The AI Series: Post #1 - The Singularity is Here/We Are Living in the Singularity

 (part of 1 of my series talking about artificial intelligence. this was initially posted on LinkedIn before I decided that it would be more appropriate in a different space)

image: Blender Studio, Singularity (CC BY 4.0, cropped)

We Are Living in the Singularity

    When you woke up today, you were living in a singularity. I'm talking about the technological singularity, not the other kinds of singularity that evoke black holes, infinity, or objects that are not "well-behaved" (though I admit all of those evoke appropriate sensations for our current societal moment). I first learned about this concept while reading Ray Kurzweil, and it's a heated topic of discussion in certain high-tech circles. I simply think about it as the point in time when the pace of technological advancement becomes so rapid that it becomes incomprehensible and arguably impossible to measure. On the graph of technological progress, the curve suddenly goes vertical.

    AI is already driving the kind of dramatic, irreversible change associated with the technological singularity. I hadn't fully gotten my head around it until I read the August 19 letter to Stripe investors, where their execs state that January 1, 2026 marked the beginning of the singularity. They cite all the new companies being started as a piece of evidence.

    If you need more proof, look at the pace of new AI releases and upgrades. New models are arriving constantly, and they keep getting faster, smarter, and cheaper. Things appear to be moving very, very fast.

    I now wake up every day with the ability to learn subject matter faster than I ever have before, create software even though I'm not a trained engineer, and speak with robots that live on my phone and laptop. Today, I'm no less astonished by what I'm able to do and the resources available to me than I was yesterday.

    For me, reading the Stripe letter was the moment I knew that the singularity wasn't near, it was here! Recursive feedback loops are a real thing, and I've seen how they work firsthand. Frontier models are being used to train and improve other models. That's what makes the curve go vertical. The machines are making themselves smarter.

Fear and Laziness

 Considering renaming this blog fear and laziness or maybe making it the subtitle or something

To quote Waking Life (2001):

"Which is the most universal human characteristic: fear, or laziness?" 

I really gotta go back and watch that movie. 

Still here y'all

 davesplat.com back up and working

Caught some fish this year, check me out

this blogger template sure is looking dated though. might have to do something about that.

anyway I look forward to staying in touch. xoxo

Dave's Kayak Journey - The First Kayak - Necky Chatham 17

 I got my first kayak way back in 2010. At the time I was living with my buddy Kane. We only lived together for a couple years, like 2009-2011. He bought a kayak, a yellow Necky Chatham 17. Necky the company doesn't exist anymore. Old Town bought them at some point. Kane's dad also has a house in Chatham, Mass. which is kind of funny.

So he bought this boat. I demoed a Chatham 17 at Charles River Canoe and Kayak. Then I bought the boat. Not 100% sure I bought the exact hull that I demoed, but it was a 2009 model. I still have the boat and paddled it as recently as August 2024. It's been a heck of a run with it. It's blue. I've used 303 Protectant on it religiously, so the hull is still nice and shiny. All of the hatches on it have been replaced, and the foot pegs and seat have needed some minor repairs, but it's held up.

I paddled the boat all around. It was such a trip to be facing forwards after a lifetime of rowing facing backwards. I would even do stuff like drive up from Boston to Southern NH or Southern Maine just to paddle some river. The boat is fast and lightweight. It was relatively easy for me to pick it up and put it on my car. I drove a Subaru and used J bars for transport. I had a nice Werner Shuna fiberglass paddle. I wore a comfortable NRS Chinook PFD because it had two big pockets in the front.

The boat's very low to the water, which I'm actually not crazy about, but it means that it doesn't have a lot of wind resistance, which is important. Kane and I paddled our boats all over. I don't have the energy right now to do a full deep dive into everything I did with it, but I just wanted to briefly chronicle my boat history. Here's what the boat looks like, or, looked like.

Shameless cross promotion

 I'm working on it, I'm working on it. Working on some new blogs. I got stuff in the hopper guys. But there might be a lot of kayak fishing in the near future as that's what I've been focused on day and night.

So, how about some shameless cross promotion - I wrote a blog on Blog Fly Fish that you should check out if you're into or interested in fly fishing from a kayak - 

Gear Reviews – What’s the best kayak rod holder for flyfishing?

My earliest non-motorized watercraft memory

 I like to think of myself as a boatman. Like, heady cyclists call themselves wheelmen. Well, at least I once heard Jeremiah Bishop use the word wheelman. So, I'll use the word boatman. Or, "boat guy." I'm most definitely a boat guy. But not a motorized boat guy. I don't like motors. I do drive a gasoline powered car, but I'll probably switch to electric when the lease is up. My partner drives electric and it's pretty sweet. I'm getting distracted here...

My earliest memory of non-motorized watercraft is canoeing in Western Maine. Growing up we used to go to Rangeley, Maine for two weeks every August. We would stay at North Camps, which is still in existence. I now understand that this was all a ploy by my father who just wanted a place to go fishing. Not entirely though. We ended up coordinating with other families and the same four families would go up every year. There was an unrelated family that had a son named Adam that I became friends with and I would see him every year. He and I were kind of nerds and liked playing the SolarQuest board game.

Annnnnnyway, as part of this two week trip we would do outdoors stuff. We stayed in this old cabin, which was basically an old sporting camp. My brother and I had the whole upstairs to ourselves, which had like six or seven beds. Apparently later in the year during hunting season they would all be occupied by hunters. This was most definitely rustic accommodations. Not fancy. We played a lot of ping pong outside at a warped green table by the water where the wind would blow the ball off the table. We swam at the beach and built rock walls by the shore. 

We went hiking locally at Bald Mountain, Aziscohos Mountain, and Saddleback Mountain. I did not like hiking. Might have had to do with my lousy knees (I now take glucosamine chondroitin every day and don't have chronic leg pain). I don't like getting bug bites, and I would get a lot of mosquito bites. My parents also aren't exactly the crunchy type, nor gear dorks like I am, and so I never had real hiking boots. I remember descending the ski hill at Saddleback wearing Adidas Sambas - the same shoes I wore to play indoor soccer. I just remember the hikes being long, hot, sweaty, buggy, and that I was slow and that the other kids were way faster than I was. It looked like this -

Credit https://tallerthanthetrees.us/2022/08/aziscohos-mountain/

But we did go canoeing. I have an extraordinarily vivid memory or rounding a corner in one of the wilderness rivers there, probably the Kennebago River or the Rangeley River, and coming within a few feet of a full size adult male bull moose drinking water at the riverside. Tthis huge head with antlers lifted up as we passed by, with water dripping from it. Absolutely bonkers. Will probably never experience anything like that again unless I move to Maine or start spending significant parts of my summers there and paddling the rivers more.

We would rent canoes from North Camps. I remember dented, old, beat up, red paint peeling off, aluminum boats. It was a hassle getting them out of the water and up to the bank to the road. But pretty cool that our folks took us out to do that. The boats would have looked like this -

I also remember once paddling across Rangeley Lake. The ol' Google Maps Distance Calculator tells me that the shortest route we would have done would have been a little more than a mile, but it's possible that we went to the far corner, I don't know.

Thanks https://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-distance-calculator.htm

So there ya go, that's my earliest memory of sending it in a boat that didn't have a motor or engine of any kind, where we used our arms or our legs to move the boat. I'm gonna work on other posts about my upbringing and background. I gotta talk about sailing, rowing, sea kayaking, and whitewater kayaking. More to come.

Easing into it

 Unreal - I just read the last post that I published in 2019 and it was about kayak fishing. Time is a flat circle. Or whatever that means. Point being - the last time I wrote a meaningful personal blog it was October 2019 and I had kayak fishing on my mind. Now fast forward 6 plus years and guess what - I'm once again obsessed with kayak fishing. Can't make this stuff up. 

Here's a photo of the boat and my stuff strewn about everywhere on the beach at Sandy Neck in Barnstable Harbor from last Saturday.

I'll get right to the point - in May I took possession of a Vibe Kayaks Hydra 130. This new model was just released in April I believe. I'm not sure how I found out about it. It's possible I read about it in Kayak Angler magazine. I had been searching for a 13-14 foot boat for fishing out of for months. This one fit the bill. I bought it and it arrived a couple weeks later. I've been obsessed with it.

It's actually getting a little out of control. I'm trying to rein it in. Well, not really. I'm beyond stoked about it. Having so much fun. Let me see what I want to talk about first here...

The blog is back y'all

 Sup y'all. Been a minute. I've been writing for the boys over at BlogFlyFish.com for the past few years, but I've been slacking.  I gotta get back on it. In the meantime, I've at least repurchased davesplat.com (pretty dope that noone ever bought the domain so I got a screamin' deal on it). But I'm struggling figuring out how to connect the two. I might just leave it as is and rock the old davesplat.blogspot.com like the old school days.

I got some cleanup to do, fix some broken links etc. But I'm stoked to be back. Maybe this will motivate me to write a fly fish blog too. Let's see how this goes...

Martha's Vineyard part 2

Ah there's a nice photo of a Martha's Vineyard pond. Doesn't that look so nice? That's where I was in September, hanging out.

So we left off the last post with an update on what happened when we arrived. The next day we tried to go out in the powerboat, but the waves were too big and Nantucket Sound was too dangerous. No other boats were out. It was spooky. So we headed back in. Disappointing, but better safe than sorry.

I don't 100% remember how it got suggested, but I ended up taking out our host's fishing kayak. He had a 14 foot Wilderness Systems Tarpon. It was a nice boat. I'm a huge kayak guy. It was my first time on a fishing kayak. It looked something like this.

So, you sit on top of the boat and use a paddle. It doesn't have the foot pedal things. And then there's the rod holder in the middle. So I put my life jacket on (or you can call it a PDF {personal flotation device} if you want to get fancy, put my kayaking gloves on (I can't kayak/canoe/raft without wearing NRS boaters gloves, put my paddling booties on (I'm still wearing some old nasty NRS booties and I ended up losing my paddling socks but that's a different story), put my fishing pack in the back, grabbed a couple beers and a water, and launched.

My fly rod was in the rod holder with a sinking line and a small olive and white clouser minnow. The clouser minnow might be the best known saltwater fly ever made. It's the equivalent of the black woolly bugger for freshwater fishing. This is what it looks like -

It is such a fishy fly. I caught some crazy fish in Hawaii with it. It's a good go to fly for anywhere in the world pretty much.

I was trying to find the birds. See, the birds follow the bait. Where's there's birds there's bait. And where there's bait there's probably bigger fish that we're trying to catch. So I paddled out towards the open water where the birds had been. And by this point I'm trolling. Which means that I let a lot of line out and sort of trail it behind me as I paddle along. I let out probably 80 feet of line or so. And with the sinking action, the fly is riding somewhere below the surface. I probably kind of looked like these dudes.

And lo and behold I hooked up with a bluefish. And then I caught a bunch more striped bass and bluefish. The biggest striper was 23 inches. It was awesome. It was some of the most fun I've had this summer. I didn't keep any fish, but next time I might keep some bluefish, because Rick says he has a smoker and would use the smoker for them.

OK so there's this place called martha's vineyard part 1

Which has nothing to do with Brad Pitt, but whatever.

So there's this place called Martha's Vineyard. It's a great place. I had never been there until a couple years ago. But I have a friend who has a place down there. So i've started going down there. it's an amazing place.

Incidentally, i started fishing three years ago.  Exclusively catch and release fishing. Mostly fly fishing. I'm not a fantastic fly caster, but I'm a decent angler, i'm relatively fishy. I'm not bad at finding fish and fooling fish. I've gotten obsessed with fishing, it's in my blood, and I just never really gave it a chance until 2016. But in the past 3+ years i've done a lot of it and in some cool places too. I've caught fish in all new england states except rhode island, as well as montana, arizona, florida, hawaii, new york, and the bahamas.

In Martha's Vineyard, there's four primary game species - striped bass, bluefish, bonito, and false albacore. You can also catch tautog, scup, and sea robin, and probably other fish, but those are the ones that come to mind.

I was in MV with my Dad and we were staying at Rick's place. We arrived on the ferry friday evening. Rick's place is right on one of the tidal ponds, of which there are several big ones on the island. Rick saw a bunch of birds on the water, which means that they're chasing after small fish, which means that there are bigger fish chasing the small fish. Sure enough, within 20 minutes, both Dad and Rick caught a fish. We were spin casting, which i'm not great at, and I think i'm still learning how to do a fast retrieve with a jigging action to give the lure more action. But what an amazing start to the trip. We were on the board! We've had two other marthas vineyard/cape cod/woods hole fishing trips earlier this year that were not extremely successful, so it was nice to get off to a fast start.

(unpublished ~2007 draft) the likes

the likes of you.

i started reading the colossus of new york: a city in thirteen parts, by colson whitehead, and it's gold.

tonight was laughs with kane and matt and clynton, music ball games. i did not watch hairspray or any other musical

jeff roy and mark are all doing great jobs with their blogs, i'm impressed. mark is really outdoing himself. roy is writing for class too. jeff commits legends. black or blue navbar?

tons of tunes. i like eating at crazy doughs in harvard sq. i talked to shane for a while, he's at law school working full time. i don't understand how he does this.

(unpublished ~2007 draft) these things happen/head full of ideas

i'm on the porch. my computer is really slow. it's warm here.

(unpublished ~2008 draft) Bostonalicious: The Drive Home

Bostonalicious: The Drive Home

On the drive home the people in the left lane pass you on the left. Problem is, the people on the right pass you on the right.

I like looking at faces on the drive home. Who are all these people? Where did they come from and where are they going and where are they sleeping tonight? You can infer and extrapolate what you like from the make and model of their car, their driving style, and their seatbelted appearance.

In Massachuetts people wait for their chance to get angry. Road rage is ever-present, ready to emit at the sign of an aggressive driver or careless commuter. Parking, rush hour, and bumper to bumper traffic particularly incite emotions. Whatever frustration has built up at home, work, or the grocery store gets its chance to shine from the pulpit of the driver’s side window.

Pedestrians walking home from Whole Foods with their reusable bags enter the crosswalk in front of two lanes of weary drivers and proceed to shout back at the compacts that honk and bellow. I cheer on the pedestrians and the folks taking charge and taking offense. If nothing else, it’s entertaining after an hour on the highway.

Closer to home, walls of subway passengers spill from the T and clog the sidewalks and barricade intersections. Walk signals become white beacons of invitation and approval. Truck drivers and cab drivers plod through the sea of the homeward bound.

Most windows stay closed. I imagine everyone listening to boring talk radio or bad music on their iPods that they choose to connect via FM radio rather than a simple tape adapter. Here it’s still legal to gab on your phone, blast texts, and multi-task away from your desk.

Many roads carry these travelers – Route 2, 95, 495, and 9. The Mass. Pike and the Middlesex Turnpike. Commutes with traffic, reverse commutes, short commutes, long commutes. Telecommuters commute to the living room. Many commute across state lines. Cops and troopers wield radar guns and pull over with impunity.

If you make it home safe, be grateful you didn’t get into an accident, didn’t get ticketed for speeding, and didn’t get any bad news on your cellphone on the way home.

The drive home can take you from your parking garage to your two car garage, but it can’t take you much place else.

(unpublished ~2009 draft) peanut brittle

peanut brittle

ate too much of it. and too many thin mints. the necco kind.

also ate two banana chocolate chip muffins too fast and a bagel with cream cheese too fast. then my stomach hurt for the rest of the night.

here's a cool website with more this jewelry Shaw Jewelry

andy's here, so we're having fun. talking about music and football and stuff. good times.

had physical therapy appt today, i'm doing well! i've got new exercises to do, which are pretty sweet, so i'm pumped about that

i've got a book that's due today but i think i'm gonna call the library and see if they'll renew it for me cause i've already renewed it 3 times online haha

watched the stephen colbert christmas special, it was pretty good. bears!

patriots game yesterday was awesome. chris made vegetarian chili which was really good of course. i wanna make jerk chicken, i just gotta rally.

i'm still watching the celtics game from yesterday too. tmrw night is bc v purdue at madison sq garden, lil bball game with the tyrese rice show. should be fun.

bc lost to st louis this weekend, so let's hope they come out and play hard tmrw. purdue is ranked #11, so it should be hard, but let's go BC!

weekend was good, just took it easy, needed it.

(unpublished ~2009 draft) my blog ain't loadin right in firefox

looks messed up. might have to switch templates.

firefox 3.5 is pretty excellent tho. finally, a decent web browser. it only took til 2009.

(unpublished ~2009 draft) yo dave where's the content

oops, let me, here it is, right...over...here

ahhh there it is i found it it was in the corner

hmmmmmm content content content content

(unpublished ~2010 draft) yo

yo i aint got no time but im still here will talk soon lata

here's a really crazy photo, city lights, i think it's from the 50s maybe

(unpublished and untitled ~2010 draft)

hey whats up. below are some cool photos of the us womens olympic 8 that won a gold medal at the coin flip for a jaguars game. pretty sweet.

well yeah, how's it goin. mad warm here in beautiful new england today. actually, it's warmer than it is in los angeles! i'm hopping on a plane tmrw to go to LA for a week. i head out there every year and visit a couple friends.

this year im being ambitious, and trying to see several people. i'm not sure what's actually gonna happen and i probably could have done a better job of planning it out, but whatever happens happens. last year i hung out at my buddys place which was a converted garage, but now he lives somewhere better, so im looking forward to that.

im psyched for the plane ride and hope that i get a chance to nap or read a book or watch a movie on my computer or something. also, what are the chances that i actually get through security without accidentally bringing a water bottle or a swiss army knife or something? id say that they are slim to none given my track record of mistakes.

(unpublished ~2010 draft) blogger repositioning

i need a little break, hold on

oh, yup, you guessed right -- that's 20,000 north korean soldiers

You won't believe what happens when a blogger blogs

No I'm not ex buzzfeed or ex clickbait company, I just know what gets butts in seats, and it's headlines and post titles that begin with "You won't believe..."

Well, it looks like I blogged off and on until 2012, then gave it up until 2017, posted four times, then gave it up again, until now. Consistently inconsistent, that's my middle name.

So what's happened since 2017? This and that, ya know. I won't try to recap it. I don't think I have as many random photos on my hard drive that I can post as the heading for each blog entry (such as the one you see above), so I guess I definitely haven't been scouring the internet for random images that I like.

Let's talk about this past weekend though, where do I start...

We in here now

OK ok we are making progress.

1. Edited the favicon to a placeholder that's not an ugly orange B. Mellow green square is preferable.
2. I have no excuse for their being no information in the "about" or "contact" us sections. I also put in fake@fake.com for email contact information. But! The comments are open and I don't even think there's a CAPTCHA or word verification thing. So, bots, please feel free to spam away.
3. I have 60 something drafts dating back to like 2011. They're mostly empty, but maybe one of them will have some gold. I'll start digging.

I'm being told to make dinner so I will

be        right         back

Working on it

Working on it here, give me time. I mean, maybe don't give me two years but...oh, wait, yeah, gimme two years. Thanks.

Just fired this bad boy up. I enabled HTTPS. Nice! Huge win there. Better late than never. Now what I'm really curious about is if this website is mobile optimized or not. I gotta check.

Turned off the Kurzweil AI RSS because it wasn't working anymore. Cleaned up The Internet section. Determining what's next. I want to write about this past weekend...

Blogger's Gonna Blog

Slater's gonna Slate, Daver's gonna Dave, Blogger's gonna blog. You know how it is.

Daylight savings time this weekend. Which means that it's not super dark out at 7am. But it is very dark out at 5pm.

You know what's kinda funny? The whole "gain an hour" "lose an hour" thing. I go back and forth on this. So this weekend we "gain an hour." Which is cool. Weather's getting colder, days are getting shorter, but at least we gain an hour, right? But it's not like an hour of sleep. It just means that Sunday is an hour longer, right? That's the compensation we get for it being dark at 4:30pm from December through February.

But I think it's just a mindset. Gain an hour, lose an hour, whatever. You gotta have the right attitude about it. But frankly, it's hard to have a good attitude about it getting dark so early. That's just life in the North right? We'll be ok.

Here's another nice photo of a sunset to mark the passing of the seasons.

So I'm blogging on my new computer. Well, new as of like three years ago. Now, I don't have nearly as many photos and music on this computer as I do on my old computer. I do have them all on an external hard drive, so I could dump them on this computer, but I don't really want to. Good to have a new file system, a new mess of unorganized photos and songs.

But there's a problem -- I can't find my old computer. I don't really need it for any reason, but I don't know where it is! I was keeping it in an easy to find place, but I got sick of looking at it, so I put it somewhere. But I don't know where. Maybe my parents? Honestly not sure. So that's a little bit of a mistake. Hopefully it turns up.

I'm going to upstate New York for my cousin's wedding this weekend. Sunday morning I'm most likely going to go out fishing with Dad. We are catch and release fly fishermen. That means that we don't eat the fish that we catch, we let them go. The fly fishing part of it is that we bumble around with a lot of fragile gear and try not to break it. And we frequently get frustrated when that gear gets tangled up in branches, rocks, and car doors.

Esopus Creek is where we'll be. It actually provides water for NYC. It's well-known for being a great rainbow trout fishery. I've heard it's also infamous for tubers getting themselves in trouble during the summer. We won't be tubing, just trying to hook up with a couple rainbows or browns. Should be fun.

For more info....

Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program

Orvis Fly Fishing Report and Conditions

Video: Fly Fishing On Esopus Creek

I Saw "Blade Runner 2049" and all I Got was this Lousy T-shirt

So I went and saw "Blade Runner 2049" at the Somerville Theater on Thursday night. If we're being perfectly honest, I wasn't crazy about it. I liked it, but I didn't love it. I love the original "Blade Runner" (1982). So this is hard to swallow. Here's a screen cap of the two main bad guys from the original:

People forget that Blade Runner is based on a Philip K. Dick book - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Far less sexy and neon than the Blade Runner that we all know and love. I don't think I've read it. I'm not a huge Philip K. Dick guy. I am a huge sci-fi guy, and a huge cyberpunk guy, and a huge neon-noir guy. I rewatched the original Blade Runner last weekend to prep myself for this week's showing. I had heard that it was long, but I was pumped for that. I wanted to see it in 3D or IMAX, but I settled for seeing it nearby at a local independent theater with buddies.

The special effects were great. The apartment scene when the virtual girl morphs into the real girl was astounding. That was some next level special effects. I've never seen anything like that. Mesmerizing.

And the city scenes were cool. I like that they kept with the whole Asian neighborhood/eating noodles vibe. And I enjoyed when they went into all the weird little shops and vendors, like the guy who did the analysis on the horse. And Ryan Gosling is great. And generally speaking, the special effects, costumes, and cinematography were all well done and enjoyable.

But, and there's a big but -- I didn't get it. Like, I usually don't get it when it comes to complicated movies. Like suspenseful dramas where the audience is expected to piece together what happened. I didn't stick around afterwards and talk with the people that I saw the film with, maybe they could have explained it to me.

So Ryan Gosling is a Replicant. I know that much. Because he gets called skinjob early on. And Deckard is not? Isn't that the beauty of the original? That we don't know if he is or is not?

And the whole flashbacks thing and the horse and the furnace just went over my head. Oh well. It was fun. Way better than the crappy Star Wars episodes that came out in the early 2000s. But seriously, someone needs to explain it to me -- what was Jared Leto's deal? Was he purposely evil, or was his assistant just evil and he didn't know it? Who was the baby? God I'm clueless. I'll go read the Wikipedia entry on the film now.

That's my hot take on Blade Runner 2049. It looked cool, but I didn't get it. I still recommend seeing it, but make sure that you go the bathroom beforehand, cause it's a long one. Now can we get a Fifth Element sequel already?

Same Stale Old Shoes

It's a Beck quote. The post title. It's a Beck quote. You probably got it.

If you're trying to get weird this evening then check out Balam Acab's Twitter account. He made this great album called "See Birds" years ago and then another good album called Wander / Wonder and he's put out some other stuff too. He's a crazy kid. Entertaining to follow, but kinda hard to follow, in multiple ways, if you know what I mean.

It's a very warm day here in Boston. Unseasonably warm, one might say. I'm looking out the window here in the office, or what I call the office in our house. The tree branches are soooo close to the window. Like, there's a tree in the neighbors yard that's just totally overgrown and dominates our backyard. We're gonna have to take the saw thing and stick it out the window and take down some of it. Just leaves and branches everywhere blocking out the sun and the view of the other white houses on the next street over.

OK, impressive football notes of the weekend. Freshman AJ Dillon ran for like a million yards yesterday in the BC Louisville game. He was the number one rated Massachusetts player coming out of high school. Good for him. And then today's Patriots game -- in terms of wild refereeing decisions, that touchdown that got called back was crazy. Crazy! Did you see it?

On a sad note, remember when the United States men's soccer team didn't qualify for the World Cup? I was watching live. It was heartbreaking. I couldn't believe it was happening as I was watching it. I love the World Cup. But no US? I'm stunned.

OK now I have that Beck song in my head. But that's not such a bad thing. Great album, Odelay. Great album cover. Man it must be so hard to come up with good album art. Like, what would the album art be for your debut album? Something to think about.

OK I gotta run, gotta go get dinner with the parents. Bringing the dog over. Life's good. Don't overextend yourself folks. Do like The Dude does - Abide.

D

I'm Baaaaaaaacccck

That's me in the boat. See me there? In the boat?

Who remembers this epic blog that I once maintained? It almost seems like I actually had a decent number of posts several years ago. Well guess what, this blog is coming back hot. It's coming back hot and heavy. Big time.

You know what's impressive? Maine. Some impressive things in Maine -- mountains, rivers, lakes, wildlife. Large outdoor stores like Kittery Trading Post. Apple orchards. Miles and miles of snowmobile trail networks. That sort of stuff.

I was just in Maine for the weekend. Well, just one night. Mousam Lake in Shapleigh. Very nice. It was unseasonably warm today, sunny and creeping into the low 70s. The cabin (they call them "camps" in Maine) had a motorized water pump in the bathroom. So like this huge engine would turn on every so often to pump water into the pipes. It was loud. But I slept fine last night. Apparently I was snoring.

I had cider tonight for dinner. We went to The Abbey in Cambridge. Fancy stuff. At one point I asked her if she could leave "the booze menu" at our table. I think I meant drink menu, but I was tired. But back to the point - I ordered a cider! Crazy move, right? Especially when there's all this hoppy beer on the menu? But I decided to mix it up. It was a cider from Spain, and it was ok. I still can't figure out if I'm a cider guy or not. I think I want it to taste like apple juice every time but it never does so I'm always just some varying level of disappointed.

OK here's your movie tip for the weekend  - "Band Aid (2017)." Great movie! See it! Laugh and cry! Highly recommended.

OK it's time to wrap it up in the Dave household. But I'll be back, stay tuned.

D

Pondering

Rhymes with wandering. thanks MF Doom

Listening to wmbr on the ol' boombox. New show I've never heard of. Good stuff tho. Gotta check out the concert report and see a show soon. Ok bedtime, cya.

Season's greetings

Wait I'm way late on that one, it's not the holidays any more. Well whatever I guess I'm sticking with it.

Boston college basketball beat clemson last night, yeah!!

How are yall doing? Sticking with those new year's resolutions?

I'm reading wall street journal currently. Some of it is over my head, but it's good that I'm reading it. I read harvard business review this past week too, which was interesting.

It's like this and like that and like this and uhhhhh

Bad poem

Above the mantlepiece. Here's my final sign off for the calendar year. A bad poem that's above the burning fire. Enjoy. It doesn't exist anywhere else.

O heart be tender and true
While thou dost beat
O hands be swift to do
O lips be sweet

Last of 2011

Here are some of the last posts of 2011 folks. It's time to move on to 2012...

Here I am on the coast. It’s a foggy night. I got invited up to a house right on the water and said yes. Bunch of people here and we’re gonna have a good time.

Happy new year to everyone! Have great 2012s

Champagne night

You know you're dropping the ball when you don't have a champagne night at least once every other week. Although it can be nasty stuff. Some bad hangovers have been felt over here.

Celtics lost cause Joey Crawford hates fun. Everyone knows this.

There were flurries this morning but no accumulation. It was cold outside in the driveway. Two doors down from my parents house on the other side of the street is a lot with no house because the house got demolished. There's a fence around the lot.

Like I said, there were little itsby bitsy snowflakes this morning but you definitely could not call it a white christmas by any means. There were gifts, however.

Merry Christmas to all.

To all a good night.

-Splatman

Score

Haven't posted in two weeks. That's also known as a "score."

Jokes

Hiiii

I’m at the kitchen table getting focused. I got my swingline on the table. Highlighter too. Some paper holders (can’t have just one).

There's a 20% off CVS coupon here too that I don't think I’m gonna be able to use because it expires tonight. Got other priorities.

Here’s a good link. You should check it out. It’s a Tumblr of “people who…” so and so. I like it.

PEOPLE WHO

Here’s a cool photo of volvo ocean race. In the first leg of this year’s race two boats lost their masts and one other one ripped a hole in the hull. I also read that the boats are going to be brought onto huge barges and taken around the horn of africa instead of actually sailing through there because it's too dangerous.

Triple J

Been listening to Diplo's triple j mix on the mad decent radio podcast.

Best mix I’ve listened to in forever! Seriously. I’m really digging it. I actually found the tracklist and have been checking out the individual artists and songs. I really recommend checking it out.

If you sign up for the podcast you should be able to download it. I’m not sure what link to post, but I’m sure you can figure it out. Some really cool artists on there, a lot of new ones, and some catchy tunes. I’m feelin it.

oh wait here's the link -- Mad Decent Worldwide Radio

http://feeds.feedburner.com/MadDecentWorldWideRadio

Soooo let’s see. It’s bizarrely warm in December. Like, way too warm. Like, why the heck is it so warm? (Aside, I’ve started saying what the heck instead of what the hell. Lil weird, and I think I started doing it after I heard someone else doing it. Should I use heck or hell? Dono)

So yeah, it’s warm and drizzly today. Shouldn’t it be colder? Strange.