It is weird to go to see a giant gay pride festival in a futuristic city where most gay rights issues have been resolved. There was lots of crazy stuff to see and lots of tasty food.

That being said, I hate big cities. We almost killed each other on Saturday night as we were all so frustrated with crowds and what to do, etc. It is unreal crowded and overpopulated in Toronto. I could never live like that. The whole time I kept asking myself what would make it worth it to live in such a polluted, overpopulated place with personal space invading chinese women.

I can't believe how okay asian woman were with touching and pushing me to try and get around/ in front of me. I am tall and you can't see, I don't fucking care - I waited two hours for this spot, and I really don't want you to touch me. They would just nudge and push and elbow and wiggle. One woman just kept putting her elbow in my side and pushing constantly so she could cut me and get upfront.

Apparently, the chinese have a hard time understanding lines.

To establish the norm of waiting in line in public places, the Beijing government annunced on Thursday that the 11th day of every month will be the official "wait-in-line day."

So back to the women, I just held my ground but eventually I was so sick of it I decided to up the battle. I ended up just turning towards woman so that in order to push wiggle around me, she would have to deal with my penis being all up on her - she was at about that height where it should have just freaked her the hell out. I thought, "This will definately stop her"

Nothing made this woman stop.

Finally, I was so sick of being pushed around that I elbowed her back in the side of the head and left the front row of watching the parade. It was mean but satisfying.

Living - They have like 7,000 of those new glass sky palaces they are trying to build all over Buffalo, it sees like everyone must live in a highrise.

Not having a camera with me was the most painful experience. I saw so much blogworthy stuff but none of it got recorded ;(

A land with most gay rights issues solved -

The focus of Gay Pride politics in Ontario now seems to be on transgender and adoptive rights.

Who am I to say what is acceptable or not but I am not in favor of tax payers paying for gender modification surgery. Then again I am not Canadian and we don't have socialized medicine.

Someone is going to blast me for this but it seems so unnecessary and that people should just learn to comfortable being what they are.

On one hand we, as gays, we fight so hard to get people to believe we should be able to be the way we are because we were born that way, but then transgendered people make being born a certain way a disposable, correctable situation.

Commercialism
I found this pic on Flickr when searching unde the tag "Toronto Pride 2007" I wanted to take a pic of it myself but I had no camera.



There was tons of commercial marketing. Look at how all the motorola boys looks the same. They are marketing the motorola red phone. They gave out tattoos so that other people could tattoo themselves with the motorola logo. At first I thought, who would do that, but a lot people did it. I a constantly amazed at people willingness to make themselves into advertising surfaces at no charge.

I went out to thursday in the Square with (e:enknot) and megan and ended up with (e:mike) , (e:libertad) and (e:amanda) at mcmonkees. They have three for one drinks and black lights which leads to obvious markings on clothing, ;)

I forgot what straight bars are like and that there is actally a lively bar scene in Buffalo.

First, does anyone know the Buffalonian who is competing on "So You Think You Can Dance?" His name is Neil Haskell and his bio is here

We were curious to see just how small town Buffalo is.

I am not a patient person. Between waiting to get a camera back so I can resume blogging and waiting for the new computer I am going crazy.

Getting a new computer has been a constant theme since april for me. It all started with the tax returns that never made it as a laptop in lieu of house repair projects. Now, it's finally worked and there is a laptop on it way out but exactly two weeks after placing my order, the macbook still hasn't even shipped according to the apple site.

Here is what it says today, June 20th, 2007.


Then when it arrives, IT gets it for a while to "set it up." I seriously am ready to die in anticipation of my life as a born again mac user?!

So to pass the time I am going to quit programming at night until I have a new computer and instead work more on the house. I guess it has it benefits. Last night I was able to set up a large tool closet until I get my workroom in the garage set up. I put one of at least every major tool in a small toolbox too, so that I can "hopefully" always find a screwdriver, adjustable wrench, hammer, etc. Tomorrow, I am going to begin stripping wallpaper.

I also cleaned out the garage. Once it is all clean I can begin the major task of painting the house and re-roofing the garage. By then the laptop should arrive and i will not care about the house anymore, lol.

First of all, does anyone need a working condition dorm refrigerator.

I was sad to see (e:lilho) go. Now when I am home alone, I am really home alone. However, while redoing some electrical wiring in the wall I was looking for some tools that led me to search around the house and see what a junk yard our house has become.

She seriously hid shit everywhere and it's not like she didn't have two months to get rid of it. I think I am done having people live with us and I am definitely done dealing with other people stuff. Anyone need a sony trinitron CRT monitor, computer or 40 tampons.

I am so tired of other people junk. I mean I have a hard enough time dealing with our junk let alone all the new excess trash. We have so much junk still from the guy that lived here before. If you remember what a 2 tonne disaster that was (e:paul,32719) and (e:paul,32764)

Here is what Nameless Bitch's stuff minus the furniture


and here is some of what (e:lilho) left














These are a culmination of all the girls magazines!

Last week we celebrated my father's and uncle's birthday. We ate at Cameo's on Niagara Falls blvd. The appetizers and clams were good but the food itself was too greasy, even for me.





Then we celebrated father's day on Sunday with brunch at my mothers. It was one of her usual extravaganzas but my camera is in the repair shop. We had omlettes, leg of lamb and procuitto wrapped salmon. It was so yumy.

The things that shape your life. I guess maybe this is what led to me becoming a computer dork. These entries are so funny.

Paul Visco May 18, 1987 (10 years old)

I would like to be Frank Balestrieri because he is very very good at sports. I would also like to be him because then people would let me play sports like basketball, hockey, kickball, baseball and catch.

That day I would start a baseball game with some 5th graders and some other kids. That would be the first time I played baseball with someone else!

That day I would learn to play baseball and other games. I would also learn what play a sport wih someone would be like.

I guess I was always an Apple fanboy, why am I such a poser pretending I wasn't. I feel like the same reoccurring themese have happened throughout my life but I thought most of them were new now.

Paul Visco January 26th, 1987
If I had $1000 I would buy an Apply II GS. The biggest apple computer. I would buy a logo disk and a basic disk first. ThenI would buy a 90" monitor. Then I would buy a diskdrive and a mouse. Then I could show all the classes the Turtle in the Auditorium.

Money is not a problem. I can always decide what to buy. I just never have enough money. That drives me nuts.

I take back anything bad I said about Kenmore, they have public facilities!

Paul Visco November 18th, 1987
Kenmore - Kenmore is a good place to live. There are many schools nearby. They have parks. The parks have been remodeled, they have a fitness area, a basketball court and a playground area. They also have a youth center. This winter they will have an iceskating rink. In the sumer they have two pools, one for ages 1-6 and one for 7-adult.

There are many types of restaurants. They have public facilities! They have a library. They have basketball, hockey and soccer teams, not forgetting baseball and swimming. They also have a cubscout and boyscout group which does a lot of things. There are a lot of children. But don't take my word for it, come look for yourself.

Paul Visco March 3rd, 1987 - Poem
Computers beeping,
Drawing with logo
Excellent teaching tool
They can do anything

Paul Visco 1987

Forests Are More Than Trees

Forests for nature -
The life of the wild,
The beautiful kingdom of deer.
The beavers chop so very near.
I wish I could see him this year.

Forests for hunters...
The death of the wild...
The hungry kingdom of humans...
The beaver skin so fancy...
the deer skin so beautiful...
Why do we suffer the wild?

Random snippet

Now Jenelle is my best friend also. Her brother is weird and has a small computer!

Considering my rant above about wanting the biggest computer, and the fact that it is 1987 - I think that saying he has a small computer is a sort of insult. If only I knew how cool small computers would be in the future.

Hi Paul.
I read your blog often and enjoy it very much. As a huge Buffalonian myself, I wanted to send you a message and see if you were interested in posting any of these in the events...

Let's just say I am not interested in being a group leader for selling tickets to see the Bills in Miami - even if you are a "huge Buffalonian"

Some people are so silly, she clearly has never read my journal if she thought I would be interested in selling 20 trips to see the Bills in Miami in order win one for myself.

Not having my camera is making me sad. I wanted to make a video about something but now I have to wait. Once the macbook comes I can use the built in cam for my video blogs.

I really want an iPhone. I mean the iPhone seems like the next logical step in my mobile addiction but without 3rd party app support it is so gimped. It can't SSH into my web server, which is the most important task that all of my mobile devices back to the first T-mobile Sidekick Iin 2002 could do

Considering that the iPhone is running OS X (ya right) why can't they thrown in a terminal emulator.

I guess maybe they will add it and surely people will hack it.

I think AJAX, CSS, HTML development is really stupid on a mobile device with a gimped data plan, AT&T/cingular edge is so slow compared to what I am used to on Sprint. It's like a step backwards for me to switch to them. The only advantage of AT&T being that if I switch to a sim-card phone carrier I can have multiple phones on one card.

I mean I love the idea of Safari being able to use AJAX apps but what about the storage of the programs. With AJAX you end up downloading the entire program each time, versus with a standalone applet for the phone you save the program on the phone and just download data.

Maybe I won't care and buy one just to add it to my collection of almost but not quite everything in one mobile devices.

I also don't know if I could live without a keyboard. Both my Nokia 7710 and my Nokia n800 (WIKIPEDIA - Nokia_N800) have on screen keyboards, and while they have come a long way, it will never be as functional as the hardware one. I mean I could type on the sidekick while driving and not looking at the keyboard. I know - that is way to dangerous for reality, but trust me it is possible. I could never do that with tactile sensation free onscreen keyboard.

I suppose the iPhone could just replace the PPC 6700 (WIKIPEDIA - HTC_Apache) (which is clunky and old looking now) and I could continue to carry around the not-phone (nokia n800) which is a full access linux OS with terminal. I just want one day to have the all in one device that rivals the functionality of the sidekick with the browser and style of the iPhone.

Here we have the history of my mobile addiction
Danger Sidekick 1 - worn out - I used it so much the keys actually wore down


Danger Sidekick 2 - eaten by bugs (e:paul,32081)


Nokia 7710 - broke the camera


Sprint PPC 6700- runs windows mobile 5 which is lame and slow


Nokia n800 runs linux and is awesome but camera sucks and its not a phone only wifi, bluetooth connections


iPhone - Will you be good enough for me

1. (e:jim) is going to be doing some long term contract work at Roswell and we will get to work together ;)
2. (e:lilho) is going away ;(
3. Which means our house will be empty besides the three of us - which means either it will be awesome to frolic around the giant house naked or we will kill each other by next weekend because we aren't forced to behave in front of other people.
4. Tomorrow mac and I are going are going on a date. Sorry PC, no further detalis.

This is in response to (e:james,39620)

I think it is a great idea to incorporate the suburbs into the city of Bufflao proper as has happend in many other cities that are growing.

However, I know people from Kenmore would probably fight to the death before they let it happen. Which leads me to think - why not just declare war on Kenmore and Amherst.

Having been born in Buffalo and raised in Kenmore, I fully see what is going on. My parents left Buffalo for Kenmore the year I was born. The real reason most people in the suburbs would never allow this to happen is because:

1. The school system of Buffalo cannot compete with the suburban ones.

2. The police don't come when you call here. I have experience this twice.

3. Many suburbanites are totally freakin' racist/classist and can't stand the thought of mixing their kids with american black, hispanic, arab, somali or poor kids. I know people are going to harp on me for this but it is true - so why not talk about it.

When I first moved to Linwood, everyone was like I cannot believe you are going to live that close to Main Street, and let's be honest - you all know what they meant. I can't believe you are going to live that close black people.

The other option is to be really wealthy and stay in the city on a street like St. James and send you kids to private school for between $5000-$30000 a year. I definately think a lot more people are taking that route than before.