"Troop Withdrawl" written by Paul on estrip.org

Category: war

07/10/07 08:57 - 86ºF - ID#40042

Troop Withdrawl

That question is "not going to face this government," Bush said, chuckling slightly at a news conference with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, "because we made up our mind. We've made that part clear. It'll face future governments. There will be future opportunities for people to say, 'Well, it's not worth it. Let's just retreat.' "

Since then, nearly 700 more American soldiers have died in a war that has now lasted more than four years, lost the lives of more than 3,600 U.S. troops, cost $10 billion a month -- and cost Republicans control of the House and Senate.

I love how it costs 10 billion dollars a month. I wish it was better phrased top money was transfered from the people to a select group of mega corporations. I am sure some of it is for the troops but a whole heck of a lot of it is for war machinery and infrastructure, which results in big companies getting richer and the American People losing money that could otherwise pay for a fucking hell of a lot of services. Imagine if our government had an additional 10 billion to spend on domestic programs.

I can't wait to read about how terrible Bush was in history books. Unfortunately, I will be one of those people that children ask why I didn't do anything about it.

Permalink: Troop_Withdrawl.html
Words: 237
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: web

07/09/07 08:43 - 82ºF - ID#40026

myspace.com

Sorry we weren't able to find "paul visco" " on MySpace.com

Holy crap, I went on a little tour de myspace for the first time today - it kind of gives me that scummy feeling I get after hanging out at the pink.

Robert at work told me that Nick Battaglia, someone he knows, knew me. The name sounded familiar but I couldn't exactly remember who it was. So I searched their name online and ended up at

,which led me to myspace, which led me to see a hole bunch of people I know tangentially but did not know were interrelated. I realized through the connections that he was in fact the younger brother of someone I went to school with.

It all took me back to (e:chris)

Permalink: myspace_com.html
Words: 135
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: pets

07/08/07 10:23 - 76ºF - ID#40017

Our Baby Sugar Glider Is Growing Up

I wonder if this will ever stop or if we will have 30 of them like we did with the pet mice in Germany.

An with special effects.

Scary

Permalink: Our_Baby_Sugar_Glider_Is_Growing_Up.html
Words: 40
Location: Buffalo, NY

Category: language

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.