[Fiona]The Apple Never Falls Far From the Tree

I never believed that old saying.It annoys me when people throw it at you to describe a behavior they find unattractive. My response has always been a pat "yeah,well I saw where it landed, picked it up and threw it." Way to fight back,eh? I am slow on accepting truths, mostly because no one enjoys examining themselves too closely the dirt might show through. Why am I mentioning this now you might ask. The simple truth is I do not do well in storms. Any kind of storms. I blame my mother. I am a grownup who should be able to accept this flaw of mine and move on but I have been unsuccessful.

My mother had many fears. Growing up with her was a daily challenge. We were not allowed to watch much TV. I think it had too much visual stimulation for her. She couldn't stand to watch anything to do with medical information,news,a myriad of other events too numerous to list. All I can say is thank the Gods for public TV because we were allowed to watch all the Mr. Rogers, Electric Co.,ZOOM and Sesame Street we could handle in an afternoon.

My mother hated storms. I hate storms. See the connection? Positive experience in usually makes a healthy connection in one's mind and fear less of an issue.I am not afraid of storms I hate feeling trapped. Trapped like an animal I believe is how my mother used to explain it. I pace. I whine. I eat everything I can find or sneak. I drive dear Shrek crazy with my endless ranting over the most trivial crap. In truth I think I hate being held hostage in the house.

I am writing this as a way to try to come to terms with the never ending swath of snow storms this winter. I have been BSC (bat shit crazy)with angst. I feel I need to put this issue to rest once and for all. I am going to try to embrace my anxiety,accept my short comings and find busy work to keep my mind on other things while hoping for better weather. Be safe all my New England friends Spring is coming I just know it. ;)

[Shrek] A Not So Positive Post

I think all the snow is starting to irk me a little, so while I'm in a bad mood allow me to mention a few people that have raised my ire the last few days.

The douchebag driving the Pontiac Aztek who pulled out in front of Fiona and I Tuesday morning on the snow covered roads. Good thing you fishtailed in front of us because if you hadn't we would have plowed right into the back of you. I'm sure the Honda Accord in the oncoming lane that nearly drove into that snowbank was happy to see you too.

And speaking of Tuesday morning, the meteorologists who called for "a dusting to an inch" that morning that turned into 3" to 5" made me wish I could screw up as often as they do and still keep my job.

Continuing on the subject of snow, I'd like give a shout out to how well the city of Worcester has cleared the roads after all this snow we had in the last 30 days or so. And by "how well" I mean "could you possibly have done a worse job?". A word of warning to people heading to the city, if you park at a meter and can't get to it to put money in the "parking enforcement officers" will still ticket you.

Even more on snow, why does the city of Worcester demand people shovel the sidewalks that abut their property (and for folks that live on Meadow Lane, sidewalks that used to abut their property) but the city doesn't clear crosswalks and handicap ramps from snow? There's also miles of unshoveled sidewalk abutted by city property.

I'd also like to mention that one of the biggest morons in morning talk radio, whose name I refuse to mention because he's such a jerk, got one of the nicest guys I have ever met fired and replaced him with someone that is nothing more than a parrot. I guess I should be a little happy for SW (full name withheld, but most will know who he is) because he no longer has to work for that train wreck of a station in WTAG, but being out of work in this economy does suck so I wish him well.

Here are a few things I've been reading the past week or so...

The new Governor of California Jerry Brown is cracking down on workers who have a state paid cell phone. Not exactly a huge cost savings, but every penny counts.

Speaking of debt, ever wonder how they come up with credit card numbers? It's a quick, interesting read.

As a music fan I found this very funny. No mention of greatest hits or live records, though.

The bowling alley here in Worcester has a rotary phone, so I found this an amusing little tale.

Regis Philbin, the King of morning TV, has announced his retirement. I can't recall the last time I watched his show, but whenever it was I recall thinking he was a little out of it and looked like he was being led around like a small child.

And to make sure I end on a positive note, here's an uplifting story about a Southwest Airlines pilot doing a good turn for folks that suffered a huge tragedy in their lives.

[Shrek] That slippery slope of winter weather

With snow and sleet falling from the sky soon to be followed by our personal favorite freezing rain, this looks like a good time to enjoy a second cup of coffee and post an update.

First off, thanks to everyone's e-mails and mentions of concern over my latest bout with A-fib. As my cardiologist predicted in one of my early January visits I converted to regular rhythm on my own (although it took a tad longer than he expected). I'm on new meds that should help prevent a recurrence, with the only draw back being no more alcohol for the foreseeable future. To be honest, it's an easy trade off.

Fiona and I had yesterday off, not for Martin Luther King Day specifically, but because we were laid off for the day. It happens every year on MLK Day, so it's not that big a deal and we sort of look forward to it. The funniest thing about it was many years ago in contract negotiations the union that we belong to asked for MLK Day to be one of our paid holidays. The company refused, and instead decided to give everyone an additional 8 hours or personal time. Since those negotiations the company has closed every MLK Day. Go figure...

With yesterday off we went out to breakfast, but I had to avoid my normal radio listening because WEEI was full of people angered by the Patriots loss to the hated New York Jets. I'm a believer that listeners that call into radio shows, no matter the topic, all fit into one of two categories; people that have no idea what they are talking about or who call to ball wash the hosts. I've seen very little evidence to the contrary.

The one positive thing about the game is it was never really close, so I was resigned to the loss early and was able to get an incredible amount of work done that I'd have usually done on Monday, allowing for me to get even more stuff accomplished. I celebrated getting so much done by not going to work because of the weather, sleeping late, and watching TV.

With tonight's Worcester Sharks/Portland Pirates game, already postponed once in late December due to the blizzard, being put off again until tomorrow I'll get to catch up on my DVR watching. We used to DVR a lot of shows, now it's down to a few and we catch many of those as they air anyway. Our rule of thumb is if we reach four episodes of a show on the DVR, we're really not watching it anymore and it's time to think about getting rid of it. Hawaii Five-O was one we bounced; The Mentalist is one we keep no matter how many back up.

[Shrek] A Little More On Plagiarism

Folks I've talked to the last few days will laugh (or cringe) that I'm still talking about this, but I'm still a bit peeved about the Union Leader ripping off a blogger. Our friend Josie pointed out something last Wednesday that really put things in perspective. She reminded me that not so long ago newspapers looked down their noses at bloggers as "inferior" and "without integrity" because there were no checks and balances that are involved in "real journalism". And now in a practice not limited to just this latest incident it's newspaper reporters stealing from bloggers and calling the content they steal their own.

So much for "integrity" and those checks and balances.

On a more positive note, here's some of the things I've been reading the past few days...

If you think you don't like taxes check out these angry witches casting spells to protest taxation in Romania. If that turns out to be successful their next spells should be to make the fast food we buy look like the pictures in the ads.

Those of you with kids or grand-kids (or maybe knowing some will be in your future) should check out the tape trick. An ingenious idea if you ask me. Also of interest is definitive proof that the study that linked vaccines with autism is totally fake.

I was sent this link by some friends from down under of pictures of massive flooding in Australia.

And lastly, if you're a hockey fan you need to check out this Puck Daddy post for something I'll bet none of us have ever seen before.

[Shrek] Go get 'em Joe!

There is nothing worse to a writer than to see your work stolen by someone else.

Now I'm not talking about someone "borrowing" your words and then giving you credit, because there isn't much cooler than that. I'm talking about people just out and out stealing your words and then claiming they are their own. It's happened to me on the hockey and sports blogs I contribute to, and I've had message board posts "stolen" and added to newspaper/blog stories without credit being given.

Each time it's happened I've gone after the people responsible to get the credit I felt I deserved. The vast majority of time it just takes one e-mail and all is resolved, but occasionally it takes what would seem to be more effort than it's worth. But I do it anyway.

Now I don't know who "Joe" is, other than he's the writer that owns a site called Backyard-Hockey.com. It's a nice little site with lots of good stories that he obviously takes a lot of time preparing, and I read it whenever there's a new post.

So I was pretty disgusted when there was a post on backyard-hockey saying the Manchester Union Leader plagiarized one of backyard-hockey's stories. Now it did turn out that one e-mail set everything mostly straight, but it still amazes me that someone could be dumb enough to take content from a niche site and think that anyone interested in reading the information wouldn't recognize the information as coming from a blog dedicated to that topic. It also amazes me they offered no apology.

So, on behalf of the Union Leader, allow me to apologize to Joe...I'm sorry there are lazy writers that try to steal the content and hard work of others, and I'm sorry that what was once a proud newspaper but is now a shell of its former self couldn't say the words "we apologize" to you.