Return from the sun...

Back from Florida... I'll do more writing soon, but here are some photos...

Hotel Room, first day (Thursday)


St. Augustine (Friday): Me, Brian, In

Saturday, Sue and I. After lunch.

Brad and Tami, wedding...

A bunch of Jokers... Saturday Night....

Attacking seagulls... Sunday.

View out our hotel window, to the right. Sunday evening.

NP: David Sylvian/Robert Fripp - 20 Century Dreaming

Migrating...

Heading south tomorrow, to Florida for a wedding. We'll be back on Monday, so most likely no blogs till then (unless the hotel has some public computers.) We shall see.

Tally Ho!

Sandwich of confusion...

Today, I had a sandwich from the faux-Subway eatery on campus. I've worked here at SPC for 7 months, but I hadn't gotten a sub from this place yet. (I'd usually go to the real Subway right off campus if I had a hankering for subbish goodness.)

I was tempted today because they had a buffalo chicken sub, and I'm a sucker for buffalo chicken. I asked for no blue cheese, and they said, "We don't do blue cheese, we do ranch." No way to the rancho, I say! I'm not a big condiment person, so any gooey food product generally stays away from me.

So, I take my sub (with lettuce and green peppers) back to my table, and dig in. I then discover that there's bacon in the sandwich.

Buffalo chicken and bacon.

Interesting.

It actually was okay, I just didn't expect it. I'd order it again. Although I might actually ask them to hold the bacon, as I try to avoid a lot of heavy salted meat products. It's my way of being healthy...

In total other news, while in Florida, this Saturday, we're going to have a lunar eclipse! I hope there's good clear sky to see it...

I'm probably about 100 pages from finishing Cell, so Brian, you better get on the ball! It may be a plane finisher, but I can't see not being done with it by the time we reach sunny Florida. It's a good read, and just gut-wrenching in some spots, which I always like about King's writing. He really does know how to get to a reader emotionally, in very simple ways...

More about that once I'm done with the book.

NP: Adrian Belew - Hot Zoo

A New Start...

I'm beginning to get tired of my one word subject titles to these blogs, so, I begin again. If there's a relevant one word title, I'll be happy to use it. If not, then life moves forward.

I received my cell phone in the mail today. After a bit of a chore on ye olde landline getting the new doo-hickey activated, it is now working well. I've put some numbers in it already, and Sue and I were being adorable texting back and forth from our phones, as we sat next to each other on the couch.

I still think I'm going to keep it off most of the time, and use it for brief calls more than anything else, but we shall see how usage develops over time.

There's a Dana Gould bit out there, where he talks about the banality of most cell phone calls:

Guy In Store: Yes! It's amazing! I bought a comb! For two bucks! I didn't realize that they were so cheap. What was that? Yes, a comb, I'm NOT KIDDING!!!

Et cetera...

Is reading a comedy bit as interesting as listening to it? Discuss.

It's interesting seeing the comments on Cell. It's very readable right now, and I'm enjoying it. Although, I want to know what Tom did for a living. I don't think it's been mentioned yet. Or if it was, I missed it...

I agree with Queenie about King's endings sometimes falling flat. My friend Lou and I have discussed this. King likes to whip out a miraculous ending a bit more often than I'd like. I can take it in The Stand, as that's totally about Good vs. Evil, but in other places, it seems a bit rushed. I think his newer books don't suffer from that as much as his 80's-90's output did, but there are still aspects of that approach in his writing.

Although, he did get the ending of the Dark Tower series right, and that can make up for a lot in my book.

I managed to get tickets to The Police for Sue and myself this morning, for the Giants Stadium show. Granted, we're in nosebleed land in the upper tier, but there are really only two kinds of seats that matter, those inside of the venue, and those outside. And, we're in, baby!

The upper tier were also the cheapest seats, so that worked in my favor. If the middle tier pricing wasn't $90, I might have been willing to do the middle pricing, but $180 for two tickets to a rock show seems a little steep for me. The highest price was $250 for a single ticket, and that's just too much.

Genesis should be announcing their North American tour soon. I'm willing to pay a bit more for those tickets, as I'm a bigger Genesis fan than I am of The Police. Also, I'll be able to pre-order those tickets through the Genesis website/message boards, and not pay $100 to join, like The Police were asking for to join their fan club.

NP: Tony Banks - An Island In The Darkness

Books!

I finished the book I was reading, "The Ghost Map," by Steven Johnson. It's a book about a cholera epidemic in London in 1854, where it was finally discovered that cholera was transmitted through tainted water. Doesn't sound like much of a story, but Johnson does a good job of outlining the actual process of the individuals involved, which makes it a compelling story.

Like a lot of non-fiction books I read, I skimmed over the final chapter, as those chapters tend to be a lot of the author making modern relevance to the story told in the previous pages. What I read of the concluding chapter I enjoyed, but I can get the meat of it by picking and choosing what looks interesting to read.

So, I picked up the book that Brian mentioned in a previous blog post comment, Stephen King's "Cell." Starts right off with a bang, in Boston, and I'm already 100 pages into it. I like books where I actually know the locations the author is writing about. King sets the start of the book on Boyleston Street, right near the Boston Common. I thought, "Right near the Mister Softee ice cream truck," and what do you know, the truck gets a mention... Truth in writing, right there...

I may finish it before leaving for the Florida trip on Thursday, we shall see how quick of a read it is.

And it's snowing lightly outside, for you weather nerds out there...

Refund!

We got the first of our tax refunds deposited into my checking account today, from the great state of NJ. We're still waiting on the Federal refund, and the NY State refund. Half of the Federal refund is basically paying for our trip down to Florida for the wedding, which is convenient timing.

I made a huge plunge today.

Something that I've been putting off for a long time.

I had said I would do it, but there was no real time frame for doing it.

I ordered a cell phone.

Yes, I've finally entered the mid-1990's.

It's actually a bit tied into the wedding trip. My friend In, who will also be at the wedding, asked me for my cell phone number so we can contact each other down in Florida. I wrote back to her, saying I didn't have one, so I gave her Sue's number.

Those of you who know me, know that for the past *cough cough* years, I've said that I wasn't going to get a cell phone until some time in the indeterminate future. This e-mail exchange was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. Something just clicked in my head, and I said, "I'm going to order a cell phone."

I went with Verizon, and I ordered online, because there was a good discount on phones. I got a $90 phone for $40, which looks like a good deal to me.

Sue asked me what the phone does. I said, "I guess I can talk to people on it." She meant, did it have games, a camera, e-mail, or other features. I knew it had a camera, but I already have a digital camera, so I think I'll be surprised if I use it much as a camera.

I think that it would be a great seller if they made a cell phone in the shape of a Communicator from the original Star Trek series. I know I would have gotten a cell phone much earlier in life, if something like that existed.

My plan is to keep the phone off most of the time, and only use it for short conversations or checking in from a distance where there's no phone. That's my main plan. Of course, we'll see how reality plays havoc with plans...

In other news, for you Harry Potter fans, there's a special "web only" episode of Pseudocertainty, where Joe and I share our thoughts on the HP series. Of course, he hadn't read the sixth book yet, so I couldn't share my Snape/Judas theory, and some other ideas I have about the conclusion of the series with him. Watch for another episode coming up in March, where we'll blather on more about being total nerds about these books.

NP: The Dude of Life and Phish - King of Nothing

Sales!

I'm having a few good sales over on E-Bay right now, feel free to take a gander.

Muchos thanks go out to good friend Lou, who has kindly offered to try to get me Police tickets on a presale. Kudos to Lou! I hope he got my e-mail.... :)

These weeks where we have Monday off are quite nice, because you feel a day behind all week (Tuesday feels like Monday, etc), so now it's Wednesday, feels like Tuesday. Tomorrow is Thursday, and then there's just one more day of the week.

A week from today is Sue and my three year wedding anniversary. It's one of those dates that seems both longer and shorter than that in the perspective of time. But either way, it feels fine.

I have to look into the price of long term parking at Newark Airport, to see if it's worth driving/parking there (it's less than 15 minutes away), or if it would be better to pay for a car service. I have a gut feeling that the long term parking will be cheaper, but you never know...

That's all for now... More soon!

NP: The Cross - The 2nd Shelf Mix

Rental Car!

I just reserved a rental car for the Brad Factor wedding down in Florida we're heading to next week. I splurged, and got a convertable. I mean, it's Florida, so you've got to be able to take the top down, right? It's a little more money, but it's worth it.

Spontaneous, eh?

I enjoyed both Lou's and Flo's comments on my blog from yesterday. I didn't want to make it sound like I was railing against the world or anything, but it just hit me that I wasn't sure if *I* wanted to read my blog, let alone have anyone else read a pretty dull (on its face) entry.

Routine is good, it's just that there are times when I want to break away from the routine. Granted, work keeps the schedule pretty fixed, but there's ways to work around other time-killers, like television.

You know, I think that's how people in the old days got so much done. There wasn't TV to sit and stare at. It was a way to get people out of the house, and active. Granted, most people back in the past had to do a lot more work themselves just to survive, so the comparison's not necessarily a fair one, but there is some legitimacy to it.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my TV. But there are times that I think that I watch way too much. And I watch less than average, I would think.

The main thing, I think, is to enjoy the life you have, do what you can to improve it, enjoy yourself, and help others.

In total other news, I wasn't able to get tickets for The Police this morning. I tried as soon as they went on sale, but wasn't able to get 2 tickets. I think the shows were totally sold out in less than 15 minutes. If another goes on sale, I may try again. If not, then life goes on...

NP: Frank Zappa - Drowning Witch

Dull!

There are times (this is one of them) when I think I must be one of the dullest people alive!

I mean, I blogged about going to see GHOST RIDER, of all things!

It was fun, a nice day and all, but nothing that turned my life around.

Then, I do realize that most days are pretty average. You talk to people, you have some good conversations, you influence lives, you interact with the humans, and all is generally right with the world.

I'm a pretty mellow, even keeled person. Even when exciting stuff happens, I tend not to get overly worked up about it. I do think this is a change from the past, I used to be more excitable about life in general. I'm not sure if it's a good/bad thing, this change, but I acknowledge it and accept it.

It's funny, but happiness and contentment don't make for good writing topics. That's why I sometimes dig up old stories about High School, college, or other things to put on here. Other times, I'm happy to do the more diary-like entries that I usually write. This is at times a more leisurely blog than anything action packed. But, that's okay.

I should be clear, I'm not railing against anything here, this is more of an observation than a complaint. I'm happy with my life, I have fun with my lovely Sue, and have a lot of friends who I keep in contact with (although I should and will do a better job with that). Sue and I are traveling down to Florida in less than two weeks to attend a wedding, which will be an adventure. I enjoy my job, although like with all work, there are ups and downs with it, I tend to think of it as more up than anything.

I do think I fall into patterns very easily. Generally, Sue and I watch the same shows on TV after work, she goes to bed early, I exercise, write a blog, read a bit, and then go to bed. Very routine. I enjoy it.

I think I have to plan some spontaneous activity soon.

Of course, I enjoy the delicious irony of the above sentence.

NP: Peter Gabriel - The Family and the Fishing Net (1 Oct 1983)

Movie!

Today, Sue and I went to go see "Ghost Rider," a movie starring Nicholas Cage based on a comic book. I'm not big on giving a synopsis of a film on these little reviews, there are plenty of better sites out there, and people who can actually do it better than I. Here are my quick impressions of the film:

• Nicholas Cage's character and his love interest (Roxanne) are the same age at the start of the film. Then, we see them together later on, and she's probably in her late 20's, while Cage is what, in his 40's in real life? This is something you see a lot of in films. Older men with younger women. Why is this? Ideas in comments below. I have some ideas, but I want to see what others say first.
• My friend Lou sent out a message to a bunch of us when the preview for this movie first hit the internets awhile back, perhaps in the early summer. We all thought the effects looked really bad. I think the effects improved in the interim. They still weren't great, but they weren't totally cartoonish.
• Plot was minimal, but enough to hang a movie on. Peter Fonda was an interesting casting choice as the Devil, but he really didn't get to do much in the movie besides stand around looking semi-menacing.

Overall, it wasn't a bad movie. A good matinee on a day off from work. I can't give it a huge recommendation though.

Each day this weekend, I woke up around 6am, and was awake on and off for the next 2-3 hours. It would have been great to sleep through till 9am, but our windows in our bedroom face east, and we get a lot of sunlight on these mornings. Not a bad thing, but it does cut into sleep a bit much.

NP: Pink Floyd - Bike

Labs!

While tucking Sue into bed tonight (she's a very early to bed person, for those of you not in the know), she likes me to regale her with stories from my sordid and sorry past. So, tonight, I took the leap back to High School.

Oddly enough, I could remember who I had for every class, and stories were pouring out. I was recalling the time Freshman year, in Honors Introductory Physical Science (HIPS), where I semi-orchestrated a change of lab partner. I was partnered with a friend, as was my friend Brian. For a big project (the Sludge Test, perhaps?), I knew that working with my present partner just wouldn't work. Brian may have felt the same way about his partner, so I think one morning, before we started, I just said, "Brian and I are working together, you two can work together on the Sludge Test."

I don't remember there being a lot of personal hub-bub about changing partners, although I could be just blocking that out. I do know that Brian and I remained lab partners through sophomore year Honors Biology. We might have remained lab partners throughout High School, had it not been for Honors Algebra II during Sophomore year.

In our High School, like many, if you were in 3 honors classes, odds were you were going to be in the 4th. That's how I ended up in Honors Algebra II for my sophomore year. I was generally okay at math, but no superstar. However, that year in Algebra II, I didn't get a quarter ending grade above a 78, I believe. I didn't fail, but I came pretty close (failing in our school was 69 or below).

Admittedly, I was not the best at math, but the teacher I had that year just was not good at explaining the material. I know this, because the next year, when I was in level 2 pre-calc, the teacher I had (Mrs. Mechura, the best math teacher I ever had) explained everything I didn't get about Algebra II in the first 3 weeks of the review of material from the previous year. I went on get 90's and above each quarter senior year in Calculus, and getting a 5 on the AB Calculus AP exam. So, take that!

Anyway, at the end of sophomore year, when I met with my guidance counselor to go over my schedule for junior year, she told me that I was going to be in Honors English, History, and Chemistry. Great! But then, she said that I was also recommended for Honors Pre-Calc.

Hold the phones! I barely passed Honors Algebra II! Why would I be in Honors Pre-Calc?

Well, it was what I was recommended to go into, and if I was in the three honors classes, there was no Level 2 pre-calc class to enroll in. So, I made the choice, sadly, to forgo the Honors AP Chemistry class, and took Level 2 pre-calc and chemistry. And did quite well in each class, thank you very much.

I can't recall, but it is possible that it was also the same teacher from Honors Algebra II, who was going to teach Honors Pre-Calc. That may have also played into my decision to not be in that Honors level class.

Brian, any memories from that HIPS lab partner changeover that I'm missing? Did I make anyone cry? Was I a good lab partner? I need affirmation for stuff from 20 years ago. Really.

Actually, I don't. But it's fun to talk about this stuff. I like to talk about the past, to focus on the future. It's not to be maudlin or depressing, although sometimes it can go in that direction.

Generally, I enjoyed Junior and Senior year of High School more than Freshman and Sophomore year. Freshman year, people were still kind of immature, and we're freshman, so we get the short end of the stick in everything. Sophomore year was fun, but it was really the last two years where I felt like things were firing on all chambers. Good times. Glad it's over.

NP: The Mars Volta - Cygnus...Vismund Cygnus

Snow!

So, today at work, we got a delayed opening until 10am, so I could rest/sleep a little longer...

Then, at 10:45am, we get a call at work that the College is closing at 11am because of the snow. Was it even worth it coming in for a short period of time? Did people in charge not realize how the roads were?

Living in VT/NH for the past eight years, this is minimal snow, but I can see it being hard for people driving who are not used to it. I will certainly take the afternoon off, and be all good with it. I've cleaned up a bit, listened to some music, and am reading my book, "Monster Nation" by David Wellington.

It's a good fun quick read, but if "World War Z" is a meal of a book, this is a good snack. I think Brooks in his zombie world thought through the zombie issue a bit more thoroughly than Wellington in his. I am still unclear if you have to be bit in order to become a zombie, or whether you can "catch" the zombie sickness in some other way.

In other news, I'm going to shoot for getting tickets to see The Police at MSG this coming August. Tickets go on sale on Tuesday, so we'll see if I can get some. The most expensive ones are in the $200 dollar range, I'm going to shoot for the $55 range tickets. You could join the Police fanclub for $100, and get access to a presale, but that seems a bit much to join a club. At least when Genesis tickets go on sale, there's no charge for members of their message boards.

More later!

Taxes!

Just finished doing our taxes on Turbo Tax tonight. We're getting refunds on all three returns (federal, NY, and NJ), so yippee for us!

The state ones are tiny, but they usually are. This is the first time we're filing state taxes since 2001, since we've lived in New Hampshire since then, and there's no state income tax there.

It helped that our moving expenses were deductible. That's a big chunk of cash right there.

It's snowing out. Yay!

NP: Led Zeppelin - I Can't Quit You Baby

Show!

Joe and I recorded a new episode of Pseudocertainty last night. Included this week are reactions to 1-31, Atlantis news, the aurora spacecraft, the Doomsday Vault, and a long discourse on the Harry Potter books.

Joe has been reading the books for the first time, so we were able to have a good discussion about aspects of the books that we both recognize, as fans of epic storytelling. We had prior phone conversations earlier in the week, that we should have just recorded for the purposes of the show, that dealt with a lot of the Potter stuff we discussed yesterday.

If the show's not up at the site already, it should be up pretty soon...

I finished reading "Monster Island" by David Wellington, the most recent book about modern day zombies that I've finished. It tells the story of DeKalb, a UN Weapons Inspector in Somalia, who has to bring a group of soldiers to the zombie-fied city of New York, to get AIDS medication for the leader of the group of people who are holding his daughter as a "guest." While in NYC, DeKalb meets Gary, a med student who intentionally turned himself into a zombie, figuring that he'd get eaten if he didn't. He did this by infecting himself, and then keeping himself on life support while the transformation occurred. In this way, he kept his brain from lacking oxygen, so he didn't get stupid like all the other zombies.

The book overall was a good quick read, and I'm starting the sequel today, "Monster Nation," which actually tells the story of the outbreak, so is actually a prequel. I think I still prefer the zombie approach that Max Brooks takes in his books "The Zombie Survival Guide" and "World War Z," where the zombies don't have any glimpse of humanity, but it's good to read something that is a different flavor than what I'm used to in my zombie literature.

I actually didn't even realize, before reading Brooks' books that there was a zombie genre of writing out there, but I really shouldn't be surprised.

Yesterday, Sue and I went to go see Smokin' Aces. I won't bother summarizing the plot here, there are plenty of other sites that do that type of work. We did both generally enjoy the movie, although the ending got stretched out a bit longer than it really needed to be. I did like how in the first 20-30 minutes, you leared that any character could get killed at any time, because it's usually so predictable who will live to be the hero to the end of any film.

More to come! Battlestar Galactica is on tonight, so I have to get ready for that...

NP: Fish - Institution Waltz

Ack!

Have you ever pulled a boner move so STUPENDOUS, that you marvel that you can tie your own shoes in the morning?

I did one of those yesterday.

I'm married to a wonderful Sue, and periodically during the day at work, we'll drop little e-mail notes to each other, just reminders that we're out there, thinking of each other. Romantic, eh?

Well, yes, it is romantic, until you send one of those messages to your boss by mistake.

With the subject line "I love YOU!"

And then you get the reply, "re: I love YOU!," and it's not from your lovely wife, but from someone NOT YOUR WIFE.

The first words out of my mouth when I got the reply were "Oh f*ck." With a laugh at it, because it, obviously, is very funny.

I pictured my supervisor sitting there at her computer, wondering what to do with this strange e-mail addressed to her, from me.

We did get a good laugh about it, and Sue did also. All was right with the world.

But, I'm still laughing about it now. What a dunderhead I can be!

NP: Steve Howe - The Collector

Exercise!

Ah, just finished exercising. I don't exercise on the weeks that I'm on duty, so it's a nice break. I just did 20 minutes on our elliptical, which is better than nothing. I'm not looking to be hard core, I simply want to have some basic activity every day. If I drop some weight, that's great, but I really started doing this because back in 2001 my cholesterol was higher than it should have been. So, the doc said eat better and exercise.

Strangely enough, it appears to have worked, cholesterol-wise. My number is consistently 100 points lower than it was at its highest point, so no medication needed here.

I still eat some of the same crap I used to (pizza, bread, pasta, etc), but now I make sure to not have those foods as often as I used to, and I eat some salad in my diet. Simple stuff can make radical changes.

Granted, if I was looking to lose weight (I'm about 185 now), I'd do more, and eat less, but it's not that much of a priority now. Sure, it'd be nice to be back down to 170-175, and hey, it might happen, but it's not really a goal. It'll be more of an accident if it goes on.

On a totally different subject, about a week ago, Chris, one of my friend from high school, invited me to join this "linkedin" website. It's supposed to help people network and reconnect, both personally and career-wise.

Generally, I shy away from these things, I figured, why not... So, I joined up. No cost or anything. I didn't really expect anything from it, but what do you know. About 2 days after I join, I hear from Sharon, a classmate of mine from Boston College! We've e-mailed back and forth, and it's fun to be back in contact with her, since I think the last time we spoke was back in 1994. It's so easy to lose contact with people, but easier now to get back in touch.

So, thank you Chris, if you're reading this. And thank you Sharon for writing! Perhaps some other long lost people from my past will write in too.

Today in the mail, I got two CDs I ordered from England. Steve Hackett, former guitarist from Genesis, just had two of his solo albums remastered, Cured and Highly Strung. I have these on vinyl (ancient technology), but never got them on CD. I took quick listens to them today, and they sound much better sonically than I remember. I'll give a more careful listen sometime in the next few days...

NP: Adrian Belew - The Rail Song

Return!

I have an announcement to make!

The lovely Sue has returned to blogging! Read her adventures, and enjoy!

In other news, today was a cleaning day, I did laundry, and vacuumed up around here. I still need to hit the kitchen floor, which is a mess. The bathroom needs some work also, but nothing too heavy duty.

I'm actually watching the "Puppy Bowl" on Animal Planet right now. It's puppies gallivanting around on a fake football field. Brilliant programming for tonight. I'm really waiting for the Kitten half time show, but really, who isn't?

That's all for now, perhaps more to come later...

NP: Brian May - Back to the Light (the TV is on mute...)

Visit!

Today, Sue and I went down to Asbury Park to visit my mom, since her birthday is tomorrow. She and we figured today was a better day to visit, as trying to go out to lunch or dinner tomorrow would probably have been interrupted by a bunch of yahoos out watching the Super Bowl.

Personally, I may actually watch the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet instead...

We got down there around 11ish, and Sue and my mom went out to a yarn store, to check out the local wares there. I believe the store was up in Colts Neck somewhere. While at home, I ran some updates for my mom's computer, and tried to make friend with her cat Daisy.

Daisy isn't really used to other human beings besides my mom, so she doesn't react well when I'm in the house. She never comes out, or if she does, I can't get close enough to pet the kitty. And that's no fun for me, the cat lover. All I want to do is be friends, but she prefers to hide...

This isn't her hiding, but I wanted a visual representation of the kitty for readers.

After the return of Sue and Mom from the yarn store, we went out to lunch at a place close by to her house. A good time was had by all. I had Chicken Quesos, which were okay, but I should probably stick to having Mexican food at Mexican restaurants. We had some good conversation, and Mom enjoyed her birthday lunch.

I think tomorrow's going to be a big cleaning day. I've been meaning to clean around the apartment for awhile, I just haven't gotten around to it. Tomorrow's a good a day as any to do it.

Nothing else too exciting to report out there today. More to come soon, I'm sure. I'm also a bit sleepy, so writing isn't the top thing on my mind. Tomorrow, I'll write about hearing from long lost friends over e-mail.

NP: David Gilmour - Blue Light

Weird!

Reading Florence's blog, she did this thing about listing 6 weird things about you that nobody knows. Never one to overlook a good idea, I think I'll try this out. Feel free to do this yourself on your blog, if you have one...

1. When I tie my shoes, I still do the two rabbit ears thing. I remember being shown as a kid, that there's a way to tie shoes by doing one rabbit ear, and then twisting the other lace around it in some magical way, but I can't for the life of me remember what it is. I always feel a bit kid-like when I tie my shoes because of that...

2. When I was in school (elementary through late High School), I had this thing that I couldn't be friends with people outside of the year I was in. I don't know where it came from, but until really late in high school, like during Senior year, I really didn't have friends outside of my own class. Sure, there were people I talked to in class who were not in my year, but that was about it. During Senior year, mainly through my friend Brian, I got to be close to people outside of my year. Then, in college, most of my close friends ended up being in the year ahead of me, or the year behind me. Oh, how times change.

3. While I really enjoy the company of people, I think I can go long stretches of time without human contact, with little to no problem. Maybe it's from living on my own from 1994-2001, but there were some weekends (especially when I was living in Vermont) where I realized I would go a whole weekend without speaking to another human being. I think part of it is because my job is pretty much totally about talking and relating to other humans, that when I get some time off, sometimes disengaging is a good way to recharge my batteries.

I am trying to be better now in staying in contact with friends, without being overwhelming. We'll see how that works. With this job, I don't have to pay for long distance, so if you want me to give you a call, just say the word!

4. I have a thing about litter. I mean, I *truly* dislike it. It annoyed me when I lived in New England, because if you live in a pretty area, why litter? And I dislike it here, because if you're living in an urban area, wouldn't you want to do everything you could to keep it neat? This leads into number 5, which is...

5. Sometimes I really don't see why people think differently than I do. I mean, we're all the center of our own universes in some way, but I can't imagine people doing truly stupid things, without realizing they're stupid. This is one reason why I could never really write anything that was satisfying to me, as a piece of narrative fiction. I always found it difficult to have characters do things that weren't "right," or "good," because it's almost impossible for me to concieve of someone not realizing that they're making a bad decision. When I'm talking to students sometimes, I want to say, "Don't you get that this is a bad idea? How can you not see that?"

And it's not just because I'm "older and wiser," I thought this way back in elementary school. Either I was tremendously advanced, or I haven't grown mentally since then...

6. If I don't like someone, I can totally ignore them in the presence of other people, and not feel the least bit bad about it. I first realized this in college, when my friend Joe pointed it out to me. Or maybe Brian and I talked about it in High School. If I didn't like someone, I really wouldn't harass them or anything, but I could really just tune them out entirely. If I was directly addressed by the person, I'd respond, but in the most limited, short fashion possible. Joe did say in college that it was great to watch, because I would be quite rude to people, and not think anything of it.

From my perspective, I thought I was being more polite, because I wasn't leading anyone on. If I liked you, I'd make fun of you forever, but it was all in fun. I wouldn't make fun of the people I didn't like, because then that would feel like I was picking on someone. And that's just not right in my book... But, from the outside, me poking fun at someone could look like I don't like them. But, nothing could be further from the truth...

For those of you out there, feel free to add any other weird things you know or remember about me. I'd be curious to see myself from the point of view of others...

Cheers!

NP: Pete Townshend - I Don't Know Myself

Lunchtables!

Tonight, before Sue went off to bed, I was regailing her with stories from High School. For whatever reason, I got onto our Lunch misadventures, and was thinking back on who I sat with at lunch for 6th through 12th grade.

At least for me, it was very uncommon to sit with different people back then for lunch. It was all about consistency. However, outside of a few of the "core" people I sat with (Brian Paik, Erik Lynch, Mike Pohl, Albert Mark, and some others), I really couldn't remember the consistent people all that well.

I went looking to my photo albums, to see if I had photos from lunch, and surprisingly, I don't have a one! I rememeber Senior year lunch pretty well, because, as seniors, we were able to leave the cafeteria. About 20 of us took over a room in the math wing of our high school, eating and causing "trouble" there for most of the year. But before senior year, it's mainly a blur.

I know this is just a symptom of ageing, but isn't it amazing that things that mattered so much then (who you sat with at lunch, even at the SAME TABLE each day), you can barely remember now. Not the most original observation in the world, but a valid one nonetheless.

Generally, I have to say that after 9th grade, I enjoyed my High School years. I'd change a few things now, if I could go back, but not much. I'd get rid of the glasses I had senior year, that's for sure. What was I thinking??? Tinted glasses were kind of in, but I looked like a cop from the 70's. I'll try to get a picture here to post as a warning to future generations.

I was also incredibly shy around girls. I'd change that now, as looking back on things, I realize I was what you'd call a TOTAL IDIOT about some situations. Those are probably best left unsaid for now, but lets just say I never dated at all in High School, and I know that I could have at least gone out with some girls if I had had the guts to say hello, or "Want to go out?" at some point.

Ah, but such is life, you live and learn. If I hadn't done that stuff, or not done that stuff, then, who knows where I'd be now, and one thing is for sure, I'm very happy with how things are as they have turned out.

You know, I could fill a full blog with "Mike's an idiot around girls" stories, but I don't know if I need to relive that portion of my life. And, the stories are much more fun to tell in person, anyway.

I guess what this post boils down to, is that if you sat with me in lunch during Junior High or High School, please write. I'd like to be reacquainted. Brian, as a reader of this blog, is already here, and I think Baron (still around Baron?) may have sat with us a few times, but I could be wrong...

NP: Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - The 17-Year Cicada

Genealogy!

It's been awhile since I've given a thorough update on my genealogy research, so tonight's a good a time as any, I guess... Also, I can't think of much else to write about.

• I've been in contact with a gentleman who is a cousin to my Lord grandfather, on his mother's side, so the common last name there is Riepe. We've just started corresponding over e-mail, so we'll see how this goes. But, as always, it's good to find people who are connected by family.


• I've gone to the Jersey City library for the first time in the past two weeks, even though we've lived here since July. I was busy with other avenues of research. While there, I saw that in their New Jersey room, they have lists of all the Jersey City high school graduates. I found some offshoots of the Coulson line in there, which I'll have to go back and photocopy for complete-ness sake. The last name in question was Jameson. I didn't find any Coulson's in the one list I was looking at. I really think that at least of my ancestors on the Lord side, my grandmother was the first person to complete High School. (It was my mom on my mom's side.) I've also dug up some Coulson obits from the local paper, which will help me find living descendants of those mentioned in the obits. For example, I just got an obit for a Harry Coulson, which lists the married names of his five daughters. I only knew the married name of one of them before, so now I can try to find if any of these daughters are still alive, or if they're not, then if the daughters had living relations.


• I've really reached a bit of a wall on my Mom's side, the Polish side. Until the state and church records are a bit more easily accessible, I'll have to plan my requests to different Polish agencies carefully. I wish the civil Polish records were accessible like the Scotland records are, on the web. And speaking of the Scots records...


• The ScotlandsPeople website, link found on the right hand column, has recently made all their pre-1855 records available on the web. There is a fee for using the site, but it's quite reasonable. I found some records I've been holding off paper copies of, as I knew that there'd be online access at some point, at a cheaper price than ordering paper. However, the one issue is that the records aren't printing properly. I have to drop a line to the website, to see if it's an issue with the site, or an issue with my printer. In the meantime, I'm simply glad to have access to the records in a very easy form.


• I've gotten a lot of records on the James Coulson from Iowa, who I think was a brother to my G3-GF Richard Coulson. However, I do need to find his elusive death record from 1894, to prove that his parents were Richard and Sarah (Shield) Coulson. I'm going to try one more library out there, and then go the state government route again. I spoke of that agency previously, when they wouldn't issue me the record because I couldn't prove relationship. But, I need the record to prove relationship. Catch-22.

And, as a little bonus, here's a photo....

The white haired guy at the center of the photo is, I *think*, my G2-GF Robert F. Lord. I found the photo at the Kearny Museum, and it was labeled "Officials of Kearny, circa 1900." Robert was a town officer at that time, and would have been 48 in 1900. Of the guys in the photo, this person is the closest looking to another picture I have of Robert, taken probably in about 1885 or so. Here's the full picture, for context:

Of course, just my luck, there's nothing written on the back of the photo. Such is the life of a genealogist. However, I think the odds are better than 50-50 that the close up above is Robert.

So, that's the excitement on that front. For a roll call, here's a partial list of surnames in my direct ancestory:

• Father's side: Lord, Partridge, Riepe, Nixon, Coulson, Lang, Schulze, Fegan, Houston, Lindsay, Gibb, Love, McLeod, Crawford, Blackwood, Taylor, Laird
• Mother's side: Sanecki, Moskwa, Gac (anglicized to Gatz), Drozd, Kawa, Stachura, Flaga, Kluska, Ruszala

That's it for now. Enjoy!

NP: Yes - I'm Running (Demo)

Update!

I was thinking, it's been awhile since I just did a general update of life on this blog. However, isn't a blog by its very nature a general update.

I'll leave that question to the philosophers out there. But, what have I been up to recently? Here's news:

• I have a NJ driver's licence for the first time since probably 1996 or so. And, amazingly enough, I was still in the DMV computer system, so I have my original drivers licence number. The photo didn't turn out bad, and even though I had to get a new licence and update my title and registration, my total time at the DMV was less than an hour. Not too shabby, for a place known for eternal lines.
• I also have a Jersey City public library card. I know it's a small thing, but I think it's important to support the public libraries. I went there last Friday, to do a bit of genealogy research. Found a lead or two on some possible Coulson descendants who might still be out there. More to come as I follow those leads.
• Sue and I went to see Curse of the Golden Flower. A good movie going experience, although that's when my lip swelled up (see previous blog). Chow-Yun Fat is one of my favorite Chinese actors, and he did well with this film. In some ways, the role of Emperor was a bit sedate for him, but he used his screen time well. The movie, like many Chinese films, doesn't really have a happy ending, but that's okay, because you got told a compelling story along the way.
• I'm all set with my travel plans for heading to the ACPA/NASPA Conference in Orlando at the end of March. It'll be my second time in Florida in one month, as Sue and I will be heading down to a friend's wedding in Jacksonville at the start of March. Plans for that travel will be made, most likely by the end of this weekend.
• I'm trying to exercise at least every other day. Generally, it's working.

I think that's it for an update now. There's not a lot of "exciting" stuff going on, but we're keeping busy.

NP: King Crimson - Asbury Park (28 June 1874)

Lip!

I have recovered from my allergic attack, although I did have this recurrance on Satuday:



My upper lip swelled up on Saturday, perhaps as a reaction to movie popcorn salt? Maybe I'm having an iodine reaction? Who knows...

Just a short update today, to let everyone know I'm alive. Longer posts tomorrow and towards the end of the week. Not because of anything big happening then, I just don't feel like writing a lot now...

NP: Simple Minds - Big Sleep

Recovery!

Ah, it's strange when you have something so physical happen to you, and then the day later, there's no real evidence of it.

Well, except for THIS!

This photo is from yesterday, probably around 3pm or so. That redness is the rash/hives that I had. I didn't want to put this up yesterday, as I wasn't sure if my readers, delicate souls that you are, could handle my bare chest area. Now, for scientific purposes, I'm willing to put it out there for your adoring gaze.

So, here's the story since yesterday: I went to bed around 10pm, after my chest and back started to fade, but my legs then developed the hives. I slept soundly till about 12:45am, when I woke up after I thought I had slept till 4 or 5am. Needless to say, I was a bit annoyed that I had only slept for 2 hours. I proceded to get very little sleep after that, as I kept having to get up to have a teeny bowl movement (Number 2, for those of you who like to number these things), or pass some gas.

I was trying not to inflict the odor on Sue, as I'm a kind folk.

Anyway, I didn't sleep very well, and finally got up around 7:30am to shower. My eyes were a bit bloodshot, but I think that was from lack of sleep as opposed to anything else. However, my left foot was a bit swollen, as were my hands. I wasn't able to put on my wedding band for the first time since Sue and I got married, which was a bit strange. I probably could have forced it on, but I didn't want things to get worse, and have to deal with a purple finger.

I made a few calls to local doctors, and around 10am, got a callback to go to a doctor in Bayonne, about 20 minutes away. I was there quickly, and was in the exam room after only waiting for about 10 minutes, so good service. The doctor came in after waiting for about 10 minutes again, as I was getting progressively itchier, a mental thing perhaps? I had printed out the above photo, to show him what it looked like before it had faded, but there was also enough splotchyness on my body to show him what it was like.

The doctor concluded from his observation that it was most likely some sort of allergic reaction. We went over the past few days, and tried to think about what it could have been, but the only obvious culprits was the ginger ale and potato chips I had had the night before. However, I've never been allergic to either of those two things before.

There is a blood test that can be done, that identifies if someone is allergic to about 20 of the most common allergies. I passed on that for now, as I figure this is probably one of the more obscure allergies if I'm just having my first reaction now. I will be avoiding ginger ale and the certain brand of potato chips for the near future though, just to be safe.

Personally, with the rash/hives having covered most of my body, in an almost transformational way, I'm going to be on the lookout for any developing superpowers. Or, perhaps I was invaded by nano-machines. You never know, it could happen...

Thanks to Lou and Brian for providing helpful/reassuring comments in yesterday's blog, and of course to Sue for taking care of me.

NP: The Beatles - Oh! Darling

Sick!

In a rare occurance for me, I actually left work sick today. I wasn't physically feeling ill, but I did have some strange rash over a lot of my arms, torso, and a bit on my back and legs. I don't know if you can see it on this photo of my right arm, but here it is...

Can you see the redness there? I had that all over my front, some of my back, and in other various places. It isn't really spreading anymore, but I can't really tell if it's fading. If it's not on its way to being gone tomorrow, I'll give a doctor a call, and see if I can set up an appointment. I haven't found a "regular" doctor around here yet, so I'll have to see what the options are, if I can...

So, I've just been hanging around, reading, relaxing, itching every once in awhile, and that's it. I don't know what's caused this, but it does look a bit like when people who've had the chicken-pox in their youth, get a recurrance of a rash later in life tied in with the pox... That's my barnyard medicine diagnosis....

I'll keep you up to date on my status.

Silver!

Okay, the dime is silver. Does no one out there know their numismatic history?

What is the world coming to these days? Dimes and quarters from 1964 and before were made with silver. Half dollars also, although those *may* have continued to be silver for a few years after 1965. Can't remember the details offhand...

So, I haven't checked the value of the 1961 (Philadelphia mint) silver dime I found. Probably 11 cents.

My last sessions for training ended today, so I'm officially done. I get to help out with our Behind Closed Doors tomorrow, but I don't have much to do with that, as I assigned the planning of it to my two supervisees. I know they'll do a great job with it, so that's all good.

Other than that, I look forward to getting a good night's sleep tonight. I slept well yesterday, but just not for long enough! That's what I get for having to work weekends.

NP: King Crimson - FraKctured (4 June 2000)

Training!

I've been a bit silent this week, I've been very busy with RA Training, and will actually be working through this weekend also, so this is one of the first spare moments I've had where I've felt like sitting down and writing a blog. No idea how long this one will be, but at least I'm here.

We started RA Training on Thursday, and it will conclude on Sunday. Monday, the residence halls open for students to move back for the start of classes on Tuesday. So yes, this means that I'll have to be working on MLK day. I believe that next year, the college calendar will be adjusted so that this won't be an issue. So, I think I'll get a comp day sometime this coming week. If it's up to me, I'd take off on Friday, the 19th. That way, I still get a nice three day weekend. I'll discuss that with my boss when I get a chance...

In the meantime, a benefit of the holiday I still get is that my paycheck has been deposited in my bank account already. Yay, I get to pay bills!

I think I'll try to e-mail some of my friends whose Christmas cards I got returned in the mail due to incorrect addresses. If the e-mail bounces back, I'll track them down somehow...

Right now, one of the songs from the band I was in during High School is playing on my computer. Our drummer (John Rogers, where are you!) was quite good, as was the guitarist. I think I was the weak instrumental link in the trio, but we did have fun anyway.

I'm a bit tired now, so I don't have much more to write at the moment. I'll see about contributing a more substantial blog tomorrow or Sunday...

NP: King Crimson - Elephant Talk

Dime!

What's so special about that dime! Well, I got it as part of my change from Chinese food tonight (Orange Flavored Chicken and Fried Chicken dumplings, thank you very much Peking No. 1!), and it's from 1961.



Those coin collectors out there know what's special about dimes (and quarters) from 1964 and before. Can anyone tell me what it is? Comment below...



I noted this coin when I went to put it in our little piggy bank we got as a wedding gift (thanks Bill!), the reverse side was a bit more worn than usual, and didn't look like a regular dime.



In other news, I've been trying to get rid of some stuff that I have, that I don't really need anymore. This item was one of those things:

This is an old message board I had back in BC. Friends into chemistry wrote the equation/molecule on the board, and some of the other messages. I just liked it, so I always stuck it on whatever fridge or microwave I had in whatever apartment I was living in at the time.

Looking around, I realize I don't really need this anymore, so I took a picture to memorialize it, and now, it's somewhere in the trash. A bit sad, but not the end of the world.

In the weeding category, I have a bunch of CDs listed on E-Bay now. I've thought about doing what Queenie does with the home postage pickup and all that, but living where I do, that's a bit impractical. And when the post office cash registers don't crash, I actually kind of enjoy the social aspect of the post office. It's one of those places where pretty much everyone has to go, and you see a lot of interesting human dynamics while there.

But, in the E-bay world (which is where I was going with this in the first place), I have 33 items listed, and 3 have bids on them already. I expect one of the CDs to go for about $50, which will be a nice chunk of change to throw at my credit card, as we're on the tail end of paying off my car repair from November. Any bit helps. That's why I pick up loose change (even pennies) when I see them. I figure, I'm a penny richer, and those do accumulate over time. Not much, but they do.

Really.

While flipping channels today, I came across a program on Rome on The History Channel. And oddly, actor Peter Weller of Robocop/Buckaroo Banzai fame (a movie I never really clicked with) was not the narrator of the program, but was actually a cited expert during the course of the show!

This surprised me, so I checked his listing on the Internet Movie Database, and sure enough, Weller has a Masters in Roman and Renaissance Art, and is working towards a PhD. And, he's still acting!

It was a weird moment, where I was like, "Peter Weller?! Expert on Rome???" Perhaps it was a switch to an alternate universe, where Weller was never an actor, but was actually a Roman expert. Would have been cool.

Got a haircut today. Not as short as Mr. Brian, but it's much neater than it was. I'm also just combing it all straight back now, as the hair's getting a bit thin on top, and parting it on the right or left is beginning to feel a bit too much like a combover for my liking. I'll get a self-portrait tomorrow, and perhaps post it up here.

NP: Riabinouchka - The Stars of St. Petersburg

Sorry!

A bit long since my last post, I hope you all survived out there. Happy new year, and all that.

First week back at work, and things are generally going okay. I'm pleased with where things are going, and we're all developing a good relationship to jump off of for this semester.

I'm not a big person to spend a lot of time talking about work. My general thought is that I spend 8 hours a day at work, I don't necessarily want to spend a lot of time at home reliving/reflecting on the day. However, I'm trying to be a bit better with that, as Sue does like hearing about my day. I think recently, I've fallen off that wagon, and I need to get back on it, to the extent that I can feel comfortable doing so.

I'm actually on call this week, meaning if anything happens on campus that an administrator is needed, I'm the guy to call. I have a walkie talkie, a cell phone, and a bunch of keys at my disposal. Fortunately, there's not too many people on campus now (the residence halls don't formally reopen until the 15th), so it should be a quiet weekend.

I think that's about it for now... Sorry it's not the most exciting post in the world...

NP: The Beatles - Love Me Do

Day!

Ah, the first day of the new year. And a fine day it was, hanging around indoors all day, as it was foggy and rainy outside, looking very unappealing to those of the dry persuasion.

So, I read. I finished off the "World War Z" book mentioned two blog posts ago, and a fine read it was. I had been reading a few pages here and there, but being able to sit for a few hours today allowed me to polish it off in no time. I recommend it highly, a good read to enliven the human spirit, and get some good zombie stuff in there at the same time.

Sue was on the phone with a mutual friend for a good portion of the day, so that kept her busy, connecting with people. The new year is a good time to reconnect, I think. Of course, the reconnection should be mutual, so that it's not just a one sided conversation. Fortunately, the people I/we're in contact with are pretty good about keeping up communication.

And, of course, tomorrow is back to work. It's a shorter week, just 4 days since we were off today, but alas, it's still work. It's not that bad though. I enjoy my job, but I also enjoy being at home and getting paid, so there's a dilemma...

NP: Richard Lewis - Dates from Hell

Last!

Ah, the last day of the year... Where does the time go? Where does the time come from, that's really the better question.

Deep, eh?

Sue and I did our traditional pizza on the last day of the year, but instead of going to Pizza Hut, our normal place to go on this fake holiday, we decided to go to Pizzeria Uno's, to at least have some quality. It wasn't bad, but their pizza generally feels good before you eat it, and then when you're done, it's a bit much. But, it was fun.

Sue's asleep now, she's not really a night person. I'm still up, but not because of the new year, it's just because I'm generally up. I've never been that big into New Years as a holiday. I've had some good times on this night, for sure, but it's generally just an excuse to have a party. I say, just have the party!

Good new years are all in Boston, in general. For the Y2K event, my friend Bill had a party, that was fun. A few years before that, some of us did one of those, "Pay $85 for the entire evening, food and drink" events, that was fun also. When I was a kid, I never stayed up for new years. It wasn't until I was in my teens, I think, that I actually stayed awake for a transition into a new year. Looking back on it, I realize I should have been a bit more willing to stay up and do family stuff when I was little, but I can't change it, so there you have it.

I've been going through a collection of letters between my fraternal grandparents from during World War II, when my grandfather was in the Pacific. They wrote multiple letters to each other on a pretty close to daily basis, so it's a great look into their world of big events (the war), and little events (paying bills, working with money, etc). Also, my dad was a little boy of 1-2 years old, so there's lots of news of his early events, which is great to see.

I'm trying to not be too voyeuristic in reading these, as I realize that they didn't write these letters with the intention of them being read 60 years later. However, they were writing knowing that wartime censors would review the letters, at least the ones my grandfather sent, so that nothing too, well, "sensitive" is in the letters. Generally, I'm looking for mentions of other relatives, to see what the family relations were like, for my genealogy research. It's fun, but like I said, I'm approaching it with a fair level of respect for their privacy.

Tomorrow, we have no real plans, but then it's back to work on Tuesday. Ah well, all good things must come to an end. When can I retire?

NP: Moody Blues - House of Four Doors

Books!

Sue and I had a nice day out today, but unfortunately now her stomach is bothering her, so she's off to bed. Hopefully, she'll be feeling better tomorrow...

Here's some photos of our day out!

Sue with NYC in the background, at a park on the riverfront in Hoboken...

Hey, this looks like our Christmas Card!

I think this guy was practicing for something, or he was just waiting for a big gust of wind to come along and take him away...

With my loss of hair, I think I'm going to just start combing it straight back...

We hit a restaurant called The Pita Grill for a late lunch. It's a natural food place that we haven't been to before. I found it ironic that the natural food place had Z100, a top 40 radio station cranked WAY up, so we could listen to music with no human/natural interaction in it.

Then, we hit Barnes & Nobles in Hoboken. It's a smallish store, but not that bad. I had a $50 gift card from my mom, so I knew it was time to load up on a few pounds of book. Here's what I got... (with links to the books on Amazon, a delicious irony!)

• Redemption Ark, by Alastair Reynolds. A good SF writer I've gotten into recently. I hope to enjoy this one...


• Cell, by Stephen King. I'm always up for a good zombie book... And yes, Brian, it's now out in paperback!


• Spider Kiss, by Harlan Ellison. An old novel that's just back in print from a really terrific writer.


• The Planets, by Dava Sobel. In my look at the Science section of the store, this one jumped out at me. I've heard good things about it, and I recall enjoying "Longitude," one of Sobel's previous books.


• The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova. Recommended to me by a reader of this very blog! Honest! Don't tell me I never listen to you all!


• The Ghost Map, by Steven Johnson. A non-fiction book about a cholera outbreak in London in the 1850's. It seemed interesting to me, I'm always looking for some good non-fiction out there.


• Fragile Things, by Neil Gaiman. A collection of short stories and other work, by a writer of uncommon goodness. I recommend pretty much anything he's written for those of you out there who are looking for good writing.

I also got World Changing: A User's Guide for the 21st Century from Sue for Christmas. I have been breezing through it, and it's a good book to read for a few minutes and then put down. It's a compendium of ideas on how individuals can take action to make the 21st Century a better place to live for us and our descendants. I think it'll be my gift of choice for people coming up during this year...

And, I'm reading World War Z, by Max Brooks right now (also a gift from Sue!). It's a fictionalized (HA!) account of the War against the Zombies that happened back, oh, back then! Don't you remember it? It's a good read so far, I'm sure I'll continue to enjoy it...

But, let me recap the last week or so. We did Christmas dinner here with Sue's family and my mom. It went quite well, Sue was really the driving force behind the dinner, so full kudos to her for that work. On Christmas Eve, I was over at my Dad and stepmother's place for the traditional gathering there.

We had gotten some bad news, that John Grant, one of our family friends, and an old neighbor of ours, had passed away earlier in the day. He had had MS for at least 24 years or so, so he hadn't been healthy for awhile. John was a good guy, who I always enjoyed talking to. I mowed his lawn when I was in junior high/high school for some money, and looked forward to our chats afterwards. He'll be missed by us, and by many of those who he connected with throughout his life.

Yesterday, I went to the NJ State Archives in Trenton, and got some more info on some of the side branches of my family tree. It's harder now to find information on my direct ancestors, as I've tapped most of the "easy" sources of facts. I'll have to keep digging though, and see what turns up with these side lines, the siblings and descendants of my direct ancestors. It continues to be fun, so that's really what it's all about. I found information on my Coulson, Jameson, Graves, Riepe, and other relatives. I was trying to make a connection with some ancestors on my mom's side, but my guesses on what to follow up on that side have been coming up zeros recently. Gotta keep plugging away.

The day after Christmas (I'm jumping around a lot here, I know), Sue and I went down to see my family who we hadn't seen together on Christmas Eve or Day. It was a good time with everyone, visiting my grandmother, my Dad and stepmother, and my Mom. Then, we met up with my friend Brian for some good Chick-Fil-A eats, and a movie (Night at the Museum, a fun movie for kids).

I even have a photo to prove it!

Don't worry, Sue's not eating chicken, she got a salad!

After the movie, we went back to Brian's house for a bit to hang out with him and his sister In. A good time was had by all.

I should also mention that Sue got me the Clerks II DVD, and we watched it on Wednesday night. Good times.

NP: Magma - Theusz Haamtaak

Cookies!

Today, I made some of the Lord (although it may be Partridge or Nixon, I think Nixon family) traditional Christmas holiday cookies, merengue cookies. Very tasty stuff. And quite easy to make, although everyone thinks they're hard to make. It's just three egg whites, a ton of sugar, a bit of baking powder, some vanilla extract, and stick 'em in the oven. Easy peasy.

Well, there's a bit more to the prep than that, but I can't give all my baking secrets away, can I?

This is also about the 5 year mark of me doing research into my genealogy. Here's a status report, a "now" versus "then" (or actually, "then" vs. "now") list of how I've pushed the generations back in those years:

• Lord: Before, I only knew to John Lord, my G3-GF. Now, I know to Robert Lord, my G4-GF. Not a great push, but oddly enough, the Lord line has been a tough nut to crack. Also, I know more about the Lang family, Jane Lang married John Lord

• Sanecki: I was topping out at my great-grandfather, Josef Sanecki before, now I know to my G3-GF, Marcin Sanecki, from Poland.

• Partridge: I knew to William Partridge, my G2-GF, and now I know to Thomas Partridge, my G5-GF. It's a bit of guesswork when it gets that far back in Ireland, but it's not bad.

• Moskwa: I knew to Wojciech "George" Moskwa, my great-grandfather, and now I know his father's name, Anton Moskwa, and his wife, Annie Furgas. I'm not 100% on that last name spelling of Furgas, but that's what I'm going with for now, until I can get some real info from Poland on the Moskwa's.

• Nixon: No direct relation to the President, thankfully! I knew to my G2-GF, Robert Nixon, and now I know to my G4-GF, Robert Nixon. There's a lot of repeat of names in those old families.

So, you get the picture. I also know of a whole bunch more last names in my direct genealogy that I didn't even know about when I started, including: Fegan, Smith, Zimna, Kawa, Flaga, Maslak, Drozd, Stachura, Dziki, Obuch, Zlotek, Ruszala, Kluska, Blackwood, Houston, Crawford, Lindsay, Dyer, Barr, Kirkwood, Gibb, Laird, Taylor, Fleming, Love, Rodger, Scott, Cunningham, McLeod, Rosebotham, Alderdice, Marcker, Hafner, and Shield.

I also know so much more about the offshoots of the family, I've gotten in touch with some great distant relations who are into genealogy, and have been happy to share info. I'm hoping in the new year to find some more connections, I'd really like to crack open some stuff on the Polish side, and get a bit further with the Lord name itself...

We shall see what the future holds.

NP: Bill Bruford's Earthworks - Forget Me Not

Mail!

Today, I had to go to the Post Office, to send off about 20 packages.

I had a very good e-bay weekend.

However, when about the 16th package was weighed and postage printed, my postal worker's computer crashed.

I've never had this happen at the Post Office before, so I figured the computer would reboot, there might be some inputting of old postage that had been printed already, and we'd continue on our merry way.

Not so.

What happened was this: The computer took at least 5 minutes to reboot. Then, the Postal Worker had to rip off all the old postage that was already done, and reweigh/reprint all the postage that had already been done.

I'm actually amazed that there is no way that the old postage can't be scanned or input back into the system in a case like this.

The Postal Worker was a real trooper through all of this. I would have been drop-kicking the computer out the door, but she just plugged away at it. I made a comment to her about the situation, I can't remember exactly what, that gave her a big smile, and that made me feel better for her about it.

On the second round of scanning, I thought of asking about halfway through if she wanted me to pay for what had been scanned already, in case her computer went south again, but I didn't want to tempt the Postal Computer Gods.

Needless to say, we had no further problems, and the mail was successfully posted. However, that ate up most of my lunch hour, so I had to grab some quick pizza at a local pizza place, and head right back to work. Not the most restful lunch ever, but it was okay.

I sold a bunch of my old Yes Magazines, a fan magazine from the late 80's through the 1990's. I was hoping to get a bit more than I got for them, but that's life. I have a bunch of old Babylon 5 magazines I was looking to sell, but they're big, and there's not a lot of buyers for them, from what I saw on e-bay. So, I was going to chuck them out today, but when push came to shove, I couldn't do it. I'm going to try again later, but they may end up back in a trunk for a period of time. Perhaps they'll go up in value? Maybe?

Sue and I are both going to do some serious weeding of stuff during the winter break from work. It'll be good to do a big purge. I'll continue to weed through CDs I have, I'm getting ruthless at culling stuff now, especially since I can have the music without the actual disc, if you get my drift.

Memories, I'm talking about memories here! I'd *never* illegally copy music.

NP: John Williams - City in the Clouds (Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back)

Libary!

Yes, I misspelled it on purpose.

Tomorrow, I'll be heading to the Elizabeth Library to do some more genealogy research. For those of you who don't know, genealogy is one of my big hobbies, that I got into in late 2001, and have been addicted to ever since. On my dad's side, I've pushed various lines back into the mid-1700's, in Scotland. On my mom's side, I've pushed the dates back to the mid-early 1800's, which is impressive since I didn't know *anything* past my great-grandparents on that side at all when I started this.

My mission for tomorrow is to start going through the 1895 NJ Census, most likely in Jersey City, looking for direct ancestors with the last name of Coulson, and some side ancestors with the names of Jameson, Sutcliffe, and Graves. I'll also do some quick checks of newspapers in Elizabeth for some relatives on my mom's side, and some old city directory information.

It truly is an addiction, this work. I'll think of some side line of research to do, and just find a way of trying to track it down. If I could get paid regularly to do this, I'd probably seriously consider it as an option. But, genealogists generally aren't professional, although there are some certifying boards out there that allow you to be "professional." Perhaps some day I'll do that for fun...

Once I get my library fix done, probably between 12pm and 2pm tomorrow, Sue and I will figure out what to do with our time. We'll probably hit the movies at some point, and food shopping is in the future. Whatever else we do, it'll be fun and relaxing.

If any of you out there would like me to take a look at your background, let me know. I'm happy to do some preliminary digging, to see what's out there. It'll also get me thinking about how to track down leads of people that I don't know the family background of. I've learned a lot about my family since doing this, so I generally know which leads are more likely to pan out (although it's never a guarantee). With others, I'd have to figure out what questions to ask, what are the gaps that I'd need to fill, etc.

Could be fun...

NP: Nick's Eef & Be Ho - Jam on But Not Yours

PS-Nick's Eef & Be Ho was a band I was in post-college.

Wrapping!

I wrapped a grand total of one gift today. It was one for Sue. I'll be wrapping more over the weekend. I'm waiting for a box or two to arrive from Amazon, but I should be all done with stuff by early next week. Shopping is all done, right on time for payday tomorrow, so I can pay it all off...

We're getting closer and closer to the end of the semester here, and all the students leaving for vacation. I always enjoy it when no one is around, as it gets quite quiet in the building and on campus. We also get the week between Christmas and New Years off from work, without having to take vacation, which is kind of nice...

I still haven't started a book yet, but, I do have a new one to read, if I feel like it. It's "World War Z," by Max Brooks, author of "The Zombie Survival Guide," a gripping read. WWZ chronicles the recent Zombie War. Perhaps you remember it? In any case, I'm looking forward to reading people's gripping tales of survival during this recent altercation between us and the undead. Sue got it for me for Christmas, we usually do one gift before the holidays really begin.

I'm also enjoying watching my e-bay sales continue to go up. I have 44 items listed, and 32 are selling. And of the 12 not selling, only 5 do not have at least one watcher monitoring their progress.

If anything doesn't sell, I'm not going to relist the item right away, as if I did, it would sell right before, on, or after Christmas. And no one is really going to be doing e-bay that much around then. People will be on holiday, and while there may be some people trolling e-bay, there won't be as many possible bidders. So, I'll wait until early in the new year before listing anything.

Is anyone else besides me shocked that we're at 2007 already?

NP: Pat Boone - Enter Sandman

Cards!

I'm almost done with writing my Christmas/holiday/New Years/whatever cards for this year. Sue and I have some cute photos on the card for this year. There's actually three photos in one card, for all of you parents out there looking for ways to work yourself into your kid's shots.

I know you're out there! And I know you're thinking about it...

I was reminded by Jen in a comment on yesterday's blog that as a kid, in my house in Wanamassa, NJ, that we always taped up our cards on the stair bannister. Maybe that's why I like taping cards up nowadays in different locations. We have no bannister here, but there are plenty of doorframes or other places to tape up cards. Once we get a critical mass, I'll take a photo and post it up here.

The labels I was using for the cards, my computer printer messed up some of them, so if you get a handwritten envelope, it just means your extra special. Really.

I have a bunch of stuff I'm selling on e-bay now. It seems that a lot of it is going, which is great! Keep looking, buy early and buy often! I'm continuing to try to weed things out of my life that I don't really need anymore. Some old magazines, CD's I'm getting remastered versions of, some DVD's, and other random things.

I will also attempt to complete my Christmas shopping tonight. We'll see how that goes...

I feel all over the place, blogging tonight. I did just finish exercising, maybe that's affecting my brain. Who knows...

NP: Pete Townshend - Behind Blue Eyes (demo)

Holidays!

Today, Sue and I put up a bunch of our Christmas decorations. For some reason, I always (for the past few years at least) get depressed putting up the decorations. I don't recall if this happened when I was younger, but it happens in spades now.

There's nothing tangible causing the depression, and once they're up, I'm glad they're there. I just get very down when they're actually going up. It's strange, I know...

In general, I do enjoy the Christmas holidays. I like seeing family, friends, and just having the time off. There's no great religious piece for the holidays to me, but I do look at this time as a period of reflection on the year gone by, and the upcoming year/years. I *don't* do new years resolutions or anything like that. I actually think of New Years as a pretty fake holiday. If friends are doing a party or getting together, or hanging out, I'm happy to do that, but I'm not really that into the whole New Years idea.

It's been hard this year to get into the whole Christmas gift giving spirit, as I'm not really sure what to get people. I also tend to get people things that I think they'd like, or that I think they *should* like. That's one reason why I like to actually spend time with people around the holidays, versus having to do the whole gift exchange thing, I'd rather build experiences and friendships/relationships with people, versus just handing over a gift.

Also, I haven't been able to think up some really good gifts this year. I think I've been kind of consumed with the move down here and the new job, so it's been hard to get out of my own head, and into a space to think about others as much as I'd like to at this time of year.

As a kid, I think it was Christmas of 1974, we were on a family vacation down to Florida/DisneyWorld. (It may have been Christmas of 1975, I'm not exactly sure, but if I had to bet money, I'd bet on '74). I remember coming back to the hotel room, and there were two wrapped gifts on the bed, one for me and one for my brother. I remember being so surprised that Santa knew where to come down to deliver our gifts to us. I got a Lego set, your basic building blocks to build a small house. I had those for quite a long time, and I remember that as a very fun, happy Christmas.

For being so young, I actually do remember bits and pieces of that vacation. I also remember getting chicken-pox in the January after getting back. My brother got them first, then I got them. I vaguely remember him getting them, but I have no real memory of me having them. I've probably blocked that out!

So, for this holiday, I hope I get to see a lot of people. It'll be nice to actually be in NJ, and not have to do the big drive from New Hampshire down here.

I'm not quite sure if this entry is what Queenie was looking for in her blog, but it's what I came up with...

Enjoy! More to come...

NP: Bill Bruford's Earthworks - Original Sin (23/24 June 2001)

Maniacs!

So, I use Windows Media Player to play my mp3's on my computer, often when I'm on this computer. Typing up blogs, working on genealogy, whatever I happen to be doing.

I like WMP, because it's very easy to track what has been playing, and how many times a song has been played. I have about 1501 hours of music on here, and I have it on random play. I like that anything can come up at any time. Music, comedy, opera, talk, whatever.

However, for some reason, one song comes up more often than any other. My number one played song at random is "What's the Matter Here?" by 10,000 Maniacs.

A good song, but not one I would choose to listen to 12 times. That's how many times it's come up on WMP since I've been using this for music. The next closest high number is 5 times (for numerous songs). I mean, I do like the song (it's from before 10K Maniacs became a bit too precious for my tastes), but it comes up first a lot of times. Computer error?

Weird, I know, and does it deserve a blog? Well, it just happened, so I had to write about it.

Coming up tomorrow: My thoughts on Christmas/Holiday spirit.

NP: Lewis Black - Leave a Tip

Link!

You know, I'm a fairly open, friendly person. Sometimes though, someone just rubs me the wrong way, and I never really get close to people who are friends of friends, or people I see on a semi-regular basis. Sometimes it's just personality differences, or generally, I don't see a need to try to get to know someone.

I have some friends from college who I'm close to, and in that circle, there's one or two people who I never really initiate any contact with. However, one of those people, over time, has gotten to be not as annoying as they were when I first met them.

That sounds like they're still annoying now, but they're really not. I'm just operating on residual annoyance when I say that. The last few times I've seen this person, he actually hasn't been annoying at all. In fact, we've had some decent conversations, which is good. I like to like the people I hang out with, even if they're still not someone I'd initiate contact with on my own.

So, where is this all going? A few days ago, I noticed a link to this person's blog type site on one of my friend's blogs. I clicked on it, just to see what was up. After reviewing some of his writing, I noticed that this little blog was actually listed amongst the 4 or 5 other blogs of friends he had listed.

I was oddly touched by this. Here's someone who honestly, over the 12 years or so I've known him, I've barely given the time of day to (in my own way, never being actively nasty, just not really engaging in anything), who made the effort to put me on his blog. It may seem like a minor thing, but it did, again, make me rethink how I've been towards this person over the last years. I have been having better conversations with him over time, and this has made me think about how I do interact with people who I have tended to write off at different times of my life.

Granted, I'm honest enough with myself that I know we're not going to be best buddies or something, but I can approach our meetings with a different view now. So, in some way, perhaps me knowing this person who I thought I had no use for, has made me in a small way, a better person for having my own faults and assumptions reflected back on me.

So, there's your deepness for today. Enjoy!

In other news, I got my first photo Christmas card of this season in the mail today. I'll repeat my rant from last year, where I find it annoying that my friends who have kids, only send out photos of their kids in their cards, never of themselves! I enjoy that my friends have kids, but I want to see the kids *with* their parents! I know the parents better than I know the kids, and I want to see them all together. The one I got today was of the two kids outside, hanging out on a beach. It'd be easy enough to get the parents in the shot! Heck, just Photoshop them into the picture, it doesn't even have to be real!

I miss seeing my friends, and I'd at least like to see them in a photo, if not in real life!

So, parents, I plead with you! Include yourself in your photos! Your kids are great, I'm sure, but I want to see you all in one photo! Or, it's easy enough with these photo cards nowadays to have multiple shots on the card. That's what Sue and I did (watch your mailboxes, folks!), and it's great! Have a big shot of the kids, make it the main one, and put a little one of the parents on the side. If it's small enough, it'll hide the bags under your eyes from losing all that sleep from "the kids" keeping you up!

NP: Genesis - Your Own Special Way

Books!

I'm glad to see my book blog from yesterday getting a good reaction. Jen, I'll take a look at that book that you mention, and Queenie, Stephen King is usually worth a good re-read.

I've read The Stand numerous times, and have really enjoyed it. I did read "Everything's Eventual" earlier this year, as I went through one of my King kicks I go through every 10 years or so... I tend to burn out on King, and then save up a bunch of his stuff to read, and then get into reading them all at once. This most recent kick started out after finishing The Dark Tower series (made me cry, by the way). I picked up "Insomnia," and even though I recall it getting some poor reviews, I actually really liked it.

Lou, one of my college friends, tends to think that many of King's books don't have really good endings, and I can agree with him on that. Some do have the whole "deus ex machina," let's pull a rabbit out of the hat conclusions. The Stand is actually kind of like that, but since the subject of the book is all about good, evil, God, and mystical forces, I can see where it comes from there.

I also enjoyed Desperation/The Regulators when I read them both in a row. Desperation was the better novel, but having the same cast of characters in two very different novels was an intriguing experiement. Bag of Bones, I read a few years ago, and thought it was a good return to form for King. Next time I'm in a bookstore, I may have to pick up some of his newer paperbacks that I haven't read, to finish off the tail end of my 10 year kick.

I do have to give honorable mention to King's short story, "The Boogeyman," in the Night Shift collection. If you haven't ever read this story, I recommend you to go out and find the book in your local bookstore/library, and read it. I believe it's the second story in the book, and when I first read it as a youth, it really got me. I mean, it got me good. I mean, I was frightened to sleep. I mean, I couldn't not think about the story for quite a long time. I mean, it freaked me out, MAN!!!!

Sorry, a bit of a flashback there...

The Harry Potter books were also suggested as a possible re-read. I could definintely do that at some point, but I really just started reading them all late last year, so it's a bit too soon for a re-read. Looking through my bookshelves today, I noted Kim Stanley Robinson's "Mars" trilogy of books. They're worth a re-read, but I last re-read them (for the first time) right before I got married back in 2004, so like with Potter, it's a bit too soon to jump into them again.

I got strange looks at lunch today when I mentioned that I had re-read the Lord of the Rings trilogy perhaps 10 times in my life. Perhaps it's more like 8 or so, but I don't think, for work that good, that that's too many times... Although if I go the Tolkien route with my next read, I very well might pull out The Simirillion instead of LOTR. It's a tougher read, but I think I'm still getting more content out of reading that at this point. It's dense, like reading a novel with no dialogue, but very rewarding for the depth of the story. And it sets up all the sadness that happens in LOTR, giving the entire world of Middle Earth the context of what happens in the Third Age (when LOTR happens). The Simirillion details the First Age of Middle Earth.

Have I lost the non-geeks out there yet?

With all this being said, I still haven't decided what to re-read yet. King is coming up fast (hrm, perhaps the "Four Past Midnight" collection, I recall enjoying that on the first read...), but there still might be some SF dark horses out there. And, of course, the Tolkien is always a strong option.

NP: Camper Van Beethoven - Shut Us Down

Chapter!

I finished the Richard Dawkins book "The God Delusion" on Sunday. It's a good read, again, recommended for all regular (and irregular) readers of this blog. However, I have a thing with most non-fiction books.

I have real trouble reading the last chapters of non-fiction books. I don't know what causes it. It's with science books, history books, pretty much any subject that I read non-fiction in.

Sometimes, it feels that the author is just restating what they already made clear in the rest of the book. Other times, they're trying to reach some grandiose conclusion, when I'm not really interested in hearing about it. Other times, I might just be tired of the subject, even if I'm interested in the book itself. I figure that nothing much new is going to be brought up in the last chapter, so I can safely skim or ignore it.

With the Dawkins book, I'll probably try to read the last chapter in a month or so, when I'm a bit more distant from the material.

But, in the meantime, I am now TOTALLY without an unread book in my "to read" pile. This is rare for me. So, I have to decide what I may want to re-read. Here are some options:

• I may jump into a re-reading of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Or the Simirillion. Always worth an extra read.
• The Gunslinger books of Stephen King. Granted, it's a 7 book series, that I just finished reading about a year ago, but it could be interesting to re-read at least the first novel.
• Asimov, Clarke, or Heinlein short stories: I really enjoy the short story as a format, and I cut my teeth reading some of these science fiction master's shorter works in my youth. I'd be interested to see what still stands up, and what doesn't quite cut the mustard anymore.
• I could re-read some of my books from grad school... Oh wait, that sounds like work. Scratch that.
• A variety of my favorite SF authors have books I could re-read. Those authors include David Brin, Gordon Dickson, Gregory Benford, the aforementioned Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein, or a variety of others...

So, any opinions? LOTR is an old favorite, which I actually haven't re-read for a few years, so it might be nice to take this opportunity to jump into that world again, but it may also be nice to revisit some other works I haven't thought about in awhile.

Opinions are welcome in the comments section...

NP: Mike Keneally - Dyin' Day