Yes, I went kazoo caroling this evening, with skiomachy, and it was slagging awesome. Afterwards there was food and commiseration, which was also pretty good.

And then I made the long drive home. I don't approve of this part so much.

londo brought this to my attention: The C Programming Language, by Brian W Kernighan & Dennis M Ritchie & HP Lovecraft I haven't finished reading it, but I thought I'd share.

It's funny. And awesome.

(Thank you NYT and BBC)

1) Montazeri has died.

2) In Qom.

3) And the seventh day after his death, the traditional day for a funeral correction: the second of a series of three mandatory traditional Shi'ite post-burial mourning rites falls on Ashura. (12/27 this year)

I... I just... Whoa. Whoa.

....I see no way in which this isn't like dropping a match in a gallon of gasoline... in a fireworks factory.

Via MaMHCA, and right off The (Massachusetts) Board of Registration of Allied Mental Health and Human Services Professionals web site, for anyone else in MA pursuing the LMHC:

As of January 1, 2010 all licensure applications must include two professional references on forms furnished by the Board for such purpose. All applications will be updated to include the required form and instructions in the coming months.

As a professor of mine once observed, "It's not like they're ever going to make it any easier to get."

I wonder if they have delimited "professional references" usefully. Yep. "Remainder of form to be completed by Approved Supervisor". This is what the form asks the reference, after getting the reference's name and license info:

Length of time the reference has known the applicant: From____ To_____

Extent of knowledge of applicant's professional and ethical behavior:
[]Thorough []Moderate []Limited

Based on my experience, to the best of my knowledge, the applicant is an individual of good moral character: []yes []no.
(if no, please explain on a separate sheet)

Quality and extent of endorsement: []Without reservation []With reservation []No recommendation []I am cos
(If "with reservation" or "no recommendation", please explain on a separate sheet.)

Signature_________________ Date_______________

I am grimly amused to see the point of the exercise is to handle the "good moral character" clause of the M.G.L. establishing the Board's authorization to issue licenses. I am dying to know the story behind them suddenly (it being 20 years later) needing to have a formal way of establishing that. Looks like someone got sued.

Incorporating new mail into inbox/mbta...

2173+U 12/21 06:23 "T-Alerts Notific Red Line Alert<<Red Line experiencing 10-
2174 U 12/21 07:02 "T-Alerts Notific Red Line Alert<<Red Line experiencing 10-
2175 U 12/21 10:11 "T-Alerts Notific Red Line Alert<<Red Line experiencing 10-
2176 U 12/21 10:45 "T-Alerts Notific Red Line Alert<<Red Line experiencing 10-
2177 U 12/21 10:47 "T-Alerts Notific Red Line Alert<<Red Line experiencing 10-
2178 U 12/21 12:00 "T-Alerts Notific Red Line Alert<<Red Line service is on or
2179 U 12/21 17:10 "T-Alerts Notific Red Line Alert<<Attention Red Line custo
2180 U 12/21 18:20 "T-Alerts Notific Red Line Alert<<Red Line service is on or
2181 U 12/21 18:29 "T-Alerts Notific Red Line Alert<<Attention Red Line Custom
2182 U 12/21 18:39 "T-Alerts Notific Red Line Alert<<Attention Red Line Custom
2183 U 12/21 19:17 "T-Alerts Notific Red Line Alert<<Red Line service is exper
2184 U 12/21 19:40 "T-Alerts Notific Red Line Alert<<Attention Red Line Custom
2185 U 12/21 20:39 "T-Alerts Notific Red Line Alert<<Attention Red Line Custom
2186 U 12/21 20:56 "T-Alerts Notific Red Line Alert<<Red Line service is on or

For the record, my morning commute is typically 10am-11am or so, and I leave the office around 7pm or so. It's like it can tell.

I've always been partial to Advice Dog, but Foul Bachelor Frog has some funny things to say too. Also Depression Dog.
This is one of the great responses to a collections notice.
Perhaps more of a science article, but still amazing. This guy is hiking the entire Amazon, by himself, with pretty much nothing.
Anyone who's ever done tech support for friends can vouch for every bit of this, myself included.
How OS fanboys see each other
Stupidity. A rare and precious resource.
I disagree with Kleiner and Eli, but otherwise this is spot on for a Half Life 2 movie.
So apparently a puppy and a praying mantis are both no match for each other.
The truth about Twilight Moms
When it comes to cereal, sometimes you just need a guide
14 awesome mods

Today...band practice, and hanging out with garthnak and family. I have thoughts, I just am too pooped to write them.

Tomorrow I talk about things. Tonight, after gig and news from band, I sleep.

Sanctuary is really good. Admittedly, it's not without it's flaws, most notably that it's very good episode to episode but not as convincing on an arc basis, but...yeah. Really cool writing, great visuals, and hot wimmenz saying brainy stuff and kicking ass. I have no complaints.

Mad Men. Mad Men is win. 2 eps away from the season 3 finale. And I'm finally putting a dent in Sanctuary too, which is just all sorts of cool.

1000 Years Of The Beatles. Every historian and historian wannabe should watch this.
Strange sights are seen at ComicCon
Classic literature adapted into videogames...and comics
And Jamie Delano had such a good run on Hellblazer... (NSFW)
I tend to concur with these sentiments of winter
5 things Hollywood reuses more than plots
2 weeks of living with medieval hygiene
I love students like this
Contradiction de wikipedia
Holy crap. One legged dancer pwns
Abstruse Goose tells it like it is
The ultimate beer mug
On a further military note, one of the best bazooka images on the internet
If you liked Doug, you need to buy this.
There's pinup art...and then there's pin art
It's a duck!
Best. Customer Service. Letter. Ever.
Simpsons 20th anniversary poster. With Stampy no less!

I bit the bullet and did car repair today, in this case the 100,000 mile service. It was painful, like $440 worth of painful, but it's still better than the $700 or $800 that I expected.

*Sigh* What kind of a world is this where $440 is considered cheap :P On the other hand, nothing but oil changes for a goodly long while to come, so yay me.

That describes my day. On the other hand, in that day I booked several gigs for my client band, got 3 shows set up for the ska band, and arranged the Justice League Unlimited theme to be the ska band's opener.

Seriously. Go listen-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6dF0xYIFsg

It is the definition of musical awesome.

Granted, after last night's adventures, I went to bed circa 5, but still. I got up about 3, ate a bit, and eventually made it out to a ska show at The Vault, which is all of 5 minutes from me. Hung with Defunked, discovered One Pin Short and The Toy Yodas (both very impressive), and watched Chase Long Beach rock out. Tomorrow...probably spending a lot of money on car servicing.

I played the aforementioned chorus show today (and tonight) and...wow. The chorus was phenomenal in many places (I'll avoid "fabulous" here, although there was a little bit of that too :) ), the show was a lot of fun, and band wise...we were swingin'. The dress rehearsal went pretty good (though I did ask the director to run 2 of the tunes again at the end) and the show went even better. All the cats in the pit with me were great, and crackups too. There was one guy there on sax...a year or two shy of 80, looked like he was 50, had the energy of 30, and the mouth of a 12 year old that's just discovered cussing for the first time.

He was pretty damned cool, to say the least :D

He told lots of stories, including about his time as a session player in Detroit and New York, and being on some of Motown's records in the 60s. He showed us his 30 year union card-that he got in 1985 (my gods...when the hell did 1985 become that far away?), and told some good musician jokes. Hopefully I'll be seeing him again on some other jobs.

As far as my playing went, first there was the thrill and joy of finally playing onstage my brother, and second I did really well. Objectively I think I nailed about 95% of the book, including 1 of the 2 tunes I asked to go over, and I nailed almost all of my high stuff. I walked off stage to compliments from my peers and the director, face still left, and most importantly feeling good about my own performance for myself. It's the first time maybe ever that I've felt like I'm not just pretending to be a trumpet player, but that I might actually be one. It's a very, very good feeling.

Oh, and the evening was completed by seeing my client band at The Jumping Turtle on the way home. Rain, asshole venue, and late night spot and all, they turned out to be great (it's the first time I've seen them, or met them in person), both as players and as people. I made the right call when I signed them, and when I decided to forgo early sleep.

Speaking of which, that's one appointment I've put off far too long.

I knew, going into the field, that an occupational hazzard of being a therapist is exposure to toxic and traumatizing material. It's just part of the job. This was bound to happen eventually.

It's looking like maybe I should read Meyer's Twilight books for professional reasons.

I surely don't want to pay for them. I understand there are these things called libraries, but I've had really mixed luck with them. So I figured I'd ask you guys: anybody local have copies of these things that I could borrow?

Went to Ready For Vegas' Christmas party this eve, which featured 5 or 6 bands in a living room. I sat in at various points with 3 of them, including a country group, and the crowd loved me.

It was pretty damned awesome really. Made up for being one of the very few sober people there :)