Ups and Downs of the week.

Summertime – It’s upon us. Warm nights, margaritas on tap, Red Sox games, top down driving. I love it.

  Red Sox- They swept Toronto, but they lost a game tonight that the O’s tried desperately to hand to them.

Dark Chocolate – Nothing better. And thank you to whoever thought to include them in a galley to Sarah.

Ups and Downs of the week.

 Weather - The nice Spring weather continues. A little rain here and there, but mostly really stellar weather.

  Red Sox – Doesn’t seem like anything has changed from last season. The “aces” are still shaky, the bullpen is still losing games, the shortstop still can’t throw to 1st base in the air, and the offense is still the “noffense.” Still early days, but I was hoping for more from the “Run Prevention Brigade.”

  MLB.TV – They screwed up the first Sox game they tried to show this year, and there are still a few glitches, but the picture quality is better than ever.

 Windows 7- The more I use it, the more I like it.

  Sarah Vowell – Caught her talk tonight at EIU. History delivered with a spectacularly dry wit.

Ups and Downs of the week.

Spring is Here – The weather this week was awesome. Perfect for top-down driving. Not so nice in New England, though.

Baseball Begins – Opening Day for the Red Sox is Sunday against the Yankmees. It’s a national broadcast game, too. Perfect for a Sunday evening.

  Saturday Classes – Ten long hours tomorrow. Ugh.

Formula One – One boring race and one decent race. We’ll see what this weekend brings. Maybe Vettel will finally find reliability.

Ups and Downs of the week.

 Alma Driscoll - My 9th grade English teacher turned 100 this week. She was simply the best teacher I ever had. I can attribute my grammar and writing skills directly to her supreme skill as an educator. She was 63 when she was presiding over my English class. That was 37 years ago. Amazing. Hats off to you, Mrs. Driscoll.

Celtic Crossroads – We saw this show last night at EIU’s new arts center. Astoundingly talented performers. Very enjoyable show.

  Petty Politics – It’s a sin that the bozos in Washington get paid at all.

 Common Sense – Finally the legislature here has seen the light, so to speak, and is allowing conservative window tinting on the driver and passenger windows. Now I can get my X5 front windows done so they all match.

The blog is four years old today.

Ups and Downs of the week.

Springtime Weather – Wednesday was awesome. Great day for a top-down commute on backroads.

  Recession – Seems like a depression in everything but the name. This state, along with many others, is deeply in debt and there’s no end in sight. In fact, it looks like it’s going to get a lot worse. Our elected officials at all levels have certainly failed us.

Motorola RAZR – I finally gave up on my new LG EnV3. It just wouldn’t work right with the Bluetooth system in my car. I switched back to my trusty RAZR and all is well again.

  The Return of F1 and Michael Schumacher – This is going to be a great season. And it started today.

Top Notch Graphic Design – This is the logo for the upcoming Book Blogger Convention to be held in NYC this May, alongside Book Expo. It flawlessly and precisely depicts the scope and location of the convention. A hearty “Well done!” to whoever came up with this design. It’s perfect.

Ups and Downs of the week.

Well Deserved Retirement – Capt. Sully Sullenberger announces retirement. I hope it’s a long and enjoyable one.

  Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day – Today was the annual excuse for drunken stupidity on campus.

Photoshop Text – I’ve actually been having fun playing around with creating substance text.

I figured after nearly four years it was time for a new image at the top of the blog. The image you now see is the city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber (Rothenburg over the Tauber) as seen from the ramparts by the former royal gardens.

Ups and Downs of the decade.

It’s been a tumultuous decade for sure. It feels like more bad than good happened, which has many folks glad to see it end. For me personally it’s been no worse or better than previous decades. Some very good things have happened and some very bad things have happened. Such is life. But let’s take a cursory look at the decade past.

 Terrorism – If I had to pick one paradigm that has had the worst effect on the decade I would say it has to be terrorism. It started out bad with the 9/11 attacks and got worse from there. Those attacks led us into the two wars we are still fighting. They have taken from us many freedoms and rights we had long taken for granted. They have made airline travel miserable. They caused widespread economic chaos which snowballed into the mess we have to deal with now. And contrary to the sick, twisted logic of those perpetrating terrorism, these incidents have done nothing to improve the state of humanity in general or Islam in particular. In fact, they’ve made things far worse all around.

 Technology – This one may come with a small caveat, as not all the technology advances bode well for the future, but by and large technology has moved us closer to that vision of the 21st century we all marvelled at in the 60’s and 70’s on sci-fi TV shows. We have the ability to instantly communicate with people around the globe by flipping open the communicator in our hand. We can see folks in distant lands and speak to them in real time on our little desktop boxes. We can watch the sun rise live in Europe from our living rooms in the US. We can buy virtually anything  by typing a few things on the laptop while sitting in front of our fireplaces. We can watch the human heart beating in 3D while we look for anomalies which would have remained hidden and killed us in years past. We can walk away unscathed from car wrecks which would have once been fatal. And we can watch movies in our own homes on screens that would have been the envy of all theatre-goers not so long ago. I’m currently thinking of buying a device about the size of a piece of bubble gum which will hold 2000 songs and play them back at CD quality or better. Now I just have to think of 2000 songs to load on it.

 Politics – Still the same con game it’s always been. Whoever coined the name “public servant” never really knew a politician. 

 Boston Sports -Ok, this one’s a little less profound than the rest, but this has been the decade for the Boston teams to shine. Sox, Pats, and Celtics have all brought us championships. Even the Bruins looked decent the last few years. It’s been a good decade to be a Boston fan.

 Natural Disasters – Hurricanes, earthquakes, and a particularly nasty tsunami cost the lives of countless people. The earth can be a very unfriendly place to live sometimes.

 The Economy - While my personal economic situation has improved nicely this decade, the economy in general took a beating. For the most part the blame lies with the greedy and power-hungry. The shift of wealth away from the many and into the hands of a few has been staggering. For several years we were getting soaked by the oil companies. Then the banks and investment houses played their ponzi schemes with our savings while the real estate market conspired to raise housing prices into the absurd range. And now the government is spending us into the poor house for the next century while promising us fair and equal health care is soon to be a reality. Anyone believe that one? 

This past year in particular has been hard on me with some health issues and the death of my father. I gladly say goodbye to 2009 and look forward, albeit cautiously, to 2010. Any improvement over this past year will be a welcomed relief.

Merry Christmas to all. Enjoy and be safe.