The Big DumpTruck

This is not good. I have things to do! I have to drive to the vet because we accidentally left our game guide to Little Big Planet there the other day and at midnight last night I got very frustrated because I couldn't make a piston work by proximity trigger and the book would have helped!

I also want to go to the book store because I have a gift card burning a hole in my pocket. The good kind of errands. We're supposed to go to my sister's this evening, so do I take the pot roast and throw it in the crock pot this morning in case we can't make it? Of course, I have no idea how much we're expecting, either.

I am in the mood for a brownie and it's only ten a.m. Do you think a piece of toast will fill that hole?

Labels: games, lbp, weather

I am doing the happy happy joy joy dance! 5 more days off in a row! Who doesn't love that?

Labels: holidays, Vacation

I'm sorry, but it's an addiction I'm willing to live with. I love this game so much that I would pay $400 for it, if I had $400. If you have $400, you can afford to get a Playstation 3 and a copy of the game to go with it. And after you do that, come here and we can talk about Little Big Planet, because that's what I do these days.

That and look for snack foods. Do you have any of those?

I have never liked AOL. I was a CompuServe person back in the day, so that's me admitting my bias. However, they just screwed with everyone who was hosting a website on AOL but just shutting the damned service down on October 31st without any notice, or any way for the users to grab their files. This is the problem with creating a website and hosting it on a service where you don't have control over the files in any way shape or form. (Disclosure: I use Blogger software for this website, but I host it on my own server space, and I have full access/ownership of all the files.)

There was a site hosted on AOL's service (I think they called it "Hometown") that was an unbelievable resource to Leominster, Leominster residents, descendants of Leominster residents, and anyone interested in genealogy. The site was Sue Gardner's Genealogy Garden. Sue documented Leominster's history, the people who lived here, and details about those families for years on that site. It was an invaluable resource. Sadly, Sue died several years ago, but the site was still alive, and people used it for researching their families, keeping Sue's work and spirit alive. And now, AOL just shut the whole thing off, and there appears to be no way to get that work salvaged to be stored elsewhere. If I had known, I would have offered to help Sue's family pull the content and I would have been happy to host it here on the Big DumpTruck. In fact, if they have a backup, or a way to access it, and they need a new home for it, I would be happy to not only host it here, but to pay for a domain name to point to it.

I don't know who in her family would have the stuff, or if anyone ever goes out on the web looking up Leominster genealogy, but I will put the offer out there, as I'm personally very sad that all the information about my own family is now lost because AOL is run by a bunch of snot-nosed buttheads.

Labels: genealogy, Leominster

Do you know how big a bus is???!!!

Meet Toby Jones, he'll store anything you want for $10.99.

Labels: funny, video

I think this is one of the lower points for me. People who know me would be shocked at how little "Christmassy" stuff I've done.

But I know there could possibly at least one person out there who cares about my annual Christmas music extravaganza. I only bought one new album this year - Straight No Chaser's "Holiday Spirits." Sure, you've probably seen their Internet video of the 12 Days of Christmas. You have, admit it. The album is pretty traditional, aside from that one song. If you like acapella, or hell, even if you don't, you will love this one. Three thumbs up.

It wasn't supposed to snow today. I don't want it to snow today. If I wanted daily snow I'd move to the mountains. Or Antarctica.

Mr. Dump is on grocery detail because we never really completely restocked after having to dump everything in the fridge and freezer from the ice storm. Sigh.

You know, technically this is still fall. And that makes this the WORST FALL EVER. An ice storm that has left some people without power a whole week later, and today a snow storm. Followed by another one Sunday. It will probably now snow every day from now until groundhog Day.

Please note I did not say I WANT it to. I'm saying it probably will. Big difference.

I heard a commercial on regular radio today for XM/Sirius (or Sirius/XM, or Sexius. Hmmm. They should have called it Sexius.) They were trying to convince me to buy their service because of all the stations they provide, including, apparently, an all-Elvis station.

Okay, are there really that many people out there thinking that an all-Elvis station is the one thing they are missing from their lives? Do people even listen to Elvis in that kind of quantity anymore? I have no issue with a random Elvis song every once in a while, but an all-Elvis station would gnaw on my nerves pretty quickly. Also, the people who are paying for Sexius, are they in the Elvis target demographic? Elvis was popular 50 years ago. His original fan base is pushing 70 or even 80. Are they listening to WBCN in the afternoon, hearing the ad, and ordering satellite radio?

I mean, maybe they are. I was in it for Red Sox games and Opie and Anthony. Anything is possible.

Labels: radio

I uploaded a handful of the photos I took yesterday while we were out and about looking for someplace with electricity who could sell us some coffee, preferably hot and in a cup with a lid. The pictures don't do the view justice, but it's the best I have to offer you, my adoring fans. Do me a favor and click on the link and at least look at a couple of the other ones so that I don't have to post them all here. You don't want that, do you?

I believe we were in the Sterling area when I took this one. There was a soul-crushing amount of ice on the trees in that town.

Labels: ice_storm, photos

The view this morning. Power went out around 11:30pm last night - it is still off. My iPhone connects me to the web while hypothermia sets in. It's so freaking cold in the house.

This is odd. But I should expect no less. Background: I had two movies that scared me when I was a kid sort of stuck in the back of my mind for 800 years.

I signed up for a free trial of Netflix (after my friends just raved) and I found one of them - The Innocents - and re-scared myself again. The other one I only have fleeting memories of. Once upon a time I worked pretty hard to identify, given I could only remember a couple of scenes. At the time I narrowed it down to one movie that had the closest desciption to what I remembered.

So I was just looking at the new release list on NetFlix, and there is the OTHER movie. What will I have as a goal if I watch this movie and no longer have to search for it??

(the movie is called The Shuttered Room.)

Ho ho ho ouch.

I was going to attempt to give you guys a link a day for the December Advent season, as my gift to you. But I forgot to do it Monday and Tuesday and now it seems late.

So I will pass along one of the cooler links I've run into recently. It's a Hubble Telescope Advent calendar. Man oh man, space photos blow me away, ever time. I snipped the url for you, but it points to Boston.com

http://snipurl.com/coolsky

Labels: fun, holidays

On the left are two photos I took with my iPhone and uploaded via the new iPhone Amazon App. Apparently a human looks at the photos of things you see that you might want to buy and tries to match the photo so something amazon sells. The items on the right are the things they felt best matched my photos.

Labels: Amazon, iPhone, shopping