Sons of Liberty

I DVRd the three-part series Sons Of Liberty last week and I have finally gotten around to watching it. I watched the first one today and while it's not entirely accurate, it's close.

Well, maybe kinda close.

For instance, the Boston Massacre  resulted in five deaths but only three of them occurred immediately, Two others were injured and they died a few days later.

The soldiers were tried in court and their defense attorney was John Adams. They were found not guilty of murder but several of them were found guilty of manslaughter and their punishment was branding of the hand.

Also, John Hancock did not need to introduce himself to Sam Adams. The Hancocks and the Adams were quite familiar with each other. As a matter of fact, John Adams and John Hancock grew up together as childhood friends.

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Here are some links:

• Key phrase in this story: "...their excrement is everywhere."



• Key entry from our favorite police log: "7:24 p.m. A local man complained that his ex-girlfriend’s mother has been harassing him."



• I'm betting this kind of thing happens all the time on the MassPike.

Long Week equals Short Post.

Despite working from home one day this week, this evening I find myself freakin' tired and not wanting to do much. That means you only get links.

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Here they are:

• I'm not entirely sure who Ben Carson is but if he ever runs for office, I'm voting for him.



• Attention everybody: Stay out of Dane County, Wisconsin.



• It was only a matter of time... Double Doobie Time!!



• Okay, this is even weird by Japanese standards.



• Here is an educational video with a bad word or two in it.

It was a bit chilly this morning.

This is what greeted me when I backed out of my garage:

I don't care how tough you think you are, that's cold.

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You can click on these:

• Key entry from our favorite police log: "12:51 p.m. A cat with loyalty issues turned on its owner. It was quarantined after the incident."



• I've been to Aliquippa.



• Don't mess with Mamma.



• Gwyneth Paltrow is weird. Kinda kinky, but weird.



• Key phrase in this story: "I just pooped my pants."

Another day, another, uh, day...

Using yesterday as a work from home kind of day was nice. I didn't have to deal with buses while driving into the office and I got to spend the day in sweat pants. I was also home to clear my driveway so my wife didn't have to deal with it.

She doesn't mind clearing the driveway when there is an inch or two but there is no way she can clear it when there is a foot. The snowblower is a bit too much for her to handle and using a snowshovel on that much snow is an invitation to either a backache or a heart attack.

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These are the links I found for you:

• Yes, alcohol was involved.



• Okay, this is just wrong. Yes, it's funny as hell, but it's wrong none-the-less.



• It was only a little bit stolen.



• Key phrase in this story: "...he is peeing on you."



• I kinda like their name...



• Apperantly Dallas is filled with bad drivers and drunks. Which, when I think about it, sounds a lot like Boston....

So much for that prediction

They weren't too far off the mark but there is no way we got 24 inches.

On another note, I gotta tell ya, we have become a society of complete wusses.

Why the hell did we have a travel ban?

I can remember back in the 1990s having my friend John come pick me up at the airport in his manly macho truck because there was two or three feet of snow on the roads. It was a slow drive back to Wilbraham but we made it.

There was no travel ban.

There was no road closures.

There were no "day long newscasts" with roving reporters showing us rulers stuck in the snow.

We were obviously less skittery and panicky back then.

In other words, we didn't have deflated balls.

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Here are some links:

• I'm not sure how I feel about this. Is it "big brother" in action or is it a way to find the bad guys?



• Only in Florida.



• Presenting this episodes Brilliant Criminal of the Day. Oh, and he's also from Florida.



• Also only in Florida.



• Merry Christmas! I hope you like the deodorant and cheese I "bought" for you!



• Someone is gonna get razzed by his fellow spies.

It's snowing! Everybody panic!

We have an ample supply of fuel and toilet paper so we are not going to panic.

You people that left your toilet paper shopping to the last minute should panic.

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I am not going to work tomorrow so I'll be sleeping late. Who knows, I might just sleep until 6:30.

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Here are a few links you can click on if you would like:

• Here's your Naked Guy In The News story.



• The Internal Revenue Service in action.



• Presenting this episodes Brilliant Criminal of the Day.

Thar be a storm a'brewin'

The weather dweebs are saying we can expect a storm to come through starting Monday afternoon and ending Wednesday morning. During that time, we can expect 14 - 18 inches of snow.

I'll believe it when I see it but I'll also be stopping to fill my gasoline can tomorrow after work.

I may be a pessimist but I'm not a stupid pessimist.

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In less than one month, pitchers and catchers will report to spring training.

Life will once again be good for us baseball fans

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You might enjoy these links:

• He stole their recording equipment?



• Only in Florida.



• Key entry from our favorite police log: "9:33 a.m. A Kalispell woman complained that the neighbor’s electrical grid is emitting radiation and blocking airwaves. She claimed that the radiation has affected her health and her dog’s ears."



• Only in Florida.



• Attention Alanis Morissette: This is ironic.

They were finally correct.

For the first time in a while, the weather dweebs got the forecast correct. They predicted 3-6 inches and that's what we got.

The Beast took care of the 6 inches in my driveway with little or no problem.

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Here are today's links:

• Only in Florida.



• They may take our lives, but they will never take OUR FREEDOM!



• Key entry in this story: "But they are worthy."

Friday is a good day.

I managed to leave work at a reasonable time today, which is a good thing. Unfortunately, I also seemed to have acquired a sore throat and some kind of swelling on my neck.

Maybe I have a goiter....

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The world is filled with news, none of it good.

The House of Saud lost it's king and now Saudi Arabia is in the hands of a new leader. Hopefully he remains a friend of the United States.

Yemen lost it's president and now it's in the hands of some group of rebels who may, or may not, be associated with al queda and who may, or may not, be planning to conduct the same level of genocide that may, or may not, be going on in Syria, Iraq and parts of Iran.

The Patriots have been accused of cheating because the league found they used under-inflated footballs during the AFC playoff. Whether they did it on purpose or not is meaningless because the one thing I've noticed about our modern media is that when it comes to certain things, like guns or the Patriots, once accused, always guilty.

A duck in Washington state has tested positive for the bird flue (H5N1) so at least now maybe the media might start yapping about something other than ebola.

It's going to snow tomorrow but not very much. Three to four inches at most, which, given the fact we live in New England, is nothing.

Our new governor has discovered that our old governor was lying to us about our state budget shortfall. This news should not really shock any of us because Deval Patrick is, as with most politicians, a shady little critter.

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Here today's links:

• "I like Horace, the little mystery pig. He's got round poops."



• Oh No! Now where am I going to buy my electrically-cooled neck supporter or my personalized portable putter?



• I'm betting meth was involved.



• Only in Walmart.



• People in Los Angeles are morons....



• Massachusetts is number ten on the list.

Still no time or energy for updates.

Who was the first person to eat a lobster? "Whoa. Look at the size of that bug. I bet that might be a real tasty critter if I can get past those pinchy things and that armor coating."

Who was the guy who decided haggis was a good idea? "Hey everybody, I got a great idea! Let's grind up some random internal organs, stuff them into a sheep stomach and eat it!"

Did the person who invented blood sausage think to themselves, "Well, here's the problem - the blood is too danged watery. I'll just mix it up with some leftover innards from that cow over there, stuff it into an intestine and fry it up on the fire!"

Don't ask me why I got to thinking about that stuff. Sometimes that kind of crap just pops into my head.

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Here are some mighty fine links:

• Only in a Walmart in Florida.



• Key phrase in this story: "...I was soaked in it from head to toe."



• Key phrase in this story: "I needed to tone it down."

No update, just links.

I don't really have a lot of time or energy to do updates lately so for the next few days or weeks, lets just go with links and move on, shall we?

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Speaking of links, try these:

• Why?



• My dog doesn't like the hard stuff. He just likes beer.



• Isn't Romantic Boulevard the name of a song from the 1970s?



• Pfffttt.... Rednecks....



• Key phrase in this story: "Guess he missed the day at criminal school where they talked about keeping a low profile."



• In New Zealand, they call these people "Blokes".

I wish I had something for you

I had a longer day than I anticipated.

That means you get nothing.

Sorry....

Last day of my three day weekend.

I'll be back to work tomorrow but at least it's only for four days.

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Once again, someone has accused the Patriots of cheating.

Seems that almost immediately after yesterdays game between the Colts and the Patriots, a TV station out in Indianapolis, WTHR, published a story that said,

"A source tells WTHR's Bob Kravits that the Patriots may have used under-inflated footballs..."

Now everyone is reporting that the NFL is investigating if the Patriots used under-inflated footballs.

Let's see if I got this straight: A television station out in Indianapolis sent a reporter to Foxborough to watch his local team get stomped badly by the Patriots. As soon as the game is over, and he realizes his team was just handed an embarrassing 45-7 loss, he claims the Patriots cheated.

Why am I not shocked.

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Here are today's links:

I've asked my youngest to get five of these for me.

• Key phrase in this story: "...the city has no legal obligation to change nature."



• Researchers: Contributing to the betterment of society or a complete waste of perfectly good oxygen. We report, you decide.



• This is one happy horse.



• Guys in action.

Day two of my three-day weekend.

What the hell???

I turn my back for one minute to go make some dinner and next thing I know, Aaron Rodgers is going home and Russell Wilson is going to the Superb owl. I was positive the Packers were going to win that game.

So it looks like Tom Brady and the Patriots will also be playing in the Superb owl this year and that news should make my brothers pretty damned happy. They are some serious Patriot fans.

I had a thought: I can't help but wonder if Peyton Manning isn't more than a little pissed off right now.

Oh, and where the hell did the Patriots find that running game they suddenly pulled out of their butt? That's the most I've seen Blount run all year. And whoever called the play where Nate Solder caught a pass and lumbered into the end zone deserves a raise.

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Here are a few links to click on:

• After much surfing, browsing and button mashing, The Daily News is pleased to announce that we have found him. Meet this episodes Brilliant Criminal Of The Decade.



• Kaleb Whitby is a very, very lucky guy.



• This made me laugh out loud.



• Key entry from our favorite police log: "3:49 p.m. A heated argument over a dead cat resulted in call to 911 and deputy mediation."

Day One of my three-day weekend

I like three-day weekends. All weekends should be three-day weekends.

If I'm ever elected President, that will be one of the first things I tell my staff to do - look into making the work week four days long and the weekend three days long.

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Check out these links:

• Um, okay....



• I just want to point out that Florida news outlets are now carrying stories from Pennsylvania. This is a mashing of my two favorite categories, "Only in Florida" and "Only in Pennsylvania"...

Not a long day but a busy one.

I did manage to "escape" at a decent hour today but I left some things undone that I might end up trying to complete this weekend. We'll have to see how I feel.

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I saw a great suggestion for those I-93 protesters. One comment to the article said,

"Next time, the cops should bring a few of those moving dollies or hand trucks. They can move the barrels, along with the protesters, over to the breakdown lane. Then put some of those concrete barriers up to protect the protesters and leave them there until after the evening rush hour is over."

I thought that was perfect. No one gets hurt, everyone makes it to work on time and the protesters get what they want which is to be chained to some barrels for the day.

There was another comment about urinating on them but I don't that that would effect. They are, after all, unwashed to begin with.

And has anyone ever seen an attractive protester? They are all fat, dirty and ugly. Not once have I ever seen an attractive protester.

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Here are today's links:

• Unique Johnson is a moron and he's lucky to still be alive.



• Presenting this episodes Brilliant Criminal of the Month.



• This still makes me laugh out loud.



• I can't do this. Can you do this? I can't do this....

Protesters are just people who need something to do.

If you have time to lock yourself to barrel filled with concrete and cause a massive traffic jam, you obviously have too much time on your hands and you need something to do.

I suggest that the court might want to sentence the people arrested for blocking traffic on I-93 this morning to serve 6 years in the military. Preferably the Army but the Marines will do if the Army won't take them.

During that 6 years of service, they will learn a trade and some discipline, they will get a haircut, they will learn to bathe properly and they might learn what it's like to be a member of our society.

Oh, and next time this happens, instead of spending hours cutting through concrete and handcuffs, the troopers should just cut off the protesters arms. I bet that only takes 5 minutes instead of an hour or two and the traffic jam will be averted.

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Here are some links you can visit:

• Key phrase in this story: "Matilda Bickers and Amy Pitts – which are either perfectly normal regular person names or really boring stripper names..."



• Here's your Naked Guy In The News story.



• Mom of the Year.



• Oops.

I miss being on vacation.

Fortunately we have a three-day weekend coming up.

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I don't understand the selfie thing.

I have never been a fan of letting people take my picture so there are very few pictures of me.

I really can't imagine taking pictures of myself and then posting those pictures out on social media.

I mean, what the hell is so great about this:

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Here are a couple of links that you might want to visit:

• Unusually Fat Trout would be a great name for 1960's Rock-A-Billy band.



• Here's something you probably didn't know until now.



• Jon Stewart is not happy. (Jump to about 4:40. Or watch the whole show. Your choice.)

Once again, not much to prattle on about.

It was an interesting day temperature-wise.

At 6:30 this morning, it was 24 degrees. At noon, it was 20 degrees and at 4:00, it was 18 degrees.

Kind of weird that when it's warmer at night than it is during the day...

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Here are some links:

• Only in Florida.



• Let me get this straight - They won't let us smoke cigarettes but this type of faddish bullsh!t is okay? I can only image what cocoa does to your lungs. You might as well snort sand.



• Seems to me there might be more important things to worry about....



• Totally justified....

Not much to blab about today.

The news was kind of quiet. Other than the Obama administration admitting that maybe they were a little arrogant and self-centered when they sent some low-level peon to France to participate in the unity rallies, there really is very little else to go on about.

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I would, however, like to bring up the wussification of our society.

Today, almost every school in the area canceled classes because of a 1/2 inch of snow and the possibility that maybe we might see some freezing rain and you never know, some idiot with little or no coordination might slip and hurt there precious little ass.

When I was a child, I remember the bus fishtailing down a hill on our way to school.

When I was a child, I remember standing at the bus stop, soaked through to the bone from the freezing rain because we were all too stupid to bring an umbrella.

When I was a child, I remember walking down Stony Hill Rd, across Boston Rd, to the Pines School because I had missed the bus.

What the hell happened to us that we cancel school because of a half inch of snow?

Wusses....

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Try these links:

• Presenting this episodes Brilliant Criminal of the Day.



• Of course they are....



• Key phrase in this story: "Tiffany Segule, who had gotten back in the bed, shot her husband in the chest through their closed bedroom door."



• I'm going to need more of an explanation as to how this is a sin.

Nice quiet day.

I spent my day trying to figure out how to make a linux server actually behave like a windows server and by jove, I think I might have actually gotten it to work.

I now have a rather large file share that I can use to backup my laptops.

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In today's football news, the Colts are not from Baltimore, they are from Indianapolis and they will play the Patriots next Sunday for the AFC Championship.

In other news, Peyton Manning will now be going back to managing his Papa John franchises and continuing his lucrative career in the television advertising business.

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Here are some links:

• I'm horrified by human drivers.



• Key entry from our favorite police log: "12:45 p.m. Men were overheard talking about helicopters and football during an accidental phone call to 911."



• You gotta love dogs.

Julian Edelman threw his first NFL touchdown pass today.

Football is not my game but I still watch it occasionally.

Today, I watched Julian Edelman, a quarterback from Kent State who became a wide receiver in the NFL, throw his very first pass while playing in a professional football game. That pass ended up being a touchdown and that touchdown resulted in the Patriots tying the score against the Ravens.

And speaking of the Ravens, I'm sorry, but in my world, the football team from Baltimore is called the Colts. The Raven is a short story by little Eddy Poe.

So anyways, thanks to Edelman's effort, along with the efforts of a few other guys, the Patriots will be playing in the AFC Conference Championship next weekend.

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Here are a few links:

• I'm sure the Pope will be impressed.



• Only in Florida.



• In other words, my taxes are going up.

Today was a slightly normal day.

The consultant left today, leaving us with a wealth of knowledge. We now also have more work to do in 2015 than we have time or people but that's okay.

That just means I will probably remain gainfully employed for another year or so.

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Here is a universal truth - We are all going to die one day.

The best we can hope for is to die of old age but sometimes it doesn't happen that way. My goal is to see to it that my death is not caused by some unwashed, cowardly, murderous thug screaming something about an imaginary diety while he machine-guns me and 19 of my close friends.

And for the record, I would like to point out that if the guy with the video camera had a rifle instead of camera, this whole thing might have ended differently for the defenseless cop lying on the sidewalk.

Just saying is all.

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Here are today's links:

• This was a typical story in the Springfield newspaper right up until the line: "A court-appointed defense lawyer said the 48 packets of heroin found on Fernando Rosado's were for his personal use."



• I don't know how he did it but if I ever figure it out.....



• If you do a google search for Kyrzbekistan, you eventually find this.



• It's only a matter of time before The Planet Of The Apes becomes a non-fiction documentary.

Another long day

This is the week that is going to kill me....

I got home at 7:15 last night and at 7:30 tonight. That works out to a couple of 13 hour days.

I don't like 13 hour days....

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Here is a link or two:

• If Chief Scott ever runs for office, not only will I vote for him, I'll actively campaign for him.



• Key entry from our favorite police log: "6:28 p.m. A rejected Christmas Tree was found and dragged off of the highway."

Long Day = Short Post

I spent a lot of time doing things for auditors today. That means I didn't spend any time doing the things I needed to do for my project.

I'm screwed tomorrow.....

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Here is a link or two:

• Here's your Naked Guy In The News story.



• Am I the only one that thinks "Jackie McBurnie" is a great nae for an arsonist...

Where is our cheap gasoline?

I keep seeing news stories about gas being below $2.00 a gallon yet the cheapest I can find it is $2.30. What is so special about our gasoline that it costs 15% more than other peoples gasoline?

We must have that special electro-astro-space-age-protecto gasoline that not only prevents tooth decay, it also makes you more attractive to the opposite sex and eliminates halitosis.

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Many things going on at work and one of them appears to be some kind of juggling act where I'm supposed to keep at least 10 things in the air at all times.

I'm not very good at it...

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Try these links:

• My dog only finds poop left by other dogs.



• When they put "Drunk" and "Irish" in the same sentence, is that considered profiling?



• Key phrase in this story: "...it was on a trailer that the thief simply attached to a truck and drove off with"



• Only in Florida.

Back to work.

Just so you know, I did not want to get up this morning and drag my raggedy a$$ into work.

No sir, not one bit.

And that's all I have to say about that.

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You might find these links to be interesting:

• Five days, two murders. And they wonder why people don't want to go into Springfield...



• Key phrase in this story: "...he allowed him to put on his pants first."



• I'm thinking that Mr. Anand J Bodas might be a little too tall for his blood supply.



• This one falls under two categories: Only in Florida and Naked Guy In the News.



• Key phrase in this story: "Duval can have his sneakers back after he pays $100."



• Key phrase in this story: "I don’t like the way she’s acting or what she’s doing."

Looks like Pat came through

Pat sent me an email indicating that I was right, he does save everything and as it just so happens, he has some memory that might work in that old PC I want to turn into a server.

It's good to have friends who are pack-rats.

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At noon, I decided that the local weather dweebs were lying to me and the snow was not going to melt on my driveway. Rather than have it all freeze solid tonight and make my life miserable tomorrow morning, I decided to clear it.

Man, that stuff was heavy. Thank goodness for The Beast.

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Other than that, my last day off before I return to work was very relaxing. Which is good because I've got a long week ahead of me.

A very long week...

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Here are some links for you to visit:

• Only in Florida.



• She stapled her mom?



• Key entry from our favorite police log: "10:10 p.m. A scuffle between two Hungry Horse women resulted in some severe biting and one severed finger."

And we have furniture

Several months ago, we decided it was time to replace our living room furniture. My wife spent that last several months agonizing on what to buy, which is okay with me because I never actually go into the living room. So for the last few months, our living room has been vacant of most furnishings.

Today the new furniture arrived and we once again have plenty of sitting room in our sitting room.

There is much joy.

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I'm going to build a server for our home network out of my mother-in-laws old computer.

I'm getting a little sick of not having appropriate backups of our stuff and I figure it's time for me to change that. The best way to do it is to establish a server with shared drive space that I can back things up to.

I'm going to try a linux distro called ClearOS that supposedly is lightweight (the operating system doesn't overwhelm the CPU) and has good disk sharing capabilities.

Before I can build the operating system, I need to find some memory.

The computer is at least 8 or 9 years old and they don't really make the type of RAM it needs. I'm sure I can find the right stuff at good old reliable NewEgg but I figured I'd start with good old reliable Pat.

Like me, he hates to throw anything away and has a bunch of old stuff lying around, some of which might meet my needs.

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Here are a few links:

• Better hope the girlfriend is telling the truth....



• Only in Florida.



• And what was he going to do with them? It's not like he can just sell them on the street corner.



• Key phrase in this story about rednecks: "...the parents decided to go to Bass Pro Shops to wait until the contractions got closer together."



• We live in an interesting world....

Last official day of vacation.

I managed to use all of my 2014 vacation time before the end of 2014. I always take the one floating holiday they give us as my first day off of the new year so today was my floater.

That means that on Monday, I go back to work and face an entire new years worth of work.

And not to sound like too much of a dweeb but I'm looking forward to my major project this year. It's a modernization of our current mainframe security facility and it'll take almost the entire year. When we're done, I'll be able to spend less time correcting problems caused by folks trying to use an antiquated system to secure a modern platform.

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This afternoon, my wife was shredding some old documents and made a bit of a mess. She got the vacuum out to clean up and this is what I saw when I walked past the stairs:

He's a wuss...

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Here are some links:

• Only in Florida.



• More and more of my childhood is disappearing.



• Only in Florida.



• Only in New York.



• This is why men should not be left alone with their children.

And so begins another year

I hope we all have a great year and everything goes our way.

Here's a list of things I wish for all of us for 2015:

1. Good health because being sick sucks.
2. Fresh breath because having stinky breath sucks.
3. A winning lottery ticket because being rich does not suck.
4. Comfortable shoes because sore feet suck.
5. An ample supply of toilet paper because running out at the wrong moment sucks.
6. An enjoyable job because working at something you hate sucks.

That's a pretty good list of things.

If you were to get any three of those things, you would being doing pretty damned well. If you get four of them, you would have nothing to complain about. If you get all six, call me, I need some money...

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You can click on these links:

• Springfield appears to be starting off the new year in it's usual manner.



• I know a lot of cops and trust me, none of them have the skills required to fix a video game network.



• Key entry from our favorite police log: "1:48 p.m. A Kalispell man received some weird mail."



• Only in Florida.



• Also only in Florida.



• And still only in Florida.