Top Albums of 2007

Yahoo posted it's list today.

I own NONE of them.

I would consider buying three of them.

My "outsider status" remains intact.

Perhaps the greatest website ever created

Even if you are not a football (soccer) fan, you will find this sight irresistible:

http://hudsonia.blogspot.com/

Ray Hudson's enthusiasm for the sport and his creativity with the English language make me happy to be alive. Dick Vitale wishes he was Ray Hudson!

Thank you...

...that five figure check I deposited came to me as a result of the sale of my grandparent's house.

I will put it to the best use I can.

And I would give it back in an instant to have either or both of them back for even another day.

Funny?

The teller at my bank who usually can't be bothered to speak to me when I make a transaction suddenly had all the time in the world for me the other day when I deposited a five-figure check.

It was "Mr. This" and "Mr. That," "Happy Holidays, " and more.

What-EVER.

The Christmas Oddsmaking Recap

A few days ago I made my first attempt at handicapping my potential Christmas presents- let's see how I did!

• Outside Magazine subscription: 2/1
• A good bet as it makes things easy for my brother in-law's brother.

I was pretty sure about this one, but I was wrong. I got an Amazon gift certificate instead, which I'll probably use...to renew my subscription.

• Two tickets to a Red Sox game: 15/1
• Not confident in this one, but if it happens, my sister will be behind it.

I'm going to count this one as "correct."

• Digital Camera: 5/2
• This is the most likely to be my "big gift" this year.

I definitely made the wrong call here.

• Any of the IKEA items on my list: 50/1
• Too expensive and too inconvenient to acquire. I'll drop the odds to 25/1 on the kitchen table/chairs or a gift card.

Not only was I correct, I got the reasoning right too!

• Items from my Amazon wish list: 3/2
• These are the cheap, "go to" gifts for those who can't come up with anything else.

I got a movie on my list.

• Seinfeld/Family Guy/Simpson's seasons on DVD: 4/1
• I should probably give higher odds on these, but somebody might come through.

I got season 3 of the Simpson's.

• Duvet Cover: 2/1
• Almost a lock, if Mom finds a bargain it will be a done deal.

Mom found a bargain.

• Small Humidifier: 6/1
• This would be so practical it would almost hurt my feelings so I'm going to have faith in my family and put a little longer odds on it than I probably should.

My family had no problem hurting my feelings.

• Shoes from Zappos: 10/1
• Even the lack of risk (free shipping/free return shipping) in getting the wrong size will not allay the fears of certain people in my family have of ordering online.

Correct again.

• Wireless router for my iBook: 3/1
• I could probably shorten the odds even more on this because my brother (the software engineer) will likely be able to acquire one at a criminally low price.

My brother actually paid full price for it!

• House plant: 1/1
• The time of year might work against this, but at worst, I'm sure I'll get a gift certificate for one.

Nope.

• GPS unit for hiking: 25/1
• Too many variables for some people to consider purchasing it.

Winner!

• Step stool: 1/1
• Inexpensive and practical- too hard to resist.

Surprisingly, not.

So, 9 correct, 4 incorrect. Not bad if I do say so myself! See you at birthday time!

Christmas Letters

(Keep in mind, as you read the following, I have sent no more than five Christmas cards total in the last decade, so it's not as though I'm encouraging these people.)

I can deal with getting Christmas cards from people I seldom/rarely/never see. For example, every year I a card from my sister in-law's father and step-mother. They are perfectly nice people, but I don't think I've seen them more than once since my brother got married three(?) years ago.

What I cannot deal with is getting Christmas cards which also include a "Christmas Letter," the one in which the author(s) fill you in on everything they've done in the past year. I think there are two primary reasons for this. First, if I had any interest in what they were doing during the year, I would stay in touch! Second, they always seem to be written- as one might logically expect- by people who have an overdeveloped sense of their importance and the importance of their endeavors.

The letter in question was written by the daughter of a man who taught with my father for many years. The two families have remained close, but at this point, I really only see them at weddings and funerals.

Here are just a few highlights:

• The author refers to the celebrating of the "adoptiversary" of the mixed breed dog they took into their home this year.
• The author has a "life coach."
• The author and her husband take part in a weekly meditation group and spent a week on a "silent retreat."
• The dog referred to above, "signed" the letter.
• The letter closes with the following sentence: "May we all find safety and protection, health and strength, peace and happiness, and internal fulfillment and awakening through this season and throughout 2008, and may we send the same out to the rest of the planet."

Honestly...

Before today ends...

...I would like to say that it sucked. Hard.

That is all.

Something I wish I'd never seen

I just saw a film clip of the now 41 year old Sinead O'Connor- somebody whom I've always considered as beautiful a woman has ever lived- and let's just say the years have not been kind.

Chimps

Re: My previous post wondering what a group of chimpanzees should be called.

I don't know.

Monkeys come in a troop, cartload, tribe, barrel, band, pack, or tribe.

Gorillas come in a band.

Apes come in a shrewdness, band, or pack.

Baboons come in a congress, flange, pack, or tribe.

Monkeys fit in some of these groups and are lumped into others, but I can find no unique name for a group of them. Thus, I have chosen one.

Henceforth, a group of monkeys shall be referred to as a posse.

Books!

This evening, between about 8 and 10:30pm I read Steve Martin's new book My Life Standing Up. It was excellent. After reading it I started thinking about books, and specifically, difficult books. That is, books that have challenged me.

Setting aside books that I have had to read on a deadline (for a class I was taking or teaching), in which case I have been forced to muddle through, speed read, and employ various other "techniques"- whether I've actually understood everything I was reading or not- I could only come up with three books that have been difficult for me.*

The Pope's Rhinoceros by Lawrence Norfolk: I loved his first novel, Lemprière's Dictionary, and thus I began his second novel with great gusto- it promptly kicked my intellectual ass. Sure, the plot was complex and the vocabulary enormous, but that had not been a problem for me in the past- I did read and enjoy Charles Palliser's The Quincunx after all! Nevertheless, I'd guess that I tried to read this book four or five times before finishing it. In between it sat on my bookshelf quietly mocking me. In the end, I was triumphant, but did I enjoy the book? I really don't know...

If on a winter's night a traveler... by Italo Calvino: Such a small book. Again, it took numerous tries over numerous years to get through it. It got to the point that I carried it with me wherever I went in the hope that the right time and the right frame of mind my suddenly intersect and allow me to finish it and eventually that happened. I read it between classes while working on my M.A. I'm assuming that my academic work had my mind honed while at the same time, in need of some escape and I was able to finish it. In this case, I think I just "surrendered" to the book and worried about figuring out what it meant and how it worked after I finished it. It was fascinating, and when it was over, I didn't want it to be.

Which leads me to the third book...

The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco I'm a HUGE fan of Eco's novels The Name of the Rose, Foucault's Pendulum, and Baudolino- not so much The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana. By my recollection I bought this book while visiting my best friend in AZ in around 2001 or 2002 and like the books above, there were many attempts, much failure, and the quiet mockery. Last night I started my most recent attempt at it and I feel as though I may make it this time as I have resolved to read it with...and this is not easy for me...patience. Regardless of whether I succeed this time or not, it contains one of my favorite quotes of all time, "The first quality of an honest man is contempt for religion."

Indeed.


*Setting aside pretty much everything I had to read by David Hume for a class in graduate school. Tough stuff to be sure, but I think the biggest problem may have been my disgust with the professor's inability to teach leading me to become passive-aggressive about the material. My attitude was something like, "If you're not going to teach, I'm not going to learn." My only non-A in graduate school was in the is class. Somebody almost got punched...

I am living proof of this

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071218/sc_nm/chimps_math_dc

My guess is that I'd finish somewhere in the middle of the pack- or whatever the name is for a group of chimpanzees.

Big Red Bows

How offensive are the television ads (particularly those for Lexus) in which somebody gives a $30,000-$75,000 automobile as a Christmas gift?

And we wonder why people in "Third World" (and other) countries hate us? Sheesh! I'm tempted to take a long, hot bath in my marble tub with the diamond-encrusted solid gold faucet until I can stop thinking about it.

This is one reason that there will always be a part of me that is a little bit (or more) of a socialist.

Curses!

What should have been a glorious (and lucrative!) fantasy football season came to an end in the playoffs yesterday as the weather in the New England game and a broken leg prevented me from moving on to the finals next week!

That being said, I certainly had $10 worth of fun over the course of the season- it just would have been nicer to see that multiply into the first or second place share of the money.

Oh well, wait 'til next year!

Less than 10 days until Christmas!

Rather than posting my Christmas list (with pictures!) as I have done in the past, I thought I'd try something different this year and post my list and give odds on what I am most likely to receive.

How could I possibly be able to determine what I'm most likely to get? First, I know which ones are too expensive for anyone to get me, so those are out. Second, I know that there will be some that are purchased by my immediate family but given to me "from" people outside of my immediate family. Third, I know my family. They will not be able to stay away from giving me some of the practical things on my list- call it a combination of nature (our family's thrifty Scottish heritage) and nurture (self-reliant New England location). Fourth, and finally, only once in my life has my family (specifically my mom) truly surprised me with a Christmas gift. So, off we go!

• Outside Magazine subscription: 2/1
• A good bet as it makes things easy for my brother in-law's brother.
• Two tickets to a Red Sox game: 15/1
• Not confident in this one, but if it happens, my sister will be behind it.
• Digital Camera: 5/2
• This is the most likely to be my "big gift" this year.
• Any of the IKEA items on my list: 50/1
• Too expensive and too inconvenient to acquire. I'll drop the odds to 25/1 on the kitchen table/chairs or a gift card.
• Items from my Amazon wish list: 3/2
• These are the cheap, "go to" gifts for those who can't come up with anything else.
• Seinfeld/Family Guy seasons on DVD: 4/1
• I should probably give higher odds on these, but somebody might come through.
• Duvet Cover: 2/1
• Almost a lock, if Mom finds a bargain it will be a done deal.
• Small Humidifier: 6/1
• This would be so practical it would almost hurt my feelings so I'm going to have faith in my family and put a little longer odds on it than I probably should.
• Shoes from Zappos: 10/1
• Even the lack of risk (free shipping/free return shipping) in getting the wrong size will not allay the fears of certain people in my family have of ordering online.
• Wireless router for my iBook: 3/1
• I could probably shorten the odds even more on this because my brother (the software engineer) will likely be able to acquire one at a criminally low price.
• House plant: 1/1
• The time of year might work against this, but at worst, I'm sure I'll get a gift certificate for one.
• GPS unit for hiking: 25/1
• Too many variables for some people to consider purchasing it.
• Step stool: 1/1
• Inexpensive and practical- too hard to resist.

So there we have it! I'll be back in eight or nine days to see how I've done...

Winter!

I woke up to almost a foot of snow this morning and there's more on the way tomorrow night.

THIS is what winter is supposed to be like in New England.

Hopefully this is just the beginning!

My point is made

Abbot and Costello, er, Max Bretos and Christopher Sullivan, are the commentators on the Boca Juniors-Etoile Sahel match I'm watching. Christopher just said, "Here we see the repetition- ah, replay of..."

"Repetition?!" Seriously?!

If he wasn't American born and raised I'd think he learned his English from a textbook in English that was badly translated into a foreign language, then translated back into English, then plopped onto little Christopher's desk. He speaks like the surreal directions you read when putting together furniture produced in South Korea or Vietnam.

Or, maybe after years of work on television he's just now been introduced to this, "instant replay."

Oh, and Boca are wearing their traditional blue shirts with the wide, yellow, horizontal stripe, but with yellow shorts and socks. What? Why? It's not like there's a conflict with Etoile Sahel, they're wearing red from head to toe!

Sleepin' Late

I slept until 12:09pm today, something I haven't done in a long, long time- and trust me, I was once known for sleeping until mid-afternoon day after day after day.

At first, I was a little annoyed that I'd "slept for half the day," but then I realized that this was something crabby old people say, but, I also realized that I can't remember the last time I felt quite this rested.

I may go for two in a row tomorrow. I though, I suppose, two of anything can only be in a row, can't they?

My So-called Life

I should not be this happy about squeaking out a 2 point win in my fantasy football league.

Nor should I have been so anxious while doing so.

That being said, I'm now 11-3 and in no worse than second place (which means I'm a lock for the playoffs).

Should things continue to go well I could see a $30-90 payoff in the end- not bad for a $10 investment.

Two Observations on the "Princess Bride"

1. Has any woman ever looked more beautiful than Robin Wright does in this movie? Say what you will about Sean Penn, but he's a very, very lucky man.

2. The more you look at Cary Elwes in his close-ups, the odder his face becomes. His eyes are kind of close together (mongoloid is the word that comes to mind) and his bone structure seems to be kind of lumpy.

Oh, and of course, Andre the Giant is awesome.

Sometimes guilt is misplaced

I'm just a bit of a movie buff, but for whatever reason I've never bothered to investigate the cinema of France in general and the movies of the French "New Wave," Truffaut, Goddard, et al. in particular.

I'm also in love with film noir and while studying it I learned that the French were the first to use the term (hence, the term!) and that they made some good films in the genre.

Anyway, I decided to make good use of Netflix and remedy this situation.

So far, meh.

I started with one of the big ones, Truffaut's "The 400 Blows." It was good, for sure, but I wouldn't say great. I'd recommend it to others, but it was not the life changing experience I had been led to believe it would be. I was not, however, deterred.

Next was "Rififi,"directed by Jules Dassin who also directed several American films noir that I have enjoyed, including "Brute Force" and the original "Night and the City." This was better, but it was not- in my opinion- an example of film noir. There were some aspects (no hero, not happy ending, etc.) that fit with the genre, but basically it was a "caper" film. To put a finer point on it, the "philosophy" of the film would make it film noir, but the look of the film is too bright and open to qualify.

Still to come are "Le Samouri" (which I have high hopes for) and "Le Professionnel," we'll see...

Saturday Night Observations

First, there could not be less on television on Saturday night. I know that part of it is that the various networks assume everyone is out on Saturday night, but I am not. I have no social life. So, perhaps somebody out there with some money to invest could put together some sort of cable television for people like me- "Shut-In TV" or something like that.

Second, by process of elimination I'm watching the Bruins v. Maple Leafs game. I've always been a hockey fan and a Bruins fan, but in the decade or so* since Cam Neely retired (and the Bruins have gotten worse and worse) I've watched them less and less. I'm actually enjoying tonights game, but every few minutes I find myself saying, "Who the hell are these guys?" Here are the ones I could name:

-Glen Murray (because he's been there on and off since 1991)
-Zdeno Chara (because he was in the news when he was traded and he's the tallest player in the NHL and I tend to know useless crap like that)
-Tim Thomas (because he's been there off and on for 5 years and went to UVM- I went to UNH)
-P.J. Axelsson (because he's been there for 10 years)
-Marco Sturm (because he's one of only a few Germans in the NHL...see Chara comment)
-Phil Kessel (because he had cancer of the...er, he had cancer)

*for six of those years I without access to Bruins games unless they were on national TV, I'm not as "fair weather" of a fan as my statement above may make me seem at first read!

Well, anyway, I'm sure that was enlightening for everyone involved, I'm going to fire up the PlayStation.

Cool Website of the Day

Check out:

www.strangemaps.wordpress.com

Very thought-provoking, and, nerd that I am, I was kind of disappointed when I realized I'd reached the end.

Cruel and Unusual Punishment

This afternoon's UEFA Cup match between Everton and Zenit-St. Petersburg match is a "cracker" and it's not even halftime yet.

Unfortunately, "your match commentator" is Max Bretos...solo. None of Christopher Sullivan's rambling, malapropisms, or foreign language neologisms to distract me from the constant stream of "asshattery" that is the aforementioned Bretos' version of play-by-play.

There was a poorly called penalty (and subsequent red card) earlier in the half that Max first thought was unquestionably a penalty- until he saw the replay- at which point it became the crime of the century. Given that he is probably commenting on this game while watching a monitor in a control room somewhere in the Fox Sports studios (as opposed to actually being at Goodison Park in Liverpool) he probably should have done what I did (as I sit in my living room watching on television)- wait to see the replay.

Jack-ASS.

If it's 22 degrees outside...

...how is it raining instead of snowing?

I'm really hoping to see a pile of snow when I wake up tomorrow!

It's kind of fitting...

...that it snowed on the first day of December.

Sadly, it did not snow very much.

Happily, there's a possibility of more on Monday.

Hooray for Winter!