jenks - 04/26/08 20:28
paul you'd be surprised- a lot of people can't breathe hard enough to get the ball to go to the top.
AND- they're usually adjustable, to make it harder.

I have to dorkily admit that the sound of that little ball is music to my ears. I wouldn't have given you one, but anyone that isn't young and healthy gets one , but nobody ever uses it. But I swear, they work. Post-op pneumonia sucks. We go in and chastise them every day. So when I walk up to a room hear someone doing it without being told- ah it makes my day.

tinypliny - 04/26/08 01:09
Nana Saver. For those days on which you have only 2 minutes for breakfast instead of the usual 5.
Save the Nana, Save 3 minutes!

Seriously, I think its a good idea. I hate fridge smells getting on the half nanas I stash sometimes!

hodown - 04/26/08 00:03

1. 1 I want a nana saver- ypu know my historu w nanas. i can only eat like maybe 1/2 at a time.

1. 2 why do i hate that video? it reminds me of 1999.

ladycroft - 04/25/08 17:21
i'm having flashbacks from my kidney tests......

paul - 04/24/08 17:25
I think they just didn't take the test and pretended, which is even more annoying now that both of my arms are swollen and fucked up from the IV and shots and they had plenty of opportunity to tap me for blood.

On a good note, when I went to the gastro today, he told me there is a new version of Asacol (Mesalamine) called Lialda that I only take once a day. It think that could solve most of the anxiety in my life as I can't tell you how stressful it is to schedule taking pills three times a day for the rest of your life. I know, I know some people have it way worse. That is what I kept telling myself today as I stressed out about everything.

jenks - 04/24/08 13:55
no results when I check.

metalpeter - 04/24/08 17:25
I have heard that the shortage isn't really one here. It is that since the price went up everyone just freaks out thinking there is a shortage in rice. The reason to not sell more then a few bags is for two reasons. One they don't want people buying a bag for say $20 (times 10 or even 20) Then the price goes up to $40 but since everyone hoards them no one can offorid to buy them. The other thing to is that if you buy a lot of them now you could resell them later for a profit and undersell them but still make money, that is illegal by the way. The second reason is that assume there is enough rice for everyone in america to have 3 bags each well when people panic and buy 8 or 9 not to mention places that sell food then that would cause a shortage for other people, or that is my theory at least. In terms of the ethonal thing I say people should use Pure Alcohol. In terms of corn why can't people make a sky scrapper and grow it hydroponicly? The other way of making it is by taking oil from places like McDonalds after it has been used and then it can be filtered and that should be looked into more.

drew - 04/24/08 13:46
If you inherit the land Janelle, I think you should start growing tortillas on it. We need more tortillas.

carolinian - 04/24/08 11:07
(e:dcoffee), I suspect that as gas prices get higher and higher, the market will probably price subdivisions on farmland out of existence.

janelle - 04/24/08 10:29
I grew up in the midwest. In a subdivision that sits on what used to be farmland. Everytime I go home there's a new subdivision cropping up on what used to be corn and soybean fields.

It's such a complicated situation. The farmers' children grow up and don't want to farm; land and farming equipment is too expensive for the rare young farmers who actually DO want to farm, so they end up sharecropping in a sense; the farmers grow old and don't know what to do with their land and the developers beating on their doors offering millions for the land seem like a good way to go after years of barely making a living off the land.

My family owns farm land planted with soybeans, canola, and corn by farmers in the area. We've held out on selling it to mega hog farms and developers. When it's mine, I'll keep holding out. But I wonder if our children will do the same.

dcoffee - 04/24/08 10:02
Let's stop building sub-devisions on farmland. And lets stop using corn and sugar cane to make ethanol, People and farm animals eat that stuff, and when the price goes up we have big problems. Instead we can fuel our cars with Switchgrass and Hemp. This is one of those problems created by lobyists who want the price of corn to go up, so they bully the government into subsidizing corn ethanol more, and ignoring innovation on other renewable fuels.
Tiburon, that was a grade A rant. I wonder, would China stop giving us money if we made it more difficult for our companies to move our manufacturing jobs there?

fellyconnelly - 04/23/08 22:11
uh seriously? man i stopped watching the news because i was sick of the obama hillary battle and now we are out of rice and tortillas. This blows.

chico - 04/23/08 21:54
Actually that tortilla shortage started last January: :::link:::

But the global food crisis is deadly serious and getting worse. For a long and occasionally technical (a few economics concepts) overview, the Economist has this piece this week:
:::link:::

Watch the news for all of the poor, underdeveloped countries experiencing civil strife as a consequence.

jenks - 04/23/08 21:44
someone at work today said that mexicans are starving to death b/c there is a tortilla shortage, secondary to a wheat shortage due to ethanol production for cars.

I hope he was joking.

tiburon1724 - 04/23/08 21:28
what the hell is going on? Shortages of gas, wheat, rice, everything! Our money isn't worth crap, we're borrowing $2billion from the Chinese to give tax rebates which won't do any good, we're like $7 trillion in debt, it just doesn't end :(
We desperately need some radical action...stop giving out aid, stop sticking our noses in other nation's affairs, mind our own business, and stop pissing off the rest of the world! Basically, we need to be Canada. They should attempt a buyout of us.
whew, sorry for going into a rant there!

paul - 04/23/08 21:12
I don't like quinoa a tenth as much as I love rice.

tinypliny - 04/23/08 21:05
I meant can't substitute for rice, not can't play nice... but maybe I did.

Can you eat barley or oats?

tinypliny - 04/23/08 21:02
Can't

james - 04/23/08 21:00
Paul, Quinoa.
Quinoa, Paul.

Now you kids play nice.

hodown - 04/23/08 20:57
how scary is that? NPR did a week long series on the rice shortage. maybe the end is near. if that is the case im totally moving into the masion. i feel like a pmt/ho army could kick some serious ass. id consider including mike visco if jill is included too.

tinypliny - 04/23/08 20:51
Just get multiple bags of basmati from the Indian store. They get tastier as they get older and drier.

fellyconnelly - 04/23/08 07:29
basra is adorable. you should get some video of the tortoise gallop!

lilho - 04/22/08 18:50
basra is so cute!

mike - 04/22/08 18:04
oddly that is the second time i heard about crab and asparagus todya. my boss was talking about some crab and asparagus type thing she makes

imk2 - 04/23/08 05:13
i have finally been accosted by the scientologists too, and so has faben. seriously, do they think that constantly harassing people in the neighborhood will get them more members?

i was in the middle of a conversation with (e:tinypliny) and this crazy looking dude comes up to me, interrupts our conversation ,doesn't even say excuse me....just walks up and butts into our convo and says "hi" and just stands there glaring at me like he (or i) am crazy.

and i'm like "um....dude....wtf?" after he left, tiny reminded me of how (e:enknot) started screaming at them and wigging out and then i regretted not doing the same.

god, they're so fucking creepy.

stress test my ass.....leave me the fuck alone when i'm walking on the streets of my neighborhood, ok? don't you people see how fucking weird you all appear to be? stop molesting people on the street and come up with a different tactic if you want your recruitment numbers to increase. i doubt your current strategy is working very well.

maybe you should throw in some oral action from tom cruise as an incentive. i'd actually consider joining if that was part of the deal.

jenks - 04/22/08 22:08
omg i'm a little buzzed but these comments are cracking me up. I love you guys.

hodown - 04/22/08 21:28
oh right and the anti drug thing. for reals- zanax is your little yellow friend.

paul - 04/22/08 21:02
Ya, I am not sure if there could be a worse combo for me than a commercial, anti-drug religion with a cat entity.

hodown - 04/22/08 20:50
im making a comment to get closer to 10k or whatever, but in realtion to this post i loved tom cruise so much until he joined the cult known as scientology. any religion that involves cat aliens freaks me the fuck out.

metalpeter - 04/22/08 19:07
The thing that I'm going to say is coming at this with a slightly different view. I'm not defending or attacking anyone so please no one take it this way, on a side note it has been a long time since there has been any (e:strip) drama and I often seem to miss it some how.

The stress test thing really freaks me out and they even have it every year at the same place at the Erie County Fair, and that is deceptive it really is. But lets be honest they are not the only people who do this. Army Recruiters do this all the time and often I won't say lie but don't tell the entire truth and go after kids (poor areas) at malls and say stuff like wow your pretty good at that game I always die on level 15 and then they talk about how they could shoot people for real. Again at the fair the army often has a place to play a shooting simulator. There are people who hand out little bibles at festivals and go door to door trying to convert you to there way of thinking ( 3 different churches)that I can remember. You see this even on some of the political news shows on TV. It is a common practice that these guys really have perfected to an artform. I think when you are passionate it is very easy to go from Come on in and have your questions answered and we can't make you life better to harrasement.

I think that he is trying to sell a book. I think he is trying to convert people. However that being said I think that he has a right to write here. No one has to read his journal. I think that he should be given a chance as long as it isn't spam and he doesn't only write about the book.

On a side note I'm not a Budhist (sorry about the spelling). But one thing that I do like about them expect for the entire Tibet thing as the exception to this. Is that they don't come up to you and tty to tell you there beliefs unless you of course ask. As prof of this I had no idea that there where different kinds of it until (e:libertad) joined the site and I still have no idea what the differences are. Again it is a fine line between sharing ideas and trying to push them off on someone else and I think the cult that they are (christans started out as one to though a long time ago ) over the line the way they try to get people into it. But my point is they are not the only ones who are that way.

paul - 04/22/08 18:05
I was thinking more along the lines of a free pepper spray taste test.

fing - 04/22/08 17:02
Agreed Paul. I hate it how belligerent they are sometimes. I was walking with a coworker last summer and one of them came up and tried to hand us a card. He (my coworker) was on the phone at the time and he just kept talking to him so he finally just said "I am on the phone!!" and we kept walking. I think we should get some estrip.org cards made up and we can talk to them about Estripology. We can show them a free movie or do a free stress test.

hodown - 04/22/08 16:28
Agreed. Scientology is sketch-o-rama. Really aliens who died a long time ago and then their spirits got trapped in volcanoes or some shizz. And I don't like their high pressure sales tactics. And lastly any "religion" that requires you to pay to get closer to their form of a higher being is highly suspect.

paul - 04/22/08 16:11
Thanks all for your feedback.

tiburon1724 - 04/22/08 15:57
Scientologists are trained very well in how to manipulate others. After all, according to them, we are all one. Re-read his post, it's clearly phony. I think it's every month that there is a worldwide protest at Scientology headquarters, including here in Buffalo. They will say things to purposely make the protestors react in an aggressive manor, so they can point the finger and say we are the problem, not them. (passive aggressive behavior at it's max?) NOTHING they do or say can be taken at face value, there is always another agenda. I love the booth at Blvd Mall that says "Free Stress Test" when it's actually a Scientologist recruiting station. If you're not sketchy, why not have it say "Free Scientology Info" instead???

jon - 04/22/08 15:54
Here is just a sample of the beliefs in their CULT, fyi:

"Various writings and recordings of Hubbard claim: that Christ was a myth fabricated by space aliens to deceive Man from realizing his true nature; that Christ was a child-molester; that Blacks are genetically inferior to Whites; and in the 'free personality test' women are scored lower than men." - JDRAKE :::link:::

Actual sound bites of Hubbard concerning some of the above... :::link:::

Also how they deal with crtics...

"Scientology had an official, formal policy, written by L Ron Hubbard, for dealing with critics, which urged filing harassment lawsuits, digging up or making up embarrassing personal problems about critics and then publishing them, trying to get critics fired, picketing their homes, and threatening critics with bodily harm. It stated 'always attack, never defend' and 'the purpose of the lawsuit is to harass, not to win.'"

They are just a CULT, albeit a very well funded one.

libertad - 04/22/08 15:48
I didn't see this persons journal, but I do think that is acceptable that paul does not want to allow the site to be used for the Scientologist agenda. These people take advantage and use people who are desperate or suffering.

drew - 04/22/08 15:19
Three things:

1. Let the record show that, although Paul and I disagree on many (most?) things religious, he has been nothing but hospitable to me.

2. Although I have no love for Scientology, and believe it to be misleading. It is my preference that everything be allowed, save obvious spam. We are obviously smart enough to not be misled.

3. Point 2 doesn't matter so much, because it is not my hard work that makes (e:strip) happen. Paul is the boss in this here land.

brit - 04/22/08 15:06
they go after vulnerable juniors on our campus who just moved away from their families really aggressively.... I agree with you Paul...what they believe is neither here nor there, they recruit like an evil cult

paul - 04/22/08 14:47
I just want to re-iterate - this is not even about the religion - for me, this is really about the dudes on the street annoying me.

lizabeth - 04/22/08 14:28
Ooh man, Scientologists are creepy. I got a weird feeling when I saw L. Ron listed in his post, too.

james - 04/22/08 14:26
Return to LA? Did he even leave?

lilho - 04/22/08 14:21
i don't care if people want to speak their beliefs, but i feel it is totally disrespectful, aggressive and offensive to push your philosophies or religion on anyone.

religion is a personal choice, something that should be for you, and kept sacred in that way. when people start whoring their religion and beliefs out to everyone else, it just seems really wrong.

i agree with you paul.

this site is to connect and talk about buffalo, life events, and anything really. it is not to try and sell anything or convince anyone of anything.

i used various forms of the word, "any", way too much.

paul - 04/22/08 14:13
You don't have to blame all of the Elmwood District for my feelings. I have no idea how the entire district feels about Scientologists.