Jim's Journal

09/18/2007 13:21 #41175

NOOOOOOOOO
Category: books

So, author Robert Jordan died.

He was working on Book 12 of 'The Wheel of Time'. A series that I started reading about a decade ago. This was supposed to be the last book and would've wrapped everything up. I am sorry he is dead. But mostly I am mad that I can't finish the series, and I'll tell you why.

The first few books of the series were really really good, but then it just started dragging on FOREVER. The last 5 books, nothing much happened. And I read them anyways just to work towards closure and find out what happens. But now I've invested so much time in the thing that the fact it's going to have over my head for the rest of my life is aggravating. If I knew the man I"d feel differently, but impersonally from a distance this is what I'm upset about.

jim - 09/18/07 23:51
James, as museumchick mentioned it looks like he dictacted the plot of the book to a tape recorder, so Kevin J Anderson may get his shot at patching it all up into a final product. I have mixed feelings about it, since I am desperate for closure.

james - 09/18/07 15:05
I don't know if he had any children, but if he did (particularly a son) you can look forward to the last book co-written with Kevin J Anderson in a few years... and then a TON of crappy fan-fics written by the pair that keep the franchise going.

museumchick - 09/18/07 13:39
A friend was telling me that he dictated the ending to some of his friends- so they might be able to finish the 12th book for him.

09/17/2007 21:00 #41164

Estrip Buffet Night Part 2
Category: estrip

Estrip is pretty jumping lately!

I had a lot of fun at last month's dinner, so I would like to set something up in the next couple weeks. It would be a week night I think, and I am open to suggestions for location.

India Buffet again? No Chuck-o-Rama's in sight, thank god.

Do tell what your free nights are, and if you're likely to come! Once the location is finalized I'll need to know ahead of time if you're coming so I can make reservations a few days before hand.

Hope to see you all there! I know there may be an Estrip/PMT party coming up soon, so we should try not to crowd that date, lest we become sick of each other.

jbeatty - 09/18/07 20:02
If it isn't on Wed oct 3rd I'm in. Other than that any Wed should be good.

mike - 09/17/07 22:30
usually wednesday are best for me. as i missed the first one I want to try and make this one

jim - 09/17/07 21:52
orchidiamond, here is a post with photos from the last dinner: :::link:::

There are a couple dozen regulars on the site, and probably a ton more casual people who post more infrequently. I think the total number of registered users is around 400

orchidiamond - 09/17/07 21:44
you have group gatherings? interesting, how many people are on this site?

matthew - 09/17/07 21:21
I like Wednesdays too. I'm think the pre-Halloween party might be better than the post. some people we know are already claiming the weekend after.

james - 09/17/07 21:20
You should have the party the weekend before Halloween. That is my extra-valuable 2 cents.

jim - 09/17/07 21:18
Wednesday is my preferred night.

janelle - 09/17/07 21:17
(e:Drew) and I are in. Tuesday and Thursdays are generally not good nights for us.

paul - 09/17/07 21:15
The three of us are definitely in. The party is either the weekend before or after Halloween so we still have a while.

09/16/2007 22:39 #41142

Three posts in a row, sue me.

I hate the City of Buffalo's website. There is a bunch of stuff there I want to repurpose and it's all in PDF form or actually it's not there at all. I hate screen scraping.

I want to map all the properties owned by the city, all properties that will be auctioned off, and in an ideal world be able to overlay city zoning and survey maps on my maps.

But no luck really with any of that. The city has it's own maps:

That's almost completely unusable, and I shudder when recalling the markup under the hood. There has to be a devious way to get what I need.

Oh, and as far as I can tell - there is no website for the Buffalo Police Department. Does anyone know what it is? I guess if they have no website it means they don't publish any information I could map.

jim - 09/16/07 23:49
I can't believe the police department does not have a website. At all.

paul - 09/16/07 23:44
I think it is made by Algonquin (local web design company) using the same CMS that runs roswellpark.org I believe.

jenks - 09/16/07 23:36
ugh, yeah, as far as I can tell there is no useful BPD website. A month or so ago I had my first experience as a crotchety old lady- I was suddenly, rudely, awakened to the sound of full-on FIREWORKS being set off what sounded like in my backyard. At 3 am. Since I was getting up at 4:30 and had gone to bed at 1, this was not welcomed. I tried to ignore it, but it kept going. Finally I decided to call the cops. But it was not 911 worthy, so I figured I'd try to find the non-emergency number. After much googling without success I called a number, only to be scoffed at and told I'd reached the STATE PD, who wanted nothing to do with it. But, they transferred me to buffalo. i was very meek... said I didn't know if this warranted calling the cops, but that it appeared people were setting off like REAL fireworks (not sparklers and m-80s) in the middle of a residential neighborhood at 3am. They seemed unimpressed. I felt like a bitchy old lady, put the pillow over my head, and tried to go back to sleep.

So much for helpful, accessible civil services.

As i said in chat, it reminds me of the way i didn't vote last year b/c I didn't know where to go, and could not for the life of me, find it online.

09/16/2007 22:34 #41141

Councilmatic
Category: wtf

Councilmatic? That appears to be a real word from the research I just did, but seems so so wrong.

09/16/2007 21:15 #41138

Progress!
Category: work

Importing data from 3rd parties :) works. Now I'm working on the user interface for adding new geolocated pages.

paul - 09/16/07 22:37
Cool, can't wait to play with it.