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Mrmike's Journal

mrmike
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10/17/2010 21:45 #52974

Just around the corner from being Overwhelmed...
Category: work
lies something. Not sure what exactly. It's been a little busy around the old workplace. My department temporarily shrunk by one and all those responsibilities landed on my desk. We hired a replacement who couldn't be expected to dive in so the seasonal activity planning stayed with me. The past two weeks, I've also had to pinch it for our press person who was out until Friday.

My ex teased me about the large irish cranium coming in handy for the wearing of many hats. I've wracked up a decent streak with 3700 people over the past couple of weekend dates and I have next weekend to get through and I'm done.

Not a moment too soon. Staging something like this is educational to say the least and you are prone to pontificating as everybody who has done their part has helped put the pieces together, with all eyes looking in my direction. It has kept me up as the details have me talking through it a lot to make sure nothing gets overlooked.

Maybe it is self inflicted pressure, but the assurance for one of my work buds that it was going okay and I've done good wasn't quite as satisfying as it should have been. I think I had already moved on to the wheeling and dealing that needs to be done in the days ahead to make sure that the next weekend runs as well as this weekend.

Makes your head hurt. I half-jokingly told a student that the key to a successful event on a grand scale was to take your preventive Advil right at the outset.

Today I took two. It's a little freeing to have them out of the way, but you invest so much in the thinking that when the Beatles "Golden Slumbers" came on the car stereo it reduced me to a bit of a mess before I event got out of the parking lot.

To balance out how much that messes up with the child rearing schedule, I was trying to dress up time with number one son over the start of the weekend. I lucked into some hockey tickets for friday night which was good, as it felt like I was giving him a bit of bum's rush to immerse myself in the foolishness at the office.

Yeah, I worry, I'm irish, it's how I roll.
tinypliny - 10/18/10 02:28
Really? Do Irish have a larger cranium? That is so interesting... Do you think the Irish have Germanic/Aryan roots or are they more Norwegian?

10/10/2010 12:55 #52929

The Wall
Category: music
Phenomenal show at the Arena on Friday











Absolutely amazing
mrmike - 10/11/10 08:52
This was advertised about six months ago, but I was the beneficiary of a generous ticket holder. Buffalo has never had a boom time in the past 25 years or so. They come because people come I guess, that and the arena itself is well run and I guess that scores points.
tinypliny - 10/10/10 20:59
Looks like you had a fun time! Where do you hear about these cool things downtown? If such huge acts come to Buffalo, how come we are still in economic depression?!

10/03/2010 09:49 #52886

Election Day
The political process makes my head hurt. In an unintentional environmental statement, I called the board of elections to bail on both the republicans and democrats since the primaries are such a moot point lately.

Literally independent as I now have a card that says so.

So, Carl Paladino will “take a reporter out?” And Andrew Cuomo‘s minions are digging up old news on staffers working for Paladino. When you read about the exchanges in the press this week, you can’t help but wonder if either is really concerned with the abhorrent state the state is in. We are fooling ourselves if we think we are getting choir boys with any election and the media fixation with things that have nothing to do with governing doesn’t aid in the discussion. The state has been a poor business model for a very long time and so far, nobody has said what they are going to do about that. That matters more than ANY of the shenanigans being talked about this week.

With the transparency, power trips, and manipulation that was evident in plan site from the Espada episodes onward, you’d have to wonder who in their right mind would want the job?

The authorities are bloated, you have assemblymen saying things like “My boss, Shelly,” implying the peoples business was only getting attended to unless Mr. Silver said so, and in the flood of glossy postcards that filled my mailbox leading up to primary day, nobody was going to fix anything, nobody has a plan other than beating and insulting the guy they are running against.With candidates campaigning on things they DIDN’T completed like UB2020 and the party chairs picking their guys before the primaries, it’s a wonder people showed up to vote in the primaries at all. But if we get the leadership we deserve, as the saying goes, we must really suck.

09/23/2010 16:42 #52822

Midweek Mental Gumbo
Category: random
These could have been separate entries, but I figured just empty the pockets and we can resume what we doing…

So, I drag my weary self to my Monday night Bikram yoga class. Yeah, if you know me at all, that is an interesting mental picture all in itself. Near empty room and I hide toward the back with the thought being I can see and hopefully not distract the more graceful with my elephant on a high-wire schtick. Young dude comes in and set his stuff right in front of me, despite the near empty room. So, for the next ninety minutes, I got a guy who thinks the three inches of boxers then the shorts is a good look. Really? Yank the damn things up fool! Nobody has ever pulled off that look.
Getting a kick out of those who are behind the “Anger is not policy” argument against the candidacy of Carl Paladino. While he won’t get a chance to try most of what he espousing, at least he appears to be for something. “Status Cuomo” (come on, you wish you thought of it) is trotting out the email “Scandal” that disappeared almost as fast as it appeared last summer. I’m sorry, democratic operatives are doing the trotting, but it won’t matter.
I don’t condone that stuff, but to pretend he is the only guy in the capital to have something question in either his in or out basket is folly too.
Think the Bills could sell Michael Vick to the fan base now?
Fun hearing the Hawaii 5-0 theme on TV the other night. Given the time the original was on, I was half tempted to call my folks and ask if I could stay up to Danno “book-em.” Like any pilot, full of exposition and former “Lost” actors who are suddenly available, but it shows some promise.
Back to the Bills for a second, maybe they should follow the Sabres model and switch uniforms back again. It worked for the Sabres as people spent a day or two talking about shirts and not about players.
Speaking of the Sabres, I think one of their poobahs was a little off in lamenting that a few newspaper columns drove Bass Pro away. I don’t they were really considering it for the same reasons Ikea didn’t want to build here. We’re not a destination point. Instead of being the nerd pestering the hot chick at the dance, the Canal side guys should (I know I’ve said it previously) look at the Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Baltimore waterfronts and see that one huge retailer isn’t going to change the dynamic. Give people water access, reasons to be there (like a beach, like a navy pier type thingy, a proportional version of Chelsea Piers and the money will come.
Remember when you stopped to parallel park, people would stop? Now, I see it all the time as everybody just loops around without regard for the car that is parking or the truck that might be coming the other way.

Sigh, and so it goes

metalpeter - 09/23/10 18:52
The Bills:
I think they have the talent but have to learn how to use it and they could have a good team. Mix in the west coast offense the multiple backs and the the wild cat and I formation and you can take the pressure of the QB. But I still think that they could only play for the wild card with the host of other teams in our divison

Paladino:
Barrack ran on hope and Change and won so why can't Palidno run on anger. I admit I'm voting for him. I disagree with his politics but here is why.
1. Maybe he can change things in albany not like he can make things worse
2. Coumo is only in this cause of his family
3. he is doing this so he can try to be president
4. he lists all this great stuff he has done, Hello he is the Attourney General to do that stuff is his job it has nothing to do with if he will be a good governer.
5. If spitzer ran again he would have beat them both, maybe think about the fun there

Sabres:
Hope for a good team this year we shall see. Again I think they have the talent but how will they play??? Love the new white Jersy even though the one everyone is talking about is the new blue one. Just remember if the world hasn't ended by then in 10 years they have to come out with the 50 year ones. glad the slug is gone

09/10/2010 14:33 #52694

I have a good job

image

I'm so telegenic.
mrmike - 09/23/10 22:12
That's the county executive, the Zoo Prez in the middle and to the left, your good looking Zoo Marketing Manager
heidi - 09/23/10 21:22
Who is he?
mrmike - 09/10/10 14:58
If only that was so, I was actually teaching him how to update his Zoo app. We have one for Iphone and Droids now and he was good enough to come out and help us launch it. I think the resulting press was there because of him as apps aren't exactly groundbreaking. It was cool to hear my kids get jazzed at seeing me though.
paul - 09/10/10 14:52
Nice, are you signing autographs there?