"Ronald McDonald" written by Kara on estrip.org

02/24/06 09:02 - 26ºF - ID#24945

Ronald McDonald

The Ronald McDonald House of Buffalo was established over twenty years ago as a home away from home for the families of children who receive medical treatment in Western New York. When a child from out of the area requires surgery or specialized care in a Buffalo hospital, their families can look to the House to provide a warm, comforting environment for families to stay.
So - what does the RMH have to do with a geek meet?
A lot, actually.
Last month, I worked with the RMH Staff (wonderful people, but definitely not geeks) to convert their Web site to use Wordpress

. This software works as a content management system, allowing their staff (and me) to easily update their site with news, images and information that shows the people on the internets the wonderful work this place does.
Plans for the next few months include:
- train the staff to post regular updates and images
- generate profiles about the staff, volunteers and families of the house
- increase the House's visibility in the Buffalo region as a leader in using technology for communications
- demonstrate how nonprofits can use blogs to communicate to their respective audiences
- encourage fellow geeks to apply their programming skills to those who need it.

I have a few other tricks up my sleeve too, but I won't give them away here.

Permalink: Ronald_McDonald.html
Words: 233
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: food

02/23/06 08:04 - 33ºF - ID#24944

Kara's Ice Cream

This is a simple treat requiring four ingredients:
vanilla ice cream
chocolate syrup
triple sec liquer
sprinkles.

Take a microwavable bowl and add as much chocolate sauce as you can stand to the bottom. I didn't measure mine, but I squeezed on the bottle for a good 8-10 seconds.
Add a splash of triple sec - less if you're driving, more if you're not.
Microwave for 30-40 seconds.
Add your ice cream to the bowl.
Top with sprinkles.

Permalink: Kara_s_Ice_Cream.html
Words: 78
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: geek

02/21/06 02:12 - 30ºF - ID#24943

Geek Meet

Who else (besides (e:paul)) is going to the Geek Meet

this Sunday? I'll be promoting the heck out of the new, improved Ronald McDonald House Web site

; I can't wait to meet other, technologically-motivated people from the area.

Permalink: Geek_Meet.html
Words: 49
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: food

02/20/06 11:09 - 18ºF - ID#24942

Kara's Banana Bread

Ingredients
1/2 stick butter
3/4 c sugar, any kind
3-4 overripe bananas
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 c ap flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
several shakes of the cinnamon jar
a dash of nutmeg
Steps
Mash together the butter and sugar; mash in the bananas and yogurt.
Add the dry ingredients until combined.
Bake in a 9x5 baking pan (though I'm trying an 8x8 pan - we'll see how it turns out) at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes or until it passes the toothpick test.

Permalink: Kara_s_Banana_Bread.html
Words: 84
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: ninja

02/19/06 04:53 - 19ºF - ID#24941

Ask a Ninja

We don't have cable, and on the whole I don't miss it. Sometimes I just need a few minutes of mindless entertainment, so now I go to Google Video.
The Ask a Ninja series is phenomenally good

Permalink: Ask_a_Ninja.html
Words: 44
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: stupid

02/18/06 02:19 - 14ºF - ID#24940

Bad days

Yesterday could have gone better. My computer at work died a quick yet painful death in the middle of the afternoon. When you hear a grinding noise, followed by a "Disk Read Error, Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to Restart" on a black screen, you are SOL. Goodbye, my 2-pound Portege, you served me well for the past 8 months.
Fortunately, the guys in IT may be able to recover some of my files, and all the important web files are on the server, so the Web site is safe. My email is on Outlook, so i only lost older files that I wasn't ever going to look at again. They had extra laptops, so in truth I was without a working computer for a total of 90 minutes, and for half of that I was in a meeting, anyway.
My programs, utilities, settings and other files, unfortunately, have perished.
All my bookmarks are stored in del.icio.us, so I didn't lose those. That would have been a tragedy.
I was able to reconstruct most of the programs and utilities I use in about an hour, but itmay be weeks before I get back to where I was just 24 hours ago.
Here's my list of essential (and non-essential) tools for doing my job and otherwise getting through the day.
Dreamweaver (I ordered Studio 8, but it's MX for now)
Adobe Photoshop 7
Adobe Acrobat
Firefox

and related extensions, mainly the developer's toolbar

WinSCP

Textpad

Winamp

and Streamripper

Google Toolbar

Adaware

Spybot

SmartFTP

Freemonitor for Google

Trillian

This will be useful for the next time a computer around me dies.

The moral of this story: back up your data often.

Permalink: Bad_days.html
Words: 343
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: food

02/16/06 06:58 - 40ºF - ID#24939

Abbycakes

This recipe is published in honor of my puppy, Abby, who is just as happy crunching on ice cubes as she is chewing on these gourmet treats.

Ingredients
3 cups AP flour
2 tbsp. baking powder
2 tbsp. carob powder
1/2 tsp. salt
several large dashes of cinnamon
1/2 cup veg. oil
2 large eggs
3/4 cup (several largish scoops) of unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup honey
Steps
Combine dry ingredients, add wet ingredients. Spoon into mini muffin tins (2/3 full) that have been lightly sprayed with butter spray. Sprinkle the tops with carob chips if you're feeling sprinkly. This should make 24 mini muffins. If the batter is stiff enough (mine was), you could spoon this onto a lightly greased cookie sheet into small treats. For treats that will be consumed by smaller dogs, this would be the way to go.
Bake in a preheated oven at 325 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
Though perfectly safe for human consumption, leave these for the puppies.
Carob powder can be found at your local hippie store. I think Weggies has the chips.
Though these can be stored at room temperature for a few days, I refrigerate mine. Freeze any that will not be eaten soon; unfreeze before serving.

Permalink: Abbycakes.html
Words: 194
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: current

02/13/06 07:29 - 25ºF - ID#24938

Currently ...

What I'm listening to
Coast to Coast AM - usually on Shoutcast during the day.

Korn's Twisted Transistor. I like Korn.
KT Tunstall's Black Horse and a Cherry Tree. We heard her on NPR

last weekend, and I found her myspace page

. This is a song that makes me want to buy her CD

and that's a rare thing. She is a one woman band and truly makes that work.
Air America in Buffalo on WHLD 1270AM

the local crew was decent this morning, I caught a bit of Mr. Franken and friends over lunch, but I can't stand Randi Rhodes. It's not that her ideas are bad; her voice is just too shrill for me.
What I'm reading
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Latin

Mother Earth News (magazine)

Home Education Magazine

What I'm creating the kitchen this week
More focaccia
Yogurt
Dog treats
Something with steak
Something with eggplant

Permalink: Currently_.html
Words: 236
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: travel

02/13/06 09:12 - 24ºF - ID#24937

Eire

I want to plan a honeymoon. Right now we only have the general idea that "it'd be cool to go to Ireland ... sometime ... and do ... things, and stuff." We have friends who have gone there, but they had family to stay with throughout the country.
Has anyone travelled there? Do you have suggestions on getting there and getting around? Anything we should know before we buy tickets to the Emerald Isle?

Permalink: Eire.html
Words: 71
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: politics

02/10/06 12:20 - 24ºF - ID#24936

Politicians at Work

Late last year, someone I am very close to had to have emergency surgery after a complication from a routine medical procedure. Though it was a known risk of the procedure, we still have questions on how the doctor handled the situation. I sent out an email to this person's NYS Senate and NYS Assembly representative, and to the NYS Department of Health, asking to whom we should direct a formal complaint. I wasn't expecting a response - it was more an intellectual exercise to see how responsive state officials are.
To my total surprise, the Senate Member, John DeFrancisco

(or someone from his office) sent the address for the Office of Professional Discipline within 24 hours. 24 hours. This is outstanding, totally great, and is one small step towards a restoration ofmy faith in state government.
The Assembly Member, Joan Christensen

, had an even quicker response, but didn't answer the question. Instead they asked for my family member's postal address so (her office) could respond by mail. Ho hum.
So, Joan's office - wait, I'm sorry, the New York State taxpayers - will spend 39 cents to respond to this simple question, in addition to paper, ink and other ancillary costs. John's office gave me the answer I needed over email - with no appreciable cost.
Of course I've had no response from the Health Department. I won't hold my breath.
[updated to add: I stand corrected. They just sent me detailed instructions on how to download a complaint form and how to proceed. Mad props to the NYS Health Department]
Thank you, Senator DeFrancisco. You done good. May you and your staff have many more happy years in office.

I've previously sent emails to local (Buffalo) politicians with basic, legitimate questions about city and regional issues. I don't know whether to attribute their lack of response to a) arrogance, b) an inability to do their jobs, or c) an inability to form complete sentences. Why choose? I should go with all three.

Permalink: Politicians_at_Work.html
Words: 341
Location: Buffalo, NY