Jim

jimsjournal by Jim (24)

Things keep changing : Yesterday I was commenting on a local video rental store closing because of competition from Netflix and Red Box and movie downloading. By coincidence, Rubarb's entry for the day described how many kids today are so accustomed to digital clocks that they have difficulty deciphering an analog clock. (posted Jan 6, 8:36pm)

jimsjournal by Jim (24)

Remember video stores? : You probably all know those little quizzes about remembering when telephones had rotary dials (actually, when I was a kid you picked up and an operator said "Number please") or when you only got a handful of channels on your television (actually, we just had radio until I was in third grade). (posted Jan 5, 12:23pm)

jimsjournal by Jim (24)

More about online journals (2 of 2) : This is the final part of the follow-up questions asked by the doctoral candidate who did that e-mail interview with me about the early days of online journals. (posted Jan 4, 7:29am)

jimsjournal by Jim (24)

More about online journals (1 of 2) : In entries a week or so before Christmas I posted questions and answers from an e-mail interview with a doctoral candidate at Northwestern University who as doing research into the history of online journaling and blogging. I mentioned that those questions had been followed by some additional questions and that I would get around to posting them eventually. (posted Jan 3, 2:43pm)

jimsjournal by Jim (24)

It's still winter outside : Here we are, second day of the New Year and it's still winter outside. Shouldn't we now have a January thaw followed by spring? Excuse me, I guess I was just delusional for a moment there. (posted Jan 2, 7:07am)

jimsjournal by Jim (24)

Greeting the new year : The last day of 2009 was rather wintery around here... Jeremy was coming back from his Christmas vacation trip to Costa Rica so we had some concerns about the Atlanta to JFK leg of his flight as well as his drive home from JFK (much of which would be on I95 across Connecticut, a miserable road in the best of ... (posted Jan 1, 6:39pm)

jimsjournal by Jim (24)

Baby it's cold outside : Oh, it is so cold outside! Right now it is 18°F (about minus 8°C) but we have very strong northwest winds and the wind-chill factor is the equivalent of one degree (or about -17°C). Nancy's car wouldn't start... so I went to get my jumper cables out of my trunk... except my trunk was frozen shut. (posted Dec 29, 2:54pm)

jimsjournal by Jim (24)

Our quiet Christmas : We had a very quiet Christmas... Nancy and I got up around eight o'clock, had coffee, sat around reading the morning newspaper.... (posted Dec 26, 5:17pm)

jimsjournal by Jim (24)

Twas the night before Christmas : Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse... Well, I know we have no mice stirring because Tiger has been on patrol and even checked out the garage. No mice lurking about. Now he is sleeping under the tree... (posted Dec 24, 7:35pm)

jimsjournal by Jim (24)

Wicked good : We went to see Wicked last night at PPAC in Providence and it was, as we say in Rhode Island, "wicked good!" (Of course, the way it is pronounced around here, "wicked" sounds more like "wicket.") (posted Dec 23, 12:55pm)

jimsjournal by Jim (24)

Staying warm : That winter storm came up the coast and dumped snow on us last night and this morning, pretty much acting like a classic Nor'easter, lots of snow, lots of wind, especially very strong gusts (40 and 50 miles an hour, producing whiteout conditions at times), but we weathered the storm thanks to our fireplace and some pomegranate martinis. (posted Dec 20, 4:09pm)

jimsjournal by Jim (24)

An approaching storm -- 12/19/09 : There's a winter storm on its way. It has been heading towards us since yesterday, dumping snow through North Carolina and Virginia, heading up the coast, Washington is getting hit now (7 to 9 inches on the ground already and between one and two feet expected), New York City next, then up along the coast to hit us late this ... (posted Dec 19, 8:39am)

jimsjournal by Jim (24)

Online journal history (part 3) : In my past two entries I posted my answers to some questions about online journals and blogs asked me by a Northwestern University doctoral student. Here are the remaining five questions from his original dozen along with my answers to them. (posted Dec 18, 12:14pm)

jimsjournal by Jim (24)

Online journal history (part 2) : Yesterday I posted my answers to four questions about online journals and blogs asked me by a Northwestern University doctoral student. Here are three more questions and my answers to them. (posted Dec 17, 11:23am)

jimsjournal by Jim (24)

Online journal history (part 1) : Back in late September I was contacted by a doctoral student at Northwestern who was doing a study of the early history of online journals. I agree to fully participate in answering questions as long as it was understood that at some point I would probably turn my responses into entries in my online journal. (posted Dec 16, 12:55pm)

jimsjournal by Jim (24)

Mild LVH : I mentioned Thursday about seeing my cardiologist in the morning and then going back in the afternoon for an echocardiogram. Got a note from him today about the results. He said things looked "normal" -- I had "Mild LVH" (LVH = left ventricular thickening) but it was "Better than 2006" ( when I was diagnosed with high blood pressure... (posted Dec 15, 8:22pm)

jimsjournal by Jim (24)

A visit to the vet : Tiger has his annual visit to the veterinarian in December. Tiger does not approve of this. He can see absolutely no reason for this. He does not like to leave his house and ride in a car and go to a place where there are animals. Nevertheless, to his great annoyance, today was the scheduled date. (posted Dec 14, 6:11pm)

jimsjournal by Jim (24)

We found a tree : I've been thinking that I'm not really ready for it to be this close to Christmas. (In fact, I almost wrote an entry called "I'm not ready yet for Christmas.) This is probably partly due to a lack of snow (other than that little bit a week ago Saturday night), partly due to a lack of young children in the ... (posted Dec 13, 9:36pm)

jimsjournal by Jim (24)

Sandpaper hands : I've got my winter hands. The same thing happens every winter: the skin on my hands is replaced by sandpaper... This happens every year sometime shortly past Thanksgiving, when winter weather arrives and the air inside becomes dry... (posted Dec 13, 9:34am)

jimsjournal by Jim (24)

Dragging into the weekend : I'm just dragging as we reach the weekend. There was an open house tonight in Providence at Melinda's studio -- well, actually it was an open house for the entire building where she has her office/studio, a building filled with creative people -- (posted Dec 11, 10:31pm)

jimsjournal by Jim (24)

Cardio : I really like my cardiologist (other than the fact that I don't like to be able to say "my cardiologist"). I've been watching my blood pressure since back in July of 2006 when testing showed that my normal resting blood pressure was too high and also showed exercise-induced hypertension in a treadmill stress test. (posted Dec 10, 8:30pm)

jimsjournal by Jim (24)

Time is on my wrist : Ah, yes, remember that great Rolling Stones song... Time Is on My Wrist... Time time time is on my wrist Oh Time time time is on my wrist What? That's not the way you remember it? Yeah... but that's the way it popped into my head tonight when I looked at my wrist and for the first time in weeks, ... (posted Dec 9, 10:55pm)

jimsjournal by Jim (24)

SpaceShipTwo : I wish I had $200,000 to spare. I've never thought that I would personally get to walk on the moon or on Mars but I would so love to be able to book a flight on SpaceShipTwo. (posted Dec 8, 8:28pm)

jimsjournal by Jim (24)

Snow in New York City : Nancy and I went down to New York City on Saturday to visit grandsons Sam and Milo (oh, yeah, and also to visit their parents *grin*). Naturally, Nancy had to do some baking the night before... (posted Dec 7, 10:28am)