July 2007 Archives

When Craver Attacks

Almost 14 years ago, on my 18th birthday, I drove up from Long Island to Boston to start attending Boston University. When I arrived at my room in Warren Towers, one half of the room was already all set up. The most interesting thing I noticed was that the person who had done all this set up had Star Wars sheets on his bed. I have to admit, I was a bit concerned.

Later that same night, Craig, my new roommate, arrived back from the family event he had been attending all day. He seemed like a nice enough guy and at that point, we were stuck together, so might as well make the best of it.

We survived freshman year, not without its bumps, but came out as friends. The next year we lived next door to each other in Myles Standish Hall and without the pressure of being roommates, our friendship continued and we became even better friends.

We both left school after sophomore year and we drifted for a while. Eventually, we started hanging out here and there again while he was working at BU. A couple of years later, he joined me at Collective Technologies and we quickly became very good friends again and spent way too many nights drinking at Sissy K's :)

A few years back, he decided to move to Houston (why, I still do not know) and I took the car ride down with him to keep him company (and that was pretty much it, I think I drove about 2 hours of the whole journey :) We still keep in touch and talk on a regular basis, but it's been a while since we have seen each other.

Craig hit the state today and will be heading in to Boston to catch a Red Sox game and maybe have a pint or twelve tomorrow night. Can't wait to see him, as I said, it's been a while. I guess in the end, he is pretty much the oldest friend I have since coming to Boston, so it will be good to hang out and have some fun.

links for 2007-08-01

Rocco Deluca and The Burden

Go read my latest post over at Metroblogging Boston to see what I am up to on Friday (and so should you be)

The Police @ Fenway Park - 07.28.2007

I will start this off with an admission, I'm not really a Police fan. A buddy asked a couple of weeks ago if I would be interested in going and my answer was, if you can't find anyone else to go, sure. I went in to this show, expecting very little. Heck, I even bought The Police (a greatest hits compilation) the Sunday before the show (for my drive home from New York) just so I would know some material.

In the end, I realized I knew a lot more Police music than I thought I did. I think I knew about 14 of the 28 tracks on the 2 CD set, so I felt a little better after listening to it. Plus, I learned some music I didn't know, so I felt even more prepared to head to the show.

The day started off rather crappy. It was pouring pretty hard during most of the day, so I was not very hopeful to stay dry for the show. When I left to house to meet my friends, it was pouring as hard as I had seen it all day. While walking to the ferry, it slowed down a bit and by the time I got on the boat, it was just drizzling. When I disembarked, the rain had stopped and there was a big ball of fire in the sky. Things were looking better.

We got to Fenway and took a look at our seats. We were in the front row between Pesky's Pole and first base. We were basically a couple of feet away from the $250 seats, yet we had paid only $95 :) So, yes, awesome seats (thanks Brian!)

Fictionplane (Sting's son's band) opened the evening. They were ok. They won the most respect from me when they said something along the lines of, "We are like the 5th band to play Fenway Park and we totally don't deserve this". At least the were honest. They played a bunch of typical poppy rock songs. Nothing I am going to run out and buy, but I might see them over at The Paradise next time they come around for $10 :)

Around 8:20, with blue skies above, The Police hit the stage. They opened up with "Message In A Bottle". This surprised me. This is a huge hit and they are opening up with it. Well, I guess I kind of forgot, unlike a lot of old bands out on tour, The Police don't have a new CD to pimp, so it was greatest hits the whole night, so why not open up with one of the biggest?

For the next hour and 20 mins or so the band took everyone through a tour of some of their greatest hits, mostly songs that everyone could sing along with and just enjoy. They left the stage around 9:40 after an extended version of "Roxanne", to return just 2 minutes later with an encore of King of Pain, So Lonely, and Every Breathe You Take. They left the stage again and after a couple of mins came back out and finished the show off with a rockin version of Next To You.

As I said at the beginning, going in to this not being a big Police fan, I had very low expectations. Well, I was BLOWN AWAY. For a bunch of senior citizens (or at least soon to be) who haven't played together in almost 25 years, these guys sure put on quite a show. Most impressive of all to me was Stewart Copeland. I've heard great things about him as a drummer for a very long time, but seeing it live really reinforced that notion for me.

After the show, we just went home, as some of us had to get up at 5AM for Sunday morning maintenance windows (I swear, I love my job :) All in all, an awesome night and thankfully Mother Nature was in a good mood and kept the rain away while the band kicked everyone's ass.

Why Entourage Rules

"Old Johnny Boy is going to take you to a place even a one eyed leper can get laid .... Craigslist" - Johnny Drama

操業第4

Japanese Today!

So, my initial attempt at run number four was thwarted by thunder, lightning, and water falling from the sky this morning. I was a good kid and did my "off day" workout since I was unable to go and run.

When I got home this evening, it was no longer raining (though, it was grey and humid), so I got in my running clothes and left the house.

I did my 1.6ish mile run and ran almost all of it. Only slowed down to walk for a couple of blocks. After I got back to the house, I did two loops around the house, which bring the total up to about 2 miles. All in all, it was about 21 minutes of exercise. The best part of the walking around the house is that it really seem to help get me back to normal before I get in the house.

After I got in, I took a nice hot shower and made some dinner and now I am here resting and catching up some TiVo.

Next run will be on Wednesday morning.

I need drugs like this

So I am watching some TiVo and hit play to return to my show and hear the end of a commercial that strikes me as something odd to hear on a commercial, so I rewind and actually watch the commercial. Again, I hear the same thing, so I decide to write it down because I found it rather interesting.

Everyone has heard about Restless Leg Syndrome, one of these things that seems to be "all the rage" these days. Well, there is now a drug on the market called Mirapex. While talking about side effects they tell you to contact your doctor:

"If you experience increased gambling, sexual or other intense urges."

Gambling and Sexual urges are a side effect? I would say they should market it FOR those purposes :)

This article over at scifi.com says:

Kevin Smith will direct an episode of Heroes: Origins, the short-run spinoff series of NBC's popular Heroes, it was announced in a panel at Comic-Con International in San Diego, Calif., on July 28. Smith joined the cast and producers of Heroes on stage during a portion of a panel dedicated to the show. "This is going to be fun, and I'm very flattered, and it's quite an honor," he said.

This should be SUPER cool. Being a big fan of both Kevin Smith and Heroes makes this a perfect combination for me. Smith being a huge comic book fan should make this a great fit for him. We will probably see a very dialogue heavy and minimal special effects episode knowing Smith, but who knows?

Kevin seems to be taking TV by storm. Between this and directing the pilot of Reaper, he is going to have a lot on the tube this fall. I can't wait to see Reaper and am psyched that it got picked up, but hope that it will continue to be as good as the pilot is supposed to be without Smith at the helm. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

As always, if you are a fan of Kevin Smith, you really should be reading My Boring-Ass Life, Kevin's blog. He used to do daily posting of everything that was going on in his life, but has trimmed it down to more of an event based blog than anything else these days. And if you don't know how to (or just don't feel like reading), you can listen to Kevin and uber-producer Scott Mosier on SMODcast, their weekly podcast.

links for 2007-07-29

Courez Le Numéro Trois

Ok, I figure I should switch it up a bit with the titles, so today, I go with French :)

I went for my third run this morning. I took the same path I took on Thursday morning. This time I ran for about 80% of that distance (maybe even more) and still felt pretty good. Once I got back to the house, I actually did one loop around my building walking. So, all in all I did over 1.8 miles in about 18 1/2 mins.

I'm glad I am still keeping to the 10 minute mile pace and doing a little more. I'm not sure if it was the cool down walk or just that my body is getting better at this, but my recovery time was definitely a lot less this morning.

Overall, my body is reacting pretty well to this. My muscles definitely hurt a bunch, but I think that will improve over time. Considering most of them have not been worked out like this since gym class in high school, I am impressed that I am able to move, much less function normally :)

Since I am running every other day, I figured I needed to do something on the off days, so yesterday morning I started doing pushups and situps. I had a streak for a while of doing these most mornings a few months ago, but got out of it. I figure between those and the running, I should start to see some improvement soon.

The next step (though not an immediate one) is going to be to join a gym. The Constitution Inn down the block from my apartment has a gym and it's only $400/year to join. Since its a couple of blocks away, that may be a good one. The nice part is that they have day passes too, so I can go check it out a few times and see if its for me before I actually join up.

Lastly, I am thinking of maybe starting a sub-blog here, so people who don't care to, don't have to hear about my fitness stuff, but at the same time, its not like I have 1000s of readers clamoring for my words on other topics. So, who knows?

links for 2007-07-28

System Administrator Appreciation Day

Don't forget that today is System Administrator Appreciation Day. Go give your "computer guy" a hug, (s)he probably needs it :)

Run Number Two

This one is even more scary. I got out of bed this morning and went for a run.

I think I pushed myself too hard the first time (somewhat to attempt to prove a point), so I pulled back a little this morning and didn't go as far as I went on Tuesday. In the end I did just over 1.6 miles in about 16 minutes. So, still kept the 10 minute mile pace, but didn't push myself as hard.

On Tuesday's run, I did about a 60/40 ratio run to walk. Today I did more like a 75/25 if not more. I figure if I keep this distance for the next few runs, I should be able to run it 100% by early next week.

I mentioned this the other day, but the funniest part for me so far is that I am coughing like I started smoking again. I guess that's what happens when you start using parts of your lungs that have not been used in a REALLY long time.

OK, next run is on Saturday. I swear I will not try to turn this in to a blog about me running :)

She's right

My good friend vlvtjones and I (along with about 12 other people I know) share a birthday. She posted "Truism #34 this week..." today. She is 1000% correct that it is true.

Uncle Don

If you have been to a few concerts with me, you probably have met my good friend Don (aka Uncle Don, aka Tools). Well, he finally joined the blogging revolution a few months back and has been putting out some great stuff. So, if you know Don, or just want an other interesting blog about sports, music, etc to read, check him out at Tools' World.

links for 2007-07-26

Five and 2.5

So, today is 5 months since I had my last cigarette. I always said if I can go 6 months I will finally feel like I have really quit. One more month to go. Hardly even think about smoking these days, which is rather nice. Every once in a while I still want one though. Guess that will happen for a long time.

Quitting smoking was the first part of trying to get healthy. I have been getting better about eating and all that stuff, but the real scary part started yesterday. Yesterday evening, I went for a run. Yes, me, Skadz, went out to exercise :)

I did just under 2.5 miles in about 25 mins, which makes me feel pretty good that I should be able to ramp up on this pretty quick. I was really hoping to do 3 miles, but between not really eating well yesterday, and well, just not being in great shape, my body didn't let that happen. Hopefully I can crack 3 miles in the next week or so.

I definitely hurt for a while when I got home last night, but am sort of impressed with how I feel today, I really thought my body would be in total revolt, but I just have a little bit of aching in my legs.

The last piece of the whole thing is that I think using my lungs that much have caused them to dig deep and get the last of the smoking crap out. I coughed more since my run than I have in months. Hopefully this means my lungs will be good and cleaned out real soon now.

(And yes, I know I have been a slacker here, hopefully will be getting back in to the swing of it now)

links for 2007-07-19

links for 2007-07-18

links for 2007-07-16

links for 2007-07-15

links for 2007-07-13

links for 2007-07-12

links for 2007-07-11

links for 2007-07-10

links for 2007-07-09

links for 2007-07-08

links for 2007-07-06

links for 2007-07-02

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This page is an archive of entries from July 2007 listed from newest to oldest.

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