together a computer for a friend of ours and listening to the radio last night, I heard that Shelley Winters passed away yesterday at the age of 85. Although her most famous roles are for her Oscar wins in The Diary of Anne Frank and A Patch of Blue, I most remember her in two roles. The first is as the voice of Crystal in the Frosty the Snowman specials, Frosty's Winter Wonderland and Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July.

The second, and most burned in my memory, is as the abusive, adoptive mother, Lena Gogan, in the Disney movie Pete's Dragon. I loved watching that film growing up! What's not to like? It stars Mickey Rooney, Red Buttons, roaring woman Helen Reddy, and even a cartoon dragon named Elliot. The funniest musical number in the film is about how to pronounce the fictional Maine town in which the story is set, Passamaquoddy (pronounced pass-ah-mah'-qua-dee). I need to go rent this now. RIP, Miss Winters.

Where are my NPR programs?

Sigh. I'm missing the normal NPR programs during the day this week because of the Judge Alito Patito hearings. (yawn). I'm becoming a political junkie, but for some reason these proceedings aren't interesting me. Maybe it's because I know what will happen and how the media will report it:

Republican Senators: "That Alito, man, is one swell guy. He's great! I'd fuck him."

Democrat Senators: "You suck! I can't believe you dare to soil these chambers by trying to get appointed to the Supreme Court."

Everytime I hear an update, it's the Republicans saying "yeah he did well" and the Demorcrats saying "I don't know about him". No kidding they're going to say this. If it were a Democrat president, the reverse would be true. So give me back Day to Day, Fresh Air and Talk of the Nation, people, and leave the hearings on C-SPAN.

Rebate debate

I'm in the middle of submitting a few rebates online for some computer parts for a computer I'm building for a friend. The website noted 'submit your rebate online! get your rebate check faster! blah blah blah'. I proceeded through the steps for submitting them online. I get a confirmation email and to put the code in to proceed with the process. I get to it, and then it says that I need to print out and submit corresponding copy of receipt, etc. As Stuie would say, "What the deuce?"

What's the point of submitting for a rebate online and then have to still mail in the stuff the normal way? Probably just another annoying tactic for consumers to not submit for a rebate and lose that money that is due them.

You'll never find...

I've had that song in my head ever since I found out earlier that Lou Rawls died. RIP, Mr. Rawls.

News you can't use.

News tidbits of the day:

Wonkette gets a book deal.

Pat Robertson is off his medication again.

Diamond Dave is dreaming.

Just terrible

I know this will probably be the main topic in the blogosphere today, but I had to comment. It's terrible what happened to the miners in West Virginia. I went to bed yesterday thinking the worst because of a headline in the paper that said 'It would take a miracle...' to get them out.

I awoke this morning and my wife said listen to the news about the miners. My first thought was that they didn't make it. So I turned on the news and kept missing the report. I finally listened to it and was flabbergasted to find out that initial reports were that all the miners were safe only to find out three hours later that it was untrue. How could that have happened? Those poor families going on that emotional roller coaster ride only to find out that their loved ones were indeed gone. What kind of lame-ass miscommunication is that? We live in a world where everything is rush, rush, rush, instant messaging, GPS, must have it now, now, NOW and they couldn't get this right? Unbelievable. I'm sure there will be finger pointing in the weeks to come and it will be interesting how it all pans out.

Road trip to Providence!

Smoke if you got em.

Happy New Year 2006

Have a happy and healthy year!