Stories's Log
This log represents the Life and Times of the Las Vegas Dude.
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Sun 
12/11/2005 10:13:27
 becky  Saturday
I had a good time at the park's last night. It sure is different here.
I remebered one other place here in Florida, It is Fort Lauderdale.
We haven't been there yet have we? I should proberly call the kid's

tonight. I think our websiteLVDARLINGS is looking very good.

LUV Ya
Becky
Mon 
11/28/2005 07:15:21
 jim  I should add, that Firefox users can’t enter blog
This blog lets people enter in Formatted text. EG: FORMATTED
Which means a user doesn't have to know HTML to get a highlighted message across.
I suppose that I should be grateful for these differences in browsers.
Complicated machinery requires education to build and repair.
In my opinion, displaying and formatting a screen should and could be simple.
A designer, should not have to concern himself with HOW FAST something is displayed. That should be done by the rendering engine. It shouldn't be a consideration in every line of code written.
I started to use Dreamweaver, Frontpage, Word, Publisher, and Flash.
I chose to write all of the code for this system by hand.
The problem was, they keep you away from the code, and they generate tons of unused code.
When I get done with this system, I'll know exactly what every line of code does, unlike those guys, and my system will contain 90% less code.


With Tandem Cobol, the SORT command is a pig.
People still use it. Yes, it's in the manual. The alternative is simple. Create a key sequenced file, let Tandem manage the speed of the indexing, and it will not only be quicker, the sort will be rerunnable. For small files, it will never hit the disk. The Tandem is the best selection for online databases, meaning it can handle keyed files much better than in-memory sorts. And using key-sequenced files sure beats the heck out of writing a whole program to sort a file in an unrerunnable fashion.
People still use indexes and other ancient concepts presented by Cobol.
I just can't become one of those people. My code must be compact, readable, and efficient.
I don't know why I'm getting off on this tangent.
I guess it's because I'm seeing what a mess the internet has become. Instead of getting simpler, its getting more complicated. There is absolutely NO REASON to create another language for displaying a screen or to access a database.

Wed 
11/23/2005 04:38:17
 Jim  What motivates me is this, there’s one last thing
I could have retired. I could have wasted the rest of my life. I could have been out of the rat race.
There is something I'm supposed to accomplish. MY GOD told me this.
My god is nature, and nature doesn't speak English.


Nature makes you hungry, makes you have children and then protect them, all without words.
Nature's told me there's something I'm supposed to do, in the form of an instinctive feeling. I'll know when I've done it.
Then I can fade away. I give my body perhaps 10 more years.
Whatever is going to happen, it'll happen in the next couple of years.
It won't be me doing it though. It'll be nature doing it through me. I'll just doing what I've been told to do.
Maybe it's my destiny to save someone's life, I don't know yet.
Hopefully, I won't be a pawn anymore in ending other people's lives. I hate being the messenger of death.
For some reason, I've been given the understanding of what life is and why we are here.
But I can't share it with anyone, simply because, they just can't see it. You have to know it.
You have to listen to the god that created every cell in your body.
And God doesn't speak English.
I still don't understand why people don't marvel at a blade of grass.
I saw that it was a miracle when I was a child. Why would god have to do a magic show better than that?
We all have been risen from the dead. Why is that so hard for people to see?
Wed 
11/23/2005 04:17:37
 Jim  I talked to my Dad, and Mikey yesterday.
They both left me with a negative feeling about myself.
Dad, once again, compared me to the person whose roof he lives under.
His wife's son is a computer professional. According to Dad, he gets contracts all of the time.
So, what's wrong with me.
I could try to tell Dad that I'm not a coder, I'm a designer.
My goal is to create a product that doesn't need my high rates, or a high level of competency to maintain.
If I get contracted to write a report on a system, it won't be just a report.
It'll be the most efficiently written report in the entire system. It will be the best report they have.
I would consider part of my job to be writing a report in such a way, that a 6th grader could modify it.
I could write code that only I could modify. I could even write code with hidden bugs in it.
But that's not my style. I don't want to make a living off of a set of programs.
If his wife's son is always getting contracts to make updates on the same set of programs, it's probably crappy code.
He's making a living off of being sloppy. His code is unmaintainable by anyone else.
My legacy to Las Vegas is a series of Tandems that sit in the basement somewhere.
One person updates it. He does't need any eduction. He runs a menu.
There is no programming expertise needed to maintain it.
I talked to Mikey. He said talked to Kevin.
Kevin told me there wouldn't be anything out there until after the holidays.
He told Mikey something was coming up in Washington and that they'd be willing to train Java programmers.
I put that together like this, fuck em. I've never used headhunters in the past, except for this one time. I learned their tecniques back in the 70's. I know what they do. I know how to they get jobs for people. It's not rocket science.
But I'm not looking for a job right now.
If I was, I wouldn't be using a headhunter. I'd be using my time to make my own contracts. I'd cut the middle layer of incompetency out of the process. A headhunter, an employment office, a job councellor, none of these people are necessary in obtaining work. If they get in the way, they are useless.
About the Raymond James interview, one more time.
I was glad that I didn't get a job working there. They seemed too slow and too incumbered by unnecessary details to be a place where I could be creative. If I worked like that on this website, I'd be spending most of my time filling out forms I created. On this site, I can create more in one day, than I could in one year working there.
About M2, one more time.
It may be fine, for someone else to sit at a desk, and write code exactly as they had been told to do. To me, doing that would make me unnecessary for the project. Why wouldn't the person who wrote the code and showed me exactly where to put it, just write the code herself? Billing comes to mind. They need a body to say that they wrote the code, so they can bill for that person's time. In other words, I'd be useless following marching orders like that.
I'd be last chair, last clarinet, in the band. And that is just not my style!


Every day in this life should count. We have 30000 days to live here. We can decide to waste or not waste each day.

Wed 
11/23/2005 03:36:16
 Jim  When you work, work hard. When you play, play hard
That would be my formula for a good life.
I wanted Becky to be involved in the evolution of this website.
We went to Walmart and bought some cheap desks. Now they are sitting side by side in the bedroom.
I want Becky to help me accomplish something cool. Any female can give birth to a child. Thats as natural as breathing.
Very few people give birth to ideas.
She's already helped me bunches and she doesn't even know it.
Becky's biggest contribution to this sites development, is her not understanding how to use it. |
Everyone has talents. I need her talent to finish this site. If this site can be broken, she can show me how.
She'll try to do things on it without reading the instructions. She doesn't see the functionality of this site, she see's the flash and pizazz of it.
Henry Ford was a genius of sorts. I think they called him "The Father of the Assembly Line". 
His accomplishments wasn't so much the Ford vehicle, it was the assembly lines where the Fords were built. To make the assembly more efficient, he didn't study the hardest worked, he studied the laziest one. The laziest people figured out how to do the same amount of work, with the least amount of effort. They thought about what they did.
He turned Mass Production into the science it is today.
Wed 
11/23/2005 03:14:58
 Jim  Fun day. It was full of clashes.
I got irritated at Becky because she didn't seem to know anything much about setting up my website.
I told her we have a choice.
That's to be poor, or not to be poor. The way to be poor was to waste each and every day.
The way to get ahead, is to make each and every day count.
If its spacing out the days until the end that she wants, then we should go into truck driving now.
To me, that is slow suicide.
I want to make each day count. I want to do things most people don't do. I do not want to be normal.
Life is a gift. We have a choice. We can appreciate it, or we can take it for granted.
I think most people take life for granted.
Sat 
11/19/2005 11:08:49
 Jim  I may find out who hires for the Starship Cruise L
It seemed to me that I'd be a good fit for one of those boats. I can deal, maintain their systems, and fix things. Everything there was so familiar. I know I could improve their marketting strategy too. The boat had mainly drive bys (like us), and bus people on it. Most of the people their would never be the targets of a Las Vegas casino.
I was dying to fix half the things I saw. I was this || close to fixing one of their toilets
Their slot enrollment wouldn't let you combine points. It couldn't handle joint memberships. Data entry was rough.
Their cruise reservations was clunky. After signing someone up, you had to search for their name in the database and pull up a change screen to see what you had entered. It looked like a cheesy system.
Tue 
11/15/2005 09:48:59
 Jim  I’m taking a Brainbench test for Cobol 74
Mon 
11/14/2005 03:57:51
 Jim  Feeling kind of lost
Reloading my laptop has left me with some strange feelings. I keep asking myself "What am I doing?".
There is no right or wrong way to do anything in this life,
and in a sense, the future is as much written as the past.
But still, trapped in the present, I feel like I may be doing the wrong thing.
I wonder what would have happened if we never came here. I wonder what would have happened if I didn't quit M2.
I only proved one thing by quitting M2, which was to myself. 
I won't let anyone demean me for any amount of money. I'll alway choose to keep my integrity intact.
The direction I'm headed doesn't seem to be as clear cut as I'd like it to be.
I'm wondering though the present.
Sun 
11/13/2005 09:29:26
 becky  Saturday
Hi Babe
I had a great time last night at the dog race. I would like to go again
but let's try the one in Daytona it is a lot bigger. I was very suprised
that we won. You are right about the people there were pretty wierd
looking. I liked the Aquarium with the big fish at the Oyster Bar. The
guy Smitty was a nice there
.


Love Ya
becky

Sat 
11/12/2005 09:31:35
 Jim  Net info
0A0B0C0D0E

Fri 
11/11/2005 15:39:51
 Jim  HP Chat
Sammy: Hello Jim,
Sammy: Welcome to HP Total Care for Pavilion Notebooks. My name is Sammy. How may I help you today?

Jim Cutlar: This my 3rd time back today. I have a HP Pavilion ze4600 Notebook PC (AMD) 
Sammy: I am sorry for the inconvenience caused to you, Jim.
Jim Cutlar: The laptop's monitor started blinking on and off. The dvd's decoder seemed to be having problems. I installed some softpacs from the HP site. Then, after flashing BIOs...it fails to work.
Sammy: Have you flashed the exact BIOS?
Jim Cutlar: I just hooked an external monitor to the laptop. It had no response. The power light is on. The special keys blink.
Jim Cutlar: I believe something may have gone wrong wit the flash. I waited for it to finish for over an hour.
Sammy: Jim, I have just been through your previous chat session.
Sammy: Are you able to download the service manual?
Jim Cutlar: I downloaded it, and read it. From what I read, the chip is not replacable, and may be reflashable.
Jim Cutlar: The laptop won't boot with a USB floppy though.
Jim Cutlar: I started to follow the instructions for removing the motherboard, but, unless I can rejumper it to go back to factory spec, I'm not sure what good that would do.
Sammy: Jim, I suggest you to take the notebook to nearest Authorized Service Provider and have a check by a technician.
Jim Cutlar: That sounds like a great idea. I wonder if there's one in Orlando.
Sammy: Sure, I will help you with this.
Sammy: Could you please give me the zip-code?
Jim Cutlar: 32714
Sammy: Here is the information:

Altamonte Springs CompUSA Superstore (4 Miles)
Store # 607
130 E. Altamonte Drive
Altamonte Springs, FL 32701
Store Hours Mon - Sat: 9am - 9pm | Sun: 11am - 6pm
Phone Numbers Main: (407) 339-8009 Fax: (407) 261-4098
Service Center: (407) 261-4075

Sammy: Orlando CompUSA Superstore (15 Miles)
Store # 309
7802 South Orange Blossom Trail
Orlando, FL 32809
Store Hours Mon - Sat: 9am - 9pm | Sun: 11am - 6pm
Phone Numbers Main: (407) 438-1270 Fax: (407) 852-2298
Service Center: (407) 852-2275

Jim Cutlar: Thank yo very much. I'm worried that I may have invalidated my warrentee. Do you think I did by trying to fix the CDRom problem?

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