5/30/2003 10:39:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Computer 2003 My parts have been shipped! And you can track them along with me.|W|P|95107588|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/30/2003 10:32:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|One Week in a single post Last Saturday I saw Blue Man Group at the Briar Street Theatre with Anu and Rob. It was good. Sunday, Dana arrived for a couple days. Monday, Dana, Rob, Anu, Bengi, and I saw Daddy Day Care. It was good. Tuesday, I turned 23. The Cubs were stomped by the Pirates as Jenny, Ryan, Rob, Greg, Dana, and I looked on from just below the scoreboard in the bleachers. It was not so good. Wednesday, Dana Left. It was very good. From then on you can read about the rest of my vacation exploits below. |W|P|95107399|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/30/2003 10:24:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Passport I went back to the Office of the City Clerk today, antique checkbook in hand. I was successful today. I should have my passport by 9 July 2003. That is correct, the State Department is so efficient it will only take 6 weeks for them to type my information in a computer to determine if I am eligible to leave the nation.|W|P|95107140|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/30/2003 11:34:00 AM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Today is a Good Day Any day when we receive a pan of baked good, tub of Betty Crocker Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting, and a first communion card here at the Office of The Land Barron it is a very good day. Thank you to the lovely Joscelyenn.|W|P|95086520|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/30/2003 09:06:00 AM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Global Warming and other Myths This is a great new article by Ann Coulter.|W|P|95080609|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/29/2003 11:57:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Computer 2003 I have bought the May and June parts for the new beast. I am using a different merchant again. This time it is AJump.com. It is one of only two places that had one of the parts. Of those two it is the only one not in Illinois, so I can avoid sales tax. For May it is a Sony 16X DVD/CD drive. I bought it with a black cover to match my case. It was reasonable priced at $39 before shipping. I remember not long ago when a much slower just CD Drive was closer to $100. For June I have bought Windows XP Pro. No price will ever be able to compare to the $5 that I could have paid as an IU student. But I like being paid for my work so I am willing to pay for the work of the bright engineers at Microsoft. The parts I still need to have a working computer are: CPU, Video Card, and Hard drives. This slates completion at September. I have begun tracking the prices of each of these on a weekly basis to se which is the least volatile and buy it in July. I have also published a chart with the computer budget. |W|P|95066824|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/29/2003 11:15:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Liturgy I am serving as liturgist at the Temple 8 June. Usually the scripture is mailed to the reader during the week before, but I will be out of town during the week next week so I called in and asked to pick up the information early. This I did today. This will also allow me more time to practice. I am excited about doing this, and a little nervous. My heart always races whenever I talk in church. Whether it is asking for prayers at Perrysville or announcing an event at the Temple. |W|P|95065382|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/29/2003 10:57:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Java Java Java I bought and scheduled my Java Certified Programmer Exam. I will be taking it in Fairfax at 3pm 24 June! |W|P|95064702|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/29/2003 10:46:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Ticket to Ride Today I attempted to apply for my passport. I thought I was doing well because I only had to go to two offices in City Hall before finding the right desk, and there was no line! Then the nice clerk asked me if I had checks with me. Who has checks with them? She empathized but said that the form goes through the good old USPS and credit cards do not exist. She suggested going across the street to the Thomson Center (the atrium that forgot its building) and buy a couple money orders, but I decided to just venture downtown again tomorrow. I am not planning on going anywhere soon, but I might visit Jos in Germany later this year. And tickets to London are about as cheap as tickets to Dulles, so I could just jet over for a long weekend. Maybe I will spend Independence Day taunting the English! |W|P|95064324|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/29/2003 10:17:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Purchases Yesterday I bought a few things. I have been setting on one of Yi's metal folding chairs as a desk chair. I ventured down to Office Depot in River North and bought the lovely and affordable Vanderbilt Fabric Executive Chair. Oh Yeah! Now I am driving in style! My little plant that I bought almost 2 years ago from Target for my dorm room is not so little any more. It was in bad need of a new pot so I ventured over to Target on Elston and bought a large pot for it. I also bought some Miracle-Gro Potting mix. I have not seen any miracles growth yet. I would be pleased with it making the turn from a bit less yellow back to more green, but I will probably go away for one week and need a machete to walk into the living room. While I was at Target I bought a new shower curtain (just a liner to be honest). My old one was becoming a little worn in some of the holes, and I was missing some plastic rings. All in all it was not a pretty site and several young ladies had run screaming from the apartment at the sheer sight of it. The liner I bought is polyester. I was a little scared about it, because cloth is not renowned as a water barrier and it was twice the price ($10) of the standard nylon ($5). I took the plunge and it does block indirect water. If I point the shower head right at it then water streams through a little. It is also rather stylish, especially with the hooks that I bought to hang it on. They are metal and have bearings. My bathroom might be the best decorated room in the apartment now. I also bought 2 light bulbs, but there is not story about them. Jacob saw they provide light, and it was good. |W|P|95063232|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/29/2003 09:26:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Contique Update I was a little worried about the braking in the Contique so I took her to be looked at by my lady mechanic. Melanie examined the brake pads. She said that they look like brand new! I think a lot of my problems are psychological with my car. I am not used to only driving my car once a month or every couple of weeks. Every time I start the car, I hear a squeal here and a rattle there that are probably just normal from not being run enough. While I was at my lady mechanic I had her mount my front license plant holder. I bought my car in Indiana, and there were not even holes for a bracket. For the last 9 months I have just had my front plate laying on my dash. When I bought my tags I asked about the legality of this display technique. The official response of the SoS worker was "That is between you and the police officer." I have also found that Contique is an official term, although this is not why my Contour is named Contique.|W|P|95061411|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/29/2003 08:58:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Remote Control I have set up my home network to be accessible from anywhere in the world. To do this I am using the services of Open Domain Server. It is pretty cool. They have a client program that runs a script every so often to determine the publicly resolvable IP address. This address is the address of my router and firewall that sets between my machines at home and the internet. This IP address is then sent to the ODS servers and a name that I have set up with them is updated to resolve to the correct address. I then have set up a couple ports on the router to cut through the firewall to my home machine. Some day I might have a little web server set up at home. I would move all of tomaw.com over to my home machine, but I am not confident with my DSL connection. I am not sure if it would handle the load or if it would have the dependable uptime that I need in a mail server. I am mostly going to use this home server for fun Java servlet projects that I work on in my spare time. When I have sufficient spare time and actually produce something you all with be the first to know. |W|P|95060405|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/29/2003 08:34:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|In order to form a more perfect trust AOL Time Warner has settled its anti-trust lawsuit against Microsoft by forming an even larger trust. I have been in the minority of the industry and long believed that Microsoft actually promotes innovation by having so many modern industrialists loathing it. As long as Microsoft can produce the cash for the settlement, this is a total benefit to them. They now have dedicated customers in the largest ISP to software and services they were already giving away to Joe Browser.|W|P|95059579|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/29/2003 06:20:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|IU Trustee Today I mailed in my vote for Robert B. Cummins to serve on the IU Board of Trustees. I would encourage all IU graduates to do the same. Mr. Cummins' business background makes him the best qualified candidate to help right the University. Ensuring that the University is in a sound financial situation and being sure that the proper leaders are found in the image of Herman Wells will come natural to him from his work in the private sector. If you have not received you ballot contact the Dean of University Libraries.|W|P|95055354|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/27/2003 09:44:00 AM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Anniversary of the Barron�s Birth Also, today I celebrate the Founding of St. Petersburg for the 23rd time. I only have 97 more! Some other interesting things happened today as well. Only the third time that the Great Anniversary has been on the same day of the week as the day it originally occurred.|W|P|94941620|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/25/2003 05:05:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Got Milk? Gil DeFerran does! He is the winner of the 87th Indianapolis 500.|W|P|94872251|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/24/2003 03:33:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Book in the Mail The Reason Foundation sent me a book today. It is Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use by Jacob Sullum. I am sure it will be a great book, but I am not sure when I will be able to read it.|W|P|94837729|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/24/2003 12:07:00 AM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Welcome all, no matter how you ended up here. I was looking at the visitations stats. Turns out if you Google the internet for "what interesting being a cabin crew" The Flatiron Life is number 8 in the results. (We will likely move up after this!)|W|P|94816678|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/23/2003 11:34:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|A new way to spend time at work..I mean free time Version 1 and Version 2 Found by The Great Jonah in The Corner.|W|P|94815692|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/23/2003 11:30:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Sweet Home Chicago I flew home to Chicago, Mayor Richard M. Daley, today (mile 7068). It feels good to be home. I feel like I have not been here for such a long time. I know not if I should say "It has been 12 days." Or, "If has only been 12 days." The mailbox was absolutely stuffed with mail. Justin received a notice that his car must have an emissions test, which is rather inconvenient for him since he rarely returns to Chicago and rarely uses his car when he is here.|W|P|94815545|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/22/2003 03:36:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Was Lost and now is Found! My sister has reported in! All is well again. Too bad that the information I wanted from her is no longer relevant. It is not her fault; my company just informed me that I cannot change groups like I was wanting. Grrr... I let myself think that something is as it seems here, even though I know it never is. |W|P|94753392|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/19/2003 09:27:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Lost! 20 yr old female. Answers to �Dana,� �Danielle,� �Dane,� and �Jake�s Sister.� Last heard from a week ago. If you find her, please ask her to reply to her brother�s email! |W|P|94611613|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/19/2003 09:20:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Vindication! Tonight I took the second practice exam that came with my Java Certification book. I scored 44/50. 88%, I know I can do better. As soon as I saw the answer to the ones I missed, I said "doh!"|W|P|94611311|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/19/2003 02:44:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|What is in a name? The vivacious Joscelynn sends me this. Is it my parent�s fault I am who I am, or was my name fate?|W|P|94595256|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/18/2003 09:58:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Java Java I have finished reading for the Java Programmer Certification Exam. I have done well on the chapter tests, 80-90%. I have not been thrilled with these scores, but I have learned why I answered incorrectly and moved on. Tonight I took the first comprehensive practice exam. I only answered 30 of the 50 questions correctly! I am sure I can do better then 60%. After reviewing my answers, I had misread a couple questions or did not answer fully some of them. I will do better of the next practice exam. I would like to schedule for the actual exam by the end of the week. I do not know exactly what happens after I have bought the exam from Sun. |W|P|94560649|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/18/2003 09:51:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Church in the Capital This morning I went to church in the District of Columbia. I attended services at Foundry United Methodist Church. This is the main UMC in the DC area, much like the Temple is in Chicago, Mayor Richard M. Daley (Ever Great be His Name). It is a nice church. The footprint of the building is similar to the temple, but it is only 40ft high compared to the Temple's 400ft. The sanctuary is similar to all of the urban First UMCs I have attended. The sanctuary is a little wider than the Temple and about 3/4 the depth. The service was nice, but it was a gimmick Sunday, Youth Sunday. I would like to attend again next month during a regular service and communion to see how a normal Sunday works. I took the Merto into the city after parking at Vienna, VA. It is much like the CTA, but there are differences. The most obvious thing is that although the L is over 100 years old and the newest trains were bough about the same time as the Metros, the CTA has managed to stay away from Orange for the most part and keep a modern look. Everything in the Metro system screams 1960s and 70s. One metro car is the length of an L car pair. The seats are padded (orange) and there is carpeting. The Metro is quieter, and runs a little less like a roller coaster. The Metro uses a fare system similar to Metra where you pay for distance. You run your fare care to enter the station, and then again, when you leave. One nice feature in the stations is pass machines. You can purchase various passes using your credit card. I bought a 1-day pass for only $5. This was good for me because I was ridding from an end point to the center of town. Round trip would have been $6 with a fare card. These are two things the CTA should invest in, machines that take credit cards and machine where passes can be purchased. After church, I explored (was lost in the insane street pattern of) Washington. I walked down by the White House, and just missed Marine One dropping off the President.|W|P|94560334|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/18/2003 09:19:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|In the footsteps of James Madison Yesterday I took a trip down to Montpelier in central Virginia. This was the home of our Fourth President and Father of the Constitution. I encourage everyone to take this fun trip. I do not have time to write up a full report tonight, but as soon as I can I will tell you all about my trip. For now, enjoy some uncommented photos.|W|P|94559074|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/18/2003 09:13:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Shout Out to the Host with the Most My friend Greg asked me who hosts tomaw.com and if i would recommend them. Below I share my answer. www.phpwebhosting.com I only had one problem. A couple weeks ago, my server (including mail) went down for a night. They are not verbose so I do not know it was expected or if I lost and email. They do not have much customer service. You can send them mail, and they usually respond but I do not think they had 24-hour staff. Having said that, I do not think you can find better service for $9.95/mo. It is quietly billed to my credit card each month and I have email. They give you something like 100 MB or maybe 500 MB I do not know, but they say that you can have more you just have to ask. They ask that you do not put anything high traffic up. It is almost more like a co-op than a service. I do not bather them, they do not bother me. They have perl installed for each server instance. Moreover, due to the name, PHP is there, but I have never used it. The one thing I would like, and would make me change in an instant if I could find it is a service with J2EE. When I was looking a couple of years ago, everyone said it was a security risk. Which made me say what security risk? I do not know of any problems having a Java Container running on a server. The only think I can think of is that it might be hard to set up the servers to be restarted individually because they all reside on the same machine.|W|P|94558861|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/15/2003 01:31:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Untouchable down! Robert Stack is dead! It is not a mystery, he had a heart attack. Many Wednesday nights were spent in my childhood watching Mr. Stack Unsolved Mysteries.|W|P|94403590|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/14/2003 02:19:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Is IU the Ball State of the future? My Alma Mater has been ranked in the Top 5 for both drug and alcohol arrests! This explains why I have trouble contacting my sister and Joscelynn sometimes! I am going to take Capt. Jerry Minger's word for it that this is a result of higher arrest rates. Where was IUPD when I was a sophomore and my roommate, "Bud", was making deals in my room? And my friend Anu sends me this.|W|P|94344084|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/14/2003 08:54:00 AM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Great News John Stossel is moving into the co-anchor chair next to Barbara Walters as ABC's 20/20.� Mr. Stossel is a great reporter, openly and friarly reporting government waste, inefficiency, and absurdity He also counters many ideas that we have been made to believe are correct but the science does not back them up. �|W|P|94327622|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/13/2003 05:31:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Mail Call Last weekend I received a couple pieces of interesting mail. Both of them were from the Heritage Foundation. One cam in a clear plastic bag with a large florescent orange sticker on it. The sticker is a warning that "Contents of this package are monitored. Any tampering will result in prosecution under Federal Postal regulations. $2,000.00 fine or 5 years imprisonment or both for any person who tampers or obstructs delivery; U.S. Code Title 18, Sec. 1701." I hope that did not include me, because I opened it. The second was a funding request from William Bennett. Rather untimely, it was probably produced and mailed just days before Mr. Bennett was indicted my the media for being worse that al-Queda for legally gambling his income.|W|P|94291836|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/13/2003 01:33:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|What is this Canada? I thought I woke up in America!|W|P|94279573|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/12/2003 09:59:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Back in NoVa Today I arrived safely back at work, thanks to the friendly skies of United (is that Rhapsody In Blue I hear). I think that the cabin crew for this flight was the same as the crew of my Friday flight home to Chicago. This flight completed my 5301st mile with United, only 19699 more miles needed for Premier Status. If I could make one plea to the flying public it would be: Check A Bag People! I know that I am probably the exception to the rule. I have never had a bag lost and I rarely have to wait on my bag long at the claim area. I do have to wait a little bit longer to check in because I am checking the bag, but I am not wasting time at the security checkpoint keeping track of my valuables, laptop, carry on, and then also my luggage while I am putting my shoes back on. When I board the plane, I find my seat and the little sliver of overhead bin space needed for my bag and sit down, quickly letting others find their seats. Today United Customer Service announced to the plane that the passengers were "taking way to long" to board. If I could make a second plea it would be: Set yourself right back down! The plane lands and almost before the front wheel hits the ground you can hear the seat belts popping and even some cell phones turning on. When the plane begins to dock and the pilot turns off the seat belt the plane erupts with ever person standing straight up, pulling their belongings out of the bins, and racing to the aisle. The doors are not ever open yet people, set down and enjoy this little bit of calmness in your day while waiting a couple minutes for the people ahead of you to deplane. Of course I do not have much to pull out of the bins because I have just the one carryon. I am also in no hurry to deplane because I want my bags to be waiting on me not the other way around.|W|P|94241814|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/12/2003 09:19:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Su..what? I am very surprised to learn that some of my feelings have been suppressed! I blame my Mother!|W|P|94240086|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/10/2003 09:01:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Youth of America: Pull up your pants! Today at the ball game this group of punks sat in front of me. First I had to help them find their seats because I think that had primed their livers before the game and could not read the row numbers on the aisle seats. There were people setting in their seats. They asked them to move, and the people moved but I think the people in the seats gave the punks a little guff about it. Instead of taking the high ground or even the just slightly aggressive ground, the punks chose the route of being, well, punks and tried to start something. Thankful I did not have to put the smack down on the group because the people in the seats moved on without responding. It was a group of all guys and only one girl. The girl was with one of the guys. They were a walking public display of affection. She was not the type of girl that helps promote the image of women. The only thought that seemed to be in her head was, "Like, For Sure!" running in loop. The group looked just under 21, but all of them passed the carding at the field. Ever time a beer man would go by there was a stop at their row. I am not discouraging anyone from drinking at the ball game, I had two, but it was the middle of the afternoon and these kids had at least 5 beers each. It became a bit of a joke with the two rows behind them. The disturbing part was the drunkest guy said something in part "...No! I am a great drunk driver. Shit the Kennedy, I have never been stopped..." I was glad that my mode of transportation was my two feet down Clark Street. During the whole game there were many yells from the group that are inappropriate to repeat. And I would not have blamed someone from St. Louis of coming down and smacking them in the head, because I had to resist the urge. A report came out Friday of a survey conducted by the U of C about what age Americans consider others adults. The survey said that 26 has become the age of adulthood. This is much higher than previous generations who were adults raising families and buying homes at 18 and 20. As a 23 year old (minus 17 days) there are benchmarks of adulthood that I have not obtained yet like a wife, kids, and house. I think it is possible to be an adult without these things and it is possible to be an adult at 23. I have a degree and have started a career with a stable job with a leading consulting firm. I make sound financial decisions, paying off my car and education loans quickly while also saving. I am involved politically in my community and trying to become more involved. People do treat me different though, either because I look young or because I have a large beautiful red spot on my head. These punks I sat behind are part of the reason that I am still 3 years away from being an adult. They live life as though there is not a care in the world. Which I am sure is great for them, and at times I have been envious of that lifestyle, but as we approach Mothers Day I am very thankful of the way my lovely mother and grandmothers raised me. I pray that I never made them worry that I would turn into a punk, because I knew that this type of behavior would have found punishment (and probably still would today somehow) but I never would have thought of acting like this because they instilled in me that this is simply not what young men do. It is interesting being raised almost completely by your mother; it seems to me that I learned how to be a better man than most of the men I know that had fathers at home. Thank You Mom!|W|P|94128470|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/10/2003 08:03:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Cubs Win! Cubs Win! I spent the afternoon up at the Friendly Confines, watching the Cubbies battle against arch central division rival Cardinals. This Cubs won 3-2 after a walk off homer from Alex Gonzalez in the 10th inning. Although it did not look like it until about an hour before the game, it was a beautiful day for baseball. I bought a ticket in the Terrace Reserved. It was a great ticket about 25 rows up from the field and only 4 or 5 seats toward 1st from home plate! The problem was that the winds were blowing in off the Lake and the seats were in the shade. While the bleacher bums were getting tan or burned, I could have used a blanket. After helping the Cubs win, I came home and took a well deserved 3 hour nap on the couch.|W|P|94126603|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/05/2003 09:14:00 AM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|WOW This is crazy. Between the praying and defecating I am not sure I would have had the resolve to do that. (From K-Lo in The Corner)|W|P|93800591|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/03/2003 05:14:00 PM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Memory Installed! My new memory arrived yesterday and I installed it today! I was very surprised when I arrived home and there was already a package slip in my mailbox. The FedEx tracking system was predicting a delivery date of the 5th. I have not used FedEx much, and usually choose UPS as the cheapest option. Perhaps FedEx is able to deliver quicker because it has a less volume or it utilizes air transpiration more the UPS. The memory installed firmly and it will be fun to test it out when I get the rest of the parts in. The schedule looks like this for the next few months: CPU (May), Video Card (June?), Hard Drive (July?), and OS (August). That means I would be able to have a working computer sort of at the end of this month, but not see anything. I could see something in June, but it would just say "Punk I find a drive to boot from!" I would have a disk to boot from in July, but nothing to boot. And then in August I would own Windows, but not a CD Drive to install from. I could use my current CD Drive but it is so sketchy I do not even want it to be near my new computer at all! SO, in September I would have the drive to install and run the machine with my current I/O Peripherals. And suggestion or questions? Email me!|W|P|93721553|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com5/03/2003 09:56:00 AM|W|P|Jacob|W|P|Ah Laundry Day. I have just one load today.|W|P|93706129|W|P||W|P|jacob.tomaw@gmail.com