Category: party

03/26/09 10:25 - 52ºF - ID#48209

Birthday Party!

My 30th birthday party is on Tuesday, April 7th at 7:30pm. We've reserved all of Europa Bistro ( map

) - you can come for dinner or just drinks, but all are welcome. Just give me or (e:James) a heads up if you're planning on coming, so we can make sure we've got a good count.

Hope to see you there :)

Permalink: Birthday_Party_.html
Words: 67
Location: Buffalo, NY

03/25/09 07:51 - 38ºF - ID#48194

Life Spans of Deleteable Items

source:

Permalink: Life_Spans_of_Deleteable_Items.html
Words: 8
Location: Buffalo, NY

03/20/09 11:28 - 30ºF - ID#48133

RIP Space Bat

source:

This bat was clinging to the space shuttle during take off.

In honor of space bat's memory:

Permalink: RIP_Space_Bat.html
Words: 36
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: all grown up

03/19/09 09:17 - 32ºF - ID#48128

Home Ownership!

So, my Dad has let me know that there's a 401k account of my mother's that he hasn't cashed in since she passed away a few years ago, and he's decided he wants to use it to help me with a down payment for a house. That coupled with the $8000 first time home buyer's credit (

) means that I am pretty sure that I'm going to own my own place sometime this year.

James and I have talked, and the only downside is that we'd only buy something if we knew exactly where we were planning on living next year, and we've been talking pretty seriously about moving to Portland, Oregon or Austin, Texas.

Money certainly doesn't go as far outside Buffalo. For the price of a 2,000 sqft Victorian home here we could only get a really cute 1 bedroom condo in downtown Portland, like this:

(

)

Of course it would be in the middle of an awesome urban area that only gets 2" of snow every winter and has excellent public transit and career opportunities...

tinypliny writes at 07:20:12 03/26/09 - Comment #47064: I say go (or stay) where you can create the most worthwhile life. Good Luck! :)

heidi writes at 10:50:05 03/20/09 - Comment #46812: I want you to stay!!!

But I have some logical reasons too... It's hard to find a good community - you have one here, you have roots... you've said "I don't want to die here" (hmmm... might have been (e:james)) but that's what retirement's for! You can *live* here, and die somewhere else. :-)

And you really can't beat the housing prices... damn! $159K?? That's awesome. (Mortgage interest deduction!!! Every year!)

jim writes at 02:54:49 03/20/09 - Comment #46802: It's not a loan, it's a credit. No payback needed. You get an $8000 tax refund.

metalpeter writes at 02:16:15 03/20/09 - Comment #46796: I admit I didn't follow the links so I may have missed something. But the first interior looks pretty nice. I would say that taking the first time home owners loan is a bad idea. Granted I don't have all the facts but to get a tax credit on your taxes of that much money that you then have to payback seems like a bad idea. I don't know the percentage or how you pay it back but to me it seems like you could wind up just owing the IRS money. Of course the person who you should ask about that is (e:Terry).

james writes at 11:08:30 03/19/09 - Comment #46786: That last one looks suspiciously like the section-8 housing on Elmwood between Summer and North.

paul writes at 10:27:57 03/19/09 - Comment #46784: I hope you guys stay.

jim writes at 10:07:36 03/19/09 - Comment #46783: It is pretty exciting - my parents never had much money, so in the last 10 years I've pretty much been on my own. They bailed me out of jail once... that's about it :) It's not really that much money in the scheme of things, but it makes buying a home likely instead of a some-year-soon thing.

To get this kinda opportunity is very unexpected and nice.

mrmike writes at 10:06:30 03/19/09 - Comment #46782: Nice to have the option

libertad writes at 10:04:21 03/19/09 - Comment #46781: How exciting. Good luck in finding a place.

jim writes at 09:50:14 03/19/09 - Comment #46779: I think James wants to move more then I do :)

I'd be perfectly content to live in this: :::link:::

drew writes at 09:45:14 03/19/09 - Comment #46778: Home ownership is very cool.

Leaving Buffalo is not.

Now that (e:James) is on the fast track to Mayor, you have to stay.

Permalink: Home_Ownership_.html
Words: 187
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: religion

03/18/09 09:11 - 51ºF - ID#48099

God vs Satan

Posted for mindless, meaningless amusement.

Permalink: God_vs_Satan.html
Words: 8
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: tech

03/17/09 02:11 - 50ºF - ID#48087

iPhone 3.0 SDK

The biggest news for me (aside from Copy&Paste) is that the SDK allows virtually unlimited access to hardware. Which means I can get one of these:

And build robots with iphones for brains. hooray!

Permalink: iPhone_3_0_SDK.html
Words: 46
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: hiking

03/14/09 06:52 - 41ºF - ID#48054

18 Mile Creek

Thanks Paul, Matthew, Terry and James, it was a fun day :)

I took lots of photos, but most of the ones that looked good were the more abstract ones of the ice.

Permalink: 18_Mile_Creek.html
Words: 42
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: apple

03/12/09 12:58 - 24ºF - ID#48029

iPhone 3.0

Preview demo March 17, 2009

Will be nice to get a look at the new OS. Hopefully they'll have a dev release at that time too. Background processing would be just what I need for the apps I want to build.