Archive for the 'Family' Category

The Stickneys go to Asia

Published at November 22, 2008 in Family and Friends. 0 Comments
“Do you know the difference between dying for nothing and dying for something. That’s why I’m still alive. That’s the only reason why I managed to stay alive in China, so I wouldn’t die for nothing. Today, I can die for something.“


http://www.xkcd.com/503/

OK. It’s been a while. I know. So I recently went to China. Just me and my parents. Bin, a friend of mine from college, is now living and working in Tokyo, and his parents have wanted my parents to go over to China for a visit for a while. Now that the parents are properly retiring and no longer productive members of society, the time was right. We started in Tokyo, stayed there for a few days and then toured 4 cities in China over 7 days. Shanghai, Wuhan, Xi’an and Beijing. Tokyo was very expensive and quite frankly, I couldnt have afforded to stay there much more than 2 or 3 days. Whatta town though. Very clean. The Japanese people confused me a bit though. On the streets, and from what Bin has told me about his job, they are a very uptight people. But their TV shows paint a very different story. Wacky, crazy, zany, lots of sound effects. It’s almost as if making crazy TV shows is a release for them. Very interesting.

It was a hell of a trip and we all had a blast. Dad managed to find beef in every restaurant we went to and Mom tried a little bit of everything. Noodles, pasta, same principle. More than once I heard from people in China that I would fit in and should consider moving there and getting a job. But you know me, better dead than Red. Ive got a lot of photos and I hope to find a good working wordpress gallery plugin to put some of the pics up. I dont trust flickr, facebook, or anything like that really. GET OFF MY YARD!! Yeah, I guess I am something of an Old Man on The Internet in this regard.

O Canada!

Published at September 24, 2008 in Family. 0 Comments
“I’m from Canada and everyone thinks I’m slow, eh.“

This past weeekend I was lucky enough to be given 2 tickets to 2 games at the Skydome in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Bluejays vs the RedSox. So I took this opportunity to take my dad on a little road trip. And if you guessed by little I meant in a Ford Focus and 10 hours each way, you guessed it. Yes, we drove, as plane tickets to Canada with 2 days notice is not as cheap as you might expect ( $600 each ). I had been to Toronto before, reminds me of Boston in many ways, big buildings, diverse population, ridiculous accents, only Toronto is cleaner. The people are also… different.

I was curious to see how Canadian crowds deal with the purely American sport of baseball. If the stereotype is true, these are a hockey loving people who would prefer to get drunk before a game and start a riot during the game. But I digress. The first fact is that before each and every game in Toronto, they have to sing 2 national anthems. First the Start Spangled Banner and then O, Canada. How would that make me feel, if I had to hear 2 different songs every single game? Would I eventually just think O, Canada was the 2nd verse to the Star Spangled Banner? I do admit though, I do like their anthem. Proud and patriotic.

Now, I dont have much to compare to. The only other MLB Park I have been to is Fenway, the 100 year old stadium in Boston. The first thing I noticed about the barely 20 year old Rogers Centre ( Ill get to that ) is the crappy “grass” they have. It really does look like a carpet, and not even a good one. The stadium is in the shadow of the CN Tower, one of the tallest structures in N. America, if not The Tallest. I have been up it before, and it has an awesome view. The park itself was very nice, carpeted, fancy bars and VIP sections. There’s even a hotel attached to it, above the outfield. The seats were slightly bigger than Fenway’s, but not by much. No obstructed view seats either.

The crowd was a horse of a different color altogether. Subdued, polite, quiet, respectful… eerie, scary, weird, unsettling. Yes, as a crowd of 25,000 they were loud. But during batters, I think I couldve screamed a player’s name and got his attention. Individually, the Sox fans that were there, and there were plenty, were much louder than our Canadian cousins.

Then of course there was the funny spellings and metrics. Their funny money aside ( loonies, toonies I dont know if I can fully trust a civilization that uses that many coins ) everything was close, but just a little off. For example, the outfield. Centrefield was 400 ft or 122 m. Coco Crisp did not play center field, he played centre field, see the difference? I did.

Funny coins, accents, the metric system ( which I actually agree with ) aside, it was an interesting trip and look into all that is Canada.

Thanksgiving

Published at November 27, 2007 in Family and Friends. 0 Comments
“Did I ever tell you kids about the first Thanksgiving? It took place between the ancient Egyptains and aliens from a distant galaxy.“

Ah Thanksgiving, the funnest, yearly ritual sacrifice ever conceived. Thanksgiving means my yearly trip to Miller’s Crossing Bar in Cranston, RI. Miller’s on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is basically a timewarp back to high school. There are some people I only see at Miller’s on this night. We’ve all moved away, but Miller’s calls to the Native Sons of Cranston ( West ). Though I hear Billy’s Frosted Mug has a similar gathering for our cross city cousins of the East. At any rate, the Wednesday ritual was good. A certain degree of awkwardness aside, it was good to see everyone.

On nicer days, I would go to the yearly football game between the 2 high schools, East vs West, the Cranston Cup, fought for bragging rights for 1 year. This year my mighty Cranston West Falcons fell 21-14. I think the overall record for the series is West 19, East, 18, I could be off, it is close though. This year’s weather proved amazing. But alas, blood is thicker than Gatorade, and I skipped out on the game and drove 3 hours north, to my sister’s house.

It was a pleasant drive, though the weather got progressively worse as I drove through Massachusetts and the temperature was 20 degrees cooler than when I left Cranston. It was a simple dinner, turkey, potatoes, bread, canned cranberry sauce, the typical bounty. I napped, I snacked, I napped again. ( Dormito, mangiato, dormito ? )

Next stop, Christmas.

The Guys Throw A Wedding!

Published at July 23, 2007 in Family, Friends and Whoa. 0 Comments

Friday night saw the first of Us to get married. James married Kristin! Without a doubt the best wedding any of us had ever been to! What more can I say? Please head on over to the pics and take a look for yourself!

Job, Vacation, Moving, Ya Know… Life Stuff

Published at May 15, 2007 in Family, Friends, Whoa and Work. 1 Comment
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.“

Ive recently made a decision that I mostly kept to myself, for fear if I didn’t go through with it, I would look quite the fool! I gave my notice at work, planned a month long vacation and am moving to Boston. All of which were things I wanted to accomplish this summer, but due to CBMC ( Circumstances Beyond My Control ), I had to move up my timetable.

I will remain at my present job through July, my last day being Friday, August 3. My work has taught me much, and I will draw from my experiences there for quite a while, I have no doubt.

Next, I’ll take most of the month of June off, to take my vacation, on the road touring with some old friends. It should be a hell of a time, and will give me the chance to see many parts of the country I have not been to before.

After I leave work, it’s the move to Boston. The fates aligned on this one, as Mikey, Dave and Pauly were all in the market for roommates. The IT Job Market in Boston is ripe for the picking, and I do not anticipate any problems finding a job. Plus, everything else was too good of a chance not to take.

If ever there was a Summer of Stickney, this should be it, and I couldn’t be happier.

So Long Narragansett, and Thanks for all the Fish (smell)