Absolute Beginner's Guide to Programming, 3rd Edition - $15.16

A few weeks ago we stopped by the local Border's Books & Music, and I wound up buying this book. I tend to think of this as the Computer Science primer that I never got while in college, since I come from a Civil Engineering background. I keep wondering if all the people pictures in this book are of the author.

Absolute Beginner's Guide to Programming, 3rd Edition - $15.16

Rich Palmer's Safety Songs Website

I just visited http://www.richpalmer.com/site/index.html and used the
tell-a-friend link to send this message:

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Everyone should check out this website.
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This message has been send with Add2it ReferThem Fre~e.
Get your own copy today at: http://tinyurl.com/ptqs7

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From Your Web Site Into $13,494 A Week Or More
Failing 50% Of The Time: http://tinyurl.com/rlnzq

Bloglines - Graduation Fun Liners

Bloglines user danimal0416 has sent this item to you.

Good Clean Jokes Good Clean Jokes

Graduation Fun Liners By Jatti A diploma is the reward you graduates get for staying in school. And listening to the speeches at commencement is the punishment you get for staying in school. Some college students graduate with honors. But a lot more graduate with debts. Just think, graduation is the last time school officials will be able to tell you what to wear. I’d advise you graduates to keep your graduation gown. It’s

JIMM 64/201 - Season Premiere, Comedy/Music

Check out the second season premiere of the Journey Inside My Mind podcast, and feel free to add your comments about it.

There's a comedy/music mix in the last 20 minutes of the show (starting at the 26:50 mark), along with a CD giveaway contest.

Back from the Cheryl Dawson Memorial Walk

We just got back from the One Voice 3rd Annual Domestic Violence Community Awareness Walk, sponsored by Heart To Heart a Non-Profit Volunteer Project for the YWCA Battered Women's Shelter. It was held again at Sawyer Point in Bicentennial Commons along the Ohio River in Cincinnati this morning.

You may remember last year I put together this soundseeing podcast about the event: JIMM 16 - The Cheryl Dawson Memorial Walk-a-thon. Walk-a-thon is probably a misnomer; it's more like a family fitness walk.

I brought the iRiver with me and got a bunch of raw audio from the event, which I hope may be able to be put into another podcast. This year Jennie came along, and there was a lot more soundseeing. Got some really good words from the organizers, too.

Finances

We just checked our bank statement. With the loss of my income, things have become extremely tight.

Marketing Idea?

Just noticed that the urinals at the YMCA have the name & contact info for a local church

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Mobile Email from a Cingular Wireless Customer http://www.cingular.com

Our Heat Is Paid For, But...

... the apartment complex doesn't turn it on until the season has really changed. The reason they do this is because once the boiler heat gets turned on, it stays on for the entire season.

During winter this is nice. Tonight the temperature is supposed to dip to 37 degrees, and tomorrow it will go back up to 72. Our apartment will have no heat until sometime in November, if everything follows the pattern of last year.

So we may be using that extra blanket and the thicker pajamas tonight.

Next JIMM close to being ready

I've been working on the Season 2 premiere of the Journey Inside My Mind podcast. Looking forward to sharing all the goodness...

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Mobile Email from a Cingular Wireless Customer http://www.cingular.com

Track What I've Been Doing

Twitter lets folks provide their friends and others with instantaneous updates via a web interface and via text messaging. I've got my own Twitter page, which you can check throughout the day, because I'm so interesting (lol).

Why not head over to Twitter.com and sign up? Then you too can be my friend. ;)

When to reveal the Holiday Secrets

A certain child I know has been talking and thinking about a certain fourth-quarter holiday so much lately, more and more what this child wants to happen on that holiday, that I'm tempted to reveal the truth as a way to get this child to stop - to effect a mind change.

I'm being somewhat vague on purpose here.

When should a parent reveal the Holiday Secrets?

Banana

The cat is begging me for a piece of banana.

Test post from phone

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Mobile Email from a Cingular Wireless Customer http://www.cingular.com

Sole Separation Has Begun

Mood: alert
Listening to: the washing machine in a spin cycle that sounds like a helicopter
Eating: Mmmm... dinner soon?
Watching: The Fairly Odd Parents on Nickelodeon

I've worn the same pair of shoes every day for about 9 months. It appears that they need to be replaced.

Yesterday during the rain, as I took our dog Jake for a walk, my socks got a little damp, and I noticed that the shoe was "talking to me" - i.e., Sole Separation has begun.

Jennie mentioned a possible sale at Shoe Carnival where I could get a good deal on 2 pairs of shoes. That way I could get 2 of the same style and both would last longer. Yay.

Rainy Days and Tuesdays

Rainy day today. It's seemed like time has gone by both fast and slow today. Gray skies, nonstop rain. Ick. Our driver's side window is stuck part of the way down, and the rain has come in.

We've got some plastic up to try to hinder the rain from getting in, but it's been an uphill battle. Jennie and Keisha have been congested - just the kind of day one would want to be inside.

Anyhow, gonna eat a late lunch/early dinner.

Keisha's Castle Story

It looks like Keisha spent some time typing on the computer yesterday. She was talking about a dream she had/dream she'd made up, involving a castle, king, queen, etc. It looks like she started typing it up:

Once apon a time There was a princess,prince,Queen,King they lived in a Castle the princess named keisha and the prince named jake the Queen'name is jennie the king's name is dan
the princess went to the pond and wade her feet along the waves but in the trees a .....HUNTER oh on they are tring to hurt her

Speaking of castles, for art yesterday we made our own castles out of Play-Doh(™). Gotta get some AAA batteries for the camera so that I can take pictures. Oh, Keisha took hers apart and put it away. The castles Jennie and I made are still intact. Keisha said she really likes mine.

New Domain Names for the Journey Inside My Mind!

Thank you to Ringmaster Greg and the Dancing with Elephants podcast for the domain name jimmpodcast.com. A more concise, easy-to-remember domain name for the podcast.

Thank you to Dennis from the 101 Uses for Baby Wipes podcast for the domain name journeyinsidemymind.com. A more concise, easy-to-remember domain name for this blog.

I appreciate the generosity.

My 9-11 Post

Mood: wistful
Listening to: 9-11 Tribute

I've tried to stave off a lot of the media coverage today, but I saw Rocketboom for today, and now I'm listening to this 9-11 tribute podcast. A lot of audio strung together from 911 calls and media coverage during that time. It's like going through this all over again.

We will never forget.

I might have to turn this off. Jennie said that there is a chance that there will be more patients in the unit in the senior behavioral health unit at the hospital where she works over the next few days because of depression associated with this anniversary.

Five Years Later

Mood: wistful
Listening to: 9-11 Tribute

I've tried to stave off a lot of the media coverage today, but I saw Rocketboom for today, and now I'm listening to this 9-11 tribute podcast. A lot of audio strung together from 911 calls and media coverage during that time.

We will never forget.

I might have to turn this off. Jennie said that there is a chance that there will be more patients in the unit in the senior behavioral health unit at the hospital where she works over the next few days because of depression associated with this anniversary.

From the My Dreams are Weirder Than Yours Dept...

Mood:
Listening to: Keisha sharing her "made-up" dreams
Reading: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5) (Chapter 24: Occlumency)
Eating: donuts (hopefully?) and coffee

I had a really interesting dream last night.

I was standing in the open area in our apartment building. I had heard from some of the other people around that they and some other people were going to come attack our apartment some time later that night. As I stood there listening, I started to put a key in between each finger, to make some homemade brass knuckles.

Next scene... we're inside our apartment. Jennie and Keisha are in the back rooms. Maybe with a baseball bat? Whatever... we're ready for the home invasion.

Then it happens. Don't remember specific details, except that I fought the invaders and protected my family, and won.

That's an excellent way to end a dream.

JIMM Anniversary, Changes

It's been 3 weeks since the last podcast episode. I finally got around to getting the anniversary show together. It's 60 warm, juicy minutes for your ears. Get full details here.

Meme Time - URL Alphabet

Here is a meme in which you go to your browser's URL field and see which address auto-completes for each of the letters of the alphabet. Here's what turned up when I did it:

A. accidenthash.com
B. blogger.com
C. crayola.com
D. danimal0416.podshow.com
E. ed.gov
F. familyfun.go.com
G. geocities.com
H. homeschool.com
I. inventors.about.com
J. journeyinsidemymind.blogspot.com
K. kheprient.com
L. login.yahoo.com
M. mydailylife-jessie.blogspot.com
N. nwoserrc.k12.oh.us
O. ohio.esorn.net
P. podshow.com
Q. Nada!
R. radio.disney.go.com
S. safeauto.com
T. twitter.com
U. us[something].mail.yahoo.com
V. video.disney.go.com
W. weretakingbetsthat.blogspot.com
X. Nada!
Y. yirmumah.net
Z. zefrank.com

I saw Biz do it. I've done it. Now it's your turn.

unity - the show with zefrank

Just saw the show with zefrank for September 7th. He talked about where he was in 9/11/01. This Sunday will be interesting indeed, with all the press coverage, etc.

I encourage you to check out a special Ed's Mixed Bag, coming this Saturday, 9/9/06.

And I'll finally get a show out this weekend, too.

Exploring My Self-Injury Further

I spent a couple hours last night chatting with someone about my history of self-injury. Long-time readers of this blog may remember me sharing a few years ago about some instances of it.

This woman I with whom I was chatting is writing a book about self-injury from a Christian perspective. It was very good to chat with her, and it brought up a lot of emotions that I'd kept buried and helped me understand that I still have some "energy" around events that occurred when I was growing up.

One of the most important things I realized and came up with from the conversation was this statement I need to repeat to myself every day:

God love me - scabs, scars and all.

Not necessarily a very profound statement, but one that helps me refocus my attention where it's needed. Instead of obsessing about scabs and scars on my body, I refocus my attention on God who loves me and isn't bothered so much by the scabs and scars. He loves me no matter how I look.

Welcome Home Fries!

A big JIMM welcome to fellow listeners of Accident Hash! C.C. Chapman, the host with the most, played a special clip I'd sent awhile back.

Check out Accident Hash 175. And if you want to hear some other music and find out what it's like to take a Journey Inside My Mind, head over to the Journey Inside My Mind podcast.

A Homeschooling Blog?

I've thought about starting a separate blog about our homeschooling experience. On one hand, it would be good to document and share thoughts. On the other hand, I could do the same thing here.

I'm not resolved just yet.

Five Words that Prove I Am My Daughter's Dad

Ever since we saw the movie a couple weeks ago, and especially since she bought the soundtrack CD last weekend, we've had the music going almost every waking hour - at least that's what it seems. To prove to you that I am my daughter's Dad, I offer these 5 words:

Amigas! Cheetahs! Friends for Life!

Power Outage Last Night - Again

Time to reset the clocks again. Last night we had some weather - I didn't think it was that severe, and the power went out. I woke up close to midnight and noticed it. Using my cell phone as a flashlight, I came out to the living room and looked up the number for the power company. After I called to report the outage, I finally entered the number into my cell phone's memory. Then I called Jennie at work to let her know.

The power came back on about a half hour later, and I texted Jennie to let her know. Glad to have a cell phone for times like this.

So now I get to go reset all the clocks again. I'm wondering why our home has been so prone to these outages this summer. This is the sixth time in 4 months.

Father and Daughter Share Interests

Mood: sleepy
Listening to: fan in the window, crickets outside
Eating: Subway Italian BMT on wheat

How cool is it that Keisha and I are interested in the same sci-fi/fantasy stories? We both are really into Harry Potter, and tonight, we watched Star Wars Episode VI - Return of the Jedi.

Several months ago, I started reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1) to Keisha. After we finished that book, we saw the movie. Then we'd move on to the next book, and we'd watch the movie for that book afterward. Right now we're reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5), and it looks like we'll probably finish the book before the movie comes out next year. We may opt to read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6) beforehand anyway.

A month or so ago, I checked out some of the Star Wars movies from the library, and tonight we finished with the last movie in the saga (chronological). We probably could still watch Star Wars - Episode I, The Phantom Menace, since we hadn't watched it yet. It's interesting to have seen the original trilogy after just having seen the most recent trilogy.

Well, I'm pretty tired and need to go to bed.

First Official Day of Homeschooling

Mood: excited
Listening to: The Cheetah Girls 2 soundtrack (from Keisha's bedroom)
Reading: still reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5) (someone help Arthur Weasley! He's just been bitten terribly by a snake!)
Eating: not yet, but it will be from Chez Johnson this morn
Watching: 2 nights ago we saw Taxi (Widescreen Edition), with Queen Latifah and Jimmy Fallon - very funny movie!

Today Keisha officially begins 3rd grade here at home. The plan is to do bible study, math, language arts, a trip to the library (not necessarily part of homeschool - but needed sometime today bcuz we've got items due), a field trip (to the Freedom Center?), a preliminary grocery list (for Jennie and me to do or Keisha? need to dbl chk), and daily chores.

And I'm on "vacation". Whatever that's supposed to mean. Seriously. Not used to having time off. I'm sure I'll find something to do.

Cleaning the Window Fan

I just spent some time cleaning gunk off the window fan - the grate and the blades. We got this phone last summer, and it had accumulated it since then. I didn't use soap or anything, just scraped off the gunk as much as I could.

I can't tell for sure, but it feels like it's more effecient. Probably a good cubic inch or so of gunk sits in the trash can.