"Brownies for Paul" written by Joe on estrip.org

Category: food

03/11/15 07:01 - 31.ºF - ID#59892

Brownies for Paul

(e:paul) wanted brownies the other day but we didn't have any baking chocolate. So I found a recipe that just uses unsweetened cocoa powder and a metric ton of butter to make up for the lack of cocoa butter.

Mom blog recipe here

They turned out really gooey and delicious especially when salted. The pictures of them came out looking a little shitty (hah) but they're still good. lately I feel so rushed I don't even care if the pictures come out alright.

Permalink: Brownies_for_Paul.html
Words: 105
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 03/11/15 07:01

Category: environment

03/08/15 01:45 - 33.ºF - ID#59890

Tricked by the coop

We got completely greenwashed at the coop. We bought this sponge in a rush at the coop and somehow thought it was made of natural material. I remember talking about it in the aisle with (e:paul) wondering what it could have been made of. It turns out it's just a regular sponge, just with "Nature" on the package.

The "Natural Value" scrubbers are made of "tough fibers and abrasives" which I take means plastic since they point out the sponges are cellulose (so are 3Ms, so I assume they're all from the same factories).

I can't believe I fell for it. I really hate all greenwashed marketing, especially for packaged stuff like this. It isn't even good at it. Usually it'd be a regular plastic brillo pad wrapped in brown paper to give it an "earthy" feel, called "Bob's Sea Sponge" , with maybe a GMO and Gluten free label on it. On the back would be a folksy story about how Bob's Natural Sponges loves his artisian sponges, and how he feels about urban farming or kale or something. I really think I could be a marketer.

Permalink: Tricked_by_the_coop.html
Words: 202
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 03/08/15 11:17

Category: paul

03/06/15 09:18 - 16.ºF - ID#59887

Trip to Kenmore

So (e:paul) really wants to make jewelry. We stopped up to get some investment/supplies at the metal broker up in Kenmore. It's in the big giant mansion at Kenmore and Delaware built by the founder of Kenmore, Eberhardt. It used to have a twin for his brother next door but it was demolished in 1977.

I always thought it would be super crazy on the inside but the part we were in was just a normal office.

On the way back from the store the power steering on the car broke. We even bought power steering because we thought it might have been the fluid, but it turns out it's completely electric and doesn't take any fluid. Miraculously it started working again. I hate cars.

We stopped to visit Tony on the way back so Paul could fix his computer. He was suprised (e:paul) had just eaten lamb because it was Friday. I feel like those Lent rules used to run my life when I was little and I don't even think about them now.

Paul's supplies and investment

Permalink: Trip_to_Kenmore.html
Words: 201
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 03/08/15 11:01

Category: music

03/03/15 01:06 - 11.ºF - ID#59877

Excision at the Town Ballroom

(e:paul) and I got to go out to see the Excision show at Town Ballroom tonight while (e:terry) hopefully relaxed a little from tax time. Like the Datsik show it was a packed house and out of control.

The opener was kind of boring and lame but Excision had to be the most ridiculous sound I have ever witnessed. It reminds me I need to seriously get some real earplugs. Instead immediately stuffed some napkins in my ear so I wouldn't go deaf. It worked well enough because I don't have tinnitus like I usually do after the Town Ballroom.

The bass vibrated your whole body - skin, eyes, hands, everything was shaking. The pressure of the sound in the opening to his set was almost too much. His projections were pretty amazing too on the big robot speaker set they had set up.

There were also a ton of cute sweaty beardy bros there. Even though they make me feel old already it's fun to dance with them. I'd like to mosh too but I can't promise that I or someone else isn't going to end up really punching somebody.

Lisa was there going crazy per the usual, and invited us to her birthday at Lift this Friday. We haven't gone there but that could be fun. I have to think it's probably the same crowd of that goes to this type of EDM.

The snowbanks have become so high its redonk. Paul and I decided to document them.

Permalink: Excision_at_the_Town_Ballroom.html
Words: 281
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 03/03/15 02:24

Category: hiking

03/03/15 12:57 - 11.ºF - ID#59876

Snowshoeing at Hunter's Creek

We went down to East Aurora and Hunter's creek to snowshoe with Mark, (e:paul)'s uncle and (e:czarkasm)'s dad. All of the little valleys, creeks and cliffs were completely filled with snow, and we would only about a foot in.
I wonder what Little Rock City is like now - i bet you can fall right off some of the rocks without breaking your arm.

It was tons of fun. Despite the fact the snowshoes have spikes climbing the hill was mostly scrambling on hands and knees. Going down hills I had to just sort of run and home I didn't slide down on my ass.

I definitely want to go again - if we ever try again I'd like to try bigger shoes since I was using Erica's mother's old pair.

Afterwards we ate amazing homemade bread, veggie chili, and brownies from Erica's mom. It was the perfect way to fill up after.

Permalink: Snowshoeing_at_Hunter_s_Creek.html
Words: 165
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 03/03/15 02:14

Category: flowers

03/03/15 12:53 - 11.ºF - ID#59874

Saturday at the Botan Gardens

(e:paul) and I took an afternoon to go to the botan. It was so nice to bask in the heat like a tortoise. Surprisingly they have a three adult family membership so we renewed and are now all members.

These poor ducks were freezing their little duck butts off. We wondered how pissed they all must be at the duck leader who decided it was time to fly north.

The orchid show was going on but sadly not too many of them smelled.

How can we grow one of these? The leaves smelled amazing.

So did this curry plant (aka CP). It had a nice spicy smell to it

Cacti are so strange. This one had a little flower crown

Permalink: Saturday_at_the_Botan_Gardens.html
Words: 199
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 03/03/15 02:09

Category: music

03/03/15 12:50 - 11.ºF - ID#59873

Boom! at Nietzsche's

Congrats to (e:czarkasm) for winning the second round of the Artvoice Boom competition. It was by something redonk like 70 votes.

Permalink: Boom_at_Nietzsche_s.html
Words: 29
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 03/03/15 02:03

Category: nfta

02/27/15 06:09 - 8.0ºF - ID#59868

Fun times on the NFTA

I took the NFTA for many years and I don't think I ever had as good of a time as these people are. Especially the guy standing in the front with the girl waist high.

Permalink: Fun_times_on_the_NFTA.html
Words: 36
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 02/27/15 06:10

Category: dreams

02/26/15 02:14 - 7.0ºF - ID#59864

Sunny days and crazy dreams

Ever since I started living and working in a two block radius for most of the time I forgot that the sun comes up over buildings sometimes. Even in winter.

Conventus looks much nicer in the sun

This week I've been losing sleep getting up for an 8:30 MLM class (another story) at work. Since I get out at 4:30 instead of 7:30 this week, it seems crazy bright outside. Spring ( and daylight savings) is almost here.

Speaking of sleep, I've had some crazy dreams lately. Mostly programming related but my brain has been super weird.

Last night I dreamt I was struggling to stay awake and program Squeaky. So I decided to take meth to stay focused. (e:terry) tried to warn me but I didn't listen. instead I ended up with a >200bpm heart rate and I was so stressed I couldn't work at all.

To relax we went to Cleveland, which was so beautiful, warm, had great transit, people everywhere and fountains made of gold. Paul didn't want to go, but at the last second he rode his bike down (for the gold fountains maybe?) and met us on the Detroit-Superior bridge. The sky started turning black and I woke up.

The night before I had sleep paralysis but remember only laughing uncontrollably. I think it was real.

The week before I had a dream I was physically trapped in a surebert framework Index controller. I'm not sure what that means really but that's what I took from it when I woke up.

So close to warmer days and barer butts.

Permalink: Sunny_days_and_crazy_dreams.html
Words: 266
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 02/26/15 02:21

Category: computer

02/26/15 01:01 - 7.0ºF - ID#59863

Media hoarding

Sunday I went over to my parents house to chip ice off their roof that started a leak in their house. It was so freaking thick - I probably chiselled off a foot, and had to get the rest off with a giant torch attached to a propane tank. What an environmental disaster. The pyro in (e:paul) would have loved it.

Got to chill with Mid too

While I was there my mom wanted me to go dehoard some old electronics for recycling. She still has the old 3.5" floppies we used to play. Probably one of the first games I remember playing was this DOS game called "Barbie Supermodel". My sister and I would go insane trying to play it

I don't remember ever beating it or getting past the second level. I also remember not having a sound card so the motherboard speaker would just kind of screech the games music.

Transferring data with physical media has been irrelevant to me for so long now I almost forgot how terrible it was. Floppy disks becoming demagnitized and getting that WIndows "Abort, Retry, Ignore" message, CD's and DVD's becoming scratched and failing out halfway through loading, I almost never even use USB drives anymore. Why would you when you can scp almost everything. I'm so glad we're past that.

I did keep my favorite old game, Sim City 4. I usually can't keep interest in most games but little engineer me put thousands of hours into this game. I almost want to play it now. It was to me what Warcraft probably was to (e:terry) - it kept me up all hours of the night.