So I've got a new assignment from work today. Its called UB Buffalos Seen 'Round he World'. Pretty much its a contest to take pictures of this UB squeezie buffalo or shop a buffalo into a picture then put your company name on it. Then they'll be displayed at a recruiting fair at UB and people will vote on the best.

Now I work for TCS, Tata Consultancy Services, which operates around the globe. So the possibilities are pretty limitless. Now I just need an idea.

So if anyone wants to come up with an idea for this and let me know; I will promise to give you a cookie. And if its a good idea that I base the project on, I will give you a whole box of cookies. And the good ones from Wegmans, the soft ones with frosting and sprinkles on top. They fill you up a bit, but they are freaking great. Alright, you have your mission. GO!

This past weekend had a theme. "Do what you love". It was as simple as that. It's a life motto, words of wisdom to live by. We spent the days eating, drinking, singing and being merry. I spent time sitting, relaxing out on a boat; went and saw my friends acting in a local play; even had time to myself for videogames. Overall, the mission to do what we love was successful.

Now, Monday came. I swear the heat rolled in like a blanket of madness. It all started when I was picked up a half hour late for work; not bad, but it set the mood. Next, getting into work I notice my friend Chris isn't there. Turns out she was either fired or left the company. The most plausible rumor is the one stating she was given an ultimatum to move for the company or leave the company; suggesting she chose the later. She was the one I've known the longest in the company too, so it hurt to find out that she was gone.

This brings up a strange fact. She is better than me, in coding and development. My saving grace is my graphic and interface skills. Oh yeah, I might be going to India (Kolkata) for a couple months to hone these skills; working with the design team in India before coming back to Buffalo when R&D is done. That's cool with me though, spend a couple months in India then come back. I can handle that.

Then last night one of my best friends calls, "Hey man, guess what. Zach, Chris, Robby and I are all getting evicted". Now mind you these guys throw benders every weekend, and I can understand them getting a complaint or two. But guess what, it's not even the reason. A company bought out there house and apartment building and they don't want people renting out the front house.

Then another one of my best friend's lease is up on his studio apartment soon. And I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to be staying in a studio again.

Now what does their troubles have to do with me? I find out my current roommate is moving out. (Who also happens to be the guitarist from my now ex-band). I'm too social for him, he needs total quite for studying. I understand that, I've just already put in my college time, and am now reaping the benefits.

So all this happened within 36 hours. We may add a third room onto my house. I'm thinking buy a 6 man house and we all live there. I don't know; it's a pretty crazy time right now.

I just don't understand it (like most things in this world), and I've relinquished to the fact that I'll never understand it. We Buffalonians are an interesting group; and this fact in no way diminishes when it comes to our driving skills. In most places, take Texas for example, if it snows all highways to close, people stay indoors, communication is cut off, and supplies have to be air freighted in. Now take our multinational North East City; it seems we can only drive well if it's pouring rain or at least 10 inches of snow.

This is all stemming from the fact that I'm a rush hour driver. Honestly everyday on the road there is an accident from some asshole that was tailgating because he only had 4 hours left in the day to get drunk, and he'll be damned if he's going to let those hours go to waste. So there I am, waiting in the line to see a crumpled hood on the side of the road before resuming the speed limit.

The thing is I almost never see this in the winter, I believe we are better in dangerous conditions. We're bread that way; we'll play in the green muck pumping up from our ground and eat the ones who can't handle it. Sure in the winter there's still accidents, but the people who are in them usually manage to careen off the side of the road and flip their car into the forest (out of site, out of mind). In the same way that people drive better in the rain. Take this morning for example; the creek was about a foot higher, which was roughly the same distance I could see in front of the car when the wind shield wipers happen to give me a glimpse to the outside. But the thruway was moving at 60, there were no accidents and I got to work in less than 20 minutes. Now let's hope the rain keeps up around 5 o'clock so I can get home in the same time frame.

I was going to write a lengthy article on processors this morning, but I just couldn't bring myself to it. Instead I just want to make sure you all have the major facts:

Intel announces the new Conroe chip (set to release July 27)

Conroe chip benchmarks blows away any chip on the market

AMD cuts there chip prices by 50%

AMD looks to buy ATI for 5.4 BILLION!!!!!

That is all. Your mind should be blown.

This past Saturday I finally had a free day, was up early and had some energy; a combination that doesn't happen all too often. So I figured, if I'm up this early, I may as well get some things done, like cutting the lawn for the first time in three weeks.

Go outside, take out the riding mower, drive onto the lawn singing "chitty chitty bang bang" and start cutting. I look behind me and notice the lawn is cutting seared low on side while the other is barely cut at all. Disengage the blade, drive back to the garage, pull out the push mower. I notice the push mower is a bit heavy and clunky, but I'm determined to get the job done.

Now my lawn has trees surrounding the entire perimeter; but they're small. So I had to maneuver this clunky mower around 15 or so arborvitaes (bushes). The icing on the cake was my front lawn, which has both trees and hills. So I pushed this heavy mower up the hills and around the trees. By the end of the job I was covered in sweat, exhausted, but proud of myself.

My dad stopped by right about when I had finished and packed everything away (oddly enough to cut the lawn).

"What are you doing son?"
"Oh, just got done cutting the lawn, did you know the riding mower is broken?"
"Haha, I just came here to do that. So, which mower did you use?"
"I just used the heaviest lawn mower ever, the big clunky one over there"
"Oh, did you use the self propel function on it?"

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At this point I stopped, took a deep breath, and sat down for a minute. Contemplated what I had done that day and sighed. I justified it to myself by determining it was the best work out ever. So if you're looking for that total body work out to sculpt and tone those abs, while providing a full cardio workout; just stop by my house, I'll set you up with the self propelled mower and you can cut my lawn, but you can't use the actual self propel function. I'll only charge you for renting the equipment and gas; it's the deal of a lifetime.

Well if you read the comments, the secret is out on who the people are. Thanks for looking, and as a special treat for checking back here's anothe one.





This one should be easier to pick out who it is.

I made two more of these things, so I thought I'd upload them. The first should be pretty easy to figure out, you'll probably have to care more about bass than the weather report (clue) to know the second guy. Enjoy!






And the previous guy is Claudio, of Coheed and Cambria.

So I did a new graphics project. Lead singer of one my favorite bands, maybe one of you out there can tell who it is. Its done in illustrator, no filters, just plain old vectors. Thanks for looking.

Ok, so I got to thinking, why have a tent of only a couple of my friends at a Streetfest. I'm sure theres lots of people in Buffalo who have art that go to Streetfests already, that would be happy to sell art or prints. Many of these people probably can't afford it (or wouldn't want to out-of-pocket the cost for an entire booth for a test run), or maybe some don't have the quanitity to sell off tons of things at a street fest. Then I thought, I wonder if theres a place that joins a ton of Buffalo people and artists together that might be interested in this type of thing... oh right ESTRIP!!!

So here's what I propose: We do a short submission process of a bunch of whatever people would want to "sell" at a Streetfest (Artvoice, Music is Art, Allentown...). We get a tent. We set up. We have fun. It'd be like an estrip outting. Personally I think its an awesome idea. I'm really interested in making this happen, so anyone whose also interested please let me know.

So once again I’ve come back from the weekend with something to talk about. Albeit, this time it should take about only a quarter of the writing. My friend Steph just started renting a house out near Walden and we were there to celebrate. One of the festivities was the time honored tradition of a piñata. Fun? Yes! Ok, so we each get three swings. The process did take some time, putting on a blindfold, spinning around, taking three swings, then passing on the torch to someone else. During this one of my friends had said, “who cares, just smack the thing, its all about the candy anyways”. To which I thought he couldn’t be more wrong. The candy didn’t matter, if it was the point we could’ve just began by throwing a bunch of candy on the floor. But no, it was the process that mattered, it was the process that was bringing us together, and it was the process that will be remembered. In the end though, who made the piñata shatter and rain down flavorful treats for us all? Yours truly. I kicked some piñata ass! (Ha! It’s a pun; the piñata was the shape of a donkey… ok sorry).

Fast forward to Sunday night. My friends and I are sitting around discussing what objects would create the “most” reverb if you were sitting directly in the middle of them. Sphere, cube, rhombus, parallelogram, there’s just so many possibilities. If parallel walls reflect sound back at each other, would you want to deaden sound as quickly as possible. Or construct an amphitheater to project sound. Sound is good stuff, I need more science.

But my main curious thought of the night was, “What would it take to get a booth at one of the Street fests.” Seriously, for me and my friends to get a booth, make prints, sell those and music. Hang out in the booth. I think we have a possibility for a great time. I was wondering the cost, process, application?, you have to go threw to get a booth. I figured this may be the right community to ask as well ;-) I think that’d be a lot of fun, and great exposure as well. I’d bet we’d meet some awesome people as well. How do I make this happen?

Thanks all, later.