living so close to so many colleges, i am always interested in who speaks where.
bard: david a. paterson, governor of new york
dcc: thomas wermuth vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty at marist college
marist: david a. paterson, governor of new york
mount st. mary: jack abernethy, chief operating officer for fox television stations
new paltz: steven poskanzer, suny new paltz president
vassar: dr. matthew c. spitzer, president of doctors without borders usa
west point: dr. robert m. gates, united states secretary of defense
corinna and i went to see willie nelson with asleep at the wheel last night at the palace theater in albany. i have to admit that i was surprised at how good the concert was. if you don't know, asleep at the wheel is a western swing band and they just recorded a new album with willie nelson. the concert was a mix of new material, willie's classics, and some standards mixed in. in fact, i have now heard "georgia on my mind" by willie nelson and ray charles, both times at the palace theater! and corinna finally got to hear her song live.
i was also surprised at how well willie can play the guitar. he had a number of solos that were really impressive. and he can sing too. hard to believe he is in his seventies.
if you can get a copy of "willie and the wheel" you should. or at least go listen to them. "bring it on down to my house" is my favorite.
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movies movies movies 01.06.09
during the holiday break i watched a lot of movies.
the great dictator
the curious case of benjamin button
seven pounds
into the wild
wall-e
slumdog millionaire
i would have to say that slumdog millionaire and the great dictator are the best of the bunch. into the wild is a great movie but it is a pretty lame story. basically the guy starves to death in the summertime, in alaska, twenty miles from a town. it really reminded me of that movie grizzly man.
the only change this year is that i made the list requirement proportional to the number of users. basically you need to have at least as many items as users. so if today, there are five users, you have to at least have four items on your list. if tomorrow someone else signs up, you need to add another item to your list.
everyone will have to make new accounts because i removed last year's stuff. i am going to warn everybody though, you'd better not mess around with it. any abuse of it will get you banned. so go ahead, sign up and start making a wishlist. the more the merrier.
if you guys want to impose a dollar amount limit per person or couple or whatever, leave a comment.
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lockpicks 11.18.08
so after watching a couple youtube videos on lockpicking yesterday, i was able to make a tension wrench out of a pen cap and a pick out of a paper clip. a couple minutes later and i picked my first lock. after that, i unlocked and then locked a cabinet door.
i ordered a real set of picks this morning. make sure you lock your doors.
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don't forget to vote 11.04.08
for mccain.
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sailing 08.24.08
this was one of the best trips i have ever taken. we got off to a late start, but right off the bat we found a message in a bottle. it was bobbing up and down right in the beacon harbor. we decided to wait until we made camp to open it, but we all took turns imagining what was written on the paper inside. too bad it was more like a fortune cookie than a real message.
unfortunately there was no wind, so we had to make our way under auxiliary power. we decided to do a little fishing; aaron and i caught some seaweed but leah caught a fish! we motored along all night and had a little trouble at esopus meadows but got back underway shortly thereafter. the real trouble came in the morning as the river became blanketed with fog. we couldn't see more that 10 feet in front of the boat and damien had to use the hand bearing compass and the noaa chart to keep us going in the right direction. at one point we had to get out of the way for a barge that got a little bit too close for comfort. after a while the fog cleared and leah and aaron woke up so we decided to tie up to the dock in athens and have breakfast. bad idea. the tide goes out and we get stuck in athens until high tide. at least we got to see an eagle!
once high tide set us free, we motored up to the hudson river islands state park and picked out a campsite. most of the campsites are right on the beach. we dropped anchor and brought all of our camping gear and supplies ashore. the park was pretty busy. a lot of people were there, mostly with powerboats, but some jetskis were there too. it was pretty cool to see the sailboat go on its side when the tide went out. it looked like the schmetterling was shipwrecked! we had to wait until high tide to leave on sunday. the trip back was pretty much the same as the trip up, except this time it was daytime and we got to sight-see a lot more. we even got to see the replica of the half moon.
a picture says a thousand words, so go check them out.
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sailing 08.21.08
gps tracking
beacon to hudson islands state park for some camping. you should be able to see our last position on the map.
if you don't see us moving for a while, either we are shipwrecked, or my cell phone died.
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take it to the next level 07.17.08
an even better soccer video. here is the high quality version.
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showdown 07.10.08
pretty cool video from steve nash's charity soccer game in nyc.
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movin' on out 07.02.08
bye bye rj. the nets traded him to milwaukee. i feel kinda bad for him. he said he wanted to be a net for life. not too many of those kinda players around anymore. everybody (see: davis, baron) seems to go for the big bucks and long contracts. nobody has any team loyalty anymore (see: garnett, kevin) so they jump ship just to win a ring. anyway, the nets had a pretty good draft this year. picking up cdr at #40 was pretty surprising. they still have some holes to fill and some free agents to re-sign, but i think we should have a pretty good team this year.
rod & kiki, if you guys are reading this, you could probably pick up stephon marbury pretty cheap. i am pretty sure the knicks are done with him.
i think he should get a chance at redemption with the nets.
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ontario or bust 06.12.08
dan and i took the bayliner to river's edge marine today to get the carb looked at. the boat won't stay running unless the rpms are way up. hopefully the boat will be ready to go next week sometime. after we dropped the boat off, we went over to the hyde park marina to see about getting a slip for the summer. the harbormaster, "captain joe", was busy talking with some guy who was standing there holding a gas can. turns out the marina hasn't gotten their gas pumps inspected so they can't dispense gas yet. no gas and $250 more for a slip means we will probably be back at whites this summer.
so anyway, "captain joe" asks us if we can take the guy with the gas can up to stewarts and back so he can get some gas. yeah no problem. the guy's name is glyn and he is from ontario. he tells us that he bought a sailboat on ebay and is sailing it home. he picked it up in long island for $900 and had made it up to hyde park in three days. unlucky for him, he stops at the only marina on the hudson that can't sell gas. after we drop him off, i helped him back to his boat and he let me go aboard and take a look at it. for $900 he got a helluva deal. it's a 1984 macgregor 25. it even came with a nearly brand new honda 8hp outboard motor. not too shabby.
so good luck glyn. keep the stick up, the keel down, and the water out.
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commencement speakers 05.08.08
living so close to so many colleges, i am always interested in who speaks where.
bard: charles b. rangel, congressman
dcc: anthony krzywicki, first dcc business dept head, anthony v. campilii, retired dcc vp of business affairs, current cfo of marist college
marist: vicki mabrey, television journalist
new paltz: john b. clark, interim chancellor of the state university of new york
vassar: randy cohen, writer and humorist
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nba playoffs 04.25.08
so the nets fell short of the playoffs for the first time since 2001. with the jason kidd trade and everything else going on i was not surprised. vince carter played really well after the trade. i think he is finally ready to be a team leader. i am glad dallas is struggling. jason kidd deserves to get bounced from the playoffs by byron scott.
so far the playoffs have been really exciting. did you see the spurs/suns game one? double overtime. that was a hell of a game. i hope that the teams that got big name players through trades lose. yeah i'm talking about dallas, phoenix and boston. i can't stand it when players go running from a bad team to a good team just to get a ring. even worse are the guys that complain about not having talented players around them. yeah i'm talking about lebron and kobe. just be like mike. play the game, elevate your teammates, shut up and win.
yeah i'm talking about the hornets and the sixers in the finals.
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