I started taking casino blackjack seriously about ten years ago, and the venue for three-quarters of my gambling junkets has been Foxwoods. Over those years, they’ve been very good to me.

A frequent birthday ritual has been to take the day off and drive down to Connecticut, play some blackjack, and then stop off at Purgatory Chasm on the way home.
( Read more... )

Below is a screen cap from the front page of BostonGlobe.com, highlighting a story about Boston's real estate market, six years after the 2008 mortgage crisis. The article is accompanied by a Shutterstock photo that shows an aerial view of the Back Bay.

The first item to mention is that the largest and most prominent building in that picture is my ( Read more... )

Being a programmer and obsessive about data is not always an ideal combination.

Most people make a habit of knowing their age. After all, it’s a basic vital statistic, and a useful piece of information to have on hand.

Of course, no one actually pays attention how old they are. After all, when you tell us you’re so-many years old, that’s only a ( Read more... )

Prologue

There are times in life when you get the lightest taste of something, and you know it's important. You see a person and you know your fates are intertwined. You see a place from afar and you know that someday you'll be there.

This particular story begins nearly six years ago. In January of 2008, my employer sent a handful of us to the ( Read more... )

I spent last weekend in Pittsburgh for my BFF Inna’s milestone birthday. First time I’d been there in a couple years.

As always, the main activity in da Burgh was eating. I had an interesting jalapeno steak & cheese at Fat Head in Southside; basil-laden slices from Aiello’s; fajitas at Mad Mex in Shadyside; and a ( Read more... )

This year’s birthday wasn’t the greatest piece of work I’ve ever experienced. Woke up with a sore throat that presaged the cold I’d deal with for the following weeks. Made the usual pilgrimage to Foxwoods (where I lost for the first time in three years) and visit to Purgatory Chasm, which was cold and grey but pleasant enough, then a big ( Read more... )

Another birfday.

Woke up and dumped $250 worth of scotch down the toilet. I’ve gone 18 months without any alcohol, so I didn’t want it laying around taking up space anymore. I’d offered it to several people, but no one seemed motivated to take it, and I felt a little ambiguity about the karmic consequences of giving it to someone, so it went down ( Read more... )

Okay, birthdays. That’s a fair topic.
When is your birthday? I hate telling people my birthday, because of the likelihood that they’ll remember it, and I absolutely despise having my birthday observed. A subdued individual expression of affection is nice, but anything more than that rapidly becomes annoying.
  How old will you be? According to ( Read more... )