THe first week of school has been going well so far. I have been really busy lately, but very little of it has to do with my actual classes. At least I have been doing a decent job in keeping on top of things and being productive. Hopefully that will continue. On a side note, I hate the fucking shuttle service to my apartment - it is unreliable and sucks. I am such a supporter of public transport but it is crap like shuttles leaving 5 minutes before they are scheduled to that make me want to give up on it. In fairness to public transportation, this is run by a private company contracted out by my school for the apartment building. So it is not truly public, but you get my drift. I do still have much love for normal DC public transport. They are generally pretty reliable and on time and that is all I ask.

Happy Birthday Mike!!!! Hope you had a great time tonight. Wish I could be there.

[inlink]jason,3[/inlink]

Hey Jason, welcome to the site. Don't worry, you are not the only Republican as I am a member of Satan's minions as well. I do agree with you though that arguements become too partisan all the time. Rather than look at an idea and judge it on its merits, people look at what party is supporting an idea and fall in line based on who said it. It is okay to agree with a certain party's ideology and vote accordingly, but often times people become so concerned with following what the party says that they do not make their own decisions and ideas. People should stop discussing parties and people and focus on ideas. Fighting over whether Bush is a moron or not accomplishes nothing. We should talk about how the policies that he has put in place are correct or flawed. Take the arguements above petty personal/party bickering and debate ideas not people.

Yours Truly,
-A fellow GOPer

So I'm back in DC now. Classes start tomorrow. So much to do - meetings etc. It is great seeing people that I haven't seen in over a year because I was abroad and then they were abroad. Worried about the whole internship situation. Worried I might have not played my cards right. Oh well. What happens happens. Happy belated B-day to terry. It was nice seeing the e-strip people that I did. It is very wierd the parallel universes of knowing a person from the site and meeting them in person. Got my nipple pierced at cowpok yesterday. I highly reccommend them and the person who pierced me (Ian) did a really good job both in the piercing and making it not scary (though I was an asshole and didn't think to tip him until it was too late and I didn't tip him- I'm a jerk). It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would, though I was pretty terrified up to the point that I was actually pierced. It was great seeing and hanging out with everyone. I will be back in the -lo in October and we will party it up once again. That is a lot of stuff in a very short entry. Take care everyone.b

My roommate emailed me today. Our new roommate is moving in today. Hopefully he wil be ok. From what we can gather from him so far. He seems kind of like a nerd, but that is ok by me. Probably one of the least offensive possibilites that he could be. We'll see.

Currently I'm watching the Brasil-US women's soccer gold medal game. It is tied and in extra time. I'm not that horribly interested but it is decent background noise.

Hmmm. Feeling kind of lazy. Stuff to say but none of it is that current. Just stuff I didn't put in in the past week. Don't have the motivation to do it now. Sorry.

It was nice seeing/meeting all the people I did last night. Good to have a face to go with a journal. I guess that is all for now. Still enjoying the -lo. Bye.

Need to post, but have other stuff to do. :( Hopefully I can do it soon. It is nice to be back in the -lo

As I am unable to make the big party tonight (I'm coming home one day late :( ). I just want to wish mike a happy birthday. I wish I could be there to celebrate with y'all. I hope it is a great time, and hopefully I will see you Saturday Night if you are not still recovering.

In response to Paul,

[inlink]paul,1823[/inlink]

You do bring up a good point in regards to the fact that if they do not publish regularly, then their journal will fade into obscurity. I guess just letting them disappear is better than censoring/deleting their stuff.

Regarding using the the journal as a promotional tool in the sense of having them relay their experiences, such as your example of the person who was starting a bike customizing business, I have no problem with that. The reason that I enjoy the site so much is that it lets me in on the experiences of people's lives. The diversity of people and their experiences is what makes this site so entertaining. Adding more experiences, such as the starting of a business or what it is like being in a band etc, would only make the site more interesting.

Regarding Elmwood Radio. I agree that using the site to play and promote local artists would be a great asset to the site. But I think that there should be some other better way for them to get their music on if they are not willing to maintain a journal. Maybe have a little blurb above the elmwood radio box that says something like "Are you a local musician and would like your music featured on elmwood radio, email Radio@elmwoodstrip. com" And rather than have radio as a journal have it more as a webpage that includes a section linking to local artists that are featured on elmwood radio. I'm not sure. In all fairness, I have never used elmwood radio so I don't know how much I can talk.

In regards to advertisements, I completely understand and support your decision not to compromise and add Ads to the site. Especially in light of the fact that you see the site as having a news element that could come into conflict with advertisers.

Regarding the PR person, I think it is a good idea and I really wish I could get more involved in the PR aspect. Unfortunately I am in DC for at least another year so I couldn't do any of the hands on stuff. If you would like I would be willing to do anything I could from here, like write press releases, articles, etc. Let me know if I can help at all.

I hope that rant was somewhat coherent. If it wasn't, let me know and I will clarify.

First off, I would like to say to Paul that I am going to respond to your entry that responds to my entry, but I want to devote a full post to it so I will probably do it tomorrow.

On to other things, I got a email from my old internship today www.cagw.org . I had wrote to them telling that something they had done got picked up on Fox News . Anyway, they emailed me back and told me that a report I had written for them was almost through being edited. I had given up on it ever being published cause I submitted it to them on memorial day and heard little since. The fact that they are still planning on publishing it makes me excited. The email also said that my old boss in the office wanted me to give him a call on something not related to the report. I wonder what it could be. Though I shouldn't, part of me wonders if it is about me working for them in the future. They had flat out said when I had to give up my internship there at the beginning of the summer that if I had graduated then, they would have offered me a job. But alas, I still have one year to go. It is stupid and far fetched but that is what happens why I don't know what in the world it could be about and my mind is allowed to wander.

On another note, my mom won a pair of bills season tickets from Tops. That is pretty awesome, but alas my mom won't use them and I am not around so I am looking to sell them, either as individual game or the entire season. I don't know where they are in the stadium, but I will when I go home on Saturday. If you or anyone you know is interested please let me know.

That is enough for now. I have to sleep. Night all

[inlink]paul,1818[/inlink]

Paul, You should tell buffalo.com that you are a commercial site based on the fact that two bands have shamelessly selfpromoted themselves on the site as of late

[inlink]hesperus,2[/inlink]
[inlink]hanabi,2[/inlink]

Maybe it is just me, but shame on those two bands for trying to take advantage of the site. I would have no problem if someone in the band wanted to talk about how their concerts went etc., but to create a journal purely as nothing more than a cheap plug for their band, that is sleezy. If I am wrong about the bands and judging too quickly, then I welcome them to prove me wrong by posting again with something more than a link, a bio, and when their next show is.

I know it is not really my place to talk as it is not my site, therefore who am I to decide what is or isn't appropriate to be posted. And I apologize if I have overstepped my bounds, but does anyone else feel this way?

On another quick note, I would like to thank Paul for encoding the site however he did because it lets me read it and post at work even though most other sites that you can post at, such as webjournals, are blocked for security reasons. I'm such a slacker.