Category: Uncategorized

Telecommuting Trick – Apple Style

When I am working from home I like to listen to music.  For some reason, Richard Thompson (with and without Linda, and with and without Fairport Convention) seems to work for me while I work.  Not sure why.

Anyway, I have gotten into the habit of sitting at the dining room table while I work.  I don’t like wearing headphones for long periods of time so I don’t like to wear them while working all day.  I have a sweet Bose iPod dock that I had been using, but it isn’t something I can leave in the dining room and frankly I’m too lazy to hook it up and take it down all the time.

What to do?

I thought about streaming my iTunes Match account through our Apple TV.  Why not, the television goes through what is by far the best sound system in the house.  Unfortunately, it’s not in the same room as me when I work, and if I get a call I would have to run into the next room and shut it off before answering.  That’s a pain.

Ahh… but iTunes Match, plus Apple TV means… Airplay!

What I did today was send the music app (formerly known as the iPod app) on my iPhone through the Apple TV via Airplay.  That means the control of the music (volume, track, ect) is here in the dining room with me.  It also means that if the phone rings, the music is automatically paused!  Two proverbial birds, one proverbial stone!

Apple, you so cool!  Thanks!

Aaron Hernandez

First off, I’m not much of a football fan.  I do pay attention to the Boston area teams, even for the sports that don’t do much for me.  Well.. Football and basketball.  Not so much soccer.  Anyway, I don’t really follow football, but I keep an eye on the goings on with the New England Patriots.  It’s hard not to given the amount of media coverage they get around here, and having a quarterback who is on the short list of the best ever also makes it hard to avoid.

Now we have this Aaron Hernandez situation.

Charged with murder yesterday, along with a handful of weapons charges.  Today the word is that he’s under investigation for involvement in a double murder last year.  Yeah.  Hell of a guy.

Now I am a firm believer in Innocent Until Proven Guilty, but dude… what the hell!  Video of you coming back home with a gun in your hand?  You returned the rental car with both gum (gum goes in mouth, saliva goes on gum, DNA lives in saliva.  Don’t you watch television, dude?) and a shell casing inside.  You didn’t think to clean out the car?  What a moron!  He must have been hoping to get caught and have his life as a millionaire elite professional athlete flushed down the shitter.

They were saying that the motive for murder was that the victim spoke to people Hernandez did not approve of.  Today they are saying it was because he knew something about last year’s murder.  Whatever it is, I am 100% sure that the guy did nothing to deserve death.  Even if he did, who the hell made some football player judge/jury/executioner?

I didn’t see the arraignment.  I didn’t read any transcripts or anything either.  A co-worker gave me a run down of the events yesterday.  My first thought was that he probably held his pistol sideways like the bad ass gangstas in the movies.  Damn, what an asshole this guy is.    My step son owns a Patriots jersey.  It has Gronkowski’s number on it.  Gronk strikes me as the kind of guy whose IQ is roughly that of a can of tuna fish.  A stereotypical dumb jock.  I’m really glad it’s Gronk’s name and number on my step son’s shirt.  I can forgive someone for being a dumb jock.  A dumb jock who is also a murderer?

He’s our very own OJ.

What an asshole.

Fireworks

I was wondering when Methuen would be holding its Fourth of July fireworks display.  I went to twitter and BANG, there was this:

Hmmm… ineteresting, WordPress.com… I thought that would come out with the image of the tweet and the poster attached to it.  Ahh, WordPress.com and it’s fear of HTML.  Shame.

 

ADDENDUM: Well the images are there.  So I guess what I am really lamenting is a Visual editor that actually shows what will be on the actual post.  I could have previewed it, but I didn’t.  Oh well.  Sorry WordPress.com.

Another Random Wednesday

Don’t ask me about hockey.  I’m not over it yet.  I’m going to need some time to get over that epic of a choke.

I can’t think of a topic for this post, so here’s a picture…

Untitled

I have finally come across a camera accessory I want to get that isn’t a new lens.  I want to get my hands on a neutral density filter.  I want to go over to the Spicket Falls Dam and take a nice long exposure, and I want to do it during the day.  I want the motion of the water to blur together.  Pictures like that are cool, and I want to take at least one cool picture before I die.

Picture this, only with the falling water all smoothed out.

2010-02-28 - spicket flood level 015

Yeah. Cool.

I also want to get a Forest Lake parking permit. I think I can do that tomorrow during lunch. Maybe I’ll bring my camera along for the ride. Maybe I’ll make a lunch ahead of time and eat it by the water. Maybe.

I also want to get a few more songs recorded before July 4th comes along. July 4th is the start date for the FAWM 50/90 challenge. Write 50 songs in 90 days. Yeah, right. Maybe I should change it to the 10/90. That might be more manageable as a summertime project. There was also talk of a bunch of RPM Challenge participants doing some sort of mini-challenge this summer. I thought it was going to be in June, but the site has been down for maintenance every time I’ve gone to it. Today is no exception.

Oh well. I’ll figure something out.

I was Not Flickr Robbed

Ever since Flickr released their redesign I have been using the hell out of as much of the site as I can.  I have been posting to groups more often, I have been marking more photos as favorites, I have been leaving more comments (although still not many) and I have been adding contacts galore.  Flickr includes a recommended contacts page and sometimes I will just go and add 10 or so for no reason other than they are there.  The result is a lot of really great looking stuff coming across my main page.  I’ve come across a lot of talented folks who post a lot of really interesting stuff.  I am pleased with my post-redesign Flickr experience.

Then yesterday something came across my main page that threw me.  It was a picture of a white gravestone with one word carved into it, and the letters were covered in an orange/gold colored moss.  My first thought was, I’ve seen that before.  Then, I have a pic in my photostream just like that.  Then, I wonder if it’s the same cemetery.  Then, I wonder if its the same stone.  Then, did someone steal my idea (har har).  Then, did some one steal my picture!?!?!?

No.  No one stole my picture.  I found mine in my Methuen, MA set.  It was very different.  Theirs had the name Mother on the stone.  Mine has Ralph.  Theirs had moss sprinkled across the whole word.  Mine had it clumped around a few letters.  Theirs was taken in a cemetery in… in… Chicago?  Philadelphia?  Whatever, mine was taken in the cemetery on Grove Street in Methuen and their was not.  Their photograph was awesome.  Mine was not.
Ralph

I looked at the other pictures I’ve taken that day, but I could not find the stone with Ralph’s last name. I did find that he had a brother named Jackson.

DSC_0148

The plot that Ralph and Jackson are in is a family plot. I like the idea of these plots, and I like the look of them too. There is one large stone with the family name on it and all of the dates. Then there is a smaller stone marking each individual.

The Gleasons are a good example of this.
DSC_0141

The Websters are also a good example.
DSC_0104

The moral of this story is simple. Just because I saw something that was worth taking a picture, doesn’t mean that if some one else photographs something similar they are stealing my idea. I am not a photographer, I am a nerd with a camera. However, that does not mean that I can’t find the things I see cool, right? Right.

Stanley Cup Finals Recap – A Choke for the Ages

With 76 seconds left in game six, the Bruins were leading 2-1. Bob Stanley walked in the tying run. Then with 59 seconds left Mookie Wilson hit a little dribbler that went through Bill Buckner’s legs and the Bruins lost the game, the series, and the Stanley Cup finals.

And I never want to speak of it again.