mr. blackandwhite

Blapp

Well that sucked, but I guess the Jets had to win a home game against The Pats again eventually.. The sucky part of the suck is that if The Pats had made good for 7 instead of settling for 3 on one of those several trips inside the NJ Red Zone, we'd probably be talking about a different outcome to the game right now. That's why they play em I guess, but it still sucks. NJ 16, Pats 9. Blah. Lots of games left, yadda yadda yadda.

GO PATS

I don't know what to write about

Well, here I am. It's Sunday night, the designated 'blawggin' night, my Wife's watching her Home Makeover show, but I don't have anything to write about. So this will be a scintillating post as I'm sure you can guess, right off the bat.

I guess I'll just run through a few things..

- Please bug the crap out of your congressperson/man/woman and tell him, her or it to support H.R. 1207, a bill introduced by Congressman Ron Paul to audit the Federal Reserve. All it takes is a second to e-mail these people, when they don't turn off the e-mail server because too many people are e-mailing that is.. but, anyway, I hope you will take action, bug your congressman and help spread the word!!

- The Pats.. It's the lull before the draft. Not much to say, really. In Bill We Trust.

- The B's.. The B's seem to be losing a lot of games lately, but they are pretty much a lock for the playoffs, so I am wondering if maybe they are just cruising on in. Hopefully they get that chip back on their shoulder for the playoffs. I'd like to see them make it past the first round this year.

- Spring is almost here. The snow is almost gone from my yard. I can't wait till it is all melted. This has been, unquestionably, the worst Winter I have ever had to endure. It's been frikkin' 10 degrees since November, then the ice-storm in December, that sucked.. It didn't crack 20 degrees for four months and we've had like six feet of snow. So, I'm pretty much ready for Spring. Really ready.

- The Sox.. I don't really get into Spring Training that much, I just kinda watch from afar, but I do like to hear the sound of Jerry Remy calling a game, even if it is a game that doesn't count. It reminds me of the fact that warm days are ahead. I watched some of the Sox / MFY game the other night. What was with those MFY uni's with the shinny shinny 'New York' and the weird letters.. [insert derogatory remark here]

Aright, they are movin the bus out of the way on my Wife's show. And I am outta here for this post. See ya!

Ka-Ching!

Dear Bank of America,

Fantastic news! As a taxpaying U.S. citizen, I recently had a major windfall occur and I became a part owner of not only an investment firm, a bank AND a mortgage company, but now I'm a part owner of an insurance company as well! Isn't that awesome??

Ok, enough about me, here's where it all comes together: I couldn't help but notice that you're in a buying mood lately, and I was wondering if you'd be interested in my newly acquired shares of these fine financial institutions as well. I'll trade ya what I've got in Fannie, Freddie and AIG straight up for the remaining balance of my mortgage. Heck, I'll throw in what I've got in Bear Stearns too.

What do you say?? It's a win win win for everybody all around! Let's make a deal baby!!

Just between you and me, I gotta tell ya, I think the poop's well on it's way towards the fan and I'd really like to get rid of this thing before something really bad happens, ya know? hahaha ;-)

Ok, thanks BOA!

Chat ya soon!

Computers continue to suck..

I'm really hatin' on technology this week. All my gear at home is getting old and outdated. It happens. That's just how it is, but that does not make it any more pleasant when you become the one who is outdated.

The problem is, all my stuff still works fine, it's just, OLD.

I have a 3rd gen iPod that I use constantly. I've replaced the battery in it once and now it's starting to show signs of battery death again. Not only that, but it's full. It can't fit any more songs. I am constantly turning songs off in iTunes so that new songs that I add will fit on the iPod.

Rather than replace the battery again, I figured this time I'd just go for one of the new, spiffy iPods. They are 4 times bigger than my current iPod and the battery lasts way longer.

Thanks to my extremely thoughtful Wife, I got a bunch of Apple gift cards for my birthday a while ago, enough to add up to a new iPod, so today we trekked out to the Apple store in Holyoke, MA (a friggin haul) to pick one up.

Bad news. The new iPods only work with USB 2.0, something my old reliable TiBook does not have. Thankfully I realized this and I didn't trade in my old, still working, iPod for a new iPod that looks cool but can't be used with my computor. It was disappointing, but better than the alternative, a cool iPod with no tunes on it.

So in the near future I'm going to be trying a somewhat expensive experiment. I'm going to get a USB 2.0 PCMIA card for the PowerBook and hope it works ok with the, eventual, new iPod Classic..

Or I could just take the guy at the Apple store's suggestion and buy a new compewtor. Yah, right.

Don't be dumb like this idiot (who is actually me.)

Posted to the Mac Office Entourage Usenet Group:

---
Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: Power PC
Email Client: pop

1. After seeing the [MS Office 2008] 12.0.1 update was available I continually tried to do 'AutoUpdate' from the help menu. No updates found. I eventually downloaded the stand alone installer and ran that.

2. Admittedly, my own error, forgot, did not pay close enough attention, etc, I forgot to turn off Office Notifications before running the update. This left me with Entourage still at version 12.0

To fix it I had to log out, log in with shift key, un-install office 2008, re-install office 2008, run the 2.1.1 updater and then run the 12.0.1 updater. Now Entourage was at the right version. Maybe the next updater that comes out should quit all Office Apps and background apps like the notification engine??

3. Anxious to see if sync duplication for calendar events is fixed, I re-enabled sync in Entourage, stupidly forgetting that I had previously deleted my entourage calendar from iCal. Thus all of my entourage calendar entries were deleted when the sync occurred. What a disaster.

Thankfully I had a backup of an old iCal calendar database so I re-imported that into iCal's Entourage calendar, which then synced back to Office 2008 Entourage, so I got most of my calendar events back. However, after the sync, the timezone for all my events was, once again, set to Casablanca, Monrovia... Ug. Thankfully I had an Applescript provided by a very helpful person from this board that changed Monrovia timezones to Eastern timezones.. I have not seen any sync duplicates yet but it has only been a short time. I guess we'll see what happens on that one..

And now I will vent:
I realize that some of these issues are considered to be 'user error' but just the same I am still very frustrated by this experience. I was chugging along on Office v.X for years with no problems. I wish I had never updated to Office 2008. It has NOT been worth the hassle.

I'm now seriously thinking of just ditching MS Office and using the built in Apple apps because this is not worth the time and irritation.
---

The moral of this story:
COMPUTERS SUCK> BACK UP YOUR SHIT.

Or, as my Wife says, 'That's why I keep all my contact info and calendar stuff in a dayplanner.'

You got it. That's right you got it.

Well I've been fighting it off with coffee and whiskey and general good clean livin but it's finally got me. I am down with the sickness.

Of course, it did not help to have people coughing and sneezing directly into my face for the better part of a week or so. It's germ central at my house. That's what happens when you have kids.

Thankfully I had a backup package of Theraflu in my desk drawer here at work. Theraflu to the rescue.

Last night I saw the 'You're going to Disneyland!' ad for Eli Manning with Richard Seymour and Rodney Harrison walking off the field in the background. That sucked. I was working on my taxes at the time. Pile on the fun!

Like many others in Patriots Nation I've been avoiding the news in general. I think there's a fancy word for that but it's escaping me at the moment... Oh, wait. Denial! Yeah there we go!

I just don't want to hear it right now, ya know? I'm trying to move on, avoid the negative talk and get to the positive stuff like looking forward to the off-season, the NFL Draft, gearing up for next year and getting ready for the next season, and reading shitty news stories detailing all that is wrong about the evil New England Patriots does not help.

Take for example, this morning, when I could not help but read about how the Patriots players who attended the Pro-Bowl (which = a total joke by the way) this past weekend were booed by the 'fans' as they came onto the field. None of the players from the other 31 NFL teams got booed, just the players from the Patriots.

What the fuck is up with that?

I gotta say, as ridiculous as it is, that really kind of fucking pisses me off. What the hell? You are booing guys at the Pro-Bowl? It's irrational, I know, but that really bothers me. It's not like this is the Pats taking the field in Miami or New Jersey and hearing it from the home-town fans, something that is obviously completely normal and is 100% expected. This is the Pro-Bowl, a time for guys who worked hard during the season and earned some recognition for their play to have a good time, enjoy the sun and play in a totally meaningless football game. I think it is really shitty that people in attendance at the 'game' would boo any of the players as they came out onto the field. Fuck you Pro-Bowl attendees.

I don't expect to see 16-0 again but God I hope The Pats come out next season and truly stomp the rest of the NFL.

2008 Opponents:

Home games
Bills
Dolphins
Jets
Broncos
Cardinals
Chiefs
Rams
Steelers

Road games
Bills
Dolphins
Jets
Chargers
Colts
49ers
Raiders
Seahawks

GO PATS

(Mood: You Got It - Mudhoney)

If we make it through December... we've still got January and February.

Ok. It's official. I'm sick of winter. When I'm snow-blowing my driveway more than once a week, that's too much. I'm dreaming of a green Christmas and I never want to see a day that's over forty degrees.

Actually, now that I think about it, it's not even technically Winter yet. Fuck!

I know there are people out there that love winter and love cold and snow and all that, but I'm just not one of them. Maybe if I owned a snow-mobile, things would be different but, I don't.

I do own a snow-blower, thank God, because shoveling by hand really, really sucks. Of course, my snow-blower, it seems like every time I take it out, something happens to get me annoyed. It's not like being out in the cold and snow and shoveling is bad enough, having to wear ski goggles to keep the ice out of my eyes.. as I trudge up and down the drive way, but it seems like there is always something going on with my snow-blower.

Last year, I had a problem where the nut and bolt that holds together the chute where the snow comes shooting out vibrated off and the whole entire chute fell right off of the snow-blower as I was in the middle of clearing my driveway.

That was fun.

I thought I had fixed the problem but when I took out the snow-blower for the first time a few days ago, as I was clearing the driveway I noticed that the chute was getting wobbly. Thankfully I now know from experience that if I see the chute start to get wobbly, I know that the nut that holds the thing together is about to fall off and I can catch it and tighten it down before the whole chute falls off of the snow-blower.

Since it was the first time out using the snow-blower this season, I figured it was a one time thing and that after tightening the nut down again, the problem would be solved. Wrong. I was clearing the drive way today, enjoying myself throughly (NOT), when I noticed that the chute was once again getting wobbly. I got my wrench and tightened it down, AGAIN. Obviously, there is an issue that I need to deal with here. I think maybe the lock washer that I used to fix it last year is not thick enough or something.

Anyway, the part that annoyed me today was not that I had to fix the snow-blower again, that is becoming old-hat, it's that I lost the wrench that I used to fix it in the snow somewhere.

Since it was a lovely winter day with piercing ice and biting wind hitting me in the face, I was wearing ski-goggles as I was clearing the driveway. The goggles kept fogging up so I had a tissue in my pocket to wipe them down every now and then. I stupidly had the wrench in the same pocket and somewhere along the line, as I was taking out the tissue to de-fog the goggles, the wrench must have fallen out. I didn't notice the wrench was gone until I saw the snow-blower chute start to get wobbly again. I reached into my pocket to get the wrench and quickly tighten down the nut and the wrench was not there. Gone. Somewhere in the snow. That fully sucks. And it was a Craftsman wrench too. Dammit. Now I need to buy a new wrench. 11mm. And while I'm at it I need to get a thicker lock-washer because I've had it with this new latest routine.

I hate winter.

(photos: Scott A. Schneider / New York Times, Rankin/Bass)

A few minor complaints.. and some good news too.

Yesterday the place where I work got hit with some damn computer virus so I've been spending the last few days trying to clean up that mess. Fucking virus writers. Who are these people and why do they do this? What purpose does it possibly serve? None that I can tell, other than getting pleasure from making people's lives a little more difficult. I don't get it.

It's the same thing with spam. Are there really people out there that are dumb enough to fall for a Cialis or penis enlargement spam message?

Spammers and virus writers, you all suck.

After heating up my lunch I was walking back over to my desk while also holding a cup of water and the dang water slipped out of my hand and landed right on my foot, prompting a nice, loud, 'Awwww, fuckin-A!!' for all of my fellow cube-dwellers to hear and enjoy. So now my whole foot is soaked and I'll be walking around with a wet foot for the rest of the day. Rats. At least it was only water and not coffee...

There is some good news however thanks to Michele. Apparently today is National Hot Dog Day and that means hot dogs for dinner tonight. Yum!

I like my hot-dogs cooked on the grill but I also like them boiled, steamed or fried. There is no wrong way to cook a hot dog. I also like to spread a little butter on the rolls, New England style of course, and toast them in a fry pan. Throw on some mustard, ketchup and onions and we are set. Chili and cheese are also good additions. I'm not really a big fan of sauerkraut or relish but I've learned that some people put coleslaw on their dogs and that sounds like it could be pretty tasty.. My favorite brand of hot-dog is Fenway Franks (beef) but I'll take whatever I get.

The National Hot Dog Day article I linked to does bring up one important question about hot dogs though,

No matter what style hot dog you enjoy, the age-old question still remains — why do hot dogs come in packages of 10 and hot dog buns in packages of eight?

I have to say I have always wondered about that myself... Hmmmm...

Various Pats / Sox related thoughts... (and a snowblower fight story!)

Corey Dillon is no longer a Patriot. He has asked to be released by the team and The Pats have granted him his wish. He may or may not retire, depending on what kind of offer / opportunity he gets from other teams. Apparently he feels that he still has enough gas in the tank to carry the load as a number one running back. Based on his numbers with The Patriots the last few years, I am not so sure about that, although last season I thought he was very productive and was under-used by The Patriots... Hopefully he does not go to an AFC East team, or some other big AFC rival, but I would not be surprised if he did, since that is how things always seem to work with players that leave The Patriots.

Wherever Dillon winds up, I wish him the best. When he was still on the Bengals I used to always think how cool it would be to have him in a New England uniform and then when it actually happened, I was psyched. I appreciated the effort and the work that Corey put in when he was on the team and I never fell for any of the crap that the local press tried to shove down our throats about him being a bad person or whatever. The Pats helped Dillon escape from what was, at the time anyway, a perennial loser in Cincy, formerly known as NFL Siberia, and in turn Dillon helped the Pats win a Superbowl. Things worked out quite nicely.

Best of luck Corey (except when facing The Patriots of course).

--

Well it looks like I will have soon have something else in common with Tom Brady besides the fact that we are both men and both really like football. Yes, it's true. In case you haven't heard, our man Tom is about to join The Daddy Club. All I will say about this 'story' is this: I now have to find a new millionaire-playboy-superbowl champion-aw shucks-seems like a regular guy like me but also dates super-models and plays for my #1 favorite team-athlete to live vicariously through. Damn. Do you know how hard it is to find a guy like that?? It's not easy. It's easier to find a white whale or a white elephant or a koala bear or something. I don't think it can be done actually. I mean, who out there in the sports world can offer what Brady formerly had to offer as an imaginary double life? Nobody, that's who. Who am I supposed to live vicariously through now? Petyon Manning? Phhht!! Yeah right!!

--

The Sox are not going to offer Curt Shilling a contract for 2008 and will allow him to become a free agent after this season. My thoughts on this subject are somewhat cloudy because I happen to have a huge man-crush on The Shil. Shilling is the fucking balls dude. I fully fucking love that guy (in a very masculine, manly way of course) so it goes without saying I'd like to see him finish things out as a Red Sox.

Of course, I can understand the Red Sox side of things too. He has been injured (mainly due to his risking his baseball future for our sakes in 2004, I might add) and is getting up there in age at 40 years young, so in that vein I can see why the Sox would want to wait and see how things pan out this season before signing any kind of guaranteed contract for future years.

And it is still possible that The Sox could work out a deal with Shilling after the season ends as well, provided he has a good year, etc etc. I read the article about him basically brushing off Sox owner John Henry as he tried to approach Shil during spring training by speeding up his pace and walking away too quickly for The Henry to keep up and have a conversation with him. On one hand I thought it was funny. Classic Shilling. On the other hand, it was not funny, if you know what I mean, because Shilling is obviously annoyed by the situation.

Whatever. We've got a long baseball season in front of us for things to play out in so we'll see what happens when it's over. I just hope that if Shilling has a good year, he does not hold this against The Sox when he becomes a free agent. Hopefully he doesn't decide to pay The Sox back for their wait and see attitude by donning the hated pinstripes in 2008... That would fully hella suck...

--

Manny is being Manny again. What? No way!! How dare he show up for Spring Training late, just like he does every year!! Yup. Yawn. This is a story? I've noticed the press is doing their best to try and stir us up about Manny's annual 'late to Spring Training because of [insert reason here]'. Thankfully this time around it does not appear to be working. Seems like most folks have finally learned to ignore the flailing of the sportswriters on this subject. Yay! You can fully count me in on the 'Manny Rules and can show up to camp whenever he feels like it' side of things.

The Dugout had a really funny post on this subject by the way... Good for a Friday laugh.

--

Well I think that basically about covers things here... Oh, yeah I forgot. I woke up this morning to the glory of a snow covered winters morn today... and then cursed every last flake as I went out to shovel. I hate snow. All snow. Any snow. Hate it.

This last storm was pretty mild. Couple inches, not too heavy. I was not expecting a problem getting cleared out today. SO I'm out there with my snow-blower, and things are working fine. The Airens is chugging along and I'm just mindlessly going up and down the driveway. I was actually thinking to myself that even though I hate snow and I hate shoveling and snow-blowing, I am very, very thankful and glad that I have a snowblower, because manually shoveling the driveway really, really sucks. So even though my snow blower has generally been a pain in the ass and has needed several repairs over the years, as well as temporarily serving as a comfy nest for some mice (fuckers), I was still extremely appreciative and thankful for it's presence.

Just as I was thinking these nice, happy thoughts about my finicky snowblower, I noticed that the chute that the snow comes shooting out of was kind of wiggly and loose.

'Hmmm. That's kind of odd,' I thought. 'I have not seen that before. I'll have to check that out when I'm done...'

I got to the end of the driveway, turned around to go back up, turned the crank to swivel the snow chute over to the other direction and, 'CLANG!!' The shute fucking fell right the fuck off the snowblower and landed on the ground.

WHAT THE FUCK!!!

So now I'm pissed. 'You stupid snowblower!' I yelled to no one in particular.

I took a minute to calm down and then proceeded to scour the driveway and the street for the little nut and bolt that held the chute onto the snowblower and had apparently come loose and fallen out somewhere while I was walking up and down the driveway. I actually said a short prayer to God in Heaven to help me be patient and calm and to help me to find the little pieces in all this snow and ice. It took several minutes but, YES!! There is the nut. Found it!!

Now I needed to find the screw. That should be easier. The nut was really little, so if I found that, I should be able to find the screw, right? Plus it should not be too far from where the chute fell off... Well not so fast because I had a a hell of a time finding that little screw. I was almost ready to throw in the towel and see if I could scrounge up a replacement from the box of assorted screws that I have on my workbench in my basement when I found it. YES! Thank you God! Big ups to you for your help! You are THE MAN! (or the being, or whatever God is...)

I put the chute back together and finished clearing the driveway. As I was putting the snowblower away, I noticed the chute was loose again. 'I bet there was a lock-washer on there and now that's gone,' I said to myself. 'Well there's no way I'm gonna find that.'

Down to the basement I went to get my box of assorted nuts and bolts and washers. I was in luck again because I had one single lock-washer that fit just right on the screw. Woo-hoo! Somebody really was watching out for me today. I put the thing back together and tightened it all up. I checked all the other nuts and bolts on the ornery machine while I was at it because I did not want to have to do this again.

They don't have to deal with this kind of thing in St. Thomas I bet...