Foiled Burglar Sues Store Employees for 'Emotional Distress'
Saturday, June 10, 2006
Associated Press
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A man who was beaten by employees of a store he was trying to rob is now suing.
Police say Dana Buckman entered the AutoZone in Rochester, New York, last July, brandished a semi-automatic pistol and demanded cash.
That's when employees Eli Crespo and Jerry Vega beat him with a pipe and held Buckman at bay with his own gun.
Buckman escaped when they retreated into the store to call 911, but he was arrested a week later. He pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery and was sentenced to 18 years in prison as a repeat violent felon.
Now Buckman is suing the auto parts store and the two employees who beat him, claiming they committed assault and battery and intentionally inflicted emotional distress.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
1 Year of Scrabble....
Tomorrow is big day.
It marks the 1 year anniversary of the Auburn Scrabble Club, and I’ll finally be creating my custom round rotating scrabble board. It’s not as nice as the one in the picture above, but it’ll do the trick until I can get it sanded and painted.
I’m hoping to have a two-tone paint scheme, maybe a design on the sides and top in one color, and the rest of the board in a different color as well.
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Avatar - and of course, Scrabble
I have a couple things to share.
First, I’ve never been a huge fan of Nickelodeon Studios animation. I liked Hey Arnold and Rocko’s Modern Life, but that’s about it.
Until today.
I saw “Avatar: The Last Airbender” today, and I have to say – WOW. This is the BEST stuff to come out of Nick Studios in years.
It’s the story of a young man name Aang that has the power to manipulate air. Think Captain Planet and the Planeteers, but without the rings or tree-hugging message.
The animation is not true anime (the animation is done stateside), but it looks like it come out of Japan. It’s very similar to the style from Kiki’s Delivery Service, and it looks fantastic. The plot is very mature (not sexually, but more so in an adolescent nature), especially considering it’s Nick fare, and the voice acting is great.
Second – I’m a word freak.
Anyone who reads this blog knows that I love to play Scrabble. And now I’ve gone as far to create an Excel spreadsheet with to help with board layouts, score sheet, tile tracking AND a column to write notes during a game.
First, I’ve never been a huge fan of Nickelodeon Studios animation. I liked Hey Arnold and Rocko’s Modern Life, but that’s about it.
Until today.
I saw “Avatar: The Last Airbender” today, and I have to say – WOW. This is the BEST stuff to come out of Nick Studios in years.
It’s the story of a young man name Aang that has the power to manipulate air. Think Captain Planet and the Planeteers, but without the rings or tree-hugging message.
The animation is not true anime (the animation is done stateside), but it looks like it come out of Japan. It’s very similar to the style from Kiki’s Delivery Service, and it looks fantastic. The plot is very mature (not sexually, but more so in an adolescent nature), especially considering it’s Nick fare, and the voice acting is great.
Second – I’m a word freak.
Anyone who reads this blog knows that I love to play Scrabble. And now I’ve gone as far to create an Excel spreadsheet with to help with board layouts, score sheet, tile tracking AND a column to write notes during a game.
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Boston Area Tournament!
BAT 2006… Wow… What a cool experience.
Went down to Westford on Saturday – after spending the night in Portsmouth Friday Night. Had a complete blast playing in my first ever Scrabble tournament.
I ended up placing 8th out of 12 players, with a Win/Loss record of 3/3 and I accomplished what I set out to do – Go home either breaking even or with more wins than losses.
Picked up a Pocket SamTimer and a set of Protiles. And I played the highest scoring non-bingo word – RELAX – for 81 points, and won a customized BAT 25th 2006 tilebag. Sherri St. John makes them for prizes - it’s a faux suede bag – looks and feels real nice.
I can’t wait until next year – I’ll be playing in the big tournament. There were about 200 people playing, and it was an incredible sight to see. Custom round boards, customized racks, and incredibly quiet! But I think I can do well in the Division D Tourney.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
919! Woo Hoo!
ScrabbleFest 2006 was a huge success.
They raised over $5500 for the Literacy Volunteers of Androscoggin County, and they might even hit $6000 with the uncollected pledges..
Our social team – All A-Board – placed 2nd in our division with a 3- round combined score for 916 points!
It was a blast. Played 2 bingos and a HUGE Double Word/Triple Letter play that netted us 82 points. I had a lot of fun, and can’t wait until next year’s tournament.
Speaking of which – I’m on vacation this week and am gearing up for the 25th Boston Area Scrabble Tournament. I’ll post on my results next Sunday morning (
They raised over $5500 for the Literacy Volunteers of Androscoggin County, and they might even hit $6000 with the uncollected pledges..
Our social team – All A-Board – placed 2nd in our division with a 3- round combined score for 916 points!
It was a blast. Played 2 bingos and a HUGE Double Word/Triple Letter play that netted us 82 points. I had a lot of fun, and can’t wait until next year’s tournament.
Speaking of which – I’m on vacation this week and am gearing up for the 25th Boston Area Scrabble Tournament. I’ll post on my results next Sunday morning (
Monday, March 27, 2006
Violent TV Video Games! News at 11!
Just finished watching CSI: Miami.
Why is it that every Cop/Robber show has to show video game violence in the most extremely worst possible circumstances?
I know of 4 shows on TV that have gone with the whole violent video game angle.
Now I’m all for making sure that violent video games are kept out of the hands of kids. Children have NO need to have that type of violence in their young lives. It’s stupid, moronic, and completely irresponsible of retailers and parents if they let them get into a child’s hand.
The Columbine tragedy had links to Doom and Doom II (supposedly the two teenagers that were responsible created a mapfile that was a duplicate of the Columbine School), and there are other cases where video games have been linked to violence. But I think that what a lot of people (including the media and the parents involved) are overlooking, is the fact that these kids have been bullied, rejected, outcast, or they might have had a chemical imbalance that was present BEFORE the introduction of the violent video games into their psyche. Did the game trigger it? Possibly. There’s no proof that they cause violence, but wouldn’t you think that if your kid was depressed, bullied, beat up, or outcast that those items are MORE prevalent in the kid’s life than the video game?
People are so quick to judge, and want to point finger so quickly that they don’t get all the information they need before making an informed decision. Look at ESRB ratings. Find a demo of the game and play it before you get it for you kids, and THEN make the decision whether or not your child is mature enough to play the game/
When programs like CSI and Law and Order portray video games as violent and they CAUSE kids to become violent, I truly believe it does a great disservice to the video game community. And the community does things other than just make video games. The US Army uses videogames to train their soldiers to fight, and they use a modified version of the game Full Spectrum Warrior to train their officers to lead those troops. The guys over at Penny Arcade have a Non-Profit organization called Child’s Play. They collect games (of all types) to give to kids in the hospital that have terminal illnesses. Microsoft (as a company) does lots of charity work. I think it would be great to see a cop show go the CRAZY route and show video games in a better light.
And almost ALL of the developers want to make sure that violent videogames are kept out of kids hands.
I love Doom 3. Quake 4 is fantastic, and I think that the Grand Theft Auto series of games are some of the most innovative games to see the light of day. But I’m not a violent person. I put the game into context. They are GAMES. It’s fantasy. I might run over a pedestrian in Carmageddon, but I know if I do that in REAL LIFE, I’m going to prison for a long time.
So… are some video games violent? Absolutely. Do they cause people to become violent? No. Bottom line – keep them out of kids hands, and wait until they hare mentally capable of knowing the difference between fantasy and reality.
Why is it that every Cop/Robber show has to show video game violence in the most extremely worst possible circumstances?
I know of 4 shows on TV that have gone with the whole violent video game angle.
Now I’m all for making sure that violent video games are kept out of the hands of kids. Children have NO need to have that type of violence in their young lives. It’s stupid, moronic, and completely irresponsible of retailers and parents if they let them get into a child’s hand.
The Columbine tragedy had links to Doom and Doom II (supposedly the two teenagers that were responsible created a mapfile that was a duplicate of the Columbine School), and there are other cases where video games have been linked to violence. But I think that what a lot of people (including the media and the parents involved) are overlooking, is the fact that these kids have been bullied, rejected, outcast, or they might have had a chemical imbalance that was present BEFORE the introduction of the violent video games into their psyche. Did the game trigger it? Possibly. There’s no proof that they cause violence, but wouldn’t you think that if your kid was depressed, bullied, beat up, or outcast that those items are MORE prevalent in the kid’s life than the video game?
People are so quick to judge, and want to point finger so quickly that they don’t get all the information they need before making an informed decision. Look at ESRB ratings. Find a demo of the game and play it before you get it for you kids, and THEN make the decision whether or not your child is mature enough to play the game/
When programs like CSI and Law and Order portray video games as violent and they CAUSE kids to become violent, I truly believe it does a great disservice to the video game community. And the community does things other than just make video games. The US Army uses videogames to train their soldiers to fight, and they use a modified version of the game Full Spectrum Warrior to train their officers to lead those troops. The guys over at Penny Arcade have a Non-Profit organization called Child’s Play. They collect games (of all types) to give to kids in the hospital that have terminal illnesses. Microsoft (as a company) does lots of charity work. I think it would be great to see a cop show go the CRAZY route and show video games in a better light.
And almost ALL of the developers want to make sure that violent videogames are kept out of kids hands.
I love Doom 3. Quake 4 is fantastic, and I think that the Grand Theft Auto series of games are some of the most innovative games to see the light of day. But I’m not a violent person. I put the game into context. They are GAMES. It’s fantasy. I might run over a pedestrian in Carmageddon, but I know if I do that in REAL LIFE, I’m going to prison for a long time.
So… are some video games violent? Absolutely. Do they cause people to become violent? No. Bottom line – keep them out of kids hands, and wait until they hare mentally capable of knowing the difference between fantasy and reality.
Scrabble again - and other stuff
Well had another Scrabble meeting tonight – and it looks like I’m the only one that’s going to try to get to the Boston Regionals as a Newcomer this year.
I’m hoping to be able to head down at the end of next month on Saturday, and play 6 games in the day and then head back up. I want to have enough to buy some Protiles and a bag for them.
Also joined the ISC – Internet Scrabble Club, and played a couple games tonight.
Through them I found a TON of Scrabble websites devoted to wordlists, stems, hooks, and just about every statistic know to Scrabble.
I hope I can do well in the tournament. I’m still learning my 2’s and my 2 to make 3’s as well.
I need to learn my Bingo prone tiles as well. I’m pretty good at balancing my rack, but I need to work on my playing speed.
Hopefully I’ll be able to print out some helpers at work next week.
Speaking of work – I finally got my raise – up to $10.20 and hour, and I had an excellent review. Marlene and Teri are looking into the 7 weeks of retro pay that the bank owes me from my merit promotion.
So thing are going well here in Maine – It’ll be nice when summer hits too (
I’m hoping to be able to head down at the end of next month on Saturday, and play 6 games in the day and then head back up. I want to have enough to buy some Protiles and a bag for them.
Also joined the ISC – Internet Scrabble Club, and played a couple games tonight.
Through them I found a TON of Scrabble websites devoted to wordlists, stems, hooks, and just about every statistic know to Scrabble.
I hope I can do well in the tournament. I’m still learning my 2’s and my 2 to make 3’s as well.
I need to learn my Bingo prone tiles as well. I’m pretty good at balancing my rack, but I need to work on my playing speed.
Hopefully I’ll be able to print out some helpers at work next week.
Speaking of work – I finally got my raise – up to $10.20 and hour, and I had an excellent review. Marlene and Teri are looking into the 7 weeks of retro pay that the bank owes me from my merit promotion.
So thing are going well here in Maine – It’ll be nice when summer hits too (
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