Journaling on estrip is easy and free. sign up here

Carolinian's Journal

carolinian
My Podcast Link

09/07/2007 10:55 #40986

Labor Day Summary
Category: life
(reposting because I can't find out how to delete comments)

Labor Day Weekend Summary

Introduced (e:inscrutable) to the parents, and the four of us had yet another great buffet experience at the India Gate.

Found a nice apartment in Northern Buffalo near Sanders @ Colvin where (e:inscrutable) and I can live together and merge households.

Went to Toronto to see relatives I had not seen in seven years, the last time being at my grandfather's funeral. Nice to see them again in happier circumstances. As my orthodox relatives tend to have lots of kids, I wasn't surprised to find that I had another six 2nd cousins who I never knew existed. And they're all cute, of course.

Experienced the unbearably sad reality that my parents are getting older. Seeing the people who I relied on to protect me and be strong for me requiring my protection and strength was an extremely emotional experience for me. I also started realizing the burden on me to be the strong and protective one in my existing and future family relationships. I see a lot more gym visits in my future.

Got to see Toronto and eat lots of yummy Indian and Thai food. Remembered that I'd actually have pictures of said food if I wasn't dork enough to forget my digital camera. I also saw the Great Wall of China . That's Canadian humor for you.

Got a whole bunch of CD's of Candian artists I've heard across the water on 102.1 The Edge. I've found it surprisingly hard to find Bedouin Soundclash, Ill Scarlett, D.J. Champion, and Billy Talent in Buffalo stores, so I kind of went hog-wild the moment I stepped into HMV.

Got the non-blocking, multi-threaded querying feature of my Postg reSQL Coc oa framework in the initial stages of working, which should help reduce users' perception of latency in applications using the framework. In plain english, I spent some time on my laptop computer doing programming stuff and accomplished something important.

Got pizza scissors. For cutting pizza. I'll add a picture when I have time.



lizabeth - 09/11/07 18:15
How soon are you moving? Don't forget to give me your new address when you do!

Are you going to be in B'lo for T-giving?

Also - I know what you mean about the parents-getting-older thing. It is an unsettling experience.
tinypliny - 09/07/07 18:45
:::link:::

(From a search without the quotes)
jim - 09/07/07 16:34
I am all of the ten first results for Jim Lindley, but I don't go by James so unfortunately nothing to be found on that search.
tinypliny - 09/07/07 16:20
Yeah, this reeks of an (e:james) conspiracy...
tinypliny - 09/07/07 16:18
This bloke mysteriously trumps you from beyond the grave at No.2. James Lindley (1681-1726)

And he is not even named Jim.



jim - 09/07/07 11:38
Yeah - that's a tough issue. Paul and I were talking about it the other day, and the tack we take is to just spew our names all over the internet everywhere, so to find anything bad you'd have to scroll through dozens of pages of innocuous stuff. I'm like 40 out of the top 50 Google results for my first and last name together and I think any embarrassing stuff is lost in the pile :P
carolinian - 09/07/07 11:36
I love and appreciate your comments, (e:jbeatty) 's comments, and everyone else's comments. I'm just paranoid about my real name being Googled, and I don't think there's a way to change my name in one of the comments from I lan to (e:carolinian).

Example, if I'm being considered for a job by a potential employer, I don't want some stupid HR person at the company Googling "I lan Buffalo" and seeing a journal entry where I might say "This co-worker is acting like a real jerk and it's impossible to work with him/her." If I have to worry about this, true self-expression becomes a lot more difficult.

ladycroft - 09/07/07 11:09
why did you want to delete everyone's comments?

08/30/2007 00:09 #40820

Secret Confessions
Category: life
I told my parents tonight. It wasn't half as bad as I imagined it. It's a huge weight off my chest, and with that past me I can finally concentrate on being productive and preparing for the future again, especially since my parents seem kind of cool about it.

metalpeter - 08/31/07 17:36
You know when you decorate or redo a room you can move a TV into that room or turn on the radio or if it is a hockey game listen to it on line (I'm kidding cause of course you know that, just had to break balls a little bit and in the same jist another bit of humor ). I'm sure if a Huricanes (hockey not college football) game was on you wouldn't miss it. Seriously though glad that you talked to the parents about what you had to talk to them about. Granted I don't know what it is and I don't need to but your parents did. But you getting off your chest may have been more important then them knowing and takes a lot of stress off of you. Hopefully I'll see ya at the party on Saturday and I'm also planing on going to the chicken wing thing to, not sure when but I at least want to see the miss chicken wing contest or what ever that is with hot ladies.
lizabeth - 08/30/07 23:21
I knew it was going to be ok. :) Yayness!
carolinian - 08/30/07 22:36
None taken, (e:libertad). I'm confident in my heterosexuality, enough that I can admit that, yes, I did spend a weekend last year putting up velvet curtains and holdbacks in my bedroom to go for a victorian motif instead of watching the Bills on TV like all the "proper" examples of straight men I've been chastised for not emulating over the years.

libertad - 08/30/07 16:52
ok, please don't take offense to that, it wasn't meant in a malicious way.
libertad - 08/30/07 16:51
omg your gay?
imk2 - 08/30/07 08:50
ohh....i know what it is!!! i know what it is!!!!!
carolinian - 08/30/07 08:42
I'll post about whatever it is three months from now. Until then, I'm supposed to say nothing.

imk2 - 08/30/07 06:17
oh come on!
museumchick - 08/30/07 06:06
I'm glad you were able to talk to your parents about whatever was going on. It's good to have that support.

Take care of yourself:).
mike - 08/30/07 00:45
what did you tell them? pregnant?
theecarey - 08/30/07 00:16
preggers?
paul - 08/30/07 00:15
About what?

08/22/2007 18:58 #40677

Hot Potato Mashup
Category: life
Today I have little to write.

I instead reflect on the fact that sometimes there's stuff that you just can't write on the Internet because it's just such a hot potato and personal enough to the point of being inappropriate to share with others.

Time will change this, I'm sure, but it sucks that I have to (justifiably) limit my emotional outlets.


lizabeth - 08/26/07 20:20
Well, there's always PostSecret: :::link:::

Although I'm not sure how much longer it's going to be a secret...
theecarey - 08/22/07 20:35
ditto.

um.. yeah.. theres things I want to blurt out get out of my head, but I refrain from posting it to the world. And for some reason, even though I used to do a lot of pen and paper journal writing, I have managed to forget how to write- it just feels weird to have a pen in hand!

How about cheating on estrip(shhhh) and either writing to a completely unknown/unidentifiable site..one that you have no feelings for, haha-- or just in a word document. I know sometimes ya just need to get.it.out.

good luck :)
paul - 08/22/07 20:29
I hate that feeling more than anything.

08/16/2007 21:36 #40584

Basket Case
Category: computers
Got my new case today.



I'll probably write a review somewhere on the Internet at some point. Considering my investment, the case was virtually cost nothing.


paul - 08/22/07 20:31
I use a pillowcase to cover mine. I never use screen protections ofr all my gizmos either. I guess it is how I live on the edge. No seriously, I just couldn't justify anymore weight to this macbook pro. It already weighs liek 6 lbs which was hard to adjust to comming from a 3 lb sony vaio.
jenks - 08/16/07 23:04
Nice. My friend has like a $7000 camera or something, and Pelican are the ONLY cases he will use.

08/12/2007 16:58 #40497

House Hunting
Category: housing
(e:inscrutable) and I looked at more houses today. It's actually pretty tiring work, though I'm not sure exactly why. We're

Most of the houses don't have central air or insulation, and a lot of them are slightly smelly and not well kept. There was one we found off in the Kenmore Ave./Colvin area that was really nice. It was actually nice enough that I'm not understanding why the price dropped from $120,000 to $100,000, which is kinda of setting off my spidey-sense. But dammit, the house is nice, at least for northern buffalo. It's well kept, and it has central air, and the basement is rather non-icky. But there's always some kind of catch. It breaks the second law of thermodynamics if there's not a catch.

I've agonized over what the catch and reasons for sudden price drop could be. Maybe it's the school system, and that everyone wants to send their kids to Williamsville. Maybe it's crime. Maybe it's an enormous sinkhole under the house or enormous heating bills. There's so many different permutations of things that could be awful that I haven't found yet.

It probably doesn't help that I'm trying to please my parents a little bit with this decision. My mom can recount from memory endless horror stories about friends and relatives who got more than they bargained for, and my father has kept repeating the mantra "you may have lots of expenses that may make you wish that you were still renting." I'd like to show them the house I found so perhaps they might be more positive if I ended up buying it, but I'm worried that if I wait the two more weeks until they arrive, it'll be snatched up. I mean, the house seems nice enough and cheap enough that only an idiot would pass it up (unless there's a catch).


lizabeth - 08/13/07 20:58
It really could be that the housing market is just that good right now. How long has the house been up for sale? How soon do the people want/need to get rid of it? There's an awesome house in our neighborhood that we would love to buy, and the price on that has dropped $125,000 in the time that we've been looking at it (less than a year). It's dropped because a) the people were asking WAY too much for our neighborhood (we still can't afford it, even with the $125k drop), and 2) because the housing market is really shit right now for sellers. (Granted, the housing market is rather different in So. FL than in WNY, but I think the general downturn is happening everywhere.)

I think there are great deals to be had, provided you can swing a mortgage that doesn't screw you over. Good luck, dude!!
museumchick - 08/13/07 18:38
Good luck with the househunting! I read somewhere (wish I could find the article for you) that Kenmore and Townawanda were rated a good value as far as finding houses.
uncutsaniflush - 08/12/07 21:49
Is the house in Buffalo or Kenmore or Tonawanda? If it is in Kenmore, you will have to pay the Kenmore Village property taxes on top of the Tonawanda and Erie County taxes. But the streets are wonderfully plowed in the winter. Unlike many other urban areas, the property tax burden in the City of Buffalo is lower than in the 'burbs.
twisted - 08/12/07 20:22
Make an offer so you can get in contract, then use your contingencies to find out if there's a catch. You'll be in the best spot to negotiate if need be -- or to walk away without regrets. Good luck!
tinypliny - 08/12/07 17:20
I hope it works out for you and there is NO catch!! Cheers!