Category: Uncategorized

Million Flickr Hits

My Flickr account just received it’s one millionth hit. That includes all image views as well as photostream views and album views and everything. I still have another 17,149 image views to go before I hit a million in that category alone. That’s kinda what I am hoping for. A million total is awesome, but a million images views? That would be like sweetness times 10.

Thanks for checking out my Flickr, everyone! And thanks for not shutting down the service, Yahoo or Verizon or who ever the hell owns Flickr now. Screw Donald Trump, let’s make Flickr great again!

Trick or Treat

I’m on candy distribution duty for tonight’s Halloween. Trick or Treating began at 5:00pm and it runs until 7:00pm. The first group rang the doorbell at 5:28. The second at 5:30… and the second group turned into a run, the likes of which I’ve never seen. Maybe close to 20 kids in all. They were like G.I.’s storming the beaches at Normandy. They just kept coming two or three at a time. It was an onslaught. We started with six bags of candy and half of it is gone… and it’s not even 5:45 yet!

Happy Halloween!

We Were Okay Tonight

Band practice tonight. We did the gig on 10/8, then took two weeks off. Last week was the first practice back, but we were short a singer. Tonight was the first practice with all of us. It wasn’t bad. We hacked our way through a few songs that we’re hoping to add to the set for the next show. Nothing was good, but nothing was disastrous either. I’m using the Fender amp now at rehearsals. That’s a big change gear wise for me, but I’m okay with it so far. The Big Muff with Tone Wicker doesn’t play nicely with the Fender. I need to figure out an alternative. It might be time to try out a clone, who knows. Other than that, all is pretty well right now. Part of me is thinking that maybe it’s time to dial back on the all out fuzz box attack and move back into the overdrive world. Not sure. Maybe.

The next practice should be next Sunday, but we’ll probably be off for a couple of weeks after that. I need to practice more this week, and I am really hoping my Les Paul comes home from the shop. Fingers crossed on that one.

I Dislike Christmas in October

I saw this at a CVS in Salem, NH two nights ago:


To that, I say, BITE ME. It’s not even Halloween yet and they are putting out Christmas crap. I hate Christmas. Now granted, last year my first Christmas crap sighting in a store was in September, so October 27th was a pleasant surprise. Still…

I wonder if the Halloween decorations (33% off) are jealous.


Six Days, Far Away

I put my Les Paul in the shop six days ago. I miss that little sucker. I hope it’s being treated well, and I hope it’s behaving like a good 38 year old guitar.

Hopefully the estimate of “about two weeks” will turn into “come pick ‘er up” by the end of this weekend.

Here’s a pic from 2005, before Larry swapped out the pickups for me, as well as replacing the machine heads and fixing some of the wiring.


Come home soon, Les Paul. We miss you.

Early Voting Recap

Well, I did it.

The early voting poles opened up at 8am. I walked into the side entrance of the Methuen police department at about 8:01. Some towns have lines in the morning, so I didn’t want to risk being late for work. I had nothing to worry about.

You walk in, give your name, they look you up on a little tablet computer thingie… and if you’re me, the send you over to the inactive register table because apparently I never sent in my f*****g city census (mother f*****g city census), so I had to give an ID. Normal people do not need to show an ID. There are signs all over the place saying you don’t need to show your ID. The dude behind me in line? Walked in and without being asked handed over his ID. Insert the sound of an exasperated sigh right here.

So now I am back on the active voter list (grrrrrrr) and I am ready to go. They printed out a little label with the date, the location, my precinct, and my name. They taped it onto an envelope. I then had to put my name and address and my John Hancock onto the envelope. Finally, I get a ballot and off I go, voting against that fascist piece of crap who has no idea what it means to be an American. That orange pile of fascist goo. Then I put the ballot into the envelope, seal it, and hand it over. The pole worker made sure it was signed and sealed, then put it into a box for my precinct.

On November 8, 2016, each box will be delivered to the proper precinct, and then the voter will be checked off again, the envelope will be unsealed, and the ballot will be loaded into the ballot machine. Done and done.

Now that it’s done, we ask the questions: Why did I do it, and would I do it again?

The why is simple. I hate that fascist piece of dog shit who is running on the Republican ticket in place of an actual Republican so much that I simply could not wait any longer. I had to cast the ballot now. The two week wait until 11/8/16 was going to make me lose my friggin’ mind. I am usually a very patient person, but the wait was making me sick. I had to vote early for my own sanity. It feels like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Unfortunately, I now have to wait two unbearable weeks to find out if the fascist lost or not.

Would I do it again? I don’t know. I have to say that my name being attached to the envelope that is currently holding my ballot is bothering me a little bit. The whole idea is a secret ballot. Yes you have to give your name when you vote on the actual election day too, but you do not have to attach your name to the ballot in any way. That’s not the case right now. If some corrupt asshole piece of shit wanted to know who I voted for, he’d just have to find my envelope and look. I don’t like that. On the other hand, I got to vote on my telecommuting day so I had no worries about being late to work because I voted in the morning. I didn’t have to worry about getting stuck in bad traffic and not being able to vote if I had decided to vote after work. My home and office are far enough apart that there is no way I could vote during the work day. I did it at my convenience and didn’t have to worry about anything. I might do this again.

So there is my early voting recap. One vote against fascism down, hopefully millions and millions more will follow.

I’m with her.

Early Voting?

I’m thinking about taking part in the early voting program that Massachusetts made all of the cities and towns set up. Partly because it will let me vote before work on a telecommuting day, but also because I hate the thought of that orange pile of fascist goo winning the election so much that I want to give myself some cushion against something going wrong on election day. Like, what if I get sick and can’t get to the poles? Or what if I have to vote after work but my car breaks down on the highway and I can’t get there.

I haven’t looked at any of the ballot questions yet, but if I can do some research tonight and tomorrow, I might vote against fascism on Thursday. We’ll see.