View from the Roof

My Microwave is Dead. Long Live My Microwave.

2005-10-16T14:00:00.000-04:00

I placed my cup of tea in my microwave oven and hit the 'time to cook' button. Nothing happened. No beeps. Nothing. So, I figured maybe it needs a re-boot. Unplugged it, waited, plugged it back in, nothing. Can't even set the time.

Now I wasn't exactly heart broken that a three year old $49 microwave had bought the farm, I never was very fond of the thing to begin with. It was really too small anyway. The reason it was too small was because when I bought it I needed a small one to fit the space.

When I moved back to Buffalo I took an apartment in the upper of what was once a single family home. Space was limited, especially in the kitchen. The only logical place for a microwave was on the counter under the cabinets. Which meant I was going to need a small microwave, something like two cubic inches or so. I actually had to develop a unique form of origami to get a bag of popcorn to pop correctly. If I didn't carefully fold the corners of the bag it couldn't rotate properly on the turntable and therefore would cook unevenly.

I was actually thinking of replacing the damn thing anyway. I also was planning on ripping out the timer circuits. Microwave timers are really quite useful to an electronics tinkerer. Wouldn't that be the one circuit that decided to die. The only one I was planning on salvaging? But it actually isn't dead. After a more thorough examination I have determined the '30 second' button still functions.

I can load the oven and press the '30 second' button and it will cook for 30 seconds on high power. Or I can repeatedly press the button and the cook time will increase for 30 seconds. So if need three minutes I press the button six times. But I miss the full programmability of the timer. I would routinely take advantage of the ability of all microwave oven timers to allow a chaining of cook sequences.

Some people don't realize you can push 'time to cook' 3:00 minutes, power level 10, 'time to cook' 2:00 minutes, wait, 'time to cook' 4:00 minutes, power level 5, etc... Which is one of the reasons those timers are so useful to electronics hobbyists. But mine is broken.

But, the damn thing still cooks, and being the chea^H^H^H^H frugal man that I am, I'm finding it hard to replace a working (somewhat) microwave. Even though I was planning on replacing it anyway. Now that I think about it I don't really use it that often anyway.

Maybe I'll buy a new, bigger, microwave next month, or the month after, or......

Well, I gotta go. My tea is ready.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Not.

2005-07-26T15:40:00.000-04:00

I'm a resident of the Seneca-Babcock area of Buffalo. I almost wrote that I was a life-long resident, but that isn't exactly true. I spent a few years in Syracuse and a few years in Poughkeepsie, with weekly and sometimes daily trips to The City. Which at least gives me some perspective.

This is a tightly knit community. Many of the families living here have been here for sixty years or more. Nieces, nephews, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc...If you drew the family trees I expect you'd end up with something akin to hedge row.

And as in any community there exists a set of norms, mores, and values. It's what defines a community. It actually surprises me sometimes when I review the police logs for the 'A' district and find hardly any calls from within the neighborhood proper. Not to say we don't have our share of problems. But, they're our problems. One way or another they are dealt with.

Yes, it's true, outsiders are met with suspicion. I suppose that could be said in Tikrit as well. But that doesn't make us racists. Or does it? People tend to characterize it as fight or flight. We didn't flee. Does that mean we are fighting? Fighting what?

The particular incident was reported in the Buffalo News as a racially motivated attack. The phrase which irks me the most is from the News report "that Buffalo police said was racially motivated."

Did the Buffalo police issue an official statement that the attack was racially motivated? Or is this implied from the charges brought? Or it is the opinion of an interviewed officer? Just because racial slurs were apparently uttered during the heat of conflict doesn't mean the conflict was racially motivated. But, that is for the courts to decide.

Personally, I was quite satisfied with the News' reporting of the anti-discrimination rally held in Seneca-Babcock. It did seem to capture the local residents frustration with the apparent grandstanding of outside groups of what is seemingly an internal matter.

More troubling still was the editorial of 07-20-05 "Make Seneca-Babcock Proud."

"police say an attack Saturday on a black man was due to the color of skin.." Again, did the police actually say this? Who said this and why? By the way, I was raised as a polish catholic and pride is considered a sin. And what the anti-racism demonstrators met the other day, was not a group of anti-anti-racism demonstrators but a group of proud city dwellers who refuse to let their nieghborhood be taken over by mindless hoods.

Sinners all of us.

Crime and Punishment

2005-07-13T20:39:00.000-04:00

I just finished reading "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It's one of those 'never got around to reading' books that's been on my list for awhile.

Actually, I read two different translations because the first was quite unimpressive. Unfortunately the second was equally unimpressive.

Yet it did seem to capture an ongoing theme about life in the city not far removed from the present day. It seems the present day struggles are still very relevant to past struggles. Namely the apparent need for a silver bullet type approach to solving problems and a need for accountability.

But at least the main character had a nobel purpose in mind as justification for committing the central crime. Unlike some of our local elected officials and civil servants.

See, I've been following the Housing Court/Nowak debacle and I have to admit I have met Judge Nowak and totally agree with the approach he has been using to address the issues facing the city's housing stock.

It is real, it is pragmatic, it is innovative, and I believe it will work. Or at least it is a better tact than what has been tried in the past.

What is a crime is the way the old school politics come home to roost. The punishment should be directed to those aligned with the old order.

New Buffalo. It's time has come.

Big Russ & Me

2005-06-22T20:25:00.000-04:00

Well not Big Russ & me. Because I don't remember Big Russ. I did live upstairs from his brother Francis in a double at the end of a deadend street in South Buffalo for quite a number of years. But I don't remember Big Russ, or Tim.

I do remember relievio. A game from a simpler time. I don't think our neighborhood actually played relievio per se. But we played Block Chase, a game similar in concept. Sometimes thirty kids playing team chase confined to a city block, with the church stairs serving as the "prison."

Capture the entire other team and your team wins. However, any free teamate could set all his comrades free by setting one foot on the church steps. Providing they could do so untouched by the guards.

There is no way I could ever give an unbiased review of this book so I won't even try. All I can say is that if you grew up in Buffalo, especially South Buffalo, in the same era you will idendtify with this book.

...all you had to do was show up on someboy's porch and sing out his name: "Oh Mike-y. Can Mike-y come out and play?"

Relievio. Childhood games. PSP - Not!

A Summer Read

2005-06-13T19:40:00.000-04:00

Technically it's not summer yet, but try telling that to anyone in the Buffalo area the last week or so. Whatever happened to spring around here?

Anyway, last year I started reading "Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith. I couldn't seem to get into it, so it kinda got misplaced (never really missed) 'till last week. I spotted it on the back porch while bringing my bike in after a ride, just before it got really hot.

Then it got really hot. Since reading is a very practical thing to do on very hot days, I finally got around to reading it. I kicked back on the front porch, in the almost shade of one of the last Elm trees left in Buffalo, but more in the shade of a red maple, and dove right in.

When I finally came up for air I started to have vague recollections of a cheese pizza with one topping. Then I remembered that was the example my economics professor kept coming back to in his lectures. Supply and demand. Rents, wages, profit. Taxes.

On the expenses of the sovereign or commonwealth....the expense of defense, the cost of standing army. The expense of justice, people need to be secure in their persons, property and contracts. Of public works, roads paid for by users. Public education? It's interesting to read something written in 1775 about public education, Mr. Smith's thoughts' ring loud to this day.

All in all it was a very interesting read, albeit a rather repetitious one. It was doubly enjoyable in the current local political climate. Wanting to remain as motionless as possible this past week also helped me get through it. Your mileage may vary.

I suggest an annotated version.

Surprise Windfall

2005-06-07T20:27:00.000-04:00

$45.00

Thus was the amount of the unexpected check I found in my mail box yesterday. Was it a scam? Was it your typical junk mail? Nope. It was from The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.

Seems I made a boo-boo on my tax return. I had actually sent a check for $55 (on April 15th) but made a transposition in my figures. I have never agreed with the concept of over withholding of income tax, and typically try to adjust my withholdings to match my eventual tax liability. Actually, I still accomplished my goal in the case of my state and federal returns this past year, but I can't help but chide myself for filing a return with an error.

And being corrected by the state.

But I digress. Having a degree in accounting I can't understand how so many people over withhold on their taxes. Why would someone lend the US Treasury $1000 to $2000 per year interest free while paying on mortgages and car loans at whatever % interest?

And to top it off, how many of people pay exhorbinant fees for "refund anticipation loans." So, I'll lend you my money for free for a year and then pay somebody else to get it back in a week? Not a fiscally prudent move.

Well I'm going to deposit my $45 windfall comforted in the knowledge it will cover the taxes on my phone bill for the next four months.

The End of an Era

2005-06-06T20:05:00.000-04:00

For the past forty plus years a group of guys have been getting together on the first Saturday of June at local groves to spend a day eating, drinking, playing horseshoes, and just having a good time. We held our last this past weekend. A victim of changing times.

It was the last hurrah for the Babcock Boy's Club Alumni Association. Started by former members of the Babcock Street Boy's Club, the Association was dedicated to giving something back to an orginization that shaped the lives of countless members.

The Babcock Street Boy's Club was started in 1926 to address the issue of juevenille delinquency. It was a place where the local boys could hangout away from the temptations of the street. Over the years the Club filled the needs of local youths by providing activities to occupy the time of kids which would otherwise be a bunch of street thugs.

Programs included baseball, basketball, hockey, football, billiards, ceramics, woodshop, photography, archery, radio room, weight room, and many other activities. The emphasis was always on team work, self-esteem, character, and community service. Former members early on recognizied the importance of such an institution in an urban envrionment and formed the Alumni as a way to support the orginization and continue the sense of community inspired by the Club.

Over the years, the Alumni, through the help and support of hundereds of members, contributed to the financial well being of the Club by volunterring time and energy, and raising funds to suport the continued existence of the Club. It was never a top down approach. We always asked the Club "What do you need?" and tried to fill that need. Times have changed.

Programs now seem to be selected based on what grants can be obtained by a staff of professional grant writers. The youth aren't consulted. The Allmni's input and support were rebuffed. We lost nexis, we lost members, we lost focus. The traditional was supplanted by the corporate type mentality of the machine. Write the proposals, get the grants, run the programs, record the demographics and move on.

It was with a heavy heart that we gave up trying to fight the system. Many of our members (i.e. former members) will continue to serve the local youth by pledging our support to our local community center, where our voices are still heard and respected.

After all, these are our nieces, nephews, sons and daughters. We have a pretty good idea of what works and how we want our youth to be raised. We don't have all the answers, but for over forty years we had input and a sense of contributing. We no longer have that in respect to the current situation at the Club. So, we move on and throw our support to the community orginizations which are more aligned with our culture.

Final Blog Entry

2005-05-31T17:25:00.000-04:00

No, not mine. I've just started. This blog entry was the blogger's last. The post talks about how the blogger's sister's ex has shown up wanting his fishing poles. It mentions the guy is downstairs smoking and pacing. Police later arrested the ex for the murder of the blogger and his sister.

You can read the story here:
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/310320p-265498c.html

As a just begging blogger it kinda makes the hair on the back of the neck stand up.

Memorial Day

2005-05-30T18:09:00.000-04:00

It's a good thing for me that Memorial Day is in the spring. The whole concept of spring, rebirth and renewal seem to balance out the sense of loss which accompanies Memorial Day.

I must admit my sense of loss is only vicarious, a kind of empathy for those I know who experienced direct loss from our country's past conflicts. Though I have had many friends and family who served in those conflicts, I experienced no direct losses. Yet I have a deep appreciation for the day.

My father was the youngest of six bothers, all served in WWII. I really can't imagine what my grandparents must have felt. Having fled eastern Europe thirtysome years earlier and now with six of their boys in the service of the American army, some in the very regions they fled. They all came back but they never really talked much about it.

I also remember going to the Buffalo Central Terminal when my uncle on my mother's side shipped off to Vietnam. I remember much emotion that day.

So what is the history of Memorial Day? Google it and you'll find out it basically began during the last years of the Civil War as Decoration Day. And not far from here in Waterloo, NY.

According to this site it was meant as a day of reconciliation. I think we could all use a little reconciliation about now. I think about the past struggles our country has gone through, both internally and externally, and the current struggles we are going through, and I think reconciliation.

I get very disappointed when I witness all the divisiveness being promoted. Has our national consciousness been reduced to one giant American Idol episode, pick A or B? I sincerely hope not. What if I want a little A and a little B?

I'm sincerely thankful for all the sacrifices made by all who have served our country and continue to do so, and I really believe our great experiment is not a waste of time, but it's not over yet.

But it is spring. A chance for rebirth, renewal.

Spammer Holiday?

2005-05-29T19:49:00.000-04:00

Did the spammers take the weekend off? I asked myself this question when I opened my Outlook Express and had no new messages for the second time this weekend. I have three email address. One for work, which receives no spam. A second from my current ISP, which receives almost no unexpected spam. The third is from my former ISP, who I was with for a few years. This third account usually gets at least five to eight spam messages per day.

I keep the old account for those sites where you need to provide a valid email address but you don't really trust them. Since my former ISP never deactivated this account it became the logical "throwaway" email.

So when I open Outlook Express(OE) and I have no new messages since Friday, I start thinking Spammer holiday. Odd part is the only reason for opening OE was not to check my email but to read my newsgroups. I beleive usenet to be one of the least appreciated resources available.

For anyone not familar with usenet it is similar to web based forums or discussion boards. Only it has existed far longer than either. Longer than the web itself. It operates on it's own protocol, namely the Network News Transport Protocol (NNTP) with it's own set of servers.

You can find groups dedicated to just about every interest you can think of and some you wouldn't ever think about. Each group has a unique culture and woe to those who barge in and violate the norms of the group.

Some of the groups I follow include:

alt.folklore.urban
sci.electronics.design
rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic
microsoft.public.vb.general.discussion

Messages are posted to a NNTP server and are propagated through the network of servers, with each holding a finite amount of posts with the older posts dropped into the ether. Well not exactly. Not anymore anyway. Because a number of years ago someone decided to archive the messages, and actually seek out older messages from old tape reel backups and wherever else they could find. They the set out to make the whole of usenet searchable, and deja.com was created.

Deja was soon taken over by google and has become an important resource for me and others seeking specific knowledge difficult to attain from other sources. In the earlier days it was common to include one's clear text, unmunged email address in each post. This was before spambots were created to scour the posts and harvest what would most likely be valid accounts. Which of course is probably where most of my spam originates from.

Of course the spammers didn't take the weekend off. It's more likely I never shutdown my OE at work when I left Friday. Since it's setup to check for new mail every ten minutes that's where I'll find all my email Tuesday morning.

In any event, the practical upshot of all this is that I have inadvertenly taken a holiday weekend off from email.

Not bad.

Better Living Through Chemistry

2005-05-28T11:54:00.000-04:00

I had the opportunity to visit a local research facility celebrating their fifty year anniversary in Buffalo yesterday. Anyone who has travelled the I-190 just south of downtown Buffalo may have noticed the Honeywell complex, yet how many folks are aware of the fact that well over 1000 patents have been granted to those working there since 1955.

(Full disclosure: Honeywell has been known to make donations to the local community center and I serve on the board of directors of said community center)

Some of most well known products developed at this location are the refridgerant gases which replaced the ozone depleting chloroflourocarbons previously used in air conditions and the like. Other products such as the ridgid foams used in car dashboards and furniture were also developed here. As youngsters growing up in the same neighborhood we would often liberate large blocks (2' x 2' x 5') of this foam, stack them up at the base of the most convienient tall structure, and well, you can imagine the rest. Also, this being Buffalo, many of the same foam blocks were cut up, covered with duct tape and lashed to the body with clothesline. Viola! Instant goalie pads for those aspiring future NHLers.

Commercial dyes were also made in this area. Before Honeywell, the company was known as Allied Signal. Allied Chemical before that, and National Analine prior to that. Buffalo Color has an ajacent facility, but they no longer produce 90% of the blue dye found in jeans as they once did. Competition from China has ended that era.

It is nice to know this particular company is still here providing tax dollars and well paying professional jobs.

Birth of a Blog

2005-05-27T16:18:00.000-04:00

I've been toying with the idea of blogging since, well, since before blogging began. Well, this is it, I've done begun.

Why now? Why not. Actually there's more to the timing than that. Last night I attended the first ever Buffalo Blogger Convention at the Anchor Bar. As a potential "future blogger" I thought it might be fun to meet some of the local folks who's blogs I've been reading, just for kicks and giggles so to speak.

Turns out the Buffalo Bloggers are a very nice group of people. An eclectic group to be sure, but friendly and supportive. I'll be linking to their respective blogs once I figure out exactly how to go about doing so.

In the interim I'll be learning new things again and sharing random observations and thoughts.