Good news sighting

Whatever
A while ago I discussed (okay, ranted) how I personally was sick and tired of only reading about humanity's mistakes in the news, in bloggers, etc. Thus, I promised to post at least one article a week on my blogger of something positive. Obviously I'm behind so here are three for your (hopefully) positive reading:


Other minorities break into NAACP awards
Cool!

Indian youths find place in NASA's Mars mission
That's great. Ah, to be young again... (no snide comments, Greg!)

"Good news" groups can relieve urban area"s problematic "culture of violence"
This is interesting. Are there websites that promote strictly good news?

WWW

Words
Tentative writing schedule this weekend:

Saturday, 01/10/2004:

1. Wake up around regular time (0630)
2. Breakfast
3. Write
4. Lunch
5. Errands (e.g., go to post office, get gifts for family, purchase new workout shoes, pick up cold meds, more food.)
6. Nap?
7. Write until honey comes home.
8. Dinner out?
9. Time together.
10. Chat
11. Read
12. Sleep

Sunday, 01/11/04

1. Wake up around 0630.
2. Make coffee.
3. Breakfast.
4. Write.
5. Lunch.
6. Housework (wash dishes, wash clothes, pick up and toss trash, organize things)
7. Run errands (if necessary)
8. Nap?
9. Write until honey comes home.
10. Dinner out?
11. Time together.
12. Chat
13. Read
14. Sleep

Since I won’t workout until I’m over this cold, next week will be the following schedule:


Write: 0700-0800
Work: 0900-1800
Workout: ???
Write (if no workout): 1930-2100
Housework: 2115-2200.
Go to bed: 2300.


Here's some humor (thanks, Kevin!).

HOW TO WRITE GOOD

1. Don't use no double negatives.
2. Avoid cliches like the plague.
3. A preposition is the wrong thing to end a sentence with.
4. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.
5. Don't be redundant, repeat yourself or say the same thing over and over.
6. No sentence fragments.
7. Always profread.
8. Remember, profanity sucks!


Weights
Obviously no weight-training or cardio. Grrr. But I can watch what I eat.

Whatever
Just want to do at least 90% of my schedule today.

Update

More links uploaded.

Late afternoon

Words
Activity died to a near standstill. So has my motivation to work on the handbook. I'll at least keep chipping away at it.

Shall I write tonight or visit long-neglected friends for the first time this year? Hmmm. Well, I can always see them next month....


Weights
No workout. And diet suffered as well. Sigh. Will have to watch over the weekend though that won't be much an issue as my appetite diminishes.


Whatever
People are actually reading my blog. And they're beginning to reply! Thanks, you who know who you are.

Morn so far

Words
Got too involved in chat. Another notch to put my writing time before entering chat.
Meeting with the director next week regarding the handbook. Eek!


Weights
Cardio last night. Not a good session.
Ugh. Woke this morning with a sore throat. Yup, looks like I have another cold. Damn. And I had probs with my blue jeans this morn (where I'm most thin in a day), telling me that I've gained some significant weight. Can't work out, though, till I'm over it.

Well, the silver lining is that I'll write and read more. I can do some housework as well.

Whatever
I'll see what I can and cannot do as my energy levels drop.

Day so far....

Words
Virtually no progress on the handbook today. Very busy: broadcasts, client care calls, assisting folks, etc. Don't mind but shot any attempts at writing.

Writing tonight if I'm not exhausted from workout. See below.


Weights
Decided to move weights (shoulders) routine to tomorrow afternoon's session. Since I'll have to combine it with arms, the routine will be: one shoulder exercise (probably dumbbell shoulder press); one tricep exercise; and finishing with a bicep exercise.

Will be attending cardio tonight. I hope the regular instructor will be there. If the sub's that regular Tuesday guy, I'm going to soak in the hot tub instead.

Ate out today. Not shabby: quarter of the appetizer loaf (gave the rest to my co-worker); non-creamy soup; and the vegetarian half calzona. New server waited on me though I chatted with Kevin (Canadian transplant) and Chris (young surfer dude.) While looking around the atypically-packed restaurant, I was again amused that I knew over eighty percent of the staff. And they know me, too!


Whatever
Been getting LOTS of responses to my postings at Forward Motion. Coolness. Will start examining them in earnest by month's end for an article (or two).

New* writing technique

New technique I wanted to start applying to my writing.

Many fitness folks advocate record how one is feeling at the end of the workout. This is in addition to noting the date, time, and location of gym. By providing such information, one can determine the best (and worse) conditions to working out.

I’m going to try to apply such a philosophy to my writing for at least a month. See if there are any patterns. It’ll be a good warm-up exercise at the very least.


*Don't know if the idea's new or not

Today's schedule

Words
Work on WIP and/or article. Schedule for morn (0700) and eve (2200)

Weights
Weights this afternoon (around 1330). Today's shoulders. Ugh!
Cardio this evening. I'm going to be ravenous Friday!

Whatever
(see above) Are you kidding???

Day so far, take two

Words
Wow. Got busy after getting back from the gym. Took care of a broadcast and finished a couple of sections in the handbook. Yeah! Starting a new section before closing down for the night.

Weights
Did chest. Two exercises. Not too sure how I'm doing. That is, I not feeling the appropriate muscles contracting. I'll see how I feel either tomorrow or Friday. Regardless, the workout woke me up.

Whatever
Damn. Came up with a couple of cool ideas for articles and novels and I didn't write them down. Oh, well. I know myself enough that I'll come up with more concepts later.

Day so far...

Words
Handbook's coming along nicely. Finished one section and now working on sub-sections.

Weights
I felt extremely hungry this morn. Thought at first that my stomach had expanded over the holidays. Then I remembered yesterday's work. Weight-training, especially, makes me feel ravenous. I'll need to start stocking the bagels and peanut butter.

Whatever
I've been fighting sleepliness (not fatigue) all morning. Coffee helps, but I have to consume enough to trigger my hyopglycemia for the caffeine to have any noticeable effect. Ugh. Weight-training should help. Today's chest.

Today's schedule

Words
Work on WIP and/or article.

Weights
Weight training: chest.

Whatever
At work, continue work on the handbook.
Pay bills.
Dinner with Greg and return LOTR: RoTK.
More planning for this week, month, and quarter.


I've already checked the PO box this morn. I really need to develop a regular schedule to check it. Hmmm. Maybe Thursday nights before going to the gym?

Yesterday's news

Words
Intentions were there. VH1 and catch-up (see below) were done instead.

Weights
Two back exercises in the afternoon; step aerobics in the evening. Should have watched dinner, though.

Whatever
Caught up with a friend of mine last night. Talked about his new beau, family, our mutual friends, and other stuff. Oh, and laughed a lot. Fun even when it bit (okay, ate) my writing time.

Forget me nots

Ack! Remembered what I did over the weekend:

Sat: Mysterious Galaxy.

Sun: Saw LOTR: RoTK.

Whew! Back to writing....

First Monday of the new year

Overall, not a good start....

Words
None this morning and none at this writing. Came up with some more ideas, though.


Weights
Was scheduled for this afternoon. Nada, though I ate almost right this afternoon and evening. I could have attended a cardio class evening but nearly fell asleep watching TV.


Whatever
Completed a few chores. Pick up prescription. Bought food and other necessities.

Otay, enough of what I haven't done. Now time to get to work!

Humor: You know.... (more)

Thanks again, Tracy!

1 .Only NASA, perhaps a few telephone companies and COMSAT had dish antennas to communicate with satelites.
2. You remember watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the moon live. (1969)
3. You protested at Stonewall.
4. The biggest commercial jet was a super DC-8; you remember reading in the paper the day the 747 did its maiden flight.
5. The worst space flight disaster was the Apollo Fire (1967).
6. Your Stereo Preamp used 12AX7 and 12AU7 tubes as the active devices;meanwhile your power amp had a vacuum tube rectifier such as a 5R4GYB or 5U4GB for the power supply and used 6L6GC, 6550, or 7027 output
tubes connected to a chicago standard ultralinear output transformer.
7. Only portable transistor radios were "instant on."
8. You remember when only women wore girdles.
9. You could get locked up in jail if you were caught with your best "friend" if you know what I mean.
10. You remember watching Star Trek on NBC.
11. The first computer you used was the ENIAC.

Humor: You know.... (additional)

Thanks, Tracy!

1. You code using punched cards and know what turnaround time is.
2. Your computer uses incandesant lights to display system status.
3. A high quality printer is a daisywheel printer.
4. A high speed modem was 2400 baud.
5. You used a mechanical KSR teletype for a terminal/monitor.
6. Your computer only prints on fanfold paper or uses a decwriter.
7. Your CRT monitor has a light pen and has separate lights that give the status of the remote computer.
8 You know what RSTS/E is.
9. A PDP 11 is a state of the art computer.
10 Your computer uses vacuum tubes not only for the display.

Update before hitting the sack

Saw LOTR: Return of the King. Updated my blog links (see left).

Later!

Good news!


Good News Agency

The Good News Network


After constantly reading only how terrible humanity is in virtually all news outlets, it's nice to see one that addresses the other part of us: that we're capable of actually being nice.

More links to come as I find them....

Humor: You know....

You know you're getting up there if you remember when:

* Your computer's ready-mode was a black screen with a single
cursor.

* Apple was bigger than Windows.

* Or should I say PCs, since for a while, there was no such
thing as
Windows.

* There was just "DOS."

* And they were called microcomputers instead of PCs.

* Contrary to free-market theory, your phone choices and bills
were much
easier because AT&T was a good old-fashioned monopoly.

* There was this amazing new video game called "Pong."

* And you thought it had the most advanced graphics imaginable.

* AOL was just another start-up online service that could easily
have lost
out to rivals called Compuserve and Prodigy.

* A 20-something guy named Dell came up with the nutty idea of
selling
computers by mail.

* Jane Fonda went from sex symbol, to feminist activist, to
dutiful wife of
a powerful man, to obscurity.

* And that powerful man was known not as Ted Turner founder of
CNN - but
"Blackbeard Among the Bluebloods" for winning the America's Cup
while
scandalizing Newport society with raucous behavior.

* And there was no question U.S. sailors would of course win the
Cup -
forever.

* It was called VD instead of an STD.

* The first true laptop computer was a Radio Shack TRS-80.

* And if you were hip, you referred to it affectionately as a
TRASH-80.

* Burning a CD was the act of a pyromaniac.

* Sean Connery was Pierce Brosnan.

* The new walkaround phone that gave you astonishing mobility
was a cordless
one you could take around the house.

* And it got better reception than the one you can now take all
over the
country.

* Only wives got alimony.

* Steve Jobs ran Apple. I mean, the first time.

* There was a guy on 60 Minutes named Mike Wallace who was so
old you
figured he'd retire at the latest by 1990.

* The Mideast was simpler because Iran was run by a dictator
called The
Shah, who wanted power rather than Jihad.

* Mail was something you wrote on a piece of paper and put into
a stamped
envelope.

* And you didn't get 110 unsolicited pieces of it every morning
promising to
enhance your anatomical assets.

* No normal person had speakers on their computer.

* The diners at the next restaurant table were smoking
cigarettes and you
barely noticed.

* The only thing you knew about Robin Williams was he played a
weird alien
named "Mork" on television.

* A 1-gig hard drive seemed as big as a warehouse. (Today, most
are 40-times
that.)

* An 8-track tape the size of a paperback book was an advanced
concept in
compact music recording.

* Everyone knew what an LP was. (NOTE: I actually forgot this! -- Joel)

And now the final test of whether you're getting up there:

* Even though there are plenty of LPs in antiques stores, you
still have 400
in your attic, because deep down, you still think the format
will come back.