Onomatopoeia

My Sister Got Married!

2008-04-28T19:31:00.001-04:00

4_15_08 18_01_13
Originally uploaded by Nivek Aramalap

She looks so beautiful. I'm so very happy for her.

Bad customer service...

2008-04-24T13:41:00.002-04:00

So I just spent another 30 minutes on the phone with TiVo. Here's the background:

Last month my wife noticed that our monthly TiVo bill increased from $8.95 to $14.95 and asked me to look into it. I checked online and there was no indication as to why the fee had increased. So I called TiVO.

They proceeded to tell me that the reason behind this was that our "Lifetime Service" TiVo had not connected to the TiVo service for the last 6 months and therefore we were no longer eligible for the "Multiple TiVo" discount. I found this to be unreasonable as the lifetime unit had not been sold or anything and I had not notified TiVo that I was canceling it or anything. I explained my case to the service rep and he agreed and told me that he would credit us the $6 and that if we plugged in the TiVo and had it "call home" that our account would revert to the "Multiple TiVo" discount pricing. I hung up the phone a satisfied customer. I have been a customer with TiVo for nearly 10 years, a true early adopter and have purchased TiVos as gifts and have recommended them to many friends who have since purchased.

Fast forward to this afternoon. The lifetime TiVo is happily running and phoning home via my internet connection every fifteen minutes. The charge hits the credit card again and it is the $14.95 rate. I'm annoyed that I have to call again but I wasn't expecting the treatment that I got.

I explain the situation to the service rep and sit on hold for ten minutes while she spoke to a level 2 support rep. She comes back on the phone and apologizes for the problem and tells me that their billing system needs this other TiVo to continue to connect for another month. I'm OK with this and ask her to credit my account for the $6. This is where the service falls apart.

She explains to me that she "can't" credit me for this and that while the monthly fee should revert to the $8.95 level in the next billing cycle that I will have to make another call to TiVo to get the credit. I've now been on the phone for 20 minutes and am very annoyed to hear that they are going to make me make another minimum 10 minute long call to them in a month. Why not simply credit me now. She puts me on hold again and comes back to explain that their billing system doesn't allow her to credit an account for the same thing twice.

Now this is blatant crap. Every billing system has an override capability. I know it, she knows it and I tell her that. I'm trying hard to be polite because I know she is just following company policy. After I explained that this is very poor service and that I would like to speak to her level 2 person she puts me on hold again and finally comes back and tells me that she can in fact credit my account but that if it happens again next month that they will be unable to credit me again. I tell her that's fine, I'll just call back again and make the same complaint next month if they don't fix the issue and that I will be forced to re-evaluate my account with them should they attempt to keep $6 that is not theirs to keep.

The whole fiasco took well over 30 minutes. It cost me more in time than the $6 and it damned sure cost TiVo more than the $6. I was a big fan of TiVo. If this happens next month I may very well cancel a service that I have come to rely upon. I'll be pissed about it and I'll miss the service but I am not going to let them take advantage of me.

Massachusetts

2008-04-11T09:34:00.004-04:00

OK, I'm getting really tired of people bashing Massachusetts. It started with the Dukakis run for President in EDIT: 1988 and has continued for the last 20+ years. Even our own Governor Romney trashed us during his (thankfully) brief Presidential campaign.

So, let's talk about Massachusetts shall we? Here are some interesting things about MA.

Massachusetts is currently ranked #3 in the country for "Best Educated"

Well, of course a state routinely referred to as "Taxachusetts" would have a good educational system, after all those tax monies must be going somewhere right?

Massachusetts currently ranks #13 in Total Gross State Product (5th per capita). I guess we can afford those tax dollars.

That might be because we are #3 in personal income per capita.

We are the #3 Healthiest state. I guess those tax dollars are really helping keep us healthy too.

Oh and as far as Obesity goes? We rank #50. Least obese.

How about the divorce rate in godless, liberal Taxachusetts? We rank #50. Yep. They were right about us. Oh wait. Nope we have the LOWEST divorce rate of any state in the nation.

Since we are Taxachusetts we must be spending so much of the money you non-Taxachusetts people earn right? Nope. We rank 40th for states in terms of Federal dollars spent per dollar paid in taxes. For every dollar a Taxachusetts resident puts into the federal coffers, we get back 82 cents. So, you conservative states are a drain on us poor residents of this liberal state.

At the same time us liberal hippy lazy non-working drains on society rank #5 in median household income. I guess those welfare checks are bigger than they used to be.

Oops. Wrong again. It turns out that Massachusetts ranks 25th for households receiving some form of public assistance.

Now, after all of that what exactly are the real tax numbers for MA? Where do we rank according to the Tax Foundation?

While we rank high on the total tax burden per capita, this is actually not due to state taxes. Our high per capita income means that we pay a larger amount of federal taxes than all of you conservative states out there. Yet, as I mentioned above we take back less than we put in. So next time Grover Norquist bitches about liberals, remember, we're financing your state services. On to the stats:

In 2007, Taxachusetts ranked 28th in state/local tax burden. That's right we pay less in state and local taxes than more than half of the US States. Yet we manage to accomplish everything I mentioned above. For Federal taxation burden (and make no mistake, since we get less than we give it is a BURDEN for us liberals to pay for you bottom feeding conservatives). we rank 4th. Yep. You read that right. We are getting completely screwed over.

For the actual state income tax we rank 32nd. For sales tax we rank 45th. Our property taxes are in the top 10. We rank 7th. Of course this is mostly due to the high value of housing in Massachusetts because of the high paying jobs, healthy lifestyle and great educational system we have that makes living here so attractive. Link.

Of course we get questioned often on "patriotism." Well on one of the most basic patriotic things a citizen can do, give service to one's country in the military, Massachusetts ranks #23.

Massachusetts is also the cradle of liberty in the United States. Here was fired the Shot Heard Round the World. Home of the Minutemen, Paul Revere, Sam Adams, and the man who wrote the U.S. Constitutions, John Adams. Oh yeah, that famous signature? That belonged to a Massachusetts Patriot as well.

In MA the Boston Tea Party occurred, the Battle of Bunker Hill, we were a center of the abolitionist movement with William Lloyd Garrison leading the charge, Gay Marriage was legalized, and we became the first state in the Union to have Universal Health Care.

So do me a favor next time you hear someone bashing good ol' Taxachusetts. Set them straight.

This might be the most disturbing thing about Bush yet

2008-04-02T20:49:00.002-04:00

From the ACLU

NEW YORK – A newly disclosed secret memo authored by the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in March 2003 that asserts President Bush has unlimited power to order brutal interrogations of detainees also reveals a radical interpretation of the Constitution's Fourth Amendment protection from unreasonable search and seizure. The memo, declassified yesterday as the result of an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit, cites a still-secret DOJ memo from 2001 that found that the "Fourth Amendment had no application to domestic military operations."

This means that President Bush is saying that if he were to institute a military action inside our borders (even against our own citizens) that the law would no longer apply. This is a flat out literal repudiation of the Constitution and our the rights granted to us as citizens.

How can anyone continue to support this administration?!

Rant of the year.

2008-04-02T20:45:00.004-04:00

Thank you to Pandagon for so clearly pointing out the problem with anyone who has ever used the term "Feminazi" or anything so clearly anti-woman yet having the gall to act as if they are morally superior at the same time.

http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/04/02/6990/

I honestly don't think it could have been done better.

The Math

2008-03-31T22:54:00.000-04:00

This is the work of another. I have permission to repost it.

THE MATH – Monday, March 31 – After Texas Counties

6:00 p.m. Eastern Time (US)

Delegates needed to win nomination – 2,023.5 (considering status quo)
Pledged Delegates in – 2,669.0 of 3,235.0 – 82.5%

********************************************

THE MAGIC NUMBER

Here’s what we have after considering the information in the Polls section below:

Senator Obama’s Magic Number – 88 of 310 remaining superdelegates needed, or 28.4%
Senator Clinton’s Magic Number – 241 of 310 remaining superdelegates needed, or 77.7%

The Huckabee Index – 69 or 22.3% of remaining superdelegates needed

The “Huckabee Index” is the number of any combination of superdelegates and convention/caucus delegates that the Obama campaign needs (or the Clinton campaign loses) to make it mathematically impossible for the Clinton campaign to win the nomination, based on current delegate count and polls for upcoming contests. (Disclaimer: This is meant to poke fun at Mike Huckabee, not Hillary Clinton)

Details in spreadsheet: http://www.box.net/shared/gr4wooy040

********************************************

TOTAL DELEGATES

Estimated Total Delegates as of March 31:
Hillary Clinton – 1,505.5 (518.0 short)
Barack Obama – 1,646.5 (377.0 short)
Remaining Delegates – 877.0
(Sources: NBC, Wikipedia 3/31/08)
Wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Results_of_the_2008_Democr...

SUPERDELEGATES

Superdelegates (highest reported for each candidate):
Hillary Clinton – 255 (Source: NBC 3/31/08)
Barack Obama – 228 (Source: NBC 3/31/08 plus NC-6)
Remaining Superdelegates – 311

PLEDGED DELEGATES

Estimated Pledged Delegates as of March 31:
Hillary Clinton – 1,250.5
Barack Obama – 1,418.5
Remaining Pledged Delegates – 566.0
(Source: Wikipedia 3/31/08)

OVERALL CONTESTS WON

Hillary Clinton – 15
Barack Obama – 30

PRIMARIES WON

Hillary Clinton – 12
Barack Obama – 16

CAUCUSES WON

Hillary Clinton – 3
Barack Obama – 14

BLUE AND RED STATES WON

Hillary Clinton – 6 Blue, 8 Red
Barack Obama – 11 Blue, 16 Red

POPULAR VOTE (for informational purposes only)

Total weighted* popular vote as of March 31:
Barack Obama – 15,802,692 (+1,755,095)
Hilary Clinton – 14,047,597
*Weighted popular vote adds primary votes and 5.5:1 skew of caucus votes

Status Quo unweighted as of March 31:
Barack Obama – 13,679,402 (+821,164)
Hillary Clinton – 12,858,238
(Source: Wikipedia 3/31/08)

Primaries only (Status Quo) as of March 31:
Barack Obama – 13,208,232 (+614,296)
Hillary Clinton – 12,593,936

Caucuses only weighted* popular vote as of March 31:
Barack Obama – 2,594,460 (+1,140,799)
Hilary Clinton – 1,453,661
*Weighted popular vote adds primary votes and 5.5:1 skew of caucus votes

Caucuses only (Status Quo) unweighted total caucus votes as of March 31:
Barack Obama – 471,170 (+206,868 caucus votes)
Hillary Clinton – 264,302
(IA,NV,AK,AS,CO,ID,KS,MN,NM,ND,NE,VI,WA*,ME,HI,TX*,WY,Guam)

With Florida only added, weighted as of March 31:
Barack Obama – 16,378,906 (+1,460,323)
Hillary Clinton – 14,918,583

With Florida only added, unweighted as of March 31:
Barack Obama – 14,255,616 (+526,392)
Hillary Clinton – 13,729,224

With Michigan only added, weighted as of March 31*:
Barack Obama – 15,802,692 (+1,426,786)
Hillary Clinton – 14,375,906
*Uncommitted – 238,168 (Michigan only, Obama wasn’t on the ballot)

With Michigan only added, unweighted as of March 31*:
Barack Obama – 13,679,402 (+492,855)
Hillary Clinton – 13,186,547
*Uncommitted – 238,168 (Michigan only, Obama wasn’t on the ballot)

With Florida AND Michigan added, weighted as of March 31*:
Barack Obama – 16,378,906 (+1,132,014)
Hillary Clinton – 15,246,892
*Uncommitted – 238,168 (Michigan only, Obama wasn’t on the ballot)

With Florida AND Michigan added, unweighted as of March 31*:
Barack Obama – 14,255,616 (+198,083)
Hillary Clinton – 14,057,533
*Uncommitted – 238,168 (Michigan only, Obama wasn’t on the ballot)

********************************************

SUPERDELEGATES NEEDED IF REMAINING PLEDGED DELEGATES ARE 50/50 SPLIT

All scenarios (2 through 9) showing Florida or Michigan being seated as is or holding new elections have been removed.

Hillary Clinton needs #/% of remaining superdelegates if remaining pledged is 50/50:
1. Status Quo – Clinton needs 236 of 311, or 75.7% of remaining SDs
10. FL Half-count, MI not seated – Clinton needs 232 of 312, or 74.2% of remaining SDs
11. FL not seated, MI Compromise – Clinton needs 224 of 323, or 69.2% of remaining SDs
12. FL Half-count, MI Compromise – Clinton needs 220 of 324, or 67.7% of remaining SDs

Barack Obama needs #/% of remaining superdelegates if remaining pledged is 50/50:
1. Status Quo – Obama needs 95 of 311, or 30.4% of remaining SDs
10. FL Half-count, MI not seated – Obama needs 112 of 312, or 35.7% of remaining SDs
11. FL not seated, MI Compromise – Obama needs 99 of 323, or 30.5% of remaining SDs
12. FL Half-count, MI Compromise – Obama needs 116 of 324, or 35.6% of remaining SDs

The “Florida Half-count” would net 52.5 pledged delegates for Senator Clinton and 33.5 pledged delegates for Senator Obama. The “Michigan Compromise” would net 83.0 pledged delegates for Senator Clinton and 73.0 pledged delegates for Senator Obama.

********************************************

SUPERDELEGATES NEEDED IF REMAINING PLEDGED DELEGATES ARE 55/45 CLINTON

All scenarios (2 through 9) showing Florida or Michigan being seated as is or holding new elections have been removed.

Hillary Clinton needs #/% of remaining superdelegates if remaining pledged is 55/45:
1. Status Quo – Clinton needs 207 of 311, or 66.4% of remaining SDs
10. FL Half-count, MI not seated – Clinton needs 203 of 312, or 64.9% of remaining SDs
11. FL not seated, MI Compromise – Clinton needs 195 of 323, or 60.2% of remaining SDs
12. FL Half-count, MI Compromise – Clinton needs 191 of 324, or 58.8% of remaining SDs

Barack Obama needs #/% of remaining superdelegates if remaining pledged is 55/45:
1. Status Quo – Obama needs 124 of 311, or 39.7% of remaining SDs
10. FL Half-count, MI not seated – Obama needs 141 of 312, or 45.0% of remaining SDs
11. FL not seated, MI Compromise – Obama needs 128 of 323, or 39.5% of remaining SDs
12. FL Half-count, MI Compromise – Obama needs 145 of 324, or 44.6% of remaining SDs

The “Florida Half-count” would net 52.5 pledged delegates for Senator Clinton and 33.5 pledged delegates for Senator Obama. The “Michigan Compromise” would net 83.0 pledged delegates for Senator Clinton and 73.0 pledged delegates for Senator Obama.

*********************************************

FLORIDA AND MICHIGAN SCENARIOS REGARDING PLEDGED DELEGATES

These are the possible scenarios concerning Florida and Michigan, and what it would require for Senator Clinton to catch up to Senator Obama in pledged delegates. These scenarios are for pledged delegates only. Superdelegate counts are not included. The presumption here is that most remaining superdelegates will support the candidate who wins the most pledged delegates from the state and territory contests. (Note: All scenarios (2 through 9) showing Florida or Michigan being seated as is or holding new elections have been removed.)

The “Florida Half-count” would net 52.5 pledged delegates for Senator Clinton and 33.5 pledged delegates for Senator Obama. The “Michigan Compromise” would net 83.0 pledged delegates for Senator Clinton and 73.0 pledged delegates for Senator Obama.

The current status quo is: Neither Florida nor Michigan’s slate of delegates are seated. (See more below this section for information about what the “status quo” is)

Scenario 1 – Status Quo (without Florida and Michigan)
CLINTON NEEDS 64.8%, OBAMA NEEDS 35.2%, in all remaining contests

Scenario 10 – Florida Half-count, Michigan not seated
CLINTON NEEDS 63.2%, OBAMA NEEDS 36.8%, in all remaining contests

Scenario 11 – Florida not seated, Michigan Compromise
CLINTON NEEDS 64.0%, OBAMA NEEDS 36.0%, in all remaining contests

Scenario 12 – Florida Half-count, Michigan Compromise
CLINTON NEEDS 62.3%, OBAMA NEEDS 37.7%, in all remaining contests

********************************************

POLLS FOR UPCOMING CONTESTS, USED TO DERIVE THE “MAGIC NUMBER”

Polls have been released for some of the upcoming contests. Where no polls are available, I have marked it as “No Poll” and used a 50/50 calculation for that contest’s pledged delegates. Obviously this information will change, and I plan on updating these calculations whenever we have new or updated polls.

Pennsylvania (April 22)
American Research Group (3/27) has Senator Clinton at +12.0%
http://americanresearchgroup.com /

Guam (May 3)
No Poll

Indiana (May 6)
USA Election Polls (2/18) has Senator Obama at +15.0% (This was after Super Tuesday)
http://www.usaelectionpolls.com/2008/indiana.html

North Carolina (May 6)
Public Policy Polling (3/31) has Senator Obama at +18.0%
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/PPP_Release_0331...

West Virginia (May 13)
Rasmussen Reports (3/20) has Senator Clinton at +28.0%
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics...

Kentucky (May 20)
No Poll

Oregon (May 20)
Outdated Poll (before Super Tuesday)

Puerto Rico (June 1)
No Poll

Montana (June 3)
Outdated Poll (before Super Tuesday)

South Dakota (June 3)
No Poll

If anyone has links to new or more recent polls, please share. Thanks!

********************************************

MEMO FROM DNC DATED MARCH 5 REGARDING FLORIDA AND MICHIGAN

This is quoted here to show the current “Status Quo” used in the figures above.

Democratic National Committee’s official stance on Florida and Michigan as of March 5, in a press release from Howard Dean:

"We're glad to hear that the Governors of Michigan and Florida are willing to lend their weight to help resolve this issue. As we've said all along, we strongly encourage the Michigan and Florida state parties to follow the rules, so today's public overtures are good news. The rules, which were agreed to by the full DNC including representatives from Florida and Michigan over 18 months ago, allow for two options. First, either state can choose to resubmit a plan and run a process to select delegates to the convention; second, they can wait until this summer and appeal to the Convention Credentials Committee, which determines and resolves any outstanding questions about the seating of delegates. We look forward to receiving their proposals should they decide to submit new delegate selection plans and will review those plans at that time. The Democratic Nominee will be determined in accordance with party rules, and out of respect for the presidential campaigns and the states that did not violate party rules, we are not going to change the rules in the middle of the game.”

Source: http://www.democrats.org/a/2008/03/dean_statement_45.ph...

(emphasis mine)

********************************************

BROKERED CONVENTION

Feel free to share your thoughts and concerns about a possible brokered convention this year. I’d love to hear thoughtful conversation from all sides.

Link here from wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brokered_convention

********************************************

OFFICIAL DELEGATE SELECTION RULES FOR THE 2008 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

The link below takes you to the pdf file from the Democratic Party with the official rules for this year’s primary season.

Link here from democrats.org:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/apache.3cdn.net/de68e7b6dfa0743...

.

********************************************

Links to the spreadsheets (feel free to download and create your own scenarios):
1 – Current Figures: http://www.box.net/shared/bmi4rvqscs
2 – Magic Numbers: http://www.box.net/shared/gr4wooy040

********************************************

100 Things about Me

2008-03-31T11:46:00.007-04:00

I'm going with a meme and will try that out as motivation/inspiration to keep some content flowing. So today is 100 Things About Me.

I was born in Lynn, MA
I have lived in Salem, MA for approximately 10 years
I have one brother and one sister
My parents live in Salem as well
My parents are still married
My brother lives one town over
My sister lives one street over from my parents
Neither of my siblings are married
I will have been married for 3 years on September 3rd
I will have been in a relationship with my wife for twelve years in less than a week
I will turn 35 on April 13th
We got married in a restaurant and the ceremony was performed by a close friend
We did not allow any religious language at all in our wedding ceremony
We met at Umass Amherst in 1991
I rarely eat red meat anymore
My wife is turning me into a "foodie"
I used to be a beer snob.
I'm now a wine snob
We have two cats - Kasha and Leeloo
Both were adopted from the Northeast Animal Shelter as kittens
My taste for architecture, art and furniture is typically "contemporary"
I am an atheist
I am generally tolerant of the belief systems of others
I am very much in support of gay marriage
I'm a die-hard true liberal
Conservativism seems more like a personality disorder than a philosophy to me
I will never, EVER vote Republican
I was once a boy scout and went as far as "Star" before I got bored with it
I love to read just about anything
I'm a classic "early adopter" of new technology
I am also an entrepreneur at heart
I have trouble with creativity
I've been a geek for my entire life
I love both Star Wars and Star Trek but have never dressed up or attended a convention for either
I have dressed up as Wash from Firefly but only for Halloween
I spend a lot of time doing maintenance on my digitized media
I believe that George W. Bush is the worst President in U.S. history
I read over 400 blogs daily
I read 3-4 newspapers every day (not cover to cover)
I believe the U.S. media is filled with incompetent, lazy people who simply type up the talking points they hear from the Republican party uncritically
I love books AND I love my Kindle. I can see that this will cause conflict in the future
TV shows I watch include Psych, Battlestar Galactica, Corner Gas, Lost, Top Gear, and The Riches
I absolutely LOATHE "reality" TV
I have watched less than 5 minutes of American Idol
My music taste is insanely eclectic, to the point where I won't even bother discussing it here
I have lived on the North Shore of Massachusetts for my entire life (other than a few semesters in Amherst MA)
I consider myself to be mostly self-educated
I work in software
I'm a QA Manager
I hate explaining what I do so I'm not going to
I recently lost about 45 pounds
I don't exercise
I know I should
I drive a BMW
I'm slightly embarrassed by that
I have never and will never own a gun
I'm not anti-gun in general
I believe that all guns should be shipped with a trigger lock
I find it disgusting that the gun lobby keeps stopping this
I have collector tendencies but am able to keep the worst at bay (no star wars figure collection for me!)
I would love to live in California
I hate the seasons, I would prefer year round spring
I absolutely hate snow
I enjoy travel but not as much as my wife
I have driven cross country with a friend
I think drugs should be legalized
I live in a house that is bigger than my needs
I struggle to be green and succeed in some places and fail miserably in others
I have a very high IQ
I don't think this makes me any better than anyone else
I'm not very creative
I wish I were
I'm a terrible impulse shopper
I bought a new car on an impulse once
I complain a lot
I suffer from insomnia
I think I'm an optimist
Everyone else thinks I'm a pessimist
I wear glasses
I can't wear contacts because I'm terribly squeamish about eyes
I don't think anything on this list will surprise my wife
My wife is my best friend
I'm an introvert
I can be charismatic at times
I can come off as arrogant
I can BE arrogant
I'm terribly lazy about maintaining relationships
I hate entertaining
I'm lazy about house chores
I'm a good listener
People frequently come to me for advice
I frequently seek out advice
I don't believe in ghosts, alien visitation to earth, cryptozoology, or any of the common conspiracy theories
I distrust my government
I am pro-choice
I am anti death penalty
I believe that evil is a lack of empathy
My favorite author is Terry Pratchett
I wish I had the money to sponsor a professional poker career for my brother
I had a lot of trouble coming up with the items on this list

Watching the news in the United States

2008-03-09T18:23:00.002-04:00

I have a request for anyone who happens along to read my blog. It's a bit time consuming, but I also think a bit eye opening.

Watch 30 minutes of the Fox News Channel (The cable news network not your local Fox affiliate).

Then, immediately after, watch 30 minutes of CNN.

Then, again, immediately after, watch 30 minutes of the BBC World News America.

Then, the next day, read the New York Post newspaper. Immediately after, read the New York Times, then immediately after read The Guardian.

After you are thoroughly disgusted by the utter joke that is the US news media, feel free to explore RAI, or Deutsche Welle or any other high quality news organization. As it stands now, our news media simply has no respect for us. I don't think there is a grand conspiracy here (other than on the part of the Murdoch news orgs) but I do think that the need for ratings as opposed to a sense of journalistic integrity is utterly destroying our ability to keep track of what is happening in the world.

There are a grand total of 3 newspapers in the US worthy of attention. The NY Times, The Washington Post, the LA Times. Even these 3 are not even close to the weekly news magazine, The Economist (which is horribly biased towards neo-liberalism but still at least reports on world events).

If, after spending any amount of time reading or watching the recommended news sources anyone actually thinks that Murdoch's papers are remotely worthy of attention or aren't in any way simple propaganda tools then I would humbly suggest that individual reaches into the clue-bag and picks up a clue.

325xi Front

2008-02-21T20:01:00.001-05:00

325xi Front
Originally uploaded by Caution Roadie Crossing

I have officially joined the ranks of yuppie scum everywhere. I now drive a BMW 325xi. I eat cheese and drink wine. I even like tapas. I'm a complete class traitor. Lister would be so ashamed of me.

Democratic President vs. Republican President by the Numbers

2008-02-08T14:36:00.000-05:00

Let's talk numbers. These are pretty simple ones, but they tell an interesting story.

Bill Clinton took office on January 20, 1993 and left office on January 20th 2001.

On the day he took office

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 3241.95

NASDAQ: 697.44

S&P 500: 433.37

Gold: ~$350.00/oz (couldn't find the exact figure but multiple articles referenced $350)

Oil: $19.82/barrel

Gas: $1.06/gallon

On the day he left office (and Bush took office) - January 20, 2001

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 10578.24 (Increase of 226.30%)

NASDAQ: 2757.91 (Increase of 295.43%)

S&P 500: 1342.90 (Increase of 209.87%)

Gold: $266.70 (Decrease of 23.8% - Higher priced gold means lower confidence in economy)

Oil: $27.69 (Increase of 39% - Not good, but just you wait)

Gas: $1.46 (Increase of 37.7% - Also not good, but just you wait again)

Closing Bell Yesterday (Bush with 347 days left to create more havoc) - February 8, 2008

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 12247.00 (Increase of 15.78%)

NASDAQ: 2293.03 (Decrease of 16.86%)

S&P 500: 1336.91 (Decrease of 0.45%)

Gold: $910.00 (Increase of 241.21% - Remember, an increase here is bad news unless you invest in Gold and are thus predicting lean economic times)

Oil: $88.11 (Increase of 218.20%)

Gas: $2.98 (Increase of 104.10%)

So, by the simple number that most people use to get a broad picture of our economic outlook in almost every category Bush has declined. The only major index to get better was the Dow which had anemic growth over the last 7 years.

So. Massive increases under Clinton, decreases under Bush. But hey. Democrats are fiscally irresponsible. Yeah, that's it.

Sorry about the hiatus folks

2008-01-30T16:07:00.000-05:00

I've been insanely busy with work lately and just haven't had time to even come up with a good topic for a post. I've got a few things in mind for the next week or so and will post soon.

Obama and Racism in America

2008-01-08T09:52:00.000-05:00

Well, with Obama gaining momentum in the primaries, the elephant is crashing around the room and we really need to have a serious discussion about racism in America. In a discussion yesterday someone said, "Republicans have done it, they have promoted Obama to the point that he'll get the nomination and he can't win."

This disturbed me on many levels, firstly it assumes that the Republican Party can somehow manipulate the Democratic Party to a high degree, but more importantly, the lack of faith in the progress shown in America over the last 50 years was astounding.

As we know, the GOP has employed a "Southern Strategy" for decades, playing on the American South's perceived racism and the fundamentalist Bible Belt. It's been 28 years since Reagan overtly used this to his advantage. Bush, while still playing on the race issue through the use of the phony "federalism" which is nothing more than code for appointing SCOTUS Justices who will overturn Roe v. Wade and more germane to this post, Affirmative Action, was more keyed to the Religious Right than to underlying racism.

It's been a long time since racism was quite so overt. We now regularly see mixed-race couples everywhere we go and in the media. This was a rare sighting when I was a kid, but now no one even looks twice (well, no one who isn't a flat out, vocal racist).

So can Obama win an election? Yes, I think he can. He's not my first choice, but this has nothing to do with electability or race, but only with his centrism. I'm a leftist and am proud of this fact. I'll vote for him should he receive the Democratic nomination and I'll do so proudly, just as I proudly cast a vote for Deval Patrick here in my home state of Massachusetts. Upon hearing of Governor Patrick's landslide victory, I was filled with emotion and joy that race was not a factor. I hope that if circumstances are right I'll feel that same joy in November.

Political change in the winds for the US?

2008-01-04T09:49:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, the 2008 election finally got underway with the Iowa caucuses. Some very interesting things came out of this. Iowa has traditionally been a swing state that leaned GOP. Over the last few elections that has been changing and the numbers from yesterday paint a new picture.

Turnout was significantly higher in the caucuses than in the past, particularly on the Democratic Party side.

234,000 people turned out for the Dems, up about 175,000(!) from 2000.

112,349 people turned out for the GOP, up about 23,000 from 2000.

For the Dems, Hillary Clinton received 67,860 votes and came in 3rd overall.

This is 1359 votes less than Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney got combined (69219).

Many of the new voters in the caucuses were under 30 and these were very heavily skewed Democratic. This does not bode well for the GOP. The presumptive front-runner on the GOP side had been Rudy Giuliani as of a month ago and he polled roughly 4% of the GOP side, coming in 6th behind Huckabee, Romney, Thompson, McCain, and Ron Paul.

The evangelical Christian vote swung the GOP caucus over to Huckabee. While this group of voters is largely responsible for the rise of the GOP since 1994, this is the first time they could actually determine the nominee for the party. This would be an unmitigated disaster for the GOP as a whole. Evangelicals represent about 25% of the GOP base, which in turn is about 30% of the American electorate. If 8% of the overall American electorate determines the Presidential candidate for the GOP, we can rest assured that the moderates in both parties, the independents, and the corporate conservatives will swing away from the GOP as their interests simply do not match up with that of the evangelicals.

Huckabee is an interesting case in that he is a fundamentalist Christian but he also has some populist tendencies. This will broaden his appeal, but the money base of the GOP won't support him due to both of these reasons, so I doubt that he would have a shot at actually winning the Presidency were he to get the nomination. Frankly, if Iowa is an indicator (and it traditionally has been one) than I don't think any Republican currently in the race can win. Should we see a brokered GOP convention (a real possibility), and a new, viable candidate emerges from that, all bets are of course off. I think this is unlikely though.

Conspiracy Theories

2007-12-26T11:54:00.000-05:00

I have an unhealthy obsession. I'm obsessed with Conspiracy Theories. I find it amazing that million of Americans spend millions of dollars on books, videos, lectures and products that are related to even the most absurd conspiracy theories out there.

Here is a list of my current favorite theories:

Vaccination causes Autism (Nope. it doesn't. Mercury doesn't either. Vaccination saves lives. Those who push this garbage are causing real, serious harm to the world.)
9/11 MIHOP/LIHOP. (Nope, this is ridiculous on the face of it and there is absolutely ZERO actual evidence that either of these "theories" have any basis in reality. You are insulting the memory of the people who died that day. The US Government does enough bad things every day without the people having to invent things. Just stop it.)
JFK and the "Magic Bullet" (Oswald killed Kennedy. On his own. Read the damned Warren Commission report rather than the latest CT nuttiness. It's an incredible piece of American history and incredibly detailed.)
Chemtrails. (They are contrails. Anyone who says differently is selling something or simply full of shit. This one is so stupid that a skeptic went out and literally invented a new species of intelligent life called Sylphs and claimed that chemtrails were killing these "gentle, beautiful, invisible" creatures, as an example of how silly the theory was. Shockingly and very sadly, the people who buy into the chemtrail theory now actually believe in Sylphs).
Reptiloids. (Are you serious? Does anyone actually believe this? Sadly yes.)
UFO. (Seriously people. The universe is big. Really big. The chances of an alien race being able to defeat the laws of physics and then deciding to come here are remote to say the least. If they could do this, do you really think they would need to kidnap people to study? How about just hitting a grave and doing a genetic sequencing? Heck, why not just simply grab the entire Internet and have pretty much the sum total of human knowledge at their fingertips? Nah, we'll kidnap some poor schmuck and study that guy. Oh and we'll bring him back. Our government can't balance a budget, but they can hide aliens? Aliens can travel interstellar distances yet can't hide themselves from a cheap video camera? Please.)

This is just the beginning. There are tons of them out there and I find the entire thing to be fascinating. How and why are people so stupid and ignorant? Why do people buy into this stuff? I'll never understand it.

Intimidation...

2007-12-20T11:14:00.000-05:00

What do I find intimidating? Not a lot actually. I'm strong-willed, I've been in pressure filled situations and have fought back against seeming insurmountable odds and come out on top.

There is one thing that I find intimidating though. Talent. I especially find it intimidating in areas where I lack any knowledge or ability. I tend to creep back into my introvert state and allow myself to be intimidated into fading into the background rather than plowing on into a discussion or conversation about a given field, endeavor, etc.

I'm not quite sure why this is, I'm generally a very confident person, I can hold my own in discussions regarding varied and diverse topics, I'm knowledgeable about science, politics, literature, etc but when I come across someone who knows more or has natural ability in something, rather than doing what I really want to do I clam up and back off.

I want to talk to that person, to find out what makes them tick, and most especially to learn from them, to learn how they do what they do. What are the tricks of the trade? What methods can I apply to become better at that thing?

Writing is a perfect example. I don't think I'm very good at it. Mind you, I know I'm literate, I know that I can get a point across, I just don't think I do it particularly well. I also know that I have a tendency towards belaboring a point. OK a little bit more than a tendency. I beat it into submission and then dismember it, pound the bones into dust and scatter the dust to the wind. Then I really get started on it. I need more focus, I need better self-control and I need talent.

So, if you ever want to shut me up, just start talking about an area that you feel you have real expertise in. I'll just fade away, even in the face of a 13 year old who can throw a curveball.

Commuting Nightmare

2007-12-14T10:30:00.000-05:00

So yesterday was the worst commute of my life. A drive that is normally about 35 minutes was five and one half hours last night. I left work at 1:30 to beat the snowstorm and spent the next 5.5 hours sitting in bumper to bumper traffic. At no point did I ever get above 18MPH and that was for one glorious stretch of about 1/4 mile.

At about the 4 hour mark I really began to worry that I might wet myself or run out of gas or both. At about 4:30 I started getting angry at everyone around me, 30 minutes after that I became resigned to my fate. I ran through a large gamut of emotions.

You literally start to feel trapped when it gets that bad. There was no possibility of turning around or stopping. Gas stations closed down. Cars were abandoned.

Both my legs were asleep, my ass was numb, I hadn't eaten in 11 hours. It has been years since I was so frustrated. In the end I made it home. I didn't realize how close I was to not making it until this morning when I filled my 14 gallon gas tank. 13.79 gallons on the fill up. Another 10 minutes and I would have run out of gas. I started with a half tank. I traveled 16 total miles.

Absolutely Outraged.

2007-12-07T09:33:00.001-05:00

I am completely outraged by the behavior of the CIA. I'm an American. I love America. I believe that America's role in the world is to be a beacon of freedom and hope. I believe that our goal is to ensure justice in our society and that we have a responsibility to uphold these values.

The Bush administration (along with the entirety of the Republican Party and the so-called "moderates" who vote for Republicans and Bush) has done more to destroy my faith in America than I ever would have though possible.

We now know for a fact that our government was torturing people. The CIA has effectively told us that this torture was so awful that rather than even risk that it might someday be leaked that the tapes of this torture had to be destroyed. They failed to provide those tapes when they were required to do so. We are told by the NY Times that these decisions were made at the "highest levels" within the CIA. This means Porter Goss (then head of the CIA) and by extension President Bush.

They keep attempting to redefine the word torture by calling it "enhanced interrogation techniques." However, waterboarding which is specifically mentioned as being used in these tapes has been explicitly defined as torture in a number of places including our own military manuals, the Geneva Conventions (to which we are signatories thus making them under our Constitution the "law of the land").

We, the American people have allowed our government to get away with torture to this point. We now know that our intelligence community is out of control and that the only solution to this is proper oversight. Until Congress puts into place proper oversight laws we will be subject to "signing statements," evasion of oversight, outright lies to oversight agencies and in the above case, direct violation of the law.

We need a President who will actually sign these laws and a Congress that will pass them. This means we need people to stop voting for Republicans until such time as they can be shown to actually hold the values that make America great.

The "values" they hold don't cut the mustard. I don't need a government that tries to prevent Terri Schiavo from peacefully dying. I don't need a government that tells women how to manage their own bodies. I don't need a government that legislates how we live our lives in the bedroom. I don't need a government that believes privacy is a thing of the past. I don't need a government that feels it can ignore the 4th amendment. I want a government that values science over superstition. I want a government that doesn't fucking torture people. I am absolutely outraged this morning.

Relaxing Vacations vs. Exhausting Vacations

2007-12-05T09:22:00.000-05:00

Here is a concept I have been thinking about a lot recently. In the American culture, a strong work ethic is basically considered to be one of the top virtues around. Heck, the right-wing in this country has basically built their entire philosophy around the idea that the poor are only poor because they are "lazy."

I completely disagree with this, especially having grown up in a poor family and knowing that my parents were anything but lazy. I myself have a very strong work ethic and rarely take more than 2 weeks/year off.

As a result of this I have mixed feelings about how to take vacations.

I recently took a vacation that was a whirlwind of activity with very little downtime (as an introvert I find any social interaction to be somewhat exhausting and this vacation was all about social interaction). For more on this see: Top 5 Things Every Extrovert Should Know About Introverts.

As a result of this, I'm actually MORE tired at work this week then I was the week prior to "vacation." Don't get me wrong, I had a wonderful time and still owe a post on the most amazing dinner of my life and am looking forward to writing it. That said I feel like I need another vacation.

I think this points to a larger problem within our culture. In most modern post-industrial countries around the world, the average yearly allotment for vacation is 4-6 weeks. In the US, it is two. We are also often made to feel badly about taking sick time, our allotment for maternity leave is a joke and the manner in which we handle bereavement is an embarrassment.

As I have gotten older (I'm 34, pretty much middle-aged at this point) I have come to realize that I actually need vacations where I do nothing but recharge. This means parking my ass on a chair and reading. For others, I'm sure it means other things. To that end, I'm planning to propose to my wife. I'm going to propose that our next vacation is somewhere warm, sunny and has a beach or a pool. I propose that we park our asses in a deck chair and read five or six books over the span of a week. We can go out to dinner at nice restaurants and drink some fine wines (de rigeur for Angela and I), we can even plan an activity or three. But I want at least 3 days where I do as little as possible beyond maybe some swimming and hitting the hotel gym. February or March sounds about right for this. Before then, I'm going to take a nice long weekend (three, maybe four days) and sit on my comfy couch in my comfy living room and read and relax with my cats.

Vacation Update

2007-12-01T13:24:00.001-05:00

The vacation has mostly been a whirlwind of wine and food. We arrived on Tuesday and had a relaxing evening at my friend Noah's place in Atescedera CA where we finally met his girlfriend Nameeta (they have been together for over 3 years now and we still hadn't met her!). She's terrific. Intelligent, funny, and clearly the two make each other very happy.

Noah's winery venture is coming along nicely, he has become friends with a number of local wine makers, some of who are among the best producers in the region. His first batch of wine is in barrels now and should be ready for release in a few years. He's planning to ramp up production each year from now and eventually open a tasting room.

On Wednesday we did tastings at Linne Calodo and Turley. I'm going to copy out the tasting notes from the wines we tasted there verbatim. These are boutique wineries with very small production runs, where to get the wine you have to be a part of the winery's list (you can smetimes find them via auction and some restaurants are on the list so get an allocation).

2006 Contrarian $36

68% Roussanne, 32% Viognier

"The grapes were destemmed and then soaked for 24 hours. Pressed in 2 ton basket presses directly into the barrel, the win undergoes 100% malolactic conversion and is stirred on lees in 100% Neutral oak casks. Blended two months prior to bottling, I think you will find this wine is ready to consume now or you can lay it down for a couple of years."

2005 Problem Child $45

71% Zinfandel, 17% Syrah, 12% Mourvedre

"The cool season of 2005 brought with it a change in flavors for Leona's Zinfandel; marked by an incredible white pepper nose and lush raspberry jelly. This wine has reached the 5th dimension. At first glance you notice the earth and spice, followed by an explosion of fruit and mouth watering acidity."

2005 Slacker $38

65% Syrah, 35% Grenache

"While the label doesn't state it, the Slacker does contain Mourvedre. Imagine that! A wine named Slacker is mislabeled. The wine is bold, dark and fused with tannin. Flavors of pomegranate, blackberry, and sage intermingle with aromas of roasted coffee and toast. Drink now or over the next 3-5 years."

and finally,

2005 Martyr $95

67% Mourvedre, 29% Syrah, 3% Grenache

"This wine reflects my own personal appreciation of Mourvedre. As you may have noticed, almost every wine we produce has some portion of Mourvedre (AKA Mataro). This grape intrigues me with both the way it grows and the flavor profile it produces. The skin is thick and crunchy, the pulp is sweet, earthy and dense, and the seed is large and tannic. All of these things combine to make a wine that is mildly floral, saturated in roasted meat flavors and leaves a finish that can be tasted for minutes to come. 120 cases produced.

I don't have the notes for Turley unfortunately, but they were also fantastic.

On Thursday we did a barrel tasting at Le Cuvier. This tasting was great in that we met the wine maker himself who gave us a taste directly from the barrels for a number of wines that hadn't yet been released. It was fascinating to hear how the wines are made, his philosophy of wine making, and particularly to be able to taste the progression of a wine from just barreled through almost ready to bottle. The single most interesting aspect though was to taste the same exact blend of a new wine barreled in Neutral oak and in 100% American oak. It was stunning to taste the contrast between the two.

On Thursday, Noah and Nameeta took us to their favorite restaurant, Passion Fish. The food here was wonderful (yes I went badly off diet, but we had planned the trip and made the dinner reservations well in advance of starting the diet, and frankly, sometimes you simply have to treat yourself).

Here we had this bottle:

Kistler Vineyards

2004 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir

"Expressive, enticing aromas of black and red fruits, minerals and smoke. Densely packed, supple and sweet, with lovely primary flavors accented by earth and mineral tones. A really seamless wine which offers a superb concentration of sappy, primal crushed berry flavors and a long persistent finish. Delicious now."

And then there was Friday night. Friday night needs a post all to itself. Suffice to say that we had the single best meal I have ever had and expect it will be the best meal I will ever have.

Vacation

2007-11-25T13:13:00.000-05:00

Headed to California on Tuesday. My wife and I are meeting a friend in San Luis Obispo and touring a few vineyards over a few days (I think we're headed to Turley and Sea Smoke, but I'll update once I find out for sure). I'm looking forward to it quite a bit ( I need the recharge away from work), but I'm also a bit wary since I'll need to be careful to stay on track with my diet. In the past, I have always used vacations as an excuse to be decadent. We'll go to top restaurants, eat phenomenal meals and drink terrific wines. I'm going to have to carefully plan around this while still not forcing Angela to give up her opportunity to treat herself.

I'd down to 207 as of this morning which I'm very excited about since it marks a 25lb loss. I've got 32 more pounds to go. I'm not going to miss the opportunity though to drink some nice boutique wines while I'm out there. I'm hopeful we'll be able to bring a few bottles home with us as well. I'll update the blog with the list of wines we tried and purchased while out there.

After a few days we head up to San Francisco for Angela's company's Holiday party. This is always fun, but also I have to remember to be on my best behavior since it is a work event. Poor Angela is unable to relax since she typically gets involved in the logistics of moving around all of the people in her company and their spouses. Always a fun little challenge.

I will be missing my brother closing on his condo. The last of my immediate family to own their own home. I wish I could be there just to see the look on my father's face since this was always a dream of his.

Rambling post to be sure but I'm trying to get myself into the habit of writing a little bit every few days even if the post has no real purpose.

Reconnecting...

2007-11-21T09:52:00.000-05:00

I have recently been making attempts to reconnect to the people I have cared about in my life and lost touch with. Nothing earth shattering, mostly old college and high school friends.

What does surprise me is that I'm finding it a challenge to do so, even when there are still obvious connections. Some have been easier than others.

For example, my friend Rui from college is someone I'm having great trouble with. I'm just not sure how to approach it. He's an interesting person, intelligent, engaging and easy to talk to. So why am I having trouble with it? I'm really not sure. I emailed him, he emailed back and expressed interest in reconnecting, yet I have had trouble coming up with anything from there.

With others, it has been much easier. Emily, a friend from high school (whom I had a massive crush on) has been much easier, I think part of it with her is that she has been keeping a blog which provides insight into her life, what she is currently thinking and provides an easy way to begin a conversation). I wonder how it has been for her in that respect?

What has been most surprising to me though is the slight trepidation I feel about it all. I'm actually nervous about it. Will they be interested in me? Did our friendships fade for a good reason? Do we have anything in common any more? Am I better off just letting good memories be good memories and not put myself in a position to be hurt by people whose friendship I valued?

Great Wine, Great Food and Even Greater Company

2007-11-18T14:42:00.001-05:00

My wife and I had dinner with her boss and his wife last night to celebrate her 10 year anniversary with her company. The two of them are amongst the most fascinating, kindest and nice people it has ever been my pleasure to be around.

On so many levels, we consider them a part of our family. They have been incredibly generous to us over the years, have been understanding when troubles arose and stood by us.

Last night they shared some Vega-Sicilia Unico 1974 with us, which may have been the best red wine I have ever tasted. Her boss is a wonderful cook and made us an interesting shrimp appetizer, a wonderful fruit salad and a terrific Chilean Sea Bass entree.

Better than that was the conversation, where we talked about the challenges of a working relationship mixed with friendship. As a very wealthy couple, the two of them have to deal with the reality of people looking to take advantage of them in all facets of their lives. Our conversation turned to con artists and their methods (in which we discussed the mythical "snow chicken") and to our own interests (Plato vs. Aristotle, religion, women's issues, etc).

I hope that we didn't disappoint the two of them with our company, because we really enjoyed theirs.

Dieting...

2007-11-11T13:16:00.001-05:00

So, about a month ago I decided to lose some weight. I'm 5'10" tall and I was sitting at 232lbs and a BMI of 33.28, well in the range of "obese." I made the decision based on the fact that my 38" waist jeans were getting VERY tight and if I gained any more weight I was going to have to start buying new pants. Again. With the holidays coming soon, I had to do something. So I decided to put myself on the HMR program with a target weight of 175lbs. I had weighed that much as late as 2002 and I felt pretty good about myself at that weight.

I'm now almost exactly 4 weeks into the diet and I weighed in this morning at 213.0lbs (a BMI of 30.56, only 4 more pounds needed to be merely "overweight"). A very good start I think. I'm already down a full belt notch and I now fit into some of my baggier 36" waist pants and my 38" pants are feeling very loose.

The tradeoff on all of this is the lack of variety in food, and a lack of energy due to the lower calorie consumption. To combat this I have started exercising again (I'm taking it very slowly right now). I purchased a treadmill, took delivery of it on Thursday and have done 2 sessions at about 45 minutes per.

I'm hopeful that by the time New Year's Day rolls around that I'll be in the range of 190, starting to lift weights again and jogging on the treadmill rather than walking on it.

My Desk at Work

2007-10-30T16:54:00.001-04:00

My Desk at Work
Originally uploaded by Caution Roadie Crossing

I clean when I'm procrastinating. My desk is rarely messy. In the photo is an iPhone, a MacBook, a PC with dual monitors, pictures of Leeloo and Angela, a deck of cards, some poker chips, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame paperweight and a plushy microbe (the flesh eating virus). I am geek.

The Media and their Need for Controversy

2007-10-25T09:50:00.000-04:00

I'm not a big fan of the generic news media these days. They seem to feel that controversy is required at all times and as a result they will overblow the most ridiculous things into huge stories.

Examples of small items that became huge national stories in recent years include:
The Shark Attacks
The Terri Shiavo case
Chandra Levy

There are a million more, the worst of which is of course propagated by Fox News who seem to think that the best way to prop up the Bush Administration is through fear.

This morning I was struck by how insane it has really gotten when I turned on local sports radio just to reinforce the good feeling I had following the Red Sox's victory last night. I was disgusted to find the local media ripping the general manager of the Red Sox, Theo Epstein for the signing of a few underperforming players (or at least, players performing under expectations).

Here is a team that is in the World Series and up 1-0 in that series. This is the very definition of success in baseball, yet here we have some moron on the radio trying as hard as he can to manufacture controversy where there is none. I don't know why I bother to pay any attention at all when the people in a position to provide meaningful commentary insist on this garbage. What's even worse is that when someone has the temerity to complain about the coverage they are screamed at and shut down (a la Bill O'Reilly).

I haven't got a single complaint about the Boston Red Sox right now. They have succeeded to exactly where I would want them to be. I literally could not possibly, reasonably expect any more of the team. Does this make for "boring" news and discussion? Maybe, but that does not mean that controversy should simply be created where there is none.

Red Sox, World Series Tickets and Me

2007-10-24T12:33:00.000-04:00

So, my brother found a listing for 2 tickets to tonight's World Series game here in Boston. I'm a huge Sox fan and woudl love to go. The seller is offering them at face value plus something additional. He requested "creativity" and listed a few things that he likes (Patriots tickets, music, etc). Now I didn't really have anything good to offer him that would really fit his criteria, so I offered to donate $500 to the Jimmy Fund in his name, or in the name of someone he chooses.

The tickets are $55/ticket. Will he go with the greed or will he be unable to pass up a chance to help some sick kids? We'll see. I should know within the hour.

Update: 1:15PM - No word back from the guy yet. It doesn't look good for me.

Update: 2:45PM - Still no word. I'll be watching the game from my couch.

I can't wait for Ron Paul to go away

2007-10-22T16:11:00.000-04:00

I'm sick and tired of his 25 supporters and their ridiculous Internet campaign. Every damned day there are 3 or 4 articles that pop up in my RSS feed for Digg and I'm sick of it. The guy is a complete crackpot and has no chance whatsoever of winning the election.

I hope he manages to siphon votes away from whatever Republican does get the eventual nomination. I just wish Digg had a good way of filtering their feeds so I didn't have to see the latest blog post by some jackass titled "Ron Paul wins obviously unscientific straw poll that his 25 supporters each voted on 3000 times"

He's anti-choice, Dominionist, and he wishes to withdraw from NATO, has made many a bigoted statement and wants to put the US back on the gold standard. Umm OK.

Just go away. PLEASE. If you have a Digg account and feel the same, please remember to Bury any of this crap.

Great Time To Be A Sports Fan In Boston!

2007-10-22T09:52:00.000-04:00

Boston Red Sox - World Series Bound

New England Patriots - 7-0 with a QB on track to break most records on the books.

Boston College - BCS Rank: 2

Boston Bruins - 5-2

Boston Celtics - Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen

Are you kidding me? It doesn't get much better than this!

Banks Suck

2007-10-19T12:20:00.000-04:00

Today I had a fun experience. An online service I use sent me an email to alert me that my credit card had been declined today. I don't actually have any credit cards and only use a bank debit card for all transactions other than straight cash. So I was a bit alarmed by this. I went to my bank's online site and logged in, no indication of any problem.

So I called the online service and they re-iterated the card had been declined after I gave them the information again. So, on to my bank. After wading through their menu system I got to a customer service representative who told me the card had been reported stolen. Now I knew this was false because I hadn't done it and I was holding the card in my hand when I called.

She says she'll look into it. Apparently, my bank was told by MasterCard that my card along with thousands of others had been somehow compromised. Citizens canceled it. Without notifying me in any way, even though they have both my phone number and email address on file.

I suggested that a phone call would have been helpful and the service rep immediately answered that calling their own customers would not have been feasible. That's crap, I work for a company that does automated telephony (for the health care industry as a service to patients, I'm not entirely without a conscience) and I know that this kind of call could be created and executed in a matter of about an hour. They just didn't want to spend the $10,000 - $15,000 it would have cost to make those calls. They are overnighting me a new card (business overnight) to arrive on Monday. They'll require a signature. This means that I'll have to be home. Luckily I can work from home fairly easily, but for most people this will mean missing work as well. Totally ridiculous. Banks suck.

Heya!

2007-10-19T09:49:00.000-04:00

I'll be using this space for posting the occasional thought, but primarily as a place to share interesting news/blog items that I come across.