Below are the 12 most recent journal entries recorded in docforbin's LiveJournal:

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
9:01 pm	Some school districts are STILL in the Stone Age. . . . . .as far as Special Education's concerned. A young man who has a speech problem has effectively been shafted by the Lake George Central School District where I am because the district officials didn't know how to handle him. Details here As a former Special Education student myself, my heart goes out to this guy. Remember, Special Education students are people with rights, too. Current Mood: angry Current Music: "Jeremy" by Pearl Jam (Comment on this)
Friday, September 18th, 2009
10:30 pm	Its the end of a broadcast era. The final episode ever of The Guiding Light aired today, ending a 72-year run not only of the longest-running soap opera ever but also the second-longest running program in broadcast history; only Grand Ole Opry has been on the air longer. Details here. I was kind of hoping that the zombified corpse of Roger Thorpe (immortally played by Michael Zaslow) would have risen from the grave and ate the brains of everyone in Springfield, but I guess you can't always get what you want. But still, it's the end of an era. RIP Guiding Light--January 25, 1937-September 18, 2009 "To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high"--John McRae, "In Flanders Fields" Current Mood: sad (Comment on this)
Saturday, August 29th, 2009
11:35 pm	The Charles Evans Hughes Rock is back! Anyhow. some time back I had mentioned that there was a rock with a plaque in City Park in Glens Falls dedicated to its most famous son, Charles Evans Hughes, who among other things served as NYS Governor and had two stints on the US Supreme Court, and that somehow it had disappeared during the renovation and expansion project for nearby Crandall Library. Well, it's back! It's great to have it back.  I think when they finally get City Park squared away I'll finally take pictures of all the other monuments and post them. Current Mood: happy (Comment on this)
Monday, July 20th, 2009
11:40 pm	What does $1 million of your tax money get you? I've mentioned about this in passing over the years, but now I'll tell the whole story. Just shortly after my mother and stepfather bought the print shop we now own, we had found out that this tourist railroad had grandiose plans for putting in a station there.  Originally they were going to tear down the building that the print shop's in now for it but decided against it (though the building's still being threatened with the wrecking ball because they're thinking of putting in either a siding or a turnaround loop).  Originally it was going to be a full-fledged station with a waiting area, ticket window, a restaurant, etc., and there was going to be Federal, State and local funding (in a rather unusual sidenote the track is owned by Warren County despite the fact that Hadley is in Saratoga County since they also planned on building similar stations in Corinth, North Creek, etc and it was going to link to the Amtrak station in Saratoga Springs). However, as time and the recession wore on, the project was scaled back.  Eventually the project--which began last fall and only ended a few weeks ago--cost a little over $1 million in combined Federal, State and county tax money. So, what did the taxpayers get for their money?  Not much as the following pics illustrate: A close-up of the platform: A handicap ramp: A fenced-off garbage dumpster: And blowing up what was an already good parking lot and repaving it with asphalt and stones: Yes, they BLEW UP the old parking lot with dynamite, and take it from me, Laptop was not thrilled when it went off because he's skittish and was bouncing off the walls and running around the place when they were doing it. As you can expect, there are a lot of people in my area who are upset with this waste of taxpayers' money--especially given the fact that the train won't be coming after all because of a washout a few miles up and the railroad is upset it didn't get what was promised to them. Even my podunk hometown newspaper weighed in on this in an editorial:  www.poststar.com/articles/2009/06/07/opinion/today/14866120.txt Laptop did have a ringside seat of sorts to the construcion while it was going on when we set him out in his car carrier on the stoop.  As you can see, he thought little of the whole thing: "They wasted $1 million of taxpayers' money on THIS??????????  That settles it!  Humans are dumber than dogs!  HISSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!" Just a sign of the times, I guess. Current Mood: angry (Comment on this)
Sunday, July 5th, 2009
1:34 am	The mystery's solved, folks In my last post, I had mentioned about how a marker dedicated to perhaps Glens Falls NY's greatest citizen, Charles Evans Hughes, disappeared during the renovation and expansion project for Crandall Library. Well, the mystery's been solved, and you can read all about it here:  www.poststar.com/articles/2009/07/04/news/columns/answers-please/doc4a4ed1f6dbb7c124735641.txt Once again, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Current Mood: happy (Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
8:54 pm	Looks like we've got a mystery, gang Anyhow, Glens Falls has a park surrounding Crandall Public Library that has various monuments dedicated to famous personages, events and organizations.  One of them is a rock that has a plaque dedicated to this guy: Charles Evans Hughes, who among other things was Governor of NYS, US Secretary of State, ran against Woodrow Wilson for President in 1916 (and lost narrowly) and had two stints on the US Supreme Court, the second of which as Chief Justice.  Heck, he even was mentioned on an episode of The Simpsons. Anyhow, I went to take picture of the monuments Saturday, and I couldn't find the rock with the Hughes plaque on it.  Somehow it disappeared during the renovation and expansion project for the library in 2006-2008. I talked to someone at the library and she told me to talk to the architectural firm that handled the project.  They didn't know what happened to it and didn't even know it existed. I'm going to write to Mayor "Jackass" Diamond because this smacks of when they accidentally threw away the Olympic Torch when they were building that traffic circle. I hate to think Glens Falls accidentally threw away two landmarks in as many years, but given these boneheads, anything's possible. Current Mood: angry (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 2nd, 2009
12:54 pm	WHOOT! The AHL's coming back to Glens Falls! :-D It's official--after a ten-year absence, the AHL is coming back to Glens Falls.   :D The Philadelphia Phantoms--the Flyers' affiliate--will be playing here for at least the next three seasons.  How they decided on that is a bit complicated. The historic Spectrum (the Flyers' original home and the Phantoms' current home) is going to be torn down later this year, and on top of that a company called The Brooks Group bought the Phantoms from Global Spectrum (the division of Comcast Spectator that owns the Flyers and who currently manages the Glens Falls Civic Center) with an eye toward moving the team to Allentown PA.  However, since building a new arena will take three to five years, they were looking for a temporary location to play in.  Mayor Jack Diamond put on the pressure (aided by US Senator Chuck Schumer) and soon the deal was sealed. All the details are here:  www.poststar.com/articles/2009/04/29/news/local/14715590.txt Glens Falls hasn't had a permanent hockey team since the Adirondack Frostbite of the then UHL (now the IHL) folded in 2006 and before the Frostbite (originally the IceHawks) the Adirondack Red Wings were in town from 1979-1999 when that backstabbing Michael Ilitch broke his word to then Mayor Bob "Bonehead" Regan about keeping the team the town.  The A-Wings were originally going to move to Toledo but settled on Grand Rapids MI, where they're now known as the Griffins.  Since the Frostbite's folding, the Albany River Rats have played an exhibition game, three Calder Cup playoff games and seven regular season games. I can only hope that this time the true hockey fans in my area won't take this for granted and really show up for the games.  The AHL is a way better level of play than the IHL (just below the NHL itself, as compared to bottom-of-the-barrel) and the true fans weren't fooled by the IceHawks/Frostbite's lackluster play and those inane shootouts to settle ties.  Hopefully by the time the Phantoms do settle down in Allentown, a strong attendance will prove to other prospective AHL teams that the Adirondack North Country does care for good quality hockey. BTW, now that I've got a team again, perhaps I should make a friendly wager with C. E. Forman on whether the Phantoms or his Peoria Rivermen will win the most face-to-face match-ups this upcoming season?   :lol: But to tell the truth if people here put in as much passion for shopping their downtown business district first instead of Wal-Mart (which we'll soon have two of) as they did about bringing the AHL back to the area and not pursuing pie-in-the-sky dreams like the ill-conceived traffic circle and chasing the poor people out of the low-income townhouses and the welfare hotel (as well as threatening to knock down Burger King and other businesses that are holding their own against Wal-Mart) in favor of businesses that really can't compete against Wal-Mart or at worst dodge them instead of facing them head-on, Glens Falls could go back to what it was when I had moved up here almost eighteen-and-a-half years ago.   :) (Comment on this)
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
9:58 pm	The axe falls on "The Guiding Light" The longest-running soap opera in history (and one of the longest-running programs in all of broadcast media) was officially cancelled by CBS yesterday, though it'll remain on the air until September 18. Only The Grand Ole Opry has been on the air longer. Starting in 1937, The Guiding Light was originally about the congregation of a church; indeed, whole episodes were sometimed devoted entirely to the sermon the pastor would deliver. The show made the leap to TV in 1952. Perhaps the best-known cast member was Michael Zaslow, who played the villainous Roger Thorpe in the 1970s and 1980s. Zaslow is also known by fans of Star Trek as the very first "phaser bait" or "redshirt"; his character Crewman Darnell was killed by the M-113 Creature in TOS's first regular episode "The Man Trap". All the details can be read here: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-guiding-light2-2009apr02,0,9413.story My mother was kind of a GL freak back when we and my older brother were still living with my bioligical father in Ronkonkoma NY in the 1970s. I remember many a time I return home from school and there she was snickering as Roger Thorpe had his latest scheme foiled again. It's the end of an era, folks. :( Current Mood: sad Current Music: Whatever's playing in my head (Comment on this)
Saturday, February 7th, 2009
11:57 am	Laptop's now famous! :-) Recently, my podunk hometown newspaper the Glens Falls [NY] Post-Star ran an article about animals at the workplace that I thought was heartwarming. You can read that article here: http://www.poststar.com/articles/2009/02/04/news/local/14368936.txt Well, I decided to write a letter to the editor about Laptop, the cat who lives at our print shop, and it got published today. You can read that here: http://www.poststar.com/articles/2009/02/07/opinion/letters/14400635.txt Lappy's now perhaps the most famous cat in the Adirondack North Country! :-) (Comment on this)
Saturday, January 24th, 2009
12:05 pm	WHOOT! Kirstin Gillibrand gets Hillary Clinton's Senate seat! :-) I'm so happy about this that I just had to say something about this here. Gillibrand--who only was elected to represent my area in the House a little over two years ago--was appointed by Governor David Paterson to replace Hillary, who of course was named President Obama's Secretary of State. A special election will be held in either late February or early March to fill Gillibrand's vacancy. You can real all the details here: http://poststar.com/articles/2009/01/24/news/local/14347470.txt Gillibrand becomes the first "real" Upstater in 41 years to represent the Empire State in the Senate and the first to come from the Capital District/Adirondack North Country area in 110 years. Congratulations, Gillibrand. I knew all along you'd get the seat! :-) (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 15th, 2006
1:03 pm	Just a pic of my cat today Today I just wanted to share a pic of my cat, Laptop, who lives with us at the print shop my family owns. How we got him and how he got his name are kind of long stories, but I'll keep it short. Back in June 2003 my stepfather pulled up to the parking lot and suddenly this white cat with black splotches, pink nose and big, bulging yellow eyes leaped into the car and onto his lap. It was a rainy day and he just kicked him out of the car. However, the cat kept hanging around the shop when my stepfather saw a big black cat chasing him. Finally he let him in and the rest is history. He was named Laptop because of his leaping onto my stepfather's lap. Lappy is a nice cat but sometimes he thinks he's the reincarnation of the Lincoln-Mercury Cougar and tries to attack us. Thankfully he only attacks us and not strangers, but when we had a stamp cancellation ceremony at the print shop during Christmas, he growled at the postmaster's bratty son. Anyhow, here's the pic. . . Current Mood: blah Current Music: Whatever's playing in my head (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 1st, 2006
1:48 pm	My first entry I've been here for some time, but this is my first entry here. Just some brief bio on me: I was born on September 18, 1968, grew up on Long Island, graduated from Connetquot High School in 1987, spent one year at SUNY Stony Brook before dropping out in 1988, moved Upstate in 1990, graduated from Adirondack Community College with an Associate's degree in Business Administration in 1994, and then went to work for my family-owned print shop, where I've been ever since. I have a lot of varied interests. I'm a sucker for classic TV and American and Japanese animation and have some other interests that are too many to list. I have strong passions on some things, especially some political views that I might occasionally vent here. What I post here will be mainly random stuff. All are welcome. If you feel like venting on your own personal problems, feel free. Think of me as that personal shoulder to cry on if you wish, of someone who wants to listen to your problems. However, don't expect me to always give the best advice. Heck, no one's perfect. Anyhow, since this is April Fool's Day, I start out with something that sounds like it should be an April Fool's Day joke, but it isn't. For the second year in a row, the Three Dons of Albany (NYS Governor George Pataki, NYS Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and NYS Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno) agreed on the State Budget before the start of the new fiscal year. Of course Pataki (who's a big jerk if you ask me) is threatening to use his line-item veto over restored funds for Medicaid and state education aid to NYC and Long Island school districts (believe me, Long Island gets shafted just as much as NYC does in that department). Why do I call Pataki, Silver and Bruno the Three Dons, you may ask? Frankly it seems NYS government acts like a Mafia family, with each "family" (NYC, Long Island and Upstate) out to whack the others and get more of the pie to themselves. Pataki and Bruno serve to look out for their own "Upstate" family while Silver looks out for his "NYC/LI" family. The big sticking point is always the state education aid. Silver wants more money for NYC and LI while Pataki and Silver want more money for Upstate. This leads to the budget being late, which leads school districts to submit budges to voter approval (except for those in NYC, Buffalo, Syracuse, Binghamton and Rochester, which aren't subject to voter approval) without the state aid figures in place, which leads voters to reject the budgets, which leads districts go to on austerity (which means no interscholastic sports, no new textbooks and no transportation unless you live so many miles away from school), and in the end its the kids who get hurt because three grown men in Albany act like bigger spoiled brats then they do. If this were a sitcom, this would be funny, but it isn't; it's the all-too-true reality of a dysfunctional NYS government. :-P Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Not listening to anything right now (Comment on this)