I just read about someone called Silver blocking the Bill that would make the UB 2020 plan a "success".

An editorial and opinion column in today's Buffalo News supports Assemblyman Mark Schroeder's criticism of Speaker Sheldon Silver for blocking a bill that would free up restrictions and allow UB and other SUNY campuses to become stronger economic engines in their regions. The editorial notes Silver "seems devoted to nothing greater than maintaining the disastrous status quo" and calls the bill "good for upstate." A related column in The Buffalo News and a story on WNED-AM also look at the issue.

I didn't quite get what exactly these restrictions were. So I read the three PDFs linked out from that page.

The only sentence about the content of the bill was:

Reports are that downstate members oppose letting campuses set their own tuition rates, a key part of the bill, because it could jeopardize the ability of poor New Yorkers to go to college.

Was the bill all about tuition? Does anyone know? Why can't these news items be clear instead of a mass of run-around-in-accusatory-sentence-cycles paragraphs? If writing about politics is this confusing, it's no wonder that people don't get whatever politicians are doing in their offices or if they are doing anything at all..

Sting sings.


The film is so comforting - like a perfect bowl of warm soup with pretty colours and crusty music to dip in. :-)

Breakfast is a triumph today. I think I have finally perfected the art of making delicious Nutella the way I like it - without the ridiculous amounts of canola from Canada, semi-hydrogenated creepoid compounds or truckloads of sugar. As a bonus, it is mind-blowingly tasty! In four short steps, you can brute force your mornings from the nadir of suckiness to a zenith of awesome!

1. Toast a handful of hazelnuts till they are a toasty earthy brown. I guess you could roast them in the oven if you don't want to stand around stirring them. But I do like to stand around in my kitchen a LOT. I think it's the chessboard floor. There is something hypnotic about chessboards. It's like I am being checkmated by the stove but I make counter-moves and show it some aggression. Anyway, I prefer hands-on active approaches that make some noise early on weekend mornings (the better to annoy that perennially whiny hag next door who seems to think I am responsible for ALL the noise everyone else in the building makes and additionally, complains about it when I am not even in town).

Maybe it's time to get some speakers (that Chuck Norris would be proud of) and give her a flavour of what it might be like if I were in the serious business of making some REAL noise. So, how many hazelnuts, you ask? The average Nutella box proclaims that it has 50 hazelnuts to a jar. Yeah, if you didn't know any better 50 is a big number. But without the canola, sugar and dodgy hydrogenates, it makes up a paltry amount, so be generous. You could toast 50 hazelnuts and it will make nutella that lasts half a week.

2. Add the toasted hazelnuts to the blender, start blending till everything is a fine powder and sticks to the blades. That's hazelnut butter coming out.

3. Add chocolate soymilk (I used Sunrich, because I am in love with the brand) - just enough to cover the hazelnuts in the blender. Blend some more.

4. Add toasted thick and hearty steelcut oatmeal. Add a good sprinkle of flax seeds. Blend. Blend. Blend. Till it gets really creamy. Add chocolate milk at intervals till you reach the consistency of that artificial sham of a Nutella they sell here. My Oster blender does this job in around 10-15 minutes. Other blenders could be more efficient or could just break-down and die. You never know till you push their limits. So I suggest you give your blender its Nutella ultimatum today. Everyone knows that you should never wait till the kitchen apocalypse hits this planet. Every small appliance will grow extra appendages to hit you with.

That's it. Slice granny smiths (yes, other apples are just inferior. Admit it.) Spread the awesomeness of delicious Nutella on the slices and breakfast like a German!

A couple days back, my friend and I were getting in his car and driving away, when two rather cute women approached us on Linwood. They asked us if we would like to exchange cards. Turned out they were not really hookers but were out proselytizing.

I thought it was a very interesting strategy. Pick fairly attractive young people to spread your virulent message and target a younger population - not with the traditional "could you spare a minute for us" but rather "hey there! would you like to exchange cards/numbers with us (broad suggestive smile)?!"

You have to wonder at what drives these nutters to pound the pavement and attempt to convince random strangers that the strangers' families are in mortal danger if they don't belong to such and such a religion/cult-group. Maybe we should take their cue and roam the streets yelling at random people about how smoking will kill them and their friends and why they should eat more fruits and vegetables.

What really worries me is do we already sound like this? Do people listen to us politely and then go home and shake their heads about how unlikely they ever are to change their lifestyles? What does it take for people to stop, think and change? I wonder if the tipping point towards religious commitment or adopting scientific lifestyles are similar. Do personal inexplicable losses lead to a more religious outcome while scientifically explained losses lead to conscious changes in lifestyle - for the better?

I gave away my corner table and two chairs today. I am 3 steps closer to my absolute-minimal clutter-free goal.

My next elimination target is the pile of books, magazines and notes - about 3/4th of which I have digitized. I don't think I have ever re-read any of my class notes from mandatory coursework. I wonder why I have kept them so long. All my really useful notes and ideas are online or on the pages of books and pdfs I scribble on.

I love the wonderful feeling of living and breathing floors without those annoying chairs or that table that I didn't need anyway.


Yeah, if you wondered, that evil clutter fairy is banned from my flat. She better quake at the sight of my curtainless windows.