Yesterday, at Thursday in the square I was mesmerized by the increase in the number of concert goers that were "wired" via cell phones. It appeared extremely ordinary for many people to be talking on the phone during the event, and furthermore, to use the phone to network and locate other people. I think the turnout might be higher, because many people at the events were in essence offering real-time updates to their friends, and coercing them to come down, after the rain cleared, assuring them of a good time and a great band.

Yesterday it rained, it is very possible that we would not have even gone if it was not for the cell phone based prodding that we received from Desi. She called to keep updating us of her location, as well as, the conditions at the event. Once I was there, I used to cell phone to "guide" Terry and Chamille to our location on the way home from their work. We easily met up due to our connection. Like many other people, it was quite amusing as we looked for each other and described out location, only to bump into one another on the phone and say "there you are."

I also saw some old friedn and added them to my networked collection of names and numbers.

This is becoming so very acceptable and to be truthful, it wasn't like this even two or three years ago. As the size of the networks gets larger, the ability it has to effect social events is definitely exponential. I cannot wait till the next protest or the elwmood street festivals.

It's changing even more now that phones have cameras built in. Especially since I built the site to accept incoming email and post them right to our journals. I then took the pictures, send them as attachments along with a message to my journal and viola, real time reporting of the event for our viewing audience.

Imagine how much more effective this will get as the bandwidth and resolution of imagery increases. It will be no time before we can expect mass amrket video phones. Nokia has one already on the market here in the US (LINK) the 3650, but its not real-time yet. You can record the video and send it as an email attachment.

I guess this has to be balanced out with privacy issues. i for one never ask anyone or event coordinator if it is okay to take there picture. I simply do it because I feel as long as they display it publicly, its fair game for my eyes and camera. This view is not shared by many of my friends. Especially , since it now goes right to the web.

I take back my hot dog slander. Jessica Ho, Sarah Ho, and I ended up at the toxic waste outlet in Niagara Falls. I bought a book on digital voyeurism at the book outlet for 5 dollars.

I don't know why, I really don't like reading books like that but the consumerist pressure was so great after looking at it for a while. I think it's a tactic, where they make you feel weird if you touch stuff too much without purchasing it.



To pacifiy me, Jessica bought me sugar snacks and rides. I am a sucker for gumball machines and rides. No change since 1984. Lilho and I rode the hot dog mobile as you can see in this picture. It kind of hurt cause I'm too big and it rocked really hard. Luckily, I got an orange, banana, strawberry, toxic runoff water smoothy to make it all better

Well, they are not really spy photos but we did take them in the bathroom. The candlelight was too dim so we headed somewhere brighter. It was really funny to see the face of the next patron when the three of us cameout of the bathroom.

The first thursday in the square was a huge success. At fiirst it downpoured and made the whole thing a mud pit, but then it stopped forthe concertand people came out in droves. It was great to see so many people who seemed toreally enjoy themselves.



Sam Roberts Band was amazingly good.

On a personal note, I got to see Kari Costanza,which is great as always. Maybe she'll start a journal someday and then we won't lose contact so easily.

After the square we went to the bar called Presba where Lindsay works. Zack did the graphic design for them and hooked us up with fantastic food and drinks.
Including blueberry cheesecake, which sent Chamille into ecstacy. It really was good cheesecake. Thanks for everything Zack.



This picture is just to prove that people do take public transportation in Buffalo, even if the system itself is very limited.

On the way to Thursday in the square, TK and Jeffrey decided to eat hotdogs at sahlen's on main st downtown. I will never eat hotdogs (longstanding issue since the early 90s, accept when Jessica Ho made me eat one at German camp day) let alone from an establishment that uses tinfoil to make wall size dividers in the restaurant. Rating: T for trashy



Now the ueberchristians are protesting Thursday in the square too. I can only imagine what is going
to happen next weekendduring operation lionpit. I wish someone would just crucify them and end it once and for all.