Stories

I got a call today from a friend who hadn't paid their taxes since 1998. He got a letter from the IRS asking saying that they showed he owed taxes for 2004, but they didn't have his return. Now he's freaking out. Here are his stats:
- He lives in a travel trailer parked in a campground.
- His mailbox is on a highway 3 miles from where he lives.
- He owns an army truck and a camper
- His checking account is overdrawn by $200
- He owes back child support payments.
- He has one dependant, so if he did file, he'd file as Head of Household.
- Most of his employers are in Podunk, Missouri, and probably don't file themselves.
- The ones that did file, filed him as an independant contractor.
My advice was to do one of the following:
- To forget the letter. Get a PO Box and don't file a Change of Address with the Post Office.
- Go see a tax advocate. They're free and they can eliminate tax obligation with a keystroke.
- See a CPA and pay his taxes (my best advice).
--- They'll write off everything, even without receipts, like:
--- 35c a mile which could easily add up to $1,000 a year.
--- $10 lunches, which could add up to $2,600 a year.
--- Computer purchases, and ISP charges.
--- A Business fishing trip, complete with boat rental alcohol and hookers.
He's worried that the 'Men in Black' are going to come after him.
Now, when he works he only make $35,000 a year tops. I would call this, an irrational fear. He's worried a cop will pull him over after running his plates, and they'll see he owes taxes. He's been worried about it since he got the letter.
Lets analyse this fear.
I think there's only 4 tax centers in the US. Ours is in Ogden, Utah, and its about the size of a Walmart. His is in Cincinati, Ohio. To my knowledge, the IRS can seize anything on record (property, bank accounts, wages), but they can't knock you down and take your wallet. Al Capone was the only person that I ever heard of, that went to jail for tax evasion, and his case was tantamount to being thrown in jail for life for jay walking (I'm that happens too).
From personal experience, the IRS's best tool is intimidation. Fear. They use the post office to impliment this. They send letters (certified and non certified). If you respond, you get more letters (they know you exist). Its a typical bait and hook strategy.
I wonder if the crack whores walking up and down the Strip are worried about the IRS throwing them in jail for tax debt? They make more money than my friend does.
Irrational Fears...sheesh!

and went off to the grocery store to make a recipe.
It's cellaphane noodles with lemon grass and bok choy. mmmm. mmmm.
Didn't make it. On the way out, we talked to Chucky. Then we picked up everything at the store. On the way home, we talked to Sharon, Patti and Chucky. Then in front of the house, we talked to Tee and his kids, and helpd them light off some fireworks. While we were out there, Ricco mysteriously went to the neighbors and shut off their water main...hmmm?
Well, here it is 10:30pm. I'm eating rice noodles, with lemon grass, chili oil, sliced ginger root, and finely sliced shiitake mushrooms. Becky's happy eating French Bread with butter and boysenberry jelly.
What a hard life. Life is good!

That's www.LakeLasVegas.com  
They show movies on the lake every Thursday night.  They're free. 
Bring a blanket or lawn chair, kick back and watch the movie on a big blow up screen...lol  
The movie starts at 7:30pm. 
Here's the line up:     
June 30 - Legally Blonde, 
July  7 - Spiderman 2, 
July 14 - Shark Tale     
July 21 - Shek 2, 
July 28 - Ocean's Twelve, 
August 11 - 
Harry Potter 3  Pretty cool.  
Every Saturday night at 7:30pm - 10:00pm they have a free Jazz Concert.  
Bring your own blanket. Coolers are not allowed.  
For the Concert lovers out there they have:     
July 8 - Glenn Frey, 
July 30 - Natalie Cole, 
August 6 - Michael Bolton,      
Sept 9 - Kenny G, 
Sept 23 - Vanessa Williams accompanied by the Vegas Philharmonic  
I didn't check to see what the ticket prices are.  
Now for the bad things about Monte Lago  
They only let Lake Las Vegas Residents and Hotel guest rent their boats/paddle boats.   
The rental guy said he had to turn down over $2,000 worth of business there yesterday.   
According to him, its not the Marketting Exec, 
its the owner (a Railroad Tycoon) that made that decision.   
Also, the home buyers out there have to sign a 'must sell' clause with the owner 
in order to purchase a house there.   
In other words, they can be kicked out of their home. Weird.

Jimmy... How things with you and Ms. Rebecca? Me really sick now, I think me dying. Hurray.
Jennifur doesn't know the Jommy I know... You're always thinking and doing for others..
But she'll see it soon enough. When she learns what a kind person you be.
Did you see that second pic I sent you from Dinneyland? Oh no!!!
Now that one was scary. Even for a doggie AE...
Me lie down now... Later, my buddy...

EG: Getting aspirin put in vitamins or coffee.
Creating a 100% efficient battery. Did you know electricy is all about surplus and deficiencies of electrons. Considering the mass of an electron, it would be possible to power Las Vegas with a thimble sized battery. Now I've got to wonder what all of these particle physicist are doing with their time.

Jennifer asked me what good deeds I've done today. Hmmm....lesseee
I gave a ride to somebody going down the street on crutches. I offer to loan Robert $20. I made chicken wings and fries for everybody. And I'm working on an invention that may save people millions of dollars. Oh, and a neighbor told us her kids had a lemonade stand. We went over to help with her kiddy commerce department, but the kids dogged out by noon and we got no lemons. LOL.
I went to Star Nursery around the corner. Got some mesh.
It looks like mesh, with a laser drip line will work great. I'm on my way to creating better things than a ac water tower. Hopefully this water mesh won't rot.

Saturday, June 25, 2005 09:58:01
My Love
I read your dream that you had. I kind'a remember a dream that I had. This is how it went. You and I were sitting somewhere in are house i think. People were there and are potbelly stove wasn't working so you brought in a differnt kind of stove. The more to this story i think is that we must have been helping these people for somereason. It was strange. Then i woke up with a real bad headache. Not much to this strange dream. Love ya Becky.

Saturday, June 25, 2005 08:50:47
What I dream I had, dressed in organdy
Clothed in crinoline, of smoky Burgundy. Softer than the rain.
I had a dream that Becky and I were at a place with a beautiful view. Near a cliff, Becky looked out with a peaceful smile. Then she was gone. I came back home alone and felt as if she was still here. With tears, I had to explain that I didn't know what happened. She'd seemed so happy. I realized the love I felt for Jennifer and Becky's family would have to fade. Then my dream flashes and I'm in Heaven. I looked and I finally found Becky. She looked great! She was doing something nice for somebody and I watched with a grin. She looked at me with glowing eyes, but she didn't seem to recognize me.
And when I awoke and felt her warm and near
I kissed her honey hair with my grateful tears
Oh I love you, girl

Saturday, June 25, 2005 08:22:12
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thighs
I loved that song. Didn't know what it meant, something about war, blood and death, but it sounded cool anyway.
Mrs Robinson
Isn't that a song about ditching old people and/or letting them fading away?
I've always thought it was hilarious when people sing songs smiling and laughing, that, if they listened to what they were singing, they'd be crying and sad. I guess that's a song writer's Poetic License in action. Irony.
Three Blind Mice
I keep thinking about that song and how kids sing it with smiles. That song is sadistic. Whut Thu?
The mice were already screwed by being blind. I'm surprised they could survive. Then she cuts off their tails with a carving knife (which had to take some time to do). I'd say they were really screwed at that point. They ended up blind, with no tail to balance with. Sheesh.
LOL.

Saturday, June 25, 2005 08:27:39
Jimmy is NOT Ugly
Maybe not preety either, but definitely not ugly. Be nice to yourself Jimmy. Even if you were ugly, you couldn't repel like me.Remember, I am a small dog alter ego. And Ms Rebecca must not think you're ugly. Right Ms. Rebecca?????
HOWL!!!!
Guess what accesory I am receiving this week for the HP IPaq you gave me. As a gift, I am getting that sleeve thing that is a GPS unit. Navman G3450 (see this link, http://www.navman-global.com/index.php?product=38 for further info.) Oh boy. A new toy.
If you don't like your teeth
Stop smoking, don't drink coffee or tea, brush your teeth 10 times a day and drink tons of bleech...
Had a long discussion with Mr Junk last night.
Very enjoyable until my cell fone lost its signal. During my days at Northrop, we hung around a lot (dinners, shopping the Fly's close to his and my work when I was at Northrop, his garage sales, etc.) trying to come up with a way to corrupt the world and such. He's such a good Rhatt Phinque (his nickname during college)... Oh, how I miss those days during college when I used to go to his place with a 60 minute cassette with nothing but "Mrs Robinson" song on it from "The Graduate" movie - and play it over and over for his mommy. I think she put up with it, but he didn't. He has a $15K open account with his employer at Fly's. He does all the telecom and network stuff for his employer - so they got an open account at Fly's and he is one of several employees who can walk into Fly's and buy up to $15,000 worth of stuff and just sign for it. Then FLy's mails them a bill. Oh, how I tried to get him to buy me the following once time at Fly's: (1) $2k computer system (desktop) with a 19 inch LCD flat panel monitor, (2) smegload of DVDs, (3) bunch of software and more.. But NO!!! He didn't want to lose his job for my greedness!!! How mean!!!
Well, better get going...
Have to do the gym, and then clean up my storage unit a bit before Jeffrey's flight gets in at 6pm. Promised I'd pick him up.

Friday, June 24, 2005 23:23:22
When does Michael Jackson have sex?
When the big hand touches the little hand...bwaaahahahaha.

Friday, June 24, 2005 23:03:18
Does Vegas have a hockey team?
Ricco came over last night and brought some 1/4" clamps for my AC thingy, but he was more interested in the game than joking around. That's rare.
About Lake Las Vegas, where we went the other night
That was where Nancy Carrigan skated an ice rink floating in the lake. You can still smell her hairs burning...
The picture looks great Mikey...but I AM SO UGLY, my monitor broke.
My teeth are pointy and yellow. I must have vampire in my blood. I swear they're healthy, just java/nicotine stained, which makes me look as disgusting as the fat pig I am, lol.
Welcome back to WebSpace Robert!!!
It's been a too long but not too long too mention (James Cagney). One of these days I'm gonna blow your socks off and say something original.

Friday, June 24, 2005 20:05:45
hello
I havew the net know hahaha watch out!!!

Friday, June 24, 2005 21:56:30
Take a look at your email Sir Jimmy....
Emailing you a foto from our Dinneyland romp in April... It's about 1.5 smegmabytes. I had my camera set on high resolution.. Loads of pics. I will burn them all to a cd/dvd and snail mail to you...

Friday, June 24, 2005 11:36:55
Hooray for Robert Horry and Gang
The San Antonio Spurs win the NBA championship of 2005 (The 2004-2005 Season). BARK!! If not the Los Angeles Lakers, then it's great that the SA Spurs won. Ring #6 for Robert Horry (2 in Houston, 3 with the Lakers and now 1 with SA. Only 2nd NBA player to ever win a championship with 3 different teams)... Super player and Bloke. Down with the Detroit Pistons, even though their coach, Larry Brown is a class act.
Time to sniff that brown stuff in the corner of the room
Now, why would I want to do that?
Las vegas wins the 2005 NHL championship
Since the National Hockey League didn't play this 2004-2005 season because of a contract dispute, let's award the championship to Las Vegas. Specially since it's going ot snow there on July 4th. Then LV can finally see what pro sports is all about...
Howl and out!!
Later, Jimmy and Ms. Rebecca....

Friday, June 24, 2005 08:49:26
Bark... Bark... Sniff...
Jimmy. What be going on? Oh, BTW: Preceeding the snow in Vegas on Jul 4th at high noon, it'll be 123 degrees at 8pm on July 3rd.

Thursday, June 23, 2005 00:15:04
I'm lucky I've got this perspective on life right now. I am truly happy.
I have had all the time to answer all the questions that have plagued me. This is quite a wonderful world. I've been given an interesting perspective on life. If what I'm doing is wasting time, I should have been doing that all along.
We stopped by and I took some timed shots of Las Vegas. Then we looked at the full moon with the 12x50 power binoculars. One rock at some time, devastated the South East corner of the moon. Who knows, maybe that was the one that knocked it off of the Earth (if that did happened).
Kewl sites too see, all of it, all day long.

Thursday, June 23, 2005 00:06:27
Rain and lightening kind of day. We went to Lake Mead and Lake Las Vegas.
I love thunderstorms! It started pouring and Becky and I went riding. Stopped over at Sonny's for awhile. Petted a stray dog and fed it crackers.
I sat on the roof, and kicked off the moss.
It was quite a lightening show up there. I got Squirt to run all over with my laser light. It was just nice weather. Didn't mind getting rained on.
Stopped by the Las Vegas Marina around 9:10pm. They close at 9pm.
It was still nice. I sat on the side and let the fish nibble my toes. Somebody walked by and asked if they were nibbling, and I said yeppers. Then she said be careful, the white fish bite...LOL...
Stopped at a casino in Lake Las Vegas. We got $15 for joining their slot club.
Then I won $40, Becky lost $20. The casinos there are gorgious, and they even have penny slots. Behind the casino on the lake is a shopping area. Nice shops, with several very unique boats docked nearby. You can even rent paddle boats! I'd like to go there in the daytime.

Tuesday, June 21, 2005 12:49:26
Becky's truly ahotbabe...lol
She did her hair up in ponytails. Put on a tanktop with blue jean cutoffs. She's my Daisy Mae today...yummy!
Talked to Allen some more about this AC idea.
Working on a better way to dispense the water. 5 gph is way too much. It causes run off, and thats unacceptable. We discussed swampcooler pads, but that requires annual maintenance. Maybe a drip line/soaker line might do it, with a flow valve...hmmm.

Monday, June 20, 2005 17:40:19
Mikey's a "Mad About You" fan.
I saw a movie once called "Hard About You"...but the cast sucked.
I think I've seen every episode of Mad About You. I'd thank Helen Hunt if she sneezed in my soup (grody humor).
Paul Reiser was perfect in that show too.
A lot of my everyday humor comes from that series EG-"I'm so hungry I could eat my head".
I'm trying to get the image of Heidi Fleiss sliding down a baby oil covered banister, and Lisa Kudrow singing 'Smelly Cat' naked out of my head. Wow.
No Sleep For You tonight Jimmy!

Monday, June 20, 2005 14:54:53
Movie Mush
Get Jimmy the Movie Doctor to remove the Mush. Too much and it becomes "Mush Mush" - Dog Speak for "nose".
Watching movies naked?
Damn that sounds kooky and strange. You should know Jimmy, if the actors and actresses can be seen by you, then they can see you...

Sunday, June 19, 2005 20:03:51
WOW..and here we are watching westerns with no clothes on.
It was a quiet day to day, almost too quiet.
Are you feeling lucky, because I am feeling lucky.
I made my move and my move was to make no move at all.
So here, this is for the wife and kids.
My brain has turned into movie mush.

Sunday, June 19, 2005 14:53:37
National High School Cheerleading championship on ESPN2 channel
Need I say more... Cart me off to the looney bin!! Please!!! SAE turns out to be a pervert, in the first degree.

Sunday, June 19, 2005 10:55:57
Simple inventions
The 100% efficient battery
Happens to be, the power company. If you can produce electricity, your meter will run backwards. The power company must pay you for it. When you need it, they'll sell it back to you. No wear and tear.
Another good battery
A water tank. Its stores the energy with little conversion. Rain can charge it.

Sunday, June 19, 2005 09:00:04
I shouldn't be hard on Dustin. He's slow.
I shouldn't be hard on Michelle, my neighbor, either. She's just surviving in the ways that's she's learned.
But, it doesn't mean I have to like it.
Hey Mikey's an X-FILES fan.
Cool. I used to watch that show faithfully every week. I wanna see Scully naked! But they haven't come out with XXX-FILES Yet.
We've got no plans for today. Robert said he may come over, but I doubt it.
I've been playing with ASP. Its a hobby. A conversation with a guy who wanted me to work with him two years ago keeps popping into my head. He sounded like he was freaking out about a problem with .NET security. He'd added one line of code, and got the 500 Server Error screen. He said it took him a week to figure it out. I can certainly understand why he sounded like he was going nutty.
The 500 Server Error screen is like Windows 98's blue screen of death. You know you must have done something wrong, but you don't know what. It's like getting burned on a stove, but there's no stove.

Sunday, June 19, 2005 08:36:19
Why did Justin cross the street?
To alienate those who care.
What be happening with Jimmy and Ms. Rebecca?
Staying good and trouble free? (Well, except for Justin.)
My father's weird comments.
I'll address those in a chat or email in the next couple days. He's just a bit kooky. But at the same time, it is a bit troublesome. Nothing bad like he hates someone or something like that.
Early July snow in Lost Wages
I predict snow in LV on July 4th. At noon yet.
I mentioned hanging out with all those math professors at UCLA when I was going there
In the early to mid '70s. The kookiest one was Ernie Strauss. Great professor and guy. In his 60s at the time. Born in Israel (before it "became" Israel). Got his undergraduate degree at U of Jersalem in 1944, and came to US (NYC to be exact) to get his masters and Phd. While attending Columbia U in NYC, he gets a research job assisting AE (Albert Einstein) wih his research. Spent a better part of 4 years working directly, one-on-one with AE. Must explain why ES was so kooky, having spent all that time with someone like AE. He had a whole bunch of funny stories of AE. They coauthored a handful of papers during that time. He said that was the greatest honor. A lot of seasoned scientists would have died to get even 1 paper published with their name alongside AE's.
Well time to go and get involved with
That episode of X files on FX channel. Scully - 3,5,3,5,3,5.... Aaaahhhhhhhh.

Saturday, June 18, 2005 17:01:18
Driving with Dustin, Jennifer, and Becky today....we explored humor in jokes.
Dustin - Why did the chicken cross the road? To find his babies.
Jim - Why did the chicken cross the road? To get run over.
Jim - Why did the rooster cross the road? To meet some chicks.
Dustin - Why did the Kangaroo cross the road? He hopped.
Jim - Why did the Kangaroo cross the road? To get a pouch.
Jim - Why did the gun cross the road? To get loaded after a few shots.
Jim - Why did the gun cross the road? He just got bored.
Dustin - What did the Kangaroo say to the Monkey - Have a banana.
Dustin - What did the Kangaroo say to the Monkey - Why are you here?
Dustin - What color is dangerous moss? pink.
Jim - What color is dangerous moss? It's all green, and none of it is dangerous.
Dustin was doing his thing on the laptop and didn't want to go to the Video Store.
So, I offered to let him stay here. Becky yelled at him, and he finally got in the truck. I told him, if he didn't like our company, that was okay. He said he liked our company. He said he was playing games because he was bored.
Now, I watched him play this one game. For 10 minutes, he hit the same key that caused his stick man to kick another stick man. That's soooo stooooopid. Isn't it?
Seriously, relative or not, if someone doesn't like you, then they should stay away. Right?
Isn't that the best thing to do? If you don't like someone, avoid them. Every weekend, Dustin alienates himself from us. I sucks. I'd rather he didn't come over. I wouldn't hate him, love him, miss him, or anything him. He'd be having fun, and we'd be having fun. Sounds like a good deal to me.

Friday, June 17, 2005 22:04:53
Playing with my little laser pointer, I'm curious that they'd sell something that dangerous.
It has a warning label on it. It will burn your retina. Laser light, unlike white light, doesn't spread. My little unit uses 3 hearing aid batteries (4.5 volts). It doesn't use much energy. With 10 of these units, wired to 3 1.5 volt AA batteries in series parallel, it could make a devestating weapon capabable of blinding people a mile away.
That's what I find amazing. That they'd market such an easily convertable toy. Well, they sell diesel fuel and potassium nitrate too. Hmmm.

Friday, June 17, 2005 22:02:01
I made my AC device look cute today, but this weather is too bizarre to test anything!
Its been in the eighties...in June. What's with this weather? This has got to be the coolest June in decades. They said in Utah, that it never snows there in June. But it did, five days ago, about 5 foot deep.
I think the weather here somehow relates to that earthquake on the other side of the world (if anyone still remembers that).

Thursday, June 16, 2005 22:23:57
Today was sure enough a bizarre day.
Michelle, a neighbor came over. She hung out, left, then came back with her dog. Squirt humped every part of her dog, but in the end, they were playing normally.
Michelle asked us if she could treat us to dinner. I said Hell Yea!
Then we mentioned a few places, and she asked how much they cost. In the end, we went to the Outback.
After several excuses, I ended up picking up the tab of pocket $60.
Plus, something about that meat, makes me gag, so I couldn't eat. That sucked.
On the way home, she asked us if we could take her to the Boulevard Mall.
I said nope, I just barfed three times. Then she asked if we could locate a movie "Michael and Alexandria" at Hollywood video. Her shrink recommended it to her. Well, we swung by home, and I looked it up on the net. It's an old Russian film. Then she asked me if I could find a movie about Marie Antionette. I told her I thought Marie was a slut that had her head cut off for having an affair when married to a King. I didn't she did anything remarkable. BUT, Hollywood Video had the movie, and off we went.
At Hollywood Video, Michelle asked me if she could rent a movie under my account.
I said no, that was a terrible idea. I joke around with the supervisor (Nicole) there alot. Nicole overheard the whole thing, and rented Michelle the video on her own account (which she doesn't use).
That act was so incredibly unselfish!
I was touched to tears. I told Michelle and Becky that something that nice should not go unrewarded. So, I swung by Albertsons and bought bouquet of flowers. Michelle bought a vase. I gave it to the supervisor, and was almost out of there. Then Michelle talked to the supervisor as if she was responsible for giving the flowers. DAMN!

Thursday, June 16, 2005 22:04:26
Typos are expected in this blog. They add character and misunderstanding.
Speaking about misunderstanding, Becky told someone about this toy I made for Squirty. Its a rope that has two tennis balls on it...well, here goes the story:
Becky said I was playing with my balls in the back yard and my little Squirt hit the fence.
What she should have said was:
I was playing with my doggie toy. Its a rope with two tennis balls on it. I threw it and Squirt ran after it and hit the wall.
But you see, thats the charm about language. You mean one thing, it comes out another.
So, how was YOUR dad weird Mikey? I didn't catch that part.
My dad positive that UFO's built the pyramids, Atlantis exists, and the Easter Island statues and Stone Henge couldn't have been constructed by us humans. He believes colors can heal (which is partially true), pouring urine in your ear will cure a earache (which is partially true), and we owe our language abilities to aliens (which may be true). Pretty bizarre.
Because I listened to my Dad, I question everything I'm told.
At least you can contribute your dad's weird email to poor oxygen flow in his brain. That's got to be a consulation. You know its not genetic insanity

Thursday, June 16, 2005 19:06:28
Gee, I realized how many typos in my last entry. Howl to the Spelling god and also incorrect words
Typing "expect", meaning "accept". Typos, etc. Damn, I am a stupid little Doggy alter ego.
On to bigger and better...
Damn did I get a weird email from my dad. I sent him an email this week as he had a birthday early June and hen there is father's day coming up. I think the guy has lost it. Great guy, but he is saying weird stuff. Nothing bad, just weird. Howl!!
Fix Justin (I know it's Dustin, but I gotta be bad)
Have Squirty bite Justin's kaka off. that's make him behave I bet. Also eligible to sing in the Mormon Tabnacle Choir as a soprano.
Well, corn is done. Time to go play my horn while reading porn
Laer Jimmy... Hi to Ms Rebecca..

Thursday, June 16, 2005 10:33:27
July 12th, I'm going to celebrate my 18,000 birthday.
Isn't a more accurate description of a birthday than the number of years a person has lived. LOL.

Thursday, June 16, 2005 07:21:43
One child grows up to be, somebody you'd just love to learn
And another child grows up to be, somebody you'd just love to burn.
Of course, I'm talking about Dustin and Jennifer.
Jennifer
She's sweet, caring, and intelligent. She listens and deduces. When I throw something at her thats illogical, she laughs, because she knows its supposed to be a joke. Last weekend I told her I'd always be there for her, and I meant it.
She seems to have just been born to be a good person.
Dustin
He's mean and selfish. He doesn't care about anybody but himself. He never listens, so he's impossible to talk too. He laughs when he hits people. Last weekend, I told him he was being a hole. He'd pretend to sleep in the tent until he knew all the camp chores were done. He does everything he can think of to get out of helping anybody.
I blew up at him when he called Becky a fool.
I blew up at him when he stuck his face in Jennifer's food and asked her if he could have a french fry.
I blew up at him when Jennifer, Becky and I were sitting around laughing and he came up, interrupted and tried to get Jennifer to look at a bug. There is nothing going on in Dustin's head. His bodily functions motivate him. He's impossible to love. I kept asking him where he learned that it was okay to behave the way he does, who was his idol? He didn't know, but he said it wasn't Robert.
He seems to have been born to be an asshole.
Becky
Gives without concern for herself. When she tries, she gives 100%. It's rare to hear her say anything bad about anyone. Her love is genuine. She is the person you see. She hides nothing. She never holds a grudge. I can't help but love her.
Becky seems to have been born as a helping angel.
Spirits
Having said the above, I wonder how people who were raised together could turn out to be so different, both angels and assholes. Its thoughts like these that make me want to believe in spirits. Is it reasonable to believe that we were preprogrammed to be what we are?

Thursday, June 16, 2005 06:34:17
Who Ever Finds This
I Love You!
On a quiet street in the city, an old man walks alone.
Shuffling through the Autumn afternoon. And the Autumn leaves reminded him another summer's come and gone.
He had a long, lonely year ahead, waiting for June.
Among the leaves near an orphan's home, some paper caught his eye. He stooped to pick it up with trembling hands. As he read the childish writing, the old man began to cry, 'Cause the words burned inside him like a flame.
"Whoever finds this, I love you!"
"Whoever finds this, I need you!"
"I ain't even got no one to talk to!"
"So, Whoever finds this, I love you!"

The old man's eyes searched the orphan's home,
Where they finally came to rest upon a child with her nose pressed up against the window pane. And the old man knew he'd found a friend at last. So he waved at her and they smiled, and they both knew they'd spend the winter laughing at the rain.

And they did spend the summer laughing at the rain,
Talking through the fence, exchanging little gifts they'd made for each other.
The old man would carve toys for the little girl, and she would draw pictures for him with beautiful ladies surrounded by trees and sunshine, and they laughed alot.

But then on the first day of June, the little girl ran to the fence to show the man a picture she had drawn,
But he wasn't there. And somehow, the little girl knew he wasn't coming back.
So she went back to her little room, took out a crayola and a piece of paper, and wrote:
"Whoever finds this, I love you!"
"Whoever finds this, I need you!"
"I don't even have no one to talk to."
"So, whoever finds this, I love you!"
-- Mac Davis (1970 something) --

Thursday, June 16, 2005 00:15:54
Twisted logic
I grew up hearing my dad say things like:
It could be more logical to kill good people than bad people. You may be keeping them from becoming bad.
By ruining someones day, you're could be doing them a favor. They'll apreciate the good days more.
If you save someones life, you may be hurting them.
I think we're all Jesus Christ.
I won't even say the positive remarks he made about Hitler. Way out of line.
While the above may have a hint of truth in it...
its definitely not positive thinking.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005 23:45:48
I am so weird, and my plans are so weird.
I plan on working until I die, after my retirement.
Most people plan on retiring until they die, after they work.

I think nobody knows anything about god.
Most people think they know everything about god (not you Mikey/Becky).

I believe this is life after death.
Most believe this is our first time here, and we get another life after we die?

I believe all religions are pretty cool until they kill people.
Many believe its okay to kill for religion.

I also believe 0/0 = 1
All mathematicians think I'm stupid and they're right. I think I'm stupid. LOL!

Wednesday, June 15, 2005 23:24:15
What is it with Golden Gods anyway? lol
I've heard Platinum is more expensive. At one time, cocoa was more valuable. If people made a graven image of god now, I suppose he/she would be made out of military computer chips or plutonium. hahaha.
We got snagged by our Mormon neighbor yesterday.
She talks 100 miles an hour and listens at 1 mph, and its mostly about her religion. Matter of fact, two of her fellow Mormons were coming down the road (in ties and white shirts). They almost got hit by a car, and would've had a first hand chance to meet god. Well, she introduced us to them, and tried to get us to attend their church.
Ya know, I've done that before, just to check it out. It's nice to keep up.
I spend way too much time thinking about religion though. It's a pretty fruitless thoughline.
I wouldn't, but, well, we got a letter from Renee yesterday. Christ this, Christ that...she says that every two sentences. Matter of fact, those are her only complete sentences. So sad. She's taking her last class (Algebra B). She says they'll teach her how to write a resuma (thats how she spells it) in her next class. She says Jesus lives, and why don't we let him into our hearts. But if, according to her, he's going to inseminate all the women on this planet, then, I don't want him anywhere near Becky.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005 23:16:10
DOG IS ALIVE!
That's why I didn't get upset about Robert dumping himm over here. If what Robert told me was correct, then he just needed some cash to give to the shelter. He got paid yesterday and he came through with his promise. And that is a good thing. He said he's planning to save enough money to get a bigger place, then he'll get DOG back.
Man, it's nice to relax, after all of that fun...lol
I knew Nixon was a Quaker. Scary isn't it, how he was so dependant on spy devices.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005 12:36:09
Jimmy. Jimmy. Jimmy...
Better mathematics couldn't explain God at all. Let me tell you why in my humble puppy way, if I may...
Mathematicians first agree upon a given set of "standards"
These standards provide a concrete means of explaining and measuring something. Since, and without much effort, it would be easy because of people's believes, to find two mathematicians that can not agree on a base line or standard to work from. For example, take me as a Jew. I am religious, but not a fantanic at it, right? But what I do believe, I believe very strongly, right or wrong. For example, Jews will tell you that G-d has no form. A cloud of sorts, which is why Moses got mad when he came down from the mountain with the 10 commandments. They had built a god in the form of a golden cow or some such animal. It could have been a golden human (say Christ), it wouldn't have mattered. Yet, a perfectly normal mormon or just about any form of christian may say that god is in the form of man (Christ?)... Automatically, you have a non-basis to which he (she) and I wouldn't be able to agree.
Remember all those discussions at your place when I was there?
I nearly got my masters in Math, and hung out with all those PhD professors and we all had a common understanding of what "our math forefounders" had set down as givens and falsehoods. We may not understand why certain things are a certain way (like all the different tempature scales), but we excepted them. Once I became convinced that -4 was a positive non-integer of greater value than +2,303 was doomed to get any further degrees, I flunked out. There are just some things like religion that can not be explained with hard sciences like math or physics.
Barking in conclusion...
Life is full of "things" such as thoughts and ideas that cannot be easily explained away with science.....

Wednesday, June 15, 2005 12:34:27
Sniff. Sniff.. What is the story with D.O.G.? Dead or alive?
Did Robert kill D.O.G.?

Wednesday, June 15, 2005 05:08:32
Nixon was a Quaker
Are you sure you want to meet a Quaker now? HaHa

Wednesday, June 15, 2005 00:27:23
Robert came and got D.O.G this morning
I forgot to mention, when we got back from Zion, Sonny was here playing with Squirt, and Robert had left D.O.G here. Sonny got mad at Robert when Robert called, which was great! Anyway, Robert brought dog here because he didn't have $10 for Leeds Animal Sanctuary (they don't euthanize animals).
We ate at Hush Puppies and watched Darkness.
Darkness was a pretty spookie movie, and no movie scares me anymore. I just wish it had an ending. Most movies wrap everything up at the end unless there's a sequel. This one didn't. You'd have to end it with your own imagination.
I always like the movies that infer what I've believed for a long time: That god is order, and the devil is chaos (or vice versa). It's too bad math isn't better. A better system of mathematics might be able to describe god. It's also too bad that nothing today would be possible without order and chaos.
I was talking to Sonny about man's ability to accomplish anything. I erred.
I like to think we can do anything, if not in reality, then in our imaginations. However, I think perfection is impossible. A line will never be straight, a circle will never be round. Everything that comes close will always be flawed on second look.

Tuesday, June 14, 2005 16:51:40
OMG...I've gotten so used to ragging on Dustin, I just called Squirt Dustin.
Bummer. I looks like Squirt has been chewing on a phone cord. I'm gonna have to put some tobasco on it or something. Shux.

Tuesday, June 14, 2005 16:45:02
Becky and I were at the campground, dreaming out loud because there was nothing else to do.
I was saying, they should have a pizza delivery place in town. Better yet, wouldn't it be nice to be able to have pizza mailed to an address at a specific date, and it heats up when the box is openned. You could order it from WWW.NETPIZZA.COM in advance, for the whole year! YEA!
What Becky gut-laughs at always amazes me. She gut-laughed!

Tuesday, June 14, 2005 16:31:15
I didn't know that, but I think the Mormons went west to find freedom from Religious Persecution
They found a great spot too. Me, and not to sound discriminatory, I've never met a Mormon I didn't like. Most every religion I've read about, freaks me out in one way or another. (I was telling Dustin about the cows in India sleeping in bedrooms, lol). Oh, and there's Ground Hog Day, founded by the indians who thought their ancestors were reincarneted into the body's of ground hogs...like I said, freaky.
We were stuck at a rock slide in Dixie National Forest. I got out and talked to this Mormon Missionary dude.
He was an older guy, wearing name tag, and he explained that he was staying at a Mormon Missin near Virgin Utah. I was thinking, ok...here we go...here comes a sermon about how god wants me to part my hair in the middle or something, but he was very nice. He didn't mention one word after religion after he introduced himself. Instead, he talked about the weather, and his son who lived in Vegas, was a masseuse, and now lives in Texas with a rich lady he massaged. Very cool.
I'd like to get to know some Quakers for a change though.
I'd think they'd be fun to hang around. No phone no lights no motor cars, not a single luxory...like Gilligan's Island with a handfull of Mary Anns. YEA!

Tuesday, June 14, 2005 11:54:48
Oh.. Zionist were ones who, in the late 1800s, pushed for the establishment of the state of Israel...
SO, did they come from Zion Nat'l Park?

Tuesday, June 14, 2005 11:50:36
Bark...
Yes, funny how with a minor event, things could change. If Justin (remember, I also get names a tad bit off) had rerouted the water in the LV valley, the huge gambling mega would be in Utah and LV would actually be beautiful. (Taking nothing away from the Red Rock and Mt. Charleston area.)
Let me know when you've got pictures loaded...
Oh, and I suppose I should FINALLY download the pics I took at Dinneyland in April to publish and share with you and Miss. Rebecca.
Back to work.
Will bark at you again later. Got to get back to work.

Tuesday, June 14, 2005 07:04:07
Hey Mikey!!! I wanted to say Zion is God's country
But then I'd be tempted to say which God...lol. I think I heard Zion means heaven in Mormoneze.
It took the Virgin River 260,000,000 years to etch it Zion out with its sandy waters.
An interesting thought is, that if Dustin were around back when it started, he might have pushed all kinds of stuff in the trickling stream. That could have changed its course and it could have ended up in NEVADA instead of UTAH. The Las Vegas desert might have been pretty. LOL.

Tuesday, June 14, 2005 09:32:17
Nature did a great job developing Zion as with Mesquite...
Personally as a Dog's AE (Alter Ego), I think Mesquite looks better than Zion. BARK!!
Now, let's get real...
In reality, I was just kidding about Mesquite... Zion is one very beautiful place. Nature did it's job there just fine, thank you...
You get pictures?
Enquiring minds need to know...
Howl and out for now...
Bark, Howl and sniff.

Monday, June 13, 2005 21:20:33
Zion National Park was GREAT!!!
It's beautiful up there. The desert comes alive with some many colors. Combinations of colors that I've never even thought of, are there. We saw elk, buffalo, cows, horses, wild turkeys, lizards, thousand foot monoliths and cathedrals. It was amazing. The trees were beatiful too: Aspen, cedar, pine and joshua. There was lots of Prickly pear, flowers that were incredible, and painted birds.

Saturday, June 11, 2005 05:33:40
I've got to say, I'm so grateful for giving myself time off.
I've had time to think about all of the things I never had time think about before. I know what life is and what its about now. I know what we are and why we are here. I also know now why I can't tell anybody. What I'm about to say isn't meant to be an insult, its an observation. Most of the people on this planet are insane. Its obvious in most of the people that I see everyday.
Irrational Fears
Almost everyone has them. Fear of: elevators, escalators, cats, dogs, insects, death, life, sex, honesty, the dark, public places, speaking in groups, flying, being seen naked, being fired, moving, even using the wrong fork.
Most of these fears are based on concepts, not observation.
Irrational Beliefs
Most people believe in things that can't be disproven. That is insane.
Most believe we have a heart, a soul, and a spirit even though it can't be proven. The definition changes with each person you talk too. There's only definition though. That definition can be found in the dictionary.
Most believe that spirits, ghosts, demons, and witches exists, even if it is the imagination that created them.
Many believe in magic when they've been fooled by trickery.
Irrational Barriers
Most believe there are things we can't accomplish. Most believe we are victims of fate and not the designers of it. 150 years ago, people believed that everything that's happening now, was impossible. If one of those people had a vision of a future like our present, they would be insane.
All the barriers, all those people who said that man can't fly, were insane. After 10,000 years, we should have learned that anything can be accomplished.
I think the real trick of life is to know people's frailties and to exploit them.
That is, if you want more toys than your neighbor.
I've noticed most con artist redefine commonly used words to suit their purpose.
EG: That's not a knife...this is a knife. LOL.
I was thinking of using peoples fears to get a job in Florida, simply by pursuading the president of a company to make a phone call to the hiring agent.
Simple ways to exploit people
In hospitals: Tell the head nurse you're a relative of someone staying there and they'll let you see that person.
At the DMV: Show them a library card and and a birth certificate you printed. At the library: Show them a bill you printed.
On the phone: Tell people you are a police investigator for the 5th precinct. Or ask questions to get indirect answers, eg: if you want to know if someone works at a place, don't ask if they work there, ask if you can leave a message; usually the person will tell you where to leave the message at.
I've got to get back into hoops. I want to market this device that I've invented.
I need to brush up on a few things that I've never dabbled in before. I need to create a demand, then create a supply. I need to have everything lined up before I take any public action so there's no chance of competition. Just like scam, I need to get in and get out. This should be a fun project.

Saturday, June 11, 2005 05:11:44
Uh oh...we went to bed at midnight, but I woke up at 2:30.
I was kind of bummed out about my log software not working, so I read faqs.1and1.com to find out where to put my Access database. The permissions for where they said to put it wasn't set up, so I had to find out how to do that!
Then, finally, I had to change the programs affected (which was easy) and copy them to the website. Now, though, its 5:10am in the morning.
I've slept 2.5 hours. I'll be lucky if I remember today at all.
If anybody would like to check out this new log software, it's on
lvdude.com, Click on Log.
Once again, its in the beta stage.
I'm not sure how much I like storing the log's text in an access database. I've been burned before by using a database technology that became obsolete. I kept my dairy from the 80's in a Pascal database. My old software still runs, but I can't convert the database to anything else. Its was a new technology in 1982. hmmm. What to do?
Plus, access keeps every table in one file. That's not good. If I want to add a column to the User file, I have to copy the all the tables to my PC, add the column, then copy it back to the web.

Friday, June 10, 2005 23:32:23
We're off for Zion National Park tommorrow at 8am.
From here, it's a three hour drive. The truck's all packed except for the camera, ice chest, laptops and movies (we're roughing it).
I finished my new Log software using ASP, VBScript, and Access, however...
I posted it to my site, and my software reads the mdb file just fine, but it won't update it for some reason. It's a mighty fine system I slapped together, well, actually, I hacked if from someone elses code. I took out 90% of the code by simplifying it. Its much easier to understand now, and its got 4 programs instead of 12. The code is smaller. It even has a word like editor, and it can update log entries unlike this software. But, it doesn't work on my server. Awwwwe shucks! ;(

Friday, June 10, 2005 23:28:39
Boston Cream Pie
Yum...hehe. I think I said that wrong. It should be Bawstin.
Sonny called. He read my blog.
Especially the part where I was upset about my air conditioner. He said I sounded like I hate alot. Well, I hate spending money on repetitive things, like light bulbs that are designed to blow every three months. And I really hated that the manufacturer hung my AC's fan upside down from a fan cage, but they were too cheap to put lock washers on it. If that fan came all the way off, it could have started a fire, and at the very least, it would have destroyed my AC unit's housing. That's what I was made about, being constantly bilked.

Friday, June 10, 2005 05:00:42
Three gawls followed by a dog yawn and a sneeze
You know what gets me about Grandmal is that she is just totally clueless. Not that she's just got a blind spot about one single issue.
Possible phone call
Headhunter called me Thursday about a contract to hire in Basten, MA area. That is something I'd really like alot better than what I've got if I am going to be stuck on the lousy "right" (East) coast. So, I put you down as a reference Jimmy. He asked for two names, and he got four. One of them might be hard to reach. Just one thing. He thinks I am still at Northrop. So, please play along.
Well, the corn is cooked, so....
I have to go play my horn before the music gets torn...

Thursday, June 09, 2005 14:25:14
Ain't this just a crazy world?
Grandma wanted us to watch after Dustin and Jennifer. Jennifer got off early because it was her last day of school. The logic eludes me. Its okay for her to walk home from school by her self, but its not okay for her to be at home by herself, even if Dustin's there. Hmmmm. Guess I'm crazy.
Picked up Jennifer and Dustin
Coming home, I was talking about what we should bring again. Somehow, Dustin said everybody has pork chops in their refrigerator. I asked these guys what else is in everybody's fridge. I heard cookies, bread, ham, cheese and cokes...LOL.
I asked Becky to make Hot Wings. She made oven roasted wings.
It was taking forever, so I fried some hot wings which took about 10 minutes. This is what I keep wondering, why do people ever oven roast wings? They're gooey, not crisp, they take 30 minutes to an hour to cook, and generally stick to everything they touch. Hmmmm?

Wednesday, June 08, 2005 14:27:42
Bark... Bark... Bark...With an occasional Howl...
It was Sue Ellen's (JR's wife) sister so some such relation who shot JR. She and JR apparently were fooling around behind Sue Ellen's back, and she got upset over his cheating on her sister. And the way he treated her during their fun making.
A moment in Television history... That show was, and specially that particular episode.
Will howl at you again later today. Hopefully.

Wednesday, June 08, 2005 09:02:52
Who shot JR?
I'm serious...I never got to see that episode of "DALLAS". I doubt that Bobby did it. It was either Barnes or his wife.
I got called in that Friday night to work on the Race/Sports book system.
Oh, those breastesessss at Hooters could make an inmate knock his cell door down with no hands.
Phew. This one trainee, who was blonde, beautiful and ditsy fascinated me. She'd walk around following her trainer waitress, with her arm up, and her hand dangling. I never could figure out why women and gay men do that. If she had two arms up/hands dangling, she'd remind me of a dog begging. WHAT IS THAT???

Wednesday, June 08, 2005 11:13:05
Ewing Brothers Towing - Based out of Dallas TX by any chance?
Bobby and J.R. Ewing.... Get it Jimmy, from '80s prime time television on Friday nights. BTW. It was really me who shot JR.
And I had to bitch about crabshell and Shrimp peeling left overs
You bring me no waitress from Hooters. Now I am really hurt.
So you really liked what you saw, ah...
Dirty minded Jimmy. But that's great. Better that than be not interested. Howl!!!

Tuesday, June 07, 2005 20:32:15
I got a letter from Ewing Brothers Towing
They found Sonny's car in North Town all stripped down. Why anyone would strip down a 92 Dodge Shadow, I'll never know. There was next to nothing in that car. Anything can happen in North Town though. I always said, if a person had a terminal disease and a great life insurance policy, they should just walk down D street. They'd walk maybe 2 blocks before someone killed them. Its wild there.

Tuesday, June 07, 2005 20:16:49
Hey, we meant too, but we ATE them...lol
We just got back from HOOTERS. What a wonderful place that is! They have great prices and great food. WHAT A GREAT PAIR!
The waitresses were all knocker outs, and apparently they are trained to clean the table when you sit down. She asked me if I wanted a drink, and I told her I just had a shot.

Tuesday, June 07, 2005 12:38:08
BARK!!! And no doggie bag for me from Joe's Crab Shack?
I like crabshells and pellings from jumbo shrimp. And you guys didn't bring me any!!! How mean!!!!

Monday, June 06, 2005 22:04:08
We ate at Joes Crab Shack tonight.
It was my turn to treat. It was EXCELLENT! I had the fishermans platter, Becky had the Steak and Scampi, Sonny had the Fish Platter. We all shared the stuffed mushrooms (which was only OK). Good times. 100 mph talking. Lots of fun.

Monday, June 06, 2005 21:59:25
Sonny, Becky and I went to Frys. I wanted to buy a kilowatt meter.
But, it turns out the only ones that seem to exists are the Power Company's. So, tell me, how exactly do you know if your power meter is calibrated correctly? I think my meter is wrong, but how do I prove it, if nobody sells a kilowatt/hour power meter. What a joke!!!
A guy a Radio Shack suggested I invent one.
Wow. I'd almost think it would be a standard function on any digital meter. Everything needed is already there, except for the readout. They measure measure amps and volts. Watt measuring would only be a logical addition. Well, I'm weird. Who would ever question their power company's meter (except for me).

Monday, June 06, 2005 21:58:37
I'm not a fig plucker
or a fig plucker's son.
But I'll pluck figs till the fig plucking's done.
hehe

Monday, June 06, 2005 15:16:25
Becky just talks so CUTE!
Last night she said something about japenos, however, the way the pronounced it sounded lik hollowpena. I asked her how you say two them and she said, two hollow penises.
Becky told Roberts friends about how I was playing with my balls in the back yard, and how when I'd throw them, my little Squirt would hit the fence.
Anyway, Becky's always saying things that just make me laugh my ass off.
I am so lucky to be me. I so happy for what I've got.

Monday, June 06, 2005 00:55:58
Today didn't go as planned, but it'll make a good yesterday.
I over slept. We went to Grandmals at 4pm, ate dinner, and chatted. Some things came up. I explained how Becky's ex's sexual desires caused her to lose her husband, her kids, and her security. And the courts were now going to make her a criminal. And how Grandmal is helping them do just that. And that that's just about as low as people can get. I said Becky's husband was lower than pond scum. I didn't mention I thought she was too.
I don't think she understood, but I think she wanted too.
She suggested Becky work at Savers. I explained to her that Becky would be making minimum wage if she did that. The courts would take 25% of the gross, which would leave her $4 an hour. Taxes on the gross would another take 20%, which would leave her $2.90 an hour. That's $110 a week, or $22 a day. Lunch and busfare would eat that up another another $50 a week, which would put Beckyat making $1.25 an out. So what be the point? Grandma kicked her daughter out for doing all the things that she is doing right now. Becky needed her brother's help and so does her Mom. She kicked her out for doing exactly what she's doing, not walking her kids to school. She became Becky's second biggest enemy by her greed and lack of caring. She thinks she did it for God. She is so screwed up. If her son died, she'd be homeless.
We ended up at Roberts house on the other side of town.
He wants to fix up his truck to make a couple of $1,000. I hope he does. He'll make money for both and himself.
I talked to his roommates.
It was so nice having a conversation with normal people. I didn't get interrupted. We swapped jokes and told stories. We shared honesty. It's so nice to know real people still exists out there.
I've been wallowing in with the sub normal people for four years now.
An example of a subnormal person:
A fellow who was sleeping on the floor at Roberts house, said he was going to marry his pregnant girlfriend. He didn't own a car. He didn't want to get up to go job hunting. He thinks he is a normal guy. To me, the next step down is eating out of a dumpster and begging at the freeway exits. I've met dozens of people like this. They're all low. They think low. Some would even tell Becky to should get a job at Savers for minimum wage.

Sunday, June 05, 2005 07:55:57
Now, lets see...what will today bring? Which future shall we choose to call our past?
5pm - We are invited to Grandmals for a steak out
2pm - We are invited to Robert's for a steak out
Hmmm. Decisions, decisions
Robert and Joy didn't have the kids over last night and they didn't call to let us know. Robert was planning a BBQ 8 people. Somehow, I think he's decided to cancel without telling us. I'll just have to call him I guess.
Grandmal sounded tentative about us coming over. Nothing really sounded definite.
We should run over to Robert's new place to visit,
and give him some kind of house warming present. He's about 40 minutes away, so that's going to take a minumum of an hour and twenty minutes out of the day.
We should go to Grandmals BBQ
It's always annoying though. Paul runs in, wolfs down the food in 20 seconds then leaves. I don't know if that's just he does or if he can't stand us.
About Robert's truck:
Grandmal was talking about how Paul was going to have to sell the house to pay his bills. Oh, that is so annoying to hear that. He want's to kill the golden goose for a turkey sandwich.
According to Grandmal, Paul is having to pay for Robert's truck. Lets explore the possibilities:
- He does nothing. He be pays $400 a month for 4 more years, and he'll own junk.
- He sells the house/pays off the truck. He'll live in an apartent and own junk.
- He refinances the house. He says he can't do that. hmmm.
- He finishes Robert's truck and sells it as a low-rider. He thinks finishing it will cost $1,000's. I think it will cost him 1 payment. I also think he could get Robert to finish it.
- He calls the financer and tells them he can't make the payments and they repo it. That would blemish his credit record, but according to him, he can't even refinance his house with $80,000 equity in it.
- He parks the truck downtown, rolls down the window and leaves the keys in it. Then later, hereports it as stolen. He'd lose his deductable. The loan would be squared up. He'd be in the clear.
- I get the keys from Robert, repark the truck, and leave the keys in it. Right now, no one would know if it was gone anyway. The case would be closed.

Saturday, June 04, 2005 16:51:48
I fixed Grandmals sliding glass door.
Nobody sells the rollers for the door anymore SO, I had to repair the old ones with what I could dig up from Lowes. Cost: $1.96. Not bad...but it took 2 hours. Those doors come apart when you take any of the corners off. Becky and I had to reset the door.
Watched Electra with Jennifer and Dustin
It's really a pretty good movie. Jimmy Liked It!

Friday, June 03, 2005 15:12:07
I shouldn't be doing it, but while I'm in limbo, I'm playing with ADO and ASP.
It's pretty cool, however, I could never do it without an example. Things like:
- Set adoCon = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
- xx = "DRIVER={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)}; DBQ=" & Server.MapPath("journal.mdb")
- adoCon.Open xx
- adoCon.Open "SELECT tblConfiguration.* From tblConfiguration;", xx
I don't know, to me, just trying to figure out the 'Microsoft Access Driver' thingy would take me two days. If just one word is mispelled anywhere, nothing at all works. There are no compilers so you may find some typing errors at during run time. It still think good old Cobol was the best looking IO ever. If they'd only modified it for SQL, it would have gone far. I would have done it like this:
- OPEN MyTable File is "access.mdb/tblConfiguration"
- Start MyTable Where "myId = :myId".
- Read MyTable.
And let the operating system figure out the details. Thats what computers are for, to test, calculate and remember. Programmers should concentrate on what they want to do, not how. At least, that's always been my philosophy.

Friday, June 03, 2005 15:06:55
Renee wrote a letter.
My my, her spelg is soe baad. My friend in Singapore can write better English as a second languages. Renee hopes to finish hi skewl reel sune. I should quit picking on her, but if she graduates from high school, are high school graduates will be demeaned, and the certificate will mean nothing.

Friday, June 03, 2005 15:02:40
My system installed in 10 minutes.
Without the valve, though. When I get the valve, it should only add 10 minutes to the install. 2 screws for the access panel, run a line to the valve, done.

The main deterrent to this project is ME!
I'm overweight. Not fat, but definitely not skinny. I've gotta do something about that. Right now, I'm eating some stir fry, lol.

Thursday, June 02, 2005 21:57:25
I've got my prototype started.
Finding the little pieces can be a nightmare though. We went to Lowes to find the gadgets. Spent $40, and still, we don't have everything. We need a 1/4" solenoid valve, not a 1" or a 3/4", those are way too big! I'm thinking for someplace that sells ice maker parts. They'd have something like that.
I downloaded someones version of Blog software. Its written using ASP and Access
sheesh, the basic design does what mine does, right down to the preview, subheader, and a few other things. I was really surprised. If I didn't know any better, I'd say I stole my design from that author. Anyway, my blog looks 1,000,000 times better, I think.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005 18:54:07
The design has already mutated. I'm putting one in tommorrow for around $20.
Using a drip system composed of:
- 100' x (1/4" od, .197" id line) $10
- 5 x (1/4" 5gph @ 40psi misters) $5
- 1 x 1/4" x 3/4" hose thread swivel compression adapter $3
- 10 x 1/4" barbed tees
- 10 x 1/4" barbed couplers
- clamps
- Inline sprinkler head valve (24v AC)
A few details have to be worked out, but, I should have stats by Friday afternoon.
BTW - Has anybody ever noticed how screwed up the power meter reader is. It's a mess. It has 6 clocklike hands, every other one going in a different direction.
So strange!

Wednesday, June 01, 2005 17:14:03
I was right, BTW. Typically, a water cooled condenser can shave 50% off of operating costs.
Seer Units claim to save 25% to 50% power consumption. Their design is simular to what I have on paper. A water tower is required for units > 250 tons. However, the usage in domestic housing is almost non-existant. Units are out there in the 2-5 ton range.
My idea, is a module that attaches to an existing unit.
When I make mine, it shouldn't cost more than $50. On the website I was reviewing Toolbase, they use an integrated version. Water is sprayed on the coils (which I may do at first). This is what they say:
The key elements of the unit include multiple low-pressure water nozzles that spray a mist of water over the condenser coils to remove heat after the refrigerant is compressed. Water temperature can be maintained at about 10° F over wet bulb via heat absorbed through evaporation, which is then removed via a fan on top of the unit.
Unlike air cooled units, which lose in the range of 25 percent of their rated efficiency at temperatures exceeding 100° F relative to their SEER rating, the efficiency of an evaporative water cooled unit has a minimal drop.
In the past, evaporative cooled condenser units were used only in commercial applications. Now one manufacturer has a model that is designed specifically for the residential market.
I can improve on their design already.
Their design continually pumps water onto the coils. Mine will simply tie into the Condenser Fan wiring (with two snaps and a clamp, LOL) and use the existing basin. Nothing says there even has to be a pump by the way. It could be a water sprinkler system valve. That way, it could be easily adjusted.
A typical Las Vegas swamp cooler will lose 2 to 8 gallons of water day. The water is recycled, but that causes alkali build up and pump failure.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005 15:08:36
That idea, may be worth investing in. $200,000,000 total savings a month to Las Vegas homeowners seems significant.
Hmmm. When I say it like that, I'm thinking investors would be interested in what I've got to say. I need to build and test a prototype. My house is perfect for a test run. I also need current statistics to predict a more realistic savings.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005 14:40:11
Bouncing around with those Air Conditioner thoughts in my head.
I'm theorizing that a swamp cooled a/c could save 75% in power consumption.
To prove it, I'll monitored A/C usage from 8am to 8am using my thermostats statistices at say a setting of 76 degrees. Then I'll repeat the test with water trickling over the A/C's condensor coils. If it works, the next test would be to replace the expensive condensor fan on A/C unit with a smaller one.
Here's the real problem though: how would I market it?
FEAR would keep me from selling the device. I don't have a patent, the idea has already been patented I'm sure. I'd be infringing on someone elses rights. The power company would hate it, A/C repair people would hate it, less repairs....on and on. I would fear what the greedy people would do to me.
In my mind, the installation costs would be $500 per unit, and that's excessive.
I should be able to do it to my unit for $50 with 1 garden hose, 1 sump pump, and whatever swamp cooler pads cost. I could duct tape 2 pads on the side (my unit blows upward, and the coils are on the side), then run perferated water tubing along the topside of the pads (just like in a swamp cooler). The pump could be wired directly to the condenser fan's motor (before the start/run cap). The swamp for the unit is already in place in the unit. I'd just need to install the water level valve (whatever you call it) in the side of the unit.
Imagine saving Las Vegas homeowners $200,000,000 a month!
My setup would be ugly, but, if I could reduce my electric bills this summer by $300 a month, it would be worth it. I know my unit costs $3,200 a year because I've put it's usage in a spreadsheet. Now, imaging 1,000,000 houses saving $200 a month this summer! Doesn't that work out to $200,000,000 in Vegas alone? Wow.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005 13:38:37
Oh...Thanks Mikey
Instead of creating a whole slew of monthly blogs, I create them on demand. Apparently, you found that out! :)
Thanks dude.
Woke up this morning to the thundering sound of my air conditioner on the fritz.
Looking through my notes, I noticed paid $3,800 for a new compressor three years ago. It had a one year warrantee. Wow. What can you do? Anyway, being an ex-AC repair guy and knowing about everything you can know about those simple, but incredibly badly designed machines, I climbed up on the roof. The fan came off. It unscrewed itself. WHY THEY DON'T COME WITH LOCK WASHERS on the vibrating nuts, I'll never know. I took the damned thing apart and screwed the fan back in.
Notes on Air Conditioners - Why do engineers build them with their heads in their ass?
- Okay, my exhaust fan faces skyward. Thats dumb. The electicals in the motor catches rainfall. Sure, heat goes up, but its on a hot roof. The air is goes up! It's a perfect system for catching water and accumulating it in your AC Unit. If the drain is clogged, and they always are, the unit fills up with water.
- Compressors should never fail and freon should never leak. When is the last time you had your refrigerator recharged...I'd bet you NEVER HAVE. A/C units have valves installed that always leak. That is the only place they can leak. Hence, you get that $200 bill for a recharge every two years.
Compressors are in an enclosed environment. The oil is in the freon. Nothing can get in there, except for when someone shoots some air in there while recharging it with the freon. This is done so often too. The AC guy forgets to purge his lines before putting freon in, and air is in the lines. Moisture will cause damage if injected in the A/C's enclosed system. It freezes, causing a blockage, then the compressor eventually slugs, overheats and blows.
- Heat pumps cost next to nothing. They are a reversing valve that is activated by the heat control's low voltage. They simply reverse the functions of the coils. You would think they would be in every air conditioner in the country, but many of the A/C's have heat strips in them. They are essentially a short circuit that creates heat through an overloaded series of wires. Very expensive to operate, very dangerous, and very stupid. The engineer was dropped on his head when he was a baby I guess.
The ancient technology of freon free cooling has finally hit the shelves.
It's been around forever. Using electricity passing through diffent metals, that meet at a junction creates a hot and cold spot before that junction. But, now you see the chips in auto refrigerators and they a clunky at best.
My travel trailer's refrigerator had no moving parts, just like your great grandfathers refrigerator.
These are operated on an ammonia based system. They use heat, to cool. Your great grandfather probably used a candle in his fridge to keep it cold. These refrigerators never go bad. They just need to be kept level. The cost is cheaper than a hot water heater to operate. My travel trailer's fridge ran on gas.
The latest craze in Vegas is to use swamp coolers.
They do cost less, but a swamp cooler only cools 10 degrees from the outside air. Air Conditioners cool 15 degrees from the inside air. On the outside coils, you'll see a drop of thirty degrees between the inside of the coil and the outide of the coil. If energy wasn't lost due to friction, the inside would cool 30 degrees. Here's my point (finally): If water was run over the outside coils, like its run through a swamp coolers mesh, it would increase the coils efficiency by a 15 degrees drop. That translates into an enormous energy savings. Increasing the depth of the pan under the outside fan, installing a swampcooler water valve and a pump costs around $30 to do. Here in Vegas, it would save $100's per month, per household. THE CASINOS/HOTELS DO THAT HERE. The system used to be called a water tower.
If people weren't so damned greedy, the world could have enormous amounts of energy and food.
But I see it all around us, GREED! These devices are designed to break. Engineers build failure points in their devices for the maintenance profits. They build a crappy car, sell it, then work on it the rest of their life, rather than building a great one, then building something even better. There's no money in making light bulbs that don't burn out.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005 10:11:14
E/m=c2
Testing....

Tuesday, May 31, 2005 12:15:25 <Jim>
Today, I'm learning ASP programming.
But these popups are driving me CrAzy! They must be coming from some game site. I'm not sure, but, they are a complete pain-in-the-ass. I wouldn't buy something from them if they paid me (most say they will pay you). What gets me about these popups is they are for quality companies. Oh well.
SSI Includes. hmmm.
I want to use them for a common menu, but I keep running into problems with CSS. Also, I'd have have to strip off the html tags encapasulating each called program unless I intend to have each html doc embedded into each html doc. I know this is jibberish, but, I'll figure it out in the next hour.

Tuesday, May 31, 2005 11:43:20 <Jim>
Yesterday: We went to a pool party, ate at Grandmals, and watched Navigator with Sonny.
The day turned out to be half planned, half accidental, as usual.
- Robert
Asked us to bring our shampooer to his apartment. He rented a Uhaul and is moving ALL-THE-WAY-ACROSS-TOWN into a friends house! On a sad note, they're going to have to give up DOG, my guess is he'll be put to sleep. We'll miss all of them. He'll be living near Ann/Lone Mountain road.
- The Police
Eight police cars whizzed by us when we were going to the pool party.
And We followed them for the heck of it. They ended up about a mile from Sonny's condo. Apparently they were looking for a suspect on foot. We ended up standing outside of the condo with Sonny, watching the police setup a road block. I doubt if they caught him. You can always tell by the circling helicopter.
- Michelle's Pool Party
There were some kids there, but mainly it was a eat BBQ and lets get hammered party. We fit in nicely even though we don't drink. Michelle was lit up like Fremont Street. She told us her shake roof had no plywood under it and a bunch of other things I won't believe until I see it. Rico asked me to pick up some fireworks. Their neighbor harassed about parking near his house. lalala.
- Doris
Doris asked us to bring some of Grandmas food to her. She wasn't feeling well enough to come to Grandmas to join us for dinner, but later she called us and said to forget it, she was throwing up. I worry about her. She's 76 years old.
- Sonny
We bumped into Sonny at Hollywood Videos. It amazes me when we bump into him. We never see anybody we know anywhere any more. Sonny rented the Aviator (a story about Howard Hughs). It was interesting, and LONG. Sonny had to go home before it finished. He was passing out.
- Mikey
We chatted for hours. It's interesting that his laptop is having DVD decoder problems. Mine is too. They were working. All kind guess is it the drivers were removed by a virus protection program. Bummer.

Sunday, May 29, 2005 21:31:55 <Jim>
Mikey...Sorry about that 80 buckeroos
It's Mammorial Day tommorrow. We're going to a pool party, then a BBQ, and then we're gonna be burn out.
I'm going to see if I can give you the credit for hooking me up with 1and1 though. So far, 1and1 is giving me everything that I want...however, the news links and such that they are suppose to provide, I could have gotten them easily myself, by using frames. I used to do that a million years ago on one of my site versions.
GraMal saw Store Wars III with Paul.
Now, she didn't like it that much, too much violets.
Why Why Why didn't we go to Area 51. I was SO CLOSE!
I'm insane thats why. I am in Dreamland.

Sunday, May 29, 2005 13:30:15 <Jim>
I just tried to locate Becky's mom.
Delores called me back about Beckys mom.
She said that Becky's Mom may have gone to Mesquite without telling me. We were supposed to bring the kids back at 7pm last night, and we tried to get in touch with Becky's mom by phone, and by a message hung on the door. Nothing. Hmmm. Amongst other things Delores and I talked about, she said it was okay for BADD to open Renee's letter and to take my letter out...because I'm not saved. What's wrong with these people. Have they read the Bible so much that they've forgotten that great old piece of paper called the Constitution of the United States of Americe? When a letter is addressed to someone, only that person has the right to open it unless they gave up their rights.
It turns out Paul cut a cable that was sticking out of the ground.
Ummmm. He didnt' know what it was for. It turned out to be for his cable TV and telephone. Now, um, he's an electrician, and um, I'm not...but it cost 40 cents for a coax connector and you can respice it with a pair of pliers. hmmm. No comment on that.
So, everything was alright.
We ate over there and I attempted to fix their sliding glass door. Unfortunatly, Paul, on his day off was called in to help me lift the door off the track. The door just needed a couple of $7 rollers, BUT, Home Depot has 100s of them. You have to take the time to match them up, and Paul seemed like he was in a rush. We got the wrong ones. :(. The door ain't fixed.
Renee just called. Her number is 213-479-8827, but she couldn't give that number out.
She also doesn't know where she lives. Apparently, and this crude, Jesus doesn't like his followers to be educated. She's living in a trailer in Camp Joshua. It's a bunch of trailers, with clothes washing day on Thursday. They have to ask their overseer if its okay to give out its address and phone number. They have to get an okay for someone to visits I asked her if they called it a compound, but Renee didn't know what that meant, lol. hmmm. What a cCrRaZzZzYyyyY circle of people I've surrounded my self with.

Sunday, May 29, 2005 20:20:21 <Squirty's alter-ego>
HOWL!!!!! Great Movie....
Saw Steer Wars, Episode III - The Revenge of the Seth... Great movie. Fast paced, good story line, that closed up all the lines leading to Episode IV - New Hope, which was the first Steer Wars movie back in 1977. Graphics wonderful and in the process George Lucas didn't use even 1 inch of film (digitally recorded directly to HDD). Well worth taking Miss Rebecca to see.
JIMMY!!!!!!
You lost me 80 buckerinos?!?!?! And you know I would have split it with you. Well, you'll have to find another way to get the 80 luckerinos for me, so we can split it.
You should have gone deep onto Area 51 property.
I hear you get Military Cops on you pretty quick. It would have been a great test of that understanding. And a shame you couldn't swim. But you should have brought along Grand Mal and tossed her into the water.

Sunday, May 29, 2005 12:34:00 <Jim>
Every muscle in my body hurts!!!
After several passes, we finally hooked up with the Sheppard family and the (Ergon)party. We totalled to about 12 adults and 7 kids, and Squirt.
It would have been a nice little outting BUT, and this is a big BUTT:
We couldn't swim in the lake. It had parasites in it that would EAT you!
Out there in the middle of nowhere, there was no place to set up out 16' tent (with exception of Area 51 that is).
Bugs were everywhere!
The lake was pretty small.
The law enforcement people out there love to write tickets.
- Alamo is where Rob got his DUI (which in many ways, led to early his death).
- Tommy Sheppard got a ticket for not having a front license plate.
- A park person harassed me for stopping near a sign that said no parking. I wasn't parked, the engine was running, it was obvious I was looking for someone with my binoculars, and above all, we were in the middle of nowhere with a no parking sign next to us.
I told everyone there, that only 20 minutes up the road, was Area 51's 50th year anniversary party. You could see Groom Lake from the party campsite. Some of the most interesting people in the world were probably there. They had a band playing, a barbeque, and probably 1,000 people were camping out on the edge of Area 51. George Knapp was probably there along with Channel 8 news.
I couldn't believe it: nobody was interested in taking the 20 minute trip!
Well, we had no place to sleep, so we left at midnight.
Some strange things did happen, but they weren't UFO related.
Lights kept flickering over the nearby mountains.
Even though we were 90 miles away from Las Vegas, we could still see its glow.
The birds at the lake are migratory, and are very pretty.

Sunday, May 29, 2005 12:22:04 <Squirty's alter-ego>
Squawk Ident
More pilot talk Jimmy. Just can't help it as the past keeps creeping in and out of my wicked little dog brain (mish mash in dog talk)...
What be TO?
Yea, 1and1 seems to be pretty good, and cheap. Volume is what itr's all about in the hosting world, I suppose. Bark at them for a good service/price.
That John character is weird.
If he were there when you were, you would remember him. He is down right weird.
DVD in my liptop.
WOrks ok on all other discs (video) I have bought. And was playing that one (ER Disc 1) fine for 84 minutes before it went kooky. But then the same symptoms happened last night when I watched a DVD I burned back in decembe 2004 entitled "SAE does Hawthorne at Midnight", the sequel to "Debbie Does Dallas". I think it may be a transite problem. When I am checking into a new Extended Stay place real shorty, and have that external unit with me to try. Bark!!
Better get going
Want to unload the car, so I can go see the new Steer Wars movie this afternoon. HOWL!!! Darth Vader. Now, there is a guy GrandMal could love... Personally, I like the Senator/Queen who ends up being Luke and Princess Lia's mom by Darth Vader. A Harvard Grad (so she's brainy) and an Israeli by birth. Plus her daddy is a big time dr of medicine of some kind in NYC, so he's got loads of $$$. HOWL!!!!

Saturday, May 28, 2005 13:58:48 <Jim>
After getting all apathetic, I told everyone that Becky and I would go after we took the kids home.
I told everybody, that if I'm the one with enthusiam, and am going to pay for everything AND do all of the work, it just wasn't worth the effort.
That must have done the trick. Dustin even helped load the truck. It's taking 2 hours, but, it'll be worth every bit of the effort. The only bridge left to cross, is getting GMa to agree.
It is a rather special weekend.
Aliens, a factory party, our neighbors, bands, George Knap, maybe even the Channel 8 News crew will be out there in the middle of the desert. Some might even call it a once in a lifetime experience.

Saturday, May 28, 2005 12:00:57 <Jim>
I realize I don't have to be in Area 51 to be in Dreamland. I'm surround by a dreamland.
Everyone here is playing on the laptops. I tried to get everyone's attention by having them help me create a list of things we need for camping. I heard paper, pen, football, and no pillows or sleeping bags. Then I tried to get everyone to imaging 50 tents, kids, people eating, a band playing and Alien costumes. It didn't go very well.
This is all too strange.
Throw in Grandma's love for trashing outings...
We have to get Grandma's approval, and her contribution to the event. I think this event is a waste of mental effort. Last week we simply wanted to go swimming, but we had to buy bathing suits, but they had to be one piece.
The trip to LA with the travel trailer got ruined, because Becky and I would have been sleeping in the Truck bed on the ocean while they slept in the trailer.
The trip to Disneyland got trashed because Grandma changed her mind at the last moment and didn't tell me.
I'm in a world where nothing makes sense. The kids said Grandma was at the mall buying shoes for Dustin. I just bought Dustin some shoes 3 weeks ago. Then they said no, she already got them.
So I give up. I'm not doing anything! Days like today are why I want to get drunk.

Saturday, May 28, 2005 08:10:01 <Jim>
So, Ellis got divorced, and is out there someplace all alone...lol. He should live here!!!
I haven't heard from Ellis. I'll try to contact his butt to offer him consolation or congratulations (whatever applies).
I just learned that Area 51 was is having a party this weekend, near ALAMO, NV!
Now why couldn't have my neighbors told me that. I mentioned that the only reason I'd go camping in Alamo would be to see a parade UFO's flying over and eat an Alien burger. We could still go camping, but now, the time is so late, we'd have to jerk everybody around to get situated. Sheesh!
Jim McGnee..hmmm.
I don't recall him. But if he worked there when I did, he would have known me. I was like a god there. I controlled Valley Bank's Inn Switch and Atm Networks in Nevada, Arizona, California and Utah.
I got all the calls, had all of the logons. It's too bad I'm not a crook. I had every (barely) encrypted pin for every account they had! At one time, I could have drained every Atm in Vegas from their $'s if I wanted too.
Those guys were so lost!
Sounds like you may have an invalid Dvd decoder.
Only time will tell. They're invisible until they screw up.
I'm setting up my 1and1 accounts.
Thanks for T.O. Mike. They offer alot more for the same price as Earthlink. I can do ASP programming now. Beats the heck out of what I was doing. I was renaming my Html's with a PHP4 extension, just so I could use Server Side Includes (SSI). But Earthlink (the host for Cutlar Enterprises) only has a fraction of the services that 1and1 has, or they charge a million bucks for the addon.
I can use SQL 2000 on my sites now....Yippee
I'm going to leave my blogs in text format, because its simple data and you never have to convert Ascii files. I an still read my old diary from the 80's. I wish the same were true for jpgs and gifs though.
BTW - Knowing what I know about JPGs and GIFs
Its a good idea, if you've switched to digital photograpy like I have, to swing over to Walmart and print your pictures out. It's cheaper than printing them at home, and hard copies won't disappear when industry standards for photo's change. None of my nudie pictures from the 80's display and I really miss 'Anabella'.

Saturday, May 28, 2005 09:18:22 <Squirty's alter-ego>
You didn't take LVStud???
Seems that is the best one to describe Jimmy. You are studly, right?
Bark, Howl and Scratch...
Sitting here in a Starschmucks... Arpanetting away... Oh, what a good thing.. Go to get an eyeball exam at Noon and need glasses. And a new prescribion for Eye Ball Covers (contacts). The glasses I wear whn I don't have my contacts in are old, the prescription is old, and the frames don't fit right. The contacts have been bugging my eye balls of late, which prompted my exam.
Me don't know, as an ignorant Alter Ego
Like my english? Excuse me, I went to LV schools. I just found out yesterday that Mr. ELlis V. Hicks is no longer at that hospital in Antelope Valley, north end of LA, and that he got a divorce. One of my coworkers is a "bro" of Ellis's going way back in LA. Jimmy, have you heard from Mr. Hicks? Oh, and this coworker of mine contracted briefly at Valley Bank in Vegas, back in the late 80s. His name is John McGnee.. Do you know him? He says your name sounds fimiliar..
Going to go and see the new Steer Wars movie this weekend
HOWL!!!!!
Ordered some DVs from Amazon a few weeks ago.
One of them was first season box set of "ER". Love the show, and began buying "First Season box sets" of a lot of my favorite shows. Well, I was watching the pilot episode which you may imagine is on side 1 of disc 1 (of 4 discs). About 90 minutes in, my liptop goes wacky, and cpu usage goes up to 99%, the screen freezes and audio stops. I had to hard reboot. Went and tried it with a different software (DVD movie reader) package and same thing. So I sent Amazon a note saying I think I have a bad disc. It looks ok, and it is clean. This was with the internal DVD+/-RW dual layer DVD drive internal to my liptop. I have a Plextor external DVD+/-RW reader/writer I bought about 9 months ago that is currently in a storage unit. I am going to plug that in and see if I get the same thing. But AMazon is great. Within and hour, I got an email that said they are sending me another copy of the box set from a different batch and if the problem exists with that copy, I am stuck. Maybe go to Warner Bros (producer of the discs). But the replacements were sent within hours, free of charge (pending my returning one copy or another in a prepaid package within 30 days. Bark, Lick..

Friday, May 27, 2005 23:29:20 <Jim>
I just acquired 5 websites.
They are lvdude, lvdarlings, lvshots, lvirus and lvtoys. This should be fun!
The sites are all MS .Net configurations with SQL 2000 and Access if I want it. Plus they have 10 chat rooms. It'll take a week or two to set up, but, once I get through it all, I could make some money.
I told Becky she could be the madaam at lvdarlings.com
The plan would be to get high class call girls to sign up for the service, and then market to Japanese tourist who'll pay to connect with them...hehehehe...just kidding (maybe).
Ya know, I probably should have taken lvguy over lvdude...lvbabe was open too.
It's hard to come up with catchy Domain names. KewlThings, lv69, lvstop, lvgo, lvguns, a bunch of them were available.

Friday, May 27, 2005 14:27:02 <Squirty's Alter Ego>
I don't know...
I don't know how I do that. Looking the same. I know I've packed on a lot of pounds recently, but otherwise, I'd agree I probably look a lot like I did 10, 15 or 20 years ago. Maybe longer.
That's why....
I think I look at pictures of friends I've known most of my life, and I think they look older than me. And by a lot. Or when I see someone, say a business leader or politician, or some such person being described on television, and I say to myself, "Damn, he looks like he's 75". And he's really 48, 3 years younger than me. Has something to do with me making a pact with the devil that the closer you are to me, the quicker you'll start to look old. Just Kidding. Me just dun't know why, as the uneducated would say.
I'll call you over the weekend, Jimmy.
Have only three things planned for the long weekend. Wash my clothes, go and see the new Steer Wars movie and move back to one of the Extended Stay places closer to work. Will probably try and clean my storage unit a bit, as it has gotten to be a mess. And then, just maybe, I can go to Disney World next weekend. HOWL...

Friday, May 27, 2005 10:20:27 <Jim>
They say there's a twin for everybody in this world.
- Looking at my pictures from 4 years ago, I'm not even my own twin!
I've had blonde hair, red hair, brown hair, black hair, short hair, long hair, a perm, a beard, a goatie, a mustache, no mustache. I had no eyebrows (I accidentally trimmed half of one off and had to balance them out). My teeth change color daily, depending on how much coffee I drink. I've weighed 160lbs, 205lbs, and now I'm back to 185lbs.
- You should see the pictures of Becky 4 years ago!!! LOL.
She had school teacher glasses and brown curly hair. Now she's hot to the touch!
- Mikey, I noticed you still look pretty much the same. How do you do that?

Friday, May 27, 2005 12:01:17 <Squirty's Alter Ego>
Oh, by the way....
There is a contractor here who is a dead ringer for Sonny. Looks alot like him, and even kinda walks like Sonny. Twin maybe?
HOWL!!!!

Friday, May 27, 2005 08:39:52 <Squirty's Alter Ego>
Terrible commute and oversleeping
Howl... Extended Stay America is that hotel chain I used a lot in Basten (aka: Boston, the Hell Hole of America) in 1999/2000 and a bit in LA while I was at Northrop. That place we went during your Malibu trip, where the guy was humping the window was one of their properties.
Well, I had stayed about 2 in each of two of their properties that are right next door to each other, 5 minutes from work. Both these locales had hi speed wireless Internet for 3.99 per stay (yes, per stay). Well, the rooms were ~47/day plus 11% tax. They have a property on the other end of town for 31/day with no internet. That is, unless you want to deal into an ISP.
Traffic in this town makes LA, NT or LV look like a pie of cake. Down right terrible traffic. The place is 20 miles away from work and it takes 90 minutes. Plus, I've just been tired and sleeping too much.
Met your friend face to face for the very first time Wednesday. Yea, Kevin came to town to kiss M2's behind. I couldn't lay into him in the 5 minutes I saw him in the office, with people around. But I told him I wanted to talk and I wasn't too happy. Whatever comes from it, I am upset that he can and did treat my friend Jimmy, the way he did. He needs to hear that that isn't the right way to conduct business, even there in the Hell Hole of America, where he lives, Massachusetts.
Well, time to get to work. That darn four letter word, that ends in "k" and has a vowel as a second letter.
SAE

Thursday, May 26, 2005 21:32:53 <Jim>
We got invited to a campout with 50 other people...In Alamo, Nevada
Now, I gotta ask anyone out there, what the heck is in Alamo. I can't even get population statistics on that place. These people work for a company thats having an outing at Lake Pahrampa, or something like that. It's a small lake with few fish, and I think its a salt water lake. Anyway, the only redeming thing I could find about the place is its 20 miles from Groom Lake, and 15 miles from Racheal, Nevada. It could fun to have an Alien Burger.
I think we'll pass though. It's 110 miles away, which would cost $50 in gas round trip.
We saw Jennifer sing in her chorus tonight
Those hour long skits are SO CUTE!!! I always laugh, smile, and cry abits.
Allen is headed back to Missouri tommorrow morning.
He said he's HATES big cities. According to him, Virginia has too many spics (is it spics or spooks). I guess he means Hispanics.
Me, I appreciate the diversity of ethnic origins in Vegas. I love the different styles of cooking, but I hate the different styles of music. As long as its not blasted at me I don't mind.
I haven't heard from Mikey in awhile.
Hopefully everything is alright. I hope he's not blowing me off because of that headhunter, or what Becky said. I think of him as a brother, and a brother to me, is always a brother, through good times or bad.

Wednesday, May 25, 2005 23:32:54 <Jim>
Becky mentioned my blog, that I talked about dying.
Well, I do think about it. I guess I'm kind of irritated about when I was born. If I was just born 50 years later, I'd have a chance to be immortal.
Unless there's a radical change in our thinking, big business and politics will kill billions of people by inaction.
The main goal for mankind should be this...to extend life.
Not a petty little five years of it, a million years of it. We have the technology to do it. The world is dragging its feet. 120,000 people die everyday of old age related symptoms. Old age is a curable disease. Maybe not today, but tommorrow or perhaps in the next 50 years.
I don't want much from life, if I can't have more of it. I've seen my death 1,000 times in my mind, from 5 years to 500 years past my end.
So, what's the point of hanging out if you can't have fun. That's all I'm saying.
All I'm doing right now, is having a good time and I love it! And I'm going to take Becky with me on my little magic carpet ride. Wherever we end up, it's going to be an adventure. And it sure beats looking at cubical walls every day.

Wednesday, May 25, 2005 21:45:54 <Jim>
I should apologize for myself.
- I'm not afraid of dying, and I'm not afraid of living.
  I should be more like everybody else.
- I'm not opposed to eating cows, pigs, mushrooms from a pasture, or anything I've never tried before.
  I should hate everything I haven't tried. I should find reasons to dislike food.
- I should hate a group of people for their color, religious beliefs, sex orientations or ethnic origin.
  That's the way we were raised, and we shouldn't change.
- I should stick with a career for my entire life.
  If I am good at something, I shouldn't change.
My Grandfather called black people niggers.
I know people that hate rice and others that hate potatos even though they are flavorless.
My Dad has lived his whole life being afraid of death. Every inch of the way, he was deathly ill.
My Uncle was an engineer for the railroad all of his life. He was good at it. That was all he did.
It's our own fears, dislikes, and unfounded beliefs that limit us in this life.
To let go of life is to live.
Everyone will be saved, but not by some guy wearing a sheet.

Wednesday, May 25, 2005 21:07:46 <Jim>
I slapped together 4 more Simpson Video Poker game today.
I'm thinking of converting them to use php. The problem I have with making sweeping changes to my website is its inability to cut and paste items. I can't move items. I have to copy, then delete them. I suppose that's what MOVE doe anyway, but, it would be nice if I could keep the traffic localized to the web server.
It's been a quiet day.
- I wrote a letter to Joe Leblanc, telling him about Skip and his rehab.
- I'm crocking 2 cups lima beans, 6 cups water, 1/2 cup chopped onions and 1 ham hock. It should be good eating. I've never crocked anything before.
- I noticed yesterday that Long Horn's Casino has a 20oz Porterhouse steak dinner for $15. That would be $12 a pound if it was just steak. Anyway, I wanted to compare that prices with the local Albertsons, and found they don't sell Porterhouse steak there. WOW. Guess our neighborhood isn't rich enough. This fellow suggested I try a Mexican meat market (no, I'm not kidding) that's just around the corner from my house. Their meat prices were half that of Albertsons. I wondered how they could do that.
- We bought coke, sprite, sangria, and 7-up, IN THE BOTTLE at the Mexican meat market. They were dated 1993.
I think Coke tastes 100% better in a bottle. It was EXCELLENT!
I shouldn't play with colors...hehe.

Tuesday, May 24, 2005 23:32:25 <Jim>
It was a nice day. Robert squared up with me
I took him to cash his check (his car was repoed). We ate at the Long Horn. Watched the baby play with everything. It was cool.
I saw Darla at the Long Horn
She barely noticed me, barely talked to me, but we exchange a smile. She's been working there for 14 years, and I knew her when she was a Rebel station clerk. It's funny, this girl, who I've known almost 17, who asked me if I'd loan her $6,000 one time, just barely acknowledged my existence.
Time changes all things.
We took Joy and her baby to Quick Care
Two of them actually. They all now close at 7:30pm. Oh well, it was interesting driving around with a bag of baby doodoo in the back seat. LOL. Amy's had diarrea for 3 days now. I guess that's a big deal for babies. What do I know?

Monday, May 23, 2005 17:46:56 <Jim>
I just got an idea for a free energy source!
Becky and I are both playing the heck out of that Video Poker game. The sound of mouse clicking fills the air.
My idea is to install generators on the mouses and hook them up to a battery. LOL.

Monday, May 23, 2005 17:39:40 <Jim>
Well, I'm satisfied with my Simpson's Video Poker
It's under GAMES | Simpson's Video Poker
It's cool. I added a little ATM machine to it for realism, but, it wouldn't be immediately understandable to those not addicted to Video Poker, so I took it out.
Sonny, Becky and I are going to Hush Puppies, I think.
Last week we broke with tradition and went to Applebee's. It was good. I think tonight I'll break with tradition and order Steak...lol.
I am still a little disappointed about the headhunter week, last week.
I was programming when that headhunter was in elementary school. Where have I heard that before? Its too bad that younger people think 4 years is a long time. For me, it seems like a month.

Sunday, May 22, 2005 23:28:57 <Jim>
We watched "What the Bleap Do We Know" tonight.
If ever there was a movie that targetted me, this was it. All the odd things that I've put on my blog about God, Love, People, Heaven, Life, Science...it was all in this movie. I'm so glad I'm not alone in my way of thinking.
What I liked was how simple they made Quantum Physics
Nothing is complicated, unless you don't know how to explain it to yourself. The next dimension is where everything that can be possible exists before a given event happens. In other words, its the possibilities of anything happening. But to hear it explained, well, its mystical. After all, anything is possible, right?
This software I wrote anticipates certain keyboard entries with the objects I've provided. BUT, I don't anticipate a power outage, CTRL-ALT-DELETE, a plane crashing through the roof of my house, even though all of those things are possible. That, is the science of Quantum Physics. With that, quantum particles can exist in two places at the same time. It is possible.
I liked what they said about atoms and the space between the proton and electron.
It was more than obvious in high school that somethings in physics was wrong. If a vacuum can't exist, if theres no such thing as nothing, if an element is the smallest form of matter, then what fills the area between the electron and the proton. Stupid question for a 10th grader to ask I guess. BUT...

Saturday, May 21, 2005 16:29:27 <Jim>
Back from Walmart, the pool, and Albertsons
Picked up bathing suits at Albertsons and Sodas at the pool. The we swam at Walmart.
Wait. That can't be right!

Friday, May 20, 2005 13:18:51 <Jim>
I reamed a headhunter, but he deserved it.
He decided not to represent me for whatever reason. Then he dodged my inquiries. Whether anyone thinks so or not, one of my options was to represent myself. I shouldn't trust people who make their living brokering people.
The whole thing about dealing with headhunters: the secrets, the kissing up, the shady business dealings under the table; none of these are not my style.
Like I said previously, my style is to land a position before it opens up, and that requires dealing directly with those responsible for making the hiring decisions. Middlemen just get in the way.
I'm sorry I asked someone to lie for me.
That was wrong on my part. If someone offered to lie for me, that would be okay. But I asked someone to lie for me and that is not okay. I need to recheck my character more often.
I still think the secret to landing a job is to do what everyone else is NOT doing.
If you do what everyone else does, you're decreasing your odds for success. You are competing with a crowd and there is always someone more skillful out there. My methods work for me, but if everyone used them, they wouldn't.

Thursday, May 19, 2005 14:21:46 <Jim>
Bliss - A Perfect Moment in Time
We got back from the store the other day. Squirt jumped all over me, just like he always does. Then I went to the backyard and he started running in circles. His ears were flying behind him as he went from corner to corner. He was so happy! I came inside later and gave Becky a grateful hug. The world had a peaceful glow to it that I haven't seen in a long time. It was then that I realized that I have everything I had ever wanted in life. I wish the same to everyone who may read this log.

--- This is Your Life, So Enjoy It! ---
This may be your only life. Today may be your last day. So enjoy it while you can.

Thursday, May 19, 2005 11:33:20 <Jim>
This is an important difference between how I've gotten jobs in the past.
All the rules about what I am supposed to do (mentioned below) are reversed.
- You always contact whoever you want to work for.
- You call your contact on a weekly basis.
- You only applying for a job, after you have it lock on it.
- If your contact doesn't come through for you, contact someone hirer in the organization.
- If the hiring manager is forced to hire you, he'll think you have pull from his boss, and he'll let you through.
To me, going through headhunters is like begging for work. I'm good at programming, and I don't feel I should beg.
With a little game playing, the whole process can be turned around.

Thursday, May 19, 2005 11:00:21 <Jim>
What this whole job hunting procedure lacks is: CONTROL
It would be like asking St Peter to let you into the pearly gates when it's Gods decision. LOL.
For most of my life, I've pushed my own way into organizations through networking. I've never hired anyone to find a job for me. Now, I'm dealing with headhunters who do get paid for finding me a job, and it's added a level of difficulty to the process.
Today, I found out that the company's name in Orlando, Florida is M2
Why didn't I have that in my notes? The Orlando position has always been referred to as "an openning in Orlando". That's all the info I had on the bank.
I haven't gotten to highlight my Base 24 experience or anything of my other experiences, simply because, I have not been adequetely represented.
- It is supposed to be my responsibility to keep track of who I've applied for.
- It's supposed to be taboo to apply for the same job twice.
- It's supposed to be out of the question to contact the place you're applying too.
And if you play this game, you may get hired, if the headhunter likes you.
Hmmmm...I'm baffled.
I believe I can selectively land any job I desire with a list of busines names and contacts.
Isn't that exactly what the headhunters have that I don't.
I believe that the best strategy for landing a job is to contact the employer BEFORE a position comes available.
Or is that bad logic?
I don't have a list like that because it requires Cold Calling.
I'm going to finish my little video poker game
I'm going to use it and my website to establish job connections. The time I'm spending on writing the game won't be wasted.

Thursday, May 19, 2005 10:35:48 <Jim>
I left another message on Kevin Callanan answering machine
Man...this would not be happening if I knew who and where to contact in Orlando Florida.
I don't even know the name of where Mike is working.
I don't know if my resume has been submitted.
I can't get in contact with Kevin (who would be representing me)
The openning from Monday is probably filled by now.
If, for some reason, a headhunter doesn't want to represent me, he should tell me.
I feel it is unethical to keep someone that is depending on your service, from seeking service elsewhere.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005 09:11:06 <Jim>
I found my camera.
It was inside the Sunday paper. How it got there is another good question.
Nothing like this would have never happened with my 35mm Minolta, lol.
I sent an email to a group of people with a link to my Video Poker program
BUT, McCafee displayed a message complaining about it. Outlook says it was sent, but somehow, I doubt it since I was in the list.
D'OH!

Tuesday, May 17, 2005 18:45:26 <Jim>
It's FINISHED (after 3 days of dinking). My Simpsons Video Poker game has arrived!!!
Click Here: Simpson Video Poker
It's pretty cool. The first time it loads, it takes awhile though.
It was blast putting it together. The code was a breeze, but the graphics took forever to assimulate.
Resistance was futile!!!
hehe. Larry Lewis mentioned that they hired a guy just because of the things he put on his website. I agree. The best calling card is a call girl
---strike---
The best resume is a one that works!

Tuesday, May 17, 2005 12:35:59 <Squirty's Alter Ego>
Jimmy... Check the email I just sent you....
Oh heck, I just looked in the mirror, and saw my "mush Mush"... Scary sight... SAE

Tuesday, May 17, 2005 04:18:23 <Jim>
It finally dawned on me, how to get to XP's command window in any folder easily from file explorer.
Create a something.bat file containing the following:
cmd
Then click on it in the file explorer window.
Difficult problems most often have a simple, but easily overlooked solution.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005 04:08:43 <Jim>
Couldn't sleep. My new camera is missing. I'm sure it was stolen. I know who stole it too.
I could be wrong but I'm not. Robert brought one of his friends over. After they left, low and behold, my camera turned up missing. I keep it next to my laptop. It couldn't be more obvious who took it. That sux!

We fixed Sonny's doors yesterday. He took us to Applebee's.
And the food was excellent (all except for their crusty bread pudding). Sonny was going to order Fish and Chips and I mentioned they had polupa. His eyes lit up! He ended up getting the polupa fish. What the hell is polupa fish?!?!
The Orlando job was filled.
Shoot! The headhunter route is a bumpy road to travel. I'd be so much better off pulling myself into some place through upper level management. If I go this route, I'd be best off calling my local contacts and have them tell a few white lies for me (that I've been spot working for them). Hmmm.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005 05:21:39 <Squirty's alter-ego>
Kinda quite on the Jimmy BLOB
Howl....

Sunday, May 15, 2005 19:07:09 <Squirty's alter-ego>
Beatles.... Chic-a-go.... Maybe U2
You are the one who mentioned U2... But I am a Beatles, Chic-a-go and CLassical Puppy Alter-Ego.. How was Sonics?
How was Sonics?
I laid down for a while, got up and started straighting up this room, and disconnected some of the more kooky hardware from my liptop like the zip drive, web cam....
Now listening to the great and all knowing Beatles. Some classics
Saw Richard Starkey (aka: Ringo Starr) on a infocommercial about rock 'n roll. And it got me in the mood. They are still so classy.
Out for now, Sir Jimmy....

Saturday, May 14, 2005 16:13:00 <Jim>
Becky, Jennifer, Dustin and I saw the Centennial Parade on Fremont.
It lasted over 4 hours, and was WAY BETTER than the Saint Patricks Day parade.
Jennifer made my day by losing my polaroid sunglasses.
I've had them for 10 years. She had for 2 hours. Lost.
We started off the day all wrong.
I asked everyone if they wanted to go the parade. Dustin said he didn't want to go. He wanted to play Uno (the most mindless game on the planet). So, we all played Pachisi. But getting anybody to pay attention longer than one minute was impossible. Finally, after Jennifer left to yell at Dustin, I blew up.
I said, "Hey Look", "Becky and I just want to have FUN!
If you want to argue, if you don't want to do anything we want to do, FINE! Your going home, and we'll have fun with Sonny. We don't need to you wreck our day!". After that, they decided to have fun.

Saturday, May 14, 2005 00:10:10 <Jim>
Sonny, Becky and I went to the Fremont Experience.
There were at least 3,000 people there. They had 2 bands, 1 sax player, and a western town setup. We saw two shows. It was very nice. Its the Vegas's Centiniel Celebrations.
Tommorrow they're cutting up a 130,720 pound pound cake at Cashman Field.
It's the worlds largest cake. But Why You Ask? hehe.
I drove Sonny's new (old) car.
The more I'm exposed to that car, the more I wonder about my advice to Sonny. It still needs work. On the other hand, he's out $1,900 on it and it runs good. My truck cost me $30,000. Hmmmm. When I look at it that way, there's no way fixing up an old car can out cost the expense of a new on. He didn't really do so badly then.

Friday, May 13, 2005 17:04:56 <Jim>
Pat Hill called. I changed around my Resume for Denver's SIS
I think thats the name of it anyway.
I swear, my resume has been changed more than my mind. I must be on version 15,000 by now.
Sonny's windshield got replaced.
It only costs $125 for a new one (from South West Glass)
The more we learn about that car, the more we find busted. Strange things too. Right now, it needs a left front blinker bulb, a right front blinker lens, the drivers door lock replaced, the rear passenger door handle connected, a dome light, and a cover for a missing equalizer. I think that's about it though.
My truck needs a few things too.
A windshield wiper module...well, that's about it. But that's enough I'd think.
Sunday would be a GREAT DAY for going to a junk yard.
God I lovem!

Thursday, May 12, 2005 21:31:39 <Jim>
Ho Hum. Sonny got his car smogged. It was (and almost always is) the O2 sensors.
That's what I've learned anyway. What a racket! They cost $100 each x 2, plus $120 to install, and they do almost no good whatso ever. They do help to adjust the fuel mixture at different altitudes though.
So, Sonny's set back:
= $1,300 car purchase
+ $300 for the smog
+ $125 for the windshield
+ $150 for a tune up, oil change and transmission service
= $1,875.
The Blue Book is $3,700. He made out just fine.
That's very nice. He knows exactly what he's got now.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005 20:14:51 <Jim>
Hell-of-a-day for excitement.
Sonny came over and we went car hunting.
We came across a car dealership owner (Dave) on Nellis.
He said: for Transmissions work go to Dis or Dat (see Ernie)
...for Windshield replacement call Southwest Glass (Dan), $125, they come out.
Sonny, Chuck, the Police, all the neighbors, EVERYBODY was here!
The police came about a truck that's been parked across the street for a month now. It's going to be towed. Rico, the neighborhood kids, and a bunch of others were hanging out for the excitement.
Chuck just flew by on his motorcycle. He said howdy, told us he is living at #391 Pueblo Del Sol.
Pretty cool events happenning everywhere.
Sonny's car may have been a mistake. I led him into buying it.
It failed the smog check, and since it wasn't sold at a Dealership, its got to be tuned. It's a gamble. But, it's 60% off the Blue Book value. So, if Sonny had to pump $1,700 into it for a new motor, he'd STILL be better off than buying from a car lot.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005 20:13:06 <Jim>
Got it...I want that job too!
And I won't except NO for an answer...lol.
Seriously, I suppose I'd rather be a God behind a keyboard than a God behind a steering wheel.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005 15:49:37 <Squitry's Alter Ego>
Jimmy - check your email for something from me. Or call me on my cellulite #
If you are interested in trying to get in here where I am working, call me ASAP....

Wednesday, May 11, 2005 09:58:36 <Jim>
Shakespeare added over 2,000 words to the English language. Microsoft and IBM added more...
Programs are programs, whether they are called a command, object, program, dll, server, requestor, library or whatever...
Every program has input.
It can be called properties, methods, params, input, arguments, data or whatever.
Every program has processing.
It can be a section, paragraph, function, method, subroutine or whatever..
Parts of a program can be triggered many ways.
It's just not called the same thing in every language.
Every program has some kind of output.
It is all data. It can be data, returned, displayed, echoed, printed, written, alerted...whatever.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005 08:53:49 <Jim>
OMG - Pat Hill just called. He was concerned about my knowledge of OOP.

I didn't state my experience clearly in my Resume. 
I'd doing Object oriented programming since it came out in the 90's (I think).
But I was programming in Pascal in the 80's. It was very object oriented.
Object Oriented Programming (OOP)
Using or Declaring an Object, then using its events, using methods, and using or setting it's properties.
Objects in Javascript: (Date=object, setDate=method)
var xx = new Date(); //sets xx to the number of miliseconds since January 1st, 1970
xx.setDate(1);//sets the day of the month to 1
Events in HTML/Javascript: (window=object status=property onClick=event)
<a href="http://www.cutlarenterprises.com" onClick="javascript:window.status='Home clicked'">Home</a>
Properties in Cobol/Tal: (GETSTARTUPTEXT=object, GET-STARTUPTEXT-TEXT=a property)
 01 GETSTARTUP-MESSAGE.
    05 GETSTARTUP-PORTION            PIC X(8)        VALUE "STRING  ".
    05 GETSTARTUP-RESULT             PIC S9(4)       VALUE ZEROS.
    05 GETSTARTUP-TEXT               PIC X(100)      VALUE SPACES.
     ENTER "GETSTARTUPTEXT" OF SYSTEM-COBOL-LIB
           USING GETSTARTUP-PORTION, GETSTARTUP-TEXT
          GIVING GETSTARTUP-RESULT.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005 19:05:00 <Jim>
MMmmmmMMmmmm. We just smoked some baby back ribs!
They were delicious! Sam's Club had them on sale for @$2.13 a pound, and they were very meaty. We used hickory for the smoke chips, cooked at 220 for 3 hours. Tender, juicy and flavorful, and...better than the Stratosphere Restaurant.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005 11:20:06 <Jim>
This is a test. This is just a test.
I'm trying to find out where my date info went.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005 11:18:32 <Jim>
Wow
For some reason my software didn't add the date time info?

<Jim>
COBOL - here are the commands
Accept, add, call, close, compute, copy, delete, display, divide, evaluate, exec, go to, if, initialize, inspect, merge, multiply, open, perform, read, rewrite, search, select, set, sort, start, stop, string, subtract, unstring, and write.
I used these commands for 17 years. Why would I forget them in 3 years?
I just don't get how being out of the programming market for three years could be a problem. LOL.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005 11:08:53 <Jim>
Aw shoot. The Mirage has an openning I know I'd be a shoe in for. But it's QA.
The thought of testing a lazy programmers program kind of irks me. Especially when I know I could out code them at anytime.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005 11:06:21 <Jim>
Sonny could use a 'babe magnet' car.
But he's Sonny, after all. He's been happy with hand-me-downs all of his life. This is a guy who drove a Volkswagon with no radio and no air conditioning for 10 years. And he bought it brand new.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005 07:20:23 <Squirty's alter-ego>
From my car chasing experience...
My experience chasing cars helps I think in determining which car to get and thus, where you get it. I find Ferarris amd Massaratis great cars to chase because they pretty cars to look at, and draw alot attention. And my favorite thing is that they are usually driven fast enough to prevent me from over running them and my actually hitting the back end of them with my "mush mush" (dog terminalogy for "nose").
Sonny needs a car to attract the hot show babes there in LV
So, besides from picking from one of those two brands, pick on in cherry red. HOWL!!! Hot Vegas Babes!!!!
Buying from a private party or a used car lot has to be the worst. Maybe stick to a new or used car from a REAL dealership. Like go to a local Ford dealership and visit their used car lot. Those blokes are still used car salesmen, but they're leaps and bounds better than those corner lots.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005 01:04:12 <Jim>
In taking Sonny around car shopping, I've heard every kind of lie imaginable.
And we haven't even seen a car dealer yet! Everything amazes me these days.
One guy must have called me 'friend' 20 times. He told me he was going to sell his $1,700 car in the paper for $2,600 if he didn't sell it that day. Then he said we could have it for $1,400. Then he said he just put it up for sale, and he could hold it for $100. Then he said someone else offered him $1,500.
This other guy told us he was reselling a car for a car dealer. He said don't worry about the smog, you can get any car smogged with a little extra cash under the table. I didn't want to know anything more. We walked away.
These people who sell cars, can't they come up with anything more original?
"This car was owned by a little old lady who only drove it on Sundays" would be a refreshing lie.
Why do they think everyone how walks up is a blithering moron?

Monday, May 09, 2005 23:13:17 <Jim>
Greed and stupidity
It's no wonder society's transportation is evolving towards mopeds instead of flying cars. You can see it clearly from the top of the Stratosphere. People, driving down the interstate, travelling at different speeds, rushing to the next inevitable impediment. They want to go faster even if it causes problems. They have no thoughts on society as a whole.
I watched people in a one mile stretch, bumper to bumper in the fast lane, travelling no more than 5 mph faster than the others. Don't they realize they will only be ahead 1/12th of a mile in one minute? Don't they realize the next traffic jam they will run into, will be caused by people just like them.
Everyone could go faster and life could be better, if it wasn't for greed and stupidity.
But then again, isn't this the problem with mankind as a whole?
With capitolism as a ruling power, greed and stupidity works. For people, it's all about screwing every species on this planet, even our own. That makes us parasites, and we don't even know it.

Monday, May 09, 2005 21:52:29 <Jim>
We ate at the Stratosphere
I made reservations for 5:30pm and that was a mistake! The prices more than quadruple after 3:30pm. The cost, for three people, no alcohol, 1 appetizer, 1 salad, 1 soup, 1 prime rib and 1 fish filet....$180 with tip. Tea and coffee cost $20. WOW!!! Good thing Sonny was paying...lol.
The views on the top of the Stratosphere at night were incredible.
However, the wind outside had to be at least 30mph. It was gusty.
The winds were so strong that:
...A jumper could end up in Utah!
...The Flying Nun could chase Nellis's fighter jets.
...I could swear that I saw light bending
...Marilyn Monroe would have lost her dress.
Becky was wearing a dress. She went out. Then came back in immediately...hahaha.

Sunday, May 08, 2005 21:15:58 <Jim>
On airline flights? Does the leg go between the segments, or does the segment go between the legs?
I worked for Royal West in another life here in Vegas. Course they went Belly Up with me, Rob and five other people as the survivors, and of course Frank McDonald went on with TSI...blah blah blah. Anyways, while there, we had to learn the airline lingo. The legs of a flight go between its segments, very confusing.
I laughed my ass off at your log entry Mikey!
I especially like the comedy skit about being so Fat!
I told Jennifer, Becky, Dustin and Grandmal today that I was just going to continue being Fat, Dumb and Ugly. Then Jennifer said that I wasn't Ugly. Then I had to tell Jennifer I was out of reward dollars.
Being fat isn't half as much fun as getting there!
We just got back from the Outback. And I just made an ice cream/whipped cream, rasberry/chocolate syrup and strawberry thingy. It is incredibly delicious!
I decided today that I'm going to live to be 55.
I'm going to die on a toilet from being constipated from having too much bleu cheese on my Outback salad.
WHAT A WAY TO GO!
By thinking that way, I realize I can smoke my brains out, eat a whole cow for dinner, and ride shakey old roller coasters. In short...I can ride the Stratosphere's Tower Rides and the Las Vegas Monorail without fear of dieing. YEAH!
Sonny, Becky and I are eating dinner at the Stratosphere tommorrow
I'm gonna run Sonny around car hunting tommorrow and afterwards, he's gonna spring for dinner (its his turn). We're getting SO FAT that we'll probably have to take separate elevators. I wouldn't be surprised if we cause its rotating restaurant to malfunction like an out of balance washing machine.

Sunday, May 08, 2005 22:29:54 <Squirty's alter-ego>
Yes, SF is where men are women, women are men and verybody thinks it's normal that way...
That is what is great about the far east bay (20 miles, maybe, east of Oakland). Much of that liberalism killed by conservativism... Hurray..
Trip back to Orlando a royal pain in the rump. HOWL!!!
Had to change planes in Houston, with a 90 minute layover. Nothing to do, and the plane coming to take us to Orlando is late. Leave Houston an hour late. ANd I have gotten so freaken fat I can't barely fit into the few slightly larger seats in the front row and over the wings in Southwest Aerolines configured 737s. And another 1/8" in the gut, and I'll need a seat belt extender. OUCH!! On that Houston to Orlando run, I got the head flight attendant all upset. Cute, young blonde, but she kept calling the plane a "Series 700".
Boeing Aircraft and the way they name their aircraft
The numbers you usually hear are "Series" numbers. For example 707, 717, 727, 737 up through the 777 are "Series". And many times they leave off the first "7". So, you have a "Series 747", usually called a "Four 7" by pilots, and such. There are many models within each Series. For example, the actual 737 (only type of aircraft SWA flies)we were flying that leg from Houston was a "Series 737, Model 700". One reason SWA is one of just several airlines making money, in part, is the fact that they only fly one aircraft. All airlines have to hire, say 40% more pilots, than they need to operate. Kinda complicated why, has to deal with FAA certifying pilots. Plus, SWA doesn't have to hire mechanics who also much be certified by the FAA (either Airframe, or Mechanical - engines, such) or buy parts except for "the 37".

Saturday, May 07, 2005 19:57:33 <Jim>
Ahhhhh, San Franscisco. Where women are women, and men are too!
Just kidding. I think male cross-dressers dress better than most women!!!
Jennifer, Dustin, Robert, Joy and Amy are here.
We had spaghetti and bananana splits!
It's been a movie kind of day. Bionicle is playing now, and actually its pretty good for a cartoon. The rest of the day was nice to. My brain got to sleep while Willy Wonka, Goosebumps and Baby Genius's was showing!
OUCH! I just noticed in the time I was typing this in, everybody's eating their banana splits on the cOuCh!
What a mess: chocolate/rasberry syrup, chocolate/regular whipped cream, strawberrys, pinapple, and bananas..!

Saturday, May 07, 2005 17:26:53 <Squirty's alter-ego>
Howl!!
Me down right tired. It's 2:30pm, and as soon as the KY Derby race is over, I will sleep for 2 or 3 hours. Then I will get up and work out at the hotel. They have a room set up with a bike, treadmill, etc. I will then shower and go out for din-din.
Ran my errands, went to Pete's, Fly's and got my haircut already today.
Me have not girls, no ports, just something to deposit in those ports. HaHa..
Geri and I discussed BB King's recent award here in SF, when I told her the joke I heard back in 1994, shortly after I moved to the bay area. BB's wife supposed gets a "B" tattooed on each butt and he gets upset when she shows it to him because he didn't know who was this character, BOB...
I am in the east bay, and "far" east bay - Dublin to San Ramon to Danville and Concord. I will be as close to SF as you will be to Hoover's Darn, so I probably won's see Skip to have him slap me.

Saturday, May 07, 2005 09:30:35 <Jim>
I love to drift into thoughts about the future.

Imagine a possible future where:
   Minumum Wage will be $1,000,000 an hour.
   Cars will be illegal to drive in the city.
   People will be driving Mopeds or riding Ostriches.
   Your Family Doctor will be Lector (an animated web page).
   We'll elect Hal, from Microsoft, as President of the United States.
   Families will consist of a Father, a Father, a son, a clone and a bot.
   People will be genetically altered to never grow old.
   We'll actually be able to surf the web with all 5 senses.
   Computer keyboards and screens will be replaced with neuroports.

Saturday, May 07, 2005 08:58:09 <Jim>
Bikes and Mopeds!
Sitting where I'm at right now, I can see the car port through the new storm door we hung. Yesterday, I was sitting here, when I saw Sonny pull up on his bike. He chained it to the carport (like a horse at the OK Corral).
With all of the new bike lanes popping up, there should be more Biker Bars popping up too!
Ya think? I think Bike Lanes is a misnomer though. They should be called Moped Lanes.
Since gas prices have sky rocketted:
Peps Boys looks more like a Moped Sales Lot than an auto parts store
They rebuilt a one mile stretch of Mtn Vista Blvd just to put in a BIKE LANE.
The cost of that project...over $1,000,000. It took them a year to do it.
They've painted Bike Lanes on most the streets, even the tight ones.
I still don't see many mopeds around though.
Aren't we supposed to be travelling around in flying cars by now? I guess mopeds are the wave of the future.
Sonny and us had meatloaf and lots-o-laughs.
I told him that I called Kelly (my dear sister) and thanked her for the bread she sent.
I wonder if this is all a sign from God or something...Moped lands all around, and people mailing me bread!
Is America turning into China?

Saturday, May 07, 2005 08:52:43 <Jim>
Mikey...what's going on? Do you have a girl in every port, or a port in every girl?
You always docking around some port. Hey, if you see Skip in San Fransisco, slap him for me..haha.

Saturday, May 07, 2005 08:06:51 <Squirty's alter-ego>
Bark from the Bay Area... But Howl from ***censored, too dirty for Jimmy's eyes***. Jive
Jimmy - Left Orlando for a weekend in the bay area at 520pm their time and go into the bay area at 1120pm Pacific. Took Southwest, as I am working towards a free flight, plus they were holding $100 I had spent towards a LAX-OAK-LAX roundtrip I had planned for two weeks back. So, I applied the funds towards towards the $320 they wanted for this Orlando-OAK-Orlando.
Staying until late Sunday morning
Getting a haircut at 10:30 this morning, and boy do I need it. Looking real hairy.. (Or is that furry?)
Going to Fly's in Concord, CA
A store that openned in Feb. 2004, to harass a number of ex-LV store employees.
Having lunch at Pete's Brass Rail and Car Wash in Danville, CA
Very popular restaurant three blocks down the street from Geri's place where I am getting my haircut. "There is no Brass Rail, no Car Wash and who in the hell is Pete?" is their slogan. Sandwhiches and micro brews.. Yummy
Northrop and my loose lips
About two weeks after the project started early last year, Stacy (project lead) took us to meet one of the other managers, who had just been moved into the basement of our building. So, there were some 18 of us talking to this guy, and he had just discussed in very general terms how Northrop was involved in hundreds, if not thousands of projects. So, what does SAE say? He asks the guy about the alien spacecraft at Area 51 that Nprthrop is helping re-engineer. For months, SAE had these late model Chevy Impala's following him 24x7 each with 2 men in black suits and sunglasses. And you should have seen the look and silence he got from this manager. Oops!!!! SAE has a loose mouth sometimes!!! Best SAE just lick his belly if he has something stupid to say!

Friday, May 06, 2005 23:50:09 <Jim>
Tommorrow, 20 vintage planes will fly over our house at 10am
Vegas is celebrating its Bi-Centennial (50th anniversay).
What's odd is we probably won't even notice them. We live near the path of McCarren Airport and 100's of planes fly over everyday anyway.
What I'd like to know is, where the parade of 8 helicopters flying over every day at 7am and 7pm are going. And I'd like to know what that expiremental heliplane was all about flying over Nellis Airforce Base.
Here in Vegas, we get great airshows all of the time.
When are the next Red Flag exercises anyway? "Curious Minds Wants To Know"

Friday, May 06, 2005 16:20:55 <Jim>
I created a Cobol and a Javascript manual under Library
And did most of it from memory! However, it is accurate.
A lot of the Cobol commands I really didn't want to put in, but I did it anyway.
EG: evaluate var1 also var2 when condition also condition... I hate that "also" extension of evaluate. It's useless. So are the SORT-INPUT-SECTIONS and OUTPUT-SECTIONS.
I've been working on a PHP manual started. I like PHP, it seems simple (except for they use a . instead of + to add strings together). Every language is weird.
My purpose for creating these manuals is that info is hard to find on the web.
If it's decent, they want money. If it's hack, you have to decipher it. Either way, I'm better off documenting the languages myself.

Friday, May 06, 2005 16:17:31 <Jim>
It's been so nice outside. Becky and I installed a screen door.
Actually, its a storm door. One of the windows slides open for screened fresh air!It was surprising to me that storm doors are cheaper than screen doors. The quality is so much better.
Oh well, we're going to invite Sonny over for a meatloaf dinner!

Wednesday, May 04, 2005 09:27:14 <Jim>
Pat Hill called me. Fifth Third Bank tossed me because of my lapse in employment.
I'm still in for Raymond James in Florida and ADPS in Colorado.
I really wouldn't want to work for anyone that doesn't have common sense anyway. If they think that in three years, someone would forget 17 years of experience, well, they're not quite all there are they?
COBOL85 has had, maybe, around 100 commands
I'd think 17 years would be long enough to learn them. LOL.

Wednesday, May 04, 2005 03:37:32 <Jim>
I played a game called 20 Questions at Brookstones last week.
It was amazing. It guessed what I was thinking after asking me 20 questions. I'd respond to each question with yes, no, maybe and sometimes. Tonight, I found an online version of the game. It's free!
Click here to challenge 20 questions!
I was thinking of a wall calendar, and the program guessed 'calendar'. At Brookstone, I was thinking 'vagina', and it guessed that too.

Wednesday, May 04, 2005 02:39:28 <Jim>
With all of the playing around I've done with Perl, PHP and all
I never succeeded in getting a test bed going. I don't know what happened, but I took a short nap today and woke up with the solution to the problems I've been having. Everything is so spread out and disconnected with windows, it's hard to figure out where to find all of its little pieces.
All along, I needed one environment variable for Perl to work with Windows.
But where do you put environment variables in XP? I found it finally.
If you right click My computer|left click Properties|Advanced|Environment Variables...there it is! This may not seem like a huge leap to find this, but if you were to quantify where Windows keeps items that affect the operating system, you'd come up with over 1,000,000 click options. And if find you need a command, you need to buy a book.
Sonny's car was stolen today. Becky, Sonny and I went to Hush Puppies
We talked about a lot of things, but the most interesting thing was mathematics. I mentioned to Sonny how I thought mathematics was the first programming language.
Mathematics was the first programming language for the brain!
In college, I looked at several, AMAZING formula's for calculating loans. I finally put them into a computer language. After translating these formula's, I found out they were incredibly simple! When you realize that multiplication is a addition loop, and squares are multiplication loops, and you code formula's up that way, they are extremely simple! The reason Math has the axiom that you can't divide anything by zero is that it works out to be an infinite loop.
The code for 6 / 0 would be: for (n=6;n<=0;n=n-0). That is a loop.
So is: for (n=6;n<=0;n=n+0), but programmers don't need an axiom to see that loop coming.
The main problem Math has, is, that it's trying to cram everything into one single line.
Then the author creates axioms and other chicken scratchings for what would otherwise be, bad programming practices.

Tuesday, May 03, 2005 17:19:19 <Jim>
Well, sir...Pat asked me for my References..which he should have already had.

So, that part got me confused.
But he said he had sent my resume to Fifth Third Bank, and would submit it to Denver.
What I don't know is who he is sending it to in Denver. Hmmm?
He also said he'd find out if my resume was sent to Raymond James. I explained to
Pat that Resource 1 seemed to be offline last week.
Oh, I don't know, we'll see what happens I guess.

Tuesday, May 03, 2005 19:26:01 <Squirty's alter-ego>
Bark... Howll. And one quick link of my belly...
Jimmy... Hope you gave Pat some good references. I will be talking to him in the next day or so. I will also tell him you are first class. Has he promised to submit you any where in particular? Howl...
Has he been any help at all??
Off to tres cinco on the window in the hall way.. I am staying in a hotel of the same brandname as where you saw that guy wanking the window where I was briefly staying when you passed through from Malibu.

Tuesday, May 03, 2005 08:11:24 <Jim>
I called Pat Hill this morning about working in Florida or Colorado

He said he was waiting on my references. Hmmm.
I would give my left nut, no, my right nut, to live Denver, Co. 
The mile high city is a very nice town.
If I do relocate for a position, these are my todos
For less than 6 months:
   1) Get Ricco to watch my house.
   2) Cancel some services
For more than 6 months:
   1) Store my furniture ($1,000)
   2) Replace the carpet ($2,000)
   4) Get Ricco to landlord and rent my house out ($1,000)
For permanent relocation:
   1) Purchase a house or four plex in my new location
   2) Ship my furniture
   3) Replace carpet
   4) Sell this house

Monday, May 02, 2005 21:02:11 <Jim>
Ooops....Where did the day go?

I meant to call Pat Hill early this morning, but the whole day just whipped on by.

I created a Javascript Manual today.
It's pretty cool. I can use it for phone interviews. 
It has almost all of the Javascript commands in Syntax Sheet Layout format.
I realized that I know several languages by heart, including Cobol.
These syntax sheets save time when researching how to do something. 
I should publish them.

Monday, May 02, 2005 13:09:43 <Becky>
Good Morning

Hi Jim. I want to thank you so much for takeing us too the Wynn casino.
I thought it was very pretty inside it would be a nice place to stay in for a vacation. 
I looked up job's in Florida at Jobs.com. 
I did'nt see anything there thou sry. 
Are you feeling alright today? 
Love you babe.
Becky

Sunday, May 01, 2005 23:56:00 <Jim>
We went to Wynns Resort tonight!
It was very well done. The outside is stylish and the inside is classy. It looked like it would be a great place to vacation at.

Sunday, May 01, 2005 18:53:34 <Jim>
Becky and I bumped heads today...
Just kidding. Or am I? A lot of this log is coded with ambiguity, because it is in the public's domain.
We did bump heads today, but not like you'd think.
We're swinging by the Wynn resort tonight to see what they've done.
It's received a lot of media attention. I've heard both good and bad about it. Robert said it looked great from the outside, but inside, it was just like most of the other casinos in town.

Sunday, May 01, 2005 17:59:09 <Jim>
We took Dustin and Jennifer home to Grandmal and...
She actually asked Becky to give her money (while looking at me) for a karate training course for Dustin. That's interesting, since she's going after Becky for child support and not their Dad.
In most circumstances, I'd agree that both parents should pay for their children's care.
In Becky's case, I don't. Becky is fully functional as a parent.
- It wasn't her actions that caused her to lose her kids the first time. It was her ex's.
- It wasn't her actions that caused her to lose her kids this last time. It was her Mom's.
- Her Mom kicked her out and moved in. In return she got for free room and board, and government checks. Nothing Becky did prompted her Mom and brother to kick her out on February 20, 2004. Becky was taking care of her kids and everything was just fine. Her Mom was tired of living with Doris. It was too far away from work.
It's easy to pick on Becky. It's easy use her kids as a financial tool.
Its sad that its her Mom that enjoys doing it.
However, if Becky was capable of using someone, her Mom would have been the perfect dupe. If Becky wanted access to her kids without the responsibility for them, her Mom would have walked right into the trap.
But it was Becky's Mom that took Becky's kids from her and she should pay.
She should be grateful she has a chance to redeem herself for what she subjected Becky to as a kid.
If I stepped into the legal side of this thing, everybody would lose. So I'll remain on the outside.

Sunday, May 01, 2005 11:31:14 <Jim>
Ah, the first day of May. Its 76 degrees in Vegas

I love it. I wanna get naked and run around in it.
This month has the best weather of the year here.
But ooooh, then comes June, July and August.
Maybe this year it'll get up to 130 degrees. Ewwe.

Saturday, April 30, 2005 23:23:02 <Jim>
We just got back in from Arizona!
We went to Boulder Dam. The place can be very pretty at night!
I experimented with my new camera and took some time exposures.
They are just tooooo cool.

Saturday, April 30, 2005 20:28:54 <Jim>
It's funny, to have company, and to feel all alone.
Everyone is playing on their laptops.
Is this what the world is coming to?
People in their own introverted worlds, socializing with people they'll never meet, playing games with people across the world.
It's both a wonderful, and pathetic testiment to the times we live in.

Saturday, April 30, 2005 19:53:09 <Jim>
Dustin, Jennifer, Robert, Joy and Amy hung out today.
We trudged through a game of Pachisi.
I had to ream Joy out for abusing our cell phone. Man, I still can't get over that, 1,600 minutes for one month.
Anyway, it was a very simple day, the kind people would find in heaven, but we had it on Earth instead.

Friday, April 29, 2005 21:48:42 <Jim>
What is it with WEED WHACKERS
Yesterday, Becky and I picked up a new weed whacker. My old one kept getting the string tangled. Every weed whacker I've ever owned, gets the string tangled!
We spent 2 hours weed whacking the backyard and front yard. The brand new weed whacker's string got snagged 10 minutes after whacking. After spending a half an hour digging through my tools to loosen the factory tight string assembly, I recoiled the string. I got to whack for another 10 minutes.
Now I know it must have been a wonderful idea at first: a blade that never needs sharpenning
But this blade cost $10 for 30 feet. I used half of that yesterday!
That's the cost of a happy meal, and at 49, I'd rather be eating than whacking!

Friday, April 29, 2005 18:51:25 <Jim>
I'm going to another wedding. Ashley Allred's getting married July 4th!!!
Yahoo! She's a blast! Her wedding reception will be at 4817 Primes Ct at 6pm.
Ashley and I talked about people and their prejudices.
We ended up joking about how people would react if our skin was actually colored instead of shades of brown.
What if people were the color of M&M's.
Would we have enslaved and freed the Brown ones?
Would a Blue and Green couple, with a Yellow baby, be shunned?
Would there be signs on the bus telling all Red people to sit in back?
We, as people, have always been InSaNe!

Friday, April 29, 2005 21:47:26 <Squirty's alter-ego>
He's a really a nice guy for being from the wrong end of KY
What can I say? I get a kick out of his accent...

Friday, April 29, 2005 17:32:05 <Jim>
Those guys in Eastern Kentucky are hicks!
They drink corn squeezins, moonshine, raccoon peeess...
I grew up in Western Kentucky where we drank Pabst Blue Ribbon...the King of Beers!
Called King, cause it stank, cause Kings don't take baths, cause they had no indoor plumbing in their castles. Bbbbbbbbbbbwaaaahahaha!

Friday, April 29, 2005 07:18:53 <Squirty's alter-ego>
BARK.......
HOWL...

Friday, April 29, 2005 07:15:29 <Squirty's alter-ego>
One of the guys at my job is fairly fresh from eastern KY...
Has the thick KY accent.
Looks and walks like a hillbilly
Thinks Puducah is a big city
But he is a really nice guy...

Thursday, April 28, 2005 22:54:40 <Jim>
Why does bottled water have an expiration date on it?
Isn't all water on earth 4 billion years old?
Do they put something in the water that makes it go bad? If so, WHY?
Or is there something we should know about the plastic bottle?
"Curious Minds" wants to know...

Thursday, April 28, 2005 22:46:22 <Jim>
Imagine the universe exploding and collapsing. Now imagine it happening in one minute.
Like every controlled experiment, the next result would be simular to the previous.
Now, imagine our universe has expanded and collapsed trillions of times.
Finally, imagine each expansion happenning 20 times in 1 minute.
Wouldn't it look like a Jelly Fish...? lol!

Thursday, April 28, 2005 19:42:18 <Jim>
Pat Hill submitted me to Fifth Third Bank too.
I'm hoping for the best there. As far as Raymond James goes, I never heard back from Michelle. I left her a message to not submit my resume and that worked out to be a mistake, maybe.

Thursday, April 28, 2005 19:38:00 <Jim>
Picky Picky Picky! Remember when it was a programmers market?
Just like all markets, ours got flooded somehow. I suppose it has something with people learning how to program in high school. It's hard to believe they would not consider you because you consult. They must want to beat the shit out of a salaried person...hahaha.
I worked this one Air Conditioning job for less than minimum wage.
It would have been a decent salary except they worked me 6 days a week, 12 hours a day. Nabs, Bank of America and Caesars did that to me too!

Thursday, April 28, 2005 21:02:59 <Squirty's alter-ego>
Headhunters
I never liked Catino. R1 is a group of lazy jerks. Even Sweet Michelle has been losing her innocent ways. I'd love to get you in somewhere. Pat Hill submitted me for Third Five Bank here in FL but they didn't like all my contracting history, so they passed on me.

Thursday, April 28, 2005 10:55:50 <Jim>
I just added a couple of buttons to help with formatting.
Check Preview if you use them to see the results.
This is a Subheader.
This is its details
This is Info
This is its details
It should work with Keep Layout checked or unchecked.

Thursday, April 28, 2005 08:26:40 <Jim>
Here's the problem I have with Headhunters
Don Catino
This man says he's going to submit my resume but he never does to my knowledge. He finally told me that he wasn't submitting my resume to Tandem Cobol shops because I didn't have recent experience on Tandem. From the job hunter's respective, he's as worthless as tits on a boar.
Resource I
Michelle has been straight with me, but I haven't gotten anywhere with her. Results matters. With Michelle, I've had none. I feel like I'm burning my hand on a stove.
Headhunters from India
Most of my phone interviews have come from resumes submitted through these people. They find me in Dice.
It could be that the headhunters from India are better at what they do. They don't seem to care about the American Headhunter ethics. They try to get results based on quantity, not quality.
When I used to actually look for jobs, I'd focus on one place for a job, and bug the hell of them until they hired me. I wasn't afraid of ruining my reputation because I didn't have one. The system worked.
With these headhunters as the go between guys, I have to deal with their home grown ethics. They're afraid of getting their reputations smashed. They play the quality game. While they are playing, we're losing. A programming job should never take more than one month to secure.
It seems the headhunter method of finding work lacks checks and balances
How do I know they've submitted my resume or not. I don't have access to find out. Mike, you said Resource I sat on their thumbs submitting your resume to Northrop and you had to give them a wake up call. I know Don Catino didn't submit my resumes. I doubt if he's ever done anything he's said he was going to do.

Thursday, April 28, 2005 08:15:45 <Jim>
Thanks Mikey! I talked to Pat yesterday.
He said to find out if R1 sent my resume to Raymond James. These headhunters seem to be reluctant to mention who they're sending my resume too it seems. Both Michelle and Pat said they're was two places looking in Florida. Raymond James was one of them. Only Pat told me that the second one was Fifth Third Bank.
Pat Hill's info is:
Phone: 727-669-6868
EMail: phill@uscsi.com
Michelle form Resource 1 said the may act one of two ways:
1) Proactively, meaning they'll submit my resume without an openning
2) Submit my resume when they have an openning.

Thursday, April 28, 2005 09:48:43 <Squirty's alter-ego>
Never put all your baskets in one egg...
Or was that "Kill two stones with one bird"? Give two or maybe three headhunters your business.
But you must do two things: First, make sure they are ethical in that they won't submit you for a job without your prior permission.
Second, that you manager them well.
You have the responsiblity to keep track where you've been submitted so you don't get submitted twice (will kill your chances for a job).
I never did care for R1, and that goes back to 1999
I worked with them for 3 months on a contract in the HellHole of America, Boston, MA. They were ok until I was done and they wanted me to wait 3 months for my last check. Even now, it'll be two more weeks before they pay me for the last two weeks I worked at NG. It's not necessarily Michelle.
If they were that good, why do they never seem hungry enough to get me in some where.
Plus, I know they had my resume and knew I was looking in January 2004.
It took my friend Jeff who had gotten in at NG that week to send me an email about the job.
R1 never called me. WHY???
I was sitting in their collective lap, looking for a job, and they had one that was perfect for me, and they didn't contact me...
SAE (Squirty's ALter Ego)

Wednesday, April 27, 2005 12:40:11 <Jim>
Sonny's car got towed,The word Ok, Working Girls, and the Speed of Light.
I took him down to Quality Towing. The girl said she'd have to escort Sonny to his car, and I said "Wow. A Quality Escort Service". Well, that didn't go over too well.
Sonny, Becky and I ate at Denny's
When we got done, Sonny said "Well, that was really OK". And I said, yea, it's agreeably great, which means it was okay! Cause if everything was great, everything would be OK, and it would take something greater than great to be GREAT!
LOL.
Then Becky and I went to Hollywood Video
One of the clerks was throwing some posters away. And Becky said, "WOW! SHE'S A WORKING GIRL". Then I apologized...haha...and said she meant she was a "Hard working girl".
Life surely is funny.
Sonny and I got to talking about the speed of light again.
This shouldn't be a hard concept to grasp. Sound has a speed that it travels relative to the speaker, but a pilot can talk in a plane that's going faster than the speed of sound, because it's relative to the point of origin, only. Someone on the ground behind him, wouldn't hear his voice. To someone he passed on the ground, his voice would be accelerated. It would be a boom.
Einstein never meant people to think we couldn't go faster than the speed of light. That's silly. If two objects were travelling towards each other going 3/4's the speed of light, their relative speed to each other would be .75 the speed of light. Since there is no fixed point in this universe, everything is relative. And light travelling towards light is going twice the speed of light relative to itself.

Tuesday, April 26, 2005 22:25:48 <Becky>
Hey Babe
I think that it would be great to go camping this weekened with the kid's. We would go on Saturday? Yes I would love to go camping this weekened. I Love You Jim Cutlar.

Tuesday, April 26, 2005 16:03:50 <Jim>
Mikey, what's your opinion on this?
I've got Michelle working on this thing for me. If I go to another headhunter, is that considered unethical? I'm not sure about how ethics plays when job hunting. It seems to me it should be whatever works, is the preferred method.

Tuesday, April 26, 2005 21:25:22 <Squirty's alter-ego>
OH NO!!!! You are looking to give R1 some business?

 Well, I suppose there are worse things you can do. 
Oh, It's Raymond James, not Raymond Jones. 
Jimmy, I spoke to this headhunter based in Tampa Florida mid afternoon today, 
and he implied there is indeed an openning at Raymond James. 
R1 is so inept, they probably tell you the spot is filled, 
just so they don't have to work too hard to get you in for an interview. 
Try giving Pat Hill a call: at 727-669-6868 and tell him I sent you. 
He's based in Tampa and has a spot at a bank called "three fifth" 
(yea, I know it is a weird name) 
based in St Petersberg FL, as well as Raymond James.
Mikey

Tuesday, April 26, 2005 14:53:06 <Jim>
I just talked to Michelle (Parker) Shumaker at Resource One

I'm trying to get in at Raymond Jone's in the Tampa Bay area in Florida.
Jim Gardner is the point guy for Resource I.
Michelle Shumaker's info is:
    Phone: (800) 508-2822 ext: 5146
    Fax:   (630) 575-5170
    Email: E-mail: mparker@dpholdings.com 
She said she'd try both getting me in proactively, which sounds like juice to me, 
and submitting my resume when the next job gets posted.
The posted job openning has already been filled though.

Monday, April 25, 2005 23:08:05 <Jim>
Obesity magically moved from the #2 most preventable disease to the #7 - CDC says.
Now...exactly how does somebody screw figures up like that!
They said 260,000 people in the US died last year from obesity.
Now their saying 24,000 people died.
My guess is, they're idiots.
This is 8th grade math.
Do a bell curve of a random sample for all people born in 1950, using their current or death weight. That will give you an unbiased percentage for a death to weight ratio. Simple. Don't adjust figures because you decide 200,000 people died of heart attacks instead of obesity...that's subjective thinking.
The Center for Disease Center apparently is using politics
Instead of science to influence personal behaviour.
Why? It is always about money and power. They've put pressure on smokers. To do that to fat people (for whatever purpose) and move them ahead smokers would affect more than half the population.
When will government agencies stop with their obvious lies?
Whatever we do, the average life span will stay around 76 years old because that's how we were designed. Humane considerations are expensive. You figure it out for yourself.

Monday, April 25, 2005 22:11:22 <Jim>
Sonny, Becky and I ate at Hush Puppies again.
Speaking of puppies, Squirt got out the front door. I got in the truck, but was blocked in by a dump truck stalled in my driveway. Had to back up throught the yard. THEN, Squirt was on the busy Mtn Vista Blvd. I pulled over, cars whizzing by me at 45mph, and grabbed Squirt. We're lucky he's alive. I'm lucky I'm alive.
Hush Puppies, as usual, had excellent food.

Monday, April 25, 2005 11:51:49 <Jim>
I'm not sure why I ever started this log thing anymore
Rob died and I wanted a cool way to hear from people.
My blog is having timing issues.
What a pain. I haven't found a way to check errors from called programs.
I wrote a special email program
It writes formatted emails from anybody, to anybody, but it only works intermittently. sheesh!

Monday, April 24, 2005 23:03:16 <Jim>
We just ate at Applebees.
I was so upset about that cell phone bill and all the principles that got broken by the ones using it. Eating is better than drinking though.

Sunday, April 24, 2005 18:01:08 <Jim>
Youch!!! I got my cell phone bill!!!
I helped a couple move into their apartment. I loaned them my cell phone for one week because they didn't have a phone yet and they have a newborn baby. I told them to use it only for emergencies and don't give my phone number out. I didn't get the phone back, there were a lot of excuses and reasons. I was just being nice.
Being nice is one of my flawed personality traits.
They made a call on my cell phone to Kansas, for 145 minutes
I don't understand how anyone could be so cold. I was helping them!
They've had the phone since March 11th.
THEY RACKED UP 1,564 MINUTES WITH 265 CALLS ON MY CELL PHONE IN 30 DAYS.
That's 50 minutes a day, every day! It'll cost me $160. And this month, I have 30 minutes left out of 500. I had to cancel the cell phone. I've heard all the excuses I can stomach.
Problem:What do you do when you love someone, but they continually hurt you?
I've helped them a whole lot! I've never asked them to do anything they weren't more than happy to do. I'm their mom's boyfriend and I went way out of the way to help them. Their own folks don't even help them.
Solution: Don't quit loving them, but don't let them hurt me either.
Distance myself. I have to. They forced me. The love isn't shared.
I'm sad. I've been known them for four years. This sucks. Why do people do these things?.

Sunday, April 24, 2005 09:17:46 <Jim>
Warren D - Thanks for the compliments!
My dad's genes seems to have tossed varying levels of genious, wit, insanity and depth onto our CPUs .
We seem to share:
- An insane look at the world, that while lucid, we present to the sane in the form of wit and humour.
- A genious that reduces complex concepts into simpler ones that can be shared
I've found my strengths are in writting/rewriting complex computer systems
I change them into simpler systems that other people can easily understand. Some may think I'm insane, but, in this web site alone, I've reduced thousands of lines of code down to hundreds.
My techniques for transforming crappy code into something meaningful
Get the crap code.
Remove the acronyms,
...Change AB to AccountBalance.
Replace all references with their textual meanings
...Replace Section3284 with AddTransactionToCustomerAccountBalance
Eliminate negative logic. Remove double negatives and replace with positive logic.
...Replace If not NoError with If Error
...Replace If not Error with If Successful
Read the result.
Toss out the unnecessary code.
Organize what's left into logical steps
...Replace - ReadAB. Section3284. Section1001. Section9255. Section9256.
...With - ReadAccountBalance. AddTransactionToAccountBalance. WriteAccountBalance. GetCustomerName. WriteCustomerReceipt.
I was surprised that the above technique works with any language
Any thought, in any language, whether it is technical or not, can be broken down using the above procedure.
Warren, you mentioned that I have some of the family mud and depth.
You seem to have the same. I translated what you said into how we think. Tadaaaa!

Sunday, April 24, 2005 09:10:04 <Jim>
Warren D(avis)
It's good to hear from you. Want your own log? I like this one a lot.
It's to bad about your mom/my sister (Linda).
It would be nice to find her, sortof.

Sunday, April 24, 2005 08:53:02 <Jim>
Hey Mikey - I added a few things to Add an Entry yesterday.

Keep My Layout
   Checked:
      Everything comes out looking just like you typed it. 
      However, if you never hit [ENTER] while typing, everything displays as one long sentence.
   Unchecked:
      Reformats everything you type. It ignores the [ENTER] key and things like
      double spaces regardless of where you typed it in. 
      It's an HTML thing. I should override it with my own routine. 
      It kind of a sux.
Preview
   Shows exactly what will be entered into the log.

Sunday, April 24, 2005 21:17:42 <Squirty's Alter Ego>
Looking for porn on my old HP liptop...
Yes, I sometimes eat corn or play my horn... But I removed all the porn fromt he liptop I gave you. Didn't want to risk Becky seeing it and becoming corrupted. And I don't like big arses on women. Manner of fact, just the opposite. Even got in a huge fight with Steven, the black guy I used to share a cubicle with at Northrop. He LOVES big, and I mean BIG, asses on women. The bigger and fatter the ass, the better. I am sure it is a genetic thing, but he and I difinitely got to almost throwing punches over this issue..

Saturday, April 23, 2005 22:56:33 <warren D>
Where's the world size fire retardant in case this thing gets out of control, oh, never mind then.
Heyyyyy bud, Youre websight is out of sight! Baby. Your girl is true blue, [as well]. [what a hottie!]
Just wanted to say hello. The fam photos you posted the other day, er, spring 2004, were very appreciated. The times I have wished that dear ol Dad or Linda wouldve hooked me up with a camera whilst I was one year old. Seems my forehead had plent of room for somesort of creative application involving duct tape. Oh well. Better luck next time.
p.s. - I like the way you operate upstairs myfriend, good qlean family mud with a twist of deepness.

Sunday, April 24, 2005 21:03:42 <Squirty's Alter Ego>
Jimmy, how do you get paragraph breaks when you make entries on the blog?
I make paragraphs, but the text all comes together when I submit...

Sunday, April 24, 2005 20:34:27 <Squirty's Alter Ego>
Bark from Gainsville, Florida
Well, finally got close. Maybe I should have just headed for Orlando, but last night I made this reservation fo a Holiday Inn in Gainsville, about 70 miles west of my ultimate destination, Orlando.
Did almost 12 hours of driving today. Even though Tuesday and Wednesday, I did 8 hours each day, I felt I got a good start. Ha Ha.
Ended up in a San Antonio Starbucks early Thursday, I think it was, and exchanged a few emails with Diane LaGesse (la gesseeeeeee-eeeeeeee as I pronounce her last name, although the french pronounce it a lot different).
I worked with her at Northrop and she got the ax the week after me, back in January. She ended up where I am headed in Orlando at about Feb 1st. She is a New Jersey native, but grew up in Houston, TX and did this same drive as I just did, back in late January. She said I better get my arse in gear, and sure enough, she was right.
Besides an accident on I-10 just west of Mobile, Alabama cost me about 90 minutes.
Then I got stopped THREE times here in Florida tonight.
First was some sheriff's deputy from some mickey mouse county, for going 75 in a 70 zone warning. Thing is that there were semis and other cars around me going 80 and better, but they didn't have CA plates, plus I think I was the easiest target. First time I have been stopped for anything in probably 15 years or better. But still no ticket.
Then a couple hours later, after it got dark, a FL Highway Patrol schmuck pulls me over because my right tail light is out. He writes it up, but fine, I didn't know and am happy to get it fixed tomorrow morning.
Then a half hour later another FL highway patrolwoman pulls me over. She was kinda hot, so I wish she had decided to arrest me, handcuff me and take me home, but I am too fat and ugly for that fantasy. We both laughed when I showed her the paperwork from the previous stop.
Hey Jimmy, please don't bother yourself with that thing with the apartment I was arranging for here in FL.
Manner of fact, if they want anything from you, please tell them NO as I am backing out. The dumb bitch who had the nerve to call you at 5:30 am said it was ok since you were already up. I was peeved she was harassing you and at that hour of the morning. Then she said she needed the paper from you saying I lived there with you notarized. And from the Travelodge too. F her. And she hung up on me twice when I told her I wasn't happy with all the hassle.
Plus I stubbled upon a web site last night that people vent compliments and complaints about apartments, and this one sounded nasty. Thin walls, noise all over, stolen cars daily, cops coming regular to break up fights, etc.
Well, me really tired, so I am going to go and lick my belly, brush my teeth and then go to bed. SAE (Squirty's Alter Ego)

Saturday, April 23, 2005 07:30:31 <Jim>
Ahhhh, lets see if that's better
I changed my PERL program. Its a pain so I simplied its functions.

Saturday, April 23, 2005 07:24:38 <Jim>
I've got to throw this in to see if I have a bug
Hmmmm again.

Saturday, April 23, 2005 07:21:05 <Jim>
Here it is morning. Another semi-sleepless night in Las Vegas
I love to relax by playing with this code. It's fun to me.
It's crazy for me to think I'd like anything but dinking with logic, attractive screen layouts and graphics manipulation, but I've got to get a career started sometime. hmmm.

Saturday, April 23, 2005 at 04:05:22 (PDT) <Jim>
The Sounds of Silence
Voices that resonate through empty space with a gradience that accumulates nowhere.
These are the words that know one hears: words from the young, the elderly, the poor, the brightest and the dullest.
If we could hear the voices of everyone that has ever existed all at once, it would sound like the wind.
It would have no value.
Words only have meaning when they are heard and understood.
If you were to mention a thought that could make the world a better place
...If your best reponse was what to eat for lunch
......If your words would have falling into empty space
..........THE WHOLE WORLD SUFFERS
The worlds suffers when generations can't pass their thoughts to the next because no one was listening.
Imagine how much of life is wasted solving problems that have already been solved.
Imagine that every problem you've ever had, has had solutions reached by others...hundreds of times before. Imagine, that you've heard the answers to all your problems, but you make mistakes simply because you didn't listen. Not listening and learning is like burning your hand on a stove over and over again. Someone else told you the stove was hot, you didn't listen, so you burn your hand.
If people are sharing a conversation, the idea is to talk and listen.
A conversation about something should have a path. If it doesn't, it's the equivalent of the ramblings of an insane person. Expansion is not possible.
Test the people you are talking to just to see if they are listening.
Ask a question; make an incredibly vague statement; say something about someone that can't possibly be true; tell the person you are talking to that they have a bug in their hair.
I was amazed at the results. Is it just me, am I worthless, or do most people just not listen?
I've discovered is that strangers are the best listeners.
Strangers know you'll walk away if they ramble on meaninglessly. If you want to exchange information, thoughts and ideas, or you find something interesting you want to learn more about, find a stranger to talk to. They'll at least pretend to listen. I've heard that lack of communication is the main reason for people having affairs. I can understand that. Nothing can make you feel more alone than having nobody to talk to.

Friday, April 22, 2005 at 15:12:37 (PDT) <Jim>
Cigarettes...who needs them?
They may be society's raw oysters, but they do offer so much pleasure!
And what a wonderful addiction. It leaves you with a sense of tranquility for about 10 minutes.
Then you simply smoke another one. Nothing seems more pleasurable.
In High School, I'd always go after the girls that smoked cigs.
I knew my chances of scoring were much better. For those of you who never scored in high school, you wouldn't be away of that little tidbit. Those guys with attitudes saying "She's damaged, she smokes" weren't getting laid nearly as much as me. By their own prejudice, they were excluding 20% of the girls in High School.
I'd much rather be me.

Friday, April 22, 2005 at 10:02:24 (PDT) <Jim>
I'm starting to futz with my website again
Trying different things is fun.

Friday, April 22, 2005 at 09:52:12 (PDT) <Jim>
I'm on a my new laptop
I've got it 90% loaded up with the great software and it looks like everythings working fine. I'm happy.

Thursday, April 21, 2005 at 22:20:01 (PDT) <Jim>
So burnt out.
Installed software all day long, but in the end, it was all worth it.
Becky has a nice laptop. I have a nice laptop.
Everything works lightening fast.

Thursday, April 21, 2005 at 03:15:11 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
Stranger things that happened today.
I talked to Ida, whose still in love with Allen. Allen's probably too drunk to fall in love with anyone.
Somehow, Ida's found a man who will take her. She wants to get married.
Ida asked me if I was ever going to marry Becky.
I told her that would be a great idea:
- I'd have a piece of paper and would acquire $500 a month in child support.
- My last wedding was a marriage into debt.
It was no fun having my tax return gobbled up!
It cost a pastor $35 to get licensed in Nevada.
He can then marry anyone. It's got nothing to do with God!
Why would I sign a contract that changes itself from year to year?
I asked her if Missouri was a community property state. She'd never heard of that!
I explained the difference between a community property state and an alimony state.
She had no idea what I was talking about.
So, here was the explanation:
- Missouri is an alimony state (equitable property distribution state).
- If she married Allen, and she worked, and he got drunk everyday and decided to divorce her,
Ida would have to pay him alimony, even if they were married for 1 month!
I don't understand why people don't research the major moves in their lives.
People just jump into marriage, wide eyed and stupid, with no concept of what they are really doing.
They just jump right into the pool head first without seeing if its got water in it.

Thursday, April 21, 2005 at 02:47:48 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
Had to reformat and reinstall XP on my new laptop.
I installed some software that crashed the existing setup. Everytime I'd get to the 2nd disk of Visual Studio.Net, XP would try to install an HP Camera. Strange! Nothing would install after that. Things just went downhill.
- Then I tried to install my Windows XP Pro. That bombed.
- Then I tried to install the XP disk Mike gave me, but it didn't have any drivers.
- Then I downloaded the drivers from the internet onto another laptop.
However, since I couldn't access the network, I had to burn a CD.
- This whole process took over 6 hours. BUMMER!
Now, at almost 3am, I'm where I should have been at noon. Computers are so much fun aren't they?

Wednesday, April 20, 2005 at 10:44:13 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
I love using my laptop's GPS software.
It's excellent travel entertainment. It shows stores and whatever else you want on the map as you drive.
We discovered a "Used Military Weapons and Ammo Outlet" in Yermo!
I need a new BAZOOKA and I'm out of Mustard Gas Grenades.

Tuesday, April 19, 2005 at 22:28:35 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
We just got back from Los Angeles
The ride in seemed to go very quick. I could get used to driving everyday. I really think most people driving long distances are sleeping with their eyes open though. When I drive, I keep a safe path of exit if possible. If I slip and veer into another lane, I don't want anyone to be there. If someonese veers, it won't affect me because I won't let them hoover next to me. It's just smart. But I don't know how many times, someone would speed up next to me and hoover there for no reason. I kept expecting to see a shotgun levelled at my head, but I'd look and see the other driver just blindly staring at the road.
I just love to calculate things.
I did some calculations for my Ford F150 4x4 XLT based on the trip coming back to Las Vegas. I had to buy a new tire in Upland, California, so I ended up getting a set of 4 4x4 tires. The Ford sold new with street tires that got stuck everywhere (which is pathetic for a 4x4). They cost Exactly $450 or $112.5 each. The truck has 28,000 miles on it.
For my F150 4x4 I get

	A Gas Usage Cost of:	14.5 Miles per Gallon,	5.7 Miles per $1.00,	$0.175 cents per mile
	A Tire Usage Cost of:	28,000 Miles per tire,	112 Miles per $1.00 (all tires) ,	$0.016 cents per mile

The trip was a blast and frustrating.
Most of what ever we planned went sour. The $60 room turned out to be over $80. We ordered a vegetarian pizza with hamburger spread all over it, and got one half-and-half. So many things went wrong with this trip.
But the special things are always hidden.
It was great to see Mike off.

Tuesday, April 19, 2005 at 06:06:11 (PDT) <Jim>
We took off an hour late, trying to get Becky's cell phone back from Robert.
Robert left Becky's cell phone in someone's truck and we really needed it. Damnit! He kept telling us he was going to bring it over, but I guess things got in his way. Taking off at 7am instead of 6am put us in the middle of rush hour traffic!
I lost focus and almost drove off the road at 80mph.
We were swerved all over the road. All it took was one second of inattention. I was playing with my visor. The traffic was packed. The people on the way up kept driving like idiots too. This one couple liked to ride next to us for some reason, even if the traffic ahead and behind was clear. He kept choking off my path of emergency exits. They were lucky they weren't next to me when I lost control!
Could have easily been gonners.
I blew a flat tire after going over Cajun Summit!
What was strange is that I didn't even realize it until someone waved me over. California drivers are very polite. It was windy. Everything I touched had road soot. We managed to change the tire in about 10 minutes though.
The Disneyland area has signs for every place but where to park.
We drove in circles trying to find it's entrance. All in one area, there is the Disney Hotel, Disney Downtown, Disney's California Adventure and finally, Disneyland. The parking is marked for Disney Downtown, which seems so strange!
We finally got to ride some rides around 1pm.
We rode the Star War's Motion Simulator, Pirates of the Carribean, and the Haunted Mansion. Mike had to take off because of his hip. I was getting pretty sore myself.
Becky and I stayed and rode Indiana Jone's Adventure, Mr Toad's Wild Adventure, Snow Whites Scary Adventure, Tarzan's Tree House, The Mattahorn, and Wild Frontier Roller Coaster.
Becky now likes Roller Coasters. Go Figure. She had her eyes WIDE OPEN too!
It was great!
My cell phone's batteries went dead!
I got couldn't find Mike's Travelodge. We drove in circles for hours trying to find an address that didn't exist. The address we had took us right through LAX's arrivals pickup. One call would have saved us all a lot of time. By the time we decided to drive off course, we found a Travelodge. By pure luck, Mike was there standing in the parking lot! However, my truck was way too big for the main parking lot.

Monday, April 18, 2005 at 05:21:32 (PDT) <Jim>
Ah Yes, I'm up and ready for 10 hours of driving to Disneyland and Back
I'm all jazzed up!
This will be Becky's first time.
A Sharon Sheppard's dad told us last night that the best place to ride on the roller coaster is in the very back, because it goes faster over the hills. I think that's a very good point!

Sunday, April 17, 2005 at 20:58:50 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
It's off to Disneyland in about 9 hours.
The tickets are $52 x 3 people = $156 + $160 for gas = $316 + $15 for parking + ?
But we're gonna have a GREAT TIME!
I wish we had our cell phone back though.
I'll have to let Becky use my cell. I'm worried about us getting separated. It's easier than it sounds. Especially where using the bathrooms are considered.
Disneyland is HUGE! This is going to be so much fun!

Sunday, April 17, 2005 at 09:59:07 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
Last night I BBQ'd some Southwest Chipolte Chicken
It was my first time BBQing chicken. I smoked it with hickory chips too, but the flavor didn't come through. OH HELL!
I suppose the smoke flavor only works on meat with fat in it.
Here's my BS analysis of how smoke flavoring works:
The fat absorbs the smoke flavor, then melts its way through the meat, delivering that wonderful smoky aroma.
Robert, Tyrelle, Dustin, and Jennifer ate my experimental dinner.
The only complaints I got were people spitting out the chicken on the first bite. After that, their tongues were sufficiently burnt to numb to pain from all of the hot chili peppers in the seasoning.
I gave Roberts dog a baked potato. He ate the whole thing in one bite!!! A WHOLE POTATO, ONE BITE...wow.

Sunday, April 17, 2005 at 09:49:14 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
I discovered that Jesse deliberately destroyed my electric scooter last weekend.
That brat! He did everything I told him not to do on that thing.
I hope the aliens abduct him and do a probe!

Sunday, April 17, 2005 at 09:46:50 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
I just realized shoes don't have souls.
They have soles...
If shoes had soles I guess their soles would have gone in the trash and their souls would have gone to Penneys!
Stupid English language! Who invented this language anyway?

Saturday, April 16, 2005 at 14:08:18 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
It's a beautiful day in Las Vegas.
Its 81 degrees with a little breeze outside and its gorgeous.
Daddy just got a new pair of shoes (for myself and Dustin). Dustin's spider fell off of the soul of his spiderman shoes.
We just got back from Winterwood Park.
Robert, dog, Jennifer, and Dustin are hanging out with us.

Saturday, April 16, 2005 at 10:30:25 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
Becky's Mom is going after her for child support.

She told Becky that last night, when Becky stayed over.
I knew Becky's mom was going to do that with glee.
The model I have of her in my head works great!
Becky's mom thinks she's being righteous.
Here are the facts, the way I see it:
1. Becky probably won't ever make much more than minimum wage.
She doesn't have any marketable skills.
However, she could make decent money in the tip industry.
2. Child support laws vary widely from state to state.
I researched child support and there are no real guidelines for it.
3. Child support debt grows, whether you are working or not.
The amounts Becky owes now are already phenomenal.
The state seems to go after the weakest parental target.
From what I've seen, the family division is justifies its existance with uncollectable numbers.
4. In Nevada, it's typical to take 20% of the parents GROSS income for the first child.
Child support is not tax deductable.
So, if Becky makes $6 an hour, she'd take home around $620 a month.
That's a net of less than $4 an hour. Thats with $120 taken out for child support.
The Family Court wants $200 for child support.
Using that, Becky's take home would be $540.
And her low life ex, pays $0, mainly because he's in another state.
5. Becky's mom will never relinquish her custody of the Becky's kids.
They are income to her.
6. Becky is going to need health insurance.
Here are our options:
1. Get as far away from Becky's mom as we can.
Someday, Becky will go back to work.
Becky's going to need a job for health insurance.
Right now, Becky is convenient for her mom to pick on.
2. Get Becky on disability.
Document and amplify her learning disability. Get a lawyer. Get her on disability.
That would clear up her health insurance problems and her liability.
3. Let Becky get a job here in Las Vegas.
She could see her kids then.
She wouldn't be able to cover her cost of living. I'd have to cover her for those.
Having a job costs money. We would lose with this option.

Saturday, April 16, 2005 at 10:05:43 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
Well, I guess it's obvious I had a couple of drinks last night.
Becky spent the night at Grammys last night and I was all alone!
And a couple of drinks won't kill me as long as I stop at that.
I'm all jazzed about going to Disneyland Monday.
Mike's gonna give me his old laptop.
Its not that old though. He bought it last year. Mike and I share the same attitude about working and life. You should treat yourself at least once a year to something special. The best gifts I've ever gotten, have always been the gifts I bought for myself I remember one Christmas when I knew I was going to get next to nothing. I bought a laptop for myself on Christmas Eve. Doing that really softened the blow of giving alot, and getting a little.
I'm gonna give Mike a Compaq Ipaq...but
Mike never said he wanted it. He will and I'm all jazzed about giving it to him!!! It's still a top of the line PDA. Great screen. Great software bundle. It can be used as a remote control for most devices. Plus, its got a card with it that lets you go wireless. I'm also throwing in some GPS software and hardware. I know he's going to love that.
The two most important impressions: The first and the last.
I'm don't know if Mike and my paths will ever physically cross again. They probably will, but if they don't, I'm covered. I'm going to miss him not being in LA.

Saturday, April 16, 2005 at 03:31:52 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
Robert and I were alone tonight without our significant others.
I don't know what he's thinking, but I know I think when I'm alone.
I amount to kitty litter.
Being alone in life is more like a prison sentence, when it should be a vacation.

Saturday, April 16, 2005 at 03:15:41 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
How do you know when you are talking to an angel.
How would you know if you were shaking Jesus's hand?
How would you know if it is God that you see?
How would you know if something is good or evil?
You just know. It's your call.
For me, good is what perpetuates our species.

Saturday, April 16, 2005 at 02:41:55 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
Becky and I have to get out of here.
Becky is an angel. I have to protect her.
Her mom has kicked her out, taken her kids, and is trying to turn her into a criminal.
Her ex husband has abused his kids by his sexual fantasies and has hurt Becky.
Becky just wanted a life, with kids, and love, and a husband who cared.
Isn't that the way its supposed to be? How would she ever have known he wanted to have sex with her children? How could she have known her own mother would take advantage of the situation for money?
Becky has a learning disability. She is a simple human being; pure of heart, pure of conscience. She thinks there are 100 minutes in an hour. And her mother knows this.
I, in my heart, think Becky is an angel. She loves, she cares more than anyone else I've ever known, she is selfless...she'd give her life in a moment for a better cause. Why do people hurt her? Why do people hurt angels?

Saturday, April 16, 2005 at 01:54:01 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
My ex - RUTH CUTLAR'S SOUL
A very good person. She cared for others. She helped others. She did that through me. All of that was fine by me. Ruth just had her own agenda. Most of it wasn't mine. That's where we went our separate ways.
To be a couple, either one person leads and the other gives, or they both share the responsibilities.
A couple can't exist where both lead and one has all the responsibilty. That situation will never work.
Without an understanding of that, Ruth and I had to come to an end, and I'm sorry about that.
Ruth (ex) Cutlar is a very good person.

Saturday, April 16, 2005 at 01:31:22 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
BECKY'S SOUL
She doesn't lie, she can't.
She doesn't tell the truth either. She doesn't remember.
She trys to help people. She has a good heart.
She loves everyone. She doesn't know any better.
She smiles, she loves, she does this everyday of her life. Becky is beautiful!
Becky is what I'd like to be.
I wish, sometimes, that I wasn't smart, maybe I could overlook so many injustices, and just go day by day.
I, myself, can't. My soul wants to seek a balance of good and evil. I want to do worse to those who have done bad to me. I could be part of the worlds problem thinking like this. I don't know what I am really, but I know I am good. By making Becky a part of my life, maybe I'll understand my role in making this mess called life an organized place (as it is in heaven, if there is one).

Saturday, April 16, 2005 at 01:10:55 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
To Jennifer, Happy 10th Birthday
This may not mean much to you when you're 16 and you hate your mother. It may not mean much, what your Mom did to try to keep you. You may not understand anything that has happened to you or her.
But, your Mom loves you more than life itself. She would die for you. What do you do when you know what is right, but aren't smart enough to battle against those who don't care.
A part of her has died, because of the position her ex-husband left her in. She tried her best to keep you. She's slow. The people that came after her aren't. They said whatever they wanted too, and she couldn't defend herself.
It wasn't a fair fight.

Friday, April 15, 2005 at 11:27:48 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
Hot dangit!
I just noticed this site looks like crap in Netscape. What's up with that?
I just called Mikey! We're going to Disneyland!!!
He's not sending his laptop here, but he is going to give us his old laptop when we see him on Monday! I told him we'd give him your Compaq IPAQ PDA, and the wireless netcard that goes with it, babe.
Well, we're off! Becky's staying with Grandma for a whole day!

Friday, April 15, 2005 at 08:41:10 (PDT) <Becky>
Good Morning Jim
Hi Jim. Today we are going to be two busy beaver's (LOL).
The first thing we got to do is pick up cake for Jennifer's birthday party, then go to my mother's and help her decorate at 12pm.
Then before 6pm my mother want's you to pick up three pizza's from Little Ceasers.
How did Squirt do this morning, did he chew anything up this morning?
I'm wondering if Mike is going to call you.

Thursday, April 14, 2005 at 23:00:50 (PDT) <Jim>
I really like this new look!
This site is a personal site, doesn't sell anything. But still, I think it's cool!

Thursday, April 14, 2005 at 14:15:22 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
Whooooops!!! Mikey called, and now I owe him an apology.
I told Mike we might come up to LA to see him off before moves to Florida, and I maybe I could quietly sneek Becky off to see Disneyland for the first time in her life. I also told him I'd created a weblog for him in Squirts name.
But Mike called me for a purpose. He told he was sending his laptop here, that he bought a new laptop at Fryes. I told him thankyou, and told Becky what he was doing.
I dropped a tear or two. Its rare when somebody gives me something.
With exception of their trash, lol. After I thanked the heck out of him for his old laptop, I told him maybe my sister and all of her religion crap, about getting 10 fold for your offerings, was true, since I just sent her $500.
Mike then told me that he custom ordered the new laptop
If he had it sent to California, he'd have to pay sales tax on it. I asked him if he'd take a Compaq Ipaq in exchange for his old laptop, and he stuttered. It dawned on me, that he was sending his new laptop here, for me to forward to Florida. Sheesh, I feel so stupid. Mike said he'd give me his old laptop because he owed me. I told him nobody owes me anything. He said he'd give it to me as a birthday present then, but I know, it wasn't his will to do that.
Life can be a fluttering of elation and gloom.
I suck! When am I going to grow up?

Wednesday, April 13, 2005 at 21:26:04 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
Some things seem so uncontrollable in the programming arena
Trying to get this entry to return to the right page seems to be impossible.

Wednesday, April 13, 2005 at 19:14:04 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
D.O.G. is not going to stay here
Heeee's juuuuust tooooo sheddy (if thats a word).
And Joy's flight back only cost $120. Hopefully Robert can afford that.

Wednesday, April 13, 2005 at 14:48:08 (PDT) <Mikey, Squirty's alter-ego>
Wat the heck!!!!
You mean I have to share my barking rights here at Casa de la Cutlar with a dog horse? Why is Joy going ot Kansas? Can she afford to go to Kansas? Why can't RObert take care of D.O.G.? Bark!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOWL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, April 13, 2005 at 11:33:07 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
Robert's alone...Joy left for a week. She's visiting in Kansas
Since this is Robert's first apartment, this would be the first time he's ever been alone. Me, I'd be putting on the porn, drinking beer, and blasting the stereo.
It'll be interesting to see how he handles it.
He just asked if he could leave D.O.G (his dog) over here while Joy's gone. I told him we'd take him, but DOG is as big as a horse, will ruin my screen door, and sheds everywhere. The last time we kept him, we had to dust, vacuum, and wash everything after they took him back. Those little hairs were everywhere.
Dogs can be quite a responsibility in an apartment.

Wednesday, April 13, 2005 at 11:25:42 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
Things men do, when their spouse leaves for vacation...

Watch porn.
Learn how to use the remote control.
Drink milk from the carton.
Stack the trash can 2 feet over the top.
Leave dirty clothes on the floor.
Pee in the sink cause its closer than the bathroom
Say: shit instead of doo doo, piss instead of pee, fuck instead of do it,
     cunt instead of crabby, pussy instead of squeeze box, tits instead of hooters
     dick instead of hang down, whore instead of slut...the list goes on.
Sit on the couch totally naked.
Call old girlfriends.
Get snot slinging drunk.
Leave the toilet seat up.

Wednesday, April 13, 2005 at 10:19:24 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
About Mikey going east to Florida
Mike, you are, and will always be my friend (cliche: Star Trek - Return of Spock) no matter where you are.
My friends are scattered around Las Vegas and this country these days. To see a buddy across town last week, it took 40 minutes to get there (4 gallons of gas round trip).
The internet has bridged all of the old geographic gaps.
Suggestion to you Mikey:
At your hourly wage, you're going to be tight month after month there.
For example: $30-W2 is $62,000 a year. But you receive no benefits. For me, with that kind of figure, I would only have $16,000 disposable income. Ouch!
Click here to see the spreadsheet I use. If it ask you for a username enter "guest" with no password.
You might check the ads for rooms to rent and save bookoo bucks!
I would be tempted to buy a distressed home, buy it using a Quick Claim deed, quietly assume the mortgage, and with plans of renting it out when I left. Its income for life, bud!

Wednesday, April 13, 2005 at 09:54:47 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
My sister called yesterday
She sounded genuine when she said "Thank You" for the money I sent her.
When I told her "It's a loan. Paying it back is all that I require.", her tone went downword. She must have burnt out all of her financial bridges with no fall back. Why else would she call me asking for money after five years? She hates me!

Wednesday, April 13, 2005 at 09:50:41 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
I was down for the count yesterday...food poisoning!
It may have been the crab at Hush Puppies, all of that Pepperoni I ate on cheesy toast, or that pudding concoction I made with old brownies.
I just don't know.

Wednesday, April 13, 2005 at 09:49:17 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
I'm glad you found a job in Florida Mikey!!!
Go Mikey

Tuesday, April 12, 2005 at 13:35:14 (PDT) <Mikey, Squirty's alter-ego>
Check your email Jimmy....


Sent you an email from work just a moment ago. Take a look.
BARK!!!!!! HOWL!!!!! Lick my belly....

Tuesday, April 12, 2005 at 12:29:08 (PDT) <Mikey, Squirty's alter-ego>
Frenchmen's Mountain is where the snails grow and roam the earth


Snails. Snails. Snails. Oh, how I hate those snails. But, then again, the Frenchmen love 
their snails. And good wine and laying over and being beaten in wars. 
But it is still a great place to see the LV valley, despite its name. 
Bark... Howl... Darn, I just stepped on another snail and crushed the darn thing. 
What a mess!! Now I need a bath.. Bark..

Tuesday, April 12, 2005 at 02:17:13 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
Sonny, Becky and I ate at Hush Puppies and drove around.


I had the all you can eat snow crab and it's the best in town!!!
We took in the view of Vegas from Frenchman's mountain.
I think it's one of the best veiws in town.
I don't understand the Mormon Temple
It has three tall steeples.
At the top of one of them is a golden guy blowing a horn with no holes or buttons.
In other words, the horn only plays one note. 
Was it cool, way back when, to play an instrument that plays only one note?
Hmmm. Guess I've never heard Mormon Music except for the Tabernacle Choir.

Monday, April 11, 2005 at 22:58:32 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>

Yea, I think its better...I can tell jokes much better now.

So I can say...
Anything I want to say...
In that very very special way...
I kind of hated that word wrap, didn't you...

Monday, April 11, 2005 at 16:51:47 (PDT) <Mikey, Squirty's alter-ego>

Text wrapping... 

New system doesn't wrap the text, so it ends up being one very long line.

Monday, April 11, 2005 at 13:50:34 (PDT) <Mikey, Squirty's alter-ego>
Shopping at a Fly's on a Sunday afternoon/evening.....
What a torture you put yourself through before you went to walk the Strip. I hope you harassed the cashiers there. Heck knows I harass all Fly's employees at any of their stores I visit. Got a few at the Manhattan Beach store well trained. They know my ways, so they try and keep me off my toes. You know, there has been such a turn over of cashiers at the LV store, that probably none of the ones there now know me. So, I could get away with kaka on them. Bark.. That was one thing that I prided myself on is that no matter how much crap there was, I could take it and still come and work a complete shift with pretty close to no mistakes in 13 months. One of the reasons Blessila (now the store asst. manager) got mad at me when I quit and kicked me out of the store my last day. She was losing an employee who helped keep her numbers up, so she could maximize her weekly/monthly bonuses. BARK...

Monday, April 11, 2005 at 11:57:47 (PDT) <Mikey, Squirty's alter-ego>
Bark... I am a puppy dog alter-ego and I like to bark at passing cars.
It's just a shame I am sober, as I have no excuse for having bumped into the rear of that Bentley I was chasing down Mtn Vista this morning.

Monday, April 11, 2005 at 11:27:12 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>

I love those mail-in rebates from Frys

My Norton Antivirus rebate wants me to mail them the boxtop from my previous Norton.
Like I still have that from over a year ago.
The 50 DVD-Rs looks like you can write on both sides too. LOL.

Monday, April 11, 2005 at 10:19:58 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
Gosh, I hate when I do that!
I copied updates to my software from my website to my PC, which is backwards

Monday, April 11, 2005 at 03:02:29 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
We walked the Strip tonight! Well, almost.
We left Frys, where I bought 2 camera lenses. Plus they had an offer for 50 free DVD-Rs and Norton Antivirus/Firewall software that I couldn't pass up.
We left there, parked at Bally's, saw 4 Bellagio water shows, explored Caesars Forum shops, and came back down the other side of the Strip. I guess we covered over 3 miles of walking. Now, this doesn't sound like much, but with all of the shows to see, it took us 3.5 hours to do.
The Forum Shops is still a great place to hang!
They have so many things there to see. The shops with the cobble stone streets and the sky that changes from night to day was special. The architecture of the ceilings, walls and pillars were quite a sight too.
For shows, the Roman Gods/Goddesses and Zuess Statues moved and acted out plays with pyrotechnics and and a water show. The colors were awesome.
It's funny that the girls on the strip seem to dress like hookers and expensive call girls while the guys dress casually if not sloppily.
Coming home, Becky said something that caught my interest.
She said that her chiropractor told her that she needed to strengthen her calves to improve her knees. Then she said it wasn't her chiropractor, it was someone else. Now, I was already kind of horney from all of the girls on the strip, so you can guess what I was thinking. Anyway, I thought it was humerous.

Saturday, April 09, 2005 at 13:53:52 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
Heck of a day so far! Visitors and Commotion!
I spent an hour on the phone helping Jerry Newberry fix his printer.
Beckys mom came over bringing Jennifer and Dustin to hang out.
Ryan came over bringing Jessy to hang out.
Joy called. She and Robert are coming over to hang out.
And here I am, still not showered, still in my robe, writing in this blog and while doing a million other things...What a day! This is a long shot away from walking the Strip!

Saturday, April 09, 2005 at 13:41:44 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
I didn't pay a Homage to Mikey, did I?
Mike Ginsburg:
Mike and I were consultants at the Mgm Grand.
Everyday he'd come by my desk and put a shiny new penny next to me. I thought it was odd, but cute. We seemed to hit it off. After Mike's contract ended at the Mgm he went on to work at Security Pacific in CA. My 3 month contract at Mgm ended up lasting 5 years.
Mike's contract ended at Security Pacific
I was taking a year off (which is now 4.5 years). He asked me if he could hang out here for a couple of weeks (which turned out to be a 1.5 years). Jobs just weren't turning up for him so he took a job at Fryes (with another ex-Mgm programmer who was canned during the Mgm/Mirage merger). At the time, people who were out of job (Larry Loff, Rob Allred, Mike Ginsburg, Allen Harmon...) couldn't find anything.
Finally, after 1.5 years, Mike landed a contract position in LA.
I'd reluctantly tried to find consulting work and failed. When Mike lived with me, he was pretty strapped for cash. He's now living in Los Angeles in motel rooms, but he's been consistant sending me money.
Mike has a lot of integrity.
I gave Mike a place to stay, which was nice. Mike sends me cash, even though I tell him to save it, and that's nice.
What we've got here, is a brotherhood thing going.
Which, is very nice. My homage to him has nothing to do with Information Systems. Mike's out there, and he genuinely cares about people. Thanks for remaining my friend Mike.

Saturday, April 09, 2005 at 12:17:23 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
I think of favors as currency with an expiration date.
I didn't mention Paula Kennard or John Edwards in my < Homage to Information Systems>.
However, we did exchange a lot of favors. Heres my Homage to them in Information Systems.
Paula Kennard:
On a programming level: Paula and I always had what seemed to be adversarial roles. She hated my code, and called it New Wave Programming. I hated her code. Paula liked using GO TOs. I liked using PERFORMs. But when it came down to banging out systems, she could type and create systems just as fast as I could.
The major difference between our styles was, Paula followed the rules and I would do whatever it took to get the job done (I often had to break security). Because of that, I got assignments that most people couldn't pull off, EG: installing 130 programs single handedly, or writing code that was outside the realm of normal programming. And I always had a backout strategy, which is why I was in charge of all implementations, deimplementations, backup stategies, and even the Remote Data Facilities Systems.
On a personal level: Paula was a very good friend. We shared personal secrets that I'd never tell anyone. I'm not aware of her doing anything special for anyone, not that she didn't do special things. And I never really did anything special for her, but I did steal her passwords all the time, haha.
John Edwards:
Background: Frank McDonald and Doug Stait started TSI together. They installed a home grown hotel system at the < Outriggers Hotels in Hawaii>. John Edwards was a project leader at the Mirage and started consulting with TSI. He brought Rambo and Chris Pajak in as after hours consultants. Somehow Doug Stait (who now consults with Dell computers) left TSI and John took his place as Frank's right hand man.
Back to John Edwards:
John was always quiet, intelligent, and sometimes witty around me. I loaded, delivered, and unloaded a ton of floor tiles to his house one time. John asked me if I'd do him that favor because he knew I had a truck. That was nice of me, but, I didn't include in my homage simply because it was a favor asked of me. I know John has done a lot of great things in IS, and probably has done a lot of nice things for other people, but I just don't know what they are.

Saturday, April 09, 2005 at 09:34:46 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
Las Vegas has a wind advisory out for today
Question of the day: Should we walk the Strip this afternoon, or stay indoors. hmmmm.
I'm thinking that having our faces sand blasted couldn't hurt our skin's complexion that much.
People use all kinds of facial scrubs (apricot, oatmeal...), but I've never heard of a sand scrub.
Vegas winds are usually gusty. It'll blow 30mph for 10 seconds then stop. Why it does that here and not in most places, I'll never know.
I usually associate gusty winds with a dark cloud passing over that causes a sharp temperature drop.

Saturday, April 09, 2005 at 09:34:22 (PDT) <Squirty's alter-ego (Mikey)>
That is a cool game and also an interesting tribute to your IT gang there is Lost Wages
But Jimmy, you didn't mention the two of the best it people you worked with. John from TSI and "oh, and now my mind is failing me.... The lady at MGM who worked with you at Caesers. She did the DBA roll at MGM rehost project."... Now, I am clearly being a smart ass. Now nasty of me, but sometimes I can't help it. I will tell you though I had a great time working with Richard Faircloth, Rob Allred, you, Frankie and a small handful of others on that project. Definitely only one more week at NG unless something totally weird happens. And I mean really totally weird. I have an interview on the phone with a place in Orlando FL this Monday morning. Pay ain't great, but it beats unemployment. Have a great weekend, my buddy Jimmy. And Ms. Rebecca too... And three huge Barks at you both...

Friday, April 08, 2005 at 17:24:58 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
Cool Kids Game ->Clothes Pin Grab
Get at least 7 kids together. Put 1 clothespin on the back of each kids shirt. Have the kids face each other in a circle. When you say "GO", they grab as many clothes pins as they can. Grabbing or holding on to the other person is illegal. The winner is the one who gets the most clothes pins.

Friday, April 08, 2005 at 01:17:08 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
My homage to Information Systems.
I should say the following, before I go on to the next phase of my life.
Larry Lewis:
Larry is the most decent man I'd ever met in Information Systems.
I don't think the man ever sweats, though. I was Larry's right hand man at Caesars.
Through Larry, I got in at Caesars and IGT.
Dale Pickett:
I passed the Employee Of The Month papers around for Dale Pickett twice.
Dale did an outstanding job helping me in Customer Analysis
The effort cost me nothing. All it took was a little coercing, some time, and a smile.
I got Dale Pickett into IS through Larry Lewis.
I groomed him to take over my responsibilities so I could be freed up to do other things. That's what he did. Dale has no idea I pushed to get him in, but that doesn't matter.
Emilio Honrubia:
I passed the Employee Of The Month paper around for Emilio Honrubia.
I got Emilio into IS through Larry Lewis. Emilio was the finest Computer Operator Caesars Palace ever had. I was on call for everything online at Caesars. Emilio was who I dealt with most.
Jimmy Leavelle:
I was offered the position of Project Leader at Nabs. I told the VP at First Western Savings to promote Jimmy Leavelle. I was better at programming and Jimmy was better at handling the BS.
Before I turned in my resignation letter, Jimmy and I conspired to bring me back in as a consultant for more than four times the pay.
These kind of arrangements work out well.
John Benchback:
I'm indirectly responsible for John Banchback's termination at NABS.
I reamed John in my Letter of Resignation. Jack Brebbia, the First Western Savings Vice President responsible for NABS asked me if I'd stay if he canned John. I told him no, it was too late. I lost too much of my life working for John.
John didn't know what he was doing half the time. One time he ordered screws from Japan saving a nickel a screw. He think he got a bonus for that. They had the wrong pitch and didn't hold the printer cables in the printers. All of the printer nuts were stripped. I got 20+ calls. We taped the cables on the printers. But all in all, he let the customers push him around at my expense.
John went on to become the Vice President of IS at the Hilton.
Leaving NABS was the best thing that could have happened for him. He had no function at NABS.
Dennis Cole:
I got Dennis into IS through Jerry Brown.
He was Bank of America's best Computer Operator. Dennis had ambition and he was a self teacher. He read and modified my Tacl code and made it better. He also gave me unquestioned access to the computer room and all of the systems.
Chris Fahey:
Chris and I wrote the pilot system for the ATM side fee charge.
The project made millions. It allowed the owner of an ATM to charge a fee for a transaction.
I gave Chris the recognition for the project even though he didn't do much work on they system. We both got excellent bonuses for it and that's all I wanted.
I was positioning him to be a Project Leader.
Chris was my best friend, and he was a great BS'er. However, he got a job offer from Diebold before I could make that happen.
Dennis Sheppard:
I got Dennis Sheppard into IS through Jerry Brown.
I pleaded with Jerry Brown to bring him in. Dennis is now making excellent money because of that change.
Dennis's car broke down, so I bought him a car on my credit card after work. He paid me back. Dennis is good people.
Jacquis Sussman:
Jacquis Sussman used to tell everyone she had me as her personal programmer at Caesars.
Now she's a Vice President at Mgm (which had very little to do with me). It was nice, to hear people she'd talk to, describe my working with her as great! It's nice when your reputation precedes you.
Jerry Newberry:
Jerry changed my life. He was my mentor at NABS.
Jerry taught me to write code for other people, and he taught me the finest ambition of a computer programmer was to work his way out of a job.
Instead of writing code like: GO TO DOITNOW, he wrote code like: GO TO FIND-THE-WINNING-RESULTS
It must have been someone like Jerry that wrote the Rosetta Stone for decoding Egyptian Hieroglyphics.
Rob Allred:
Rob taught me the attitude for working on anything.
If you keep messing with something, given enough time, it will eventually work for you.
Rob and I worked together at URS. URS was the only US based Tandem Airline system in existance.
Together we got various people into IS.
He brought me into Caesars through Larry Lewis.
He also helped pull me into the Mgm through Richard Faircloth.
Frank McDonald:
Frank brought me into the Mgm through his company, Transaction Software Incorporated.
Frank and I both sat in the shadows in Information Systems. He, like me, wrote entire systems.
Frank, sitting in his cubicle and behind closed doors, quietly changed peoples lives.
Larry Lewis, Jerry Newberry, Jimmy Leavelle, Jerry Brown, Rob Allred:
Our working together changed people's lives. We accomplished wonderful things.
Some of those people I mentioned don't even know I played major role in the course of their lives.
Some kind of know, but they've them give credit to others.
The point isn't that I'm a great guy or that these people are great people.
I could say more about the good things other people and I did...there's so much more to say.
The point is, that it is easy to be nice and to change the course of a person's life.
It takes just a little bit of time to be nice. So be nice!
If you have a chance to do it, put someone up for Employee Of The Month.
It'll make them feel good, it will give them some extra cash, so why not do it.
Me, I got my reward all through out my career. I got money, and lots of it.
It doesn't matter who gets credit. What matters is that good things were done.
I was a damned good programmer.
I never wanted recognition. I never got employee of the month. I stayed in the shadows.
According to Larry Lewis, I did the largest install, single handedly, in Caesars Palace's history.
I think I installed 130 programs. It was really too bad that it happened when my Mom was dying in the hospital.
Nobody but Lewis and I knew the magnitude and scope of the install.
I never left behind an unmaintainable system.
At Nabs: Through menus, clerks could run my systems, from operations to systems management.
My systems were installed at six major casinos. Caesars had one of them.
At Caesars: Operators could complete audited installs, backouts and systems operations with a single command.
Programmers could generate code and submit implementations with one command.
At Mgm: Operations could maintain the my systems without any knowledge of the Tandem.
Programmers could be generated entire programs with one command.
At IGT: I groomed Emilio for taking over everything that I was responsible.
I even wrote code after my contract ended to make his job easier.
I'm very proud of my accomplishments.
I succeeded in my goal to work my way out of a job and I made excellent money (6 figures) for doing it.
I had the best time of my life!
I gave programming my best effort, but in the end...
I developed a rational fear of the phone ringing. Everytime it rang, a piece of my life would be destroyed.
I believe I received more phone calls than anyone else in IS at URS, Bank of America, Caesars and Mgm.
While everyone else was sleeping, I'd be fighting fires, and I'd come in the next day like nothing happened.
I developed Carpal tunnel sydrome. That is where your wrist hurts and your arm goes numb from repetition (typing).
I turned to alcohol to find my quiet place. I knew if I didn't get out of programming, it would kill me.
I had to say the above before I change careers.
In my 17 years of programming, I only looked for a job once.
When I left one job, the phone would ring with another job offer.
I don't think the phone is going to ring this time.
I won't be coming back into Information Systems.

Thursday, April 07, 2005 at 21:21:42 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
My sister just called.
Kelly can be quite a charmer when she wants to be
We talked for about an hour or so. It was very nice, after all of these years. Her kids are doing wonderful. Eric (her son) is going to be a doctor. She's almost got a job working for a lawyer. Her divorce is almost final.
It sounded wonderful.

Thursday, April 07, 2005 at 19:09:06 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
The difference between genius and stupidity is genius has its limits- -Albert Einstein

Thursday, April 07, 2005 at 13:24:05 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
Kelly (my sister) called. It's been about 8 years.
It's funny how we remember ourselves. She remembers a different childhood than I do. I moved away with my mom when I was 13.
Enough about that. She needs help and she called the right person. I will always help when someone is in need.
Of all the people I've known, family members have always been the most expensive.
Ruth's family got $12,000 and a car out of me and I supported almost all of her HUGE Mississippi family at one time or another. They don't even call.
My step-kin, well, I just got through supporting my step-brother for a year. I supported my other step-brother for a year and my oldest sister. They don't call.
Thinking about it, I've spent most of my life supporting people. LOL.
And I don't have kids. Oh, the irony of it all!
I believe a person has no value in this life if they don't do positive things for others. It's a good rule.
I just hate when favors come out of my savings.

Thursday, April 07, 2005 at 10:27:32 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
Allen and I were fantasizing about becoming mountain men this morning.
But the devil is in the details.
I grew up using an outhouse, a chamber pot, washing clothes in a bucket, and pumping water from a well. I don't miss it at all.
But when I imagine a life where there's no toilets, toilet paper, cigarettes, coffee or even Kotex for my babe, I shudder!
So you have to make one kill (maybe) a day to eat and you cook it. Then what? What would a person do with all of that spare time? Watch clouds float by? hmmm.
This is what I imagine would happen over a period of time.
You build a log cabin. Spend your time cleaning it. Instead of going to the stream for water, you decide to have water in the cabin, so you create a daily chore for bringing in the water. You do the same with a chamber pot (a bucket used as a toilet). Then you want to look good every day, so you wash clothes more often...and add more and more chores as you go along. I could probably stand maybe a month of that before I started to go insane. I'd dearly miss modern living.
I've grown to wear we need the smell of flowers everywhere.
Modern living for the middle class is better than it's ever been.
It's only going to get better. The rich have their toys, but, these days even kids have cell phones. Nobody is getting ripped off here in the USA. It seems to be just a matter of perspective. People who complain don't realize what they have.
I think the Jeremiah Johnson life would be a useless existance.

Thursday, April 07, 2005 at 08:25:28 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
I can't believe this week is almost burnt up to a crisp.
We're just going to have to do something incredible this weekend. That's all there is to it!
I'd bet it would be a great weekend to see the Grand Canyon, Disneyland, Bryce or Zion. hmmm.
I think we'll walk the Strip Saturday...now there's a plan. The weather is great! The tourist haven't invaded us yet. And Becky's kids need the exercise.
Good plan...eh? lol
By next month, it'll be 100 degrees in Las Vegas.
By July, it'll be 110. By August it should get up to 120 degrees. We'll be frying eggs on the sidewalk. yuck.
The best reason that I had for selling my travel trailer was its bathroom melting. The exhaust fan, caulking and molding melted inside it last summer.

Wednesday, April 06, 2005 at 16:53:46 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
I like this question: What section do you like the best at the grocery store?
I like the hardware section.
Becky likes the soda section.
Joan Newberry likes the vegetable section.
Jerry Newberry likes the wine section.
Allan likes the hard liquor section.
Jimmy likes the beer section.
Joy likes the baby section.
Robert likes the snack section.
Jennifer and Dustin like the candy section.
People are attracted to different store sections like magnets.
Isn't it great that we're all different! Long live personality!

Wednesday, April 06, 2005 at 15:13:01 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
Cyrus Cruz just emailed me!
Now that's quite a twist. Some people remember their past. I do.
I haven't seen Cyrus now for something like 8 years.
Cyrus was my bud at Caesars. He moved on to bigger an better things at Dell. Smart move! I moved on to consulting...another smart move!
And I'm still surprised that no one from the old Caesars showed up at Jan Overbo's wedding last Saturday. I'm still scratching my head on that one. hmmmm.

Wednesday, April 06, 2005 at 15:07:51 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
I've always thought that Jewish people seemed somewhat smarter than most people.
Jews have gotten bad wraps for being tight with money, but I'd call that good horse sense.
Hiring people to cook for you is a great idea too!
It's the pork and shrimp thing that I really don't get.
Ok, so they eat there crap. If you put sugar on shit, then put a pretty wrapper on it with, say, Spiderman, on the cover, people will eat it!
And pigs have to eat what's thrown in their pens to survive. I hear they really love pizza.
Now this is nasty: I read the FDA allows 5 pounds of excrement in every ton of coffee.
Hey, have you ever heard of Birds Nest Soup?

Wednesday, April 06, 2005 at 12:13:16 (PDT) <Mikey, Squirty's alter-ego>
Here's what the Jews do, and I know first hand, being kosher as I am...
Jews hire non-jews to do their work for them from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, which constitutes Jews' Sabbath. Jews have it particularly hard in that turning on lights, driving, cooking and handling money on the Sabbath is wrong, and sinful... BARK. BARK.

Wednesday, April 06, 2005 at 10:59:40 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
Actually, the whole 10 Commandment thing seems ironic to me
Moses said anyone who tried to look at him on the mountain would be killed.
Then he comes down with 10 commandments and one of the commandments says "Thou Shall Not Kill".
In the same document, it says anyone who works on the Sabbath shall killed. It seems to me that someone has got to work on the Sabbath.
Things like that are why I'm so confused about religion.
It seems to make no sense at all too me. I need to put my stupid hat on, I guess.
I've read that common people aren't smart enough to read the Bible "alias-The Word of God". Only the Pope and his consorts are capable of interpreting it.
Wow. I don't know. I think I'm reasonably smart, but I don't get it. I never did.

Wednesday, April 06, 2005 at 10:24:32 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
I haven't found a really cool religion that matches my own beliefs
I suppose almost all of them are better than what I would come up with.
Sheesh, if I wrote a religion, it would state that killing is not only good, it is necessary for our survival.
What's ironic is that most religions would kill me for saying that.

Wednesday, April 06, 2005 at 09:58:06 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
I'm confused about this whole Pope thing.
Pope John Paul II (2) just died.
The first Pope was Pope Peter. He was the brother of Saint Andrew the Apostle. His name was assigned by Christ. "Peter" means rock.
Here's the break down: Jesus said: "Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." On this strong foundation I will build an everlasting temple. The great height of my Church, which is to penetrate the heavens, shall rise on the firm foundation of this faith. To you, Peter, I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind (make a slave) on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose (free) on earth, shall be loosed also in heaven."
Ok, uh, so later on, there was Pope Saint John 1.
Pope Saint John lasted almost 3 years. He was an Arian, and beleived Christ came between God and man. He died in Roman Catholic custody.
Then there was 23 Pope Pauls mixed in with 6 Pope Pauls and other palpal names.
Then FINALLY, they came up with Pope John Paul I. Which leads us to the name Pope John Paul II.

Terminalogy Defined.
Pope - The head of the Roman Catholic Church. The male head of some non-Christian religions.
Papacy - The office of the Pope.
Papal - Of or relating to the Pope.
Pontiff - French for a bishop or a pope
Pontifacate - The term of office for the pope
Bishop - 1. A high ranking Christion cleric, in charge of a diocese. 2. In some churches, regarded as having received the highest ordination in unbroken succession from the apostles.
Diocese - A district, or a group of churches under direction of the Bishop.
Saint - 1. A person officially recognized, especially by canonization, as being entitled to public veneration and capable of interceding for people on earth. 2. A person who has died and gone to heaven.
Apostle - One of the 12 disciples chosen by Jesus to preach the gospel. 2. A missionary of the early Christian Church. 3. In the Mormon Church, one of the 12 members of the administrative council.
Canonization - To declare (a deceased person) to be a saint and entitled to be fully honored as such.
Canon - An ecclesiastical law or code of laws established by a church council.
Ecclesiastical - Of or relating to a church, especially as an organized institution.

Wednesday, April 06, 2005 at 05:47:14 (PDT) <Becky>
Jim, I really like your new blog thing
Its too wide for my screen Jim. luv u.

Tuesday, April 05, 2005 at 23:38:51 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
We went to Jerry Newberry's today.
I fixed his puter. Installed Windows XP upgrade ($94 at Sam's Club).
Jerry, bought us lunch at Big Dogs Red Barn. Its a pretty cool place with really cool food.
He also gave me a swing, which may sound kind of kiddish, but, I've missed my backyard swing.
Jerry sold us his Compaq laptop, which was great!!!
Becky's Compaq monitor went dark a while back and she's had her laptop hooked up to an external monitor. It was hokey but it worked.
All-in-all, it was both a profitable and productive day!!!

Tuesday, April 05, 2005 at 23:23:05 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
I am so fat that...
I can empty a pool with one cannon ball.
When I sit in a car, it leans.
I found a crayon in one of my fat rolls.
My feet flop when I walk.
I have to reserve two seats for airplane flights.
I sat on my remote, and couldn't tell.
I've forgotten what my feet look like.
I can scratch my back by pulling my stomach around.
Seriously though, being fat is more normal than being skinny.
I think obesity is often the result of boredom or depression.
However, I also think that being fat is often the result of having great food available.
Did you know that fat people are jollier than skinny people?

Tuesday, April 05, 2005 at 11:33:11 (PDT) <Jerry Newberry>
Hey Jim
From Jim

Monday, April 04, 2005 at 17:44:36 (PDT) <Mikey, Squirty's alter-ego>
Bark. Bark. Bark.. Another 12 hour day at work. I can't stand it.. .
Bad enough I can't slept well. Played two hours of racquetball doubles yesterday, and it didn't start to hurt until towards the end. But I've been in pain (bad hip) all day today. And I need to spend some time in the gym working out (even lifting weights to avoid hip pain) to try and shed these pounds. Damn, I am so very fat. Can't stand to look at myself in the mirror. And it was awful when I told one of the racquetball guys Sunday that I weigh twice what I did in 1990, when I had gone on a special diet. One of the other guys on the court and I have known each other since January 1989, and he confirmed it. It is awful. One very fat, out of shape Jive Turkey Puppy alter-ego.

Monday, April 04, 2005 at 12:07:18 (PDT) <Mikey, Squity's alter-ego>
I don't understand it either
You are way beyond my feeble knowledge of computers and programming too, Sir Jimmy....

Monday, April 04, 2005 at 10:30:55 (PDT) <becky>
Good Morning
Hi Jim I don't exactly know what you were saying in your blog. You are a intellegent man that's a good thing. I can learn alot from you. I would like to try to have my own blog. I need to learn how to write letter's. Please help me. Love Becky

Monday, April 04, 2005 at 10:30:22 (PDT) <becky>
Good Morning
Hi Jim I don't exactly know what you were saying in your blog. You are a intellegent man that's a good thing. I can learn alot from you. I would like to try to have my own blog. I need to learn how to write letter's. Please help me. Love Becky

Monday, April 04, 2005 at 08:35:13 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
Here's the scoop on Web Development using HTML, Javascript, CSS, CGI and PERL
It's error prone.
I made major mods to the CGI program in my Blog software this morning and it was a pain.
If you don't save your work, if you copy it but don't secure it, if you missed one single { or ;, you get a vague error. Hmmm.
I had to make changes, one line at a time. I changed over 200 lines of code.
If I made any kind of error, I'd get an error message saying there was an error in the program.
No line number or anything
The error I hated most is:
"Did you forget to strip your newlines when transferring across the network?"
What the heck does that mean. I only get 3 error messages and that's one of them.
And what the heck does this code do?
$value =~ tr/+/ /;
$value =~ s/%([a-fA-F0-9][a-fA-F0-9])/pack("C", hex($1))/eg;
$value =~ s///g;
A lot of the code that I scavanged, I simply won't touch.
It probably took a programmer a week to develop those 3 lines of code.
If I told you what that code does, you'd puke...lol
It takes hex codes out of a string. Most languages have an unescape command.
So what good is a powerful language if it takes a month to write one line of code?
About a year ago, a local guy who owned a casino website wanted me to work with him.
I should have taken him up on the offer.
He was frustrated. He told me it took him a week to get one line of software to work.
It turned out to be an unlogged security message.
Anyway, this guy was willing to give me shares in his company. Hmmm. I wonder how he's doing.

Monday, April 04, 2005 at 06:55:36 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
Saw Chuckie last night.
His new motorcycle has been in the shop for 3 weeks now. That's gotta suck!

Sunday, April 03, 2005 at 11:53:29 (PDT) <Jim Cutlar>
I changed the software for entering Blogs
It's now capable of handling 1,000's of blogs, which is cool.
What's not cool, is it still has a few bugs in it.

Sunday, April 03, 2005 at 08:00:08 (PDT) <Mikey, aka: Squirty's egoistical alter-ego>
Long live Jewish delis with kooky waitresses
I figured I'd start hitting as many of the old Jewish delis as I can for Saturday or Sunday morning bewakfasts, and the one today, Factors, has free wi-fi. So many of these places have kooky waitresses, but this one here is the best. A slightly kooky version of someone who reminds me of Ms. Rebecca. Just a shame I can't follow her home today. She might very well go home to a slightly kooky version of Jimmy Cutlar. Wait a minute, Jimmy is already slightly kooky. Sounds like a fun Saturday. Wedding sounded typical from the bit you wrote.

Saturday, April 02, 2005 at 22:00:56 (PST) <Jim Cutlar>
We went to Janis Overbo's wedding.
It's amazing, none of her best friends from 7 years ago were there. In fact, nobody I knew from Caesars was there, and I know they were invited.
Her daughter didn't recognize me. Jan gave me a hug, but she was too busy giving everybody hugs.
I know I'm sentimental.
Any friend of mine can be a friend for life if they want.
I have always thought that's the way it should be. I thought everybody thought that way, but I guess not. Out of sight means out of mind with both lovers and friends. So sad.
All of those good old times, those memories, those pictures...they only mean something to me. If I don't care, they're trash. But I do care.
What was weird was how we chummed around with the people we just met.
You'd swear, by the way we were interacting, that we'd been friends for decades.

Saturday, April 02, 2005 at 15:42:58 (PST) <Jim Cutlar>
Robert, Joy, Amy (the babe), Dustin and Jennifer came over.
We watched Dead Like Me most of the day.
It's one of those odd days.
Tonight, we're going to Jan Overbo's wedding.
It'll be more like a Caesars Palace reunion though.
Kind of like Rob Allreds' wake, but not.
I'd expect all of the old timers to be there (all of them except for Jerry Newberry).
It'll be interesting. Everytime we get together, it's amazing.
I'd compare it to being in a coma for five years then waking up and looking in the mirror.
I'm getting ready to install some more versatile Web Blog software.
It's dynamically driven, so, the software can handle 1,000's of BLOGS if I let it.
But for now, I'll install it, along with a calendar. Later I'll expand it to whatever.
I think Weblogs are a great way to keep track of the days gone by.

Saturday, April 02, 2005 at 15:32:19 (PST) <Jim Cutlar>
Ahh, I forgot to say what my ol' birthday was like
We went to HOOTER's for my birthay!
I had a dozen steamers, and some hot wings. Becky had a Hooter Burger!
YUM!
Then, on April 1st, we lazed around, eventually landing in Robert and Joy's Jacuzzi.
I also talked to my old buddy, Jerry Newberry. The old fart is turning 70 soon, but he's the youngest old guy I know. We've known each other since 1983.

Saturday, April 02, 2005 at 14:41:29 (PST) <Mikey, aka: Squirty's Alter-Ego>
Jimmy go to AppleCees?
Jimmy... You and Miss Rebecca go to AppleCees for din-din on your BD? What'd you have? Hope you still alive, now that you're so darn old!!!

Thanks Jimmy for the directions, I have been trying to figure them out.... Bark. Howl. And Lick Belly..

Or I don't answer because it isn't safe. I was driving a straight, flat period of I-10 through Texas yesterday, with no one around.
So, I picked up my cellulite, as I had a voice mail. I pressed the one button to retrieve. It said something like "Nasty you!! You can't retrieve you messages now". As soon as I stopped for a wee-wee, I was able to retrieve.
Best I can figure, they sensed I was moving at 80mph and some how figured I was alone. HOWL!!!!