The random act of pumping gas

I haven’t had the greatest of weeks of late.  It was Sunday night and I was on my way home after working on a very long and arduous project. I need some snacks.  Time to stop at the nearby Hess station and pick up some pick-me-ups. I figured I’d pump some gas first.  Pulled up…

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I need childhood moments of joy…

I can’t turn on the television without seeing more tragedy in the world.  I can’t listen to the radio without hearing about a senseless murder or a horrifying suicide. It’s times like this – where I just wish I was six years old and could escape all this misery and pain by watching the simple…

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Raskolnikov: My new ФT-2 panoramic camera

I’ve wanted a decent panoramic camera for ages.  Unfortunately, my searches have only found cameras that were either too expensive (a “gently-used” 360°-panoramic Globuscope costs about $1,500), or were just a piece of unmitigated junk (yes, Lomography Sprocket Rocket with its worthless plastic “hipster” lens, I’m talking to you).  The few panoramic shots I’ve successfully…

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Best of our TU Community Blogs, December 18, 2014: Ten for Thursday

We’ve got some really excellent community blogs here, and I want you to enjoy reading them.  And let me tell you, I enjoy not only reading them, but also posting them every Thursday.  So get yourself a cup of coffee and a bagel with a schmeer, and enjoy these ten blogs by ten Times Union…

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Robot leers at exercising woman… and they’re selling…

One of the main rules of television commercial advertising is to make your commercial memorable… and to make sure your viewers know what you are selling. Well, a company named Wink definitely achieved the former… With one of the most suggestive commercials I’ve ever seen on network television. The commercial starts with a woman practicing…

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Did the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame get it right for 2015?

I stopped doing a “who should be inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame” listing years ago.  Mostly because the artists I thought SHOULD be in the Rock Hall by now – the Moody Blues, the Guess Who, Styx, Boston, Cheap Trick, Kansas, the Electric Light Orchestra, New Order, Depeche Mode – kept…

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