Twentysomething in Buffalo

State of "The Game"

Yesterday I went to Buffalo Pundit's State of the Union Party at Founding Fathers.

I would offer analysis of the speech, but to be perfectly honest, I, along with Pundit, was one of those people trying to start the "nah nah nah nah, good bye" chant. And also, I prefer my analysis less political and more, well, etymological. My opinion of the content of Bush's speech is that we'll see what happens. But check out this article on Slate that dissects Dubya's word usage. It's not only interesting from a writerly perspective, but also is a neat clue as to how these speeches are crafted. Pretty neat.

Back to the party, I'd say it was a success - I got there just as the speech started, and there was a good crowd playing word bingo - I think the winning word was "Taxes."

But here's a dating update - who wouldathunk that a "political" party would net me digits, especially at a bar. But I ended up talking to a pretty cool person and we're gonna meet up this week. I'm crossing my fingers.

Now those other tips I told you, I haven't forgotten them yet. I'm signed in at Yahoo and Chemistry, but I just can't justify spending so much money for something like that, and I'm getting the impression that many other people are in the same boat - browsing the lists, but not investing in the connection.

I've heard of some singles groups in the area, but I'm not sure where to start. If anyone has some tips, feel free to e-mail me or post a tip in the comments.

Here's a good e-mail for tips: epptwentysomething ( at ) gmail ( dot ) com

- Evan Parker Pierce

Standardized individuality?

In a country that seems to promote individuality and freedom, it is a wonder to me why higher education institutions still rely on standardized testing when reviewing their applicants.

I have spent the last two months applying to graduate schools, which entails filling out endless screens of general information, writing personal statements, running around requesting recommendation letters, and preparing for the GRE.

I can deal with the paperwork and the personal essays, but I am confused as to why I am being asked to take yet another standardized test when the reason that I am applying to graduate school in the first place is to differentiate myself from the general population. I am continuing my education to become better at a specific trade. I will be the first to admit that I am not as good at math as an engineer, so why am I being asked to take a test that involves a significant amount of high school math questions?

I understand that job performance is likely enhanced by an individual who is well-educated in all fields rather than just their specific trade, but at some point, if we wish to be good at what we do, we need to throw in the towel and follow a certain path. We don't hire our physician to do our taxes do we?

I suppose the GRE's are a good way to measure one's strengths and weaknesses, but is it fair to be categorizing an individual's strong points under the headings "math" and "verbal"?

- Lauren Mariacher

Iron Chef...Attempt #1

I love the Food Network.

Whether it’s an “Iron Chef” marathon, a Bobby Flay barbecue, or a half hour with Giada and her Parmigiano Reggiano, I can watch that channel for hours. And I know I’m not alone. A couple of years ago, I would have felt out of place if I mentioned my love for instructional cooking shows, but these days friends and even strangers seem to brighten when I express my love for Mario Batali or even the obsessive deep fryer Paula Deen. (I’m still uncertain as to whether my male friends tune in to Giada for her skills as a chef, or her commitment to wearing revealing shirts. Probably half and half.)

Last summer I discovered a new appetizer that few local restaurants serve: arancini. I first fell in love with the breaded rice balls at Torches on Kenmore Ave; shortly after they removed them from their menu, and I was forced to search other local restaurants for these tasty Italian eats. I finally found them at the Taste of Buffalo as one of the dishes served by Filippo's Ristorante on Hertel Ave. For only $8, you get two giant arancini filled with peas and topped with a delicious marina sauce-quite the bargain.

Unfortunately, as an almost college grad on a budget, I can’t open my wallet every time I have a craving. To satisfy my appetite and preserve my bank account, I finally decided to don my chef hat and put my Food Network lessons to use. After sifting through several recipes, (Food Network and Cooks are great recipe search engines, especially for beginners who don’t know a spatula from a slotted spoon), I finally found a simple enough one I could tackle on Colavita. A pack of ground beef, a box of rice, a sprinkle of parmesan, and a whole lot of olive oil later, I wound up with these:

OK, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the best picture-taker, but I swear they taste ten times better than this photo makes them look. I'd like to think I made Chef Batali proud.

What dishes do local restaurants serve that you could eat every day? Have you ever tried to recreate them? What should I try next?

-Molly Hirschbeck

Wookin' pa nub

I know the young, single lament is a common one, , that (insert city here) is the WORST place for singles. Well believe it or not, according to a (relatively old) Forbes.com article, Buffalo isn’t too bad for meeting other singles. Sure, it’s technically in the bottom half of the Forbes’ top-40, but we beat Pittsburgh! We as a city also have the 10^th highest singles-per-capita of any of the other cities. So while we lack in jobs, online dating, nightlife, culture, jobs, livability and jobs, we’re apparently a city of loners. I guess we've got that going for us. Thanks Forbes.

I've been on a single streak rivaling the length of the Bills playoff drought. My last girlfriend (if you want to call it that) was one of those post-college meet-ups where our biggest commonality was that we loved to sit at home and watch TV and movies (which, in retrospect, was kinda awesome).  I'm not to the point of desperation, but every time a friend asks me if I've been seeing anyone, my response has turned from a polite "no" to a bitter-sounding scoff. And my current prospects are pretty bleak, which I think worries my mother - she recently, and forcefully, reminded me that, "I was married when I was 25."

In college it was easy to meet new people because I was involved in loads of stuff - from class, to teams to groups, to the dorms - that put me in contact with singles. Now that I don't have time for campus life, it’s getting harder to meet people.

Since I’ve already sort-of started a self-improvement series involving getting in shape, I figure why not write a similar series on dating? Especially because it’s something I know nothing about – much like eating healthy. So over the next month or so, check back for updates – root me on, offer me tips, or correct my gaffes and mistakes, too.

Here’s a quick outline of the dating venues I’m going to try:

• The bar scene – It’s a staple of the Buffalo hook-up, but I’m going to predict this path dries up      quickly. I don’t do well at bars.
• Friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend – I have friends, they have friends. Somebody in that group must want to be set up with a dashing gent like me.
• Face-to-face singles groups – There are a few groups and clubs in Buffalo that are designed for      singles. Some are service based, some are faith-based and some are more social. I’m going to try a couple (preferably the free ones) and see who I meet.
• Online dating – I know it’s more common, but I still have a hang up with this. Mainly it’s because   e-Harmony, Chemistry and Match all charge something like $50/month to join. If I can scam a free trial, I’ll let you know what works. I’m also going to try free options, like Yahoo! Personals and the ever-entertaining Craigslist.

I’m open to just about anything, so if you have any suggestions for other tricks or venues you're curious about, let me know – I’ll try it and report back here.

-Evan Parker Pierce

HBO Segment: A well-deserved slap in the face

I am a huge fan of tailgating and the Buffalo Bills. But as I have expressed before, I think there are too many people that cross the line with their tasteless antics and obnoxious attitudes.

Did anyone notice that most of the footage of Buffalo was of either someone falling over or vomiting? Is this really the image we want to portray?

I am no saint on Sunday mornings at the Ralph, but seeing one girl bare her chest for a stadium full of chanting fans and another double-fisting bottles of Crown Royal was like watching a commercial for "Girls Gone Wild."

I don't blame the Buffalo fans; I think they are loyal and inspiring. Instead, I blame the individuals who seem to miss the point of tailgating. I recall one Washington fan ranting incoherently about being some sort of head of a drinking club. I couldn't help but blurt out, "are you kidding me?" Was an initiation process and binge-drinking etiquette his idea of having goals in life?

I have only really experienced horrendous behavior at the game a few times, but it seems like there are many others out there who are just fed up with it.

What do you think?

- Kelly Boquard

Looking for Laughs?

I’ve never been a great speller. Call it bad luck, call it confusion, call it writers curse, but memorizing letter arrangements and origins has never been my strongest suit. My family and I will often pause to watch a few minutes of ESPN’s coverage of the National Spelling Bee just to stare in amazement at the prodigal kids and their quirky behavior as they spell words like autochthonous and ursprache.

Because of my inability to be a perfect speller and my fascination with people who can, I absolutely loved “The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” I saw the show last night at Shea's, and to say it is funny is doing it an injustice. From the over-embellished stereotypical characters, to the improvised one-liners aimed at overeager spelling contestants and inconsiderate audience members, the cast and writers of “Bee” make the show hilarious.

If you attend, be prepared to be asked to be a part of the show; a handful of audience members appear onstage as spelling bee competitors, and you might find yourself pointing to someone you know. (I found myself laughing at my high school history teacher, a tall, sweet balding man who was introduced as recovering from head lice. Nice.)

For those twentysomethings who are graduating from the Chippewa strip but still looking to enjoy the downtown scene, look no further. Put your drinks down, pay a visit to Shea's box office, and be entertained.

The show runs through Sunday, and you can still get great seats here. If you're looking for an in-depth review, check out Colin Dabkowski's piece.

-- Molly Hirschbeck

Beautiful history

I found this through my flickr stream - the Library of Congress has uploaded something on the order of 3,000 archival pictures from 1910 to the 1940s.

Why should you care? Because even the staged photos offer the most candid visual history I've ever seen of World War II America. Many of the photos are simply beautiful - my photographer friends tell me there's something about the compounds used in the film of the period that creates such unique colors and lighting.

I've only made it through about a third of them so far, but the most haunting I've come across are the photos of young girls at a Japanese Emergency War camp and this one of a worker at a carbon black plant.

I recommend starting with the color photos and working your way back in time. And you don't have to worry about Ken Burns' style narration - the Library of Congress captions are refreshingly devoid of anything but fact. Another bonus? They're completely copyright free, so you can use these pictures for anything. I recommend saving them to share with your grandkids. I know it'll be worth it.

Waste a day looking at each one - it's worth it.

-- Evan Parker Pierce

Love handles = still adorable

So Beeswax reminded me last week that it's been about six weeks since I declared my plan to get in shape, get healthy and get sexy. Unfortunately, I made this plan in November, just after Thanksgiving and just before the real holiday season kickoff.

For the first week, I did well. Then the holiday stress kicked in. Like many people, I basically tried to fit too much stuff into too little time - work, play, parties, more work. So diet and exercise were the first two things to fall by the wayside (oddly enough, I still found time to smoke...).

But post-New Year I've decided I ought to make a real push for health - I've reduced myself to a manageable 1 full-time and 1 part-time job (instead of cramming in two near full-time jobs, one of which had periodic overnights...big mistake). And the main job is a total day job (HOORAY NORMAL SLEEP CYCLE!).

Because I've been sleeping like a normal person, I've found it's been a heck of a lot easier to manage not smoking - I'll still have a couple if I'm drinking, but I've been able to go full weeks without a smoke during the day.

Now my biggest hurdle is maintaining my food intake. I've found I'm still stuck in the "eat when you can" model that got me through working two jobs. I also have found a desk job makes me much less active than busting my hump in a hotel or grocery store, meaning I can see yesterday's burrito around my gut much faster than I used to.

My solution? Actually tracking what I eat. Some people use a book, but because I'm a new journalism blogger, and naturally high tech, I'm leaning on the Internet. There's this social-networking thing ("thing" is the best descriptive I can think of for it) called Twitter. Super simple - you send an IM or text to your twitter account and it updates what you're doing, so everyone can see. It's like a perpetual away message on AIM or Google Talk. Anyway, it logs all your updates for you so people can see what you were up to (or what errant thought popped into your head at 4:54 p.m. on Saturday - click here to see what I'm up to or thinking.)

Anyway, in Twitter, there's this program called Tweet What You Eat  that allows you to IM or text in what you eat and it gives you a calorie count on each item (sometimes they're approximations, but you can also enter in the actual calorie count yourself).

It's a pretty simple way to track what you're eating and generate a report on your caloric intake. I'm the kind of person who needs those kind of reminders, as when I'm busy I can honestly forget what I'd eaten over the course of a day (snacks are scary!). With this kind of tool, I think I can better make that holistic lifestyle change that leads to healthy weight loss instead of crash dieting.

Any of you guys have any other tips I might be able to use?

-- Evan Parker Pierce

***Update: Tweetwhatyoueat.com is down right now, probably because of the Lifehacker.com post that precipitated this post. Also, Buffalo's Kevin Purdy (a UB alum and the editor who gave me my first college newspaper story) is one of Lifehacker's editors. I believe Lifehacker is one of the greatest blogs ever created, so it's cool to see a local writer contributing there. Check it out!

Remember When...

... “I was your age…”

No, I’m not using that nostalgic, reflective phrase just yet. But the older I get, the more I find myself saying “Remember when…”

This past New Years, some friends and I reminisced about past times, past fads and past places that we wish were still around.

Remember when…

Ø  You paid your weight at Ground Round? Back then, we loved the free baskets of popcorn and the balloons, but these days we’re wishing the restaurant would reappear for its pay-by-the-pound deals.

Ø  The Buffalo Blizzard was around? Gino DiFlorio, Tony Meola and pint-sized Paul Dougherty were soccer god heroes. Throw in the Pikuzinski and DiNunzio brothers, and an intense rival like the Cleveland Crunch, and you were guaranteed a good game.

Ø  You could spend hours at Leaps and Bounds? The kid-sized jungle gym playhouse was the popular choice for birthday parties during the third grade (Chuck E. Cheese paled in comparison). Whatever happened to those huge colorful ball pits and curly-cue slides?

Ø  Niagara Splash was a summer treat? The local water park featured too many slides to count and a huge tidal wave pool that could keep you in the water forever. As a Little Mermaid lover, I was convinced I would find Sebastian and Flounder somewhere under the sea.

Ø  Real cartoons were a hit? Nowadays, little kids are amused by Dora the Explorer and Fairly Oddparents, and that’s fine, because they don’t know what they missed, but we do. If only Ninja Turtles, the Smurfs, Inspector Gadget, Doug and Captain Planet were still around. Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, Heart…Go Planet!

Ø  You actually bought pogs? And slammers? Looking back, this was a mistake. Did anyone actually play pogs? But hey, hopefully you made some friends when you traded your holographic slammer for a ying yang collection.

Ø  You raced home to watch "Full House"? "Saved by the Bell"? "Family Matters"? Friday nights were unquestionably reserved for TGIF, "Boy Meets World" and "Step by Step." Luckily, twentysomethings seem intent on preserving the memories of these beloved shows, and Kelly Kopowski, Zac Morris, DJ Tanner and Cory Matthews will always be found at college campus Halloween parties.

What do you remember about your childhood that you wish was still around? What are you glad isn’t still around? It doesn’t have to be from the '80s or early '90s if you don’t mind admitting how old you really are.

- Molly Hirschbeck

Completely Spent With Chippewa

If you had asked me a year ago what I was doing on Saturday, without a doubt it would be "going downtown." A typical downtown night for me was staying out until 4 a.m. on the Chippewa strip, and frequenting at least three of the bars.

Now, just the thought of staying out until 4 a.m., especially on Chippewa, gives me a headache. My friends get on my case about it, too. For example, this past Saturday, I really just wanted to lie in my bed and watch some television. It was only after about five phone calls and 10 text messages that my friends got the hint - I was staying home and I didn't care what anyone said about it.

Chippewa used to be a fun, late-night dance party for my single girlfriends and me. I am no longer single, and when I am downtown and take a look at my surroundings, I feel like most of those partying around me are hardly old enough to buy beer.

It's the annoying belligerent guys trying to buy me a drink, the catty group of underage females shoving me aside at the bar so they can get a drink, and, most recently, the increase in violence that make me look at the whole thing with disgust. Where is the appeal?

I mean, maybe every once in a while a "girls night on Chippewa" could have its perks, but I'd rather sit at a friend's house or at a nice dinner with a few cocktails than spend my money on cherry bombs and watered down drinks.

- Kelly Boquard