My Facts, My Opinions

Why the hell not...

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Thu, 18 May 2023 21:03:00 +0000

As long as I'm gonna make an ass of myself again...

Let's get the opinions out there too.

Brace yourself.

Jim

Dodger Stadium...

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:50:00 +0000

Went to Dodger Stadium last night: Didn't like the Dodger Dogs, didn't like the stadium. The place was empty after the 7th inning. All those stereotypes you hear about L.A. sports fans, they're actually true.

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So this gas stuff gets...

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 02:01:00 +0000

So this gas stuff gets even worse. Well, I tried using a credit card instead of a debit card. Swell, they authorized $85. At least it's better than $65 or $75, but it's still doesn't fill the whole tank. What's with these morons? Is it any wonder I'm angry? Come on, these people are stupid! listen

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Life in California....

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 23:35:00 +0000

Life in California. 1 car, 2 bumper stickers. "Fight Terrorists, not Wal-Mart" and "McCain". Firmly consistent, no problem at all. In fact, they both even have nice blue backgrounds. But, they're on a freakin' Prius!!! Anyway, that's life on the PCH. Happy, sunny and sometimes conflicting. That's all for now. Bye. listen

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On those gas situations;...

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:20:00 +0000

So not only does the gas pump cap out at a $65 or $75 withdrawal on an ATM card, they don't really have that cleared with the banks. If you topped out $75 in your Jeep and you put more money in by reentering your card, if you do that, say twice in the same weekend, the next time you go to take cash out you're screwed: "sorry we put a fraud lock on your card because we were afraid it was being used after having been stolen, being used twice for gas within a few minute is a fraud sign." Note, the bank they did the right thing. The gas companies, they're just screw us every which way we go. listen

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Jott really is terrific....

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 02:47:00 +0000

Jott really is terrific. It's great stuff. I just spent the better part of 20 miles transcribing notes I needed to write up. 30-second increment is a pain but all in all, it's sure easier than typing and I can do it while driving. Not a bad thing. I really like Jott. listen

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On Jott Posts

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 07:30:00 +0000

The great thing about Jott is the absolute ease of making a quick post. Yes, it looks like I'll be running up the post volume for a little bit -- until the novelty, predictably, wears off.

The bad thing is that the voice to text transcription is not as accurate (precise?) as I'd like.

I'll try to clean things up when I can.

The listen button will link you to my original, vocal, ramble. Sometimes, that might be more intelligible. (But often times not...) Most of the time they'll be full of background clutter as I'm sure I'll be driving when I make most of these calls.

J

What's crazier?

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 05:44:00 +0000

What's crazier? Gas $4.99/gallon for premium, what the hell it's $4.89 for standard. So, I get exactly 15 gallans because my debit card is limited to $75 each gas pumpwithdrawal. What's crazier: $5 gas or $75 limits. Oh, both piss me off. listen

Update (06/07/08): Tonight it was a $65 limit on a pump that sells $8 car washes!!! C'mon people, think about this stuff when you set up your pumps...

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Considering(?) the divine...

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 03:32:00 +0000

Considering(?) the divine versus the divine being, is there a difference? Is it meaningful? Can divine exist without a divine being? I don't know. listen

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Hey, check out Jott,...

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 07:45:00 +0000

Hey, check out Jott, and check out how Jott and Blogger work together with your cellphone. Pretty cool stuff.

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Oh, how swell things can be!

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Wed, 21 May 2008 06:03:00 +0000

An actual email I just sent to my sweetheart describing this evening... (click to enlarge to a readable size)

Oh, and when I was cleaning up, I cut my finger on the edge of the oven door. Right on the tip of my middle finger - like a nice paper cut.

Travel Log Updated

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 04:28:00 +0000

Patagonia Day 3 (only 7 more to go!) is up at the travel blog. http://vagabondjim.blogspot.com/

Almost famous, again

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 06:38:00 +0000

I made Andrew Sullivan's "The View from Your Window" again:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/11/the-view-fro-25.html

He captioned it incorrectly. I twas actually taken at 00:05 -- i.e., 5 minutes past midnight. The orangish color is from the tungsten filament light bulbs -- while they appear light to your eye, they are really orangish. Your brain is pretty smart and adjusts for this (and for fluorescent, or mercury vapor, or even sunny versus cloudy sunlight.)

So, that's the Santa Monica office and the LA apartment....next stop, Lompoc!

See also: Fame Awaits

Patagonia Trip Logs: Days 1 & 2

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 07:52:00 +0000

So here's a brief trip log of the recent trip Silicic and I took to Patagonia.

We left LAX on a midday flight, which was far better than our original plan to leave on an early flight and suffer through an 8 hour layover in DFW. Admirals' Clubs are nice but not nice enough for that.

Silicic had a bunch of electronic upgrades available and we were set to fly Business Class on the leg to Dallas. But it turned out that for a small fee -- the equivalent of just 1 arm and just 1/2 a leg -- we could upgrade the entire downbound trip. With a 9.5 hour, overnight leg to Santiago (SCL) that would have been tempting enough. But we knew this plane would be equipped with lie flat seats. Sleep would be much easier.

Sleep was much easier. And it was made really easy by taking Ambien for the first time. Take a pill, put the set back, wait 15 minutes and wake up just in time for breakfast and landing in Chile! That's how to fly.

We managed to catch an earlier flight to Punta Arenas (PUQ). That flight was another long one -- three hours to Puerto Montt, a brief layover and another 2 to PUQ. We had seats in row 1 -- a pretty lousy bulkhead row as it had very little leg room. Plus, we were mildly put out by the rather annoying behavior of a few Chilean business men around us. They did not seem to have a lot of respect for personal space or proper conversational volume levels. In the end it was ok when we realized it was just the 1st sign of being in a different culture.

Arriving in PUQ we grabbed a cab to the Hotel Navegantes. It wasn't the lap of luxury but we neither needed nor expected it to be.

PUQ serves as a marshaling site for much of the research conducted in Antarctica. (Ushuaia is closer but Argentina is a hassle -- especially since the international and domestic airports in Buenos Aires are across town from each other.) And the Antarctic research season was just beginning. Silicic just missed being able to hook up with several old friends from the ice. But one was still in town. So we met Herb for dinner.

There's a little bar/cafe down the street from the hotel name Lomit's. They specialize in steak sandwich know as a Barros Lucco. They're really tasty especially when washed down with Cerveza Kunstmann and in the company of good people.

PUQ is a nice place. The people are friendly. There's nothing outrageously neat about the place. But it's reasonably clean, easy to navigate, and just comfortable. It has as certain "colonial" sense that I recall from trips to Bolivia -- especially Oruro.
The buildings are colorful, the town full of statues of national or regional heroes, the streets are all named for Generales, Presidentes, or Libertadores. It's just typical of so many of my experiences in South America. I like it. Well except for the patriotic drum and bugle corp that marches around after school playing rather badly. Or the guys with jackhammers who seemed to work until 2200.

The next day we slept in. Then we wandered the waterfront, checked on our rental reservation and just adapted to being so far (~6,700 miles as the crow flies or 7,500 miles as the big ol' jet airliner does) from home. Silicic's knee was bothering her (damn arthritis, damn clot, damn, damn, damn.) So she rested in the room while I wandered.

I went up the hill, past the bad marching drummers, to the Air Force and Army bases. And got some pictures looking back towards town and the Straits of Magellan. Then back down the hill to the waterfront and along it for a while. That took me past at least 2 naval bases. It's a military town... When I grew tired, I strolled back to the hotel.

Silicic had strong memories of the Sopa de Ajo (garlic soup) at a local restaurant named Remezon's. We dined there and hat what turned out to be both the worst and most expensive meal of the trip. Soup, crab (for her) and wild boar (for me) washed down with a harsh chilean cabernet. We should have gone back to Lomit's.

THIS POST IS NOW CROSS_POSTED AT http://vagabondjim.blogspot.com/ ALL FUTURE TRAVEL POSTS AND LOGS WILL BE POSTED THERE.

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Watches

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 03:38:00 +0000

My grandfather wore an Omega. My dad wears an Omega. My younger brother got an Omega as a graduation gift. I had to have an Omega. So for Christmas in 1993 I got one gift -- an Omega (a quartz De Ville).

And I loved it.

I bought myself another one, a Seamaster Automatic, when I was in a position to reward myself in 1999.

The De Ville's battery died and I haven't worn it for 8 years. I've worn the Seamaster almost daily. It's been diving, sailing, camping, and counted the seconds through way too many boring meetings.

They both needed some TLC. And I knew that I'd be taking a trip* in October when I might not want to wear a nice watch everyday. Since it takes 6-8 weeks to get these things serviced (work backlog and parts issues; sometimes longer, sometimes shorter) I figured now was the time to get them tended to.

Moving from an analog watch to a digital is a real pain. I want my watches back...

... will blog for a Constellation
... will blog and clean windows for a Speedmaster Automatic

* 2 weeks in Patagonia -- flying into Punta Arenas, Chile then driving to Nacional Parque Torres del Paine, back to PA for a quick flight to Ushuaia, Argentina and the Beagle Channel. Please pass along recos for lodging, dining, or activities if you've been there.

On Books -- Good and Bad

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 03:09:00 +0000

I haven't been posting lately -- I've been spending my time reading. Nothing special, just stuff to relax and entertain myself.

A quick observation: there are some really skilled writers out there telling great stories, and some absolutely shitty ones too.

Among the best series I've read in a long time are the John rain books written by Barry Eisler. The basic notion of reading about a professional assasin holds some but limited appeal to me -- but after one book, I was hooked. I've now read the whole series.

These books are extremely well researched and written with an incredible eye for detail. Eisler is a fanatic about getting it right. He also has a wonderful gift -- he's among the few writers I can think of that can successfully write switching from 1st person to 3rd person. Seemlessly. And it adds to the narrative.

On the other hand Dana Stabenow is awful. I just finished Blindfold Game. The plot had great potential but in her hands it falls way short. Her research feels light and useless. The character development is hackneyed (and the characters drawn straight from central casting.) And the writing exhibits a real lack of attention to detail.

Read Eisler, skip Stabenow.

Oh, and when it comes to crime fiction in LA...Crais is good, but Connelly is UNTOUCHABLE.

Tagged (by my punk brother)

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 15:52:00 +0000

Dan was tagged by Mike and tagged me in turn

4 Places I've lived:

On sailboats (The Caribean, the Atlantic, South Africa, the Med);
In my car/tent (travelling up and down the east coast);
In dormatories (Cleveland, OH);
Red States (KY, TX);
(bonus 5th place) Blue States (IL, NY, CA); (extra super bonus 5.5th place) -- Purple State (OH)

4 Favorite Foods:

Thai
Vietnamese
BBQ
European food in Europe -- French in France, Spanish in Spain, Italian it Italy , and German in Germany. Terroir matters...

4 Jobs Held:

Peanut Vendor at the ballpark
Deck Hand
Commodities Broker
Call Center Supervisor

4 Places I'd Rather Be:

On a sailboat
New Zealand
South Africa
SCUBA diving with sharks (Cocos Island? Palau? The Bahamas? Las Islas Socorros?)

I tag: THEJESSE

Juror #4

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 03:00:00 +0000

Doing my civic duty...details when they can be shared.

Judge Roy Beene humor is prohibited until that time....

Jim

Did anyone else miss this?

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 03:02:00 +0000

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/31/british-army-ends-operation-in-northern-ireland/

Mostly symbolic or not, this is a hugely vital step.

No matter which side you support, a study of The Troubles should be something every modern American undertakes. Doing so would yield insights into:

The categorization of prisoners as criminals, political prisoners, or say "enemy combatants" -- exactly why this can matter.
The extent to which imprisioned men will go to maintain/acquire the respect/dignity they believe they are due.
The damage done to justice by less than standard evidentiary requirements and the suspension of the right to trial by jury -- the Diplock Courts in Northern Ireland are an abomination of justice. When hearsay is evidence bad stuff follows.
Exactly how much the concept of martyrdom can incite/motivate/maintain a community that feels repressed or threatened.
How truly damn important human intel is and how it, not ubiquitous survellience cameras, is what leads to long term results.
And there are just a zillion examples of how to fight and how not to fight a battle against an insurgency.

I know nothing about the French in Algeria, but what I gather is that it is another piece of history worth re-visiting in these troubled times.

Recommended reading for those interseted in The Troubles:

There's another text that has many of the messages that were smuggled out of Maze Prison (the "H-Blocks") but I can't remember its name. If I can come up with it, I'll post it.

2007-08-08 Update: Dad weighs in with:

"It was Ten Men Dead, or at least that's the first place (I don't know of any subsequent source.)While your message is quite accurate about some of the lessons to be learned from the 'troubles', there may be an even more important one in how the issues were ultimately resolved. Gerry Adams and Martin McGinnis are examples of real statesmen/negotiators and beginning to be recognized for what they accomplished, at least in the larger world outside the US. We heard McGinnis speak last Sunday at XU (Xavier University) and I got to talk with him afterwards, truly amazing."

No news is no news

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 03:03:00 +0000

I'll be travelling for the next few days. That means even fewer than the already infrequent posts of normal.

But, if you're good -- I'm mean really good -- while I'm gone, I'll hopefully have some cool picks to share when I get back.

Then again, if you're not good and I have to pull this blog over to the side of the road just one more time then I'm cancelling Christmas!!!

(I know, you don't get it. Probably because you weren't there when our fine father quieted 2 very unruly kids with that threat. It was July and legend has it we actually behaved all the way through the middle of November.)

Jim

Comments Sought over at Flickr

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 06:59:00 +0000

So few people that I don't have contact with daily read this blog that this post is not likely to reach anybody not already willing to do so, but I'd love to start getting comments/critiques on the countless photos I'm putting over at Flicker.

Click on the little Flickr montage/coloage thing on the right side of the blog, mid way down the page. Of, go straight to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vagabondjim/

Go ahead and be honest, even brutal. I'd like to know what's good and what's not....

Jim

Live Earth

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 05:03:00 +0000

Good lord, the NBC coverage of this thing is simply dreadfull. That's not to say the intent of the day was bad -- just that the presentation of the music and the ideas both truly sucked.

Quite possibly, the world's most perfect satire site

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 18:44:00 +0000

I laughed aloud at this it's the perfect iDea. And it merits the 1st link recommendation for the blog. (Click this post's title.)

Well, I tried to be surrepetitous...it didn't work

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 05:30:00 +0000

Well, I tried to be surrepetitous...it didn't work
Originally uploaded by VagabondJim

There are some people who will smile whenever you point a camera at them. Even if you try to do it without their knowledge.

Sometimes that makes for a nice pic.

'Take our picture"

noreply@blogger.com (Jim) — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 05:26:00 +0000

'Take our picture"
Originally uploaded by VagabondJim

There are folks who think that ANYONE with a decent camera MUST be from the newspaper. I'm not.