I got a chance to talk one-on-one with Peter about values.
Specifically, we talked about money vs job fulfillment.
For me, the rule is the most amount of money for the least amount of work, but that's changing now.
Here in Louisville, the cost of living is half of what it is in Vegas. We don't need a lot of money.
Almost any kind of job would pay the bills.
And I'm happy here.
If I were to lower my work expections, a lot of jobs would open up.
It seems both Peter and I are tired of being disposable employees.
We know some day, we'll be going through the gates at work, and they won't open.
Then we'll call, and find out we don't work there any more. It will be that abrupt.
And then there's also the issue about taking orders from people who burn their knuckles on the carpet when they walk.
Is it worth it?
Do I really need to make five times as much as the average person?
There are money pressures, for sure, but I've created all of them. 
I could eliminate them just as easily as I create them, if I could only decide to just let go.
All I have to do is decide what I want
Happiness is a state of mind that only exists in the present. You can't plan a happy future.
So, planning to be happy some day in the future isn't logical.
I know Becky would like to stay here, and so would I.
But what would we have to give up to stay here in paradise?
I think I'd have to give up the unique existence that I've grown so accustomed too.
My self image would have to drop from exceptional to normal.
Happiness is a personal decision based on a persons environment and self esteem.
A really good self esteem can override any bad environment.
But a good environment is like WD-40 for a rusty soul.
It makes a good self esteem easier to accomplish.
However, Maslow's self actualization can be achieved in thought. You can be happy anywhere.
I've seen happy bums.

I was surprised that most of the people who had heard of the Average White Band, didn't know what they sang.
Several people, like me, thought they sang Play that Funky Music White Boy. They sang Cut the Cake...
The crowd was PACKED with wall-to-wall people. Would couldn't even see the band. And the walkways were filled too, so there was no way in or out. I guess Security lost control of the crowd.
We listened to some songs, split a burger at the Hard Rock Hotel, then took off for Rods place.
There, we were greeted with open arms. I love going over there. We can sit back and talk, and its the most personal experience I get here. These are my friends, which I have so few of and its so nice to be able to just ramble off conversation, and not have to filter what you say.

We all ate at the Hard Rock Hotel downstairs.
They all liked her! It was great!
Later, Becky and I went to an outdoor Indian restaurant.
Gosh the food was really good.
The restaurant is on Restaurant Row, down on Bardstown road.
Bardstown road is about 3 miles of nothing but Mom and Pop stores and restaurants, and its always packed.
Most of the streets surrounding it are single lane with parking on both sides, but they are 2 way.
So you have to pull over if someone is coming your way.
And Bardstown road is a four lane, until dark. Then two of the side lanes become parking lanes. They have stop lights in each lane that tell you which way to drive.
Sometimes, the whole road goes only one way!
Now that....is different.

And time sensitive???
Well, it all comes down to not waiting until someone else fills the position.
Turns out I had gotten the last spot at Northrop, so I appreciate it that you made my road a little easier on me, by taking 5 days to type up your resume to submit to Resource One. That's what I mean by "time sensitive". By the way, the "from" and "to" on the headers of this "thread" are backwards. 
Jimmy..
Your "to" and "from" in the headers are backwards. Time sensitive, in that don't sit on it for 5 days or so, and let someone else capture the opportunity.

Its right outside my window!
Thunder smacking the sides of high rises.
Rain pouring down.
What a way to wake up !!!
The lightning looks like its right outside my window.
I guess thats because IT IS !!!
I just recorded lightning striking right next to us...
the camera fell off the window sill. SO COOL!!!
I didn't have time to upload the pix...
I'll have to put it on later.

We went to, you guessed it, TGIFs!
Its nice to have everything within walking distance.
Its also nice to talk to people that you have things in common with too.
Like Peter, taking a contract, and it lasting one week. The computer was still on the pallets.
Like me, taking a contract, and not even having a PC set up.
And this other guy, who started, but has nothing to do at all, but wait, and read.
I used to think it would be great to get paid the big bucks for doing nothing, but it feels awkward.
Its feels odd, being a disposable worker.
We know that some day, we'll come in and our security cards won't work, and we'll be gone.
I've heard it so many times:
You'll get fired for walking into the secretary's office when she's not there,
or tweaking a program from the web and not removing the authors name,
or using the phone for personal business
or letting a former employee in.
Maybe Peter's right to get out of the trade.
Susan would like to see us all do something new and rewarding.
Its nice to sit back and shake out new ideas.
Nothing earth shattering has come up yet.
It will though. It always does. And it won't be something any of us would expect.
I have lots of faith in the belief that Everything always works out for the best.
Lots of failures don't matter if you succeed.
After all the 10,000+ failures, the light bulb was created from only 1 success.
wow...what am doing up and why are you reading this...bwaahaahaaha

TACL> SYSINFO
I've worked on maybe 30 Tandem computers
And I never cared what system I was on, unless I was doing a sysgen, then you have to read the Softdocs.
But the question always comes up in the interviews "Are you familiar with the X-Series?"
If they ask me this, I always want to say, "Oh my yes, that was my favorite processor!".
And I'll think, "Yeppers, that's the release that changed almost nothing that I care about.".
The Tandem has remained pretty consistant over the decades. Thats what I really like about it.
lol

Below, are examples of sixth grade research projects. Enjoy...

1. Ancient Egypt was inhabited by mummies and they all wrote in hydraulics. They lived in the Sarah Dessert. The climate of the Sarah is such that the inhabitants have to live elsewhere.
2. Moses led the Hebrew slaves to the Red Sea where they made unleavened bread which is bread made without any ingredients. Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten commandments. He died before he ever reached Canada.
3. Solomon had three hundred wives and seven porcupines.
4. The Greeks were a highly sculptured people and without them we wouldn't have history. The Greeks also had myths. A myth is a female moth.
5. Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed him. Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock. After his death, his career suffered a dramatic decline.
6. In the Olympic games, Greeks ran races, jumped, hurled biscuits, and threw the Java.
7. Julius Caesar extinquished himself on the battlefields of Gaul. The Ides of March murdered him because they thought he was going to be made king. Dying, he gasped out Tee hee, Brutus.
8. Joan of Arc was burnt to a steak and was canonized by Bernard Shaw.
9. Queen Elizabeth was the Virgin Queen. As a queen she was a success. When she exposed herself before her troops they all shouted hurrah.
10. It was an age of great inventions and discoveries. Gutenberg invented removable type and the Bible. Another important invention was the circulation of blood. Sir Walter Raleigh is a historical figure because he invented cigarettes and started smoking. Sir Francis Drake circumcised the world with a 100 foot clipper.
11. The greatest writer of the Renaissance was William Shakespeare. He was born in the year 1564, supposedly on his birthday. He never made much money and is famous only because of his plays. He wrote tragedies, comedies, and hysterectomies, all in Islamic pentameter. Romeo and Juliet is an example of a heroic couple. Romeo's last wish was to be laid by Juliet.
12. Writing at the same time as Shakespeare was Miguel Cervantes. He wrote Donkey Hote. The next great author was John Milton. Milton wrote Paradise Lost. Then his wife died and he wrote Paradise Regained.
13. Delegates from the original 13 states formed the Contented Congress. Thomas Jefferson, a Virgin, and Benjamin Franklin were two singers of the Declaration of Independence. Franklin discovered electricity by rubbing two cats backwards and declared, A horse divided against itself cannot stand. Franklin died in 1790 and is still dead.
14. Abraham Lincoln became America's greatest Precedent. Lincoln's mother died in infancy, and he was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves by signing the Emasculation Proclamation. On the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln went to the theater and got shot in his seat by one of the actors in a moving picture show. They believe the assinator was John Wilkes Booth, a supposingly insane actor. This ruined Booth's career.
15. Johann Bach wrote a great many musical compositions and had a large number of children. In between he practiced on an old spinster which he kept up in his attic. Bach died from 1750 to present. Bach was the most famous composer in the world and so was Handel. Handel was half German, half Italian and half English. He was very large.
16. Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf he wrote loud music. He took long walks in the forest even when everyone was calling for him. Beethoven expired in 1827 and later died for this.
17. The nineteenth century was a time of a great many thoughts and inventions.
    People stopped reproducing by hand and started reproducing by machine.
    The invention of the steamboat caused a network of rivers to spring up. 
    Cyrus McCormick invented the
    McCormick raper, which did the work of a hundred men.
    Louis Pasteur discovered a cure for rabbis.
    Charles Darwin was a naturalist who wrote the Organ of the Species.
    Madman Curie discovered radio.
    Karl Marx became one of the Marx Brothers.

I'm already getting my feelers out.
I'm not optimistic about anything coming up....BUT, you just never know.
I got this contract on a out-of-the-blue phone call.
Shoot...if things really go south, I think I'd like to drive a truck for awhile.
There's a lot of schools around here.
If that works out, then I'll just buy my own rig...sounds like a cool idea, doesn't it?
This one owner/operator in Florida was delivering cars from LA.
He had 8 of them on his rig. He charged $800 per car.
If my math is right, with a trip going to and fro, he should be able to gross 8x$800x2=$12,800.
And there's always the notary/courier/delivery thingy in Vegas,
but I don't know if I'm ready to go back just yet.
I'd like to stay here as long as I can.
Thanks for caring Rodney.
I gotta swing by soon and show you this IPhone !!!

- its delayed one month coming in.
- it gets sold
- the new contract isn't adjusted for that month.
- your Yellow Page ad comes out, but you decided to give up an active business to come out.
- the people you work for think its a 3 month contract
- and you have alread paid up a 6 month lease.
I could see there was a misunderstanding after my second week here.
There really is no development going on here...just maintenance.
My project was the first real development project they've had in years!
But, I just found out I won't get to implement the project.
Its got to wait months and months and months before it goes in. It's dependant on other departments.
So thats depressing...hmmm.
Anyway, I am VERY proud to have had this chance, and its been great living in Kentucky again!
October 26th is my last day. 
Maybe...I'm not sure where they got that date from.
Its in no contract that I've seen.

We were so happy to have our transportation back, last night, we took off for an Irish Pub on Frankfort St. Along the way we came across the Tumbleweed Restaurant and curiousity steered us in.
The Tumbleweed sits off the Ohio River.
Its one of the few well lit places on the Riverfront Road. I had fajitas. Becky had a chicken enchilada. The bill was only $23, with drinks! Thats an incredible price! It was the best fajita I'd ever shovelled into the feed pipe and Becky enjoyed her enchilada too. (Don't know why that girl isn't fat). Great sauce! 
Outside of the restaurant there was a gaggle of geese and these geese are hungy!
Never wear sandals around these fellows.
They eat your feet!
hmmm - Man eats duck. Duck eats man. haha. The restaurant doesn't serve duck.

I've been watching the stock market, and noticed between 10 am and 11 am, stocks will take a jump, usually around 2% in one direction or the other. I'm thinking its from night trading, but I'm not sure.
They also seem to respond opposite of the way they you'd think they would.
One of Boyd's hotels just burned, and its stock went up?
I wish I could just invest in whatever Dick Chaney invests in.

Ahhh....Rod called about 6:30 am asking if I needed a ride.
What a guy!!!
The Ford people (three blocks away from the apartment) gave me a ride to work.
At first, they said they couldn't give me a ride back after 3pm,
then at 4:30pm they called and said they could.
They also said my truck wouldn't be done until tommorrow,
then at 4:45pm they said it was done.
YIPPEE!!!
I feel like a new man!
By the way, Ford gave me an oil change for only $12 and a new battery for $80. What a deal!!!

The truck just barely runs. Sheesh. I think its the fuel pump.
I would replace it myself, BUT, I don't have any place to work on it..and if I did, my tools are in Vegas.
I could think of worse places to be though.
We hung out with Peter, Tim, and Susan for about an hour, then went to the Saddle Ridge.
Surprisingly, while this looks like a guys bar, there's usually as many, or more, girl customers than guys.
Women out number men here in Louisville...look it up.

I'm so old, I waited for a stop sign to turn green.
Why did the dog lick my hand? Cause I ran out of toilet paper...ewwwe.
My girlfriend is so pretty, the older I get, the better she looks. Thats not a joke though.
If a marriage is an institution, and love is blind, then chapels are an institute for the blind.

Visable Changes - Linda
5304 Bardstown Rd, Louisville, KY 40291
502-499-1430 

The world was on fire
No one could save me but you.
Strange what desire will make foolish people do
I never dreamed that I'd meet somebody like you
And I never dreamed that I'd lose somebody like you

No, I don't want to fall in love
[This love is only gonna break your heart]
No, I don't want to fall in love
[This love is only gonna break your heart]
With you
With you

What a wicked game you play
To make me feel this way
What a wicked thing to do
To let me dream of you
What a wicked thing to say
You never felt this way
What a wicked thing to do
To make me dream of you
v And I don't wanna fall in love
[This love is only gonna break your heart]
And I don't want to fall in love
[This love is only gonna break your heart]

{World was on fire
No one could save me but you
Strange what desire will make foolish people do
I never dreamed that I'd love somebody like you
I never dreamed that I'd lose somebody like you

No I don't wanna fall in love
[This love is only gonna break your heart
No I don't wanna fall in love
[This love is only gonna break your heart]
With you
With you

Nobody loves no one

I don't know...what do ya want to do? I'm open.
Becky thought there was a Rick Springfield concert for $20 at 8pm tonight at the Palace.
The Palace is two blocks away. I told just about everyone at work that.
BUT...it was Caesars Palace in Indiana, $25 - $35, and started at 7:30 pm....OOPS!!!
I hope nobody showed up...good thing most peoplle don't listen to me...haha.
So, if someone showed up with $20 at the Palace, they'd find out the concert is 30 minutes away, then they'd find out it was over, then they'd didn't have enough money ANYWAY....bwahahahahahaha!

The truck is on the fritz. I gotta replace the fuel pump and fuel filter at some time.

Awww what the...I wanna come over!!

They are known for their Hot Brown creation.
A hot brown is an open face turkey sandwich with cheese sauce and bacon.
We tried it! We liked it!
The Browns Hotel is very old. Its in what looks like a rough area, but the hotel is exquisit.
The hotel is very elegant. Its a must see in Louisville.
Old man Brown is said to haunt the place, with apparitions and strange occurances.
We learned about Al Capone's lost tunnels to the river. It is rumoured they used to hide out in them and play poker.
It was quite a walk to get there.
On the way, we ran into a bum who said he was born in the 17th century. He wanted $2 to buy a beer for his mom.
We ran into two more bums that were just as crazy.
We also saw a cop car, speeding 30 mph in reverse, looking for a place to turn around.
Another cop car was trailing him.

Louisville's Most Wanted

The Place: Louisville, KY The Time: September, 2007 The Crime: Trafficking in Happiness.

If you should spot these suspects on the street, be careful. They are armed with humor and aren't afraid to use it. These pictures were taken from my little IPhone. Its lens is about the size of a pin head! What do ya think?

I can't even get a 'yes' when I offer to buy people lunch AT A STEAK and LOBSTER house thats only 200' away!
I got rejected today. Now thats pretty bad. I must be disgusting. Am I that bad?
Its no big deal.
I can eat lunch with a lot of people here. Just not the ones I work with.
Me, I think good PR is very important.
We never know when the tables will turn, and it is a very small world.
I believe that networking is important too, even if I don't really like the people I'm networking with.
I want to leave where I'm at, with at least a handful of email addresses and phone numbers.
The networks I like are based on trust and a promise.
And I people in my network to know, that if I'm ever in a position of power, I'll pull them in.
Thats kind of hard to do though, when you can't even have a power lunch. lol.

Its my toy, and I think it does a great job.
I also believe someone from the future brought the plans here, and Apple produced it.
It just doesn't seem like it belongs in this time. Its way ahead!!!
Here's what I've found so far:
Its really easy to understand. I generally don't like working with Icons, but these look good and make sense.
I can walk around, and it will connect to whatever it can find for the internet.
Using Wep with a hex key was tricky because it wants a password, and doesn't give you a hex key operation.
You have to set up any Wep/hex key before the IPhone discovers it. You can't just join it.
Unsecured networks, it just connects to. So far, its connected to almost every business on 4th street.
Its graphics are great.
Data entry is a breeze. I like how when I key in Jom, it shows a little drop down box showing Jim.
I think the speaker phone, bluetooth and regular phone work wonderfully.
Setting up outgoing mail, I had to key in smtp.1and1.com:587 because 1and1 doesn't use port 25.
That kind of stuff you have to set up in Settings. Once you understand its there, its not so bad.
I'm very impressed.
I think its got a great phone.
It cost $399 with no rebate.
I got Becky a Palm Treo.
I wanted to get the biggest discount on a phone, since we had to sign a two year contract with AT&T.
We did good. The Palm Treo is pretty easy to use. Becky loves it. I love it. It will cost $99 after the rebate.
Its better than any other phone that I've had so far.
However, its not nearly as easy to use as the IPhone, and its graphics are good, but the IPhone is just excellent.
I got some extras...I think the hole mess with activation and the accesories cost $600.
But we have all kinds of rebates coming. I just hope we get them. I've been let down a lot with mail-in rebates.
This is what I work for.
Not to just dole money out to other people because they ask for it. I work for myself.
And now I have something that represents the fruits of my labor and thats a good thing!

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.

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!

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.

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).

Just hanging out so far. We went to TGIFs with Peter and Susan.

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.  

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.