Happy Thanksgiving!

In honor of today.



This is the only acceptable holiday music for today.

Wordless Wednesday

PS: Happy Thanksgiving everyone ^_^

Music Monday - Stuff I'm Digging Lately

10 Songs I've been abusing as of late :)

1. Mama's Broken Heart - Miranda Lambert - This song would have come in handy for the three days it applied in September, I'm tellin ya. Plus, this will be fun once it's been out a while so karaoke DJs have a version - Miranda Lambert is my karaoke thang :)
2. What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger - Kelly Clarkson - Same goes for this song, plus I'm really excited to see her in concert on December 1st.
3. Sunday - Sia - I've been watching a lot of back episodes of Grey's Anatomy on Netflix lately, and this is a classic in Grey's lore.
4. Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites - Skrillex - I love cranking this in the car.
5. Heartbeat - The Fray- They will be opening for Kelly Clarkson at the concert I'm going to. So yay on that.
6. What You Want - Evanescence - We have gone far too long without some slammin guitars with Amy Lee's voice soaring over. Welcome back to Evanescence.
7. Sail - Awolnation - The synth in this is almost borderline annoying but it's pretty catchy.
8. This City - Patrick Stump - As a FOB fan in mourning of their "hiatus", I will take my fix of this man's voice however I can get it. I dig his solo sound. Very non-pedo MJ-esque. Plus Patrick has made me speechless in person - and has given the boy reason to mock me for the rest of my life. Seriously, if we go to a concert and meet the band, he talks for me because he doesn't trust me to not be starstruck and not fuck it up.
9. You Make Me Feel - Cobra Starship - as much as I want to hate this song because it's not like old Cobra, I can't. It's too damn catchy.
10. Open Happiness - Brendon Urie, Cee Lo Green, Janelle Monáe, Patrick Stump & Travis McCoy - I realize this is a glorified Coke commercial, but it contains Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco, and Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy fame. That's all that matters to me, because the voices of those two will forever have a special place in my heart for getting me through a ton of crap when I was younger.

Scenes from the Weekend

Lazy weekend, the highlight of which was getting up at the crack of dawn and going on a bird watch with the boy as he needed to make up an Ecology lab day.

Okay, and maybe going to hang out with Liz was a highlight too...but there weren't many pictures taken during our shopping trip.

Only two days of work this week (yay!), of course that means Monday and Tuesday are going to DRAG.

Things I Don't Understand: eBook Edition

I may have mentioned a time or two or six how much I love my Nook Color. The one thing that sucks about it, though, is that books for it are NOT cheap. The same goes for the Kindle, except, for the most part, Kindle books tend to be slightly cheaper on the Kindle. In the grand scheme of things $10 or $12 for a new release isn't THAT much, but it adds up when you're a voracious reader like me.

I understand with a new release, publishers pretty much want to gouge the crap out of you. I expect to pay a premium for a new release. There are few books I actually HAVE TO HAVE as new releases, so to me, that's whatever.

What I don't get, or appreciate, is when Barnes & Noble gets off charging MORE for an eBook than the paperback equivalent. There is very little production cost to prepare an eBook - digitize the cover and format it to be eReader friendly. Real books require printing, shipping, and all that jazz. Maybe I'm just a greedy consumer that wants everything cheaper, but it doesn't feel right to be paying more for a digital copy than an actual tangible, physical copy. I get pissed when I see an $8 price on an eBook, when directly above, I see that they're offering the paperback for $4.50. Especially, when I can see if my local B&N has the book, and if they do, have them set it aside for me for pickup at that price...no shipping...and swing by after work since I drive by a B&N on my way to and from work, it's not out of my way or anything. Completely ridiculous.

Possibly more expensive than a crack addiction ;)

I'm sure it's probably not B&N's fault, I'm sure it's the publisher being greedy and taking advantage of the blossoming popularity of the format, but really? They really should let B&N drop the Nookbook price when the physical copy is cheaper than the virtual equivalent.

I'm grateful for Nook Friends, wherein you can lend and borrow books from people's Nooks - I joined a Facebook group that keeps a running list of people's emails so you can add scads of Nook Friends at a time, I have at least 500 now...so there's a pretty expansive list of LendMe books to choose from. Sometimes LendMe's can be a let down though, because rarely is a popular bestseller lendable - a lot of the lendable titles come from PubIt, their self-publishing service - so you have to keep an eye out that you aren't borrowing some slap chop hack of a book that someone published just to say "Oh hey, I have an eBook published". However, some gems are lendable, like "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell" by Tucker Max, and Chelsea Handler's book about one night stands.

Another good thing is that my local library participates in eBook lending with a whole slew of other libraries in Connecticut. The selection is minimal now, but it's growing - and they have a handful of newer books that I want to read, for free - although the waiting lists are like 15 people long, and when you do finally get to borrow the book, you can select the lending period to be a week, 2, or 3...so how long the wait will be  with 4 eBook copies in circulation is up for debate. I wish I was able to obtain a card for the New York Public Library, their eBook collection is very, very impressive...sadly, my delusion of one day living there is not enough to get one :/

Barnes and Noble also offers a free book every Friday, but those are definitely hit or miss.

Even though there are alternatives to forking over for eBooks, I think publishers and sellers need to re-evaluate pricing strategies, especially when the price of the physical copy drops below what is being charged for digital.

Music Monday - Fastest Girl in Town

There will always be a part of me that's just a little redneck. My parents - well, mostly my mom, listened to a lot of country when I was little, so it always takes me back to a simpler time. Granted, Miranda Lambert is a whole other animal compared to what my mom mostly played, but Miranda Lambert is, in my opinion, the epitome of what country should be - rocking, with a little twang. Not this wussy Rascal Flatts crap. I seriously want to gouge my eardrums out with a rusty scalpel any time I hear that guy's voice. In my opinion, Rascal Flatts are the country equivalent of Nickelback - aka a big fat joke.

I ordered a concert ticket a few weeks back, and when it showed up, it came with a free trial of eMusic with a $12.50 credit, so I picked up Miranda Lambert's new album Four The Record. I loved it as much as the last 3.

Here's "Fastest Girl In Town":


Enjoy :)

Wordless Wednesday

I'll take "Redundancy" for $200, Alex.

Redundancy in Downtown Torrington (Click to Enlarge)

Dear Dollar General,
Happy Dollar has been a Torrington Plaza fixture since I moved to Torrington in 1999, and probably LONG before. You probably should have picked a better location...maybe even ACROSS the plaza would be better.
Sincerely,

Confused in Harwinton

Seriously though, there are enough Dunkin Donuts, package stores (liquor stores if you're unfamiliar), and DOLLAR STORES in Torrington. There is no need for the Dollar Store to be next to another one!

Connecticut Light and Power: National Joke

Like I posted earlier this week, I was lucky enough to get my electricity back on Tuesday. However, some people STILL don't have power eight days after the storm. In the interim, however, CL&P talking heads have made up every last excuse in the book.

First they said other states weren't responding as they expected for mutual aid. Well...when you haven't paid the aid from Irene two months ago, WTF do you expect Mr. Butler?

Then they decided to blame local meteorologists, and complained that the storm deviated from the forecast. I think every TV met in the state of Connecticut has called bullshit on that one, and someone up at CL&P's parent company decided to start an argument with one of the meteorologists on his Facebook page. Hmm, how about instead of accusing a meteorologist of having selective memory regarding this storm (when his own damn blog proves otherwise) we figure out a way to restore everyone's power by 11:59pm tonight - a goal most people, including myself, are skeptical about. GET THE HELL OFF FACEBOOK AND DIRECT THOSE OUT OF STATE CREWS. Another local reporter interviewed an out of state crew who claimed they sat for hours, being paid $47 an hour, without any instructions as to what to do/who to repair.

Their leadership is atrocious, and I really think that Malloy and Attorney General Jepsen should be calling for Jeff Butler...and every other CL&P executive's head on a silver platter after this fiasco. It would give Jepsen a good way to prove he's a shark that won't stand for Connecticut getting screwed, like his predecessor Blumenthal did.

For the love of God, I hope these morons restore their maintenance budget - if they hadn't cut the tree trimming budget, we wouldn't be in this situation. They should also put some thought into upgrading infastructure (aka BURYING THE DAMN LINES - I was outside Philly for Irene where lines were buried and power did not flicker once, here at home no power for 2 days - some people a week and a half), I'm not asking for instantaneous underground lines, just make it a capital improvement project...do it slowly!

And finally, if you still have no power, don't give the truck crews shit, it's not their fault - direct your anger at corporate bigheads. Occupy CL&P HQ in Berlin, anyone?

Let there be light

3 days without light, heat, flushing toilets, or showers is quite enough thank you.
At this point I could care less that we have no cable/internet. I have never been so happy to see light or take a shower. Ever.
However, between this storm and Irene, Connecticut Light & Power needs to SERIOUSLY consider upgrading the ancient infastructure/power grid. 2 storms in 2 months where some people were and will be powerless for upwards of a week is disgusting. Let me tell you...laying in bed in a house with no heat when it's 20 degrees out after we get a foot of snow is no fun.
I suppose there's reasons why it hasn't been done...but CL&P needs to bury more lines. Winter, summer, or any season between there is less opportunity for line damage from trees. For the bulk of Irene, I was just outside of Philadelphia, and the power did not flicker once - and there, it was still a hurricane. We get home, and we're out for 2 days.
Either way, I'm glad I won't be freezing my ass off in a sub 50 degree house tonight. Fingers crossed that CL&P removes their heads from their asses, pays the people who helped them after Irene, and gets power restored to everyone ASAP. A week or more out in 80 degree weather sucks. Try now, when it's between 25 and 30 at night. They need all the help they can get and pissing off past help is not good.