Police news from suburbia

Twitter - not ready for prime time?

There's been lots of discussion in the blogosphere and Twittersphere regarding Twitter outages and its general scalability. Something really important like Twitter shouldn't be off the air for even a few moments.

VA identifies how to reduce occurrence of PTSD among veterans

Stop diagnosing PTSD and let 'em appeal: CREW and VoteVets release email telling VA staff to “refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out” | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington

Closing the Complaint Window

We typically regard complaining as truth-telling and, conversely, equating not-complaining with acquiescence. Funny thing, it doesn't always work out that way. Complaining, more often than not, leads to more complaining, spiraling into a persistent spirit of dissatisfaction.

As a result, a church in Missouri is encouraging its congregants to go 21 days without complaining. The idea is that, according to common understanding, it takes 21 days to break a bad habit or start a new good one.

Many therapeutic techniques, including CBT, REBT, and others, talk about reframing - looking at a current difficult situation from a different perspective to understand how bad is really and, ideally, see a way of dealing with the difficult situation without resorting to stale habits that haven't worked very well. Much of our complaining isn't about righting a wrong, but trying to make the case that we're right and someone else is wrong.

I doubt that I'll be able do the 21 days; 21 minutes seems a bit overwhelming. Shortly, I need to head out for a 21-minute drive with my fellow Massachusetts drivers. 'Nuff said.

Congrats to Father Fred

Rev. Fred Enman has received the first John W. Spillane Award for Distinguished Christian Leadership for his work with the Matthew 25 project. Matthew 25 provides low-cost housing to folks in the Worcester area. For more info, see Worcester Telegram & Gazette Worcester Diary.

We're also fortunate to know Father Fred personally. He's a regular at Mike and Lynn's, bringing his strong spirit and stories of hope to our family gatherings.

Yes, Master

The word 'boss' comes from the Dutch word 'baas', meaning master. Here's the background on 'boss' and other words of the workplace: The Origin of Words You Hear A Lot in The Office.

This fortnight's RoasterBoy Playlist

Shuffling through iTunes

When I put my iTunes library on shuffle, here's what shows up: Name Artist Cotton Eyed Joe The Mountain Ramblers Living In The Country Pete Seeger Run Run Run The Velvet Underground Saint Of Circumstance Grateful Dead Need Your Love So Bad - Version #1 Fleetwood Mac Brother Gil Scott-Heron Ladies Auxiliary Woody Guthrie There's A Doctor The Who Rendezvous Bruce Springsteen No. 5 in D Major Mieczyslaw Horszowski Love That Burns Fleetwood Mac Compared to What Eddie Harris & Les McCann 05/13/2008 05:19 PM

You want riffs? Junior Brown's got riffs. FARK.com: Fark Video Player (3595642) Junior Brown can rock 05/12/2008 07:24 PM

Ozzy Osbourne › Crazy Train I accidentally cut the antenna lead on my satellite radio while I was load pallets into the back of my car. So, now, I'm left with terrestrial radio. Mostly, it's pretty bleak so I scan a lot stations. Last night, my meanderings brought me to WHJY 95.5 out of Providence. This Ozzy song caught my attention, but the banter between the DJ and sidekick was quite forgettable. 05/08/2008 06:57 AM

Hayes Carll - A Lover Like You It's got that jangly style of Dylan's Blonde on Blonde with the Austin, wise-guy redneck twang. 05/07/2008 09:16 AM

David Bromberg - Mr. Bojangles David Bromberg played guitar in Jerry Jeff Walker's band while Mr. Bojangles was JJW's big hit. (It was an even bigger hit for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.) IMO, Bromberg's version is much better, his voice cracking at all the right turns. 05/06/2008 04:00 PM

Riffs at the heart of our brains

The video clips don't always synch with the music, but, what the heck: MilkandCookies - Rock & Roll Riffs 1964 to 1975 05/05/2008 07:34 AM

The J-Walk Blog: Bush In Ads

How George Bush is pictured in foreign advertisements:

From The J-Walk Blog: Bush In Ads

My name is more popular than Elmer, but a long way from Jesus

Pop Culture Makes Mark on Social Security's Most Popular Baby Names List

Birdy, Birdy, In The Sky

In the early spring, I park my car under the maple tree at the top of our driveway. Until the leaves have filled out (which is a week or so away), the tree is an avian outhouse. My car looks, well, it looks like it's been sitting under a tree where dozens of birds hang out. When the leaves are fully grown, they catch those offerings.

Now I can identify the culprits. There's a book entitled “What Bird Did That?” Identify a bird by its poo!. I'd like to think that I have more of a life than one that would have me studying the droppings on my car's hood, but new knowledge about nature is rarely wasted.

A fine October day this middle of May

The wind is strong from the north and east and you can feel the chill from the ocean, even though we're lots of miles away. The sun wants to warm us, but the wind takes the warmth away. We didn't get the snow that was forecast for last night. The big storm swung to the south of us and out to sea.

We're in full bloom now around town. The lilacs are out, purple and white, although their scent is not yet awake. The lawns need mowing once a week.

Yesterday, we had our town election. There were just a few contested races and one question regarding a Prop 2 1/2 override. The override was to cover the cleanup of an oil spill at one of the former schools. It didn't pass and I'm not sure what that means. Probably, we'll have to pay for it out of general expenses.

Meanwhile, last week's Holden police log reported:

• Parent says 9-year old misbehaving, wants police to come
  
• Paxton PD requests contact with resident accused of throwing things from his motor vehicle in that town; mother contacted