Really Cool Dude

This is the new site. The following paragraphs are provided again for informational purposes.

Expect all the links on the left to disappear in the next few days/weeks. As you may have noticed, some of the links on the left frame have already been removed. Once I get everything moved over to the new format, the entire left frame (the pretty blue boxes) will be gone forever!

Really looking at replacing my website with this format — we’ll see how it goes. Everything you were used to seeing with the links on the left are now over there on the right hand side. The links just to the left of this text will lead you to some articles, thoughts, or just general ramblings that I have written.

On this web site (is it a Blog? – Really not sold on that “term” yet), you’ll find photos that I’ve taken (or found elsewhere and wanted to share), beer info and recipes (I’ve been a homebrewer since 1978), motorcycle stuff (I ride [and love] a Triumph Bonneville), used to have a huge interest in bicycling (none of that has been moved over to this Blog, and besides, Mario Cipollini retired years ago), and of course – the Boston Redsox.

I found the software that runs this new section after I did a little (very little) searching on Google for some blogging software and found this – TextPattern. It seems to be pretty good and I am going to use to track all kinds of stuff for me….

Liverpool Logo Since I found out that John Henry and the rest of the owners purchased a Football Club (otherwise known as a soccer team to us Americans), I’ve developed a bit of an interest.

Last summer it was, I believe, the owners of New England Sport Ventures purchased Liverpool FC. I’ve been trying to follow them this fall and winter so far. Only thing is, football is quite a boring sport – it is a bit like watching paint dry. I’m hoping that, by having a team to “root” for, the sport will get a little more interesting as time goes on.

Of course, since I’m a Sox fan, ever since I started watching the game, it seems that Liverpool has lost most every time. They are winning today, 3 – 0 – let’s hope they can keep it up. Wonder what the equivalent of a 9th inning choke would be in football? More importantly though – I wonder what Premier League team is the equivalent of the New York Yankmees?

I’ll have to figure out how this league works, for example, how many games in a season (do they even have “seasons”?), how do the playoffs work, etc, etc, and etc.

If you want to help root for the Red Sox home Football team, you can find their website here – Liverpool FC.

A new feature, over on the left, below the links, an MP3 player to let you know what my mood is for the day….

Click on the red arrow (it will turn green when you hover over it), the player will start and the MP3 selection of the day will stream from my world to yours.

The Red Sox re-signed catcher Jason Varitek to a one-year, $2MM deal, tweets SI’s Jon Heyman. MLB.com’s Peter Gammons adds that the deal has $300K in incentives.

Varitek, 39 in April, will return for a 15th season in Boston. Last year, the Red Sox captain appeared in just 39 games and he’ll likely assume a backup role again in 2011, when Jarrod Saltalamacchia could become the regular Boston backstop.

Thanks in large part to a torrid start at the plate, Varitek finished the 2010 season with a strong .232/.293/.473 batting line. The former Silver Slugger winner belted seven homers in just 123 plate appearances, proving that he still has some pop.

Though Varitek struggled to limit opposing base stealers early in the season, he threw out nine of 43 would-be base stealers overall. That figure (21%) is below average, but significantly better than the 13% mark he posted in 2009.

How does Sears treat its employees who are called up for military duty? By law, they are required to hold their jobs open and available, but nothing more. Usually, people take a big pay cut and lose benefits as a result of being called up for active duty.

Sears is voluntarily paying the difference in salaries and maintaining all benefits, including medical insurance and bonus programs, for all called up reservist employees for up to two years.

I submit that Sears is an exemplary corporate citizen and should be recognized for its contribution. I suggest we all shop at Sears at least once, and be sure to find a manager to tell them why we are there so the company gets the positive reinforcement & feedback it well deserves.

A lot of articles like this one circulate the ‘net all the time nowadays… more often than not, they are made up. These articles can be verified at Snopes. This one is verified by me Here is the link.

Flamingos in the shape of ... well, a flamingoFlamingos can form themselves into flamingo shaped gatherings in order to warn other birds of what they are. Doesn’t that blow your mind?

Like, flamingos are aware of what they look like. Maybe the flamingos that survived are the ones that just happened to be able to form themselves into flamingo shaped gatherings. By doing so, they ward off other birds and thus accidentally select themselves for survival over the next lot of flamingos that happened to form themselves into the shape of a giant prawn, advertising the location of tasty filter feeding food.

Here’s a report on Abe’s oil — somewhere around 100,000 miles

Abe’s Oil

Not quite what I had hoped for, but still not bad at all. The lead is still high.

Oil Report #3

Been looking for awhile at the jack at Sears. Seems to be a decent jack, but the price was 100 – 120 bucks. Just a little more than I wanted to spend, on a whim. I knew I was going to buy it sooner or later….

Just leafing thru the sales flyers in the paper yesterday. Checker Auto had a jack for 59.99!!! Holy Cow, this has got to be made like crap, for that price. Went and checked it out… seems to be the same thing (almost, not exact, but quality is the same) as the jack at Sears. Bought, put it together, used it — VERY HAPPY with it and EXTREMELY PLEASED with the price!