Thursday, February 28, 2008

3:00am, the technology hour

Those of you that know me really well know that I've long been an advocate of consumer level bionics. For example, how come I cannot get a chip implanted that simply lets me know what time it is all the time. Timer chips have been around for years, and it seems like a fairly simple, innocuous implant could transmit the signal to the brain, yet the technology just isn't there on the bio-side to make this happen.

Enter: Emotive Epoc Neural Headset

"At Emotiv, we've created a robust system and methodology for detecting and classifying both human conscious thoughts and non-conscious emotions. This revolutionary patent pending neural processing technology makes it possible for computers to interact directly with the human brain. By the detection of thoughts and feelings, our technology now makes it possible for applications to be controlled and influenced by the user's mind."


Priced at $299.00 this is a great buy, but won't be available until late 2008. Don't worry you can reserve yours today - I did mine.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Moon Over Medford

Today is Bosox's birthday, and a total lunar eclipse will be visible from Medford from 10:01pm to 10:51pm EST. A total lunar eclipse occurs when a full moon enters the earth's shadow and is completely blocked by the sun, especially on the Medford side. The next such event won't happen until December 21, 2010.

Lots of people throughout history have understood lunar eclipses as an omen, good or bad. For example the Magi in the Gospel of Matthew predict the birth of Jesus after seeing the Star of Bethlehem, whereas some Wiccans today believe that a total lunar eclipse may create unusual magnetic fields or disruption of those fields, which may have a metaphysical impact on humans.

Over at the astrology zone they claim in their nine rules of eclipses that "If an eclipse falls on your birthday, the year that follows certainly will be quite eventful. You may experience a big change in lifestyle or in one specific part of your chart." Some new-agers even believe that a total eclipse means prominence and rebirth for the city of Medford, MA.

Okay, I made that last one up, but as for the TLE falling on Bosox's birthday: I believe it bodes well for 2008, and, if nothing else, brings astrological closure to all of the ups-and-downs, goods-and-bads that blessed and cursed her 2007.

Monday, February 18, 2008

These People Tried to Kill Me...

...in no particular order:

  • Scott
  • Matt
  • Tara
  • Michael
  • Cat
  • Tisha
  • Randy (especially Randy)
  • Jake
  • Jay
  • Timmy
  • Iris
  • Dancin
  • Jarrod
  • Jes
  • Hector
  • Jamie (why?)
  • Mike of the Mike & Cindi team
  • Cindi
  • Victor
  • Solly
  • Mikey Zee
  • Meagan
  • Stoney's (via grilled cheese heart attack)
  • That bartender at Matt's party with the tuxedo
  • Andrea
  • Bosox (yes, even bosox)
  • BigTDog
  • Kevin
  • Anna
  • Mary Rice (see nipple pics)
I also have sneaking suspicions about T and Feona.

Asollys on u

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Ship of fools, bus of idiots

The eagle has landed

Charm city

We bid a fond adieu to the queen city. two more stops at bwi and addison road (i think) before our destination, the nation's capital and many tasty beverages with lots of good friends. Holla!

Aberdeen not worthy

Bkdm: "see anything blog worthy?"
Bosox: "in aberdeen murylind? Decidedly not."

Farewell Gotham

Put more coal in the fire and get us to dc! 3 hours to go...

New haven passes with a beer

And we're off

Everything that could have gone wrong did. You can't park here. This subway car isn't going there today. The taxi driver got lost. Oh no where is my ID? Though the fates have conspired against us we are on our way to dc fueled with sparkling water and bagels. And I brought the goldschlager.

Ps is this picture sideways?

Friday, February 15, 2008

DC, Here We Come!


OK, so I'm doing laundry and packing.
I have my phone for mobile blogging.






I have my camera for taking pictures of chimneys, be they leaning, falling or being swept up.







And I have a flask of delicious Maker's Mark for the train ride.
It's going to be a fabulous trip!
See you soon DC peeps!

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Sticking With the Home Team

During our weekly Saturday trek to the Harpoon brewery this past weekend to fill up our growlers, I noticed something amiss in our beloved brewhall.

Amidst the array of taps sporting various manners of delicious beer, an ugly "B" - for Brooklyn Lager - jutted forward like so many sneering New Yorkers.

That's right, Harpoon made a bet on the super bowl with the Brooklyn Brewery. The stakes: If New England won, the Brooklyn Brewery would have to serve a keg of Harpoon IPA on tap, but if the Giants won, Harpoon would serve a keg of Brooklyn Lager.

There is no need to revisit the painful outcome, but I can take some small solace in the fact that someone in my beloved hometown state of Colorado is drinking delicious Harpoon beer at an (as yet) unnamed brewery in a similar bet involving the Red Sox. (Siobhan's note: pitchers and catchers report on Thursday!)

I consider this a bet made by Harpoon on behalf of all their loyal beer drinkers, and, like Harpoon, I honor my bets. That's why, this week, I drank a Brooklyn Lager. Which, by the way, I would have to say, all in all, is not bad.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Medford Driving Akin to Brownian Motion

Brownian motion: "the random movement of particles..."











I submit to you, dear readers, two photos: one of nuclear fusion in the sun and the other, an overhead view of the Kappy's intersection in Medford where route 28 meets... well, everything else. Note the random direction of the randomly accelerating vectors in both cases.



















In a further case study, another image below shows the difference between the purported and the actual location of our voting place. The green arrow on the left shows the official address of the location, while the red circle on the right shows the actual physical location. The difference between them can take as much as two hours to navigate (Our observant readers may have noticed the large body of water between the two).


On the plus side, Jingle Bells was written in Medford, MA (possibly).

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

It's a Sick, Sad World

reference: Daria. For those of you who are curious what type of readers visit our blog, I thought I'd list a few keyword searches that readers are using to find us on the internet. They range from
Completely Innocuous
  • boston steamer blog
  • fiona four-legged friends
  • how to get red sox tickets
To Social Entertainment & Tipple
  • salty dog tavern
  • beer growler koozies
  • german boston beer
  • harpoon brewery tasting
To Questionable
  • boston steamer pics
  • boston steamer pictures
  • boston steamer wikipedia
  • frottage fun
  • jeffy steamer
  • define boston steamer
  • what's a boston steamer
To Outright Disgusting
  • bukake (sic)
  • pictures of the boston steamer
  • boston steamer sex pics
If you don't know what some of these things mean, seriously, do not google them to find out. You are really better off not knowing.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Anything Else

Check out my new motherboard! Some people would call it a server-class motherboard because it supports 8 GBs of RAM, 12 SATA Hard Drives, 4 PCI-expressx16 slots, and two dual-core, 64-bit, AMD 3.0 GHZ chips. However, at $319.00 I think it was a steal. I only bought one processor for now, but will purchase the second soon enough. I will let you all know how it goes with setup and install.

BTW, I heard there was a football game tonight. I hope it went well. That sounds nice.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

I Saw the Trophys!


I experienced a huge Masshole milestone last night -- I got to meet a few of the World Champion Red Sox players, Alex Cora and Javier Lopez (who though born in Puerto Rico, went to Robinson HS and UVa). Plus, I got an autograph from the team's manager, Terry Francona.
I was at the Hyde Park Lions Club Sportsmen of the Year Banquet; Cora and Lopez were recipients and Francona was there as an added bonus.
Oddly, I had the longest athlete-chat with Todd Collins, the Boston-area boy who started for the Washington Redskins toward the end of the season and managed to help get them into the playoffs. You know I don't care about the Redskins; this info is for Kevin.
The most exciting news of the night was when they announced that the 2 (!) World Series trophys were in the building and that we could have our pictures taken with them. I waited my turn and didn't knock over any kids, but I was so giddy that my hands were shaking. My co-worker Rich, who got the tickets, took my picture for posterity. Now I can mark one more thing off my "To Do List for Becoming An Insufferable Masshole." Next up: Superbowl XLII.