4/30/2003 05:33:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Way To Go Joscelynn! My very good friend Joscelynn received her Practice LSAT score today. She earned 167 out of 180. She said that is in the 80th percentile! I am really proud of her! I am not surprised though because Jos is a very smart woman. I know that she will do even better on the LSAT when she takes it in June. Great Work Jos! I am really proud of you!|W|P|93558250|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com4/30/2003 05:16:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Computer 2003 Yesterday I bought the memory for the new computer. I bought it from Monarch Computer. I have never bought anything from them before. The part has not yet been shipped so that is bothering me a little. The modual I bought is from Corsair. I am pulling out all the stops for this new computer and buying name brand memory! This module is two sticks of 512MB PC3200 DDR memory! One of the things that floors me is that memory is becoming so small and fast that this memory comes with a heat spreader! I would not be surprised if by the time I am replacing this machine it will be standard to have full fans and heat sinks on the memory. I still have a little trouble overcoming the fact that computers have 1GB of main memory. I remember when the 1GB Hard Drives came out. I though no one would ever need to have that much storage, let alone memory. (Note: 20 GB Drives are the smallest Drives that pricewatch lists and are only $36! And is larger than the drive on both my work and home computers.|W|P|93557425|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com4/29/2003 06:16:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|HQ I am working at HQ now in Northern Virginia. I will be here until 31 July. After that I assume I will be going to Madison Wisconsin. It is nice here. The project is well structured. The project is much better thought out than any project in the Chicago office. I am not a big fan of the framework we are using though. We are using Versata, but with some pretty heavy modifications. These modification basically make the execution more like PowerBuilder. This is because we are porting the project from powerbuilder code and many of the developers do not have Java as a first language or were not as proficient in it when they started. I hate powerbuilder and for a Java purist the level of indirection can be mind boggling sometimes. I will persevere!|W|P|93494947|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com4/29/2003 05:38:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Sorry I know that many of you use this site for work and other commercial purposes. I am sorry that I have been remiss in reporting the facts of my life.|W|P|93493044|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com4/16/2003 08:25:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Let the testing begin Today System Test began for my project. Katie and I are not very involved with the testing because we are only on the project through tomorrow. I am fixing many of the incidents that are found. I have openly predicted that only 4 errors will be found with the code I have produced. So far zero has been found. Now this does not mean that no incidents will be opened against my code. I am not a graphics designer. If a font needs to be changed here or wording changed there this is not an error, simple an oversight. I had 10 oversights to fix today. The rest of the time was used upgrading the bulk data creator I have made, it is a beautiful thing! Tomorrow is my last day stationed in the Chicago Office for a while. I will be on travel to HQ for up to 6 months, and then traveling to Madison, Wisconsin for up to 1.5 years. I am planning on flying back and forth to HQ as much as possible to rack up the frequent flyer miles! And I am sure I will have a lot of fun driving north of the Cheddar Curtin latter on this year also.|W|P|92749604|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com4/15/2003 09:18:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Cubs! Last night I went the Friendly Confines and watched the Cubs loose to Cincinnati. Aside from the lose it was a great night at the ball park. After the game it was a bit of a different story. The Addison Red Line stop becomes overcrowded quickly after games. The CTA has installed a strobe light that indicates to the workers when the platform is full. This is for the riders own protection because there is nothing physically preventing you from leaping or being pushed onto the tracks. The light is the only indicator though and most people, including me before last night, have no idea what it is for. As my friend and I approached the turnstile the light went off and the CTA workers stopped us from going through. I quickly understood, but many of the hooligans behind us did not and were harassing the workers. These hooligans really had not room to say anything about the CTA because many of them had no idea even how to use the fare card and some were trying to pay cash that the turnstiles! Eventually the light went off and people starting going through the machines. There were four guys in front of my friend and me. They were all using the same fare card. The first guy went through the machine with no problem. The second had a little trouble using the card. The third had no idea what to do so I ran his card for him. The fourth guy could run his car, but it was either out of cash or there may be a limit on the number of people who can use a single card. I could tell he was going to be there a while just running this bad card, so I swiped my 30 Day pass in. He went through. My friend ran her card and went through. I then ran my 30 day pass. I know that the cards are only to be used by one rider, but I did not realize that the CTA has a system in place to prevent people from using the card twice. So I was not allowed through. I had no other way to pay, and I know it is wrong, and I had just said the "Turnstile jumping is not a sport" to my friend, but I did it. I jumped the turnstile... Or should I say I tried. I went up over, lost my balance, and came down hard. I could have and probably should have broken my arm or neck, but I did neither. I am ok except for some bruises and a bent fare card (that still works!). The whole L station erupted in laughter, but I am sure that for most, all they saw was some drunken fool tripping. (Note: I was not drunk and it is not for me to judge if I am a fool.) I am still not sure if what I did was right or wrong, but at least now I know to be stingy with my card.|W|P|92688556|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com4/11/2003 12:55:00 AM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Last Call I cannot normally watch late night TV, and when I say late I mean anything after 10 :) So I am lapping it up tonight. I am watching Last Call and the lovely Shannen Doherty is on. My level of respect for her increased several levels. She just flatly said with not restraint that she is a Republican. She also said that her brother works in political and she was at a press dinner at the White House lately. Pretty Cool! So watching Charmed has now become a patriotic act! |W|P|92411102|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com4/11/2003 12:40:00 AM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Java I am looking at investing in a Java 1.4 certification book. Does anyone have a suggestion? Email Me!|W|P|92410523|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com4/11/2003 12:37:00 AM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Thunder, Thunder, Thunder, Thunder, Thunder Cats!, ThunderCats! No much has been going on with me. Yesterday I went to a bar in Wrigleyville for some ribs! They were really good! During dinner we had a great discussion of the war and what should and will happen after total victory. Some of the discussion degraded into a "but they might attack us again because of this." I of course pointed out that the terrorist might and probably would would have attacked us again if we did not destroy regimes sponsoring terrorism. At work I have just been testing here and testing there. Tony asked me to develop a little application to create flat files of bulk data to be loaded into the database for system testing. I am having a lot of fun with it. It is small application I am thinking 10 classes at the most. It is nice to get out of the Web Application world for a little while and write a regular application with a main method and all! (I am such a nerd.) Reading, I am half way through NRODT! On track for my Saturday prediction. And this weekend! I am heading to Louisville via Bloomington tomorrow morning!!!! Thunder over Louisville is this weekend. I am excited to see though crazy Kentuckians blow up a bridge, but I am more excited to spend quality time with my great friends. |W|P|92410380|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com4/09/2003 08:07:00 AM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|I am watching FNC and seeing downtown Baghdad with Iraqis cheering. Could today be VI Day?|W|P|92287354|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com4/08/2003 08:24:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|RFC has some new ltems today.|W|P|92258136|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com4/08/2003 08:06:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Water and Computer do not mix Today about 5 I had an accident. I spilt a little bit of water on my laptop at work. I quickly mopped up any water I could. Nothing bad happened immediately, but I shut down all my applications and shut off my computer. I went away for a little while to read the paper. Came back, turned on the computer everything seemed ok, but then I tried to check my email. I entered my password and it would not validate it. I opened up Word and started typing, and that is when I noticed the problem. Several of the keys were cross circuiting. This is pretty typical behavior for spilling water in your regular keyboard. It is best alleviated by letting the board dry out. I shut my machine back off, turned it upside down, just to make sure there was no pooled water in it, and then went a away for about 10 min. I came back and same problem. I went and talked to Andy in Tech Support and he confirmed that it should go away after drying. In the mean time I should disconnect the power supply and remove the battery. I did both and called it a day. I am sure that this will fix the problem, but if not Andy also said that the keyboards are fairly easy to replace on our Dells. I do not think it will come to this. I feel like a moron. I know I know better but sometimes things happen. |W|P|92257143|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com4/08/2003 07:55:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Grrr CTA Riders I was a little disappointed that I had to wait 5-10 min for my bus this morning, but once I was on things were moving at their normal pace. But nothing can make the 156 route feel twice as long as a fellow passenger calling their office, not just to say that they will be late but also, to tell them how slow the bus is going. I thought the bus was moving along fine. Much better then yesterday when my bus "broke down" and all of the passengers had to transfer to the next bus that came after 10 min of standing in the drizzle. Two women called there secretaries to ask them to tell various people that their bus was running late. This always has the psychological way of making me just feel that the bus is taking longer before I check my watch, do the math and reassure my self that the bus is at its normal pace. Another reason the bus should be a Cell Free Area. |W|P|92256564|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com4/08/2003 07:46:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|NRODT! Mail Check today yielded the 21 April 2003 edition of National Review. All of the columns (11) are about the war and then there are of course the typical cultural reviews and miscellaneous articles. It is odd for it to come on a Tuesday so I am not sure when I will be done with it. I would say I should be done by Saturday, depending on how far I am drawn into other things.|W|P|92256035|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com4/08/2003 02:47:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|New G-File! I am not able to connect to AIM for some reason at work! I am still connected to the Internet because I am ...uhm... still listening to the WLS radio stream, which in the grey area of the corps rules. So to fulfill a commitment to Jos, the Great Jonah has a new article. I suggest you all read it.|W|P|92240220|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com4/07/2003 09:26:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|David Bloom Yesterday I woke and checked the corner. I learned some horrible news. David Bloom had died. This hurt me a bit. Mr. Bloom was one of the better television journalists on our time. He had done some great work as an embed. I grew up an NBC kid. My family's nightly news was The NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. When I hear that John Williams NBC news theme I get in a news receptive zone. Every weekend morning I would wake up to my mother watching the Today show. I cannot remember a single Sunday not getting ready for church with the Today show playing through the house. Often times the whole family stopping to share with someone else�s moment of joy or sorrow though the television. Today I might switch to Fox News Channel for analysis, but when the President is speaking or some other major even is taking place, I still switch over to NBC for a little comfort television. The NBC crew is like a group of cousins that are always available. There is Jim Miklaszewski at the Pentagon. Tim Russert down in Washington. And a whole variety of others around the nation and around the globe. I will miss David as I know the rest of the family (real and NBC) will. |W|P|92191777|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com4/03/2003 10:19:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Work was more cruising. Head down working. My mother told me that a high school friend a couple years younger than me is being deployed to Africa this week. Although it is not to a major battle zone, it is still out in the field. Please keep Heath in your thoughts and prayers. Computer 2003: Tech support at the shop where I bought my computer tells me that the behavior I reported a few days ago is expected. I am going to be placing an order for the memory soon. OIF: The coalition has captured SHX (Saddam Hussein International). If the military would like to destroy it I know a mayor that is good at that. :-D|W|P|91959603|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com4/03/2003 10:07:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Peotone Sen. Fitzgerald thinks that the city should manage the third airport! Read more about it at RFC.|W|P|91958939|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com4/02/2003 10:02:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Work: Implemented the FAQ for the application After Work: Meet with Dr. Blackwell about the Get to know Your Pastor luncheon for this coming Sunday. Paid some bills (Credit Card and Car) For the last two days while doing my daily run I have cramped up in my legs. I have been stretching but I cannot get rid of them. The only variable is I switched to the nicer new treadmill. I am going to go back to the old ones tomorrow. I do not think it is a problem with the new one being more accurate in speed because they do not feel faster.|W|P|91889404|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com4/02/2003 09:45:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|RFC The boys over at Radio Free Chicago found this great article by John Kass from the Tribune. Daley must be stopped! (note: Prolly need to be a free trib subscriber. It is worth it!)|W|P|91888338|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com4/01/2003 10:05:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|My mother sent me this. It is probably doctored, but still you can believe he did it.|W|P|91818339|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com4/01/2003 09:59:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|The winds are right for sailing I had two design walk-throughs today. I still have to have code walk-throughs for this functionality, but this stuff is much simpler then the previous functionality. This means that for the next couple weeks I should have very little pressure on me. I have some self defined goals that I am going to accomplish. I also need to formally unit test my work, but my initial testing has been positive and I am confident in my work. It was such a beautiful day today. It was one of those days that make you glad that you live in the Midwest where days like today are rare. If it was not for the rarity would you really enjoy them as much? Of course they could be enjoyed much more if they would fall on a Saturday or Sunday! My company's stock price went up almost 4% today! Good news for me because I invest 3% of my earnings in our stock. It is usually a bit of a roller coaster but has been doing well since the war begun. I am such a slacker. The past 3-4 days have been bad for me health wise. I have been eating like there is not tomorrow, or at least like I used to. I have not seen significant weight loss in the past 3 months and I am a little down about that. I am not making excuses though. I need to force myself to listen to the willpower I have and help build a megaphone for it. I do well when I remember that I will probably like living a longer healthier happier life then the next fork full of food, but sometimes that beautiful food wins out. Mmmm...Food! But I will stick to my plan and continue running everyday. Remember only 47 more days left EVER! Go America we have freed a POW! War tip of the day: Only read news about the war once a day, if that. The continual news cycle does not leave room for confirmation. The weekly magazines are probably some of the better reporting because the bogus stuff is filtered out over the week. |W|P|91817944|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com4/01/2003 04:06:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|It's the end of the world as we know it! With SARS and Operation Iraqi Freedom, a caller to Roe & Garry, calling himself Rev. Willy, just announced in his professional opinion that there are only 47 days left. It is the end time.|W|P|91797606|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com