So I was watching, "So You Think You Can Dance" and the one girl who twisted her ankle and lost was so sad because she had fought for her life after a terrible wedding floor collapse accident a couple years back. So right away I googles "wedding floor collapse" and I could only find one in Jeruselem, Israrl. I thought - she was asian, it couldn't be but then I searched some more and it was. They got it all on video. It is perhaps the most horrific accident I have ever seen 23 people died. I will save you the googling, you can watch it on my journal.

In response to (e:jim,39535)

First of all I would like to say I totally support people's freedom to believe whatever they want as long as they don't get tax breaks on it and I don't have to pay for any part of it.

I hope this doesn't offend anyone but as an athiest, gay, polygamist my sheer existence is probably offense enough for most people, although, honestly - I think I pull it off with grace, pun intended.

I believe that religion does bring happiness, kindness, joy, compassion and union to many people. It standardizes and codifies the way that humans should act with one another.

It is not the only thing that can bring these emotions. Any group with a common belief system can share these feelings without a spiritual context. People having these emotions in a religious context often believe it is the spiritual aspect that causes it.

The thing about religion is that it also causes so many problems. People fight wars over religions and kill people in the name of jesus and other magicians. I know all you good christians can't believe it, but it is true. Other people kill other people for not believing in Jesus - not only that - they kill them for not believing in him, in prescribed way.

I am not the kind of athiest that screams about it. I am definitely not interested in converting other people to it, but that doesn't seem to stop so any people for trying to get me interested in their spiritual beliefs which offends the hell out of me.

That is why in fact I am an athiest, because I don't care about religion or the absense of it. I would rather describe myself as someone who never considers spiritual aspect of religion or the absense of it very much. If I never had to hear the word spiritual or religion one more time, I would not be athiest. I would be in perfect harmony, lol.

I read the bible, and I am over it - like I am over Alice and Wonderland and The Hardy Boys - learned some valuable lessons but the magic part is pretty hokey to me.

Okay, check this out - I am going to go get a random bible quote from the internet and see why I don't need the book. Here it is

Galatians 5:22-23

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

Seems reasonable, guess what - I could think of it myself. I pity the people that can't think of this but I know they exist. I guess I can consider myself luckily for having the education to even consider these things. Maybe in previous times, it was necessary to have these ideas given to you.

Then I roll the die again to find:

"Romans 12:13

Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality."

Here we are back in magic land and there lies my problem with the book. Showing hospitality is a fine goal, contributing to the needs of the saints is questionable and sketchy. I mean who defines the needs of the saints.

Okay one more time this is too fun

Thessalonians 5:15

See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

This one is great but once again, I could totally think of it myself. At least it is a noble goal.

And again.

Samuel 2:2
"There is none holy like the LORD; there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God."

While this is freaky and dangerous. It is the basis of war.

I feel that I have the capibility to understand human interactions without guidance from people in an ancient world or divine intervention. In fact, I think it is a unfortunate that the book mixes these two messages together - the message of treating people kindly and that you need to believe in the power of the mighty magic wizard, his halfling son and their sidekick ghost. It seems like the message could be much more powerful divorced from the book. Why can't human interaction and social etiquette be secular? I mean why not distill the bible down into a smaller book of ways to live your life without the spiritual bullshit.

I have seen so many people fall down the slippery slope of having their life suck because they were a bad person, then turning to church, the people they meet are nice and kind and then - bang they are in magic land and keep asking me to come visit it - when I wasn't having any problems in the first place.

CONCLUSION

I just had a brilliant realization while writing this. aybe I will change the world. I am going to create a new religion based on the Paul Visco interpretation of the bible. See, you think I am joking but what I plan to do is take the magic out of the bible. Same great book, less agic. That way the next time someone tries to tell me the magic book is really about a moral code about how to treat other people, I can say - no that book is full of magic sdtories, what you need is the Visco Bible.

But for those that care, surebert 3.0 is here. I revamped the docs and the changelog. This version had many significant changes to the main file so that it switched versions to 3.0.



For those of you that are javascripty you can play with it. I didn't notate all the source yet but I a at like 90%.

They have finally released the new macbook pro


As someone said on the macrumors forum, "Great specs, same price, im loving it! " This means that once I get it my life can return to normal and I can become an even more productive programer/designer. I can finally go back to 3D design which will in turn let me make lots of fun icons for my projects. I will also be able to check windows and mac/linux all on the same machine. It's like a web designers dream come true.



I am so curious what the LED backlit display will be like. The only thing I am kind of disappointed that the system looks the same as the old one. I was hoping for some reason it would be shiny brown. To bad it couldn't come with a new operating system. Guess I'll have to wait until October for that.

Before the party

This bird was so dead.


What the heck are all these iDVR stickers and signs everywhere. I like the idea of giving out temporary tattoos but was it seems like they all just end up on the floor group, I found hundreds of them downtown.





(e:enknot) at the (e:lilho) hair studio


where (e:imk2) got extensions that looked so real




I know this is so not right, but I am totally sick of these peaceprint birds everywhere. It just sees like such a stupid slogan and I always think it is a euphemism for poop.



If the (e:ladycroft) going away party wasn't tonight I would have gone to this.


The party was pretty nuts. We ended up having 65 people according to (e:lilho) 's countdown. I would post the list but she made up funny, inappropriate names for some people.

Some highlights
Holy crap - (e:metalpeter) looks so different without a beard.

Hallways are much more visible from outside at night.

Here are some pics although I didn't get many, I do have an hour long video that I can probably never post.

Put the banner up




Chris Haight got "cake" in (e:mike)'s face somehow.


Thanks (e:carolinian) for all the mojito stuff. I have never seen so many limes in one place.


Giving robert and company a tour of the house, we could only see the unfinished side of the attic by camera flash. They had plenty of theories about the cage.




The end of the night video - such a waste of alcohol

::Download Flash Video::

This tasty personal pizza from Brodo was really yummy. Had lunch with megan and (e:enknot) - they are way famous. About 40 people stopped by and said hello. Seriously, they are like one step away from Paparazzi.



After work, I headed over to Thursday In The Square with (e:matthew) and (e:terry) For a free event it is really awesome no matter who the band is. I love Thursday In The Square, especially, since I can walk there and back in about 10 minutes.

::Download Flash Video::

The jesus people keep recruiting younger and younger dudes. Not to mention cuter and cuter ones, no nasty ladies in bonnets this year. Remember Hottie McJesus (e:paul,32654)






What the fuck (how unprofessional: what is wrong with you paul?) is the buffalo flag. I saw one flying at Thursday In The Square. Since when do cities have flags and why is it so freakin' ugly. Holy crap, they cost $50.00 what is it raising money for. I bet with a nicer design they could sell more. Both (e:matthew) and I didn't like it. Sorry if you designed it.

At Thursday In The Square there was a guy that looked so much like (e:matthew) His friends also tried to get a pic of them both.




(e:mike) and (e:amanda) came out, she has a great video of her that I think she is going to try and post soon.




(e:terry) making funny faces


Walking back the subway was packed so we walked. There was some sort of fight that resulted in an ambulance.


I really upped the quality on the compression for this one which unfortunately made it 13MB.

::Download Flash Video::

The Flynn and Friends logo looks nice in the dusk. I really want a bright orange estrip neon tube sign. I wonder how much energy they use.


As May closes, I have to ask myself what has changed about my life that in 2005 I wrote 97 journals in May and in 2006 I wrote 54 journals in May but this year I only managed to get 26 written. My life must be so much more boring now. I am going to go back to 97 next year ;) The truth is I think my entries are much longer now. I save up more media because of the higher res camera and then post the all at once, instead of like before when I posted everything right from the phone. I hope the iPhone can change that.

05/30/07 22:59@76.180.169.90 Guest wrote:

hey Paul if you really want to get some interest cut down on the cursing; specifically "fuck-off, fuck you etc". Not very professional. I'm sure you'll ban me after this dose of constructive criticism due to anger issues. Cheers.

Maybe you haven't noticed but this isn't any sort of professional environment. There is no company, no share holders, no sales image. Just people chatting about their lives. I definitely don't want more interest from people that require a professional environment or censored conversation.

@ 05/05/07 01:33@76.180.169.90 Guest wrote:
You rock you gay genius AIM me @ t5440t

Who are you? Are you even the same person or do you share a computer.
--paul

Does anyone remember jelly bracelets. I know that (e:hodown) does. But what you might not know is that they came out of Buffalo. Here is the thing. I don't know they were made here but I do know they were nationally distributed from my very favorite former zipcode. 14222.



I was going through the box of muppet magazine from my childhood and found this advertisement. It made me want to go pin my pants. I just might do it for tomorrow if I can find some pins.







Our air plant committed suicide. I think it is actually still fine but just wanted attention.


(e:enknot) ordered the squid rings at Kuni's To Go today.


Saw the rubble on high street this morning.




This tree in (e:holly) 's sister appartment building parking lot is really eaten up by bugs.




Clams were on sale at tops. Really, really on sale and I like those kind. I waited in line for like 15 minutes because, according to the worker, the guy who was supposed to pre-count for the sale wasn't in. I got 5 dozen. Then I dropped the bag and 20 of them jst pretty much exploded with cla juice and dripped all over me and the store. That must have been fun to clean up. I felt really bad. The guy had given my the clams in a slippery mesh net with no bag. Looking back I think a plastic bag would have been in order.


We went to that Buffalo Clearance and Supply at Great Arrow and it is really freakin' weird. Everything seems to be used. Like the stoves their were selling still had food caked on them? Weird, right - where does the shit come from. The ovens weren't very cheap either.


They had this cool looking mod furniture.


The irises finally opened. We have a purple one and a yellow one.






We ended up getting an oven for the tenants at orvilles. I will really miss the old oven that my grandmother always cooked in.




I really want this leather couch and love seat set. It is only $1099 for both. It seems like such a freakin deal that I won't even tell you where it is. It isn't new, its used but everything I always dreamed about in a furniture set.






They also had this red couch for $399.






This signature tool at the tops checkout seems so primitive.


Went with (e:lilho) to try and sell her car to one of my tenants. She is selling it for $100 and it goes. I mean it has problmes but a car that goes for $100 is a rock bottom deal and the girl buying asked if (e:lilho) had an itemized list of problems. Was she going to try and bargain. I mean an ipod cost more than $100.




This apple looked so lonely all by itself in the parking lot at Northtown Plaza. I wonder how it got there.


At tops they had personal watermelons. Is that really necessary.


Finally, as promised, the pink sidewalks in Kenmore.


I love this graffitti at the west side stores.





I have ripped hundreds of yards of wire out of our house and off our house. Used to be offices in it I think. There was one wire coming from the church that was an inch thick.

This is in response to (e:jsl,39452)

"GPL-licensed software can't be sold for profit; you can only charge enough to cover "reasonable" distribution costs." -- (e:ajay)

Can't vs Won't
Ya, if people fucking admit to using it. I can't tell you how much stuff I have seen other graphic designers and web programmer's rip off of true open source projects and projects where the source was just laying around, re-package and sell for ridiculous amounts of money.

Clients do not know the difference between open source code and not open source code, that is why they are hiring a web programmer. To freelancing web programmers, time is money and to them there is no higher authority who has to evaluate the legitimacy of their code. Simply put, people take the open source code, put a new look on it an resell it for commercial purposes. If you are a web programmer and don't believe this is happening you are crazy or in denial.

Opensourcing Tools
I am totally for open source on many things I do. Especially tools. In fact I regularly contribute useful sourcecode to other groups of programmers.

Most of the client side magic is done with my surebert flash/javascript toolkit and that is opensource. which has been used in many other projects at Roswell. I am also working on a php framework called surebert framework which estrip is created with and it will be open source - as I will most of my future tools, which there should be a ton of. I like to opensource tools that allow other builders to build bigger and better, easier and faster but I am not really into open sourcing final projects.

I feel that a web programmer should make those things on their own, as I did with estrip or use something way easy like all the yahoo community building stuff - which by the way is great. Taking the tools I created surebert and surebert framework and the tools someone else created e.g. PHP, javascript, etc. it is a simple step to create estrip.

It has little to do with security as it did when I wrote that so long ago and much more to do with I don't want anyone else to use surebert journals (which estrip is an instance of). It takes like 30 seconds to create a new instance of estrip for another place and that is quick enough to be commercially useful. Back in 2004 we tried this with is it even there still (e:twisted) ?

I don't want anyone to make any commercial anything out of the estrip system ever. I created as a response to all the commercial systems out there. Not to mention that the fact that it was my master's thesis at UB means that they probably would claim rights on it anyways, if it ever became anything.

Like Chicken Wings
To make it a Buffalo analogy. Call me pretentious but I feel like me giving away estrip as a single, installable source package is akin to the Anchor Bar giving away their famous chicken wing sauce recipe. Then everyone would just use it and be the original Buffalo Chicken Wings and worse yet they could make it commercial. Even if I tell them they have to put a note on it saying I made it, and not use it for anything commercial, who is to stop them from putting their own label on it and just ignoring that. I basically don't have time to taste every sauce and see if it's my flavor.

Not Just Commercial Derivatives
Frankly, it's not just commercial projects, I just don't want any derivative works created even if they were non-commercial. I hate the thought of creating publication software that can be used for communities I don't want to help. I mean what if someone made an anti-gay community using my software. I just don't even want to go there.

In fact, I really don't want it to be used for similar communities in other places. I feel it is part of what makes it unique is that it is not just another vBulletin, yahoo group, myspace friend clique, livejournal group, instance of the same thing that everyone else has.

I know people can make things exactly the same or better, and I encourage them to, but they will have to put the time and effort into that.

At Work
When roswell asked me for a similar system (I did not do the graphic design) I ended up writing it from the ground up just so that it was not the same software. Although, it has similar features none of the code is shared other than surebert.

While estrip took me several years to fully develop it took me only a month to build yRoswell because I am a much better programmer and because surebert toolkit and the surebert framework were already there. Not to mention that PHP is just so much better now than it was in version 3 and 4. Bye, bye procedural madness.

Need New Features
However, if you have feature requests feel free to email me and I can see what can be done about it. Can't promise they will be done tomorrow or ever, but at least they end up in the list.

While I did spend most of my five days off doing house work on the properties, we did end up going hiking at Zoar Valley for memorial day.

(e:terry) hiking down the gorge


Racing through trying not to drop the camera

::Download Flash Video::

The car that didn't make it down the road.


The cliffs are beautiful as always.


As is the confluence you have to cross to get to the waterfall and the island where the nudists are.


This time we crossed half the creek over a fallen tree.

::Download Flash Video::

The water fall is my favorite place.

::Download Flash Video::

Some guy was sun bathing at the bottom of the cliff when a rock slide happened. He didn't move fast enough and got covered in the fallout dust.




Here, you can see that tiny vanilla color spot in the pic above was a naked dude.



In the end we met up with a lot of naked people. We previously had heard rumors that you couldn't go naked there anymore. Didn't stop Dave and I. (e:terry) and (e:matthew) remained clothed but there are no pics of any of that this year yet.

Here I am crossing the creek on the way home

::Download Flash Video::