Rev. Jesse Jackson

Ahhhhh, the good reverend has decided to emerge from whatever dark corner he'd been hiding in and grace us with his presence. He seems to have found a new person that is in desperate need of help. Someone who is being unjustly oppressed by The Man. Someone who just does not have the resources and/or ability to fight for themselves. Oop, my bad. He's fighting for Barry Bonds. Whose $20mil/year salary and extreme roid rage should allow him to fend off any attacker, be it physical or legal.
Barry Using Roids
For those that need a re-cap of the news, we'll start at the basics. Barry Bonds is at the center of a gigantic cluster-fuck for the MLB regarding steroid use. Everyone knows he used them. You can look at his body and know. No one at his age just suddenly puts on like 50lbs of muscle, grows 3 hat sizes, and triples their HR output from taking extra vitamins and hitting the gym. I'm sorry, it just doesn't happen. Had it been a gradual bulking up, fine. Had he not been an ego-driven media whore who was sick of being over shadowed by the likes of McGuire and Sosa, fine. Had his head not grown for no reason, fine. Had their not been a pile of evidence connecting him to the use of illegal substances from BALCO, fine. But you put all this together and you really can't ignore it. At some point you have to stop being nieve. Sure, lots of other players were juicing. Some just to make it to the Big Show from the minors, others to inflate their numbers to get a bigger contract. But it doesn't matter. If you juiced, you're guilty and need to just fess up.
Opening Day Incident
So opening day was upon us. Giants were in San Diego for their opener. Now then, there is already increased security at the game because of the Barry Bonds fiasco coming to town. Extra cops, extra searches, etc. But after the 8th inning, an 'object' was thrown on the field at Bonds. Barry called it a syringe, but it was not a medical syringe. It was a toy. With no needle to boot. There is the possibility it was the type of syringe you use for injecting flavorings into meats, which is still pretty harmless without a needle.
The Hypocracy That is Jesse
Now then, the good Reverend decides he needs to jump on the honey wagon and speak out about this. Saying that MLB and San Diego should provide even more security for Barry. Essentially, he's a special player and deserves to be protected far and away better than anyone else in the MLB. But now, last season when fans were throwing batteries at players during one game where was Jesse? Batteries from the upper deck can cause a serious injury, even end a career if they get you in the face. Did Jesse speak up? Nah, they were just regular players. How about a few years back when that father-son team jumps out of the stands and kicked the crap out of Royal's 1st-base couch Tom Gamboa? He lost partial hearing in 1 ear and was beaten pretty good. Did Jesse say a word? Nah, he's just your average old white coach. But what about the other dozen times in recent times when player-fan incidents have occurred? Surely he'd make a statement somewhere. Nope. And why not? Because he's nothing more than a media whore that just wants to get a little slice of the Bonds fiasco. It's just a fantastic opportunity to get his name out there on a uber-high profile event. Cause the American media and population aren't already giving enough attention and debate to this topic.
Pure crap.
I can't wait for the criminal trial to find Bonds guilty of knowingly buying and using illegal substances. It will be quite the happy day for me.
Okay, time to get back to watching the Cubs play like crap today. Like I said on monday, when Glendon Rusch is your #2 starter, you have a problem. Glendon should be either forever placed in the bullpen or sent to AAA. Bring up Rich Hill. At least then when Hill has a game like Glendon just had, it serves as a good learning experience. He'll gain something good from it. Today's pitching performance so far is just a waste of time. Oh well, when we win it all this year I won't even remember this game!
PEACE!!

Play Ball!!

Baseball has finally started, and I could not be happier. I love baseball season. Sure, there have been all the scandals with steriods, the strike not too long ago, poor fundaments, yada yada yada. But the simple fact remains that I love baseball. I love watching it, playing it, thinking about it, talking about it.
Especially my Cubbies. Who are off to a great start as far as the record and offense are concerned. But once again Zambrano had a shaky opening day start. At least he didn't get tossed for telling the home plate ump he's blind.
Pierre is doing exactly what we need him to do, which is get on base. Triple and a couple bunts. Perfect. Sets the table for Walker/Hairston, then Lee and Ramirez. Murton is going to be a stud this year. He can hit and is just a good guy.
But there's still our pitching. Wood being hurt, expected. We knew when he had surgery this off-season that he wouldn't be ready for the start. But Prior going down with another suspicious injury is not good. Which leaves us with Zambrano and Maddux. Rusch is a great long-relief and spot-start guy. And the kids (Guzman, Hill, Marshall) are all going to be real good, but probably not right out of the gate. So we may be in trouble in April and May. But once Marshall and Hill get up and get a few starts, we should be solid. And that's about when Wood will be back up, which never hurts. And Wade Miller shortly there after. Prior is just an enigma. I'm not really banking on anything much from him before the break. And we'll be okay if that comes to fruition.
Speaking of playing baseball...our Framingham Sunday Morning league also got started on sunday. Just a few hours of BP and throwing around, but real good to be out there. Catch up with the regulars, take some cuts at live pitching, throw a baseball again. Even got a little sunburn on my neck.
Yes, this is a pretty plain entry, but screw it. Looonnng day at work and I'm tired and it's late. So you'll just have to wait until later to get some good baseball chatter. Like how Bonds' joints should explode sometime in May from all the juicing. Or how Julio Franco needs to wear his medic alert braclet during the games in case he falls and breaks his hip.
But for now, it's time to call it a day and put this mess behind me.
PEACE!!

Great News.....and idiots

Big News!
Well, I got some great news this morning on the drive in. I may have mentioned along the way that I religiously record my favorite XM show, The Fuckin Metal Show, every wednesday night and listen to it thursday on the way to and from work. This week was no different. But I did learn today that the show is soon to end...only to be replaced by a full-time metal channel! XM 42 is moving up from online only to the big show. Liquid Metal, as the channel is called, is scheduled to start up on 4/17. Then I can get metal whenever I need it.

Idiots
Remember those painters from a few days ago. Well, they're still wandering around painting things here. Slowly but surely they've done pretty much everything. Today they were doing the door-frames of our little lab rooms. The best part...no "wet paint" signs. So now we've got people walking around with paint on them from these 2 idiots. The walls were one thing. They dry quick and most people weren't rubbing into them. But the door frames are a different story. I've got paint all over my hand, another guy has it all down his pants. Morons. Security reports they're all done, though. But if I see those morons in here tomorrow, they're going to get a little something from me.
I did hang up my own 'wet paint' sign, so at least people around my room are safe.

Weather
And could the weather BE any nicer? We had to take a little walk after lunch to enjoy it. And it was fantastic. I love spring. Not too hot, plenty of sun, everything growing and blooming. So nice.
And it means baseball is right around the corner. Which for me is this sunday. Can't f'n wait.
Only problem right now with the weather is that we're in that weird period where it's 30s in the morning when I leave the house, but near 60 by the time I leave. So I need to wear a coat, but only for the drive in. Mildly annoying, but just cause I'm retarded about some things.

Motorcycle

This is it. This is the year I do it. This year I'm determined to take a motorcycle class and learn to ride. Get my license and then maybe even get a bike. They are rather cheap and get solid gas milage, which will come in handy this year when gas prices break $3.50/gal. Especially when I'm supposed to be using premium. I really don't, but I'm supposed to.
Sure, my mom would kill me if she found out, but she'd be pissed at quite a few things I do. Like getting face-down drunk on the weekends. And premarital sex isn't real high on my parents' list of good behaviors. And I sure do plenty of that!! Okay, maybe not plenty, but enough.
My buddy Tom said he'd take the course as well, so that's 2 of us. I wonder if that guy in town is still selling his bike? It was in his yard with a 'for sale' sign on it pretty much all of last year. I thought about talking to him about it a couple times, but never did. I bet it's still up for grabs.

Basketball
So, George Mason really did it. Knocked off another high seed to advance to the final four. I just can't help but root for them. Not only are they an 11 seed, but it's an unknown school. It's not like they're a Michigan or North Carolina or a regular that's having a bad year and snuck in at 11. They are an unknown that's tearing up the show. I really do think the run is over now, but who knows. There was no way they could have beaten UConn, and they pulled that off. So who knows?!
On the women's side, Purdue lost to N.Carolina on a last second shot. They made a good run, though. Gotta tip my cap to the ladies again this year. Every year they're one of the top teams around. So at least they're bringing some pride to the school. Cause the men's team sure ain't. And football was sub-par this year.

Slootz (aka Beer)
Well, we may be uncorking the MoppleBach tonight. There is a tentative plan to do it tonight instead of wednesday, as someone's band practice got moved. This would should be quite interesting. Not only is it 7.5% (or higher), but it's maple flavored. So this could either be the next big thing in beer, or it could an experiment we'll never speak of again. Either way, we'll get drunk pretty quickly off of it.

Okay, back to work. It's already 3pm and I haven't done shit all afernoon.
PEACE!!

Gym and Painters

Guys at the Gime (gym)
Ahh, people never cease to amaze me. There's these 2 guys at the gym that I see kinda frequently now. Well, lots of people I see frequently, but these 2 are funny.
1 guy looks like something straits from a 70s work-out video. Probably about 50 years old, long hair pulled back in a pony tail, beard, black tank-top, old leather weight belt, baggy work-out pants, and the good ole converse Chuck Taylor's. It's like being in a time machine when he's there. And the only exercise I've ever seen him do is dead lifts. With like 315lbs. He's not a huge guy, either. So he just comes in, chats with a few people and does his dead lifts, slamming the bar down each rep. So you'll be working out and hear BAM. Sounds like someone really gave their all for 1 last rep and dropped it kinda hard. 5 seconds later...BAM. So now you're looking around for who the jerk is. BAM. Then you see him and laugh.
The other guy looks like an extra from a bad muscle-beach movie. Upperbody, jacked. Lowerbody, little chicken legs. Same bad pants as the other guy, though. They look like un-patterned Zubaz. And of course, that sleeveless, cut-off sweatshirt thing that was so popular with power lifters back in the 80s. Cause you gotta keep wearing that. Only seen him a couple times, but maybe he's just new.
Now I'm not saying my fasion and work-out habits are any better. But if mine are as bad as theirs, I really hope someone's getting a good laugh out of it.

Painters
Apparently our building needed to be re-painted for the 3rd time in the last year or so. Or maybe the VPs just like the smell of fresh paint while they're "working". I don't know, I don't care. The funny part is that we decided to hire the 2 oldest painters I've ever seen. Typically painters are college kids and other mid-age guys. Guys that handle all the bending, climbing, lifting, etc that goes with painting. Not these 2. It's almost funny to see them struggling to get up and down a ladder. Or having to bend down to paint the bottom of a wall, or fold up a drop cloth. Almost funny, but not quite.
But I just have to wonder about their choice of jobs. There has to be something else these guys could do to make a living right now. Stuff that doesn't require all this moving. You don't see 70 year old guys working on the expressways in the summer. Or working as garbage men. So why did they decide to be painters?

Random Crap
Well, the last mustached guy is out of the NCAA tourney. Gonzaga lost to LSU. I don't really care so much any more, as all the BigTen teams are out already. But that filthy mustache was enough to keep me semi-interested. Oh well. Easy grow, easy go.
I thought of a great idea to smite free-loaders at work. Get a Box of Joe from DD (dunkin donuts). Have them dump in a bunch of espresso, so it's now a Turbo Box of Joe. Then just set it out and label it 'free coffee'. Then all those jerks that just take free stuff cause it's there would pounce. Guys that don't typically drink coffee would be having 2 or 3 cups. Then they'd all start freaking out! Bouncing off the walls, seeing funny colors, shaking. It'd be a trip just to watch. And a good lesson for them, nothing is free.
I'm thinking about forming a Whiskey Club here in Boston. My deceased ex-roommate apparently had 1 in college, so it's not a completely new idea. But I can think of at least 2 more people off the top of my head that would probably be interested. So we could meet like once a month or so and try new shit. Each meeting 1 person would be tasked with bringing a new brand/style/variety/etc to try. Then we sample and learn. And do stupid stuff like watch bad movies. Just a way to try more whiskeys and hang out. It'd be the (name withheld to protect the dead) Memorial Whiskey Society. One of my better ideas, if I do say so myself.

Well, time to sign off and get some work done. And take a crap. Which would be #2 of the day, and it's only 9am! So I shall leave you with this:
IIIIIIIITTTTTTT'SSSS FFFFFFFRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDDDAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY!!!!

Been a slow week

Well, it's been a slow week around here, hence the lack of posts. Let's see if I can pull my shit together today and make this interesting.
First off, our hockey team got SMOKED last night in game 1 of a best-of-3 playoffs. It's against the Ducks, a team that has manhandled everyone else this year. So it's not a surprise we lost, it's more a surprise at how poorly we played. We lost 9-2 and it was pretty close to that bad. The only positive I can take out of it is that my line was a +2 for the night. So we scored both goals and didn't give up any. But it's not a line game, it's a team game. So it doesn't matter.
We've got another game next Thursday, and hopefully 1 more after that to decide who goes to Toronto and who packs it up until the summer season starts in July.
But after this game, I think I now know how my ex-girlfriend from college felt during our relationship. After awhile, it had to be pretty obvious that my heart wasn't really into it. And no matter how hard she tried I still didn't really care about anything, yet still managed to keep getting laid. That was what last night was like. We were really working hard and busting our ass, yet they just kept getting all the chances and scoring on every one of them. Even when we decided we were going to buckle down and not let them score any more, something always happened and they did. Interesting...
SnowBoarding
Well, tomorrow I'm off to do some mid-week riding. Work is pretty slow, the season is rapidly ending, and I still have 2 passes to Loon that I bought earlier this year. So it's time to use them. I may end up going again this weekend, just to use the 2nd pass. We'll have to play that one by ear. Why is this important? It isn't. And no, you can't get the last 20 seconds of your life back.
Ebay
Turns out Ebay is a fantastic place. I've been able to sell a bunch of my old crap there, and make a pretty good pile of coin. My old Subaru stereo and key fob, an extra set of hair clippers I had from a 'mistake', a cell phone that my sister gave me cause she no longer liked it, etc. Not a bad rub all around. If I had more junk, I'd keep selling. But I appear to be pretty much all out of worthy junk to sell. Everything left is pretty much useless to anyone.
Man, this entry does suck. I just re-read everything. If I thought I could come up with something better tomorrow, I'd abort this like a 1-st trimester fetus. But I doubt tomorrow will be any different, so here we are...

Lunar Landing

Great stuff today at lunch. My buddy Keith has taken it upon himself to do what no other wacko has been able to do before. Disprove the lunar landing. He is currently calculating the thrust required to lift the lunar module off of the surface of the moon and get it into orbit. Weight of the lander, moon rocks, astronaunts vs the lunar gravity. I'm expecing he won't get anywhere with this, as he's not doing anything that previous wackos didn't already do. Oh well! He's gotta do something with all his free time here at work.
Well, our hockey team is officially in the play-offs! We beat the Stars last night 3-2, thus taking over 2nd place in the division. So it's a best-of-3 series with the #1 team, The Ducks. The team that pretty much destroyed everyone during the regular season. So it may end up being a rough couple games for us. But you never know. We thought we'd get killed in Toronto in 2003, and we took 2nd place. So funny things can happen in a play-off series. If we win, we're off to Toronto!
Baseball's spring training is well under way, and I have to say that I'm more than positive the Cubs are going to win it all this year. I mean, how can they not?! Sure, that's what we said about team USA in the WBC, but that's completely different. Pitching, hitting, defense, base-running, they have it all! We just need to stay healthy. Which involves replacing Kerry Wood's right arm with some type of robotic set-up, and giving Mark Prior a lucky charm of some kind. Rabbit's foot, horseshoe, clover, I don't care.
And speaking of baseball, our Framingham pick-up league should be getting underway pretty soon. Another month or so and we should be ready to rock. I can't wait. Nothing beats playing baseball in the spring/summer. And now that I have a pretty solid curveball and a decent fastball, I should be formitable when I'm on the mound instead of CF.
Okay, enough for today. I do actually have work to get done, so I'd better get going on that.
PEACE!

A-Team. Greatest TV Show Ever?

Well, my Sunday just took a drastic turn for the better. Turns out the A-Team is on TVLand! Not sure for how long, but I'm on episode 2 so far.
Now then, this all reminds me of 1 of the key differences b/t classic TV shows, and today's shows. The old good-guys had to use smarts to win. Not just brute force and violence. Sure, they used those things as well, but they had to be smart to get to that point.
A-Team. Sure they shot up alot of stuff, beat up alot of guys, blew alot of shit up. But they always got captured with out 20 minutes left in every episode. Locked up in a fully loaded barn/tool shed/machine shop/etc. Did they just smash their way out? Of course not! They had to display some creativity and smarts to concoct some weird plan and then build the tools to execute it. Sure, they had dynamite, a tractor, a welder, sheet metal, but they had to find good ways to put it all together and get out. Teaches kids to use their heads when they're in a tough spot, not just smash their way out. And to not kill people. All you gotta do is knock them out, or flip over their car. They just stop once that happens.
McGuyver. The all-time classic example of using brains over brawn. He never used guns (except as tools) and hated to fight. In order to accomplish anything, he had to figure out horrible complex and unlikely ways to do it. Sure, most of those creations and plans would never actually work as they did in the show. But the fact is they were all possible. It was kinda like the A-Team, without the violence.
Today's shows just don't showcase smarts like that. It's all about fighting and guns. You don't have to use any creativity or intelligence any more. You just punch and shoot your way out of problems. No wonder today's kids are nothing more than punks.
And now that I sound like an old man bitching and moaning about the good 'ole days, I'm outta here!

Beer, hockey updates

And now on to more uplifting updates, Slootz and SharpShooters.
Yes, the event that caused me to even be on the road Wednesday night was a SharpShooters game. Against the Stars, who we are chasing for 2nd place in the division. The top-2 make the play-offs, and we're 5 (or 3 if our appeal on an earlier game is accepted) points behind them heading into the game. With only 3 games left after this one, it's a must win.
Games with the Stars are fun, because we're evenly matched. Whichever team works harder will typically win. Obviously, if one team has a break-out performance by a goalie or something, that can swing the tide. But that's unusual.
Luckily, they did not have a good game as a team. They had a substitute goalie that was quite frankly amazing. It was this girl that couldn't have been over 5'3", but she was incredible in net. Robbed several guys of sure goals. And not just any of our guys, our scorers. While I'd like to blame her for personally getting blanked, I was my own worst enemy. I managed to hit the post/crossbar not once, not twice, but 3 times. Twice on the same shift on 2 nice shots, too.
But we were able to score when it counted and keep them to only 2 for a 3-2 win. So their lead is down to either 3 or 1.
The aforementioned appeal goes back to a game early in the season when a team used a player that was not on their roster. That should go down as a forfeit, but the league has yet to say either way. They likely are waiting to see how the play-off race goes. If we are 3 points behind at the end they'll give it to us. (Or if we're 1 point ahead). But if not, who knows.

Slootz
Well, the next Slootz beer is officially brewed and in primary fermentation. The MoppleBoch. It has been talking about for a long time, so it's nice to see it happen. And a good team beer. I had the maple-brown sugar idea, Mark had the name and was able to track down some grade-B maple syrup. 1 quart of maple syrup, 18oz of brown sugar, on top of an already solid base, is giving us the potentially strongest beer yet. Initial gravity readings have this lined up to be in the 8-10% range! The fermenting should be fast and furious this week! We should be moving it to the secondary fermentor next Thursday night, then on to bottles a week or 2 after that. So roughly by mid- to late-March, we'll have some magic on our hands.
And we hopefully have a fix to our low-carbonation issue that was seen with the Double-Bagger. It's likely that the beer was bottle conditioned at too low of a temperature, which resulted in the yeast not being able to re-start fermentation of the priming sugar. Keeping the beers inside the apt while conditioning should fix that problem. The stairwell was probably in the 50s last time, with 70-75 being desired. We just didn't realize it would be an issue, as it's never come up before.
And yes, the Slootz website is again being talked about. We don't have a smuggled machine to host it on any more, but we'll still put something together. We owe that to our loyal drinkers. Which is really just Mark and I.

Well, time to do a little "work".

The Mass Turnpike Assoc.

Well, the lovely people in the Mass Turnpike Association have screwed me again. And they got me good this time.

For those that don't know, Boston has a giant highway project called "The Big Dig". It's a network of underground tunnels that has re-routed I-90 and I-93 under the city instead of through it. It's actually a fantastic idea. But it has been riddled with typical Massachusetts politics, delays, scandals, fiascos, and the like. But traffic and travel are so much better it's been worth it.

Anyways, they're still finishing things up, meaning they still do have to work on some of the sections. This results in closures of certain sections at night. Typically the exact section I'm trying to use to get home from a hockey game at 12:15am. But I have grown used to it and can deal with it. I know my alternate routes and know all the detours by heart. Unfortunately, in order to effectively use said alternate routes, they have to let me know that there are closures coming up. Which they are normally very good at doing. Until Wednesday night. Cruising down 93, right past all of the highway alert signs where they typically post the closure info, thinking I'm home free. Until about 1/2 mile past the last available exit. Then suddenly the cones and police cruisers appear. And a tirade of profanity emanates from my car. Yes, they had actually blocked off the airport tunnel (which takes me home) without mentioning a single word about it. This would be like showing up at the airport for a flight to Chicago, then watching them land in Indianapolis, assuming that you've already used your psyching powers and known that they were going to do that.

So now I'm pissed I have to get off in South Boston and drive over to the tunnel entrance by the Teradyne building. But it's only a 10-minute detour, so I'm starting to settle down. Driving a little spirited, but settling down. So I get over there and hop back in the tunnels. I'm relaxed and thinking about the hot shower coming up at home, when what do my eyes see! More cones and troopers! Those dirty SOBs have closed this section as well, of course without any warning or detour routes. So now I've found that 2/4 possible airport tunnel entrances are shut-down without a single word why, or any mention of a detour route. I know some ways around it, but at this point I have absolutely no idea what's going to be open. Thank God I'm not a newbie to the city and needed to get to the airport. Shit, a newbie would be stuck in that maze forever.

As a side-note, I'm convinced the tunnels were actually designed by ex-Vietcong planners. The system works great if you know where you're going. If not, you may not be seen again until next spring. I bet there are small colonies of people living in the maintenance tunnels after getting lost in the tunnels. Living on rats and the lunches they steal from the workers. Wandering around for the rest of their days searching for a way out. But I digress...

So I'm forced back into South Boston, further away from any useful route this time. I finally do manage to get back to I-93, heading north this time, and get off where I normally would if I knew the tunnel was closed. I have spent 30 minutes driving in circles around Boston, all because some half-wit in the MTA was too dumb to do his job and post the tunnel closures for approaching motorists. And the MTA wonders why everyone in the state hates them.

Ahhh, the joys of driving in Boston.