That’s Just The Way It Goes

I’ve learned to accept that some days are shitty. Today, for example. Not a total disaster, but overall not one to put into the archives as a keeper. I gave a presentation at work this morning and I pretty much knew before I uttered the first word that most of the people didn’t care. It’s ok, though. You hope they care, but nobody bats 1.000 giving presentations. Just the way it is. People are just gonna stare and poke at their phones sometimes. Some people were most certainly tuned in, others just weren’t. So it goes. The highlight of the day? I walked into a store playing a Broken Bells song! Now that’s a pick me up, man! Really cool new band, cool new album.

So Wednesdays’s are hockey nights for me. Always good to go get a workout, take my mind off everything for a bit, play hockey, have a beer and a few laughs. The only problem was that the ice was like a pool. Seriously. After the game, I actually was able to wring my socks out  – not my hockey socks, my SOCKS that I was wearing under my skates. Shit! Hopefully those skates dry out quickly. Those are the kind of games you just want to pack up your stuff early and pop a beer. Skating in that is like skating in wet cement. After the game my legs literally hurt. Rinks should be fined for that crap.

But you know what? That’s the way it is. I got to wake up with my kids and put them to bed. I got to see the look of joy on their faces when I picked ’em up at school. And I laughed as we sang “Daddy Sang Bass” at the top of our lungs on the car ride home. There’s your trump card. Nothing better. Makes a shitty day totally acceptable.

Who Who Who Sings It Better Than You?

I mentioned on Facebook a few weeks back about how I’m really digging this Gaslight Anthem album. The thing is, I can’t figure out if it’s really the second coming of the E-Street Band or one of those terrible ’90s bands like Vertical Horizon. It truly feels like it could go either way. I have some hope – the album is strong and loaded with hooks! And yes, while some of it feels derivative, there’s a feeling in me that it’s real. I know they have a couple of other albums, so I’ll have to check them out, but this album is really full of large sounding, um, anthems. I really really like it.

Listen here.

Medium

Took a lot of brooms and washcloths to clean things out around here. Also took a $699 payout when I recently got this here Ipad. Now, I honestly have no idea if this is going to spur more blogging out of me. No matter what medium I type on, I still have far less time since I now drive to work. That hour and a half every day was quality blogging time – now it’s quality time spent with hundreds of other motorists, moving like sheep through the pavement ribbon of central Massachusetts.

But the IPad gives me hope for more blogging. It also gives me hope for magazines I used to read that I don’t read anymore. When I was a kid, I was subscribed to Sports Illustrated for years. Every Friday it would come in the mail – amazing color pictures and great sportswriting, back in a day when you simply didn’t have…….options. It was either The Boston Globe or SI. Yes, we were spoiled with the Globe but that was for local stuff. So Sports Illustrated really was the gold standard – everyone else was third tier.

Then came the Internet. Game over. Sports Illustrated survives, but who wants to read the magazine 7 days after the event? Espescially when you can login to ESPN.com 14 seconds after the game for quotes and reaction? Or to sbnation for quality blog reaction. The immediacy of everything rendered SI into the third tier, like, overnight.

But the IPad changes the game again. For me, I’m not planning on moving my computing life to it. I still think email works better on my IPhone. Web browsing is beautiful and better than on any phone but I still love my 23-incher. But blogging is easier with this insanely great WordPress ipad app.

Where it will really shine for me though, is magazines. I will read more of them, just like I used to. I’m pretty sure SI will have an app soon. Every other magazine better get one too, or they’ll be toast, because THIS is the way it’s moving. The screen is too beautiful and opportunity for interaction too juicy. Magazine will rise again. Trust me on this. If you haven’t seen the Wired IPad app yet, you probably don’t believe me yet. But when you do see it, you’ll be in the boat.

Come sail away. L