After a week and a half of longing.....



It's so lovely it's almost a pity to have to drink it.

There is good news and bad news about this weekend.

The good news is that I've had a four-day weekend, as my workplace has been nice enough to give me both monday and tuesday off.

The bad news is that I don't know anyone in Buffalo and all the family and friends I would have spent the time off with are 700 miles away. So the net effect of the break has been close to nil, and I'll probably spend the rest of it bored out of my skull.

However, four days off is too much time to do nothing, so I've tried to make the best of it and turn life's sour milk into life's gourmet cheese. In fact, I've made a list of stuff that I've wanted to accomplish before I have to go back to work on wednesday:

1. Clean the house. And I do mean *all* of it.
2. Do *all* my laundry that's accumulated through procrastination and not having my own washer/dryer.
3. Get more exercise. I need to be more regular about working out when the JCC gym is open, and finding other means of exercise when it's closed.
4. Get a haircut and stop looking like a caveman.
5. Do something for the 4th of July. I don't care what it is, but just something that is interesting, worthwhile and that I can be proud of myself for doing.
6. Work on programming stuff, both for my own projects and for a few things at work.
7. Obtain and drink substantial quantities of Goldschlager.

-- Progress so far...

1. 1 -- I still have yet to do #1; a few passes with the swiffer here and there don't count. As I'm probably not going to have a lot else to do tomorrow, #1 will be the main thing on my dance card.

1. 2 -- has been accomplished, although in a less-than-satisfactory manner. My laundry is all done, but it took me 5+ hours to do it all, and that was with multiple machines at a laundromat. And again, as proof that laundry detergent can be as messy as the messes it's supposed to remove, the cap fell off the bottle and my bed sheets got soaked with Tide. I'm sure they'd really look cool under a blacklight, but they wouldn't be much to sleep on. So I had to run to Target before it closed and blow $70 on 300 thread-count sheets. If things hadn't been so desperate, I'd have found a better deal on 400-count, but I want to be able to go to sleep tonight.

1. 3 -- I did some yesterday. I finally got up the gumption to walk all the way down Richmond from my house to Forest and look at all the beautiful houses along the way. Walking briskly, it only took me 20 minutes, which shocked the heck out of me as I had originally pegged the journey at 40 min. At the destination I rewarded myself by trying out Cole's. The food was good, but the Belgian ale on draft kicked ass; jeez, 8% ABV isn't beer, it's like fortified beer! I then walked/stumbled back home on Elmwood, which brought the round trip to approximately 4 miles.

1. 4 -- Accomplished at Ricci's in Orchard Park. I wanted to go to Chick's just down the street on W. Utica, but that unfortunately closed a week or two ago.

1. 5 -- Hope I don't blow this one. If I do, I guess I can still think positive and do a real kickass job on #1.

Warning: non-English spoken below

1. 6 -- I got a decent amount of programming done. More progress on the bar geocoding project. I wrote a python program that converted converted the list of restaurants (e:zobar) sent me to Google Earth's KML format. For some reason, Google Earth is importing enough so that I see this list of establishments in the sidebar, but the establishments are still not showing up on the map. I choose to blame Google for this, as their XML abilities and design for Google Earth hasn't exactly been up to snuff (insert snippy comment about Google only hiring 4.3GPA computer science grads here, "best and brightest" my ass...).

I also began work on programming my open source PostgreSQL C ocoa framework. I finally downloaded every existing Postgres C ocoa framework in the hope that I can combine the best parts of them into some well-maintained gold-standard that everyone can rely on; right now, there's all these little 'fiefdoms' and the situation really sucks. I wrote the initial resultset and connection API, so I should be able to test the stuff pretty soon.

1. 7 -- I'm really upset with myself that I've been too lazy to run by an open liquor store and pick up some Goldschlager. Hodge's liquor is just up the street, so I really have no excuse. None at all.

Today the HR person from my company called me into their office and told me that after several months of temp-to-hire status where I was the "temp" I am now basically a "hire" once I finish the paperwork.

This is going to be a big load off my mind. It's never easy thinking "what if suddenly find myself unemployed next month", and now I probably won't have to think about that unless I do something really stupid. Getting permanent status is also nice because I've put off so many purchases for so long, trying to save up as much money! as possible for the possibility of not being hired on and having to move back to NC.

I wanted to go to the Layette square concert to commemorate the occasion, but I was feeling so tired I had to pass. But I should definitely find some small way to celebrate this weekend--perhaps I should invest in that bottle of Goldschlager that I was so craving last weekend.

Technical-ese

Tonight I made a big breakthrough in my use of CoreData to build my Cocoa based bulk geocoding app that will let streamline my workflow of converting city commercial establishments into WGS 84 decimal coordinate values.

Plain English:

I'm one step closer to knowing the exact location of every bar in Buffalo and I'm one step closer to improving my pitiful situational awareness that's caused me to miss a lot of cool events. Entering the addresses en-masse and converting them all-at-once will be a lot simpler than locating individual addresses in Google Earth and hitting the "marker" button 500 or so times (once for each bar).

Apparently somone forgot to tell me that in Buffalo when it rains really hard, the roads turn into rivers.

Elmwood was pretty bad. Since my escape route back home was cut off and I was on the north section of Elmwood, I thought that I'd fare better on Sheridan. Since Sheridan's a big, heavily used road I thought that its storm drains would be more effective.

Apparently not.



Yes, those are waves. Lucky for me the moon wasn't out, otherwise I'd never get back home.



It's a bird, it's a SUV, it's a jetski, it's...it's...nope, it's just a SUV.



When roads become rivers, sidewalks become roads. I was not proud of what I did and the grass that I and everyone else in Buffalo ruined. But sometimes ya gotta do what'cha gotta do.

Last night, I was really bored. I don't know anyone in this town, so hanging out with friends wasn't an option. There were no movies playing that I wanted to see save Da Vinci Code, and I'm trying to finish the book before I go see the movie. And I looked over a listing of the day's music acts, and nothing looked very interesting; of course, I don't really know the music scene is like up here and which bands are any good, so I usually look at genre and make my best guess.

By some miracle, I had overlooked English Beat's free concert at Gateway Park (apparently Buffalo has more than just one free concert at Lafeyette Square). After 45 minutes of trying to find the place (and missing the previous band(s), I got to see most of English Beat's main act, which was pretty good and really energetic. I didn't see no rude boys, but quite a few people at the front of the stage were skanking.

Overall, I think I'm proud of myself for not having given into the temptation to either see a lame movie I didn't really want to see or to spend the entire night blasting the ficticious residents of San Andreas.

I had originally dismissed my Foreman grill-owning friends as members of a kookie brand-worshipping cult. But after 4 months of living up here with a harried work schedule and having to make a variety of quick meals, I have come to the conclusion that these devices are in fact "The Bachelor's Swiss Army Knife".

People:
1. How did you find out about/why did you become of estrip?

I forget, but it might have been Artvoice's ill-fated Buffalo Geeks movement. Several of the posters to the mailing list had journals here, and "one link lead to another" in typical Internet fashion.

2. How "out" are you about having a publicly accessible online journal. Do your friends know? Does your family know? Do your co-workers know? Does your boss know? Do you use your real name? Do you use your real photo?

No one knows. I've kind of made my presence on this site part of "life up here". I keep it separate from another blog detailing my life back home/down there.

3. How many epeeps have you met real life?

0, unfortunately. I've only been living here a short while and the opportunity hasn't presented itself.

4. How has estrip changed the way that you meet people, on and/or off line?

It's probably pushed my efforts at socialization more towards one type of people/set of venues than another.

5. How has estrip affected you love life?

It hasn't. I've generally kept my love life separate from my postings.

6. How many of your friends have joined estrip because of your influence?

When I have friends up here, I'll let you know.

7. Are you from Buffalo/do you live in Buffalo?

I'm not originally from Buffalo. I moved here several months ago from North Carolina. Though my parents met here in the 60's, so in some broad way I do have a few Buffalo roots.

Equipment:
1. What type of hardware or software purchases have you made as a result of using estrip?

None, though (e:strip) has inspired me to write software to make my (e:strip)/Buffalo experience more enjoyable and give me a creative outlet that I really don't have at work.

2. Have you used the mobile version of estrip? Why or why not?

I don't have cell internet service.

Lifestyle:
1. In what way has estrip changed your Internet surfings habits? Describe the amount of time you spend on estrip, when you use it and about how long?

(e:strip) has saved me from becoming a luddite who has almost nothing to do with computers in his spare time. The people on the site make computers tolerable enough for me to forget that I program them for nine hours a day.

1a. How many journals do you usually read per day?

3-8, depending on how spicy they are.

2. In what ways has estrip changed the way you perceive your local community?

Since moving here, I haven't had a lot of chances to interact with the Buffalo community, so (e:strip) is sort of like a surrogate.

3. How has journaling about your life affected the way you spend your free time?

I don't journal every day, but the one or two times a week I journal, I spend a lot of time (hour+) thinking about what I'm going to write.

4. Has estrip changed your living situation in any way?

Not being very familiar with the town, it's helped to point me out towards things worth doing.

5. Do you find that you mediate/document more of your experiences now that you share them with others?

I've always journaled a small fraction of my experiences in any blog I write.

6. Has publishing on estrip affected the way that write?

Did you mean to say "Has publishing on (e:strip) had any measurable effect on your writing?"

7. Do you have other online journals? If so, with what service and has estrip affected your usage of that journal?

Just the standard home-rolled wordpress kind. It's nice, though, having some other person administer the blogging system for a change.

8. Have you ever gotten in trouble for using estrip at work?

No, and I don't intend to. I try to keep (e:strip) something I do off the clock. I also try to put nothing in my entries that could be conveniantly Google'd by my employers and directly linked back to me and get me in trouble. Not that I have any intention of posting anything confidential or secretive, but I want to be able to talk about the occasional rough day at work in a generalized kind of way (e.g "My boss was really grumpy", etc) without making more trouble for myself than I have to. That's the main reason why I've still declined to replace the default face with a more meaningful picture.


9. If you have stopped using estrip, why

Haven't stopped yet.

HOLY COW! WE WON THE STANLEY CUP!!!



I raise my tall glass of freshly-brewed southern sweet tea to my victorious home team. People said you couldn't do it and that you'd let your "redneck" fanbase down, and you responded to those people not with equally harsh words but rather superior sportsmanship while your fans responded, eventually, with equally serious enthusiasm. You've rekindled my belief in the good guy who doesn't stoop to the negative levels of his adversaries winning in the end. You have truly lived up to your motto of the season: Whatever It Takes.

My only regret is that I'm 600+ miles away and unable to attend the celebrations.

Today is June 6, 2006.

6/6/6.

6 added together three times is 18.

18 spelled out in Hebrew forms (WIKIPEDIA - Chai_%28symbol%29), the symbol for life.

In summary, I'm lousy about doing laundry, and I'm an even worse satanist. The first few weeks I lived here, I had noticed that at corner of Utica and Richmond embedded in the sidewalk was a hand print and three plastic dice (all sixes). When I first saw this arrangement, I had thought "A Hamsa (WIKIPEDIA - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khamsa) and three dice that total number 18--the person at this house must really be trying to ward off evil spirits".

It was only when a friend visiting from out of town pointed out the whole "Damian" thing that I realized the person on the corner was going for the Mark Of The Beast and not the denomination of bar-mitzvah gifts.