Crossed Tracks

Apologies for the absence of TWiA over the weekend. What happened? I'm not really sure. It was going to be a light installment anyway, and I think that made my subconscious make me "forget" to post it.

Yesterday I was actually fairly busy almost from the time I got up; there was a lot to be done around the house, and outside of it as well—I spent about two and a half hours breaking ice and removing it from the front steps, the sidewalk, the driveway, and the walkway around the back of the house. Good exercise, actually, and it was a pretty nice day, but now my wrist hurts, of course.

There was weirdness on the way to work this morning too, though not the usual kind. The commute actually started well; the bus came more or less when it's supposed to, and traffic was normal so we were not delayed. When I got to the platform at Wellington, I started a conversation with a neighbor, and a train came in that was pretty well packed so we both decided to wait for the next one.

A few minutes later, as a train was coming in on the outbound side, the PA announced that it would be heading back into Boston. We looked at each other and said, "Seats!"

When I got to North Station I crossed the platform and waited a couple of minutes for an E train. But somewhere along the way, the E turned into a C, except I was pretty engrossed in my newspaper and so didn't notice this until the train was between Hynes and Kenmore. Rather than take the time to double back to Copley and cross the street to catch an E train, I decided to head upstairs at Kenmore and catch one of the buses that passes through the medical area. I had to wait about five minutes for a bus, but otherwise it worked out well, and I suppose I could consider this an alternate route to get to work if necessary.

Early Morning Surprises

The dog's been going through one of her phases where she needs to go out during the wee hours. We think she wakes up because she's cold, or hears a truck pass by outside (she's always been particularly sensitive to the sound of diesel engines, which goes back to her days being transported to and from the race track in a truck), and once she's awake she realizes she needs to go. Lucky us.

As I was pulling on some clothes at 5 am, making sure I dressed warmly enough, I could hear a low noise coming from outside, nearby, that sounded like some sort of engine. I figured this is what had awakened her.

When we got outside, I discovered that the source of the noise was a Bobcat shovel, being operated by the negligent neighbor I mentioned last week, to clear his sidewalk. (At 5 am; thanks for that, dude.) It only made me more angry, because HE HAS A FRIGGIN' BOBCAT (or at least has access to one), making it super easy (relative to the rest of us snow-schlepping schlubs) for him to clear the walks.

So what's the excuse for not doing it for the past three weeks? I know the guy hasn't been on vacation or anything, because I've seen him plowing after each storm, as the snow got higher and higher on the sidewalks in front of his house. People are such assholes.

Also, I never got back to sleep after I finished walking the dog. Not a great way to start the day.

Caffeine Deprived

I ran out of coffee yesterday. We weren't being good New Englanders and didn't make a pre-storm run to the grocery store. So this morning I had a bowl of instant oatmeal, and no coffee, before I left the house.

When I headed outside to the bus stop, I couldn't find my paper. Things have been a little iffy lately regarding the paper delivery, with the weather and all, so I wasn't completely surprised. But it meant that I had nothing to read on the way to work, and no time to go back in the house to get something.

A couple of stops before I needed to get off the train, I realized that I had nodded off for a few seconds. And then I remembered that I hadn't had any coffee yet. What a strange feeling. I have certainly gone into that groggy zone on the way home from work on a few occasions, but never before even arriving at work.

We are now restocked with coffee and other essentials, just in case.

Frozen Slush

We were told on Tuesday not to go into work today. I think that's the third time this winter. It turned out not to be such a big deal, at least compared to some of the other storms we've had this year. But the forecasts indicated that this one was going to be somewhat unpredictable, due to fluctuating temperatures. The Mrs. got up at 6:30, took the dog out, came back and said it wasn't doing anything outside, and that she was going to work.

I shoveled Tuesday night from the snow that fell that day, because I didn't want it to get trapped under a layer of ice. Today I went outside at around 3:30 pm to assess the situation. The temperature was in the mid-30s for much of the day, but by the time I went out it had dropped back to about 25, so there was an inch or so of frozen slush covering all the areas I'd shoveled clear the night before.

Not only was the slush heavy, but it stuck to the shovel, even the metal one, making for slow going. I was able to clear everything except the sidewalk in front of the house, which had already frozen solid, but was not slippery because the surface was rough from foot traffic. But I bet it will be slick by tomorrow.

I finished clearing the plow-spill from the bottom of the driveway just before the Mrs. arrived home. If we get a decent day soon where it warms up a bit, I can hopefully clear the front walk.

Update: I just took the dog out for last call, and there's a thin frosting of snow on everything; it must have fallen after I came inside. (The forecasts I saw actually predicted the storm would end this way, so give them credit for getting one right.) This may be for the best, as this top layer of snow may provide a little traction tomorrow morning.

Ten Years After

Today marks the day ten years ago when I was laid off from my job at an e-commerce company. Why would I even bother to remember this? I guess the fact that it happened on the first day of the month makes it somewhat easier to remember without really meaning or trying to. At that point I had been employed there for about two and a half years.

What I mainly remember was that the layoffs (four or five others besides me) came as quite a surprise. We were all under the impression that the company was doing well, and it was, but it was not yet at the point where it was self-sustainable, and after the dot-com bubble burst in the second half of 2000, it was much more difficult for fledgling companies to secure that crucial next round of funding.

Working there was a big deal for me because it was the job that got me out of the hell of retail work where I'd been for the previous decade. There are people who enjoy working in retail and are really good at it, and then there are the rest of us, who ended up there because we couldn't land any other sort of job. In my case it had dragged on way too long, and I was stuck. But my retail employer was one of the first clients of the e-commerce company, and I was chosen to be their point of contact.

I didn't wait long before letting them know, very unambiguously, that I wanted to work for them, and then it happened—they asked me to work for them. I'd never pursued a job that way, and gotten it. At first I worked as a freelancer while I still had the other job, but after a couple of months the other job was eliminated, and a couple of months after that the e-commerce folks offered me a full-time contract position.

I came into things relatively early: the office was still in the basement of the founder's home. When I started I was creating new products in the database and assisting with customer service. But within a few months things were moving along well enough that they needed to hire more people, and in order to do that they had to find a real office. I finally felt like I was where I was supposed to be, doing what I was supposed to do.

Things happened very quickly after that. A year after starting as a contractor, I was hired as a full employee. Later that year we ran out of office space, and my department was sent "offshore" to a temporary space while the company waited for new office space to be completed in a building around the corner. When we finally moved back to the mother ship, we were only there for about three months before the first layoffs happened. The company hung on for one more year before ceasing operations.

I was convinced that I would never again find a comparable job. I now had some relevant experience; I just had to find a situation where it would be useful, and there weren't many of those. After exhausting unemployment, I ended up having to return to retail work, but only for nine months. A placement agency found me a position that seemed like it was made for me. The commute was terrible, but it was a good job, and it paid even better than the other one.

I was at that company for two years. During that time we were sold, and our new owners then merged with another company that ended up being in control and moved our operation to North Carolina. Laid off again, I was forced to return to retail yet again, but this time I was also able to get temporary part-time work through the agency that had placed me at the previous job.

These temp gigs led directly to the job I have today: I was placed here on an indefinite assignment five years ago, which allowed me to quit that final retail job, and seventeen months after that I was hired permanently.

When I look at the ups and downs of my last decade of working life, it almost seems like there was planning and design involved. The truth is that it was far more random, but things do happen for a reason, and I'm certain that had I not been laid off ten years ago, I would not be in this job today. Also, I probably would not have met the Proper Bostonian, who became a good friend.

Planning Behind

Even though I've had a smartphone for a year, I don't tend to use the calendar function much. I mean, I use it sometimes when I need to look at a visual representation of a calendar and I'm not at home or at the office (where they are conveniently hung on the wall). But I don't use it to keep track of appointments and important dates. I just prefer to write things down, I think because it gives me a better chance of remembering them.

For the past several years I have been using a Moleskine combination planner book/notebook. These come in several variations; I prefer the kind that shows the week vertically on the left pages, and has ruled lines on the right pages to make notes about whatever I want. For example, this is how I keep track of my online bill payments each month, just as a kind of backup to the confirmation emails.

This year, I didn't remember that I needed a new book until I came back to work on January 3rd. Last year I think I bought one at Porter Square Books, but I haven't been over that way in some time, and it's way out of the way for me to go there after work. I kept meaning to stop by the Barnes & Noble in the Prudential Center, which is more or less on my way home, but with the ridiculous weather and the days I haven't even come into the office and the days I've had to head home from work early to take care of the dog, it just kept slipping back on the priority list.

I finally made it there one night last week, and of course I was way too late: anything calendar-related that remained in the store was marked down to at least half-price and piled on a small table, but there was very little left in general. Moleskine doesn't seem to sell its products directly online, but I figured other places must. A little searching got me to the Barnes & Noble online store, where I hadn't visited in several years. Not only did they still have the notebook I wanted in stock, but it was still half-price. A couple of CDs I'd been wanting to get (yeah, I still buy CDs) got me over the free-shipping threshold.

At this point, a month into the year, I would have preferred to find this item in a local store, but then what's a few more days to wait until it arrives?

This Week in Awesome (1/29/11)

Wow, yesterday just completely disappeared down some rabbit hole. Got up, had a crappy commute, worked, had another crappy commute, sat down in front of the TV with some food and a beer to unwind. But now it's Saturday, which means it's time for your regular weekend dose of awesome...

This is a bit late, but it just came to my attention: the 50 most loathsome people of 2010. Naturally, some of them are political, but some are not. (Buffalo Beast via Unlikely Words)

Infographic time: a map of the United States showing what each state is worst in. (Pleated Jeans via The Hairpin)

This one isn't so much awesome as, well, I feel bad for you if you're in a situation where you need this sort of thing. And I feel compelled to point out that, with only three tumblers, there are only 1000 possible combinations, so it wouldn't really take that long for the person you are theoretically protecting your precious ice cream from to run through all of them. Just saying.

I hope you are familiar with the 1968 Steve McQueen movie Bullitt, which contains what many people feel is the greatest car chase ever put on film. (I concur, though I think the final chase in Ronin comes pretty close.) This is an excellent interview with the man who did the stunt driving for McQueen in the movie, with plenty of accompanying photos and video clips. (JazzWax via Jalopnik)

A Thought

So after looking at those pictures, do you think we should do some sort of pool for when the snow will be gone from around my house?

Drifts and Piles

Gee, more snow. Quite a bit more, in fact—this storm left about ten inches. As a result, the drifts in front of our house are getting kind of high. Today, after I finished shoveling, I got my camera and took a few pictures:

Here's the big pile at the corner of our driveway, with a secondary pile visible behind it. These are mainly from clearing the driveway and the sidewalk, plus what gets tossed in by the plows that has to be removed. (We live on what the city considers a key artery, so we never have to worry about the street being plowed, but the flip side of that is the excess that comes in whenever a plow passes.)

The pile in front is now about as tall as me, so six feet high. After the first big storm in December, I had a cleared space from the sidewalk in front of the steps out to the street (that dip in the middle to the right of the tree), but it got plowed in so many times I lost the will to keep it clear.

Here's the pile on the other side of the driveway. Technically this is in front of our neighbor's house, but he doesn't mind me throwing it there.

The driveway is long enough to hold four cars, but we have only the one, so we don't bother clearing the whole thing, because, hell, I'd still be out there. This leaves enough room for a second car to park behind ours, and a wide enough walkway for one of us and the dog.

This is the walkway on the opposite side of the house. Normally I do two shovel widths, but one was all I could handle today. This tends to turn into solid ice (from melting snow dripping off the roof) soon after a storm, so we tend to not use it until there's a thaw.

And this is the house of a neighbor that I have to pass each morning on the way to the bus stop. He owns a truck with a plow, and he usually uses it to plow the sidewalk after storms. This is less than ideal, since he can't clear around the pole with the plow and I guess he's too lazy to get out of his truck and use a shovel, but it's better than nothing. After the storm two weeks ago he didn't plow, so I've gotten to enjoy walking in the street each morning. Today it looks like he actually plowed snow from the street onto the sidewalk, making it worse, which makes no sense. I may have to send this picture to the city.

Bargain Alert: Extra Discounts on Clearance

I probably should have mentioned this sooner, but Lands' End Canvas is offering an additional 40% off everything in their sale section, through tonight. J. Crew has a similar offer (also ending tonight), but their stock is quite picked over, and their prices were significantly higher to start.

As far as LEC, it's mostly fall stuff, with a few things from last summer as well, and all of it has already been marked down substantially. To give you an idea, I got a flannel shirt for $10, a pair of chinos for $10, a pair of shorts for $10, and a polo shirt for $6. Crazy, huh?

And buying things to wear in the summer makes me feel just a tiny bit warmer inside in the face of this nasty winter.

Strange Noises Unit

Every day, at around 12:25 pm, we hear a strange noise at work. It's kind of a cross between a howl and a siren, and it lasts for two or three seconds. It sounds to me like it's coming from the office on the other side of the wall from where I now sit, but one of my coworkers who sits nearby says that she was outside one day at that time and heard it very plainly, so she believes it originates from somewhere outside our building.

It's all very odd. I'm old enough to recall hearing a civil defense siren go off each evening at 6 pm in the city where I grew up, but that lasted for 15 seconds or so. We have not been able to come up with any credible ideas as to what the source of the sound might be, or any businesses nearby in Brigham Circle that would have reason to sound off in such a way. We'll figure it out eventually, but it's going to take some time.

The Heavy-Duty Gear

Well, winter has gotten serious. It's been a while since we've had temps below zero (2005, according to the news); it was -1 when I got up this morning, and actually went down a degree before I'd left the house, however that can be.

[I have a coworker who is a native of Minnesota, so of course she scoffs at the somewhat overblown reaction to this; to her, this is normal winter weather.]

Being a public-transit commuter means you have to be prepared to stand outside in weather like this. In the past I've mentioned my flannel-lined pants and jeans and my insulated boots, but a morning like this one calls for something with a bit more cold-fighting power. I headed down to the basement and broke out the black Eddie Bauer down parka that I've had for more than 15 years.

I purchased this coat in the winter of 1994-95, when there was still an EB retail store on Boylston Street, across from where the Borders and "Filene's Basement" (this will always appear in quotes until such time as the real Basement reopens, if that ever happens) are now.

At the time I was still working as a book buyer in the gift shop of a local cultural institution, but I had a second part-time job at the Huntington Theatre on the front-of-house staff, which had a jacket-and-tie dress code. I needed a coat that I could wear over a a sport jacket in very cold weather; at the time I owned a trench coat, but it was woefully inadequate below about 30 degrees, plus whatever substance was used as a lining between the outer and inner layers of fabric made a crinkling noise when I wore it out in the cold, so it had to go.

I have no idea how I became aware of this coat, but it was probably from stopping in the store to browse. I do remember that it went on sale in January, for about 1/3 off its original price of $200. I liked its appearance because the horizontal, tubular down chambers (I think they're called baffles) were not visible from the outside of the coat; the exterior is plain, smooth fabric without the visible seams common to down outerwear that I've always disliked so much.

At the time I was earning around $20K a year from my main job, so the primary reason I was working a second job was to accelerate paying off my student loans, and I was diligently dedicating all the money I earned from it to that purpose. But we also received tips from the theater's concessions and coat check, which we divided after each show among those of us who worked that shift.

I quickly realized that if I held onto the tips I received, instead of just adding them into my pocket after each shift, I could accrue enough over the course of a show's run (I was working an average of three shifts a week for the four or five weeks each show ran) to buy myself a present, so to speak, something that I might otherwise not be in a position to buy. And tips were better during the winter, because of the coat check, so that's how I paid for the coat.

Over the years I have needed it only occasionally; in fact, it's just too warm to wear most of the time. It only really makes sense to wear when the temperature drops below about 15 and the wind cranks up, otherwise it's just too warm. It has a hood; I hate hoods, but considering the parameters of its usefulness, having a hood is actually quite appreciated when I need to wear it. And the hood warps around in front into a chin piece, which adds a little extra wind protection for my lower face.

A couple of winters ago I was going through my clothes and considered donating the coat to a shelter. But then we have a day like this one, and I'm really glad I still have it.

This Week in Awesome (1/22/11)

This winter's getting a little nuts. We're supposed to get another big storm next week. I wouldn't mind it quite so much if the assholes in my neighborhood would clear their fucking sidewalks. But I digress...

Thursday was the 50th anniversary of John Kennedy's inauguration, and it got a fair amount of media coverage. Some time back, at least a year ago, I listened to Kennedy's inauguration speech on the Kennedy Library web site and found it quite moving. It's inspirational, of course, as we all know, but it's also a serious and sober assessment of the state of the world at the time, with the threat of atomic weapons hanging over everyday life. Now the library has the video of the speech available, and I highly recommend taking 15 minutes or so and watching it.

We haven't shared a time-lapse video in a while; this one of New York is beautiful and well done. (Vimeo)

This video spoofing both Jersey Shore and LA's particular flavor or hipsterdom got by me when it was released, but it's worth a look. (Funny or Die)

Serious geekery: you can now get a Hot Wheels car with a camera built into it, so you can do track-view videos. (Dvice via Jalopnik)

And finally, did you hear about all those organized crime arrests this week? The Village Voice has done us all the great service of compiling a list of 20 of the arrestees and their nicknames. My personal favorite? "Vinny Carwash." (Kempt)

Intended for Mature Audiences

Last year I mentioned (scroll down to the last few paragraphs of that post) that the British spy show Spooks (known in this country as MI-5) was airing on Boston PBS station WGBH. I watched the first four seasons several years back when they aired on A&E, and five more have aired in the UK since that time. (Season 9 aired in the fall of 2010, and the BBC has announced a tenth season for later this year.)

I wanted to get back into the show but since it had been four years, I thought it would be a good idea to watch those episodes again (I remembered that season 4 ended with a cliffhanger). Additionally, WGBH was promising to show the complete, full-length episodes as they had aired in the UK (the A&E broadcasts had been edited to allow for commercials), so I started recording them.

Because of WGBH's inconsistent scheduling (the show would disappear off the schedule for a month at a time during fundraising periods), I soon grew frustrated and switched to Netflix, which has most episodes of the show available for streaming. For whatever obscure reason that likely has something to do with international rights, seasons 5 and 8 are available from Netflix only on DVD, so I switched back to the physical discs to get through season 5.

During my holiday break, I finished season 5 and jumped back to watching seasons 6 and 7 via streaming. I happened to look at the WGBH web site during this time to see if they were still airing the show, and if so, where they were in the series. In a bit of luck, season 8 was scheduled to begin airing on Friday nights starting in January, so I added it back into my TiVo's to-do list. (Of course, I could go back to Netflix and get the discs to finish season 8 if I want to, and not have to wait for the episodes to air.)

While I feel that the show isn't quite as compelling now as in its earlier seasons, and at times has even become somewhat predictable, it's still fairly entertaining, and its plots are often just a few millimeters off from the realm of events that could actually happen. But I have noticed one curious thing about WGBH's broadcasts.

When I was a young and highly impressionable lad in the 1970s, PBS had the reputation of being somewhat freer with broadcast standards than the big networks. At about age 11 I was introduced to the glory of Monty Python's Flying Circus (airing on WGBH), and although I didn't understand some of the cultural and historical references or know all of the British slang, I stuck around because topless women occasionally appeared, and as a bonus I witnessed some of the greatest sketch comedy ever performed.

I'm not sure exactly when PBS (or maybe it's just WBGH) got timid (maybe something to do with their corporate sponsors?), but I was both amused and annoyed to find that the occasional sprinklings of curse words uttered by characters on MI-5 were being edited out. It's particularly jarring, because the entire audio track drops out for a moment, which takes you out of the show. I'm sure the BBC never bothered to get the actors to record alternate dialogue lines (as The Sopranos did, foreseeing possible syndication) because it never would have occurred to them that such a prudish step was necessary.

Frankly, it isn't. The show airs at 10 pm on Fridays; there's no reason WGBH can't air these episodes without editing out the (very) few salty words, with a warning disclaimer before the broadcasts. There's plenty of the same sort of language being used on shows on AMC, TNT, FX, and other cable channels, which are not subject to FCC restrictions but still have to answer to advertisers. This nannying business worries me; we grown-ups need to be able to make our own decisions about such things. If you're uncomfortable with a show's language or thematic content, don't watch, and don't let your kids watch.

Thank goodness MPFC has been preserved on DVD, because it certainly wouldn't be aired in its original form today.

Easy Friday

I was concerned about how this morning's trek into work would go, but I think a lot of people chose to stay home preemptively, because the roads and the T were a lot less crowded than usual. Today ended up being my easiest morning commute of this week. And as an added bonus, the office is nearly empty; I think there are four other people here, besides me.

The Black House

A slow news day, as they say (do "they" still say that?), and I was trying to come up with something semi-worthwhile to post when I remembered this photo I took about three months ago (for the purpose of posting here) of a house that isn't exactly in our immediate neighborhood, but is one we drive past once a week or so:

This house is painted black, which is not a color choice you typically see on dwellings. Why? Well, just look at it. It looks wrong, like it's made of antimatter or something, like all sorts of nefarious things go on inside. (Actually, if you were going to do nefarious things, you'd probably want your house to look as normal as possible from the outside, so as not to draw undue attention.)

Whenever we go past this house, I can't help but think, Who would paint their house black? Was there any particular reason you did it? Are you going to murder me for looking at your house? That sort of thing.

And what's with that white awning? Why isn't that black? I mean, you went so far as to paint the window frames and other trim black too. I'm also a tiny bit surprised their minivan isn't black.

It Wasn't Broken

I've mentioned many times that I like to tune into New England Cable News in the morning while getting ready to leave the house. I got the information I needed, and I liked the format: pretty straightforward news and information, minimal fluff, occasional humor (especially during Scott Montminy's traffic reports).

So of course I was dismayed when I read last week that NECN was revamping its morning show to be more like the national shows. I think this is a terrible idea; I've never watched Today or Good Morning America or... whatever that perennial third-place show on CBS is called, precisely because I don't care for the chatty, pseudo-living-room atmosphere.

The new NECN morning show, oh-so-imaginatively titled The Morning Show (right there, a clear indication of forthcoming vapidity), debuted this past Monday. I was up at 8 that morning, but since it was a holiday I didn't bother turning on the TV, so I checked it out yesterday and today. Two new hosts have displaced the former morning anchors, and just like the big shows they've brought in a third person (a current NECN anchor) to run through the news stories before tossing back to the hosts for fluffy time.

Now, the thing about my morning routine is, I don't really have the time to sit around and watch TV, so I'm generally just listening to it, often from the adjacent room, while I go about getting ready. Even without having to look at it, I already hate this show, its hosts, and its format so much I won't bother to tune in anymore. Maybe, maybe if they'd kept Mike Nikitas and Karen Swensen around to ease viewers into the idea of the new format, it wouldn't be quite so bad. But the new hosts are just phony, synthetic talking heads, and even though the basic outline of the content is the same, the way it's presented makes it intolerable to me.

I'm disgusted, but more than that, I'm disappointed. I considered NECN the last bastion of real news around here, and I'm worried that the rest of the channel's programming is going to drift away from that foundation. This is pretty much how I felt when channel 7 took over the 10 pm news on channel 56 a few years back: thanks for nothing, NECN, you ruined something that didn't need meddling with.

I guess I'll just listen to the radio in the mornings.

Lil

I realized this afternoon that today used to be my grandmother's birthday. She passed away 15 years ago at age 90, and I probably haven't thought of her as often as I should have in the years since, but I saw "January 18" on something, and she just popped into my head.

I lost my other three grandparents in the space of about two and a half years; I was not quite six when my father's father died in 1969, and then my mother's parents died in 1970 and 1972, so my dad's mother was the only grandparent I had in my life for most of my life, and she was a significant presence in that respect.

She was born in the Bronx in 1906 to Italian immigrants, one of 14 children. I believe there were two sets of twins in there, and a couple of her siblings didn't made it to adulthood, childhood illness being somewhat more common a century ago.

She never learned to drive, so we had that in common. I was the oldest grandchild, and though she never said so, I always kind of felt like I was her favorite. When I was a kid, she used to take me on the bus with her to go shopping in downtown Providence ("downcity," as Rhode Islanders still say). You could say that she's a big part of the reason I like to shop so much.

Her name was Adeline, but somewhere along the way she acquired the nickname Lil. I was never sure of the reason for that. It might have had something to do with one of her siblings; several of them had one given name but were known by different names.

Lil was fiercely loyal to her family, but there was, to me, always a sadness about her. She never got over losing her husband. She didn't live to see me get married, but she met the Mrs. several times.

In one other bit of family trivia, her husband's birthday was the day after hers. She used to tell him, "I get the cake and you get what's left over."

Laundry Day

Yesterday was a day off for me, but my laundry pile had reached crisis proportions, so I spent most of the day doing laundry, and dutifully folding and putting away that laundry (really the more difficult part of the task to execute), and catching up on a few other miscellaneous tasks lingering from our pest control adventures last month. I apologize for not having anything fresh to post; my mind was elsewhere.

This Week in Awesome (1/15/11)

How's your weekend? These selections should provide some entertainment.

This guy's mishap while attempting to bring back streaking demonstrates the benefits of being familiar with your surroundings. (Various internet outlets)

Has the Snuggie trend jumped the shark? This garment, called Forever Lazy (seriously), suggests it has. In an uncanny parallel to human evolution, it's a Snuggie that has grown legs. Wait a minute--that's not evolution, that's just an adult onesie with feet.

A belt buckle that folds down to hold your beer? Brilliant idea, but I still have an aversion to oversize belt buckles. (Los Angeles Times All The Rage blog)

This clip demonstrates that German drivers are about as capable of navigating a rotary as Massholes. I'm not a traffic engineer, but filling in the middle of the circle with some sort of obstacle might dissuade drivers from driving through it instead of around it. (The Daily What via Gawker TV)

And finally this week, a police car dashboard-cam video with a difference. Nothing made me laugh more this week. I'm not sure if that says more about me or the subject of the video. (Videogum)

Friday Madness

Well, I had a fun commute home today. Guess I was due for some T travail. You may have heard about the tunnel fire this afternoon (cranky grammarian note: I have no idea why Chinatown is spelled as two words in that story).

I left work early and was on my way home to tend to the dog because the Mrs. couldn't get away from work at her usual time. Everything was going smoothly, and I was on pace to make the 5:00 bus out of Wellington when my Orange Line train stopped at Back Bay and never left. The operator announced that the train was being held "by master control." That probably should have tipped me off that something was up. A few minutes later we learned that the delay was due to a fire in the tunnel.

Shortly after, the operator said that there was no Orange Line service in either direction between North Station and Back Bay, and started instructing people about alternate routes, like taking the 39 bus to get to Forest Hills. I had to laugh when she said to use the commuter rail to get to North Station, because the rail lines that go through Back Bay go into South Station, so there were kind of a few steps missing in that suggestion. I figured I would just stay put and wait for the trains to start moving again.

After about 20 minutes, I overheard a T police officer make a comment (to one person, not a general announcement) suggesting that it might be another 30 or 40 minutes before the trains were moving again. Had the operator announced that time frame earlier on, instead of just repeating the same instructions over and over in the same monotone, I might have changed my mind about waiting around.

I left Back Bay station and walked to Copley, where I joined approximately 75,000 other commuters trying to take the Green Line due to the Orange Line delay. Surprisingly, I was able to get onto maybe the third train to come through that was going to North Station. It was packed and overheated, but people seemed to be in good humor about the whole thing.

[Side note: wouldn't you think that after a century or so of the subway's existence, people would not have to be told to let passengers off the train before trying to board? Just saying.]

Eventually I made it to North Station, where I joined approximately 200,000 other commuters trying to get onto the now-restored Orange Line service. This scene was several orders of magnitude more chaotic; the northbound platform was so crowded that people were lined up on the steps waiting to get down onto it, and the line snaked all the way up to the mezzanine level.

I watched at least 25 people walk across from Green Line trains and try to head down the up escalator that comes up from the platform below. Maybe they thought the escalator would have been shut off to make getting down to the platform easier? (Come to think of it, that might have been a good idea.) I stayed off to one side and waited until a couple of trains had come through, and enough room had opened on the platform to allow people to move down onto it.

After that, there was a 10-minute wait for the next train, and of course I could not get on it. Another one followed shortly after, and there was enough room on that one. I made it to Wellington just in time to watch the 6:00 bus pull away. But hey, it's only 20 minutes between buses, as long as they're running on time and aren't delayed by traffic at Wellington Circle, or iffy winter road conditions.

Just another ordinary day on the T.

In case you're wondering, the next bus did show up when it was supposed to.

The "Rules": How I Break Them

When I go back to work on the day after a big snowstorm, I like to dress down a little more than I otherwise would (especially if the storm has kept me home the previous day). I guess it's my way of pretending that I'm sitting around at home drinking cocoa instead of getting back to work, or something. But it does represent the only time I allow myself to break my own rule about what's appropriate to wear to work.

It's not like there's any specific dress code in my office; it's just my own personal code and beliefs. I got to thinking about this a little more the other day when I saw the post over at Put This On about breaking the rules and conventions of style. Since I don't go to work in a suit, or even in what would generally be considered business attire, I don't really have to be concerned with the rules (though I am generally familiar with them, by and large). In my situation, it's more like "what conventions of adult male dress don't apply to me?" or "which ones do I choose not to concern myself with?"

Probably the biggest one of these, at least as far as most men would be concerned, is that I don't wear navy blue. Ever. I just don't like the color, it does nothing for my appearance, and I get by fine without it. (I feel the same way about yellow.) This isn't something that I arrived at overnight, and it's not recent. The last time I can recall owning a navy blazer is when I was a senior in college, some 25 years ago. During the course of that year, I experienced a major shift in my tastes and style in clothing, and I gradually replaced the navy items in my wardrobe with black and, later, dark gray.

I don't miss having navy sweaters or pants or socks; in a situation where a man would typically wear a navy blazer, I would and do substitute a patterned sportcoat, like a herringbone tweed. Not everyone would be okay with this, which is completely understandable; a navy blazer is considered one of the foundation pieces of a man's wardrobe, but it simply doesn't work for me. I don't care much for light blue shirts, either; I have one, but it's an end-on-end fabric so there's a bit of visual texture to it. I like blue just fine, but I prefer my blues to be bright or deep, without approaching navy.

(By the way, denim doesn't count in the "no navy" thing, because it's a combination of dyed and white threads, and because there are so many shades of blue denim.)

I don't especially care for sport jackets with patch pockets either. In certain instances, like on some styles of tweed jackets, they make sense, but I just don't like how they look. Plus there's still the whole Miami Vice thing, one of the blackest marks on our collective male fashion consciousness. One word: espadrilles. Espadrilles. On MEN? I had a girlfriend at the time who thought it was hilarious—she used to taunt me, "Are you sure you don't want some espadrilles?"

Elsewhere in footwear, I have no interest in desert boots, monk straps, wingtips, Bean boots, or tassel loafers. All of these are considered staples, maybe even classics, and all of them are newly returned to popularity, but none of them are shoes I want to wear, mainly for aesthetic reasons. And that's fine, because there are plenty of other shoe styles I do want to wear.

I don't like wearing my jeans cuffed, and I can't stand the high-water look. I see guys wearing it and I think, How could you not know your own pants size? and Aren't your ankles cold? I can't respect anyone whose pants end two inches above his shoes, because I just think he looks like a clown.

My real point is this: what works for me may not work for you, and vice versa. Figure out what works for you, and put aside what doesn't.

Vertical Snow

I'm about to head outside and start clearing the snow. Just spotted this on the back porch, thought it was kind of cool:

Collected snow in the porch railing slats, with help from the wind. Not sure how much is on the ground, difficult to tell from inside.

Snow Day Ahead

Word came through right around lunch time that we should not come into work tomorrow due to the impending snowstorm. I was already planning on making it a work-at-home day, but it's nice for it to be made official.

Spending My Christmas Cash

While we were visiting my family for Christmas, my sister mentioned that she thought I should ease back on the shopping stuff I talk about here. I understood what she was saying, and I probably should have explained to her that a significant portion of my weekly visitors are folks who find their way to me via the link graciously posted on The Choosy Beggar.

While style and shopping are not the only topics I choose to write about, I feel I should be providing a certain amount of content that will (hopefully) be of interest to those visitors. Besides, style and shopping are things I care about and spend a lot of time thinking about and doing, but I can also appreciate the idea of trying to maintain some balance.

With that bit of housekeeping out of the way, you may have noticed that I haven't really had much to say about shopping and clothes and stuff during the past couple of weeks. In fact, I had been trying not to shop, even in the midst of all the post-holiday sales going on. I guess I'm just trying to approach the new year with a bit more restraint, but I knew that I would end up doing some shopping eventually.

My parents typically give us money for Christmas, and we usually deposit it into our joint account until we figure out something to use it toward. This year we decided to split it up and use it on ourselves individually. On Saturday we set out for South Shore Plaza, where we hadn't been for several years—I think it's possible that the last time I was there, the Filene's was still open.

We had a couple of reasons for choosing to go to that mall in particular. For one, my brother and sister gave us a Back Bay Restaurant Group gift card for Christmas, and there's a Joe's Bar and Grill in the mall, so we knew we could eat when we were finished shopping. I also wanted to visit the Sterlingwear store, which I had recently learned about from an ad that ran on NECN in December.

Sterlingwear is an apparel manufacturer located in East Boston--yes, that's right, actual garment making going on right within the city limits—pretty cool. I had been thinking about getting a pea coat, and Sterlingwear has been the official supplier to the US Navy for more than 40 years. I was more interested in the made-in-USA aspect of their business, and the advantage of being able to try on the coats to get the right size. (They also have a store in Nashua, NH.)

Sterlingwear makes several different styles of pea coat, with minor differences in cut, collar, details like number of buttons and whether or not there is a back vent, and type of lining, making an in-person inspection of the merchandise even more important to me. The coat with the heaviest lining felt too bulky, and I wasn't necessarily looking for the warmest coat I could get; I was thinking of the pea coat as more of an in-between coat. The one with eight buttons instead of six was cut an inch or so shorter and didn't look quite right: the shoulders were too wide, and I didn't care for its more stand-up style of collar.

Eventually I determined that I preferred the style called Navigator, with a satin lining and slightly less padded shoulders. I wasn't necessarily planning on buying it right at that moment, but I was told by the store clerks that all their coat prices are increasing $50 on February 1. If that was said just to get a sale, then it worked; if it's true (I have no reason to think otherwise), then I saved some money.

I did have to make one compromise: the other styles were available in a nice heathery medium gray, which I really liked, because I like gray in general and you don't typically see pea coats in gray. But the Navigator is not stocked in the gray; I could have ordered it, but it would have cost an extra $20 and I would have had to wait for it to be made. So I chose to get mine in black.

If you are interested in this type of coat, Sterlingwear offers them in a wide variety of sizes for men and women, and all styles are available in short, regular, and long. I assumed I would need a long, as I tend to in suits and sport jackets, but I found that the sleeves were too long. Both sleeves and body length were just right with a regular, though I did have to go up one size from my normal jacket size to get a comfortable fit through the torso.

Over the weekend I also bought a couple of things from the sale section of Lands' End Canvas (online; I don't know why I didn't think to go into Sears and check out the LEC sale stuff when I was at the mall). I got a J. Crew gift card from my brother and an L.L. Bean gift card from my mother, both of which I'll use eventually. I did check out the J. Crew in the mall, and it looked like it might be on the verge of closing; there was hardly any sale merchandise left, and an awful lot of bare shelf space overall. Even if it's just because they'd sold most of their fall stuff, the spring merchandise is usually starting so show up by this point.

In fact, there were a noticeable number of empty storefronts in the South Shore Plaza. Boston.com ran a story the other day on the state of things at the Atrium and the Mall at Chestnut Hill, but they might want to send those reporters down to Braintree, because I don't think these retail vacancy issues are confined to Newton.

This Week in Awesome (1/8/11)

It's been snowing on and off for more than 24 hours, and there's still only about an inch on the ground here. But don't worry, there's plenty of TWiA to (hopefully) keep you amused:

There are hobbyists, and there are hobbyists. This intrepid gentleman, who happens to live in nearby Winchester, MA, creates incredibly realistic-looking scenes and backdrops for his collection of 1/24 scale Franklin Mint vehicles. The Wheels blog at the New York Times has the story, and you can check out Mr. Smith's Flickr images here. Amazing stuff.

Who doesn't love gloriously cheesy training videos from the '80s? This one happens to be for new police recruits, which makes it even more awesome in its awfulness. (Everything Is Terrible, naturally)

The Awl collected 10 web videos from 2010 that it thinks are particularly memorable.

And finally this week, a headbanging penguin, just because. (Videogum)

Cannot Compute

Well, the server here at work went down about an hour ago. I can still do some work locally, but there are other things I'm unable to access. Sounds like a good reason to leave early today...

Just A Trim

Between haircuts, I find it necessary to do some maintenance grooming on my own, mainly on the sideburns and the back of the neck. Several years back I bought a rechargeable trimmer with several interchangeable heads for various types of trimming (this also enables me to tame the pesky ear and nose hairs that are such a charming part of growing older).

It was nothing fancy, just a Conair that I found at drugstore.com for around $15 or so. The largest head has two comb attachments that allow for trimming to various lengths, but I only use one of them and keep it at its closest setting.

I have to remove the comb for close trimming, and a couple of months ago I dropped the comb, and it broke into several pieces--I guess it was just brittle enough and the tile floor in the bathroom was just hard enough.

Without that comb, I could not do any of my usual sideburn trimming, and I thought I would have to buy a whole new trimmer, but that seemed unnecessarily wasteful. First, I went on Conair's web site and looked up replacement parts. I found some, but not the one I needed.

I decided to send an email to customer service, specifying the model number of my trimmer, to see if I might be able to purchase the comb anyway. It took a couple of days to receive a reply, but the rep said they had a small number of the combs available and would send them to me free of charge.

A few days later a small package was in my mailbox, and the combs were packed inside, in bubble wrap so they would not get damaged during shipping. I greatly appreciated this gesture, as it was definitely beyond what I was expecting in terms of customer service. Companies used to provide this level of service all the time, and it's nice to know that some still do.

Country of Origin?

Roving correspondent DC snapped this picture and sent it to me on New Year's Day, presumably while shopping at Dillard's:

Curious, I did a quick search on the google. At first I thought the tag said "Ukrania" (which, it turns out, is a tiny country in Central America), but it actually says "Ukraina" which is presumably a misspelling of "Ukraine." Any further insight is welcome.

Back to It

A short while ago, as I was leaving the building to go get coffee, I saw someone I know who works in another office here. After we exchanged hellos, she looked at her watch and said, "Well, it didn't take long for the glow of the holiday break to wear off." That very accurately and concisely sums up how I'm feeling today.

This Week in Awesome (1/1/11)

Yes, I know I didn't post this yesterday, but I couldn't resist the chance to do the "1/1/11" thing. My blog, my rules...

You think we got a lot of snow last week? Have a look at some serious snow-removal equipment from Japan. (Gizmodo via Jalopnik)

This compilation clip is called Informercial Hell, so it's pretty self-explanatory. (Funny or Die via Consumerist)

National Geographic is launching a yearlong series about the world's population, and this interesting and informative clip offers some population statistics. (The Daily What)

(I was going to link to the Top Gear Christmas special that aired in the UK last Sunday night, which someone thoughtfully posted to YouTube, but it has finally been removed--though it took several days for that to happen.)

On to the Next One

I'd hoped to do a nice end-of-year wrap post, but I got distracted and forgot, leaving me only a few minutes before the ball drops.

I'm getting to the point in my life where marking the end of another year brings a tinge of sadness along with the optimism of looking forward to what's to come. I'm not entirely sure why, but it's been there, just below the surface, for the past week or so. I think it's just a part of aging, and the fact that this year was somewhat shittier than others in lots of ways, for lots of people.

But while I felt it was important to note that, I won't be dwelling on it. I'd rather think about the future, plus my life now is better than it's ever been. I hope that's true for all of you as well. Happy new year; I'm sure the best is yet to come.

North Shore Eats

Trying to get into one of the popular restaurants along route 1 at 7 pm in the midst of school vacation week probably wasn't one of our best ideas. Border Cafe gets pretty crazy, but I've never seen it so mobbed. Kind of makes you wonder why they didn't keep the original location open on the other side of the road to handle all the business.

It was the same story up the road at the new Santarpio's: things were not quite as chaotic there, but we were told the wait would be at least 45 minutes. One of our group suggested a Chinese restaurant on a side road nearby, so we drove over there.

Su Chang's in Peabody is the kind of place you could easily miss if you weren't looking for it. It's in a building that looks to have been a house at some point, and its signage is low-key. It was also busy, but even though there were six of us, we had to wait less than five minutes to be seated.

Some people think Chinese food is Chinese food, but I'm very fussy about it. I wouldn't be telling you about it if I didn't think it was good. The atmosphere is pleasant, the prices are very reasonable, the staff were friendly and joked around with the two children in our group, and an elegant woman who appeared to be the owner stopped by our table to make sure we were enjoying our meal.

(It also happens to be close to the Northshore Mall, making it a good choice for dinner after a shopping expedition.)

Bubbles

I enjoy a glass or two of wine now and then, but I don't tend to consume a lot of it (my at-home drinking tastes run to the basic, like Narragansett beer). I know even less about champagne, except that you tend to have to spend a lot to find anything good. In the mid-90s I worked a second job on the front-of-house staff at the Huntington Theatre, which included concessions, where I was introduced to, and completely spoiled by, Veuve Clicquot.

This year my family decided to spend Christmas Eve at home, opting to order a bunch of prepared foods from a local market. I thought it would be nice to have some champagne, but I wasn't feeling flush enough to drop $38 on a bottle of VC (that's the price I found at Kappy's). I went to the liquor store one night last week, hoping to find a decent bottle at a decent price.

I browsed the sparkling wine aisle for a couple of minutes, and considered just copping out and grabbing a bottle of Freixenet, but I felt I could do better. Normally the staff at Kappy's are happy to give advice and make suggestions, but the store was very busy and I could not locate anyone free. I went back to the aisle and saw a sign, made by someone at the store, that said "good French bubbly" stuck to the shelf below a bottle called Veuve Moisans.

Technically this wasn't champagne, because it's made in a different part of France, but I reasoned that it was closer to champagne than Spanish sparkling wine, and it also happened to cost less than the Freixenet. I figured I'd give it a try, and if it turned out not to be very good I'd only be out $10, and if it did turn out to be good, I'd have found a relative bargain.

As it turned out, it was really good, and especially impressive given its low price. The label is a similar orange to that of Veuve Clicquot, though it's striped in a darker orange so as not to be too blatant a ripoff. My idea was well received, and we polished off the bottle so quickly I found myself wishing I'd gotten two bottles--which I'll certainly do next year. But for only $10, I almost certainly won't wait for next Christmas to have this very enjoyable sparkling wine again.

PS: In the beer department, this is the only time of year you can pick up Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale. It's an IPA with a bit more bite than the regular Sierra, but without any of the spices typically added to "holiday" or "winter" beers. While I enjoy it in bottles, I think it's best experienced on tap, if you have the opportunity.

Blizzard Notes

We had planned on staying at my mother's house to have Christmas leftovers for dinner last night, but we drove back yesterday morning to get ahead of the storm. We got 18 inches of snow, and of course I couldn't get my snowblower to start. I don't think it was an issue with how hard I was pulling the cord, because I was able to start it last year without any problems.

I managed to deal with the snow by shovel in about two hours, with a little help from, at various points, the Mrs., one of the upstairs folks, and even a next-door neighbor (not the guy I mentioned last week). The guy from upstairs parked his car behind ours last night, which also helped (it cut down on the driveway surface area).

Now I hear it's going to be in the 40s by the end of the week. I'm not complaining, but it is a little strange. The dog is confused; all her favorite spots are covered in huge mounds of snow. I took her out around 10:30 last night, and she managed to accomplish some of what she was supposed to be doing, but she was distracted by the snow and wanted to romp, then after a couple of minutes she realized how cold and windy and nasty it was, and lost interest in anything but getting back inside, not that I blame her.

This Week in Awesome (12/25/10)

Merry Christmas, everyone. I have a few holiday presents for all of you...

Have yourself a Maury Christmas. (Is That All There Is? via Videogum)

I dig this site out of Switzerland called Data Visualization. (Very Short List)

Top ten time: HitFix's Alan Sepinwall did his year-end TV roundup in a format I like: new shows, returning shows, and an overall top ten.

And at the other end of the spectrum, the Village Voice has a priceless take on the 20 worst songs of the year. Seriously, this is a hilarious must-read. Thank you, Maura Johnston, for the biggest laughs of my week. (via The Awl)

Locked Out

Yesterday was a trying day, and a new low for me in middle-aged brain malfunction. After I'd gotten the mail, I noticed a couple of pieces were for the upstairs apartment, so I stepped back outside to put them in their box. In doing so I had closed the inner door behind me without undoing the lock. leaving me stuck in the vestibule. It was around 12:30 pm.

One of the upstairs folks was home, but she was playing her stereo, blasting Cee-Lo's "Fuck You" over and over, so she couldn't hear my knocking. I think she must have played it ten or twelve times. When the music finally stopped, I was able to get her attention and her keys, thinking that since our keys to the outside front door are the same, our inner-door keys might be similar enough that I could use it to get in. That idea didn't get far.

I went through their apartment and down the back steps to try the same thing with the inside back door, with the same result. I considered what I should do. I was wearing sweats and slippers, so I wasn't dressed to go outside, and I had no phone and no money on me. I used the neighbor's phone to call the Mrs. and left her a voicemail, hoping she might come home to let me in but figuring she might not be able to get away from work.

Ultimately I spent the afternoon in the basement, looking into boxes that had been placed there when we moved in and sorting through some old letters. My neighbor offered to let me stay in their living room and watch TV, but I wouldn't have been watching TV if I was in my own apartment, and I guess I was still a little paranoid about the whole bug thing.

The Mrs. had said she was going to try not to have to stay late at work, but she didn't make it home until 6:30. She never noticed the voicemail notification on her phone. More than any discomfort or inconvenience (the basement was pretty cold), the whole thing was embarrassing and humiliating, and I really hope I never do anything that stupid again.

Rarefied Air

I don't have much interest in technical outerwear. It's partly because I'm not an outdoors sort of person, and partly because I don't care for how it looks. So why, then, do I really like this Cloud jacket from technical outerwear company Aether? (By the way, I tried copying that image and pasting it in here, but it's so small that it looked terrible.)

In fact, I like many of the jackets in their line. I think a big part of it is the minimalism of the designs. A lot of outdoor gear is terribly overdone in appearance, with color blocking, pockets on top of pockets, extraneous zippers, gaudy logos--basically everything I hate in a garment. The Aether jackets are distinctive because they are pared down to the essentials. And most of them are available in black or at least gray, which suits someone like me whose outdoor time involves navigating the concrete jungle.

But damn, this stuff is expensive. That Cloud jacket is $625--ouch! (Sometimes I feel like I'm cursed by having expensive taste.) One of the uninsulated shell jackets is under $250, but even that would be an unjustifiable purchase for me. There's an opportunity here: I'd love to see someone step in and execute some outerwear with the Aether aesthetic at less aethereal (see what I did there?) prices.

Who Let It Snow?

Good morning! Welcome to the winter break edition of SAR. I'm sitting here enjoying my second cup of coffee (Whole Foods organic Mexican, not that you asked) in my comfy house clothes (i.e., sweats). In fact I've been up since 8, because the dog needed to be walked and emptied, and the sidewalk needed to be cleared.

Snow? Snow! Who knew? Certainly not the meterologists. I read last night that the storm reversed course unexpectedly and that's why nobody had any equipment out to treat the roads, which is why last night's commute was a total clusterfuck. Fine, okay, I realize that weather systems play tricks on all of us from time to time, but really, you guys sit around and look at weather data all day, every day, all the time--it didn't occur to even one of you that this might happen? Get a job.

Anyway, I kind of like getting out and taking care of the snow, especially when there isn't enough of it to be a chore. It's pretty outside, and even an inch of snow makes it feel a little more like Christmas. I also had a nice chat with our next-door neighbor, a very sharp and spry 76-year-old guy who is as good a neighbor as we could ever hope to have.

It's nice that I don't need to be anywhere today, but it's already looking better outside (I think I see the sun) and I still have a few last-minute things to get (my mother reads this now, so I can't blab everything like I did last year), so I'll probably venture out at some point. Maybe I'll go downtown and get a sandwich from Cosi, or maybe even banh mi from Saigon Sandwich.

Bus Discomfort

Since this is the holiday lead-in week, I thought I might have an easier commute today. There was definitely less traffic, making the bus ride relatively quick and painless, but the T was just as crowded as usual.

I did witness one interesting exchange this morning. When I got on the bus I grabbed a seat near the front, and one of the other people waiting with me at the stop sat across from me. By now you're probably at least passingly familiar with the newer buses that have the low floor from the front to the rear doors, then there are steps up to the seating in the back area.

Just after she sat down, the woman turned toward the back of the bus, because someone she knew who was already on the bus was calling to her. She started to stand up but hesitated, looked toward where her friend was sitting up in the back, and said, "I don't like sitting up there." Her friend came down and sat next to her.

What's the big deal? I can only speculate, but I know that sometimes I try to avoid having to go to the back of the bus, but only because I'm the impatient type, and the back area is a bottleneck and it takes a long time to get out when the bus reaches the station, which can cause you to miss a train. Some people are just bustrophobic (coined!), and there aren't as many windows back there. Or it could have been something else entirely.

Anyway, today's my last work day of the year. Getting a break from commuting is about as nice as getting a break from working.

This Week in Awesome (12/18/10)

It was a pretty good week for internet stuff. Some of it's holiday-themed, some of it isn't...

Defaced is a site that collects instances of prankage that probably wouldn't seem funny if they weren't clever. (Thrillist via Racked)

Here's the undisputed winner of the "creepiest Christmas sweater" contest. (Etsy via The Hairpin)

A couple of good clips from Funny or Die this week: first, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly channel David Bowie and Bing Crosby in a version of their famous Christmas duet that's equal parts homage and spoof.

Then Christina Applegate and friends demonstrate the fitness value of pole dancing for a certain subset of the population.

Finally, the Museum of the City of New York posted a trove of vintage photographs online. (Racked)

Not wanting to disrespect our own fair city, I looked for similar collections. I know Universal Hub has linked to various online archives in the past, but searching the site didn't yield what I was trying to find. A google search turned up this collection of links via BU; it includes links to the Boston Historical Society and the Boston Public Library's Flickr stream, among many others, so that should at least get us started.

Friday Reading

Technically I work in academia, though our publishing products are geared toward consumers. Therefore we are bound to a certain degree to the academic calendar, which means that most of the following two weeks will be paid time off. Officially our break starts on the 23rd, but I'm taking off a couple of extra days before that.

However, this means that a lot of stuff has to get done ahead of time to compensate for not being here for almost two weeks. So in addition to finishing my monthly deadline stuff this week, I've had to set up emails that will go out to subscribers next week and the week after, deal with a formatting problem in one of the emails, and make arrangements for how a few other small things will get done while I'm not here. (Short answer: I'll be doing them from home.)

Anyway, what all this means is that I don't really have anything for you today, but I can point you in the direction of something you may or may not find interesting, depending on your point of view. Fifty years ago yesterday, two planes collided over Staten Island; one landed there, in an unused army field; the other crashed into an intersection in Brooklyn. The New York Times has been doing look-back coverage all this week on their City Room blog. (It's in reverse order; the posts from the beginning of the week are at the bottom of the page at this link.)

Bargain Alert: David Chu at Ocean State Job Lot

We popped over to our local Job Lot this evening for a few odds and ends. Among the holiday decorations, fleece jackets, and Antonio Banderas cologne gift sets, there was a mannequin done up in a sportcoat and dress shirt next to a sign that said "David Chu Clothing and Sportswear 90% Off," with an arrow and--I am not making this up--stick-on footprints on the floor leading the way to a side room I hadn't even noticed on our previous visit.

The room, maybe the size of a small mall store space, was filled with men's clothing. For those of you who may not know, David Chu is the guy who started Nautica back in the '80s, but he sold the company several years ago and started another under his own name. The clothes are generally fairly conservative, with a few touches of color and personality here and there, but the fabrics are quite nice and the tailored clothing is well made.

The Job Lot stash had a bit of everything: dress and casual shirts, pants, a few knits, ties, shorts, a small group of suits, and lots and lots of sportcoats. It's almost like a sample sale, and there is a lot of stock in just about every size. All the suits and sportcoats are made in Italy, and it's a decent bet that a lot of the fabrics originate there too.

The original prices on the tailored items range from around $900-$1200, so I'm sure you can do the math and figure out the Job Lot pricing, which is a pretty good deal. Casual shirts are priced at $10, as were some khakis, though those seemed to come only in sizes 30 and 32. Ties are also $10. Boxed dress shirts are $20 to $25. There are also American-made dark blue jeans for $22.50. (Would someone really have paid $225 for those jeans in a fancy store? I had to wonder.)

I have no idea whether or not any other Job Lot locations have this merchandise (this was at the new Medford store); it might be worth a phone call to find out. Some of the shirts and ties are made in China, but none of it is typical low-grade department store stuff. Whether you're still doing holiday shopping for a man in your life, or just want to pick up some work clothes for yourself, this sale is worth checking out.

Suiting Up

This evening is our work party, a low-key affair at a pub across the street from our office, the same place we've held it for the past four years. This year we were encouraged to bring something either homemade or regifted for our Yankee swap (and I've heard hints that there will be some additional wrinkles to the swap rules this time). So I decided to keep the item I'd originally bought for the swap, and chose to regift a book I'd bought a few months back.

Typically I make an effort to dress up for the holiday party, mainly because it's an excuse to do so, and because my work outfits, while always put together, are distinctly casual. Last night I went down to the basement "closet annex" to pick out something to wear. My dress clothing resides in a pop-up wardrobe down there, since I use it rarely and we don't have much closet space in our bedroom. I also moved my dress shirts downstairs earlier this year, onto a rolling rack that I also use to hang-dry things I don't want to put in the dryer.

I came across a deep blue dress shirt with very fine white stripes that I bought at Lord & Taylor a long time back, maybe nine or ten years ago. I've always liked it, and I remembered that I wore it out to a Christmas Eve dinner some years back (when the various parts of my extended family were still speaking to one another and we all went out to dinner together). At that time I wore it with a solid silver tie and a dark, dark charcoal suit.

I think I still have that suit, but I have some doubt that the pants would still fit, so I quickly assembled a similar outfit, substituting my favorite pair of charcoal wool twill dress pants (the fabric is a bit more substantial, nice on a frigid day like today) and an all-purpose charcoal suit jacket that I got at the Gap about 15 years ago for $40, and which miraculously still fits me quite well.

Interestingly, I noticed that the dress shirt was made in the USA. I didn't remember ever noticing its origin before, but it prompted me to think about how much Lord & Taylor has changed over the past decade. I used to shop there all the time and frequently found good stuff on sale. Now I hardly ever go there, and when I do I'm invariably unimpressed by what they're offering. The company has had its ups and downs of late, and has changed its merchandise focus to try to lure younger customers, and I think that's where they've lost me: all the stuff I liked that they no longer carry fell in the category of "stuff younger guys wouldn't like." Oh well.

Oh, and here's a tip: you may have noticed that your hands get dry this time of year, and when you go to tie a tie, the tiny little points of dry skin catch on the silk. But if you put a little moisturizer on your hands first, and give it a couple of minutes to be absorbed, it will make the tie tying easier.

Shades of Gray

Still looking for a gift for someone? I'd filed away this item some time ago, and today seems like as good a day as any to mention it.

Randolph Engineering makes high-quality sunglasses right down the road in Randolph, MA. They are mainly known for their aviator and shooting styles, but their P3 style caught my eye because of the round lenses. The P3 was originally available only in gold, but now there's a newer version (called, logically, the New P3) that's available in either gold or chrome, with slightly wider lenses and the option of traditional "skull" temples instead of the cable versions, which hook all the way around your ears.

These are quality eyewear products that are made right here in Massachusetts and sold at reasonable prices (cheaper than Ray-Bans, at any rate). You can also purchase just the frames from Randolph for prescription lens applications.

Expense Report #36

Have you ever lost track of how much you had in your bank account? I haven't balanced my checkbook in five years or so, but thanks to online account access I always know exactly how much is in my account, except for those rare moments when I forget to check for a couple of days.

I'd paid my rent, I'd paid my credit card bill, I'd paid the cell phone bill, but I didn't think about how much was left. Friday evening I went to an ATM and was told I couldn't have that $100 I wanted because I didn't have funds in my account. Turned out I had $54 left in there, and another week until the next payday. Oops. At least I was able to take out $20 to pay for the meal and drinks I was about to have.

Sometimes I have small stashes of cash around the house, but not this time. I had two scratch tickets with $5 prizes in my bag, and enough stored on my ID cash card to get coffee from the cafeteria each morning for the rest of this week. The hospital cafeteria finally started taking credit cards a few months back, so that's how I paid for my lunch today.

I had tried to do the right thing and had paid more toward my credit card balance than I usually do, but in doing so I carelessly left myself depleted for almost a week. And I'm getting a little old to be running out of money between paychecks; I need to get serious about paying off this balance.

This Week in Awesome (12/11/10)

TWiA is back at full strength. I'm sure you're all so relieved...

Comedians spoof "We Are The World" by commemorating its 25-3/4 anniversary. (Funny or Die via Basket of Kisses, because Mad Men's Rich Sommer is in it)

A collection of some of the cheesiest (and most illogical, and most superfluous) movie/TV car explosions. One could argue that, by extrapolation, this constitutes a list of some very cheesy movies, and one would be correct. (Jalopnik)

Video of a crazy person doing something pretty high on the "don't try this yourself" list. (BuzzFeed via Gizmodo)

A handy guide for how to describe your furniture when attempting to sell it on craigslist. (Flickr via The Daily What)

Let's close this week's edition with an interesting piece about the hidden workings of the Discovery Channel show Cash Cab, revealed by a former contestant. (tv.com)

Set Your DVR

AMC has had a pretty good track record in choosing original series over the past several years. Rubicon did not receive a renewal, but otherwise the channel has been extremely successful in programming shows that garner critical acclaim, win shelves full of awards, and tap into the cultural zeitgeist in a particular way. I opted not to watch The Walking Dead because I'm just not into zombie stuff, but it drew very impressive ratings for a cable show, and you already know how I feel about Mad Men.

Earlier this year I wrote about how much I've enjoyed AMC's other original show Breaking Bad. In a departure from the scheduling strategy AMC has followed in past years, season four will not air until some time this summer. I don't know why they have chosen to do this, but in the meantime, word arrives from the channel (via Alan Sepinwall at HitFix) that it will be rerunning seasons one through three during the late night hours of Wednesday nights/Thursday mornings starting next week.

There will be two episodes per week, but they will not be on at the same time each week, because they will be shown after whatever movies AMC is showing that night, and the running times vary. If you're interested in catching up with the show, the best thing to do is create a season pass on your DVR so it will find and record the episodes each week. Otherwise you'd have to search for each week's showings manually, which can certainly be done but requires more effort and is subject to bouts of forgetfulness (take it from me).

Addendum: Huge apologies, I screwed up. When I read the post on HitFix, I didn't realize that it had been posted last Friday, so the words "next week" were referring to this week. So yeah, episodes 1 and 2 of season one were shown last night. I know you can watch the first episode on the AMC site here, and you can get the second episode from iTunes for a couple of bucks.

Cubicle Hopping

When my office relocated to new space within the building three and a half years ago, there were both advantages and disadvantages to the physical space and my location in it. I was in an isolated spot at the far end of the office from the other people I worked with most closely, but on the other hand, no one was around to pay any attention to my comings and goings, or to what I did all day.

We've had several staff changes during this past year, probably more so than any other during the time I've worked there. But in fact, most of those changes involved existing employees, including me, shifting to new tasks and responsibilities, so in the end we have one less person overall. This allowed one person to move from a cubicle to an office (sadly, not me).

More recently, the production department decided to open up its work area from separate cubicles to one large, open uber-cube. These two changes left two open cubicles adjacent to the production folks, which is where I was originally supposed to be located in the office. People started asking me if I was moving down to that area, so I figured I should at least consider it.

I went and had a look at the new configuration. The setup of the uber-cube actually took away a small amount of space from each of the two adjacent cubes, but for me it was never about how much space I would have. In this space I would have more opportunities to interact with my coworkers; before, because I was so far away, I could go a whole week without seeing any of them.

I had planned to move my stuff last Friday, but needed to leave early to finish prepping for our bug treatment, so I moved Monday afternoon. One thing I hadn't thought about: I'm now a bit closer to a window, but where I was before the window was deeply recessed, so the sun never made it in anyway. The window near my new spot is not nearly as recessed, plus I'm on a different side of the building, so the sun actually shines in during the afternoon.

And since there are more people around where I sit now, and I am slightly more exposed, it forces me to stay more focused on my work, which, you know, sure I have mixed feelings about it, but I have more to do now on a daily basis anyway, so ultimately I'm better off.

Today the production crew had a little open house to show off their new space. As they were starting to decorate, I offered my strand of colored lights, which I was about to use to decorate my own cubicle. By joining the strands, there were enough lights to drape from the ceiling around the whole area, which turned out to be much more festive. And people stopping by their area had to pass by my new spot, so I got a few visitors as well.

Expense Report #35

I did make two discretionary purchases last week, but in both cases I combined multiple discounts. First, I've been pondering a pair of blucher mocs from L.L. Bean for some time now. I had a pair of them about 20 years ago, and I'm not sure what happened to them, but I suspect that since my tastes went through several changes before coming back around more or less to where I started in high school 30-some years ago, I probably got rid of them due to lack of use.

For $69, these are very reasonably priced shoes to start with. I had received an email from Bean offering 15% off any order for Bean Visa card holders, of which I am one. I was also able to apply one of my $10 reward credits (earned by using the card), bringing the total below $50. And as in years past, Bean is offering everyone free shipping during the holiday season (with the Visa card, I get free shipping anyway). So it was too good a deal to pass up. The soles of these shoes are a bit thin to wear in weather like today's, but otherwise they are comfortable and, in my opinion, better made than most of the shoes Bean is offering these days.

The other purchase was from J. Crew. Last week they were offering 25% of all sweaters. I looked around the site, but didn't see anything immediately compelling. But then on Wednesday morning they announced 30% off one order, which also applied to the sweater sale, bringing the total discount on sweaters down to just short of 50%. (As I mentioned the other day, that's a number more likely to get my attention.) That's about as good a discount as you are likely to see from J. Crew, short of a multiple-markdown clearance item in the back of a store.

But I wasn't done yet: I had a $25 J. Crew reward card that needed to be used by December 15th, so I purchased this cashmere "sweatshirt" for around $100, which is roughly 40% of its normal asking price, and a fine deal indeed.

After this, I really do need to stop buying myself clothing and shoes for a while, and focus on trying to sell some of the stuff that doesn't fit or otherwise hasn't worked out for me.

(By the way, J. Crew is offering a similar deal this week on outerwear.)

The Scourge: Aftermath

It was a long, exhausting week, but at least it's over. The preparations left our apartment in near-total disarray; it's a lot like those last couple of weeks when you're getting ready to move. And since the pest control folks will be back this Saturday to inspect and, if deemed necessary, apply additional treatment, we can't quite put things back to normal yet.

If there is anything that can be considered "good" about this sort of situation, it's that it became an opportunity for us to evaluate our stuff in a way that typically only happens when you're preparing to move. We've done some culling and decluttering, and we will continue to do so during this week, and then hopefully we'll be able to put everything back together again.

I've also decided that, after all this stress and work, I'm just not going to want to deal with a tree this year. I'll pick up a wreath for the front door, and I'll be hanging my cubicle lights at work tomorrow, and that's as festive as I feel like getting.

This Week in Awesome (12/4/10)

I'm not at home this weekend, but I hate the thought of leaving you all hanging, so please try to find some amusement in this compilation of utterly insane traffic-camera footage from China. Personally, I'm mentally piping in the Benny Hill theme music while I watch, but feel free to supply your own choice. (Jalopnik)

A Deal and a Gift Idea

Let me just throw these two bits at you before I disappear down the rabbit hole for the weekend:

Lands' End is offering 40% off one item, with free shipping if you spend at least $75. If you are on their email list, you see offers of 20, 25, and 30 percent off fairly regularly. But 40% discounts are not an everyday thing from any retailer. This is an excellent opportunity to pick up a utilitarian piece of outerwear to keep you warm and dry this winter, or maybe something a bit more old-school (and more stylish), like this pea coat (the gray is a nice change from the typical navy). This deal ends tonight at midnight Central time.

When we were in New York a few weeks ago, we saw a clever set of folding, portable iPod speakers from Muji at the Museum of Modern Art's shop. The Mrs. thought they would be nice to use in her office at work, because she isn't allowed to have mp3s on her work computer. But not surprisingly, they sounded terrible. (That isn't meant as a knock on Muji, whose stuff is generally cool and useful and decently made.)

After we got back I did a little research and found a much better option: this little orb from ThinkGeek pops open into a speaker with surprisingly rich and amply loud sound, and it costs less than the Muji speakers too. It comes with a USB cable, which you connect to your computer to charge the built-in battery, and even a carrying pouch.

The Scourge Adjacent

You may have noticed that I've been slightly less bloggish this week. There are two main reasons for this. First, my workplace has an annual meeting each year around this time, and this year we had to form groups several weeks before the meeting and prepare a presentation, so I was partly preoccupied by that.

But the bigger reason has to do with the upstairs neighbors. In August one of them moved out, leaving behind a special gift we just learned about this Monday: his bedbug-infested mattress. The upper apartment is on two floors; half the third floor is a bedroom, and the other half is used as an attic space. When the guy left, he tossed his mattress into the attic part, and no one knew about it until last Friday, when someone else attempted to move into the third-floor bedroom. She went into the attic and saw the mattress, and promptly freaked out, completely justifiably. (It probably goes without saying that she won't be moving in after all.)

On Tuesday morning a pest control professional inspected the house and confirmed the presence of the bugs. He also confirmed that our apartment doesn't have any, which was a huge relief, but it won't stay that way unless they treat the whole house as soon as possible. That's going to happen on Saturday.

The prep involves lots and lots of laundry, which then has to be stored in plastic bags. As we do it, we're leaving the bags down in the basement. Everything has to come out of our dresser drawers, the whole place has to be vacuumed, we have to buy a protective mattress cover to use after the treatment, all the furniture has to be moved out away from the walls, and all the switch and outlet plates have to be unscrewed from the walls, so the insecticide can get inside. We have to be away from the apartment for eight hours, but we're going to go stay at my mother's overnight and return the next day.

We're more than a bit shell-shocked by all this, but we're trying to deal with it. I would advise all of you to be vigilant and do what you can to protect yourselves.

Deal Alert (With Conditions)

Attention J. Crew fans: there's currently an excellent deal on all sweaters, 25% off both online and in stores. But if you happen to have a J. Crew credit card, the deal gets a lot better: this morning I received an email with a code for an extra 30% off one order when using your card, online only (and free shipping if you spend $150).

What really sweetens this offer is that you can stack it on top of the 25% off sweaters, meaning one of their cashmere sweaters, which normally sells for $188 (too much, I know) can be had for around $99, according to my trusty calculator--but only if you have a J. Crew card. And if you happen to have any rewards cards (which expire 12/15), you can make a great deal fairly stupendous.

Still, this is probably the best deal you're going to see from the Crew this season. But hurry--the 25% off part ends tonight.