Road Flares

Convocation

matt — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:17:02 +0000

The Canisius Presidential Convocation is this afternoon. This should be interesting.

For the first time in the 140 year history of the College, we now have a President who is not a Jesuit. And this will be his first time giving the State of the College address, outlining his plans for the future. I think we’re all going to be replaced with robots.

A Track Layin’ Train

Pitt — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:15:26 +0000

“Did the Lord say that machines ought to take the place of the living? Then what’s a substitute for bread and beans? Do engines get rewarded for their steam?”

Something tells me, even John Henry hisself would lose a contest with this machine.

Incidentally, this video was taken in Belgium, however there are plans to bring these stateside, to lay the proposed high speed rail route between Chicago and St. Louis. Its all part of The Messiah’s great Rejouvenifying Americaland plan! Get on board, catch the fever! Catch it!

Required Hours

matt — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 13:38:12 +0000

The faculty at University of North Texas (yeah, I hadn’t heard of them either) are outraged over a new requirement that they spend at least sixteen hours per week on campus.

Four hours a day, for four days a week? The slavedrivers!

Bisons

matt — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:16:35 +0000

Sue and I went to the last Buffalo Bisons game of the season – we’d won tickets at the beginning of the summer, and never got around to using them.

I don’t think that anyone there paid to get in. When we were in line at the ticket office to trade in our voucher, there were at least half a dozen people walking around handing out free tickets. Apparently, if you’ve got season tickets, then if the game is rained out you can redeem them for another home game later. So there were season ticket holders with sheafs of the things to get rid of.

The Bisons responded to this tremendous support by getting blown out, 9-2, by the SWB Yankees. Jesus, this team has been bad since the Mets took ‘em over. We left in the top of the 7th when it was still 9-0.

Death…the Skipper, too

Pitt — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:29:13 +0000

Did you know that Emily Dickenson’s famous poem, Death, neatly fits the tune of the theme song from Gilligan’s Island? Try it!

Spiller Time

Pitt — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:47:14 +0000

You can thank Clemson for your running game, Buffalo. Now I might actually get to watch some Bills games in the bars down here.

Hamlin Park Initiative

matt — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:02:08 +0000

Canisius has announced a new initiative to unload some of the houses in the neighborhood surrounding the college. For a long time, the school used them as overflow student housing. Now that they’ve completed their latest dormitory project, though, the space is no longer needed.

The simple thing to do would have been to simply sell them off. But the College was smart enough to know that the houses would be scooped up by the same slumlords who already rent to our students, and that would lead to further destabilization of the neighborhood. So instead, the houses will be renovated and sold to people who are legally bound to live in them for fifteen years.

More owner-occupied housing == more stability in a neighborhood. Excellent work.

UB20X0

matt — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:28:18 +0000

John Simpson, president of University at Buffalo and architect of the UB2020 plan, announced his retirement yesterday.

I’m sure that part of it was a desire to get back to his family – Simpson is from California, and his last position was at UC Santa Cruz (Go Slugs!). But I have to imagine that part of it was the brutal smackdown that the SUNY system received in the protracted budget hoedown of incompetence this year. A vital part of the UB2020 expansion plan was being able to control the school’s tuition and keep the apes in the state government from sweeping university revenue into their general fund. The measure to ensure these things was defeated, and UB’s budget was cut. Again.

As it says in the article, it would take a superman to keep up the good fight in the face of that.

Hopefully their new president will have the same sort of vision and outline a similar path to future relevance. Until then, SUNY will not be able to join the ranks of premier public university systems.

Wagon Update

Pitt — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 11:42:25 +0000

So far I’ve put just over 1000 miles on my ‘67 Volvo 122 wagon since getting it on the road a couple of months ago. So let’s examine those 1000 miles:

Average fuel economy: 27 mpg, on 87 octane
Oil used: 1 quart
Repairs: replaced fan belt ($14), adjusted carburetors (free)
Number of times survived EMP due to points ignition: none…yet

Urban Pioneers

matt — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:57:08 +0000

An interesting article in yesterday’s Buffalo News. It’s about squatters, including the freegans that were written up in that NYT article. It’s about urban farmers, and bakers, and people raising chickens. It’s about all of the interesting culture that’s springing up in the city of Buffalo, because it’s so incredibly cheap to live here that people can live without worrying about cash money.