Posts from September 2009

My twitter experience started out as a slightly staggered instant messaging/helpdesk/news-update platform for the online services and news sources I use for my school/professional work.

However, quite inevitably it has spilled over into a duplicate twitter account for non-work-related interest areas such as (e:strip), Buffalo and then overflowed to other virtual Buffalo denizens not on (e:strip). My mind has an (almost certainly) inaccurate map of these crazy online connections I am making. They are all over the place:



The green ticks are the people I have met in non-virtual worlds and the question marks are the unknowns. The connections are people or news sources whom I have connected to online.

I am not sure where all this twittering and friend-feeding is going (an element of time-wasting is almost certainly involved). However, my school work is definitely benefiting through my twitter window. I don't like the whole Facebook culture of one-line breathless status messaging and will always prefer wordy run-on blogs but there is an indescribable quotient of "cool" in being able to message myself with a link or post an observation and have a focused, relevant, informed and witty social commentary tacked on to it.

There is also this thrill in being able to address anyone and everyone on the network with no prefaces. It feels like a huge party conversation in which you can join or from which you can drop out anytime. I am finding that some of these conversations (especially on the school front) are involved, funny and lead to insights that are quite impossible in a formal single-track interaction with just the source material (without added benefit of a social commentary).

Overall, I feel like I have a flashy but useful tool in my school toolbox. But the strange fact is somehow Buffalo is becoming even more intimate each day even as the whole area of unknowns steadily gets bigger.

I spent some time at the CEPA gallery in Market Arcade last evening and I was struck by this exhibit.

It takes me back to the time when that ignorant shrunken old hag "Mother" Teresa was alive and channeling money into her vile medieval dark age schemes in Ireland.



However flawed the Government at home might be, I am really glad they didn't let that loathsome shriveled monster take over health policies and reproductive rights in the country.



This issue strikes a very very raw nerve in me. How can you possibly know what it is like to look ahead at 9 months of unexpected depression and self-torture when you are so far removed from such scenarios?



It speaks volumes about your insularity when all you can think of is being aggressive about allowing continued division of a bunch of cells under the facade of being "pro-life" while completely ignoring a human whose life and future might be at stake.

Buffalo need to re-evaluate its scarce programs for safe and medically aided abortions. Is this all we have?

1. Sweet Home Medical
Phone: 716-691-1414


2. Buffalo Women Services
Phone Toll-Free: 1-800-598-3783


3. Planned Parenthood, Niagara Falls
Phone: 716-282-1221

This man has it right on so many counts.



Yeah, the video is 41 minutes long but the message is totally worth it.

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• I find Buffalo's downtown and harbour utterly fascinating. There is so much character and story behind each building, each statue, the shapes and the curves of the radials and the roads. You could spend many a pleasant day wandering around downtown and not be bored (unless of course, history, architecture and scenery don't really get your attention) Some cities are very sterile by comparison.

&

I was walking by 50 Allen Street when this caught my attention.




I shared the outrage when I saw what they had done.


Really? Who digs up a beautiful front garden?


What were they thinking?! Don't they have any pride in a beautiful community?

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• @libertad: My pictures were sideways to start with but I resized and saved them as jpegs. When I uploaded them, they lost their correct orientation. I saved them as pngs and re-uploaded them and this time, they retained their intended orientation. I am thinking maybe this has something to do with loss of information when you resize and save as jpegs. The pngs, though the same size as the jpegs, have a lot more bytes than the jpegs - maybe that is why retain their orientation information? I am guessing here... @paul - do you know something about this?

Defined:

Rainbow circa 1976


Vs.

Rata Blanca circa 2001


There aren't any! Both are mind-blowing definitions of "awesome"!

That is all.

Broccoli and bell peppers steamed with fresh coriander, fresh red chillies, jalapenos, garlic, mint, coconut, ginger, galangal, red-chilli powder and yellow split peas in soy sauce.

Now, with sound.


Franklin Street

City Hall, Niagara Square

Observation Deck, City Hall - Niagara Falls


Observation Deck, City Hall - I study here!

Observation Deck, City Hall - I live here!


Observation Deck, City Hall - I shop here!


Observation Deck, City Hall - I dream here!

Niagara Square

Court Street

Lafayette Square

Washington Street

(Erie Community College City Campus)

Waterfront, Buffalo

Sunset, Waterfront, Buffalo

Goodbye, summer in Buffalo. Hope the coming winter is just as incredible. :)