Paul's Journal

08/21/2007 22:25 #40667

New York Record Retieval, Inc Scam
Category: housing

I got this very official looking letter offering to sell me a certified copy of the deed to my house. It came from New York Record Retrieval, Inc. For the low cost of $59.50 they offered my an official copy of my own deed. To bad it only costs like $5 to get one myself. I can imagine how a lot of people would get sucked into believe this was an official document.

I love how they add the
RE: ERIE COUNTY CLERK

as though it has anything to do with the Erie county clerk.

Surprisingly, there is very little information about it being a scam accept from this warning from the Westchester Country clerks office

In fact, there is nothing about them and Erie county, maybe this is new here.

"No Westchester County homeowner needs to pay an excessive fee to obtain a certified copy of their deed," cautioned Idoni. "And homeowners should not be made to feel that they need a certified copy of a document which has been properly recorded in our office." Idoni continued, "Deeds are recorded by my staff and then returned to the party who has recorded them. In most cases, this is the attorney for the new homeowner."

Idoni and his staff became aware of these letters in recent days as the result of calls and emails from residents around the County. They urge Westchester residents to know the facts about obtaining a certified copy of their deed. "Westchester County homeowners can always obtain a certified copy of their deed from our office for the cost of only $5.00 for up to five pages, plus $1.00 for each additional page," stated Idoni. "And residents should know that if their deed was filed in this office, it has been recorded and remains valid whether or not the homeowner has a certified copy of that deed in their possession."

08/21/2007 18:18 #40662

The new mac keyboard
Category: computers

I got my new mac keyboard today. Its weird having such shallow keys , in fact it is too low for my wrist wrest so now I have it propped up on my trigonometry book. I can type very fast on it and it has a real forward delete key - the reason I ditched my old imac keyboard to begin with.

tinypliny - 08/22/07 04:30
Do you think shallow keyboards make less noise? I make a huge amount of noise typing and I am always checking out ways to sound less like a 50s typewriter.

paul - 08/21/07 22:17
I wanted the usb one because I previously had a bluetooth keyboard and I hated changing the batteries, although I am sure it is much better now. I also liked having the extra usb ports for charging my phone/camera.

jenks - 08/21/07 21:05
ooh, do you like it? I've been debating it. I think I'd go wireless though. Though I do like the extra USB ports...

08/20/2007 23:17 #40646

Balsamic Japanese Beatle Salad
Category: food

We made salad with dinner last night and (e:matthew) added some sorrel and some basil from the garden. I noticed there were some chew holes in the leaves so we removed that part but what we missed was a lonely japanese beatle that ended up getting mixed in the salad with the vinegrette without being notices.

20 minutes later he was draggign himself out of the salad and up the wooden spoon. We put him back outside but he was really vinegar coated.

On a side note (e:mike) got glasses, he can finally tell the difference between a log and a duck.

I have been working on this one project at work so much that I have about a weeks worth of overtime accrued. Hopefully, the week of sept 1 will be fun and free.

mike - 08/21/07 17:46
so there i am exposed as the blind man I am. Anywho, paul I need to know if you can look at old credit card transactions if I had a date for you could you tell me where we got the bumper stickers. Actually I should prolly ask terry cuz he does the money.

lauren - 08/21/07 11:59
mmm, protein. what lovely boys you are to let him back into the wild. hopefully other animals don't like balsamic as much as humans do.

fellyconnelly - 08/21/07 00:50
i agree with james. though i have never met mike, so i can't say for certain.

james - 08/21/07 00:49
With your's and (e:Libertad)'s photos of (e:Mike) with the glasses I wanted to say they look good.

tinypliny - 08/20/07 23:26
Those beetles are inspiring. They know the true meaning of persistence. I have much to learn from them. :/

08/19/2007 16:12 #40621

Buffalo and Population
Category: buffalo

(E:matthew) and I were talking about the term megalopolis and trying to remember exactly what the deifntion was so we looked it up in wikipedia
(WIKIPEDIA - megalopolis)

A megalopolis is defined as an extensive metropolitan area or a long chain of roughly continuous metropolitan areas in the United States and Canada. The term was first used in the United States by Jean Gottmann in 1957, to describe the huge urban area along the Eastern seaboard of the U.S. from Boston, Massachusetts to Washington, D.C. ...A megalopolis is also frequently a megacity, or a metropolitan area with a total population in excess of 10 million people.

which lead me to the definition of a megacity (WIKIPEDIA - Megacity) where I learned

In 2000, there were 18 megacities - conurbations such as Tokyo, Mexico City, Bombay, Sao Paulo and New York City - that have populations in excess of 10 million inhabitants. Greater Tokyo already has 35 million, more than the entire population of Canada.

By 2025, according to the Far Eastern Economic Review, Asia alone will have at least 10 hypercities, those with 20 million or more, including Jakarta (24.9 million people), Dhaka (25 million), Karachi (26.5 million), Shanghai (27 million) and Bombay (with a staggering 33 million).[9] Lagos has grown from 300,000 in 1950 to an estimated 15 million today, and the Nigerian government estimates that city will have expanded to 25 million residents by 2015.[10] Chinese experts forecast that Chinese cities will contain 800 million people by 202

Buffalo
Which got me thinking about Buffalo's (WIKIPEDIA - Buffalo,_New_York) and it's population. I knew that it was somewhere around 300,000 but wasn't sure on actual figures. It was fantastic to see it as a chart. It is interesting to see we have returned to our late 1890's population level. Think about that. While people in Tokyo are living packed in at 35 million in their greater metropolitan area we only have around a million in Western New York.

Some people probably think that is depressing but think it great. Just think about how much more space we have.

On another note, I went for a walk down elmwood today while picking up a baby gift for (e:enknot) at Treehouse and noticed that all the stores have either shut down or changed into new stores. It is amazing how different it is. It makes me wonder if anything can really survive there, if the "village" is actually doing well, or if all of the new vilage talk is just hype.

I was amazed to see that Stache moved from that little downstairs store front near the elmwood village apartments between Highland and Lexington to the half timber storefront house near Lafayette and elmwood right by Shoe Fly, kind of across from the Coop. I think it is the first time someone survived that location and then moved on up. Good for them.

lilho - 08/21/07 11:23
id move back to buffalo is there were two things... more jobs and people to date!

chico - 08/20/07 09:14
Slightly off-topic: does anyone know if there's a business in line to replace Neo at Allen and Franklin?

fellyconnelly - 08/19/07 20:48
well for me, i like living in a city that isn't overcrowded... i mean... ive spent the last ten years in an overcrowded town, 70 miles from a super overcrowded city and i'm lovin the fact that i don't really have to factor in traffic whenever i go anywhere...

james - 08/19/07 18:59
Room also was once in that tiny location and they moved up quite nicely.

As per metalpeter's comment. I hear that the owners of the old sweet tooth and pier 1 is a scummy land lord who keeps his prices too high. In the meantime he gets a nice tax write off and can wait until some poor sod rents those spaces and can't afford to keep it open. BAM! Another tax write off.

metalpeter - 08/19/07 16:48
Not that I know much about population let alone how to reserch it. But what would really be interesting is to see those same numbers from about maybe 1940 to present in sorounding towns villages and Suburbs. The reason I say that is because I bet that most of the people who leave Buffalo don't leave the area but are part of the "Sprawl movement" out to the burbs. But it would really be cool to have the numbers.

In terms of Elmwood I myself have noticed a few odd things. No one has moved into where Pier 1 and sweetooth where. My first thought was that those are such well known spots that it might be tough to get someone to take them over. My theory on Elmwood sounds a little bit like what someone else on this site (maybe (e:joshua) not sure so I may have the wrong person). When people come in from the burbs them coming to the strip makes things more high priced, when things are more high priced people who live the niehboorhood can't afforid to shop there anymore. I'm not saying everyone but a good portion of the people who live around the strip. The second part of my theory is that Elmwood as been very sucessfull and there are a lot of storng Businesses there so that makes all the rents very high. If you open up a new place with high rent and start up costs you can only lose money for so long untill you have to shut your doors or move someplace cheeper. That is why in 20 years maybe less I wouldn't be surprised if Grant St. is the new elmwood, there was a time when it was. I can remember there was a time when all the stores got these Black Signs with gold trim and gold lettering as a way to try to bring back Grant St. Then the people who can't afforid grant st. might shop someplace else in 20 years, it is hard to know what will happen. Maybe the wealth will be moved to Downtown Buffalo and Shops will open up in the mall again.

08/18/2007 20:59 #40614

Estate Sales - Third Journal in Ten min
Category: life

I went to estate sale this morning at 326 Starin. It was the house of a prominent doctor according to my mother's friend. I really was interested in seeing it but then I found it incredibly depressing seeing one persons stuff all displayed out for sale.

I know you can't bring stuff with you to the next life but it is so sad to be the last person in your friend and family line to the point where everything is just for sale. Like people were going through all of his most personal stuff, photos, diaries, etc. I felt so temporary for the moment.

I wondered if he was gay because of the lack of any feminine stuff in his bedroom or anywhere really and the thought that there must not be any children or they would want he stuff in his office, his christmas ornaments, etc.

I think if I were a doctor there was a lot of vintage medical stuff I would be interested in purchasing just for nostalgia sake. His house doubled as his office.

The basement really got to me - I thought, you know what, all those stupid nuts and bolts I placed carefully in jars the other day are probably just going to end up at my estate sale. I almost wanted to buy his jars just because I appreciated his hard work so much.

It all kind of made me feel sick.

fellyconnelly - 08/19/07 13:07
i appreciate those jars of nuts and bolts... and if i went to this estate sale without lauren i would have been tempted to buy some....

metalpeter - 08/19/07 12:56
Well that is exactly the opposite of what the Egyptions thought, hey maybe they are the ones who are right there is no way to know. But on the other side of things there is a line from a Papa Roach song that If I remember it right goes "But the things you own, own you" , "Take my Money, Take My possesions Take my obbessions" "I don't need that shit". I could have sworn a couple years latter I saw him on cribs with a lot of nice stuff. So I'm kinda showing that it is a great thought but often it doesn't really work.

drew - 08/18/07 21:29
maybe you guys should be preaching tomorrow!

tinypliny - 08/18/07 21:25
I went to one too, on Lafayette. This was not so personal, but it was sad anyway. But it was very liberating for me to think about the fact that I won't need *anything* when I die. Why collect trifles which will end up in a huge garbage dump anyway?

I think a huge portion of my loathing for any more furniture or knick-knacks or in fact, anything that will take up space in my apartment, comes from my personal (and vicarious) moving experiences, but a tiny part of it comes from seeing so many things just lying out in the open in yard sales, garage sales, on the sidewalk - neglected and unwanted.

mrdeadlier - 08/18/07 21:17
What is life? It is but a vapor that appears for a short time and then vanishes away.