End Of Football

The contest is over. This year has sucked. Here are the final standings. An Englishman and a Woman take first and second and I only get the bronze. What a disgrace. ;). Congratz to the winners. Seb was solid all year.. and Josie did good too. We have a few more weeks left of playoffs. Should be interesting. Enjoyed the Cowboys and Tony Homo losing last night. The Texans are a mess. Would not be surprised if they got nocked out in the first round. Seattle at home. Dangerous. Will Payton and the Broncos choke in the playoffs? Personally glad that the Giants are out. Poor Bears. 
 

Pics and Picks

Get your football picks in. Last week. I doubt I can catch Josie or Seb unless they really screw up but we will see.

I went picture crazy this week and took like 50 pictures of Boston. Here are a few I liked.

 Just a church.

 Boston Commons skyline picture.

 This was hilarious. Obviously the state house needs a hookers entrance.

 Like the style of this building.

Quaint streets in the expensive part of Boston.

State House.

I saw this reflection picture and wanted to snap it before. Finally got a shot of it. Not sure why but it looks even better in a picture than i did live. The building really lights up under the camera.

Downslide

I feel the end of year blahs. Feeling like I am on a big down slide right now. Hence the lack of posting. I have so much to do and I keep putting it off.

One thing that sucked recently yet was good in a way is my eyes were opened to how much I really do not get people. Every day it just becomes more apparent. For instance we had a holiday party and I forced myself to go. I have not been to one in six years being here. I have now been to two in the last six months.

So I get my drink on and start talking to people. One person who I considered a friend and who I thought I talked to somewhat was like "Wow man, you never talked to me before". It was just a total perception difference. I figured saying "hi" every like four weeks and looking at her chess playing was like good interaction.. and she thought I never talked to her.

Another person I work with confirmed it too.. like "For the first few months you never talked to me".. yet, I thought I was friendly, and talking to people. Now I guess I know I am just retarded.

The interesting one was with the wife though. I went to my shrink and told her about my divorce for dummies plans and all that. She asked me "Are you sure your wife knows you want to really get divorced?". I figured we talked about it a lot and we were on the same page, and this divorce for dummies thing made it obvious I wanted to do it now. The shrink was really like "Are you sure?" and I was positive.

So somehow we got into a conversation about this at home and she was all like "Why the rush right now? I thought you wanted to stay together for the kids for the next four years?"... it just was really odd. I just never considered that I was not clear that this was not working out. So she told me she was not moving to an apartment with the kids. She would rather have a bad apartment herself and send them to boarding school... which was really weird... and then she started talking about roaches in apartments and shit like that. I am pretty sure decent apartments are clean. It just really kind of threw me for a loop.

She also talked about getting a cheaper house and me co-signing for it. I am not opposed to this if it makes it so the kids can go to the same school. I asked her to figure out how much of a budget she thought she could afford, and how much she thought she would need from me monthly to live in a cheaper house but she has not gotten back to me yet. Run the numbers. Do the math. Not sure it works out.

So anyways... been in a funk. Neither kid wants to live with me. I can not interact with people. Life is crap. Hopefully I turn things around next year.

A Tale of Two Pictures

My pictures this week have kinda sucked I think. Nothing really came out well. A few I sorta like. Mostly uninspired suckage this week though.

  The chairs caught my attention for some reason. These are in my shrinks office. I liked how this turned out.

Blurry messes.

Merry Christmas everyone!

 Meh. I think I am tired of this view.. and the reflections out the windows suck.
 

Something is off on this one.

This is alright.

The last one is probably the best. The first bear picture kind of sucked. I could never get something that looked like an even perspective. I like it framed underneath by the LENOX sign.

On another note. My son comes home the other day and tells me that a girl in his school sent a naked picture to her boyfriend. The boyfriend sent it to a few of his friends and now it's like all over the school. One boy went to the girl and told her what was happening. I told my son this is a good example of having a good character and doing what you know is right even if it is not popular.

As a side note - If you are going to send your dick to a chick make sure you leave your face out of the picture.

Picks

Due Saturday.

Picture Dump

Missed my station stop so walked from South Station to my work. I liked the little diner in the middle of Boston's big buildings concept. The blonde chick is cute too. I may go back and get a closeup of the sign as it is pretty cool and does not have the best angle here.

Chinatown during my walk. I liked the concept of this foreign community in between  two major financial districts in Boston.

I like how fog looks.. but I think this picture ended up a little faded out. The fog contrast just does not totally cut it for me... I think it is an alright picture but not what I wanted to accomplish I guess.

This turned out good. I have to find pictures of Boston for Carmel every day. This is the view from my office building out over the Charles. I liked this picture. I think it came out very well.

I liked the hallway effect here. Nothing special. Not sure if I like it a lot or not.. but I took it because of the hallway-tunnel type concept. Thought it was kind of cool.

This is another one I took today of the fog. I think it again came out washed out. I do not like it very much personally. I was trying to get the cool fog into the heavens effect... but something about it seems faded and washed out.

This is a great subject. It is much better in the summer though. If you search Boston Science Church on Google.. then hit images.. you will see tons of them. This is a classic picture. The water makes it much better in the summer but I liked this one.

This is church in Copley Square in Boston. You can search Coply Church Boston Google and click on images to see MUCH better pictures. I kind of like this but I do not like the other building on the side.. and it seems off centered to me. Not one of my favorites but it is a cool building. I love architecture.

This picture of the Hancock building turned out great I think.. the aspect and the view, and the colors just seem right to me for some reason. I really like this one as opposed to the foggy one I did today. It is also a smaller side of the building, so maybe it is easier to take a picture of this side and get some sky in for contrast. Not sure but I like it a lot better.

Finally is the "Chick Pick". Every chick I showed this to loved it. People asked me for copies of it. I think this picture is accidentally good. I think the chicks like the "Love Geese" in the foreground.. kind of a lady and the tramp situation maybe... the sun has a nice effect on the water.. the bridge is really nice. I was trying to just get a shot of the bridge and ended up with this. I really like how this turned out... and all the chicks saying "oooh... nice... can you send me a copy" was a good bonus too.

Well that is a couple days worth of pictures I have taken. Feel free to comment.

Blah Blechhh Bloooghhh

I have been stuck in a pit of inability to move. I am trying to figure out why but it's hard. I have so many things I need to do. A quick contract project (a days work for 750 bucks), fixing up things at the house, selling or getting rid of things, reading divorce for dummies... and other things like exercising... and yet I have had no movement for the last two weeks.

I kind of think the problem is that I know this is going to open up a total shit show in my life. I know it is necessary and good... but also part of me knows it is going to be full of pain and suffering for everyone involved for a period of time. After that everything will hopefully come together and everyone will be a lot happier. So subconsciously I am avoiding doing anything. Consciously too.

Hopefully I can get over this rut and stop fucking myself.

On the good side I have been playing 50 pics with Carmel. No you perv Grouchie not dick pics. We have been exchanging pictures of our respective cities and interesting things. I kind of enjoy it. I will post a few pictures I have taken when I get home. A few people have told me that a couple of my pictures are fantastic.. and this is just with an iPhone camera... I may have to get the photo bug like Astin.

One thing I like about the exchange is instead of walking around Boston with my head down I am looking around and trying to see if I can see a new vantage point or something that strikes me. This is very good for my outlook on life I think.

Fun Times

Had a good time at the company party last night. Figured I would try something new and be sociable. Hung up with people. Drank. Free booze and really good Asian Fusion food.. like beef sticks, chicken, sushi, etc.. Spilled sauce on my shirt within 5 minutes of starting the party. Fun walking around all night with a giant stain. Can not take me anywhere. Snapped some pics and sent them to Josie and Carmel. They seemed to enjoy them. All in all a good time.

Get your picks in. The season is winding down. Josie had a good week last week but hopefully we can stop her this week. Have fun everyone.

Out of the park

Gotta give Josie credit this week. She hit it out of the park. All the upsets were low picks for her. She made back the awesome gains I had on her from two weeks ago. Dammit. It's getting close to the end and I really need to work it hard if I am going to catch her.

Football

Get your picks in.

Got a root canal today. Fun time.

Broached the subjected about Divorce for Dummies with the wife this morning. She agreed it sounded good but in a kind of way that makes me not believe her... but we will see.

Taking Care Of Business

RG3, ya you know me! Only guy to pick them this week. Still not the best week for me in the pool. Lost a few points to Seb and Josie.. and VinNay is breathing on my neck. I am going to have to give it a good try this week.

Contract extended for another year at work. One less thing to deal with. Got a little 4% cost of living increase on my rate which was nice.

Spoke with my manager who I do not get along with great. He was the one who told me about the extension. We had a good talk. I told him about some of my issues and how they affected my work and how I was dealing with them. How I was being a little grumpy in work because of the depression and missing a bunch of Mondays from work. So it was a good talk.

I am going to have the same talk with one of the owners of the company. He is the one who hired me and gave me the chance to work on this project for the last 6 years. We have build all the software that run the main part of the business over the past few years. I feel like I owe him an explanation and apology. It's not like my work has been horrible but it has not been 100 percent either.

My divorce for dummies should be here today so I will see how that goes.

Amazing

I just saw a commercial about a new product. It is making me feel weird. For those of you who do not know I am deaf in one ear. I was born this way. Well, actually, my mother ignored my ear ache and my eardrum ruptured causing me to go deaf. I only recently found out about this. I always though "I was born deaf".

I pride myself with the fact that I cope with this disability. I developed good nod and smile responses when I do not hear what people say. I stay away from loud places like bars. I fool myself into thinking that everything is good. In reality its not the worst handicap one can have.

I have never thought I could heal this. A ruptured eardrum is not fixable. They do have things that go around to the other ear... but this new technology actually transmits the sound waves from one side to the other. In effect you can hear everything coming from the other side.

I am unsure if this would give me "stereo" hearing... if music would suddenly be a much more exciting thing in my life. If some of my social anxiety in group situations would go away now that I could hear what people were talking about. I am however considering looking into this. Probably not right this minute since I have a lot going on.... but once my life gets on track I think this could open a lot of new avenues for me.

It's funny when something you are not looking for comes into your life... and suddenly you wonder about the new possibilities open to you.