(e:shawnr) and I are going to team up and build the coolest mobile portal that Buffalo has ever seen. That should not be very hard to accomplish but it promises to be cool. So as the first step in bulding our mobile empire, we need a name for it.

The name should be short so that it is easy to type on a phone and also very easy to remember. Any ideas? Maybe I should make this a contest.

You will be able to access every other mobile buffalo project, play games like (e:shawnr)'s hour 720 , chat, visit artvoice, visit estrip and post/read, visit remember buffalo, read the news, check the weather, meet up with other people, find library books, link to bus schedules, etc. Bascially your one stop shop to link to everything else.

You will also be able to customize your mobile homepage using the site's browser based interface so that you can save rss feeds etc to it and read them on the go.

The meeting with artvoice went great. Jamie asked if I would be interested in working on some mobile stuff for Artvoice. Could I prossibly be more interested?! I have waited for the opportunity to reach out to a mobile audience for so long.

I also talked with Dave, the artvoice computer guy, about moving the estrip/rememberbuffalo server there. Next step is to set up the supercomp and bring it in. Then once it is up and running, I can add the primary doc section to rememberbuffalo.org. Soon, thereafter I can begin really promoting it.

I expect the site should be even faster once it is local and I have control over the server.

Woke up at 9:30 to start work for the poetry reading [inlink]shawnr,188[/inlink].

[size=m]Road Rage[/size]
After dropping (e:terry) off, I went to go try and park at Canisius and almost got out to beat someone up. I have never had road rage before but now I know what it is all about. I went to go park on Main Street because I don't have a parking pass. I found a spot around Delavan and Main Street near the entrance to Forest Lawn. It was raining pretty severely and I knew I had to get really wet but at least my backpack has a built in umbrella for the computer. I would take a pic if I had my phone - get well soon. So anyways, I go to parallel park by pulling up even with the car in front of the spot and some crazy woman tries to out park me by going in head first. I have never experience this before.

I got really angry but thought, ok, she clearly isn't going to make it. Then she zoomed out, got on the side of my car and tried to back in. During this hole ordeal I pressed the horn and gave her the finger. Something inside me was screaming just back up and slam her car or get out and beat the crap out of her but instead I just kept beeping. She stole the spot and I yelled some stuff at her. I had like two minutes to get to work. Then I went and parked somewhere else, luckily, there was a new spot much closer to the building.

[size=m]Work[/size]
When I got to work I started to clean out my old stuff and organize papers for the move. I went to go bring some time cards from one of my assistants to my boss and my journal was up on his screen. That lead to a conversation about my feeling about the program. It was a good talk and I was honest about how I felt about the direction of the program. I hope my input means something. I still never got to address the new professor without the terminal degree issue but I see no point in arguing as it is all over.

[size=m]Poetry Reading[/size]
Afterwards, I went to the poetry reading. I was the last person up at the reading so I needed something with a punch and something with programming. Unfortunately, I waited until on the way there to write it. Luckily, I work well under pressure and while driving as I am used to using the nokia while driving, although now I am driving without an inspection sticker. I will be getting one on Thursday but back to the point. So there I am, driving down main street, feeding a bacon burger into my face from Wendy's while programming on the vaio, oh and driving. Thank god no one died and the road rage from earlier had subsided.

Once I got to the reading they had wine and beer. I choose wine and (e:jesse) chose the French girl. I wanted to talk to either of them but instead I had another glass of wine. First off I read some epoetry from the site's epoetry engine which people generally like. Too bad (e:lilho) couldn't have been there because her face was projects at on the ten foot screen and she would have loved it.

[size=m]Caught Masturbating[/size]
No I wasn't but I figured that would get your attention, haha.
After the estrip poetry I read the new thing I wrote in the car on the way from Wendy's. It takes answers from this survey about people's personal experiences being caught masturbating and extracts the I, He, She, My, They perspective in each survey for comparison. It was funny reading these poems at a podium in front of a full room. There are about 20 surveys so it take s a while to read them all. Number 1 is pretty good. People laughed and seemed to enjoy it.

(e:shawnr) also read from his pretty slick digi-novel PITP

Without the camera phone I have so much down time, so I made the maid.

So I sent my phone off to get the firmware upgraded. It ended up costing $47 to upgrade and ship and $11.30 to send it there. Hopefully that will make it work better. My journal is going to suck without pictures. I guess I will have to go back to creating artwork instead. It is amazing how much easier it is to take photos compared to creating other forms of visual art.

Not to disrespect digital photgraphers in any way, and not that I consider myself one, but point and shoot is way less effort than create and paint/draw/render even if you think about your subject a lot and involve an hour of post production. There is just no comparison in terms of work required. I mean maybe back in the day when you couldn't see the results and you had to mix chemicals and develop the film in a dark room it was different. Now the feedback loop of click, check, delete or save to the next click makes it almost effortless.

Needless to say, I want my digital camera back!

Tires in the Niagara River

I got up at 7:30am in order to go to our tenants house to have a new electric socket put in. The girl who requested it pays $134.00 per month. The electric socket she requested cost $130.00. So we pretty much made $0 on her rent this month. Not to mention that her roomate moved out and that my father paid the roomates portion of $134.00 because he felt bad for her.

When I was there I got the mail and our water bill. I had no idea how expensive that water and sewage is. For two months we are charged $105.00. It seems like so much work for such a little amount of money.

What makes me really crazy is that I brought them all plastic for their windows because they complained it was cold. Then when I got there I realized they just hadn't closed any of the storm windows which of course made it cold. I guess not being from cold places they wouldn't know. But still i invested liek $20 in plastic and no one used it. I should just ask for it back now.

I have to remember to think about it as a long term investment. Four years from I will have paid off the $25,000 mortgage and then I can sell the house and pay off 1/2 of my student loans or a down payment on my own house.

It all just seems so far away.

I have no idea what to do about this but my Nokia 7710 is seriously giving out only 4 months after i bought it. I think I have learned my lesson about buying foreign phones that have no sort of warranty/repair shop in America. I mean I really loved this phone but I cannot have a phone that will not take pictures properly.

Check out this example. The preview of the image looks messed up with stripes. Then when it take sthe image, it clears up, but when it saves the stripes are back. Even after factory resetting my phone to the default, this occurs. It make sme absolutely crazy because obviously the thing is capable of taking a clear pic if it is clear in the save preview.

Argh, what a waste of $400.

So while we were at (e:lilho)'s party last night (e:emilyjane) came by and said our street was blocked by the police and fire trucks. Turned out that the neighbor's house, facing our den windows caught on fire. It looks like the kind of damage that results from creosote (WIKIPEDIA - Creosote).





I didn't get any pictures at (e:lilho)'s party because I forgot my phone. (e:matthew) didn't bring his camera either so you can't see pictures of any of the 5 people that showed up. Luckily, one of them was an expert on the boundaries of Buffalo and now I have a better idea concerning the limits of the city.

My cell phone camera is half broken, the preview mode doesn't work right so it is way harder to take a pic. I have no idea how considering the stupid $400 phone is so very new. Remember when I got it in August [inlink]paul,3799[/inlink]. I think it is time for a new one, definately one with a keyboard. Maybe I will hold out for the motorola q

Last night we had pomegranite mojitos for the first time since I went to sea in NY while visiting (e:hodown) [inlink]paul,2855[/inlink]. The recipe is on that journal. It is a really great drink, although it is quite expensive. We had to make it once we found the pomegranites on sale at Wegmans, my favorite local grocer.





Today, I spent the day doing research for the rememberbuffalo (e:rememberbflo) project with (e:lilho). It was a fun day full of lots of imagery from Buffalo past. I also meta really cool guy named Doug Lambert who I think will be working on the project with us.

Afterwards I stoppped at (e:jason) and (e:joshuas) house to show them a pic of their house from the 40s [inlink]rememberbflo,8[/inlink]. They looked like they were having fun.

Basra is eating gourmet food now too since we upgraded our diet. I wish I was a tortoise sometimes. [search]basra[/search]



Remember the pic that (e:matthew) took of this the other day [inlink]matthew,667[/inlink]. The leaves are all gone now. Winter is coming.


(e:lilho)'s car is broken. It shakes really bad, someone said it could be the timing belt. We took it to the shop last night with sang.

::DOWNLOAD MEDIA::

[size=m]Quitting UB[/size]
The hardest thing to do was to quit my job working for Josephine at UB where I was working on programming and design for her 3D drama, the Trial The Trail . Josephine, has been so great to me and gave me that job when I really needed it,a lthough as a side not I have still not been paid for this semester do to some drama with a missing social security card. I wish I didn't have to leave but I really need to focus my energy on the new job. I had already put so much work into the project. I hope she doesn't hate me. Seriously, she is one of my favorte people, but I just can't be going in so many directions.

[size=m]Quitting Canisius[/size]
Quitting Canisius was so uplifting. I feel great other than I will miss the few students that really worked hard and made teaching worth it. I never realized how much that place brought me down. Today I was told that poor Canisius can't replace me because they are on a hiring freeze even though my position was budgeted throughout the year. You should see how many tears I shed about that.

I puts the whole full time position in spring/fall continuous lie in such great perspective. I wonder when they planned on telling me this if I hadn't quit. I can't believe a school that charges almost $30,000 for tuition can be so cheap. It is disgusting. I made $18,000/year this year with no benefits other than the privilege of being allowed to take one undergraduate class per semester. When I started in 2001 I made $16,000/year. They spend so much money on decorations and "the look" and not enough on the education or the staff. Without a commitment to improving staff and pay, they will never get qualified people to teach digital media arts.

But the worst part is that grade inflation here is beyond ridiculous. When I was talking with another professor today he said that he was reading over a students record and his grades were all c-,c-,c- and then at the bottom was my grade, an F. He said that it was great that I gave an honest grade and that as a part time teacher I didn't have to be afraid. What does that mean? The kid did no work, barely ever showed up and the work he did do was crap. Why should he get anything other than a F. Because it makes the school look bad? Because he would have to redo it? I am seriously being honest here and not saying this out of anger, but most of the students coming out of the Canisius DMA program are not even qualified for data entry. Enough said, let a new era begin.

Aftr writing this I got this email from (e:scud), it made it all seem a lot more worth it, thanks.

I just wanted to let you know that you did not totally waste your time at Canisius. I can honestly tell you that YOU inspired me to do more than I ever imagined! I try to accomplish so much more now because of the few classes I took with you. I don't know what you did, but you turned a switch on in my brain or something. Now instead of learning what something is, I want to know what it is, how it works, and how i can create one myself.