My brother Daniel has always been a good writer. A weird one but a good one.

See here

The other day he sent me his new tumblr, "mydadreviews". He writes as a suburban everyman mixed in with his own nerdiness. It reminds me of when we used to sit around the family computer and write down all these ridiculous stories. I specifically remember writing one about Louis Braille leading a double life as a trans-woman, Louise Braille. So bizarre.

Unfortunately I don't think I have a creative writing bone left in my body after wringing them out in college, so I'll have to live vicariously through my brother.

Bubbs, if you read this, sign up for (e:strip) already.

(e:paul) got these buzzword chips for his birthday. To be fair they really are delicious but despite the name, there is almost no kale in them. Corn chips with a green speck.

They are full of foodie buzzwords though - organic, gluten free, non-GMO, kale and quinoa chips. Sometimes I feel like I could make and sell yuppie food too - it's really a fill in the blank of buzzwords, green packaging and a cute story about finding "your passion for healthy natural foods" on the back.

The last of four days. Every family has gotten to celebrate it now. (e:paul), (e:mike), Maria and I stomped Catchphrase before Paul and I retired. The food was amazing. I want to eat cheesy mushroom artichokes for the rest of my life. Like Paul, I don't think I'll ever be hungry again.















On the way home, we saw this car drunkenly swerving down Elmwood, they couldn't even stay in a lane. I wanted to call them in so bad - when they turned on Hertel we saw a cyclist only about 1000 feet ahead. As someone who's been run off the road on my bike by drivers like that, it drives me fucking insane that anyone would ever do that. I really wish I had followed them.

With two of three families (minus Midnight and Emily ;(), pizza, and dessert.

Last night, (e:terry)'s mom got in to visit for a week. First thing we did, after a the parking squabble (e:joe,59782) was go to Seabar to celebrate (e:paul)'s birthday again with his favorite fish. The dinner was really good. I got the goat cheese salad and vegetarian roll.


Paul was full and fell asleep

Afterwards I headed over to Mike's place for "Mike-a-polooza. Like (e:paul)'s birthday it also evolved into a week long event.


It was a very classy affair.




Emily was making drinks with this stuff - it smelled like root beer barrel candy




Mike started to auction off a self portrait he had made.

Poloroids are standard here.

I almost couldn't believe it today when I checked Buffalo Rising and saw they had published this story about a Domino's Pizza opening on Delaware Avenue.

It's basically a press release for Domino's and their crappy chain pizza. For a site that aspires to be about all things local and urban, I can't imagine them ever writing something like this. The entire article reads like an advertisement. They even quote Domino's marketing scheisse at the end. I can't wait for Newell Nussbaumer's review of the next Dollar General or TIm Horton's to open.

I always wondered if they took any compensation for their posts and this definitely doesn't help.

This would never happen at (e:strip). ;)

Here is a screen shot showing how a chunk of BR text is near verbatim from Domino's press releases - see prnewsire.

I almost never would have thoguht Microsoft could make anything remotely cool but the other day they announced VR goggles called HoloLens and they look amazing. Unlike the Gear VR and Oculus which just leave you and a screen, they use a pass through, augmented reality that allows you to mix a digital world with the real one.


The interaction part is so cool. You can manipulate and affect objects as if they were really there - and you're not in your own isolated world like the Oculus gear.

Imagine if you could just build the 3D environment like legos instead of drawing it out on a 2D screen. The minecraft type deal they came up with is super neat and a good demo of this.

The only downside I've read so far is the engadget review that said hardware is bulky and compact and light like the Gear. But with the rate phone hardware is advancing, it can't be that far off before this is much better than Google Glass ever was. I would totally wear these on the street, to work, anywhere - just a little bit closer to being a computer.

I fucking hate cars. I love giving them tickets. I love raising money for Buffalo. don't block the sidewalk and other peoples driveways like an asshole and then say you can't ask them to move because its a sold out show.

Total raised, $85

Fridays are half days, which is terrible because I can't get anything done at work, but awesome because usually its a day I don't work for the majority. After work I headed over to Terry's office to set up his tax program. His office can now all use the same data files for their local payroll program by using a local directory linked to a network share - no syncing needed.


The Roxy's building is looking worse than it did before - all that's been done in it so far is a party thrown by some douches I went to high school with. I wonder if Paul Rubino, the developer is actually going to be able to finish it.

When I got home, Paul and I decided to head to the Historical Society to look at some pictures in their library. It was pretty neat. We looked at our block of Linwood and saw all the houses that filled in the current parking lot gaps. The best part about them were all the wrap around porches that used to be here, and the amazing elm canopy. My favorite building, the Lin-Nor looked awesome even in the 20's. It had a Liberty Bank branch downstairs, everyone was walking, the street looked very complete. It's still my favorite building because it's the perfect scale, density, mixed use and even includes amazing greenspace in their garden.

The most ridiculous part of the visit was looking at the pictures themselves. All pictures must be requested through a librarian, who pulls them out of a file cabinet and gives them to you with gloves. You aren't allowed to make copies and nothing is digital. This seems insane given that the library is a public resource, most of these images are from the city, and the ones that aren't are out of copyright. Why are these not digital accessible? Paul an

Paul says the librarian, Cynthia Van Ness, likes keeping them this way because it draws people in for research. I say their goal is realized a thousand times over by making it accessible online for everyone. Plus, what if the library burns down? There's no way there's duplicates of anything in there right now. I think their funding should be contingent on scanning the maps and photos in - tagging and transcribing them could be crowdsourced for nothing I'm sure.







The historical society had a 21 inch all in one running on Android. And they said Linux on the desktop was never going to happen.



Paul Visco and Joe Herzig are now members of the historical society.

We had a bunch of people over tonight for Paul's birthday. There wasn't enough cake, but it was tons of fun. I think there was enough spanking to last the rest of Paul's life.





Breaking out the good stuff

A 360 attempt

Paul got himself a new nose piercing

Mickey drew us the best bear on bear picture I've ever seen.







Even Fuzzy got up for some fun