Dave The Web Guy
Rumors of Looting Might Not Be Exaggerated
02/21/2023
Note: This post was originally made on December 25, 2022, the day of Buffalo's deadly Christmas Day blizzard. It's a little out of the posting order which you can read about here.
Rumors are circulating that businesses (and in particular the Aaron's Rental on Grant Street, a few blocks up) in my neighborhood are being looted. If so, that might be one explanation for things like this my Arlo camera caught this afternoon.
I'm being wary though - I also suspect these folks and the stream of folks that came before and after them with goods, are just helping friends move. I mean, it is Christmas after all. These could just be gifts.
I conclude and therefore I judge nothing.
By Dave for Personal Blog.
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The Email Advantage is Gone
11/02/2021
Ouch! For the longest time it was only Alexa that could access my Workgroup (GSUITE) email and calendar info when Google Home itself still couldn't.
For real: For the longest time GSUITE account holders could not use a Google device, like a Google Mini, to play back their email or calendar information.
But, if you had an Alexa, you could. It really made no sense.
Eventually Google caught up with its own product line, and finally you could ask questions like "What's on my calendar today" or "What's in my inbox".
That the news now is that that Alexa will no longer access email or calendars for Google or Microsoft is ironic.
By Dave for Personal Blog.
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Buffalo Wild Police Chase
10/02/2021
[ Note this event occurred earlier than the entry date stamp. It is a blog post ported from another hosting arrangement. ]
And, here we go yet again!
This video is from last June 20 but is being migrated to this blog from its previous host.
I was standing at the corner of Allen Street and Delaware Avenue trying to snipe video of the Blue Angels which were occasionally flying over the neighborhood, when this happened.
I was a little tipped off when I spotted a Lackawanna Police vehicle pull up to the intersection with its overheads lit up -- no chase yet, just this out-of-jurisdiction vehicle making a presence. But, I know from being a scanner junkie that when you spot a foreign police car lit up like that, it might mean a cross-jurisdiction police chase is in progress.
The Lackawanna cruiser turned up Delaware Avenue and I was not disappointed. It met up with the oncoming chase head-on, which is where my video begins.
Frame Capture of the runner. Looks like it could be a girl or woman.
There are no MSM stories or indicators of this event. Sans my lucky shot with the camera and this blog, this would be a never-happened.
What is evident is that the chase originated in Lackawanna as all the units pictured are Lackawanna. And, it probably involved someone doing something serious enough to merit the chase (though oddly, not much media attention). It's unclear how Lackawanna Police's chase policy differs from Buffalo.
I also know that the chase involved or culminated in a crash involving at least one of the Lackawanna police units, as I was able to reach the scanner in time to hear that much. My recording system was "down" it turned out, so I couldn't replay to hear more details about what led up to it.
I have sent Lackawanna Police a Facebook message via their page asking if they plan to issue a release. However, given that police chases are more dramatic to us lay people and a bit more routine to them, it's not likely we'll hear back from them. And, in any event, said Facebook page looks pretty neglected.
That is the importance of being vigilant with your cameras and your blogs. Remember, if you are there, you are the reporter!
By Dave for for BuffScan.
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Six Minutes to OUCH
08/26/2020
This guy pulled up alongside me at one point in traffic while I was driving home from work.
Six minutes later down the road, he's nursing a bad hit on his noggin'!
People sometimes see things like this and with a prejudice against reckless motorcyclists think "Aha!, he got what he deserved!".
But in this case, this dude was completely lawful for as long as I could see him and, although it was a bit of a minimalist shortie, there was a helmet. Maybe he wishes it covered a little more now, I dunno.
It appears that he bumped into, or got side-swiped by, another vehicle. The crash happened while he was well ahead of me so my dashcam didn't catch the actual event.
He was writhing in pain with his arms and hands wrapped around his own head while the people on the sidewalk around him provided immediate comfort as best they could. But, I think he was largely okay or at least hope so. I heard the medic call go out on the scanner about a minute later so help was on the way.
By Dave for for BuffScan.
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Caught Flapping on My Webcam
05/17/2020
So now that I have my shiny new blogging platform at hand I find myself thirsty for unique me-oriented content. Noting a lack of anything too special between watching bad sitcoms and chowing down on boxes of Lucky Charms, it occurs to me maybe now is time to update my explanation of this odd behavior, frequently caught on my webcam, and elsewhere:
Seriously, da F is that?
That is me "flapping". It's technically not "flapping", it's more like a soothing tickling of the back of my neck. I call it flapping because when I did this as a kid I did it full hand-hands-to-the-front which was by definition flapping. I literally flapped my hands.
Over time, this behavior was naturally admonished by my mom and dads, and subject to some degree of mocking from my dear siblings. The resulting pressure between the compulsion to do it and the shame and ridicule to not, gradually morphed the act into the somewhat compact and concealable act of "neck tickling". The vernacular of it as "flapping" nonetheless survived, as did the behavior itself, into modern adulthood.
I mostly do it while under stress, but I also do it while thinking rapidly about matters. It's like a mental tell I suppose. You can harmlessly refer to it as a "tic" if you like although I tend to think of tics as being more involuntary. This is not involuntary by my standard of the word, I crave doing it! I can get frustrated over time if I can't.
The medical genesis of this behavior is a wild card matter. Sure, it's the stuff of autism if you turn down the squelch on the meaning of that word (and sure, my mother claims a doctor made just such that suggestion, just as that and "Asperger" were coming to the fore).
My philosophy on the over-diagnosis of what is in my opinion, at some point of high functionality, a personality type, leads me to dismiss that. I'd sooner blame chomping on lead paint chips and messing up the wiring somewhere during my neurological developmental years.
I mean, okay, I happen to be great with computers and sure, there is that train thing I have going on, and maybe a few oddball obsessive fascinations here and there -- but, hey, like I said personality type.
Some dudes get high jumping from bridges while strapped to rubber bands and we don't say they have a contemporary buzzword affliction, do we? They're just adrenaline junkies! And for some reason, without a care for trains in the world, they are even admired.
So if you see me flapping on the webcam, or maybe roundabout at work or in the streets, do not be concerned. It just means I'm letting off mental steam if not processing an internal algorithm of some sort.
Now if you'll excuse me, I notice the second of my thirteen spoons (from the bottom of the stack) is slightly shifted to the left in the utensil drawer, and I absolutely have to correct it or there's gonna be a lot of flappin' going on!
By Dave for for BuffScan.
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On Time Travel in 2020
05/15/2020
If a time traveler in 2010 had handed me a picture of 2020 me toting a shopping bag on my way TO the store ... while wearing a medical mask, I'd marvel LESS over the fact he was a time traveler!
And while I'm griping...
How horrifying is the "interviewer visit" that the prospect of one is wielded like some kind of threat? I mean, are they gonna show up with baseball bats?
I submit:
By Dave for for BuffScan.
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