I am the ghost of groovymother.com. Woooooo!

This is an old page from Rod Begbie's blog.

It only exists in an attempt to prevent linkrot. No new content will be added to this site, and links and images are liable to be broken. Check out begbie.com to find where I'm posting stuff these days.

Filed under 'cellmcc310'

October 24, 2006

God Says: Please Do Not Go to Hell

God Says:  Please Do Not Go to Hell

Tucked under my windscreen wiper on Landsdowne St. As I approached my car, I thought I'd got a parking ticket. Instead, I just got redemption. Phew!

Vote Dig

Vote Dig

The badges being handed out at the Weekly Dig "Dig This" awards party.

With Love, From Carnegie Deli

With Love, From Carnegie Deli

My birthday present from my wee sister? 2.5lbs of cheesecake, overnighted from the Carnegie Deli in New York.

October 23, 2006

Joy’s Moo Cards

Joy’s Moo Cards

I treated Joy to a box of Moo Cards for herself -- each illustrated with a photo of the dogs. Here are two, resting in some dog photo holders I picked up for her at Philadelphia Airport.

The word ‘unblowupable’ is thrown around a lot these days.

The word ‘unblowupable’ is thrown around a lot these days.

This is the pressure-gauge on the outside of our central heating furnace that gave up the ghost over the weekend. You might note that the clear protective plastic shield on it has turned brown, melted and buckled.

This is because the furnace apparently decided that merely heating water into steam and pushing it around our radiators was, shall we say, passé, and instead dived head-first into a mission of heating itself up to a frighteningly hot temperature and dripping boiling water onto the basement floor.

Remind me again why home-ownership is a good idea?

October 18, 2006

Dunkin Donuts, Union Square Wednesday 5:49 pm 10/18/06 Somerville, Massachusetts

Dunkin Donuts, Union Square Wednesday 5:49 pm 10/18/06 Somerville, Massachusetts

Used Car lot, Prospect St Wednesday 5:48 pm 10/18/06 Somerville, Massachusetts

Used Car lot, Prospect St Wednesday 5:48 pm 10/18/06 Somerville, Massachusetts

Corner of Prospect & Hampshire, Wednesday 5:42 pm 10/18/06 Cambridge, Massachusetts

Corner of Prospect & Hampshire, Wednesday 5:42 pm 10/18/06 Cambridge, Massachusetts

Fast Lane, Weston Tolls, Wednesday 5:23 pm 10/18/06 Weston, Town Of, Massachusetts

Fast Lane, Weston Tolls, Wednesday 5:23 pm 10/18/06 Weston, Town Of, Massachusetts

Weston Tolls, Wednesday 5:23 pm 10/18/06 Weston, Town Of, Massachusetts

Weston Tolls, Wednesday 5:23 pm 10/18/06 Weston, Town Of, Massachusetts

Deval Patrick Supporters. Wednesday 5:11 pm 10/18/06 Framingham, Town Of, Massachusetts

Deval Patrick Supporters.  Wednesday 5:11 pm 10/18/06 Framingham, Town Of, Massachusetts

ZoneTag Photo Wednesday 5:10 pm 10/18/06 Framingham, Town Of, Massachusetts

ZoneTag Photo Wednesday 5:10 pm 10/18/06 Framingham, Town Of, Massachusetts

October 10, 2006

My Flickr Moo Cards

My Flickr Moo Cards

A mixture of Boston, Bassets and a Bunch of other stuff. They look great, especially considering most of the photos were taken with crappy cameraphones!

Sadly, two of the twenty images I uploaded got printed as "Unavailable photo:" Not sure what caused that, but I'm gonna ping Moo and see what happened.

Decorated Trunks

Decorated Trunks

Someone's been decorating the tree trunks around Union Square.

October 9, 2006

‘Best’ of Boston?

‘Best’ of Boston?

This is odd. Dunkin Donuts cups currently proclaim that they were awarded a "Best of Boston" award by Boston Magazine this year. However, a search of the Best of Boston site finds no such win.

In fact, it appears that the "award" was merely a corporate agreement to use the cup on the magazine cover.

I love DD as much as the next New Englander, but since the "Best of Boston" usually _means_ something (unlike some other awards, which just rank which business did the best job getting their customers to ballot-stuff), it seems massively lame to whore the title this way.

October 6, 2006

Jon Stewart, The Wang Center, Friday 10:50 pm 10/6/06

Jon Stewart, The Wang Center, Friday 10:50 pm 10/6/06

For our third wedding anniversary, I treated meself and the missus to tickets to see Jon Stewart do standup. He was splendidly entertaining, though it seemed like he hadn't updated his standup act much over the last few years (jokes about Y2K, the Million Man March and Rodney King!)

October 1, 2006

Massive Attack, Boston Orpheum, Sunday 9:14 pm 10/1/06

Massive Attack, Boston Orpheum, Sunday 9:14 pm 10/1/06

The light show was really quite stunning, but of course, looks like ass on my cameraphone. Their use of scrolling ticker displays reminded me somewhat of the Blue Man Group!

Clyde’s Nest

Clyde’s Nest

Clyde isn't spritely enough to hop onto the bed like Bacon, so he's made himself a little nest in the corner of the bedroom.

September 25, 2006

Blue Screened

Blue Screened

Clearly the presenter from Traineo had not performed sufficient sacrifices to the god of demos before getting up at the Web Innovators Group. Within 10 seconds of starting, his laptop bluescreened.

And all the Mac fanboys in the crowd smiled to themselves.

September 20, 2006

Pyrotechnics Wednesday 10:59 pm 9/20/06

Pyrotechnics Wednesday 10:59 pm 9/20/06

The grand finale for the Stones gig, ending at 11pm precisely.

Truly rock'n'roll at its most punctual.

The Rolling Stones, Gillette Stadium. Wednesday 9:36 pm 9/20/06

The Rolling Stones, Gillette Stadium. Wednesday 9:36 pm 9/20/06

I managed to nab some free tickets to tonight's Stones gig in Foxborough. We were up in the nosebleediest of nosebleeds, but for free, we weren't complaining.

September 19, 2006

Well that’s something you don’t see everyday

Well that’s something you don’t see everyday

Open-top Double Decker Routemaster London bus driving round the streets of Cambridge, MA.

September 14, 2006

Remy & Orsillo bobbleheads

Remy & Orsillo bobbleheads

Bobbleheads of the Red Sox commentators.

September 12, 2006

The Tobin Bridge Tuesday 2:26 pm 9/12/06 Charlestown, Massachusetts

The Tobin Bridge Tuesday 2:26 pm 9/12/06 Charlestown, Massachusetts

Taken during the Bose Cruise (It's like a Booze Cruise, but with less alcohol, and greater noise reduction).

Boattuggery Tuesday 2:11 pm 9/12/06 Boston, Massachusetts

Boattuggery Tuesday 2:11 pm 9/12/06 Boston, Massachusetts

A tanker navigating Boston Harbor with a few tugboats guiding it.

The Zakim Bridge Tuesday 1:57 pm 9/12/06 Boston, Massachusetts

The Zakim Bridge Tuesday 1:57 pm 9/12/06 Boston, Massachusetts

My favourite new piece of architecture in Boston.

Airyplane Tuesday 12:50 pm 9/12/06 Boston, Massachusetts

Airyplane Tuesday 12:50 pm 9/12/06 Boston, Massachusetts

Descending to Logan.

September 5, 2006

Exit 25MPH

Exit 25MPH

Just discovered that when I use ZoneTag with my GPS whilst driving, it not only tags the photo with "driving", but also the speed at which I was going.

Which was 65mph when I took the photo of this road sign, apparently.

‘New Hampshire Boring’

‘New Hampshire Boring’

Refreshingly honest, but it really feels like the New Hampshire tourist board isn't even trying anymore.

August 17, 2006

Snakes which are neither on a plane, nor in a movie theater

Snakes which are neither on a plane, nor in a movie theater

AMC apparently has a policy that you are not allowed to take rubber snakes into movie theaters showing Snakes on a Plane. These were the contraband snakes confiscated prior to this evening's showing.

View from the bridge *over* the Victory Bridge

View from the bridge *over* the Victory Bridge

The red carpet bridge was right below us, but we took another thirty minutes to find our way there.

The Davis Mega-Maze Thursday 1:31 pm 8/17/06 South Lancaster, Massachusetts

The Davis Mega-Maze  Thursday 1:31 pm 8/17/06 South Lancaster, Massachusetts

This afternoon, our team at work took a group outing (under the auspices of "team building exercise") to the Davis Mega-Maze, a massive maze through 10-foot-tall corn. It took us an hour to find our way out!

August 14, 2006

Scooby Snacks

Scooby Snacks

When I got home from work, there was an unexpected package on the doorstep from Petco.com.

"Crap!", thinks I. "Clearly Bacon has got himself a credit card, and entered the murky world of e-commerce."

Luckily, it turned out to be a gift from the lovely folks at Reddit, as thanks to Bacon for appearing in banner ads for them!

As a precaution, though, I've taken away Bacon's pre-authorized credit-card application forms. You can't be too careful.

August 6, 2006

FIVE!

FIVE!

One of my pet peeves is when I'm trying to find a friend's house, but can't read any of the house numbers on the street.

I just installed this number on our house this week. It's a nifty design -- It's solar-powered, so it charges its battery during the day, then when it gets dark, lights up using a couple of white LEDs.

The things I do to help out our friends. (OK, I'll be honest: Most visitors to our front door are Chinese and Pizza delivery guys).

$20 from ThinkGeek.

July 29, 2006

Arrogant Bastard Ale Saturday 9:55 pm 7/29/06 Somerville, Massachusetts

Arrogant Bastard Ale Saturday 9:55 pm 7/29/06 Somerville, Massachusetts

My chum Noel and I sample Arrogant Bastard Ale. The bottle warned us "You probably won't like this," and it was right.

July 27, 2006

Baldy!

Baldy!

Having woken up to a particularly stonking case of bedhead this morning, I inwardly-dialogued "fuck it!" and asked Joy to help me take my beardtrimmer to my head.

Lesson learned? Next time, use a longer setting on the trimmer, cause my blond hair is nearly transparent this short.

July 24, 2006

Gigantor Remote

Gigantor Remote

Ah, I love the crap they sell at Brookstone. The overpriced junk that gives the air of being vaguely useful, but is too cheap and shoddy to actually solve a problem well.

My favourite one that I saw yesterday was this $50 massive universal remote. Pretend to be a Lilliputian from the comfort of your couch!

July 22, 2006

Steee-rike!

Steee-rike!

Joy bowling at King's. For a crappy cameraphone shot, I think this turned out pretty good!

July 16, 2006

Basset Hounds! Sunday 12:41 pm 7/16/06 Bristol, Rhode Island

Basset Hounds! Sunday 12:41 pm 7/16/06 Bristol, Rhode Island

Some of the bassets relaxing in the shade at the Colonial Basset Hound Rescue Basset Bash.

Maggie May, Sunday 11:23 am 7/16/06 Bristol, Rhode Island

Maggie May, Sunday 11:23 am 7/16/06 Bristol, Rhode Island

This adorable little puppy stole everyone's hearts at the Basset Bash.

July 15, 2006

July 12, 2006

Puffy AmiYumi, Wednesday 10:10 pm 7/12/06 Boston, Massachusetts

Puffy AmiYumi, Wednesday 10:10 pm 7/12/06 Boston, Massachusetts

The Puffy AmiYumi Splurge! Splurge! Splurge! tour. They read their on-stage banter off of notebooks. "Thank you. You guys... are.. the.. best?" It only sounded 5% more scripted than when native English-speaking bands do it..

July 2, 2006

Hitched

Hitched

A (year-and-a-half) belated first wedding anniversary gift from our smashing chum, Cheryl: A signed Garry Trudeau print of Mike & JJ from Doonesbury.

Hopefully, our marriage will turn out happier than theirs!

June 28, 2006

Aimee Mann with the Boston Pops, Wednesday 9:40 pm 6/28/06

Aimee Mann with the Boston Pops, Wednesday 9:40 pm 6/28/06

June 25, 2006

Morningwood, Sunday 11:08 pm 6/25/06 Boston, Massachusetts

Morningwood, Sunday 11:08 pm 6/25/06 Boston, Massachusetts

The lead singer, Chantel, has a helluva lot of energy in her. Especially considering they've cancelled the next four dates in the tour because she's sprained her leg.

Morningwood Sunday 10:56 pm 6/25/06 Boston, Massachusetts

Morningwood Sunday 10:56 pm 6/25/06 Boston, Massachusetts

Chantel getting the crowd to crouch during "nth Degree". As I took this photo, she was admonishing the Axis security, and telling them to crouch too.

June 24, 2006

View from the State Street Pavillion

View from the State Street Pavillion

Managed to get a pair of "Standing Room" tickets in the "State Street Pavillion" at Fenway. Since it was a pretty grey day, not everyone had shown up, so we had seats for the whole game. Result!

June 11, 2006

Joy trains her brain

Joy trains her brain

I bought the DS Lite that I've been craving for so long this morning. Joy's been quite taken with Brain Age.

I'm hoping to get it back off her soon so that I can indulge in a little more Super Mario.

June 4, 2006

Ingredients for Web 2.0 Success

Ingredients for Web 2.0 Success

"Pierre Francois from Underscore_ Consulting" (who looked alarmingly similar to Alexis from Reddit) did a great presentation, somewhat reminiscent of Stephen Colbert's "The Word" segment. The video should be up soon.

June 3, 2006

Shimon & the Schedule Board

Shimon & the Schedule Board

This was right at the start of BarCamp, before it got completely filled for the day.

May 23, 2006

My Laptopstickers

My Laptopstickers

My olde, busted-up, nicked-from-three-jobs-ago laptop. Now barely-functional (the powercord doesn't quite stay in, the battery lasts about 4 seconds, and the lid hinges won't keep the screen open), but I wanted to document its coverage before I bin it.

XM Inno

XM Inno

I'm playing with a loaned XM Inno radio at the moment. It's considerably shinier than my olde Roady -- Nice colour screen, the ability to save tracks you like, and a reasonably decent UI for browsing stations (better than the one on the competing Sirius player.)

And hey! If they're getting sued by the RIAA, they've got to be doing _something_ right!

May 15, 2006

No running, shouting or piddling in the shallow end.

No running, shouting or piddling in the shallow end.

Our basement, with the delightful addition of a couple of inches of floodwater. Every hardware store in the area is sold out of pumps, so we're waiting for the fire department to pop round and help us out. Oh, the joys of homeownership.

May 9, 2006

EL(?)OO

EL(?)OO

Do Stop & Shop lie? Is this really "Extra Light" enough for Shangri-La?

May 6, 2006

The Radio Knives, P.A.’s Lounge, Somerville

The Radio Knives, P.A.’s Lounge, Somerville

My Brother-(in-law)^2's band. Fine garage-rawk tunes can be found at their MySpace page.

Crated Bacon

Crated Bacon

Bacon suffered a back injury this week -- A slipped disc or a pinched nerve, reckons the vet. Poor little bugger has the be kept in his crate (except for "short leashed walks") for two weeks.

Since he's caged and being fed steroids, Keith suggested we should rename him "Veal".

April 20, 2006

April 19, 2006

A Six-Foot Latte

A Six-Foot Latte

You know, I often dream about getting this much caffeine.

View from the Monster

View from the Monster

We had Green Monster tickets for tonight's Sox game. Since our normal seats are way back in right field, this was quite a different view!

March 31, 2006

Somerville has a Dog Park

Somerville has a Dog Park

Until very recently, there was not a single place in the City of Somerville (population ~77,000) where you could let your dog off-leash. Thankfully this has now changed, with the just-opened dog run on Nunziato Field. Here's some of the cheerful dogs that were gallavanting round there when we took Bacon down this evening.

March 19, 2006

A ‘smooth, creamy coffeehouse classic’, apparently

A ‘smooth, creamy coffeehouse classic’, apparently

Or, alternatively, half-a-mug of piss-weak, nastily artifically-sweetened, CoffeeMate-crammed brownwater. The rather disappointing result of trying a HomeCafe "frothy cappuccino" pod.

I got the coffee machine for free from BzzAgent, but I still feel ripped-off. I'll stick with my Senseo, thanks.

March 17, 2006

Apple Powerbook 5300cs

Apple Powerbook 5300cs

Intel is for wussies. The 100Mhz PowerPC 603e is where it's at.

This laptop was unceremoniously dumped in the random-crap-pile outside my cube. It's ten years old, running System 7.5, has a staggering 24Mb of RAM, and a whopping 500Mb hard drive. Anyone got suggestions for what I can use it for?

March 9, 2006

Three Roombas enter, One Roomba leaves

Three Roombas enter, One Roomba leaves

Hardcore Three-way Roomba-on-Roomba Action.

March 8, 2006

Roomba Rumble

Roomba Rumble

Two remote-control Roombas battle it out at Makefest.

March 6, 2006

My main thought from day one of ETech…

My main thought from day one of ETech…

"Branded Lanyard" would be a great name for a rock band.

March 1, 2006

Another Zonetag test

Another Zonetag test

Bacon's tail: Too fast for the LED flash on the camphone.

February 27, 2006

Belle & Sebastian, Avalon, Boston

Belle & Sebastian, Avalon, Boston

ZoneTagged Mon Feb 27, 2006 19:03:29 PST

Dicking around with the new cellphone

Dicking around with the new cellphone

ZoneTagged Mon Feb 27, 2006 15:50:02 PST


About This Site

This is an archive of groovmother.com, the old blog run by Rod Begbie — A Scottish geek who lives in San Francisco, CA.

I'm the co-founder of Sōsh, your handy-dandy guide for things to do in San Francisco this weekend.