A New Type of Game? Interesting

Have you heard about Google's new mobile game, Ingress?

I'm intrigued, even though I don't have a  phone running Android.

Read this article and make sure you watch the video.

Does the NHL Exist?

If a professional hockey league schedules a full season, and then doesn't show up... does it actually exist?  The professional hockey league, I mean.  The season that doesn't get played definitely doesn't exist, but does the league exist?  I pretty much suck at asking philosophical questions.

The NHL and the NHLPA went to a Federal mediator this week.  They had sessions on Wednesday and Thursday.  Is anyone who lives in a climate that experiences ice during the winter surprised that there was no resolution?  I read that during the last lockout (the one that erased the 2004-05 season) the two sides went to a Federal mediator as well, and the next thing to happen after those sessions failed was the cancellation of the season.  If my memory serves however, that was in February.  I think.  I don't think the cancellation is imminent now, but I want it to be.  I want them to cancel the damn season and just get it over with.  People on both sides keep saying that a deal could be done soon.  If that were the case then the deal would actually be getting done.  There are also people warning that this whole thing is an ownership conspiracy to cancel the games that happen during football season, when most teams don't do as well in terms of attendance and ratings.  That to me sounds like the dumbest thing imaginable, but given how stupid this whole thing has been it wouldn't surprise me if all of the turmoil magically ended in time for training camps to open just prior to the Super Bowl.

I hate them all so much.

First Official Telecommuting Recap

So my first official day as a telecommuter sucked.  One thing I learned is that when you are in the office, surrounded by other people, and acting like a professional, when the piling on gets out of control and you want to start screaming you can't.

But when you're home alone...

Scream all you want.

Windows on a Mac

There are a few things that I've come across today while running Windows on a Mac that will probably have me using my Windows laptop for future telecommuting days.

For some reason, while using a VPN connection, my Remote Desktop session keeps crapping out on me. Two, maybe three times an hour, for anywhere from a few seconds to about five minute, the Remote Desktop connection just goes away. It has always been able to re-establish itself, but it's annoying. My wife has experienced the same thing when connecting to her office via her Mac.

Another thing, my company's software uses the crap out of the function keys. These keys do not work on the Mac without hitting the fn key as well. That's a pain, but not fatal. Unfortunately the function key we use the most is F12. On the Mac, fn-F12 launches the dashboard. So every time I try to save something within my company's system, I also launch my dashboard.

One last thing... It is slow. The virtual machine running Windows locally isn't terribly fast to begin with, but when you add on all of the rest of the remoting it is doing... Well... It is slow. Not fatally so, but still slow.

So next time, the laptop.

Work Zaniness

Some craziness going on with work today. I have officially joined the ranks of the one-day-a-week telecommuters. I'm workin' from home today.

I'm on a Mac, running Windows 7 in a virtual machine. That virtual machine is connected to my work network via a VPN connection. Once the VPN connection was established I remote connected to the PC on my desk in Framingham.

Hi ho hi ho its off to 21st century work I go.

Income Increase

I got a raise today.  I got a 10% raise today.

The downside of that is that my salary is so low that a 10% raise can be both possible and not all that much.

Still happy though, it was bigger than I expected.  It sort of makes up for that year that I didn't get a raise.

Not Tonight

Saturday...
Sunday...
Monday...
Tuesday...

Not today.



My wife and I started going to the gym again over the weekend.  Today is the first day we will miss.  My back hurts, and my legs hurt, and my foot hurts a lot.  We are both only able to walk on the treadmill for a few minutes each visit, but that's a whole ton better than the no exercising we were doing before.

I hope to get back tomorrow after work.  We'll see.  The weekend will definitely see me at the gym though.

Stupidity Tax

They say that the lottery is a tax on the stupid.

As of this morning I am stupid.  Twice.

The Powerball drawing for tonight has reached the half billion dollar mark.  If buying into that (twice) makes me stupid, then stupid I am.  I think the real stupidity is expecting to win.  The chances are something like 175 million to one.  That's probably not exact as I read it in a boston.com story yesterday and am too lazy to look up the number again.  It's in the ballpark though... I think.

I haven't started fantasizing about winning yet.  I'm not that stupid.  If you want to comment on that statement then I would ask you to wait until tomorrow, after I've set sail around the world on my gigantic new yacht.  

It is Unavoidable

Christmas... it's now unavoidable.

Already we have started hounding the kids for Santa lists.
Already my wife has dropped big juicy hints.
Already the family secret Santas have been drawn.
Already the work yankee swap has been scheduled.
Worst of all, already I have started thinking of ideas for things I might put on my list.

It's not even December yet!

This Sucks!

Hello, and welcome to the annual post-Thanksgiving weekend post where I bitch and moan about how much going back to work sucks after a long, four day weekend.

We should get a month off for Thanksgiving, followed by a month off for Christmas.

This sucks.

Comfy?

Awwww

Bad Service, Good Fun

My father invited us for a random family dinner at Carabas in Tyngsboro.  That's a regular dinner destination for my side of the family.  We all like it.  Tonight it was my parents, my brother's family, and my wife and I.

The food was good, as always, but the service was just awful.  Out of the six adults, they managed to get four of the orders wrong.  I don't understand how that happens?

Anyway, my brother's four year old daughter and two year old son are freakin' adorable.  I just have to throw that out there.  The service sucked, but it was a good time anyway.  Thanks for inviting us, Dad.

Open?

Murray's Tavern (at the former site of Maggie Mays, where the wife and I went on a few date nights) is open at noon on a Sunday. Are they going for the sports bar thing?

Salem, NH Kinda Sucks

Everywhere we go in Salem, NH (one town to the North of home) the cell coverage just blows. We can't make calls, or send texts, or watch YouTube videos of adorable kittens.

Come on AT&T and Salem, NH. Lets get with the 21st century!

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway Interview

And then there was the Lamb.  Peter Garbriel's last.









Anyone else weirded out while watching Tony Banks?  Why is he looking at the floor all the time?

Selling England by the Pound Interview

After Foxtrot, you come to Selling England by the Pound.

I love rockumentaries.  

Foxtrot Interviews

Genesis followed Nursery Crime with Foxtrot, and now so do I.

Nursery Crime Interviews

Apparently, a reissue of all of the old Genesis records came with a set of behind the scenes interviews with the band members.  Expect me to post them all, because I want to and because I can.

Here are three segments on Nursery Crime:

Gym

Five minutes at the gym today might not seem worth it, but its infinitely better than the usual nothing.

SWAB

Angry Birds, like everything in life,is both easier and more fun with a lightsaber.