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. 
<< 09/2006 < 08/2007 Calendar 10/2007 > 09/2008 >>Sign InView Other Logs
Tue 
09/18/2007 06:44:07
 jim  Tricks with the number 9
1) Think of a number, any number. Write that number down: ________ (EG: 4261)
2) Multiply the number by 9. Write that number down: _______ (EG: 4261 x 9 = 38349)
3) Add that number's digits across Write the result down: ______ (EG: 3+8+3+4+9 = 27)
4) Repeat step 3, until all the digits added across are less than 10. Write the result down: ____ (EG: 2+7 = 9)
You answer is always 9.
You can do a lot of mind games with this trick.
But you can use this trick to figure out REALLY quick, if a number is divisible by 9.
EG: For example
     123,456 = (1+2+3+4+5+6) is 21 = (1+2) is 3, which is not divisible by 9. 123456 / 9 = 13717.333333333334
     1,234,566 = (1+2+3+4+5+6+6) is 27 = (2+7) is 9, which is divisible by 9. 1234566 / 9 = 137174
Boring, I know, but it can be useful at times.
Every number seems to have its tricks.
Mon 
09/17/2007 22:09:47
 jim  Tandem Shops
Shop Name Tandem Usage
AOL? Customer Log In Processing and E-mail
AXA Sun? Life Insurance Products. Tandem data was migrated to New World Systems (Lamba).
Australia.f New Zealand Bank POS,ATM,Pinpad
Banamex Banking
Banco Cuscatlan Banking El Salvador
Bell Canada Public Phone CC processing
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Banking, POS, ATM
CareMark / CVS
9501 E. Shea Boulevard,Scottsdale, AZ 85260
Submitted by Tom Townsend, Tucson Group,(641) 923-2891
Had 1 late interview. The next one, they didn't call.
Chase Bank Banking
CBOT-Chicago Board of Trade Trading.  merged with CME.
CME-Chicago Mercantile Exchange Futures and Commodity Trading
2007/10/03-Applied through Eric Bormann, EBormann@glotelinc.com
CDG-Contenental Data Graphics
San Diego
A Boeing Company.
2007/10/30-Applied directly through Dice.
Resume sent to: kcowens@cdgnow.com
http://www.cdgnow.com/careers/openpositions.asp
Dubai Islamic Bank Banking
Emergis Health EDI, POS
Emirates Bank International Banking Base24
Equens ATM, financial Formally known as Interpay
Everlink POS, ATM
Evertec (central america) Switching, POS, ATM?
FAA Virginia, Airline Traffic Controllers
Fidelity Information services (Efunds) ATM,POS and Banking
First Data Pos
Fifth Third Bank
Clearwater, FL
Tal/Pos
Fiserv POS
ATM Freescale Ltd Logistics applications.
GE Health Care
Seattle, WA
Health
Genpass ATM Recently acquired by ??
ING Bank Netherlands Banking
Intermountain Health Care Health
Intrado e911
JP Morgan Chase
Tampa, FL
Resume sent 10/2005...rejected for position.
Sent by Jamie Kaiser at TekSystems
KPN Netherlands Telecom They used to a few years ago. Not sure if they still do.
Kleinschmidt Inc EDI
Mastercard POS
Mayo Clinic
2434 Superior Drive NW Suite 105
Rochester, MN 55901
Hospital, IDX-Last Word.
Resume sent - Authorized xylotechnologies.
Ph: 507-289-9956
Memorial Healthcare Health - CareCast Ft Lauderdale S86000
Metavante POS, ATM
Mexican Stock Exchange trading
Moneris Canada POS
NASDAQ trading
NYCE Banking POS, ATM
Oman - Al Watani Switch Banking, Switch
Oman International Bank Banking, ATM
Oman Mobile Telecoms SS7 Telco
Omantel SQL Telco
PROSA (mexico) ATM, POS
Pitney-Bowes Can someone tell us what they are used for?
Postbank Banking
Printrak Motorola E911 Provide E911 systems and software to Police agencies
Raymond James Banking. St Petersburg, FL
Interviewed with them in 2005. Interview went south.
Interviewer strayed into Object Oriented Paradigms.
https://raymondjames.com/careers/search.htm
Rabobank Banking
Ross Stores 4440 Rosewood Drive,Bldg 4,Pleasanton, CA 94588
Phone: (925) 965-4400
Web: http://www.rossstores.com
Royal Bank Bonds trading Outgoing...
Safeway Retail
Scotiabank Bess Funds transfer
St.George ATM,PoS
Sungard Brokerage trading
Tokyo Stock Exchange Trading
Toronto Dominion Bank POS, ATM, Banking
Toronto Stock Exchange trading
Total Systems Services ATM, Credit Cards. Columbus, GA
Submitted resume 10/30/2007 to https://tsys.recruitmax.com
Unibanco (brazil) Atm?
VISA (Denver) POS
Wells Fargo more info needed
Westpac ATM,PoS
Wright Express Fleet Fueling POS
Zion's Bank, UT Banking Small (2 proc) system
Sun 
09/16/2007 19:52:21
 jim  Sunday is never just another day.
Got up this morning, and it was raining. Stopped by the local Starbucks to grab some joe, and took this pic.

Lusting for the IPhone, as I have been, we swung up to the St Mathews mall to check it out. My contracts not up with Verizon until Tuesday, so the waiting is really RUFF!
We left the Mall, decided to go right instead of left, and ended up in Middletown, KY. They had Blue Grass bands playing in the park.

We struck up a friendly conversation with a couple of people there. This guy had stories to tell for days. And he'd heard of Julian Carrol...I was surprised! My old neighbor in Paducah had made it all the way up to Governor of Kentucky. (I still owe him a quarter).
 
Before you'd know it, I was shaking hands with Byron Chapmon. He told us to come back October 7th, for the next concert. It was going to be made up of Church Choirs. I should add, not everybody there was happy

But this guy was ready to say HOWDY!
Sun 
09/16/2007 05:42:11
 jim  GMa and the kids went to Beatty, Nv
I mentioned that Yucca Mountain (the nuclear dump facility), the bottle house, Rhyolite (a ghost town) and the western entrance to Death Valley was with 20 miles.
I also mentioned that what probably put Beatty on the map was Sherry's Ranch (and no, they don't offer horse back riding). If they took off for it, they probably had a pretty interesting day.
Its kind of a long, boring, desert drive out there.
Becky and I just laid around all day, cuddling.
That's always nice. I should mention there was a "House" marathon on the USA channel, too.
We love "House"! The doctor is such a genius and a jerk.
We ate at the Pub
It was extremely dead. The University of Kentucky was playing Louisville. 
Talked to Peter out in the parking lot for over an hour.
He bought us dinner the other night, so we have to listen to him...har har! Just kidding.
Peter is an excellent conversationalist who loves people, is about my age and is a successful programmer/musician when he wants to be. It seems good programmers and muscians share a lot of the same traits (organizational skills, abstract reasoning, and a sense of harmony which is a better word for multi-tasking).
I wonder if he realizes what he did tonight though. 
He talks about his insecurities, but when a grifter was trying to charge parking fees out in the parking lot, he walked in front of us to confront the guy.
We were in downtown Louisville, in a dark parking lot, and headed towards a guy who was probably insane.
Now...I'm not afraid of much of anything, but I wouldn't have gone out there by myself, and if I went with people, I wouldn't be in front.
It was good to see him do that.
I put in some code to send hackers to the nastiest, most invasive, web site I could locate.
LOL. I love doing things like that.
Sat 
09/15/2007 11:30:35
 jim  The Model Society - Fashion Show 2007
Don't you just love Fashion Shows?

Tossing stickies w/ their phone numbers
She's struttin!

I could have looked like this...haha
Oh No! Don't Go!

Great Show...
Sat 
09/15/2007 08:30:53
 jim  Life seems to be a puzzle...with missing pieces
Isn't everything you look at, simple on first glance, but complex on scrutiny?
I don't understand how nothing can travel past the speed of light, when light travelling towards light is possible.
I don't understand how the universe has bounderies...what is past those bounderies.
I don't understand infinity, at all. Does it loop? Can there be a forever anything?
I was looking at a tree leaf.
It had a pattern. I looked at another leaf. It had simular pattern.
Then I compared them with another tree's leaves.
They were the same kind of tree, but each had its own special pattern.
Each tree had its own signature, its own pattern. They had personalities.
There are infinite tree leaf designs, all close, but each unique, and they all came from a seed.
I picked up a rock from some gravel.
It was melted magma of some kind. The shape of it, with its bubbles and its melted swerves, the Earth was hot when it was made. It was formed billions of years ago.
It was just a rock to most people, but to me, it was magnificent.
I know, I'm crazy...but these things I see. The reason I don't see.
And I've been looking all of my life for just one thing...and that is, what is the reason for life.
Why am I here?
I appreciated everything. This is a beautiful life!
I'll never be smart enough to understand anything, but I sure can try observe everything.
Everything is beautiful, in its own way. (stolen phrase).
Fri 
09/14/2007 22:31:08
 jim  Louisville,KY-FashionShow
Fri 
09/14/2007 19:56:00
 jim  No plans for the weekend. Went to TGIFs
Just hanging out so far. We went to TGIFs with Peter and Susan.
Fri 
09/14/2007 09:23:20
 jim  Kentucky Hot Brown
8 slices of bacon
4 slices of turkey breast
4 slices of toast
4 slices of tomato
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup millk
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese 
Cook the bacon until crisp.
To make the sauce, in a saucepan, melt butter and add flour to make a paste. Add milk and stir constantly over medium high heat until sauce thickens. Add cheese and stir until well blended.

Place toast in a baking pan placing a slice of turkey on each piece of toast. Pour cheese sauce over turkey and place a tomato slice in the center of each sandwich. Then put a piece of bacon on either side of the tomato. Place under the broiler until the cheese starts to bubble and begin to turn slightly brown.  
Thu 
09/13/2007 20:57:48
 jim  .Keep it rolling
Thanks much friend Rod.
Becky's got a cold.
She took some cold pills. Then she took some nasal stuff her mom recommended to her.
Then she bought a new tooth brush.
And thats about it.
Sonny, my brother, finally got the air conditioner's compressor installed.
He fell off the ladder twice, but he landed in the dirt, so he was ok. He installed the new compressor, pulled a vacuum on it, put 6 ouces of R22 in it, and discovered the thermostat wasn't working, so he installed a new one of those. hmmm.
And thats about it.
Me, I installed some software this morning
I was assisted by the aid of Resource Jose, Resource Ron, Resource Rob and Resource Lisa. Thats a lot of resources for a column on a report. lol.
First off, Resource Jose complained about being called a dehumanized Resource...I thought that was funny.
One of the other resources started freaken out, and started to yell at Resource Jim (me) about something that didn't look right. I just said with sad eyes, and a face only a mother could love..."Why are you yelling at me?".
Next thing you know, everything was fine between all of the resources. And all of the resources apologized to all of the other resources.
But if I hadn't said something to cool things down, my stuff would have been backed out again. And, no way, was I going to type out another 300 pages of documentation and go through all those meetings again.
It was all about their installation software, 
It seems to fail for a lot of reaons. It does a lot of magical things, its way too complicated, and takes way too much work.
But after looking at this installation software for 1 minute, I saw a routine that was 100 lines long that could be replaced with 3 lines, so, its complicated by bad logic).
Could that be my next project? We'll see. I'm having a meeting Monday about some of it.
And thats about it.
So, I'm perking up.
If all goes south, I'll just become a truck driver. Maybe I'll haul nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, NV.
Now there's something I haven't tried yet!
And thats about it.
Thu 
09/13/2007 02:08:27
 jim  Louisville Thursday, 9-13-2007
The Ohio River, from the Gault Hotel

A veiw from the Gault

Market Street
Okay, the sky isn't really that blue. I Paint Shop Pro'd this picture. 
Wed 
09/12/2007 19:38:04
 jim  Louisville,KY-Gault
Wed 
09/12/2007 07:39:08
 jim  9/11 Remembered

Las Vegas, Nation remembers 9/11
On the sixth anniversary of one of the worst tragedies to occur in the United States, the city of Las Vegas, Clark County and the Metropolitan Police Department will remember those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001, and the families and friends of those lost who still suffer today.
Tue 
09/11/2007 22:52:00
 jim  Looking for Jobs in all the Wrong Places
Where are we going to be in few months?
What am I going to be doing to make a living?
I worry about these things.
We're in a strange place, thousands of miles from home, and home won't be home when we get back.
I see life as being a dream in the making, but for right now, we're lacking the dream.
Its strange. Life is going in a downhill slope when it should be going up.
Good times meets bad, and whoosh, we've got nothing.
Life is a foggy place right now.
Tue 
09/11/2007 12:12:32
 jim  Its a gloomy day outside in Louisville
Thats good, cause it matches my mood.
Its 70 degrees out there folks, and its cloudy, dark, dank, and damp.
-- Good Time Jimmy's Got the Blues --
I'm waiting on a meeting, where I may or may not be involved, where 100 people may attend, where they may decide if my report column belongs on a report or not, and if they don't get to me after an hour, I'll get to spend another month trying to install the same report, again. Now that's not cool. On the other hand, I get to hang out longer, which is cool, kind of.
-- On the flip side, I put together an email program that runs off the Tandem. Now that's cool.
Of course, if anyone learns I have it, it'll probably be purged, and I'll probably be fired. And that's not cool.
Thu 
09/13/2007 21:55:22
 jim   (Reply)..Its a gloomy day outside in Louisville
10 years ago, I controlled millions of lines of code, everything on the Tandem, including its operations and had access to all of Mgm's online systems.
Now, I'm adding a column to a report, and it pays almost just as well.
Go Figure? A lot can change in a few years.
I'm actually doing very well compared to the programmers at Valley Bank and Mgm Grand. Some became store clerks. Some struggled to retire. Their are programmers in Vegas that are still working, but can't change jobs. They're stuck.
I guess what really gets me down though is
This contract was supposed last longer. I already had the total earnings calculated before I moved.
But my contract turned out to be a mess. It got sold, then delayed for a month.
And my business in Vegas started to really take off right after I accepted this contract. The Yellow Book ad made it work.  But I knew if I didn't take this contract, my programming career would be over.
So I'm not sure what I've accomplished here. 
I must be crazy! I don't want to go back to Vegas. I'd like to stay here.
But I can't unless I figure out some kind of solution. I still have a house and my Nevada corporation is good, even here.
I doubt having a Segway dealership would work out
Unless I could get a contract with the Police, or maybe FORT KNOX...haha.
Anyway, I'll probably be done at the bank before November.
We have the apartment leased until February, so there's going to be a lot of time to think about our next move in life.
However, financing is so much easier to get when you have an active income. So, the pressure is on.
Tue 
09/11/2007 03:31:25
 jim  A Kentucky Segway Dealerership is available
The closest one is in Cincinnati.
Click here for the link: http://www.segway.com/about-segway/become-a-partner.php
It might pay to visit that store at:
Segway of Ohio

1053 Gregory St.
Cincinnati, OH 45202
Phone: 513.225.1583
Image of i2Image of x2Image of i2 CommuterImage of x2 AdventureImage of x2 Golf
They are also looking for a dealership at the Lakes, NV, and Red Rock, NV.
These things have a range of 24 miles.
Thu 
09/13/2007 02:16:58
 jim   (Reply)..A Kentucky Segway Dealerership is available
We saw them doing a tour in San Fransisco, and we thought they we so cool.
I've always thought it would be fun to do something like that.
I thought the Florida Keys, or Louisville might be a good place for it.
In Vegas, at a St Patricks Day parades, the Air Force had a platoon of them!!!
Sun 
09/09/2007 20:16:54
 jim  Squirt has left the building!
What a wonderful friend !
He got out of his running cage, out of the backyard, and as is so predictable of him, he ran up to Mountain Vista.
Rico, my neighbor, did a search and found him.
He called animal control to scoop him up.
He went out in a blaze of glory.
He got to see beyond the boundaries of his universe.
He sailed into the horizon and fell off the edge of the Earth, so to speak.
He made it to Mountain Vista !
We had a toast to him today.
We celebrated his life. Its great he lived enough to be loved.
I'll miss playing fetch with him, and playing rag drag.
I'll miss his getting jealous whenever I'd hug Becky.
In our short time here, it was great to have him as our guest.
It was great to have known his personality.
We loved him.
He was one of my best friends.
Fri 
09/07/2007 06:21:34
 jim  Thunder and Lightning
Click this to watch it: Thunder and Lightning Show
There are a lot of great things about living in a high rise downtown.
One of them, is looking out a window and seeing clouds float by.
Thu 
09/06/2007 23:16:08
 jim  Watched a Caesars show gratis Resee!
We ate at the buffet which was kind of pricey, but it was good.
We sat at Resee's station and she comped us to see Anthony Cools hypnotist show.
Pretty cool. Of course, I am always a skeptic.
The show was pretty lewd. Would shy people really do those things?
I tried to volunteer, cause I've always got to see things happen for myself.
We talked to an older lady who was in the show, on our way out.
She was picked from the audience, and did some pretty naughty things on stage while hypnotized.
Her husband said he knew the hypnotist and he was a really decent guy.
Now I wondered how he could say that, if she was picked at random from the audience, and just left the show.
hmmm.
Thu 
09/06/2007 07:27:25
 jim  Trans Fats are Becoming illegal.
I just read Harvard (Harvard?) has found trans fat, less than that found in a large order of McDonalds fries, increases your chances of a heart attack by 25%.  Read the article in the Courier Journal.
They say it causes more than 200,000 deaths a year.
New York is going to illegalize it.
Ever wonder exactly how they do these wonderful studies?
What do they do, take a bunch of people who died of old age that have died from heart attacks, find out what they ate, then say they died from eating McDonalds french fries?
Groucho Marx smoked cigars until he died at 87 years old.
He should have died at 70.
It should be obvious by now, that the medical guys are terrible at predicting the life spans of people.
The average live span in the United States is still 76 years old.
It will stay that way until the medical profession discovers how to cure old age.
The blame game always irritates me.
Thu 
09/06/2007 06:17:57
 jim  My HS buddy starts September 17th
That would be Allen H. He'll be about 40 miles NE of here.
We went to Livingston High School together. He even lived in Colorado with me in the 70's.
This life is full of coincidental circles, aint it?
I was born in Kentucky, I moved west, then I find myself working in Kentucky 30 years later. Allen lives in Montana, now he's working 40 miles away. And there's Rod, one of the few friends I have left from the 90's, who is living 10 miles away. I would never think we would end up here, near Louisville. Its just not very likely.
Sometimes I think there are no coincidents at all.
At times, it seems like everything has been planned for us.
That would mean there is no chaos, and nothing we do is by choice
Our lives would be like just another book, on the shelves of a infinite library. 
My favorite stories are where the end takes you back to the beginning.
I wonder if moths think of light bulbs, the way we think of bars.
Maybe they're not circling the bulb, pointlessly. Maybe they are flying in circles to get high, while waiting for their cocoon buddies to come and hang out...hahaha.
Wed 
09/05/2007 22:20:34
 jim  Talked to Peter, and Ms Beatty.
Peter is taking off in 3 days...
He's doing a programming stint up north.
If you're reading this, good luck Peter. We'll miss ya.
Hope to see ya hangin around the blog.
Just kick back, take your shoes off, put some foil on your head...
and write us a line or two.
Ate steak at the Saddle Ridge.
Great Food, and at great prices.
And its probably cruel of me, but I love to chuckle at people who get drunk...and try to dance.
They actually dance better than I do when I'm sober.
See, I skipped learning the 2 step, and created the 100 step method of dancing.
Its kind of like a little kid inventing his own language.
My slow dancing is more like groping.
Just talked to Miss Beatty downstairs
She's an interesting person who's seen a lot, has an attitude, and is not afraid to be blunt.
I like that.
She said "People never change. You can't change people".
I said "People are like rocks on a mountain. You can destroy them, but why not just enjoy them, walk around them or climb them".
She said "Becky, he just called you a rock". I said, "Well, I have climbed her, and I do enjoy her. She is my ROCK".
No air conditioner tonight.
Its going to be a long, hot, summer night.
Wed 
09/05/2007 04:23:07
 jim  The Power of Color
Purple - Intelligence / Mental Focus
Green - Success / Decision Making
Black - Self Control / Willpower
Red - Self Confdence / Positive Attitude
Silver - Healing / Balance
Yellow - Patience / Serenity
White - Wealth / Financial Confidence
Orange/Yellow - Harmony / Peace
Pink - Love / Romance
Grey/Brown - Relaxation
Gold/Tan - Creativity / Artistic Ability
Blue - Healing / Problem Solving
Wed 
09/05/2007 04:22:19
 jim  Take this test. Take your time.
Answer over 23 and Mensa considers you a genius. Only 2 Mensa geniuses have answered all of them.
01. 26 L of the A (hint: 26 Letters of the Alphabet)
02. 7 D of the W
03. 7 W of the W
04. 12 S of the Z
05. 66 B of the B
06. 52 C in a P (W Js)
07. 13 S in the U S F
08. 18 H on the G C
09. 39 B of the O T
10. 5 T on a F
11. 90 D in a R A
12. 3 BM (S H T R)
13. 32 T in a D F at which W F
14. 15 P in a R T
15. 3 W on a T
16. 100 C in a R
17. 11 P in a F (S)T
18. 12 M in a Y
19. 13 = U F S
20. 8 T on an O
21. 29 D in F
22. 27 B in the N T
23. 365 D in a Y
24. 13 L in a B D
25. 52 W in a Y
26. 9 L of a C
27. 60 M in a H
28. 23 P of C in the H B
29. 64 S on a C B
30. 9 P in S A
31. 6 B to an O in C
32. 1000 Y in a M
33  15 M on a D M C
Tue 
09/04/2007 13:03:44
 jim  What is Unit and Regression Testing?
Non-XP terminology (?), not quite synonymous with ProgrammerTest (a UnitTest measures a unit of software, without specifying why, while a ProgrammerTest assists programmers in development, without specifying how).
(Note that although most of the text on this Wiki uses the term UnitTest, the canonical ExtremeProgramming name has been changed to ProgrammerTest.)
UnitTests are programs written to run in batches and test classes. Each typically sends a class a fixed message and verifies it returns the predicted answer.
UnitTests are a key component of software engineering, and the ExtremeProgramming discipline leverages them to permit easy code changes. Developers write tests for every class they produce. The tests are intended to test every aspect of the class that could conceivably not work. (Do test adding and removing, don't test accessors.)
Key here is to CodeUnitTestFirst.
UnitTests are all combined into a huge suite of tests, using e.g. KentBeck's TestingFramework. When developers go to release new code, they run all the unit tests, not just theirs, on the integration machine. The tests must run at 100%. If any test fails, they figure out why and fix the problem. The problem certainly resides in something they did ... since they know the tests ran at 100% the last time anything was released.
Of course, sometimes the tests let something slip through. When that happens, developers unconditionally enhance the unit tests so that that problem, and any similar one that comes to mind, won't happen again.
Regression testing is any type of software testing which seeks to uncover regression bugs. Regression bugs occur whenever software functionality that previously worked as desired, stops working or no longer works in the same way that was previously planned. Typically regression bugs occur as an unintended consequence of program changes.
Tandem has Unit Testing available
Kind of. Tandem doesn't really have objects in the sense this term implies.
You could write classes of programs, but I've never seen anyone do that.
And you could test it with unit testers, and test scripts.
However, you have to purchase ENCORE (Capture and Replay) to use it. I set it up in my first job.
I haven't seen anyone use it since.
So, when BA Merchants talks about unit testing, I'd guess they don't know what they are saying.
They don't even have ENABLE or ENLITEN.
Tue 
09/04/2007 00:00:00
 Jim  Labor Day
:)
Mon 
09/03/2007 20:49:57
 jim  We did it all - 800 miles in 2 days.
Woods-N-Water
We went camping Friday night, and Saturday night, took off Sunday.

Friday night, we were walking around the lake, and the water gave off little points of light. I went to find out what kind of bug did that, and, wouldn't you know, it was mud 3 foot deep and now I have a sore throat. Rod caught a couple of fish, and we played Corn Hole.
Columbus, IN

Cute little town with some strange art. We went through it twice
Indianapolis, IN
The round-a-bout was closed, but we toured around it all.

Chicago, IL - I LOVE CHICAGO!!!

When you come into town, you notice how HUGE everything is. Nothing is small. The city looks dynamic! We ate Chicago dogs, walked downtown, saw the Navy Pier, the Great Lakes, and an evil ghetto. We stopped by Portillos, and a local pub.

The people were very friendly, and I learned a lot.
The sunset over Lake Michigan

First thing, before entering the park, we got some smoked ribs from a preacher man. Good ribs. The Sand Dunes beach along the south shore was GREAT! We didn't even think people would be there.

The dunes were awsome, people were all over them. They were over 300 feet tall. The beach was equally incredible. Lake Michigan is not like the ocean at all. It seems to be missing the kelp, waves, and the smell. We didn't get to go in the water though. We got there just in time to watch the sunset. Awesome.
Kalamazoo, MI
What...I blinked.
Lansing, MI

Its the Capitol of Michigan, and its where BOA has a sister site. We checked out several parks and gardens. Becky saw her elementary, middle and high school. We Motel 6'd it there.
Battle Creek, MI
Neat! We saw Kellogs City. Its a great looking small town.
During the whole 800 mile trip, we only saw one wreck.
We even saw an ultralight flying over the road!!!
I'll put pictures up after I catch my breath.
Fri 
08/31/2007 12:41:58
 Jim  .Hey Babe
Kewl. Thats great! I actually helped out with a Tandem system's problem today.
It felt good.
Of course, I'm the only one here today, because everybody's out.
And the two people I worked with, I'll never meet. But now at least someone knows a little about what I can do.
It felt good to help a systems person with Tandem commands.
It felt good to do something productive.
We probably won't watch any movies anyway.
We've got a great weekend planned.
I can't wait to get started!
It'll be just another, chalk them up, experience we'll never forget.
Fri 
08/31/2007 06:11:21
 jim  The Weekend Plans

Got the air couch in the the camper and we're all packed up.
The maps are loaded and we're ready to truck.
Friday Night
Its Woods-n-Water Kampground, Columbus, Indiana (I65x54,1 hr)
We're hooking up with Rod, Resee and Jessica for a fun filled night of Corn Holing.
Saturday morning
We're headed to Indianapolis (I65,1 hr)
We'll check out their downtown area.
Saturday afternoon
Lansing, Michigan (I70,4 hrs).
While there, we'll reminisce. Becky used to live there. 
I'm going to hear a lot of, "OOOH, Look, thats where I got my lunch box". So cute, haha.
Lansing has a sister processing center for where I work, so most people at work think I'm crazy.
We'll either find a motel, a campground or sleep at a truck stop.
Sunday morning
Grand Rapids (I96, 1 hr)
I'm not sure what we'll see there.
Sunday afternoon
Chicago (I196/I94, 3 hrs)
The route will take us along the shores of Lake Michigan.
I want to hang out at the Chicago navy pier on Lake Shore drive (SR41) .
Monday Morning
Back to Woods-n-Water Kampground, Columbus, Indiana (I90,I65x54,4 hrs)
Back with Rod and his folks.
Monday Afternoon
Back to Louisville (I65, 1 hr).

Wed 
08/29/2007 20:34:08
 jim  Fourth Street Live
Wed 
08/29/2007 19:35:28
 jim  Marks Feed Store BBQ
Its almost as good as mine. So far, in Louisville its the BEST!
Wed 
08/29/2007 19:01:50
 jim  .i noticed
Thats a Micosoft IE thing. Firefox, Safari, and Netscape all use it now.
You have to enter SHIFT ENTER for a carriage return.
This interface is a javascript call that causes a text box to handle as if it were like a word document.
I stole the code.
There's a lot of odd things about it too.
Sometimes, if the focus gets confused, entering a space in the text box causes it to toggle from text to display mode.
Oddly enough, MySpace and some other sites use the exact same code.
I think its annoying to have to enter SHIFT ENTER for a carraige return!
I have to do that in some Word documents too. hmmm.
Its kind of like having to enter ALT ENTER in an Excel's spreadsheet text box to get your heading in to be two lines.
And it seems like, at work, if I enter SHIFT ENTER in outlook, it will just send my email before I'm done..youch.
Wed 
08/29/2007 18:57:24
 jim  .Camping
We have an Air Couch now!!! Its a bed too.
I think that sounds GREAT!!!
I'll talk to Becky about it tommorrow. I think she'd love to go camping.
It looks like its at:
8855 S 300 W Columbus, Indiana 47201 , (812) 342-1619 , WoodsnWater
Wed 
08/29/2007 17:43:04
 jim  4th Street Live
Wed 
08/29/2007 11:41:08
 jim  Louisville,KY-BAMS SmokersJail
Wed 
08/29/2007 07:27:16
 jim  Its Sooooo Hot!
The best parking place is determined by shade instead of distance.
Hot water now comes out of both taps.
You can make instant sun tea.
You learn that a seat belt buckle makes a pretty good branding iron.
The temperature drops below 95 F and you feel a little chilly.
You discover it only takes 2 fingers to steer your car.
You discover that you can get sunburned through your car window.
You actually burn your hand opening the car door.
You break into a sweat at 7:30 a.m.
Your biggest bicycle wreck fear is, 'What if I get knocked out and end up lying on the pavement and cook to death?'
You realize that asphalt has a liquid state.
Potatoes cook underground. All you have to do is pull one out and add butter.
Chickens are laying boiled eggs.
The cows are giving evaporated milk.
The Baptists have started sprinkling.
The Methodists are using a wet wash cloth.
The Presbyterians are giving rain checks.
The Catholics are trying to turn wine back into water.
The Mormons going door to door wearing tank tops
The Muslims are wearing towels around their waist.
STAY COOL!
Wed 
08/29/2007 06:41:54
 jim  My life here is starting to sound country!
My Mustang engine bombed, the car had a flat, and so did my truck.
My Vegas air conditioner's a toaster, and my throat feels like yuck.
I'm feelin really down cause my implementations blew.
I'm all broke agin, and just don't know what to do.
Then I bought some expresso and now I don't care.
Cause I'm bouncing off the walls of this apartment everywhere!
Chorus:
Expresso, Expresso, or how I love Expresso.
Just had a few cups, gotta go!
Expresso, Expresso, now I gotta have Expresso.
Don't care bout things, gotta go!

Wed 
08/29/2007 06:12:39
 jim  Still sore from Tickling
I tossed Becky on the inflatable couch to tickle her, and we were all flopping around, legs and arms flying.
Some where in the mix, I got kneed in the throat.
Oh man does that smart!
That was Saturday.
I got up Monday feeling crabby. Becky asked if I'd pick her up some coffee creamer, and I told her to hop a bus.
Anyway, I called her Monday afternoon. She was half lost, looking for a bus to take her to Krogers.
MySpace and Orkut Heart Glitter Graphic - 1I heard a quiver in her voice, and asked her if everything was ok.
She said "no".
I said "whats wrong baby?", and she started crying.
She said, "I don't want you to be mad at me. I want to make you happy".
I told her "I've never loved somebody as much as I love you".
I think, if we were opposite sides of the world, and if we had all the time in the world,
I think, we would find each other, and be together forever.
Tue 
08/28/2007 08:10:28
 jim  I wanna find who this is
Mon 
08/27/2007 19:19:54
 jim  Perfluorocarbons and You!
Imagine the benefits of being able to breath fluids.
Deep sea diving, being able to tolerate extreme G forces.
You did it when you were a baby. A mouse actually did it in the movie "The Abyss" (great movie btw).
Another useful application for breathing liquid is to cleanse the lungs.
Once inside the lungs, perflubron enables collapsed alveoli (air sacs) to open and permits a more efficient transport of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Test have been done on sheep, where their lungs were damaged, and pumped back to life.
So, maybe someday, you'll be able to spend a few days at the spa, getting Rolfed, mud facials, coffee enemas, and getting a nice warm lung bath.
LOL.
Mon 
08/27/2007 18:51:07
 jim  Hydrogen Sulfide and You
Maybe some year, you'll sleep.
Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) has been found to slow the breathing rates of mice from 120 to 10 breaths a minute.
In other words, it seems to safely induce hibernation. Seems too. hmmm.
More studies are being done.
What if you could spend a two week vacation hibernating, then wake up unaddicted to tobacco.
Or to maybe wake up to a new, slender you?
Or how about waking up in a time where cars actually flew?
Or where artificial eyeballs existed,
Or where comunication appearal was required.
Hibernation would make it possible for us to travel into the future.
Wonder what the record is for human hibernation?
Although it is 20 years since Nasa abandoned work on induced hibernation as a way of helping astronauts to survive long space missions, research began again at the European Space Agency in 2004. Funding has flowed in the United States since October, when Mitsutaka Uchikoshi, 35, strayed from a Japanese office barbecue, fell down a snowy mountain and broke his hip.
He lapsed into a frozen coma, which lasted 24 days until his apparently lifeless body was found and revived in a Kobe hospital. He is now known in Japanese newspapers as the "Bear Man".
"We don't know how he survived so long, but his body was preserved in ice for nearly a month and now he is back to normal," a Kobe doctor said. "If we can understand why, we can save many lives in the future."
Mon 
08/27/2007 07:41:46
 jim  Whats Brad and Angelina up to now?
Most of us know more about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie than we know about our own relatives.
Do you believe what you read?
From what I've read:
- A lot of the world still thinks the German death camps were fiction.
- A lot of people associate Bush with Hitler
- Many think the Twin Towers catastrophy was caused by our government.
What is truth? Is it my perspective? Yours? Or a strangers?
I think the only way I can really decide for myself what is real, or not real,
is by actually seeing something, or knowing somebody whose actually seen something.
This is where the internet, telephones and mail become so important to spreading the truth.
The internet is full of junk.
But you can sift through a hay stack and find a needle...if you have a strong enough magnet.
That metaphorical magnet is communication between people that you know are reasonable.
When I hear from people that I know, that others are being brutalized, or I find people are dissappearing in the middle of the night; then, and only then, will I rebel against the government.
But the way I see it, most of us are so spoiled by modern comforts, that we need to create enemies and heroes.
Because, our lives too boring to talk about.
Are Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie really that interesting?
Sun 
08/26/2007 23:14:29
 jim  Blue Grass, the knobs, and the Triathlon
The weekend started with a Blue Grass Festival. We caught the last hour of it.

We heard bombs going off.
That led us too Fort Knox. The GPS system took us through a one laned road, that wound through tall corn fields. It was pretty wild!!!

Fort Knox about confiscated my camera for taking pictures of a tank. So I don't have pictures of that. We went to the Science Museum, on Saturday. The movies were great, but I lost my pix of Main Street.
Here, we're at the Triathlon.
2,100 Ironmen (and women) participated in 2 miles of swimming, 2 miles biking, and 2 miles running.

I'd guess there were probably 2,000 people downtown.

The race lasted to midnight.
I over heard from J Gumbo's at closing, their shift pulled in $2,200. Wow.
Sun 
08/26/2007 20:25:00
 jim  What does the Fourth Reich mean?
This is a building is at the Coronado's military base near San Diego, California.
See http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/09/346333.shtml to read more.
Decide for yourself, if you believe what they are saying.
Why would someone be proud to call themselves part of any of the Reichs? hmmm.

First off, the word Reich refers to the ancient Germanic lands.
The 1st Reich - The Holy Roman Empire. It started in Germany and spread during a period from the 9th to 19th century.
The 2nd Reich - The German Empire, ruled by the Hohenzollern dynasty in Prussia from 1871 to 1919. It set the roots for Germany at the beginning of WWI. It fell at the end of WWI.
The 3rd Reich - Nazi Germany, ruled by Hitler from 1933 to 1945. His desire was to reunity the Holy Roman Empire and restore Germany back to its glory days. It ended with WWII.
The 4th Reich - A term used by Neo Nazis, used to describe the establishment of the Western Imperium and promote the Aryan Race. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Reich.
Why do I mention this now?
Some groups of people think the US is heading the Fourth Reich, using the same tactics of propaganda that Hitler used. See http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/reich.html as an example.
It scares me to think any of this is true.
So much of what we read is garbage.

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