Holy crap!  It's been about a year since my last post.  I guess being gainfully employed will keep you from aimlessly rambling on about the random jetsam and flotsam that floats by during the day.  Now, I'm jobless again, and so, I'm baaaaack!  Yeah...woo!

I guess it's not a bad time to recap what's happened in the year that was.  Well, on the suck-butt side, Benghazi, Hurricane Sandy, Michael Clark Duncan died, and some disenchanted immigrants from MY OWN NEIGHBORHOOD decided to blow up the Boston Marathon (punk-asses).  Oh, and somehow I picked up whooping cough.  Yeah, I KNOW!!!

In the 'Not Great, but we'll take it!", category: Meteor exploded over Russia (more cool videos), a new less stick-up-the-butt Pope, a new British prince, and someone invented the Cro-nut (half croissant, half donut, that I've not had yet, but seriously, how could it not be awesome?).

I'm sure some awesome things happened, as well, but like all things wonderful, you won't see them on the news.

So what have YOU been doing this last year?

"Street" Art - Stony Brook Fine Arts- JP

Here is some awesome art I saw on my way to an
early morning drinking session tour of Sam Adams Brewery with my friends, the Multers! We passed the Stony Brook Fine Arts School on our way up to the brewery from the Orange line, and were amazed by these incredible sculptures!  Love the anatomically correct David!  I was also dazzled by these polar bears.

Check out the full album here.

Oh yeah, I TOTALLY recommend visiting the Sam Adams Brewery!  The tours are free and incredibly informative.  They teach you all about how they make beer and how many competitions they've won.  They're understandably proud, but the absolute best part of the tour is the tasting.  I must say I have NEVER tasted such fresh tasting beer!  It was like pure yum.  You'll never tolerate skunky yuk beer again.

After Sam Adams, we realized that we needed to keep the buzz going, so after lunch at Quincy Market, we mosey'd on over to Harpoon Brewery for it' 2pm tasting.  Again, YUM-TASTIC.  If you're not familiar, these guys make tons of different varieties, including IPA, UFO, and special "100 barrel" varieties: meaning small batch special beers.  My fav: Pumpkin UFO.  Again, super fresh (duh, they just made it...), and not crazy overwhelming with the pumpkin and spice.  Subtle.  Yeah.

So, this started about "street" art (not really street art, but visible from the street), but ended up about how my friends made me do ungodly things to my poor liver on a weekday.  Nope, not complaining!  It was an AWESOME day in Boston!

In the News: What REALLY happened

courtesy the Huffington Post

This is the first in a series of weekly news recaps.  Not the news as it is reported on CNN, FOX, etc., but as it REALLY went down.  And I gotta say....this week was a doozie!  Let's begin!

First: The failed art restoration in Spain.  Ok, after you've seen the before and after images...and you've stopped laughing, you have to think, "this is sooooooo fake!".  Yeah, nope.  It's real!  Some genius asked a reandom 80 year old parishoner to "restore" a priceless church artifact, and then was surprised when it came out looking like a capuchin monkey with a broken neck! (see Marcel from Friends ).  Seriously, the picture is so horrible, I can't even look at it anymore.  Ok, one more...*giggle* time!

What the mainstream media thinks happened: Unsupervised church worker misinterprets instructions and destroys priceless art.

What REALLY happened: 80 year old woman is going straight to hell. Seriously, they have burned people at the stake in Spain for less...

Second: Lance Armstrong has given up the fight agains doping charges.  As a result, he'll be stripped of all of his Tour de France titles and banned for life.

Um, yeah.  Everyone in the top tier of cycling dopes.  Even the men who came in second the years that he won have all been involved in their own doping scandals.  Hell, if they eliminated ALL the cyclists that have been caught or accused, they'd be forced to give the trophy to me!  Seriously, I have never doped.  Ok, maybe that one time in college...

In a nutshell, Someone long suspected of cheating decided not to deny it.  He didn't admit it, but since he already got to live the glory, and he's been retired for years anyway, he's decided to go on counting his money and throw the finger at the world.  You know, pull a Manny Ramirez!

What the mainstream media thinks happened: Another American hero, fallen from grace.

What REALLY happened: Not much, really.  It's the equivalent of hearing that there's no Santa Claus, when you're 35 years old.  If you didn't already know, well...I gotta bridge for sale, in Brooklyn.


Finally: Todd Akin: opened his mouth and his stupid ass brain fell out.  Sadly, it was moldy and could not be repaired.  I can totally respect a pro-life person who says, " I believe life begins at conception, and that abortion is murder.  Period.  Although rape and incest are horrible crimes that can and do result in unwanted pregnancies, I still hold fast in my belief that abortion is wrong." But when some old fuddy duddy starts saying things like "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.", that's just indefensible.  Dude, you're ignorant, and should have drank a little Red Bull before dozing off during Health/Biology class!

What the mainstream media thinks happened: a pro-life Senate hopeful opened his mouth, said something stupid, and probably killed any chance of winning this upcoming election.

What REALLY happened: dumb people go far in America.  My prayer: that this dorkus malorkus does NOT get elected.  Praying REAL hard....

Now don't you feel enlightened?  I'll try to do another next week, if Hurricane Isaac doesn't wipe us all off the face of the earth in the next week. :-)

When you think things can't get worse...

Photo Courtesy of Discover Magazine

...they usually do!  

2012 has been a crazy year.  At the beginning, I thought all the Armageddon stories were just crazy talk!  But now, I'm not so sure.

Since the beginning of the year, I've seen so many of my friends, including myself, struggle.  Lost jobs, spouses, pets, relatives, self-esteem, by the bucket load.  One day, a dear friend lamented on the fact that everyone around him seemed to be struggling, then a day later, he called to tell me his brother was in the hospital, at death's door!  Fortunately, he's been stabilized, but one can't fault a person for thinking things are going to hell in a hand basket!

But, I choose to stay positive.  It's not easy, but life is hard enough.  I'm not going to help the universe hold me down.  Everytime you get knocked down, it gets a little harder to get back up, however, the alternative is staying down.  Yeah, not liking that option.  I hope and pray that 2012 gets better for everyone.  If not, please Mayans, let's get this over quick!  ;-) Just kidding.

Hand-written

These days, writing seems so quaint. Quite old fashioned, putting pen to paper. However, it also seems so much more real and authentic - an extension of your thoughts, direct from your brain, down your arm to the wrist, fingers, then out through the pen. A minute alteration of motion between your wrist and hand determines whether your words are legible or chicken scratch. Changing pressure against the pad indicates emotional swings the words are ill-equipped to convey. How differently we write when we know someone else will need to decipher our codes.

I guess I could wax poetic on the benefits of the hand-written word vs. the cold uniformity of the computer screen. Especially easy while sitting out in a sunny spot, pad & pen, scribbling away. How much easier it is to lug this pad around than my laptop. Glare is not an issue when the sun shines brightly down upon my pad. It feels right and natural, like a laptop never could. And so I write and feel and write. Ah, the old callus between my middle and ring finger on my "write" hand is long gone, but after a few minutes clutching this pen, I feel its ghost. Nothing light and gentle about my grasp.

Click HERE to see/read the handwritten original.

How HOT is it?

...Hotter than two goats in a pepper patch
...hotter than a half-bred fox in a forest fire.
...hotter than an armadillo's hide at a West Texas picnic on the Fourth of July.

You get the point! Add one in the comments!

You will do as I ask! Mouuahhh!

Nettie has the mid-summer blues. Nettie needs ideas. What should Nettie write about? On what issue would you like to know Nettie's opinion? Oh, she'll share! Obey and make a suggestion! You may be disappointed, but probably not. Nettie is pretty awesome. ;-)