I only have a few minutes this morning, but I do have a few thoughts running around in my head that I want to share.

First, Congratulations to Newt Gingrich for his win in SC. The question, as I see it, is how much of his momentum will carry over here in Florida. Of course that was days ago, which means I am really behind in posting here.

Second, I hate Direct TV but I think their latest commercials are really funny. See, I told you these were random.

Rick Santorum is scheduled to be in Lakeland (where I work) this Saturday. I have tickets to attend the event. It is also a straw poll of the local 9-12 group.

Finally, back to the primaries, I have a post started in my head about the right’s need to find the perfect candidate. The short version – one doesn’t exist. Check back later to read it.

One more thing about the debates, and this is for all of the candidates, whatever question the moderator asks, your answer should include the word “Obama”. Let’s focus here people. Just because I’m all over the map doesn’t mean you can be. In my mind, I really don’t care that much about what you think about each other. The person who is going to get my support is the one who will take on Barack Obama. That is the reason for this little exercise after all.

Have a great day. Let me hear your random thoughts in the comments.

Tweet

I did get Up Before Dawn yesterday morning, fully intending to find some good posts for the First Cup. Well, it just didn’t work out that way. You see, my internet provider (which will remain nameless) had a bit of an outage. I found out that it started around 4am and lasted until the time I was walking in the door at work.

Oddly enough, I couldn’t get a network connection on my smart phone at the same time. I couldn’t even make a call! I had no idea what was causing that. Between the front door and the office my phone started ringing (no cell phones are allowed on the floor). Got to the office, called home (very glad that I could make a call) and found out that everything else was back on.

I sure am looking forward for the pro-rated deduction they’re going to make from my bill. They’re not? Oh well.

This morning’s First Cup is on the way.

Tweet

Well, not now. Not really. You see, I’ve been up since around 4:30, started the coffee around 4:45 and tried to go back to sleep but ended up awake around 5:00. I guess my “Take Some of This So You Can Sleep (For About Four Hours)” cold medicine wore off. The good news is that those four hours were awesome. The bad news is, it is a rainy, dreary, gray morning – perfect for sleeping in – and I’m wide awake.

So, I guess I’ll talk to all of you.

You may have noticed a little retro style postings on Friday. I have decided to bring back two regular posts I used to do, First Cup and the Overnight News Open Post.

First Cup is a few links to interesting posts from around the right side of the blogosphere. That post will be up some time before 8am. The difference from before is that I will just be posting that on Monday – Friday. I’m also going to do away with the coffee quote. If you have a post that you would like me to consider including drop a link in an email to lakelandjim at gmail dot com.

I’m also bringing back the Overnight News Open Post. This is a chance for you lazy bums to help out around here, in other words share interesting posts, pimp your own sites, and generally sound off on whatever strikes you. Just keep it reasonably civil and clean.

That’s about it for the retro stuff, but while I’m still up let me mention a few other things.

Don’t forget to vote in the latest bRight & Early 2012 Presidential Primary Poll #13. It’s in the right sidebar. See it? No, further down. There, just below the book ads and PJM link. There, that’s it. Vote. And speaking of the book ads, did you notice that I added a section of books by our GOP candidates? It displays three books randomly. You can refresh the page to see (and hopefully click on) selections from the other candidates.

I wonder if I could fall back to sleep now. The sun is coming up, but that’s only an assumption. The rain is keeping things dark and quiet. I guess the only thing to do is give it a try.

UPDATE: I guess it was too early, since the original title said “to”. Corrected the title, but left the link alone.

Tweet

Just a few random thoughts for a Friday morning.

We are only a week away from September 1st. That’s how long you have to participate in the bRight & Early 2012 Presidential Primary Poll #11. The poll is in the sidebar, and although participation so far has been rather low, the results so far are rather one sided.

I still haven’t resolved the issue between the number showing at the bottom of the site and the number seen on my Sitemeter stats page, but both numbers are now over 500,000 — so it’s official.

Hurricane Irene is well off the Florida coast, but still could impact the Carolinas. Be safe up there.

It’s a Friday and I’m home from work. I was off yesterday, too. And, I’ll be off this weekend. A four day weekend sounds like a good thing, doesn’t it? Not in this case. Wednesday night Cindy was on the way to work and our VW Beetle died. She was 10 minutes away from work. I guess it was better then than when she gets off at 2am. Her daughter went and picked her up, but she missed a night of work that we needed (she works for tips). We had the car towed yesterday morning by our mechanic. After taking a look at things he informed us that we have a major short in the electrical system. When he gets the (expensive) repair done he will still have to take the car to the VW dealership to have the computer reset. He will work with us, but if you ever wanted to hit the tip jar, this would be a very good time.

UPDATE: We just heard from our mechanic. It wasn’t good news. He can’t fix it, and estimates that the dealership will charge us over $3500 to get it fixed. That’s more than the car is worth. We don’t have access to the money we would need for a down payment on something else. I’m working on that, but time is not on our side. If you can help, thank you so much. If you can’t do anything financially, can you point people to this post?

Have a great Friday, and a wonderful weekend.

If you can…

Tweet

No excuse for the weekend, but my real job co-worker (we’re now a department of 2!!) was out Friday and Monday. She came in yesterday, but left early. More news on the job front later.

I’m still fighting the computer restarting on it’s own. Usually when I’m right in the middle of something. At the same time, I’m revisiting using Chrome as my browser. What are your thoughts on chrome?

Now if I can just end my addiction to Cafe World. . .

Tweet

I just want to know. There’s been some discussion about moving to Louisville, KY. and I would love to hear from those in the know. You know, to expand my knowledge beyond what I can learn on the intertubes.

I really need to know more than it’s home to the Kentucky Derby, Louisville Slugger Bat Co., and the U of L Cardinals.

The good news is my job. The company I work for has an office there, and what I do can be done just as easily there as here. So, what do you know that could help as I think about this move? Are there conservative bloggers there? Are there conservatives there? Inquiring minds want to know.

Tweet

What a great morning. One that started last night.

I got a call when I was on my way home last night. Our one shared computer (two adults, three kids) had a blue screen pop up. Yes, the infamous blue screen of death. I got home and managed to get that to go away, but was faced with a system that would start and randomly restart on it’s own. Frequently.

I ran what diagnostics I could (while it was up) and could not find any identifiable problem. So, I went to plan “B”.

Almost a year ago I bought a computer at a yard sale for $25.00. The plan was to give that computer to the kids when I could get an extra $50 for a wireless card. Before that happened the monitor that came with it went belly up. You would think that plan B would be simply switching out the problem box with the other one. And that’s what I did, but of course there were a few issues. Issue number one is that the old (new) system came with — get ready for it — Windows ME. Yes, ME, the operating system Microsoft would rather the world forget. (On a side note, for the most part the world has pretty much complied with that wish. Still, I think MS may have entered into their deal with Yahoo to flush any remaining record down the memory hole.)

ME also means that I can choose between Firefox 1.0.6 and IE 6.0 for my browser.

There are a few other issues, like an iffy connection on the keyboard (you shouldn’t have to jiggle it so much or so often) and having so much information on my other hard drive. I did try adding the hard drive to the new system, but ME won’t recognize the NFTS portion of the drive.

So, unless someone(s) hit(s) the donation button pretty hard (it’s over there in the sidebar), or has a “real” computer they would like to send to a Florida retirement, posting will be even more iffy than it has been for the past few weeks. I didn’t think that was possible.

I’m opposed to the whole bailout, non-stimulus stimulus thing, but if there’s a cash for clunkers plan for computers I may have a few candidates.

Tweet

I’ve been working on something for my High School senior class. It’s taken a bit longer than I had planned, but it’s been fun. If by some chance you know anyone who went to Glassboro High School (NJ) and graduated in 1974 send them to: http://ghs74.floridimagine.com

Tweet

More in just a minute, but I wanted to throw these few quick thoughts out there.

Smoking update: Things are going pretty well here at the start of week two. I can’t say I’ve really had physical cravings for a cigarette, but I have had some “habit” cravings. What I mean by that, I am looking for a smoke at those times I habitually had one: With my morning coffee, starting the drive to work, after supper, etc. Surprisingly, I haven’t missed the ones I might be expected to miss, like when I take a break at work. What experience have you other quitters had? And, how long does it take for taste buds and sense of smell to come back?

(Yet Another) New Theme: I haven’t been able to leave the theme alone here lately. I do really like this one. I have to add/modify a few things, most importantly adding the Day by Day code. I promise I’ll have that working tonight. Do you like it? I just thought of something, are nested comments set up? I’ll have to go check.

Tweet

For any of you who think that I have no style I am about to prove you wrong.

Me and Jackie

A friend posted this on his Facebook page. It is me and a very good friend Jackie going to either the prom or the Senior Dinner Dance. For those of you who weren’t even born when this picture was taken (1974), crushed blue velvet tuxes were very cool at the time. I just wish I could remember being that thin.

Jackie, it would be great to hear from you.

The rest of you may make snide comments now.

Tweet