A home for my ideas and experiences related to college, business, technology, sports and more.
So to finish off the week of hand-written snail mail, check out what also arrived the old fashioned way this week.
2008-09 Celtics Season Tickets
Bam…those are some shiny tickets!
We season ticket holders certainly deserve some of our own bling for cheering the C’s on to their 17th banner last year. Hopefully this year ends up in some more playoff tickets arriving at my door next year.
#18 coming soon?
A few days ago I thought I somehow stepped through a time warp as I opened my mailbox and found a piece of non-corporate snail mail. At first I eyed this envelope suspiciously as it was not my birthday nor could I conjure any other reason for the snail mail. As my paranoia subsided, my fingers ripped open the envelope to find a card inside, with a hand-written note from a Ms. Sophie Grossman.
At this point my mind was blown, not only had I just received snail mail it was also hand-written! Crazy!
As my eyes read the note this article about a local teen in Somerville collecting business cards in an attempt to set a Guinness record came soaring back into my conscious. After reading the article I sent Sophie not one but two business cards (part of a set of ten that I received for free from flickr).
As of this note, she’s received nearly 800 business cards so far. That’s 800 in addition to her already existing collection of over 2,200 business cards! She plans on submitting an entry to the good folks at Guinness Book of World Records once her collections hits 5,000 cards. If you’ve got a business card and want to help Sophie in her record breaking quest you can send them to her attention at:
Somerville Journal
20-40 Holland Street
Somerville, MA 02144
If you do send one, let me know! If you include links to your business (non spammy) I might do a shout-out post to those who help Sophie out…
Yesterday as I jumped on my bicycle to pedal home after watching the Sox game in town, one angry fella walking by with his group of buddies yelled out:
Aaarrgh this suck this sucks, this fracking sucks
For once, I did not feel the same way. In fact aside from being slightly cold I did not feel much at all. As I’m sure at least some of my readers are aware, the Boston Red Sox lost yesterday to the Tampa Bay Rays, who just one year after denouncing the Devil (from their name) find themselves in the World Series. Though I’m a Bostonian born and raised, I’m quite OK with it. If we had not won the World Series in 2004, I’d probably be devastated right now, but the truth is baseball was simply not even on my list of priorities this year.
The world series win in ‘04 literally freed a lot of us from our own fanaticism. That’s all any of us ever really wanted, just one world series in our lifetime. Heck, the Sox were still working off their five year championship grace period when they went and extended the grace period by winning another one last year, which was such a non-event I did not even blog about it!
Including the ALCS and the few games I attended, I probably saw less than 15 games this year (if not even fewer) which is an almost impossible number for a Bostonian resident. Sure I’m still and forever will be a Red Sox fan, but it’s just a game now. Thanks to the Sox for making the transition into the miserable cold winter slightly more bearable and entertaining. Damn it actually feels good, the Sox just lost a chance to get to the World Series and I honestly don’t care. Such words would not have ever been uttered by a Bostonian just a mere 4 years ago.
So Red Sox players, fans and organization members, do not pay attention to the ridiculous Boston media. It’s actually OK. You fought damn hard to repeat and made a very respectable comeback attempt in defense of your championship. For once, we can be proud of our loser baseball team!
You know what, usually we only do this after victories but screw it! Cue the music!
I’m gonna tell you a story
I’m gonna tell you about my town
I’m gonna tell you a big bad story, baby
Aww, it’s all about my townYeah, down by the river
Down by the banks of the river Charles (aw, that’s what’s happenin’ baby)
That’s where you’ll find me
Along with lovers, fuggers, and thieves (aw, but they’re cool people)
Well I love that dirty water
Oh, Boston, you’re my home (oh, you’re the Number One place)
Frustrated women (I mean they’re frustrated)
Have to be in by twelve o’clock (oh, that’s a shame)
But I’m wishin’ and a-hopin, oh
That just once those doors weren’t locked (I like to save time for
my baby to walk around)
Well I love that dirty water
Oh, Boston, you’re my home (oh, yeah)Because I love that dirty water
Oh, oh, Boston, you’re my home (oh, yeah)Well, I love that dirty water (I love it, baby)
I love that dirty water (I love Baw-stun)
I love that dirty water (Have you heard about the Strangler?)
I love that dirty water (I’m the man, I’m the man)
I love that dirty water (Owww!)
I love that dirty water (Come on, come on)
Lyrics to Dirty Water by The Standells
Damn it feels good to be an ex-champion.
So, last week Brazen Careerist held an event right here in Boston with free food and free drinks. Obviously, I was excited at the chance to eat and be merry for free while meeting some fellow Brazen bloggers, especially since Brazen was nice enough to allow us to invite our friends to the event. Well I sent out an e-mail to a few friends announcing the event and had two confirm they’d attend.
The day of the event my body shut down on me and I ended up falling asleep somewhere between 4-5 in the afternoon. I did not wake from my sickness induced slumber until sometime after 10 PM, still groggy, weary and generally not in a drinking mood. So I ended up missing what turned out to be a wicked awesome event and slightly pissing off two friends in the process.
Anyone who really knows me, knows I hate it when people hold grudges against me, so since then I’ve wondered how to make it up to Brazen Careerist and mis amigos. Well, being the uber-nice guy I am, I’ve decided I’m going to give my two friends a free Celtics ticket and to have Brazen Careerist be the first web-site review over at OTIBR. Sounds insane, eh? Giving away free tickets as an apology for free food and drinks! Well, I enjoy making others happy so it is a bit selfish too.
Plus, this post now gives me something to point to when people call me an a-hole, which happens fairly frequently. Truth is, most people in my city and state lean towards the mean side of personalities, at least on the surface. Heck, we call each other Massholes and actually take great pride in the nickname!
Still, I’ve stated many times that Massachusetts residents are no meaner nor friendlier than residents of any other state. Rather, we have a harsh exterior built up over the years of Sox failures, government incompetence, and insanely high real estate and rental prices. Truth is, we’re a tiny city crammed with people on top of people and the last thing we want is for you to move here! So to discourage anyone from taking up residence in the greatest city in the universe, we act tough, talk weird, drive insanely and generally engage in Masshole behaviors to keep our city population as low as possible. We get it, you too want to live in the Athens of the modern day world, but we didn’t get to be this wicked awesome by welcoming everyone like New York City does.
So, in conclusion I realize this post is a little bit of shameless self-promotion and back patting, but I do hope it shows a good faith effort on my part to not always be the prototypical Masshole. Some of us proud Massholes are in fact nice people, at least sometimes!
And remember, nice guys don’t finish last, we make sure everyone else finished safely!
