After reading the omgblog I started to think that maybe my blog was too boring for pop culture loving americans. I guess that is okay with me. I wish I had more freetime to write like back when I was a student and was busy communting around a lot. I think commuting is the best time to blog, although it is potentially life threatening.

Well, it took long enough but today was graduation day celebration with my family and it was great. We went back to marotto's It is a delicious restaurant in Buffalo. I had lobster tail. I haven't had it in years and it was exceptionally delicious.

I am determined to eat more of them which I know is cruel or something. I want to order them from this online store in Maine They have jumbo 2.5 Lb ones for $26 and I have some graduation money to use up but the problem is deciding to have them shipped dead or alive. If they come dead I have no guarantee how fresh they are. If they are shipped live it is cruel.

I updated the surebert site. I decided to start making demos. I a thinking about writing a book on javascript programming? I really have so many other things I could do with my time, but I figure it may be good and then I could promote surebert.



There is a furnace vent in our bedroom that basically opens up into a chimney. You can see the sky. It is so weird. I cannot imagine the original purpose of it. Here is a pic from it

Looking Down


Looking Up


Betty Crocker makes these Warm Delights that allow you to "bake a cake in your microwave." They require a lot of work and make a lot of waste. The bowl they "bake" in is basically a Tupperware quality piece of plastic. I would never buy one but my mother had like 5 flavors she got on sale so I figured why not try it. It did taste good.

::Download Flash Video::

I got a graduation card from (e:mike) and my parents but there was one more envelope. It turned out to be a graduation card form Nonna that she put together before she died because I was suppose to graduate when mike did. Remember, that she had the stroke on his graduation day. It was sad to think it will be the last card I ever get from him although it was nice to have an extra one.



(e:mike) bought me goldschlager and enough lottery tickets that I got tired of scratching htem and had him do the last one as an additional gife. I actually won a $1 on a coupel of them and one an additional take 5 that I need to go get. I love lottery tickets but not the ones that you have to think about.


The might leaf tea company makes this really awesome tea. My father got some for my mother in California and then they found it at bluemountain on elmwood at 509 Elmwood Avenue




My mother also had these tea blossoms that (e:mike) in Boston.


The other day one of our server freaked out at work. I hate windows.


I a down to 145 pounds. That means I lost half the weight I had gained at the gym before buying the house. It is time to go back to the gym. I really need to commit to that.

First of all my system at work is coming along great. Secondly, at lunch today (e:terry) finally expressed an interest in something career wise. He will be happy and we will be rich. He and (e:mike) are going to go to pharmacy school together. Considering they are the two of the smartest people I know, I am sure they will enjoy it and then there will be two doctors of pharmacy in the family - which means I should never die without an inhaler when there is a cat around.

Does anyone know anyone/a company that can update fireplaces with lining and vented inserts? I need to get an estimate ASAP. (e:matthew) heard it is not healthy to use the ventless ones.

Ironically, when I type (GOOGLE - line a fireplace buffalo, ny) line a fireplace buffalo, ny into google it gives me my journal from last week.

The full size I found on the net was better

People camping outside of Best Buy From now until Friday in order to get a Playstation 3 first. There are over 39 people with tents. On channel 2 news they did an interview with person number 39 who was asked, "Why wait half a week in the rain for a gaming consol?"

He explained, "The playstation 3 is more than a gaming system it is a like a computer and it is a calendar!" Need I even say, who the fuck waits half a week outside for a calendar. What a idiot. What made him even say calendar? Is it even a calendar and if it is - is that not the least remarkable aspect of the device?

P.S. Does anyone else hate the channel 2 site Do they not have enough money to redo. It definately looks like it is is designed by an intern. I guess it's not like Channel 4 looks any better.

Paul is very busy. Very busy indeed. He is upgrading right now. Upgrading to the new PHP 5.2 which has a bunch of benefits that I will not bother explaining. Maybe the server will get all crazy tonight.

Yesterday, my boss and I, were waiting at the ATM when a guy went by with jugs marked radioactive, hm. I wanted to get a pic but by the tie my phone loaded the camera app it would have been over. I really need to buy a camera with the money from this side project I did for my boss. I am so sick of not being able to point and shoot even if the camera has the advantage. Once I have that and my new fancy heater you will see more of me on my journal.

On the work front I am busier than ever but I still like the job a lot. A project I projected would take 2-3 months ended up being delayed by other people for months until this month and now it is due on Nov 28th. I have no idea if this is realistic or not. I have made a lot of progress but today the database adminstrator locked out my password by accident when refreshing the test database with data from the production database this morning. Then when that was worked out my user did not have permission granted to view my custom tables, then the tables had triggers which went haywire after the upgrade from the production database.

I really believe that in this case having to work with a database administrator has only made the process a hundred times slower. Every time I want to make a change I have to run it by administrator and then they make the change to the tables that I need for the application, argh.

Sidenote: I have a hard time giving up any control over the development process.

Luckily, most of the database building is over. Now it is really time to work on the data. Basically, the system is made to allow for online evaluation of thousands of employees which is a complicated multi-tiered process. A person's supervisor initiates the review of an employee. This would be easy if the system that records who is who's supervisor was accurate but hundred of people have supervisors other than who is their actual supervisor which makes things more complicated. There are also a multitude of unions which negotiate the questions that are used to evaluate the employees. This means that normalizing the questions on the forms is generally impossible because the questions themselves have been negotiated by the unions.

To make matters more complicated many of the questions are questions to. e.g. the question and the answer are both blank and are dependant on the individual user position and are filled out by the supervisor at the time of review.

Once the supervisor is done reviewing the employee, the review is passed onto the reviewer, which is generally the supervisor of the supervisor but is also often not the case. They can add comments, then the employee gets to respond. Then the head of HR and then finally it is over.

I actually have it pretty under control. The only problem is the shear volume of the questions would are still being inputted.

P.S. It feels so freaking good to not be in school anymore!

I am going crazy because there is some dns problem at telcove which is upstream from us on the net. It is making it so that I cannot reach the site through my adelphia connection but it works fine for (e:twisted) in san francisco and fine for me on my sprint cell phone.

I wish so bad the server was in the house with my own connection. I can't even call telcove because they aren't my host.

Argh, I really need to just raise around $1200/year to host it at home. Any ideas?

What a strange day. We went down to Jamestown to see a fireplace dealer that Dave met at a nudist place somewhere in the 90s. In the summer, we see this dude everywhere it seems, no matter what state we vacation in.



Ironically, dave was delivering a picture the guy took of us with Dave's camera in Rock River in Vermont last year which lead to a discount in these top of the line, super efficient gas fireplace stoves - which works for me. This will also save us a fortune in heating bills.



They are the Hearthstone Tucson model. They don't require any electricity to run so will work even in another arborgeddon. Dave bought one too. They will save the environment and make the selected rooms toasty warm, moist and carbon monoxide free without a vent.

One such room is my office which will now be exceptionally warm and usuable.

I found this information at about.com. It just reiterates the fact I cannot have a hypoallergenic dog and neither can (e:lilho).

What does "hypoallergenic" really mean?
To be hypoallergenic is to have a decreased tendency to cause allergies. Hypo means less, not none. Hypoallergenic dog breeds will still produce allergens, but because of their coat type, will typically produce less than others. People with severe allergies and asthma will still be affected by a hypoallergenic dog.

There is no such thing as a non-allergenic dog.

What coat-type makes the difference?
There are two coat types that produce a lesser amount of allergens: single-coated dogs, who do not have a thick undercoat, and hairless dogs. However even hairless dogs can produce enough dander to to affect a highly allergic person.

This is a Chinese Crested Dog (WIKIPEDIA - Chinese Crested Dog). If I could get a hiarless dog it would be this kind. (e:enknot) told me about them.



Speaking of crazy shit check of the Hobbit Cattery is a sub page of this and has dwarf hairless hobbit cats. There is something totally wrong with these cats.

UPDATE: 03/12/2008 I received this message about the person claiming copyright on the image. Sadly, I didn't even take the image from their site. I took it from the hobbit cat site which had stolen the image from them.

The photograph of the hairless dwarf cat is copyright Helmi Flick and you have not provided a copyright credit. I also suspect that you have not got her permission. Please clarify the situation. On the face of it this is a copyright violation. You can be sued for damages.

Michael
mjbmeister@gmail.com

I think I will just stick with tortoises and sugar gliders.

I went with (e:matthew) to see Marie Antoinette tonight. She traveled far in a horse drawn wagon. The movie was really beautiful like a painting but didn't have much substance in terms of story line, dialog which really didn't matter so much. Kirsten Dunst is just hot.









(e:mike) would really like this. It is a collage slide show that someone made about the movie. If I thought he had access to the media, I would swear he made it.



On the other hand I was looking at some pictures of the space shuttle on google news and I realized just how outdated those piece of crap sapceships are.



Remember making space shuttle cutout models back in the 80s. Oh my freakin god, I found the cutout online I am so making one tomorrow at work.

I thought the shuttle was so fucking high tech. Remember the NASA guy coming to your school to talk about the spaceships of the future. I assumed the future was 2000 at the time. I never thought they would still be using space shuttles in 2006. I definitely never thought I would be using a gas based car in 2006.

Think how fast stuff changed in our grandparents day in terms of transportation. My grandmother went from bikes to space shuttles. Did it just stop there? I guess that ended the transportation revolution and we started the information revolution. I suppose there is less pressure to travel faster now that information can proceed us and video and VR realities can project us.

Lunch
I ate lunch at the Roswell Cafeteria with Tony and then stopped at (e:imk2)'s desk afterwards. It was so great to eat lunch in the cafeteria again. I really missed it. I also realized just how much I really missed hanging out with (e:enknot) while I was gone.

I have to say I thought (e:joshua) seemed to have a pretty rounded vote. I don't know why everyone is being so hard on him. I checked out the fox page it it seems pretty cool. Not like I would base my vote on it, but the interactive map is interesting to watch as the data pours in. According to Fox News:

President Bush Job Approval
Approve     39.0%
Disapprove     55.4%
Spread: -16.4%

Generic Congressional Vote
Republican     40.6%
Democrat     52.1%
Spread: -11.5%

I also did not vote for Hillary or Hevesi. As part of my tell all mobile fairy tale I took pictures of my votes. I am making one of the most secret events public. I think that it is great that we live in a country where we do not have to fear our lives because of who we vote on. I mean what is the point of having a secret ballot in modern america. Some people are really terrified that you will find out who they voted for. What is the deal with that? Are they party posers that pretend to vote for one party when talking with their friends and aquaintences and then vote on the opposite side once the curtain is pulled.

I mostly voted for Green and Democrat with two family party votes because the green were supporting them and I didn't know any of the candidates for those positions.





The day we close don the house I went to the Erie County Board of Elections to change my address and the worker told me I had missed the deadline. She said I should have come sooner. Ha, I wish I had gotten the house before. Anyways, she instructed us to go to the voting station across from our house but when we went there, they told us we could not vote there because we were not registered. We ended up having to go to our old station over a Lafayette High School. I have to say I think each one of the workers we dealt with had a slight to severe form of mental retardation.