Personal

"A Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy." Wasn't that the description of Long Island in some movie a while back?  Ugh! It's definitely a cultural wasteland of strip malls, big box retailers and bland chain restaurants. Not to mention ugly cookie cutter houses, bad drainage and poor land use planning. Guess where we went yesterday? What should have been a pleasant day out for Salomé and I became a reminder of everything I hate about suburbia as we drove out to the father-in-law's place in Bethpage so the kids could hang in the pool while we caught a movie. Instead, torrential downpours…

In lieu of an actual post, here's some insight... Personality Read and post comments | Send to a friend

"I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult."--E. B. White Spindle I have a tendency to be a bit impulsive at times; to jump into things without thinking them through, flying by the seat of my pants and depending on a varying combination of adrenaline and determination, a dash of guile, and the invigorating pressure of an impending deadline to push me across the finish line. Usually the results are pretty good, though quite often it's the equivalent of the "B+" paper that could have been an…

Would you go on vacation by yourself, and if so where would you go?Submitted by Sean & Stefan. New Mexico Assuming money's no object, I'd start in New Mexico, rent a real Jeep and spend two weeks driving throughout the Southwest -- NM, Arizona, Texas, down into Mexico -- taking in as many cities and open spaces as I could, never spending more than a night or two in any one place. That's the most beautiful part of the country, I think, and I'd love to just soak it all in with no particular schedule of places to go or things to do, the Incredible Hulk…

It's been a month since I started going back to the gym, and though my weight loss has pretty much come to a halt at 183lbs, I can definitely see the difference as I'm starting to tone up, and feel the difference as my stamina continues to  improve each week.  My complete workout is roughly 60 minutes -- 5-10 minutes of stretching, situps and push-ups; 15-20 minutes on the Nautilus machines; 35 minutes on the elliptical bike -- and it's quickly gone from a tough slog that I had to force myself not to cheat on, to an invigorating session that I've had to…

...the way I hate cheap beer. In the right setting, nothing beats a cold PBR in a can. Plus, I was tagged. First the housekeeping. The rules of this meme are:1. Let others know who tagged you.2. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.3. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.4. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged. And now, eight things: 1) My MOS in the Army was 63B1P, which means I was a light wheel vehicle mechanic/paratrooper, which means I jumped out of airplanes that…