Well (e:Shawnr) wrote a great press release for the site announcing 10k entries. We will be sending it out to the various media sources. You can check it out on the media assets page which I am currently building. Right now it's just the basics. The release is there to.



I am also posting it here for the record.

[c]Elmwood Strip Journal and Lifestyle Network[/c]
Passes 10K Journal Entries in Under Two Years

BUFFALO, NEW YORK – JULY 27, 2005 Local Buffalo community website, Elmwood Srip Journal and Lifestyle Network (aka “ElmwoodStrip.org” or, simply, “(e:strip)”), passed ten thousand journal entries today. With a rapidly growing user base of nearly 200 Buffalonians, ElmwoodStrip.org is set to become as vibrant an online neighborhood as its real world namesake.

ElmwoodStrip.org’s creator, Paul Visco, says he hopes the site will help give voice to the individuals who make the Queen City what it is: “There are plenty of sites out there letting people know and talk about Buffalo’s nightlife or dining, but I really felt like we needed a place where we could be our everyday selves.”

Since the site’s opening in 2003, there have been postings on topics ranging from the local dating scene to racist violence. Other topics such as buying homes in the city, true stories of the NFTA, and the local Buffalo art scene recur often, and users are quick to share advice, views, and, sometimes, emotional personal memories.

“I’m completely amazed by the way the users have taken ownership of the site,” says Visco, who calculates that “ePeeps” have uploaded almost six thousand media files in the past two years. Visco remains a presence on the site and regularly interacts with users, who continue to impress him with their diversity.

“I don’t want people to feel like this is just for the Elmwood Strip neighborhood,” explains Visco, “The point is to allow all Buffalo area residents, past or present, the ability to participate in a tight-knit local community. So much of the Internet is about a global scope—I just wanted to provide a vehicle for people to interact with their neighbors in the same way as they interact with their friends.”

So far the community has responded with glowing appreciation. Donations help Visco maintain the ElmwoodStrip.org server, and users range in age, race, profession and political affiliations enough to keep up a lively exchange. Some of the most alternative of Buffalo lifestyles are represented as well as some of the most traditional, the Lefties debate the Republicans, and, yet, users almost uniformly rally around the site itself. Many users, such as Peter Dunn, who posts under the username MetalPeter, appreciate the freedom to say whatever they like on ElmwoodStrip.org. Peter notes that “the freedom to say and write anything we want” is one thing he would definitely not change about ElmwoodStrip.org.

Walt Turowski, who uses the handle UncutSaniflush online, has recently moved to Buffalo, and writes that ElmwoodStrip.org has been a big help to him and his wife in getting to know the area. Turowski writes, “I think every city needs a site like (e:strip). It is a source of community and information. I think it's great.”

Visco looks forward to serving up journal entry number 100 000, and he plans to keep the site ad-free and user-supported. “This is the thing I can do that I hope will make Buffalo a better place,” he says. “I just want people to have a place that feels comfortable.” Signing up for a journal on ElmwoodStrip.org is free and easy for anyone with a connection to Buffalo.
ABOUT ELMWOOD STRIP JOURNAL AND LIFESTYLE NETWORK:

ElmwoodStrip.org (aka “(e:strip)”) is a free, Buffalo-based online journal and homepage provider focused on creating a virtual commons for Buffalonians: past, present, and from all over Erie County. ElmwoodStrip.org costs nothing to join and provides free community calendar, personal website, personal media sharing, and creative online mingling.

Sorry for the late notice, but for those of you that have never been, the Buffalo Garden Walk is one of Buffalo's premier free events involving over 200 private gardens in the city. Basically, you can walk from garden to garden using the maps that can be found online in PDF format (an unfortunate only choice) at or by going to one of the Garden Walk headquarters located at Richmond/Summer Senior Center at the corner of Richmond and Summer Street; The Coit House at 414 Viriginia Street, or the Buffalo Seminary at Bidwell Park.

Here are some los res captures of the maps to give you an idea where these gardens are located for the full size map in PDF format click here

9 of 10 teens now using the Internet ... Nearly half have cell phones to keep in touch with home and friends. They text message their friends. They think e-mail is something used to talk to "old people."

Welcome to the technology-enhanced world of the typical American teen. A survey released Wednesday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that nearly nine in 10 teens (87 percent) are Internet users. That's 21 million teens ages 12 to 17, up from 73 percent five years ago. By comparison, only about 66 percent of adults use the Internet. A whopping 84 percent of teens reported owning at least one communication device, either a desktop or laptop computer, a cell phone or a personal digital assistant.Quoted from: 9 of 10 teens now using the Internet?u=news

As if the low bandwith mode upgrade wasn't enough I have added two new things.

[size=m]Theme Support[/size]
Theme support so that you can choose which theme you want to see. To switch themes just click on the desired theme icon in the upper left hand corner of the homepage under the browser war stats. Currently you can switch between banana, watermelon and fall 05. I know its a little early for fall 05, and it's not done yet, but I wanted to give you more options. I am also working on adapting some of the old themes to the new format and adding an Amerika theme.

[size=m]Quick Correct Support[/size]
I also souped up the auto correct feature the we have had for a year and renamed quick correct. It also has a new prettier icon. I know now works on at least firefox and IE. However, I would test it before trying it with any long entry on another browser. Basically, you type and entry and then just click the quick correct button. It fixes the most commonly misspelled ord typos such as switching the to the. There about 150 words it fixes, more will be added when I can think of them.

I totally redid low bandwidth mode and moved the toggle for it to the top left of the screen. You can easily switch between (high bandwidth) and (low bandwidth) mode. The link shows the name of the mode you will switch to by clicking it. Low bandwidth mode is obvious because there is a big low bandwidth logo.



Less bandwidth is good if you are on a slow computer, a dialup connection or a mobile. Media is reduced to links to the media, chat is present only as a link, calendar is a link, only 8 in the top 12, no inner scroll bar, no updating peep list, no banner, no stats, no big userpics, no user data, no journal dots, no journal overview, no fav five, no links list, no categories list.

But what you do get is something that is easier to load on a connection with low bandwidth, which is exactly what it is made for.

I also redid the media library so that it makes thumbnails which are bigger to see yet much faster to load and reduce bandwidth when oping the media library. Try it you will be surprised at how much faster it is..

What I really need is goldschlager. So if anyone wants to know what to bring on Saturday the answer is goldschlager.

More new features to roll out tomorrow. I compressed this image with gimp but the ocmpression sucks. Maybe I will have to use photoshop again after all.

Well, we have almost made it there. Right now we are 8 entries away from having 10,000 journal entries written for the site..

This Saturday night we will be hosting a party to celebrate 10,000 journal entries at Le Mansion de PMT. You are all invited. Please feel free to bring as much alcohol and food as you want. We hope to see you all there and to meet those of you we haven't met yet.



We are also looking for some people to organize some sort of entertainment, any takers? I have a video screen, does anyone have a projector? If so we have lots of options. Or does anyone play an instrument, do some crazy dance, make a special recipe, spin music, or do circus tricks.

userpic maker can be used to crop a user pic based on an image from the internet. Try finding one on google images. Simply input the image url and hit go! to get started.

Once the image loads you can drag the white, transparent box around to select a userpic from the pic. Once you have selected which part of the image you want, click just outside the upper right hand corner of the white box. Your userpic will be converted and you can save it from there.

I have added categories to the site. Seeing as this is a community the categories are cross-user. That means, when you add a category, everyone else can use that category. It is ok if the actegories are specific, we will create sets fo categories after we have a bunch of them in the future. To associate a journal with a category, just type the category name into the category box in your journal publish box. If you click on the (?) next to the box you can see alist of all categories already added by other users. Clicking on the category name assigns your journal to that category. You can also add a new category to the list, by typing in a category that doe snot yet exist.

You can update previous journals categories using your journal update icon. You can always change a journal category at any point as well. Once you have a journal asisgend ot a category , that category will show up in a list uner your favorite five list. By click ing on the category, the user is presented with a list of titles that you have associated with that category. Clicking the title load sthe entry.

My plan is to make it so that you can subscribe to a category and then have new posts of that category emailed to you. Or RSS feeds of category.

[size=m] What Is The Infringement Festival?[/size]

Various members of Buffalo, New York's arts community have come together to organize the first annual Buffalo infringement Festival -- An eleven-day event designed to promote eclectic, independent, experimental, and politically charged productions of a wide array of artistic projects including theater, performance art, live installations, street theater, and multi-media presentations.



The "buffalo infringement festival" is the result of six months of planning by an ad hoc collection of volunteers from the local theater and arts community and is a part of the international infringement festival circuit which holds similar events in cities throughout North America including Halifax (June 2-12), Montreal (June 16-26), Ottawa (June 30-July 10, Toronto (July 14-24), and New York City (August 25-September 4). Further information on the international component of the infringement festival can be found at www.infringementfestival.com

We are excited to announce that this event will be held at various venues in the Allentown area.

Thursday, July 28 to Sunday, August 7, 2005

Local writers, directors, and performers – as well as artists from New York City and Montreal – have answered an open call to present their work as part of this new festival. The resulting assortment of activities includes world premieres of one-person shows, gender-reversed productions of classical theatrical pieces, street theatre, political cabaret, puppetry, experimental work, virtual reality simulation, hip-hop, slam poetry, interpretive dance, outdoor screenings of family-oriented films, presentations of poetry readings by area high school students, and much more. No single style or aesthetic predominates; some events

Here is a list of performances

Venues

1. 1. Rust Belt Books (202 Allen St)
   
2. 2. Nietzsche's Bar (248 Allen Street)
   
3. 3. Allen/College Promenade (Parking Lot at Allen & College)
   
4. 4. Day's Park
   
5. 5. Allen Street Dance Studio (85 Allen Street)
   
6. 6. Squeaky Wheel Media Arts Center (175 Elmwood)
   
7. 7. Coit House (414 Virginia Street)
   
8. 8. New Phoenix Theatre on the Park (95 North Johnson Park)
   
9. 9. Hallwalls (700 Main Street)
   
10. 10. SoundLab (110 Pearl Street)

I just added a new option for

[link=http://www.google.com]Here is a link to google, even whole sentences can be links now.[/link]

I renders like this: Here is a link to google, even whole sentences can be links now.

I also made it so that the (e:name) links can now detect punctuation after them so no more extra space for links like (e:paul)'s journal

Old web link formatting works the same as before, simply type in the whole address and it becomes an address.
--Paul