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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Jim's LiveJournal:
| Friday, October 10th, 2008 | |
| 3:43 pm | The best times we never had.... This meme came from ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} daisy_knotwise. I've done this one before. Time to do it again. If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, (evenif we don't speak often or ever) please post a comment with a COMPLETELY MADE UP AND FICTIONAL memory of you and me. It can be anything you want - good or bad - BUT IT HAS TO BE FAKE. When you're finished, post this little paragraph in your LJ and see what your friends come up with. Current Mood:  curious |
| Thursday, October 9th, 2008 | |
| 4:45 pm | Yesterday's lunch..... Yesterday, I had lunch with my former co-workers Randy, Mike, and Katie at Beef O'Brady's in Beavercreek. Mike, being the meat lover that he is, got the double cheeseburger. Randy had the cheeseburger wrap. Katie had the hot boneless wings. And I had the Watterson sandwich -- roast beef with cheese, lettuce and tomato. Good food. I forgot what we talked about, though. Mike and Randy are still trying to get me to sign up for MySpace. If I had a MySpace profile, what would I do with it? We later went to Graeter's for dessert -- ice cream. I think Mike and Randy should sign up for LJ accounts. It's free. And the site isn't blocked by the corprate firewall, as far as I know. At least not yet. |
| Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 | |
| 9:30 pm | I want my LIN TV.... Apparently the problem is bigger than I originally thought. The parent company of WDTN -- LIN TV -- pulled their station's signals from Time Warner Cable systems in 11 different markets. Not just Dayton. Not just Buffalo. If your station is listed on LIN TV's page on Wikipedia, you're probably affected. Here's MediaWeek's take on the story. And here's LIN TV's version. Time to get those rabbit ears. Shout-outs: Happy birthday dragonfeydaile! Current Mood:  annoyed |
| Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 | |
| 11:25 pm | Visitors..... Last week, I noticed a small (about 2-3" long) brown praying mantis on the eave of my condo. The next day, I found him on the gate. I haven't seen him since. I like praying mantises. They're good bugs 'cause they eat the bad bugs. Yesterday afternoon, there was a gray-and-white cat sitting on my doorstep. Mercury was getting very excited; his tail was twitching and he was in full-alert posture. I think the visiting cat is trying to get at some of the chipmunks that live under my stoop. Also last week, one of the neighbor's cats -- the tortiose-shell cat named Little Kitty -- was hiding behind one of my bushes, between the bush and the outer wall of the condo. I chased him away. I don't mind when the local kitties visit me. I just wish they didn't go after the chipmunks and suirrels. |
| Monday, October 6th, 2008 | |
| 8:17 pm | No "Heroes" for me tonight..... Last Friday, Time Warner cable dropped the signal for my local NBC affiliate (WDTN-TV, Channel 2) after they couldn't come to terms. In the interim, they've replaced the empty channel with HBO Family. I'm not too happy about this. 2News is my favorite local news. NewsCenter7 is too white-bread-and-mayonnaise for me, and Dayton's News Source (on ABC22 and Fox45) are a bunch of amateurs. I don't know what to do except wait. I'd rather not drop the cable; I'm locked into a 2-year plan. Current Mood:  disappointed |
| Saturday, October 4th, 2008 | |
| 9:51 pm | Is this really me?  Current Music: Vangelis, "Abraham's Theme" |
| Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 | |
| 4:49 am | Today's insomnia.... Was trying to check email with the desktop, but it's running a virus scan right now, and Thunderbird crashed before I could read any mail. The laptop keyboard lost the 8ik, "column" of keys. They're kaput. So I'm having to make do with an external keyboard, one I've had since 1990. The F7 key has broken off. I tried to glue it back on with Gorilla Glue, but it didn't take. I thought about chucking the external keyboard in the trash. Right now, I'm glad I didn't. In the meantime, I got kitties. Marcus was sleeping with me again. I love when he does that. It's too cute! Shout-outs: Happy birthday jodimuse! Current Mood:  awake |
| Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 | |
| 3:40 pm | My get-up-and-go has got up and went..... In the past month, I've had neither the desire nor the energy to tackle the never-ending problem of clutter in my home. In my mind, I know I need to chip away at it every day, a little at a time. But when my sleep pattern resembles that of my cats, it's tough to get anything done. Is there something wrong with me? Am I not eating the right type of food? Or is this another sign of the out-of-work depression? Current Mood:  lethargic |
| Friday, September 26th, 2008 | |
| 3:49 pm | Followup to my observation..... My previous observation about logic vs. emotion by political parties was based on a very small sampling from several years ago. Since 9/11, things have apparently changed. I don't read a lot of political blogs. However, if I read a political post by filkertom, I often observe a very visceral reaction without a lot of logic contained. I don't get that emptional charge when I read something by billroper or owlsforodin. Many of the people I used to work with over the years were engineers and computer/IT types, and they typically skew toward the conservative side. They're even more conservative if they work in the defense industry as active-duty military, retired military, civilians, or contractors. I am on moveon.org's maliling list, and I occasionally respond to their calls of action. I've noticed that a lot of their posts (besides asking for money) urge their readers to Act Now! I also tend to avoid political conversations with conservatives, since I'm not good at quickly recalling specific examples to defend my position. I would like some specific examples to refute my initial observation. I'm a logical kind of guy. Current Mood: humbled |
| Thursday, September 25th, 2008 | |
| 1:59 pm | An observation..... Liberals tend to use emotion to sway people to their side. Conservatives tend to use logic to sway people to their side. Agree or disagree? Current Mood: contemplative |
| Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 | |
| 3:18 pm | My silly cat.... Mercury. my gray cat, is licking the screen and chasing after the mouse pointer on the screen. Silly cat. He likes to keep me company while I'm on the computer. So much so that I have to put the keyboard on my la while he lays in front of the monitor. Anything silly your cats have done today? Current Mood:  amused |
| Sunday, September 21st, 2008 | |
| 12:38 am | In my best Earl Pitts voice..... Y'know what make me sick? Y'know what makes me so angry? It's when political parties gum up the works of voting, our most sacred duty. The irregularities of the election in 2004 in Ohio is well-documented. Read here. And here. To recap: 1) Voting machines in inner-city precincts were either missing or non-functioning. 2) The building where the votes in Warren County were tabulated was put under a federal lockdown, citing a terrorist threat that turned out to be bogus. I recently heard through the grapevine that there's an effort by the elephant dung flingers to disallow voter registrations that are received during the last week of voter registration season, potentially disenfranching voters yet again. Here's the scoop from Jeremy Bird,General Election Director of Ohio Campaign for Change: "You may have heard that last Friday, the Ohio Republican Party filed a lawsuit to block Buckeyes from casting absentee ballots if they register between September 30th and October 6th—the exact period of overlap when voter registration ends and absentee voting begins. Once again, Republican political operatives are attempting to disenfranchise Ohio voters." It makes me so mad I want to throw a wrench in the Republican poltical machine. Wake Up America! Shout-outs: Happy birthday braider! |
| Friday, September 19th, 2008 | |
| 9:00 pm | Storm survival stories.... 5 days after the storm and some people are still without power. This cleanup is gonna take a while. And we'll have plenty of firewood next year! I guess I'm one of the lucky ones this time around, since my power came back on early Monday morning. I attribute that to having the wiring to my condo complex underground. I had phone service throughout the entire power outage, and as far as I know, my cable TV didn't go out either. Needless to say, M was bored without the power, so we went driving around on two separate occasions. I remembered that traffic lights without power are like 4-way stops. M wanted Spaghettios for dinner, so I put some in a saucepan and heated them up on the gas grill outside., That night, I had my battery-operated camping lantern in the house with me while I listened to a battery-operated radio and lit a few candles. I didn't fire up the propane lantern; that's strictly for outdoor use. mariasmom didn't have power until Wednesday, so her and M spent Monday and Tuesday nights with me.zorya_thinks reports that she's still without cable TV and high-speed internet. Which has me wondering: how many Time Warner customers in the area have digital phone? Is it working yet? And how many people are going to switch back to regular phone service after this is all done?It's not likely that a wind storm of this magnitude will come through again, but I feel I should be prepared for it anyway. I'm trying to think what I still need. |
| Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 | |
| 3:37 am | Another Meme.... I got it from thatcrazycajun, who got it from starmalachite.....Comment Here And I Will... a) Tell you why I friended you. b) Associate you with something -- a fandom, song, color, photo, etc. c) Tell you something I like about you. d) Tell you a memory I have of you. (If we've never met in real life, this may be a tricky one...) e) Ask you something I've wanted to know about you f) Tell you my favorite userpic from your list g) In return, you need to post this on your own LJ. Current Mood: awakeCurrent Music: Mercury's purring |
| Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 | |
| 4:53 pm | Music for Halloween parties..... Help me load the jukebox for an upcoming virtual Halloween Party and/or Witches' Ball. What are your favorite Halloween party tunes? Here are mine: Oingo Boingo, "Dead Man's Party" Ministry, "Every Night Is Halloween" Bobby "Boris" Pickett, "Monster Mash" Let's hear 'em! Current Mood:  bouncyCurrent Music: Oingo Boingo, "Dead Man's Party" |
| Monday, September 15th, 2008 | |
| 10:51 am | Checking in after the storm..... We had some fierce winds yesterday, when the remnants of Hurricane Ike came through. My power went out at around 2:50pm yesterday afternoon. It didn't come back on until around 6:10am. I and my condo are OK. One of my neighbors didn't fare so well. A large tree brach fell on her unit, destroying the roof and part of the structure. She was in the downstairs bedroom when it happened. She's OK. R and M are OK as well. I had M yesterday afternon and she was bored and cranky because there was nothing for her to do. She couldn't watch her shows, she couldn't play computer games. We ended up driving around the area a couple of times to see the damage. Lots of trees were blown down. Current Mood: relieved |
| Friday, September 12th, 2008 | |
| 10:29 pm | Today's moment of WTF?! From The Daily Kos: McCain campaign admits mailing 1 Million bad ballot applications to voters in Ohio The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that "About one-third of the absentee ballot applications received at the Hamilton County Board of Elections have been ruled invalid because Republican Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign printed a version of the form with an extra, unneeded box on it." This is verified; read the original story. "Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner says that if the box isn't checked, circled or initialed, the application is no good. Those voters are essentially admitting they're not eligible, she said....'The outrageous partisan maneuvering by Secretary Brunner is putting the integrity of this election at risk, and it needs to stop immediately,' said state Republican Chairman Bob Bennett." I don't like this one bit. The election process should be sacred and non-partisan. Instead, there's the appearance of corruption inside the county boards of elections. To paraphrase Mr. Bennett, the outrageous partisan deception by the Republican Party is putting the integrity of this election at risk. This is clearly unacceptable, for any county in any state. Current Mood: angry |
| Thursday, September 11th, 2008 | |
| 10:47 am | Where was I that day? I just checked my past posts, and I never mentioned where I was on the day the towers fell. I was listening to a CD as I drove to work in Evendale, so I didn't hear the news on the way in. As I passed the Islamic Center of Cincinnati (in West Chester), I thought "Beautiful building. Shame if someone should desecrate it." I pulled in to the GE parking lot around 9:00. After I got in and grabbed some coffee, one of my co-workers told me about what had happened, and several of us were huddled around his office, which happened to have a radio. Some of us wondered if our building complex was next, or if we were going to be sent home. We were there the entire day, but not a lot got done. I don't remember much of what I did, except for listening to the local NPR affiliate via streaming audio that day. I was in a deep depression for two weeks afterward. Current Mood: numb |
| 12:22 am | The Keith rips the GOP a new one..... As previously promised, here is last night's special comment by MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, in which he addresses the 9/11 "tribute" video shown at last week's Republican National Convention. A transcript is also available under a cut tag on the page. Current Mood: fired up! Current Music: Late Night with David Letterman |
| Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 | |
| 12:35 am | Trying to network two PCs running XP.... For the past several years, I had a home network. It worked fine under Windows 95 and 98, but not so good under XP. Here's what I'm trying to do tonight: I want to set up a peer-to-peer network between orac (a desktop running Windows XP Home) and tardis (a laptop running Windows XP Pro). I have a crossover LAN cable connecting the two. (I can use either the LAN card or a docking station for the laptop.) Both have static IP addresses in the 192.168.0.* range. tardis can see orac but can't get to anything I have shared on orac -- the data drive, printers, etc. orac can't see tardis at all. What do I need to do on orac to correct this? I'm also trying to set up orac so that I can use it to send and recive faxes. I'd like to save myself some trips to FedExKinko's (soon to be FedExOffice). I think I have that all set, thanks to the built-in wizard. I just need someone willing to help me with testing. Shout-outs: Happy birthday cigfran_cg! Current Mood: frustrated |