| The Life and Times of Jim | 
| Hi, there. I'm Jim. Welcome to my phlog!   This site was written for Las Vegas, then LouisVille. Now, it seems to be about anywhere. In these phlogs, you'll see a lot of my personal notes and pictures. I like to post my observations here to remember life and celebrate it. I'm not religious. I don't pray for good fortune. I'm ecstatically grateful for the gift of life and I think our time should be remembered and not taken for granted. I'm not a writer. I think pictures tell stories so much better than words. I love just about everything in this life, and, I guess that would have to include you. So, if you've seen me, don't be surprised if your picture is in here somewhere. Of all the critters, people are absolutely the most interesting. | 
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| Sun 06/28/2009  17:13:20jim  Little Italy, Pa | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sun 06/28/2009  16:44:10jim  Natural History - Indians | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sun 06/28/2009  16:38:18jim  Natual History - Egypt | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sun 06/28/2009  16:21:40jim  Natural History Displays | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sun 06/28/2009  16:03:28jim  Pittsburgh - Museum of Natural History | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sun 06/28/2009  15:55:30jim  Natural History Museum | |||||||||||||||||||
| Fri 06/26/2009  20:23:50jim  Mt Pleasant, Pa - Evergreen Drive In | |||||||||||||||||||
| Fri 06/26/2009  07:17:40jim  Michael Jackson Dies at 50 | |||||||||||||||||||
|  He preached music, love and peace. His performances rocked the world. Michael Jackson Dies at 50.  BTW - He was found innocent in court of child molestation, and he did pay out $20 million to quiet the whole thing. Money is a strong motivation. After being on a grand jury, I don't believe most of the news | |||||||||||||||||||
| Fri 06/26/2009  07:13:46jim  Farrah Fawcett dies at 62 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Wed 06/24/2009  18:37:12jim  Wexford, PA - Car Show | |||||||||||||||||||
| Wed 06/24/2009  07:13:01jim  Its Beautiful | |||||||||||||||||||
| I see natures overwhelming technology. It is more profound than a cell phone, a plasma TV, or a computer. I see harmony. All the living things seem to know their tasks, and they do them very well. I see love in the animals, mostly amoung their own species, but sometimes they share their love with me. Sometimes, I walk on the soft grass with my bare feet, and I feel like everything here was made just for my pleasure. But that is a mistake. All things are given the choice of whether to love or hate their lives. What I am saying is, Heaven and Hell isn't something we experience after we die. It is something we create while we are alive. It is our choice to see what we want to see. I used to want to live forever, but that would be greedy. There are many others waiting to take my place. And I hope when they come, they will see this life as I do. For me, when the beautiy of life seems distant, when life becomes about bills, work, chores, and responsibilities, I look at my sweet Becky sleeping, then walk outside. I hear the birds singing, smell the honeysuckle, feel the moist breeze, and see another day begin. -- It is Beautiful -- | |||||||||||||||||||
| Mon 06/22/2009  20:27:32jim  Pittsburgh Skies | |||||||||||||||||||
| Mon 06/22/2009  20:15:40jim  Duquesne Incline | |||||||||||||||||||
| Mon 06/22/2009  20:02:44jim  Duquesne Incline Area | |||||||||||||||||||
| Mon 06/22/2009  20:02:12jim  Pittsburgh View | |||||||||||||||||||
| Mon 06/22/2009  09:59:14jim  Pittsburgh - Becky-n-Jen | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sat 06/20/2009  21:04:38jim  Lake Erie, Pa | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sat 06/20/2009  18:34:24jim  Niagra Park | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sat 06/20/2009  18:30:54jim  Niagara Falls Park - 2 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sat 06/20/2009  18:16:08jim  Niagara River | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sat 06/20/2009  18:13:34jim  Toronto Canada | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sat 06/20/2009  18:07:00jim  Niagra Park | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sat 06/20/2009  17:23:58jim  Buffalo, Ny | |||||||||||||||||||
| Fri 06/19/2009  19:00:02jim  Wexford - Cabana Bar | |||||||||||||||||||
| It's not easy finding the Cabana Bar in Wexford. It's not easy to find it on the internet either. What it offers is a very large athletic club, fine dining, and a Californian styled Cabana out back. The foods is good, but the idea is GREAT! I love it!!! I think it gets most of its publicity via word of mouth. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Thu 06/18/2009  18:35:12jim  Westview, Pa - Bella Rias | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sat 06/13/2009  20:54:30jim  Sparta Nascar Race | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sat 06/13/2009  19:17:02jim  Nascar Race Intro | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sat 06/13/2009  18:44:08jim  Pat Green Concert | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sat 06/13/2009  16:26:22jim  Nascar Group | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sat 06/13/2009  13:16:26jim  Sparta Girls | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sat 06/13/2009  11:44:36jim  Sparta Campsite | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sat 06/13/2009  08:01:44jim  Bam | |||||||||||||||||||
|  I usually don't tell stories, but this one touched my heart. This one is about a deer named Bam. She was found alone in the woods, assumed to be orphaned from her mother during hunting season. My wife took her in, went to the feed store, bought some cow nipples and powdered milk, and we nursed her. We called her Bam. Bam loved playing with our kids and she became as much a member of the family as any of us, but Bam was growing fast. There came a time one spring, Bam was out in the barn, just going crazy to get out. I told my wife, you have to let her go. You'll have to believe she'll come back, but you have to let her go. My wife, with tears in her eyes, opened the door, and Bam ran off into the woods without looking back. Weeks had gone by. We weren't sure if they'd ever see Bam again, but my wife would go out everyday calling "Bam, Bam!" while holding two full bottles of milk. It was on a beautiful spring day, a day much like today, she went out and called out to Bam. The bushes rustled and Bam came running out of the woods with her little tail wiggling. Bam hadn't forgotten us. Everyone came out, Bam drank both bottles and we all played. She was such a pleasure. That was years ago. The kids have all gone now. Bam would continue to pop in from time to time, and we'd have our bottles waiting for her in the fridge. We haven't seen Bam for quite some time, but every now and then, we'll see a fawn, up on the hill side, looking down at us, and we'll smile. And that, is my story of a much missed fawn named Bam. - Told by a retired couple at the campround in Sparta Kentucky. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sat 06/13/2009  00:07:30jim  Nascar Campsite - Night | |||||||||||||||||||
| Fri 06/12/2009  19:26:14jim  Sparta, Ky - Skies | |||||||||||||||||||
| Thu 06/11/2009  00:00:00jim  Camping near Cincinatti | |||||||||||||||||||
| Mon 06/08/2009  20:32:30jim  Down by the Creek | |||||||||||||||||||
| Mon 06/08/2009  06:47:28jim  Two apartment weekends have gone by. | |||||||||||||||||||
| We've spent two weekends at home. I guess this weekend was a good one because I wrote a Yatzee program on Saturday. It was fun to do. Writing games is always fun. In my spare time, I can usually write one program a day. We're taking the neighbors out Tuesday, camping in Kentucky this Friday during the Nascar races. Jennifer will be coming to stay for a month on the 20th. We'll pick her up in Buffalo, NY. After that, every weekend will be spent traveling and having fun. I'm hoping we'll see Niagra Falls, New York City, Washingon DC, Kennywood and Ohio Pyle. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Mon 06/08/2009  06:38:13jim  A Perfect Smile | |||||||||||||||||||
|  Becky gets fitted for her new smile today. I've thought of her as lucky. She has a beautiful smile. I always wanted dentures. My Mom had dentures. She said she loved them. Being a smoker and a coffee drinker almost all of my life, I have had a No Awards winning smile. On the flip side, I still have most of my teeth, which should count for something. I can still strip wires with my front teeth, which is darned handy. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Mon 06/08/2009  06:14:30jim  Dealing with a bad brain | |||||||||||||||||||
|  I don't remember when my memory went bad. har har All I know is, I've always had to struggle with ways remember things all of my life. Take for example: when I was a waiter at Mgm. I worked the Exec Station. That meant that I couldn't refer to Clint Eastwood as 'Mr'. I had to say, 'Good evening, Mr Eastwood. May I offer you something to drink?'. I remember Seigfried sat on my station once singing Framptons "I'm in You, You're in me". I had to think about that one for awhile. I also had the floor execs. One was Mr Green who was white, another was Mr White who was black. So, Mr White was black and Mr Green was white. That seemed like a memory grabber. Then there were the show people: they would cram 8 in a booth designed for 3. They'd order their hearts of lettuce salads, their tea with the bag on the side, and so forth. They never tipped more than 50 cents. I guess in England, food servers don't get tipped. We were lowly scullions. But that was okay because occassionaly I'd date one of the show girls. I remember, I offered a showgirl a nickel for her thoughts, and she ripped me off. She had NO thoughts, I mean NONE, but the girl sure could dance. See now, I forgot what I was talking about. Oh yes, memory. These days I have an IPhone. I can just take someone's picture, then email it to myself with their name. And if someone is talking about something I know nothing about, I google it. If someone is throwing abbreviations around, I can look that up too. Take for instance, my title these days. I'm a CE in BISD representing ADI for FI. I can't find those in Google, but I can ask and take notes on my IPhone for these things. I think it's pretty cool. In the current world, you don't need a good brain, all you need is an IPhone. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sun 06/07/2009  14:29:37jim  Check out my Yatzee Game | |||||||||||||||||||
| Look down on the bottom right.  It took about 8 hours to write a Yatzee game from scratch. I love programming. It's a passion of mine. I used four langauges to create it. I would have liked to use just one, but thats the way things have become of the last decade. We were talking about new languages that have cropped up over the last 10 years or so. I'd think most of them are passing fads. Many new languages promise to ease programming woes. They hope to eliminate programmers. All systems are simple in the beginning. Enhancements make them become complex. When a new language is adopted, the systems have to be rewritten. Its not the language that makes them simpler, its the rethinking about changes done after decades of time. And it doesn't matter what language the systems are written in, ALL systems become complex. Programming isn't about knowing a language (I know quite a few). Programming is about thinking logicially. To create a system you must be able to hold a line of thought. So I have to laugh at the people who more-or-less run to Best Buy and purchase packages that promise to eliminate programming ! Imagine how that might work: A manager clicks a picture of an ATM and drags it over to a new Bank, and the programming is done. Maybe that will work someday. LOL! Imagine now that the manager wants to trade stocks on the ATM, or add a donation, or whatever, and there isn't an option for it in his package. Its the same old story. You can't update the package by simply hiring a programmer. EVERYTHING has to be written from scratch, or the manager will have to pay extraordinary amounts of money to get the package enhanced. What I'm saying is, you can't create a system without thinking. A lot of places I've contracted with have off the shelf packages that they've forced on their workers. We may deal with 10 packages, just to accomplish a simple task, like adding time to our time sheets. And I think this may be where America has gone wrong. Greatness doesn't happen by simply throwing money at something. You have to plan and you don't need a plan for how to plan. You simply have to think. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Tue 06/02/2009  18:30:23jim  Cranberry Fun Center | |||||||||||||||||||
| Mon 06/01/2009  20:07:14jim  Brusters Ice Cream... | |||||||||||||||||||
| Mon 06/01/2009  20:03:40jim  Allegheny | |||||||||||||||||||
| One of the things that really fascinates me about West Allegheny is that it has the second best view of downtown Pittsburgh, and the buildings are falling apart. I'm surprised the wealthy people haven't discovered its vista and rebuilt this area into something very spectacular. I saw people sitting two couches suited for the dump, houses falling apart, and the only business seemed to be a place to buy lottery tickets. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Mon 06/01/2009  18:57:38jim  Allegheny Tavern | |||||||||||||||||||
| Wed 05/27/2009  09:56:38jim  Life in the Jungle | |||||||||||||||||||
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