Not sure why they got the area around the new medical campus construction so bad on google maps

There is no four county bank anywhere around here

At Niagara square today I noticed they sand blasted the bricks to make it look cleaner. Frankly, I liked the old look to the sand blasted look but what's really crazy is that someone thought asphalt was an appropriate brick substitute. How the fuck did anyone think it was okay to do. This screams lazy govt worker. They couldn't find a freakin substitute brick. Even of another color. I would support taking the person who made the decision that this was appropriate and ironically stoning them to death with bricks in the square.

We took (e:Terry)'s mom. I couldn't stop thinking about the guy that jumped. As we were in the elevator and walking up the stairs, I wondered if he amazed at the reliefs or if he stopped and read any of the signs on his way.



Its sad the state the Statler is in. Its like covering the sidewalk with overhead protection is their total solution to the problem of the buildings concretes decorations falling on people's heads.

Before Mulberries (e:paul,57335) we had made a trip to the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens. I renewed our family membership for 2 years if anyone wants to go I got some passes. I love the feeling of the warm humid air in the winter.

I can't believe we live in a world where people like Maureen Pratt from Williamsville are so afraid that children will use iPads for porn and "violent gaming" that they would question the use of mobile information technology in schools. Maybe even worse that our city's newspaper has nothing better to print than this response. She "could not remain silent" and neither can I?



Get with the future Maureen, people like you and the children you "protect" from mobile information access are going to be left behind in the information age. Its already happening, the slower they learn to harness information technology the further behind they will be as adults. Denying kids access to mobile internet technology because they may access porn or violent games is the modern equivalent of keeping kids illiterate because they might read about sex or violence.

Tablets, like phones are just computers you can take with you. They allow you to access the information when and where you need it instead of having to wait until you get home or to school to look it up at which times most things will simply slip off the radar. They represent an amazing opportunity to integrate the world's data stores into the fabric of our lives. I can't count how many times a day I reference valuable information on the internet to help me make informed purchases, define words, repair things, cook meals, program computers, appreciate art and music, and get me around from place to place. Not to mention the ability to tap into a vast network of people and their expertise at any moment.

You can't sanitize the internet. The beauty of it is that no one controls it. Its like the world itself. If it were all neatly controlled and government sanctioned the internet would have never happened. It would be like one big paid Disney commercial in America and other countries wouldn't even know something existed outside their borders.

Instead of just denying kids access it makes a lot more sense to teach them about what is and is not appropriate.

It was supposed to be 70 degrees outside today but it didn't seem it with the wind and no sun so I instead of hiking around, we visited the botanical gardens.



The combo of humidity and warmth is so great.

We went out downtown last night. First to see sharon von etten at the town ballroom and then out to the vault and later marcellas.

The city was strangely dead. There were so few people out that is was almost zombie, post apocolyse creepy. On the way home around 2:30 there was almost no one in the street besides us which is pretty rare for a friday. Maybe everyone is already in winter mode.

The drag show at marcellas was the worst one I ever saw. The energy was so low.

So I was sitting on the porch on Friday having some dinner waiting for a friend to come into town when some dude, who looks totally distraught comes up and tells me his car broke down and needs a jump. I said, sorry I don't have a cable and he responded he has one if I can use my car to jump it.

So I agree to help, and ask which car. I pull down the driveway especting him to walk toward the car and by the time I got to the end of the driveway, he just gets in. In the back of my head I think this is a stupid idea, how the frick did you get yourself into this. Just stop now but some helpful person inside of me that I hate said I was overreacting and that someday this could be me needing help.

Then he says, "Its a couple blocks down toward Delavan." We start to head that way and he is doing the whole thanking me for being a christian brother looking out for my fellow man bullshit. Telling me how he had walked from the far east side to my house and how God had guided him there and answered his prayers. Every fucking time someone starts going in that direction the whole thing turns out to be some complicated drama. I decided he is already in the car, I will give him the benefit out the doubt. Besides, if I kick him out now, what if he gets angry... Its almost over anyways.

So we start heading toward Delewan when he says he needs to go to the gas station to get some gas for the car. Allegedly, the woman who he was living with, the one he gave all of his money to for her rent, drove his car around until it was out of gas and the battery died. Started going into the detail of the sob story. He is from Niagara Falls but moved to Buffalo and works somewhere in Lancaster, blah, blah.

So the entire time down Linwood I ask where the car is and he says oh, "its not actually on Linwood." Its a couple blocks down. We go to the gas station and he goes in. I told him I don't have a canister so he is going to need one for the gas. He goes in and comes out. He realizes he has no money, he left it in the car. I tell him, I have no money, I just left in the middle of dinner to help him jump a car, not planning to be out. He says don't worry then we don't need gas, he can get that later and he can just use whatever change I have in the car to get it. So now I am also down like $7 in change.

So he gets back in the car and we are heading toward the mystery car when he remembers that there is also a broken starter on the car starter and he needs to pick that up at another auto repair shop out near the Science Museum. He says he paid for the part before and its the girls uncle but then when we got there, the place was closed and the guy who was there told him to go to some house down the street. At this point we were way the fuck in the middle of the ghetto out down near east ferry. He runs in and tells me to lock the doors. He said its not like it was when he was a kid, "when black guys were just interested in playing ball, now they just want to kill people." I couldn't decide if he was threatening me or being nice. So I roll up the window and lock the door while he goes. At this point I am thinking... just drive off. Just fucking drive off. Then the other part of me is saying, you stuck it out this far. He might really just need this part and you will have done a good deed. He had just given me this whole speech about how his own people would never be this nice and help him but I was so genuine and nice the way I didn't just drive off at the gas station. Explaining how refreshing it is that I am a different kind of christian who truly cares about other people and helping them out. Mind you I am not a christian, so that really I have no idea what my motivation for helping was other than to think what goes around comes around.

So a bunch of people start wandering toward the car. I am waiting for him to come out and he doesn't. Before he went in, he had pointed out a totally stipped down car in the side yard of the abondoned looking house we were parked outside of. He says, that the car that the part he needs is coming from. In my head I start to think, "This is exactly what is going to happen to my car."

Five minutes go by, the people on bikes are right behind the car now and I turn the car on to take off. Two seconds later he comes out rushing and says, "lets go quick."

I ask him where the car is now and say that I am happy to be helping him out but I have to go meet a friend and I thought I was just jumping a car down the street. He says on Wyoming, its close by. I have no idea where Wyoming is and there is no way in hell I was bringing out my cell phone at that point.

It ties into the story because it is the street he said she lived on. So we head that way but before we go he says he needs to stop at one more gas station. Its right down the road to see if he can get some gas and borrow a canister from a taxi. We get there and he comes out with a jumbo orange freezy pop. Said he needed it to cool down with all of the errand running, no gas.

Now we start heading toward Wyoming. Each time I ask where it is he says we are almost there. Then we get to a thruway ramp and he asks me to get on. I start to feel like I am being car jacked but the reality of it is , he was not really threating me at all, I was just being taken advantage of friendliness. We get off at Grider rd near ECMC and I say, oh I am familiar with this area and tell him the story about my friend in the hospital to try and judge his humanity. He seemed sympathetic so at least I figured he was not a serial killer, lol.

We pull up to Wyoming and he remembers he never got the part from the last place so we have to make the final trip for the part at someone else's house. Its another one more block, one more block, blah, blah until we are out on Baily near South Campus. It is a much "nicer" section of the east side than the last two we were at but I am still the only white person and I definately stick out. There are women outside and all of these kids playing basketball in the street, etc.

So I park. Mind you I am not wearing a shirt as I was in the middle of eating dinner on the porch when the guy showed up and I thought I was just going a few blocks down to help jump a car. So I am sitting there. about 5 minutes go by and I start to hear people asking each what the shirtless white man is doing there. I am getting the distinct feeling they think I am watching the kids. By 10 minutes I was so aggravated that I decided, screw him I am taking off because I was feeling so uncomfortable just sitting there.

Part of me wishes I had followed through to see the end of the story. Another part of me cannot believe I even followed through that far.

Maybe I was totally ripped off for the change in my car and a ride. I mean whats to say he didn't just get $7 and a ride to his final destination and that he was never coming out.

Who knows...

Even with the graduation rate on the rise, it is still only at 54% ;(

Since they fixed the corner they have torn up the street several times. Now it looks like they are going to put in a new sewer system. There are marks down all of the new fancy sidewalks like they are going to have to cut them up. I don't understand why they didn't do all of this while the street was tore up last year.