07/09/09 10:47 - 69ºF - ID#49241
Letter from Brian Higgins
I wasn't really considering that he'd write me back, but interestingly enough he did. I got a form letter on congressional letterhead thanking me for communicating to him; I would bet that 80% of the letter was written by someone within their caucus, or maybe the Administration, to distribute to congressmen who hear from people who object to the bill. I'm going to test this theory by writing to other NY congressmen to see what I receive.
I'm glad that my congressman actually responded to me - although he's dead wrong and I've got a post brewing that will eviscerate the letter, line by line. I wonder to what degree he's willing to be a rubber stamp - he must covet that seat on the Ways and Means Committee. (This is the committee that is writing legislation as we speak to "surtax" individuals and couples to pay for health care, on top of the expiration of Bush's tax cuts). Read here -
FOR THE RECORD: I wrote to Sen. Boxer of California, Sens. Schumer and Gillibrand, and Congressman Brian Higgins recently. Sen. Boxer responded to me first and I'm not even a constituent. Higgins responded to me much later, and I haven't heard from my own senators at all. I can't wait for the Taste of Buffalo - Sen. Schumer is always there. I'm going to introduce myself and ask him why I haven't heard from him yet (I wrote him after I found out that he was among the porkiest of the pigs w/respect to taxpayer funded travel). Read about that here -
Permalink: Letter_from_Brian_Higgins.html
Words: 388
07/08/09 02:16 - ID#49232
Admission - A Dream Of Mine
I look at work as a series of things you have to go through and put up with in order to realize an end goal 30 years down the road. After working your whole life, accumulating, saving, collaborating with all ranges of people, where do you want to end up? This is a question I've asked myself over and over. I took the places I've been and focused on my favorite, then focused even deeper on the places within my favorite that I felt were the most interesting to me.
I'm going to share with you guys my happy place. When I'm done I want to live in a place where I'm at peace and feel inspiration on a daily basis. (A sad admission within an admission - with the life I lead I find myself rarely at peace, so this is really important to me). I need to be around nature - I need the crashing water with mountains rising from endless blue ocean, wildflowers, cypresses, huge and ancient trees, birds.
I love the convenience of urban life but to be honest I mostly feel unhappy and disconnected. I don't want to be around just any old nature; I need something spectacular, something that when you see it for the first time it takes your breath away.
This is the place where I'd pack my bags tomorrow and leave for if I could - Big Sur, in the heart of the central coast of California. This place brings out the melodrama in me. This place is so important to me that when it's on my mind I talk about God, about absolute childlike wonderment with the world and all within it, about how life can be a natural high and a miracle, about the fact that life is both ecstasy and exile at the same time. Here is where I want to sit on a stone slab and grow old with somebody.
Here's an example of a place I'd never leave. I swear I could live here forever and be at peace.
See? My stone slab.
You can read more about my happy place at the wiki page, which yielded an interesting fact - - this place is so untouched that when my grandmother was born in 1928 there were only two homes in the entire region that had electricity, which was locally generated. The fabled Highway 1 was only completed in 1937; prior to that, Big Sur was virtually inaccessible.
Permalink: Admission_A_Dream_Of_Mine.html
Words: 500
07/07/09 12:27 - 65ºF - ID#49215
A Story Close to Buffalo's Heart
The jewel, of course, is the Michigan Central Station, which is a building that must have been jaw-droppingly beautiful in its day.
This terminal was designed by the same firm that designed Grand Central Station. Looking at this picture reminds me our own park system and how we left a work of art designed by Central Park's own, Fredrick Law Olmstead, to rot and be severed by a highway. They are using BHO's federal "stimulus" money to tear this building down. It made me think about how torn I am regarding these issues, and of course what fate may await our own Central Terminal. I'm not for preservation for its own sake; there has to be a purpose and a predictable stream of income to make these projects viable in the modern age. They have a point when they say that the cost to tear it down is minuscule in comparison to the costs of renovation. In a city with a several hundred million dollar shortfall for funding things like schools, firefighters and police, I'm sorry to say that renovating properties with no future use or those that are prohibitively expensive to renovate will be relegated to our history.
In other words, we're watching these buildings die a slow, irreversible death. We're watching irreplaceable aspects of our history slip through our fingers! I'd love to see a visionary repurpose buildings like this, but the pragmatist in me knows that there is no chance without a sustainable plan and a ton of cash behind it.
So, kudos to Marshall Mathers for having the desire to preserve these buildings, if not materially. Every time I pass by the expansion on the Canisius High School campus it strikes me how in 100 years time our heirs will scold us for watching these monuments erode and leave nothing for them to admire. I'm sure you've heard the phrase "if walls could talk" - the non-pragmatist, batty dreamer in me thinks that these buildings have a soul, and the buildings we're leaving behind lack EVERYTHING that these older buildings simply ooze. If we're going to watch this happen, we should at least do our heirs a favor when we replace these forgotten buildings and build things worthy of admiration in their own right.
Permalink: A_Story_Close_to_Buffalo_s_Heart.html
Words: 460
07/02/09 12:46 - 65ºF - ID#49158
FREE LUKA
In my last entry (e:carey) mentioned the thought about not realizing or understanding those things that might make someone feel like the lil' ol' hypothetical me is hard to approach. I can't get my head around that, I've never really considered these things before. I'm painfully shy with ladies and I'm usually prone to scurrying off.
OH SHIT. Sly & Family Stone - Thank You just came on Sirius - fuck my blog. Nite guys!
Permalink: FREE_LUKA.html
Words: 85
06/30/09 10:35 - ID#49129
Yet Another Admission To Discuss
Women with shaved heads. Yes or no? I'm not talking about Bic razor shaved, but your normal clipper style. I say yes!
Yesterday while driving home I saw a girl that completely blew me away but I don't think a single one of my friends would consider dating her. She was wearing a tight, slinky black dress, curvy, in my eyes mega attractive, and the way she walked just oozed sexy confidence. Really pretty smile, black Ray-Bans, and a shaved head. Allow me to be a typical guy and use a crude analogy - for some this is like being presented with a 5-star, world class dessert topped with something funky you haven't tasted before. This is where the world of "to each, his own" really kicks in, but for me this was another Cupid moment. Based on my track record and what I revealed in my last post, any takers on whether or not she's "off the market to me" so to speak? Maybe Cupid hates me? Really though, I was totally struck with how beautiful I thought she was.
Based on a very unscientific survey I think you'll find some of what my guy friends had to say surprising. A co-worker told me that he'd date a girl with a full tattoo sleeve before dating a girl with a shaved head. Hmm. Another spoke about the challenges of bringing home a girl with a different outlook on personal expression to meet grandma, which maybe isn't so surprising. (Yes, some of us are actually honest with mostly decent intentions!).
I say sexy is sexy, and personally I'm not going to be stopped because a girl I thought was an utter knockout has hair a little shorter than mine.
Permalink: Yet_Another_Admission_To_Discuss.html
Words: 345
06/29/09 12:28 - 70ºF - ID#49123
Another Admission
More than once I've found myself attracted to a girl that I found out later was a lesbian. Actually, this might be my least favorite thing about the pride parade - almost every year I see a fine lady and Cupid plays a cruel and unusual joke on me. I'll see a girl that gets my heart pounding, then a second later she'll be holding hands with another girl, and then a minute later they're kissing. SON OF A! Off the market, move along soldier. I love girls regardless of their own sexuality, apparently!
I have to laugh at myself. I'm sure this has happened to everybody (a lesbian attracted to a straight girl, etc.). I love you girls anyway - ALL of you!
Permalink: Another_Admission.html
Words: 174
06/28/09 11:59 - 67ºF - ID#49107
I Disappoint Myself Sometimes
I know myself and where I stand with my friends fairly well. I'm secure with myself more or less, although there are things that I wish were different, which is a statement that I think most people would make. I know that amongst my friends I'm broadly well-liked and amongst the more popular ones, even when I've been kind of reclusive. People do like me and I don't know why... but I'm thankful!
There is something about my personality that I hate and I feel like at times it betrays that sentiment from my friends and colleagues. Once in a while a pet peeve of mine will be in front of me, my thought process halts and a swift rush of annoyance hits me, and I'll stop what I'm doing and do whatever I can to stop that pet peeve. I'll even be vicious about it if I feel like someone is being annoying to me or a friend. Then, on occasion, I'll realize after the fact that I should have taken a different approach because my instant reaction to the pet peeve that I just described clouded my judgment, making me take too heavy handed an approach to begin with. Then I'll apologize, because I thought about it for a minute and realized that I was horrified with how I reacted.
I'm betraying myself when I do that. What it comes down to is that I am not giving people the benefit of the doubt at times, and I need to do that more because it is all that I would ask of anyone else to do for me if I were misunderstood or misinterpreted.
Permalink: I_Disappoint_Myself_Sometimes.html
Words: 322
06/26/09 02:57 - 78ºF - ID#49090
If You Love My Shades Then Just Admit It
The aviator model is entirely different than the model I currently wear - different shape, different lens size, different manufacturer. What I'm really interested in, although you can't seem to pick it specifically, is the black metal frame aviators with the dark green lenses... the sort of classic Ray-Ban setup.
I dunno. Sorry about not shaving, by the way, but then again if I don't have to apologize to my boss why am I apologizing for the public at large? Haha. Which do you think are best?
EDIT: X-factors, for fun. Sorry for the fuzzy picture but it's kind of dark.
EDIT: XXX-factor, no pr0n involved - I give you my brother. Hot like lava, y'all -
Permalink: If_You_Love_My_Shades_Then_Just_Admit_It.html
Words: 167
06/25/09 01:09 - 82ºF - ID#49077
Sympathy for the Pathetic
It doesn't have to do with jealousy - there is an intrinsic (and incorrect) assumption here that other people are as obsessed with their looks as the narcissist is with his or her looks. Some people go their whole lives without giving an apparent shit about how they look and manage to be happy, whereas the narcissist is constantly unhappy irrespective of how great or terrible they look. I don't understand the conspiratorial aspect of the narcissist's personality. Maybe Hitler could sympathize?
Permalink: Sympathy_for_the_Pathetic.html
Words: 117
06/18/09 06:08 - 57ºF - ID#49000
iPhone, Flowers
For those of you who actually get meaningful utility out of these devices - I don't understand you.
EDIT: Oops, I wanted to post pictures of the flowers -
Not sure what these guys are.
These bushes are hit or miss at the moment, but the good flowers are very good. I love how these turn from red at the bud, through the rainbow to orange and finally to yellow.
See?
Another nice bloom.
A picture of my birthday beer, for the hell of it. (Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA, aged a short time)
Permalink: iPhone_Flowers.html
Words: 277
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For starters, emailing your representative is probably the easiest way to get your voice ignored. Therefore, although we were collecting the petitions online, I had to print every petition on a separate page, fully addressed as a separate letter [which were bundled together and sent in one large envelope every day].
Secondly, people are motherfucking lazy even if they care about the issue. So we had a form letter already filled out. You could delete it and write your own thing which happened once every few days. Mostly people would leave it intact, sometimes they would change a couple words. If somebody took the time, I would shuffle their letter to the top of the packet. So yeah, constituents write form letters too, in a way.
A number of the people at work also filled out the petition, so we were able to gauge the response of politicians. Even though Brian Higgins was spearheading the effort and worked closely with us as an organization, nobody heard back from his office individually. Hillary Clinton was the only politician who responded individually even though it probably wasn't her jurisdiction [I have heard on a number of occasions that her office was very good at correspondence]. Louise Slaughter knew she needed to have an opinion but couldn't come up with one [also her main office is in Fairport, yay gerrymandering].
Here's what I gather about the process: the letter is opened and read by an intern, who classifies it by issue and position. They probably keep an approximate tally, but remember that people are a lot less likely to write to a representative they agree with. There is probably a form letter for each issue that has been written or at least approved by the politician. Think about it- the last thing they need is some intern sticking their foot in the senator's mouth. They do not have separate letters for people who agree or disagree, and thus the language often seems a little out-of-step. They run the letter through the autopen, meter it, and ship it out. Maybe they put your name on a mailing list, maybe not. I don't know what happens if you keep writing back, it would be interesting to find out.
- Z