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Joe's Journal

joe
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03/09/2016 02:33 #60436

Dragonfruit (dragonegg)
Category: food
Have you ever had a dragonfruit? It looks like I would expect a dragon egg to look like. It makes me want to incubate it and have a cute dragon pet.

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We got on at PriceRite for $1.99 a pound. It has a very mild creamy taste and the coolest looking seeds on the inside. From the look of it I really thought it would have a stronger taste.


Apparently it's from Mexico and related to the prickly pear cactus. Now I know what Basra's favorite fruits taste like.
paul - 03/10/16 00:14
It was rather unflavorful. The prickly pear is way better.

03/09/2016 02:32 #60435

Apple design
Category: tech

As seen on (e:Paul)'s desk.

The moment when your USB rechargeable mouse battery dies, but you can't use it while it charges because the plug is on the bottom (?!). so it's back to a much cheaper corded mouse which never dies.

Magic mouse for real. Why would Apple not put it in the front or make it inductive? What about when the battery life is reduced?

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03/09/2016 02:25 #60434

Faceswapping
Category: tech
I went over to my parent's house for Latvian food and dog walking.

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My sister and I discovered the snapchat faceswap filter while I was there. I think (e:xandra) is the best at these, but here's Mary swapping faces with the high school pictures of Daniel and me.
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03/01/2016 23:56 #60432

Chesnut Ridge hike
Category: hiking
We took advantage of the warm Sunday to go hiking down at Chestnut Ridge. From the look of the parking lot we thought it was going it was going to be packed - but they all must have been on the eternal flame trail because we didn't see too many people. The shale-y creek beds remind me of Hunter's Creek.


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I hadn't been to hike at Chesnut Ridge since elementary school, when a bunch of hippies showed us what weeds we could eat, and we had lean-to building contests. During (e:paul)'s time Ken-Ton elementary schools had camp outs - but at some point that became too risky for schools, and it turned into county park day trips.

My favorite part about the weather was the watching the snow melt run off into increasingly bigger streams. We walked through a path that basically became a creek.

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At some point we came across this old chimney backing up to a creek. Nothing else was around it - I wonder what it was for. I climbed the top and looked down - it was full of garbage.

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My photos for the day came out pretty good. I wish I could post a bunch of the time lapse pictures I took because I felt they get the streams the best, but they're in mp4 format and I don't feel like uploading them to youtube. Maybe estrip should support small file-size HTML5 video.
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On the way home we stopped at Curly's for late lunch. It was expensive but amazing - I had the jerk tofu with sliced grilles vegetables and Terry had a mushroom mac and cheese. I need to figure out how to cook tofu that way.

02/29/2016 23:37 #60431

Outlet mall
Category: consumerism
On Saturday (e:paul) begged me to go to the mall with him, (e:mike) and (e:dave).

First we went to the Como restaurant on Pine Avenue Niagara Falls. My meal wasn't a decent deal - salad, cheese ravioli entree and a cannoli for $12. An old Italian man in the bathroom asked me if I was trying to hide my gun.

(e:mike) had the pops all lined up.
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The outlet mall is as expected - pointless. Even Paul agreed that there's not much he actually wanted to buy. But I managed to block most of the consumerist orgy out by hanging out with Paul, Mike and Dave. Plus I got to do a lot of walking, even if it was inside.

(e:paul) trying to bring back the 90's
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This sweater was $1395 marked down to $595. WTF?!
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ExBuffalonian - 03/01/16 11:15
The Como is very popular with native Niagarans, probably because of its stature as an icon in the community. It has always been there, and most of the locals have grown up with it. So they love it automatically. Fortuna's is way better for pasta, and La Hacienda is better for pizza. If you're not in the mood for Italian the next time you're in the Falls, I'd highly recommend checking out the 755 Lounge, pretty much around the corner from the Como. A huge part of the menu is Lebanese, so there are lots of amazing vegetarian options. We had a vegan appetizer platter last weekend that was really good. Their non veggie options are really good too. The fish tacos are really good and their Friday fish fries. The atmosphere is kind of funky, as you'd expect off Pine Ave, but it's pretty cool. And the staff is super friendly and cool. :::link:::
P.S. I only go to that outlet mall when it absolutely cannot be avoided because I desperately need something from it. It's wildly popular with Canadian tourists though.