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Saturday, October 29, 2005
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Whose a pwetty boyyyy!!!
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Hey everyone, we got a cat! Check out the picture, ain't he just so Cute!? He is REALLY funny when he does this! And in other news, I have decided that I am going to study to be a dentist. This stuff looks like something I can do. No Problem! |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 10:03 AM | |
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Tuesday, October 25, 2005
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Gotta have that
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| As anyone who lives around here already knows, the weather is nasty-nasty today and only slated to get worse before getting better. I drove into work a bit after 6AM, and it was just getting started. Hard driving rain, wind gusts that blow your car around, lots of leaves and branches laying in the road. When I got to work, I drove around the back of the building to the rear parking lot where I normally park and pulled into my customary spot next to the building. It was fairly dark as a few of the lot lights are out. I turn off my truck, hop out and head for the rear door of the building. As I do, I hear "Good morning AL!" from UNDER the company truck, a medium sized UHAUL type thing. A closer look reveals that it is John M., one of our programmers squatting down in the dark, under the truck to stay out of the rain while he has his early morning cigarette (no smoking is allowed in the buildings). "It's like my own big yellow umbrella" he adds. John is a tall skinny guy with greying hair and a mostly grey beard. So I say back to him "John, squatted down under the truck like that you look like a troll. I was expecting you to block my way with a stick and make me answer some questions or something before you'll let me in the building!" We both laughed as I ran up the 3 steps and got into the building before I got drenched. Amazing what people will do for a smoke. | |
| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 7:34 AM | |
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Wednesday, October 19, 2005
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Happy Anniversary
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| I was just noticing that the beginning of last month, the 6th, to be more exact, was the 1st anniversary of Fetafilter. Maybe when I finish my cardboard representation of this Cubist painting, I'll try and give it a belated graphical upgrade. | |
| thus voiced Vanderganes @ 3:17 PM | |
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Saturday, October 15, 2005
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Good question....
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A guy at work told me he stumbled across an interesting question the other day. He asked me, but I did not have an answer. It asks: "If you strangle a Smurf, what color does it turn?" Fascinating. |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 1:14 PM | |
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Wednesday, October 12, 2005
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Sorry, I must be mistaken.
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So those of you that do not know, 'Drew is now fully and legally mobile, having earned the grudging respect of the Mass. Registry of Motor Vehicles and being granted a license to drive. You also may not know that he is fully equipped with the new Drew-mobile, a 1998 KIA Sportage. All in all it is a pretty slick set-O-wheels, but being a used car, it has a few small issues that we need to address. One of those is that it has an ever so slight leak in the fuel tank. To call it a "leak" is giving it a bit too much credit, it is what some mechanics call a "weep", in that it does not drip, it just sort of gets slightly damp on the exterior of the tank and smells a bit of fuel. But being well a seasoned used car owner, I know that these sort of things only get bigger and then you have to deal with them. Chaz just wanted to crank up the ol' acetylene torch and weld it up, but Mrs A. stopped him. I'm not sure why. So with that option nixed, I scoured the web and ordered a new tank from a place on the west coast called, amazingly enough, Kiaparts.com. The nice lady there took my order and got the tank shipped out in a jiffy, via DHL shipping. Seems simple enough, but the adventure was just beginning. The odeysey begins on 9/22/2005. My package is picked up from the sender, it travels maybe 25 miles then vanishes in their "sort facility" for 11 days, before showing up again. And it only re-appeared after I called them to ask where my package was, 3 days after the "estimated delivery date" that THEY gave me. Sheesh. A woman from DHL named "Trinity"(!) called back to reassure me that my package was not lost, they were "tracking it". Mrs. A thought that it must have "entered the Matrix", and Trinity had to go get it for me. I was sort of expecting her to appear out of the earpiece of my telephone, holding my fuel tank, but NO! Anyhow, it then followed a most unlikely route from WA state to Mass, via Utah, Ohio, PA, RI and finally Stoneham, MA. Huh? Guess they missed that part in school about the shortest route between 2 points and all of that. So today, after much waiting, the big yellow DHL truck pulls up in front of the house. A crowd gathers. Mrs A. suggests clapping when the driver comes to the door. The driver, a woman who most certainly was not Trinity (or if it was, she has certainly let hersef go), flings the back of the truck open and says, "was this thing used?" "no" I reply, "why?" "Well, it looks pretty beat up." I look at the box. It is 6" larger on each side than the tank, crumpled and torn, the end is ripped off, and except for the fuel tank, it is empty. The driver says to me, "You ought to call the sender and tell them that they should put some packing stuff in the box to protect the tank!" Nope, no way is this Trinity, she thinks much more quickly on her feet. Cleverly, I answer that they likely did, but we can be pretty sure it fell out when DHL ripped the end off of the box, sometime during the 11 days it spent sitting 20 miles from where it started. That remark went right over her head, and she suggests that I tell them to ship it next day air next time. Right. OK. "It's up to you, but if this were mine, I would refuse the shipment, and we'll send it back." WOW, she is just FULL of helpful advice! As she seemed so clever and knowledgable, I opted to take her advice and refuse the delivery. I'm thinking, "I'm so sorry, I mistook you for a shipping company..." So I still have no fuel tank. I call the lady at Kiaparts.com and say "Hi, my name is Al A., a while back I ordered..." She interrupts me and says "I remember, a fuel tank for a Sportage!" Pretty bad when I have called so many times that they recognize me by name. A new tank is on the way. It shipped via UPS... |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 7:58 PM | |
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Friday, October 07, 2005
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Of things and stuff.
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This has been a long week. We got a very unpleasant phone call last Sunday from a friend who informed us that his 34 year old son, who we have known since he about 10, had died by his own hand the night before. The events and circumstances that led him to that decision are complicated, but are all moot at this point. Joe was as nice and decent a guy as you will ever know. Now he is gone, and in a most pointless way. Such a waste. At this point in my life, not an awful lot of things shock me, and Joe's death, as untimely as it was, did not. It was not the first time I had gotten such a call. For various reasons, I ended up with the task of calling a large number of people that knew Joe, in order to inform them what happened. I have spent a fair part of each night this week doing just that. It is an exhausting and draining experience that sort of grinds you down, leaving you with a more or less constant headache that does not go away, but only varies in its intensity. Still, I consider it something of an honor to be allowed to be of that small service to Joes Dad. One of the things I did find almost shocking was the remark from a few people, who have known Joe and his family for years, that they would not be attending either the wake nor the funeral, because going would make them feel "uncomfortable." What? Just when exactly did one begin expecting to be "comfortable" at a wake? Sorry, but a wake or funeral is not at all about how YOU (or I, for that matter) feel, it is about how the immediate family of the deceased feels. I don't imagine they will be feeling too "comfortable" any time soon. I am easily as self-centered as anyone, but I can't imagine turning around a wake to be an issue of how I feel. These are not nasty or uncaring people, but what are they thinking? Pretty disappointing. I can no longer help Joe in any way, I can only offer my small consolation to his devastated father and the rest of his family. How I feel is of no consequence whatsoever. Lots of thoughts and emotions accompany an event like this, and I was fascinated by the range of reactions I got as I told people what happened. Some were angry with Joe. I understand that, because at its root, suicide is a 100 percent pointless and somewhat cowardly act, that accomplishes absolutely nothing other than to transfer all of your grief and suffering, multiplied many times, to those that love you the most. It is a very poor choice, a complete and total waste. But while I understand the anger thing, I have a very limited amount of energy to expend being mad at a dead person. People I have not known to be at a loss for words in 25 years were struck speechless. Two crusty old guys stammered, and even over the phone it was obvious they were doing their best not to burst into tears. Some groped to find a reason for what is an unreasonable act. One wondered, hoped really, that it was some sort of unfortunate accident. A few people recalled some memory of Joe, the stories all sprinkled with descriptors like, "decent", "nice", "polite", "helpful", "honest", "hard working" and "rare". A few said very little, thanked me for calling, and got off of the phone. Lastly there were those who, probably detecting how shaken I was, remarked something to the effect that "well if nothing else, his suffering is all over now..." That last one really hit me hard after it had sunk in for a while. I know what these well meaning folks are blind to. How sad. |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 10:43 PM | |
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Monday, October 03, 2005
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"Breaking" news...
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Let it be publicly noted that our own Chaz A. not only shot in the 2nd annual "Crashing Clays Junior Trap Competition" but managed to shoot a very impressive score of 23 during his final round, and in doing so, scooped Second place in the (top) "A" division. Way to go, Chaz!! |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 6:46 AM | |
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Saturday, October 01, 2005
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Test your ethics here!
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Offered here, as yet another valuable service brought to you by the friendly staff at Fetafilter. This test only has one question but it's a very important one. By giving an honest answer you will discover where you stand morally.The test features an unlikely, completely fictional situation in which you will have to make a decision. Remember that your answer needs to be honest, yet spontaneous. Please scroll down slowly and consider each line. You are in Florida. Miami, to be exact. There is chaos all around you caused by a hurricane with severe flooding. This is a flood of biblical proportions. You are a photojournalist working for a major newspaper. You're caught in the middle of this great disaster. The situation is nearly hopeless. You're trying to make a career out of shooting photos. There are houses and people swirling around you. Some are even disappearing under the water. Nature is showing all of its destructive fury. You see a woman in the water. She is fighting for her life, trying not to be taken away with the debris. You move closer . . somehow the woman looks familiar. Suddenly you know who it is . . It's Hillary Rodham Clinton! At the same time you notice that the raging waters are about to take her under, forever. You have two options: You can save her, or you can take the most dramatic photos of your life. So, you can save the life of Hillary Clinton, or you can shoot a Pulitzer Prize winning photo, documenting the death of one of the world's most powerful women. Here's the question and please give an honest answer: Would you select color film or would you rather go with the classic simplicity of black and white? |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 9:45 PM | |
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