Bugatti Veyron

The Bugatti Veyron.

Look, I'm not a gear head ... cars are nice and I appreciate a good car but it's not really a big deal to me.

And then there's the Bugatti Veyron.

I had never heard of this car until I saw a piece on BBC America's Top Gear.

Oh.

My.

God.

A few statistics:

1. It costs about $1.55 million ... yes, you read the right ... "million".
   
2. It is currently the fastest, most powerful and most expensive production car in the world.
   
3. It has two, four-liter V8 engines and four turbo chargers.
   
4. It's rated at 1,000 horsepower ... 1,000 HP!
   
5. Goes 0 - 60 mph in 2.5 seconds and has a top speed of 252 mph, which comes to 373 feet per second.
   
6. Its gas mileage is rated at 8 mpg/city and 13 mpg/highway. At full throttle, it would empty its tank in about 12 minutes.
   
7. On average, drivers hit 7th gear at around 252 mph at which the engine is taking in 10,000 gallons of air per minute.
   
8. The engine (which is mounted in the middle, rear of the car) doesn't have a cover but it does have 10 radiators: three to cool the engine itself, three for the inter-coolers, one for the rear axle oil, one for the engine oil, one for the differential oil and one for the hydraulic fluid used to raise the car's rear spoiler.
   
9. The control stalks for the windshield wipers and directionals are made of a magnesium-aluminum alloy and cost almost $7,000 ... each.
   
10. It costs $7.5 million to make one car.

I have to admit that, even not being a gear head ... if I had all the money in the world, I'd have one of these in my garage.

How slow IS time, anyway?

I'm posting this because I can ... the reaction of the other newscasters is priceless!

Glenn Beck is a dumbass ... Keith Olbermann is not

Now THAT'S dedication!

Regular readers (if there are any) of this space know that I'm a huge gamer with the Xbox 360 and in particular, I like FPS (first person shooter) games (altho lately I'm obsessed with Tiger Woods PGA 2010).

Anyway, one of my all-time fave games is Bioshock. When it came out a couple of years ago, I could barely put it down ... it's creepy, violent and gorgeously rendered with a great story line ... in other words, perfect.

Well, there are fans like me and then there are FANS. Check out this guy's blog about how he built a costume of one of the characters in the game, Big Daddy. Just amazing.

As it's always been or a new way of life?

I live in a city of about 40,000 and it's not unusual to see people picking though trash looking for cans. Monday is trash collection day in my neighborhood so this is when you will see people walking up and down the street.

Usually it's two middle-aged men or an Asian couple who look like they're in the mid to late 40s.

This morning I saw this woman, whom I'd never seen before. She walked slowly up the street and spent quite a bit time at my neighbor's trash across the street.
Unfortunately for her she picked the wrong week to come to our street because next week is recycling pickup and there are much more cans and bottles to be had.

I couldn't help but watch her while standing in the shadows of my house. She worked slowly but methodically and what was odd was that suddenly I realized I was standing there hold my camera shooting a picture of her through the screen door. Honestly, I don't remember getting the camera, turning it on or even lining up the shot. It wasn't until I heard the first click of the camera that I realized what I was doing.

Standing there watching I wondered to myself about her circumstances ... the economy is still struggling, is she, too? Does she do this just to make a little extra money? Is it something she has to do to support herself ... her family?

I was struck with the urge to give her the $30 I have in my wallet and I'm not sure why I didn't ... I just didn't.

Watching her further I wondered how long she had been doing this. I would guess it's been some time because the wagon she was pulling just didn't look like something rigged together recently.

Not sure where I'm really going with this. I guess it's one thing to see people on a main city street picking through trash but it's another thing entirely to see it in your neighborhood.

New brew

A couple of weeks ago, Kell and I and another couple went to a beer festival at the Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester, MA. There were about two dozen different breweries there (mostly micro brews) which offered samples of their wares.

If you've never been to something like this, here's how it works ... you buy a ticket (in this case, $35 for a drinking ticket, $5 for a designated driver ticket) and you get a 4-ounce "glass" (read: plastic) cup that vendors fill as you try their different beers, ales, stouts, etc. Most vendors had several different brews available so you get to try a real variety of their offerings.

Oh yeah, and there's food, but whatever.

After walking around for an hour and trying most of the vendors, I think I've found my new favorite beer company, the Cape Ann Brewery in Gloucester, MA. Wow, was this stuff good.

They have five main offerings and we sampled the IPA (excellent) but then they had their Fisherman's Tea Party and Fisherman's Greenhorn Double IPA ... ho-lee CRAP. The Greenhorn was amazing, but the Tea Party is hands down one of the best beers I've ever had.

According to brew master, he researched the types of teas that were thrown into the Boston Harbor during the Boston Tea Party and used those three teas in brewing the beer. It's like drinking iced tea but with a beer flavor. Just amazing.

So, needless to say the four of us are planning a day trip to the brewery for some growlers. Giddy up!

Moving closer to four decades

This year I'm going to be 40 years old ... and I have to say it's not really a big deal to me ... sorta.

It's not a big deal in the sense of being 40 means I'm old, because I'm not. Honestly, I had a much more difficult time when I turned 29 knowing that I was going to be 30 the next year.

The idea of turning 40 just doesn't bother me. As a smart-ass friend of mine (who's birthday is Dec. 22, exactly 5 months to the day after mine and will also be 40 this year) likes to remind me, I'll be 40 before him. But, as I like to tell him, I may be 40 before him, but he'll always look older than me (he went salt-and-pepper looooong before I started).

But News Year's Day got me to thinking about this whole turning 40 thing and a party I went to last night put it in even more perspective.

I realized last night that I have three basic groups of friends: ones that are older than me, ones around my age, and another that are younger.

My wife, Kelley, is five years my senior so when we hang out with her friends that she's known since high school, I'm always the youngest in the crowd because Kell is one of the youngest in this group. Last night age came up and I said I was turning 40 this year and some were mockingly aghast saying they had seen 40 a long time ago. It's funny because until the issue is brought up and I realize that some of these people are almost 10 years older than me, age isn't a big deal. I guess it still isn't ... until some of them like to joke that I'm still a "youngster."

Then there's the group of friends who are younger ... much younger in some cases. Kell has become friendly with some of her co-workers at school and it's been great getting to know and hanging out with them. To put the age difference in perspective, Kell graduated high school in 1982 and one of her co-workers was born that year. We were sitting around recently and heard Van Halen's "Jump" on the radio and I said I could remember exactly where I was when I bought that album on vinyl in 1983. One of our friend's girlfriend's looked at me and said, "Wow, I wasn't even born yet." Yeah, I felt a little old then.

But, much like the "older" group, age really isn't a big deal and it's not something we really think about ... until we start teasing Kell that she really is the oldest in this circle. Thankfully, she couldn't care less (still, it's fun to remind her).

Finally, the third group are people around my age (within two or three years). Some of them are lamenting pushing towards 40 until they realize that I'm going to get there first, then they don't seem to feel so bad. But some in that group are far more grayer than I am or have less hair than I do, so I have that going for me, which is nice ... LOL.

Anyway, as I think about 40, it feels like I'm turning more into an adult. My 20s were spent largely trying to figure out who I was and what I wanted to do professionally. As I moved through my 30s, I got married, bought a house and became a dad, things that make you grow up and mature very quickly.

So I'm looking at 40 and it feels like the beginning of another chapter. I think this is going to be the part of my life where I really establish who I am as a person, husband and father. My life hasn't been just about me since Kell and I got married in 2000 and it became even less so when Joey was born in 2004. By the time I'm 50, Joey will be a teenager(!) and Kell and I will celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary.

Yup, should be a fun decade.

I missed that cookie smell

Finally, I feel-good story about the economy!

My favorite Christmas ornament

Unless Santa brings me a Jack Daniel's ornament, this one is the fave so far ...

EDIT: It's one of my faves.

Jack Frost nipping at your turkey

It's Nov. 22 and there's a dusting of snow on the ground this morning ... like, Holy unsually cold weather, Batman!

And to think last Saturday I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt because it was 70 outside.

I'm gonna be a good driver

I just heard this story and had to share it. File this one under kids-say-the-darndest-things ...

A co-worker related the following conversation he had with his 10-year-old son:

Son: "Dad, some day I'm going to be a good driver."
My Friend: "Oh yeah, how do you know that?"
Son: "Well, I did pretty good driving the golf cart the other day, right?"
My Friend: "Yeah, I guess you're right."
Son: "The only problem is the golf cart didn't have a prindle."
My Friend: "Um, a what?"
Son: "You know, a prindle ... the P-R-N-D-L thing in the middle of the front seat of the car."

Classic!

If ever there was a reality check ...

For those who may think that the problems with the economy are being blown out of proportion or just aren't as bad as they actually are, read this story posted on cnn.com.

What strikes me after reading this is that incidents like those described in the story (people killing themselves because of foreclosures and financial problems) could become more prevalent. Scary ... very scary.

Sign o' the times

So my commute takes me over a bridge everyday and as I make the left turn over the bridge, a gas station's sign is at eye level ... it's one of those tall, rectangular signs that electronically displays the station's prices.

I've been watching the price fall fairly steadily for the past week or so and this morning I saw this: $2.99 for regular unleaded.

How sad is it that I'm this excited that gas is "only" $2.99 a gallon?!?

Wow.

DEFCONOMY 3 ... 2 ... 1 ... ?

As I'm sure many others have been doing lately, I've been paying a lot of attention to the turmoil surrounding the U.S. economy and the president's $700 billion bailout proposal.

I don't usually watch the president when he's on TV because without fail, every time I see the man speak, I always think (even eight years later), "I can't believe this guy is our president." But, I was watching TV last night at when he came on at 9 p.m., I watched because I wanted to see what he was going to say about the disaster that is our economy.

Just when I thought I couldn't feel any worse about our current situation ... hearing that he has little support (even from within his own party) for this plan makes it all that much more depressing. As stated on many websites, in articles and by talking heads lately, Wall Street has had a party for the last decade and now the U. S. taxpayers are going to pay the price to the tune of $700 billion.

Virginia Rep. Tom Davis (no relation) said it best when he was quoted as saying that the president's plan is the worst he's ever seen but there is no other plan.

Wow ... just, wow.

Glenn Beck of CNN Nightly News wrote a piece about the plan and introduces a new phrase that, as things continue to worsen (which they likely will) could become part of the lexicon used by everyone: DEFCONOMY.

And folks, we are rapidly reaching DEFCONOMY 1, which would be the next Great Depression.

Much like DEFCON 1 (Defense Condition 1), which is the highest alert status at which the U.S. armed forces can be set, DEFCONOMY 1, according to Beck, is the step at which this country's economy is standing on the edge of the cliff with one foot in the air.

Never in my life did I ever think I'd see something like this. I remember as a kid growing up the recession of the '80s and the economic downturns of the 1990s, but I never thought I'd see the economy at the verge of collapse. I remember my grandparents talking about living through the Great Depression of the 1930s and how there was almost a fairy tale-like quality to their stories.

But it was real ... very real and here we are again. The U.S. is (supposed to be) the greatest free market economy in the world and when the stock market crashed in 1929, it started the domino effect that led to the world-wide Great Depression. And if you know your history at all, you know how the global economy recovered back then ... World War II. Nothing like a war-based economy to reverse an economic collapse.

Ye gods. Could it really come to that again? I mean, look at what has happened within the past couple of weeks ... the economy tanks and the rest of the world's free markets swoon in response. Not good ... not good.

And I don't even want to know what my 401k looks like right now. A co-worker looked up hers last week and says the value of her 401k is down 27%. Ho-lee crap.

Then I came across this ... we bought our house six years ago for $151,000. There are six houses on the street that were built by the same builder within a few years of each other (circa 1924) and they're virtually identical (Dutch colonial). The house two doors up from us (which is more updated than ours) went on the market a few months ago for ... $150K.

I keep looking at Joey and wondering what kind of world he's going to inherit and I never factored the economic future into that until now. I keep hearing how the baby boomers are going to clean out the Social Security system so that my generation will see nothing of what they contributed. If that's the case, what is Joey's generation going to face?

And not for nothing, but ... picked this up from the Doonesbury website on which is quoted part of the Republican Party platform for 2008:

"We do not support government bailouts of private institutions. Government interference in the markets exacerbates problems in the marketplace and causes the free market to take longer to correct itself."

Sweep the leg, Johnny!

Even if you've ever only seen "The Karate Kid" once, this video is brilliant. The band is called No More Kings and apparently they're fans of the movie juuuuuust a little. Well worth seven minutes of your time ... and every time you watch it, you see something new.

Sage advice

A flute with no holes is not a flute ... a doughnut with no hole ... is a danish.

Happy 4th!

Today's the day the US celebrates its birthday, which means most people have the day off and (weather permitting) spend it outside grilling various meats and imbibing assorted libations.

As I type this, it's cold and rainy here in the Boston area (just barely 70 degrees) so not sure how much BBQ-ing is going to happen today ... we'll see.

And oh yeah ... Muno rules.

At a Last Supper far, far away ...

Hmmm ... seems to be a bit of a Star Wars theme going on here today.



Click the image for larger version.

What a feeling!

Boba Fett taps into his inner steel worker ...

Mandalorian Dance

I heart Jerry Remy

Jerry Remy is a former second baseman for the Boston Red Sox has been a Sox broadcaster for the past 20 years.

This is, without a doubt, one of the funniest things that's ever happened to him on live TV ...