Autumnal journey through New England, by Amtrak

crossing light by train

Pictures from the train ride last Sunday. Every time I take the train down to see my in-laws, I think, “I should have brought my camera.” This time I did, and took mostly very blurry photos of things passing by outside. But I got a few good ones, I think.

The leaves haven’t quite turned on our street, or much of anywhere; the weather has been too weird for autumn to do its magic. But fortunately there was a bit of good foliage along the way.

I did think that the regional train left something to be desired compared to the Acela in terms of comfort, but it got me there on time.

BoycottSony.us

I decided to keep the Boycott Sony thread alive and well by moving it to its own blog. My intention is to use BoycottSony.us to aggregate information about the Sony DRM brouhaha, other boycott efforts, and maybe a little bit about DRM in general.

I should emphasize one thing: I started this thread from the perspective of a boycott, of totally cutting Sony off until they start treating us with respect. But what this blog will really be about is conversation: people talking to people about what Sony is doing to them and their rights. If Sony wants to join the conversation and talk in earnest to us about what they think they’re doing with their DRM, and more importantly listen to our concerns and take action on them, then I will count that as a victory for this effort.

Incidentally, it’s boycottsony.us because boycottsony.com and boycottsony.net are owned—by Sony.

Showering in the dark.

Our new shower in our first floor bathroom is finished, and not a moment too soon as the second floor bathroom is almost completely gutted now. I took the first shower in the new space this morning, and while I was looking forward to the experience it turned out not to be everything I had hoped, because it was in darkness. Yes, a transformer blew down the hill from us at about 6:10 this morning…

The good news is that our new hot water system’s big ol’ storage tank had more than enough for two showers; our old tankless hot water from our late unlamented oil furnace would not have allowed me to take a hot shower with the power off. But I wasn’t able to evaluate the lights or the efficacy of the new exhaust fan. Oh well.

Before and after photos of the new shower and of the demolition in the upstairs bathroom when I get power back at home.