Newtown shootings: A hometown is shattered, but pulling itself together (Westport News)

Doug, one of my best friends who usually reports on Connecticut sports, reflects on his hometown of Newtown for his newspaper:

My hometown has always held a special place in my heart.

I've always taken great pride in my hometown, knowing that the comfort and warm memories it's given me for 26 years are luxuries.

But on Friday, my Newtown -- the only place I've ever lived, save for four years of college -- was rattled to its core by a senseless act of violence. As I sat in my house Friday -- only about two miles from Sandy Hook Elementary School -- I felt helpless; hoping, praying that the horrific details that were unfolding were all just a nightmare. I -- like my friends and neighbors who call this quintessential New England town home -- was in disbelief.

The seemingly idyllic community -- so peacefully symbolized by a 100-foot-high flagpole that rests right in the heart of Main Street -- suddenly had become known for unthinkable carnage.

Read more at westport-news.com here.

LIRR Redefines Time

Commuters using the Long Island Rail Road know what it means to be on time: Five minutes, 59 seconds or less. Anything over that is considered a delay.  That's why you can be waiting for your 7:12 a.m. train and hear announcements at 7:17 that the train is on time despite not being there.  It also keeps the "On Time Performance" (they capitalize it -- wasn't my idea) nice and high for them.

When Hurricane Sandy knocked out service and it took weeks for it to get back to normal, the Long Island Rail Road told riders to expect delays up to 15 minutes (on top of the dozens of trains canceled every day, which don't count as delayed, of course).  The November OTP was said to be 91.9%.  Turns out, according to Newsday, that was using the new definition of "on time," which was up to 15 minutes.  (OTP was 88.1% using the old definition.)

Yes, the LIRR redefined what it meant to be on time because they warned of delays.

They might as well warn of delays of up to an hour due to future "track conditions" an get that OTP closer to perfect.

USPS Fails at P.C. Attempt to Avoid Saying "Christmas"

I just saw a commercial for USPS. Something about mailing a package from home. They say you can "have it picked up for free before December 20th for delivery in time for the holidays."

Which holidays are they talking about? It's way too late for Hanukkah.

In trying to be inclusive and ultra-P.C., they left people out.

They could have just said "Christmas"... unless they mean New Year's.

Watch Out For Spam!

Be careful about tricky spam/phishing e-mails!

This is an e-mail my mom got tonight pretending to be about a FedEx delivery. Or is it from "U.P.S." (which is using an @albuquerque.com e-mail address)?

The link they want you to click takes you to a site that's neither FedEx nor UPS.

Not every spam e-mail makes as many mistakes as this one (December 2nd was not Monday... a handful of grammar errors... the FedEx logo is actually just text) but make sure you're smart about what you click. Lots of people are expecting packages this time of year so it's easy to think messages like this are meant for you.

Don't fall for it. Check out the from address. Mouse-over the link and see where it wants to take you before clicking on it.

While this might seem obvious to us, make sure your parents know, too. I've trained my mom to be suspicious of things like this and she checks with me before opening them.

Nana's Story

My Nana discusses her difficult life, including growing up in Austria during Nazi rule, losing her mother to cancer, losing the rest of her family to concentration camps, lucking out and escaping the Holocaust to live with an English family, and eventually coming to New York.

It's a story I had heard in bits and pieces growing up but not really in detail like this.

Feel free to leave comments on the YouTube page and I'll share them with her.

My iPod Thinks It's 1969

I don't really understand how this can be an option.

My iPod's battery apparently died a few weeks ago so I had to bring it back. It starts up and think it's about to turn 1970. (I wish it could have gone two and a half months sooner if it wanted to go to 1969.)

While this is an older generation iPod Touch, I feel like it should have known it's more advanced than the iPods (or whatever app/Internet device they used back then) of 1969.

Virtual Christmas Card

(Click video for HD.)

Are you seriously serious, Facebook?

134 friends wished me a happy birthday on Facebook yesterday. And because I’m old school, I don’t like to respond via comment but I like to go “wall-to-wall.” That means 134 thank-yous is on the agenda for today.

I think it was my 22nd post on a friend’s wall that caused Facebook to think I was a robot. And I apparently confirmed it for them because this captcha got me.

Upgraded to Courtside

I went to my third Hofstra Men's Basketball game in three days as part of the 2K Classic yesterday. If you tweet your seat location using the hashtag #WeAreHofstra, you have a chance at being upgraded to courtside seats.

You can probably guess what happened next because I'm not writing a post about not winning (also, you might've read this post's title)... That's right, I won, and got to bring my friends Mat and Joe down with me.

As soon as the cheerleaders (it's possible they were part of the dance team instead) who escorted us to our cushioned seats on the shiny floor walked away, a woman who works there came over to me and asked if we had the tickets for those seats. Really Hofstra??

Anyway, it was pretty awesome even if it did take some time adjusting to the new view and increased possibility of bodily harm.  At one point, one of the Marshall players went flying into seat maybe two or three down from Joe...  If a person had been there, there would have been an injury.

Here are some highlights, most of which was shot without any zoom.

Hurricane Sandy Video Journal

When Hurricane Sandy was on her way two weeks ago, I decided to shoot some video of the storm and revive my childhood hobby of playing reporter (but it's obvious here why I'll never be one). I know other people saw so much more and suffered (and are still suffering) much worse but this is the storm from my eyes on Long Island. The long blackout, the downed trees, the gas lines, the snow storm a week later... It's all here.