Paul's Journal

05/01/2006 01:58 #32587

The Linwood Tour
Category: buffalo

The houses are really fancy, the people are reallly pretentious. I don't have any pics accept for this one of us on the street. The atmosphere felt non-condusive to taking photos.

There was a firmware for my phone that came out and it was reported to fix the video cam problem, maybe tehre will be more video on my journal. The problem is that updating it wipe dout all of my programs. This made me spend the entire night updating my phone which required that I reboot it a millions times. It was so frustrating bt everything is back to normal and google maps work better than ever. I just watched like four episodes of start trek while it "updated." Unfortunately, becase the ocmputer was tied up with the update, I didn't get to finish the new site updates I had planned for today. Soon yo will each get yor own custom theme so yo can pick ot yor own colors sing a fancy schamcy color slider thing I built.

On a totally separate note does anyone know what this building on North Johnson Park (MAP TO: 20%20N%20JOHNSON%20PARK) used to be. It is in total disrepair now but looks like it was something fancy.

paul - 03/26/08 21:43
Now we are one of the home owners on the tour. Oh the irony. You can take as many pictures as you want at our house.

pyrcedgrrl - 05/07/06 13:53
I only remember that building on N. Johnson as a crack hotel. People used to be hanging out in front asking for money as we stumbled up the street to the Underground.

leetee - 05/01/06 16:31
The owner of the Mayflower (the building we used to live in) on the corner of Summer and Linwood is a pretentious wanker. He is so proud of those damn lion statues out front. Claims people will want to have their photos taken with them...

jim - 05/01/06 16:03
The building on Johnson Park was supposedly the first building in the US with a concrete facade.

It was being renovated and turned into apartments, but a couple years ago there was a collapse inside that injured (killed?) a construction worker, and I'm not sure if that delayed or ended the remodel plans. There hasn't been much visible progress lately, that's for sure.

It's such a great looking building, but weirdly hidden on that street. Perpetually in shadows....

scott - 05/01/06 09:11
I'm not surprised on the pretentious folks while walking Linwood. I used to park on Linwood when I worked at CHOB and always felt like I was intruding. Pretty houses, though.

'Yay' on the custom themes...

04/29/2006 22:32 #32586

Oh say can you see
Category: lyrics

in reference to (e:libertad,21) I wrote this poem in reference to the national anthem thing.

Those of you that speak javascript might find it funny.

<html>
<body>
<script type="text/javascript">
illegalAlienYearningForLivingWage = function(name){
    var t=this;

    t.name= name;
    t.languageSpoken = 'english';
    t.alive=1;
    t.health=100;
    t.englishCompetency=0;
    t.illegalStatus=1;
    t.toHTML();
};

illegalAlienYearningForLivingWage.prototype.see = function(condition){

    this.lyricsSung = condition;

    this.report(this.name+' sang '+this.lyricsSung);
    switch(condition){
        case "by the dawn's early light":
            this.becomesAmerican();
        break;

        case "a la luz de la aurora":
            this.removeFromCountry();
        break;
    }
    this.updateStats();
};

illegalAlienYearningForLivingWage.prototype.becomesAmerican = function(){
    this.usCitizenship=true;
    this.chanceForLivingWage = true;
    this.illegalStatus=0;
    window.document.body.style.backgroundColor ='blue';
    alert('congratulations '+this.name+' you sang in english you can be american')
}

illegalAlienYearningForLivingWage.prototype.removeFromCountry = function(){

    this.report("pablo was send back to mexico");
    this.tryAndReturnByCrossingTheBorderForALivingWage();
    if(this.health > 0){
        this.tryAndLearnEnglishWorking70HoursInAFieldPickingStrawberries();
        if(this.englishCompetency < 80){
            this.usCitizenship=false;
            this.chanceAtLivingWage = false;
        } else {
            this.see("by the dawn's early light");

        }
    } else {

        window.document.body.style.backgroundColor ='red';
        alert(this.name+' died at a cattle ranch getting shot by neonazis. Game over');
        this.health=0;
    }
    this.updateStats();
};

illegalAlienYearningForLivingWage.prototype.tryAndLearnEnglishWorking70HoursInAFieldPickingStrawberries = function(){

    var english_learned = Math.floor(Math.random()*20);
    this.report(this.name+' learned '+english_learned+'% more english working 70 hours a week picking strawberries in a field');
    return this.englishCompetency += english_learned;
};

illegalAlienYearningForLivingWage.prototype.tryAndReturnByCrossingTheBorderForALivingWage = function(){
    health_lost = Math.floor(Math.random()*20);
    this.report(this.name+ 'lost '+health_lost+'% health on the journey');
    this.health -=health_lost;
};

illegalAlienYearningForLivingWage.prototype.toHTML = function(){
    var t=this;
    t.story = document.createElement('div');
    btn = document.createElement('button');
    btn.appendChild(document.createTextNode('Try and sing in english'));

    dat = document.createElement('div');
    statsLyrics =document.createElement('p');
    statsLyrics.appendChild(document.createTextNode('Lyrics Sung: '));
    t.statsLyricsSung = document.createElement('span');
    t.statsLyricsSung.appendChild(document.createTextNode(''));
    statsLyrics.appendChild(this.statsLyricsSung);

    statsEnglishCompetency =document.createElement('p');
    statsEnglishCompetency.appendChild(document.createTextNode('English Competetcy: '));
    t.statsEnglishCompetencyPercent = document.createElement('span');
    t.statsEnglishCompetencyPercent.appendChild(document.createTextNode(''));
    statsEnglishCompetency.appendChild(this.statsEnglishCompetencyPercent);

    statsHealth =document.createElement('p');
    statsHealth.appendChild(document.createTextNode('Heath: '));
    t.statsHealthPercent = document.createElement('span');
    t.statsHealthPercent.appendChild(document.createTextNode(''));
    statsHealth.appendChild(this.statsHealthPercent);

    dat.appendChild(statsLyrics);
    dat.appendChild(statsEnglishCompetency);
    dat.appendChild(statsHealth);

    window.document.body.appendChild(btn);
    window.document.body.appendChild(dat);
    window.document.body.appendChild(t.story);

    btn.onclick = function(){
        t.story.innerHTML ='';
        t.see("a la luz de la aurora");
    }
}

illegalAlienYearningForLivingWage.prototype.updateStats = function(){

    this.statsLyricsSung.firstChild.data = this.lyricsSung;
    this.statsHealthPercent.firstChild.data = this.health;
    this.statsEnglishCompetencyPercent.firstChild.data = this.englishCompetency;
};

illegalAlienYearningForLivingWage.prototype.report = function(info){
    this.story.innerHTML += '<br />'+info;
}
pablo = new illegalAlienYearningForLivingWage('pablo');
</script>
</body>
</html>

paul - 05/02/06 10:53
And its still better than many of the other border towns like nogales or juarez

enknot - 05/02/06 10:48
Ok...so I had to camp out at Jenny's sisters house in North Hollywood so that I wouldn't miss my flight because of the immigration rally in LA, so this JavaScript poem really touched me....sigh. (I'm serious).

The poem's sweet dude. I love it how Pablo looses life to learn English. It's kinda sad and true, we steal life from these people, and when we've had our fill we say..."uh stay in your dirty little country until I want to go on vacation or screw the poor people here again." America: The life-pire.

If you ever get a chance go to TJ just across the border. It's the most depressing adventure you'll ever go on. You'll get trailed for yards by starving babies that are cuter than buttons, and then you'll come home an enjoy a big mac and smile again.

jason - 04/30/06 16:40
Very interesting lol!

libertad - 04/29/06 22:39
damnit! If i only knew javascript!

04/29/2006 18:50 #32585

Hiking in the City
Category: buffalo

Geocaching. I still haven't gone but I want to and I own three different kinds of gps units. Just type your zipcode ito geocaching.com

to see all the caches around you

We, (e:matthew) , (e:terry) and I, were gonna go hiking at zoar valley today but it didn't happen because of a million reasons, one of which is that I did not want to bring the tortoise in and (e:mattew) was working till 2PM. So we ended up going down to the Erie Canal.

The boyscouts were having some sort of jamboree at the battleships. You can find them at the corner of Maine and Maine.
What is up with that?

They are rebuilding the canal, well at least it looks like they are rebuilding the canal.

(e:matthew) decided to take part of the canal home with him.

Buffalo has so many grain mills. These ones are between waterfront, the new casino/projects and the first ward.

We ended up at Times beach - now an wildlife preserve. It seems liek a cool place to watch birds but seems way to nasty and industrial to play at too much.

It all seems to toxic like everywhere i spent my childhood. Here is some info about it

The algae is so long it looks like a furry shag rug.

We tried to walk along the breakwall to get to the old lighthouse but its blocked by an army base.

I got this stress releiving squeezy toy from Roswell Park but the tortoise started to eat it. (e:matthew) took it out of his area and then the squirrels decided to eat it. What the hell is up with it, is it that yummy? I have to admit I kinda wanted to chew on it to.

metalpeter - 04/30/06 11:28
Great pics. I admit I was sord of in part of the area yesterday but didn't have time to explore it and go down to the waterfront. To bad there was no way to get to the lighthouse.

leetee - 04/29/06 22:40
I thing this area also has a few more weird intersections... i think there is a corner of Orchard Park Rd and Orchard Park Road... yeah, in Orchard Park somewhere...

twisted - 04/29/06 20:37
It's a good thing tortoises and squirrels can't read or that would be a stress-inducing toy, haha. Wow, 5254 geocaches in my :::link::: zip code. Koshland Park :::link::: is right up the street from me. Maybe I should check out the Community Family Camp :::link::: August 8-18th. Do you think anybody would notice if I snuck home to take a shower every once in a while? lol.

04/29/2006 14:39 #32584

Basra the Freedom Tortoise
Category: pets

I let Basra run free this afternoon. He ate lots of hay and dandelions and violets. Everytime I pick him up he freaks out because he just doesn't want to go inside. I feel bad for him. I wonder if he can possibly understand that it is ever is "not nice out" because we only take him outside durign the warm months. I wonder if he thinks that it is always nice out but we just keep him imprisoned most of the time in his very own bedroom.

At least I will able to pick him up when he is 150 lbs, although not if he is kicking, as he likes to do when you try and take him inside. In case you are wondering what his name is about, we got him on the day they bombed basra to "free it."

ajay - 04/30/06 00:55
Like Plato's Allegory of the Cave?

jason - 04/29/06 19:29
Home boy is big and strong enough he could weather an all out attack! Go Basra!

04/28/2006 21:59 #32583

Life coaches and a tower
Category: work

I started to work on my thesis for ten minutes when I dicovered I am not meant for editing and re-editing words in human language. To me right now, human language is such a totally inefficient to express what my project was about. I have already written about 300,000 lines of code and 2034 journals encompassing 326,085 words. When is enough, enough?

Anhow, so on to the interesting stuff, life coaches. I don't want one but the TV show I was watching in the background involved 3 straight men going to a life coach (the actress who also plays Dr. Quinn) to learn how to get women to love them. What is this life coach business all about? Is it even real. So i typed it into google, just google it (GOOGLE - life coach). It seems like it is all the rage and maybe it will give someone here a career option they hadn't though of. Is it just a fnacy name for a therapist or is it just something for rich people with too much time.

If I ever get a life coach, please just kill me. Please.

On a side note:

After months of disputes over the future of ground zero, state and city officials finally brought in the heavy equipment and began construction on Thursday on the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower that will rise at the World Trade Centre site.

Just thinking about that building makes me shudder. There is no way I wouldn ever go in it. In fact I would rather use the microwave when slightly open. Why build something that is screaming target so much.

scott - 04/29/06 13:01
There's a very funny episode of Penn & Teller's show "Bullshit" about Life Coaches. Definitely worth renting. (any episode of that show's worth renting, btw)

paul - 04/29/06 01:42
It's bluemchen, she is european super kitsch star that sings in german mostly.

mrdt - 04/29/06 00:55
you really like those happy hardcore beats, I take it. Well anyway, who the hell is that playing at 185 bpm?? I gotta say I love the trance vocals.
as far as a life coach...you shouldn't need one if you have a good life partner or your introverted and internalize your thoughts/decisions.