As the semester ends my insanity begins. I have so much stuff to start planning. Like moving my courses from Cinema 4D to Maya. It's exciting, and it opens up lots of possibilities but it means I have 1 month to redo all my lesson plans which is never very fun. Then I have all these new upgrades for the site that I still have to test out an upload. Some of them should be good.

Some people have asked to use the site for their projects. Like new sites for other communities. I am excited about the possibility but would rather die than just hand someone two years of work right now. Maybe I should start some sort of service. Oh, if I only had more of that thing called time.

Worst of all I have to read student response papers, most of which are horrendous. Actually, some are almost unreadable which makes me wonder what is going on with the english requirements in Liberal Arts these days. Most of my students cannot write to the point where it will cripple their future. I am not talking about simple grammar and spelling mistakes. I am referring to writing that simply does not make sense. Some of you that teach must know what I mean, right?

The kicker is that we have to move by Dec 31st and that we are not going to Las Vegas. Jim Leong, our landlord has made us sign a contract saying we would move. Our neighbor hated him so much he actually told Jim to go back to china where he came from. This is amusing on many levels. I mean Jim Leong isn't even Chinese, but the racial slur rolled into that one probably infuriated him more.

Wouldn't surprise me the way he cuts corners on stuff and hires such cheap labor. I overheard one of the foremen saying that he tried to hire the cheapest labor for the electric work and it ended up screwing him out of so much money because of their incompetence. I wouldn't be surprised if they serve cats at his restaurant on Kenmore Avenue called mai jen.

I really don't want to be giving him money anymore anyways and he agreed to charge us $400 for December if we move out by Dec 31. This is after several illegal mishaps on his part where he broke in and entered our house with no notice. He then tried to deny he gave the construction workers a key to our house, but I came home twice with them in the house and one day I locked the door before they came in and found me in my dining room. Same thing happened to (e:matthew). Many days with no water, days with no electricity and 24/7 construction and paint fumes for his financial gain.

For once I want a landlord that cares about the facilities. The apartment before this one, the ceiling feel down in the bedroom. just like what happened to (e:southernyankee).

The drama with the landlord is why the elmwood banner is down. I think he wanted to charge me for it's presence. I wasn't actually there when it came down.

The whole thing is related to the fact that he accidentally gave us heat included in our contract and needed a way to get out of that. None of the new apartments have heat included and the price is going up in all of them. Teresa old apartment was actually reduced in size and the rent is going up plus no heat included. I can't believe there was a need for a huge price increase plus a size reduction. Those poor tenants.

At least it will be really, really warm this december. Maybe even warm enough to keep the windows open for a couple weeks it could be like that $1000 vacation to Las vegas right on elmwood.

The job I passed up for synacor was developing PHP portal software like this.



Although it seems super corporate, it would have been a really fun project. According to their website

Premium Online Content Trends
The overall U.S. Internet market will soon be driven by value-added services, according to analysts who predict the paid content market will surpass $5 billion by 2006.

According to the Online Publishers Association, U.S. consumers spent $748 million on online content during the first half of 2003, representing a 23 percent increase over the same period in 2002.

I hope I made the right choice and the professorship works out in the long run.

I saw They Might Be Giants [inlink]twisted,86[/inlink] twice in concert and both times sucked really bad. I can't even remember where the first time was but the second time was at Thursday in the Square this year. Maybe it was just the concerts I attended or something. I used to really like them. Actually, I still find their music entertaining on cassette (yes cassette) but I would have to say that missing the concert wasn't that big of a loss.

Did anyone see them somewhere else and have a better experience?

Straight out of the Buffalo News

So I turned down another job this month. Apparently, I have a knack for rejecting jobs right now. I figure it's better to just concentrate on finishing the MFA and promoting my own business ventures than helping other people promote theirs right now. Basically, I wanted to move out the SF and work with (e:twisted) on something that it yet to be determined.

The job actually sounded quite exciting and definitely within my range of things I love to do but my thesis needs to come out of me now and its not gonna happen while working 40 hours a week. I also couldn't break my contract at Canisius, however little I get paid, because I feel like it would end up ruining my professorship future. It's just not worth losing four years of good hard work and a possible future for a 4 month contac and I like it there. Even if the new job would pay better. Although not that much better - per hour actually less.

What it comes down to is should I teach or should I be a programmer or professional artist of some sort. Choice two makes me feel like a retail worker in the mall.

Jim Leong Sucks - On a side note our idiot landlord shut the water off for construction again without giving us notice. So we complained again as it has been everyday non-stop problems during the construction. After a lame argument he made us take down the elmwoodstrip.com banner. I decided to make a whole website about what an asshole he is with interviews, etc. Should be fun. I hope in the long run he will learn not to fuck with Sicilians. If any of you want an apartment on elmwood don't choose the one on elmwood and lafayette. Not only is the landlord a jerk, the plumbing is no toxic PVC.