Hiawatha Bray is the Globe’s technology reporter, and a week or two ago, he had an article about something called the “Kill-a-Watt“. It’s basically an electric meter for a single outlet. His take on it is that it will tell you where you’re wasting electricity. That’s all well and good, but it really solves a [...]
Worcester, MA January 27, 2009 — The Worcester Tornadoes Professional Baseball Team has offered a contract to free agent outfielder Manny Ramirez for two years worth $24,000.
Today I reconciled four bank accounts for the entire year of 2008 and every one of them came out exactly to the penny!
During the 2008 post-season, I subscribed to the MLB.TV post-season package. It was only $15, and since half the games were on cable-only stations (TBS), and since I don’t get cable, I figured “why not?” So I did and it was actually pretty good in spite of not being able to watch the games live.
So [...]
I got my health insurance premium notice today. Starting 01-Apr, my premiums are going up another 14%. Last year, the premiums went up 50% (no, that’s not a typo), so I had to lower the coverage and increase out-of-pocket by 150% to keep the premium increase at “only” 20%.
Two years ago: $428.87/mo. Last year: $510.79/mo. [...]
and our long national nightmare is over. At noon today the reign of the worst president in living memory and maybe of all time comes to an end. That, alone, is cause for rejoicing. We can’t take any more of this “uniting not dividing”. But I don’t want to dwell on everything that’s gone wrong [...]
The new Mass. bike law was passed in the last couple of days.
A good summary of what it means.
The trick now is to get the word out.
I got my settlement check in the mail today from some class action suit against American Express. The lawyers get $11 Million.
My share: $0.66
[netflix] [IMDb]
A Disney-Pixar animated film. Some time in the future, mankind has made such a trash heap of the Earth that they are compelled to leave aboard a luxury spaceship cruise and leave behind a robot to clean the place up. They intend to return once the clean up is complete, but 700 years later, [...]
[netflix] [IMDb]
A concert film by a virtual band recorded in Manchester, England. Incredibly well done. The “secret” people who play for the animated band members are primarily behind a backlit screen and seen only in profile (although Albarn does come out for an encore). The endless parade of guests take over the stage for the [...]
[netflix] [IMDb]
A film adaptation of Frank Miller’s version of the battle at Thermopylae between the Spartans and Persians in 480 BCE. Stylistically, this is very impressive, although some of the effects grow a bit long in the tooth. Slow mo blood splatter is cool and all, but really, a few dozen shots of that is [...]
[netflix] [IMDb]
I’m not even sure I can give a synopsis of this. A bunch of hep cats (Cameron Diaz, et al.) get together for dinners every now and then. On the way there, one of their cars breaks down and the driver gets a ride to the dinner by a right wing nut job (Bill [...]
It was one year ago today.
And only months after recovering from the first fire. From the pictures, it doesn’t look like much is left. There’s¹ a big debate about whether El Pelon or Anna’s is better. I guess that debate is settled.
¹ Where ’s now means was, not is.
According to the wicked cute red headed plumber, this is what happened.
I live on the odd side of a five story building. I am unit 1 on the street level. The units above me are 3, 5, 7 and unit 9 on the top. An additional unit 11 is in the cellar.
Unit 7 had turned [...]
I’d gone out to lunch with a friend and got back about 2:30. I sat down at my desk and a few minutes later started to hear something strange.
Then the waterfall started. Apparently, somewhere up above — Unit 7 to be exact — a heating pipe burst. And hot water raining across the entire width [...]
NEC