Al's Blog-o-Sphere

According to ESPN, Marshawn Lynch will plead guilty to “an unspecified charge” next week in relation to the hit-and-run involving his SUV several weeks ago.

Doesn’t this raise red flags to you?

First of all, what are “unspecified charges?” You can’t tell me they don’t know what to charge him with. It sounds like Lynch and his lawyer are still bargaining over what they will copp to. Still wheeling and dealing with the justice system.

And next week? Haven’t we been patient enough already? Why is this whole thing going according to Lynch’s schedule? Continue Reading…

Now here’s a scam. I wish I thought of it. It’s gotta be a big moneymaker. A client of mine almost fell for it, but asked me first saving them $$$.

You probably realize that if you own a domain name for your web site, like gritzmacher.net, or microsoft.com, etc. you have to register it somewhere for it to work. I’m avoiding technical details here, because they don’t really matter for this discussion. And these domain registrations work for a period of time, then have to be renewed. Everyone has heard of stories where some big company somehow overlooked renewing their domain name, only to find it registered by someone else who eventually sells it back to them for big bucks.

Wouldn’t it be nice if someone reminded you that your domain was about to expire and offer to handle it for you? Continue Reading…

I heard about Tim Russert’s passing from a CNN Breaking News Tweet on Twitter. They don’t send many of them out, maybe one or two a day, so it showed it was big news.

Russert was a local Buffalo/WNY celebrity, one of those who grew up here, went out into the world and made a name for themselves and we looked upon proudly as an example of our best and brightest. We’d point him out as an example of someone who came from our little neck of the world that everyone, across the nation would know. Continue Reading…

You already probably know I enjoy music and that the kind I like best is live, and even better free or at least cheap!

So it’s been a topic of conversation several times recently with people I know. The new Molson Canal/City Center series in Lockport, the North Tonawanda series that replaces the one moved to Lockport and the old standbys, Thursday at the Square in Buffalo and the Artpark shows on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

I made a comment recently to a local supporter of the Lockport concerts that they were okay, but I wished they weren’t acts that we’ve already seen play in summer concert shows around here in the recent past. His point of view was that it’s Lockport – anything we have is better than nothing which is what we had had before. But does that mean we should settle for anything?

I don’t want to sound negative. I like the concerts and I’ll probably be at them. The sky will probably be blue, too. No, I’ll be at as many as possible, just because they are so close to home. But my observation stands. Not only that, it applies to almost all the local shows. They only seem to pick, safe, time-tested acts that we’ve all seen before and it’s turning into the oldies-but-goodies circuit.

Now, there are always fans who will show up to see Band X because they are Band X fans and will go see Band X every time Band X plays locally no matter what because they are Band X fans. Isn’t that repetitive though? Aren’t you tired of Band X by now, I am. Continue Reading…