Image Uploads
I have added image upload capability to everyone's journal update page.
Email

I have also activated email accounts for all users except emily and chris. I do not know what password you two would like. Please email elmwood (click on the email link under the user pic) if you want me to set up your accounts. The current limit is 5MB. Please also email if you need an extension of this limit and I will see what I can do.

You can log in with the email button above. Your login is your username and your password is your journal update password. You can change your preferences to have your mail forwarded somewhere else or just check it using our webmail service.

Links
You can finally change your links. The instructions are found on your update page. I tried to make it as efficient as possible.

Loren from Access Community has brought the wireless network idea back onto the forefront. He wants to do it now. Maybe we should too. The idea being to create a free wireless natwork around elmwood.

I also spoke with terry and we are considering opening up a storefront for the spirng and the voice recording database. i would also like to host a happening next month with artists from sound, video, and web art. We will have to see what happens.

Dear Mr. Visco:

Thank you for taking the time to write us regarding your dissatisfaction with the manager of our Elmwood Avenue store on Auburn (e:new,29677) . It is through the efforts of concerned customers such as yourself that we are able to correct some of our shortcomings. We do appreciate your comments.

I sincerely apologize that you were subjected to an incredibly poor display of concern from our associate, Ken, during your visit to our store. We certainly do not condone the impolite and disrespectful behavior our associate demonstrated and regret that you were subjected to it. At WILSON FARMS, it is our goal to provide our customers with a pleasant shopping environment, as well as friendly and efficient customer service. We will notify the store management team of your concerns so they may work to prevent such occurrences in the future.

Again, thank you for writing. If we can be of any assistance in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us. We value your business and look forward to continuing to serve your shopping needs.

Sincerely,

Deborah L. Stover
Consumer Affairs/Community Relations Manager

I experienced a tragic racist situation at Wilson Farms today. Below is my letter to Wilson Farms recounting the situation. You can respond in the forum on our site, as well as, send your thoughts to them - here is the contact information.

Phone : 1-800-522-2522

Web Form:

Snail Mail: Wilson Farms
6363 Main Street
Williamsville, NY 14221

To Who It May Concern,
Today, I went to Wilson Farms on Elmwood Ave at Auburn to buy a gallon of water as I have almost everyday for about 2 years. I wish I never left the house. Outside the store was a black homeless guy. He apparently was told by the Wilson Farms Manager Ken Kensek (or something close to that) that he could not wait outside because he was "bad for business." Then the manager dragged him inside by the shoulder in a very, I'm gonna lynch you kind of way, and said he was going to have him arrested for trespassing. Although, I feel this is kind of harsh, that is not even the situation that really offended me as a customer.

At that point, the black homeless man pleaded with Wilson Farm's Ken Kensek? not to be arrested for trespassing outside and then Ken told him, "here's the situation . . if I ever see you again I AM GOING TO CRACK YOUR HEAD OPEN WITH A BASEBALL BAT." Then the black man said, "ok, ok, just don't call the police." Followed by the manager saying,

" DO YOU THINK I'M KIDDING, I'M GOING TO BREAK YOUR SKULL."

I find this to be disgusting and totally unprofessional.

I was shopping at the moment and ran out to tell my friend who was out of earshot. I came back a couple minutes later, not sure what to do.

I decided to return what I bought in protest of the unfair racist treatment and corporal threats against this man. Ken was not immediately visable to I returned the products to the cashier and loudly stated why.

The people behind me also left their goods. I am going to start an all out boycott until there is some sort of formal repercussion for Ken. Lastly, I would like to point out that I am the webmaster of the new a community forum that is just starting this week in order to report on neighborhood news in the Elmwood Strip Community of Buffalo, NY. I expect a formal report as to what repercussions Ken suffered for his unprofessional and downright illegal behavior in your store.

Sincerely,
Paul Visco

The journals are free as always but now we are thinking of offering webspace for our elmwoodstrip.com users own homepages. If you re interested in this service please contact me

This week I am releasing the long awaited Elmwood strip 1.2. I has many new features, most of which you can already check out. First of all you can now add links and images to your journal entires via HTML tags. You can also change you banner, even to an animated swf one. You can change you background color, and not just when you first create the blog but over and over as your heart desires. even better is that you are not limited to the color choices I selected. you can add you own hex value colors oif you would like.

The rest of the weeknend I will be producing new graphics.

I spent a lot of time working on the code this weekend. There are lots more features. You can now upload images to our server. The page then gives you the address of the image and the code you would need to display an image in your journal entry. It also gives you a thumbnail and a way to delete the images stored in your directory.

Now you can also stay logged in thanks to cookies when you are updating your journal and you switch to view your journal. There will be many more features in the next month. Hope you enjoy.

I am trying to add more feature requests as they come in. One problem I am having is that as soon as many people sign up we are going to need some sort of way to categorize them in order to have them easily searchable. I am thinking of dividing it into zip code clans. That seems liek the easiest way. Do you guys have a better idea. If so please post your idea in the forum.

Let it long live in peices sold on ebay. The powerbook met a 40oz bottle of beer in an unfortunate accident and is no longer with us. This is the powerbook that was used to create this page. I am taking this as a message from "god" to give up on crapple computers. So I am on a little break while I wait for my new portable intel-powered openGL workstation. Fuck Apple anyways. I hate them and their lame ass hardware. If it wasn't for OS X I would have dropped them a long time ago. If you don't believ they suck, get this when my powerbook was in repair for defective parts last month they returned it to me without the battery and then tried to blame it on me asking me if I was sure it had a bettery in it when I sent it. I am moving onto Linux which is by the way the operating system this sit eis running on.

Most of you are probably aware of the events surrounding last month's cirtical mass ride. In short, the ride was stopped by police officers and the end result was unnecessary use of violence by police against a completely unviolent group of bikeriders leading to the arrest of nine (some with felony charges). This month's ride set out with everyone aware of the possible consequences and therefore stronger and ready to have that much more fun.
We started from Niagara square through downtown and into the East side. We rode in a line that must have stretched at least a half mile. Counters along the way put the number between 180-200 total bicyclists! It was great fun with catcalls, songs, and rampant good-natured chatter throughout the procession. The people we passed looked curiously and often inquired what was up, someone would respond and give their own interpretation of what it was we were doing. It was great because everyone's explanation was different, some yelled back, "fun!," others talked about bikers' rights, that's the beauty of it, this event is open to everyone's views and mindsets. Another great aspect that I noticed was that as we traversed streets that would normally be tagged as "bad neighborhoods" (ie.: the fruit belt and later the west side on Grant St.) the people generally responded even warmer than in the so-called good neighborhoods. We even grew in number as many of the residents of these communities, already on their bikes, joined in the procession and swelled our numbers.
The entire ride was without any police interference (though there was one instance where a camera was setup and recorded us as we passed), clearly in response to the harsh backlash in the communities from last week's activities. Critical Mass is still going strong and I encourage anyone with a bike to come on out and have one hell of a good time.