Journaling on estrip is easy and free. sign up here

Mike's Journal

mike
My Podcast Link

10/12/2010 23:50 #52941

Pictures of Me? Pictures of You? Pictures of Who?
So as many of you know I have a like memory keeping problem. LIke not that I forget thing but that I cannot get rid of anything because it all has memories to me. In particular pictures. I have always had a hard time throwing out pictures, even like before digital when there were bad ones that didn't come out and were basiclaly all just black, I still kept them.

ANywho , the problem really comes to a head when it comes to other people's pictures. I don't think pictures should be thrown out and so I have collected other people's (ok my friends, not just complete strangers mostly) photos over the years that they no longer wanted. Also senior year of highschool I made a video slideshow for my friends and so at the time got many copies of all their photos. This leads to me having a massive amount of photos. I am currently in the process of trying to organize them into albums and what not and then I want to print out photos that i have on the computer from the last few years and make albums for those.

I still havne't even really gotten to the problem but here is part of it. Collecting all these photos over the years and now have literally prolly hudnreds of photos of events I wasn't at or people I don't know. I have like 200 pictures of (e:beast) and her date Mike Maloney from junior and senior prom cuz like i took some and then i have all of teres's and other peoples. Then i also have a buttload of pictures from (e:mk)'s college years and like her ex boyfriends formal dances. I also have Diana's scrapbook that she made about the football player she was stalking/in love with and possibly 1,000 pics of Cara O'COnnor who was somoene MK was friends with in elementary school> I started this addiction/collection long ago when I got an album of photos from my friend Andrea from like her softball team and sleepovers where I knew some of the people bu tthey weren't mostly things I was at but I just couldn't handle her throwing it out.

So in trying to organize it, I am finally really starting to part with some of it. It really got oeverwhelming. Family dinners with families I don't know...gone. Vacations I didn't go on...mostly gone. Ex Boyfriends of my friends...mostly gone. Ok not mostly I still kept a lot of crap, but for instance if I had 25 pictures of Teres and some guy she went on one date with, i narrowed it down to 2 or 3. THough I did keep the whole scrapbook diana cuz really that is something that needs to be taken as a whole. I tried to organize all the photos in time order in an album but highschool was ten years ago and not even knowing what some of the events were made it extra hard so I just threw them all in a book, with the exception of a separate book for senior year that is super organzied and decorated and proly up there with one of the gayest things i've ever done..and that is quite a list!

Anywho, the point is, if you are getting rid of photos , just give them to me instead....WAIT NO THAT IS NOT WHAT I MEANT I MEANT THROW THEM OUT I DON"T NEED MORE RANDOM PHOTOS (but p.s secretly i want more rnadom photos! NO I DON"T) but i suppose if you just like dropped them off at my door I would have to take them right?
tinypliny - 10/14/10 19:31
I think all photos have an expiry date in my mind. After that point, I just get bored looking at them. I don't have photos of anyone from anywhere because most of them live in my head - just the way they were when I last saw them. Sometimes I stumble across my former classmates on the net and it shocks me that they have got so old and sometimes so fat and makes me somewhat sad - it is almost as if the perfect memory I have of them is tarnished.
hodown - 10/13/10 13:41
I predict that in 15-18 years you will end up on the hit A&E show hoarders.
mike - 10/13/10 00:36
i don't love the scanning in , i like the actual prints to a point, but we'll see, that is prolly what i'll end up doing wiht ones i really don't care about..on the other hand i am currently printing out tons of more recent photos to make albums out of. there is something I like about flipping through an album
lilho - 10/13/10 00:23
i think he has a point.... go scan.
paul - 10/13/10 00:21
I have a "sort of" solution for you. Why don't you just scan them all in. Then you can take that giant box and fit it all on one DVD.

09/30/2010 17:46 #52860

The Haunting of Hill House
(e:libertad) gave me The Haunting of Hill House by SHirley Jackson for my b-day and i really like it. He got it for me because I loved the Lottery from her. Anywho this passage in it really was great to me, i really love it, and made me think this is exactly how i feel. This is exactly why I will always use a small fork, sure I can use a big fork but i will always choose a small fork no matter what people say about it....
Here is the passage (some background Eleanor is a 30 year old woman on her way to Hill House after spending the last 11 years taking care of her mother and sister)

and the little girl's mother said calmly, "she wants her cup of stars"
Eleanor looked up, surprised; the little girl was sliding back in her chair, sullenly refusing her milk, while her father frowned and her brother giggled and her mother said calmly "she wants her cup of starts"
Indeed yes, Elanor thought; indeed, so do I; a cup of stars of course.
"her little cup" the mother was explaining, smiling apologetically at the waitress, who was thunderstruck at the thought that the mill's good country milk was not rich enough for the little girl, "it has stars in the bottom and she always drinks her milk from it at home. She call it her cup of starts because she can see the stars while she drinks her milk" The waitress nodded, unconvinced, and the mother told the little girl, "you'll have your milk from your cup of starts tonight when we get home. But just for now, just to be a very good little girl, will you take a little milk from this glass?"
Don't do it, Eleanor told the little girl; insist on our cup of stars; once they have trapped yo into being like everyone else you will never see your cup of stars again; don't do it; and the little girl glance at her, and smiled a little subtle, dimpling , wholly comprehending smile, and shook her head stubbornly at the glass. Brave girl , Eleanor thought; wise, brave girl


I love it!

terry - 09/30/10 19:40
You will always be a princess (e:Mike). Don't let anyone take that away :)

That story (e:Tinypliny) mentions is very cute as well, take a look: :::link:::
libertad - 09/30/10 18:44
This is why I love you.
tinypliny - 09/30/10 18:14
You should read "Lumber Room" by Saki. It will change your perspective about what could be in a cup of milk. Other than stars.
matthew - 09/30/10 17:57
Shirley Jackson is a genius. I love this book.

09/11/2010 21:10 #52715

Karen Walker and me
This is something that if Paul heard it I thought he would think I would say it (if that makes sense) like when i heard it it was something that not i thought oh that is me per se but oh paul would think that was me....

on Will and Grace , Karen (who is hilar) said "you know what else is incredibly sad. poor people with big dreams. Actually that's not so much sad as it is incredibly funny"
paul - 09/12/10 09:43
Yes, I would believe you said it based on the glass house tale.

09/25/2010 17:44 #52831

Walking Downtown/Saving Scientologists?
So while (e:libertad) was at work I decided to go for a walk. I love walks on fall days like these. It really is my favorite time of year I think. ANywho, I usually walk around like Elmwood or something but decided to head towards downtown today instead cuz I never really walk around downtown, well i mean I have walked around many parts of downtown many times but id on't know not super recently and not just for the sake of walking around. SO i headed down Delaware and walked to city hall and I never read all the placards and stuff by the Mckinley monument (oddly enough i was wearing a shirt that has the lion that is on the side of that building on delaware that is based on the lions there). ANywho there was few wedidngs of people taking pics at city hall and that was neat to see.

OH i almost forgot while walking by the Statler some people came up to me and asked for directions to the TOwn Ballroom AND I WAS ACTUALLY ABLE TO PROVIDE THEM! As many of you konw I am terrible with directions , like i can get around but cannot explain it to others. OK really from Statler to TOwn Ballroom is really simple but it was still something.

ANywho then after City Hall i walked down court and then down main street towards downtown more and then around and on washington and stuff and just looked around. It is neat seeing like all the old like painted on names on buildings , like how many different things these buildings have been and many them sadly are now nothing. That leads me to the next thing, DOWNTOWN IS DEAD on the weekends. I know this, but it always shocks me a little. EVen the Tim Hortons in the LIberty BUilding is closed on Saturdays, when your downtown can't support 1 Tim HOrtons that is really sad, though to be honest the Dunkin DOnuts on CHippewa and Main Street was open so I guess there was that but still it seemed sad.

So then I was walking down Main Street back to Dave's and my favorite place in buffalo for some odd reason has always been the block of main street between Goodell and Tupperi think . SO i dawdled around there and then walked over to the CYclorama building which I have also always loved and took a picture of it to put in my phone. Then I sat on a rather comfy bench on the corner of Main and Goodell and talked to (e:mk) for a while about the sabres game she was attending tonight and what not. So then I took a peak into St.Louis church which is right there and that is where (e:Mk) is having her wedding and it was really pretty. Mass was going on so I couldn't really walk aroudn it but it looked really pretty.

Then I continued on my way down Main Street and got to the Scientologist Headquarter Building where some lady looked like she was getting brainwashed to join so I stood outside the windown and tried to mouth to her "DONT DO IT" but she looked at me like i was crazy and I"m just lady you the crazy one joining that freakin Tom Cruise cult! SO i walked on before they came out and murdered me to cleanse themselves of their alien toxins or whatever crazy thing they are doing at the moment. I have always wanted to go in and really see what it is like but i am so gullible and would definitely be pulled in for sure without a doubt!

So i continued on my walk down Main Street to Allen , then down to Elmwood and back up west ferry to Dave's apartment. Oh i forgot while walking down Main STreet I saw the people I gave the directions too again and they said they had found the Town Ballroom so I felt succesful!

Oh and I also forgot, like i was thiking while walking by the Hyatt like wow if you are a visitor to the B-lo and you walk out of that hotel onto Main Street it is so deserted and not welcoming and from the looks of things you prolly may as well be in Kabul! They should prolly work on that.

ALl in all it was an awesome walk and I am glad I did it and would liek to do it again. I am sure noone has read this far cuz this is like my journals that ramble on of old but maybe a little shorter!!
tinypliny - 09/28/10 22:42
hahah - you made a mundane walk hilarious.
metalpeter - 09/26/10 10:15
Here is the thing with downtown.
Different Cities have different Downtowns.
Our downtown is really just a place for business and work during the week and some cities I have heard are like that.

Yes the Chip Strip is part of downtown but most people call it the chip strip or some form of that.

Then you the Theatre District and yes those two areas kinda overlap. But again this is thought of its own area.

Then you have multiple areas called the waterfront.

Now what people are trying to do is to get the
cobblestone district and waterfront area all connected and that might happen.

But that still leaves that big middle area of Downtown that isn't hoping...

Now some people say no traffic on main killed the mall and the courtyard mall and that isn't true at all. Now the point of putting the train in well that does have marate but those are two different issues......
1. Elmwood, Delaware, Niagara and what ever that st. past main is that goes down to the Stadium all lead down town........
2. The Train
a. The 8 main ran bad and didn't hold a lot of people
b. The train changed that and made going from one part of the city to another much better
c. What this did was bring a lot of school kids to the mall
d. Lets face it a lot of those kids where black
e. If you are working all day and then at the end of the day do you really want to shop where there are kids hanging out and being nosey (hey kids do that), you don't even want to go shopping with your own kids. Now add in that many of them are black and you see why the mail failed
f. At the same you have this mall called the galleria and even though AM&A's or what ever they where called said they wouldn't move they did anyways.
g. AT one point there where stores at both the Galleria and thruway mall but it after time lost and closed
H. The Galleria didn't want city people, or people who couldn't drive at their mall or maybe just not blacks so they didn't let the buses onto the property
I. So those people shopped at the downtown mall.
j. There are been movement out to "The Burbs" for a long time. If you lived out there but worked here would you shop right after work or would you rather go to some big mall or shopping center on your way home? Do you want Drinks first?
k. I think some of the downtown shoppers turned into down town happy hours and then if they want to shop they can do it where they live......

WEll that is my theory just from living through it............
mk - 09/25/10 22:54
I clearly meant that your journals were the highlight of my life...not laugh...but they do make me laugh..........
mk - 09/25/10 22:54
I read that far because your rambling journals are one of the highlights of my laugh. They make me think of the very early days of (e:strip) when you couldn't make paragraphs and it was just one giant paragraph. Also, I don't really know where the Towne Ballroom is, and that's sad. So you should tell me where it is. Is it near your Grandma's???

09/16/2010 17:57 #52758

Buying Music
So i haven't bought much recently or ever really from ITUnes, but when i do it is always just like the top song of the moment, but I had a 15 dollar gift card so I decided to browse around and here is what I came up with and bought:

Jai Ho from Slumdog MIllionaire

Club Can't Handle Me by Flo Rida

Don't Stop Believing and Bust Your Windows from Glee

Hey Jude from Across the Universe

Take It Off Kei$ha

Mad World from Donnie Darko

Party In the USA by Miley Cyrus

Eye of the Tiger

I dreamed a dream by susan boyle

Million DOllar Bill by Whitney Houston

We No Speak Americano by Yolanda be Cool

Sorta a mix but really all movie or current hit related I suppose. I still have 5 dollars think i'll save it for now.

tinypliny - 09/16/10 19:03
Well??? How is the Whitney Houston song??? How is it?? Does it compare to her Queen of the Night era songs?