Tom's Diary

Today’s Activities

• Shower.  DONE.
• Schedule appointment for Mom with the retina specialists in Johnstown for sometime in April, 2010. 

Log

09:00 AM: I’m up. My weight is unchanged from yesterday.  It’s still  177.0 Lbs.

09:05 AM: Commented on the   Common Cold: 2010-02   piece.

12:00 PM: Cooked seven eggs for breakfast for   [Emmy]  and I.

01:30 PM; Created the    Smart Calcium, The New Rave   piece.

01:35 PM: Nap time. 

03:05 PM: I’m back up again.  We’re having salmon and soup for supper later. 

05:15 PM: Read more of the book:  The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives    by Leonard Mlodinow.

06:00 PM: Finished supper.  This cold has me wiped out.  So I’m taking another nap.

07:45 PM: I’m up once more.

10:30 PM: Programmed several stations into the IRIS Internet WebRadio for   [Emmy].  These are not included in the list of available stations for this unit.  So I found URLs for them on iTunes,  AOL Radio, ShoutCAST, and a couple of them, I went to the station’s  Listen Live link,  and capture the stream URL, using the URL Snooper  program.  It took a bit of trial and error because some of the streams, while they played nicely in Winamp, they caused errors on the IRIS WebRadio.  However, I found the following streams to be compatible with the IRIS, though they may not play on your computer unless you paste them into Wimamp and access them from there:

• KQV Radio 
• WOGL FM Oldies
• WROZ FM
• WDSY FM Country
• WDSY FM HD2 New Country

11:00 PM:  Took the weekly system backups.  Details   here.

12:15 AM: Heading to bed now, to head off the worst symptoms of this cold.   Take care, and see you later.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Common Cold: 2010-02
• Diary Revisions: 2010-02-27
• Smart Calcium, The New Rave
• The Drunkard’s Walk
• Weekly Backups: 2010-02-27

Today’s Activities

• Shower.  DONE.
• Schedule appointment for Mom with the retina specialists in Johnstown for sometime in April, 2010.

Log

07:50 AM: I’m up. My weight is unchanged from yesterday.  It’s still  177.0 Lbs.

09:00 AM: I applied a software change to all my blogs that shortens all title tags for single posts; it eliminates the string:  Blog Archive  as well as one separator character from the titles.  This should fix the issues raised by my hosting provider about some of my title tags containing too many characters.  Presumably now, search engines will index more of my posts.  I’m not sure that this is actually true.  But the IT folks at my hosting company know lots more about this stuff than I do.  So I’ll take their word for it and bring the blogs into compliance.  Next thing to do, they suggest, is to remove all duplicate titles.  I did this for   Tom’s Diary  so far.  I’ll get to work on   Tom’s Love Quest   now.

11:20 AM: Spent the past couple hours categorizing posts on the   Tom’s Love Quest   blog.  I added categories for Affirmations,  Aloneness,  Cheating,   and   Loneliness   among others.

01:30 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless   with   [Emmy].

02:50 PM: We dined at our favorite Indian restaurant: Tamarind Flavor of India, on Craig Street in Oakland.  Yum.

03:00 PM: Categorized more posts on the   Tom’s Love Quest   blog.  Now, there are just 18 left to do.   Details   here.

04:00 PM: Watched today’s episode of   Dr. Phil.

06:00 PM: Made numerous revisions to the   Tom’s Love Quest   blog.

07:30 PM: Watched tonight’s episodes of    NBC’s Nightly News    and   The CBS Evening News   TV news shows.

12:25 AM: Read four more chapters of the book:  The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives   by Leonard Mlodinow.

12:30 AM: Bed time.  See you tomorrow.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Diary Revisions: 2010-02-25
• The Drunkard’s Walk
• Today’s Diet: 2010-02-25

01:10 AM: Began reading the book:  The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives   (NLS book number DB-67164) by Leonard Mlodinow. 

Reading time: Nine hours, thirty-one minutes.

Hmmm, I’ve often felt that people either take too much credit for their successes, or others deify them overly for them.  This book bolsters the notion that while things like skill and tenacity might increase our chances of success somewhat, they by no means guarantee them; just as a person’s sheer imcompetence cannot promise that he’ll always fail at any endeavor he attempts.  I found much encouragement in the passages I’ve read so far; even if I truly am an awful writer, my chances of succeeding at it are still, by no mens, zero.  I like that, and can’t wait to read more later.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2010-02-24
• Today’s Business: 2010-02-25
• Today’s Business: 2010-02-26
• Today’s Business: 2010-02-27
• Today’s Business: 2010-02-28

Today’s Activities

• Shower.  DONE.
• Schedule appointment for Mom with the retina specialists in Johnstown for sometime in April, 2010. 

Log

08:15 AM: I’m up. My weight is unchanged from yesterday.  It’s still  177.0 Lbs.

10:00 AM: Watched today’s episode of   Pittsburgh Today Live   on KDKA TV.

11:20 AM: Spent the morning submitting my blogs to more search engines.  I encountered many that required payment in order to submit.  So I avoided those and will continue to do so until the blogs begin generating some revenue. I did submit the sites to perhaps ten free engines and directories. 

01:30 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless   with   [Emmy].

03:20 PM: Walked [Emmy] to an appointment, picked up the new digital talking book (DTB) player from Carnegie Library For The Blind, and a couple of digital books to try out on it.  We also ate lunch at Pizza Pronto. 

03:55 PM: Watched today’s episode of   Dr. Phil,  about a teen aged drug addict that Dr. Phil paid to send to rehab.  However, this individual relapsed some forty-five days after he finished his treatment.  Today’s show focused on what to do next, to get him back into treatment, and cured this time.  Not one of my favorite episodes, but not bad though.

04:00 PM: Nap time.

06:00 PM: I’m back up again, listening to the local evening news.

07:30 PM: Watched today’s episodes of   NBC’s Nightly News   and   The CBS Evening News   news shows.

07:45 PM: Resolved an Outlook address book problem for [Emmy].  Choosing the address book in her instance of Outlook 2003 caused an error message, saying that either her address book had been deleted, or she had insufficient permission to access it.  I discovered that she had two instances of the “Contacts” address list mentioned in her address book.  One of these produced the aforementioned error, and the other correctly displayed her addresses.  You can set which one displays by default when the address book is opened.  So I changed her default to the one that works.  I was reluctant to delete the other one because it has the same name as the one that works (Contacts), and so I didn’t want to risk deleting both of them inadvertently while deleting just the one.  Anyway, she’ll be okay as long as she doesn’t accidentally change the default list to display back to the faulty one. 

08:05 PM: Posted the   NLS DTB Player   piece.

09:30 PM: Went out for a little   shopping trip   this evening to buy some diet Pepsi.

10:30 PM: Talked with Mom.  She’s doing well and her blood sugar readings have been pretty good (< 200) this week mostly.  I’ll resume the daily status updates on these readings when I return home.

11:45 PM: Investigated how to fix numerous title tag issues on my blogs for search engine optimization (SEO).  One complaint I received is that lots o fmy titles are too long.  So I went through today and shortened them.  However, by default, WordPress places the blog name and the string “blog archive” into the title tags for pages that display single posts, and this additional yet redundant data can make a fairly short title too long.  I’ve learned how to shorten this WordPress-generated title so as not to include my blog name, and will apply that change to all my blogs later this week.

12:20 AM: Created audio journal episode: AJE-2010-02-25-00-10.

01:10 AM: Started a new book:  The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives   by Leonard Mlodinow. 

01:15 AM: Heading to bed.  Later.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Diary Revisions: 2010-02-24
• NLS DTB Player
• Quest Revisions: 2010-02-24
• Shopping Trip: 2010-02-24
• The Drunkard’s Walk
• Today’s Diet: 2010-02-24

Hung out with [Emmy] and [Mentat] throughout the morning.

[Mentat] left at around noon for the bus to his girlfriend’s place. 

Then, [Emmy] and I walked to Panara Bread for a bagel and a strawberry smoothie.  Then it was on to the Giant Eagle grocery store for this week’s grub.  We bought some porter house steaks, two pounds of salmon, a pound of trout, three green peppers, a couple pounds of green beans, and four gallons of organic skim milk.   We walked for just over an hour total time today.

Then, we watched 60 Minutes, listened to music, read talking books, and listened to our journals.

A very sunny day today with high temperatures in the upper 70s.

Tom

Brainstormed for new   Love Quest   ideas. It seems useful to put a list of books out there that I found helpful when getting over a lover who has left me. Also, readers should remember that my ramblings are not definitive; I do get nervous about commitment these days as I’ve said; but I’d still welcome the opportunity to commit to a right girl. If that’s what she wants, then I’ll probably want that too. 

Added an “Important People” list of links to the Tom’s Love Quest blog. This allows retrieval of articles written about and to the people who have touched my life profoundly.

Made train reservations for the next Philly foot party on June 6th, 2009.

Brainstormed at the pavilion for a couple hours this evening. Perhaps tomorrow, I’ll write a piece that defends the “quick fall”. It could be called, “The Faster I Fall, The Deeper.”

I let the cat out today by accident.  He’s quite the formidable little beast.  Even though I scared him away before opening the door, he darted back to it and rushed out just as soon as there was enough room for his body to pass.  It all happened in less than two seconds.  He’s getting pretty good at this.  So, I had to let [someone] know that I may have judged her too harshly for letting him out so often.  At any rate, I retrieved him within two minutes.   So he didn’t get very far. 

Tom Hesley

Dear [Emmy],

I’m fine. I lost four pounds last week. The weight this morning was 167.5.

Keep up the good diet work. Otherwise, I’ll get ahead of you.

The cold feels a little better today. Since it’s so warm out, I plan on taking down the Christmas lights outside this afternoon.

Do you want the picture in email or in regular mail?

“everything in it’s rightful place.” Don’t put an apostrophe on “its” in this case It is one of those weird [nouns] that does not get an apostrophe to denote possession. Use the apostrophe when contracting “it is” to “it’s” but not for ownership.

Your gift was meaningful. I enjoyed reading that Dr. Phil book.

I never received the camp picture from last year, though I did pay for one. I’ll have to ask [the director] about it.

Thanks for the supportive, encouraging words.

Talk to you tonight,
Tom

Dear [Emmy],

Hi.

Yes, I do feel better today. My throat still hurts a bit but I don’t feel tired anymore, and that fever I noticed yesterday is gone. I was lucky that the cold didn’t develop into a full-fledged sickness. Hopefully by early next week, it will be gone completely.

The blacklight bulbs came today. They work well.

Good deal on Bob. I really don’t want to be contending with him in our relationship.

Yes, I’ve read around four sides in the philosophy book so far today, and hope to read six to eight before bedtime.

Push for the new BrailleNote if you can. If it has a USB port, all sorts of backup-restore options become available to you, not to mention printers, external CD ROM drives, scanners, and so on.

My weight today was 170.0. I might even make 169.5 by Monday. Yippie!

Later,
Tom

[Joel],

Hi there. All is well here. No, [Mel] cancelled the retreat because not enough people wanted to attend. Ah well, perhaps next year.

The writing is gong well. I’ve been working on an autobiography, and dong lots and lots of reading. Recently I read:

• The Fountainhead   by Ayn Rand,
• South Sea Tales   by Jack London,
• The Web and the Rock   by Thomas Wolfe

The last two showcase autobiographical styles that seemed to work well for the authors. They gave me lots of ideas for mine. Ayn Rand’s book traces a fictitious independent-thinking character (Howard Roark) and all the hardship and tumult along with the eventual happiness he encounters because he doesn’t give in to what others want when it conflicts with what he wants. Excellent book. I found it most inspiring.

I’ve been working on   The Lady in the Park   story. However, I found that it had major problems beyond the redundancy and idea arrangement that you mentioned. It’s very wordy and doesn’t express any really fresh philosophical ideas. Plus, the story ends too-abruptly, leaving several arguments and themes dangling. So, I’m currently working on condensing it and adding a more effective conclusion. You’ll receive the next draft when it’s done, most definitely.

I’d be happy to look over your poetry.

As far as getting it published goes, check out   The Writer   magazine at: http://www.writermag.com

They supply an online database of over 2500 publishers, updated weekly. In fact, in the November issue, they gave a list of perhaps 100 publishers and many of them, as I recall, accept poetry. Also, some of them pay very well and seek first-time writers.

Also, you might look at   The Writers Journal   magazine at:  http://www.writersjournal.com/

This offers many writing contests including poetry types, and info about the many writers markets.

These magazines are discussed regularly in the local writers group in which I participate, and come highly recommended by authors who have spoken at our meetings. Some of them began building their   writing ladder   (their history of successful publications), starting with these magazines. Good luck getting published.

Well, have a great holiday, and stay warm.

Later,
Tom Hesley

Dear [Mentat],

Your screen resolution probably did not change, especially if you did not adjust it yourself. However, Amazon’s web site did change – it seems busier these days than I remember it a year ago. So perhaps that’s what’s affecting your JAWS.

Sorry to hear about your firewall. I had a battery go bad in one of my laptops this week. Fortunately however, it was covered by the   extended service   warranty I purchased. I usually buy these with computers because they’ve saved me bundles of money, especially on the first two Micron machines I purchased in the late 90s. Both of them required replacement of motherboards during the extended warranty period. However, I wouldn’t buy the extensions for CD players and small appliances. Generally speaking, if the item costs less than $500, I don’t buy the extension.

Yes, I know of   request only   ordering from NLS. In fact, that’s how I did it back in the late 80s. However, I wanted to give myself some compulsion to read; so I told them to send me three to five books a month in the general areas of philosophy, psychology, and classic literature. So far, I’ve been very happy with the books, but keeping up with the reading feels a bit uncomfortable at present. Oh well. I hope I can learn to tolerate it, because, since I was so   unread   for my school years, I have much catching up to do.  

On Aristotle: I think I’ll read Plato first, since much of what Aristotle writes is based upon or refutes Plato. The translation of Plato’s complete works I mentioned in September seems much easier to read. So I’ll tackle it first, and then try Aristotle once more.

Later,
Tom Hesley