Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Coupla bizarre things.....

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First.......


They FOUND IT.......

THEE elusive
Homer Simpson Chili Pepper!

I dunno.....whilst I've been close to death a few times in my life, I'd still be intrigued to give this thing a go......

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And...

...I have no clue WHAT to make out of this (sent in by a reader from D.C.-ish).....

I guess to each his or her own....I'm not really one to question one's deeply held personal beliefs....though I did ONCE make a vegetarian chili that got very rave reviews......I guess, I don't know, I didn't try it!



-E-

Sunday, July 29, 2007

And on a beautiful, sunshine-free Sunday afternoon.......



The Beautiful Game yesterday achieved what......



....a dictatorship, an invasion from a foreign occupying country, and years of sectarian violence (as a result of the aforementioned invasion) failed to do: Unify (however briefly) the various peoples of the nation of Iraq!

Go ahead and bash Football ("soccer" as it's known to Americans) all you want.....but has a Super Bowl or a World Series ever stopped a Civil War at all....??? Not routinely, but just once, even??

Nah....didn't think so.....



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Today was the first blast.....

....of the Marmot Dam on The Sandy River.


Usually, I'm NOT huge fan of Portland General Electric......but today, they done good. $18 million in costs to totally remove this abomination. Go right ahead....jack my electrique bill up.....this is one increase I'll actually be very happy to pay!


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New road trip story on the pics page.....


Enjoy!

-E-

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Errmm.....as if I couldn't get anymore pissed off today.......

....I see an article in Newsweek that really just almost put me over the edge!

After having a meeting with my boss,
Bill Lumbergh, where I was directed to take a sign down from inside my cubicle that stated "A 'yes' vote tomorrow equals less health coverage for your family the day after."

I had put up said sign inside my cubicle for tomorrow's union vote on switching from a four-year contract (that just ended July 1st) to a kowtow two-year contract. Said meeting with Lumbergh did not go well, with Bill ordering me to take the sign down and me consequently expressing my opinion about being forced to take my sign down by saying "This is Bullshit!" and prematurely ending said meeting immediately after that statement by walking out of our "talk".........

......this was followed by losing a double-header on the softball diamond.....


(Hafta stop living vicariously through Bill Lee books)
















....and then I see this article.

Now, I had first heard about this in The Buffalo News about four months ago, and I was rather shocked. I had refereed high school soccer for a game or two in my past (in Buffalo from 1988 thru to 1992 and again for a season in 2003, then in Denver in 2004, then in Portland in 2005 - licensed to officiate high school soccer in three states)!

Going purely from my personal experiences, I find a great deal of the things that The Buffalo News reported to be suspect at best.

I remember officiating my first Lackawanna match at Lackawanna in 1989. I saw a whole bunch of Arabic-looking students on the pitch. I had asked a European-American player "Where'd these guys all come from?" meaning what country specifically.......

..........he shrugged his shoulders and stated to me in a rather nonplussed manner: "Lackawanna".....and joined his teammates in their pre-match warmups.

I had refereed several of Abdul's teams representing Lackawanna High School, on all levels, Freshman, Junior Varsity and Varsity, in the period from '89 to '92. I had never so much as thrown a card at any player his programs.

Of course, that was back the glory days of the Western New York Soccer Officials Association (the quasi-union that organised and scheduled referees in the Buffalo area) when it was run by Robert Miske and Patrick Kane (may The Creator rest his soul).

I had mistakenly moved back to Western New York for a year in 2003, and, not being able to locate employment that paid over $6.00/hr., I had decided to go back to refereeing The Beautiful Game!

I could tell you stories about the new "leadership" of the Soccer Officials Association I had encountered in 2003 that would make your head spin......corruption, Goomba-ism, egos, etc. (I mean, one of the guys in charge of the W.N.Y.S.O.A. had actually tossed our coach [Sal DeRosa] out of an indoor match I was goalkeeping in. Coach DeRosa is a guy who had won a championship [and Coach of the Year award] in the old North American Soccer League, besting teams like the Dallas Tornado, New York Cosmos, and others! The ref that tossed him runs a goddamm liquor store)!!!

A lot of observations were made by this blog during that 2003 season.....one that I found rather troubling is preferential treatment I had noticed given on the pitch to certain schools. Usually, these were rural schools that either did not have an American Football program, or had one that was, shall we say, less than stellar, and fielded sides that were about 95% European-American composition (e.g. -Holland, East Aurora, North Collins, and a few others).

Needless to say, especially in the post 9/11 era, Lackawanna was not one of these programs! Hell, I officiated a match between Holland and East Aurora (two of the darlings) that almost ended in a riot between fans of both clubs! I'd seen Buffalo Bills-Miami Dolphins matches that were far more civil......

Errrmm.......where was The Buffalo News on that one?

All in all, this Newsweek article is a very objective piece, and fairly well-written. The only thing that took me aback were the extremely ignorant comments that Newsweek attributed to John Kramer. During my one-season return to the Western New York Soccer Officials Association in 2003, John was Treasurer of the Association, and I had found him to be a level-headed, reasonable and kind individual.....one of the very few shining stars in what had deteriorated into a rather dodgy organisation.

I'm having doubts as to whether THAT was indeed what John was exactly quoted as saying.....I mean, this IS national media....sensationalism sells magazines.

Wake me up when it's all over.....

-E-

Sunday, July 22, 2007

In the world of Community Development, we sometimes see that.......

........truth is sometimes stranger than fiction!

.....and BOTH of these stories took place in Chicago.....hmmm.......
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Not much at all of any real interest of fascination
going on in local or national news that I feel is worth
spending blog space on (although, I DID really

get a kick out of
Wendy Vitter's hypocrisy after her
hubby, Louisiana Senator David Vitter, uhhh,
found his name on a rather embarrassing client list).

I'm out of town next weekend, so hopefully, whilst
I doubt I'll have any amusing stories, I should have some
really cool fotograffs on the
pics page! Who knows, though......

-E-

Friday, July 13, 2007

Now, once every so often, I'll fly on airplanes.......

......and I have some understanding and sympathy to BOTH sides as to what was alledged to have happened.

But this lady has witnesses to back this stuff up!!

I mean, I despise young children or infants on a flight in the seat behind me kicking and screaming and crying to no end!! Still, though.....seriously....I have never once complained. I deal...it's just part of flying!

But
what this flight attendant allegedly did was really rather upsetting!

Yeah, they put up with all kinds of shit from the travelling public......yeah, they get laid off sometimes.

And also.......

  • Near-free (or even totally free) travel on their days off
  • Whatever city they end up with at the end of the evening, their hotel room is pre-paid by their airline for a 10 to 25 hour layover, depending on their schedule (I KNOW! I had a job where used to drive pilots and flight attendants from the airport to these hotels [often a Westin.....never any worse than a Holiday Inn.....in the heart of Downtown Denver - sticker price for you and I??? Try $115 to $200 a night!!!!] )
  • New (well, in the past seven years or so) "self-service" style sodas and snacks! Ooooops!!! You were asleep in the first go-around for the flight attendants for a pop and a bag of peanuts? Too bad. They won't be around again AT ALL for another 120 minutes. Nope! YOU get up and walk to the rear of the jet and ask for your pop and snack! Don't be surprised if you get a snarl because you interrupted a gossiping session or they had to put down their newspaper! Sorry.......I just remember the days of flying (not terribly long ago at all, actually) every twenty, thirty minutes or so "May I get you something?" the stewardess would politely ask...........

Flying sucks now (well...DUH!)..........and we should all get more time off to take road trips or the train or something......

I'm out for the night......

-E-

Time Wasting before I head out for the evening......

.......and other rubbish found on YouTube!

THIS is just creepy......

......I mean, did people really put this on TV back in the day? Shit, I mean, I'm a militant pro-smoker, but even I'M uneased by this.

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Top six cheezy videos (for this week, anyays)......


Number 6 - The Levellers -
COME ON
Man, if this video doesn't imply something's really fucked up about society today.......

Number 5 - Juliana Hatfield -
UNIVERSAL HEARTBEAT
It's Juliana Hatfield! What else is there to say?

Number 4 - The Adverts -
GARY GILMORE'S EYES
Not my favourite Adverts song at all....but any video with Gaye Advert in it (albeit briefly) has got to be on a top six list!

Number 3 - The Fall -
CRUISER'S CREEK
Do you ever see YOUR office like this? Bonus points if your office has Brix Smith in it......

Number 2 - Teenage Head -
TEENAGE BEER DRINKING PARTY
Easily one of my top three bands to see live.....hell, even to this day!

Number 1 - Midnight Oil -
DREAMWORLD
People have asked me a few times: "E, why don't you move over to the Dark Side??? You can make at least twice what you make now over there......"

This video may help shed some light as to WHY I'll never fucking work in the Private Sector as a planner!

.....ever......

And how come the only American entertainers we get who go into Government service are right-wing fuckwitts like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sonny Bono and Ronald Reagan, and the Aussies get Peter Garrett??

Jesus......what the hell is going on?

-E-

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Couple pics of Rockaway.....and a couple quik notes.......



























.
.
.

(I love that advert: Like, what? The City's HR people are gonna go to Kelly Girl services and Manpower and just casually pick up a certified building inspector and an urban planner?? WTF??)


Alright.....so what if the first pic was actually taken in front of my house??? Anyways......
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.
Was bored earlier this week.......
.
.......and since I'm a huge fan of Demographics, I had a look at some 2007 Census Bureau population estimates! Sad.....the city where I was born isn't looking very well.....in fact, can you guess which of the following places the actual city limits of Buffalo (NOT counting the 'burbs) NOW has FEWER people than (the actual city limits - NOT counting 'burbs):
  • Anchorage, ALASKA
  • Aurora, Colorado (a suburb of Denver)
  • Albuquerque, New Mexico
  • Corpus Christi, Texas
  • Toledo, Ohio
  • Wichita, Kansas

Would all of the budding demographers in the room who answered "all of the above" go and pat yourself on the back.....well done.

THAT has GOT to be thee ultimate bitch-slap....that TOLEDO has more people than your city does.....

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Speaking of Buffalo......

.....does Mary Kunz Goldman also secretly write for The Onion under the nom de plume Jean Teesdale?

Just kinda looks suspicious, I guess.....

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I have got just ONE word for this.....

.....why? Just, "why"???

I mean.....what????? We get that instead of Veronica Mars??

This, without question, shows that we ARE TRULY CLOSER to Idiocracy than Mike Judge predicted.....

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Nice to have both........

...........a functioning cell fone AND Internet both returned to me after a four-day absence of both.......I felt like a quadruple-amputee.......but I still negotiated a decent Internet deal with Comcast.

Watching lightning and listening to thunder in the skies over The Hills of Cedar......two things we encounter very rarely here in Oregon......

More later!

-E-



Saturday, July 07, 2007

LOT nicer at Rockaway Beach this weekend......


....than the last time I was here!!!


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Nice try.....but......



.....no dice!



Sorry, guys. When you could have let the highest scorer on the team go (Thomas Vanek) and prepared and actually still have been able to sign thee heart and soul and co-captains of your team (Daniel Briere and Chris Drury)......and you totally fuck that up.......as a Sabres fan, you have to wonder about this management.....


The Sabres let Briere and Drury go, and also let go a pretty decent second-line forward (Dainius Zubrus) to New Joisey (who signed him for, like, $3MIL and change per year), just keeping one antique defenseman (Teppo Numminen), one hard-digging, 150% effort but not terribly talented scrapper (Adam Mair) and then, as desperation grasps its hands around their throat, the Sabres Management actually met an over-priced offer that Edmonton threw out (as a joke, most likely) for said high-scorer (Vanek)........

Watch.....seriously! I'll go right now with ANYONE $50 that the Sabres DO NOT REACH 25 victories in the 2007-2008 campaign! No, seriously....they will NOT win more then 24 games (including those shitty overtime and shootout wins!) this coming season! Captain Clutch ain't wearing The Golden Slug on the front of his jersey anymore.....and visiting two or three times next season, Briere and Biron will totally embarrass us when the Broad Street Bullies come to town!




COME ON! Larry, Darcy and Tom.......WHAT THE HELL were you thinking??? You thought that 19,000-PLUS per match at HSBC was nice......shit, this coming season??? Try, like, 10,000 a game!




Vanek, whilst a fun skater to watch and a rather respectable talent, is NOT going to carry this team ON HIS OWN!! And no way in highest hell is he worth $7-PLUS million per year!!! And Larry Quinn has the absolute nerve to be furious that Edmonton General Manager Kevin Lowe hi-balled (no pun intended) the offer that Edmonton put out for Vanek!





Quinn, you total fucking ANTI-Intellect!!!

My God, Man.....have you EVER played poker in your life? You KNOW, KNOW, KNOW that there is NO WAY Vanek is worth $7-plus million a year....so what do you do?? You simply call Lowe's bluff....plain and simple. You send Vanek packing and Edmonton is scared shitless because they're NOW STUCK with a $4 million-per-year (AT MOST) player that they paid $7MIL for!! You don't bid too high in a futile attempt to save your team's fan base on an over-priced player!! Not when you've already allowed the heart and soul of your team to skate on off into the sunset!!!!!!!!!!





Larry, this is your DUMBEST move since pushing......errrrr.......ramming Bass Pro down the throats of Western New Yorkers forced to look at this monstrosity plopped down in the middle of a historic district!





B. Thomas Golisano, I'm available to take the General Manager position of the Buffalo Sabres RIGHT NOW!!!!





Western New York.......HOW do you improve your community??? Simple!!! Use the force of statute and law and officially EXILE Larry Quinn and ban him from EVER setting foot anywhere in the seven-county Western New York area!

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......and again, it's a LOT nicer than it was here three weeks ago......

.....so I'm outta here and off to walk to the beach! Got a lounge chair and a bottle of Gewertz waiting for me there.....

:-)

-E-

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

DO NOT, repeat, DO NOT......


....play "chicken" with your cable company!


They are soulless bastards who WILL call your bluff!


Story:

After getting the introductory offer from my soulless cable comapny (Comcast) for six months for, like, $19.95 a month, I get hit with a bill at the end of the intro offer for, like, $49.50 a month! WTF?

Allright.....so, a friend who worked for Comcast for a few years said "Call them......tell them that you got your hours cut at work....money's tight...yadda yadda yadda......and it's just too expensive! And then their retention department will cut you a deal, like....ooooh.....$29.95 per month for, like, six months or something like that!"

Tried it......

"Well, OK Mr. E, we're sorry to lose you as a customer. We'll disconnect your service on the 30th. Bye now!"


All right.....all right all right....cool. Well, that's all right! Hell....they'll call me on, like, the 28th and offer me that thirty-buck-a-month deal!




And....uhhhhh.....my Internet is WHERE, now??

Yeah.....me and my brillant ideas!


No dial-up! Got no P.O.T.S. line. (Plain Old Telephone Service - i.e. - "Landline").


COULD get DSL, but again, I'd hafta drop $30+ a month just on the P.O.T.S. line alone, plus DSL on top of that! And I do NOT have ANY need forra LandLine whatsoever!! I'm never at home!


THANX for the advice, HRD!!!


Comcast, I Love You! Thou shalt never forsake you ever again for false idols (e.g. - other Internet Service Providers). Thou shalt religiously attend Comcast religous services every time you ask me to!

.....*whimper*.....PLEEEZE take me back!













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For my two (or so) Buffalo readers.......

Now, I can't remember what dorms go for at most colleges, but I THINK it's, like, 2 G's a semester or so. OK. But whass up with this article reprinted below without permission from The Buffalo News written by Barbara O’Brien. This is RICH!! READ THIS:

Cheektowaga Town Board members Tuesday night unanimously approved a $100 million gated housing project for college students, providing the owner can qualify for an exemption from real property taxes.


“We have to make sure they’re tax exempt and entitled to the [tax agreement],” Town Attorney Kevin Schenk said.


Under the plan by Kensington Village Owner Mark Chason, MSHKenmore, a non-profit organization which is a subsidiary of Mustard Seed Housing, will buy the apartment buildings and refurbish them for 1,208 students from area colleges.


Some buildings would be knocked down, and a new community center and pool would be built. Ken-Vill Associates would continue to own the 50 acres of land where the complex is located off Eggert Road.


The new development is called Collegiate Crossings.


The Town Board approved resolutions to abandon and sell Kenville Road and sections of Marc and Betty lanes to the developer, exempt the 50-acre parcel from property taxes, enter into a payment-inlieu- of-taxes agreement, and ask the Village of Kenmore Housing Authority to issue up to $100 million in tax-exempt housing bonds.


All of the measures are subject to the approval of the town attorney and assessor that the project is exempt from real property taxes under New York State Law. Schenk said the town has asked the state Office of Real Property Tax Services
to issue an opinion letter on the tax-exempt status.


“This is an unusual project,” Schenk said, explaining why the town is asking for clarification.


The developer has told the town those eligible for the apartments will be low-income, and that it will reduce the rent for up to 20 percent of students by $100 a month, or $1,200 a year, Schenk said.


Monthly rent is expected to be $740 per bed for the twobedroom apartments and $620 per bed for four-bedroom apartments. Rents include heat.


The town sold the roads for $200,000 cash, plus an agreement to include the fair market assessment of the roads into the payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreement.


The PILOT agreement for the community center is for 20 years, after which the developer would pay full taxes.


Under the agreement for the rest of the project, the town, Erie County and Cleveland Hill School District would be paid taxes based on this year’s assessment for the next 33 years. The payments also would include the taxes on the assessment of the roads, which would add about $20,000 a year to the payment.


The sale of the road could be challenged by residents who file enough signatures forcing a vote on the transaction.


News Staff Reporter Dale Anderson contributed to this report.





Now, WHAT THE FUCK is up with THAT??? I mean, in thee total scarest part of the Buffalo suburbs (right ON the border of the City's East Side....niiiiccce place), in an area with NO colleges within two miles, and they are jacking $1500 a month (including heat....so knock off Two Hundred....so, say, $1300 a month) for a two-bedroom in 'Da Hood??? IN BUFFALO??? Jesus, I can fetch a niiiiicccce, sweeeet two-bedroom condo higher-rise at Gates Circle for, like less than a grand for a month!!

Define your terms meaning "non-profit" please, "Mustard-Seed Housing"!!

Typical Buffalo scam we've all come to know and love....somebody's snout is at the trough on this one.....

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NEXT POST - WHY and HOW Larry Quinn, Darcy Reiger and especially B. Thomas Golisano have just collectively bent the soul of Western New York right over!

Off to The Ocean for a three-dayer........more upon next time I snag Internet access!

-E-