[Brooklyn Industries, left. and Jib Hunt, lower right]  Angel is my left nut. Kinda sweet and endearing of me eh?  We hang out every day, either at my office or his store, Sai One. Since he moved shop to the 800 block on Elmwood, it's never been so much fun. The amount of hot guys (bears too!) walking in and out have tripled, and with more merch moving, there's more stuff getting shipped in from NYC. That being said, I get the loverly privelage of trying on all the smedium fitting items. yea, it's smedium. Higher end lines have been whittling down the standard sizes a lot more lately: small is extra small, medium is a smedium or regular small, and large is a medium allovasudden.  When I try everything on, Angel tells me I'm growing a belly (LIES!!!) and that I'm getting huge, because the mediums are fitting nicely now. He's just yealous of mah sexiness. All things aside, the stuff at Sai One you won't find anywhere but NYC, and only if you know how to get places. And you can also rest assured that Angel and his biz partner try to only stock one of each, no copy cats around herr. You can click below for a flickr set with a lot more photos of yours truly looking dapper and smug in some new arrivals... I'll warn you that if you like something you saw on me, you should come get it before I get paid. Game on Bitches.

• P.S. - Angel has a website coming soon for the store, so we took a whole lot of merchandise pictures, like the pillows, and purses, shoes, and candles. He stocks a lot more than skinny boy clothes, but I can't wear a cocktail dress or a candlestick now can I?

• Saione @ 818 Elmwood ave, Blog
• I wanna be a supermodel [flickrset]

[Click above to visit the flickr set for this post]

I keep telling folk I'm not a cute 21 year old anymore. Last year was one of the biggest growing seasons for me; I learned about the deepest darkest side of the social realm, I learned just how much love will blind you, and how easy it is to manipulate an appearance. I've gained the best friends, lost the fake ones, and broken a few hearts. Twenty-Two is the year to sort all I'll I've learned from Twenty-One and learn even more. I'm not too big of a birthday basher. I'm more happy with a few close friends just hanging out and spending some me time. I do have a massive drinking party Saturday with like 15+ Canadians (3 are also celebrating Birthdays too), but the prime moment was Wednesday when I turned 22 and got my first tattoo. Angel and I set this up over a month ago, that we'd bothed get inked on my Birthday. I was getting the Whiteboy cock on my shoulder, and he was getting Shiva on his back. A tattoo parlor is a serious thing to choose from in Buffalo. You have HOD, MaddGraffixx, RedHouse, Hardcore, Cowpok, and Divine Machine, among the other little shit shacks. We chose Randall from Divine Machine, a fairly new shop right across from my Allen offices. Randall is a real awesome guy, a family kinda bear, he's in my community so to say. His pieces are quirky and detailed, and he always puts the right energy in with your tattoo. Did I mention he was hot? Tattoo went fairly easy, a little more uncomfortable due to the large surface being filled in solid black, but I'm totally happy with what I have now. I've also learned that I have the perfect pun machine tattoo (its a black cock, think about it). Look at the end of the post for a video of the whole thing. Angels' Shiva was a little more complex, but Randall took his time with the outlining and it came out most awesome. And then... we went to a tittie bar. The Colonie Lounge to be precise. So, it was my idea, but my business partners thought it would be extra cool to get me to hang around some laydees for my birthday. It wasn't too bad and the girls were ok, but what threw me was that they were spitting the same game and words to me (I was pretending to be straight) that I play the boys at Marcellas when I'm working. I felt like a mark, a fish out of water... I loved it. I didn't enjoy the beef curtains in my face so much but I did manage a very sexy body shot off of this well blessed pretty shot girl. No pictures of that but yes, I'm still gay.

• Divine Machine @myspace
• The Colonie Lounge

 

[Click above to visit the flickr set]

I was Lisa Lampinelli's personal whore

Actually, it was our bouncer James, making out with her, but I was her homo hospitality liason for the evening. See, Lisa Lampinelli perfomed at Shea's Theatre Friday night, and like a good fag hag, she brought her ass (and pals) to Marcella's for her after-party. True to her schtick, she latched on to James, our beloved black bouncer who by then end of the night was shirtless showing his "runaway slave" tattoo to her and getting a little Lampinelli action. I hear he didn't get the "bomb-ass-pussy" but that she would make it back to buffalo and "BOOM!" I think I like Lampinelli more than Kathy Griffin, at least Lisa came to Marcella's and she's actually cool people.

Blackout and BDSM

Now, there was a little issue that made my running arounds interesting. We had a black-out party that night. The first this year, a black out party is when we turn the lights out at midnight and folk dance to glowsticks and black lights. Essentially, everyone does their drugs, and a few people get fucked on the dancefloor, but you can't see shit. Since, I'm the light guy, I'm pretty much jobless at Black-out parties. I end up making my coins by dancing or running around for our manager, Richard. When I used to dance and whore around, I would dress up in my leather gear or something fierce and parade around dripping in glowlights. Nowadays, I'm getting older and grumpier and I can't stand to dance for tips and trolls as much, but I always try to do a little something for the black out parties. This time, I decided to borrow a custom made gas mask that belongs to a "boy" of mine. I think I scared a few people with it. If you are wondering why someone would own an Anubis style gas mask, let custom order it, lets just say my "boy" enjoys certain BSDM elements where this would come in handy. Think oxygen and sensory deprivation. I live a full life, eh? I also realized that night that I've crossed over in my alchohol tolerance for Jack Daniels. I was power drinking that night, and Joseph loves to pour strong drinks for me. Yet, I couldn't even taste the alcohol and I was pretty nimble running around for Lampinelli. However, look below and you can tell I was pretty lit...

Dinner with the Folk.

I paid for it in the morning however. Wasn't a hangover like I expected. No, Nater woke up still drunk at noon with my pops and my (for all intents and purposes) stepmom to take me out to lunch. We headed over to Pearl Street Grill to eat and then I got to show my Bradford living folks a bit of the Elmwood Strip. Ooh, I almost forgot, I picked up a new vinyl too. Urban Treeson. After Pearl, we went to Hero so I could introduce my folks to the people who have been taking my money that last few weeks, but they had their intern at the store.... Bah! Regardless, I caved to the Treeson craze and picked up the black and crying model. I skipped out on Saturday at the club, since Mike and I broke up, I've been wary of going out and dealing with fallout. I thought for a moment that since we ended things amicably that everything was ok, turns out he back to his bitter self again, this time talking about his "whore of an ex husband running off and fucking the Canadians," and how "he should break up every week, he feels so good." I'm trying to not let shit like that affect me, it just sucks to see another ex go the shady route. least I didn't have to break his ribs... yet.

• Lisa Lampinelli
• Wid Gas Masks
• Treeson

[Ledbetter Finders Keeper and a Kozik Monger] I got these little items the other day from a good pal Mike, in Texas. He's kinda a cooky sort, and my oldest interweb pal; he's always been there over the years no matter how crazy things have been for me. I wasn't expecting a birthday gift, but when it arrived I wasn't surprised to see a cock ring and some rubbers included. I love my friends. It's crazy, but I sometimes feel more connected with my peeps from the web than the ones I have locally. My moving around a lot has something to do with it I guess, I'm kinda amazed I'm still in Buffalo for almost three years, and not all that restless to change it. This beautiful vinyl piece came from Hero as a present for myself. A bit pricey, but the absolute top quality paint job and idea of it all makes the Pink Elephant w/ Drunky McSkunky a must have for any toy collection. its probably one of the best new vinyls to come out for the new year. Pink Elephant was designed by Amanda Visell and producedby Munky King. Visell is simpy amazing with her illustrations and its a delight whenever her work gets put into this medium. Drunky McSkunky has a magnet on his bum so he stays on top of the pink elephant. Now thats radtastic.  You can get this at Hero on Allen or online at Munky King.

• Drunky McSkunky @MunkyKing 
• Hero Design @ 93 Allen, Buffalo, NY

Twitter (wiki) is one of those things that means nothing to some, something fun to a few, and the new way of life to the rest. Las February, I picked up twitter as a new wave, thought I get social with the new buzz. Little did I know that it would soon connect to be the perfect alt blog; an ability for me to send out shouts of information that I didn't really need to make a blog post out of.  Twitter has proved with it's API that it doesn't matter the amount of information you have, its how you can use that information. One great example has been the most recent Twitter Stats perl script whipped up by D.Cortesi, who wanted a way to find out what he's been up to with Twitter over the past year. Originally scripted in perl with use in Numbers on OSX, he posted the code and shortly thereafter, bugs were fixed, code reengineered and polished to work into ruby and googlechart and gnuplot. Here's my stats below, thanks to @twistednexus for chrunching the script for me... It turns out that I talk to my bear friends on twitter a lot (@steiger, @cantorum, @bearpupuk), as well as Beth (@kidkreativader) from Hero(@Herodesign), and my business partner Chris (@buffalogeek). I'm most active twittering from midday till after work; thursday is my biggest day to twitter.

I tried to be subtle about this, I didn't even twitter it, yet. Unfortunately, when you start the wonderful process of changing profile statuses to "single," and one of your social means is Facebook, subtlety gets hard. After about a half dozen im's and emails from folk that are facebookers, I'll make it public.

• Michael  and I are no longer a couple.

I really don't want to hear how Michael was bad for me, or how I'm better off. Truth is, it doesn't really matter. Not being with Michael was something that I had to do for a new year for myself.  This has been that hardest decision for me to make, because instead of something catastrophic to trigger this, I had to realize on my own that we weren't meant to be past a year. I'm just gonna take some time to myself, hang out with friends and focus on me. I'm not going to be dating anyone else from Buffalo for a while, the supply of decent single have long been exhausted and I don't feel like trying to disprove that claim either.

It seems that the theme for gifting Buffawhat this Holiday season has been vinyl. I'm not complaining.. less I have to buy for myself! Kevin, my buddy from Singapore (he's from Buffalo,but he sold his soul to a bank for two years and they promptly shipped him overseas) gave me the 8-inch Ninja Dunny by MAD. He's kinda baddass, not so much for the paintjob -- pretty basic in that aspect -- but the ninja sword and star are really beefy and make the ninja Dunny a great collect.  There are two more colorways: a black chase and a exclusive red Ninja, but the standard white with blood looks better than the chases. The dunny is standing behind something else that Kevin gave me: a gold and enamel embellished coffee cup with saucer and lid. The crazy thing is that its made in Thailand by little kids, because their hands are so small they can hold the tiny brushes to paint the fine details. Once they reach a certain age, they can't hold the brushes steady any more and have to find another career. All this for rice and a few coins. Child labor has never been so pretty. I'll try to post a better pic of it on flickr once I get out of my office.

Winter sucks up here in Buffalo, and Toronto gets even chillier. While we bundle up in layers or furry coats, the homeless are left to huddle in alleyways with absolutely nothing. Whatever they have, they stuff with newspaper to keep as warm as they can. You can only stuff so many tabloids into a ratty sweater, though.

Enter 15 Below, an innovative marketing ploy charity operation created by Toronto ad firm Taxi. They've developed a lightweight jacket that is waterproof, windproof, and has multiple bubble pockets all over that can be stuffed with newspaper to provide an effective shield against the cold. 3000 of these jackets will be distributed around Toronto. I wonder if Buffalo can get a few for Sly and the other unfortunates that will end up sleeping in my apartment foyer this winter. Big Question: does it work? see for yourself: [flv width="600" height="338"]http://buffawhat.com/files/video/15b-FL8480x270.flv[/flv]

• The Fabric The 15 Below jacket is constructed of black Aquamax, laminated with a non-porous hydrophilic membrane. The fabric is waterproof, windproof, lightweight yet strong and durable, as well as breathable.
• The Construction The lining is constructed of multiple pockets – two in the hood, four in the chest, one large pocket in the back, and one down each sleeve. Newspaper, long used to retain body heat by athletes, can be scrunched into balls and stuffed into the pockets for adjustable temperature protection. The coat is an anorak style, with adjustable cuffs, and drawstrings in the hood and hem help block out wind. The foldaway hood can conveniently be stored in the collar when not in use. Waterproof zippers and taped seams prevent leakage and help keep both the wearer and the paper dry. Underarm eyelets provide ventilation.
• The Versatility Stuffed, the 15 Below jacket can be worn as a winter coat. Stuffing removed, it can be worn as a raincoat. When not being worn, the jacket can be folded into a backpack for easy transportation, or used as a pillow.

“It’s a lifeline for people without homes. They’re a pretty low-cost, immediate way to address a huge issue,” said Paul Lavoie, co-founder, chairman, and chief creative officer of TAXI. “Our approach to solving problems – of any sort – has always been to question convention. This won’t eliminate homelessness, but it can make a lot of people more comfortable.” On behalf of clients and staff, 3,000 15 Below jackets will be donated to people living on the streets throughout Canada and the U.S. this winter.

• 15Below via  Engadget and Torontoist

It's slowly becoming a trend among my geekier friends to use LOLspeak when describing want:

• buffalogeek: I can haz template Nate?
• buffawhat: OMGDIAF! TSFU!
• buffalogeek: can haz nate?
• buffawhat: Fine.

Lolspeak also helps to soften up a fellow when asking your friends for that eensy little favor:

• buffawhat: Hey chris!
• buffalogeek: whaddup, Yo!
• buffawhat: can you send a request to dreamhost to fix that DNS issue. i'd do it, but I'm too busy watching Ms Piggle Wiggle on Hulu... KTHXOMGLUVYOUGAYKISSESBAI!!!!!
• buffawhat has signed out

Evn when I haz convo with my friendz I luv to drop teh LoLspeak. My friends, they sayz I haz a brainz issuez. I haz a ? Iz teh LOLspeak teh next wave of Baby talk? Boinkology (I sayz not safe fer work sometimez) pointed thiz out first. They be on my blogrollz. Let me showz you it.

I'm sure all three of my blog readers are interested in seeing the final chapter of the Dunny Fiasco, and I'm interested in writing it. I'm also sure that my bloggers on WNYMedia are really eager to get a few new features rolled out. This all could happen I suppose... if Verizon didn't suck balls and Vaspian was a crappy T1 provider... So while the intertubes were down at the office, I missed a few of these interesting web bits:

• Glo-Paint creaters, MPK, has come up with self-luminous micro particles called Litrospheres™ which they say are inexpensive, non-toxic, and will stay on for 12+ years (half-life point) continuously -- without having to be plugged into any power source [peswiki.com]
• I was waiting for the Gizmodo review on the Plastic Surgeon clamshell case opener, and they said it's "fantastic." [Gizmodo]
• nerdsniping. wow. [xkcd]
• This is like digg for fashion and design trends. great coding and functionality for a beta site. +chic! Will elaborate on this more. [chictini]
• Fanboys don't know how to act now that Apple has made the move from niche to mainstream [Datamation]
• Girls from Buff State: Carry mace and a brick [Buffalowatchdog]
• Apple says you can haz 5 iPhones this xmas. [Homotron]
• And now a trailer for a film called "Look," which was supposedly filmed using only surveliance cameras, should hit theatres this Friday. [video below]

[flv width="400" height="300"]http://buffawhat.com/files/video/loothemovie.flv[/flv]