"Languages and Cases" written by Paul on estrip.org

07/08/07 07:26 - 80ºF - ID#40008

Languages and Cases

I was thinking about how I was getting bored with only computer languages and wanted to branch out back into human ones when I realized historical languages might be more fun.

Old English (WIKIPEDIA - old english) piqued my interest because of its tied to the germanic languages and because it is so interesting. I am over that desire now, but while I was researching the languages of yore, I found a site dedicated to linguistic that talk about cases.

I thought German having dative, accusative, nominative and genative was over the top but there are so many other cases out there

I think I am going to just go back to german and maybe just research a dialect.

metalpeter writes at 06:53:48 07/09/07 - Comment #20569: I'm bad at languages. But If I could learn them I would love to learn Chinesse. Of course with my luck I would learn the Manderian dialect and then try to speak to someone who only knew Cantonase. I did see part of a special that showed how Chinese has changed over the years. They showed how something used to be a picture of a tree and how that writing changed over time. Korean might be preaty cool to since from what I have been told they use the Chinese Characters for some things and then they have the own language for other things. If I was going to do it for fun I would learn Klingon or maybe some Elf Langauge but only if someone told me if there was really a way to right Moon leters light in the hobit. Those are letters that only appear when the papper is held up to the moon.

james writes at 08:19:41 07/08/07 - Comment #20537: There was an onion article, or an actual real article, I can't remember which, who's headline read "Now more speakers of Klingon than Cherokee."

I have a problem learning languages because I never need to use them. It has never been useful knowing German except one time when I was a waiter and had German tourists at a table. It was never useful learning Japanese except to decipher what idiotic characters people had tattooed on their ignorant bodies. With no need to use it, I have forgotten both.

So unless you really dig Beowulf.

jenks writes at 08:13:09 07/08/07 - Comment #20536: to book = the book

jenks writes at 08:08:49 07/08/07 - Comment #20534: ooh paul old english is cool. I took a 'history of the english language' class in school and we studied a lot of old english. way cool. Yes, very germanic. And a lot of latin too. And cases. I think I have to book somewhere if you want to see.

mrdeadlier writes at 08:00:50 07/08/07 - Comment #20533: The only thing better than historical languages is made-up ones. That said,I want to learn Elvish!

Permalink: Languages_and_Cases.html
Words: 125
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: food

07/08/07 07:20 - 80ºF - ID#40007

Solid Grounds on Elmwood Sucks

I will never eat at Solid Grounds on Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo, NY again. I used to love it. In fact it was one of my favorite restaurants but now in July of 2007 it has gone really downhill. The decor, service, and food have all gone seriously downhill while the prices remained the same.

Our long haired, medium height, red-headed waitress at
Solid Grounds on Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo, NY sucked so much. She never even refilled our free refill lemonade. When the people behind us, which arrived after us, got their food I was pissed. (e:terry) joked that maybe our waitress had left. haha, right?

About five minutes later at Solid Grounds on Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo, NY our waitress shows up from the kitchen with her purse on and left the restaurant. What the hell!?

Eventually, some other waitress brought us our food minus the usual salad and potato side (on the menu) that makes $7.50 for an omelette seem reasonable.

Compare this very plain meal from today

with the very same order (e:paul,32837) placed in December of 2006

The salad was under the bread. Both of these same order of the same meal cost $7.50

Solid Grounds on Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo, NY also no longer have the slab style thick bacon, but have replaced it with ordinary thin bacon for the same price.

I heard some other guy complaining that he was charged for wheat toast that he asked for twice but never received. The girl at the counter actually asked him if he would like the side of wheat to go!

Totally unrelated, while sitting for 45 minutes waiting for my simple Apple Omelette at Solid Grounds on Elmwood in Buffalo, NY I read Artvoice and saw this ad. I can't believe there is a sale on VHS anything as we are in the era leaving normal DVD. Even weirder, is that it is for such a niche market.

jim writes at 08:45:55 09/21/07 - Comment #24979: We went by Solid Grounds today and it looked like they are out of business. Storefront is empty.

metalpeter writes at 06:46:54 07/09/07 - Comment #20568: I Personaly think DVDs may and should fail and everyone should go back to VHS. The reason is that you have four formats of DVDs that I know of. This doesn't include some other type of Disc that they used in I think Japan (some dvd's will playthem). This mess get started with sony. Sony makes Blue-Ray discs. Yes they hold more data but A blue ray player only plays blue ray. Then you have Hi-def Discs for people with Hi-def TV's. Then Sony decided that they wanted there PSP's to play DVD's well guess what they are two small to play normal DVD's so they came out with another form of disc. So now when ever a Movie comes out on DVD it has to come out in 4 formats including regular DVD. It is company irresponsibilty to have all these formats. I will admit that some HD DVD's do have non HD stuff on the other side. But what I'm waiting for is #5 and that would be HD Blue Ray who knows sony might even come out with there own TV's that you have to have that same type of player and discs for. The thing about Video Tapes is they are so much better for underground stuff like stuff shot in a basement or a wrestling tape from Japan. There is another DVD issue to. Some new players follow that right protected stuff so some shows they won't record but that isn't the case with VCR's. I won't lie it is really cool the way you can jump around on a DVD like on a CD but you could also do that on laser discs.

I don't know as I have ever ate at solid grounds sorry things where bad there. It sounds like they are disorganised. I have had a waitress go on break or leave and what she did was come right up and tell me that someone would be replacing her. Not to defend them but it sounds like they are cutting corner maybe it is because that part of elmwood is runed down. There are a few store fronts that have been empty for a long time now.

james writes at 08:24:54 07/08/07 - Comment #20538: One day, when I am unquestioned overlord over all of humanity and other sundry things, I will make it illegal for any coffee establishment to use the word 'grounds' in their name

Solid Grounds
Common Grounds
Grounds for dismissal

(e:Jim) and I went there about a year ago and I was overwhelmed at how underwhelming everything was about the place.

jenks writes at 08:10:49 07/08/07 - Comment #20535: hehe, way to make solid grounds on elmwood ave in buffalo ny so googly!

Permalink: Solid_Grounds_on_Elmwood_Sucks.html
Words: 326
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: food

07/08/07 11:12 - 76ºF - ID#40001

Action Packed Weekend

I did a lot, managed to really hurt my neck again and still didn't dance.

Got a letter from Germany that the university I attended is having a 450 year anniversary

and is inviting back all the Alumni. I would really like to go. I wonder if I can convince (e:matthew) . I should apply for italian citizenship first so that I can be all EU.

Taste of Buffalo was yummy. It is my favorite festival of all.

There were lots of people at The Taste Of Buffalo 07. I had fun with (e:terry) and (e:matthew) but no Taste of Buffalo is the same without (e:hodown) or (e:mike) , the biggest food enjoyers I know, neither of which I was with.

I ate craw dads, the main reason I like to go.

Everytime I see these cookies I think of (e:jim)

The polish sausage from the Polish Villa was tasty.

(e:terry) being attacked by a monster

Saw Matt Puchler - I was sad we didn't get to work together but it is really awesome working with (e:jim)

I finally painted the garage and the french doors on the back of the house. I am so happy as they really looked like crap before and it was stressing me out.

Then I attended Kenmore Days for the fireworks. Damn those people know how to put on a fireworks display. My cell phone can't manage fireworks pics like my real camera which is now totally missing in action.

I had my first taste of funnel cake, it was quite yummy.

I have been wanting to go dancing for so long but didn't notice Soma's chat post about the HEMF (music fest) on Grand Island

until today ;(

Which led me to

- I went to school with him in Kenmore. It is strange how our raver days never coincided. I think once when I was home and he was home we saw each other at a party. Now we are neighbors, he lives in the building behind us, but we haven't hung out - even though I saw him and said I would call. I am just not good at making friends or doing things other than computing / house repair.

Permalink: Action_Packed_Weekend.html
Words: 418
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: programming

07/06/07 09:37 - 72ºF - ID#39974

Programming for the iphone

This is crazy. I revamped the old email based posting system because (e:jim) and (e:jenks) 's iphones cannot do file uploads in mobile safari. This just blows my mind, it reminds me of my sidekick 1. I used to have the email posting system expressly for that phone. Why no file upload? They could easily just spoof it and allow you to only upload from your photo gallery instead of browsing the file system.

So anyways it gets worse. Not only can you only email photos via email. You can email only one photo per email. Basically, this translated to one picture per mobile entry from the iphone. And to make it even more ridiculous every attachment is named photo.jpg so that when they arrive the new ones were replacing the old ones.

I ended up writing a script that would take the file name and add part of the title after talking with (e:jim) about it. But as he pointed out, although I was able to script around it - what about all the grandmothers saving pictures of there grandkids all named photo.jpg. They will end up just replacing all the old photos.

Who the fucks decision was this. I think they should be fired.

Permalink: Programming_for_the_iphone.html
Words: 210
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: mobile

07/06/07 02:28 - 66ºF - ID#39942

Send via my cell phone with email

Just testing out the system so that (e:jim) can send blogs from his iPhone.

I believe it works now. (e:jim) just make sure you have it setup in your mobile control panel and use the old instructions.

Permalink: Send_via_my_cell_phone_with_email.html
Words: 41
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: food

07/04/07 10:05 - 66ºF - ID#39917

Dinner in the glass castle

The title is a reference to the book of Michael, chapter 1. Michael Visco that is.

First, at Walgreens they have these ridiculous "signature hounds" that people are supposed to want for collecting graduation signatures. Isn't that what year books are for? Imagine having to store a yearbook and a giant signature hound in your memory box.

We had my parents over for dinner on the porch. We would have eaten in the backyard but the weather made that no so possible. Plus its so fun to have other people desire what we are eating.

It is nice to eat with the family.

The organic cherries at the coop were so darn yummy.

They had these cards asking how much money you spent at local business today or something. What the frick are you supposed to write on this? I mean I am all about local business but this is too much.

My mother made the yummiest BLT dip. It was very bacontastic.

We bought some cakes at Dolci on Elmwood. I love that place. One was lemon and one was rum cassata.

And we ate crab legs

I really had so much to say when I started this but decided that none of it was appropriate ;(

Permalink: Dinner_in_the_glass_castle.html
Words: 225
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: mobile

07/01/07 05:10 - 65ºF - ID#39877

Mobile Dump

I was cleaning up the file system on my mobile phone and found these on the storage card.

When walking to thursday in the square with (e:eknot) the other week I saw this sign on La Lunas while we were buying Italian sausages (the food) outside. That is a serious amount of regulations.

I found some pics I actually took at Gay Pride in Toronto with my phone. Too bad I accidentally took them in black and white mode.

The food I ate in toronto was so yummy. Something with dried appricots, watercress and chicken in a grand marnier sauce. Yum!

We now only go grocery shopping once a month, its getting ridiculous how much we buy at once.

The roses in the backyard are pretty, they would be much prettier with the Nikon camera.

Here are some leftovers from when (e:matthew) and I went to San Francisco back in March.

I was amazed at how overflowing the park trash was in San Francisco. There are some things that make having a booming population not so great.

When in San Francisco I saw these drips grafittied on a wall. I really like the style.

It is so simple, look at it up close. From further away they look wet.

Here we have (e:matthew) eating shrimp at the San Francisco airport. We splurged figuring it might be our last meal ever.

Permalink: Mobile_Dump.html
Words: 253
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: buffalo

07/01/07 02:07 - 65ºF - ID#39874

Reduce, reuse, recycle

I want my camera back so bad!! We went to Urban Roots and Buffalo Salvage this afternoon. The Urban Roots garden center place seemed pretty cool, unfortunately we already had most of the kinds of flowers they offered.

After we went to Buffalo ReUse

, a non-profit organization aimed at reusing building material from housing that are being demolished. They are located next to the Washington Market downtown. They have some job opportunities open too

I can't believe how many houses are awaiting demolition in our city.

Organizational Overview
Buffalo ReUse, Inc. is a new not-for-profit organization committed to developing the practice of deconstruction to create a community minded alternative to demolition. In Buffalo, there are estimates that between 10 and 20,000 structures await demolition and the city has tentative plans to demolish 1,000 houses a year indefinitely. Deconstruction, the careful disassembly of a building in the opposite order that it was originally created, is the vehicle for diverting reusable materials from the landfill; providing a source of high quality materials for homeowners; providing meaningful job opportunities; and creating positive changes in the neighborhoods in which we work.

Looks like they are just starting but there is a similar place in Rochester that seems more established

We also went and took a look at the building being demolished on Delaware near Niagara Square that (e:metalpeter) wrote about the other day.

Permalink: Reduce_reuse_recycle.html
Words: 259
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: mobile

06/29/07 11:54 - 67ºF - ID#39854

Jim and the iPhone

I went with (e:jim) to the apple store so we could look at iPhones. He ended up buying one. I am kind of jealous because its a sexy device but it really didn't do what I wanted and I don't need another device for the collection if it can't replace all the other devices. I seriously can't justify another device that doesn't do everything.

1. No instant messenging.

2. No tethering using it as a modem for your laptop on the go.

3. Slow, like really way slow compared to sprint.

4. No terminal, no ssh

5. No streaming radio. I have no interest in having lots of space for mp3s. I don't even have them on my lappy barely because I like the surprise of internet radio and have become accustomed to it.

6. No bluetooth means no GPS, no wireless syncing.

7. No way the battery could outlast the double battery I have on my phone right now and the battery is not easily accessible for switching.

8. No flash or java.

9. No third party apps.

10. There doesn't appear to be a file browse for uploading pictures from your phone to a website. LAME!

Look I found this later on macrumors. The battery is soldered on so you really can't switch it easily.

Permalink: Jim_and_the_iPhone.html
Words: 213
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: mobile

06/29/07 06:13 - 75ºF - ID#39849

Not not iphone

Here I am using a Cisco IP phone but not the iPhone at 6:00PM on Friday, June 29th when really I should be getting my hands on my new shiny iPhone that I am not going to get. (e:jim) we should have gone just for the hype.