Some of these books have had a mind altering effect on me others just made me think. I know there will be more books to add to the list, but here I list the top ten in no particular order.

The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien
I was introduced to this book by my 8th grade teacher (I think.. I know it was a teacher, but am fuzzy about the grade). He was very much into this book and used it throughout the year to teach us everything from grammar to how to write using the Futhorc runes. The book introduced me to the world of fantasy. I was unable to put it down the first time I read it.

The Lord Of The Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
Of course, once you read the Hobbit you must read the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. I truly enjoyed this book (although it is a series of books, you can find it in one physical book so I am counting it as one). The first time I read it, I was somewhat confused by the many references to historical (for the story) events. This is one of the very few books that I have read more than once.

Z For Zacharia by Robert C. O’Brien
This book was the first book I read which I just picked up off the shelf without knowing what it was about. The synopsis on the back intrigued me enough that I had to read it. I did not want the story to end when I got to the last page. I found the book in the Young Adult’s section of the Queens, NY library I was a frequent patron of, I spent many months in that section looking for and reading many good books.

Pet’s Cementary by Stephen King
This book introduced me to Stephen King. To date he is my favorite author. The story had me riveted, and I have to admit it scared me a little. When I was almost finished with the book, it was late at night and I was alone in the living room. The description of the living room was so similar to where I sat that I had to stop and check the house to ensure that nothing undead was in there with me trying to finish me off. Since then I have read almost everything that has come from Mr. Stephen King and quite a few of his books have left an imprint on me.

Birthright – The Book Of Man by Mike Resnick
This book, I recently read and was one of those I could not put down. The book could actually be called a collection of short stories, because each chapter is it’s own story with different characters. All the stories are linked to each other by the time line that goes throughout the book. If you enjoy reading science fiction or just like thinking about the future of mankind, I would highly recommend this book.

Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier by Suelette Dreyfus
If technology interests you in any way, this is a great book. It tells the story of the start of the Hacker Underground. This is not a work of fiction, but more of a dramatized account of factual events. This book allows you to see how we have come to where we are. Many of the technologies we have today are due to some of the events that are described in this book.

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
This story introduced me to John Irving. It is the story of a man who recounts his friendship with a small boy named Owen Meany. The events that take place are used by the narrator to explain why his faith is what it is. Although the story does feel like it can get preachy, it actually does not. It is such a good story that I recommend it often to those that I meet that haven’t read it.

Thurston House by Danielle Steele
One summer, my mother had us stay with our grandmother. She had several books in the house and I began to go through them. I read Amityville Horror, Jaws, a couple of books on the mafia, and some others that I can’t remember. Each time I went to the shelf, I would see the Thurston House by Danielle Steele book. I would move it aside and pick something else to read. At the time, I only knew of Danielle Steele as a writer of “women’s novels”. I thought that the book would be some sappy love story that I would not enjoy. A few weeks into our stay, I had read every book in the house except for this one. After a while I couldn’t hold off any longer and I picked the book up. To my utter suprise, I was captivated by the book. It is a great story about a family and what their lives are like through generations. I couldn’t put the book down. At night, (after my grandmother turned off the lights) I would read using the light streaming in through the window from the street light. This book taught me never to judge a book by it’s cover (or author for that matter).

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
If history books were written more like Bill Bryson’s book, we would have way more people interested in history today. This book takes a subject that is considered boring to most and makes it unbelievably interesting. The title does not mislead either, the book covers everything from the universe to our founding fathers. What is so great about this book is that it takes historical facts and makes them more interesting by recounting events or things about the people involved that makes them more human. It literally makes you relate to history. I would highly recommend this book to all, especially those with children.

On Writing by Stephen King
The only reason I picked up this book was because it was written by Stephen King. I am glad that I did though. I was always interested in writing, but thought that the only way one can write stories and novels is by going to school and dedicating themselves to this. After reading this book, I realized that writing can be done by anyone. It may not be good writing, but if one keeps practicing it does get better. So I guess I must thank Mr. King for not only encouraging my love of reading, but encouraging me to write. If you have thought about writing anything and thought that it would be too difficult, read this book and I think you’ll realize (as I did) that anyone can do this (perhaps not as good as Mr. King, but it is possible).

As I came to the end of my list, I thought of other books that have had a lasting impression on me: The Stand by Stephen King, Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin, A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking and Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card are just a few. I know that there will be more to come as well. I have decided to review each book I read from now on. Maybe something I read will inspire someone else to pick up a book and expand their world.

The first time we were featured it was for switching over to the Macintosh platform. Previously we were using Windows Terminals with Citrix Terminal Servers on the backend. We then decided to switch to a platform that would support our growth and after an extensive fact gathering project, we presented our findings to our CEO and he selected the Mac OS X 10.x platform.

Since then we have grown four fold and have continued using the Macintosh platform as our standard. This latest feature focused more on how we use the Macs and why we have stayed with the platform over the years.

It is funny to see how much the quality of these pieces has evolved. If you look at the original video they made, you can’t help but notice that the latest video is a Hollywood motion picture by comparison.

An hour later, after AAA came and retrieved my keys for me (we should have valet parked, after tipping the AAA guy it cost just as much), we went to get inside. Now I always take advantage of online tickets whenever possible, so I presented my printouts that had the three tickets for us and one of them would not read. The ticket taker kept trying to scan the tickets in and it just wouldn’t. Mind you the scanner had a keypad where she could have just typed the barcode number in, but she sent me to the main office so we could get another ticket. We went to the main office and upon our return to the front of the line, we were finally inside the exhibit hall.

This place is HUGE. You read all about how it’s 4.8 hectares but you don’t realize how big that is until your in the space. There were cars as far as the eyes could see. We did some rough calculations and came up with about 1100 cars.

With so many vehicles, we had many cars to look at and check out. The boys decided to look for the most fuel efficient vehicle at the show as well as the least expensive. They found the most fuel efficient to be the Honda Prius with 48 miles per gallon (mpg) in the city and 45mpg on the highway (it was also the only one that had better mileage in the city than the highway). The most inexpensive vehicle (based on the posted sticker price) was the 2009 Hyundai Accent which was tagged at $9,999.99. It had good mileage (what we considered average after what we saw) 26mpg on city and 35mpg on highway. For it’s price it did not appear like a cheap vehicle, but it did feel a bit cramped (at least for me).

Anyway, we also saw the 2009 Dodge Challenger, the new Nissan Cube (which the people manning the booth informed us was inspired by the Apple iPod), and the new Hummer H3 Truck. After looking at all these vehicles, the boys found it interesting that the more expensive the vehicle was the less miles per gallon it was rated at. As a matter of fact, we even saw some vehicles that had a ‘Gas Guzzler Tax’ added to the price.

While we were there, we also had lunch at the BCEC food court. They had a good variety of food, but it was very expensive. We had bought three bottles of flavored water and the bill came to $12.00. Which caused Justice to exclaim ‘Each bottle is $4.00!?!’, after doing the calculations a couple of times in his head just to make sure he had it right.

We did see some interesting vehicles, like a huge monster truck whose tires were taller than Carlitos and Justice. There were also some cool tricked out vehicles with entertainment centers in the trunk. After seeing a vehicle with huge speakers and LCD display in the trunk, Carlitos wondered if one had to have two vehicles so you can go grocery shopping. We were disappointed however that we only saw one concept car. The car was the Saab Air 9X. It was cool with it’s digital dashboard (it was comprised of several computer displays which provided information and video feeds from the various cameras (two were the side view mirrors) the vehicle had.

We took well over 600 pictures as each of us was equipped with our own camera. Here are a couple of the ones I think are the best ones I shot ( NEIAS 2008 Pictures ). [The boys will post their best shots on their site shortly and I'll update this story with them when they do.]

We can’t wait till next year’s show and hope that there are more crazy concept cars in the show.

If this is the last concert I ever go to I am content. This was an exhilarating experience and I had my wife there to share it with me.

According to the schedule, they are coming back to New England in July, so if you have never been to a RUSH concert or it has been a while, I would HIGHLY recommend it.

Related Links:
Rush’s Official Site
Comcast Center for the Performing Arts

I would recommend you look at what I think will be the next great illustrator.

I know I sound a bit corny, but love does that to people.

If you are reading this Tonie, there’s one other thing I want to say:

I LOVE YOU!

Happy Anniversary Honey.

After speaking with a representative from the Cessna Aircraft Company, it became clear that the check was apparently some sick joke from an individual who is either trying to play Robin Hood or just really pissed off at the Cessna Aircraft Company.
At first this may seem funny, but take it from someone who’s been a victim to Identity theft this is not funny at all.

According to the FTC, over 10 million people have been a victim of some sort of identity theft costing the individuals and the affected companies over $53 billion dollars (see Identify Theft Statistics for more data). This is such a problem that even the FDIC (the organization that insures your money at your bank) has created a website to help people become more aware and take steps to protect themselves from this crime (see Introduction to Identity Theft for more information).

My one piece of advice – Keep in mind that if it seems too good to be true, more than likely it is.

For those of you that may be unfamiliar with the history of the Marine Corps (or what they are all about) check out the excellent Wikipedia entry on this ‘extra special’ branch of the military.

SEMPRE FI!

The Memorial Church is a beautiful building with lots of rich embellishments on the walls and ceilings. It probably helped some that the chairs and table at which the authors sat looked regal, making me feel like I was witnessing the King’s court in session.

Each of the authors read a little bit of their included story. Jim Sheppard read from ‘Sans Farine’, a somber story of the life of a French executioner. Richard Russo read ‘Horseman’, a story that seems to be (haven’t gotten to finish reading this one yet) about a young man who is caught plagiarizing. Lastly, Karen Russell read from ‘St. Lucy’s Home For Girls Raised By Wolves’, a funny story of a young class of werewolf girls that are being taught how to be more human.

After the reading they entertained several questions from the audience. It seemed like the only people who had any questions were those from the Crimson. One memorable question was from a gentleman who insinuated that short stories were just compressed novels and novels were beefed up short stories. Stephen King quickly countered that neither is anything like the other.

Afterwards it seemed that all of us (over 1,000 Bostonians in attendance), got in line to have our book signed by Mr. King and the other authors. We waited in line for about an hour so we can walk away with our books signed.
I should state for the record that my favorite author is Stephen King. I have read almost every single story he has written (and the ones I haven’t read I have in my library waiting for the right time). So when I get to the table where he is signing the books, of course you know I’m going to say something. And yes, I say something alright.

“Thank you.”

That’s right, all I said to my favorite author of all time at the one opportunity I get to speak to him (like if I was going to have many of these) was “Thank you”. Let me explain why.

I have this thing about celebrities, at least those that I admire. I don’t want to be viewed by them as a fanatic fan (like for instance, Mark Chapman). I know that to them I am a complete stranger. I also am aware that they are bombarded by other more vocal fans with “I love your work!” and “You rock dude!”, so I feel that my presence (and the fact that I stayed outside in line for almost an hour to get the autograph) should be indication enough of how much I like their work. So when I get in front of the signing table and he pushes my book towards me signed, I say “Thank you”.

In case that is not enough though, “Mr. King, I love your work and you most definitely rock!”

Just like the new home owner’s manual should inform new home owner’s that Home Depot will be their home away from home, it should also include the fact that as a home owner, you will be in a bind if you don’t have a truck of some sort.
We purchased my Taurus just last year, but a truck is something I am finding I can not do without. After much hemming and hawing, we have decided to put it up for sale, so we can get a decent truck with a nice bedliner.

So, if you are in the market for a 2005 Taurus SE 4 door Sedan, then check out my listing at AutoCrisis or Craigslist.

UPDATE – Vehicle has been sold. Thanks to all who showed an interest.