jonathan.bare.to

Well, after a weekend of looking at $600,000 homes and $1,000 apartments,
I came home to a notice from href="http://www.drexelbrook.com">Drexelbrook that my rent will
increase to $825/month as of Oct. 1. It's only a 4.4% increase over the
current rate, but it's now 18.7% over my original rent.

It's still a deal for the amount of space I have and the location relative
to work, but it's annoying that they raise the rent every year and that
there's nothing I get in return.

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Posted by jonathan at 11:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I was only gone for three days (in Virginia) and there's already about 20
programs to watch on my Tivo.

I got Tivo because I thought it would simplify my life. No more forgetting
to set the VCR. No more wondering what's on the dozen VHS tapes laying
around the TV stand. No more missing shows when I forget when they're on
"live."

(For anyone who doesn't know what a Tivo is, it's a Digital Video
Recorder. In other words, it's a big hard drive that records TV kind of
like a VCR, but it goes far beyond that with features -- including guides
to what's on now and what's coming up for the next two weeks, pause and
rewind live TV, and simplified recording set up. Go look at href="http://www.tivo.com">Tivo.com for more info.)

Instead, I've created a monster.

In just over a week, I configured 20 "Season Passes." A season pass in the
Tivo world tells the unit to record every instance of a particular show,
with a variety options. Coming home from the long weekend, there's more to
watch than there is time. In order to record everything on time, the Tivo
will delete older shows. In my case, it deletes many shows within three
days.

So, now I have to watch about 10 hours of TV in order to clear the backlog
on the Tivo. Of course, since it's the summer, many of these shows are
repeats... then again, many of them (The Simpsons, NewsRadio, ST: DS9,
Frontier House, Hometime, and so on) are now syndicated so they should be
on again and again in the future.

Regardless, I would like to see the episode of The Simpsons where Mr.
Burns recruits an all-star team of professional baseball players for the
company softball team.

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Posted by jonathan at 02:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I can't take another week of vacation. As much as I want to get away, it
just doesn't seem practical any more. There's still a lot to be done at
work before the kids come back for the fall semester.

The worst part about that is once the semester starts, there won't be
anything for me to do again.

They'll have plenty of stuff to do, but my life will be very dull.

Anyway, back on topic. The second week of vacation (I spent the first week
driving between Philly and Wisconsin in June) isn't gonna happen. Why? 1.
Not enough cash on hand. That's what I get for buying two computers and a
Tivo in the past five months. 2. Too much to be done at work. See above.
3. No one to go with me.

It looks like Karen will go somewhere for a long weekend instead. It's her
birthday on August 10, and I almost always celebrate it with her and other
Boston types. I already have that Thursday and Friday off, so I just need
a couple more days the following week and it'll probably be a relaxing fun
time.

But no week-long vacation to the Oregon coast or the Alaska Highway for
me. Oh well, there's always next year.

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Posted by jonathan at 11:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Or, "If you lived here, you'd be home now."

Houses. Abodes. Dwellings. Joanna and Helen are buying a house. Mike is
starting at AU in the fall and refuses to live in a dorm.

I'm not moving or starting or looking or anything of the sort (though
getting out of Drexelbrook is high on my list of things to accomplish in
the next year).

So, one might wonder how I end up looking at a dorm room, four apartments,
and seven houses since Friday morning. The houses were much more
interesting than the apartments. We saw two houses with more rooms and
floor space that I could ever imagine in the footprint of the house.
Obviously, Chez-Manitowoc is huge, but it doesn't have a finished basement
or third story.

Plus, it's something they'll live in for many years to come, whereas the
apartment is just a year lease.

Then again, maybe it was the realtor who was not only amusing, but keeps
many different Pepridge Farms snacks tucked away throughout her PT
Cruiser.

Personally, I like the house that was immediately next to a National Park.
It wasn't the nicest of the houses, but it had charm and was originally
built close to the turn of the century. But the somewhat newer and larger
houses that we saw after the first one seem to be the favorites of the
ones who actually have to live there or pay the mortgage.

Me? I just care about the quality of the washer and dryer. Also, I don't
want to look at any more apartments in D.C...

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Posted by jonathan at 11:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This, my friends, is a web log -- or just "blog."

Who? Me silly, jlb.

Why? Why not. Besides, all the cool kids have a blog. And, if friends,
family, neighbors, or strangers on the street (and a lot of them are
really, really strange around here) want a blog too, I can give 'em one.
Plus, I've had this "jlb.to" domain for years and have done diddly with it
up 'til now.

Where? Well, um, it's actually on a server in Pittsburgh. But since the
Internet is practically everywhere and nowhere at the same time... Well,
it gets complicated.

When? Whever I feel like it. I'll add stuff often. Maybe.

How? This is freeware running on my pre-existing web server that I use for
barely anything at all. Well, it runs href="http://www.benfrench.com/">Ben's web sites and the Nude as the
News forums, and that wacky
Jessica web
site, but otherwise nothing much happens on this server.

So, that's it.

With any luck the design will look better soon. It's damn ugly right now.

Posted by jonathan at 07:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I went to Fenway Park, home to the Boston Red Sox on July 5 with Karen,
Dave, Katie and Lauren. The Sox lost. It was also the day that Sox legend
Ted Williams died. There was a pal over the stadium, but it was still a
nice evening.

Unfortunately the Sox lost.

I took my digital camera, which I hope to make one of the centerpieces of
the content of this site from now on.

Here's the page.

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Posted by jonathan at 07:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)