I think it would be great to start a 'political cartoon' of sorts with no actual commentary or talent - just a picture of today's top headline with googly eyes. You probably think that's stupid, but I bet the comment threads would be incendiary enough to generate and maintain significant traffic. How many steps does it take to get from 'Alberto Gonzales has googly eyes' to ' (e:zobar) is an America-hating fascist?'

- Z

[Geeky, slight popular appeal:]

I have begun a perverse new project which I call Billustrator, a simple drawing program with a familiar interface:



It is written in Java, and thus runs on Mac OS X and Linux as well as Windows. It will be small and lightweight, so that users can do simple editing quickly. The architecture is extensible by design, and so it is not limited by its own assumptions. I think it would be keen to be able to embed it into web pages as an applet, and thus enhance the graphic capabilities of this 'Web 2.0' nonsense. [Along the lines of the (e:strip) chalkboard, only more so.]

(e:dragonlady7) thought I was cracked, until this afternoon when she said she needed to crop & scale an image and had to resort to Photoshop. I guarantee that Billustrator could have had the job done before Photoshop had even finished launching.

The main UI is nearly done, and all the commands and tools are stubbed out. Even the builtins are implemented as plugins, so the plugin architecture is coming along as well and should end up very robust. More details [or not] as they become available [or don't].

- Z

One of the benefits of working here is that sometimes people will send press releases for their events to me instead of the calendar editor. This came across my desk this morning, and I sincerely want to go:



My money's on Dick the Destroyer or Unnamed Wrestler #4 [with the feather boa].

- Z

This dude just tried passing me in the oncoming-traffic lane of Kenmore Ave. After he realized what an idiotic idea that was, at the next red light he got out of his car to yell at me. The light turned green as he was getting out of the car, and I was a block away before he managed to get back in and get his car back in drive.

Next red light I was not so lucky. Homeboy comes charging out of his car and starts slamming on my side window. Reassuring words from the passenger side: 'he's wearing a police badge...' Fine, I roll down the window. Homeboy starts howling about everything under the moon but I think all I did was give him a blank stare. Light turns green and he books down Kenmore 50mph.

Instant poll: DWI off-duty cop with a Napoleon complex? Or a flabby ex-gay-costume-stripper bitter about his long-past glory days?

- Z

Trust me, we don't care. This means you, (e:james,38834)

[I found this ad on an article about the May postage rate increase. Apparently it's only the maverick alternative conservative media with the harbls to cover postage rate increases.]

- Z

- Z

The Twin Peaks Season 2 DVD is now finally shipping for those of you who already own Season 1. For boneheads like me who were waiting until Season 2 came out to buy both, Season 1 is totally sold out and is fetching around $100 on eBay. I asked some random dude about it and he said if you don't have Season 1 already he'd recommend waiting for the full box set in October.

- Z

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New user sound: 'Falling' by Angelo Badalamenti gather:0667080001175616651

Photos of the game are forthcoming

- Z

Wow!! Sabres pogs!!

YourHub, The Buffalo News' fledgling social networking site, has been around for a few months now and I was initially reserving judgment because a website is only as bad as its content, and there wasn't much content yet. Well, after four months of paying local self-published wordsmiths to fill their site by plugging their novels, today's discussion topic is: drinking too much coffee . When the inevitable follow-up came I could not help but contribute. Only after I had pushed the Send button did I remember the photo I had posted on my profile lo these many months ago .

Now I'm not going to knock YourHub because it's not like I haven't been down that road on (e:strip) myself (e:zobar,37304) . And it's academically interesting that, despite its stated corporate goal of being inclusive of all 630,000 Buffalo News readers, it's becoming an in-club just like any other social networking site - that the in-people [most or all of whom are paid to be there] have formed their own community and are talking about their caffeine intake and their favorite Italian restaurants just like the rest of us unpaid local bloggers. Except that they can't really speak freely because they can't say anything that would offend Depewites' tender sensibilities. Which means that not only are they talking about in-stuff we don't care about, it's totally watered down. It's like eating someone else's cold tapioca when you don't like tapioca and you're not hungry. Or like reading Buffalo Current without Sabrina the Creepy Sex Columnist (GOOGLE - cache:www.buffalocurrent.com).

But I guess that's all to be expected. This is what bugs me about YourHub. It is divided into neighborhoods: Amherst/Clarence, 'Central,' Grand Island/Ken-Ton, Hamburg/West Seneca, Niagara Falls, Orchard Park/East Aurora, Southern Tier, and West Niagara County. They are arbitrary but at least they're well-defined ... except for Central. I kind of figured that since Buffalo is the county seat and that's also where the Buffalo News is headquartered, Central meant the Buffalo city proper. But no! It appears that they completely forgot to include the city in their list of neighborhoods. So where is an urban hipster like myself supposed to post the pictures I took drinking PBR in the booth at Frizzy's?

And that is why we have (e:strip).

- Z

... those sweet sweet cravings ...

- Z