I just watched this american express commercial where this slightly post skater-looking slaker kid gets bored in San Diego or wherever and looks up skiing on the net. He then decides he need to go where it is snowing to go skiing and flys to utah, where he meets some people who tell him to go to Canada where there is even better snow. The canadians say the real storm in Japan - so off to japan. The japanese tell him the real skiing is in Norway, then off to go to italy where he gets a text message that the surfs up in maui. Each time he flys to the location and skiis.

Each time he flys with "points." At the end he says I need a card that gets me places - and thats why my card is american express. Mind you, the ad was playing during final American Idol episode.

Is this not a way of luring in young people to spend a fortune on credit cards and rack up ridiculous debt.

Holy crap. I would never think I would see the most tacky rendition of a beetles medley on American Idol where they got together and sang Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds. I wonder if that is what people thought when they heard the beetles sing it.

Followed by:

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends
Yes I get by with a little help from my friends
With a little help from my friends

I feel like (e:mike) 's Dare censor must be going off.

American idol had a record 74 million votes for Jordan Sparks who won this moment.

Maybe it is pretentious but I love sitting on the porch wacthing people go by while pointing at the house and smiling. It almost makes the $6000 in taxes/year worth it.



Wegmans has gelato now. It is delicious.


The new baby squirrel likes the porch too.

I just saw thi on google news:

Nine US warships in Gulf for show of force

Reuters Canada - 38 minutes ago
By Mohammed Abbas. ABOARD USS JOHN C. STENNIS (Reuters) - The largest daytime assembly of US warships in the Gulf since the 2003 Iraq war prepared on Wednesday to hold drills off Iran's coast in a major US show of force that unnerved oil markets.

What is the war now if not the Iraq war. I wonder when they study this in History class how they will explainhat George Bush declared the war over at least 4 years before the troops were done fighting. It seems like a holdover from the past that if you capture the leader of another country, the war is over. Did that ever ean anything?

Still looking for the right tenants of the upper apartment of our house over on Prospect. So many people have called but I refuse to bargain down below $575. It is right next to D'Youville and I feel like if the people can't pay $575 - I don't want them as tenants. We have had such bad experiences renting to poor students. I am just so tired of begging for the rent money each month. Plus I want to recoup fro having it painted. Last year I think we invested back more than we made.

I figure if the difference between $550 and $575 per month for 3 people in a 3 bedroom puts them over the edge, then I just don't want to risk having them as tenants as they won't be able to pay rent.



We removed the rug in the dining room and painted. Before:


My mother said that is how it was when she grew up. After:




The living room - we are still painting this and the bathroom.



Holy Angels looked pretty today. I took the picture waiting for (e:enknot) to drop some stuff off for his girlfriend megan. I can't go in his house anymore because he has a cat. I love how he like to pretend it doesn't make him sick. He must really love it.


Why does this nicely painted house on Porter have newspapers blocking the window?

For lunch today (e:nknot) and I ate at Niagara Cafe On Niagara Street. The food was pretty good, especially considering the lunch specials only cost $3.99 I think everything they server is red and yellow colored. I would suggest trying it out.

Yummy friend plantains with garlic dipping sauce.


Some sort of yummy chicken stew.







Check out the rest of the prices

I finally finished painting the porch after working on it for like 3 weeks. The house looks so much better without the shitty red peeling porch paint. Tomorrow I might do a third coat.



I freakin' love this house - I cannot wait to paint it.


Matthew also cleaned up the rose bed.


It seems like we barbeque everyday now.



I hate raw chicken. Here it is swimming in chivettas in a punch bowl




These are the clams I talked about in the last journal.


We even bought cherries to go with the sangria, which two buckets later - is almost gone.


(e:lilho) oven baked some veggies. They are really tasty, I recommend roasted artichoke. I just covered it in olive oil and oregano.


What is hilti?


In Japan you can get a 24k gold facial. That sound so ovver the top ridiculous.

So, I was hopping at tops on elmwood because they had this major sale on clams. We got 5 dozen for eight dollars.

I hadn't been there in a really long time. At least since last clam season as it is usually the only reason I go. They have totally re-decorated everything and it doesn't look so skanky now.







Is it not weird to have bass pro gift certificates in Buffalo. It seems a little premature.



This news is too weird

I have been so busy this week. We are almost ready for the launch of the new young adult health care blogging site. I will save all the details for the launch but it is a technical advance from estrip. I hope to integrate stuff back downstream soon.

Today is Wednesday, October 2nd 1985
Dear mike,
We are learning to round off a nubber. Find the place look next door. If the neghbor is five or more, raise the place. 659->700. The buffalo bills have a new coach. DO ou think the bills will win now maby he will be beter maby not. I'm not sure but I'll find out britty soon.

Apparently, the old coach of the bills sucked because an overwhelming majority voted it would improve with the new coach. I mean only 1 voted no.

Today is Thursday, October 3rd
Dear Mike,
We took a poll through or journals. The question was, "Do you think the bills will win now that they have a new coach?" (Coach Bulough) There were 16 replies, We made a graph. The results were: 12 yes, 1 no, 3 wait and see.
Attach Graph!

Today is Friday, October 4th 1985
Dear Mike,
We took another poll. Now all the students have voted. So we have another graph!. Will the bill win now that they have a new coach, bullough?

12 said yes ************
3 said no ***
8 said wait and see ********

We I think the turtle pet idea stuck. Maybe because I am allergic to all other animals. I have had like 6 turtle and the current tortoise is supposed to last the rest of my life.

Today is Monday, October 7th, 1985
Over the weekend I wacht muppet babies I went too my cousoun Jenny and chistina. I played vityo games. It was fun I went t imy grandparents house we went to the contery and got applesidder It was good I had a really good time I really like turtle. I ite buy one at pet lovers paradise they are $2.95

Random Day
Today is eating in the room day. If I am an "all star" for behavior and Work, I not only eat in the room, but I also get my nae on the weekly star board, get a good grade and become a helper to miself, the class and mrs c.p.s. Everyone gets at least one turn to eat in the class room

You are an all-star!

We are having a corn kernle contest. We guess how many thousand, hundred, tens and ones. The students who guess the closes to the real nubber wins. I think there are 2485. Last night I did my siens project is all the water suppost to sink all the way down.

That depends. The sand soaks up more water than the clay soil.

I was clearly programmed to say this. There are so many writings about school taxes in my box.

Today is October 15, 1985
School taxes are due. I think School taxes...are ok cause because I don't have to pay. We need them so the school can go on. They are not fun to pay at all. I wonder wat what my parents think of it, taxes at any rate at all ?

Good thinking, write an edited copy of it.

I really stopped writing the dates on a lot of these. I like my software blog just does it for me now.

Random Date In october 1985
Over the week end I went to my grandmother's house I had a good tie we cleaned he cuberds I was fun got a soda maker I'm going to make it today IT will be fun I will make a shake with these flaver's banna cookei vento choclet and milk. There are such interesting things in grandmas cupboards, Yummy!

I wish cooking was really as easy as reading. Now I think attention span is equally important to reading the instructions. It is one thing to put something in a frying pan to fry, it is another thing to remember you put it there and take it out before it burns.

All this sport talk. I know fro a later journal that I never played sports so who is feeding me all the sports info. It surely was no my dad. I don't ever remember talking about baseball with him.

October 16th, 1985
Dear Mike,
MSpiners Reading Groop made MRs. Birdies bread for the class. First they read over the entire recipe to get the idea of what you do. Then they fowlolowed the direcshones step by step. If you can read, you can cook. I like the smell of the bread but best of all I like the tast.

The results of the corn kernel contest are in. Would you belive there are 8,435 kernels. Now we have two more jar's of kernnales. That's about 8,000+ 8,000 + 8,000 = 24,000 kernales. We are going to estimate WOW!

The world series is here. It begins Saturday. The Kansas City Royales laegue will play the St Louis Cardinails fromt he National league. Both teams are from Missourri. I a cheering... for the Cardinails.

Wow, this one is a long one. I was really impressed with this trip to the forest. I can still remember it now. I think it is what got me interested in hiking and camping as a life long hobby. Weird how certain things can have such an impact.

Today is October 21st, 1985
Over the weekend I wacted tv on saterday I wacked muppet babyes and I wacted wastes and I wachted a lot more and on sonday I went so far I went past Bosten, NY. We went 5 towns past Boston NY we went up a hill it went kervey up it then it went up down up down about ten times. then we saw a house it had a guesebow in a the back and a brige over a lake the house locked like a manchen my mom wanted it every there looked rich then we saw a forest we went in it we got pretty leafs and a few plants I brought them to school today and on the way back we bought gum and a litle candy at a tops in the middle of nowhere! It was fun on the way home we saw a lot of forests and me and my littel brother ate all the candy the we got home and I read about math in my dad book. It was funny. The math was like this w- B+1xB3=w34 then I looked at knots It was fun I did the balaknot I did it with rop and the square know and all sorts of other knots then I wacht Murder She Rote a guy named dammanded money and another guy kild him then I read about the atomic bom and a forest fire kovred the sun for two days in 1953 I played a gae of scavenger hunt and I won It is a fun game my dad alwease says he will win but I allwease do he never wins he never makes it home it is a bord game and on friday my grandparent's cae over I went to the gymnastics now I can do a front hand spring and a front walk over and a front limber and a back limber and now I can do a somersalt on the hi bar. The Bills won their first game of the season 21 to 9. The saint louis cardinals have won two games of the world best of 7 wins.

P.S. Well acksally my brother gobbled up all the candy.

OKAY THIS ONE IS THE WINNER - Who taught me about inflated candy prices ALso dodes anyone else remember M5 gym. It was so sweet. They would play 80s music and set up all these fun jungle gym stations, etc then you would have liek a minute at each station to complete it. I think I liked it because it was not a competitive sport.

Today is October 22 1985
Dear Mike,
Yesterday we played candy store and used play money to buy candy at inflated prices (like in europe) We still have football gumball to buy but for that we need work cents, when we complete our work for the week, we get it? M5 gym was a lot of fun.

First off, the gliders. Unrelated, the male sugar glider escaped yesterday. I wasn't sure if he was coming back or not. This evening though - he showed up in the den, covered in soot and dust. He was all gray. The baby is so cute now. I also have a video but I have to wait to get it off my camera. It was so hard to get a pic of him because it was really low light (sensitive baby eyes) and he refused to stay still.



As for the journals, I am having a hard time deciding if I should post them all or just the "good" ones. I decided I would just post them all. These are the beginning of September 1985, including my first journal ever.



They get better, lots of reagan, school budgets, challenger explosion goodness to come. I preserved most of the spelling error and some are probably added because my M key isn't working right. It is hard to spell check with so many intention misspellings. Welcome to September 1985.

Yes, I really wrote it helps me think twice.

Friday, September 6th 1985
Dear Journal,
It is fun to write stories in this book. It helps me think. It helps me think. It helps me remember what is too special to forget. Today, Friday September 6, 1985 - Dear Mike, these are my exact word the the first day of school. I am Paul Visco. I like gymnastics and math.

I had so many bikes stolen over the year and damn I loved the muppets. There is even a postcard I got back from Muppet magazine after writing to Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and an autographed picture of Jim Hensen in my box of stuff. Wow I have a hard time concentrating one thing. Or is it just the lack of punctuation.

Today is Monday, September 9, 1985
Dear Mike, Great Name!
Over the weekend I woched muper babbies Drods, get alog gang out of all the tv shose I like muppet babies I like piggy kermit gonso skider sckdor anamle fozy bear and I went to the gymnastics. I named my journal mike because it is my brothers name. yesterday night some one stoled my bike sorry to hear about your bike! and I went to Dairy queen and to my friends house and church I went to the played at the playground.

You certainly were busy. Interesting fun weekend. Yummy!

I really liked this teacher, I was not just an ass kisser.

Today is Friday September 10th
It's been about a week since we've been in school. So far we did watermelon math, counting calistenics, finger writing exercises Reading tests, Math, our journal, spelling, study, launched out rockets. I have the best teacher in the school.

Thank you Paul! You are an excellent student! You did a super job with the Spelling Lessen! Thanks. I like you~

Man, I was born to blog.

Wednesday September 11th, 1985
Yesterday, we had a guest visitor. Let me tell you about him. He has lived in a glass house about six years. He eat worms and frogs yum - he sticks out his tongue, wiggles, and wears a camouflage suit. He is cool. Dany is his best friend. Myorm our gest is a ... snake. Tonight is open house where parents come to our school, and meet our teacher Mrs. Costello. Its at 7:30PM in the auditorium.

Thursday, September 12, 1985
Dear Mike,
We met the Minus Monster in Math class. He is green with greed. Minus monster wants the hole set first before subtracting. e.x. 8-5=3 The biggest number first. We saw a huge stuffed snake and real snake skin.

I just couldn't get over that poor people could be kind and generous.

Today is Friday 9/13/85
Dear Mike,
Mrs Costello is reading Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factery to us. Charlie's Parents are so poor they only have cabbage to eat yet Charly is kind and generous. He sure would like to win the golden ticket. This afternoon, someone in our class will find a golden ticket in their candybar and will become Leader of the Week.

What the hell is Amaican. Did I really mean America, and if so did I think Nonno and Nonna meant grandparents in American. What is a nasonail gagrfack.

Monday, September 16, 1985
Dear Mike,
Over the weekend I got a new bike. I wacht T/V. I wacht muppet babbies, well muppet babbies and monsters today. My nonno and nonna wich stands for grandparents in Amaican. It's a very good week end. I have 100 books I kood read some day. I even have the groanups set of nasonail gagrfack.

My teacher loved Kool and The Gang

Today is Tuesday, September 17, 1985
Dear Mike,
We are doing Science Experiments someone asked, "Are these magic tricks?" yes in a way, but there is a Scientific reason for each trick . Kool and the Gang says, "Cherish the love you have! Cherish the life you live!"

I think my grandparents were visiting relatives in Italy at the time. I don't think they ever got to go back. Looking back I wonder if they knew it was their last trip to their homeland. What would that feel like. I guess if I stay in Buffalo forever, I will not have to know, lol.

Random Date
I have bine sick in bed, my nonno and nonna came home. I bilt a castle - no further deatales.

Today is September 23rd
Dear Mike,
Over the weekend I went to my grandmothers house. I went to the buffelow sinese senter and herd about spase and earth and a lot more
It's a fascinating place!

The word precipitation ends up being in a lot of journals. Apparently, a lifetime obsession as my current journal here, reminds me to bring an umbrella when it is raining. I love how innocently I believed that the u.s.a helps other nations. The 80s were a good time to be young because there was no war fro the past that meant anything to me at that age, and we were not in the midst of any war.

Today is Tuesday September 24, 85
Dear Mike,
There was precipitation (rain) the morning. However, it will evaperate (go away into the air) it is expecdead to be cloudy with a chase of precipitation later too. We are sending help to Mexico after their tragic earthquake. The u.s.a helps other nations.

The poor Mexicans.

Today is Wednesday, September 25, 1985
Tomorrow, We will have our class pichers in school. Since wwe have gy at 10:50am, our pichers will be taken before gym. I must remember to smile. the Mexican government is worried that tourists may not want to come to Mexico to visit.

More precipitation, more smile propaganda - no wonder we all smile in pictures now.

Today is September 26th, 1985
Today is Picher Day. We were first! I smiled for the camera! We lind up according to hight first, second, third, forth, fifth, sizth, seventh, eight, ninth, tenth and so on. It iwll be mostly cloudy with a high chase of precipitation.

Little did I know that most of my life would consist of hit return twice for a new paragraph in a world of endless digital space. It makes e wonder if humans would have always preferred the extra line return but couldn't afford it in the paper world.

Today is Friday September 27th, 1985
We are studying paragraphs A paragraph is a group of setenses on a certain topic. To show a new parahraph, indent (go in 3 fingers of a spase)
There was precipitation and Gloria is expected. For school pichers .. the lady told me to smile and so did miss costelo and my mom and dad.

I guess we all had the same idea and you have such a super smile!

Over the weekend Monday, September 30th,
Dear Mike,
yesterday and the day before I was at my grandmothers with my brother mike I named my journal after my broth mike we made a tent we took cahres and blankets and suffed anaimals some chars were big and some were small we had tonals under the tabble and around the table fun fun fun !

I bet mike enjoyed that !! Does mike know (?) you named your journal after him?

My favorite kind of things to do are fixing computer emergencies I am totally not familiar with. Okay, really my favorite thing to do is build big systems but sometimes, it is fun to test your skills out being thrown into a problem you didn't really know anything about.

(e:enknot) was out sick today ;( and he normally controls the online directory but the SMTP server that handles the critical online messaging system was down.

I had to hijack the messages being sent and switch it from using the old smtp system to a escalating new communication system that Roswell purchased. It required connecting to an oracle database through odbc and then sending the hijacked messages as an XML service. I wrote a little logger to keep track of the lost messages while the old system was down.

Solving these kind of problems on the fly is kind of like solving those story with holes game you would play as a kid. Sometimes I wish I was just a contractor - I would be so much richer.