So at about 4.45pm I got an email that there would be a companywide meeting tomorrow at 10am regarding our annual popularity contest.

At 4.50pm I got a frantic phone call from the same person asking if the final results were ready yet.

Well, no, considering there was still a small stack of outstanding paper ballots ... and then an actual human has to look them all over and merge the misspellings. [How many ways can you spell, eg, (e:strip)? Let's see: estrip, (e:strip), ((e:strip)), estrip.org, elmwoodstrip.org, elmwoodstrip.com, Elmwood Strip, and these are just legitimate spellings. If I had a dime for every ballot that said 'Niagra,' I would have several dimes.] Then multiply the confusion and incompetence by 150 awards and again by 1500 ballots.

So I said as far as I knew the raw tally wasn't even ready yet. At this point another individual said we need to know who won so we can sell ads to the winners, and we've only got a week to do it. And I said it doesn't change the fact it's not done. And she said, but we only have a week. And I said, it's still not done. What do you want me to do by 10am tomorrow? I am, after all, just the computer geek.

So they said, split it up and we'll each take a section home and bring them in tomorrow. And I said great, but I've already got plans, I've got to do taxes for me and (e:dragonlady7) , and by the time I was done splitting up the tally it was 5.30pm and everyone had gone home anyway. So it beats the Hell out of me what we're going to be doing tomorrow morning. Staring at the walls and yelling at each other I would imagine.


In somewhat nicer news, this was the first year I have ever actually made money on my taxes. I racked up a nice $7400 tuition bill at the beginning of the year and only got a job halfway through the year, so not only do I have little to no taxable income, but I sneaked in just under the wire for the earned income credit as well. [The EIC is a tax credit intended for those living in crushing poverty; it is only available if you made less than $11,500 all year. Unlike other tax credits, if your tax comes up negative after subtracting the EIC, the government will actually give you money. Jeez, poor people have it so easy. Well, except for that whole trying-to-pay-rent-utilities-groceries-transportation-clothing-and-health-care -on-less-than-$960-per-month thing.]


- Z

SPONGE CANDY AND BLACK JELLYBEANS FOR BREAKFAST!!! BLACK COFFEE SWEETENED WITH MOLTEN DARK CHOCOLATE-RASPBERRY CREAMS!!! IT CAN ONLY MEAN ONE THING!!! IT'S EASTER!!! AND I'M HIGH AS A KITE ON SUGAR AND CAFFEINE!!!

I THINK I'M GOING TO GO HOP ON THE VESPA NOW!!! MAYBE PUSH IT AROUND THE BLOCK A COUPLE TIMES!!!

HAPPY EASTER!!!

- Z!!!

somebody'd mentioned being a Morphine fan, so here you go: 'Bo's Veranda,' from the Get Shorty soundtrack.

I'm going to try to keep my journal music instrumental, since I often find vocals distracting, and I think pop instrumentals are an underrated niche.

- Z

Last summer (e:dragonlady7) and I went to Dick's so she could pick up some work shoes. She spent an hour hemming and hawing over different kinds of sneakers. I immediately found a pair of low-top roller skates on clearance and spent the hour whizzing around the store. I did not purchase them, but I was close.

This evening we saw some kid at Anderson's with a pair of Heelys , which I had never seen before. The thing you've got to love about kids is they're always testing out innovative ways to break their necks.

I should just impulse-purchase both of them. For $100 I'd never have to walk again.

- Z

For those of you without an iPod: if you have an Internet-enabled cell phone, our restaurant guide is in pre-beta and available by typing the usual link into your phone's web browser.

If the logo at the top of the screen is black-and-white on a solid orange background [XHTML-Mobile], you're good to go.
If the logo is black-and-white on a white background [WML], your phone is oldish and I haven't gotten to that part of the site yet.
And if the logo is black-and-white on a flowery orange background [XHTML], your cell phone would like to think it's a desktop.

In particular, if you have a super beefy mobile device [PocketPC, palmtop, &c.] I'd like to know which site you get [mobile/desktop] and which site you'd prefer to get.

- Z

Yet another geeky post, but there's a cool technology preview at the end. Feel free to skip the geeky part.

<geeky>
I am considering how to do a distributed GUI for backend database management at work, and I remembered I had done a presentation on Mozilla XUL when I was at school. XUL [XML User-interface Language] is used to describe the entirety of the Firefox user interface, and a very neat feature of Firefox is that if you browse to a XUL file on the Internet, it will render the XUL UI and let you interact with it.
</geeky>

I came up with a proof-of-concept demo for an iPhoto-like online photo album based on XUL. If you are using Mozilla/Firefox [it will not work in any other browser, I promise you] visit xPhoto to see some pictures of my aunt's cottage on the lake and (e:dragonlady7) 's sister's springer spaniel Scout.

Now I'm going to see if I can score some points by cleaning the house before (e:dragonlady7) gets home.

- Z

So I did my annual white suburbanite duty today, drove into the East Side, spent 45 minutes and $4 at the Broadway Market, and got back to Kenmore, happy to report that my car did not get 'jacked' by any 'gangstas.' I look forward to going back next year, if it's still open.

This is sarcasm, of course, but it's all true - does it make it any less terrible that I at least realize that it's terrible? No, it makes me a ponce who would rather feel guilty than do something. Perhaps I will make an effort to do regular shopping at the Market this year. Perhaps I say that every year.

Broadway/Fillmore reminds me a lot of where I used to live in Greenville, Jersey City. Both neighborhoods, obviously, have seen better days. I don't know about Greenville, but B/F used to be a bustling shopping district not very long ago. Unlike other areas of the East Side, B/F is ripe for large-scale retail investment. All the buildings - gorgeous, big, retail buildings - are still there [excepting Sattler's, which is now a gorgeous, big, empty parking lot], are largely vacant, and the real estate is dirt fucking cheap. I firmly believe that if you build it they will come - but seriously, who's going to invest millions in renovating a dilapidated old department store in the ghetto when you can spend millions on a brand-new box store built to spec out on Niagara Falls Blvd? It's fuckin' depressing.

But enough with the sadness; the Broadway Market brought me great joy today as well, for nowhere else in the world would they bother to clean 25 fresh smelt (WIKIPEDIA - Smelt) per pound for four bucks a pound. Hell yes. The noble smelt averages six inches long, and is best described as 'bait.' Smelt are extremely plentiful in the lower Niagara near Lewiston early in the spring, and all you have to do to get a bucketful is to dip your net in the river and pull it out. You have not truly tasted seafood until you've eaten a basket of fresh smelt, six hours from river to fryer - but you have also not truly prepared seafood unless you've cleaned a five-gallon bucket of fresh smelt, 25 to the pound.

One of my happier childhood memories involves my dad coming back from a fishing trip with a drywall bucket full of smelt he'd just pulled out of the river. He showed up at my aunt's house with the bucket and a hopeful grin.

"Nuh uh, no way. Get away from me with those. There's gotta be at least a hundred fish in there. If you don't want to clean them, I'm sure as Hell not going to clean them."

"No, no. It'll be great. Let's do this." So they spent the entire afternoon gutting and beheading the little fuckers, and we gorged ourselves on just this insane pile of the most delicious fried fish you can get.

I think that was the last time I ever had smelt, for obvious reasons, and this is why I love the Broadway Market. You think Danny Jr's got the cojones to offer fresh smelt at $4/lb? pfft.

- Z

The annual restaurant guide is set to be published on April 27th. It looks like it's going to be a good one - we're listing over 100 local restaurants, and I'm putting together an expanded online component for year-round reference. But what happens if you're out and about, you got the hunger, and you're one of these people who doesn't carry a computer with them at all times?

You look it up on your iPod, duh. iPods have this great underutilized feature called Note Reader [devnotes ] that lets you put plain text and hyperlinked content on your iPod. I want to preview this in front of some 'normal people' before unleashing the beast, so if you're interested, try this out.

1. Download the menu guide from gather:0801401001144445585 and unzip it. [Note: this prerelease is incomplete. The final version will have more listings and will be searchable by neighborhood, cuisine, and price range.]

2. Connect your iPod to your computer. If it does not show up on your desktop:
- in iTunes, select iPod in the Source list and click the Options button.
- Click General and select "Enable disk use."

3. Copy the "Menus" folder from your desktop into the "Notes" folder on your iPod.

4. Eject the iPod from your desktop and disconnect it. That's it! The restaurant guide is now available on your iPod by selecting Extras -> Notes -> Menus.

Please let me know your opinions on this - is it good? bad? dumb? too hard to use? needs more features?

- Z

Three things:

1. Neat event at the UB Art Gallery entitled 'NET<3: Sociable Technologies.' Some geeky computers-facilitating-human-interaction stuff, some digital art, some miscellany. I'm in; anyone else?

2. Pumpkin Ginger Soup, a la Cafe 59 [this is purported to be their actual recipe]:
Combine in saucepan:
28oz canned veggie broth
1 cinnamon stick
2 whole cloves
1/4tsp crushed red pepper (start with less to taste)
8Tbsp white sugar
1Tbsp cider vinegar
1Tbsp kosher salt
Cover & bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Simmer 5min. Remove cloves, then add:
14oz unsweetened coconut milk
29oz solid pack pumpkin
1Tbsp + 1tsp fresh ginger, grated
Bring to boil over medium heat. Reduce heat & simmer again 5min.

3. Current Music: Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Greyhound

- Z

(e:dragonlady7,7) 's voluminous post regarding our garden is kind of offputting. Gardening is a whole lot of work, but there's really only one thing you need to remember: Green side up and mind the packet. The plants can sort the rest out for themselves.

- Z