When I first came to Steubenville last August, gas was selling at around $2.49 per gallon. In the time since then, it has zoomed as high as $3.09 in the wake of Katrina and been as low as $1.99 briefly during the later parts of winter. The current price is $2.39, having dipped 30 cents in the last 2 weeks.

I'm not exactly sure why we have some of the cheapest gas in the country, but a lot of out-of-state students appreciate the fact.

- Posted by at 6:17 PM

Sears and I will be having a little chat over a late fee they've slapped me with due to having a pretty archaic online bill-paying system. They need 6 business days to figure out if my checking account belongs to me, but apparently they need about 6 seconds to figure out if my payment is not there at the exact moment it's due.

The late fee is an insanely high $39, more than 25% of the outstanding balance on the card, which means not only that everyone reading this should avoid Sears cards, but that I will be cancelling this card should the charge not be waived and likely moving over to their competitor Walmart to make up the difference.

UPDATE: The fee was waived with little hassle, since my payment history with them is good.

- Posted by at 11:51 PM

Bell Sports has come up with arguably one of the most ingenious methods of bike-lock security I've ever seen - a bike lock that often refuses to open even when the correct combination is entered. The lock looks like the standard 3-number combination lock, where you spin to the right, then the left, then the right. Based on several months of experience, I estimate the lock fails between 50 and 75 percent of the time when the right combination is entered. It's a very touchy lock, and today I had to have tried at least a dozen times before I could finally get it to unlock.

Now granted, this kind of system could foil crooks pretty easily, since even if they did know the combination, they might not be able to open the blasted thing. But it foils me just as often, and there are times when I really don't want to be standing around for five minutes trying to unlock my own bike - particularly since it probably appears, at that point, like the bike isn't mine.

- Posted by at 2:13 PM

For some odd reason - poor economy maybe? - Steubenville has some of the cheapest gas in the region. One of the local news stories this week was about a station that was selling gas considerably lower than in other locations, and thus was drawing a line.

Oddly enough, gas this afternoon at the station that I pass by most days was $2.60, down nearly 29 cents from a recent high, and 4 cents from Friday. Other locations in Steubenville were $2.75 to $2.81 at that time, though by the time I came back home, a pair had dropped 10 cents to $2.65. Based on past trends, this means that there will likely be a 25-cent jump coming up in the next week or two. Gas just never moves smoothly in price here, and the spikes can make it seem like playing Russian Roulette - that $2.89 price noted at my baseline gas station this week was a spike that lasted less than a day before dropping 24 cents.

One other oddity - taking into account the $2.60 price, gas in Steubenville is only about 10 cents higher than it was when I first came here the week before Katrina.

- Posted by at 12:29 AM

Steubenville has one of the more volatile gas markets I've seen. Up until early last week, we were sitting around $1.97 a gallon for regular - among the lowest prices in the nation. That spiked 32 cents in one night to $2.29, right around the average, fell 5 cents to $2.24 during the week, and today is at $2.35. It's times like this that I'm happy I don't have to buy gas.

- Posted by at 9:14 PM

You Are a Prophet Soul

You are a gentle soul, with good intentions toward everyone. Selfless and kind, you have great faith in people. Sometimes this faith can lead to disappoinment in the long run. No matter what, you deal with everything in a calm and balanced way. You are a good interpreter, very sensitive, intuitive, caring, and gentle. Concerned about the world, you are good at predicting people's feelings. A seeker of wisdom, you are a life long learner looking for purpose and meaning. You are a great thinker and communicator, but not necessarily a doer. Souls you are most compatible with: Bright Star Soul and Dreaming Soul

Hmm...for once, a quiz that seems roughly accurate. So long as you don't catch me on a bad day, anyway.

HT: Happy Catholic

- Posted by at 4:34 PM

I haven't seen the televised replay, but according to the announcers, the Buffalo Sabres had a goal scored on them by having an opposing player kick the puck into the net, which is illegal. The referees didn't bother to check it out, despite the players' protest, so it stood. Why does Buffalo seem to have problems with illegal goals being scored on it? First the skate in the crease for the Stanley Cup, a puck shot through the back of the net in the playoffs the following year, and now this.

UPDATE: Well, the NHL confirms this was a screw-up. They tried reaching the arena in Calgary to tell them about it, but weren't able to do so.

- Posted by at 10:04 PM

Well, I was a math major, and largely enjoyed the subject. Psychology is lower, since it was never a terribly passionate subject. Biology is fittingly the lowest.

- Posted by at 9:40 PM

For those who like good tasting food on the quick and cheap, here's my mashed potato recipe from tonight's party, which I'm told was good.

- 1 box of Hungry Jack instant mashed potatoes (20 serving size)
- 1 stick of butter
- 1 half gallon of buttermilk
- 2.5 teaspoons of salt
- 5.75 cups of water

It essentially follows the recipe on the Hungry Jack box, but I never like using imitation products like margarine and skim milk that try to be "healthier" for you. Because buttermilk is so thick, it took more like 5 or 6 cups worth to actually get the mashed potatoes to stop being lumpy. The result is pretty sweet, as the mashed potatoes have just a hint of the buttermilk flavor while not being overpowering. Just watch out for those who can't eat heart attack potatoes, since these suckers are loaded.

- Posted by at 12:21 AM

My UB e-mail address will lapse one week from today, as I am no longer affiliated with the school. I'm not sure if they let mail-forwarding continue indefinitely, but anyone who is still using the buffalo.edu address should use the one listed in the sidebar to reach me.

- Posted by at 9:45 PM

Gas prices have been wildly erratic the last few days. The price went from $2.01 on Thursday to $2.19 on Friday, dropped a bit to $2.17 over the weekend, was $1.99 this morning, and $2.25 as I was coming home tonight.

- Posted by at 9:42 PM

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, gas prices hit a high of $3.099 here in Steubenville. The current price of gas has fallen a whopping 72 cents since then, going for $2.379 this weekend, making gas at least 12 cents per gallon cheaper than when I came down to Steubenville in late August (I can't remember if it was $2.499 or $2.599 at the time).

That's a pretty substantial decline in only a month and a half's time, and it's often been sudden, dropping in increments of a nickel or more overnight at times. Maybe they'll have to drag out the ones again at some point.

- Posted by at 6:24 PM

I find it funny that the way schedules work around here, somehow it's expected that I can manage to keep finances in order despite not having any revenue streams from student loans until the end of September and no paycheck from the University until the end of October.

I hate having to balance things on a credit card until money comes through, but at least at 2.9% APR, it won't be killing me on the interest.

- Posted by at 4:42 PM

E-mail isn't going to have a very bright future if days like today are typical. My site server has been flagged as a spammer, hence any e-mail originating from any website on it isn't clearing spam filters, which is probably affecting several dozen people.

Second, even Thunderbird is flagging as spam a message sent to me by the University which included nothing more than a couple names and e-mails that I needed to get it touch with.

- Posted by at 11:16 PM

Despite having played 5 games of Mafia while here, in which more than half the people playing are just regular citizens, not once have I actually drawn that role. Twice I've drawn a role that only one person plays. It definitely makes the game more interesting, but I'd love to not have a special role to play.

- Posted by at 2:21 AM

Hmm...Movable Type, the software that powers this blog, is offering a substantial discount on paid versions of the software. Now, for just under $40, it's possible to buy the basic personal version, which allows for 5 authors and unlimited weblogs. It's a tempting buy for me, since I do like this program a lot.

On the other hand, unlimited weblogs are now also available for people like me who are using the freebie version, which diminishes my interest in buying the paid version, since the only real attraction for me is multiple authors. But since I really can think of only one other person I would invite to post here at the moment (and I think he knows who he is), I'm not sure it's worth it. Also looming in mind is the fact that I'd then have to pay for future upgrades at some point, such as MT 4 when it eventually comes out.

The offer's good until September 30, so I'll be mulling over this choice probably until near the deadline. If anyone has an idea what Six Apart plans on charging for a paid upgrade when that time eventually comes, let me know - or let me know how much they charged the last time paid users had to pay for an upgrade, if there was such a time.

- Posted by at 10:36 PM

The technical problems with my Yahoo mail address have been resolved, and they were not apparently Yahoo's fault. Feel free to keep using it if you already have it.

- Posted by at 3:36 PM

Anyone who has been using my personal e-mail address (it's the Yahoo one), please be advised that the e-mail is inaccessible. As Yahoo's customer support is virtually non-existent, I have no idea how long it will take them to fix it. Please use my website address given on the sidebar in the meantime, or contact me via instant message (my screen name is also listed on the sidebar) for my G-mail address, which will be replacing Yahoo as my primary if they don't get their act together soon.

- Posted by at 8:26 PM

For once, the packing was done in a timely fashion and today was not a race against the clock. As a result, I am going out to enjoy my last night in town instead of stuffing items willy-nilly into boxes.

A special congratulations also to Todd, my philosophy instructor from last semester, whose wife gave birth just recently. I gave my regards in absentia, since I won't be there for the party which will follow. I've forgotten how many kids he has at this point, but I want to say this is number five, and is also the fifth daughter.

If all goes well, I will be up and running tomorrow. If it does not, I will be back at the earliest convenient moment.

- Posted by at 7:34 PM

One of the funnier, albeit annoying, parts of having an old house is that things tend to break in streaks, creating the impending sense of doom, even though the individual things that have broken have been around for decades.

The latest streak began roughly a month ago when the dishwasher finally gave out. Dating from probably the late 1980s, it had been repaired several times, but this time we paid $70 to basically be told we needed a new washer.

A few weeks later, just back from vacation, the microwave suddenly stopped working. It too was well over a decade old, although it had never needed any real repairs.

This past weekend, one of the garage doors, heavy wooden overdoors from many decades ago, had its metal cable snap from fatigue, sending it crashing down. The repair wasn't too bad, but a little part critical to the springs was almost missed. The springs are unfortunately irreplaceable, as nothing is manufactured anymore which would be strong enough to replace them, so this was a lucky catch.

Yesterday the hot water faucet in the shower broke off, again from metal fatigue. The plumbing is very old, so finding a replacement to fit the hookup required some searching, but it went off smoothly today.

Hopefully, this is the end of needed repairs this year.

- Posted by at 10:39 PM

- Today was my last time as a referee for this year. It went rather well, and this year I seem to have overcome my shin splints. Now if I could only call offsides better on the fly...

- Today was also my last Sunday Mass at home. It was pretty good all things considered, with a decent homily on the gospel reading of the woman begging for scraps from Christ, unlike a friend who got real table scraps at his parish on that reading.

- Lots of new construction has started. Two or three new buildings are being built on Main Street, along with the local parish's new center starting to go up - I hope it ends up nice.

- A new post is in the works from a reader's response to a past post of mine. This is a bit lengthy so it will take time.

- The Bills began their pre-season last night. Go Bills!

- Posted by at 11:28 PM

As expected, today was a better day, and things are hopefully all smoothed over with those whose feathers got ruffled yesterday.

The day began with a garage sale, which netted about $75, hurt in part by a rainstorm, something we haven't seen in weeks. The remaining items were donated, which had the net result of clearing up a substantial part of our attic. Now if only those floorboards could be nailed down and the holes patched up so I don't have to worry about falling through to the second floor...

Later in the day I went to the fair, sister in tow, for a few hours. In a funny irony, this year we each had phones, but we never split, unlike last year where we didn't have phones but did split. The fair seems less and less attractive every year - maybe that's just the midway and rides no longer being a part of the journey. The only new thing I noted this year was a "North Pole" section, which seemed to be all about a Santa Day holiday that occurs sometime in December.

Tomorrow is my last soccer game of the season, and also the end of my last weekend at home. The move to Ohio comes up this Friday, which might occasion a break in blogging depending on circumstances.

- Posted by at 11:32 PM

This has just been one of those days where things start out bad, it sets a bad mood for the rest of the day, and things just keep on going the wrong way, in part because of the bad mood, thus creating a vicious cycle.

I'm going to hopefully get a good night's rest and have a much better day tomorrow.

- Posted by at 11:32 PM

The blog will be undergoing a category reorganization, as I've come to the conclusion that I'm using the Miscellaneous label way too often. Posts will be tossed around during the next little while as I do that. Planned new categories:

- Buffalo/Erie County
- Latin
- Theology
- Steubenville (when I move, anyway)
- Books

Any other categories you think I should put in, based on my past posting history, please let me know.

Also, per a call from my host provider, they plan on moving from a low-cost, economical business plan to providing more high-end service. The upshot of this is that my current plan, now $4.99 per month will jump to $7.50 per month. But not until next July, as I've already paid them through then (this is the great advantage of paying per year and not per month).

Should anyone be interested in taking advantage of their current pricing, be advised that the el-cheapo package (i.e. mine) comes with 3 GB of storage and 25 GB of monthly bandwidth, in addition to having PHP and Perl and all those nice scripting languages, for $4.99 a month. Recommended only for those who don't envision needing much tech support, as that's been subpar for some time now (outsourced, I believe). I've never had any problems, but then again, all I do with the thing nowadays is run Movable Type.

- Posted by at 11:10 PM

The 166th Erie County America's Fair (the agricultural society that runs the fair is trying to promote to a wider audience) opens this Thursday, August 11, and runs until Sunday, August 21. The fair is billed as the second largest fair in the country, I believe on attendance (roughly 1 million over the 11 days). The Strates Shows people have been in town since Monday assembling the midway.

General admission is $9 this year, though advance tickets are just $7; entry is $3 any day before 11:00am. Weekdays are the best bets for rides, as for $18 most midway rides can be ridden an unlimited number of times.

This year's theme, which was 2002's original theme before 9/11 prompted a change to something patriotic, is Fairy Tales Can Come True. There will also be a special day for firefighters on Friday the 12th, and one for veterans on Sunday the 14th.

- Posted by at 11:19 PM

Dick's Sporting Goods is not terribly internet friendly when it comes to its credit card, issued by GE Money Bank. The online URL to pay the bill isn't actually listed on the statement, nor on Dick's website, nor on the card itself. And finding GE Money Bank via a web search is an exercise in futility, given how many pies GE has its fingers in. The only way I found the correct website, www.retailsalesfinance.com, was by calling the phone number on the statement. The internet unfriendly card is further hurt by not being usable at the company's online store.

Note to Dick's and GE - the relative difficulty of paying this credit card online compared to my main one and its inability to be used online has discouraged me from using it.

- Posted by at 8:10 PM

This is just one of those days where a lot of little things happened that were annoying, to say the least.

- I heard so much of "my friends" during Mass, I wanted to strike the phrase from the English language.

- Still unable to apparently grasp this, a family member still thinks I donated to Bush directly last year and made a point to bring it up at a cookout how she was very rude to someone who called wanting to thank me for a past donation, as I wasn't around to take the call. The donation in question was to the RNC, not the President. The anti-Bush tirade gets quite old at family gatherings. At least Joel is a distraction these days where we can agree.

- A recent encounter with a young lady who is the most grating person I've been around in a while. I don't think I'm the only one who was put off by the display, as it does remind me of some of the worst ones from college.

- It's generally a bad sign for a day when two offsides calls that should have been whistled by me were not and led to scores. I have too much fear of the false positive and not enough of the true negative. My level of certainty to blow the whistle's too high at times.

- I stink at games involving throwing objects at a target, be it washers into a box or darts at a dartboard. Somehow the math proficiency never translated into being good at these real world applications of math. I'm also not too good at golf, as evidenced by a 164 on 18 holes last week, that only by a 10-shot mercy rule per hole.

- Posted by at 11:58 PM

The title is grossly misleading, and this is one of the dumbest movies I've ever seen. I spent roughly the first 90 minutes waiting for a plot device to develop before finally resigning myself to the fact that there wouldn't be one, in which I wasn't surprised. Spoilers follow, so don't read on if you plan on seeing this film.

The entire movie was just way too linear. Aliens come and activate some machines they've left behind andstart vaporizing and blowing everything up. Tom Cruise flees town with his two kids, his only goal to get to his ex-wife's house. Throughout, that's pretty much the only thing he does - try to get to where his ex-wife is supposed to be. In between it's punctuated by the rebellious son and hysterical screeching daughter, more attacks and destruction, mass mob panic, and near escapes for the trio, along with some freaky red vines.

I really felt like taking the line of "what's your plan?" and asking "what's the point?" Absent a little dialogue in the basement of the farmhouse, there was nothing remotely redeeming about the movie. The ending, if possible, was even more hideous than the rest. I thought briefly, as one of the machines was finally blown up, that maybe we were getting to something. But nope, then we go to Boston to find vines dying and the aliens in disarray. In the end, it turns out that little microbes killed off all the aliens after killing about a billion people. Brilliant. How this ever got 4 stars from the local film critic is beyond me.

- Posted by at 11:24 PM

Held off for a year by a budget compromise, the Erie County library system is unlikely to be spared this time, and based on current projections, just under half the branches will be closed at the end of the year (24 of 52). To its credit, the system, anticipating this outcome, has already done its homework to evaluate the branches in order to close the weakest ones while maintaining the stronger ones.

Personally, I think the library system is in much worse shape than I would have thought, given my own home branch is considered the 2nd best in the entire system by the survey, and by no means have I ever considered it to be more than an average, decent, but not great branch. Most of the buildings are at least 40 years old, which doesn't make matters any better.

Some have apparently asked the library to revisit a 1998 plan that would have reformed the system by closing the smaller and more marginal buildings and establishing regional hubs that were state of the art. The money quote from that plan:

If the B&ECPL Board fails to act upon these recommendations and adheres to the status quo, libraries will close throughout the System during the next economic downturn. Such a crisis-based reduction will not provide replacement libraries. The result will be far worse – fewer libraries, no replacements, no improvements. Austerity will be imposed on the System by outside forces, not by internal direction and thoughtful planning. Size, age, location, condition, parking and activity measurements will affect which libraries remain and which close, but other potentially divisive influences may test the Board’s resolve to act with foresight and equity.

Well, we adhered to the status quo, and lo and behold, 7 years later, this prediction comes true - 24 libraries will be closing with nothing gained for it. Incidentally, the number of closures now is larger than the net number originally proposed by that plan (14 at first, 23 ultimately).

- Posted by at 11:55 PM

The weather, lining up very nicely with my schedule, sent a thunderstorm hurtling over the lake around 45 minutes before I was supposed to referee, and was still sending lightning down about 15 minutes before the games. Since there was no call confirming a cancel, I knew it was worth at least half pay to make the journey, even though it was obvious we weren't playing.

That was only too true, but it turned out that some teams were playing their last game that night, and sheet pizzas were already on order for them. But with no coaches and no players around, the decision was made to split them up among the referees and other staff present. As most were unwilling to wait, I ended up with a whole sheet pizza to take home for free, providing a convenient snack to all.

That's something to be said for showing up even when it's not necessary - there just might be pizza in it.

- Posted by at 11:42 PM

Hmm...a fairly large front-page, top fold image of a woman looking at MoveOn.org's bright red notice to oppose the nomination of John Roberts was published in today's Sunday Buffalo News (the image in the online article is the same as the print edition, even though it's only available for 2 weeks). No bias there, of course. At this rate, even with the hometown advantage, I'm still expecting an editorial opposing him down the line.

- Posted by at 11:12 PM

If this shows up, that means I didn't get a chance to finish my posts on temptation, and will accordingly have to finish when I get back. Unexpected last minute problems cost me the time I needed to finish cranking them out.

Lately, I've been using Blockbuster's unlimited movie rental pass to catch up on the past seasons of 24. I only caught the show during its fourth season, and even then missed several hours, including the first two which definitely hindered the plot for me. This has been essentially the only network prime time show I've bothered with in recent years.

Blockbuster says the series is an exceedingly popular rental, and as such the DVDs tend to be in short supply a lot. Already I've been stymied all week trying to get Season One's third DVD, and as a result jumped tonight to Season Three's first one. Seeing the fourth season first already suggests a lot of what happened in the prior seasons (e.g. missing personal relations in season four who show up in season one), but hopefully it will all knit together well enough in time.

I'm not sure why I like the series so much, but it's definitely tops in my book. I'm interested to see how they're going to handle season 5, but given the hoops they seem to have had to jump through to get even season 4 out, I think it will work just fine.

- Posted by at 3:00 PM

Yesterday, July 14, was officially my first blogiversary (though archives extend back before that, July 14 was the first day in which the blog was fully functional thanks to Jeff Miller).

This will be the last post before the queue comes into play. See you all in a week.

- Posted by at 9:49 PM

Thankfully enough, the weather the last two days was such that storms flared up at just the right time to cancel all the soccer games right before we had to play in near-90 degree heat, something we're not used to doing and which would have had grumbling coaches all over the place. Getting half pay for showing up at least the one night was also nice.

Today we at least got a pittance of rain, though yesterday was all rumble and no rain. The weather is not expected to clear for another 6 days.

- Posted by at 11:57 PM

Some parts of the Western New York region topped 100 degrees today, easily a record, as I don't believe a 100 degree day has ever been logged in Buffalo's official record-keeping history. Add in the humidity and it's been downright miserable the last few days. Even worse, the muggy weather will not depart for at least a week. The past two cool summers are being repaid with a vengeance this year.

- Posted by at 2:09 AM

Is it just me, or are kids becoming more like marshmallows as the years pass? Tonight, at least three coaches all wanted to sub their players during the middle of the quarters. Granted, it was in the high 80s today, but it wasn't too terribly humid out.

I don't understand why all the need for subs all of a sudden. I understand it's a house league, but isn't it enough of a break to cut the game down to quarters instead of halves and limit the total game time to only about half of regulation length? Frankly, it's not a good sign when kids can't handle a 10-12 minute quarter in soccer, particularly since they don't need to spend the entire duration running, particularly if they're not a halfback. Something tells me this might be psychologically related to can't-do coaches, in that their attitude that the kids can't handle it might be self-fulfilling.

I don't think it's really a problem of not being physically able to do it at that age - during my playing years (through 1998), it was never even on the table. It was fully accepted that if you were on the field, you played until the quarter was over unless some injury happened. Frankly, the kids still seem resilient enough to me, but some of their parents have a lower threshold of tolerance for their child being in any discomfort than a newborn.

- Posted by at 2:58 AM

I spent a good few hours at the Taste of Buffalo today with a friend. As expected, the festivities ran about $25 all told, since most food items were going at between $1.50 and $3.50 a sample. The most ridiculous was $3.00 charged for a single lamb rib - we're talking about something smaller than the size of a lighter.

Moving it to Delaware Avenue was probably a good thing, although the portions along Delaware north of Niagara Square were jam-packed just as bad as Main Street last year. Both times we passed that way, the crowd was so big, it was hardly possible to move. By contrast, traffic flowed with relative ease in the Square.

Following is a list of the food I sampled today.

- Mint-O-Potamus Goo (Bing's Restaurant)
- Cactus Strips (Cozumel)
- "Chocolate Kiss" Macaroon (Dough Bois Pizza)
- New York Style Cheesecake (EM Chrusciki Bakery)
- Jack's Garlic Pan Bread (Jack Astor's Bar and Grill)
- Cheese Pizza (Just Pizza)
- Hamburger (Louie's Hot Dogs)
- Crystal Beach Waffles (Melanie's Sweets Unlimited)
- Buffalo Hot Nuts (The Bavarian Nut Company)
- Sangria Slushie (Merrit Wines)

I haven't tried the waffles or nuts yet, but the other items were really good. If you haven't hit the festival yet and are in the area, it runs from 11 to 7 tomorrow.

- Posted by at 8:57 PM

Tomorrow's the first day of the Taste of Buffalo, and I expect it will be a rather enjoyable day of sampling some of Buffalo's culinary treats. I found a friend to go with, so I'll be there for a few hours in the later afternoon, and likely providing pictures after the fact.

A sampling of some of the more unique menu items:

- Buffalo Hot Nuts (The Bavarian Nut Company)
- JunkYard Dog (Ms. Goodies)
- Mint-O-Potamus Goo (Bings)
- Mini Kegger Sandwich (Pearl Street Grill and Brewery)

For those wondering, the Bavarian Nut Company is a local business and is in no way associated with crackpot theologians from southern Germany.

- Posted by at 11:29 PM

Manna From Heaven will be released on DVD next week Tuesday. The movie, first released in theaters in 2002, has definitely taken a slow path to DVD. Odds are, if you didn't live in Buffalo, you probably missed this independent film, since to date, it has grossed only $500,000 in the United States and never played on more than 33 screens at one time.

The Burton sisters came to Buffalo to film the movie back in 2000. Several local figures make a cameo appearance, including the now-retiring mayor, and several local landmarks also appear. I saw the film when it was playing at the University AMC (since demolished) either in late 2002 or early 2003, and my personal opinion was that it was a nice, family-friendly comedy.

The best way to describe the film is as a "Buffalo Comedy". A family finds money falling from the sky one day (hence the title) and they use it to pursue their dreams. Then they are suddenly informed, some years later, by one of those involved (then a Catholic nun) that the money is a loan and needs to be repaid at once. Thus ensues a hilarious effort to raise the money.

Unlike many films, the religious element in this movie works out pretty well, and even manages to be funny without being offensive.

The film's website is still up, and trailers and reviews are available. If you haven't seen it yet, I strongly recommend it.

- Posted by at 9:50 PM

Bloggers running Movable Type who do not have the Spam Lookup plugin installed may want to consider doing so. Today the blog had roughly 70 spam attempts, but Spam Lookup blocked almost all of them, letting only 3 even get to me for moderation, and then only because I'm being a bit lenient on one criterion in the filter.

Hopefully this will keep spam off the comments, particularly since MT-Blacklist seems to no longer be working, according to my log file.

- Posted by at 10:07 PM

There must be a new spam attack in the works, I've been hit with about 50 such entries in the comments in over the last few days. All of them were flagged by the system and moderated, but due to the number, I've shifted my filters to block mode. If the problem persists, I might consider tossing in some other options available through Movable Type's plugins.

In the unlikely event that your comment is blocked, drop me a line.

- Posted by at 1:56 PM

Due to an unfortunate accident with a dresser earlier this year, I ended up smashing one of my favorite Beethoven CDs. I've been scouring Sam Goody and Media Play for a new copy, but unfortunately, it seems this particular CD is no longer manufactured, as I cannot find it in any music database.

The album is from Excelsior's Platinum Masters collection, and is a collection of Beethoven's piano sonatas. This particular album has a green/silver cover and the order of the sonatas is the Pathetique, the Moonlight, Les Adieux, and Appassionata. I'll try and dig up the cover, since it's sitting in storage somewhere.

If anyone knows where I might be able to find this album, drop me a line. As far as my online searches have gone, it's as if Excelsior never existed as a music line, even though I still regularly see some of its titles in stores.

- Posted by at 10:42 PM

A few weeks ago, I posted a little joke about a taxpayer claiming that politicians were toxic waste, and should be disposed of accordingly. In a bit of a surprising twist on that in real life, the haz-mat team was called out to the county executive's house today to investigate a suspicious substance.

I know the man is hugely unpopular, but employing threats isn't a viable way to go about taking out frustrations. Making his political life difficult is the way to do that, not trying to make his personal life a shambles.

- Posted by at 11:28 PM

Unfortunately, nothing much to say today, the heat has left my connection notoriously unreliable, I suspect from the cable modem or router overheating, as the heat and humidity outside are largely the heat and humidity inside, and it's now been three days in a row of 90 degree weather, something not seen in nearly a decade in these parts.

We're currently replacing the railings on our main steps, as they were raised - somewhat poorly by the contractor - last year, thus making the original cast iron set no longer fit. Today saw the right side railings finished, oddly enough pitched at 26 degrees, a number which is a particular favorite of mine. Tomorrow should see the completion of the left set of railings, taking care of one more project around here. Three other painting projects should round out this year's slate of repairs.

Future wish list projects, which as far as I know have always been on the wish list but never realized, include driveway repair, basement pipe coverings, and attic finishing. None is likely to be done anytime soon unless the Lord sends a sizeable unexpected windfall, since it would take a lot to do them. But it's always possible to dream of what things would look like finished, if it ever got there.

- Posted by at 11:40 PM

Dear China:

Love, Justice

As might be inferred from the letter, I was involved with assembling a piece of furniture made in China today. There is a sliding shelf unit which was held in place only by 4 plastic brackets, with little plastic pegs to stick them in. These are designed in such a way as to make changing the height of the shelf very difficult and naturally one broke in the process of doing so. No spares in the bag, and no documentation of any kind to help out. We ended up buying metal pegs from Home Depot to replace them.

Forget good help being hard to find. Nowadays, good workmanship is hard to find.

- Posted by at 11:32 PM

Merlin, one of our two cats, caught his first mouse today, and apparently also killed it in the process while managing not to spill any blood. His reward was a slice of turkey.

In other news, it's been a tiring day for me, so there won't be much until tomorrow. On the bright side, I have figured out a writing topic for the blog during my vacation.

- Posted by at 11:32 PM

Here, for your mouthwatering delight, is a look at the area's major festivals and gastric treats. All of these make for some good eating besides being rather inexpensive. I'll link this one to the blog's main page soon.

- Taste of Buffalo, July 9 and 10

Located at Niagara Square in front of City Hall, approximately 50 restaurants will be participating, based on last year's turnout. The Taste keeps a very diverse menu.

- Burgerfest, July 16

Hamburg's annual celebration of the naming of the hamburger by the Menches Brothers at the Erie County Fair in 1885. Located on Main and Buffalo Streets, the main fare consists of burgers, pizza, ice cream, and beer, along with other local food.

- Erie County Fair, August 10-21

This year is the 166th fair, which involves all the standard things like rides, games, tasty food, vendors, shows, and a display of local agriculture, arts (including woodworking), and other talents. The fairgrounds are located in Hamburg. Besides the fair, the grounds play host to the Buffalo Raceway and its accompanying slots.

- National Buffalo Wing Festival, September 2-4

Dunn Tire Park will be hosting the fourth annual celebration of Buffalo's famous wings. Wings comprise the main fare here, although they can be obtained in a myriad of different flavors and styles from roughly 25 restaurants both local and national. Special events will include a Miss Buffalo Wing Contest, a .5k run, a Car Show, a Wing Sauce competition, and the US Chicken Wing Eating competition.

This is all I have for now, but people are free to let me know of any other major events in the Western New York Area I haven't got up here yet.

NB: Justice will most likely be perusing the Taste and the Fair this year.

- Posted by at 11:44 PM

I think everyone on the field had the same opinion - beginning a soccer game on Sunday morning with a 30 minute downpour that was more drenching than taking a shower fully clothed is no fun.

It was a lousy performance from me, so I will have to do better next week.

- Posted by at 11:27 PM

Via the Curt Jester comes this quickie little IQ test.

Your IQ Is 135

Your Logical Intelligence is Genius Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius Your General Knowledge is Exceptional

Hmm...the GRE would definitely have nailed me on the verbal score, but I'll take the nicer questions.

- Posted by at 10:09 PM

I have a rather long post in the works on embryonic stem cells, but it's going to take some time, as I need to find the appropriate links, and it really needs to be proof-read. If you'd like to help out with the latter, leave a comment or drop me an e-mail.

- Posted by at 1:32 PM

A little factoid on the heat we've been having locally.

Yesterday, June 9, it hit 90 degrees in Buffalo. That makes it, officially, the hottest day we have had in just over a thousand days, as the last time that happened was September 9, 2002, when I was just beginning Sophomore year in college.

Buffalo ordinarily only gets about three 90-degree days in an average year, but we hit an odd cold spell in which, for two straight summers, we didn't get any. But it isn't necessarily a blessing that we've hit the first one so early in the year, as our summers can be quite humid, and the last thing I want to do is be sweating buckets just typing the whole summer, as I am even now at 3:30 in the morning.

I can't stand heat and humidity, and I don't understand how people down in Florida can live with it. I'd sooner be wearing my winter clothing and walking in a light snow than be in this.

On a sidenote, the wacky weather produced the most explosive sustained thunderstorms around here in a while. In this case, that meant two hours of sustained lightning blasts coupled with a very heavy downpour. Peanuts, I'm sure, to anyone who's ever been in the path of a tropical system, but it's pretty likely the worst I'll be seeing until the snow bands roll in again.

- Posted by at 3:29 AM

Being the optimistic sort, as crusaders tend to be, I delved into a little side project of trying to revise my CSS and main index templates to split the sidebar into two pieces (one to the left, one to the right). The result is something of a joke, as the various pieces of the blog have ended up in disarray.

I don't think anyone's seen the mess since I had the foresight to test this elsewhere and not fiddle with the main page. However, since I'm a hopeless dunce when it comes to CSS, even after reading the tutorials, this project is being suspended for now.

Input would be helpful though - would you like me to put sidebars on both sides (links on the right, everything else on the left), or does the present format seem better?

- Posted by at 2:53 AM