09/03/15 03:58 - 86.ºF - ID#60198

Top of Black Mountain

I'm posting this from the top of Black Mountain in the Adirondacks. I already broke my post a day promise but its hard up hur in the land of EDGE. It took us about an hour to climb up.

At the top of the peak is an old fire watch tower, which now has a microwave dish, solar panels and a windmill. Apparently a satellite dish is too far in the future for them.

Up at the top there is 4G. you can see so much of Lake George and the surrounding area.

Permalink: Top_of_Black_Mountain.html
Words: 110
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 09/03/15 06:22

Category: camping

08/31/15 11:30 - 76.ºF - ID#60197

Lake Pleasant Campground and bathrooms

We stopped for the night at the Lake Pleasant campground in Speculator, NY.

It was nice for the state cluster camping. It reminds me of all the other state campgrounds we camped at growing up.

I've never seen such fancy public bathrooms at a campground. They are all LED, automatic lighting, private showers, and even USB ports next to the sink. How crazy is that?

Permalink: Lake_Pleasant_Campground_and_bathrooms.html
Words: 71
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 08/31/15 11:30

Category: food

08/31/15 11:10 - 76.ºF - ID#60196

Logan's Bar and Grill

Due to the kayak mishap and traffic, we ended up falling way behind on time. So we decided to camp out for the night in Speculator, NY.

There was this restaurant we stopped at called Logans Bar and Grill. I had a squash,pepper and zucchini veggie burrito with a ton of sides that was alright, but kind of spiceless.

Paul and I shared a fried goat cheese and arugala salad that was freaking amazing.

I'm not sure what (e:Paul) just said in this picture but clearly (e:terry) found it ridiculous.

Permalink: Logan_s_Bar_and_Grill.html
Words: 96
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 08/31/15 11:10

Category: camping

08/30/15 07:39 - 76.ºF - ID#60194

Adirondack bound

We're hurtling down the highway right now in the rented Suburban/tank. Murcia. Luckily I am still a year out from being able to officially drive a rental car.

At some point outside of Syracuse our kayak came loose and flew off of the roof of the car. Paul and I had to run back and get it. Amazingly the only thing we lost was the waterproof cover's strap. Now we just have the canoe tied down and the kayak is in the car.

Permalink: Adirondack_bound.html
Words: 89
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 08/30/15 07:39

Category: art

08/30/15 07:31 - 76.ºF - ID#60193

Squeaky Wheel Dirty Thirty Peep Show

The Squeaky Wheel peep show was last night at 500 Seneca street. Most of the building was swank modern offices but the sixth floor was unfinished old factory space. the event was pretty fun - (e:terry) volunteered and helped organize a lot of it.

The art itself was a mixed bag - some was cool, some was kind of lame. I loved the dirty bird exhibit and satanic rabbit pentagram.

There was also delicious coco food, including a white bean arugula salad, and fancy chocolates. There were also free drinks. I still don't like gin.

I think my favorite scene of the night was Nick's drag getup. I seriously didn't recognize him when he came up to me.

Permalink: Squeaky_Wheel_Dirty_Thirty_Peep_Show.html
Words: 135
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 08/30/15 07:53

Category: birthday

08/28/15 11:44 - 62.ºF - ID#60189

Birthday dinners at the Visco's

Once again an amazing Visco dinner - this time to celebrate (e:terry) and (e:mike)'s birthdays. Maria made this delicious cheesey zucchini dish for me - it was vegetables with a cheesy muffin top.

Our team ((e:mike), (e:paul), Tony and I) ended up winning catchphrase again, come-from-behind, over the Mickelson pair. Don't count us out!

Permalink: Birthday_dinners_at_the_Visco_s.html
Words: 65
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 08/29/15 02:34

Category: birthdays

08/28/15 03:22 - 73.ºF - ID#60188

Happy birthday Terry!

I love you and your otTerry ways.

The past two years with you have been amazing and I can't wait to see what's in store for all of us!

A few pictures of the pre-birthday brownies. We really need to get some real candles.

Permalink: Happy_birthday_Terry_.html
Words: 47
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 08/29/15 02:38

Category: estrip

08/27/15 11:43 - 61.ºF - ID#60187

e:strip anniversary

I've now been on (e:strip) for two years! It's really crazy how time flies. I've now published over 700 journals, 3274 images, received 287 comments. Not long ago I was just a young (e:stalker) in college, procrasturbating at 4 am and reading the journals of (e:strip)pers I never met.

I know I've been neglecting (e:strip) posts lately but I really would like to write more, similar to (e:mike,60184). Writing about topics other than programming at work is good for me on multiple levels. How often do I write about something non-technical? And even if I do write about programming, it could be a new topic to reinforce or learn more about.

Most of my journals are catalogs/photo dumps of my life and pretty uninteresting. One one hand I like having that virtual record. I do a lot of self-censorship - either by delaying, rethinking and rewriting what I want to write about until it's boiled to a sanitized blurb, or not published at all. I feel that unlike the heady heyday of (e:strip), what you write is more attached to you than before. But honestly, who really cares? This isn't facebook or google who's tracking every word you say to sell your soul to some marketer later. The old posts of (e:strip) were much more interesting - sometimes, I click on the random article link just to read them

From now on, I would like to write at least one post a day. Even if I have nothing interesting to write about than some youtube video I saw, or some programming concept that just clicked.

I'd also like to work on updating and developing the site a little - (e:paul,60191) just added poop emojis, and there's a lot more that could be modernized (even if it's just on the back end). I'll save that for winter though ;)

Permalink: e_strip_anniversary.html
Words: 317
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 08/29/15 04:12

Category: mobl

08/27/15 11:43 - 61.ºF - ID#60186

Note 4 and the end of phones

I finally caught up with (e:paul) and (e:terry) and now own a Note 4.

I've had an upgrade to use since March, and I know AT&T was profiting off it - but I couldn't justify paying money for a Note 4, especially while I had a Note 3 that still worked (minus (e:paul)'s crack and the lack of charging from when I took a drunk bath with the phone). It seemed wasteful.

Well I wanted to have a working and long lasting phone for Jabe Pond this week - so I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to the Note 4, for $0 upfront!
The Note 5 is out, but it sucks - who wants a sealed up phone you can't root, take the battery out of, add an SD card into, and adds a glass back? For $300!

The new phone is nicer, especially the camera and battery life - but it's not as life changing as when I went from a flip phone to a HTC Titan, or a Windows Phone to the Galaxy S3.

I really feel that we're reaching the end of the treadmill of consumer electronics capitalism... I'd like to write about (e:paul)'s breakdown at the AT&T store when he realized there's nothing new he wanted to buy.

The best feature of the phone is if you press the power button three times, the emergency mode is activated and it sends an SOS text with a picture from both cameras, a sound clip, and your location to your emergency contact.

Permalink: Note_4_and_the_end_of_phones.html
Words: 259
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 08/29/15 03:28

Category: food

08/27/15 11:42 - 61.ºF - ID#60185

Sato

Paul and I went on Wednesday to Sato. Between the soupy food, and cold weather it felt like fall. Not ready for that yet.

Paul managed to order a large ramen with extra noodles, I think it topped out at a volume of three liters.