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Basin Street Blues

So back in middle school, one of my favorite Trombone solos:

SitePal

Interesting....

Kinda like mr potato head for the web...

So the nice folks over at SitePal found my blog, and want me to help promote their product... what do you think?

They let you change characters, upload sound clips and change background images!

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gas prices

After buying a Pathfinder (averaging 15-19 mpg), gas prices and fluctuations now concern me... I do take the train to work, which makes gas prices less of an issue.. But it does give me an opportunity to 'stock up' when I think the prices are better...

Click here to view graphs...



source: bostongasprices.com

Also, check out and contribute to: Cheap Gas a site which overlays gas price data onto a Google Map. It only is useful though if you post the price/location/date you last paid for gas to ensure accurate data.

e volution

one of M-W's definitions....
Main Entry: evo·lu·tion
Pronunciation: "e-v&-'lü-sh&n, "E-v&-
2 c (1) : a process of continuous change from a lower, simpler, or worse to a higher, more complex, or better state : GROWTH (2) : a process of gradual and relatively peaceful social, political, and economic advance d : something evolved

Are we evolving? things may becoming more complex, but to smaller amounts of specialized groups... majority of our society is using technology that they have little control or knowledge of it's inner workings.... are things getting better? it seems our world has become ever more fragile, a bit more insecure, too much paranoia... we accept technological advances, yet do not know the implications of our consumer purchases and the market shifts which are occuring... are things gradually becoming more peaceful? politically -- no way..... economic? the global economy is creating more wealth for fewer individuals... is it feasible to have a prosperous world for the majority of individuals?? if everyone was educated, everyone had a job, everyone had a place to live and food was available to all... can these circumstances exist and be sustained without depleting every natural resource we have here on our precious earth??? sure the modern world kicked off by the industrial revolution has made life 'better' for us, but has it made poorer nations 'worse'? what is it that you, as an individual can do.. to help the world move in the right direction? is our exponential growth in world population going to help us out?


What are we doing here???

why I don't have an ipod, yet...

I didn't say that I don't own a mp3 player yet...
(I own a cheap 256MB usb-flash drive based one)
but I still have yet to join the masses of i-pod affectionados... Why? I'm holding out for future, much better versions... they will come, but patience is required as they are still making plenty of $$ off of current incarnations....

Here is what I want in my I-pod:

A) Wireless syncing/playing built in.

My computer has 802.11 wireless capabilities and Bluetooth, the I-pod should be able to support one of these standards for wireless data transfer without the need for an additional adapter. I'd like to be able to get a headphones, car & home stereo products that allow me to connect the I-pod wire free (Yes I know about the iTrip, but it's an external accessory and a short term playing solution, quality doesn't cut it for me) Okay, but here's one more longshot add-on. If I can get internet in the room from a wireless router, or my laptop, or my cellphone... the I-pod should be able to take advantage of that connection so that I can play internet radio (aka my personal web music collection)

B) Cross platform syncing

I'm a geek. I don't have just one computer. It would be nice to be able to use the ipod with more than one computer, and be able to transfer more music onto it just by connecting it to a computer (see point A, wirelessly)

C) Sharing music made easier

I want my friends to be able to check out what I've been listening to, sure I know there is some copyright issues here but friends can borrow cd's and return them to me, I'd like them to be able to do the same with my digital music collection.

D) The longer I wait, the more features I get for my buck!

“Who wants or needs downloads if you can just stream it whenever you want? Disks are so overrated.” Nullsoft cofounder Tom Pepper Tom and I think on the same level...




Some neat devices on the horizon that would complement my 'I-pod of the future':

Airtunes Express - 802.11 Home Stereo

Bluetooth Headset incorporated into nice shades

Bluetooth Car Stereo - Pioneer DEH-P70BT: (available in europe)

If I was impatient, this could maybe tide me over:
Bluetooth MP3 Player from BoomGear

freedom of speech - journalism shifts

With past days of print-only publications, the news/media could put a spin on any story they'd like... And I'm sure influential partys or officials could potentially impact the way which these stories were presented to the public.

Enter present day, and the world of bloggers... We, you and I, are now reporters... on a small and distributed level with not as many readers... but we have the option of voicing our opinions globally.. Digital cameras integrated into our phones, are starting to provide information and pictures from scenes which classic reporters are not able to respond to quick enough to capture the true chain of events... I admire some news organizations for recognizing their weaknesses and starting to embrace 'common journalism'.

The world may now know the truth, if they could only find/trust the information sources and take their contents and treat them as opinion and not necessarily fact.. as all views expressed are the individuals alone, and not necessarily reflecting the ideals of the group, city, country, or any other division/classification...

social networking experiments

90's -> 99's -> 05's
homepages -> IM profiles -> webspaces (mis?)representing us

When you meet someone, it typically means you physically see, talk to, or perhaps shake hands and exchanged hello my name is... nice to meet you.

The internet has changed our perceptions of what it is to 'meet' someone, no longer are we bound to the specific communities we physically live and work in...

These social communities: (Facebook, Friendster, MySpace, AOL, LinkedIn, Match, IM chats) to name a few have become another way which we can narrow down the scope of 'who we'd like to meet' and if we wanted to... create digital and/or personal/professional relationships with these people...

These types of social networking experiments are simply that, attempts to get people to break the mold and try new ways of connecting with others you 'don't know, yet'.... We all want to have a network of friends, peers, acquaintances that can help eachother out or provide knowledge in a realm where we are thirsty for more... the initial bad stigma of using these 'geek services' has faded, people are beginning to recognize their worth in connecting people and expanding circles of friends and relationships.

I hope that face-to-face contact will remain important, but as our daily lives become busier.. at least we can stay connected --

shaving...

One of man's most dreaded activities in the daily routine is shaving.. It just takes time, time you could be sleeping... time you could be eating breakfast... or just time you could be enjoying your coffee in the morning while reading/watching the news.... but every now and then, work, girlfriends, mothers would like to see your face shaved because society thinks that's more socially acceptable....

I admit, the Gillette Sensor was a marvel of the technology... lets sell a two blade system, which actually does make shaving a bit easier... we'll make more profit, and sell the blades for more... people bought it, and then starts the ridiculousness....

a room full of razor engineers.. what can we do to make more profit and make shaving easier? Wait.. that guy over there has an idea.... Let's make a razor with 3 blades? 3 blades! you are crazy!! nobody is going to buy a razor with 3 blades... but we can try, market it well... start selling the two blade system for the same price or more than the jacked up 3.. then people will have to switch and we'll discontinue the 2 blade system... brilliant!!

6 months later...
a room full of razor engineers... scratching their heads, what can we do to make shaving more expensive and easier?? hmmm... one guy raises his hand, a lazer beam that zaps all the hair off your face! great idea, but we don't want to invest in the resources and maybe people would be afraid of shooting lazers on their mug.. hmmm... one guy suggests, lets make a razor with 4 blades!!! brilliant! meanwhile a small team breaks off to start working on the next revolutionary blade, 5 blades!! not 6.. six is too many, but 5 blades!!

true story...

and one of the reasons why I continue to boycott higher blade systems.. buy two blade razors and stop the madness!! shave with them until your face bleeds because they are so dull... the razor blade 'model' will remain, sure... but this trend of more blades is better is just total ridiculousness and has to stop before someone cuts off their head!

'96 Pathfinder SE

With winter quickly approaching, I need a way to get around town and up to the slopes!



only 65k miles! Nice...

Block Island Big Boats

So, just got back from a great weekend on Block Island (south of Rhode Island)... The boat we were staying on was a giant 60 ft Viking yacht named Puppy Love... My first time sleeping overnight on a boat(only 3br, hah), and it was absolutely amazing... I'll post some pictures of the weekend soon --

advanced traffic theory

The root of all traffic is sheer volume of cars going through a road, but a large portion of traffic is caused by masses of asses...

The problem? A few weeks of drivers ed, and a drivers test that any senile grandmother could pass and you are allowed to drive a vehicle... After that, no further knowledge besides what you pick up from driving day to day... Well I'm a strong proponent of an 'advanced drivers licence' or at least increased education on how to drive offered to the public to help America's roadway problems...

* Use the passing lane for passing, Indian Sprints -- Like a moving chain, this keeps the left lane traffic moving faster, and distributes the risk of being the leader 'speeding'...

* Pull over or Speed up... If someone, or a whole line of cars is queued up behind you, you are the problem. Speed up, find a spot in the right lane, and let the line pass you.

* Brake lights, leave enough room between you and the car ahead to not use your brakes if you are not stopping... look at the line of cars ahead of the car in front of you... If nobody's slowing down, the car in front of you is just an idiot...

* Merging, leave space for one car, let one car go ahead of you from the opposite lane.. Simple, yet many a time I see a person that is 'in a rush' riding up on the car infront to dis-allow a merge, jerk... I hope you get to where you are going .5 seconds faster.

i guess you could call this my information superhighway road rage rant.... comments and stories welcome:

mobile blog-post

Wahoooo!
------------------

Family Vacation '05

8/10/2005 Wake-up at 6am, stumble half asleep into family
minivan.... hop on Southwest flight to AZ, drive to
Yapavai lodge and the Grand Canyon...

8/11/2005 Had a great breakfast at El Tovar a nice hotel right on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon... Most of the day afterwards we walked around the South Rim.... wonderful views... caught a sunset that night (see below)


8/12/2005 Headed down towards Sedona, some more spectacular scenery...

8/13/2005 Another day of travel, heading down to San Diego... 7 hour drive... we got an early start on the day and made it to San Diego around 4:00 pm... The hotel is the Island Palms Best Western, on Shelter Island right on San Diego bay.. With the marina off the backyard, and the bay and a view of downtown in the front....

8/14/2005 Checked out Pacific Beach, it has a long fishing pier which extends out into the ocean... Fisherman were pulling up some small sharks, surfers were off to the right catching some waves... and we spent the day in the water off to the left, body and boogie boarding.... The water temperatures were nice.. Ended the day with a great dinner at Joe's Crab Shack (I got some tasty dungeness crab) and a Dairy Queen ice cream while catching a sunset... Made our way back to the hotel and caught a nice relaxing eve in the hot tub and pool overlooking the marina.... pretty good day :)

8/15/2005 way down to mexico


8/16/2005 last day in San Diego...

Cape Ann Sailing - Gloucester Harbor

[click for Gloucester Harbor Webcam]

On Tues/Thurs during August, I head out of this dock and sail around Gloucester harbor for two hours...

Here is a shot of the harbor from the breakwater off of Eastern Point.



I wanted to get a better feel for the Gloucester Harbor area, but most likely I'll join the Sandy Bay Yacht Club in Rockport next year as it's a better deal and you get use/access to a larger fleet of boats....

Coldplay - Twisted Logic Tour

I get to see Coldplay tonight, looking forward to it :) I really love their old cd's and the new one recently released (X&Y) is more of the old stuff, but new!

So today, August 4th, I'm heading down to the Meadows in Hartford for their US tour opener. I took the following day off from work, and then Sat August 6th I'm checking them out at the Tweeter Center...

...

My brothers Kev and Dan came along with me to the shows, and it was a great time... Saturday we did up right with a nice 4 hour tailgate... Good times..

Clocks ticking....

view the comments below to see the setlist --

the daily commute

After commuting on the train a good amount of last month, I must say... I kinda like it.

An hour is a great amount of time to have to yourself each day... Before I would commute by subway or bus, 30-60 minutes, but I had to switch lines, or avoid other passengers getting on and off at each stop, I took my laptop out maybe once or twice on the subway... The second I started getting into a book, I'd be at the station where I had to switch lines or some other distraction... and I rarely ever sat down, unless the train was nearly empty... Although I would still take the subway over driving anyday...

The scenery of the commuter rail isn't bad at all, passing over many bridges through water and salt marshes, boats are moored along the way at several of the north shore marina's... and the train passes right through the middle of them. You even catch a brief bit of the ocean while passing through Manchester/Beverly... and some great sunset's off to the west... My mornings usually consist of drinking my coffee, listening to tunes... and thinking about the day ahead as a nice slow wake-up call, my evenings consist of a brief rest after staring at the computer all day, perhaps with some tunes and taking out a book, article or laptop...

The conductors are pretty nice guys, say good morning and good evening to you on your trip...

The toughest part for me is the schedule, with subway life you can pretty much get to work at whenever and leave whenever and not be on a set schedule... This morning I woke up at 7:16 and had a choice of catching the 7:33 train or the 9:15am train.. So I had about 12 minutes to get ready, which may have been an all time record for me...
and tonight I have a few chances of getting home, but as the night gets later my options become more sparse...

getting your first mortgage

Part of buying your first home involves researching a lot of different concepts and terminology that you don't typically use or need while renting or living free of a mortgage...

Now that I'm almost through the process, I'm going to document the things I've learned thus far about financing your first real estate purchase.

Good credit. Pay your bills on time, even if it is the minimum. If you miss a payment, make sure to pay it within 30 days. If you wait, 30, 60 or 90 days, it will be reflected on your credit report and will affect your credit score. Your score along with your income are the key factors towards determining how much you can afford, and how much the bank will lend you. The lender will tend to pre-qualify you for more than you actually should spend.

So, I didn't have a whole ton saved up for a down payment, but I was told that wasn't a huge problem as there are programs out there for first time homebuyers with good credit and without much cash on hand. The catch is: seasoned reserves, the lender and bank underwriter like to see that even though you don't plan to put much money down, they want to see that if need be you could afford a few months (2-6 depending upon the program) of mortgage payments. This means money that has been untouched for 90 days or more. In order to cover closing costs (estimate 5k), I ended up getting a seller concession clause in my mortgage, meaning I got a bigger mortgage to pay for the closing costs over the period of the mortgage terms. You still will need some money on hand for the costs you incur prior to the closing date; to cover for a small deposit to show the seller you are serious about the property and are making a serious offer. Prior to closing you will also need to pay upfront for a home inspection and appraisal which generally run between 250-350 each. You should also start saving your bank and credit card statements, pay stubs, investment and retirement account statements as well. If you've been renting, keep a running list of landlords, their address' and phone numbers because you'll need to provide this information to them. Keep a steady job for 2 years, they will contact your employer for reference.

Here is a chart of the current average 30 year fixed mortgage:


From what i've learned so far, the rate is a reflection of the amount of money out there in mortgages. If the rates going down, people are still buying homes, and taking out mortgages... This is a national chart, and there are a lot of other things to consider aside from the rate... (As the rate goes up, prices of homes actually tend to go down) And being a new homebuyer with not much assets, youre rate will most likely be higher than the average.

I was supposde to close on May 31st, but instead closed on June 29th and captured a nice low rate of 5.25 on the 80% portion of my loan.

looking for a roomate...

How picky should I be when looking for a roomate? I'd like someone who I can trust. Someone with a reliable job always helps... It'd be cool if I could find someone with similar tastes in music, food, brews.. and perhaps share some interests... Maybe a similar outlook on life, work hard but enjoy whats out there-- Today marks the day where I start to 'interview' people to see if I'd like to have them as my roomate.. I'm starting at 500$ for rent, I posted an ad this morning on craiglist and already got a response... That is good, must mean my location is somewhat in demand...

we'll see...

moving day....

And, i'm done... at least for a while.

After moving yearly the last 8 years of my life, I am finally done with the yearly move thing.... wpi dorms, wpi fraternity house, worcester apartment, brookline apartment, allston apartment, cambridge apartment, and now gloucester condo.... phew... that was a lot of work... the good thing about moving every year is you tend to throw away stuff each year that you don't use and also notice the things you haven't touched since the last time you moved it... It was great living with so many different roomates, and in so many locations to really get a feel for the different areas of Boston...

So after last years horrible moving experience, I did it right this time:
1) Didn't move on the busiest Boston moving day of the year (September 1st)
2) Didn't use a truck rental service that has no idea how to run a buisness (U-haul is forever banned from use by me or anyone I know)
3) Determine exit order for stuff, and packing order based on that..
4) Everything boxed & labeled with new room codes (great for friends that don't want to ask you each time where this is going)
5) Took a day off from work, to avoid weekend conflicts.
6) Enlisted friends and family in the workforce...

And hopefully i'm done moving until I decide to sell or completely rent out the property. It's too early to tell how long that may be, but we'll see --

sailing on the Charles River

After deciding to move to Gloucester, I'm now in my final stretch of enjoying my time in the city... Sailing on the Charles River (by the Hatchshell) is something I've always considered since moving to Boston, but never got around to doing... Well one of my co-workers mentioned it to me, and I thought I'd give it a try....

So for 80$, you get a 30 day trial membership which includes full access to the classes and unlimited use of the boats... Here is a picture of the current conditions on the Charles:


I'm on track to get my Helmsman rating (good enough to let others on the boat with me), but if time permits I'd like to take even more classes that they have available.

Let me know if you want to join me sometime!! for a class, a solo sail on your own, or perhaps you can join my crew and help me with the sails!

Introspection

My birthday happens to fall pretty close to the half-way point of the calendar year, the timeliness of this date is perfect as it provides another annual opportunity to reflect on the bigger picture of my life, am I still heading in the right direction? are my new years goals and resolutions being followed? do adjustments within my personal or professional life need to be made?

modo ætas

North Shore - Gloucester

After living and working in the heart of the city for a few years, it's time I move on... I'm purchasing my first home, a condo up in Gloucester, MA. Most of my friends are still living in the city, which is good for when I want to visit -- But personally, I just couldn't keep throwing money away in rent...

So, this will be interesting... My commute about doubles, but with a commuter line stop steps away from my new home, I plan to start to enjoy my commute's with a good book or laptop(wifi coming soon) for the ride. It's going to be nice to be live so close to the ocean with Rockport, Gloucester and Manchester by the Sea beaches so close...

aetas

aetas : an age, stage, period of life, time, era.

our lives, our experiences... the good times and the bad, with friends and family... coworkers, aquaintainces, random people that enter and exit our lives without even an introduction...

you start to wonder, with new life brought into this world every day and sudden or eventual life leaving this world daily... how are you going to maximize your time here to it's greatest potential?

Do you do the same thing you did yesterday? Do you try something new? When you say you like doing something, that means you've done it before... you're trying to get better or more efficient at doing that.. or maybe you're just trying to get a grasp on the concept of what you're doing..

live every day as if it were you're last? do you really believe that?
Maybe that would mean, don't pay your bills, skip work if you feel like it, call everyone you know and care about, enjoy someplace special....

live every day as if it were youre first... with that same excitement and wonder, to take advantage of what's out there.. carpe diem.