I need to wear shades.

Last Monday while on a run, I saw a pedestrian after he got hit at Elmwood and Bryant. I didn't see what happened but people were saying he got hit by a car swinging around onto Elmwood. He was in rough shape, in and out of consciousness, but the cops, paramedics and FD got there super quickly. I haven't heard anything about it so I hope he survived.

I freaked out a bit and as soon as I got home I put aside my cheapness and bought a ton of new safety stuff for my bike. I finally ordered Schwalbe Marathon Winter studded bike tires, which are supposed to be great on ice and snow, and two new bike lights. My old front and rear were cheap dim Bell lights. I ordered the Cygolite Metro 420 (lumens) and the 2W Cygolite hotshot blinker for my back.

They're so freaking bright its amazing. The pictures don't really capture it but I don't think I can even run them at full power most of the time because they hurt to look at that level. Plus they're USB rechargeable so I don't have to buy any more batteries. Definitely worth it.

Behind on posts but oh well.

On Saturday after a lazy day of seeing Hunger Games with the Paul, Terry, and siblings, watching Dracula, and clearing out thanksgiving leftovers, (e:paul), (e:terry), and I needed to go do something physical. We went out with (e:yesthatcasey) to go see Marty McFly and a few other DJs at a place called Club Miami, 2339 Union Road, West Seneca. Apparently it must be a sports bar or normally because the sign said "Dog Pound Saloon" outside.

The place evoked exactly what I pictured the Miami club scene to be - a former Bob Evans/sports bar with a carpeted dance floor and a light up palm tree. Paul thought it might be an actual dog pound during the day because it made him allergic.

Despite the weird venue the music was pretty good. I'm not sure what DJs we actually heard. Dancing wasn't great since the floor was taken up by breakers for an hour.

By the 3am people started to clear out and the crazy boiled over. One guy was on something hardcore he was going into the bathroom and screaming all night. Somehow he ended up fighting with the security and got dragged out the door, knocking over tons of stuff on the way. Right after, there was some drama between two girls about a guy and four or five people started going at it. At this point we dipped out because it could only get classier in there. The whole night was so weird, I'd consider going back just for the spectacle.


The decor




Paul and Casey fighting over handwarmers

Last Sunday, (e:paul) and I decided to climb the tree next door at the church. After trying to climb it once, I thought to myself, "I should take my phone out of my pocket so it doesn't fall out and get smashed". Of course, I decide to take it out of my pocket and hold it out for Paul just as he was climbing down from the tree, leading to this.



The tree in question

So we ordered a Note 2 glass repair kit, an infrared thermometer and heat gun from amazon. First of all, I'm absolutely obsessed with taking the temperature of things.

89 degrees, so hot.

I used this video to replace the glass yesterday. Basically the glass is glued down with a high temperature glue to the OLED display itself, and can only be pried off with some heat.

It wasn't too difficult to remove. The glue bonding the OLED to the the glass came off with only 150F of heat, so the display didn't discolor at all. The most difficult part was keeping the new glass dust free while I was adhering it again.

The replacement glass is definitely a knock off. It doesn't have gorilla glass or oleophobic coatings, and the glue isn't vacuum bonded to the display like the original, meaning there's a bit of a gap and flex to it. It wasn't too much work to replace it though, and I don't have to worry about getting shards of glass in my finger. Plus the cost of the replacement was $20 vs $150+ for a new display with OEM glass.




The finished product, and the flexed spot

Full of the friends, family, neighbors, dogs and deserts.

(e:paul) has gotten the weirdest two songs stuck in my head. The first one is "Your Smile" by Charly Lownoise. It's a happy hardcore song thats so 90s it hurts. But its so much more driving and upbeat than most EDM thats big now I don't even know how to dance to it. It makes me work like crazy.


The second song is called "Jungend Erwach" about young communists rebuilding east Germany. I really have nothing else to say but the lyrics are pretty sunny and apolitical for what I'd think a communist children's song would be.