The Life and Times of Jim
Hi, there. I'm Jim. Welcome to my phlog!
This site was written for Las Vegas, then LouisVille. Now, it seems to be about anywhere. In these phlogs, you'll see a lot of my personal notes and pictures. I like to post my observations here to remember life and celebrate it. I'm not religious. I don't pray for good fortune. I'm ecstatically grateful for the gift of life and I think our time should be remembered and not taken for granted. I'm not a writer. I think pictures tell stories so much better than words. I love just about everything in this life, and, I guess that would have to include you. So, if you've seen me, don't be surprised if your picture is in here somewhere. Of all the critters, people are absolutely the most interesting. 
<< 02/2007 < 01/2008 Calendar 03/2008 > 02/2009 >>Sign InView Other Logs
Sun 
02/10/2008 00:16:58
 jim  Kathys Song
[Click Here - Kathy's Song]
I hear the drizzle of the rain, like a memory it falls
Soft and warm continuing, tapping on my roof and walls

And from the shelter of my mind, through the window of my eyes
I gaze beyond the rain-drenched streets, to England where my heart lies

My mind's distracted and diffused, my thoughts are many miles away
They lie with you when you're alseep, and kiss you when you start your day

And a song I was writing is left undone, I don't know why I spend my time
Writing songs I can't believe, with words that tear and strain to rhyme

And so you see I have come to doubt, all that I once held as true
I stand alone without beliefs, the only truth I know is you

And as I watch the drops of rain, weave their weary paths and die
I know that I am like the rain, there but for the grace of you, go I
Sun 
02/10/2008 00:11:16
 jim  Big Log
[Click Me-My Love Doesn't Lead To The Freeway]

My love is in league with the freeway
Its passion will ride, as the cities fly by
And the tail-lights dissolve, in the coming of night
And the questions in thousands take flight
My love is a-miles in the waiting
The eyes that just stare, and the glance at the clock
And the secret that burns, and the pain that grows dark
And it's you once again
Leading me on - leading me down the road
Driving beyond - driving me down the road

My love is exceedingly vivid
Red-eyed and fevered with the hum of the miles
Distance and longing, my thoughts do provide
Should I rest for a while at the side
Your love is cradled in knowing
Eyes in the mirror, still expecting they'll come
Sensing too well when the journey is done
There is no turning back - no
There is no turning back - on the run

My love is in league with the freeway
Oh the freeway, and the coming of night-time
My love is in league with the freeway

Sat 
02/09/2008 23:52:22
 jim  Its my life, dont you forget!
[Click here - Talk Talk - It's my life]
It's funny how I find myself in love with you
If I could buy my reasoning I'd pay to lose. One half won't do.

I've asked myself how much do you commit yourself?
It's my life. Don't you forget! It's my life. It never ends.

Funny how I blind myself.
I never knew if I was sometimes played upon
and afraid to lose
I'd tell myself, what good do you do.
Convince myself, it's my life. Don't you forget. It's my life
It never ends.

I've asked myself how much do you commit yourself?
It's my life
Don't you forget!
Caught in the crowd, it never ends.
Sat 
02/09/2008 23:47:56
 jim  Let me be your pirate
[Click Here] Nina - Let me be your pirate
It's time to take you with me, on all the seven seas
We'll sail until the end of time. The moon will keep us company

It's time to make the flight now. The skies are clear for take off
This longing has me calling your name. All our money's just to play this game

For you I do those crazy things
And I'd lay the world down at your feet
And I'd catch the falling stars from heaven
All this only to kiss you just one time

It's time to take you with me, down all the endless highways
We'll run until the end of time. The moon will keep us company.
Sat 
02/09/2008 23:19:00
 jim  As I lay me down to sleep.
[Click me-As I lay me down to sleep]

It felt like springtime on this February morning, in the courtyard birds were singing your praise
I'm still recalling things you said to make me feel alright, I carried them with me today, Now

As I lay me down to sleep, this I pray, that you will hold me dear
Though I'm far away, I'll whisper, your name into the sky and I will wake up happy

I wonder why I feel so high, though I am not above the sorrow
Heavy hearted, till you call my name, and it sounds like church bells or the whistle of a train
on a summer evening I'll run to meet you, barefoot, barely breathing

It's not too near for me, like a flower I need the rain, though it's not clear to me
Every season has it's change and I will see you when the sun comes out again

I wonder why...

when the sun comes out again....
I will wake up happy....
This I pray....

Sat 
02/09/2008 18:00:31
 jim  More Rainy Days in Seattle
Sat 
02/09/2008 15:15:13
 jim  The human race will end some day
Since none of us were human before we got here, who cares?
Maybe the next dominant species will be flying jellyfish.
Wouldn't that be cool ! I had some jellyfish here the other night and they were very tasty!!!
I'm afraid if we ate enough of those guys, they might just decide to get even! So watch what you eat. It may end up hunting you down with people nets haha.
Strange humor from the dark side.
--- bwahahaha.
Fri 
02/08/2008 07:35:00
 jim  Bear Kisses
Fri 
02/08/2008 06:58:35
 jim  .Allen Harman has left the building! (6/11/58 - 02
You area missed a lot buddy.
From Debby
. ijust want to put that with his bible
thankyou.
chelsrose@hotmail.com
Fri 
02/08/2008 06:58:35
 jim   (Reply)Allen Harman has left the building! (6/11/58 - 02/
An old high school buddy passed away last Thursday. We lived near each other in Burna, Kenucky. Allen lived with me in Colorado Springs.
We kept in touch throughout the years.
We shared many of the same friends (and girlfriends, but not in a kinky way). He was a really cool guy who never quite got past the wild partying teenager stage.
Allen finally realized his dream
He wanted to be a Montana mountain man. He lived in a log cabin on a mountainside for a while. He loved the Colorado mountains, and he finally got to live the dream.
He died in Iowa and went out in flames, 
just like he had always wanted. His death made the headlines. I don't know exactly what happened, but I do know he was set up to be a target of a swat team. He didn't have a criminal record, but he liked weapons. He tried to contact me. I missed it.
Have a good one Allen.
You can have your own mountain now. A lot of people out here miss you.
Your buddy for 36 years - Jim
Wed 
02/06/2008 19:59:04
 jim  The ends justfies the means?
To animals, the ends is all there is. There is no means. The past is just a reference to where they are at. Nothing is guilty or innocent and their system has worked for billions of years. Its based on need, not greed.
To people, well we have memories. The means is all accountable. The end means nothing, even though thats the state we are constantly in. If the means isn't what we like, we rewrite it, so we can live with our ends, so we can have more than we need.
Time will tell which is the best thoughtline.
I think the past is as dead as yesterday. It can only be replayed by artificial means. Pictures, stories, recordings of any type... they are all an attempt to make the past live again. But we all know, that will never happen.
The future is just a concept. It can not be proven to exist.
If it could be proven, I'd like to see as proof, what is going to happen next.
I'd think our best predictions are only close approximations.
Wed 
02/06/2008 19:06:46
 jim  Another one turns to dust
Allen Harman, a best friend of mine since high school, died Thursday.
He was free spirited, a partier, and a babe hound to the end.
His name should have been Allen T Hormone!!!
He shot himself after being cornered by the law dawgs in Spencer, Iowa.
I'm not a good person to judge Allen. We were once the same.
He liked PYTs, any and all  babes, partying, and having good times all the way throughout his life.  
Allen just never grew out of it. He knew death would come. He dared it.
By the end, the women and the paryting killed the man.
He was wanted for having sex with a minor in Wyoming. He probably did not do it, but we'll never know.
A married woman may have tipped police off to his whereabouts.
His bullet just dotted the last sentence of his autobiography... "THE END.".
I think thats what he wanted. He'd accomplished everything he wanted to accomplish.
He'd become a mountain man in Montana. Hunt, F, and Fish was his motto.
And although his life may have been pretty much self serving, we could only dream of the pleasures that man experienced.
I loved him.
As people fall off the grid, you appreciate the links to your past more and more. You'll definitely be missed.
Good Luck To You Buddy...Where ever you are
I can't say I'm proud of your life, but I definitely do
understand it.
Sincerely
Your best friend, Jim.
Wed 
02/06/2008 18:18:17
 jim  There goes my last best buddy from High School.
Truck inventory reveals more weapons
Truck inventory reveals more weaponsSaturday, February 2, 2008

(Photo)Photo by Randy Cauthron
Police conducted an inventory of 49-year-old Allen Harman's truck Thursday following a standoff at the AmericInn motel in Spencer. Investigators found a lever-action rifle and rounds of hollow-point ammunition inside the vehicle. Harman faced a Wyoming charge of sexual abuse involving a minor, but committed suicide before officers could take him into custody.
Spencer police on Friday released troubling information about the southeast Missouri man whose standoff with police ended with a suicide Thursday morning. Authorities said 49-year-old Allen Harman of Jackson, Mo., had a 9 mm semiautomatic Beretta in the AmericInn motel room where he ended his own life.
A team of four officers knocked on Harman's door
and tried to get him to come out of the motel room when they heard a gun go off at 10:37 a.m. Thursday. Members of the Spencer Police Department were trying to take Harman into custody on a Sublette County, Wyo., arrest warrant. He would have faced a charge of sexual abuse of a minor in Wyoming.
The ensuing moments became tense for officers,
who weren't sure if Harman had a hostage and couldn't determine the extent of his injuries. Members of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation closed off access points to stop traffic near the hotel. Fire trucks and an ambulance remained on stand-by in the neighborhood as officers tried to determine what happened on the other side of the motel room door.
A special entry team eventually had to break a window in the second-floor motel room.
Officers used a camera mounted on a pole to peer past curtains and into the room. The camera images revealed a person lying on the bed, not moving, with a handgun still containing live rounds nearby.
An autopsy is scheduled to be performed at the State Medical Lab in Ankeny. Officers did not initially find indications of drug or alcohol use at the motel.
Spencer Police Chief Mark Lawson on Friday said investigators found a lever-action rifle loaded with five rounds of hollow-point ammunition in Harman's truck. The rifle was hidden between the front seats, where Harman had easy access to the weapon. Officers also found 21 rounds of ammunition for the rifle in the glove compartment.
"Even in Spencer, Iowa, things like this are going to happen and you need to be prepared for it," Lawson said.
"You need to be equipped for it and you need to be trained for it. As mundane as the day-to-day activities go, this brings to the forefront just how serious and how dangerous this line of work can be. It was a very sobering experience. It is always in the back of your mind."
Randall Hanson, the investigator and trial facilitator for the Sublette County Attorney's Office issued the arrest warrant for Harman. He said a "somewhat anonymous" tip helped him track Harman in north Iowa.
"I contacted one of the authorities back there and told them he's known to carry weapons, a knife, and for them to use caution when approaching," Hanson said. "That's just something we do as a matter of courtesy to all departments. I think they're pretty cautious anyway, but this puts them on hyper-alert."
The warrant was initially received by Floyd County Sheriff's Rick Lynch's office because Harman was living in the lone trailer at an RV campground near Rudd. Harman was staying there while working at a wind farm construction site just outside of Charles City. Hanson then received new and specific information -- right down to the motel room number -- about Harman's whereabouts in Spencer. Floyd County authorities faxed the warrant information to Spencer and a team was assembled to approach Harman's motel room.
The Wyoming attorney, on Friday, confirmed that Harman was en route to Wyoming when he made the overnight stop in Spencer. Harman's trailer, with Missouri plates, was still hooked up to utilities at the RV campground in Rudd, which leaves open the possibility he planned to return.
Hanson wouldn't comment about whether he thought Harman was making the trip to Wyoming to do harm, but added, "it doesn't look good." Hanson also wouldn't talk about Harman's connections to the state of Wyoming. The explanations, he said, would risk identifying the juvenile who accused Harman of sexual abuse.
"You'd have to expose a bunch of the charges in order to put that out, so I decline to comment on that one -- it wasn't much (of a connection) I can tell you that," Hanson said.
The attorney issued the warrant at about 4 p.m. Wednesday. He was ready Thursday to let his jailers know there might be an extradition issue for them to deal with over the weekend.
"I came back from lunch (on Thursday) and I was supposed to call Clay County immediately," he said. "I called them and they told me what had happened."
"It wasn't worth that," Hanson said of Harman's decision. "That's a choice he made and it is unfortunate he had to take that avenue. There were other options. They may not have been pleasant, but they are a lot better than the alternative."
The area's responding agencies met Friday morning in Spencer to review the tactical execution of the incident. The local police chief said he was satisfied by the performance of emergency response teams.
"We made sure everybody was on the same page and everybody had the same information," Lawson said. "We found out we've got some serious equipment lapses and we're going to try and deal with those in quick order to get those taken care of."
Hanson also credited the work of local officers as they tried to serve the arrest warrant on his behalf.
"They got on it immediately," he said. "I feel somewhat sorry for them that they had to walk into that kind of a situation. It's hard on law enforcement also. They don't like to see that kind of ending either. It's a sad thing for everybody, but the officers did a tremendous job."
Wed 
02/06/2008 04:00:39
 jim  Typhoid Jim
Hey, I didn't event the system, it evented me!
I still have flu symptoms, but at least I can make it to work.
I'll be riding in a very crowded bus in a couple of hours. I'll be sharing my air with a 100 others for 20 minutes.
I feel very bad about doing this. 
It's the system. My saving's low so off I go.
I wonder if the fall of the Roman Empire was caused by something spread in their mass transit system.
Becky has got the flu now. :^(
Tue 
02/05/2008 05:23:09
 jim  The flu season is here1
Either that or I've got mold from the Underground Seattle Tour living in my lungs.
All I know is, I feel terrible!
Achy, feverish, ears plugged, extreme coughing, sore throat, headache, dizziness, and my skin is sensitive to touch.
Becky's down and out with it.
EEEeeeyuckyeeee!
Sun 
02/03/2008 16:45:18
 jim  Freaky in Seattle
The lady in the green raincoat muttered "They murdered my entire family because I pressed charges and wouldn't drop them".
She was just going on and on. Her English was excellent.
There are a lot of gothic people here.
A couple walked by me and one was mumbling "I can't believe all of this depressing #$^@ is happening. Its hard to go on.". They were walking about .5 miles an hour. I wanted to say, "The depressing stuff might stop if you just walk faster to your appointments!", but I stayed quiet.
Probably the strangest thing I heard today;
A homeless person asked me for a cigarette. I told him I only had a couple. Then he asked me "Can I just have a couple of puffs then"....wow.
And the most unexpected thing I heard today was...
A Japanese looking fellow entered Starbucks, and with a thick British accent, he ordered a latte. His accent was a complete surprise. I guess we'll be seeing a lot of that as the world becomes one.
Sun 
02/03/2008 16:37:16
 jim  Seattle Buildings
Sun 
02/03/2008 13:46:38
 jim  Seattle Underground
After riding a bus, and walking several blocks, we took the Seattle Underground Tour for $14 a ticket.
The comedy routine was hilarious. That was the show. We were probably above ground as much as we were under
Becky had to take it at this point.
I got sick in the last 30 minutes. I wasn't even sure I could make it home.
This was the highligh of the tour,
being underneath the sidewalk. Hmmm.
Sun 
02/03/2008 12:41:59
 jim  Spending time with Renee - People Pix
 
Sun 
02/03/2008 12:21:44
 jim  Howarth Park - Vista
Sun 
02/03/2008 11:50:48
 jim  Howarth Park - 200801
Gotta do something, so we grabbed Renee and drove along the Puget Sound.
This park was practically in her backyard, but you'd never guess it.
This park would be a great place to picnic in the Summer, since its basically a parking lot off of a backstreet. We got so many really good pictures from this area.
Sat 
02/02/2008 22:35:32
 jim  Everett/Marysville, Washington
Sat 
02/02/2008 10:53:22
 jim  One Friday Night on Pike
Ahhhhh...the bus

We took one downtown to Pike Street

Met new friends (well, maybe not)
We liked Pike Street Station
Pike Station/Westlake Mall are GREAT
IEverybody disappeas after 10pm.
Sat 
02/02/2008 05:30:55
 jim  Seattle Club Maps
Fri 
02/01/2008 20:15:52
 jim  Pike St - Horse Patrols
Fri 
02/01/2008 20:08:30
 jim  WestLake Mall
Westlake Mall is off of Pike Street. 
My recipe is:  Freeze thoroughly. Wait for 28, then ride to Pike. Walk 4 blocks. Thaw to room temperature.


The shops are very elegant.
The food court wasn't the usual mall grouping. The branding was new to me.
I seriously think Seattle's diversities in businesses makes it stand out.
The only exception seems to be Starbucks, which seems to be everywhere..
Fri 
02/01/2008 19:40:17
 jim  Pike Street - From 7:40pm to 11:10 pm
We almost moved here. Its the 801 Towers. I was checking it out in Louisville before we took off. BUT, it was the first apartment we checked out, I hesitated, and we lost a 10th floor apartment overlooking Seattle and Puget Sound.
As tiny as Seattle is, as crowded as it is, they are still building condos.
When living the dream
Don't wait until its almost over to wake up. Fly if you can. Walk if you can't.
It took 3.5 hours out of our lives
To walk down Pike Street. We still haven't seen it all. It was cold, my feet hurt, BUT TODAY, Seattle looks very different to me.
Fri 
02/01/2008 18:52:00
 jim  Pike Street Station
Thu 
01/31/2008 07:21:02
 jim  In a place, far far away
Do you think like me, that the world is turning into a place where reality is almost always somewhere else.
I seems to me, that in these times, it's too easy for people to shun reality by obsessing on the internet, video games or cell phones. We've all seen friends on their cell phones, while walking down the road together, or driving while on their cell phones. We all know people that can't stop talking about the games they've been playing. 
I still think that reality is 
the car your going to hit, the pole you're going to walk into, or knowing you're with someone when you're with them.
But I'm from an older generation.
Its seems more and more families are becoming "remote families", friends are becoming "remote friends", and reality is becoming a "remote reality". My world has become just that.
I'm here, but "here" isn't where my mind is at. Life has become physically disassociated, and its all tied together by communication links and computers. All the non-residents who come here to work, must have it really rough if they are raising families back home.
In addition, computers and comunications are providing
pleasure and controlling our self esteem.
The next generation is going to be far more interesting than mine.
Tue 
01/29/2008 20:26:48
 jim  Well...
...
Tue 
01/29/2008 17:02:34
 jim  Stormy Weather
Mon 
01/28/2008 18:50:14
 jim  Seattle Snow
Sun 
01/27/2008 21:48:07
 jim  It was a good Sunday for driving around
Sun 
01/27/2008 12:23:52
 jim  .How did FreshUI tweak utility work out for Jimmy?
A lot of the options in FreshUI were not available in Vista.
Things like "Add New Programs, Add Remove Programs, Active Desktop, Desktop Themes, Icon Size..." have been eliminated or reworked in Vista. I did get it to do a few things that were handy...like adding Cmd to the file context menu.
Thanks bro!!!
I bought a new watch at Walmart
My other one exploded. This is the coolest gadget watch I've probably ever owned. Casio finally came out with something great! Its got a remote control built into it. In learn mode you press a watch key, aim a controller at it, press one of its keys, and the watch will remember it. I'm going to have some fun with this at the next sports bar I go to...har har.
We stopped by stopping by Green Lake.
It was frozen over. Its amazing, the number of people that jog in freezing weather. I'd bet we saw 300 people walk or jog down the lakeside pathway.
Somewhere along the way, we drove around Ballard.
Ate at the Ballard Brothers Seafood fast food restaurant joint. My blackened cajun salmon sandwich was yicky. It got a little too much blackening. I could have used it to do a charcoal canvas of something. Becky had the fried cod and it was great.
The hilight of the day was the guy who was beating up a bus.
The guy was yelling and screaming about something. Its so sad that people will let themselves fall that far.
Sun 
01/27/2008 11:03:50
 jim  Renee and Robert - Baby pictures
Sun 
01/27/2008 09:15:46
 jim  Weekend with Renee
Sun 
01/27/2008 09:11:50
 jim  What can happen in an hour?
Sat 
01/26/2008 09:25:11
 jim  .Is Jimmy partying this weekend?
Four cuts for one shoulder...my my, you are one complicated dude!
Hopefully, you're 35 will be back to 100% soon. Just don't go blind.
We're not partying.
We're just passing the time, growing quietly older together and watching the snow fall outside of our window. Renee and her baby are over for the weekend, so we're catching up on Hollywood's latest.
I'm not really doing much at the place I work at.
Haha, there are no references to who I work with or where I work at anywhere in my blog/phlog. I'm kind of undercover, kind of like a secret agent...bwahahaha. As long as what your hearing isn't bad, I'm good with it. I'm just trying to blend in.
The editor  <p>'s all over my documents. 
The paragraphs in this blog are caused by the microsoft plugin that lets me code for Word style editting. I can't control it. What I know is that the [ENTER] generates <p></p> tags,and [SHIFT][ENTER] generates <br> tags.
<p>paragraph</p> = a paragraph block.
<br> = a carraige return.
They work very differently. 
  
Fri 
01/25/2008 06:14:17
 jim  Monte Carlo fire
The Monte Carlo caught fire today.
I missed most of the coverage on this. However... MGM Fire
The Mgm caught on fire 11/21/1980.
I was there. The smoke from the fire killed 87 people. It was by far the most tragic event I'd even seen in my life. Huge helicopters pulled people off the roof. A couple tied a series of sheets together that didn't make it all the way down to the ground. A lady fell to her death at the end of it, her husband broke his leg. At the time, it was said to be the 2nd worst hotel fire in history. I took 36 pictures of it, but my ex (Lisa) thought she deserved them more.
Thu 
01/24/2008 21:32:35
 jim  More Seattle - It just gets better
Thu 
01/24/2008 21:23:45
 jim  2008 - Jim - Cheap Sunglasses
Wed 
01/23/2008 05:16:28
 jim  People do terrible things, like bombing buildings
I think because they want to make a difference in life.
Their solution works, but in the most horrible of ways.
It is very possible, that a rock could have changed the course of the Colorado River millions of years ago.
Its hard to imaging what Las Vegas would be like now if it did.
The Twin Towers attack did change the world. Its sad to say it, but our world today would be different if it hadn't happened.
And if you like your world as it is today, then that tragedy was necessary.
For the present to exist as it is, everything good or bad had to have happened exactly as it has happened.
Wed 
01/23/2008 04:44:43
 jim  Thoughts-Everything is not working out as planned
But then again, it NEVER does.
Thats the thing. Waves crashing into the shore, wind blows the roof off, the toilet decides not to flush any more.
We've never been in control.
Its all just an illusion. If something were to come by earth and were to shift the atmosphere just a few miles, we'd die in 5 minutes.
All good things go bad.
Its hard to see, but all bad things go good too. It all works out, and it all works out better. Any change is good. 
If something did shift the atomsphere a few miles, and the next form of life did have bigger lungs (or smaller), then it would all be okay.
What is trying to be in control, is something all around us.
Its small. Its as brutal. It is beautiful. It is designed to take whatever is around it and consume it. Its byproduct feeds other things that are created just like it. In other words, plants eat dirt, and we eat plants. We have the same nature.
Its brutal. It is beautiful. It is simple.
The most important goal in life for any person should have been
Living longer. That should have been apparent when we are kids. Money, luxury, they are all worthless if you are only here 80 years. Our goal, for the next century should be, life extension. We should be creating something that is better than something that is both brutal and beautiful. This entry is -1m.
Mon 
01/21/2008 23:07:34
 jim  Downtown Seattle, Bellevue
Mon 
01/21/2008 22:42:34
 jim  Seattle - From the 76th Floor
This is from the tallest building in Seattle!
Mon 
01/21/2008 07:11:27
 jim  I like Wikipedias entry on Legacy Systems
"Legacy code" often differs from its suggested alternative by actually working and scaling. - Bjarne Stroustrup http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy_system
I've heard the Legacy Systems referred to as if they came from the dark ages.
The incandescent light bulb is a legacy system of sorts. 
It might be old, but its still here, and its still working. Until there's a really good replacement that people can afford, they're not going away. You can bash it all you want, but if you can't replace it, you're just bashing it.
I put this in here, because, I read somewhere that XP was legacy software. 
Mon 
01/21/2008 04:31:02
 jim  Another annoying Vista feature
Winhelp32.exe wasn't included in Vista. It takes up about 255k of disk space.
The Winhelp32.exe program that comes with Vista takes up 9k that tells you the old help isn't supported because its old.
Help from your existing programs probably won't work!
That means you have to add it from the windows website after verifying your Original Windows Software or copy it over from XP and futz with it to make it work. This seems like a time wasting enhancement to me.
Why didn't they just call their new help software something else?
Is it possible that they couldn't figure out a way to enhance the old help, so they trashed it? hmmm.
I don't like buying a new everything every time I upgrade.
Thats like finding a new wife because you moved.
Its expensive, it takes time to relearn, and the old one worked just find, so why replace.
I think this may be one of Microsofts failings.
I've written oodles of applications with VB 6 and ASP classic.
It would take months to rewrite them for the sake of upgrading to VB.Net or ASP.Net. 
I just hope Vista doesn't go the way of the Windows Millenium Edition.
Sun 
01/20/2008 05:26:17
 jim  The IKEA store in Renton
Becky and I were getting cabin fever, so we took a ride down to IKEA in Renton.
We'd heard about it from a lady in Target, and she wouldn't shut up about it.
She's probably still at Target talking to us about it...haha.
IKEA is gargantuous furniture store, with a unique personality. 
Most of the stores items are imported, and have a very low price tag. For the smaller items, its like a treasure hunt. 
Once you hike into the store from the parking lot
(gosh, my feet are so sore), you come to an entrance inside a warehouse looking thing.
There are maps showing you the winding paths through the store, and the shortcuts between the different departments. It seems the maps all have the tops facing north, which would be cool if you had a compass, but I found I kept having to turn them upside down or sideways in my mind. That alone will make you feel drunk after an hour of walking. I didn't take the time to mastered it. 
The furniture was incredible for the price.
Most of the items were unusual. From the kitchen to the home office, they had furniture for all the rooms in a house. I think I liked their decorated bedrooms the best...they decorate a small bedroom where everything in it is for sale, even the things on the shelves. You pick up something off a shelf, and find a tag on it that tells you which department its stocked in. You write that down, and find its shortcut on one of the maps.
IKEA is probably the first store I've seen that didn't have isles.
The stores's lay out seems to be designed for you to take your time. I think you are supposed to get lost in it. There are shopping bags everywhere throughout the store, so there's no reason to go back to the store's entrance.
A cafeteria is part of the store, somewhere near the exit.
I liked the idea of going into a restaurant before paying for our merchandise. It just seemed to make sense. Becky had the chicken marsailes plate, which I thought was gourmet. I had the swedish meatball plate, which was like eating a "Hungry Man" TV dinner. The soda fountain had imported varieties on tap. The deserts, well, I forgot what they were called, but they were very good.
Finding the stores exit (and we though we'd seen everything)
Going to the check out registers was yet another surprise. We found a shortcut, went through a wall, and it took us into another warehouse. It was stocked with "As Is" items that were marked down 50%. Normally, thats where I'd start in a store, but we were exhausted, and just wanted to hike back to the truck.
I think if we were to go in again, it would be earlier in the day. It would have made a nice day trip.
NOTE: They didn't have any inflatable furniture, darn it!
Sun 
01/20/2008 05:26:17
 jim   (Reply)..The IKEA...hey I love inflatable furniture!
I read the Apollo Series spacecrafts were practically inflatable! IKEA should carry something you can blow up besides their cool shopping bags.
Mattress beds are fine
But bugs build their own little version of New York City in them, the size you get is all you get, and short people can't move them around easily.
Water beds were a great idea at one time 
but when you discover something else is living in your bed because you forgot to condition the water, they lose attraction.
Leaks are always fun to wake up to, too.
Air beds are vesatile.
They can be shrunken, enlarged, carried under your arm, be used in the back of a truck, and used as a floatation device.
And dust mites can only pitch little tents on them.
For paranoid folks out there, an air bed could save your life.
If you are at the top of a smoldering building, and smoke starts billowing under the door, you have your own separate oxygen supply. I'd bet you could even slice one up and make a parachute out of it, but, that would be something I'd leave to Myth Busters to check out.
And for the college dorm people out there, they're perfect.
Once your through with college, you can practically stick your bed in a scrapbook.
So There..pltpltplt!!! bwahahaha

<< 02/2007 < 01/2008 Calendar 03/2008 > 02/2009 >>Sign InView Other Logs