.:Gotta Drop a Blog in The Corner:.

it was a royal pain getting movable type up... but like everything computer related... you want to shoot yourself for not seeing the error (ie, it's usually one line in the configuration file, or one semi-colon in a program). so... if anyone wants to setup MT on their own host (if you run your own i suggest creating a vitual host in apache), make sure you setup ExecCGI+ for your MT directory in your httpd.conf. for you windows server users... i don't use IIS so i can't help you there, but it'd probably be similar.

i think i might need to take some more steps to get just the general traffic running the way i want. unfortunately my dsl connection only has 128kbps upstream... so any ftp user downloads will use up that bandwidth, and if anyone's accessing this blog, that bandwidth will also come from that 128kbps upstream number. i'd kind of rather had an equal upstream/downstream rate, or dynamic adjustments which shift on usage (cause i have 768kbps downstream)... but no one offers that to personal users even with cable modems. so... i've decided to cap the bandwidth of my ftp server so that this site doesn't load like it's stuck in the prodigy (yeah remember them?) days speed-wise. it'd be nice if i had the money to buy a nice router with qos traffic shaping... but that's not happening. someone's already tried to hack into the system... i looked @ the log (or should it be blog?) files and they were tried a dictionary attack... nothing was compromised though, and so i decided to lock the system down a bit tighter. i'm pretty psyched about this new project though... as it will help me keep some of the stuff i've picked up in the past. over the last 3 years i've felt myself slipping a bit tech-wise, and it'd be a shame to lose everything. gotta keep an edge just in case... who knows when it'll come in handy in the future?

so... once i stablize the server (it might take some time as i figure out a good balance... may have to unload some services to another system)... i'll be making some design adjustments to this blog too. i've got the default install to my photo album application up. nothing's in there yet, but you can get there from here. http://gdab.dyndns.org:8080/gallery/ http://gdbtc.dyndns.org:8080/gallery/. so don't get too comfortable with this just yet... there may be some more surprises around "the corner".

other things that are going on... i'm getting baptized next sunday, and you're welcome to come if you would like. it's @ the 11am service in the chapel (http://www.thechapel.com). hmmm... oh... i'm making one last weekend trip to nyc before school starts (literally... i start school on the following day after i return aug 28th). i'd also like to add, that i love jetblue. i gave my notice to work that i won't be coming back after august. i've got too much to do this fall semester, and the job that i would take would be a TA or GA position on-campus. it's a bit sad... i just passed my 1 year anniversary recently. it's been fun, and it's nice having some extra cash, but i really need to get this research off the ground so i can start and finish my thesis. lots of other things i've been storing up to talk about in the news... but i think it's a little too late to break out now. i'm tired, and tomorrow's the low show.

hope everyone has great weekends. let me know if you run into any problems with the site, mail me or im/msn me jchow32-at-hotmail.com. i'll be configuring a mail server too when i get a chance... so jason-at-gdab.dyndns.org or similar may appear in the near future. thanks for bearing with me (us).

dude, seriously, we don't need to know about your honoré de balzac.

So for some reason, there's a manatee just hangin' out on the Hudson river. No word yet on whether this has stalled production of the new season of Family Guy.

so this is good. got t.c. to start posting again. hopefully this will blog will be updated more regularly if there are 2 people pushing the buttons.

i've turned commenting on for everyone as of now... in the future i'll probably ask that you register to comment when i start getting spam on the blog.

the days are winding down. school is around the corner... and i'm kinda not looking forward to it.

got some pics up in the gallery... more to come.

i'm still trying to figure out how to balance load and bandwidth on the server... so pages might load slow sometimes. please bear with us.

yup... it's that time again when yours truly starts doing due diligence on schools to apply to. i'm getting too old for this, i feel like I just sent out the last batch yesterday! this cycle is gonna cost me plenty of money. to hopefully increase my chances of getting into a pharmD program i'll be sending apps to a couple dozen schools. i can hit them up hard and fast this time and get reviewed hopefully right away since all my prereq classes have been finished for awhile now. backup plan is to send 8-10 apps to phd programs in pharmaceutical sciences. one thing that i have to do that i'm not too thrilled about is take the pcat again (some schools have a 2 year from the entrance date requirement on scores), and so i figure i might as well take my gre's over too... since although the scores were ok, i wasn't too thrilled with them last time around. i'm pretty certain i can get into a pharm sci program... but better gre scores might help me get into the 2-3 reach programs for me.

so i got an email from a friend who told me he was also just baptized a week ago. he said it was a great experience, and so i'm getting more excited about the whole thing coming up this sunday.

here's an article about the most expensive cities in the world. i think though using net income after taxes for comparison probably isn't as good of an indicator as a cost of living index. US citizens may have lower taxes in general, but we still need to pay our health insurance premiums which ger more ridiculous every year, put money away into retirement accounts (which many of us are not good at doing), etc. i tend to go back and forth between private control of certain services and a more social welfare network. i think a mix of systems is the best. give control of things to people who like control, and provide services to people who may not reach threshold levels. however, i do think it's important that everyone have some form of basic services.

that's all i got for now. have good thursdays.

I don't remember Colbert calling him out when the president was sitting right next to me. Or do you mean him. Or you. Who?

(OK, I'm just breakin' yer balls 'cause your pronoun didn't agree with your antecedent, or something.)

This guy has a lot of Macs.

Remember that old Nintendo "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" game called Zero Wing? Well, check out that animated gif of the storyline. And then look at the reanimated flash music video set to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody."

For you heavy bloggers, here's a way to waste some time and add stuff to your blogs.

Here's a scary thing about how no lock is safe. Including bike locks.

Awesome: a floating bed based on the monolith from 2001. The design is cool to look at, but I'd really much rather sleep on a regular bed.

Lame: that guy that used to be "with" that girl.

This is a scary-funny music video about George Washington that people have been passing around to me, so I thought I'd share it. It's funny in that over-the-top and occasionally creepy way.

got back into the lab this week with a vengeance. the change in my grant was approved 2 weeks ago, and my materials finally arrived early this week. been wrapping up stuff @ work, handing things i won't or might not be able to finish off to people. my last day at the company is next friday... then i'll be off to nyc one last time this summer. school starts the following monday. it'd be kinda nice for summer to be extended. i know come october i'll be buried in work, and i'll want to go hide in a corner somewhere.

so... next week seems to be a big week.. doing a mini prep on tue to send in dna for sequencing, sloan on thur, last day @ job on friday... and a meeting of sorts which still needs to be scheduled that could lighten my course load for fall. so with the whole sloan thing... thought i'd repost info from the always musically hip christielli. you can listen to sloan's new single from their upcoming release here.

sloan will also be part of the kickoff for buffalo old home week. it's kind of an exciting concept. here's a short dealie on the organizer of the event Marti Gorman. i hope this turns out to be big, and that it grows every year. it's strange how you can go pretty much anywhere and find some person who used to live in buffalo. they all get together in the bills bars in their respective cities to watch bills games during football season (and i guess last year during the sabres run, sabres games were big too). it's like an instant connection, and when you get to talking to them... many of them wouldn't mind moving back if only there were more jobs available in this region. i've posted before... but there really is a lot of movement downtown. things are starting to happen which have not happened in years... maybe even decades. large real estate transactions are going down. buildings are being revitalized, and an urban core is gradually being recreated again. the statler towers deal just changed hands this week. the old a&ma's building downtown is finally being converted. if i only had some capital... i'd like to buy up an old victorian downtown and fix it up. it's amazing what you can get on the cheap right now, once neighborhoods start coming back up... the deals won't be as good.

racism and bigotry really disappoint me. i can't even start to say how much it upsets me when things like this happen... not just to asians... but everyone. i would like to point out that defendants were driving a TOYOTA. wtf? "get out of our country but leave your superior cars!"

here's another brilliant video example provided by one of our elected officials from the wasp-y conservative bastion of virginia. the story as reported by the washington post is here. the moveon petition is here to ask the republican national committee to stop funding this douche bag is here.

so... how do we deal with this issue of race in this country? we'll reproduce! like russell peters had said... in the future... everyone will be brown... cause there's just gonna be mixing going on.

i don't care what anyone says... i'm never gonna stop going to nathan's @ coney island for a hot dog. we're all gonna die anyways... and if having a tasty hot dog will do me in sooner... i'd rather enjoy that frickin hot dog and die sooner.

this is for my peeps with a link to the UK, specifically wales.

that's all i got. happy weekend!

Apparently, if you don't apply sunscreen liberally and often, it can actually increase skin damage from the sun. On the bright side, it only took 13 years, but the FDA has finally approved a safer and much more effective sunscreen that has been available in Canada and Europe since 1993. This is what I've been using, having purchased some during my travels abroad.

In other news, another one of my favorite shows has been cancelled: Deadwood. On the bright side, HBO and creator David Milch have agreed to make two two-hour movies to wrap up the story that would have been told in a fourth and final season. (The show was always planned as four seasons, which explains the anticlimactic end to the third season finale last Sunday.)

I'll leave you with a scene from a classic episode of the Simpsons, which follows the same trend of bad news / good news as the two items above:

Chinese Shopkeeper: I must warn you the doll is cursed.
Homer Simpson: That's bad.
Chinese Shopkeeper: But it comes with a free frogurt!
Homer Simpson: That's good.
Chinese Shopkeeper: The frogurt is also cursed.
Homer Simpson: That's bad!
Chinese Shopkeeper: But it comes with a free choice of toppings!
Homer Simpson: That's good!
Chinese Shopkeeper: The toppings contain sodium benzoate.
[Homer looks puzzled.]
Chinese Shopkeeper: That's bad.
Homer Simpson: Can I go now?

wow. 2 posts from the 2 maintainers in the last 24. what is going on?

so i've neglected posting for a bit. a bunch has happened over the last week and a half or so that i've been gone. last day at work was rather sad. got interviewed for a GA position. ended up pulling my application for said GA position... which i'm pretty sure i got... cause was asked for my references, and after withdrawing myself from contention, the position was right back up on the school job site. as much as i would've liked to have done it... as it really was something i was totally in to... after having some time to think about it... i just couldn't have gone through a semester with the course load that i have (20 credits), commute between the 2 campuses, and work 20 hours. i would've loved to have gotten free tuition, health insurance, and a stipend, while building university websites though. i've been waking up the last couple days kicking myself for turning it down... but deep down somewhere... i know it was the right choice. i HAVE to finish my research. i HAVE to apply to schools for next year, take the pcat, and do well this semester to give myself a good chance to get into the programs i want to get into.

i went to new york this past weekend as well. walked over the brooklyn bridge, at at grimaldi's, walked over the manhattan bridge. i guess did a lot of walking in general. went to the corner bistro, had dinner with tansal, tc's mom, my mom, my brother, and some friends from taiwan.

also... hoping that something might be on the up and up with someone here in the buff (born & bred right here in wny)... but i'll keep my reservations until things really get rolling (if they get rolling at all). we'll see what happens. i tend to be pessimistic because i'm usually off in the timing of most things. it's probably been the one thing in my life which has plagued me. like this whole GA thing would've been perfect if... it wasn't this exact semester. likewise, this person was in a relationship within the last year... and she may not be ready for another just yet. who knows... we'll see.

other than that... school's in session. back to the grind, and i've been feeling kinda down since the whole thing started.

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend Somewhere along in the bitterness And I would have stayed up with you all night Had I known how to save a life -"How To Save a Life", The Fray

i kick myself a lot for not bringing my camera with me everywhere... and/or forgetting to snap a picture of things sometimes.

on this one visit pre 9/11, my friend bern came to nyc for a visit. i took him to the wtc towers, and i remember it was quite a nice day out. there used to be a plaza between the towers that was public space... i think it was also where the wtc globe sat (which is not located @ battery park as a kind of memorial). there were some white stone benches of some sort. i remember bern and i just kind of laid down on the benches and looked up at the towers and the blue sky, kind of mesmerized at the height of the two structures. i've thought about that day during 9/11/2001 while i was sitting in uptown manhattan watching the attacks unfold, and each september 11th since 2001... wishing i had snapped a picture on that day before the new york city skyline changed so drastically.

though i'm not sure mary ann sullivan took the pics exactly where we were that day... this is what i remember it looking like.

1am update: i read over my post... and was disappointed in the amount of typos. you'll have to forgive me, i left my place @ 9:30am this morning, and did not return until 9pm... i'm kind of tired, so typing and thinking aren't my strong points right now. gonna wrap up some more reading for a lab... and hit the hay. another long day tomorrow... er... today.

my default album in the altima lately has been rhcp's by the way. it's a pretty lengthy album, and it's quite diverse in its songs, and moods. it's just been playing over and over, but i haven't gotten sick of it yet... mainly because of the aforementioned characteristics. i love that they chose venice queen to end the album... it is an absolutely great song. my usual trip to south campus takes me anywhere from 20 minutes on a good day, to 45 minutes if i'm going during rush hour, and hit all the lights. during the drive, some albums (many weezer albums) will have hit the end and start repeating. however, with by the way, that doesn't happen. so i spend a couple hours on south going to classes, the library, and lab, etc... and when i get back to my car... it'll take me til the end of my drive home to maybe start repeating.

hmmm... so not much has been happening on this end. so i guess i'll give a personal update. still in school. still with the 20 credits. i have to present at a departmental seminar about my research in a little over a week, and i have NO real results yet for my research... it's kind of been frustrating for me. some how i have to cram in studying for the pcat that i'm taking in october. i got a job @ the office of medical computing in the school of medicine & biomedical sciences. i'm working friday nights. i really wanted to work a couple hours a week... just to have some spending money. the lab's pretty dead on friday night, so i'll mostly be getting paid to do my homework and study... which is nice. i suppose i could say now i won't have friday nights free.. but i don't think i would've had them free anyways. the lab is on the floor above my research lab, so it will be convenient for me to run procedures like gel electrophoresis and leave them alone, but still be able to check on them on a break or something. i KNEW i couldn't stand NOT working =]. hmmmm... there's a lot of reading that has to be done this semester. my eyes hurt. i have to write some term papers, and some application essays (the number of schools i'm applying for is seriously overwhelming me right now). it will seriously be a miracle if i can get to halloween.

anyways. that's about it for me right now. i'm gonna do some reading, and head back to the lab in a couple hours...

hope you're all doing well.

brind'amour is one of the ugliest people ever.

training camp is upon buffalo (hockey, not football)... first preseason game's against the leafs on monday. i'm excited... but i can't get my hopes too high up... buffalo teams have been known to disappoint... whether through self-(in)action or just plain bad ref'ing.

hmmm... so the dalai lama will be speaking to a sold out ub stadium on tuesday. however the forecast has rain for the day. i'm debating whether i should go or not... it's a once in a lifetime experience... but i really really really hate sitting out in rain and getting wet... and unfortunately for me, ub stadium is a 30,000 seat stadium that's outdoor in the natural elements.

this is kind of cool... a 26 year old mayor of a fairly large city in the US. maybe i should run for mayor of buffalo?

i know mac people are all... macs are better than pc's and all that... but do you think everything would have developed as fast if the proprietary mac system was just one of the many types of computers you could buy... and dos/windows was also proprietary to the 'pc' system? i definitely think technology would have evolved a lot slower than it has. the beauty of the pc is that it's more or less an open system... even the mac os can run on pc's now. tcp/ip which is what the internet runs on is an open standard. apache webserver which powers most websites is open... and open is good, because it allows better access!

enjoy your sundays.

ok... so what... i've posted 8 billion times to t.c.'s 1 (ok maybe not 8 billion... but still...)

get off jour lazy ass and start writing something.

so today it was supposed to rain, and i was expecting to make a game time decision about going to the dalai lama speech. i woke up, and it was beautiful outside! so the weather wasn't even an issue. there were a lot of people... i've never seen so many people on campus at once. i can kind of get a picture of how nice it would be if the school's football team was actually competitive... how great that would be on a saturday afternoon. hey... we already got our first win under the new regime... one can hope we keep improving... even if we get totally annhialated by auburn this weekend.

so the speech overall was a good experience. it was unfortunate it was a bit windy today... so the sound kind of faded in and out and bounced off the walls etc, all weird. some of it was incomprehensible... but i got to the general idea. what the dalai lama said was applicable across a whole spectrum of people, cultures, and religions. we are all human beings, and we should look at each other from that angle. we all have the same hopes, dreams, fears, doubts, and we all seek happiness... whatever that may mean for each individual. we should have compassion towards each other except for gwb (i added that last one... i'm joking... ok not really... ok... really... i'm joking =p). the dalai lama's compassion toward others really did come out throughout his speech... i definitely enjoyed that.

hmmm... oh yeah... before he spoke... the state university of new york's chancellor... and president of UB gave the dalai lama an honorary doctorate, to which the dalai lama replied... i'm so lucky to have spoken at all these schools and received so many degrees without any formal education!

and here are some pics.

that is all i've got.

I went for a checkup with my ophthalmologist a couple of days ago, and they put drops in my eyes to dilate my pupils. I think they were the most dilated they've ever been. When I left after the exam, it was sunny outside and my eyes actually hurt from the brightness. When I made it back to my office, I couldn't see anything on my computer screen, which was too bright and flickering. One of my coworkers took a picture of my right eye with my mobile phone's built-in camera. It's close up so the focus isn't too great.

i'm drowning over here with things to do =[.

in case you want to see any dalai lama video coverage of any of the events that went on @ ub... click here. you can watch his whole talk, and the interfaith service that was held.

ok... i've got a powerpoint presentation for a departmental seminar to finalize for tomorrow.

i am hoping hoping hoping... that i'll have time this weekend to head over to the sunrise records in niagara falls to pick up the new 30 track sloan album.

hope your mondays are better than mine.

Hi everybody. So the funny thing that Jason's talking about is this. (Though not as funny, you can also look at this. One of the actors in this scene is actually providing his own voice - can you guess which one?) Finally, to cap off this theme of links, check this out.

Now onto politics. Jason showed me this video clip of Bill Clinton telling it like it is to Chris Wallace on FoxNews. (Here is part 2 of the same interview.) And a reaction to it by Keith Olbermann, who is becoming one of my favorite news anchors for his Murrow-like approach to television journalism.

I know that's a lot of video to check out, but the first couple are short and funny, and the Clinton one is pretty important. The difference in body language--hell, just in language--is so stark between our current president and our last great president. If we had the opportunity, as voters, to write in a candidate for president in the next election, there's a good chance Bill would win... even if that choice wouldn't be ratified for constitutional reasons.

so... as ljr said down below... a bunch of the old buff crew went down to virginia this past weekend for a friend's wedding. talk about your weekend of unexpected events. some friend's got into a car accident driving down. some lady sitting behind me was on the plane for the first time going down on friday, and because of the bumpy ride from big storms, all i heard for the last 10 min before landing was gagging, and purging. day of wedding, the place it was supposed to be at was flooded, somehow people in the wedding party pulled off finding an alternative place to hold it. coming back, my flight was cancelled, and it was the last flight out of the airport for the carrier. i spent all afternoon trying to get a seat on another airline, on the phone with service agents, going in between different carriers ticket counters, getting sent back to the original carrier's counter because things hadn't gone through correctly. i think in total, i made about 4 trips back and forth between counters before everything finally got settled. talk about your frustrating travel experience. my plan to study for my midterms in the airport was shot, as i wasted most of the afternoon and evening rushing around and panicking about getting out of the place.

yup... then i had a midterm on monday... and one today.

and one next monday, wed, and friday.

and pcats next saturday.

and one last one the following friday.

i frickin love life!

so i can take a breather now... so i figured i'd update the ol blog.

(-) busy until november, bills got demolished, still don't have my new sloan, lab not working
(+) sabres are 3-0, the republicans are scrambling, al gore's speaking @ ub in the spring

hmmm... other big news... hospital closures are coming... there's way too much capacity here (only around 50% of beds are filled) and many hospitals are in dire financial straits. i've heard 2 plans to open a new university medical center for ub in a merger with ecmc, or buffalo general in the medical corridor downtown. this would be a great idea for the medical school to have it's own teaching and research hospital. academic medical centers are usually more cutting edge, and are able to provide medical care for lower income residents.

this is cool (watch it and you're day will instantly get better).

maybe i'll put some pics up later from the weekend. that's it for now. hope you're all doing well.

it's snowing! the first snow of the season always gets me excited... even if it is only OCTOBER!?

we got walloped with snow on thursday. for those out of the loop... here's an article. record snowfall for october... it started when i got out of my lab on thursday... and i had just posted the entry below... and a few hours after... we just got dumped on. trees went down... bringing along the powerlines with them. my house just got power restored to it an hour ago... it was a little over 48 hours with no power. it was a surreal experience... cause it's so weird to have a snow storm knock buffalo down for the count.

here's a pic.

i went into my lab yesterday and took some pics of the damage. i was hoping to get some more pics of the villages of williamsville and snyder, however electrical crews were out canvassing the areas, and the trees laying on the street did not offer me a good place to park and walk around.

http://gdbtc.dyndns.org:8080/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=1546

"and you're getting too old to be cared for... by me, and for that matter, this cake is baked but i much prefer the batter. perhaps in part because it had so much potential, to be delicious and still be influential. i'm undecided." - fading into obscurity, sloan

argh... hiccups!

anyways. let's write about the bad first shall we? the bills crapped their pants... again. thankfully i didn't spend too much time watching the game (ie. wasting time). i watched them not compete for about 10 min, and walked away. they look just as good as when bledsoe was under center. i'm quite sick of losing to new england (well... them and everyone else). remember in the 80s and 90s when the pats were a joke? the new england patsies? for the love of God, the bills lost to the lions last week! we have not had a decent o-line since the 90s. we've had 9 starting and potential starting qb's come into the organization since kelly. todd collins anyone? oh well whatever... it's a good thing hockey season starts in october!

so the sabres managed to take it to the bruins last night for a nice 6-2 win. was listening to the game in the car back from my lab... could clearly hear a pretty loud contingent of sabres fans @ the td bank north garden chanting, "let's go sabres" @ the end of the game. i guess that's the one good thing about buffalo... the economy's pretty bad here so lots of people leave the area... but they all remain sabres and bills fans... and you'll find them being the obnoxious away fans in most cities with an nhl or nfl team =]. they are now 8-0, the only undefeated team in the nhl. they embarrassed the flyers last week... and their gm resigned an coach got fired, but not before waiving 4 players from their team. they'll be gunning for a franchise record 9-0 start when they play the habs tomorrow. sorry k... i'll be fiercely rooting for my slugs... er... sabres tomorrow night... no offense =p.

so i think most of the power has come on in the area. there were 2 traffic lights that are on a heavily travelled main road up linking the north and south campuses of ub that were still out friday, but they've came back on sat. still see lots of lumber on people's lawns... piled up high. most of the public grade schools in the area were off all of last week. some are off until this wed. crazy... it's like a week and a half unexpected vacation! however, there seems to be some concern how they are going to make up the required days of instruction. i'm hearing that they may have to hack off some days from their spring breaks.

one of the big congressional races here is jack davis vs. tom reynolds. reynolds wields a good amount of power in the republican party... and most of you know my dislike for that party. however, i am quite scared of davis' views from both an economic and societal aspect. the loss of domestic jobs to other countries is a concern... but protecting jobs by imposing tariffs and turning away from trade is not the answer. some of davis' ads are very anti-china, i fear this has the potential to rile people up and cause some race issues. anyway, back to the point... global trade is important to the economy. most developed economies are turning towards the service industry to grow. traditional manufacturing is pretty much a dead end in this country. people living in developed countries are used to a certain lifestyle. they want their media, entertainment, ipods, computers, material products now, and cheaply. in order to provide these products at an acceptable cost to consumers, are companies going to: 1) choose to manufacture the goods where labor costs $24/hour through union negotiated contracts, or 2) choose to manufacture them where labor is $2/hour (which mind you is still above prevailing wages in that area)? i ask you, what would make the most sense to you? as a consumer, how much are you willing to pay for your items? a simple solution would be to just ask everyone to stop shopping at wal-mart, however i don't think that solution will happen. living in a market economy, it's not fair to say you want to change the rules when things hurt. looking at it from a more global view, pulling out of these agreements may dramatically damage foreign economies causing developing governments to collapse. these trade agreements may hurt us in the short term, but they are raising the living standards of many countries. to reach any sense of equality and equillibrium, this period has to happen. so... as much as i hate to say it... i will be voting republican for this particular race.

the US now has a population of > 300 million, yet almost 16% of it's population is uninsured.

cool article and pics of colliding galaxies.

how'd that happen?

i've been sloaning it up since i got the new album. i've got a few favs... and since autumn has really settled into almost a winter... here are the lyrics to one of my favs on the album. it's kind of simon and garfunkel'y... ish.

it's not the end of the world, sloan

it's not the end of the world
but into a ball you are curled
winter will pass
when it does

you can go cause this isn't what it was
say the snow made us do it just because

while we weghed the pros and the cons
the sun had unfrozen the ponds
winter had come to an end

i don't know if you will call me your friend
say it's so or i'm libel to pretend

now you've made your mark on the world
at times into a ball i have curled
so i had to move on
but i'll always be fond of you

winter was hard on us all

bundle up cause it already feels like fall
i'm all right but i don't mind when you call
we can talk of our brief time in the sun

the acoustic works well with chris' voice. if i had an ipod, i'd put it on my ipod on a playlist for a fall hike or walk through the woods.

i feel like i've been sprinting the last couple weeks just trying to get past midterms, tests, lab presentations, etc. didn't help with that storm knocking power out and putting people's lives on hold, things were still hanging over my head.

i'm glad to say that i made it out intact for the most part. i have one more take home midterm i have to hand in on monday. i'm not particularly happy with how the tests all went so far... i don't think i did spectacular cause my focus just hasn't been with me since october began... but i don't think i did terrible either, so i'm ok with it. still lots of deadlines to be met, but i can return to my normal more relaxed go-with-the-flow personality instead of staying up all night to cram for tests.

so the sabres are playing tonight against the thrashers. game downtown's sold out, should be a really great environment. should they win, they will break the nhl record for most consecutive wins at the start of a season (though the sabres had a couple shoot-out wins to start off the season this year, and technically the leafs did it with actual wins as SO's weren't implemented until recently). the sabres are also on the verge of selling out their season already. quite a turnaround from the dark days of rigas ownership. even when they reached the conference finals and cup in the 98 and 99 seasons support for the team wasn't as great.

with the team on the up and up, other things are moving around in the city too, such as developer bashar issa proposing a new building replacing the hsbc tower as the tallest building in buffalo. issa is currently also redeveloping the statler towers. both projects are going to be done without public funds, and completely privately financed.

interesting to note too that ub's bioinformatics/life science complex should be fully operational with researchers moving completely into its labs as early as next month. here's a video from the center... it's kind of weird to see some of my professors in it.

so... onto the sloan. just some historical stuff that dug up. it was kind of interesting to read what the members of the band had to say about their second full length album 'twice removed', which is also my favorite one by the band. it's weird to think that patrick hated the album so much, cause one of my favorite classics is 'i can feel it'.

so the new album is quite a departure from the last two... which i think many people didn't care too much for. i on the other hand liked action pact quite a bit. it was a solid rock album, good for driving on the open road with the windows down on a nice summer day. pretty together was hit or miss... i liked half the album, mostly songs that were written by chris and patrick. the new record has sloan experimenting more with sounds, rhythm, and styles a little more. jay turns in some great songs, but i don't think it measures up to his output on between the bridges (poor boy being my yardstick for jay). it does retain a better cohesiveness like btb in the sense that some songs flow right into the next, which works well. case in point, i didn't like 'who taught you to live like that' when i heard it as a single... on the album though, the first track 'flying high again' which was a collaboration between all the members of the band runs right into 'wtytllt' without a break, and makes for a better listening experience. 'wtytllt' also works as a song a whole lot better once the entire album comes into play. andrew also turns in some songs of note on the new album. it's rare that i like how andrew's songs and will actively want to listen to them. most times, i don't mind listening to andrew songs in the background, but i don't go seeking them out. on this album though, there is a more than the usual amount of andrew material that i would probably seek out.

i really like how the album starts off with flying high again, and every band member having a little blurb to sing.

wtytllt gets a little better on each hearing for me. the rhythm is good, i like the piano in it, i'm not so big on some of the lyrics.

i've gotta try is an andrew song, overall it's a good song, though i don't particularly like the intro to the song. it gets more enjoyable as the song progresses. i think though, the blending of the first 3 songs makes this group much stronger.

everybody wants you is the first song that i really like on the album. it's got this acoustic rhythm guitar in the beginning of the song that is replaced by an electric. there are elements of the song that remind me of the clash. ahhh... there's also the great harmonizing that sloan is known for... on this one it's patrick and chris. the tempo of the song is good, rhythm changes, chord progressions, and time structure make for an interesting listen instrumentally.

listen to the radio is another one of patrick's ballads. it was an initial favorite, but after listening to some of the other tracks it's dropped a few. it's nice, and good, but not as strong as some of his other ballads. the synth is kind of interesting in that it's different, but i think it might be stronger without it. still a good one though, with patrick songs, even if they're not great... they are still better than most of the stuff out there... at least for me.

fading into obscurity. i really like this song a lot. i like how it's divided into a couple of sections, with different styles. i never really gave too much thought on lyrical word play until i was in a relationship with someone who absolutely loved chris' lyrics. the more i thought about it, the more i appreciated it. chris has some of the coolest lyrics around... lots of word play in this song... makes for an amusing... and entertaining listening experience. the end of the song is especially catchy.

i can't sleep is ok. it's not so bad because it's only a minute long, but if it didn't have that drawn out sound and vocals at the end of each phrase. i like the instrumentals on the track.

someone that i can be true with starts off pretty good, but ends up being ok only because of the repetitive nature and though chris can come up with some great lyrics for some songs, the lyrics to this song are kind of ridiculous towards the end of the song. it's not a terrible song, but i've heard better. i do like how it blends into the next track though... it makes it a little better.

right or wrong by jay... goot harmonizing, good instrumentals, above average. i particularly like the piano that goes along with this song.

something's wrong... first solid song by andrew on this album. i like the band's backup vocals on this song. interesting elements from classic rock. a little short... but it leaves you with a sense that you'd like to hear more... which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

ana lucia... from what i've read it's about sloan's manager's baby. lyrics are cute. how cool would it be if you had a rock song written about you? good song. rockin heavy guitars.

before the end of the race... first jay song on this album that i really like. the mix of instrumentals are really good on this track.

blackout is another andrew song that i like. solid rocking out, almost feels like it could've been included on their navy blues album.

i understand. this is a great patrick ballad. some lyrical elements aren't the best, but... the chorus is frickin catchy... especially with the harmonizing and handclaps! i like how patrick likes to put in horns on his songs. perhaps cutting it a little shorter would be better. good song!

you know what it's about, this and the next track golden eye kind of go together. both have elements that i like. however, of the two... golden eye stands out with better instrumentals and rhythm, though the lyrics are kind of weak.

can't you figure it out, is another jay song that is quite good. it almost feels like it could've been included on btb. love the guitars and beats on this song. catchy chorus... good moving bass line.

set in motion is kinda funny, i think my fav part of the song is the chorus.

love is all around is a different kind of sound for andrew i think. it works. i do wish though that he would stop using that effect where his voice sounds like it's 10 feet away from the microphone.

will i belong. i don't care for this song much.

ill placed trust. this is as solid a patrick song as any. i listen to this when i drive to school in the morning... cause i'm usually late getting out the door... and it pumps me up to start the day... cause lemme tell you... these days... i haven't wanted to start many of em.

live the life you're dreaming of. i like this song a lot. it's a chris ballad. "maybe i can make it happen, i can help you work and love." good chorus, and use of all member's vocals. classic harmony.

living with the masses is possibly my favorite andrew song on this album. i like the chorus a lot, and andrew sounds like he's actually close to the microphone on this one.

hfxnshc... frickin halifax, ns hardcore.... great patrick song... lots of energy, "new beat generation!"

people think they know me... it's kinda eh, but i think the chorus to the song saves it.

i know you... what's with the knowing song things with that thing? it's kinda slowish in the beginning... but speeds up. the song definitely gets better as you listen to it.

last time in love. good catchy song by chris. i like how he plays around with the down beats on this song, and changing of the times. good harmonizing... classic use of sloan handclapping. grooving bass line.

it's not the end of the world. the most folk sounding track of the album... see below.

light years... it's got catchy piano in it... it's an ok jay song... not my fav on the album though.

another way i could do it. the middle portion of this song rocks the hardest... but overall the track is quite good. i'm trying to think of who this track reminds me of... but the name is not coming to me at the moment.

so there you go... that's my review. it's quite a lengthy album... and there's a lot of variety on it. i think as a cohesive album it's not as cohesive as some of their others because of the variety. however they do try and blend things together with fading on the song... which does work for some of them. in terms of the quality of the music... there are definitely more hits than misses when taking the album as a whole. there are only a couple of songs that will be able to come off this record as singles. it's hard to assign something out of 10 for the album... because i think it depends on what kind of day i listen to it on. in terms of the concept of the album though... i'd have to give it a 9/10. i guess i'll have to wait a couple years to see how high this ranks amongst their discography, which so far looks like this: twice removed, one chord, btb, action pact, navy blues, smeared (which i like a bit... but i think many of the songs would be much better without the distortion), and pretty together... however i don't forsee it taking down twice removed as my top pick. also... hearing the songs live in the future may have some impact on how much i like the song.

everyone have a good weekend!

Wow, well J's written an amazingly in-depth review of Sloan's latest album, Never Hear the End of It. (I could probably make a stupid joke about how I thought I'd never get to the end of his review, but I seem only to be able to get away with dumb things like that at the office, where the silliness provides necessary levity. Plus I really like what he's done and don't want to besmirch it for a cheap laugh... or groan.)

I've listened to the album five times through now, each time from start to finish, and I haven't really dabbled with individual tracks. Reading the review has me listening to the album a sixth time now. (I ended up taking a break from it, and from rock music in general, and focusing on classical music for a bit. I always oscillate between the two, and sometimes the periods are longer than others. I had a really long rock music phase recently, and now I'm in a half-and-half phase.)

Anyway, I've listened to the new record enough times to have general opinions of it, but I'm not ready to do a track-by-track review yet. (I don't know when I'll have time for that.) I really don't dislike any of Sloan's releases, except perhaps the Peppermint EP, which I think they bettered in every way with the release of Smeared. However, I do think some of their albums are stronger than others. I agree with The Onion AV Club's Hall of Fame that their masterpiece is Between the Bridges (henceforth referred to as BtB). Pretty Together was hit or miss, Action Pact was rockin' but perhaps a bit monolithic in its approach, and now we have, in my estimation, Sloan's best album since BtB.

What do they have in common? Aside from blending the songs together (something that was done masterfully on Side B of The Beatles' Abbey Road) and generally keeping them short in length, there's a very musical flow to the way the songs are arranged that makes it easy to listen to the full record, despite its overall duration. When the individual members of Sloan are at the top of their songwriting game, and all four are making quality contributions, something magical happens. They provide a variety of styles, which is what makes them so fun to listen to... again like The Beatles. (Jason's gonna harp on my bringing them up like this, but they're undeniably an influence, and always have been.)

The thing that surprised me the most about this album is the number of Andrew songs in it - and how good they are! After being shut out of Action Pact, probably by choice, he's come back with a vengeance. His contributions are my favorite this time around. His voice is great, his songs don't have the occasionally self-indulgent quality that Jason was complaining about, which has been evident on some of his tracks in earlier albums. I think Andrew had some really terrific material on Pretty Together, and of course the culminating "Delivering Maybes" on BtB, so I'm happy to hear that he's carrying it forward.

Jay... Jay does his best work since BtB. His music is so unabashedly happy here! I don't want to seem to take Chris and Patrick for granted, but they've put out so much material over the course of their careers (and dominated the last album) that I don't really have anything new to say about their work. I like what they do. Patrick's been getting harder and Chris has been turning out some really pretty ballads... sort of a flip on their roles earlier in the history of the band. They are both very skilled in both genres, but I just get the impression that there's been a gradual shift of focus from one to the other.

So in summation, Andrew's work here has me going back to appreciate his earlier work, and Never Hear the End of It has me switching back and forth between it and BtB. Both albums don't work so well on iPod shuffle mode, and so what? I'm such a fan of musicians that really craft albums as a whole, and the new one falls right in line with my sensibilities. Simply, it makes me happy to listen to it, the whole blessed thing, from start to finish, every time. For a newcomer, I'd still recommend BtB first, because I don't know how the uninitiated would react to the sprawling new album (and they may not be amenable to the Sloan sound), but Never Hear the End of It would be my follow-up recommendation. Definitely.

So I was walking home tonight, and I saw a guy in an SUV driving with his beagle in his lap, but the beagle was wrapped behind the seatbelt with its owner. And rather than thinking, "aw, cute," or "the guy doesn't want his dog to fly into the windshield if there should be an accident," all I could really think about was how the force of a crash would crush that poor dog between the strap of the seatbelt and the ribcage of the driver... that the seatbelt would probably hurt the dog more than if he was hanging out on the floor of the car, or something. Anyway, he drove off before I could have an in depth discussion with him about his practices.

Somebody was talking about hair, and how it sprouts in all kinds of utterly useless places as a man ages. Well I've got a bone to pick on this issue, because even as I grow more hair on my body, I'm losing it on my head. It's like my head is a jug full of hair juice, but there's a leak. So the top of my head gets less and less of the hair juice, which ends up trickling down the back of my neck and shoulders and back. WTF? That's seriously lame. I'd really like to know where I can lodge a complaint regarding this issue.

Dear Sir or Madam or Asexual Entity,

I am shocked, appalled, and dismayed by the rapid and unnecessary growth of hair in parts of the body that do not require it, certainly not in the thickness and length present in this case. Having been a long-time customer, I would appreciate a swift resolution to the matter. If this is not possible, I would at least like backed-up assurances that such a mistake will not recur.

Sincerely,
Cousin It

I bet I won't even get an answer. Bastards.

On the bright side, I think I can rock the bald look. I won't shave my whole head, though. Billy Connolly calls that the comb over of the new millennium. Most people can't rock it and look much worse when trying to fool people into thinking that they're badasses or something. A select few, however, look rather handsome with a shaved head. I guess the trick is to be cognizant of which impression you truly make.

I heard about a guy who had shaved his head for years because he thought it looked cool, and when he stopped he noticed that his wasn't growing back in the way it used to anymore. He'd started going bald, but never noticed because he was always shaving. That's gotta suck to get hit with that all at once. It's been very gradual in my case, so I'm at peace with it. At some point I'll have to start wearing hats or sunscreen.

politicians are idiots. we have a bunch of those career politician types over here in western new york, looking to keep the status quo (ie. their paychecks coming... along with any campaign contributions directly into their accounts). case in point, the 190 tolls which have been subsidizing downstate, specifically transportation for nyc for decades have been repeatedly lobbied to end by citizens. for decades politicians here have said it was impossible. i like this article poking fun of dale volker & co. for never even trying to take the tolls down (we are the only "upstate" city with tolls within the city). the toll collection recently ended... yay! here's a blurb.

You cannot embarrass people who have no shame.

The truth of the saying was obvious on a sunny Monday morning. A pack of state lawmakers showed up at the Breckenridge tollbooths to announce the end of the odious Breckenridge and Ogden tolls. For years, these collection booths on Buffalo's perimeter pickpocketed commuters of tens of millions of dollars.

By rights, the lot of them should have been hiding under their desks. But shame has no toehold in the political world. TV news cameras draw politicians like a cake draws flies. Instead of making themselves invisible, they fell over each other claiming credit for something they had precious little to do with.

Dale Volker, our state senator, nearly damaged himself climbing aboard a ceremonial "No Toll" truck as TV cameras rolled. This is the same Volker who argued months ago that the tolls could not come down because of "bonding obligations."

"I thought he was going to break his neck, he was so desperate to get in the truck," said businessman Carl Paladino.

We still would be plunking 75 cents a pop into the hands of tollkeepers had not Paladino - disgusted by last year's hike from 50 cents - sued the Thruway Authority last February. Attorney Mike Powers of Phillips Lytle argued that by previous agreement, the tolls - basically, an $11 million annual commuter tax - should have ended a decade ago.

stupid frickin necco wafers.

ew.

so... the dems won control of both the house and the senate, as well as a bunch of governorships in various states.

it's been a bit hectic this week. my grandmother's been in a coma in the trauma icu for the last couple of days. lots of phone calls to the house, lots of things to think about. i think the family is doing ok right now. my grandmother's 94 years old... and well... i think if she's going to go, we'd rather see her go like this instead of getting something worse later on. however... we'll see how she does... if she comes out of this coma first.

still have deadlines... papers... exams... things... always with the things.

so... what my dad has been telling me... once my aunt arrives from taiwan, the most likely next step is to start funeral arrangements for my grandmother... as the prognosis going forward doesn't look too good for coming out of the coma. there's a little sadness, but there's also some relief. she will have a chance to go without it being painful, and having experienced a full and very long life. she will also have gone before any real serious health problems would have affected her, after all... she was out walking on her own power prior to this happening. she was even talking about planning another trip to china soon. anyways... we'll see how this progresses.

i'm also kind of interested... in that i hope this will allow a lot of the stories from previous generations of my family come out. apparently my family history in china is pretty much a soap opera... and there are a lot of unanswered questions i have which were never talked about because my grandmother did not want to talk about it.

so... turning from the sad news... to the good news.

the sabres won again tonight. not only that... but they won against philly... a team which i, and all sabres fans loathe. you know i was thinking... part of the fun of sports is having something to hate, and a great thing about hockey is that you get to play multiple games each season against these teams... so a good rivalry develops... unlike football where rivalries usually develop over years since you really only play 2 games vs. division teams during the regular season... then maybe you meet again in the playoffs. in the nhl, you play teams multiple times during the regular season... then you play them a couple more times if you meet in the playoffs in a row... so you get a real good grudge match going. the sabres are playing carolina on monday... who would've thought i would've hated carolina so much? i mean... obviously i disliked them originally because there was a frickin hockey team in north carolina, but it was sort of a "whatever" type of dislike. however now... after 7 games during last year in the conference finals, and them getting the cup... i really really dislike carolina. i think it's actually kind of interesting too how the players also develop the same feelings as the fans of their respective cities. i know stu barnes said initially he had trouble in dallas when he got traded after our cup loss to the stars. it just goes to show how the environment you're in has a great deal of an effect on each person. you start to connect, grow roots, and adopt as well as adapt to where you are. you take on the characteristics of your community, and the more similar you are... to your city's people... the more the community reaches out to you.